Chaos Rising

Sergeant Cyrus lay on the ice without moving, his breath crystallizing in front of
him, peering through the scope of his sniper rifle. His crosshairs was rested right on a
Chaos Aspiring Champion’s head. His spotter, lying beside him, quietly muttered the
range of the target and the wind speed. Cyrus adjusted his scope, compensating for the
strong wind. He slipped a Kraken penetrator into his sniper rifle, one of the
specialized round that the Techmarines had forged under his supervision. The other
Cultists and Chaos Marines were too busy preparing for the ritual.
“Cyrus to commander. In position. I have a Sergeant in my scope. Request
permission to take the shot.” Cyrus muttered into the vox.
“Affirmative. Take the shot, and we’ll hit them.” The Commander replied.
“Roger that. Taking the shot.” Cyrus replied, pulling the trigger. The report was
almost silent, and the Aspiring Champion staggered back and dropped, his head
spraying blood. Cyrus cycled his bolt.
There was a loud roar and explosions as Sergeant Thaddeus and his squad
rocketed into the scene, while Sergeant Avitus and his squad opened up with their
heavy weapons. Cyrus scanned for another target.
“There. Cultist operating plasma cannon.” His spotter muttered in his ear.
Cyrus found the target, breathing out to allow his crosshairs to rest right on the
cultist’s throat. He pulled the trigger. The Cultist fell off the heavy weapon, clutching
his throat. He was dead before he hit the ground. Cyrus cycled his bolt, ejecting the
spent round and slipping another round in. He sighted around for another target. The
battle was going well for the Space Marines, as the Chaos forces stumbled around,
still trying to get the surprise out of their system.
Cyrus saw one of the Chaos Marine making their way towards Avitus’s squad.
The chainaxe he carried looked deadly, and Avitus did not seem to notice him until he
was too close. Cyrus fired, blowing the Chaos Marine’s head off and splattering
Avitus with blood.
“Warn me next time.” Avitus growled. “I got him under control.”
Cyrus ignored him and scanned for another target. By now, most of the Chaos
Marines were slain and the cultists scattered. Cyrus threw his cloak open, strapping
his sniper to his back. He fixed his harness into a line, and the Scouts rappelled down
to ground level, rejoining the commander.
“Good shots, Cyrus.” Commander Reaper said, wiping his power sword on one
of the dead bodies. He sheathed it and pressed his finger to his ear. “Command. We’ve
taken out the Chaos procession. Awaiting for extraction.”
“Roger that. A Thunderhawk is inbound.”
1
***

“Hold them back!” Sergeant Ckrius of the 1st Meridian PDF ordered, firing his
lasrifle on full auto. The rest of his squad were taking cover behind a short wall of
sandbags, lasrifles and autorifles firing on full auto across the street, where the rebels
were attempting to take hold of the main road. “Keep firing!”
A support weapon crew dived into cover beside the sergeant, dragging pieces of
his autocannon with him. The heavy weapons crew quickly set up their weapon, and
began delivery of the 20 mil shells towards the enemy.
Sergeant Ckrius ran down the line, rallying the troops as the fire from the enemy
intensified. Autorifle and las rounds streaked across the street from both sides, and
one of the PDF were hit. Ckius did not both to stop, the man’s head had a clean hole
right through it. He fired his lasrifle blindly over his head as he ran down the street.
The enemy was gaining ground, and Ckrius must make sure that the enemy does not
push into their flank.
“Hold them back, dammit!” Ckrius yelled, standing up and firing at a squad of
enemies trying to cross the road. They dropped to the ground, scrambling towards
cover. The squad he had left to defend their flank were gone. The cowards had
deserted them. “Bastards!”
He fired until his lasrifle was empty, and he ran back to his squad, running as las
and solid rounds pinged around. The enemy was about to cut into their flank.
“All units! Pull back to the next sector! We can’t hold here!” Sergeant Ckrius
yelled, raising his hand and making the gesture to retreat. “Fall back to the next
sector! Go!”
The PDF soldiers turn and ran quickly, heading down to the next street where a
series of heavy weapon crews had dug in already. Sergeant Ckrius was the last to
retreat, his lasrifle firing on full auto, sending ruby red spears of las into the
advancing enemy. He ran into the next street, ordering the heavy weapon crews to
prepare to fire. He jumped into a hole where two of his men were taking cover in.
They fired their autorifles as the enemy turned the corner.
The .30 cal support weapons opened up, turning the street into a killzone with
overlapping fields of fire and little cover. The other PDF cheered as the enemy
infantry advance was cut down with ease. Their cheer subsided as the ground began to
shake, and the sounds of tanks was heard.
A bastardized Chimera came into view, its armored hull painted with blood, and
body parts impaled on various spikes on the hull. Autorifle and las fire bounced off its
hull. It stopped and aimed its weapon at the entrenched PDF. Then ignited
promethium erupted from the muzzle of the tank, covering the PDF position with fire.
2
 “Oh shit! Pull back!” Ckrius yelled, climbing out of the hole and running. The
other PDF troops broke, and followed in his example, running as quickly as possible.
“Command. This is Sergeant Ckrius, the enemy has tanks. Say again, the enemy has
tanks. We need anti-tank support!”
“Roger that. We’ll send you a squad. Hold tight.”
Sergeant Ckrius and his squad managed to outrun the tank for the moment,
taking cover in another set of fighting positions that they had dug earlier the day. The
Chaos Chimera tank slowly rolled down the street, with supporting infantry using the
tank’s mass as cover, occasionally popping out and firing shots at the PDF.
A scruffy squad arrived, armed with a single missile launcher. The crew quickly
loaded the missile launcher, and the soldier braced the weapon.
“Clear!” he yelled, pulling the trigger spoon. There was a roar, and the missile
speared out of the muzzle of the launcher, streaking towards the advancing tank. The
missile detonated uselessly on the tank’s shell.
“You loaded frag, you idiot!” Ckrius yelled, his lasrifle firing at the Chimera’s
viewport, in an attempt to slow the tank.
“Load!” the PDF soldier ordered, and his loader slided a fresh rocket into the
tube. “Clear!”
This time, the missile penetrated and exploded inside of the tank, igniting the
fuel inside the tank and sending white hot shrapnel flying in all directions. The PDF
soldiers cheered as the flames consumed the soldiers around the burning tank.
“Private Jackson. Your services are needed elsewhere. We have more and more
reports of enemy tanks. Move out to Jaring street. Captain Balhan is taking a beating
there.” The vox blurted.
“Wilco, command.” Private Jackson replied.
“We’ll come with you. Give you some cover fire.” Sergeant Ckrius declared,
picking up a fallen autorifle. It had better effect on flesh than the lasrifles because of
its solid rounds instead of shafts of light. “Lead the way, private Jackson.”
The two squads moved through the streets of Meridian Prime, watching out for
any enemy contacts. All across the hab spires, rebels were attacking, and the already
poorly armed PDF were desperately trying to hold the enemy off. Some entire squads
had joined the ranks of the rebels, betraying their former comrades. They traveled
through the buildings, avoiding most of the infantry fight, and conserving their
ammunition til they arrived at Jaring street.
“Captain Balhan? Where are you?”
“We’re holed up in the building at the end of the street. Come on! Those throne
forsaken tanks are ripping my men apart!” Captain Balhan yelled into the vox, the
gunfire can be heard clearly from the background.
3
 The two Chimera tanks came into view, their multilasers firing continuously at
the building where Captain Balhan must be holed up in. Platoon strength infantry
added their fire towards the building with lasrifles and autorifles.
“Fire on my command.” Sergeant Ckrius whispered, resting his autorifle on the
ledge of a window. The rest of the squad prepared their weapons, and Jackson’s loader
slipped a rocket into the tube. “Ready. Fire.”
Jackson pulled the trigger spoon, and the rocket speared out from the tube
towards one of the Chimeras. The rocket penetrated the relatively weak top armor of
the tank and detonated inside. The other PDF soldiers fired, cutting down the
surprised rebels from behind as Jackson reloaded his launcher.
“Clear!”
The second Chimera exploded in a multi colored explosion, and the rebels
returned fire, finally pinpointing their firing position. Las and solid rounds pinged off
the walls as Ckrius ducked to reload.
“We’re done here, Balhan, and we’re pulling out!” Jackson voxed, ducking away
from the window. The soldiers quickly left the building before the rebels sent anyone
to flush them out. “Command. Where next?”
“Pull back to the command centre, the enemy is pushing too hard and fast, and is
threatening to cut off entire platoons of soldiers. We’re pulling you back to form a
concentrated line defense around the command centre. Over.”
“Understood, command. We’re pulling back now.” Jackson said, nodding to
Ckrius, who nodded.
The two squad ran through the streets, careful to avoid the enemy advances as
well, and fighting whenever they had to. One of their comrades was crushed
underneath a Chimera’s tank treads, before Jackson’s last rocket destroyed it.
They made it to the command centre, where units of men were deployed in
buildings and fighting holes reinforced with sandbags, razorwire and tank traps.
Support weapons were set up on roofs, as well as ground level. The command centre
was a prefab rockcrete bunker completed with heavy bolter turrents and firing slits, as
well as emplaced mortars on top of them.
The two squads went to report in, walking into the command centre. Major
Gilbert, the commander of the 1st Meridian PDF was standing with two tacticians,
looking at a map of the city. Sergeant Ckrius saluted, and the Major returned the
salute hastily.
“Right Jackson. You’re one of the remaining launcher crews we have. So I want
you fast and dangerous. Ckrius, you’re with him. Give him the cover he needs.
There’s a ammo dump out there, so gear up.” Major Gilbert explained. “There’s a
veritable shitstorm heading towards us, but luckily, we got a platoon of Imperial
4
Guardsmen here to assist us. So we’re gonna win the day. Make sure these turncoats
and traitors suffer!”
“Yes, sir!” Sergeant Ckrius said, snapping to attention and saluting the major,
before leaving the briefing room.
They went straight for the ammo dump, grabbing as much ammunition as they
could and stuffing them into bandoliers, musette bags and satchels. Ckrius swapped
his autorifle for a lasrifle, opting for the lighter weight and lesser recoil than the
autorifle. Then they left the command centre, running final checks on their weapons,
knowing that it would be a tough fight ahead of them, and if their weapons jammed in
the middle of combat, they were dead men.

***
“Commander. We’ve just received a cry for help on Meridian. It seems that
heresy has taken roots in the planet, and a city wide uprising has caught the PDF off
guard. Head over to Meridian. We need to quell this heresy here and now.” Librarian
Jonah Orion said, as the commander walked off the ramp of the Thunderhawk.
“What about the contingent of Guardsmen we left there?” Commander Reaper
asked.
“It seemed that the Guardsmen were part of the uprising. Now the Chaos forces
are driving Imperial Tanks.” The Librarian replied, planting his Force Staff firmly on
the ground. The two of them headed up towards the bridge.
“Can’t rely on the Imperial Guard to do anything right.” Commander Reaper
muttered, striding into the bridge with the Librarian by his side. “Set course for
Meridian, now!”

***

“Major Gilbert?” a vox technician said, turning around in his chair. “The
message has gone through. I have just receive confirmation. But it would take them
hours to get, even if they acknowledge the message, sir.”
“Very well. Throne help us if they don’t respond.” Major Gilbert said, looking
down at the map again. “Have we had any luck with the aerial recon yet?”
“Negative, sir.”
“Alright. Down to old fashioned soldiering. Form up a squad for me. We’re
going to probe the enemy forces.” Major Gilbert said, picking up his hellgun and
backpack power pack before leaving the briefing room.
The squad was already waiting for him at the gates of the command bunker, and
they nodded to him, and he replied with a nod and a smile. It had been a long time
5
since he had donned the carapace armor and hellgun into battle, but his skills and
reflexes were still there.
“Quietly. We’re just there to probe the enemy forces. Maybe call in some
artillery on their heads. A small recon party. No heroics.” Major Gilbert said, as they
passed through the line of defenses. “Mkvene. Lead the way.”
The recon party quickly ran down the street, weapons raised and trained at
different parts of the street, waiting for anything to pop out so they could take a shot
at it. The streets seemed to be deserted, even the residents were all gone, and it was
eerily quiet. Major Gilbert raised a fist, and the recon group took cover amongst the
rubble.
The ground seemed to be shaking. Then the shaking subsided, and the recon
party continued deeper into enemy territories with still no enemy contact. Mkvene
suggested that they entered the buildings for a better vantage point, and they did, and
now they were cutting through the apartments and rooms.
Then they saw it. In a massive square, what seemed like a large portion of the
civillian population were gathered. They seemed to be praying, but upon closer
inspection, they were mutilating themselves, crying in what seemed like ecstasy as
they sliced blades across their faces and bodies. Major Gilbert turned away in disgust.
“Well. At least we know where did the civillian population go.” Mkvene
muttered darkly.
“Ok. Pull back. They’s too many of them here.” Major Gilbert decided, exiting
the room and heading down the stairs.
They went back to street level, and the ground began to shake again. They turned
around, and saw a massive horde of cultists heading their way, waving blades and
other crudge weapons. The PDF troops opened fire immediately, sending down a ruby
red rain of las fire towards the horde. The las fire sliced into the cultists, lashing off
limbs and dropping a lot of the enemy. Major Gilbert’s hellgun fire punched through
two or three of the enemy with ease as he fired on full auto and adapted a sweeping
pattern.
“Major! We’ll hold them off, get back to the command centre! They need you
there!” Sergeant Mkvene shouted, his lasrifle firing on full auto, not even bothering to
aim.
Major Gilbert dropped his hellgun, allowing it to swing on his harness, grabbing
several frag grenades from his harness before priming them and throwing them at the
charging horde. The grenades detonated on impact, showering the masses with
shrapnel.
“Go!” Mkvene shouted, waving his lasrifle. Gilbert nodded and left, but not
before passing his bandolier of grenades to the Sergeant. He ran through the streets,
6
heading back to the command centre.
“All units, this is Major Gilbert! Prepare for contact. The enemy has numbers
here don’t let them get close!” Major Gilbert yelled into the vox as he ran towards the
line. The PDF troops acknowledge his call, and prepped their weapons. The support
weapon crews went to their weapons, cocking weapons and prepping belts of
ammunition.

***

“The Thunderhawk is ready for launch. Jonah. Lets move.” Commander Reaper
said, striding out of the bridge.
Sergeant Avitus, Tarkus, and Thaddeus were already onboard with their squads as
the commander and the Librarian ran up the ramp of the Thunderhawk. The door
sealed itself, and the Thunderhawk was launched into space. The commander strapped
himself in as it began descent into Meridian.
Librarian Jonah Orion was resplendent in his blue power armor, patient little
ticks of electric sparking off from his psychic hood. His Force Staff held firmly
between his legs, wreathed with power, and although it did not look like much,
Reaper had seen it in battle before, and knew its potency in battle.
“New reports indicate that the PDF forces are now facing off more than half of
the civillian population turned by Chaos.” Librarian Orion said. “We will be holding
literally, the whole city off.”
The Thunderhawk swooped down flying low, almost touching the rooftops of the
buildings. The pilot serfs were the best of the squadron, and had spent the last year
inserting and extracting the Blood Ravens under fire.
“Commander, we’re going in for a strafing run.” One of the pilot serfs reported.
The Thunderhawk swooped down, its dual twin linked heavy bolters spitting out
shells at the mass of Cultists down below. The hapless cultists were cut down like
grass, and the Thunderhawk came round for another run.
“Alright. Thaddeus, Tarkus, Jonah! We’re going down to ground level. Avitus.
Stay onboard, provide covering fire.” The commander decided, unstrapping his grav
restraints and standing up. “Pilot, take us close. We’ll jump.”
The Thunderhawk hovered twenty in the air, just a few hundred metres from the
command center, and the Space Marines leap from the hovering gunship. They landed
on their feet, cracking the ground underneath them. They sprung into action
immediately, with Tarkus and his squad unloading their bolters at the mass of cultists
heading their way. Librarian Orion fired bolts of warp fire from his Force Staff, his
eyes ablaze with power, throwing groups of cultists off their feet with each of his
7
blast. The commander and the assault squad immediately charged into battle, their
chainswords screaming for blood.
“For the Emperor and the Great Father!” Commander Reaper shouted, swinging
his chainsword in a wide arc, cutting down many of the first rank of cultists, clearing
a little breathing space. He unloaded his bolt pistol into the horde before dropping the
pistol and taking his chainsword in a two handed grip.
Jonah Orion slammed the hilt of his Force Staff onto the ground. In response, a
shockwave erupted from him, killing and throwing bodies off their feet. Warp fire
erupted from his finger tips, as well as from his Force Staff, smiting all those that it
touched.
Tarkus and his squad had loaded Metal Storm Frag shells, and its effects were
devastating amongst the lightly armored cultists, each shell detonating before impact
and ripping through scores of cultists.
“Forward! Push into them!” Commander Reaper bellowed, swinging his
chainsword without rest into the mass of Culitists.
The Space Marines let out a cheer, striking deeper into the mass of the foes,
leaving behind scores of dead bodies. The Librarian and the commander was the tip of
the spear, forging their way through the masses of blades and fists. With each swipe of
his Force Staff, the eagle standing at the top of the staff flared with power, cutting
down his foes with his psychic might.
“Forward, my brothers!” Tarkus said, dropping his empty magazine and quickly
slapping a new one into place. “Save the plasma gun for later. Use your boltguns for
now.”
The Thunderhawk came back for another gunning run, and the Space Marines
stood firm amongst the falling Cultists all around them. Several stray rounds pinged
off the ancient and holy armor of Commander Reaper, but he paid them no attention,
instead, forging his way forward with greater fury. His roaring blade claimed a few
lives with each swing, and the blade continued to roar with the righteous fury of the
Adeptus Astartes.
“Knowledge is power!” Librarian Orion cried, slamming the end of his force
staff onto the ground. Power coruscated from the staff, lashing out in concentric
circles. The cultists were no match for the deadly Librarian in close quarters as he
employed the full force of his psychic might.
“There is only the Emperor!” Sergeant Thaddeus bellowed, rocketing into the
horde, throwing back dozens of Cultists with his bone breaking land.
“He is our shield, and our protector!” the rest of his squad roared, finishing the
maxim as they followed their sergeant into battle.

8
 ***

“Thank the Emperor! We’re saved!” one of the PDF soldiers cried as the Space
Marines ploughed into the horde of enemies.
Major Gilbert lowered his smoking hellgun and gazed at the superhumans in
awe. They were like a blade cutting into cold grease, cutting down the cultists with
each swipe of their roaring chainblades. The iron fist of the Emperor was here today,
and it was sure that they would win the day.
“I want two platoons with me! We move ahead to support the Space Marines!”
Major Gilbert yelled, raising his hellgun. The PDF forces cheered, raising their
weapons and following their commander into battle. “For the Emperor!”
The Space Marines had left a horrific trail of dead bodies behind them, most of
them mutilated by chainswords, others killed by warpfire or warp lightning. Major
Gilbert also noticed that several of the bodies, in fact, more than several of the bodies
were children and woman. Suddenly, he felt resentment in his mind. This was his
battle, and these Adeptus Astartes had stolen it from his grasp. His enmity grew as he
watch the Space Marines slaughter more and more of the civilians.
“All units! Open fire on the Space Marines!” Major Gilbert ordered, raising his
hellgun and firing it at the closest Space Marine, a bald Tactical Marine.
“Turncoats! Open fire, brothers!” the bald Tactical Marines, turning around
amidst the rain of lasfire. His bolter spat out rounds at the PDF soldiers.
The rest of the Tactical Marines turned around and unleashed their firepower at
the turncoats. Major Gilbert screamed his defiance, charging forward, hoping to close
the distance so he could tackle the massive Space Marine. Unfortunately, the Tactical
Marine did not even flinch when the Major slammed into his leg.

***

Tarkus punched the turncoat major, feeling the human’s head collapse into his
chest cavity. He kicked the body away, and concentrated at the group of PDF soldiers,
who had started brandishing grenade launchers. Lasrifles were one thing, but the
grenade launchers could do some light damage to their armor.
“Plasma gun! Incinerate them, brothers!” Tarkus ordered, pointing at the squad’s
two plasma gun bearers.
They nodded, sheathing their bolters and arming their plasma guns. The plasma
guns hummed with promise of death to the turncoats. The Tactical Marines pulled
their triggers, and searing blasts of superheated gas erupted from the barrel of the
plasma gun, spearing towards the PDF troops.
9
 Four of the PDF troops were incinerated and another was blinded by the bright
flash of the muzzle. The Blood Ravens fired again, incinerating another group of PDF
soldiers with ease.
“Talon two Alpha, we need that fire support!” Commander Reaper ordered into
the vox. The horde seemed to be endless, and even the greatest warrior would start to
tire after fighting continuously with no end.
“Stand fast, my brothers!” Librarian Jonah Orion cried, delivered straight to their
minds, reinforcing their resolve. “For the Emperor!”
The Librarian fired blasts of warp fire from his hand, while his Force Staff was
ablaze with power as it cut into the horde of cultists. The Blood Ravens were awed in
the sight of the revered Librarian, fighting the Emperor’s foes with such deadly force.
The Thunderhawk did one finally gunning run, before allowing Avitus and his squad
to get off the gunship.
“Commander! Governor Derosa here. Angel Forge is under attack from Chaos
forces! The defending 85th Vendoland is having a hard time holding the Chaos
Marines off! We need your help!” the vox spluttered.
“Understood, Derosa. We’re heading over to Angel Gate. Is it still holding?”
Commander Reaper replied, pressing a ear to his vox bead.
“Yes, commander, but the Chaos forces are inside the gate. Hurry!”
The Space Marines ploughed their way through the horde, and they could see
Angel Gate ahead, a newly constructed one, after the Eldar destroyed it when they
tried to destroy Angel Forge. It was closed, adamantine bolts locking across the
massive gates.
“Derosa, the gate’s closed.” Sergeant Tarkus voxed, as they got closer. By now
the horde was dead, and bodies marked their advanced through the capital spire.
“There is a gate switch on the wall. Use your jetpack to get up there. Activate it
and the gate will open.”
“The position is exposed, commander. There’s no telling what awaits us on the
other side. And the enemy will know we’re going through the gates.” Avitus
commented. “We should kick it down and give the foul Chaos forces a surprise.”
“But that would leave the door wide open, commander.” Jonah countered,
leaning on his force staff for a moment. “Its your decision, commander. I can rip the
door down if you command it.”
“Thaddeus, with me. The rest of you, prepare to fight the enemy.” Commander
Reaper decided, firing his jetpack, propelling himself up to the top of the wall. The
assault squad followed without pause.
Reaper pressed a few runes, and felt the gate open. He looked at the situation on
the other side of the gate, and found Guardsmen from the 85th Vendoland engaging
10
Cultists and Chaos Space Marines wearing the armor of the Black Legion.
“Chaos filth! They’re from the Black Legion!” Thaddeus exclaimed, firing his
jetpack. “Blood and Fire!”
The Blood Ravens charged into battle, and the Chaos forces turned their
attention from the Guardsmen to the new arrivals. One particular Black Legion
brandished his sword. It looked like the commander.
“Ah. Welcome, Blood Ravens. So predictable.” The commander cried, waving
his massive sword of obsidian. He killed two nearby Guardsmen with relaxed ease.
He looked somewhat familiar to Avitus and Tarkus. “The corpse Emperor has blessed
me with you today. I shall sacrifice you to Khorne!”
“Chaos filth! Face your death!” Commander Reaper bellowed, charging towards
the servant of Chaos. His chainsword roared with promise of bloodshed.
“Not here, Blood Raven. Chase me if you can.” The Chaos commander mocked,
disappearing in a flash of light.
“Commander. The Chaos commander had just appeared at Angel Forge. the
Guardsmen are trying the best they can to stop him. But they need your help,
commander.” Governor Derosa voxed. “Derosa out.”
“Lets move! We’re not letting him get away!” Commander Reaper yelled,
gesturing to the Space Marines. The Blood Ravens stormed after him, eager to deliver
the Emperor’s judgement to the foul servants of Chaos.
Perhaps they were a little over zealous in their chase, and they ran straight into
an ambush. Two Chaos Marines with autocannons swept the street with a barrage of
explosive shells, while other Fallen Marines appeared on their flank.
“Loyalists! Kill them all!” a Chaos Marine cried, waving his axe and charging
towards the Blood Ravens.
“Ambush! Stand fast, Tactical Marines!” Sergeant Tarkus ordered, taking a knee,
and firing his bolter as Thaddeus rocketed into the fray. “Plasma guns! Target the
heavy weapons!”
The Blood Ravens Librarian fired bolts of warp lightning from his fingers as he
charged into battle. His Force Staff was ablaze with power with his psychic might as
he speared it towards a Chaos Marine. The eagle that stood atop his Force Staff sliced
through the Marine’s armor with ease, and Jonah fired his warp lightning into the
Marine’s head, before kicking the body to free his staff. He blocked a chainaxe with
his Force Staff, before delivering a bolt of warp lightning straight into the Chaos
Marine’s chest. The warp lightning coursed through the Chaos Marine’s armor,
overloading circuits and shorting out the Marine’s two hearts. The Marine was dead
before he hit the ground.
“Your foul turncoat existance ends today!” Jonah proclaimed, slamming the end
11
of his Force Staff onto the ground as the Chaos Marines tried to surround him. A blast
of psychic power immolated the Chaos Marines, burning them to a crisp. “Venerate
the immortal Emperor! Death to His foes!”
The Space Marines cheered at the sight of their Librarian standing tall amidst the
fallen Chaos Marines and fought even harder, striving to follow in the Librarian’s
example.
“For the Emperor!” Commander Reaper bellowed, taking a Chaos Marine’s head
off with a single swipe of his chainsword. He parried an axe blow, before firing his
bolt pistol into the Marine’s head.
Tarkus and his squad advanced steadily, their weapons laying down a steady rate
of fire towards the Chaos Havocs, who were still firing despite grievous wounds from
the plasma guns. Tarkus swapped his bolter for the plasma gun, and took aim quickly.
He prayed to the Emperor to keep his aim steady, and his shot deadly. He pulled the
trigger, and the searing blast of plasma streaked towards the Chaos Havoc. The bolt of
plasma burned through the Chaos Marine’s chest plate, and the Chaos Marine finally
dropped dead.
“Praise the Emperor, brothers!” Tarkus cried, returning the plasma gun to his
comrade. “Forward! Push into them!”
The Tactical Marines surged forward, bolters and plasma guns firing. The other
Blood Ravens followed closely as they approached Angel Forge. The Chaos Forces
were already engaging the Veteran Guardsmen defending the ancient forge. The
destroyed carcass of a Eldar Fire Prism was still there, serving as a stark reminder
how dangerous and manipulative the Eldar can be.
The Chaos Forces broke off when they saw the Blood Ravens approach. Tarkus
sent a flurry of shots that chased them as they left. The Blood Ravens made sure
Angel Forge was secure before pursuing the interlopers.
The Chaos Commander waiting for them in a large courtyard. A portal opened
up, and a Chaos Dreadnought, followed by several Chaos Havocs poured out of the
rift.
“Welcome, Blood Ravens. You know. I did miss you. I still remember the fight in
Kronus. Tell Captain Angelos that his good friend, Eliphas the Inheritor is back!” the
Chaos lord cackled, turning and disappearing back into the rift.
“Did that commander just claim to be Eliphas?” Tarkus pondered aloud. “But we
all saw become a sacrifice to the Dark Gods!”
“Prioritization, Tarkus, focus on the problem at hand first!” Commander Reaper
ordered, diving into cover as the Dreadnought fired its autocannon at them. “Get a
melta bomb on him!”
“Understood, commander!” Tarkus replied, freeing one from his belt, he primed
12
it, and threw it. The melta bomb sailed through the air, and detonated on the side of
the Dreadnought, and a clean hole was punched through the armor. The Dreadnought
recoiled, and the Space Marines striked. Librarian Jonah fired bolts of warp fire into
the hole in the Dreadnought’s armor, focusing his psychic power into one spear of
fire.
The Dreadnought rocked on its axis as Jonah’s spear of fire detonated the fuel
and engines inside the ancient machine. The Blood Ravens let out a cheer as the
Dreadnought exploded violently. The Emperor’s Vengeance had descended upon the
foul forces of Chaos, and the Blood Ravens were victorious that day.
“Commander. Good news, the rebel forces are in full retreat.”
“I hate to refute you, Governor. But you now have a full Chaos insurrection in
your hands.” Jonah retorted.
“I can’t believe House Vandis has allowed this!” Governor Derosa exclaimed.
“Believe it.” Avitus growled, cutting off Derosa’s sentence off.
“Yes. You are right. Denial only helps the enemy.”

***

The Blood Ravens boarded their Thunderhawk, and headed back to the Strike
Cruiser Retribution in orbit. Eliphas watched as the Thunderhawk rocketed back into
the atmosphere. He turned around, walking towards the Chaos Lord, Araghast the
Pillager and kneeled in front of him.
“So it is done? Prepare the trap on Aurelia.” Araghast growled, licking blood off
his blade. He turned around and walked into the Warp portal. “Eliphas. Prepare to
attack the Imperial Palace.”
Eliphas stood and walked towards the other direction, heading straight for the
Chaos Rhinos.
“Driver! Get us moving! Or I will kill you!” Eliphas spat, climbing aboard the
Rhino.

***

“Commander. We have located the traitors base of operations. It is on planet

Aurelia, in a geothermal power station that shields it presence from orbital scanners.
Imperial Guard forces are already on the ground, and they are assaulting the facility.
Land and assault the Chaos base there.” Captain Angelos ordered, pointing out the
facility to the commander.
13
 “What do we know about the Chaos Forces on the ground?” Commander Reaper
asked.
“They are entrenched, and there are plenty of bunkers scattered around the
facility. Reports from Imperial Guard indicate that there are a lot of Chaos Havocs
operating in the area, complimented with Heretics.” Captain Angelos replied. “Plenty
of heavy weapons will be needed to crack the defenses, commander.”
“Avitus! Lascannons and krak missile launchers. Tarkus! Plenty of satchel
charges. Jonah, you’re coming down as well.” Commander Reaper ordered. “Lets
move, brothers!”

***

The drop pod crashed, and the Space Marines spilled out of it. They prepped for
battle.
“Blood Ravens. Good to see you, commander. We’re under heavy fire from
Chaos forces, and pinned down. Requesting assistance.” A Imperial Guard sergeant
voxed.
“Bah! We seem to coddle these Imperial Guard everywhere we go!” Avitus
growled, running ahead.
Chaos forces had surrounded the Imperial Guard prefab bunker and were
throwing everything they got against the Imperial Guard. Several Chaos Havocs were
set up in towers and were hammering the Imperial forces down below. Several
Imperial Guard heavy weapon teams were returning fire with hotshot rifles and
grenade launchers, but to little effect against the heavily armored Chaos troopers.
Avitus fired his lascannon, a bright blue streak of power spearing towards one of
the towers where the Chaos Havoc was taking cover in. The shot was aimed at the
foundation of the building, and it collapsed. Another Devastator hefted his missile
launcher, and fired it at another tower. The missile exploded, punching a hole in the
building, and detonating the munitions on the Havoc.
“Good shots, brothers! Bring the Emperor’s holy fury upon them!” Avitus
ordered, waiting for his lascannon to recharge. It hummed with potency as it built up
for the charge to fire. Another bright flash, and a Chaos Havoc was vaporised as he
tried to turn his fire on the Devastator.
“Good shots, Avitus. Area secure.” Sergeant Tarkus commented. “Sergeant.
Sitrep.”
“Sir.” The Imperial Guard Sergeant saluted, dwarfed by the mighty Tactical
Marines. “We’ve just landed, and set up a HQ here, and we’re beginning our assault
on the enemy.”
14
 “What’s your assessment of the enemy?” Commander Reaper asked.
“Plenty of enemy entrenched in bunkers and pre-fabbed barricades, commander.
We’ve brought hellguns and plasma guns to deal with the bunkers.” The Sergeant
continued, gesturing to his squads of elite Stormtroopers. “They seemed to have some
kind of energy shield protecting some sort of base in the middle of the facility.”
“Carry on, Sergeant.”
“Understood, sir.” The Sergeant saluted again. Suddenly, shells began to land on
the HQ, several men killed by the barrage. “Incoming artillery! Someone get me a fix
of the position!”
“Commander. Auspex scans show that the void shield is powered by a energy
shield to the north. The calls for the artillery are also relayed through a
communications array to the northeast.” Cyrus reported from the Retribution.
“Capturing the communications array will effectively silence the guns.”
“If you capture it intact. We can feed our own co-ordinates for our guns.” The
Imperial Guard Sergeant cut in. “All units, this is Sergeant Wulfen. Advance!”
The 85th Vendoland Imperial Guard advanced, lasrifles firing as they charged the
lines of the Black Legion. Bunkers returned fire immediately, slaughtering the first
dozens of Guardsmen. Then the Guardsmen deployed their heavy weapons, returning
some serious fire towards the bunker.
“Forward! Hold that position! We have to gain a foothold!” Sergeant Wulfen
ordered, his hellgun firing on full auto.
“Ok. We split up. Avitus, Tarkus. You push on ahead with the Imperial Guard,
lend them all the fire support they need. Jonah. You’re with me. We’re going to take
out the artillery and the power station.” Commander Reaper decided, hefting his
Thunderhammer in one hand. “For the Emperor, brothers. Godspeed.”
And the Blood Ravens departed, each to their own ways.

