As such, when the Administratum noticed a drop in exports, they dispatched the 7th Karam Regiment to investigate. The last reports from the panicked Guardsmen hinted at something darker...about bloated, diseased traitor Space Marines lumbering through volleys of lasguns and felling soldiers with plagues.
Thus, the Knight Lance of House Yato had been rerouted to Hovid-18. It was unfortunate, but Tanaka found himself demoted back to becoming a lowly Bushi piloting an Armiger class Knight instead of a Questoris...for narrative reasons.
"We're restarting the crusade, and so everyone is starting from scratch again - this means, you're back to leading combat patrols," Warmaster Jack had informed him, and that was it.
"Okay..."
Not at all pleased with the situation, Tanaka nonetheless led Suzuki and Kanda on a patrol. The two Armiger Warglaives and one Knight Moirax loped across the blasted ruins of the ghost town, seeking for the remnants of the 7th Karam Regiment. They hadn't gotten very far when their auspexes picked up something.
"Plague Marines."
Tanaka realized the green armored monstrosities that marched inexorably toward them, having fought against them in the Konor campaign a few years ago. They belonged to the Death Guard, the XIVth Legion and one of those who had turned against the Emperor during the days of Horus Lupercal. Aware of how disgustingly resilient they were, he immediately opened fire, his meltagun and thermal spear
firing superheated lances at them. A couple of the Plague Marines vanished, disintegrated by the incadescent beams, and then Tanaka was suddenly among them, swinging Kazan's reaper chain-cleaver and cleaving another couple of Plague Marines. They struck back, slashing at the adamantine hull with their plague knives and rusted blades, but the consecrated surface of Kazan turned away their melee weapons.
"We're coming," Kanda assured him, moving his Knight Moirax forward to support, but Suzuki's warning came a second later.
"Blightlord Terminators!"
Even more heavily armored and disgustingly resilient than the Plague Marines, the slow-moving but sturdy Terminators teleported a few meters away from Hebi. Suzuki opened fire with his meltagun and thermal spear, but only one of them went down from enough destructive prowess to melt a reinforced bunker.
They charged in and smashed Suzuki's steed with their bale swords and flails, ripping out rivets and causing the metal to rust immediately through foul magicks. Hebi reeled, and despite Suzuki's vengeful strike that reaped another Terminator, his Armiger Warglaive was going down.
Kanda opened fire immediately, realizing that he might be too late to save his fellow Bushi. The exotic energies arced from his twin lightning locks and detonated against the Terminators. But the swollen bodies of the foul warriors absorbed the punishment, shrugging off the lethal electricity. Only one burst open, falling to his knees as his flesh cooked within his ancient armor, but the rest continued to hack away at Hebi, which was now flailing about.
By now, Tanaka had finished off the Plague Marines. A Malignant Plaguecaster attempted to attack him with its plague staff or something, parrying his reaper chain-cleaver with the ease of a veteran who had survived the long war. Unable to defeat the plaguecaster in melee, Tanaka pulled Kazan back before desperately firing his thermal spear in pointblank range.
Shocked, the Malignant was unable to evade in time, his millennia of experience failing him when he needed it the most. The lance of superheated energy disintegrated him in a single volley, and Tanaka rushed Kazan through his smoking remains, adding insult to injury.
He was too late.
The Blightlord Terminator Sergeant had brought Hebi down to its knees and Suzuki was wailing, trapped in his Helm Mechanicum as it rusted all around him.
Then Kazan barreled into the Blightlord Terminator and ran him through. Even the tenacious body of the Death Guard was unable to withstand such a crushing blow, and he crumpled underneath the Armiger Warglaive's feet.
"You all right, Suzuki?"
"Yeah," his fellow bushi replied, his voice shaky. "I'll live. But Hebi needs critical repairs."
"The sacristans will get him fully restorted," Tanaka vowed. Straightening up in his Helm Mechanicum and comsulting his pict-screen and auspex. Swallowing, he wiped the perspiration from his face. "We need you back in the fight as soon as possible. I have a feeling this is only the beginning."
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