-XL-
Two sides of the Red River was filled with columns of dust rising up. Ork batteries were mostly silenced but the dust clouded the visibility.
"Scan ahead, I want to know if they anything more." ordered Ioras.
"Negative, lord, our scanners won't reach beyond the chasm." replied Aaron.
Achagon looked through his scope and scanned the wall of dust slowly billowing away.
"Anything?" asked Ioras.
"Nothing, just dust."
"Captain Aaron set up sentries equipped with binoculars, I want updates in every five minutes." said Ioras.
"Yes, lord."
"Iulius, Horatus, get the squad to the front trenches."
"And you lord?" asked Iulius.
"I will join you shortly but I need to see for myself that the Guard leaders are eager to move. It is time." said Ioras.
"Yes" my lord." chorused the two sergeants.
Julius and Achagon trailed Horatus into the depths of the trenches.
Ioras went back towards the command tent where the commanders gathered.
Colonel Ibrahim, Kavhim Lord Malik and Commissar Ibrak with his two aidaites was inside.
"My lord, we are prepared for your commands." said Commissar Ibrak eagerly.
"We are to march alongside your squad, backed up with artillery and armour division. Our heavy weapons teams need to be escorted to suitable positions where they will lay down fire." said Ibrahim.
Ioras looked at the three men but Malik did not seemed to agree with the decision.
"You have an objection Colonel?" asked Ioras ignoring Malik's preferred local rank of Kavhim lord.
"Despite our good Commissar's judgement my forces are not fit for such an assault, I-"
"Everyone will fight, Emperor wills it!" shouted Commissar at Malik.
Malik kept his composure despite his apparent displeasure.
"As Commissar Ibrak stated, Emperor wills our full dedication. Don't worry Colonel Malik, your men will be fine." said Ioras without total unconcern.
"Emperor protects." said Commissar.
"Emperor protects." repeated Ibrahim.
"Majd Alkarim Ibd Ilimbaratur" said Malik unenthusiastically, using his local language instead of the low gothic equivalent.
Malik always kept himself apart from other imperials. Ioras thought maybe it was a general Balharethi thing to see themselves elevated from the rest of mankind. They gave out a aura of hubris, they saw themselves special just because of their particular desert planet.
Ioras vox became active.
"Lord, you better see this." came in Horatus' voice.
"Get to your units and prepare yourself, for this is going to be tough." Ioras said leaving the tent.
"What is it?" he voxed.
"Go above the trenches." voxed Horatus.
Ioras took a slope towards the high ground.
The vista before him was shocking.
A gigantic cloud of dust was rising despite the artillery bombardment. A distinct cloud so large that it dwarfed the rest. Something was coming, something huge.
It broke the dust wall and was finally visible.
A gigantic roaring machine, towering above the rest of the Ork units rumbled forth.
"They built a siege engine." voxed Ioras.
"It's a digger." suggested Achagon looking closer with his scope.
"No siege engine can't be that big." came in Horatus' voice.
"Because it's not." said Julius.
"Diggers? What diggers?" asked Ioras.
"Not exactly diggers, more like grinder." described Achagon as best as he can.
"To grind what?" asked Horatus.
"The trenches obviously." said Iulius.
"Not the trenches, the bodies." said Julius pointing towards the Red River.
They stood silent for a moment and let the revelation sink in, the Orks were coming across the Red River.
"It won't make it through the chasm. Grinders would clog the moment it hit the bodies." said Horatus.
"It might, look at it's size." said Achagon.
The giant machine was the awesome KorpseGrinda. Designed for one thing, to chew through the Red River and create a bridge for the marauding Orks.
It had rolling grinders at it's front, two sets of grinders above each other were made to chew the corpses. Worse it had a mini-fortress on it's top, riddling with all manners of Ork guns. Several dozen shootas adorned around the tower. The tower itself had two big lobbas on top of each other in the middle while four lobbas on the sides were aimed in other directions to cover a wide firing arc. It had two kannon mounted on turrets on the front so that they can rotate and engage heavier targets such as tanks.
"We need to stop that thing." said Ioras and linked himself to Artillery commander Matan Heka.
"Matan, open fire on that thing, all artillery. Now!" he said.
"Yes, sir." came in Matan's voice still shocked after seeing the KorpseGrinda.
"Honour, Due, Drop. Arm and fire, hit that thing." he said "It wouldn't be that hard." added to himself.
Artillery-men broke into action loading and aiming the guns, range finders were used to measure the distance but the chasm was too wide for an accurate shot.
Adir's squad was the first one to load.
"Battery!" Adir shouted and raised a hand all they way up.
Men were looking at him.
"Fire!" he roared and guns blazed.
