Kori Bretakollrsson
"WAAGH!!!" came the screams as another wave of Orks came running across the killzone that we were currently facing. These creatures gave no consideration to their losses and seemed more interested in the act of dying for the chance to fight than to fight themselves.
Didn't help that they apparently had armored vehicles in spades. Makeshift tanks of all sizes, colors, and designs rolled across the killzone. They didn't make it to our lines thankfully since we had more than enough anti-armor weapons but when they died they left plenty of wrecks that the Orks would then use to get their charges ever closer to our position.
At the current rate they would hit us and go into melee combat probably in the next 20 minutes. Which would probably be a great fight… If our orders were not to hold this position in order to save the town behind us from being overrun by the Orks.
This operation was not what we had expected when we came to the Wheel of Fire's periphery. We had been told at Terra that we would be on the attack and hunting Orks in their own space and that was what we were hoping for. but when we arrived the Iron Warriors had told us that the situation was well in the hand, that all we needed to do was take the first planet in the chain and that the Orks would be sealed up inside the Wheel of Fire.
Obviously that was not true as, when we began preparing to seal up the entrance, word came that several Ork attacks had taken place on the planets behind us. Planets that should have been negotiating themselves into the Imperium thanks to Lord Russ's rescuing of their civilians 3 weeks ago.
This would not stand for our Lord as this showed a weakness in our abilities to defend the people. It implied that the Imperium could not defend them from the Orks they were trying to leave.
In response, Lord Russ had broken the legion in half. We left half our forces with the Iron Warriors and the Imperial Army to keep the main entrance and exit out of the Wheel of Fire closed up while the other half had split into separate chapters to try and hunt down these rogue Orks. I would assume, based on the strategy which left her personal chapter or enlarged company ready to redeploy at any target, that she was working under the assumption that maybe these Orks went on their raids before the door was closed and just needed to be wiped out. Thus we were deployed in such a way as to draw them into fights while her main force stood ready to land and destroy them, which is why we were here holding this line as the Orks kept pushing us.
Hopefully though Lord Russ would arrive soon as things are getting a little bit close to the village and it looked like they were bringing up artillery pieces now that our sights were obscured by the overgrown wrecks they had called tanks. If this village had been on a hilltop we probably wouldn't have that much of a worry but unluckily enough this village had been built on the edges of a massive river system in very low lands. If anything we were in a dip in the ground, giving the Ork units the ability to shoot into our lines from an angle.
There were a few things I considered may have been possible mistakes but bringing along the Valkyries, as some of my brothers in the Astartes had started coining Tanya's personal shieldmaidens, as a support staff was not one of them.
They not only helped fill out the line of 400 Astartes with about 800 of themselves but they often were carrying shovels and went immediately to work digging trenches. Mars had basically refused to issue Astartes-sized shovels to the legion, implying that materials were best spent on other things. However they had no problem supplying regular shovels to the Valkyries, due to them being humans and considered as just a form of the Imperial Army specific to Fenris.
If not for their ability to dig with their shovels, and share the shovels they had with us, we would be in a bit of a bind. Standing out pretty much in the open, bar whatever sandbags we could put up, was not my idea of a good place to stand against armor. Instead, we now had a bit of trenchwork around the town.
Obviously we were meant for offensive operations but we were figuring out how to do defensive work nonetheless. It may gall us that we were just standing here, only shooting at things as they got closer, but we knew what was coming.
Sooner or later Lord Russ would arrive and would bring with her a hail of gunfire and brothers to fight the Orks in the field. That would be the moment when we could charge out there and deal the finishing blow and rip these Orks apart.
Just had to be patient, something that had been beaten into us during Tanya's training on Fenris. An experience I would not soon forget…
Wasn't too often you were dumped into the woods, nearly naked and alone, and told to work your way to civilization alone or find your fellow brothers who had been dumped alone too and work together to do it.
It might have been one week of that and there had been hundreds of other exercises to deal with, getting to learn the physical feats we could muster. From hiking through the mountains under artillery fire to wrestling the Ice Fiends in their den, every Space Marine on this line had done acts of great valor and deeds worthy of legend in their training alone. The overarching goal however had been simple: teach us patience, give us the ability to follow orders and know when it was time to spring the proper charge. That charge would come soon enough, I could feel it, though I was starting to worry about our ammunition reserves. We had sent out a call for supplies about 30 minutes ago so the other groups of Space Marines on the planet should either be mustering reinforcements or supplies for us and sending them via Stormeagle or Stormbird.
As if my thoughts had conjured such a ship into being one came over the horizon, its guns blazing. It fired into the Orks as it flew over and didn't even stop to make a complete landing. instead, I saw Marines tossing out boxes of ammunition from its back as it made a low pass over the back lines. I would have preferred not to have nearly had a full ammo pack for my Vulture bounce a few feet and nearly take my head off but then again if the choice was between getting ammo or not getting ammo… I'd take the ammo. Besides, it wouldn't kill us. Might kill the Valkyries, though the fact that most of the Space Marines near them had immediately covered them with their arms to protect them generally spoke well of that not happening.
