Nabeel's vox crackled as a badly aimed missile streaked by and disturbed the signal. His landspeeder buckled under him as he made a turn around to locate the source of the missile. His gunner yelled for him to turn left, and let loose a barrage of bolter shells. Another missile launched from its tubes, its smoke trails leading to the guilty ork. Nabeel waited long enough for his gunner to shoot down the Ork missile launcher, then banked the speeder landspeeder sharply. The missile narrowly missed the speeder and Nabeel steered his speeder towards the Furious Storm's line.
Orks crashed on the line like relentless waves crashing onto a rocky beachside. Every time the Astartes managed to fend them off, but the line was slowly being pushed backwards. Nabeel saw this through his helmet and analyzed where help was needed the most. He spotted aspot where the Orks had massed their numbers to form a concentrated attack. He turned his speeder towards the spot while his gunner took shots at targets of opportunity along the way.
---
Calballan took another shot at the mass of orks rushing the center. They had ran out of fuel for the flamer a while ago, and now it was just his steady beat of bolter shells that gave any support for the fighters below. They were running low on those too, only a couple magazines left. He shortened his shots into a short burst every five seconds. He could hardly miss, so much Orks had filled the battlefield that it looked like the ground was a shade of green with a lot of carnage in between.
He shot down another Ork missile launcher that had its tubes aimed at a landraider near the line. The Orks were concentrating their forces at that place where the landraider was firing off its weapons. Surrounding the landraider was the renowned Dastallian Squad, first squad of the fifth company. Veteran-Sergeant Dastallian had served the longest in the company including the Company Master. He had refused his promotion to Company Master saying that he preferred to be a rank-and-file officer. So now he leads the company's veteran squad.
Nabeel had flown the speeder around the landraider, and Calballan heightened his rate of fire. Orks fell away from the line as his rounds exploded around the assaulting force. With the new rounds of supporting fire Dastallian Squad and the landraider fought with renewed vigor. Sergeant Dastallian took a moment to raise his chainsword in a salute to the landspeeder, and Calballan returned it with another round of shells to the enemy.
Calballan had very little time to enjoy the famed sergeant's swordplay against the enemy, but what he saw told him enough about the sergeant's experience. Dastallian had moved his squad a few meters away from the landraider, giving it more maneuver room to optimize its firing position. The squad had formed a sphere around the landraider, and his squad stood out as a small dent in the line. Dastallian was at the front and foremost of it striking down every Ork that dared to get within reach of his chainsword. One got close enough to attempt to strike, but Dastallian cut him down before he could even swing down his crude bludgeoning weapon. It seemed like the battle was turning to their hands until an Ork bullet struck Dastallian.
The bullet had struck him on the knees and his armor had absorbed most of the impact, but he still fell on his knees from the shock. He quickly got up, but in that small time the Orks had rushed towards Dastallian in a furious charge. The sergeant managed to slash off one's legs from under him, and smashed the handle of his chainsword onto another's head. More Orks attacked however, and after getting his chainsword stuck inside an Ork's stomach he was defenseless. The rest of the squad tried to reach their sergeant to help, but more Orks blocked their way.
He shot down another Ork missile launcher that had its tubes aimed at a landraider near the line. The Orks were concentrating their forces at that place where the landraider was firing off its weapons. Surrounding the landraider was the renowned Dastallian Squad, first squad of the fifth company. Veteran-Sergeant Dastallian had served the longest in the company including the Company Master. He had refused his promotion to Company Master saying that he preferred to be a rank-and-file officer. So now he leads the company's veteran squad.
Nabeel had flown the speeder around the landraider, and Calballan heightened his rate of fire. Orks fell away from the line as his rounds exploded around the assaulting force. With the new rounds of supporting fire Dastallian Squad and the landraider fought with renewed vigor. Sergeant Dastallian took a moment to raise his chainsword in a salute to the landspeeder, and Calballan returned it with another round of shells to the enemy.
Calballan had very little time to enjoy the famed sergeant's swordplay against the enemy, but what he saw told him enough about the sergeant's experience. Dastallian had moved his squad a few meters away from the landraider, giving it more maneuver room to optimize its firing position. The squad had formed a sphere around the landraider, and his squad stood out as a small dent in the line. Dastallian was at the front and foremost of it striking down every Ork that dared to get within reach of his chainsword. One got close enough to attempt to strike, but Dastallian cut him down before he could even swing down his crude bludgeoning weapon. It seemed like the battle was turning to their hands until an Ork bullet struck Dastallian.
The bullet had struck him on the knees and his armor had absorbed most of the impact, but he still fell on his knees from the shock. He quickly got up, but in that small time the Orks had rushed towards Dastallian in a furious charge. The sergeant managed to slash off one's legs from under him, and smashed the handle of his chainsword onto another's head. More Orks attacked however, and after getting his chainsword stuck inside an Ork's stomach he was defenseless. The rest of the squad tried to reach their sergeant to help, but more Orks blocked their way.
---
Watching what had transpired Nabeel maneuvered the landspeeder around in a big loop towards the struggling sergeant. He knew what Calballan would have to do and slowed down the speeder for just a few seconds. In those few seconds the heavy bolter barked five times, each round carefully aimed as not to strike the sergeant. It was one thing to hit a group of enemies from a high speed vehicle, it's another to hit, or not hit therefore, single individuals in close quarters.
Calballan had muttered his prayers hastily and fired his five shots with all his training and experience in his mind. Any of those five rounds could have ended the Veteran-Sergeant's life, it was a foolish thing to do on both of their parts with very low chance of succeeding. But either way the Veteran-Sergeant would be dead, whether he had fired those five shots or not. He knew that was hardly an excuse if he was to be taken account for his actions.
He continued shooting with half of his mind, while the other half was praying furiously. He didn't need to look at Nabeel to find that he was also doing the same. Nabeel turned the speeder around back to where the Sergeant was. Calballan and Nabeel laughed in joy as they saw that the sergeant was standing in a blood pool with the remains of the Orks. Miraculously he was only lightly scorched from the after-explosions of the rounds.
Dastallian Squad swiftly formed around their Sergeant and drove back any Orks that was stupid enough to linger around the carnage. What really drove the Orks back though was the fact that only moments later Dastallian was up on his feet and swinging his chainsword. With that Dastallian Squad fought off the remaining Orks nearby.
---
"Landsp....do...copy?" The external vox-channel opened up for the first time, and the signal was fuzzy even though the landraider was close by.
"This is Ira Tempestas, we copy, I repeat we copy."
"Thank you for the support brothers, we couldn't have done it without you. What is your status?"
"We ran out of fuel for the flamer, and are low on bolter magazine."
"We need you to knock out a hostile comm. transmitter immediately. Could you do so with the current armaments?"
"I believe we can sir, but we'll need to refuel and restock afterwards."
"We have set up a command post not too far back. Link up there for future orders, do you copy?"
"Yes sir."
"Good, may the storm rides with you brother."
"And with you sir."
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