Chapter 25, Great Wolf Vs The Beast.
Bjorn of Tra
The thunder of guns resounded across the battlefield as tons of lead were thrown across the sky, smashing into either unlucky parts of the soil and exploding or into the remnants of the cement and iron structure that had once been an Ork fortress. It was now no more than rubble that they held on to with extreme determination.
It was a wondrous sight, one that had not believed I'd see again, though probably I'd see it more than I'd like considering there were probably more fortress worlds like this scattered about the Wheel of Fire.
All around me other Wolves of Fenris stayed low in the trenches dug by our canine companions and our own hands, reinforced in a few places with bits of wood taken from what was left of the jungles that once occupied the majority of this world. We had fought long over the last 3 weeks to push this close to the fortress. The enemy had maintained a steady flow of Orks into the forward lines up till recently, either they were running low on troops or they were trying to lure us in. Hard to say, it was hard to judge the Orks as combatants.
I'd heard stories from the older Marines who fought when the legion was known as the sixth and at the time they had said that Orks were stupid and foolish creatures that could be easily defeated. Well, if that was true, there must be significant variance amongst Orks because these ones were somewhat intelligent in their tactics. At night we often had to triple security compared to what we were used to because Orks would launch raids, trying to use the night to their advantage. Granted it wasn't that successful, most Marines had thermals and night vision in their helmets that they could turn on but the Orks tried nonetheless and they denied us sleep. It may have been a problem for a normal army but for Space Marines that was not a problem at all. They also attempted to return artillery fire for the first week, quite a lot of material was destroyed on our side because of that. The Iron Warriors had pushed for an assault and our own commanders had agreed which seemed to have been a bit of a mistake as the Orks had revealed better artillery skills than we suspected to topple over a couple of the armored trains, forcing us to dig in and repair them.
There were benefits and non-benefits to the Squat trains I had seen since we started fighting and I suspected most Marines had come to this conclusion as well. The trains worked as good mobile bunker bases, allowing us to push forward while keeping us somewhat supplied as we moved forward. However they should never be in the front line as they were generally a good target for the enemy fire and, no matter how tough the Squats claimed they were, put anything on fire and it will have problems. I could only hope that the higher-ups in the command structure had figured that out and were now planning around those problems for the future campaigns where we would be deployed with the squats.
Not that the Squats themselves were a problem They were good guys really, though crude with their humor sometimes. They had generally stopped after one of them had made an unwise comment about the Primarch in hearing range of some of the more vocally supportive of our leader.
Thankfully it hadn't gone too bad, just a mutual beating up of each other. It had been followed by drinking and comments about beards and the proper style and length. Which had also developed into an insult match but that was short-lived as well, the drinking had helped calm that down. That and the fact that we found out that what was left of that particular jungle's wood on this planet had certain narcotic effects. Nothing too terrible but it had calmed the situation down pretty well.
We'd simply just put up a large bonfire of some of the remaining wood and enjoyed the night.
That being said, ever since then, we've got on well with the dwarves and worked well to push the lines in. They were pretty salty about having to leave their bikes behind and I could understand why, the bikes gave them a lot of mobility and they had to give it up to move across the trenches. Now that we were finally inside of the central fortifications of this Ork world it wouldn't matter. The campaign was generally drawing to an end and we were simply waiting for them to make their final move in this war, their final charge from the wreckage of their destroyed castle as they tried to grasp whatever final victory they could against us. They had already accomplished much more than we had hoped, several hundred Marines were already dead, with many more severely injured. This campaign had been probably one of the bloodiest to this day and, supposedly, this was just a light fortification behind the lines. We were not meant to be there, they had expected us in the big places that would hold us up.
No doubt we would take similar losses when we got to those worlds that were meant to actually hold us up indeterminately.
Shrugging those thoughts off I looked to Kori Bretakollrsson as he approached up the trench with some of the others from the squad. They had been on patrol and were now getting down to take a rest.
"Any movement from the Orks?" he asked as he sat down next to me.
I shook my head before saying, "Afraid not, still held up tight in their little fortress. No idea what their plan is but it can't be good if they're willing to let us bombard them the way they have been."
"Maybe they just gave up?" Audgislisson, the radio man, asked as he pulled out his knife and began to cut back some of the hair on his head. He tended to have a mohawk-like haircut style and, for the last week, we'd been so busy he had to let his hair grow out. It figured that he would take this moment to satisfy his need to cut back his mane.
"I mean, I don't think they'd give up," Kori Bretakollrsson said as he began to check his bolter rifle. "More likely they're just waiting for the right moment to strike out at us, for us to become complacent," then he looked around and seemed to realize something. "Well I guess either that or they're just letting us get real close, aren't they?"
I chuckled at that "Yeah, I guess you're right. We are getting a bit complacent about them just staying in that fortress so they're probably getting ready to suprise us. Any moment now they're going to spring out at us. It's going to be interesting because we have more bolter guns and heavy bolters pointing at that fortress than I think most legions have Volkyte weapons.
