The Multiverse Project: Warhammer 40,000

Chapter 47: Chapter 47: The Second Last Stand



Tangmo knew something was up the moment the Chaos army didn't bum rushed them like a bunch of blood drunk lunatic. The motherfucking Siren Heads continued to howl ceaselessly, the distorted screaming air raid siren was truly horrific. The acoustic bombardment was a nauseating, tangible thing that sends unwanted shivers across Tangmo's body. Around him the guardsmen and eldars gritted their teeth but soldiered on, the ashigaru PDFs were freaking out though. Some clutched their heads, trying to block out the sound, others went catatonic and wrapped themselves up in a fetal position and started puking.

"Get up!" Meifeng shouted, behind them the King Russes and Falcons rumbled into firing position, the heavy weapon teams leapt out of the Aeldari vehicles and swiftly reinforced the pillboxes and square stone buildings that made up the picket. "Get up or I'll chop your heads off!"

"Worthless coward!" Hitomi leveled her bolter at a PDF, a boy of about twelve.

"Save the bullet for the daemons you idiot!" Tangmo snapped at the Battle Sister. "If that little shit starts acting up, I'll shoot him myself. Now keep your eyes on the enemies!"

"Cultists and daemons pressing forward, traitor guardsmen and Chaos Sororitas are not engaging yet," Evangeline was looking intently through the binocular, her mouth twitching in distaste. "They have an armor column with them."

"May I?" Evangeline handed Tangmo the binocular, and now it was his turn to snarl. "I can see tanks and APCs but no artillery pieces. They're not turning this into a siege." Tangmo switched on the night vision, enhanced the resolution, and squawked. "What the fuck, they have fucking Land Raiders and Predator tanks with them?! How the fuck?!"

"Well, they are allied with the Traitor Legions, so it's hardly surprising that the Chaos Sororitas will have access to such weaponries," Leilatha observed with a shrug as Tangmo handed the binocular back to Evangeline. "Or they simply stole it."

"Sir!" Tangmo spun around at the King Russ that had carried his ass back to the castle. A tank commander was at the hatch, the muff of his headphone pressed tightly to his ear. "Awaiting your orders sir, who do you want dead first?"

"Anybody got a suggestion? I'm all ears," Tangmo looked around at the colonels and eldars.

"The Siren Heads," Krillen made his input. "We need to lessen these infernal screaming."

"I disagree, the King Russes should load anti-personnel rounds and wait for the enemies to get close," Evangeline countered. "The monsters can just as easily be taken care of with rocket launchers, meltas and plasma cannons, I rather our tanks be put to use against the majority of the Chaos forces."

"I think I'll go with Krillen's idea this time, as for the infantries," Tangmo glanced at the six Falcons behind them and tapped his earbuds. "Yo, you guys got repeating pulse lasers and shuriken cannons on those things?"

"We do, lord commissar," the pilot nodded.

"While the King Russes are picking off the Siren Heads, I want the Falcons to take out the little guys," Tangmo told him, "you eldar boys and girls up for that?"

"We will lay waste to them, lord commissar," the eldar pilot said sternly, the rumbling hum of the Falcons rising in volume so that it purred louder than the King Russes, the tank drivers responding by making their engines roared an octave higher. Welp, a little healthy competition never hurts anybody.

"First wave incoming!" Akecheta shouted and the humans and eldars braced their weapons on the sandbag parapets, the clicking of ammo belts sliding into feedways echoed pleasantly down the line. Even the PDFs started to stir, their backbones straightening from the sight of the indomitable battlegroup, and a healthy dosage of threats from the Sororitas.

"All King Russes weapons free, I repeat, weapons free, pick your target and take those sons of bitches out," Tangmo growled as the turrets started turning, then stopped. Maybe it's the earbud cancelling out the noise or his eardrums had simply hardened after so many battles, but Tangmo barely flinched when the four King Russes opened fire. Sure, the discharges still blinded him, and left annoying bruised purple afterimage pulsing across his vision, but his ears hardly rang, just a minor pressure that faded after a few seconds. Three Siren Heads were consumed by spectacular fireballs almost at the same time, the screaming trance of their incessant shrieking dropping in volume as the gangly abominations burst into pieces of flaming meat. Three more salvos from the King Russes followed, every shot killing a Siren Head, and it was in this moment that the attacking forces seemed to realize how vastly superior the battlegroup's war machines were, for the vanguard surged forward, the ground shaking a violent crescendo as the horde neared.

"Steady, steady! Keep your aim steady, don't fucking falter!" Tangmo shouted and tightened his grip on the lasgun, waiting for the daemons and heretics to get into optimal killing range. "Wait for my command and fire only when I say so."

The guardsmen and eldars responded with gusto, while the PDFs mumbled halfheartedly, moments away from breaking into sobs. Tangmo growled, if he had to waste a lasbolt on one of those motherfuckers…

"We're inside the main power terminal," Nikki's voice blared in his earbud. "The place is big but pretty straightforward."

"ETA on the powers coming back on?" Tangmo asked, and holy shit the daemons were so loud he could barely hear the Russian exarch.

"As soon as I can, but it won't be long, I promise," Nikki told him sternly, the timbre heavy with determination. "Stay safe dude, even down here things sound pretty bad."

"We'll be fine dude," Tangmo allowed himself a little smile. "At least the terrain is in our favor."

"Oh right, I completely forgot about that," Nikki chuckled softly. "Anyway, good luck dude."

"Thanks man," Tangmo tapped his earbud, cutting the transmission, and took this moment to truly appreciate the geographical luck the battlegroup had landed themselves in. Unlike European castle more straightforward geometry, Japanese castle, like the one they were hunkered in, itself unique in Asia, was built on the principle of intricate layered tiers, complemented with networks of interlocking walls, labyrinthine corridors that leads to various kill zones, and neared vertical elevation of battlements that made scaling it a suicidal venture. The immediate vicinity in front of Tangmo wasn't steep however, if anything its characteristic leaned more toward a wide, gently slopped hill, which, coincidentally, played into the battlegroup's favor. The easy, four hundred yards wide ascent was bare of any cover, and beside a few craters left behind by the previous fights, the Chaos force have to trudge up the four kilometer long incline toward the six hundred yard wide square courtyard in front of the gate, the near imperceptible rise meant that the defenders have a clear, uninterrupted field of fire on the attackers. The courtyard was built a couple of hundred feet high and had only one approach, now barred by the barricade, while its two sides were flanked by a vertical drop of smooth stone, currently patrolled by flamer wielding Sororitas, guardsmen and eldars, ready to douse the cliff face when the daemons start scaling it. Truth be told, given the circumstances, Tangmo couldn't have picked a better spot to fight.

"They're getting close sir," Krillen hissed, the barrel of his lasgun trained forward as he spared Tangmo an alarmed look. Well, the Cadian colonel wasn't wrong, because the daemons, ugly motherfuckers that looked like they were fused together by Mary Shelly and Junji Ito coked up on Warp dust, were really fucking close, frothing mad with unrestrained fury, talons and claws gleaming with bloody intent.

"You're right," Tangmo aimed down the iron sight, flipped the lasgun to full auto, and held down the trigger, drawing first blood as the daemon vanguards crumbled in a splattering mist of dark red ichor. "Open fire! In the name of the Emperor, let none survive!"

The barricade erupted in a kaleidoscopic lightshow, dazzling in beauty but terrible in brutality, the unceasing salvo from the Zetton lasguns, Zodd lasguns and shuriken catapults, coming in thunderous bursts and full auto barrages, crashed into the oncoming daemons with such force that the entire amorphous blob of nightmare creatures contorted and deformed until the tsunami of macabre fangs, claws and screams came to a stop not twenty yard from the defenders. The daemons howled angrily and marshaled forward into the scything volley, managing to advance ten more steps before the rapid-las and heavy weapons emplacement unleashed their firepower, laser and bullets making a beautiful crossfire that tore mercilessly into the Chaos monstrosities, and unbelievably enough the Warp spawns started backing away.

"Rapid-las and heavy weapons maintain suppressing fire, everybody else cease fire! Cease fire!" Tangmo waved his arms in the air and the guardsmen and Guardians eased up until their weapons were silent, the barrels glowing white hot. "Check yours ammos! That was only the first wave, prepare yourself."

"I always like the sight of fleeing enemies," Kenshin said a little too wistfully as he stared after the surviving daemons, casting quick looks at the bayonet fixed to his lasgun's barrel.

"I swear to the God Emperor Kenshin, if you lead a banzai charge after those fuckers, I'm gonna Thai kick your ass five fucking times!" Tangmo gave the Kuronese colonel his crazy eyes. "Besides, I don't think Lingxin would like that very much."

"On the contrary lord commissar, I'll be joining him," Lingxin said nonchalantly, she and Kenshin trading firm nods.

"Sometime I think you two are deliberately fucking with me, instead of each other," Tangmo grinned at the absolute looks of affront that came over Lingxin and Kenshin's faces, which swiftly morphed into blistering, embarrassed anger, the glare they shot him was so hot it could melt ceramite. Brushing the animosity off easily, Tangmo glanced around the line and found Ae-Shin close to hyperventilating, "Ae-Shin? Dude, you okay man?"

