The Knights of House Yato never knew what hit them.
The...uh, Pink Corsairs hit them like a hurricane, their drop pods crashing downward from the heavens after the wake of an orbital strike.
"Whoa?!"
"Ugh!"
Tanaka winced when a titanic lance slammed down against the earth, obliterating an entire hab block. Hebi swayed as Suzuki fought to bring his mechnical steed back under control, but he was otherwise able to minimize the damage. Kanda wasn't as fortunate, however, his Armiger Moirax half wrecked by the orbital bombardment. The ion shield flickered and the Armiger Knight Moirax staggered, limping on blackened pistons.
"That hurts," he complained.
Unfortunately for him, the worst had yet to pass.
Solen Bloodsplitter barged out of his drop pod, leading his Pink Corsairs into the open and bellowing a challenge. A second drop pod, the metal still steaming from the heat of atmospheric entry, opened up like a steel flower, and a squad of Rubric Marines marched out. Formerly Sons of Magnus, the Aspiring Sorcerer, Phyron, had decided to split off from his Legion and join the burgeoning Pink Corsairs in their crusade against the Emperor's worlds. The air of Hamlicar shimmered from the energies of the empyrean that surrounded the silent ranks of the Rubric Marines.
A single dropship crashed next to the drop pods, and a disciplined platoon of Traitor Guardsmen spilled out, already taking up formation the moment their boots struck the soil. They hurried toward cover, keenly aware of their fragility. In contrast to their cautious advance, the Pink Corsairs sprinted forward. Even the normally slow-moving Rubric Marines advanced, almost as if they were teleporting to the front. To make matters worse, Phyron cast warp time on them, and they seemed to surge forward as if they had been gifted with wings. Before Suzuki could react, they opened up with their flamers.
"Let the galaxy burn!" Phyron cackled madly as he waved his warpflame pistol, exalting in the fact that his Rubric Marines had better warpflamers than Thousand Sons ones. Having D6+2 made it worth taking Rubric Marines as Elites in other Legions or renegade warbands than just taking them in a normal Thousand Sons detachment.
...Tzeentch really had a sense of humor.
"As if warp-tainted mutagenic flames can hurt my Knight!" Suzuki snapped. However, Phyron smirked.
"Have you forgotten? We are Veterans of the Long War."
With a snap of his fingers, the warpflamers suddenly increased in intensity and melted the hull of Hebi. Suzuki looked around in horror as his Armiger Warglaive collapsed in a puddle of molten adamantium.
"You've got to be kidding me..."
"Hang in there! We're coming!"
Tanaka was fighting his way through the Pink Legionnaires. The melta managed to vaporize a couple of them, and he cleaved the survivors apart with his reaper chain-cleaver. Kanda was handling the cowering Traitor Guardsmen, his lightning locks sending lethal arcs of electricity among them. In a single volley, he wiped out the entire platoon, but Solen Bloodsplitter couldn't care less. The Traitor Guardsmen were mere mortals, chaff upon which his crusade would grow.
Instead, he was more interested in reaping the head of a Knight. He raised Moon-Tearer, the daemonic axe gleaming in the night.
"Time to feed, my friend," he said.
To his shock, however, the daemon caged within Moon-Tearer rebelled, lashing back at him. He yelped in pain and dropped the massive axe with a curse, instead pummeling Kazan with his gauntlets. As expected, they didn't have much effect, and Tanaka could only stare at him incredulously.
"You're kidding, right?"
"I'll get you next time!" Solen Bloodsplitter snapped and retreated like the coward he was. Phyron stared at his so-called leader in disbelief and shook his head, disgusted.
"Falling back from a fight? Do you really deserve to be our leader?"
"YEAH!" Solen hollered. "Just kill him already!"
"Sure." Phyron's squad of Rubric Marines magically teleported forward with warptime and proceeded to melt Tanaka's Armiger Warglaive to slag.
"Someone really has to do something about comboing Veterans of the Long War with Let the Galaxy Burn warpflamers..." Tanaka complained as his systems went critical. To his relief, Kazan endured. Just barely. But Phyron wasn't done.
