Last stand of the Eagle King

sarabando · June 18

Cadmeus's boots alternated between skidding off hard, polished stone work and splattering sucking mud as he ran. His squad kept pace as best they could, the few stragglers they had picked up slotting into fill losses with ease. A constant barrage of heavy weapons filled the night sky, airbursts lighting the area as bright as midday.

Ordeph his Vox operator gestured to their right, tracking the signals of supposed friendly units in distress seeking to rally and regroup. The sergeant flexed the fingers of his power fist in anger. In the weeks building up to their deployment against the rebellion at Istvaan his men had received orders to transfer their new maximus battle plate to other units, their heavy weapons and munitions too had been reassigned. The ageing servos of the crusade pattern armour he wore groaned in protest at the stress being placed on them. Inside the chest plate, Cadmeus had seen the names of battles crudely etched in the lining, all the way back to Terra herself.

"Fast movers six hundred metres to our rear, sergeant." Said Helinor his helmet long-lost in the chaos of battle. "Closing fast." He added.

"How far to the rally point?" Cadmeus barked to Ordeph who consulted his data slate.

"Eight hundred metres, sir." He said defeatedly.

"Fan out defensive pattern, Cicero 9-9-5." He ordered his mean taking up overlapping cover in the blasted ruins.

"Movement at our six o'clock! Right on top of us!" chirped the vox, Cadmeus spun, bringing his plasma pistol up as a colossal hand wrapped around it.

"Be still little Brother, we mean you no harm." The voice was warm like a blanket in the night, its familiarity comforting.

"Master Aegison?" Hissed Cadmeus.

The great figure of a legion legend clad in ornate terminator plate stepped into the flashing light.

"The Eagle king, thought you could use a hand." He gestured up towards streaking lights racing towards their position. "The traitor Vispyrtilo and his men have been hitting anyone trying to regroup, now there may be enough of us to give him a black eye." Chuckled the aged veteran.

Filled with relief that two legends of his legion had remained loyal and were now within his area of operations, made Cadmeus reassess the dire situation, we just might make this after all, he thought as traitor assault troops began to drop around them.