Winds blew with a furious purpose, dust and sand swept across the desert without mercy for whomever was present on the battlefield; Imperial guard and Chaos have been waging brutal and unforgiving warfare, no one was spared on this desert world, its civilian populace long gone.
These two armies were however not the only ones, no, the dreaded Necrons woke upon the sounds of battle between the Lost and the Damned, and the Tallarn Raiders. The Tallarn were a stubborn and dangerous bunch, their former lively world was transformed into a desert wasteland by a virus bombardment. Deserts were their home now, be it on Tallarn or some other hellhole this is where they belonged.
The latest sandstorm had been hell for the cultists, ironic, but it was still in its own way a hell. Not a single one of the Lost and the Damned scouts could see their hands in front of their faces; a rope had to be tied so that none of them would be lost within the storm.
Very slowly they were getting close to their home base, a ruined temple, there they would find some life giving water and a place to empty their boots of the dreaded grains of planet that always seemed to find its way there, sometimes whole pairs of boots would break apart if they weren't properly maintained.
Unfortunately for them, they would not be reaching the temple.
Several beings ran through the storm as if they were a part of the storm, completely hidden from the sight of the cultists that drudged through the sand unaware on the sandmen following them.
"This is such bollocks!" One of the cultists whined with his mouth taking in some sand, making him cough it right back out.
"Pipe down!" The one in front called back though his rebreather, "We're almost there!"
Hearing the reassuring update from their leader the small group started to march faster, in hopes of finally being done with the storm. Their hopes however will drop like rocks, or in the case of the rear soldier, his head.
With a quick flash both the rear cultist's head was removed and his line to the rest of the squad severed before his body even hit the ground, whatever noise it would've made was lost within the sandstorm.
The next man met a similar fate, as did the next, and the one that… until the only one left was the group leader.
He however was completely unaware of his squad's demise, "Haha! We made it lads! We-!" the cultist squad gasped as a long curved sword pierced through his back and out of his chest.
With his lights fading he managed to get a glimpse at his attackers before his body succumbed to the sands, seven Brawlers of Tallarn. Men that specialized in close quarters and hid within sandstorms to ambush their enemies, and take no prisoners and leave no evidence of their existence.
The entrance to the temple wasn't well hidden, the Magnoculars weren't even necessary, a downed obelisk provided cover for the cultist encampment letting light from their camp illuminate small portions underneath the heavy storm of sand; whoever was supposed to be guarding the entrance was instead by their vehicles, the tarps that were meant to guard the equipment from sand erosion were flailing tattered remnants of their former glory.
It was laughable at how unprepared they were, and now they were going to be punished for their ignorance swiftly and mercilessly.
The Tallarn way, one thing the "Desert Tigers" personified.
Like serpents they slithered through the sand dunes, careful to slide down the way the wind was blowing so that if someone was looking towards them, no one would suspect something was coming down the dune.
The seven men separated, no words were spoken between them as they moved into positions optimal for an ambush.
One in particular had gotten on top of a Chimera tank that over looked four cultists, this man's name was Saladin Ad-Dīn Yūsuf.
With practiced precision he unsheathed his curved Khalig sword and curved Monoknife without making a sound. He crouched down over the cultists underneath the Chimera and jumped down behind the four of them; with natural born swiftness he decapitated the closest cultist with a back handed sword swing, drove his Monoknife through the armored chest piece of another cultist.
The corpses dropped after a second, alerting the last two albeit not for long. In a blur of sharp metal and sand the last two cultists found themselves cut into several pieces of meat and metal with wide eyes.
Saladin flicked his blades twice before sheathing them. He sprinted down the path the equipment made, along the way the sounds of blades hacking and slashing were heard, accompanied by the gasps and choked shrieks of the victim cultists.
By the time Saladin reached the temple entrance the rest of the Tallarn brawlers were behind him, their faces covered by their face cloth wrappings.
