-XLI-
Six basilisks started battering the Ork positions, their shells flew high over the Red River and plunged onto the Ork trenches.
"Keep firing, pay those Xenos back for the men we lost." said Lieutenant Matan.
Honour Above and Death Drop groups kept firing as the rest of the invasion elements gathered at the front trenches.
Armour division led by Lieutenant Zeevka was at the forefront, behind them were the Armoured fist group.
Armoured fist were a special mechanized by-the-book infantry formation suggested by the Tactica Imperium, the sacred manual of the Imperial Guard commanders.
Naphtali were not the best equipped regiment so they consult the wisdom of the Tactica Imperium but does not take it literally for they did not have the means for every strategy, instead they put their faith in the Emperor and in His guidance.
The guardsmen of the Naphtali and Balharethi had gathered at the front trench and there was a great crowd. Scouts had been sent forward to scan the Ork territory with their binoculars and report back.
Leman formation was keeping the distance secure with their cannons, they didn't need to fire for no Orks closed in at visible range so far but, you never knew with the Orks. They were unpredictable and incomprehensible as ever.
"Do not waste the effort to understand the beast, for it is corrupted and away from His light." was written in the Sacred Teachings of the Ecclesiarchy.
Heavy weapon squads and supporting units were just behind Infantry.
"Scouts report deep trench lines, lord." reported Bridge Captain Aaron.
"They must have entrenched heavily with guns and traps." said Julius.
"No matter, they won't stop us. Eh, broher?" said Horatus slapping Julius in the arm.
Horatus' mood was high today, Julius realised it was the impending war that made him eager.
"Does Orks even use traps?" asked Achagon locking a fresh bolt-magazine into his sniper rifle.
"They might, but the artillery barrage is a welcoming advantage."
"Bah, I hate those guardsmen doing our jobs for us." commented Horatus revving his chainsword.
"We still need to carve our way in, this is not going to be easy." stated Ioras.
"We are ready, my lord. Order us and we shall annihilate the Xenos scum." shouted Kavhim Chief Gazam.
He was standing with one feet atop a ammo crate with the Balharethi company standard behind him. He had his chainsword and stubgun drawn.
He looked like as if he was posing for a picture from where Julius was standing.
Beside him stood a giant men, he had black hair all over his face, hair and beard mixed. He carried a single barrelled heavy stubber with it's ammo slung across his chest. He heaved as he breath as if anxious.
Several Balharethi were looking at Gazam in awe. His obnoxious and seemingly heroic acts seemed to draw them in.
"We'll see if those heroics will hold true." thought Julius to himself. His eyes searched for Malik in the crowd.
Malik was nearby but he did not say anything and stood with a group of his followers on the other side of the trench.
He seemed to be more occupied with what is to come than preserving his leader status.
His own brute, the one called Alexis, carried his heavy stubber with ease.
"A leader and a muscle." realised Julius thinking of the similarities between Malik and Gazam.
Three thundering earthshaker rounds flew away as Adir's group fired again.
Julius could see the rising columns of dirt in the distance.
"I hope you all die horribly, Orks." he thought.
Semdek jumped down from the Trojan Tow vehicle and shouldered his gear.
He ran towards the KorpseGrinda where the support crew had gathered.
"This is an abomination!" buzzed Enginseer Nuzilliad looking at the unmoving KorpseGrinda.
"We need to find a way to bring that rolling grinder down. Some sort of-" said Chief Engineer Abalafi of the 1st Support Group.
Nuzilliad cut in "I am not touching that unholy machine for it is corrupted. We should just let the tanks blow it apart."
"Well like it or not, we are going up there." said Abalafi.
"Up there, sir?" Semdek asked.
"Yes, and yes you are also coming. I'm too old to climb the damn Ork constructs." said Abalafi throwing his own gear at Semdek.
"Not a construct, an abomination, an insult to the Omnissiah." said Nuzilliad feverishly.
Semdek haven't heard such 'emotional' comments from the Nuzilliad and it came odd to him.
He threw old men Abalafi's gear on his other shoulder and followed them towards the looming Ork machine.
"What-what if there are still Orks on it, sir?" he asked.
"We have backup and besides we have you to jump in front of us if we get into trouble, right?" asked Abalafi mockingly.
A squad of Naphtali was following beside them lasguns at the ready.
They climbed atop the thing using the foul Ork ladders welded onto the hull.
The ladders themselves were dangerous let alone climbing the giant machine. No rails, no safety cables, it felt as if they were on an Imperial cruiser's work deck.
