"L-minus three minutes and counting" the intercom chirped.
Inside the boarding torpedo was silence, its inhabitants-Squad Invictor of the Blood Angels, the only Terminator squad sanctioned to the 'Tyro Quest', as it has become to be known, sat in prayer and doing final weapons checks. All five Terminators stood secured on the inside wall of the torpedo, each equipped with the most powerful weaponry in their Chapter along with their ancient Terminator battle suits. Their combined age was 1,245, each having earned the right to be permitted to use such sacred technology.
Veteran Sergeant Tobias, squad Invictor's leader and also nominated section leader for those forces boarding by torpedo, waited patiently as he felt the giant torpedo being loaded into the chamber of the Might of Sanguinius. It was not his first time in a boarding torpedo; it was something his duty as a First Company Blood Angel expected him to do every time a space hulk, a warp created amalgamation of asteroid and ship, appeared in human space, in systems local to Baal. Such encounters often meant he was often cleansing the corridors and rooms inside it of genestealers, whilst having other priorities to think about, such as retrieving a computer module, or starting detonation sequences. No, Tobias was a veteran in all sense of the word, unlike his fellow squad mate, Brother Maugan. Maugan had just earned his place in Invictor during his time on Armageddon, in the legendary Captain Tycho's Third Company, when he led his Assault team into the middle of a heavily fortified Ork fortress, along with the company commander. Between Maugan's assault squad and Captain Tycho's command squad, the camp's inhabitants had been decimated in 31 minutes. Timing had meant that this time was his first boarding action.
The displays of his squad's vitals showed Maugan's heart rate to be higher than the rest. Looking across at the helmet of Maugan, Sergeant Tobias broke the silence in order to calm his fellow Marine down, improving his chances of seeing the day through.
"Brother Maugan, have you given prayers to the Emperor and Sanguinius?"
"As set down by the Chapters Rites of War, sergeant" Assured the youngest of the team, at only one hundred and fourteen.
"Have you eaten both of the meals of today?" the Sergeant asked, looking for a reason why Maugan's heart-rate was so high
"Yes sergeant, at 1300 and 2100"
Unable to perform spiritual checks without and satisfied it wasn't a chemical reaction to the meals they'd been partaking and it wasn't a struggle of confidence or faith, Sergeant Tobias had no reason to put it down to an unusual case of nerves, but didn't chance it and offered a silent prayer to the Primarch to protect Maugan from the Black Rage before he spoke once more.
"Worry not my brother and allow yourself a moment of peace, this will be like any other battle, except in close quarters and as for the launch- just like riding a scorpion chaser on Baal, like every Blood Angel used to do when they were in training. Everyone else here and the deck below are calm and focused, you should be too"
"Yes Sergeant"
The intercom buzzed once more "L-minus one minute and counting"
Brother Maugan had that spark of brilliance radiating from him. Sergeant Tobias made a mental note to keep an eye on him, to make sure he gets to lead his own squad of terminators some day. He then opened the general channel for his section:
"Remember brothers, if it's green and ugly, put it out of its misery, it's your duty as artists!" Tobias joked, playing on the artistic personality each Blood Angel attains through longevity, to which the response was laughter. The internal chrono of his visor displayed number blinking from ten downwards "For our brothers!"
The torpedo engines lit up and began delivering its deadly cargo towards its intended target, along with the rest of the salvo.
"Torpedoes away sir" reported Ships Master Ailanthus
"Very well Ailanthus. Emperor's Strength" replied Captain Tyro onboard his Thunderhawk.
"Emperor's Strength" replied Ailanthus, cutting the line.
Tapping the communications rune on his helmet side, Tyro began giving last orders as he walked from the hold to the small cockpit, containing two space marine pilots, each adorned in their power armour, their company shoulder pad showing squadron number and their chapter symbol, but comprised of sharper edges, and less gentle curves around the blood drop and the wing tips.
"All squadrons launch and go reap as much havoc as you desire! First squadrons remember, play catch up, and protect those torpedoes before deploying your troops. The rest of you descend to the lower decks as quickly as you can, clearing floor by floor. Pilots, once empty, your gunship is your blade-make sure those green skinned monstrosities taste its cold steel! I don't need to remind you all of how important our success here, may the Emperor's Strength be with you all!"
Acknowledgements were made by the squadron leaders and the first waves, led by Tyro's command gunship, aptly named Red Crusader, all took off and swarmed out with such precision, expected of the Imperium's elite, that the craft launched a squadron at a time, in row formation, leaving no more than three metres gap between wing tips. The flight flew at full thrust towards the Hammer of Judgement, following the tails left by the boarding torpedoes. When close enough the four Thunderhawks in Red Crusader's flight peeled off and made way towards the boarding torpedoes starboard. They remained in their pairs as Red Crusader shot past remaining on course for the Hammer's landing bay, located under the bridge, and each pair took up standard escorting positions, their talented pilots matching speed and trajectory of their charges, not yet having to intercept any Ork "fighta-bomberz", as the Orks called their craft. The second flight all took up escorting flight paths, whilst the remaining flight homed in on the Hammer.
