Storm Angels story

[Brother Nathan]

have been writing some fluff up for my main company on another forum and will repost some of it here fo you all. hopefully you like though it does likely suck... anyway here goes nothing... ^_^

 

 

The world of Astraathu was entering its death throes. It was an old world and naturally would have been ready to die, but was not going to be given a choice. Its inhabitants had given themselves to chaos and the planet was infected with its taint. Soon though it would no longer taint the emperors taint.

Brother Captain Edward of the Storm Angels 5th Company watched on from the command deck of the strike cruiser Storms Wrath. He paid no attention to all the goings on around him as he knew well that the running of the ship was in the capable hands senior techmarine Abros. Edwards mind was elsewhere. They had came here not to end this world, but in the search of information, well that and a traitor, and he would not return without his mission targets, he had no desire to let down chapter master Tengel. However there was little he could do. Right now all he could do was hope that his librarians would be able to track the traitor before he met his end on this dammed world.

They had been searching for 3 years. They had not been uneventful, at every world they had been lead to they had encountered the enemy, usually cultists and the like no dout planted in order to slow if not kill them. In Tarmis Prime the enemies’ numbers had been so large that those on the ground barely got a few shots in before they had to revert to combat blades and brute force. In the end they had won but it had taken months of intense city fighting and the timely arrival of the sisters of battle to turn the tide. The 5th were badly battered from that engagement but had survived and were embittered now. When they arrived at Lestrapoiltalo they were waiting for the ambush of the enemy and swiftly dealt death to them as they broke cover, that engagement never even lasted a week as they never allowed the enemy to gain momentum. As Edward thought of this his armoured had rose to his left eye was, and touched the cold steel of the bionic that now replaced it. As he did so his vox flashed.

‘Captain Edward here, report’

‘Librarian Galan here sir, we have found the traitor. We are making preparations now’

‘Thank you Galan. You know the drill, out’

He turned round to face Abros, but Abros had heard and had started the preparations.

‘The ravens are starting up as we speak sir; I’ve also taken the liberty of asking the pre designated squads to report to the loading bay. Reports back show they are already fully armed and armoured.’

Thank you brother, Good work. I shall be accompanying them to the planet, you have charge’

‘thank you sir, but are you sure you are ready? No disrespect but you are not long with the implant and they are a delicate thing that take time to learn, especially for the likes as are not accustomed to the ways of machines. It would not do well to anger its spirit’

‘I am quite aware and ready, I thank you for your concern. But I will not take a back seat as my men confront the very reason we are here. Tengel gave me this assignment for a reason and I intend to see it through. As you were’

With that he turned and left the command, heading to the loading bay. He had taken the liberty of having his armour on in advance; in fact he was rarely out of it as it seemed to him that a marine without his armour wasn’t a marine. Without it he felt incomplete without it. His armour gleamed in the lighting within the ship; it was a deep crimson, darker than blood. His plasma pistol caught the light. It was a gift from Tengel himself for the defences his company made of their planet against an ork fleet that had somehow gotten into their home system. That day the 5th had taken out half the enemy ships, not only by coming on the enemy from the rear but by daring insertions into the ork vessels and damaging them in such a way as to not stop them but making them collide taking out more ships and giving their brothers more time to get into position. His axe and shield were those of his predecessor. The axe was a mighty 2 handed one, it had once belonged to the chapters sanguary guard but had been granted to the 5th hundreds of years before following the battle of Geiros Gorge. That day they had been trapped by foul daemons of khorn with no way out. They had come to assist their brothers of the sanguary guard and had proved to be a valuable distraction and the daemons fell into the trap that they had thought they had made. The shield that accompanied the axe was made in memory of that day, it depicts a daemon throttling a marine unaware of the sword that was to cleave the daemons head off. He had carried them for over 100 years now; soon they would be achieving their purpose again.