Abalafi had wore his hard leather work gloves to keep the ladder from cutting his hands, Nuzilliad had no flesh hands to be cut and the accompanying guardsmen also wore gloves to keep the horribly made ladders from biting in their flesh.
Semdek however had no such luxury. He cut his palm in the first hold and had a dozen more cuts before he reached the top.
"Emperor Mettavlav greenskin scum." he swore to himself.
They had reached the top and the guardsmen squad had fanned out to search for any hostiles.
"You get a medic to look at them, it might get infected." said Abalafi looking to Semdek's hands.
"I will." Semdek nodded.
Nuzilliad had pulled out his laspistol in caution and refused to touch anything or even get close to them.
"See there?" Abalafi said.
"The column?" asked Semdek.
"Yes, it's the main column that carries this roller thing." Abalafi said waving a hand towards the downed Rolla-Grinda.
Rolla-Grinda had leaned sideways under the crushing weight of itself but the secondary stationary columns had kept it in place.
"What could have done such a damage." said Semdek looking into the torn apart main column. The thick metallic support column had been ripped from a single point.
"A diamantine tipped CA-8000 ceremite-adamantium binary alloy capped low yield plasteel sabot rimmed armour piercing shell" said Nuzilliad casually without pause.
"Obviously, I gathered that much." said Semdek trying to hide his shortcoming in the Imperial technological lore. Despite his years of training with Chief Abalafi he had no idea how the Imperial machines were made or what they are composed of. Those secrets were kept by the Mechanicum and only known by those who are member of the cult.
"Clear!" shouted the guardsmen sergeant.
Several more 'clear' signals came back and Abalafi finally moved closer.
Nuzilliad was happy with where he were.
Semdek went beside Abalafi.
"So why is the roller still standing if the main column is broken?" asked Semdek.
"See those other columns?" pointed Abalafi to the nearby metal column.
"They could not carry such a weight." said Semdek.
"Well, other than that I see no reasonable-" started Abalafi.
"It's the rusted Orks, chief engineer. Those Orkoids construct these cursed machine with no logic." said Nuzilliad.
"So the giant roller stands on it's own?" asked Abalafi rising an eye brow.
"There is no way for us to understand such...corruption. And I rather not." said Nuzilliad.
"We still need to topple this thing regardless." pointed out Abalafi.
"Well I told you to-" started Nuzilliad.
Semdek had closed in on the metallic giant columns as the two bickered on how to best deal with the situation.
"How do they even power this thing?" he wondered, putting a hand onto the rusted and dented metal.
When he pulled his hand back there was blood.
"Oh." he remembered and wiped his bleeding palm at his grease-towel.
His palm was covered in grease now.
"Machine god will heal my flesh." he said to himself.
He walked beside the columns and entered below the gigantic roller-grinder.
As he looked on awed at the size of this construct he also kept in mind that this was a corrupted Ork machine made by murderous intent.
Compared to the majestic and heroic machines of mankind, Ork machines looked crude and poorly thought of. And poorly manufactured for sure.
But Semdek also couldn't discredit the greenskins for their effectiveness. They had built this giant machine and then constructed a bridge to cross the Red River.
And it would have worked perfectly if it wasn't for the Imperials.
There was a simplistic approach to the Orks, as if they were...
His eyes caught something.
He ran back towards Abalafi.
"Sir, sir." he said.
"What happened? Where did you go?" asked Abalafi worried.
"Just, beneath the grinder." Semdek said catching his breath.
"Boy, are you mad? That thing could have crashed any moment. We don't even know how stable it is." scolded Abalafi.
"I know sir, but I was dazed." said Semdek.
"Dazed? Dazed? Have you inhaled toxic chemicals to be dazed by this monstrosity?" said Nuzilliad.
"Dazed by what?" asked Abalafi frowning.
"The size of the grinder, sir. It's huge." said Semdek.
Abalafi rose an eye brow.
"Yes, we figured that out before we came aboard." he said.
"No sir, it's huge and it needs power." Semdek said.
"Stop wasting our time Junior Engineer, we need to figure out how this abomination still stands after it has been punished by MY tanks." said Nuzilliad.
Abalafi raise a hand to silence the Engineer.
"Wait, so where does it get it's power then?" Abalafi asked.
"The power cords, inside the columns, they trail into the arm and onto the grinder itself." said Semdek.
"Ridiculous no power cord can be that strong." said Nuzilliad.
"None we know of." said Abalafi.
They went near one of the columns and Nuzilliad used his servo-arm to crunch into the column.