"Huh?" Ae-Shin flinched when Tangmo placed a hand on her shoulder, squeezing firmly until her breathing steadied and the quivering subsided. "Thanks. I blank out a bit there, sorry, most unbecoming of a naval officer…it's just…"

"First time fighting on the ground?" Ae-Shin nodded slowly, probably thinking that Tangmo was about to shoot her for displaying weakness. Instead, he smiled and smacked her friendlily on the back, almost sending her pitching face first into the sandbags. "Don't worry dude, first time is always the worst, congrats on surviving! You'll get used to it, if not, then I'll blam you!"

"That doesn't really make me feel any better," Ae-Shin snorted, and Tangmo was glad to see her spunkiness return.

"Second wave incoming, prepare for blood!" Leilatha shouted and the defenders trained their guns at another daemonic tidal wave, the same old Chaos shit.

"Alright people, together now like the last time, fuck'em up…" Tangmo was making his motivational speech when muted pops resounded from the churning field beyond the entrance ramp, the unmistakable acoustic of mortar fire. Predictably, this was followed by the whistles of descending ordnances. "Take cover!"

Deafening explosions, the tempo that of a Black Metal drumming, tore into the barricades, sending fiery shrapnel and shards of masonries cleaving through the air, decapitating and mutilating those who were not already blown to pieces. Most of the bombardment didn't hit their marks, thank fucking God, but the few that did were devastating, killing droves of men and women in the blink of an eye, steaming blood and viscera rained thickly around them, tinting the air in rotting, wet rust. And all the while the daemons pressed onward, faster now that the suppressing fire stuttered and even ceased in some places.

"Kill the fucking mortars! Waste does motherfuckers now!" Pulling himself up, and making sure that Leilatha and the main characters were okay, Tangmo peered above the sandbags, now studded with fire and smoldering sharp metals. Quickly wiping grits and grimes from his face, Tangmo was able to see the mobile mortar platforms rolling slowly across the field, hanging well back behind the mass of traitors and daemons, the wide 19th century looking barrels spewing great gouts of fire. It looked pretty far, but the King Russes can probably take them out. That wasn't the immediate problem though, nope, that distinction belongs to the closing daemons, the smattering resistance not slowing them down. "Falcons! Give us covering fire!"

"Affirmative lord commissar, Mael Dannan!" The eldar hover tanks swooped majestically in behind the beleaguered infantries, the humming engines kicking up dust devils as scatter lasers, shuriken cannons and pulse lasers poured their glittering payload onto the screaming horde. The charging daemons collapsed before the barrage, like ripen harvest before a scythe the Chaos spawns were reduced to mince, shredded gibs, the brutal rate of fire and accuracy of the Aeldari weaponries proving effective when it comes to crowd control. But the Falcons didn't remain stationary like the King Russes. After the onslaught was momentarily halted and the battered infantries regained their position along the defenses, the Falcons started strafing left and right, flying in an almost dance like synchronized pattern, revolving and zigzagging prettily as they unleashed their weapons on the daemons, killing not only those on the ramp but the sons of bitches beyond as well. All the while the King Russes fired their shells unceasing, the tank crews proving to be the best in the business when the enemy's mortar platforms went up in beautiful pillars of flame, consuming all within the blast radius, the shelling becoming more sporadic until finally, about the same time the second wave shattered, it stopped completely. Nobody cheered though, because the third wave was already pressing forward, and it wasn't just daemons coming for them this time.

"Predator tanks and Land Raiders incoming sir," Alistair remained polite and perfunctory as he slid his binocular into a pouch and checked the magazine of his laspistol, nodding when he found it satisfactory. "Accompanied by a score of Leman Russes, looks like they're truly spoiling for a fight, we'll rightly give it to them, won't we sir?"

"Damn straight, but it ain't gonna be easy my dude," Tangmo send single shots at the daemons still crawling and twitching on the ground. "We're looking at a fifteen rounds slugfest boys and girls. Prepare to get your noses bloodied."

Another rousing roar was booming down the line when a blinding black red melta beam, because the Chaos bitches had to go and corrupt the freaking lasers too, lanced over the picket. Tangmo turned around and saw one of the Falcons spinning out of control, the right wing reduced to burning liquefied metal, before crashing to the ground. The two pilots managed to leap clear before the dead tank exploded.

"Kill those fucking Space Marine tanks! Armor pierces those sons of bitches!" Tangmo yelled into his earbud and the King Russes responded promptly, discharging another salvo at the heretic's armored units while the infantries and the remaining Falcons, now swooping in an even more dazzling, some would say flamboyant pattern, poured their firepower on the charging daemons, holding them at bay like before. The tank shells struck true, but the Astartes war machines didn't stop or exploded, easily shrugging off the attack as they returned fire, taking aim at the Falcons and the King Russes. Then the accompanying Leman Russes opened fire, tearing many sections of the defenses apart, sending burning debris and bloody body parts twirling into the sky.

"The tanks are not going down," Kenshin stated the obvious.

"No fucking shit!" Tangmo shouted, spat a thick wad of grits and ichor from his mouth, and dashed for Leilatha. "We can't hold this position! Initiate a tactical withdraw, if we stay here we're fucking dead!"

"Perhaps we can reinforce the line?" Leilatha offered halfheartedly, a commissariat formality more than anything. "The rest of the regiments are garrison inside the castle, we can call them here."

"Man, fuck that! It'll be like throwing a plank of wood at a flooded river, shits gonna get swept away!" Tangmo shook his head and Leilatha concurred easily. "Get everyone moving. I'll hold them back as long as I can."

"Initiate tactical withdraw! I repeat, initiate tactical withdraw! Reposition inside the castle and manned the wall, we'll make our stand there. Krillen, Evangeline, Lingxin, Marwen, see to the retreat, get everyone moving!" Leilatha ordered loudly, the colonels obeying without question when a lucky shell, fired from a Leman Russ or a Predator Tangmo didn't know, struck the barrel of a King Russ. The tank was okay, but half of the main cannon was gone, the tip reduced to jagged bloom of scorched metal, effectively putting it out of commission. The guardsmen and eldars filled back in good order, but Leilatha remained where she was. When Tangmo quirked a brow, she only said, "you're not getting rid of me that easily."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Tangmo smiled then tapped his earbud again. "Nikki, we kinda need the light up and running yo, how long until…!"

Beautiful white light burst from the entrance, the radiance that of a rising sun. The bright shaft lanced into the oncoming horde, and like when Gandalf bailed Aragon out of Helm's Deep, the creatures of darkness shrieked and shied away from the illumination, allowing the defenders to cut them down with impunity.

"I got it working dude!" Nikki squealed delightedly. "Meko and the others are reconfiguring the defense matrixes now, the automated guns should be up and running in about a minute. That's your queue to get the fuck out of there!"

"You're amazing Nikki! Thank you!" Tangmo laughed and waved for the remaining defenders to head for the castle. "Get the hell back, go!" Swiftly packing up their heavy weapons, the guardsmen and eldars dashed for the entrance, the Falcons and King Russes providing one final covering volley before backing after the infantries. They themselves the last to leave, Tangmo glanced at Leilatha as they bounded after the battlegroup, grinning wickedly. "You know I might have to kiss Nikki for this?"

"I might even allow it," Leilatha's smirk was cut off when a shell exploded not ninety yards to their left, punching a smoldering crater into the ground. Luckily, besides getting knocked flat off their feet, nobody died. The Sororitas, flamer guardsmen and Fire Dragons, having completed the task of setting fire to the vertical drops on the courtyard's sides, were sprinting hard behind them. "But I'll worry about that when we're inside the castle."

"Good idea!" Tangmo pumped his legs faster, putting in more speed, and groaned when the Sororitas easily caught up with him. Goddamn power armor.

"Your eldar got the Machine Spirit to obey?!" Hitomi was smiling like a lunatic. "Ha! Maybe having them around isn't such a bad idea after all!"

"You can thank her later!" Tangmo panted, the fucking entrance was so near now, only a few feet more and he and Leilatha would be home free. Of course the gigantic atmospheric beast chose that moment to unleash it low rumbling whale like roar, adding another layer to the already fucked ambience. Sure enough, the daemonic clarion call unleashed the flying creatures that had taken out the air force, billowing forth along with the smog that now completely shrouded the sky. Tangmo didn't believe it was possible, but somehow shit was getting darker. "Oh shit! Run faster! Run faster! Holy fuck!"

Red and white light erupted from the awning entrance, the strobing flashes shooting skyward, eliciting angry owl like shrieks from the flying daemons, while their terrestrial cousins bulled forward, not allowing a little light to stop them. A glittering shuriken flew within a hairbreadth of Tangmo's shoulder, almost grazing his pauldron. Snapping around, Tangmo saw a dead daemon, ugly motherfucker that looked like a dire wolf wildebeest hybrid, twitching dead on the ground.

"Move your asses, come on!" Nikki yelled as she continued to send shurikens flying passed him, every shot dropping a daemon. Beside her Ae-Shin was spraying the sky with a wild full-auto barrage, screaming as she got her vengeance on the flying motherfuckers that took down her jet and killed her pilot friends. "Run faster you sons of bitches, almost there!"

Gritting his teeth, Tangmo finally dashed over the entrance, an equally exhausted Leilatha at his side, their moment of triumph deflating almost immediately when they saw another, steeper earthen ramp leading up to a gatehouse surrounded by heavily armed wall and battlements. Fucking Japanese samurais and their fucking geometrically challenged fortress, why can't they build simple shit like the fucking European knights?!