"Charge!"
His Rubric Marines silently charged along with him, but they were unnecessary. Phyron struck with his force stave, and the psychic energies along its length lashed out to wreck the already severely damaged Kazan. Tanaka sighed bitterly as his Armiger Warglaive went down.
"...I tried."
"...so we're screwed," Kanda grumbled, and it wasn't long before the Rubric Marines incinerated his Knight Moirax.
"Hah!" Solen Bloodsplitter crowed as he left the wrecked Imperial Knights in his wake. He gestured impatiently for the Rubric Marines to plant the planetquake bomb that would rock Hamlicar's mantle and cause devastating effects on the agri-world. "This planet will be ours!"
"...and this warband will be mine," Phyron whispered insidiously as he stared at his leader from afar, harboring dangerous ambitions even as his Rubric Marines armed the planetquake bomb.
*
"You guys suck," Adonis grumbled.
The pilots of House Yato were lounging around, having to lick their wounds after getting their asses handed to them by a bunch of Rubric Marines from the Pink Corsairs. Technically, the Rubric Marines weren't pink, but they chose to follow a bunch of pink-armored Chaos Space Marines, so...yeah.
"Sorry," Tanaka apologized, his head bowed. Adonis shook his head.
"What's the use of apologizing? You allowed a Chaos warband to get a foothold in Hamlicar!" He jabbed a finger in the direction of the despondent Knights. "House Yato should get lost. House Charon will take over the defense of this territory!"
"Hey!" Suzuki protested. "What makes you think you would have fared better?"
"House Charon is stronger than House Yato," Cadmus said with a shrug.
"Shall we put that to the test?" Suzuki snarled. Tanaka sighed and held a hand to restrain his fellow pilot, turning to face Adonis, Cadmus and Pollux.
"Sorry, but we have been assigned the duty to defend the province of Castor."
"Which you failed spectacularly," Pollux pointed out.
"But we can't just leave like this. Give us another chance."
"No," Adonis said firmly. "Get out of our territory. We'll handle it from here."
"I challenge you guys to an honor duel!" Suzuki shouted. "If you win, we'll leave Castor province as you desire. But if we win..."
"Hey, I'm in charge here," Tanaka interrupted, stopping his friend before he could say something that would irreparably damage the relationships between Houses. "Look, if you want to take charge of this territory, you can. We'll leave the defense of this part of Hamlicar to you. But we aren't leaving."
"We accept the honor duel," Adonis said, ignoring him. "If we win, you leave Castor province and never speak to us again."
"Fine." Tanaka rolled his eyes, knowing that they wouldn't listen to reason. "But if we win, we're sticking around. And you'll accept me as your Master Tactician. We'll let you defend Castor province, but you'll have to listen to my commands."
Adonis considered the conditions for a second before he nodded. "Acceptable. Not that you'll win, of course."
The honor duel was held in the fields of Castor province, in a wild plains with tall grass but not much in the way of crops. They couldn't very well destroy the grain they were sent here to protect. The Carthago system, and many worlds of the Realm of Ultramar, would starve.
So they decided to settle the dispute between the two Knight Houses here.
Adonis moved forward cautiously, taking pot shots at Kanda's Knight Moirax, but the latter was able to deflect the high velocity rounds with his ion shield.
"Phew," Kanda muttered, angling his ion shield to catch the powerful projectiles and detonate them before they could reach his steed.
Meanwhile, Pollux and Cadmus advanced through the wrecked buildings of Castor, predatory hunters seeking targets. Confident in the skills of their Mechanicus-aligned house, they made use of advance targeting auspexes to seek out their prey.
However, what the Imperium-aligned House Yato lacked in Mechanicus technology, they made up in faith and fury.
Smashing through the husk of a burned out building, Tanaka and Suzuki flanked Cadmus. However, they rotated the torsos of their Armiger Warglaives about to fire incandescent beams from their thermal spears at Adonis from range. Too focused on hammering Kanda's Knight Moirax with shells, Adonis was unable to rotate his ion shields in time, and his black Armiger Helverin fell, smoldering and aflame from the superheated flames.
