Till the last dying breath
The Battle Barge Rage of Isstvan was roaring in the emptiness of space. The great Battle Barge wounded in several other battles. The claw marks of other ships were apparent. But the Rage of Isstvan was not dead yet, not just yet. Inside the ship a man in large and yet beautiful armor was barking out orders.
The man in the large suit of armor was one of the remnants of the Sons of Nexus chapter. Once a proud and powerful chapter of Astartes now reduced to nothing but 16 post human warriors. The Astartes that was ordering in the ships bridge was the chapters last honor guard member, but took the mantle of leading the last remaining members by wearing one of the chapters Terminator armor, an Iron halo and the last pair of Master Crafted Lightning Claws. These master crafted pieces were what the Chapter Master wore before his untimely death at their destroyed home world.
The chapter's home world was attacked by a hordes of Orks and despite the loss of 480 of their brothers they were still victorious. Although their victory was short lived when they were attacked by another force, a force like them.
The chapter still recovering from the Orks invasion was not entirely prepared of an attack from a chaos warband. The warband was 1000 strong with heretics and chaos marines alike decided to attack the fortress monastery of the Sons of Nexus directly. Not having enough time and was still out in the battle field, several companies were forced to run back to the Fortress, while brothers at the fortress was battling out their efforts were not successful with holding them outside and were forced to fight from the inside. To make the matters worst the warband attacked the fortress Apothecarium first and killed every single wounded Nexus Astartes, killed all the apothecaries in there and even took all the gene seeds of the chapter. By the time the Apothecarium fell the Chapter Master ordered his entire honor guard to push out the chaos forces and they were lucky this time. The chaos forces may have fled the area but they did so while destroying several of the chapter's vehicles and also running with all of the chapter's gene seed. These skirmishes lasted about 2 whole months with less of the Sons of Nexus Astartes and more of the Chaos warband. Eventually only 50 marines were able to leave the planet and escaped into the Rage of Isstvan however there were a few members who stayed behind to buy them time and. But the warband didn't even stop there they pursued the Space Marines and boarded the Battle Barge and killed several of the Nexus Marines but the boarding attempts all failed when the last honor guard member was forced to go and fight back. Now they wait to travel back to their home world, and reclaim it back in the name of the God Emperor either alive or not.
The Terminator armor cladded warrior was in the war room waiting for the other remaining members. This warriors name was a legend in the chapter, even amongst several other chapters his name was heard in stories of his exploits, with tall tales that claimed that he was able to destroy a Chaos Dreadnought single handedly, holding off an Ork horde for 10 days without even stopping and even slayed a Necron lord with only a boltpistol and a gladius. But all those exaggerated stories that gave him fame amongst his brothers didn't matter to him; he only cared only of staying alive and serve the Emperor as long as he can.
15 Astartes entered the room, 14 in standard power armor and 1 in a impressive terminator armor. Their armor reflected their homeworld, their lower body part was colored like their harsh, burning and unforgiving deserts, their body plates were white as their tallest mountains peaks, their arms were green as their lush but deadly jungles and but each of their helmets were different, their helmets were colored with the colors of their tribes they came from. Arasmus, the Astartes who was waiting for his brothers immediately asked the other terminator to come up to him.
'Brother Hostilitus, what is the status on the Thunderhawks?'
'We are only down to one, Arasmus the other 3 were destroyed by the heretics,'
'Damn, that will have to do for us, seeing there's only 16 of us now', Arasmus clenched his fist tightly.
'Kato, do we have enough ammunition for our assault?', Arasmus asked a short yet slender Astartes who's shoulder indicated him as 5th company member.