Well, its flyover did provide us supplies. It was not a lot but it probably bought us another hour or two. Hopefully more would arrive soon I thought as I watched the craft leave, avoiding the fire of the Orks who were attempting to shoot it down.
My thoughts were interrupted as Bjorn came up to my side, clapping me on the shoulder and saying. "Hell of a day for a good fight." I turned to look at him and could almost see his smile through his helmet as he looked across the field of dead and dying Orks, their tanks burning out here and there from plasma and auto gunfire.
"Good day but we're going to need a lot of help to try and clean this up," I mused, looking at the field. I knew that without volkite weapons, which were rare still, these Ork wrecks were just going to be piles of mushroom clusters for the next generation. We would need to go out there and burn them all to the ground, which would require a cleanup operation that could take weeks. Thank goodness the Primarch had managed to swing a deal with the Mechanicus and armed the Valkyries with some flamethrowers. That would make the job a bit easier but it would still take time.
Bjorn nodded his head but smiled and said, "It may take a while to clean up but the fighting we're going to do now will be worth the mess we'll have to clean up later. Besides, I think the enemy is starting to slow down."
"Really? why do you say that?" I asked. The enemy formation seemed to be still pretty much still throwing its easily expendable elements at our lines.
"Used to be 10 Orks a squad, now it's down to like five or six to a squad.
"You been keeping count of how many Orks there were in each squad that has charged our lines? Sure you don't have a little Tanya in you?"
Bjorn let out a belly laugh before holding his chin with his hands and saying, "I'm pretty sure I don't, this mug is not pretty enough to be a Tanya. Besides my hair color is wrong, need to be blonde to be a Tanya after all."
I shook my head before saying "Oh? Have you not seen Mackenzie Buckle over in the logistics department? Guy's got hair black as night but his face is totally Tanya's if you cut off the beard."
"Huh… he must stick out like a sore thumb in the logistics department, everyone knows everyone there is blonde."
"Geneseed genetics, who knows how they work"? I mused, "There's more than one kind magic, I think. I've seen in the runes the priest to call upon the spirits of the wind or whatever they call their magic."
Bjorn nodded before saying, "But back to the point, sending half the men they used to. Which to me means they're either down to half the men they had or they're running out of men they're willing to throw away on these charges. I think they're going to stop attacking us soon and maybe try and hold out till night and try something."
"I mean, they can try. But I think we're pretty much dug in here, and night will just mean that we'll have more ammunition coming in. I'm sure unless the other Wolves of Fenris elements on the planet are as engaged as we are, they'll find some way to get some supplies to us. Hopefully with fewer possibilities of dropping a bolter on someone's head and killing them."
"Already are, from what I've heard from Commander Svæin Isisson. They're going to use the river system to bring ammunition up, apparently they have a very good logistics network here on this planet. Lots of canals and man-made rivers connecting hundreds of waterways, allowing them to pretty much transfer supplies across the planet. Guess when you only have one major ocean and a bunch of small lakes you get to do things like that."
I chuckled, "Reverse Fenris then. Wish there were some mountains around here though, this is a terrible place to fight a battle and they can basically throw a barrel full of explosives from half a mile at us and hit us without issue."
"Yeah, Captain Oystæin Boesson has been complaining about that a lot, says that we need artillery here for counter-battery fire but we don't have it so we're going to have to depend on the Air Force when they get into orbit, whenever that is."
"They'll probably arrive with Lord Russ, which will make this whole conflict a bit of a haphazard win. Nonetheless, she'll bring what stores of Volkite weapons we have and we should be able to knock these monstrous green bastards back off the planet."
Bjorn started to nod then held the side of his head, listening to a communication from somewhere."
"What in the Frozen hills? Orks are inside the town."
"What?" I said, confused, as I sat up. "How could they get inside the town, we have that whole place surrounded."
"I don't know but there's reports of fires and explosions and a request for aid." He looked off towards the town for a moment before he said, "Orders just came in were being redeployed to deal with it." Looking to the Valkyries, he said, "Tell your commanding officers here to hold the line even as we pull out. We'll return once the situation in the town is dealt with."
The nearest Valkyrie, a blonde-haired green-eyed one, snapped off a smart salute before saying, "Give the Orks hell, son of Russ."
Bjorn smiled and nodded, returning the salute, "Will do," Before he pulled himself into one of the trenches that led back into the town, running at max speed, I and the other Space Marines of this squad following close behind.
As we got closer to the town I saw not only the damage that had been expected, explosions on the edges of the town, destroyed buildings, and fires but there was also smoke coming from the center of the town and the sounds of fighting from what was unmistakably melee combat.
