-XX-
"Don't tell me you trust those slavers to provide covering fire for us." Horatus said.
"I don't, but they will draw fire from us, wait for my signal." Ioras said.
"Clever." commented Horatus.
"Or brutal." said Julius kneeling beside Ioras.
"Protocol alpha-two" ordered Ioras and the six marines equipped their chainswords and bolt pistols, holstering their boltguns.
They stood unmoving and just as Ioras predicted the tide of shoota fire stemmed as the autogun bursts start to took over.
"Now!." shouted Ioras and broke cover. He sprinted in a super human speed towards the mayhem and jumped down at the lower ground where the mass of trucks were.
He didn't bother looking back, he knew that his brothers were right behind him. They followed at his heels matching his speed. As he came to a dead stop so did the marines.
Malik's guardsmen were laying down fire and Julius was able to hear the Orks shouting orders as they combat the guardsmen.
Six marines moved slowly, chainswords at the ready through the burning wreckages and dead guardsmen. One guardsmen among the dead were horribly wounded but still lived. He raised his bloodied arm towards the marines but Ioras simply ignored the dying man and strode past him.
They saw a group of Orks looting a nearby wagon and stood side by side.
"Attack." Ioras voxed silently and the squad was closing in on the Orks in a moment notice.
As Orks became aware of the Space Marines among them the killing had already started. Ioras plunged his chainsword into an Ork's head and saw through his skull.
Julius shot one through the eye and punched another with his chainsword at the neck, stealing the Ork's breath. Deciaci finished an Ork with a well aimed chainsword swing at the back of the neck as he dodged the clumsy choppa swing. Horatus and Herean was holding their own against five Orks. Orks cut the air with choppas, shouted insults and spat towards the Space Marines but none dared close in. The first two who had the courage to charge got half their heads sawn through by the marines. Rest charged but Horatus was able to hold them at bay, the Orks doubled their attacks as they felt the courage overflowing in a fight three to one. But Horatus fell back as the Orks advanced on him. Herean was at the Ork's flank, overeagerness left the Orks exposed. Herean was relentless, he landed his chainsword at the first Ork's head tearing out his face as he engaged the motors of the chainsword. The Ork fell dead, his face a bloody gore as the sword ripped it apart. Herean shot the second Ork through the chest blowing his innards. The third Ork was somewhat quicker to react and lunged at Herean with no thought of self-preservation. However Horatus was also there and swung his chainsword from right to left in a strong swing, tearing out the neck of the Ork in one full motion.
"Die, alien." said Horatus as the Ork fell to his knees as he choked on his own blood holding out his gored neck.
Horatus kicked the Ork before it had a chance to die and crushed it's skull under his boot.
Julius' chainsword came loose as it spat out ripped apart Ork flesh from the belly of one. Deciaci blocked a choppa swing with the dull edge of his chainsword and lunged forwards shoulder first into the second Orks. Ork tried to stay upright and stopped Deciaci in his tracks but soon he realised Deciaci wasn't meant to topple him over. Realisation of his own death came to the Ork when he felt the cold barrel of Deciaci's boltpistol under his chin. Bolt shell tore through his
face but the flesh was not dense enough to ignite boltround's explosive core. Ork was still alive, his face tore apart but Deciaci couldn't care less. He left the Ork to die a horrible blind and painful death as he focused on the others. He landed a heavy blow on another Ork and killed it. There remained only one last Ork in front of him. He came face to face with it and tensed his muscle to ready himself. Before the Ork can lunge at him the tip of a chainsword came ripping outwards from the Ork's chest. Ork looked at the metal blade stuck in his chest for a moment and stood still. Julius was standing behind the Ork holding onto the grip of his chainsword. Deciaci heard Julius shout as he engaged the motors of the chainsword and ripped the Ork from chest to stomach. It was unnecessary violence, the Ork was already dead as his heart was ripped apart. Blood spurted towards Deciaci and Julius alike but Deciaci moved out of the way.
"Are you okay brother?" he asked but got no reply.
He wasn't able to see Julius' face from his helmet but he knew something was amiss as Julius kicked the already dead Ork in the back to pull out his gory sword.
"Death to the greenskins." Julius said panting.
"For the Emperor." said Deciaci but felt that Julius wasn't waiting for a reply.
Ioras was dipatching the last Ork with his chainsword as the combat suddenly ceased around him. They slaughtered the first Ork group but many were still around.
"Move." ordered Ioras and the group followed after him into the smoke.
They moved side by side as they came across a group of guardsmen fighting against the Orks. Guardsmen survived this long by using the cargo as a makeshift barricade which allowed them to mount a failing defence. Orks and guardsmen were fighting both inside and outside the barricade.
