-XLVI-
A bullet whizzed over Hilaa's head.
She loosed several lasrounds towards the muzzle flash she detected.
"Keep firing at them, push into the trenches." she ordered covering behind a rock.
One of the guardsmen beside Hilaa got shot by the whizzing bullets and slumped without making a sound.
"Emperor carry you upon the waves, brother." she prayed for him while firing her lasgun.
"Squad thirteen moving in." crackled her handheld vox-caster.
She could hear the gunfire and the shouting guardsmen over the vox.
"Affirmative, keep on moving, we are hitting some hard-heads here." she said.
She managed to drop one shootaboy with a well placed headshot.
A guardmsmen rose from cover and fired two poorly placed plasma shots at the Ork gunners, missing both.
"Nice shooting, Lady." said one of Hilaa's men.
Plasma gunner was Hilaa's command squad specialist, Adamab Habas, he was a lean and handsome men but everyone called him 'Lady'.
Probably because he never was able to grew a beard and his face had babyesque features to it.
"Frak you, Gundal." said Adamab angrily, discarding one smoking hydrogen fuel cell and replacing it with a fresh one from his pouch.
Gundal was the standart bearer of the command squad, he was strongly built and had a confident air about him.
"Let me roll off this thing and let's charge into the fray." Gundal said to Hilaa, patting on the rolled up standart.
"Not now, Gundal." dismissed Hilaa.
"Keep your gun firing." she ordered.
"Yes, ma'am." said Gundal snapping at Orks.
Hilaa looked to her right and saw Sergeant Ezras's squad had managed to break through into the trenches.
"Ezras is on the move, go!" Hilaa ordered rising to her feet.
They charged at the Orks, firing from the hip.
Ork threat was largely eliminated from the elongated firefight but every surviving Ork was a danger by itself.
"Kill the ones on the right." ordered Hilaa and Adamab snapped off three shots, dropping the shootaboy.
They jumped inside the trenches and finished off the wounded Orks.
Hilaa pressed into her vox-bead "We took the trenches." she informed Aaron.
"Affirmative, defend your position." came in Aaron's voice.
"Understood." she cut the link.
"Alright everyone, scour the trenches and kill any wounded Ork you come across. Clean this place up!" she shouted.
Guardsmen around her scrambled into action, covering the corners and checking the Ork bodies for any fakers.
She voxed in to her sergeants and all returned okay.
They finally managed to capture the secondary trenches but the cost was high. Hilaa didn't want to look backwards for she would see hundreds of guardsmen bodies covering the no-man's-land.
She didn't had the figures but she estimated they lost over two hundred guardsmen just to get here.
"Two hundred, just to get this one trench." she gloomed.
She took out her magnoculars and scanned the tetriary trenches.
There was an entire wall covering behind the tetriary.
"Holy waves." she gasped.
"What is it?" asked Gundal.
"Nothing." she said, not wanting to share her uncertainty.
"Come on. Tell me." insisted Gundal coming beside her.
"Have the men scoured the trenches?" she asked.
"Well, I'm not-" Gundal began.
"Then go make it happen." scolded Hilaa.
"Yes, ma'am." grunted Gundal and left.
Ork shoota fire was still present in the air but the tetriary trenches was a long distance away to make the shots effective.
Hilaa dropped back into the trench floor and walked around. She came across a makeshift med-station where combat medics had gathered all the wounded they could haul.
She grabbed the arm of a nearby passing medic.
"How are they doing?" she asked.
Medic was in a hurry and his eyes looked irritated by being stopped from his emergency work.
He pulled away his arm from Hilaa's grip "They are hanging." he said before running back toward a bleeding guardswomen nearby.
Hilaa looked around, she felt so helpless.
She went beside the guardswomen and knelt.
"You're going to be okay." she said forcing a smile.
"Am I?" she replied, her face distorted in pain as the medic pushed in an antiseptic into her gut-wound.
"It burns." she commented.
Medic just nodded in reply and broke open a fresh batch of stitching strings.
"What's your name?" asked Hilaa.
"Yak-yakira." she replied as the medic stabbed the stitching needle to her bleeding flesh.
"Do you pray, yakira?" she asked sincerely.
She glanced up at Hilaa, she had the "Really? Now?" expression on her face.
"Sometimes." she answered grunting in pain.
"Pray with me then." Hilaa said putting her lasgun beside her and grasping her hands together before her bowed head.
"O-okay." Yakira said bowing her head slightly.
"Dominum nostra imperatori, defendere nos ab pericu et mutuam virtutis est muliere." Hilaa prayed in high gothic.
"You-you can speak-?" she gasped, forgetting her pain.
Medic had finished stitching and left them to attend to another poor soul.
"I was raised in the arts, yes." Hilaa replied.
"What does it mean?" she asked.
"I asked the Emperor to lend you your strength and heal you." Hilaa answered.
"Thank you." Yakira said.
"Get well, sister. We need every Naphtali." she said and stood up.
"Be safe." Yakira replied.
Hilaa walked away from the wounded and looked around at the running guardsmen. The trench was crowded, many guardsmen covered the trench wall while others run around for various duties. Some tried to find their own squad among the crowd while others ran ammo or supplies to and fro.
Among the trenches there were many Ork bodies and leftover crates and barrels of the Orks.
Crudely made and ugly, the Ork leftovers looked like pieced together stuff that somehow given a crude purpose.
She meant to leave but she stopped when one of the Orkish barrels in the corner moved.
Her mind raced through the possibilities and concluded it must be nothing.
She was wrong.
Barrel punctured outwards as dozens of rounds came from inside. The dim sound of confined dakka fire created a distinct sound.
A guardsmen beside Hilaa got shot in the neck and made a gurgling sound as his blood filled his lungs. He collapsed.
Before Hilaa manage to shout a warning, bullets ripped into two more guardsmen.
"Orks!" Hilaa managed to shout.
Ork decided to shed his hiding place and threw the hollowed tin barrel over his head, revealing himself.
It was a Kommando with a shoota, he fired a full burst at the guardsmen covering the trenches dropping three of them.
Two, fast reflexed guardsmen were already firing at the Kommando but missing horribly.
Hilaa crouched and aimed down the sights. She was on open ground and had to make herself as low as possible.
As she was firing her lasgun she also pressed her micro-vox-bead to the gun's stock and activated it.
"Ambush! Ambush! Orks inside the trenches!" she yelled.
"Where are you? We are coming there." came in Gundal's voice, it was filled with worry.
"I'm okay. Keep your position and survive." she replied.
"No can do, ma'am." said Gundal.
Hilaa snapped off two rounds at the Ork, missing one and grazing the shoulder with the other.
Two guardsmen had lunged at the Ork with their bayonets stabbing but the Ork shot one at point blank range and deflected the other's clumsy attack with the barrel of his shoota.
He stabbed the guardsmen in the neck with his own spike-like bayonet fixed into the barrel of his shoota.
Hilaa heard screaming behind her and snapped her neck to see the commotions. Her heart burned with fear as she saw two greenskin Kommandos chopping down guardsmen with their choppas.
One of them shot a fleeing guardsmen with his slugga and roared. His slugga had a pipe stuck to the end of it, it was questionable that whether the pipe muffled the sound or not.
These Orks had brown camo-paint on their faces, it was smeared squig dung. They also had mismatching goggles either worn over their eyes or lifted to their foreheads. They carried knife-like choppas rather than the norm axe-like choppas seen on other Orks.
They also wore vests with many pockets on them which were also camoed with squig crap.
One of the Kommandos spotted Hilaa and recognized her as a leading officer.
She turned and fired a full burst at the oncoming Ork. She managed a chest and a leg hit but the Ork was unfazed in his attack.
Hilaa ducked under the swinging choppa and rolled. She unsheathe her own combat knife and held it in a down-handed grip as she vedged her arm to plant the barrel of the lasgun on it. She fired at the Ork calmer this time and managed to land a head wound that staggered the beast.
Some other guardsmen attacked the Kommando and stabbed him on the back with a bayonet.
Ork grunted and back handed the guardsmen sending him to the trench floor.
Bullet impacts rose around Hilaa and she had a grim realisation that the Kommando with the shoota had killed the guardsmen he was fighting with and started spraying again.
She jumped behind a crate to cover from the random dakka rounds. While she was taking cover the Kommando with the choppa had done killing the guardsmen that backstabbed him.
Hilaa felt guilt deep down inside her as she bargained his life for her own. It was replaced with terrible horror again as the red beady eyes of the Kommando snapped at Hilaa again. The Ork charged and Hilaa grabbed for her lasgun, his ice cold realisation she found out that the lasgun dropped as he jumped for cover. She had no time to fetch it. Instead she pulled out her sidearms and fired the laspistol on her assailant.
"Die you misevolved piece of crap!" she shouted gritting her teeth and fired.
She missed two shots but the third landed right on the eye. Ork howled in pain as he held onto his cauterised eye.
Hilaa didn't gave the Ork time to recover and fetched her lasgun. She fired a full burst landing two shots at the Ork. Kommando toppled over.
She finished him by stabbing the fixed bayonet deep into the Kommando's other eye.
Ork was blinded but still alive, he swung his oversized hand with the hope of hitting Hilaa.
Hilaa felt the dirt nails touching her cheek as she dodged the attack by bending backwards. She fired two rounds into the Ork's skull and dropped it.
She was panting hard and ran a hand over her forehead to get off the sweat.
Her guardsmen had put down the Kommando with the shoota after losing four men to it.
She looked right and saw the last Kommando staring at her with a slugga in his hand.
"Youz pay fer dis, ya dang 'umie." the Ork said and pulled the trigger.
Roaring, Gundal slammed into the slugga and directed the shot away.
Gundal slammed the butt of his lasgun onto the Kommando's wrist to disarm him of the slugga but the Ork was strong and the blow was totally ineffective.
