Chapter 27. Wolf Temple on a Moutian.
Legion Master of the Iron Warriors, Elyphis Diorius
836.M30
Xyat
Well I had had many thoughts about this campaign when it started, especially on the losses we might take and so far we were doing absolutely better than I had expected. And I had to admit I was a bit wrong about my assumptions about the Rout and their new Primarch.
Of course, the standard that Horus had set had not been great. Oh, his arrival onto the battlefield had increased the lunar wolves' numbers to the point that they were able to operate on multiple fronts and push the crusade on… But his tactical skill had been lacking in the early days. Not to mention he was not prone to giving credit which, well… It didn't settle right for me, it had quite annoyed me in fact.
But I had let that pass as best I could and I needed to focus on the Primarch in question today, Tanya Russ. When she arrived I had been more than willing to let her take her legion into the Wheel of Fire and waste it there. After all with a Primarch the sixth legion could actually replenish its losses while my legion, the fourth, could not. I was not really interested in being remembered as the first legion master who got his legion destroyed. It had not happened yet but there had been close calls.
However I will admit that this Primarch was not only good at their job and understood military matters from the get-go of this campaign, she also had a better understanding of non-military matters than… well, me. After the slaves had been rescued they had been returned home to the various systems in this sector of space. This had created an interesting situation where the local sectors were now offering the support they would have given the Orks. Granted it wasn't very advanced support but food stockpiles were now rather high and there was also a bit of mineral output being offered to the people I sent, which were being directed to the Administratum and the Mechanicus to deal with.
Those food supplies helped us support the imperial army's efforts to hold planets after we were done cleaning them up, which allowed us to proceed with the campaign against the next planet in the line. That planet had been a rather easy operation as most of the fortifications had been on the planet before that, Icrinda.
All we had had to do was destroy infrastructure, cut off the fortifications from each other, and then bomb them from orbit.
There hadn't even been large slave populations to worry about, all we had to do was kill Orks and we had killed a lot of Orks. But while we were doing that the Wolves of Fenris and their Primarch had found a crack in the Warp storms that kept this sector rather isolated from normal space and had laid siege to another Ork planet with the dwarves.
Reports from the observers I'd sent with them indicated that they were getting to understand our siege tactics and had quickly been able to defeat the Ork war base on that planet and were now beginning to spread out with the general plan to cut at the snake until it died instead of going for the head since the men needed more training.
On one hand I liked that they were already further ahead into the Wheel of Fire, on the other I had discovered the sector and they were taking up a lot of credit with their conquest.
On the other other hand the glowing reports coming from the Primarch that I had been allowed to read indicated that they were giving credit to their understanding of sieges to us and, well, I enjoyed a good ego stroking as much as most of my brothers did.
Either way with the completion of the siege of New Vietnam Russ had divided her forces in three. One was sent to open up a path to our current siege and another to push further into the cluster with the third guarding the entrance they currently held, a reasonable strategy. And I do know that thanks to taking that planet and the current evolution of events so far the Mechanicus predictions on how long this war would be were down from 10 years to seven. I will admit, though not say, that I do not trust the Mechanicus predictions as accurate. The fact that we were improving the time must say something, perhaps it would be 14 years instead of my prediction of 20?
Also I could see the benefit from this plan, splitting her forces in three and engaging smaller targets to destroy them separately would allow her to get her commanders trained up into proper officers a little bit quicker as they would have had to deal with situations that she would have handled if she was always in command. It would allow her to set up forces that could fight with less supervision and would be able to deal with multiple fronts quite well.
I was taking note of the ways she was using her force and planning to offer it to our Primarch in case he was interested in engaging in similar activities. And, as I said, it was within the sixth legion's capability to risk forces like this because they could fix their losses rather quickly compared to the 4th or any other legion except those that had found their Primarch. l however had to be careful and very thorough in our work, otherwise we could lose more people than we could actually sustain.
That being said it was not a surprise that they got themselves a little bit in over their heads.
Legion Master Enoch Rathvinof formerly the Rout had requested aid as their forces had become entangled in a bit of a quagmire on the planet Xyat.
Information wasn't exactly clear but from what I could understand when they called air support because some portions of their army had been surrounded by an Ork Force and had been cut off by Ork anti-air positions.
Seemed to be a last-ditch effort by their Warboss to pull a victory out of what was obviously a failure, it would probably have been the end of Ork offensives on the planet once the enemy's back was broken.
The problem was the Wolves of Fenris had been baited into a trap.
They had been offered an opportunity to free slaves but apparently this Ork boss had got Intel about their efforts to do that in the past. Once they had charged in to save these slaves the Orks had sprung their trap, catching a third of the army on the planet in a valley that was protected from imperial airstrikes by enemy aircraft and enemy anti-air.
Information was not at a level that we understood exactly what was happening but for all intents and purposes, for the last 3 weeks, a third of the Wolves of Fenris on the planet had been fighting a prolonged siege on the valley's floor as waves of Orks rushed their position. Their ammunition were now running out.
And, to make matters worse, the legion Master was in the third of the army that was currently trapped.
The 2/3 that were not trapped had attempted to break through but were currently being kept out by an enemy defences that was holding the line behind the attack formation that were pushing in on the entrapped fenris Force.
How many Orks were in the mountains was unknown but at this point it was quite clear that the Wolves of Fenris were encircling Orks who had encircled Wolves of Fenris, who destroyed who first would most likely determine the ultimate Victor of the campaign on this planet.