"About that," Captain Boesson said, moving in our general direction. He wore the gray armor of someone who'd been in the legion from the days of the Route, although he had adopted a wolf pelt cape to his clothing and had painted a few streaks of light blue to represent a shared color with the newer Fenrisians to the legion. He was a tall Marine, probably one of the tallest in the legion with dark hair and a keen eye. I would rather have said keen eyes but he had lost one of them in some of the few conflicts that the Route had been in before finding its way to Fenris.
Looking us over he nodded before stepping up to look over the trench wall with me, saying "Just got back from further up the command chain, the Primarch thinks they will try and break out tonight or within the next 24 hours. Wolves have been on edge or something. Don't know how she knows these things but… Going to trust her on this she's not led us wrong so far."
"Probably whatever that ability of hers is," Kori Bretakollrsson said, standing up to stretch.
"Ability? Oh yea, right, you stuff all the psyker stuff under that title. I don't know if she can sense them coming or not but I wouldn't put it past her. This psyker stuff is not my field of expertise though."
I know I did, before asking "So, you think that most legions have more Volkyte than us? Any idea why we're having so much trouble getting some then? I heard they're great fighting Orks."
The captain shrugged before saying "Logistic issues, I'm sure. Perhaps they're just waiting to see if we survive the Wheel of Fire? We'll get enough soon enough, the bolter gun is perfectly fine and serviceable meanwhile."
I nodded an agreement, before asking "Then any other weapons we're low on because the Imperium is waiting to see if we're a serviceable legion or not?"
He shrugged, before saying, "Going by the Mechanicum motorcycles I wouldn't be surprised if we aren't getting as many plasma weapons or Las cannons as we should have. At least they did not skimp out on the tanks, that's the important part; we'll need those to fight."
"Hopefully we've got enough of those. We've been getting a lot of niche weapons that I don't know how we're going to integrate into our forces. Like we have shields designed to be used with both weapons that were dropped off yesterday. As far as I can tell the Primarch didn't order them so no one knows why they're here, they're just here and will probably be integrated into a few forces just to find out if they're useful."
I looked over at the enemy fortress. Against artillery…I shrugged. But against their infantry? I guess it wouldn't be so bad. "Their rounds weren't that good at penetrating armor, so giving us another layer of armor to put in front of us wasn't a bad option."
"That, I can agree on," Captain Boesson said, before turning to look at the man again, "though using those shields to cross these trench lines is pretty much the dumbest idea I can come up with, if that's why they shipped them here. At least we're getting plenty of flamethrowers, we'll need that for the cleanup operations on this world to make sure we kill all the fungi."
"As well as plenty of anti-armor equipment and anti-air, so whatever attempt they make to try and push out of the rubble they now call a home… We'll be prepared and able to smack them back in quite easily, I believe."
"Yeah, here's to that," the radio man said as he finished cutting the hair from the sides of his head, with minimal bleeding I saw. He needed to work on his technique and maybe get an actual mirror, otherwise he'd end up with a scarred head and it wouldn't even be from fighting a wolf or something. I guess he could lie, the only ones who would be able to call him out would be members of the squad after all.
Shaking my head at the thought I started to get down when I heard something. It sounded like a low rumbling, not the same rumbling we'd been hearing for days from the artillery. That I was used to but this was different, how different was hard to say but it sounded like a repeated sound of moving machinery. Looking back towards the enemy line I tried to see if there were any tanks, or whatever they called tanks, moving towards us but there was nothing there. In fact, it was rather quiet in a sense. Strangely it now sort of sounded like it was directly underneath us. Getting down on one knee and then on my stomach I listened to the ground and there it was, the sound of machinery grinding as it moved forward.
Looking around I saw the others were looking at the ground, as intently as I had been listening to it, and picking up their guns as if they were worried something was going to spring forth from it.
To be fair that probably was not an unwise move. I immediately got up and aimed my bolter down, taking a few steps away from whatever was going on. Just in case.
This proved to be a wise decision as the trench in front of me exploded in a shower of dirt and fire, sending the squad into disarray as members were cut off from each other in the fire or buried under the dirt.
In the moments after the explosion of dirt, the screams of 'WAAAGH' came out of the hole, following the giant drilling device that had pushed its way to the surface. Orks came streaming out of the hole around the device, rushing into the trenches and attempting to murder us. We, of course, denied them that ability as far as I could see, at least from my angle. The captain merely went back to back, firing our bolters as the Orks rushed towards us. A couple even went running past us, probably searching for the other members of the squad who were laying into the beasts.
Our guns were turning red hot from the amount of fire we were putting out as new streams of melee-focused shorter Orks rushed past us and at us. It was about that moment we realized exactly what was going on together.
"They're trying to use up our ammunition with their untrained, the veterans will get us when they come out with the real guns!" I shouted.
"Agreed!" The Captain said, firing forward. "Everyone pull back and find a turn in the line. We cannot let ourselves be overrun."
