A/N: this is my first 40K story so I'm not 100% on the terminology but this a story based primarily on my Dark Eldar army; so this isn't going to be your standard Black Library Marines here; they will be more akin to how they operate in the game
Warhammer 40,000: Insertion
Audience Chambers of the Kabal of Perpetual Darkness; Commaragh
Five warriors stood alone in the Kabal Audience Chamber, the chamber, ringed by towering obsidian statues depicting great warriors of the Kabal in dynamic poses, their ruby red eyes glaring disapprovingly at the chambers sole occupants. Normally this space would be filled with hundreds of courtiers and returning raiding parties, hoping to seek an audience with the High Lord, Archon Sethalis; it was rare for the chamber would be so barren, so it was somewhat unnerving to have the space so vacant.
The five Dark Eldar warriors, four men, and a woman, stood rigid straight with their peaked helmets at their feet, waiting for the reason for their summons. While it wasn't uncommon for the Everseeing Eye, one of the Kabal's elite Recon squads, to be summoned to the Kabal chambers, however it was to have it coincide with the chamber being so empty.
Heavy footsteps echoed through the chamber as a tall fully armoured figure exited the Archon's inner chambers, the tip of his Punisher staff gouging a thin line in the marble floor. The long sinuous headpiece atop his helmet and black body armour revealed that this was not the Archon, but Narzegual, his Incubi Lord, commander of his personal Retinue.
If the Everseers were straight before the arrival of one of the feared protectors of the Archon, they were even more so now; there were stories of the aged Incubi cutting down entire raiding parties for even the most minor infraction.
"Restrain yourselves if you can; your Lord has a new assignment for you. We have rumours of an Imperial world in the inner system that is in the process of upgrading their defence grid, as its location has long been thought unassailable by vessel, there is only a token ground force defending it, leaving a large juicy civilian population just ripe for the taking. The problem is that this information is not entirely reliable, Master Homunculi Zenesh was able to pry it from an Imperium Commissar before he unfortunately…what was the word he used- broke-, yes, that was it. This is where you miserable wretches come in," Narzegual commanded, though his face was obscured by a white Hellmask, it was obvious that he was snarling, having to deliver orders to what he believed to be his inferiors would have been nibbling at him since he left the Harem chamber.
"Your instructions are simple, Gate to the planet, and report back whatever you find, as soon as this information is verified, notify us immediately, your gate will be waiting for you in the chamber, now go, and bring Glory to the Kabal."
Before any of the Everseer's could respond to the Incubi Lord, he turned on a bootheel and returned to the Archon's Inner Sanctum; his black scaled cape trailing behind him as he walked. A loud crash of a heavy metal door heralded that once more, the Everseeing Eye was alone.
"Well, infiltrating an Imperial Hive World, sounds like a blast," remarked Fraz'har Suthane, before checking over the cartridges for his Shardcarbine, to make sure that they were adequately strapped to his chest.
"Silence Fraz, we go where Archon sends us," snapped Sybarite Uries Saldan, before extending and retracting the twin sets of blades attached to his gauntlets and looking over to the remaining three members of the Everseeing Eye, as they tested the sharpness of mounted blades, or checked their weapons for wear. "Graz, secure the portable gate, Tikaral are you with us?"
The lone female in the squad, Tikaral'shradan ran a gloved hand through her purple tinted tresses before brushing against a scar that ran down the left side of her face marring an otherwise immaculate complexion and smirked only a way a female with a purpose could. While it was common for warriors of Dark Eldar Kabal's to be marred with scars and disfigurements, this particular scar was jagged, with flecks of Imperial Blue paint in it. Picking up her enhanced helmet she looked over to her squadmates, "I'm touched by the concern, Sybarite, but don't worry about me. The fact that the last time the Kabal engaged the Imperium, I got this lovely little love mark, does not mean I am willing to return the favour; but do not fret my dear Sybarite, I won't blow our cover."
The Sybarite commander slipped his helmet over his pointed ears, his voice gaining a metallic hiss; a side effect of the helmet. "Just keep that Rifle trained on the horizon, the last thing we need here is to find ourselves on the wrong end of a Baneblade."
The remaining Everseeing Eyes picked up their helmets and slid them on, before turning towards Uries who led them towards the Webway Ziggurat. The Ziggurat was a series of large towering spikes comprising of anchoring points for Webway Gates, capable of transporting an entire raiding force to any point in the galaxy, however the gate that was waiting for them was an eighth the size of a standard Portal.
Imperium Hive City
The Webway Portal opened in a darkened alley depositing the five warriors, who immediately activated locator beacons, and fanned out, forming a perimeter until the portal closed.