Which was where me and the Iron Warriors came in. We had landed last night on the outskirts of this battlefield, deep in the mountains and away from enemy fire as the enemy still had large artillery pieces they were using to keep the wolves in position and unable to advance.
From there we had unloaded as much of our artillery as possible and set up to counter-battery fire while we were slowly pushing ourselves into the line.
Helitin Ventassius of the Star Hunters had also come and what troops he had with him were currently scouting the bunkers and trails up the mountains, looking for a way that we could use to get in there. The Orks were however annoyingly effective in their efforts to block these paths, having dug trenches and such through every known path. In a few places they had simply set up areas where they could toss down boulders on anyone who tried to come up the road.
This was the ultimate problem that the Wolves of Fenris were dealing with, they couldn't break through the enemy lines. There was hope that my men would and generally I thought we could but, staring down at the map before me, I did see problems.
If the Wolves of Fenris abandoned their charges inside the valley they might actually be able to get that third of the army out of this trap. But what minimal communications were available indicated that legion Master Enoch Rathvin was not interested in abandoning his position. On one hand that was stupid, he was putting his men at risk for a bunch of slaves that would be forgotten in history.
On the other his reasoning was rather sound and very… Russ. They had been trying to pin the Orks in position for months and right now the Orks had shown themselves. Granted they were not in a great position but they could actually fight the Orks here.
The Orks had given the Space Marines a climactic final battle but one that favored them, the Marines simply wanted to show them that it didn't favor them as well as they thought. Which was respectable, sure there would probably be little Outpost and Orks scattered across this planet when it was all over but if we destroyed the main fighting force it would be easier for the imperial army to clean up after us.
That being said, with the situation as is. Orbital bombardments were out of the hololith as they would cause landslides that could hurt our own men, air strikes were out because the Orks had plenty of anti-air though. Enoch Rathvin had let some of his men try and do higher altitude air strikes where the Ork anti-air wasn't great.
But artillery was basically the king of the battlefield for today and even that wasn't doing very successfully as most of these trenches were dug right into the rocky sides of the mountain.
Looking at the situation I just did not see how they were going to make it out of there intact and was already considering this as a possible failed operation. A third of the army of legion Master Enoch Rathvin would probably be dead by this time next week while the little slaves they'd gone to rescue would probably be returned to slavery, if lucky, as the Orks would use paths prepared to hide in the mountains or sneak up past us if they could.
So the question was how did I prevent any of that from happening. I could possibly call on the Primarch of the Fenrisian to double our forces, though from what I understood they were currently busy dealing with their own problems. Managing fights on two different worlds in the sector where the Orks were proving themselves stubborn, though not as stubborn as here.
And this would harm my chances at getting a little glory for myself. Being known as the man who saved a portion of the Wolves of Fenris was a nice title and I disliked losing my chance at that.
So the question of how to stop the inevitable had an answer that was quite apparent.
Standing in the tent, rubbing my chin through my gloved hand, I studied the holographic map that showed the mountainous valley that the Wolves of Fenris were trapped in and our own siege lines around this valley. Looking over at the leader of the Star Hunters, I said, "Do you think your Marines can find the tunnel systems in and out of this area and block them off as much as possible?"
He looked at the map before nodding his head in agreement, "Yeah, it shouldn't be too hard. We'll need some help from the Fenris boys but we can track down all the paths and close them to make sure they can't get out. Doesn't help the Marines currently trapped though. Any plans for that?"
I nodded before saying, "A bad plan but a plan." Pulling the camera of the holograph to the front of the valley I said, "Most of the Orks are here, blocking the easy way in and out. We can't push in because they're blocking the way, they can't push out because they're blocking the way. This means the only ways they have to try and attack are physically up sheer cliffs on the right and left of the valley, which the Orks are protecting rather adequately. Or this point," I indicated the end of the valley, a large mountain that overlooked most of the valley and served as the end of it.
"As far as I can tell that is the second strongest point on the line but there's something here that I think the Orks have underestimated."
Helitin Ventassius looked at the map and nodded before asking, "What have they underestimated?"
"The range of our artillery. We could put it at the end of our current valley and be able to hit that mountain easy enough. We do that and we can suppress any enemy guns and artillery on the mountain as the Wolves of Fenris push towards the mountain. If they climb their way up and out they will be able to cross over, after all they're from a world of mountains from what their Primarch said.
Helitin Ventassius nodded, understanding my point, before adding, "What about the civilians, the former slaves they're trying to rescue?"
I placed my finger along a winding path that went up the mountain, saying "There is a path for them to cross, by the looks of it though I guess that'll be the most heavily defended point on the mountain. But if the Marines are as good as they say with crossing mountains they can probably get behind the defenses and destroy them, allowing the civilians to make their way up."
Helitin Ventassius nodded "That seems reasonable. I'm assuming that we'll have to commit to an assault on all fronts otherwise the Orks will realize what's going on and immediately try and close in on the Wolves of Fenris they currently have trapped."
"Exactly." I agreed. "If we just let them try and get up there without providing covering fire it'll just end in their destruction but if we commit to an assault at the same time they're making this move we can probably buy them time to establish themselves on the mountain. Even if they get trapped on the mountain afterward that's a better position than being at the bottom of the valley, the guns the Orks have won't be as effective shooting down as they were shooting up and they will have access to whatever defensive structures the Orks built there."
"That gets them onto the mountain," Helitin Ventassius said, "but how do we get them out of the trap?"