Gundal looked up at the Orks face in shock when he realised his move had failed. Ork backhanded Gundal at the side of his head and sent him crashing into the ground.
Kommando turned to Gundal and towered over him.
Adamab was behind the Kommando and shot at the back of his leg with lasgun that was not his, his plasma gun was strapped onto his back.
Ork dropped to one knee. Gundal rolled away from the Ork and got up, he had his combat knife in hand.
"Let's carve you up and good, green." he said brandishing his knife in front of him.
Ork swung at Gundal but he was too slow. Gundal ducked under the incoming blow and slashed across the Ork's arm drawing blood.
A deep gash has been opened in the Ork's arm by human standarts but the Kommando didn't even cared, he fired his slugga at Gundal.
A shot grazed Gundal's arm as he jumped sideways out off the bullet's path.
"Shoot him with the plasma!" shouted Hilaa at Abamad.
"It overheated!" replied Adamab firing his lasgun at the Ork.
Ork returned fire with his slugga and missed Adamab.
Hilaa joined in on the fight by firing her lasgun at the Kommando, she managed a lucky shot that blew the barrel off the slugga, disabling it.
She also scored several shots that burned into the Ork's flesh but Ork was still being resilient.
His flesh had burned and melted on itself where he was shot by the lasguns, he had blood streaks on his arms that now coagulated thanks to the fungus properties of the Orkoid metabolism.
Ork discarded the useless slugga and attacked Adamab with his choppa, guardsmen turned to run.
Thankfully Kommando was limping from his leg wound and wasn't able to chase down Adamab.
Seeing his pursuer not able to catch up, Adamab stopped and discarded the lasgun. He unstrapped his plasma gun and pushed the activation stud.
Plasma gun remained silent and dead.
"Come on." he told his gun as he pushed again, no return, he wanted to throw the damn weapon to the ground but then remembered the Litany of Unjamming.
"Spirits of the Machine-God..." he looked at the stumbling Ork and his heart raced, his mind fought to remember the litany before the Ork reached him.
"..., aid your servant and-and free his weapons..."
"Run, lady. Run!" shouted Gundal but Adamab was stuck in place.
"...so he may use it to break his..." damn it, he forgot the last word, the last damned... "...foes!" he concluded.
He hit the button and the plasma gun came alive as it's magnetic accelerator glow blue with inner plasma-fire.
"Die, alien." Adamab said and fired.
Plasma round incinerated the Ork's entire upper body.
What remained was two legs slumped over in awkward angles and boiled body parts mixed together. They clogged as they unheated like a green, red and black soup.
"That was close." he commented.
"Sure it was, but at least, Sergeant is safe." said Gundal as he puffed the dirt off his pants.
Hilaa checked in on her squad sergeants and learned that the Kommandos had caused a major havoc, killing many. But they were put down like the beast they are.
"More deaths." she said to herself.
She was about to order her guardsmen to move out but she caught a glimpse of the med-station and saw many of the wounded were killed by the marauding Kommandos or misplaced shots.
Among the dead was Yakira, apparently she wanted to get up but her stitches blew and she bleed out. Even the defenceless was not free from the violence of the alien.
Hilaa dropped her gaze, she didn't wanted to see anymore. Her tears broke free and one rolled down her cheek.
"You okay?" came in Gundal with lasgun in hand.
She smeared her hand on her cheek and got rid of the tear before turning to face him.
"Yeah, let's move out. We still got a battle to fight."
"We are coming at the trenches, Yoel, keep those Orks dead." said Zeevka.
"Will do." came in Yoel's voice over the tank-intervox.
A chattering sound filled inside the tank over the growling engine sound as the frontal heavy bolter fired.
Bolt rounds blew apart the trench wall and pushed the Orks inside to cover.
A grenade landed near Duty Unending and exploded.
"What was that?" came in Kalam's voice, the driver of the Unending.
"Just a nade, keep on driving." said Zeeka.
"You sure there are no mines here? Or orks with rocket launchers." pressed Kalam.
"I am sure. The Orks are vile beasts, they don't understand such subtle things. Cut the chatter and keep on peddling." replied Zeevka.
Ork big shoota fire peppered at the front hull.
"Several Orks defending up ahead." said Chava eyes over the gunner-visor.
"Fire." ordered Zeevka.
"Away!" Chava said and the tank shook.
Ahead of them rose a dust cloud as Orks were torn apart by the explosive shell.
Zeevka punched in the division wide vox frequency and grabbed the wired vox-bead.
"This is Unending, all Russ move ahead and kill those greens that bug us. Keep sharp for anything." he said.
"They have no tanks, this is one ready ride, chief." came in commander Mayta's voice.
She was the commander of Land Afar. The future glory girl of the division next to Archer. Her tank, Land Afar was young just as she was, young and inexperienced. Eager for action and stunts. Also she was the second in command of Zeevka in the Benet Strike tank group.
"Keep it cool, Mayta. I don't want anything unnecessary." Zeevka warned.
"Yes, sir." she said mockingly with her young and hopeful voice.
"I'll keep her safe, chief." came in Zafrir's voice.
Zafrir was a huge guy, Zeevka have no idea how he even fit on the command chair of his tank, Emperor's Bridge. He was always calm and reserved. Zafrir worked on bridge repairs back on Naphtal, one of the most dangerous jobs one can have. The powerful winds or the waves could knock a men into the merciless waves. It took a saint of a men to be able to stay calm when the world is roaring around you.
"Move in formation Benet Strike, we are coming up on some dug-outs." warned Zeevka.
"I see Orks." reported driver Kalam.
Zeevka opened up his hatch and peered outside.
There were several groups of Orks ahead. They looked like just random mobs scattered around but Zeevka knew they were much more.
"Tank hunters." he sneered.
"What?" asked Kalam.
"All Lemans be warned, we have tank hunters up ahead, show no mercy. Bolt them down." Zeevka said into the vox.
Benet Strike had the forward position where Iron Yoodan was to the left and Arav Break flanking them from the right.
The division moved on a vedge formation. Nice Leman Russ variants were more than enough to quell any Ork attack but the sneaking anti-tank weapons were sinister weapons.
Three Ork were hiding in a ditch and started firing with their shootas. One of them rose over the cover without any thought of self-preservation and fired his rokkit launcha.
Rokkit his Unending's frontal armour and exploded violently.
"What was that?" squealed loader Shumel.
"Rockets, damned Orks have rockets!" said driver Kalam.
Yoel opened fire on the Orks and butchered two of them with the heavy bolter.
"Lead, Orks are appearing all over the place." reported Mayta scanning ahead with her magnoculars.
Land Afar fired it's frontal lascannon and vaporized another Orks carrying a rokkit launcha.
Emperor's Bridge burst fired it's heavy bolter pinning several squads of the Orks.
"Nine-, we got a gathering. Five Orks, at least two busters with them." said Zafrir.
"Take it out." ordered Zeevka.
Bridge's battle cannon roared and the group of Orks exploded to pieces. Limbs and scrap parts falling onto the dusty ground.
"Out." said Zafrir.
"Good one." replied Zeevka, he braced holding at the rails beside his command chair and Unending shook.
"Lihk." reported Chava missing her shot.
"Fire again." ordered Zeevka rising out of the hatch to use the Moss pattern heavy stubber.
He grabbed the grip and fixed his shoulder at the stock, he slammed the gun at it's side, both turning the safety off and making sure the magazine was fixed in place. The 20 round detachable mag-box was known to dislodge under stress. A cheap gun, but works in all conditions.
He aimed down the sights and found some Orks snooping out their heads from their covers.
Stubber fired five shots, each shot slamming at Zeevka's shoulder like a beast. One Ork was shot in the head and other were forced into cover. Yoel fired on the same group of Orks but his bullets went wide.
"Away!" came in Chava's shout and Zeevka shook violently as the turret blew it's load.
Shot was on the mark and the Orks he shot at was no more. A crater remained where was once a combat-ditch.
Three rockets streak past them, one of them went wide, another slammed their the flank off their hull and bounced off. Last one his Land Afar in the front armour and exploded.
"Afar, report, Afar!" voxed Zeevka dropping back into the cover of the turret.
"Surface detonation. We're okay." came in Mayta's voice.
Land Afar fired both it's weapons at the possible perpetrators of the attack. Zeevka saw the lascannon go wide and the shell falling short of the Ork position.
"Check your aim, Afar." warned Zeevka.
"I know." came in Mayta's angry voice.
Land Afar fired again, shell slammed into the trench wall and blew a huge chunk of it up into the air, Ork body parts was among it.
"Land-warping-Afar." Mayta cheered.
Emperor's Bridge fired it's cannon at another Ork position to their right but the shot went wide, blowing apart a nearby dug-in instead.
"We are almost at the trenchline, keep sharp. Orks are more dangerous up close. Kill anyone that looks like they're carrying explosives." ordered Zeevka.
Only few metres had left to the first trenchline.
Orks popped out of the trenchline and started firing on the tanks with their shootas. Glancing bullets made dull thumping sounds inside the hull.
Yoel sprayed the Orks in full auto, killing at least fire.
Emperor's Bridge also opened up with it's heavy bolter killing several.
Zeevka did not rise from his command chair before the thudding shots were silenced.
He rose up and heard a whuzzing sound flying over their head. A shell flew above them popping out his ears.
It flew ahead of them and slammed right into a make-shift Ork bunker. Explosion blew skywards as a ball of rising flame. Burning and dying Orks scattered outside screaming.
Zeevka turned his head to the direction of the fire and with no suprise he saw Archer with it's barrel smoking.
"Watch it, will you." he growled into the vox.
"You weren't firing on the hard-target, so I did." replied officer Zifor of the Archer.
"We were getting right on that." said Zeevka.
"Too late." mocked Zifor.
