Angels of Death: Ch.13

Chapter 13: Taking it back

Raege and the remainder of her men were utterly pinned down by relentless shoota fire from entrenched Ork locations. A failed counter attack and the death of a good number of her men had put her off trying to advance any further. She had a good, defensible position of her own (a small command bunker outside the main building,) so decided to hold up here till backup came. However, the situation wasn't helped by the fact that she'd been hit twice.

She had miscalculated the power of the enemy's defences, and had paid the price. Some time ago, a nasty wound in her shoulder meant she had to get a mechanical implant to replace the joint. Now, her good arm was adorned with a respectably messy wound on her bicep and another shot had burrowed into her hip. This had put her out of action for the moment. Cuddles had all but carried her back to the bunker and was still at her side, doing all of her worrying for her.

As she lay back on a chair in the bunker, gritting her teeth, a medic frantically worked to get the bullet out of her side. She groaned as it was slowly wrenched out.

"Sorry miss." replied the medic attending to her, tossing the bullet aside with the tweezers he'd used to pull it out.

"No, it's good...oh hell yeah, that's so much better..."she smiled weakly, having some of the pain relieved now that the bullet was gone from her hip. She looked down at her wounded arm. "And the other?"

"Already on it." he replied, setting to work on her arm. This one came right out, and didn't hurt anywhere near as much as the first. "Ok...one sec..." the medic pulled out a shot of painkillers and handed them to her. "This'll choke the chronic pain and stop the bleeding, but I do suggest you give it five minutes or so before going back out into the front line."

"Thanks lad." She said, as she injected herself. "Stupid bloody fungus brains, almost got me killed out there for real."

"EEeeeeeeven I didn't prededict sssuch heeeaavy ressssisstance at thissss point." said Cuddles, trying to reassure her.

"Where the hell did our air support go?" she groaned, sitting up as the pain started to fade under the influence of the drugs.

"Into the surrounding jungle in great balls of fire, I suspect." said Tauron as he looked through a crack in the wall to the world outside. "I wonder if we're the last ones left?" he sighed. "Still, I hate hiding behind walls...I just wish they'd come out and fight us face to face!"

"One should not fear enemy fire, but one should also not needlessly expose one's self to it either. Well, if there is nothing to be gained by doing so anyway." said the medic as he checked his equipment. "I believe a Lord General, whose name evades me, once said that."

"You're probably right, both figuratively and literally." Sighed Raege, and got to her feet. "Tauron, see anything?"

"Dust...dead orks...dead men...blood...jungle..." he began.

"No, I mean...you have any idea what we're up against?" she said, waving a dismissive hand. She forgot about the bullet wound in her arm, and it panged a little as she did, but she ignored it.

"Ah...yes...4 heavy turrets manned by orks, each consisting of twin linked automatic weapons. These are backed up by fire from orks in almost all directions." He replied. "I think the technical term of that sort of situation is "death-trap."" He chuckled, turning to her with a smile.

"Maaaaaybee I could go aaaaround aaand take theeeem by ssssssuprisssse?" suggested Cuddles.

"I wouldn't suggest it. Every ork in 500 meters knows were in here now. You step out that door and you'll get turned into mashed corpse-rations in a split second." replied Tauron.

"Sssstealth?" she said.

"These are orks we're talking about." sighed Raege.

"I'd bet you fifty thrones that they'll just be shooting at the doorway even though there's nothing there." chuckled Tauron. "If only I had fifty thrones to bet..."

"Nice suggestion though. If only we could distract them long enough to get Cuddles out the door and behind the enemy line, she might be able to break down the ork defences and we might be able to get out of this mess." said Raege, going into tactical-planning mode.

"Hold the vox...did someone say..."distract?"" said Tauron, a massive grin appearing on his face. He reached into his many pockets and pulled out a flashbang in each hand. Raege nodded.

"I'm starting to like you again." she chuckled.

"Nice to know." he replied in the same vein, pulling out two more.

"Wait...how many of those things do you have?" said Raege as Tauron began to form a pile of them on the table.

"More than enough to blind every Ork from here to Mars and back." he cackled. "I keep these things rainy days, and this counts I think." He started passing them to Cuddles, who was very quickly weighed down by them, using both hands to hold the pile.

"I don'tttt thiiiink I'lll neeeeeed thiisssss many." She whispered.

"Nonsense, you can never have too many!" replied Tauron with a maniacal laugh.

"Buttt...I dooon't haaave enough pocketttssss." She continued. Tauron paused, stood back, and realised that she was right. Both him and Raege had coats with many pockets, but Cuddles wore a bodysuit, and could only carry two grenades in holsters on each hip.

He did seem to stare at her for a strangely long time, seeming to be lost in thought. Too long. Raege quickly realised what he was up to.

"Oi, lovebird, get back here with us!" yelled Raege, clapping her hands and Tauron snapped out of his trance. When Cuddles realised what he had actually been doing, what was left of her cheeks went bright pink and she giggled.

