The Invincible Ironwing

"Uh, so we're back in Laemaran, and we're entering the Heart of War?" This time, it appeared that we were on a search and destroy mission...except that the other party was also searching and destroying us.

The Dark Angels had descended, and they were butchering Loyalists and Traitors alike. Despite communiques from the Imperial Fists, the Ist Legion was determined to annihilate Laemaran from existence. There were reports that the Dreadwing had landed and were drilling cyclonic torpedoes into the core of the planet.

Apparently, they weren't satisfied that we had exterminated the Alpha Legion presence here. They wanted the job done more thoroughly, and they didn't care that the other Loyalists would be caught in the crossfire. The Primarch of the Ist answered to no one, not even Lord Rogal Dorn - the Praetorian of Terra himself - and his Legion was a law unto its own.

Basically, everyone who wasn't a Dark Angel dies. Tough luck, even if you happen to be fighting for the Emperor.

"We should stop the Dreadwing from deploying their apocalyptic devices," Lord Takeda said, his Cerastus Knight Lancer already loping forward with crackling energies surrounding its long spear. Naginata was eager to charge into battle. "It's not like the Astartes can stop the might of our Knight House!"

Unfortunately, it looked like he spoke too soon. As we drove our engines toward the site of destruction at full speed, we detected enemy signals on the auspex. A full armor company of the Ist Legion was powering toward them, mechanized infantry and heavily armored tanks alike. I counted at least two Land Raiders and a single Spartan, alongside a fearsome Legion Falchion. Flanking the super-heavy was a squadron of two Saber strike tanks, and rounding out the intimidating force were a Sicaran Omega and an Arcus.

The Dark Angels had successfully seized the initiative and had the drop on us. As expected of the Ist Legion. They were of a totally different breed.

The Sons of the Lion opened fire before we could contact them over vox and pleaded our case. Weren't they supposed to be loyal to the Emperor? We were on the same side. So why were they firing upon us?

"Screw it! Just take them out!" Takeda snapped. "They are beyond reason!"

"I'll try," I muttered, moving Kazan forward and training his thermal cannon on the Falchion. That was the most potent threat toward our Knights. The super-heavy unleashed its apocalyptic wrath upon me, the incendiary beams of its twin volcano cannons hammering into my ion shield, causing it to flicker out with a bang, and seared through half of my suit. I winced. "Ugh!"

Fortunately, I reacted swiftly, responding fire with a melta lance of my own, though it did little more than scorch the paintwork. Damn.

"Still too far away for my las-impulsor," Minamoto complained as he tried to accelerate Yoichi, but the Questoris Knight Preceptor-Crusader was still out of range. Instead, he stayed behind me as Kazan weathered the barrage of anti-tank las from the approaching Land Raider. Apparently, there was a Recon squad safely nestled inside.

A Land Raider zoomed forward, its forward ramp slamming down so that its cargo of Despoilers could charge outside to secure the central bastion. If the Household tacticians at the strategium was correct, the Dreadwing would arrive after the Ironwing secured the area and cleared it of "enemies," to use this as one of their sites to bury a cyclonic torpedo to destroy Laemaran.

But we couldn't allow them to erase Laemaran from existence. This was still a vital world for the Imperium, serving as a supply hub from which reinforcements could stop by for repairs and rearmament. Furthermore, we had just achieved victory over the treacherous Alpha Legion not long ago. The Knights of House Yato refused to allow a world under their charge to be wiped from the galactica carta.

"Allow me!" Sato recklessly charged forward with his Armiger Warglaive, Kaen, to engage the Despoilers, despite already taking some damage from the barrage of lascannons earlier. Confident that they could take down the heavily damaged Armiger Warglaive, the Despoilers hacked away with their chainswords and shredded the poor walker apart. Sato cried out as his steed went down, despite his best efforts to bring down as much as the enemy as he could, with at least half of the Despoiler squad vaporized by ranged melta weapons or hacked apart by the reaper chainblade.

More lascannon beams continued to sunder into the approaching Lance, this time from the two Land Raiders. Thankfully, the Saber tanks remained out of range, but the Sicaran Omega and the Arcus were not, unloading their salvo of high explosives and plasma beams into Naginata. Takeda snorted as he brought his ion gauntlet shield to bear, weathering the superheated rays and violent detonations, but chunks of adamantium broke off his staggering mount.

