Chapter 7: Battle of Stormvald
They left Segmentum Sol in a fleet formation as they signaled to open the warp gate and the Emperor's ship was first to enter with the two juggernaut ships containing all five Space Marine Chapters and Primarchs, detachment of 500 Chaos Space Marines attached to Demiurge Aura and the Emperor. 150 Cruisers containing 500,000 fighters, the Behemoth in the middle containing the majority of Guardsman, statesman, and other nobility, then at the rear 150 Adeptus Mechanicus ships containing titans, and convert ships that were design to transform and create forges and space ports. Although armed they held important cargo as 1 lost titan would be felt in the invasion force, they along with the Behemoth ship were to trail the main forces.
Assigned with with the protection of the Behemoth the most Important ship along with their secondary mission of protecting all Mechanicus ships were the Eldar's 10 Enormous Battleships paired down from their craftworlds that were mostly made to create Temples and towns on their new worlds. They did decide on stripping a few craftworlds down to the essentials and then rearming them with new hybrid Imperial-Xenos weaponry, the infinity circuits and wraith bones were taken out and put in the hall of heroes along with their soul stones on new Eldar. The Battleships were a third of the size of a craftworld and were around the same size as the Behemoth, thus confusing the enemy. They had an undisclosed amount of warriors on each ship and the Emperor was fine with the secrecy as he knew they use necromancy, they would only take orders from him which was problematic but he would take any resources he could get.
Two days in the warp can make men restless, reports of inter rival fights between the Space Wolves and Dark Angels, along with other Imperial Guard Units. Aura was brought on this Expedition because if there was any way to tame any of the Tyranids she would find a way. There was a great section just for her to put every type of captures Tyranid caught and put in holding cells large enough for her to work. They had been given three types of super effective poisons based off the work of the "Ancient One" each round contain a crystalline tip that shattered and exposed a needle on the end of the round to inject the venom. All rounds were alternated with no pattern to keep the hive ships and norn queens that produced the bioships' in confusion against the poison, it attacked the nervous system and immediately killed the Tyranid on contact, this also helped to keep any information of the venom reaching the hive mind.
Once they reached the edge of the Strormvald system they would discharge all big guns while the swarm was still together, then all the fighters would be ready and eject with 300,000 moving forward while the other 200,000 to form a blockade as the fleet moved forward and adapted to the situation. The Stormvald system had a group of a dozen or so solar systems, Stomvard the capital world from which it gets its name was the last planet to be attacked and from last astropathic calls were still holding out due to their extensive defense grid and all of the fleet making a last stand. They were told that when the Imperial Navy entered the system to pull back to defensive positions, of which they replied, "We have been in fracking defensive positions waiting for you for the last six months."
It was finally time, the shadow of the Tyranid fleet was within range, "All ships prepare for combat, the second we enter real space!" Emperor Ainz said. The warp gate opened and the Imperial fleet exited, Ainz Chaos Cruiser came out first and he was also the first the see the waving tendril of bio-ships that consumed all 15 worlds except for Storvald that was at the very tip. Ainz stopped time and analyzed the situation, the tendril went as far a the normal eyes could see, so he cast [farsite] he saw that it this tendril which was one of many followed the Eastern Hyperion major population systems, this was the portion that was lost. If they could follow this tendril and then fight going toward Hyperion they could create two fronts giving much needed relief to the Hyperion front line.
"Charge the plasma injected neutron bomb towards the most populated part of the hive, coordinate with all other cruisers and Juggernauts to fire in separate but overlapping areas now!" He yelled to his astropaths before the Hive tendril broke up into the system. Ainz ship was the first to fire a massive red beam with a blue core, the plasma burnt a hole through the tendril leaving a blue neutron star that suddenly exploded then exploded taking out a third of the visible tendril, just milliseconds after the explosion nova cannons went off searing through the bioships the stopping to explode when hitting either a hive ship or a ship that was becoming a hive ship them exploding taking everything around it, three hundred of these went off at the same time destroying every tyranid in site, a cheer erupted but the Ainz knew better and a few moments later like a hydra another tentacle like formation of bioships came from the blackness as they had only destroyed the very tip of the splinter fleet.