'We have more than enough' replied Kato
'Good,' paused Arasmus looked at each of his brothers faces, 'Battle Brothers, we may have lost our home world, our brothers and even our great Chapter Master,' the second Arasmus mentioned the Chapter Master he fell silent for a while transfixed on the idea of the loss of his Chapter Master, 'but it doesn't matter brothers, as long as we still breathe those whoresons of Chaos will know our blades of retribution, our hammers of rage and our bolters of fury, till the last dying breath'
And with that, his battle brothers yelled out their Chapter motto,
'WE WILL FIGHT TILL THE LAST DYING BREATH'
Arasmus returned to a room that used to belong to the 1st Company captain, but now the room belonged to him, and to him this room is fitting for the Captain of the Honour Guard but then again he saw his title useless since he lost all of his Honour Guard brothers at their last defensive attack on their Fortress-Monastery. It seemed like a crazy idea for him to attack his Fortress, the Fortress where he was made into the Astartes he is now. Arasmus was in the honour guard for 50 years but was made into the captain 5 years before, he and Hostilitus were close from the day they were chosen by their Master of Sanctity, they and two other brothers were chosen to become Astartes and succeeded.
The bond between Arasmus and Hostilitus were inseparable, one can say that they're bond is tighter than those of blood brothers. They both saw the same equal amount of wars, they both fought in the same campaigns and where one would fall the other will always pick the other up to the nearest Apothecary. But the only difference was that Arasmus was precise and analytical, Hostilitus was the violent and bloodthirsty one. One might think this would cause some jealousy between the two, but they do not hold any hatred to one another besides some friendly competition. His captains and sergeants always praised for his total obedience and determination that Arasmus had, but Hostilitus on the other hand, had always impressed his brothers for his war trophies or with his own bravado, and this difference was what separated them from each other. In the Chapter's tradition, the Honor Guards were chosen when one of them dies in battle and someone is usually required to replace them, be it veterans, captains, sergeants, Librarians, or the occasional Apothecaries, the void must be filled by another brother. And this was where they separated, usually a brother is chosen by the entire Chapter through a voting system, and many chose Hostilitus just for his achievements, but in this case there was an exception this time as the Chapter Masters council were the ones to choose the Honor Guard this time. They chose Arasmus, they chose him because they needed a warrior who can fight the from the front of the assault and the back, they wanted someone who can spot flaws in enemy patterns and defences but most importantly they needed someone who they can trust their lives into.
And that changed everything.
Hostilitus grew ever more silent as the stories of Arasmus and his honor guard brothers were told through out the chapter. And by the time the Captain of the Honor Guard was slain in battle, someone was forced to take his mantle and become the next Captain. And this honor was given to Arasmus despite being the quite new in the honor guard. That made Hostilitus to grow even more silent.
The door slid open and Arasmus attention directly to the door, fearing there might be a heretic that hid during the attack. But instead it was Alzack, 'the northern wanderer', the battle brother was the last of the 8th company, he was relatively young and brash to Arasmus' eyes but a good warrior nonetheless.
'Captain, I need to speak to you'
'What is it , I thought it was brother Kato's job to inform you what to do'
' I know captain, It's just that I was wondering about the siege, I was wondering what would happen if we do not succeed with this attack, we are outnumbered, its 10 to 1 captain,' Arasmus could see the worry in Alzack's body language, 'the odds are against us'
'What is our Chapter motto brother'
' "We will fight till the last dying breath" captain'
'And that is what we will do, and I will make sure the enemy does not have satisfaction of seeing us in our last breath'
And like that Alzack nodded and left the room with a reason more than enough for him to fight.
The fighting cages were made to hold up to 300 Astartes but now it houses only 14. The fighting cages had several rooms for close combat, long range and it was near the armory and the hangar for quick movement to battle. Here brother Baltazar was practicing with the chainsword expecting a close combat on the grounds of their fortress. Baltazar had potential to be a sergeant but was not given the rank due to his reckless behavior in battle and sometimes the reasons were because of his jokes within the chapter. But in this case he was given the right to take command of 4 other marines for now. Arasmus didn't trust him but Hostilitus spoke good reasons of him and that was more than enough for Arasmus to make him a squad commander.
Brother Kano was blessing his heavy bolter rounds, he was known for blessing his armor, his weapons and even the Thunderhawks, many say he has the potential to become a Techmarine or a Chaplain but he chose to be standard Astartes but more specifically a Devastator, he wanted help his brothers from a distance and let them continue fighting for the Emperor. And with him was brother Juon who was going to be deployed alongside Kato in the assault. Brother Juon was known for his resilience and sometimes his humor even in the fields of battle. He was brandishing a power axe, his axe was clean and sharp, and many say that axe was given to him by the Master of the forge himself to show his gratitude to Juon. Juon was in the same company as Kato and the two were quite close as Hostilitus and Arasmus. They were close to Kano because the 5th company and the 9th were usually synchronized with each other and those three had a lot of time with each of other in the battlefield.
