The damaged black battle barge caught in the gravity well of Baal's second moon began the slow spiraling descent down into the upper layer of the satellite's thin atmosphere. Eldar gunships swarming around the barge continued to strafe the ruined outer hull searching for more weak points to exploit. Klaxons sounded inside as clusters of pooled super heated plasma ate away at its innards working in towards the exposed engine room. The last Techmarine manning the station sealed off the barriers and activated the last of the inner void shields. He watched the close by vid screen while completing his final task, a cluster of eldar Warp Spiders had managed to breach the ship and were progressing towards the remains of the command deck. Pressing a sunken rune the Techmarine opened an encrypted audio signal to the bridge.
Just as he was about to send a warning he caught sight of a towering shimmering golden shape moving directly towards the xenos. The shape came to a sudden stop revealing the image of a winged golden warrior held aloft by a pair of black winged crystal shards. Its face was covered by a jewel encrusted golden death mask fashioned in the shape of some forgotten cherubic youth. The Warp Spiders converged upon him quickly lifting their deadly guns, bringing them to bare upon the golden host. The xenos' hand cannons exploded in unison pouring out a blinding load of shuriken stars edged with fractal blades. The Sanguinor's wings instantaneously enveloped him blocking the deadly payload, the stars bounced harmlessly off the hardened wings then opened again revealing a long sharp Blade Encarmine tightly gripped within the the Sanguinor's steely grip. Quickly the golden host began his counter attack severing heads and limbs all in the blink of an eye. What remained of the Warp Spiders littered the floor as pools of bright eldar blood spilled and poured from the rented dead bodies. Stopping for a brief moment the Sanguinor lopped off the rest of their heads and then crushed them with his armored boot soles and continued on his way unimpeded.
"Prepare the drop pods for our final descent." came the order from the golden host nowhere to be seen now over the closing audio link. The Techmarine busied himself preparing the sacred protocol to activate the last of drop pods. There were only three left, two large enough to carry a single dreadnaught each and one for a party of Marines. One venerable Ancient lumbered into the drop bay followed by the last of the Death Company dreadnaughts. Their armor was pitted and well worn but still true. Finally a party of Death Company in fresh black lead by a young Chaplain came in immediately boarding their pod. Another Techmarine and crew of servitors assisted with the straps securing them all tightly within the close confines.
"When you stop believing all is lost but yet we still believe and that is why you were chosen. The fate of our Legion rests in your hands now." said the Sanguinor as he entered the bay behind them. "We are so few now but we are still loyal. Glory awaits you below." In perfect unison the Death Company banged their left fists into their black chest plates and grunted. "And know that I will be with you." Again they clasped their chests all eager for duty then the hangar doors fell away spilling the drop pods towards the target destination.
No comments:
Post a Comment