"Over 100 million ships destroyed and estimated 500 million in the sector," A servator wired to a cogitator replied to a question the Emperor though, since he was connected to the ship it reacted automatically to his query.
"Wait until in range and fire at will, deploy all fighters but do not engage, remember pilots your transport button, sometimes the auto-trans is too late to put you back on the ship with another fighter no needless deaths." The Emperor said.
Looking a lot like a hive of their own countless ships began to pour out of the 150 cruisers at the front of the Imperial formation that had now widened to make each ship a harder target.
"Remember to keep moving heavy weapons will be coming in soon!" The Emperor Barked.
Just as he said that green spots of light of large bio-cannons on hive ships and Devourer class cruiser all shot off their long range bombardment. Only a few of the cruisers took light damage from the shots, just like in battles of old when every gun would fire at once to make up for their inaccuracy, the Imperial ships fired all at once to do maximum damage to the enemy 302 massive cannons went off destroying another massive amount of bioships. The hive fleet was caught off guard and many of the Hive Ships that birthed fighter classes were being destroyed first. This put the splinter fleet at a huge disadvantage but all of the protective class bio-cruisers were now heading straight for the Imperial fleet, the worst of them all the Razorfiend that could rush a cruiser class ship and rend it in two with its massive claws.
"Over 250 million ships destroyed only 250 million left in the sector," The servator said.
"One more volly with the heavy cannons before that are upon us take out the front row, it contains most of the Razor Fiends and cruiser class ships." Ainz ordered.
"With one last volly all the nova cannons and special cannons went off cutting huge gaps in the now swarm of bio-ships." Most if not all of the cruiser class ships that were close were vaporized and now it was time to enter into the second stage of the battle.
"100 million bio-ships left Lord Emperor," The Servator said.
"Pull us ahead of the blockade out of the line of fire and connect warp shields." Ainz ordered. Ainz new the warp shield made him invincible for now so he wanted to make himself the largest targets out their.
"Fighters Engage bio-ships, cruisers switch to medium cannons with pinpoint accuracy and new ammunition." Ainz ordered.
The nice thing about the new ammunition was that it did not work against our own ships and in the madness of space battles wild shots from your own side can do as much damage to the enemy so they knew they were free to fire as much as they wanted. So 250,000 fighters peeled off the blockade that protected the supply and troop ships and flew forward to engage the enemy. Ainz was cautiously watching as the two lines of ships came closer and then they were finally in range. One of our fighters ripped off a sweeping drum of rounds that hit around 20 bio-ships, for a second they acted normal then turned grey and curled up and died.
The Emperor slammed his metal fist on his chair, the venom had worked! Cheering came from the deck as in the intail skirmish we only lost a dozen fightens while thousands of dead husks of bio-ships that turned to dust as the ships flew through them. Another fighter went on a strafing run on a Razorfiend cruiser the ship stuttered, flew erratically then slowly turned grey and died. Bio-ships that would have taken a cruiser to take down were now killed by five rounds of the new ammunition. Although the new ammo was working we were still losing a great amount of ships.
"25,753 ships lost, 250 did not use auto-trans with a failure rate of less that 1 percent, 20,000 ships already back in action." The Servator said.
"Good" At this rate we should be fine Ainz thought, "I wish we could use drones but they are a tactical nightmare if the capital ship is taken out."
The battle raged on ship after ship tried to attack the Emperor's cruiser only to fry on warp energy, one of the weak point of bioships is that had claws and other appendages to destroy ships but he called his ship the bug zapper as every bioship that came close could not help but attack the glowing ship.
"50,000 Tyranid ships left in the sector." The servator said.
"Lets mop this up, I want the blockade and Commander Kelhith of the Eldar attachment you are free to engage the enemy." Ainz ordered.
"Yes, Dead King we shall show great honor!" He replied with gusto. Ainz would have rolled his eyes if he could but did not. From then on it was a mop up mission and with all of the bioships dramatically reduced the com frequencies lit up with distress beacons from the the planets surface.
"Lord Emperor, I have a coded transmission from the surface of Stormvald Capital City and he is saying he is the planets governor." One of the communication officers said.
"Patch him through." Ainz replied.
"Hello, Hello this is Planetary Governor TItus Fledius, who am I speaking to?" The man said.
