Crisis on Ulixia III (Discontinued)

Chapter 4

"Commander!"

A weapons officer called to commander Huji. Huji was a human who commanded the astartes battle barge Fear. His brown hair had streaks of silver in it and his handlebar moustache was very well groomed. His black uniform was adorned with the Flaming Fists chapter symbol on the right sleeve. At his left leg was a customised las pistol in its leather holster. He turned to look at the fresh faced officer.

"What is it, lieutenant?" He asked.

"We are picking up enemy aircraft signals heading towards the bridge! There also seems to be more boarding craft!"

As he said this the bridge made an almighty lurch.

"Lieutenant! Blast those greenskins into oblivion, now!" Huji roared and braced himself.

The auto turrets opened fire on the simple ork fliers, many falling as a blaze towards the surface. The bridge suddenly rocked to the left.

"What was that?" A Vox officer asked.

"Keep firing, don't worry what it was!"

"Commander Huji, orks have breached our hull!" A deep, gravelly voice said over the Vox.

There were only thirty astartes aboard and they were thinning.

"Hold them off, sergeant!" Huji said.

Several loud explosions went off, a lot closer than Huji would have liked. It seemed like the astartes had been beaten back to the bridge. He sighed and pulled out his las pistol. The ship lurched to the left again as multiple vessels impacted onto the all but wrecked warship.

With a sharp hiss, the bridge doors opened and the full sounds of the battle rushed inside. Ten astartes firing their bolters into what seemed a solid wall of green.

"We will hold the line until the end of time!" A space marine yelled at the orks.

A he said it, and ork threw a crude spear at the space marine. The astartes, whose helmet must have been lost during the fighting, was hit full on in the face. The spear went straight through the hardened bone and out the back, pinning the corpse to a wall.

The bridge crew tried to remain calm as they kept doing their duties, even though their end was imminent.

'I've trained them well." Huji thought as he looked down the sight of his pistol and released a shot, killing an ork.

Multiple explosions went off behind the green wall as they turned to look, the astartes gunned them down. Soon the orks were assaulted from the back by an unknown enemy. Within minutes, the green tide was reduced to nothing but smouldering corpses.

The bridge crew cheered but the astartes were not so cheerful.

"Who's there!"

Called the remaining sergeant into the smoke filled corridor.
The space marines aimed their bolters down the corridor and out of the smoke, several figures appeared. At their head, a tall man who was instantly recognisable as an inquisitor. Behind him were several specialised militarum troops from the Spec Ops regiment. The Spec Ops were known to have close relations with the flaming fists, helping them on more than one occasion, appearing out of nowhere and fighting their way to the astartes.

"We heard you required assistance?"

A tall black man strode out form the midst of soldiers. An inquisitor of the ordo xenos. His black and green power armour humming softly as he stood stock still. He was bald, the light reflecting off it. In his left hand he held a mace and in the other a sword. Daemon weapons.

"My lord Latarbo!" The sergeant gasped and knelt.

The rest of the starters followed their leaders actions and also went down on one knee.

"Commander, I see that you have done an admirable job keeping this ship battle-worthy." The black man said in his slow, deep voice.

"Lord, the ship would have been lost if not for your timely arrival. We owe you our lives!" Huji replied.

"Let us destroy this filth together! SpecOps!" The inquisitor yelled.

His words by a roar from the several squads of elite guardsmen. In reply, the astartes let off a war cry that made the walls rattle. A SpecOps medic went over to the astartes, not one among uninjured. The sergeant was bleeding badly from his left eye socket, where he had lost it during the fight. His was the worst injury, the others only nursing broken bones or cuts.

"Lord, you must sit down so I can attend to the wound." The medic stated to the sergeant.

"I'm alright, just give me a bandage. The apothecaries should fix me up, make my face pretty again." The astartes said in his gravelly voice.

This was met by a round of quiet laughter from the rest of the astartes. The medic pulled out a bandage and handed it to the space marine, who wrapped it over the wound, the cloth instantly becoming soaked in red.

"Sir incoming Vox from captain Gorgon!" A vox officer yelled.

"Well commander, looks like we have company." Latarbo stated.