No one had been expecting war to come to Lyros IV. When word filtered to the planet through off-world cargo traders that the Lyros Sub-Sector had come under attack, no one had taken the threat seriously. Lyros IV was the capital of the sub-sector, surrounded on all sides by strong, fortified worlds, as the strategic position of the sub-sector required. They had come under assault numerous times in the past, from pirate fleets to Ork invasions. The defenses of the sub-sector had always held the line against those threats, and life on Lyros IV went on unchanged.
Then the angels of death came.
Three months after the first reported attacks by unknown enemies, warships appeared in orbit over Lyros IV, and hundreds of objects had descended towards the surface. The formidable defenses of the planet had been able to hold back the initial tide of enemies for a few hours, but the mighty orbital guns had fallen silent. Space marines wearing blue and yellow armor had been seen emerging from the defense stations, blood dripping from their weaponry before they flung themselves at those nearest them.
Everyone had heard the stories of the Emperor's avenging angels, the protectors of mankind. Those that the people of Lyros IV had come to know were a cruel imitation of the glorious stories they had all been told as children. Those stories died along with them as the chainswords the warriors wielded tore them in two.
Now, Amelia ran through the streets of her home, blood flowing from an open cut above her eyes. She couldn't see anything out of her left eye, though she did not dare stop to try and clear it. Sprinting around the corner of the small Imperial chapel she had attended her whole life, she almost tripped over the bisected body of Orpheus Drax, the trade settlements priest. She let out a choked sob as she saw the priest's head planted firmly on an Aquila that hung on the outside of the chapel, his eyes missing, and a bloody eight-pointed star carved into his tongue.
Her moment's hesitation almost cost her everything. Rounding the corner further down the street, a giant in the yellow and blue armor that had come to terrorize the people of Lyros IV emerged. He held a massive, two-handed axe in his hands. His eyes locked on Amelia, and an impossibly broad smile crossed his face. Amelia barely had time to take off down the street before the warrior covered the distance between them in two, leaping strides.
Amelia felt the ground beneath her feet shake as a large impact hit nearby, though she barely registered it. Her mind was filled with pure dread as she watched the laughing warrior approach her. A small part of her mind that was not dominated by her terror tried to explain that a being so large could not move as quickly as it did, but logic would not save her as she ducked into an alleyway, missing the half-hearted slash of the axe by the warrior pursuing her. The two of them had been playing this sick game of cat and mouse for the past hour, and every time Amelia should have died, the warrior let her slip away. Her luck was running out, however.
Twisting to avoid the slash sent her way, Amelia let out a cry of agony shot up her leg. Glancing down, she saw a hole had been blown into the ground at some point during the fighting. In her haste, her foot had slipped into the hole, and when she jerked her body to avoid the killing blow, she had torn something. Slamming to the ground, Amelia dragged her foot from the hole and wept openly as she saw her foot twisted uselessly. Dragging herself across the ground, she pushed herself into a sitting position as the warrior came around the corner, the smile slipping from his face at the sight of his prey's injury.
"Look's like you're broken now. I will need to find a new hunt…" The words came out as a growl as the warrior stepped towards Amelia. She watched as the axe was raised above the warrior's head, and time seemed to slow. Closing her eyes, Amelia waited for the killing blow to land.
Instead, as she heard the wind part before the descending blade, a roaring sound erupted in the alley, and the sound of metal slamming against metal deafened Amelia. Opening her eyes, Amelia looked up to see a second blade interposed between her and the descending axe. A moment later, a voice filled with contempt echoed through the alleyway, and Amelia could not help the sob of pure hope that tore its way from her throat.
"You're battle is with me, traitor!"
A moment later, the two blades disconnected from one another, and Amelia's savior stepped into her field of vision. The new arrival gripped a long halberd weapon, gripped tightly, and held at the ready before him as he stepped before Amelia. His armor was almost entirely grey, though the shoulder trim and the entirety of his arms were colored deep green, as was the Imperial Aquila blazoned proudly on his chest.