"Wait till I close the distance and get to you!" He growled.

His empty threats rang hollow as the Sicaran Omega deftly maneuvered behind cover, wisely staying out of range of his luminous lance. Takeda swore, but I ignored the Daimyo's expletives and focused on the Falchion. I still wasn't able to do much damage to it, but between the hard rounds from Yoichi's Avenger gatling cannon, Icarus twin autocannon, multilaser and Sendo's Armiger Helverin's withering hail of armor-penetrating rounds, we were able to take out both Saber tanks in quick succession. One of them exploded, its turret ripped off and smashing into the side of its twin, which caused it to veer off course, only for it to meet a similar demise as Sendo finished it off with a cool, precise aim.

While the Knights clashed with tanks, the Household Militia did their job, firing their volkite into the survivors of the Despoiler squad and incinerating them with crimson thermal rays. That allowed Suzuki to move in to guard the location, Hebi making the site its nest.

Great. Suzuki was my oldest friend, and I knew him since childhood. Even fought with him together, back when I was still a retainer myself, before my elevation from Armiger pilot to a full noble. I could trust him with the site.

Instead, I focused on the Falchion, searing more of its hull off with superheated melta beams. The hull meltagun pivoted to take a parting shot at the Spartan, but it was too far for the anti-tank weapon to deal any lasting damage.

Chiba hung back, raining armor penetrating rounds at a damaged Arcus, which had taken fire from Watanabe's Tsurugi and Iwatani's Kame. They were advancing toward the Arcus, Spartan and first Land Raider, and between the three of them, they succeeded in wrecking the Arcus. Minamoto's las-impulsor sliced into the closest Land Raider, which was already half-molten from the melta volleys from Watanabe and Iwatani's Armiger Warglaives, and the armored personnel carrier was cleaved into several pieces.

The Dark Angels continued to fight on stoically, not at all bothered by their grievous losses. The Sicaran Omega continued to pummel Naginata with plasma, forcing Takeda to pull back defensively. From above, a Storm Eagle swooped down, its lascannons and twin multimelta roaring in fury. Despite my best efforts, several of them almost tore an actuator loose from Kazan, and the Questoris Knight Errant reeled. To make matters worse, the Spartan delivered the finishing blow, obliterating my armor suit in a volley of paired quad lascannons.

Its volcano cannons barked, but Suzuki somehow survived that by ducking into the ruins. One of the Household Militia weren't as fortunate, the poor grenadier combusting instantly into ash while his comrade dove under cover and survived with nothing more than a singe.

"Ouch!" He complained, desperately smacking himself to put out the flames that had ignited across his fatigues.

Minamoto reacted, intercepting the diving Storm Eagle with his Icarus autocannons and tearing plates off its blocky form. For a moment, it teetered, but the pilot corrected its course and steadied its flight. For now.

The Spartan surged forward, its ramp slamming downward and Cenobium Knights clad in customized Cataphractii Terminator armor spilled out to seize the objective from Suzuki. They assaulted Hebi boldly, weathering the melta blasts from the Armiger Warglaive, which took out one of them. Another two fell to the revving reaper chainblade, but their terranic greatswords heaved into Hebi and caused it to stumble.

"Some help here?" Suzuki whined.

"Coming!" Lord Takeda had wisely prioritized the mission objective over personal glory, and had turned away from the retreating Sicaran Omega to stomp the Cenobium Knights into oblivion. They were led by a Paladin of the Hekatonystika, who wielded his Terranic greatsword with superlative skill, allowing him to match a towering Armiger through swordsmanship alone. They whirled around in time, only for two of them to be obliterated by the destructive energy discharge from the piercing lance. The Paladin fought well, twirling his sword about to meet the Knight in combat, but Suzuki was in no mood for honor and stabbed the courageous knight from behind, the whirring reaper chainblade penetrating the Cataphractii Terminator armor and exiting through the cracking breastplate.

"Hey!" Takeda protested. "I would have stomped him to death!"

"No point waiting for that," Suzuki retorted. "He would have cut me down before you did that."

While they were engaging the Cenobium Knights, Watanabe and Iwatani had moved forward to engage the Spartan. The Sicaran Omega had once again retreated out of sight, while the Spartan and the remaining Land Raider, which had broken off from cover now that Kazan had been laid low, withstood the tankbusting melta beams with sheer resilience. Chiba added to the onslaught, but aside from buckling the front armor with his armor penetrating rounds, both armored transports stood strong.

