PART I
'The Astartes are coming, the Astartes are coming!' Came the message through the vox caster. Despite the vox channel being distorted and full of static, it could not hide the thrill in the speaker's voice.
Lieutenant Horn couldn't blame the vox operator's excitement. He could not believe it himself, this was actually happening, he was actual going to meet a squad of Adeptus Astartes. Not just meet but fight alongside them on the field of battle. He had dreamt about this moment for years, and what guardsman hadn't. Fighting alongside the Astartes was the stuff of dreams, as the average guardsman might serve their entire career without ever seeing an Astarte let alone fighting by their side.
Horn pulled out his magnoculars and surveyed the barren horizon looking for humanity finest warriors. The arid landscape of the desert was flat with a dearth of any terrain or features to the east of his position. At least spotting them should be easy, he thought. Especially from their vantage spot on a mountain side which overlooked the plains to the east and the valley to the west.
No sign of them.
'Any more enemy movements?' said Horn.
'Not since your asked two minutes ago sir.' Said trooper Rico.
'Can you please ask the scouts on the eastern slops to report in.' Said Horn.
Trooper Rico gave a loud exaggerated sigh, before speaking gruffly into the vox caster, after listening for a few seconds he said. 'No enemy movements to report sir.' After a few more seconds he added. 'Shall I ask them again sir? It's been nearly all of twenty seconds.'
'That won't be necessary trooper,' Said Horn. Insolent reprobate, I shall discipline him later, he thought. A split second later another voice in head said, yeah sure you will, you are going to discipline the biggest, strongest and most violent man in the regiment. Horn hated that voice, but mainly because it was calling him out. Rico was a truly terrifying man, it wasn't only his size that intimidate people, it was his canines that he had filed to razor sharpness, and his tattoos which covered almost every inch of skin of his body and face. Horn gave up trying to work out if any of these were hectical, some were certainty demonic in nature.
Yet the most disrupting thing about Rico, and the one that intimidated Horn the most, was his attitude. He was a man that did not give a single fuck. His was utter loose cannon, didn't care about anything or anyone, which is why he placed him as his main vox operator to try to keep an eye on him, or better yet to let Commissar Barnes do that.
From the way Rico spoke to Horn, or the way you let him speak to you that horrible inter voice would often say, he knew he didn't have his respect, or indeed the respect of the men. 'If you ain't got respect of your men, you ain't got shit', was one of old Commissar Barnes favourite sayings, which Horn felt he said a bit too much in front of him and the troops.
Putting those thoughts aside Horn cast his magnocularstoward the west trying to get a glimpse of the enemy, in a vain hope of proving Rico wrong. They had been tracking the enemy for the last few weeks with no success. Those sneaky Ork bastards were somewhere out there in the valleys between the mountain ranges. The intel reports had said there here were in considerable force, and Horn's mission was to eliminate them before they joined up with a greater force of Orks massing on the plains to the far west, or stop them from heading south towards civilian populated areas.
Unlike the land to the east, which was smooth and flat, the valleys below them were fractured into islands from the winter rains, which were slowly been evaporated by the heat of the summer sun, leaving the riverbeds sodden and near impassable.
Horn's five squads of Guardsmen were expecting to be ordered into the marshes, which is why he had ordered one of his units to scout ahead, until they were told the Astartes were coming.
He still couldn't believe it. All his dreams were about to come true, to serve and fight alongside an Adeptus Astarte, a Space Marine, a generically modified superhuman. Armed with some of the deadliest weapons mankind possessed and protected by their fully enclosed and near impregnable power armour, they were godlike to average Imperial Guardsman.
Especially Horn's Guardsmen. His regiment of troops were mostly made up from the gangs of the Fury 13. This was a hive world where the residents would refer to Necromunda as a kindergarten compared to Fury. Horn's felt the comparison was fair, as from what he had heard on Necromunda the gangs and houses tended to keep the majority of the population in check, on Fury it was open anarchy with a civil war which was going on for over a century. It was one of the few hive worlds where the recruitment was never an issue. No press gangs were ever needed, no noble houses required a visit from the Inquisition to enquire about a shortfall in the recruitment numbers. On Fury 13 there was always a surplus of volunteers, as career of a Guardsman was considered an easy life.
'Contact, to the east.' Said Rico, muttering something under his breath.
Horn swept his magnoculars back to east, so fast he nearly cricked his neck. There he saw a dust cloud on the horizon. He adjusted the zoom and then he saw them. Five bikes riding in perfect formation, each bike caused a small sandstorm to flare up in its wake. He zoomed in further on the riders, desperate to know which Chapter the Astartes belonged to. He saw black riders, on black bikes each with bird tail guards with white feathers.
That could only mean the Ravenwing division of the Dark Angels.
'Emperor protect us.' Said Horn, not quiet believing what he was seeing. The Dark Angels, were the first Space Marine chapter ever created and the most notorious.
'Astartes bikes inbound, ETA 5 minutes.' Came a voice through the vox caster.
'Rico, have all the men fall in.' said Horn.
'Except the scouts, sir.' Said Rico.
'Yes, yes that's right, except the scouts.' As Horn was too excited he missed he contemptuous tone of Rico's voice, and he ran from his vantage point back to his makeshift camp in a cleft on the mountain, with a spring in his step.