With that our squad, which had metaphorically been split in two would now be fully split in two, though I doubted Kori Bretakollrsson would stay in the same position as we had been deployed. I figured he would do the same, as both our teams would probably start backing up in the trench and heading for redoubts that were stronger and more defendable in these particular lines.
Falling back in the trench we made our way west, our guns firmly pointed towards the Orks and trying to kill them as fast as they came out, reloading as we went and keeping them from overrunning us. We were making our way towards a trench line that connected back towards the next line of trenches which we hoped to find still secure. As we got to the cross-section we saw fellow Wolves of Fenris moving back from the other direction, telling us that well… If it was pretty bad in the direction we'd come from, it was pretty bad to the west as well.
Captain Boesson walked over to the men who were falling back and asked "Some kind of digger machine thatflooded you with Orks?"
The sergeant, who I didn't recognize, yelled back, "Yes, sir! They've overrun the trench nearly completely in this direction. How about the other way?"
"Same, son, same. We'll have to pull back into the trenches of the second line at this current rate, or hold this position and hope for reinforcements."
Turning to Audgislisson, who had managed to end up on our side, he said, "Get me communications to the next line and find out what they're planning to do about this situation."
He nodded and took a knee, starting to listen to the calls. It took him a few bits to get information before he finally yelled, "Sir, this is not just on the first line. There are breaches in the second and third line, it seems like they are trying to overwhelm all lines on this particular side of the trenches."
"How many goddamn Orks are there in that fortress?" He asked before one of the Orks, apparently deciding that running in the trench towards us that was not a smart move, jumped in from the side of the trench where we had not been looking. The captain just barely got his gun up in time to blow its brains out but it was a close-run thing.
Turning to us, he said, "Well we cannot hold this position without support from the back lines. We need to pull back now, get ourselves out of the trap and into a position with stronger support and more ammunition."
"Everyone, let's get ready to beat feet but keep your guns hot and do not let the enemy penetrate our defensive lines. Got it?"
"Of course! Yes, sir!" was yelled as we formed up in a basic square and started to slowly withdraw down the trench line towards the next series of trenches. Captain leading the way along with two other men watching the forward half, in case Orks started coming from that direction as well. Something I hoped wouldn't happen as we were already having enough Orks charge from behind us, dying as they were slaughtered under bolter fire and leaving a pile of bodies that the next Orks would have to climb over.
That was good for us as it gave us more room to work but if there were Orks coming from in front of us that would mean we would have to carefully navigate over the corpses while they were rushing into the midst of us. Granted they didn't survive long wielding only crudely made axes. One not fully dead Ork rose behind one of the men and slashed at his back-armor plate, only for another man to turn and shove his fist through the Ork's skull turning his brain into jelly and splattering it across the dirt of a wall.
Before anyone could throw congratulations at him another Ork jumped down and then another and the realization started to hit me that, because no one was able to keep a fire down on the Orks outside the trenches, they could literally just pull themselves up and try and come around on our sides.
Even if they weren't coming from in front of us this would be problematic.
Thankfully that proved not to be a big problem in the end as the next Ork that tried to jump down in front of us was fired upon by someone with, by the sound of it, a heavy bolter going active again. This implied that either line two or three were secure enough that they could man their machine guns again.
With crowd control weapons now securing the roof Captain Boesson said "Come on, boys, we're almost there. Let us push forward down the last few meters of the trench so we break through into friendly ground. It should make it harder for the Orks and give the wolves a chance to close range on us."
As if my thoughts had summoned something I had considered an Ork jumped down from the trench line number two to our left. Tight there was nothing but empty trenches and bodies and blood, which was not that bad a sign as most of the bodies appeared to be Orks. This meant the second line might have already started pulling back to their entrance.
Without another word, the Captain started moving towards the west. Understandable, we had come from the west to the eastern part of the line which meant there was a chance that we would hook up with the lost members of our squad as they did the same from whatever trench line they took. I hoped so but it was a possibility that Kori Bretakollrsson had died in the fighting, that would be a shame.
Man was good luck and marked by the Alfather for good things, I had hoped to ride that mark all the way it would allow me to. That and he was just generally a good guy. Either way though I needed to focus on the here and now so we started pushing in the direction that would take us to the next trench line. that would take us back to the third trench which, by the sound of it, had yet more heavy bolters going online so it was probably almost secure or was going to be quite quickly.
Made sense. After all the third trench line would have access to the supplies and to troops who were still either fresh or recovering from being at the front. No doubt they were rushing into the third trench to secure it, killing the Orks as fast as they could.
Could only hope they killed the Orks quick enough that we could seal the holes in the line and start taking back the second and first trench. Then again we might not need those trenches if this was their final assault outwards as, with the amount of Orks that had just been rushing out of those tunnels, I could take a good guess that this might be the case.