They were coming for the traitor. Soon the enemy would once more hear the thunder of their war, and feel the strike of their weapons and the rain of their bullets. The 5th were coming...

[Brother Nathan]

The 5th were line out in the hanger in full battle dress before him. It was a sight hat filled his heart with pride even with their diminished numbers. The gleam of the polished red ceramite marked with gold black and turquoise of the assembled host brought back the memories of the eve of so many campaigns...

Many of their number were still receiving medical attention and awaiting bionic replacements for lost limbs etc from their previous engagements or just not yet fit enough for combat duties. Still there was more than enough. This would be a precision strike mission with the sole objective of hopefully capturing, failing that eliminating the traitor. A single squad would likely be enough but the captain didn’t want to take any chances. He had underestimated the enemy before and would not do so again.

As he approached his battle brothers the squad sergeants came forward and saluted him, which he returned. High Chaplin Otho, whom was specifically assigned to the fifth for this mission came forth and greeted the captain, embracing him in a warriors handshake. ‘ I hear it is finally time brother to show a traitor the emperors justice’

‘That it is Otho, sadly it has taken too long to get to this point as you well know, but tis the emperors plan for it to be this way. How fair the brothers?’

‘they fair well captain, we have had none succumb to the rage. They have anger enough and the determination to see this through. They are in an even better form than we had hoped. This is the day for revenge, the emperors justice will be dispensed by his angels of death!’

‘ im glad to hear it brother. I take it by your gear that you shall be joining us in battle then?’

‘aye I shall, my injuries are more than well enough healed and the techmarines have done a great job repairing my armour and placating its spirit’ as he said this he moved his armoured arm to show the plate of armour that covered his ribs that during their last engagement had been melted off with a blast from a plasma gun form a cultist. The shot had not only melted his armour but overloaded his rosaries’ energy field. He had been lucky to be able to be carried off the field in one piece that day. Now his armour was fully repaired and even the paint was fully restored, the black sheen a contrast to the pure white lightening that was painted onto it. This combined with his skull mask and jump pack made him a fearsome opponent to try to stand against, in fact many didn’t and ran at the mere sight of him, they would be mad not to.

‘Good news that is for us all brother. Then will you accompany brother sergeant Broset and his assault squad? I’m sure they would more than benefit from your presence in the coming battle’

‘I would be glad to captain, in fact I was going to suggest it if you hadn’t, seems I needn’t have worried.’ With that he saluted and turned and walked to join the large form of brother Boset who was armed with his favoured black and yellow powerfist. As he went sergeant Eli approached the captain and saluted. ‘I assume the plan goes ahead as planed sir?’ the other sergeants also came forward at this point and joined the salute and listened intently

‘that it does comrade’ Eli and Edward had joined the storm angels at the same time and had been in the same squad ever since. Both were marked out for captaincy but Eli had refused promotion and wanted to remain as a sergeant so he could better mentor his men, and as such Edward regarded him as not only the best in the company but one of the best in the chapter. ‘ I shall be joining your squad alongside librarian Galan and brother Salit. We shall from the spear head and be supported by squad Broset. As feared the enemy has holed up in a fortress of a sort. We will have to act as a second wave as tactical squads Jubal, Darco and Peten and the devastator squads Ister and Zakeri assault the main gates as a diversion and to act as a backup plan for escape and to be able to provide backup should things not go to plan. They will also prevent reinforcements from aiding the traitor. Meanwhile squads Marcus and Phreton will remain here awaiting further instruction in case there’s something we’ve missed. In case they think its because we don’t need them its not, we may well do and I would not be without them but I would not show the enemy all our cards and in any case they are the most under strength and I feel it would not do well to commit them straight to the front lines just yet. Also you will not be alone as our esteemed brothers from the first company’ this said with a nod towards the massive form venerable brother Ajax in his tactical dreadnaught armour (who was rumoured to be the oldest member of the chapter, and older than most of the dreadnaughts, and did little to disprove the rumour nor confirm it)’ shall also be awaiting further command. I take it you have all had a chance to look over the schematics to the fortress and went over the plans a hundred times so does anyone have any problems or suggestions?... nope well then lets show these cursed dogs what it means to betray the sons of Sanguinius,’ at this he then raised his voice and amplified his vox so that all in the room could hear. ‘To war brothers, Tis time for them to feel the full force of the storm angels wrath’ at that he let out a roar and was joined by them all. Then when the noised had died they all rejoined their squads and went to their allocated crafts. The enemy’s time was up.

