Charred Dirt

by NuclearCorpus

A unit is sent to deal with an infestation on an agricultural planet. It doesn't end well.

I lay stretched across a long bunk bedding - it was one of many that was bolted to the walls. With my hands behind my head, I nodded to the heavy pulse of the shouting. an invisible melody to the madness formed in my mind. A grin stretched across my face. The heavy shouts of the insane prisoners boomed with a strange might.

Tilting my head, I gazed out from behind the bars. The cells lined the repurposed cargo hold, iron bars jutting from the floor like pikes. A guard holding a lasgun at his waist passed my cell. From the cell, I could see all of the guards. They patrolled inches away from the bars, walking along the thin catwalks. They held their emotionless faces firm as the most insane of the prisoners screamed profanities in their direction. Some shouted back and the prisoners quickly backed away, some even backed away from the bars, like scared dogs. "Idiots," I muttered under my breath with a smile. I looked above the bars, seeing them all labelled with heavy burned-in letters. A guard barked at a screaming prisoner in a cell marked as "Scavengers".

I thought about the Scavengers. They were the worst of the worst. I had heard once from a guard that the Warden had tried to question a few of them, asking them where some bodies had gone. The Scavengers, instead of answering, all started to laugh in his face. One of them, while his unexplained laughing turn into unhinged giggling, told the guard what happened. The Warden drew his bolter. The entire squad was still laughing, and The Warden shot them one by one until they stopped. Only one of them survived, and by what the guard had told me, was completely covered in blood. Never made a noise since.

I shook my head, trying to get the theories of what the Scavenger had said out of my head. I stared out again, looking at the other cells. Most of them were filled with people that either simply stood or sat. The Purifiers, men with grenade launchers and flamethrowers slung on their chests, seemed calm. They sat, simply staring at the barrels of their guns. They didn't speak a word, even if the Scavenger cell next to them was screaming and slapping their laspistols against the metal walls. They were mentally preparing themselves for the drop.

One of the scrawny Scavengers reached out to grab at a soldier that walked past their cell. The blackened fingers grasped at the guard as the soldier spun around. As the soldier raised his gun, the cargo hold went quiet for a moment. The occupants in the cell froze like statues. The soldier pulled the trigger. A shot exploded like thunder. The prisoner flew backwards, his back slamming onto the floor. I shook my head, trying to block out his cries. His agonizing screams shook as the wound burned, searing his lungs and melding his very flesh with his clothes. The prisoner's wide eyes stared, his rigid jaw was hung open, and his fists clenched white against his palms. He screamed like a rat trapped inside a furnace; garbled and muffled. His screams slowly changed into sobs. He cried as if his very insides were being torn open. The soldier grunted and left the crying mass on the other end of his cell, as his cellmates stared at him in the silence of the disconsolate. As his screams faded, I pulled my eyes away from that cell, looking for another distraction. I gave a sly smile at the screaming of the madman.

'Lunatics aren't bulletproof' is a motto I always held dear.

Next to the Purifiers was a cell full of Bears, as they were called. One had his bare back against the bars. I twisted around on my bunk, staring out over towards him. Along his shoulder blades were black metal triangles. At the base of his neck was a circular metal piece, dug into his neck. Along the back of his spine, a rectangle of black metal and, at the end of the rectangle, a strange shape similar to a spade on a playing card. All of the metal looked as if it was bolted down into his bones. I winced, imagining the pain of carrying those weights around. Along his lap was a missile launcher that he wiped down with a rag, which also happened to be his shirt.

Next to them were, The Caged. They simply stood, bold. They were metal-coated lobster traps wrapped around a person, who has an industrial battery pack on their back. They stood there, almost like statues. Their entire bodies glad in a criss-cross of metal, underneath they were simple tunics, that looked cheap and thrown together. The Caged looked angry and they were people that you wouldn't want to make angry.

Twisting my body around on my bunk, I looked down at the dirty cell floor. The iron plates stained with what looked like decades of alien mud and dirt, grit and blood, cleaned away by someone who didn't care about the diseases that could inhabit the metal floor. I stared down at the helmets, as lasguns were pointed upwards at me. I was a part of the Tools. They were Imperial Guard soldiers luckily enough not to have been executed for their crimes, for one reason or another. We were stuck doing clean-up, stuff meant for trainee grunts. That's what the Souls of Purgatory were for; we were more expendable than most of the Imperial Guards. The rubbish of the rubbish.

I grabbed my helmet that I had been using as a pillow and stuffed it onto my head. Grabbing the rifle by my side, I sat up straight, dangling my legs down. I felt my joints crack as I sat in place, waiting for my orders.

One of my cellmates gave a chuckle.

"What are you laughing at?" another said, "Come on, share it." I looked down and saw him encouraging his friend to share.

"It was just a joke I heard once."

"There's a lot of jokes in the universe, friend, tell us the one you heard."

"What is the definition of 'complete trust'? A Tool with his back to a Scavenger."

"Too right," another one of them muttered. His heavy moustache coated his top lip, his eyes hidden by the lip of his helmet. "I don't think any of us would last a day with those Scavenger bastards."

"Oh lighten up, old man," another cheered on. He looked almost twelve, "They aren't that bad. They are just cannibals, necrophiles, rapists and highly dangerous stalkers." His tone mocked one of the Wardens' voices.

"Yeah, I hear they like little boys." one of them gruffly shouted with a smile.

The conversation quickly spiralled into insulting one another, while I sat there and smiled as it went on. Hearing them shout how each mother was a whore and each father was a drunk was the most positive thing I had ever heard in this regiment. As their voices turned into distant white noise, I checked my lasgun, making sure that the battery was still working.

From the corners of the large cargo hold, a buzz erupted from speakers. A loud sound of someone clearing his throat, followed by the booming voice of the Warden. It sounded like the low rumbling of thunder before the storm hit.

"Listen up, soldiers." He spoke, the cells quickly falling silent as the voice echoed through the hold. "You are already lucky to be alive. Yet, do not think of your mortality; listen to me. There is a planet within range of us. On many reports, this planet is listed under an agriculture planet. It is meant to house plants and fields for the growth of food and slaughter of animals. This planet is not an agriculture planet. It is infested with orks. Luckily for yourselves, these orks are less intelligent than the usual spore-infested plague on the galaxy and should be more suited to your own level of intelligence. These orks are to be completely destroyed, or enough of their population destroyed that they will not be a risk.

"We will land and send you out onto this planet. You will destroy whatever xeno scum you find scuttling about. They are to be killed on sight, shot without mercy, and purged without question.

"Remember one thing about your enemy; they do not belong to that world. All they do is breed and fight, breed and fight. This race shows nothing of value. They have no history, they will never have any talent, and they do not have any passion. They are nothing. Before the end, those bottom feeders will look up at the sky, and finally realize what they should have known all along; that we rule the stars." A pause, the cells echoed with silence as the prisoners stared at the speakers. "I, Ulrichus shall be watching. Make me proud."

The buzz of the microphone cut out with a sharp slice. After a moment of silence, an uproar from some of the cells came. The shouting deafened me, I clasped my hands to my ears. They rattled at the bars as if they were trying to break them away. The Caged smacked their chests together, making the sound of throwing two drumsets together.

Even with the cheering, there was still the crying from the wounded man. The cellmates, now bored, huddled around him. They no longer seemed to have pitying stares or thoughts of empathy; it had become hatred, morbid curiosity, or some combination of both. One quietly poked at the burned wound, tapping the disfigured flesh with a faint finger. Every tap caused the man to lurch in place as if he had been shot again. The cellmate gave a chuckle with every tap of the wound. Another Scavenger casually pointed his laspistol at the crying man. He gave a small joking mime of recoil, mouthing a "pew" sound. I gave a smile at the lunatic, unfearful of him.

The ship started to shake, the iron bars in the cells chattering like teeth. I grabbed the edge of the bunk, feeling my muscles pump with energy. I scrunched my face up as I silently screamed against my own thoughts, telling myself that this was like any other drop. That I wasn't going to die, that I will survive like always. Even with me trying to flood myself with happy thoughts, adrenaline never stopped pumping.

I felt the fear hit me, and it was the worst I had ever felt. My skin was stained with goosebumps, and a chill flooded by bones, while the heat of a thousand suns burned in my lungs. Even when you face down an ork warboss and his entire army, you have a chance to fight until your last breath. But there is nothing you can do if the struggle between ship and gravity goes wrong.

I controlled my every breath as I heard noises like crashing waves, that threw the ship from side to side. The booms sounded like a shotgun was being fired next to my ear. Between every boom, it felt like I spent a thousand days staring at an empty bunk and iron walls. They soon ended and I waited for another eternity, breathing slowly as I heard the booms disappear off into the invisible horizon. The lights died, leaving us with a soft orange glow, until that died as well. Adrenaline spiked, leaving my arms covered in a field of spiked hairs. My muscles cemented themselves down, I felt my fingers grip the bunk tightly. I felt one of my fingers start to bleed.

The ship whistled as it burst through the clouds, the metal underneath it heating up until it looked red with flames. My memories threw themselves to the front of my mind as I remembered every start of the battles. The heavy boom and loud burn of thrusters quickly exploded on the underbelly of the ship, the hold jolting with force as our speed slowed. My adrenaline spiked again. My brain made me an image, showing my veins filled with thick colourless fluid instead of blood.

Finally, the ground rose up to meet us. The thrusters quickly extinguished. Nearby trees snapped in half, bending over at the back. The ship froze for a moment as the grass around it fluttered from the thrusters power and the trees slowly settled back. The thrusters died, leaving the planet in a deadly quiet. The cargo hold creaked, echoing in the darkness as I stared at the nothingness.

The lights shone back, lighting up the cells. The dim lights were like stars in a night sky. My adrenaline quickly sapped away from my blood, slowing down my fear. My goosebumps slowly shrunk and my hairs slowly fell from their standing. With a deep breath, I jumped down from my bunk, careful not to kick anyone in the head. Quickly, we found our places. We stood in a single file line. At the end, my back was pushed against the wall.

The alarm blared. It was like the guttural shriek of a tortured person. Unceasing. Blaring. It crippled my head, thumping my mind and ears with sharp pangs of pain. The doors of the cargo hold creaked with a heavy hinge. The hexagonal doors peeled away from the hold. They whirred as loud as thunder as the alarm died with a small echo. As the doors smacked on the planet surface, I saw a single arrow. It flew through the air with a whistle. It flew for a moment, before slicing through a guard's chest. Smashing his back against the catwalk, his head drooped down, gasping for air. The shaft spewed blood like a broken pipe. Another guard rushed to his aid.

Along the hold doors, orks ran into the cargo hold, invading the floor. Their heavy feet made a heavy chorus over another blaring alarm. The cell doors unlocked with a click, the bars slowly popped away from the wall. Hundreds of the green menaces flooded into the cargo hold, letting arrows fly. A hatchet flew from the crowd, smacking into a catwalk with a heavy echo. The cell doors weren't open.

My cellmates started shouting about the number of orks. I heard two hundred, five hundred, a thousand. My back slumped against the wall as my head thudded with memories. My gut instinct started screaming, telling me that I was going to die. My mind slipped away from my body, I felt as if I was looking down upon myself. I felt as if I were controlling a simple puppet with strings.

Over the shoulders of my cellmates, I could see Scavengers creep out of the small gap of the cell doors. The shouting couldn't drown out the screaming as they were quickly slaughtered by the ork spears. Bodies rapidly piled up at cell entrances, blocking anyone from exiting. The Scavenger corpses were like bricks and their blood was the cement.

The patrolling guards had snapped. They put their backs to corners and cover. Guards popped up from their cover on the catwalk, firing into the green sea. The guards' shots and shouts quickly silenced by arrows through the throat.

Putting a foot on a nearby bunk, I raised my head to see more. In one of the Bear cells, a shirtless man took aim with a launcher and fired. It hammered into an ork, and the explosion killed five others. Ten orks rushed in to replace the six. The Caged reached out of their cells, grabbing passing orks with metal hands and slamming them against the bars. The Caged's armour quickly sparked, burning the ork as it twitched.

The alarm stopped. The cell doors finally opened all the way. My cellmates tried to rush out. A single arrow smacked the first cellmate, tripping the others. They fell and, as I cowered in the back, they were filled with arrows. I saw the moustache of the old man drenched in blood as the arrow shaft rammed through his eye socket. He bled, pouring blood onto the young man, coating his chest with red blood. My adrenaline spiked and I felt myself jump back, putting my back against the wall. I breathed slowly, imagining I was somewhere else.

Other Tools had managed to rush out, finding their way to cover on the catwalks and behind walls of corpses. The Tools popped up from cover, firing into flood of screams. orks fell, large charred holes in their chest twisted their flesh. Soon, the floor of the hold was covered in screaming bodies. Individual voices were cut short, the screaming chorus dying as they were trampled on.

People ran towards the end of catwalks, armed with flamers and grenade launchers. They slammed against the wall of the cargo hold, they shot at the coming orks with grenades. The green corpses exploded, sending limbs scattering across the prism floor. As orks fell over their own comrade's limbs, the Tools lay down laser fire into their flesh. Plumes of fire exploded near the doors, rolling downwards at the wave of orks.

Mountains of scrawny corpses fell as they were pushed from the cell doors. Scavengers rushed the cargo hold and catwalks with battle cries, waving their knives and laspistols over their head. They quickly mixed with the green sea, grabbing random orks and stabbing them with knives. From behind, the Scavengers reached around the orks' thick necks and stabbed into their chests. Some orks rushed at the Scavengers, only to have their limbs mutilated by laser fire. The Caged ran out, smacking into orks with their metal chests. They looked like metal coated rugby players, electrifying those in their way. The Caged seemed to laugh as they did it.