"This is the God Emperor of the Imperium of the Dead King, we are here to liberate your nation a take you into the fold, Governor." Ainz said.
Ainz could hear in the background, "The God Emperor for real I thought he was a myth." Then one of his aids could be heard, "No sire, he is very real, and he is a real god, some say the new chaos god but good…." "I know that Buntings! Uhum, Sorry my Lord Emperor your took me by surprise I thought I would be speaking with one of your subordinates, we are grateful for clearing this sector but the situation on the ground is dire, we are held up to only a few fortified cities and have very little food, we do not want to sound unthankful but we need your help!" The Governor said with a desperation in his voice.
"I will have you organize with my navy and they will start orbital bombardment of the greatest concentrations and digestion pools, after he have established your city is safe we will establish a front and retake the planet." Ainz said.
"Thank you my Lord Emperor!" Ainz did not listen to the rest as he had him cut off and handed to a bombardment officer.
"I am going to the Guardian Aura's Juggernaut assemble the Primarchs and the Guardians in an hour we need to take Stormvald as soon as possible," Ainz told one of his communication officers on the deck who saluted and passed the message along.
To someone who had not seen an orbital bombardment before which included many of the guardsman it was a wonder anything at all could survive the pounding the surface of the planet took. Three hundred Kestrel Class Cruisers in low orbit over the planet with their bombardment cannons based on gauss weaponry of the Necrons, when fired it still had that eerie green glow. The positive side of using this type of weaponry was that it destroys all organic life, destroying it all the way down to the molecular level, meaning it did not leave large craters or destroy the planets just the nids they were aiming at. The first target was the digestion pools where the nids would all come and regurgitate the biomass they ate which consisted of plants, animals and people. The new warriors were birthed from these pools increasing their numbers, destroy the pools eliminate any new warriors. Next, was to take out the chain of command hive tyrants were the leaders of the psychically lead species and can be identified by their large size, also bio-titans are also main targets as they tower over the battlefield as large as an imperial titan killing all who come near with toxic gas and bio-cannons.
While the 24 hour bombardment was taking place all the leaders of the Imperial war machine were aboard the Guardian Aura's Juggernaut. At a great table God Emperor sat at the head of the table with Aura and Demiurge at right right and left hand then the Primarchs,Vulcan, Roboute Guilliman, Leman Russ, Sanguinus and Lion El Johnson. Then Eldar General or Prince Kelhith of the Eldarain Imperial warriors of the Dead King, then lastly General Tillman of the Imperial Guard who was just over 300 years old and fought with distinction in the unification wars as well as every other major conflict after that. Tillman due to the juvant treatment did not look over 50 but had a large scar on his left side of his face and a burn on his lower jaw, he had a square rugged look and a personality that craved war, he could have retired 5 times over but continued to serve as many of his senior officers did. The reason was that they all had a fanatical devotion to the Emperor and to stay on crowded Holy Terra or the Imperial Nebula when you could go to the stars and given a claim on a different planet was to good an offer for anyone to pass up.
"This will be our first engagement of the Tyranids with ground forces and it will be a glorious campaign with an overwhelming victory!" Ainz said as all the people present pounded on the table in agreement.
"The invasion of Stormvald will set the pace for the rest of the campaign, right now our orbital bombardment is taking out an impressive amount of the enemy and since we are able to have air superiority this will more or less be a mop up mission of the rest of the Tyranid ground forces. If everyone could look at the holo-pic of the planet Guardian Demiurge will explain the ground invasion." Ainz said as a device in the middle of the table created a rotating 3-D map of Stormvald.
"Now there are two major cities that are left, one being the capital and most fortified Hielvald while the second biggest city and industrial center that creates weapons and armor, Fielvald is also holding tight. They have been able to fight back for so long due to the industrial city lasting, if it falls they both shall fall, also Fieldvald had a small starport able to support at least two of our Kestrel class ships which makes it a perfect landing area to begin an invitation. The largest problem is that we do not know the infiltration level of genestealers in the city, so it must be purged this will be no problem with the new Mark II Space Marine Helmet that can scan DNA sequence upon looking at the subject.
