Perfect stealth gone wrong

Calando carefully watched the movements of the Orks prowling nearby with crude firearms and torches.

"It looks like they know there are intruders, but they don't know exactly where."

Seeing that the Tactical Squad had yet to split up, Calando ordered one team to head immediately to the rendezvous point and find Iax and the others. The enemy was on alert now, so the fewer men he had with him, the better.

The other three teams followed Calando onward in loose formation.

They relied on the crude fences and pitch-black surroundings to block lines of sight, along with the shadows cast everywhere by shacks and rubbish heaps.

A handful of men still had a chance of continuing the mission.

After all, they needed to find materials, not fight the Orks head-on.

Even if everyone aboard the Cruiser were sent down to the surface, a single charge from the Orks here would overwhelm them.

Once the force split into small teams, their pace picked up again.

The Ork camp covered a considerable area.

For several kilometers around its outskirts, there was almost nothing but crude tents, scattered campfires, and heaps of assorted rubbish.

Making use of the night and the shadows cast by the fires, the Ultramarines steadily quickened their pace.

The Orks' noisy racket provided excellent cover.

Their heavy bodies made their running footsteps sound almost identical to the dull tread of Astartes clad in ceramite armor.

Even as the men ran through the shadows, none of the other Orks who heard them paid any attention.

After all, they made the same bloody racket when they ran.

Once they passed through the chaotic outer area, the sections farther in showed some semblance of order.

But the things parked in some of the larger sheds almost made the infiltrating Ultramarines cry