[IC] WARHAMMER 40K: THE TARSON INCURSION

[Rithy]

" ... You have your orders, move immediately!"

"Why do they always give us such suicidal orders after getting us into such messes? I swear the Celestian must be a failed Imperial Guard Officer!"

Adrianne groaned as she heard the orders, reaching for the holster and her side for her plasma pistol before priming it and beginning to move her way through the crowded space of the chimera towards the front seat and hatch.

"Excuse me; sorry; move a bit to the right; thanks; oops; sorry!"

It wasn't easy for Adrianne to move through the sea of shooting red-robed skitarii filling the back of the vehicle, and as she passed Vala, Adrianne gently bopped the tech-heretic's knee with the barrel of her plasma gun.

"Time to move! This tin-can has now officially become a death trap!" She told Vala as she pressed on ahead, doing her best to maneuver through the tight crowd inside of the chimera before she reached the front seat where Ansgar had been. At least she did not have to worry about having to cram herself through the tight roof hatch as there was now a large and gaping hole in the front of the chimera!

Briefly considering the possibility that the suicidal Krieger might have been snatched out of the Chimera by an industrial powerclaw, Adrianne soon realized they had not seen the end of the krieger's suicidal shenanigans as she saw Ansgar outside of the chimera. And a whole sea of mutant cyborgs...

"Does the Rhino even have enough room for all of us?!" Adrianne asked him as she crawled out of the front of the chimera, but not without extending her plasma pistol to her side whilst exiting and leaving a steaming hot hole in the torso of a mutant that had been trying to sneak around the chimera's treads!

Despite being seven foot tall, Adrianne crouched down to make a smaller profile. She briefly considered hovering in the air over to the Rhino, but if the backline of the mutants had brought small arms or even nail guns, what would otherwise have been a calm and peaceful flight over to the Rhino could turn into a frantic bullet-hell and dive as she'd make herself the obvious target to dozens of lunatics with guns!

Adrianne turned her head to glance at Herold, the arbites wading dangerously close to the tide of mutants. As impressive as his shield might be, Adrianne doubted it'd do much help once the wall of mutation and cybernetics eventually noticed him and fell on him like the sea itself!

"Well that's the fastest way to the Emperor for sure!"

She privately thought to herself, as she watched the madness!

"Should we let him go ahead with it or do you want me to yank our Arbites over to the Rhino?" Adrianne asked, her skull faced helmet turning to Ansgar.

[Eisenhorn]

Ansgar slammed the sharpened edge of the entrenching tool into another heretic's head, caving it in and a swift kick sent its corpse back down into the oncoming ranks of the traitors, letting its mass and momentum earn him a moment's respite. Between his own ruthless hand to hand experience, and the Arbites shield and power maul doing its own bloody work, the two were keeping enough of a kill tally up to keep from being overwhelmed. At a glance towards the front treads, he could see the efforts to rend the frontal armor open had also damaged the tracks, making it unlikely the thing would move without serious repairs. Of course, given the situation at hand, it was unlikely the Chimera would ever see use in Imperial hands again, which meant he had half a mind to lob demolition charges into the thing and render it inoperable and near unsalvageable. Of course, at about this point orders came over the Vox, of which his had started working again once clear of the interference in the Forge, though it was unsteady and crackled with interference, he could make out enough. Fall back, and board the Rhino, while the Psyker questioned him on the Rhino's capacity for them all.

"It is likely, they are designed for entire squads of Power armored individuals after all. Arbites, brace for explosives, dropping a screen." With due warning given over Vox to the Arbites, Ansgar grabbed a handful of Frags from his bag of explosives that he had restocked at the Forge, tugging the pins of three frags and lobbing them in an arc into the front of the oncoming tide. The three frags would buy them time to back up, the gap and sudden treacherous ground of blood and guts would also slow the oncoming heretics enough to disengage. "Techpriestess, Disgengage the Skitarii via the rear hatch as soon as we are not in the way of its opening."

---

"That is the optimal plan, I am aware, thank you." Malig was rather terse with the Krieger as he laid out the plan for her assigned troops to withdraw. Uploading new code sequences to the Skitarii Rangers firing from the Chimera, the moment the the organics were clear, the hatch would swing down and the red robed Skitarii within would file out, forming wings on either side of the retinue members, covering their flanks with lethal and precise volleys of Galvanic Rifle shots, the smell of electrified, scorched flesh filling the air over the bloody smell of the dead and dying. One of the Skitarii took an improvised rocket to the gut, punching through his already damaged armor and cutting the soldier clean in two, Galvanic rifle dropping alongside the two halves of the Skitarii, though more machine fell out than organs. "Unit 2B17 confirmed inoperable. Retrieve his rifle, if feasible, I will instruct on proper use."

---

"Attempting to move anyone via the Warp in this proximity to traitor forces with unknown capabilities is likely not a good plan. Either he sticks to the withdraw orders, or his death will be stemming the tide in the Emperor's name." As far as a Krieger was concerned, dying in battle with the traitors of the Imperium was a worthy death, but their orders were clear. If he could not disengage, either the Psyker would act on her own as she showed a penchant for doing, or he would fall slaying as many as he could. Upon the Skitarii getting blown in half, Ansgar was the first to retrieve the fallen Galvanic weapon, holstering the las pistol he had been using as he hefted the thing. With the Tech Priestess instructing him on its use, he quickly got the understanding of how to use the weapon, firing off shots as they withdrew, though those closest to him could hear him muttering. "Another weapon without a bayonet lug, Emperor preserve me..."