Zeevka slammed the vox into it's housing and cut the line.
"Easy." said gunner Chava.
"Damn, pompous asswipe." Zeevka swore.
"Sir!" warned Chava.
Zeevka just growled rising again from the hatch and grabbed the heavy stubber.
"Keep sharp." he voxed in.
"Affirmative." came in Mayta's voice as Land Afar fired it's lascannon at some Orks trying to get away from the advancing tanks.
Emperor's Bridge fired it's cannon again blowing apart the trench it had missed before.
"Understood." replied Zafrir.
Benet Strike had reached the trench and they dropped violently as their frontal tracks fell into the chasm. They grabbed the other side of the trench and pulled the heavy weight upwards.
Emperor's Bridge sunk a part of the trench and buried several Orks underneath it.
Zeevka had turned his stubber sideways and fired at an Ork trying to lob a grenade at them. He put ten rounds through the Ork before deciding to cease fire.
Grenade exploded in the trench making a short thudding sound.
Land Afar stopped at the trench and turned it's turret to it's left.
Mayta had spotted several Orks inside the trench, coming their way from the left, probably trying to attack the exposed underbelly of the iron beasts.
"Fire!" she ordered and the battle cannon roared. Shell blew apart one Ork by sheer impact force and exploded.
Land Afar didn't wait for the dust to settle and roared over the trench.
Zeevka heard the rattling rapid fire of the Exterminator autocannons to their left. Iron Yoodan led by officer Liorit had neared the trenchline and spat their deadly shots at the Orks.
Exterminator pattern Leman Russ had carried a double barrelled version of the autocannons as its turret weapon. A perfect weapon to mow down infantry, punch through soft cover and destroy light vehicles. Iron Yoodan had the advantage of rapid fire where Benet Strike had the explosive shells.
The armour division had reached the secondary trenches and the result was complete Ork massacre.
Several rokkits flew in their direction from the nearby trenches but most of them missed outright or exploded on the ground.
Yoel emptied an entire ammo-box and discarded it back towards his seat. He reached and grabbed the handle of a new one. He slid and then unhooked the clasps on it. It always excited him when he cranked up a fresh batch.
Ammo-box opened with a satisfying plink.
"Mmmm, I love that smell." he said as he always does.
Driver Kalam pushed a level on his controls "They all smell the same, you daft." he said.
"No-uh. It smells unique when they're fresh." defended Yoel.
"How can they be smell different? It's always the same thing inside." said Kalam.
"I don't know, man. They just do, alright." replied Yoel as he pulled a link out of the box and fed it into the heavy bolter.
"You don't blow those propellant dust, do you?" asked Kalam.
"Ha ha. How many times was it that you made that joke?"
"Not enough to quit your smelling the damn bolt rounds it seems." replied Kalam.
Yoel cocked the Heavy bolter and fired a short burst.
"I'm imagining as if I'm shooting at you." he grinned.
"Must be hard, Greens will never be as handsome as me." replied Kalam.
"Kalam, give me a stop. We need steady." said Zeevka.
"Yes, sir."
"There's a bunker up ahead, Chava?" prompted Zeevka.
"Spotted and ranged." replied Chava.
"Loaded." said Shumel the loader.
"Fire!"
"Away!"
Duty Unending's cannon roared as the tank rose a little.
Shell exploded outside the Ork bunker, it was painted a mix of dark purple and green. One of it's frontal walls collapsed outwards, leaving the metal wires behind.
Land Afar fired at the same target and landed the shell inside he bunker, blowing it apart.
"Good shot!" approved Zafrir.
"This is too easy. Bunkers and cowardly Orks." replied Mayta.
"Not enough glory for you?" asked Zafrir.
"You know me." replied Mayta.
"Cut it. There is still more Orks inside the trenches, I don't want a lucky shot to disable any of us." snapped Zeevka.
"Yes, papa." replied Mayta.
"Yes, sir." voxed Zafrir.
Kannon fire landed around them spraying Unending with scorched dirt.
"Ork guns! Somewhere up ahead." voxed Zeevka alarmed.
"I see them. Three ork guns, taking the shot." replied Archer.
Vanquisher battle cannon lobbed a perfectly aimed explosive shell over the trenchline and exploded one of the Big gun Kanons.
Gretchin manning the Kannon scattered for cover as they heard the whistle of the shell. Out of the five crew only one survived the blast.
"On target." replied Archer.
Two other gretchin manned big gunz were still firing on the Benet Strike.
Explosions blew huge chunks upwards but luckily the grots had terrible aim. One shot landed atop the Emperor's Bridge but glanced off it's turret before exploding.
The tank shook but the damage was only superficial, side of the turret and the top of the hull had bent and top plating but the tank and the crew was unfazed.
Zeevka spotted the big gunz and ordered a mass firing of his squad.
Three battle cannons roared at one of the big gun. One round went wide but the other two was near enough to damage the weapon and to kill the crew.
Division charged ahead moving over the trenches. Most Orks started to flee under the tank assault and the frontal guns mowed them down mercilessly.
"Lord Ioras we broke through, the Ork has scattered like the roaches they are. The secondary trenches are ours." reported Zeevka into the vox.
"Understood advance towards the tetriary but do not engage the fortress." came in Ioras's voice with a roaring chainsword in the background.
"You heard the lord, own the land, division." said Zeevka proudly.
"So easy." repeated Mayta again as her tank lobbed another shell at the forwards trenches.
"Form a cordon, no Orks can counter-charge on our..." said Zeevka.
"Of course they can't we are the Naphtali armour." boasted Mayta.
"What is it, Zeevka?" Zafrir asked, noticing the silence of the Lieutenant.
"Scope to the Ork fortress. The gates..." said Zeevka.
"...is opening." finished Zafrir looking through his magnoculars.
The wide dark purple gates opened groaning on their axis. Behind them came out rolling Ork vehicles in number.
"Armour, Ork armour, we have hostiles coming from the Ork encampment." voxed Mayta division-wide.
"Lord Ioras, Ork armour approaching." voxed Zeevka.
"How many?"
"Um-one two...twenty four." said Zeevka.
There was silence for a moment.
Zeevka thought if the Astartes would leave them if things get rough and go on about their mission.
"You have the permission to engage, Lieutenant. Destroy the Orks armour." said Ioras.
"Yes, lord." replied Zeevka cutting the link.
"Easier said than done." he mumbled to himself.
From the opened gates came out twenty-four Ork TinTanks. They carried Kannons on their turrets and had frontal and sponson big shootas. Their tracks were made lower and did not span the entire hull like the Lemans did. The front and the flank armour were made straight upwards only bending to 45 degrees at the corners, giving it a boxy shape. Turret itself was a circular plating with a straight roof. The tank was designed for one purpose, haul the kannon to combat and fire.
Ork Tintanks roared forwards as the Naphtali moved into position. Now that the secondary trenches were completely under Imperial control they had the chance to regoup and take a breather.
Naphtali tanks held the middle point while the Space Marines and the Spahkii were on the right flank. Balharethi and Naphtali guardsmen united under one banner and held the left flank.
Ahead was the tertiary Ork trenchline. But it was more armoured than the last two. It had four main bunkers and numerous gun-pits. The amount of shoota on that line would make any infantry officer shiver. Luckily the tanks were a final solution to the problem. If they survived the oncoming tanks. Ork tanks had cheap and useless armour compared to the mighty Leman Russ tanks. They were bristled with a trio of shootas on each flank and the front, similar to the Leman Russ design. Orks were clearly 'inspired' by the superior Leman Russ tanks.
"Move into position and don't let those tanks through." ordered Ioras.
"Do we have artillery support?" asked Aaron.
"This far? No way, I don't want to get blown by my own side." replied Zeevka.
"No, Captain, this battle is ours only. Give those rolling scrap piles a trip to the warp." said Ioras.
Naphtali heavy weapon squads had passed over the no-man's-land safely and now were deploying among the guardsmen as they speak.
"We are to assist the Naphtali in the effort, yes?" asked Malik.
"Right, colonel. Keep with Aaron, he had command." said Ioras.
"Understood." replied Malik indifferent.
Death of Gazam at the hands of the Commissar didn't swing his mood in either direction. He felt a satisfaction in his heart but seeing the Ork armour, his mind told him more men would be better.
Aaron's men were deploying rocket launchers and autoguns to deter the Ork tanks from rolling over them. While the Space Marines were trusting in their own capabilities rather than heavy armour, which they lacked.
"We are not prepared for this." said Iulius.
"We make due with what we got." replied Ioras.
Horatus snorted "It doesn't matter, we will rip them from their tin cans and slaughter them."
Brother Grilleo of the Lions looked at Horatus "I'm with you brother, a Space Marine will never fear the wretched Orks."
Horatus grinned at Julius "See? You should learn a thing or two from our brother here." he said.
Julius ignored Horatus' mockery and turned to Ioras "So, what's the plan?".
"Up until now..." started Ioras, waving a hand at the carnage behind them. Dozens of Orks were butchered by the Astartes and Stormtrooper combined.
"...we only faced the scraps. Now we face the bone. We will disperse into three men groups and hide in..."
"Hide?" shouted Grilleo.
"Let him finish." warned Renon, his Beta Sergeant.
Grilleo was irritated but kept his silence.
"...we will hide in these ambush points and grab any tank that comes too close. Achagon, Iulius and Cussax will remain behind and harass the Orks from afar, drawing them in."
"I like the sound of that." cheered Grilleo.
"Julius and Herean with me. Horatus takes Fextus and Deciaci." said Ioras.
Ioras looked at Renon for confirmation, he wasn't going to disrespect the marine by assigning his own men.
"We will split into two groups and be right beside you." Renon said.
"Emper..." started Ioras.
"What about us?" came Jeliha's voice.
