บท 5: Chapter 5 – The Battle Begins, PART 2

The planet of Hidrus Quintus was composed mostly of oceans, the only habitable landmasses on the planet were islands of varying sizes, the islands were composed of ports, houses made of wood and stone, in the center of each island there was a large metal wall which served a variety of functions.

The first and most obvious was to separate the nobles from the commoners, behind these walls there were palaces and mansions, commerce that sold products that only the nobles could afford.

The second function was for defense, having a single fortified point on each island where the population could fend off attacks until reinforcements from the Imperium arrived.

The third function was to shelter the population against a natural event that happened annually on this planet, the months of storm, devastating rains will cover the planet, lightning will fall from the sky as if it were the wrath of the Emperor, and gigantic waves will swallow any ship that dares navigate during these months.

The district of the nobles had a drainage system so that it would not be flooded, and covering the wall there were lookout posts and automatic defense systems in case an enemy force tried to attack. But while nobles enjoyed these privileges, the common population was not so fortunate.

The humble workers and their families who lived in Hidrus Quintus would have to give everything of value to the nobles if they wanted to enter the walls, and even if they did, the nobles would not be kind to them, the population would be crammed into reinforced warehouses where they would be paid as little as possible to survive until the stormy months were over.

If it depended on the nobles, the population would receive nothing, but the nobles need to maintain a certain image to avoid calling the attention of the Administratum, who would question why in a few months such many people died on a relatively peaceful planet, Hidrus Quintus had the presence of orks, but not enough to cause that much damage without something serious happening on the planet.

Currently, preparations were being made for the stormy months, on the island of le Refuge Ombré, the largest island in Hidrus Quintus, being also the island where the governor's palace was located, the governor, a man known as Mathias Lafaille was in his office reading a report on the condition of the wall and its defenses.

Mathias Lafaille was a tall, fair-skinned, slightly plump man, his hair a shade of white indicating his age; he was interrupted from reading his report by a knock on his office door.

Toc

"Come In." Mathias replied.

The person who entered was a beautiful woman with black hair, extremely pale skin, and completely white eyes indicating her blindness, the woman wore red and black robes and carried a golden staff with the symbol of an eye, this was Jacqueline Boucher, the Astropath responsible for the interplanetary communication of Hidrus Quintus.

"Lord Mathias." Jacqueline said as she bowed in an arc in front of the governor.

"Speak, Jacqueline, don't waste my time." Mathias said as he refocused on his report.

"I bring worrying news." Jacqueline replied.

"What news?" Mathias asked.

"About the orks."

"Oh! I already knew, you can go now."

"Did you already know?" Jacqueline asked, confused.

"Yes, you are a day late, for some reason those nasty orks decided to attack the forbidden ruins a few weeks ago, let them continue, those ruins have been the source of trouble and superstition of ignorant people for generations. Maybe when the orks destroy them, things will calm down a bit."

"But Lord Mathias the amount of orks is worrying, you should know that the more the orks fight the stronger and smarter they get, we must contact the Imperium to send reinforcements before this gets out of control."

"Enough! From what I see you came here just to waste my time, the months of storms are approaching, let the orks keep fighting, when the storm comes they will be devoured by the sea, and we will never have to worry about them again."

"I understand, but if you will allow me, may I tell you about my vision?"

"Did you have another vision? Tell me." Mathias asked curiously.

"It is a short vision; I see a castle made of a black stone, inside this castle surrounded by soldiers there is a metallic king sitting on a throne covered by a green light."

"And what does it mean?"

"I don't know, it's a confusing sight, I…"

"Get out of here, you've wasted enough time, the months of storms are approaching, I recommend you prepare as well."

"As you wish, Lord Mathias." Jacqueline said as she bowed and left the governor's office.

Jacqueline walked through the halls of the governor's palace until she stopped in front of a large glass window; there she watched the dark clouds forming in the sky, a sign of what was to come.

"Who are you, metallic king? And what does your presence bring to this planet?"

Meanwhile, in the office, Governor Mathias opened a drawer of his desk and took out a white powder, the Governor inhaled the powder fervently, and his pupils simultaneously dilated and acquired a pink glow.

