The next deployment was at Manufactorum Anathon, a minor facility on this planet. The main warboss had been killed and as far as the mechanicus knew, there was no centralised power leading the ork invasion any more. This meant the invading orks were no longer working under one commander. They were scattered and cut off from one another. The threat remained great though and it was possible for a new warboss to emerge from what remained.
Defending the planet was the original operation, and it was going successfully, now the forces of Ryza would take this opportunity to strengthen their hold and influence on the planet. The ruling knight house had been under performing. Under the right management, this planet could be converted into a fine secondary forge world; but that would take time. Right now, it was Ryza's job to complete the eradication of the greenskins.
Ranger Unit was joined by five new Skitarii rangers to replace the ones that were lost in the ambush earlier. The squad now had only two long range transuranic arquebuses in the team instead of three. Pullo's was badly damaged and in order to redeploy he was rearmed with a recently restored arquebus. It can be common for a Skitarius to be reassigned a different weapon if he was wounded or if he lost the one he was given. However Pullo was a fine sniper and was honoured with the same machine of war a second time.
The team was seated in an Arvus transport craft. They all had their order transmitted to them directly from Magos Dominus Sumption, the Techpriest leading the operation.
"Blessings of the Onmissiah upon you. There is a large gathering of Orks held up in a Manufactorum ahead. We have reason to believe there could be several hundred orks with various armaments inside. The Orks have barricaded the building. So we have taken the opportunity to surround them. Knights from house Treskothic will bombard the location to clear the barricade, then vanguard will assault from the front of the building, infiltrators will enter from the sides to flank and Sterylizors will attack from above. Your unit will be a rear guard, make sure no orks can escape."
Pullo had heard from Sumption before, his plans always sounded so simple. All the rangers would have to do would be to watch the rear exit to the building and kill any Orks that try to leave, simple. The dominus wouldn't mind if they took some pot shots through the windows though.
There was an incoming message from Tritix, another Tech Priest at the head of the operation. "Destroy the Ork! They deserve nothing but to burn! Cleanse the holy manufactorum and wipe away their defilement! Go with the blessings of the Machine god and enact his furious and righteous vengeance upon them!"
Tritix Continued, "The first attack will be a bombardment from the Knights, but do not be troubled. This manufactorum has been defiled by the Ork! If it is damaged, so be it! Better to destroy it than to allow it to exist in such a blasphemous state!"
Sumption spoke again to finish the message, "Hold fire until your alpha gives the order." Pullo glanced over at Lieus, he trusted his squad Alpha to make the right call.
The entire squad signalled their confirmation of the messages through the noosphere. They were ready to go.
Pullo muttered a small prayer to the machine Spirit of his gun. "Oh spirit, know me. I have been entrusted with your safe keeping, now allow me to destroy the enemies of the Onmissiah, and bring you home without harm. Be still, sweet spirit."
The Arvus landed smoothly, once they had all walked out and got into formation, it took off again, perhaps to ferry another unit into position. Lieus led his team forward to a rocky ridge with a direct view to the back of the facility.
Now they could see it, the manufactorum had been defiled by the alien. The Orks had broken holes in the wall so they could see and shoot out of the building and the roof had been defaced with the markings of their Ork clan. The interior, where there was once ordered structure and beautiful mechanisms, amazing creations of the Adeptus Mechanicus; now stood twisted and blasphemous creations of the Orks. Foul creatures, alien beasts, the thought of the disgusting and chaotic mechanisms they created filled Pullo with rage. He wanted to destroy them all, and their foul creations.
The implants in Pullo's brain to increase the animosity to the enemy were working well. He muttered a quick prayer of thanks to the machine spirits of his mental implants, which kept his thoughts of the enemy full of hate while also keeping his mind level and focussed.
He took a prone position along with most of his team along the ridge, so as not to be spotted by any Ork massive arquebus he carried was difficult to use, but would not be impossible from prone, it would have to do.
From where he lay he could see over the manufactorum, and three Skorpius Duneriders approached. Duneriders were open topped transports and he could make out the unmistakable silver helmets of the skitarii vanguard who would front the assault.
