Skitarii Marshal Sigma 44-Kariya had enough. Archmagos Theta-Rho had grown impatient with the interlopers' increasingly unreasonable demands of their newly founded Forge World, Kaijya, and had decided to eliminate them once and for all. Mustering his Hunter Cohort 428-Sigma in force, 44-Kariya sought to carry out his orders.
The Boreal Swords had just barely landed on the forge world when the Skitarii ambushed them in the ruined manufactorums that had just suffered a punishing orbital strike. The Boreal Swords' strike cruiser had pummeled the area with its lances, leaving smoking ruins, and the stealthy Skitarii made use of the fumes as cover, scouting ahead to meet the deployed Bladeguard Veterans and Redemptor Dreadnoughts in force. 44-Kariya executed the Conqueror Imperative Doctrina, and auspexes lit up, the noosphere updating with targeting solutions, while omnispexes revealed the silhouettes of the advancing Bladeguard Veterans, allowing the Skitarii to hammer home exotic ammunition despite the cover the Space Marines sought refuge in.
72-Kishida's Serberys Raiders scouted ahead, their galvanic carbines opening up with a punishing salvo that dealt devastating wounds to the Bladeguard Veterans who had forged too far ahead of their Sternguard Veteran support. With a Skitarii Ranger squad moving up with their Onager Dunecrawler escort to reinforce fire, they managed to whittle down the Bladeguard Veterans further before they were annihilated by Sir Kanda, his Cerastus Knight Lancer spearing into them and sending lethal arcs of energy splaying out. Further back, the two Onager Dunecrawlers fired their neutron lasers, tearing chunks of adamantium off the lumbering Redemptor Dreadnoughts and leaving them listing. The one with the plasma macro incinerator was further savaged by precise cognis lascannon strikes from 28-Tetsuo's backfield Ironstrider Ballistarii.
More Bladeguard Veterans were forced to duck under the accurate firepower of the Skitarii Ranger squads and the Skorpius Dunerider that ferried Skitarii Marshal Rho 29-Tataki and his Vanguard retinue about. The Space Marines were able to withstand the ferocious onslaught, their power armor and reflexes allowing them to escape the worst.
Instead, they focused fire on Sir Kanda's Knight Lancer, who had charged into their midst. The Sternguard Veterans, the Redemptor Dreadnought, and even the two squads of Bladeguard Veterans. The Captain of the Boreal Swords charged in to take down the heavily damaged Knight, and Sir Kanda's venerable armor fell in combat, but not before the reactor went off. Unfortunately, 72-Kishida's Serberys Raiders were laid low by the explosion, but so were two Bladeguard Veterans, the Redemptor Dreadnought and a couple of Sternguard Veterans, though the Apocethary revived one of them later.
The second Redemptor Dreadnought powered toward the Skitarii Ranger squad, mowing down every single one of them with his onslaught gatling cannons, then he charged the Syndonian Dragoons. With bionic endurance, they withstood its powerful blows and struck back, thrusting with their taser lances and tearing apart joints and rupturing servos. The Redemptor Dreadnought buckled before it was engulfed in sulfur fire from the Serberys Sulfurhounds, who were isolating and destroying it.
The Skitarii Rangers' vengeful volleys wiped out the Bladeguard Veterans and the accompanying Captain, with Rho 29-Tataki and his Vanguard disembarking from the Skorpius Dunerider to add to their bombardments. Riddled with radium rounds, plasma, galvanic projectiles, arc lightning and a transuranium shell, the Bladeguard Veterans were wiped out. The Sternguard Veterans also suffered several blows from the Onager Dunecrawler and its accompanying Skitarii Rangers, but their astute positioning allowed them to emerge largely unscathed from the ferocious bombardment. Meanwhile, the Redemptor Dreadnought eventually fell to the Sulfurhounds' Linebreaking charge, which dealt enough mortal wounds to the crumbling frame.
The Boreal Swords were far from defeated, though. Eradicators arrived from Strategic Reserves to fire at the Onager Dunecrawler, whose emanatus forcefields crackled defensively to deflect the lethal melta beams. On the other hand, the Inceptors descended meteorically, their plasma guns spitting superheated death, but they chose to kill Magos Epsilon Muguruma, the accompanying Tech-priest Enginseer, for some reason. Terminators teleported into the backfield, taking cover behind a building, and they charged the Ironstrider Ballistarii, wrecking one of them into a mangled hulk. The other retreated, 28-Tetsuo firing his lascannons, which went wide and instead hit an Inceptor, killing him instantly by sheer luck. Meanwhile, the third and sole surviving squad of Bladeguard Veterans plunged into the Serberys Sulfurhounds and massacred them with elegant sweeps of their crackling power swords.
