"Um, so why are they attacking us?" Suzuki asked from his Helm Mechanicum in Hebi. The Armiger Warglaive tracked the approaching Space Marines with his thermal spear.
"I, uh, don't know."
"It doesn't matter. Archmagos Theta-Rho has charged us with the protection of the archeotech vaults, and it matters not who the enemy is...even if they are the vaunted Adeptus Astartes." Lord Takeda sounded determined, even as he piloted his Cerastus Knight Lancer, Naginata, forward.
"Let's fire some warning shots first," Kanda suggested, maneuvering his Questoris Knight Errant, Engetsu, forward. "It's a good thing that they are out of range of most of our weapons."
"They aren't responding to our hails on the vox," I reported, listening in. Nothing, despite transmitting messages to the Space Marines to stop. They didn't come to a halt, and were instead advancing aggressively. I frowned, but decided that we didn't have a choice. Leveling my siegebreaker cannons, I fired, deliberately missing.
They fired back, bolt shells expiring before they could reach us. However, their intent was clear. They wanted to break into the archeotech vaults we were guarding, and...we were in the way. Their schemes became evident when the Devastator squad took aim and fired a lascannon shot that glanced off the ion shield shrouding my Dominus Knight Castellan, Kazan.
"Ah, screw this." I leveled Kazan's plasma decimator and wiped the Devastators out, save for one. The volcano lance disintegrated a few of the golden, winged Space Marines that I later learned were Sanguinary Guard, while the siegebreaker cannons ineffectively glanced off their armor. A shieldbreaker missile pierced through one of their artificer armor and blew him up, though.
They advanced forward, an Impulsor racing forward and spitting plasma at Sato's Kaen. The Armiger Warglaive staggered, the ion shield fizzling out from the superheated rage. The sole surviving Devastator retaliated with his lascannon once more, but the ruby beam failed to make even a mark on the adamantine armor of Kazan.
The Sanguinary Guard flew over the structures that reared over the archeotech, their power weapons flaring to life. They were escorted by a single Dreadnought that lumbered slowly behind them. The Assault Intercessors, led by a Librarian, sprinted into the cover of a ruin, sliding into the entrance of the archeotech vault. The Eradicators moved forward, their melta rifles just out of range of Sato's Kaen.
Kanda's thermal cannon bellowed and destroyed the Impulsor in a concentrated melta lance, while the missile streaked forward, though only one managed to kill an Eradicator. Meanwhile, Kaen moved forward, taking fire from plasma. Suzuki managed to melt one of the Hellblasters with his thermal spear, while I targeted them with the twin meltaguns built into Kazan's hull. The volcano lance spoke, and the Dreadnought ceased to exist. The plasma decimator continued incinerating more of the Sanguinary Guard, but still, so many of them remained.
Sato charged the Eradicators, but they fired overwatch, their melta rifles penetrating the faltering ion shield and punching right through his Armiger Warglaive. Kaen toppled as a smoking wreck, stopped just meters away from the firing Eradicators.
"Damn it!"
Kanda was frustrated by the demise of his retainer, but he was currently occupied by the Hellblasters. Engetsu scythed them down with his reaper chainsword, cleaving the Lieutenant that tried to rally his fallen men and tossing his broken body atop the heap of corpses that were the Hellblasters. Takeda charged the remnants of the Sanguinary Guard and smashed them with a devastating thrust of his lance, before he finished off their golden warlord with a sweep of his crackling spear.
"That should teach them!" He snarled triumphantly, consolidating into the sole surviving Devastator.
The Blood Angels were not amused. The Devastator flailed ineffectually against the towering Knight Lancer, but he was joined by the Librarian and the Assault Intercessors, who proceeded to slice away at the servos and vulnerable joints in Naginata's loping legs. Takeda cursed and swung his shock lance, but only a couple of Assault Intercessors were slain in return. The rest deftly dodged, led by the stalwart Librarian, who continued to assail the staggering Naginata with his psychic powers.
On the opposite side, a flash blinded my auspexes for a moment, and I saw that a squad of Terminators had teleported right behind Hebi. Suzuki swore and spun around to confront this threat, his ion shield sparkling as bolts and assault cannon shells detonated against the protective screen. Across from him, Watanabe found himself facing down a squad of black armored assault marines, clad in the colors of the infamous Death Company. Berserk with rage, they swooped down on him, even as he managed to kill a couple of them with melta blasts from Tsurugi's thermal spear.
While Takeda dueled with the Librarian and Assault Intercessors, as well as the lone surviving Devastator, I pulled back to help Suzuki and Watanabe. Suzuki had managed to take out a couple of Terminators with well-placed melta shots, and I wiped out the rest with my plasma decimator. Swiveling the siegebreaker cannons about, I managed to kill one more Death Company Marines, but the rest descended upon Tsurugi and tore the hapless Watanabe's Armiger Warglaive apart with power weapons and thunder hammers. The Chaplain leading them exhorted them to extreme aggression, allowing them to hack apart even an adamantine constructed bipedal walker with power weapons and thunder hammers.
"That's not good."
