Alex delivered his order with clipped precision.
"Moderati, unleash the wrath of the Omnissiah. Fire!"
The twin Gatling burst cannons roared to life, spinning and spewing streams of massive shells.
A storm of death swept through the orks.
In an instant, hundreds of greenskins were torn apart into shreds.
The Warlord-class Titan's dual echolocators locked onto the ground tremors and engine noise.
The radar scanner quickly marked every ork trukk on the tactical display.
"Destroy them!"
At Alexis's command, the four Apocalypse missile launchers on the Titan's shoulders roared simultaneously.
The missiles streaked away in trails of blazing light, striking locked-on heat signatures.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
One after another, Ork vehicles erupted into fireballs, their wrecks hurled through the air before crashing back down.
Other Titans descended from the landing craft and joined the barrage.
Storms of death and whirlwinds of fire swept the greenskin horde, turning them to ash in towering pillars of flame.
The Warlord-class Titans marched forward in perfect formation, each step a precise twenty meters.
Thierry stepped out of his drop-pod, feeling the searing air roar past as he watched the Titans advance with unstoppable might.
Clad in black helms, black armor, and flowing red robes, the Skitarii marched in disciplined ranks between the Titan lines.
They raised arc-rifles, unleashing blue-white beams against the orks.
Bolts of lightning split the sky, exploding in thunderclaps.
The greenskins struck by the arcs staggered back as their hearts spasmed, collapsing lifeless.
The Legio Astraman and the Skitarii fought in seamless coordination, striking the Orks with ruthless efficiency.
Thierry praised them to Captains Bukayo and Gregorz at his side: "Efficient, coordinated, precise. Truly, Father was wise to ally with Graea."
First Captain Robin stood apart, watching the others converse lightly.
"Lord…" he said heavily in his native Vostroyan, then added, "We came here to fight. We cannot simply stand idle while our allies bleed."
His words carried complaint but stopped short of challenging his commander's authority.
Though bitter that he had not risen to Chapter Master like some of his former brothers, Robin knew even the strongest of the old Reapers, Saisak, had fallen to Thierry. He himself could not hope to match him.
'Patience. Wait for the chance to prove myself. Father said, seek the right moment.'
Thierry's dark eyes turned on him, bottomless.
"You're eager?"
"Yes," Robin replied. "Surely my lord doesn't want the Ork Warboss killed by allied Titans, does he?"
Thierry laughed. "Indeed not. Attack."
The 8th Chapter of the Shadows of Order, orange longswords painted on their pauldrons, marched forward in step to meet the greenskins.
When they reached the Ork fortress, thirty-five Titans were already hammering it from four directions.
A Mars-Alpha Pattern Warlord Titan spun its Arioch Titan Power Claw on its left arm, pounding the fortress wall with a relentless barrage.
The explosions thundered like rolling storms, shaking the wall until cracks spread like spiderwebs.
Thierry's sharp eyes caught the fractures widening.
"Follow me."
He led his guard straight at the breach.
Thirty meters out, the cracks split apart, then the wall collapsed with a thunderous crash.
Thierry charged in first, his orange-furred gyrinx bounding beside him.
He swung his power sword, the crackling blue blade slashing out.
Three onrushing orks had their throats cut in a single stroke, their skulls shredded by the disruptor field.
Robin saw Thierry push into the breach and instantly shouted: "After me!"
He led the 1st Company in behind the guard.
Inside, Thierry was swarmed by brightly painted orks, their armor and weapons daubed in garish colors.
The Knight Lord bellowed: "Lance formation!"
His guard instantly formed up around him like the point of a spear.
The "Warriors," faster and sharper than any Shadows of Order, drilled into the horde.
With flawless mastery of the Otsberg-Vaya, they cut the greenskins down.
Thierry was the greatest of the 11th Legion beneath the Primarch himself.
The 8th Chapter were the most skilled in Otsberg-Vaya, and his guard the best of them all.
Their strength overwhelmed the orks; their skill eclipsed the gaudy Goffs and Bad Moons bedecked in gold trinkets.
Robin, entering behind, saw Thierry carve through the Orks like an arena champion again, his mind flashing back to the day Thierry felled Saisak
The first Titan to breach was the Lagos. Alexis directed his Titan to systematically strip the fortress of guns before pushing inside.
Through his detectors, Alexis mapped the battlefield. To his astonishment, the Knight Lord and his guard were butchering greenskins nearly as swiftly as the god-machines themselves.
Then, a spectral image fed through the sensors:
An Ork taller than five grots stacked high.
Behind him blazed a glittering golden boss-banner, shining like a star.
He wore ornate mega-armor thicker than any ork's, like a crude, squat Knight-suit.
"WAAAGH!"
The ork warboss bellowed, charging Thierry, raising his massive choppa.
Unlike the crude blades of lesser orks, his glittered with golden light, a huge, gleaming cleaver.
Thierry invoked the sixth technique of Otsberg-Vaya, twisting his arm to meet the blow, power sword braced.
The impact drove his feet deep into the earth, his body straining, forced back step by step.
But Thierry did not yield. He countered with a flurry of slashes.
His strikes were faster than the ork's, the crackling blade cutting glowing gouges into the ornate armor.
Soon, the warlord's gilded plates were scarred and rent, and he roared in fury.
"Gork an' Mork!" he howled, green energy crackling in his mind.
"WAAAGH!"
A surge of psychic force blasted through his choppa, hurling Thierry aside.
Robin's eyes narrowed, he saw the weak points in the warlord's broken armor.
'If I can slay the Ork Warboss, I'll win greater glory than Thierry in this campaign.'
'It will be the first of many victories. Father will see, I should be the true Chapter Master.'
He darted forward.
The warboss raised his gleaming choppa to strike Thierry again, when Robin lunged in.
The warboss grinned cruelly and swung.
The golden blade cleaved Robin clean in half.
Thierry rose, grim-eyed, resolve hardening.
'I will kill this Ork Warboss.'
His pupils expanded, black swallowing his eyes.
He charged, invoking the twenty-third technqiue of Otsberg-Vaya, the art of overcoming strength with weakness.
His power sword stabbed into the warboss's neck armor, driving through into his skull.
Thierry whispered: "I have awakened the Warp Insight."
He glanced at the bisected corpse of Robin and shook his head.
"Robin is dead."
.....
If you enjoy the story, my p@treon is 30 chapters ahead.
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