-XXVI-
They were able to hear the frontlines thundering as they closed towards the Red River.
"We are coming up on something." Iulius said looking at his auspex.
"At last, I hope this cursed debris field is over soon." said Horatus crunching a human skull underneath his boot.
Debris fields made the streets highly dangerous even for walking. The squad got passed several rockrete avalanches in the past hour and the terrain was not welcoming.
"At least we don't have vehicles to worry about." said Achagon.
"I wouldn't mind an airlift right about now." replied Horatus.
Julius was about to agree but kept his mouth shut realising it might sound like an objection to Ioras' command. The last thing he needed with the Apothecary was more tension. He started to think that Ioras made him go with Horatus to flank the Spahkii Stormtroopers solely because he didn't get in the way.
"I couldn't agree more." Achagon replied back trying to keep things with Horatus on good terms.
"I didn't saw you complain this much for a long time, sergeant." said Deciaci at Horatus.
"Walking isn't my strong suit, give me a jump-pack and see if I care." replied Horatus.
"Flying made your head light, Horatus. Wars are won on ground, not at the skies." taunted Iulius.
"You ain't winning any wars when your target lands on you through the sky, devastator." sneered Horatus.
"Birds are easier to shoot when flying, assault." replied Iulius back.
The tense air somewhat seemed lighten after all the combat the squad went through. Ioras wasn't exactly the most emphatic leader there is. On top of that the squad was not an ordinary Codex issued squad, instead a mixed up combat squad solely for this mission. The rivalries and mischiefs among the squads are hard to get by but battle cemented even the hardest hearts.
Horatus was about to keep taunting but Ioras raised his hand and the squad stopped in the instant.
"We got company. Listen." Ioras said.
There was a loud rumbling noise that had an Orkish tone to it.
"Another Ork machinery." said Achagon.
"Seems that way." agreed Ioras.
They moved ahead and the debris field replaced with broken down streets.
"These streets are still standing." pointed out Iulius.
"Lions must be defending it." said Julius.
"Or the Orks never arrived here." said Iulius.
"Gunfire!" said Horatus and the squad took cover at the buildings.
There was clearly distinct bolter fire echoing down the street.
Squad moved ahead and encountered the first Lion Warriors they ever meet.
Lion Warriors wore golden yellow as their chapter colour and had black shoulder pads.
A giant Ork machine was rumbling down the street and a ten man squad of Lion Warriors were blazing at it with their bolters.
"What is that thing?" gasped Iulius.
"One of those things we saw before." dismissed Horatus.
But this giant machine was no mere StreetBlocka, the Ork who constructed this monstrosity had only one thing in mind, destruction.
Not known to the squad the Orks called it the StreetGrinda, it had a giant armoured core that filled the entire street. It also had two arm that bend horizontally, at the end of those metal arms were grinders rolling with murderous intent. The grinder-arms was grinding the street and toppling buildings as it went forwards.
"That thing is built solely to rubble the streets." observed Achagon.
"It seems the question of how the Orks manage to level the buildings so far has answered itself." said Julius.
"It a giant." gasped Horatus losing his composure for a moment.
StreetGrinda was moving forward toppling walls with its grinder-arms as it advanced. Out of its metal shell came out a tower-like gun emplacement. The debris of the buildings toppled on top the StreetGrinda but it had a second set of tracks that went backward over the hull and carry the debris backwards.
Gun tower coming out of the metal shell had high metal plates that protect it from the debris the giant machine was making.
"It looks like a submersible." said Julius seeing the gun-tower coming out of the debris that's been rolling around it.
Only the grinding front and the tower was visible and the rest of the bulk was under the crashing rockrete.
"It can only go forward." observed Achagon tactically.
StreetGrinda closed in on the Lion Warrior squad. The marines had nowhere to run and was directly in front of the giant machine.
The grinding mouth in front of the StreetGrinda would tore any man apart.
"It looks like a tactical squad." said Iulius observing them from afar.
"They won't even dent that thing." said Julius.
Ioras was passive to the demise of Lion Warriors.
Lion Warriors were firing full burst at the StreetGrinda with no major affect. The tracks was well defended behind the armoured grinding front and the bolt rounds did not reach it.
They had a flamer with them and the marine tried to burn the crew out by moving close to the grinders and fired a burst of prometheum.
The entire front of the StreetGrinda was on fire but it kept coming it's grinding teeth rolled mercilessly.
Flamer wielding marine unhooked his flamer canisters and tried to lodge them at the grinder teeth. The explosion rocked the street but other than a huge fireball rising up the street the StreetGrinda was not fazed.
Marine was killed in the attempt and StreetGrinda crushed his burning armoured corpse under it's tracks.
