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Narthan Garvian lay on his back, starring up at the cloud streaked sky, fireflies dancing before his eyes.

* * *

<Moderati Garvian, give me flank stride, I want at that bastard's throat!> Princeps Vorman swam forward, an aggressive snarl on his lips.

Narthan mirrored his commanders expression as he responded. “Flank stride, aye my princeps.” The warlord Divinus Dominatus began to accelerate down the narrow street shaking dust off the buildings around it as it advanced on the traitor reaver which was slowly backing away from them, it's weapons blazing. The Dominatus' weathered the brunt of the reaver's assault with ease, but Narthan still saw the psychostigmatic welts forming on the princeps' face from the blast of the reaver's twin hellfire cannons.

<Vulcans! Give him a face full!> The princeps canted to the crew, and with the shudder of hard rounds firing the Dominatus' two shoulder mounted megabolters began to shower the reaver's with shells. The twisted titan fell back another step and arcs of energy showed where its void shields struggled to contend with the weight of fire being brought against them. The enemy Titan answered back, it's carapace missile launcher firing a steady stread of guided warheads towards the Dominatus.

The Warlord's advance slowly slightly as it strode into the hail of missiles, it's voids continued to accept the punishment being dealt to it, but it's own shields were beginning to show signs of wear. Narthan felt Vorman reach into the Manifold himself, and take control of one of the titans weapon systems. With an almost imperceptible twitch of the Princeps' left arm a beam of pure light lanced out from the warlord's mighty volcano cannon. Where the beam struck the reaver brilliant flashes of light showed the shields failing catastrophically, and a moment later the reaver's missile launcher sheered off just above the carapace.

<Combat weapon!> Narthan didn't even respond, he just activated the Titan's massive close combat fist. He heard a thump from behind him and glanced over his shoulder to the see the princeps had driven his own fist into the front of his glass case. He looked back out just in time to see the Dominatus' power fist follow the princeps' lead and sever the reaver's head clearly from its torso with a vicious uppercut.

The Moderati, steersman, and sensori let out a whooping cheer as the titan's swayed precariously, then began to topple. <Engine kill?> Vorman had drifted back towards the rear of his casket. Although he had no need to breath his chest was heaving with exertion.

Narthen smiled. “Engine kill. Put weapons into standby and prepare...” he was cut off by a sudden urgent pinging from the sensori station. “What? Report!”

Kirel, the young sensori officer threw himself back over his screen and then reeled back. “Engine reading, cold start power up. It's big and it's close!” Narthan felt the Dominatus tense as it realized battle was not yet done.

“Where Kirel, where is...” Narthen was cut off once again as the entire building face to his right collapsed. From the rising dust the form of a warlord titan loomed into view. At a glace Nathan knew it to be a traitor engine, its plates were corroded and what looked like blood seemed to seep from nearly every panel line. Before the crew could properly react the enemy's left arm spewed destruction into the street. It's plasma destroyer flared, Dominatus' Voids collapsed and the princeps screamed as the arm connecting the titan's might power melted a boiled, seperating the weapon from the vehicle. Narthan's own right arm went numb for a second, but even that pain was forgotten as sunlight fell upon the enemy machine.

For a moment Narthan believed that the enemy had simply covered over the Warlord's noble visage with a snarling death mask, the type worn by some of the more feral Skitarii regiments. Then it blinked at him, and opened it's mouth in a gutteral howl. With a sound like a building collapsing the Daemon Engine brought the powerful chainaxe built onto it's right arm down into Dominatus' shoulder armour, shattering its right megabolter and sending a shudder through the mighty vehicle. The crew was stunned, both by the appearance of the engine and the vigor of its attack, they offered no resistance as the axe fell again. Alert sirens wailed across the titan's bridge and numerous panels exploded in sparks of energy feedback as the machine's hydraulics began to fail, and the titan was driven to one knee.

The enemy Engine paused for a moment, raising its axe and plasma Destructor to the sky as it roared in triumphal joy. Inside the titan Narthan could barely move, even with the somewhat ephemeral link he had to the MIU the shock and pain of the damage that had been done to the titan was crippling. From the corner of his eye he could see the princeps floating motionless in his casket, a scream frozen on his face , the fluid of his casket dyed red by blood welling from a score of psychostigmatic wounds around his body. The moderati turned back to the front viewing panel, he was looking out on the Daemon engine's midsection. From this range he could see that the titan was in even worse repair than it had first appeared, and had obviously seen many battles with little to no maintenance being done. His eyes were drawn to a dark gap just below it's pectoral plates.

His right arm was ablaze with pain, but Narthan managed to lift his left arm and begin making hauptic commands in the air before him, steely resolve entering his eyes. With a swing of his arm the Dominatus' volcano cannon suddenly swung up, wedging into the gap in the enemy's armour with a scream of metal that vibrated the moderati's teeth. The Chaos titan looked down, at it's loyalist counterpart, a hint of fear in its monstrous eyes.

Narthan grimaced, and then clenched his fists. The volcano cannon fired, power pouring into the belly of the bestial thing before them. The tian howled in pain as secondary explosions rippled under it's armour plates. Narthan scowled as he saw blood spray liberally from every new rent in the armour. “Just die already your monstrosity.” He clenched his fist again.

This time there was no howl of pain, no secondary explosions. With the fury of an unleashed sun the daemon engine's plasma reactor lost all containment. Fire hotter than even a titan's formidable armour could repel boiled up from the guts of the beast, and it exploded outwards in all directions, shards of armour and superstructure leveling everything in it's path for blocks around.

* * *

Narthan Garvian lay on his back, starring up at the cloud streaked sky, fireflies dancing before his eyes. The surface below him was the front of his Princeps casket, the fluid within nearly opaque red. Above him the front of the titan's bridge had been shattered and laid bare to the open air, he knew his own body was not in much better shape. Weakly he raised his voice to the uncaring sky, reedy and gurgling.”Engine kill.” Then watched as the sky grew dark and the fireflies winked out, one by one.