Book X-overs The Ship and Armaggedon

Part Two: The Ship

Chapter One

Although you could barely see it through the sealed portholes and windows, the occasional flash of warpspace went through the filters. It was said that a man who looked at one of these flashes directly would rip his own eyes out so that he didn't have to see the shapes anymore. Atmosphere trailed from several broken compartments and to any outside observer it was easy to spot where the Ork spacecrafts' weapons had pounded the ship as its shields failed.

Jason shivered uncontrollably despite the feeble attempts of the air conditioning in his space suit to heat him. He struggled to remove another piece of wreckage from the damaged inside of a small compartment that had been depressurized during a brief attack run from some Ork bombers. This particular vessel was a merchant and obsolete version at that. It had been retrofitted with jump engines from a derelict, mothballed freighter that was even older, it had weak shields and had been falling apart almost since it was on the assembly line.

The compartment was partially destroyed. Since it was open to warpspace someone had to dig out the control panel so that they could activate the secondary filters to protect the crew from the deadly radiation that would soon start pouring from the damaged reactor coils that littered the floor. Jason was doing his best not to think too hard about that. His suit filtered out radiation but no-one knew how to filter out the amount that this core could produce. Because of the weightlessness it was easier to lift the broken metal that had been twisted out of shape by the extreme pressures. As he lifted them up he launched them into the void, well clear of the ship. If he left the sharp metal here as the ship left warpspace it would move around at such velocities that there was a chance that it could rip a gaping cavity in the ship's side. Then, just as he was lifting the last piece of wreckage he saw it, the bloody broken body of what looked like a gretchin. It was wearing what looked like a space suit but it had seen better days. The damage to the mangled body showed the impact not just of flying debris to the suit but also the sudden loss of pressure that a tear in the suit had caused, making the tiny body explode. Small green organs floated aimlessly in the airless, gravity-free environment of the compartment.

Jason broke into a cold sweat and was about to shout something when he realised that floating among the bloody remains was what looked like a bomb. Before he could say anything into his mike, the gretchin's grenade exploded tossing him into space like a discarded toy. His body floated off into its own orbit but he was dead long before that. His suit had survived the explosion but the pressure wave had punctured his lungs and he choked to death on his own blood.

Chapter Two

Williams clambered out of the hatch on the assault boat. His face was bloody, his nose was broken, but he was alive. Behind him Trina and Vinx both dragged themselves out of the ruined ship. Trying to muster any confidence that he could, Williams said, "Come on, we need to make contact with the crew. They need to know that they have some Orks on board."

"Sure," the single word escaped from the cracked and broken lips of Trina. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the ship suddenly shook, throwing all three stowaways and the backpack of equipment that Williams had with him to the floor. Despite gravity's best efforts, the trio pulled themselves to their feet and stumbled on through several deserted corridors until they came to what looked like a service hatch. Even though the only trained engineer was Vinx they could all see that the torque was twisting the support buttresses out of shape and that this area was quickly becoming unstable. They didn't know what caused it but it was no doubt due to the short firefight that the ship had endured.

Throwing open the hatch they came upon a startled engineer who looked like he was monitoring the life support machines that kept the crew alive.

"What the hell…," shouted the tech and started reaching for his radio.

"That won't be necessary," said Vinx pointing an auto pistol at him.

Dropping his hand to his side the tech stuttered out, "Who… a a are you?"

"I am Commander Williams and we are the only survivors from the system you just left."

"How did you get on board?" said the technician visibly relaxing at the thought that they probably wouldn't shoot him in cold blood.

"There's a Shark Assault Boat about 500 yards down the corridor."

"I suppose that you would like to see the Captain then?"

"I suppose so."

Vinx chuckled almost imperceptibly at Williams' manner.

Chapter Three

Captain Harold looked up from his command chair as his comms officer strode over, obvious worry etched all over his face. "Sir, one of our engineering crew, you know the one we sent to try to repair one of one of our secondary reactors… he's missing, as far as we can tell he was blown from the ship. There was some form of chemical explosive of unknown origin."

Harold looked like he was about to say something when a Petty Officer sprinted from the lift and whispered a message into the Captain's ear. Shock eased itself across his features and he turned to look at the petty officer.

"I'll take it in my compartment, thank you,"

With that the Petty Officer ran back out to carry out his instructions.

"What was all that about?" asked his second in command, John.

"It would appear that we have boarders, human and Ork alike," said Harold, rising and moving to his private compartment off the bridge, leaving the stricken John standing there, gaping open-mouthed.

Harold pushed a button on the wall and the door to his 'office' slid open. It wasn't so much of compartment – just a tiny little room where he slept, ate and generally managed the day to day running of the star ship. He had just managed to sit down and get vaguely comfortable in his hard-backed chair when three bedraggled looking crewmen walked in. At least he thought they were all men until they got closer, and he was able to inspect them. One of them, he realised, was a woman. Another, apparently the leader of the trio, had a broken nose and the front of his clothes were red with blood."

"So, you're the arseholes that have been sabotaging my ship?" Despite the apparent tone of the Captain's voice, Williams thought that it had sounded more like a question than a statement.

"As you're probably aware, you have Ork boarders. What's more, thanks to the information that we have, we've think that you have been relatively lucky. It looks like you only had one of their assault craft successfully grapple with the ship."

Despite this 'good' news the Captain's face turned ashen and he let out a small gasp. H e knew that although it was only one craft it would have held at least 30 or maybe even more fully armed Orks against his unarmed crew.

"This isn't as bad as it sounds."

Harold yelped, "WHAT? How can this not be as bad as it sounds, I have some information that you don't. The section where you grappled just happens to contain the arms lockers. We thought it was just a system malfunction, but the 'hull breach' that's registered on our screens is probably the boarders creating a suitable section of the ship to live in. And we've started having widespread systems troubles. Maybe, they've already hacked into the main-frame to try to vent the air in this part of the ship. Personally, if I was them I would have done it already."

Trina looked at him and simply said, "Sport."

Chapter Four

The briefing room was filled with the officers commanding each of the star ship's departments and their juniors. John stood towards the rear of the room. Although his manner was calm his face betrayed him. Much like all the others he was terrified. He hadn't signed on for this, he'd signed on to get as far away from the frontlines as possible and the first time he had stopped to make a delivery, the supplies hadn't even been really needed, the planet was an agricultural one. However, the planetary aristocracy were prepared to lavish much wealth on any that made the journey across the border worlds to deliver luxury goods. It seemed an easy way to become wealthy himself but then a massive Ork armada had swept through the system.

The last garbled reports that they'd had from the Imperial Guard outpost stationed on one of the mountains on Minerva told them of terrible acts of brutality and torture. Even though he had left the frontline far behind, it had followed him with at least 30 Orks bent on killing him and the rest of the crew.

The Captain had outlined the situation plainly enough, the only weapons they had to hand were a couple of outdated side arms, two lasguns an autogun and a few grenades. The briefing ended although, thought John miserably, it was more a speech of how utterly screwed that they were.

The Captain signalled to him to stay behind. As the last few junior ensigns filed past, their shoulders slumped, he saw that the Captain had gotten the Chief of Engineering, Petty Officer Willis to stay behind as well.

"Well then gentlemen, you know the situation. I want options, ideas," said the Captain. He turned to Willis, "Why can't we just flush the air out of that area of the ship?"

"There's a safety feature fitted to stop boarders doing just that. He sighed, "If you want to take the ship's air supply away you have to do it to the whole ship not just one section."

"Can we introduce something into the air that will just kill the Orks?" Harold asked.

"We could but it would take a couple of hours to modify the ship's main air recyclators so they wouldn't remove the element form the air."

"I want you to get on it right away."

"Aye, Sir."

"Dismissed."

Chapter Five

Trina sighed. The three survivors had been taken to 'guest quarters'. It wasn't quite a brig but then neither was it exactly the kind of compartment you'd put heroes in. They were waiting for the Captain to make up his mind. It was his ship, at the moment, that is.

There was loud commotion outside the compartment door. They barely had time to stand up when the second in command and a member of what passed for the ship's 'new' militia stepped inside.

"The Captain has called your commanding officer to the bridge," said John, speaking as he paced their quarters, managing by his tone and manner to convey his disgust at the state of their clothes and their smell. Obviously, thought Trina savagely, a man of fine tastes, or at least as fine as you can get on this 500,000 tonne trash hauler.

Williams stepped forward. In a shaky voice far from the Chief Petty Officer who had made them cry blood as he worked them to the bone, he responded, "I'm the commanding officer in this unit." He spat out the word 'unit' as if it were some curse.

"I would be obliged if you came with me," smirked John as if being sarcastic to Williams earned him a small victory, easing his own terror of the Orks.

Ignoring the officer's attempt at an insult, Williams was escorted out by the two men.

As if it was a small afterthought, without turning his head, the second in command spoke again, addressing Vinx and Trina, "We haven't forgotten you. You will be escorted to the elevator on level nine. Since the other doors are sealed that is the only way for the boarders to breach the upper deck. You and anyone not vital to the running of the ship is being sent down there to hold off the Orks."