I smiled at that. "Though half my artillery train will remain at the end of the valley to provide the covering fire I think that most of my men will be here," I pointed to the other side of the mountain. "We will attempt to breach at the exact same time, this mountain is the most defendable position on the battlefield but they also have the least troops, that could be the way to break the Ork's formation."
Helitin Ventassius nodded slowly, before adding, "Those mountains are kind of craggy and tall. Have your men ever fought over mountains before?"
I shook my head. "Officially, no. Unofficially some of my men have been practicing mountain maneuvers ever since we entered the Wheel of Fire, part of the reason why I sent observers with the Wolves of Fenris into the attack on their back lines. It gave me a couple hundred Wolves of Fenris to help train my men in exchange. I don't know if it'll be that successful here but we at least have some idea of what we're doing. And on this side of the mountain we will be able to get air support compared to anywhere else."
"Most of the Ork guns are facing the Wolves of Fenris in the valley, placed on the cliffs to the right and left where they could easily swivel to protect themselves or on the ground oriented towards the opening of the valley where they could do the same. But here, in the North, the guns they have to protect the valley from the northern side will be at most half."
"That's a bit of a risky assumption, brother, don't you think?" Helitin Ventassius said, sounding a bit worried, but I waved him off.
"It's a calculated risk and one I'm willing to take," I explained. "Us legions without a Primarch need to have some good harass while we still can, to show we're just as good as those legions even without a Primarch to keep our morale up. It's an unfortunate thing but that's the truth of the matter. If I have to take a risk once or twice I'll do it, and this is something that needs to be done."
Helitin Ventassius nodded his agreement, "Well then when do we begin this efforts to free legion Master Enoch Rathvin from the trap the Orks have put them in?"
"Personally I don't think he's got a week in there so I'd like to get it started within the next 24 hours. The real question is how are we going to get him to agree to this operation, it's going to be a hell of a thing to March an army and a civilian population across that mountain while under fire."
"Perhaps we lie to him and say it's an order from his Primarch?"
I gave Helitin Ventassius a look before shaking my head, "No… Logically that won't work, we need to think of something that'll actually make sense to him."
My thoughts were interrupted as a wolf leader entered the room and gave us a salute. Saluting back, I said, "Good afternoon, brother."
"Good afternoon, legion Master Diorius." He answered, giving a nod, before saying, "I am Commander Boesson, I'm bringing the latest dispatches from legion master Enoch Rathvin. Some of his men managed to get through the Ork lines with information and a letter."
"Ah, well let's have it," I said, holding out my hand for the paperwork. The Young Commander handed me the work and I quickly looked it over. Then I read it again and then chuckled and then burst out a laugh.
"What's so funny, brother?" Helitin Ventassius asked as he sat up from where he'd been leaning against a tent pillar.
"I don't need to convince him, he's already got the exact same plan. And already, to some extent, in operation. He's planning to march his army up the mountain and kill anything that gets in his way. He needs us to cause as many distractions as possible." I laughed again before continuing, "Well, that makes this job 10 times easier. All we need to do now is provide him with the support he's requested and more."
Helitin Ventassius smiled before saying, "Well, that makes things easier indeed. Is an attack going to begin?'
Looking at the paperwork I checked for any information before I found it and felt my smile die. "He's going to begin the attack in 12 hours, I probably will not have an attack for the other side of the mountain ready for another 16. It might work out but it's going to be close."
"What about the artillery to support his attack?" Helitin Ventassius asked but I waved his worry off, "First thing I did when we landed here was to send most of my artillery to that end of the valley, it will be ready. Getting the Fenris wolves ready for an assault on all flanks shouldn't be that hard either, they've basically been chomping at the bit."
"Well, then," Helitin Ventassius said, "I guess it's all a matter of seeing what will happen now. Will the Wolves of Fenris rip themselves out of this trap while we successfully break the siege that Orks have laid on them or will this all go to crap?"
Smiling, I answered, "Brother, I think this is going to go to crap either way. Planning never survives actual battles but I think we might be able to pull this off. If we're lucky, with the Emperor's truth on our side, we'll break these Orks and free this planet for human use. That's all that matters."
Helitin Ventassius of the Star Hunters and Boesson of the Wolves of Fenris both nodded in agreement at that. Now that was the ultimate truth, our losses didn't matter as long as humanity was put back in its place amongst the Stars.
Former Legion master of the Rout, Enoch Rathvin
The screams of battle went on and on as we trudged up the mountain, soldiers crying in pain as rounds found their mark or screaming their war cries as artillery shells landed around us, civilians crying as they didn't know what the fuck was going on.
The world was chaos but in that chaos there was an easy-to-understand goal: take the heights. It was a simple order, it had been given down to the lowest private and everyone knew by heart at this point. Take the heights and we could push down to the other side of the mountain and get these civilians and ourselves out of this trap.
I had been observing the Orks' formations for 2 weeks and it was obvious that this was their weak point. Granted I knew that it was their weak point because it was also their strong point, these mountains were relatively large and easy to defend with minimal forces. it was possible this was another trap within the trap but I did not think the Orks were that smart. They had left this opening assuming that we wouldn't take it and would instead give them battle in the valley, which would have been even worse.
So the army marched, climbed, and crawled up the mountainside hoping, that none of the other friendly artillery would accidentally get us as we made our way up. So far nothing had but there had been a couple close calls I'd heard about.
the Orks, of course, weren't taking this lying down. As soon as they realized that we were assaulting the mountains the enemy formations had started moving on to them from the valley walls to either side.
Thankfully though the general assault by Imperial forces on the other side appeared to be drawing Orks away so they weren't able to put formations in place on the mountain strong enough to stop us as we made our climb.