"Well done lord commissar, here, allow me," Tangmo knew he should be somewhat indignant that Hitomi scooped him up under her arm and carried him one handed after the rearguard like a freaking Chihuahua, but he was too tired to give a damn and simply let the Sororitas manhandled him. To his right, he saw Leilatha in the same predicament, equally resigned, with Meifeng as her handler. Tangmo did manage to flip the laughing Nikki off though.

"Thanks for the ride Hitomi, I owe you one," Tangmo said as the Sororitas propped him down against the wall next to Leilatha. He took her hand in his and she squeezed companionably. He was feeling a lot better already.

"You and your friends managed to reactivate the castle, it's the least we can do," Meifeng nodded with a toothy grin and held a sloshing canteen out to him, to which Tangmo nudged his head at Leilatha, letting her drink first. The two Sororitas grinned approvingly and let the lady commissar have the first swig.

"Damn Tangmo, when was the last time you ran like that dude…"

"Stop right there, xeno witch."

Emptying the water down his gullet, Tangmo got back on his feet with a groan and handed the empty canteen back to a scowling Meifeng as a Tech Priest and a couple of engineseers stomped up to them, the cyborg piece of shit stabbing his metallic finger at Nikki.

"The alien witch has tainted the Machine Spirit," the Tech Priest enunciated angrily. "She must be punished for this blasphemy before we can begin the invocation and cleansing of the machines anew!"

"Everything is working," as if to punctuate Hitomi's point, the various gun ports on the walls and towers started awake to the clicks of priming ammunitions, the barrels honed on the targets pouring through the main entrance.

"Silence!" The Tech Priest roared at the Battle Sister. "You will do your duty! Slay the xenos and the interlopers that had desecrate the holy creation of the Omnissiah! Obey me at once or else…!"

Tangmo shot the motherfucker, five times, three in the face and two in the chest where his heart was supposed to be. The Tech Priest didn't die immediately though, and Tangmo honestly can't tell whether the howls of pain came from the human parts or malfunctioning machines and circuitries. Nevertheless, shit was annoying as hell, so Tangmo kept shooting until the Tech Priest stopped twitching and shut the fuck up. When that was done, Tangmo trained his lasgun on the engineseers and dropped them too, because he wasn't about to let those assholes stab him in the back.

"…Are you allowed to do that?"

"Yes, I'm the fucking commissar," Tangmo braced the lasgun across his shoulders like a badass and turned to Hitomi and Meifeng. "Our engineers are in charge now. They'll make sure things run smoothly." Tangmo narrowed his eyes on the metallic corpses for a moment. "Can you do me a favor? Sent your most zealous PDFs back into the castle and hunt down every last remaining Tech Priests and engineseers, I don't want those fuckers screwing things up a second time."

"Good idea," Hitomi was extremely pleased with the order and relayed it with unhidden glee.

"Not many of them left, but better safe than sorry," Meifeng shrugged, totally cool with Tangmo murdering unarmed allies in cold blood. God, he loves the Sororitas. "Well, what do you suggest we do now?"

"Umm, hold out for as long as he can?" Tangmo suggested as the main characters gathered around him, all of them still alive, if a little banged up. "Or at least until the navy make a counterattack and clear the sky again."

"That will be a while," Ae-Shin said. "The fighters and bombers will have to be rearmed for air combat, as opposed to the usual bombing run we do."

"How long will that take?" Marwen, the Biel-Tan captain, asked.

"An hour for everyone to get the right equipment sorted out, and another hour to draw up a viable combat plan," Ae-Shin shook her head despondently. "I don't know if we'll be able to hold out that long."

"Don't sell us short just yet," Akecheta's smile was grim as he turned to Anaba, Binaaswi and the Wind Walker. All of them looked ready to kick some ass. "The Sky Father will honor the bravest of us, brothers and sisters! Let us show Him the courage of Ekkaroqian warriors!"

The Wind Walker cheered and whooped loudly, weapons raised to the sky in exalted salutation, the reverberation rising above the baying din of daemons and rattling staccato of heavy guns that had erupted from the walls, watchtowers and guardhouses. The Ekkaroqian bombastic, rousing bellow was so infectious that the other regiments, the eldars, the Sororitas and even the PDFs took up the hollering, adding their own flavor to the bombastic expression of human defiance in the face of the blackest odds the galaxy was throwing at them.

"Hurrah!"

"Huzzah!"

"Wansui!"

"Banzai!"

"Mael Danna!"

"For the Emperor and Isha, you motherfuckers!" Tangmo shouted, his epic heavy metal timbre resounding like the Viking battle horns of old. Too bad Eldul and Astrid weren't here to blow the real thing, "to the walls! Let's show these Chaos sons of bitches that when they fuck with the best, they die like the rest! Let's go!"

It was the spurt of morale that everyone needed, the battlegroup pumped up and ready for the hard fight to come. The scene was truly epic, with guardsmen, Guardians, Aspect Warriors and Sororitas swiftly manning the walls, standing shoulders to shoulders, weapons leveled at the oncoming horde, now thinned by the automated defenses unceasing barrage.

"How many layer of wall does this place have?" Tangmo asked Hitomi and Meifeng when they were standing on the roofed parapet.

"Only two, including this one," Hitomi told him as she slammed a new magazine home. "There's one more tier above us, then there's the castle itself. If the two walls fell, he can always barricade ourselves inside."

"We're fucked if they manage to push us inside the castle," Nikki growled and Tangmo agreed. The moment the Chaos hordes forced the battlegroup into the multi-floor castle, the heretics can just set fire to the place and roast them alive. "We need to hold both walls as long as we can, until the relief forces get here."

"All armor and mortar units, reposition to the second tier wall and provide us with fire support," Tangmo tapped his earbud and glanced around the domed cavern they were in, judging it to be tall enough that mortar shells won't hit the ceiling. He was turning to Meifeng when stray las and bullets started peppering the parapet. Snarling, Tangmo trained his lasgun on the charging heretics and held the trigger down vehemently for close to a minute, the barrel glowing white from the discharge. "Suck it you fucking bitches!"

"Wansui sisters! Wansui!" Meifeng roared and, together with the battlegroup, unleashed a steady barrage at the oncoming horde, the storm of las, bolts and shurikens, bolstered by the automated defenses, tore mercilessly into the attackers, sending brilliant splatters of gore and viscera flying. Shit was pretty epic, if Tangmo was being honest, even if the prospect of dying had never been more poignant. The surging wave of daemons and men crashing against the wall reminded Tangmo, thematically, of the Battle of Winterfell, with the major differences being that there's sufficient light for everyone to see, nobody suicide charging a numerically superior foe, and everyone was position on high grounds behind actual defensive structures. But besides all of that, this was totally the Battle of Winterfell, although Tangmo was pretty sure Jon Snow didn't have to deal with fucking tanks.

"Motherfuck, get down!" Tangmo had barely hit the deck when a barrage of shells pounded their position. The shockwave rattled his bones painfully, the sickening reverberation turning the consistency of his body to fucking jello. Injured screams ringing morbidly around him, Tangmo drunkenly staggered to his feet, Leilatha helping him up, and together they stumbled back to the parapet. The dust settled quickly and shit, the desecrated Leman Russes and Predators had taken center stage, bombarding the castle with near impunity. The gun emplacements fought heroically, but the tanks made short works of them. Blooming fireball wreathed the castle, setting many of the buildings ablaze. Hell, the wall was on fire!

"Get the armor piercing rockets and plasma guns up here, now!" Leilatha shouted and emptied her bolt pistol on a Predator. The bullets pinged harmlessly off the armor as she ejected the magazine and reached out to Tangmo, "Kraken!"

"Here!" Tangmo tossed her two clips and allowed himself a smile when rockets, meltas and plasmas flew blindingly from the wall. Krix whooped loudly when her anti-tank rocket punched through a Leman Russ and detonated the ammunition magazine, gutting it inside out, the explosion was fucking beautiful. "Nice shot Krix!"

"Thank you sir!" Krix beamed and swiftly reloaded the rocket launcher, below them many of the Chaos tanks were going up in flame, pounded to shit by rockets and grenades or melted to slush by plasmas and meltas. Shouldering the weapon, Krix fired off another shot, this one destroying a turret. "Not many of them left now, we're gonna turn this place into a graveyard soon."

"Graveyard is exactly what they want," Luva growled and Tangmo grunted in agreement. The heretics had positioned their tanks into what could only be described as a suicide spot, meaning that the war machines were specifically sent to their various places across the large flat courtyard to die. And now the burning carcasses were providing the daemons and heretics with ample cover. Fuck.

"Enemy infantries incoming!" Marwen shouted and the battlegroup unleashed a barrage of las and shurikens at the charging wall of humanity, the battlement flashing brightly to the furious discharge.

"Watch your twelve!" Krillen gritted his teeth as he sends burst after burst into a group of traitor PDFs and cultists, dropping most of them before they can even get close.

"Not those one, you fool! I meant them!" Marwen pointed beyond the dead tanks where the Rhinos, Chimeras and Land Raiders rolled to a stop, their mounted guns blazing, peppering the parapets and taking out the remaining automated guns. And exiting the transport in disciplined, orderly fashion came the Chaos Sisters, the grey Confederate Antebellan, and a turncoat regiment that looked like a cross between Napoleon's Old Guards and the French Foreign Legion, the blue coats, tight white uniforms and hessian boots actually goes very well with modern tactical armors and black kepis. They moved with precision, laying down covering fire as they dashed between the wreckages, managing to drop a few guardsmen and eldars as they crept ever close to the walls. Fuck, why can't they charge blindly like normal heretics?!