***

It seemed that the Imperial Guard were pinned down at a junction ahead, and
Tarkus approached the Sergeant, who was yelling for the plasma gunners to advance.
“Sergeant? Trouble ahead?” Tarkus asked, standing tall as rounds whizzed
around.
“Sir! The traitors have set up a crossfire ahead with autocannons and heavy
bolters. We can’t even get close enough to fire at them!” Sergeant Wulfen reported,
looking at the Tactical Marine Sergeant fearfully.
“Avitus. I’ll draw their fire. Take them out!” Tarkus barked, striding out of cover,
his boltgun firing, following by the rest of his squad without question. Explosive
15
rounds pinged off his armor and some of them buffered him, but he kept advancing,
drawing the Havoc’s fire from Avitus. There was a bright flash from behind him, and
one of the bunkers exploded. Then a missile streaked out from somewhere behind
Tarkus, blowing a large hole in the bunker, revealing the Chaos Havocs inside the
bunker. “Open fire, brothers!”
The Tactical Marine opened fire, sending a tirade of bolt shells that punched into
the Havoc. Tarkus waved the all clear, and the Imperial Guard advanced down the
street. Avitus strode up to the Tactical Marine Sergeant.
“You do know there’s no one to repair your armor once you damaged it, right?”
Avitus asked sardonically, pointing to several dents and scratches on the Tactical
Marine’s armor.
“I’ve done some repairs before.” Shrugged Tarkus “When the Machine Spirit
allows it.”
“Bah! That’s not the point, Tarkus. Do you really think there is a need to fall in
battle for the Imperial Guard? They can do their own dying, they can do that
themselves!” Avitus countered, waving his hand at the numerous bodies that laid
around.
“No one died in His Service had died in vain, Avitus. Calm yourself. We are in
this together, brothers all. Now lets move.”
“Chaos assault units, stand fast!” Sergeant Wulfen yelled, taking a knee and
firing, delivering high powered shafts of las into a squad of Chaos Marines wielding
chainaxes. The other Guardsmen opened fire, sending a torrent of las fire towards the
charging Chaos Marines. “Not a single step back!”
Tarkus and Avitus watched as the courageous Imperial Guard continued to pour
fire into charging Chaos Marines. The Imperial Guard had not even taken a step back,
when even the most courageous man would break with a Chaos Marine bearing down
upon them. As the Chaos Marines hacked into the first few Guardsmen, Avitus and his
squad unleashed their holy fury upon the traitors.
The Chaos assault units never had a chance. The bolt shells ripped through their
armor and destroyed the traitors quickly. More appeared, and they were ripped apart
as they tried to get closer.
“Enemy Predators! Get down!” Tarkus yelled, diving into cover as two heavy
Chaos tanks appeared. “Avitus! Take them down!”
There was a flash of blue and one of the Predator’s treads were blown off,
causing the heavy tank to grind to a halt. The other surged forward, hoping to catch
the Guardsmen with its sharpened dozer blades, and the bodies impaled on it showed
that they were used frequently. However, before it could plough through the puny
Imperial Guardsmen, Tarkus threw a melta bomb that punched a hole straight through
16
the thick armor of the Predator and killed the crew. A second bright flash and the
second Predator exploded in a bright, multi-colored explosion. The Imperial Guard let
out a loud cheer, but the cheer was premature, as more Black Legion Marines
appeared, led by a Plaguemarine.
“This is going to be a long day.” Tarkus heard one of the Guardsmen muttered,
before the sound of las fire covered everything.

***

“We’re going to have to fight through everything the Black Legion throws at us.
And it’s a long way to the communication array.” Commander Reaper joked,
switching the weight of his thunderhammer between his left and right hand. Ahead of
them, a large group of Cultists congregated around the communication array. The
Librarian also spotted several Havocs scattered around the area as well.
“Ok. Jonah. You deal with the Cultists. I’ll deal with the Havocs. They’ll have a
harder time to catch me.” Commader Reaper continued. “For the Emperor, brother.”
Librarian Jonah nodded, before striding confidently out into open, where he
could use his powers to maximum effect. He stood confidently twirling his Force
Staff above his head, challenging the Cultists.
As the Cultists charged, the Librarian fired chain lightning from his Force Staff
at the enemy. The warp lightning jumped from cultists to cultists, obliterating a large
part of the traitors in one fell swoop. The surviving ones were the unfortunate ones.
Jonah Orion unleashed his psychic might as he swung his Force Staff. The Force Staff
rendered through the Cultists that it touched, and the others were ignited with warpfire
from the Librarian’s fingers.
“Your turncoat days are over!” Librarian Jonah announced, slamming the end of
his Force Staff onto the ground, and the psychic energy was channeled through the
ground, heading towards one of the cultists that tried to escape. The Cultist exploded
from the power of Jonah.
Meanwhile, Commander Reaper landed with a ground shaking impact, stunning
the Chaos Havoc. Before the traitor Marine could recover, Commander Reaper swung
his thunderhammer, impacting with a loud thunderclap. The Traitor Marine flew
backwards, his chestplate destroyed by the impact. Another Havoc opened fire on
him, and he charged through the rain of shells, several of them pinging off his holy
power armor.
“For the Emperor!” the Blood Raven cried, leaping into the air, before slamming
down his thunderhammer. The hammerhead crushed the traitor Marine’s head into his
own chest cavity.
17
 Finally, the area was cleared. The commander quickly went to capture the
communications array.
“Communications array is captured, Avitus. Call it in.” Commander Reaper
voxed, striding out of the control room. “Jonah? We still have a power station to
disable.”
“Lets move, commander.” Jonah replied, slinging his Force Staff across his back
and drawing dual bolt pistols.

***

“Communications array is captured, Avitus. Call it in.” the vox squawked.

“Understood, commander.” Avitus replied, pressing a finger to his ear. The
gunfire from a nearby fortified bunker was defeaning, a mixture of loud booms from
autocannons and the loud, continous roar of heavy bolters. “Wulfen! Get your vox
man up here!”
A Guardsman with a vox mounted on his back arrived, and Wulfen started
yelling in the co-ordinates for artillery. Moments later, Earthshaker shells devastated
the bunkers that were impending their progress, and the soldiers cheered at the sight
of the devastating artillery.
“Move up!” Sergeant Wulfen ordered, waving his hellgun. “I want the heavy
weapons up front, go!”
The 85th Vendoland Guardsmen advanced, their morale high. Then the
Plaguemarines showed up. Firing streams of pestilent pus from flamer like weapons,
the pus rotted anything it touched, including human flesh. The Guardsmen melted into
rot, the horrid blossom of Chaos blooming amongst the men.
“Plague marines! Don’t let them get close!” Tarkus bellowed, drawing his
plasma gun, trading rate of fire for more stopping power. His teammates, the
Sternguard Veterans of the Blood Ravens, stood their ground against the horror of the
servants of Nurgle as the Guardsmen fell around them. One of the Plague Marines fell
after a bolt of plasma melted its head.
Sergeant Wulfen and several of the Veteran Stormtroopers stood their ground,
defiantly sending blasts of hellgun fire into the walking horrors of rot and pestiliance.
Their fire punched holes through Nurgle’s servants, but they seemed to ignore the
pain and continued spraying the pus.
Avitus and his squad opened up, and a flash of blue from Avitus’ lascannon
vaporized one of the Plague Marines, which exploded in a cloud of plague. Tarkus
choked, his superhuman constitution struggling to cope with the toxin loaded air,
wishing that he had went into battle with a helmet.
18
 The final Plague Marine went down amidst a rain of plasma bolts. Only Sergeant
Wulfen and several Stormtroopers were still alive, their rebreathers protecting them
from harm for the moment.
“This is Sergeant Wulfen. Requesting reinforcements. Now.” Sergeant Wulfen
voxed, his hands trembling.
“Understood, Sergeant. Reinforcements are dispatched.”
“The plague has taken root. I’m sorry. But there is no other way.” Tarkus said, as
the Guardsman fell to his knees and hands, vomiting blood. Tarkus fired his boltgun
into the Sergeant and the other surviving troops. “Lets move. We don’t want the
commander to be waiting for us.”
“Aye.” Avitus replied, hefting his lascannon.
The Devastators and the Tactical Marines continued advancing through the
facility, killing every traitor they encountered around. Finally, they saw the blood red
void shield surrounding some sort of shrine to the Dark Powers.
“Commander! The enemy has set up a shrine to Chaos!” Tarkus radioed, firing a
few experimental shots at the void shield. The shots vaporized the moment they
touched the void shield.
“Understood, Tarkus. We have more pressing matters in our hands right now.
Hold position.” Commander Reaper replied, his voiced strained, and Tarkus could
hear roars in the background.

***

“Back to the warp, Daemon!” Libarian Jonah bellowed, stabbing his forcing staff
forward, the Eagle coruscating with power at the Bloodletter. The Lesser Daemon
screamed horribly as the Librarian channeled his power through the staff and into the
Lesser Daemon. A hole opened up in the ground and sucked the Lesser Daemon back
into the warp. Jonah turned around and blocked a blow with the haft of his Force
Staff, before firing a blast of warp lightning at the Bloodletter.
The Commander swung his Thunderhammer at the Bloodcrusher’s head, and the
Bloodletter fell off his dead ride. Before the Bloodletter could do anything, Reaper
slammed his hammer down upon the Bloodletter’s chest. The Bloodletter
disintegrated in a flash of fire, but the Commander was too slow and turned to see a
Bloodletter bring his hellblade down. He brought his left arm up to defend himself,
and he felt the hellblade biting deeply into his vambraces, but not yet drawing blood.
He drew his plasma pistol with his right hand and firing in one smooth action. The
Bloodletter staggered backwards, and the Space Marine fired a few more shots, before
19
Jonah blasted the Lesser Daemon back to the warp with his powers.
“Commander? Are you ok?” Jonah asked, “Hold still. I will heal you.”
The Librarian muttered a blessing, and the Commander’s various wounds began
to heal. The commander nodded his thanks, and the duo continued moving towards
the power station.
“We’re in position. Awaiting your go, commander.” Tarkus reported.
“Understood, Tarkus. We’re almost there. Begin assault once the shields go
down. Reaper out.” Commander Reaper replied, picking up his fallen thunderhammer.
“Commander, more Daemons!” Jonah cried, firing blasts of warp power from his
finger tips at the charging Bloodletters.
Commander Reaper managed to get two shots off, before holstering it and
charging towards the Lesser Daemon with his thunderhammer. The Bloodletter roared
loudly, swinging his hellblade. Reaper ducked and swung his hammer at the same
time, aiming for the Lesser Daemon’s groin. The Bloodletter collapsed, and Reaper
brought his weapon high, before slamming it down. The Lesser Daemon was thrown
back into the warp after waiting for centuries in the warp and manifesting.
“For the Great Father and the Emperor!” Reaper cried, and the Daemons were
stunned by the force of his warcry, and that was enough for Jonah to lop off the
Daemon’s head with his Force Staff. Reaper emptied his plasma pistol at a number of
Cultists attempting to summon more of the foul Daemons. The Librarian threw one of
his bolt pistols to the Commander, who accepted it with a yell of thanks.
Several Chaos Marines appeared and began firing their plasma guns. Reaper
returned fire, trying to close the distance, but the Chaos Marines exploited the
commander’s weakness, evading the commander. The Libararian focused, thinking of
exactly where one of the Chaos Marines were, and he teleported through the warp.
The Librarian appeared inside of the Chaos Marine’s physical space, causing the
Chaos Marine to explode and fall away in pieces.
The other Chaos Marines were stunned, and that was enough for the Commander
to close distances by firing his jetpack. The Chaos Marine brought his fists up to
defend himself, but was simply blown away by the force of the hammer strike. The
third one died with warp lightning coursing through his body.
“That was close. Lets keep moving.” Commander Reaper said, reloading the bolt
pistol.
They arrived at the Power Station, and the Commander kicked down the puny
door and just as he was about to enter the control room, a veritable horde of cultists
appeared.
“Commander. Disable the power. I will hold them off.” Jonah said, turning
around and facing the horde. He stoof firm, holding his Force Staff with a two handed
20
grip.
“Good luck.” Commander Reaper replied.
“Come on, you turncoat scum! Your death is here!” Jonah Orion declared,
twirling his Force Staff above his head, warp lightning coursing through the staff and
his Psychic Hood. Solid rounds pinged off his armor, and he fired blasts of warp
lightning in response.
The first row of cultists were fried by the warp lightning, but they did not slow in
their march, even gaining speed. When the Librarian saw this, he went onto one knee,
muttering the words from the Tome of Barriers. In response, an expanding arc of a
psychical barrier appeared in front of him, throwing back every Cultists that tried to
break the shield.
Jonah stood, gathering his powers. He hurled a torrent of warp fire towards the
stunned Cultists, and they wreathed in fire. Now, only half of the original horde
remained, and Jonah stood resplendent in front of the power station, his Force Staff
crackling with power. The Cultists charged again, and Jonah braced his himself as he
gathered his powers to unleash in a single, massive blow.
“For the Great Father!” Jonah bellowed, spearing his Force Staff forward. A
torrent of warp lightning erupted from the Imperial Eagle atop his Force Staff, striking
the cultists in a wide arc. “Your turncoat lives are over!”
With that cry, the Librarian charged into battle, his Force weapon held in a two
handed grip. He muttered a few words from the tome of quickening, and the world
seemed to slow in front of him. The Cultists’ actionas seem slow and sluggish, as if
under water and the Librarian striked quickly, slicing with his Force Staff before the
cultists could do anything. The Imperial Eagle atop the Force Staff cleaved through
the Cultists with ease, its edges sharpened by Jonah’s psychic powers. In fact, his
weapon was sharp enough to cut through the armor of an enemy Dreadnought.
Jonah muttered a few words, and the world returned to normal speed. The
corpses of the cultists lay around him, their blood staining the ground. Jonah walked
into the power station to check on the Commander. A trail of bodies awaited him, and
he was not surprised, several of the machinery bore the damage from a
thunderhammer.
“Commander?” Jonah called out, searching for the commander.
“Yeah. I’m here.” There was another thunderclap, amplified by the confined size
of the control. The commander was destroying the generators with a his warhammer
one by one.
“Commander. You know. It’s a lot easier just to switch them off?” Jonah said, a
smile playing at his mouth. He walked over to a console and tapped a few runes
experimentally.
21
 “Everything’s in lockdown.” The Commander replied, followed by another
thunderclap and an explosion.
“Not if you find the circuit board.” Jonah retorted, prying it open and frying it
with his powers.
There was a whine, and all of the generators powered down. The commander
nodded and slinged his thunderhammer across his back.
“Tarkus! The power’s down. You may proceed.”

***

“Understood, commander. We’re moving up.” Tarkus replied, making hand

signals to the Imperial Guard troopers. Avitus nodded, and his Devastators unleashed
a hailstorm of fury upon the Chaos temple, while the Imperial Stormtroopers
advanced.
The stormtroopers were met by a storm of returning fire, while up in the air, a
Valkry was providing fire support with its multilasers. Then a flash of a lascannon
from the Chaos base caught the Valkry and it fell from the skies, a burning comet
leaving a streak of fire across the sky.
“Move up!” Tarkus ordered, striding forward, his boltgun firing on four round
bursts. The rest of his Vanguard Veteran advanced, laying down layers upon layers of
bolt shells towards the traitors as they advanced.
There was a flash, and several Bloodletters appeared from the Chaos Shrines,
snarling to promise the impending bloodshed and death to the Guardsmen. The
stormtroopers poured lasfire into the charging Bloodletters but to no effect as the
Lesser Daemon continued to charge. The first stormtrooper was sliced in half
horizontally when he tried to use his bayonet. He was still screaming when the
Bloodletter took a bite out of the stormtrooper’s throat.
“I am the blade of the Emperor, honed with fury.” Tarkus declared, doubling his
fire rate, followed by the rest of his Sternguard squad. One of the Bloodletters was
caught in a storm of bolt shells and plasma bolts and fell to the ground, before sucked
back into the warp.
Avitus fired his lascannon and vaporized one of the Bloodletters, by now they
were too close to engage with bolters.
“Blades out!” Tarkus ordered, ripping his power sword free of his sheath. The
power sword was once carried by Chapter Master Alexian and had accompanied
Tarkus through the cleansing of the Aurelian sub-sector of Tyranids. It was still as
sharp as the day it was forged, and wreathed with a force field that allows it to cleave
through anything.
22
 Tarkus brought his blade up to meet the hellblade of the Bloodletter. The two
blades met with a flash of sparks, and Tarkus held against the Daemon as he emptied
his boltgun into the Bloodletter’s stomach. The Bloodletter roared but refused to die,
and Tarkus snarled in return, spitting a gob of acid onto the Lesser Daemon’s face.
The Bloodletter brayed, recoiling in pain. Tarkus hacked down with his power sword,
cutting through the daemoniac flesh.
“For the Emperor!” Tarkus cried, kicking the dead body away and freeing his
blade. “He is our Shield and Protector!”
The other Veterans cheered, hacking down the other Daemons. Avitus and his
Devastators were at an disadvantage with their massive cumbersome, heavy weapons,
and Tarkus immediately leap to his battle brother’s assistance. Avitus nodded his
thanks, before discharging a blast from his lascannon into a Bloodcrusher. The
Bloodcrusher crashed to the ground as the its ride died. Tarkus lept onto the beast and
stabbed his power sword straight into the Lesser Daemon’s skull.
“Death to our enemies!” Tarkus bellowed, freeing his blade.
“Destroy our foes!” the Commander yelled, his jump pack propelling him into
the fight. Jonah was close behind him, disappearing and appearing inside the physical
space of a Daemon. The Librarian slammed the end of his Force Staff onto the
ground, and a circle of fire erupted from Jonah, incinerating all those who were too
close.
“Another enemy of mankind falls!” Librarian Jonah cried, raising his Force
Staff. He hurled bolts of warp lightning at a group of cultists that tried to summon
more Daemons. “Take out the Cultists before they summon more of the Daemons!”
Avitus and his squad unleashed a hellstorm of fury towards the cultists, while
Tarkus and the others advanced. The commander led the charge, his thunderhammer
raised high to strike, the Librarian was close behind him, ready to support the
commander.
“For the Great Father and the Emperor!” The commander roared, rocketing
forward and meeting a Chaos Marine in combat. The Chaos Marine, wielding a power
axe, swiped his axe across the commander’s chestplate, but luckily, his ancient Power
Armor held. The commander returned the greeting in kind, swinging his
thunderhammer.
The hammerhead impacted with a loud boom, and a clean hole was punched in
the Chaos Marine’s armor and his chest. As the Chaos Marine fell to the ground,
Reaper lifted his hammer and brought it down to finish the traitor off.
Reaper lifted his hammer in time to parry a blow from another Chaos Marine. He
was beginning to tire from using the cumbersome but deadly weapon against the
quicker Chaos Marines. After dispatching that Chaos Marine, he slung his
23
thunderhammer across his back and drew a anointed Power Axe. The Axe of the
Raven was a gift from the Raven Guard, forged by the greatest of the Techmarines
from Mars.
Its edge was keen, and well balanced, perfect for taking more of the traitor’s
lives. The Tactical Marines were drawing the enemy’s fire, while the Devastators
poured fire unto the cultists and other traitors. Jonah was ablazed with power, hurling
torrents of warp lightning and fire at the enemy.
Avitus fired his lascannon, and the main Chaos Temple collapsed. The Space
Marines cheered.
“Commander! The walls between reality and the Warp is thinning!” Jonah cried,
going on one knee and holding his head in pain. “Commander. We must get back to
the Retribution immediately!”
“Tarkus to Retribution. Emergency extraction!” Tarkus radioed, as the ground
started shaking. “Now! Move, move, move!”
The ground continued to shake, and massive spikes shot up from the ground,
while other areas subsided. The Thunderhawk broke through the atmosphere, its jets
screaming and its nose red hot from the re-entry. Tarkus activated the beacon on his
armor, and the gunship locked onto his position, rocketing towards the Blood Ravens.
“Lets go!” Tarkus yelled, charging towards the waiting gunship.

***

Eliphas watched the Thunderhawk zoom back into orbit, and he turned around to
the Chaos Lord.
“You let them escape, lord?” Eliphas asked, grating his teeth. Soon he would not
have to bow down to the wretched cur of a Chaos Lord.
“Because it serves me to, fool!” Araghast the Pillager retorted, addressing
Eliphas. “If we kill them now, the traitors amongst their ranks would be revealed! No.
I will wait for a better moment to strike! Come! Prepare for the next assault!”
The two Chaos lords turned away and walked off as a massive ice shelf raised
behind them.
“We will surely catch the garrison on Calderis with surprise…” Eliphas replied.

***

“Incoming, get down!” Sergeant Okeer yelled, diving into cover as Chaos forces
ambushed them. One of the Initiates was caught in a crossfire from the enemy forces,
24
while the other Initiates managed to get into cover just in time. “Return fire!”
The Scouts returned fire, staggering their rate of fire so they won’t reload at the
same time. Sergeant Okeer sighted up his sniper and fire, dropping one of the cultists.
Only a few hours ago, the Scouts were dispatched to investigate a distress call in the
middle of the desert, and now they were up to their necks in trouble.
“Get a link back to HQ!” Sergeant Okeer ordered, picking up the fallen initiate’s
boltgun. He checked it for a full mag, and began laying down suppressive fire on their
left flank.
“Vox’s dead, sir. They’re jamming us!” Initiate Garrus replied, looking up at the
Sergeant.
The incoming fire got heavier, and Garrus’ throat exploded from a lucky shot.
Okeer dropped the empty mag and slapped a new one in. The Scouts continued to
return fire fearlessly, even though their situation looked dire. It looked even worse
when several squads of Chaos Marines appeared from a warp portal.
“Squad, pull back! I’ll hold them off!” Sergeant Okeer ordered, standing up and
spraying a arc of bolt shells.
“Sir! With all due respect. You’re more valuable to the Chapter. You gene seed
must survive. We’ll hold them off. Go!” Initiate Sunnis retorted, freeing a grenade
from his belt.
“Your sacrifice here will not be forgotten by the Chapter, my brothers!” Sergeant
Okeer nodded, feeling pride for the Initiates he trained. He turned and ran back to his
bike. He straddled the vehicle and activated it with a prayer of activation. The bike
roared to life, and he immediately zoomed out of the area, but not before hearing the
screams of his Initiates.
Behind him, a Chaos Sorcerer was holding the Blood Ravens Initiates in balls of
rusty barbed wire, and he was taunting and playing with them. Okeer cursed the Black
Legion and their foul practices, but by the Throne, he would warn his brothers against
this incursion.
Okeer heard severals roars not unlike his own bike, and he looked in the
rearview mirror. Two Chaos Marines mounted on bikes was hot on his heels, their
twin linked heavy bolters spitting out shells at him. He slammed on his brakes.
His bike nearly flipped from the sudden deceleration, but it had its desired effect
his two pursers roared right pass him. He gunned his accelerator, firing the twin-
linked heavy bolters. One of the Chaos bikes exploded as Okeer’s shots detonated the
fuel tank. The other Chaos bike copied the Scout’s tactic, but Okeer was prepared for
it, slamming his brakes. Okeer jumped off his bike, allowing to fall and skid on its
side, his boltgun in hand.
The Chaos Marine was faster, and Okeer dived into cover behind a rock as the
25
traitor traced his movement with the bolt shells.
Sergeant Okeer draped his camo cloak carefully over himself, making sure it
covered everything. He then stalked towards the left flank of the Chaos Marine, who
was still firing shots at the same rock. He stalked carefully, making sure his foot falls
bore no sounds.
The Chaos Marine reloaded, fumbling with his bolter. He heard a sound behind
him and turned. He saw the Blood Ravens scout, and the muzzle flash was the last
thing he saw.
Okeer mounted his bike and headed back to HQ.

***

Cyrus was pacing to and fro in the bridge when Reaper arrived there at his
summons.
“Commander. We received this distress calls half an hour ago.” Cyrus reported,
passing a data slate to the commander. “Commander. They are killing my Scouts.”
Reaper read through the message and nodded. Cyrus was right. Most of the
Initiates on Calderis were recruited from the ranks of Imperial Guard that had fought
valiantly, and Cyrus had trained all of them personally. Most of them exuded signs of
greatness in them, and most were on the verge of becoming battle brothers.
“Tarkus, Avitus, Thaddeus, Jonah. Get up to the bridge. We have a situation on
Calderis.” Commander Reaper ordered, as he connected the data pad into a
viewscreen.
The other Sergeants arrived and Reaper played the message from Sergeant
Priam.
“Commander. We have a situation here on Calderis. The enemy has shown their
hand, and has ambushed many of our initiates with a false Chapter distress signal.
Many of our Initiates has fallen, and I fear we may lose more if reinforcements do not
arrive.” Sergeant Priam reported. “Many more of our Initiates were abducted by a
Sorcerer. Emperor knows what their fate is.”
“Another falsified Chapter signal. Eliphas must be behind this.” Tarkus said
immediately. The other Blood Ravens nodded, agreeing with the veteran Sergeant.
“We must expect a trap.”
“Agreed. But we cannot leave our brothers when they need help.” Cyrus replied
coldly.
“OK. Tarkus, Thaddeus, Avitus. Prepare your squads. Jonah. You’re coming
down with me. Cyrus. Stay up here and provide field support.” The Commander
decided.
26
 “But, commander! Those are my Scouts down there!” Cyrus protested.
“Your emotions are clouding your judgement, friend. Believe me. It will be
better if you stay here.” The Commader said, turning around and leaving the bridge,
leaving the Scout Sergeant behind.
“Understood, commander.” Cyrus said bitterly.

***

Sergeant Priam had donned his power armor, swapping his scout armor for
something more protective. Many of the Scouts had retreated back to HQ, where he
and several other Tactical marines had set up a line to repel the enemy trying to break
through.
A large assault was underway, and several Scouts had fallen, defending the HQ.
Then a large drop pod crashed right in the middle of the Chaos assault, crushing many
and throwing many more into the air with its impact. The pod opened like a metal
flower, and the Space Marines of the strike force arrived. Thaddeus and his assault
marines immediately charged into battle, cutting into the surprised cultists’ flank.
“Sergeant Priam! Report!” Commander Reaper ordered, running over to the
Sergeant.
“Commander. You are a welcome sight. The traitors has several groups of our
initiates pinned down to the north. We tried pushing north, but all our efforts had
failed.” Sergeant Priam reported. “Sergeant Okeer fell to report the Chaos attack. His
body is kept inside the Apothecarion.”
“Understood. We will lead the spearhead.” Commander Reaper said, turning
around and drawing his power sword. Azariah Vidya before had wielded this very
anointed blade into battle, and it was still as sharp as the day it was forged. “All units,
advance north! We must rescue the Scouts.”
The Blood Ravens strike force pushed north, heading towards the area where
they heard gunfire from. Thaddeus and his assault marines formed the vanguard,
followed closely by Jonah.
“Commander. Enemy sighted.” Thaddeus reported. “Permission to engage?”
“Engage!” the commander replied, firing his jetpack, roaring into battle. He was
followed closely by the assault Marines.
The several Chaos Havocs disengaged the scouts and turned their attention to the
new arrivals. Autocannon shells detonated at shallow depth, their concussive impacts
only slowing the Space Marines as they charged. Tarkus and his Sternguard squad
layed down some heavy fire with their boltguns and plasma rifles. The Kraken bolts
from Tarkus’ bolter easily penetrated the Chaos Havoc’s armor and flesh.
27
 The last Chaos Havoc fell, and the Scouts exited the building they were taking
cover in.
“Thank the Emperor! Commander! The traitorous dogs took several of our
brothers to the north. Emperor knows what their fate is now.” One of the Scouts said,
saluting the commander. He pointed north. “There was a Chaos Sorcerer with them.”
“Understood.” Reaper replied, turning and leading his strike team forward.
“A Sorcerer. This may complicate things a little.” Jonah said, tightening his grip
on his Force Sword. “That means that the enemy may have something big planned,
Commander. I suggest caution.”
“The time for caution is gone, Jonah. The enemy has decided to mess with us. Its
time for payback!” Reaper replied, raising his blade. The other Space Marines
cheered. “Cyrus. Deploy sentry guns at HQ. Make sure they hold. All units, advance!”
“Understood, commander. Sentry guns inbound.” Cyrus replied. “Commander,
auspex scans show that the enemy has set up a warp gate north of your position.
Suggest you take it out.”
“Yeah. We’re heading there now!” Reaper replied, diving into cover as a Chaos
Predator broke cover. The other Space Marines dived for cover as well, save for the
Devastator, who were laying down some serious fire towards the tank.
Hails of heavy bolt shells destroyed the tank’s auspex and viewing ports,
effectively blinding the enemy tank crew. Avitus hefted his missile launcher and fired
a barrage of three missiles straight at the Chaos Predator. The spread of missiles first
destroyed the front armor, then the last detonated inside the tank. He reloaded his
missile launcher, dubbed the “Lament of Mars”, recovered from Kronus. It featured a
unique ammo feature, allowing it to fire three missiles at once.
“Commander. We are close.” Jonah said, clearly suffering from the excess of
warp power around the area. “They have summoned Daemons, commander!”
“With me, brothers!” Commander Reaper yelled, raising his sword and charging.
Avitus and Tarkus provided covering fire. “Forward!”
“Rain death upon the enemy, brothers!” Avitus yelled, banging off a salvo of
missiles at the enemies closing in. “Destroy them all!”
Tarkus dropped dropped his empty magazine, and loaded dragonfire bolts, which
featured enhanced explosive loads, often stunning the enemy upon detonation. The
rounds should work well on the daemons, but would never surpass the effectiveness
of the rounds fired from the psycannon against the daemons. Tarkus had fought on
Kronus, watching the Grey Knights break through ranks of Daemons during the raid
on Deimos Penisula.
As the Commander and the Assault Marines ploughed through the Daemons,
Tarkus and Avitus advanced steadily, laying down steady sheets of fire upon the
28
enemy.
“Sergeant! Enemy Berzerkers!” one of Tarkus’ squad mates reported, turning
around and facing the new threat. The Sternguard Veterans laid down a torrent of
shells towards the charging, axe wielding mad men. One of the Berzerkers died as
several plasma bolts melted his head and chest.
“Grenade out!” Tarkus yelled, tossing the grenade. It detonated on impact,
spraying gore all over the place and buffering the Tactical Marines. Tarkus dropped
his empty mag and slapped a new one in, resuming his fire towards the Daemons.
“With me, brothers, advance!”
Now the Blood Ravens could see the warp gate, all swirling colors that did not
have a name, madness and chaos, all in one swirling pool. Several Scouts were
levitating in front of the warp gate, as if about to be sucked into the madness. The
Blood Ravens opened fire immediately, cutting down the chanting Cultists. There was
a flash, and Daemons poured forth from the warp gate.
Tarkus freed a satchel charge from his belt, primed it, and threw it towards the
warp gate. It landed on the brim of the gate, and Tarkus braced himself for the
explosion. He was not disappointed. The ground shook, and the Daemons began to
shriek as their connection to the warp has been severed.
Jonah seemed to be weakened as well, and Tarkus remembered that the Librarian
also drawed power from the warp. But Jonah quickly recovered and continued smiting
the enemies with his warp lightning.
“Chaos filth! Your lives end today!” Jonah cried, his Force Sword cleaving
through the cultists who were trying to reopen the portal. The blade flared with power
with each swipe, testament to the Librarian’s psychic prowess. The Daemons seemed
to wither under the touch of his blade. “Commander! The gate is now closed!”
“Ok. The Scouts are safe. Cyrus. Deploy sentry guns, secure the warp gate. Your
initiates are safe now.”
“For now.” Cyrus replied darkly.
“Commander! I can feel a dark presence nearby! Most likely the Sorcerer! We
should hunt him down!” Jonah said, closing his eyes. “There! In that valley! We must
hurry. He is attempting to summon reinforcements.”
The Sorcerer was standing in the middle of a circle of Cultists, chanting in a dark
guttural tone of a evil language that had not been heard in a millennia. Fire from the
Devastators broke the circle, and the Sorcerer turned slowly around to face the Blood
Ravens.
“Ah. Welcome, brothers! Prepare for your deaths!” the Sorcerer cackled. “For
years I have cultivated the powers of the Dark Gods. I have waited for my revenge
long enough!”
29
 “Then you have waited all those years for nothing, heretic!” the Force
Commander cried, firing his jetpack. The commander landed with a roll, dodging the
torrent of warp lightning from the Sorcerer’s staff. The Librarian was close behind the
Commander, firing his plasma pistol before dropping it and holding his Force Sword
in a two handed grip. “Prepare to meet your god!”
“Tzeentch has blessed me, Blood Raven! I will never die!” The Sorcerer
proclaimed, opening his arms as if to embrace the Blood Raven. The words choked in
his throat as the Commander’s power sword cut open his armor like a flower, but the
Sorcerer jerked backwards, just in time to avoid the blade cutting into flesh. “No!
Don’t abandon me, lord!”
The Sorcerer unleashed another torrent of warp lightning, and this time the
commander was too close to dodge it. However, the warp lightning dissipated against
a field that Jonah conjured. The commander nodded and striked again, bringing his
blade down. The Sorcerer blocked the blow with his staff, muttering a few words. The
commander was sudden entombed in a mess of barbed wire that restrained his
movement.
“Lay down and die, traitor!” Jonah yelled, taking the commander’s place. He
speared his blade forward. The Sorcerer sidestepped, but realized it was only a feint,
as the Librarian cleaved his blade sideways, cutting into the Sorcerer’s side deeply.
“I know, on the inside. You cry and shiver!” the Socerer proclaimed, a tinge of
fear entering his voice. He brought his staff down in a swipe, but the Librarian parried
the blow with his blade. Before the Sorcerer could do anything, the Librarian’s Force
Sword flared with power and the Sorcerer’s staff exploded. “No! My staff!”
“You’ll be losing a lot more than your staff, heretic.” The commander
declared, as the Sorcerer’s powers diminished, allowing the Commander to escape the
Chains of Torment.
“No! I will not be defeated so easily!” the Sorcerer cried, slamming his fists
onto the ground. A wave of psychic power erupted from the Black Legion Sorcerer,
throwing back the Librarian and the Commander.
“For the Emperor!” a loud voice cried, landing in front of the foul Sorcerer
with a ground shaking impact. It was the Captain of the Chapter Honor Guard, Apollo
Diomedes, resplendent in his Master Crafted power armor. He struck out with his
power axe, splitting the Sorcerer’s chest asunder. “Your death is here!”
The Sorcerer fell to the ground, and Captain Diomedes brought his axe down,
splitting the traitor’s head in half. The Blood Ravens paused for a second, then
kneeled in the presence of the Chapter Honor Guard.
“Captain Diomedes? What is the Chapter Honor Guard doing on Calderis?”
Sergeant Priam asked, a tone of incredulity and awe in his voice.
30
 “We go where the Chapter wills, Sergeant. Now report.” Captain Diomedes
replied coldly. More Blood Ravens, all wearing the colors of the Chapter Honor
Guard, arrived via drop pods and teleporting.
“Yes, sir. The enemy ambushed our scouts using a falsified Chapter Signal.
How they got it, I…” Sergeant Priam reported.
“Facts, Sergeant. Not speculation.” Captain Diomedes snapped.
“Here are the facts, Captain. Many of the Initiates are dead, and many more
are injured! This is the second trap…” Sergeant Thaddeus cut in angrily.
“Thaddeus! Be quiet!” Tarkus hushed quickly.
“Enough, Sergeants!” Diomedes thundered. “Sergeant Priam, gather up your
Initiates and prepare them for transport to Firebase Argus. Commander. Take your
strike team back to the Strike Cruiser. The events of this day are to be strictly secret.”