From the sounds of it, one would hope that whoever built that Galvanic Rifle in question had made it sturdy enough for hand to hand combat, since it was now in the hands of a Krieg Grenadier who continued to lament the lack of bayonet accepting weapons he kept having to use. At the very least, he didn't recognize any bayonet lugs on the weapon, considering its use by the Skitarii and not him, and Malig notably did not tell him if there was one or not.

[rivaan]

"I completely agree with you!!!" Vala shouted to the psyker with complete look of disbelieave that she had actually to agree with the catsuit, pole dancer looking imperial psyker woman.' To hell with my life... how did I end like this from all the way of respectful merc to a spare pawn in the madness that is this fucking imperium.' Vala thought recalling her rather decent length life given the usual life expenctancy for mercs and imperial soldiers.

At least in the mercs you retained the right to do smart and sensible decisions, not be killed like this. Only once she wished to have a talk with their emperor... She wished to ask what was teh point of all this madness if he was not going to rule his Imperium and instead let a swarm of religion obsessed fanatics dictate teh fate of this sinking empire. Sadly she doubted she'd ever get the chance.

As soon as the evacuation of the vehicle began she jumped outside with the eagerness and agility of someone whose life depended on moving fast. She dashed away, pulling her own grenades and throwing a pair on hte right side into the enemies to buy their wings some time.

"Next time... I'm fucking brining the tunnel down no matter what." She mumbled as she shot one of the possessed with her lasgun, leaving a hole into his head at the place of the eye. A boosted weapon like hers into the soft weakpoint of an eye, no way she couldn't get to the brain behind. She never stopped running though, not until reachign the Rhino at which point she took defensive position, throwing a moment's check to see if others made it.

[POOHEAD189]

The Arbites had done his best to remain within close proximity to the Chimera. He had slain a dozen heretics with his amped up power maul, but soon he found them flanking him. He turned and swiped across the would-be flankers, decapitating them with controlled electronic explosions. He felt hands grab at his back, but the Arbites was too thickly muscled for the few that were close enough to attack.

He moved back toward the Chimera, and reformed as the head of the group moving between the Chimera to the Rhino. His visor spattered with blood, he lifted it to see where he was swinging with better accuracy, hacking over and over in front of him to detonate whatever limb or fodder that was unlucky enough to get in his way.

"For the Emperor!" He growled with a fury. The Law of the Imperium, nor its patron, would be denied.

As his companions filed past him, he held his ground and moved them along, waving his shield in order to get them moving. "Move! Go!" He ordered as they filed past. The Arbites lowered himself to better hold his ground, his shield in front as the tide pressed inward. "Hurry! Move!" Once the others were inside, he backstepped and struck three heretics running at them with abandon. Herold's last blow ripped apart their torsos. He entered the Rhino and slammed the door shut.

[Rithy]

"Another weapon without a bayonet lug, Emperor preserve me..."

"It is a venerable piece of archeo-tech technology; whatever's on your mind, please don't use it to smash the faces of common mutants!" Adrianne said to the krieger as she started to make her way towards the Rhino in a crouched run, not needing her psychic powers in order to be able to tell what was going on in the guardsman of Krieg's head!

Scurrying across the ground to the Rhino, Adrianne suddenly felt a tingling sensation in the back of her mind as her divination powers kicked in.

In a flash, she shot out a hand to her right just in time to erect a kinetic force barrier as a salvo of heavy railroad spikes flew towards her!
Four of them plinked into her shield, suspended in midair; whilst three more flew past her to embed themselves with ferocious force into the hull of the Rhino!

"This is why you don't give mutants access to heavy industrial equipment!" The Psyker muttered with no small amount of disdain as she saw a heavy tentacled man/woman wielding a set of makeshift spikethrowers 30ft away from her, trying to jam more heavy metal spikes into the crude contraption. With a flick of her wrist, Adrianne returned the four rail spikes she had caught midair; causing them to shoot back at the mutant!

Half of the mutants' head was thorn right off, alongside it's third arm, sixth and seventh tentacle, and one leg; causing it to fall to the ground. Yet still it was alive and moving!

"Yeah, I am not going to go Herold on this."

The Psyker privately thought to herself; momentarily imagining herself charging across the open field just to hit the (probably) dying mutant with a blunt object; before twisting her hand, causing some of the mutant's railway spikes to fly up and slam down; pinning the creature to the ground as the Psyker turned and walked back to the Rhino. There was far too many mutants for her to even consider killing.

Entering the Rhino alongside Herold, the Psyker grabbed one of the handholds in the roof and called out.

"If everyone's in let's get out!"

[Jb]

Why?! Why was there never enough time for blood-shedding? It would have been easy enough to blame Aviza and her somewhat stiff orders, as well as her (Nergüi personally felt) under usage of his talents, but what would have been the point in that?

Instead he listened to her squad-wide order, mag-locked his bolter to his hip, and prepared to enjoy himself; if he couldn't go outside the APC and annihilate the Emperor's foes, then by the Throne he was going to make do with what he could and revel in it - outside of the Orkoid Speed Freeks, some Hellion groups of the Drukhari and possibly an unknown Guard group, the Scars where the greatest lovers of speed in the galaxy.

"If everyone's in let's get out!"

Without waiting for any sort of command he gunned the throttle, pressing his foot flat into the acceleration pedal, and giving a nomadic whoop inside his helmet as the vehicle first lurched forward and then lunged forward; the front of the Rhino hammered straight into the Chimera, the enemy that had set about dismantling it soon screaming as they were crushed under track or flung away from the wreck.