"Leman Russ and his Space Wolves along with their heightened senses are perfect for this job although they will need to keep their helmets on when combing through the city. You come into the city along with a forward detachment of 25,000 guardsman and comb the city of any genestealer cults and destroy them, after the all clear is given then we will establish a perimeter and start landing Titans and tanks and expand upon the walls, once a large enough perimeter is taken we will have our transforming cruisers land and turn into space ports were we will dispatch another 5,000,000 guardsman along with Vulcan and the Salamanders."
"There are four other planets that are habitable but overrun with Tyranids so we will be dispatching the rest to these planets after watching the success of your missions. Are there any questions?" Demiurge said as he looked around
"Each Primarch will lead the invasion force of there chapter along with 10,000,000 troops after extensive orbital bombardment, all forces will have titans and extensive air support. The Eldar ships will patrol the outer rim of the sector destroying all ships that enter and will act as an early warning of a impending attack." Demiurge finished saying.
"Very good, go out and serve me with all your might!" Emperor Ainz said in his most regal manner as they all stood and bowed to him one by one as they left the room.
2
Leman was happy that he had the honor of being first into battle, he had 1,000 of his Chapter on the Cruiser, 10 Juggernaut brothers and 25,000 of the special 1-501st shock group. He had never seen the Imperial Guard in their new suits they would have looked like little Space Marines accept they had there new suits with the void claws, biometal and new sensors made the guards suits look like they were wearing tin cans. The new Xenos design and technology gave their powersuits a much sleeker look, the biggest change was the shape and look of their helmets they glowed blue and red where their eye were supposed to be but the hemet was one piece of metal with all types of scanners. The helmet no longer had a the blocky look but was round and curved up at the top showing some eldar influence. The suit look like one solid piece of metal, the joint would form when they were needed so there were no kinks in the amour. The suit was light and it felt like it was their own skin when it attached to the sensors in their black carapace. At first everyone grumbled about the suits but after wearing them for a few hours everyone was impressed, now they just had to make it theirs. They did this by painting the suit grey and added their insignia on the shoulder and wolf pelts on their backs and whatever charms they could tie to them. Then had the Imperial Mortus signit on the chest as they were sons of the Emperor and worthy to wear it
The Ship flew down with an occasional rumble from a harpy attack on the ship or the rumble of the guns shooting airborne nids out of the sky. Each one of his Chapters Captains of 100 would be in charge of 2,500 guards as they swept through the city he would have his most trusted juggernaut Fellclaw and the other Captains each had their own Juggernaut in their group. It would take only 3 hours for 7 Companies to comb through the city while 3 square mile city, the last 3 Companies were to set up a defensive perimeter around the spaceport and city walls, his call sign would be spear, as he would lead the assault. While the 3 companies on his east and west would lag behind and make a large infantry v formation through the entire city, they start at the starport and end on the other side of the city at the foundry.
A loud thunk sounded as they docked into the starport, the back ship ramp came down and all of the Space wolves charged out and set up a Perimeter around the starport. Captain Corvus of the 1-501 Imperial shock troops was ordered to be right by Leman at all times with a his voxcaster. Leman ran off the ramp and headed straight toward the startport headquarters, it was strange as this was the first time dropping into a site and not being fired at but when he looked around he noticed things were off. Plasteel walls and bunkers were around the starport HQ where they were headed with very nervous men behind them, the scans of his helmet told him they were 100 percent human so no worries there he thought. He hopped over a 5 foot barrier and ran to a man who looked like he was wearing a general's uniform, it was a Hyperion uniform but he had studied what he was given and he was sure he was right.
The general was a tall skinny man but had a stern face that could command respect but when he turned and saw the pinnacle of what most thought of human breeding as the Space Marines looked human but it looks only the man was in awe. To try and make the situation a little better Leman took his helmet off as he walked up to the General.
"L-lord R-russ, we have been awaiting you and your forces, I must admit I thought the tale of the Space Marine was no more than a child's fable but I see I was wrong in my assumption." The beligured General rattle off, clear signs of fatigue and hunger could be seen. Being called lord rubbed Leman the wrong way but he had to be called something higher than General to outrank anyone on the ground and nobility was a sure fire way to solve that problem and he was a direct son of the Emperor sharing his DNA or so he was told.