By the time he got to the camp the troopers were already in their parade formation in the middle of the ground. Forty Guardsman arranged in four units of ten men, stood to attention facing the road into the camp.
The only person not standing was Commissar Barnes, who was reclining on a rock with his cap over his eyes. The old devil isn't asleep is he, thought Horn as he approached him. The old Commissar was probably the oldest guardsman, if not person, Horn knew. His fearsome reputation was as deep and disturbing as the scars on his face.
'Commissar, the Astartes are inbound, and will be here in a few minutes.' Said Horn.
'Eh' said Commissar Barnes, tilting his head to peer up at Horn.
'The Raverwing will be here soon.' Said Horn.
Barnes yawned, immediately started coughing, then cleared his throat and spat out a particular large glob of phlegm. 'I see. But why did you wake me?' He said in his usual morose manner.
'The Astartes are here, right here, they are here help us find and route out the enemy.'
'Oh dear lad,' said Barnes shaking his head, 'You have much to learn, the Astartes will only help when it suits the Astartes.'
Horn smiled, Commissar Barnes what an old miserable cynic. Horn knew the Astartes had a brutal reputation, but he knew they were also the most dedicated and professional warriors in the Imperium, and he strived to be emulate them in any way he could.
He stood in front of his men and waited for his heroes to arrive.
He didn't have to wait long to see five bikers rounding a corner, not breaking their perfect formation. With a roar of their engines, they shot straight towards Horn's troops at breakneck speed. For a moment Horn panicked as he thought they were going to ride straight through him and his men. But as they pulled into camp, at the last second all five bikes performed a spectacular sliding turn that Horn had only seen in vox holos, bringing their bikes to a halt in perfect unison.
If Horn was amazed at their bike manoeuvre, he was blow away at what happened next. All five Astartes jumped off their bikes, one threw an end of a camouflage net at another, who caught it, and in a second the bikes where covered and near invisible to the eye, the other three sprinted past the troopers to the top of the tree line which surrounded the camp, speed the movements in the power armour beggared belief.
Horn was astonished at their speed and efficiency, it was incredible. Even the simple manoeuvre of dismounting from a bike, covering them with camo net, and taking up fire position positions would have taken his men the better best part of five minutes, if they didn't stop for a lho-stick and to talk bollocks to each other. These Astartes did that in less than ten seconds.
He realised he was staring open mouthed at the two remaining Astrates who started walking towards him. Horn, despite seeing hundreds if not thousands of statues, pictures, and even the rare holo vid of an Astarte, was taken aback at seeing them in person up close.
They were massive. Over two heads taller Horn, who wasn't short, and more than double his width. Just their sheer size alone was intimidating enough for Horn.
They were getting close now and despite their power armour covered with a layer of dust from the plains, they were no less impressive. Both the trooper's armour was adored with honour badges no doubt from the numerous campaigns these warriors fought. One was obviously the captain with a white helmet and the many purity seals on his armour.
This was it, thought Horn, as their approached him. Horn stood to full attention and gave the best salute he could muster despite finding himself trembling.
'Lieutenant Horn of Fury 13 138th Guards.' He said.
The Astartes walked straight passed him.
Horn still saluting froze. That wasn't suppose to happen, wait no. Shit. I should have kneeled, not saluted. He got flustered. And turned and ran ahead of them and kneeled down in their path.
'I apologises most humbly my lords, I am Lieutenant Horn of Fury 13 138th Guards.' He said this time with his eyes cast down.
The Astartes walked either side straight passed him, and stopped with their backs to Horn and the Guardsman.
Horn shuffled around to face the Astartes and shuffled forward a few indignant steps on his knees to come near to where they were standing. They were a few giggles from the back row of the troopers, and Horn face flushed.
'My Lords, forgive me if I have cause offence.' Said Horn. 'I know not the correct etiquette for addressing the noble warriors of the Adeptus Astrarus.'
The captain started pointing something out to the other Astarte, and they must have been talking on their interval vox units, both continued to ignored Horn.
Horn looked back at Commissar Barnes pleadingly. What am I doing wrong, he tried to say via his eyes. Barnes, who hadn't got up from where he was sitting, simply shrugged and spat again onto the ground. They were some more sniggers from the rear ranks of the men, some were obviously trying not to laugh. Horn turned and saw a few of his men nudging each other and pointing towards Horn and the Astartes. It was then Horn started to feel deeply embarrassed.
This is a nightmare, thought Horn. This should have been a defining moment of his career, instead it was going to be the moment he lost the respect of his men, or what little of it he had in the first place.
The only trooper who seemed not be laughing, and who Horn thought he would be the first, was Rico. In fact, he looked pissed right off.
Feeling an absolute idiot at being ignored, and being laughed at by his own troops, Horn stood up. He may have lost the respect of his men, but he was an Astra Militarum officer and he would do his duty. He knew he had to report to the senior commanding officer on the field and that is what he will do. Taking a breath he approached the two Astartes one more time.
'Excuse me my lords!' Said Horn. "It is my duty to inform you of the situation in the field, the intel of the enemy and our plan of attack."
One of the Astartes, not the captain, finally turned towards Horn, and when he spoke his voice was amplified loudly by his helmet's vox unit speaker.