"Oh, what, yeah, erm...I'll go with her then!" he said hastily, having come up with than answer some time ago.

"Wait...you can cloak too?" asked Raege.

"Nope, but I've got an even more insane idea! One that means we should be nigh able to walk straight into the Ork base without any resistance." he cackled, and pulled out two rags. "In the land of the blind, the psykers shall still see!"

"Wait...let me get this straight..." said the medic before he left. "You two are gonna run out there, and blind the orks by throwing flashbangs everywhere, while wearing blindfolds, so you won't get blinded youself, but you'll still be blind anyway, and use your...psychic...mind...seeing powers to still somehow see?"

Tauron nodded frantically.

"Better you than me." chuckled the medic as he packed his gear up. "I've to go patch up the other survivors. Nice knowing you lot." He said as he left to tend to someone else.

"Tauron, you know you're completely out of your mind, and you're a tactical genius, right?" said Raege, walking over to him with a faint grin at the prospect of his insane plan.

"That's what I've been trying to tell you all this time!" he sighed, as he put his blindfold on. "Well...the mad bit anyway; not the tactical genius bit. I ain't no Creed."

"Still, you better bring Cuddles back in once piece, cause if you don't, don't bother coming back in once piece yourself." She said, tapping him on the shoulder. She then looked up to Cuddles. "You sure you'll be ok with this?"

"Dooo weeee have a choiccccce?" she said in her psychic, whispering voice as she put her own blindfold on.

"Don't worry, miss, I'll take good care of her!" said Tauron, smiling gleefully at Raege again.

"Well...good luck anyway..." she chuckled. "I'll see you when you break the ork line."

"Sssseeeeeeee you thhhere!" nodded Cuddles as Tauron led her to the entrance.

They went up to the set of double doors leading out of the bunker, and could see that the walls and floor around it were drenched in bullet-holes. Every so often, bullets ricocheted through the threshold to the sound of Ork laughter.

"Ok, innuendoes aside, we should hold hands." said Tauron, suddenly becoming a little more serious. "If we get split up out there, we're dead meat."

"Ffffffine..." agreed Cuddles as she took his hand. Tauron sighed a little to himself, but snapped out of it quickly.

"Ok, one of us needs to be the spotter, the other needs to be the thrower." He continued. "The spotter runs ahead to guide the thrower, thrower keeps the orks busy with a steady stream of blindness. Once we find a good spot behind the ork line, we take off the blindfolds and start bringing the pain to them. Got it?" Cuddles nodded. "Since I've got most of the grenades, I'll be thrower, if that's ok with you."

"That wiiiiill sssssuit me nicelyyyy." she said.

"And don't be afraid to fry a few orks along the way, but priority is survival, not killing orks just yet." He added.

"Can we jusssst go pleeeeaaassssee?" groaned Cuddles, getting bored of waiting to go.

"Ok, ok, just making sure everything is clear." said Tauron, taking a deep breath. "Ok, on my count, throw the two grenades you have out into the entrance, and when you go deaf, start running." There was a long pause as they waited for a pause in the shots. "Three...two...go!" he yelled. Taken a little by surprise, she pulled the pin on each flashbang in turn, and threw it back across the threshold.

There was a few seconds before each grenade burst, but those few moments felt like a lifetime.

Then came the almighty, thunderous booms of the flashbangs going off. Each grenade unleashed a wall of white light and a deafening, thunderous crash.

The orks were taken totally by surprise, every one looking at the base was blinded and deafened. They stopped shooting, falling into panic and disarray. As the orks struggled to find out what was going on, and as the blackened world fell silent around Cuddles and Tauron, they began running. For those few brief seconds they ran through the doors, they braced themselves in preparation for being cut down by enemy fire. However, no such fire came, and they continued to run.

Cuddles focused all her power onto sensing the world around her, dodging between bodies and debris on the floor, tugging along Tauron as she went. Tauron pulled out another flashbang, yanked out the pin with his teeth, and threw it aside. Any orks that had missed the first explosion were caught by the seconds, and so too were incapacitated.

They ran into the enemy line, weaved between ork camps, dodging orks as they thumbed around in confusion, and finally came to the entrance of the headquarters itself. The orks there in their turrets knew something was up, and began firing at them, as they had yet to be blinded.

Sensing this, Cuddles dived to the floor, pulling Tauron down with her. He had been pulling the pins on a few flashbangs now, and began throwing them up into the air from his lying position. Within seconds, a succession of explosions put the ork defences out of action, and Cuddles crawled back to her feet.

Then she realised she'd let go of Tauron.

She panicked as she tried to sense where he was. The problem was that he was lying on the floor, surrounded by the figures of hundreds of dead bodies, and her psychic vision couldn't distinguish between him and them.

Tauron called out to her, flailing around, but neither could hear each other either. In a few more moments, the orks would be free from blindness.

Cuddles knew that without Tauron to blind the orks, she was as dead as he was. She grabbed at the first arm she could find, and tried to pull it up. The form flopped back to the floor, and she realised it was a dead body. Tossing it aside, she grabbed another arm, praying inside it was Tauron.

