Smoky haze lazily wafted across the torn landscape. The air seemed to vibrate with the echo of yesterday’s violence. Librarian Harimau looked down from the last standing sky shield on this side of town.

“Town” he chuckled at the thought. Behind him was a bombed out skeleton of what used to be New Barriban. With a side glance he looked over his shoulder. The main munitions warehouse stood defiant, its void shield crackling against the floating debris. Every block around the warehouse however was a different colored pile of rubble only one other building stood.

“The Flounder Pounder,” Harimau marveled at the fortune that smiled on the quaint fish shack. Unlike his Chapter Master, Lufgt Huron.

The Emperor protects, he thought to himself before he curled his lip in anger at the thought of Lufgt Huron. He hadn’t heard what had happened on the other side of Badab but no communications had been passed since Valthex alerted him of their attack. No reinforcement’s only endless waves of targets. He adjusted his force axe as he strode to the edge of the landing platform. His psychic powers tingled as his anger attempt to rise to the surface of his thoughts. He looked down at the few remaining men at his command to give him another target of his focus.

To his right, a small detachment of Executioners waited for the coming battle. The dark camoed marines waited in the trenches and behind the barricades. Harimau momentarily thought of the blocked messages that were meant to reach the captain of the Executioners.

The rest of the Executioners had turned their back on Huron and his Tiger Claws just like the Lamenters and the Mantis Warriors, those pathetic excuses for allies. Here they were alone on Badab, only this small contingent of Executioners had been tricked into staying. Not that it mattered at this point.

A crash of rubble echoed in the distance. Harimau felt the marines around him tighten their weapons.

“Who is it this time?” Harimau sneered at the smoke ahead of him. He scanned the road to his left. It was a shredded remnant of what it used to be. Destroyed vehicles and indeterminable bits of armor painted a colorful mosaic amongst the dark brown, grassless field to his right.

Yellow and red from the pathetic Howling Griffins dotted the field. Filthy dull green of the Raptors could be seen by destroyed rhino hull. The crushed body of a Space Shark made him smile as remembered watching the speeding vessel get taken out by a unit of Tiger Claw devastators.

“What are you sensing cousin?” Captain Hax Von Rabbinschmidt of the Executioners asked. “Our auspex is not registering anything useful.”

Librarian Harimau calmed himself with a deep breathe. He reached out with his Emperor granted skills. He felt the ancient tormented forms of dreadnoughts marching towards them. An image of a red scorpion flashed on a grey back drop. He twitched before yellow stars fell before his minds sight. The half turquoise armor of a marine on a jet bike crossed his thoughts. Then a snarling machine spirit padded into the corner of his psychic veil.

Librarian Harimau’s eyes snapped open.

He opened his vox to all units, “Bless our weapons and load the last of our munitions. Next attack is eminent. Launch the Talon and Hax, get your Raven off the ground.”

The cold calculating voice of Hax responded, “how severe is it?”

“Tonight, cousin Hax, we dine with the Emperor and finally get to sort out this mess.” Harimau spat.