Surrounding the orks, the Tools fired. The orks fought on. A body suddenly plummeted from the catwalk - an unlucky Tool pierced by an arrow. The corpse smacked an ork, throwing the green creature to the metal floor. The tusk of the ork pierced through its skull as its jaw was slammed shut. One of the Bears aimed at the last few remaining orks and opened fire with a lascannon. The lasers burst through their bodies, leaving massive holes and sliced limbs.

orks fell by lasers, by grenades, by burning and by flames. The orks continued to fall in battle until, at last, just one remained. It glared up at the roof of the hold, banging its chest with a spear in an act of bravery and defiance. A Scavenger slipped unseen behind it, swiftly and silently slitting the tense green throat. The last ork gurgled and fell, becoming the final piece of the knee-deep corpse carpet that covered the cargo hold.

The prisoners stood. The Tools pointing their weapons to the floor, the Scavengers sliding their knives into their belts, the Bears checking their ammo count, and the Caged standing there, beating their armoured hands together.

I stood up. I walked away from my cell, almost tripping over the corpses. My lasgun hung from my sling, tapping against my knee. I walked out towards the catwalk and, as people looked at each other celebrating, I held my head over the catwalk. With one violent thrust, my stomach flew up to my throat. Chunks of connected oats, half digested syrup and bile, flew from my mouth, splattering onto a dead ork. I heard the splatter, like throwing wet socks from a skyscraper roof. My stomach heaved as I dragged myself away the catwalk, I rested against the nearby wall.

The crackle of the speakers came again, echoing across the dead.

"You've killed many," Warden Ulrichus called down, "leave my ship and keep killing until the sky is as dark as the death you deal. Make me proud." The crackle died.

With speed, the remaining prisoners formed into squads. People who had never met before stood together after stepping over the limbs of dead humans and orks alike. I walked down the stairs, uneasy on my own feet. I found a squad of Tools who quickly accepted me, patting me on the back. One even tried to comfort me, having seen what happened to my cell.

The squads quickly shuffled rigidly, like moving bricks. We formed into an ordered rectangle. The rectangles had slices of the different squads; the Tools, the Scavengers, the Bears, the Caged, and the Purifiers. My squad stood at the very front, I slowly slipped my sling back together and put the lasgun in my hands, calming my stomach.

We looked out onto the planet. The surface was coated with trees. Trees with leaves the size of houses. The heavy greenery shaded the brush below it. The underbrush stretched to twice the size of any man and could have hidden any number of orks and no one would have seen them. The underbrush was rough and shaggy, like uncombed hair. The golden grass spread for miles underneath the trees. The heavy sun rising over the top of the greenery made it seem like a painting. We gawked at it wordlessly as we soaked it in.

A guard stood atop a catwalk and screamed down at us, "Move out."

We marched down the ramp, making a rhythmic booming into the woods with every stamp of the boot. It sounded like a constant war drum, echoing into the jungle. As we walked out, I turned to stare at the ship.

The ship was a large, bulky patchwork of a vessel. Two long hexagon prisms ran along the clearing, with smoldered grass complementing the hellish red exterior. The other prism remained unopened. The prisms were connected by a long rectangle in the middle, high above our heads. The rectangle had a singular window at the top. Inside, shadows moved around, muttering to one another.

I gave it a thought, thinking about how over a thousand prisoners and a thousand imperial guards would make an amazing meatshield. Quickly releasing the thought from my head, I turned back to the jungle. I felt my vision tighten as I stared into the under brush. On the wind, as it scraped through the under brush, I heard something. A low tone, a whisper. A grunt.

Without a thought for command, I yelled out, "Green skins in the grass. Burn it."

The rectangles parted, leaving the Purifier squads to walk forward. They marched forward, greeted on by slouched men and criminals. Quickly, the Purifiers squads reached the brush. Those armed with flamers forming a curve around the brush as grenadiers aimed, resting the barrel on the Purifier armored shoulders. Quickly, the fire exploded from the barrels, throwing flames like a thick stream. The flames quickly engulfed the front of the grass. Suddenly, the fire rushed along the brush, searing the tree trunks as it fled to the horizon. After a few control bursts of the flamers, the Purifiers stopped. The flamers fell back, leaving the grenadiers standing there.

The grenadiers fired their launchers into the burning inferno. On impact, the canisters blasted, sending the flaming branches into the air. Entire branches flew like mortar shells, smacking into the ground to explode into fiery splinters that rained down on the brush. The trees deep in the grass burst in the explosions, making clearings that were a mile in diameter. Entire trees caught fire as they rocketed through the air. Soon, the entire field of shrubs was simply an inferno. The grenadiers fell back, the Purifiers squad fell back into place and disappeared into the rectangle again as the soldiers covered them up like the sea covering rocks.

A handful of orks rushed from the burning thicket, choking smoke out of their lungs. Fire quickly picked up on their tribal furs, quickly turning them into running balls of fire. As they ran, screaming, their flesh was cooked and peeled off like tap as it charred onto the ground like ash. Their burning forms ran towards the rectangle but uselessly fell before they could reach anyone. As they ran, their armor melting into their skin and their helmets burning their scalps. The orks screamed high like the whistling of a kettle. For the next seconds, their muscles slowly burned away, the energy leaking away, they fell on the ground as they died. The first Ork fell to his knees before landing flat on his belly, his body burning like a bonfire. Their armor peeled away to reveal bloodied bone. More ran from the burning grass, their flesh burning. They formed grotesque funeral pyres as the orks piled up on each other, burning with a crisp smell. It smelled like a human corpse in a compost fire; a grotesque smell of charred flesh with a hint of mildew.

I stared at the pile of corpses, the smell worse than any I had experienced, my stomach bile rising again as I stood right by them. The smell invading my nostrils. Blood poured into the fire, the freshly sizzling embers loud and clear even over everyone else. It felt like it was just me and the funeral pyres. The burning iron smell was almost sun was setting when the brush finally settled, turning from acres of fire into charred dust and darkened stumps. The charred corpses now surrounded us like the walls of trenches.

A squad of Tools broke away from the rectangle. I stared at them with apathetic eyes. Quickly, they scaled up to the corpses, climbing the charred limbs. Their green chestplates slammed down onto the charred corpses, the bones crushing underneath the metal. Their domed helmets stared over the corpse wall. Their gloved hands twitched over their triggers, aiming the barrel towards the flat land.

I stared up as the soldiers sniffed. The wind picked up, whistling through the corpse wall. It whistled an out of tune sound, it had no melody, no rhythm to it. From the back of the rectangle, I heard the Scavengers start to hum. From a single man to entire squads hummed along to the corpse whistling. I had to admit, standing in the clearing, with the humming of a thousand lunatics I understood. I understood the reason behind every battle cry, chant and the music they played before battles. I was pumped, adrenaline that filled me with a sense of purpose. I gave a grin as my heart pumped with good vibes.

Beyond the wall, the sound of the heavy feet on the cold tarmac was like the warning thunder of a coming storm. The entire rectangle shuddered, with feet ready to throw themselves over the corpse wall. One of the Tools on the wall turned back, his face covered in a large, survivalist beard.

He blurted with a shout, "orks coming. We need more Tools here now."

Almost five hundred armed soldiers climbed the corpse wall, going prone and firing into the crowd. Trying to force my legs to move, my muscles tighten as adrenaline filled my veins. My legs were rooted to the floor. As I pulled with my muscles trying to plant a food onto the next step, it felt as if the ground was moving. My muscles turned to weighted stone as I charged, I felt the weight increase with every footfall. Quickly, I climbed up the corpse wall and planted my gun down on the head of an ork, its eyes still staring.

The charred underbrush was awash with orks. The green menaces jumped from a deep trench, hidden in the underbrush. The old Trench walls are usually covered in moss and ivy, the rotting wooden walls were covered in plants. It was how I imagined a drug den in the forest would look like. On all of the orks back were plates of wood, on their backs with rucksack straps made out of vines. All the plates of wood were covered in patterned burns yet their flesh was untouched by the flames. Over five hundred soldiers fired at the same time, tearing into the ork flesh. I tracked one of the orks, as he zig-zagged across the battlefield, hiding behind other orks. Waiting for a moment, I breathed out, I squeezed the trigger. The fist-like laser burst through him, gathering flesh and tissue on its one way path through his chest.

Quickly, I aimed at another target. Another ork. He charged at us, head on, uncaring of the lasers that bounced at his feet. I squeezed the trigger, the shot rang out and half of his head turned into a pink mist as the other was churned up mince meat and strips of flesh. The ork fell down, falling down into a mess on the ground.

The orks fell in hundreds, screaming as their legs flew back, being sliced by the lasgun fire. Those who fell were simply replaced by others, jumping from the trench. The orks thundered madly towards the corpse wall, being cut down by lasers before they could reach it. Quickly, they fell as laser fire destroyed their chests with cauterized wounds, twisting into black flesh as they screamed like primal animals. The ork limbs were quickly sliced away, their heads rolled back into the trench.

The sight of a hundred tusk-toothed heads rolled towards the trench, while others were crushed underfoot by their own brethren made me smile, I felt my heart pump with pride.

Some of the orks nearly reached the corpse wall, they wheeled around, digging the panels on their backs into the charred plants. My brain fired with ideas, trying to make sense with what they were doing. They formed a wall, some standing on the shoulders of others to defend to create a taller wall. Soon, my nerves snapped into place and my fingers itched. With a quick pull, I held down the trigger button, letting a volley of shots tear into oncoming orks. My shots dug into shoulders, limbs, chests and heads. As my lasers buried into heads and limbs, the wall built higher, no matter how I tried.

Laser fire charred the heavy wood but nothing shook the wall. Focusing my shots at the connecting lines, I held my shots consistent. The wood didn't burst, as I switched my targets to ever weak point I could imagine. Soon, the wall grew higher than the corpse wall, the ork's grunting chatter underneath the wood giving me chills. The wooden wall sloped at an angle, almost like it was cut out off of a dome.

Firing the lasers at the wall did nothing, the wall didn't even shake. Soon, two soldiers fired at the same time, which became four firing in unison, which became eight blasting at the wall at the same time. Soon, all of us were firing at the same time, we had quickly found a pattern. Five hundred shots at the same time. The lasers shattered against the shield yet the wood only charred, it swayed like it was hit by a light breeze.

Over the sound of the lasers, I turned around towards the ship. "We need missiles here." I shouted, waving my hand towards them, beckoning them over.

Hundreds of the Bears pushed through the crowd. Missiles over their shoulders as they charged, their legs pumping and smacking into the ground with great speed. The Bears quickly found a foot hold, using the dead corpses as bipods. I stared out at them, seeing them peer through their sights. Their pupils were large as smiles grew over their faces. Staring over a group of them, they all blinked at the same time. The missiles flew through the air with the roar of a thousand fires. We all dropped down from the wall, pushing our backs against the corpses. I dropped my lasgun to my feet as I clenched my hands over my ears. The missiles slammed into the wall with the fearful blow of the explosions. The noise of splintering wood, the hoarse howl of the orks, and the sudden shock wave that ran through the corpse wall, made my heart pump with pleasure. Soon, it began sprinkling. Little fragments of wood drenched my helmet, skin, and armour. The wood shrapnel began growing larger and falling frequently. It felt like I was sitting in the rain, except I was smiling. The rain meant victory, the rain meant life.

The sound of a thousand bodies smacking the forest floor made my heart race. Quickly, we climbed up the wall and stared out over our battlefield. orks were torn to pieces by the pieces of wood, their limbs were carved into chunks as blood gushed forward. Slices of flesh were torn away from the orks. Those at the very front were turned into grotesque, deformed springs of flesh. Large pieces of wood stuck out of the dirt ground, almost like headstones for the scum. One corpse, underneath me, twitched. A loud gurgle, a rattle, bellowed over the quiet battlefield. Its mouth was agape, rigidly screaming its pains at us.

The world changed to shades of red and I jumped down from the corpse wall, landing next to the dying Xeno. It looked up at me, holding out it hand as if it was trying to tell me to pull it up, to help it survive. For a moment, I froze before the ork gave a sly grin. Its hand turned into a fist and it shouted "Zog." at me.

I grabbed the long piece of wood next to me, raised it above my head and stood above the ork. I smacked it in the face. Its skull caved in like a melon that had been hit with a hammer, blood leaked out and mixed with his dried wounds. I smacked it again and again and again until the head was almost flat. I threw the wood down and looked up at the soldiers, feeling the height of the corpse wall as I stared up with wide eyes.

They stood frozen for a moment , looking at me like I was an animal in a zoo. Looking over at me, he raised his fist and nodded, silently complimenting me. As he did it, the other soldiers followed the same until it reached a cheering. I nodded modestly, bowing at one point. I thanked them all with a smile on my face.

I turned my back, looking over the field of corpses. As some hands reached down to ruffle my hair or pat me on the shoulder, I stared at the trench. Slowly, part of the wall moved into place, clicking like a puzzle piece.

Grabbing my lasgun in both hands, I looked up at my fellow Tools and nodded at the trench. They stared out for a moment before I turned back to it. I charged for a moment before I even shouted. "Rush it."

the Tools rushed down the corpse wall, charging down the hill. We sounded like wild cattle, charging down this hill with the deadliness of a run-away boulder. I found a spot, standing over the trench. Quickly, my fellow Tools joined me, and jumped down into the trenches. The small space of the trench was filled with the Tools. Their boots smacked into an ankle-high pool of blood, that had decapitated heads staring up with soulless eyes swimming in it. Blood slowly seeped into their dead mouths, their tusks stained red with the crimson river.

