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Chapter 7: Entry to the Palace

5th Claw were the closest squad to the Governors palace but at present they were pinned down inside a large hab-block directly opposite the great gates that barred the way into the inner palace. The habitats external walls were peppered with shell holes and the interior of the ground floor room 5th Claw found themselves in was littered with spent shell casings from their bolters.

Getting inside the palace was proving problematic. The gates were created from hardened adamantium and were completely solid. Above them there was a firing step on the fortifications where the defenders fired their heavy bolters and small arms down at the Night Lords. As if that wasn't bad enough, there were possibly Imperial Space Marines also manning the walls. The bolter fire that had slain one of their squad, Brother Ikinas had been too accurate to have been mortal fire. They had all been on the move towards the cover of their chosen hab-block when he had been killed...and Astartes move very swiftly.

"I saw one of the bastards Brother-Sergeant" Taladen of 5th Claw said as he ducked back down behind the cover of the habitats wall as bolt detonations ripped all around the window that he had briefly peered from.

"Well don't keep me in suspense Taladen!" Sergeant Darnik snapped impatiently, his back was resting against one of the ferrocrete walls. The hum of his power armour sending slight vibrations into his spine.

"From what I can make out, there are Astartes on the walls defending alongside the local troops. Their armour is half white and half dark green, the heraldry on their shoulder-plates is of a winged skull" Taladen replied as he rechecked his bolter and slammed home a fresh clip.

"Bah, the 31st Company of the First Legion had a banner with a winged skull. Their pet name was The Angels of Redemption if I recall, most likely these are one of the Firsts distant relatives...the Loyalist scum" Darnik spat in disgust. He had never liked the Dark Angels, even before the Heresy. Their so called honourable ways had always been alien and pointless to him.

"It seems that the sons of the Lion still maintain a presence here" Fulkas, the squads flamethrower operator grunted, the nozzle of his weapon was bright blue with the promethium flame. Darnik knew the specialist was itching to get close to the enemy to use it.

"Yes but how many of the dress wearing vermin are here I wonder..." Darnik said absently as his mind pondered at the possibilities, and then the vox-link in his helmet activated taking him away from his thoughts.

"Darnik, what is your position?" the voice asked, it was full of static but Darnik thought he recognised who it was, but how could he be here? He was supposed to be at the relay!

"Garvek? By the Gods, what is 4th Claw doing here?!" 5th Claws Sergeant asked incredulous.

"We've come to lend you a hand brother, we've just come up a main street from the West side of the palace and are currently taking cover on the third floor, in the manufactorum that is closest to the destroyed Tarantula on the spire nearest the gates. I repeat, what is your position?" Garvek's reply came through.

Darnik surveyed the situation in his helmets tactical map and saw the blue circles of 4th Claw appear to the West of his position, hardly as many reinforcements as he would like but they would have to do. "Do you see the two Leman Russ tanks flanking the main gates?" he said.

"Yes brother, we see them"

"We are in the hab-block directly infront of them and pinned down, every time we attempt to make a run for it their damn heavy weapons open up. There are heavy weapons on the walls, standard heavy bolters and some missile launchers, a few autocannons..and be warned Brother, there are Loyalist Astartes defending the fortifications"

There was a slight pause as Garvek assimilated this information.

"We will take care of the Leman Russ' just keep them occupied, Garvek out"

"Keep them occupied brother? Are you insane?" Darnik snarled "Brother?" Garvek had shut his comm-link off and Darnik roared in anger and crashed his helmet into the wall, causing some of the roof to fall in. "Ok 5th Claw it seems like we are going to get ourselves killed so that 4th Claw can destroy the tanks!"

"I'm not sure I like this idea..." Fulkas said reluctantly "I'd much rather they be the bait"

"They do have the Primarchs Nightmare with them..." Taladen mentioned unhelpfully.

