Fire in the night sky. Rumbling detonations and blood on the ground. War cries and deafening bellows all around. This was Captain Josa Diaz's world as he fought for his life. The arrival of the Iron Men battle robots had gained his men some breathing room, but the orks had persisted in their savage attacks, there burly, hulking forms intermingled with Federal shock troopers as they clashed for dominance. Diaz took aim with his pistol as a hulking greenskin chieftain, but was too late. The brute swung a massive chain axe at him, force the Federation captain to throw himself back to avoid being ripped open. Diaz raised his plasma blade over his head and bellowed a war cry; he charged the ork and swung his blade at its pugnacious jaw in a chopping motion. The greenskin jerked out of way at the last second and snarled, firing its pistol at point blank rage into Josa's face. His armor's shield flared, deflecting the shots, but the captian was staggered by the impact. The ork leered, moving in for the kill, Josa's blade moved into a guard position as he cut the alien's axe in half

The ork stared at its now destroyed weapon in surprise then regarded Josa, screaming into the sky as it charged him. Josa swept his blade into the ork's side, cutting through armor, fat and muscle. The Ork merely grunted as it bought both its fists over Diaz's head and smashed them into Diaz's armored cranium. The captain cried out as his visor display crazed for a second and his knees buckled. He collapsed to one knee as the chieftain began to rain down a flurry of iron-hard fists into his armor, denting and cracking plates. Josa knew it couldn't sustain this kind of brute strength for long, so he suddenly threw himself to the right. He land in the blood-soaked ground and raised his volkite serpent, the ork already closing on him, shouting its fury. He fired, and the ork's head turned to ash, colossal body collapsing into the dirt. Diaz breathed a sigh of relief.

As he gathered himself to his feet, a Federal shock trooper under his command strode up to him. His armor's Identifier pegged her as sergeant Beca Katan . She created an audio link on the noospere to his own armor and spoke urgently" You okay sir? Saw what just happened, thought that big bastard was gonna kill you, right as rain."

"Don't worry about it sergeant, I'm a xenos killing machine, that big bastard was doomed the moment he took on yours truly." Respond Diaz, more cheerfully than he felt at the moment. He replaced his blade magnetically on his armor and hefted his plasma rifle. Noticing other troopers standing around Katan, he said "Form up on me, were going in behind that Fellblade, were going to provide an infantry screen and push into these bastards. Come on!"

The squad set out, joining the super heavy tank as it advanced ahead, firing its massive array of weaponry into the ork positions. Captain Diaz linked into the Battle Noopsehic Interface, taking in real-time updates of the battle, trying to see where Able Company was need most in the wider clash. He noticed several other companies were currently assaulting an ork stronghold. He decided Able would join in the assault, this no doubt being the base of operations for the greenskin warlord known as Cracktoof .

"Alright men, lets reform and link up with Major Carver's men and flush out that stronghold. The Fellblade platoon will be our way in!" ordered Captain Diaz into the BNI. Sergeant Katan and her men began to fan out around the lead Fellblade, the massive tank grinding its way inexorably forward with the rest of Able Company and its tank platoon, four superheavies in total. Diaz called in air support, nearby Firebirds swooping in to clear a path, bombing the greenskins ahead of their push into ash, the company advancing over the rise and downhill into carnage.

Four ork cybernetic walkers were defending the entrance to a scape-fortress, alongside hundreds of ork warriors, blasting away at anything that came close. Looming above them all was a smaller ork titan class walker, known as a "stompa". The Fellblade in front of them directed its wrath at the stompa, tearing chunks of its chassis with every blast. Able company fanned out, gunning down orks, while Domitar-class battle automata marched forward to engage the Deff Dreads and Killa-Kans surrounding the gates to the greenskin fort, supported by smaller, but no less deadly Castellax-class war robots.

One Domitar landed a punch on one of the Deff Dreads, its fist augmented by power fields. The ork walker's upper torso caved in and exploded. The remaining three set upon the Domitar with buzzsaws and pincers, destroying the battle robot. A Castellax fired its shoulder mounted photon accelerator cannon, felling one of the remaining ork mechs.

The two remaining Deff Dreads backed away into the fortress, gates closing behind them, which three Domitars began to beat down with heavy blows. The 15 Castellax battle robots accompanying Diaz and his men unleashed a torrent of bolter fire into the orks tapped outside their own fortress. The shocktroopers of the Federation added to the slaughter, slaying the orks in a barrage of plasma, lascannon blasts and high-explosive missiles. The stompa, which had destroyed the Fellblade in a massive explosion, was set upon by two Shadowswords, which felled it after multiple blasts to the things mechanical torso, which pierced its reactor and blew it to pieces.

Diaz dispatched one of the last orks with a swing of his plasma blade taking off the savages head. Suddenly, an ork battlewagon came crashing through the gate to the fortress, ramming all three Domitar robots, crushing them under its tread. What really drew Diaz's attention was the truly massive ork standing on the back of the ork tank, blazing away with a huge rifle as long as Diaz's body held in one meaty fist. Hundreds more greenskins charged out with the accelerating battlewagon, all of them particularly robust examples of their species, with bulging muscles and encased in a crude form of power armor. The immense ork holstered its rifle and drew a great warhammer off its back and raised it to the sky, bellowing a challenge at the Federals. Damn,Diaz thought, this must be the Warlord!