The boards were embedded into the walls at an angle, like the entire trench was two sides of a triangle. The board across from me rocketed up, smacking a nearby group of the Tools to the other wall. The six soldiers were quickly pinned to that wall by spears that cemented their corpses to it. Their mouths opened rigidly as they screamed out in agony.

I felt my stomach drop. The weights that filled my stomach that made it drop down to my guts. Three orks stood inside, awkwardly positioned on the tunnel slope. Everything slowed down in my mind, chemicals pumping in my brain. I breathed in, charged at the orks and, throwing my lasgun back, dived feet first into the hole. My boot quickly connected with an ork jaw and all of us slid down the slope. The slope didn't last long as we soon ended up in a pile on a carved rock floor, I fell away from the orks, now piled together.

Quickly, I stood up and grabbed my lasgun. I aimed for the bottom of the pile. With a swift smack, the stock bludgeoned the space between its eyes. There was a sickening crack and blood shot into its dark eyes. The ork screamed. I crouched by its head and smacked the lasgun into his head like it was a rock.

The second ork was still stuck under the first. I took the lasgun and swung it like a golf club. It smacked the second ork in the head and teeth fell out of its mouth. I switched, taking the barrel into my hands, and smacked its like a baseball bat. Beating his face in with the stock of the gun, I didn't stop until his face looked like canned spinach, dyed red.

The third ork groaned for a moment, then pounced towards me, screaming at me. It thundered madly like a bull and grabbed me. It grappled me, slamming my head into its sweaty neck as it screamed over my head.

"Stop, stoopid uumie. Ya ab no idea wotcha doin'. Ya will brin' their wrath upon ya, in great numbaz."

Slowly, I pushed my gun past my face, squishing it even more. The barrel went under its chin, the barrel pointed at the wall. He squeezed tightly with one arm, punching me with a fist. My side ached as his heavy fist destroyed my ribs. My mind showed me images, my skin filling with blood from internal bleeding or my lungs being stabbed through by white knives.I slowly twisted the barrel upwards, pointing it towards the ceiling. I stared into his eyes as I squeezed the trigger. The muzzle burned and I felt the heat, it ached like my nerves had cigarettes being put out on them. I felt the heat lick into my armour. The ork eyes went dark as its disgusting memories went up like a fountain, spraying the room. It fell down on the floor with a thud. I stared at my chest, patting it, my armour was fine.

I bent double, holding my knees as I let my lasgun drop to the floor. I breathed slowly in and out, repaying my oxygen debt. I filled my pained lungs with precious air as I stared at the ork corpses and the walls. The smell was like a hovel of drunks and homeless, a stink of piss and sweat. The walls had carved beds dug out of them. I sighed, shrugging off the beds with a deep breath. Looking at the orks, I noticed one almost had a spike for a tusk. A straight tusk that reached forward. I tapped the tusk with the butt of his lasgun, it lurched sickeningly like a loose tooth.

I grabbed the tusk with a gloved hand and, putting my boot on the ork head, pulled at the tusk. Slowly, the tooth slowly came loose from the gum, with a spurt of blood every inch of the way. Finally, it pulled loose and blood fell into the mouth of the corpse. I looked up the tunnel, seeing a face looking down.

With a smile, feeling my heart glow with pride, I waved at a a fellow Tool. "I found a souvenir to take back to momma." I said, wiggling the tooth at the man. He smiled back at me. After a blink, he disappeared back into the trench.

I shrugged. With the smile still on my face, I laid my gun down and pulled a roll of tape from my pocket. I positioned the tusk at the end of the barrel before wrapping both in tape. I picked up the gun and wiggled it back and forth. The tusk stood tight, a true bayonet. My smile grew as I felt like a war hero, ready to bayonet and hoist a creature into the air before sending it to death.

My smile disappeared quickly as screams echoed from the trenches. Those screams quickly turned to gurgles. As the gurgles grew closer to me, I smacked my back against the wall, listening to the outside world.

"orks. On the right."

Bow strings pulled back as other arrows whistled, I heard the chopping of hatchets, the heavy weight of bodies collapsing onto the ground, the heavy tread of orks marching. I gripped my weapon tightly, feeling my fear bubble into my guts. The sounds grew closer until they simply passed, echoing from the left side. Turning, I looked up the slope, seeing green flesh pass by. With a heavy blink and a shake of the head, I charged up the tunnel.

I saw a parade of orks thundering down the trench as Tool corpses paved their path. Tools jumped out of the trenches, taking potshots at them until they were cut down by stone tools or arrows. The orks marched at a steady pace, never slowing. They crushed Tools underfoot, flattening ribcages.

I breathed out. I rushed the parade, pointing my bayonet at the back of an ork neck. The spine of the ork crumbled under my bayonet, the bones cracking underneath the pressure. With speed, I pulled the bayonet out of the ork and, before the other could turn, I swung my lasgun barrel over my shoulder, smacking The ork with a sickening crack. Bringing my gun back, I jammed the tusk into its skull, burying the bone into the brain. Quickly, I yanked the tusk out of the gore, aiming the barrel at the last ork. Firing at its head, the wound cauterizing before it could so much as bleed. The ork screamed and I fired again. I squeezed the trigger down, filling the ork with lasers until the head was burned clean off, a look of pure pain across its face. The head fell to the ground as the body twisted, landing next to the decapitated head.

I made myself breath in, I forced myself to breath out. "orks are dead." I shouted, looking up from the trenches. I gave a cry and the other Tools followed suit, following my example. I gave a smile as I felt at home as I bellowed with them. I noticed a single wounded man. The arrow had dug into his leg, leaving droplets of blood on the ground as two of the Tools let the wounded man sit on their shoulders like they were a throne.

The Bears stood as shadows, their feet crushing the corpses. Their launchers hung low as they stared as we walked back.

As we got into earshot, I brought my hands to my mouth.

"Hey. Blow the trench."

A hundred voices joined, relaying my order to themselves and each other.

The beautiful sight of a hundred launchers glinting in the dying light made me grin. The missiles flew over us, screaming like proud banshees. I heard the pillars of fire that grew behind us, saw our shadows increase to the size of giants and smelled the burning corpses of friend and foe alike. I breathed it in. It was better than any narcotic.

"Purifiers." The wounded soldier shouted. "Give us some light."

The wounded man cheered, pumping his fist as if he was having the best time of his life. I smiled, looking as the man became silhouetted, his cheers almost visible. My smile grew as we walked back.

The rest of the rectangle gave shouts and cheers of joy as we came over the corpse wall. We joined the rectangle, leaving gaps for the dead men we left behind. The rectangle marched up the ramp. The hold was cleaned of corpses and the smell of death had been wiped away from the very air of the ship. The cargo hold smelled of metal and gunpowder, the usual stink of the place. The rectangle marched to the centre of the hold, we stood as stiff as boards for a moment before splitting off, filling into individual cells. I joined the first Tool cell could find. I laid on the bunk bed, laying with my weapon at my side. I heard the chatter of the other prisoners and it brought a smile to my face. Some of the Bears were muttering about what I did while, else where, I could hear Purifiers doing the same.

Soon, the voices died down. The hold was eerily quiet, except for breathing and small movements. Then the Scavengers started to hum, the same out of tune sound the corpse wall made. It reached such a high volume, that I saw people sway side to side, almost as if they were being lulled to sleep.

One of my cellmates muttered. "They'd better stop that death hum."

As he finished his sentence, the hum froze to a dead halt. One voice, chanting yet booming, rolled over the cargo hold;

"We fought till our deaths today,

Breaking their little brains,

We held them until doomsday,

We threw off our bloodied chains,

and free we shall be someday."

Soon, all the Scavengers joined in, chanting the rhyme in perfect unison. They beat their guns against the cell bars to match the beat. Soon, the entire hold was up in a roar. First, the other Tool cells started to do it. I saw my cellmates start to smile and beat their fists against the bunks, adding to the bass of the song. Soon, we started chanting along. We screamed out the tune with smiles spread across our faces. We laughed along as we tried to chant along to the beat. Soon, every single cell sang with the heavy beat of the chant. Patrolling guards started to sing along too, banging the body of their lasguns against the catwalk. Eventually, cell by cell, the chanting died. It ended on a bellowing shout from one of The Bear cells; "And free we shall be someday." a voice that echoed for a long minute.

They was a collective pitter-patter of claps, thanking each other for a good time, before we stopped and lay on our bunks. I stared up at the ceiling, rubbing my head into my helmet. I slept well that night.

The lights flickered on in the hold, lighting up like an artificial sunrise. I felt my heavy eyelids scroll up my eyes. For a moment, I started at the ceiling, seeing the patterns in the iron metal. With a free hand, I grabbed at my lasgun, hugging it to my side. The gun felt good in my hands, warming my cold skin. However, as a minute passed, a single cell door opened. The creaking echoed silently throughout the hold, the wheels of the cell door squeaked loudly.

I looked towards the sound, seeing a group of guards crowded around a cell. With a slow motion, I moved across my bunk and stared out the cell bars. A guard turned and saw me, he raised a finger to his lips, he shushed quietly. With a scrunch of confusion, I looked closer. Two of the guards disappeared into the cell, and walked out with the wounded Tool, holding him by his arms and legs. The arrow still stuck out of his leg, the tip of it pinned to his calf. I shuddered as he mumbled in his sleep. The guards slowly walked him to the catwalk, one in the center of the cargo hold. The guards placed the wounded Tool on the fence.

I wanted to scream, to tell them to stop but I clamped my hand around my mouth. The guards placed the wounded Tool over the edge of the catwalk. I saw the wounded man's eyes fluttered open, he looked up at the two guards. His arms shot up, trying to fight the two guards away, as they pushed him over the edge.

The Tool screamed like an animal as he fell. He smacked the floor with a crack, his wounded leg was bent back, to the point where it touched his guts as it bled. The trousers quickly soaked with blood, spilling out onto the floor. He kept screaming, louder, like a baby animal taken away from its mother. People ran to the bars of their cells. They stared, without words spoken. The prisoners clutched the bars, waiting for something to happen. My cellmates ran to the bars, staring out like excited children like the zoo except replace excitement with dread.

The man's bone was outside of his leg, burrowing itself into the trousers as if it was a scarab beetle trying to claw out of his flesh.

Over his screams came the thumping, echoing footsteps of a single pair of boots. They marched with precision as the sounds echoed through the hold and in every cell. The echoes sounded like the roll of mortar fire before it strikes.

The Warden soon made an appearance before the prisoners, he walked with a robotic strut. By his hip, a bolter pistol swung back and forth from his hand. Underneath his hat, was a face of torment. A long scar ran up the middle of his face, broken only by the tip of his nose. The scar was jagged, like the cut was made by a savage animal. His eyes were a distant shade of blue, like an ice blue tyranid.

The wounded man screamed louder, clutching his leg. His pain made him close his eyes, he couldn't see The Warden. The Warden stopped, the echoes ending. He paused for a moment, the tense moment swelling in the air. The prisoners held their breath, many standing on bunk beds to see what was going on, the Warden stood motionless, the man screamed louder. The Warden raised his bolter pistol, pointing the barrel at the wounded soldier.

The cargo hold froze for a moment, every breath of air was caught in prisoners' throats.

The Warden tutted loudly. "Open your eyes," he aimed for the center of the head, "you septic death-token."

The soldier opened his eyes. With a squint, I saw the determination in his eyes, almost as if he was at bliss. Staring down the barrel of the gun, he looked as calm as a newborn. "My name is Malphas, sir."

"How dare you be wounded in the field of combat. You are worthless to us now, we cannot fix -" The Warden gestured to the wound. "- that wound. We do not have the equipment, either you fix it yourself or I execute you here. What do you wish for?"

The soldier looked up, a smile creeping across his face. "I would like to fix my leg."

The Warden pointed his pistol at a nearby cell. The scrawny men inside threw themselves out of the firing line. "One of you throw me your blade." A double-edged dagger was thrown across the hold. It skidded across the floor to the Warden's foot, who caught the blade under foot. The Warden grabbed the knife off of the floor and handed it, handle first, to the soldier.

The Tool took the knife and every other prison looked at the floor, looking away. I kept my eyes locked on the wounded man. The Tool took it and sliced off the tip of the arrow, pinned to his calf. With a slow cut, the tip fell to the floor. The crude rock smacked the floor with a smack. It rolled around in a small circle as small drops of blood fall onto it. The Tool wiped the knife clean on his trousers. He clenched the blade between his teeth and grabbed the shaft of the arrow. The Tool pulled, muffling his screams with the knife. Finally, the shaft fell out of his leg with a spurt of blood, and he grabbed it with a smile.

The soldier brought his hand up, showing the shaft to the Warden.

The Warden picked up the shaft and, with a flick of his wrist, pointed it at a pair of nearby guards. "Take this soldier to the other prism."

The Guards wander over, throwing their lasguns over their back, grabbing the wounded man by his arms. Stretching his arms over their shoulders, they carried him away from the hold as the wounded man kicked and screamed. Soon, the screams disappeared as they wandered through a stairwell door.

"Let that remind all of you," the Warden shouted, "you come back dead or alive, not in between."

With that, the Warden walked away. His boots clicked on the metal floor.

