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"I will not kill you brother."

Mutters Leonidus quietly, pressing the activation rune on the blade's hilt.

"Do what you will. I will not harm another marine"

He says, sheaving the long blade and stepping backward.

"I will escape brother. I promice you that."

"Bridge acknowledging, what is it?" Gaius heard in his ear.
"Security to chief apothecary's quarters. There is a security hazard. Be prepared to apprehend the chief apothecary if necessary."
"Understood."
"You can try to escape, brother, but you can only run for so long," Gaius said.

The ships punched into real space with a roar of triumph. At least four score ramshackled vessels charged towards the planet above wich the night lords vessel hung. A mighty green scream of battle craze and hate rode on the power of their leader at the unsuspecting astartes. On the planet below, demons began to disspiate, leaving the remaining astartes to a fate even demons could not hold back. A fate of war.

The orks had come.

In the bowels of the cruiser, an angry neophyte by the name of lucius fell as a lance shot shook the shields of the strike cruiser, then a deluge more.The void shield failed as adric reached his command console, the ship was lost. Massive shuttles full of orks inpacted upon the ship, pouring the howling green warriors into a battle of closed corriodors and death.

The mighty battle servitor Nocturnus Omega rose into battle position, the screams of battle permeating the ship. It rushed out of the doors, confronting a squad of marines on security detail. They took one look at the massive machine then yelled for whoever was controlling it to follow them as they ran towards the closest breach. Leonidas saw them go.

Viola lay on the floor, tears streaming onto her jumpsuit. A tall marine stood outside the large bars keeping her in the cell. Eyes impassive but heart wrenching. He was one of the neophytes that had joined the company with Lucius and was a friend of sorts. It turned out that all of the neopyhtes in that batch's psycho indoctrination was flawed. They could all feel emotions other than loyalty. The marine shook his head and tapped his vox bead. "Brother lucius to the brig"

Then the ork burst in. The marine roared and charged, killing the hulking green monster in a few shots, holding the door over its body. He would defend the girl...for his friend.

On the planet below, massive roks rained down, pouring legions of orks onto the surface, mighty war machines and beasts marching with them as they began their rampage. In the city, things were getting hectic.

Constanze stalked the corridors silently, the gentle hum of his power armour was masked by the industrial sized ventilation whirring above his head. He crossed a large overhang, stalking the men below him. Their skin looked like dried, cracked partchment, and many wore robes similar to that of the tech priests of mars. Constanze was full of scorn for these soft-skins. The compartment was densely crowded with large screens and computer terminals, and they shuffled uncomfortabley around them. Constanze dropped silently, and grabbed one of them by the neck, almost breaking the creature in two as he hurled it through the main terminal screen.He lept at the next one, smashing his fist through it. He ran at the last one, which was nearing an elevator shaft, and crashed his massive boot into its side.

The bodies of the adepts lay face down on the floor, the top of each of their heads removed, and attached to Constanze's belt.

"You are done?" voxed Krieg impatiently.

Constanze wiped his blade across his helmet, "Clear" he replied.

Krieg dropped down from the elevator shaft, followed by the rest of the squad. Krieg walked to one of the terminals, its screen showed large objects entering orbit.

"Open all vox channels, find out whats going on out there"

Leonidus tore backwards, tearing the contents of the greenskin's head through its gaping mouth, its hulking body falling to the ground. The chaos had started so quickly, the orks breaching the cruiser moments from their arrival into realspace. The attack could not have been timed better, the veteran apothecary had called for security, too many for him to overpower. The orks presented a much more immediate threat however, they were flooding inside the cruiser at an alarming rate, with seemingly no end, and outnumbered the marines horribly. There looked to be no easy way out.

He had lost track of the apothecary and was accompanied now by his four guard, Nocturnus Omega and a dozen or so tactical marines. They needed backup.

Sahaal donned his armour as warning bells sounded, he opened his vox to Leonidas, "Brother, prepare your.... Machine.. to take that breach."