"Fraz, location, this does not look like the right coordinates," Uries commanded before unslinging the Shardcarbine from his back. Turning to the rest of the squad, all that could be seen were the red lenses of their helmets and the faint glint of kilometre above lights on spikes and blades. "Tikaral, elevation! Graz check the generator, Suldar, provide us with cover."
The woman nodded curtly before running towards a nearby building and started climbing up the exposed emergency access staircase, to get some elevation for her modified Splinter Rifle, to be able to do some use. Graz Surendal knelt over the small conical box, inputting commands into its datascreen, checking the integrity of the device. Suldaresh Kurvan, the tallest member of the Everseers hefted his shoulder mounted Dark Lance to an active firing position before moving off towards a nearby ground vehicle. The small optics buoy that sat on his opposite shoulder darted left and right, taking in any potential targets.
Fraz'har looked down at the diagnostic panel on his gauntlet and groaned as it read in large red Eldar script, 'MISDIRECTION EVENT OCCURED'.
"Curses, Psyckers of all the vile fiends; Sybarite, damn Librarians have gone and frelled up our Portal, no wonder the planet is so undefended," Fraz'har growled through his microphone as the sound of multiple footsteps approaching them increased from a faint patter to a full military cadence.
"Tikaral, visual, I want to know how many of the pinkskins are coming to greet us," Uries breathed as the rest of the Everseeing Eyes bled into the shadows.
The back mounted optics enhancer darted back and forth, trying to differentiate between smoke, and movement of actual individuals, "It's pretty dark up here, nothing I can't handle, Sybarite. There is too much interfere…wait scratch that, we have a problem, we have Space Marine's, at least a Squad. The lead will be in my firing arc in five units," the female reported before wrapping the strap of her rifle tightly around her hand to steady it against the metal railing.
"Hold your fire Tikaral, train your sights on their sergeant; wait for my signal," came a burst response as female warrior's Optics enhancer detected movement from the positions of her squadmates. By the looks of the positioning, they were attempting to ambush the larger Space Marine Squad, a tactic that if they had not yet been seen, might have been able to pull it off.
The approaching marines continued their approach, regimented footfalls echoing up the towering buildings that lined both sides of the small alleyway; it was not long before the snipers short range motion tracker reported that the marines were entering weapons range. The motion tracker on her back panned slightly locking onto the head of the squad; an unhelmeted soldier with a pair of metal studs sitting over his right eye.
"So we have a veteran," she remarked before tightening her grip on her rifle; waiting for the order to take the shot.
The order came in the way of a pulse of null light that streaked through the alley. Suldar's Dark Lance, a weapon designed for anti-vehicle combat was more than devastating against even power-armoured marines. The anti-light streaked through the squad, impacting with the wall behind them. When it was over three marines were missing, not even scorch marks on the permacrete ground cover marked their existence.
"Tikaral, take down the leader!" Uries ordered before two Shardcarbine's opened fire on the marines now taking cover behind ground cars and rubble, unsure as to where this attack was coming from. Errant bolter fire returned in the direction the small green monofilament shards pierced the darkness, ricocheting off armour plates and the steel of the marines cover. Occasionally these shards would become lodged in an armour joint or in an intake valve; poisoning the superhuman underneath. Tikaral knew most of these shards would be useless against the immune systems of these genetic monstrosities; but in sufficient numbers could bring them down. The sniper tightened her grip on her rifle as she trained her sights on the marine sergeant. Slowing her breathing, she placed the crosshairs over the marine's right eye; relaxing her grip on the weapon, she waited in between breaths before pulling back on the trigger.
While normally, a Kabalite splinter weapon had little lethality against Imperium marine armour, but the poisoned monofilament dart fired from Tikaral's sniper rifle was not targeted against armour. The round impacted with the sergeants forehead. The round passed through the soldier's skull exiting the rear before harmlessly ricocheting off the wall behind him. The sergeant slumped to the ground along the side of the ground vehicle. Shouldering her rifle, Tikaral moved down the walkway she was on to take up a new position as a hail of bolter fire turned her previous position to molten slag. Taking up a new position, the warrior continued to harass the marines as they continued to trade fire with the Raiding party.
A second Dark Lance Blast passed through a ground vehicle a pair of marines where taking cover behind, imploding the vehicle and the two marines, destroying the wall to a residential building behind them in the process.
This was the advantage of the Dark Eldar; with Commaragh bathed in eternal twilight, the darkness was just as clear as the brightest day for these warriors; and while the marines squinted with light amplification devices in their helmets, the Everseers darted from shadow to shadow, firing shots where required; disappearing before the bolter rounds found them. As Uries, Graz and Fraz'har neared the remaining marines, knives and bladed weapons where favoured instead of their rifles while Suldar continued to lay down suppressive fire from his Dark Lance cannon; the cycling of the long barrelled weapon caused puffs of green smoke to escape from the weapons heat port.