Obviously he considered himself 'vital to the running of the ship' as he clearly wasn't preparing to fight. Even though they were probably going to die, Vinx and Trina felt a small glimmer of hope. Although they might not make it through the next few hours, their fate was finally back in their hands, not on the whims and eddies of the warp or the weapons of an Ork fleet.

Williams walked onto the bridge. There was almost nobody there, only a few technicians were handling the data from servitors that were feeding directly from the sections below into their computer chips. In a matter of hours the space had been converted from the bridge of a space ship to a war room, of sorts. The Captain was sitting at his chair working on a computer terminal conversing quietly with his Chief of Engineering or so Williams thought by his uniform. As the Captain heard Williams and his escort enter he looked up telling his Chief to leave.

The Captain spoke, "We have been monitoring the Orks through the cameras and heat sensors here but there is something strange going on down there. You're the only person here that has recent combat experience with these creatures. We don't know what they're doing and we…"

"Will you stop giving me all this crap about you not knowing what's going on and just tell me already," barked Williams.

Angered at this outburst, the Captain's face turned a shade of pink. He was obviously not used to people he considered his 'inferiors' talking back in such a manner. Despite this he quickly shrouded his emotions and replied, "Look as far as I can tell the sensors are working but they're not there! A while ago the life signs started dropping. The only thing that we can come up with it that the Orks are all dead due an explosive decompression caused by the hull breach." Although this was relatively happy news, the commander delivered it with incredible coldness.

"Captain… Sir I know what your sensors are saying. They must be wrong. We all felt some kind of shock not long after we got off the Shark Boat but if a whole section had blown out then the whole ship would probably have been torn apart."

Williams was worried. Despite Orks' general stupidity they could be amazingly cunning even though their brains weren't much more complicated than melons. "The only way to be sure is to send someone over there."

"I know that, man. I sent five people in space suits just in case the emergency air locks to the upper level didn't seal properly. They should be almost there now."

"Hold on… the only way to the upper level is through the elevator and that can't be activated from below. If they open those airlock doors they could be letting in a whole lot of Orks. The shielding around the airlocks could hide a small army!"

"Oh crap!" the Captain shouted, reaching for the radio but already knowing it was too late.

"Sir, we just reached the bottom of the central core. We're opening the doors now," a voice crackled from the speaker.

"Negative, do you copy, negative! Do not open those doors!" the Captain literally screamed into the radio, almost deafening the crewmen receiving his desperate message. nBut it was too late.

"Holy God Emperor…." as the crewman looked on at the slavering Orks his voice trailed off.

Initially the explosion of grenades and gunfire filtered through the radio but it was shortly replaced with static. The Captain visibly shrunk, terrified at the actual thought of combat against a far superior foe.

"We're all going to die…" Harold muttered near tears. He stumbled off into his compartment, mumbling an old child's prayer to the Golden Throne.

Chapter Six

Williams walked into the compartment where Vinx and Trina were still being held. Although head only been gone a few minutes, he looked like he been up for days.

Trina was the first to speak, "What's happened? We heard someone saying the Orks had gone off the scanners and that someone one had gone down to see what had happened."

"They went down. The Orks were waiting. With the service elevator now under their control the Greenskins have free access to the upper decks and us."

"God Emperor damnit," Vinx muttered.

"Understatement of the week," Trina muttered right back.

"Let's get going, we have work to do," Williams said, silencing the others.

Despite still being slightly shell-shocked by the news, the other two nodded in agreement.

The trio began scouring neighbouring compartments in the corridor. They retrieved their lasguns from the abandoned security post outside the compartment they had been held in. But there were no other weapons to be had with the armoury under Ork control.

As they were heading down the deserted corridor a voice, emanating from Vinx's wrist-com brought them back to harsh reality. The second in command, John, was squawking a continuous alarm signal. It was simple and left no room for doubt as to its meaning, "Keep them away from the bridge, repeat, keep them away from the bridge, go into hand to hand combat. If we lose the bridge we will lose the ship and we will be lost in the Empyrean."

The message repeated several times before Vinx shut it down. As they descended through the decks till they reached the breach they were joined by more and more crewmen bearing a wide variety of make-shift weapons. Some held smooth-bore riot shotguns, others old-style slug-throwing revolvers while some simply carried clubs and heavy wrenches.

Despite their limited level of skill and the distinct lack of potency of the weapons, every crew member had the same look on his face, it was a face of cold, resolute determination. These were men who were almost certain they were already dead but still they went forth.

This was the sort of bravery that had built the Imperium of man. This was the sort of bravery that would ensure that it would endure.

As the comm. alarms faded out due to the amount of lead shielding around them and the stragglers caught up to the main group, they took their places at the barricades.

One obsolete yet still effective autocannon was dragged into place. Bayonets were fixed by a couple of men who held las-rifles. Others checked their ammunition and magazines. Final blessings to the weapons not to fail were spoken.

As the seconds dragged by, men spoke in hushed whispers, careful to not attract attention. Then as seconds turned into minutes, Williams thought about the power surges that had plagued this section of the ship. Suddenly, he understood. They weren't the target!

The Orks had already proven resourceful enough. Could it be that they had found another way to the bridge? If they had then the battle for control of the ship was almost over before it had started. If the Orks got to the bridge by-passing their barricade then all that stood in their way would be a few broken down servitors.

Apparently the same thoughts were beginning to pass through the minds of the others. Shouting, "Follow me!" Williams sprinted off, closely followed by Trina and Vinx. Five others ran with them.

As they ran for the bridge they left the lead shielding behind, The static in their wrist-comms began to clear. They would know soon enough what was going on. Williams hoped frantically that he was wrong, but the news wasn't good.

"Oh God Emperor!" a voice sobbed, "Can anyone hear me? They're nearly through the doors. Where are you? They came out of the vents… at least nine. Please if anyone can hear this, help us, please, OH THRONE OF TERRA HERE THEY COME!"

"Faster," yelled Vinx, already knowing it was too late as the screaming died out to static. They rounded the final bend in the corridor to see the bridge doorway and the wreckage of the doors. The image that met their eyes stayed with them for the rest of their lives, blood had been sprayed on the bridge walls as if some deranged vandal had thrown buckets of it around, organs were strung up as if some debauched party had happened.

What was rose, some of the bridge crew actually still seemed to be alive staring in maddened shock and pain at their own organs hung before their eyes.

Most of the consoles were filled with static, the few that still operated were showing the deck directly below them where the men Williams and his followers had left fought against an almost unstoppable foe. Even though the humans outnumbered the Orks by four or five to one, for every Greenskin who fell, as many as 10 humans lay dead, dying or injured.

The Orks in the bridge at last noticed the group of humans standing by the doorway but before they could attack, Williams yelled, "Kill them!"

"FOR THE EMPEROR," his followers screamed in unison. They fired as one, their guns on full auto, not only slicing the Orks apart but bringing the God Emperor's peace to the dying remains of those who had been tortured by the Greenskins..\

As they cleared they shifted the carnage of Ork and human body parts from the consoles, they discovered an awful truth. This far from Earth and Segmentum Solar, they needed a Navigator. His corpse lay discarded and broken, his three eyes staring sightlessly.

The Navigator's console was a mess. He had done them one service before death, however. Knowing his demise was imminent, the telepath had dropped them out of the warp although far before their destination.

Williams turned towards Vinx, "You're the only one that knows how these star charts fit together, you'll have to find out where we are. They'll stay with you," Williams said this gesturing at the men who had come up with them. Vinx wanted to argue, but knew better. It was now just important that they find out where they were as deal with the remaining Orks. Vinx nodded.

"Good, let's go Trina; we need to clear the lower decks," said Williams.

Chapter Seven

Trina put a bullet dead centre into a squirming grot's head. She moved on, finding another live one, shooting it as well. The battle continued but it had started to tip towards the humans. Despite the catastrophic casualties, they still outnumbered the Orks.

It took only a few more minutes, minutes that lasted hours but eventually the last Greenskin was shot down. Later, as they cleared away the corpses and did a head count, they realised that to barely thirty or so Orks, 90 humans had paid the ultimate price, and another 200 were wounded.

The ship barely had 100 crewmen left alive; only just enough to man its systems. Yet they had still won. Trina heard distant shouts down the corridor. She ran forward, slipping occasionally on pools of mixed human and Greenskin blood.

Pulling herself around a mound of corpses piled near an airlock she saw two men frogmarching a small frightened man towards her. As she got closer she realised that it was the second in command.

"You have no right, the Captain is dead this ship is now mine," with the last word he puffed out his chest, that was until he saw the look Trina was giving him. The man visibly shrunk into himself.

Trina's gaze was filled with contemptuous disgust. "What's happened?" she asked.

"They dragged me out of my own quarters, they… ," he was waving an accusatory finger at the two men. Trina reached out and dislocated it. Despite the sudden nauseous pain John tried appear as if it hadn't hurt.

"We found him hiding in his quarters, he was locked in there, cowering under his bunk with a lasgun."

Trina snapped, "You know what cowardice in the field is punishable by?"

When no answer was forth coming she continued, "Death, take him to the brig."

