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== 3 455 994.M41 ==
EXCERPT FROM FIELD REPORT
CAPTAIN DREUSIUS
GRAVE KNIGHTS 2ND COMPANY

[...]
At approximately 0315, Thunderhawk Avernal Reaper was brought down by the combined weight of three Harridans and their swarms. Casualties were minimal, and the Reaper was deemed recoverable. My command squad joined by Lorencio's devastators established a firebase in the wreckage to repel a massing horde of genestealers on ridge Alpha. Brother Alfinus began anointing the fallen. Squad Jean-Ralphio took the 4 bikes that survived the crash to establish contact with the remaining unmutated 78th Vosko Stormguard and any holdouts of the Order of the Sable Heart in the outer city. Four tactical squads were dropped around the Reaper to support. By 0340, ridge Alpha was scoured clean. Deployed 2nd company forces were at 86%. I left the Devastators and one tactical squad under the command of Sergeant Galfarus to defend the Reaper while I took the remaining squads on foot to support First Company's assault on hive city Yorc to the north. Progress was slow, as my force engaged swarms of small- to mid-sized tyranids every 5-10 minutes during this trek.

At 0720, Jean-Ralphio's reported sighting a full Valkyrie squadron 35 miles northeast of ridge Alpha under attack by winged tyranids, but he could not make contact or establish the purity of the Guard. Soon afterwards, he reported moving to support a unit of Sable Heart Seraphim engaged with a horde of tyranids.

At 0757, a massive horde of genestealers outflanked my column and tore apart 60% of my remaining marines. Brother Alfinus wounded one of the attackers with his Blood Chalice during the assault and curiously, the remaining xenos immediately began retreating to the east. At 0759, Jean-Ralphio's squad reported that Jean-Ralphio had been killed by a Warrior during their assault, but a sizeable force of Sororitas remained and were available to support our position. During the report, they sighted a massive clawed beast at their perimeter that broke off before assaulting, heading west towards my location at great speed. Brother Fabian assumed command of the bike squad and headed to pursue, followed by two units of Seraphim.

My remaining forces moved to the rooftops, establishing clear firing lanes to the east across a ruined manufactorum's doleyard. I commanded half of the marines at the North end of the yard among the sturdy slopvats. Alfinus commanded the southern half from the roof of the guardtower. At 0809, the massive beast broke out of the city and tore across the doleyard directly toward the guard tower. A Dimachaeron. Our bolter fire barely scratched it, largely bouncing off its chitinous hide. It leapt atop the guard tower and scythed through my marines as they battered against it, but it made directly towards Alfinus in its onslaught. With a mighty swing of his axe, Alfinus beheaded the great beast even as it impaled him and swallowed him into the savage maw in its chest. The jaws drew him in as he gripped our most holy relic to his last breath, closing slowly around the Blood Chalice. I thought the horror over as its body convulsed, until the stump of its neck began to curdle and writhe as teeth and eyes and shards of bone began to boil and knit together through sprays of ichor. Appalingly, it perverted our most holy geneseed in its regeneration as a crest of golden feathers grew behind its newly formed head-carapace.

I screamed a challenge to it and charged across the doleyard with my stormshield and lightning claw held high. It met me in the center of the yard, scythes flashing almost faster than I could keep track of as it tore into me, rending my armor and flensing flesh from bone. My winged shield barely turned the worst of its blows as I returned its fury, slaking my thirst on the fresh ichor that boiled off of my claw. Then its terrible maw yawned open and Brother Alfinus stared out at me with empty eyes, a wet corpse in a cage of bone and ceramite. His flesh was purple and boiling away, consumed by the acids dripping from the maw, and his body was held cruciform by the barbs and tendrils worming through his skeleton and organs. As the beast leaned the Chalice dipped towards me as if Alfinus offered it to drink and I stood transfixed, as if I was again an aspirant ready to join him. The sound of a gunning bike engine brought me back in time to parry the spike that sought to join me to Alfinus. I called out to warn Brother Fabian away from the vicious scything talons, but heedless the bike came on and knocked the Dimachaeron off balance as it slammed into the battle. Jean-Ralphio's bike lay before me and astride it, a Sister Superior with a smoking jetpack and a chainsword that would make Gabriel Seth envious. The great beast snarled and batted her aside, shattering her armor and laying her low. I had no time to respond as it renewed its assault on me and we again began trading blows. My world became a storm of claws and blood and bone and chitin. Out of the storm, the empty eyes of Alfinus again caught my own and again, he beckoned for me to join him.

A second time, this lone Sister saved me. Alfinus's Blood Chalice tumbled to the ground as her chainsword severed the arm and the tendrils joining it to the beast. That same swing cut through the vicious spike that had claimed Alfinus and had twice threatened me. She hefted her sword, golden light streaming through the spiderweb cracks in her armor and she screamed, "THE EMPEROR PROTECTS!" as she plunged it through the corpse of the Sanguinary Priest and through the body of the tyranid. The valiant Sister started rotating the blade as the beast screamed in fury. She did not stop until she had bisected the beast and it collapsed in a writhing, twitching heap. My marines met us as she collapsed and began to cleanse the foul xeno corpse after collecting the Chalice. Her supporting Seraphim arrived soon afterward and began to tend to their Veteran Sister Superior. Avery del Monica. I contacted our Battle Barge Bastion Sepulchre and received new orders to rendezvous with a 3rd Company armoured group that had broken through the city and move to support First Company in the hive [...]

I recovered Brother Jean-Ralphio's bike and Sister Superior Avery del Monica's power armour after the battle for the Hive. While she recovers in the care of the Sisters Hospitaller, I have begun repairing her armour myself. I owe her my life, and whether it was her faith or the Emperor himself that protected her from the talons of the Dimachaeron, I intend that this armour will do so through the rest of her service to the Imperium. The Sisters may wear armour almost the quality of our Astartes ceramite; hers will be the match of my own hand-crafted Artificer aegis. I will bring it down before we depart for the Cadian Gate, along with Jean-Ralphio's bike. The techmarines and Chapter Master Stirgio have approved the bike as a gift for this champion of the Emperor. Stirgio and I will present it along with Sister del Monica's armour to the Prioress of the Sable Heart as a pact between our forces, wherever we may find each other and whoever we may face.