Prologue
Urliam Secundus, Ultima Segmentum
A Fury Interceptor floated amidst hundreds more while escorting their mothership, the enormous Emperor-class battleship Hammer of Dawn, down to Urliam Secundus' orbital dock for repairs. It was piloted by 2nd Lieutenant Nathaniel Hawkins, a mere pawn of the Imperium. Hawkins, however, believed otherwise, despite the propaganda showing the Emperor's favor of the low and humble; he believed that he would one day command that mothership, Hammer of Dawn.
Hawkins was only 22, and he was already commander of his wing of twenty Furies, so this proposition wasn't completely out of reach. However, as there were contenders coming from worlds as even the ultimate forge world of Mars, difficulties would soon set in. The second lieutenant was still determined, though, and he would one day prove to his superiors that he was a worthy candidate.
Static crackled through the vox speaker in the cockpit, jolting Hawkins from his daydreaming.
"Wing Primus, come about to point one-two-zero-zero," said a techpriest aboard the mothership. "Prepare for landing."
"Aye, coming about," Hawkins replied, flipping switches on his vox unit to wing communication. Punching a few more buttons, he relayed the message, and acknowledgement lights winked soon after. He turned his flight stick to the right, pulling closer to the Hammer of Dawn's hangar bays and a glance to the rear showed all nineteen of his comrades mimicking the maneuver with expert precision.
"Good work, everyone," he reassured to his wing over the vox, "Just a little more and the Dawn'll be finished docking, and then we'll get some well-needed rest." More acknowledgement lights winked happily, flashing eagerly at the idea of food and sleep.
The spaceport on Urliam Secundus was bustling with activity, even in the dead of night. Guardsmen dashed across the outer walls to the airpads, eager to leave the spaceport to the new shipment of relief troops from the Hammer of Dawn, and the techpriests and servitors of the Adeptus Mechanicus were hard at work at their stations, making sure all the preparations were precise.
Kevus of the Death Guard, meanwhile, was leading his squad of ten plague marines closer and closer to the outer perimeter of the spaceport, careful to avoid the Guardsmen still watching from the bastions. Now they were within a hundred meters of the outer wall, hiding behind the cover of boulders in the cold sand.
"Hold here," he whispered to his men. "I'm going ahead to scout out the emplacements." The plague marines nodded in unison and took up positions around the area, ready to assist their leader if anything went awry.
Kevus headed out from behind cover at a belly crawl, his pale green armor scraping the sand as he went. Looking ahead, he could see only open ground until a moat some twenty meters wide stretched along the perimeter of the wall, and a single gate and bridge was located in the center of the wall ahead of them. Huge bastions jutted from the wall to the left and right of the gate, as well, creating a lethal crossfire for any trying to cross.
Despite these obstacles, however, Kevus was of the Death Guard, and he knew that so long as Nurgle held favor with him, he would live. In light of this, he kept moving forward, crawling ever so slowly to evade detection.
After several minutes, Kevus had reached the moat and motioned for his squad to follow. Runes flashed inside Kevus' helmet in acknowledgement, and the marines began to crawl prone to the moat. They worked diligently to remain undetected, pausing for every moment when a sentry turned to watch over the perimeter.
Finally, after an hour of the entire squad working their way individually to the edge of the moat, the ten marines of the Death Guard consolidated and slid down into the water. The two bastions flanking the gate still looked over them with an ominous glare, heavy bolters and lascannons ready to annihilate their flesh and mutilate their corpses.
Kevus motioned to his marines to move up with him through the water directly under the bridge. As they worked their way further into the moat, their Nurgle-tainted suits hissed angrily; the Dark Gods were displeased with the covert operation. They wanted a full-on assault to appease their thirsts for blood and death.
The Death Guard marines immediately bowed their heads praying to Nurgle for mercy, but found none as heavy bolter rounds began pouring onto the bridge; the Guardsmen had found the plague marines.
"Stand fast, marines," Kevus said, "Hold position while I place a beacon for a bombardment. Despite the gods' distrust in us, Nurgle will be pleased with the outcome of all this." The marines nodded, grinned in anticipation, and resumed chanting tainted prayers to appease the dark gods.
Kevus reached into a pouch on his belt and pulled out a dark orb, which was pulsating with a sickly green glow. He slammed his empty fist into the water, hissing more steam and splashing water up onto the underside of the bridge, which was beginning to thin from the beating bolts from the bastions. Kevus then thrust the orb into the pit and nodded again to his squad.
After the nine marines nodded in return, Kevus pulled out a hand-held teleport homer from his belt. He punched in a code to the fleshy buttons, and within seconds the ten Death Guards vanished from Urliam Secundus' surface as the rounds from the bastions penetrated the bridge.
"What?!" Hawkins cried, looking at the new order flashing on his pict-slate in his cockpit. "Why in the Emperor's name is there a Chaos ship in space around here?!"
He and the rest of his wing swung from their landing maneuvers around to meet the new threat. It had just emerged from behind the planet, and Hawkins was surprised he hadn't noticed it earlier. It was a desecrated Battle Barge, the largest Space Marine vessel in the entire Imperial fleet. It bristled with thousands of turrets, and immense planet-bombarding cannons, which he noticed were emanating golden particles of some sort, then the revelation hit him.
"Damn them!" he bellowed through his vox-unit. "They're going to fire on the-" Hawkins was cut off as the Death Guard battle barge Eternal Decay opened fire on all sides. Hawkins and all the other wings were disoriented, some even obliterated, by missile barrages, and the once charging cannons unleashed all their firepower onto the surface of Urliam Secundus in a magnificent hail of fiery red bolts.