Every prisoner stopped for a fraction of a second, I froze on my bunk. A strange sensation stirred in my neck, a sensation I hadn't felt for years. I felt like I was choking. I could breathe fine but I felt as if my throat was filled with something. My eyes were clear. No moisture. No tears. I felt as if I was crying.

I slipped off my bed without a word, finding my place in the line. My cellmates looked out with dead faces, nothing in their eyes, I followed the trend as I stared at the back of a helmet. The Purifiers dressed in their armor, grabbing their flamers and launchers, aiming them away from each other. The Scavengers slipped on their uniforms, putting laspistols in holsters and knives in their belts. The Bears held their weapons by their sides, ready to move. The Caged simply stood in single file, waiting to be let out of their cells.

After a few moments of silence, the entire sections of cell doors slid to one side. They opened slowly with the squeaking wheels, our eyes followed the door the entire way. We stared at it as if it was our way to a peaceful life or death. Soon after, the doors clanged shut on the other side. We marched out of our cell, going down the stairs, side by side with a Purifier squad. Both of our groups held grimaces of non-emotion. We prepared ourselves into squads, then the standard rectangle. The door slowly opened, the alarms blared yet I could barely hear it. After a while, it touched the planet's surface and we marched out of the ship, standing in the clearing.

We stared out over the now-dead trench, the ash that used to be grassland, and the trees that still hung high above us. The buzz of the speakers echoed down from the cargo hold.

"Tools." The Warden shouted as we snapped to attention. "Move North, continue on that direction until you have swept two kilometers of that land. You will then circle around the ship on a patrol and report back when you have swept a semi-circle of our clearing." With a quick motion, we tapped the compass on our watches. A image flickered, a gyrocompass. We aimed towards North and marched slowly.

"Caged." They snapped to attention, smacking their armored hand down with a militaristic force. The sound was like throwing a drum set to the ground. "Guard and protect the Tools on their journey." The Caged quickly ran after us, the power packs on their backs shaking like thunder as they ran.

"Scavengers." They jumped, pinning their arms to their hips. "You will search for more trenches. The Purifiers will accompany you." Both Scavengers and Purifiers walked over the burned meadow, walking over towards the destroyed trench.

"Bears." They snapped to attention, swinging their arms into a salute. The freed space allowed them to breath. "You will defend this ship." The Bears set up defensive positions around the ship.

One Bear clutched onto the ship's ramp, as The heavy door closed. Getting to the top of the ship, he aimed his lascannon down into the burned field, waiting for a target.

We wandered through the unburned part of the jungle, the under brush allowing us to disappear almost completely into the greenery. All of the soldiers disappeared, except for the sounds of rustling. The Caged, however, stomped, with their heavy metal tread echoing into the distance. Sounds easily made by a native wildlife; a bird or a rodent. I aimed my gun towards the grass, waiting for me to accidentally run into the back of a waiting ork. The Caged, however, walked as if they had an itch in their arms. I could hear the scratching of metal as they itched, the electricity sparking with a distinctive buzz.

Suddenly, the tall grass in front of us snapped to their sides. The plants were bent as if a cannon ball had been shot through them The middle of the stalks had a scorched black line running along it. There was an odd smell to the grass now, almost like mints. I quickly recoiled before ducking down to one knee, aiming my lasgun into the new clearing. My heartbeat shot into my neck as I stared out at the new clearing, feeling my brain fill with ideas about what could have caused it. The Caged simply stood, their legs bent as if they were predators, about to sprint. Slowly, after a few moments of silence, I eased up my position, feeling a sigh of relief escape my lips. I looked over at my fellow soldiers, some looking at me, almost for guidance. I took a step into the opening. The Tools followed me, emerging from the greenery. The Caged remained inside the grass, yet you could still hear the buzz of sparks.

For a moment, I looked over my confused men. I gave a grunt and they turned to me. "Heaven bones." I shouted.

We quickly formed a tactical position. The one in the front aimed left, the next aimed right, my soldiers kept switching sides until the last man. The last Tool went prone, aiming behind them. That was me. Aiming down the barrel, I wiggled my bayonet. Playing with the blade a little, I tried to make it stay solid on my gun. Feeling the boredom set in, I pulled my hand away from the tusk, placing it back on my gun. Another blur burst in front of me. A blur of green shot through the undergrowth path, the blur that disappeared from my vision, like it jumped over me. The blur disappeared around the grass, leaving us with the stench of burned fuel. The Tool in the front shot at the blur as it disappeared, charring a hole into the grass.

"What in the emperor's name was that?" One of the Caged called from the tall grass.

"If you have no idea, we have no idea," I yelled in response, straightening my aim.

The Caged grunted in response. The pasture rustled as the Caged whispered among themselves.

the Tools started to shuffle as if they were going to stand. "Remain down." I shouted, waving my hand at the Tools. "That thing might come around again and, by the emperor's name, I don't want that thing showing up at my bedside."

Some of the other Tools gave a grunt and crouched down again. "What if it does come around again?" One of the Tools called.

"We are gonna blast the hell out of it until it stops moving," I shouted back with a smile.

Some of the Tools cheered, pumping their fists into the air. Pride filled my heart as I aimed the barrel down along the greenery.

We waited. We waited minutes, minutes that felt like they had hours instead of seconds. We listened to the rustle of far away pieces of the under brush as it hit the wind. The slow swaying of the tree leaves. Strange squawking from miles away, made by some native birds to the planet. Then, a rustle, a fast speeding rustle through thousands of yards of ground. It seemed miles away, yet it quickly approached. The rustle moved fast, leaving an echo in its path. An echo that boomed with the sound like continuous cannon fire.

I froze as the rustle approached, gripping my sweaty palms harder onto the lasgun. Gritting my teeth, I felt the handle dig into my hand, as the damp sweat seemed to overpower my hand and fingers. With a murmur of forgiveness, I closed one eye, and aimed carefully.

The rustle approached, heavy booms followed, sounding like a planet-sized revolver being fired. As the rustle increased to an almost deafening sound, I pointed my lasgun up at an angle, the angle that placed the laser shot on the blur's possible head. Eventually, the rustle grew to the point that it was almost the only sound I could hear.

"Fire." I yelled uselessly, the sound of my own voice never even reaching my ears.

I fired as the blur flew over me, my helmet slamming into my forehead like a thrown brick. I heard lasgun fire explode behind me as the rest of the Tools shot with a patterned thudding. The rustling stopped but not after a heavy, fleshy crash in the grass. We waited for a moment, feeling our shoulders build with a foreboding weight, letting the tall grass settle from the heavy weight. I listened, waiting for a low rustle. There was none, simply the sounds that ushered from the deep bowels of the jungle.

the Tools got up, I groaned up, stamping my boots into the ground. We wandered over to the crash site of the rustling, searching through the meadow with kicks of our feet. We found a ork, laying dead on the ground. Still warm. His head was taken off, the neck had solid bubbles with a jagged cut. His head had disappeared somewhere into the bushes. The ork lay on its stomach, covered in cloths of animal furs. A necklace of teeth surrounded its neck, all rotting and jagged like serrated knives. On his back, however, was something you couldn't make out of fur and teeth. A cylinder with a pair of wings sticking out from it. Investigating it further, the cylinder had a pointed cone, with a hypotonic set of spinning plates. One of the Caged emerged from the grass, he slowly placed his armored hand, resting his palm onto the cylinder, and his finger twitched for a moment. He squeezed his eyes shut. Electricity sparked, jamming the blue power into the wings. With a quick crunching burst, the cylinder fired with a bright and long flame. A Tool, with a face that reminded me when I was only eleven, was set to flames. His uniform burst into flames, the soldier quickly running back from the under brush.

The dying soldier ran faster until he collapsed in the grass. His back burned black as the metal armor sunk into his flesh like slices of hot metal into butter. The smell was like burned leather, mixed with the burning copper coins. The corpse of the ork spiraled into the sky, like a dying firework. It was peppered with laser fire from the ship until it exploded, almost like a star in the middle of the sky. The soldiers ducked, to avoid the shower of metal. The knives stuck into the ground, resounding like metal triangles. It was almost musical. One of the Caged was peppered with the spikes, his body soaking them in blood like he was a masochistic hedgehog. The Caged fell as the metal rain stopped. His back was more metal than flesh. We slowly got up, careful not to kick one of the dug-in blades.

"What the-" One of the Caged started.

"By the Emperor, there must be more orks around here." One of the Tools shouted.

We quickly took positions, standing in the grass, disappearing into the grass as they aimed at nothing. Suddenly, there was a parade of rustles. A deafening chorus, that sounded like a thousand creatures destroying the undergrowth. I crouched, aiming towards the noisy burden. As the deafening rustling increased, I jumped down prone, my belt buckle pushing into my waist with a sharp pain. My finger squeezed the trigger, pulling on it slightly as I aimed at the source of the rustling. I wiped my brow, dripping with sweat. The rustlings kept coming until it became deafening, yet even more so. It was as if you could have your very soul be deafened, be silenced with sound. We waited for a moment before the grass parted, into ten triangles. The deafening rustles quickly disappeared.

The rustling came quickly again. I waited for a moment, my eardrums feeling as if they were bleeding. Aiming the bayonet up, I waited. The rustling quickened, getting to the point where it sounded like a war drum being played by a thousand sticks. The greenery over the top of my head parted, my eyes stuck as they were quickly bathed in the sunlight. My gun disappeared from my hands, burning my hands as it vanished from my fingers.

A heavy thud sounded behind me, smacking with a heavy crunch. I span on my belt buckle, crawling towards the fleshy wreckage. Passing through a few strands of greenery, I found an ork. In its guts, the lasgun stood up like a monument. The ork gargled on its own blood, it tried to raise his hands up, grasping at me. The jetpack had the ork pinned him to the floor.

I crouched down, sitting on the ork's chest. The ork snatched at me with his teeth, trying to bite me. The tusks missed me as I pulled my fist back behind me. I smiled with a grin that hurt my muscles.

"Ya will nub kills us awl. They will dee-stroy ya, ya stoopid uumies. Ya will be turned ter dust."

I, with a wince, smacked the ork in the face. The ork's head smacked the ground with a crack of his skull. His bones left an indent on my nerves, I grimaced again, staring at the ork. I grabbed the ork by the hair, pulling his head up with a yank and punched him in the mouth. This went on for five minutes.

You might not think five minutes is that long of a time. It only took me about a second to punch him right in the face. Five minutes, in seconds, is three hundred seconds. In that time, I managed to say some of the foulest things ever said about an ork that I'll never say again. In that time, I learned almost the entirety of my rage. I said things I wouldn't imagine coming out of My own mouth and, I found myself agreeing when I said; "I will blow off all of your goddamn heads, you orks. You have nothing to offer us. Burn and burn for eternity."

After five minutes, one of the ork's tusk fell loose, falling down onto his chest, dipping into the small pond of blood on its chest. With my quick fingers, I grabbed the tusk off of his chest and, with two hands firmly clenched around the tusk, I thrust it into the ork's neck. The blood squirted, spraying me with a small shower of blood. My armour shined with the line of crimson. I stood up from the ork corpse and, leaving the tusk, waited for a moment. With a quick smash, I jammed the tusk further into its neck, disappearing from sight. I grabbed my lasgun, pulling it out of the ork with a quick yank. With a slow strut, I walked back over to my position and went back down, pushing my belt buckle to the ground.

A small rustle in the tall grass beside me. "What was that?" A wavering voice whispered from my left side.

I leaned over towards the invisible man. "I killed an ork, son, killed it like it goddamn deserved it." I gave a grin as I listened for the voice to come again.

The invisible man rustled the greenery again. "What did it say, though?"

"To be honest, brother," I began, the rustling slowly increasing over the horizon as I spoke, "I can't understand a single word that those orks say."

The invisible man gave a giggle and went silent. The rustling grew louder. Growing with such a force that I felt his brain squeeze as if a hand was trying to wring some juice out of it. The rustling grew again, this time, allied with the smell of burning fuel. Yet, with the smell, it smelled too clean. In my imagination, it's what solar panels would smell like if they gave out fumes. A clean, minty, and fresh smell.

An ork appeared, a few hundred meters away. He was dressed in tribal garbs, covered in furs of some native animals, the fur was covered in scars and blood stains. The animal wasn't treated humanely. The ork's flesh was pushed back like it's skin was being pulled back almost by the wind forces of a hurricane. The ork's eyes were bulging out of his head like its head was about to explode.

I imagined, with a smile, a grenade that was fit snug in the back of the orks head, exploding at that exact moment. My imagination furthered, imagining that the orks face was a split second from spreading his blood across the grass like a water balloon dropped to the ground from a mile high tower. The ork rushed faster, his legs smacking on the floor with a force that threw dirt up like a geyser. The soles of its feet were bloody, leaving pieces of gore along the grass. The ork bellowed, his mouth opening with a roar, yet it was drowned out by the sounds of the engines. For every piece of imagination, the ork gained almost hundred meters of ground.

I aimed over the ork's head and fired. The ork ran to meet the laser, it's head being quickly burned into a large wound. It's nose twisted as it's flesh charred from the burns. I aimed higher again, pulling the trigger, a laser flying through the air. The ork's eyes misted over as it's flesh fused to its eyeballs. The orks hands threw themselves to its head. Instead of shouting a war cry, it was screaming, crying its pain. The ork's path wavered, he ran in drunken zig zags, destroying the undergrowth as his legs uselessly attempted to find their footing. I directed his barrel at the ork's head. He squeezed the trigger, letting off a shot. The laser quickly plowed into the chest with the force of a stick tied to a freight train. A hole appeared in the ork's chest, it's legs wobbled. The corpse dropped to its knees before falling to the ground. The ork's jaw smacked onto the floor, with its teeth making the sound of blades smacking together. The ork's crusted face stared with an eyeless, gin-soaked stare.

