The Fall of Selvak IV

[Bringer of Redemption]

Opening Notes:

What I'm posting now is only the first part of what I have planned for this. Writing in short bits is enough to keep me sane while studying for exams, and so this will be in serial format.

 

I also feel the need to introduce the basic concept behind this, since I'm not telling how Selvak IV fell in a conventional matter. As some of you may know (and I can personally attest to this) any decent military is run by paperwork. Lots and lots of paperwork. Requisition orders, maintenance logs, briefings, commendations, after action reports ect. as far as I'm concerned, this is still true in the 41st millennium, even amongst formations of genetically engineered super soldiers. So, what you get to see is the battle after it happened: The after action reports of the key players (and there will be a number of them). To start with, here's the report of Uzziel, a Librarian attached to the Fifth Company.

 

+++The Fall of Selvak IV+++

+++883m40+++

 

 

+++CLEARANCE LEVEL EYES ONLY/IC BETA+++

+++AAR to [Redacted], Recorded by Brother-Librarian Uzziel+++

 

The Selvak IV campaign was begun at the orders of the Lord General of the Sector. Imperial guard troopships in their hundreds and thousands descended on the rogue world, which had declared its independence from the Imperium.

 

The first strike was devastating. The citizens of the planet lived in the most part in massive hives, separated by hundreds of miles of untamed forest. While the hives produced valuable materiel for campaigns across the sector, they did not do so in sufficient quantity to be irreplaceable, and an orbital bombardment was authorized.

 

All five of the largest hives fell in the first three hours of the campaign, burned down to craters of ash, glass, and twisted steel by the fury of the Imperial fleet, making an example that the people of Selvak IV could not ignore. The Guard then descended upon the remaining minor hives, laying siege to those that refused to surrender.

 

Far more dangerous, however, were the Selvakian renegades who retreated into the dense forests. They struck regularly at the besieging Imperial forces, who were already facing heavy resistance at the hive walls.

 

Rumors began to speak of a shadowy figure named Ismael leading the resistance. He was said to be a giant, clad in armor as dark as the night beneath the trees that sheltered him. It was these rumors, found in official reports to the sector command that drew the interests of Brother-Captain Iair, myself, and Interrogator Chaplain Amnon for that name was on the list of those we still sought in the Lion’s name.

 

Brother-Captain Iair offered the services of the 5th Company to General Stroman, the overall commander of the forces on Slevak IV. Our assistance was swiftly accepted, for by that point the Guard had been fighting for over a year. Several of the hives had fallen, but eight remained under siege, repulsing every attempt to storm them with catastrophic losses.

 

Accordingly, the veteran, tactical, assault and devastator squads of the company were deployed across the planet to bolster the Guard ranks and to breakthrough the remaining hives. Their activities were a screen to our real actions—the Deathwing elements attached to the 5th Company, under the command of Interrogator-Chaplain Amnon remained aboard our strike cruiser, Sword of Redemption [Reporting Name: The Light of Darkness]. At the time our Ravenwing force, along with the 10th Company squad that had been assigned to the 5th for further training and initial field missions, both under my command, searched the forests for the fallen Ismael.

 

The use of the scouts of the 10th company was a calculated risk on my part, for had they actually encountered the fallen himself, it fell upon me to ensure that word of our ancient shame did not spread. Their presence was vindicated, however, when they located the cave complex that served as a headquarters for the resistance. A Ravenwing landspeeder had initially flown over the complex, and reported being flagged targeting radar briefly, before it was shut off.

 

The error of the traitor operating the SAM emplacements around the camp was our first sign of hostile presence in that particular region. I determined that any traitor encampment significant enough to mount heavy anti-air defenses was worth further investigation, but using the Ravenwing was too likely to force an engagement on the traitor’s terms, without turning up the information we were seeking.

 

Instead, I ordered the scouts to reconnoiter the encampment, marking the location of key defensive emplacements and positions for the upcoming assault. They kept the traitor’s camp under observation for 10 hours during the night. The fallen was not present in person, but the conversations between traitor soldiers in the camp around the entrance to the cave system confirmed his presence.

 

I ordered the scouts to continue to monitor the camp while I returned to Sword of Redemption to confer with Brother-Captain Iair and Interrogator Chaplain Amnon about our course of action.

 

It was swiftly determined that we had no choice but to hunt the fallen down within the cave system itself. We possessed weapons capable of destroying the caves from orbit, but the death of the fallen could not be confirmed if we did so, and Interrogator Chaplain Amnon pushed for capturing the fallen.

 

Brother-Captian Iair and I acquiesced, as his request was the only viable way to ensure that the threat of the fallen Ismael was ended. It was decided that if necessary we would kill the fallen, but all possible efforts would be made to take him alive.

 

We launched the assault as soon as the Ravenwing could be gathered, at 2318 local time. Six Battle-Brothers and myself were mounted on bikes and two land speeders, one in the tornado configuration, and one typhoon pattern accompanied us. Together with the scouts we hit the outer encampment.

 

The emplacements that the scouts had marked were destroyed first. They were engaged at range by the typhoon. It’s missile launchers fired several volleys, and each missile followed targeting data uploaded by the scouts.

 

With the anti-air and anti-infantry emplacements in flames, the battle proper began. As soon as the missiles struck, the scouts began executing the traitor’s officers from the cover of the trees. Fragmentation missile fired from their missile launcher wreaked havoc amongst concentrations of traitor troops.

 

We arrive shortly afterwards. I ordered the attack squadron split into two sections of three, and each struck the traitor camp from either side, eventually meeting in the middle. The two land speeders arrived on scene to provide fire support, killing anything that came under their guns.