Yes but he has been lacking a suit of tactical-dreadnaught armour since the failure upon Terra Darnik mused and then shook his head for wishful thinking "Oh to the Warp with it..ok brothers, on my signal. Taladen I want suppressing fire on the walls, I will draw the tanks fire along with Zendur, Fulkas be prepared to relocate because we are going to be moving very...very fast".

"What about him?" Zendur gestured his thumb out of the shattered window behind him to the corpse of their fallen brother laying in the street.

"Leave him, when we are not eating bolt rounds and cannon shells we will retrieve his body and make sure his gene-seed returns to the Legion" Darnik said.

"What if we die or are unable to collect him?" Zendur continued.

"Then at least there will be one less Astartes in the future with the gene-seed of a damned idiot who allowed himself to get killed by some mud-dwelling hermits" Darnik snapped "I am more concerned for our hides at the moment brother.." Darnik glanced at his squad briefly "Right, on my signal..." they all nodded their confirmation.

Darnik darted for the ruined door of the habitat, swiftly he dived through it and opened up on the Leman Russ tanks with his bolter.

"Fire, cover and manouver!" he snarled into his squads communication link.

Obviously a bolter was not going to damage the heavily armoured vehicles, but it certainly did attract their attention as both turrets started to traverse in his direction. Zendur followed him out and also fired his bolter on full automatic following his Sergeants lead. They were firing, taking cover behind anything that was available as they manouvered away from the tanks. Abandoned vehicles and shell craters amongst other things. Las rounds and the odd bolt shells tore into their cover as they were engaged by both the defenders on the walls and the Leman Russ' heavy bolters.

Fulkas was out of the hab-block next, moving fast to the right of the door when he had exited the room and began making his way towards the far east hab-blocks. Darnik and Zendur were hot on his heels as the tanks began tracking them with their main turrets, all thoughts of cover forgotten. Very little cover would survive a direct hit from a Leman Russ. It was at that moment Taladen took up a position at the shattered window once more and began spraying the top walls of the fortifications, clearing them of any PDF or Astartes that might be lurking there and forcing them to keep their heads down.

Fulkas launched himself at a ground story window in their new chosen accomodation, crashing through it as one of the Leman Russ' fired it's cannon, with a mighty explosion it blew a great gaping hole in the wall next to the window. Bits of wall and masonry showered the closely following Sergeant Darnik and brother Zendur.

Darnik glanced back at the tanks briefly and ignored the falling debris, firing his bolter one-handed as he made his way for the newly created shell hole in the wall of the building Fulkas had just entered. He glimpsed the second Leman Russ' cannon as it aimed directly at him. So this is how it ends? he thought, knowing he wasn't going to reach the door in time.

Suddenly there was two mighty crump sounds and then a massive explosion engulfed both Leman Russ'. One of the tanks turrets flew up into the air and landed with a crash a few feet from Zendur and Darnik as they hit the deck, the top half of the tank commanders body landed on Zendurs legs, the Night Lord kicked the burning corpse off him. Darnik had already recovered and sprinted at full speed the last remaining yards to join Fulkas in the new building, scrambling to his feet Zendur charged after him.

Fulkas nodded at them as they burst into the room and took up positions near the hole in the wall and ground floor window.

"Melta-charge" Fulkas stated, recognising the distinct noise of the explosive.

Darnik glared over to the great gates of the Governors palace where the Leman Russ tanks had been.

The tanks were nothing more than burning husks, one of the drivers climbed out of a hatch, his whole body was on fire and he was screaming to the sky as he rolled on the floor in an attempt to extinguish the flames.

Darnik smiled grimly.

"Welcome to the Palace 4th Claw..."

...

4th Claw watched Sergeant Darnik of the 5th leap out of the hab-block firing his weapon at the tanks, shortly followed by brother Zendur who was also firing. Fulkas began charging off towards a building to the east and then the Sergeant and Zendur followed quickly as the turrets began tracking them.

But 4th Claw had already decided what they were going to do.

"Move!" roared Garvek to Ryzar and the silent marine leapt to his task, jumping from the manufactorums third story floor he landed on his feet with a thud, his power-armour making footprints in the paved road. With barely a pause he then ran at full speed at the nearest Leman Russ with a melta charge in each hand, as their attention was utterly focused on 5th Claw they never saw him coming.

