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Oh they will! They will also be destroyed and rebuilt from turkey and stuffing over dose! hmmmmm, stuffing........................



OH, I went back and added a little more to the last post.


One more thing, I also edited an older post, Tundra Foxes are in!




And another thing, 300th post! Woot!

258th...... Which is a great number.

The Thunderhawks slid through space at maximum speed, timing was crucial. Ahead of them the navy was already attacking the ork vessel, behind them the Frozen Rage was closing the gap.

The lumbering ork vessel had released its own fighters and was firing back with all of its guns. The Imperial Navy had already engaged and was concentrating their attack on one side of the vessel. Releasing their pay loads in concentrated areas they silenced many of the ork guns, soon the number of firing guns on that side was halved. The ork vessel began to slowly turn to bear other weapons but the Imperial Navy easily out maneuvered it and rolled with it. The ork fighters were many but the entire fury of the Frozen Rage had been released, they stood little chance.

Without any given command the Imperial attack craft began to move around the vessel towards the other side. The ork craft pursued firing violently in their wake. Like clockwork the four Thunderhawks and their escorts arrived with only minimal resistance on the now damaged and empty side. The Thunderhawks landed at predetermined points on the ship and unloaded a different brand of weapon, Ice Angels. Once the marines were away the Thunderhawks and their escorts departed and joined the Imperial Navy in the destruction of the Ork Fighters.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Aquilum smiled in his pink and yellow skull helmet as he watched the Ice Angels at work. Within seconds all 18 marines had departed the Thunderhawk along with a vindicator, the Crystalfist. Moving on a special magnetized track the Vindicator was plowing towards the nearest anti-space craft gun. The marines followed in a semi circle behind it. Inushi and Aquilum were hanging on to the vindicator acting as an extra set of eyes for the crew of the tank.

After a few minutes they skirted around an area of damaged hull and approached their first anti-space craft gun. It was a long double barreled weapon mounted in a very bulky red box. It appeared to have limited turning radius, but what it gave up in movement it made up with rate of fire. It was currently firing at the distant Frozen Rage that was still approaching. Inushi looked up at the menacing black ship. They only had a few more minutes before the Frozen Rage would be in position.

Suddenly the Crystalfist came to a halt and shuddered slightly as four grappler arms, one on each corner, stretched out and further magnetized it to the hull. “Preparing to fire,” was all the gunner said. Inushi and Aquilum pushed off the tank and activated their boots. It seemed that the second the last marine stopped moving and took position the tank fired its first round.

Inushi had seen a vindicator fire more times then he could remember, in his head he could hear the sound that it should be making, but out here in space the only indication he had was the push back he was witnessing and the tremor that he felt through the hull of the ship he was attached too. He peered over to the anti-space craft gun, on land it would have been out of range for a vindicator, but in space the massive siege weapon fired straight at it. At the base of the closest barrel the ordinance hit. It punctured the outer protective hull and then exploded inside. The resulting explosion was spectacular. Various types of metal shot out into space along with a handful of unfortunate orks that suddenly found themselves in the vacuum of space. Inushi watched as several secondary explosions followed suite.

“Come on Mantis, the quicker we can take these out the better.” Bel Hando said. Inushi didn’t realize that after the shot had been fired, the vindicator picked up its support anchors and was ready to move out once again. The marines were already moving towards their next target. Inushi hustled to reach the vindicator that impatiently waited.

“Gamma, something is happening between your position and Beta. Move forwards and report.” Lieutenant Arwia said to them in their vox. The 18 marines and the Crystalfist adjusted their course and began to head that direction. They came over a ridge in the hull of the ork vessel. “By the Blood!” Bel Hando whispered.

Before them was a cavernous shadowed area, but slowly growing out of the darkness was a barrel, a barrel to a weapon that could fire rounds larger then Thunderhawks. Even the might of the Vindicators wouldn’t be able to penetrate the thick black barrel. As the light began to hit the growing barrel an archaic paint job could be seen. “MOrKs NoSe” it said in sloppy orange paint.

“HA!” Aquilum said as he read the words. Several of the Ice Angels looked his way. Bel Hando looked at the barrel once more before looking up at the Imperial Vessel that was now pulling along side of the ork, the Frozen Rage was getting into position. “Rage, this is Gamma, a gigantic weapon is emerging, requesting fire support.”