And the Orks that had been guarding the way in and out of the valley were also having this problem but they had sent troops after our rear guard. Still, in an open fight, the Orks would die a lot easier and they were forced to march across the valley to attack our rear in an open fight.
Things were going relatively well and I believed we would pull this off. The Orks did not have the numbers on the mountain to stop us and we were mulching those we met. Oh, we were taking losses but losses were much lesser than expected, especially compared to assaulting their actually prepared positions instead of this one.
That being said things were getting a little bit hairy now, the road that the civilians had to take was rather unprotected and I had to dispatch troops to try and assemble some sort of wall to protect them from artillery fire from the canyon walls. We had seized a few of the Ork guns, most of them terribly constructed but I put men on the ones that could work to counterfire at the enemy cannons that were shooting at us.
This was a slog, a fight to an inevitable destruction of either the Orks on the mountain or ourselves. But I thought we could do it. The Rout's formation I had led through many battles had never been much of a mountain-dwelling Force, instead we had come from numerous barbarian tribes across Terra. We had been put together for a simple goal: be the most brutal and effective Force available, one to be called upon in certain situations.
Things were different now. The Wolves of Fenris were different from the Rout, their training was more about fighting on mountains and in the snow. To be fair this planet was just close enough that they were well at home, even during the worst of the siege we had just been through the troops had maintained high spirits and had been just waiting for the order to do something more than sit back and let the Orks fire at them.
That was what was getting us through this, our training. That and a simple dream to get back to Fenris, I imagine. Although I had to admit I had come to enjoy their cultural institution of seeing that a death in battle was the greatest honor. Many of the Rout's cultures had similar traditions but the Fenrisian one was more conclusive on what would happen.
To be taken to some great hall where we would be served by Valkyries and get to fight For eternity for fun was a good conclusion to a soldier's life. And it was that assurance of a good way to conclude one's life that allowed many of my men to push forward through some of the worst fire coming at them and to keep moving.
Slow and steady we had been moving up the mountain as the Orks filed in, ripping and tearing our way through their formations and clearing a path for the civilians. As we ascended these heights we had heard fire. The shots came not from the Ork artillery whose shells were landing around us but from friendlies firing from the other side of the mountain. Someone was trying to break through on the other side.
An explosion could be heard from the other side of the mountain and a cheer rose from the troops at the front, we knew that this meant we were steps closer to breaking out and it improved the morale.
Of course with how mobile this campaign was I couldn't exactly stand back. Instead, in an attempt to bolster my men during this fighting, I had been shifting in and out of the front for the last several hours. Sometimes serving on the line next to my soldiers, sometimes taking a break with them to recover before going back in. The front was the hardest, I think. The troops at the back, all they had to do was just find a new position every few 30 minutes, when they fell back the sidelines were relatively controlled. The real grinder was the front. As we pushed further up all they had to do was push rocks down on us and even though most of the Orks could not get into position in front of us there was a steady trickle of them doing it, possibly using mountain roads we didn't know about, possibly using tunnels. I didn't know how deep the Ork had dug their complex on this mountain but it seemed like it was pretty deep and they were coming out of every Emperor damn crack.
That being said I expected we'd break through by the end of the day, as long as nothing extremely unexpected happened. We were making good time and it didn't hurt that for the first 5 hours of this battle we had had the cover of night. The Orks on this world didn't have night vision as far as we could tell, at least not in large enough quantities that it helped them counter our initial attack.
Part of me hoped that in 7 hours, when night came again, we would be able to continue the push well into the morning and finish this fight, my men did need the rest after all. I doubted we would be that lucky, if they did have any troops with night vision they'd be brought up and moved into position by that time, and I knew they had some sort of flare system that allowed them to light up the valley. They used it a lot during the first week, second week they'd stopped because we weren't giving them battle at night something that had been unexpectedly useful thankfully.
Anyways I was taking a break between combat deployments when one of the soldiers near the front, a runner, came up to me. The Orks were using some kind of jamming equipment so we had to rely on this ancient way of communicating. It worked, though I would have preferred something a little bit faster.
The soldier ran up, a wolf at his feet. Obviously a bonded pair. He didn't give a salute and addressed me right away. "Sir! News from the front!" having to take a moment to get his breath.
Nodding my head I said, "Tell me what's up. Anything new we need to worry about on the front, brother?"
After a moment he said, "We've almost reached the apex of the current heights. There's a bit more past it but from what we can tell there's a plateau before that point, we could use it to skirt around that last peak and start making our way back down if you wanted to."
"Perfect!" I said. Side-stepping the summit would rather improve the situation in my opinion, as trying to get all the way up the summit would be… Well, a tough job to say the least.
"There's a problem, sir. A bit of a big problem."
Looking at the soldier I said, "Well? Don't keep me waiting, what's the big problem?" We had been fighting Orks all the way up this mountain, there couldn't be that many more Orks at this plateau could there?
"Sir, Commander Isulf Hakonsson bid me tell you that… There's an Ork fortification on the plateau above. A big one, couldn't exactly see it until we got right on top of it due to the little bit of a downsweep in the mountain range. Commander Isulf Hakonsson believes we've stumbled across the enemy high command."
That got me standing up in an instant, "What?", as I looked up towards the tip of the mountain.
"Enemy high command, sir! The fortifications are well stocked and there are plenty of Orks up there, as well as armored support. The commander is not sure we can break through this fortification."
