An intervention attack. That was what the Fabricator General called this when they met her on Ryza. Lauf would get his transport off her world but it had a catch. He had to join Titan Princeps Alexia Strattus travelling to Sub-Sector Grael to counter an Ork WAAAGH invading the Sub-Sector's Forge World, Grael Secundus. According to the Fabricator General, the forces in the Sub-Sector have been unable to hold back the Orks and now Imperatus Rex has to be deployed to crush this WAAAGH and restore Secundus to the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Imperium of Man. The benefit for Lauf going there is that a pict-capture from the Forge World showed a Space Marine with bright blue and yellow armour with a red-eye staff in his hand present on the world. The pict-capture showed the Space Marine moving around some building, ignored by the Orks judging by the images. While at first he was not sure that it was Ramses, when he saw the symbol on his armour he knew it was that Sorcerer. He would never forget that symbol no matter how many years he spent chasing after him. Now he sits inside a storage bay within an Adeptus Mechanicus cruiser carrying Imperatus Rex and its transport giving prayers to the Allfather that his hunt will finally bring peace to his pack-mates' spirits while he looks down at his weapon. Lauf keeps looking at his frost-axe as footsteps come towards him while echoes sound across the storage bay even though he had heard the person coming towards him before the echoes began, "Lord Redclaw. May I sit down with you?"
The voice comes from Princeps Alexia Strattus, the young commander of the titan standing in front of Lauf. He looks up and smiles at her. Nodding he shifts over to give her some more room to sit down on the bench beside him while he continues to rub the side of his axe with an special oil coating a rag. Alexia sits down on the bed with a sigh of relief, "I did not expect your companionship on this battle against the greenskins my lord." Alexia says softly, "It does make me feel more confident about our chances of destroying the enemies of the Omnissiah."
Alexia's statement causes Lauf to pause his cleaning and look at her, "You are the Princeps of a Warlord Titan. How does my presence make you more confident than being inside a war machine like that?" Lauf is confident in his abilities, but even he knows that he is just one Space Marine compared to a Warlord Titan. His surprise makes Alexia laugh softly while he watches and waits for Alexia to stop laughing before she continued. She finally stops laughing and wipes a tear from her eye from how hard she was laughing even though it was quiet,
"Forgive me my lord. I just feel that having a Space Marine, especially one from such a respected chapter as yours will help inspire the guardsmen present in the sub-sector as much, if not more than Imperatus and me." She explains. Her explanation brings a smile to Lauf's face while he finishes taking care of his axe and puts it back on his hip. Afterwards he looks at the titan when he remembers something he wanted to ask Alexia. He turns to look at her while she leans against the wall behind the bench they are sitting on,
"Before we left the Fabricator General was telling you something more than what she said to me." Lauf's smile was replaced by a flat look,
"Is there something the Fabricator General did not want me to hear Princeps? If it's something that could inhibit my mission I want to know." His tone told Alexia that lying right now would be a very bad mistake, even for the Princeps with the protection of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Alexia shakes her head to assure Lauf that it was not something that would impact him,
"No need to make threats my lord Lauf. I was told by the Fabricator General that my first concern is to protect the gifts of the Machine God and tech-priests, not the soldiers and serfs fighting on the planet. She knows of my history of stepping in to protect the weak from danger. She wanted to remind me that as a servant of the Adeptus Mechanicus, I cannot let my feelings get in the way of my duty." Alexia explains as Lauf smiles. Every time he speaks with her he finds himself more impressed by Alexia's attitude and care for the people of the Imperium,
"So will you follow those orders lady Alexia? Fight to defend a bunch of machines and priests instead of those fighting and dying for the world or the people who operate those machines?" Lauf asks, making Alexia's smile grow,
"Oh I will do my duty my lord. As far as I see it to benefit the Imperium of Man. If that means I go to save a bunch of serfs who know how to work on the machines that are probably now smashed to pieces by marauding Orks." Alexia's smile gets bigger as she explains her interpretation of the Fabricator General's orders,
"You know if your lady hears about this she will not be pleased with you." Lauf comments, emphasizing the IF when he says it. Alexia's grin matches Lauf's own as he watches her put a hand over her heart, "So I just make sure that she never finds out." Lauf laughs loudly at her actions before he stands up,
"Very well lady Princeps. I will not tell anyone about it. Especially because my Jarl would use my skin for a banner if I allowed someone who fights for the people, not just the structures of the Imperium to be punished for their actions." The lack of warriors in the Imperium that fight for the common people instead of the structure as a whole beyond a rare few such as his own chapter, the Salamanders, and individuals within the other military forces has always been something which has irked Lauf on his journey across the galaxy. Alexia is perhaps the first Princeps he's met who has such a belief. Then again, the stories she told him about her youth and growing up in the Schola Progenium where she would get in the way of Drill Abbots and Abbesses who were beating other progena harsher than she felt was appropriate to their mistake. So she would take their beatings to the point where she was almost killed by the drill abbots. The only reason why she wasn't was because every time she managed to stand back up. These actions caused her to be sent to the medicae in the Schola to recover from the beatings she took.
