The Battle for the Temple of the Emperor Ascendent

[Marshal Rohr]

Crusader Squads played a vital role in the defense

The Temple had the stores to hold out for years if need be, and now would be that time. The Orks were a single day away when the Marshal Amalrich called for a status report on the defense. Chaplain Grimaldus apprised him of the situation, citing the closeness of the Horde for the need to receive as much support as could be given. Marshal Amalrich demanded that the Temple hold as long as possible and that relief would be dispatched as soon as the Gargant factory his forces were besieging had been destroyed. Grimaldus swore by the Primarch he would not retreat, and that he would hold the Temple unto his dying breath.

The ork war drums beat deep into the night, and their shambling feet shook the very Hive itself. The battle had finally reached the Temple and here they would make their stand. The siege began with a massive Ork artillery barrage. High explosive rounds were hurled over the walls into the courtyards of the Temple and into its walls. The barrage continued through the night into the next morning. An eerie silence settled over the city, until the whirring and grinding of orkish machinery began to reverberate throughout the precincts of the Temple. The first assault came with Stompas with large howdas on their backs crunching forward towards the walls, Ork Boyz bellowing for blood and firing randomly into the air. These howdas would allow the Orks to climb onto the walls from the back of the stompa while the war machine fires into the wall at point blank range. As the first stompas came into range the guns of the Krieg artillery company spoke. Basilisk shells found their mark in the hordes, sending limbs and gore high into the air. On the walls autocannon fire, lasbeams, and missile streakeed into the horde. Lucky gunners were able to bring down stompas with concentrated fire, but it was not enough to keep them from reaching the walls. Several stompas crashed into the battlements and unleashed their deadly cargo. Ork boys brawled with Astartes and Guardsmen alike atop the battlements. Chaplain Grimaldus fought as Sigismund reborn, hurling bodies from the battlements into the horde below. He was everywhere during the battle; leading counter charges, single handedly repelling assaults, and dueling the Orks foolish enough to attack him.

The defenders were able to hold against the first assault. The land around the walls was littered with wreckage and the rotting corpses of the first wave. So it continued for weeks. Every assault that Bonesmasha sent against the Temple was thrown back and defeated. Ghazghkull became impatient with Bonesmasha's lack of success and demanded that if the Temple was not destroyed in one month, he would personally crush Bonesmasha. Not wanting to fail his lord, or die, Grimskul Bonesmasha resolved himself to see an end to this personally. He tasked his most trusted Kommando teams with infiltrating the Temple and forcing a breach. Under the cover of nightfall the Kommando teams snuck into through the extensive catacombs underneath the temple. A keen tactician Chaplain Grimaldus had planned for such a move and stationed defenders in choke points underneath the temple, knowing the Orks diverse and unusual tactical thought processes. These defenders easily outmatched the Kommados, but the Kommandos being slaughtered in the tunnels were no more than a distraction for a team of orks to place massive amounts of explosives directly underneath the walls of the Temple, and far away from the choke points held by the Imperials. At dawn the next day the trap was sprung. A gigantic explosion ripped through the ancient battlements, breaking through void shields and blasting the ferrocrete into the sky. Dazed and offbalance, the defenders were no match for the Dreadnaughts and Killa Kans that rushed into the breach, scattering the defenders. Chaplain Grimaldus led the warriors of Marshal Amalrich Sword Brethren in a brave charge against the clanking monstrosities. Sword Brethren Terminators armed with Thunder Hammers destroyed many of the machines, but it was not enough. orks poured through the breach slaughtering mortal and Astartes alike. Chaplain Grimaldus ordered all Imperial Forces back into the Sanctuary itself; from there they would be able to reorganize. Knowing that the defenders would need time to regroup Canoness Agatha ordered her Sisters to stand fast and fight, allowing the Imperials to withdraw and fight on in the Emperor’s name. Canoness Agatha and her sister fought bravely, selling their lives at high cost to the filthy Xenos. Agatha was an avenging seraph, cutting down the orks all around her. The Canoness charged out into the horde, her thrice blessed sword held high, singing praises to the Immortal God-Emperor. The orks overwhelmed her and cut her down, one by one the sister fell until none remained alive.

The Sister’s sacrifice was not in vain, Chaplain Grimaldus sealed the doors to the sanctuary and the defenders took up the defense prepared as a final measure. Here the surviving civilians wielded whatever weapons they could get their hands on. Some held bits of iron or knives, others were holding the lasguns of dead Guardsmen. There would be no mercy when the orks tore down the Sanctuary's doors. The brave Chaplain mounted the alter at the head of the temple, from here he would direct the final stand. The Orks sent their biggest and best boyz to try and smah down the door, but it would not budge. The ancient door was made of sterner stuff and the Orks pounded away at the obstruction into the night. Warboss Bonesmasha was very displeased. His one month deadline was rapidly approaching and the Sanctuary was proving to be as hard to break into as the outer walls were. The Cathedral was a fortress in its own right. Automated turrets fired into the horde in the courtyard, while flming gouts of promethium fired at any and all who approached the adamantium doors. The Sanctuary itself was void shielded and it would take more than the orks had to tear it down. Grimskul went to his Meks and offered all the teef he had for something that could break through the shield and break open the doors, by the next day, which coincidentally was Ghazghkull's deadline for success. The next morning the Meks delivered, and a tractor hauled the severed arm from a Warhound Scout Titan into range of the doors. The turbolasers meant to burn through the hulls of the God-Machines of Mars and the heaviest tanks of the enemies of mankind were more than a match for the doors. Bright beams of light lanced into the shield causing it to shimmer and overload. The Imperials were now at the mercy of Grimskul.