“Direct me, Sister, and we shall make it.” Came a blurt of bass-toned speech from the Deathwatch marine, even as he reversed and sped the transport into the Chimera again, the empty vehicle grinding forward to hammer a hole into the lighter and more destructible civilian automobiles.

They would get through alright, but where then would they go?

[WardenCelestine]

Once they had pushed through the wall of civilian vehicles, three separate tunnels lay in front of them. Aviza's HUD quickly informed her that the fastest way to the surface was the right tunnel, but she was also informed that sensors were picking up strange signals and warp energies that were coming from the left tunnel, which lead under a large part of the city. They could fallback and regroup with the Imperial Guardsmen at their headquarters or they could further investigate the Chaos forces in the city. The choice was made and Aviza informed Nergüi to take the left tunnel. "Head through the left tunnel, White Scar, we will put an end to this Chaos invasion or be by the Emperors side before the day is over." As far as Aviza was concerned they would stop the Chaos forces in their tracks before the city was completely overtaken or they would die trying.

Heading directly into the heart of the Chaos invasion would have been seen as suicide by many others, but Aviza saw it as a worthy challenge and as the path they were meant to take. Adrianne would undoubtedly be the first one to notice the warp energies coming from the tunnel, they would grow in strength as they traveled deeper. Taking the turret gunners seat once more, Aviza prepped the weapon to idle so that she could fire them as soon as any hostile came into view. "Everyone take positions and get ready to fire at anything that moves in your line of sight. We may have to unload the vehicle at one point and travel on foot, but untill then I want all of you to use the Rhino to your full advantage." Aviza manipulated the turret to do a couple full three hundred and sixty rotations to ensure it was still fully working. It came to stop point forward into the pitch black tunnel ahead of them, from now on, the only way they would be able to see if with their enhanced vision equipment.

[Eisenhorn]

"Archaeo-Tech Technology is redundant, ma'am. I will reserve bludgeoning actions for uncommon mutants." Whether Ansgar was being sarcastic or not was lost through the rebreather he wore, muffling the tone of voice he had when responding to the psyker's request for him to not use the weapon as a hand to hand substitute. However, the spikes that weren't stopped by the Rhino or the psyker's shield nearly hit the Grenadier, a sidestep narrowly avoiding the unpleasant death by impalement. Raising the Galvanic rifle, he fired shots into the mutant as he walked backwards, orders overruling his desire to get close enough to lob the necessary volume of explosives onto the impaled thing to kill it. Beyond that, it was relatively smooth moving to the Rhino and, once everyone was aboard, shot off at a rather fitting speed. Spotting the Apothecary at the controls, the Krieger didn't question it, since while he was not familiar with any of the Astartes outside one Chapter, he assumed there was a good reason for the medical expert to be driving.

Lacking the advanced scanning equipment, connections to the Rhino's sensors, or any other means to detect anything outside the hull of the transport, all Ansgar could do was sit and wait. The remark that the Celestian made on halting the Chaos invasion or being dead by the Emperor's side was a welcome one, at least by the Kriegsman. "In death, Atonement." The remark was the tail end of the Litany of Sacrifice, and the idea of charging head long into death was neither foreign or unwelcome as far as Ansgar was concerned. Then again, some of the others of the group may take exception to that, but it was not his place to attempt to fix that. When told that they would fight from inside the Rhino, it took him some moments to realize that the vehicle had a hatch for passengers to be able to fire out of. It also dawned on him that, due to his height, he couldn't actually reach the top hatch for firing out of the vehicle, as it clearly was designed for power armor in mind.

"Ma'am, it may be wise to disembark if we encounter hostile forces in numbers requiring more firepower than is already provided. The top firing hatch seems intended for power armored individuals, who have the extra height to be able to fire out effectively." Addressing the Celestian, Ansgar stood inspecting the Galvanic rifle he was in temporary custody of, ignoring the intense gaze that was being given to him by the Tech-Priestess Malig. Ansgar was under no disillusion that his short height was going to make fighting from inside the Rhino effectively impossible for him, reducing the amount of effective firepower while mounted inside the vehicle by one. Until then, he had to do the one thing most Guardsmen would agree to hating, wait. Wait and see what happened next.

[Rithy]

" ... The top firing hatch seems intended for power armored individuals, who have the extra height to be able to fire out effectively."

"You know if your height is an issue I could always just lift you up with my powers... !"

The tall Psyker said after a pause, as she held a gloved hand over Ansgar's helmet. Although whatever expression Adrianne's face might have carried was hidden behind her expressionless skull mask, and her voice was heavily mechanized by her suit, there was nonetheless a coy tone to be identified in her voice!

Compared to the Chimera, the Rhino was a luxury vehicle; with Adrianne actually being able to stand upright without feeling like she was being crammed through the corridors of an Imperial Guard Squat barracks!

Not only for the fact that the interior was designed for seven to eight feet tall overly muscular genhanced superhumans wearing powerarmor, on a more grim note; not all of the red robed skitarii had managed to escape the chaos horde as well, which left only more room.

"Would you like that?" The Psyker asked, her long white ponytail coiling behind her as she tilted her mask at the guardsman.