To her relief, it was him, and he scrambled to his feet, throwing up another flashbang. The orks could see them for a split second as the previous flashbang's effect wore off, but then they were blinded again just in time to save them.

Together, they scrambled up past the silent Ork turrets. The gunners inside them flailed around, trying to find the right controls, but by now it was too late.

Tauron and Cuddles ripped off their blindfolds, and still deafened from the constant flashbang explosions, looked around. The orks were in total state panic, and were attacking each other in the chaos.

Cuddles knew what had to be done, and looked across the row of turrets that had been suppressing them eariler. She cricked her neck from side to side, took a deep breath through her nose, and pointed to the turrets. From her hand came a beam of volatile warp energy which ignited the fuel cell powering one of the turret's control systems, and blew it all apart in seconds. Cuddles then strafed the beam along, blowing up each turret in turn, and disintegrating any ork caught by it. As she did, some of the other Orks behind her began regaining their senses, and could see the two psykers.

Slugga Boyz began crawling up to their feet and charged towards them with choppas. Tauron saw them, and pulled out his revolver. Charging it up with his own psychic power, he fired upon them with a single shot. The bullet was seethed in reality bending forces, and as it flew through the air, it ripped a small gash through the fabric of space. All the sluggas were suddenly pulled back, and dragged into the warp-rift the bullet had formed. As the last ork fell into it, the rift closed back up.

"Niiiiiicceee." hissed Cuddles with sadistic appreciation.

"Nah, yours was much more awesome." He said, putting the revolver back in his pocket with glee.

"Not bad, humies." chuckled an inhuman, orkish voice from behind them. Both Cuddles and Tauron turned to see what had spoken, and both were somewhat shocked to see the massive Storm Nob that had taken down the gunship. He leaned on his huge hammer as he watched them. "You weird gits hav got some good plannin ta get dis far, but dese boyz was thick anywho. You want a proper scrap? Ya shoulda told me, an I'd ave come down meself."

"Letsssssseee yoouuur bravardo sssssurvive thisssss!!" hissed Cuddles as she directed her stream of warp energy at him. The Ork stumbled back, but where other orks had been turned to dust, he simply shrugged the attack off and laughed.

"Hahaha, ya weird mind powerz ain't gonna urt me much!" he clattered his shoota against his head. "Dey don't call me Metal Edd for no good reason!"

The Psykers looked at his head, and sure enough, it was jammed full of metallic implants. They were so crudely bolted to him that it looked like he shouldn't be able to survive with them in place. None the less, the pair sensed that they were weakening their powers; almost as if they gave off an aura of nullification around the ork.

But then they looked more closely, and saw something worrying. Something about the shape of the implants seemed to strike terror into them.

"Tell me that's those aren't what I think they are..." gasped Tauron with despair.

"They aaarreeee." replied Cuddles with realisation. The cybernetic implants in the ork they were looking at had been gruesomely "looted" from a Culexus Assassin, (an elite imperial fighter trained to kill Psykers with specialized weapons,) and crudely re-wired into the ork's brain. The very thought of this froze Tauron with utter terror. Cuddles, however, was less phased by this, as she was much harder to frighten.

"Yeh, me metal ead was bolted in from one of ya "anti-weird boyz," dat we smashed. Dats why ya can't urt me, and why I can do dis!" roared Metal Edd. His eyes started glowing as he leaned back and took a deep breath. Then he opened his mouth, and blasted out a ball of seething, light green energy.

Cuddles was able to jump out of the radius of the attack. Tauron, however, was caught by it. He was blown back by the blast, and crashed back to the floor in a heap. His crackling warp aura was suddenly vacant from his prone, motionless body, and as cuddles crawled back to her feet, she feared the worst.

"If ye want to have ye brain busted like dat git, come join me in da big dakka buildin." roared Metal Edd triumphantly before activating his jump-pack and disappearing onto the roof of the base. In sheer anger, Cuddles threw warp bolts at him in vain.

Realising that following the Ork was pointless, she ran to Tauron's side. He lay very still, and it seemed his warp signature was gone. The bolt of negative psychic energy from the Ork's crudely modified weapon seemed to have worked. However as she picked him up with intent to carry him back to Raege she could feel a faint spark from within him.

Had it been an attack from an actual culexus, he would have been dead instantly. Thankfully, the shoddy re-wiring and unnatural host of the implants meant the attack was significantly weakened. She sensed he was still alive, but unconscious, weakened and badly injured.

Back at the bunker, Raege and the survivors had seen the ork gun emplacements go up in smoke, and ran to see the results of the psykers endeavours. Raege was first up the hill, and first to see Tauron lying motionless in Cuddle's arms. For a split second she feared he was dead as Cuddles looked up to her.

"He'llll be okay, I thhhhink." She whispered psychically as Raege and the others aproached. "Buuuuut...we doooo have ratherrr a large proooooblem."