[Brother Nathan]

Edward was the last to board the thunderhawk. He waited to make sure all the other squads knew what they were doing and were ready for the mission. The ground strike force would be accompanied by the 5ths own recently appointed Chaplin Raniks. Though for all his age Raniks was wise steadfast sure and strong willed. Edward knew he could rely on him to old the men together. And he would be accompanied by 2 of the companies dreadnaughts as well so he was assured that the mission would be done. He only had his own part to concentrate on.

In the thunderhawk both assault sergeants greeted him and informed him they were all locked in and ready to go and were only awaiting him. He thanked them and went to the pilot and informed him they were ready and to begin disembarkation procedures. At this he went to his own harness and strapped in for the flight, rechecking his weapons as he did so. Looking round he saw the men around him doing similar checks and making the sign of the Aquila and making prayers to the emperor and Sanguinius. A smile crept across his mouth. It was reassuring to know that this was the part marines hated of battle, the waiting to get to it. It was fine when you were on the field and could make yourself run faster to get to it sooner, or fly with the power of your own jump pack, but being in a vehicle awaiting for it to make way and land and for the ramps to fall... make him and those around him felt useless. With a laugh he pushed the thought from his head and began going through the progress reports of the rest of the company as the shudders of the engines roared into life and the thunderhawk lifted off the deck and began to make its descent to the planet below. The ground strike force had left before them ad was already mostly half way there in its stormraven gunships. The gunships would be dropping the marines off at a point out of sight of the fortress before making a scout round the perimeter to see if there was anything they had missed and taking out any hard targets they could. As this happened the marines would split into 2 sections and begin to move towards the gates In an arrow form, hopefully meeting up with the already in position scout squad who had by now moved into position and were watching the walls. Whilst this was happening his strike force would be landing at the opposite side of the compound and would be making a stealthy approach to the walls. Hopefully when they got though them the defenders would be repositioned to the gates and there would be so few left that they could easily eliminate them and be able to close in on the next set of defences. It felt like a good plan, but he felt he had overlooked something. As he thought that a tremor ran through the craft. He checked his charts, they should still be out of range of gunfire. ‘ report’ he barked into his vox.

‘Fighters sir, on our tail, we don’t know where they came from. They have managed to knock out our weapons with that hit’

‘Dammit there were no signs of fighter on the scans! Inform the fleet immediately’ at this he removed his harness and moved down the craft to brother Galan. ‘did you hear that brother? Think you can get rid of this nuisance before it becomes a problem?’

Galen looked up, sweat glistening on his thick scared and deeply tanned brow, ‘ I will try brother but it will mean I won’t be keeping an eye on the traitor and might give him the option to slip through our fingers, not that he has much left to run to...’

‘Seems it might be necessary this time brother’ at his an even grater shudder ran through the vessel and rocked Edward so that he had to grasp Galens shoulder pad to steady himself briefly. At this he looked deeply into the librarians cold red eyes, and saw the agreement that lay there.

‘Aye sir necessary this is, you may want to step back just in case...’ at this the wires running down the librarian’s psychic hood began to glow brighter. His eyes closed and he shadows under then seemed to glow darker, and yet he could almost see the pupils still glowing through the closed lids, they seems to spin round as if searching for something. The air in the craft grew slightly cooler and the librarians blue armour frosted slightly. ‘ I have found him, human, well once, now follower of slannesh and gross amalgamation of human daemon and machine, from the warp, that’s why we didn’t see them on the scans.’