The three warriors threw themselves at the bulkier marines, thin molecular blades severing ligaments and wedging into joints, wounding the marines in manic lighting strikes. Uries' twin retractable blades, the mountings of his Agoniser power weapon whipped to life, ensnaring hapless marines, severing limb from torso or simply killing outright.
It only took a minute before the last of the marines lay crumpled at the Everseeing Eyes' feet; thick viscous blood meshed with visceral material, painting the ground a macabre tapestry. Tikaral slid down the nearby fire escape ladder, returning to the ground level as the rest of the Warriors picked through the bodies, looking for anything of personal value or worthy for intelligence purposes. Imperial marques, honour seals and totems were very popular on the Kabalite black-market, as were religious artefacts that the warriors could pervert for their demoralising value when attacking Imperium worlds. While Marines may be infuriated with a Kabalite Lancer wearing an Iron Halo or the Crest of the Ultra Marines, a puny Guardsman or Imperial citizen would be terrified with the thought that this warrior had taken down one of the Imperium's elite soldier corps to retrieve it.
"We should get moving, we are not going to get off this planet as long as those Psyckers are disrupting the Webway Portals," Fraz'har remarked checking his diagnostic panel once more, which now read that due to local disturbances, access to the Webway was impossible.
Uries nodded, the Sybarite retracted his wrist blades after severing a set of purity seals off a Bolter and placing the forearm-sized medallions in a hip pouch; purity seals were of high demand, particularly those that belonged to sergeants. "Agreed, we need to at least get to the surface; there is a Corsair band operating in this sector; if we cannot gate out, we might be able to call a favour with them." It was obvious the Sybarite was not enjoying that prospect. While the Corsair bands where essentially kindred Eldar and were generally more tolerable than their Craftworld cousins; not all the Corsair bands were as sympathetic to their dark brethren. Not all Corsair bands had the connection to the Dark Eldar like the Jagged Talon Corsair band that was as much a part of the Kabal of Perpetual Darkness as the Everseeing Eye was; especially after their Princess wed the Kabal's Archon.
The squad collected their remaining trophies before moving out; heading for a nearby gantry that connected the residential district, they were in with the nearby commercial district and the freight elevator that allowed them access to the level above them. Tikaral took point in front, just far enough so that the rest of the squad could see her, but far enough for the woman to be able to melt into the shadows to observe the movements of mangy, rag clothed civilians that obliviously continued their daily routines; unaware of the presence of Kabalite Slavers that slinked in the shadows.
"I told you this was going to be a blast," Fraz'har commented dryly while running a hand over a breach to his armoured skin suit where a lucky ricochet got too close for comfort.
"And I thought I told you to be silent," Uries replied while Graz kept his carbine trained on the towering structures that seemed to pen in the sinuous Elven warriors as they neared the transport elevator. While Suldar's Dark Lance was pointed towards the ground, his targeting suite was darting between vehicles and civilians, relaying the information to the warrior, gauging the possibility of additional targets.
"We may have a problem," Tikaral reported over the team vox frequency. The slender female quickly darted to behind the cover of a nearby trash receptacle, so that only the tiny stalk of her optics suite was visible.
"What do you see?" Uries asked as the rest of the squad joined her, taking up positions in the shadows surrounding the junction between one alleyway and the main concourse.
Tikaral didn't have to say anything as the sound of crunching metal started becoming noticeable over the din of the Hive. A pair of Space Marine Rhino transports sat parked between the Warriors and their objective; the embarked marines setting up a blockade; essentially blocking off the road access to the travel elevator.
When Tikaral did speak, her response was cold and calculating. "They know we're here, either they pieced together what happened to their missing squad, or they knew to expect us." Her target optics filtering between various grades, highlighting each of the marines, assigning them target priorities and optimal firing angles.
"Whichever it is, we are not going to be able get past all this, the element of surprise notwithstanding, we need to find another way," Uries stated preparing to move deeper back into the alleyway they were in. The rest of the squad followed, with Tikaral the last to melt back into the shadows, taking last minute recordings of the blockade before melting back into the shadows.
The squad reformed at an intersection between one alley and other; crouching near a refuse pile to hide their scent from human security forces. By the time Tikaral had joined the others; Uries had removed his helmet, his nostrils flaring at the uncomfortable human stench they were surrounded by. "We can't stay here, we need to at least get out of the Hive, but we can't as long as those pinkskins put their pesky metal boxes in the way. We need a way out of here."
"My Lance might be able to take out one of those damn machines, but not both of them," Suldar remarked checking the power setting on his Lance, noting the runes on it read seventy per cent power,
Uries nodded before slipping a fresh power cartridge into his carbine, an act performed by the rest of the squad. "There has to be another way up to the surface," he remarked before something dropped behind him,