He strode swiftly down the halls, among the scrambling crew, he turned and saw the breach. It was a large hole, 20 or so marines had kept the Orks back for the last few minutes, the pile of bodies, limbs and organs at their feet was 4 feet high.
"Scramble all marines fit for combat, we must take this breach."

He strode up to next to Leonidas, the ork wave had broken, and the shuttle had been emptied. Just as the the shuttle was broken away from the hull, another slammed into place where it had been. "Brother, where is your construct?" He asked as he prepared to face the next wave.

Lucius followed Adric.

"We could try to retrieve your trophy, Lucius."

"She is not a trophy."

"She is. Surely you know that?"

"VIOLA IS NOT A TROPHY!"

The neophyte took a swing at Adric, but had the feet removed from the ground below him. He was pinned to the floor.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Lucius was shackled in the brig. He had been imprisoned for no reason.

Boom.

A huge pulse rocked through the ship. The faint sound of crude chants and battlecries could be heard. A squad of marines ran past him. A single one stood in front of him.

"Lucius?"

The imprisoned neophyte immediately recognized the smooth tone of Sezar, a recruit who had been inducted alongside him.

"What, Sezar?"

Sezar showed Viola the imprisoned Lucius. She ran to him and began pick at the shackles.

"Ah greetings Sahaal, Nocturnus Omega is currently, with 2 of my elite marines and I believe 8 others, aproaching our position. They have just secured another such breach very nearby. They were perfectly able to eliminate the greenskins. there."

Just as he completes his sentance, numerous hatches all over the front of the crude shuttle burst open, numerous orks of various sizes pouring out. Raising his pistol, Leonidus instantly puts two bolts through an oncoming ork's head, its large, and partialy flaming, body falling to the ground, tripping a slightly smaller of its kind. The two remaining Nocturnus guard stood their ground perfectly, mercilessly slaightering greenskins left and right with salvos of incindiary rounds.

Adric evaded lucius's hit with ease but before he could calm him down a lance hit the ship.
He saw a group of marines running towards them and knew something bad was happening. He left lucius to be guarded by the astartes and left for his chambers.
After taking a right turn he suddenly saw a drop pod slamming into the ship and tons of orks began running towards him. His heavy flamer began incinerating orks by the dozen and the ones that got up close where thrown back by his servo arms.
He rushed towards his chambers to wake the nemesis after pushing aside another 2 orks he reached his chambers.
He grabbed the nemesis and his most important possessions in his servo arms and left towards lucius. They would need to either fight of the orks or get the trophy and get the feth out!

Leonidus had heard the chatter coming from a nearby section of the cruiser, neophite Lucius had managed to get himself into the brig, for what reason, he knew not. Probably going after that woman of his. His remaining guard and Omega had arrived moments ago, the breach had been delt with. Lucius was useful to him, and that doctor was important to Lucius, so they had to be both freed. There would likely be no guard, everyone would be far too busy combating the remaining orks.

The group move quickly down the steel corridors, astartes skillfully cutting down the undisciplined greenskins. Leonidus was chief apothecary, he knew most of the codes on the ship, those to the brig included. They were very near now, the orks had not seemed to have yet breached the holding areas. The brig was small, but effective, breaking out would be incredibly difficult if not impossible.

Lucius held Viola to him. He was free.

"Leonidas, what do you plan to do?"

"I will escape, and take you and her with me. However, it comes at a cost. You must give me your body. You shall become more powerful than you could as any Astartes. If you refuse..."

The huge warped body of Nocturnus Omega thrashed wildly. Leonidas stuck out his hand. Viola looked at Lucius.

"Don't do it. Don't."

Lucius stuck out his hand. Tears poured from her eyes as the 2 marines shook.

"I loved you."

Lucius held Viola to him, eye to eye.

"They will kill both of us if I refuse. Let it go."

