Disclaimer: first chappie (see)
Screaming obscenities and blasphemous hymns from vox enhanced helmet casters, the Black Legion surged forward. The Iron Hands, the death of Ferrus Manus still a wrong not righted, spat their own oaths and war cries, and charged forward. Zaltyd fired three bursts from his bolter, exploding the chest of traitor, and punching a hole through the eye slit of another.
A team of Black Legion charged Zaltyd and his guards, chainswords and powerfists raised. Hooking his holy bolter to hooks on his armor, the Iron Father activated his own power axe and diverted power into his crackling energy fist. Raising his bionic right arm high, axe gripped tightly, Zaltyd screamed a cry.
"The flesh is weak!!!!!" he screamed into the rain, over and over, raising cries from his fellows. With a downward blow, a traitor marine was split in twain.
Almost immediately, the sand was drenched in diluted blood. Brothers Isaac and Rikard fought side by side with chainswords, in duels to the death with a pair of opponents. A bolter slammed into Zaltyd's helmet with such force that the towering warrior nearly collapsed. He turned to see a traitor holding a bayoneted bolter up for another strike. Coldly, wordlessly, Zaltyd reached out with his power fist, the bayonet snapping on his bionic, and grabbed the enemy by the face. A little pressure, and Zaltyd was soaked with blood.
The melee still ground on. Neither side gave ground, and everyone had found an equal opponent, even one of the dreadnoughts who grappled with a behemoth death machine with eight pointed stars daubed in blood on its armor.
Zaltyd disdainfully tossed the headless corpse aside. From the concentration of soldiers in his area, he saw the favored "slay the leader" tactic of the Black Legion. Regrouping, the Iron Hands armor sped forwards, firing all weapons. The gunships screeched low, heavy guns blaring.
With another mighty sweep, an obliterator fell to Zaltyd, a huge gash opened in its back. A power fist blow crushed another, and the Iron Father catapulted himself into another, feeling its face crunch beneath his power fist. Chainswords whirring and spitting out blood and flesh, Rikard, Isaac and Wilhelm ran upwards, though in a flash of steel and red, Rikard's bionic left arm was severed at the elbow. The twisted machinery spat sparks as Rikard dropped his chainsword onto the blood and water slick sand. Wilhelm rushed forwards and beheaded the attacker, and was blindsided by another, both swords flying up into the air while their wielders punched and grappled with each other, challenges and oath hissed out from their helmets. Isaac rushed forwards and pushed Rikard back, who had drawn his knife in his good hand. Roaring, Zaltyd leapt in, cleaving a traitor from pelvis to shoulder and punching another in the face with his powered glove. The plasma guns on his servo harness (more often used as a weapon than a tool) spat their purple beams, and a pair of grappler fists swept down and snapped the neck of a Raptor with a lighting claw that charged the wounded Rikard.
Pulling his combat knife out, Wilhelm butted the traitor in the face with his helmet and stabbed through one of his hearts. Stifling a screech of pain, the traitor punched Wihelm in the face, and pulled out his own sidearm, a bolt pistol emblazoned with the eight pointed star of chaos. He leapt on Wilhelm, kicking with both legs, knocking the wind out of the marine. He cackled deeply and leveled the gun at Wilhelm's head.
"Beg,scum. Grovel. Give me a reason why I shouldn't kill you right now. Join us perha-?"
" Go to hell!" roared Wilhelm, and snapped the wrist of the hand holding the pistol. They struggled some more, fighting for ownership of the gun. As the Chaos Marine raised his right hand,trying to break the Iron Hand's neck, Wilhelm felt the handle of a bolt pistol slide into his hand. The chaos marine's good hand raised to break Wilhelm's neck, the Iron Hands initiate pulled the trigger of the bolt pistol, putting six rounds through the bowels of the enemy. With a kick, the profusely bleeding traitor slid onto the sand and Wilhelm flipped back upward. He looked back coldly at the wounded marine, and shot him between the eyes. Around him, the fighting seemed to be evaporating as more Iron Hands arrived to join the fray. He tossed the sidearm aside and drew his own, bending down to retrieve his knife, still buried in the first heart of the corpse.
"Look out!" someone screamed and Wilhelm flipped around, just in time to see a power sword arcing toward his face.
With a grunt, Zaltyd lunged forwards towards the exposed Chaos Marine champion's flank. He grabbed him by the rib plating of its armor, and slowly crushed it with his power fist. He reached the massive glove down to Wilhelm, who used it to haul himself up. Underneath his helmet, an eyebrow was raised.
"Are you alright?" he asked, turning back to the scene, where the remnants of the Black Legion task force retreated, harried by a group of bikers from the White Scars. Wilhelm holstered his blade and sidearm and picked up his bolter.
" A little banged up sir, but otherwise okay."
With brother Rikard wielding a plasma pistol in his good hand, Zaltyd and his bodyguards pushed back the Black Legionaires attacking them. The majority of them retreated, trading sporadic bolter fire with the defenders, rather than get bogged down in a long fight they couldn't win. The Iron Father was sure that he was the target of that operation.
After collecting the dead, the Iron Hands packed into their transports and continued their trek to the far shore. The fighting had spooked the locals, who clustered together and barely spoke, hands clenching and unclenching on the handles of their exotic carbine like weapons. Zaltyd sat at the front inside the Land Raider, listening to vox traffic. All sorts of reports came in though the system. Two other Iron Hands task forces punched through a defensive line held by the skilled Iron Warriors, and now battled against the main force on the open plains of the far continent. A large Ultramarines force now fought with the Krieg against a massive force of the Word Bearers Legion.
By far the worst news though was that the entire Kolstec regiment had been wiped out to a man over the night by the Night Lords. 25,000 soldiers slaughtered on the beaches. Imperial High Command, consulting with Marneus Calgar and other Astartes leaders had decreed that this small planet had the utmost priority, diverted a dozen regiments of the Imperial Guard, an entire Adeptus Mechanicus company and thousands of more Astartes drawn from the chapters Raven Guard, Space Wolves, Salamanders, the Dark Angels, Imperial Fists and the Blood Angels. As if in response, the chaos marines had called their brethren from the World Eaters, The Death Guard and the Thousand Sons. Rumours abounded the overall commander of the chaos forces was Fulgrim himself.