The Dark Angels were having the clear advantage. Minamoto and Sendo sprinted forward, pelting both the Falchion and the Storm Eagle with rounds and las. The Storm Eagle was listing now, having taken several hard blows, but miraculously, it remained aloft. Meanwhile, the Falchion shrugged off all attempts to take it down through sheer durability.

"I did think the Ist Legion would be a stern test, but we're getting our arses kicked out here!" Minamoto muttered.

The Sicaran Omega proved his point a second later, its supercharged plasma array coring a hole through Naginata and toppling Takeda's suit. The Daimyo swore once more as he was taken out of the fight, slamming his fist against his Throne Mechanicum as everything around him went dark.

The Storm Eagle soared past Yoichi, despite the carapace weapon swiveling around to track it. It failed to penetrate the Knight Preceptor-Crusader's ion shields with its snap-firing lascannon and multimelta, but the vengeance launcher obliterated a full squad of household militia in the open, the rockets detonating in their midst and flinging bodies upward.

The Falchion continued to fire, killing another couple more grenadiers with its volcano cannon, though its true target had been Hebi. Despite Suzuki maneuvering his Armiger Warglaive to cover, he sustained incredible damage, leaving his steed to hang on by a mere wire.

"Damn! Another shot like that and I'm dead!" He hissed as Hebi limped away. Suzuki wiped the perspiration away from his forehead and dismissed the warning alarms. "I need to stay hidden!"

He particularly couldn't do anything because the grenadiers had lost their nerve and fell back after being in such close proximity to the volcano cannot blast. They were running for their lives, though a yell from their sergeant brought them back to their senses and they finally regrouped. Nonetheless, they weren't going to make it back to the objective despite running as best as they could.

Not that they needed to. While Sendo continued to pummel the Falchion's side armor with armor-penetrating rounds, Minamoto closed in to finally use his las-impulsor to bear. Yoichi had taken a few hits from the Falchion's quad lascannons while slicing it with his las-impulsor in return, sundering through its front and causing thick fumes to pour out of its damaged hull. The two super-heavies clashed once more, las-impulsor against twin volcano cannons, and this time, the match ended in mutual destruction.

"Ugh!?" Sendo cursed as the catastrophic explosions rocked his Armiger Helverin. He managed to stabilize his steed, though, bringing it back upright as he tried to stride through the inferno where both the Falchion and Yoichi had been. The remaining Land Raider was also rocked from the back, its rear taking a glancing blow that crumpled its tail end.

Fortunately, Minamoto had also taken a potshot at the fleeing Storm Eagle before Yoichi had been reduced to a smoldering crater. His aim had struck true, the anti-air rounds punching through the jet thrusters and sending the aircraft careening through a hab-block and crashing harmlessly into a deserted junction several dozen meters from where the shell-shocked grenadiers had been. Reinforced shrapnel embedded themselves violently into the surface of the ravaged hab-blocks, while bigger debris of the Storm Eagle skidded across the road, leaving a trail of flames and fragments.

"Yikes...this is bad. There isn't very many of us left," Watanabe admitted anxiously. He leveled his thermal lance at the Spartan and gouged a molten scar into its front, but it continued to speed forward, its lascannons spitting in retaliation.

"Don't worry, we're almost there," Chiba assured him, tearing chunks of the Spartan out with his relentless hail of armor penetrating rounds. Somehow, the resilient armored transport had endured everything we had thrown at it. Iwatani wanted to help, but he focused on hunting down the elusive Sicaran Omega, cleaving half-melted parts of the fleeing tank with his thermal spear.

"I have you now!" He crowed as he scythed into its rear with the deadly reaper chainblade, but somehow the tank survived and sped off. Watanabe followed his example, Tsurugi meeting the Spartan in a collision that saw him cleave it into two, sending both halves spinning away from each other. The Dark Angels driver looked up in dismay, only to be extinguished by a descending chainblade.

The Recon squad disembarked from the sole surviving Land Raider, being the only infantry left that could seize the objective from Hebi, their chainswords and Calibanite warblade working in concert to wreck the Armiger Warglaive. However, Suzuki defiantly fought back as much as he could before he went down, cutting apart a couple with his reaper chainblade while killing at least two with his melta beams.

