"WAAAGH!" "WAAAGH!" "WAAAGH!"
Countless greenskin Orks roared as they piloted all manner of bizarre, ramshackle vessels, charging towards the Imperial fleet with eyes full of manic excitement.
"Horus, that damned bastard!" Ferrus Manus cursed aloud.
Warp rifts continued to tear open in the void, spitting out an endless stream of Ork scrap-ships that immediately launched a ferocious assault upon their fleets.
"Be careful, Ferrus," Vulkan advised.
"We must preserve our strength. Horus is likely waiting for us to destroy this Ork warboss before he makes his move to finish us off."
Before Vulkan had even finished speaking, the first salvo from the Ork fleet arrived.
Their crude macro-cannons did not fire standard shells, but rather clouds of metallic junk encapsulated in gravity fields. A storm of high-velocity scrap metal rained down upon the Imperial warships, shattering their void shields and tearing countless fissures in their armoured hulls.
An engine on a Salamanders frigate was struck, and the vessel tumbled toward the planet's atmosphere in a fiery explosion.
"Evasive maneuvers, all ships! Prioritize the enemy flagship!" Ferrus Manus slammed a fist onto the command dais.
The Iron Hands' battleship, the Fist of Iron, turned its gun batteries. Its lance arrays obliterated an Ork cruiser that resembled a massive crab, blasting it into fragments.
However, more greenskin warships surged forward from behind the wreckage, their bows fitted with giant drills that began to slam into the flanks of the Imperial vessels.
"They're trying to board us!" Corax's Raven Guard fleet weaved through the battle in deft formations, laying down pinpoint fire, but the number of Orks was simply overwhelming.
An Iron Hands Strike Cruiser was caught in the grip of three greenskin boarding craft, its armoured plates groaning and twisting under the screech of tearing metal.
"WAAAGH, for Gork an' Mork!" A deafening Ork war-cry suddenly erupted across the vox channel.
Through a hijacked frequency, a hoarse voice cackled with glee, "Listen up, humie gitz! Our 'Big Dakka' is gonna make an appetizer outa ya!"
On the tactical display, an Ork space hulk, crudely fashioned from the scavenged remains of a Titan, was slowly opening its weapon ports.
A super-cannon in its belly began to charge, casting an ugly green energy that illuminated half the battlefield.
"That thing can pierce our void shields in a single shot!" Vulkan's eyes widened, "All ships, concentrate fire on that—"
Despite the Orks' apparent crudeness, their weaponry was advanced on a cosmic scale, capable of producing technological marvels like Attack Moons that even humanity could not replicate.
But it was too late. A beam of green light, vast enough to span the stars, shot forth and struck the flagship of the Iron Hands Legion directly.
The resulting shockwave was powerful enough to capsize a nearby Raven Guard warship.
When the fire dissipated, the bridge armour of the Fist of Iron had melted into a river of molten iron, and a gaping wound had been torn in the hull of the Gloriana-class Battleship.
Countless mortal crew members were sucked into the cold vacuum of space where they perished instantly.
In contrast, hordes of greenskins roared with triumphant excitement as they began their boarding action.
"Lord Ferrus! The Orks are on board!" the warriors of the Iron Hands Legion shouted over the vox.
Ferrus Manus rose from the ruins of the shattered bridge. His power armour was spattered with molten metal and blood.
Through the cracked observation window, he saw innumerable greenskins pouring through the breached hull, waving crude but lethal choppas and shootas.
"My sons, hold the passage to the bridge!" Ferrus roared.
The first wave of Ork Boyz who burst through had no time to fire their weapons before Ferrus obliterated them with a single punch, sending a spray of green flesh and metal shards flying in all directions.
But more Orks surged forward to replace them, laughing maniacally and screaming their battle cry. Their numbers seemed endless.
The Space Marines of the Iron Hands engaged the greenskin Orks in a brutal melee.
"For the Iron Father!"
Warriors of the Iron Hands formed a shield wall.
The thunder of their boltguns echoed in the narrow corridors of the bridge as the Orks, a green tide of crude choppas and shootas, washed over them.
An Iron Hands Terminator veteran crushed an Ork Nob's head with his power fist, but in the next instant, three rusty chain-axes bit deep into his Ceramite armour, sending blood fountaining into the air.
"Father! There are too many of them!" an Iron Hands Space Marine shouted, cleaving an Ork Boy's head open with his power sword, only to have his own shoulder guard torn apart by a rusty chain-choppa from behind.
"Then we shall show them the meaning of true iron! We will show them our resolve!" Ferrus bellowed, charging headlong into the enemy ranks.
His massive power hammer slammed into the Ork horde, and superheated flesh spattered like hot oil.
The choppas of three Ork Nobs slammed into his back at once, sending sparks flying from his Ceramite plate.
Ferrus responded by twisting around and snapping the spine of the nearest greenskin, then proceeded to use the Ork's corpse as a gruesome club, sweeping it through the enemy line.