The men saluted, showing a new found respect for her. Her wrist-comm beeped, flashing a text message.

It read, "Vinx: Trina, Williams, get to the viewing deck quick, I've found out where we are." 

She met Williams striding towards the command deck, splattered with blood. He nodded to her. They walked up to the top of the ship. As they had come out of warp, the ship had automatically shut down the barriers that protected the crew from seeing the Empyrean.

As they stepped onto the viewing deck each step filling them with a bit more hope. Vinx turned to greet them, the look on his face instantly flushed any hope out them.

"I've verified our position twice, Welcome to Armageddon!"

Despite all that had happened, Trina and Williams were suddenly filled with a fresh surge of fear.

Chapter Eight-Armageddon

"Sir, we've got something on sensors. It came out of warp ten minutes ago, it looks like an obsolete freighter, Sigma class."

"Has it transmitted clearance codes?"

"No sir, it's just sitting there."

"Send a transmission to the Bloody Mary to check her out."

"Yes sir, relaying message."

Since the end of the last Ork Waaaagh there had been a massive influx of goods, even going so far as to have 'flat-pack' townships. Work had even started on rebuilding the great spires that formed the hive cities. However, because of this increased shipping, there was also an increase in the number of smugglers hauling dangerous cargoes to corrupt governors. The strain this had put on the planetary economy resulted in the formation of a special unit to deal with these 'crises' as well as the derelict vessels that still drifted in system. The Bloody Mary and her sister ship King's Revenge were part of this clean-up operation; they were both Lunar class cruisers, having ample weaponry to deal with almost any threat.

"Copy that Control. Our sensors are showing that it's sending out a distress signal, it's civilian, it looks like there are some discrepancies in the hull. It looks like it might have been boarded, please advise our next course of action, over."

"This is control; send a shuttle of marines and medical personnel over, search for survivors then leave the area, long range sensors show five unidentified vessels, possibly Ork in origin, heading towards you at maximum burn, you have twenty minutes till they hit, Control out."

"Well, you heard them, send Alpha shuttle with the med-team. Make sure Dr Jameson and the planetary defence force marines check in every five minutes, I don't want any surprises."

There was a murmur of "Yes sir's" as his orders were carried out.

Chapter Nine

"Pack your bags Doc, we're going house calling," one of the nameless marines said too loudly into the 'Doc's' ear. Grumbling, he packed his medical kit and followed him to the docking bay. Through the shimmering force field that protected the docking bay from the depths of space he could make out a ship. It was massive. He gulped; to him it looked like some massive warship.

When he made his qualms known to the assembled group they burst into laughter, informing him that it looked so large because it was a bulk carrier, built so long ago that mostly they were used as tugs for the newer models. The Doctor tried to look like he didn't care about the laughter at his expense. The crossing was simple and as their shuttle docked with one of the protruding tubes, the marines grew slightly more relaxed. That lasted only until they entered the docking bays and they saw where the Orks had come in. Despite the short time they had been here the Orks had already daubed the walls with their crude images and spread their filth to even the most sanctified of places.

They went in guns raised, expecting an ambush. They heard a slight movement to their side, and they nearly blew off Trina's head. One over-zealous trooper actually fired off a round in her direction. That was how trigger-happy they were. He got a "we'll talk about this later" look from his sergeant. Trina deftly navigated the wreckage. "It's good to see that someone finally came to see us," she said.

"Are you the Commanding Officer of this ship?"

She let out the briefest of chuckles filled with no humour, "Not exactly, I'll take you to the bridge, follow me."

The Captain of the Bloody Mary's voice came over the sergeant's wrist-com. "Well?" The sergeant looked over his shoulder to see the woman walking out of hearing range, "It looks like there were Orks here but there don't seem to be any survivors and ships like these don't carry marine complements, but the woman taking us to the bridge has obviously had military training, you can tell from the way she walks."

"The plot thickens," murmured the Captain as he mulled over the information he had just received, "Keep me appraised of the situation, out."

"Roger that," the sergeant muttered sarcastically to no-one in particular.

Chapter Ten

"Are you sure that you can't fix it?" Vinx asked.

"Your drives are completely shot and even if we got it to work, the wiring would need a complete overhaul. She broke her back, we'll mothball her until we have the manpower to strip her of anything that could be of some use to us." The engineer who had come with the marine detachment shrugged. He was covered in grime, they both were. They had been crawling on their stomachs through three decks, using the access shafts to get from place to place.

As Trina had led the boarding party to the bridge she had told them of the events that had befallen them in the past week or so, finishing by telling them that it was almost certain that the Waaaagh was heading this way; the ships the planetary sensors had spotted in the outer system where simply scouts, a precursor to a much greater threat.

As they reached the bridge, the acting commander of the vessel, Williams, greeted them. He showed almost no reaction as he was informed that, considering the gravity of the situation, he would have to evacuate this ship immediately; if what they said was true then such a fleet as could be cobbled together would need to mobilize.

The Captain of the Bloody Mary called for access to their sensor recordings and told them that as it was it would be hard for them to evacuate the ship's personnel as well as pulling the encrypted data from the logs. This meant that the Bloody Mary was going to have to hold off the Orks while her shuttles took off the crew and necessary equipment. However she would not be alone, the King's Revenge would be there soon. Together they could defeat almost anything the Orks decided to throw at them.

"This is the Captain. The Orks will be here momentarily. When they arrive I want a full broadside, hopefully it will make them rethink taking us on,."

Williams shook his head at the announcement. "You can tell he's never fought Orks before. A direct strike will only make their morale stronger."

Vinx shrugged, "It doesn't really affect us, all we got to worry about is getting the shields up and making sure the point defence system won't collapse on us at any second."

"Thanks for the morale boost, sailor," Trina grumbled.

"I try, I try," he said grinning.

"Look it can't be all bad you see this sensor, five objects, we'll have them,"

"Actually I'd look again, if I were you…." Williams' voice dried as his face drained of all colour. "Holy….."

The screen had lit up with hundreds of objects leaving warp-space. Gulping, his earlier humour gone, Vinx asked, "When does the other cruiser get here?"

"Five minutes, but I don't think it will help much against that particular firestorm," Williams said stating the obvious, "Vinx I need those engines now."

"But they're completely broken!!!" Vinx complained.

"Re-route the power from the shields to the engine pods."

"But we'll be defenceless!!!" Vinx said terrified.

"If we stay here we're dead. If we move now there's still a chance we can escape."

"Yes sir," Vinx said quietly, cowed by Williams' expressionless face.

"Good, it's up to you get us the hell out of here."

Chapter Eleven

"This is Admiral Parol to fleet: form up. Enact Alpha-Charlie-Epsilon manoeuvre and set course to intercept." The Admiral's voice rang out over the ship to ship intercom, ordering all ships to form into what amounted to a U shape, with interlocking fields of fire. All ships except the Bloody Mary and the King's Revenge and, of course, the derelict cargo hauler. They were already in position. In fact at the very moment they heard those orders the first Ork destroyers and attack craft were coming into range.

"That's all the power you'll get," Vinx's voice crackled over the intercom.

"Good enough get back up her and…"

Williams' voice was cut off as the first weapon's impacts started to rock the Lunar class warships.

"This is the captain of the Bloody Mary, any time you want to leave would be great." Despite his attempt at humour there was very real terror in his voice.

"Copy that, we're out of here. Engineering, let's go."

As the engines powered up the ship hummed with noise and some of the systems burst to life as power returned, coursing through the ship like blood. The ship started to move off at a painfully slow crawl, the escorts staying within a few hundred kilometres.

Although their point defence was still an almost impenetrable wall, the Ork fighters and bombers were circling closer and closer, their numbers growing by the second. And then as the green horde reached critical mass they attacked. The area around the ships was filled with explosions and missiles screaming down on their final attack vector.

Despite the violence of the situation, in the darkness of space the scene was strangely muted. Still the chaos continued, but with every second, as the Imperials slowly slunk away, the Orks grew nearer and nearer; it wasn't a question of if, but when. Slowly, inevitably each second dragged out. The Imperial fleet sped towards the Orks, the three ships trying to leave, stuck in the middle of what was going to become an incredibly bloody crossfire.

It looked like they were going to make it as the battle raged on. Great sections were being blown out of the Orks and Imperials at an incredible rate. But then a lucky Ork shot bypassed the warship's defence, grazing the hull of the freighter. Although the ship was massive it's shields were down. Thankfully the section that was hit was sealed off, so that they didn't have to waste power on life support to that area.

Finally salvation arrived, in the form of the massed salvoes of missiles and energy weapons that lanced out slicing the enemy up. The scene was framed by the Orks' fighters trails lighting up as they exploded, painting a fiery picture as the Imperial fleet fired again and again slashing and ripping the Ork ships, leaving gaping holes that leaked atmosphere. As the battered cruisers fell back into the gun line a ship-to-ship message was broadcast to them.

"This is Admiral Parol to King's Revenge and Bloody Mary, form up in your assigned positions. Unknown freighter pilot your way to high orbit above Armageddon." the strong voice left the intercom as the freighter's escorts powered away to join the formation. They had seen the Ork fleet; the Imperials were going to their death.

