Sister Letuah had hated the last twenty years of her life. Since she followed Seraphim Riviel and faced that savage she had spent all this time fuming. He had cut off her right arm with one swing and left her with this horrible bionic limb that throbbed and ached every single day. Each night she went to sleep she dreamed about that Space Wolf and begging the holy God Emperor to give her a chance to get her revenge. Now she stands in the Convent of Grael Major looking at the very Space Wolf who had harmed her and her fellows when they had attempted to pursue their duties. Every second they stand there and let the Space Wolf and Riviel argue makes her angrier. Why are they talking with this savage? He should be executed right here and now. Instead they are waiting for this weak-willed Canoness to say something. Silently thanking the Emperor for giving her chance she moves forward,

"DIE HERETIC!" She shouts as she raises her bolter and fires one round. She does not get a chance to fire another round when a Frost Sword suddenly comes forward and goes into her chest. The energy on the blade splits her armour, tears open her skin, cuts between the muscle and fat and smashes through the middle of her sternum. It slides into the small gap of space between her bones before it starts to move through her still beating heart. When it starts to cut the organ a loud hissing sound comes out of the wound as the blood boils against the energy the Frost Sword emits. Letuah coughs up blood as she feels the sword continue to slide through her heart until it hits the back of her ribs. It stays there only for a moment before it comes out her back. She can only look into the golden eyes of the savage while he has a flat look on his face as her life slips away.

All this happened in the flash of an eye while Lauf lets go of his sword and quickly grabs the dying fanatic's bolter. Spinning around he aims the bolter at one of the Sisters he wounded twenty years ago. Pulling the trigger he lets a burst of bolter rounds slam into her chest before she can even raise her own bolter. The two sisters next to him raise their bolter and melta gun to shoot at him. He throws his axe at the one with the melta gun. A howling sound comes from the blade as it cuts through the air, sounding like the harshest wind off of Fenris' tallest mountains. The sound causes the two Sisters to freeze in surprise as the axe buries itself into the middle of the melta carrying Sister's face. The weight of the axe and the force that Lauf threw it pulls the Sister off her feet and into the wall behind her. As Lauf runs towards the second Sister as she tries to raise her bolter he pulls his sword out of the first body and swings at the third. The Sister with a bionic leg tries to shoot but the Space Wolf does not give her a chance as he cuts her head clean off. The skull rolls on the floor in front of him as he spins around, grabbing his axe. He charges towards the next Sister. By now the eight had their weapons up and start to fire at Lauf as he charges towards Riviel. He was going to take that bitch's head as he slams into her like a charging bull. Hitting her around the waist he knocks her to the ground and brings his sword down towards her throat. The blade comes to within an inch of her skin before a loud and commanding voice shouts, "ENOUGH!" Lauf stops moving as he holds his sword at Riviel's throat while he looks up.

The room has filled with over thirty Sisters of Battle all holding flamers and bolters aimed at both the fanatics and Lauf while the Canoness looks at them,

"Lord Redclaw. You have spilled blood in my convent. I should have you killed…." She motions with a hand as two of the new Sisters walk over and put a hand on each of his shoulders, "But I will spare your life if you leave my convent right now." She says while Lauf pushes the hands off before he stands up, glaring at Riviel. He puts his weapons back onto his hips and starts walking out of the room, escorted by the two Sisters at his back. He stops at the door and looks back at the Canoness,

"What are you going to do with these Sisters?" He asks while he looks at Ashe, Astra and Cassidy as some of these new Sisters stand around them, "They will be dealt with for their actions and their failure. It will be handled in my Order and you will not interfere. Now leave Lord Space Marine before my generosity is spent." Emphasizing the point one of the Sisters behind him pushes her bolter's barrel against Lauf's back. As he glances one last time at the three Astra gives him a smile,

"We'll be alright and we'll see each other again… big brother." She says reassuringly as she, Ashe and Cassidy all follow the Sisters guarding them down the hallways around the room. Lauf holds a growl as he walks out towards the exit with the two Sisters following him to make sure he does not try to go back to go after them. He knows it is foolish to try and take them on right now. No matter how much it infuriates him he understands the need to be patient.