As the words left his lips a small explosion burst from the under side of the Frozen Rage. Like a snake launching at its prey the seven pointed arrowhead of the lead train shot through space. Behind it was a long cord still attached to the Frozen Rage.

“Gamma, fire support is a few minutes out.” Lieutenant Arwia responded over the vox.

Bel Hando looked down at the still growing barrel. “Rimsin, do you read me.” He spoke.
”Shwando, this is Rimsin.” came a reply.

“Move and disable the weapon immediately.” He quickly responded as he began to move forward. The Crystalfist moved forward and as it reached the lip of the dark cavern it launched its grapplers once again and pulled itself over the edge. The squat barrel of the vindicator then pointed at the base of the barrel and began to fire. Seconds later on the other side the cavern the vindicator with squad Rimsin followed suite. Explosions lit up the base of the black pit and in response the giant weapon, MOrKs NoSe fired. The shockwave shot debris into space, nearly every marine adjusted their stance to stabilize. Bel Hando stood mouth open as he watched the round leave the barrel like a comet towards, not the Frozen Rage, but the umbilical like cord of the Train.

The transport aspect of the Train was an armored building moving down the cord like a rocket and as it flew down the cord Bel Hando saw that the round was on a perfect intercept course. The resulting explosion shook the hearts of all of the marines on ork ship.

“No, by the Emperor NO!” Bel Hando shouted as he looked away. Aquilum, who was still looking down at the base of the huge barrel finally took notice and looked up. “What did I miss?”

Flooded with emotion Bel Hando paused before he noticed that Aquilum didn’t change demeanor. Bel Hando looked up and saw that the armored train that contained the bulk of the Ice Angel force was still chugging down the cord. “The Emperor Protects Bel Hando, we still have a job to do.” In his huge powerfist hand he grabbed one of the back chains that grappled the Crystalfist to the hull. “Crystalfist disengage grapplers and readjust to your 10.” He said into the vox. Bel Hando shook his head trying to piece together what just happened.

The tank didn’t respond. Aquilum looked over to Bel Hando who still stood in confusion as to how the train survived. It took a moment before Bel Hando realized he was looking for assistance. Bel Hando looked over Aquilum’s shoulder to see what he was getting at when he noticed a small glass area in the wall of the cavern across from them, “Crystalfist, do it.”

Without hesitation the tank disengaged the grapplers and turned to its left. From their new position the crew quickly spotted their target and fired. The round passed through the glass but the typical explosion didn’t follow. Bel Hando looked over at Aquilum, he returned the look. He shrugged and began to respond when a hail of gunfire began to pepper them. Across from them the vindicator with Squad Rimsin exploded. Orks were moving up the walls towards them.

btw, this was written while under the influence of turkey gravy, stuffing, and my favorite christmas tune, Carol of the Bells.

i like it, i find it confusing sometimes, it forces me to reread it sometimes.

Very nice Ice.... I note the train survived... that was the influence of the gravy I'm sure.

:-)

Sageheart wrote:i like it, i find it confusing sometimes, it forces me to reread it sometimes.

anything in particular you were confused about or section?

just the way it was written made me need to reread it here and there. It didn't really flow correctly for me. I understood it when I finished it and had some time to reread it.

IceAngel wrote:btw, this was written while under the influence of turkey gravy, stuffing, and my favorite christmas tune, Carol of the Bells.

What version of "Carol of the Bells" do you listen to?

I have a particular version that I like, but seeing as I do not have the CD's with me I am not sure as to its name.

I think you did quite well for a man stuffed with thanksgiving food. It is nice to read a work of science fiction whose author recognizes that space is soundless.

Ma55ter_fett wrote:

IceAngel wrote:btw, this was written while under the influence of turkey gravy, stuffing, and my favorite christmas tune, Carol of the Bells.

What version of "Carol of the Bells" do you listen to?

I have a particular version that I like, but seeing as I do not have the CD's with me I am not sure as to its name.

I think you did quite well for a man stuffed with thanksgiving food. It is nice to read a work of science fiction whose author recognizes that space is soundless.

My current favorite version is by Harry Simeone, but I've got plenty of different versions. The one by Harry Simeone is a very traditional version with some strings and some bells (oddly enough)

BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!

