-XIX-
Julius sprinted towards the nearest vehicle wreckage and landed on one knee as he took cover behind it. The smoke and chaos were everywhere, Balharethi uniformed guardsmen lay everywhere.
There were several Balharethi guardsmen behind the wrecked vehicle where Julius was. They were cowering or taking pot shots at the smoke.
Orks broke through the smoke like green deamons. Julius aimed his bolter and fired a volley towards the incoming Orks. He downed two but the third took in the bullet on his shoulder and kept coming despite its injury.
Several bolt rounds exploded on the Ork's chest spilling ribs and organs all around. Julius was covered well covered by Horatus who was following after him with his bolter smoking as he strolled casually at open ground.
"Grab cover, we don't know what's out there." said Julius.
"We need to see how many there are." said Horatus keeping his frame high.
A squad of Balharethi guardsmen came through the smoke towards them running in fear. At their heels were an Ork mob. Orks stabbed and chopped at the fleeing guardsmen cutting them from behind. Few guardsmen had the bad idea of dropping themselves to the ground and pleading to the Orks to let them live. Orks ended their disgrace quickly.
"We should thank the Orks for that." said Horatus.
"Your affection for your fellow man brings a tear to my eye." Julius quipped.
"They flee the Emperor's battle to save their own miserable lives." stated Horatus.
The duo fired their bolters in different arcs and cut down Orks as they followed in the heels of the fleeing guardsmen.
No Orks was able to get past their killing field, they dropped empty magazines afterwards and rammed home fresh ones to their still smoking bolters.
Air was thick with smoke and the burning trucks made it worse as the minutes passed.
As they held their ground against the Orks, Ioras and Iulius came marching with pace and took cover behind metal cargo blocks.
Orks fired into the smoke from afar without aiming. Dakka fire landed all around them and not so much on them. The metallic surfaces of the crates produced bright sparks as the bullets ricocheted.
Ioras took a few shots towards the guessed position of the Orks where he spotted the muzzle flares.
"There is a large group ahead of us and beyond that a mess of lesser signatures and bigger ones." said Iulius interpreting the auspex signals.
"Some guardsmen are in close combat." decided Ioras.
"We hoped to steer clear of battle and now this." said Iulius.
"Out of the flamer muzzle..." trailed Ioras.
"...and into the promethium." completed Horatus as he came in close and dropped to one knee.
Herean, Fextus and Deciaci had moved through their right flank and started laying precision fire at the Orks.
The poor visibility provided no discomfort for the Space Marines as their augmented eye lenses was able to pierce through the smoke to some degree.
Wind turned and the smoke rose upwards in a great cloud. Now they had a glimpse of the Ork position.
The sight before them was utter chaos. There were burning wreckages everywhere, trucks, carriers, loaders, ground cars and buggies. All on fire, turned sideways or filled with bullet holes.
There were at least a hundred guardsmen, several of them was running away from the fight in all directions as the rest was locked into close quarter combat with the Orks. The discipline of ranks and drill was nowhere to be found. It was every man for himself. Lasguns went off at point blank range, knifes plunged into green flesh.
And Orks returned the favour with choppa and dakka on their own. The Orks were a mess themselves. Some of them was looting the trucks and precious cargo completely oblivious to the battle around them. Their only fight was with one another as they struggled with each other to grab the better loot before the other did, or to stab them in the back to eliminate rivalry.
A group of Orks was more into fighting than looting and was grappling with the desperate guardsmen in battle they so enjoyed. There were plenty of guardsmen to chop and some even put up a fight.
There was a third group of shoota boys who are into firing at everything they see as a valuable target.
Valuable target however was decided by its booma-factor rather than its strategic value. The bigger the explosion, the better the war as they say.
Ork dakka fire and the loud noises of close fighting overtook the whole yard. As the gunfire continued one cargo hauler with its cargo still hanging from the crane gave out under the hail. It's cargo landed on several guardsmen and Orks crushing them with a flesh squashing noise and bursting body fluids around.
"Rexus." prompted Ioras.
"Don't have the effective range, but order me and I can make it happen." said Rexus hefting his heavy flamer.
The Ork position was too far for an effective flamer blast. Rexus would make it to the Ork position but it was an unnecessary risk at this point.
"Not needed, we can suppress them while you move in and do your thing." said Ioras.
As the affirmative of Rexus came in Ioras was on his feet moving towards a better vantage point. He took Horatus and Julius with him.
Achagon sought an opportune target among the mayhem. A dozen Orks were looting a truck filled with ammo. He loosed his fingers in the left hand and let the sniper rifle's weight sank into his gauntlet to create a naturally weighted balance for the rifle. Then using his left hand as a pivot point he rotated the sniper's barrel with his trigger hand and aimed it towards a nearby stash what he judged to be an explosive device.
Sniper rifle rang loud and a blink afterwards the truck blew apart throwing Ork limbs and organs all around. Ork bodies landed nearby missing major parts of their bodies.
"Good shot." said Iulius as he watched the sniper.