[rivaan]

Vala's face was a completely unemotional right now, but that was a farce, on the inside she was screaming in anger. What's with these people and their complete lack of self preservation instincts?! It made no sense you cannot win a war by throwing yourself at it to die! Sure hte Imperium as a whole can utilize that tactic because of the sheer amount of people it has, but in the long run that's still a consumption tactic that wastes so much resources! Here int this tunnel right now wre like a handful of them! WITH A SINGLE PSYCKER!!! They should have brought the tunnel down after all.

"I suggest we use Adrianne's powers to make the enemies get into a position we desire. A few well places distortions, or weaker explosions or pushes or whatever your power does on both sides, leaving the enemies to all swarm at a single more narrower point would allow us to keep them at bay longer and they will hinder each others... that's if our residednt psycker woman can pull off somethign like that..." Vala suggested, throwing a look at Adrianne under the guide of her helment. She wasn't really well aware of hte other's abilities." Alternatively we can make some holes with grenades in the floor. Normal grenades shouldn't cave in the tunnel..." She added, switching the powercell on her las sniper cannon. Frankly she was not suited for combats such as this one. She preferred tobe as far away form the enemy as possible and just kill them before they even find her. Such close quarter combat with chaos was frankly a really bad planning. When it came to chaos as far you were from it the better!

Well if nothing else she was at least ready to fight. Switching off the safety of hte weapon, looked around, wondering if she should just climb up on the Rhino. Yeah... that actually seemed like a decent idea.

[POOHEAD189]

The shudder of the Rhino as it halted its momentum made a jutter that reverberated through everyone's body. Herold placed his rebreather on his mouth, and he took a lungful of filtered air. He was tired and angry, but that was ripe spirit for purging heretics and mutants. When the Sororitas announced they would be going after Chaos anomalies, Herold nodded in confirmation.

As the rest of the crew had figured out, he had no problem leaving the vehicle to meet the mutants close quarters. But even the Adeptus Arbites thought it a bit risky to not use the guns from inside the vehicle. There was something about watching bolter rounds cutting apart the enemies of mankind that sat well with him. Still, it was time to move.

He turned on the night vision within his visor, and placed his thumb along the power of his powermaul, ready to spark it to life when they left.

[WardenCelestine]

Aviza admitted to herself that they were not using Adrianne's warp abilities enough, they had a fully stationed Psyker to use as they saw fit. Vala had brought up the idea of gathering up a group of hostiles and moving them into a more desirable position. With some planing, this could work out very well and could even end a fight in a few second. "She could just warp them into one of the massive vats filled with molten metal and obliterate them instantly. If that is to much trouble, they can also be moved into a tighter group where we can easily eliminate them with our weapons or some well placed explosives."

It then occurred to Aviza, that she did not even know what discipline Adrianne was trained under. She gathered that Adrianne had to of been trained under the Telekinesis Discipline, enabling her to cast many offensive but also defensive abilities that would undoubtedly be very useful in the fights to come. "I am giving you free rein on your abilities Adrianne, but be very cautious of your actions." There was a chance that this could end badly for all of them, but Aviza had weighed the options and had decided to allow it for now.

The Rhino rumbled forward at a solid speed, heading through the tunnel with its lights on full power, pointing forward. There were a couple possessed in the tunnel as the headed towards their next destination. Aviza did not waste any rounds on them and let the Rhino run them over, crushing them below its treads. As they drove, a malevolent feeling would grow with every passing second, something of great power was near them and they would soon be face to face with it.

Aviza's digital map in the upper right hand corner of her HUD showed they were almost right below a massive chapel, and that is where Aviza suspected they would find the source for all the Chaos corruption. Whispers in the dark were now audible, seeming to come from all around them, even through their coms and the electronic radios inside the Rhino. "Adrianne, any idea what the source of all this ... demonic bullshit could be?" asked Aviza through her com. The turret on top of the Rhino was still pointing forward, the Sister of Battle who manned it was expecting to see hostiles any moment now.

Suddenly, the darkness was illuminated from heavy bolter fire from far in the distance, either someone was manning turrets of their own or there were more ground forces that had been waiting for them. Aviza opened fire with the heavy quad bolters and let forth a hail of hellfire in the direction the rounds were coming from. "WARNING AMMUNITION LOW" the message flashed inside of her helmet, letting her know that she had almost used up all of her ammo for the Rhinos built in primary weapon. In the distance, a new flash of light appeared as a number of anti-vehicle rockets were fired, giving them very little time to react if they wanted to survive the attack.

Aviza put the turret on auto-pilot and quickly pulled the emergency lever near by, which blowed off the back of the Rhino, giving them a quick and easy exit. The Skitarii Rangers and Malig would exit first then the rest of the team would find their way out. The rockets made direct contact with the Rhino and it exploded with a number of secondary explosions, sending everyone flying quite a distance into the dark, where they would hit the ground, hard. Thankfully, the Skitarii Rangers and Malig would shrug off the attack, and would quickly take a firing line, sending rounds down the tunnel. Aviza and the rest of her squad would not be so lucky, being the last out of the Rhino just half a second before the rockets made contact.

After standing up, she first noticed that she was partly on fire and quickly took care of that situation while using what little cover they had left. Raising her weapon, she let her HUD readjust after the impact. It picked up three figures of what had to be Chaos Space Marines with heavy weapons in the distance, looking for more hostiles to fire at. Aviza lined up her weapon and fired a number of well placed shots, managing to hit one of the Chaos Space Marines. This caused the heavy weapon he had to explode, starting a fire in the distance that illuminated the tunnel. The three Chaos Space Marines still stood, but one of them no longer had a heavy weapon.

