Commander Addison locked a pair of power packs into place on a multi-barrelled lasweapon the ground techs were testing. From what Brother Atar had mentioned, lasrifles were a common sight across the galaxy and the weapon techs wanted to get the most improvement with the least technology. When he pulled the trigger each of the six Lasgun barrels fired in sequence, peppering the target marker at the end of the range.

After about fifty shots a power breaker popped keeping an energy exchanger inside the weapon from overloading. He pulled back on a charging handle on the side of the rifle reengaging the breaker. Though the whole motion took only a couple of seconds, it was enough time for the exchanger to return to normal.

"What do you think?" asked Captain Elgar as he stepped out of a nearby armoury.

"Sir! It's fairly short, so it could be used indoors. The accuracy seems to hold at range too."

"Careful that your hand isn't in front of that charging handle. My nephew has his wrist in a splint after doing that yesterday."

"I'll keep that in mind sir."

"So what brings you down here today Commander? My staff said you had something to ask me."

Addison safetied his weapon and placed it back on a holding rack.

"I'm working on a system to help take out Ork concentrations on planets when we need to. I've got everything ready except for a way to deploy it in areas heavily controlled by the Imperium."

"What does that have to do with you being down here then?" questioned Elgar.

"Brother Atar says he knows of ways to get some of our ships into human space without much trouble. He'll only tell me one of them if I let him kill some Orks."

Elgar frowned. "I've already had two guys injured by Orks out by that kill zone we sprayed a few days ago. You're going to need armour and not the light stuff." The Captain pointed off to the west. "Building Thirty Two. Be there by oh nine hundred tomorrow. I'll have some speeders and a patrol ready."


Brother Atar sat back and allowed the modular power armour to close around him. He was still distrustful despite the assurances of a nearby Tech. Not a Tech Priest he reminded himself again. These people held only the most basic respect for their machines. The Chest plate finished closing around him and locked. Clicking sounds reverberated through the suit as arm and leg segments finished connecting to the main body. The only thing left exposed was his head.

"Suit closed up and ready!" shouted the entirely too cheerful Tech.

Lavidean opened his eyes after memorizing how each click from the suit had sounded. Reaching up with a gauntleted hand he grabbed hold of the helmet and pulled it down over his head. Unnatural light seemed to pierce his eyes from points in the helmets interior. After blinking a few times the light resolved into a heads-up display not so unlike those used by Space Marines.

Commander Addison sat down in the back of large speeder that had been outfitted to carry heavy infantry. Lavidean took the remaining seat opposite him and soon the speeder was headed for one of the gates. Heavy doors retracted to allow the small convoy of vehicles through, an energy shield flickering on while they stayed open. Lavidean looked back and forth between the Commander and the doors a few times before Addison caught on.

"Filtration field. We still have them over the doors and top of the compound."

They passed through the gate and a buzzing noise surrounded them until they were through.

"Was the air of this world poisoned by your bombardment?"

"No, it's breathable, just the construction crews keep reporting some horrible stench."

Brother Atar's eyes went wide inside his helmet. "Stop the vehicle."

Lavidean stepped off the back of the speeder once it had come to a stop. Opening his faceplate he inhaled deeply, taking in the unfiltered smell of the world for the first time. The smell of smouldering peat hung heavily but couldn't disguise the smell of Ork.

"What is it? What's wrong?" asked Addison as he climbed out of the speeder.

Lavidean ran a gauntleted hand through the dirt before replying. "Ork Spores."

"We hit this area from orbit, no Ork life signs left. There shouldn't be anything here."

"If even spores survived then you will soon be facing an infestation. Squigs could begin appearing within days now, and after that Gretchins and Orks."

"I need to report this."


With the Ork threat to the base reported Brother Atar and the Commander had both boarded speeders and resumed their course for the front. The Chemical weapon kill zone was the farthest north that vehicles were deployed in any numbers. The mere presence of the humans there seemed to be drawing in Orks from nearby, saving them the trouble of hunting them down. When the pair stepped off of the speeder this time they were in the center of a ring made up of Light Tanks, APC's and Self-propelled Mortars.

As they walked over to one of the APC's set up as a mobile armoury Addison described what weapons they had available. "The Standard weapon used with these suits is Rapid beam. It accelerates either pyrum-petrol or whatever else is available in a thin beam."

"Pyrum-petrol? We use that in Melta weapons for anti vehicle duties!"

"I imagine they must be pretty effective since it's basically causing a miniature fusion reaction. We also have some heavy Plasma weapons and lasweapons."

