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.
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