Achagon only nodded, still hunting for suitable targets.
His second shot was less tactical and more humane, he shot on Ork through the head as it was raising his choppa to cut down a downed guardsmen.
Balharethi trooper was raising his feeble hand to defend himself and expected the killing blow to land but instead he was showered with Ork blood.
Although this one simple act of mercy did not stem the tide of death that was the melee combat. Orks would annihilate the guardsmen if the squad would not respond.
Balharethi led by Malik came out of the administration building and took cover near Herean's unit. They started firing at the Ork position with full bursts from their autoguns but missing horribly. Malik fired his pistols in rage and Alexis was right behind him firing his stubber in full burst. The Balharethi was emptying their ammo fast and causing minor casualties and flesh wounds among the Orks.
Orks opened fire on the Balharethi but the dakka fire only managed to wound two guardsmen, still humans were not sturdy as the Orks and the wounded had to be pulled into cover and cared for by their comrades. Balharethi didn't bothered to.
"Your men don't seem to care about their fellows in arms." commented Deciaci as he came near Malik firing from sight.
"The weak and the unlucky is claimed by the sands, that is our way." said Malik emptying his pistols and reloading both at once with practised ease.
Deciaci was recruited from a desert planet and understood their cruel wisdom. Still he grabbed one of the downed guardsmen from his leather ammo belt over his chest and dragged him to cover.
"I agree with you, but being a Space Marine is much more." he said as he tied the man's bleeding leg with a piece of cloth he tore from a nearby dead guardsmen.
"Thank you." said Malik as he retreated back into cover as the Orks showered more dakka their way.
Deciaci didn't reply, instead he grabbed his bolter and fired at the Orks dropping one.
He heard the bolter fire as Ioras' unit opened covering fire, the Ork line was filled with dying Orks and blowing out metal pieces and rockcrete from the cover Orks were hiding behind.
Deciaci saw Rexus running towards the Ork line, once he reached it a great bright column of fire poured forth and the Orks burned screaming.
Rexus wielded the heavy weapon with ease and a know how, flame weapons were tricky and dangerous to work with. Many guardsmen who underestimated the destructive power of their flamer weapons got either themselves or their allies cooked.
The promethium got stuck onto the flesh of the greenskins and continued scorching them even after they hit the ground and stopped moving.
Rexus moved towards several Orks which were a bit afar from the group he just burned.
The Orks tried to scramble and run, one lifted his shoota and let out a burst that only ricocheted off Rexus' armor.
He adjusted the fuel switch to low so the overspill would not be too great at this close range and the risk of causing unnecessary damage to any possible explosive nearby would be eliminated.
Promethium poured in a bright column and enveloped the Ork group. They screamed and trashed around. One had enough of a brain to throw himself down and roll over, but his efforts was in vain for promethium cannot be quenched that easily. After a minute of rolling the Ork became still and didn't roll no more.
"Clear." declared Rexus dousing the flames at his flamer muzzle.
Squad moved in closer towards the combat and started firing at the Orks with hopes of eliminating the Orks before all the guardsmen were dead.
Horatus kicked one of the crawling Orks in the face and put a bullet through his head.
Julius was laying down fire but it was hard to aim and he came close to shooting a guardsmen several times.
"It's hard to find clear targets." he said.
Balharethi was also with them but their bullets did more bad then good. For every Ork they manage to wound they killed at least one Balhareth guardsmen.
"Pick your targets. Be careful!" shouted Malik but it didn't change the outcome much.
The inaccuracy of the autoguns combined with the poor aim of the guardsmen made it extremely dangerous for the Balhareth guardsmen.
"This isn't working, shooting a guardsmen instead of an Ork." Julius said.
"Where we failed at range, we can win at close combat." said Horatus.
Ioras thought out his options for a moment, the yard was a mess and there was still Ork shootas raining death at everything they see.
He moved to Malik's position and grabbed the man by the collar. The Balhareth guardsmen tensed as the Apothecary came close aggressively.
"I need you help to save these man, would you run or fight?" he asked at Malik.
"What do you need?" Malik asked.
"I need you to cease fire and move to high ground over there." Ioras said pointing towards a loading bay with huge windows that provide great firing point at the second floor.
Ioras continued "Then lay down everything you got at the shootas, we need them silenced to move unfazed through the yard."
"We can do that." said Malik trying to free himself from the Apothecary's grip and failing.
"If you turn tail, know that I would personally hunt you down." said Ioras letting Malik go.
"You people need to learn some manners." Malik said casually fixing his collar.
"March!" ordered Ioras.
"Cease fire, follow me!" shouted Malik towards his man.
Rattle of the autoguns ceased and the man packed.
"You can trust us, we are no cowards you know." said Malik to Ioras and led his men towards the loading bay without waiting for a reply.
Ioras looked behind the leaving guardsmen.
"Iulius, Achagon, Rexus, Cussax stay on point, rest follow me, we are going into the thick of it." said Ioras.
Five marines led by the Apothecary moved over the cover and ran towards the battle awaiting them.