"This is the way of things: there are certain limits beyond which no virtue can be found."
-Catullus, Roman orator
The temple was the last building standing; perhaps a fitting testament to the Emperor's will. Crouched inside, Imperial Guard Captain Kess and the remainder of the Armageddon 277th Steel Legion's Bravo Company readied themselves for the onslaught that was about to occur. Orks had razed the rest of the city, and it was only a matter of time before the temple itself was assaulted.
An explosion shook the temple from the artillery outside, and dust drifted down from the rafters. Captain Kess grunted, and checked the ammo left in his bolt pistol. Crouched next to him in the pew, Sergeant Tranis gazed down the barrel of his lasgun, aimed at the large wooden doors of the temple. He nodded slightly to the captain.
'Private Samson, are you ready?' Captain Kess asked into the vox.
'Yes sir, we're ready,' replied Private Samson.
Captain Kess switched his vox to transmit to the entire company. 'Ready… move!' he yelled.
Instantly the troopers flanking the huge doors of the temple flung them open, and each tossed a frag grenade outside.
The orks were densely huddled in a mob, and the detonation of the grenades sent green flesh and black blood splattering in every direction.
Manning a heavy bolter, two troopers opened fire immediately, spraying mass-reactive shells into the mess of orks. Everywhere the bolts touched, a limb or torso exploded, tearing down waves of green skins at a time. Yet still the orks pressed on towards the open gates of the temple.
Other troopers fired small arms out the massive doorframe; no doubt they struck orks in the swelling mob, but the effect was hardly noticed amid the sheer numbers.
Beyond the seething sea of orks lay only ruins, piles of rockcrete or other building materials, reduced to piles of rubble by the weeks of battle. However, even over the mass of green bodies and the smoke of weapons fire, a massive mechanized figure strode behind the ork lines.
The Guardsmen did not have an intimate knowledge of how the orkish rank structure worked, but obviously this was some sort of leader. He pushed other orks aside with his sheer bulk – when he did not simply rip them apart with his huge powered claw, for no other crime than being in his way. Rounds from the Guardsmen panged and ricocheted off his huge mechanical frame as his autocannon opened fire, spraying rounds back through the huge doorway like a mirror image of the heavy bolter the Guardsmen pelted him with.
He stopped for a second, throwing his head back and screaming 'WAAARRRRGGGGHHH!' in a half-bestial, half-mechanical voice. The surrounding orks raised their large axes aloft, echoing his cry.
…until the leader's head exploded.
Private First Class Samson's sniper rifle rang true, sending a large caliber, mass-reactive shell into the leader's head. It detonated a fraction of a second after entering, showering the nearby orks with blood and cranial fluid. Instead of charging forward as the user intended, the mechanical suit toppled over, crushing at least two orks underneath.
'Now, move!' shouted Captain Kess. One of the stained-glass windows of the temple shattered completely, its frailty finally exposed. The remainder of Bravo Company pulled back, and began to file out of the floor-to-ceiling window frame near the back of the temple.
The tidal wave of orks could not be stopped and they slowly moved meter by meter into the temple, trampling their own dead in the process. One ork managed to run forward and hack a pew in two, exposing a trooper from his cover. Screaming in bloodlust, the ork raised his axe for a lethal blow but was stopped when the trooper shot him at point blank range with his lasgun. The ork's left shoulder was instantly burned away, as well as half of his neck. The ork collapsed, grasping what remained of his neck.
The trooper exhaled, but pushing the body of the wounded ork aside yet another ork sprang over the broken pew and chopped the trooper in the abdomen, his powerful axe cleaving clear through his stomach and cracking his spine.
Captain Kess paused at the window frame and fired his plasma pistol in the vicinity of that ork, but across the temple all he could see was a large plume of smoke come up where he had obviously incinerated ork flesh with the heat of a sun. He fired several more shots into the overwhelming wall of orks, and each time he saw an ork go down but the mass continued to surge forward regardless.
Running out of the temple's shattered stained glass window, Captain Kess turned to see the clock tower where his sniper, Private First Class Samson, was perched. Instead he only saw half a tower and then smoldering ruin. He sighed, but just as he took a breath Sergeant Tranis grabbed his shoulder and yelled over the din, 'Sir, we must go on!'
Catching up to the rest of his troops, Captain Kess ran toward the parked vehicles. The relief force had not been sent, but at least they still had their APCs.
Sealing the hatch on his Chimera, several Guardsmen began to shoot small arms out the fire ports on the sides. The driver sped up as quickly as he could in the difficult terrain of half-demolished buildings and piles of debris, narrowly dodging down power lines and lamp posts.
'Just a bit farther and we should be out of range of the ork weapons,' the driver said over his shoulder. Captain Kess chringed. Just a bit farther and we'll be a crater, he thought amid the rocking from explosions.
Ahead of him he saw streaks in the sky – the familiar trails of drop pods! They were going to land in his path, but at least he would have his reinforcements.
Better late than never my ass, he chided the reinforcements mentally, knowing that he had paid for their tardiness with his men's lives.
'Angle toward those drop pods,' Captain Kess commented after a bone-jarring explosion nearly deafened him.
Over his shoulder the driver shouted, 'Are you sure, sir?'
Captain Kess squinted. The drop pods were marked with the axe and skull… the primitive heraldry of the orks.