"Ferrus! Are you alright over there?" Vulkan's voice crackled through Manus's private communicator.
"For now. What is the situation on your end? Are you and Corax unharmed?" Ferrus Manus asked as he casually snapped the neck of another Ork Boy.
"We are holding. I saw the explosion on your vessel and realized they were launching a boarding action. Do you require my assistance?"
"Do not underestimate the Iron Hands. I can handle a trifle like this. You and Corax must preserve your strength. Horus is waiting for us to exhaust ourselves against these Orks…"
He had to conserve the strength of their combined forces.
They had lost contact with the other five Legions, and it was highly probable that the three of them would soon be facing the entirety of Horus's grand army.
His Iron Hands would be the vanguard, crushing this Ork horde while the other two Legions saved their strength for the war to come.
Just as Ferrus ended the communication, the ship's hull let out a mournful shriek of twisting metal.
In the void above Isstvan V, a colossal Warp rift tore open, swallowing the starry expanse with a rust-red behemoth.
A gigantic Attack Moon, a monstrous conglomeration of asteroids, shipwrecks, and derelict space hulks welded together, crushed its way into realspace. Across its surface, one hundred thousand Ork gun emplacements began to charge simultaneously, bathing the entire sector in a venomous green light.
Gravity whips lashed out from the Attack Moon, striking nearby Imperial ships and instantly reducing them to powder.
"Da Great Warboss Grukk Starsmasher is here!" the mad laughter of the Ork Warboss boomed over all comms channels, "All you humie gitz can get ready to be krumped!"
The belly of the Attack Moon split open into a colossal maw. A thousand-meter-thick torrent of pure WAAAGH! energy lashed out like the whip of a god.
Two Iron Hands cruisers were vaporized in an instant, their molten remains solidifying in the vacuum to form a morbid rain of iron.
Inspired by this display, all the greenskins raised their weapons high.
"WAAAGH!"
The internal gravity field of the Fist of Iron began to fail. The deck beneath Ferrus's feet buckled and swelled like an ocean wave, throwing warring combatants into the air.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
The alloy dome of the bridge was smashed open as a pair of hydraulic mega-feet crashed through it. Grukk had arrived.
The Ork Warboss was as large as a mountain. His left arm was an incinerator cannon that dripped molten steel, and hoisted on his right shoulder was a star-killer cannon fashioned from the skull of an Emperor-class Titan.
Every step he took burned a red-hot footprint into the deck.
"Humie boss! I'm gonna use yer 'ead to wipe me arse!" Grukk's war cry shattered the remaining viewport glass.
This damned humie had dared to attack him. Now that he had him cornered, he was going to make him pay.
As for which human had attacked him, he seemed to recall them wearing black armour, but it didn't matter. They were all just humies to be stomped.
"Corax, Vulkan, find a way to destroy that Attack Moon. I will hold this creature here," Ferrus Manus declared, raising his Forgebreaker. The Attack Moon was no joke; if left unchecked, it would have no problem destroying their entire fleet of Gloriana-class Battleships.
The good news, however, was that this Ork warboss had been reckless enough to board his ship.
He was about to learn the true power of a Primarch.
"Understood, Manus. Be careful. We will find a way to destroy the Attack Moon," Vulkan and Corax responded respectively.
They immediately began leading their sons in a boarding action against the gargantuan Ork construct.
A fleet of Salamanders and Raven Guard assault craft surged towards the Attack Moon, their holds filled with melta bombs to plant on its vital systems.
"Face me now, you disgusting Ork monster," Ferrus Manus said, raising his power hammer to face the Ork Warboss.
Even if his opponent was a mighty Ork Warboss, so long as he was not on the same level as the beast of Ullanor, he would be no match for a Primarch.
The Ork before him let out a bizarre laugh before charging forward like a heavy battle tank. At over six meters tall, the Warboss dwarfed even the three-and-a-half-meter-tall Primarch.
Ferrus did not evade.
He let out a cold snort and charged to meet the oncoming titan. "If I feared you, I would not be the Primarch of the Iron Hands," he bellowed.
His power hammer, carrying the force of a falling mountain, struck the Warboss's massive power klaw with perfect precision. It was a collision of pure, unadulterated power.
BOOM!
A deafening explosion tore through the bridge, and the resulting shockwave violently threw aside all nearby wreckage, corpses, and even living warriors.
Grukk laughed madly.
The incinerator cannon on his left arm roared again, spewing a waterfall of crimson slag that cut off all of Ferrus's paths of retreat.
With nowhere to run, Ferrus roared in defiance.
He raised his Forgebreaker. Spinning on the spot with impossible speed, he swung the hammer in a blazing arc, as if he were wielding a miniature star.
The blow landed squarely on the Ork Warboss, sending the behemoth flying backwards. Before the creature could recover, Ferrus Manus charged forward, raised his hammer high, and brought it down towards the Warboss's head.
"Die, monster!"
With a loud clang, a serpentine, purple sword appeared and blocked Ferrus Manus's attack.
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