We pushed ourselves hard and soon found ourselves in the town, finding somewhere North of 60 Orks. Some wore flamethrowers, others just held explosives or their own versions of bolt rifles and any other weapon they could find. They were wearing armor painted purple as they destroyed and exploded, killed and maimed, murdered and shanked to their hearts' delight.
In the center of the formation was one Ork wearing a purple cloak, carrying what looked like a bolt pistol and a hastily constructed chain ax. "Ah, look wot we got ere boyz: a bunch uv dese super-humiez have kome ta play." He called, pointing in the direction of our squad of 20 Space Marines.
"You know wot ta do, boyz." He roared as several of the flamethrower-holding Orks stepped up and unleashed waves of fire in our direction. Thankfully most of us had our helmets close at hand and had quickly shoved them on since we were going into close-quarter combat. One of the men gave no damn about the fact his beard was set on fire as he rushed through the flames, drawing his oversized knife and getting into a fist fight with a flamethrower-wielding Ork. He tackled it over, punching it repeatedly and trying to stab its eyes out. one of the other Orks turned his own flamethrower on him and his friend but didn't get a chance to put too much of a consecutive beam of flame on our squadmate. We all brought up our bolters and started unleashing hell on the enemy formation, causing them to scatter as a good portion of the flamethrowers went down or exploded in fiery deaths.
Then a lot of us pushed further into the town square but that was apparently what the enemy Orks were expecting, proving that this lot was a lot smarter.
The windows behind us opened up and shoota fire came out. Lots of it just pinged off armor although a few of my fellow squad mates died under the surprise attack, the rounds catching them in weak places in the back armor. What had been a simple operation to get us in contact with the enemy had quickly sprung out of control as we were now surrounded by the enemy. using our shoulder pad armor for all its worth we formed up into a circle and started to fire into the houses under enemy control and into various alleyways where the Orks had been hiding. In the center of our formation, looking pissed off even with his helmet on, Bjorn was trying to contact anyone in command to get more troops and help get us out of this spot. After a moment all he did was shake his head and yell "Someone's cut all the communications in and out of the town. The bastards have organized this thing."
"Oh great, smart Orks." I mused as a burst ricocheted off my shoulder pad, "Hopefully the fact that we're not in communication will warn someone that something's gone wrong in the town. How did these things get in here?"
My question was answered as underneath my foot a metal plate was pushed up in the street. Stepping back I watched as the plate was moved out of the way and an Ork started to come out, then looked shocked at where he was.
"Ohhh… that's why he said to get ou at number three," The Ork managed to say before I shot it full of bolter rounds, splattering us and the Orks bellow. Pulling a grenade off my belt I threw it down the tunnel before shoving the panel back in place. I stepped back and that proved to be the right decision. I had considered holding the thing down with my foot, which apparently would have been the bad decision as I would have gone from cripple to normal to crippled again if I had. The explosion of a grenade was not that great but whatever was in those tunnels was apparently a lot more powerful. The panel in front of me, as well as a large number of panels around the square and down the streets in various directions, went flying off as fire jetted out into the sky.
Turning to Bjorn, I asked, "You think those in charge saw that happen?"
Bjorn shook his head before saying "I think the Alfather himself saw that happen. You'd have to be blind to miss dozens of columns of fire shooting 60 feet into the air."
"Well, good. I think all that's left is to survive then," I concluded, going back to shooting my gun at the Orks that were attempting to overwhelm us with gunfire.
The one Ork with the purple cape appeared on top of a nearby building and yelled, "Surrenda now, humies! I have yer surrounded, yer lives are worth more ta me 'n da mines dan dead." The answer was basically every Marine that could shoot in that direction trying to blow his brains out of his head. He had ducked down immediately behind cover of the building though, guaranteeing that he survived a little bit longer.
As we prepared to take the next withering rounds of fire I pointed off to our left and said, "That building is not putting out as much fire as the rest, I think there are less enemies in it."
Bjorn nodded and ordered, "Then let's clear it out!" Grabbing the more wounded Marines we performed a fighting retreat towards the building, trying to cover each other best as we could under the withering fire of the Ork shootas.
I was the first one to the door and kicked it off its hinges, sending an Ork that had been hiding behind it across the room to smack into a staircase. I quickly put two bursts into its head before moving further into the building, killing another Ork that had been shooting out a window. Gunfire rang out as Space Marines quickly occupied the architecture of the building, killing the Orks and taking their gun positions for ourselves.
The building was a mix of brick and wood, not the greatest material as a defensive structure but better than being out in the open… as long as they didn't have any more flamethrowers, that was. If they did, well… things would get toasty, that's for sure. Which was one reason why we needed to be sure to clean out the place and keep the enemy quite far away from the building.
The Orks for their part stopped retreating and immediately did what Orks always do: charge. Purple-wearing Orks rushed toward our position out of alleyways and various hiding positions, wielding axes and shooters as they came. We gave those the answer they deserved, lashing away with our bolters as they rushed our position. This quickly discouraged the Orks that remained in hiding from coming out.