Sorry, I had to balance the christmas cheer with some 40k darkness to once again reach my writing zen. Back to the writing!

The transport section of the train was an octagon shaped building riding down the cable that would soon connect the two space ships. The front came down to a blunt point and the cable passed right down the center of the octagon. Near the rear of this armored building was a small control room. Inside was a lone space marine facing a wall of small pic screens, a bank of switches, and a plethora of flashing lights. Tech Priest Philosir was firmly attached to a throne that was built into a small pillar. His many servo arms waited patiently over panels until needed. Piloting the train was as simple as knowing when to go and when to stop, but more importantly he waited until the separate arrowhead front section connected with the ork vessel.

Cyaxeres chanting in the vox, the rumbling of the armored train, the chatter of the escort ships, nothing was breaching Philosir’s attention. All of his focus was on one particular monitor and the rapidly depleting number at the bottom of the screen. When that number hit zero the arrowhead would penetrate the ork hull and the cable would be connected. Nothing else mattered or even existed to Philosir as he focused solely on that number. As the number dwindled his hands and extra arms began to creep closer to the controls. At their current speed Philosir would have no more then ten seconds to realign the train.

Suddenly the escort vox got louder and a shout to the Emperor broke his calm. An explosion outside shook the armored train violently. Dozens of lights flashed and several screens went blank. Philosir flipped several switches and cycled through his camera views until he found a working camera that showed the outer hull of the train. Only one escort ship was now flying alongside the train. “Shield one report.” Philosir said into the now quiet vox.

“Shield one is gone! So is two and four!” Shield three responded with a shocked expression.

“What happened three? I’ve lost a lot of my instruments.” Philosir asked.

Shield three began to respond “I don’t know, I couldn’t see what h…….” but Philosir tuned him out when the distance meter dropped to zero and turned green. The arrowhead had penetrated the hull and was already expanding to hold onto the ork vessel. Philosir took the first two seconds to determine how to spin the train. With lightning speed he then flicked a dozen different switches and pushed several buttons. The train spun around the cable to align perfectly with the arrowhead section. In the final two seconds before connection the reverse boosters kicked in slowing them down.

The octagon shaped building slammed into place on the now expanded arrowhead front section. Expansion foam began to cover and seal the seam between the two sections when the six floors of Ice Angels in the transport were released from their harnesses. The assault was about to begin.

Love the tease... excited about the next installment.

“I would have preferred guard duty.” Inigo said to Nefas over the din of the gun fight.

Nefas fired five more rounds in quick succession before ducking back around the bulk head. With smooth efficiency he reloaded his custom bolter and with a satisfying click he looked over at Inigo who waited next to him patiently gripping his thunder hammer in both hands. After only a few minutes of running and intense combat Inigo was covered in gore and bile from the dozens of creatures he had slain. Behind Inigo several other Ice Angels were moving up to join their position.

“Inigo, do the Sons of Hades not teach you control? You should learn to ignore it.” Nefas said as he pivoted on his left foot and swung around the bulk head. Targets immediately filled his sight and he began to fire in short bursts at the orks down the hall. The sound of thundering of hooves slowly crescendoed towards them.

“I don’t even think the Emperor could get over this smell.” Inigo whined.

“Two incoming,” Nefas stated as he ducked back behind the bulk head, the sound of hooves nearly upon them. Inigo leapt next to the Sinners marine and swung his mighty hammer just as an ork boar boy rounded the corner at full speed. With a juicy crunch, like an over ripe fruit falling from a tree, his hammer connected with the head of the massive boar. The boar collapsed and slid across the hall sending the ork careening into the dented wall. The second boar boy was right behind the first, snout lowered he rushed straight towards Inigo. Nefas was firing on full auto as the boar connected with Inigo.

Inigo was knocked back down the hall from the impact of the boar, but when he looked up the boar and the ork rider were both dead. Nefas was once again looking around the corner bringing up his bolter to fire again, when a sudden cacophony of gun fire erupted from their right. Another unit of Ice Angels with orange weapons came running down the hall past their position. Nefas added some covering fire as Inigo got up.

Nefas watched the orange unit, the Uttuakki, move down the hall. With Angelic grace the front two slashed, punched and destroyed as the other seven covered them at every hall. After they passed the next intersection the tactical unit with Inigo and Nefas got their signal and moved up after them to explore and cleanse another section of the ork ship.

great work!