'Fuck off.' He said and turned back to his captain.
Horn was stunned, he stood just stood there open mouthed, not sure what to do next.
The Astarte who had spoken then realised Horn was still standing there and again turned to face him.
'Did you hear what I said?' The voice intensifying with each word. 'Fuck. Off.'
The Astarte turned back towards his captain and gestured an armoured thumb towards Horn and no doubt again speaking on their internal vox units. Did Horn imagine it or was the Astarte's huge pauldrons shaking? Were the Astartes laughing at him?
Horn was utterly crushed. He lowered his head, turned and was about to walk away, when out of the corner of his eye is saw a large rock sailing through the air towards the Astarte who had spoken to Horn. It bounced off his helmet with a loud clang.
The effect on the Astartes was near instantaneous. All five Astartes turned, kneeled, and had their weapons ready and trained on the source of the projectile.
Rico walked towards the Astarte who he had thrown the rock at.
'How dare you assault an Adeptus Astarte.' Said the armoured warrior.
Rico half raised his hands in a gesture of peace. 'Cool your tits man. I just have a question for you.' He said walking over to the Astarte.
'Any assault on Emperor's chosen ones is punishable by death.' Said the giant warrior. His tone was so furious that Horn took an involuntary step back.
'It was no assault, it was a pebble.' Said Rico. 'I just wanted your attention, as you both seem to be deaf as you didn't hear my Lieutenant. I have a question and it is important.'
'Then speak your question scum, and I'll deal with your impertinence after.' Hissed the Astarte.
'Is it true you boys have no cocks?' Said Rico.
Horn and a good few Guardsmen gasped. Oh Emperor wept, he thought, he has gone too far this time.
A long moment of silence that Horn found unbearable, even the sniggering Guardsmen in the rear rank went quiet.
The silence was finally broken when the Astarte took off his helmet, and as the armour warrior was a head and a half taller than Rico he bent down to come face to face with him. The Astrate's face could not have been more polar opposite to Rico's. It was like polished granite, smooth, unblemished and etched with strength and determination. Whereas Rico's was half scarred, burnt, and any skin that did remain undamaged was tattooed. One the peak of humanity warrior class, the other a criminal from roughest hive gang, from a scumpit hive world.
'What did you just say?' the Astarte said slowly. Horn inwardly groan, he heard that phrase often, and what followed was seldom a pleasurable experience for either party.
The Astarte towered over Rico, and glared at him with violent intent. Horn felt he would have shit himself if he was Rico.
Instead Rico leaned in closer so there was barely an inch between their noses.
'I said, is it true you boys have no cocks?' Said Rico. 'You see I have a bet with Sammy over there, he reckons the Adeptus Astartes don't have cocks. He believes they are removed as part of your,' and he paused to recall a difficult word. 'Transcendence to a warrior god.'
The Astarte leaned back, more at ease at what he was hearing.
But then Rico added. 'But I don't believe that.'
'Really, so what do you believe then.' Said the Astarte, everyone could hear the threatening undertone of his voice. The tension in the air was unbearable. Rico either did not pick up on this, or did not give a fuck.
'I believe something different. I reckon you boys do have cocks.'
'That is very fortunate for you.'
'I reckon you boys don't have any balls.'
Horn heard a sharp intake of breath, then realised it was his own, and he knew Rico had gone too far this time.
'Are you questioning the courage of the Dark Angels, that is a crime which you will answer for.'
'No, no, no.' Said Rico matter-of-factly. 'I have no doubt about you or the Dark Angel's courage. I have just have doubts that you have ever fucked someone.'
To Horn's surprise the Astarte laughed at that comment, 'We are beyond such primitive base desires scum.'
'Ah ha!' said Rico, with glee in his voice. 'So it is true, you have no such desires because you do not have any balls. Still, I bet that doesn't stop you from sucking your brother's cocks.'
That was too much for the Astartes. In a blink of an eye, he grabbed Rico by the throat and lifted him a foot off the ground.
'Say that again scum and I will snap your neck like a twig.' Said the Astarte.
'Trooper release my man immediately.' Horn found himself saying.
'I don't answer to worms.' Said the Astartes.
'I would recommend listening to Lieutenant Horn, Marine.' Said Commissar Barnes, who appeared by Horn's side.
'You have no authority over usCommissar, a crime has been committed at the Astrates Astartes, and I will deal this offending scumbag myself.'
'That may be so lad, but I would strongly recommend you releasing him now,' said Barnes, nodding his head toward the Astarte's crotch area, where Rico was pointing his laspistol towards. 'Otherwise the question about your missing cock and balls will be proven either way.'
The Astartes captain stepped forward. 'Enough of this. Vicente release him.' The Astartes holding Rico immediately release him, who half fell and stumbled backwards rubbing his neck.
'Lieutenant get your men under control, we do not tolerate this sort of behaviour from the likes of you.' Said the Captain.
Horn was taken aback, and in an instance his fear for the Astrates vanished.
'Excuse me my lord, the likes of us and our behaviour? As per the Astra Milatarum's standard operating practise I tried to brief you of the situation and was told to fuck off.' Said Horn, to his men's, and his own, surprise.