"Do you think they're falling back?" I asked Bjorn, as there seemed to be a lull in the battle.
"Definitely regrouping," he said as we watched an Ork pull one of its mates, one who had lost its lower half, into the shadows of the alleyway.
Looking out the same window I shrugged, "What's with all the purple? I've seen them wear red and yellow before but I don't think I've seen them wear purple."
Bjorn shrugged. "I don't know what or how these Xenos think. All I know is they need to die and we need help or we're going to be overrun and killed. Leif Audgislisson, did you get the radios working again?" he queried, turning to one of the Marines with more of a technical background unbeknownst to me. Apparently he had been given an order to work on the problem as he had pulled his helmet off and was currently using some sort of tool to try and manipulate wires inside the radio.
"Trying to increase power to the signal but it's just… whatever they're using to block out the signals is too strong, Bjorn."
"Damn. Well, we got to hope someone saw the explosion then." Bjorn muttered as I looked out the window, watching the Orks. they were a lot more still there than we had thought. They were moving between buildings, obviously preparing for another round of fighting.
It was at this moment I felt something I only felt once before, something whose meaning I knew right away. The presence of a cold logic, evaluating what was before them before springing into action in a terribly swift attack, as if a predator was striking its unsuspecting prey.
Looking around I could tell that every Marine in the room felt it. After all we all had taken part in the attack on the planet of Icrinda, and we felt something very similar there. Looking to Bjorn I saw he was smiling as he said "Russ is coming."
At that moment there was a massive thud in front of the house that was facing us, causing everyone to look through the windows to see what just happened.
Standing in a small depression in the stone walkway that made up the street was the Lord of Wolves. In one hand they were carrying a bolter and a massive chainsword in the other. I looked across the field at the Orks who had been preparing for another charge. In fact, they had just stepped out of their hiding places.
There was a bit of stunned silence as the Wolf Lord Primarch looked across the field at the Orks gathering there for another attack. Then she was moving. Faster than most eyes could keep up she was across the field and in front of the nearest Ork, blowing its brains out with her bolter before slashing her blade down into another. The Orks tried to turn on her but at that moment the Stormeagles she jumped from made itself known again, unloading its fire as more Marines began dropping down from its holds. They quickly spread out and encircled our building, firing at any Orks that tried to come out of hiding. Another Stormeagle came to a very low pass to land in the nearby square, its doors rolling open on their own before hordes of Fenrisian wolves were unleashed into the plaza. They immediately got to work hunting down the Orks, their superior hunting senses allowing them to find and dig out any Orks that were attempting to hide.
A few apothecaries broke their way into the building to check over the wounded before Bjorn, seeing that the situation was under control, called. "Alright, boys! We're not going to let the Primarch and their Varagyr get all the fun, are we? Let's go."
There was a round of agreeing sounds as everyone, including myself, followed Bjorn into the street to charge at the house where the leader of these Orks had last been seen. Bjorn most likely wanted to hunt him down since he was the obvious candidate for the architect of this attack.
Of course Ork fire was coming directly at us as we charged, bullets pinging off our helmets and shoulder pads, but that was not going to stop our counter assault. Several of our brothers were now severely wounded, possibly on the verge of dying and we wanted to vent. There would be only one payment acceptable for our vengeance, that would be the Ork's blood.
Bjorn was the first one into the building, smashing through with his shoulder. He unloaded a few rounds into the nearest Ork, followed by myself. I covered him as we moved further in while Leif Audgislisson came behind us and shot into the room next to us as some Ork tried to come around the corner and side-swipe us. As one, our unit began to clear the building room by room, a few men going upstairs to deal with the second floor as we searched for the architect of this monstrosity.
He did not deign appear, unfortunately. He probably moved on, I thought, but we were not going to risk him hiding somewhere so we just started smashing the place up.
Outside we could hear the fire slowly dying out as what Orks were in the city either died or were forced to retreat further away from the square, no doubt searching for a new redoubt from which to cause us harm or just harm the people of this town.
As I kicked in the back door of the house to start looking into the next house over a pair of wolves rushed past, having apparently tracked something into this building and out the back. As I watched the beasts jumped on two Orks, tearing at their faces. The pair had apparently been busy with what could best be described as a giant rocket. They had been assembling it there, for some reason or another, and had their backs turned to me when we came out here.
Raising my gun I thought about trying to get a shot past the wolves into the boyz but they seemed to be dying well enough, might as well save the ammunition and not risk annoying the wolves.
Looking past the massacre, though I finally saw the bastard responsible for this. The Ork was fastening something onto the rocket, his purple cape blowing in the wind as he turned in my direction.
""Ahh, hummie… must say, dat was a gud showz! I thought we had ya smash until dat big hummie showed up. 'dat was someth'n I had not 'pected but, ah… ya live, ya learn."
I raised my bolter and fired two shots, expecting to see him splatter across the rocket in gore. Instead the Ork simply pulled a smaller green creature out from its cloak and held it in front of him. It took the bolts, splattering him in the little creature's guts.