"I am one of the Emperors son's as we all are, we have brought rations and ammunition for your men please eat and meet me back here in half an hour I have to assemble and deploy the troops from the ships."As Leman was saying this Fellclaw dropped four large crates of fresh rations and ammo, the troops were so hungry they had bloodied their hands by ripping into the boxes open with their own bare hands and were eating the rations unheated. That when he noticed many of his troops did not have boots, "Must have boiled and ate them" he thought as he told Captain Corvus to get boots and suits for the men as they walked back to oversee the unloading of vehicles, tanks and supplies. Leman would have like to have 1 titan but not within the city he was told, plus they had air superiority so they could call in airstrikes from the squad of fighters being unloaded on the spaceport runways.
He and none of his men had faced the bugs as he called them, he was worried they would freeze up so he pounded one thought in all his men's minds, "When in doubt shoot, shoot and shoot until you have no more rounds left." That way it could break the ice, when a wall of horror is coming at you when all you have faced are men, even the most trained soldier could break and run or worse just freeze. He secretly hoped he did not freeze but did not have time to think about such things, he had discussion with his supply officers, logistics majors and communications sargents to get Operation Wolf viable. When he had finished with all the logistics he started to walk towards the HQ when his helmet lit up red and started to blink, it had targeted something, "Target acquired 100 percent DNA match Tyranid." He did not see anything though he took his helmet off and looked where the sensors had told him, there was something off, the perspective was wrong and there was a smell that he would never forget, the smell of nids. Much to surprise of the Captain right next to him Leman took his bolter took aim and fired three shots, immediately after a large lichtor appeared spewing acid and clawing his way to the HQ. Much to the surprise of the defense force who all opened up with their rifles as it turned grey and with its last bit of strength took the head off one of the soldiers.
"Lichtor, sighted Marines use your helmets to locate, they have optical cammo, most likely a scout unit do not let one leave alive." Almost immediately after he said this he could hear bursts of fire, buzzing of chainswords and screaming and cursing as a few had made it into the port and killed a few guards before dying. He put his helmet back on and ran to the HQ in time to see a Lictor on top of the roof about to pounce on the entire chain of command, he took his bolt pistol that was specially made for him, it was the size of a bolt rifle on top of a tank it had a crystalline handle that absorbs enough of the shock so he could fire it one handed. He could cycle through multiple types of ammunition by rolling his thumb across a wheel and a pictogram of what round would appear in his helm or on the back of the pistol. The venom shots took to long to kill them so the only way to save them was to change to his high explosive round that had the same punch as a krak missile. He calmly flipped to that setting and as he ran exhaled and squeezed the trigger as softly as possible, Leman loved to brag to the other primarchs that he was such a good shot he could see what the round would do before he shot it and this time was no different. Just as he saw in his mind's eye his shot left the barrel of the pistol and slammed right into what he supposed the lictors head blowing of most of it, with most of its mental capacity gone its commo was gone as well. Leman jumped off the plasteel wall and onto the roof with pistol in one hand and his void claw charged in the other, he shot the Lictor three more times with venom shot and when it went for a death lunge he slashed the tentacles off with his claw and pushed it off the other side of the roof. It slammed to the ground and turned grey and died, he looked out to see his helmet light up and spot three other lictors hiding, they must have been the backup party to bring back information if the advance party died. He held out his pistol and put three shots in the first one three in the second, the third started to run and he was just outside of of the pistols range, he steadied his arm and pulled the trigger he had to aim 25 feet above the target. The bolt arced up and flew down and struck the lictor directly on the spine, allowing the venom to go directly into the nervous system killing it immediately.
He made a report direct to the Emperor of the immediate effects of the venom when nids were hit in the spine or other areas close to the nervous system.
"Wolve's I want a report now!" Leman Barked
All of his Captains cycled through, no causties amounge Space Marines but a dozen or so deaths among Guards that were caught off guard because they could not see anything because their helmets sensors were not as sophisticated. All in all not a bad first contact but they were caught off guard and Leman was starting to think the situation was much worse they they thought. He jumped down behind the plasteel where there was an open spot and turned around to see a cadre of very scared officers.