Lion Warriors squad doubled their efforts as StreetGrinda rumbled forward over their dead comrade.
"Do we help them?" asked Iulius.
"Why should we help those who sent their lackeys to kill us." said Horatus angrily.
"He has a point." agreed Julius.
"We wait." said Ioras.
"Wait for what?" asked Iulius.
"For their numbers to thin, we can't have ten marines to confront." said Ioras.
"That's heartless, even for you." murmured Horatus.
Ioras did not even acknowledge him and watched the fight unfolding ahead.
Four twin-linked big shootas at the gun-tower of the StreetGrinda opened fire on the Lion squad.
Big shootas sent out sparks and rattled like rabid animals as they vomited dakka fire onto the marines.
One marine went down from the hail of immense fire, his visor and helmet grid punched by several rounds but he died when several more rounds punched into his neck.
Two marines tried to stop the vehicle with their grenades and came in close to lob them over. One was shot repeatedly by the guns and went down bleeding, other had managed to throw his grenade but the tower had no opening for a proper throw. Frag grenade landed on the debris traversing backwards atop the vehicle and exploded uselessly.
Lion Warrior managing the throw dashed over to his brother marine who was trying to get up but his bleeding was immense even for a space marine.
Ioras decided that both his hearts were punctured.
Lion Warrior grabbed his brother's backpack and tried to drag him away from the grinding front of the StreetGrinda but it was too late.
Teeth caught the marine's leg and drew him into the grinders. The resulting screech of metal was immense. His brother who tried to help him was also enveloped into the grinders.
Both marines died being grinded to pulp and disappeared beneath the teeth.
Lion Warrior sergeant with a powerfist came forth shouting towards the giant machine.
"Death or glory!" they heard him shout while the grinding teeth of the StreetGrinda came forth at him.
The crew of the vehicle must have saw the danger, a space marine with a powerfist was a problem for any vehicle.
Grinding-arms of the StreetGrinda stopped crushing the buildings and came forth throwing debris and dust around.
Sergeant was about to punch the StreetGrinda but his attack was cut short as the grinder-arms crashed together and grabbed the powerfist between them.
There was a loud screeching noise as the powerfist's power-field counter-chewed the immense grinder-arms.
Powerfist itself was okay but the grinding motion pulled the sergeant in and chopped his arm away. His powerfist's power-field stopped functioning when the power cable was also cut along with the sergeant's arm.
Remaining Lion Warriors dispersed into two groups and started firing full burst onto the grinder-arms. They manage to disable them and the grinders stopped spinning. They let go off the powerfist without making any massive damage to it. The power-field managing to keep defending the powerfist itself even though it failed in defending it's user.
StreetGrinda crew pulled back the grinder-arms to use their big shootas again and started firing on the losing Lion Warriors.
"We seen enough." said Ioras and pointed towards the debris to their left.
"You see that slope Horatus?" he asked pointing.
"What about it?" said Horatus.
"Get Deciaci, Herean, Fextus and climb at the roof of those building. From there go over the rooftops and make your way onto that Ork machine." he ordered.
"You were asking for action." quipped Julius.
Horatus paid him no heed.
"Yes, lord." he said and started climbing towards the slope with three marines following on his trail.
"Achagon." Ioras prompted.
"Yes, lord?" said Achagon.
"You seen any weakness on that thing?" he asked grimly not expecting a positive answer.
"No, It's welded shut." Achagon said scoping the StreetGrinda.
"They must have a hatch somewhere, how do they get on it otherwise." pointed out Julius.
"It must be on the back." said Iulius.
"Well, Ioras, what do I do?" asked Julius.
He looked towards the buildings to the right.
"Me and Rexus can take the right and flan..." he said but Ioras cut him off.
"You're staying here." he said.
"Am I to sit here and do nothing while our brothers endanger themselves?" he said.
"I can't have you snap like you did last time." Ioras explained.
"Wha- It was a momentary thing Ioras, I can help." said Julius getting angry.
"You will, not now. Not in this situation." said Ioras.
"In what situation am I helpful than? The Orks killed my brothers and all I feel is righteous vengeance!" he shouted at Ioras.
In a moment Ioras turned towards him and was at his face.
"I will not have your uncontrollable anger kill marines under my command. Understand, marine?" Ioras said in a calm voice which was thrilling than a shout.
Julius did not know how to reply. Ioras was right. His decisions resulted in the deaths of his brothers and now his anger might endanger the squad under these conditions.
He backed down and Ioras turned towards the StreetGrinda giving it his full concentration.
Achagon came near him and placed his hand on his shoulder pad.
"Hang in there Julius, you're stronger than this. I know you are." he said assuringly.