Dented metal groaned under the pressure and buckled. Nuzilliad pulled his servo-arm back and with in came a plate of metal.
He threw the metal plate away with disgust in his eyes.
Inside the columns was rows and rows of binded metal wires. Thousands of wires were welded together and binded in a spiral pattern.
"This is unbelievable." buzzed Nuzilliad.
"How so?" asked Semdek.
"That giant grinder must require gigawatts of power to function. It's impossible to carry that much hollowed current through such primitive wiring. This is...heresy!" said Nuzilliad.
"It sure is, that is why we need to blow them apart." said Abalafi.
"Rusted Orks and their illogical machines." cursed Nuzilliad.
Guardsmen planted the charges and they went back to the trojans.
Trojans stopped when they reached the top and joined with the tanks.
Artillery still thundered on, punishing the Ork trenches.
Abalafi pressed the trigger and several minor explosions banged around the grinder.
As the second columns and the internal wiring ripped, the grinder's weight completed it's downfall.
With a huge splashing sound it fell sideways onto the corpses and crushed them.
Trojan's had hauled makeshift bridges they used among the trenches.
"Now we build a bridge to the front of that machine and then we have a way across." said Abalafi as he ordered the Trojan's forward.
Imperial force moved across the bridge over the corpses. The passage was slow and careful, no one wanted to cause the horribly built Ork bridge to collapse. Tanks rolled single file and Infantry kept clear of the edges which had no railing or any other safety features.
Basilisk artillery groups, Honour Above and Death Drop had stayed behind, providing covering fire. Six earthshaker cannons was enough to pin down any number of Orks.
Spears and Lions were moving side by side and Spahkii was just behind them.
Renon closed next to Ioras.
"What do you even hope to accomplish by this offensive?" he asked.
"To close the warp-rift." said Ioras as if it was obvious enough.
"I mean after that, you would not just help Patriach Echnisia if you would not wish to gain something in return." Renon said.
Ioras' helmet slowly turned to him, still walking at a slow pace.
"We don't wish to gain anything other than to stop the Orks." he said.
"You didn't just come to this system and lose brothers just because of your concern over Orks." Renon said.
"Why wouldn't we? It's the Emperor's land and we are His Space Marines. It is our duty to protect it."
"Are you feeding me the most basic Imperial rhetorics?" asked Renon.
"Listen here Lion, I don't know how long your chapter was in on this political thing but me and my brothers are real Space Marines, not aristocratic lapdogs." he said.
Renon looked taken.
"We are given the duty to protect this system, your insults are unfounded, Apothecary." Renon said in return.
"Your lords hid the truth about this system from our Lord and your misinformation cost us our battle brothers."
"Would you judge us on vague evidence?"
"Guilty unless proven otherwise." Ioras said.
"We are helping you and endangering ourselves for this effort."
"You are accompanying us for sure, I can't know about your motives however."
"Throne, you're tough. What does it take for you to trust us?"
"Your sacrifice in blood. Trust is the road to betrayal. I will trust you once you fall in battle." Ioras said moving away from Renon.
Renon walked alone for a moment brooding on the insults and mistrust.
"I've never did anything wrong, I just followed my Lord's orders. And now get reprimanded for my loyalty." he thought to himself.
"Hey, beta." came a voice to his left.
Spahkii Captain Jeliha approached in silence while he was lost in thoughts.
"Call me that again and I blow your head open." growled Renon.
"Oh, sore are we?" said Jeliha grinning through his raised helmet-faceplate.
"What do you want?" Renon asked.
"Just chatting." said Jeliha.
"Sure, now get to the point, Spahkii."
"Can't we be all friends? We are on the same side after all." grinned Jeliha.
"Trusting a Spahkii?" laughed Renon "Now, that's rich."
"You're breaking my heart."
"The point?"
"Okay, why did you threw in your lot with these...Spears." Jeliha asked.
"They are doing the Emperor work. We need to stop the Orks." Renon answered.
"Oh yes, the Orks, such a noble cause but what about the rift?" Jeliha asked grinning.
Renon stared at him.
"Rift? In the tomb?" Jeliha pressed.
"How do you know that?" Renon asked even he didn't knew about the warp rift before the coming of Spears.
"I have my eagles." said Jeliha.
"We are going to get rid of it." answered Renon.
"And how do you plan to do that?"
"We'll figure something out."
"That's great, and I thought Space Marines were smarter."
"Why are you coming along then?"
"We got our orders."
"What orders."