Walking out of the Convent Lauf gets one last chance to see the wounded being treated by the Medicae. Once again he sees the young blonde haired girl treating a really badly wounded guardsman. A man almost twice as large the girl. As he complains about his broken leg and tries to make her move, Lauf's eyebrows rise as he watches the little medicae put her hands on the man's shoulders and force him to lie back down on his bed before she starts to treat his leg, much more calmly now as he stops struggling against her efforts. He feels a modicum of respect for her as he moves towards the doors of the Convent. As soon as he steps outside the Sisters close the doors behind him. As the great doors close tight he sets off away from the complex. He was not abandoning those Sisters. He just needed to figure a way to get in there and rescue them.

As he walks through the streets he finds himself wandering towards another landing area in the capital city. When he arrives it looks completely deserted except for a few arvus lighters taking goods around the planet. But his ears begin to ring and he looks up to see what is causing the ringing. As he looks up the clouds in the sky split open to reveal hundreds of transports descending towards the planet. They range in size from simple Valkyries to massive cargo landers capable of carrying super heavy tanks. Lauf grins at the sight of Imperial might.

Those transports easily carry tens of thousands of guardsmen. If they are here to fight the Orks will have a real fight on their hands. Lauf thinks to himself as the first transports begin to land. The doors open and guardsmen wearing the mustard yellow trench-coats and dark brown boots, gloves and rebreathers of the Armageddon Steel Legion surge out. The Emperor could not have sent better Ork killers if the stories Lauf had heard of the Second War of Armageddon were true. There the Steel Legion had fought hard in spite of the incompetent planetary governor who did perhaps more than anyone else to cripple the Imperial fighting efforts on that world against the largest Ork WAAAGH seen in millennia. Lauf watches as the guardsmen form up in rows where their sergeants walk up and down checking on their soldiers while all their vehicles roll out of their transports onto the landing area. As chimeras roll onto the ground, guardsmen squads quickly file into them until each is occupied and then drives away to join the gathering line of guardsmen vehicles waiting to leave the city to go wherever they are destined to on the planet's surface. He looks at the steady flow of men, material and transports arrive and leave while trying to locate the commander of these guardsmen. As he walks around looking for the commander he passes by a group of Ogryns leaving their transport. The abhumans step aside to let the Space Wolf keep travelling while showing respect in their own way as they bang their ripper guns against their chests. Lauf returns the respect by putting his clenched fist against his chestplate and bows his head slightly as he walks through the guardsmen forces. Once he passes through the Ogryns Lauf spots a guardsman standing different from the other soldiers beside a giant shadowsword.

The guardsman wears the regular clothing of the Steel Legion making him seem to be the same as any of the soldiers walking around the landing area. What draws Lauf's eyes to him is the grinning skull design of his rebreather mask identifying him as an officer. But the most remarkable thing that makes Lauf certain this man is the commander is that a battle-hardened commissar stands next to the man and seems to voice things every time the officer speaks to the troops around them. Most often it is barking out for soldiers to pick up their pace and get moving to complete their duties. As he walks towards the officer and his commissar an idea begins to form in Lauf's mind. It's a crazy and foolhardy one and has no chance in the entire galaxy of actually being successful. But still he will try to see if his idea will be even taken up by this officer. First and foremost he should introduce himself and learn who this man is. When he gets close to the two men the commissar taps his officer's shoulder and motions towards Lauf. The two turn to face Lauf and bow respectfully to him,

"Lord Space Marine. This is a surprise. And an honour." The officer states. Lauf nods to him, "Yes it is…." He looks at the man's shoulders where he can see the Steel Legion identification marks of a Major, "Major. And your arrival is quite the blessing from the Allfather. We have a bit of an Ork problem here." "We know." The commissar explains, "These Orks are a splinter group from the giant WAAAGH which had invaded our homeworld and started the First War for Armageddon." Lauf looks at them. Of course they would not know about the real First War for Armageddon. When the Space Wolves under Great Wolf Logan Grimnar fought alongside the soldiers of their world, first against the forces of Chaos under the command of the mad Primarch Angron. Then against the Inquisition who wanted to purge the entire planet and its population for Chaos taint. That war ended with the Space Wolves facing off with the Inquisition over their homeworld and could very well resulted in an Imperial Civil War had the cool mind of Bjorn the Fell-handed stopped Jarl Grimnar from continuing the fight with the Inquisition. Those tales are still spoken with a mix of pride and anger in the halls of Aett. Pride for their actions during that time. Anger at how many people they were unable to save from the Inquisition.

