Steel & Oil: Warhammer 32K

Asking himself honestly, in a one-on-one duel, Sorn did not think he would be the weaker against this warrior.

But the power of that greatsword left Sorn shaken; the weapon seemed born to hunt giants far more massive than even the Space Marines.

With those two sword strokes, the immediate crisis was resolved, and Cosmod Rich stepped forward to help the two disheveled Chapter Masters back to their feet.

"Sorry, this sword's too big. When I swing with full force, it's not easy to keep the power under control."

Sorn, of course, did not mind that; he exchanged a glance with Kurande, and each saw his own astonishment mirrored in the other's eyes.

Although Kurande had seen these warriors fight before, their opponents then had been humanoid foes like the Frateris Militia, and the fighting had relied more on nimbleness.

A Space Marine's usual close-combat answer to heavy armour was a weapon like the power hammer—such a blunt instrument could drive a blow clean through the armour and into the enemy within. But how could a mere thunder hammer make a spectacle on the battlefield as awe-inspiring as that greatsword?

Sorn, for his part, thought of Sigismund, once the Legion's first-company captain—this champion of the Imperial Fists, bravest of all, had been a master of arms able to trade blows with a Primarch. Though most famous for his swordsmanship, he had wielded every manner of exotic weapon with equal ease.

And now, faintly, he could see something of Sigismund in this Legion warrior—an absurd notion surfaced in his mind.

Could it be that every single member of this ragged remnant force following Lin was a peerless company champion?

But rather than puzzle that out, Sorn knew his attention belonged on the battlefield now. He lifted his head and swept his gaze across the field, finding that, with these warriors' help, many of the Killa Kans charging at the very front had already been cracked open and dealt with.

The Gorkanauts, over six metres tall, still rampaged across the battlefield; these few mobile idols had now become the backbone of the greenskins.

Several Gorkanauts swung their Gork-claws and charged at the very front. With the burna flamers mounted on their arms, they drove back the Space Marines who tried to close in, then used their metal claws to snatch up the canned shrimps too slow to dodge.

Meanwhile the Morkanauts, piloted by Mek boyz, hung back behind the Gorkanauts, freely unleashing the fury of their Ion Dakka-Kannons and Deffstorm Mega-Shootas.

Their dense fire pinned the Astra Militarum down so hard they couldn't lift their heads, and these metal monsters pressed their assault toward the human lines, slow but resolute.

The Astra Militarum brought up their handful of Leman Russ tanks, but the Leman Russ' firepower simply could not contend with them.

If these could not be dealt with, then any hope of using the Space Marines to carve up the battlefield was a pipe dream.

Powerful as the greatsword was, the few seconds it took to raise it were quite deadly. Compared with the Killa Kans roving along the front, Sorn did not think they could reach the Gorkanauts at the centre of the field without paying a price.

But sacrifice was the cornerstone of the Imperium.

Sorn never thought his own station made him special. If it came to it, he would gladly be the first to make such a sacrifice.

"We have to create an opening for you to get close," he said to Cosmod Rich. "So long as you're sure your greatsword can cut through that six-metre greenskin armour."

"It can, sure—but there's no need." Cosmod Rich jutted his chin, signalling for the two Chapter Masters to look skyward.

Kurande and Sorn looked up, and only now noticed that a band of warriors clad in jump packs had, at some point, leapt overhead.

Warriors wielding power hammers, using their jump packs to strike enemy armoured targets from above... it was an expensive but effective anti-armour tactic. Yet what these warriors held in their hands was not thunder hammers.

Kurande, whose life this very weapon had just saved, recognised them: "Switch Axes?"

The battlefield, where war cries shook the heavens, made the perfect camouflage for this airborne squad. Led by a warrior named Qin Cang, the whole squad swept swiftly toward the Gorkanauts.

There was no coordination to speak of among the Orks. The Gretchin who spotted these jump-pack warriors hammered desperately on the walkers' armour, but the greenskins inside, caught up in the thrill, were utterly oblivious. By the time they glimpsed the warriors from their cramped, low-visibility cockpits, these Switch Axe-wielding warriors had already brought the Gorkanauts within their attack range.

