"Boss Slick, let's get moving! Let's go krump some Humies, or the Boyz will hog all the fun!" Clever Git tugged excitedly at Cheng Mingrui's arm, egging him on.
Cheng Mingrui stared at Clever Git like a bewildered old man squinting at a phone. He was at a loss. This seemed to be how the Greenskins thought: sometimes shrewd beyond belief, sometimes so crude they might as well have been idiots.
Seeing the other Greenskins getting worked up and fewer and fewer Boyz remaining at his side, Cheng Mingrui stopped worrying about it. They were all Orks anyway. All he needed to do was join in the Waaagh!
So he let out a roar and charged into the most crowded passage, taking several of the biggest, strongest Boyz and the Killa Kan with him.
Kuka had found a rather large Squig somewhere and rode it after them.
Perhaps Gork and Mork really were watching over them, because Cheng Mingrui's band of Orks soon encountered a human defensive position.
Several hundred elite human soldiers, carrying power packs on their backs and wielding Heavy Lasguns, blocked the Greenskins' path with the aid of several heavy weapons and makeshift metal barricades.
The Greenskins didn't care whether the human soldiers were guarding the Engine Room. If there were Humies here, they had come to the right place. They would fight first and worry about the rest later.
But the passage was far too narrow, severely limiting the Greenskins' ability to exploit their numerical advantage.
The Heavy Lasguns were a far cry from the "flashlights" they had faced earlier, packing vastly greater power. Those "flashlights" had needed a dozen or more shots to kill a Boy, while these Heavy Lasguns could kill one with a single headshot.
A mob of Choppa Boyz alone would never have broken through such a defense, but the pile of Teef Cheng Mingrui had just spent proved crucial.
Many of the Ork Boyz now carried Dakka and Shootas. Roaring, they blazed away at the human soldiers, holding their own in the exchange of fire with the human elites behind the barricades.
With the Orks fighting fearlessly, even the humans' cover and lower casualties could not keep them from being worn down by the prolonged exchange.
The human soldiers had only so many men, while the Orks could replenish their ranks. Once fighting broke out, stray Greenskins always emerged from unknown corners to join the battle that set their blood boiling.
After half an hour of exchanging fire, the human soldiers' casualties were approaching thirty percent. Without their two heavy-weapons teams equipped with Heavy Stubbers, their situation would have been even worse.
Just as on Earth, Heavy Stubbers remained devastating infantry killers. In the interstellar age, their caliber and rate of fire had increased further. Their barrels unleashed a storm of heavy las-beams, with still greater armor penetration and firing speed.
How else could they fight all those inhuman monsters without increasing their firepower?
Operated by four men apiece, the Heavy Stubbers buzzed like the Powered Gatling Gun of an A-10 Warthog. The red las-beams they fired were a whirlwind and rainstorm of death.
The two Heavy Stubbers stood at opposite corners of the passage, creating crossfire that covered almost the entire corridor. They accounted for sixty percent of the Boyz's casualties.
Being pinned down for so long enraged the Ork Boyz. One Boy wrapped a ring of Stikkbombs around his waist, then fashioned a shield and a suit of armor from thick iron plates.
With a furious "Waaagh!", the iron-clad Boy charged out. Both Heavy Stubbers immediately swung their barrels toward him, engulfing the Ardboy in a red whirlwind of death.
He held out for a dozen seconds before the firepower stopped him. He had charged less than fifty meters when the Ardboy's shield was melted through.
His body and the Stikkbombs erupted into a small mushroom cloud, blasting him into a skyful of Ork spores.
Taking advantage of the confusion the explosion caused, the other Orks opened up, pouring ammunition into the human defensive line and cutting down their troops.
This kind of attrition had played out several times already, with both sides looking ready to trade casualties down to the last fighter. But this time was different...
After watching for a long time, Cheng Mingrui raised his Plasma Gun and aimed at a Heavy Stubber from an awkward angle. Blue light gathered inside the barrel, and the immense energy made the weapon creak.
This thing isn't actually going to blow up, is it? As Cheng Mingrui's mind wandered with his finger squeezing the trigger, a streak of blue lightning shot from the muzzle. Its tremendous power swept away the smoke from the explosion.
In a flash, the searing plasma bolt exploded, engulfing the entire Heavy Stubber emplacement and vaporizing everything inside. All it left was a deep crater filled with scorching heat and molten iron.
That powerful?! Even a main battle tank couldn't take a hit like that! Having never tested the weapon, Cheng Mingrui was stunned by the Plasma Gun's power. It was probably this devastating because of Cleverhead's modifications.
The human soldiers lived up to their elite status, reacting quickly. After their initial shock at seeing a Heavy Stubber emplacement destroyed by a single plasma shot, they immediately organized retaliatory fire.
Three shoulder-launched missiles streaked toward him, trailing long plumes of smoke. They clearly intended to saturate Cheng Mingrui and everything around him with firepower to ensure the target's complete destruction.
"Boss, get out of the way! Get out of the way!" Clever Git's face turned even greener with fear.
Cheng Mingrui was stunned too. He wanted to dodge, but the missiles were coming too fast. Desperate to survive, he dove forward, hoping to minimize the damage from the explosions.
A streak of green light suddenly appeared, lashing around the three missiles like a whip. With a mighty flick, it hurled them back into the human positions, where the enormous explosions shattered the defensive line even further.
It was Kuka, the Madboy. He had used Waaagh energy to turn the crisis around.
Still lying on the ground, Cheng Mingrui seized the opportunity to aim at the other Heavy Stubber emplacement and fire another high-energy plasma bolt. It did not disappoint, melting the second emplacement into molten iron.
"Boyz, charge that gap again! Waaagh!" Hanging the somewhat hot Plasma Gun at his waist, Cheng Mingrui drew his Big Dakka and laid down covering fire against the human defensive line.
The Boyz might have looked dim-witted, but their combat instincts were anything but poor. They rose with furious roars, grabbing whatever Shootas, Sluggas, Rokkit Launchas, and Stikkbombs they could reach and letting the human defensive line have it.
Flames and explosions engulfed the entire human defensive line, inflicting countless casualties on the defenders behind it.
Dozens of shield-bearing Ardboyz charged forward with cries of "Waaagh!" Once they broke into the human defensive line, it would be a brutal slaughter. Without their heavy firepower, the humans' retaliation had weakened considerably. Ordinary infantry Lasguns struggled to punch through the Ardboyz's shields quickly.
Several sudden explosions blasted a number of Boyz off their feet. Land mines and Grenade Launchers! The human defenders had not given up. These troops really were different from the human soldiers they had encountered earlier. They were still fighting back and had yet to rout.
The roar of machinery and turning gears sounded especially grating amid the explosions. The grinding of circular saws and Power Klaws was enough to set teeth on edge.
Trailing thick black smoke and moving with a comical gait, the Killa Kan's huge, oppressive form charged out of the haze. The two Big Dakkas on its chest spat flames, while the killing implements on its arms gleamed coldly.
"Waaagh!" The fighting spirit of the Gretchin inside the can had been ignited too.
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