"Dirty diev'n bastard! I was told da damn grotz was supposed ta take five rounds, easy." He grumbled, before bowing to me and saying, "well, I gave yer 'da chances uv surrenda. Will ya at least give me 'da chance ta do 'da same?"
I will admit that was not what I was expecting to come out of his mouth and I was not prepared for it. I lowered my gun without intent, actually having to think about that.
"ah, dank yer. Dank yer for at least konsider'n it. Well let me introduce myself: I am Drkshdow, an today will be da day dat yer nearly got me."
Nearly as soon as he had confused me the Ork smashed its foot down on something. A moment later the rocket behind it started throwing fire into the ground and took off, straight up at first but then a little bit of a curve and as it went up. The Ork went with it as it held on tight to the side of the rocket, laughing all the way.
I watched with some… no, with many layers of confusion as the rocket slowly made a turn away from the city and took the Ork out of gunfire range faster than I could think to do anything about it.
A moment later Bjorn came out of the house. He looked around at the dead Orks and scorch marks on the ground before asking, "What the hell just happened?" I shook my head, not sure how to respond to that, before simply saying "DrkShdow got away."
"Who?" Bjorn asked, looking at me with as much confusion as I felt.
I shrugged in response, "The Ork commando leader, I guess," not really having a good answer since the creature had managed to escape.
Bjorn simply shrugged, then said, "Well, I think we've managed to kill off the ones in this house. Let us see what's over in the next one."
Nodding my agreement I followed him to the next house. Together we breached the front door and cleared the immediate area, finding nothing but civilians hiding in pantry cupboards.
Not wanting to spend time trying to assure them we simply moved on, ignoring them and moving on to the next house where there were actually two Orks pinned down from the other side as they had been surrounded.
We broke in and with some fancy ax work dealt with them. Once It was under control we moved on into the middle of the street, looking around to see if we could find the next area of concern that needed to be dealt with. Instead, we were treated to the show of an Ork being punted out of an alleyway and smashing its head directly into a solid brick wall. Out of the alleyway, covered in Ork gore, came our Primarch. Apparently her gun was jammed because she had simply attached it to her side and was using the chainsword to cut through an Ork that had tried to escape.
Said Ork toppled over in two, the top half still trying to drag itself away even as Lord Russ moved on to the one she had punted and smashed its head in with a good downward motion of their power-footed boots. Once that beast was dead and stopped moving they turned to the one that was trying to crawl away and revved up the blade again before chopping it down into the Ork's head, sending gore splatters all over her again.
A pair of wolves came out of the alleyway, carrying the limbs of other Orks in their teeth as if they were their favorite chew toys. Our Primarch looked down at the wolves, took a knee, and patted both their heads before grabbing the limbs out of their mouths and tossing them down the street quite a distance. The pair of wolves perked up at her and then rushed after the foul meat, having no care in the world it seemed that this was an active battle zone.
Our Primarch started to turn towards our direction when a raven landed on her shoulder. I watched as it tapped a couple times on her shoulder pad, her head turning to look in his general direction as it did, before flying off. She nodded before turning and, seeing us, started walking in our direction as she put the sword back in place on her back.
"Good morning, gentlemen. Or is it evening? I didn't get a chance to check the clock," Our Primarch said as she pulled off her helmet. She let the breeze catch her hair a bit and gave it a shake then, holding the helmet under her arm, she looked at us and said. "Sorry for the late arrival. That place was not the only attack we had to deal with on this planet, or even this sector. I think we can conclusively say that the Orks have a way out of the Wheel of Fire that was missed, which means we're going to have to go in. But that's high level issues," she said, waving it off. "How did things go here?"
Bjorn gave the sign of the Aquila before pulling off his helmet and answering "Things go well, my Primarch, we are holding the line. A little bit of a close call but we are holding.
"Excellent, excellent. Means we won't have much more issues once the Air Force starts pounding the enemies outside the lines, then we can work on trying to figure out how they're getting out of the containment." She would have continued her statement but she stopped when she saw me pulling off my own helmet and said, "I know you."
A bit stunning that she recognized me, I said, "Yes, my Primarch," and I was about to say more when she continued, "Give me a moment."
She held her free right hand to her forehead for a second before saying, "Kori Bretakollrsson, king of the other side of the continent, was it not?"
"Yes, my king!" I replied, in shock that she even remembered me. We hadn't had that many conversations and that was nearly two decades ago. I had not even talked to her when I'd signed up for the procedure, I didn't see the use of it, and if I didn't see the use… I doubted she would.
"Excellent!" she said, slapping my shoulder warmly and spreading a bit of her Ork gunk all over the side of my armor. "Always was wondering what you'd make of yourself, good to see you here with the Wolves and carving your legend into the stars."
I smiled and nodded my head in thanks before answering, "Thank you, my friend. It is an honor to serve in your legion and to, as you say, write my name in the stars."
