They clearly aimed to assault the Loyalists' Stronghold on Bertual. This wasn't good. Ikeda's armored company had pushed in to take the field, but they were clearly outgunned by the Fire Raptors and Thunderhawks, never mind the Storm Eagles. One of the Storm Eagles had already landed to disgorge a tactical company, along with Praetor Roberts' personal retinue.
More streamed toward the tanks, one Thunderhawk dropping to a hover as forty Terminators dropped out right next to Tanaka's Cerastus Knight Lancer banner, their storm bolters ineffectually detonating against the pair of Knights' ion shields. The Thunderhawk, 4 Leviathan Dreadnoughts and plasma tactical squad that dropped out of a storm eagle fared better, destroying one of the Knights with a barrage of plasma, even as the four Leman Russ Vanquisher tanks damaged one of the Storm Eagles with a lucky shot.
Meanwhile, Assault Marines bounded out of a Storm Eagle to hammer toward a lasrifle tercio that had just disembarked from a pair of Dracosans. They fired overwatch, flamers and las taking out a couple of squads before the rest of the Assault Marines were upon them, butchering the infantry with chainswords. However, the Solar Auxilia stood strong, the Ryusei Katanas grouping in close fighting formations to bring down their power armored foes as best as they could.
A second tactical squad had also dropped out, their boltguns pummeling the hab block that one of the lasrifle tercios had taken cover in, even as a third Fire Raptor erased Major Murakami's command squad from existence with its Avenger gatling cannon. The other two had pursued four Lightning Fighters, destroying them with lascannons and missiles before the mortal pilots could intercept them.
The Malcodor Valdors fired, their shock pulse neutron laser shaking a Thunderhawk, but it remained aloft, while another fired at the Baneblades, but they were out of range. Another fired at the Malcador Valdors, but they survived the salvo, thankfully. The Dracosans fired back, taking out a couple of Storm Eagles, while the third Dracosan with a demolisher cannon blasted the tactical squad at the front to bits.
The Baneblades finally moved up, and with concentrated fire, they dropped one Thunderhawk, causing it to crash. Ikeda breathed a sigh of relief, shaking his head in dismay when he saw they had only taken down two aircrafts, but lost a Knight. At least they hadn't lost all their tanks...yet.
But that would change shortly. With their passengers disembarked, the gunships took off to the skies to maintain aerial superiority, which they now surely possessed because the Lightnings were downed.
This is bad, Ikeda realized. We're screwed.
Tanaka did a last ditch effort to charge into the tactical squad at the far end, killing half of them with a sweep of his spear, but his Knight suit was obliterated in turbo-laser fire as the Thunderhawk and plasma gunners bombarded his position. Ikeda swore when he saw the Knight go down, but he was relieved to see the Leman Russ Vanquishers destroy the already damaged Storm Eagle from before.
Meanwhile, the Baneblades and Malcador Valdors destroyed all of the Leviathan Dreadnoughts with coordinated fire, while the sponson autocannons hammered the Terminators who had garrisoned a nearby hab-block. Even dreadnought tactical armor couldn't handle the thousands of shells that rained upon them, with several of them taken out and crushed under falling rubble.
The surviving Ryuusei Katana infantry piled in and charged the Assault Marines, and though more were scythed down by screaming chainswords, the weight of their numbers began to tell, and they annihilated the Assault Marines with pointblank las-fire and power katanas. Their accompanying Dracosan's demolisher cannon thundered, but missed. Fortunately, a second Dracosan killed the remnants of the tactical squad with a well-aimed lascannon shot.
However, the Storm Eagles and Fire Raptors continued to dominate the skies, and missiles shrieked from above, blowing up the Malcador Valdors and a couple of Dracosans. Ikeda felt his heart sink when he saw his dwindling number of tanks. Even worse, the Fire Raptors' heavy bolters cut down the triumphant Ryuusei Katana just after they had taken down the Assault Marines, leaving just 5 men.
"We're dying out here!" He cursed, slamming a fist against the console in the commander's seat. One of his Baneblades exploded when the turbo laser destructor of a Thunderhawk tore through it, sending shrapnel against his super-heavy tank, and he slumped against his seat.
There was nothing he could do against the Emperor's Children. They truly were scoring a flawless victory.
"We have to hold out for as long as we can," Ikeda muttered, recalling the Praetorian's orders. Rogal Dorn had ordered the Ryusei Katanas and House Yato to hold Bertual, but he no longer had the forces to hold it.
The Emperor's Children's aircraft circled and swooped down on his tanks, picking them off one by one. Ikeda's Baneblade was wreecked by a Thunderhawk's turbo-laser destructor, but the Leman Russ Vanquishers were able to snipe two Fire Raptors that had hovered over the last infantry's position, to try and snatch the objective from them. Though the infantry were taken out, so were the Fire Raptors - with the two remaining Dracosans turning around to fire at the third Fire Raptor and Storm Eagle hovering above them. Unable to jink, the gunships took las-shots and demolisher shells right in the cockpits and blew up, their wreckage smashing into the ruins of the hab-block.
Though a single Thunderhawk hovered next to them, its weapons missing entirely, the Ryusei Katanas controlled the objective.
However, before the Emperor's Children could press their advantage, the gunships suddenly took off, their surviving infantry loading up on them.
"What on Holy Terra...?" Ikeda murmured in bewilderment, crawling out of his wrecked Baneblade to watch the purple gunships take off. At least two Thunderhawks and two Storm Eagles still remained, and a whole load of Terminators, half a tactical squad and Praetor Roberts's command squad themselves. Another few minutes and they would have completely annihilated the Ryuusei Katanas.
So why had the Emperor's Children pulled out?
...then Ikeda saw why. The skies had darkened, with stars sparkling above in the heavens. Massive stars...no, constellations...no, starships.
The vessels of the Dark Angels had arrived, and they were beginning to cleanse Bertual of life with pinpoint orbital bombardments. The Emperor's Children, realizing that they couldn't match the first Legion's fleet, had withdrawn because they realized they wouldn't be able to take Bertual in time before the Dark Angels obliterated the whole planet.
"Hey, the Lords of the First Legion do realize we're still on the planet, right?" Ikeda protested before the city he had defended with his sub-cohort's life disintegrated under lance strikes and cyclonic warheads.