On one corner of the cages brothers Aurelis and Mako were cracking jokes even though they may die during the reclamation their homeworld back. They were assigned to Baltazar's squad and they were young in many ways, having only gained their Black Carapace 2 years ago they were not as trained as experienced as the others. Despite that fault Arasmus sees the potential in them. The other squad was made up with members of the 7th company and the one that leads them was brother Isador. Isador's squad consists of 4 others, namely brother Ukris, brother Zaif, brother Ezio and brother Hanio. These 5 were in same squad before this and they are also the same ones that escorted Arasmus to the Battle Barge, so in return Arasmus holds a high respect for them.
Alzack entered the area seeking a conversation with Kano.
'Kano do you have some time to spare?'
'I guess, what is it,' sighed Kano as he put down a cloth,
'You think we can survive this whole ordeal, I mean we are going up against our own home, our birthplace, our..' before Alzack could finish that sentence Kano was the one who ended it,
'Grave, I know Alzack'
'How do you cope the idea,'
' I don't cope with the idea, I accept it and you should too'
'I understand'
The sound of swords clashing quickly silenced Alzack and Kano. The sounds came from both brothers Aurastys and Silus. Like Aurelis and Mako they were both assigned in Baltazar's squad and both were old as Aurelis and Mako. The were assigned together because they both trained together except that Silus was slightly younger than the rest of the group.
'Captain present!'
Shouted Kato as he stood and did the symbol of the Aquila on his breastplate. Entering the room was both Arasmus and Hostilitus, and both in the awe-inspiring Terminator armor. As Arasmus moved to Kato and Juon the others grouped to listen to Arasmus as he spoke.
'Brothers we will arrive on our planet in 5 hours time I want all of you ready in the armory in 4 hours,'
Hostilitus then said, 'Be prepared brothers what we're doing is not to be taken lightly, if there is any objections to the plan please speak Arasmus and I will need to confirm how the battle will plan out,'
Arasmus then interrupted him 'the plan is simple Hostilitus and I will teleport into the fortress below first and make some room and plot perfect points for the assault pods to land. Once deployed I want Vulpes squad to fight and secure the grounds for the Thunderhawk for Lupus squad and as an extraction point just incase our plan goes pear-shaped, is that understood Baltazar,' Baltazar nodded slowly and tried not to look to overconfident in the Captain's presence, 'While Vulpes squad will handle that I want Canus squad to handle the situation with the anti air weaponry to stop it from shooting our brothers in the Thunderhawk, is that understood Isador,'
'Aye Captain, I will insure my squad will be quick so we can kill some heretics,' replied Isador with a clenched fist to his chest.
'Good, after all that I want you to find and end any heretics you see understood. And Kano I suggest you work with Lupus squad in their efforts to reclaim our Reclusiam and from there I want you to awaken our Venerable Dreadnought brother, and Alzack I want you also in Lupus squad as well understood,' Arasmus looked towards Kano and Alzack who were both nodding at him, 'That is all brothers continue with your weapon practice we are entering the planet system in 3 hours so best be ready,' and like that Arasmus and Hostilitus left the training cages, their armor loudly leaving the room but still looking elegant.
Four hours past and all of the Space Marines were present in the armory readying their weapons and a blessing their weapons. Several tech-priest and their mindless lobotomized servants were moving around checking their weapons and whispering litanies for the weapons and armors machine spirits. In another room Arasmus stood naked with only a cloth covering his lower body the very last Artificiers of the chapter were cleaning his armor and weapons and along the tech-priest they were whispering litanies for the machine spirits. Arasmus stood in the room, meditating hoping that he might be able to summon the combat fury and unbeatable wisdom of his predecessors. Arasmus' opened his eyes and took a deep breath, his mind cleared and filled battle knowledge from 400 years of service.
He asked one of the tech-priest if the preparations were done the tech-priest nodded and slowly began to put the terminator carefully on the Astartes to not anger both the armor's machine spirit and the Astartes himself.