‘Can you kill it?’

‘of course!’ at this the librarians eyes opened and the red glowed brighter than the targeter of a boltgun, even the whites was clearer than of the flash lights attached to many of the squads helms. The librarian raised his hands together and pointed them both at the ceiling, all the fingers extended towards the same point, and he waited. Nothing happened. Tie ticked by, then the craft began to shake as more explosions detonated against the sides. Then nothing. Edward was about to ask what was happening when suddenly both hands suddenly became tight fists and Galen closed his eyes. Seconds later there was a distant explosion.

‘the fighter has gone sir’ came the pilot across the vox. ‘Fleet reports they are likewise engaged but easily have the advantage they were just caught by surprise. They will route the enemy and then send some of their own fighters to support us.’

‘As I thought’ replied Edward. Have them make available all craft and have all men at stations. There may well be other spanners in the works. Also have squads Phreton and Marcus make ready with the landspeeders, I fear we may need them sooner than we thought.’

‘aye sir. Also the ground strike force is now in position. They were likewise attacked but were better armed and numbered and were easily able to overwhelm their attackers’

‘Thank you, how long til we are in position?’

‘Only a few minutes sir, ill let you know when we are in sight’

Edward looked back to galen. He had by now regained his composure and was resting his hind on the pommel of his force sword. ‘ well?’

‘...well... we now they know we are here... and you were right, we missed something. Somehow they got them bloody ships here without being detected by our scanners. Probably some form of warp portal, which normally I would have picked up on but for trying to lock on the traitor... hmmm, if this is the case that also means he has a back door out, and a way for other things to get in...’

‘Wouldn’t you know... Where is this portal?’

‘There’s one in the fortress... there may well be others across the planet. Somehow we missed it, and the inquisition and fleet and all... though now I’m wondering if we are wise proceeding maybe we would be better to step back and let the planet have its exterminatus?’

Wise? Yes likely we would, but then we would never know what happened to the traitor. He may well just step through the portal and we won’t know if he was killed or not, never mind how to find him again... ‘

Right you are sir... anyway I feel I must return to watching him If I can find him... Im sure you too have reports from the other company waiting for you to check... plus we are nearly in position, you should return to you harness’ at this Galen closed his eyes. Edward nodded and returned. He bunched up his fasts as he went. The traitor had nearly made a fool of the storm angels again. He was getting sick of these games. Soon he would get to face him and show him how a loyal follower of the emperor fights.

[Brother Nathan]

any thoughs or suggestions on this sofar?

[Brother Nathan]

The thunderhawk landed heavily. The jolt knocked out of their harnesses and caused some weapons to be dropped. Instantly however the marines had revovered and were making their way down the rear assault ramp. Once outside they saw the full damage of the brei battle had taken. There were deep scores in the armour and the weapons had been blown clean off. Yet fortunately no severe damage had been caused sofar. As soon as all were clear it took off again to return to the Storms Wrath to be repaired. As the noise from the engines died down hetook stock of the surroundings. The squads had set up a perimeter and secured the area immediately without need for him to issue the orders. The air was dusty, and had a faint smell of blood and sweat, and a stronger smell of the past discharge of various weapons. The blues and pinks also seems to be more vibrant in the tinted light. The planets local star appeared green in the haze. All the plants had either dired and shrivelled up of had exploded into a mass of tenticals. The influence of the warp was obviously alot stronger here than any of their scans had indicated and they would need to hurry up before things started to change faster adn the inquisition decided to continue withtheir plans regardless of the marines presence. At this he ordered the advance and as one all 24 jump packs ignited and they lept to the air to make the first section of the journey quicker. Once in the air Edward turned on his wrist mounted plasma pistol and watched as the coils began to glow with their bluey tourquise radiance. So used was Edward to using his jump pack by now that he could do most manouvers without paying any attention at all to what he was really doing. Though amongst sons of sanguiniuous this wasn’t much to boast about. Within 10 seconds they began their desent again, and as they landed 5 seconds after that his vox lit up.