"Thank you brother, I'm on a short fuse after everything." Julius said.
Achagon moved away to get a better vantage point and took the StreetGrinda in his scope.
There was not a single opening on the Ork machine, even the visor slits were narrow.
"Permission to fire." said Achagon.
"Granted, see if you can disable those guns." said Ioras.
Achagon stilled his rifle and took the shot. The bolt round swished through the air and struck the visor slit. Bolt round did not go through the metal visor slit and got stuck instead. Its mass reactive core did not engage being held in a scissor position.
"No effect." said Julius feeling anxiety.
Achagon didn't reply.
Lion Warriors had came aware of Extus now and was retreating towards them, two of them carried their wounded sergeant while others fire at the armoured bulk.
"Iulius, open fire!" ordered Ioras and Iulius rose from cover bracing his heavy bolter in both hands.
Heavy bolter fire threw debris as it rained bolt rounds to the gun-tower of the StreetGrinda.
Even at this long range heavy bolter was kind of accurate thanks to Iulius' heavy weapon knowledge and experience.
Bolt rounds struck the armoured bulk in a hail but most was ineffective. However one lucky round found its way at a big shoota and blew the barrels apart, silencing the gun for good.
"Cease fire." ordered Ioras as he saw Horatus' team reaching the rooftop overlooking the advancing machine.
StreetGrinda's grinder-arms were disabled and wasn't able to topple buildings as it did before.
Iulius ceased his bolter fire and get back into cover.
StreetGrinda's big shootas were now aware of the Spears as well and fired sporadically at their position.
Dust raised as dakka fire landed all around them without any significant accuracy.
"Position achieved." came in Horatus voice over the vox.
"Proceed, disable and destroy." ordered Ioras.
Horatus and three marines launched from the roof and fallen several metres before landing at the armoured bulk.
It was a jump that would break any normal men but Spears landed without any incident. Their weight crushing the bulk, bending it inwards.
"This thing is sturdy." said Horatus seeing the bulk bending but still holding under his impact.
Fextus and Deciaci mislanded onto the top tracks and started being pulled backwards.
Fextus manage to use his momentum to roll away fro the tracks and get on solid plates.
Deciaci grabbed the track teeth and launched himself forwards regaining his balance. He gained the momentum to run towards the edge and reached the solid plates.
Horatus was already at work, he swung in chainsword in a downright arc and hit one of the twin-linked big shoota barrels. He squezed the trigger and the motors came alive. Chainsword started chewing into the barrel with its teeth. Screeching metal sound ended when the chainsword cut through.
Horatus retracted his weapon and started cutting the other big shoota. He managed to cut down the barrels but the crew firing the guns was oblivious to it. The short and broken barrels still fired with total inaccuracy and even damaging themselves as the bullets rammed into the misshaped barrels.
Greenskin gunners were more concerned with shooting the guns instead of hitting their targets it seemed.
Herean unslung his boltpistol and shot the last remaning big shoota barrel, blowing it apart.
"There are no hatches." said Deciaci, him and Fextus was looking around for any trace of an opening in the armour.
"Then we make one." Horatus said and hit the metal plating with his chainsword.
Sparks and bits of metal flew as the chainsword teeth grinded the plating.
He pull back his sword seeing it did no significant damage at all. There were only lines of shining metal where the sword tried to cut into.
"Horatus, use krak." ordered Ioras through the vox.
Horatus unhooked his Krak grenade and armed it.
"Get behind the tower." he ordered and the marines scrambled.
He lodged the krak in front of the turret tower and ran backwards.
Explosion was intense and not as spread out as a frag grenade. Gun tower shielded the marines from the explosion. The focused explosive charge of the kraks were designed to penetrate armour.
They returned and found an opening where the grenade was a second before.
"Now we kill greenskins." Horatus said.
An Ork tried to climb the opening but Deciaci fired his bolter into his face.
"Fextus, frag them." ordered Horatus.
Fextus lobbed a frag grenade into the breach as the marines took breaching positions at the sides. Explosion came out bringing pieces of metal and smoke as well as a single thumping sound. Confines of the StreetGrinda turned the frag into a pressurized killer.
"Breach and clear?" asked Deciaci.
Horatus waited for Ioras' command.
"Clear it." ordered Ioras and the four marines dashed into the breach.
Inside the StreetGrinda was a confined space there was another Ork corpse next to the one Deciaci shot dead.
Two Orks and several grots came towards them. Deciaci killed the Ork on his side with a well placed bolt round. Horatus fired his boltpistol blowing the Ork's lungs out. Grots turned and ran towards a supposed exit.
Fextus and Herean was in motion, the meant to climb the opening and onto the hull to shoot at the fleeing greenskins.
