"Sir, leave them to us," Major Mizuno said, directing his driver to drive their Leman Russ Executioner, Taiyou, out. "We'll take care of them."
Accompanying the ancient plasma tank was the regal Rogal Dorn tank, Kabuto, commanded by Sergeant Ritsuo. Rounding out the armored squadron was a Carnodon tank even more ancient than Taiyou, the Kitsunebi. Armed with volkite calivers and a volkite culverin, Kitsunebi apparently dated back to the days of the Great Crusade, rescued from obscurity in the aging hangars of Draconis III and remobilized for the new dark age.
Ahead of them, Major Murakami directed the infantry troops. He was accompanied by the elite grenadiers of the Draconian Defenders, the two ten-men squads of storm troopers clad in carapace armor and armed to the teeth with hellguns and plasma guns. Their uniform hadn't changed even from the days of the Great Crusade or the Horus Heresy, only sporting the Aquila that they had earned when the regiments of Draconis III fought on the side of the Emperor against the arch-traitor Lupercal.
"Okay then," Ikeda agreed. "You know what to do. We've to restart the void shield generators. A massive Chaos warband is coming, and we need those shields up...or we're screwed. There are three power stations. Hold just one of them. We only need to hold one of them for long enough to reactivate the void shields."
"Just one." Mizuno smiled humorlessly. "You heard him, Murakami."
"We'll do our best." The grizzled major waved his men on. The storm troopers were joined by Commissar Lucius, who pointed his plasma pistol forward at the furthest generator. The second squad obeyed, sprinting toward cover and working with the controls. Murakami led the first squad into the closest generator and they began fiddling with the switches to bring the void shields back on.
Sergeant Homura's Kitsunebi rolled to the third station, more to fire its volkite weapons at the Wracks spilling from a racing Raider. Dark lances seared out of the pair of Ravagers that hung back ominously, slamming into Kabuto and dissolving its ablative plating. Kabuto retaliated, Ritsuo barking orders to his gunner. The oppressor cannon roared and tore out a chunk from the first Ravager, sending it spinning, but the ravaged sleek, black ship managed to arrest its descent and hover, smoke fuming from its aft. The multimeltas spat and blew up a racing Venom, with the Kabalite Warriors and the Archon hopping out of the destroyed vehicle and catapulting into the forest with deadly grace.
For some reason, the Cronos hung back with the pair of Ravagers, but for no discernible reason that Mizuno could see. He didn't care and instead fired at the Raider, but it was weaving through the hab-blocks too swiftly for the lascannon to get a hit. Fortunately, the plasma did better, wiping out the surviving Wracks that had survived the volkite bombardment from a frustrated Homura's Carnodon. The Kitsunebi had not fared well, the vollkite beams having failed to incinerate the durable Wracks. The superheated sun-matter of plasma, however, was more than enough to annihilate them.
Not to be outdone, Murakami ordered his troops to focus fire on the Kabalite Warriors that had evacuated the stricken Venom. Before they could open fire, however, a shieldbreaker round from a sniper rifle broke the sound barrier and struck the Archon leading the Kabalite Warriors. It pierced the shimmering forcefield that protected the foul xenos and pulped its head into an explosion of blood and bone fragments. The headless Archon slumped to the ground, dead.
"Hah!" Lucius crowed and waved his plasma pistol in the air. "See that, men of Draconis? No filthy xenos can stand before the might of the Imperium! The Emperor protects, and smites all who opposes His vision for the galaxy. Mankind is ascendent!"
Murakami smiled wryly and glanced back, recalling that a Vindicare Assassin had been dispatched to assassinate the xenos leader. It appeared that he had succeeded, and the silent sniper had snuck back into the shadows. However, the major staggered when a Wrack's hexrifle struck him before they were wiped out by Taiyou. He cursed, even as a grenadier medic rushed up to patch his wounds.
Another volley of exotic energies lanced into Kabuto, and this time the Rogal Dorn tank wasn't able to survive, blowing out in shrapnel and flames. Several of the stormtroopers were cut down, one bisected by a huge shard of metal, while another screamed, his figure on fire before he toppled over.
"No!" Murakami cursed, but he wasn't in any condition to worry about others. Scourges had swooped in at the rear and were firing their dark lances at Taiyou, but to Mizuno's surprise, the ancient tank absorbed the hits without issue, its armor plating withstanding the violent blasts. A stark contrast to the more newly assembled Rogal Dorn tank that was supposed to be tougher than the Leman Russ tanks.
"I suppose there's a reason why the Imperium has been using you for more than ten millennia," Mizuno remarked, stroking the console with a gloved hand and murmuring a prayer to the Emperor.
The Raider descended sharply, with Incubi pouring out of its interior and charging toward the reeling storm troopers. The Grenadiers were cut down, with the Incubi's blades flashing and slashing through them. Murakami tried to rally them, even as he was still dazed by Kabuto's explosion, but he was laid low by one of the dancing Drukhari warriors. The slain Grenadiers and wounded Murakami were avenged seconds later by the volkite from Kitsuebi, with Homura directing his gunner to reinforce the flagging position. The power station was lost to them, and the energy levels indicating the rising void shield flickered off.