"Order to assist the Impe-"
"Oh spare me the bulldung." said Renon.
"We are here to observe the Spears." replied Jeliha careful to not slip anything other than what is needed for Renon to know.
"On whose orders?"
"Alpha Captain Kesiro."
"The Captain? So this whole deal with Spears do go way top." Renon said.
Jeliha didn't comment on that.
"Why do I feel like you're hiding something?"
"I said what you wanted. What do you want more?" Jeliha asked.
"Do you know anything about the falsified transmission the Spears received?"
Jeliha didn't answer.
"You know I can just extract any information I want from you and your men would not be able to stop me." Renon threatened.
"I would like to see you try." Jeliha countered.
Renon's hand gripped the Jeliha's armour strips and lifted him up.
The aggressive motion alerted everyone around.
Ioras turned and walked towards the duo but Julius reached first.
He came close.
"What are you doing?" he asked to no one in particular.
"Just having some cuddly time." said Jeliha grinning.
"He knows about the rift." Renon said.
"What?" Julius was surprised.
"Tell me everything you know, or I bash your face in." said Renon.
"You wouldn't live to enjoy it." said Jeliha revealing the Krak grenade in his hand, he had it armed.
"Stop this. Now." said Julius.
Ioras had arrived.
"Leave him on the ground Sergeant." Ioras ordered.
Renon let the stormtrooper go.
"Disarm the krak." Ioras said.
Jeliha disarmed the grenade and hang it on his belt.
"Your actions unnerve the guardsmen." Ioras stated.
"What is going on here?" he asked.
"He knows about the rift." said Renon.
"You do?" asked Ioras.
"Yes." replied Jeliha.
"Who told you?"
"Patriach Echnisia of course." Jeliha said.
"Are you lying to me, guardsmen?" asked Ioras degrading Jeliha's rank on purpose.
Jeliha frowned.
"No, I am not."
"Okay, rejoin your unit, don't stall the passage progress." Ioras said and Jeliha joined his Spahkii.
"You shouldn't let him off the hook so easy." Renon objected.
"I don't trust him anymore than you do, however we don't have the time for an interrogation and moreover we can't do such a thing in front of all the guardsmen. We have a battle to fight." said Ioras.
Renon nodded in agreeance.
"Keep moving." ordered Ioras signalling to everyone around them.
Julius closed to the edge, he wanted to look down. He could see the majestic gross view of the Red River from the bridge but he still wanted to see how high it is with his own eyes.
He walked towards the edge and walked alongside the bridge.
Below them was indiscernible red corpses meshed together so horribly, that even the carrions would have a hard time finding anything suitable to eat.
There were no carrion birds however, the shelling of the Basilisks scared all of them away.
Death did not faze him, even this much death. He had seen death. His mother, his father, his brothers, his sisters. Death was the first thing a Space Marine learned in his life.
He remembered the pit and the tests. Initiation was only the beginning for him. He was forced to practice twenty hours a day under the cruel supervision of the scout veterans. He swung and pierced and hacked with every possible weapon from the training armoury. His muscles turned purple from the pain. There was no pause, no respite.
Swing and thrust and hack and pierce.
And again and again and again until you collapsed. He even passed out in many exercises from exhaustion.
Then came the worst part. The augmentations.
They chained him to a medical slab and cut his chest open. He had seen his ribs being removed and extra organs placed inside. He remember the welding of the veins and the connecting of the nerve endings. Even the shortest operation took hours.
And after a week's rest, back to training.
With each augmentation however he felt different. When he first wake up after his first operation he felt his twin hearts beat. That day he trained for twenty hours as usual and did not ran out of breath once.
He remembered the pain of the operation, the deep cuts in his chest as his twin hearts beat to rip themselves out of the newly closed flesh. They pressed against his unaltered ribs.
There were more augmentations to come however and as a young boy he would never have imagined the transformation they would bring.
Even the basic addition of a secondary heart felt like his whole world has changed.
"Am I a Space Marines now?" he asked in his foolishness, only to be laughed at.
And now in this moment, where they walked over hundred of thousand corpses containing that many unbeating hearts, he felt his second hearth beating strongly.
So strongly he became aware of it.
His blood flowed in them.
Emperor's sacred blood.
The same blood that flowed in the veins of the gene-father.
Same blood that flowed in their brother's veins.
Vain blood that was spilt by the Orks.
"My brothers." he said to himself.
"I shall avenge your blood."
Avenge us.
Avenge our loss.
Avenge your failure.
"Huh?" Julius startled.
