The tank jerked to a halt and Jenna spun us on the spot before backing up among the trees and thick bushes before she turned the engine off, "That should do it!"
"Okay," Kuren said, "Everybody out, let's get the Queen covered up and set up camp. We have some planning to do."
I let my head rest back against the seat for a moment before I reached up and opened the hatch before hauling myself up and out of the hull with a groan of pain from my side. I no longer thought my rib was broken, if it was it would be hurting even worse. Definitely cracked something though.
From the inside I couldn't see much but what the sight of the heavy bolter showed me, but now I got a better look at where we were. We had been moving out of town into a network of back roads and now we were wedged in among thick foliage and trees a dozen meters from a very narrow road.
Harland and Miller, whoever was which were already at it with shovels smoothing out the tracks leading into the forest.
Kuren vaulted down from the hull, an axe in hand before he looked at me, "We need to camouflage the tank in case anyone is following or patrolling," he told me, "Then we can figure out what to do next."
I nodded, "Sounds good to me, Lieutenant. Just tell me what to do."
We got to work, cutting branches and bushes. By the time we got hauling back the first load, the driver… What was her name again? Jenny? Jenna. She had pulled a camouflage net over the tank and we simply attached the bushes and leaves to the net.
Then we piled a bunch more at where we entered the woods. By the time we were done… Okay, we weren't invisible, far from it, but if somebody just drove past there seems to be a chance we'd be missed.
Everyone gathered around the back of the tank, "How are we looking at supplies?" I asked, holding my side through my carapace armor the best I could. That's really starting to hurt.
"We're low on pretty much anything, sir," Jenna said, sitting on the back of the tank while digging into the packs strapped there before tossing me a MRE.
Kuren nodded, crossing his arms and leaning against the closest tree before catching one as she tossed it over to him, "We're at ten percent fuel, food for about three more days. Miller, how are we doing with ammo?"
Miller shrugged and ripped a food pack open, "Three Krak, four Sab and two Frag rounds. two hundred ish bolter rounds split between turret and hull guns."
"How are you still supplied? You'd been cut off for weeks." I asked and ripped my own pack open, peering inside. Oh, joy. Cold dried things and a chemical heater.
Kuren shrugged, "We'd been ambushing supply transports. Mostly they run convoys, but not always. When we see a lone vehicle, we take it, everything it carries that we need and it's fuel before hiding it the best we can before moving on. We don't think they know who or where we are yet, we keep moving as much as possible. But we're getting dangerously low on fuel, it's why we risked the town this time, the first time. Thank the Emperor for that or we'd never seen you."
I nodded, "The Emperor Protects."
Was… that what had happened? I had asked for help and these guys had shown up? What was the Emperor sending them to help? Or just coincidence?
"You said something about a second plan?" I asked and caught a water bottle as Jenna tossed it down to me as I sat down, getting my food ready and re-hydrated.
Kuren snorted, "If you can call it that," he said and set his heating food to the side and reached for a stick, starting to draw a very rough map onto the ground, "Before the uprising, the PDF had small compounds set up across the continent, mostly close to crossroads or trading spots for the peasants. Plenty of ammo, supplies, fuel."
I shook my head, "No way they would have been left alone, they would be crawling with heretics. For the same reason as why the PDF kept them."
Harland spit on the ground, "Some of them used to be PDF. Traitors!"
"But it's also the only reliable source of fuel in our range," Kuren said and poked at the square that he used to show the compound, "What more, we're low on ammo and we can't get that anywhere else. Ideas?"
Harland checked his food and then dug into it with a spoon before pointing with it at the map, "We're not getting through there with what ammo we have, I can tell you that much, Lt. We might be able to break the gate with a couple of Krak rounds, but they have fixed emplacements that'd blow us to the Warp. Direct assault is a good way to meet Him On Earth early."
Kuren nodded, "Agreed. I have given it some thought, I think that our best chance might be to get between them and the front along this road," he said and drew it on the map, "And wait for a convoy. They are usually escorted by light armor, but if fired from ambush, we should be able to take them out and then raid the convoy for what we need."
I frowned and chewed on some admittedly not bad fake stew, "That's a lot more maybes in that plan than I like, Lieutenant," I admitted.
"Me as well, Interrogator," he admitted and picked up his food pack, "But I'm not sure we have a lot of choice. The alternative is assaulting the compound and that's suicide."
"Not like we could just drive in the front gate and ask for supplies," Jenna said from her seat on top of the back of the engine deck of the tank," I think the attack on the convoy might work if we find the right spot and get lucky. We're going to need to break out the lasguns for it too. That'd be a real tough one and we're going to be outnumbered the entire time."
I poked at my stew before chewing on some more, looking at the map with a frown, "...Why can't we?"
"Can't what, sir?" Miller asked and chewed on some alleged bread.
"Why can't we just drive up to the gate and ask for supplies?" I asked and motioned with my spoon against the square, "It is a supply depo, right? It's what it's for."
They all stared at me like I was nuts.
"Because it's crawling with heretics, Interrogator," Kuren said with a frown, "They would kill us."
I shook my head, "We're behind enemy lines, nobody knows we're here. Everyone here is friendly, they think. People have a tendency to see what they think they will see, want to see. The best way to lie is to simply give them what they want. Some uniform changes, a couple of symbols on your tank and I bet that we could roll straight inside."
"And what then?" Jenna asked.
"Then, we're behind the defenses and can do whatever we want, we're in a tank," I told him with a smile, "or if they really buy it, just re-arm, refuel and get the frack out of there and to the front line. We have more important things than some supply depot. We have to get back in contact."
Kuren put his food down as he regarded me, "What did you find, Interrogator?"
I regarded him for a moment before I nodded, "All of this is classified, but if you're risking your lives for it, you deserve to know. After all, if I fall I need one of you to get the information back to HQ."
Then I told them what they needed to know about the threat growing in that mine.