***

“Commander. We have detected a cry for help from the planet Typhon. It is
Techmarine Martellus.” Cyrus reported as the Commander strode into the bridge.
“Martellus? Techmarine Martellus survived?” Reaper asked, raising his
eyebrows. “Would this be another of Eliphas’ tricks?”
“No, commander. There is a recording.” Cyrus said, pressing the rune to play
the video.
“To any Blood Ravens in the sector. This is Techmarine Martellus. I am down
at Planet Typhon. I maybe damaging the Astronomican Array, but I must get this
message through…The enemy has found me!” then the video cut.
“Sir? What do we do?”
“We’ll investigate it. We need a Techmarine to repair many of our damaged
equipment. And returning a veteran to the battle is always welcomed.” Reaper
decided.
“Understood.” Cyrus replied, nodding.
“We need your recon skills. Avitus. Tarkus. Prepare for deployment.” Reaper
ordered, turning around and leaving for the armory. “Avitus. Bring your lascannon.
We may need its destructive will.”
“Understood, commander.” Avitus replied.

***

Techmarine Martellus knew he had to give his thanks to the Omnissiah when
he saw the familiar maroon of the Blood Ravens heading towards him. He fired his
31
bolter at a group of Cultists that were getting too close to Astronomican Array.
“Martellus, do you copy?” Martellus’ vox sqawked.
“Sergeant Tarkus? Is that you? Thank the Omnissiah!” Techmarine Martellus
replied, activating his transponder signal.
“We have your signal. We’re coming in now.” Moments later, the Blood
Ravens broke through the foliage and arrived next to the Astronomican Array.
Martellus waved, and they gathered around him.
“Commander. It is good to see you again.” Martellus said, grasping the
commander’s hand. “Now that you are here. I will need generators to power up the
Astronomican Array.”
“What? We cannot stay around to defend your relics the whole day,
Techmarine.” Avitus cut in.
“True. But we cannot allow the precious data in the Array’s cogitators to fall
into enemy hands. Retribution, deploy generators at my location. Prepare for data
transfer.” Martellus said, taking the control of the situation quickly. “Commander. Do
you not have a Techmarine onboard the Retribution?”
“No. We don’t.” Reaper said, feeling something’s amiss, but cannot put his
finger on it. “Avitus! Find a good firing spot. Prepare for enemy contact.”
The generators arrived, and the Astronomican array was powered up again.
Martellus immediately went to work on the logic engine, muttering the rites and
tapping at the runes. His servo arm whirred, connecting some wires into the cogitator.
“Is that servo arm new?” Cyrus asked, his senses tingling.
“Ah yes. The old one was destroyed during the descent. I constructed it with
the salvage from the crashed Thunderhawk. Took me a month before being able to
regain movement again.” Martellus replied smoothly. “I have the Omnissiah to thank
for this.”
“Indeed,” Cyrus replied, turning around. He checked his sniper rifle. “Scouts,
with me. Commander. We’re going to scout the area.”
Cyrus and his squad of scouts had a look of the area, noting the recently
deceased Orks and traitors. He laid down several mines at important chokepoints, and
kept an eye out for a good sniper nest. The scouts faded from view as a squad of Orks
appeared.
“Commander, Ork looters. Initiating contact.” Cyrus muttered to himself. He
raised his sniper and fired. The rest of his squad followed. Seconds later, all of the
Orks were dead. “Surgical precision, Orks eliminated.”
“Ah yes. The Orks are using a gate to the west to access this area.” Martellus
said.
“Divert some power to the gate controls. We’ll shut it.” Cyrus said, breaking
32
out of cover.
“The Orks will just go around it, Cyrus!” Avitus protested.
“Exactly. Straight into the traitors’ path.” Cyrus said, tapping the controls.
“Done.”
“Retribution. This is Reaper, send down some tarantula sentry guns. My
location.”
“Enemy contact!” Avitus warned, and his Devastators opened fire at the
massed horde of cultists heading their way. Tarkus and his squad opened fire as well,
the metal storm frag round cutting through the traitors with ease. Then the traitors
were hit on the side by a wave of Orks redirected by Cyrus.
The Sentry Guns dropped in, took a second to deploy, and fire its twin-link
heavy bolters at the incoming enemies. It whirred as it burned through the
ammunition. The interlocking firing arcs ensured that every Ork that came in range
was showered with a rain of heavy bolt shells.
“Commander, I have managed to salvage several Chapter Relics from the
crash and stored it in a shack to the north. You should get to it, before the Ork looters
do.” Martellus said.
“Copy that. Cyrus. You’re up. Move out and retrieve those relics!” Reaper
ordered.
“Copy that. Moving out now.”

***

Cyrus raised a clenched fist, and the Scouts froze, weapons raised. A rather
large band of Orks walked passed them, led by an Ork Nob, straight by the Scouts
without them noticing. Little that the Orks knew that they were heading straight into a
minefield Cyrus had set a few minutes ago. Cyrus and his Scouts continued advancing
towards the shack that Martellus had pinpointed. Cyrus felt a little tingling feelings in
his sinuses, like the time when he was facing off the Tyranid Hive Mind.
“Get down!” Cyrus yelled, diving away. Moments later, a large crackling ball
of electricity detonated where they were a few moments ago. “Commander. Ork
Psykers in the field.”
“Affirmitive. Take him out.” Reaper replied.
“Fire!” Cyrus ordered, pulling the trigger of his sniper rifle. The other Scouts
fired as well. But the rounds seemed to bounce off a shield that the Ork Weirdboy
conjured. “Deflect this, you bastard.”
Cyrus activated the melta bomb and tossed it towards the Ork. The conjured
shield held for half a second, before the blast ripped the Weirdboy in half. When the
33
smoke cleared, Cyrus hurried over to the shack and found the crates with the Imperial
Markings on them. Cyrus resealed them and placed a teleporter homer on them.
“Cyrus to Retribution. Teleport homer activated. Sending several crates up.
Keep them sealed.” Cyrus voxed.
“Understood. Activating teleporter.” In a flash of lightning, the crates
disappeared. “Crates received.”
“OK. Lets get back. Commander. Relics secured. We’re heading back now.”
Cyrus voxed, turning around.
“Be advised. The enemy is now attacking in force. Hit them hard, Cyrus.”
Reaper replied.
“Understood, commander.” Cyrus replied, loading his sniper rifle. “Scouts.
Prepare to engage. Plenty of grenades and explosives.”
Cyrus fired his sniper, taking down a Chaos Havoc, while his squad threw
grenades and satchel charges at the enemy. The enemy eased off their fire towards the
commander, and turned their attention to the flanking scout, but the Scouts were
already gone. Avitus took this time and loosed off a hail of destruction on the enemy’s
rear flank.
The Commander fired his jetpacks and assaulted the shocked enemy line, his
power sword cleaving the enemy in twain with ease. One of them, a Plague Champion
by the looks of his rotting armor, managed to deflect the commander’s blade and
counter. As the Plague Champion’s sword touched the commander’s blade, corruption
spread along the length of it, and the commander dropped it to prevent being cursed
with the corruption
“Get back, commander!” Tarkus yelled, firing his boltgun on full auto,
spraying the metal storm frag at the Plague Champion. The Devastators joined in as
well, but the Plague Champion seemed to just absorb all the hurt heading his way.
Entire sections of the Plague Champion’s armor and flesh were ripped away,
including his chest, revealing the diseased lung, and yet the Champion of Nurgle
continued to advance.
“Nurgle has blessed me with his touch. I will never die!” the Plague Champion
gurgled and growled.
“Oh yeah? Eat plasma.” Reaper replied, leveling his plasmas pistol. He fired
three consecutive shots that melted the Champion’s head, then he disabled the safeties
and fired another three shots. The warning rune was flaring now, warning the
commander of the impending overheat and explosion. He tossed the overheating
plasma gun at the Champion Nurgle. Reaper covered his eyes as the weapon
detonated with the force and heat of a small star.
Nothing was left standing after the smoke cleared up.
34
 “Ok. Commander. Cogitator transfer complete. Ready to extract.” Techmarine
Martellus reported, straight after the Plague Champion was vaporized. “Retribution.
Ready for extraction. Send in the Thunderhawk.”

***

“Commander! Good to have you back.” Librarian Jonah said, walking with the
commander. “I have taken stock of the equipment recovered from the battlefield, and
some of them resonate with the foul echoes of the warp. I would suggest caution
about them, commander, lest we taint our chapter.”
“Have you tried cleansing them?” Commander Reaper asked.
“Yes. Several of these cleansing has gone without a problem.” Jonah answered.
“They are ready for use in combat.”
“Ok.” Reaper said, walking into a elevator, and heading down to the engineering
section where Techmarine Martellus had taken up refuge in.
“Commander. I have started repairs on many of our damaged equipment, and in
particular, I will restore the Terminators armors damaged from that fight.” Martellus
said tonelessly. “I have to admit, I enjoy being back in the confines of a Battle Barge
once more. Retribution is a fine craft.”
“Indeed. It has served as our Strike Cruiser for the past year.” Reaper replied.
“OK. I have to go now.”
“Commander. I would like to have a word with you.” Cyrus muttered through the
vox. “Down at the armory.”
The Commander made it down to the armory, where the Scout Sergeant was
waiting for him. Cyrus had posted several extra guards at the door, and Reaper raised
an eyebrow at the extra security. The duo entered the armory, and Cyrus did a sweep
for bugs.
“Commander. I suspect something is up with the Techmarine. He is different.
And did you notice the state of his Servo arm, sir? Too new for him to fight a whole
year with, and how did he not run out of ammunition. It’s the same bolter that he was
carrying before going into that final fight, sir.” Cyrus said.
“He scavenged?” Reaper shrugged. “He’s repairing our Terminator armor now.
Why would he do that if he’s a traitor.”
“I fear his return maybe another of Eliphas’ schemes.” Cyrus continued. “And
how did he know the ship’s name when we arrived?”
“Sharp as always. I noticed that as well.” Reaper said, tapping his chin. “Ok.
Keep an eye on him. Notify me of anything suspicions.”
“Understood sir.” Cyrus said, leaving the armory. Reaper left a few minutes later.
35
***

“Just how did you survive the crash, Martellus?” Avitus asked.
“A Thunderhawk is a resilient craft. When the Thunderhawk went down, the
pilot steered us to high ground, where the Tyranid infestation were least. The pilot did
not make it, but I made it out. But just barely. It took me a full month before regaining
movement. My vox and my beacons were destroyed. Luckily, I managed to rebuild
my servoarm, and spent the last seven months fighting my way through the traitors
towards the Astronomican Array.” Martellus explained. “We have also received a
message from Captain Diomedes.”
“Blood Ravens, take heed. All Blood Ravens operations are to cease
immediately, and are to rendezvous at the muster for mobilisation to the Perdus Rift
Crusade.” Apollo Diomedes ordered.
“Sir. Signal coming in from Captain Angelos.” Martellus said, looking up from
the vox controls.
“Commander. I take it you have just received Diomedes’ commands?”
“Yes sir. Are we to leave our recruiting worlds to the Black Legion?” Reaper
replied.
“Diomedes is a hero of the Chapter. Why would he order us to leave our
recruiting world to the traitors?” Thaddeus added.
“The Chapter Master dislikes contact with the Black Legion. There is a chance
that he would just leave this entire sector just to avoid the Black Legion.” Angelos
replied. “I will attempt to talk to Diomedes on this matter. Continue your effort
against the Black Legion.”
“Understood, sir.” Reaper replied, switching off the link. He turned around to
face the Sergeants. “Ok. We will not leave this sector. Prepare to drop. We’re heading
to Meridian. Governor Derosa has sent out a distress call. Chaos Forces are assaulting
the Imperial Palace in strength. Avitus. Heavy bolters and missile launchers. Tarkus,
deploy in the Terminator. Thaddeus you too. Martellus, prepare the Terminator suits.”

***

“Throne protect us, they’re coming again!” someone cried. “Stand to, stand to!”
The Guardsmen rushed to their positions, readying their weapons. Sergeants
rallied their squads, and they fired as the Black Legion Cultists got in range. Hellguns
fired, cutting down a number of the Cultists, but only bounced off the Chaos Marine’s
36
Power Armor. Just as the two lines are about to collide, a torrent of fire cut down the
Black Legion troops from the side. The Guardsmen turned and saw the magnificent
Terminators, led by Sergeant Tarkus, firing their storm bolters, laying down the rain of
destruction. They cheered as the Terminators advanced, keeping up their rate of fire,
while Terminators, carrying massive shields and hammers teleported into battle.
“Forward! Into them!” one of the Terminators cried, his two lightning claws
crackling with promised death. The Terminators moved surprisingly fast on their feet,
despite their size and bulk, and many of the Chaos Marines paid the price of
underestimating the Blood Ravens.
“Drive them back from the Palace gates!” Governor Derosa ordered through the
vox.
“Avitus, base of fire, right here.” The Terminator with the lightning claws
ordered, and Space Marines with heavy weapons jumped into the shallow trench
fortification and fired their heavy bolters and what looked like an lascannon. The roar
of the heavy bolters were so loud that the Guardsmen were all temporally deafened.
“Sector clear!”
“The traitors will come back for a counter attack very soon, commander. We
should prepare.” Tarkus said, reloading his storm bolter.
“Commander. I have several Sentry Guns ready to deploy.” Martellus offered.
“Roger that. Deploy them at these locations…”
“Commander.” someone called. Reaper turned around and looked down at the
puny stormtrooper sergeant. “Sergeant Pavonis reporting for duty sir. I have two
squads of Veteran Stormtroopers at your disposal.”
“Ok. Watch Sergeant Avitus’ back. Be his spotter.” Reaper ordered.
“Understood, sir.” The Sergeant said, saluting and moving into the shallow
trenches. His stormtroopers prepped their hellguns and plasma guns.
Reaper looked around him. The Imperial Palace was not designed with combat in
mind, and it had four different entrances, making it a nightmare to defend. Two
bridges was the main access, and two side roads offered another approach. Most of
the enemies would most likely come through the two bridges.
“Tarkus! Take the left bridge. Don’t let anyone cross it!” Reaper ordered.
“Avitus, support Tarkus. Thaddeus, you’re with me.”
The Blood Ravens voxed their acknowledgements, and Reaper muttered a quick
prayer to the Emperor.
“The Corpse Emperor is not there to listen to your prayers…” someone
articulated on the vox.
“Where is that coming from!?” Thaddeus asked, looking around.
“From the vox. On our private channels.” Cyrus reported.
37
 “Who are you?” Reaper challenged.
“I am Araghast the Pillager! Pillager of a thousand worlds! I will rip this sector
from your already slipping grasp and sacrifice it to the Dark Gods!” Araghast the
Pillager thundered. “Prepare for your deaths!”
“We beat back the Tyranids! You will fare no better!” Thaddeus shouted.
“Empty bravado will not stop your impending deaths!” Araghast continued.
“Eliphas, start the attack!”
The sky seemed to darken, and flashes of thunder was seen. Chaos Marines and
Plague Marines appeared at the end of the bridge, and the Blood Ravens opened fire,
sending down a torrent of shells down the bridge. Avitus and his Devastators
unleashed their fury upon the Black Legion. The Stormtroopers fired as well, but their
hellguns looked like little flashlights beside the massive heavy bolters of the
Devastators. Time to make themselves useful.
“Grenade launcher! Hit them!” Sergeant Pavonis ordered, dropping his hellgun
on his sling and raising his grenade launcher. The other Stormtroopers followed his
example, drawing their grenade launchers. They launched a barrage of grenades that
detonated on impact and knocking back the enemy. They fired a mixed load of frag
and HE shells.
Avitus hefted his missile launcher and banged off three missiles at a horde of
cultists. The missiles detonated and the cultists were buffered by the explosion.
“Forward, into them!” the Force Commander ordered, teleporting into battle,
followed by the Assault Marines. His lightning claws sliced through power armor and
flesh with ease. Despite being in such a bulky armor, he moved with a grace that
surprised many Chaos Marines, particularly the slow and pestilent Plague Marines.
The Assault Terminators and their thunderhammers attacked with sheer strength and
blunt trauma, often throwing back the enemies with each hit.
“Dreadnought!” a Stormtrooper cried.
“I’ll take care of it. You focus on lighting up those Cultists.” Avitus snapped,
refering to the hellgun that the Stormtrooper was firing. The Blood Raven Devastator
fired a salvo of missiles that impacted on the Dreadnought’s flank, and Avitus
reloaded quickly, before banging off another salvo of missiles.
The Cultists and the Chaos Marines got in range, and they returned fire. Several
Stormtroopers fell as the round punched through their carapace armor. Cries for the
medic was shouted, but were lost amongst the hailstorm of rounds. Several of the
Cultists brought flamethrowers, and scores of Stormtroopers were incinerated as the
spears of fire erupted from the muzzles.
Avitus and his squad stood firm against the flames, their power armor proof
against the unholy flames. Several of the stormtroopers, holding scaled down versions
38
of a chainsword charged the enemy line, to somewhat success, as they managed to
disrupt the enemy flamers.
“Fire mission. Grid Charlie 41 by alpha 33. Commence barrage!” Avitus ordered
to the Imperial Guard Artillery Regiment about 50 kilometers away. He entered the
values into the signum to confirm the barrage.
Artillery rained down upon the bridge, killing many of the crossing Chaos
Marines and Chaos Predators. One of the Predators went out of control and drove of
off the bridge, crashing with a multi-color explosion. The Predators opened fire,
blowing chunks out of the Imperial Palace as impotent las rounds bounced off its
heavily armored hull. Tarkus and his Terminators opened up as well, but the bolt
shells barely penetrated the thick armor.
“Forward!” Tarkus ordered, leveling his power fist. His squad members nodded,
and they charged, making a way for their sergeant with their power fists, pummeling
the Chaos Marines out of the way. Tarkus surged forward, ignoring the heavy bolt
shells that the tank’s sponsoon turrets spat at him. He drew his fist back and punched
with all the strength he could muster.
The massive power fist rended through the Predator’s thick armor with ease,
revealing the insides of the tank and the crew. Tarkus plunged his storm bolter in and
fired on full auto, killing the crew.
“Melta bomb.” Tarkus ordered, drawing away from the crewless tank.
MacFarlane deployed a melta bomb into the tank, and the Terminators moved on to
the next tank.
The Predator tank tried to ram the Terminators, but with their combined strength,
they managed hold the tank in place as MacFarlane punched the tank and dropped the
melta bomb inside. It detonated, blowing the tank up. Tarkus felt the stinging pain of
the shrapnel going into his exposed face, but he ignored it, and continued to the next
tank. The Terminators were moving fast, but not fast enough, as the last tank fired its
large bore autocannon at the Terminators.
The shell hit MacFarlane, and he collapsed, a large burning hole in his chest
plate, but no exit wound. The shell was still inside the veteran Terminator.
“Sir. Take my melta bombs.” MacFarlane growled. The veteran Terminator was
somehow still alive. “Go on, without me…”
“Your sacrifice will not go unnoticed, brother.” Tarkus replied, picking up the
melta charges and moving on without breaking pace. There will be a time for
mourning later. The rest of the Terminators assaulted the last tank, punching holes and
ripping out entire armor sections with their strength. Tarkus sheathed his storm bolter
and pulled out one of the tank crews.
The traitor was punching and kicking the hulking Terminator to no avail. Tarkus
39
slammed the crew man against the side of the tank, satisfied to hear a crack of bones.
He threw the body up and punched it away with his power fist. On the adjacent
bridge, the Assault Marines were destroying the Chaos Predators with their thunder
hammers and storm shields. Tarkus raised his storm bolter and unleashed a curtain of
shells towards a squad of Chaos Havocs attempting to set up some heavy weapons at
the end of the bridge.
“All squads, pull back to the palace. We’re overextending our lines!” the
commander ordered. “Avitus! Covering fire!”
Tarkus and his squad pulled back to the Palace, firing to cover each other as they
made good progress back across the bridge. The cultists started chanting in dark
tongues that hurt the Stormtrooper’s ears just by catching a whiff of it from the wind.
“Rejoice, brothers! Your slavery to the false Emperor ends today!” Araghast the
Pillager roared as he charged across the bridge and into the ranks of the
stormtroopers.
The Chaos Champion stood eight feet tall, and clad in a intricate armor,
decorated with skulls impaled on spikes taken from previous pillages. He carried a
combi bolter and a sword that was soaked in the blood of a thousand foes. Most of the
stormtroopers broke at the sight of the Chaos Champion and ran.
“The only thing ending today, is your worthless life!” Reaper yelled, charging
through the fortications. The Assault Marines teleported into battle, reappearing
beside their commander.
“Very good! I shall recall the day I rip this sector from your grasp fondly!”
Araghast said, swinging his sword at the Thaddeus.
Thaddeus brought his storm shield up, and the sword strucked like chained
lightning upon the shield, and Thaddeus felt the muscle bundles in his Terminator suit
working overtime to counter the Chaos Champion’s unholy strength. He grinded his
teeth and pushed, and it became a tug of war between the two.
“I have seen Khorne’s mountain of skull. I have licked the blood from his blade!
Khorne has blessed me. Surrender, or face annihilation!” Araghast thundered, pushing
even harder, his sword biting into the storm shield, and the force fields surrounding
the sword and the shield exploded, throwing both superhumans back.
“Funny. I was about to say the same thing.” Reaper replied, lunging forward with
his lightning claws. The Chaos Champion dodged the lunge, but the Blood Raven
swiped it sideways, cutting deeply into the traitor’s side. Araghast merely laughed at
the pain, and swept his sword towards the commander.
Reaper activated his teleporter in time, and appeared two metres away. The
Chaos Lord raised his combi-bolter and fired a burst at the commander, while
blocking Thaddeus’ blows with his sword. Reaper felt those rounds punch into his
40
chest, but he ignored the pain and pushed on, praying for his armor to keep him
functional for long enough.
“For the Emperor!” Thaddeus yelled about to deal the deathblow, But Araghast
managed to cut Brother Tanthius’ legs from beneath him and Thaddeus roared with
anger, swinging his shield and bringing his hammer down. The Chaos Champion
could not dodge the blow in time and was throw backwards, the gauntlet he raised to
defend himself with shattered. “Die, traitor!”
Tarkus and his squad unleashed a torrent of bolt shells towards Araghast and kept
him pinned down. Thaddeus shattered the Chaos Champion’s sword with a blow from
his thunder hammer.
“Eliphas! Open a portal!” Araghast yelled, a tinge of fear entering his voice,
trying to crawl away. “Quickly!”
“No. I think not. A change of management is in need.” Eliphas replied coldly,
cackling.
“Eliphas! You treasonous dog! No!” Araghast roared.
“Such is the fate of those who consort with Daemons.” Reaper said, plunging
both his lightning claws into Araghast’s chest, twisting and popping both of the hearts.
Araghast died with a snarl on his face.
“Derosa? The Palace is safe now.” Reaper voxed, pulling out the lightning claws.
“The enemy assault is retreating.”
“Understood. Thank you, commander. Meridian will never forget this.” Governor
Derosa said.

***

“Eliphas may have something planned up his sleeves.” Tarkus said. “He is sly
and cunning, we should be more careful.”
“Bah. He saw the opportunity to grab power and he grabbed it.” Avitus growled,
sitting back in his grav harness.
“And this assures you how?” Cyrus asked.
“We know his tactics, we’ve defeated him once on Kronus, we can defeat once
more.” Avitus said.
“We thought we had defeated him.” Cyrus corrected.
“Bah.” Avitus said, waving a hand.
“Cyrus is correct. Do not underestimate your enemy. That path leads to an early
grave.” Tarkus said, “I do not mean to belittle you, brother, but Cyrus is right. Eliphas
must have something planned.”
“Indeed. But how is it possible that he survived? I saw him killed during the
41
assault on Deimos Peninsula.” Reaper asked.
“I’m not sure, commander. But the perfidy and tricks of the enemy are many.
Souls are just currency and playthings in the warp.” Librarian Jonah answered
through the vox.
The Thunderhawk entered the hangar of the Retribution, and the Blood Ravens
disembarked quickly, heading back to the armory to prepare for the next battle.
Reaper headed to the bridge, where Tech Marine Martellus had asked for his
audience.
“Commander, from the information I have gathered from the Astronomican
Array, a Space Hulk is about arrive, just a few light minutes away from Meridian.
Scans have indicated that this is the Judgement of Carrion, a conglomerate of ships
that had been lost in the warp. It is large enough to boast its own gravity and
atmosphere.” Techmarine Martellus said, as Reaper strode into the bridge. “We should
investigate it.”
“How did Araghast managed to get into our private vox channel?” Reaper asked,
looking at the data.
“It is almost impossible to hack into the vox channels. Unless someone gave the
access codes to the enemy, sir.” Martellus replied quickly, a little too quickly. “I have
also uncovered something from the vox records.”
“Avitus, Tarkus, Cyrus, Thaddeus. Get up to the bridge, now.”
Martellus played the message, and static, with a heavily scrambled voice began
to play.
“Use this vox access code to ambush my battle brothers and our agreement is
over! Captain Angelos has us barging around the sector, and I fear for my existence.
This vox identity hider shall cloak my existence for now…”
“What? Someone betrayed us!” Avitus roared. “I will find this turncoat scum and
kill him with my bare hands!”
“Peace, brother. Do we know who this traitor is?” Tarkus asked, directing the
question at Martellus.
“No. Our logic engines had not been able to identify who the traitor is. However,
records from past expeditions on the Judgement of Carrion talks about a ancient and
powerful logic engine that may have a chance to find out who the traitor is.” Martellus
replied. “Perhaps we should board the Judgement of Carrion.”
“Agreed, Techmarine.” Cyrus said grimly.