Now she is the commander of such a powerful weapon of the Imperium but her concern for the common people has not waned. Lauf has yet to see her in combat, but he has a feeling that this fight will be for the servants of the Sub-Sector against the Orks. Alexia smiles as she continues to sit on the bench and stretches her feet out in front of her. She relaxes while Lauf flexes his jaw before standing up,
"The more I spend time around you young Princeps. The more certain I am that the Fabricator General sent the right Titan to this sub-sector." Lauf looks at Alexia who has closed her eyes but keeps smiling,
"That's exactly why I'm here my lord. Even if the Fabricator General insisted I defend the manufactorums rather than its occupants. She's not a stupid woman, even if her brain is floating in a jar beside her head." Alexia says while she is relaxing. Just then the ship rocks a bit and Alexia sits straight up,
"Sounds like we're leaving the Warp. I better get ready." She gets off the bench and walks towards the ladder leading up to the titan's head,
"My lord. May the Omnissiah watch over you in this fight." She says when she starts to pass Lauf, "Lady Princeps." He turns around and slams one fist against his chest plate, "May the Allfather grant success in your hunt." He says proudly, bringing the smile back to Alexia before she turns around and continues walking towards her titan. Lauf goes over to the drop-pod that will hold him on the trip down to the surface of the world.
Crossing the bay towards his drop-pod, Lauf feels the floor of the ship shake. Outside the Adeptus Mechanicus cruiser carrying the titan and Lauf fully exits the warp on the edge of Grael Secundus' space, heading directly towards an Ork fleet orbiting the planet. These ramshackle greenskin vessels all begin to turn to face this new arrival while the many batteries and unique weapons along the cruiser's hull begin to fire at the longest range they have at the Orks. As the ship puts as much energy as possible to its engines and shields to reach a range over the world to deploy the transport carrying Imperatus Rex and Lauf's drop-pod, more weapons along the hull begin to fire at the Ork ships directly ahead of it to smash a path through to the planet. The weapons of the Mechanicus ship light up the space above Secundus as macro-cannon rounds, Lance fire and torpedoes slam into the Ork Kroozers rushing towards the cruiser, opening fire with all their gunz, despite most being out of range for the weapons to be of any effect against the Mechanicus' ship.
As the fire from the cruiser hits, several of the Kroozers begin to disintegrate, chunks flying into the void along with Ork crew the Kroozers' own gunz come into range and hit the cruiser's void shields. The heavy fire coming from all the Ork vessels quickly knock the shields out and force them to recharge while the cruiser keeps moving in its path towards the planet. Ork ships directly in front of the cruiser's path fully disintegrate, chunks of their heavy armour and other parts of the destroyed vessels fly into surrounding ships. This makes a hole in the Orks' line for the cruiser to rush through even as its hull buckles and bends under the hail of ordinance coming from the greenskins' ships. The ship continues to shake as it passes through the gap and turns up to launch the two down to the planet.