'We don't need your briefing, your support or your help.' Said the Captain. 'We are here to eliminate the enemy. The enemy you have been unable to find, or perhaps you have chosen not to find. Your men's lack of discipline, or lack of experience, serves to only prove why we Astartes are here to do the real fighting while your short-lived Guardsman just lay about like lazy malingerers.'
The Captain motioned his men towards the bikes. 'We will have this pitiful band of Orks wiped them out within the hour. Something you have not be able to do for the last two weeks.'
Moving with the same ruthless efficiently as before the Captain Astartes had removed and stored the camo net, before mounting their bikes and started their engines.
The Astartes bikers accelerated and began to move out, towards the valley below them. All except a single biker who stopped beside Horn.
'Your man was lucky to be alive Lieutenant.' Said the biker, whose voice Horn recognised to be the one who had grabbed Rico. 'Remember boy, we Astartes are the best of humanity, you Guardmens are merely fodder. You are nothing to us and our mission. In fact, we wouldn't piss on you if you were on fire.'
He revived his engines and in a heartbeat he was gone, Horn and his troopers watched them go.
'Emperor wept,' said Horn. 'That was intense.' Then he turned towards Rico and asked, 'Are you alright?'
Rico, who was still holding his neck, nodded slowly.
Horn then chuckled more to relieve his tension and then quoted back to Rico, 'I reckon you boys don't have any balls.' The men started laughing again at his.
'I think your next assignment will be a diplomatic tour of Fury 13.' This got a few more laughs from the men.
'But Rico why in the Emperor's name did you antagonise that trooper so much?'
'He disrespected us sir.'
'He disrespected me trooper.'
'Same thing sir.'
Horn was again taken aback, but this with a surprising feeling of pride, from the last person in the world he would have expected it from.
Barnes the old commissar slapped Horn on the shoulder, 'Well lad it is a pity you didn't get a chance to brief about the impassable nature of the valley,' said Barns. 'I'll wager those fancy bikes of theirs are bound to get stuck in the cement muds. Never mind, so what did you make of your first meeting with the warriors from the Adetus Astartes?'
'What a bunch of dickless wonders.' said Horn.
PART II
'This is Omega 47, we are taking fire.' Came the message through the vox caster. 'We are pinned down and need urgent backup.'
'That's the Astartes,' said Horn running into the tent where Rico the Vox operator was sitting. 'Do you have a location?'
Rico studied the vox read outs before saying, 'Eleven clicks west of our position, sir.'
'That will put them in the middle of the valley beyond the foothills.' Said Horn.
'That would put them in the middle of Death Valley.' Said Commissar Barnes.
'Emperor wept you're right.' said Horn. 'Then our scouts were correct, that is where the Orks were holding out. Now it sounds like they have caught our friends in an ambush.'
'Fucking idiots,' Rico mumbled.
'We are compromised. Surrounded by enemies, upwards of 50 Orks. Request urgent backup.' Came the voice on the Vox, but this time with the unmistakeable sound of boltgun, the Astarte weapon of choice, fire in the background.
Horn did not disagree with Rico. That valley was a death trap, thought Horn. Just a few days ago his troopers had scouted the edge of the valley and the half of the surrounding hills, but had refused to scout in the valley itself. It was one of the reasons he had requested backup, as he did not have enough men to conduct a full sweep of the valley. The other reason was more important, that the valley was full of steep cliffs and ravines, the perfect place for an ambush. His troop had appropriately nicknamed it Death Valley.
If only I was able brief them about the valley. Then another thought stuck him that sounded a bit too much like Rico for his own liking, fuck them they had their chance.
'Orders sir?' said the Rico.
As much as the Astartes had given this pride a beating, and had destroyed his childhood idol worship, he knew he had to act. He knew what he needed to do.
'Acknowledged the Astrates and inform them we are moving to assist, get the men in the transports and move out immediately.' Said Horn.
'Permission to speak freely sir?' Said Rico.
'I don't think you speak any other way trooper,' said Horn, buckling on his belt with his laspistol and chainsword. 'But yes, make it quick.'
'Fuck them sir.' Said Rico, causing Horn to look up from what he was doing. 'You heard what they said to you. We are fodder to them who they wouldn't piss on, why should we put on balls on the line to help them.'
Horn finished bucking on his belt and pulled out his laspistol and checked the powercell reading before pulling it back into the holster. 'I'd be lying if I didn't share your feelings trooper.' That caused Commissar Barnes to raise an eyebrow. 'But we shall be helping them for three reasons. The first is simple, it is our duty, we are soldiers of the Imperium and fighting the enemy is what we do. The second is we are from Fury 13 we never back away from a fight. And the third is the most compelling. It is if you don't give the order to move out Commissar Barnes will shove his chainsword up your arse.'
'With the pointy end.' Said the old commissar with a wry smile on his face.
Rico looked like he was about to say something else, before he spotted the old commissar's hand move to his chainsword. 'Fair enough sir.' Said Rico before giving the orders to move out.
In the cramped Chimera transporter Horn held on as he and his men were jostled about on the rough tracks leading toward the valley where the Astartes were in dire need of assistance. Horn studied the holomap which a servoskull was projecting, it hovered perfectly in the air despite the transporter jostling him and his man around like a set of marbles in a tin can. The holomap gave him a three-dimensional map of the area where the Astartes were ambushed. If the map was accurate, it looked like they were caught on an island in the middle of a mud river surrounded by rocky banks. Prefect ambush spot, Horn thought, if they are on that island the Orks have them.