Tears ran down her cheeks. She silently followed him.

"So, Leonidas, how are we getting out?"

"We shall make our escape in me and my guard's personal dreadclaws. Me, my four guards and Omega shall go in mine, while you, your...woman, Adric, Gaius and Nemesis shall go in my guard's. We must go now."

With that, the group sprint back down the corridor, towards Leonidus' dreadclaw ports.

Adric found his way to the docks he had met up with aria a couple of minutes ago and they where moving towards the location leonias had confirmed.
They arrived at the docks seeing some greenskins looking at the dreadclaws trying to find where the weapons were.
He killed them with relative ease and stood guard awaiting leonidas's arrival.

Sahaal fired off parting shots to the Xenos before he followed the Apothecary as he strode away. He knew that the ship was going to be destroyed, and was determined not to be lost with it. He followed Leonidas down to the brig, where he liberated the neophyte, and the girl. He followed him further, and saw that his friend's plan was similar to his own. As he neared the marine he called out.
"Leonidas!"
The Apothecary turned to see that Sahaal had followed him. "Why take the dreadclaws? Follow me".

"What do you have which is better than my personal dreadclaws brother?"

Says Leonidus as he turns towards Sahaal, as he puts an incindiary round through an oncoming greenskin's neck, separating its head from its torso in a burst of gore.

"We must go urgently."

+++1.5 hours earlier+++

The bodies were arrayed as best they could be, many lying in multiple pieces. Morias sighed deeply. Many of those men had been good friends of his. He couldn't recall such a disastrous drop pod assault in his entire life. His squad was decimated and heavens only knew where Haestus and Archaeus were, Emperor preserve their souls. He observed Tyceus and Kurnar in solemn discussion a few metres away. Were they all that remained of the Ghosts? If they survived this bloody ordeal they'd have a batch of new recruits to contend with. New recruits were always so eager, arrogant and inexperienced. He needed warriors that he could rely on. As that thought crossed his mind he looked over the five remaining marines of Lazevar's squad. They were experienced. With both Tullius and Lazevar dead, it fell to him to take command of their forces.

Less than a third of the men that were in the drop pod assault remained, and he suddenly questioned the captain's tactical acumen. There had been no reconnaissance, no stealthy drops far from the target. No, they had made a full frontal assault. Intel had said that resistance would be light and the enemies would fall easily; even so they should have been far more cautious. They had paid the price for Sahaal's overconfidence. He felt anger welling up inside him, but suppressed it. These men needed him to keep a cool head if he was going to lead them out of here. Taking a glance at where his hopelessly damaged helmet had been discarded, he mused how close he had come to death at the claws of that foul beast. By the Emperor, he would find out where they had come from and have vengeance upon its kind.

“Sergeant! I've found something!” Tyceus called
Morias turned and hurried over to where Tyceus was standing. “What is it?”
“There is a pathway here, but it is sealed off.”
“Can we break through?”
“I doubt it, though the meltagun should clear us a path through.”
“Get to work.”
There was a hiss as the heavy plated door set beneath the control hub bubbled away slowly. It was as resilient as the rest of this place. Morias left Tyceus to it and headed over to the last of squad Lazevar. They all looked at him expectantly. He looked each of them over before speaking.
“Toban Lazevar was a great man, brilliant sergeant and close friend to us all. His death, and the deaths of so many of our brothers this day is a terrible blow to the company. But they shall live on when their gene-seed is passed to the next generation of neophytes and the Emperor shall watch over their eternal souls.” There were a few nods of approval amongst the despondent faces looking at him. “I know that I cannot replace Toban. But I ask that you follow me this day and to the death if necessary.”
“You know you do not have to ask,” said Logan, the eldest of the survivors. “Our lives are yours.”
“Aye,” agreed another. An appreciative smile played on Morias's face.
“I am glad to hear that. I know many battle-brothers have died this day, but have faith and we shall prevail my friends. Prevail and bring righteous vengeance upon the despicable traitors who would dare waste the lives of the Adeptus Astartes!” He roared, slamming his fist against his chest plate. The men of squad Lazevar echoed the soldier's salute simultaneously.
“Come, we still have much work to do,” Morias said.
“Not so hasty, sergeant. This is yours now,” Logan said, holding out Lazevar's sheathed sword. “Your own blade has been destroyed. He would've wanted you to have his.”
There was a pause, before Morias reached out and took it, fixing it to his belt. Kenov, the youngest marine present, also held out something: Lazevar's pistol. Morias took it silently and replaced his own ruined sidearm with it. “I swear that I will use these weapons to avenge our honoured dead,” he promised.

