Chapter Text
In the far future. Humanity stands on the brink of annihilation.
The Galaxy spanning Imperium of Man is beset on all sides by hostile aliens and threatened from within by traitors and heretics.
It is an age of constant war, with enlightenment replaced with rhetoric, superstition, and blind prayer. To exist in such times is to be one of untold billions, living in the cruelest and Bloodiest regime imaginable.
For the enemies of man, there is no peace, no respite, no forgiveness.
In the Grim Darkness of the far future.
There is only war.
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---------By Authority of his Emperors Holy Inquisition, Code 06052222OX. This is Thunderhawk Fire of Shimura, arriving in the Recidious System. Imperial Fleet in orbit please respond.
-------------Thunderhawk Fire of Shimura, we acknowledge your Codes. Response Code 2294566UM. Transferring....
-------------This is Captain Akaran of the Ultramarines 2nd Company. May I ask what your purpose is here? If you haven't noticed. This system is being accosted by both Arch-Enemy and Xenos forces.
---------------Captain Akaran were here to provide assistance wherever possible by orders of Holy Inquisition.
----------Warband Ultra is ready to deploy where ever needed and is at your disposal. Be advised Secondary Objective needs apply as long as they don't interfere with your deployment operations.
------------ Acknowledged. Deploy to Avarax, the Hive City of Fervastium is being overrun. Forces there are engaged with Tyranid Swarm as well as Heretical Incursion. Cadian 8th has requested any support you can send with emphasis on Heavy Armor. The Emperor Protects.
--------- The Emperor Protects. Ultra is Inbound hot.
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The emerald and black Thunderhawk shuddered as it screamed through the atmosphere. Vox chatter painting a grim picture of the scenes of utter horror down below them as they pitch through the crumbling hive city on Avarax.
".............. We can’t ................ BYTHE THRONE THEYRE EVERYWHERE ...................... FOR CADIA!"
Then one messaged blared through the white noise.
"Does anyone acknowledge. We've lost the square! We can't hold it!"
A sound akin to a thunderclap echoed though the destroyed plaza below, shaking the stones under guardsman's boots, the Cadians and even the xenos froze looking up at the sight.
A gunship looked like a fiery meteor was screaming at them, a boxy green thing bristling with heavy bolters, melta cannons, and missiles.
A swarm of gargoyles thought it an easy target, assuming the fires around it indicating it was burning up on reentry.
They were wrong.
The cadians who weren’t engaged in combat watched in awe as the gunship hit the group of Gargoyles head on and the fiery exterior revealed itself to be shielding, the winged xenos’ found themselves being rebounded or being incinerated against it, killing dozens all without even slowing the ship down.
It fired its jets in a full reverse burn and flared for landing as wing mounted bolters and sponson meltas fired continuously into the xenos that dared stay close in on the landing zone, thinning the hoard on the ground.
The bow ramp and side hatches opened, and out dropped the guardsman's salvation.
Angels.
Three massive figures jumped down in front of the guardsmen, splintering rock-crete under the weight of a ton of emerald clad adamantium and ceremite, bolters loaded and chainsword spinning in anticipation for all who dared challenge them.
Resplendent Sisters of Battle clad in black and green jumped from side hatches landing behind the astartes, eyes burning with righteous fury at the xenos before taking positions behind the emperor’s angels. One of the sisters proceeded to grab a man crawling through the middle of the street and with the strength similar to a girl throwing a small doll, threw him behind cover.
The xenos closest to the impact halted their advance, eyeing up their new adversaries for a split second before changing at them.
The survivors in the square who witnessed them felt renewed vigor rush into them, they may just survive this hell after all.
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The Brother Sergeant was glad they arrived when they did, and lamented that they couldn't have arrived sooner.
So many lay dead or dying.
It pained his twin hearts to see the mortals, both civilian and militarum alike, strewn about in grotesque piles. Blood and offal pooling and staining the ground of what looked to be a former ecclesiarch sanctuary.
