Chapter 3: AYYYYAAAAAA!
Marbo and his squad lay coiled with tension along the muddy embankment, waiting for their prey with predator-like patience. Intelligence reported an entire enemy column passing this way, marching arrogantly through the lightless Catachan jungles on an exposed trail. Easy targets. Now it was time to spring the trap on these foolish interlopers.
Marbo's enhanced senses picked up the sounds of their approach through the dense vegetation. The steady stomp of boots squelching in the mud, the rhythmic clank of equipment belts and rifles slung across shoulders, barked orders echoing between the cliff walls. The shaking of massive fronds and rattling of vines signaled the enemy's imminent emergence into the ambush kill zone. Marbo locked eyes with each of his soldiers and saw his own deadly focus reflected back at him. On his signal, they would erupt with volcanic violence.
The first alien shapes shuffled into view, autoguns raised warily as they scanned the surrounding jungle. More emerged behind them, marching segment by segment like some hideous metal centipede. There would be no escape from the narrow ravine once the killing began. No mercy. Marbo's lips peeled back over his teeth in a feral grin. It was time.
With a primal roar that rang through the jungle, Marbo leapt forth from concealment. "AYYYYYYAAAAAA!" His cry was the spark that ignited an inferno. His men rose as one, heavy bolters and explosive charges ripping into the tightly packed column, blasting craters along its entire length. Enemy bodies flew into the air, trailing arcs of blood. The ravine walls amplified the deafening cacophony of automatic fire and desperate screams.
Marbo was a whirlwind of destruction amidst the chaos, merciless and unstoppable. He hurled grenades into troop carriers, the concussive shrapnel shredding all within and peppering the vehicles with molten metal shrapnel. Men stumbled from the wreckage only to find Marbo already among them. His blade carved throats and severed limbs, dark arterial spray jetting across furiously spinning chainaxe teeth. Marbo's eyes were wide with primal fury, teeth bared as he stabbed and slashed without pause. None could stand before this mythical jungle predator.
The ravine was a slaughterhouse. Soldiers screamed and died under the savage onslaught as Marbo's squad maintained suppressing fire, pinning down any survivors. Return fire went wild, severed arms still reflexively clutching hot bolters sending rounds skewering into the muddy ground. Marbo never slowed, cutting a relentless swathe through the panicked enemy ranks. This was his purpose, what he had been honed and tuned to unleash without mercy or hesitation. The Emperor's justice had come to the jungles of Catachan.
Soon the ravine was choked with mangled bodies and ran red with rivers of blood and viscera. Shattered forms lay obscenely strewn about, missing heads or pulped into fleshy mush by high-caliber bolts. The stench of charred meat mixed with gunpowder hung heavy over the kill zone like some unholy demonic incense.
Seeing the enemy officers fleeing towards a waiting Chimera, Marbo took off in pursuit with powerful strides. His legs closed the distance in seconds as his bellowing battle cries urged him forward. With a final roar, he planted both bootheels into the officer's back, snapping his spine and slamming his face into the jagged rocks. Marbo tightened his grip on the twitching body, ensuring the fool knew precisely who had bested him in these final moments. None could escape the Emperor's justice this day.
For long seconds after, only the cries of the wounded and flames crackling through shattered vegetation could be heard. Marbo surveyed the scene and nodded in grim approval. The enemy advance had been stalled here, drowned in bloody mud at the hands of Catachan's avenging specters. The jungle had fed well this day.
Marbo moved with ghostly smoothness to rejoin his soldiers, his breathing settling back to normal even as blood continued to drip from his saturated uniform. He had tasted death's red vintage once more. But even as the earth drank its bloody fill, he knew the great devouring war machine would soon call again. And Marbo would answer, as was his solemn duty until the very end. For now, the shadows of the quiet jungle enveloped him, welcoming Marbo home.