Tomb

A few weeks passed, and the battle reached a stalemate, after several ships were sunk by my defenses the orks gave up surrounding the tomb, the remaining ships kept their distance and shot with their long range weapons, the few projectiles that reached the tomb did not cause worrisome damage.

The orks under the water tried to advance occasionally. I was receiving reports from my Immortals when something caught my attention on the east front of the tomb. The ground around the tomb was rocky ground. The orks used the large stones to protect themselves from the fire of the Gauss weapons.

But a series of explosions was taking place behind the rocks where the orks were hiding, and then the rocks started to go forward. What was happening? I took control of a scarab and made it go around the rocks and got a better view of what was going on.

The orks were using explosives to rip the rocks out of the ground and were pushing them forward, using them as shields against the Gauss rays. Looking closer, there appeared to be a larger ork leading the pack. Was that a Nob? That's a problem, this battle is taking enough time for the orks to grow, and soon the Oddboyz will appear.

Nob wore a larger and more armored diving suit than the other orks; he had a Big Choppa in his left hand and carried a Kombi-Weapon in his right hand. What did the Nob hope to accomplish here? The stones are helping him get closer to the defense line, but then what?

In an area away from the battlefield.

"Let's go! Keep digging!" An ork Nob shouted to the orks boyz in front of him.

Nob and the boyz were in a tunnel dug in the rock at the bottom of the sea, they all wore diving suits, and Nob's being the biggest. The boyz were using pickaxes and drills mounted on their arms to dig the tunnel, eventually an ork boy's drill broke when hitting a wall made of a black material with green lines.

"We arrived!" An ork boy shouted to Nob.

Nob then turned to the orks boyz behind him, "What are ya guys do'n stand'n 'der?! Do as da boss says, br'n da 'plosives!"

The boyz ran out of the tunnel and came back carrying metal barrels similar to the depth charges used on their ships and placed them in front of the wall at the end of the tunnel.

"Everyone stays back!" Nob screamed as he aimed his Big Shoota at the barrels, Nob pulled the trigger on his gun and…

BOOM!

Tomb.

BOOM!

"What the hell was that?!" I screamed as the sound of an explosion echoed through the tomb, a screen with Haratek's face appeared next to me.

"My lord, the orks managed to make a hole in the tomb." Haratek said.

"What?"

"They dug a sort of tunnel into the tomb wall and blasted a hole, my lord."

"Grrr! I'm going to…"

"My Lord, I beg you, allow me to eliminate these pathetic creatures for defiling your precious tomb."

I calmed down a bit upon hearing Haratek's suggestion, "Fine, Haratek, I give you my permission to eliminate the orks."

"I will not fail you, my lord." Then the screen disappeared.

So advancing from the east side is a distraction. Their Warboss knows what he's doing, I have to trust Haratek to deal with the invaders, and meanwhile, I need to take care of the orks outside. The defense lines are preventing the orks from advancing, so I must focus on the ships.

I'd like to avoid using this unit due to it not being completely repaired and not attracting attention, but judging how much the war has escalated and no Imperial forces have appeared yet, maybe I can use it.

With a mental command, I activated my flying units.

Outside the tomb a green portal opened in the sky, from it came several flying war machines, the Doom Scythes and Night Scythes, these powerful machines cut the skies at deadly speeds for beings of flesh and blood.

Making turns and maneuvers that would lead living beings to death, the Doom Scythes and Night Scythes began to bombard the ork ships with their weapons, the Night Scythes devastated the ships with their Dual Link Tesla Destroyers, while the Doom Scythes reduced the ships and their crews to ashes, occasionally splitting a ship in two with focused fire from his Death Rays.

The orks were taken by surprise by this, their ships were not equipped with anti-aircraft weapons, but that didn't stop them from trying to shoot down their enemies, the orks fired up with everything they had, shootas and cannons were fired fervently in hopes of taking down the Doom Scythes and Night Scythes.