Horn surveyed the routes into the valley to work out where to deploy his men. There were two clear options. The first option was to take the opposite route the Astarte took into the valley. That would place them on the opposite side of the river to the Orks, in range of this heavy weapon squads, but possibly out of range of the trooper's main weapon, their lasguns. Which at least may provide the Astartes with enough covering fire to retreat and re-group.
The second option was to follow the route the Astarte took into the valley. However, that route would force them to deploy onto the same side of the river as the Orks. Where those green bastards would both be in heavy cover and able to charge his men quite easily. Even though Horn had never been on the receiving end of an Ork charge he knew they were devastating to the Astra Militarium soldiers.
Horn paused. A deep feeling of dread and fear gripped his guts. He had never been on the receiving of any charge. He have never been in any real military engagement whatsoever. Emperor help me, Horn though, I'm not ready for this, I can't lead these men, I'll lead them to their deaths.
The feeling of dread gave way to blind panic. I can't do this, he thought, and he was about to
call out to Commissar Barnes to request that he take the lead of the engagement. He stopped as he saw that the old man looked to be fast asleep in the hot seat beside the driver.
The Chimera lunged abruptly to one side before sending its passengers all into the air as it hit a hole in the road. This caused Horn and the rest of his squad to crack their helmets on the ceiling and for Rico to call the driver a dick.
The smack to the head seemed to downgrade the feeling of panic, and brough Horn back to his senses and to the problem at hand. Right, focus, where the hell do I deploy my men.
The first option seemed the most logical, but he then studied was above the riverbanks, and he wondered was there a third option. It looked like were near sheer cliffs all along one side of the valley. Between the cliffs and the river it looked like that's where the Orks were ambushing the Astartes.
'Sammy,' said Horn. 'You scouted Death Valley last week.'
'I did sir.' Said Sammy, who was sitting across from Horn.
'Did you scout along this edge here.' Said Horn pointing to the cliffs.
'Yes sir,' and Sammy. 'It was at night and we were pretty sure the Orks were holed out in caves hidden at the foot of the cliffs, but we couldn't confirm it.'
'Understood trooper, is there a way of getting the transports to the top of the cliffs?'
'Not all the way sir, but there was an old mountain track road that we used, that will get within a half a click of it.'
'Show me.' Said Horn and got Sammy to point to the road on the holomap.
'Driver I am sending you an updated route,' and Horn. 'And open channel to the other transports I want to address the troops.'
'Men,' said Horn. 'The elite forces of the Adeptus Astartes are in need of some help of us mere worms!' That got a few laughs from the troopers in the Chimera. 'It seems they have been ambushed by the enemy and are in dire need of urgent back up.'
'Fuck them!' Came a shout from the rear of the transport, which Horn was pretty sure was Rico, and was accompanied by some mutterings of agreement.
'Alright. Alright.' said Horn. 'They weren't exactly my favourite people either, but we all are soldiers of the Imperium. We are from Fury 13 we never back away from a fight. We all must do our duty. Even if part of that duty is rescuing a bunch of up their own arse bellends from a bloody obvious ambush!'
This got a few more laughs.
'We have the chance to deal with the enemy we have been hunting once and for all. The Astartes said they have been ambushed by fifty Orks, so they have probably committed all their number. They have ambushed the Astartes in the area we scouted two weeks ago, which we called Death Valley! We avoided it because we thought it could be a perfect ambush site. We were right!'
'Death Valley is surround by sheer cliffs, we are going to deploy on the high ground behind the Orks and give them hell!' This got a cheer from the men.
'Squads two and three will take the centre and provide supressing fire and mortar the fuckers. Squads four will take the ridge line to the east and Squad five to the west. Squad one is with me as back up to the centre.'
They were a few mutterings of disgruntlement at the last command, probably from Rico, thought Horn.
'We don't know if the Orks have fully committed themselves, we need to be able to counter any additional forces. Also, it is not clear if their leader is on the field.'
This got a few nods and more mutterings but this time of agreement.
'So time show these Space Marine dicks what the 138th are made up and fuck these green fuckers up!' said Horn.
The troopers were non-verbal now, and two pings on Horn's the vox unit headset told him that the final squad was in position on the ridge of the valley, he exited he Chimera, pulled out his laspistol and gave a signal to Squad One to follow him.
Horn ran up the slope toward the ridge, eyes darting over the rough terrain scanning for an enemy hiding behind a rock or bush. He paused behind a large rock and taking a deep breath he looked back down towards the valley they had come from, his eye desperately trying to pick out an enemy from crags and lees on the mountain side below. Being brought up on a hive world, albeit the upper levels, he always felt exposed in wide open spaces. Where anyone could shoot him from a click away. Not like in a hive, where there was always cover to be had.
Taking another deep breath, he ran up to ridgeline and crouched down, his squad beside him did the same. Then he heard gunfire and beastly cries and roars for the first time. The Orks. Found them at last.
