-XXV-

Within the ruins of the outer cluster there was no life. They passed several squadrons of killed guardsmen and some Ork dead as well.

The closer they moved towards the Red River more ruins and bodies they encountered. Previous districts had still resembled the shape of city but these parts were only debris stacked on top of each other.

Even the wide roads were barely traversable, ground cars and trucks were smashed under the collapsing buildings and bodies were burried underneath tons of rockrete.

"This is devastation." said Iulius trying to read any life signs off his auspex.

"How can Ork foot soldiers do this much damage without heavy armour?" asked Julius.

"That's a question I've been wondering myself." answered Achagon.

"Charges and grenades surely." said Horatus dismissing the needless question.

"All the buildings?" pressed Julius then realised the futility of this debate when Horatus' helmet turned towards him in annoyance then back at the front.

"There are no Orks or guardsmen this close to our objective." pointed out Ioras.

Just as they passed through a street they saw an Ork mob moving in the distance.

Achagon raised his scope and eyed the group.

"They're moving fast." observed Julius.

"Yes, they're running away it seems." said Achagon.

"From what?" asked Ioras but he didn't get his answer.

As the Orks were running in the distance a huge explosion enveloped them. The loud noise rippled through the street and the dust of the debris lifted to the air.

"Demo charge." said Horatus realising the distinct sound of the chemical high yield explosives.

Where the Orks were now lay a huge rising dust and smoke cloud, of the Orks there were no sign.

"Someone laid it." said Iulius unnecessarily as if to emphasize the point of them not being alone.

"We are not alone." said Achagon, he looked at the Ioras and dashed off onto high ground when he got an approving nod.

He found a piece of solid rockrete column and crouched next to it, letting it hide the most of his bulk while his sniper barrel scanned the wide area.

There were destroyed furniture all around him and a curtain was moving slowly in the wind, but Achagon was as still as a corpse.

"Horatus, Julius move towards east and turn that corner." voxed Ioras and the two marine moved.

"Iulius, Rexus moved towards the back and take cover there, its a good firing point."

"Fextus, Herean, Cussax. Spread out and take cover, arm bolters."

"Me?" asked Deciaci.

"On me. We are trapped and need to spring it." Ioras said and walked towards the wide clearing.

The explosion had created a crater and threw ripped Ork bodies around. Ioras moved calmly towards the clearing with Deciaci at his heels.

Fextus, Herean and Cussax was taking cover not far while Horatus and Julius was nowhere to be seen.

Ioras came to the middle of the clearing walking over debris. He came to halt at the center.

"Come on out!" he shouted.

His vox shout echoed through the ruined buildings and mounds of dead.

The central was silent for a moment then a figure appeared at the other side of the clearing and came forth.

Man wore a mask that hid his face, it had a single air filter on the left side of his face.

Ioras realised that the man was right handed, when he aimed down the sights the filter didn't got his way.

It was well equipped guardsmen, far better equipped than everything they encountered so far.

He sported a long lasgun, Ioras didn't know every type of lasgun there is but he can clearly see that this one was a hellgun variant.

Hellguns were strong cousins of the casual lasgun carried by the Imperial guardsmen, they carried enough punch to pierce the weak joints and sides of a power armour if aimed well.

Hellguns were a rarity of a battlefield, only being carried by the elite forces of the Imperial guard or the Inquisition.

Meaning this man was an elite force or someone who got really lucky.

"Hey there." said the man raising his empty hand in a friendly manner. Still moving towards Ioras and Deciaci.

"Stop right there." said Deciaci raising his boltgun and aiming at his head.

Ioras did not object to Deciaci's action.

"What's with all this skulking about?" he asked.

Man stopped and lifted his left hand towards the back of his neck calmly. He was composed even when a Space Marine pointed a boltgun at his head at close range.

He grabbed onto the back of his mask and shifted the elastic holders. His mask came free and revealed his face.

"No one is skulking my friend, we are all allies here." man said grinning slightly.

His face was reserved and calm but his eyes was filled with menace.

"You liked the work we did on the Orks?" he said swinging his helmet towards the explosion site.

Ioras observed that the man had his hellgun on a short sling just near the chest. This allowed him to quickly raise and aim the gun, he might not even need the other hand to do so since las-weapons had no recoil. Ioras was not fooled by the man's relaxed pose and friendly talk, if he wanted to shoot at the Space Marines he could probably do it in the blink.