"Ha! Looks like those fuckers are copying us!" Nikki couldn't hold back a chuckle as, drifting through the din of gunfire, came the sharp drumming and pixie flutes of nineteen century military music. Face scrunched in disbelief, Tangmo popped his head above the wall, now scorched and chewed to shit, and indeed there were marching bands behind the heretic's army, resplendent banners and flags embroidered in gold fluttered majestically, the hearty and strangely familiar songs spurring the traitors to greater feat of arms.

"Stop laughing and dropped those prissy motherfuckers!" Tangmo pointed at the bobbing flags and Nikki, taking a moment to aim this time, pulled the trigger. The jagged sound of a flute blaring off key then going silent was hilarious as all fuck, "boom headshot baby! Nice shot dude! Yo, snipers, if y'all can spare a moment of your time, take out those marching band assholes please!"

"I got one! I got one!" And indeed Korri did as a flag swayed then dropped, but these lots were smarter than normal heretics so they quickly slid behind the gutted tanks. And it was now that Tangmo recognized the songs, a medley comprising of Chanson de l'Oignon, Dixie's Land and the Bonnie Blue Flag. Soon enough, again copying the battlegroup, the traitor regiments started singing.

"Their tenors are pretty good," Nikki ducked beneath the parapet, the concentrated, and annoyingly accurate salvo was turning the walls into sizzling stumps, not to mention killing a lot of their men.

"Yeah, but their bass section suck dicks," Tangmo growled, fucking shit hell the goddamn barrage ain't stopping. He almost lost an eye when he poked above the destroyed battlement, a lasbolt tearing away a chunk of masonry not two inches from his head, but in that moment he saw how the traitor regiments and Chaos Sisters were drawing nearer to the gate, the unceasing suppressing fire stopping the battlegroup from mustering much of a resistance. "Motherfucking sons of bitches, we need to push them back!"

"We can take care of that. Arise sons and daughters of Mordia, arise!" Evangeline shouted above the din, and to the gaping shock of Tangmo and the main characters, the Mordian colonel and her regiment stood up at attention, striking a parade pose as they closed rank along the wall like line infantry of the Napoleonic era, uncaring of the heretic's peppering gunfire, stoic even when dozens of them were cut down. Leveling her laspistol, the Mordian Iron Guards doing the same with crisp, terrifying synchronicity, Evangeline shouted. "Take aim! Fire!"

It was a scene of devastating beauty, the Mordian powerful volley, timed and accurate, scythed into the heretic's vanguard, killing scores of infantries and Chaos Sororitas and scattering those of the weaker constitution, the barrage managing to halt and push the attackers back behind the tank carcasses. Not wanting to be out done, Tangmo, Nikki, the main characters and the other guards and eldars emerged from cover, adding more lasers and shurikens death to the Mordian's incomparable firepower. The marching band started to falter, the heretics ceased their singing, too busying screaming and dying, when Evangeline led the Mordian in a powerful song, the reverberating bass was epic beyond words.

"Un etoile noir a plané sur la ville, Il a juré d'être victorieux. De tous côtés, les corbeaux se faufilent, dans les sillons et dans les chemins creux. (The black star loomed over our land, and swore that he will be victorious. On every side the crows are creeping in, amongst the fields and across the sunken paths.)"

Well shit, Tangmo loved Sabaton to death but he'd always have a soft spot for this particular song about the battle of Verdun, the somberness of the melody and the choirs goes very well with the heroic lyric. The battlegroup roared in approval, the defenders buoyant by a new wind that set their morale ablaze, the bitter resistance growing more fervent as barrage after barrage pounded the heretics.

"Mais tout à coup, le coq puissant claironne, cocorico, debout petits soldats! Le soleil luit, partout le canon tonne, jeunes héros, voici le grand combat! (Then suddenly, the mighty trumpet blared, cocorico, arise little soldiers! The sun is blazing, the cannons thundering, oh young heroes, prepare for the great battle!)"

The heretics Chimeras were pushing through, barreling aside the dead tanks as they approached the earthen ramp, the incessant marching bands kicking up a new tune as the infantries scrambled behind the moving cover, the Mordian's determined volley ricocheting harmlessly off the thick armor. The Dragon Blood and Dawn Blade rectified this by blowing those motherfuckers up with well-placed armor piercing rockets, choking the path leading up to the gate with gutted APCs. The heretics and traitors were running for cover, many wreathed in flame, when the chorus kicked in.

"Et Mordia, la victorieuse, pousse un cri que portent là-bas. Les échos des bords de la mer, halte là! On ne passe pas! Plus de morgue, plus d'arrogance, fuyez barbares et laquais. C'est ici la porte de Mordia, et vous ne passerez jamais! (And Mordia, the victorious. Let our cries echo across the vast ocean: Stop right there, you shall not pass! No more disdainfulness, no more arrogance, flee you barbarians and slaves! This is the gate of Mordia, and you shall never get through!)"

"Heads up dude, they're sending in the daemons again," Nikki gritted her teeth as she stared through her sniper scope, absolutely not liking what she was seeing. "And it's the big kind."

"Those bastards look like Orgyns," the moment Tangmo got a good look at the lumbering abominations he knew immediately that he was wrong. Call him superficial, but Tangmo never liked the Orgyn, not only were they some of the ugliest motherfuckers he'd ever seen, their lack of intelligence, volatile temperament, and inability to grasp even the simplest command made them more of a liability than anything, and they were also super ugly. These ones though… they got an upgrade and a total facelift. The new Chaos Orgyns were not pudgy lumbering giants anymore, no, it looked like Syrathel had enlightened them to the path of the swole. Yep, these Orgyns were freaking rip, a near identical caricature to the Pillar Men from JoJo Bizarre Adventure. Standing almost as tall as an Astartes, the mountainously muscular Chaos Orgyns were a perfect image of masculinity, wielding heavy bolters, autocannons, vulcan cannons and heavy melta as a normal human would a laspistol. Their speeds were breathtaking, dashing and sliding from cover to cover with smooth proficiency, sending suppressive bursts at the walls and towers, killing defenders and disabling the last of the automated guns as the heretics pressed forward again.

"Great! Those fuckers can think too!" Tangmo blurted out loud and sent a vehement burst at one of the Chaos Orgyn, the Zetton lasbolts punching easily through the flimsy, hodgepodge gladiator armor he wore, red mist sparkling where laser meat flesh. Tangmo might as well have shot a rockcrete wall for all the fucks the Orgyn gave, which was none, only turning slowly to look at the Thai commissar. Even though a daemonic helm of blackened iron covered the entirety of his head, Tangmo blistered because he knew for sure that the bastard was smirking at him. "Fuck you too bitch, go suck a dick!"

"Yo, they're getting kinda close dude," Nikki turned her attention to the Chaos Sororitas leading the second wave, the elite warrior women were easily nullify the defenders with accurate shots from heavy bolters and heavy meltas, the Chaos phalanx were almost within spitting distant now. "Those fucking heavy flamers are making me very nervous dude."

"We need to pull back," Leilatha reloaded her bolt pistol and tapped her earbud. "Evacuate to the second tier now."

With firm nods the injured guardsmen and eldars were swiftly carried down the wall, screaming and cursing all the while. The lady commissar then turned to Evangeline, the Mordian were still laying down uninterrupted barrage despite a good number of them having been incapacitated. "Evangeline, we're withdrawing."

"That's a shame," Evangeline flashed a smile, which managed to be both pretty and disturbing at the same time. "The song was just getting to the good part. Oh well, we'll cover your retreat then." Clearing her throat Evangeline, her octave never losing its powerful timbre, bellowed at the Mordian Iron Guard. "Sustain covering fire, make them pay for every inch with their lives! Come then brothers and sisters, sing loud and proud, for the glory of the Iron Guards, they shall not pass!"

"They shall not pass!"

Naturally, the first to evict the walls were the PDFs, with a less than polite haste Tangmo noticed, but he was willing to let it slide because they did fought pretty good. The guardsmen and eldars then followed in good order, heads held low as they sprinted for the castle's second tier walls, the Mordian's volleys and plummeting mortars shells slowing and pinning the heretics down. The Orgyns were unaffected by this though and, accompanied by Khornate Sisters wielding gigantic shields, marched inexorably up the ramp, unperturbed by the defender's lessening resistance. And through it all, Evangeline led the Mordian in a rousing new verse.

"Les ennemis s'avancent avec rage, énorme flot d'un vivant ocean. Semant la mort partout sur son passage, ivres de bruit, de carnage et de sang. Ils vont passer... quand relevant la tête, un officier dans un suprême effort. Quoique mourant, crie: À la baïonnette! Hardi les gars, debout! Debout les morts! (The enemies advance with bestial rage, an enormous flood of living ocean. Spreading death everywhere in its path, maddened by noise, carnage and blood. They're breaking through…when an officer raised his head with great effort. With his last dying breath, he yelled: fixed bayonet, bold lads! Arise, Arise from death!)"

"Can someone please burn the fucking ramp?!" Tangmo gritted his teeth and went full-auto on a column of Orgyns stomping toward the gate, those at the front, four roid up bodybuilders, were already pounding the entrance with a steady stream of melta.