Right now was not the place to correct the Major's claim about the war, Lauf simply nods in understanding, "So here we are now my lord. And we are going to smash the Orks before they can get fully stuck into the forge world." "I might suggest an alternative Major." Lauf says, interrupting the Major's line of thinking, "By now the Orks will have begun tearing apart the machinery of the world to make their ramshackle vehicles. Going to attack them will not succeed in destroying them. They are too concentrated and high on their supposed victory right now. A better course of action would be to establish your soldiers on this world. Ideally near this city as it is the capital and will most likely be the primary target for the Orks. You can establish your defences and prepare to greet them with as much firepower as you can muster here. Plus you'll have the home advantage while the Orks will be busy trying to establish a foothold." Lauf was no brilliant strategist but he had spent enough time traveling after Ramses that he had faced Orks quite a few times and learned about their strengths and weaknesses. And how to exploit each. Of course he still could not hold a candle to Jarl Grimnar's experience and he's not going to try. But he can at least provide this officer some experienced advice to take under suggestion,

"Sir?" The commissar looks at the Major who seems deep in thought, "Spread the word Commissar. I want defensive positions dug around the Hive. All avenues for an Ork invasion to be sighted and prepared for them. By the time the greenskins arrive I want them to be greeted by a hail of lead and las-fire." The Major says calmly and quietly. The Commissar snaps to attention and salutes, "Yes sir!" He turns around and starts to bark out orders to the guardsmen around the landing area while the Major reaches up and starts to undo the buckles of his rebreather and helmet.

Lauf watches as the Steel Legionnaire takes his helmet and rebreather off and hold them to his side. Lauf looks over the Major's face. For a man from a world as polluted and industrialized as Armageddon he looks quite healthy with pitch black hair and white skin. Lauf's attention is drawn to the man's deep silver eyes, something he's never actually seen before. Lauf looks at the Major as he looks back at him,

"What is your name Major?" Lauf asks as the guardsman smiles, "Major Klaus Korren. Though most of my officers call me Kaz." Kaz states as Lauf nods, "Well Major Kaz. I know you and your soldiers just arrived. But I need to request your aid." As he speaks Kaz cocks his head to one side, "Oh? Well what aid do you need my lord?" Lauf leans closer and whispers his request to Kaz. Kaz listens until Lauf stops relaying his plan to him before he looks at him,

"You really think that will work my lord? It sounds quite crazy….. even for a Space Marine." Kaz admits his uncertainty about the plan, "It will fail if we don't try anything Major Korren. And it will only succeed if I can count on your assistance." Lauf says before Kaz can continue speaking. He knew the plan he detailed to Kaz was a long shot,

"This is crazy. Unlikely to succeed and completely bordering on treason…." Kaz says before he smiles, "Fortunately, we of the Steel Legion make our legends on crazy and unlikely to succeed plans. Commissar Mackensen! Get me Sgt Whittman and his team!" Kaz calls out to his commissar who salutes and walks away to find this sergeant. Kaz looks at Lauf as the Space Wolf watches the guardsmen move around them,

"Sgt Whittman and his crew are an odd bunch. But they are the perfect force for helping you in your mission." Kaz explains while Lauf sees a chimera driving very quickly towards them. He sees a woman on top of the open hatch of the turret cheering as the chimera drives fast towards them. It almost flies up the ramp in front of Lauf and Kaz.