It was as if someone said something to him. But he was away from the military column rolling as he walked along.
"Probably was the vox, Horatus saying something useless again." he thought.
"I've taken enough of a foolish risk coming to the edge, If a metal sheet gave in I would tumble to my death. Not a glorious end for a Space Marine." Julius thought.
He turned to...
Help me.
Help.
Help.
He stopped and turned to the edge looking at the wide chasm of corpses.
He looked down and saw, him.
"Decimus." he gasped.
Decimus was hanging dangerous from the ledge just a metre away from Julius.
He was about to fall.
"No, hold on." Julius said and crouched, holding out his hand.
"Decimus, grab my hand, come on!" he shouted.
Decimus did not respond but tried to grab Julius' hand.
He failed in the first try, their fingers touching at the tips.
"Reach!" Julius shouted.
Decimus pulled himself upward on one arm and grabbed Julius wrist.
"Hold on." said Julius started to pull Decimus upwards.
He felt the strong grip of Decimus on his wrist.
Decimus was dead.
"No he isn't, he is here." he thought.
He died on Idagenia.
"No, I can feel him, he is here."
He died because of me.
"I can save him. I just can."
They all died because of me.
"I can save one of them at least. Maybe the others are here too-"
As Julius started to pull upward Decimus locked his feet onto two dents and started pulling downwards.
"What are you doing? Push upwards Decimus. Don't pull me in."
Decimus kept pulling.
"Push upwards!"
Decimus rose upwards using his one arm.
"How can he pull himself up with one arm? It's impossible to pull the weight of the Power armour with one arm alone." Julius wondered.
They were face to face now.
Come join us
You have failed.
Release yourself from this torment.
Join us.
Julius heard the voice coming from nowhere in particular or did he dreamt it?.
"Decimus, I can help you, come back. Just don't pull back. Let me help." he said.
No.
You come downward.
Come with us.
Decimus' eyes weren't blinking, they stared right at Julius.
"No, fight Decimus, you are not well, I can-no-I will save you." said Julius.
He heaved upwards his face turning red with the effort.
Decimus wasn't rising.
He pulled harder and harder.
But no effect.
He heard Horatus closing by.
"Horatus help me, grab his wrist."
They were coming to help him.
"Hold on Decimus, help is coming." he said.
Decimus was silent, eyes staring blankly.
Julius heard vox chatter among his squad, they were organizing to help him out.
"...ook out..."
"...one of..."
"It's..."
"...arm off..."
He wasn't able to comprehend the speech on the vox.
Horatus had reached the edge to help him.
"Hold on Deci-"
Bolter rounds slammed at Decimus.
Julius' froze in shock.
Bolt rounds exploded inside Decimus' flesh, one of them blow off the arm which hang onto Julius.
As the arm was severed from the shoulder Decimus plunged downwards.
"No! Decimus!" Julius roared behind him watching his brother fall to his death.
Decimus disappeared among the corpses.
Julius was furious, he turned to Horatus.
Horatus' boltgun was smoking.
"You...you...you killed him." Julius roared.
"What-" Horatus began.
Julius slammed onto him, knocking him over.
He punched his helmet hard, denting the eyebrow section.
Julius rose his fist to punch again but Horatus deflected his punch on his armoured wrist and landed a punch on his own at Julius' exposed face.
Julius was dazed under the impact, but his anger kept him in place.
He landed two more punches one on Horatus' chest and the other on side of his neck. His dizziness making the punches ineffective.
Horatus grabbed Julius arms and they rolled on the ground.
The roll got them too close to the edge.
Julius was able to see the corpses down below.
Horatus landed a punch that blew open Julius' eyebrow and his vision filled with blood.
As Julius rock back under the impact, Horatus freed one leg and kicked Julius on the chest.
Julius fell onto the metal plating, bending it.
He rose, saliva running from his mouth.
"You killed him! You!" he roared.
He was about to lung forwards and Horatus took a stance to counter the charge.
Julius lunged forward but Ioras appeared behind him and kicked the back of his leg. The leg bent forward toppling him forward face first.
He landed hard and tried to get up.
Ioras put a feet on his backpack and knelt beside him.
Julius felt a needle pierce through the back of his neck.
His vision blurred immediately. His Astartes physiology fighting back against the drug and was losing.
To a Chief Apothecary the secrets of the Astartes body laid bare.
"Deci-" he babbled, his mouth unable to form cohesive words.
"Hora-"
"They-"
"You-"
"Tempes-" he managed to say at last before drowning in darkness.