He'd offer to pray with the sisters after this engagement, he knew how much this would affect them, seeing the shrines to the emperor desecrated and destroyed while being valiantly defended by those they swore to defend themselves. He is glad he ordered them to protect the guardsmen from strays while his brothers delt with these immediate foes, he knew they would more than likely charge headlong at these abominations otherwise.
The clicking of teeth and inhuman hissing brought his ever-racing thoughts back to his foe.
Three foul xenos warriors ahead of them, each 3 meters of multiple arms and rippling chitin, were flanked and leading 50 or so smaller doglike aliens, or Gaunts.
The beast in the center bellowed a call of defiance from the high ground at the cathedral entrance, one he was happy to accept.
First, however the swarm of fodder between it and them had to be dealt with.
With fire in his crimson eyes, he raised his Custom Stalker pattern bolt rifle, peered through his M40 targeting scope, and squeezed the trigger.
The sergeant and his brothers were manifestations of the Emperor’s divine wrath made manifest, and were fitted with the finest weapons and tech humanity had to offer. Bolt weapons roared with sharp cracks and barks as rounds found their targets in grotesque displays of violence and efficiency.
Normal bolt weapons and the ammunition they fired are a marvel of technology, a blasting charge propelling a .75 caliber shell down the barrel. The gyrostabilized shell's own rocket booster kicking on after clearing said barrel, propelling the round into the target with devastating effect. Once reaching the target the rounds machine spirit delays the internal charge for a split second after the armor piercing tip penetrates the target to ensure sufficient wound cavitation.
The Inferno Bolts these Astartes used function similarly to this principle. These however replaced the internal explosive with highly combustible and volatile oxy-phosphorus promethium derived gel. Igniting inside the target in a fiery napalm like conflagration after impact.
The swarm of Gaunts didn't start a chance.
His rifle cracked sharply like the volcanic eruptions of his home with single precise, controlled shots into the hoard running at them as he signaled his squad to move forward and slay this heresy.
They moved with the fast and steady grace of a basaltic lava flow.
A gaunt gutted from face to tale, burning exoskeleton exploding away and imbedding itself into the rock-crete road and its own kin like living shrapnel.
Another riddled with rounds from his brothers’ weapons erupted and seemed to melt into the rock beneath it.
A smell akin to burnt hair and the iron smell of blood continued to assault his senses as the squad made their way forward.
As he shifted targets in less than the span of a human heart beat, he heard his most aggressive and oldest known brother release a chuckle from his helmets vox grill over the fire of his own bolt pistol and the wine of his chain sword.
Another gaunt was turned into fiery paste by him as he saw what caused his brothers humor.
The three warriors had jumped off their high ground and decided that running at them was the best course of action, one even had its bone swords crossed in an X in front of itself as some sort of shield while the others chose a more evasive approach to what was assumed to be an upcoming melee.
The sergeants auspex highlighted the charging xenos filth with tactical runes and with lightning-fast mental commands transmitted the information as well as the plan to the rest of the squad and the Battle Sisters.
The 3 angels of the emperor prosecuted each target in their own special way.
The sergeant’s target was bobbing and weaving through the various statues that edged the entrance to the holy structure, teeth dripping in anticipation for what it thought would be a close-range fight.
However, it was not evading fast enough to avoid the sergeant’s lightning quick reflexes and with a quick adjustment of aim and a few pulls of the trigger, the xenos found itself missing things and gaining additions. As fast as the bolt rifle settled from recoil, the xenos found it was without an arm holding its lash whip, and had gained a large still flaming hole in its chest cavity. Before it could even scream either in pain or defiance its head was promptly turned into a blasted fragment. Its death was so swift that the seconds it took from trigger pulls to a charred corpse impacting the ground could be counted on just less than three digits.
What could be termed his "youngest" brother decided that the best way to deal with his target was to bait the creature in close. He waited until the tyranid was less than 10 meters away and rearing its lash whip before dousing it in burning promethium from his hand-crafted combi-flamer that burned as bright as the systems sun. The xenos died as its screams turned from aggressive challenges into wails of pain.
His other brother however was even more reckless.
