Part 4 - Cracks in the plan

While the main assault begun in the distance, VC Ian and his small squad prepared their jump-packs to make the jump straight into enemy territory.

Sergeant Chrawkate was spinning his combat blade and chainsword, eager to slay some enemy Orkas. He had fought several Wicked Orkas before and knew their strengths and weaknesses, and thus his input was extremely valuable to the squad. Charles prepared his smoke grenades and adjusted his stealth powersuit so he became almost invisible. Jenniferious was there to ensure that VC Ian did not go out of line in his rage and hate toward the Orks, and her wisdom and experience in battling Orks too helped understand the enemy. Not to mention her large curved katana was handcrafted centuries ago, which had tasted the blood of many Orks, had a special feature - it glowed bright blue if there were Orks within 10 meters of the sword weilder. There would be no surprise attacks on this dame. Millenia just looked down at the Ork stronghold and focused on their jump.

VC Ian had a chainsword in his left hand and a power sword crackling with electricity in his right, a gift from an old Inquisitor. He looked at his squad, seeing they were ready, and gave the hand signal for the jump.

The 5 of them leapt into the air, assisted by the jump packs, and landed right on the roof of the headquarters of the Ork stronghold. Or at least what resembled a headquarters. It was crudely nailed together wooden walls, with red and white paint splashed over it and forming the word "Wagh!!" No Ork noticed them, as they were either rushing to the battle at the main gates where Alpha squad had engaged the sentries, or running around trying to find out the source of the noise. The green creatures were really quite dim-witted, several fights were already breaking out as big Orks collided into each other in their frenzy to reach the main battle.

Flightphesy squad paid them no heed as they silently entered the main building, wondering how on earth the Orks managed to build a stronghold with wooden boards and metal rods, and where they would find the 20 or so Ork leaders. They didn't have to walk very far.

The first room they came to already contained 3 of the brutes, snoring loudly and fast asleep. "This is a walk in a park!" whispered Charles as the squad moved in around them, and prepared to make the kill. Simultaneously, 2 of the warriors plunged their blades into 2 Warbosses, while VC Ian took off the head of the meanest looking one with a swipe of his power sword. It head rolled off and green ichor spilled all over the floor. The other 2 however, didn't die so easily. One actually managed to lift its shoota halfway and fired a shot, before Chrawkate twisted the blade in its heart to kill it, and another let out a loud roar of defiance and brought its left fist on the head of Charles. He moved aside to dodge the blow a little too late and got hit on his arm, but Jenniferious decapitated the monster. But the damage had been done. The noise alerted the other monsters to the room!

"Rwwarrr!!" With ferocious growls, a horde of about 20 greenskins stomped into the room, probably the personal guards of the 3 Warbosses they had just killed. Although slightly smaller than the 3 monsters they had killed, these Wicked Orka Orks were still towering beasts of over 2 meters, with huge cleavers and spiked clubs as weapons.

Millenia sent a wash of promethium flame over the horde, softening them up before the other 4 opened up with small arms. 7 Orks fell dead, another 3 collasped and rolled on the ground, roaring in pain at the fire. The rest clambered over the fallen dead, only to be gunned down by 3 warriors while Millenia continued to flame the disgusting Orks. Sergeant Chrawkate preferred to engage in hand to hand combat, his knife and sword slashing and slaying Orks left and right, moving with grace and such speed that he was only a blur of dark grey. Within a few minutes, 20 dead Orks and 3 dead Warbosses littered the ground. But more were stomping their way up the stairs, and Charles had to smoke them in order for the squad to move to their next targets.

"Not bad, 3 down, 17 to go!" VC Ian complemented his team as the ran down the hall, through the smoke screen, their visors providing them with detailed layout of the stronghold.

***

When the first explosion went off, Sergeant Neophiri and Rohan were still laying mines at the sides of the Ork stronghold, walking through swampy land and placing explosives at critical parts of the fort.

"Damn, that’s a bit too early! Come on, let's get to the vehicles or Alpha will be rocket barraged to death!" Neophiri and Rohan threw down their remaining mines and ran toward the side gate. The 4 Orks guarding the gate didn't even know what hit them, and the 2 Space Marines broke the lock (which was no easy feat, considering the lock was a thick pad lock the size of a tree trunk!) and went to destroy the Ork Vehicles.