We were rounding the corner when we came across a bit of a problem. Standing near the trench line and heading back to the third line was a group of Orks, ones actually armed with guns. They turned on us with abandon and sprayed wildly into the trench walls past us, shooting up a Space Marine from the other unit. He was not fast enough getting out of the way and his life ended in a series of explosions, the Ork bullets apparently being explosive in nature and finding weak points in the armor to set off internal explosions from oxygen containers and several other important key items in the power armor's equipment.
Captain Boesson just barely made it back into safety as the rounds went past him. "Shit. Shit." He muttered as I saw that he had not escaped unscathed. Several rounds had punctured through his hand, not destroying it fully by the looks of it as the armor kept it together, though I wondered if he'd be okay. Considering all the modern technology that had been brought in with the joining of Fenris to the Imperium of Man he'd probably be fine, having a robotic hand to replace a damaged one was not a bad option. He could even probably have a few more equipment and tools in it, I figured.
Either way I pointed to our medic, Sigguatr Skeggisson. "help the Captain." I ordered before moving forward to take his position.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," he said.
"Yeah, just like Captain Kollsvein Ornolfsson was when he lost his arm," I pointed out. Captain Kollsvein Ornolfsson had had his arm sheared off by an Ork and then proceeded to beat the bastard who had done it with his arm. Not the wisest move because they hadn't been able to save it, the bones having been so shattered it wasn't worth it. He was currently, as far as we knew, on a transport back to Fenris to either get a replacement arm or take up a teaching position. Either one would be fine by my point of view though I'd heard some people argue over the matter before, some saying they'd never take a teaching position. Those who were mainly from the more barbaric areas of Fenris… well, they tended to be more practical-minded and, following the logical thinking of the Primarch, tended to say a teaching position was fine. Strange reckoning but not one I should be thinking about at this moment.
Either way the Captain nodded and backed off, allowing me to take the position and look around the corner. And pull back, of course, real fast as enemy fire blasted the corner almost off and caused me to back up some more.
Grabbing a grenade from my belt I put my finger through the ring and pulled the pin before tossing it around the corner. I figured we had 5 seconds so I pointed to two men and said "when the blast goes we go in," They signaled their agreement and I grabbed a knife off my belt. Dual-wielding a knife and a bolt gun was probably not the most effective way to fight but at this range I didn't need accuracy so it might work.
4 seconds later the trench line was deafened by an explosion and I turned the corner, unleashing fire from my bolt gun, my knife hand holding the barrel against the side of the wall just for a little bit of stability. The other two Marines came around me to fire as well, saturating the area where the Orks had been standing. This sort of worked as the Orks failed to cover those who had been falling into the trench line across from us. One using his friends as flesh shields but once I realized they were not as big of a threat as I'd originally suspected I rushed into the fray, firing shots at the Orks down the trench to keep them pinned as I smacked my fist deep into the gut of the Ork who used his fellows for cover. I jammed my knife as deep as it could go before pulling up and unleashing a torrent of gore onto my arm.
The other two marines moved forward to my sides, firing on the Orks who had dug for cover though they didn't stay in cover for long. After a few moments we heard bolter fire from that direction and one came tumbling down dead. Around the corner stepped Kori Bretakollrsson, as well as a few other Marines and several of Tanya's Valkyries. They had mainly been deployed to the third line I thought, though I guessed maybe some of them were taking up position in the second? Either way they looked like they had been through hell, most of them covered in gunk
and blood that I could only hope was of xeno variety.
"Lucky bastard!" I said, looking past him at the girls. "All I found were other Space Marines."
"Hahaha." Kori Bretakollrsson fake laughed as he fired a few shots into the downed Ork to make sure he was dead. "Well, at least you found others and weren't actually found. Damn line is mingled up all over the place, Orks are everywhere and I'm not even that sure that the fire coming from the third line is friendly. One of our brothers tried to stand up to fire down into the Orks and was immediately shot from behind."
"Well, that's not great," I mentioned. "I think the ones at least on our side of the line were friendly, at least they took down Orks. So who knows what the third line looks like right now."
"Probably an Emperor damn mess," Captain Boesson said, stepping forward and holding his hand, his pulled gun having been slung over his shoulder. "This whole operation has gone to hell."
"Ain't that the truth," I muttered, before saying, "I hope we don't have to get involved in any more trench fights in the future. We should be fighting them in open fields, not in this shit."
"Open fields just means more casualties," Kori Bretakollrsson pointed out as he stepped firmly on another Ork who apparently wasn't as dead as I thought, crushing their head under his power foot.
"Either way, though," he continued, "We need to pull back into the third line. We're too separated from reinforcements here, and if they take the third line wer'e cut off."
"Agreed," The Captain said, pointing to Kori Bretakollrsson and me. He ordered "You two will lead the way down the next trench. Kill anything big green and ugly and if the third line is compromised we'll just try and figure out our move from there. Hopefully it's not too bad there, reinforcement should have moved in quite quickly thanks to our proximity to the supply lines."
"And, if not, I'm sure the Primarch is rushing to save our asses as we speak," I said, punching the shoulder of Kori Bretakollrsson.