"Do we, the puny guardsmen, have the right to fight alongside the oh-so-mighty-astartes?" he asked mockingly.
Ioras got used to the sneering face of this man "You still have ammo on that thing?" he nodded to Bruskia 'Delivery'.
Bruskia lifte his missile launcher onto his shoulder as if to emphasize his point "Sure, do. Didn't fire her much anyway." he said.
"You are to distrupt any tanks that we might have missed." said Ioras.
"So you're giving us the scraps." said Jeliha.
"They're all scraps, Captain." replied Ioras.
"Fine, we will be sticking to your ass then." Jeliha said throwing his spent Lho-stick away.
One of the Ork kannons fired blowing a chuck of earth away from Duty Unending.
"Out of range." reported driver Kalam.
"I can see that." said Zeevka.
He looked at tanks, trying to find a weak spot where a battle cannon might punch through.
"They're terribly constructed, lot's of weld lines and meshed plating." he said.
"Their tracks are low." said Chava.
"It is, but they're open on the side."
"So is ours." pointed Chava.
"Well, I think you might want to tell that to Leman Russ himself." replied Zeevka.
"Leman Russ didn't designed these tanks." said Chava her forehead wrinkling in a mocking expression.
"Then complain to Mars."
"I will be sure to write a letter of complaint." she joked.
Vox whistled and Zeevka grabbed the bead.
"Zeevka here, over."
A robotic whizzing sound came over the vox "Lieutenant, might I suggest that you let the infantry have the fight so that we may spare any unnecessary casualties." said Techpriest Nuzilliad.
"Infantry against tanks? The casualties would be enourmous." said Zeevka.
"I meant the tank casualties. Despite the sentimental loss the fighting flesh troopers are easier to replace than our precious tanks."
"You-" said Zeevka, he was angry but couldn't find an answer to give against this ridiculous talk.
"I merely calculated the probability of survival for your division against the opposition and decided that the risk was unwarranted for."
"You-you calculated what?"
"The casualties probabilities." replied Nuzilliad.
"Does that mean what I think it means?"
"It means the number of tanks are to be destroyed due to this engagement." replied Nuzilliad, his voice emotionless despite the subject.
"I'm not sure I want to know." said Zeevka running a hand through his hair.
"I think you should, being the commander of the division."
"Hit me."
"Our of the nine Leman Russ tanks you have, only three is to survive the coming engagement."
"You are a warping piece of malfunc-"
"Now, now, Lieutenant. I merely deal in numbers and report the results."
Zeevka put his head onto the tank's turret.
"What is the probability?" he asked.
"Eighty-five per-cent." replied Nuzilliad expressionless.
"Eighty-fi-" said Zeevka.
To his luck the Techpriest was on a different frequency and no one on the division registered this talk.
"So, would you consider your options again?" asked Nuzilliad.
"You know what I think? I think that you are piece of malfunctioning piece of crap. No one is going to die. We are the Naphtali." said Zeevka rising his voice.
"I take it that you insult me personally, however I have no personal connections to the matter which-"
Zeevka cut the link.
He looked at the coming Ork tanks, rising dust behind them.
"Emperor Protects." he said and slammed the hatch close.
"Five hundred!" shouted Kalam, he pushed the acceleration stick forward.
"Keep it steady." said Zeevka.
"I am, just give me the word."
"Four!" shouted Kalam.
Ork column had divided into three parts, two flanking units were aiming to crush the opposition from the sides while the main flank, still fifteen tanks, clashed with the Imperials.
Tintanks fired at them but their range fell short and caused numerous explosions on the dirt.
Archer had no such problem. It's vanquisher cannon roared as it jetted the AP shell onwards.
Diamentine tipped AP round slammed onto the lead tank, a huge gap was opened in it's front armour.
"First blood!" announced Zifor, commander of the Archer.
Zeevka could hear the tank crew cheer over the vox.
Ork tank, despite the massive gap on it kept rolling forwards.
"Spoke to soon." said Zeevka.
"What?"
"That thing's still coming."
"Yehosh, load! Now!" shouted Zifor.
"In!" shouted the sweaty loader Yehosh.
"Fire!"
"Out!" shouted gunner Akiba of the Archer and the Vanquisher cannon roared once more.
TinTank blew apart as the AP round punctured one of it's shell storage.
"Warping-first-warping-blood!" said Zifor.
Zeevka sighed.
"In range!" announced Kalam.
"-by the mercy of thy Emperor, we are-" were mumbling Chava to herself keeping an eye on the target-finder.
"Fire!" shouted Zeevka.
"Away."
Battle cannon roared and the shell zipped forwards, it whizzed over the Tintanks and slammed one in the turret.
Tintank's turret blew apart rising a huge column of grey cloud.
"Good shot, Chava." complemented Zeevka.
As Shumel was loading another high-yield explosive shell into the breach, Chava lifted her gaze from the targeting-visor and looked at Zeevka.
"I missed." she said.
Zeevka's face was confused for a second.
"Well there is so many to shoot at, good job anyway." he said.
"Emperor was on our side." she said slamming her eye into the visor.
"And that."
"Load!" came Shumels strong voice.
"Spot, three hundred, two clicks left." said Zeevka looking through his command visor.
"Spotted."
"Fire."
Unending lifted it's frontal tracks as the gun fired. Emperor's Bridge and Land Afar followed suit.
Three shots zipped at the TinTanks, one landed in a bad angle and glanced upwards like a stone on water and missed.
Another pierced through one turret and killed the Ork commander inside, the shell misfired and lodged into the Ork's corpse.
Last one punched through one of the welding points and crushed the weak point inwards, puncturing the tank. Shell exploded violently blowing apart the turret and sending it metres high into the air.
Rest of the Tintanks kept moving forward firing their kannon turrets, oblivious to their brethren's demise.
A round slammed onto Unending's front armour and exploded.
"We're hit." cried gunner Yoel.
"Calm down, it didn't get through, you wouldn't be screaming about it if it were." said Zeevka.
"In!" came Shumel.
"Out!"
Turret shook.
"It missed." said Kalam.
"Mettav." swore Zeevka.
"In!"
"Out."
"On target, we got a burner." announced Zeevka.
Targeted Tintanks caught fire and exploded a second later, it's ammo overheating.
Archer scored another kill, hitting right on mark despite the uneven terrain.
"Let's equal the numbers out." said Zeevka.
Mayta's frontal gunner fired his lascannon blowing the tracks off a Tintank. Ork armour came to a grinding halt and fired it's turret as if in defiance.
Beside Archer, Heaving Giant and Track Breaker fired their battlecannon and complemented the attack with their frontal lascannons.
One of the lasrounds punctured a fuel line and turned the Tintank into a metalic burning tomb for the Ork crew. One of the krew managed to jump out before the inferno grabbed him.
He was killed by one of the spatting sponson shoota of another Tintank rolling behind it.
Ork had terrible aim but now they were closing in and their aim started to get better.
Emperor's Brigde got it's frontal bolter blown and the gunner died with it.
One of the shots blew a sponson off Land Afar and another rocked the turret so hard that Mayta hit her head onto the interior.
"I'm okay." she said holding the bleeding wound beside her head.
"Take care of David." she said dismissing the gunner as she tried to help her.
"He is gone." gunner said.
"Oh."
"Afar, what's your status?" came in Zeevka's voice over the vox.
"We lost our sponson gunner but rest of us is okay." she replied.
"Ork attacks are getting..." a loud banging noise filled the vox, Mayta realised the sound of shell hitting armour and held her breath.
She never said this to his face but she saw Zeevka as a father figure, her father that she never had.
If something had happened to him she didn't know how to react. This was war. Any second now he could die, any second.
"...mettavlav Orks are rising up the stakes. Destroy the ones ahead, Mayta." Zeevka ordered.
"Yes, sir." she snapped then roared for her loader to fresh in another one.
Two seconds later Land Afar fired at the Orks, blowing a shoota sponson apart.
Ork Tintanks were firing indiscriminately, each firing their trio of shootas without a concern for aim. Noise was all that mattered, enough noise to make the fight worthy. And what a worthy fight was this. Tanks weren't the biggest deal for the Orks. Many Orks saw those who prefer the closed, noisy and smelling as misfits. Who would prefer the good old choopa in hand, screaming out at your enemies while feeling their hot blood on your green skin. Feeling the thudding of shoota in your hand while the noise deafens you.
But the tank krews were mostly mad, they loved the stinking insides of the grizzly tanks. As they rumbled onward and make you hit your head all over the place. Obviously Orks never bothered with stupid things like suspension, who needs such a useless thing when you can weld two more shootas in place. Ork krews even bet teeth on how many raptures their heads will have when the fighting is done. Usually the commander won, due to sitting in the turret. He had the chance of a rapture each time the gun fired, slamming him in the head.
Tanks were only a hundred metre away now. Point blank range for the armour.
Ork tanks fired first, despite their crude designs the overeager loaders kept the guns ready in a steady pace. Where the machination lacked, the efficiency is restored by the tenacity of the Orks themselves.
The close range meant the Exterminator autocannons excelled. Promised Home and Unbroken Faith closed in on one of the Tintanks and started firing.
One after the other massive autorounds slammed into the tank. After ten seconds of firing, there were seven punctures and a dozen glances on the armour.
Tintank moved forwards for a brief second before coming to a halt. It's crew was torn apart by the ricocheting bullets and pieces of metal.
Never Ending targeted another Tintank that was trying to flank. It fired it's Eradicator Nova Cannon but missed. A huge explosion and a subsequent heat release hazed the distance.
Orks returned fire, glancing a round off Never Ending's hull.
In response crazy commander of the tank, Hadar rose from the hatch and despite all the danger around he started firing his heavy stubber at the Ork tank.
The rounds were totally ineffective but once the gun was dry, Hadar was satisfied and dropped into the turret, closing the hatch behind him.