Man you are getting good with action sequences. Well done!

Nice scene.
All I could think of was WHFB boar boyz from O&G

Snakebite clan was always one of my favorites and when I first got into warhammer you could get orks on boars in 40k. I thought that was the coolest thing. My buddy that played had a unit of 10 that he ALWAYS played with. He would equip the nob with a vortex grenade whenever he could. They usually killed themselves just as often as the enemy but they were hilarious.

That sounds awesome

“SQUIGS!” A marine yelled from his left.

All down the wide expanse of the cargo pen, cage doors were being flung open by the fleeing orks. Squigs of all shapes, colors, and sizes were being released. Captain Razzik took in the scene from his slightly elevated position before sending signals to his sergeants.

“For the Emperor!” He shouted as he began to run down the slight grade into the growing horde of growling squigs. Ice Angels on both sides of him ran forward laying down a torrent of fire into the seeming endless waves of squigs.

The approaching wave of squigs broke against the wall of Ice Angels and with little resistance the Ice Angels pushed through the squigs. On the far side of the cargo pen the majority of the orks were exiting through a large set of double doors. Only a handful of brave, or stupid, orks stayed behind with their beloved pets.

The Ice Angels continued their push when an ork war cry pierced the sounds of combat. The cry made many Ice Angels pause; even some of the squigs flattened their little ears at the roar of ork voices. Out of a side archway a stream of orks riding boars burst into the cargo hold. With an ork waaaaagh on their lips they rode into the hail of Ice Angel gun fire.

Razzik removed his foot from the carcass of a squig he had just crushed and took a defense position behind his shield as the first boar boy approached. Moments before the massive boar was in range, flames erupted all around Captain Razzik. Squad Ashurbani was around him creating a wall of flames. Boars and their riders were screaming for brief seconds before melting onto the filthy floor. The smell of burning promethium was barely over powering the stench of burnt fur and melted flesh.

The first several rows of boars had been liquefied, but the sight only enraged the still flowing river of boar boys. Over the melting carcasses came the first boar that Razzik had encountered in years. With a quick side step and an axe deflection from his shield Razzik punched into the side of the boar right through the leg of the ork rider. The power fist pulverized what it hit including the internal organs of the running boar.

Razzik quickly found himself face to face with another boar, but this one had a headless rider. A short jab to the cranium of the beast ended its miserable life. The next boar fell from a round through the eye before reaching Razzik. Without looking to who fired the shot Razzik took a quick glance around the cargo hold, the boars in the immediate vicinity were dead or dying, but the boars that had reached the tactical units at his flanks were still slashing and hacking at the Ice Angels. Without the use of power weapons the ork boar boys were proving to be quite tough to stop. Razzik was about to issue an order when a massive purple squig seemingly came out of no where to land on the marine next to him. The squig had instantly crushed the marine to death with its massive bulk. It stood on two massive legs the size of an average space marine, on its back was an ork with a double barreled gun barking fire into the air. Squad Ashurbani began to fire and slash at the beast. With only its mouth and its bulk as its weapon the creature lunged forward to bite at an Ice Angel. When Razzik looked again only the legs remained of the veteran Ice Angel of the Ashurbani. With a howl of anger he took two quick steps to bring his fist at the squigs knee, but at the moment he swung the squig leapt up into the air. It’s powerful legs vaulting it and its rider over the heads of the nearby Ice Angels to once again crush a marine that didn’t dive far enough out of its way.

The jumping squig let out a loud squeal before it lunged at another marine. The marine narrowly avoided the gaping maw. The ork on top of the squig held on for its own life as the squig bull rushed a nearby group of marines. All of the marines got out of the way but a red armored Blood Angel. Calmly he raised his plasma pistol. The weapon repeatedly discharged glowing balls of death into the squigs face. The squig pulled up from its rush and began to dance around as the plasma ate at its flesh. The ork rider was thrown off its back and was promptly murdered by a combat knife to the neck. Brother Reven continued to fire his plasma pistol as the nearby Ice Angels showered the dancing squig with bolter rounds. The tough hide of the squig stopped many of the shells but the onslaught eventually took it down.

