Legends of the Smoke Jaguars Chapter 181
Two days later Ajax found himself desperately battling to hold Victory Gate once more. Why the Orks had delayed their assault would have to remain unanswered, for every effort could only be focused on the here and now. The assault was vicious and fast, coming straight at the Gate in a tight arrowhead. The Orks were focused and intent, not spilling out to engulf the city and so allow all the wall guns to engage. Through the firestorm they came, this time in numbers beyond counting and once more they swarmed the battlements, eager to spill blood and break heads.
Ajax planted his feet as he swung wide, cleaving a Greenskin in twain with the cutting teeth of his blade. Storm's Wrath growled fiercely as he brought it around again, gutting an Ork with a slash to the guts. Entrails spilled free, wetting the stone with slick innards and tripping other Orks. Ajax took advantage of that to smash his boot into a midriff, causing a third Boy to stumble, toppling from the rampart to plunge to his death far below. A good kill but meaningless, Orks were pouring up scaling ladders and heaving up grappling ropes, faster than the ancient designers could have ever believed possible. No human foe could have mounted the lower battlement so easily, no Krave, Knib or Tallerian, but Ork strength made short work of it. Guardsmen bodies lay everywhere, cooling upon the cold hard stone. The entire length above the gate itself was lost. The Vanguard Veterans were the last men standing.
"We have to fall back!" Iagion yelled as he tore the arm from a Greenskin with his burning axe.
"We can't lose this battlement!" Ajax barked back as he thrust his blade through a neck.
"If we stand we die!"
"Then we die well!"
"Remember the Codex!" Iagion cried, "To die for stubborn pride is foolish!"
Ajax knew it was true, this battlement was lost, but it was only the lowest, and least important, of the gun-posts. Other tiered ranks rose above, defended by other squads, his strength would be better spent where it could do some good. It gnawed at Ajax's pride to give ground but he was no Imperial Fist, to count stone more important than lives. And even Rogal Dorn himself would accept this casement was lost.
"Fall back!" Ajax yelled as he swung his Eviscerator wide. The Vanguard Veterans did as bid, inching backwards towards one of the twin towers that flanked the gate. The Orks tried to stop them, pushing forward with notched blades in hand. Ajax met them with blunt chops, tearing faces apart and lopping off hands. Such a weapon demanded broad sweeps and enormous momentum, but his strength overcame its limits and he kept his blows short and precise. The Orks didn't like that, scores of them rushed the battlement, hundreds, all trying to catch the Storm Heralds before they could escape, but it was futile, the narrow door awaited and the first Brothers were already ducking through.
A whirling rush overhead betrayed a Deffkopter speeding past, trying to get beyond the gate and so wreak havoc in the city. The pilot misjudged the gap over the gate and slammed bodily into the shield dome, exploding in a spectacular fireball. Flaming metal and burning fuel cascaded downwards, hailing upon the Greenskin's heads, causing even them to flinch. Ajax took advantage of the distraction to thrust the tip of his sword through a chest, then leapt backwards through the doorway before anyone could stop him. A solid slab of Adamantium slammed down an instant later, metres thick, impenetrable to small arms. The tower was sealed, and a moment later cauldrons of Promethium were vented, ignited to sweep the battlement with flamer plumes, incinerating every Greenskin that stood upon the bastion.
Ajax turned and headed for a stairway as he curtly snapped, "Quickly, to the second level!"
"We bled them," Iagion consoled.
"Not enough, not nearly enough," Ajax growled.
"The Codex predicted we would only hold the gate for three days."
"Three to fourteen, and I was counting on it being the far end of that spectrum. At this rate we'll be lucky to hold till nightfall."
"Chapter Master Lujan will not yield so easily!" Iagion protested.
"That sounds like hope in your voice, do not trust hope," Ajax muttered.
Any further talk was cut short as the vox rang, "Sergeant Tyho calling for immediate aid! Stormboyz assaulting Macrocannon Alpha, we are being overrun!"
