"Frak, frak, frak, frak frack," Sel cursed as she wrestled with the controls. The orks had run through the artillery barrage now, though the shells continued to howl overhead, plunging down into the assembley area, now out of sight save for plumes of rising smoke. It would probably help if someone could spot the fall of shot, but it would be very hard to report if they were all chopped into grox meal by greenskins. The new Lieutenant was doing a good job of that the Emperor be praised. The ork vehicles were armored after a fashion, but at this close range the multilaser blasted appart crude welds and sent showers of armor plating in all directions. The second chimera had stopped firing its main gun, probably due to an overhead or a traverse issue due to the constant firing and the dust and grit which was suddenly poured into the turent rings, though its heavy bolters continued to chatter. Those had to be running very hot too and Sel prayed they wouldn't have a cook off before the ammuniton was exhausted. Given this lot had been drunk around their cookfires a half an hour ago she supposed she should be happy that the ammuniton belts weren't still in crates back at the bald.

Another truck exploded, rising on a fireball of its own burning fuel. A greenskin pinwheeled through the air and crashed into the vision slit. Sel had a momentary vision of a giganting blood shot eye before it slid off and the chimera bounced as it ran over something. The armorcrys panel was smeared with blood and Sel cursed and popped her head out of the hatch once more. The engine was starting to overheat and the pull from the track she had damaged was getting worse, gritting her teeth she kept her weight on the sticks, muscling them straight.

"Waaaaaaargh!" One of the surviving trukks came barreling in, crashing against the side of the chimera with a shriek of protesting metal. Whether by low cunning or brutal experience the orks had realized that if they didn't knock out the multilaser it was going to chew them up. Orks being orks, they opted for a boarding action as the course that would solve their probelm and fulfil their desires. The chimera rocked as a half a dozen of the brutes leaped aboard from the trukk. Sel wrenched the carrier side ways and by the series of thumps at least one went over board. The engine lugged dangerously as the sudden addition of several hundred kilos of orks, in addition to the extra troopers almost choked it. Screaming obscenities that left even Elara shocked, Sel through the mixture wide open, smoke gouted from the exahaust as she hyper oxenated the fuel mix, the air rammers in the carborator banging to life. Even so they weren't going to last much... A giant axe blade arced down and Sel ducked just in time to avoid having her skull cleaved open. A great drooling green skin stood above the hatch hammering at the ring with an axe half as big as Sel. Showers of sparks poured down and the chimera lurched drunkenly as Sel lost control. She extended her carbine one handed like a pistol and emptied the magazine in a long burst on automatic. The ork staggered as craters burst in its chest and shreded its crude armor. The weapon clicked empty and the beast grinned down, horibly wounded and with one eye shot away. It unshipped an enorumous pistol the use of which it had obviously forgottedn until this moment. Sel stared down the tea cup sized barrel for a moment and then a flash of metal batted the thing off like a scrum ball drive. It took Sel a second to realise that Kayden had deliberately swung the turent around to knock the thing off.

"If you can keep us on the track Corpral Seldon that would be appreciated," Kayden remarked in a tone of amazing calm that stunned Elara more than the ork had done. Sel gripped the controls and muscled the labouring carrier back onto something like the bearing back to the defensive line, not that any of them were going to make it if the remaning orks hacked the chimera open like a tin of corpse starch.