***
The fabric of reality warped, and the Retribution and its escorts ripped their way
out of the warp and back into real space. The area where Martellus had promised the
42
Space Hulk would arrive.
“Your cursed ship is hiding, Techmarine.” Avitus growled.
“Hush, Avitus. Rest your mouth, and open your eyes.” Tarkus said, and as if to
prove Avitus wrong, the massive Space Hulk ripped out of the warp, hundreds and
thousands of debris ripping free from the massive wreck.
“Incoming! Evade!” Commander Reaper ordered.
Retribution fired its emergency thrusters to avoid the massive chunks of wrecked
vessels breaking loose from the Space Hulk. Several of them hit into the Strike
Cruiser and the venerable ship shuddered in response. The large debris were destroyed
with torpedoes.
“Ok. All units, prepare to board the Space Hulk.” Reaper ordered, heading down
towards the launch bay.
“I will come with you, commander.” Techmarine Martellus said. The other
Sergeants quickly headed down and strapped in. Their squads were already in
position, awaiting for the signal to launch.
“Commander. I shall stay onboard and warn you of any changes.” Librarian
Jonah said, striding into the bridge as the commander passed him.
“Stabilize over drop zone.” Reaper ordered.
“Stablized.” The Chapter Serfs reported.
“Affirmitive. Drop pods, away!”
The Drop Pods rocketed away from the Strike Cruiser and crashing through
several surface levels of the Space Hulk. The drop pods grinded to a halt in a large
open area and they opened, delivering the Blood Ravens.
“Commander. We are close to the logic engine.” Martellus said, reading off
information from his HUD.
“Ok. Lets move. Watch for ambushes.” Reaper ordered.
All the Blood Ravens, save for Martellus had deployed in Terminator armor, its
thick plates protecting the wearer from all the horrors a Space Hulk brings with it,
including Daemons, Orks and Tyranids. The Terminator armor would also ensure even
when there is little or no cover, the Space Marines would still be protected.
They walked into a corridor, only wide enough to allow two Terminators to walk
a line abreast, with Sergeant Tarkus and another Terminator, armed with a heavy
flamer leading the way. Suddenly, Tyranid Warriors armed with venom cannons
appeared at one end of the corridor.
“Contact front!” Tarkus yelled, firing his storm bolter. The heavy flamer fired a
spear of fire towards the Tyranids, and the xenos returned the greeting, firing their
venom cannons.
“Contact rear!” Avitus growled, firing his assault cannon. The unending stream
43
of solid shells ripped through the horde of Rippers that dropped from an air duct.
“Forward! Up and at them!” Reaper ordered, teleporting into battle. Avitus and
his Devastators kept up their fire, keeping the Rippers at bay, but the horde was
closing in, climbing over the dead bodies to get to the Blood Ravens.
Tarkus was hit by one of the crystalized venom shards from the venom cannon,
but he ignored the pain, and delivered an accurate three round burst that ripped out the
Tyranid’s head and kill the xenos. The flamer continued immolating the enemy and
filling the corridor with flames.
“Break through them!” Thaddeus cried, swinging his thunder hammer and storm
shield, both lethal weapons in such tight cramp conditions of the Space Hulk. A
Tyranid Warrior with large rending claws slashed at him, and he swung his shield
outwards in response. The Tyranid was thrown back as the storm shield released its
stored energy with a loud thunderclap. “For the Emperor!”
“Get back and help Sergeant Avitus!” Tarkus ordered the Terminator wielding the
heavy flamer without turning around. Another Terminator took that Terminator’s
place, standing shoulder to shoulder with Tarkus, and they laid down a long tirade of
bolt shells as they advanced.
The Ripper swarm was so close now the Devastators had to use their power fists
and armored boots to kill the Rippers. There was a roar, and a spear of fire erupted
from Brother Priam’s heavy flamer. The Rippers recoiled as Priam played his heavy
flamer around, spreading the flames evenly.
“We’re almost out of the corridor!” Tarkus called, reloading his storm bolter.
The Blood Ravens fought through the Tyranids, stamping over the carpet of
bodies that they had left behind.
“I think that’s the last of them.” Thaddeus said, scanning the area with his
auspex.
“For now. Commander! A Fallen brother!” Tarkus said, rushing over to the prone
Blood Raven. Tarkus scanned the body with his glove tally to identify the body.
“Commander. There is also a reductor vial.” Thaddeus said, picking up the
reductor vial from the ground.
“Why would an Apothecary harvest it, but leave it behind?” Reaper thought
aloud .
“Nevertheless, we cannot miss an opportunity to strengthen our chapter’s ranks.”
Tarkus said, deploying a teleporter relay. “Jonah. We’re sending in a Reductor Vial.”
“Affirmative, Sergeant.”
“Martellus, what does the rolls tell us about this brother?” Thaddeus asked
“Veteran Lucanus. According to the chapter records, he still serves in the Chapter
Honor Guard.” Martellus reported, looking up from his data slate.
44
 “How is that possible?” Avitus growled.
“A simple administrative error? Or another warrior that goes by the same name.”
Martellus shrugged. “We should press on, commander.”
The Blood Ravens moved on, heading towards the direction that Martellus had
pointed out, punching through two walls of Tyranid resistance. Two brothers were lost
to the terrible xenos, and the Blood Ravens were forced to leave the brothers behind,
because they had no method of retrieving the gene seed.
“Commander, I feel a disturbance near your location, it feels like… no. It cannot
be…” Jonah voxed.
“What is it, Jonah, speak!” Tarkus yelled, scanning the area for an enemy
contact.
“I feel a disturbance, similar the effect of the Golden Throne. Search around that
might be causing the disturbance.” Jonah explained.
The Blood Ravens spread out, searching around for anything that looked out of
place. Reaper noticed that a pile of crates that looked unnaturally stacked, as the
crates were used to cover something. The Commander walked over to the stack of
crates, and plunged his lightning claws into the pile of crates, clearing the crates out.
Under the crates, was a Blood Ravens Terminator slumped dead against the wall. The
Terminator armor that enveloped him was of the finest quality that Reaper had seen,
even better than the one he was wearing right now.
“I found something.” Reaper called out. Martellus rushed over to the prone body
quickly. Martellus examined the Terminator’s armor.
“Commander. I believe this the chapter relic, the Blessed Cage, rumored to have
been forged by over three generations of Techpriests, then blessed by the sight of the
Golden Throne. It was lost several centuries ago. Commander. I recommend escorting
the armor back to the Retribution.” Martellus said, looking up at the commander.
“Retribution. Teleport down a detail to escort a chapter relic back to the Strike
Cruiser.” Reaper ordered.
Tarkus lifted up the body, and found another reductor vial under the Terminator.
One of the squad members picked it up.
“Brother Epraihm, died during the Kaurava campaign. 5th company. Both were in
the same expedition aboard the Judgement of Carrion. The records lists an
Apothecary Galan leading the expedition.” Martellus reported.
“That explains the reductor vials, but not why they were left behind.” Tarkus
said,
“Indeed.”
“I was at Kaurava. I recall no Epraihm.” Cyrus muttered into the vox.
“Commander. I will attempt to recover more about this expedition and the fate of
45
Galan.” Martellus said, turning around.
There were several loud crashes, and Carnifexes stormed out some of the larger
access ducts. The Blood Ravens stood their ground, weapons blazing away with their
various weapons, but the Carnifex’s thick armored hide was designed to be
impervious to anything smaller than a lascannon. Thaddeus and the Assault squad
teleported into battle, using their thunder hammers to crack the tough carapace of the
carnifex. Once the carapace was breached, Avitus’ assault cannon ripped through the
behemoth’s innards with some high rpm death.
“Keep moving. We’re almost there.” Martellus said, then, out of nowhere, a
Lictor snarls the Techmarine with its flesh hooks. The Techmarine flew through the
air and landed at the mercy of the Lictor. However, the Techmarine was not without
skills. He emptied his bolter upwards, before striking with his servo arm. The drill
tipped servo arm stunned the Lictor, and Martellus quickly recovered, reconfiguring
his servo arm to a laser cutter. Just before the Lictor could strike, the Techmarine
managed to cut the Tyranid beast in half with the laser cutter. “Damn. That was close.
Had a couple of close encounters with these xenos during my time at the
Astronomican array.”
The Blood Ravens pushed deeper into the Space Hulk, fending off Tyranid
ambushes all along the way, including a well planned ambush by Genestealers that
was broken by Brother Priam and his heavy flamer. Finally they arrived at a sealed
door with a set of consoles beside it. Several more Blood Ravens, by the looks of
them, had died defending this location.
“Set up a perimeter. Cover Martellus while he works.” Tarkus ordered.
Martellus read out the rites of activation, praying to the omnissiah that the locks
on the door had kept the chamber shut. If not, then all the work that the Blood Ravens
had achieved would go to waste. He noticed that there was a data slate beside the
console, and he picked it up, activating it. A message began to play.
“I have lost count of the number of days on this cursed ship. Many brothers have
fallen, and I fear I may become one of them very soon. I can feel the Tyranids’ hunger
and malice. They are hungry. They want the holy geneseed in each of us. I must not
let them get their claws on them. I shall hide them. Even the Daemon cannot know the
entire Space Hulk.” The slate was revealed to be from the same Apothecary Galan
that was the leader of the expedition. Martellus slipped it into a hidden recess in his
armor.
“Hurry up, Techmarine. We can’t hold them off forever.” Avitus shouted, yelling
to be heard over the loud roar of the assault cannon.
The Tyranid horde was getting closer, despite the storm of fire that the
Terminators were laying down, very soon, the Blood Ravens would be fighting hand
46
to hand. Thaddeus and his squad were already in front of the other Terminators,
readying their shields and hammer. The Techmarine was working frantically to get the
door opened.
“Commander, its no good, the door codes are too well encrypted.”
Reaper pushed past the Techmarine and he plunged his lightning claws into the
thick adamantine doors, the power field almost dying as it cut through the thick
material usually used for starship hulls. Reaper pulled the claws out, letting the energy
field re-energize. His first attempts had left deep furrows in the door. Martellus fired
up his cutting laser and Reaper killed a Lictor that tried to kill the Techmarine.
“We’re almost through!” Martellus said calmly, his cutting laser working
overtime to cut through the starship grade doors. In the final moments, the laser died
from overheating, Reaper pushed him aside and cut the door down.
“Fall back! Into the room!” Reaper cried, leading the way down into the dark
corridor. He noticed that the air smelled dead here, which meant that this chamber was
sealed. Several more battle brothers lay where they had fallen, and Reaper rushed
over to them, only to find more reductor vials. The commander gathered them up and
secured them.
The Blood Ravens Terminators retreated into the room, laying down fire to cover
each other’s retreat. Martellus immediately set to work, powering up the cogitators in
the room. The cogitators were massive, filling up more than half of the room. It was
apparently powered by a clockwork wrench, which Martellus began to turn with all
his might.
“Set up a firing line, here! The tight tunnel will channel them. Their vast
numbers will mean nothing.” Tarkus ordered. The Terminators complied, setting
themselves in a firing line. The Terminator Devastators joined the line, and added
their fire.
“Almost got it.” Martellus said.
“Commander! Incoming Hive Tyrant!” Tarkus yelled, his storm bolter roaring
death.
The massive Tyranid, at the pinnacle of biomorphing, roared loudly, poisonous
spit flying, his massive razor sharp talons glinting in the light. Meter thick carapace
covered the beast from head to toe, poison cysts puffing to releasing a poisonous
presence that surrounded the Hive Tyrant. Two Tyrant Guard followed the synapse
leader. They were living bullet shields, its iron hard, interlocking chitinous plates
designed to protect and draw the fire away from the Hive Tyrant.
“Focus fire on the Hive Tyrant! Thaddeus, take out the Tyrant Guard!” Reaper
ordered,
At the Hive Tyrant’s order, the Tyrant Guards charged as one, and Thaddeus and
47
his squad braced themselves and prepared their shields. The two lines clashed, and
they were locked together, their strengths the equal. Bolter shells bounced off the
Hive Tyrant’s thick carapace as it screamed a high pitched roar.
“Bio plasma, incoming!” Tarkus said, recognizing the first signs of the incoming
bio plasma. The veteran Sergeant was right, as a ball of bio-plasma erupted from the
Hive Tyrant’s mouth and flew towards the Terminators. Instead of retreating, the
Terminators surged forward avoiding the ball of bio-plasma that left a smoking hole in
the ground.
Under the continous barrage of bolt shells, weaker areas of the carapace began to
crack and the Hive Tyrant diverted the Tyrant Guards to attack the Terminators
instead. The Hive Tyrant charged together, and they moved surprisingly fast, and
managed to slam one of the Terminators against the wall, cracking it.
Tarkus had barely dodged one of the charging xenos, but was hit by the second
one. Warnings flashed in his HUD, warning him of his armor’s integrity. He brought
his power fist down onto the beast’s head, but the beast seemed to be impervious to
pain, and continued to pin the Sergeant against the wall even with half of its head
caved in.
Tarkus continued to hammer away until the Tyrant Guard’s head was a mess of
blood, shattered bone and brains. He pushed the dead body away and rejoined his
brothers. By now, two of his brothers were dead, one trampled to death, the other
killed by the Hive Tyrant’s scything talons with ease. One of the Assault Terminators
tried to help his brother and charged at the Hive Tyrant. The synapse leader slashed
with lightning speed, and the Terminator barely managed to bring his shield up to
defend himself.
The serrated edged talon sliced straight through the thick construction of
adamantium and ceramite with ease, and the Terminator returned the greeting in kind,
swinging his hammer sideways, slamming it into the Hive Tyrant’s side. There was a
loud thunderclap, and the Hive Tyrant’s carapace cracked where the hammer struck it.
The massive beast roared, bringing his talons down, slicing the Assault Terminator in
half.
“No!” Reaper shouted, teleporting into battle. He swiped his lightning claws at
the Hive Tyrant, leaving deep furrows in the carapace, but not yet penetrating the
armor of the Hive Tyrant. The Space Marine striked again, swiping quickly, finally
cutting through the carapace, and the Hive Tyrant roared loudly, swiping again.
Reaper brought his left arm up to defend himself. The talons only managed to cut
through the first layer of ceramite, and the commander teleported away.
Tarkus and his remaining squads laid down fire towards the Hive Tyrant’s weak
spot. However, to everyone’s surprise, the Hive Tyrant charged, and at such a
48
surprising speed that Tarkus was caught in the charge, the Hive Tyrant’s Thornback
rending Tarkus’ armor.
“Tarkus!” Thaddeus yelled, his rage growing. “Forward! Fight on til the last!”
The two remaining Assault Terminators teleported into battle, to avenge their
fallen brother, Reaper followed, hoping to overcome the Hive Tyrant before any more
brothers fell today. The poison cysts burst, releasing their deadly load, poisoning the
very air around the xenos. The poisonous cloud corroded the Terminator’s armor,
bubbling and sizzling as it touched the material. Reaper felt his immunity system
working overtime to counter the poisonous effects that would kill any unaugmented
human.
“For the Great Father and the Emperor!” Thaddeus cried, swinging his shield and
hammer, both of these weapons connected and delivered grievous injuries to the Hive
Tyrant.
But the Hive Tyrant was not finished, as it spat out a ball of bio-plasma at the
second Assault Terminator at point blank range. The effects were horrendously
effective, as the bio-plasma melted the armor and the Space Marine behind it. The
Assault Terminator dropped dead.
Finally, the Hive Tyrant activated its warp field, a barrier that absorbed all the
damage that the Terminators could inflict on the xenos. Several more Tyrant Guards
arrived, and Reaper finally felt what he had not felt for a long time: despair. They
were down to a quarter of their original strength, and the fight did not look good for
them. He switched his vox to ‘receive only’.
He cleared his head of his momentary weakness, and roared a loud warcry. If he
were to die this day, he would not shame his Chapter was running away, he would die,
with his hands around the alien’s throat.
“For the Emperor!” Reaper cried, rallying the remaining Blood Ravens. The
Blood Ravens cheered, fighting with renewed vigor. Avitus roared with rage as his
fire had little effect on the Hive Tyrant, he doubled his fire rate, warning runes on his
HUD warning him about his assault cannon’s temperature.
The Terminators focused fire on the Hive Tyrant, while the others assaulted the
Tyrant Guards. They managed to kill one of them after a long struggle, but another
Assault Marine was mauled by another Tyrant Guard.
“I have…failed…” Thaddeus said weakly as he went down from his injuries.
To make the situation worse, Lictors and Warriors arrived, attacking the rapidly
dwindling amount of Blood Ravens.
Avitus swung his autocannon, and the red hot barrel scorched the Warrior that
jumped in front of him. He followed up with a power fist that crushed the Tyranid’s
chest, killing the beast. He was too slow to block the blow of another Warrior and he
49
fell.
“My brothers…will avenge me!” Avitus said, slumping to the ground.
Commander Reaper was now alone, fighting off two or three Tyranids at once,
and he was struggling to parry all of the lightning fast blows. The Hive Tyrant
approached, and he lunged, hoping the kill blow was the last thing he did. But before
he could reach the Hive Tyrant, a loud shot rang out, and a large chunk of the Hive
Tyrant’s head flew away. Another shot obliterated the Hive Tyrant’s head. Reaper took
the chance and plunged his lightning claws into the Tyrant’s chest, ripping out the
organs, making the kill.
The main synapse creature died, and the Tyranids were thrown into disarray as if
they had their head cut off. More shots rang out, targeting the larger creatures. Reaper
watched in awe as Librarian Jonah strode into the room, warp lightning crackling
from his hands and Force Staff.
“Your death is here, alien!” Jonah proclaimed, his Force Staff hurling torrents of
warp lightning at the Tyranids. The Tyranids died by the dozen as the Librarian
unleashed his full psychic potential at the xenos. Cyrus and his squad emerged from
the shadows, heading over to the fallen Sergeant Tarkus, quickly applying the
stimulant kit.
“His lifesigns are weak, commander. I suggest we extract back to the
Retribution.” Cyrus said. “What of Martellus?”
“Here, commander.” Martellus said, dropping from a duct from the roof. “I was
uh. Checking out something.”
“Checking out something?” Avitus growled, after Cyrus applied the stimulant kit.
“Have you managed to decrypt the data?” Reaper asked.
“Yes commander.”
Cyrus revived Thaddeus, and an Apothecary arrived to harvest the fallen
brother’s gene seeds.
“So, how did you know we were in trouble?” Reaper asked.
“The moment you switched to ‘receive only’, I knew something was wrong, so I
told Jonah, and we decided to investigate. Good thing too.” Cyrus replied, walking
over to the commander. He held the last stimulant kit.
“Save it for Tarkus. I’ll live.” Reaper said, standing up. “Lets get back to the
Retribution.”

***

“This trip into that foul place better be worth it.” Avitus growled.
“It was. I managed to recover some more audio from that message. But not the
50
sender yet.” Martellus replied. Reaper walked into the bridge and the Sergeants
saluted. “Commander. A message from Captain Diomedes.”
“Play it.”
“Take heed, Blood Ravens! As per Chapter Master Azariah Kyras’ orders, I
hereby declare Gabriel Angelos as a traitor and an enemy of the Chapter for the
heinous crime of stealing chapter relics, disobeying orders and consorting with the
enemy! He has fled into the warp along with his ship, the Litany of Fury.” Captain
Diomedes thundered. “Knowledge is power, Blood Ravens. Guard it well.”
“I have also found a message, from a data slate belonging to Apothecary Galan.”
Martellus said, playing the message.
“I have lost count of the number of days on this cursed ship. Many brothers have
fallen, and I fear I may become one of them very soon. I can feel the Tyranids’ hunger
and malice. They are hungry. They want the holy geneseed in each of us. I must not
let them get their claws on them. I shall hide them. Even the Daemon cannot know the
entire Space Hulk.” The message played. “I will hide them at our original drop zone.
May my brothers locate the geneseeds.”
“Commander. We have to retreive the gene seeds to ensure the Chapter’s future.
Especially after our losses suffered in this sector.” Tarkus said.
“Indeed. But it will be to no avail if we lose more brothers during the process of
retrieving them.” Cyrus muttered. “Of course, the choice is yours, commander.”
“We will retrieve the gene seeds. But we will exercise caution. Jonah, Tarkus,
Thaddeus. We’re going in.” Reaper decided.
“Commander… I have a… request…” the Dreadnought Davian Thule rasped
“Yes, Ancient?”
“I…wish to accompany…you on this mission…” Thule said.
“By all means, Ancient. Your participation honors us.” Reaper said.
“Thank you, commander.”

***

“We have to cut through the door, ancient. This is where you come in.” Reaper
said, pointing to the sealed doors.
“Very well, commander.” Thule said, charging up his multi-melta. A stream of
pure energy erupted from the Dreadnought’s multi melta, melting the adamantium
doors with ease. The Dreadnought punched the door in with his power fist, and they
were through.
“Genestealers!” Tarkus warned, firing his storm bolter.
The Dreadnought charged into battle, followed by the Commander and the
51
Librarian. The first Genestealer was crushed under Davian Thule’s massive power
fist. The Dreadnought grabbed up a second one and crushed it with its fist, before
throwing it away unceremoniously. Commander Reaper, armored in the newly
recovered Terminator armor, ‘The Blessed Cage’ slashed one apart with his lightning
claws. Jonah fried the genestealer’s brain with warp lightning, before incinerating the
body with a fireball.
“Lets move.” Reaper said, charging forward.
Along the way, they found more fallen brothers, but these have been already
harvested, but no reductor vials were found anywhere, and the Blood Ravens moved
on, searching further into the Space Hulk. They came into a large area, where a
Tyranid Hive was residing.
“Open fire!” Tarkus ordered, raising his storm bolter. While he was doing that,
he locked onto the Hive and fired a barrage from his Cyclone missile launcher. The
mixed load of high explosive and promethium had excellent effect on the Hive.
“Commander. The Hive had just sent out a distress call.” Jonah reported.
“Tarkus! Ancient! Focus on the Hive, we’ll hold off the enemy.” Reaper ordered,
turning around.
A small horde of Termagaunts, led by several Tyranid Warriors headed straight
for them, some of them taking the higher path from the gantries. Jonah fired his
plasma pistol, and managed to kill off one of the Warriors before the Tyranids were
onto them.
“Information is power!” Jonah cried, slamming his Force Staff onto the ground. a
wave of psychic power erupted from the staff, killing off the smaller Tyranids with
ease.
Reaper stepped in and plunged his lightning claws into one of the Warriors,
before throwing the body into another Warrior. His lightning claws rended through the
Warrior’s armored carapace with ease and he stamped on the Tyranid’s head to ensure
it was dead. With the synapse leaders gone, the Hormagaunts reverted back to animal
instincts and attacked the closest thing to them. The Blood Ravens watched as the
Tyranids consumed each other.
“Commander! We found a reductor vial!” Tarkus said, picking up the vial.
“There seems to be a second layer underneath the Hive.”
“Break through it. There maybe more!” Reaper ordered, bodyslamming a
Ravener onto the ground and stamping it to death. He turned around just in time to get
sprayed by an acid splatter from another Ravenor. He roared with anger, slicing the
Ravener in half with a swipe of his claws.
Jonah’s Force Staff glowed with power as he swung it. The staff sliced one of the
Warriors in half. Jonah then constructed a Force Barrier that threw the Tyranids back,
52
and blocked any attempt to close with the Blood Ravens. Ancient Thule then fired his
multi-melta in a deadly sweep, killing the Tyranids by the dozen.
“We got another three reductor vials, commander.” Tarkus reported.
“Keep looking. We can still hold them off!” Reaper ordered, kicking a Warrior to
free it from his lightning claws. He parried a blow by slicing off the Warrior’s talons
of before punching his claws into the Tyranid’s midriff and splitting the beast apart.
“Commander! Carnifex incoming!” Jonah warned.
“I…will take care of it.” Davian Thule said, charging through the horde of
Tyranids towards the towering behemoth. “Your death…is here…xenos.”
The Carnifex roared loudly and brought one of its gigantic crushing claws, a
weapon capable of destroying Land Raiders, down onto the Dreadnought. However,
Thule grabbed the claw as it made its way down and spun on its axis, ripping the claw
off the Carnifex with its immense strength. The massive beast roared in pain, but the
Dreadnought was not done, delivering a point blank blast with its multi-melta, before
crushing one of the Carnifex’s leg with its power fist. The Carnifex collapsed to the
ground, but not yet dead.
“For the Emperor.” Thule said, bringing his power fist down upon the Carnifex’s
head.
The Carnifex’s deathscream was loud, and the other Tyrands seemed to shrink
away from the victorious Dreadnought. The Blood Ravens loud out a loud cheer as
the Dreadnought raised a fist.
“Commander, we got five reductor vials and another data slate!” Tarkus said,
joining the Commander. “We have to go, sir.”
“Retribution, get us out of here.”
“Initiating teleport procedures.” Martellus replied.
“Hive Tyrant!” Jonah cried, firing bolts of warp lightning from his fingers, which
was absorbed by a warp field.
The Dreadnought approached the Hive Tyrant, and Reaper remembered the first
time that Thule was deployed. The strike force was under attack from a Hive Tyrant,
and Davian Thule had killed it single handedly.
“For the Emperor!” Thule said, punching the Hive Tyrant. The warp field
collapsed, and the Dreadnought swung his fist again, but the Hive Tyrant blocked the
blow with its claw but was buffered by the impact of the strength of the blow. “Alien
fiends. Your death is here.”
Bio-plasma splattered on the Dreadnought’s armor but Thule ignored the hissing
acid and punched the Hive Tyrant. The Tyranid beast flew back a few metres, but did
not fall. Thule fired his multi melta and the beast roared in pain as the stream of pure
energy cut through its thick carapace.
53
 “Pull back, Ancient!” Reaper ordered.
“Understood… commander…” Davian Thule, firing another stream of energy
from his multi melta at the Hive Tyrant. This time, the stream of energy melted the
Hive Tyrant’s head.
“Ready, commander.” Martellus reported.
“Get us out of here!” Reaper yelled.

***

“Amongst the darkness, flickers a spark of hope. Librarian Kyras has been
restored to the chapter. We had found him battling against the Tyranid. Since then he
has become the beacon of our hope with his powerful abilities and battle prowess.”
Galan said. “But I sense he is not the mighty warrior that he was. The other day, he
was recounting the story when Aurelia was besieged by a daemon, and how the
mighty first company defended the Chapter’s Keep. It should have been a glorious
tale, but he told it like a tale of woe, and he lamented each brother’s death. Somehow,
even before Kyras mentioned the daemon’s name, I knew it. Ulkair.” The message
ended with a loud blast of static and scrambled words.
“That’s the end of it, commander. At least what the logic engine could
deciphered.” Martellus said.
“So we still have not pinpointed the traitor yet?” Cyrus asked grimly, looking at
the Techmarine.
“No, sergeant.” Martellus answered. A little too quickly.
“OK. Dismissed.” Reaper said, turning around and leaving the bridge.
“Commander…I’d like to have a…talk…” Thule voxed.
“Very well, Ancient, I shall be down at the armory.”
Reaper made his way down to the armory, where he was meeting Cyrus. Extra
guards were posted at the doors, and Cyrus was scanning the room for any bugs.
“Commander. I fear that the traitor is Martellus. He is hiding things from us and I
suspect that message may have more to it.” Cyrus muttered quietly, “I also fear his
return may also be something more sinister than survival.”
Davian Thule walked into the armory and the two Space Marines kneed in the
presence of the veteran.
“Commander…The master of the logic engines had passed this to me... He did
not know who else to trust…” The Dreadnought huffed,
“Thank you, Revered Ancient.” Reaper said, receiving the proffered data slate.
He played the message.
“Somehow, even before Kyras mentioned the daemon’s name, I knew it. Ulkair.”
54
There was a pause in the message, and a new voice started playing. “I, Epistolary
Azariah Kyras, now bind the daemon to my brother, Apothecary Galan. Doing so may
doom my brother, but it allows him to live on, despite the grievous wounds he had
suffered.”
“The Chapter Master…consorted…with daemons…” Thule said, as the Blood
Ravens came to a realization.
“Galan is also a traitor…” Reaper muttered. “Assemble the squad leaders.
Martellus as well.”
Reaper could now link up the series of events in his head, but he was still
confused, as he did not know to either to confront the Chapter Master, or to ignore
this. He shook his head. It was clear, of course. His duty was to the Emperor first,
then the chapter second. He would bring his strike force to bear against their enemies.
Then what of Captain Angelos? Perhaps he should wait for the Commander of the
Watch to return.
“Commander. You called for us?” Tarkus asked, walking into the armory,
followed by Thaddeus, Avitus and Jonah.
“Brothers. We face dark times. Chapter Master Kyras has fallen to darkness,
along with Apothecary Galan, and many more that they have corrupted in the First
Company.” Reaper said, choosing his words carefully. “What proof I have, you may
ask. Here it is.”
Reaper played the message and horror was spread amongst the squad leader’s
faces.
“No…” Thaddeus said, shaking his head. “The greatest hero of our chapter…the
chapter master…is a traitor!?”
“Bah! Chapter Master or not, he is a traitor! Know the traitor, kill the traitor!”
Avitus growled.
“What would be your course of action, commander?” Jonah asked, gripping his
staff tightly.
“First. We have to eliminate the traitor onboard the Retribution first. He is of
more importance, then we can strike against the Chapter Master.” Reaper decided.
“Have you found anything yet, Techmarine?”
“Yes commander. The vox codes that the traitor used is strangely like the one
that the Chapter Honor Guard uses. However, in order to confirm, I need a sample of
the Honor Guard’s signal.”
“How do we get it?” Reaper asked.
“When the Honor Guard’s fortress on Calderis is destroyed, it will automatically
send out a distress signal to all nearby Strike Cruisers. With that signal, I can analyze
the traitor’s signal and identify who the traitor is.” Martellus explained.
55
 “Commander. Striking against the Honor Guard’s base on Calderis would mark
us as renegades. I suggest caution.” Tarkus said.
“Indeed. For this mission, we will need to go light and fast. Our brothers will
brand us as traitors and will most likely attack on sight.” Reaper said.
“But how will we get through the defenses?” Jonah asked.
“The Honor Guard uses a method of concentrated defense. When one of the
outlying outposts are under attack, they will fall back to a more defensible position.
We can use this to our advantage” Tarkus said.
“OK. Power armor and jump packs.” Reaper ordered. “Ok. Cyrus, Jonah,
Thaddeus, with me. Remember, brothers. Our objective is to secure the codes, not kill
our brothers.”

***

“Ok, brothers. Move quickly,” Reaper said, striding out of the drop pod. “Cyrus,
take point.”
The Scout squad darted forward, heading down from the ravine that the drop
pod had landed. Just ahead, a Blood Ravens outpost was keeping watch, but the
massive sand storms were hindering vision.56Cyrus could see two sentry guns and
several Tactical Marines standing guard over them. He also found the power generator
powering the sentry guns.
“Commander. I have the generator in sight. Taking it out will deactivate the
sentry guns and cause the troops to pull back, leaving an open for us to advance.”
Cyrus muttered into the vox quietly. “Permission to engage.”
“Go ahead. Jonah will create a distraction.” Reaper said.
Jonah Orion walked out into the open, straight into the firing arcs. The sentry
guns took half a second to run a self diagnostic before sending a hail of bolt shells
towards Jonah. Before the bolt shells could harm the Librarian, Jonah conjured up a a
warp field around him, absorbing the bullets as he advanced. The guards added their
fire as well, but they had not better luck than the sentry guns did.
Cyrus and his squad slipped through the security and towards the generator. In
his hand, was a explosive charge that would damage the generator enough to disable
the sentry guns, but not anything else in a ten feet radius. He slapped the charge onto
the generators plasma conduits and ran. The charge detonated, and the sentry guns
died.
“To a better position. Now.” Cyrus heard one of the Tactical Marines ordered as
they retreated.
The Blood Ravens strike force moved on, slipping through the defenses as they
56
carved a way through towards the Chapter’s Honor Guard Stronghold.
“Commander. I feel a strong warp presence around! A daemon! There is a
daemon nearby!” Jonah said, closing his eyes and focusing. “Commander! There is a
chance that Galan is close.”
“Galan.” Thaddeus spat. “Commander. We should hunt down all traitors in the
Honor Guard.”
“Indeed. Librarian. Lead the way.” Reaper agreed, hefting his thunder hammer.
Jonah took point, leading the strike force into a large area with several figures
fighting each other. One of them was wearing the white armor of the Apothecarion,
while the others the light scout carapace armor. The Blood Ravens watched in horror
as Galan’s chainsword cleaved one of the scouts clean in half.
“Oh hello, brothers.” Galan said conversionally, as he cleaved another’s scout’s
head off. “Seems like you have seen through my disguise…shall I kill you now?”
“Your death is here, daemon!” Jonah cried, unleashing a torrent of warp
lightning at the daemon in the Apothecary’s skin. Galan raised his chainsword and the
blade seemed to absorb the lightning. Jonah had never seen that happen with a
chainblade before, only with power weapons.
“For the Emperor!” Reaper yelled, landing with a bone crunching impact. He
swung his hammer sideways at the daemon. Galan brought his chainsword down to
block the blow, and the commander kicked the Apothecary, and Galan fell to the
ground. Just before Reaper could bring his hammer down upon the Apothecary, a
energy shield enveloped the daemon.
“Very good. But do not think I am alone. Let me introduce to you some of my
friends…” Galan said, jumping back up. Several Terminators wearing the colors and
insignia of the Honor Guard teleported and arrived beside the Apothecary.
“Commander. I’ll deal with Galan.” Cyrus muttered, while Thaddeus jumped
into the fight with his squad following closely.
Thaddeus’ lightning claw stabbed into one of the Terminator’s back, and he
twisted it, dealing a more grievous injury. However, the Terminator acted like he had
not felt the wound, and Thaddeus ducked as the Terminator swung his thunder
hammer at him.
Terminator armor made a Space Marine into a veritable tank, able to dish out a
large amount of punishment and absorb it as well. However, it also made the Space
Marine slower compared to those in Power Armor. Thaddeus used this to his
advantage, ducking and sidestepping the Terminator’s attacks, while counterattacking
with quick light strikes that wore the Terminator’s strength down.
Cyrus sighted up the foul conjuration of the warp, Galan. He had loaded a
hellfire round that would ensure that Galan’s body would not survive. He fired, and
57
the round punched through the armor of the Apothecarion in the back, and Galan fell.
Jonah leapt over one of the fallen Terminators and planted his Force Staff firmly at the
Apothecary’s throat.
“Thank, thankyou…” Galan gasped as the Librarian pressed the Force Staff
harder into the Apothecary’s throat. “The daemon has resided within me…for too
long…”
“What about Diomedes? Has he fallen to the powers of Chaos?” Jonah asked, the
Force Staff flaring with power.
“No, but his pride blinds him…You must warn him. Several of his personal
retinue are agents of chaos…” Galan spazzed. “Poor humans…so deluded about your
great…”
Galan’s head exploded and Jonah withdrew his staff, lightning still crackling off
the weapon.
“We must warn him then.” Thaddeus said, dispatching the Terminator with a
quick slash to the face.
“Indeed. Make sure we only destroy the stronghold, do not kill anyone else.”
Reaper ordered. “Cyrus. We’ll hold them off. You plant the explosives.”
“Yes sir.” Cyrus said, prepping for combat.
The Blood Ravens strike force entered the arena where the Honor Guard has set
up their headquarters. Reaper charged, followed by his comrades, and the Terminators
guarding the base opened fire. Cyrus and his squad slipped through the firing arcs,
explosive charges prepared to be planted.
Reaper swung his hammer, and the hammer head connected with a Assault
Terminator’s storm shield. There was a loud explosion and Reaper was thrown back.
Thaddeus and his squad was struggling against the Honor Guard Terminators, armed
with the very best equipment and armor that could be offered by the Chapter.
Cyrus quickly planted the explosives, and ran, firing his shotgun, a better
weapon than the sniper rifle in this situation. The headquarters structure exploded, and
the defenders paused to look at the burning building.
“You will pay for the deaths of your brothers, traitors!” Captain Diomedes
thundered as he rocketed into the scene, followed by his bodyguards.
“Open your eyes, captain! You surround yourself with heretics like Galan! You
stop all those who tries to open your eyes. You follow and protect a corrupt Chapter
Master!” Reaper shouted.
“How dare you slander our esteemed Chapter Master? Traitorous filth!”
Diomedes thundered.
“Has Galan told you of the time he spent on The Judgement of Carrion? How
Kyras binded a daemon to Galan. How Ulkair was imprisoned on Aurelia?” Jonah
58
asked, his voice calm and confident.
“Ulkair? Where did you hear that name?” Diomedes said, uncertainity entering
his voice.
Reaper threw a data slate towards the Captain of the Honor Guard. “Play it.” The
message played, and Diomedes hands shook as it got to the end of the message.
“How could I been so blind all this time…” Diomedes said, dropping the data
slate. “Go from here.”
Reaper and his strike force walked out of the field and headed towards their
extraction zone. A thunderhawk was already waiting, and the Blood Ravens made
their way back to their strike cruiser in silence.