‘Raniks here sir, we are in position. No resistance so far though we discovered the scouts, well all bar sergeant Croaz and 2 of his pupils. No vox reply form them. Regardless we are ready to begin the assault on you mark.’

‘we are also nearing position chaplin. Seems this world might be in a worse state than reported. Make war brother we don’t have time to waste. Give them hell brother!’

‘Will do sir, see you on the other side, for the Emperor!’

‘for the Emperor’ before he even said it though and all the marines around him were running. They were nearing the edge of the rise that hid the fortress from sight. When they surmounted it the saw nothing. Thick swirling fog covered everything from view. Around him the other marines were swapping view inders on their helms trying to see through it but wernt meeting much success. Even in modes that would compleatly ignore the fog normally they were only able to see a few extra meters. Edward toggled his own bionic eye trying to improve what he could see. He was able to fix it so that e could see around 10 meters. Not bad and he had fought in worse conditions, but he still didn’t like it. This changed things, now they were more susupitable to traps and ambushed, and slowed them down too. He turned to eli who gave the nod. At this his squads 2 flamers were ignited, and he ignited his own trusted handflamer. Also from behind him he could hear a high pitched whining as squads brosets melta guns were also turned on.

‘follow the plan. We want him dead or alive, preferably alive but not at the cost of him escaping us again. They think they can use the fog against us, the fools, they forget who we are and where we come from. This means they have more help on their side this time but we are not with out our own tricks brothers’ he turned to face the wall of fog at this point. ‘ brother Galen if you will...’

Galen stepped forward once more and raised his armoured hands high and closed his eyes. The runes around his shoulders glowed and his hands shook. Instantly there was a breeze that grew into a gale and blew so hard they had to lean into it. The fog, whilst not dispersed was dragged down into the valley and thinned increasing their view massively. Now they could see the hazy outline of the fortress. Its imposing form lay far ahead of them across what he assumed to be a mine feild . he smiled and looked to his brothers. ‘ it is time, from the skys we strike’ at this he crouched and sprang high, ignite ting his pack as he went. He was shortly followed by Eli and Galen, and then by brother Salit of the sanguary priesthood. Salit was a quiet one but a worthy brother. He had swiftly proved himself as a worthy fighter and was in position to be raised to the first company when he elected to begin apothecary training and joined the priest hood. For one who said so little he was an inspiration to the men. Marked out with his white helm he was instantly recognisable and was a fearsome sight. He carried now his ornate power weapon which he had earned by saving his chaptermasters life. He was one of the company’s most skilled fighters too; in the cage few could best him. His presence reassured Edward. He looked back to the target; they were now half way there. He scanned the walls but there was no sighs of light movement. Yet he could hear the explosions coming from the far wall. The ground element was making its voice heard. Checking the reports streaming from the other sergeants he could see they were under heavy fire but had managed to take few casualties and were nearly ready to storm the walls. Worryingly there were reports that they were being hounded by strange creatures from the rear. There was no time to think on this though as they were nearing their own target. Death was merely meters away.

[Brother Nathan]