"Watch out, you got one of the left." cried Zeevka onto the vox.
"I see it, I see it." replied Zafrir.
Ork tanks blew a chunk out of Emperor's Bridge right flank.
"We got hit, smoke filled the space." said Zafrir coughing.
"Don't get out, use the masks, we will cordon you otherwise Ork fire will kill you." Zeevka said.
He was about to order other tanks to clear around the Emperor's Bridge, but another Ork tank fired at close range and punctured a round into the driver slit of the front armour.
Emperor's Bridge blew apart in a great fireball, it's metal pieces shredding the paint of Duty Unending.
"No!" came in Mayta's voice and Zeevka slammed a hand to his command chair.
"Chava, blow that bastard apart." he growled.
Turret turned towards the Tintank that finished off the Bridge and planted a shell inside it. Explosion blew sideways and tore the entire flank outwards, spilling Ork dead and metalic parts all around.
Arav Break was close now. Archer missed a shot as his companions also failed to land a killing blow. Lasblasts fizzled towards the Orks without any hit registering.
A shell glanced off Unending's armour and another exploded beside the tank, denting and scraping it.
Chava returned fire but the shell glanced off a bad angle, zipping upwards as a yellow streak.
Promised Home and Unbroken Faith chewed up another TinTank with their Exterminator autocannons.
Never Ending managed to hit his last target, the shell exploded outwards but minor penetration on the hull and the subsequent heat haze was enough to set off the Ork shells.
Commander Hadar cheered over the vox as a huge explosion rocketed skywards.
"Eat that, green scum." he shouted.
A shell hit the flank armour of Never Ending rocking the tank. Thankfully the shell was a dud and didn't went off, despite lodging itself into the armour.
Promised Home started firing it's rapid firing autocannons at the attacker. Ork kannon was scraped and damaged beyond repair under the hail of the autorounds.
Orks inside didn't care and loaded another shell into the deformed turret. Shell lodged inside the turret meshing in with the bend metal.
The explosion from the pin contained inside the barrel and pumped the entire pressured air into the turret, boiling the commander on his chair.
Promised Home kept firing destroying a shoota and then a sponson. Never Ending fired on to Tintank and exploded it's left tracks.
The tank was out of fighting.
From their left was coming four Tintanks. Naphtali infantry started firing their heavy weapons on the tank. Autocannons mostly missed but two of the rockets hit home and took a Tintank out of commision. It's turret and entire frontal armour was scrap metal, it wouldn't able to move because of the bent runway. Ork crew left their vehicle and started running.
Other two Tintanks fired on the Iron Yoodan.
One of the shots ricochet off Promised Home's flank as it wheeled to show it's front armour. The other shot was a lucky one and lodged itself into the neck of the turret before detonating. The explosion blew the turret upwards and the shock killed the commander outright. Rest of the crew was dazed but okay. However the tank's infrastructure was badly damaged, crew tested it out by trying to manoeuvre which broke one of the tracks, forcing it into a derailment.
"Leave the tank, that's an order!" shouted Liorit to the crew.
Crew complied and started to run away towards the Imperial side.
One of them was shot by a shoota round and dropped dead.
Another Tintank flanking from the left was shot by a missile and lost it's turret. Autocannon round punctured into it's front armour and killed most of the crew.
"Fire on that target!" shouted Aaron as he pointed at the downed tank.
Heavy weapon squads spent half an autocannon clip to the tank before hearing the cease fire command.
"Loose another on the number two." ordered Aaron.
Three missile teams loaded and aimed their rocket launchers. Rockets streak away, one missed, arching away onto the sky. One hit the tank in the front and blew the frontal shoota. Last one followed it's kin and slammed into the weakened front armour, punctured and exploded inside. A huge fireball rose as Ork ammunition exploded afterwards.
"Good job!" said Aaron "now turn those guns towards the bunkers."
"Thank you Captain." said Zeevka into the vox.
His forebead was wet with sweat, not because the tank was hot. In truth it was but the crew got used to it. His sweat came from stress. They had lost two of their numbers and there were still active enemies.
This day did not turned out the way he wanted it to be.
He slammed open his hatch and let the cool air get in.
"What are you doing?" asked Chava without turning.
"Getting some air."
"Are you mad? It's raining bullets out there. Close that hatch now!" she scolded.
"Keep firing you damsel in arms." he said rising from his chair.
He pulled the spent ammo casing from the heavy stubber and dropped it towards the hull, he placed the fresh one he brought up and cocked the gun.
There was an Ork commander outside his tank, screaming something and pointing towards the Unending.
He aimed down the sights and fired a burst, then again and again until the ammo ran dry.
Ork commander slumped back onto his command chair with a broken skull and split brains.
Zeevka ducked inside the turret as the shootas aimed for him specifically.
Pinging rounds rained on the turret harmlessly.
"What did I told you?" scolded Chava.
"You see that one, over there?" Zeevka pointed.
"Yes."
"Kill it."
"Out!"
Tintank exploded it's hull dropped sideways as the force of the explosion rocked it. It kept burning with black smoke rising.
A shell exploded beside Unending.
"How bad?" Zeevka asked, feeling that they were running out of luck.
"We lost a track." informed Shumel.
"Damn it, we are stuck."
Zeevka grabbed the vox-bead and dialled that frequency he never wanted to dial.
"Techpriest, we lost a track. We need to be towed."
"If only you would-" began Nuzilliad.
"Just get here!"
Ork tanks were closing from the right flank at Naphtali armour.
"Ork commander spotted." reported Achagon, almost invisible in his camo-cloak. He only managed to get enough camo-netting for half his armour. One part over the weapon and the other streched over his head, shoulders and backpack vents. He was positioned prone inside a dug-in that hid his lower body.
Beside him was the prone figure of Spahkii sniper, Henrietta.
"Hold and wait for my signal." voxed Ioras.
The rest of the Space Marines were positioned closer to the tanks, they hid in trenches waiting for the tanks to close in.
Without heavy weapons Astartes would be no use from distance.
Jeliha positioned both his stormtrooper squads in support of the marines. Only one among the stormtroopers have a missile launcher.
"Hold back and target for the turrets, Delivery." said Jeliha.
"Yes, Stoic. I know." Bruskia 'Delivery' replied, checking again to make sure the missile fit in place.
"Look one of the tanks got bogged." pointed Zenum at Duty Unending.
"They're dead meat I tell ya." Nurmol commented.
"Shut it, I don't care what the blue-boys are doing with their lives. Be ready for action." Jeliha said.
They all heard the rumbling track sound of the tanks closing in.
TinTanks fired their kannons at the Naphtali armour managing to hit one, blowing a frontal gun.
Another shot blew at the dozer blade of the bogged tank.
"We're under fire." came in Zeevka's voice to Ioras' helmet-vox.
"Hold on." voxed Ioras back.
The tanks rolled beside the trenches they were hiding in, two of them passing over them, dropping dirt over their armour.
"Take it." ordered Ioras.
Achagon already had the crosshair on the Ork commander.
He fired in a loud BANG, startling Henrietta.
From the distance it looked like a red mist appeared over the Ork commander's head. Then the Ork arched backwards, still inside the turret-hatch as if trying to stretch his back.
Corpse of the commander still dangled atop the tank as it came towards them.
"Open fire!" ordered Ioras and the once calm trenches filled with action.
Bruskia rose from the trench shouldering his launcher and put the missile at a nearby turret. Turret exploded and shifted sideways as the tank kept coming.
Shootas opened up on the stormtrooper's position, rising puffing dust where they fell.
Henrietta took a shoot at the same tank managing to hit through the visor slit in front of the armour.
Tintank came to a halt before the trench but the shootas were still firing.
Zenum and Nurmol rose and fired at the frontal shoota, disabling it with their hellguns. Tank was dead meat.
Bruskia fired directly at the driver's visor slit and managed to put the rocket inside the tank.
They all ducked as sharp scrap metal rained around them, tank's frontal armour had blown outwards and the crew died from the explosion but the structure of the tank was okay. It stood before them with black smoke rising from every orifice.
Spahkii 2nd led by Stephenson Murdock charged at one of the tanks.
They fired burst at the sponson that aimed their way and manage to weld the gun shut.
Three of them jumped beside the tank and scaled the metal plating.
Two of them manage to rise themselves up but way greeted by the slugga of the Ork commander.
Ork fired four shots into the face of stormtrooper Jugni.
Jugni's body fell back onto the dirt, bent in a disturbing way.
Laface held onto a metal bar and aimed her hellgun with one hand. She fired several shots, which two had carved into the Ork's skull.
She pulled herself up and grabbed a meltabomb from her belt. She twisted the firing pin and rose atop the hatch.
After firing a burst inside the hatch to make sure none was coming out, she dropped the load in.
She made sure to kick the hatch close
They jumped down and ran towards the trench. A second before they reached the safety of the trench, Tintank exploded.
A jetting shrapnel cut he leg and she fell into the trench, holding her wound.
Beside the disabled tank came two more Tintanks, firing their shootas at the infantry.
Luckily their kannons were pre-occupied with the Imperial Tanks.
They fired inaccurately, blowing earthen craters instead of the tank-wrecks they wished for.
Archer turned it's turret on the Tintanks, towards the right flank and blew one of them apart with an AP round.
While the tank blew up, Space Marines had already reached the other ones.
Shoota fire ricocheted off Horatus' armour plates, spraying around him with bent bullets.
Atop the Tintank came out a commander he was shooting at the marines with his slugga.
Achagon ended his efforts with a shot, blowing his head in two piece.
Horatus had reached the sponson shoota that was trying to kill him and grabbed the barrel of the gun. He squezed until the gun clogged bending the barrel inwards.
Ork did not notice this and kept firing, after the first three shots the entire barrel was clogged and the final round's ignition exploded the gun.