"I need a situation update now, I was under the impression that the worst we would find were stealer cults but those were full blooded scouts." Leman said in his gruff manner pointed his large clawed hand at them.
"Lord this is the first we have seen a purestrain, but you are correct the situation is much more dire than we thought, we think the population is at least ⅓ stealer cult now and they are trying to take the city from the inside out. The munitions plant and the starport are our two strongholds that have DNA checks other than that we have no idea." The General said.
"If you told me that from the start we could have kept from losing men, my worst fear is that they have control of a wall and we lose the city, you need you run your men through the DNA checks with my reinforcements on the walls so we have the city cordoned off while we will go through the residential sectors and kill any partial strains." Leman ordered as he turned around and walked toward his Company it was made of all the best men except for those who were the Captains of the other Companies as he could not take all the best warriors for himself. He looked at them they all looked pumped after their first taste of battle with the nids, he could tell they wanted more but they had no idea how hard the next part of the mission would be.
Before he started his speech his hit all-vox so it would reach the entire Task force, "It looks like we have more of a fight for this town than we thought, when we comb through the residential homes, markets, and the entire town we are most likely run into a high number of stealer cults. They look and sound just like humans but they are nids, just not purestrain, many have no idea they are as they were born into it and will go from normal then transform in front of your eyes into a genestealer. Men, women, children it does not matter if they plead they are not human they are nids and will stab you or shoot you the second the hive mind say so. I have no doubt my Wolve's will do as I say but if any of the guardsman units are told to fire on a crowd rushing after you to kill you, you will be shot, if you run, you will be shot, is that understood."
All of the 26,000 men on the space port yelled, "Yes, Sir!"In unison.
"Good, Alright units 1-7 form up around the port for the sweep,8, 9 and 10 you are to guard the spaceport an city walls, watch out for more Lictors and if one got away they already know this is our guard post so stay frosty!" Leman said as he looked around.
"Remember nothing is as it seems and each unit will have a Leman tank pulling an ammo cart, the Juggernauts or a unit of 10 should be guarding your ammo at all times, running out of ammo with nids is good as death so guard that ammo with your life, we especially do not want them getting a crate and getting the venom shot. Alright move out, fire and communicate!" Leman yelled as he turned around and loaded a fresh clip into his massive bolter.
Captain Corvus was in awe when stood and watched his Primarch kill two Lictors and save an entire group of men while he just stood and watched. He had fought with the Space Marines before but he had never seen a Primarch in action before. He went to his 2,500 men sitting on crates and getting ammo and last minute tune ups on their Armor when he called them all into formation.
"We have the honor of being the tip of the Spear and fight along side none other the Primarch Leman Russ, we must not embarrass our unit and do as he says, I know killing what seems as unarmed civilians would seem hard but once you see one of those freaks transform you will have no problem dispatching them. I had the honor of taking out a cult that tried to take root on the edge of Sol and they are no longer the race they were but nids and nothing more. It is my wish that for the rest of the war that we distinguish yourself by fighting alongside the 4th Legion." Corvus said.
Men screaming, "Hell yeah," and "4th Legion and 1-501st forever!" Came out from the group of men as they formed up and moved out.
As they formed up in the staging area each 250 Gaurdsman were attached to 10 Space Wolves, each company would form fireteams of 10 making 100 fireteams combing through the city. This made the groups flexible for urban warfare, as large groups were easy to fire on or injure with one well place landmine or grenade or explosive. They all lined up Captain Corvus found that the Primarch and his team was easy to find as they were the one with the Fellclaw Juggernaut. They were told to stay ten feet behind the Marines and watch their backs, fire when told to and do not fill the vox channel up with unnecessary chatter even though the Marines had their own channel.
With all the briefings done they started their sweep through the heart of the city, the PA system started to blare, "Citizens of Fielvald come out of your homes for inspection, if you do come out you will be forced out. Please stay calm it is for your own protection." Every few minutes it would repeat over and over again, as they started through the residential area they started to see civilians. They were dirty, skinny and really pathetic looking, all or the families were lined up outside their hab units. Lemans unit was not the first group to run into stealers as he could hear bolter fire in the distance.
