Ancra Mortis Chapter 7

Far above the green field and blue skies of Glaeba battle raged, vessels kilometres long trading broadsides in furious exchanges of devastation. The orbital lanes were littered with debris and shorn armour, mixed with unexploded munitions and frozen bodies that had been blown into the unforgiving dark by the violence. Between the two sides raced clouds of smaller craft, noble Thunderhawks racing against crude fighter-bombers, the Orks had the numbers but the Transhuman pilots were wrecking a growing tally with every second that passed.

On the bridge of the Light of Terra Captain Toran was gripping the command rail as the great ship heaved both from the fusillades exploding against her shields and the return volleys she was spewing into the void. The Captain was roaring, "Report status!"

From the enginarium station, Bylan responded, "+Shields are barely holding, but they are holding+"

Toran responded, "It's enough, where are the Orks?"

Persion replied, "Mork's Fist and Bighamma are closing fast, Maw a'Gork is holding back, they know we have to get past them to commence the invasion."

Toran ordered, "Furion, keep us between the Orks and the Troop transports, they are helpless to defend themselves. Jediah, concentrate all fire upon the Mork's Fist, if we can take out their carrier then our Thunderhawks will have an easier time of it."

The crew hastened to obey but suddenly Persion cried, "Energy spike, the Maw a'Gork is powering up for something!"

The Hololith flashed as space rippled and Bylan shouted, "+Enginseers report massive gravity distortions, the Orks are firing some form of Graviton beamer at us!+"

The whole ship lurched as space itself twisted and the bridge crew were thrown sideways by the sudden rocking motion. Men clung onto consoles to prevent being thrown from their stations. Toran was practically thrown over the rail and only saved himself by grabbing on and clinging fiercely to it.

He dragged himself back to his feet and barked, "Report, were we hit?!"

Bylan called, "+Not us+"

Persion stated, "They hit the Averof instead."

Toran cried, "Hail Mandas now!"

The hololithic pedastal flickered and then the Navy man appeared, washed out monochrome by erratic distortions. Toran said, "Captain, how bad is your damage?"

Mandas replied grimly, "We are wounded but we are not dead yet, there's some fight in the old bitch yet. Commander, we can't let them fire that Graviton beamer again, it will rip us to shreds at this range, you have to take it out. Leave the Averof and the Spetsai to engage these Kroozers, you take out that battleship."

Toran knew he was right, they had to close with the Maw a'Gork, but in any equation a pair of cruisers was a poor match against two Kill Kroozers. Toran swallowed knowing he was leaving Mandas to die and said, "Are you trying to be a hero?"

Mandas replied deadpan, "Just trying to win that wager, I really want that bottle of wine."

"Emperor be with you," said Toran impressed by the man's defiant attitude, "Furion, increase acceleration, take us right at that Battleship."

With a flare of power the Light of Terra surged forwards, burning hard to meet the Orks head on, with weapons locked and loaded. Toran stared at the Hololith and saw that while the Maw a'Gork had been designated a battleship, in reality it was more akin to a Space Hulk, a massive conglomeration of hulls, engines and prows that vastly outclassed the lone Battlebarge. Across its prow was an effigy of an Ork's face, formed out of dead ships and broken spars, it seemed somehow to be gnashing its teeth in eager anticipation of the fight to come.

Toran was not about to yield the initiative and the second they crossed into guns range bellowed, "Fire all weapons!" The Battlebarge shook as her batteries unleashed hell, swiftly joined by the bombardment cannons. The barrage crossed the distance in moments and impacted over the Ork's prow, primitive forcefields failed and the volley carved into the armour beneath, blowing out compartments and wrecking carnage as it punched deeply within.

The Imperials had inflicted considerable damage but the great battleship did not seem to even notice, the vessel ploughing on with fire wreathing its jaws. It swung about to bring an insane amount of Gunz to bear and with a flash the entire forward section of the Battleship lit up, flinging a torrent of shells into space. The sheer number of weapons made it seem like a part of the battleship had detached itself and barrelled straight at the Space Marine vessel. The Battlebarge rang like a bell as she was inundated with fire, explosions wracking her from stem to stern. Astartes vessels were built to take punishment, but this was testing the limits of even so venerable a craft.

On the bridge serfs screamed and alarms wailed as Bylan shouted, "+Shields have failed, impacts on every deck, were taking a pounding!+"

Toran gritted his teeth, stunned by the weight of the incoming fire, he tried to think of something valiant and heartening to shout to the crew but his mind was blank and all he could muster was a feeble cry of "Hold on men!"

On and on the barrage came and systems failed under the strain, servitors spasming and dying as feedback ripped them apart. The Light of Terra writhed under the onslaught, hundreds of men dying as their ship was pierced by thousands of rounds and flames filled the upper hull. Finally the deluge tapered off and Bylan reported, "+Heavy damage to all dorsal compartments, we can't take another broadside like that+"

Toran called sternly, "Status of weapons?"

Jediah responded, "Munition feeds were severed across several decks, we need ten minutes to clear the damage and get the guns firing again."