Captain Tyro opened up a link to the Hammer of Judgement
"This is Captain Tyro of the Emperor's Astartes Blood Angels Chapter calling the Hammer of Judgement, please respond."
The reply came straight away
"I read you Captain Tyro, this is Ranking Lieutenant Ibrahim Taa'lath on the Hammer of Judgment's bridge, go ahead my lord"
"Lieutenant listen to me carefully, have you picked up signals of ordinance coming from the Might of Sanguinius?"
There was a brief pause and then an angry response
"What in the name of Holy Terra is the meaning of this Captain? Why are you firing upon us? Explain your actions or…"
"Shut up Lieutenant and listen! Do not, I repeat NOT, fired upon those torpedoes, they contain my fellow brothers onboard, shooting them down will have you executed for treason by my hand. They are targeted at your lower infested decks with the mission to cleanse them. Also I require you to clear your aft docking bays, as I have numerous gunships carrying marines who need to land, now step to it Lieutenant and I'll forgive your earlier outburst!"
Tyro broke the link and cursed under his breathe at the Lieutenant's naive reaction at the boarding torpedoes, how dare he think the Blood Angels, or any of their brother Chapters would turn away from the Emperor's light and attack a ship-of-the-line.
"Captain!" shouted one of the pilots
Tyro looked forward through the transparisteel view port. The pilot glanced at the captain's helmet, through his own, before returning his view to the giant vessel they were closing in on
"Sir, touch-down in four minutes, seventeen seconds"
Tyro tapped the pilot on the shoulder and returned to the hold
"Thank you pilot"
In the hold, his honour guard were waiting there, along with Librarian Dracul, Sanguinary Priest Augustine, and Chaplain Barthos
"Arm yourselves brothers and prepare yourselves for combat. We deploy in five minutes"
They all released their restraints and prepped their weaponry and equipment, the Chaplin offering final prayers.
The Thunderhawk landed, its prow ramp lowered, allowing Tyro and his retinue to disembark and wait as the other Thunderhawks landed and opened up their holds. Meanwhile Lieutenant Taa'lath had considered it his duty to be there for the arrivals. He stood nervous, more than he'd ever been before, even during his interview for his current position. The Space Marines assembled in front of Captain Tyro, in perfect columns. It seemed odd to Ibrahim Taa'lath, with squads in different markings and colours, yet all answering to one commander. It probably was something unusual, but Ibrahim wasn't sure, he'd never saw a Space Marine with his own eyes until now.
The proximity alarm sounded in the torpedo indicating breach was less than a minute away. All torpedo marine racks went through the automated sequence of in rotating 90ْْ into the middle isle of the torpedo, each still holding its space marine tightly.
The external lascannons began spitting their laser death onto the ships hull, with no hope of penetrating it, but it does decrease the chance of the torpedo not breaching and crushing itself, and all in it, with its own thrust. In side the racks began to release their cargo in a perfect, breaching line formation, allowing ammunition to be loaded into weapons and safety catches to be released. Each squad leader often said something to his men about now, but Ranking Sergeant Tobias was unorthodox, he remained quiet, allowing the marines under his command to prepare themselves, calibrate gun sights. In his experience he has seen, even with Space Marines, final orders can take up valuable prep time and may rattle the younger marines.
Then the torpedoes, and the ship itself, shuddered as the warheads went straight through the ship's armoured hull and stopped with the entire warhead inserted in the ship. The warhead, as per boarding sequence was thrust further forward at high speed by hydraulic arms, piercing the corridors other wall, but as it did the grenade launchers mounted just behind the tip began discharging their rounds down either side of the torpedo, clearing the way for the boarding parties with a mixture of scare grenades, mini-frag grenades, photon flares, and gas bombs.
One the green light on the internal compartments was lit, Tobias checked the sonar readings- hostiles, numerous. This section of deck which his squad was instructed to clear was full of hostiles, assuming there were no guardsmen present still fighting the horde off. He expected no less than the toughest section for his terminators. He hit the door release button and turned behind him
"You see a greenskin-nail him! ONTO VICTORY MY BROTHERS!" he screamed as he exited down the ramp and swung around to his right and started to let his storm bolter do its job.