The sound of heavy armor made it's way to the drop pod launch pad hangar and squad Vulpes led by Baltazar was entering the first drop pod and squad Canus was at the second. They murmured litanies to their bolters to ready them for the battle. Lupus squad led by Kato was preparing itself near the Thunderhawk named Canyon Runner while it was being refueled and armed for both dropping off the Astartes and participating in it's upcoming battles with the heretics ships. The battle barge guns were primed to shoot down two other vessels namely strike cruisers that once was served with the Emperor and it now served the Chaos gods. The Deep striking room was only filled with tech-priests and two Terminator cladded demi-gods. Arasmus quickly spoke through to his vox and warned the ship commander to be careful fighting the other ships and even gave specific orders to leave if the ship is to heavily damage. Two artificiers came and gave the two warriors their helmets. Arasmus clenched his fist and eight half metered blades slid quickly out of his gauntlet, four on each hand. Hostilitus was doing last minute checks on his master-crafted Storm Bolter and on slowly circled his right shoulder to see if he is limber enough to swing his Thunder Hammer. Hostilitus looked at Arasmus and nodded indicating he was ready to fight, Arasmus understood and nodded at the tech-priest. The tech-priest was pressing the cogitators runes with lightning speed and pinpointed the perfect drop zone for the two terminators. Before Arasmus deep striked into the planet he gave the orders for the others to get ready. And the second Arasmus gave the word the tech-priest pressed the rune to send them down.
The planet was known for its constant rain. There were lightning and thunder around the fortress but another form of lightning came from 8 blades and the sound of roaring thunder from the Storm bolter. Arasmus sliced 10 heretics and 3 Chaos Marines in a matter of seconds while Hostilitus laid down a blizzard of explosive rounds onto the wall of heretics leaving nothing but a blanket of mutilated and dismembered body parts on the ground. While Arasmus swung his arms ribbons of lightning and blood made arcs where his lightning claws moved and on the other side pulverized and destroyed lumps of armor were scattered around by Hostilitus thunder hammer. The fortress had automated turrets that were shooting at them, but the turrets were useless to Arasmus and Hostilitus' Iron Haloes, the autocannon rounds simply bounced off the fields of energy as if the rounds were nothing. Hostilitus shot a few burst of bolter rounds to the autocannons and destroyed them with ease.
The field was filled with puddles of blood and rain from the skirmish Arasmus and Hostilitus were in. After confirming that the gates were clear of enemies Arasmus called in the drop pods to land near the position that they were in.
'Tech-priest, are the drop pods ready,'
'Yes my lord but we have some complications,'
'What's the situation up there,' Arasmus' clenched both his fist,
'The enemy has boarded the ship captain, your battle brothers has started to engage them,'
'Tell them to hurry it up' Arasmus switched off the vox link and nodded at Hostilitus.
On the Rage of Isstvan bolter fire was roaring through the corridors of the ship and the screams of dying heretics also filled the corridors. Baltazar and Vulpes squad was fighting near the bridge to prevent the heretics from taking control of the ship or sabotage it. 'Hold your ground brothers, these whore-sons maybe persistent but at least they're not Chaos Marines' Baltazar said through the vox, 'Thank the Emperor for that' replied Mako.
The hangar was loud as the thunderstorms on the planet below and like the corridors the sounds of bolter-fire and screams of heretics were apparent. 'Don't let them get near the Thunderhawk,' instructed Kato to his squad, 'Let's try not to waste a lot of ammo either brothers'. Alzack being an assault marine simply engaged in close combat fueled with both hate and adrenaline his chainsword shredded through the heretics like paper. Only one heretic remained and it tried to charge at Kano only to fail with a power axe cutting him in half. 'Kano has your gun stop working or are you tired' grinned Juon, 'I'm trying not to use Heavy Bolter now Emperor knows that it will show more use down there'.
On the ground Arasmus and Hostilitus already broke through the gates and paved a path of blood and destruction in their wake, 'Odd there are no Chaos Marines here just the cannon fodder,' said Hostilitus as he reloaded his Storm Bolter, 'They're saving their main force for us brother like we did when they attacked us, only difference is we know the fortress better than them and they don't have as much marines than they have these cannon fodder brother,' said Arasmus while shaking his hands to get the blood and pieces of meat of his claws.