Horatus was not fazed from the sharp pieces of metal flying around and he jumped beside the tank to haul himself atop it.
Meanwhile Deciaci had raced to the front of the tank, he ducked under the constantly firing frontal shoota and fired at the visor slit in which he decided the driver was looking through.
Tank did not stop as the corpse of the driver kept the levers in place, keeping the tank rolling.
Deciaci rolled sideways and got out of the tank's path.
Horatus was atop the tank and he realised that the gunner Ork had dumped his commander's body and grabbed his slugga.
Ork managed to land two dangerously close rounds at Horatus' helmet but once Horatus punched the gun out of the Ork's grip.
Ork was about to lunge, but Horatus fired at his guts blowing his innards out, Ork looked at his bloody mess of a body and slumped onto the gap, still alive.
Horatus did not care about the alive Ork and dropped a prime frag into the tank from a gap beside the slumped, heavy breathing Ork.
"Enjoy." Horatus said to the dying Ork before jumping down.
Tank exploded behind him and the rising dust envelopped him.
After the black smoke and the dust had moved from wind, Horatus emerged, unscathed from the wreckage he just caused.
Simultaneously Lions were dealing with the last Tintank.
Beta Sergeant Renon, led his brothers onto the tank. He aimed and fired a burst at the sponson but missed, blowing chucks from the tank's flank armour.
His lost eye hampered his vision and distrupted his depth perception.
"Damn, I forgot about it." he angered to himself, remembering his lost eye.
"No, worries." said Brother Grilleo, gripping the barrel of the gun with a two-handed grip and pulling it outwards.
Grilleo had one hand of his broken but his enhanced body kept the pain away as he fought on.
"I need to get this fixed." he said looking at the unbending fingers at his hand as if it was some tool and not a part of him.
Two other Lion warriors had scaled the tank and dragged out the commander dropping his beside Grilleo.
"Look, who we have here." said Grilleo grinning.
He kicked the Ork back as he tried to get onto his feet.
"Stay down, alien." Grilleo said.
Ork tried to rise again and this time he managed to get a sharp knife in his hand.
Grilleo kicked the Ork in the face and stepped on his hand, crushing every bone inside.
Ork bellowed and dropped the knife but it was tenacious. Ork bit the Grilleo's leg armour with his oversized teeth, scraping the yellow paint.
"What are you doing, you beta grade alien." he said kicking the Ork away.
He looked at Renon "Sorry, I forgot." he said.
Renon shrugged "No worries."
Renon was given the title of Beta sergeant for the duration of this mission. The role of Beta Sergeant was an inferior rank to the proper rank Alpha sergeant. A Lion would get their rank by defeating the previous owner in combat, it is a glorious and honored rank. But the Beta is only given to those who rose to the rank as a temporary solution if the leading Alpha is killed or otherwise unavailable.
Lion's atop the tank had finished killing the Orks inside and dropped a grenade in.
"Lit on!" reported one of the Lion and they all started to run away from the TinTank.
Grilleo was dragging the captured Ork commander as he ran.
"I shall ease the machine's pain." came in Nuzillad descending from his dedicated Chimera transport.
"Get the tracks working." shouted Zeevka from the hatch.
"The healing of the machine cannot be hurried." said Nuzilliad signalling his servitors in a follow-and-assist protocol.
His support servitor with the servo-arm was behind his back as they trodded towards the broken Leman Russ.
The other servitor was a gun-servitor and had half his body replaced with a adaptor so that a heavy weapon and it's ammunition can be locked onto it's body.
Nuzillad preferred a heavy bolter equipped one simply because the Orks usually came in large numbers and less shooting guns would do him no good. That and he liked the rhythmic thud-thud of the bolt shells firing. Despite many in the Cult Mechanicum despised such illogical things as music and whatnots, Nuzillad wasn't able to get rid of his organic-part that still liked such things. He knew these things kept him from rising among the ranks in the Cult but he liked being stood apart from the crowd.
"That's why I'm here among the rubble of the practical and not at Altacra working in a labrofactory." he reminded himself many times.
Duty Unending's turret fired which broke him from his own thoughts.
An Ork shell landed nearby detonating a huge cloud of dirt into the sky.
"Hurry up, we got incoming." voxed Zeevka from inside the tank, the Ork shootas had forced him to duck.
Nuzillad came beside the tank and looked at the damage to the precious machine.
Shell had tore the lower tracks apart but luckily it haven't reached the main sprockets held inside the flank armour of the Leman Russ. The explosion bent and tore a small part of flank plating but thanks to it's outwards explosion the destructive force did not reach inside and killed the crew by mere pressure.
Nuzillad deduced that the shell must have landed in a side angle and hit one of the outer welding points detonating in a bad angle, if the shell had came in a right angle though...
"What is the situation, robes?" asked Zeevka.
Nuzillad ignored the name-calling "Three teeth are gone and the flanks armour is weaken, don't get hit."
"Thanks for the advice." said Zeevka snidely.
Three more Tintanks were rolling around exchanging fire with the Naphtali armour.
Now that the Unbroken Faith was gone, Promised Home and Never Ending was hard pressed with the one Tintank that was their charge.
Arav Break was still full strength and would manage to destroy the one Tintank they were facing but Zeevka wasn't sure if they wanted Archer to fire on their side with the AP rounds now that the Ork armour was at ramming distance.
The last Tintank was the adversary of Benet Strike, Mayta led the Land Afar on a duel with the Tintank but the tank evaded death so far.
As Zeevka watching the Tintank circled around Land Afar and blew a shell at it's back just above the engine housing. Luckily the angled surface deflected the shot and zipped it into the air, leaving a grey gash. Land Afar's engine choked under the impact and halted.
Zeevka had held his breath the whole scene and ordered a shot on the tank immediately.
Chava fired another shot and missed it. Shell exploded beside the Ork tank rocking it immensely. The Ork commander seeing the state Unending is in, ordered his tank forwards. He wanted to pick on the easy killings first.
Nuzilliad had managed to isolate the broken track pieces and prepared the track-bed for an insertion.
"Spirit of thy machine, let this newly delivered track be accepted by your fold and work efficiently as befitting your glory." prayed Nuzilliad as he lodged his wrench-staff into the track-bed and peered it open for insertion.
The support servitor was carrying the huge tracks with it's servo-arm and presented them to Nuzillad.
"01001001nstall them in proper order." ordered Nuzilliad in binary.
"Understood." replied the servitor without any expression and got to work.
Ork Tintank was racing towards Unending.
"Fire!" ordered Zeevka.
Chava took another shot at the oncoming tank, shell landed beside the Kannon turret and led out sparks and flames.
Zeevka watched intently expecting a huge explosion from the tank. None came.
"It misfired." stated Chava.
"Mettav ith!" swore Zeevka seeing the tank still came.
Nuzillad's gun servitor opened fire on the tank, riddling it's front armour with bolt rounds.
Ork kannon fired. Shell dived into the earth beneath the Gun-servitor's feet and exploded a dirt column upwards.
From the servitor only a torn upper body landed in several pieces.
Nuzillad did not turn to look back at his servitor's demise.
He prompted his servitor for duty schedule.
Servitor turned to him with a blank was totally oblivious to the demise of his brethren as second before.
"Failure. The tank at this elevation cannot be loaded properly. The maintenance protocol 793-gamma-4 results in failure due to..." said servitor.
"Misoiled rust-bucket." swore Nuzillad at the servitor which continued to look at him with a blank expression.
Ork Tintank had came beside them.
Nuzillad and Ork commander came eye to eye.
Nuzillad expected the Ork turret to turn and blow them apart any second now. The turret stayed looking up front away from Uneding.
Ork commander looked inside shouting something in his guttural language.
Zeevka was up on the hatch looking at the Ork commander.
"Their turret is broken." he realised.
"Their turret is broken!" he shouted a Nuzillad.
Ork commander rose up again and grabbed his twin-linked shoota and turned it towards their direction.
The gun began to spat round after round at Zeevka, disregarding the techpriest at first.
Zeevka dived into the turret.
Seeing the commotion the Chimera that bring Nuzillad engaged the Ork tank with it's multilaser and frontal bolter. Ork kannon fired at the Chimera blowing it and turning it's wreckage sideways as it lunged into one of the trenches.
As the Tintank came to a rest from it's violent gunfire, Ork commander continued to spit fire at the Leman Russ. But he realised the red robed priest this time and fired at Nuzilliad.
Nuzillad turned as the dakka rounds slammed into his armour.
His servo-arm moved into motion and grabbed his support servitor by the shoulder, crushing the metal servitor piece as the strong servo-arm grabbed it. He pulled the miserable once-man behind himself placing it between him and the tank, as the dakka fire landed around him.
Clanking rounds flew sparks and pieces of broken rounds around him as he lodged his wrench-staff below the tank.
Zeevka had turned his heavy stubber around and rose again to fire at the Ork assailing the techpriest. He only managed to fire a missing burst before the Ork commander forced him inside the turret.
Twin-linked shoota spew round after round and turned it's attention to the exposed Techpriest.
Nuzillad felt a round punch inside his bionic leg and ignored the damage, most of his body was being covered by the servitor he still had in his servo-arm.
Servitor himself was not aware that he was being used as cover as the Ork fired. Burst of flesh and sparks flew as dozens of round ripped into it. One of his flesh arms was a dangling meat that did not resembled an arm anymore and his metalic parts were scraped beyond repair. His face was luckily spared the onslaught except for grazes.
Nuzillad kicked a rod in his wrench-staff to push it deeper then twisted it, lifting the huge Leman Russ just a few degrees. Enough to place the tracks in. He still had the servitor in his servo-grip and placed them be hand hoping the wrench-staff will support the immense weight of the tank for a few seconds.