Turning to Bjorn she asked, "You are?"
"Bjorn of Tra, my Lord King. It's an honor to serve in your legion as well."
Russ nodded before putting her hand on his shoulder in turn, adding a bit of more gore to his already covered body. "It's an honor to have you in my legion, Bjorn. I saw a bit of the combat on my way down, excellent job thinking on your feet and dealing with the situation as it came up. We need capable commanders like you in the legion."
"Thank you, my Lord," Bjorn replied, giving her a bow.
Nodding her approval she flipped above us but said, "Keep up the good work, men. I have a feeling you two will make it into my Varagyr, if you keep performing with excellent qualities as you've done today. Just remember: follow your orders, try and keep the civilians from getting too roughed up, and kill the monsters that would harm them."
"Yes, my Primarch!" we answered in unison, giving salutes as she turned to walk away. She stopped to pet one of her wolves that had come up with an Ork's arm, grabbing it and tossing it off again, the wolf chasing after it as she did.
Letting out a breath I didn't know I was holding I turned and saw Bjorn looking at me with a smug smirk. "What?" I asked, confused, before he clapped his arm around my shoulders
"Brother, have I ever told you you're a good luck charm? Both times we've seen action has resulted in us being in range to see the Primarch. Not only that the second time she comes to our rescue and she knows you? The Allfather is looking out for you I can feel it. And I'm going to make sure I stay close to you, my friend, and get as much benefit out of that as possible."
I shook my head and laid out a laugh before saying, "Well you can do that as much as you want, we're still both stuck in the lower ranks. Come on, let's go finish searching the town for Orks."
"Alright, let's do that."
Tanya Russ
I chuckled inside my helmet as I stood in the cargo area of the Hrafnkel as several of my shield maidens used what amounted to fire hoses to blow the Ork gunk off my armor.
I swear those creatures exploded into gore and guts more than you would have found in a Bethesda game. Or maybe I just let my blood get up a bit sometimes? I did feel sort of a combat high every time I fought, one that seemed really satisfying. I didn't really give it much thought since most of the time I had to think about the moral situation but well, we were fighting Orks, I didn't have to think too much about the moral situation.
Yes, they were sentient creatures like humans. But obviously they were not good for civilization, They were a species that enslaved other species and willingly wasted useful resources such as intelligence and traded it for mere brute labor. Not to mention their penchant for war and destruction meant that they couldn't really build, could they? Not unless it was for bringing death and destruction to millions of people, which again was wasting human resources on a scale that I found insulting. It was probably almost close to the numbers of people who died under communism. Almost being operative, it was very possible commies still held the record as I didn't know what had come after my death in my first world. The fact of the matter was Marx had done a great job in setting the record, to a point that I doubted even Orks could intentionally hit.
Pulling my blade off my back I held it in front of me as two shield maidens directed the water cannon at it. Thankfully the blade itself was water-resistant so I simply turned it a couple times, allowing the water to get into every nook and cranny and making sure that it would also be cleaned of the Ork gunk.
The shield maidens were standing a good 5 ft away from me, trying not to spray each other with the blasts I think. Although the fact that some of them had stripped down into some rather light clothing and were having as much fun as proverbial American television implied girls did at a car wash could imply that I was wrong about them not trying to get each other soaked.
If I wasn't in a sour mood I might have a bit more fun as well, enjoying what I was seeing, but at the moment I just focused on what was on my schedule after this. Obviously the Orks had a way in and out of the Wheel of Fire that we still didn't know about, which meant the idea of maybe simply sealing it off was not going to work. No, I would have to direct the legion in and then find the enemy. Once we found a location to lay siege to I'd call in the Iron Warriors' legion to help us out, or at least give us a bit of teaching on how to lay siege since they were reportedly pretty good at that.
An unfortunate thing but something that we need to be done. This region of space would not be at peace until the Orks were dealt with and they could only be dealt with by my men going into the Wheel of Fire. There was no ifs, ands, or butts, that must be it which meant we were probably going to take a lot of losses.
Shaking my head I noticed that the shield maidens had finished their job and were trying to turn off their hoses. Nodding my approval I pulled off my helmet, taking in a breath of the recycled air of the ship. not bad but not as enjoyable as the air that I had been breathing on the planet below. "Fierce, Cunning," I called the two wolves who were still chewing on Ork bones that they had gathered during the fight. They ran up to me and I petted them on the head before looking to the shield maidens, saying. "These two had a bit too much fun down there. Make sure to clean them up good, got it?"
The shield maidens immediately gave salutes and replied in choral, "Yes, my king," giving off an air of professionalism, one that I quite enjoyed as I turned to walk away. The fact that they immediately went to talk, as was expected from people when they are chatting with dogs, did not annoy me as I was leaving. Fierce and Cunning would have to put up with it though, they had been covered in Ork gunk as much as me. All the wolves had. If the battles were going to be this messy I was going to need to set up a procedure for cleaning every single piece of equipment, not to mention the possibility of contamination from Ork spores could cause Orks to grow up anywhere we went if we didn't decontaminate everything.