 

Within fifteen minutes the camp was completely overrun, and all of the traitors were either dead or fleeing. All of the Battle-Brothers and the Aspirants of the 10th company who participated in the attack were unwounded, and I dispatched them to hunt down and kill the fleeing traitors.

 

At this time, roughly 2335, I activated the teleport homer built into my bike, signaling the Brother-Captian that the second phase of the assault was ready to begin, while the 2nd and 10th company elements began their pursuit. They responded almost immediately, and Deathwing Squad Moribundus appeared, accompanied by the Brother-Captain in his terminator armor, and Interrogator Chaplain Amnon, likewise armed and armored.

 

Squad Moribundus was commanded by Brother-Sergeant Shakziel, who had wisely chosen to equip his squad for tunnel fighting. He had settled on the use of a heavy flamer, despite it’s weakness against powered armor such as the fallen wore, for its efficiency in clearing tunnels. The Brother-Sergeant himself and one other Battle-Brother bore thunder hammers and storm shields for protection in the close confines we would be fighting in, and the remaining two carried the standard issue storm bolters.

 

I dismounted from my bike and joined the force. We swiftly entered the tunnels, and at 2338 the hunt for the fallen Ismael had begun in earnest.

 

Resistance was heavy at the mouth of the cave, but by the Lion’s will we prevailed, and the paltry weapons of the traitors were unable to harm any of us. Further beneath the ground, the traitors were less concentrated, but we were engaged in a running battle throughout.

 

Countless times the heavy flamer let loose torrents of holy fire, purging those before us in the Emperor’s name. The bolters of the squad spoke, and thunder hammers crashed down, destroying all who withstood the flames. On multiple occasions I was forced to invoke the dark flames of the warp itself to remove particularly stubborn groups of traitors.

 

Some twenty minutes after we entered the caves, we reached the section that the Fallen Ismael had made his own. In some strange perversion or mockery of loyalty, the cave was decorated with two paintings—A version of the Imperial Aquila dating back to the era of the great crusade and the blood red winged sword of the first legion, before the destruction of Caliban.

 

Ismael stood before these, clad in black armor bearing the signs of our legion. He did not attempt to justify his betrayal to us, or speak at all. As we entered the underground chamber, he raised a plasma pistol of ancient design, and fired.

 

The plasma vaporized Brother Rusvon’s arm from the elbow down detonating the promethium reserves of his heavy flamer. If Ismael meant distract us with the explosion, he failed. The rest of us shot back at him, while Brother Rusvon raised his powerfist, preparing for the fallen’s charge.

 

Ismael weathered the storm of bolts we sent towards him, even as the blasts chipped the paint from his armor. He continued towards us, firing repeatedly, but Brother-Sergeant Shakziel and the other Brother bearing a storm shield stood between us and the deadly fire, deflecting it with the enhanced force fields of their shields.

 

I unleashed the powers of the warp against Ismael, but he ignored them as though he was protected by some foul heresy of the Chaos Gods. Less than a minute after the first shot was fired he had closed with us, drawing the powersword he wore on his belt.

 

It was a hopeless fight for him. His skills had been honed in the great crusade and countless years of battle, but he faced seven veteran space marines in terminator armor and myself. His skill was such that we were unable to subdue him instantly and Brother-Sergeant Shakziel was wounded, but eventually Interrogator-Chaplain Amnon was able to shatter the fallen’s blade with a blow from his crozius, and without his weapon, Ismael was swiftly subdued.

 

Once the fallen was captured, Brother-Captain Iair ordered us to teleport back to the Sword of Redemption. From there, the fallen was imprisoned under the supervision of Interrogator-Chaplain Amnon, while the Brother-Captain recalled the Ravenwing and 10th company squads, before unleashing an orbital bombardment that leveled the caves and anything within ten miles of them.

 

Our initial cover for capturing the fallen was to break the remaining sieges on Selvak IV, so for appearances sake we remained in orbit for the next three days as the 5th company, now supported by the terminators, concluded operations. The moment all of our Battle-Brothers were aboard, we set a direct course for the Rock.

 

Until the Sword is reforged,

Brother-Librarian Uzziel

 

+++END REPORT+++

 

So there you have it. Part 1 of the Fall of Selvak IV.

 

Some special thanks has to go out to The Dark Fortress, because without the extensive Book of Names maintained there I'd be forced to make up names for all of my characters, and that would probably end badly. The name for the strike cruiser Sword of Redemption is also drawn from the article on the Dark Angels fleet (it's in the Tactica section, for those who are interested).

 

--BoR

[The Shadow Guard]

Nice idea on how you have written the story BoD. The only advice I have is that given the fact that this is an after action report it might be more appropriate to start eachs ection with the time of action.. eg

 

1024hrs: such and such heppened etc or

 

H+15 mins such and such heppened....

 

Also, you shouldn't have statements that state äpproximately at such and such time etc.. because of the chronometers built in to power armour, the SM physiology and that this is an after action report, one would expect a lot more precision.

 

A couple of minor issues:

 

1. You didn't mention the reason for the planetary invasion in any detail.

 

2. The capture of the fallen is too easy... a veteran of 10,000 years will have the guile, cunning and adaptability to give the younger angels a run for their money.. :D

 

Otherwise, nice work and keep it up as it's shaping up very weell.

 

SG

[Bringer of Redemption]

Some of those points will be addressed later on--This particular post is primarily Uzziel reporting on the aspects of the operation that concerned him.

 

One of the next reports will be the company master's report on the whole campaign, and there will be at least one report from a sergeant who was involved in one of the sieges. As it stands, there are a number of gaps, but I have plans to fill in some of them.

 

--BoR