The Captain looked at me, confused, before I explained, "Kori Bretakollrsson here is an old friend of hers, used to be the king of the other side of Fenris before she got full control of our planet."
"Really? Didn't know that. Well then maybe he should move to the center if he is that known for bringing her out to save his ass."
Kori Bretakollrsson shook his head, replying "It's just coincidence, sir, small world sort of stuff. It's not even that often."
"He's been on two deployments and both times she's shown up. Granted she's only saved his ass once of those two times but I would not put it past it happening a second time."
"Technically that would be the third time," Kori Bretakollrsson muttered. "She did save my life when I was but a child."
"Ha! Really? Now tell me, is she your unofficial godmother? This is something we should know about." I said, razzing him a bit.
Kori Bretakollrsson shook his head before walking over towards the trench, looking down it. "I would love to answer that question another time. How about we get to the third line and find out what's happening?"
"As long as you answer it, man, I'm fine getting a move on," said the radio man from the back, apparently having been interested in this conversation.
Lettingout a deep sigh the captain said "Then let's get a move on." And with that we retreated down the trench line towards the third line, moving quickly to not be caught by any more Orks pushing up from the first line as there was no doubt they would.
What we popped out to when we got to the other side was a bit of a mess all on its own. On one side there were Orks shooting past us to the other direction towards Space Marines that were shooting back at them, putting us in the center of a crossfire between friendlies and enemies. Not wanting to push too far forward I grabbed the last grenade off my belt and tried the same trick again, throwing it towards the Ork side and stepping back. There was an explosion and quickly we were able to push forward, signaling to the Space Marines that we were pushing from the Ork-controlled line.
Leonard and a few of othres moved over to join us, though most seemed to be pulling back. Most likely there was fighting going on in another direction that we couldn't see.
The third line was bigger, mainly due to the storage of tanks in the trench and added bunkers for protection of the wounded and those resting. We made our way forward and quickly found something surprising.
Laughing I said "Hey look! Your godmother is here." Primarch Russ was fighting a giant Ork with a claw for a hand that seemed to be more iron than flesh. Her sword was meeting his ax and claw in lightning strikes, several Orks were all around, rooting for their war boss I guess. Oh well, at least some of our brothers were doing the same for the Primarch.
It was a show, to say the least, and I could only wonder how it all started. Still, the fact that she happened to show up just near Bretakollrsson position in the line was absolutely a sign that she was looking out for him.
Tanya Russ
The battlefield was absolute chaos. Not only was it absolute chaos but all plans had gone to absolute shit.
Which was to be expected, really. Plans rarely survive contact with the enemy. The fact that things had gone as well as they had was simply a matter of luck but I don't think I had ever planned for the idea that the Orks would tunnel under the trenches with drilling machines to then burst forth from the ground and spill out into the lines all across the western front. If I had I probably would have reinforced those lines but I hadn't. All I had planned for was a general slow crushing job as the Orks were trapped and there was no need to rush in and get my men killed charging them with abandon as the Iron Warriors had suggested once or twice.
Well, considering they had launched this attack the way they had, perhaps the Iron Warriors had been right on that matter. I had simply been giving the Orks time to formulate a counter-attack that had created chaos and was now causing probably the same amount of deaths that would have happened if I had ordered the assault.
My mistake, I would not let it happen again in the future. I had underestimated the Orks in their ability to fight, now I would not.
But the matter was now the trenches were basically overrun and they needed to be reinforced, which was why I was forced to assemble as many Space Marines and Squats as possible to feed them into the chaos.
Normally I think I would have preferred to stay back from such a fight but… well, in conflicts like this being in control of the situation wouldn't do me any good. I couldn't order more troops down there to seal the gap, as much as much as I wanted to it wouldn't seal the gap. So I had reluctantly decided to accompany the forces into the fight, bringing with me the large chainsword I was given and getting myself dirty as well as many of my wolves.
We had been in the process of actually securing the third trench line. From what I had been able to pick up over the comms chatter a good percentage of the trenches, at least 50 to 70%, was fully in our control and we could push forward into the second trench once we got it up to 80 or 90 percent.
But that was not immediately going to happen because, as I entered what had been built as a potential artillery position, a large circular hole in the ground with cement laid for the artillery piece but still empty, I found a giant Ork surrounded by other Orks. It was standing there, yelling at some smaller creature that I guess could be considered a Gretchin.
Either way the small green thing had turned in my direction as I stepped in there, Space Marines on either side as guards and Valkyries behind them, and said "Boss man, boss man! look, big big 'umie."
The Ork, I guess the boss, was standing almost to eye level with me. It turned from yelling at the little creature, revealing that it was covered in what could be best described as a mech suit in some areas. A crude power armor from my guess. And to add to the ridiculousness of the armor in question it had been designed to replace the hand with a giant claw. Now I may not be the most military-minded person in the world but even I could think that replacing your hand with a claw seemed like a downgrade. You gave up your dexterity for fighting ability, sure, but if someone managed to damage that claw? Well then you now lost all fighting ability, didn't you?
