-XXI-
Among the clouds of burning gas and corpses the squad moved.
There were wounded Balhareth guardsmen screaming in pain all around them. Some had flesh wounds and minor maiming, while others were beyond help.
Julius looked around, he saw guardsmen die but the dazzling suffering of normal humans were always a shock to him. He never get used to how helpless and pathetic the unaugmented humans were.
One man was screaming in pain holding his hand which was missing several fingers. Those with minor wounds can be saved but the rest was dire. As Julius strode past the corpses, one guardsmen lying on his back raised his hand saying something indiscernible. Julius stood for a moment and gathered that the men was either saying "help me" or "save me".
Lying guardsmen had only his upper body and rags of flesh clinging to it. Julius strode on feeling vomit in his guts. He saw other guardsmen hugging their legs rocking back and forth, their eyes were blank.
"War will make man out off them." said Horatus realising the uneasy feelings of Julius.
Even though they all wore helmets Horatus could tell about Julius' mood from his body language. Julius wasn't too pleased to have Horatus at his side but at this time he was the only one who can relate to him.
"They're just doing the Emperor's work." replied Julius.
"They're failing at it." said Horatus cruelly.
"They don't have the gifts we have."
"We earned these 'gifts' brother, we fought tooth and nail to become what we are."
"I know." concluded Julius and fell silent looking around the guardsmen.
There were several guardsmen running around. Some seemed to help out the wounded while others were probably running to get away as far as possible from his slaughter.
Julius realised that he haven't seen any medics among the Balharethi guardsmen. The ones caring enough to help out their brethren were just common guardsmen with morf-drug injectors. They shot the drugs into the blood stream of the wounded and then moved on to others until they finish their bag of morf-drugs.
Ioras turned and looked towards his squad.
"Report injuries." he ordered.
All the squad returned okay signals but Ioras was unconvinced. He moved towards Deciaci "Report injuries marine." he said.
"It's nothing sir, just a graze." Deciaci confessed.
While he was trying to grab Julius one of the Orks over the barricade managed to land a blow at his neck. Clogged blood ran down his chest.
Ioras grabbed Deciaci's head and raised it upwards looking at his wound. It was deep but to a Space Marine it passed as a flesh wound.
"A deep blow, a human wouldn't survive." said Ioras with a disinterested voice.
"Emperor blessed us thus." replied Deciaci but Ioras ignored him.
Instead he turned to Julius "What were you doing back there?" he asked."
"Lord, I am sorry, I wasn't able to control my wraith." Julius apologized.
"You almost caused all our deaths, if it wasn't for the barricade holding off the Ork mob, we would surely be overrun." Ioras said angrily.
"Lord..." said Julius lost to words.
"Lord I am fine, it was a momentary weakness." said Deciaci."
"This isn't about you Deciaci, so stay out of it." snapped Ioras.
Deciaci stayed silent and motionless.
"How can I trust you that this won't occur ever again Julius?" asked Ioras.
"Lord, I have no answer." said Julius.
"Maybe I should have left you on the ship."
"No, I will control myself, this won't happen again."
"How? How will you manage to keep control when yourself is such a wreck?" said Ioras.
"I-, I will prove true." said Julius wasn't sure he can fulfil that promise.
"Maybe Galieo was right." murmured Ioras inaudibly to others.
Malik and his men was returning from the firefight with the shootas. Julius realised that they have three less men.
Malik's expression was solemn. The sight of dying and screaming Balhareth guardsmen didn't improve it.
"Cursed sands." he swore as he marched towards Ioras.
"All these man are dead." he said angrily to Ioras.
"So? We saved those that we can." Ioras replied.
"You cold over-developed giant, these are my kin, if we wouldn't have provide you with covering fire, we could arrive earlier and save more." Ioras shouted.
Horatus was moving towards Malik, Balhareth guardsmen raised their guns towards Horatus in a futile gesture but Ioras stopped him with a hand gesture.
"You? Impossible, if it wasn't for us all of you would be dead." replied Ioras with a cold voice.
"You Astartes with your shiny armours and glory attitude, you don't even care about these man do you?" said Malik spit in his words.
"Demise of these man isn't what upset you Malik, I realise that you're a few man short." Ioras said.
Malik looked defeated "Slaves revolted and ran as we helped you out, they shredded Ali's face and shot Tamid." he confessed.
As he said these, Balhareth guardsmen had grabbed Ali's four limbs and was carrying him with no stretcher. They planted him near a group of wounded and dead guardsmen. One of Balhareth guardsmen ran off towards the nearest bag of morf-drug.
Ali's eyes were torn out with a blade and his face was full of cuts that ran down to his chin. Ioras' medical expertise also made him realise at least two stab wounds at his guts.
"You're a medic, help them out." he said to Ioras gesturing towards the wounded.
"After your outburst I should just turn and leave but I will not." said Ioras then grabbed a nearby fallen lasgun and strode towards the wounded guardsmen.