He pressed himself between the rocks and crawled over to the lip of the cliff face, he holstered his weapon and pull out his magnoculars and slowly looked over the ridge. The valley below him was a vast open space with a dried up river running through it. Horns eyes immediately went to the riverbank on the southside, the side nearest to him, where he finally saw the Orks. There were lots of them, far more than he has been expecting. More than fifty, maybe seventy. All firing from the cover that the rocky riverbanks provided, their target seemed to be a small island of rocks, in the middle of the river, it looked like a ruined fort.
He adjusted is magnoculars to zoom into the ruined fort, there he saw one of the Astartes bikers behind a half a wall. Everytime he tried to get up to take a shot, a shower of rounds from the Orks made him duck back. He counted another three Astrates in similar positions taking cover in the ruined fort.
Horn did a quick scan towards the riverbed and he saw their bikes, they appeared to be stuck fast in the river, one of the bikes had its entire frontend embedded into the river. Near this bike he spotted the fifth marine who was spreadeagle on the surface of the river, and Horn could not work out he if he had been shot or had been thrown from his bike and got stuck in the river mud.
If only they had listened, Horn thought once again. They were warned by the Techpriests to avoid travelling on or through the riverbeds, as although the surface was as hard as rock, it was thin maybe the width of a bolter casing, if you were to break the surface and come into contact with the river mud, due to its unique property, it would hardened in seconds to be as strong as rockcrete.
Trooper Krom had found out the hard way the previous week, when he was out on patrol and decided to risk crossing the river near their camp. His foot broke the surface and was stuck fast. Lucky for him he managed to wriggle his foot free with the loss of only his boot, but unlucky for him lost a huge chunk of skin, and had to be medievaced. Horn since then gave strict instructions not to cross the river.
It seems the Astartes did not receive the warnings from the Techpriests, Horn thought, or they ignored them. But it did seem that the Orks knew the properties of the river mud, and used it to their advantage, making the valley a perfect ambush location for Imperials using vehicles. Except they got one thing wrong. They were only on one side of the river. If they had split their forces and deployed on both sides of the river, they might have taken the Astrates out by now. They also might not have been vulnerable to a counter ambush from Horn and his troopers, who were now spread out all along the ridge line of the valley, with the Orks directly below them.
'Troops in position on the ridge and mortar teams ready sir,' said Rico, crawling up to beside him. 'Give the word and we'll give them hell.'
Horn smiled, if ever you wanted a psychopath like Rico on your side, it was in a fight. He took one final look at the Orks and was about to give the order, when he saw a movement almost immediately below them. A group of particularly large Orks were moving through the ranks towards the front carrying an array of huge weapons, missile launchers, heavy stubbers, or whatever the Ork equivalent was.
'I'd take those Flashgits out first.' Said Commisser Barnes, who had appeared along side Horn out of thin air.
'Flashgits?' said Horns.
'That's what those Orks call themselves. With the fire rate of their weapons they are deadly.' Even from on the ridge without his magnoculars Horn could see the caliber of the weapons, which they were now in position and ready to open fire.
'Rico, ping that group, and tell all heavy weapons to focus their fire on them.' Rico immediately got out the ranger, a rifle looking object and spoke briefly into his vox unit.
'Teams acknowledged.'
'Fire.' Said Horn.
Five missiles shot out from the top of the ridge line in near seamless synchronisation, leaving behind them silvery trails before hitting their target. It was consumed in an explosion of fire and dust. Next the air was light up with red beams and filled with the whine of las fire as the rest of the troopers opened up with their lasguns. These were often mocked as a low powered weapons compared to the deadly arsenals of the Astrates, Adeptus Mechanicus, or even the Orks. But with their numbers, their high ground position, and their rate of fire the Orks started dropping like flies hit by a virus bomb. Finally, the mortars landed in the midst of the Orks, sending explosions ripping though their ranks.
The Orks were caught and scores of them start falling. Many tried to switch their cover position to get out of the line of fire from the sustained fire of the Guardsmen from their high ground position on the ridge. Those that did were exposed their backs to the Astartes, who did not hesitate in letting rip with their bolter fire. Even at a long range the boltgun accuracy prove to be deadly to the Orks and scores more started falling.
It was a massacre, but the onslaught continued relentlessly for a further ten minutes. Some Orks attempt to scale the cliff faces toward the Guardsman, only to be shot down. Another group tried to make a run for it towards the base of the cliff and another along the riverbank, both were cut down by the combined fire of Guardsmen and Astartes.
Horn directly the fire from the heavy weapon teams to the targets that looked the most dangerous, at least he did when we could see. The explosions from the missiles and mortars were gouging out huge clucks of earth and dush making it difficult to see a thing.
Finally, the rate of fire of the lasguns and boltguns began to slow, as they were struggling to pick out any moving targets, and eventually it came to sporadic fire from the troopers on the ridge.
Horn ordered to cease fire.
The dust slowly began to settle, and the air cleared, helped by a light breeze blowing through the valley. Horn surveyed the decimated riverbank below. It was almost hard to believe he was looking at the same land, as it was now littered with blackened craters, with some bushes and undergrown were now alight in places. The Orks lay dead everywhere.
This was Horn's first command, and he felt elated and pretty sure it was his first victory. Just to be sure he surveyed the valley below again, looking for signs of movement from the Orks. Instead, he only saw dozens of Ork bodies, none of which moved.
