The roar of the orks shuddered through Delta squad leader Cortez's body. He returned the roar with an even fiercer one of his own. Emboldened by his war-cry his squad surged towards the orks, firing assault rifles and armor-piercing sniper rifles. The green-skinned orks fell before the salvo of deadly metal, their green blood sinking into the parched ground. Cortez's victory was short-lived however, as another row of orks rose to take the place of their fallen brethren. Beside Cortez, his squad rose to the challenge without faltering. The clatter of his assault rifle in his ears, Cortez almost missed the shouted "Fire in the hole!" As it was, he heard it and threw himself sideways as a hand grenade bounced and exploded near the spot where he was just a moment ago.
Frenzied orks flew in every direction, many missing a limb or two, others missing the entire lower half of their bodies. Adrenaline pumping, Cortez roared and held the trigger of his rifle for a full five seconds, strafing the front line of orks and felling many. The orks enraged let rip a deafening cry of their own that seemed to shake the ground, the sky and the very heavens. Cortez took two bullets in the shoulder and another in the leg. Nearby his teammates also several hits, opening up jagged, red holes that spurted blood and stained the dusty ground. Yet the seriously wounded ones found themselves treated by the ever-present medics and they soon rejoined the fray.
Dropping his rifle due to his numb left hand, Cortez pulled out a bolter from his hip holster and dropped to one knee. Conserving bullets, he dropped three orks with shots to the head and two others by punching ragged holes in their chests. To his left, out of his peripheral vision he saw an ork raise a blood-stained axe against him. Too slow! his mind screamed. Cortez braced himself for the inevitable pain that would follow the landing of the blow. A nanosecond before the blow was due to land, the ork's head jerked violently to the left. A tiny cloud of green blood flew out of the left temple, preceded by a small metal bullet. The force of the bullet was so great that it went clean through the ork's thick skull. The ork just slumped to the ground as if he had lost the will to fight. Apart from the surprised look fixed on the ork's face for all eternity, only the glazed eyes and small pool of blood leaking out from his temples gave any indication that the ork was dead. Cortez spun around to spot Alex crouched on a slightly raised slab of rock, sniper rifle pressed against his shoulder, eyes looking through his scope narrowed and deadly. The icy demeanor dropped long enough for him to give Cortez a wave and Cortez to return in kind; and his game face back on he turned to take some other ork's life and save his teammate's one with the same bullet. Snipers, gotta love 'em, Cortez thought wryly to himself.
His mind was wrenched back to the battlefield by a pair of green-skins charging towards him, each wielding a pair of axes. Cortez quickly raised his gun and loosed two bullets, both finding their mark in the middle of an ork's forehead. The other leaped and swung his axe down in a deadly arc aimed at Cortez's head. "Get off!" Cortez snarled as in an amazing feat of reflexes and skill, he parried the blow with the top of his bolter! Finding that the axe was lodged firmly in the top of the gun, Cortez made his move. In a split second, Cortez threw his gun to the ground, taking the axe with it, wrenched a second bolter free of its holster, leveled it at the ork's head and loosed two rounds at point blank range. Cortez closed his eyes momentarily as he was splattered with brains and slimy green blood.
The tide was turning for the worse. Cortez's team contained a dozen men, while the orks seemed limitless. When Cortez or his men dropped an ork, two more rose to take his place. However Alex radioed in: "The orks are falling sir. They seem limitless because of the hill. In fact there are only around a hundred left."
Hearing this gave Cortez new hope. He quickly asked for information, and Alex replied that they were quite closely bunched together. Cortez hatched a plan, asked for suggestions from his squad and received the unanimous approval of the squad. "Lock and load, squad!" Cortez yelled.
With Cortez at the front, Delta squad charged towards the orks, letting rip all the ammo they could muster for the final charge. The orks faltered for a second in face of this bare-faced aggression, and responded in kind. Grenades were exchanged; rockets passed each other in flight; bullets ripped into ork and human skin alike. Beside him a squad member took a bullet; in front an ork suffered the same fate. A grenade sent orks flying; a rocket seriously injured many of Delta squad. Just a bit closer, Cortez screamed in his mind. A bullet ruled a red line across his cheek; another buried itself in the already- disabled left arm. Do it now! His mind urged. Now!
Bellowing defiance in face of the deadly projectiles loosed from the orks' clattering guns, Cortez holstered his bolter and replaced it with a pair of plasma grenades. With a cry of "Eat these!!" Cortez yanked the pins out with gusto and slung the deadly loads high into the air. Time seemed to slow.
Five… the twin orbs, deceptively small, flew towards the bloodstained sky…
Four… the grenades reached the zenith of their flight and hung there, weightless, for countless milliseconds…
Three… gravity started applying its force to the two balls of death, sending them down, down, down…
Two… as if sent from the very gods, the two spherical containers of doom fell into the midst of the oblivious orks…
One… Impacting against the ground, they flattened slightly and rebounded upwards…
Zero.
Having reached chest height, the grenades exploded, Super-heated plasma, propelled by the explosion of the grenades flew outwards and splattered over any exposed surface. Where it landed on ork skin, deadly effects took hold immediately. The slime-green callused skin of the orks burned. The orks screamed from the depths of their souls as their blood vessels erupted due to the blood boiling from the heat of the plasma. Blood erupted from the nose, ears, mouth and eyes. Within seconds all the orks in range of the two grenades would be dead, every second worth a century of pain. "Now that's what I call hot blooded," Alex remarked.