Seventy-Two Hours

Chapter 6

Yngvar thundered away with his storm bolter, bodies blew apart in sprays of gore until it clicked on an empty chamber. The Space Wolf roared incoherently as he brought the weapon down onto the head of a burly Ork. The greenskin's chain axe shrieked and spat sparks as it scraped across his blessed ceramite. The brute crumpled to the ground, grey matter oozing from his crushed skull.

They were through. The team had been fighting continuously for many hours and to suddenly be confronted without a foe caused them pause. Leaves floated down around them as rounds ripped through the treetops, dirt kicked up around their feet as the guns began to zero in.

"Move, Brothers!" Lucian called, motioning forward. A quick glance back revealed that, while the two forces were still primarily focused on each other, the battle was moving in their direction and the foes at the battle's forefront had taken notice of the small space marine squad. "For the Emperor!"

"For the Emperor!" Came his bellowed reply. The team broke up their formation and began running forward, turning on occasion to fire at their pursuers or toss a grenade into their midst. Dirt and rocks pelted around them, pinging from their armor as the Orks fired grenades and rockets at the fleeing Astartes.

The sky darkened and it began to rain. It fell in great torrents, turning the jungles floor into a thick, clinging mud in a matter of moments. Death's Head began to gain a little ground then, their armored forms powering through while their pursuers slipped and fell. Dante grunted and fell.

Isaac turned back to help him up while Yngvar and Lucian provided covering fire. The Blood Angel's left leg was gone from the knee down and lay several feet away in a clump of now bloody ferns. Isaac grabbed him, slinging Dante's arm around his shoulders and lifted him up. He handed the Blood Angel a bolt pistol and used his own bolter one handed as they hobbled forward.

The two passed between Lucian and Yngvar as they continued laying down covering fire for several more seconds and finally tossed grenades before turning to following their comrades toward the LZ and freedom. With the detonation of their grenades, the weight of the incoming fire slacked off considerably.

They panted as they ran through the trees, the rain washing the blood from their armor. Each sported at least some minor wounds, though Dante was the worst off by far. They were nearly there, a hundred yards from the tree line. Lucian had received confirmation that their Thunderhawk was on its way to the LZ.

Thirty minutes...

They just had to hold for thirty minutes...

"Thirty minutes?" Isaac said, firing his bolter over his shoulder as he tried to keep Dante from tripping them both up. The Blood Angel's wounds weren't clotting as well as they should, his system was being taxed to its limits. If they were not able to get him to an apothecary quickly, he would bleed out. "Thirty minutes...we may as well shoot ourselves now!"

"I would never take the coward's way out!" Yngvar replied, disgust evident in his voice as he spun to launch another grenade into the approaching line. Bullets and borer beetles zipped through the trees, causing leaves and limbs to fall in a near continuous rain. "I will fight with my bare hands and my fangs if I must. Praise Russ!" This last exclamation brought on as he spied half a dozen Orks ripped to shreds by his grenade.

"He wasn't serious, Brother Yngvar." Lucian called back, turning to fire another burst into a leaping Termagant. The bolts stitched across his thick hide, nearly tearing it into. The two halves splashed into the mud to be trampled into the mud by its fellows. "Brother Isaac's record is exemplary."