He readied his crozius, he would have need of it once more. The coming battle was to be hard. Traitor Astartes were holed up in a church dedicated to the Emperor, and Iodius hated the guardsmen for letting them go that far. The guard fell back under the slaughter of the Black Legion. They should've died there with their honour, instead of abandoning their posts and letting these heathens pollute the Emperor's holy place. The pilot of the Thunderhawk 'Spear of Thraxes' could be heard over Iodius' vox.
"Twenty seconds to target Brother-Chaplain."
"My thanks Mikelus, drop us off then go back to base. We will notify Thunderhawk 'Vex Calisum' for pick up." Iodius did not have to wait for the pilot's acknowledgement, it was not required. Mikelus would do as he was told. He looked upon the 9 warriors standing in the crew compartment of the thunderhawk, all wearing jump-packs. This was not advised by the Codex Astartes, but they had no other choice. All other attempts to take back the church from ground forces was pushed back in less than 3 hours.
"Brothers, these traitors have defiled the sacred sanctity of one of the Emperor's holy places. This will not, this shall not, stand. We shall descend upon them like angels of the Emperor and show them His justice. Show no mercy, for they shall not give any themselves." Iodius began the Litany of Hate, and his warriors chanted with him even as they dropped from the moving thunderhawk.

The distance between them and their target was closing, the roof of the church being 300 metres away now. Iodius gripped the hilt of Herald of His Will tightly. Iodius had been in possession of this crozius arcanum for almost 300 years, and he was not about to lose it now. It had seen the deaths of thousands of heretics, xenos and even daemons. 150 metres. He activated the rune in his helmet that indicated to his warriors to activate jump packs, not that they needed it. In check, his brothers activated them, and Iodius waited until the very last moment to activate his own, wanting the traitors to feel his coming a lot more than hear it. Iodius crashed through the ceiling of the church and straight onto a bewildered Black Legionnaire. The impact killed him straight away, leaving only a crater where his head was. Iodius was off bounding towards the traitors before they knew what hit them. Iodius's brothers were close behind him, crushing a further 3 traitors beneath their boots. Even though Iodius's warriors had the element of surprise, they were still outnumbered, and the Black Legionnaires were regaining the advantage. Brother Hugio was brought down by bolter fire, where brother Tavros had his body cleaved in two by a massive chainaxe, wielded by an aspiring champion of chaos. Iodius caved in the face of the nearest chaos marine, and put a bolt round through the face of another. Sergeant Klaudious blocked the aspiring champions axe with his combat shield, before striking back with the tip of his power sword. The blade sliced through his armour, and embedded itself deep inside the chaos champion. He fell back with a grunt, but the sergeant gave no room to breathe, driving the sword even deeper and ripping side wards, ripping out of the Traitors side. He finished off with a quick cut to the throat, silencing his curses for good. Iodius lost sight of the sergeant as two traitor astartes tackled the sergeant out of sight, through a wall. Brother Quintus was scythed down by increasing bolter fire, Iodius saw 7 traitors forming a firing line. A bolt hit Iodius in his crozius arm, and he felt it detonate. He was flung back by the impact, yet still not losing his grip on Herald of His Will. It was over. The element of surprise was lost, and the numbers were against them nearly 3-1. Iodius gave a roar of rage as he realized he was going to finally die. The roar was cut short by unimaginably loud gunfire, but not from the church.

