Chapter 2

"We're done here," he stated in a matter-of-factly voice so typical to space marine leaders when it came to fulfilling orders. It was considered self-evident, but that didn't mean space marines didn't appreciate successes, only that which came above plan. "Orbital surveillance has informed me of a large orkish force moving to the north-east. The Second Company is to intercept and remove their threat."

Ezekiel was looking forward to battling the orks again and was about to go assemble on the clearing along with the rest of the company when his sergeant pulled him aside. The rest of the special operations squad, including the new marine, was already gathered behind the predator.

"We are not going to take part in the mountain pass ambush with the rest of the company," Nicholas informed them. "We have been given special orders," he paused as a few of the marines smiled and exchanged looks, eager for some action. "We are to investigate an abandoned Imperial base to the south of our current location. Our orders are to salvage any imperial equipment and technology… then torch the place, lest it be tainted by enemies of the Emperor."

'A salvage mission?' Ezekiel wondered. 'Why would they send space marines to do the work of the Adeptus Mechanicus, let alone a special operations unit?' but he quickly whished his thoughts away. It was unlike him to question command. Soon, his suspicions were confirmed.

Sergeant Nicholas lowered his voice and continued. "I have been asked not to, but it is my unwritten duty to inform you of our true mission objectives… There are suspicions that the forces of Chaos, the great enemy, have been operating there recently."

The nine marines exchanged glances, then unsheathed and raised their swords unanimously. Facing off against the traitor marines was the ultimate challenge a space marine could face, and now this challenge stood before them. Some would face it for the first time, some for the last, but now all that mattered was to…

"Purge the Heretics!" they screamed the Chapter's war-cry.

Soon the cry was echoed when other squads replied as they mounted their assigned vehicles. The entire convoy was off within minutes and all but ten marines remained.

They waited in silence until the last convoy was out of sight, and then turned to their leader.

"We will be moving on foot through the Agara Woods to the south," the marines nodded in unison, awaiting further instructions. "Ezekiel," the marine in question saluted. "You and the new recruit will scout ahead in the usual manner. We will move between your established checkpoints in cover-sprint formation as stated in the Codex Astartes," he pointed out a general route on a holographic map.

Ezekiel nodded as Sergeant Nicholas turned to the rest of the squad, emphasizing one last statement. It wasn't necessary, but had to be said anyways. "There can be no mistakes this time. If the forces of Chaos were, or are still operating on this planet, then only the Emperor himself knows what may lay waiting for us."

As the marines began lining up and preparing, Ezekiel took the new marine aside and looked over his weapons. He carried a standard bolter rifle and knife. No grenades or backup weapon… As low on supplies as the Chapter was, they could have at least equipped a special operations marine with more than the basic equipment. What were they expecting him to do if his weapon jammed, or were he attacked at close range?

He looked down at his own arsenal and smiled at the irony. He then took out his LAS pistol and extended it towards the under-equipped marine, who looked upon it as if it were the Emperor himself.

"Save the ammo…" he retorted as he took out a bolter pistol from his pack and replaced the missing weapon.

He then unclipped the strap on his power sword, removed the safety of the melta rifle and turned away from the awed marine.

"Txanton…" the marine extended a hand, but Ezekiel's back was already turned.

"Helmet," he said in his usual stoic manner and without waiting, sprinted towards the woods.

Txanton watched him leave; stunned at the lack of response and extreme professionalism of the other marine, but a split second later he put on his helmet and followed, bolter in hand.

Were he a normal human, Ezekiel may have had to turn around or at least wonder if Txanton was behind him, but his extra keen senses soon picked up even the stealthily running marine out of the noise of the forest.

Txanton was good, and he was sure even most marines would have had problems tracking him, but with those chaos traitors, one had to be extra careful. He slowed down a bit and let the former scout catch up with him, before placing the first sonic marker. It would show up on the squad's holographic map and was very hard to detect since the precise frequency was known only to the members of the team. Normally they'd use their built-in communicators, but that would be very dangerous, especially since it was known that Chaos marines could tap into the system.

He was about to give Txanton orders and encourage him to keep up the good work when his super-keen hearing noticed something out of the ordinary. Suddenly the world blacked out as Ezekiel closed his eyes and concentrated. He heard a shuffling of leaves to the right… ten meters.

He clenched a fist and Txanton immediately froze, looking in the opposite direction of where the finger of Ezekiel's hidden hand was now pointing. Ezekiel then pointed at a right angle and slashed his finger twice.

A few seconds later, the two marines were running side by side, pretending they had dismissed the ruffling as a false alarm.

'How long have they been tracking us?' he wondered. 'Cloaked…' The implications of that were frightening.

Txanton had only a slight idea of what was going on. The commands were precise, but he hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary. The longer he worked with the veteran marine, the more he admired his abilities.

He watched as the older marine sprinted ahead a bit and then, in a flash of microseconds, he stopped, angled his weapon towards the empty woods to the right, and fired…

Sergeant Nicholas led his marines in flanking formation though the sparsely populated woods. The first beacon appeared on his holo-map. It was more than two kilometres ahead and Nicholas smiled at the efficiency of his two marines. He diverted from a direct course towards the beacon and decided for a path along a slag-lake.

They changed direction and as soon as they reached the clearing beside the lake, came upon a strange pillar, very similar to the one at the battlefield. Seconds later Nicholas heard a blood-tingling scream…