Ancient Enemies

Bonesmasha would see to it that the human in charge of this defiance head would mount the very top of his bosspole, in a position of honor. He gathered to him the greatest of his tribe and together they brought down the door in a concentrated burst of rokkit fire and waded into the inner sanctum. The fighting was terrible; bodies piled on the floor two and three deep, ork and human alike. Blood hung on the air in a fine mist and pooled on the floor inches deep. Men, women, and children all fought tooth and nail against the Greenskins. Hive Gangers and Aristocrats fought back to back against the monsters as they chopped their way through the press of human bodies. The slaughter was titanic, the Templars attempted to keep themselves between the orks and their charges, but there was no room to maneuver. The people began to break, their minds overcome with the scale of the death that was slowly and purposefully cleaving its way towards them. The Guardsmen and civilians alike began to break windows and tear open hatches, looking for anyway to escape the carnage. The fleeing people began to trample those wounded or too slow to get out of their way, added to the slaughter. At the height of the panic Grimaldus bellowed a warcry that echoes in the annals of Imperial History: 'I have dug my grave in this place and I will ether triumph or I will die!'

Leaping into the teeming mass of orks and with the fury of the Emperor Himself, Grimaldus began to push back the Orks. The fleeing defenders saw this and took heart, with the Emperor at their side, they could not fail. The humans turned and faced the orks with renewed fervor, cut them down in masse. Grimaldus’ armor was scored in a dozen places, but he would not yield. The pitiful handful of brothers that remained stood their ground around the alter, holding back the Orks with chainsword and combat blade, ammunition having been entirely spent. The Imperial Guard and PDF who remained fought in the manner of the Astartes, with bladed weapon and blunt instrument. Grimskul was able to carve his way to where Grimaldus stood atop a pile a orks,while dueling a nob wielding a vicious chain axe. Leveling his kustom-shoota, Bonesmasha blasted Grimaldus in the back, tearing off his shoulder pauldron and powerpack. Seeing a chance to rid Armageddon of this menace, Grimaldus was filled with a new sense of strength. This was no ordinary feeling, but divine, as if the Emperor himself was moving the Chaplain. Grimaldus quickly regained his footing and tackled the massive Ork to the ground. Fighting unarmed, Grimaldus swung blow after blow into the ork's head. The Warboss caught Grimaldus' arm in his massive fist and attempted to wrench it from its socket, but Grimaldus would not be defeated so easily. He stabbed into the Warboss' eyes with all the might his broken form could muster and blinded the beast. As the two fell backwards a great tremor shook the sanctuary, the void shield's collapse had sent a lethal overcharge into the ancient machinery that powered the gravity defying technology keeping the massive cathedral from crumbling in on itself. The walls began to break apart and the roof caved in, but none of this mattered. Grimaldus and the Warboss still dueled. Grimskul fought on blind, swinging in awkward arcs that had little hope of connecting. Grimaldus took a chainsword from a fallen brother and as the pieces of last wall of the Cathedral fell onto Grimaldus and the Warboss, he swung the sword through the Warboss' neck.

When Grimaldus woke, he was pinned to the ground by the chucks of masonry. He began to claw his way towards the light peering in over the rubble, and slowly but surely he pulled himself from the wreckage. The Temple was nothing more than ruins, and not a soul had survived. The bodies of humans and orks lay in the twisted ruins, the birds picking at the rotting flesh from the bodies. The Chaplain was wounded in dozens of places, his left leg was crushed, his power armor was fractured and broken. His skull helm had been torn off in the fighting and he had extensive burns over the left side of his face. None of these superficial wounds could compare to the damage inside of the Astartes' body. Organs had been pulverized, 2 of his lungs had collapsed, and even his mighty black carapace was rent open. He limped towards the alter, clutching the rubble for support. Amazingly, amongst so much death and destruction the alter had sustained little damage, the holy water, a single column, and the banner that draped it were still intact. Grimaldus was found carrying the relics on his back through the city by the Fighting Company Marshal Amalrich had dispatched. A Thunderhawk was sent to take the wounded hero to the Eternal Crusader, where he could receive medical treatment for his extensive injuries. The High Marshal saw to it that his personal Apothecary treated the Hero of Helsreach, as Grimaldus was now being called. After a thorough review it was declared a miracle that the Chaplain was even still alive, much less able to make his way out of the rubble and through the city. Chaplain Grimaldus was surely chosen for a higher purpose to have survived such an ordeal, and to this day he remains a fervent warrior of the Emperor.

[Tyrannicide]

Nice read, there are a few minor grammatical errors but other than that it looks fine.

[c-wrex]

Very nice. Thematic and with great vivid imagery, despite the aforementioned grammatical errors. Well written M2C!

[Twin .44]

Hardcore dude! Just hardcore! an amazing read and kept me glued to the screen. only time I took my eyes off of it was for work (Sorry, some things are a little more important :P )