"Damn it," I muttered before I grabbed my kit and started attaching pieces of equipment to my armor again. Turning to the runner, I said, "Tell the commander to start prepping for an assault on that fortification. We're going to need every trick in the book at this point."
"Sir?" he said, seeming confused, but I ignored him. I exclaimed "You have your orders." and started up the mountain towards the front line, taking it easy but yelling at commanders as I went by to start prepping their men for an assault.
There had been four shifts of soldiers every hour so they would break contact with the enemy and allow a new shift to take over and give them 3 hours of rest between assaults. That method had got us almost all the way up the mountain to this point but, by the sounds of it, I was going to need every single one of those soldiers for a grand of assault on the top of this mountain.
I could try and move my men to the side and push on along the cliff sides, maybe get around this fortification, but the fact of the matter was if this was the enemy HQ as we believed… Then the Warboss was there and if I could kill the Warboss the chaos that would be unleashed amongst the Orks would be enough that this planet would fall to our hands today rather than sometime in the future.
Sure I was putting men at risk for this operation but this is the job they were paid to do. We needed to break the Ork fortification up there and kill the Warboss, it was that simple. If we did not do that then this whole operation was for nothing, not to mention that if we did manage to take their fortification it would be a great place to store the civilians as we fought our way down to the southern side of the mountain. I'd been getting reports about unlucky civilians either getting crushed by falling rocks or exploded by artillery for the last three to four hours but that was much less likely to happen on top of the mountain if only we could consolidate up there. We had not known that there were fortifications up there, which meant that it was designed in such a way that the mountain's peak probably protected it.
All in all this was the perfect position to take and hold, so we needed everyone on the front to do it. There was no one I could spare now so, as I walked by the tent that was dedicated for runners, I yelled in orders to get every man who wasn't doing something to the front. The soldiers immediately gave the sign of the Aquila, folding two hands across each other to look like a bird over their chest, and started running about as I made my way to the top of the mountain front.
Once there I saw what Commander Isulf Hakonsson had been saying. The end of the mountain reached a plateau not too far from where we were fighting Orks that were shooting down on us, though they were slowly pulling back. As they did it became easier to see that there was a set of fortifications behind that lip of the wall on the plateau tip. Past the fortifications was… a town I would guess? At least various buildings for whatever needs the Orks had. Then, past that, was the mountain itself which I realized was only another 50 ft to the top after that. The peak was still visible from below but now I could see there was a lot more Ork iconography, including an Ork skull built out of scrap into the side of the mountain.
It was probably impossible to see from the valley where we had been forced to camp for the last 2 weeks but something told me that if you were outside the valley you probably could get a good view of it with a telescope. It wasn't that big but it was somewhat impressive
As for the armor… Yeah, there were Ork tanks moving into position around the fortifications, waiting for us to press. They were already preparing to unload their rounds into us as we tried.
This was not a good position for what we needed to do but that was the problem: we still needed to do it. So I did the best I could, reaching into a satchel I carried I pulled out a colored flare and aimed so it would go over their fortifications and onto the other side of the mountain where I knew the other force was fighting its way up. I didn't know how long it would take them to reach the point we were at but they just needed to see it and for someone to know what it meant.
I fired the flare and prayed that it would be seen, as anyone of my soldiers knew that that color was a call for an air strike at the top of the mountain.
With any luck they would have runners set up already and they would send it to someone who had radios who worked then… Well, from there we could hopefully take the top of this mountain.
Till then I turned and found several commanders already assembled, giving the sign of the Aquila as I acknowledge their presence.
"Brothers, I hate to be the one to do this to you but here's the situation as I understand it: At the top of this mountain are Ork headquarters, possibly the headquarters of the Warboss of this whole operation. We are going to need to take it but, with any luck, within the next hour that mountain will be lit up like the skies on the Imperium day."
"That will most likely clear the tanks for the most part and give us a bit of an easier time to get in there. We'll probably still have to fight the Orks who are waiting within the hidden mountain fortifications that probably exist."
"We're going to have to go in hard and fast, engage in close-quarters combat for the next step of this journey. Make sure your men are stocked up on ammo, their blades are sharp, and their chainswords are fully charged. You understand me."
There was a resounding, "Yes, brother Enoch Rathvin."
"Outstanding," I said, "I would like to give that air strike about an hour to happen but if it doesn't we're going in either way. 'till then we need to push to the lip of this plateau and secure it."
"Sir? What are we going to do if they don't get our airstrikes here on time?"
"Improvise. We have anti-tank weaponry and plenty of missiles to do the job. It's not going to be a pretty operation but hopefully, within that hour, our brothers on the other side of this mountain that are coming to break us out will be threatening them enough that they'll have divided their forces in two."
"Sir!" one of my sub-commanders said, pointing past me. Turning my shoulder a bit to look I saw that someone had fired a flare from the other side of the mountain. It seemed rather low and just barely visible, by the look of it I guess they weren't as close to the lip as we were, but it was a responding color to the one I had just fired. It indicated that the airstrike was on the way.
"Well, don't that beat all? Someone over there has got brains." I said with a smile before turning back to the men, "We have a confirmation on that airstrike, It will probably be here within an hour but if not we can now give it the time it needs because we know it's coming. Get your men ready for an assault on that fortification the moment that airstrike comes in, with any luck we'll stampede into that fort without many losses and just slaughter the Orks. For Russ and the Alfather, we will take that plateau and endure anything they send at us."
There was a chorus of "For Russ and the Alfather," showing my subcommanders agreed.
Turning back towards the plateau we must take I took a breath and readied myself before looking for a position I could take in the line.
