Seventy-Two Hours

Chapter 4

The sounds of battle grew louder as the team moved further south. Brief breaks in the rolling explosions were pierced with a continuous staccato of automatic weapons fire. The team paused near the edge of the tree line which, according to the map, was supposed to be approximately five hundred meters closer to the fortress' walls than it was.

The extra five hundred meters of jungle was trampled, burned, and coated in a carpet of corpses. Tyranid corpses. The team could see the walls of the fortress from where they stood...although... "fortress" may have been a little generous for the amalgamation of iron and steel which rose up from the jungle clearing. The bodies of Tyranid warriors were piled nearly halfway up the fortress walls.

The clearing undulated as though alive with Tyranid warriors as they rushed forward, climbing over the bodies of their dead brethren to reach the bellowing Orks who blazed away at the seething horde from atop the fortress walls. As the team watched, a group of Tyranid warriors leveled their bio-weapons at the top of the wall and released a flurry of borer beetles toward the Orks. Most of the greenskins bellowed their pain and anger as they continued firing down upon the heads of their foe. One unlucky Ork grabbed at his throat and slumped forward, plummeting into the horde below where he was lost from view.

The team shared a quick glance toward one another before Lucian motioned Yngvar to move out. The remainder of their daylight hours were spent working toward team two's sniper position. As they entered the narrow strip of land between Brokentusk's fortress and the lake behind it, Lucian and Desimus broke away from the team to provide rear security. It was around midnight when Yngvar and Isaac set up set up at their designated position, leaving Dante and Jubal to continue to the rendezvous point at the narrow strip of land's south end and provide security from there until the rest of the team met up with them following the kill shot.

Throughout the rest of the day and all through the night the Space Marines could here battle at the fortress' walls. Explosions echoed back and forth though the thick jungle, the larger ones lighting up the night sky. Staccato bursts of automatic fire could be heard between the detonations, the occasional burst of tracers could be seen racing through the gloom.

The team was observing vox silence until contact was made with the enemy to avoid any premature detection. Isaac lay prone amid the jungle ferns, gazing into the fortress' heart from their vantage point atop the hill; his eye stayed glued to his Stalker Bolter's night vision scope. Yngvar lay beside the Dark Angel facing the opposite direction, his suppressed bolter scanning back and forth continuously. The Space Wolf kept his storm bolter close to hand in case contact with the enemy were to come hard and fast.

"I wonder," Isaac whispered, he had taken his helmet off several hours earlier so that he and Yngvar could converse without risking discovery over the vox. He was learning that the Space Wolves' reputation for being rude was well earned. "Why Lucian was so adamant that the plan hadn't changed. Surely the presence of the hive would change everything."

"Because we have our orders, son of the Lion." Yngvar said. "It is no more and no less than that. We shall do our duty and either die or live, it matters not."

"Never again imply that I am unwilling to do my duty, Space Wolf." Isaac replied, grinding his teeth. "If my life would provide some victory in the Emperor's name then I would gladly give it a thousand times over. I would also give it in defense of my brothers...even for you. I am quite sure, however, that you would do something foolish after my heroic sacrifice to make me regret saving you as I looked down from the Emperor's side."

Yngvar lay there, silently scanning their perimeter, as he processed what Isaac had said. The Dark Angel's outburst had caught him by surprise. If Isaac were indeed so willing to give his life in defense of the Emperor and his brothers...perhaps the Dark Angels were not so honor-less as Yngvar had been led to believe. Or, the more likely explanation, Isaac was an exception to the rule. Yes, that was it. Yngvar nodded to himself in the dark. That was an answer that he could live with.