***

“Commander. I have managed to identified who the traitor is.” Martellus

reported as Reaper walked into the bridge.
“So…who is the traitor?” Tarkus asked.
“The signal originates from Aurelia, we should go there.” Martellus said, evading
the question. “The work is almost done, and very soon the traitor shall be known.”
“Do it.” Reaper nodded.
The crew worked to get the The Retribution into the warp, and blast shields
slammed across the plasteel view screens of the bridge. A rip in material space
appeared, and the Strike Cruiser slipped into it. A few minutes later, the space above
Aurelia rippled, and the Retribition ripped back out into real space.
A warning klaxon blared, and Martellus looked at the readouts.
“Commander. There is something wrong with the logic engine. I must tend to it.”
Martellus said, leaving the bridge in a hurry.
“Commander. Martellus may show his hand now, since we are so close to
uncovering the traitor.” Cyrus said, drawing his bolt pistol. “Your safety is the highest
priority.”
“Thank you, Cyrus.” Reaper said, and as if to prove Cyrus right, a pair of combat
servitors stormed into the bridge, their twin linked heavy bolters spraying bolt shells
all around the bridge. Captain Reaper dived behind a control console while Cyrus
returned fire with his bolt pistol, blowing one of the Servitor’s head off. The bonded
serfs screamed in terror.
“This is Sergeant Cyrus. We have a situation on the bridge, and we are under
attack from combat servitors. Send some help.” Cyrus voxed, vaulting over a control
console, his pistol firing.
Reaper had his pistols out as well, firing away to cover the Scout Sergeant.
59
Several more Combat Servitors rolled into the bridge.
“Commander! We’re under attack! Combat servitors are attacking in strength!”
Tarkus reported, and Reaper could hear gunfire in the background. “Martellus just
escaped in a drop pod, I tried to stop him, and the Servitors turned on us.”
“Martellus! The traitor.” Reaper said, reloading his bolt pistol.
“Sergeant!” a scout yelled, bursting into the bridge from a service duct. He threw
a shotgun to Cyrus. Cyrus threw his bolt pistol to the commander. Reaper racked both
weapons.
“On three!” Reaper yelled. “One, two. three!”
Reaper rose from cover, both of his bolt pistols firing. Cyrus rose as well, firing
his shotgun. Reaper scored two kills, both of them crashing against the wall from the
impact of the bolt shells. The other Servitors scanned for Cyrus, and was killed as the
Scout Sergeant appeared behind him, his shotgun firing.
“We’re clear.” Cyrus said, stamping on a fallen servitor’s head.
Reaper let out his breath, dropping his empty magazines. Sergeant Tarkus
stormed into the bridge, his bolter swiveling left and right for a target. He lowered his
boltgun and walked over to the commander and saluted.
“Commander, the situation at the armory is being contained by the crew serfs,
and my squad is there as well. I got here as soon as I could.” Tarkus said, and Reaper
noticed that there were dents and scratches on the normally pristine armor of the
Tactical Sergeant.
“Its ok, Sergeant. Lets flush out our enemies first.” Reaper said, retrieving his
chainsword from the command pulpit. He revved his chainsword, and his Sergeants
nodded.
“Avitus here! I’m pinned down at the hangar! I need some help!” Avitus voxed.
“Understood. We’re heading down there now.” Reaper replied, sheathing his
chainsword.

***

Avitus and his squad was pinned down at the end of the hangar, where a dozen
combat servitors, armed with heavy bolters and plasma guns, had pinned them down.
Avitus stood up and fired his heavy bolter, taking down two or three of the servitors.
One of his squadmates was down, killed when a bolt of plasma fused his head and his
helmet together.
“Emperor’s Fury!” Avitus cried, and his squad roared, standing up and
unleashing a torrent of bolt shells.
The Servitors returned the greeting in kind, blasting away at the Blood Ravens
60
with their plasma guns and heavy bolters. Avitus ducked back into cover behind a set
of crates.
There was a series of explosions and shots, and the fire hammering the crates he
was taking cover behind stopped. He peeked out of cover, and saw the commander
hacking down the last combat servitor.
“Commander. What happened? I thought these servitors were meant to be
programmed to help us?” Avitus asked.
“They are.” Cyrus muttered. “No one without a Space Marine’s geno-print could
not have been able to activate them. They also need the knowledge of a Techmarine to
reprogram them.”
“Martellus. So he’s the traitor.” Avitus growled. “I will kill the traitor with my
bare hands!”
“Commander. Martellus left behind a data slate. There is a message on it.”
Tarkus said, holding up a data slate.
“Commander. Situation is all clear now.” Thaddeus reported.
“Ok. Briefing on the bridge now. We have identified the traitor.” Reaper ordered.

***

“Commander. I have to confess, I was the traitor all along. Eliphas found me and
helped me recover to full health.” Martellus sighed. “In doing so, I had been Eliphas’
slave, and under his bondage all this time. Now. I am branded as a traitor and I have
fled to the planet’s surface, and I beg you not to follow.”
“That’s it.” Tarkus said, “Commander, we cannot allow the traitor to escape the
Emperor’s justice.”
“Agreed.”
“Commander. Auspex scans show that Martellus is hiding in a hangar. Heat
signatures suggests that there is a Predator there.” Cyrus said, pointing to a area on a
holographic map.
“OK. Thaddeus. Cyrus. Avitus. With me. Tarkus. Provide tactical support from
the Strike Cruiser. We’re deploying by drop pod.” Reaper ordered. “Thaddeus.
Terminator. Avitus, I want your squad to be prepared for heavy anti-vehicle combat.”
“Aye, aye, sir.” Avitus growled.

***

“Commander. The enemy has two firebases near the area where the traitor has
gone to ground. They also have patrols all over the area. From my knowledge of the
61
Black Legion, their soldiers would often pursue prey and disregard orders.” Cyrus
reported.
“We should destroy those bases, we don’t want them to reinforce Martellus.”
Thaddeus said.
“Indeed. Tarkus. Prepare to give orbital bombardment support, over.” Reaper
said, drawing his sword.
“Ah. I warned you not to follow me.” Martellus said, straight into their vox
channels.
“Commander. Martellus still has access to our channels. We should remain vox
silence.” Cyrus muttered.
“Worry not, brothers. I have not told the Black Legion dogs of your presence.
Let them try to find you.” Martellus said, cutting the vox link.
“Lets move.” Cyrus said, unslinging his sniper rifle and taking point. The Blood
Ravens strike force advanced through the icy hell of Aurelia, carefully avoiding
contact with the enemy.
“Contact.” Cyrus muttered, dropping to the ground, his sniper rifle trained on a
squad of Chaos Marines approaching them. He fired his rifle, and one of the Chaos
Marine’s head exploded.
The Chaos Marines returned fire, and the Blood Ravens opened fire, blasting
away with their boltguns and heavy bolters. Reaper teleported into battle, his
thunderhammer crackling with death.
“Retreat, as Lord Eliphas ordered.” One of the Chaos Marines ordered.
“Don’t let them escape!” Cyrus said, sighting up the Marine that was running
away, and he pulled the trigger. The Marine fell as the round shattered his knee. He
tried to crawl away, but Cyrus placed another round into the Marine’s head. “OK.
None of them got away. Lets keep moving.”
The Blood Ravens moved on, and they could see the Chaos base just ahead of
them. Several sentry guns and several more Chaos Marines and Plague Marines were
guarding the base.
“Tarkus. Send in the orbital fire support.” Reaper voxed.
“Understood, commander. Incoming rounds, full spread!” Tarkus replied.
A light appeared from the sky, first a small pinprick of light, then it became a
solid shaft of light that crashed down upon the base like the fist of a giant. The lance
rounds burned through the Chaos buildings, and the Chaos Marines looked around,
trying to look for the enemy.
The Blood Ravens broke cover and charged into battle, and the Chaos Marines
brought up their boltguns and fired. However, the bolt shells only bounced off the
thick ceramite plates of the Terminator armor as the Blood Ravens charged. There was
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a flash of blue, and one of the Plague Marines were vaporized by Avitus’ lascannon.
Cyrus and his squad, flanked left, explosive charges prepared to be delivered to any
structures that survived the bombing.
“For the Emperor!” Commander Reaper yelled, swinging his storm shield. The
arm that the Chaos Marine brought up to defend himself with was crushed by the
impact of the storm shield, and Reaper brought his hammer down for the killing blow.
Thaddeus lunged forward, stabbing his lightning claws into one of the Chaos
Marines, and Thaddeus ripped through the innards of the Chaos Marine. Thaddeus
threw the dead body away, and moved on to the next enemy. He stuck his claws out
and swiped another Marine’s head off with ease.
Cyrus primed a det charge and threw it into one of the Chaos Shrines, and
watched with satisfaction as it exploded into fire. He moved on, priming a second det
charge and tossing it straight into a warp rift.
“We’re clear.” Cyrus said. “Don’t think anyone got an alarm off. Lets keep
moving.”
The Blood Ravens slipped away quickly, and they headed over to the second
base, avoiding the Black Legion patrols with Cyrus’ skills.
“Nightstalker squad is still hunting, they ignore vox summons!” a voice blurted
on the vox, clearly coming from a Black Legion Marine.
“Be careful, brothers, they are noticing your activities…” Martellus said
mockingly.
“Silence! You ceased to be our brother when you chose to betray us!” Avitus
shouted.
Someone must have heard that shout, because bolt shells and las rounds started
flying overhead. Avitus dropped to the ground, as did Cyrus, who draped his camo
cloak over himself. The Scout squads followed and they disappeared from view as
they went to flank the Havocs.
“Hold fast, brothers!” Reaper ordered, raising his shield to deflect the heavy
bolter rounds. The other Terminators did so as well, and they formed a shield wall
which they huddled behind. “Cyrus, hurry up!”
Cyrus crawled to a vantage point, and he saw several Havocs set up on a cliff,
firing their heavy bolters and lascannons down at the Terminators below. He aimed
his sniper rifle, breathing out to stabilize his aim. He pulled his trigger. Then he fired
again and again. He reloaded. None of his shots had killed any of the Chaos Havocs.
He knew he didn’t have enough ammunition for that, so Cyrus had shot the ice under
the cliff.
There was a groan as the weight of the Havocs finally caused the cliff to
collapse. After the ground shaking collapse, it was all quiet once more. Cyrus waved
63
the all free. The Space Marines kept on pushing towards the second base, the Chaos
defenders having no idea of their impending demise.
“Attack!” Reaper ordered, and Avitus and his Devastators unleashed a torrent of
hellfire towards the enemy, while Sergeant Thaddeus and his squad advanced, their
thunder hammers and storm shields promising death to the enemy. Reaper was close
behind his comrades, raring for battle.
Reaper impaled a cultist on his lightning claws, and he tore the cultist asunder,
before throwing the body away unceremoniously. One of the Chaos Marines, a
Khorne Berzerker, managed to plant his axe on the Force Commander’s arm that he
brought up to defend himself with. The power axe had barely managed to penetrate
the several layers of ceramite and armaplas, and Reaper felt the bite of the blade. But
his body immediately dulled the senses, and Reaper stabbed his power claws into the
Berzerker’s stomach.
The Berzerker freed his axe and swung again, but this time, the commander
caught the axe and broke the weapon with a swipe of his claws. The Berzerker roared
in anger, ignoring the grievous wound that the commander had inflicted. The
Berzerker headbutted the commander, who reeled from the impact and tasted blood in
his mouth. The Commander kicked the Berzerker’s leg, and it broke at the knees,
causing the Berzerker to fall onto his knees. Reaper stabbed his claws into the
Berzerker’s throat, finally killing the traitor.
By now the base was in ruins, by a Sorcerer managed to teleport away before the
bolt shells could tear him asunder. Only moments later, the vox squawked with
activity.
“We lost contact with Raven base and Reaver base! The Blood Ravens are here!”
someone growled on the vox channels. “Prepare for battle! Khorne is smiling upon us
this day!”
“Commander. We must hurry. The enemy knows we’re here.” Thaddeus said.
“Lets move. We’ll punch through the main gate.” Commander Reaper ordered,
heading off towards the main gate area. The Blood Ravens charged towards the gate,
where several squads of Chaos Havocs, with a veritable horde of cultists to back them
up. “Tarkus, the DZ is clear. Send in the reinforcements.”
Avitus and his Devastators unleashed their holy fury upon the cultists, while the
Terminators advanced under the heavy covering fire. Thaddeus and his squad formed
a line, holding their shields up and advancing steadily. Bullets and other munitions
bounced off the storm shields as the Assault Terminators slowly pushed the enemies
against a wall.
As the other Blood Ravens attacked the enemy, Cyrus and his squad slipped
through the ranks of the enemies, heading towards the gate. Once at the gate, Cyrus
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quickly planted the shaped charges at the weakpoints of the gates: the hinges. One of
the Chaos Marines tried to stop him, but the Scout Sergeant pulled out his bolt pistol
and fired. The bolt shells punched into the joints of the armor, cutting through the
thinner armor and crippling the Chaos Marines. One of the Scouts fired his shotgun
and that blew the Marine’s head off.
Finally, there was nowhere to go for the Chaos Marines, and the Assault
Terminators plowed through them with their storm shields and thunder hammers.
Each strike of the hammer and shield emitted crackling lightning, and the cultists
were killed as they were knocked back by the shields.
“Death to all traitors!” Reaper cried, swiping out with his claws. The mars forged
steel, wreathed in matter disrupting field, slicing through armor and flesh like a knife
through butter.
A Drop Pod crashed right in the middle of the area, and it opened up like the
petals of a metal flower, Librarian Jonah and Tarkus jumping out of the pod. The
Librarian and the Tactical Squad leapt into action.
Jonah swung his Force Staff, which crackled with psychic power, smiting two of
the Cultists quickly. Then he unleashed warp lightning from his staff, frying the
cultists to a crisp. Sergeant Tarkus fired his melta gun, sweeping his weapon in a wide
arc. The stream of pure energy that erupted from the barrel literally melted the
cultists.
“For the Great Father and the Emperor!” Reaper cried, plowing through the
remaining cultists with his lightning claws, slicing and dicing his enemies with ease.
“Your death is here, heretics!”
After the last cultist was dispatched, they gathered around the gate. They
reloaded their weapons and gathered their breath. Reaper nodded, and Cyrus pressed
the button on the detonator. The ground shook, and the foot thick doors collapsed
inwards. The Blood Ravens charged, storming past the collapsed gates and debris.
However, there was no one to attack, and the Blood Ravens stopped, confused.
“You should have left me alone. Now you will pay.” Martellus’ growled in their
vox channel. There was a loud crash and explosion, and a Chaos Predator, barged out
of a large hangar. It was clear that a lot of the upgrades were made recent, but deadly
nonetheless. “I have waited long for this day, Blood Ravens.”
“Then you waited so long for nothing!” Avitus growled, firing his lascannon. The
first shot disabled the left sponsoon heavy bolter, and the second shot missed, as the
Predator charged towards Sergeant Tarkus.
Tarkus and his squad fired their melta guns and plasma rifles, the bolts of
superheated gas and streams of energy splattering on the thick adamantium plates of
the Predator tank. But that did not slow the tank, and the Tactical Marines managed to
65
dive away in time, but not before Tarkus slapping a melta bomb to one of the tank
tracks. The melta bomb detonated, and the track unwinded, and the massive tank
grinded to a halt.
The Assault Terminators teleported into battle, each of them taking a side of the
tank. They pressed their storm shields against the tank, allowing the energy from the
shield to drain into the tank, causing many of the circuits to overload. Tarkus and his
squad climbed aboard the helpless tank, followed by Jonah. The Librarian’s staff
flared with power as he slammed the Force Staff into the hatch, head facing down.
The psychically charged blade scythed through the thick armor, cutting the armor like
a knife cutting through butter. Martellus fired his bolter upwards, the rounds bouncing
off the Librarian’s power armor. Jonah conjured a warp field, absorbing the bullets
that Martellus sent his way as Cyrus climbed aboard the tank, a cylindrical object in
his hand.
The Scouts was first securing Martellus, a shotgun held firmly at the
Techmarine’s throat. Cyrus had deployed a Orb of the Omnissiah, one that
Techmarine had fashioned, to disable the traitor’s servo arms and electro-fibres.
Essentially, the Techmarine was locked in an armor cage.
Tarkus helped Cyrus drag the traitor out of the destroyed tank, and they dumped
him against the ground. The Blood Ravens gathered around the prone figure.
“Martellus was the last person I suspected.” Thaddeus said, spitting upon the
traitor. “You should have died on that mountain.”
“This is not the Martellus we know. The Martellus we knew died during the
crash.” Tarkus cut in.
“Tarkus is right, to an extent. I was reborn when Eliphas found me… he… he
gave me strength when I needed it the most and he only asked for such simple things
in return…” Martellus gasped. “Eliphas was not the only one who enlightened me…
Kyras…opened my eyes?
“Was it worth it?” Reaper asked, his hammer raised. Martellus began to say
something, but the commander cut him off. “You will never find out, traitor.”
Reaper brought the hammer down upon the traitor, crushing the helmet and skull
with ease, and finally killing the traitor.
“Commander. I can feel the taint of the Chaos emitting from the servo arm. I
suspect it was a gift from Eliphas. I suggest taking it and cleansing it of its taint.”
Librarian Jonah said, touching the servo arm with the base of his staff. The staff and
the servo arm flared with power.
“Ok. Secure the servo arm. Retribution, prepare for extraction.” Reaper ordered.
“Let this the last example of treachery in our Chapter…” Tarkus muttered,
turning away from the dead body.
66
 “Unlikely, the traitor mentioned Kyras as well.” Cyrus muttered, slinging his
sniper rifle over his back. “Our Chapter is under the command of a traitor. It is ironic
that he has branded us as rogues and traitors of the Chapter.”
“We are only a handful. Kyras has the Chapter under his command. What can we
do?” Thaddeus asked.
“Our duty, brother.” Reaper said. “Our duty to the Emperor, our duty to the
Chapter. We must inform Captain Angelos of this treachery.”
The Thunderhawk arrived, and the Blood Ravens quickly boarded the
Thunderhawk.
“Commander. This is Sergeant Priam. There is another ship in orbit. It is Captain
Angelos’ Battle Barge.” Sergeant Priam voxed.
“Understood, prepare to receive him.” Reaper said.

***

“Commander. It is good to see a friend in a sea of treachery. The Chapter Master

has labelled me and my brothers as traitors, and it is clear that he is the traitor.”
Captain Angelos said, as Reaper strided into the bridge of the Retribution. “The
traitors shall pay for what they did to the Chapter.”
“Yes, captain.” Reaper nodded.
“But first, we will have to destroy Ulkair. Only moments ago, the astropaths
detected a major spike of activity in the warp. It seemed that a Daemon had been
manifested on Aurelia. It must be Ulkair.” Angelos continued. The revered Captain
unslung the thunderhammer hanging from his back. He hefted it once, and placed the
master crafted thunder hammer into Reaper’s hands. “Commander. This
thunderhammer was a gift from the Inquisition, containing a fragment of the Eldar’s
Wailing Doom. This had banished daemons before, and it is named suitably. The God-
Splitter.”
Reaper went onto one knee, lowering his head as he received the warhammer. “I
shall this fine weapon into battle with pride, commander.” The weapon felt good in
his hands, perfectly balanced, good for swinging and parrying. The handle was
ornated with purity seals and anti-daemon sorcery wards, and the hammer head held
the Inquisitional seal, burning with the psychic intensity of the Wailing Doom held
within the deadly weapon. Reaper stood up, holding the daemonhammer reverently.
“Auspex scans show a large amount of Black Legion defenses. How should we
crack them?” Cyrus asked, looking up at the Captain.
“Perhaps this calls for a armored assault. Two Predators shall be deployed from
the Litany of Fury. Commander. You will be in command of them, and responsible for
67
cracking the defenses. Then my forces will launch an all out assault on the Black
Legion forces.” Angelos explained.
“One should deploy in the Destructor pattern, perfect for dealing with infantry,
and the other in the Annihilator pattern, designed to destroy enemy tanks. That should
enough to punch through the enemy defenses.” Avitus suggested.
“Indeed. Commander. Get moving. We don’t have time to waste.” Angelos
ordered.
“Ok. I want everyone suited up to Terminator armor. Bring as much ammunition
as you can, this will be a hard and long fight.” Reaper ordered. “The Emperor is with
us, brothers.”

***

The two Thunderhawks lifted back into the air, leaving the two Predators on the
ground, idling. The Space Marine tank crews quickly made some pre-battle checks,
and finally they checked their vox links.
“Channel’s good, go ahead.” The lead tank driver voxed.
“Copy that. Destroy any Black Legion forces you encounter. May the Emperor
guide you to victory, brothers.” Captain Angelos replied.
The Predators drove forward, down a set of stairs, and their auspexs immediately
warned them of several enemy tanks ahead of them. The Predator Annihilator
powered up its twin-linked lascannons as the first enemy tank came into view.
Sergeant Patton slammed the firing stud, sending a twin shaft of blue las straight into
the enemy Predator’s turret. The las round blasted straight through the two sides of the
tank, detonating the munitions inside the tank.
“Reload!” the gunner called, and the loader quickly pulled out the spent battery
and pushed a new one into the twin-linked lascannon. “Retarget! Enemy bunker at
twelve o’clock!”
“Ready!” the gunner called.
Patton slammed the firing stud, and another twin shaft of las erupted from the
tank’s turret. The beam punched into the bunker, leaving a smoking hole in its front.
However, fire continued to roar from the bunker, heavy bolter and autocannon shells
bouncing off the Predator’s front armor.
The Predator Destructor fired its cannon, sending the hi-explosive into the hole
that the lascannon had created. The explosion killed the rest of the gunners inside the
bunker.
“Lets keep moving.” Sergeant Kursk, the commander of the Predator Destructor,
ordered.
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 The two Blood Raven Predators rolled down the road, turrets scanning for a
target. A large group of Plague Marines appeared, armed with missile launchers and
plague blasters. The sponsoon heavy bolters fired up immediately, sending a hail of
destruction towards the Chaos forces. Several of the Plague Marines, bearing power
fists and swords started their slow advance towards the duo of tanks.
“Focus on that power fist! He could rip us apart!” Kursk yelled, slamming the
firing stud. The 120mm shell punched straight through a Plague Marine, but the
Marine was only stunned and recovered quickly, despite the smoking hole in his
midriff.
The sponsoon gunners fired as fast the heavy bolter allowed them to, and the
gunners loaded the rounds as quickly as they could, but the Plague Marines continued
advancing, absorbing the damage like a sponge would with water.
“For the Emperor!” Patton cried, opening the hatch and leveling his plasma
pistol at the closest Plague Marine. The three bolts of superheated gas splashed across
the Plague Marine’s head and chest. Finally, the Plague Marine fell after having its
head and chest vaporized. “Death to all traitors!”
Captain Kursk had done the same, standing out of his tank and firing his plasma
pistol at the Plague Marines. It seemed that the plasma pistol was deadlier than the
cannon of the Predators, and this is entirely possible, as the sidearms that the Captain
hold are relics of the Chapter, once belonging to mighty heroes.
Patton ducked back into the tank, allowing his plasma pistol to cool. He had been
pushing the weapon to the limits, gambling dangerously for some much-needed
firepower. He sheathed the weapon, and slammed the firing stud again, sending
another lance of destruction spearing through another Plague Marine.
“Roll forward! Give me maximum power! Lower the dozer blade!” Kursk
ordered, ducking back into the tank.
The Predator Destructor rolled forward, its sharpened dozer blade lowered. The
Predator plowed into the last Plague Marie, impaling the traitor on the dozer blade.
Kursk stood out again and fired his plasma pistol at the traitor until he was sure it was
dead. He allowed his weapon to recharge as he noticed the battery was low.
Kursk could now see the main Chaos Temple that the Black Legion had set up, a
large temple with the eight pointed star adorning every aspect of the temple.
“Main enemy target spotted.” Kursk reported.
“Roger that. Eliminate the enemy and clear a drop zone.” Captain Angelos
replied.
Patton ordered the crew to overcharge the twin linked lascannon and target the
Chaos temple, while Kursk helped loaded the shells to increase the firing rate.
Sections of the temple was destroyed quickly by the relentless barrage of munitions
69
from the tanks. Several Daemons began to manifest, but the sponson heavy bolters
raked the enemy forces, taking many of the Daemons down before they could
manifest. The warp gate inside the temple must have been destroyed, because the
temple collapsed on itself.
“Captain. Main target destroyed.” Patton reported, standing out of his tank.
“Roger that. Strike force Fury, deploy!” Captain Angelos ordered.

***

The drop pods rained down upon Aurelia like a steely rain, roaring through the
atmosphere, promising death for the traitors below. A quarter of third company was in
was in initial drop, the rest on the battle barge, prepared to drop down when needed.
Orbital bombardment had started, the munitions streaking past the relatively slow
drop pods.
“Three minutes!” Reaper cried, running through his mental checks again.
Weapons, armor and equipment. Check. He knew the daemon hammer was secured in
a rack beside him, and his relic plasma pistol in his belt sheath, and his backup bolt
pistol beside it. The sacred Chapter Standard was beside him, ready to flown during
the battle. This standard had been in the final climatic battle against the Tyranid as
well, and it had rallied the Blood Ravens more than once when their ranks were
broken by the Tyranids.
Strike force Fury had not encountered any enemy resistance yet, but Reaper
knows that if they let their guard down, they will be surprised by the enemy.
According to the auspexs, Captain Angelos’s drop pod was about to land.
“Forward! Today we regain our Chapter’s honor!” Captain Angelos bellowed on
a chapter wide vox channel.
Reaper and his strike force roared their assent as they charged out of the drop
pod. Gun fire welcomed them, but they did not shirk from it, instead, they advanced
boldly, their weapons firing. Captain Angelos was ahead smashing into the first line of
the Chaos defenders.
“With me, my brothers, advance!” Reaper cried, charging towards the line of
enemies, bellowing a warcry: “For the Great Father and the Emperor!”
Thaddeus and his squad echoed the commander as they charged with the
Captain, while Tarkus and his squad provided fire support with their storm bolters and
heavy flamers. Reaper leaped over the barricade, crushing one of the cultists under his
boot. He slammed the daemonhammer down onto the ground, sending a shockwave
racing away from him. The Chaos Marines and cultists were knocked off their feet.
An aura of the Holy Inquisition blasted from the hammer, and the traitors immolated.
70
 “Finish them!” Reaper ordered, swinging his hammer. The hammerhead
connected with one of the aspiring champions, and with a loud thunderclap, the
aspiring champion was sent flying back, all the bones in his body broken by the
energy discharge from the hammer.
The Chaos defense line was broken, but they were not finished yet, as several
Bloodletters materialized amongst the Blood Ravens. The Bloodletters quickly
attacked, their possessed blades stabbing straight through one of the Blood Raven’s
armor and flesh.
“Death to all daemons!” Jonah cried, warp lightning erupting from his fingertips,
streaking towards the Daemons. The warp lightning coursed through the daemon, and
the Daemon screamed a loud deathcry before disappearing back into the warp. “Come
get some!”
The Blood Ravens cheered at the sight of the magnificent Librarian battling the
daemons with flashes of warp lightning and fire. When the Daemons got close
enough, Jonah swung his Force Staff, the eagle perched atop the staff flaring with
power as Jonah swung the weapon. The weapon sliced through the Daemons with
ease, a testimony to Jonah’s potent psychic powers.
“Ha ha ha, what is this? More Blood Ravens to feed on!” a voice, thick with joy
and virulent poison at the same time, bellowed.
“What is that?” Thaddeus cried, looking around for an enemy.
“The Daemon…Ulkair, has…broken free!” Jonah said, falling onto his knees.
“Then we are too late?” Tarkus asked.
“No! The daemon is manifest…but he cannot leave yet!” Jonah said, holding his
hands to his head. “I will suffer no trepass!”
“I will rip this sector apart and consume all you Blood Ravens!” the voice
continued. “I have gifts from Grandfather Nurgle, for one and for everyone, ha ha
ha!”
“Commander! Gather up your strike force and destroy Ulkair. My forces will
distract the main enemy force. Good luck, brother.” Captain Angelos ordered, looking
back at the Commander. “Everything depends on Ulkair being eliminated. Once he is
banished back to warp, the Black Legion forces here will break, understood?”
“Understood, sir.” Captain Reaper replied, hefting his hammer. “OK, lets move!”
The Blood Ravens Strike Force, commanded by Reaper broke off in the attack
and headed towards the keep, where centuries ago, a Blood Raven Chapter Master,
Moriah had imprisoned the Great Unclean One in a warded structure. Now, Eliphas
has released the Greater Daemon, but the Blood Ravens was about to ruin his day.
Cyrus took point, moving from cover to cover as they got closer to the keep.
They arrived at a large plateau, where several temples to the different aspect of Chaos
71
had been set up. Eliphas, the hated traitor was standing in the middle of the plateau, a
grim smile on his face.
“Welcome, Brothers. I have been waiting long for this day.” Eliphas growled,
each word a grating sound on Reaper’s ears. Eliphas stood resplendent in his armor of
the Black Legion, a daemonically possessed blade in one hand, and an accursed
Crozius in the other hand. “I have to admire your determination, despite being
betrayed by your own brother Martellus. You could go a great length, if supported by
the Black Legion.”
“Silence! Say no more, traitor!” Captain Reaper cried, firing his jetpack. The
Blood Raven veteran rocketed forward, his hammer poised to strike.
The former Apostle swung his Accursed Crozius, and the two weapon clashed
with titanic strength. The blessed daemonhammer flared with power, as did the
Accursed Crozius, and the two struggled to best each other. Images of death and
Chaos was poured into the Captain’s mind, but he shook his head and cleared the
images out.
Jonah muttered a few words and pointed his Force Staff at the Commander.
Suddenly Reaper felt unprecedented power flowing through his limbs, and he slowly
forced the Accursed Crozius back. Then he swung his hammer upwards, causing
Eliphas’ weapon to fly away. The commander followed that blow with a quick
downward slam that blew away Eliphas’ left paudron.
“Not bad.” Eliphas said snidely, holding his sword in a two handed grip. He
charged, the blade swinging. Reaper parried the first blow, and failed to parry the
second blow, and the blade sliced across his chest plate. Luckily, his master crafted
armor held, and he counter attacked, swinging his hammer sideways.
Eliphas jumped back, and avoided the hammer. Then Jonah stepped in, hurling
bolts of warp lightning at Eliphas. Eliphas caught a few with his sword, but he could
not deflect them all, and was fried. The warp lightning also overloaded the former
Dark Apostle’s servos, and Eliphas was momentarily stunned as his armor tried to
compensate.
Reaper used this moment and swung his hammer. This time, the hammerhead
connected with Eliphas’s chestplate, and Eliphas flew back, his chestplate shattered
and immolated.
“Death to all traitors!” Reaper cried, bringing the God-splitter down upon
Eliphas’s chest again. This time, it destroyed Eliphas’ armor and internal organs.
“You may have won this time…Blood Ravens…but while you battle me…how
much stronger…has Ulkair become? Victory is still mine…brother…” Eliphas said
weakly, a snide smile on his face. Jonah stepped in beside the Commander, his Force
Staff flaring.
72
 “Back to the warp, Daemon!” Jonah cried, stabbing his Force Staff into Eliphas’
chest. Eliphas screamed as Jonah immolated the body till there was nothing but ashes.
A strong wind blew, and the ashes were blown away in the wind.
“Once again, Eliphas proves to be a disappointment! His refusal of death is an
insult to Grandfather Nurgle. Nevertheless, he has served his purpose…” Ulkair
gurgled, the message delivered straight into their minds. “Now, as your brothers die, I
grow stronger, and soon, I will break free!”
“Dream on, daemon. We shall banish you! Enjoy your freedom while it lasts…”
Jonah replied.
“Ho, ho ho. Brave words. Empty nonetheless…”
Jonah muttered some arcane words, and Ulkair’s voice was shunted from the
Blood Raven’s minds. Reaper nodded his thanks to the Librarians, and they continued
on their course towards the Chapter Keep. Behind them, the war was lighting up the
dark sky, and Reaper could hear the sound of the battle.