'Captain, come in captain,'
'Isador I hear you what is it'
'We're arriving soon, or have you already won the battle captain,'
'We're far from over brother, Hostilitus and I will continue into the fortress while you take care of the land to air defenses understood,'
'Aye'
Arasmus and Hostilitus were moving quickly despite being in the heavy and bulky terminator suits. They ran straight to the entrance of the fortress while they ran over and killed some heretics. Both of the warriors didn't want to waste their energy on the cannon fodder.
By the time they entered the main hall the drop pods already landed. 'Vulpes and Canus squad on the ground' said Baltazar through the vox link, 'Good proceed with the mission I'm sure Lupus squad is dying for battle,' replied Hostilitus on the other end of the vox. The two squads split up and proceeded with their mission. Vulpes squad was already mowing down the heretics while Canus squad went to the missile control rooms. On the control room they took the enemy by surprise and what was left of the enemy was nothing destroyed lumps of meat and grey matter. 'Flip that switch Zaif, we need to be quick,' ordered Isador, 'Got it, informing the Rage of Isstvan now' said Zaif after deactivating the mechanism. Outside the roar of the Autocannon and heavy Stubber turrets fell silent. ' Look's like they did it,' claimed Silus, 'Well, let's keep killing these fools shall we brother,' said Aurastys as he fired a few more burst from his bolter.
'Look they're running you think we got them scared,' said Silus joyfully, 'Small predators usually run when there are much bigger predators nearby brother, so don't drop your guard,' said Mako as he reloaded his bolter, 'What the Chaos marines are all inside the fortress Captain Arasmus and Brother-veteran Hostilitus should be fighting them there, so maybe we-,' a bolter round struck Silus' shoulder causing him to spin and face several more bolter rounds. It all hapenned in a blink of an eye, a round flew and struck at Silus' left knee and he dropped to one knee and another burst of bolter rounds flew straight to his breastplate going through the armor and went through his fused ribcage with a loud cracks and like that he fell to the ground still and not moving.
'TAKE COVER,' yelled Baltazar as he slammed his body on the nearest wall. As Baltazar tried to take cover, 'Captain, Silus is-,'
Hostilitus interrupted him before he could finished, 'Dead we know, continue with your task and try to get his progenoid before they do,'
'Understood,' Baltazar switched off the vox.
Baltazar didn't want to rush into battle just yet knowing its almost suicidal do it. He attached his bolt pistol and chainsword back to his belt with the maglock and took out his bolter seeing its better for him to fight with a bit more range. Breathing in and out Baltazar was able to take down 5 chaos marines with ease. Aurelis, Mako and Aurastys were also giving the chaos marines some hard time charging at them.
'It's off' Ezio's voice came up, 'The Thunderhawk is safe to land'
'Good I'm calling them in now' said Arasmus who was still fighting off some more chaos marines inside the great Fortress-Monastery, ' Canus and Vulpes proceed to their drop point it might be better if you all are together and that way you can get a quick and fast extraction if all else fails understood,'
'Understood, we're moving out now,' informed Isador,
'Roger me and Vulpes squad will wait for Canus squad,' Baltazar said as he took cover and inserted another magazine to his bolter,
'When are they arriving Arasmus,'
'Soon but we cant depend on the Thunderhawk too much this fortress is designed to stop things like that just in case,'
'I see, guess we have to keep going up without any heavy gun support,'
'Yes, makes me regret being a Vanguard veteran,' Arasmus smiled under helmet,
'Well lets keep going I'm going to run out of rounds if we keep running into more chaos marines,'
'You think they have unlocked the veterans armory yet,'
'No I don't think so,'
'Then we head to the armory first brother,'
'Agreed lets not waste more time, idleness does lead to heresy,'
The Thunderhawk roared as it entered the planet's atmosphere.
