Iron Resolve by Steve Lyons

Author:Steve Lyons
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Published: 2019-09-12T07:01:08+00:00

2200

There had been no let-up for an hour.

The xenos appeared from the forest, usually a handful at a time but sometimes mustering into larger groups. They charged the command post, slobbering and howling. They fell to the guns of its defenders, but some fell harder than others.

Myer crouched between the officers’ and comms huts, behind a canvas barricade six sacks high. It came up to his neck when he stood, so he kept his head down. His knees and ankles ached and he longed to stretch his legs.

‘Thank the Emperor for these xenos’ stupidity,’ a Guardsman muttered. ‘If they only had the patience to coordinate their runs…’

‘If they did, the Chimeras could take them out twenty at a time.’

The speaker was Myer’s new sergeant; he didn’t know his name. After he had left the medicae hut – as he had willed his leaden legs to carry him across the parade ground and while his nerve held – he had made for the nearest set of stripes. The sergeant had welcomed another pair of hands and, thankfully, had not seemed to know him.

Myer had prised his gun barrel into a gap between sacks. His view along its sights was restricted to a narrow tunnel, stretching to the trees two hundred yards away. Whenever the shape of a xenos appeared in that tunnel, he squeezed his trigger.

It was like being on the academy target range. If he half-closed his eyes, he could almost believe he was back there. Sometimes he took his shot, took several shots, but his target failed to drop. It kept on coming, growing larger and larger until it filled the tunnel, until it was all he could see. Then Myer felt his breath growing short and his heart freezing with a familiar terror.

For the sixth time – or seventh or eighth, he had lost count – a hurtling body slammed into the sacks beside his head. For the sixth or seventh or eighth time, the impact knocked him off balance. A dislodged sack tumbled towards Myer, but was caught in a tangled loop of barbed wire, suspended above him.

‘It has my lasgun!’

The cry went up from the Guardsman to his right. His weapon was being pulled between the sacks, dragging his arm with it. Myer and several others rushed to balance the sides of the unequal struggle. Myer grabbed his comrade’s shoulder, pulling for all he was worth.

The feral ork surrendered its prize, suddenly, and half a dozen men sprawled in the dirt. As they fought to disentangle themselves, a meaty green fist burst through the barricade. Its fingers jerked open and closed, grasping for a victim. Myer’s sergeant leapt forward. With a hate-filled roar, he speared the feral ork’s palm with his bayonet. Myer heard its animal yelp as it snatched its hand away.

The barricade shuddered with two more powerful blows.

Another two xenos had made it across the clearing, and were employing their axes. Two more sacks fell, while several more were slashed open. Grain showered the Mordian defenders.

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