***

Captain Angelos swung his hammer, and a squad of Cultist was decimated by the
energy discharge from the hammer. The Tactical Marines advanced with the Force
Commander as the revered Ancient of the Third Company, Tanthius followed closely,
its assault cannon cycling, prepared to lay down a hail of destruction.
“I fear no evil, for I am fear incarnate!” Captain Angelos cried, as he charged
into battle, his thunderhammer raised high. The tactical Marines behind him opened
fire, the scores of bolt shells ripping into the Chaos Marines and Bloodletters.
“For the Emperor.” Tanthius stated, his assault cannon firing on full auto. The
relentless barrage of shells raking the enemies down. The rate of fire was massive,
and the rounds rended through armor and flesh with ease, and the Dreadnought
annihilated entire ranks of the enemy. He charged forward so he could use his power
claw in close combat.
The Venerable Dreadnought slammed his power claw onto the ground, and the
ground shaking impact threw many of the Chaos forces back. Tanthius fired his
underslung heavy flamer, spraying ignited promethium all over the Cultists. The
promethium burned with incinerating intensity, quickly leaving charred skeletons
behind the onslaught.
One of the Traitor Marines tried to deploy a grenade against the Venerable
Dreadnought, but Tanthius punched the Traitor marine with its power claw, and the
Traitor marine’s body was crushed in the mighty claw of the Dreadnought. Tanthius
threw the body away unceremoniously.
73
 “For the Great Father and the Emperor!” Captain Angelos cried, swinging his
thunder hammer. The hammer striked with a loud thunderclap, sending an Aspiring
Champion flying off. Just up ahead, several Chaos Predators arrived and attempted to
slow the Blood Raven’s advance.
The Blood Raven’s tanks advance to meet the enemy, their guns roaring. Captain
Patton’s Predator scored the first kill as a blast from his tank’s twin-linked lascannon
speared through an enemy Predator. Kursk scored a load of kills when one of his
rounds detonated right in the middle of a Havoc squad, killing the squad with a single
shell. Kursk’s tank continued rolling, closing the distance, where his autocannon
could do the most damage.
His Predator took several hits, but luckily, the Techpriests had reinforced the
Predator’s armor before sending it into battle, and Kursk muttered his thanks to the
Omnissiah.
“Motor to 400 P.S.!” Kursk ordered. “Load a AP shell!”
The gunner loaded a shell, and Kursk quickly took aim at one of the Predator’s
left sponson gun. He slammed the firing stud and sent the shell hurtling on its way.
The shell punched through the relatively thin side armor and detonated inside, killing
the crew.
“Good kill, reload!” Kursk ordered, and he grabbed a railing as the Predator was
hit again, the shell bouncing off the thick adamantine armor. “Driver, keep us moving!
Don’t let them get our flank!”
Patton’s Predator fired again, the twin shaft of las spearing through another
Predator. The blast had penetrated the front and the back armor.
“Keep it up, Predators. Brothers, with me!” Captain Angelos ordered, raising his
warhammer to rally the troops. “Litany of Fury, send down the second wave. Angelos
out.”
The Blood Ravens casted their sight upwards as the second wave of Drop Pods
blasted through the cloud cover and crashed all around the Blood Ravens, unleashing
more Battle Brothers. They rallied around the Brother Captain.
“Brothers! We have cracked open the Black Legion’s main defense line. Now we
must finish off the remaining the enemy forces and then rendezvous with Captain
Reaper’s forces.” Captain Angelos ordered. “Lead the way, Venerable Tanthius! To
victory!”

***

“Target sighted.” Cyrus muttered into the vox.

Half a kilometer away was the Great Unclean One, a massive towering Daemon,
74
with its guts hanging out of a massive hole in its midriff. Pestilance and plague
wreathed the Great Unclean One in the form of flies and other foul manifestation of
death and decay. The boil covered and necrotic skin was a mottled green, and Cyrus
felt his gorge rising just to look at the Greater Daemon.
“Ho, ho, ho! I soon will be free of this bondage. When I am, I shall tear this
sector from your weak grasp and pour Grandfather Nurgle’s gift into them!” Ulkair
gurgled as he saw the Blood Ravens approach.
“The only thing you will be free of, is your life, Daemon!” Captain Reaper
roared in replied. He brandished the God-splitter, and the Great Daemon seemed to
paused at the sight of the daemonhammer. “That’s right. Your death is here!”
The Blood Ravens fired their weapons, a hail of firepower erupting from their
weapons. Scores of bolt shells ripped into the necrotic flesh of the Great Unclean One,
while hundreds of thousands of solid shells from the assault cannon tore at the
Daemon. However, the Daemon shrugged the weapon impacts off like they were flies.
“Keep up the rate of fire! Tarkus! Missile barrage!” Reaper ordered, drawing his
plasma pistol and blasting away at the Greater Daemon.
Tarkus blinked at an icon in his HUD, and the rack mounted cyclone missiles
unleashed a barrage of krak and frag missiles towards the Greater Daemon. The
missiles detonated across Ulkair’s head, and the Daemon seemed to be buffered by
the explosions. The Blood Ravens kept up their rate of fire as Ulkair slowly
approached, a massive plaguesword, dripping with poison and rot, in his hand.
“With me, my brothers!” Captain Reaper cried, charging forward. The Assault
Terminators followed closely behind their commander, ready to assist their
commander.
Ulkair brought his plaguesword down, and the Commander nimbly avoided the
blade. The ground had split where the Plaguesword had touched it, and rot and
corruption began to spread across the ground.
Reaper swung the God-splitter, and it striked against the side of the Greater
Daemon with a loud thunderclap. The anti-daemon and anti-sorcery wards on the
hammer flared with power and it seemed to burn the Daemon’s flesh. Ulkair shrugged
off the wound and brought his plaguesword down in an arc. One of the Assault
Terminators did not move in time and where the sword bit into him, plague and
corruption spread. Moments later, the Assault Terminator was a pulpy mess, his armor
rent and destroyed by the rot and corruption.
“Ho ho ho, another soul to receive the gift of Grandfather Nurgle.” Ulkair
gurgled, picking up the dead Terminator and swallowing it whole.
“You will die for that!” Reaper cried, bringing his hammer down on Ulkair’s
foot. The hammer exploded into flames and Ulkair seemed to yelp at the sight of the
75
flames. Reaper brought his hammer up and swung it sideways into the Greater
Daemon again, again punching into the necrotic flesh of Ulkair. Tendrils of flesh
seemed to stretch away from the body and attempted to close around the hammerhead,
but the anti-daemon wards flared, and the tendrils died.
Ulkair did something no one had expected. Filth and pestilence spurted out of his
stomach in a powerful squirt. The Assault Terminators were splattered by the foul
plague liquid, and the corruption began to eat away at their armor. Reaper’s boots had
been splattered as well, and his HUD warned him about the integrity of the armor. He
freed a vial from his belt, a purification orb, made by the Apothecarion, it was
designed to combat the foul manifestation of Chaos.
Reaper threw a vial towards the Great Unclean One and it smashed against
Ulkair’s flesh, spilling its contents against Ulkair’s flesh. The splashing liquid hissed
as it touched the Daemon. Ulkair seemed to be in pain for the first time.
“Kill it with fire!” Reaper ordered, and one of the Terminators charged, his heavy
flamer promised to bring immolation to all those who stand against them. The
Terminator fired his heavy flamer, and with a roar not unlike a dragon’s, a spear of
ignited promethium erupted from the muzzle. The fire splashed across Ulkair’s
stomach, burning off pieces of flesh.
Reaper closed in for the kill, the God-splitter held ready for the killing blow.
Ulkair brought his plaguesword down, and Reaper dived to avoid the blade. He
brought his hammer down on Ulkair’s hand, and with a loud thunderclap, it crushed
Ulkair’s hand. Ulkair roared in pain, swinging his broken hand towards Reaper.
Reaper flew a few metres, corruption spreading across his chest plate.
Thaddeus and his squad teleported into battle, forming a circle around the
weakened commander, their storm shields forming a circle around. Tarkus and Avitus
upped their rate of fire, blasting off hundreds of rounds with their weapons.
“For the Emperor!” Reaper cried, standing back up and charging at the Great
Unclean One again.
Jonah muttered a few words, and Reaper felt the Might of the Ancients flowing
through his arms again, and his swung his hammer to parry the plaguesword.
However, even with the Might of the Ancient, Reaper is not as strong as the Greater
Daemon, and he fell to the ground, the hammer still held in his grasp.
“Ho, ho, ho. Prepare for your death, Blood Raven.” Ulkair growled, bringing his
plaguesword down to split the commander in half.
Reaper screamed in defiance, standing up and holding his hammer high. The
plaguesword and the God-splitter met in a clash of sparks, and the two titans were
struggling to gain the upperhand. Reaper felt his power armor’ servos whining and
working overtime to offer more power to the Commander. Jonah focused even more,
76
and gave Reaper even more strength.
Ulkair had more strength, and his weapon was larger, but Reaper was faster, so
he broke the struggle with a side sweep, and brought his hammer down onto the
sword. The God-splitter’s anti-daemon wards flared, and the consecrated hammer
suddenly wailed loudly, and the runes along the hammerhead and the shaft began to
glow.
The Plaguesword shattered and Ulkair recoiled in fear. Jonah stepped in and
began firing bolts of warp lightning and fire towards the towering Daemon. Ulkair
recoiled at the relentless assault, and the Terminators kept up their barrage of sheer
firepower.
“Help me up, Jonah!” Reaper cried, and Jonah pointed his staff at the
commander. The next moment, Reaper leaped into the air, assisted by Jonah’s warp
powers. He swung his hammer upwards, and the hammerhead smashed Ulkair’s chin,
snapping the Daemon’s head back, then Reaper brought the hammer down again onto
Ulkair’s face. “To victory!”
Ulkair’s head was split in half, and yet the Daemon continued to smile at him
with a terrible half skull smile. Reaper brought his hammer down for the last time
before falling to the ground again.
“We need to banish the Daemon!” Jonah cried, spearing forward his Force Staff.
Warp power erupted from the staff, blasting at Ulkair.
“In the Emperor’s name!” Reaper cried, swinging his Daemon hammer at
Ulkair’s side. “Back to the warp, Daemon!”
Jonah muttered the rites of banishment, while gathering power in his force staff.
Reaper continued smashing away at the Greater Daemon, weakening it with each
strike, and Reaper could feel the God-splitter becoming more powerful with each
strike.
Jonah strided up to the Greater Daemon, his Force Staff vibrating with power. He
speared his weapon into the Daemon, and Ulkair screamed, in pain for the first time.
“Death is inevitable, even with my majestic form. I will return, Blood Ravens!”
Ulkair choked. “Grandfather Nurgle will not be denied his prize!”
“Back to the warp, Daemon, and suck on it.” Reaper said, freeing the belt of
purification orbs. He primed them and threw them at the Daemon
A hole opened up in the fabric of reality, and Ulkair fell through it, disappearing
back into the warp. After a moment, the Blood Ravens broke into a cheer. Even the
normally grim Sergeant Cyrus broke out in a smile.
“Blood Ravens! We are victorious!” Reaper bellowed, raising his hammer high.
The Blood Ravens cheered even louder. “Captain Angelos. Ulkair is banished. We are
victorious!”
77
 All across Aurelia, the Black Legion immediately retreated, as they had just lost
their commander and their greatest Daemon, and it seemed the Blood Ravens
dropping from orbit seemed endless. The truth was, almost all of the 3rd company is
on the ground, and the reserves in orbit already exhausted. 3rd company had suffered a
lot of casualties, and this had been a costly Pyrrhic victory. Never the less, they had
eliminated the head of a Chaos incursion, banished a Greater Daemon, and saved their
recruiting planets from impending doom.
Perhaps there would a future from this. Many of the PDF and Guardsmen had
fought valiantly and perhaps suitable for recruitment to repopulate the ranks of the 3rd
company. Several Thunderhawks broke through the skyline and apothecaries began
disembarking and preparing to extract the bodies so the gene seeds could be
preserved.
One of the Thunderhawks landed nearby, and the strike force quickly boarded the
massive craft. The Thunderhawk lifted into the air immediately and rocketed back
into space. Other Thunderhawks joined the fleet that rejoined the Blood Ravens fleet
in orbit. As the last Thunderhawk was safely docked in the ships, orbital
bombardment commenced, to cleanse the planet of the Black Legion filth.
Reaper hurried to the bridge on Retribution and saw why the Sergeant was
summoning him. The Black Legion fleet, previous hiding on the dark side of the
planet had suddenly decided to break from cover and engage the Space Marine fleet.
“Captain Angelos to all ships, weapons free! Hold formation and fire!” Captain
Angelos ordered in a channel wide vox communication. “Ships, prepare for
broadsides!”
Both fleets fired, torpedoes and lance rounds being exchanged. The Chaos fleet
charged, attempting to close distances so that they could execute boarding actions.
“Divert power from the engines to the lance cannons. I want maximum
firepower!” Reaper ordered. “Guns, get me some firing solutions!”
“Firing solutions ready. At your command, captain.” The master of guns serf
reported.
“Fire!”
A solid shaft of laser erupted from the ship’s main lance cannon, spearing
through one of the Chaos Frigates, cutting the enemy ship in half. The bisected ship
slowly burned in orbit, the gravity of the planet pulling the doomed frigate down.
“Good hit! Keep up the fire.” Reaper ordered. “Sensors! Whats the range of the
approaching enemy ships?”
“Ten thousand and closing, sir.” The serf reported, concentrating on the mass of
moving dots on his viewscreen.
“Fire!” Reaper ordered. He knew there was no way to stop a Chaos Fleet from
78
charging, but it would be good to stop as many of the enemy ships as possible.
“Sound the collision alarm, all units, prepare for enemy boarding action! Sergeant
Tarkus, you’re in command of counter boarding action!”
“Understood, Captain.” Tarkus replied.
Torpedoes and other munitions raced away from the Retribution as the Chaos
ships got closer. Retribution and the other ships continued to fire as the first Chaos
ships smashed through the picket line. The armored prows of the Chaos ships easily
sliced some of the smaller ships apart, but the Battle Barge and the Strike Cruiser
were an entirely different matter.
The Battle Barge and the Strike Cruisers were heavily armored from prow to
stern with a at least several metres of adamantium and that was only the first layer.
But what made a Space Marine ship was inside, the Space Marines. Enemy boarding
actions were often repelled and the Space Marines would retake the initiative and
counter board the enemy ship. Many ships of the enemies of Imperium often do not
live long to regret their decision to take on the Space Marines.
“Impact in three seconds!” a serf reported. Reaper grabbed hold of a railing. The
enemy destroyed loomed in the viewscreen. It was a massive and ugly craft, scarred
with massive pits and holes in its armor, the weapons poking out of weapon ports.
The armored prow smashed into the side of the Retribution, but the Chaos ship
bounced off the the heavily armored port stern. However, massive grappling hooks
blasted from the ship and secured the ship. Slowly, the Chaos ship reeled the
Retribution in.
“Give me point blank broadsides, now!” Reaper ordered
The enemy ship also commenced barrage and the Strike Cruiser shook violently
as the enemy poured round after round into the venerable ship. But the Blood Ravens
was not going to be pounded without giving an response. The ship bared its teeth as
hundreds of guns revealed themselves and fired.
Hundreds of shells tore into the enemy ship and munitions detonated the length
of the enemy ship.
“Hull breach! Section C alpha, D Charlie and E Omega!” another serf reported.
“Seal those sections off. Repel enemies!” Reaper ordered. “Continue that
broadside till we get the enemy cruiser!”
“Sergeant Tarkus! Repel enemy boarders and prepare for counter boarding!”
Reaper continued.

***

“Sergeant Tarkus! Repel enemy boarders and prepare for counter boarding!”
79
Reaper voxed.
“Understood, Captain. My squad is ready and willing.” Tarkus replied, racking
his bolter. He turned around to face his squad. “Lets roll out the welcome mat!”
His Sternguard Veteran teammates nodded, and the Tactical squad headed off
towards the breached section to repel the enemy. Tarkus’ squad had brought along
flamers and chainswords, perfect for tight corridor to corridor fighting. They got
down to the section, a long corridor with cover every few metres. A staggered firing
line had already been established, a Devastator squad armed with heavy bolters but
with no sergeant. Several dead bodies laid around, killed by the initial impact of the
enemy ship.
There were chapter serfs as well, armed with lasrifles and grenades. They also
had family and property onboard to defend.
“Brothers. Prepare for the enemy.” Tarkus said, checking over his equipment.
There was an explosion, and a wave of cultists, mutants and degenerates poured out of
the enemy ship. Brother Protheus stepped forward and pulled the trigger of his flamer.
A spear of ignited promethium erupted from the flamer’s muzzle and ignited the
first mutant, a towering monstrousity with a heavily muscled upper body, but
comicaly short arms. It wailed loudly as it flailed around, igniting his comrades as
well. Protheus kept up with his relentless assault striding forward, his flamer held
firmly in his grasp.
The Devastators fired their heavy bolters cutting down the Chaos boarders with
ease. Tarkus fired a few bursts from his boltgun into the crowd of the enemies. As
they took down one, another one would quickly take the dead man’s place. Tarkus and
his squad stood fast firing their weapons.
“Staggered fire.” Tarkus ordered, dropping his empty clip and slapping a new
one in with a smooth single action. Stray solid shells pinged off his armor, but he
stood firm against his ever advancing enemies. “Loose off your magazine, blades
out!”
The Sternguard Veterans emptied their bolters at the veritable horde of enemies,
before sheathing them and drawing their swords. Tarkus activated his chainsword,
while his teammates powered their swords up.
“Forward! Deny the enemy!” Tarkus ordered, bringing his chainsword down into
the first mutant.
The veterans waded in, their power swords slicing through the enemies with
ease. In the tight conditions of the corridor, all notion of skills and finesse was
stripped away, and only raw strength and brute might mattered here. Tarkus was
splattered with the blood and shrapnel of the traitors and heretics as his chainsword
grinded through armor flesh, then bone. A few of the traitors managed to smash their
80
blades against his chestplate, and it barely scratched the paintwork. They did not live
long to regret their mistake.
As mighty as the Sternguard squad was, the enemy had numbers on their side,
and very soon they will be overrun by the weight of the bodies. Tarkus knew they had
to pull back to another section.
“Protheus! Covering fire!” Tarkus ordered, freeing a frag from his belt. He tossed
it over the crowd. Brother Protheus stood back and fired his flamer, burning the mass
of enemies. Tarkus and the other Space Marine’s armor proof against the flames. “Pull
back to the next section. Devastators, provide fire!”
Tarkus and the veterans pulled back, fending off the enemies with swipes of their
blades. They retreated down the corridor, while Protheus continued to provide
covering fire. The squad settled in cover, and unleashed a torrent of shells.
“Protheus, fall back!” Tarkus ordered, firing his boltgun in full auto. He dropped
the empty magazine, and freed a metal storm frag clip from his belt, and slipped it
into his bolter. His squad followed his example. The metal storm frag rounds were
perfect for crowd control, as it incorporates an proximity charge in the round, and it
forces the round to detonate before impacting, turning each round into a storm of
deadly shrapnel.
The shrapnel from each round tore through the crowd of lightly armored cultists
and mutants with ease, and the Tactical Marines held the enemy back, for now. Once
reinforcements arrive, they would retake the initiative and assault the enemy ship.
“Sergeant Tarkus. Pull back and rearm into Terminator armor. We’ll hold the
enemy back for now.” Sergeant Thaddeus suggested, teleporting straight in front of
the Tactical Marine Sergeant.
“Understood. Squad, pull back to the armory, now!” Tarkus ordered. He snapped
off his chapter standard and planted it firmly on the ground. “Not a single step back,
brothers!”
“Come get some!” Thaddeus challenged, bracing his storm shield and preparing
his thunder hammer.
The cultists knew they had no chance against the Terminators, especially in such
cramped conditions. But they charged anyway, hurling themselves against the stalwart
Blood Ravens. No one was to retreat past the Chapter Standard.
The ship shook violently and tipped a bit, but Thaddeus continued fighting, the
ship’s welfare not his immediate concern.
“For the Emperor!” Thaddeus bellowed, swinging his storm shield at the first of
the enemies.

***
81
 “Engineering, what is the status of our shields?” Reaper asked.
“Down to twenty percent, sir. Barely holding.” The serf reported.
“What about the enemy ship?” Reaper ordered, wanting to take the fight to the
enemy.
“We’re still being hooked, sir. But enemy ship is suffering massive damage from
our broadside. Best suggestion is to board the enemy ship and plant charges to
disengage.” The serf replied.
“Already on it.” Reaper replied.
The battle was going well for the Blood Ravens, where half of the enemy fleet
had been destroyed or so damaged that they cannot continue in battle, and the Blood
Ravens had only lost a quarter of their forces. A lot of the Chaos ships had missed the
initial charge, but were slowly pounding the Blood Raven’s flanks.
“Get those port batteries firing! Torpedoes, I want a full spread!” Reaper ordered,
looking at the rear viewscreens. He noticed that a lot of the enemy ships on their rear
were smaller frigates and destroyers. “Target the destroyers. Blow them to hell.”
The Retribution’s port batteries opened up, as well as the torpedo bays, which
fired dozens of torpedoes in one go. The first Chaos frigate broke apart under the
relentless barrage of torpedos and lance strikes.

***

“Bring plenty of Kraken and Vengeance rounds.” Tarkus ordered slapping a

magazine into his favorite storm bolter, a master crafted weapon, one of the gifts that
Martellus had brought back after his internment into the Adeptus Mechanicus. It had
served him well through the years, almost as good as the day it came out from the
forge. He clenched his chainfist and revved it, certain that it would come to plenty of
use. “We cover the Techmarine while he plants the charges. Then we leave.”
The Sternguard prepared their weapons and nodded. Sergeant Tarkus nodded,
and they headed down to the breach area. Sergeant Thaddeus and his squad had held
fast, protecting the Chapter Standard with furious abandon. The dead bodies had been
stacked up against the Terminators, and the attackers were climbing over their dead to
get to the Blood Ravens.
“Brothers! Orders have come through! Forward, into the breach!” Tarkus
ordered.
The Assault Terminators roared their assent, pushing aside the mountain of dead
bodies and charging towards the enemy ship. It seemed the enemy had thought of this
and had secured the hole with a large piece of metal. But nothing could stop the
82
Veteran, and with a swing of his thunder hammer, Thaddeus busted a hole through the
hastily built barricade and he shouldered throught it.
The others followed quickly into the enemy ship, their weapons panning left and
right to look for an enemy. They fanned out, covering all vectors, this place was
obviously the staging area before a boarding assault, and they saw weapons and
equipment scattered all around, but no enemies yet. The walls were decorated with
heretical texts and symbols, the eight pointed star being a favorite of the décor.
Chaos Space Marines, armed with flamers charged into the room, their weapons
firing. The ignited promethium coated the Blood Ravens, but their armor was proof
against the cursed weapons of the enemy. Brother Protheus stepped forward and
raised his heavy flamer, a double barrelled varient of the flamer. With a loud roar, a
spear of fire jetted from the muzzle.
The physical force of the all-consuming flames threw the Chaos Marines back,
and the rest of the Blood Ravens opened fire. More Chaos Marines arrived, and the
kraken rounds easily punched through the ancient power armor.
“Cease fire!” Tarkus ordered, as Thaddeus and his squad charged forward to
engage the enemy. However, more Chaos Marines appeared from a second door, and
the Terminators redirected their fire towards the newly emerged enemies. Tarkus
scored two kills before ducking back to reload. His squad kept the enemy back with
quick, accurate bursts, pinning the enemy down, denying the enemy any chance of
returning fire.
“Where to, Techmarine?” Tarkus voxed.
“We need to disable the enemy’s grip on us, sir. Somewhere deeper in, there’s
controls for the boarding hooks. We should plant the charges there.” The Techmarine
delivered crisply.
“Ok, lets move!” Tarkus ordered, not wanting to spend a moment more in this
cursed ship. The Blood Ravens advanced through the corridors, blazing a path of dead
bodies through the enemy ship with ease.
As the Blood Ravens punched deeper into the enemy ship, Daemons appeared,
Bloodletters and flesh hounds charging at the Blood Ravens. Tarkus and his squad
opened fire, the torrent of bolt shells ripping through the flesh of the Daemon.
Thaddeus charged, swinging his storm shield.
The first Bloodletter was thrown backwards by the force of the storm shield, but
the Daemon quickly recovered and charged again. Thaddeus swung his
thunderhammer sideways and the Bloodletter swung his sword. The possessed blade
met the blessed thunderhammer of the Space Marines. The weapons locked together
and it became a contest of strength. Tarkus stepped in behind Thaddeus and emptied
his storm bolter into the Daemon’s face.
83
 “Thanks!” Thaddeus nodded, “For the Emperor!”
The Assault Sergeant swung his storm shield, before bringing down his
thunderhammer onto the Daemon’s head. Brother Protheus stepped forward and
unleashed a wall of fire. The ignited promethium was blessed by the company
Chaplain, and it seemed to have an effect on the Daemons, as they shirked away from
the flames.
Tarkus stepped forward and punched with his chainfist, feeling no resistance as
he ripped through the head of a flesh hound. He threw it down, before stamping the
life of out the lesser Daemon. The Blood Ravens, led by the two veteran Sergeants
pushed harder into the enemy, until they reach an open area, with plenty of control
consoles around.
“I’ll just plant the charges here.” The Techmarine reported, freeing the massive
plasma charge from his backpack.
“Form a firing line. Make sure nobody gets the Techmarine!” Tarkus ordered,
reloading his storm bolter. “Make sure you have full magazines. Staggered fire.”
Tarkus diverted power from his servos to his auspexes, scanning for a sign of the
enemy. He also checked the integrity of his armor. He had taken a few glancing hits
during the fight and he was worried about the weapons that the enemy employed.
There was a ping. A major one.
“Contact. 12 o’clock.” Tarkus voxed, rediverting power back to his combat
systems. He braced his legs and raised his storm bolter. He pulled the trigger as the
first figure came into view.
It was a massive mutant beast, even taller than Tarkus, heavily muscled from
head to toe. Its fists were armored with metal spikes, while metal plates, riveted into
the flesh, protected the chest. Tarkus’ first burst bounced off the thick plates of the
beast, and the mutant charged in, unfazed.
The rest of the Terminators opened fire, blasting away with their storm bolters.
Protheus fired his heavy flamer as well, the flames roaring out from the muzzle. The
mutant roared loudly, spittle flying out of his gaping maw of a mouth.
“Death to the enemies!” Thaddeus roared, slamming into the side of the mutant
with his storm shield. The beast, on fire and hurt, roared loudly and swiped with its
massive claws at the Assault Terminator. Thaddeus responded with a quick hammer
strike down at the beast’s head.
The beast keened in pain, and Thaddeus did not pause for a single moment,
striking down again, this time evacuating the mutant’s head of its brains against the
ground.
“There’s another one!” Brother Protheus reported, firing a spear of fire towards
the newcomer. The newcomer was similar to the mutant beast but had massive thornes
84
across its back. The ignited promethium coated the beast and burned, but the beast
seemed to ignore the pain and charged straight for Protheus.
The veteran stood his ground, his heavy flamer still spurting fire at the beast. His
powerfist was also poised, ready to strike. When the beast came in range, Protheus
sidestepped, bringing his power fist down onto the beast’s head. The beast roared with
surprise as it slammed into the ground. Protheus stamped onto the mutant’s head, and
Tarkus emptied his magazine into the mutant’s head making sure it was dead.
“How much longer?” Tarkus asked, looking at the Techmarine.
“Five minutes, max.” the techmarine replied, not looking up at the sergeant. The
device was quite large, and Tarkus suspected that it was powerful enough to destroy
the entire section.
“More of the enemies. They’re trying to overrun us!” Thaddeus reported, as a
veritable horde of cultists flooded into the chamber.
The Blood Ravens opened fire, cutting the enemy down like grass with their
storm bolters. The cultists screamed loudly and incoherently as their bloodlust took
over. They threw themselves madly at the Terminators without care of their own
safety.
“Blood for the Blood god!” one of the cultists wailed loudly, clawing wildly but
impotently at Thaddeus’ Terminator armor. The claws barely scratched the paintwork.
“Protheus, flame them!” Thaddeus ordered, swinging his storm shield to clear
the enemies off him. The cultists tried to get him again, but they were stopped by a
wall of flames from Protheus’ heavy flamer. Thaddeus backed off, and the
Terminators continued to fire, keeping the enemy at bay.
Tarkus fired his storm bolter in full auto, cutting down the cultists relentlessly
like grass. The heretics died by the dozen, and Tarkus continued to dish out the
punishment, a dozen bolt shells at a time. The heretics and cultists took many forms,
from large hulking mutants, to small, sniveling humans, and Tarkus was disgusted to
see such a broad array of enemies, and several of them wore the old and broken, but
nonetheless recognizable uniforms of the Guardsmen.
“OK. Charges set. We’re ready to leave.” The Techmarine reported, rising. “I
deployed an anti-tampering device into it, so it should detonate without fail.”
“OK. Lets move. Two by two, covering fire.” Tarkus ordered, standing firm with
Protheus as the other Terminators retreated. Then another two Terminators stopped to
provide fire while Tarkus and Protheus retreated.
This tactic, although slower than all out retreat, ensured that the during the
retreat, no one could reach the Terminators.
“Commander. We’re almost out of the shithole, prepare to commence barrage!”
Tarkus voxed.
85
 “Understood. Guns are loaded, prepared to provide fire support.” Reaper replied.
“Charges ready to detonate.”
Once the Terminators crossed the gaps, the broadsides began, pounding away at
the enemy ship. Tarkus turned around to see the plasma charges detonate, at least its
effects. There was a loud groan, and the enemy ship broke up under the fire from the
Retribution.

***

“Engines to 150%! I want power to the lance batteries!” Reaper ordered.

“Someone give me a sitrep on the status of the ship!”
“Shields are down to 50%. Port armor is down to 30%. Prow armor still at 80%.”
A serf reported.
“Keep the weapons ready.” Reaper continued. “What is the status of the
bombardment cannon?”
“Its ready to fire, Captain.” Another serf reported.
“Get me a firing solution for the bombardment cannon!”
“Ready.”
“Open fire!”
The bombardment cannon fired, sending a massive round hurtling through space.
The round punched into one of the Capital Ships of the Chaos fleets, and it drilled
through the prow armor of the enemy ship. Reaper waited for a moment, then the
bombardment round detonated deep inside the enemy ship, just like it was designed to
do.
The Capital Ship shook and broke in half and the serfs cheered at the sight of one
of the major enemy ship breaking up. Then Reaper saw the Litany Of Fury, being
pounded by two broadsides at the same time, and Reaper could see that the ship’s
shields were struggling to keep the revered ship protected.
“Maximum speed, now!” Reaper ordered.
The Retribution jumped forward, its lance batteries charging up and moving into
support Captain Angelos’ ship. The Battle Barge was putting up a good fight, its crew
veterans of ship to ship combat, and the ship itself venerable and deadly. Retribution
opened fire, the lance beams punching straight through one of the Chaos Destroyer’s
stern. The destroyed tried to turn to face the new threat, but an array of torpedoes
punched into the length of the enemy ship, destroying it quickly.
“Thanks for the help.” Captain Angelos voxed.
“Thank me when we’re done.” Reaper replied, ordering the Retribution to attack
the other Chaos Destroyers.
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 “Agreed.” Captain Angelos replied. The Litany of Fury turned and engaged with
its lance batteries.
Together, the two Blood Raven ships turned to face the Cruiser than was
besieging the Litany of Fury. The two Blood Ravens ships unleashed devastating
broadsides that raked the enemy ship’s shields, wearing it down until the ships were
destroyed. Precise lance battery fire then sliced through the decks of the enemy ship,
cutting through the ship until it was nothing but floating space junk.
With the last of the enemy cruisers destroyed, the remaining Chaos fleet was
easily destroyed by the Strike Cruisers and Battle Barge of the Space Marines.
“This is Captain Angelos. We are victorious!”
Reaper roared his assent, pumping his fist into the air. The serfs cheered as well,
giving each other high fives and fist bumps.
“Commander Reaper, gather your sergeants, meet me on the Litany of Fury.”
Captain Angelos ordered.
“Understood.”
Captain Reaper gathered his sergeants and boarded one of the less damaged
Thunderhawks, and the assault ship rocketed away from the Retribution.

***

“Brothers. Our Chapter is led by a mad man and a heretic. Captain Reaper, you
are hereby promoted to the commander of 4th company. Make your way to Aurelia and
link up with Captain Diomedes. Once you link up, we will set a trap for Kyras, for he
is too powerful in a direct confrontation. You and your strike force shall become the
agents of purification for our chapter.” Captain Angelos said saluting Reaper. “Take
my God-splitter. Destroy our foes with it.”
Reaper went on one knee, and received the holy weapon. He held it reverently,
gripping it as he felt the might of the righteous flow through his limbs.
“When the time comes to strike I shall send you a signal, and we shall strike at
Kyras together.” Captain Angelos continued. “The Inquisition knows of this matter,
but have decided to stay out of it…for now. This gives us an window of opportunity
to strike against the traitors.”
“Godspeed, Captain Angelos.” Captain Reaper said, saluting the other Captain.
“May you deliver death upon our foes.”
“Same to you, brother. Prepare for Kyras’ arrival.” Captain Angelos replied,
returning the salute. “Dismissed.”

***
87
 “Order the Techmarines to initiate repairs, now.” Captain Angelos ordered,
looking at the display panels. “Someone give me a sitrep.”
“Sir. Primary void shield banks are depleted and damaged. Auxilliaries are
holding for now. There is severe damage to the port and starboard armor, and repairs
are being initiated.” A serf reported, reading off a list.
“Weapon status?”
“Secondary lance batteries are offline, but the primary lance batteries are still
operational. The bombardment cannon is a bit short on ammunition, but is still
operational. We lost many of the broadside weapons during the engagement.”
“Engines?”
“Minor plasma leak from generator 2. Repairs have been initiated.” The serf
continued.
“Divert repairs to the weapons and shields. I want the ship to be ready for battle
ASAP.” Captain Angelos ordered.
“Yes, Lord Marine. Your will be done.” The serf said, backing away.
“Patch me to the fleet.” The captain ordered. “3rd company, heed me. Make all
the repairs as you can, for we shall depart in two day’s time. Prepare to bring the fight
to the enemy. We do not know how deep does this corruption runs through our
Chapter, so only return fire if fired upon. The First Company may be corrupted as
well, and we have warn the other companies of this perfidy.”
“We are with you, Captain.” Came the reply.
“May the Emperor be with us during these dark times.” Angelos said, cutting the
link.
“Captain. A ship is approaching. Scans indicate it is a Grey Knight vessel.” A
serf reported.
“Damn. Hail them. Prepare a Thunderhawk. Gather my command squad.”
Angelos ordered, leaving the bridge. He checked if his weapon were still holstered,
and he headed down to the hangar, where his command was waiting.
His command squad consisted of Epistolary Anteas, standard bearer and
Terminator Sergeant Tanthius and Scout Sergeant Corallis. They saluted their Captain,
and they boarded the Thunderhawk.