The Orks had begun to surge forwards towards the torpedo and upon seeing the giant red Space Marines charge out of the torpedo had begun firing wildly towards them whilst still running, in an attempt to claim the kill and be "the 'Ardest", but deep down the Orks wanted to fight up close and personal, just how they liked it. Sergeant Tobias and his squad were more than happy to oblige. Tobias was keeping to the right hand side of the corridor, his storm bolter unleashing its deadly ammunition at high rates, so high, Tobias saw his visors ammo counter scroll down from triple figures. He knew he'd need to reload when he made contact, but that didn't bother him for behind him, and to the right of the corridor Brother Leonardo was walking slowly towards the Orks with his assault cannon hurling almost ten bullets per second out of the eight revolving barrels which erupted in the green mass, blocking the corridor in front of his Sergeant
Tobias was a mere three metres away from the orks as his gun clicked empty and a signal on his visor was flashing red. He ignored it, simply dropping the gun to the ground and swinging his power sword with an upwards motion of his left hand, the blue blade crackling with energy as it sliced through two orks in one go, before his right hand joined the left on the grip. He began to flow through the movements of his sword drills which has made him Company duellist back when he was in the battle companies during the yearly games at Angels Fall decades ago. The corridor was filled with sounds, enough to deafen a man without auto-senses- The ork yells, and screams as they dropped their guns and fought with crude axes, swords, or even their bare fists; Tobias' yells as he brought the power sword down on a bulky ork, severing him from clavicle to pelvis. Leonardo was now in the think of it too, grabbing the skull of an Ork with his power fist and pulling the ork towards him as his thrust his assault cannon into the orks chest and squeezed the trigger sending shards of bone and green blood and flesh in every conceivable direction.
Then Tobias saw the key to winning this round of fighting as a two and a half metre tall Ork came running through the smaller Orks-the leader, or "Nob" as the Ork language labelled them. He was pulling Orks away from Tobias yelling
"Back off you lot, da beaky wiv da sword is mine!"
Some of them did as they were told as started to gang up on Leonardo, hacking away at his armour as he fought bravely on, either ripping apart Orks with his power fist or, after slamming a new drum into his cannon, shredding their bodies with bullets, others got in the way and ended up on the wrong end of Tobias' sword, or their leader's attitude.
Sergeant Tobias saw the ork hurtle towards him, a huge axe raised ready to come down on him, his power sword, gripped down by his waist, facing forward. His tactical knowledge assumed that with the combined effort of the weight of that blade and the Ork's strength that could crack through certain parts of his armoured suit, especially if the earlier Ork bullets had worn parts of the suit thin. He waited and then with a well placed and timed strike he brought his sword up in an arc as the Ork began to bring the axe down, and severed the orks wrist, causing the blade to drop to the floor, with a giant green hand still gripping the handle tight. The Ork ignored the injury and body checked Tobias into the wall before headbutting, and cracking Tobias helmet and visor. The Blood Angel used his free hand and superhuman strength and began punching the Orks gut and when he had enough room he let his armoured gauntlet connect with the Orks jaw, snapping the bone and turning it's battlecry into a gurgle and blood seeped into the Orks mouth.
As his assailant staggered back from the blow Tobias felt his hearts beat faster and harder, his hearing started to mute and his blood felt as if it were on fire. Sanguinius' gift of ferocity equal to no other was upon him. He tore off his broken helmet, throwing it to the deck, and still facing the ork, clenched his fists, tensing most of his upper body muscles, brought his head down slightly, took in a deep breathe and let out a tremendous roar, bearing his vampiristic fangs for all to see. Brother Loenardo just stood and watched, surrounded by carcasses of Orks, as his squad leader's now visible neck muscles looked more like tree roots and his sergeant flipped the power sword around in his hand so the blade was behind him, then brought that hand up across the golden aquila on his chest and with the point at the end of the blue bladed sword faced the giant Ork, crackling with little forks of lightning along the edges, Tobias plunged the sword through the Orks chest, pinning it against the corridor wall.
Energy began to constantly surge into the green body, the Ork convulsing and screaming in agony, but Tobias didn't retract the blade, instead he let go and began to throw punches into the now stationary target, Leonardo heard bones crack over and over. Finally Tobias ended it-His hand went around the lower part of the Orks face and began to squeeze. The Ork yelled louder, cursing in the Ork dialect, as his skull was being crushed. After fracturing the skull he turned away from the Ork and gave a quick finishing blow with the ball of his armoured fist smashing the lower skull, sending shards of bone into the Ork's spine, killing him instantly.
Tobias removed his sword, allowing the lifeless body to fall to the floor, and stared at a motionless Leonardo. His breathing began to slow down as he picked up his damaged helmet, fixed it onto his belt and his storm bolter which he reloaded.
"Let us clear the rest of the deck and meet with the others, Leonardo"
The terminator just nodded and followed sergeant Tobias past the green pile of flesh that covered the floor.