"Adric, take my guard and Nocturnus Omega to the first dreadclaw."
He gestures towards the nearest dreadclaw, his secondary one.

"Lucius, you and your...woman will go in my personal dreadclaw. I want to keep an eye on you."

"Agreed?"
Leonidus shouts over the deafening noise of explosions and collapsing cruiser.

Lucius ran towards the Dreadclaws.

"We perish or we flee!"

He yanked on Viola's arm, tugging her to the vehicles. They both loaded in next to each other. As the rest of the marines jumped in, the engines began to scream.

Adric agreed but before they left he said. ''Leonidas please take aria with you. He is a good friend and a valuable asset please take him in your personal dreadclaw we don't have any more time'' Adric said as another group of orks where rushing towards them.

"Of course. Good luck brother Adric."
Mutters Leonidus, pulling Aria inside the dreadclaw. As the enterance hatch closes.

Within moments, the transport was off, the vox links told him all was going well on the second. After the initial rumbling, there was next to no noise but gentle rumbling of the dreadclaw's inner workings, the vehicle was only illuminated by several dimly glowing lights.

"We have to go captain!" Raalen shouted. "Damn it, Fargoth, get up!"
"Go! Get out of here, I'm not leaving," said captain Fargoth Xenon with cold finality. A pair of serfs ran onto the bridge.
"Captain Xeron, the ship is lost. The greenskins are advancing upon this position."
"Acknowledged. Hold them back as long as you possibly can."
"Yes sir," the serf's replied, charging their lasguns to full power and fearlessly returning down the corridor they had come from.
Xenon quickly looked over the reports on his personal feed, the information appearing over his vision. Not good. Not good at all. He could feel the very ship aching in pain around him; the great tears in its metal flanks like bullet wounds through his chest. One of the cables attached to his armoured body burst free with a hiss as the ship shook violently again.
"Get up! Get up, Emperor curse you!" Raalen shouted. He was Xenon's first officer, a hardy marine that had never failed him.
"We can't escape, Raalen. This ship will be our tomb," he said simply.
Raalen snarled and punched the wall angrily, then racked the slide on his bolter. "We've commanded this ship for twenty-one years, and you're just going to let it end now?!"
"There's nothing I can do!" Xenon snapped. "Are all the drop pods and small craft clear yet?"
"Yes sir," came a reply from somewhere.
"Good. Helm, set a collision course for the largest enemy vessel."
"Acknowledged. Setting course," came the monotone reply of the servitor wired into the station.