"Do you have any Bolters?" asked Lavidean once they'd reached the vehicle and were looking inside.

"Slug throwers? I'm afraid not, we only have a few weapons like that aboard the ships. One of the other standard weapons is the power fist. It's equipped with a shield and a pair of small plasma weapons."

"How safe are your plasma weapons?"

"You mean will they explode? No." Addison laughed. "I mean, who would build a weapon that has a good chance of killing the user?"

Twenty minutes later both left the kill zone armed with standard weapons and escorted by a squad that was supposed to patrol the area.

Beam fire from six humans shredded an Ork Wartrukk and the surrounding forest as the Greenskins shouted warcries. Eventually the fuel tanks on the trukk exploded sending half of the orks through the air on fire.
"We'z gettin shot up!" yelled one as Addison fired a pair of plasma bolts into it's back.

Lavidean noticed motion on his sensor coming from behind him and turned in time to see an Ork launch himself from a nearby tree.

"MO'CHOPPY!" He screamed, Choppa raised.

Left hand raised Lavidean fired a pair of plasma bolts that burned off the Ork's hands and took the weapons with it. The Ork continued his flight however and the Space Marine closed the power fist around his head. A burst from the beam weapon finished off the now headless greenskin.

The rest of the squad continued firing as the handful of remaining orks fled into the forest.

"Why are we not pursuing them?" asked Brother Atar when he approached the others.

"We're at the edge of the recovery zone." replied the junior officer in charge of their escort. "If we run into trouble out there we'll be outside of tank support range."
Lavidean looked to the Commander.

"If you want to head in deeper we'll need a bigger unit and air support. We'll do it tomorrow."

"Very well Commander." Lavidean offered a slight bow. "If you feel you can afford to wait another day for the information that is up to you."


"Elgar I need that status report." demanded Parek over the fleet intercom.

Captain Elgar sighed loud enough for his headset to pick it up. "I told you, we've almost got the Mobile STC Factory ready to deploy. Give me another day after that then we'll have planetary grade defenses going up."

"And what about the Ork spore problem?"

"Hey, we're working on it! I don't want a bunch of them popping up out of the ground any more than you do. We've got some APC's rigged up with chemical sprayers and are covering the perimeter. We're also rigging up a solid version of that chem weapon to fire into the ground when we find big ones growing. As for the construction projects they'll be done when they're done. I can't promise you anything else."

"Very well. I'll try to leave you to your work from now on but you'll have to file your reports. And if you have time see about what it would take to equip one of your mobile factories with weapons."

Down on the planet Elgar threw his hands up in the air in pure exasperation knowing his superior wouldn't see. "Aye sir."


A day after their encounter with the Ork Wartrukk, Addison and Atar both looked down on the areas farther north from a speeder. What they saw wasn't encouraging.

"Ork Speed Freaks." reported Lavidean using his suit's built in optics.

"This is going to be a problem." the Commander admitted as he watched dozens of fast moving ground vehicles headed south. Farther north the sky lit up as fire from orbit rained down on one of the Orks newly completed shields.

"You should purge the entire planet of them before they grow any worse." advised Lavidean "If you allow them to grow much stronger you will soon have no choice but to reduce this world to ash."

"You've seen Orks massing like this before?"

"This is an Ork Waagh! It will grow in power and intensity, and if it is not wiped out it will spread off world."


A pair of Ork Shock gun bolt flashed up from a group of vehicles and struck a fighter that was at low altitude. The fighters shield shorted out and an explosion engulfed one side of its triangular profile sending it spiralling toward the ground. The pilot ejected in time, teleporting him a short distance away and allowing his chute to open. A dozen human Fighters and Speeders were quick to head in for the downed pilot, the whole time trading fire with more Ork vehicles.

"Addison to Sinite, we've got a situation here."

Parek was quick to respond. "What's the problem Commander? We're in the middle of an orbital bombardment."

"Is there any way you can extend that bombardment farther south sir? We're looking at sixty vehicles plus and those are just the leading transports." Down below what remained of the forest lit up with golden energy fire. "And it looks like Ork infantry have come into contact with our front lines."

Lavidean rapped his fist against the front of the vehicle compartment. "Pilot get us the hell out of here!"

Addison heard the vehicle's pilot shout. "Oh shit!" as the world turned on its side and their speeder dropped toward the ground.