Sprinting at the central warrior, and sawing/batting through a gaunt like it was nothing more than a minor inconvenience, he swung at the alien with a wide heavy swing only to have his blade parried and finding himself blocking a double overhead from the alien’s razor-sharp bone swords.
The warrior leaned in and screamed just as loud as the whining teeth of the chainsword right in the Astarte’s face.
With the marine's unblinking yellow lenses looking face to face with the xenos he spoke, never looking away before a sharp almost bestial voice spoke out of the vox grill of the marines MkVII helmet.
"Eat shit you karking bastard"
He quickly drew a krak grenade from his belt and slammed it into the alien’s mouth. Pulling the pin as he withdrew his arm sidestepped, bringing his foot inside the alien’s guard. Using his pauldron against the back of his blade he shoved, sending the warrior onto its back and jumping back faster than a being of his size had any right too.
Its choking screams of the tyranid quickly being drowned by the roaring boom of the grenade removing the entire upper half of its torso. The rest slumping to the floor in an undignified heap.
"Brother" said the sergeant using his intra-squad vox as his brother turned away from his work to face them "do you feel your rage satiated for the time being?"
He didn't need the guardsmen hearing them right now.
His brother let out a low growl that seemed more akin to an animal than a man "my rage shall never falter as long as these filths continue to step foot on this world." He gestured at the slain bodies of guard and civilian alike with his free hand "You've seen what they've reduced this meat too."
The sergeant knew what his brother meant and why he voiced it the way he did. Despite their altered minds and physiology, as well as the promethean creed of their primarch emphasizing connection to their humanity, the experience of seeing so many dead bodies was still off-putting. His brother was referring to them as meat in an attempt to disconnect himself from the bloody slaughter around him.
He placed his gauntleted arm on his brother’s pauldron. The white snarling drake of their chapter on a black field was soaked in slowly drying xenos blood.
"The same goes for all of us brother. However now we must do as our father taught us and act as angels for the poor souls with still beating hearts. Can you do that?”
Their youngest brother voiced his thoughts in his usual flat monotone.
"Our sergeant is correct brother. My rage burns as well, but we must ensure as many lives are saved here as possible."
Another growl escaped his brothers battle helm, culminating in a deep exhale.
"As you command brother sergeant. I’ll help the sisters establish a perimeter."
The Astartes walked back toward the rest of the Imperium’s forces in the square, towering over both the guardsmen and the sisters.
Their boots falling on the rock-crete sounding like the gavels of an Imperial courtroom.
All present kneeled in respect as they passed.
The sergeant even heard whispers from the guardsmen of "his angels" from some.
As they walked toward the edge to view the rest of the city, trying to get a better view from their current vantage before addressing the guardsmen’s command. The true scale of the horrors unfolding was spread out for the marines to see, filling their collective hearts with rage.
Swarms of Gargoyles chased Cadian Valkyries as tyranid spore pods fell like meteors into the city like a hellish meteor shower.
A grand gothic structure toppled in fire and stone, plunging into the chasm of the hive city below.
The sergeant felt his fire of hatred grow as the targeting augmentic of his custom scaled Mk.X tacticus helmet; he knew this loss of life was greater than anything his home world had ever seen. As he exhaled out of the angled vox grills, he took solace that vengeance was coming.
Reaching up, he removed the helmet with a faint hiss of releasing pressure seals.
His blazing red eyes seemingly glowed with hatred at all of this loss of life, moss green hair that was a few shades darker than his armor framed a face of onyx marked by an X shaped scars crossing his face and prominent diamond shaped freckles that were almost lost in the tone of his skin.
“By our father and the emperor, this shall not stand” he whispered as he watched the swarm of xenos charge against a bastion of Cadians below, the xenos tide seemingly unaffected by the barrage of las-fire meeting it.
He was broken from his observations by his youngest brother’s voice. His helmet also being removed to show his heterochromatic eyes of red and blue. The lighter pigmented scar tissue over his eye reminding the sergeant of one of his own mentors of the chapter.
“Brother Sergeant we’re being requested by the Battle Sisters’”
He responded with a curt nod, clipping his helmet and bolt rifle to his belt alongside his thunder-hammer.