The next instant, the two space marines flew at each other, a blur of motion across Amelia's good eye as they clashed in the alley. Sparks erupted from the blades as they tore at one another, and Amelia had to shield her face as a wave of debris flew at her from a gouge dug into a nearby wall. As she lowered her hand, she jerked back at a sudden spray of warm blood across her face. By the time she was able to open her eye, she saw one of the chaos marines' arms lying limply on the ground, the great axe lying beside the still twitching fingers. In the next instant, the halberd slammed into his exposed chest, sending the traitor stumbling backward.
Before the traitor could recover, Amelia's savior drew the bolt pistol holstered at his side and fired two quick shots, one tearing a chunk from the traitor's head, while the other pierced him through the chest beside the halberd. The body crumbled to the ground, blood-forming into a small pool around it as the other marine marched forward, pulling his halberd from the chest of his foe in a spray of blood.
After a moment's pause, the space marine turned his head to look down at Amelia, the glowing red lenses of his beaked helmet staring down at her unwavering. Finally, he reached down and grabbed Amelia's arm, his touch light despite his strength and size. He lifted her up onto his shoulder, her head laying across his back as he walked out of the alley. She lifted her head slowly, the adrenaline from her flight slowly beginning to fade and the agony her body was experiencing began to flood her already strained mind. Everywhere she looked, warriors in the same grey and green armor as her savior were escorting survivors from the attack from their hiding places. Those that could not walk on their own were picked up like her, held as if they weighed nothing to their superhuman saviors.
Finally, Amelia stopped resisting the exhaustion and pain of her body and closed her eyes, her mind fading to exhausted rest.
The Lyros Campaign erupted on the borders of the Imperium in the year six hundred and fifty-one of the fortieth Millenium. An invasion force led by the Disciples of Castigation, a sizable Warband of chaos space marines drawn originally from a successor chapter of the White Scars, and now a roving force of destruction. They had gathered a significant following of cultists and pirate allies, and when they were large enough had begun the Lyros Campaign.
Far from the borders of the Eye of Terror or the Maelstrom, the Lyros sub-sector was unused to such invasions, primarily dealing with xenos threats. The sudden ferocity of the attack crippled many of the outlining defense stations in the sub-sector, and before many worlds knew what was happening legions of crazed cultists were being dropped onto them. Chaos and confusion was total, as the Disciples of Castigation ran rampant, traveling from star system to star system, using their greater speed and mobility to harass and cripple any potential resistance while their slower cultist and pirate forces began to invade newly laid bare worlds.
The carnage reaped on the sub-sector was immense, and for nearly three years the chaotic forces had free reign. Finally however, the distress signals sent from the slowly fading sub-sector received an answer. An Imperial task force made up of several Imperial navy squadrons and Imperial Guard regiments entered the outer regions of the sub-sector, accompanied by elements from three space marine chapters. Chief among them were two companies of Dark Angels, supported by a single company of the Sons of Medusa.
The largest of the space marine forces, in near full chapter strength, were the Redeemers. Descendants of the Imperial Fists, the Redeemers formed the speartip of the Imperial response to the invasion, and they launched an offensive focused on limiting the mobility of the Disciples. Several void battles were fought between the two groups, while the slower moving Imperial task force liberated world after world, supported by the Dark Angels and Sons of Medusa.
Two years after their arrival, both sides in the conflict converged on Lyros IV, the capital of the sub-sector and last remaining bastion of resistance for those behind enemy lines. The Disciples led the invasion themselves, focused on securing the defenses of the world to turn against the oncoming Imperial force. The Redeemers halted them in their tracks, arriving two days after the Disciples. The Disciples were driven away from their objectives by the drop pod assault of the Redeemers.
Now, Imperial and traitor forces alike pour down to the surface of Lyros IV, preparing themselves for what will likely be the final battle of the Lyros Campaign. The fate of the entire sub-sector rests in the hands of the Imperial task force, who, as they prepare to defend the last holdouts of civilians on Lyros IV, will soon come to taste the bitter taste of betrayal...