With a quick flash of ideas, I crawled over towards the ork corpse. He placed my lasgun on the grass. With a quick hand, I popped open the alien jaw and stared at the tusks, that stuck out like daggers. They were almost perfectly straight, a slight curve in both of them was the only problem. With a small pull, the tusks came out quickly with no single drop of blood. I juggled the tusks in my hand for a moment before hugging my gun to my chest. Placing the tusk by the original, I slowly adjusted it until the tusks fit perfectly. They were angled on the bottom of the barrel. With a quick search, I grabbed the tape from the depths of my pocket. With a small pull of my teeth, the tape rolled out. I , twisting around my wrist, taped the two tusks to the weapon. The three bayonets were grouped into a three. For a moment, I imagined thrusting this triple bayonet into the belly of an ork, like charging with a bayonet. I gave a small chuckle as I imagined pulling an ork up with only my lasgun and my strength, like a movie monster with a pitchfork. I stood up and, with a push, kicked the ork over, laying it flat on its side. It acted like a bundle of sandbags. Sitting cross legged, I slowly pushed my legs out, forcing myself to go prone. I pushed the barrel in the cheek of the ork.

The rustles kept coming. The deafening sound shearing away at its own volume every round. I waited for another to enter his path but none came. Grunts and screams came from his fellow soldiers as he lay waiting. Some of the sounds were simple, grunts from the Caged as they thwacked an ork in the chest or the head. Others were more complex on the ears, Tools or Caged being thrown hundreds of meters as they screamed like sirens before landing in squashed messes. The squirts of blood were mere underlying sounds underneath the chorus of screaming. Soon, piles of Tools lay behind me. They were no longer human, simply screaming piles of flesh. Their bones and flesh crumbled into each other, mixing in with their own blood and organs. They screamed their pains until they were drowned. Drowned out by death rattles.

We slowly got up, the under brush whispered of how many were left.

"Okay," I spoke to the greenery, "move North, we have -" I tapped my watch, revealing the distance from The Warden's Lash. "- We've got a kilometer to go."

They walked through the under brush. Some soldiers accidentally stepped on the heads of their dead companions; they tried to keep straight faces as their boot treads patterned their dead friends' faces. Eventually, they found a clearing and could see how many of them were truly left. From the group that went in, a quarter were missing. Some Tools were injured but only with minor cuts or bruises, all of the Caged were fine. They simply stood by, looking over the Tools as if they were there to babysit them. One of the Caged had a dent in his armor.

One of the Caged muttered something to another. Even with the metal strips covering his face, you could tell a smirk dropped from his face. The Caged, with the dropped smirk, walked over towards me. He grabbed me by the shoulder with an armored hand, the metal settled heavily onto my shoulder, squeezing with a vice. The Caged leaned in, the cool metal shot a small jolt through my skin. I winced as the Caged began to whisper.

"One of our own is in that under brush, he is in deep pain. Can you fix that?" The Caged leaned away.

I looked over at him and nodded. Using a free hand, I pushed the under brush away. He wandered in. The grass tickled at his face, giving him a sense of itching. He dreaded the feeling of the under brush on his skin. I walked through it, aimlessly. Taking random turns, he found heads that he kicked away quickly. He didn't want to remember their faces. He found dead orks that he gave sharp stomps on their heads, trying to crush the memories of his dead comrades. He smashed their tusks into their face, turning their features into unrecognizable mush. He wiped the blood onto the under brush, leaving the grass skid marked with pieces of gore.

Eventually, I managed to find him. He would have missed him if his boot didn't smack into the metal plating. The sound echoed like stepping on a pile of copper coins. He looked down at the wounded man. The armor along his chest was pinned down, digging into his ribcage with its metal shards. The metal pieces were coated in chunky blood. The man suddenly jolted his suit of metal electrifying for a split moment. The metal arched blue like a muzzle flash. He twitched longer, his eyes staring up at me. His pupils swirled with endless descriptions of pain, explanations that would take over thousand of novels worth of words to write down. His mouth was open, his teeth like pearls in the mix of a sea of crimson. His pupils darted up and down I's body until it fixated on the barrel of his gun. His pupils shrunk impossibly more at the sight of the gun. His mind must have been feeling the last measures possible as he stared at that laser barrel. With a twitch of the eye, I turned his lasgun towards the wounded man.

"Do you have any last words?" I asked, trying to keep his mind off of the barrel pointed towards the man's head. "Anything you want me to tell anyone?"

The wounded man stared up at him, his jaw shut slowly with jerking motions. "Tell... tell them... tell them I killed two of those Xeno scum." He spat with a pained grin.

I raised his gun and laid the barrel on the man's forehead. "May you see your momma again," I said before turning the wounded man's head into mush with a squeeze of the trigger. I gave a murmur of apology and wandered towards the exit of the grass.

Eventually, he parted through the branches of grass and found his fellow soldiers staring him in the face. He, without a word, went over to the Caged. I whispered the last words of the dead soldier in his ear. The Caged replied with a chuckle. He slowly moved away from me. A murmur went around the other caged soldiers. Eventually, the entire Caged understood what the dead man had said. They, from their slumped position, straightened themselves up. The Caged beat their armored fists together almost like gorillas.

"Are we moving out then?" I said to the group of Caged.

They turned to him. The one closest to him gave him a slow nod with a sneer.

"I'll take that as a yes." He said with a small smile. "All right, men." I grabbed his gun and started to walk North, holding his weapon against his shoulder. "Move out."

The soldiers followed after him, almost automatically. The Tools smiled as they followed I, following the overly pumped soldier. Soon, I had a few hundred soldiers follow him through the jungle like they were his own personal army.

The clearing continued over the horizon, the under brush only up to the soldiers' ankles. However, the ground was still covered in strange plants; twisting vines, flowers that seemed as if they could eat two men whole, and trees that could hold a tank on its branches. Lasguns were aimed at every branch, waiting for something to appear from them. A sniper, a squadron, anything. Nothing appeared. The planet was calm, everything was peaceful. Until a soldier screamed. The entire squad quickly turned, a hundred guns pointing towards the source but nothing could be seen.

There wasn't a single body to be found, no drop of blood.

Someone called from further down. "Someone is missing."

All the rustling of the grass suddenly froze. My muscles quickly filled with energy, freezing my bones like headstones. Another scream was summoned from the side. All barrels twisted towards the sound of the scream.

"Someone is missing from here too."

I felt my every muscle tensed further as I waited for the other scream or waited for it to be my scream.

A shout bellowed from one of the Caged. "Get off of me." Everyone turned towards him. His chest was covered in large ork arms. All the lasguns pointed at the Caged. The arms struggled, pulling the armored man away. "Take the shot, I don't want to-" the lasgun fire peppered his arm, melting his arms to the metal before the lasers burst a hole through the chest. The ork's chest was visible through the chunk was taken out of the soldier before the ork had its flesh destroyed by laser fire. The two bodies fell, landing on top of each other. The Caged crushed the ork body. The area went quiet for a moment. The wind whistled through the branches of the trees as the soldiers stood still for a moment.

"Ladies," I whispered under my breath, "these orks must be hiding in the trees."

The soldiers turned their lasguns and pointed at their trees closest to them. The heavy leaves stuck out, blotting out the heavy sun. As the sun burned my retinas, I felt my eyes prick with pulsing fear. Entire branches were blocked out by the heavy canopies, except for the lower ones, which were sticks compared to the other branches. The sticks were still as tall as a man. The wind stopped for a moment. Yet, one of the leaves still rustled. Lasguns aimed towards the leaves. As hundreds of lasguns pointed at the leaves, the leaves moved as if a heavy weight was moved from them.

"Fire." I shouted at my fellow soldiers. The lasers quickly burst through the leaves, holes burst through the branches and canopies. A fire exploded from the leaves, quickly engulfing the tree in a heavy inferno. A heavy thud smacked the floor, kicking up dust from the ground. Nothing could be seen. As the fire burned, shadows from the soldiers quickly spread out across the clearing. An alien shadow stretched out from the tree, completely different from the other soldiers. It stretched from nowhere. The shadow showed a stretched image of an ork collapsed on the floor, a large pack on its back. Slowly, the shadow slowly climbed, standing up. It stretched its arms back as if it was cracking it's back. The soft sound of cracking bones was heard, underlying the sounds of the fire. The ork shadow stared at the soldiers for a moment.

A laugh was summoned out of nowhere as the shadow held its belly. It tried to run forward but I raised my lasgun towards the end of the darkened image. My brain spread fear across my nerves as I felt my body freeze with energy. I squeezed the trigger, letting off a laser shot. The shot smacked through nothing but the shadow showed the knee of the ork snap. The image fell down to one knee, holding his head down as he lurched in pain, almost like it was vomiting. I took a few steps forward away from the silent soldiers. The shadow started to rise again, holding out his arm as if he was about to claw at me. I raised my rifle again, letting off another shot. The laser smacked, the shadow's shoulder exploded. I smiled as The ork collapsed on it's back, it's head resting on the floor. Underneath the roaring inferno, I stepped towards the end of the shadow, I raised my foot and dropped my heavy boot on the back of the invisible creature. The pack crushed underneath his boot, and the nothing disappeared, dripping away like a dissolving mirror. The ork skin was revealed, the green flesh of the creature appeared out of nowhere. I slowly moved his boot away, the pack looked like an ammo box, painted purple. With a heavy kick, I threw the ork corpse against the burning tree.

One of the Caged stared at the pack for a moment.

"What's with your eyes, soldier?" I shouted at the Caged, trying not to smile.

"It's painted purple." The Caged said, his voice awkwardly jerking with nerves.

I froze for a moment. "Why, in the Emperor's name, does that matter?" I tilted my head, staring at him.

"Stealth," another Tool shouted, "orks think that painting something purple means it can't be seen as easily."

"Why?" I asked, looking back at the ork body.

The Tool shuffled for a moment. "I don't know, sir, maybe it's in their DNA."

One of the Tools muttered to the other. The other gave a strange look to the first. The first nudged the other, who told him to go away. The first Tool sighed and began. "Sir?"

"Yes, soldier?" I said, tapping my watch to check the distance. Another few kilometers.

"Why was the pack painted purple and not the ork?"

My brain froze for a moment as its cogs overworked for a split second, trying to work for an answer. "If orks thinking about shit makes shit happen, they must think that purple bags make them invisible," I said with a smile, trying not to laugh. The tree behind me burned, branches falling off of it, smacking against the ground.

The Tool muttered for a moment before going silent.

"All right, men." I shouted, grasped my lasgun, aiming it at the dying sky. "We are going to move out."

The other men cheered as I walked away, walking with a hopefully heroic stride. The Caged muttered between each other before moving out. As they moved, they passed the burning tree. Grabbing branches from an unburned tree, they snapped smaller branches off of the branch, using their armored hands. The branch was carved until it was a simple cylinder. They scorched one end of the branch in the burning inferno. As they followed the Tools through the woods, they used their metal fingers to scrape away the charred wood until it was sharp. Eventually, all of the Caged were armed with large spears as they wandered, following us along the flat lands.

They walked around the trees, disappearing in and out of the different, golden grass. When I could see the sky, I could see hills in the distance. The hills clustered together as if they were waiting to ambush travelers. A river ran through the hills, it looked like a sleeping snake. The rapids bubbled the muddy water, dragging broken sticks along towards the hills. The hills laid in the sun, the grassy hills looked oddly sinister in the sun, the five hills towered over the soldiers as they wandered towards them. They never seemed to shrink in size, the hills still loomed over us. Some of the soldiers properly imagined the possible thousands of invisible orks waiting for them to go onto the hills. One might have imagined that the orks covered the hills like a deadly blanket, waiting for them to step on them until they formed around them as if they were a germ.

I imagined them sitting by the field and the orks charging down the hill, unseen to anyone until the first throat was slit and the blood lighted up the ork's face.

As they reached the edge of the water, I tapped my watch. The gyroscope spat out a number; we were finally two kilometers away. My fellow soldiers sat down for a moment, laying down their arms.

"Anyone need a rest?" I said, looking over them.

All The soldiers nodded. I turned to the Caged, seeing them stand tall with their blackened spears. I looked over their bodies, my brain fired up memories of things I had learned. I imagined them as strange historical warriors that seemed incredibly out of place. One of the Caged looked over at me and, with a smug grin, held his spear out to me.

"You want it?"

I cocked an eyebrow. "I'm good, thanks."

The Caged shrugged with a chuckle.

the Tools sat down, laying their lasguns on the floor. Some peeled off their pockets to reveal packets of food. They tore open the top, letting the stink of healthy food bars drift into the air. I grimaced at the smell, memories filled my vision as I remembered every other time I had smelled that. For a moment, one thought rushed through my head; they seriously like feeding us horseshit.

That thought played through my mind before ripping into his my own pocket to get the protein bar. Sitting down, I pulled out the grey metal tube, filled with a bar of mystery oats. I tore pieces of snacked on it as I stared over at the grassy hills. On top of one was a large tree, it stood almost a mile high. It's leaves spread out thick long ropes that touched the ground. The tree was sturdy, yet out of place.

