Part Twelve - Descent of Secrets
The five hundred worlds of Ultramar saw brutal war. Captain Titus' resistance against the darkness of the Sicarian Empire had risen to a proper power, fifty worlds in number. Tens of thousands of ships stood in its defense, with the allegiance of a dozen shattered chapters behind him and hundreds of millions of guardsmen to liberate worlds from the prevention of their Primarch's wishes. As the Harbinger of Guilliman he is known, but even this heroic defiance was dwarfed by the tide of another tyranny. The Nova Legion had gained ground in Ultramar, a hundred and twenty worlds had fallen to the fifty thousand under the control of a madman Legion Master who claimed the name of the Lord Guilliman as his own. For a century this conflict has raged, and Ultramar crumbled beneath the weight of war after only scraping by the Cataclysm.
Yet the decider of the fate of Ultramar was no son of Guilliman, for it was the Realm of Angels who controlled even less of Ultramar than the Guillimanites. They kept to themselves, ruling their subjects like unenthused lords, uninterested in the politics of man and empire until word of the traitorkin had arisen again. Yet despite its size it was a slumbering superpower, a quarter of a Legion in strength and with the Rock still under their command. Their Supreme Grand Master, Uziel Icarar, had been reportedly in talks with that of the false Roboute of the Nova Legion, as both sides had been petitioning the Angels to assist in their war.
The Realm of Angels was quiet for a reason; their prey was rarely in Ultramar, opting to stay away from their core realms. They had no interest in outside politics beyond their hunt unless attacked. But with the war racing quickly to a climax and an opportunity to secure more resources for the Hunt, even staunch Icarar was forced to accept that the war had to be joined, one way or another. Despite their constant patrols, half their number - a nigh-unheard of feat outside of Ultramar - still remained within the Realm of Angels, and any losses attributed to the war would be made up for in territory, population and captured Sicarian assets. With the unflinching backing of the Nova Legion, who's secretive origins implied a vast storehouse of geneseed, production facilities and other such things, The Supreme Grand Master foresaw a final end to the Hunt with damned Caliban's frayed husk of a world erased by energy lances and macrobatteries from a joint legion fleet.
From the overbearing shadows of the Void slipped an ancient starship, unmarked with transponders and not emblazoned with any sigil, before or after the Cataclysm. From within its hull came a black and grey Thunderhawk, darting to a world nearby at speeds only allowed by Astartes craft. It was a world under the reign of the Nova Legion, and it was in poor shape. Its name was Forlone, a half-dead world revived by Sicarian rebuilding efforts and then subsequently shelled back to disrepair by Nova Legion forces. Its citizenry knew this well, and upon the Thunderhawk's secretive arrival a riot was being violently suppressed. The team deployed by the Thunderhawk were similarly unmarked, but they wore ancient armors like that of the Maximus and Crusade Patterns.
Sneaking through the ruined capital of Forlone was a difficult process, leaving many dead civilians and Nova Legion personnel in its wake. Yet the five Astartes were masters of their craft, their lives being spent honing their craft. With a small trail of bodies covered up by the troubles of imperialism, the team of five entered the Nova Legion's resident temple-fortress, a smaller variation of the standard Fortress-Monastery, proving a more economic option for a Legion-sized campaign of conquest. Even if the Nova Legion knew of their plans beforehand, it wouldn't have helped any. In and out like a gust of midnight chill, ten suits of Mark IV Power Armor and ten boltguns to match were snatched from Forlone's temple-fortress, along with a Rhino to carry to the loot to boot. The frigate, still not detected by the Nova Legion forces, flew into the planet's atmosphere. Though days later such an anomaly would be noticed, the thought of cloaked ships was considered foolish by the Nova Legion's standards. They suspected all such devices to have been lost to the fires of the Cataclysm, and whatever remained of the Raven Guard and their Reflex Drives were certainly not anywhere near Ultramar.