"Ask and you shall receive!" Hitomi and Meifeng laughed uproariously as they led the Sororitas toward the now empty gatehouse and proceed to empty their collective flamers on the earthen approach, the burning liquid promethium consuming the heretic's column. Although the Chaos Sisters and traitors were immolated, their screams disappointingly short, the Orgyns, themselves lit on fire, barely noticed being burnt alive and continued attacking the gate. The Sororitas were rejoining Tangmo when the Mordian belted out the chorus.

"Et Mordia, la victorieuse, pousse un cri que portent là-bas. Les échos des bords de la mer, halte là! On ne passe pas! Plus de morgue, plus d'arrogance, fuyez barbares et laquais. C'est ici la porte de Mordia, et vous ne passerez jamais! (And Mordia, the victorious. Let our cries echo across the vast ocean: Stop right there, you shall not pass! No more disdainfulness, no more arrogance, flee you barbarians and slaves! This is the gate of Mordia, and you shall never get through!)"

"Oh shit! Look out!"

The awesome chorus ended when a storm of meltas, bolters and fucking purple plasma bombarded the battlement, the blistering shockwave throwing Tangmo flat on his back, nearly knocking him off the wall. Around him groans and screams drifted through the billowing dust which now shielded them from the furious salvo raking the fucked parapet, the Chaos's attack having successfully destroyed it. Charred gaping hole now adorned the defenses, the chunks so big that a Myrmidon Humvee can drive through.

"Retreat!" Ears ringing painfully, coughing on ashes and soot, Tangmo got on his knees and waved what remained of the guardsmen, Mordian and Cadian he now saw, back toward the castle. "Go! Get out of here! Get to the second battlement, go!"

"Tangmo!" Blinking dust from his eyes, Tangmo saw Leilatha standing with the Cadian main characters on the other end of the wall, a wide jagged rent separating them, too far for him to make the jump. "Are you injured?!"

"Get everyone back to the castle, I'll be there in a minute," Tangmo flapped his arms quickly in a shooing motion, but Leilatha and the Cadians didn't move, their faces one of indecision. "Damn it Leila, get them out of here! I'll be alright, go!"

Snarling and cursing under her breath, Leilatha tore her eyes away and harshly herded the Cadian down the wall. She glared at him and raised her voice, "don't you dare die on me!"

"Don't worry I'll make sure he stays in one piece!" Nikki plopped down dizzily beside Tangmo as Leilatha disappeared into the veil of dust, her awesome commissar coat fluttering majestically. "And you better get me out of this too. Fuck, we're really in the shitter now."

"I'll admit, I'm getting a little nervous," Tangmo chuckled mirthlessly when he saw Evangeline, dazed but still directing the Mordian back to the castle, standing not three paces away from him and Nikki. Then he heard the heretic officers below shouting, followed by the click of priming lasguns. He reacted immediately. "Look out!"

Evangeline squawked indignantly when Tangmo tackled her to the ground, a split second before a volley of lasbolts destroyed the spot where the colonel had been standing, sending sizzling chunks of woods and metals flying. The barrage only relented when Nikki held down the trigger of her sniper rifle and sends a rattling salvo over the wall. Something told Tangmo that all those shots found a target.

"Oh fuck rockets!" Nikki shouted and effortlessly scaled down the vertical wall, being the parkour master that she was, as RPG rounds slammed into the parapet, tearing what remained of the defenses apart and setting fire to the wooden paneling and floors. Tangmo was honestly surprised that he and Evangeline were still alive, but then he heard the chilling hisses of igniting flamers.

"Shit! Hang on!" Uncaring of the rather lewd position they were in Tangmo, who was pretty much laying on top of Evangeline, pulled her tighter into him and rolled them both toward the drop behind the battlement.

"What are you…by the Throne! Ahhh!" Evangeline squealed when she and Tangmo tumbled off the wall the same moment it was consumed by promethium fire, the flaming tendrils lashing and clawing at them, managing only grazing licks as the pair, holding on to each other, dropped through the air. Spinning midair so that Evangeline was on top of him, Tangmo gritted his teeth and braced for the impact to come. It didn't help. Tangmo cried out, spittle flying, a guttural sound aborted the moment of its inception when his back crashed into a flat metallic surface, the pain so absolute that he can't even enunciate it. But it didn't stop there, because the landing was sloped, and together they rolled off the surface and plummet a short distant more, crashing into what was obviously a wooden crate, Evangeline still on top of him, this too collapsed under their combined weight. By this point, Tangmo barely felt anything when they hit the ground.

"Tangmo!" Blinking through teary pain, mouth moving but no words coming, it took Tangmo's brain few seconds to recognize a very worried Nikki crouching over him. "Holy fucking shit, are you alive?! That looked like something out of a Tony Jaa movie!"

"Pain…" Tangmo's wheezing ruptured into an agonized howl when Evangeline rolled off him, his body choosing that moment to reactivate the pain receptors. "Argh! Fuck! Pain! I'm in pain!"

"By the Throne! I'm sorry!"

"Yeah, no fucking shit," ignoring Evangeline's hurried apology, Nikki hurled the squawking Tangmo off his ass, and holy shit everything hurts, even places he didn't know existed, god fucking damn! Deaf to his plea to go slowly, Nikki threw Tangmo's arm over her shoulder and gestured for Evangeline to join her, the colonel was practically unharmed. "Take his other arm, quick! We got to get the fuck out of here!"

"Ahhh! Fuck! Go slower, fuck, I'm dying over here!" Tangmo yelled as Nikki and Evangeline dragged him up a sloped corridor, his legs scarping the ground uselessly, the littlest of movement setting his entire body afire.

"Sure! We can leave you for those fuckers!" The armored gate flew backward in flaming splinters the moment Nikki's sentence ended. Craning his neck back, Tangmo couldn't stop himself from squealing when he saw daemons, many literary on fire, running straight for them, uncaring of their own immolation.

"Fuck! Run faster! Run faster!" Tangmo barked, the fear actually providing the adrenaline needed for his body to start working properly again. But he knew they were fucked with a deadweight like him dragging them down, so Tangmo started squirming. "Change of plan, let me go! Let me fucking go right now or the two of you are fucking dead!"

"Like fuck that's gonna happen, hero!" Nikki spat and held Tangmo tighter, making him squawked when it felt like his arm was about to snap in three places. "Now shut the fuck up you whinny little bitch!"

"Leilatha will kill me if I let you go," Evangeline added, sounding strangely calm in the face of certain death. "I rather get tear apart by daemons rather than face her if I leave you behind."

"You're gonna get that wish if you don't drop me – fuck!" Tangmo gasped as Nikki and Evangeline turn sharply at a bend, bringing them face to face with a bunch of Cadian and Sororitas, the samurai and shaolin nuns were all presence, albeit a little sooty. Blinking tears from his vision, Tangmo saw that it was a contingent of 101st Cadian who had set up the roadblock, and for one horrified moment he thought captain Minka Lesk was gonna shoot him. She pulled the trigger, white red lasbolt flying straight for Tangmo, but it flew above his head and hit a leaping daemon in the face before it can reach him.

"Nice shot captain Lesk," Tangmo grinned as they approached the firing line, muzzles flashing as the pursuing Chaos spawns were cut down, putting a dent in their advance. The barrage was soon joined by guardsmen and eldars on the second wall above, the snaking corridors were designed so that it was completely exposed to the defender's weathering fire.

"Just doing my job sir," Minka said shyly, the girl was obviously not used to being complimented.

"How are you liking the new lascarbine?" Tangmo pointed at her Immortal Spirit patterned armament.

"It's pretty good sir," Minka glanced at her weapon, giving it a quick appreciative nod.

"Pretty good?! These things are fucking amazing!" Lieutenant Dido, Minka's best buddy, was having a blast with her Zetton lasgun, much to her superior embarrassment.

"I'm glad you're enjoying yourself," Tangmo smiled weakly as he shrugged Nikki and Evangeline off and leaned heavily on a discarded crate, taking deep, long breaths, every inhale accompanied by pain blooming across his chest. After a few seconds, Tangmo concluded that even though he was bruised and battered to hell, the armor thankfully prevented further, deeper damage to his organs and bones. He was still in massive pain though, fuck everything hurts, he can barely walk now that the adrenaline was wearing off. "But yeah, I think we need to go, another wave is coming in."

"Everybody fall back to the wall, move!" Nikki shouted, the Cadian following her orders promptly as she grinned sweetly at the Sororitas. "Can you guys carry him again? He's being very difficult, crying and whining all the damn time."

"You asshole, I was in pain – ahhh! Jesus fucking Christ, my arms! My legs! My chest! My everything!"

"Up you go lord commissar, I got you!" Hitomi barked a laugh as she hauled the yelling Tangmo, less than gently he might add, on to her shoulder, the jarring impact of his tender body on the woman's pauldron almost made him vomit. "Hey! Don't you fucking dare mess up my armor!"

"I'm gonna puke into your fucking armor!" Tangmo shot back as the Sororitas sprinted after the Cadian, Nikki and Evangeline easily matching stride with the samurai and shaolin nuns.

"Don't need a lift, colonel?" Meifeng asked Evangeline as they thundered toward the open gate, the incline was steep and Tangmo can see the daemons hot on their heels. That shit was even more distracting than Hitomi's shapely bouncing ass, which he'd gotten a good gander. "That was a pretty bad fall."