Legion Master of the Iron Warriors, Elyphis Diorius
What a grinding fight this had been. I knew climbing and fighting our way up the mountain was not going to be easy... But this was a little bit ridiculous. The Orks were just pushing rocks down on us if we were lucky, if we were unlucky the rocks were covered in explosives.
Granted some men had figured out that if you worked together with shields you could actually cause the rocks to go flying into the air but that just sent it to be someone's problem further down the slope.
Losses were to be expected. I'd hoped to keep them minimal but the fact of the matter was this was an assault on a fortified position, even if it was not the most fortified position.
That being said we were making good time and were almost up the mountain. I could see a bit of a ledge before me, about 300 ft above us, where the Orks were trying to maneuver their artillery to point down at us. thankfully their guns didn't have great elevation systems by the fact that more than one had accidentally rolled down the mountain to us but they were doing the best they could, I could admit that.
The amount of hot lead and other explosives coming our way was rather ridiculous and I was pretty sure one report indicated they had somehow boiled the rock into lava and dumped it down the mountain which… It impressed me that they somehow had a machine that could produce lava but I was also wondering how they managed to make that actually work.
One of my sub-commanders had mentioned the possibility that perhaps they had Old Tech from before the Long Night that Drew lava up using some sort of antigravity engine. I didn't know but it was a good guess as any and if it did we would probably get the Mechanicus favor if we captured it.
Which is why I had directed orders to do such a thing but the important part was that we were within sight of the top of the mountain. Any moment now artillery would open up for a good 5 minutes, followed by several layers of airstrikes to try and clean the top of the mountain off.
When that was done we would push on and hopefully conquer this whole mountain top, allowing us to see what was going on with the wolves of Fenris as well. We would secure line of sight on the rest of the mountain ranges that had trapped them and then we could fire artillery down on the Orks still in position, hopefully flushing out their leader for a final battle.
Checking the time I quickly realized that I was a little bit off in my schedule. Any moment now the artillery would start falling on that mountain top, it probably would send shards of debris down our way but hopefully not too badly.
Turning to my commanders, I quickly said, "Get the men into cover, things are about to get a little bit hairy."
They got to work and within a few moments everyone was into whatever cover we could find and then we stopped our advance. We waited and waited and, after a few seconds, the artillery rained down.
Hundreds of blasts hit the mountainside above us and somewhat in front of us from both our positions at the base of the mountain and from across the valley. I would guess hopefully they were aiming high, we were in a bit of a crossfire situation. It was possible that a shot may go all the way over and land into us but, by my estimations, that chance was minimal.
For a full three or four minutes artillery laid into the top of the mountain. The blasts were numerous, both explosive and shrapnel. What was happening at the top end we could not say though I swore I heard several secondary blasts, which most likely meant the tanks that we had seen rolling around trying to get a better aim on us up there had probably gone up.
Hopefully that would be a good sign, I thought, as the blasts stopped and our artillery fell silent. Usually Orks would come rushing out at this moment, expecting to meet us charging up the hill, that would hopefully be their downfall. A moment later hundreds of aircraft came screaming in, unloading missiles and guns onto the top of the mountain, shredding anything that was still up there with any luck and bringing the population of Orks down to something more manageable.
After the planes passed by I didn't hear anything from the top of the mountain. I got back up, drew my sword, and tried to signal the men to get ready to March up the mountain. With any luck there wouldn't be much in the way of defenses to stop us at this point, most of the enemy Orks had probably been vaporized up top. Any remaining Orks along the roads leading to the top should be easy pickings for our formation.
But before I could give that order I heard a sound, a chilling noise that made a shiver go down my spine. The first part I was rather unable to make out, though given the context I think it was the Battle cry of the wolves 'for Russ and the Emperor' but it was hard to hear over the mountain wind.
The second part and the one that spoke deeply of a charging army on the run was a yell, not too similar to dissimilar to the howl of a wolf, as no doubt the Wolves of Fenris would commence their attack on the top already.
"Damn, they really want all the glory for all this," I muttered as I realized that we were a good 20 minutes from reaching the top and they would be in combat for that entire time. They would most likely kill whatever was up there and be able to claim they were the ones who took them out on top.
A bit annoying, considering it had been our artillery and Air Force, used to do it but oh well, whatever waited up there for them would easily be dealt with in time. For now I just had to worry about getting my men up there to secure the mountaintop so we could set up our artillery and finish the fight up there.
Former Legion master of the Rout, Enoch Rathvin
Up and over the lip of the plateau the wolves charged, a roiling massive wave of Space Marines with one goal and one goal only: kill the Orks, take the hill, and break through to the other side. And with luck kill the WarBoss and end the conflict on this planet.
And with the first dozen steps I could confirm that we were well on our way as we were halfway to their fortifications. I was in the third line of the charge, having fallen behind the younger Marines who were more used to Long-running. They were going to break through into the fortifications before I did but It would let them have the chance to show their worth. I was old and in command, I didn't need as much Glory as they did.
That said I wasn't sure there'd be much glory in their assault, considering none of the Orks seemed to have survived the initial bombardment and the air attacks. What had once been several armored vehicles in a fortification that looked a little bit troubling were now burning wrecks and a wall full of holes.
We didn't see our first Ork till we were almost through the front door of the complex and even then he looked very confused and battered, bleeding profusely from a wound on his head.
The first Marine I saw simply smacked him out of the way before driving his blade through the creature's spine, killing it, and then we were inside.