"What did you do? What did you do? We can't shoot you crazy sod!" came in the shouting of Zeevka on his ear-vox.
The tank's turret was left at a bad angle and didn't had a shot. If the Ork tank had turned now, Nuzillad would not stood a chance. He had put his own life in jeopardy to save the precious machine.
He placed the tracks and dropped the Leman Russ back on them. He hammered into one of the outer-locks on the Leman's hull and drove his wrench-staff's head-spanner into a locking spin. The head turned rapidly and screwed the bolt in.
"It's done." he voxed in a relieved voice.
While he was doing this the Ork tank had reversed and managed to turn his kannon looking at him.
"Roll!" came in Zeevka's voice.
Leman Russ lurched forward before Nuzillad and his heart rose with the healthy roar of the machine. It was perfect.
Ork commander ordered and the Kannon fired but Unending had already moved ahead of their turret.
Shell smacked first into the now dead support servitor then at Nuzillad's chest, ripping from the out of his body. Ork shell pierced into the soul and stayed there.
"An AP round." thought Nuzillad as he fell face first onto the ground.
He was staring up at the sky with his head servitor's remains atop him. His arms was sprawled and his chest heaved as the air ran from the puncture in many of them. He had half his lungs exchanged with pressure-bags but the wound was too great.
"This is it." he reflected on his situation keeping any emotion out of his thoughts.
"No more techno-chants. No more smell of that irritating track-oil." he said to himself illogically remembering the things in his life.
Out of everything he would miss one thing though. He turned his head to see it. He saw Unending shift in it's tracks and turn towards the Ork tank. It's frontal bolter sang with the thud-thud of chattering bolt rounds. A chorus of cherubim sang in his ears as the bolter fired again and again at the Ork tank. A symphony of death sang by the signature weapon of the Imperium. And with a finale of a sound that resonates throughout the galaxy, a sound that means death to the enemies of men. Leman Russ battle cannon fired, it's shell punctured into the wretched Ork tank and blew it apart high into the sky.
Pieces of crude Ork metal landed around the smoking wreck as the Unending stood there triumphantly.
"Robes, robes, come in. We did it. You did it. Well freaking done!" came in cheering voice of Zeevka to his ear-vox.
"Robes?"
Ork armour that struck terror into the Imperial lines were scrap metal now. Naphtali and Balharethi infantry were cheering in certain trenches seeing the Ork tanks get blown one by one. The entire front was heartened by the effort, oblivious to the costs of lives it had taken. That's how Imperium worked, with blood of the martyrs.
"Report in." said Zeevka into the vox.
They had lost two tanks to the Orks so far, each death a valued friend.
"We did it, sir." said Chava cheering, she kissed her aquila necklace in reverence.
He patted her shoulder assuringly.
"We sure did." he said smiling a sad smile.
"Lord Ioras, the Ork armour is finished, we are ready to pound the Ork bunkers. We will draw their blood for our losses." he voxed.
"Emperor's grace to your loss, Lieutenant. We will assist you and assault the bunkers. This is time we end this." replied Ioras.
The sincerity in his voice struck Zeevka, he realised that Ioras knew what it means to lose comrades.
"Okay armour division, move in line formation and blow those Orks into piles of cra-" said Zeevka.
"Sir, sir. Sir Aaron is on the line." came in Yoel's voice.
"Patch through." Zeevka said dialling Yoel's frequency.
"Lieutenant." came in Aaron' voice.
"Captain, it's good to hear your voice. I was just-" began Zeevka.
"Shut up, lieutenant." came in Aaron's voice agitated.
Zeevka was abacked, it wasn't like it for Captain to burst like that.
"Listen to me. Get your magno and looked that gate. Now!" said Aaron.
Zeevka did that and struck numb.
"You see it?" Aaron asked his voice both angry and fearful.
"Lieutenant?"
"Yes, yes. I see it Captain. Thanks." he said and slumped back on his command chair.
Chava realised the oddity and turned sideways to her commander.
"What is it?" she asked.
He looked at her with dull eyes "It's not over." he only managed to say.
An Ork monstrosity rolled outwards from the gates. Thick in armour plating, it's tracks were entirely covered by metal plating. It's front armour was angled to deflect the rounds and armoured in thick Orkish plating. The front armour came upwards to protect the turret-bottleneck from sniping shots. It's turret guns were a huge double barrelled Ork kannons built side by side. Turret itself was protected with angled armour. The worst part of it was the composite repelling armour above the main metal armour. Plates of hollowed spiked came out of the entire hull and even the turret to ease and misdirect the incoming enemy shells. It had no shoota-points whatsoever, which was un-orky. It also meant no weak weld spots or any other orifice a light weapon can punch through. This thing would stop by nothing short of AP round, high-yield shells or energy weapons.
Tafftank rolled forward leaving a huge plume of smoke from it's roaring exhausts.
"Let's show these green-bastards that nothing beats the Imperial armour." said Zeevka.
He heard Never Ending's crew cheering to his heartening words. In reality he felt shivering fear inside him. Despite all their efforts the Orks managed to construct more and more monstrosities to match Imperial might. In the cluster they had fought against those streetgrinding metal boxes, which was no match for proper armour. And the Ork tanks they faced today had taken it's toll in machines and lives. Now this thing, bigger, better armed and armoured than anything they faced before.
"Let's begin shall we?" came in Zifor's voice over the vox.
"Archer, fire!"
Vanquisher battle cannon roared and lobbed the AP round with practised ease towards the Tafftank. Shell struck the composite armour first breaking five small spikes before hitting the main front. Shell's diamantine tip scraped the surface gouging a as it moved upwards with immense force sparkling all the way, with this angle it wasn't able to pierce the hull and the momentum of the shell circled it. It zipped behind the tank still circling in the air and fell onto the dirt without an explosion.
Zifor looked on with his mouth open.
"That things though." he commented grimly.
Tafftank's commander was looking from a visor-slit atop his turret and ordered a return fire. Two barrels of kannons roared in answer. Luckily the Orks were still Orks and the range made their accuracy redundant. The two shell landed before the tanks showering them with dirt.
"We need to keep our range." said Zifor.
"How are we to do that? We are holding a line." said Zeevka.
"I don't know but it that thing gets close then we have a problem." replied Zifor.
"Load again, I want another shot." he shouted at his crew.
"Look!" said Liorit.
There was a commotion going on at the Ork tank. Behind the Tafftank came along two Ork trukks, they carried spare composite spikes and a shit-load of gretchin slaves.
Their runtherders had unloaded dozens of gretchins and forced them to climb onto the Tafftank. The gretchin formed a line from the trukks to the tank and started unloading the spikes towards the tank. Once the spikes had reached the tank, gretchin armed with welders started working on the spikes, welding them onto the broken spikes and renewing the composite armour. Within a minute the entire damage done by the Archer was gone.
"I don't freaking believe it." gasped Zifor.
"This day keeps getting worse." commented Liorit in a sour mood.
"By the Emperor we will defeat their puny devices!" shouted commander Hadar into the division wide vox, he was also banging on his command chair as he did so.
Zeevka looked at Chava and Chava returned a reassuring nod.
"We win this, or we die." growled Zeevka through his teeth.
"Sir?" came in Mayta's uncertain voice, she never heard Zeevka in a bloodlusting temper.
"Archer, Afar, get in formation with me. Home, Ending, move to the left flank and be prepared to charge in on my command. Breaker, Giant form to the right and fire on my command." he said in a growling voice, if his eyes could burst in flames they could.
Chava grabbed her aquila necklace and prayed.
Tanks rolled to their ordered positions as another duo of kannon fire landed indistinctly.
"Roll in and keep distance, I don't want two tanks gone with one blast." ordered Zeevka into his unit.
Unending, Afar and Archer moved flanking each other their tracks throwing dirt and Ork corpse as they went.
"This is it." said Archer as they entered mid-range.
They had the numbers and Zeevka was sure as hell going to use it.
"Right flank, open distruptive fire, shoot that thing!" Zeevka roared.
Heaving Giant's lascannon roared at the Tafftank missing it's turret by a metre.
Giant and Breaker fired their battle cannons as the rolled over trenches.
One shot fell shot blowing dirt but the other his the left flank of the Tafftank.
Other than killing half a dozen gretchins the high-yield shot was totally ineffective.
"No scratch, command."
"I see it, one tough bastard." replied Zeevka.
"Archer, Afar, give what you got." he ordered.
Two battle cannons roared both firing AP rounds. Mayta always ordered several AP rounds to be stored and fought a fierce battle against the munitorum clerks to get such an ammo for her tank.
Mayta's round missed it's intented target, hitting the turret's side armour instead. Round glanced off the angled surface ripping the composite spikes apart in the process. Archer managed to hit better this time and the round lodged into the front armour, it's primary explosives carved the front armour a little but it wasn't enough to get in. Rest of the shell fell back onto the dirt flying away from the tank.
Breaker and Giant fired again two rounds blowing at the flank armour. Gretchin raced towards the tanks against their will, being prodded by their masters onwards.
"Chew those little bastard apart. Don't let them repair anything." shouted Zeevka.
Yoel gripped the trigger hard and the heavy bolter started spatting rounds towards the distance. The zipping round shells were inaccurate but their number was all that mattered.
Archer's gunner opened up with the front bolter as well.
Promised Home fired it's Exterminator autocannons with a dak-dak-dak sound firing one large round after another.
The surface of the Tafftank turned into a murder zone as rounds from several directions landed on it indiscriminately. Gretchin squealed and ran in all direction while their masters killed several to keep the rest in place. Many however had managed to jump over the tank and ran towards some safety.
Breaker and Giant fired again blowing two dozen gretchins and a trukk apart.
Tafftank rolled slowly but it moved sure of it's strength.
It's kannons fired towards the left, Heaving Giant stood no chance. One round blew the front armour apart killing the driver and the gunner while the other blew the turret off it's place and let it roll on the ground.
