The Stormraven touched down unnoticed in the cover of a farm yard, the flashes of explosions and plumes of smoke from the Space Marine assault visible on the horizon. Varner swept out the front ramp, his laspistol levelled in front of him, a large serrated knife held in his right hand.

Josla & Batty covered the side entrance, Josla with an Auto pistol in each hand pointing opposite directions, whilst Batty had his Lasgun up to his shoulder, both moved to the rear of the craft, past each other and back to the front again. Mal rushed to the back of the Stormraven, checking on Belle. After a cursory inspection, he hit the release button. The supporting arms recoiling and the crane lowered the vehicle to the ground.

Jad and Wyn paced down the front ramp together. 'The only sizable Tau force that isn't at Newlaiden is here.' Wyn gestured to the data slate with a mechandrite.

'Burron Lammer?' Jad questioned

'Yes, a small village, but it seems the enemy have performed a town by town sweep with this strike force, clearing the surrounding areas of resistance before they assault the main force.'

'No other large forces?'

'There is the original landing site, here' Wyn zoomed the display on the area 'But our intel suggests Ethereals like to remain a little closer to the main force, even they will avoid any serious confrontations unless is necessary.'

'So the target is probably using the sweep as a display of power, showing the warriors he is with them.'

'It seems the statistically most likely course of action for them, Yes'

The hiss crack of a lasgun sparked their attention. Batty had spotted something and taken a shot. Jad could not see anything as the target was hidden behind a barn from where he was standing.

'What do we have Batty?' He said quickly leaving Wyn on the ramp, and dashing past Varner who had taken a crouch position by the leg of the Stormraven.

'Light skimmers, and a transport. Broken formation, looks like they are runners from the Dragons strike. But they are heading straight at us.' Batty replied.

'Take position, in the building to your left, Josla get on the Tauros, man the gun turret, Varner hold position.'

Confirmations came in from all 3 of the team 'Wyn, where are you?'

'In the vessel, getting my gear' Wyn replied flatly

'Excellent, Take your time!' Jadden replied

'Really?'

'No! Hurry up! Mal how's Belle? She ready?'

'On the floor, moving to cover you, J is in place'

'Perfect' Jad chuckled, and with the sound of electricity, he blinked to the roof top in front of the Stormraven. He looked out over the plains, Batty was right, two Piranha skimmers headed towards them, the transport was slightly away from them, but would no doubt pile in if the skimmers were hit.

The veil of Kethrin Primes night was around them, the skimmers would struggle to see them, but Batty had let off his shot way to early, and probably alerted the skimmers to their rough location and a good spread of that plasma weaponry would take them all out. This had to be quick, everyone had a job on this mission, and if anyone was injured, or worse the mission would be compromised. He watched the skimmers approach closely. They formed up on approach to the farm, the Devilfish pulled closer too, but he couldn't tell if the shot at them had been noticed, or they just considered the farm a potential stop off following the battle.

The vehicles cruised up to the barn Jad was on, the driver of one leaning out from under the cockpit, surveying the scene. Jad was tense, He would have preferred to have got a clean get away from the drop site. Leave no evidence of their arrival, which would guarantee them a quiet pickup spot and make the likelihood of them being followed much reduced. Jad checked the team, Batty was just visible in the ground floor window of the farm house, Varner had stayed put by the drop ship. Mal was hidden behind that ready to move if needed, Josla on the mounted Auto cannon. They had to sacrifice the multilaser to allow transport room in the back for the whole team. Wyn could be seen at the base of the barn, having retrieved his power axe and meltagun.

The lead Piranha was suddenly struck by an explosion, the second was riddled with Lasgun fire. Jad searched the scene, his team had taken cover on instinct, the mystery assault coming from an irrigation ditch across from the farm. A figure in a black coat burst from cover, followed by 3 men in guard uniforms, Jad didn't have time to question this and order this team to secure the scene.

'Take the Tau out, subdue the unknown party, Alive if possible. Lethal force only if necessary.' He bellowed, taking a running jump from the roof.

Alishia had ordered the attack on the Tau skimmers, the explosions that had erupted from Newlaiden had spooked her and the men. She needed to get to the Farm house get transport, or at least shelter. She wasn't going to be in the open when whatever had caused the destruction came her way. Grimes had used their last krak grenade on one of the skimmers, and luckily taken it out, it sank the ground as its engine failed, but its passengers had survived however.