Huge earthshaker rounds flew over the chasm followed by other artillery shells lobbed a second later.
One lucky shot manage to his the turret but the rest fall all over the KorpseGrinda, blowing apart shootas and parts of metal plating.
"Maybe we can topple that tower if we hit hard." said Matan looking with his binoculars.
"Load! Load! Don't let it shoot." shouted Officer Shakeed to both his men and into the vox but it was too late.
KorpseGrinda lurched forwards but it's targeting crews, grots with dirty targetin-tubes, had spotted the range, sort of, and informed their commanding officers, well not officers probably, but someone who's in charge.
Two big lobbas fired together and blew a large chunk out of the trenches. A squad of Naphtali and half a squad Balharethi was torn to pieces by the explosions.
The onslaught continued with four very inaccurate lobba shots. Three explosions blew columns of dust over the trenches with minimal effect. But one lobba-shell was the lucky one and landed right atop a Griffon of the Long Due group. A huge flame rose throwing pieces of metal kilometres away. Thankfully the troops within the trenches manage to cover against the raining metal and stone.
The crew of the Griffon was immediately dead and there was nothing to save from the wreckage.
"Damn it! We lost one." shouted Shaaked into the vox.
They heard a swearing robotic voice in the vox.
"Keep the line clear, Techpriest." said Matan to Techpriest Nuzilliad.
They heard a gibberish of machine language before Nuzilliad cut the link.
"Same to you." said Matan after he closed.
"Battery!" reported Adir.
Matan waited for Long Due to report and then gave the order.
"Fire on the tower, bring it down!" he said.
"Fire!" Adir's and Shaaked's voice came through the vox and the artillery fire followed suit.
Shells flew over the trench and landed on the KorpseGrinda's tower. Griffon's heavy mortars harassed the armour but had no visible effect other than dents and scratches.
Earthshaker rounds blew the tower apart violently, Big lobbas shifted in their station and remained looking sideways. One part of the tower collapsed in an avalanche of rusted red metal drowning the side of the KorpseGrinda and bringing down the two lobbas on the side.
Other side of the tower stood but it's internal structure could be seen.
"It's out of combat." declared Matan but the two lobbas fired along with two frontal turret kannons. The explosions hit the upwards slope towards the Imperials and did no damage at all.
Despite their success KorpseGrinda had reached the downward slope towards the Red River and dropped hard on it's frontal tracks, throwing the debris over itself.
A second later the grinder started up and their huge metal teeth roared to life with grinding noises. A deafening metallic screech started when the KorpseGrinda started chewing on the fallen metal over it.
"Fire again, it's still coming!" shouted Shaaked over the vox.
"Ready the guns." ordered Matan.
"Hold it, lieutenant." came in Ioras voice.
"Sir?"
"It's going to dig through the corpses." said Ioras as if that proved his point.
"So? I thought we don't want it to get past." said Matan.
"We can use the opening."
"And so can the Orks."
"Its a narrow pathway and we got the artillery. We just need to disable the machine before it clears the corpse-field."
"I don't like the sound of that." Matan said.
"Just obey orders." Ioras warned.
"Yes, lord." came his grumpy voice.
"We are going to let the Orks come through?" asked Horatus displeased.
"We can use the opportunity, our own vehicles would also get bogged down in the corpse-field." said Ioras.
"That's clever, it might work." said Achagon.
"Nobody asked you." growled Horatus.
"Hey! Keep that to yourself." defended Julius.
Horatus looked at him frowned.
Ioras had lost interest in his squad and was giving out orders and informing the commanders of his decision.
"Fine, as long as we are not near that thing." came in Spahkii Captain Jeliha's voice.
"We are ready to serve, lord!" replied Kavhim Chief Gazam eagerly.
"Colonel Malik?" asked Ioras.
"Do we even have a say in this?" Malik asked.
"No."
"Then you have your the answer."
"You will only reply with 'Yes lord', Colonel Malik! Do you understand?" roared Commissar Ibrak over the vox.
"Yes, lord." came in Malik's disinterested voice.
"Shall we engage too?" asked Colonel Ibrahim riding in a Chimera transport. He had an entire squad of guardsmen with him.
"No, you stay put. I will let the armour deal with this." said Ioras.
"Finally! Thank you Lord, thank you." said Lieutenant Zeevka eagerly.
"We already lost an artillery, so don't let your tanks come to harm, lieutenant." said Ioras.
"Yes, sir!"
As they were talking KorpseGrinda had reached the bodies and slammed into the sea of corpses. It's grinders started swallowing the mass of corpses and took them inside.
Despite it's effectiveness KorpseGrinda stopped in it's tracks.
"See? Told you it won't get through." said Horatus.
