The drop had been rushed, it was necessary for it to be so. Information from Inquisitor Karamazoff had only come late and even then was intended for the Astartes forces to wait on. As coordinated as it could be, the Ultramarines had not been able to cover everything. Soon after the landings the cult had realized that the game was up and, among others, launched the Hazel Darnkess into the void. System ships came and went but the Hazel Darkness was warp capable.
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The Primus lead a small contingent on a surface lander up to the cargo ship in orbit. The ship was already crawling with true believers and within minutes the few members of the crew that were loyal Imperial citizens were either forcibly converted to the cause or eliminated.
The Ultramarines strike cruiser detected the engines firing up on the Hazel Darkness but could do little to stop her. One of her escorts came to and headed after the cargo hauler, hoping to beat it to the translation point in the system.
They weren't going to be quick enough but they did manage to pull alongside her and launched boarding tubes to possibly scuttle the ship in the warp or at least take out the Navigators so movement out of the warp would only be possible at a random location.
Lieutenants Claudius and Sicarius each led a contingent of 20 marines. The launch was as hurried as the drop had been and the pilot of the Hazel Darkness, having no weapons aboard to respond to the attack, began twisting his ship as the only defensive method available to him.
The boarding torpedoes were dispersed to a small degree by this tactic. The marines were, it was hoped, more easily able to be isolated and defeated.
Primus Ulgonak lead the counter boarding action himself. Claudius was cut off from the majority of his men and Lt. Sicarius was leading a contingent of 15 of his marines, those that had boarded near him to the rescue of their brother.
The scrape of claws over metal could be heard around the marines as they marched down the three separate corridors converging on the point where Claudius' signal indicated he was. Autopistol fire could be heard in the distance as Sicarius moved down the hall way. Entering a perpendicular hallway Sicarius could see his Hellblaster squad to his right and beyond a closed portal his second intercessor squad was just meters away in the other direction. A closed portal blocked his path straight ahead, firing could be heard from the other side.
"Sicarius, I have multiple hostiles coming my way," Claudius said over the coms and Sicarius could hear the sound of his brother lieutenant's power sword thrumming to life.
Then all that he could hear was the sound of combat, the bolt pistol reports sounding over the thing Claudius said next and then Sicarius assumed that his brother was too busy to really be saying anything.
He rushed forward with his men and sent the other two groups of marines on flanking movements up parallel hallways.
"I have hostiles ahead," reported Sergeant Flaminus over the coms.
"Engage and destroy," Sicarius reported.
He could hear the sound of plasma guns discharging both over the coms and down the hall way as Flaminus responded "Underway."
As the door ahead of him slid open Sicarius could see fighting ahead of him as various mutants, their hinged arms in odd numbers surging away from him towards Claudius. His men followed them down the hall with a few shots but there was a servo-tractor in the way.
Suddenly Claudius' icon on Sicarius' display went from green to red, the Lt. was down, probably dead. Sicarius heard a noise behind him and turned to see more of the mutant horrors climbing down from the ceiling and dropping into the hallway behind him, cutting him off.
A firefight had developed between his hellblaster team and the enemy they had engaged, it was not a fight the hellblasters were winning surprisingly. He ordered them to pull back.
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"Flaminus, get back here and open fire on the enemy behind me. After they are eliminated we will reengage your current opponents and eliminate each group in detail."
The two groups of marines converged on the newly arrived enemy while Sicarius fired down the hallway into the onrushing Acolytes who had just killed Claudius. The simultaneous fire was withering and soon all that was left of the acolytes was chunks of flesh, burning fabric and fragments of chitin.
The plasma guns were venting when the door to the hellblaster squad's left opened suddenly, four hideously mutated monstroscities surged out and swept over the hellblaster squad, their weapons still too underpowered to make any effective resistance.
The monsters were inhumanely fast and before Sicarius could move to help only Sergeant Flaminus was still standing. The monsters battered him to the ground and Sicarius emptied his bolt pistol into one of the creatures at point blank range, the creature turning just in time to have the explosive rounds penetrate its stomach spilling entrails and gore all over the deck.
Pain exploded in Sicarius back as one of the monsters slammed a heavy powered hammer into him. Red warning lights flashed across his HUD as he was slammed sidewise from the blow, he could see power levels in his armour dropping and feel his limbs become heavier as the power pack on his back shut down. He managed to pump one more bolt round from his pistol into the knee of his opponent before the gun was empty. As the creature fell it brought the hammer around in a smashing blow that slammed Sicarius into the wall opposite, smashing his ceramite breastplate apart. The creature hit the deck hard, its animus directing it to fight rather than use its arms to save itself. Sergeant Gaius stepped forward slamming the butt of his bolt rifle into the creatures head, repeatedly until it stopped moving.
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Another group of combatants emerged around the corner just as the intercessors were finishing off the monsters. Lined up in a firing line the marines chose discretion over valour and ducked around the corner just as their opponents opened fire. Round plinked off of their armour as they fired and retreated but they were out of sight prior to the heavy weapons opening up.
The corridor was littered with the dead and wounded of both sides as the servants of the four-armed-emperor surged forward to where the marines were in cover.
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The marines charged out of cover meeting them half way and firing as they went, the cultists were struck from their feet by the rounds and behind the two marines another door swung open. Squad Carius moved up to support their brothers their armour already covered with the blood and brains of their previous opponents. With the two groups of marines pressing in on them it was not long before the leader of the group of heretics was the only one left. He was fast, impossibly faster than the marines themselves, but outnumbered as he was he didn't last long, a well-aimed kick smashed his hand against the wall shattering the poisoned gauntlet that he had been using, as he reeled from the pain of that Gaius grabbed him by the back of the head and pulled it down while bringing his knee up. The plate of ceramite smashed into the alien-face of the heretic warlord blood spurting from his mouth, nose and the shattered left eye socked.
His swift strokes with his bonesword caused the marines to back off briefly. As he started to draw his needler from his holster though the marines took a step back and raised their bolt rifles. The sounds of the explosions from the rounds impacting his body echoed down the hallways for some time after he hit the decking a bloody pulp.
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needs hordes of Beastmen!