"No, I'm quite fine. Commissar Tangmo took the blunt it. He saved me," Evangeline said as they finally made it behind the walls, the three functioning King Russes and the Falcons roared passed them before the gate slammed shut with a bang and the locking mechanism clanged into place. Hitomi carefully laid Tangmo down next to the gatehouse, Nikki and Evangeline joining him, the Mordian colonel knelt down and took his hand into her own. Her smile was radiant, beautiful and grateful. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it dude," Tangmo gave Evangeline a companionable squeeze then, with her help, pushed himself upward, shit was still pretty painful, but it's gonna take a lot more punishments to keep the singing commissar down. "If we survive this, I'll find a way for you to repay me."

"I can hardly wait," Evangeline grinned as she followed Tangmo and Nikki to the wall, which was leveled with the flat open space around the castle behind them. This totally looked like the very last stage of the siege map in Shogun 2 Total War, where you throw everything at the last remaining soldiers at the top. God, he hate being the defender.

"You'll like it, I promise," Tangmo walked up to Leilatha and hugged her fiercely before she can protest. The lady commissar patted his back and leaned her head onto his shoulder, thankfully not hugging him back. They were breaking apart when another song rose above the gunfire and Tangmo and Nikki traded look of absolute startlement.

"Wait, isn't that…" Nikki said as the Buxiunese, and the Kuronese too by the looks of it, started humming.

"Yes it is, holy shit," Tangmo barked a laugh and went over to the parapet, drew his twin laspistols, and started busting a cap in Chaos's ass when the Buxiunese and Kuronese's voices joined in a rousing melody. And they didn't sing in Chinese or Japanese either, the lyric was in English, or Low Gothic if you want to be lore friendly.

"We pledge: No more tears on our land. In wrath, doubt dispel we make our stand. Arise! Ye who would not be slaves again, for Buxiu may glory reign!"

"Commissar…do…read…copy…over?!" Static transmission cut into the Asian regiments' awesome song. Tangmo pressed his earbud harder as he tried to make out the female voice on the other end.

"Hello?! Who is this?! The radio's fucked, you need to speak up!" Tangmo bellowed back.

"…Me! It's…Raine!" The transmission told him.

"Meko! Get over here!" Tangmo summoned the radio captain, who slid in beside him and handed him the headphone. "Tune into this frequency and put every juice into it, it's Raine on the other end!"

"Hello?! Tangmo?! By the Throne, can you hear me?! Come in, damn you!" Tangmo was pretty fucking surprised by how worried Raine sounded.

"Damn Raine, it's really good to hear your voice again," Tangmo chuckled hoarsely and gave Meko a thumbs up as the connection became crisp and clear, "what the hell is happening outside?!"

"The Antari and the Krieg managed to repel the enemy's attack," Raine told Tangmo, the background noise was as bad as the pounding din around him. "We're rushing to relieve you, but we're getting bogged down in the surrounding wood."

"Well shit Raine, that's the best news I've heard all day!" Tangmo cried out, smiling as the Buxiunese and Kuronese sang the next verse.

"Though deep is the dread that lies ahead, yet still with our faith on we tread. Let blood rage afield, our voice grows evermore! For Buxiu, may glory reign!"

"You need to hold as long as you can," there was clear desperation in Raine's voice. "The Chaos forces outnumber us greatly and they are not yielding."

"And you have no idea on the ETA," Tangmo felt his heart drop, mentally slapping himself for getting his hopes up.

"I'm afraid not," Tangmo was truly touched by Raine's extremely genuine apologetic tone. "We're pressing them as hard as we can, but the bastards are making us fight for every inch."

"It's okay Raine," Tangmo told her soothingly. "They shall not pass, as Evangeline had sung earlier, they'll never take this castle, I fucking promise you that."

"Stars may fade as darkness filled the air, but through the mist a solitary trumpet flares! Now to arms! For the Emperor we fight, with all might we strike! With valor, wisdom both we stride!"

"Good luck Tangmo," was all Raine said to him, her timbre heavy.

"I'll see you in a bit Raine, stay safe," Tangmo offered firmly before cutting the transmission. He then turned to Nikki and the main characters. "Reinforcement is on their way, give them hell!"

"Break now the dawn, for Buxiu Shoudu! In common breath, victory of our time! May the Emperor reign proud and true, now and evermore! Glory be to thee Buxiu!"

"Milk Tea Alliance for life motherfuckers!" Tangmo roared, popped up above the parapet, and went gung ho on the Chaos sons of bitches, his twin laspistols spit death upon the heretics, daemons and traitors trying to close in on the wall. "Bring it you fucking Chaos pieces of shit! Get some! Get some!"

And in that moment, when Tangmo was sure that they were truly fucked, three things happened simultaneously. First, the whale like groan of the atmospheric beast returned, the timbre, pained and distressed this time, was so fucking loud that large chunks of rock rained down from the ceiling above. Secondly, the Chaos forces froze, like someone flipping an off switch. Sum bitches didn't die though, but they all glanced at the destroyed gate they'd just breached. Thirdly, Damien's voice exploded in his earbud, bombastic in volume and unperturbed by the static that had plagued them throughout the entire fight.

"Yo! Did someone just sing a 40k version of Glory to Hong Kong?!"

"Damien?!" Tangmo blurted. "What the fuck, I thought you were on some fucking island with Cain or some shit?!"

"I was bro, like, half an hour ago," Damien said chirpily. "And now we're right above you. Good to see you alive by the way, I actually got a little scared when you and Nikki went silent."

"What do you mean you're above us?"

"The enemies are faltering!" Leilatha spoke over Nikki's baffled question as the defenders unleashed a merciless barrage on the Chaos forces, every gun switched to full auto, the strobing light scything into the monstrous ranks, viscera blooming in chunks and mists. Realizing that they were missing out on the fun, Tangmo and Nikki added their own vehement firepower to the fray as Damien began his explanation.

"You remember how me and Henry were talking about that scene in the first Transformer movie? The one where the soldiers fought Scorponok at that village in the middle of the desert and they have to bring in that fuck huge gunship to blast the motherfucker back to hell? Well, we thought it would be cool if we have something like that for the battlegroup."

"Henry was drunk when he said that!" Nikki reloaded, looking a bit mortified. "Please tell me you two idiots didn't actually…oh my God, it's that secret project the engineers, scientists and Bonesingers have been working on isn't it?!"

"Hell yeah we did!" Damien laughed uproariously, extremely pleased with himself.

"Did you just spent money and resources on fucking C-130s whose only function is to bombard shit like a fucking ship of the line?!" Tangmo was kinda incredulous. Sure, that scene from Transformer was awesome, but making a specialized gunship of that nature was pretty stupid.

"No, of course not, what the fuck do you take me for?!" Damien huffed angrily, the distorted Space Marine's voice made him sound that much more petulant. "No, after that we watch the Avengers and Godzilla movies and thought, yo, what if we have a Helicarrier but every inch of it was studded with guns? And viola, after almost a year of construction, we got it operational! All eighteen of them!"

"Bro, are you for real?!" Tangmo laughed uproariously and holy shit the Chaos forces were in full retreat. Daemons and cultists were the first to haul ass, trampling and crushing each other in a mad stampede, the defenders cheering raucously as they lay down a brutal parting gifts. The traitor regiments and Slaanesh Sisters withdraw in good orders, but the Khornate Sisters had to be dragged forcibly back. The last angry Sororitas was getting shoved inside a Land Raider when a powerful earthquake threw Tangmo off his feet, he would've fallen flat on his ass if Leilatha didn't caught his arm, the atmospheric beast agonized wail reaching its zenith, a dying throe that rumbled away into nothingness. Thick plume of dust rolled into the mountain, blanketing the castle and the defenders in grimy soot.

"And in other news, we just took down that gigantic flying Cthulhu mofo, dropped that sum bitch dead!" Damien's laughter was veering dangerously toward the psychotic spectrum. "Anyway, me, the Marines and the Valhallan are heading down to mop them up, catch you later dude!"

"I ain't letting you assholes get the coup de grace!" Tangmo roared and turned to the hyped up defenders, all of them eager for a little payback after being on the receiving end for so long. "The enemy is in full retreat and getting boxed in by our reinforcement, who wanna go kill those motherfuckers with me?!"

The cheer was deafening, their spirits rising on wings of vengeful fire, even the wounded were joining in.

"That's what I'm talking about! PDFs, stay here with the wounded, the rest of you, let's go wreck some shit!" The PDFs were more than happy with Tangmo's command as the battlegroup thundered through the partially destroyed opened gate, sprinting after and killing every heretic and daemons too slow to flee or unlucky enough to still be alive, pleas of mercy were met with extreme, unrestrained violence. Tangmo waved Nikki and the main characters after him. "You guys come with me. We're riding out in style!"

As he'd suspected, the King Russ that got its barrel destroyed was still functioning and had stayed behind when the other tanks went out to form the last line of defense. The King Russes, along with the five Falcons, all miraculously survived the engagement. Tangmo waved at the crews, all of whom were patching up bullet holes and scorched marks, "yo! Can that thing still run?!"

"Of course, lord commissar," the tank commander nodded.

"Fire that thing up, we're sallying forth my dudes!" Tangmo clambered up the tank and sat down on the metallic hull, more spacious now that the barrel has been removed, leaving only the turret and the hatch intact.

"Umm, are you sure about this sir?" The tank commander went on as the main characters took their place around Tangmo, making quick check on their weapons. "The main gun is gone."

"Quite sure commander," Tangmo smiled toothily as the tank crews clambered inside the King Russ. "Now let's rock and roll dude, we don't want to miss the fireworks!"