Yet this action had not gone unnoticed, for during the mysterious group's incursion they had accidentally come across and assisted the job of a Sicarian spy. She was named Chrisma Wox, trained by the ancient orders of the once Ordo Hereticus who survived in the Sicarian Empire after the Cataclysm. She reported back to Cato's Grand Lieutenant, Maximon Calgus, who was in command of the war in the section of space where Forlone laid. Grand Lieutenant Calgus was a trusted aide to Emperor Sicarius, but his counterpart among the Nova Legion, Marcellius Agon, was causing him much grief in his campaigns. Maximon, unsure of this spy Astartes group's intentions, sent her back out with a frigate dubbed the Far Traveler and a dispatchment of ten Space Marines of the Iron Snakes, Pythas Squad.
The race was on, find and interrogate - or kill, if options are exhausted - the mystery Astartes squad before they could kick off plans. Through a series of spy rings, Chrisma had discovered that the mysterious unmarked Astartes had slipped, and had revealed themselves to be at Gerthronis II, a planet still within Grand Lieutenant Calgus' purview to attack, though she kept the information between herself and her squad. The frigate appeared from the Warp in the midst of a bloody battle. Cursing herself for not telling Calgus her plan, the frigate's stressed but capable Captain Hathers flew the Far Traveler through the battle far beyond their paygrade. With nothing beyond a failed Nova Legion bomber's parting gift and a few lucky lance shots, the frigate was relatively unscathed and arrived to the surface.
Working their way through the battle, the Sicarian intelligence officer and her Iron Snakes retinue went to the mystery marines' reported location. At that moment, they had appeared, using excessive disruptive grenades and light scrapcode to disrupt their helmets. With only one per squad dying, the mysterious Astartes disappeared, and to Pythas Squad's dismay, so too did Chrisma Wox.
She awoke some time later, revealed to a deep and unassuming underground base. Though the Astartes who greeted her wore the stark grey and unknown black, the rest of his squad wore Dark Angels armor sets. The two discussed for some time, asking her to stay there while they left, as if they were friends or superior officers. As they did, she did not cooperate and exited the base shortly after with ease.
Marcellius Agon oversaw his forces' movements with his own eyes atop his Land Raider, surrounded by a Rhino and Chimera convoy. The smoldering wrecks of Sicarian Predator Tanks, Hydra Mobile AA, and more gave him great pleasure. It was a good sight to see the foes he so desperately despised dead. As the Land Raider's treads crunched an Ultramarine underneath, it halted its advance as four Dark Angels approached from behind. "Ah!" he shouted with an air of friendship. "Its good to see Uziel came to his senses and joined the side destined for victory. Under the joint leadership of Roboute and your Supreme Grand Master, Cato Sicarius will be crushed like the heretic bastard he is."
Then a bolt shell, and then another, and then another. Marcellius looked to his torso, mangled and pouring blood and tarnished innards. He looked up at the Dark Angel in lead, his bolter still smoldering as other Astartes and Nova Legion guardsmen came to return fire. Marcellius was put down by another quick boltshell before three Thunderhawks passed overhead, letting loose a hail of krak missiles onto its foes. Only the Land Raider emerged undefeated, and by the time it was prepared to return fire, the squad of Dark Angels and their air support were long gone.
With the assassination of Marcellius Agon complete, Maximon Calgus swiftly reversed the tide of war, pushing the Legion out of four whole worlds in five years, the citizens pleased to have their true rulers back. Chrisma Wox explained the situation to Calgus, the truth or lie that the Astartes had told her, and both opted to keep the situation secret. Upon leaving the room, Wox retrieved a trinket that she had been given, a metallic reptile scale...
Across the galaxy, the squad leader of the odd Space Marines knelt before a massive monitor. The monitor flashed to life, displaying the face of Sapphon of the old Dark Angels, a Night Lord, and a Word Bearer. "We have slain Marcellius Agon under the guise of the Lion's sons. Their forced joining with the Sicarian Empire is inevitable. With the old Ultramarine's empire on the backfoot and projected looser of the war, the Dark Angels will follow them to the grave."