For some reason he decided to address his men and he stood up on the ridge, but as he did the ground gave way under him.
'Shit!' he screamed as he tumbled down the near steer cliff face. He curled up to protect his head but landed painfully on his back several times before coming to a halt at the base of the slope on a sandy patch of ground, which probably saved his life.
Idiot, he thought and he struggled for breath. Fucking idiot. There still could be Orks alive down here.
As if his mind was being read, he heard a beastly cry. Horn staggered to his feet and went for his laspistol. It wasn't there. He went for his chainsword. It wasn't there either. The fall had not only deprive him of his dignity but also his weapons. The roar sounded again and an Ork came into the clearing. Horn only noticed two things. The first was it size, two heads taller than his and three whole widths wider than him. The second was its axe. Huge like the Ork, and in crackling with a green glow.
'You got me boyz! All me boyz! I'll tear you to pieces for 'em humee!' it said.
The Ork charged. Horn turned away from the charging Ork with every intension of running as fast as he could. But straight in front of him, sticking into the ground, was his chainsword handle within arm's reach, inviting him to grip it. Horn hesitated. Flight or fight.
Fucking idiot, he thought once more, and grabbed his chainsword. Glancing back he saw a strike from the Ork coming, he rolled to the side and managed to activate his weapon, which roared into life and he slashed at this opponent whilst coming out of the roll. Somehow he had manage to hit the Ork on his exposed side and it roared, but more from frustration than pain. It advanced and strike down another blow with inhuman speed.
Horn went automatically into his fencing pose and sidestep and downward blow. Swordsmanship had been one of Horn's few genuine skills at the academy, where he developed a reputation for being a skilled duellist and had won many a fight, and not to mention coin, from his fellow officers. But with practise weapons, never with real. Most of the duelling techniques he learnt were outright pointless on the battlefield and against such a strong opponent, where any of its strikes would go straight through any of Horn's fixed parries. Instead Horn kept ducking, stepping back out of distance, and rolling to avoid the Ork's axe again and again.
On Horn's final roll he lost his footing and fell backwards down a shallow slope, but he quickly got to his feet. He realised too late he gone into a ditch. Not good. Ork appeared at the top. And it started making a horrible guttural noise. Then Horn realised the Ork was laughing.
'I got ya, humme, time to die.' It said.
'Come and have it you green fucker.' Said Horn.
The Ork raising his axe high above this head, roared and charged. There was only one technique Horn remembered that seemed to work well against a stronger opponent, he had no choice but to try it. With all of his will Horn focused on the Ork's huge axe come closer to cut him in half. Don't fuck this up thought Horn.
The Ork struck the axe down where Horn had been, but he stepped forward to the side of the Ork, whilst raising his chainsword angled downwards and took the force of the Ork's axe on the blade, but instead of parrying the blow, he used the power of Ork's blow to spin his blade around, using the Ork's greater strength against it, and brought his counter blow against the back of his opponent's neck. The chainsword was a savage weapon, it bit deep into the back of the Ork neck and started sawing through it.
The Ork roared, this time in terrible pain, and lashed out with his axe against the chainsword cutting into him. It sent it spinning away and forced Horn to ground as he ducked under the axe. Unarmed he looked up at the wounded Ork, who was clutching a hand to try and stem the flow of green blood from its neck. He shifted its grip with his other hand to lower down the handle axe and started to raise it above its head as he advanced on Horn.
'You nearly got me humme, but we Orks is harder than ya think, but I will get ya!" The Ork charged once again.
Horn stood up. He knew he was dead. Better to die on one's feet than cowering in a ball.
As the Ork came towards him, there was a thundering of gunfire. Horn looked down expecting to be hit. But the Ork didn't have a pistol. Ork stumble to a halt and fell face first to the ground. Its back torn to pieces from a dozen gun shot wounds. At the top of the ditch stood Rico with a heavy stubber and Barnes with his autopistol.
'I think that the last of them laddie.' Said Barnes.
Rico looked at Horn nodded once and stalked away to start pumping single rounds into the Ork bodies that lay littered around the valley floor.
'I think you just won the men's approval.' Said Barnes.
Horn laughed and said, 'I'm glad it only took a huge Ork with a massive bastard axe trying to cut me into two to do that.' As he did so the icy terror that had grip his stomach started to flow from him, to be replaced with a feel of overwhelming relief.
He retrieved his chainsword and walked out of the cave. The battle, if you could call it a battle, was over. Some of his men had descended from the river cliffs and were now checking the bodies of the Orks for any survivors. Like Rico many start putting shots into the bodies just to be certain. It looked they had won the day and their enemy was no more.
'Get the squad leaders to report in,' said Horn. 'Make sure squads three and four stay on the ridge and watch out for any more enemy movements.'
'Casualties?' Horn asked Rico, after he received the last report from the squad on the vox.
'Just one sir.'
'Who?'
'I didn't catch the dickless marine wonderboy's name sir.' said Rico.
'The Astartes that was on the river, that was the only one killed?'
'Well I actually I am not sure he is dead. The Astartes are not being very talkative, they have just said one of their breadthen is incapacitated. Yeah I reckon they mean the one that is stuck fast in the middle of the river.'
Horn smiled, 'Yeah I bet they aren't being talkative after us mere mortals just saved their superhuman arses.' He spoke very loudly causing a few of the men nearby to laugh and a couple even cheered.