In answer the broken tower above the KorpseGrinda split in two and fell sideways. Underneath it was a gigantic Rolla-Grinda. This giant grinder was made like a chainsaw but it was circular instead. With pistons the Rolla-Grinda rose up in the air and fell forward onto the corpses ahead, like a scorpion lashing out with it's tail. Rolla-Grinda started rolling and pulled the KorpseGrinda forward. Beside the KorpseGrinda now revealed several gigantic misshaped pipes pointed to the sides. Rolla-Grinda eased the way through the corpses and led the machine on. While the frontal-grinders swallow the mass of corpses and turning it into meat soup. The result of this horrid butcher was the soup being pumped out of the pipes at the sides.
The smell however was the worst part. Many guardsmen vomit as the disgusting smell reached the trenches.
"That's disgusting." said Aaron being able to see the KorpseGrinda at work.
Squad Extus and the Commissar was also with him but they all stood silently watching.
"What is going on?" voxed Zeevka being at the back of the trenchline, eager to just roll his tank to the front-trenches.
"Imagine a really fat and hungry person thrown into a pool of fried chicken." answered Aaron.
The corpse-soup continued to be pumped as the KorpseGrinda moved forward.
At the Ork side however was a great gathering. Thousands of Grots had came out of the trenches and with the 'persuasion' of their masters they charged forward.
"Artillery fire on those Grots!" voxed Ioras.
Six earthshaker and two heavy mortars punished the Grot mass and hundreds were dead in the initial attack. The casualty wouldn't even make fifty percent however and the mass of Grots kept charging forward. Some of the grot groups turned back to run but they changed their mind after several of their friends were ripped apart by shoota fire coming from the trenches.
"What are they doing?" asked Julius.
Grots charged ahead and attacked the once-tower of the KorpseGrinda. They ripped the metal pieces apart from the giant leftovers of the tower and started working on the pathway.
"They're building a bridge." said Achagon.
"Pierced greenskins." swore Horatus.
"Do we fire again?" asked Matan.
"Not you, Officer Shaaked open fire. Aaron help them locate the angle." Ioras ordered.
"Shaaked, six clicks left of your position, raise it high, at least forty. I can't tell the exact angle."
Achagon pointed his boltpistol upwards and fired into the air towards the chasm.
He watched as the bolt round flew high and then drop.
"Sixty-seven." he said.
"How'd y-?"
"What was that Captain? Repeat!" said Matan.
"Sixty-seven, angle is sixty-seven." said Aaron into the vox.
"Affirmative."
Two loud heavy mortar fire thundered and the parts of bridge exploded. The infrastructure had stood the attack but many grots were dead.
The gap made by the dead filled in the second and the work continued.
"Fire again, I don't want that many grots making it through." said Ioras.
"Yes, sir!"
"Lieutenant Zeevka, roll in and start pounding that machine. I want it disabled by the time it reached to our side." ordered Ioras.
"Yes, lord!" said Zeevka.
"Roll in 62nd Armour!" he ordered and his tank Duty Unending lurched forward rocking him backward.
"Finally." commented his gunner Chava.
"I want good shooting today, don't leave the glory to that smirking wipe."
"I wonder who that can be." Chava said smiling.
They drove over the trenches and reached the front-line.
"Holy waters of Naphtal." gasped Zeevka as he saw the horrible butcher before him.
"That's one big machine." commented Sergeant Liorit.
"How are we even going to paint a marker for that thing on the hull? We need a second tank." said Officer Zifor, Zeevka could hear the crew of Archer laughing over the vox.
He gritted his teeth "We'll see who will get the mark this time." he said to himself.
Leman Russ battle cannons roared as the tanks bombarded the KorpseGrinda.
"Loading." came out Shumel's voice from deep inside the tank.
"Hurry up." said Zeevka.
KorpseGrinda's frontal turret-kannons were still functioning and fired in return at the Lemans.
One round ricochet off Promised Home.
"Damned!" cursed lieutenant Liorit as her tank shook under the impact.
"Iron Yoodan, fire on those grots." she ordered.
Two Exterminator Lemans opened up with their twin-linked autocannons. Grots building the bridge was taking immense casualties but it didn't hamper their work one bit.
Their sheer numbers kept them in place. Where one falls the other grabbed the wrench or the welder and kept building the bridge.
They were building a land bridge, so that their forces could pass unhindered.
"We aren't doing much damage here." she said into the division wide vox.
"Same here." replied Zeevka anger in his voice.
"How are we looking, Chava?" Zeevka asked his gunner.
"We dented it but no visible impairment to the function." she replied looking into the targeting display.
"So?"
"We need the boom booms in the wheels." she said making a voice like talking to a child.