More things to add to my list of objectives. I needed to get to working on this coming attack into the Wheel of Fire. Shaking my head I continued on my way down the hallway until I found the door that led to my quarters. Quickly typing in the code I entered and took a seat on a chair meant to stand the weight of my armor and myself. Getting the armor off myself was a chore but I could at least get some of the extremities off, bringing my arms and hands out from the metal around them and allowing my fingers to do dexterous tasks such as filling out the orders that needed to be filled out.
And pressing my button that would summon a few of the shield maidens trained in helping me get this armor off.
Putting my armored gloves down on the floor, I pulled my sword off my back before putting it down on the table and then reached for my bolter rifle and laid it on the same table. They had both been cleaned but it was only a surface-level thing. We needed to take them apart and make sure every piece of equipment was well oiled and gunk free before the next fight. That being said, first things first, I carefully removed the magazine of the bolterand manipulated the pieces to eject the round in the chamber without firing it.
Now, safe I double-checked, never know when something weird would happen with a weapon of war. Just because I had ejected a round from the chamber didn't mean somehow there was not a round stuck somewhere. You can have the most well-engineered weapon in the world and mistakes will still happen. Once I was sure that it was safe as could be I reached under my table and pulled out a kit for taking apart my gun. Yes, I could send my weapon down to the gunsmiths in the logistics department to do it but I felt it was my duty to do at least do some of the work myself.
Couldn't leave all the work to the Iron Priests, after all. That denomination seemed to have followed me from Fenris as, apparently, it was just so ingrained in the culture of the Fenrisians that those who work with Iron are the Iron Priests. Thus those who worked with keeping weapons in good condition became Iron Priest in their minds. That and the Mechanicus had recruited heavily from the Iron Priests because they had the initial skill set, so they were now totally going to be called the Iron Priests across my legions and auxiliaries. I was seeing similar situations develop amongst the other organizations that were recruiting from the priesthoods that made up Fenrisian spiritual orders. The Apothecaries were often called Wolf Priests as much as medics. And those of a psyker persuasion were slowly just being called the Rune Priests.
I was glad that they didn't actually worship anything, instead seeing stuff as more of spiritualism. Although I guess you could say they worshiped the AI that was the Alfather, but as long as it didn't get too bad or they tried to spread it as a real religion-
My thoughts were interrupted as the doors to my room opened, revealing three shield maidens I knew very well.
Helga Arndottir, a blonde woman who had good upper body strength and was very adept at getting the chest armor off.
Turid Ulfketildottir, a red-headed woman with… I believe the term 'wide tracts of land' might have been heard once or twice while on Fenris, used by some of the male nobles referring to women with similar body shapes. I swear it was older though, I heard it before.
And the third was Maria Hæfnirdottir, a brunette woman who had great dexterity with dealing with some of the latches on the leg armor.
"Evening, girls," I said with a smile. "Need a little help getting this armor off."
The three giggling shield maidens bowed and all greeted me with "Good evening Primarch. We're here at your service," before they walked over. Pulling a workbench open behind me they grabbed the tools to unscrew certain areas of the armor so they could get me out of it. I simply leaned back in my chair and gave them access to all the bolts they had to work on.
Hands steady, they removed the pieces of armor. Before long my chest area was finally free, which allowed me to breathe a little bit easier. The measurements apparently had not been quite right, either that or I just was a lot more top-heavy than the armor had been designed for. One thing about Fenris that I was somewhat thankful for now, all these years later, was that culturally it was expected for a king to have a harem of women at their beck and call for whatever reason necessary. Though that reason tended to be more carnal, which I made plenty of use of, it was nice just to have someone to help me with armor that wouldn't end up staring at my body. Though if that was because they had seen it before or because they were women was up in the air.
Maria Hæfnirdottir leaned across my chest and was helping me to undo my shoulder pads, her face not too far from mine, and I considered moving this from a simple armor removal job to something more intimate. It had been a while after all and I had worked up a bit of energy that could be expended in an enjoyable manner. But something prevented that moment from coming to pass.
"You know, if you studied your curriculum as much as you womanized we could probably build an entire second Astronomicon on Fenris in the next decade. That would help with expanding The crusade quite a bit."
Standing in the doorway, looking at me and the three shield maidens on top of me, stood Malcador. He had apparently decided that privacy was not meant for Primarchs. Again.
Shaking my head at the comment I chuckled before saying, "That might be held a kernel of truth but I believe in human-Primarch relations, it helps keep me grounded and working to help my fellow man improve their lot in the galaxy."
The first Lord of Terra laughed at that, walking into the room, giving no damn to the fact that I wore only the bodysuit required for under the armor and some leg armor.
"That's some good speech work, I'll give you that. If I didn't know who you were and how you thought I might even believe that line of logic."