***

“Captain Angelos.” A Grey Knight Justicar nodded, as Captain Angelos arrived

at the Grey Knight’s Strike Cruiser hangar.
“Justicar.” Captain Angelos replied, nodding. “To what may I owe this pleasure
88
to?”
“Heresy. Treachery. Conspiracy.” Justicar Alaric delivered.
“Is there evidence?” Captain Angelos replied coolly.
“Yes. According to your Chapter Master, you have disobeyed direct orders and
are to be considered rogues.”
“Defending our recruiting planets against the Black Legion? Is that considered
heresy, Justicar? If it is, then I plead guilty of doing so.”
“Look around you, Justicar. The Black Legion here are destroyed. The real traitor
is the man you call Chapter Master. Azariah Kyras is the traitor.” Captain Angelos
continued.
“Is that so?” Justicar Alaric said, pacing around. “What proof is there?”
“My word, as well as Captain of the Honor Guard, Apollo…”
“Diomedes?” Justicar cut in.
“The very same.”
“Strange. For he is the one who notified us.” The Grey Knight said, turning
around to face the Captain. “I shall talk to him.”
“Is my word not good enough?” Captain Angelos injected angrily, his hand
falling to the hilt of his sword.
“Know this, Captain. After Kronus, your Chapter is under the scrutiny of the
Inquisition, suspected of taint and heresy.” Justicar Alaric said dangerously.
“Those charges were dropped.”
“So it would seem, Captain. Which is why I have not executed you for heresy.
Yet.” Justicar Alaric said, “I shall now go talk to Captain Diomedes. You are
dismissed.”
Tanthius opened his mouth, angry at being dismissed so carelessly. But Captain
Angelos restrained his Sergeant with a wave of his hand. The Blood Ravens turned
around and boarded their Thunderhawk again.
“Let them make their judgement. We are the just ones.” Captain Angelos said, as
the ramp closed.

***

“Captain. Captain Diomedes is requesting an audience.” A serf said, as Captain

Angelos finished his training exercise. He nodded, putting down his chainsword and
donning a set of simple robes.
“Captain.” Angelos nodded as the Captain of the Honor Guard entered the
training room, followed by Justicar Alaric. “Justicar.”
“Captain. It seemed I was mistaken about you. I apologize for any grieve I may
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have caused you.”
“Save it.” Captain Angelos said, waving it off. “So. Are you with us?”
“Indeed. I shall attach my forces to your company. We are at your command.”
Justicar Alaric said, saluting the Captain.
“Very well. Repairs to our fleet are almost complete, and we are ready to depart.”
Captain Angelos said.

***

Reality ripped open, and a Blood Ravens fleet dropped out of the warp. In the
distance, Angelos could see the Omnis Arcanum in orbit above Kronus, several large
Strike Cruisers and other ships around it. Angelos knew he could not destroy the
Battle Barge in a battle, because it would simply mean the end of the Chapter as they
loose their precious gene seed, as well as the Librarium Sanctorum, and all of the
knowledge would be lost.
Instead, Angelos knew he had to lure the ship in familiar territory and attack the
heretical Chapter Master in ground combat. The weapons of Captain Angelos’s fleet
were already locked onto engines and the weapons, meant to cripple the fleet so that
the traitors would not interfere.
“Captain Angelos. Glad of you to join us.” Chapter Master Kyras voxed. “You
have come to your death, traitor.”
“The only traitor here is you, heretic.” Captain Angelos snarled.
“Really? I have the First Company, the honor guard behind me. They see you as
the traitor.”
“Not the Honor Guard, Kyras. We have purged the Honor Guard of any
traitorous curs.” Captain Angelos declared. “Including Galan.”
“No! You killed him? Damn you, Angelos! Is there no end to your depravity?”
Kyras mocked. “Has the thought ever occurred to you that everything you knew is a
lie? Everything you’ve done was in the name of the Chaos Gods, instead of the corpse
Emperor?”
“No! I will not listen to your lies, heretic!” Angelos cried, he turned around and
looked at the Justicar. “Is that enough proof?”
Justicar Alaric nodded, and Captain Angelos turned around to face the
viewscreen again. Throughout his fleet, a signal was sent, and they prepared their
weapons.
“The only fate fit for traitors is death.” Angelos proclaimed, ordering the ships to
fire their weapons.
The deadly salvo took the traitor fleet by surprise, as many of the munitions and
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lance rounds punched into the shieldless ships, crippling the ships, as Captain Angelos
intended. Captain Angelos’ fleet immediately turned tail and escaped back into the
warp.
The Omnis Arcanum, the only ship that was not damaged in the ambush
immediately chased after the fleeing ships.
“Commander. It has worked. The Omnis Arcanum is hot on our tail.” A serf
reported.
“OK. Get the astropaths to send the message back to Aurelia. Warn Captain
Diomedes of our arrival.” Captain Angelos ordered.

***

“Commander. Message incoming.” Jonah voxed. “Its from astropaths. Captain

Angelos is en route, with the traitor on his six.”
“OK. Broadcast the order fleetwide. We will ambush the traitors the moment
they drop out of the warp. Retribution. This is the Captain. All units to battle stations.
This is not a drill.”
All through the ships, the serf scrambled to battle stations, preparing the mighty
warship for the fight ahead. The void shields activated, covering the Retribution from
prowl to stern with a fine film of energy. The lance batteries were charged up, and the
broadsides were loaded. The Techmarines had done a truly good job at repairing the
venerable ships of the Chapter.
The plan was cripple the Omnis Arcanum and draw the corrupt Chapter Master
into ground battle, where the power of his Battle Barge is useless. They had erected
mighty defenses at Calderis, where they have decided to set the ambush. While the
defenses stop the first company, a strike team led by Captain Reaper and Captain
Diomedes would carve a path through the attacking forces and strike at the traitorous
Kyras.
“Signal detected. The warp is breaking up.”
“Guns. Prepare to lock on and fire on my command.” Captain Reaper ordered.
Just ahead of the small armada, Captain Angelos’ ship, the Litany of Fury broke
out from the warp, closely followed by the Omnis Arcanum. The Blood Raven fleet
opened fire immediately, hurling munitions and torpedoes towards the Battle Barge.
The venerable Battle Barge, already damaged from the initial contact, was
crippled and drifted in space, with only its engines operational.
The loyalist Blood Raven ships immediately turned tail and headed towards
Calderis. The Omnis Arcanum, with no weaponary was forced to follow in order not
to loose its prey.
91
 Captain Reaper rushed to the Drop Pod bay, and secured himself into the drop
pod. As the Retribution flew over the designated drop zone, the drop pod was fired
away from the Strike Cruiser, rocketing through the atmosphere and down towards
Calderis.

***

“Damn them! First Company, prepare to deploy! Report to your drop pod bays!”
Chapter Master Kyras bellowed, picking up his possessed Force Sword and sheathing
it. “We must not let the foe escape!”
Kyras stormmed out of the bridge, cutting down many of the serfs, who were
attempting to repair the damage done to the ship. Kyras carved a blood path towards
the Drop Pod Bay, where the First Company was assembled and waiting.
“We shall show these fools what is it like to resist the First Company! Blood for
the Blood Gods!”
A lot of the First Company Terminators roared their assent, but there were a few
of those remained quiet.
“Brother Telion. Is there a problem?” Kyras asked, sensing the Terminator’s
disagreement.
“I will not be party to heresy!” With that, Telion raised his storm bolter and fired
it on full auto at the Chapter Master. Several other Terminators did so as well, cutting
down several of the corrupted Terminators.
One of the rounds managed to penetrate his armor, and Kyras roared with anger
as chained lightning erupted from his finger and fried the resisting Terminators.
Nothing was left, save for boot marks on the ground.
“All slaves of the Corpse Gods will be sacrificed!” Kyras roared, drawing his
sword and blooding his palms against the hungry blade.
The Terminators raised their power fists and roared loudly.
Moments later, the drop pods started to rain down upon Calderis.

***

Tracers and explosions ignited the night sky, as the loyalist anti-aircraft weapons
attempted to take as many of the drop pods as possible. Many were destroyed in the
air, but many more slipped past and landed. Rally zones were quickly created, and the
First Company began their attack.
The majority of the traitorous Blood Ravens landed in the deserts of Calderis,
and they advanced en massed towards the capital city, where the loyalists had set their
92
defenses. As the traitors advanced through the open plains of desert, devastatingly
accurate sniper fire took down many of the Tactical Marines, followed by artillery.
The hit and run attacks slowed the attacking forces significantly, then hit and run
attacks from bikes slowed them even more.

***

“Squad. Form up on me. Prepare for another pass by.” Sergeant Tarkus ordered,
he checked the satchel charges that hung from his belt. He gunned his bike’s engines,
and the bike roared as it crested a dune. He fired the twin-linked heavy bolters as his
bike speeded towards the Terminators. His battle brothers appeared from other angles,
guns roaring as well.
Tarkus dropped the bundle of satchel charges in the middle of the group and sped
away. He narrowly dodged a incoming power fist, and threw the bike into a slide,
before recovering and escaping retribution.
“Tarkus here. We’re pulling back. Watch your back, Cyrus.” Tarkus voxed.
“Affirmative.” Cyrus muttered, “Cyrus here. Pulling back to ambush point b.
over.”
“Roger that. Thaddeus incoming.” Thaddeus voxed, and with a roar from his
jump packs, he leapt into the sky, along with the rest of his squad. The Assault
Marines rained bolts of plasma and grenades onto the Terminators, and they roared
away before any serious firepower could be brought to bear.
Meanwhile, the loyalist armor clashed with the traitor’s tanks. The fallen Blood
Ravens had brought a venerable Land Raider, and the venerable tank sliced a swath
through the mustered loyalist Leman Russ and Predator tanks. However, in a lightning
quick strike, Tarkus and his squad managed to slap several Melta charges onto the
behemoth’s engine, and crippled the tank.
“Damn! I didn’t think they would deploy the Land Raider. Mark its co-ordinates.
It must be captured.” Tarkus ordered his squad as they zoomed back to a better
defensive position.
All four squads assembled at the gates of the fortress, and they nodded, while
Ancient Thule stood resplendent and deadly at the gates, his assault cannon whirring
in anticipation of the battle ahead. The four squads slipped inside and met with the
Captains, while the Honor Guard prepared to engage the enemy.

***

“We have them cornered. Start the attack!” Kyras roared, raising his sword.
93
 A line of Terminators aimed and fired their Cyclone missiles. The mixed krak
and HE missiles screamed as they raced towards the fortress walls. While the
explosions stitched the walls, the First Company charged.
The Honor Guard returned fire, the counter assault units preparing their jetpacks.
On Captain Diomedes’ orders, the assault units leaped into the air, with Captain
Diomedes being the first to land and kill.
“Death to all traitors!” Captain Diomedes roared, as he embedded his power axe
into the head of one of the enemy Terminators. He freed his axe and charged towards
another fallen traitor. The sweeped out with his chainsword, and the tip glanced off
Captain Diomedes’ shoulder plate. Diomedes swung his axe sideways, plunging his
power axe into the Marine’s power armor, cutting through the layers of ceramite and
finally into flesh. He elbowed the Marine’s head, and it snapped back. Captain
Diomedes freed his axe and sliced the Marine’s head off. “Come get some!”
A power fist collided with Captain Diomedes’s side, and he stumbled from the
strength of the blow, but luckily, his relic master crafted armor held fast. He swung his
power axe, while firing his melta pistol in a wide arc. The beam of energy melted
whatever it touched, including Terminator armor. A Terminator caught his swinging
power axe with his power fist. Diomedes twisted before delivering a quick kick to the
Terminator’s chest plate. There was enough to throw a man into the air, with all his
bones shattered, but it barely registered on the thick armaplas. However, Diomedes
followed the blow with a blast from his melta pistol.
The short two second burst incinerated the Terminator’s head, and the headless
body dropped to the ground. He freed his power axe and took on another enemy.
“Captain. You are needed elsewhere.” One of his battle brothers reminded.
Captain Diomedes nodded and jet packed away.
“Deny the enemy! For the Emperor!” Sergeant Oberis ordered, taking command
of the Honor Guard.
The Sternguard Veterans held their ground, calmly delivering volleys of
specialist ammunition into the enemy attackers as the Sternguard Veterans engaged
the enemies amidst roars from their jumpacks. Volleys of grenades sailed from behind
walls, fired by the Chapter’s scouts, disrupted the enemy formations even more.
More Cyclone missiles detonated against the walls as the traitors strengthened
their attacks. As more enemy Terminators surged into battle, the Honor Guard realized
bleakly that they were outnumbered five to one, but they had not became the
Chapter’s finest warriors by giving up when the odds looked bad.
“For the Chapter and the Great Father! Into them!” Sergeant Oberis roared,
raising his relic blade. The Honor Guard cheered loudly, fighting even harder.
Devastators appeared on top of the fortress walls and rained down heavy fire
94
upon the traitors. Hails of hellfire rounds rained down upon the Chaos forces, killing
many of those who wore Power Armor as the rounds penetrated and delivered the
deadly poison. Lascannon fire took care of the heavily armored Terminators. Now it
seemed that the loyalist Blood Ravens had the upper hand here, and Kyras watched as
his troops were slaughtered by the dozen.
To make matters worse for Kyras, Captain Angelos and his forces arrived by
Drop Pod, raining down his forces like an apocalyptic rain. Several of the drop pods
were of the Deathstorm varient, the assault cannons quickly arming and firing.
Dozens more of his Terminators were slaughtered by this surprise assault, and Kyras
had no choice but to call a retreat.

***

“Damn them! I will have my revenge!” Kyras swore, striking down one of the
serfs that had dropped along with the Apothecaries.
The Apothecaries attended to the wounded while Kyras vented his anger on
anything, cutting down stray serfs, striking against rocks that earned his ire. Cyrus
followed the figure with his crosshairs firmly planted on Kyras’ head. The rifle that
Cyrus cradled was a Exitus pattern, gifted to him from a Vindicare Temple Assassin
after action on Kronus. The deadly rail rifle was loaded with one Shield Breaker and
one Turbo Penetrator per two rounds. He had used this rifle to go Carnifex and tank
hunting.
Jonas, Diomedes, Reaper, Avitus, Tarkus and Thaddeus were assembled around,
ready to strike against the enemy. Jonas was shielding their presence from Kyras,
while the other members prepared to attack.
“Attack!” Captain Diomedes ordered, firing his jet pack. Reaper and Thaddeus
followed, while Cyrus and Avitus fired their weapons. The shield breaker dissipated
the force field from the iron halo, and the turbo penetrator was embedded itself into
Kyras’ chestplate.
Cyrus fired again, and this time the round punched into Kyras’s knee joint, one
of the weak parts of Power armor. Kyras’ knee weakened for a second, as poison from
the hellfire round raced through his blood vessels. In his moment of weakness,
Captain Diomedes and Captain Reaper striked. Diomedes’ power axe bit into Kyras’
gauntlets, while Reaper’s Godsplitter connected with Kyras’ chest. With a loud
thunderclap, Kyras recoiled.
Diomedes followed up with another lightning strike, but Kyras quickly blocked
the blow with his sword and lashed out with his psychic powers, warp lightning
erupting from his corrupted Force Sword. Kyras muttered a few words, and he striked
95
so quickly that Reaper did not even register him moving.
“No you don’t!” Jonah cried, muttering a few arcane words and pointing his staff
at Reaper and Diomedes.
Time seemed to slow in front of the two Captains, and they took advantage of it
to strike Kyras again, before the air turned into mud again, and this time, Kyras’ blade
striked Diomedes’ weapon away from his hand. With his hands empty, Diomedes
tackled the corrupt Chapter Master and he punched Kyras over and over again, as
Jonah casted Might of the Ancients.
“For the Chapter and the Emperor!” Captain Diomedes roared furiously,
delivering a hurricane of blows.
Kyras struggled to break free as Captain Diomedes’ blows began to draw blood
and break bones. With a loud roar, Diomedes was thrown into the air, warp lightning
coursing through his armor. However, instead of falling, Diomedes was suspended in
the air for a second before being hurled down, crashing into the ground with earth
shattering forces.
Jonah immediately hurled warp fire at Kyras, who conjured up a shield and the
fireballs dissipated against it. The two began hurling warp lightning and fire at each
other, and it became a contest of psychic strength as unearthly winds begin to blow.
The two psykers rose into the air, terrible warp powers being exchange, and all of the
combatants paused to look at the figures in the air.
Daemonic features began to appear in Kyras, including horns, claws and spikes
busted out from his power armor. Kyras began to grow a noticeably larger as well,
soon becoming too large for his power armor. Corded muscles covered Kyras from
head to feet, and he roared daemonically. With the daemon finally in manifest form,
Reaper fired his jet pack and prepared to destroy the daemon. His Godsplitter flared
with holy power, the blessed runes bursting into righteous flames.
“Back to the warp, Daemon!” Reaper cried, swinging the Daemon hammer at
Kyras.
With unimaginable speed, Kyras slammed Reaper back down onto the ground.
Luckily, Reaper’s power armor had absorbed most of the force, but unluckily, it had
been utterly annihilated, leaving Reaper stuck inside a metal coffin. Thaddeus
appeared beside the commander and grabbed up the fallen hammer. He rocketed
forward, passing between the Daemon’s legs, before bringing the hammer around in a
deadly arc and hitting the Daemon’s calf. Kyras buckled, but did not fall.
Kyras brought his sword down, but Thaddeus quickly evaded the blow. Jonah
hurled warp fire and lightning at the Daemon that got the attention of Kyras, who
turned around and fired lightning at the Librarian. Jonah absorbed the lightning with
his Force Staff and he returned it with a spin of his staff. The blast hit the daemon
96
squarely in his chest, and Kyras recoiled for a second. That was enough for Jonah to
charge into battle, strength flooding into his limbs as he muttered the rites of war. His
Force Staff glowed with the righteous fury and psychic might of the Blood Ravens as
he speared it towards Kyras.
The Force Staff was met with the Daemonically possessed blade, and it became a
contest of strength between the two. However, after a moment of struggle, it was clear
that Kyras had the upper hand here. Avitus diverted his attention away from the traitor
Terminators and fired his lascannon at the Daemon. The shaft of energy left a clean
hole in Kyras’ shoulder.
With a roar from his jetpack, Thaddeus rose to Kyras’ head height and swung his
hammer. The consecrated hammer head connected with Kyras’ chin with an upward
motion, and the Daemon’s head was rocked back. Reaper then brought down the
hammer and slammed it downwards.
Kyras fell to his knees, but continued to swipe at Thaddeus, as though swatting
away an particularly annoying fly. Jonah struck the Daemon again with another bolt
of warp power, while Avitus unleashed another torrent of las fire at Kyras. However,
the Daemon was still going strong, nearly spearing Thaddeus with his possessed
sword.
Then, the Grey Knights arrived.

***

Kyras seemed to be writhing in pain as the Grey Knights, led by Justicar Alaric,
charged towards the Daemon. The anti-daemon and anti-sorcery wards on their armor
flared as they got closer to Kyras. Their Nemesis weapons crackled with psychic
intensity, their wrist-mounted storm bolter spitting out shell after shell at Kyras.
Justicar Alaric leaped into the air, spearing his halberd forward. The warded blade
sliced into the arm that Kyras held up to defend himself with, and Kyras cried with
pain.
The Blood Ravens watched in awe as the Grey Knights lay waste to the Daemon
that had them extremely troubled. They were both skilled with the storm bolter and
blade, and the weapons worked in tandem with each other. Thaddeus, easily the best
swordsmen in the strike force also watched in awe.
The Grey Knights began chanting the rites of banishment, and Kyras weakened
visibly.

***

97
 Captain Diomedes finally recovered from the blow, and received the hammer
from Thaddeus.
“In the Name of the Emperor! Back to the warp!” Captain Diomedes swung the
holy daemon hammer into the Daemon’s face.
Kyras’ head snapped back, and Diomedes brought the hammer down. This time,
Kyras’ head caved in, and the Daemon collapsed to the ground. The Blood Ravens
gathered around the fallen body, as the Grey Knights prepared for the killing blow, as
they chanted the rites of detestation and the rites of banishment.
The very fabric of reality seemed to be ripped open, and Kyras was sucked back
into the warp. Many of the Terminators, seeing their corrupt chapter Master being
sucked back into the warp, immediately turned onto their former brothers.
After killing the traitors, the First Company Terminators stood defiant against the
strike force, their weapons raised.
“We knew that Kyras was corrupt, but we could not have moved against him.”
One of the Veteran Terminator Sergeant said, taking off his helmet.
Justicar Alaric and his Grey Knights leveled their weapons at the Blood Ravens
Terminators. Diomedes and the other Blood Ravens also reluctantly raised their
weapons at their brothers.
“He who consorts with the enemy is an enemy of mine.” Alaric stated, his trigger
finger closing on his storm bolter.
“Then let us prove to you that we are pure!” one of the Apothecary shouted,
stepping forward. “We shall infiltrate and strike against the Litany of Fury!”
Alaric lowered his aim, but kept his weapon ready. “How do you intend to do
so?”
“Perhaps, we could bind you, and escort you onto the Litany of Fury for
sacrifice. This allows access to the ship. There are still several traitors onboard the
venerable ship.” The Terminator Sergeant continued.
“I agree with this plan, as rash and foolish as it is. This is the only way to
recapture the ship without severely damaging it. Justicar. I cannot, will not allow you
to destroy the Litany of Fury, doing so will cripple our chapter.” Captain Diomedes
warned, his fury barely contained.
“Relax, Captain. I never had intentions to destroy the Librarium of the Litany of
Fury, in fact, the Ordo Malleus has sent to ensure the survival of the Battle Barge.”
Justicar Alaric replied, showing the Captain his open palms to placate Diomedes’ fury.
“Very well. But Captain. You are in no state to fight.” Captain Reaper said
“I will not shirk away from our foes at this critical hour!” Diomedes thundered
“But if you fell in battle, the Honor Guard would become leaderless, and the
Chapter would lose another senior commander.” Reaper argued.
98
 “Very well. But Captain Angelos shall accompany you.” Diomedes agreed
grudgingly.
“Very well. I shall summon the Thunderhawk now.” The Terminator Sergeant
said. “By the way, I’m Ckrius.”

***

“Move along, I said! The False Emperor is not here to save you now!” Ckrius
roared in Reaper face as he kicked the Space Marine off the Thunderhawk. Thaddeus,
Angelos and Tarkus was next. “Fresh meat, brothers!”
The Blood Raven sentries roared their delight at the captured Space Marines, too
distracted to notice Cyrus and his squad slipping off the Thunderhawk. Reaper roared
in anger as the corrupted Blood Ravens jeered at him as he walked down the corridor,
heading for the bridge.
Ckrius held the captured weapons, including the God-splitter, as well as an
master crafted power sword. Reaper suddenly broke free of his restrains, and grabbed
the sword off the Terminator Sergeant, cutting down one of the guards with one
smooth motion.
“Attack!” Captain Angelos ordered, quickly disarming another guard. He threw
the bolter to Tarkus, while he took the proffered Daemon hammer from Ckrius.
Ckrius’ Terminator retinue suddenly raised their storm bolters and evacuated the
traitor’s heads with some high caliber death. They stormed the hangar, quickly killing
the surprised traitors. Ckrius went over one of the ship wide intercoms.
“For the Chapter, brothers! Rise up and strike the enemy down!” Ckrius roared.
“Kyras is dead! Retake the ship and purge the enemy!”
Throughout the entire ship, those who were loyal to the Chapter rose up against
the traitors, including the serfs. Short and bloody fights occurred as the loyalists
attempted to retake the ship.
“Storm the bridge!” Captain Angelos ordered, charging down the corridor,
Tarkus, Reaper and Thaddeus close behind him. A pair of Guards drew their power
sword and charged Angelos. Captain Angelos swung the Daemon hammer, and one of
the guards slammed against the wall, denting it, and Reaper heard a crack. Tarkus
took down the second guard with a burst from his bolt gun.
The door was sealed, and Captain Angelos immediately set work to it with his
Daemon hammer. With each swing, the door dented a little, until it was bent enough
for Tarkus to stick his bolt gun through. Angelos stepped back while Tarkus emptied
his magazine through the hole killing several of the defenders. With another hammer
blow, one of the inch thick adamantium doors was dented enough for the Space
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Marines to pass through.
Tarkus was in first, his boltgun swiveling left and right for a target. All he found
was dead bodies. Then Cyrus and his squad appeared from the shadows, their blades
bloodied and weapons still smoking.
“Nearly caught us with that breach and clear method there, Tarkus.” Cyrus
muttered grimly. “Commander. Ship secured. Most of the traitors has either been
eliminated or has fled down into the engineering section.”
“Hunt them down, quickly.” Reaper ordered. “Tarkus, Cyrus. You’re in charge.
Thaddeus, secure the armory, Jonah, secure the Librarium.”
The Sergeants departed the bridge as Captain Angelos quickly examined the
damage done to his Battle Barge. Several serfs that were hiding under the consoles or
in hidden nooks and crannies emerged and kneeled in the presence of the Commander.
“No need for that. Where’s Nathiel?” Captain Angelos asked, looking around for
his serf aide.
“They killed him, Lord Marine.” One of the serfs reported. “They found out that
he was sabotaging the ship.”
“At least he died a purpose.” Captain Angelos muttered.

***

Several traitorous Marines stormed past Cyrus, disregarding all stealth

procedures of escape and evasion. Cyrus dropped from a gantry and landed with a
roll, making no virtually no sounds at all. He pursued the traitor marines doggedly
knowing that this passage led to a dead end, where his scouts had already set up a
trap. He purposely clanged his weapon against one of the pipes, drawing the attention
of the last marine as the others turned a corner.
Cyrus was one with the shadows, and even with the marine’s enhanced sight, he
still couldn’t see the scout. The Marine raised his weapon and investigated the sound.
Cyrus made another sound, and his prey turned around, desperately attempting to
locate the source. He saw a data pad on the ground that had not been there previously.
“Right behind you.” The message read. The Traitor turned around and saw
darkness as Cyrus plunged his combat blade into the gap between the neck and the
helmet and emptying his silenced bolt pistol into the Marine’s midriff. The Marine
dropped to the ground, dead even before he hit the ground.
Cyrus dragged the body into the shadows, before continuing the hunt for traitors.
“Sergeant. Objective complete. Two dead. Out.”
Cyrus pressed the transmit button once for acknowledgement. He navigated
through the maze of corridors with ease, unlike the traitor Marines that came down
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here to hide. He stopped dead and draped his cloak over himself as he heard voices.
He slipped from shadow to shadow, and saw that six Marines ahead had set up
some defensive measures, with a bulkhead behind them. Floodlights filled the area,
not allowing Cyrus to get closer. Cyrus also noticed that they had a Devastator with
them. He took in all the details before retreating.
“Tarkus. Need assistance to root out some entrenched enemies. My position.”
“Roger, are you exposed?” Tarkus replied.
“Negative.”
“Sorry, that was foolish of me. Ok, we’re heading over now.” Tarkus said,
cutting the link.
A few minutes, Tarkus and his squad arrived, wielding flamers and plasma guns.
Cyrus immediately began retelling the details of the enemy entrenchment. Tarkus took
in the details and began adjusting the fuel feed for his flamer. Cyrus climbed into one
of the many crawlways that led him directly above the group of Marines.
Cyrus dropped a stun grenade in the middle of the group, and the Marines turned
around to investigate the disturbance, and t hey were blinded by the flash. Tarkus and
his squad stormed the position, guns roaring. A spear of fire erupted from Tarkus’
flamer, consuming several of the Marines in the confined space. Flamers were
extremely deadly in boarding actions, as the tight confines and corridors ensured there
was nowhere to go.
There was a strong smell of cooking flesh as the heat literally melted the traitors
inside their armor.
“Commander. Thaddeus here, the armory is secured.”
“Roger that. Cyrus. We’ve just lost power from generator 1. Here over there and
ensure that the traitors don’t inflict more damage.” Captain Reaper ordered.
“Understood, Captain. I’m on my way.” Cyrus said, heading out. Tarkus was
close on his tail.
It was very silent, and Cyrus held up a clenched fist. It felt like a trap, but Cyrus
could see nothing, and yet his instincts told him it was a trap. He scanned the areas
that he would hide in, and found movement, and yet he moved on, not drawing
attention. He counted three scouts.
“They’re waiting for us in an ambush.” Cyrus said, with his back to the enemy
scouts and in an undertone. Then he declared. “There’s nothing here, let’s move.”
Just as the hidden scouts lowered their weapons, Cyrus turned around, dropped
to one knee, drew his pistol and fired three shots in one smooth action. All three
scouts dropped dead.
Even Tarkus was stunned by Cyrus’ speed and skill. The Tactical Marines
stormed forward to secure the rest of the reactors.
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 “Captain. Sergeant Tarkus here. Reactors are secured. No major damage except
for a cut wire. Send down the Techmarines.”
“Roger that.” Reaper replied. “They’re dispatched.”
Cyrus stalked over to the bodies of the scouts, and was griefed to noticed that he
had trained them personally. How was it possible that Kyras could have spread the
corruption so well and quickly without anyone noticing? He would need to investigate
further. He ducked and blended into the shadows as he saw a what he thought was
another shadow flitting past.
He hadn’t seen one of those…since Kaurava, when the Dark Eldar assaulted
their stronghold with rapid strikes that defeated the disgraced Commander Boreale’s
“steel rain” tactic. He remembered hunting down the Mandrakes through the Lands of
Solitude, it was the best hunting session he had, as the Mandrakes had warp tainted
shadow skin, allowing them to disappear even in broad daylight with no cover.
He pursued the Mandrake, feeling that this ran deeper. The Mandrake stopped
and turned around, looking for the Scout Sergeant.
“There is no point in hiding, human. I can smell your scent.” The Mandrake
growled, extending his twin bolines. Cyrus emptied his bolt pistol and drew his
combat blade and charging.
The Mandrake twisted his body, allowing the rounds to only scratch at his skin as
they passed by, and Cyrus could see the Mandrake’s face light up with pleasure. Cyrus
kept his guard low, waiting for the Mandrake to strike first. He knew Mandrakes were
impatient creatures, especially when there was prey.
The Mandrake striked, spearing forward with his boline. Instead of jumping
back, Cyrus stepped into the reach of the Mandrake, to the surprise of the Dark Eldar.
He headbutted the Mandrake, bringing his blade in an upward arc. His blade plunged
into the Dark Eldar’s stomach, and he twisted the blade to add to the injury.
The Dark Eldar grinned with pleasure, and he kneed Cyrus’ groin, but the Scout
rode the knee and he spat a gob of acid into the Mandrake’s face. This time, the
Mandrake actually screamed in pain then in ecstasy. Cyrus grinded his teeth in disgust
and elbowed the Mandrake in the face, and he heard an audible crack of bone.
Cyrus jumped backwards as the boline scratched the surface of his chestplate. He
had to be careful. The mono-molecular bolines were sharp enough to rend through
power armor, and he had seen it decapitate a fellow scout with a single flick of the
arm.
The Mandrake was grinning, a horrible, macabre half melted face grin. Cyrus
reversed the grip of his blade and pinned one of the Mandrake’s arms against the wall
with his blade. He stepped just out of range of the Mandrake. There was nothing more
frustrating for the Mandrake to have his prey just out of range for him.
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 “Cyrus here. Get me a team down here. I discovered something.” Cyrus
muttered, reloading his bolt pistol. He put one in the Mandrake’s each leg, and the
Dark Eldar growled in pain. “Librarian Jonah, you are needed down here.”
“We’re heading down now.”
“My brothers know I’m here.” The Mandrake growled.
“You’re lying. You’re an outcast.” Cyrus spat, he fired another shot, disabling the
Mandrake’s other hand. He stepped just out of range and crossed his arms. “How’d
you get on the ship?”
“I’m not telling you anything.”
“You better start talking, or else we will leave you here, at the mercy of
Slaanesh.” Cyrus threatened.
“Nooo!” the Mandrake screamed, his eyes widened at the sheer terror of having
his soul consumed by She Who Thirsts.
“Oh yes. Jonah here will create a localized warp bubble. We’ll just watch as you
get flayed alive.” Cyrus continued, slipping a cruel streak into his voice.
Sergeant Tarkus and his squad arrived, followed by Jonah. The Tactical Squad
immediately trained their weapons on the Mandrake, who seemed to be crying tears of
pure darkness. Distraught does not even start to illustrate the Dark Eldar’s feelings. To
be consumed by Slaanesh was to be trapped in the warp as playthings for the god. It
was the very worst fate for any Dark Eldar to be suffering.
“Jonah. Weave the warp bubble.” Cyrus commanded.
Jonah did not know what Cyrus meant, but he conjured up some warp lightning
that seemed to frighten the Mandrake even more.
“Ok, ok. I yield!” the Mandrake screamed. “Kyras invited us on. He promised
slaves and prey. He had the stink of a Chaos taint on him.”
“That we already know. Tell us more. Talk faster. The bubble is almost
complete.” Jonah warned.
The Mandrake screamed in pure terror.
“I don’t know, I don’t know!” the Mandrake screamed. Then the Mandrake
became limp, and blood dribbled out of his mouth. The Dark Eldar had bit his own
tongue off in the sheer terror of having his soul taken.
“Shit. This complicate things.” Cyrus muttered. “We don’t know the numbers,
where they are and what’s their agenda.”
“WE have to warn the commander.” Jonah said.
“Agreed.” Cyrus said. “Tarkus. Be careful out there.”
Tarkus nodded and advanced through the corridors, his squad mates securing all
the angles of approach. Tarkus had not had contact with Dark Eldar at all, but if
there’re similar to the Eldar, then Tarkus knew to expect rapid strikes and feints.
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 Cyrus returned to the shadow once more, stalking through the service corridors
of engineering. He was deeply troubled by the presence of the Dark Eldar here but he
could not fathom why the Chapter Master invited them on. He stalked the corridors,
ignoring his brothers as he thought the entire process over.