The lord of the green Orks laughed before pointing at me, "Ya're 'da 'umie leada. Ya're da big wun, uv kourse, ya're da 'umie leada. I declare a challenge ta ya. 'n 'da name uv grarluzz uv 'da wheel uv fire empire, i challenge ya ta a fight ta 'da deth. An' if ya refuse, well, Iz still gunna fight ya."
"And what if I just shoot your brains out?" I countered, raising my hand to ask the most realistic question.
"Ya may try but ya will find 'dat difficult! vargrunak, shoot me."
"Wot? errr…" the little green creature said.
"I said shoot me or i'll stomp yer."
"right away, sir, right away!" The creature replied, grabbing an oversized gun and firing a shot at the Ork. A round bounced off what could be best described as a shield and went up into the air beyond the trench line probably going to cause some sort of mayhem somewhere but not my problem.
The Ork raised its claw hand and its ax and said, "'da shield protects me from yer weapons, 'da only fing dat will hurt me iz dat little pointy sticka on yer back dere" pointing towards the chain sword that was mounted on my back.
"Dis will be mutual kombat wun on wun, fair as it kan be, an' 'da winna takes 'da world."
I blinked, considering this. I would prefer not to engage in hand-to-hand combat with some Ork but then again I couldn't shoot his brains out and if I were to just send my wolves in that would seem a little bit unfair and unsporting. As much as I would prefer to just not get involved in this it was probably best for my reputation that I defeated him quickly and with my own two hands.
I mean I could quite easily refuse but there was the honor of the thing to consider. Really the Ork had apparently gone through all the bother to engineer a situation to directly challenge me to a fight and if I simply said no… well, it would look bad to my warriors. Not to mention that if I said no I would set a rather unfortunate standard.
What if, sometime in the future, one of my commanders is challenged to a fight by the leader of a human civilization with the promise that if they lose they will surrender without fighting. Well what If I just set the precedent that my Wolves do not accept those kinds of arrangements? This potential friend would go out of their way to simply order a full-out conflict, never regarding a deal as something worth considering.
Granted, it was very well possible that a situation like this would develop and they'd still betray us and say no after their loss. But it was better to have at least attempted a diplomatic solution than to not at all. If I went out of my way to set the standard of just murdering enemies when they offered some kind of diplomatic duels… well, that's a bad standard.
Finally, just letting out a deep and disturbed sigh, I drew the blade from my back and said, "If you want to fight, let's fight. You're not going to survive it very well but you seem to have your opinions on the matter. Any chance you would accept surrender or will you give in to your Orkiest tendencies and battle to the death?".
The Ork smashed its mechanical claw into its chest and yelled, "Godbusta will not surrender! 'dat's not a gud fight, 'dat's a waste uv time. Eitha ya die or i die an dis world's fate will be determined."
"Good enough for me," I said. I stepped towards him with one slow step before I leaped at him, bringing the blade down from the top, hoping to just cut right through his ugly green skull in a moment.
The Ork was a lot faster than I suspected, he was able to block the blade with the blunt end of his axe before trying to hook it around the the blade and rip it out of my hands.
Which did not accomplish a thing since I had a strong enough grip on my weapon, not to mention I had the handle magnetized to the gloves so that I could not actually lose grip unless I deactivated it. A little bit of forethought does us good sometimes.
The Ork, seeing we were in a bit of a stalemate, tried to chomp at me with its claw-like other hand. I simply grabbed its wrist and attempted to rip the arm off but the power armor was a lot stronger than I had suspected. How this load of scrap was able to hold itself together I did not know but it was not only managing to not break under the Primarch strength I had been granted by my biology but it also withstood the little boost that the power armor I wore gave me.
Well this wasn't very successful so I did my best to unstick my blade from his ax and stepped back, letting go of his claw as I did, and trying to get a better observation of the situation from a distance.
The Ork laughed, to the thunderous applause from its companions, and yelled, "see, yer grunts? told yer 'dat i kould fight dis 'umie WAAAGH! boss wun on wun, all i have ta do iz break dere spirits an' dere will an' dey'll die like all da rest uv da 'umiez 'oo challenge da empire uv our great WAAAGH! boss grarluzz".
"You're being a little bit too self-assured," I mentioned before taking the blade in a double grip and stepping closer.
"Self-insured, no. Ushered iz da word…" The creature said, apparently not realizing how stupid that sounded.
"No, it's not," I simply retorted before stepping closer; slashing down again. The chainsaw revved heavily along the blade as the Ork brought up its own ax, making sparks flow. But that's when I disengaged my weapon and pulled back, before giving the creature a solid kick in the side which sent it flying into the nearby dirt-retaining wall of the circular hole in the ground we were fighting in.
"Oh, an 'dat's not fair! ya're not supposed ta use yer legs."
"Why? Because yours are short and stumpy?" I asked, stepping closer towards him.
