Delteron IV, 3 months after receipt of Inquisitor Tulius' last contact; Salamander Task Force
Forgemaster Pyrus grimaced, checking his internal chronometer. The Rhinos under his command ate away at the kilometers separating his advanced vanguard and the last known location of Deacon Augustus, but it had still been almost two hours since the battle barge Immolator had relayed the distress call. All that was able to be gleaned from the message was that during a retreat to a holy site, the Deacon and his retinue had been attacked by unknown Xenos forces. Most of the retinue of Planetary Defense Force troops had been slaughtered in the initial strike, and the rest had been forced to retreat into the sacred ruins. Only the Emperor knew what fate had befallen them while Pyrus and his battle brothers burned across the landscape.
Keying his vox, he spoke in an eerie, harmonic synthetic voice. (*Author's note- think Soundwave here.) "Brothers, we will be arriving in less than two minutes. Prepare yourselves, and make ready to face whatever filth the galaxy has washed up on the shores of this world. Into the fires of battle..." he began, trailing off, as the Astartes under his command replied over the vox-net with "...UNTO THE ANVIL OF WAR! FOR VULKAN, AND THE EMPEROR!"
Cresting the rise, the two Rhinos came into view of the holy shrine... now smoking and blasted, debris littered around the battlefield. Taking note of a patch of large blocks blown clear of the main ruins, Pyrus leapt from the back of the Rhino he was in, and directed one of the transports to either side. He set to work using his augmented strength to prepare himself a firing position in the rubble, as he chanted the litanies of activation for the sacred relic carried in lieu of his servo-harness, a Drakesgaze Conversion Beamer. That's when he saw them... the enemy. Again, his chilling voice crackled across the voxnet, "Eldar, brothers. One of our most ancient and bitter foes, to the days of Vulkan himself. Let us show them the wrath of Noctourne!"
No sooner had he spoken, than the firing started. Long minutes of trading fire elapsed, Pyrus biding his time as he grimly took measure of his foe. Switching to long range vox, he reported back to the Immolator. "We are outgunned. We can hold, but we cannot move forward. Deacon Augustus is in the ruins ahead, but the Xenos will reach him before us. I invoke the Brimstone protocol." He relayed some coordinates, and switched back to the tactical voxnet. "Hold, brothers, the Eldar hold the advantage here. We can not best their speed, and to try would invite defeat. The Emperor will provide, so be ready to move on my signal."
Keying his vox, he spoke in an eerie, harmonic synthetic voice. (*Author's note- think Soundwave here.) "Brothers, we will be arriving in less than two minutes. Prepare yourselves, and make ready to face whatever filth the galaxy has washed up on the shores of this world. Into the fires of battle..." he began, trailing off, as the Astartes under his command replied over the vox-net with "...UNTO THE ANVIL OF WAR! FOR VULKAN, AND THE EMPEROR!"
Cresting the rise, the two Rhinos came into view of the holy shrine... now smoking and blasted, debris littered around the battlefield. Taking note of a patch of large blocks blown clear of the main ruins, Pyrus leapt from the back of the Rhino he was in, and directed one of the transports to either side. He set to work using his augmented strength to prepare himself a firing position in the rubble, as he chanted the litanies of activation for the sacred relic carried in lieu of his servo-harness, a Drakesgaze Conversion Beamer. That's when he saw them... the enemy. Again, his chilling voice crackled across the voxnet, "Eldar, brothers. One of our most ancient and bitter foes, to the days of Vulkan himself. Let us show them the wrath of Noctourne!"
No sooner had he spoken, than the firing started. Long minutes of trading fire elapsed, Pyrus biding his time as he grimly took measure of his foe. Switching to long range vox, he reported back to the Immolator. "We are outgunned. We can hold, but we cannot move forward. Deacon Augustus is in the ruins ahead, but the Xenos will reach him before us. I invoke the Brimstone protocol." He relayed some coordinates, and switched back to the tactical voxnet. "Hold, brothers, the Eldar hold the advantage here. We can not best their speed, and to try would invite defeat. The Emperor will provide, so be ready to move on my signal."
As he spoke, the vile Xenos craft disgorged a howling horde of shameless harlots. They streamed into the ruins, making their way through the wreckage, looking almost rabid in their desire to chop and maim. That desire was temporarily overridden by simple curiosity, though, as an earsplitting roar hammered down from the sky. In a streak of flame and a pillar of smoke and dust, a massive projectile slammed into the earth just behind the Dark Eldar assault team. It peeled open like some giant, nightmarish mechanical flower, and a flame-wreathed terror exploded out of the drop pod, massive feet cracking stone as it strode in righteous fury. A deep, grinding voice blasted from the Ironclad... "Xenos targets... acquired. Foolish Eldar... pitied." (Another note - Omega Supreme voice for this one, folks.) Twin gouts of flame practically obliterated the Dark Eldar squad as weaponry of all sorts deflected harmlessly from thick armored shell of Ironclad Ba'Rakus.