Only, they didn't expect to find a squad of Ork Bikers getting ready to move into battle. Thankfully, they were clambering onto the bikes and whooping in delight, that they didn't notice the 2 Space Marines who had sneaked in through the back door of the makeshift garage (a large rectangular room, made of tin walls and a partly covered zinc roof, all rusty and bent out of shape.

Before Neophiri could react, Rohan had jumped into the gunner's seat of the nearest Ork vehicle and opened fire with the 2 canons, blasting the group of Bikers to bits and pieces, and creating a heck of a noise! Rohan was grinning from ear to ear after he finished blasting the last Ork, and the bikes exploded with a small "BOOM"!

Neophiri shouted at him, "This is supposed to be a covert operation! You just signed out death warrants!!"

Sure enough, the loud explosions alerted another large group of Orks who were roaring and groaning with pleasure at the prospect of another battle. Rohan simply shrugged and turned his big guns toward the angry mob, while Neophiri was about his task placing the C4 charges onto the vehicles. And man, there were at least a thousand vehicles in that storage place, there was no way the 2 of them could destroy that many! He had to think of plan desperately, while Rohan fired away at the raging Orks approaching the garage, but for every Ork that fell, 3 more seemed to stomp over the dead body and charged relentlessly toward him!

***

Outside the stronghold, already a thousand Orks had closed in on the 8 warriors, while another few thousand were impatiently pushing their way through the mob, war cries and sluggers being fired into the air angrily, as the Orks began to overwhelm the small band of warriors.

Each blast of his plasma gun literally cut Orks into pieces, slicing torsos and limbs. Yuri was laughing and enjoying the carnage, even has bullets bounced off his armour, threatening to break it open. But he know the ceramic armour of his power-suit could withstand much more punishment, so he ignored the small pitter patter of bullets and slayed more Orks.

Rallen was whooping with savage joy, having abandoned his heavy bolter for the fun of close combat, wielding a lightning claw on his left hand and a chainsword in his right, he danced a bloody spectacle in the mass of swirling Orks, his sword taking off heads and his lightning claw spilling cuts with each swipe, his massive foot kicking and cracking skulls. This was what he was, entirely in his element of energy and savage killing! He seemed an unstoppable one-man demolition machine, carving holes in the advancing Ork army, having slain perhaps a hundred Orks already.

Sharlyntte too had kept her sonic blasters and jumped into the fray at Rallen's side, wielding 2 wickedly curved blades, signature weapons of the Sisters of Battle. While Rallen's dance of death was forceful and erratic, hers was a dance of fluid grace and speed, almost like the Harlequins of the Eldar, her blades sharp enough even to cut atoms into pieces. She leapt and twirled around, all the while shrieking and yelling her native battle cries, fearless and relentless. It was almost ballet as a form of slaughter.

Reid was being more level-headed, using his cybernetic left arm to fire salvos of rockets at the biggest targets, while operating Rallen's heavy bolter with his right hand, stopping every few minutes to reload his rocket launcher. Each explosion of a rocket created a fireball as big as a house, incinerating at least 20 Orks with each blast.

Chaplain Grifter and Librarian Yonq Ilang was fighting back to back, cutting down enemies all around them as the Orks thought surrounding these foes would give them the advantage in numbers. Not so, as they found out the hard way. Swinging his sword skilfully in large arcs, Grifter sliced Orks and continued firing his bolters, each shot splitting a brain open or puncturing a hole in a heart. Librarian Yonq was another feat altogether, his entire body glowing and crackling with power, as he used his staff to knock his opponents off their feet and then fry them with a blast of electric power, or using his mind to tear apart the brains of the Orks with a psychic storm, and his left hand still spitting out death from his bolter.

Destiny, the psyker was not as well trained or as powerful as Yonq, but she too could release a blast of chain lightning, killing dozens of Orks with one blast, while she aimed her heavy bolter and continued shooting down Orks at the fringe of the firing line, being careful not to hit the dancing Rallen and Sharlyntte. She didn't fire at full auto so as not to lose control of the weapon, and conserved ammunition for the numerous foes. Her heavy bolter and Reid's heavy bolter created a criss-cross pattern of gun fire which the Orks struggled to break through, only to be cut down by Grifter and Yonq.