Just when it looks like the driver is about to hit the two the chimera or APC quickly cuts to the right, kicking up a pile of dust that engulfs Lauf and Kaz while the transport stops within a foot of the pair. When the dust finally settles back down Lauf looks at the soldiers who climbed on top of the chimera. One man wearing the uniform of a sergeant and smoking a Lho-stick must be Sgt Whittman. The sergeant has a scar just above his right eye that splits his dirty brown eyebrow just to the left of its centre

"Sorry about that sir. Didn't mean to smoke you there." Sergeant Whittman says as he continues to smoke his lho-stick, "Sure you didn't sergeant. My lord. May I present Sgt Whittman and his team?" Kaz looks from Lauf to Whittman as the sergeant takes his lho-stick out of his mouth and bows slightly to Lauf,

"My lord. Sergeant Whittman. Though most of my crew call me Fumes." "Cause you're constantly spewing them Sarge." The woman in the turret was the one who spoke up as she rests her head on top of the twin heavy bolters using her arms as a cushion, "And these ones smell worse than the ones coming out of an old Leman Russ." She says with a chuckle as 'Fumes' turns and looks at the woman,

"At least I don't whoop for joy when I fire my weapon Lazie." He answers while 'Lazie' gives a fake frown, "Awe sarge. You hurt me so." The man next to Lazie looks up from a pouch he is working on at the woman,

"If Fumes actually hurt you Lazie you would be turning those rattle-bangers on him without a moment's hesitation." Lazie snaps her head and glares at the man, sending daggers with her eyes at him, "That calm looking fellow is called Smoke. He can fix up your vehicle in one moment and blow it up the next." Fumes explains in between puffs of his lho-stick. All three soldiers have signs of living in a Hive City with the pale skin and some evidence of pollution poisoning around the corners of their eyes and lips. Otherwise they are quite healthy and cheerful as Lauf looks from them to the last member of the chimera crew. A long-las rifle set across his lap tells him that he is a sniper but the thing that draws Lauf's eyes is the large, bulbous nose that comes out of the short human's face. It almost seems too large for his face as he gives a toothy grin to Lauf, showing a pair of missing teeth,

"The Ratling's name is Nose. For obvious reasons. He's a damn fine sniper, but watch his hands. He'll rob you blind if he can." Fumes comments as Nose snorts, "Hey Sarge. You know that was never intentional. Those things just happened to fall into my lap." "And I had to fill out a dozen forms to keep the Commissar from putting a bolter round in your head Nose. So don't deny it right now." The four all laugh at their snipe barbs in between each other as Kaz starts to put his rebreather and helmet back on,

"I trust this team will help you my lord. If there is nothing else I will take my leave now." He says as he finishes attaching his rebreather before he starts to walk down the ramp, "Major." Kaz turns around to see Lauf bringing up his frost axe from his hip and slams it against his chest, "May the Allfather watch over you." Kaz smiles and snaps a salute to Lauf, "May the God-Emperor guide your hand my lord." Kaz responds before he leaves. As soon as the Major is out of sight Lauf looks back at the team,

"So my lord. What's the plan?" Fumes asks, "Gather round gentlemen, lady. You're going to help me resuce three innocent people." Lauf explains as he begins to lay out his plan to the four. The plan makes Lazie smile as crazy as before while Fumes and Smoke nod calmly. Nose chuckles as he pats his long-las,

"This sounds like it's going to be fun my lord." Nose's comment gets nods of approval from the other guardsmen, "Perhaps Nose. But the important thing is getting these innocent girls out of that convent alive. So if you can succeed in your part of the plan it will mean that this mission succeeding will be much more certain." Lauf says. While he wants to be as confident as the guardsmen right now he was more concerned with making sure that he will be able to succeed in his plan without any real bloodshed, "Well boys. Let's get loaded up." Fumes states as he tosses the remnant of his lho-stick to the ground then stomps on it, putting it out. Lauf watches the sergeant do this while the rest of his crew climb inside the chimera, Lazie closing her turret hatch as Smoke and Nose climb down through hatches in the top of the transport. Once all the crew is inside Fume stands half-out of the transport and looks at Lauf,