Inside of the temple old hieroglyphics depicted a story: great monsters battling men in large numbers, the monsters swatting the men like they were mere pieces on a chest board. The men suffered heavy losses until from the skies greater men made of metal descended from the sky with weapons of Imperial make, they slayed the daemonic beast and lead the men- unfortunately some cultist thought it was a good idea to cover the remainder of the story with a Chaos banner and supply crates, bringing a small amount of ire from Saladin.
He loves stories.
No doubt it was a retelling about the liberation of this planet, Sultana V, when the Blood Angel Space Marine Chapter slew the Daemon Baaraz Etrout, whom had enslaved the planet on the name of Chaos.
Now the Imperium and Chaos returned to this world to wage war, again.
The halls of the temple were decorated with hieroglyphics and unfortunately Chaos insignias, the temple was desecrated. Bodies of Imperial priests were strewn across the walls as a final insult to the Imperial Creed, to the Emperor himself.
Such heresy was beyond forgiveness, no amount of repenting will save them from the wrath of the Tallarn guardsmen.
Deeper and deeper they treaded through the inner halls of the temple, the more the hairs on the backs of their necks stood at attention. Something terrible was being conducted within the bowls of the temple.
"Raheim," The Tallarn Sergeant whispered to one of the masked men, who was the squad's vox-operator, "call in our position, the regiment must be informed about this location. If we are to die here, then I want my body bathed in fire than to be stung up on the walls."
The Vox-operator nodded tuning into the frequency the regiment was using.
"Saladin," He turned towards the Sergeant, "you will scout ahead with Al-Asha and Dakar. Kill any and all cultists you find and secure the area. The rest of the squad and I will start clearing out any stragglers that try to come through here."
Saladin bowed his head and took off with Al-Asha and Dakar following close behind.
A few minutes into their run through the temple halls chanting could be heard, along with the struggle of chains and inhuman roars.
"What in the Throne is that?" Dakar asked readying the Plasma gun he was charged with handling.
"Whatever it was," Saladin said readying his Lascarbine, "it does not sound pleasant."
The screaming and grew louder as they traversed down the narrow hallways, the tormented screams sounded mechanical in nature, "That sounds a Necron." Al-Asha commented with a raised brow.
Dropping themselves to the ground they slowly crawled across the sandy floor; inside of the large temple room were a mass of Lost and the Damned however they were not alone, two Hereteks or Dark Mechanicus stood around a table with a Necron Trooper strapped down with some of its limbs missing, beside it was an energy cage that magnetically held the remaining Necrons captive.
"What in the Throne are they doing?" Dakar asked cringing at the metal pincers pulling the soulless metal monster to the table.
Al-Asha rubbed his bearded chin, "I think, I think that they are trying to sever its connection to its Gods and turn it to Chaos. I'm not even sure if that is possible, then again, who knows with the Necrons and Chaos."
"It matters little, we have our orders, and I think those Necrons would useful uncaged." Saladin lowered his face wrap displaying a sick grin, "If we disable that cage we'll be able to pick off whatever is left with the plasma gun and grenades."
The other two Tallarn men sat there and thought for a moment, "Frakk, I hope you know what you're doing Saladin."
"This is going to suck." Dakar whined charging a blast from the plasma gun.
"Don't be such a grox calf, if this goes well then we should get out of here with some accommodations, maybe a metal or two for our hard work." Saladin said smugly, he was already sneaking into the room with Al-Asha following close behind.
Dakar sighed face palming, "Frakk…"
In low crouches the Tallarn men snuck behind fallen debris and supply crates without making a sound to betray their presence, if this plan was going to work then they'd need to be quick with their plan's execution.
Getting in a higher position so that the whole room could be seen Saladin took the time to count the number of enemies, "Thirty heretics, ten xenos, including the one on the table. I'll take out that generator, once they start killing each other off we'll-"
Saladin stopped short as a portal opened up in the center of the room, three strange looking orbs flew from the portal and into the hands of one of the Hereteks, "With these soul tears from the Daemon Hordes we should be able to turn this one to our cause." One of the Dark Mechanicus said.