"No, 'dat's jus not how fight'n' iz done. Yer smash each otha wit' yer weapons ova da head, yer do not kick."
"You don't because you have short stumpy legs meant for waddling around. Heck do you even have the bone structure to stand at attention, or do you always stand bow-legged like that?" I pointed out before bringing the blade down on him. He managed to block it again, this time with his claw. I immediately withdrew my sword as I realized he was attempting to close the claw and cut the blade in half. Would have disarmed me rather well there, I noted. Better to not let him get a chance to try that again, I thought.
"hey! we orks are a proud people, i do not need yer xenophobic insults ova 'da way our bone structure, whateva 'dat iz, iz designed." The Ork said, pointing its ax at me.
I looked at the beast rather incredulously before asking, "Are you kidding me? You Orks literally enslaved humans and you're complaining about a comment made in the midst of combat to the death? It was not even an insult, just pointing out the realities of your own biology."
The Ork showed the biggest shit-eating grin I think I'd ever seen, implying to me that this was some sort of tactic just to screw with me, possibly to try and get me off my guard. "Yes. Yes, i am, ya hear. dese remarks are insensitive ta 'da Ork race."
I blinked several times before saying, "Noted. At the next human resource meeting I will bring up how we deal with Orks. Till then how about you just lose your head already?"
And I whipped the sword to the side, trying to slice that creature's head off from the power armor that was protecting the rest of its body. it brought up its claw hand just in time, catching the blade. Before I could do much to stop what was about to happen I heard the distinctive crunch of metal being sheared in half.
He got me, the green bastard had got under my skin. I was going to have to be better about not letting that happen in the future, I noted as I looked down at the top half of my blade laying on the ground. That and I would also need a stronger blade so that my weapons didn't break in combat.
The Ork was laughing in front of me, pointing his chain ax at me while saying "See? see? i've destroyed yer pretty blade an now yer've lost. Be gud an' yer'll work 'n 'da mines for 'da rest uv yer life without much suffer'n. Be bad an' i will-"
I didn't let him finish, instead kicking my foot up and smacking the chain ax out of his hand which went wide in the air. He looked up in surprise at seeing the blade floating there for a few seconds before, with a little nudge of help, it landed perfectly in my hand. I brought the ax down on the shoulder of his now empty hand, exploiting the weak point there, and the chain ax dug in deep enough that it cut its way all the way through. His arm toppled off his body and the Ork screamed in pain, or was it roared, something close to 'war' though with a high pitch to it.
The Ork stepped away, holding his claw hand to his now empty stump in obvious pain, yelling, "Dat's not fair! i destroyed yer weapon, ya were supposed ta surrenda like most 'umiez do."
Looking at the axe I wondered how it worked. At least the chain sword made sense since it was just a chainsaw with a proper handle but the chain ax was a bit weird and dumb. The handle was at the end of a wooden pole and the systems that ran the chain mechanism were all the way in the head of the axe.
"You set the rules quite clearly," I began, "You said we were fighting to the death so there's no surrendering. If you wanted me to surrender you should have said so in the beginning. Unless of course you only wanted me to surrender without a fight? Well I'm afraid that's not going to happen, that's actually a rather stupid take and I understand why you are not the overboss of this empire then. My forces will win this war, I'm simply fighting you to humor my bad side. Now are you going to come at me or are you going to scream and moan about it being unfair?"
Well the beast did scream as it rushed at me, its claw chomping at the air and trying to grab any bit of me in-between its pincers. I simply kept stepping back, sometimes deflecting the claw with my newly acquired ax as the fighting went on.
The creature was bleeding out profusely, its plasma spilling across the ground and painting it into a red mucky mud. That would probably need to be fried once we were done here, just to make sure no spores were left to sprout.
Even though the Ork seemed to have quite an armored carapace with that scrap armor and tough leathery skin that was about the only bonus it seemed to have as it was slow and unwieldy and, without the other hand to block my attacks, it wasn't long until I found my axe chopping at its sides.
Simple fact of the matter was my comment about their short stubby legs was not just noticeable, it was a significant advantage that I had over it. I was able to quickly maneuver around it, slicing at its sides and weak points, driving the axe into his other shoulder blade at one point.
I don't believe I was ever much of a dancer in my first life but sometimeduring my second life I had picked up an expertise for maneuver as I quickly managed to find a point behind the shoulder of his remaining arm, cutting that one off as well. It left the Ork as an armless torso with an ugly skull on top. The creature groaned in pain before falling to its knees, already on its way to death. It tried to raise its head to say something but I decided not to let it suffer anymore. I simply shoved the axe down into its skull, letting the chain bite deeply into its gray matter. I kept the ax there as the Ork slumped, dead.
I stood there for a moment, catching a few breaths before dropping the disgusting ax down to the ground. I took another look at the broken chain sword in my hand, still held there by the magnets in my glove.