'Pilot how long till we land,' said Kato,
'Two minutes, my lord,'
'Speed up, pilot we do not have long,' commanded Juon, 'Alzack are you ready to
Drop,'
'Ready brother,' sighed Alzack, as he detached from the braces and picked up his jump pack,
'Godspeed brother,'
'With you too brother,'
The mouth of the multi-ton metallic beast opened up and Alzack jumped. His jump pack roared to life and slowed his descent and crashed at the squad of chaos Havocs effectively neutralizing them. With the roar of the Havocs autocannons silenced he flew towards a pack of chaos marines and heretics with his chainsword in one hand and a meltagun in the other. The Thunderhawk didn't land but hovered just enough for the marines to jump down safely.
'Thank you pilot, now go and give some cover fire for the Captain and the veteran,' said Kano as he landed on the ground,
'Yes my lord, I will head to the-'
'Belay that order,' Arasmus interrupted the conversation, 'Continue to reinforce the ground troops and as a quick means for a extraction,'
'Understood, switching all heavy bolters emplacements online,'
Soon enough the sound of the heavy bolters deafened the atmosphere and the rounds shredded untold numbers of heretics and chaos marines. The three marines quickly rushed towards the Reclusiam.
'We're almost there,' Arasmus said to Hostilitus while running on the beautiful marble in the hallway filled with helmets of past veterans and honor guard members, the ceiling was 5 levels high and was held by pillars with scripts of the Codex Astartes and the chapter's campaign histories.
'BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD,' the shout came out from seemingly nowhere and the two terminators stopped moving and went back to back.
'How smart of them to make an ambush,' said Hostilitus with a sly smile,
'Smart? No, futile? Yes,' replied Arasmus as he unsheathed his lightning claws out of the gauntlets, 'they must be suicidal for trying to attack us,'
'Perhaps, there is only one way to find out,' grinned Hostilitus as he raised Thunder Hammer.
The remaining twelve marines huddled up near the Reclusiam's entrance holding of every traitor that got in the range of their weapons.
'Hold your ground!'shouted Baltazar as a bolter round zipped above him almost killing him, 'Kato awake our brothers now!'
Kato nodded and rushed in the halls of the building and immediately ran towards the lower levels of the building and silently prayed that there were some deactivated servitors to aid him for his brothers awakening.
Alzack landed on top several traitors crushing them under his armoured boots and swung his thunder hammer onto other traitors before going back to the others by jumping with his jump-pack. In midst of all the chaos brother Aurelis and Ezio were ripped through shreds by the newly arrived chaos havocs. Kano saw what happened and turned his heavy bolter to meet the chaos havocs and was able to confirm to kill three of them while forcing the other three to move to cover.
Kato was able to make it to the sanctum of his sleeping brothers and looked for any enemies hiding in here. Letting out a relieving sigh he was sure that the heretics did not enter the sanctum yet. The space marine was able to find a functioning cogitator and looked through the conditions of the warriors entombed in their sarcophagi. Before he could find the runes to awaken the warriors he heard something and quickly pulled his bolt pistol and chainsword instinctively. His lowered his weapons and silently thanked the emperor for the surviving tech-priest.
'Tech-priest are you fine?'
'Yes,' the cold and monotonous voice came from a mask where a mouth of a human should be.
'Help me awake the warriors,' gestured Kato to the hall filled with the sarcophagi of sleeping space marines.
'As you command milord,' the tech-priest shuffled towards the cogitator and was able to activate several servitors to aid him awake and place the warriors on the dreadnought shells.
'The dreadnoughts are being woken up now captain,' informed Kato through the vox-links.
'Understood,' replied Arasmus as he and Hostilitus were holding traitors back.
Hostilitus struck the last chaos berserker on his back and shot a burst of bolter rounds to confirm the kill. He looked at Arasmus and nodded. With a quick look around they continued moving to the veteran armoury. The great halls were filled with the echoing footfalls of the two space marines their terminator armour clearly showing signs of damage from the close encounters against the chaos heretics. By the time they reached their destination the doors of the armoury were evidently damaged from failed attempts of entering it.
'Hmm, I see the tools but where are the-' Arasmus was cut off from a haphazard ambush by the cultists and heretics alike. The ambush lasted no more than a minute against the two terminators.
'Found them,' Hostilitus said as he gave a small chuckle to the dead cultists.