I swallowed down the last pieces of the oats and took my lasgun, sticking it under my armpit. Apathetic and cross-legged, I swung my barrel over towards the tree and squeezed the trigger. The laser collided with the leaves and embers quickly burst like an angle grinder sparks. The tree quickly set ablaze, burning down into a misshapen mess of branches that stuck out like daggers. The leaves burned inwards towards the center of the tree. As the leaves peeled away, skewered flesh appeared along the daggers of the trunk.

Corpses started to burn, the leaves quickly burned up, leaving the branches covered in cooking corpses that burned as their flesh sparked with flames. Quickly, their flesh peeled off as their limbs dropped to the floor as the inferno cooked their dead flesh. Fumes started to spew out of the top of the tree, filling the air with a smell that filled my mind with images of a barbecue being cooked in acid. The soldiers slowly rose to their feet, standing at attention as they saw the sight.

A leafless tree and its branches of which skewered their allies. They were burning like pork candles.

I froze for a moment, staring up at the violent display. My mind flickered with thoughts, ideas and nightmares about the tree as the corpses slowly smoked away the flames that licked at their now bald heads and jet-black skin. Soon, the landscape was quiet. A leg fell from the tree, thudding against the floor like a pin dropping in the quietest room in the universe.

"Sir? What do we... do?" A Tool turned to me.

I looked away from the tree, to see all of them staring, the Caged stood there. They all waiting for orders as they held their weapons ready. I held my rifle under my arm, rubbing my thumb and finger together to let me think.

"We -" I began. I froze for a split second, feeling my pose, then I puffed out his chest and stood taller. "We are going to take that hill and see what is on the other side. We will not let our allies die."

A cheer was raised among the Tools, almost like it was a graduation party. With a smile, I started waving for them to charge up the hill. The Tools started to sprint, sprinting so quickly it looked as if their feet never touched the ground. I saw their faces, seeing their faces a mix of guilt and misery. As the last Tool followed the other, I turned to the Caged, standing their solemnly.

"Look, you guys," I spoke to the mass of metal-clad men, "I know you have some odd thing going on like you don't wanna be here or you would rather be somewhere else. I have one thing to say; stop acting like goddamn teenagers. We have a goddamn planet to take back and all of you are muttering, being mopey and generally acting like you wish you were being tortured or something. I have one request. One. Storm that goddamn hill and use those spears you made to kill whatever is on or over that hill. Got it?"

The Caged moved back, recoiling away. I thought for a moment, I was a singular man in front of them, short to add to the intimidation, yet I still made them recoil with my shouting. One of the Caged muttered something to another.

I felt my eyes widened in anger for a short moment. "Your very goddamn atoms are made from the explosion of a star. Your body is made up of thousands of elements, all came from the chaotic explosion of a possible few thousand stars. Your soul is driving a skeleton, clad in metal and flesh. A skeleton that pillages through space. What the hell do you have to fear? What the hell gives you the right to stand there, muttering?. You will charge that hill."

The Caged forced their legs together and raised their hands in a salute, tapping their helmets with their metal hands. After a moment of the tribute, the Caged followed the Tools and they ran. The metal boots caused the ground to pump and shake, like small tremors as they chased the Tools up the hill. I sprinted behind them, keeping my head down. The Tools went to the top of the hill and went down to their belt buckles, aiming over the flat land on the other side. The Caged stood behind them, spears at the ready.

As I ran, I started to hear the sounds of clashing metal, explosions and screaming. They only grew louder as I reached the top of the hill. As I reached the top of the hill, standing with the Caged, I finally saw it. The area was large, clear flatlands with sparse boulders and a forest on the other side.

The Scavengers ran around the flat lands, shooting at the orks. The Purifiers attempted to destroy them with flames and grenades as they were herded like sheep. The orks fought back, spears jutting out of hundreds of human corpses they littered the floor. Arrows flew from ork bows, landing in the throats of Purifiers and Scavengers a-like. A well-thrown stone hatchet sliced through a Purifier's neck, making him fall back. A grenade flew in the air from the bleeding corpse, raining down shrapnel on the battle. The orks quickly broke through the shoddy defenses, breaking the lines quickly. They ran through the Scavengers, slicing along their hips and ankles. The green menaces threw themselves at the humans, dropping them as they hacked them to pieces with stone weapons. As the circular defense was pushed back, from the center of the orks, a hail of arrows flew up. Quickly, they spun in the air and plummeted to the ground. For a short second, they blotted out the sun. They drove into the spines, heads and arms of the humans. Arrow-ridden corpses dropped to the floor as others screamed in pain, clutching the arrows stuck in their limbs.

The soldiers looked over towards me, looking for an answer. I breathed for a moment, feeling the very air become tainted. I felt my legs buckle, walking backwards a few steps.

"We have to destroy this place. We can't fight this many, we have to get rid of it." I found muttering towards the soldiers.

One of the Caged murmured for a moment before grabbing the power pack of his back. With a thrust, he planted it into the ground, the back of it slightly jiggling. The Caged grabbed the front and, digging in his fingers, pulled it off slowly. The pack was packed with three red canisters with handles, next to the bombs was a phone receiver. The Caged grabbed the phone, pulling it out. The Caged reached out an arm, grabbing me by the wrist and pulling me over. As the phone rang muffled, the Caged tapped my watch. The gyroscope flew up and, on one of the holographic strips, was the coordinates.

Finally, the ringing clicked and a voice was muffled on the other side. "We need mortar support, I repeat, we need mortar support," the armoured warrior shouted in the phone, telling them our coordinates, "I need you to blow this place into the atmosphere, too many orks to handle, an entire forest of them. I repeat, pound this place to dust."

The Caged smirked for a moment and put the phone back in it's holder, fixed the metal back into place, and threw the pack back on it's holder. The brute looked over at me, nodding.

"Okay, men." I waved them over like they were children. "We are going down there -" I pointed down the hill. "- and we are going to run like we have never run before because this place is going to be nuked to hell."

They looked at me as if they told me we were going to rip out the stomachs of their own mothers.

I pointed down the hill again. "I know what you are thinking." I saw one looking over the edge, seeing them die. I could steal hear their screams. "You are thinking this is insane, that we should help them. We should try to help them survive." I felt my mind fill with morals, hurting it like a taser. "This is the only way. We cannot try to save them. We must complete what we started. Go."

Both squadrons started to jog down the hill, I could see the emotional weight on their shoulders. They started to sprint as the weight slipped from their muscles to their minds. I looked over the hill again, seeing them. Mass piles of arrow-filled corpses, orks destroying the living.

"I am sorry."

I started to run down the hill. My emotional weight holding me down, like carrying a dying man, feeling him whisper in your ear about how he is going to die no matter what you do. It was that except the man weighed a thousand pounds and crushed my bones as if they were made of glass. I sprinted, feeling the weight grow. The screams died down as the emotional weight piled on, filling my mind with whispers.

The sound came. A noise that was like hearing an oncoming storm through a whistle. As I ran, the sky was cut in half by a shell, rushing through the clouds as it blackened the skies with its own. I saw my soldiers, sitting by the trees as they stared at the hill. I fell into them, lying down in the under grass as my muscles quickly burrowed into my skeleton, trying to find energy. The pain was too great but I managed to pull myself to a nearby tree, resting my back on it.

The shell disappeared behind the tree, now blackened, like the meat that was skewered onto it. For a moment, the jet of fire looked as if the planet had a thruster. The tree flew into the sky, following the winds of the jet. The corpses flew away, like they were being spat out of a tornado. A great plume of flames spewed upwards like a geyser that used the evil of man as its fuel. It burned brightly, spewing up. I imagined the planet plummeting into its moon, the oceans digging into the stone sattelite as fires cascaded over the greenery, burning it to shreds. The grass of the hills burned, the fire spread as it raced down the hill. Quick licks of fire burned through the crash like snakes.

The solid pillar of flames lasted for only a few seconds. Soon, smoke started to pour from the hill, as black as space. I got up, feeling my legs fill with stone. My men remained behind, their eyes like that of mirrors. Unthinking. Unfeeling. Removed from reality. Slowly, I made my single march towards the burned hill, some flames licked at my boots before turning to smoke. The weight of their eyes, burrowing like diseased worms into my back. Their pupils spewed their viruses, filling my spine with the crushing symptoms of pressure, judgement, and social punishment. My boots extinguished a small grass fire. I gulped as my boots touched the first angle of the hill, I felt my foot burn with the iron weight on my spine.

I slowly wandered up the hill, feeling my muscles cling to my skeleton. With the speed of snail, I trudged up the hill and, finally, after what felt like centurie, stood on the top of the hill. Looking down, I saw the flat lands were no longer flat. The shrapnel dug into the Earth, making it seem like a moon had been painted black. The ground was covered in what looked like burned weeds but my brain told me the right answer; burned guts, half buried into the blackened ground. The forest had been burned, the fires no longer burning as trees miles away were snapped in the middle. At my feet, I heard something, a gurgle almost.

Moving my boot, looking at the ground, I saw a man. Half a man. He crawled towards me, his face blackened and half of it gone. His single eye stared up at me blindly. With a slow grind of burned skin, he reached his arm up to me, grabbing at my leg.

I could have been choking. I could breathe fine but I felt as if my throat was filled. My eyes leaked as my breaths were cut short from my throat, making me sputter as tears streamed down my face. I couldn't cry quietly. I tried to aim my gun at him but the barrel felt as if it weighed as much as the sun itself. He grabbed a hold of my leg and I crouched down, as if I was going to support him. Slowly, he climbed up my leg and rested his forehead on mine. I could feel the burning pork of his flesh peel on my forehead.

Slowly, he whispered. "Thank you." His voice was like it was being forced through flesh torn by a thousand glass pieces poured down into his stomach.

Slowly, I pushed the gun into his neck. I visualised him as I closed my eyes, cutting off my tears as I felt their wetness. Twitching the barrel, I aimed, feeling around for his spinal cord. I squeezed the trigger, feeling the liquid splatter onto my face and chest. Slowly, I breathed in as the corpse pulled itself away, falling down the hill as I heard splatter like a gorey cartwheel.

I slowly got up. I turned.

I walked down the hill towards my fellow soldiers.

The rest of the day was a blur. I trudged along with my fellow soldiers, yet nothing happened. Nothing ran from the trees to slaughter us, nothing tried to steal us away from our group, and nothing shot at us. Our squad circled through under brush, around trees as large as towers, caves that were dark as night, yet nothing dared come from them. Nothing came from any of them, we were left alone. The only sounds were the swaying of the leaves, the grass and some insect buzzing in the distant. At the sound of insects, the squad launched back as if an ork had lunged at them with a blade.

Soon, a low hum came from one of the Caged. A heavy hum, tuneless, soon took over the entire group. I was the last to join but I felt my heart grow as the hum rattled my throat. Soon, one of my fellow Tools started to beat the tune to the song on his lasgun as the barrel rested on his shoulder. A few seconds later, all of us had our lasguns over our shoulders and we all beat the same tune in perfect harmony. We could hear the echo from almost a mile away, yet we didn't care. I looked, seeing everyone with a smile on their face, everyone waiting for someone else to start the song.

With a grin, I belted out the first word. "We -" I paused for a moment, seeing everyone's hum rise up. "- fought -" and everyone joined in on that word, a heavy booming of the voice and the song started.

"- till our deaths today,

Breaking their little brains,

We held them until doomsday,

We threw off our bloodied chains,

and free we will shall be someday."

The song rattled through the trees, the heavy wind of our voices echoing through the underbrush. I sang with all my lungs, trying to ward away the thoughts smacking against my head. Eventually, the song slowly died away, leaving me to belt out the final line as we crossed the under brush. We went through the clearing, seeing the ship dominate the skyline. With a grunt, we stood, staring at the Bears. One of them casually lowered a missile launcher with a laugh.

"Almost blew you back to Terra. Sorry." He said with a hearty chuckle.

I shook off the nerves from his missile launcher, walking past him with a scowl.

He grunts behind me, I hear him mutter an insult against me. With a flash of anger, I turn on my heels, staring towards him. He stood there, a smirk across his face. My fellow troops stood to my left, frozen in their march. I took a step forward. The soldiers moved back. I dropped my gun to the floor, threw my fist backwards and threw it towards his head. My knuckles connected with his jaw. He scrunched his face before letting a few teeth fly from his mouth. With a grimace, he stared at me.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" He dropped his launcher onto the grass. He raised his fists, almost like a boxer.

I follow his lead. "My name is Cato."

"Your name will be cock sucker when I break every muscle in your body except your mouth."

I threw my fist to connect with his throat. He dashed his arm in front of him, blocking my fist. With a grunt, I bend my knee to my gut and launch the sole of my boot towards his stomach. The foot rammed into his guts, causing him to arch forward, removing his defences. I bring my foot back and, with a uppercut, struck him in the face. I moved back, waiting for him but instead he grabbed his launcher and walked over towards the ship, muttering.

Reaching down, I grabbed my own weapon and put it on my chest. I breathed in slowly. I turned to my fellow soldiers and stood at attention.

"Men," they snapped to attention, following my lead, "every man mark one of the Bears, we will defend the ship with them."

"Sir, yes, sir." They shouted and they went to stand by one of their brethren.

Standing for a moment, I saw The Tools stand at lascannons. Five lasguns aimed down the barrel of a lascannon. The Caged stood by anyone who would let them, some Bears however told them to move away from them. I stood at the edge of the clearing, seeing a small army slowly form together.