Not done yet, Homura ordered his driver to ram the sturdy Carnodon tank into the Raider, almost shearing it in half. Shrieking wildly, the pilot of the Raider dragged its ship out of there, leaving the power station to the venerable Carnodon tank. On the other side, the Scourges continued to pummel Taiyou with little effect, only for one of them to fall to a sniper round from the corner.
The Vindicare Assassin hadn't yet quit the battlefield. Victor Vincento lined up another Scourge up in his shots.
The listing Ravager tried to fire at the surviving grenadiers who had hunkered down in the power station, and three men were vaporized. The other Ravager failed to hit Kitsunebi, whose driver was speeding around the cover of the power station and avoiding the angry disintegrating lances. The Venom then charged the stunned storm troopers. While one of them went down, the rest began hammering away at the hull with their power swords, and Sergeant Shirakawa scored a glowing hit across its surface.
Forced to fall back, they watched the volkite beams incinerate the Kabalite Warriors that poured out of the Venom, which was destroyed by the Executioner plasma destroyer. Meanwhile, Murakami finally got rid of the Scourges at the rear with well-placed plasma shots from the sponson cannons. Unfortunately, the lascannon missed the evasive Raider once more. Frustrated, he yelled at his driver.
"Ram the damned thing!"
Even though the Raider escaped the lascannon, it wasn't able to avoid a violent colission from the Leman Russ Executioner. It spun to the ground, still intact somehow, but it wasn't going to be flying anywhere soon.
Not that it mattered, for the Raiders and Ravagers had lined up their dark lances and were annihilating Shirakawa's squad. As the grenadiers fell around him, Commissar Lucius stood alone, defiant and spitting fury with his plasma pistol raised to the air.
"For the Emperor!" He roared even as the final volley of dark lances from the Raider hurtled toward him. To his surprise, they dissipated over his refractor shield. The protective bubble sizzled and popped, but held the devastating lance at bay. Feeling his face blistger, Lucius stubbornly hammered at the controls.
The void shield flickered on, finally gaining enough power. Denied the prize, the two remaining Ravagers did an about turn and glided away silently, the last one still listing badly and far behind its companion. The Cronos that accompanied also wheeled around and lumbered after its masters, having no reason to linger.
The Imperial Guard had driven out the xenos raiders and reactivated the void shields, but just barely. Lucius spat at them, made the sign of the aquila, then fell.
*
Unfortunately, there was no rest for the weary. Not long after the void shield had been reactivated, augur reports from the fleet above reported a massive Chaos warband in bound. Hitting the ground in drop pods, Khorne Berzerkers spilled out and charged across the battlefield at the dug in Guardsmen and tanks, screaming incoherently. Beside them marched Plague Marines, their bloated bodies surrounded by flies. Havocs locked into place, hoisting their lascannons and missile launchers, while bikers zoomed across the hab blocks, their machines spouting acrid fumes into the air. A Rhino continued hurtling forward, its cargo of Legionnaires strapped in firmly.
Leading the charge was a Daemon Prince, accompanied by a second squad of Legionnaires. His monstrous form loomed over the battlefield, his wings spread out as he soared above his minions.
Meeting them in the battlefield was the armored might of the Draconian Defenders. Even as two squads of elite grenadiers sprinted through the woods, using the trees as cover while the still injured Major Murakami barked orders - the bloodsoaked bandages still visible underneath his carapace armor, three Leman Russ Executioner tanks lumbered forward, escorting Colonel Ikeda's Tenken. Major Mizuno had rejoined the battle with his battered but still intact Taiyou, while Shine, Shogun's Will and the Carnodon tank, Kitsunebi, trailed behind his tank. Further back, Captain Kaneda led a platoon of infantry to take position behind a barricade, their lasguns, plasma guns, meltaguns and sniper rifles mounted atop crenellations while waiting for the enemy to come within range.
The sheer sight of the Chaos Marines hurtling toward them like an unstoppable tide was intimidating. The Warlord leading the Berzerkers' charge raised his axe and bellowed a challenge.
The tanks opened up.
Plasma lit up the night sky, streams of superheated matter sailing through the air and detonating violently in the midst of legionnaires. Half a squad was wiped out, their power armor unable to withstand the fury of a star. The entire line of Khorne Berzerkers, including their Warlord, was erased from existence, transformed into smoking vapor by the plasma blastgun mounted upon Colonel Ikeda's Tenken, the Stormblade super-heavy tank rolling forward to meet the power armor charge with thousands of tons of metal and ceramite. Volkite incinerated a couple of Plague Marines, but the rest strolled through the flames like they were nothing. The lascannons raked the Daemon Prince, who staggered from the ferocious salvos, despite the blessings of his dark gods protecting him. His wings were ripped away by ruby las-beams, but what truly finished him off was a well placed shot from a Rogal Dorn tank's Oppressor cannon.
Ryuuken, the replacement Rogal Dorn tank that was commanded by Sergeant Ryuuji, had delivered the kill shot, slaying the abomination with prayers, discipline and precision.