"Who are you?" Ioras asked.

"Maybe I will tell you if your lad there drops the huge pipe he is pointing at me." he said nodding towards Deciaci.

"Stand down, Deciaci." voxed Ioras and Deciaci lowered his weapon slightly to a not-so-friendly angle.

"You Space Marines, always tense and stretched to the limit, eh?" he said.

"Answer my question." said Ioras coldly.

Ioras came to realise that this man was alone at all. His confidence didn't come from an alliance with the Space Marines but rather from a card up his sleeve. His had something in mind but Ioras didn't know what it was.

"Kahrim Shehah, at your service." said Kahrim slightly bowing never losing sight of the marines.

He still had his right hand at the hellgun grip and was keeping it an unpleasant angle towards the marines.

"What regiment are you? I don't recognize your colours." said Ioras.

Kahrim was wearing a perfectly fitting combat gear and fatigues, it was originally black but had quality grey camo on the outfit. Ioras realised that this man got ready to fight in an urban setting. He also had a sidearm at his hip,probably a hell-pistol and a combat knife strapped to his trousers at his calf.

"We are those who prowl, my friend." said Kahrim grinning.

"We are not your friends, we are your lords." said Deciaci calmly but irritated, Ioras was glad that he didn't bring Horatus along or this talk would be really short.

"Indeed you are, my lords." Kahrim sneered the last word.

"Do you know who we are?" asked Ioras.

"Of course, you are the glorious Emperor's Spears, the destroyer of the Xenos and bringers of light to this system." said Kahrim exaggeratedly.

"You would do well not to mock us, guardsmen." said Ioras.

"Why? Or your sniper over there is going to shoot me?" Kahrim asked grinning amusedly.

Achagon was able to hear the conversation over Ioras' vox broadcast and was surprised thinking himself concealed to this moment.

"You have a keen eye sight, I'll give you that." said Ioras.

Ioras already realised it wasn't Kahrim's eye sight that spotted Achagon but rather his squad hiding somewhere in sight but was asking anyway to buy his marines more time to spot the hiding guardsmen.

He voxed Achagon to scan the area with his scope and Iulius with his auspex but both returned negative.

Whoever Kahrim and his men was they were good at their jobs.

"Emperor blesses all of us with gifts, my lord marines." said Kahrim.

As Ioras was about to reply Iulius cut into the vox.

"Incoming, unknown number of figures circling our position." Iulius voxed in.

Ioras did not allow his body language to effect Kahrim and voxed back.

"Rexus Protocol Omega-five, rest Protocol Omega-Alpha on pierce-mark." Ioras ordered in the vox inaudible to Kahrim and his men.

Rexus moved back towards the ruined buildings silently and disappeared from sight. Iulius pulled out his boltpistol and kept it ready at his side while crouching.

"How do you know us?" asked Ioras.

"We were scouring this area for guardsmen left overs and Orks but the top prize was you nontheless, my lords." sneered Kahrim.

Ioras predicted that Kahrim's men was voxing their position to his ear piece as they encircle the marine squad.

"I get it, you were meaning to help those poor guardsmen against the Orks, how generous of you." mocked Ioras his voice as serious as ever.

Kahrim laughed still looking at the two marines.

"But the real question is how are we to 'top prize'?" asked Ioras more serious as if threatening.

Kahrim wasn't impressed "You have no idea what's going on here don't you?" he said.

He continued when Ioras didn't answer.

"Oh sacred dung! You really don't know. You land on a planet with no authority, you violate every planetary regulation there is. You carve a path through Ork and guardsmen bodies. And you don't even know what is going on." said Kahrim laughing at Ioras' face.

"Say this, glorious marine lord, do you even know why you are here?" asked Kahrim.

"Our lords deemed it necessary guardsmen, you wouldn't understand." Ioras replied vaguely.

"I get it, you are more like those tribals who skulk the forest with spear in hand. You have no idea why your masters order you to sneak about and only useful to throw at things your masters are meant to kill." said Kahrim.

"We are Space Marines, we deem where Emperor wished us to go." replied Ioras his anger rising.

"Wrong, my oh great lord. You go where the Lions want you to go."

"So you know about the Lions, I assume they sent you then."

"Aye aye, we are the 'Biting Lions'. We are the Spahkii."

"And you are here to kill us?"

"Oh no no. Of course not, how can we fire upon an ally Imperial force." sneered Kahrim his insincerity bleeding off his face.