Lauf sits inside the drop-pod while he waits for the feeling of entering zero gravity. As another shaking rolls through him and the drop-pod there is a loud hissing sound followed by the pod flying out of the cruiser. Lauf can see the cruiser with fires coming out of parts of the hull while the transport carrying Imperatus Rex follows behind his pod down into the atmosphere. He watches the pict-display and the cruiser moving away from the Orks and planet to retreat back into the warp in spite of its damage.
The pod begins to shake as it passes through the atmosphere of Secundus. Lauf takes his axe and sword off his hips to get ready for the moment he lands. Looking back up at the pict-image on the wall he can see the surface below him riddled with manufactorums, storage buildings, hab-blocks, and trenches dug into the ground by the guardsmen present on the planet fighting against the Orks. At the moment it is not a tide of greenskins, but the smoke and damage of the buildings on the surface tell Lauf where the fighting has been occurring. As he continues falling towards the ground, explosions erupt across the battle-lines between the guardsmen and Skitarii trying desperately to hold back the Orks. He takes steady, deep breaths as everything begins to slow down. Even with the sounds rushing outside the drop-pod, Lauf can hear his two hearts beat in rhythm in his ears as he begins to enter his battle-preparations. In a practiced sequence, he begins to flex and relax the muscles and joints in his body. Starting with his toes and fingers, Lauf's warming and flexing works their way up his limbs. Popping sounds come from the joints as his muscles loosen and his already enhanced senses become more sensitive for the fight. Rolling his shoulders back and pushing the shoulder-joints as close together as he can before he follows with a roll of his neck Lauf finishes his warm-up by flexing his jaws. His fangs scrape together as the last action of Lauf's preparation. When he opens his eyes, he sees the ground rushing up to him.
A few seconds pass before the pod smashes into the earth. The pod absorbs the vast majority of the impact and the sides fall down a few seconds after landing. As soon as the sides hit the ground the bands holding Lauf up and in his spot come loose, letting him run out. When Lauf comes free of the pod he immediately charges at a group of ten Orks that were busy trying to loot a destroyed chimera. The first Ork that notices Lauf charging towards them starts to shout out a warning. But the Ork does not get more than 'Oi!' before Lauf's axe slices through his neck, sending his head flying through the air with a completely surprised expression. But the shout gets the other Orks to stop their looting and rush off the tank to get into a 'good scrap' with the Space Wolf. Two of the nearest Orks run at Lauf from either side with large choppas held high above their heads. The two get close to Lauf at the same time and swing as hard as they can. Lauf back-swings his axe towards the Ork on his right's choppa, deflecting the weapon when the beard of his axe catches the choppa and pulls it down. The motion pulls him away from the second Ork's strike, causing him to bury his choppa into the ground while the first does not get long to try and regain control of his axe when Lauf drives his sword into his head. Cutting through the head at eye level Lauf quickly spins around and buries his frost-axe down into the chest of the second Ork as he tries to pull his choppa out of the ground. The power blade of the Frost-axe cuts through without any real resistance as Lauf continues the swing until it comes out the other side of its body.
As the second Ork falls to the ground in two pieces another Ork slams into Lauf's side, knocking him to the ground, causing him to lose the grip on his sword. Lauf looks up at the Ork who laughs as he brings his choppa down towards Lauf's head. The clang of the Choppa meeting Frost-axe stops it from splitting his skull in two. Lauf grits his teeth as he keeps the Choppa away while the Ork grips the haft of his choppa with both hands, slowly pushing it closer to Lauf's forehead. While he holds back the choppa as best he can, Lauf's free hand reaches around desperately trying to find the hilt of his sword. The Ork grins as his choppa comes within an inch of Lauf's forehead,
" 'e 'e 'e. Da Warboss'll be pleazed when he sees I brung your 'ead to 'im Space Marine. This is the end." The Ork chortles in their guttural language as Lauf growls,
"Yes. But it's for you!" The next second Lauf swings what he managed to grab into the side of the Ork's face, smashing the back of a fallen choppa there, loosening several of his teef free and forcing him back a few feet. As the Ork stumbles back with blood coming out of his mouth Lauf jumps back to his feet and lunges forward, swinging his axe across the Ork's stomach. An eating squig falls out of the open wound still alive and flops around on the pile of blood and bile coming from the Ork as he falls to the ground,
"Well. T'at shouldn't be coming out…." He comments right before Lauf slams the Choppa he had grabbed into its head. Lauf watches the Ork fall to the ground dead as the six remaining Orks keep come towards him. He quickly grabs another Choppa and throws it horizontally at the next closest Ork. The Choppa hits its target in the neck right up to the middle of the spine. The Ork coughs blood before it falls back to the ground while Lauf runs over and grabs his frost-sword from where it fell after he hit the ground.
