"Worried, brother?"

Akileus heard the familiar voice behind him, turning his body around to look at Jerosus, one of the Lexicani assigned to the Kronus campaign. He was clad in his customary blue Librarian's robes, and in a sheath on his left he carried a Force Sword. On the other side, he carried a plasma pistol in a holster.

Akileus had never liked Jerosus. When he was first inducted into the Chapter's Lexicanum, he had witnessed the end of his closest friend and greatest rival, torn apart by demonic possession. This revelation had turned Jersosus into a dour and pessimistic warrior, estranged from his battle-brothers. Although the Blood Ravens revered Librarians, and sought to integrate them as much into the Chapter's doings and structure as possible, Jerosus acted aloof and distant, as if he was no brother of anyone.

"Hardly. Nicolaus has trained them well. Each of them will make a fine battle-brother, in time."

"That's assuming they've survived. They have been out of vox contact for a while now, haven't they?"

"That's only natural. They're down on the surface, on Victory Bay. We're here, in the teleportarium of the Litany of Fury. With that out of the way, why are you here, Lexicanum?"

"Captain Thule liked your idea of sending people to their deaths in teleporter accidents, so he assigned me to the second scout squad to go after the artillery emplacements. I'm to cover them with my powers while they eliminate the crews and allow our brothers to pass."

"I'm glad you place such faith in our young Scout brothers and my tactical prowess."

"I'd never doubt our young Scout brothers", Jerosus said, a smug grin on his face.

Akileus tried to shake his head, but restricted by the heavy helmet of a fully enclosed suit of Tactical Dreadnought armor, he could not move his head at all.

"So, has anything interesting happened below?" Jerosus asked.

"The Third Company division found a Baneblade in the Governor-Militant's vehicle production facilities to the southwest of our landing site. We lost a squad of assault marines and one squad of Devastators in the ensuing firefight." Akileus anwered. It had been a squad of his First Company brothers that had taken it down when they were teleported in armed with thunder hammers and storm shields.

"I see. How eventful." Jerosus shrugged, demonstrating that lack of brotherhood that Akileus found so unnerving about him.

Suddenly, the teleportarium flashed to life. On the pict-screen built into his Terminator armor, Akileus noticed the activation of a beacon. The Scout squads were in place to destroy the artillery. The first phase of Captain Thule's plan had been a success.

"I would love to stay and debate the finer methods of planning with you, Lexicanum, but duty calls."
"Don't let me keep you. I'm sure the Chapter won't mind losing a suit of Terminator armor, we can just have the Ultramarines gift us a new one."

Akileus did not even bother to retort. With a sour taste in his mouth, the entered the teleportarium.

There was a flash, and he was standing in a marsh, surrounded by Scouts. They were pointing forward, towards something.

A few seconds later, he slowly rose up, taking extra care to ensure everything was in place. Traveling through the Warp was never an enjoyable thing, and it was rarely safe, either. He looked to where the Scouts were pointing, his enhanced senses further boosted by the sensors in his armor. About thirty metres ahead, he spotted it.

The Governor-Militant had placed six basilisks along a gun-line west of the main bridge into his stronghold, situated in marshland that was difficult enough to traverse, but also left lightly armored attackers vulnerable to fire along the way. These were the objective the Scouts had been sent here to destroy.

"Nicolaus, lead your squad to the left." He pointed to a small isle in the swamp, on which two basilisks rested, constantly firing and reloading, pounding the Blood Ravens in the distance with artillery shells. "Take out the basilisk on the left. Kill the crew. Don't begin picking them off until I've moved in to destroy the other. None of the Guardsmen defending it have plasma weaponry, so I should be fine on my own."
"As you wish, brother." Nicolaus nodded, and looked around. The Scouts had all listened in, and all were aware of the plan. They began moving through the swamp, camo-cloaks obscuring them, on the way to their target.

Akileus, on the other hand, began moving forward, slowly. The hulking Terminator would probably have been heard for miles around if the Guardsmen weren't partially deafened from the constant artillery bombardment. It would be a little while yet before they heard him. He could use that to his advantage.

When he was close enough for his armor's sensors to detect Guardsmen, he revved his assault cannon. This was it.

He released the first salvo with devastating effects, the assault cannon dishing out solid projectiles so fast his eyes could not follow them, taking three Guardsmen by surprise and turning them into bloody mist. His squad mates stared in disbelief for a second before the one fursthest from Akileus pointed down to the hulking, Terminator-armored form in front of them, and they all took cover. One of them was yelling something, but Akileus could not hear it over the roar of his weapon.