It was sheared in half, the chain was thoroughly broken and it would probably never work again. I probably was going to have a very annoyed Adeptus Mechanicum girl waiting for me when I returned to Hrafnkel. But that really didn't matter. I was alive, victory was mine, and now I had to deal with the Orks who had gathered around and were looking at their dead commander, rather stunned.
Well the answer to how to deal with them was actually quite simple: train my Marines. I said, "battle's won. Continue the fight."
The howls of joy mixed with roars of the chainswords being drawn from their sides was a good sign that their blood was up and ready for this. Without much thought they just charged directly into the Orks, chopping and slicing as they went, killing them is fast as possible. They quickly secured the area with minimal casualties. So far, so good.
I nodded in approval as flamethrower troops began to cook the Ork bodies around us and waited for someone to bring me details of what was happening on the rest of the battle. I didn't have to wait long as former Legion Master Rathvin ran up, having apparently come from the supply trenches.
Giving the sign of the Aquila he bowed before saying, "My Primarch the line is stabilizing and the third trench is fully in our hands. The men are beginning to push into the second trench now, it will not be long until we reconquer everything that was nearly lost."
I nodded with approval, before saying, "Good, good. See to our wounded then, we need to make sure as many of us survive as possible. Make sure that all Orks corpses are destroyed."
Turningto look at my other Wolves of Fenris, I said, "Do not bother waiting here I have no need for guards, this area is secure. Push forward, we must retake these lines and perhaps we shall follow the tunnels these beasts have created back to their fortress. If we invade that way I wonder if they have good defenses already prepared or not. Something we must learn."
An officer I did not recognize nodded before saying, "I bet the wolves could track their way through the tunnels quiet enough that they could surprise any Orks at the other end."
I nodded my head in approval, before saying "That seems reasonable enough. Get to work on it then, I want that fortress taken by the end of the day if we can do it and they've given us a golden opportunity to do it. Let us conquer this place for the Emperor and free any slaves we find, I'm sure they still have a few that we didn't get in our first raid."
There were several cheers and then the men filed out into the general direction of the fighting. I took a moment to take a seat and a fresh breath of air. That fight had been a little bit too fun, I think. I wondered why that Ork had specifically used something that would screw with my human resources training and background… probably just random luck that he said something like that.
Either way their 'War Boss' was dead and that tended to mean Orks were not long for the world. They would start fighting against each other to make the new boss and while they were busy doing that we could easily crush them.
At least that was the hope, that they would be too busy fighting each other and wouldn't guard the tunnels. If the tunnels weren't guarded we could easily enter the fortress and take it for ourselves, from there… from there we would have control of the planet and controlling the planet meant we had a supply point inside the Wheel of Fire.
And with that supply point inside the sector we could push out and start striking further and deeper into the Wheel of Fire until we finally cleared it entirely of enemies.
Question was how was I going to do it. Should I crush small garrison worlds like this until most of them were under my control before going for the big garrison world and the boss or should I take the boss down first to start another war boss fight between all the sub-bosses of this sector?
The answer was quite simple really. Although starting fights between the other war bosses would be beneficial in cleaning this place up faster, defeat in detail was more of an assured thing. I should focus on defeating each smaller force as fast as possible and deny the enemy resources until they didn't have anything but their big stuff left. Once that was accomplished, by my estimation, there would probably only be five to seven big planets in this sector with enough resources to last on their own. Maybe it would be time to attempt to start a war boss fight by taking out their current Big Boss leader then, so that the other planets would fight each other while I sat back and just let them do that for a while before striking them and destroying this empire forever.
Nodding my agreement to this idea I leaned back against the trench wall before sliding down to sit down at a lower rate. Fierce and Cunning came up to me again, looking at my hands, and without much thinking I began to pet them, enjoying the moment of peace between the artillery and what was to come next.
The war on this planet was probably all but done and that was a good day's work in my mind. And with a good day's work came the benefits of sending the message to your boss that you had successfully defeated the enemy and a bit of rest.
Writers note: Morning, sorry this chapter took bit longer things happen, so what we got this chapter, the end of the first battle in the sector, perspectives of the fighting from Tanya and a marine who is totally not important. And the first uses of the ork translator, going to see what people think of it this time before I decided to use it again. I hope everyone having good day and let me know what you all think of the chapter.
Edited by: Pierre,
Community edited by:Ryan Pirtle
Community editable doc (Chapter) No story suggestions in the community editing document, Keep all story suggestions and comments in the thread
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Reviews
Chronolocked: no comment on DXD... and imposssible
AlphariusMagyar: she suffer for them
A FreshlyCutLawn: perhaps, there though somthing to be said about would female marine even have the room or all the organ tranplants.
Agonizing Turtle: yeah iron warriros get more light in coming chapters.
4Alucard: perhaps...
Guest: yes
shinetur0204: yeap
Qinlongfei: their reason things went to hell, after all, he gets more next chapter...
ascottishman: ha yeah they are on two ended of sprectim
HLBRS-H: because i milked the premises of wolf girl for all it worth
lukas: thank you for the review!