"My lord." Lauf walks to the back of the APC and moves inside as the ramp closed behind him. Once it had closed fully Lauf sits down on one of the many open seats before he looks around at the inside just as he hears the engine rev while Fumes steps on the gas. The chimera had been slightly retrofitted to better accommodate this team and their own work. Instead of the seats to fit more than two dozen guardsmen there was a couple of bunk-bed cots on one side and large amounts of supplies inside webbing attached to the top of the sides. Lauf sees he is sitting on one of only ten seats inside the back of the chimera. The amount of work they must have gone through to make these changes to their transport would no doubt impress Lauf if he bothered to ask this story. On one side of the door leading to the driver section of the chimera Lauf notices there are little marks carved into the wall in sections of five with the fifth line running diagonally through the other four in the group along with a small gap in between the groups of lines. Lauf sees there are a quite a few of these marks on the wall and he looks at Smoke who is sitting on top of the highest bunk in the area. The guardsman looks up from a set of explosives he is busy working on next to his leg to see Lauf motioning with a nod of his head towards the marks on the wall. Smoke glances at the marks and smiles,

"That's Lazie's score-board my lord. She likes to keep score of every big target she shreds with her twin-bolters." Smoke explains just as Lazie ducks down from inside the turret, "Someone call me?" "No Lazie. We're just talking about your ridiculous score-board." Smoke says nonchalantly while he goes back to working on the explosives,

"Well thanks so much…." Lazie grumbles at Smoke before she looks at Lauf and smiles, "Impressed my lord?" "For a normal human guardswoman? Yes, quite impressive." Lauf grins as Lazie's face gets slightly red in frustration, "Hardy har har. Very funny my lord. Well I bet you can't compare to this number of victories?" "Actually guardswoman. That's an afternoon for me." Lauf smirks at Lazie's surprised look before she grumbles some more and stands back up inside the turret. As soon as Lazie is back comfortably inside the turret Lauf keeps looking around the chimera and see any other improvements the guardsmen have made to it. Lauf wonders who gave them permission to do this modification in the chimera and a smile creeps on his lips after it subsided while talking with Lazie. From what he gathered after just meeting him no doubt the Major had something to do with these modifications being approved.

He does not think about it long as the chimera drives through the city as fast as some of the other vehicles moving along the streets. Fumes turns down one side-street near the walls of the convent and stops,

"My lord. We're here." Fumes comes through the door behind his seat, "Thank you sergeant. Now we begin." Lauf looks at them and they all nod.

Sister Dorael had seen a bit today. First some Sisters who had been sent away to Secundus return to tell them they lost so many to the Orks ravaging that world. And they came with a Space Wolf. Then that same Wolf cut down several of their Convent in less than a minute. Now she stands in front of her convent's gate with her fellow guard Sister watching four drunken guardsmen arguing about something ridiculous that only they understand. The amount of noise they are making is drawing Sisters from all around the wall who are supposed to be on guard duty. Normally she would simply burn these foolish humans for their lack of faith hence why they need to fall into drink rather than devote prayers to the God-Emperor. But the crowd they were gathering made that difficult simply because their Canoness had given orders that the civilians of this world were not to be purged without clear 'evidence' of corruption,

"And I told you. When I gave the bottle away it was half-empty." Slurred Smoke to Lazie who was holding a dark bottle that sloshes liquid, "But I when I got it, it was half-full." Lazie responds before she takes a drink from the bottle, "Oh. Well I'm sure something…. Must 'ave happened to it." Smoke has to rest himself against Lazie barely conscious as every time a Sister of Battle tries to break up the four drunks they seem to simply push her away and continue on their ramblings. Dorael holds her bolter to one side as she watches the guardsmen continue in this display of their pathetic natures. In spite of its foolishness and lack of decency, the drunkards are gathering a crowd of regular civilians from the surrounding buildings. The drunk Ratling of the four keeps moving around the crowd with his hands reaching up and almost grabbing many women before getting shoved or slapped for almost touching them. The actions makes a few of the Sisters smirk as they enjoy the disgusting ratling get injured, even in this small way. The display continues as the crowd begins to block out the view for the Sisters of the buildings around the gate to the Convent.

