The Green Tide

"I ain't played 'stomp the humies' in ages. Let these poor sods come down and see what fun they can give me. Pass on my orders! Tell all the boyz not to smash everything on this planet just yet. Leave some 'toys' for our new guests."

"Especially that place called... what was it, the 'Steel Outhouse'?" He pointed at the vast building complex in Agricultural Zone 7 on the star map. "That looks like the toughest spot. I'm moving my throne onto its roof! I'm gonna sit there and watch these new humies cry and scream while my boyz stomp 'em into paste, bit by bit!"

Grak could never have imagined the terrible price that he and his entire Waaagh! would pay for this decision, born of twisted amusement and arrogance.

He thought he was a hunter, toying with a swarm of bugs he was about to crush.

What he did not know was that these "bugs" had already become a pile of explosives with their fuses lit. They had not come to die. They had come... to take everyone else with them when they blew.

When the 99th Regiment's transports braved scattered artillery fire and forced their way down onto the outskirts of Agricultural Zone 7, landing one after another, a hellish landscape greeted them.

The sky was dark red, veiled by thick smoke from burning crops and factories. A strange, acrid stench filled the air, mixing machine oil, scorched earth, and the body odor of some unknown creature. In the distance, enormous Ork war machines used crude but immensely powerful catapults to hurl burning boulders and exploding oil drums aimlessly into the area.

The soldiers of the 99th Regiment charged out of their transports into this chaos.

There was no fear on their faces, no uncertainty. Only a fervor suppressed to its limit, ready to erupt.

"Move! Move! Move!" Sergeant Orik now wore a reasonably intact suit of Carapace Armour and carried a Chainsword, roaring himself hoarse. "Defensive positions! Heavy weapons teams, take that hill! Everyone else, form a defensive perimeter around the transports! We're not here for sightseeing! Get moving!"

The soldiers sprang into action with extraordinary efficiency. Those who had once been criminals were now the fiercest fighters, racing along with ammunition crates for the Heavy Bolters on their shoulders. The former veterans of Cadia became the tactical anchors of their squads, drawing on their wealth of experience to direct the recruits as they dug the most effective foxholes.

Alexander stepped out of the transport. Rather than remain safely in the rear, he went straight to the foremost defensive line, carrying a Power Sword.

His arrival sent a surge of courage through every soldier's heart.

"The Commissar is with us!"

"See that? Our eldest brother is right here beside us!"

"Fight for our eldest brother!"

The soldiers murmured these words quietly, but with absolute conviction. As long as Alexander was there, it seemed, they could never lose.

Just then, a rumble like rolling thunder rose from the distant horizon. Moments later, a mass of "war wagons" cobbled together from scrap metal appeared in everyone's sight, belching thick black smoke.

It was the Ork vanguard.

Some of those so-called "war wagons" looked like tractors, others like trucks, and some were nothing more than iron plates lashed to wheels. But they all had one thing in common: they were crammed with Orks waving cleavers and axes, roaring "Waaagh!"

"Prepare for battle!" Colonel Valeus issued his orders over the command channel, calm but with a trace of tension. "Heavy Bolters! Fire at will!"

"Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!"

The Heavy Bolters deployed on the flanks were the first to roar. Their massive Bolt Rounds swept toward the torrent of steel like the scythe of death.

Several of the leading "war wagons" were instantly blasted into scrap, sending the Orks aboard flying into the air along with the wreckage.

But that did nothing to halt the Orks' charge. If anything, the explosions and deaths seemed to stoke their ferocity. The vehicles behind drove straight over their comrades' wreckage without slowing in the slightest.

"They're coming!!" a young soldier cried, his voice trembling with nerves.

"Hold steady!" Orik slapped his helmet. "Remember what the Commissar told us! What are we?"

"...We are the flames!" The young soldier's gaze grew resolute again.

"Then what are they?"

"...Firewood!"

"Good!" Orik grinned, revealing a mouthful of metal teeth. "Now let this damned firewood feel our heat!"

"For our family! Open fire!!!"

In an instant, a web of fire from thousands of Lasguns blanketed the entire battlefield. Red laser beams poured into the charging Orks like a torrential downpour.

The Orks at the front fell in swathes, high-energy laser beams burning blackened holes through their bodies. But there were simply too many of them. Whenever one rank fell, two more immediately surged up behind it.

They drew closer and closer. The soldiers could even make out their ugly, tusked faces.

"Grenades!!!" Orik roared, pulling a grenade from his belt.

Countless black specks sailed forward.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Violent explosions tore bloody gaps in the charging Ork ranks. But the brief pause was soon swallowed by the masses of Orks pouring in behind them.

"They're on us! Prepare for melee!"

This was the order the Astra Militarum dreaded most. Fight an Ork hand to hand? That was practically suicide. An ordinary Ork "boy" far surpassed a well-trained Astra Militarum soldier in both strength and size.

Yet the soldiers of the 99th Regiment seemed to have been waiting for this very moment.

Their eyes held no fear of death, only a thirst for blood.

"For the Emperor!"

"For the hearth!"

"Burn them all!!!"

With cries that made little sense but overflowed with fervor, they surged forward to meet the green tide.

The instant the two sides collided, the battle entered its bloodiest, most brutal phase.

An Ork swung an enormous cleaver the size of a door, chopping a soldier and the Lasgun in his hands clean in half. But a second later, the fallen soldier's comrade let out a bestial roar and drove his bayonet hard into the Ork's eye socket.