As he reached towards the walls something huge leapt over them straight into him taking him plummeting straight towards the ground. He just had time to raise his shield to stop hit from getting at his head. He felt claws raking his armour and a few rents being torn in the joints where the armour was weak before it was torn off him by Eli and thrown the rest of the distance to fall to the ground. Looking round he saw the rest of the squads likewise engaged. Daemons! Slanessh ones but not like the ones they had encountered before, not that they were ever the same or that it mattered, but bigger and stronger, but thankfully slower and less agile. With a nod to Eli he returned to his flight and returned to the top of the wall where others from the squads were already I a larger combat. Seemingly the plan hadn’t worked. There were hundreds if not thousands of cultists mixed with daemons lying in wait. Las rounds speared towards him in the dusty mutated light but he paid them no heed. He levelled his plasma and let of a searing ball straight into the horde burning through and killing several and blinding many more. Then he grasped his axe in both hands and charged, igniting his jumpack for greater speed and forced himself into the fray, crushing several with the impact along and then cutting as many in half with his first swing. To his right he saw squad Elis’ twin flamers light up and incinerate whole squads of cultists, and Elis smaller version also managed to decimate several before he fell into the fray with his own sword severing limbs and heads where ever he went. The clash of weapons, the buzz of blades, the sound of bolters.

One of the heretics’ swung a nasty looking spear at his head but he caught it on his shield and was rewarded with a blast of plasma through, not only his chest but also through those behind him. As one fell another took its place but his axe was fast enough and all who stepped forward were cut down till the ground was slick with blood and the dead were piled up around him. Else where squad Broset with Chaplin Otho were engaging the teams manning the tower mounted anti aircraft guns. Till they were out of action they could have no further support from the stormravens. He felt a smile on his face when he saw one marine turn one of the guns along the wall and eliminating a whole stretch of approaching heretics and several of the big guns as well before throwing a krack grenade into the cannons breach and jumping out of the way for a huge explosion that knocked all humans over for 50meters and hurt many of the others ears. The marines quickly recovered and used the advantage to gain more ground and get right into the thick of it. Edward noticed a man wearing what looked like had been the clothes of a commissar, though now bloodied and marked with the sigils of the warp. He felt anger rise in him at this sight. He redoubled his efforts pushing towards this outrage, reaching him in a few swings of his axe.

The thing though was clearly no longer human. Its skin looked like faded stretched leather, fat and oiled, yet its arms lean and strong. Its legs bent backward like some creature he was told of in stories long ago. And in its hands was a long cruel looking blade that curled at the tip. It issued a grunt of challenge, but never got a reply as its head was melted off with a blast of plasma to the face. Those around it immediately fell to their knees at the shock of their champion being defeated so easily, but this made no difference to Edward as he stepped in and removed the heads them all. In his first swing along he took 7 heads, and not that many less with many of the follow up swings. Gore splashed against his armour and blood was running thickly down his axe making it harder for him to maintain his grip, and he could even smell it cooking on the coils of his plasma pistol. He could feel the strain of battle taking its toll, his armour was chipped and burned, and compromised in several weak places.

One lucky swing had managed to get past his defences and pirced a thin metal spike under his ribs. He had quickly dispensed with that foe with a backhand strike that had practically removed its head (he wasn’t even sure of its sex or if it was even human or not, not that it mattered anymore) he removed the spike and his blood quickly clotted over the wound but it still caused him a disproportionate amount of pain. The suits pain despensers were on max and still seemed to be having no effect. But rather than give into the pain he used it. Without allowing it to control him he used the pain to fuel his rage against the swarm that just seemed to grow. With every swing he felled more, every shot he managed to hit some canister or something that would promptly explode killing waves and shocking many more giving him time to get in to dispense the emperors justice.

 

By now everything was red; the marines were all spread out in the space between the walls and the keep that lay ahead of them. He occasionally saw a marine jump up on his wings of fire, obviously overwhelmed with the numbers pressing in and using the pack as a back up weapon before they were dragged down. He was now in sight of the main gates and could hear the crashing of mighty fists of the dreadnaughts pounding against them. That they still hadn’t gotten through was curious but he could see by the state of them that it wouldn’t take much longer. As he continued to fight he voxed Chaplin Ranniks.

‘How fairs the fight Chaplin?’

‘Slow brother, seems they expected this, the gate is far stronger than we assumed. Might just have been easier to go through the walls. Also these beasts, there’s so many we had to pull off the engagement of the gates and concentrate on them. They aren’t defeated yet but have pulled back in wait and were hoping we can make it in before they show again. How fares the other side?’