They did not rush to strike, but instead made a brief, abrupt halt in mid-air. This seemingly taunting gesture made the greenskins piloting the walkers roar in fury; seizing the firing window, they poured every bit of their shootas' fire onto these flying cans.

Their simple minds could not grasp that this halt was part of the enemy's tactics.

A dense rain of rounds engulfed the jump-pack warriors, but every bullet was stopped by their power armour and the shields in their hands. The kinetic energy of the rounds striking the shields was stored within them, making the shields glow with a faint red light.

Such energy was enough for them to deliver one extraordinary slash.

Before the truly threatening Ion Cannons could fire, they were already diving like hunting falcons. The sword and shield in their hands merged into a single great axe, and with unrivalled momentum they hewed down at these six- and seven-metre walkers!

Qin Cang's chosen target was a Morkanaut; the Ork boy inside it shrieked and cut short the charging of his Ion Cannon, channelling all of its energy into the force-field generator in a bid to block this strike.

But it was no use.

The axe-blade came down, and the force-shield shattered like an eggshell at the blow. Even though the Gorkanauts and Morkanauts were indeed far more durable than ordinary kans, they could not withstand this full-release slash falling from the heavens.

The Switch Axe cleaved through the cockpit and nearly half the walker; damage of this magnitude triggered a violent detonation in the already-unstable machine. Meanwhile the jump-pack warriors, having split their Switch Axes back into sword and shield, nimbly withdrew on their jump packs.

The backbone of the Ork front line was destroyed just like that, and after a brief regroup Qin Cang's squad soon returned to the air to open a fresh round of the hunt.

In fusing Monster Hunter weapons with the Astartes' established tactics, Qin Cang was an expert beyond dispute.

Sorn's astonishment had not let up since the moment it first began.

He still had his doubts about these people... but those doubts, at least, would not be about their combat power.

Every Space Marine along the line had witnessed these hunters' astonishing prowess. Perhaps only now did they understand why Lin had entrusted them with nothing more than dividing the battlefield and providing cover.

They began to cooperate with the hunters of their own accord; their grappling created excellent windows for the hunters to deal damage. With their support, the first wave of Ork kans was quickly picked off one by one, and with astonishing efficiency they swept away those towering Ork walkers.

The Space Marines, who had been bogged down, charged once more!

With the Ork walkers no longer suppressing them, the Astra Militarum's mortars and lasguns began to bare their fangs too; this firepower, far too flimsy against armour, now savagely pinned down the Ork boyz who had lost their walker cover.

Their ferocious fire nailed the greenskins to the very path of their charge, turning the place into a horrific slaughterhouse.

The greenskins, who had advanced on the strength of their kans and had come within a single step of the Astra Militarum lines, were now beaten back step after step.

Even so, these greenskins—who knew nothing of retreat until their Warboss lay dead—kept charging with single-minded stubbornness.

But their battle line did not lie.

The Ork charge had become a futile march to their deaths, their green blood flowing across every inch of this ground.

But this was only the Orks' first wave.

Soon, behind the greenskins led by the Gargant, a new army of kans had been mustered, spoiling aggressively to launch a fresh assault.

But the buggies that had been wrecked earlier had robbed them of any rapid mobility, and these kans could only trudge forward at a crawl on their two stubby little legs.

They were doomed to be unable to link up with the Orks ahead, who had already become cut off from the rest.

The Space Marines striking in from the flank, in concert with the Astra Militarum's suppressing fire, bored straight through the Ork forces.

Just six hundred strong, they drove like a wedge between the cut-off Orks and those seeking to reinforce them, forming a thin yet impassable chasm.

Working in concert with the Astra Militarum on the frontal battlefield, the Orks who had attacked first were now pinned fast within this small encircling net!

The Leman Russ tanks on the Astra Militarum lines seized the chance and began to roar forward.

Their treads crushed the Orks who vainly tried to resist within the pocket, while the accompanying infantry used lasguns to meticulously cleanse the corners the Leman Russ could not reach. Before long, they had pushed the line right up to the Space Marines' side.

Despite being outnumbered, through a successful counterattack they strangled the Orks' first wave of assault!

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