"Whoa, I didn't think we would take him out so easily," Tanaka murmured in surprise.
"Thanks for the reprieve. It's my turn!" Kanda whooped and let loose with his twin lightning locks, catching Pollux by surprise. However, he didn't do much damage, and Pollux viciously slammed into him with a counterattack, carving apart the Armiger Knight Moirax with his reaper chain-cleaver.
"Ouch," Tanaka muttered.
Yelling in fury, Cadmus charged Tanaka. Kazan pivoted about and struck and shielded its frame from Cadmus's attacks. A single slash went through, slicing through the shoulder pauldron and sent Kazan staggering. Tanaka recovered quickly, however, and made use of the momentum to whirl Kazan around. Using his keenly honed senses, he was able to exploit an opening and rammed his reaper chain-cleaver through Cadmus's gut, causing the red Armiger Warglaive to convulse.
"Leave him to me," Tanaka told Suzuki, who nodded. Hebi circled around before opening fire on Pollux, causing the green Armiger Warglaive to stagger. Kanda finished Pollux off with another barrage from his lightning locks, and the House Charon Knight went down in flames. Then, while Cadmus was still occupied with dueling against Tanaka, Suzuki charged and stabbed him in the back. Cadmus cursed and swung about to retaliate, but Tanaka finished him off with a strike to the torso, severing cables and cutting off power. The red Armiger Warglaive twitched for a moment before slumping over the revving Reaper chain-cleaver. Tanaka cheered triumphantly as he yanked Kazan's reaper chain-cleaver out, leaving Cadmus to topple over.
"You...!" Pollux snarled and turned his Armiger Warglaive about to face them, but both Tanaka and Suzuki moved around to flank him, and with a couple of well-aimed melta shots, Tanaka demolished the green Armiger Warglaive.
"Well, we won the honor duel," Tanaka declared as he watched the smoking wreck of Pollux's Knight. "So you have to listen to my command now."
"Yes, Master Tactician..." Adonis sounded bitter, but as Knights of House Charon, they had no intention of reneging on their oaths now.
"Don't worry, I'll get you guys your first win," Tanaka assured them with a smile. "We have more experience than you guys. After all, House Yato has fought for the Imperium for millennia. Our ancestors even fought on Holy Terra against the traitorous forces of the accursed Warmaster..."
...this was probably why they had the Glorified History Martial Tradition.
*
And so, the Knights of House Charon found themselves arrayed against the Pink Corsairs. Exhausted after two rounds of battle, Tanaka decided to give House Yato a break and leave the defense to House Charon instead.
"Hold steady," he ordered the entrenched Knights. "Wait for them to come to you."
"Really?" Adonis complained, but he obeyed. Cadmus and Pollux twitched impatiently, but they were too bound by honor to rebel.
"Yeah. Watch. They're coming to you now."
The Pink Corsairs were racing ahead of the pack, while the Traitor Guardsmen moved to grab an objective. The Rubric Marines moved slowly but steadily, their warpflamers held at the ready.
"Stay out of range of those flamers," Tanaka warned, remembering how his Lance was wrecked by them.
"Fine," Adonis snapped, though inwardly he seethed at the passivity. Omnissiah damn it, but he wanted to charge straight at these offending traitors who dared to taint Hamlicar's soil.
"Now!"
Tanaka sent them coordinates through the noosphere. Pollux and Cadmus loped forward, eager for blood after being unleashed like the bloodhounds they were. While they sprinted right for the Pink Corsairs, Pollux fired melta beams at the Rubric Marines while Cadmus disintegrated a Pink Corsair with his thermal spear. A Rubric Marine vanished, despite the shimmering barrier they had thrown up around themselves, but the Pink Corsairs weren't so lucky.
Adonis locked onto the approaching Rubric Marines, lining the phalanx up in his sights. But Tanaka transmitted a command.