As the freighter moved through the system Williams heard calls for aid running through a full frequency range. They listened as the monitor stations were overwhelmed one by one, fear building inside them as they heard a final report – the Ork fleet now numbered in thousands. Still close enough to see on the sensors, they saw Admiral Parol's fleet overwhelmed even as they pounded the vanguard of the Ork fleet to dust. Although Williams and his crew could not be described as 'educated' there wasn't any guard world in this sector that hadn't heard of Armageddon and it's reputation.

The threat of another invasion that looked many times the size of the previous one sent a shiver of fear down their collective spine. They reached the planet barely hours ahead of the onrushing Orks. Passing under the massive lance batteries of St Jowen's Dock they felt some semblance of peace, thinking that nothing could fight it's way past the base but barely had they made it to the surface in modified construction shuttles than massive explosions clouded the sky. The bombardment of Armageddon's space defences had begun.

Chapter Twelve

As they touched down, they caught sight of the massed war-machines and guard regiments that were on stand-by, waiting to be deployed into the wastes. In the distance they could make out the outline of one of the great hive cities and to the west the massive equatorial jungle. Even as they were led away by an officious Adeptus Mechanicus clerk they could still see the explosions in the sky that heralded the coming of invasion. It appeared that with the obviousness of an attack, everyone that could be had been snapped up eagerly by the conscription office. They were taken away to a run-down building that looked like it had been hastily constructed and then never finished; entering the rat-infested building they threw their packs on some empty bunks.

"You have now been officially conscripted into the Emperor's glorious army," the bureaucrat piped up, "There is a briefing for all new conscripts in the main hanger F at 1.15." He said all this while jotting things down in his ledger; he waved a dismissive hand leaving. They glanced up at the clock; with an hour to kill they decided to look round the base.

Ayden looked around, scanning the area around him with keen eyes; the underhive was dark as always. Hefting his massive flamethrower to his shower, he stepped forward. His previous position was now filled with badly aimed autogun shells that ricocheted of the walls, blowing chunks off the masonry. But he didn't scare easily. Moving forward, he calmly sent out great spurts of flame; the gunfire died down until he was left in a silent alleyway, the only one still alive.

"You did good, kid. With the bounty on their heads we'll be rolling in cash." A great bear of a man detached himself from the shadows behind Ayden, followed by three others. None of them shared their names instead they were simply known by what they did. Ayden was 'flame', the man who had just spoke was 'sir' and the others were 'snipe', 'gun' and 'hack- - he was a self proclaimed computer genius, every time they need to get into a computer system he hadn't failed. Without a word the slight, creepy and pale form of snipe stepped forward. There was a meaty hacking sound as he removed the heads of those who had been torched. As soon as he was back they moved off, the bag with the heads in making a dull clunking noise as they walked, blood seeping out of the cloth.

Despite the threat of imminent ambush they made good time to the Adeptus Arbites outpost located deep in the hive. The enforcers couldn't hunt all the criminals so they occasionally hired out the 'lesser scum' of the underhive. A harsh looking shotgun-toting Arbites enforcer was standing at the gate eying the surrounding wasteland with disgust. They stepped past him and through the gates without a second glance, heading to a dark tower, resplendent in its black and yellow livery and surrounded with walls.

Wordlessly they moved through the compound, at every turn met with armed guards. Even an idiot would see something was going down, there were at least three times the number of guards that were usually in place. Quelling these thoughts for the moment they stepped into an elevator that took them to the top floor of the tower and a sort of office block. A dark haired man wearing a flak jacket was sitting at the desk, his eyes were pale and his skin appeared withered, probably from too many close calls with radiation sickness. There was a bandolier slung around his chair with grenades and spare clips of ammo hung on it and a lasgun leaning against the chair. He fixed them with a penetrating gaze before standing.

"You must be the… gentlemen that we hired for the Haven gang contract, if you leave the…um… bag's contents with me you will be paid. However as you've probably heard the Orks have launched a Waaaagh of epic proportions against this planet." They shared nervous glances, they hadn't heard but they knew what it meant, war, and a war on the surface always had a way of reaching the underhive in one way or another.

Continuing as if he hadn't seen their intimidated glances, the Arbites officer carried on speaking, "As you know, to our west is the equatorial jungle. This place is notoriously hard to patrol and several hundred Orks dropships made it to the surface, on top of the feral Orks already infesting the jungle this poses a serious threat to our defences. It is possible that a few Orks have managed to infiltrate this hive in preparation for the main conflict in an attempt to cripple us. As it is, several power stations in this area have already been sabotaged. In fact there are only two left. If either one were to go then this place would be without power, which would mean no lights and no automated turrets. We'd be almost defenceless. We have barely enough forces to protect this outpost and one of the generator stations. I will give you a free pass to the surface and 5,000 credits each if you protect the second station."

Gun let out a low whistle. That much money could keep them happy for years to come and the pass to the surface would mean no more fighting for survival.

"We'll take it, how long will it take to get there and will there be re-supply?" Sir spoke up without a moment's hesitation.

"There is a stockpile of weapons and ammo there. But you need to leave immediately and with luck you'll get there ahead of the Orks. The Emperor protects," the Arbites officer frowned dismissively at them.

Snipe and gun had been together for as long as they could remember, they were as close as brothers, the look they gave each other was relatively simple: the Orks work in numbers, 'a few Orks' could mean anywhere from 10 to 100 of the greenskins. This could get ugly but it was too late to back out now.

They left; five men going on what could turn out to be a suicide mission. They jogged to the power station using directions given by the Arbites. It was housed in an old building in the centre of a town square. Half the building had been blown out and strewn with rubble, the other side was covered with blast marks and bullet holes. However in the sub-basement there was a three inches thick steel trapdoor that led into a sealed bunker that housed the generator, the codes to the door were electronically swapped every month or so the outpost's commander wasn't privy to this information. However, now that he knew where it was, hack hacked the lock in a matter of minutes. They stepped inside to find a room brightly lit and filled with ancient technology. They could see why this was a prime target. All that stood between them and pretty much shutting down an entire sector of the hive was a thin see-through plastic wall.

However, before they could continue this egotistical train of thought, snipe's voice crackled over the com-links that they had 'liberated' from a well-equipped gang a while ago. "We got Orks. I can't tell how many but it looks like a lot, get your butts up here and seal that door. They're going to start shooting this place up any moment."

Sprinting up the steps, hack sealed the door behind them. He then led them over to another door he had found. Inside there was the largest array of weapons any of them had ever seen outside of the Arbites' outpost armoury. It was crazy that anyone would leave this amount of firepower around in this unguarded spot. But they had and Ayden wasn't complaining. Grabbing a large canister of flamer-fuel he headed up top with the others with their new-found guns.

Snipe hadn't exaggerated. If anything he had sugar-coated the were at least a hundred Orks milling around, waiting for Emperor knows what. Then, without warning, they loosed a volley into the building and charged. In a moment of clarity before the Orks came in range Ayden thought: it's just one of those classic scenes: humanity, it's enemy's unnumbered charging in - it could only lead to the complete annihilation of one side. Before he could continue though, his thoughts were broken by the imminent arrival of the Orkish horde, then it was just action and reaction.

He was burning Orks as fast as he could but they were surrounded. Pain shot up his left leg. He looked down, a bullet had ricocheted of a wall grazing his leg. He saw sir wrestle an Ork to the ground and then gun expertly put a bullet in its head. Snipe climbed down from his vantage point standing back to back with hack as they unleashed a firestorm into the Ork ranks.

Although they were cutting swathes down, the greenskins kept coming again and again, he saw that soon the five men would be overwhelmed. Without even realising he was doing it he began reciting every prayer he knew, shouting them out at the top of his lungs, and then they were answered. Whether the God Emperor was listening or whether it was just dumb luck, suddenly the hive started to shake. Great chunks fell from the ceiling, crushing much of the area. Although this bought a respite in the intense fighting, their relief soon gave way to a much greater fear. The only reason the hive would shake was if it was under intense bombardment. The Imperials must have lost the battle for the sky, the Ork dropshis must have started to land. If the hive was besieged then there would be almost no point in contesting this place, they had already lost. They started to run. Startled by their prey's sudden change in 'tactics' the Orks milled around, only firing the odd shot in their direction, apparently content to sit on their original objective. As they reached fresh cover, sir and hack shared a worried look. "What is it?" snipe piped up not understanding.

"We disobeyed a direct order by an Arbites officer. So that we could be paid and not get shot we had to have our names and DNA patterns added to the database and officially become part of the Adeptus Arbiters. But because what we just did… " hack replied.

"We just committed a treasonous offence…" said sir.

"Punishable by death." snipe finished.

"Let's keep running," Ayden said.

"Agreed."

Chapter Thirteen

The time was 2.30. They had just come from the briefing, it had basically been about telling them how victory was assured and that the God Emperor would not let them fall. Suddenly klaxons started to sound, people were running to and fro, commanding officers shouting orders, a steady scream of jets grew closer and closer, the banshee like noise of their guns penetrated the wail of the klaxons.