Shona was right beside her, burning Orks with the cleansing promethium flame at short range, making sure the Orks did not penetrate the firing line. It was her first time fighting the beastly Orks, and although she had dealt with Chaos hell spawn, mutilated cultists, Dark Eldar and uncountable Tyranide, she began to think the Orks were by far the more savage and brutish of them all. They didn't burn as easily, they never retreated and they still pressed on through the flame as it burned their faces off their skulls. She shuddered and wondered if they could hold them off much longer.

They had been fighting for little more than 30 minutes and already hundreds of Orks lay dead on the ground, and dozens more lay squealing as they awaited their death, arms and legs broken or guts spilling out of gaping wounds. Yet, they knew this was just the beginning. Beyond the gates, there were thousands more Orks, bigger, stronger and tougher than the ones they had killed. They could see the Kamikaze Rocket Boyz, the Shoota Boys coming from the back of the swarm. Large fire balls lauched from the Orks crude steam artillery rained down around them, although none actually came close to hitting the warriors, and often crushed and burned other Orks instead.

At first to keep his spirits up, Chaplain Grifter began to sing and praise the Emperor. His vox communicator was still on, and soon, every member of Alpha squad was joining his song in the chorus, a joyous song of slaughter of the ghastly monsters, the damned enemies of the Emperor. They are the Space Marines, and they shall know no fear. They cheered and sang as they killed and killed, but with every green monster slain, more seemed to charge at them. Would they be able to hold out long enough for Flightphesy squad to accomplish their mission?

***

"Take that you piece of green filth!" VC Ian stabbed an Ork through the face and his power sword impaled the monster and sunk into the brain of another Ork behind it.

Here the fighting was intense and fierce. In close quarters, guns were of little use, and every warrior had a blade drawn and cut a bloody path through their attackers, going from room to room, hunting for the remaining Warbosses. They soon found what they were looking for, when they burst into a large room, this one filled with the stink of meat, wine and really bad breath.

Four huge war bosses stood in the centre, clad in chain mail and holding ridiculously huge weapons. Two of them had huge broard axes, one had a jagged sword and the other had a spiked mace.

"Marines!! Focus fire on 3!!" VC Ian yelled over the din of battle. "The one in the centre!!"

With a last thrust or a kick, the 5 knocked away the smaller Orks who seemed puny compared to the huge towering Warbosses, and whipped out their ranged weapons and concentrated fire on the largest Ork in the room for 5 seconds. The coughing of bolt rounds, the fwoosh of the flame thrower, the hiss of the plasma gun, all aimed at the biggest meanest Ork they have ever seen. It was so big, they didn't even need to aim. Green flesh exploded in all directions and the monster seemed to halt in its tracks, but to their horror, the monster roared in defiance when they ceased fire, and seemed to move forward..

And then it tripped on another dead Ork and collapsed to the ground, dead.

But the victory was short-lived, as one Warboss slammed a fist into Millenia, sending her flying to the side of the room, falling and landing on 3 Orks, killing them instantly, while another Warboss swung his mace at Charles, connecting with a shoulder pad and cracking it severely. The smaller Orks, on seeing that the Space Marines could falter, pounced on them with renewed vigour.

Jenniferious had to act fast or risk the whole squad being swarmed and trampled to death. She activiated her jump-pack and crashed through the roof, shouting at the rest to follow her lead. While the rest struggled to activate their jump-packs, she lay down covering fire and blasted many Orks to kingdom come, but she realised she was running low on ammo magazines. "Hurry guys!"

VC Ian, Millenia, a bit stunned but generally unhurt, and Chrawkate flew through the roof.. but where was Charles? The roof was collapsing onto of the Orks, slabs of concrete crushing several Orks.

Charles could not be seen as the Orks swarmed across the room kicking up a cloud of dust and began hurling axes and debris at the 4 of them.

"Dammit! Let's move to the other side of the roof!" VC Ian directed his jet pack and the others followed suit, and they flew to the other end of the roof about 30 meters away and dropped down on a few unsuspecting Orks, crushing them with their boots. VC Ian smashed his fist into the face of another Ork in anger, his eyes blood shot with rage, and swore, "We'll make sure Charles didn't go down in vain!"