Legends of the Smoke Jaguars chapter 193
"Into the house!" Ajax roared as the wave of Orks poured over the perimeter, a solid wall of Xenos flesh barrelling over everything in their path. The Space Marines were already running, turning their heels on the foe and dashing for the empty house. Ajax wished dearly he could ignite his jump pack and soar away but the Smoke Jaguars wouldn't stand a chance. Deviants or not they were allies and Ajax would be damned before he abandoned comrades-in-arms. He'd happily beat them to a pulp later, but for now they must fight side by side.
"Are we retreating?!" Iagion cried.
"It's a tactical regroup!" Ajax snarled.
"What's the difference?!"
"So we don't die in the first ten seconds!"
"I like this plan!"
Ajax was running straight at the house and didn't bother to use the door. He tensed his leg as he hit the cobbles surrounding it and leapt headfirst through a window. Glassic shattered, spraying the interior with razor shards of broken panels. Others bounded through, landing in some lady's sitting room. Ajax's bulk crashed onto a fainting couch and crushed it into kindling, but he was already up and running before the pieces stopped clattering. A feral roar behind, the Orks were seconds away from pouring in the broken windows, they had to run.
Ajax bounded to a door and yelled, "Through here!"
"Fleet as the quicksilver fish!" Vitcos agreed as he waved his squad through.
"Tell me you curs carry a flamer!" Ajax barked.
"Alas our hands be wanting for..."
"Shut up!" Ajax snapped, "Brothers, frag grenades!"
Iagion and the Vanguard Veterans pulled frag grenades free, waiting for the shadows of Orks to loom in the broken windows, then pulled the pins. Five grenades were tossed through the open door then Ajax slammed it shut. A deep-throated roar echoed as the Orks charged, the flimsy wooden barrier would offer no obstacle, but the grenades did. Flat bangs rang loud and the door shuddered in his grip as super-heated shrapnel peppered the frame. He trusted the detonations had hurt the Orks, but that wouldn't slow down the rest behind.
"Out the other side!" Ajax yelled as he turned and ran down a narrow corridor. He carried Storm's Wrath in one hand, the immense weight no bother to him. Into the house they tore, and the sounds of shattering doors and breaking windows told that the Orks were rushing in from all sides. One chance, they had to reach the far door and get out the other side before they were surrounded, too late, far too late.
An Ork burst through a side door and came at them with its fangs dripping saliva in anticipation. Iagion met it with the burning edge of his Friction Axe, cleaving the skull into two steaming halves but the shadows of more were coming up behind. Ajax spied a stair and shoved Vitcos in that direction. Up the flight they went, the wooden frame creaking alarmingly under the dense mass of Space Marines in power armour. He worried the slender construction would give way and drop him, but they reached the top and he swung Storm's Wrath in a low arc, tearing the stair into pieces.
"That buys us seconds!" Iagion yelled.
"Depart with haste," Vitcos urged, "Let us trust the Shadow-path."
"You're not sneaking out of this one!" Ajax snapped, "We have to call for extraction!"
"A mad pilot would you need."
"You haven't met our pilots," Ajax snorted, "They love a hot zone!"
Iagion barked suddenly, "I hate to break this up, but we've got company!"
Orks were climbing up the walls, punching fingers into the soft material to heave themselves up the hallway's interior. Ajax cursed at their speed, and from the sounds of it more were climbing the exterior walls, seeking to catch them. The Greenskins had proven their ability to swarm upwards at Victory Gate, this was nothing in comparison. The Astartes had seconds till they were overrun.
"To the roof!" Ajax yelled as they sprang into a sprint. Already Xenos were breaking into the second level, trying to intercept them. Ajax spied an Ork emerging from a side room, leading with a blunt-nosed pistol. A sweep of Storm's Wrath shattered the gun into pieces, then he slammed an elbow into the Xenos' face as he passed, sending it crashing backwards. No time to finish it off, hundreds of Orks were inside the house, they had to move.
Another stairwell gave them access to higher floors. Ajax led the way, running for all he was worth. A window shattered ahead as an Ork Stormboy jetted through the billowing curtains, only to find the flat of an Eviscerator crashing onto its skull. Ajax took three whole seconds to grab a dangling curtain cord, wrap it around the Ork's throat then kick it over the stair rail, leaving it to hang to death as he tore on. Six stories up they found a door access to the roof and emerged into the rising light of day. Ajax didn't have to glance over the lintel to know the building was surrounded.
Ajax barked, "Secure the perimeter, kill them as they come! I'll hold this doorway. Brother –Sergeant Ajax to Chapter Mater Lujan, come in! Lujan this Ajax! We are pinned down in grid-sector nine-three-two and require urgent Thunderhawk extraction. Artillery to level this neighbourhood immediately after! Lujan, do you hear me?!"
No time for answers as the sound of heavy boots hitting stairs echoed from the open door. Too light and flimsy to even bother closing, the Orks would break through in an instant. Instead Ajax set his feet and lifted Storm's Wrath high, bracing to swing the second he saw a foe. A flash in the shadows and they were there, barging through the narrow gap with rage in their eyes. Ajax's arm was already in motion, chainteeth singing their buzzsaw tones. Sword met flesh and parted it in a spray of red vitae, leaving wet chunks to fall to the ground. Another and another, each charging at him with fury and hatred, Ajax greeted them all the same way, his arm steady and strong. Sounds of battle from all around told that Orks were storming the roof, met by sharp deaths at the points of Astartes' weapons. No time to look, Ajax was wholly consumed defending the door.
