Pentious
Orks were not stupid.It was a lesson that all races that encountered the Greenskins had to learn at
some point... often repeatedly. It was an easy lesson to forget after all, considering the average ork.
They were brutish, disgusting, often childish in their thought process at times; After all, who but a child would believe that painting something red and putting flashing lights on it inherently made it go faster? 'Art' for the greenskins was little more then monuments crafted from piles of their own dung. By all rights, this was a xeno species that should never have gotten off the planet that spawned them, content with the discovery that if they picked up a rock, beating another ork to death got easier.
However, despite all of this... or possibly because of it to a degree, Orkish kind had managed to spread to the stars in pursuit of the one thing that seemed to give them purpose; Violence. Despite all their own lackings, the Greenskins knew how to fight and wage wars ranging from one on one battles to galactic campaigns. The crucible of their infighting was designed to promote the rise of a warboss who could unite their people and lead larger efforts against the galaxy at large. While the individual greenskin could be idiotic, there was something
very intelligent buried in their genetics that influenced their culture behind the scenes.
Which is why when the Kneekapperz that dominated Forge Beta launched their campaign of subjugation against the lesser Toothbreakerz tribe, they had sent groups of gretchen and orks ahead as both scouts and outriders; While an ork was always up for a fight, traps and ambushes were as much apart of warfare smashing in someone's skull with a rock. When the Kneekapperz' marched on the canyon that would be the only real path to run their tanks and trucks through in order to get where they were going, they found both.
While the majority of the Toothbreakerz were tied up fighting on other fronts, enough of them had been free to plant crude mines throughout the canyon, while up on the canyon walls they started building nests to fire down on invaders from; While a few waves of gretchen were thrown at the mine problem (in some cases,
literally), the orkish side of the scouting force scaled the cliffs in order to directly fight the greenskins on the heights. Even as the main bulk of the invasion force showed up, that fight was still raging as the screams of gretchen dying or in pain and the explosions that caused both grew lesser before finally stopping. A successful start to what would be a bountiful, if short war.
At least, that was what all the calculations and data had suggested was going to happen.
When the mobilization of the Kneekapperz' had been noticed and the likely destination of their aggression had been agreed upon at 92.4 percent certainty, the humans of Forge Alpha knew that action needed to be taken in order to prevent a new warboss from raising. While still a young tech priest, Myrmidon Uixien offered a suggestion for a plan of action and after a review by those higher ranked then him it was agreed upon; Days before the Kneekapperz' began their march and the Toothbreakerz started rushing around to make their last minute preparations a force made up of Myrmidons (including Myrmidon Uixien himself), Skitarii and servitors made their way to the canyon that was the only real path that the Kneekapperz' could take and dug in... literally.
Along the canyon, they scaled the cliffsides on both sides about seven or so meters off the ground and dug into the walls in order to create areas they could take shelter in and wait for their targets to arrive. Each 'cave' would have a stockpile of explosives, heavy weapons (both anti-ork and anti-tank, because despite what some people believed there was a difference), sharpshooters and a myrmidon or two... and all of them would have their entrances covered up with cloth that had been painted and decorated with dirt and dust from the very walls they had dug into. It wasn't the most high-tech method of stealth that had ever been devised, but effective all the same at making it appear like there wasn't a murder hole in the cliff face. After all, it only had to look real from a distance because most organics would focus either at the top of the cliffs of the canyon or what was in front or behind them.
So they dug in and sat quietly for days, waiting for the time to arrive. For a normal force this would have been challenging. For them... not so much.
The plan that Rik had offered was in two parts, with the ambush of the Kneekapperz' simply being the first part of it. It was, however, the simple part; Wait until the Kneekapperz' column was fully inside of the canyon before letting of a signal to drop the cloths and unleash a tide of grenades (Photon Flash, Napalm, Blasting Charges and Radiation where to be mixed together for maximum impact and carnage) throughout the column while the heavy weapons ripped into either orkish flesh or their armor. Anything that survived the alpha strike by luck or durability would be focused down by sharpshooters and heavy weapons... or flushed out and dealt with by the myrmidons.
The signal was given...
1 minute and 37 seconds later, Rik leapt down from his ambush point, axe in his hands as an irad-cleanser swept his left while phased plasma-fusil swept the right. Most of the orks near him were already dead and the smaller orkiod sub-species had simply been mulched by the explosives, but if there was one thing that an ork could be trusted to do, it was refuse to die when it was sane to do so.
Four of the nearby brutes roared their battle cries as they charged at him. One had its cries cut off and dropped as one of the skitarii rangers ended its existence, leaving three to try and close the distance. As the irad-cleanser unleashed its payload, the burst of cross-spectrum radiations caused two of the greenskins to suddenly stumble and fall forwards, their furious warcries turned to gurgled screams of pain as their skin and insides started to melt while their eyes started to slide down their hideous faces while the third, somewhat bigger and clearly tougher then the lesser orks, seemed to endure the blast to continue on.
As it leapt for Rik, his reaction was so quick as to be inhuman; The ork didn't even get to blink as a metal hand shot out to stop the axe swing of the greenskin by grabbing the hand holding the shaft of the weapon, nor for the other hand to bring the axe Rik was wielding around to press the edge against its throat and jerk it forward, taking the head off quickly and cleanly. Throwing the corpse aside via its weapon arm, Rik looked around for more targets as he made his way forward. One of the two orks that had been dealing with their bodies melting internally had stopped moving, but the other was still clinging to life... right up until an axe gave them a mercifully quick end.
With those hostiles dealt with, the Myrmdon turned to look for fresh hostiles to bring to an end. Survivors couldn't be allowed for the second part of this plan to begin after all.