Taladen opened up with his bolter from 5th Claws original position, he was the only one of that squad not to move as he was providing suppressing fire on the fortifications. Zargrath and Garvek did the same from the manufactorum, firing their weapons at any target that presented itself on the walls, here and there a PDF guardsman was thrown backwards as a bolt struck them, or was blown off the walls to land with a sickening crunch onto the hard streets below. On occasion Garvek spied one or two red power-armoured individuals bolstering the defences. But the fire from Garvek, Zargrath and Taladen kept them from firing back. A few scattered las-rounds chinked into Ryzars armour as he ran towards his targets. The few braver troopers risked potshots at him but they did not do any real damage to his ceramite apart from scratching it slightly.

Better to have sporadic return fire from whimpering mortals than accurate Loyalist dogs Garvek thought to himself as he fired another burst at a red Astartes, who fired a few rounds back then disappeared out of sight. Garvek sidestepped back into cover as the bolts detonated near his position and he reloaded his weapon before continuing to fire.

Reaching his destination within a few short seconds, Ryzar hit the back of the first tank and activated the mag-lock on the first melta charge, he slammed it against the fuel tank situated on the back of the vehicle, as soon as it locked he proceeded to advance on the next war-machine and did the same thing. His task was completed quickly.

As soon as he was finished he charged his way towards the hab-block where Taladen was providing his covering fire. Behind Ryzar las, bolt and auto-rounds crashed into the road a few steps behind him, as the defenders seemed to regain some courage. He launched himself through the empty doorway and did a combat roll to his left, nearly knocking Taladen over in the process, he scrambled to rest his back against the habitats wall and pulled out a small handheld detonator from a pouch on his power-armour.

"Neutralising" Ryzar said in his cold tone over the vox and pressed a small red button on the device. With a thump and then a massive explosion both tanks were blown sky high. There was a sudden roar of tortured metal shortly followed by another thud as one of the tank turrets hit the ground, this in turn was followed by the screaming of an unfortunate tank crewman.

"Welcome to the Palace 4th Claw..." Darnik voxed.

"Let him burn" Garvek hissed cruelly as he watched the man scream his lungs out as he desperatly tried to extinguish himself, desperatley rolling on the floor and patting his tankers uniform to no avail.

As all this was happening the aerial defences of the palace had been rendered silent, the aerial units of the VIII'th Legion picking them off during the battle, and now the Night Lords had full air superiority over the Governors domain.

"This is Garvek of 4th Claw" Garvek said over the main vox-channel as he glanced up to the sky as their air forces prepared to go for targets of opportunity "I am requesting all air assets in the vicinity to target the main gates of the Governors palace followed by a status update on the 48th?"

There was a crackle of static before a reply came.

"This is the Fire Raptor Malice confirming target lock, the 48th will be at your location in approximatley ten minutes" there was a slight pause as more static filled the earpieces inside the helmets of 4th and 5th Claws before the pilot of Malice said "Missiles launched..."

With a thunder of jets in the sky and a whoosh of low-flying aircraft clusters of missiles smashed directly into the great gates leading to the Governors palace as the Night Lords birds of prey picked apart their chosen target. The devastation was huge, hunks of metal flew in all directions, the gates buckled from the explosions and were blown inwards creating a vast breach. One of the spires near the gate collapsed in a fountain of stone and rubble, human bodies of many PDF troopers stationed on the battlements above the gates and hastily built barriers behind them littered the area in various states of dismemberment having been caught in the terrible explosions.

Stormeagles and combat fitted Thunderhawks rained missiles and lascannon rounds across the wall and the enemy finally began to pull back off the walls and retreat back into the inner palace.

"4th and 5th Claws, the way is clear" the pilot of the Malice reported, Garvek could hear the satisfaction in the pilots voice at the destruction the air units had just commit. "Bring the night brothers!"