‘Tis packed in here brother, we can barely move for numbers of our foes. We could really do with your assistance. I’m going to have to call in reinforcements, let me know when you about to breach!’

He cut the link and re-established a new one with the last of the war party, dodging swiftly a heavy swing from a rather large and fleshy mutant as he did so and disembowelled the beast in return.

 

‘Brother Ajax, we require your assistance immediately, prepare yourselves to join me at my position’

‘As you will brother. What of your other men up here, what would you have of them?’

We need them too, have them load up as previously planned and have them join me with all speed.’

‘aye sire, death comes on swift wings, out’

Edward turned in time to be rewarded with a smash straight into his face that sent him reeling. The shockwaves reverberated through his optical implant and sent waves of pain though the nerves and tissue connecting to it and the optical impulses dimmed and pulsed. The enemy attacked again so he shoved his axe in the way catching the crude weapon and shattering it and pushing the thing that wielded it back. His combat training instructor back on Tempest Oneota would likely have punished him for using such an un disciplined move, the thought made him smile. He picked himself up and looked down on the battered form of the thing as it discarded its weapon and pulled a slender and almost perfect looking sword from a sheath. This thing was nearly the size of a marine, with huge muscles visible between a loin cloth and a trench coat that appeared to be made from skin. Strange markings had been tattooed into its flesh everywhere that was visible. Chains adorned with bones hung from its neck and its head was enclosed by what looked to be a combination of an oversized skull and a ancient gas mask. A thick steam issued constantly from the vent at the side. Both charged at each other at the same time. The beast was fast; it managed to catch Edwards axe with its blade and pull him off balance and swung at hid unprotected side, making a deep grove in his armour before kicking him in the side and knocking him over using hi momentum against him. Strong too was this one. His instructor would have been furious at him for that one. He refined his posture and faced him once more. ‘Not bad, but do you really think that was enough?’

It craned its neck at him raised the sword high and charged at him again, jumping high and grasping the sword in a double handed downward swing that appeared to be an attack at his head, not that it mattered. The second it had became airborne it was as good as dead. Eli made fist and swung it, firing its packs at maximum thrust as he did so. The beast realised his mistake but had nowhere to run. The punch caught it across the chest, and probably broke a few ribs, but he wasn’t done, he quickly thrust his axe into its holder and pulled a few grenades and dropped them as soon as their pins were out though they were already air borne by that point. They quickly surged into the air, the thing bent and unmovable against the sudden and overwhelming g forces. When they reached the height he intended Edward quickly hit it again in the face and pushed it off him and allowed it to fall all the few hundred feet into the massing horde below. As he looked round he realised how many there were. They were piling out of hidden tunnels from the surrounding area and covering the surrounding hills. There appeared to be millions. There appeared to be more than there should be on the entire planet combined. How they would find the traitor amongst all this.... this was crazy, this should not be. There were too many. He was caught again. He couldn’t do this on his own. Even with the coming reserves they couldn’t do this in the time they had. They needed something else, something more, and he had no idea where to get it...

[Brother Nathan]