"Sorry, I'm out of the fight," he grumbled as Hebi finally fell.

"Don't worry, we've got you," Chiba reassured him, picking off the last Recon Marine with carefully aimed Ignis rounds. He was falling back, anyway, so he wouldn't have remained on the objective for long to secure it. Instead, it fell to Chiba, who stood sentry over the site to ensure no Dreadwing enacted their Eskaton Imperative.

The last Land Raider, as if deflated when all of its comrades had been exterminated by the sheer martial fury of the Knights, was blown apart by merciless melta beams from Watanabe. Meanwhile, Iwatani pursued the Sicaran Omega and reduced it to a smoldering wreck with his own melta weapons to assist in annihilating the Dark Angels from Laemaran.

"Hell, yeah! We won! We actually defeated the legendary Ist Legion!" Watanabe cheered.

"Don't celebrate too soon," Sendo warned as he glanced up at the skies, as if he was awaiting more drop pods to somehow appear from nowhere and disgorge Dreadwing reinforcements. "We don't know if the Dark Angels have given up yet, or if they'll try again."

"Either way, Laemaran is under our protection - and as part of the Emperor's territory, we shall not let it be laid waste to, whether by the Traitors or those who supposedly pledged their loyalty to the Emperor yet show no hesitation in attacking allies," Iwatani declared and raised the reaper chainblade of Kame in salute. "This world belongs to the Imperium and the Emperor of Mankind!"

"Uh, good news," Chiba said, having been intently listening to the vox. "It appears that the Dark Angels fleet is pulling back for now. Apparently, they have other priorities, and are moving a confirmed Traitor fleet elsewhere in the system. I say we have earned a reprieve...for now."

"Then...maybe next week, we'll return back to the future and see what happens in 10,000 years!" Watanabe said excitedly. "After all, the Mechanicum have yet to decisively prevail over those skull-faced xenos or Orks! And I heard that the greenskins have just launched a new Waaagh! Hopefully, the Legiones Skitarii can handle them without our help."

"...right." Sendo was uneasy, but there was nothing he could do. The future was completely out of his hands for now, and he could only pray to the Emperor for everything to turn out all right.

The Sneaky Alpha Legion

"And so we're entering the...uh, Crucible of War, huh?" I murmured as I guided Kazan, my Errant-patterned Questoris-class Knight suit across the ruins of Laemaran. The Dawn of War was upon us, but somehow the Knights of House Yato have seized the strategic advantage, landing in massive barges to stop whatever it was that the Alpha Legion was planning.

There were even rumors that the elusive Primarch of the XXth Legion, Alpharius himself, was here, but as the legionnaires would claimed, they were all Alpharius.

Not that it mattered. The Praetorian had dispatched a full Lance of Knights from House Yato to Laemaran to destroy the Alpha Legion operatives, and so we would obey Lord Rogal Dorn's orders. Already, we could see flashes of scaly blue as the Astartes infiltrated sneakily into the center of the devastated city. Were we too late? Had the Traitors already achieved their purpose? I felt a chill run down my spine. The auspex chimed, informing of the enemy disposition marching purposefully toward us.

"How in Holy Terra?!" Lord Takeda cursed. He had taken up vanguard position, his Cerastus Knight Lancer, Naginata, poised to strike with its greater reach, but now he had also spotted the two blocks of Terminator units striding toward us.

I frowned as I studied the holo-display. Alpha Legion's unique Lernaean Terminators. I didn't know much about them - none of us knew anything about the Alpha Legion - but they seemed pretty scary with their power axes and volkite weapons. They were accompanied by a second squad of Astartes clad in the standard Cataphractii Terminator armor. Slow but incredibly resilient, their power fists were wreathed in energy fields while one held a Legion Standard up high.

...uh, weren't they supposed to be sneaky? What was the use of snooping around secretly when they made themselves so visible with that huge banner? Didn't that defeat the purpose of being stealthy?

I shook my head and focused on the present. Already, Suzuki and Chiba were peeling off in their Armigers to tackle the left flank, where two squads of Headhunters were. Furtherback, five Lernaean Terminators hung back, one of them bearing a conversion beam cannon. To the right, a tactical support squad bearing meltaguns, as well as another squad of Despoilers were moving forward. Perched above them, some sniper guy was setting up his heavy weapon to take potshots at us, while two Contemptor class Dreadnoughts lumbered toward us, their gravis power fists clenched threateningly. One leveled his volkite culverin at us, while the other was readying his gravis melta cannon.

