-XXVIII-
"Look! Trenches." said Horatus pointing towards the dug out lines in the rubble.
Julius could swore that the Assault Sergeant's voice came out happy from seeing something resembling combat.
The dullness of the long walk to the bunker kept them in a state of ignorance but now they were so close to their objective.
"Eyes sharp, I don't want any Lions ambushing us." said Ioras.
Squad Extus was on edge, the thought of an Astartes army as their enemy nerved all of them.
Iulius checked the geo-maps on his visor display.
"We are almost out of the hive cluster." he pointed out.
In reality the streets and the buildings on the map was indistinguishable from one another and it was impossible to tell exactly where the cluster ended and the trenches began.
They reached the trenches and Horatus put his feet on a pillbox to lean forward. Trench was filled with guardsmen and Ork corpses.
"Who won?" asked Horatus.
Julius and Achagon peered over the corpses inside and outside the trenches.
Achagon shook his helmet and moved ahead to scope the far distance.
"No idea." said Julius.
"Do we expect Orks this close to Lion's position?" asked Iulius.
"We expect nothing, but be prepared for everything." said Ioras.
As if in answer Iulius raised the barrel of his gun and the huge bolter variant cycled several bolt rounds into the chamber, heavy bolter was in battery and ready to fire in a moment notice.
"I see them, Lord." said Achagon peeking through his scope.
"Lions?" asked Ioras to confirm as he moved near Achagon.
"Affirmative." Achagon replied and passed the sniper to Ioras as he crouched beside him.
Ioras took a glance and saw a dozen marines painted gold-yellow armour. The chapter badge was clearly marking them as Lion Warriors.
"They're Lions, alright." said Ioras as if to confirm the obvious.
"That's good news." said Horatus finally feeling free of tension now that their enemy is clear.
"They have a razorback." said Ioras passing the sniper to Achagon.
"And that's bad news." said Horatus lowering his helmet in irritation.
"We fought the Ork vehicles." said Julius.
"Those were lumbering junks, this is a fully sanctioned Imperial warmachine." said Horatus.
"Things are not easy when you don't sport a jump-pack, eh?" said Julius.
"That's not what I said." replied Horatus angrily.
Julius was having his fun making Horatus angry but Ioras did not had the mood jokes.
"Cut it." he said curtly and moved towards the trenches.
Ioras wanted this mission to go as smoothly as possible. With the recent events and the failure of Julius on Idagenia resulting in the death of their battle brothers, the Spears needed a breakthrough. He wanted this mission to set things right and rise the fighting spirit of the chapter. That's why he even wished to lead the squad and not have Galieo take the burden. He half thought this was going to be another suicide mission but hoped for the best anyway, putting his faith in the Emperor.
"Great lord, guide us." he whispered under his breath.
"Didn't catch that, my lord." said Achagon turning his helmet towards Ioras and pulling the lid on his scope to keep away any sun-reflections that might give away their position.
"We are out-gunned, out-manned and out-armoured." stated Ioras as neutrally as he can.
Situation did not look good for the Spears.
"And they have an entrenched position, while Orks roam all around us." said Iulius coming close.
He did not realise the point Ioras was trying to make and added his own disadvantages to the Ioras' already grim list.
"I noticed." replied Ioras keeping irritation out of his voice.
As they were looking at the distant Bunker position of the Lion Warriors, Julius and Horatus was walking inside the trenches to find anything of interest.
"This place is a mess." said Horatus and stepped disrespectfully to an Ork's head, crushing his forehead. Brain matter squirmed over the cracks as he moved on.
"Guardsmen died here." said Julius trying to remind Horatus of their sacrifice.
"Digging holes, a cowards way of fighting." said Horatus.
Julius did not continue the meaningless debate and looked around him instead.
Among the dead, the blood and the dirt he saw a glimmer.
He crouched halfway and grabbed the glimmering thing in his huge fingers.
It was a golden Aquila on an iron chain. Whoever was the previous owner of this trinket was not rich enough to buy himself a matching chain and went with the cheapest he could afford.
Aquila however was too rich for such a man.
"Probably a heirloom." thought Julius.
Horatus was moving ahead without realising Julius' delay.
"Look at this place, junk and corpses, nothing more to be found here." he said without turning and moving forward.
Julius held the icon through the chain with his gigantic armoured fingers. The icon was too small for him but he felt it's significance.
Someone put their faith into this metal trinket, they wished that it was the conduit of the God Emperor's will. Maybe it was.
Julius did not gave thought on the Emperor's divine will or the magics of Chaos other than his total obedience to the Emperor and his total contempt for Chaos.
Despite being an Astartes himself, he never saw the Emperor himself. He never even saw Terra. The closest image he knew of the Emperor was the stained glass or paintings of him to chapels and cathedrals.
"How odd that we put so much faith into someone we never saw." he thought.
He dismissed the thought instantly, realising how dangerous it is.