What followed them was a trio of knights armed with battle cannons. A knight is a huge walking warmachine; a glorious and ancient design for a single noble pilot. This world was home to House Treskothic a noble house who have always been loyal to Ryza. A triumphant relief came over Pullo as he saw them stride forward. Surely they were in the Machine God's favour now.
There was a few minutes of waiting then the knights were the first ones to attack. They stepped forwards and used their battle cannons to bombard the front of the manufactorum. The sound was glorious, every burst from the guns were followed by an explosion in the vicinity of the orks. They fired many shots, until an opening in the Ork fortifications had been created. No doubt scattering their defences. A worry went through Pullo's mind, such a bombardment would surely lead to damage on the interior of the manufactorum. But he remembered what Tritix had said "Better to have it destroyed than to exist in such a blasphemous state."
The duneriders carrying the vanguard approached the building and let the soldiers out so they could run into cover as they blazed away at the orks. vanguard were skitarii just like Pullo but they used close range radium carbines instead of long range rifles. They were ideally equipped to front this assault.
"Acquire visual contact," commanded Lieus.
Pullo and the other rangers shuffled forwards to get a better view of the back of the manufactorum.
"Mark exits and confirm."
"Confirmed" replied the rest of his team one by one as they each found the possible ways out from that side of the building.
Pullo spotted an ork at a window, it appeared to be holding a large automatic gun, and was spraying it in the direction of the vanguard. "Opportunity target sighted, permission to eliminate?"
"Granted. Be mindful, exits remain priority."
Pullo moved the huge rifle to a position where the ork's head was right in its sights. He slowly caressed the trigger with his new metal finger and gently squeezed. The thunderous sound of the arquebus reverberated around the area and the shot was fired. This put a large hole in the wall next to where the ork gunner was standing. This didn't make sense, the sights were aligned correctly and he had a clear shot. Pullo took a look at his rear sight, it was adjusted to the correct distance, but he made a little tweak against his better judgement to compensate for the error. Then he slid back the huge bolt of the gun to load the next round.
He squeezed the trigger, his new hand gave him a feeling of numbness, he couldn't feel the exact position of the trigger, he couldn't feel every mechanical movement and resistance behind the shot that he used to be able to. He let the shot loose and missed again, this time it shot past the ork's head and hit a piece of machinery behind him. The ork noticed this time and turned around and began shooting at the rangers.
Pullo put his head down but raised it again when his logic engine overwrote his instinct. The ork was far away and was firing from the hip, there was no way he could hit the rangers from this distance.
Pullo pulled back the bolt for another shot when the ork's head exploded. Ranger 2858 Akresa had shot the ork with her own arquebus. "Specify problem," commented Akresa, "Machine spirit displeased?"
He looked briefly at his gun. He had used all the required incantations and rites for using the arquebus. Perhaps the machine spirit of this gun did not know him as well as his old gun. Pullo didn't answer her question, he simply readied himself for another shot. He waited for a bigger target to present itself. The ammunition of the arquebus was large and he didn't carry many spare, his shots needed to count.
He caught sight of the front of the manufactorum, a huge ork construct with multiple arms had advanced on the vanguard and was engaging them in close combat. The vanguard had no option other than to try to move out of the way. One of the knights which was holding back leapt into action and charged the ork walker. The knight delivered a huge blow with its gigantic chainsword and the ork machine was felled. The Knight then moved to stomp on a nearby group of orks, then proceeded to retreat from the combat. It was dangerous for a large armoured vehicle to fight in close quarters with infantry, the orks were fond of close range anti armour weapons and could take advantage.
Pullo aimed his arquebus at the rear exit and simply waited for something to come through the large doors. If it was big, he should be able to hit it.
The battle against the orks went as planned. They were outnumbered and outgunned, there was no way they could have prevailed. Pullo saw the infiltrators enter the building and it was only a small matter of time before the remaining orks; who were now outflanked, would be destroyed.
The sterylizors waited, perched on the roof of the manufactorum, Pullo guessed the fighting was too close with the vanguard to use their flamethrowers safely.
The sounds of battle died down and Lieus spoke to the ranger squad, "missions completed, Xenos Purged."
"Praise be to the Machine God," chanted the ranger squad.
"Directive received, changing position to the following codified coordinates." said Lieus as he passed on their new location over the noosphere. They were to head down to the manufactorum, and meet with the other units.