The Speeder pilot levelled out their rock-like fall slightly above tree level. Everyone got their bearings back and looked up in time to see dozens of rockets, artillery shells and even a few cobbled together Fighter Bombers pass overhead.

Back in the kill zone every running vehicle pointed their anti-ordinance skyward and let loose. Sonic weapons hit rockets and shells while larger beam weapons targeted aircraft. The one BaneStar at the center of the tank formation fired off half of it's anti aircraft missiles at point blank range, clearing a small patch of sky above it.

A dozen heavy bombs and rockets made it through the weapons fire and struck inside the ring of tanks. An APC exploded when its open ammunition bay took a hit and ten other vehicles were pelted with shrapnel.


Addison listened in to reports of the confusion on the headset com.
"This is Lieutenant Vadith; our infantry lines are being overrun! They're forcing us into hand to hand combat, we are pulling back to the vehicles!"

The Human heavy infantry maintained a withering hail of fire as they retreated from the Ork swarms, now numbering several thousand boyz. Just as they reached the relatively safe confines of the kill zone, close to a hundred Orks teleported into the center of the Tank formation. The BaneStar crew turned their Rapid and Scatter beam turrets on the green tide mowing them down nearly a dozen at a time.

A Nob threw a gretchin at the open aft door of a lightly damaged APC and several other boyz ran toward it in an attempt to loot it. A Tech, caught by surprise, had his throat cut out by the Gretchin's short but sharp knife. The vehicle's pilot turned in time to down the Grot with a bolt from his plasma pistol. Getting out of his seat, the pilot grabbed one of the newer Lasrifles from the weapons rack and began firing continuously out the open back door.


The Speeder set down in the outer ring of tanks and Lavidean, seeing the battle in the center of the field jumped off the back and waded in. Addison remained in the speeder however, firing out into the tree line as more of the human troops fled their way.

Orks flew from power fist hits and those that weren't thrown had body parts torn off as the Space Marine tore through them. Lavidean had been quick to notice that the beam weapons used by the Dark Age humans had a tendency to over penetrate. A potentially serious problem in this environment where any missed shot might hit friendly vehicles or infantry.

The flat but sharp ended fingers of the power fist drove into an ork's chest, turned and pulled, nearly breaking the Green skin in two. Once it dropped a burst of weapons fire finished it off. Seeing the familiar sight of lasrifle fire, Lavidean checked inside the back door of an APC. Seeing just a lone human and dead Grot, he forced the door closed and went back to killing Orks.


As the fighting continued, Speeders from the surrounding areas started arriving in larger numbers. Before the Orks inside the Tank perimeter were finished off all of the human infantry on the ground were loading aboard speeders and APC's. Heavy infantry used handholds on the sides of Speeders so that they could keep firing back at the Orks even as the vehicles began to pull back.
"Go! Move it out!" Yelled the Commander through the confusion.

Nearly all of the human vehicles were soon accelerating steadily away from the fighting. The BaneStar stayed behind to be certain that a handful of disabled vehicles were reduced to slag. Brother Atar realised that he was one of only five soldiers that had not escaped with the lighter craft. All of them gathered behind the BaneStar, covering it's slightly more vulnerable aft from remaining Orks.

"What are we waiting for?" He demanded of the others.

The nearest soldier who turned out to be a woman replied. "This thing has a troop bay that can open up, but they won't do it while the Orks are here. Just grab one of the hand holds!"

When energy began to crackle around the tank's topside turret Lavidean did as he'd been ordered.

The two large disintegrator weapons that were mounted as the main guns on the BaneStar charged. Because of their destructive capability the two weapon setup was normally used for long range fire or breaking through fortified positions. Each crew trained on use of the large vehicle was made explicitly aware of the minimum range of the main gun.

"Fire damn it!" yelled the woman at the tank's crew.

Both of the heavy beams fired in an arc from left to right. One beam depressing the charge on the electron, the other on protons. Wherever the paired beams struck the equivalent of a small nuclear detonation occurred.

All around them everything went white in the split second before blast tinting darkened, saving the soldiers from blindness. Clamped onto the back of the large Tank with his deactivated powerfist Lavidean was snapped horizontal by the blast wave. Fire, dust and compressed air buffeted him back and forth, slamming his suit into the ground, the Tank, and even some of the other soldiers.
When air finally rushed back into the void he was thrown face first into the Tank's heavy plate.

After a few seconds the winds died down to something more manageable and the five helped each other up. All around them most of the Orks were dead, killed by the shock or burned.

"Open the hatch so we can get out of here."