Orks charged out of the stairwell only to be greeted by his Eviscerator's kiss. Ajax struck boldly and well, indomitable, piling corpses up in hopes of blocking the door with the dead. It was not to be. A Black Ork barged through the tangled heap, a heavy shield on one arm, an angle grinder held in the other. Ajax swung for the head but the Ork lifted its shield and deflected the blow, leaving the Space Marine's arm ringing. A thrust to his hearts sent sparks flying from his breastplate as the spinning saw tried to bore through, and Ajax was forced to step back.
The Black Ork advanced, grinning ear to ear as it followed him. Behind more shapes told of Orks rushing the stairs, no time to worry about that, Ajax had to fight for his life. The Ork rushed him and Ajax was forced to give ground, trying to avoid the lash of that spinning saw. A counterstrike bashed off the shield, deflected without touching flesh. In return the angle grinder tore at his cracked plate, shearing away a chunk, leaving a red scar underneath. The pain hit a moment later, causing Ajax to grit his teeth, but the agony didn't slow him at all.
Ajax went on the offensive, swinging his sword in wide arcs. He kept the momentum up, using his weapon's weight to great effect, a flurry of looping strikes, any of which should rip his foe in half. The Black Ork avoided death somehow, using its shield to block every attack. This shouldn't be possible, Orks had no use for defence, but this one had skill as well as strength, and Ajax could not break its guard. His assault was brought up short when a kick to the groin lifted him bodily off the floor, sending painful shivers up his spine. A Genhanced frame, ceramite armour and the hardest conditioning known to man proved lacking, but still that hurt.
Ajax staggered back, water in his eyes but still he saw the Black Ork closing, grinning wickedly. Others poured out the door behind, using the few seconds of the fight to exit the stairs. They were about to be overrun, Ajax had to think fast. With a thought he triggered his jump pack, vaulting into the sky, but not away. Straight up he went, and down again, bringing Storm Wrath down in a strike like the fist of a god. Had it touched flesh the Ork would have died but it bounded aside, avoiding the blow. Ajax's sword smote the roof and smashed through, tearing up beams and slates to expose the room below. He was overextended, vulnerable, and yet not alone.
The Black Ork came at him from the side only for a grey and black blur to smash into it. Vitcos, the Smoke Jaguar, throwing himself at the foe and using his mass and momentum to carry it along. The Xenos was thrown aside, slamming into the low lintel that surrounded the roof, knees caught from behind. Its stance fell apart and the Ork toppled, dropping out of sight to the ground six stories below. Ajax doubted a mere drop would kill it, but it bought them time.
"Stand fast Brothers!" he yelled as Orks poured out the doorway.
"Make the price of your lives dear!" Vitcos yelled.
"Oh, now you start making sense!" Ajax roared as he met the closing torrent with a sweep of his blade.
"..." the vox crackled as the numbers against them swelled.
"What?!" Ajax cried.
"Brother Ajax... incoming fire... danger close!"
"Beware!" Ajax yelled as a shadow eclipsed the sun.
Flying low under the shield came a Thunderhawk in blue, blazing exhaust thrust as a corona behind. The pilots were moving insanely fast at such low altitude, and their Heavy Bolters were already firing. Four twin-linked guns thundering. No time to evade, no place to dodge, he could only stand and trust the gunner's eye as four tracks of impacts walked across the roof, gutting Orks by the score. Red blood fountained high, blocking all sight, raining upon Ajax and painting his blue armour purple. His vision was blocked but the cries of dying Orks were glorious, truly glorious.
When the shower ended he found no Astartes had been harmed, superlative aim indeed. The Thunderhawk was already skidding in mid-air, using its main engines to break. The pilots blasted downdraught to stand over nothing as the assault ramp crashed down, slamming into the battered roof, that seemed on the verge of giving way any second.
"Move your worthless arses!" Ajax yelled as he bounded onto the ramp.
"Be swift as the wind!" Vitcos urged his brethren.
Storm Heralds and Smoke Jaguars piled in as Iagion yelled, "Hold onto something!"
"The jaws yawn wide!" Vitco protested.
"The pilots don't care!" Ajax barked as he grabbed a handrail.
Before the ramp had a chance to close the pilot rammed their throttles open. Surging engines pushed the gunship away at a furious rate, despite the gaping air brake of the open hatch. Ajax was jerked off his feet and left dangling from his handhold, wind tearing at his broken plate. His arm felt like it wanted to wrench from its socket and the weight of his Eviscerator wanted to rip him in half. The Smoke Jaguars skidded to the rear of the bay, crashing into the rear hatch. Evidently, their Chapter practised gentler manoeuvres but Ajax grinned as he reflected the Storm Herald pilot's motto was; if the throttles weren't jammed firmly into the red, there was no point taking off.
Speech was impossible but he saw the ramp whining closed, straining against the wind. A glance of the shield above and tracks crossing it. Artillery shells, inbound on their former location. Less than half a minute after they left the roof. Damn, that was close. Ajax contented himself knowing that a lot of Orks were about to die but he felt only tired. This was no victory to celebrate, no glorious killing to energise his spirit. He felt every one of his centuries bearing upon him, the come down after a fight hitting hard. Even his armour was broken and would require consecrations before being fit to fight again. He didn't look forward to explaining that to the Techmarines, nor for that matter how a Smoke Jaguar had saved his life.