[Jb]

Once more, as was the usual case in war, things happened in a very slow order but at an extremely swift pace; one moment Nergui was happily speeding through the passageways and tunnels, crushing heretics under the tracks of 'his' APC, the Celestian firing away at anything that moved...and then it all began to go wrong, again.

His teeth ground together and his jaw tightened as the unnatural and sibilant ravings of non-human entities - or perhaps the tortured souls of those that had once been human - began to make themselves known throughout the transports comm-channels and even through the very air itself.

Warp spawn... he though to himself, a sudden sense of unease, nay anticipation, making its way through his body. Without even thinking he felt a sudden jolt, his armour injecting combat-stimms into his bloodstream in preparation for an encounter he somehow knew would be coming, whether on a conscious level or not.

"Emperor's teeth," came the amplified curse from his helmets conical mouthpiece as the first rounds of heavy bolter fire struck the Rhino, his eyes narrowing into slits as the fast-moving rockets sped from the darkness; he hated being right.

A whump and crash of ejecting metal signalled that it was time for them to go, the Sister having pulled the emergency lever it seemed, and in short order they were flinging themselves from the doomed Rhino - a small part of the White Scar dying a little inside to see the death throes of such a piece of technology and its machine spirit.

Nergui was lucky it seemed, his armour having saved him from the majority of damage, stabilizers in his feet securing him to the ground even as others were flung across the tunnel, his helmets internal HUD showing injuries through the group even as his unblinking eyeslits adjusted to the grim darkness of their surroundings.

It was mere moments later that incoming fire started again, their enemies clearly wishing to give them no time to regroup and fight back, the sound of deep curses and the distinct clicking of internal-vox communications reaching his gene-altered ears. Inside he could feel his blood rising once more, the stimms doing their work particularly well at this juncture, and his spirit wrestling with the decision to help whichever of his teammates were wounded or to take his vengeance out on the most hated of the Emperor's foes.

Aviza had already crippled the armament of one of the Chaos Marines by the time the Apothecary decided upon his course of action, leaving a trio of heavy specialists with two weapons between them, Nergui able to pick them out as clear as day from within the confines of his helmet - only their armour, and thus their cursed allegiance, unseeable in the dark. Not that it mattered in the slightest.

One... He unlocked the bolter from his waist and checked it hastily, yet thoroughly, making sure all was in order. Two... He thought as he focused his mind, standing from a half-crouch and facing in the direction of their attackers.

Three...

"For the Khan and the Emperor!"

It was a warcry that had sounded over battlefields for thousands of years, one that now caused even the stones of the tight-packed tunnel to reveberate, amplified to almost ear-splitting proportions by the Astartes that bellowed them as he advanced straight and true toward the mortal adversaries of he and his Imperium; these were not Orks, not some rabid Greenskins who's very lives were nothing but war, these were not mere savage xenos intent on carnage...no...these were traitors that had made a conscious choice to turn from the Emperor's light and embrace the darkness of the Immaterium and all that went with it!

His footsteps carried him forward at the same pace as a running man, his bolter rising and firing in brisk movements, explosive-tipped rounds whizzing down the tunnel even as the Traitor Astartes sought him out - as eager for his blood as he was for theirs.

Soon he reached the Skitarii firing line - giving a brief nod to Malig as he passed, knowing as well in the back of his mind that others of his squad may be injured but caring little about it at that point in time - moving past the firing line and into what potentially could be a trap. He knew this but went willingly, if it meant the demise of traitors then he was only too happy to fall for that honour.

Red targetting reticules surrounded the fire-illuminated figures like crimson halos, his HUD picking them out as accurately as if they had been standing in the open, his feet beginning to pound the ground faster and faster but his bolter remaining steady enough to pitch the unarmed Chaos Marine from his feet as his chest - ceramite and tainted flesh spraying his comrades as he fell - imploded and then exploded.

In one fluid motion, holding his bolter and loosing shots off with one hand, he drew his tulwar from its sheath and ignited the power-cell in the hilt of the blade. Projectiles from the firing line behind him continued to move past him, his trust in the targetting abilties of the Mechanicus' pets obvious at this point, his eyes not leaving the heretics even as an anti-tank rocket missed him by barely a few inches.

Minutes had passed since they had leapt from the Rhino - the flaming carcass still burning in the distance behind him - minutes since he had taken off up the tunnel, and minutes until he had gone from there to here like some black-clad bullet. Now he was in among them, and now, whether he or Aviza liked it or not, he was some distance away from his squad.

Leaping a small barricade that the traitors had constructed for themselves, he moved like the very lightning bolt which represented his Chapter (and before that his Legion), cleaving the tube of a rocket-launcher in two as the second Astartes prepared to fire again, the third moving in on him and hammering his own weapon into the back of the Scar with enough force to send him rolling.

Recovering with cat-like grace, something entirely at odds with the extreme height and bulk of a Marine, Nergui twisted from his roll and blew apart half the head of the second Marine in a spray of bolts and gore, standing back up in time to see the third infuriated Traitor dropping his own heavy weapon to draw a crude combat-knife and charge toward him.

What happened then was something that very few mortals ever got to witness, the combat of two Astartes at close range, two superhuman and gene-forged warriors coming to blows not over the sights of a bolter but with muscle against muscle and sinew against sinew, so fast that a human eye could barely follow.

"ARGH!"