"A questioning mind is the slow path to damnation." he recited cutting off his vox link so that other would not hear him pray.
"In the darkness, there is only the Emperor."
"Never bent, never lose edge, keep sharp, as I am his Spear." he finished the prayer.
"What are you hobbling about back there?" Horatus vox link came in suddenly, making him jump.
He did not realise it but sweat gathered on his brow, there is no worse end for a Space Marine then damnation.
Once Chaos moved into your soul and corrupted it there was no return. And not even a billion bolter round could not prevent such a fate. Only the pure faith in God Emperor could shield one from the taint of Chaos.
"Lord Guilliman, don't let me stray." he prayed again.
He put the golden Aquila into one of his empty ammo bags and moved on hefting his bolter across his chest.
"Horatus?" he shouted ahead.
But no reply returned.
"Horatus?" he voxed this time.
A second of silence endured as he moved ahead slowly.
Horatus revealed himself in an instant from the side of the trench, there was a door that was camouflaged to look like a dirt wall.
"Felt any fear, brother?" he said amusingly despite the horrible corpses all around his feet. Both Ork and guardsmen here were ripped apart, probably from a close proximity frag.
Julius stood unimpressed.
"You know the answer to that." he replied back.
"What are you doing in there? Other than being an idiot." he asked.
"There are tunnels in here, wanted to see what's in there. There sure is nothing interesting in the trenches." he said.
Julius peered inside and all he could see was a mound of guardsmen and civilian corpses. Orks probably found the door and killed everyone inside while they were cowering.
"Anything of interest?" Julius asked.
"Nah, lots of civilians though." Horatus said disinterested.
"You two, come in." came in Ioras' voice through the vox.
"Yes, lord?" prompted Horatus.
"On me, now." Ioras ordered.
"Affirmative." replied them both and moved quickly to scale the trench and ran towards Ioras' position.
Squad was gathered around behind a cover where any peering enemies would not see them. Julius also realised the remnants of a huge metal dish over what's left of the building they used for cover.
"Clever of Ioras." he thought, the metal dish would distract any Auspex scans in their direction. They would register Spears as random noise instead of a gathering of Space Marines. It also depended on the Lion's scanning devices and having an expert reading the scanners such as a Techmarine, but Julius doubted they would put any valuable crew or equipment to such a disposable forward bunker.
They reached the squad and knelt as the others did.
"What's the plan?" asked Horatus as impatient as ever.
Achagon looked over Ioras.
"Go ahead." Ioras said.
"We spotted two combat squads of Lion Warriors Tactical, they're armed with heavy bolters mostly and they have a razorback standing by."
"What's the gear on the razor?" asked Julius.
Horatus never thought of asking the weaponry of Razorback for his type of warfare never included any vehicles other than aerial dropships.
"Lascannons." said Achagon.
"Warp and ruin." cursed Julius.
"Easy." said Ioras.
A lascannon was a weapon powerful enough to punch through power armour in an instant. The bolters they could handle but such heavy weaponry put each member at great risk. It also out-ranged everything they had in their puny arsenal.
"Things turned sour real fast." commented Iulius.
"Shut up all of you." Ioras was getting angry.
"If you stop moaning like a bunch of Orks, we can get to thinking of a plan." said Ioras.
"It's not easy when Assault squads aren't there to save your armoured butt from vehicles, eh?" said Horatus at Julius, taking his chance to return an answer.
"Shut up! The next one to talk anything useless about the Razorback will spent a month under heavy penance at the chapel." Ioras roared at the squad on the vox.
Squad fell silent for a moment. Achagon was the first one to break the silence.
"About the razorback..." he said slowly.
"What?" Ioras' face was red with anger and his helmet snapped at Achagon.
"I think I can shoot it's targeting reticles, lord." Achagon said quickly.
"Oh." Ioras replied returning to calm.
"That won't do, we can't risk it." replied Iulius.
"They won't even see me coming." said Achagon defending his case.
"He is right. I won't have my men squander on single shots, we need a better plan." replied Ioras.
"We found tunnels in the trenches." said Horatus as if that would help them.
"Anything else?" asked Iulius.
"Nothing of value, lots of dead though." Horatus said casually as if remembering the horrible stench and the gory display of littered bodies at the last minute.
Julius put his elbow on his bag where he keep the Aquila and realised he never even bothered to dig out it's owner. The poor guardsmen was probably buried under corpses.
They heard roaring in the distance. Achagon snapped his scope at his eye.
"Orks." he declared.
"Coming here?" asked Ioras.
They were able to see the faint Ork traces in the distance.
"They are raising quite a lot of dust for infantry." thought Julius.
"No. They're moving towards the Red River." said Achagon.
"They're not infantry are they?" asked Julius.
"No, they're bikers it seems, as well as buggies of some sort." replied Achagon.
"Why did you asked?" said Ioras.
"I have an idea." replied Julius.
"Let's hear it." said Ioras.
They closed ranks to hear Julius out.