Lauf looks at the remaining five Orks who are a bit shocked by the death of their fellows in such short order. Lauf growls and bares his fangs while advancing towards the Greenskins. The Orks start to turn to retreat, only to suddenly fall to the ground when a hail of las-fire comes out of one of the buildings. The las-fire kills each of the Orks, leaving Lauf alone in the opening. He looks at the building as he spots where the guardsmen were firing from when he feels the ground shake underneath his feet. He turns to see where that shaking came from when he sees a bright beam in the sky above him heading towards the Ork main line. The beam lasts for only a second but he follows the line to see where it came from. He smiles when he sees Imperatus Rex in the distance. The titan's weapons all have steam rising from their barrels. Lauf watches as the gatling blaster moves and fires at some target. He can see the light flashing from the barrels, but the sounds of battle all around him muffles the titan's massive sounds. While he admires the titan's firepower, the guardsmen that helped him come out of their position. They look from the titan to the Space Wolf,
"See lads. I told you the God-Emperor is watching out for us here. Not only do we now have a titan. We also have one of the Space Wolves with us!" A corporal says as he drops to one knee in front of Lauf, followed by ten privates,
"My lord. You saved us from these creatures." The corporal states as Lauf motions with his head,
"Rise guardsmen. You saved yourselves." From their armour, they seem to be Cadians. But given that many worlds in the Imperium use equipment and uniforms like regiments from Cadia these troops could be from one of those worlds, "Your armour looks like it's from Cadia. But I wish to know. What world is your home?" He asks as the guardsmen stand up and gather around him, amazed at his appearance. Given how few Space Marines there are in the galaxy relatively speaking he figures this must be the first time they've seen one,
"We are proud members of the Kormrag defenders." The corporal explains, beaming as he identifies their homeworld. Lauf had heard of this fortress world, So at least these are not incompetent soldiers. Lauf thinks as the corporal waits for him to say anything,
"Well Corporal. I am glad you have come to a world where your skills are well suited. Now what can you tell me about this Ork invasion? And where your commanding officer is?" Lauf looks around at the smoke rising from destroyed buildings and vehicles,
"From what I've seen my lord. The Orks are going after the manufactorum primaris on the planet. I think they're going to try and loot the machines being built by the servitors in the manufactorum." Just like the Orks to simply steal and break sacred war engines of the Imperium Lauf thinks to himself,
"I imagine chimeras and leman russ tanks?" Lauf clicks his tongue against his fangs while looking towards one of the manufactorums where fighting is occurring outside the giant gate. He expects simple vehicles to be made on this world that will be taken by the Orks to mangle by their custom of adding bits of scrap metal and other bits of junk and call it 'armour' or 'banners'. When Lauf looks back at the corporal, the look on his face makes the young bloodclaw frown,
"Actually my lord. I believe the manufactorum primaris makes Macharius Heavy Tanks." When the words leave the corporal's mouth, Lauf's blood has already cooled. His head snaps in the direction of the manufactorum currently too far from the battle line to be directly in danger of the Orks. But he can see that the Orks are pushing towards it as the corporal explained,
"We need to find your commander guardsmen. And stop these greenskins from seizing the manufactorums. Every one they take gives them more firepower and more chances to desecrate the machine god's tools. At least that's what the tech-priests would complain about." He says quickly as another beam comes from the Hellstorm cannon on Imperatus Rex to smash into the Ork horde,
"Hey boys! You want to let a giant walker kill more greenskins than us?" The corporal shouts to cheers and snaps of 'NO!' from the other guardsmen as Lauf smiles and starts running towards the fighting with the guardsmen right behind him. They move through the rubble of a destroyed hab-block, coming out of a third-floor hab-unit to see a series of trenches below them. The trenches run underneath another hab-block towards the battle-zone. The perfect highway to get back to the guardsmen's lines. As Lauf leads the way down to the trenches, they can see the aftermath of the fighting in this area. Ork, grot, and human bodies are scattered around the trench along with broken weapons and destroyed vehicles from both sides. No doubt the Orks were too busy continuing to fight to loot and plunder these war materials so that's why these things remain. Lauf jumps into the trench, landing on top of a dead Ork followed by the guardsmen.