"Did you really think this through? We are Space Marines." said Ioras in a threatening voice.

"I think we did." Kahrim said and raised his hellgun in one well practised motion, dropping his helmet.

Ioras replied by raising his boltgun at the guardsmen and Deciaci followed suit.

"Ah, ah, ah. I wouldn't do that if I were you." Kahrim said pointed with his head.

All around the clearing rose shapes out of the debris pointing hellguns at the marines.

Ioras and Deciaci had three hellguns pointing at them, one was Kahrim's own and two of his men behind him.

Fextus, Herean, Cussax all had a single stormtrooper at their boltgun iron sights and the hellguns of the guardsmen returned the favour likewise.

Achagon was not able to see anyone covering him but realised there is more up the sleeves of Spahkii Stormtroopers and kept his crosshair on one of the Spahkii.

Iulius heard rock rattling behind him and turned with his bolt pistol aimed towards the noise, they came to a stand off with a Stormtrooper who wished to get close by to the Devastator sergeant thinking he was able to sneak up to a Space Marine.

"We are at a stand-off then." sneered Kahrim still smiling.

Ioras was clever enough to realise that Kahrim still had men hiding around, otherwise the stormtrooper sergeant would not be sneering facing a boltgun at this range.

"We are not called 'Biting Lions' for nothing, my precious lord. I think you should give up." said Kahrim.

Just as Kahrim said this three Spahkiis came out sneaking behind Iulius. Iulius was outgunned four to one in an instant.

Three men took aim and was about to fire at the lone Devastator but Rexus came out the corner and pulled the trigger.

Spahkii stormtroopers caught on fire in the instant but Rexus kept pouring burning prometheum until they collapsed. Only burned out corpses remained smoking.

Ioras saw what had happened using Rexus' Heavy Flamer's cam-feed on his helmet display. He knew the cards were drawn, the bets were off.

All of them heard the screams of the dying Spahkiis.

"A Lion bites but a Spear pierces, Mark!" he said and shot Kahrim in the face.

Man's skull disintegrated and flew in all direction while the rest of the squad opened fire in perfect unity, their targets were already set and all they needed to execute the stormtroopers was the Apothecary's command.

Herean, Fextus and Cussax fired their bolter in a double-tap killing their marks. Horatus and Julius revealed themselves from hiding by firing at the stormtroopers near Ioras. Deciaci and Achagon was left without a target and scanned the area instead.

At the rear Iulius shot the sneaky Stormtrooper in the chest with his boltgun. Rexus walked over the burned out corpses of the guardsmen crunching them underfoot with an uncaring attitude.

Entire thing took a second and the dead hit the ground spilling organs and blood. Bolter fire was a gruesome executioner and even more gory when killing humans instead of greenskins.

Spahkii Stormtroopers put faith in their weapons too much, they were right to think that their weapons was able to harm Space Marines but they miscalculated that inside those armour was not simple man, but angels of death resided instead.

Squad Extus had faster reflexes and better coordination than normal humans can never achieve.

Extus united at the clearing where Ioras was checking Kahrim's pockets for anything of use.

"Anything?" asked Julius as he marched towards Ioras.

"No." he replied irritated.

"It this right?" said Horatus, his voice dazed.

"We need to make use of everything, it isn't robbing if he is dead." said Julius misunderstanding.

"I mean killing Imperials. Isn't this false?" said Horatus his voice confused with the whole affair.

"They meant to kill us." said Deciaci.

"I know, but they weren't heretics, I'm not sure if this is right." Horatus said.

Ioras came close to them with a map in his hand.

"Lord? Are we to fight Imperials now?" asked Horatus.

"Anyone who lure us away from Emperor's work is subject for censure, anyone who hinder us is subject to execution." said Ioras coldly and gave the map to Julius.

"Yes, my lord." said Horatus regaining his resolve, solid determination of his leader cementing his will.

"Now we know where the Lions are." said Julius looking at the map.

"Did Malik lied?" asked Achagon.

"Not really, but the Lion's has a better protected secret bunker near the Red River. It's a classified location I assume." said Julius.

"Yes, and now we stop roaming in confusion and light our way on a blaze to Lions." said Ioras.

The objective of the squad was revealed and their determination made solid, they moved towards with a regained fury towards those who misguide them and corrupt the Emperor's work to their own secret ends.