Another salvo punched through the concrete cover a Guardsman had hid behind through sheer volume of fire. He did not get up again.

The Guardsmen started firing, their las-bolts occasionally hitting home, although most of them were repelled or stopped entirely by his armor. They'd have to try harder than that to penetrate his blessed suit.

He was close enough now that his feet finally met solid, albeit soft and muddy ground after walking through swamp water, and when another Guardsmen poked his head above cover to take a pot-shot, another burst left him without a head.

Suddenly, a Guardsman, presumably the sergeant, judging from his rank pins, broke from cover and ran towards him, bayonet braced. Akileus barely recognized him before bringing up the massive powerfist in his left hand, and punching forward. One half of the man remained on the ground, the other started flying towards the Basilisk, hitting the gun and smearing it in blood. The crew stopped firing and turned around in shock.

Akileus reached for the melta charge. He knew he was out to destroy tanks, so he had requisitioned two from the Chapter armory. He began walking towards the gun, lasbolts from the crewmen absorbed entirely by his Terminator suit, and threw the charge.

Upon contact with the main gun, the melta charge burst in a shower of white-hot plasma, and the tip of the gun fell off, separated from the artillery platform. He then took up his assault cannon again, and felled the crewmen.

The Guardsmen had long since fled, their morale broken at the sight of the grisly death of their officer and the destruction of the gun they were sent to protect, and were running through the swamp when Akileus lifted his assault cannon for the last time, sending a devastating volley of fire through the fleeting squad.

"SUFFER NO TRAITOR TO LIVE!" he roared, his Terminator suit giving his voice a strange, disjointed voice that must have sounded even more intimidating, for the Guardsmen who had not been hit by his assault cannon fire were running even faster now.

Little did it help them, for moments later, the last of them were lying dead, most of them with fatal head wounds. He looked to his left to see Nicolaus' squad, sniper rifles poised. Nicolaus nodded at him, as his vox suddenly sounded:

"Brother Akileus, the artillery emplacements here are gone. We killed the crew, and drove the remaining Guardsmen off. We could not finish off all of them."

"Very well. Have we heard news from the other Scouts?"

"Five out of six Basilisks have been destroyed. The last one is on the other side of the bridge, and out of our reach. We may have to find another way to destroy it."

"I may have an idea. I just need to contact Captain Thule. For now, I want you to return to headquarters with me. I'll need to find my squad."

"Did you find any gifts for our Chapter?"

"None that were Astartes-size."

"A grim sign. Perhaps there will be something at the Governor-Militant's base when we storm it."

"Perhaps. That's of no importance now, however."

"You're right. We'll be moving back to headquarters then. The Emperor protects."

"The Emperor protects" said Akileus, adrenaline still pumping through his veins.

Five out of six basilisks essentially meant the way to Lukas Alexander's base was clear. There would be nothing standing in their way. The Blood Ravens would descend on the traitor Governor-Militant like the hammer of the righteous. The Scouts had proven themselves beyond question; every single one of them had no doubt felled at least one Guardsman today.

A fine day in the Emperor's service, Akileus thought, if unfinished, for the traitor general still lived, and every second he remained alive was a risk to the Blood Ravens that he would re-marshall his forces and strike. Every second was a risk that the secrets of Kronus were revealed, and the Blood Ravens shamed for eternity.

There, those were the chapters I'd written beforehand. From here on out I'll try to add some (redundant) commentary to the zany exploits of Veteran Akileus.

This third chapter was the one that was hardest to write, and probably the only one that took a lot of conscious effort to write through. I hadn't written much combat up to this point (I'm quite rusty, I need to take some pointers from darkeldar, the guy who writes Nothing But a List of Names to Mark his Ascension in this regard) and my dog (my first pet) had just died at the age of four and a half after being run over by a car, so my concentration was already all over the place. That being said, I've grown quite fond of it, and I don't think it's completely awful.

Jerosus is a character from a fan fic I posted months ago on Tv Tropes (which was quite awful, so I shan't link it here) whom I decided to bring back, albeit with a slightly altered frame. He wasn't originally supposed to be this dour, but since I still had some repentance to do for that awful fic, I decided to dicker around with him a bit.

Anyway, that's the commentary for this installment. Any and all criticism (provided it's somewhat constructive) is ever welcome.