The battle continued for a few more intense minutes before there was a slight lull. As the last few boars, orks, and squigs were put down, Razzik began to move forward with the remaining Ashurbani at his side. The other units were moving up as well, only a small contingent stayed behind with Attikusu. In his white ornate armor he revived many marines and helped them get back into the battle. On several occasions he gave marines their final blessing as he took there geneseed in order to create another generation of Ice Angels.

As Captain Razzik approached the large double doors the timer in his HUD expanded for a moment, it then minimized back into the corner. Unit reports began to filter in. The next train was docking with Philosir, the Tunda Fox reinforcements were about to arrive. Cyaxeres had encountered a pocket of cyber-boars that were slowing him down greatly. The orks and their pets were putting up stiff resistance but still the Ice Angels continued to purge the vessel. In space the Imperial Navy had cleaned up most of the ork fighters.

Reports continued to come in as another ork war cry could be heard building behind the double doors. The marines formed up in front of the door in a crescent waiting for a signal from Razzik. Captain Razzik stopped twenty feet from the door and raised his shield. He continued to filter through the reports. He could hear the orks running towards the door. In every marines HUD a yellow symbol appeared. As the doors flew open every space marine aimed their weapons, but didn’t fire. The orks charged towards the awaiting marines with axes, clubs, and random pieces of equipment. Razzik noticed a flagged report from Seluku. Razzik began to read the report out of one eye as the first ork got within four steps, the symbol in every marines HUD suddenly disappeared.

Like a tsunami leveling a village, the gunfire laid down the rows of orks. By the time the orks had realized their folly it was too late to retreat. Around the crescent formation every fourth Ice Angel stepped forward into hand to hand while the others covered. Razzik continued to read the report as his marines destroyed the orks.

The first thing the Navy had hit was the orks communications systems but the astropaths on the Frozen Rage are detecting a surge of psychic energy coming from the ork vessel, the ork weird boyz must be killed before they can send a message to the other orks in the Kota system.

Whoo! Brother Reven!

The wierdboyz...Does this mean you are going to try your hand at writing of void warfare, or an intense boarding action?

very nice! always getting better!

battle Brother Lucifer wrote:Whoo! Brother Reven!

The wierdboyz...Does this mean you are going to try your hand at writing of void warfare, or an intense boarding action?

I will not answer that question. I don't like to give away any hints to whats about to come!

Love the boar boyz! And three cheers for Brother Raven. Too back he'll die from plasma overload in a few more shots... but the boy had nerves of steel & did his emperor proud.

Gitsplitta wrote:Love the boar boyz! And three cheers for Brother Raven. Too back he'll die from plasma overload in a few more shots... but the boy had nerves of steel & did his emperor proud.

I only need to replace one word in your post and Brother Reven would become Brother Nukem.

(speaking of Brother Nukem, I now have yet another side project due to me posting something as a joke, then thinking it is a good idea. Damn me)

Cyaxeres had encountered a pocket of cyber-boars that were slowly [slowing - Ed.] him down greatly

Only slight typo.

Good read as normal. Lack of comments from me should be taken as a complement, btw. I only like to comment if I have something useful to add, which I havent been able to because its been so good!

whalemusic360 wrote:Cyaxeres had encountered a pocket of cyber-boars that were slowly [slowing - Ed.] him down greatly

Only slight typo.

Good read as normal. Lack of comments from me should be taken as a complement, btw. I only like to comment if I have something useful to add, which I havent been able to because its been so good!

Error corrected, thanks for the heads up. I'm glad you guys are enjoying the read. I have really been getting into the ork battles. I think of all the 40k races orks are the most fun to read about and write about. Something about their idiotic barbaric tendencies along with their crazy yet amazing technology is really intriguing to me.

orks are great, they are an amazing race haha, chaos is also a great one for a real enemy, you know? they def feel like a great rival for a marine

“This is not very entertaining.” Aquilum said as he ducked back behind a piece of damaged hull. To his immediate left were Inushi and the vindicator Crystalfist. Every six seconds, like clockwork, it fired towards the advancing ork walkers. Further left was the handful of survivors from Beta. To Aquilum’s right was the remnants of Gamma. The Shwando and their heavy weapons were cleaning up what the Crystalfist didn’t destroy or send spiraling into space. As the orks continued their cumbersome march the strange mix of kans and dreads fired all sorts of shells, shrapnel, rockets, and even the occasional laser beam. In the distance behind the Ice Angel position, the towering train could be seen protruding from the ships hull.

