Boreas aimed his bolt pistol, and pulled the trigger.
Bang! The external propellant exploded in the barrel of the pistol, launching the bolt towards its target.
Froom! The internal propellant of the bolt ignited once out of the barrel, taking the projectile to supersonic speeds in a matter of milliseconds.
Krak! The bolt shell traveled a scant few meters, and penetrated the thick skull of a charging ork, interrupting a savage war cry.
Boom! The mass reactive projectile exploded after the impact, shattering the greenskin's head from the inside. Its comrades faltered for a moment, showered in gore and shrapnel.
Boreas dispatched two more before they recovered and charged in. He swung his combat blade, nearly decapitating a greenskin, then reversed his grip and struck another in the face. The knife went into its left eye to the hilt. Whirling, Boreas wrenched the knife free. The falling body of the dead ork crashed into another one, and they went down in a heap of flailing limbs. Boreas killed the entangled foe with another shot.
He looked around.
The ork warboss lay dead, its chest and abdomen ripped apart by a krak grenade. The huge body sprawled over the unconscious form of Argus. The sergeant's face was almost obscured by blood and thick green alien viscera.
Many scouts were down, with the rest fighting tooth and nail. The orks had them overwhelmed.
Boreas suppressed the thought. They had to fight on. They had to hold out. He raised his bolt pistol to take another shot.
A low hum coalesced at the edges of his hearing. What alien witchcraft had the orks mobilized against them?
Again, Boreas suppressed all other thoughts. He had to stay focused. His bolt pistol empty and no chance to reload, he waded in with his combat knife. He gutted one ork and stabbed another in the back of the head.
The hum was building up, stronger with each passing second. Boreas ignored it.
'Hold on, brothers!' - he shouted, shoving an ork back with a kick so he could cut another's throat. A few ragged cries answered. Some were still alive. Good.
The hum was very strong now, almost like... an engine? Had the orks discovered technology, then?
'WAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!'
His thoughts were interrupted by the united warcry of a hundred throats, as orks poured out of the forest. This was it then. Boreas gritted his teeth, stabbed his knife into another ork, and stepped back to slam a fresh clip into his pistol.
With a loud boom, a section of the hillside exploded. Mangled green bodies were thrown around like ragdolls. The greenskin advance faltered as the orks looked around in fear and wonder. Another explosion rocked the hill, taking out a large chunk of the horde at the edge of the forest.
On wings of fire and light, the Lux Imperatoris descended from the skies.
The immense aircraft jolted to a halt right above Alpha Squad's position, retro thrusters firing at full, fighting the dual pull of both inertia and gravity. The backwash of the engines bathed the slopes of the hill in flames of promethium, setting orks afire. And then the hull mounted heavy bolters opened with a staccato of explosive shells, scouring the vicinity of the embattled scouts.
Seeing the way back closed off with fire and fury, the orks already too close to be hit charged on. But the Thunderhawk banked, turning around and opening its assault ramp. Beta and Gamma squads crowded the opening, hanging on to their webbing. They added their own small arms fire to the cacophony, killing all but the closest of the orks.
The xenos knew they were dead. They accepted their fate. But they charged on, shouting and bellowing, intent on taking Alpha Squad with them.
From behind the firing line of scouts came another figure, clad head to toe in gleaming yellow power armor. The warrior cleared the assault ramp in a long jump, landing right in front of Boreas with a bone-crunching thump. With the tortured grinding of servos, Veteran Sergeant Danicus righted himself.
An ork charged at him, axe high and howling in rage. Danicus raised his combi-plasma and fired. The ancient weapon released a single white hot ball of death, evaporating the upper half of the greenskin's torso.
The remaining orks charged in. Danicus thumbed the activation rune of his power sword. The blade came to life with a violet glow. The veteran sergeant dispatched two more orks with bolt shells and streaks of plasma fire, then waded into the melee. His first strike chopped a huge banner pole in two, taking the bearer's head with it. The reverse hit cleaved another ork from shoulder to hip.
And now, the orks understood. Aircraft and firepower were too much for their primitive brains to grasp. But the yellow-clad warrior, invincible and indomitable, was something they knew what to make of. And it broke their spirit. Yelling in terror, they turned tail and run.
'Alpha Squad, with me!' - cried Boreas. Battered and bruised, the scouts stepped forward and formed a firing line. They added their own firepower to that of Danicus and the Thunderhawk, and they gunned down the fleeing orks to the last.
Exhausted, Boreas felt like collapsing on the spot. Instead, he holstered his weapons and stepped in front of Danicus.
'Thank you, Brother-Sergeant.'
Danicus unclipped his helm and held it under his arm in a formal pose. And then, then he did something that Boreas had never, ever seen him do.
He smiled.
***
As the Lux Imperatoris sped away from Extraction Point Theta, Alpha Squad could finally relax. They all sported minor wounds. Many were still unconscious, held in place by the seat harnesses their comrades had carefully strapped into place. Thank the Emperor that none of them had died. Sergeant Danicus was moving down the line, looking at each of them and letting them know that they did well.
But Boreas could not relax. With Argus unconscious for Emperor knows how long, he was the leader of Alpha Squad. He had responsibilities to fulfill. He had to know what went wrong, and why they had to go through the arduous journey to this extraction point in the first place.
When finally Sergeant Danicus stopped by him for a moment, he lowered his voice and asked.
'Veteran Sergeant... what is the status of the uprising? Have we failed at the communication tower?'
Danicus turned to him. There was no trace of a smile on his face now.
'No, Acting-Sergeant Boreas. You did well. The renegades were completely taken by surprise. The listening augurs placed by squads Beta and Gamma recorded a library-load of data, until someone high in their command chain was notified and enforced vox silence. Not before issuing the kill order on your head, obviously.'
Boreas was heartened that Danicus acknowledged him taking responsibility. His inquiry was not taken as needless curiosity.
'So the renegades have enough resources to warrant abandoning nearer extraction points.'
Danicus gave him a grim look.
'They have much more than that. A perfunctory look at the data suggests that they have infiltrated all levels of the planetary administration.'
'By the Emperor!' - gasped Boreas.
'Indeed. This could have waited - you deserve the rest. But you also deserve to know. I have commandeered the entirety of the governor's data specialist division. Lexmechanics and savants are pouring over what we found as we speak, under lock, key and guard.'
As Boreas looked around, he noticed for the first time that half of Gamma squad was missing. That made sense. If the governor's personnel - maybe even the governor himself - was compromised, Danicus could trust nobody else.
'What do we do?'
The question came unbidden to Boreas' lips. Danicus did not reprimand him.
'I have already sent a coded message to Captain Lexandro. I will send another when we know more. But astropathic relays are always unreliable. There is but one thing we can do.'
Danicus looked at him, and Boreas needed no further prodding.
'We shall fight.'
'By the Emperor, that we shall.'
***
It took no more than two days for the chittering, clicking horde of datasmiths to decode the first spurts of communication intercepted by the augurs. It took no more than two minutes for Sergeant Danicus to pore over their foundings and reach a decision. It took no more than two hours for Alpha Squad to be briefed, prepped and strapped into the seats of the Lux Imperatoris, along with Squad Gamma and half of Squad Beta, who had pulled the short straw and were left behind to guard the precious data.
Danicus believed that he had uncovered the hiding spots of several regional leaders of the renegades. They weren't necessarily important. They might not be high in the command chain. But the extensiveness of the rot convinced the Veteran Sergeant that they had to act, quickly and decisively. Any disruption to the rebel operations was welcome.
Each squad had their assigned targets. The scouts were checking and re-checking their equipment with single-minded focus. The traitors would die by sundown.
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