Even so, we had taken them by surprise, and the transhuman warriors of the Legiones Astartes failed to seize the initiative. Already, Takeda's Naginata was loping forward, eager to close with the Contemptor Dreadnoughts. Minamoto sighed and moved his Knight Preceptor-Crusader, Yoichi, up to support him, but his las-impulsor remained out of range. Fortunately, Watanabe's Tsurugi, accompanied by Sendo in his Armiger Helverin, had moved forward to reinforce Lord Takeda's precarious position.

As for me, I had Sato and his Kaen, as well as Iwatani's Kame to assist me as I moved Kazan to the center. I trusted Suzuki and his Hebi to dispatch the Headhunters, while I fired off a blast from my thermal cannon. Along with Sato and Iwatani's thermal lances, as well as a ferocious bombardment from Minamoto's Yoichi - everything from laser to missiles to the Avenger Gatling cannon rounds - we managed to vaporize half of the Terminators, whether Lernaean or Cataphractii. One massive figure stood out with a spear, and I wondered if that was the real Alpharius. Probably not, but it mattered little.

Sendo fired a few shots at the melta tactical support squad, but failed to kill any of them. A couple were wounded, but the Apocethary patched them up, and with their transhuman healing prowess, they were back on their feet, despite having been punched by high caliber rounds. Watanabe focused on the closest Contemptor Dreadnought, his thermal lance piercing its reactor and causing it to stagger, but the venerable Astartes entombed within managed to react with his own multimelta, the incendiary beams dispersing harmlessly against the shimmering ion shield. Takeda's shock lance sizzled and unleashed a devastating arc of lightning that sent the Contemptor Dreadnought stumbling back, concussed by the exotic energies.

"You're mine!" The Daimyo crowed before ramming his spear into the Contemptor Dreadnought's center and obliterating it. Its comrade staggered, but pumped volkite into the side of Naginata, which did little more than superheat the shield and melt the paint.

Meanwhile, Suzuki had trouble pursuing the fleeing Headhunters, who reacted admirably by retreating instead of engaging him. Supporting him, Chiba fired into the other squad of Despoilers, causing them to go to ground swiftly and take cover. Unfortunately, the Ignis rounds of the Helverin autocannons Ignored Cover, and their Apocethary was not as efficient as the melta squad's.

Stomping through the semi-demolished hab-block, I swung Kazan's reaper chainsword and scythed down the remaining Lernaean Terminators mercilessly. I had no idea what they were capable of, but I didn't want to find out. To the side, the second remaining Contemptor Dreadnought charged, engaging Naginata in close combat, but with the greater reach of his machine, Lord Takeda speared the smaller walker with the Cerastus shock lance and demolished it in a single blow. Even as he did so, the melta sqsuad emerged to assault him with their anti-tank weaponry, penetrating the flickering ion shield that had already been weakened by the volkite culverin, and gouging entire sections from the now limping Knight suit.

The Headhunters, having been decimated further by the Household Militia grenadiers, were forced to fall back. Elite grenadiers, armed with volkite weapons from the Armory of Old Night in our home world of Ryusei and providing infantry support for the Noble Knight Household of Yato, had attempted to saturate the area with thermal rays. Two guys with volkite culverins had managed to take out another couple of guys before the Headhunters decided that discretion was the better part of valor.

Transhuman Astartes, they regrouped rapidly and snapped off a shot with the multimelta that failed to punch through Hebi's ion shield. Suzuki closed in for the kill, but he missed with his melta shots. Whoops. I left the center to Sato and Iwatani while I moved up to pursue the second Lernaean Terminator squad. Unfortunately, that proved to be a mistake, for "Alpharius" and his remaining Cataphractii Terminator retinue had chosen to charge Sato's now isolated Kaen.

"As if I'll let you!"

Sato reacted valiantly, incinerating the remnants of the Cataphractii Terminator squad with his thermal lance, but Alpharius crashed against his Armiger violently, his huge spear cleaving through the reeling walker. Kaen retaliated desperately, lashing out with his reaper chain cleaver and scoring a couple of lucky hits that almost swatted Alpharius away, but the apparent Primarch vaulted back to his feet and twirled his spear about to parry the next blow.