Aquilum peaked over the protruding piece of hull he was using as cover when he noticed a large walker was coming over the ridge, it was bigger then the typical dreads orks field. Its left arm was some bizarre barreled contraption that was covered in cords and tubes, it’s right arm ended in what looked like a grinning battering ram. On both of its shoulders were glass cockpits in which grots manned heavy weapons. As he monitored the newest walker, the Crystalfist fired another explosive round. It hit a smaller four armed dread in the chest and when the flash dissipated nothing remained standing on the hull. The area between the Ice Angels and the newest walking ork creation was now full of floating debris from dozens of ork walkers.

As the Ice Angels began to see the newest threat the Shwando began to fire their heavy bolters and multi-melta at the kans in front to clear a firing lane for the Crystalfist. The bolters weren’t the greatest anti armor weapon but the combined fire took out the first few kans as the Crystalfist fired again. This time the shell went straight at the huge walker. Right before the point of impact some sort of shield flashed and the vindicator round reflected away out into space.

“What was that?” Inushi swore.
“It must have some sort of shield, try again.” Bel Hando added from his prone position in cover, his combi-bolter of little use against all the heavy armor. In response the mega dread opened fire with its shoulder mounted grot weapons. The rounds danced across the Ice Angel line, one managed to find the shoulder of Brother Baris. Swearing, Brother Baris let go of his heavy bolter and quickly pulled out expansion foam to fill the crack in his armor that was venting vital air. As the heavy bolter floated in space Brother Rattmu, the newest member of the Shwando, came out of cover and took the heavy bolter. He straightened out and locked his arms. He now held a heavy bolter in each hand and when he pulled the triggers the dual streams quickly found one of the shoulder glass bubbles. The shield and reinforced glass held against the river of bullets but the grot inside had some sort of panic attack and stopped firing the gun. Eventually some of the rounds got through and cracked the bubble. The grot quickly died as the air escaped his cramped position.

The huge dreadnought took notice and swung its barreled arm towards Rattumu’s position. Seeing this he took cover along with the other marines nearby. At the end of the dreadnoughts gun three orbs began to spin around the barrel. Suddenly the end of the barrel produced a black inky cloud but no projectile could be seen.

Several Ice Angels poked their heads out from cover when a massive black cloud appeared over and around Brother Baris and Brother UbuZa. Their screams were loud and brief as the cloud turned into frantic snotlings that had been warped into their position. Some of them had even appeared inside the armor of the Ice Angels. Helplessly they watched the two marines claw at their own armor as the snotlings materialized in their bodies. Thankfully their deaths were swift. Bel Hando didn’t finish watching them die before issuing new orders and renewing the attack. The remaining marines opened fire and the Crystalfist fired again. This time the reflected shot went into a neighboring walker, several smaller kans were destroyed, one was sent into space as its munitions reacted and exploded.

The mega dread continued to shamble forward as it fired once more, this time the vindicator was targeted. The inky cloud appeared near the rear of the tank when the first yells could be heard over the vox.

“GET OUT OF MY TANK!” Timigiratee the gunner shouted. Suddenly the rear door and top hatch flipped open and the bodies of snotlings shot out. Timigiratee poked his head out of the top hatch with three snotlings in one hand and his bolt pistol in the other. He threw the bodies of the snotlings towards the relentless swarm of walkers before ducking back into his beloved tank and closing the hatch. After the hatched closed a colorful string of curses could be heard over the vox from Timigiratee when Zarva, the driver calmly spoke, “Snotlings took out fire control. We’ll need a few minutes.”

Aquilum watched the sight with slight amusement before a thought came to him. Without hesitating he came around the hull he was still taking cover behind. Inushi watched him get up and begin to run towards the oncoming ork walkers. Without thinking he got up and followed. “Covering fire!” Aquilum said in his best Bel Hando impression. The marines from Beta and Gamma came out of cover and began to spray fire at the walkers.

Aquilum ran as fast as he was able in the zero gravity environment directly towards one of the standard dreadnoughts. The ork walker was four armed but as the covering fire began to pepper it; its claw arm was preemptive and struck ahead of the yellow and pink marine. The claw struck the hull of the ork vessel and as it did Aquilum stepped on the back of the claw and jumped at the dreads top hatch. He grabbed onto the top of the dread with his hands and propelled himself over the dread towards the rubble of one behind it. Inushi caught onto the strategy and dove under the dreadnought kicking off the dreadnoughts legs like a swimmer pushing off a wall. The two passed through or around several surprised orks before reaching the towering mega dread.