The Apothecary bared his teeth inside his helmet and managed to place his bolter on the floor in time to recieve the charge, deactivating the power-cell of his blade so that both now fought with what were essentially rudimentary close-quarter weapons, the Traitor thrusting forward and causing Nergui to twist aside and deliver a strike toward the outstretched arm of his enemy. Blocking the blow with his forearm vambrace, the metal of the tulwar sending sparks from the ceramite, the Chaos Marine moved too slowly to avoid the point of Nergui's elbow in his face, snapping his head back for long enough that the Scar rushed forward into a clinch.

Each held their weapons tight, in spite of them being more-or-less useless at this distance, both straining against the other in a stance reminiscent of ancient Terran pankration poses, their arms curved like the horns of a bullock as they jostled for an advantage.

A twisting of his wrist broke that stalmate, the pommel of the Scars tulwar smashing down into the back of his enemies neck, the forearm of the same arm hammering against the side of the neck simultaneously, and in a move that could well have seen him dead Nergui let go of his enemies knife-arm to pivot his weight and body outward like a door on a hinge.

Slipping his arm about the neck of the Traitor in one fluid motion, his other gripping his foes forearm as the bastard tried one last swing of his knife at the White Scars gut, the Apothecary began to crush the windpipe between his forearm, bicep and shoulder, squeezing and squeezing...and squeezing...tightening until the knife dropped from his enemies hand...until the Traitor went limp...until he felt the crack of bone and vertebrae. Only then did he drop the Chaos Marine to the floor in a clatter of armour and body mass.

"This is Nergui," he voxed to the Sister through her helmet systems, "visible enemy neutralised."

[Eisenhorn]

"Please restrain yourself from using warp powers on me unless absolutely necessary." The Krieger had to crane his neck backwards a notable bit to look up at the psyker who currently had her hand hovering over his head, the tone of voice noted despite the mechanization her armor, as much as someone could call it such, gave her voice. He wasn't a fan of anything warp related, doubly so after certain events he was forbidden to speak of at this point in time, but needless to say he had no desire to be flung about like a toy in the storm all because of a psyker overreaching her limits. The tech heretic brought up the idea that they could use standard grenades to create foxholes, and he added onto her statement, finding it as a solid idea barring the fact they were on the assault at the moment.

"You would need Krak grenades in specific, frags do not typically have enough innate explosive force without some sort of dome in place to focus the blasting power. Otherwise, that is similar to Engineer methods of digging emergency entrenchments during hive world activities." Outside of merely clarifying on a specific detail, Ansgar was in agreement with her latter suggestion of using explosives to dig emergency fortifications, though the wisdom of such during an assault action was dubious at best. If they found themselves on the defensive, however, it would be a suitable action to provide them someplace to take cover. Of course, that train of thought was shut down when they came under heavy weapons fire from further in the tunnel. Otherwise he would have objected to the free reign that the Psyker had just been given, but that was for another time.

The Celestian had hit a switch that blew the back hatch open, the Skitarii and Malig out first, and the Krieger was hard on his way out after them when the rockets hit, blowing the Rhino to pieces and scattering the non Mechanicus around. Ears ringing, the Krieger was moving on instinct and training as his thoughts refocused on damage control. He could feel blood running down his face, mask check confirmed no breaches however, pain in his ribs, likely fractured or broken. He pushed himself upwards and, upon attempting to stand, his left leg gave out. Looking down, there was a fairly obvious problem in that his left knee was dislocated, popped out of place and preventing him from moving properly. He didn't have time to relocate it yet, instead forcing himself into a kneeling position so he could at least keep firing.

Sighting in the Galvanic Rifle, he began firing shots that wouldn't run the risk of hitting the charging Astartes, attempting to provide additional suppressing fire alongside the Skitarii firing line. While the Skitarii Rangers were firing off precision volleys, the Tech Guard that lacked longer ranged weapons went about assisting any member of the retinue not up and fighting, though once the Apothecary was in melee, Ansgar could not longer safely fire without endangering the Astartes in his fight against the Traitors. Unable to act further, he turned his attention to the dislocated knee. The Krieger was no Quartermaster, but he couldn't wait on either assistance to get moving or for someone else to relocate it.

Bracing his leg against the ground, the Grenadier gritted his teeth and wrenched his knee back into place, making no sound outside the sickening pop as his knee was wrenched back into place. The shooting that caused did nothing to help alleviate any of the rest of his pain, and he got back onto his feet just in time for the Apothecary to finish off the three Traitor marines. "Moving up to reinforce the Apothecary." With that, the Grenadier took off at a brisk run, wasting no time in testing the extent of how well his relocated knee would hold up. It withstood the run up to the barricades that had been seized, and he crossed over the barricade to take position aiming down the tunnel further, watching for additional threats that may manifest after the killing of the three Traitor Marines.

[Rithy]

"Adrianne, any idea what the source of all this ... demonic bullshit could be?"

"I feel... "

Pausing her teasing of the Krieger, the Psyker focused on the unnatural sensation. Not that it was even really necessary for her to do so in the first place, given as how while the blunts around her could only hear whispering voices, Adrianne would feel more like she was in the center of a particularly noisy crowd in a party with malignant voices all around her and even see the outline of the half-finished forms of quasi-humanoid forms standing with them in the Rhino around the Krieger and Skitarii, all of whom were oblivious to their presence!

" ... there is a rift somewhere, growing. A conscious force is purposefully attempting to weaken the barrier to the immaterium here!"

"Hello there again, Val! It has been so long since last time... " One of the echoing voices spoke in the back of her mind, though Adrianne duly ignored it.

