EVENT - Rangdan Xenocides

[TrajantheGreat]

The Return

 

Just five more minutes, five more minutes.

 

Holdoth nursed his hot drink, just hot and disgusting enough to keep him awake. He took another sip and felt the acidic sting hit the back of this throat.

 

Just five more minutes.

 

He began slowly packing up his few pieces of equipment, hoping to be able to leave the facility the exact moment his shift was over. 

 

Why do they even need a void scan overseer at this time of night? No one would come to this nowhere colony, much less at this time of night. If they do, it’s probably above my paygrade anyway.

 

He checked the clock one more time, and decided that if he walked slowly enough, he could start leaving. As he stood up from his chair and turned to leave, a bleem sounded behind him. Holdoth stopped, pausing to listen.

 

Please not another bleem.

 

A second bleem. And then a third. And then several bleems. Holdoth span around to look at the monitors, hoping there was a mechanical error. The scans were detecting a huge fleet approaching, too large to be civilian vessels. 

 

Holdoth turned to the servitor in the room. “Hail the fleet and establish their intentions.” Holdoth bit his nails as the Servitor and the scanners rattled with the effort of transmitting. He kept his gaze upon the scanner, seeing what looked like nearly a hundred vessels approaching the planet. Finally, the Servitor responded. 

 

“Fleet. Identified. As. Imperial. Expeditionary. Fleet. 421. Admiral. Skataslan. Morvonus. Requesting. Refuelling. Permission.” 

 

Holdoth exhaled, steadying himself on the console and then taking a deep breath. He straightened up, smoothed his hair and left the room. He pressed a button on the console and static came over the vox-caster. 

 

“Coordinator Fatanus, the scanners detect that Expeditionary Fleet 421 is approaching Ophidia. They wish to refuel.”

 

There was no response for a few seconds. 

 

“Expeditionary Fleet 421? We do not have refuelling facilities to service an expeditionary fleet. I am on my way to check these scans.”

 

…

 

The remains of the world of Ophilia were rediscovered five years later, the human population having completely disappeared. Not a single corpse was found, not even skeletons. The weapons batteries showed signs of a limited struggle, ammunition still found in storage. The machines of the planetary government were systematically excavated, the last message still remaining unfinished on the governor’s communication device. 

 

R.A.N.G.D...

[TrajantheGreat]

Legions Involved

 

First Rangdan Xenocide

Crimson Lions
Hunting Shadows (Pre-Primarch Stalking Leopards)
Alabaster Order

Second Rangdan Xenocide

Iron Revenant

Shadow Warriors

Red Eyes

 

Third Rangdan Xenocide

Dune Serpents

Star Lords

Marauders (Pre-Primarch Black Stars)

Iron Revenants

The Riven

 

Fourth Rangdan Xenocide

Warriors of Peace

Edited August 27, 2020 by TrajantheGreat

[TrajantheGreat]

To War

 

Part 1

 

“Are they all this easy?” Whispered Rang Talyc under his breath. He remained looking out into the crowd that lined the street, keeping a stern face and with his arms clasped behind his back. Araphel chuckled lowly, not audible to anyone but the two of them.

“No, brother, and you should not expect them all to be like this. Even now, this compliance is not over, anything could still happen.” Araphel was also scanning the crowd, looking for threats even in this moment of triumph. 

Surrounded as they were by hundreds of Astartes, anyone would be foolish to attempt such a thing.

------

Araphel and Rang Talyc stood, pouring over the data laid out in front of them. The data slates scrolled and scrolled, showing hundreds, or even thousands of signals. The two Primarchs had spent hours going through all of them, organising them by location and time of sending.

“Hmmm, this is a mess.” muttered Araphel. He dropped the data slate onto the desk, nearly breaking it without even meaning to. “One message says an invasion fleet has attacked a planet, then the next states that the world is in the grips of a civil war, then the next says everything is under control.”

Rang nodded, standing back a bit from the table to better take in the whole picture. He stroked his chin as he contemplated the situation. “There is no discernible pattern from the messages, with planets sending signals seemingly at random. What do you suggest we do, brother?”

Araphel walked around the table, joining his brother. “There must be something going on, even if we cannot determine what exactly. We shall divert the fleet west to deal with this, and there will be retribution for those responsible.” Araphel reached through the swarm of information and pointed at a single report. “This is the latest report, we shall investigate this first.” The table cleared of reports, a single holographic planet appearing with information on it presenting itself. 

“We head to the world of Ophidia.”

