Imperialis Militia

Both stared at the sword blade poised at a vital point, then lowered their weapons in silent accord.

"You're stronger than I expected, Lorgar," Guilliman said, sheathing his sword.

"The same goes for you."

Lorgar put away his weapon as well, and they exchanged smiles.

"I hope we'll have another chance to fight side by side, Lorgar."

"We will, after the Great Crusade ends..." Lorgar replied with a smile.

After they exchanged a few more words, Lorgar watched Guilliman leave.

83rd Expeditionary Fleet

Overall commander: Rass Noda, Chapter Master of the Word Bearers' Second Chapter.

Chapter Master Kras stood on the bridge of the Fleet flagship, the Glory Expedition. They were heading in the opposite direction from their Primarch's expedition, and news had just reached them of his victory in his first battle.

"Lord of the Legion..."

Rass was overjoyed. As one of his gene-sons, nothing made him happier than seeing how powerful his Gene-Father was.

“My lord, we've received a distress call from a planet. An Ork Fleet has invaded Dawn III.”

Orks had the easiest time of any race in all of Warhammer, and the reason was simple.

They cared nothing for death, the future, fate, or the meaning of an Ork's life. Why bother thinking about any of that?

Just fight!

They crossed the vast reaches of space laughing, beating up everything they encountered. To Orks, it was all just one violent game.

Unfortunately, they were the only race that saw the world that way. So although Orks often played the comic relief, from the perspective of humans and other races, they remained terrifying.

Orks were also the most successfully evolved race in the galaxy. Despite having no systematic education or training, they seemed born with expertise in countless fields of technology. They could cobble together anything from basic Guns to starships out of scrap, and somehow, it worked remarkably well.

Their origins explained this: long, long ago, the Old Ones created a warrior race called the Krork, ancestors of the Orks, and built vast stores of technical knowledge and learning modules into their genes. They hoped this species, born for war, would help them win the War in Heaven.

But before the Old Ones could install a control system in the Krork, their race died out.

In other words, the Old Ones had created an intelligent war engine that could fight enemies of any technological level, anywhere and anytime, but never got around to installing an off switch.

The rampaging Krork once fought the Aeldari Empire at its height and posed a grave threat to it.

Today, the last Krork in the galaxy was sealed inside the museum of the Necron Overlord Trazyn.

It was a giant Ork over twelve meters tall, clad in armour more advanced than a Space Marine's Power Armour.

Now, in the thirtieth millennium, one of the Imperium's greatest enemies was the Ork Empire of Ullanor.

This time, for instance, an Ork Fleet had launched a surprise attack on a Hive City.

It had begun when a meteor shower struck Dawn III. To an ordinary Imperial Hive City, that would have been nothing more than a natural disaster.

What they did not know was that the meteor shower was a disguise for an Ork Fleet. A Fleet a million strong had used the meteors as cover to reach the planet at speed.

Within hours, the Imperial Star Fortress in orbit had fallen, and vast numbers of Orks rained down toward the Planet's surface like meteors.

The Imperialis Militia on the Planet could only use the Hive City's defenses to hold out. Facing an Ork horde nearly ten million strong, they had no chance of counterattacking. All they could do was hunker down inside the Hive City and return fire.

"The Fourth Chapter requests this assignment. We'll finish the fight within one hundred Terran days."

The speaker was Allen Colin, Chapter Master of the Fourth Chapter. He had volunteered to take on the relief mission.

"May the Emperor's light guide you, Chapter Master Colin." Rass saluted.

"They're coming! They're coming!"

Countless Orks surged like a tide toward the Jungle Hive City on Dawn III. The Imperialis Militia defending the Hive City shouted themselves hoarse.

Endless ranks of Orks roared as cannons made from scrap rolled steadily to the front. Shells fashioned from meteorites, Tank wreckage, building debris, and even civilian corpses hammered the Hive City's Void Shields.

At this time, the mortal troops were not yet called the Astra Militarum. They were known as the Imperial Army.

Also called the Imperial Auxilia, the Imperial Army was the largest military force maintained by the early Imperium of Man.

The purpose of establishing such a vast army was to provide the Legiones Astartes with sufficient manpower in the early Great Crusade. Its duties included, but were not limited to, defending colonies, conducting sieges, and carrying out large-scale invasions.

During the Great Crusade, the Imperial Fleet was subordinate to the Imperial Army and fell under its authority. Both, in turn, answered directly to the Astartes command structure.

Among the Imperial Army's better-known elite forces was the Solar Auxilia. Even by the end of the Great Crusade, it still accounted for twenty to twenty-five percent of all auxiliary troops.

The Imperial Army also maintained a force known as the Imperial Militia.

The Imperial Army did not come into being only after the Imperium was formally established. In fact, as early as Terra's Age of Strife, some mortal forces served the Emperor with his tacit approval, right up to the end of the Unification Wars.