***

“Commander. Ship is almost secured.” Jonah reported.

“Almost?” Reaper asked, turning around to face the Librarian.
“Sir. Sergeant Cyrus found some Dark Eldar interlopers on the ship.” Jonah
reported. “We’ve done some interrogations, but have not establish any information on
them yet.”
“Capturing one alive is quite a distinguishable feat. Commend Sergeant Cyrus
for me. In the mean time, we have to clear out all enemies. And especially the Dark
Eldar. They are a worthy adversary.” Captain Reaper continued. Suddenly his vox
bead barked in his ear.
“Captain Reaper. This is Angelos. I’m under attack from Dark Eldar troops. I’m
down at the gunnery station Charlie!” Captain Angelos voxed.
“Roger that, Captain. Tarkus, Cyrus, gather your squads and head down to
gunnery station Charlie, Captain Angelos needs help.” Reaper ordered, igniting his
power sword and checking if his plasma pistol had full charge.

***

Captain Angelos jumped backwards and barely avoided the blade that headed his
way. He swung his hammer in return, but the Daemon hammer was too slow, and the
Dark Eldar ducked it, before spearing forward with its extended blades. Angelos
grinded his teeth as the blades rended through his armor and bit into his forearms. He
swung his thunderhammer sideways, but the Mandrake avoided the hammer once
again.
He slung his thunderhammer across his back and drew his combat blade and he
charged, hoping to take the initiative before the Dark Eldar could end his life. The
Mandrake shifted in and out the shadows, and Angelos had trouble telling if there was
one of two of them. Then all three striked at the same time. Angelos fell backwards to
avoid the blade, and he rolled before recovering with a leap. He managed to connect
his elbow with the Mandrake’s face, and the Mandrake cried with ecstasy and pain.
Angelos spun on the ball of his foot, slicing the Mandrake’s face open. Even the
Necron seemed to pale in comparison in terms of deadliness, at least you could see the
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Necrons approaching.
Warp lightning jumped from one of the Mandrakes to the other, and Angelos
turned around and saw Jonah, together with more Blood Ravens arriving. Tarkus
immediately laid down a cone of fire that flooded the tunnel. The Mandrakes were lit
up by the ignited promethium, and the other Tacticals Marines fired their bolters,
cutting down the Dark Eldar.
“Captain. Are you all right?” Reaper asked, giving the other Captain a quick
once over. The Master Crafted armor had lacerations and rents all over, as if the Dark
Eldar had been toying with Angelos.
“Commander. These Mandrakes had most likely used poisoned blades. I highly
recommend you to report to the Apothecarion.” Cyrus suggested, stepping out of the
shadows. “Now.”
“I shall not back down from our enemies, Sergeant.” Captain Angelos replied. In
truth, Angelos felt a little light headed, and his wounds were still throbbing, and he
could feel his hearts beating abnormally fast.
“Commander. I have seen the effects of the Mandrakes’ poison.” Cyrus urged. “I
shall escort you there. Jonah, continue the hunt. They have quite a distinctive presence
in the warp. Good hunting.”
As the Librarian led the Blood Ravens to hunt, Cyrus and Angelos headed
towards the Apothecarion. The Scout Sergeant kept his silenced bolt pistol drawn and
he kept on scanning for anything that was out of place. He tackled the Captain and
both Space Marines slammed into the ground as a hail of shuriken flew over head.
Cyrus returned fire, sending a spread that dropped the Sybarite that was firing his
splinter cannon.
The other Dark Eldar Warriors opened fire, filling the corridor with mono-
molecular shards of neurotoxin. Cyrus tossed a grenade and charged. The grenade
exploded, and Cyrus crashed into the first Warrior, his blade easily punching through
the psycho armor of the Dark Eldar. The Dark Eldar’s eyes widened in surprise, as
there weren’t many humans that could match the speed of a Dark Eldar. Cyrus twisted
his blade and dropped the body, lashing out with a kick towards the second Warrior.
Captain Angelos watched in awe as the Scout Sergeant fight with the Dark Eldar.
Strikes were traded so quickly that Angelos had trouble following them. His style of
fighting was familiar to Angelos, similar to the Eldar Banshees, and it felt odd to
watch the Scout fight with the prowess of an Eldar.
Captain Angelos charged forward, swinging his combat blade. One of the Dark
Eldar Warriors turned to face him, and he continued his charge. The Warrior
sidestepped at the last moment, and Angelos was caught on the wrong foot as the
Dark Eldar stabbed his mono-molecular blade into his shoulder. He felt no pain, but
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he knew the damage was done. He swung his blade sideways, and the Warrior dodged
the blade expertly, twisting his body before delivering a quick punch to Captain
Angelos’ head.
The Captain tasted blood and saw stars, so he did what the Warrior did not
expect him to do. He tackled the Dark Eldar and began pummeling his fists into the
Dark Eldar’s torso and head. The flimsy psycho plastic armor broke under the
continuous assault and Angelos did not stop until he had broken through the flesh of
the Warrior. Cyrus helped the Captain up.
“Lets move.” Cyrus urged.
They arrived at the Apothecarion, and Cyrus sealed the doors behind him. Then
the enemy striked.
“Thaddeus, need support down at the Apothecarion! Pronto!” Cyrus voxed,
sidestepping a boline that was spearing towards him. He grabbed the Mandrake’s arm
and snapped it. He twisted around, blocking another blow with the Mandrake’s back.
Captain Angelos had unslunged his Daemon hammer and was slamming it into
the ground, sending out a concentric circle of shockwave that threw the Mandrakes
back, as well as scattering medical equipment everywhere.
The Apothecary picked up an particularly nasty looking sawblade and locked
blades with one of the Warriors. The Apothecary stabbed his wrist mounted
Narthecium and pumped poison into the Warrior. The Dark Eldar’s eyes popped open
in surprise as the potent poison rushed through his veins.
Several of the Apothecary’s serfs drew las pistols and began snapping off shots at
the Dark Eldar invaders, but the Dark Eldar was too fast for them to track, and their
las shots more often than not hit Cyrus.
Cyrus felt a cold blade of pain punch into his back, and he lunged forward to
dislodge the blade and turned around to face his enemy. The Mandrake had
disappeared. Cyrus slipped on some blood, and that was what saved him as the
Mandrake leaped from the darkness and nearly sliced Cyrus’ head off. The Scout
brought his bolt pistol up and fired two shots point blank into the Mandrake’s groin,
before swiftly delivering two more to the Mandrake’s head.
A stun grenade rolled into the Apothecarion, and Cyrus covered his eyes just in
time to block out the flash. Sergeant Thaddeus and his squad stormed into the
Apothecarion, quickly cutting down the Dark Eldar with their chainswords and
bolters.
“Timely as ever, Thaddeus.” Captain Angelos said, lowering his hammer. He
slumped against the wall.
“Help him up, quickly!” the Apothecary shouted, clearly a medical station as
Thaddeus and Cyrus lifted the fainted Captain onto the station. The Apothecary set to
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work immediately, pumping anti-toxins and larramen cells into the Captain’s
bloodstream. Immediately, some color returned to the Captain’s cheeks.
“What happened to him?” the Apothecary asked sharply.
“Dark Eldar poison. Several stabs all through. No significant bleeding as with
normal Dark Eldar posion.” Cyrus delivered crisply.
“Ok. Clear the area.” The Apothecary ordered. Cyrus and Thaddeus cleared out
of the Apothecarion. Thaddeus allowed his chainsword to rev for a moment to clear
out the Dark Eldar blood stuck in his sword.
“How did they even get on?” Thaddeus asked, directing the question to the Scout
Sergeant.
“Apparently, Kyras invited them on. Why, I still don’t know.” Cyrus replied,
checking his combat blade, it was severely notched from the Dark Eldar blades

***

“There is no need to hide, Eldar. I can feel your presence in the warp.” Jonah
cried, standing tall in the middle of the corridor. Tarkus and his squad formed a line
behind the Librarian, switching between visor modes in an desperate attempt to locate
the Dark Eldar.
Jonah fired a bolt of warp lightning from his Force Staff. The Dark Eldar dived,
attempting to dodge the lightning, but Jonah had anticipated that and already sent a
second bolt that caught the Mandrake and fried him. The Tactical Marines opened fire
with their bolters and flamers, filling the corridor with the Emperor’s Righteous Fury.
The Eldar Warriors returned fire with their splinter rifles, the mono-molecular shards
of ammunition embedding themselves into the power armor of the Space Marines.
One of the Syrabites managed to avoid the storm of firepower and got up close
with the Librarian. Jonah slammed his Force Staff into the ground, sending out a
shockwave of energy that threw the Syrabite flying backwards. Jonah moved through
the warp, teleporting straight in front of the Dark Eldar. His Force Staff speared
through the Dark Eldar’s heart, killing the squad leader immediately.
He sweeped out with his Force Staff , cutting down one of the Dark Eldar
Warriors that tried to blindside him. Warp lightning jumped forth from his fingers,
frying the other Dark Eldar that were hiding.
“Your death is here, xenos!” Jonah cried, warp lightning and fire erupting from
his Force Staff, flushing out the rest of the cowering Dark Eldar. Hundreds of venom
shards bounced off a shield that Jonah has erected. Lightning crackled against Jonah’s
shield, and he seemed to weaken for a few seconds.
A Dark Eldar that was distinguished from the others with the massive trophy
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rack and better equipment walked arrogantly down the corridor, a Crucible of
Malediction in his left hand, while his right was affixed with an Agoniser. Four Incubi
flanked the Archon, their Punishers held in a two handed grip.
“Prepare to die!” the Archon cackled wickedly. The Incubi charged, their
Tormentor Helms spitting out neurotoxin shards at the Blood Ravens.
“Tactical squad, return fire!” Tarkus ordered, pulling the trigger of his boltgun.
His squad did so as well, filling the corridors with dragonfire rounds. The rounds
punched through the flimsy psychoplastic armor of the Incubi, and the shells
detonated in an spectacular spray of blood and ichor. However, despite suffering from
such grievous injuries, the bodyguards continued charging,
Jonah quickly parried the first blow with ease, delivering a quick warp blast into
the first Incubi, sending the Dark Eldar flying backwards. However, the second Incubi
managed to get his Punisher past the Librarian’s guard. The blade immediately
delivered an electric shock that overloaded Jonah’s senses and his armor as well. He
also felt the poison pumping into his bloodstream.
Jonah focused, and pushed. The venom manifested in his palm and he sprayed it
into the face of the Incubus. The Incubus staggered backwards, the neurotoxin eating
away at his face. Jonah followed up with another push, slamming the Incubus against
a bulkhead. Something broke, it wasn’t the bulkhead.
Tarkus dropped his boltgun and drew his chainsword and locked blades with one
of the Incubi. The teeth of his blade grinded through the haft of the Punisher, snapping
it in half. The Incubus recoiled, holding both ends of the weapon, then he speared
forward. Tarkus leaped back, drawing and firing his boltgun in one hand. At point
blank range, the rounds punched straight through the Dark Eldar. Tarkus drew his
chainsword and sliced open the Dark Eldar’s front.
“For the Emperor! Deny the enemy, let none find us wanting!” Tarkus roared,
engaging the last Incubus with his chainsword. He nimbly avoided the Incubus’
tormenter helm’s blast of neurotoxin shards before punching with an uppercut to the
Dark Eldar’s chin.
The other Tactical Marines fired on full auto at the Archon, who fled as the last
Incubi died. Several rounds caught the Archon and slowed him down, but he
continued to flee. Jonah muttered a few words and traveled through the warp,
appearing in front of the Archon. The Dark Eldar charged with his Agoniser poised to
strike.
The Agoniser barely touched Jonah’s power armor, and he already felt pure
agony rushing through is body. Images of sheer terror flashed through his mind, and
only through his mental focus did he managed to clear his head for a second. That
second was enough for Jonah to spear his Force Staff forward aimed for the Archon’s
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heart. The psychically charged staff only managed to take a section of the armor away
as the Archon leaped backwards. Tarkus charged, standing over the Librarian as he
fired his boltgun at the Archon. He had loaded one of his last inferno clips. The effect
was instant: the Archon was immolated by the chemical fire.
“Apothecary!” Tarkus called on the vox. “Apothecary! We have a Librarian
down. Requesting immediately medical support!”
Jonah was writhing in pain, and Tarkus dared not touch the Librarian for fear of
setting off chain reactions from the Archon’s weapon. There was no rent or any
significant damage to the Librarian’s armor that could have been causing the Librarian
so much pain.
“Cyrus. I’m uploading a feed. Tell me what’s happening!” Tarkus voxed,
blinking at an icon in his HUD.
“I see him. Let me guess. Archon. Agoniser.” Cyrus muttered. “It affects the
victim through the nervous system. Makes them believe they’re in pure agony. Nasty
weapon. Doesn’t actually hurt them though.”
“A cure, Cyrus! How do I end the agony.”
“Get Jonah to focus. Once he focuses. The pain will disappear.” Cyrus ordered.
“Brother Librarian. Jonah Orion! I need you to focus! Let nobody find you
wanting!” Tarkus yelled, shaking the venerable Librarian.
Jonah groaned and he shuddered, his eyes focusing on the Sergeant for a moment
before unfocusing again. Tarkus applied a stimulant pack to Jonah, and the Librarian
groaned. Tarkus slapped the Librarian lightly but firmly, and the Librarian finally sat
up, shaking his head.
Cyrus and an Apothecary arrived, and the Apothecary immediately crouched
down beside the Librarian, checking the Librarian with a sweep of his glove tally.
“I’m not detecting any physical damage to the Librarian. But his neural and heart
patterns suggests that he was under intense pain.” The Apothecary reported. “I shall
continue to monitor his vital signs.”
Cyrus walked over to the burnt out corpse of the Archon and knelt beside the
body. “It’s the Archon alright. Good kill, Tarkus.” Cyrus said, looking up at the
Sergeant. “We have to destroy all of the foul relics that the Archon was using. Don’t
touch the Agoniser. Burn it.”
“Get me a flamer down here. Now.” Tarkus ordered, sheathing his bolt gun. He
leaped and rolled away in time to dodge a Impaler from a Wych that leaped from the
roof. He drew his chainsword out, and parried a blow that nearly sliced off his head.
The other Tactical Marines were similarly embattled, but it was clear that these Dark
Eldar female warriors, wearing nothing but loincloths and armed with fight staves
were a match for the Space Marines.
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 “Wyches!” Cyrus growled, He fixed his bayonet and used his shotgun as a
fighting stave. These Wyches were even deadlier than the Eldar Banshees with their
unique style of Gladiatorial fighting, and their deadly weapons. His shotgun blasted
Wyches apart at point blank range.
Tarkus felt the a blade biting into his vambraces and he slammed his elbow
towards the Wych’s face, but instead, there was nothing there, and he was caught on
the wrong foot, and he felt another blade bite into his lower back. He roared with
anger, spinning on the ball of his foot, swinging his chainsword. The tip of the blade
just barely caught the Wych’s arm, and it ripped out a chunk of flesh and muscle. The
Wych smoothly spun out of range, her executioner pistol firing.
“The Emperor protects!” Sergeant Tarkus cried, raising a arm to protect himself.
The barrage of mono-molecular shards embedded themselves into his vambraces, and
he lashed out blindly, and by a stroke of luck, knocked the Impaler out of the the
Wych’s hands. “Death to the foul Xenos!”
His squad mates echoed his warcry, fighting with renewed vigor. The Wychs
screamed loudly in response, their warcry loud and shrill. Tarkus dropped his boltgun
and held his chainsword in a two handed grip, the instincts of fighting with a sword
flowing back into his limbs. Memory of fighting with sword decades ago became new
again, as he traded blows with two of the Wychs.
Strength flowed through his arms, and Tarkus delivered blow after blow at the
Wych, and despite several grievous injuries that the Wych sustained, the Dark Eldar
Warrior continued fighting.
Cyrus spun on the balls of his foot, striking lightly but quickly, confusing the
Wych with his unique style of fighting. He had fixed a warblade to the end of his
shotgun, and was using both ends accordingly, blasting away at the Wychs while
parrying blows. But he bled from several nicks where the Wych’s Impaler penetrated
his armaplas armor.
“I enjoyed this fight, human. And now you die!” the Wych screamed in Cyrus’
face, and he could see the crazed desperation of too much combat drugs in the Dark
Eldar’s blood. The Wych headbutted Cyrus, but he rode the impact, bringing his
shotgun upwards and into the Wych’s throat. He pulled the trigger, and the Dark
Eldar’s brains were splattered against the roof. He freed his shotgun, brought it up and
blasted another Wych that attempted to blindside him.
There was a loud roar, and a spear of fire engulfed the remaining Wychs. They
screamed loudly, not in pain, but in pleasure, and Tarkus growled in disgust as he
emptied his boltgun into the flailing figures in the fire. Brother Promethius kept up the
stream of ignited promethium, until the figures in the fire were nothing but charred
figures curled up on the ground.
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 “Good timing, brother Promethius.” Tarkus said, nodding his thanks to the
Tactical Marine.
“All Sergeants, report in at the bridge!” Captain Apollo Diomedes ordered.

***

“We’ve detected an enemy fleet on the edge of the system. Tactica is analyzing it
right now, but early reports seem to indicate that it’s a Tau fleet.” Captain Diomedes
said, bringing up the fleet on a holographic display.
“Size and strength?” Thaddeus asked.
“It seemed to be a small scout fleet, but it could only be a vanguard for the main
force. Their ships are all frigate class, and we can easily dispatch them.”
“Commander, I would suggest caution. Our ranks grow dangerously thin, and we
cannot suffer any more damage to our ranks.”
“Those are the words of a coward, Sergeant.” Diomedes thundered, turning
around to face the Tactical Marine. Tarkus did not back down, and the two Space
Marines stood nose to nose. The other Sergeants watched warily, ready to support
Tarkus.
“You noticed that they haven’t fired yet? That’s because they want to talk,
Captain. We should call for reinforcements before engaging the Xenos.” Tarkus said
calmly, “Their ships outgun and outrange us, the only advantage we have is our
superior strength, rendered nothing if we are defeated in Space. We will initiate talks
as a ruse for them to bring their forces onto the ground. Then we ambush them.”
“A sound tactic, Sergeant.” Captain Diomedes said, backing down. “Very well.
The signal has been sent.”
As if to underline Tarkus’ point a transmission bleeped on the display. It was
from the Tau fleet.
“Greetings, Gue’la. I am Commander Shas’O Kais, commander of the Tau
Empire. The Tau Empire is here to claim this system for the Greater Good. Surrender,
or be destroyed.”
“Peace, Xenos. I do not wish to fight. What is this Greater Good you speak of?”
Tarkus said, looking at the viewscreen directly, where the heavily armored Shas
O’Kais looked down upon him. The XV22 battlesuit that the Tau Commander was
wearing is highly advanced, and Tarkus could see many weapons cycling in their
armatures, ready to fire in an instant’s notice. Tarkus had no doubts that the Tau
outgun them.
“The Greater Good is salvation, Gue’la! Surrender, and you will be intergrated
into the Tau Empire, so that we can work towards the Greater Good.”
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 “Explain.” Tarkus said, crossing his arms.
“Together, we can harness the strengths of our races, Gue’la. You’re brute
strength with our firepower. Together we can face down our common foe.” Shas
O’Kais replied. “The Ork that calls himself Gorgutz the Headhunter is descending
upon this system with a force of 10,000 Orks. He is only three days behind us.”
Tarkus and the Blood Ravens were surprised by this news, and they were
shocked into silence. Three days. 10,000 Orks. Gorgutz. The Ork that had escaped
retribution from the Blood Ravens numerous times. Perhaps there would be an ally in
the Tau. At least they could use the firepower that the Tau had brought along.
“Very well. We shall stand together against the Orks.” Tarkus said, his heart
lurching as he swayed from the path of the Emperor by consorting with aliens. The
link cut. “For now.”
“Muster the troops. Reinforce our hold on the planets. The Orks must not be
allowed to take our recruiting worlds away from us!” Captain Angelos ordered,
limping into the bridge. “Captain Diomedes. Prepare the Honor Guard. Sergeant
Tarkus. You are hereby promoted to Captain of the 3rd Company. Lead them to
victory, brother!”
“Sir!” Tarkus replied, saluting sharply.
The other Sergeants cheered the Tactical Marine on, the promotion long overdue.
Captain Tarkus was the most veteran of them, with over 150 years of experience
under his belt. Wise and humbled out of battle, confident and steely in battle, Tarkus
embodied the very image that all Space Marines aspires to be.
“Captain Tarkus, deploy your company on Calderis. That is where the Tau are
deploying their forces. Keep an eye on them. Sergeant Cyrus. Accompany him. Recon
and sabotage the Orks’ assault. Priority is elimination of the Warboss.” Captain
Diomedes added.
“Captain Reaper. The rest of your strike force will remain onboard and be ready
to reinforce the efforts on the ground.

***

“They don’t look like much, do they?” Brother Ckrius said, referring to the Tau
Firewarriors that stood beside them in the dugout.
“Never underestimate your foe, brother. That path leads to an early grave.”
Tarkus rebuked. “Their strength lies not in their arms, but in their weapons and
marksmenship.”
“But the Orks are known for their resiliency and their love of close quarters
combat. What good are these puny Tau in battle?” Ckrius replied.
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 “Look to your rear, brother.” Tarkus said, waving a hand. “Kroot carnivores.
Ferocious fighters with an appetite to match.”
“Bah.” Ckrius replied, turning away to survey the skies.
The fleets of the Tau and the Blood Ravens clashed with the Orks above them,
and they could see the trading fire between the ships. The Orks piloted crude and
massive asteroids that had a bridge, weapons and engines slapped on in a manner that
baffled and confused all attempts to analyse these ships by the Techpriests. Often,
once stripped of their capability to fight, these ships would crash onto the planet
below them to unleashed the true threat: the Orks that were inside.
“Captain. One of the enemy ships are on a collision course for the planet.” A
servitor voxed.
“Give me a location.”
“10,000 kilometers North of your current position.”
“Roger that.” Tarkus replied. He switched to a company wide channel. “Third
company! Dig in and face weapons to the North! Prepare for contact!”
Third Company, consisting of about eighty warriors, including Devastators and
Assault Marines, three Whirlwinds, four Razorbacks and one Dreadnought turned to
face North, quickly digging in their bare hands. The Tau forces, numbering about a
hundred, all Firewarriors, also received a similar message and redeployed to face the
enemy. They had dug in atop a plateau that offered good cover and firing arcs for the
defenders.
The Ork landing ships streaked across the skies, massive sections falling off, the
shrapnel leaving great gashes of impact on the desert. The Blood Ravens sealed their
helmets in preparation for the dust that the Rok would throw up upon crashing. The
Tau braced as well, the squad leaders ordering the troops to readiness.
It was quite a sight. Ten thousand tons of meteorite crashing into the desert.
Thousands of Orks died during the impact, but that didn’t even dent the ranks of the
Orks as they stormed out, dazed and disoriented after the crash. A large squadron of
Blood Raven Land Speeders and Bikes attacked immediately, before retreating with
the Orks hot on their tails.
“We have their attention, Captain.” Sergeant Mawile reported.
“Roger that. Retreat!” Tarkus replied. “Auspex!”
The Orks were about five kilometers away and closing fast. Land Speeder
Tempests and Thunderhawks swooped down upon the Orks, strafing the Orks in an
attempt to thin the numbers before they hit the defensive formation. A squadron of
Whirlwind Artillery tanks, began barrage as the Orks got in range. Their payload, a
mix of high-explosive and incendiary rockets set to air-bursting. The results were
extremely deadly, as the ignited promethium and white hot shrapnel rained down
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upon the Orks. The Orks roared in a frenzied blood lust, gathering more speed and
momentum. One kilometer.
“They’re in range. Open fire, Shas’la!” a Tau Sergeant ordered.
The Tau Firewarriors opened fire. Tarkus had to shield his eyes from the
combined muzzle flash of the Tau pulse rifles. The volleys of superheated gas struck
with remarkable accuracy and deadliness, and even Ckrius was awed by the display of
firepower from the aliens. The Orks had to climb over their dead as the Tau’s fire
actually slowed the advance. The Tau seemed disengaged as they delivered volleys
after volleys into the horde of Greenskins.
Despite the heavy fire raining down upon the Orks, they continued their charge
and at a hundred metres away, the Blood Ravens opened fire, unleashing a hell-storm
of bolt shells. The Kroot were still standing firmly behind the lines of Firewarriors
instead of in front of the Tau troops.
“Strike them now!” Tarkus ordered his Assault Marines. He emptied his boltgun
and quickly replaced the clip with a new one.
Then the Kroot did something that none of the Blood Ravens had expected them
to do. With a feral warcry, the Kroot Carnivores leaped, easily clearing the remaining
twenty metres between the line and the Tau Firewarriors. The Kroots clashed with the
Orks, striking with rapid whiplash movements that worked very well with their
fighting stave/gun. The Assault Marines joined the fray, their roaring jetpacks
delivering them into battle.
The Dreadnought, Ancient Rylanus raked through the crowd with his assault
cannon, hundreds of rounds per second, while his underslung heavy flamer spewed
ignited promethium at the marauding Orks. Other flamer wielding Tactical Marines
hosed the Orks as well, incinerating the Orks as they got close enough.
Tarkus sheathed his boltgun, drew his plasma pistol and his power sword and
charged at the Greenskins. Other Blood Ravens, inspired by the sight of their Captain
charging into battle, fought with renewed vigor.
“Crisis suits! Deploy!” a Tau squad leader ordered.
A flight of Devilfish transports flew overhead, completely silence except for its
bursts cannons, which were firing full time, delivering bolts of plasma into the horde.
Six Tau Crisis suits disembarked and hovered in the air, their weapons raining death
down at the xenos. The death rained from burst cannons, heavy flamers, ion cannons,
fusion blasters and missile pods. Tarkus was amazed at the display of firepower and it
seemed that these battlesuits could take punishment too, as he saw one of the take
several Ork rockit hits without severe damage to the suit.
Tarkus ran an Ork through with his sword, and used the body as a shield as he
picked off Orks with his sidearm.
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 “To the Company Standard!” Tarkus roared as he noticed several Nobs heading
for Sergeant Nikulus, who had his bolt pistol out and firing as quickly as possible. The
Standard Bearer stood his ground, unwilling to back down in the face of the enemy.
Veteran Bucanus crashed into the group of Nobs, using his jetpack to scorch one of
the Orks before using his Thunderhammer to crush another Greenskin’s head. Tarkus
lopped off a Nob’s head off before ducking a roaring chainaxe before tackling the Ork
to the ground. He spat a gob of acid into the Ork’s face, and the Xenos roared in pain.
The Crisis Suits continued their airborne assault, while Land Speeder Tempests
provided fire support as well, their frag missiles throwing several Orks into the air.
“This is Captain Tarkus. Requesting close range pin point fire support.” Tarkus
voxed.
“Negative, Tarkus. All ships are engaged in battle. But reinforcements are en
route, hold tight.” Captain Angelos replied.
With a flash of thunder, a phalanax of Assault Terminators appeared in front of
the line of Tactical Marines. Armed with thunder hammers, storm shields, and
lightning claws, the veterans plowed into the horde of enemies. The Blood Ravens
cheered at the sight of the First Company assault units.

***

While everyone had their attention into fighting, Cyrus and two of his best scouts
slipped out of the battle, heading towards the landed Rok to locate and assassinate the
Warboss. Once killed, the Ork horde would disintergrate and splinter, considerably
weakening the strength of the Ork attack.
The stream of Orks coming from the ship never seemed to end, and Cyrus made
sure his stealth cloak had covered him fully, or this recon would be cut awfully short.
He scanned the crowd for any particularly large Orks, or Nobs as well as other high
value targets, like Meks and Doks. Mkvenner and Mkoll were doing the same as well,
their perusing through the horde with their high power scopes. Cyrus already had a
turbo penetrator loaded and he just looked for a opportunity to use it. There! Warboss
Gorgutz.
Cyrus tightened his grip on the trigger. Then the Warboss ducked back inside the
Rok.
“Damn. How much explosives do we have?” Cyrus muttered. He ran through the
list of munitions he was carrying. He had two melta bombs, several satchel charges.
His scouts gave up another three satchel charges and another melta bomb. “Ok. We
draw the Warboss out. Chances are, he has a personal shield. We need to take it out.
You two stay and hit him. Hit him hard. I’ll wait for him inside.”
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 Cyrus strapped his sniper rifle across his back and drew his silenced shotgun, he
racked it, and made sure it was loaded with hellfire shells, another souveneir from his
tour of duty with Deathwatch. The scouts wished the Sergeant luck as Cyrus went off
to plant the diversionary charges.
The charges went off, shaking the ground and drawing the Ork’s attention. Mkoll
spotted Gorgutz leaving the Rok. It wasn’t hard spotting the Warlord. Standing over
four metres tall, armored in crude armor plates and armed with a massive power klaw
and a veritable hand cannon in the other, Warboss Gorgutz investigated the
disturbance.
“Take him.” Mkvenner muttered, pulling his trigger. Mkoll copied his action.
The two rounds were stopped by a kustom force field, but the power of the shot
was enough to cause Gorgutz to recoil. Another two rounds hit the Warboss, but the
shield held fast.
“Displace!” Mkoll ordered, picking up his rifle and running in the opposite
direction of Mkvennr. Ork munitions hit their last known position, throwing up sand
and rocks. The scouts were long gone.

***

“Waaagh! Find me those damn humies and bring me the eads!” Gorgutz
bellowed, dazed by the grievous injury done to his force field. His Nob bodyguard
quivered in fear as the Warboss smashed a console to bits.
Suddenly, one of his Nobs dropped dead, his back a shattered mess of blood and
bone. Another Nob dropped dead, and the Orks spun around desperately, trying to
locate the source of the shooting. Suddenly a shadow dropped in front of the Warboss,
and Cyrus emptied his shotgun at Gorgutz. The Ork stumbled back, his shield spent.
Then he recovered, swiping his massive power klaw at Cyrus.
The shadow was long gone, quickly reloading his shotgun and counting down
the seconds. Blasted his way through several Orks that investigated the sounds. Cyrus
barely escaped.
The explosion shook the ground and vaporized the Warboss as well as the other
Nobs in the room, effectively wiping out most of the leadership in one fell blow.
“Cyrus to Captain Angelos. Kill confirm. Gorgutz is dead.” Cyrus reported,
blending into the background.
“Clean kill?”
“Negative. But I set off the charges myself, sir.” Cyrus replied tersely, diving into
cover. “The Orks are fighting amongst themselves now.”
“Roger.”
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 “We’re pulling back.” Cyrus voxed.

***

“Commander. It seems like the Orks have started fighting amongst themselves.
But our stealthsuits are not yet in position.” A Firewarrior leader reported.
“We did it” Cyrus said grimly, stalking into the lines of Blood Ravens. His
stealth cloak was ripped, and blood seeped from several wounds. Mkoll limped in
behind the sergeant. “Gorgutz is dead.”
“Well done, brother.” Tarkus said, clapping Cyrus on his shoulder. “Captain
Tarkus, requesting medical evac. ASAP.”
“Roger that. We’ll send one down ASAP.” Captain Angelos replied.
“Clean up here!” Captain Tarkus ordered, gesturing the Orks.
The Orks had totally ignored the Space Marines and Tau forces, fighting amongst
themselves to claim who was to lead now once the leadership was gone. The Blood
Ravens and the Tau squad opened fire, cutting down the Greenskins like grass before
a scythe.
“No mercy!” Tarkus barked, firing his boltgun on full auto at the horde. “Cut
them down!”
“I thought you said you took the Warboss down?” a Firewarrior challenged
Cyrus, who focused his scope on the hulking shape that staggered closer.
“Captain Angelos. Bad news. Warboss Gorgutz somehow survived. We need
reinforcements to make sure he goes down for real this time.”
“Roger that. Captain Reaper is already in the drop pods. Stand by.”

117