Sigma 44-Kariya struggled to pull his remaining forces back together to prevent a rout. He would not run like last time. He would obey Archmagos Rho-Theta's command and eradicate the interlopers. The Boreal Swords could not be allowed to take control of their forge world. Kariya belonged to the Adeptus Mechanicus, not the Astartes.
Running several simulations in his mind, he switched to Protector Doctrina Imperatives, adjusting firing solutions and improving accuracy. Four Eradicators were taken out by the combined firepower of the Onager Dunecrawler and its escorting Skitarii Rangers. The other Onager Dunecrawler actually blew up a Terminator with a Dedalus missile fired at pointblank range, while the Sydonian Dragoons charged the Bladeguard Veterans and almost wiped them out. Only the Lieutenant was left, and he slew the Tech-priest Enginseer administering to the Onager Dunecrawler in the vicinity, knowing that his power sword would be ineffective against the Bionic Endurance of the Sydonian Dragoons. Meanwhile, the entire squad of Sternguard Veterans were eliminated by the Skorpius Dunerider's cognis heavy stubber array and 44-Kariya's personal retinue, leaving just the Apocethary standing there in bemusement.
The Terminators and Chaplain did more damage to the Onager Dunecrawler in return, but it survived for now. The Lieutenant broke away from combat and continued hurtling toward the Onager Dunecrawler in a desperate attempt to join the Terminators, while the Inceptors finished off the wounded Onager Dunecrawler with plasma. The Eradicators fired their melta beams into the Skitarii Rangers and killed another two, before the gravis armored Marines charged into the squad and took out three, leaving just a handful of survivors, but they didn't succumb to battleshock, instead rolling an 8 and passing morale.
The Terminators and Chaplain finally laid low the Onager Dunecrawler, but they were immediately set upon by 28-Tetsuo and the final, remaining Onager Dunecrawler, with cognis twin lascannon and neutron laser killing another two of them. Only the Chaplain and one Terminator was left after all the shooting from 44-Kariya's squad, and the Sydonian Dragoons were poised to charge into the Lieutenant to finish him off with their taser lances. On the other side, the Skorpius Dunerider opened up and slew the bewildered Apocethary.
With only two Terminators, two Eradicators and two Inceptors - the 2 Gravis armored units locked in melee with stubborn Skitarii Rangers - the Boreal Swords realized how bleak their situation was. They had taken far too many losses, their casualties not being worth the supplies and ammunition they desired to claim from the defiant Forge World. Voxes barked, and the surviving Astartes turned around to depart, leaving the beleaguered Skitarii behind. With 28-Tetsuo's Ironstrider Ballistarius, a single Onager Dunecrawler, a Skorpius Dunerider bristling with high caliber rounds, an almost full Skitarii Ranger squad, and another decimated one still hanging on somehow, it was unlikely that the Boreal Swords could salvage anything from this crisis.
"Phew." Sigma 44-Kariya watched as the Boreal Swords retreated, feeling immense relief. Unfortunately, 428-Sigma Hunter Cohort had suffered tremendous losses in the defense of their forge world. Kajiya might remain in Mechanicus hands, but the price had been high. A revered Knight Lancer suit had been brought down, two of his precious Onager Dunecrawlers were wrecked, and countless bodies of Skitarii lay broken upon the ruins. Not all of them had fallen to enemy fire. Two of them had blown themselves up spectacularly when their plasma calivers overloaded. 44-Kariya made a mental note in the noosphere to update the catcheisms of maintenance for plasma calivers, so that future wielders wouldn't succumb to their Hazardous nature.
<Good work.> Archmagos Rho-Theta sounded pleased, if a Tech-priest could be said to express any emotion through binharic. <That should teach those upstart Astartes not to mess with our forge world.>
<Lord Archmagos, we require servitor teams for heavy repair, and we need to accelerate Skitarii recruitment.>
<It will be done,> Rho-Theta assured him. The Skitarii Marshal could hear the smile in his Tech-priest Dominus's blurts. <But more importantly, I've received a request from Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl. The Prime Conduit has blessed us with his transmissions and data-streams!>
44-Kariya simply tilted his bionic head, patiently waiting for his lord to continue. Rho-Theta had always respected Cawl, worshipping him as the Prime Conduit and an example to follow. That was why he had joined Draconis IV, to safely "innovate" and "experiment" beyond the surveillance of Mars.
<Draconis IV - and by extension, Kajiya, which is now a secured fiefdom of ours - will answer Archmagos Cawl's calls for assistance and dispatch an expedition to the Nephilim Sector in force. Activate the Skitarii Legions. Deploy the Knights of House Yato and their vassal House Kanda. Prepare the Seraphim Device. We will cleanse the sector in the name of the Omnissiah!>
(The Crusade shall continue in the Pariah Nexus.)
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