"Why, thank you," I said with a smile, already preparing my defenses for what I was expecting to come.
"Of course we both know that's not really why you keep yourself entertained like this." Immediately after he said that his eyes glowed a bit and I felt the poking presence of his psychic abilities trying to enter my mind. I felt him search for some faults that he could use to pierce into my consciousness and see what I was thinking about.
I did my best to keep him out, blocking as hard as I could and erecting a second barrier just under the first in my mental war. I fully intended to keep him out even in case he broke through.
After a moment the assault ended and I could breathe easier again as I felt the pressure lessening on my defenses.
"Well, that's good. You did improve," Malcaador said, giving the faintest indication of praise. Before continuing by saying, "We may need to get some proper psychic equipment to move your training along. We'll see if I can have the Mechanicus set something up for you here.".
I nodded before saying, "Hopefully it won't take too long for something like that to come in, we're most likely going into the Wheel of Fire soon and everything here will have to wait."
"Ah… unfortunate. Then I guess the Iron Warriors' hope that the Orks would not have another way out of the system appears to be a mistaken one?"
I nodded my agreement before I really understood the words and turn to them saying "you already suspected, didn't you?"
Speaking a little bit louder to be heard over the mechanical tools as the girls worked on getting the leg armor off me, he said, "Orks are many things but they're not ones to let themselves be easily contained. The planet Icrina was obviously an easy draw, a way to make sure that any army that tried to assault them would go there instead of searching for other exits. A trap but not one that they were able to spring yet at least."
"As such, I've already taken action to try and rectify the situation. To get this campaign back on track I have directed the Star Hunters to do a second pass and watch for Orks fleeing from this battle. We'll see if we can't find the way they are coming in and out, then hit them in their back lines."
I smiled at that, nodding my agreement, "Perfect. Not only will it close down one more route they're using to get in and out of the Wheel of Fire, who knows where that back line will pop out. If we're lucky maybe it'll get us closer to the core of their empire."
"And you can then perform one of your excellent decapitation actions that you are so known for. Removing the Ork leadership would do wonders in making the campaign last half as long."
I tipped my head in thought and said "Most of the times, when I've removed leadership for the wolves and people of Fenris… I have tended to inherit that leadership. We're not going to have to deal with something like that amongst the Orks, right?
Malcador shook his head, saying, "No, no. Orks don't tend to take leaders outside their own kind. No, they'll simply start fighting over the leadership. They'll kill each other to try to determine who is their new ruler, which will work in your favor as you could then target the more powerful Orks and take them out."
Nodding, I said, "Divide and conquer. Old tactic but not a bad one… We may even actually be able to run a defeat in detail campaign, considering they've got their army spread out amongst the worlds of the Wheel of Fire."
"Exactly," Malcador said with a nod. "All you need to do is find the weak points and strike where you can. The Imperial Army will try and keep the Orks spread out and unable to get their forces together for a single attack."
I felt a migraine try to grip my head and I sat back in the chair, lifting my legs so the shield maidens could pull the armor boots off.
"Alright, then. Well I think we have a plan: wait for the Star Hunters to find the way in, go in, find out where exactly that leads us in, attack their leadership if possible, and depend on the Iron Warriors to hold the front door shut so we can just raid the Orks until we're done cleaning them up."
"That about sums it up." Malcador said, going on to add, "By the way the Squats are not enjoying just hanging out in space. They have demanded that you allow them to join you in your attack into the Wheel of Fire, whenever that may be. Remember that we are trying to keep them happy and joining with the Imperium so bringing them along will serve us well."
I nodded my head before saying, "I have no problem with this. I want to see how they fight anyways, I imagine those armored trains are going to be invaluable in the coming fights."
I continued, "Aerial resupplying is good and all but having something on the ground to use as a command center is going to be important, I feel. If Orks have had plenty of time to build up these worlds then I would not be surprised if they have more anti-air hidden than we will be able to find."
Malcador nodded his approval before getting up and saying, "Well, with that discussed, I believe this conversation is at an end." He started to walk towards the door before stopping and saying, "One more thing though. I know your job is going out there, fighting monsters, and killing enemy leaders. I know you need time to take off and relax. Just remember not to become too bloodthirsty in your fighting or too relaxed in your womanizing behaviors."
"It's better for everyone to have a little bit of moderation in everything as it's too easy to become stuck in bad behaviors, and opening yourself up to things that would not have the best intentions for the Imperium in mind. Do you understand basically what I'm trying to say?"
I raised an eyebrow, trying to figure out exactly what he was trying to say. It sounded like there was some sort of codded message he was trying to give without alerting the girls of what was going on. Or maybe he was not sure what I knew, but I think I understood the gist of it. I replied "Of course, Malcador. I won't overindulge in either work and afterwork behaviors."
He nodded his agreement before shutting the door behind him, leaving me alone with the girls and finally able to get some time to relax.