Four Havocs were killed, their missiles detonating from the sheer heat as plasma engulfed them. Plague Marines fell to plasma and hot-shot las, the storm troopers meeting them in the middle and overwhelming them with small-arms fire.
A second squad of Havocs retaliated a few moments later, their four lascannons coring open the Leman Russ Executioner, Shine. Supported by teleporting Obliterators whose fleshmetal weapons transformed into melta cannons, they were able to blow Shine up. The bikers zoomed forward, raking the lines of grenadiers with storm bolter fire. Teleporting alongside them were burly Chaos Terminators, whose combi-bolters annihilated Murakami's entourage, leaving the beleaguered major alone. Further to his side, storm troopers were falling to bolt rounds and plague weapons from the indomitable Plague Marines, either succumbing to disease or blown apart by insidious shells.
"Feth!" Ikeda swore. Within moments, it appeared as if his regiment was going to be routed. The Heretic Astartes were truly a fearsome foe, shrugging off las and small arms fire. Only the tanks' heavy weapons had any chance of wounding them. He was hoping to eradicate them before they could reach his men's lines, but the slaughter of his elite grenadiers exposed his naivety. He studied the console, trying to come up with countermeasures. Turning to his gunner, he yelled, "Target those Havocs! Those bearing the damned lascannons! Right now!"
"Yes, sir!"
The plasma blastgun boomed again, vaporizing the hab block that the Havocs had sought refuge in. The heavy bolters spat and took down another few legionnaires, but the lascannons missed the weaving Rhino, the marine driver cunning enough to use the surrounding hab blocks as cover.
To the rear, the infantry platoon wore down the Obliterators through sheer weight of las and plasma, but one survived, roaring as it trampled toward them...only to disintegrate under a blast from Mizuno's Leman Russ Executioner. Taiyou had traversed its turret to fire plasma at the wounded beast. To the side, though, the Shogun's Will and Kitsunebi took out the bikers and Plague Marines with plasma and volkite. The Plague Marines continued to shrug off all but the most devastating of wounds, the disgustingly resilient abominations reaching out to annihilate the last of the Grenadiers. The volkite had done devastating wounds to them, though, leaving just two Plague Marines out of an original squad of ten. A single biker was left after his comrades were decimated by the plasma cannons from the Shogun's Will, swinging his chainsword and cutting down Murakami.
The slow, plodding Terminators, however, found their path barred by Ryuuken. The Rogal Dorn tank unleashed its fury upon the walking tanks, and anti-tank weaponry such as multimeltas, meltaguns and the oppressor cannon were enough to exterminate even the sturdiest of Heretic Astartes.
Realizing that they were losing far too many troops to heavy armor, the legionnaires spilled out of the Rhino and charged Tenken, hoping to put a dent on its armor. Melta, plasma and other weapons peeled off armor from the wounded beast, and chainswords slashed paint off the adamantium hull. The Carnodon tank took a penetrating hit from the surviving Havoc's missile launcher and the crew was sent reeling. Accompanied by a Sorcerer, who was surrounded by empyric energies as he cast spells to pummel the blessed plating of the Stormblade, they ascended to greater heights of violence, their bodies swelling from powers from the warp. As if one final display of defiance, they tore into the super-heavy tank in a frenzy, hoping to bring the steel behemoth down.
Ikeda was about to order retaliation and roll over the legionnaires with the tank's adamantium tracks, but to his surprise, the Heretic Astartes withdrew in short order. At first, a total darkness enveloped the battlefield, fouling auspexes and other sensory equipment. Their vision blinded by pitch blackness, the Draconians fumbled about for a moment, yelling in panic and tersely getting everything back in order. By the time they switched the floodlights back on to illuminate the now dark city, they saw that their foes were gone. All that was left were the corpses of the slain, husks of ruined power and terminator armor callously left behind by those they had once called brother. Of the surviving Heretic Astartes, not one remained. Whisked away by whatever foul powers they had pledged their fealty too, they had vanished from the battlefield as suddenly as they had appeared.
"What in Holy Terra just happened?" Mizuno demanded, stunned. Then he cleared his throat. "Sir."
"I have no idea," Ikeda admitted, studying the auspex. By the Emperor, the berserk charge of those legionnaires had almost torn his Stormblade to shreds. Well, aided by a few well-placed melta shots, of course. Even so, it was a near miss, but he was confident of annihilating them had the battle continued. He still had at least four tanks at his disposal, not including his own Tenken.
"The archenemy works in mysterious ways and have engimatic agendas we are better off not knowing," Sergeant Ryuuji muttered.
"I don't know about that," Sergeant Homura objected. "Knowledge is power...and if we don't know what these traitors are scheming, we wouldn't be able to put a stop to it."
"Well, for now we should fall back and repair and recuperate," Ikeda said. He nodded to the Tech-priest Enginseer that was enacting hasty repairs to Tenken. Magos Rho-Theta was a godsend. "I'll be counting on you to bring our tanks back up to full health, Magos. We don't know when the next attack is coming, but by the Emperor, we'll be ready for it."
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