The Vanguards were already heading up the stairwell, "Sergeant Ajax here, we'll be there in thirty seconds!"
"We don't have thirty seconds!"
"Frak: double time!"
They took the stairs five at a time, bounding around the tight curvature of the steps. Levels whisked past as Ajax rushed upwards, pauldrons scraping the stone walls to either side. Past the secondary battlement, past the topmost battlement, ascending to the apex of the tower where the Macrocannon lay. They burst out of the stairs to find the open air waiting, replete with a stunning vista of the world beyond. To one side lay the streets of Coronam, winding roads following ancient pre-imperial footpaths. The broad expanse of the Triumphal Way lay open, covered by artillery, it would soon be needed. To the other side awaited a sea of Orks, packed jowl to jowl, roaring in feral rage as they scrambled to close. Overhead the engorged barrel of the Macrocannon pocked out of a silver dome, glowing red from repeated firing, but in its shadow a fight raged. Sergeant Tyho's Tactical Marines fighting to hold back a torrent of Stormboyz whose Rokket packs were smoking after their sharp ascent. If they got past the thin line of blue the massive gun would fall silent, and one of the best defences the Imperials had would fall.
"Xenos scum!" Ajax bellowed as he laid in, scything Storm's Wrath through the spines of a jostling Ork. His return swing tore the arm off a second, then he dragged the weight of his blade about mid-blow to sunder the skull of a third. The Stormboyz turned to face him, only to find the Vanguard Veterans were upon them. Power swords flashed, relic blades opened bodies and the Friction Axe left cauterised wounds as six Brothers piled in, killing with swift efficiency and certain skill.
Ajax strode into the fray, his armour suffering dozens of minor scrapes as he pressed his attack. He was a whirlwind of destruction, reaping lives at a furious rate but he was opposed. From the mob came an Ork that was different: bigger, stronger, black head to toe and with a cunning glint of intelligence to the eye. Some strange aura surrounded this one, like a stench one could see, fierce and commanding, but Ajax' mental walls were proof against the blandishments of the foe and he leapt into the fray with a cry of, "Cleanse! Purge! Kill!"
Storm's Wrath described a red arc in the air, set on a course that would tear the Black Ork in twain. To Ajax's utter astonishment it dodged, twisting aside to allow the Eviscerator to hit stone. Ajax's arms juddered as he was shaken by the missed strike, momentum pulling him over. He was shocked a moment later when a spiked knuckleduster rammed into his breastplate, sending him staggering. He barely held onto Storm's Wrath's hilt as he stumbled back, his noble plate cracked with thin threads of damage. The Black Ork grinned as it held its fists up before its face, spiked Pig-iron points gleaming.
"Wretched fungus-born filth, I will burn this planet to ash before I yield to scum like you!" Ajax snarled as he took up his mighty weapon and swung for the head. The Black Ork however was freakishly fast, ducking under the blow to come at him with a belly punch. Ceramite cracked again as Ajax suffered the blow, his stomach compressing. His weight was off-balance and he was startled by his foes' agility. Orks did not duck and weave, they took blows like pugilists absorbing hits, counting on greater strength to carry the day.
The Ork didn't give him room to swing his Eviscerator again, keeping close to pummel him relentlessly. A blow to the groin, the stomach, the heart and the bicep, so fast its arms seemed to blur. It walked punches up his mass, cracking plate over and over. Left flank, right, head, chest, crux of the arm, heart, double-tap to the gut, jaw, roundhouse to the temple, gut again. Ajax could barely see the flurry of blows coming, the Ork was so swift and deadly that its assault seemed a flurry of raindrops. All he knew was the ringing of alarums from his battered plate and the spikes of agony that sank into his muscles like rusty nails. He tried to push it back, break contact and clear room, but the Black Ork stayed with him, determined to pound him into paste. Ajax had never faced so vicious a foe, even Traitor Marines would only try to kill you, but this Ork wanted to deconstruct him utterly, take him apart one piece at a time.