They stood at attention, waiting in the silence. The sun slowly shifted across the sky and, when The Scavengers came, had finally settled near the end of the world. The scrawny men slowly appeared from the trees, followed by the larger Purifiers. They looked like a rising army as they marched towards us. Out of the trees came one Purifier, dragging along a corpse after him. The body wasn't human. It looked like a human sized insect, painted completely black. It was dragged unceremoniously across the burned ground, its head smacking against the burned ground.

They reached the top of the hill and, with a heavy thud, the Purifier threw the insect down onto the ground. Its head twisted, its eyes staring up to the sky as its limbs pointed in every direction.

I stared at it for a moment. A Bear standing behind me grunted.

"Vespid." The Bear muttered loudly.

I raise an eyebrow and take a step towards the dead bug, trying to get a better look. Its eyes were like grids, six eyes bolted into its black plates. Red retinas stared out into nothing, no speculation behind those eyes. Its wings folded, like crinkled paper. The thing was dead. Its limbs were broken as they curled around its back like a dead spider.

One Scavenger walked over towards it and, with a swift kick of his boot, smacked it in the head. The neck cracked sickly, as the head twisted to one side, its cheek to the ground. For a moment, I stared at this thing before I heard the crackle of the speakers.

"What is that?" The booming voice of Ulrichus shouted out of the ship.

One of the Purifiers cleared his throat, standing to attention. "We found a bug, sir."

"Fool, that is no bug. That is a vespid, members of the Tau empire. Infected is the air whereupon they fly, and damned all those that dare trust them, They are peasants of the universe and, for that, the emperor shall tread upon their heads or wear their bodies upon his sword. Where did you find this specimen?"

The Purifier looked at the ground, scuffing his feet against the dirt. "We found it in the woods, it was talking to a bunch of orks. We shot it before we could figure out what it was saying."

A murmur came over the speakers. "Talking to orks? Explain further. This intrigues me."

"Well, sir, he seemed to be teaching the orks something. He seemed to stand over them and bark orders. Some of them bowed to him."

"Bow? What? Did he believe him to be holy?"

"Sir, I think the orks believed that."

A grumble sounded from the speakers. "Good work, I hope this was the only one that dared come to this planet."

Every Scavenger and Purifier snapped to attention, saluting in unison. "Sir, yes, sir!"

The speakers cut out with an audible crack. Slowly, people started to walk towards the centre of the clearing, forming the rectangle. As I morphed in a squad of Tools, I turned to see the Purifier who had just spoke standing next to me. White, short hair awkwardly hangs over a long, friendly face. Dead grey eyes, set gracefully within their sockets, watch wearily over the burned hills. Scars covered his face like a hundred silvery pink worms. For a moment, he met my eyes. His star was a limp, blank, unfocused gaze that stretched into my soul.

He gave a pained smirk. "Do you want to know my name or just stare into my pretty eyes for an hour?" His voice was deep, almost booming. His words made my eardrums shake slightly.

I replied with a similar smirk. "A name would be nice. I would like to know what to put on the paper tombstone."

"My name is Osric. You are Cato. In a minute, you'll hear Leuter."

"Who is -"

A scream came from over from one of the Scavenger squads. "Hey, Osric. Have you made a new friend?" His voice was like The Warden's except it replaced the politeness with antagonistic nature. It was the Warden's accent except it was rough around the edges.

With a smirk, I looked back to Osric. "I assume that's Leuter."

"Either that's Leuter or it's someone who thinks he's Leuter."

"How many Scavengers think they are the original Leuter?"

"To be honest, Scavengers probably think the first word they spoke is their name. They are that braindead." Osric tapped his forehead, a smile

"How brain dead do you think Scavengers are?"

"I saw a Scavenger charge headfirst, trying to grab an Ork and tear off its fur... all the while? A hundred others were throwing spears and shooting arrows." Osric cracked his neck, smiling.

I winched my eye with confusion. "Why was he trying to get at the Ork?"

He turned, looking at me like I said the sky was red. "He wanted to have relations with the corpse."

"What happened to him?"

Osric patted his launcher barrel, grinning his yellow teeth. "I think trying to bed a greenskin is technically fraternising with Xenos. I turned that Scavenger into mince meat."

I gave a chuckle. "Well, I hope that Scavenger doesn't end up in our MREs."

"Yeah, I have to admit, I hope I don't see the package reading," his finger stroked along his palm, as if he was reading, "'mince meat with mystery sauce'."

I bit my bottom lip, stifling a laugh. "Yeah, good point. Well..." over my gun, I stuck out my hand, "pleasure to meet you."

Osric paused for a moment before grasping my head, tightening it like a vice. "The pleasure was all mine. I hope we get to kill together some day."

"Sounds like a good time to me."

The alarm sounded, muffled by the heavy door. A hiss of air came as the door slowly fell towards the ground, pushing the ramp into the planet surface. The alarm froze as the ramp crumbled with a mechanical sigh.

Slowly, the rectangle turned on their heels, facing the ship. We marched towards the ramp. The heavy rhythm of footfall made a heavy tune as we continued towards our cells. I looked over to my left, seeing Osric speaking to someone hidden by his heavy body. I heard the muffled talkings of the man behind him, it was obviously Leuter. His rough voice cackled with strange awkwardness and patterns. I couldn't help but smile. As we got to the centre of the cargo hold, the rectangle froze, standing at attention. The cell door opened and we entered them. As I walked over towards my Tool cell, I saw that Osric walked on my left and Leuter walked on my right. I only knew it was him as he tried to speak to me and I recognised his ways. He had large eyes the color of dirt. His neck-length brown hair was fleecy and tattered. With his back bent over, he looked short yet, if he stood up straight, he could be taller than most men.

I smiled at him, nodding, as I entered my cell. He still spoke as if I was listening to him. Quickly, I grabbed my bunk. With my back to the wall, I listened to the echoes of the Purifier cell. For a moment, I heard a knocking on the wall. There was a heavy knock, a short pause, a light tap, a heavy knock, then another pause, after that, there was two light taps and a heavy knock. I winced, trying to figure out what the knocks meant. Then a moment later, I forgot about it, focusing on the wall on the other side of the cell. I counted my breaths until my body relaxed, my eyelids shut heavily as my mind drifted off to sleep.

The sound of laser fire woke me up. As my eyes flashed open, the cargo hold was awash with blue light before the cells disappeared back into darkness. Quickly, I got up and rushed to the bars, looking out to the cargo hold. In the darkness, there were dim lights. The energy cells glowed with a dim blue light. Bathed in blue was orange armour that stretched over something's body and face. Two red circles broke through the dim blue as a single metal ear stretched back into the darkness. My eyes adjusted to the darkness, I saw three of the same warriors standing there in the dim blue light. Above their heads, a small, round drone hovered. Two boxy carbines stuck underneath the drone, fastened tight to it. For a moment, the drone swiveled, the guns pointed at a random cell. The drone swung again, staring at another cell. Its soulless eye stared, twisting around.

The three warriors turned to the first cell, walking over towards it, the drone slowly falling behind. I heard the cells next to me quietly shudder with movement, I imagined Leuter and Osric grabbing the bars of their cells. The Tau soldiers paused for a moment, then one of them aimed their carbines in between the bars. The boxy rifle froze for a moment before launching a cylinder into the cell. The small room exploded with a heavy combustion, as white light was thrown out of it. The effect was like shining a light in a mole's eyes. Blinding.

Quickly, I pulled away from the bars, covering my eyes. My retinas burned as I heard the plasma crash against the cell walls, against bunk beds, against flesh, against armour. As my vision slowly turned from white back to reality, I heard their screams as their armour melt into their flesh. Those screams lasted less than a second before they were cut short by death itself. Rolling away from the wall, I stared out into the cargo hold. No one had woken up. The drone hovered over towards the next cell and the dim blue grew. Slowly, I pulled my gun from my hip and aimed it slowly towards the drone. The metal of the barrel scraped, with a whine, against the bars. I aimed down the sights and let out a small breath. I squeezed the trigger, but before I could fire, a grenade burst from Osric's cell and flew through the air, the tip smacking into the back of the drone.

For a split second, the world froze. The droid was tilted off course, the grenade tip crumbled in its back, the three soldiers stood still. The air combusted, sending out gas that was soon to be fire. The drone smacked against the bars as the soldiers were engulfed in flames. The drone fell to the floor as its lights died. The three warriors were thrown against the floor, their orange armour now charred black. The alarm sounded, the lights exploded on, and shoutings erupted from the cells. The three soldiers didn't move, the drone was dead.

I looked over towards the wall. I cleared my throat, lowering my gun.

"Nice shooting, Osric." I muttered, my face cracking into a smile.

"Thanks, Cato, I'm surprised the badass Tool didn't do that himself."

"If I had a grenade, I probably could have done that."

"Of course you could have."

"Hey, fellas!" Leuter piped up, smacking against his bars. "The Tau are here! We are gonna be having some fun with fire!"

Before we could respond to the crazed Scavenger, the speakers crackled.

"Gentlemen!" The Warden's voice boomed throughout the cargo hold, silencing every prisoner. ""Who killed the bug yesterday? Because whoever did, I want you to know, you have a whole lot of work to do! The Tau empire are on this planet. They convert species to their will, they will break your soul and convert you to their ways. They have no honour. They are weak. They may be weak but their technology is not. They can turn a planet from a forested landscape to a blackened husk. Prepare for war, gentlemen. We will win."

The microphone cut out and the cell doors popped slowly open. From a catwalk, one of the guards shouted.

"Cato, Osric, Leuter!" We all stepped out of our cells alone, staring up at the guard. "You are being made into a squad of your own, given your skills. You will be accompanied by one of The Bears! His name is Bogdan." One of the Bears slowly came out of his cell.

He had a shaved head, the same as all the others. No hair, no eyebrows, no beard. He looked as if he was carved from metal then dragged through a thousand miles of forests. His body was covered in scars. Across his back was his launcher, across his belt was rockets, and on his shirt was blood stains. Slowly, he walked from his cell down the metal stairs. He towered over us, he was like a giant. The heavy prism door slowly opened, the whirring sounded like cannons. The cargo hold was empty except for the four of us. Leuter stood and whispered, giggling, that we were on a suicide mission. The door finally touched the ground and we walked together, out into the clearing. The guard shouted, his voice echoing down the cargo hold.

"Your job is to find the Tau base and destroy it completely."

I nodded and started to the burned underbrush. The burned grass crunched under my boots. The landscape spanned for miles as the ship disappeared from sight. The trees covered our journey, the sounds of our boots covered our ears, and the lack of danger clouded our minds. As we walked, nothing came to attack us. No Ork jumped from the trees, no native animal screamed out of a burrow, it was completely silent. We walked in silence.

As the woods around us grew, the trees pressing up against us, there was still no sign of an attacker. Slowly, as we stepped into the deepest depths of the woods, Leuter slipped his laspistol out of his tattered jacket. WIth a slow push, he pulled his hair away from his face, letting it slide onto his back. I pulled my hand away from my gun, pausing the others. The pistol twisted around the trees. In between the branches, the barrel sought for a target.

Finally, the twitching froze. Leuter placed one of his eyelids down and squeezed the trigger. As the shot flew, it smacked with a wet thud against something. From a nearby branch, an orange headset, charred down the middle, fell into the clearing. Barrels quickly pointed to the trees.

"Show yourself." Bogdan shouted, his eye shivered with excitement as it stared down the launcher sight.

From the branch, a small face appeared. A human face, his ear slightly burned.

"Oh, seriously?" Osric muttered under his breath, the grenade launcher dropping to his chest in frustration.

"What? What is it?" I whispered over to him, keeping my barrel aimed at the head.

"It's a man. One of the idiots that went over to the Tau." Osric aimed at the tree.

"Sir," Leuter shouted, waltzing over towards the tree casually, "can you answer me a few questions?" He smiled, jutting his hip to the side.

"What is it?" The man bellowed, pinning his chest to the tree.

"Have you seen your friends die?" Leuter questioned, aiming his pistol lazily towards the branch.

The man froze for a moment, doubt seeping into his eyes. "Yes."

"Did they suffer?"

"Yes."

"You'll be with them soon."

Leuter snapped the barrled towards the man and fired. The laser struck him in the jaw, sending him tumbling off of the branch to hit the ground with a heavy thud. The crazy man spun the gun around his finger before slotting it back into his tattered jacket.

"What the -?" Bogdan murmured, looking over at me and Osric.

Osric, casually, slotted the launcher back onto his back. "It's what he does."

"What does that mean?" Bogdan raised his voice, walking over to Osric.

Leuter, paying no attention, stretched his toes to see the dead body. I stared at the Scavenger, seeing his odd morbid curosity. It made me twitch with anger.

Osric leaned towards Bogdan with a smile. "Leuter isn't a cannibal, he's a torturer."

Bogdan tilted his head, staring over at Leuter, surprised. "Tortured who?"

Osric opened his mouth before shutting it, thinking better of himself. "You don't want to know." Osric walked over to Leuter, grabbing him by the shoulder like they were longtime friends. They shared a smile before they walked deeper into the woods.

I turned to Bogdan with a grimace. He nodded towards the others and I replied with the same, we started to follow them deeper into the woods. No other humans came to meet us, I can't tell if I am glad or unnerved by that fact.

The woods enveloped us again, our guns aimed at the branches. Every twist of a branch was met with us halting, staring at it for a moment. I felt my heart lurch with every scuff of the boots. A branch broke. I spun around, aiming towards it. A cloth-clad face stared back at me, an orange helmet holding down the tattered material. I squeezed the trigger. A laser jolted forward, flying through the air where the head used to be.