"Yes sir!" The tank commander settled down inside the hatch, primed the twin heavy bolters, put his headphone on, traded thumbs up with Tangmo, and bellowed. "Forward!"

Everyone yelped when the King Russ lurched into motion, which burst into a whooping laugh when Emily lost her footing and fall gracelessly into Krillen's lap, the pair blushing furious as they scrambled off each other, but not before flashing quick smiles.

"You gonna get lucky anytime soon, Krillen?!" Krix barked and the main characters guffawed with gusto, the Cadian colonel and the Praetorian major glared darkly at the flamer captain, who was totally aloof of the combined consternation. Tangmo couldn't help but noticed that Minka and her three 101st buddies weren't too thrilled about this union though.

"Now captain, no teasing, it is most rude," Alistair intervened on the two's behalf, settling the hilarity down, but not before making Emily blistered with a sly wink. "But yes, do carry on major."

"Why wasn't we made aware of this naval project?" Leilatha spoke up as the tank rolled down the castle's walled corridor, the tracks making wet crunchy noises as it pulverized the dead bodies. It did not sound pleasant.

"Hey, I didn't know they were gonna do it for real," Nikki held up her hands when Leilatha looked at her sharply.

"I'm as clueless as her," Tangmo shrugged and Leilatha turned her gaze on Ae-Shin next.

"Why are you giving me that look? This isn't a secret or anything. Everything is recorded in the navy's data manifest. The central sever have the files, you can take a look at them anytime you want," Ae-Shin spluttered quickly, wilting beneath Leilatha's inquisitive glare. "We didn't know the Militarum were interested, by the Thrones we thought you people knew…beg your pardon, lady commissar."

"Hmm, yes, it appears the mistake of overlooking this development lie with us," Leilatha softened her visage after a moment, "thank you commander Ae-Shin."

"Don't mention it," Ae-Shin said a little breathlessly and scooted closer to Tangmo, something that didn't go unnoticed by Leilatha. "Is she always this scary?"

"Scary? Dude, this is her being nice – fuck!" Tangmo squawked when the King Russ hit a bump as they turned toward the outer gate, the tank launching off the ground for a second before landing with a jarring bang, which made his already battered body rattled badly. "What in the fuck was that?!"

"A mound of dead bodies," Akecheta deadpanned. "The path is filled with the day's accumulated casualty."

"Come on, it can't be – HOLY FUCKING SHIT!" Nikki blurted loudly as she leaned over the side, and Tangmo pretty much had the same reaction when he joined her. Holy God Emperor almighty, he can't see the ground, bodies of humans, eldars and daemons were littered so thickly together, melded in places by coagulating viscera, that the corpses became one massive macabre carpet, the horror of war made manifest. Shit was really fucking metal.

"Well, this is positively horrifying," Tangmo commented, because goddamn, it's been awhile since he'd seen something this fucked up. He let out a sigh of relief when they cleared the great mountainside entrance and rolled onto the courtyard, where the battlegroup had regained their earlier position. The King Russ slowed to halt but Tangmo's attention, and that of Nikki and the main characters were not trained on the baying daemons, screaming traitors or wailing cultists, no, they all looked to the sky, at their salvation. "But that is fucking beautiful."

Everyone nodded in agreement. Smoldering a few kilometers away, the massive bulk taking up nearly half of no man's land, was the atmospheric beast, the gargantuan abomination was spending its last moment in pitiful spasm and exhaling its dying breath. And hovering proudly above the beast, the noxious fume that had shrouded the stars dispersing, was the machine that had laid it low.

"Did Henry and Damien ever give those things a name?" Nikki was admiring the gigantic aircraft through the scope of her sniper rifle, Tangmo likewise doing the same with his binocular, refusing to share just yet.

"They did," Ae-Shin managed to snatch the binocular from Tangmo, smiling as she gazed at the sky, "Titancraft."

"Like the album," Tangmo pointed at the titanic war machine raining death upon the retreating Chaos army. "Let me guess, this one is call the Iron Savior, isn't it?"

"You are absolutely correct," Ae-Shin handed the binocular to Leilatha. "By the God Emperor, what a beautiful sight."

Tangmo agreed wholeheartedly, because even without the binocular, the scene before them was nothing short of magnificent. The Titancraft itself was a masterpiece of mechanical engineering, made possible by the STCs and humans and eldars ingenuity. About four hundred meters long, the Titancraft managed to find that perfect middle ground between bulky and sleek, maintain the badass Warhammer aesthetic of large gothic grandeur, but smoothened and refined with the right amount of sharp, practical edges that made it looked intimidating and futuristic. Rectangular in shape, propelled by engines on the rear and belly, the stern tapered like a modern aircraft while the hull, covered in gleaming black sloped armor and studded with all kinds of weapons from vulcan cannons, plasma cannons, to heavy gun pieces like the Charon artillery, was uniform in size, not narrowing or widening. And right now, all guns were blazing, from the top, the bottom and the sides.

"Holy freaking shit, how many guns does that thing have?" Nikki asked, whooping loudly along with battlegroup when a powerful plasma barrage consumed a group of Chimeras and Leman Russes in a devouring wave of blue fire.

"A lot, by the looks of it," Lingxin smirked then pointed excitedly at a group of Valkyrie taking off from the Iron Savior's belly, at the head of the wedge formation was the Astartes's Stormbird. "That thing carries other flyers too?!"

"Merciful Throne, they actually did it!" Ae-Shin was bouncing on her heels and throwing her fist exuberantly into the air when a formation of bombers napalmed an entire section of the forest, the liquid flame indiscriminate in its destruction. "Yes! Fuck them up! Fuck them up!"

"Oh, what I would give to have one of those during my earlier campaigns," Evangeline was equally awed. "A lot of heartache and failure could've been avoided if we had such firepower."

"Imagine if the Imperium at large is in possession of such incomparable weapons," Alistair nodded appreciatively, he and Emily still managing to look like Victorian aristocrats despite being covered in gore. "No one can stand against our might."

"We've been sending the STCs data back to Guilliman and every major Imperial worlds and Aeldari Craftworlds align with the Ynnari," Tangmo told the main characters, earning appreciate nods from humans and eldars alike. "Hopefully the information within can be disseminated to the local populace, although I'm pretty sure the Mechanicus are hampering us every step of the way. Still, a lot of the data manage to get out to the Imperium at large, thanks to Guilliman's cadre of trusted bureaucrats, bypassing the fucking cogs."

"Good thing we're killing the toaster fuckers, sum bitches deserve to be turn into scrap metal," Nikki muttered darkly, the main characters strangely receptive of her comments as she narrowed her eyes, squinting harder through her sniper scope. "Looks like Damien and Raine's forces are converging. The heretics pretty much fucked."

"Cool," Tangmo took the binocular back from Kenshin and pressed it to his face, zooming in on the carnage. The heretics were clearly pulling back, but their movement seemed…focus, unlike their mad rout earlier. "What the fuck are they doing? Reforming the line for a counterattack?"

"I don't know, maybe…"

"Ten o'clock! On your left, look!"

Tangmo was rightly confused as he followed Korri's hurried stabbing finger. Why in the blazing fuck were the heretics and daemons converging on a single spot instead of running away? The answer came in the form of a Myrmidon Humvee plowing through the mass of Chaos mofo, crushing all in its path before getting flipped into the air by a Pillar Man Orgyn who uppercut the damn thing, the jeep cartwheeling gracelessly over the churning horde before crashing with a bang.

"What's so important about a jeep?" Tangmo quirked a brow as the survivors inside the Humvee desperately gunned down the closing heretics.

"I don't fucking – oh fuck!" Nikki blurted.

"Yo, I can't see shit, what's happening?!" Tangmo tried zooming to no avail.

"It's Cain! That's gotta be Cain!" The battlegroup erupted in gasps and curse at Nikki's panicked shouting, her sniper honed unmoving on the killing field. "Ciaphas Cain was inside the jeep! The Chaos fuckers are gonna fucking kill him!"

"Bull fucking shit!" Looking through the binocular so hard that his eye sockets hurt, Tangmo squawked when none other than Ciaphas Cain, the Hero of the Imperium, crawled out of the jeep, dual wielding chainsword and laspistol, for the moment keeping the impossible odds at bay. "Ah fuck, it is Cain!"

"Who's that with him?" Nikki asked, the main characters listening intently as if she and Tangmo were an old timey radio show. "That's not Jurgen."

"Oh, you gotta be shitting me, its Andren Fel," Tangmo groaned as the Antari colonel, helm gone but armor still intact, came to stand heroically beside Cain, his hellgun cutting down massive swathes of daemons, fighting back to back with the commissar. "Where in the fuck is Amberley and Raine?!"

"Who gives a fuck, we gotta help them dude!" Nikki's declaration was met with a hearty roar from the defenders, all of whom were preparing to vault over the barricade and into the fray. The Russian exarch pressed her earbud and waved at the remaining tanks. "Falcons and King Russes, form up! Make a wedge for us. We're gonna go rescue the Hero of the Imperium! Move it! Get into position!"

"Prepare to sally forth! Follow the tanks!" Leilatha added, waving her sword in the air before turning to Tangmo with mischievous quirk of a brow. "We're the one doing the rescuing, aren't we?"

"Hell yeah we are – waaahhh!" Tangmo made his shrilly impression of an ork when their tank lurched forward, taking its place behind the tip of the rumbling arrowhead comprised of King Russes and Falcons. He would've fallen off if it wasn't for Leilatha, Nikki and Akecheta who managed to snatch his awesome commissar coat and pulled him upright. "Holy shit, thanks! Leila, come here and give me a kiss!"