'Come and help me open this door,' Arasmus as he grabbed on one side of the door and pressed several runes to disengage the lock.
Kato joined his brothers whilst shooting several traitors with his boltpistol. He quickly crouched with Juon while Kano was still standing and letting his heavy bolter roar and spit bolt after bolt at the enemy.
'Have they awaken yet,' Juon asked Kato as he blind-throw a frag grenade at the enemy.
'Soon,' said Kato as he fired a few more bolts before having to reload his boltpistol, 'If I remember correctly in less than five minutes they will exit and join us', Kato was interrupted when the others entered the Reclusiam. There was a silence after they've shut the doors, the warriors were all acting on body memory they all kept there eyes on the doors while reloading their bolters and feeling around it for any damages. The silence broke as the door was being knocked and hammered around. 'Hurricane Volley Formation', voiced Kato and with that the marines moved and stopped in front of the door with half on their knees and the other half standing. Suddenly a grenade blast knocked down the door and the Chaos forces rushed in and were cut unexpectedly by a blizzard of bolters. The bolter rounds cut through some of the unarmoured heretics and exploded into those behind them. Blood pooled in front of them and a whole assortment of internal organs decorated most of the archway some of the blood splattered on the already dirty power armour of the warriors. Kato gestured for the marines to go and move out side to ensure everything was clear. As all of them exited Alzack, Kano and Zaif were shot down by lasbolts and bolters, before Kato ordered others to move back a rocket exploded near the entrance of the Reclusiam pushing back Kato and the others forcing them to use some of the crumbling debris as cover. As all hope almost seemed lost the earth quaked and from behind the Sons of Nexus came the entire chapter's Dreadnoughts all 86 of them came out of the Reclusiam and charged itself into the enemy with their array of weaponry ranging from the Storm Bolter mounted to the Powerfists to the devastating Plasma Cannons they carry. The battle almost ended as quickly it started.
As Arasmus and Hostilitus were repairing their armour with pieces of other Tartaros Terminator armour and jury rigging some of it on to them they quickly left the armoury with what they needed and locked it once more. As they rushed themselves in their bulky armour they heard a voice.
'Come face me dogs of the corpse Emperor,' the voice boomed over the entire hallway 'do you think the both of you are strong enough to face me and take back this world!'
'Face you we shall,' murmured Hostilitus.
As the entire courtyard was littered and filled with blood the Marines thanked the Emperor for the momentary moment of peace. Kato had the duty to receive the fallens' gene-seed while Baltazar was conversing the Dreadnoughts for the next point of attack and hopefully to reclaim some of their gene-seed. What they believe is that the enemy had left the gene-seed at one of the fortress' landing pads and with several of the chapters armour, serfs and through some miracle most of their scouts survived.
'Captain Arasmus we are now with the Dreadnoughts we are going to reclaim what was once ours,'
'Good work, brother Baltazar and before you go can you send 5 of our dreadnought brothers to aid us,'
'Yes Milord,' Baltazars closed the vox-link and gestured to 5 dreadnoughts to head into the fortress. With the aid of the ancients the Sons of Nexus can hope to win another battle for their chapter and in hope rebuild their chapter as long as their scouts weren't dead or worse.
Hostilitus and Aramus waited at the elevator that held the five ancients and also a means to reach their enemy. The elevator doors slid open and the two brothers entered it. Aramus and Hostilitus looked in awe as they saw the mighty dreadnoughts; warriors of the old, heroes whose names etched on the walls of the very fortress. One of the fallen warriors looked at Aramus and asked why he bears the weapons of the Chapter Master and the symbol of the Honor Guards captain. As they went up to the tallest spire Aramus and Hostilitus told of what happened to the chapter, the dreadnoughts who merely thought that they were on a different planet fighting in a war against the forces chaos were shocked by the news that their mighty home world was attacked while they were in deep slumber as it all went on. The ancient warriors found a new reason to fight a fire burned in them that filled them with overwhelming vengeance. As they reached the top floor of the spire one of the hulking warrior machines suggested that they go first and handle what ever stood in their path while the two terminators charge towards the chaos lord.