With all the eyes around the gates focusing on the four drunks in the street nobody notices some movement climbing up the wall further down the convent as Lauf sneaks inside. Once he gets over the wall Lauf jumps down to the ground. Landing with a quiet but large THUD Lauf stops for a second and smells the air. He quickly picks up the scents of the three Sisters. He starts to run in the direction where the scent is coming from the strongest in the Convent. As he runs around a corner of a building near where he landed over the wall he bolts back behind the building as a group of Sisters come running down the path towards the doors. They rush to go disperse the crowd that had grown to a problematic level for the Canoness and she was not going to stand around and let the crowd get out of control. Lauf holds very still as the Sisters run past the building he is hiding beside. They run so quickly that none of them notice him hiding there. Lauf carefully counts the Sisters who run past,

"10,12,14,16….24. Quite a few to simply disperse a crowd?" Lauf thinks out loud for a second before he quickly checks around the corner to make sure there is not another group running down the path in his direction. Seeing the path is clear he comes around the building and returns to running towards the location where the three Sisters' scent is coming from. Any regular Astartes would be able to track them down with their enhanced senses, but Space Wolves' senses are better than their counterparts. This was coming into use as Lauf moves through the outside of the Convent avoiding the Sisters in the grounds. Most are armed and armoured heading towards the entrance. Clearly the four guardsmen are doing a very good job of keeping them distracted, Allfather. Please watch over and keep them from suffering because I asked for their help. Lauf sends his silent prayer to the Allfather while his fingers wrap around the talisman he normally wore on his chest up to his chin. He had removed all the talismans he normally wore in his beard to stop the noise they normally make while he was sneaking through the Convent. Running up to the side of the main building Lauf starts to climb up the wall to reach the location where the girls are being held. His heavy weight makes it a slow and somewhat loud climb but still nobody seems to notice him inside the walls. Slowly getting up to the roof of the first floor of the Convent Lauf pulls himself up to look inside one of the large stained-glass windows. Inside he can see the Canoness talk with several of her Celestians. They were trying to decide what to do about the Orks who had arrived in the Sub-Sector. Some argued they should hunker down inside the Convent and fortify it as best they can. Others demanded that they go take back the Forge World. They could demand the Imperial Creed be taught there in return for conquering the world back for the Imperium and the Adeptus Mechanicus, We're still busy trying to prepare this planet to resist the Orks when they arrive. And these Sisters are making plans that go completely against the Major's plans. At least the Canoness, as fanatical as she is, is pragmatic enough to see that right now attacking the Orks would leave this Sub-Sector completely open for invasion. Lauf thinks while he carefully moves along the roof with the scent of the three growing stronger with each step he takes along the roof.

Taking another step a loud CRACK precedes Lauf falling forward as his leg breaks through part of the roof where poor maintenance had allowed a beam to rot enough that Lauf's foot falls through it. He stops when his hip hits the roof and he hangs there. Looking down Lauf grunts as he tries to free his leg from its prison as quietly as possible. Bits of masonry and building fall down to the floor underneath him as Lauf struggles to get his leg out of the hole when a snapping sound and the scent of fresh blood draws his attention from the hole to a walled courtyard at the back of the main Convent building. Looking at what is inside the courtyard makes his temper flare and his grip to tighten on the elevated chunk of roof in front of him so much that a crack forms in it. The courtyard has three poles lining the wall with several sets of manacles coming out of each at different levels. One set of the manacles are locked around the wrists of Ashe, Cassidy and Astra as the three are forced to stand up while they are flogged across the back by a Mistress of Repentance with her Neural whips. Each strike from these terrible weapons cleave the flesh and split the muscle tissue open while making the young Sisters shout/scream in agony. With each strike the Mistress of Repentance comments that with the pain the three repent their sins to the Order before she swings her whips and strikes all three again, bringing another scream from the girls. Watching this infuriates Lauf. It was his actions that caused the girls to suffer like this. With a loud grunt he pulls his leg free just as the mistress coils her whips back over her shoulders. He can hear her say that they will stay here to reflect and continue their repentance as the Sisters who stood watching all turn and leave the courtyard. The three chained Sisters are all that remain in the courtyard, panting as sweat and blood trickle into pools at their feet.