The Warboss Gol D. Loota saw this and ran into his ship, there he entered an office, his office, Loota took a piece of paper, a feather and began to write, for any other species in the galaxy the handwriting of the warboss it would look like a bunch of doodles made by a child, but to an ork the letter was written in a refined handwriting.

"Dear mekboy Zazzog Brasshead. How are yer? Yer warboss Gol D. Loota, I know dis kan be an inconvenience, but I need yer help… WHERE 'DA HELL ARE YER GIT?! 'DA TIN MAN 'AS FLIES! SEND OUR FLYAZ ERE NOW! OTHERWISE, WHEN I KOME BACK, I WILL TIP OFF YER ARMS AN' LEGS AN' MAKE YER SWIM AROUND 'DA ISLAND!"

Upon finishing his letter, Loota tied it to the leg of his Parrot Squig and released it outside the ship; the Squig disappeared over the horizon flying towards the island where the orks inhabited.

The Rugged Isle

The parrot squig crossed the ocean until it reached the island that the orks inhabited, there the concerns of the Overlord proved to be real, the orks were evolving and the Oddboyz appeared, in this case Oddboyz known as Mekboyz, with the appearance of the Mekz the land of the island was altered, the forests were cleared of their vegetation and the ground was leveled, creating a long track in line and on the side of this track there were large metal sheds.

Already on the shore of the island large shipyards were built, where new ships were being made, bigger ships, faster, more armored and best of all with more Dakka.

The squig entered a metal shed where several Meks were working and landed on the shoulder of a larger Mek leading the smaller ones.

"Craaa! Message from 'da boss!" The parrot squig has spoken.

The Mek read the letter strapped to the squig's leg, the Mek's eyes widened, and he sprang into action.

"Hey! Message from 'da boss! put our fly boyz 'n 'da air!" The Mek shouted to all the orks in the shed.

With a cacophony of screams, gunfire and metal on metal, vehicles were pulled out of the sheds and onto the large airstrip, these vehicles were known as the Blitza-Bommer and Dakkajet, the warplanes of the orks.

The orkz Flyboyz and Grots ran towards the planes on the runway, the Flyboyz entered the pilot's seat and the Grots in the shooter's seat, the ork began to press several buttons and pull levers on the panel of his plane, soon the engines came to life with an explosion of smoke, some with literal explosions as some planes exploded in a ball of fire due to unreliable ork technology.

A Mek walked to the middle of the runway with a flag in each hand and started making random signals to the orks in the planes, the pilots just looked confused at the Mek, the Mek seeing this threw the flags aside, pointed his gun upwards and fired a shot.

"Go!'Da boss iz wait'n for us!" The Mek screamed.

There was no need to shout again, the planes raced across the runway taking off a few inches away from the Mek, and then the planes crossed the sky towards the battle that awaited them.

Tomb

Riding a wave of scarabs, Haratek moved quickly through the tomb. And accompanying the scarabs there were groups of spiders and Canoptek Wraiths, the spiders walked on the ceiling, as the Wraiths used their Dimensional Destabilization Matrix to enter and leave reality allowing them to cross walls and follow the scarabs.

The scarab wave stopped at a large room in the tomb where there was a hole pouring out smoke and water, the scarab wave dissipated, revealing Necron units being charged.

Two Despoteks, Immortals modified by a Cryptek to serve him, six Cryptothralls, curved metallic creatures with a single eye in the middle of their head and blades for arms, and several Necron warriors armed with their Gauss Flayers.

"This is the place. Pathetic creatures, you are invading the tomb of Akatosahk Ulthagakh, your trespass will not be tolerated, surrender and I will give you a quick death!" Haratek screamed as he watched the hole in the tomb, suddenly a scream came out of the hole.

"WWWAAARRRGGGHHH!"

Orks ran out of the hole while shooting everyone they saw ahead.

"Why did I waste my breath on these stupid beings? Attack!" Haratek shouted and at his command his troops began firing.

The Necron warriors formed battle lines on the left and right side of Haratek, at the beginning of these lines next to Haratek was a Despotek and in front of Haratek were the six Cryptothralls.