They walked over and joined their compatriots, seeing the ash blonde hair and red eyes of their brother off to the side of the square discussing with one of their accompanying battle sisters and a Cadian NCO in what his lymans ear heard was heavy stubber positioning.
Walking over to the others he took note of the Sister Superior and her bodyguard who were with the Cadian Sergeant they heard over the vox, the same one who had whispered “angels” earlier. Both Sisters were only wearing armored rebreather masks common to their order, letting their short cut orange and purple hair drift in the wind as they consulted map marked with various tactical runes.
“Sister Superior, what is the status of this sector?” his voice like polished volcanic glass.
Without looking away from the map she responded “My lord the xenos forces have pushed the Cadian 8th back in this sector as well as a few others. Resulting in 76 percent casualties. However, the main Tyranid thrust seems concentrated on the Astropathic Relay.”
“I saw, the Cadian's are putting up a valiant defense"
“I’m monitoring their vox traffic my lord” the bodyguard interjected with a finger to ear “It appears the Ultramarines' are attempting a multi-pronged assault with 9 total Astartes and are experiencing vox issues due to heretical jamming. I’ve also gotten hold of this units’ reinforcements.” She jerked a thumb at the Cadian “Their inbound in 3 minutes.”
“Much appreciated Sister” he said before turning back to the redhead “Sister Superior, after the reinforcements arrive. We’ll push down toward the Astropathic Relay and link with the Inquisitors element. Vulkan knows what is down there that is drawing the hive minds attention but I believe that my cousins could use the help. Gather the Sisters Hospitaller as well.” He motioned to the two sisters not active in planning, instead they were treating the various wounded guardsmen littering the ground.
The sister responded with a curt nod and an armored fist slamming onto her breastplate in salute.
“Yes, my lord, I will prepare the warband to move out in 2.”
He reattached his helmet, the faint scale patterns adorning his armor briefly showing themselves in the light, his comms switching to the squad vox with a thought.
“Unto the fires of battle”
The warband cried into his ear.
“Unto the anvil of war!”
Preview of Chpt2.
Brother Sergeant Izuku Midoriya mentally keyed the Inquisitors vox code and opened a channel, quietly thanking his armors machine spirits as his arms were occupied crushing a tyrranid warriors’ torso with his thunder hammer as he parried anothers’ bone sword with his power gladius.
…………...Inquisitorial Clearance Vox Code 06052222OX-M……….
…………. Connection Established………
…………. Inquisitor, Momo do you copy?..............
…………. Receiving Brother Sergeant, glad to hear from you…...
His hammer flew through a pack of gaunts, its power generator releasing its energy in a thunderclap of destruction causing the group of aliens to simply cease to be. The baroque hammer teleported back to his extended hand with a mere thought as he swung it into another group, the gilded weapons warp-hardened machine spirits ensuring it survived the perilous journey into the abyss.
………… Likewise, our departure from the Militarum forces deployed to the square has been delayed by 3 mikes due to Xeno’s interference in relief forces, arrival window is still within forecasted parameters. How goes the defense of the relay? ………….
…………. The Cadian’s is doing their part as expected, but they are rather underequipped have taken significant casualties seemingly due to the rapid secondary deployment. The heavy weapons fire from Brother Kirishima and Sisters Uraraka and Yui, as well as the Vindicare are making up for the difference here.
Izuku heard a sharp whistling crack over the vox, synonymous with a VERY close rifle round passing by the woman, followed by a howling alien scream before the Inquisitor resumes the conversation without missing a beat.
“And myself are providing much needed fire support where we can…… Thank you for the assist, Hagakure. We’re posted with the guards’ armor line in an attempt to defend the relay. Your Librarian and Eliminator have been diverted to assist Ultramarine Squads Viridian and Talasa in their assigned objectives and will be deployed elsewhere.……
The vox dimmed a bit as a tyranid scream could heard as the gun-fire intensified.
…………. Don’t steal all the glory Ma’am, we’ll be with you shortly. The Emperor Protects………….
…………. The Emperor Protects ………….
…………. Vox Link Cut………….