From this vantage point Croaz could see everything happening below. Thankfully he couldn’t be seen. They had been cut off for... well he wasn’t sure how long, that didn’t really matter. They had been behind enemy lines sowing confusion where they could. Communications were being blocked to the fleet by some mix of techno demonic activity. And they had been tracked from not long after they had arrived. At one point they had been ambushed by a pack of demonic dog things and he had lost most of his squad. However he had made them pay for it. Utilising all the stealth training he could muster and teaching his 2 survivors skills that he forgot he had. Rather than wasting his ammo till he needed it hey had taken to using blades and other means that got them silent kills that could be passed off as deaths by other means than space marines. He had sneaked into their underground layer and into the mess hall and poisoned the food, more than once. This did lead to the execution of more than one cook and had considerably slowed the enemy down. In fact currently many of the enemy were still sluggish and he could see this was aiding his brothers considerably. Then again there were so many that that may not be enough. Currently he lay in open ground. One of his scouts was in a dense cluster of boulders nearby keeping watch with a silenced bolter, his cameo cloak covering all but his face that had been smeared with dust so that it too looked like stone. He was Silus. To Croaz he would be ready to receive his power armour when they returned, well if... Only his eyes stood out, bright flints and sparks of white, but unless you knew to directly look at him you wouldn’t see him. Not far from him but concealed from sight the other scout was in hiding. Waiting for the signal to bring his weapon to bear if it was needed, though for now they wanted to keep his heavy bolter out of the action for as long as they could. So far they had managed to go without firing a single shot from it. The scout, named Dargo had been forced to make do with a shotgun and a blade, which to be fair he was just as efficient with. He was still a bit off being ready for his power armour but wouldn’t be long. As for Croaz... he was doing what he did best. Spread death to the Emperors foes. He was invisible. Even Silus couldn’t tell where he was and he had watched and helped him into position last time it had gotten dark. Lying prone with his cloak spread over the top of him gravel and stones placed on top you could easily walked over him and not noticed. He had carefully placed the rifle so that he could move it for reloading and aiming without being visible to move from the outside. Though something could walk right up to him and he would never know from behind everything in front of him was in mortal peril and equally would never know. His sniper rifle was specially altered for him by the techmarines to take into account his slightly smaller build than most marines, and that he preferred to shoot left handed. And the rifle was excellent, unlike most of its build it w=even was fully automatic, not that he often risked the ammo on it in case of the unlikely event that it caused him to miss a target. And then the scope. Believed to have been fitted to the storm angels first chapter masters own bolter. Not only did it allow him to see perfectly and to change modes, but the zoo allowed him to see far further than any other scope that he had come across that wasn’t fitted to the hull of a battle tank. It had taken years for him to perfectly align it to his rifle in a way that perfectly suited him. And through his hands together they had brought death to thousands.

Currently he was searching for specialists. He had given up on killing leaders hours, if not days ago. There was to many and it wasn’t sowing discord like it did with other armies they faced. The whole lot just seemed to be under the spell of something that just drove them forward to kill or be killed. It seemed to be their existence. Now he had taken to trying to kill as many as he could in as few shots as possible. His preferred target was currently fuel canisters on flames. Not that they were that effective against marines but when they exploded in the presence of tightly packed humans the effects were... pleasing. He had also taken to taking the occasional gunner off the heavy guns on the walls, and when he could get the shot to set off the ammo when they were reloading. There weren’t many left on the walls still working. Between the rest of the marines attacks with missile and so on, and the occasional strafe form the stormravens they were starting to fall in number and the return fire was beginning to dwindle. Yet the enemy’s numbers were not. In his short journey into the underground layer he had gotten a rough idea of how large they must be and how many be in there, but this was crazy. Now he understood why the enemy soldiers were just sick and sluggish and not dead like they should have been. The soup he had tinkered with he had put enough of his own special brew poisons to take down... probably an imperial guard regiment... a sickening thought, he just hoped that whatever demonic pacts these fools had made had given them a stronger constitution...

Clearing his mind he caught sight of a single marine taking off with another particularly large one of the scum and lift high into the air before throwing it off and letting it fall. ‘ Ahh brother Edward, always with a flair for the dramatic’ he thought as a smile brushed his lips. ‘where do we go to from here my brother?’ at that re returned his attention in time to catch a heavy weapons team who had re-positioned their gun high at Edward. He managed to catch them in such a way that they slumped on the gun forcing it down and firing into their comrades on full auto. Hundreds were pulverised in seconds before it ran out of ammo. Yet the space cleared was filled just as fast by the jostling horde as it tried to get in for the kill. Where to from here indeed...