Ioras decided that many fleeing guardsmen rallied to this point with hopes of salvation but caught outside as more Orks poured in.
Still several guardsmen were running towards the barricade and Orks were at their heels.
One Ork had a guardsmen in his clutches but didn't kill him when he realised the marines. He looked at the beaten up guardsmen once and decided that Space Marines were a better fight than this rabble.
This Ork was bigger than the rest and had a big choppa which required two hands to wield effectively. Big choppa was the larger version of a simple choppa-axe, its head was shaped into an axe with spikes melded onto the blade. It raised the big choppa in one hand, holding the guardsmen from the collar in the other one, shouted "WAAAGH!".
The Ork horde had rallied in a moment. The random rabble of Ork boyz running around gathered close together as they laid eyes on the marines.
Some guardsmen shouted "We are saved!" or "Marines come to save us!" in their delusional state as the fear of death made a mockery of their reason and perception of reality.
For every Space Marine in Ioras' group there were at least five Orks gathering about. Even if the marines were able to rip through, the guardsmen were facing certain doom.
"Stand firm." shouted Ioras raising his chainsword high. More to intimidate the Orks than giving heart to his men. He knew his brothers knew no fear but Orks did.
And they needed to bring out that fear to win.
"I go after the leader, you keep them at bay." voxed Ioras to his squad.
There was a narrow passage between the Ork gathering and Marine position. It was as wide to held five space marines side by side. The numbers of the Orks would stuck behind the narrowing as the six marines cut them, but they needed to reach it first.
"We use that narrow corridor to stem their numbers, we must not break at all costs." said Ioras.
"We will hold them." voxed Horatus as he was eager to get to killing.
"Kill them all." said Julius out loud using his vox speakers but Ioras gave it to be eagerness on Julius' part.
The man wanted to redeem himself and Ioras understood that, he knew what Julius was feeling, the sorrow and bitterness when you lose a battle brother for a tactical error. It felt undignifying and shameful.
"For the Emperor! Charge!" shouted Ioras his vox speakers on full blast to further terrorize the Orks.
Six charging Space Marines gave pause to the Ork boyz for a moment but their leader's bellow launched them forward. Orks ran past the leader Nob and charged towards the narrow passage. But Space Marines had already reached it. They blocked it with their bodies but the Orks did not slowed down as they crashed at the Marine line. Deciaci and Herean allowed Orks to get past them and cut them from shoulder to shoulder with their chainswords. The momentum of the Orks did the hard work as the chainsword's violent metal teeth ripped their lungs and pierced their hearts. The Orks fell to the ground behind the group, still alive. But marines paid them no heed as they were already good as dead. Ioras fired his boltpistol at a low angle to maim Ork legs. Once an Ork was toppled the rest followed creating a huge mound of trashing Orks that stopped the rest of the Orks coming from behind. Julius hacked one Ork's face and shot another through the chest. Horatus was more agile than Julius as years of serving as an Assault Sergeant gave him a better training in close combat. He dodged and parried with ease and stabbed back the Orks rather than slashing. Orks died in their positions as Horatus stabbed them tip first with a roaring chainsword. Dying Orks and Ork corpses slowed down the boyz as more and more dead filled the narrow passage.
They were able to raise their own makeshift barricade from the Ork corpses as the combat ensued. Orks tried to swing atop the corpse-barricade or shoot their sluggas over it. Some Orks even manage to kill their own ranks as they fired their sluggas at point blank range behind their comrades without thinking twice.
As the Ork charge came to a halt due to the large barricade of bodies the tide started to turn towards the Astartes.
"We hold." declared Horatus zealously.
"Rip them apart." shouted Julius as one of the Orks manage to jump over the barricade and landed on him. Ork tried to drop Julius with it's bulk was Julius showed great resilience and pushed the Ork back, he dropped his weapons and started punching the dazed Ork on the face. Ork fell on one knee after the first hit but Julius kept punching it with both fists one after the other. Ork's eye burst, then several of his teeth fell apart, his chin and nose were broken under the hail of fists. Ork's face looked like a slaughtered lamb but Julius kept punching and grunting loudly as he hit again and again.
One of his fists caved into the skull and created a bloody gap on Ork's head. Deciaci took hold of Julius and forced him to move back from the already dead Ork.
Fextus filled the gap the two marines left and kept the Orks at bay as Deciaci dragged Julius back.
"Calm yourself." Ioras growled but Julius was showing no signs of registration.
Deciaci left him behind and went to help Fextus as the marine was hard pressed against the Orks alone.