Ajax was unable to respond but then the heavens spilt apart as the universe itself shook. The Macrocannon discharged, etching shadows onto stone as the roaring of its firing overpowered Autosenses and rattled teeth in jaws. The Black Ork stumbled, blood cascading from its unprotected ears. Ajax saw his chance and heaved forward, throwing the foe away, then gripped Storm's Wrath tight. One foot retreated, the other used as a pivot as he turned his back on the foe, exposing him for an instant. Shaken by the thunder of the Gods the Black Ork failed to respond in time, allowing Ajax to spin entirely about. He put all his strength into the blow, using the momentum of his heavy blade to add to the might of the coming blow. Biceps bulging, fibre-bundles straining Ajax swept his Eviscerator about and slammed the chainteeth into the foe's flank. Pain tore at his ligaments as the juddering blade tried to leap free but Ajax held on, wrenching his arms about and in one almighty strike tore his enemy in half.
Two shorn halves fell to the stone as Ajax stumbled over, his chest a mass of fire. The breaking of his fused ribcage only now penetrated his conscious mind, a forest of needles as his Genhanced frame sought to piece itself back together. His plate was worse, riddled with cracks and crying from multitudes of microfractures. It would require copious amounts of repair paste most urgently, and ritual reconsecration in due course, but there was no time for that. The Vanguard Veterans had made short work of the Stormboyz, the paramount was secured, for now.
Sergeant Tyho trudged nearer, "Veteran-Sergeant, our thanks for a timely intervention."
"Urrrrgh…" Ajax groaned, fighting the urge to throw up acid-blood inside his helm.
"Sergeant?" Tyho asked.
"Just… huuuu…" Ajax wheezed.
Iagion hastened over, "Brother-Sergeant, do you require an Apothecary?"
Ajax forced his broken frame upright despite the screaming of sundered bones as he snapped, "You can call me an Apothecary when I'm dead! I need no aid, I am Ajax!"
Tyho accepted this unquestioningly, "We have several Brothers down in healing coma, we need to evacuate them."
"Make your arrangements," Ajax growled, "We need to secure the battlements."
"I think we need more than that," Iagion gulped.
"We can hold the gate for another day," Ajax growled.
"Not against that," Iagion pointed.
Ajax followed the line of his finger and saw the Ork's most potent weapons coming to bear. Stompas, closing through the horde like men wading through a shallow stream. Walking idols to the Greenskin's feral gods, festooned with guns and armour, belching smoke from dirty generators as gears whined and ungreased pistons squealed. Metal feet crushed Greenskins into the dirt as they forged a path for the gate, faces broad as Mainline battle tanks, grinning with riveted smiles. Weapon mounts were flashing on their shoulders and immense hammers and chainblades twitched, ready to tear the gatehouse apart. A Macrocannons shell from Beta gun landed amidst their number, only to detonate harmlessly against a forcefield stretched over their heads. The Stompas proved invulnerable to ranged fire. A dozen Ork effigies were heading for Victory Gate and nothing could possibly stop them.
Ajax stared aghast at the closing Engines and as the vox crackled, "All Storm Heralds squads at Victory Gate are to immediately fall back."
"Lujan?" Ajax voxed back in dismay.
"You heard me," Chapter Master Lujan snapped from afar, "We cannot deny such might with our swords. Victory Gate is about to fall, I am designating rearguard Guard units to buy time for an orderly regroup in the city. We will meet them in urban combat and let House Orhlacc worry about the Stompas. Fall back Ajax, now!"
"You heard the order!" Sergeant Tyho yelled at his squad, "Gather our wounded and commence withdrawal, Brother-Sergeant?"
"We'll be with you," Ajax confirmed as he cast one last glance at the closing Stompas, "Forget the day, this gate won't last the hour."