PART III
The sun was beginning to set behind the hills of the valley as the Thunderhawk gunship roared towards the riverbank where Horn and his men were. They had been watching the gunship for the last ten minutes as it manoeuvred to pick up the Astartes on the island, and then attempt to pick up their stranded bikes. Four were recovered, but the bike half submerged in the river was not recoverable by the gunship. Neither was the last Astarte, who Horn had sent a few men to recover.
The Thunderhawk revved its retro engines and came into land causing Horn to raise a hand to protect his eyes from the dust that it stirred up. As the front hatch opened to Horn it looked like an iron jaw about to shallow him whole. A feeling of dread grew inside him as he saw the Captain of the Astartes biker squad stalked down the ramp towards him. As his men was in formation behind him Horn gave his best parade ground salute.
This was ignored by the Captain who looking down at Horn at what he thought was a little too close for comfort. The removed his helmet and Horn saw a very pissed off face looking down at him. 'Where is my brother,' he demanded.
'My men are just fishing him out now sir,' Said Horn.
'Fishing?', said the Captain leaning down to come face to face with Horn. 'He is no fish Lieutenant, he is a warrior of the Dark Angels Chapter. Treat him with respect.'
Horn held his ground but shallowed and said. 'I believe respect is earned by deeds not by legacy.' Now it was Horn turn to lean closer to the Astrate. 'I couldn't care less about what others in your Chapter have achieved over the years. As you pointed out we are short lived, so I guess it give us a limited timeframe to decide who to respect or not. And guess what, a solider to who tells another solider to fuck off as he tries to give me some pretty basic intelligence about the hazardous terrain they are about to drive through, gets exactly the square root of fuck all respect from me. Sir.'
The Capture leaned back and folded his massive armoured arms. 'So that so Lieutenant. Do you have anything else to say.'
'Just that by not listening and treating your fellow comrades with a single shred of respect, you not only endanger your own men but mine. The Orks could have easily ambushed us as we came to rescue you.' Said Horn.
'I would strongly advise you not to say another word.' As he did so the three remainder Astarte came down the ramp holding their bolters at waist level, and pointing them ever so slightly at Horn who said nothing further.
'That was wise not to say another word.' said the Captain.
'I was actually just waiting for you to thank us for saving your arses, sir.'
The silence that followed was deafening, and Horn's arse clenched uncomfortably with each passing second. Idiot, I've went too far, he thought. Trying to win the respect of my men by giving an Astarte some shit.
The silence was eventually broken by Commissar Barns who shouted, 'Activate winch.' Which whined into life from the back of the Chimera and started to pull in a long chain from the river. The Astartesmercifully turned their backs on Horn and turned their attentions towards the river where they saw a large patch of roughly cut riverbed being dragged unceremoniously from the river. Encapsulated in the rockcrete like river soil, was their missing brother. Luckily he landed heavily on his back, unlucky for him the impact caused the riverbed to crack open and he was half submerged in the river as the rockcrete like river mud came into contact with the air and almost immediate hardened. Horn's men had to use planks of woods to get safety out to the stricken Marine, and carefully cut him using a repair welding torch from the Chimera.
They had done a good job given the improvised tools they used, as the rectangular piece of river bed they had cut out was slowly bobbling along the ground towards them. All that was visible of the Astarte was his helmet and his two arms and two legs sticking out, which were waggling like a man in the stocks awaiting his punishment.
To 138th Guards of Fury 13, this was too much for them. Muffed sniggers became stifled laughter, which quickly became full laughter.
The Astartes all turned towards the laughing Guardsmen, and their Captain yelled 'How dare you laugh at one of ours.'
The Guardsmen fell silence, but only for a split of a second as they broke ranks in fits of hysterical laughter.
To Horn's horror he saw why they had started laughing again. Rico had taken down his trousers and was now pissing right onto the helmet of the prone Astarte. Who could only waggle his arms and legs in protest.
The Captain started to turn back toward his immobilised trooper.
'Sire I apologise for my brashness.' Said Horn quickly. The Captain turned back to face him. 'I was it pure adrenalin that led me to say such impertinent things against the First. Please accept my humblest apologises for my brash words. Also, please forgive my men, there are a bag of nerves being in your present, and laughter is a fool's release for them, they meant no offense.'
'Very well.' Said the Captain. 'We will take our comrade from here.' He began to walk away.
'I'll look forward to passing water with you Astrates again sire,' said Rico zipping up his fly to stand beside Horn.
The Captain looks puzzled and then a bit pissed off as he guessed he was being made fun of and squared up to Rico.
Horn jumped in 'It is an expression from our homeworld sire, passing water, meaning to share a drink, a symbol of hospitality and friendship.'
The Captain merely grunted and walked up the ramp. The other marines followed, carrying the entombed Astarte. One of the Astarte screwed his face as he sniffed the air indignantly as the ramped closed behind him.
'Rico you are going to be death of me.' Said Horn, and the Thunderhawk gunship took off.
'What do you mean sir?' Said Rico pleading his innocents. 'They said they wouldn't piss on us, so I thought I'd be the bigger person and piss on them.'
'Emperor wept.' Said Horn, but he couldn't hide his grin.