Sparks flew and bulk heads exploded as a shell impacted nearby. A servitor station to the left blew out in a fiery spread of gore. The hull strained in agony as its one remaining engine and the thrusters struggled to turn it. But turn it did, Midnight's Glory refusing to die without killing more enemies. Its last lance battery spewed out a beam of light that tore into a small ork corvette before a storm of fire raked the side of the ship and took it out. Screams and gunfire echoed down the corridor, soon disappearing under the sheer volume of the ork warcries. Raalen bellowed a curse and his bulky frame filled the doorway, bolter barking until its clip was empy. He dropped it and pulled out his bolt pistol and combat blade, shooting one, two, three orks, his blade slicing through the skull of another before he was overwhelmed and brought down, five orks pinning him and cutting him apart. Raalen spat acid into the eye of one and it whelped in agony before another brought a crude warhammer down on the first officer's skull, smashing brains over the floor. Orks piled into the room, cutting down serfs and servitors mercilessly as a huge greenskin entered and moved to face Xenon who sat stoically in his command chair.
"You lose, spehss mahreen!" Warboss Skullmasha roared triumphantly as he plunged his crackling power claw through Xenon's chest. The warboss was confused as the marine before him simply looked up and smiled at him.
Xenon lurched forward, impaling himself further on the claw and grabbing hold of the ork's jagged metal jaw replacement, messily pulling it free and taking hold of the ork's head and twisting it round. They both fell to the ground, the warboss screaming incoherently as he struggled, his eyes alight with horror as he was forced to look out the bridge window.
"No," Xenon whispered. "You lose."

The large, metal form of Warboss Skullmasha's personal flagship was the last thing he saw as Midnight's Glory cut into it jaggedly before erupting in a massive explosion.

"No word from Midnights glory, must be the storm." muttered Sevetaar.

"We move then" growled Krieg. With a shuddering clang, the Elevator doors opened. Half a dozan stormtroopers opened fire. Las fire, bright and furious hammered the marines.

Krieg snarled as the blast of a combat shotgun peppered his armour. The powerful kick of the weapon was unable to knock him back even a step, and he charged through the hail of fire. A melta gun seared past his shoulder, instantly melting the elevator. It's floor caved in below it, melted by the tremendous heat. Three of the troopers were caught in the blast, as the other two dove behind a console. Krieg smashed his fist into the console, tipping it over ontop the men. The multi-tonne terminal crushed one of the troopers from the waist down. The other trooper dove away, into Constanze. Grabbing and twisting his arm, Constanze threw his Helgun away and turned to Krieg

Krieg crashed his fist into the back of the troopers skull, knocking him out.

"Skin him, but let him live a little longer. We may have a use for him"

The Dreadclaw was almost silent, only disturbed by the whimpering of Viola. Lucius turned to her.

"What's wrong? You're alive."

She simply turned her head to Lucius and back.

"I can't even look at you. You practically destroyed your body."

The shuttle began to enter the atmosphere. Retrothrusters started to kick in.

Thud.

The hatches of the Dreadclaw burst.

The dreadclaw had landed.

With a metalic hiss, the transport raises itself up onto mechanical legs, the exit iris opening slowly. The group descended.

The surrounding landscape was quite desolate, dry with the occasional patch of grass. The middle of nowhere. The secondary dreadclaw had landed several moments earlier, its inhabitants were standing there, waiting.

"Where to, everyone?"

Lucius staggered out of the pod, his cybernetics still uncalibrated. He was out here with Leonidas, unarmed, unarmoured. Viola still cried. He held her and gave her a single kiss on her head.

"We'll be fine. I swear."

Lucius turned to Leonidas, who now had a huddle growing around him. He joined and began to listen to the plan.

"I say we head North, my helmet's sensors are picking up vox chatter in that direction. Any other ideas?"

Mutters Leonidus walking over to the dreadclaw to collect his equipment.

"Lucius, why is this.....Viola of yours, so on edge?"

"No reason. Sir, have I got any equipment?"

"Indeed Lucius, what kind of personal dreadclaw would it be if it didn't have spare equipment?"

With that, Leonidus walks over to the dreadclaw and tears off a small hatch. Inside lies two bolt pistols, a bolters, two combat knifes and a chainsword
.
"Take your pick Neophite."

Says Leonidus as he slowly starts walking north.

Lucius took both the Bolt Pistols. He wasn't bothered with accuracy. He just needed to make sure whatever he faced was dead.

"There. Shall we begin moving, Apothecary?"

The group began to walk to the north, Viola next to Lucius. The sound of crude engines and savage chants grew louder.