Ashe put her head against the post as tears fell down her cheeks. The sting of its salt on her cheeks took away the sting from her still bleeding back. This had been doubly humiliating. First she, Cassidy and Astra had been stripped of their ranks and armour. Then they were paraded through the Convent to the repentance posts where they now stayed until the Canoness decided they could come off. Until she said so they would have to stay and suffer the pain of their whip wounds,

"Celestian?" Astra's voice comes from her left, "Are you still conscious?" Ashe breathes in deep to calm herself down before answering, "Yes Astra. I am. Cassidy?" "Yeah I'm still awake. Wish I wasn't though. That repentance women can get SO annoying." Cassidy's remark gets painful chuckles from the other two, "Anyone see a way to get these manacles off? They're not really my colour and they're making my shoulders ache." Ashe glances over at Cassidy. She has two bleeding whip marks going diagonally down her shoulders to the centre of her back, creative a V shape. Both look to be down into the muscle tissue as every time Cassidy tries to move to get herself more comfortable the pain of her shoulders moving slightly made her freeze. All of them had endured incredible pain during their training to become Sisters of Battle. But even that paled compared to the pain she felt in her back at the moment,

"No Cassidy. I don't see them coming off anytime soon." Astra admits as the older woman sighs. Just as Ashe was about to resign herself to waiting for the Canoness' attention there is a soft thud as if something fell behind them. Turning her head as best she can Ashe looks to see where the noise came from. At first nothing seems out of the ordinary in the courtyard before a flash of dull blue and red draws her eyes up to the side of the Convent,

Wasn't there a statue right there just a moment ago? Ashe wonders. She was sure that an empty space on the wall had a statue. Before she has a chance to think about it too much there is another thud sounding behind them. This one was much heavier than the first and even made the girls bounce a little bit. Ashe cannot see what the noise was from as it came from a angle she could not turn her head but she suddenly feels a presence behind her. Thinking it was the Mistress of Repentance coming back to begin whipping them again she mentally braces for the pain when a large armoured hand suddenly rests itself on her shoulder, followed by a gentle whisper of "Forgive me. All of you." Ashe feels tears of happiness fall. The Space Wolf Lauf had come back, "There is nothing to forgive my lord." She manages to say, her throat now hoarse from the heat and lack of water, "Don't move." Lauf says as he draws his frost sword. The blade hums lightly as the energy flows around it. With one swing he cuts the hinge holding the manacles around Ashe's wrists. When she starts to fall forward Lauf's free hand quickly comes out. It comes underneath her chest and holds her from hitting the pole,

"Not having you pass out on me yet." Lauf comments before he carefully lowers Ashe down to the ground. Once he makes sure she is in a position that won't hurt her wounds he makes his way over to Cassidy and Astra. He repeats the process with the two of them before bringing all three together. Once they are all comfortable he looks around for a way out. Seeing nothing at first he pulls a small vox bead out of a pocket on his armour and puts it into his ear. Letting it buzz and crackle before it settles he makes sure he can be clearly heard,

"Sgt Fumes. We're in the back courtyard and need a way out." Lauf says quickly and to the point into the vox. If the guardsmen can figure a way for them to escape it would make things a lot easier. His thoughts about how to escape get stopped when a chimera bursts through the side wall into the courtyard,

"Seems this wall was less sturdy than the Sisters thought." Fumes calls as he opens the front hatch in the chimera, bits of stone and brick falling off either side, "Well come on my lord! We don't want to be here when the reception party comes out!" Lauf does not need the sergeant's warning to start. He carefully picks Astra up first and runs to the back of the transport while Smoke and Nose pick up Cassidy between them. Setting Astra down carefully in a bunk Lauf runs back out to get Ashe. He reaches her just as a group of Sisters fully armed and armoured run out into the courtyard to see what caused the noise. Their eyes turn to Lauf. Seeing what he is doing they shout,