Barely had they made it into one of the bunkers before explosions started to rip through the compound quickly followed by the tracers of the anti-air guns. The crudely made Ork fighta-bommerz were shredded by the defensive fire but not before they had unloaded the full force of their weapons' loads on the outer-compound wall, creating a breach almost a kilometre wide. The smoke plumes reached high into the sky. The light on the door of the bunker went from red to green as the last explosions went off.

"That was different," Vinx whispered to Trina, not wanting to break the ghost-like silence only broken by the occasional stutter of the vox caster as a new wave of orders came in.

A powerful voice came from one of the men standing next to the vox caster, the stars on his shoulder marked him out as a colonel, "Men, the outer sentries have spotted dust plumes, we have no reinforcements due and cannot make radio contact this means that they are Orks. Their ETA is five minutes. It looks like the bomber attack was meant to coincide with their ground assault. Get to your stations, we will not lose this base!"

Troops rushed out to their stations. Soon Vinx Trina and Williams were the only ones left.

"What is it soldiers!!! Get out there; this is the day you will fight for your Emperor."

"Umm… we just got here, what are we supposed to do?" Williams spoke, but having once been a officer himself he knew what sort of fuse they had for ignorance.

"How dare you! Get out there now! Where you fight does not matter as long as you fight," he practically screamed at them. Running out without a backward glance they shouldered the weapons that they had been issued. It looked like they had come out just at the worst moment. Ork speed freaks were kicking up dust outside the walls, giving supporting fire to the forces that had already charged in through the breach. Guardsmen fought and mostly died in hand to hand combat with creatures twice their size. Unnatural moans of pain filtered through the noise of combat.

"Well what are we waiting for?" asked Trina sarcastically.

"The Space Marines?" answered William tensely.

"Funny! Let's get going, wouldn't want to miss the party," Vinx said caustically.

They ran to the massed guardsmen on the walls, giving the fight in the breach a wide berth. A massive greenskin brute detached himself from the raging battle, hacking a guardsman in two all the while screaming and firing his pistol. He saw them. He charged, bringing his choppa down in a killing blow. Vinx dived out of the way, the blade missing him by scant centimetres. As he was skidding away he put a pinpoint bullet dead centre in the beast's head. Undaunted by the massive head trauma, the Ork turned, aiming his gun at Vinx. Then Trina and William impaled him in the torso with their bayonets, letting rip with their guns as they slashed away.

"Takes more than one bullet to kill those tough bastards," said Trina offering her hand to Vinx. Ignoring her he pulled himself up. Annoyed with her sarcasm at his brush with death he pretended he hadn't heard her over the roar of battle.

"Let's go people, we can argue when the greenskins are dead," said Williams

Nodding their assent they restarted their climb to the walls, all the while ducking as wild, inaccurate Ork slugs ricocheted around them. After climbing to the top of the walls and looking down at the wasteland in front of them, they wished they hadn't.

To their left was a hive city; just below that was the equilateral jungle even if it wasn't so bad that the hive was on fire, what really scared them was out front. Across the defensive trench lines infested with Orks and their vehicles were three huge Gargants, lumbering metal beasts dedicated to the Ork gods Gork and Mork. Firing massive shells, breaking up any formation of guard that tried to form together they unleashed a hail of fire, all the while getting slowly closer and closer. When they got in range of the Imperial gun line it would all be over.

The scream of jet engines thundered closer. Looking up, Williams could just see four squadrons of Lightings intercepting the Orks' air force, allowing a squadron of Marauder bombers a clear shot at the target. They released a massive pay load. It crippled one of the Gargants but the other two turned several of their monstrous guns up at the sky, ripping into the aerial formation. Barely any of the jets, Marauder and Lighting alike would be returning to base.

Despite the loss of one of their massive war machines, the Orks continued undaunted, and now the trio could see why: barely visible but still there in the distance, coming down from the sky a bare hundred or so miles away to the right was a massive Ork rok. It was a huge asteroid, filled with every imaginable type of weaponry. Massive thrusters fired, slowing its descent. It smashed into the ground, shaking the earth. Although they were at least a hundred miles away, it doesn't take long for a teleport to work, soon waves of Orks were pouring out of the Gargant's feet. Almost as soon as this thought had registered, devotional Hymns started playing out of the speakers around the base, nicely covering the roar of jets as a transport shuttle and an escort of two Thunderbolts took off, no doubt carrying the commanding officers of the installation.

"Isn't that a little pre-emptive, almost makes you think they expect us to lose," Trina muttered to her comrades in the brief lull in the fighting that the descent of the rok had created.

"We need to get out of here, were no use to anybody dead," Williams said.

"Cool, let's do that. Oh wait, we're surrounded on all sides," Vinx mentioned as if this little fact wasn't very important.

"There are still plenty of jets," Trina said.

"Yeah, and unless you haven't noticed, none of us are pilots," Vinx snapped.

"Well, I trained as a commercial pilot before I joined the Imperial navy, how much different can a shuttle be from a plane?" asked Williams.

Vinx and Trina shared an 'if we let him fly it I hope it has an ejector button' look. Their conversation finished just as the fighting started again in full swing. No-one noticed them slip away into the shadows. As soon as they were out of sight and out of mind they headed for the hangers. As predicted there were several obsolete looking fighter jets ready fuelled, they went to the one that looked like it had been in service for the least time and hopped in.

Something jumped out of the shadows, raising their guns to fire all they saw was a cowering man in the robes of an Adeptus Mechanicus initiate.

"Please take me with you!" he cried out as they lowered their weapons "There wasn't enough room on the first flight out of here. They said they would come back for me but they didn't."

Williams looked into the cockpit, there were three seats. Anyone who didn't have a seat would be tossed around like a rag doll until their neck was broken. He would have to leave one of his people behind if he was to take this snivelling wretch with him.

Seeing the look that passed across their faces the initiate realised that they weren't going to take him with them. "I have records that say you were conscripted, an order to have you executed on sight will be passed to all Imperial planets within 20 light-years of this system; you can't go anywhere. If you take me with you I won't do it!"

"The lives of my friends are worth more to me than you are," said Williams coldly, raising his las-pistol.

"NO PLEASE DON'T…AHHHHH," William put a bullet into the initiate's foot.

"We can let the Orks finish him."

They left the bleeding man of the floor, taxiing the aircraft onto the runway. They took off as the final elements of the outpost's defenders broke and ran, the Orks' crude vehicles scant seconds behind them. They watched as the guardsmen were encircled and wiped out to a man. They saw the victorious Orks celebrating their victory, and throughout these events they felt no pity, maybe the war was getting to them but they had changed since they had started fighting.

William turned the nose of the aircraft towards the far distant hive, having barely enough fuel to reach it. They flew across open wastelands covered with corpses and burnt out shells of vehicles now only useful to the circling vultures. As they reached the hive city they saw the heavy fighting and death pervading the landscape.

Spotting a clear patch of ground they set the aircraft down and continued on foot to the hive's walls, it was a patchwork of broken masonry and plastic. It didn't take them long to crawl through a sizable gap in the wall. They found themselves in a dimly lit room filled with rubbish and five men pointing guns at them.

"So do you want to explain exactly what you doing here?"

"Umm…."

Chapter Fourteen

There was a rustling noise in the walls. Gun quickly walked over and placed his ear against the crack in the wall. He quickly made a flurry of symbols with his hands. Understanding what he wanted, Ayden woke sir, snipe and hack, gesturing to the noise emanating from the wall. Nodding, they picked up their weapons and prepared to face whatever sort of Ork came through.

What they saw was something completely different. Three people wearing an assortment of rags crawled through the wall. Surprised, they were all momentarily silent: why would anyone try to sneak in to this doomed hive? Then sir stepped forward, "So do you want to explain exactly what you doing here?"

"Umm… " One of them replied stupidly. The standoff continued.

"You look like you have been through hell, so why did you come here? It's just gonna get ugly. You must have seen the amount of Orks that are arrayed outside?"

"Well why are you here? This place is completely uninhabited; this section of the underhive is nearly inaccessible, the only reason you would be here is if you expected an attack and if that was the case there would be more than five people. The only other reason is that you wanted to escape for whatever reason." Vinx had put two and two together much more quickly that the others.

"Perhaps you are right and that we do want to escape or perhaps we should just shoot you now?"

"If you want to escape we have a plane outside. It's out of fuel but you look like the type of people that could help us get some."

"We thought we heard a plane coming in, but by the sound of the engine it isn't very big, not nearly big enough for all of us," sir said in an accusatory tone.

"There must be an air base round here somewhere, if there's an air base all we need to do is steal a shuttle," William spoke tiredly.

"Oh 'only' steal a shuttle, is that it? Because the only airfield I see round here is on top of the spire and that has at least 100 guardsmen on high alert guarding it day and night," snipe said annoyed.

"The only reason we couldn't steal one of their aircraft isn't because they're guarding the airfield it's because they're guarding the only way up except for the skies. If a registered aircraft were to land nobody would care, it could take us all as long as you didn't go above a certain speed," Trina mused.

"This could work, but we need the ID code or they'd just shoot us down," Vinx said, instantly spotting the problem in the plan.