The puny lasgun wasn't able to fit his gloved hand but he crushed the trigger guard and grabbed it with three fingers.
He reached the wounded guardsmen and looked over them for a moment. A second later he raised the lasgun and started executing guardsmen with precise headshots.
Malik ran towards him and grabbed him arm.
"What are you doing?" he screamed.
"I am ending the misery of those who are beyond help." he pointed out coldly.
"You're a medic, don't you have anyway to help them?" he shouted at the Space Marine. Anger had bleed fear out of Malik and he didn't realise what he was doing.
If Ioras so wished he could just snap Malik's neck but instead he shoved his aside carefully.
"I am an Apothecary, not a guardsmen medic. We Astartes does not suffer these minor ailments and thus have no way to respond to them. These minor wounds that maim and kill your men are just flesh wounds to us. And all the drugs we employ are created with marine dosages. Even the simplest morf-drug I have would put these men into a coma that will result in overall paralyse and eventually death." Ioras said.
Malik was sitting on his bottom looking blankly at Ali.
Ioras raised the lasgun and shot Ali, boiling his skull.
Malik winced as Ali's face boiled and burned but didn't respond otherwise.
"Focus your efforts to those who can survive." Ioras said and threw the lasgun aside.
Malik raised himself to his knees and dropped his head in prayer. Rest of his man did the same.
They waited Balhareth guardsmen to finish their prayer before approaching them again.
"We need the location of the Lion Warriors, we can't waste anymore time here." said Ioras.
Malik raised his gaze and looked directly at the helmet.
"We lost men, we lost our slaves, we lost everything, look around you." he shouted turning around himself, arms spread wide.
Everywhere around them was trucks burning and guardsmen dying. There was also a lot awful of Ork corpses.
"And how is this my problem?" asked Ioras.
"You blew our ammo and distracted us from the slaves, if maybe left alone the Orks would leave us be, we didn't fight them." Malik said.
"Nonsense! Orks would never..." cut in Horatus but Deciaci grabbed him by the arm and stopped him from moving in closer to Malik.
"As my brother stated abruptly, Orks would never leave until they looted everything and killed everyone." Ioras said turning back towards Malik.
"This is your fault, your doing!" shouted Malik.
Ioras could clearly see the blame game Malik was playing, he might even be thinking that he would get extra protection while the Orks are obviously behind the defensive line and roaming all around the factory complex.
"Typical human nature" Ioras thought, normal men would resort to any loathsome way to safeguard their interests.
"Look guardsmen, we delivered you safely to the trucks, we protected you and even saved you from the invading Orks. So don't play coy with me." said Ioras.
"You ruined us. You killed us. Now that the Orks retreated they would come back in much greater force thinking you're still here." said Malik.
"Then you and your men better leave as well." said Ioras coldly.
"We lost everything, everything." mumbled Malik, clearly putting up a show to get some sympathy where none existed.
"Listen Malik." said Ioras in a commanding voice, guardsmen's head snapped up towards his helmet his eyes filled with anger and dread.
"We were more than welcoming with you, we should have prosecuted you and your men when we discover your slavering ways, but we protected you and saved you again and again, you owe us the location of the Lion's den." said Ioras.
"We don't owe you anything! You ruined us!" shouted back Malik.
"You warped..." Horatus shouted but Ioras raised a hand that silenced him.
"Listen Malik and listen well, I have lived long and it wasn't an easy one. I have gained great patience through my fight for the Emperor. But as with everything it also has it's limits." threatened Ioras.
Malik gulped uneasily and averted his gaze.
"Yes?" prompted Ioras.
Malik's gaze went to the decapitated Nob head lying not far from him. The head Ioras cut off from the monstrous beast.
He raised his head "They're at a defensive bunker not far from the battle line. At sector three-six." he said defeated.
Ioras didn't say anything and matched the location with his own maps using his helmet's display. It seemed probable so he decided to believe the guardsmen.
Ioras turned without a word and moved towards his squad, he heard Malik muttering something unpleasant under his breath as he left but didn't bother to respond.
"What now?" asked Iulius.
"We got their location, we must move quickly before this invasion grows any larger." said Ioras.
"Do we even trust this shady guardsmen?" said Achagon.
"I cross checked the location he was referring and it seems to be reasonable enough to be true." said Ioras.
"Good enough for me." said Horatus looking at the maps himself through his helmet display.
"And what when we reach the bunker?" asked Julius.
"We need to find what the Lion Warriors are up to, I doubt they will be forthcoming." said Ioras.
"Are we to engage them?" asked Julius.
"We will assess that situation once we reach any of their units." said Ioras.
The entire squad went tense just by thinking of attacking an allied force that is far numerous and well equipped than they are.
Orks were one thing, going up against brother marines was another.
"We didn't come here to back out now." said Horatus heartily.
"Pierce their soul." said Ioras.
Squad responded back silently.
They left under the angry gazes of the Adi Balhareth guardsmen and especially Malik's.