"Whatever it is, we are coming closer. It is... "

"You have become so strong since last time we spoke! I am so glad to,-"

"Quiet, Zirael! I am busy... !" Adrianne called out aloud in the Rhino; momentarily distracted; causing her to fail to sense the incoming danger as the Rhino was suddenly brought to a halt! The Psyker was promptly thrown into a nearby wall with a thud, fortunately(or unfortunately for Adrianne) not hitting any of the other passengers in the process!

"Oafh!" She groaned, looking around to see the Rhino being evacuated already! Being already behind many of the other passengers to the exit, Adrianne simply managed to stagger up and flick her wrist; causing herself to vanish from the back of the Rhino at the sound of an unearthly shriek before appearing two feet above the ground outside of the vehicle, landing with her boots.

"Heh, that was... " She started...

*BOOM!*

She shockwave of the exploding Rhino promptly threw the Psyker onto the ground, her shimmering refractor field unit activating to deflect random pieces of shrapnel that came close to her, and the systems of her helmets mercifully drowning out the larger noise to prevent the explosion from deafening her!

"Owhhh... " She groaned, raising her dirty skeletal mask off the ground.
"White Scars might know how to drive, but Emperor forbid I'll ever let him drive again!"

The Psyker muttered under her breath, though raised an eyebrow behind her helmet at the sight taking place across the tunnel of the Space Marine Apothecary dispatching what looked to be traitor chaos Space Marines!

" ... though maaaybe I'll give him a pass for almost blowing me up... this time!"

"Do you enjoy watching big, muscular men kill each other? I do!" The voice spoke again, but Adrianne had gone back to ignoring it; along with the other twelve craving her attention!

"This is Adrianne; advancing!" The Psyker announced as she got up and began running towards the other end of the tunnel, yet she would soon leap up into the air as the Psyker used her powers to levitate herself just a foot above the ground; flowing forward like a wraith, her cloak billowing behind her as the Psyker easily caught up to the running(and injured) Krieger, and promptly passed him!

As she reached the barricade with Nergui, the Psyker levitated over it and dropped down onto her feet as she scanned the surrounding area; focusing her powers in order to better detect any threats or sudden traps before she focused her visors towards Nergui and the corpses.

"Which warband?" Was the Psyker's first question.

[Jb]

"Which warband?"

Nergüi had ignored the presence of the wounded Krieger upon his arrival, allowing the silent and masked Guardsman to make his way over the barricade and take an overwatching position without acknowledging him, kneeling down beside each of the deceased Traitors and recording their statistics into the Narthecium at his wrist. Perhaps as some form of revenge against the scum for their heresy, he also made sure to ruin what was left of their rotten progenoid glands, mostly puncturing them or even crushing the small organ between fingers - there would be no coming back for these heretics, not now or ever.

"Hhhmmm," with one large hand he scrubbed at a dented pauldron, and slowly but surely he received the answer he was looking for, for there could only be one formation that used the flaming daemons skull as their symbol, "Word Bearers."

His answer was filled with contempt, his words laced with so much hate that these corpses could well have been his own family - and in a way they were.

"More specifically..." came the follow-on response as he turned the body over with a grunt, his helmet picking out what had once been Chapter markings as old as the Heresy itself, "Third Hand Chapter."

Only now did he return to his full height and retrieve his bolter,scanning it for any signs of damage and finding none, checking the ammunition count with stoic professionalism and only then turning his head to eye the psyker through the reflection of his eye-lenses.

"There are traitors, and then there are these; the whoresons of traitors, and by the Khan I hope we find more before our time here is done. My blade has tasted them and the hunt can only end one way."

Almost casually he walked further into the tunnel and took a kneeling position to the right of the Krieger, lost in his own thoughts, thoughts that those around him could not possibly comprehend.

[Rithy]

"Word Bearers."

"That would explain the ritual activity that I sensed... " Adrianne muttered, searching her memories for references to the name.

"They are welcoming you!"

Adrianne was no expert on the lore and history of the adeptus astartes; and she did not understand Nergui's particular hate for these kinds of traitors above the rest, whom to her were all equally despicable and fallen; yet she nonetheless possessed a rudimentary layer of knowledge, especially pertaining to chapters or warbands that could be of particular interest to her role as a Psyker.
The Word Bearers were no Thousand Suns, yet they were able to reave and manipulate the warp through vile rituals and blasphemous acts.

There was little doubt in her mind that whatever was weakening the barrier to the immaterium on this Forge World, the Word Bearers were playing a key role!

"Our situation is becoming clear." Adrianne started, switching to her squad comms so that the rest of the people could hear.
"The fallen Astartes known as the Word Bearers are involved in this. They are most likely,-"

Adrianne was about to continue, but suddenly trailed off as her mask passed over the heavily armored form of Nergui, where the Psyker saw a completely dark, multi-armed shadowy humanoid form rubbing itself against the side of Nergui's armor. Despite the more than intimate contact and the fact it was all painfully visible to Adrianne, there was no way any of the blunts in the group would notice an ethereal void entity so clearly; which was still yet only an echo from the other side; and so the Psyker conveniently choose to ignore it and pretend like nothing as she continued.

" ... they are most likely at the center of the strange warp anomalies that we have been seeing here. There is strong ritual magic at work here, on a large scale. It is unclear whether this ritual is only on a planet-based scale or on a system based scale, but the possible consequences of allowing the Word Bearers to complete their ritual will range from massive demonic incursion, century long warpstorms and possibly the entire planet being shunted into the warp!"