Bullets flew through the ceiling of the church, and paved a way to the traitors forming the firing line, 2 managed to hurl themselves from its path, but the rest were not as fortunate. The heavy caliber shells tore the Legionnaires to ribbons, some shells struck the ammunition they were storing in that side of the church. Its ignition scythed down the two that found cover, and another one in the blast radius. A voice could be heard over Iodius's vox, and the familiar voice of Mikelus sounded in his ear.
"Sorry Chaplain, but I think I forgot to give these traitors my welcome to planet Oxion before I left." He mused. The pilot had guts, and that’s why Iodius liked him so much. He had natural skill, and Iodius believed that he was just waiting for the right opportunity to strike the traitors, not that he would tell Mikelus, It would hurt his feelings, being that gullible. A total 8 traitors had been killed by Iodius's warriors, Mikelus's strafing run claiming another 8, 9 remained, the odds had been evened, and Iodius would not give the traitors time to regroup. He launched himself at another Legionnaire, one that bore a mark of Khorne. The Khornate responded by slicing at Iodius with his ragged tooth chainsword. Iodius ducked underneath the wild swing and hammered his crozius into the traitor’s torso, stunning him, and leaving him easy prey for Iodius's return stroke. It caught the traitor on the back of his head, and made a dull sound as it connected. Iodius was of looking for more heathens to smite before the body hit the ground. Brother Nerelon fell beside Iodius, his breastplate caved in. Iodius turned to see the glowing form of yet another champion of Khorne, this time with a powerfist. Iodius barely sidestepped the first attack before he was buffeted by the second strike, which sent him flying backwards into the statue of the Emperor. He looked up to see the champion bounding towards him. He met the third strike head on, and turned the fist aside with his crozius, Iodius punched the champion in his exposed face. Iodius continued his barrage of attacks, though the champion regained his posture and began parrying Iodius's attacks with equal vigor. Iodius bit his tongue as the champion brought his powerfist down onto his knee, shattering the bone. Iodius fell to his knees, only to have the Khornate plant a foot on his chest, and push back. Iodius fell onto his back, the full weight of the warrior on him. His chestplate buckled, and would not hold for very long. Then the weight was gone. He opened his eyes to see Brother-Sergeant Klaudious wrestling with the Khornate. Klaudious's arm that held the combat shield was hanging loosely at his side, with no sign of the shield. Iodius saw Klaudious struggling with something, a melta bomb, his fingers were fumbling for the timer to set. The Khornate pushed Klaudious off of him, and threw a wild haymaker at the sergeant. Klaudious barely dodged it, but instead of falling back under the salvo of attacks he was about to receive, he jumped towards them. With a speed Iodius had never seen by one who suffered so many wounds, Klaudious attached the melta bomb to the Khornates chestplate, before embracing him and activating his jump-pack. Iodius saw them both fly up and out of the ceiling, then hearing a loud explosion moments later. He felt the shockwave from the melta bombs detonation wash over him, and a body dropped back down of the hole. Iodius limped over to see it was the still-breathing form of Klaudious.
"By the Emperor Brother, how'd you manage to live through that?" Gasped Iodius as he helped the wounded veteran up.
"Kicked the bastard away before it blew, can't say I gave it enough time to detonate though...But hey, hindsight would've helped a lot of people..." Klaudious managed. The front half of his armour was melted off, only through extreme stubbornness was Klaudious able to stay conscious. Another Battle-Brother fell, Brother Tulius, judging by the distinct kill markings on his bolter. His killer was in turn killed by vengeful space marines. The last Black Legionnaire fell. The battle had been won. The sergeant now being in the care of his squad, Iodius kneeled in front of the pristine statue of the Emperor. Gave thanks for the lives of his warriors, and a prayer for those who had fallen this day. Their names would be remembered.

Iodius ran a hand through his greying black hair. The geneseed extraction was complete, and the bodies of the four warriors who had fallen were onboard the 'Vex Calisum'. The remained of the squad, barring Sergeant Klaudious, who had insisted he sit with the fallen to say his farewell to them, sat aboard the 'Spear of Thraxes'. Brother Manorian sat with half an arm, Brother Fallion would never walk on organic legs again and Brother Sevanus would never see out of his right eye without bionics. The remainder of the squad sat with relatively miniscule wounds, Iodius himself would need reconstruction on his left knee. Just another wound Iodius suffered over the 350 years of battle. His bionic eye automatically put another entry on a spread sheet he had made 150 years prior to this engagement. On it were all of the wounds he had suffered, and by whom. Left eye: Bionics was the first on the list. Kroot Shaper was written next to it. Further down the list, minor wounds such as broken bones were tabbed en-masse, as they needed little recognition. Iodius subconsciously reached up and traced the scar that went across his bionic eye. Little did Iodius know, was that a lot more entries were going to be input into the list in the next 24 months.

As Iodius reached the bridge of the battle-barge 'Lucifus Tempestus', he was greeted by his new Chapter-Master Aladar, Captain Ceasar Xenthes and one unknown figure clad in black.
"Ah Chaplain, I hear you were successful in the eviction of the Black Legion." Aladar exclaimed.
"Aye, they shall think twice before defiling another sacred place of the Emperor." Iodius replied. He was in a bad mood. His prayer had been disturbed by this visitor, and he wanted to know why. "Might I ask, Milord, who this may be?" He gestured to the figure.
"Do not be worried by me, I am simply a servant of the Emperor. And I sincerely doubt they will even think if they’re going to defile anything else, heretics don’t think. They are simply animals you are sent to kill. Nothing more." The figure explained.
"So I see stranger, I will choose to ignore your last comment, however, not all servants of the God-Emperor are allowed onto the bridge of a battle-barge and demand audience with the Chapters highest ranking members." Iodius raised his voice, his anger clearly apparent. "Now show yourself before I come over there and show you one of our MANY airlocks. Speak quickly. For my patience wears thin."
"As you wish Chaplain..." He sighed and lifted his cowl, revealing a shaven head with a tattoo of an 'I' on his forehead. "I, am an Inquisitor Haden Gisbert of the Ordos Hereticus. And your chapter has been reassigned."
Captain Ceasar tilted his head towards Iodius, who stood with a fire in his eyes. His hate for Inquisitors was apparent. Very apparent. Almost leaning towards treason…Ceasar would have to make conversation about how to be subtle…But that could wait, they had more pressing matters to attend now.
"Told you it was important." Captain Ceasar mused.