"I hate it when you do that." said Zeevka.
"Well at least the Emperor loves you." said replied back.
"I'm not even sure at that." murmured Zeevka looking to his right, watching Archer blew apart a turret-kannon with an expert shot.
Ork crew on their side was done loading the Kannon and they fired again. This time they manage to hit their target and Promised Home's frontal heavy bolter exploded violently.
"We have a men down, we have a men down." came in Liorit's voice.
"How bad?" Zeevka asked.
"We lost the gunner, driver is okay." she reported with a sad voice.
"Benet Strike, ready to-" he called to his tank group but never finished the sentence.
"Hold on, Hadar! Hadar! Stop!" came in shouting voice of Lieutenant Liorit.
"You wound us greenskins? I dare you to stand before the Emperor fury." shouted Sergeant Hadar of the Never Ending Exterminator Leman Russ.
Never Ending charged forward as his crew cheered on.
"Damn maniacs all in the same machine." commented Zeevka hearing them over the vox.
Never Ending rolled over the slope and stopped hard on it's tracks, it's heavy weight sliding it a metre before full stop.
Immediately it's Nova Cannon fired without any consideration of accuracy.
Shell flew right near the kannon and exploded violently. As the shell landed on it's tip the sub-atomic core of the shell caused a minor meltdown generating more heat then explosive force. The effect of the explosion was minor, Kanon was enclosed and protected against physical damage but the released multi-wavelength energies cooked the Kannon crew alive in their closed turret. With no one to operate it the Kannon fell silent.
Never Ending roared it's engines and climbed the steep hill upwards and joined with his group.
"Uh, thanks Hadar." said Liorit.
"The bled us and we paid them in ample amounts." declared Hadar.
Sergeant Zifor's group, Arav Break was way ahead of the two Leman groups. Zifor's own tank after destroying the Kannon on their side fired another round blowing apart a piece of the Rolla-Grinda as his elements, Track Breaker and Heaving Giant, both Leman Russ Battle Tanks with lascannons on their frontal gun, fired on the grots killing several dozen.
Grot numbers had started to thin out. Now there were several thousand of them building the bridge.
"We are commencing the disable firing, you coming Lieutenant?" asked Zifor over the vox to Zeevka.
Zeevka gripped a piece of ladder to his left and squeezed it in anger.
"Damned Archer getting ahead of us again." he said.
Arav Break did not wait for reply and fired their cannons in unison at the tracks of the KorpseGrinda.
Upon the tracks it had heavy armour and only Archer's anti-armour shell manage to penetrate it. An explosion erupted from into the tracks and several teeth fell apart.
Even the teeth of the tracks were huge and they simply detached instead of flying away by the powerful explosions.
"Wounded it." said Zifor.
Zeevka's group, Benet Strike also fired at the treads managing to tore apart some of the protective armour.
"No luck." said Chava.
"Fire again. I want it down before the Archer does." said Zeevka.
"Aye, aye" she said shaking her head.
Archer fired again followed by Arav Break.
"Damn they load fast." Zeevka thought before
"Loaded." reported Shumel.
"Fire!"
Benet Strike tanks fired again and this time a lucky shot got between the teeth dislodging one.
Archers side lost three teeth from the giant tracks but the KorpseGrinda kept moving.
"That roller-blade on the front is pulling it forward." said Zifor.
"Fire on the roller-blade, aim at the columns." ordered Zeevka.
KorpseGrinda was almost finished with the corpses and it's Rolla-Grinda was only several metres away from solid ground.
Once it reached the other side it would carve it's way up and into the trenches to cause havoc.
Arav Break fired first and Archer put an AP shell right through the main supporting column.
Rolla-Grinda heaved sideways and collapsed under it's own weight. Grinding metal noises drowned out the chasm as several thousand metal bars bent and broke under the weight.
KorpseGrinda tried to move but with Rolla-Grinda at the front it stuck in the corpse-field. It's engines roared trying to go forward but it was no use. Most of the Ork crew dismounted and started running back towards the Ork territory. They were greeted with revenge-fire from Long Due artillery group, for their fallen brethren in the destroyed Griffon.
Cheering voices of Arav Break came over the vox, celebrating their kill.
"Damn it, damn it, Throne freaking damn it!" shouted Zeevka punching his hatch.
"Lieutenant, shut up!" warned Chava.
"We need to paint half the tank to mark that." came in Zifor's gloating voice.
"Not a word." said Chava looking at Zeevka.
Zeevka stood silent with a red anger filled face.
"At least we are okay." came in Liorit's voice.
"Good job Lieutenant, take formation we are moving in." came in Ioras' voice.
"Yes, lord." said Zeevka disappointment in his voice.