In synchrony the Gauss Flayers and Gauss Blasters shot accurately hitting the advancing orks, in response the orks fired their shootas towards the necrons.

Passing through Haratek and climbing the walls and ceiling, the Canoptek spyders joined the warriors in fighting the orks; the spiders' Particle Beam fire joined the Gauss rays in destroying the orks.

Haratek seemed to have the upper hand, but suddenly more explosions blasted holes in the tomb wall, the orks digging more tunnels.

"WWWAAARRRGGGHHH!"

A horde of orks entered the tomb firing their weapons and causing damage to the Necron warriors, with a mental order Haratek ordered that part of the spiders stop shooting at the orks and start repairing the damaged warriors, mutually the Wraiths entered the battle by order of Haratek.

In the middle of the great hall, several orks were pierced in the stomach by a metallic tentacle with a sharp point, the orks looked down confused wondering where the tentacles came from, the orks were lifted into the air and the owners of the tentacles were revealed, the tentacles were the Wraiths' tail, eight-legged Necron machines, a cannon on its back and belly, and a long tail.

A Wraith lifted an ork up to the height of its single green eye, the ork tried to slash the Wraith with its choppa, but the Wraith kept it out of reach.

"PUT ME DOWN YER PILE UV RUST!" The ork screamed.

The Wraith's response was turning two of its front legs into a whip and slashing the ork repeatedly, using its Dimensional Destabilization Matrix the Wraith slashed the inside of the ork without needing to cut the outside, blood oozed from all the orks orifices as the inside of its body was sliced into small pieces.

With a swing of its tail the Wraith threw the dead ork away, the body hit another ork in the face, but instead of creating a big impact the body hit it harmlessly, the ork was confused and looking at the dead ork on the ground he recoiled in fright, as the dead ork lay flat on the ground, all its muscle, flesh, bones, and organs sliced into tiny pieces leaving only its skin.

Due to his fear, the ork didn't notice the Wraith's particle launcher firing towards him; the ork was blown to pieces when hit by the small particles of antimatter.

"TIN MAN!" A rumbling voice echoed through the tomb hall, it was Nobz leading this attack.

"Do you mean me, creature?" Haratek asked as he glared at Nobz.

"YOU ARE DA TIN MAN 'OO RUN DIS PLACE?!" The Nob demanded as he pointed a Killsaw, a gauntlet with a circular saw in his right hand, at Haratek.

"I'm afraid not, that would be my lord, Akatosahk Ulthagakh, he is busy at the moment, hence he has entrusted me with the task of eliminating you." Haratek replied politely.

"HAHA!'E IZ A KOWARD FOR NOT KOM'N ERE 'N PERSON!" Nob screamed.

"I'm sorry, I believe I misheard. You said my lord is a coward?" Haratek asked.

"Yes! A weak, a koward, a git too afraid ta fight!"

"I see… Kill them all, but leave Nob to me." Haratek said to his troops as he walked across the battlefield, a wave of scarabs following him.

The Despoteks waved and led the Necron warriors; meanwhile the Cryptothralls rushed past Haratek and cut down the orks they found in the way.

An ork boy tried to cut Haratek with a choppa, but without looking Haratek ordered the scarabs to wrap around the ork's hand, the ork screamed in pain as the scarabs' paws slashed his arm and climbed over his shoulder to his head.

Haratek let that group of scarabs finish off the ork and followed.

Another ork boy tried to shoot Haratek, but immediately the scarabs formed a wall on Haratek's right side protecting him from the bullets, with a command Haratek ordered a Wraith to rip off the ork's head with its tail.

One last ork boy ran towards Haratek unloading his weapon, but the scarabs formed another wall in front of Haratek protecting him, the ork didn't go further as a Cryptothralls jumped on his back, digging his claws into the ork's flesh and opening a hole in the back of its head with a blast from the ray that came out of its eye.

Finally, Haratek and Nob were face to face, with a distance of ten meters separating them.

"Say it to my face; say my lord is a coward." Haratek said to Nob.