"Wait. Let me calculate first."
"Calculate? What for? They're right in front of me."
"Calculated Targeting," Tanaka explained with a grin. "We're going to maximize the amount of mortal wounds we do to them."
"Huh?"
"Just trust me...there, there's the data."
Adonis frowned, but he complied, firing his autocannons at the coordinates that Tanaka sent him. To his surprise, two of the Rubric Marines ceased to exist, their ethereal armor torn apart by the powerful shells.
"How...?"
"I told you, House Yato has tons of experience. We've fought through countless wars. That last time, we were caught off guard by an orbital bombardment and...uh, magic teleporting Rubric Marines. But this time we will have our revenge! Now go, Pollux and Cadmus!"
"Aye, aye, sir!"
Pollux and Cadmus didn't need any encouragement, charging into the reeling Pink Corsairs and massacring them with their reaper chain-cleavers. The Traitor Guardsmen fearlessly charged forward to shoot Cadmus with a meltagun, plasma gun and grenade launcher, but Cadmus responded by cutting them down. However, his first few moves were clumsy, and a bunch of Traitor Guardsmen dove out of the way, miraculously surviving his blows.
"Cadmus...you had one job. One job!"
"I was just unlucky!" The Knight noble retorted, excuses at the tip of his tongue.
"Um, I'm in trouble here?" Adonis backed up as much as he could, but the Rubric Marines warped themselves forward to flame him. Fortunately for the lance leader, their numbers had been decimated enough that even the Veterans of the Long War had trouble bringing down his knight in a single volley of mutagenic flames. "Oh, hey! I survived!"
"Hang in there. Pollux, help your leader. And perform Calculated Targeting again."
More of the Rubric Marines vanished, obliterated by high caliber shells as they suffered yet more mortal wounds or from devastating melta beams. Another two fell to Pollux's reaper chain-cleaver and Adonis's clumsy stomps, with Tanaka ordering them to charge. Meanwhile, Cadmus was finally able to annihilate the Traitor Guardsmen this time. The Sergeant, defiant to the last, overcharged his plasma pistol to fire it pointblank into the Armiger Warglaive...only for it to blow up in his hand and vaporize half his body. The rest of his squad watched in horror as his cooked corpse toppled to the ground.
While they were still in shock, Cadmus mopped them up.
Solen Bloodsplitter was not to be denied, however. Finally galvanized into action when witnessing the near annihilation of his warband, he surged foward and slammed his axe into Pollux. The Armiger Warglaive reeled and wheeled, but at Tanaka's direction, Pollux ignored the Chaos Lord for now and plunged his reaper chain-cleaver into the dwindling Rubric Marines. Once again, they failed to do anything to Adonis, who then opened fire pointblank range and wiped the surviving Rubric Marines out.
Pollux finally turned his attention to the enraged Solen Bloodsplitter and blasted him with his meltagun and thermal spear. To his astonishment, Solen Bloodsplitter survived the first meltagun shot, even with half his body remaining. The thermal spear, however, was not to be denied, and the Chaos Lord was erased from existence.
As was Phyron, who finally succumbed under the hail of high caliber rounds from Adonis's autocannons. While they finished off the stragglers of the Pink Corsairs, Cadmus moved toward the archeotech that their patron forge world had directed them to look for.
"We had a Martian Pact with our patron forge world," he explained to a bemused Tanaka, who shrugged.
"Well, we answered the Imperial Petition earlier and got a bunch of requisiton points, so now you get 2 requisition points too. Spend them well."
"We will," Adonis vowed and saluted the Master Tactician from inside his Helm Mechanicum. "We thank you for your guidance. We have learned a lot from you. Especially that Calculated Targeting Stratagem."
"Glad to be of service. We all serve the Imperium and the God-Emperor in our own way. And now we've kicked the damned Renegade Warband off the planet. Hamlicar is ours again!"
"Indeed."
And so the agri-world of Hamlicar was safe from a Chaos invasion. For now, anyway...
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