Symphony of death

Just then, Sergeant Orik's voice came through the communicator, tinged with excitement. "Reporting, Eldest Brother! Reporting, Colonel! The interior is secure! We've found some 'little gifts'! It seems the sisters of the Ecclesiarchy once established an outpost here! We've found a small armory!"

The news lifted everyone's spirits.

When Valeus and Alexander arrived, they found a sight that surprised them both. A concealed basement held dozens of crates of bolter ammunition, several Multi-meltas, and... large quantities of high explosives and incendiary grenades bearing the sacred fleur-de-lis of the Adepta Sororitas.

"It seems the Emperor is with us." Alexander picked up an incendiary grenade and weighed it in his hand. "Or rather, the Emperor's wrath was prepared for us long ago."

"Distribute these 'gifts' immediately! Place the explosives and incendiaries at every critical structural support and passageway!" Colonel Valeus ordered decisively. These weapons went a long way toward compensating for their shortage of heavy firepower.

The defenses took shape in a race against time.

The soldiers built sturdy barricades from discarded machinery and metal plates. They established overlapping fields of fire at every corner and passageway. Snipers and heavy weapons teams were deployed on maintenance platforms atop the towering grain silos, giving them excellent lines of sight.

Alexander, meanwhile, made his own "spiritual" preparations.

He had the soldiers use their own blood, or the green blood of Orks, to paint fervent slogans across the walls, the machinery, and every surface within sight.

"The Fireplace is here, burn everything to ash!"

"Our bodies are firewood, our souls are flames!"

"Fight for the Eldest Brother! Give your lives for the Emperor!"

Within a few short hours, the entire "Iron Temple" had transformed from an industrial facility into a sacrificial temple steeped in fanaticism and death.

By the time the final preparations were complete, dusk had fallen.

The blood-red setting sun cast an ominous, tragic hue over the steel fortress.

Suddenly, a low rumble like an earthquake rolled in from the distant horizon.

The ground began to tremble faintly.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned as one to look beyond the fortress.

Then they saw a sight they would never forget.

At the edge of the horizon appeared... an ocean of green.

An endless green tide of Orks, battle wagons, and bizarre war machines swept toward the "Iron Temple." Their numbers were impossible to gauge by sight. A hundred thousand? Five hundred thousand? A million?

Their earth-shaking cries of "Waaagh!" merged into a wave of sound that threatened to destroy everything, as though it would tear the sky apart.

Faced with such a terrifying sight, any normal army would have suffered an immediate collapse in morale and lost all will to resist.

Yet not a single soldier of the 99th Regiment retreated.

They stood silently at their positions, gripping their weapons.

There was no fear on their faces.

Only a solemnity and fervor... like pilgrims about to behold their god.

Alexander von Lawrence climbed onto the command platform at the highest point of the central factory building. Colonel Valeus and Sergeant Orik stood behind him.

He picked up the wide-area communicator, and his voice carried clearly into every corner of the "Iron Temple," reaching every soldier's ears.

"Brothers!"

"Do you see them?"

"Out there is the main course of our grand feast!"

"They think they are hunters, here to harvest our lives. They do not know they are merely foolish moths drawn to the bonfire!"

"Today, there will be no survivors here!"

"Here, we will all burn!"

"With our flesh, our blood, and our souls, we will turn this 'Iron Temple' into the hottest, brightest fireplace in the history of the Imperium of Man!"

"Our flames will soar into the heavens! Our light will pierce the darkness! The entire sector, the entire Imperium, will see the beacon of vengeance we light here!"

"Now! Raise your weapons!"

"Let us offer the Emperor, and ourselves, this... most glorious, final sacrifice!"

"For our families!!!"

"-For our families!!!"

A thunderous response erupted from every corner of the steel labyrinth. Those voices carried the purest, most absolute yearning for destruction and glory, powerful enough to shake the stars.

Satisfied, Alexander lowered the communicator and turned, smiling at the deathly pale Colonel Valeus beside him.

"Are you ready, Colonel? To witness... a true fireworks display."

Colonel Valeus opened his mouth, but in the end, all that escaped was a long sigh laden with conflicting emotions.

He knew he was now irrevocably bound to this madman and his army of lunatics.

He drew his Power Sword.

"For the Emperor," he said softly.

Below them, the green ocean had already begun to batter the shores of the "Iron Temple."

The war began.

"Waaagh!!!"

The first wave consisted of the Madboyz and Wildboyz mobs, the most deranged and reckless of all the Orks. Riding enormous boars and assorted mutant reptiles, they brandished great axes and spears and slammed into the outer defenses of the "Iron Temple" like a savage, primal torrent.

"Open fire!!!"

Colonel Valeus's calm, decisive order rang out over the command channel.

In an instant, the symphony of death began its most magnificent movement.

The Heavy Bolters deployed atop the grain silos unleashed deep, rhythmic roars like the heartbeat of death itself. Every Bolt Round blasted a bloody gap through the charging Ork cavalry, tearing the enormous mounts and their riders to pieces.

The Multi-meltas spat devastating beams hot enough to melt steel. Wherever those beams swept, Ork flesh and crude armor alike instantly vaporized like butter beneath a hot knife, leaving blackened, smoking furrows in the ground.

The ordinary soldiers sheltered behind their sturdy defenses, weaving impenetrable webs of fire with their Lasguns. Beneath the darkening sky, the red beams painted a brilliant, deadly picture like fireworks at a festival.

The Orks at the front fell in swathes. For the first time, their charge met a devastating check hundreds of meters from the human lines.