"HERETIC!" They all raise their weapons to start firing when the ground in front of them shoots up when a burst of heavy bolter fire creates a makeshift smokescreen of dust and dirt. Lazie chuckles as she keeps firing into the ground before the Sisters, "Get moving lord Space Wolf! We don't have all day!" She shouts over the rattle of the turret. Lauf scoops Ashe up, careful to not touch her injuries before he turns around and races back to the chimera. Climbing inside he hits the button to close the back of the transport before he puts Ashe down on another bunk underneath Cassidy and next to Astra. Before the backdoor had fully closed Fumes put the chimera into reverse and pushed it out of the courtyard, spinning around on the street and pushing his foot against the engine-pedal. The chimera speeds down the street away from the Convent even as some of the Sisters run out of the hole in their wall and try to shoot after them. Some shots bounce off the sides of the chimera but none come close to something important. Laughter erupts from the guardsmen as they applaud each other for successfully deceiving the Sisters. Their cheers and self-congratulations bring a smile to Lauf as he keeps watching the three lying on the cots. Their wounds continue to bleed and throb. If he doesn't get them to proper medical attention he doubted they would live as no doubt infection was already setting into the whip marks.

A rustle of a tarp next to him draws Lauf's attention as he quickly pulls his sword back off his hip. Motioning for silence he walks over to the tarp as quietly as he can. Standing next to it Lauf reaches down and grips the tarp. With one motion he pulls the tarp away and thrusts his sword at whatever was hiding underneath. Lauf stops his attack when his eyes meet the sapphire blue eyes of the young medicae he had seen treating the wounded in the Convent. Instead of cowering in fright at the sight of the frost sword, the barely thirteen years old young girl looked at him defiantly and without fear. Lauf pulls his sword back and puts it back on his hip,

"How did you get in here whelp?" He demands as the girl stands up, "I watched the four guardsmen get beaten up and wanted to see if I could leave some medical supplies for them." She says. Lauf had noticed how the four had various injuries. Fumes had a black eye, Lazie's lip was split and puffed up, Smoke was bleeding from a cut on his chin and Nose's namesake had swollen to almost one and a half its regular size, bleeding down his face, "But now I see there is something much bigger for me to deal with." As if she did not even think about having a frost sword at her neck she goes over to the bunks. There she cuts the cloths covering the three girls' backs and pulls out a large satchel filled with medical supplies. Lauf steps back as the girl starts to clean the injuries, holding the girl she's working on down even as she screams and struggles from the pain of the tonics she is applying to their whip wounds. Lauf sits down and watches the young medicae work while the chimera speeds through the streets.

Kaz stands on the side of the landing area beside his command shadowsword. The powerful super-heavy tank had special upgrades when he got it that made it different from other shadowswords he had encountered. He had no idea why this was but he cannot think about this now. His regiment had almost completely arrived on the world and the first forces that had come down on the planet were already moving out to set up positions outside the main Hive City. He's shaken out of thinking about the plans for defending the worlds of the Sub-Sector when Fumes' chimera runs up the street between two Valkyrie transports. It comes to a stop in front of the Major and Fumes pops out of his hatch,

"Our mission is a success sir!" He says proudly as Kaz eyes the black eye, "I don't want to know sergeant." He comments while the back door lowers. Kaz sees Lauf exit the transport before flagging down some guardsmen medics and sisters medicae over to the chimera. Once they are inside he turns away and walks towards Kaz,

"My lord. Were you successful?" Kaz asks while Lauf nods. He had not told Kaz exact specifics about his plan so if someone comes demanding an account he can honestly say he has no idea what they're talking about. But right now he had a lot on his mind. Not only were these three now his responsibilities, they had been stripped of their equipment by their order so they were not very good in a fight, especially with these terrible injuries. Thinking he tried to come up with an idea how to deal with that issue when his eyes are drawn to one transport behind Kaz. Sitting in the shadows would hide him from most eyes Lauf can still see him in his pitch-black stealth suit as he casually loads a turbo-penetrator round into a magazine for his Exitus rifle set beside him. The Vindicare Assassin stays silent as he continues loading his magazines but his presence makes Lauf smile, Now this will make things interesting….. He thinks before he looks towards the Hive City. He had no idea how long they would have before the Orks arrived. Allfather willing they would be ready when the greentide came.

TO BE CONTINUED…