For the first 10 minutes or so everything was fine, then it happen the his sensors went off, "Phenotype genestealer" it was a old dirty man, Leman raised his bolter and shot him through the head. Everyone started to panic but Leman boomed with a speaker system, "Citizen he was a genestealer, not a human, as long as you are human you will be fine, The Emperor Protects." When they turned around the corner the bloodbath began, two genestealers transformed and killed the civilians nearest to them. Leman and the other five Marines that had went around the corner took aim and opened fire on them slaying one as the second one jumped in the air aiming for the Marine to the left of Leman, he was moving too fast to shoot so as he landed the Marine jumped back out of the way as Leman took the stealers head of clean with his electrified void claw.
"They are quick!" Exclaimed a Marine who had never seen a Xenos move so fast. There was not enough time to think about it as they moved forward the sensors lit up more and more the closer they came to the center of the city. Around half of the stealers did not know who they were and were executed while around half were nearing purestrain level. They were executing a family when they were surprised when a six armed stealer transformed hiding jumped on a nearby roof and the leapt behind the Marines. The Guardsman eager to prove themselves opened up with a little to much gusto pelting one Marine with stray shots, needless to the the genestealer was shot a few hundred times with the venom shots which was redundant.
One of Marines walked back to the gaurdsman that shot him a dozen times and flicked his helmet and knocked him down, and yelled at him for a good minute before returning to the line. The sound of automatic gunfire and chatter of swarms of stealers were being reported, they passed through the town square an ambush was set up and stealers started to pour out of every house trying to surround the marines and their guard units. For the hundreds of souls that came from behind and tried to rush the group nothing but death awaited them It was a sea of a mass of bodies crawling on all fours or five or even six legs the guardsman in charge of protecting their rear opened up but it only stemmed the tide of chitinous flesh for a few minutes.
Knowing their death was coming they all cried out for the Emperor but suddenly like a great scythe the thousands of bodies were cut down by the heavy bolter of Felclaw's Juggernaut. Unlike the Guardsman Felclaw was armed with armor piercing rounds that ripped through the wall of flesh like it was paper. Seeing this one of the guard officers screamed, "Just don't sit there get a squad no two and run ammunition to the Space Marine!" The well trained shock troops snapped back into order and created a chain of men that went from the ammo cart to the Juggernaut handing down rounds a place thing in the reloading tray a mounds of smoldering brass piled up behind him. Whenever the genestealers would push close enough Fellclaw would use his powerful flamer to incinerate anyone who was foolhardy enough to come near.
At the other side of the street the Leman Russ tank shot shell after shell while the bolter gunners fired burst of burst while other gaurdsman ran ammunition to them. All the while voxcasters where ordering in airstrike after air strike while the ships unloaded bombs until they ran out then went on strafing runs. Leman had checked his position and found that he was in the very center of the city, they were most likely getting the entire cult army, or he hoped. Then rounds started to strike the ground and bounce of marines armour and those guardsman who were lucky enough to be hit by a laz rifle. Many other guardsman were cut down by heavy bolter fire that went through their ceramite armour as they put way too much confidence in it and did not immediately find cover.
Leman told to the Guardsman to find cover and return fire while they would assault what he thought was the command house, the reason he thought this was because a larger number of gaunts, the lowest of the purestain nids infantry were starting to pour out of the home. Leman and his Marines charged forward cutting down the gaunts while dodging enemy fire, when they got to the entrance to the house there were so many gaunts that they were forced into hand to hand combat. Charging up their electrified void claws they cut through them like they were nothing. Leman felt the rattle of being hit multiple times but it was not by bolter or laz round but by flesh boarers, they were the ammunition of the nids. They were shot out of a cannon and landed on or near the target, if they could boar into the targets skin they could consume the target if they could not immediately find sustenance they would die. He was glad that he had his helmet on as the boarers crawled all over his and all his Wolf packs armor but not opening could be found. They then fell off and died to be trampled underfoot, these creatures were why the Guard were given ceramite power armour as flesh boarers could strip a man clean then move to the next target taking out a entire company.