[TrajantheGreat]

To War

 

Part 2

 

“Lord Araphel, approaching the outskirts of the Scarus Sector. Translating from the Immaterium in 10 seconds.” Fleet Admiral Hannon called out as she steadied herself ready for re-entry. Araphel, sitting at the command throne, merely nodded and fixed his eyes straight forward. He gripped the arms of his throne as the Immaterium became tumultuous with the number of ships entering the materium. In the blink of an eye, the ship was in the Scarus Sector.

The ship’s lights instantly turned red, explosions rocking the command deck. Hannon glimpsed out of the viewing port the rest of the fleet, seeing the wreckage of ships already being to build up and ships being swarmed by large, spiney, almost organic ships, tentacles reaching out to wrap around cruisers. Araphel immediately began barking orders, shaking the stunned crew into action with retaliating against the sudden threat.

“Prepare to fire, open a vox link to the 6th and coordinate a formation.”

The crew snapped to action, quickly moving back to their practiced routines. Hannon returned to her console, the serfs readying the macro-cannons as the void shields strained under the attacks of the xenos. The turrets had already begun firing, clearing away some of the nearer threats as the xenos ships broke apart in explosions of grey viscera and shards of exoskeleton. As the battleship slowly turned, the nearest serf called out that the cannons were ready. 

Nearly there, nearly thereeee. “Fire!” ordered Hannon. The macro-cannons roared and dozens of the xenos ships harassing Iron Revenant cruisers were annihilated. Not even taking a second to savour the rush of destroying the foe, she ordered the serfs to begin the reloading sequence. 

“Communications established with the Primarch of the VIth, my Lord!” shouted a crew member. Araphel, already on his feet, stalked over to the crewman. 

“Brother, we must get the ships not prepared for void combat out of here, order all vessels you deem to be more likely to succumb to the xenos to reach the Mandeville Point. Join your remaining ships with mine and hold the xenos back.”

“Understood, brother.” Came the crackly reply. “For the Emperor.”

“For the Emperor.” Araphel, turned to survey the void battle unfolding, taking it all in in an instant and turned to leave the bridge. “Fleet Admiral Hannon, you heard the plan, maintain the course.”

“Yes my Lord.” she said as she quickly hit her fist against her chest. Araphel, without any more ceremony, left. Hannon looked out the viewing platform to see what Araphel had seen, and saw the swarm of xenos heading straight for them. The xenos had clearly recognised the Gloriana as the main threat. Returning her focus to the consoles, she watched as the swarm surrounded the battleship, the turrets clearing a few but more simply filled their place. The ship shook with the impact of the xenos attempting to board, tentacles attaching themselves to the ship and what could best be described as their teeth tore into the hull.

“Macrocannons loaded, Admiral!”

“FIRE!”

[TrajantheGreat]

Sergeant Rhalos felt the slithering mass of the xenos in front of him trying to wrap itself around his boarding shield. The screeching sound of the creature’s spins piercing the shield echoed through the tight corridor. Rhalos gripped his power sword tightly, the handle slippery with the blood of the xenos he had already slain. He thrust once more, the creature too close to dodge, his sword embedding itself in what he guessed to be the xenos’ abdomen. The creature reeled back, taking the sword back as it keeled over. Rhalos braced his now empty hand against the shield, as a new xenos charged into it and forced him back. He tried to reach for his bolt pistol, but even slightly shifting his hand caused the xenos to nearly topple him. He felt the ground shaking around him, a pounding like the whole corridor was going to collapse.

“Die you xenos scum!” roared Rhalos as he pulled his shield back, pulling the xenos in close and grabbing hold of out of one of its spines. As the creature’s spines pierced his armour, Rhalos raised his shield and smashed it repeatedly into the creature with sickening squelching sounds. He pulled out his bolt pistol and fired several shots into the central mass of the creature. It fell forward, causing him to stumble to the floor. The pounding of the corridor reached a fever pitch, and Rhalos heard a battlecry behind him.
 

“Ground them beneath our boots, my sons!” bellowed Araphel, leading his elite Pallas terminators straight for the thin line of Breachers. Rhalos pushed the corpse off of him and threw himself to the side, barely avoiding the charge as the reinforcements slammed into the xenos. Rhalos took a second to catch his breath, noticing that spines had lodged themselves in his lung and left thigh. 

An apothecary appeared in front of him, “Can you stand?” Rhalos grunted, not allowing himself to need to be carried, and pushed himself to his feet. The apothecary nodded, using his Narthecium to seal the wounds on his leg and chest. Knowing not to expect any thanks, the apothecary moved off to tend to the rest of the squad. Rhalos made his way back down the corridor, examining the corpses of the xenos to reclaim his power sword.