Behind us, Kanda took out one more Eradicator despite leveling the structure they were seeking shelter in with melta. Frustrated, he charged them and hacked apart the final remaining two Eradicators with his reaper chainsword. Buoyed by Kanda's victory, Lord Takeda fought with renewed ferocity, felling the last of the assault intercessors with his spear and even running the Librarian through. The space marine gritted his teeth, blood pouring from his mouth, as he conjured one final psychic blast that rocked the stumbling Naginata, who accidentally crushed the poor Devastator.
Suzuki and I attempted to finish off the Death Company marines, with melta, plasma, siegebreaker rounds and even a volcano lance all but annihilating them. To my surprise, the Chaplain survived and rocketed forward to strike Kazan with his crozius, screaming platitudes to the God-Emperor from behind his skull-mask. I was unable to finish him off with a stomp, but that was fine. I decided to retreat from the madman, but he continued to pursue me, bashing and whacking the towering legs of Kazan, to no avail.
Then, as if he had just received a message from a private channel, he ceased his aggression, activated his jump pack, and rocketed away.
"What was that about?" I asked, watching the chaplain leave, and feeling no desire to shoot at his fleeing back. Enough blood had been spilled this day, and dealing so much damage to a platoon of the vaunted Adeptus Astartes was painful. Even though they were attacking us, it still hurt - for every marine lost was a blow to the Imperium.
"No idea." Takeda had swung Naginata about to charge at the chaplain, but he didn't make it in time before the latter had escaped. The Daimyo sounded grim. "But make no mistake...I'm going to have a good, long talk with sector command later."
************
Sector command was kind of...messed up, right now. The Boreal Swords Chapter, a successor of a Loyalist Death Guard company (perhaps with links to the heroic Nathaniel Garro), had launched a raid on the newly founded forge world, Kajiya.
Led by Archmagos Theta-Rho, a contingent from the Explorator fleet dispatched by the forge world of Draconis IV had identified Kajiya as an inhabitable world full of resources, ripe for exploitation. Settling down on the surface of the airless world, the tech-priests and servitors of the Adeptus Mechanicus had proceeded to build manufactorums and void-sealed habitats, along with terraforming devices.
A few months after their efforts, a battered fleet from the Boreal Swords Chapter arrived in orbit, requesting ammunition, supplies and vehicles to replenish their exhausted reserves. Logged reports of exchanged communiques indicate that the Boreal Swords Chapter had just escaped from a clash with the Chaos Warband known as the Edgelords. Though the Captain of the Boreal Swords Chapter had slain the Chaos Lord of the Edgelords in combat, and the Boreal Swords had emerged victorious, they had elected to pull their vastly outnumbered fleet out when a massive Chaos armada arrived over the world of Borealis.
In preparation for retaliation, the Boreal Swords expressed the need for fresh supplies of ammunition and vehicles.
...analyzing current stockpiles...
Conclusion: The 7 manufactorums of Kajiya do not possess enough materiel to supply the Boreal Swords' needs.
Action: Rejection.
Consequence: Boreal Swords launched an attack on our woefully prepared and lightly defended forge world.
Standing forces: Newly assembled vehicles, including 2 Skorpius Disintegrators and 2 Onager Dunecrawlers, as well as 4 Kastelan Robots, assigned to the Cybernetica Datasmith, Magos Sigma-Milru. 2 contigents of Serberys Sulfurhounds, and 3 recently constructed Sydonian Dragoons. All led by supervising Tech-priest Enginseer, Magos Phi-Cephas, who has no prior combat experience. Reinforced by Dominus class Knight Castellan, Fury Unbridled, piloted by Mechanicus indentured scion, Aaron Theniel.
Battle Report: Fury Unbridled destroyed in first armor exchange, Mechanicus forces taken completely by surprise by the ferocity of Boreal Swords' alpha strike. Gladiator tank eventually destroyed by combined firepower from Onager Dunecrawlers and Skorpius Disintegrators, while Sydonian Dragoons conducted a delaying action against Redemptor Dreadnoughts before being destroyed. Serberys Sulfurhounds and Kasetlan Robots succeeded in incinerating a squad of Infiltrators before they annihilated a squad of Bladeguard Veterans. Relentless hails of cognis heavy stubbers gradually whittled second unit of Bladeguard Veterans down until Chaplain remains. Redemptor Dreadnoughts eventually obliterated by Onager Dunecrawlers, who were in turn destroyed by previously mentioned Bladeguard Veterans, led by the Chaplain, and Eradicators.
Kastelan Robots eliminated by Bladeguard Captain, Ancient and Bladeguard Veterans. Serberys Sulfurhounds slain by Interecessors and Chaplain-led Bladeguard Veterans. Inceptors descended upon Magos Phi-Cephas and assassinated him with plasma before they were annihilated by the Skorpius Disintegators - though one was destroyed by Eradicators, and second was wrecked by Bladeguard Captain and his entourage.
Result: Total Annihilation. Complete Boreal Swords victory.
Rectifying...
Pull back Skitarii forces from the border to contain threat.
...ultimatum issued by Boreal Swords. Change of leadership required.
Request denied. Archmagos Theta-Rho to remain in command.
More variables increase along with temporal passage. For now, wait and watch. Skitarii reinforcements will be arriving, along with an Imperial Guard armored brigade. If necessary, manipulate Astra Militarum Armor into conflict against Boreal Swords Adeptus Astartes Chapter.
+We serve the Omnissiah.+
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