"Yer boss iz…" The ork only had time to blink before Haratek suddenly appeared in front of him; it was as if he had teleported, but the indication that this was not the case were the footprints of his feet where he was.

"I told you to say it to my face." Haratek said, a few inches away from Nob as he looked up, staring the ork in the eyes.

Nob looked down in surprise and glared back at Haratek, "Yer boss iz… AARRGG!" The Nob screamed in pain as Haratek punched him in the chin at an absurd speed, knocking out some teeth, the punch was fast enough to generate a small shock wave.

Recovering from the blow, the Nob aimed his gun at Haratek and unleashed a hail of bullets, only for Haratek to disappear.

"It seems you are incapable of performing one of the most basic functions of a living creature." Haratek said from behind Nob.

The Nob spun around, his Killsaw slicing through the air and heading for Haratek's neck, only for Haratek to disappear again.

"I believe I have wasted enough time with you."

Suddenly Nob was kicked in the back of the knee, forcing him to the ground; Haratek commanded a group of scarabs to destroy the ork's legs, so he wouldn't get up.

"AAARRRGGG!" The ork screamed in pain.

The ork tried to raise his weapon to shoot Haratek, but with a command, a Cryptothralls thrust his blade into the ork's left arm, pinning him to the ground.

"You know, that wouldn't have happened if you hadn't insulted my lord." Haratek said as he crouched beside Nob.

"You piece uv rust! when I get outta ere, I will… Aaarrrgghh!" The Nob didn't finish as Haratek delivered another punch into the Nob's mouth.

"I didn't say you could talk. Returning to the subject, that wouldn't have happened if you hadn't insulted my lord, we necrons are honorable warriors, if our opponents show themselves worthy of respect we respect them, but you have not shown yourself worthy." Haratek said as he placed his hand on the ork's Killsaw.

The Killsaw was covered in green lines and spun to life, normally ork technology doesn't work in the hands of other species due to the WAAARRRGGG energy of orks, but the Killsaw in question was still connected to its owner.

"I don't think I've mentioned this before, but I'm a Cryptek, specifically a Technomancer, and a Cryptek who specializes in manipulating technology. Would you like a demonstration?" Haratek forced Nob's right arm with Killsaw towards his left arm.

"AAAAARRRRGGGG!" The ork screamed in agony as its left arm was severed.

"This is what happens when you insult my lord's name." Haratek said as he grabbed Nob by the back of the head and repeatedly slammed him against the ground, breaking bones and knocking out Nob's teeth.

"But I believe I've wasted enough time with you." Haratek said as he sent a command, in a few seconds something big crossed the floor of the hall similar to Wraiths.

It was a Tomb Sentinel, a large war machine in the form of a centipede whose melee ability was replaced by a large Cannon of Exile on the front of its body.

The sentinel raised his body and fired his cannon in an arc in front of him; the orks were blasted to another dimension beyond the material universe.

"I would like to say that it was an honor to face you on the battlefield, but unfortunately that would be a lie." Haratek forced the Killsaw towards the ork's face, slicing its head in two.

Looking around, Haratek saw that the troops were clearing out the last of the invading orks, so Haratek contacted the Overlord.

"My lord, I have already dealt with the invaders, with your orders I will close the holes in the tomb."

"Not yet, Haratek, I want you to do something for me first." The Overlord replied.

"Yes, my lord." Haratek said as he listened to his Overlord's request, Haratek's cloak flowed across the battlefield similar to stories of great military leaders, this cloak was known as the Canoptek Cloak, this cloak allowed the wearer to move and fly across the battlefield at great speeds.

Outside the tomb

The battle continued at the bottom of the sea, neither side could advance, that is until screams came from the back of the orks lines, the several orks that surrounded the tomb looked back only to face warriors and Immortals. Where did they come from?

At this very moment the tunnels dug by the orks were being used against them, and leading this Necron force was Haratek accompanied by Wraiths and the Tomb Sentinel.

"In the name of our lord, eliminate them all!" Haratek commanded and his troops complied.

But the battle is not over yet, for in the sky, reinforcements of the orks have arrived.

END OF THE CHAPTER