Fextus shot one with his boltpistol and parried a choppa swing at his head with his chainsword. The Orks were climbing over the corpse-barricade but marines were ready to dispatch as soon as they landed.
"We end this." said Ioras.
Julius was at the barricade again slashing Orks with his recovered chainsword.
"Fextus frag them." ordered Ioras "Squad take cover."
Fextus grabbed a frag grenade from his belt and primed it "Frag alit!" he shouted as he threw the grenade towards the tightly packed Orks.
Squad dispersed and took cover as the grenade landed.
The Explosion was immense, Astartes frag grenades were bigger and packed a much larger explosion yield than simple guardsmen frags. Grenade's effectiveness was immense since the Orks was packed tightly. Barricade exploded outwards scattering body parts and organs all over. As the marines broke cover and looked at the devastation before them, the Orks were already gathering about. The road towards the Nob was packed with smoking flesh and dismembered Ork bodies. Several Orks wanted to run away but the presence of the Nob kept them in place. There were still many Orks left alive. The amount of Orks was able to stem the explosive tide from reaching the Nob.
Nob hefted his big choppa in both hands and charged. Ioras charged as well firing his boltpistol. Rounds struck the Nob but he kept manage to continue his charge. One bolt round exploded at his armour and broke his balance, Ork used the shaft of the big choppa to balance himself and stayed upright as Ioras closed in.
They were face to face and it was Ioras who made the first attack, his chainsword slashed at the Ork's head but was blocked by the big choppa's shaft. Ioras broke weapon lock as he angled his chainsword to free it's teeth from the shaft, he recovered his weapon in one swift motion and was ready for the next attack.
Big choppa rose and fell towards Ioras, he jumped right as it landed on the ground crunching at the smoking Ork bodies. Ioras took this opportunity and launched his attack but Nob used his wrist armour to deflect the incoming chainsword. Ork was slow but react but managed to keep himself alive against Ioras this long.
Ioras judged that this Ork was a veteran compared to the rest of the rabble. He jumped back and let the big choppa's axe-head to swing harmlessly in front of him.
He raised his boltpistol using the range to his advantage. Nob took the boltround on his shoulder plate. The cheap metal plate exploded shredding the Ork's cheek with shrapnel. Due to injuried and flesh wounds Ork did not allowed Ioras a second shot. He was already launching towards him and let his weight to give power to his big choppa. Ioras saw the Ork coming and used knelt. Ork had his big choppa at a long angle and aimed to raise it to chop off Ioras' head, but Ioras dropped to one knee as the Ork launched and took the passing blow on his shoulder guard. The spikes of the big choppa made scratch marks on his chapter insignia as it bounced off the armour plate. Nob had a crude chestplate and Ioras stabbed the Ork underneath it with his chainsword. The tip of the sword didn't go far as the Ork buckled in pain stucking the blade in his muscles. But that's what Ioras was expecting to happen and angled his boltpistol so that it would point directly under the Nob's chin. Bolt round exploded under the Ork's chin blowing out the metal jaw-plate he wore to his lower jaw and throwing his head upwards. Ork stumbled backwards dropping his big choppa, but Ioras was already on his feet and keeping up with the stumbling Ork. He slashed at the exposed neck of the Nob with his chainsword roaring. The motors of the sword leaving a black trail of smoke as they ran through the air. The teeth met the flesh and the pitch of the motors changed from high to low, the teeth bit into the Ork's windpipe. Ork stood on his feet trying to cope with the immense pain, Orks were sturdy and able to stay concious as his neck was being tore apart. Sword came free as the chain-teeth chew the flesh and spat it out from the sides of the blade.
In one full motion Ioras spun on his heels and swung the chainsword around him. Blade was able to chew through the flesh it got caught as it spun and was ready to tore more, it purred angrily as it finished the full circle and found the Ork's neck once again. Ioras finished his fatality as the chainsword tore at the Orks neck taking it on its full edge. Chainsword changed pitch as it tried to tore through the Ork's spine. Ork had already passed out from pain overload as Ioras' chainsword finished decapitating him. Nob's head rolled over and his body collapsed.
Orks were frozen solid in place but the marines did not wait them to regain sense. Five marines raised their boltgun and fire on the remaining Orks. Several Orks regained sense and tried to flee as all around them head's blow out and bodies dropped.
Marines emptied magazines as the Orks died in droves. Several fleeing Orks triggered the rest and a rout took place. Most of the Ork who were in distance including shoota boyz, weren't sure what is going on but they did not question the wisdom of their fleeing brethren and followed suit.
Ioras stood upright his weapons at his sides, watched the Orks flee. His brothers were arrayed behind him in a killing arc hefting bolters at the ready.