"Don't worry about the ID there isn't a computer alive that my man couldn't hack," sir said.

"Well then it looks like we've got a plan, but we still need the fuel," Williams said.

"The fuel shouldn't be a problem. I've got an idea… "

"That's your plan, you're crazy!" They were looking down at a massive pipe. It ran all the way from hive to hive supplying them with fuel. Because of the importance of this objective it was heavily guarded. At least twenty guards patrolled the giant 'filling station'. All they need to do was get one of the supply trucks, fill it with fuel and drive out to where they had come in, feed the pipe through the wall and then just start pumping.

The problem was the twenty high-alert guards that were patrolling the pipeline. If just one got the word out that they were under attack, they would be up to their butts in storm-troopers in a couple of minutes. So they had devised a plan that was filled with loop holes and unthought-of problems.

Snipe, Trina and Vinx would go down the pipeline for about ten miles and shut off the gas by blowing a small hole in the pipe; while the guards were running down there, they would leave. Then sir, hack and Williams would head down to the controls and start siphoning off the fuel while Ayden and gun would start shooting up the storm-trooper compound in an attempt to delay them. If it all went according to plan, the three groups would meet up back were they began, pump the fuel into the plane, fly up to the top of the hive city, fight through the soldiers guarding the airfield, find and try to steal a shuttle while being shot at and hope that it was fuelled and serviced and then fly out of there with no trained pilot to an unknown destination. Simple, right?

In fact, at first it went off with out a hitch. The guards left to check out the explosion down the pipeline. Although they took most of the vehicles with them they left one that was capable of carrying the fuel. Williams started to siphon of the fuel and everything was fine. Trina, snipe and Vinx were almost back at the meeting point, their tanker was almost full. But it all started to fall apart at the storm-trooper base. At the right moment Ayden and gun started to fire into the base, but it was all for nought they did no damage and only succeeded in being almost encircled. They had two choices: stay and be killed or run like hell towards the only place that seemingly wasn't filled with troops, their base.

Running, las-blasts scorching the ground around them, they skidded through the open gates. Heading down a passageway, they emerged into the middle of a vehicle park. They figured that if they were going to get out they would need some transport, so clambering into a solid-looking armoured personnel carrier they fired up the engine and ploughed through buildings and fences alike. A smattering of bullets pattered the side of the hull harmlessly. Even when a heavy bolter started to churn out rounds at them all it did was put harmless dents in the side of the armour. Ten minutes later they arrived to find the others, pipe in hand, feeding it through the wall. Jumping out of the carrier, they headed over to the group.

"Nice wheels, hope you weren't followed, I've been listening in on the voxcaster in the truck, hearing all about the theft of an armoured troop carrier. They say they've been getting a tracking signal from it and they had a clear bead on its location."

"Oh crap."

"Exactly."

Just then, as if someone had heard them, autoguns and lasguns started firing. All it would take was a single shot to hit the half empty tanker and the whole place would go up in smoke. Returning fire, they ran for the small room they had come through in.

Williams turned to hack and Vinx, "How much fuel does it need exactly, we're not going to space?"

"Well what we've got in it should do it at a stretch," Vinx replied.

"What about the codes?" sir shouted over to hack.

"I've been working on them, I'm certain that I've cracked them," hack answered.

"Good! In that case let's get the hell out of here; I take it the others are already on the outside?"

They nodded assent to both questions, squeezing through the hole in the wall. They had barely made it to the other side before an over zealous storm-trooper threw a grenade in their direction, taking a portion of the hive down behind them.

Looking at the caved-in area as the dust settled, Trina turned to others, "Wasn't this meant to be covert, as in not telling everyone we're here sort of thing?"

Shaking his head William climbed into the aircraft. "We'll be able to take off in a sec."

"Wait, you're flying us? Do you have any experience? I think I should take care of it," hack said.

"Well if you say so, but when we get shot down, it's your fault."

"Whatever."

They took the aircraft up slowly, turning the nose skywards. The engines screamed briefly as they fought inertia. As they reached altitude, a flurry of questions erupted from the comms equipment. If hack got even a single question wrong then they would just be a bright explosion in the sky. But hack knew his work and, luckily, no-one actually cared to ask where they had come from.

Reaching the top of the hive spire, they came into land. Hack begun to power the flier down and Williams, Vinx and Trina opened the hatch. A phalanx of guardsmen was standing in front of them, guns levelled.

"Uh-oh."

Chapter Fifteen

A familiar looking man stepped forward, he had crutches and it looked like his foot was had been shot. Suddenly, recognition grew in their eyes. This was the bureaucrat they had shot back at the battle at the outpost before they had stolen the aircraft.

"Thought you'd seen the last of me? What you didn't know was that there was a secret tunnel. Myself and several guardsmen managed to escape to the underground intercity railway. We got here shortly before you," he smiled a sickly smile. "Shoot them, you won't trouble us any more."

Just as the troopers were raising their guns, hack increased the flier's power, swung the aircraft round and went to full afterburn still on the ground. This quick thinking blasted red-hot jet wash over the guardsmen, incinerating and obliterating those directly behind the engines. They were the lucky ones. Outside the immediate blast radius, agonising screams of pain filled the air, as effective as any kind of alarm. Williams saw the half incinerated body of the cleric they had shot, there wasn't much left, he had been standing right below one of the engines.

"And this time stay dead," William spat at the body. "We have to get moving, find a shuttle, hotwire the engine and let's get going."

They fanned out across the landing pads, checking the various shuttles on stand-by. Hack shouted, "This one," sticking his head out of one shuttle's hatch. Ducking back inside he climbed into the pilot's seat and began checking the controls, muttering to himself as he hacked into the systems.

As the others ran towards the shuttle hack had chosen, across the airfield one of the cargo elevators rose to the surface, there was a squad of guardsmen on it. Without a second's thought Vinx dropped to one knee and fired a volley into the men, dropping them like stones. Then another squad appeared from a second elevator platform. Snipe and gun took care of them, but more guards kept coming.

As another group stepped out from a hanger, Vinx, snipe and gun ran, firing over their backs as they dashed to the landing pad that the others had made for . Hack was almost done, hacking into the navigational system. Williams was starting the engine, it roared to life, the whine of the engines grew in intensity; the last three dove headfirst into the hatch as the others laid down a stream of fire on any guardsmen that poked their heads up.

"Wait a sec, how are we going to get past the aerial defences? We can't use any codes like we did last time. Won't they know this is a stolen shuttle; they'll just shoot us down… " panted snipe

"Really, really good flying?" Vinx suggested, answering the first of snipe's questions with one of his own.

"Right…" sir said.

The engines flared briefly. A few bullets dented the hull but the ship was designed to take much sterner punishment than the guardsmen's guns could dish out. Taxiing from their pad to the runway they started to gain speed. Hack fed more power to the engines and the shuttle rose into the sky. But as they gained height they came under almost immediate attack from the anti-air guns. Hack only saw one way around this problem. Without even telling the others to get ready he cut the engine. The shuttle plummeted, shouts filled the compartment as they fell, every one pinned to their seats. As the ground filled the viewports, at about 800 feet, the engines roared back to life and they sped away out of range of the AA guns – unable to depress their barrels to fire at targets below their own height.

"Never ever do that again!" sir shouted.

"We're alive aren't we," snapped hack, "which reminds me: how are we going to stay alive? All we did was delay the inevitable."

"We could go into space," Trina murmured.

"In this crate, we wouldn't last five minutes, and unless you have a nice destroyer in your back pocket we're stuck here," hack said, angry at her stupidity.

"What about the space port on Phoenix Island?" Williams asked.

"Even if we found a ship small enough to get undetected into space but big enough to hold us all, then we would just be trapped in orbit."

"But what about the empty merchant vessels?" 

"I'm sorry, what empty merchant vessels?"

"At each spaceport there are always a few Caravel class transports. They're just about warp capable and are usually used as tugs. Flat out in-system, they're as fast as a Nova class destroyer and they even have a few weapons," Trina was talking to hack like he was a idiot, which was brave of her since he was probably the smartest person any of them knew.

"Well then, it looks like we have a heading: Phoenix Island," gun said simply.

"That's gonna be a problem, the Orks completely own the skies between there and here, the only way through is if we circle round through the equitorial jungles and come at it from the west," Vinx stated.

"Do we have enough fuel?" Trina asked

"Fuel's not the problem. The greenskins have massed in the forest, if we were to be shot down we would be surrounded on all sides by feral Orks," William answered.

"Let's get going, wouldn't want to waste any time," hack said annoyed.

The aircraft went to afterburner, the wail of its engines reaching a crescendo until it exploded into the sound barrier, shaking the ground. They climbed to 5,000 feet and started to speed for the jungles.

Chapter Sixteen

They had been flying for nearly an hour before they saw it; they were getting ready to start curving away, ready for the flight across water. It was a huge monolith. It gleamed, sending out a ungodly black light. They all watched, somehow transfixed. As hack banked their shuttle they spotted something move on the pyramid-like structure. It glowed a ghostly green then shot out. It hit the rear engines in a perfect shot, they plummeted from 5,000 feet to 500 in about 20 seconds. Hack managed to flare the aircraft's wings, slowing their descent but not enough. They ploughed into the ground leaving a massive trail. Luckily nobody was seriously hurt. But that didn't really matter; they were deep inside Ork territory surround by feral Orks and some metallic structure that really didn't like them.

