"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.