The formations that survived that period were known as the Old Hundred, and they became the core of humanity's armed forces in the earliest days of the Great Crusade.

When the Great Crusade began in earnest and the Emperor left Terra, he needed an armed force to protect the inhabitants of conquered worlds and deal with internal rebellions and external invasions.

It was much like the role planetary defense forces would fill in the forty-first millennium.

That was indeed the original purpose and duty of the Imperial Army.

But as the Great Crusade advanced rapidly, the army also took its place among the armed forces venturing into the stars.

Now, in the Jungle Hive City's defensive gun emplacements, the Imperialis Militia manning the heavy Laser batteries still held their positions.

Red Laser beams lanced down from the batteries. A dozen or so Orks trying to attack the militia soldiers holding the walls were blasted into bloody mist.

Though the Orks came in waves, not one member of the Imperialis Militia retreated.

It was not only loyalty to the Emperor that held them there, but also the need to protect their families.

Their homes lay behind them. They had nowhere left to fall back to.

People looking back on the Great Crusade often focused only on the glorious victories of the Space Marine Legions. Few knew the record of the Imperial Army, another of the Imperium's foundations.

Dawn III

Jungle Hive City

This vast city, once a symbol of humanity's glory, had become a furnace of steel and blood.

The outer face of its walls, towering into the clouds, was covered in crude Ork graffiti and marks from all manner of impacts. Inside lay the Imperial Army's last Defense Line, the final refuge of millions, and the tomb where Colonel Theodore Wright and his 894th Infantry Regiment were destined to fight to the death.

Explosions across the Planet had left the air hot and foul, tainted with ozone, gunpowder smoke, molten metal, charred flesh, and the nauseating, brutish stench peculiar to Orks.

Through it all came the roar of the boundless green tide beyond the walls.

Countless Ork Boyz, Stormboyz, and even larger war machines battered the Hive City's massive alloy gates and towering walls with every weapon they could find or make.

"Waaagh!!!"

The dreadful war cry struck the defenders' ears and nerves again and again like a physical blow.

The snarl of bolters, the thunder of Heavy Bolters, the measured, heavy bursts of Autocannons, the sharp hiss of Lasgun volleys, and the booming Guns of artillery positions behind the walls trying to blanket the enemy with fire.

The sounds of all those weapons wove together into a symphony of destruction, drowning out any one person's shouts.

"Their fire is too heavy! Damn it! Vox operator! Tell the artillery observers behind us to correct their trajectories! Hit those green bastards packed together! Stop wasting shells on those metal lumps! We're barely hurting them! Do you understand? It's almost useless!"

He thrust himself up from behind the reinforced parapet. The conspicuous colonel's insignia on the shoulder of his Power Armour immediately drew a dense burst of crude solid-shot fire, sending chips flying from the stonework.

He ducked back without a care, his bloodshot eyes fixed on the soldier beside him holding a large vox unit.

Colonel Wright belonged to the Imperial Army. At that moment, he wore standard Imperial Army officer's Power Armour.

His armour was scarred and dented by battle, its original dark green paint mostly hidden beneath soot and dust. Only his rank markings and the 894th Infantry Regiment's emblem—a roaring iron bear atop a shattered planet—remained clean and clear, carefully wiped down by his own hand.

He held his Helmet beneath one arm, exposing a weathered, angular face. Sweat and grime ran together at his chin and dripped onto his breastplate, where the heat evaporated them almost at once.

His command post occupied a reinforced bastion behind a crucial stretch of wall. From there, he had a relatively clear view and could oversee the defenses on both flanks.

Through the huge Observation Window and across the Holographic Tactical Table, the hellish battlefield was plain to see.

Beyond the Hive City, an endless Ork army covered the ruins of what had once been a thriving city and the open ground beyond.

Their equipment was a jumble, but their numbers were staggering. Ork Boyz waving crude cleavers and firing wildly inaccurate but devastating solid-shot Guns surged forward in wave after green wave.

Farther out, unusually massive Ork Warbosses and other warlords armed with oversized heavy weapons blasted the walls with enormous guns and rocket launchers. Among them lumbered armoured vehicles and walking mechs crudely modified by Big Meks, spewing flame and making a deafening racket.

They lacked discipline, but possessed near-limitless brute strength and a frenzied passion for war. Their primal urge to destroy was enough to form a terrifying assault that threatened to engulf everything.

On the Hive City walls, the soldiers of the Imperial Army resisted with astonishing courage and discipline, despite the hopeless odds.

The soldiers of the 894th Infantry Regiment wore standard-issue carapace armour. Acting in squads, they formed tight firing lines under the hoarse commands of their noncommissioned officers.

Each squad usually consisted of ten soldiers and one noncommissioned officer. The officers were the backbone of their squads and generally carried better weapons, perhaps a Meltagun or Plasma Gun, along with a Power Weapon or Bolt Pistol as a symbol of authority.

With experience and bellowed orders, they held the line, directed fire, and suppressed the most dangerous targets.