Nareth led the Honor Guard forward, gathering up scattered members along the way.
Hundreds, then thousands of Orks surged toward them, but their crazed charge did nothing to slow the Honor Guard's advance.
The Primarch found his aide and most of the Honor Guard, driving straight toward the corridor.
It wasn't until they were about a kilometer from their destination that real trouble appeared.
The Mekboyz bosses who had built the portal came stomping out ahead, leading mobs of Burna Boyz.
"FER GORK AN' MORK, LET'S SMASH DA HUMIES TA BITS!"
One Mekboyz boss bellowed as he was first onto the field.
The Burna Boyz roared like maniacs in reply, then unleashed their roaring flamers.
Arsena, his breathing mask gleaming, strode forward and swept his staff outward.
An invisible barrier field shimmered into place, halting the torrent of fire.
Nareth's voice thundered out, louder than the crackle of the inferno.
"Flanks! Hit their fuel tanks!"
The Honor Guard on the wings raised their bolters and fired at the iron tanks strapped to the orks' backs.
Diamond-tipped bolts punched through the metal shells. The explosions triggered chain reactions of promethium.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Ork hides and crude armor were torn apart, the pyromaniacs blown into sprays of gore and fire.
One Mekboyz let out a scream before his tools and body alike were swallowed in black smoke.
The Guard advanced another hundred meters before dozens more Mekboyz appeared ahead, this time backed by tens of thousands of Burna Boyz.
"FIRE UP DA CHOPPAZ, LADZ! WE'S MELTIN' 'EM GOOD!"
The Burna Boyz yanked levers and switched their weapons into searing-torch mode.
The largest Mekboy roared, his blood boiling, a core of rage swelling inside his chest.
He raised his massive gun and fired a dozen shots skyward.
The chatter of gunfire cut through the air as he bellowed: "One dead black tinz! One pint o' fungus beer!"
"DAKA DAKA DAKA!!"
The Burna Boyz' eyes blazed green fire.
"WAAAGH!"
"TORCH DA BLACK TINZ!"
An ocean of flame erupted, sweeping toward the Honor Guard.
The silver-haired psyker raised both hands high, pouring his full will into holding up the field.
Sweat broke instantly across his forehead as the Ork flame smashed into his barrier. He felt it, more flame, hotter flame, changed flame.
Within moments, cracks opened in the shimmering wall.
Arsena's hand trembled.
Crack!
The fire burst through, engulfing an Honor Guard Astartes in his black power armor.
The warrior was turned to charred ruin in an instant.
The Shadows of Order, bound together by their brotherhood, felt his agony and burned with wrath. They hurled themselves forward faster than before.
Bolter fire slammed into the Ork flamestreams, detonations rolling across the battlefield.
Nareth slid the Sword of Vaul back, stooped, and snatched up a piece of ork armor.
With a flex of his hand, the Primarch crushed the hard plating into fragments, shards, strips, spheres.
"Here's a gift for you!"
The Briber infused the shards with psychic force and hurled them high.
The iron pieces arced over the inferno and dropped into the Ork ranks.
Guided by his inhuman aim, each shard struck home, shattering masks and slamming into snarling green faces.
Dozens of Burna Boyz howled, then snapped.
In their madness, every ork around them suddenly looked like the enemy.
With bellowing rage, they swung their flamers at their own mobs.
Caught off guard, the Burna Boyz tore into each other, spewing fire wildly. Hundreds died in their own infernos.
The Ork line, held together by the Mekboyz, collapsed into chaos.
Nareth nodded in satisfaction.
The Briber's Charm made it almost impossible for those struck to feel enmity toward him, sometimes even turning them against their own.
Against Orks, it's devastating. With no enemies, they always find one among themselves.
Nareth kept hurling shards, and every toss spawned new whirlwinds of fire. Orks by the thousands turned the battlefield into a burning slaughterhouse.
The Primarch's chain glowed red around his finger, refilling the psychic energy he'd spent.
Arsena bent low, thrusting both arms outward, and shoved with all his will.
The firestorm itself heaved forward, rolling over the Orks.
The Honor Guard split in two wings, sweeping around the inferno toward the portal.
That was when Nareth saw it.
Before the portal stood a towering yellow war machine, its front daubed with a crude red beast-head.
A Gorkanaut.
Nareth recognized it instantly, a walking idol of Gork himself, every Ork's dream made metal.
The Gorkanaut raised its arm and opened fire.
The Shadows of Order dropped down far from the Primarch, heading for their marked objectives.
Meanwhile, Nareth's squad had drawn every Mekboyz in the area. The other two teams slipped through to the corridor.
The Gorkanaut's Deffstorm Megashoota spun up, its six barrels vomiting a hail of shells.
One Honor Guard was torn apart instantly.
The Apothecary threw himself onto the fallen, his duty absolute. Together they rolled away as the torrent chewed the earth into craters.
The Honor Guards returned fire, bolter shells chewing chunks from the massive walker's hide.
Inside the cockpit, the Ork howled in fury at every strike.
He triggered rocket racks on the Gorkanaut's back, sending missiles screaming into the Guard's ranks.
BOOM!
The squads scattered.
The Gorkanaut's right arm barked, twin big shootas spat another storm of shells.
Another Guard fell. The ork boss laughed, stomping toward the body, chest-flamer belching hellfire.
But a black shadow slammed into the machine with hurricane force.
The ork boss reeled inside, glimpsing a giant far taller than the "black tinz".
With a snarl, he triggered the massive Klaw of Gork, the roaring power claw crashing down toward Nareth.
The Primarch's power fist flared gold.
Fist met claw.
The impact thundered like an earthquake. The Gorkanaut staggered back, gouging deep trenches in the ground.
The Ork howled, for the first time since Gork had chosen him, he was losing in strength.
The claw was shattered, shards raining to the dirt.
Rage and the echo of Gork's own roar filled the cockpit. The Gorkanaut's chest belched fire.
But Nareth rolled aside, landing light as air.
He invoked the Otsberg-Vaya First Form and drove the Sword of Vaul straight for the cockpit.
The claw blocked, but the sword struck the crack. The weapon exploded with power, tearing the claw apart.
The Second Form followed, a reverse thrust of blinding blue-white light.
The blade punched through the machine's chest, through the Ork inside.
The towering Gorkanaut collapsed in ruin.
The Honor Guard stared in awe, their eyes filled with reverence for their Gene-father who had felled a god-machine in moments.
The techmarines rushed to the corridor, studying its mechanisms.
Nareth, noticing the Ork teeth glowing faintly with spiritual resonance, drew a chainsword and hacked two out.
He left a squad to hold the portal, using the Gorkanaut's wreck as cover against any Orks that emerged.
Then he pressed the assault on the other portals.
The Honor Guard, with the 2nd and 7th Chapters, launched brutal boarding actions, crippling the Ork Attack Moon.
Out in the void, the 11th Chapter arrived to scour the ork fleet.
For the first time in true battle, Pell commanded his ship, and hurled it into the slaughter of green-skin battleships.
...
If you enjoy the story, my p@treon is 30 chapters ahead.
[email protected]/DaoistJinzu