"I'm coming!" Iwatani hollered, but he didn't dare fire with Kame's thermal lance for fear of accidentally hitting Sato. Instead, he moved Kame up for a charge.

On the other side, Minamoto had fired into the melta squad and reduced them further, along with Sendo's concerted volley. However, at least half of them remained alive, due to the apocethary's efforts.

"Damn it!" Takeda swore. He was aware that Naginata, already damaged heavily from the earlier melta asssault, would succumb to an overwatch reaction from the warily watching melta squad. Instead, he chose to charge the Despoiler squad, the esoteric lightning from his shock lance blasting a couple of them apart before he crashed into their lines, swinging the spear to pulverize another two and stomping the rest. Despite his best efforts, a little less than half the squad had evaded the frantically sweeping spear and survived, but the Librarian's force axe did nothing against the thick adamantium armor.

Watanabe also tried to help, charging forward and melting one legionnaire to slag while scything down another with his reaper chain cleaver. However, the chainswords and power lance managed to chip away at the lighter machine, forcing the Armiger back.

Alpharius cleaved Kaen into two, causing the howling Sato to clamber out of his fallen machine. Before the Primarch could cut down the fleeing retainer, Iwatani charged in, forcing him to duck and roll away from the whirring blade. The hydra's cloak draped around Alpharius's shoulder was torn, along with a single ragged tear that reached from shoulder to hip, but the supposed master of the XXth Legion was able to limp away, twirling his spear about to block the next blow.

Meanwhile, Suzuki finally caught up with the retreating Headhunters, but he was only able to cut down the multimelta guy. The sergeant struck back with his power lance, but did little more than scratch the paint on Hebi. The moon in our Household Heraldry continued to smile down upon him. Meanwhile, Chiba continued to pummel the Despoilers' position with auto rounds, causing a few more to fall, despite the apocethary's desperate efforts.

The Larnaean Terminators continued to move upward, evading my pursuit, and stopped to fire at Lord Takeda's Naginata. Being across the battlefield, the conversion beam cannon had more punch and wrecked the suit, causing it to blow up. Though Watanabe and Sendo weathered the explosion, while Yoichi's ion shield protected it from the shockwaves, several of the meltagunners and Despoilers were vaporized in the semi nuclear detonation. I wouldn't be surprised if Takeda somehow survived by perhaps ejecting in time, though. He always showed up for the next battle, after all.

The Librarian cast force on his force axe and slashed through Watanabe's Tsurugi, causing the Armiger to falter. With the volume of attacks from the remaining Despoilers' chainswords that shredded through even the adamantium armor, Watanabe was forced to fall back, his nerve breaking especially after witnessing Naginata's demise.

"I'm out of here!" He cried.

"Hey!" Suzuki protested, but he finally squished the sergeant with the power lance. Meanwhile, Chiba found himself overwhelmed as the Despoilers went on the offensive, hacking away at him with their chainswords. Just like Watanabe, his courage failed and he backed off.

The sniper hefted his rifle and fired at Sendo, causing his Armiger Helverin to falter. However, Sendo reacted swiftly, raining a volley of high caliber rounds upon the sniper's position high on the ruin, causing debris to bury the poor guy and crush him to death. Or at least knock him out of the battle for now, but he was sure to return in the future. Or so I believed.

"That's it. No more fething around!" I growled and stomped after the Lernaean Terminators. The combined volley from the hull meltagun and thermal cannon melted another two, while the detonations from the missiles shook them loose from their cover. I set upon them, Kazan's reaper chainsword growling as it annihilated them from existence. Not even specialized tactical dreadnought armor could withstand a blow from a super-heavy walker's giant chainsword.

"I concur," Minamoto said, and Yoichi opened up, wiping out the melta squad before they could take down another Knight. Sendo spun his Armiger around and shot at the pursuing Despoilers, taking out a couple and leaving just three - a Despoiler, an Apocethary and the Librarian himself.

"Where do you think you're going, Watanabe?!" The Helverin pilot yelled. "I need you back here!"

"Nope! I'm falling back!" Watanabe retorted, having failed to rally. Tsurugi continued to stride back toward where we came from. I sighed and shook my head. I was going to have to give him a stern talking-to later, but Armiger pilots were known to be...well, Stubborn.