"That's if the construct can handle the spirit." The other said holding open the Necron Trooper's metal chest cavity.
Saladin looked towards his compatriots with the same 'oh shit' look, "Frakk it, we're doing it now!"
He raised his lascarbine over a downed book case and fired three shots into the stasis generator, the metal contraption exploded in furious flames catching some of cultists in the blast. Dakar tossed two grenades just under the table where the two Dark Mechanicus stood; they had very little time to react before the explosives detonated and relieved them of their bodies in a plume of fire and shrapnel.
The Necrons stood within an instant and immediately started to exact their revenge on their captors.
One punched its arm right through a cultist's chest armor, out through his back to grab another by his throat. The machine pulled his arm back tearing out the cultist's throat through the first cultist's body.
Another clapped both of its hands with a cultist's head between the palms; said head was nothing but mushy flesh and bone.
"Frakk, frakkkk-ahhhh!" One cultist screamed as both of his arms were torn off and used to club him to death.
While the chaotic battle raged the three soul orbs that the Hereteks originally had flew back into the Warp portal, causing it to distort and flicker violently.
One Necron grabbed a cultist by the head and gouged his eyes out with its metal thumbs, and ended the heretic by tearing his head in half.
"Fire the plasma!" Saladin roared shooting the Necrons with his lascarbine, barely even damaging them… in fact doing absolutely nothing to them at all.
Dakar slipped his light resistant goggles over his eyes and fired one blast, the plasma round struck two Necrons, sending them to the ground covered in hot plasma.
Imediately the metal skeleton men took notice of the Tallarn guardsmen, "Shrakk!" Dakar fired twice more scoring four more kills from the slower machines, the effects of the stasis field still hampering their movement even after its destruction.
"We need to get moving, they'll have us surrounded!" Al-Asha shouted firing lasrounds into some cultist stragglers that were near their weapons.
A Necron jumped up to their position with razor sharp claws, Al-Asha charged it with his Khalig sword and attempted to behead it; instead the metal being raised its wrist to Al-Asha's and broke the man's bones, it then shoved its right hand into his gut and remove his liver in a fluid motion.
Al-Asha dropped to his knees with a grunt, he grabbed onto the Necron's legs, "Kill it!"
Dakar responded with a war cry and a burst of plasma, melting the metal monster on top of Al-Asha.
The Warp portal began to fluctuate viciously as it started to suck in the room's contents.
Saladin stared in horror before pulling Dakar alongside him, "we need to go now!"
"Take this! I'll hold them!" Dakar thrusted the powered down weapon into Saladin's hands.
"What are you-"
Dakar jumped down to the ground and charged into the middle of the Necron group as they converged on him, "For the Emperor!" He opened his uniform up with five high explosive grenades clipped to his gear, all with their pins released.
Saladin dove to the ground as his friend exploded into flames, engulfing and damaging the Necrons as they flew into different directions.
Unfortunately for Saladin the explosion knocked him unconscious and left him to the mercy of the Warp portal as it sucked down the contents of the room.
Whether it is by fate, or by some writer making a fanfic (wink), he woke up to the soft feeling of grass in between his calloused fingers. Groaning groggily he lifted his head up to see another guardsman dressed in yellow lift his head up from the ground asking, "Well frakk, where am I?"
Saladin groaned rising to a knee, "Your guess is as good as mine."
Our Tallarn man is here! And soon so shall our Vostroyan and Tech Priest adept, they shall be prized members amongst the students of Beacon Academy. However how shall this new huntsmen group react to the Faunus abhumans? How shall they handle their separation from the Imperium? And better yet... who shall they be shipped with? What is Chaos Undivided up too? What are the Orks doing?
I already know, don't worry about it. Just do your thing and enjoy this latest installment.
Also the Ruby/Hansel pairing shall be known as Skulls and Roses.