He stops for a moment to see if they are the only ones present, listening and sniffing. Just when Lauf thinks they are alone a box hitting the ground draws his attention to further down the trench where a group of gretchins are searching through a stack of empty ammunition boxes for something to fight with to replace the rusted pieces of metal they are holding. Lauf grins as he stands up and taps his axe against the wall of the trench. The gretchins all look at him and stare in shock,
"Space Mar…" The gretchin shouting gets cut off when the corporal shoots it through the head while the other guardsmen fire their lasguns, killing most of the gretchins while four start running towards them. The guardsmen fire again, dropping the tiny greenskins. Not much of a fight, but they were quick with their trigger fingers and stayed calm even with the surprise encounter. Lauf smiles as he motions with his hand. The guardsmen stand and they all run down the trench, continuing to head towards the previous known guardsmen positions.
When Lauf comes to a narrow section of trench after several minutes of running, he sniffs the air for the strongest scents of humans and las-fire while above the position he can see a giant plasma round fly through the air to hit some target the Warlord Titan is aiming at. Lauf stops for a second to wonder how much damage that machine has caused in such a short time.
"My lord. We need to keep moving." The corporal says when he comes up beside Lauf. Just as he goes to answer a new scent fills Lauf's nostrils and he gets ready to fight. The corporal is unable to ask what Lauf smelled when a shoota round hits him in the chest, throwing him into the wall of the trench, splattering blood all across it. Lauf spins to face the origin of the shell and sees an Ork Kommando laughing as he clutches his personal shoota.
Lauf curses under his breath. Why had he not detected the Kommando hiding there? His attention quickly turns to the other side of the trench where more Kommandos burst out of their hiding places, opening fire with their own shootas. Their fire is as always with Orks haphazard and not very accurate, giving the guardsmen with him a chance to return fire with their lasguns. But very quickly the Orks start to move into the trench to fight up close with their blades. But that is where Lauf excelled as he charged the first two Kommandos to jump in with them. He smashes one against the side of the trench, following that with a quick stab to the heart from his sword while blocking the other Ork's blade with his axe. As the first Kommando slumps to the ground Lauf turns and bisects the second at the waist with a single clean slash. This Kommando falls to the ground a bit confused about why he felt lighter right before the blood loss caused the Ork to die. Lauf pulls his axe away from the body and turns just in time to see two guardsmen fall from another Kommando who had come from behind their position. The remaining guardsmen turn their lasguns on the Kommando but as they do, more Kommandos leap into the trench and cut through their flimsy flak armour. Blood splatters across the ground as the guardsmen fall leaving Lauf alone with the Orks. As he glares at the greenskins, a realization strikes him when he gets a good whiff of the Orks' scent. They are smeared in the smell of gunpowder, exactly like the rest of the battlefield. He cannot believe he was so stupid to not realize it sooner. Focusing on the scents, he can finally detect the difference between the Kommandos' false scent and the actual ground.