"Did anyone else see that?" I shouted over my shoulder. I heard agreeing grunts behind me. "Bogdan, what do you think we should do?"

From the corner of my eye, I saw Bogdan crouch down on one knee, the missile-loaded pipe on his shoulder. "Cover your ears." The missile flew through the air, screaming like a thousand banshees. sparks fizzled as the missile smacked against a branch. The flames sputtered for a moment, letting the rocket spin through the air like a tossed bottle. Quickly bursting back to the life, the missile fired straight upwards, flying towards the sky. It exploded above the trees.

The sound of a thousand metal pieces stabbing into trees and ground sounded. One wet gouge and a scream sounded behind the tree. A dirtied hand grasped the side of the tree, gritted teeth muffled heavy breathing. Leuter smiled and, with a casual flick, he aimed down his sights. Squeezing the trigger, a burst of light flew through the air. Piercing through his fingers, the light disappeared. The charred tips of fingers slapped down onto the ground with soft bounces. The man bellowed out with a heavy scream.

"Zog," he shouted from behind the tree, "what do you think you're doing?" The gruff voice muttered through gritted teeth.

Osric raised an eyebrow. "Why do you speak with a xeno tongue?"

"You learn it after being here for years."

"Years? What have you been doing? You are already a Tau heretic, you now talk in an Ork tongue? You are disloyal to your own species." Osric grunted, raising his grenade launcher.

A heavy, throaty groan sounded from behind the tree. "Have you not learned what we are doing yet? The Imperium of Man is still as mentally stilted as a hairy squig."

"Spin any more heritical driffle with your forked tongue and your body will be turned to mulch for the local maggots." Bodgdan shouted, smacking his launcher on the ground as if it was a war drum.

"Oh, for the love of - why are your kind always so picky about word choice?" He muttered sarcastically, breathing through his gritted teeth.

Osric looked over at me, raising an eyebrow. "For the love of the emperor, tell us what your kind is doing on this planet!"

"Burn in whatever fire you believe in."

Osiric raised his launcher, the barrel lining up with one of the high up branches. "You burn first."

A grenade flew from the barrel. Spinning through the air, it struck the branch, scattering it into shrapnel with a heavy boom. Metal and wood flew down from the sky. There was the heavy cracks of wood. Branches, with slow drags, pulled away from the trunk like spider legs. As the ringing stopped in my ears, I could hear the gurgling of the man. A low guttural, wet groan. A body fell from the tree, smacking into the heavy ground. His gurgling slowly died off as we all stood, holding our weapons at our hips.

As they slowly faded away, we started to walk back into the woods. Slowly, Leuter started to straighten his back.

"How many of these people do you think are in the woods?" Leuter said, tapping his pistol against his thigh.

"We've seen two -" I raised two fingers, scratching the back of my head "- and like insects, if you see two, there could be thousands of them crawling around."

Osric clicked his back with a heavy snap. "Insects?"

My brain clicked with a mechanical stutter. "Well, Xenos and insects are similar."

Bogdan slung his launcher over his back. "Xenos are worse than insects."

"Why do you say that?" I turned to look at him, Osric and Leuter taking my lead.

Bodgan, with a smile, tapped his temple. "Xenos have the ability to think, insects don't. Xenos kill for fun, insects kill for survival. Something that can think, yet still kills for some sick entertainment? Worse than the spider that eats a fly for survival."

I stroked my chin, mulling over his idea. Leuter piped up before I could. "Xenos may be able to think, but the ability to think doesn't make someone smart. Some scavenger back at the cells, only got a quarter of his brain left. All he can say is Ork, squeeze his trigger finger, yet he shakes and foams at the mouth while he moves his finger. Fella got taken to the other prism around a week ago."

Osric looked over at Leuter, squeezing his eyes in confusion. "So, what's your point?"

"My point is being able to think doesn't make you smart."

"I have to admit," I raised my voice, smiling to myself, "it would be a lot easier to find these orks if all they could do was say their own name."

"We can always dream." Leuter said, smiling with a toothy grin.

"Yes, Leuter, yes we can."

Eventually, the trees thinned out, a hill slowly appeared from the space between the trees. Leuter shouted with joy, jumping in the air, as he charged from the treeline. He sprinted through a gap between two trees as the rest of us looked at each other. I started to jog after him, wondering what got into him. I could hear the heavy boots behind me, stamping down. Leuter dived down on his stomach. As I broke the tree line, he stared over the grass blades on top of the hill. I joined him and looked over the hill when Osric and Bogdan did the same.

In the bottom of the hole, there was domed buildings, some tipped with a single ear, similar to the Tau drones. From the doorways, some orange clad humanoids wandered. They wandered in and out of buildings, silently talking to one another. A singular path ran into the centre of the small village, a small post building breaking up the path, and the path ends at a flagpost. The flag flew a strange symbol, the symbol of the Tau empire.

Leuter, next to my ear, slowly slipped his laspistol by his head. With a free hand, I clasped the barrel with my hand. I shook my head.

I turned my head back to the village. A small parade of orks wandered from the path, wearing their tribal garbs. At the small building, an orange clad warrior exited from the building. On his shoulders, there was a poncho made of tribal furs, smearing blood on his orange armour. With his red eyes, he stared at the orks who were waiting patiently at the edge of the building. The soldier pointed a boxy shotgun at the orks, signalling them to strip out of their furs. With an edge of objection, they pulled away their garbs, tossing them quickly through the door. The guard disappeared back into the small building.

Bogdan tapped his launcher, nodding at Osric who replied with the same. The now-bare orks wandered into the town and, as they wandered, orange helmets peered out of buildings, staring at them like they were walking meat. The green hunchbacks stood by the flagpole as droves of armoured things walked out, heading towards the centre. Groups of them took orks by the wrist, dragging them away into the dens. They didn't seem to resist, being dragged along like stuffed dolls. The armoured things disappeared back into their dens, dragging the orks along with them. The village slowly dimmed to silence again.

"Any ideas on how we are meant to destroy this?" Osric asked, turning to me.

"Well -" I pointed a finger at the guard outpost, "- the soldier in there is the only one we have seen with a weapon."

Bogdan raised his launcher towards me, nodding his head forward to suggest him using it. A smile slowly creeped across his face.

I passed for a moment. "That'll do."

He placed the barrel on top of the hill, rotating it towards the den. The sight lined up with the building and he slowly squeezed the trigger. Over the quiet town, a heavy boom erupted as the missile sailed through the air. A singular helmeted figure poked their head out of their den. Their glassed eyes lit up with a reflection of the flames. The outpost rocketed up in flames, debris flying out in a sphere. The pieces soon rained down. Pieces fell onto the other buildings, smacking into them like dulled arrows. I gave a small smile as a heavy rock collapsed one of the dens, dropping the roof into darkness.

Bogdan held up a hand, I slapped it quickly. Armoured things quickly ran out of the other dens as I stood on the hill. The things looked over at the outpost building, as I aimed down my gun. I squeezed the trigger. A laser flew through the air, as they turned to the sound. The laser struck in one of the thing's eyes. The shot shattered his helmet into pieces, throwing their memories of childhood and family over the dirt. The armoured things quickly panicked, running around each other as they tried to scatter into buildings.

I smirked and shouted over my shoulder. "They don't have any weapons. Mow these xenos down."

The three of them sprang up, firing into the crowds that tried to scatter into the different dens. Grenades flew from the sky, soon exploding, throwing corpses around like ragdolls. Orange dens were soon painted with red smears. Limbs were thrown, landing on the den roofs like ornaments. A rocket flew, speeding towards one of the dens. The explosion threw pieces of rubble across the village, smacking into parts of the panicking crowd. One of them was trapped under the rock. As the den fell away, sunlight fell on a titanic, moss-covered rectangle of metal. It was painted white, yet dirted with wreckage and covered in green crowds finally hid themselves in their dens.

A heavy drone spilled out from underneath the ground. The metal piece vibrated heavily as it shuddered away the dirt. Slowly, it raised out of the ground, throwing dirt off of it. A small red head, the size of a prison cell, appeared. It slowly turned, creaking like thousand of clock gears turning. The body spun slowly, as a white cannon slowly tilted upwards. The barrel's rifling was large enough that you could send a spare tire down it.

"Get down." I shouted, running and dropping down behind the hill. I threw my hands around my head as my gun slapped on my lap. The other three did the same. A quick bang threw my ears into ringing as a heavy blue pulse exploded through a part of the hill. The plasma beam took a hole out of the hill as it disappeared into the distance, the hole collapsed, tumbling dirt down the hill.

I looked at the other three then over at the hole. "Does anyone want to check if that thing is going to fire again?"

Leuter, without a word of protest, quickly went from prone to crouching. I looked over at him, squinting my eyes as I wondered what he was doing. Placing his hands onto the earth, he braced his knees and jumped into the air. A grin stretched across his face as he reached the top of his jump height. A small laser whizzed where Leuter had jumped, flying off into the clouds.

Leuter held up his finger. "That wasn't the big shoulder thingie-ma-jig on his shoulder, that was some burst cannon thing."

A heavy boom smacked down, creaking mechanically. Another sounded louder. The sounds kept marching over towards the hill, yet it was slow like clockwork.

I turned over to Leuter. "What else does it have?"

He lifted his fingers, counting on them. "Flamethrowers, those burst canoon things, some self-propelled-looking missile thing, some mortar thing," Leuter smacked his shoulder blade, "these other big missile things, and teeny tiny little rocket things."

Osric squinted for a moment before his eyes filled with panick. "Did you just say 'mortar thing'?"

Leuter nodded, his eyes following Osric's lead for a moment.

"Oh, by the Emperor." I stood up, hiding my head behind the hill. I looked over at them. "If we get under that thing, we'll be safe."

Bogdan winced. "Are you telling me we have to charge this machine?"

"Yes... we must."

"Okay, we will. Wait until my signal." Bogdan said, slowly getting up from his position. His launcher was heavily pulled onto his shoulder.

Osric and Leuter joined me in my running stance. I breathed for a moment, letting out a long breath.

Bogdan ran to the tip of the hill, aimed for only a moment and fired. We threw ourselves over the edge of the hill, charging down the hill as Bogdan followed us, giving chase. The missile flew quickly, smacking into the head of the tank-like armour. The armour lurched backwards as we skidded, finding our footing underneath the machine. The heavy legs of the machine crunched down into the ground as it groaned above us. The torso rotated like a spinning top, the heavy cannon its shoulder aiming downwards, trying to reach us.

Leuter aimed his gun above his head, rapidly pulling his finger up and down against the trigger. Lasers bounced against the underside of the metal, scratching at the metal as sparks rained down onto us. I covered my helmet with my hands. The embers burned into the back of my hands like sunburn. I muttered a few swear words. I looked up. Apart from peeling off some paint, the laser had done nothing.

I looked over at the dens as the mechinical torso kept spinning. From the doorway, a tusked head slowly lurched outwards before the ork was thrown out, an armoured hand disappearing back into the darkness. The green monster was wide-eyed, staring at the legged tank in horror. His eyes settled on us after a moment, the fear turning to rage. It hunched down and ran towards us, barreling like a missile. I quickly shouldered my gun, I aimed down the top of the gun and slowly squezed the trigger. The blue pulse flew through the air before piercing through the ork's eye like a rocket-propelled needle. The ork slammed onto his back dead.

Above me, the heavy machine rotated, staring at the dead body. For a moment it paused, possibly taking in the image of the dead ork. From another darkened den, another was pushed out, stumbling into the path of the machine. I raised my gun again, squeezing the trigger to put the creature out of its misery. It collapsed against the doorframe before it even had the chance to run at us.

"They don't seem to be very courageous, do they?" Leuter said, muttering to us as he tapped his temple with his pistol.

Osiric turned to him, resting his launcher in his shoulder. "Which?"

"The Tau, they are just throwing the orks out like meat to the fishes." Bogdan cut in, Leuter nodded at his answer.

"I would say we are more like sharks." I cut in, smiling.

"Why are we like sharks for?" Leuter piped up, banging the handle of his pistol against the metal leg.

Twitching, I tickled the back of my neck. "Because sharks are more legendary than fish." I slowly raised my rifle, taking aim at the dense metal leg before squeezing the trigger. The metal fizzled for a short moment before turning back to a dull white.

Leuter poked the metal with a blackened finger. "I don't think you can damage this thing." He rubbed his fingers together, flaking dry paint off of his fingers.

Bogdan flexed for a moment, tapping at the watch on his wrist. A hologram shone for a moment, a blocky list appearing above it. The writing flickered but I could read it; 'suicide missile drop'. "Do we want to die like heroes?"

I looked over at Leuter and Osiric, their eyes looked as stone dead as mine felt. For a moment, I froze and I nodded slowly.

Disappearing through the words, Bogdan's finger proped through the box. It flashed for a moment before the hologram disappeared. I breathed through my nose, feeling the air tickle the back of my nose. My shoulder felt like they were being pushed down as I tried to stand tall.

I nodded at the three of them. "These past few days were the best I have seen."

Osiric muttered a reply I didn't quite hear, Leuter nodded solemnly and Bogdan grunted a thank you. Leuter was frozen, his face stuck like a statue; it was the calmest I had ever seen him.

From the distance, there was a soft pop like the poof of a grenade launcher. From the tinest shockwave, I could see branches fly up in the air.

"So," Leuter muttered to no one, "who wants to count?"

No one counted. No one thought that it would be that quick. Only a couple of seconds. It was.

Recorded from dead serviceman cerebrum recorder.