Part 6: "Reinforcements have arrived!"

Time seemed to crawl to a standstill as Grifter helplessly watched his team get overrun by the Wicked Orkas.

He could see in such detail, the look of despair mixed with rage as Reid thrashed about wildly, green muscled beings surrounding him from all sides, and Shona gripping the combat blade with the last reserves of strength in her, slashing and stabbing at the circle of Orkas, while Yuri's armour cracked with a group of Orkas stomping on him, roaring with triumph and eagerness to destroy the armour to attack the human within.

Even as he slashed his way toward them, he knew he could not reach them in time, not with Rallen hanging on limply on his back. Beside him, Yonq Iang's face was bloodied with human and Ork blood, his cape shredded and torn, but still fought on with crackling energy from within. Destiny and Sharlynette also fought alongside Grifter desperately, but knew they were merely delaying the inevitable.

Inside Grifter's power armour, alarms were going off and notices were flashing. "Armour integrity at 28% and dropping." "15 bolt rounds remaining." "Recommend immediate medical treatment for wound on left thigh, administering nanobots now." He shut them all out and concentrated only on 1 thing - taking down as many Orkas as possible in his final battle. But then, a message came, flashing amber. "Reinforcements have arrived. ETA in 10.. 9.. 8.." He could almost see the hope flaring up in his teams faces, even though they had their helmets on!

Streaming clouds of smoke, the Space Marine Drop Pods came screaming out of the sky. Rallen, though losing both his legs, gave a whoop of joy, while Destiny and Sharlynette shrieked in delight. Several Orkas were momentarily distracted and looked up at the sky, wondering what was making that sonic boom that resonated over the battle field, although most simply carried on the carnage.

"Brace for impact." the voice in Grifter's helmet instructed.

3 Drop Pods came smashing down extremely near Grifter's team, crushing several dozen Orkas, and throwing other Orkas to the ground in the impact. In a moment, the doors slammed down, crushing more Orkas on the ground, and out came the reinforcements!

"Into the maelstorm of battle!" yelled the Sergeant of the reinforcement team, and Grifter had trouble identifying him for awhile, before realising it was his old friend, Veteran Sergeant Honggad! Bolters spitting death at the Orkas, Honggad gave a brief nod to Chaplain Grifter as his team came forth in support, to rain death and destruction on the Orkas. Grifter smiled to himself as friends were indeed a great welcome on the battlefield.

On Sergeant Honggad's flanks came Techmarine Nic, who released sentry guns while he fired his bolter in his left hand, and Sister Liting, expert in the use of agile close combat, having trained together with Sharlynette before, brandished her dual energy blades as she lept and decapitated Orkas who barely registered her presence. Like a shadow darting back and forth, no conventional weapon could even hope to strike her down, her speed knocking Orkas to the ground even as she flinted by. Finally came another huge Space Marine, encased in powerful Terminator bulk armour, with a huge chain bolter protruding from his right arm, firing incendiary rounds into the mass of green Orkas, punching through several of them, cutting them down and sending limbs and torsos scattering in all directions. On his left shoulder, a personalised emblem of an eagle on a pink shield, signifying his favourite colour, Terminator Robin was fearsome indeed. "How about some brute force to back you up eh!" Robin grinned at Yonq Iang. Nic, quickly laid down about 4 sentry guns and 4 battle drones, which formed a perimeter around the Space Marines, giving Grifter and his team some space for a breather.

Encouraged, Grifter, Yonq Iang, Destiny and Sharlynette fought with renewed vigor, after getting fresh ammunition and weapons from the Drop Pods. Grifter spoke into his combead, "We have 3 men down 20 meters to our West, near the broken defense structure! They need assistance!"

"Already on it, sir." A female voice voxed in reply. Sister Valerie and Apothecary GK was tending to Reid and Yuri's injuries and Sister Shona, knocked unconscious by the impact of the Drop Pod, was carried to it by Brother Daryl, who quickly locked her into a safe compartment, and resumed fighting the Orkas. Partly invisible and perched on top of a Drop Pod, Sergeant Arthur took out the biggest Orkas with his long las rifle, each shot piercing through the head of a lumbering Orka leader, or at least what he assumed to be the leaders. He quickly issued orders to the rest of his squad to re-join the battle once Yuri's injuries have been tended to. Reid's injuries didn't seem too severe and Arthur took him into his squad for the time being, and gave him a few more rockets.

And the third Drop Pod contained only 1 thing, but it was enough to cause the Orkas to pause in their assault. Towering more than 4 meters in height, heavily armed with a flame thrower, dual heavy bolters and missile launchers, the venerable dreadnought Luke ploughed through the mass of Orkas like it was taking a walk in a park. Rallen and Yuri, though heavily injured, cheered the dreadnought on and shouted in unison, "Luke Rocks!!"

But even with the arrival of the 6 Space Marines, 2 Sisters of Battle and the incredibly powerful dreadnought, Grifter knew they didn't stand much of a chance against tens of thousands of Orkas, no matter much many were killed, the swarm of Orkas just kept coming.