Emperor's finest chapter ten

Gulgath, the city of Kursk

"By the Emperor, what have I done to deserve this"

These were the words that kept echoing in Jeffrey's mind for past five days. For five brutal days they have been pushing into the city of Kursk, building by building, block by block. Seemingly every step of the way they were harassed by the greenskins. Mostly it was sporadic fire fights with random batches of Orks, their tough but reckless infantry cut down by the foot sloggers but typically not without bloodying them as well. Occasionally they would encounter machine gun nests and more concentrated resistance, which would require their main canon to effectively break.

These frequent engagements, no matter how minor began to drain the crew, as firefight could well be there last. Other dangers such as mines, anti tank weapons and the constant threat of another air sortie were starting to take their toll as well. Fortunately they hadn't encountered any enemy armor yet, but that lingering possibility still kept them on their toes. Jeffrey recalled with dread the "dance with death" they had facing the looted Russ's back at fort forelorn hope and shivered. If they had hesitated for even a second longer, or if they had missed they very well could have died there and then.

Fear mixed with dread as the seemingly endless ranks of infantry advanced ahead of them. He had seen so many of them die over the past five days, so many young lives snuffed out in their prime. He wondered how many families had lost their sons, husbands, fathers and brothers to this pointless war. At some point if this kept going he would likely stop them as people all together, and instead see them as faceless uniforms fighting and dying for an imperium that wouldn't remember them.

Jeffrey shook his head, trying to both focus and not give into the relentless determinism that so plagued the guard. He was dead set on surviving this war and retiring, though he wasn't sure what he would do after that. That would come later, now he had to ensure that he and hopefully the rest of the crew survived and that meant fulfilling his objective. He had no illusions on what fate befell cowards and the incompetent in the imperial guard.

The inside of the indomitable smelled of sweat and steel and the air was hot with the engine humming the machine spirits murderous intent. Ever since the battle at forelorn hope and the encounter with the defiled Russ's of the enemy, the indomitable seemed to be for lack of a better term, more determined to see the enemy slain and driven from this world. Jeffrey was still skeptical about the idea of machine spirits but if it was true then he certainly wouldn't turn down any advantage it could offer.

As for the progress of the battle overall, it had been slow but steady. The plan seems to be to advance the majority of the forces along the main road crossing through the city, the aptly named "high street". This would split the city and allow them to isolate pockets of fierce resistance and take them out one by one. The plan while solid had the problem of requiring considerable manpower to hold so much territory and occupy the clusters of resistance. But alas that would be someone else's problem to deal, as they had much more immediate concerns to

deal with.

Minutes felt like hours before contact was reported in the next block over. Scouts confirmed that Orks were entrenched in a series of medium sized buildings. These buildings were likely the administration hubs of the city, for they were quite different from the drab, utilitarian houses and complexes that dominated most of the city. They towers, each onyx colored and constructed by marbel rather than brick and mortar like much of the rest of the city. They were also originally adorned with symbols to the machine cult, but these were crudely etched out and replaced by effigies to the brutish twin gods of the greenskins.

The indomitable was alone for this firefight, for the other Russ's were preoccupied elsewhere. Therefore Ronan was extra cautious in approaching this fight, for they were the only heavy support available and he wasn't too keen on wasting anymore lives should something happen to them. The indomitable lumbered foward towards the two towers, firing a few shells into the tower to soften them up and cover the infantry who were already encroaching and taking positions.

From their flanks came a surprise attack, the only warning being guardsmen torn to shreads around the indomitable. From both the east and west, came bipedal walking machines called "Deff dreads", which were crude imitations of Astartes dreadnoughts. This foul xenos perversions had short, thin legs which shouldn't have been able to support their weight. Or at least that was what Jeffrey thought, but he neither had the technical knowledge nor the will to measure that particular hypothesis, since irregardless the vehicles didn't seem to be over encumbered in the slightest. What concerned him more were the arms, or more specifically the armaments.

Each of the deff dreads had three arms, one of which had two rockets, and the other two had saws which sparked with electricity, likely from some sort of the power field. Jeffrey instinctively knew that if he let them too close that they would carbe through their armor like a hot knife through butter. The deff dreads approached them back alleys that connected to the road they were traveling down to get to the towers. Jeffrey heard Ronan curse under his breath, likely angry that the infantry hadn't scouted out the back alley's ahead of time.

None of that mattered now, as they had to deal with enemy armor that rapidly approaching, no more than fifty yards away currently. The Orks were the first to fire, with the left dread firing both of its rockets, one fortunately missed by flying passed them and into the air. The other rocket impacted the ground infront of the indomitable as the the tank turned to face the left dread and used nearby wrecked civilian vehicle to use as temporary cover against the right dread.

The explosion of rocket didn't penetrate, but the impact still rocked the crew and made their own shot miss. Both the indomitable and the left dread raced to reload fast, with the left dread being reloaded by a diminutive greenskin known as a grot. The small greenskin desperately trying to load one more by climbing onto the arm of the dread, it was however just a second too slow and the indomitable loaded first. This time their shell pierced the greenskin walker, specifically hitting the left leg and shattering the walker into pieces in a violent explosion.

They had little time for reprieve as the other dread closed in, blasting away their cover with one rocket and hitting the indomitable with the second as it tried to turn around. This hit immobilized

the tank, blowing off several bogie wheels as well as a second of the tracks. Shrapnel was sent bouncing around the interior of the tank as the wesker side armor was pierced in several weak spots. Both Ivo and Ifa howled in pain, clearly injured but still alive.

Thinking quickly Ronan ordered Jeffrey to rotate the turret and open fire. The remaining dread was only 10 yards away and closing in on them quickly. Time seemed to slow down as the turret oscillated, slowly but surely turning towards the greenskin menace. Ladislo chanted prayers and hyms to emperor as Ivo clasped his leg and spat out mongrel colloquialisms from his native world. Ronan cletched his teeth and tensed in his commanders seat as Ifa wretched his stomach, the shrapnel having cut into his torso. Jeffrey on the other hand, pulled nervously the handle to his right as the turret turned and lined up the shot.

There wasn't much to line up as the target was within five yards by, but accuracy wasn't his concern. There well past the point of being danger close but they didn't have much of a choice, if theu didn't take the shot theu were as good as dead anyway. Time slowled to a crawl as Jeffrey took the shot and the indomitable's canon flared a brief but brilliant flash of orange and black.

"By the Emperor, don't let me die like this" Jeffrey thought as his life flashed before his eyes. He briefly thought about all the opportunities he wasted to make his world a better place because he was a coward. He was too scared to fight for his own future as well as the well being of others, and now he might die for that cowardice. He made a silent vow that if he survived this that he would right that wrong, that he would return to Aerobolian one day and lead it's people to a better tomorrow.

But suddenly that thought as did all his others faded to black...