They climbed out of the wrecked shuttle, grabbing what supplies they could and started to walk towards what was apparently a Imperial base. Then, a flash in the undergrowth, something metal, a familiar green flash shot out. It missed Trina by scant centimetres, blowing a hole in the dirt by her feet. She rolled to the ground scanning the undergrowth for any sign of her attacker. Then all hell broke loose, a skeletal figure broke from cover marching towards them, followed by about ten more. They opened fire, the humans started running, jumping over fallen logs and wading through streams they made their way to the Imperial base.

It was in a clearing, little more than a shanty town. They ran through the gates and were met by a man even bigger than sir. He was painted green and for a second they actually thought he was an Ork. Then he spoke. "You must have been in that aircraft," he smiled grimly, "Looks like you're stuck here with the rest of us now. We need new bodies for the grinder as it is." With that he walked away.

Moving around the camp they got a few suspicious looks but nobody openly challenged them. That's when they spotted a way out, a clear path that looked like it led to the eastern wasteland. They were just starting to walk down the path when someone wearing a battered Cadian uniform stepped out of the jungle, from a hitherto unknown position amongst the trees.

"You wouldn't be trying to leave now would you?" His lasgun was raised pointing at them.

Backing away, Williams spoke cautiously, "No of course not… Sir."

"Good, why are you still standing here? Back to your post soldiers."

"Where are we gonna go now?" sir muttered under his breath.

"Well, all we need is a distraction. The next time the feral Orks attack we should be able to leave," William spoke in the same quiet tones.

"Oh we just wait for that do we, because it'll be easier to leave when we're surrounded by Orks than just shoot the lone guard." sir said sarcastically.

"Trust me," Williams said smiling.

"I've know you for all of half a day. How am I meant to trust you," sir said angry at Williams. "All I know is that you're being hunted by just about everyone, including the Imperial guard who we're supposed to be helping, and that you need a ride of this rock."

"It's not like you're any different, you're being hunted for god knows what and without us you'd still be stuck in that hive surrounded on all sides by Imperials and Orks!"

"Fine, we'll use your plan."

They didn't have to wait long. They had arrived at about midday, it was dark when the Orks attacked, none of them had slept for at least 20 hours. Exhausted they stood in the centre of the compound. Floodlights lit the base, just outside range the Orks were shouting in their guttural language. Klaxons wailed, the occasion bullet flew overhead matched by the occasional explosion of mines in the jungle, and then the attack really got underway.

Feral Orks ran screaming at the walls, leaping on top of their fallen brethren to get at the defenders. Every time one Ork leapt over the walls he was filled with bullets, but then the gates blew as a crude Ork device detonated from one of the greenskin bodies lying by the gatehouse. The Orks came charging through. Desperately, the humans fought, their faces lit up with a ghostly glow from the burning gate as they were embroiled in a vast melee.

"I told you this was a bad plan," sir yelled.

"Well it looks like it's all going to plan. All we need to do is regroup with the others and get the hell out of here," Williams shouted back above the din of battle. They were fighting back to back in the courtyard.

Then the Orks unveiled their masterpiece, a stroke of greenskin genius. While the dazed guardsmen in the gatehouse who should have been watching the jungle paths with their heavy lascannon and autocannon were battling their immediate attackers, several ramshackle, red-painted vehicles belonging to the Ork speed freak clan sped up the path, pouring automatic fire into the defenders. But luckily not every one was so embroiled in the combat as to not see them coming, Trina was standing on the walls next to gun, she shouted a warning to him. He looked out at the approaching vehicles horrified but then nodded. Standing on the wall he started to hose the Ork vehicles with bullets, enough for them to concentrate on him.

Without warning Trina jumped off the wall landing neatly on the back of an Ork trukk where an Ork was firing a massive shoota at the melee around the gate. He turned with an almost comical look of surprise on his face at the fact that a human had just fallen out of the sky but it didn't take him long to reach for his choppa. Trina kicked his legs doing absolutely no damage. Shouting she leapt to her feet and gutted the Ork with her bayonet just as he was about to slice her in two. Turning she but a bullet square in the back of the driver's head. Pushing the body to one side, she slid into the driving seat, grabbing the wheel. There were just two pedals, accelerator and turbo-boost – no brake. Who would have thought it was an automatic? She slewed the vehicle round and headed for gun who had climbed down from the wall. He jumped in, grabbed the shoota and started mowing down Orks in scores. She drove in through the wrecked gate heading to where the others were fighting, ramming Ork mobs as she went.

She had picked up the rest of their motley crew but hadn't yet seen sir and Williams. Then she spotted them, backed into a gap between two buildings where the Orks could only get at them one at a time. But the two men were weakening.

"Down," yelled gun and the two men dropped to the earth. The Orks trying to get at them turned at the voice to see gun grinning behind his shoota. He let rip and the greenskins died.

Williams and sir clambered to their feet. "Figures...she...would...leave...us...last," sir said slowly, tired.

"Yeah...whatever."

The stolen Ork trukk ploughed its way towards them, its occupants firing out into the masses of Orks now pouring in through the gate. Trina slewed sideways, squashing Orks as the truck slammed into the wall by the alleyway. The two men jumped in.

William turned to sir, "So what sort of plan was it again?" Having not yet caught his breath sir just mumbled something abusive.

The trukk wobbled dangerously as it bounced and jolted over the path, each rock making it seem like another part of the vehicle had come adrift. They could see that the shoddily-made parts were falling off it. All of Vinx's expertise in engineering wouldn't help them if they had nothing left to repair. They had made a clean break from the camp. As Williams had predicted, the Orks and the Imperials were too busy trying to rip each other's throats out than try to stop them leaving with their escaped vehicle. One of the other Ork trukks had tried to follow them but a burst of fire from the shoota soon put paid to any attempts to stop them. They gave the location of the monolith a wide berth, they didn't want a repeat of what happened to them the first time.

Chapter Seventeen

They left the equitorial jungle close to Death Mire. Since they now had no aircraft and no other way across the seas they would have to try to board one of the gigatankers at the harbour city. However, this could be a problem, feral Orks poured out of the forests day and night. The harbour defenders had been almost wiped out even though bands of Ork hunters were in the process of destroying the feral Ork nests.

But with Ork speed freaks now roaming the area, staying where they were wasn't an option either. Kicking up a dust plume, they sped towards the sound of battle at the harbour. The Ork trukk was becoming almost impossible to drive, the front and back sections were coming apart and three of the six wheels were completely flat meaning that Trina had to keep making course corrections or risk drifting off. Even though they would have to ditch it soon, they had made good progress in the trukk. They were barely a mile away from Death Mire harbour when the engine finally sputtered and died on them. They jumped out and started to walk away, but not before sir ripped the massive shoota of the back of the car.

"Very imposing," snipe muttered to Vinx.

"I could take him," said Vinx sniggering.

It didn't take them long to reach the ruined harbour city. The smoke plumes were high, the sounds of battle were clear and it looked like the city was perpetually on fire. Stepping warily through craters and ruined buildings, they moved cautiously closer to the battle. Then they saw it, Space Marines and hive militia stood side by side against insurmountable odds. Orks rampaged through the lines. They could even see a squiggoth in the distance. Ork submersibles and ships littered the bay, the tide was out and they looked like a giant's playthings.

They had no choice. To run away they had to fight. They quickly made their presence known. Sir started letting rip with his massive shoota. The others opened up, using their various procured weapons. Ayden ran to a group of Orks, toasting them with his flamer.

And then they saw their chance. The squiggoth had a rope ladder rolled up and locked to the top carriage; a quick shot from snipe blew the lock off, letting the ladder unwind. The squiggoth was standing by a platform. All they needed to do was jump the metre or so gap and grab the ladder, and then they could climb up. Dealing with the Orks would be a simple matter of a grenade and a burst of bullets. No-one would stop a squiggoth; it was just a short ride to the beached ships, as it was they could already see the tide turning. They started to run. They jumped, they grabbed. One of them missed the jump. Sir tumbled to the ground, impaling himself on the waiting greenskin choppas. Gun cried out. The others all felt affection for the bear of a man that had been through so much in his life. But if one thing being in the army and living your life as a bounty hunter, living with death told you, it was how to prepare for it. A few tears were shed but they could grieve later.

Snipe tossed a grenade into the swarm of Orks at the squiggoth's feet while the others cleared the platform on the animal's back. Before the Orks could react they were dead. Anger for their fallen comrade had fuelled their hatred of the greenskins, lending them speed. Soon the cabin that sat atop the squiggoth was empty of all Orks. There was a simple switchboard on one of the walls, it controlled the beast. There were little electrical devices attached to the brain of the creature and its limbs.

Amongst the wreckage of the carriage there were several artillery pieces. Most looked like simple mortars but others appeared to be relatively complicated energy weapons. Suddenly the squiggoth bucked violently.