The enemy had no chance to react as the five giants laid down a curtain of shells for a mere few seconds and charged forward, firing and crushing anything that bore the symbol of the dark gods. They left an opening wide enough for the terminators to go through. As Aramus and Hostilitus charged they were immediately halted by 10 other terminators, terminators that served the darkness. Hostilitus did not care or consider the fact they might have a small chance of success at this battle against the chaos terminators he simply raised and deflected a blow from one them and loaded a burst of bolter shells to the helmeted area. Aramus also joined in the fray as he parried and maneuvered against four other terminators whilst Hostilitus already struck down his second. Aramus was able to dismember an arm from one to only nearly getting his own chopped off, as he stumbled slightly he quickly parried and thrusted both his claws into his opponent. Aramus quickly pulling out moved out of the way as one of the dreadnoughts fired a melta blast onto to a chaos terminator that was caught of guard and proceded to fill another with rounds from his dual autocannons. Aramus thanking the ancient warrior for saving him and the two went back to their sides of the fighting. Hostilitus with one strong swing broke the spine of one the terminators and proceeded to fire onto the next one before he was brutally stabbed behind the back by the Chaos lord of the warband. Aramus seeing this felt his everything stopped, he could feel the slight tremors of the dreadnoughts rampage over the rockcrete, he could hear the bones of cultist and chaos marines being crushed and he could see trickles of blood that covered that was slowly covering the back of his brothers white armor.
As the progress of reclaiming their captured brothers Baltazar and the others were trying their best at pushing the enemy into choke point that will allow them to let loose their dreadnought brethren. As Baltazar and the rest of the Space Marines were cutting the binds that held the scouts or helping them up and handed them their weapons back, the dreadnoughts finished wiping out the entire enemy forces. Seeing as everything was going according to plan their next step was to take back what Thunderhawk gunships, Storm Talons or transporters they have left and reinforce Aramus and his force up on the main spire. As they boarded the ship Baltazar asked the dreadnoughts and the scouts to look for any pockets of heretics hiding or any other surviving serfs they can use.
Everything went blank, the scent of blood filled up his nose, muffled noises of the battle happening at the background Aramus was nothing but a killing machine he took down the rest of the chaos terminators and even several other chaos marines or cultists that escaped and ran towards him. Nothing was alive in his proximity and his armour dripping with the gore of those he killed he had only one more to kill. His last kill will be the man who killed his brother. As Aramus charged at him swinging his Lightning claws at his target he was in a fury akin to a wild animal.
'I will rip you apart!' he shouted at him,
'Your words carry no weight at me boy,' His mocking tone only increasing Aramus' fury, 'I have lived longer than you and the only one who will die here is you!'
Aramus let out a wailed feral scream and was succesfully in cutting the Chaos Lords Sword into pieces. As Baltazars voice came through informing that he was arriving alongside several aircrafts to provide suprresive fire against the enemy. Aramus quickly aimed for Chaos lord's legs and ripped it clean off at the cost of getting an axe to his shoulder Aramus quickly moved to cover while ordering Baltazar to concentrate fire on the Chaos Lord. In a matter of seconds all thats left was pool of blood and chunks of meat that was previously the Chaos Lord. Aramus gave a sigh of relief that this was the end of the war.
10 years after the incident the chapter was slowly rebuilding itself with Aramus as the new Chapter Master and kept the position of captain of the honour guard. Aramus was able to convince the High Lords Of Terra to give him permission to rebuild under the condition that an Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor checked them for any sign of corruption for the next two years.
'What is our current strength Baltazar?'
'We finally have 200 battle brothers in power armour and we have 400 more initiates ready to be reborn, Master Aramus,' Baltazar replied as he stood next to Aramus, 'It was smart using our dreadnought brothers to teach the our young brothers,'
A sultry and young feminine voice suddenly joined in saying 'Yes I have to admit it Chapter Master I wasnt really expecting you to rebuild a chapter this fast,'
'Thank you Inquisitor Miriam for your kind words,' Aramus said and smiled at the small woman.
The three of them continued to look over the courtyard filled with adolescent boys ready to be inducted and changed. The Sons Of Nexus were no longer dying. The sun shined brighter.