"We lost, Giant!" said Liorit.
"I saw." said Zeevka.
"Breaker can you continue?" asked Zeevka.
"We are hanging on, don't worry about us." replied Breaker's commander.
"Affirmative."
"Firing for effect!" announced Zifor as Archer roared.
AP round hit the front armour butchering through the composite spikes and blowing a metal plating. The scorched metal dangled helplessly as it's other half managed to stay welded in place.
"We can wound it." said Zifor.
"Can you put another in there?" asked Zeevka.
"Will do. Yehosh, load us in!" said Zifor.
"Home, fire on that turret keep the commander down as much as you can." ordered Zeevka.
"Understood."
Dak-dak-dak sound began as round after round zipped at the tank and scraping pieces of sharp metal from the turret's armour.
"For the Emperor we will finish this beast!" roared Hadar as his tank charged forward.
"Stop, commander Hadar, stop!" shouted Zeevka with no avail.
Hadar was already set his mind to get his gun in range and blow at them greenskins.
"Breaker, fire on the tank." ordered Zeevka letting the crazed Hadar go.
"We have a clear shot at the second trukk, we can dis-"
Track Breaker blew apart in a huge flame cloud as two kannon rounds slammed onto it.
"Tank down, tank down." reported Zifor.
"How do we ever defeat this thing?" asked Zeevka to himself.
"With our faith. Out!" said Chava without turning and launched another shell forward.
Shell glanced off the armour and binged upwards in a yellow streak.
Tafftank had finished securing it's left flank and now turned towards the lead column.
"It's onto us." said Zifor.
"The turret is slow, we can outrun it." reflected Mayta as her tank fired another shell.
"Do it, go left, go left. Hard break!" ordered Zeevka.
Three tanks turned on their tracks and started moving leftwards.
Tafftank's giant turret moved at a grinding speed but it would reach them in time.
"The commander is not fazed, our ammo is ineffective." said Liorit.
"Cease fire on the commander, take out of green bastard you see on the hull." replied Zeevka.
"Understood."
Never Ending was halfway through to the Tafftank and managed to fire it's Eradicator Nova Cannon but missing the shot.
Ending, Archer and Afar had turned their turrets to the side and still fired as the moved away from the kannon's firing direction.
Zeevka's vox chimed in.
An unfamiliar voice called in "This is Iulius of the Spears, I will be assisting you commander, what do you have for me?" the calm voice of the Space Marine came in.
"With what?"
"One of the stormtroopers have a missile launcher."
"A mis-" shocked Zeevka.
"We put AP rounds to that thing, no offence but what would a missile launcher will do?" he said.
"None taken, I was firing these things before you were born, commander." Iulius said.
"Just tell me how can I be useful." he asked.
"The commander, we can't get to him and we can't pierce the armour." confessed Zeevka.
"Understood." came in Space Marine's voice.
Iulius stood atop a small hill and shouldered his launcher. The tank was way afar.
"You sure you can hit that?" asked Bruskia uncertain.
"If I can get my finger into this tiny trigger." replied Iulius hopping the launcher on his shoulder to get it to a lax rest.
Achagon and Henrietta was beside them. Henrietta fired a lasround to the tank's turret but the shot did nothing except leave a red burn mark.
Achagon's bolt rounds blew around the commander's visor slit without any effect.
The turret was in the Spears direction and Iulius only had a brief time opening before the turret turned to the other side.
With a whooshing sound the missile flew forwards. It streaked towards the tank and blew at it's turret.
"It's a hit." marvelled Henrietta looking through her scope.
"No, it hit the side." said Iulius and loaded another one into the launcher.
The small slit was not even visible by eye at this distance and hitting it with a missile was way beyond human capabilities.
Iulius looked through the launchers scope, he then removed his eye from the scope and focused on his own enhanced vision. He could see the slit clearly but the distance was too great. Even a minor tilt would ruin the shot, a wind, a random bullet or a problem in the aerodynamic of the rocket's fins.
He took the shot. Rocket streaked forwards, moving at high speed over the trenches and dirt ground.
Missile landed at the turret and exploded outwards.
From afar it looked like that there was no damage done to the machine. Metal plating were scored black with burn marks but it wasn't even dented much.
"It's a hit." announced Iulius into the vox.
"There is no damage." replied Zeevka.
"Oh there is, commander, in an Orks face that is." said Iulius.
Zeevka looked at realised that the turret wasn't turning anymore.
"The commander is dead." he gasped.
"Well, if you put your face into a visor slit that a missile explosion comes through then you die." said Iulius.
"Thanks you. You saved my men." said Zeevka.
"Just my duty." replied Iulius cutting the link.
"Listen up. The commander is dead, we got a brief period before the Ork manage to get that gun running." voxed Zeevka.
"We close in and hit it with everything we got." said Mayta.
"What if-" began Zeevka.
"I agree with the girl." said Zifor.
"You do?" amazed Zeevka.
"Every shot we miss gives the Orks time to recollect, we hit the same point again and again until they go off." he said.
"What if they hit some of us at close range?" asked Zeevka.
"Have faith, commander." came in Liorit's voice.
Chava had turned to looked at Zeevka with a grin.
Zeevka let out a breath letting his head drop on his chest. When he lifted it up, his eyes were determined.
"Ride onwards, armour division. For the Emperor!" ordered Zeevka.
"For the Emperor!" came in replies.
As they moved forwards the turret was started to turn again.
"That was fast." commented Zofir.
"Orks decide fast on who gets the command." replied Liorit.
They did not notice that the tank was not moving on it's tracks anymore. It was probably because the driver got shot and killed since he wanted to be the new Kaptain.
Unending had fired it's Eradicator and vaporized the remaining gretchin on the hull.
"Where do we hit it?" asked Mayta.
"The graze, Archer made. We punch it through and they're done." said Zeevka.
Archer fired again at the same place, managing to hit it again. Chucks of metal flew in all direction, weakening the plating further.
Land Afar hit close to the wound but didn't hit it.
"Damn it!" swore Mayta over the vox.
"Turrets are upon us." said Zifor calmly, entirely focused on the shot.
"Take the shot, we will direct it from you." said Zeevka and instinctively looked at Chava.
He was suprised to see her looking back at him.
They didn't say anything to one another. They knew one another. There were no need for words. This could be it. This could be their deaths, seconds away from them. One lucky Ork round and their lives would end.
Chava nodded and turned towards get visor.
"Kalam, roll her fast. Shumel, keep the gun ready. Yoel, fire on any green you see." said Zeevka.
"Chava" he came at last ", give them hell." he said grinning.
"Duty unending." replied the crew.
Duty Unending shifted left trying to evade the tank's guns.
Kannons fired at them, one shell embedded itself to the ground to the left of them blowing a huge crater of dirt. The other zipped past their turret by inches.
"Move it!" called in Zeevka and Unending rolled forwards.
Ork kannons were tracking it's movements like a hungry predator.
Zifor felt sweat on his brow as the crew stood motionless.
Each of them was totally focused on their jobs.
Driver Seshar watched the road and took the less bumpy parts of it, helping keep the gun straight.
Loader Yehosh had another round in hand just in case the other one missed.
Gunner Akiba had his eye almost embedded to the gun-display, measuring the elevation and keeping the turret steady.
Zifor had his eyes upon the enemy tank as well as his own tank, measuring the speed, the distance, the elevation and all the other misfortunes that could ruin a shot.
Mayta's had managed to hit the wound successfully bending the plate inwards.
Now it was up to Archer to finish the beast.
"Emperor." Zifor mumbled to himself without realising as a burning sweat came into his eye. He had no broke his gaze despite the pain.
Ork kannons roared first.
As the Unending was going sideways atop an elevation, two rounds hit the flank armour. One luckily turned out to be a dud and did not go off, embedding itself to the armour and staying there. The other blow the flank armour apart, lifting the tank and lunging it sideways.
The giant Leman Russ rolled downwards from the elevation, once, twice. Then it became still once it landed on it's tracks.
"Fire!" shouted Zifor.
Archer fired.
AP round flew directly to the wound with a perfected trajectory. It plunged into the Tafftank.
A second passed.
Two.
A huge explosion blow outwards, huge pieces of metal rained all the way metres away from the tank. From the Tafftank only remained a burning lower hull.
Zifor let out a huge breath and slumped back on his chair.
They could hear Hadar screaming over the vox about the glory of the Emperor and the might of the Naphtali.
Inside the tank hang a cloud. A grey and dirty cloud hang. Chava awoke and felt the sting in her forehead. She lifted a hand and found a deep gasp on her head. Wiping the blood on her pants, she looked below the tank to see if everyone was doing okay.
Yoel and Kalam was spared the trashing, being strapped into their chairs.
Shumel held on, being a strong guy, he managed to lock the ammo in place and held onto the gun itself, which would never flail except if the tank itself blow apart.
"We did it, we won." said Chava to herself.
How her head stung, the damned Orks. She grabbed a towel and ran it over her face wiping blood onto it.
In her other hand she clutched her aquila necklace.
"Thank you, thank you." she said looking up at where the sky should be.
"We did it, Zeevka, we did it, Zeevka." she said.
"Zeevka?" she turned to see half of Lieutenant Zeevka sitting in his command throne.
He was lunged upwards from his chair as the tank trashed and his upper body was ripped under the weight of the Leman Russ tank.
"No." she gasped.
"No." she said.
She turned her head in denial of the awful truth and looked downwards, not wanting to see.
She lifted the aquila necklace to her head and grabbed it tight with her two hands. Her hands shook violently.
Her shoulders started to shake as sobs took hold and her tears flowed across her smoke blackened face, clearing her flesh as they went.
She cried silently slumped on her chair, in the dark belly of the Duty Unending.