"Sorry," Vinx and hack muttered, they hadn't quite got the hang of the control panel. They understood what most of the buttons were but it looked like they had been testing to see what others did.

It didn't take long for the Orks on the ground to realise that the squiggoth was no longer on their side; they started to climb up the rope ladder, all the while hammering the beast with their shootas. The squiggoth roared in pain and surged forward towards the harbour. Gun leaned over and sprayed those Orks still clinging to the ladder with bullets and they fell away. On the swaying platform they felt the beast stagger and go into its death throes. It had, however, already served its purpose; it had carried them across the Ork lines and to the ships that were already half submerged with water. But there was one thing they hadn't though about: what were they to do about the half-dead beast when they got off the platform? Left to its own devices the crazed and dying creature would probably try to stomp them.

Williams turned to hack and Vinx, "How can we stop this… thing… following us?"

"Well I think that if we press this button for long enough it should make it go into cardiac arrest," Vinx answered while hack nodded.

"Good let's do that. Come-on we don't have all day." They started to climb down the rope ladder. They had barely made it to the shoreline when the beast bucked once then died.

They boarded a slightly damaged Imperial submarine. Trina asked an obvious question, "Won't the Orks just shoot us with their air force?"

"It's a sub; they'll never see us," hack put in.

"Well if you say so…" Trina said not completely convinced.

"I do, now if you've finished bickering we should leave," Vinx said.

Chapter Eighteen

The trip was uneventful, a blessed respite. The sub had been slightly damaged. This slowed them down, but not significantly as they sailed on just below the surface. Ork fighters patrolled the skies but they didn't spot the sub's track. But despite this and the need to avoid the occasional Ork stolen Gigatanker, nothing much happened. It was the quiet before the storm.

They beached the submarine happy to leave it; but the second they left they had to restrain themselves from climbing back in. Stretched before them, like some twisted landscape, was Phoenix Island. It was a wasteland littered with carcasses, stripped clean of their flesh by the toxic fumes and shells of exploded vehicles. In the distance they could see thousands of raving Orks pouring across a damaged bridge to the island spaceport, what was worse there were Orks already on their side of the island.

"There in that hangar over there," Trina said, gesticulating at a distant shadow-covered object wreathed in smoke. The fight for the island was already underway. Space Marines stood in knee high acid, the corpses of Imperial guardsmen already dissolving around them.

The heroes of the Imperium put up an impressive showing but the fight was not going the way of the Space Marines. The Orks were boxing them in, herding them together. As they watched, a squad of Marines was obliterated by an Ork rokkit. The thin line was breaking, and then the remnants of the Imperium's finest ran for the safety of their Thunderhawk gunships. A vile shout started to pulsate through the numberless greenskin horde as the Thunderhawks took off, heading for orbit.

"They'll be back," Trina said hopefully for to herself than anyone else.

"Yeah, but only after a lengthy bombardment," said Vinx, as always cynical.

"We'd be completely exposed," hack said depressed.

"

So die now or die later, which to choose," snipe said, annoyance showing on his pale features.

"There has to be a way, I refuse to die after coming all this way," gun muttered.

"A way? Against that? We are lost!" Williams said his face twisted with anger and guilt.

"Well… " Ayden started.

"Well what? We don't have long,"

"Those Gargants over..."

"Are you insane? We can't steal a Gargant," Williams said.

"Why not? It's not like we've got any choice. At least this way even if we are caught then we can go down with a real fight," Ayden said, irritated at Williams' lack of a survival instinct.

"What have we got to lose, we stay here we die, we try to sneak to the hangar we'll probably be caught. We go over there like that, as flame said, even if we get caught we can give them a run for their money," Trina said a light in her previously dark eyes, a flare of hope.

"Fine, we wait till nightfall then we attack."

Williams didn't really know the meaning of nightfall having spent most of his adult life on a ship that was always lit. They tried to move stealthily, difficult since they could only see the Gargants by the sentry's torches.

They had almost made it though, all they needed to do was to kill one group Orks silently and they would have a clear run at the metal monstrosity - still easier said than done.

Near the feet of the nearest Gargant there was a small group of Orks roaring and cheering. They looked like they were betting on a contest between two grots. It wouldn't last forever but it provided vital distraction for them. They all drew knives. Taking on Orks in close combat is always ill-advised, but they had no choice. Their guns would have lit the place up. They needed to do this as silently as possible and quickly. There were three Orks and the two grots. Each of them picked a target.

They went for the Orks, ignoring the grots, this was their mistake. They struck, leaping out of shadows plunging their combat knives into the bodies of the Orks. Two were dead before they hit the ground, the other one lay there gurgling quietly, his throat slit.

But they had given the two grots a chance to run. Trina threw her knife, it embedded itself in the head of one of the grots. The other one ran off into the darkness.

"Crap," Trina retrieved her knife but it was too late to get the other grot.

"He'll light up all the alarms in this place in seconds," Ayden said, barely audible.

"Well we better hurry then," gun spoke equally quietly.

They moved forward hurriedly though still stealthily but it was all for nought; they entered the control cabin, it was empty. No guards. The controls were simple, just some levers. The problem was the Gargant's engine, it used some old combustible fuel to drive it, Vinx warned them, the engine needed to warm up first or it could explode. It would take time to do this, time they didn't have.

Orks, alerted to their whereabouts had run to the Gargant and were starting to climb up the ladder to the metal monster's cabin access hatch. Williams and gun shot each one as they came up. Other Orks, deciding that they didn't want to add their names to those of the recently deceased, started to bombard the hatchway forcing Williams and gun to duck inside. They continued to pin them down even as more greenskins started to climb up the ladder again.

Williams and gun fought a running battle as they retreated back to the command room. As they reached it the huge metal beast lumbered into action, the engine roared. As if in answer to this, the Gargant's cannons opened up. Suddenly, the Orks on the ground were in disarray but the Orks that had already boarded ran into the cabin, yelling their guttural warcries. They charged into the room. Each of the humans faced up to a greenskin warrior. The Gargant came to a halt as Vinx turned from the controls, ducking a choppa swipe. Its cannons also fell silent as gun also joined the fray. Now they were surely doomed; since the vehicle had stopped it wouldn't take long for more Orks to start climbing into the Gargant and when that happened they would be destroyed by weight of numbers. They did the only thing that they could in the situation. They ran.

Williams yelled, "Grenades!" As they pelted through the hatch in the bulkhead they each threw a grenade behind them. "Help me!" Williams threw his weight against the massive Ork designed hatch. The others joined him and pushed it shut as the grenades went off together.

There was a moment of silence. They reopened the hatch. The room looked like some debauched ritual had gone on. Bits of Ork were hanging from almost everywhere. Amazingly the controls still worked. Ork devices are crude and badly made, but they are resilient.

They resumed their insane charge towards the hangar and the one thing that might save them. But now the Orks were prepared. The steady thump of artillery pieces battered the sides of the Gargant. Usually small arms fire isn't very effective against this sort of lumbering giant, but with literally thousands of guns firing at the Gargant, some bullets found targets in the hydraulics around its feet. Smoke started to emanate out of the machine every time the engine chugged but gradually they outdistanced the Orks on foot. And then they were there; through everything they had reached their final destination on this planet.

The Gargant halted, they quickly climbed down from the great metal animal that had taken them the last leg of their journey. They opened the hangar's side door. Inside was a ship. It was tiny, a bare 300 or so metres long.

"You're sure that this can travel through the warp?" hack asked sceptically.

"Of course," Trina answered.

"Right, well we don't have long. Let's get this bird in the air," Williams spoke impatiently. As if to underline this point the first of the Orks that had chased the Gargant appeared at the hangar door, firing. No further persuasion was needed. They slammed the ship's hatch shut and secured it.

As Williams and hack strapped themselves into the two pilots' seats Vinx ran in, "We're ready to go."

"What, just like that? No death defying wait? Things are getting easier!"

"The ship is quite new, it's been kept in good condition and the Orks haven't had time to defile it." The ship also had weapons, two small lances to deal with asteroids and fighters.

"Wait, how are we going to get out of here. The main doors are closed and the roof doesn't open," gun asked stupidly.

"The roof does open," Vinx said smiling. He pushed a button, an arc of fire leapt from the ship's lances making a new, massive, skylight. "These ships just levitate right out of here."

The ship started to rise. A flash of blue around the ship notified the 'crew' that its shields were raised. And only just in time, nearly out of range but still capable of hurting them, the second Gargant raised its massive arms and started to fire. Vinx responded with the lances, shredding the beast. They left the atmosphere seconds later, gathering speed they fled into space..

Epilogue

Williams looked down at the planet below; as they had entered orbit, an accusatory voice on the ship's voxcaster had told them that if they left they would be treated as cowards. They didn't stop. Their death warrants had already been spread amongst the remaining Imperial planets in the sector. The ship was preparing to jump, he turned away. There was nothing left for them here any more. The ship made the jump; they headed into the unknown, they plotted no course, the ship would leave warp space on its own time. They would go wherever the Emperor took them.


End file.