At least 20 Marines made it into the wall before I made it in and once I got inside I saw that we were well on our way to completing our tasks. There were only a few Orks still walking about in my immediate view, most of them confused.
But as my Marines broke through, very intent to get inside, the Orks began to realize what was going on and began to defend themselves, either shooting their makeshift bolters at us or charging us with various handheld weapons.
My Marines engaged them in combat, beating them back with their own swords and chainblades, cutting and ripping the creatures to pieces.
It almost looked like this was going to be an easy end to the campaign and then a pair of doors at the base of the mountain in front of me opened and all hell broke loose.
Two heavy machine guns of some type opened up, firing into my Marines, though thankfully not breaking through their armor too often. I still did see several Marines go down, the shots possibly finding weak spots in their armor.
And after that initial fire came a stream of Orks wielding various weapons, a few of them appearing to be covered in explosives.
"Form a firing line," I screamed, drawing my pistol and unloading rounds into the incoming Orks to try to drive them back. The Marines around me did the same quickly, trying to fire as much as they could, but the stream of Orks just never ended. Before I knew it one Ork with an explosive vest managed to make the distance to us and detonated.
Large portions of the line were thrown to the ground but others were just murdered by the explosion, Ork guts painting our gray and light blue armor a muddled green and red.
And more just kept coming. But even as our first line fell more Marines made their way into the complex, taking over the walls that had once been held by the Orks and firing down into the oncoming swarm, giving time for our line to rearrange itself.
However, what came next was not something our light guns could take care of. Charging now out of the mountainhold were machines, literal cans on legs with saw blades for arms. They slowly moved across the battlefield, our guns not being able to penetrate or deal enough damage to kill them. They moved and made their way toward us, the Orks who had guns using them for cover to fire at the Marines across the wall.
Behind these killer cans came an Ork, a massive Ork in a mechanized suit, that walked into the square screaming orders in its foul language. His right hand was an oversized clawhand that was clenching repeatedly and it used its left hand to wield a chain weapon of some kind. It looked like an ax but a little bit too long, perhaps a glaive.
Either way it used the Orks in the cans as cover, advancing towards our lines. Several Marines ran past me, charging this counter-charge, and were met with the buzz saws of the killer cans. The fighting was rather one-sided, even with advanced armor a repeated cutting motion will get through with enough hits. Several Marines lost their arms or were sent flying, one Marine was lucky to only lose his hand but that was simply because he tried to block an attack from the saw and lost the weapon he was using.
Finally someone with a heavier weapon entered the square of fortifications and several missiles were launched at the killer cans, destroying them.
This had left an open road for the Orks that were pushing towards us and the monstrous creature leading them, forcing them forward as living shields.
Pulling myself up I drew my blade, my chainsword, and stepped out. "For Fenris and the Wolf King," I called as a rallying cry, drawing the Marines into another charge at the Ork formation moving towards us. Perhaps it would have been better to fire into them but there seemed to just be an endless horde of Orks coming out of the breach and the shots weren't doing enough damage to bring them down. The only real option that I could see was to get there in person and start severing heads.
I didn't see how many marines followed me but I heard the battle cries and howls of Marines as they followed me in. We quickly closed the distance to the creatures and I was able to strike down the first Ork in front of me, who had attempted to block my attack with an ax made of wood and iron.
His head went flying and I drew back my blade, slashed at another one, and fired a few shots into an Ork that tried to stab me with what appeared to be a spear before moving on to another Ork. I slashed its face open then I slashed, hacked, and fired repeatedly, the sounds of battle around me telling me that every Marine who followed me was doing the same.
It took effort but we pushed and we kept pushing further and further into the Ork formation. The charge was carrying us through and, for a moment, I thought we were going to cause some sort of Rout in their lines.
Until I killed the Ork in front of me and I saw that I had made my way through their lines. I was in front of the Ork Warboss in its mech.
"Die, foul beast!" I cried, charging at him while firing a few shots.
He simply brought up his sword-wielding hand and dropped the blade, opening it to reveal that there was a nozzle inside. From the hand a jet of flame burst forth that I just barely dodged. My chain sword was completely covered in the fuel though and was burning profusely. From the corner of my eye I saw that several Marines had gone up in cinders as well as dozens of Orks, showing just how much care he had for his troops.
Not wanting to lose the momentum I attempted to slash at him, bringing my blade down on that infernal flamethrower, but he simply blocked it and did something I did not expect: he grabbed me with his open hand around the chest.
"Puny human," the creature said in the lowest of Gothic before I felt even squeezing. I could feel the air being pushed out of my chest as my armor began to crunch, the mechanical limb, not a hand but a massive claw, easily applying more and more pressure as he held me up, maybe fellow Marines could see me being crushed.
"Go splat like a can of spinach." The Ork taunted, moving me a little bit closer to its face.
I felt something more crunch inside my chest, I had no idea what that was, and pain rushed throughout my body. I coughed up some blood into the creature's face and I strengthened my grip on my still flaming chainsword.
Legion Master of the Iron Warriors Elyphis Diorius
30 emperor damn minutes, it took 30 damn minutes to reach the top of this mountain and the plateau where we had been hearing fighting going on the entire time.
The Orks on this side of the mountain had been extremely stubborn, not wishing to give up a single piece of land no matter how hard we pushed. We were able to finally exterminate every single one of them and opened a way.
And as we made our way to the top I saw the thing I was hoping not to see at the top of the fortifications, facing us was the banner of the Wolves of Fenris waving in the wind. We'd missed the fight, dammit all.