"Very well," to hooting and cheers, Leilatha turned her cheek and Tangmo gave it a big smooch. He didn't know about the battlegroup, but his morale was sure as hell restored! Flashing him a brief debonair grin, Leilatha swiftly assumed her stoic commissariat temperament and turned to Nikki. "How is commissar Cain faring?"

"I don't know, I can't see shit!" Nikki was standing atop the hatch, practically surfing the King Russ, her body tilting this way and that as she trained her sniper rifle forward, the tank commander was trying his damndest not to look up. "All the tanks are in the way – hey! Keep your eyes on the road you fucking pervert or I'm gonna pull your fucking spine out of your ass!"

"Meko! Radio!" Meko tossed Tangmo the headphone. "Damien, what in the fuck is happening?!"

"Bro, we got fucking jump when we landed in the wood!" Damien said. "Fucking Siren Heads bro, what in the fuck?! The ambush splintered our forces and we lost sight of Cain. Thank God the Antari showed up, shits look pretty dicey for a moment there."

"Dude, you see that no man's land between the forest and the mountain?" Tangmo flinched when the three King Russes opened fire, followed by the Falcons' twinkling barrage, the combined salvo turning the Chaos horde to burning gibs.

"Yeah?"

"Ciaphas and Andren are there dude, I'm gonna go bail them out," Tangmo told Damien. "But shit's looking pretty bad. I need you to zero in on my location, proto!"

"I'm on it! Yo, get to the no man's land!" Damien bellowed before terminating his transmission.

"Sir, we have a bit of problem!" At Orhul's urgent call, Tangmo saw a wall of seven Chaos Orgyns barring their way, the muscular abominations pouring an uninterrupted heavy bolt salvo on the tanks. The wedge grinded to a halt as the King Russes returned fire, while the Falcons broke formation and proceed to strafe the Orgyns. They were all cut down, but managed to delay Tangmo and the main characters long enough for the traitor regiments to start blocking their way. And Tangmo decided then that the he would do something spectacularly awesome, but like always, also insanely stupid.

"Nikki, Korri, cover me! I'm going in first. You guys follow me and make it speedy!" Tangmo drew his sword, limbered up his taut and battered limbs as best he could then flashed an apologetic smile at a very unamused Leilatha. "I'll be fine, promise!"

"I'm actually starting to believe that," Leilatha drew her sword, a curved European sabre, and handed it to Tangmo. "I'll be waiting."

"I'll be back before you even know it!" Tipping his awesome commissar cap with a grin, Tangmo took off and jumped down the tank. Ignoring the pain bolting through his body after making a superhero landing, Tangmo dashed for the traitor guardsmen defensive line, behind him the tanks rumbled thunderously forward. Whatever the Chaos regiments were preparing for, it certainly wasn't a crazy Thai commissar charging them singlehandedly with two swords raised above his head. Which was why Tangmo easily plowed into them, his krabi-krabong sword work a blurry storm of metallic crimson that left mutilated corpses in his wake. Before the stupid bastards even realized what was happening, Tangmo had cleaved a bloody path through their ranks and was already bounding over the dead, smoldering Orgyns. And as the Dragonforce's song goes: Through the fire and the flame he carried on!

Coughing, Tangmo made it through the fire and smoke, emerging just in time to see Cain getting clocked in the head from behind. The Hero of Imperium staggered to find his footing but Tangmo's old adversaries, the berserkers and Maori Sororitas, swiftly ganged up on him, the lord commissar disappearing beneath vicious strokes of war clubs and truncheons. Andren bulled his way into the hectic midst, his hellgun blazing before he himself joined Cain beneath the Chaos Sororitas unrelenting attack.

"FOR THE EMPEROR, YOU FUCKING BITCHES!"

The first berserker to turn around at Tangmo's bombastic declaration found her head flying off her shoulders in a fountain of blood, the crimson rain was still pattering down when four more of her companions died in a gush of scarlet. Not giving the Chaos Sororitas a moment to get their bearing, the Thai commissar plunged into them, his swords a whirlwind of death, drawing blood with every epic stroke. After half a minute he stumbled into a clearing, the world spinning nauseatingly before righting itself. Taking a few deep breaths, Tangmo got into a Muay Thai guard and flashed a shit eating grin, seeing how his explosive entrance had stunned the berserkers and Maori into gaping silence. He didn't smiled long though, because ten paces away, surrounded by Berserkers Sororitas, was Cain and Andren, the Antari colonel having heroically thrown himself atop the commissar, shielding him. They both looked like shit, beaten to a bloody mess within an inch of their lives but still conscious, groaning and coughing as they gazed at Tangmo.

"You!" A very tall, very hot, Viking berserkers stomped up to him, grinning like an absolute lunatic.

"Aww, none of you are naked anymore," Tangmo pouted disappointedly, because the berserkers and Maori warrior were now clad in metal bikinis, not doing much in term of decency but a big step up from going into battle nude. Huh, the evil Sororitas had bikini while the good Sororitas, the Repentia that is, wore one piece swimsuit, funny.

"Ha! You are not worthy to see us bare!" Not the respond Tangmo was expecting, but okay. "And now it's our turn to play with you, like our sisters did on that other planet!"

"It didn't end well for them, it ain't gonna end well for you," Tangmo twirled his swords like a badass, red droplets flying.

"They say you squealed like a pig!" A laughing Maori joined the berserker, a jagged bone dagger shaking eagerly in her grip. "Come on! We want to hear you scream again!"

"Sorry, no screaming or singing this time," Tangmo smiled and, in a moment of unchoreographed gloriousness, the Chaos Sororitas behind and around him all went up in flame, the King Russes and Falcons having successfully broke through the heretic's last line of defense, beautiful fireballs spreading out around the Thai commissar like a phoenix unfurling its wings. And Tangmo didn't look at the explosion, because he was cool like that, as he dashed for the berserkers and Maoris surrounding Cain and Andren, the bloodletting was short and satisfying. The two who had spoken were the last to die, the stubborn women fought with blind ferocity, hellbent on killing Tangmo, the psychotic pair managing to wind him before he cleaved both their throats open.

"Yo Cain, Andren, you guys still alive?" Panting, Tangmo swiped blood from both his swords and strode over to where the two were sprawled on the ground. They managed a groan that Tangmo took as an affirmative. "Hang tight guys, the medics are on the way. Y'all will be pretty again in no time!"

"Thank you," Cain rasped as he lethargically went to check on Andren, gently easing the Antari up into a sitting position, "still with us, colonel?"

"Just barely sir," Andren managed a coughing chuckle, red spittle flying from his mouth.

"I would've been dead if it wasn't for your bravery Andren, thank you," Cain and Andren traded a tired, but companionable handshake before both glanced at Tangmo. "And we are in your debt Tangmo, only a few seconds more and those Chaos women would've killed us."

"Considering that you two weren't already hacked to pieces, I think they were trying to capture you guys," Tangmo told them.

"That sounds infinitely worse," Andren said dryly and Cain grunted in agreement.

"Don't worry about it dude," Tangmo said the same moment a gaggle of Myrmidons and Chimeras rolled to a stop not twenty paces from them. And pouring forth came Valhallan and Antari, all of whom sprinting straight to where the Thai commissar was standing, Amberley and Raine leading the way.

"Ciaphas!"

"Andren!"

Possessing enough wit about them, Amberley and Raine didn't crashed into Cain and Andren with fierce sobbing hugs, instead the two women skidded to a stop, went to one knees, and with great gentleness so at odd with their violent occupation, slowly cradled their loved ones. They were swiftly joined by the Valhallan and Antari main characters, their expressions ranging from relief to tearful joy, Sulla was already crying. The circle around the romantic scene was completed when Nikki, Leilatha and the battlegroup main characters joined them.

"Are you injured?" Leilatha took her place on Tangmo's right, while Nikki slid into his left.

"Not a scratch," Tangmo flicked blood off the two swords and gave Leilatha back her sabre. "Thank you, this thing was a life saver."

"Bro, I'm the life saver," Nikki deadpanned less than seriously. "I sniped twelve bitches trying to kill you, and Korri took out ten more while you were charging off like fucking Aragon."

"Yeah, yeah, I love you too Nikki, now give me a hug," Tangmo and Nikki were embracing when Amberley and Raine approached him, behind them the Antari and Valhallan medics were tending to Cain and Andren.

"Looks like I am in your debt again, lord commissar," Amberley smiled sweetly and shook hand with Tangmo.

"Thank you Tangmo," and now Raine shook his hand, a bit more firmly and heartier than the inquisitor.

"Don't mention it, just take better care of your boyfriends next time, I can't always be around to save them," Tangmo barked a laugh, the two women actually chuckling with him, and drew Leilatha into his arm. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to see a medic of my own, everything's starting to hurt again."

"Well, I believe that's enough excitement for today," Leilatha grinned and scooted deeper into his arm, blushing red when Nikki made a cute little 'awwww'.

"Oh yeah, definitely," Tangmo agreed when he spotted Evangeline and waved her over. "Good to see you still kicking colonel."

"All because of you, lord commissar," Evangeline matched pace with him.

"Now, about cashing in that debt," Tangmo grinned insidiously. "I believe I have something in mind."

"Am I going to enjoy it?" Evangeline said with surprising sass, the French accent made it ten times better.

"Maybe," Tangmo winked.


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