Smiling when one Kommando drops several smoke grenades stolen from one of the armouries on this world, Lauf does not worry. Now that he has their scents, he does not need his eyes. One Kommando comes right at him thinking he is blind and thus unable to fight back in time. Unfortunately for the Ork Lauf smells him as he rushed through the smoke and quickly shows the Kommando the error of his ways when he deflects his strike and cuts across the chest, deep enough to split the spine and open its chest. The Kommando falls with a thud while another comes at him from the side. Again the Ork thinks that Lauf is blind and it was simple luck that he was able to kill the first Kommando to attack him. He does not have time to regret under-estimating the Space Wolf as Lauf's axe cleaves him in two when he gets in range. Using just his nose, Lauf runs towards the next Kommando who was busy calling out to the two that tried to kill him already. That Kommando has only a short second to react before he is cut down like the other Orks. Lauf sniffs the air and throws his axe to the left. The sound of it hitting flesh followed by a gurgling scream tells him that his axe hit its target as another Kommando wanders close enough for Lauf to see that his axe has gotten stuck in its chest. But the Ork is still alive, a tribute to their resilient forms. The Ork looks down at the axe in his chest and smiles. He thinks it's a nice trophy to have and starts to reach down to pull it out,
"I don't think so." Lauf growls as he punches the Kommando in the lower jaw as hard as he can. The strike dislocates it, making it appear even more confused or brain-dead than they normally are. He makes the Ork's reality match the appearance when he cuts its head off in a quick follow-up to the punch. As the head rolls on the ground, the smoke clears, revealing Lauf to be the only being still standing in this part of the trench. Pulling his axe out of the Kommando's chest he goes over to the guardsmen to see if any are still alive. His hope is dashed very quickly as he finds each one was killed almost instantly by the Orks' attacks. He frowns as he carefully adjusts the guardsmen's bodies just to give them a bit of respect for fighting as they have. When he is done he bows his head and says a quick prayer to the Allfather. Hoping their souls have been granted access to the halls of the dead by the two-headed giant wolf guardian Morkai. He is brought back to the situation surrounding him when Imperatus Rex fires its hellstorm cannon at another target among the Ork horde. Lauf stands up and looks in the direction of the Manufactorum Primaris. It does not have any smoke rising from it. So far so good. The guard are still holding them back from that at least. He returns to running down the trench towards the battle-line. When he reaches there he will come up behind the Orks in the perfect position to attack them. As he runs through the trench he can hear shootas and lasguns fire grow louder with each step he takes towards the battle. The sounds make him well aware of how hard pressed the guardsmen must be by the volume of fire he can hear coming in the direction of the fighting. Running through a broken cargo container, Lauf climbs up to the other side and looks out. He can finally see the battle line where the guardsmen do everything in their power to keep the Orks from getting in close with their choppas and other weapons. In most parts he can see what must be bodies piled as a makeshift defence by the humans against the Orks. Lauf sees how now more than ever he needs to get there to assist the guard in defending this world so he quickly jumps out of the container down to land on the ground and takes off again at a run towards their lines.
Running past a former strong point where more human and Ork bodies alike lay around a heavy bolter. Jumping over the position Lauf keeps running as he can smell the scents of blood and gunpowder growing more prominent along with other human smells getting stronger as he picks up his pace to get to the guardsmen. Passing around a wrecked Chimera Lauf stops when he sees a very large Nob with around twenty Orks around him trying to get a broken Leman Russ working. Lauf growls and charges at the Orks. Two turn around and shout out 'Space Marine!' Alerting all the other Orks to the chance of a good fight. Lauf swings his sword and axe, cutting the first Ork in three, at the neck and the waist. Twisting his hand he back-hands the second Ork with his axe cutting diagonally down its body right before it swung its choppa at him. When more Orks charge at him, he also cuts them down quickly, but after the fifth Ork dies he gets caught from behind by another Ork sneaking up behind him cutting across his back with a blade. His armour takes the strike, but it does knock him forward to another Ork swinging his own choppa. Lauf just manages to duck underneath the swing and returns with an uppercut with his axe, dropping the Ork. Looking around Lauf sees that the Orks have encircled him with the Nob approaching. On one hand he has a large power-klaw wheezing and hissing as all Ork contraptions do. In the other he has a large kustom shoota on his arm. Lauf grips his weapons tightly,
"Well come on Greenskins. I don't have all day. And you're in my way." Lauf says with a bored expression as the Orks all laugh as they begin to move closer to the Space Wolf.