"Let them go, don't waste ammo on those wrenched creatures." Horatus said.
"Your lack of violence concerns me, brother. You're not sick are you?" joked Deciaci.
"We need to left some for our friendly Lion Warriors." said Horatus.
They climbed atop the now dead StreetGrinda and waited for the squad to come to them.
Ioras and Lion Warriors met half way through.
"Me and my brothers thank you for you assistance" said their wounded sergeant.
"We serve the same Emperor." said Ioras.
"You're the Emperor's Spears then." said the sergeant.
When Ioras did not reply he continued.
"I am Alpha Sergeant Leton of Squad Kaziba, Lion Warriors." introduced himself.
"Apothecary Ioras of Squad Extus, Emperor's Spears, Idagenia's salvation battlegroup." said Ioras.
"An apothecary, leading a squad." said Leton more to point it out instead of asking.
"Is that odd?" asked Ioras.
"Not really, but rare in Lion Warriors." Leton said.
"Well then you're in luck that I am here." Ioras said pointing his head towards Leton's missing arm.
"I'll be fine." Leton said.
Ioras closed in on the sergeant and looked at his wound.
"Of course you will be, you're an Astartes, the wound is already closed itself." Ioras said revealing his narthecium.
A needle snicked out of his narthecium, Lion Warriors carrying the sergeant tensed at the sight of it.
"This will rejuvenate you." he said holding out the needle.
"Thank you, brother Apothecary." Leton said and accepted the incision on his wound.
A few seconds later he started to feel energized and refreshed even his wound was great.
One other Lion Warrior was carrying the still intact powerfist the sergeant had lost.
"So how do you know about us?" asked Ioras.
"This planet is under our protection, we know everything going on." replied Leton curtly, as if Ioras' question challenged his Chapter's competence.
"You also know that Orks breached into the city cluster?" asked Ioras to open the subject to talk.
"We were aware." replied Leton.
Horatus' group was now close by and ten marine of Emperor's Spears outnumbered and outgunned the six Lion Warriors.
Leton also realised this, considering his condition the Lion Warrior squad was no match for the Spears.
"So why are you here?" Leton asked keeping a civil conversation.
"We are trying to reach to the Lion command, we were not debriefed when we arrived at the planet." lied Ioras.
Leton had his helmet off and from his eyes Ioras was able to register that his lie didn't convinced the Lion Warrior.
"We also need to return to the command as we our lost marines, maybe you would accompany us." offered Leton.
Ioras could feel the game the Lion Warrior was playing. He meant to pull them towards a well manned Lion Warriors position and then capture them.
Alpha Sergeant Leton was standing on his own now.
"I don't think so Lion Warrior, we know of the games you played on our chapter." said Ioras aiming his boltpistol at Leton's head.
Entire squad also raised their arms towards the six Lion Warriors remaining.
"What games?" asked Leton.
"Stop playing, you know what you chapter did." accused Ioras.
"You assume too much, Apothecary." said Leton.
"You claim that you don't know about your chapter lords falsifying a message to divert us away from Echtesia." said Ioras.
"I don't know what you're talking about. I have no knowledge of this." said Leton.
"And what about your Spahkii stormtroopers trying to kill us?" said Ioras.
"Kill you? I confess that we had orders to apprehend you but my squad never got any orders to kill Astartes." said Leton enraged.
Julius came close to Ioras holding out his bolter "Maybe he really is out of the loop." he said.
"We can't let them roam and give away our position." said Iulius.
"So you would kill us?" asked Leton.
"No. We won't" Ioras said.
"But we can't leave them alone and we can't bring them with us." pointed out Horatus.
"We can't. But I have an idea." Ioras said.
They marched the Lion Warriors towards the debris where they can hide from roaming Orks and took off their power providing backpacks.
"Their armours shall be their shackles." said Ioras as his marines took Lion Warrior's backpacks.
Julius and Deciaci had carried the dead Lion Warriors they can recover and bring them to Ioras.
"Also, I will be extracting the gene-seeds of your brothers, so that we will have an ace in the hole with every Lion Warrior we face." said Ioras approaching the Lion Warriors.
"You're a vile disgusting thing, Apothecary." shouted Leton.
"On a distant planet, your kind is trying to kill me and my brothers and you call me vile, Lion." said Ioras punching the neck of the first dead Lion Warriors.
After a second he pulled back his narthecium with the gene-seed intact. He performed the extraction on the others and preserved the precious gene-seed in his narthecium gauntlet.
"Don't worry, once this ordeal is done I will return these to your chapter, where they belong." assured Ioras.
They left the Lion Warriors behind and marched towards the Lion Warriors command only a short distance afar.