Elijah slowly withdrew back towards the marine lines. Hezekiah heart was tortured as he watched the living machine being swarmed by a mob after mob of dark eldar. The dreadnought's assault cannon whirled as it emptied the last of its ammunition into the screaming mass. The behemoth's powerclaw hung uselessly at its side and its flamer was a twisted wreck. The raiders sacrificed themselves by the dozens as they gradually wore the living-sarcophagus down. In the name of He Who Sleeps, if it is your will that we sacrifice our lives here then so be it, prayed Hezekiah. All we ask is that our lives have been spent redeeming the sins of the past. We only seek to please you, Oh Emperor. The battle-weary captain raised his now pulsating sword over his head and led the charge to protect the venerable hero. Part Eleven: Bone and sinew snapped as Hezekiah's burning blade destroyed all before it. The marine captain led the charge against the frenzied wyches. Steel met steel as both sides fought in a bitter hand-to-hand struggle. The wyches' bloodlust drove them to total annihilation. Vicious war cries echoed from the black and purple mass, as the aliens threw themselves as the blood-splattered angels. One creature raised is twisted blade trying to block Hezekiah's strike. Hezekiah avoided the creature's counter-attack as easily as a man would fight a child. The captain's power sword cleaved deep into the gladiator's temple. Raising his bolt pistol, the Hezekiah fired two shots. Both struck one wyche who was hacking into the power armor protecting Nathanial. The creature's arm flailed uselessly as its torso disintegrated in a shower of gore. Another eldar raced towards him. Hezekiah lashed out with his blade. The humming edge cleaved through the assailant's arm. Blood sizzled as it gushed over the blue energy emanating from Hezekiah's weapon. Bother Valarias made his way to the fallen form of Brother-Sergeant Nathanial. The blood covered marine stood protectively over prostate body. He used his empty bolter as a club in one hand and slashed with his combat knife in the other. To his right Brother-Sergeant Jeremiah and Brother Justus fought back to back in a swirling mass. Elijah's ruined hulk lay uselessly outside of the marines' perimeter. Hezekiah and his marines had had failed to cut through the teeming swarm. The aliens' sheer numbers prevented any further advance. Hezekiah's only comfort was the faint life-signs registering from the Dreadnought. Mishael's marines, separated from the rest of the Dark Angels, were involved in their own struggle. Brother Shammah had managed to down one of the Raiders with his plasma cannon. In retaliation, the pirates had swarmed the squads' position with several warrior squads. The Unforgiven were holding their own against the aliens' superior numbers. Empty bolters bludgeoned the attackers. The marines' enhanced muscles and the augmenting power of their armor easily smashed through the aliens' black and purple armor. Beams of dark energy spewed forth from the Ravager. The dark matter rays easily sliced through Imperial armor. More and more enemies could be seen approaching the marines as the pre-dawn gloom gave way to a clear morning. In the midst of the approaching horde, Hezekiah recognized the Dracon he had faced days earlier. Surrounded by more of its deaths headed bodyguard, the Dracon was once again encased in a shadowy protective field. The marine captain could sense the xeno's arrogance across the battlefield. The fact that the foul creature, consumed with its own self-importance, dared to challenge the sons of the First Legion enraged Hezekiah. I will call upon the Emperor in the moment of our distress. In the name of Jonson the Lion I beseech you, prayed Hezekiah. Give me the strength to purge this realm. I will not fail in your name. "Sons of the Lion, Scions of Caliban!" roared the Captain. "To me! We will purge this soil from the taint of these xenos!" "For the Lion! For the Honor of Caliban!" roared the remaining marines as they braced for the final assault. As the marines rushed towards the dark eldar, a warning chime echoed inside of Hezekiah's earbud. The reassuring sound was repeated heard inside the suits of the remaining marines. It was an alarm they had heard many times in their loyal service. It was a warning of an incoming orbital Lance Strike. The Divinitus Duci had returned with a vengeance. The massive strike tore through the rear of the eldar lines. Blasting a path of death and destruction, it vaporized everything in its way. The Dracon's self confidence was shattered as the lance barley missed him and atomized several of his bodyguard. However, the wily Ravager swerved to avoid the massive beam. The alien skimmer's survival shored-up the pirates' faltering courage. It raced forward and pressed home its attacks against humanities defenders. Spitting forth beams of dark energy, it continued to wreak havoc on Brother-Sergeant Zachariah's heavy weapons squad. Zachariah was forced to order his marines to charge into the massed enemy infantry. The power-armored marines would last longer against dark eldar steel than their ruinous dark matter weapons. The eldar once again found the courage to advance towards the beleaguered marine lines. Bolters fired at point blank range, gouging deep holes into the enemy. The engines of the returning Thunderhawk roared overhead as it began its strafing run and fired its linked heavy bolters. Massive amounts of mass-reactive shells spewed forth, cutting swaths through the eldar lines. The Lionhearts laser cannons found their target and annihilated the remaining Raider. The sleek craft erupted in a massive explosion and sent shrapnel tearing though nearby eldar. As the roaring of the Lionheart's main Battle Cannon gouged massive craters in the battlefield, Hezekiah was heartened as he watched the raiders' offensive falter. The aliens, once sure of victory, now wavered and stalled under the brutal firepower of the gunship. Small groups of enemy warriors began to flee the battlefield. "Under his wings shall we trust!" encouraged Hezekiah. "We shall not be afraid of the terror that lurks in the darkness. His truth shall be our shield. For the Lion!" "For the Lion!" echoed the surviving Dark Angels. The marines surged forward behind their commander to take advantage of the eldar's confusion. The Thunderhawk flew close enough to the advancing marines that the individual faces of the crew were visible. As the Lionheart raced passed, Hezekiah was dismayed to see the gunship's once pristine ablative surface pockmarked with multiple impacts from a recent battle. The extent of the damage to the mighty gunship became clear. Hezekiah could even see fragments of thermoplas fiber mesh in one of the massive craters on its side. Only one of the crafts' triple thrusters was working, the other two were smoking ruins. Wagging its wing's in acknowledgement to the marines of the ground, the Thunderhawk drunkenly jockeyed around for another attack run. The noise and distraction from the Thunderhawk's attack run drowned out the sounds of Squad Kaelen descending jumppacks. The crack assault troops revved their vicious chainswords and dropped towards the battlefield below. The squad landed in the middle of a group of fleeing pirates. The marines brutally chopped into the dark eldar raiders. When the aliens were too far away from the marines scything blades, the assault troops fired their bolt pistols into the teeming mass. The aliens' mesh armor was no match for the brute power of the Imperial weapons. The marines slashing with spinning mono-molecular blades made a mockery of flesh and bone. The shrieks of the dying eldar were drowned out by the staccato of bolter shots blasting through them. Brother Ira's flamer belched forth gouts of flame, cremating the dark warriors vainly. After slaughtering the first group of alien warriors, the squad bounded towards the nearby Raider. The skilled crew of the eldar Raider attempted to evade but they were too late. Jumping over the burning wreck of a Razorback, Brother Gideon took careful aim with his plasma pistol and fired. The blast punched through the warmachine's side armor and burrowed into the main engine compartment. The resulting explosion engulfed the skimmer's delicate power plant. Smoke pouring out of its side the craft crashed into another group of fleeing dark eldar. Brother-Sergeant Kaelen's scoured the smoldering wreck and slaughter the crew and surrounding warriors. |
PURGE THE XENOS By Trent Hoffman |
EPICS OF REDEMPTION |