She knew she might have exaggerated the threat a little bit; while it was all a possibility some of it was more likely than other. But when it came to matters as serious as the ritual magic practiced by the Word Bearers, it was usually better to overestimate rather than underestimate the threat!

[rivaan]

All things had different states of nature... gas, solid, liquid and plasma... those were the just broad strokes. Then there were the fact creatures had different states too! For example bird could move on ground or fly! By the fucking emperor humans weren't supposed to fly emperor dammit! Vala cursed in her mind as the rockets striking their transport had gotten them thrown off the vehicle. She wasn't exactly the best fighter around so she was hurled by the blast wave and rolled on the ground a few times before it was over. She had her head spinning and wasn't quite in the fighting condition until her bloody noggin started to clear up.

She groaned as she rolled on teh ground to help herself up and finally pulled up to a standing position by the end the chaos marine dudes were dealt with. Weirdly enough all seemed fine..ish." I fucking swear... stop driving the transports into ambushes..." She mumbled, feet wobbling as she was getting her bearings again. She didn't suffer from sea sickness or the like. In fact it was really hard to get her to feel dizzy overall, but dammit her head was spinning still. She completely suspected she might have hit her head afterall despite the helmet's protection. Helmets didn't quite have inertial negating devices or the like to block all momentum to lessen all impact damage.

"System wide ritual nonsense will require system wide infiltration and rituals... right?" Vala asked, barely keeping up, her body leaning left and right as she clearly had troubles staying up." Just get some info from the other planets and it should show if there are problems there... Chaos infiltration like the one we have right now isn't exactly subtle anymore..." Vala mentioned before falling to the side." Damn..." She mumbled, trying to get back to her feet again, feeling herself getting ever so better, just not better enough to keep up it seemed.

"Anyhow don't all rituals have requirements of some kind or another?" She asked." We just need to figure out where they are performing the one here, kill a few guys, break their fucking chanting or whatever and maybe break some chaos runes or whatever... It should do if not just apply liberal doze of explosives that should do it."

[POOHEAD189]

Herold gripped the railing within the interior of the Rhino as they bucked and rumbled through the tunnel, crushing under vehicles and corpses alike. Dozens of tons of metal on a rotor track, it would take something incredibly powerful to shear through the Rhino's outer skin. As small patches of light filtering in from tunnel cracks ran through his squadmates, he saw they were simply awaiting the inevitable problem. Something you did not need to be a psyker to foresee.

At first, it sounded like rain upon the hull. Only to suddenly clamor and pop against the protective metal as the light began to grow. The Rhino began to jutter from what must have been extremely large caliber rounds slamming into it. Bolter rounds, he had to guess. He hoped to the Emperor they were not facing what he feared, but his hopes were dashed when an explosion ripped through the side hull of the Rhino and send the others through the other side of the vehicle, barely escaping with their lives as they tumbled into the light and before their enemies. Herold felt his shoulder ache heavily, but he paid it no mind.

Most men would have quaked at the sight of three traitor Astartes gazing at them behind heavy weaponry, but Herold simply regained his stance and placed his shield upon his back. Such protection wouldn't help him against bolter rounds. Fortunately, the rest of his squad was too zealous or insane to fear the traitors, and Nergui charged the enemy line with a preturnatural speed that Herold couldn't match pace with. In a brutal display, Herold saw him dispatch the three marines, and the Arbites felt a newfound respect for Nergui's skills.

"Word Bearers..." The Arbites spat when he learned of their chapter. He stepped over the rise that they had used for cover, and dropped heavily upon one of the Chaos marine's corpses. "Chaos rituals and the like..." Herold went over to check the other side of the trench with the Krieger trooper. He knew little of the ways of the Psyker, and had seen far too many 'rituals' and 'invocations' recently. He'd rather face more traitor marines. Unfortunately, it looked like he would get both.

[Rithy]

" We just need to figure out where they are performing the one here, kill a few guys, break their fucking chanting or whatever and maybe break some chaos runes or whatever... It should do if not just apply liberal doze of explosives that should do it."

"Unless you have an Exterminatus, or at least a couple Earthshaker rounds and a Basilisk hidden in your pants, I highly doubt that would work." Adrianne stated flatly as her skull mask moved to face the tech-heretic, before returning to face the group; her white ponytail swishing in the air behind her helmet.

"Don't be such a scared kitten! Come join the fuuuun!!!"

"If the Word Bearers are truly committed, there might be more than at least a dozen chaos Space Marines waiting for us. And those traitors haven't survived the centuries only to fall prey to any simple explosive tricks we can come up with on a short notice." The Psyker nodded, her helmet leaning slightly towards Vala's direction.

"Not to discredit the considerable abilities of our apothecary or anything, but we only have a single Astartes on our side. If we engage the Word Bearers, only for them show up in the dozens, or to teleport in with a squad of Terminators, then that would likely be the end of our attempt right there and then. We must stop the Word Bearers, but we also need something to even the playing field; lest we waste our lives needlessly and they succeed with their plots regardless."

Adrianne could only guess how many Word Bearers were involved in the current situation. Her gut feeling told her it was no more than a few couple of dozens, but even such a small number when it came to Astartes was no petty matter, as their worth on the battlefield could easily be more than a hundredtimes that of even well trained guardsmen!

And if the Word Bearers bearers were in the hundreds, Adrianne could not even begin to imagine how they could ever interfere with the ritual short of nothing but a miracle from the Emperor!