Seventy-Two Hours

Chapter 3

Night was fast approaching as squad Death's Head came through the end of the mountain pass. They had found two more Ork patrols in much the same condition which they had found the first. Bodies and body parts were strewn around a kill zone which looked as though it had been painted using buckets of blood.

There had been no other signs of life except the "ghost blips" which continued to appear and disappear just at the edge of their auspex's range. The team stood at the pass' exit, each marine scanning his respective zone while Lucian checked their positions on the holo-map again. The Ultramarine glanced at a column of smoke curling lazily into the darkening sky.

"It would appear that the weapons cache which we were planning to hit should be just about there." Lucian said, pointing directly at the column of smoke.

"So," Yngvar added thoughtfully, "Who are the helpful persons which appear to be doing our jobs for us?" The team shared a pointed look before Lucian ordered them to move out again, heading straight into the jungle before them before swinging around to come at the burning weapons cache from its south side.

The squad crouched in the thick underbrush, each marine scanning his respective field of fire should their unknown, helpful friends decide to make themselves known and very unfriendly.

"Any signs of life, Brother Yngvar?" Lucian asked over the squad channel.

"Negative, Brother Sergeant," The Space Wolf replied as he continued scanning the scene before him. He broke up the scene before him into grids, letting his eyes cover every square inch of one section of the grid before moving on to the next one. He looked, not only signs of life, but any indication that anyone could be waiting in ambush. An indicator could be unnatural movement, or perhaps shapes that didn't mesh with the natural flow of nature. After several heartbeats, he said "No sign of any ambush waiting for us either."

Lucian smiled, he had just been about to ask that. This Space Wolf may just prove to be the best scout he had ever worked with, including those of his own Ultramarines...of course Lucian would never admit such a thing. "Very well then, Brothers, stay low and move out. Keep your eyes open."

The team moved through the undergrowth like ghosts, flitting from cover to cover as they moved closer to the smoldering compound. The workmanship was typical of anything built by Orks, meaning that it was an ugly union of any available pieces of scrap metal. Rusted plates of iron were bolted into gleaming plates which looked to have been scavenged from armored troopships.

The team observed vox silence as the eased through the thick jungle growth. Hand signals flew quickly between Lucian and his team. Yngvar and Jubal broke away from the team and made a cautious circuit of the compound's perimeter while the remainder of the Death's Head entered through what remained of its entrance. The remnants of massive iron doors lay in shreds around the entrance.

Ork bodies lay in piles around the compound where they had fought a desperate defense, to no avail it would seem. By the time that Lucian and the remainder of the team reached the middle of the compound, Yngvar and Jubal had returned from scouting the perimeter. The squad knelt in the mire of the compound's center, each weapon facing outward as the Space Wolf conferred with the Ultramarine Sergeant.

"The jungle is flattened for ten meters in every direction." Yngvar said. "Tracks overlap one another too much to make any sense of them, so no luck there. More blood trails than I care to count led out into the tree line."

"Any bodies?" Lucian asked.

"Negative, Brother Sergeant."

"If I may hazard a guess as to our unknown benefactors' identity?" Asked Dante, though masked by his blackened helm, Lucian's eyebrows rose in surprise as the Blood Angel had hardly spoken since the operation had begun. Everyone turned to glance toward the Blood Angel who was prying something from the wall with his combat blade.

"By all means, Brother Dante, let's hear it."

Whatever the Blood Angel had been prying at finally gave way with a wet thud as it fell into his waiting gauntlet. He turned and opened his fist to show what he had found. Within his armored gauntlet lay the lifeless form of a borer beetle. Launched from the barrels of the bio-weapons used by Termagants, borer beetles resembled a larger version of a tick found on Terra, but with wicked fangs. Once the living munitions entered the target, they became frenzied; spending the remaining moments of their lives burrowing deep into the target's flesh.

"Tyranids," Isaac said. "Why haven't they attacked us yet?"

"Perhaps they are unaware of our presence as of yet?" Jubal said.

"Hmmm...." Desimus rumbled, "Probably. The Orks have been keeping them too busy to have noticed a smaller unit." As if to punctuate the statement, rolling explosions could be heard rumbling in the distance. Lucian was silent for several heartbeats before nodding to himself and pulling out his holo-map again.

"This does not change the mission, Brothers." He indicated the team's highlighted path on the map. Everyone gathered around the Ultramarine Sergeant in preparation for his briefing, though each kept a wary eye upon their auspexes as well as turning to scan the perimeter periodically. "We will continue to move on a Southeast heading until we reach this strip of jungle between Brokentusk's fortress and the lake behind. The designated sniper team will be team two," He indicated Isaac and Yngvar with a wave of his gauntlet. "And they will set up upon this hill here and will terminate the target with the first available shot. Team one, consisting of Desimus and myself, will provide security on the North side of the lake, while Team three, indicating Jubal and Dante, will provide security on the south side. Upon taking the kill shot, teams one ad two will rendezvous on team three's position and we will exfil to the LZ here. Any questions?"

The team shook their heads as one. "No, Brother Sergeant," Said Yngvar, laughing. "We have had this briefing, in one form or another, three times now. I think we have it." This brought laughter from the other marines, even the stoic Dante managed a chuckle.

"Very well then, Brother Yngvar," Lucian said as he rose from his crouch, pointing the way forward. "If you would be so kind as to take point?"

"Aye, Brother Sergeant, for the Emperor."

"For the Emperor."