As Aquilum floated at the mega dread, the dreadnought twisted the gun away from him and instead pointed the massive battering ram at him. Aquilum’s vision was soon filled with the grinning end of the ram as it quickly shot out at the Emperor’s Fool. Inushi saw the yellow and pink marine go limp as the ram quickly moved back like an armored piston. Small fragments of yellow and pink armor shot out into space. Inushi floated towards the dread under the rams shadow. He took another glance at his fellow marine and noticed the marine was actually hugging the face of the ram. When it finally returned to its original position Aquilum tried to move around the ram towards the dreads cockpit, but the ram quickly shot back out taking Aquilum with him; only his super human grip kept him holding onto the ram as it shot out and stopped. The remaining shoulder mounted grot fired its gun down at the ram and Aquilum.

Inushi was now near the mega dreads crotch. He began to climb up the back of the dread when he noticed a lot of tubes leading to a large barreled container. Inushi took out one of his krak grenades, primed it and stuck it behind some of the tubes before continuing his ascent. The dread trembled for a moment when Inushi noticed hundreds of dead snotlings were floating in space all around him. He looked below and noticed the barrel was wide open and the tubes were floating out behind the dread.

Suddenly the mega dread began to turn around and stomp in circles looking for its assailant. As it turned around several of the remaining walkers began to shoot at Inushi but the rounds reflected off of the shield protecting the mega dread. The shoulder mounted grot began to shoot back, confused as to why the dreads were shooting at a fellow ork walker. Another explosion soon ripped through the mega dread which made the walker cease to move. When Inushi reached the grots little bubble he thought he could almost feel the grots high pitched scream vibrating the glass as he flipped several latches and opened the cockpit into the void. The grot died instantly and floated away, but Inushi was already moving back down the dread trying to find cover away from the other walkers.

“Where are you Aquilum?” Inushi asked as he looked around the dreads feet.

Inushi could hear a grunt in the vox, before Aquilum’s gruff voice replied, “inside this contraption. I have to repair my armor. Hurry up and kill everyone else.”

“Hang onto something.” Timigiratee spoke over the vox through gritted teeth. The Crystalfist finally fired its massive siege gun again. The round passed a few kans before colliding with a dreadnought not far from the now motionless mega dread. A handful of dreads were torn apart from the blast. Bel Hando took the moment to redirect his units fire. Soon the marines and vindicator had cleaned the last few moving walkers. By the time Inushi moved back down the dread to the hull Aquilum was coming out of the inner workings of the mega dread. “What?” Aquilum asked as he saw Inushi’s look. The bright yellow and pink quartered pattern was broken up by a huge mass of the hardened orange sealant foam on his chest. The concrete like foam was also covering a section of his left leg and shoulder.

Inushi stared at Aquilum for a second before responding, “How are you alive after that hit?” Aquilum paused before walking back towards the Ice Angel line, “Apparently the Emperor found I was still entertaining enough to keep around.” He said back at the green armored Mantis Warrior. Inushi shook his head in disbelief before hustling to catch up. “That was insane Aquilum, what were you thinking rushing out into the open to assault a dreadnought like that?” Aquilum didn’t respond and kept walking.

Inushi stepped next to Aquilum and grabbed his arm. Aquilum paused and looked down at the Mantis Warriors hand. “That dreadnought had to be stopped before it took out the vindicator or more Astartes.”

Inushi let go as Aquilum began to walk away again. “That’s it? It had to be stopped! That was your reasoning for getting up from cover, running straight at a dreadnought into a tactical death trap in hopes you can stop it with your one melta bomb?” Inushi held up his hands and looked around, “That’s ridiculous!”

Aquilum took a deep breathe that could be heard over the vox before looking at the young marine. “Inushi, why did you follow me into a tactical death trap?”

“I……” Inushi began before looking down at his feet. Aquilum smirked and walked back to the Ice Angel line. Inushi stood in silence, his mind racing. “I have no idea.” He whispered to himself.

great work, loved reading this!