Lauf braces himself as two Orks charge at him when suddenly one of the Orks in the circle is riddled with a burst of bolter rounds. The boy falls to the ground when two others drop with bolter rounds through the head, A heavy bolter? Lauf quickly spins around and cuts off one Ork's head as more bolter fire hits the Orks in the circle as they try to figure out where it is coming from. From the bursts of fire and Lauf's frost-weapons, soon only the Nob is left and he is mad as he glares at Lauf,
"I don't know w'at yor plan is Space Marine. But I'm gonna….." He gets cut off by a bolter round ripping through his neck. The Nob coughs up blood as he rushes up to grab his neck with his power klaw. Moving too quickly with the sharp blades of the klaw and clamps it down on the wound. Lauf shakes his head as the Nob's head rolls away from his body after the power klaw decapitated himself. Lauf turns when he hears a shout of frustration,
"No fair! You said I could shoot the big one!" A voice brings Lauf's eyes up to the top of the trench. Up there he can see three members fo the Adeptus Sororitas, the Sisters of Battle. Two of them have bolters in their hands while the third is carrying a heavy bolter. The heavy bolter carrying Sister is the one complaining to the one of those with a bolter that is looking at her,
"I did let you shoot more of the greenskins than others. Besides, the Space Marine there was going to decapitate the Nob. You wouldn't have been happy then would you?" She comments as the heavy-bolter one sighs,
"Yeah…. Good point." All the Sisters climb into the trench and stand in front of Lauf,
"What's a Space Wolf doing alone on this world?" The bolter-carrying Sister who had been calming the heavy-bolter one asks. Lauf looks at the three. Like most of his chapter he does not trust the servants of the Ecclesiarchy, but so far these Sisters have not shot him. Just as he's about to say what he was doing, the other Sister with a bolter steps closer and looks at him,
"Is it….. you?" The Sister attaches her bolter to her hip and pulls off her helmet. Dark-blonde hair cut to the bottom of her ears and pale skin stands out against yellowish-green eyes, "Wolf?" Lauf smiles as he finally recognizes the scent of the woman in front of him,
"I'm glad to see you have survived this long Astra." Lauf says as Astra hugs his waist, "You saved me back then. Sisters. This is Lord Lauf Redclaw. The Space Wolf I told you about." Astra says, letting go of Lauf and looking at the two other sisters,
"Well. If everything Astra told us about you my lord. I think our chances of beating back these Orks just went up." The other bolter Sister comments as she takes her own helmet off. Her hair is as white as snow and flows out of the back of her head in a hime cut that was held up inside her helmet. The white hair contrasts with her green eyes that stand out against her white skin. Underneath her left eye she has a tattoo of a fleur-de-lis and bell,
"Come on Cassidy. Let the lord see your face. Don't be the one standing out." The last Sister begins to remove her own helmet after she put her heavy bolter down. When the helmet is finally off Lauf can see that aside from her weapon, this Sister is unique from the other two. Her skin identifies her as coming from Chorgris, the White Scars' homeworld. Her black hair is tied back in a ponytail and off to one side of her head. On the front of her face Lauf's eyes are drawn to a long scar running from the middle of her eyebrow downs to the left side of her mouth. Whatever caused that scar cut deep enough to destroy Cassidy's eye as her left eye has been replaced with a bionic piece. Her other eye is silver-brown and looks at Lauf's weapons with a small smirk on her mouth,
"Well considering what his weapons did to these greenskins. I'd say he can handle himself quite well Astra." She says to the older Sister while the white-haired Sister looks at the other two,
"We need to get back to the frontline sisters. My lord. Would you be willing to join us?" Lauf looks at her,
"First. What is your name?" She smiles as she looks at him, "My name's Ashe my lord." Lauf grins when Ashe gives her name,
"Well Ashe. Cassidy. Astra. I will show you the fury of a Vlka Fenryka against these greenskins." He says as they all start running towards the sounds of battle. Lauf does not know why as he looks back at the Sisters running behind him, but he feels an urge to fight to protect them. Perhaps it is because he is glad to see Astra go from the young girl he met on Solomn to this warrior of the Emperor. But right now he is running to battle not just for getting to his revenge, but to protect others he knows.