Iwatani and Alpharius continued to trade blows, but for some reason, the Primarch's movements were sluggish and he failed to land several hits that he should have. Even so, he was still a Primarch (or so we believed, but with the Alpha Legion, we couldn't be certain), and his superlative skill allowed him to evade otherwise lethal strikes from Kame's frantically slashing reaper chain cleaver.

On the other side, unlike Watanabe, Chiba actually succeeded in mustering his courage and halting his retreat. He fired off a couple of snap shots, taking out a couple of Despoilers. Along with the volkite culverins from our Household Militia and melta from Suzuki's returning Hebi, we were finally able to exterminate the whole squad, leaving the hab block open for us to secure.

However, the Alpha Legion was far from done. The Librarian and his squad poured into Sendo's Armiger, hacking and slashing away. However, for some reason, the Librarian's Force power failed to go off. We watched in astonishment as a warp rift appeared out of nowhere and sucked both the sole surviving Despoiler and the howling Apocethary into it. The Librarian raised his force axe apologetically as his brothers were dragged by claws into some other dimension, and feebly knocked the dimly glowing blade against Sendo's Armiger, dealing no damage this time.

"That was...weird," Sendo managed, incredulous.

Perhaps it was seeing the squad reduced to just a single Librarian Consul, but Watanabe finally recovered his courage and turned Tsurugi back. "Sorry for freaking out. I'm back in the fight!"

"Too little, too late," Sendo grumbled, noting how far away Watanabe was from his position by now. Damn, but Tsurugi had sprinted a lot further than any of us had realized.

"Uh, a little help here?!" Iwatani had finally had enough, and broke from combat, after Alpharius dealt Kame a couple of grievous blows that left the Armiger Warglaive smoking and limping. "I can't do this! I give up! Somebody save me!"

"Coming," I assured him, turning Kazan around so that I could aim the thermal cannon at the supposed Primarch. Minamoto had the same idea, and Yoichi was already leveling its las-impulsor at the legionnaire we suspected to be Alpharius.

However, the guy was full of tricks. He tossed down a grenade and disappeared in a cloud of dark gray fumes before either of us could open fire.

"Smoke and mirrors, huh?" I complained. "Typical Alpha Legion antics. Always disappearing and reappearing somewhere else."

"Um..." Suzuki coughed and raised his hand. I could see his visage in the holo-display set up within my Throne Mechanicum. "For some reason, this so-called Alpharius appeared right in front of me. He's within range of my thermal lance. I don't think he realized I was staring straight at the space he chose to relocate to. Permission to take the shot?"

"Granted. Vaporize him. And if you fail...well, men of Ryusei, just bath the area in volkite."

"Understood," Sergeant Gunsou said. "I already have the two volkite culverins repositioned and aimed at the target."

"Let me take a shot first," Suzuki. Hebi shuddered as incendiary beams lanced from its thermal weapon, hitting home with uncanny accuracy. The legionnaire who was supposedly Alphariu looked up in astonishment before his silhouette was engulfed in superheated energies and burst apart in a shower of ash and cinders.

"...yeah, that's most likely not the real Alpharius," I muttered. "No way a Primarch would be offed that easily."

"Um, what do we do now?" Minamoto asked, turning around. The Librarian was still locked in combat with Sendo, and though he was able to deal a couple more devastating blows to the Armiger Helverin, he must have realized that this was a losing battle and he began to withdraw, leaving hallucinations in his wake to cover his retreat.

Since we had pretty much annihilated the Alpha Legion threat, and we were out of time, we didn't bother to pursue him. He probably had psychic techniques to mislead us into wasting ammunition, anyway.

"Excellent work, everyone. We've achieved Lord Dorn's goal. Let's pack up and return to Terra. We need to be there in time for the siege."

"Right. Hopefully, we'll have better luck defending the Palace against the traitors," Minamoto agreed.

"Yeah, and this probably means that the Alpha Legion presence in the Sol System will be minimized," Suzuki added, leaning back against his Helm Mechanicum. "This should disrupt whatever saboteur schemes they have."

I wanted to share their optimism, but this was the Alpha Legion we were talking about. We might have obtained victory for now, but there was no saying they had already accomplished their agenda. No sense worrying over it, though. We had more important things to worry about.

With a sigh, I steered Kazan about and guided the rest of my surviving Lance toward our drop barges that were awaiting us just over the horizon.