Toran looked up into the Hololith and saw the titanic Ork battleship bearing down on them, closing to point-blank range with terrible ire and he muttered, "We don't have ten minutes."

As the Ork battleship bore down on the stricken Battlebarge it produced a veritable forest of gunz, fresh weapons protruding from its face to target the wounded Space Marine vessel. Toran saw the Greenskins preparing for another barrage and called, "Furion bring us about to face the Orks and prepare for a ramming action, it will tear us up, but we might just force an opening for the Troop Transports to slip by."

Yet before anyone could enact the order Persion suddenly shouted, "Brother-Captain, there's another ship vectoring in… it's the Averof!" Toran turned in surprise and saw that he was right; the cruiser had somehow broken past the pair of Ork Kroozers and was accelerating hard to intercept the duelling battleships. Toran's eye glanced over the Hololith readouts and he was stunned by what he saw, the Averof was burning from a hundred wounds and had great gouges torn into her hull. The whole starboard side of the ship looked like it had been chewed off by enormous vermin, and the outgassing was causing the whole vessel to roll over and over. Toran had no idea how the ship was still moving, let alone expecting to join a duel of this magnitude.

The hololith pedestal flared and the image of Captain Mandas appeared, he looked battered himself and from somewhere had acquired a cut to the forehead that bled profusely but he stood defiant and was shouting, "Light of Terra this is the Averof! Nice of you to save us a kill, we will take it from here!"

Toran had no idea what the man was planning to do and said, "Mandas it's too late, you are too heavily outmatched and half your guns are slagged."

Mandas replied grimly as he said, "I don't need guns, I have torpedoes."

Toran's jaw dropped and he saw in the displays that the Averof had opened her torpedo tubes, six ship-killing warheads, all primed and ready to fire. Alarmed Toran blurted out, "Mandas that will not work, we are too close to the Ork battleship. The Torpedo's auspex won't be able to differentiate between us and the foe; you are as likely to strike us as them."

Mandas replied with a glint in his eye, "Who said anything about using Auspex?"

Toran was shocked into silence by the pronouncement and he wasn't the only one, the whole bridge falling silent as the sheer audacity of what Mandas was proposing took their breath away. It fell to Persion to sum up everybody's aghast feeling, "Mark one eyeball, he is going to fire a torpedo salvo using nothing but dead reckoning… He's insane, the man's insane!"

There was no time to talk Mandas out of his reckless proposal for the Averof was already launching, a fusillade of plasma Torpedoes, leaping from her prow and dashing across the void. Toran could do nothing but watch as the salvo tore blindly into the dark, guided by nothing other than the eyesight of a mortal man. It was a ludicrous endeavour, even Toran, with a Transhuman's ability to calculate vectors, would never have considered attempting it.

All Toran could do was watch as the Torpedoes hurtled through the void, drawing ever closer to the duelling battleships, then there was a flash and they shot straight past the Astartes vessel. Six Torpedoes blurred past the Battlebarge, one of them passing within a kilometre of the Light of Terra's hull, a terrifying near miss in space terms. It was either the single most audacious display of skill Toran had ever seen or the luckiest shot in history, but regardless the Torpedoes all missed the Light of Terra and raced straight at the Maw a'Gork.

The torpedoes had drifted slightly apart in their journey, two of them sailing cleanly past the Maw a'Gork, another glancing off the crude armour without detonating to spin off into space, yet the other three hit perfectly. First a jet of melta fire from each warhead burned a deep channel into the armour, then chemical charges detonated throwing the central mass of the torpedos deeper into the slagged hull, then finally the main Plasma charges ignited. Three enormous balls of fire blossomed across the prow of the Ork battleship, disfiguring its face and leaving vast craters gouged into the hull that spilled air and green bodies into the vacuum. The physical damage was severe but there was another effect entirely, for the energy of the blasts threw the prow of the battleship to one side, forcing its countless gunz away from the Light of Terra. Carried forward by its own momentum the Maw a'Gork lumbered inexorably past the Battlebarge, unable to bring herself about fast enough to re-engage.

On the bridge of the Light of Terra the serfs were cheering and roaring in relief at their salvation, even the Space Marines were not immune and breathed a little easier. Persion was even shaking his head saying, "He did it, the mad fool actually did it!"

Toran however was not celebrating but already shouting fresh orders, "The way is open, signal the Troop transports to move into low orbit and commence drop sequence. I want boots on the ground within ten minutes of the first Storm Herald landing."

He turned to the image of Mandas and said, "What happened to the other Kroozers?"

Mandas reported briskly, "Mork's Fist has been reduced to a drifting Hulk and Spetsai is running rings around Bighamma, as long as they stay behind her stern they can keep that bitch busy for days."

Toran declared, "Good, I want you to do the same to Maw a'Gork, while we make our run and deploy ground troops. Then we will come about to finish off that brute together."

Mandas nodded and said, "I will try to leave some Orks for you but I won't make any promises I can't keep."

Toran smiled at the brave man's choler and said, "We will be back, until then: good hunting."