The battle fell under the fog of war then, and fire was traded from all sides. Pyrus blasted at enemy craft with his powerful conversion beamer, and weathered hails of return fire - his prepared position, and immaculately maintained Artificer Armor protecting him from the faithless attacks of the Xenos. Rhinos roared ahead to support Ba'Rakus, and the Salamanders advanced. The Eldar did not give ground without a fight, though. Abominable enemy craft blasted onto the battlefield, using their superior speed and infernal technologies to appear where least expected. Bravo Squad's Rhino took a full salvo of enemy fire and disintegrated into shrapnel and flame... though to the Fireborn inside, that shrapnel and flame were as meat and drink to a mere mortal. Most of that brave squad fell soon after, though, under the guns of a shrieking Razorwing. Two Astartes survived the hellstorm of missile fire, and made the perilous climb through the precarious ruins to secure the Deacon while the battle raged. They shielded him from Eldar fire with their bodies, crowding him into a nook in the stone, and firing back as they could. Theirs was not a glorious job, but they gladly forfeited their pride in the name of protecting the human. Even the mighty dreadnought took damage from concentrated Dark Eldar heavy fire, losing one of his heavy flamers.
Alpha squad fared better, their Rhino running down a group of Dark Eldar attempting to flank from the rubble. They leapt from their transport in swirls of flame and hails of bolter shells, cutting down the last of the resistance like a scythe through wheat. Ba'Rakus had meanwhile destroyed several enemy craft with a combination of missile fire, and sheer brute strength. The stormbolter turret in the drop pod had also claimed its due. Ba'Rakus hammered a Dark Eldar Raider into the ground with a massive swing of his seismic hammer, ending it's miserable existence. Flakk rockets from Alpha squad damaged the Razorwing, and with a final strafing run on a finally-wounded Pyrus, the craft screamed off the battlefield, trailing smoke.
The battle fell under the fog of war then, and fire was traded from all sides. Pyrus blasted at enemy craft with his powerful conversion beamer, and weathered hails of return fire - his prepared position, and immaculately maintained Artificer Armor protecting him from the faithless attacks of the Xenos. Rhinos roared ahead to support Ba'Rakus, and the Salamanders advanced. The Eldar did not give ground without a fight, though. Abominable enemy craft blasted onto the battlefield, using their superior speed and infernal technologies to appear where least expected. Bravo Squad's Rhino took a full salvo of enemy fire and disintegrated into shrapnel and flame... though to the Fireborn inside, that shrapnel and flame were as meat and drink to a mere mortal. Most of that brave squad fell soon after, though, under the guns of a shrieking Razorwing. Two Astartes survived the hellstorm of missile fire, and made the perilous climb through the precarious ruins to secure the Deacon while the battle raged. They shielded him from Eldar fire with their bodies, crowding him into a nook in the stone, and firing back as they could. Theirs was not a glorious job, but they gladly forfeited their pride in the name of protecting the human. Even the mighty dreadnought took damage from concentrated Dark Eldar heavy fire, losing one of his heavy flamers.
Alpha squad fared better, their Rhino running down a group of Dark Eldar attempting to flank from the rubble. They leapt from their transport in swirls of flame and hails of bolter shells, cutting down the last of the resistance like a scythe through wheat. Ba'Rakus had meanwhile destroyed several enemy craft with a combination of missile fire, and sheer brute strength. The stormbolter turret in the drop pod had also claimed its due. Ba'Rakus hammered a Dark Eldar Raider into the ground with a massive swing of his seismic hammer, ending it's miserable existence. Flakk rockets from Alpha squad damaged the Razorwing, and with a final strafing run on a finally-wounded Pyrus, the craft screamed off the battlefield, trailing smoke.
After a final, brief survey of the field, Pyrus ordered the survivors of Beta squad to secure the Deacon aboard the remaining Rhino. Alpha squad formed a perimeter around the ruins. Pyrus took the high ground of the blasted shrine, leaving the drop pod's gun covering the most likely approach, and having Ba'Rakus patrol to use his remaining flamer to root out any hiding Xenos in the foliage and wreckage.
"Immolator, this is Pyrus. We have casualties and battle damage. The objective is secured, but I am requesting the dispatch of a Stormraven with an Apothecary. I suspect the Eldar will be back, so I want to move out as quickly as possible. They were not ready for Astartes, but their air support escaped. They know where we are, and that we are under-strength. They will be eager for vengeance, so we must be swift."
"Immolator, this is Pyrus. We have casualties and battle damage. The objective is secured, but I am requesting the dispatch of a Stormraven with an Apothecary. I suspect the Eldar will be back, so I want to move out as quickly as possible. They were not ready for Astartes, but their air support escaped. They know where we are, and that we are under-strength. They will be eager for vengeance, so we must be swift."
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