He was second into the building as he saw the first Space Wolf look up and shout, "Danger, get…" in time to see a great claw come down, the Wolf tried to block with his void claw shield but it lasted but a few seconds then cut his hand off. Leman looked up and to see a Genestealer Patriarch, the synaptic leader and potent psychic being that could render an normal man into a mindless puppet but Space Marines were not normal men. Leman and his men could feel the temperature drop in the building as the creature tried to use it psychic power against them but with no luck as the Wolves had wards on their helmets and armor to prevent such things. Leman since he was a Primarch did not even need the Helmet as his mind was strong enough to withstand such a creature.
The creature cried out for reinforcements as Leman could tell it was startled by it lack of power of them. "Its amour is to thick for the venom rounds to penetrate be have to kill it the old fashion way by bolter and blade, keep the gaunts off me while I kill this abomination!" Leman cried out as he lept towards the beast, it stood 20 feet tall twice as tall as a space Marine and one swipe of its claw could kill a person in an instant. It had four arms and two legs and fortunately for Leman no weapons. It was trying to finish off his injured Wolf when he left forward and shot it in the chest twice with armor piercing round to break its concentration, then Leman jumped forward and with a swipe of his viod claw he took one of the beast arms off at the elbow joint. It screams while black ichor flowed out of its wound. Leman examined its chest to see if the rounds had penetrated its armour but it only crack it no such luck. He fired a cluster of shots it's chest he did not have the presence of mind to count as he had to dodge two of the Patriarchs claws coming down at him. When he landed he fired another groups of shots and repeated the process three more times until he heard the familiar sound of exoskeleton breaking. Leman smiled as he dodged the next attack as he knew his pack was on the same note and all of them took aim and fired venom rounds into the Patriarchs chest. Immediately, the Genestealer Patriarch fell to one knee as the poison coursed through its body. Leman did not want to give it time to tell any of the hive what was happening to it so he took advantage of its moment of weakness. He rotated his rounds to high explosive to one he had left and steadied his hand and pulled the trigger, the round went right through its eye and blew out it brains out the back of its skull. It then toppled over and let out a psychic scream that killed all the stealers in the area.
Outside the stealers lost all cohesiveness and began to grasp their heads as if in pain then began to wander around aimlessly while the Guardsman started to shoot them. Reports of genestealers losing there will to fight went over the communications. Without the direction of the patriarch they would enter a period of confusion for a little while then regain composure trying to evolve another genestealer into the Patriarch, and most stealer hives had one that were close. Leman updated everyone that they took out the Patriarch but the stealers would try to create another so keep on the lookout as they are very dangerous and guardsman should not get close as they are able to physically control normal beings.
As they moved through the city Leman and his group dispatched more stealers, the injured wolf had a medic give him a artificial hand and went on with the mission. Other units found other nests with partially evolve Patriarchs and killed them, most were in sewers or other places, Wolf Priest or pykers were used to locate and assist in killing them. With a potent psyker a Patriarch can be killed easily and none of the ones found were close to being evolved.
After 8 hours in a 3 hour mission Leman finally made it to the Gates of the foundry were he found the same situation in the space port, starving, tired, Hyperion guards happy to see their new brothers in arms. He walked into the foundry while the Hyperion guardsman were in awe of the size and presence the man carried and found a Colonel who told him that the last to paces they had secure were the space port and the foundry. A month ago every patrol that they sent out never came back , they decided to pull back to a key areas and the citizen were told to stay in their homes and stay safe but other than that they were on their own. Leman informed them of the thousands of stealers they had dispatched and the Patriarch they had killed, all within range turned white as they had no idea if they friends and family in the city were alive.
Leman replied that they were only a few days away from a full invasion of the city due to them being met by Lictors and the Patriarch. That was about the same time that the Space Wolves on the walls said they noticed an increase in frequency of attack.
Author:
So yeah took awhile to get this chapter out, I did not plan to get so into the battle scenes but I could not help myself. I need to speed it up or I will end up writing a book about this crusade alone but would that be so bad? Anyways, love to hear what you think feedback is appreciated also I am going back and going to rewrite so of chapter 3 and 4 I read through them and chapter 4 is hard to read wow, I think I was drinking a lot when I wrote that chapter! Well, I hope you enjoyed reading about Leman he is my favorite Primarch and could not help myself. So do you want me to finish this crusade next chapter or spend another 2 chapters on it what do you think?