Sighing, I ordered the men to start preparations to build a pathway down the mountain for the civilians. There had been some trails but we could reinforce them and make it easier. The larger the path we made the more civilians could get to the other side, as well as any wounded Wolves of Fenris I'd need to get out.
That being said I quickly turned and jogged to the fortifications, wanting to meet with the commander of the Wolves of Fenris to get an idea of how many civilians we were going to have to get down that mountain.
Opening the door I saw that there was no one on guard, which was odd. Though then again the wolves did like to party after a victory, right? This was a hell of a victory.
But looking around I quickly realized that this was not what was going on, most of the wolves looked rather tired and beaten down. Some of them looked happy but it seemed not the general happiness that I had seen amongst them after their victories on planet Icrinda.
Spotting someone in command I walked over and asked, "Where's Enoch Rathvin? I need to talk to him."
The commander looked up to me and then shook his head before pointing in a general direction. Following the finger I quickly saw a large gathering of Marines around something that I couldn't see. I quickly moved over to find out, perhaps they had captured the Warboss? I didn't know but things seemed a little bit odd at to this point.
As I moved closer some of the Marines saw me coming and quickly opened a way, allowing me through the line of Marines guarding the path to whatever they were looking at.
What they were looking at became clear and I had to slow down in disbelief.
In front of me was the body of an Ork. It was still standing though its head had been caved in by a chainsword, a flaming chainsword at that. It was grinding away into the neck on its own power.
The rest of the body stood there motionless, having apparently ceased to function upon the destruction of the brain. One arm was lying in the dirt, the other was held up to a somewhat degree but it might have been held up by what was in it.
What was in it was Enoch Rathvinof the wolves. His body was caught in the grip-like vice of the Warboss' claw, that's what that thing was it had to be. And it had closed completely, flattening the armor's Central section and anything in between its front and back.
The only thing holding the legs to the upper torso was the metal that had once been the power armor he wore. As a result his legs dangled there uselessly.
To either side of him were apothecaries attempting to look after him. I couldn't guess though what they could do for him, I knew Space Marines could survive many things but this? I doubted that it extended to this.
One of the apothecaries saw me coming and nodded to the other before walking over to me.
He saluted me before saying, "If you have any last words for the former legion master you might want to get over there now. We can't do anything for him right now, we're just giving him enough pain medications to make it as peaceful as possible."
I nodded and moved over to get into the view of the former legion master. He was looking up at the sky his blood leaking from his lips as he occasionally wheezed. Half there he looked down and saw me. He smiled and said, "We did it then? We broke through. Good."
Nodding I moved over to clasp his hand and said, "Yes, brother, you did it. We're already making a road for your men to get out of here." Looking at the dead WarBoss I said, "And it looks like you've conquered this planet with your last act."
He coughed a bit before saying, "My last act as a member of the sixth legion is the conquest of this planet, my last act as a Terran is to thank my brothers in the 4th for breaking through for the people we fought for. Thank you, brother!" he tightened his grip before loosening completely. His eyes closed as he passed on, or possibly passed out. Either way his time amongst us was over.
Stepping back I nodded to the apothecary before heading back out to be outside of the fortifications, letting the sixth legion have time to mourn their loss whatever way they choose. The sub-commander in charge of engineering quickly came up to me as I came out.
"Any numbers on how many civilians we're going to have to escort out of this bullshit, brother? I do not relish staying here as long as we have already, and protecting these mortals is not exactly on my to-do list today."
"I don't know," I said, looking out on the horizon before saying, "Do you know how many legion Masters have died for this crusade?"
He shook his head a bit, confused. I simply said, "Neither do I. Detached a work crew to help the sixth legion build a monument to the former legion master who took this plateau today. Least I can do for their legion."
"Um… Okay, sir," he said, sounding confused, before nodding and walking off.
Bit confused myself really. I had been wholeheartedly planning to take the credit for this operation but it just… didn't feel right, now. The loyalty that the king of the wolves had inspired in her Marines to her cause was rather legendary at this point in my mind. I had to wonder if we would have a similar mindset when our Primarch was found.
I hoped so, for it seemed like it had inspired such a commitment to their cause that they were willing to think of that cause even in the last moment of one of the cruelest deaths I had seen. Though I hope I never died on campaign, if I were to die… I would like to have the same assurance legion Master Enoch Rathvin had shown.
Writers note: and there chapter folks. No tanya at all… sorta just happen, people wanted more of iron warriors so i gave you more, this idea was based on like paragraph of text at the bottom of space wolves wiki that talk about how the first legion master died in wheel of fire. So i asked quasion of that pairghapagh and thoses questions to makes this. So that is where that
comes from.
In other news were in for a bit of time skip next chapter as i think we're ready to be moving on from wheel of fire, as of last week i written chapter 31 i think or 30 one or the other.
And this week i wrote my first ever original (aka not based on any other franchise) work. It take some times to come out but first three chapter probable will end up in one shot thread eventually. So hope that be out soon .
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Community edited by: Pierre
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Reviews
Last Primaris: it start chapter 29
Chronolocked: upgrade? yes, next 2 or 3? no
Apple89123: Gw now sell wolf helm for the spaces wolves... 40k is cringe
Qinlongfei:DarkShadow yes he is
89ingenting: that information made up the chain command no worries.
4Alucard: mando about slow build to a big pay off this I just try write pay off.
Seanemon: it dose not for anyone i would assume
Cornelius McMuffin: i had played with the idea of dark angles but ahh this one funnier
Antialpaka: hmmm noted.