She had burst from cover and charged, just to stop the other skimmer from turning and incinerating her with its burst cannon. She reached the second skimmer, dived and plunged the power sword into the fin on the side, sparks flew from the drone mounted on the end as the sword slid through its circuits. Using her momentum she swung around the hilt of the embedded sword and lay prone on the fin, brought her bolt pistol up shooting both Tau with clean headshots. She looked up to see both occupants of the other skimmer torn apart by heavy fire, looking for the source, she saw a heavy off road vehicle with an auto cannon firing on the enemy vehicle, a fierce looking woman on the gun.

There was a crack of thunder and 4 charred bodies of Fire Warriors landed by the Piranha she was on. She heaved the power sword from the drone and dived for the transport. Another Fire warrior flew from behind the transport, bisected from shoulder to groin, she rounded the transport, and raised her sword to a flash of movement coming at her and felt something clash with her blade, sparks flying everywhere.

She stood, seeing stars from the sparks, breathing heavy, waiting for more movement but everything was still. She waited for her vision to clear, she could make out the forms of Grant, Grimes and Bannerman across from her the other side of the transport. A dark silhouette in front of her, putting weight on her blade. She heard movement behind her and the rumble of an engine somewhere nearby.

Alishia blinked forcefully, trying to correct her vision, and slowly her vision became clear. The guardsmen where pointing their lasguns at the figure before her, but were trembling visibly. The outline of the man before her becoming clear, a long dark coat billowed in the breeze, the tip of a blade pointed at her resting on her power sword. Her eyes moved down the blade, up the arm of the coat to a face, Dark ruffled hair swept to the side, framed an intrigued expression. There was a strange metallic tattoo around his left eye, sweeping back down his face and onto his neck, continuing under the coat. Warm brown eyes inspected her, the man raised an eye brow...

'Nice coat'

'Yeah, What?' Alishia was completely thrown

'I said, nice coat' the mysterious figure repeated, lifting his sword. The Commissar suddenly regained her composure.

'Who the Frak are you?' She moved her sword to challenge the stranger, there was the sound of a shotgun being pumped behind her, and the barrel was pushed against her head.

'It's okay, lower the gun.' said the figure

'You sure about that?' came the reply from behind the shotgun

'Yeah, I'll be fine' smiled the figure. He touched his blade against hers and gently but firmly moved it aside, and moved closer to her. She held her breath, the figure towered over her.

'I'm Jadden, this is my team, nice to meet you.'

'Team? What Team?' Bannerman cut across the conversation.

'An Inquisition strike team, here to assist with the liberation of Kethrin Prime.' he replied to Bannerman, but kept looking at Alishia

'Your here to liberate a whole planet?' Grimes replied puzzled

'Not just us, did you not see the massive Marine strike on the city, it was visible from here? Or the Navy engagement last night?' came a condescending reply from behind her, she presumed it was shotgun guy.

'There are reinforcements? Thank the Throne!' Grant exclaimed

'You can lower your flashlights now fellas' came a low liquid voice, the men all looked to her, she nodded and the three relaxed as if a massive weight had been lifted. She turned to see 2 men behind her, neither of which looked any more like a part of the Inquisition than did Jadden.

'Sup' said the shotgun guy, the other, a huge man, not just tall like Jadden, but wide and made of muscle, just nodded.

'Why don't we relax, and find out what is going on?' Jadden offered with a smile

Geart had been screaming at every officer he could find since the blackout during the fleet engagement. He still had no Idea what had happened, they had lost everything suddenly about 9 hours ago, Comms, lighting, even the artificial gravity had failed. Geart was floating around his Office for almost half an hour until the gravity came back and he crashed to floor, the lighting took another hour to get up and running.

Poiller was nowhere to be found, nobody knew what had happened, or where they were, the Bridge was under lockdown due to the blackout, and nobody could contact the admiral, or even work out if he was still alive. He was now making his way to the observation deck to see what had happened, but without the turbo lifts he was force to walk, without knowing his way around the ship he had got lost several times, but had at least managed to pull 2 Majors to him to assist with the organisation of the ship in the admirals unavailability.

Geart reached the Observation deck and the doors were half shut but bent off the frame, Geart reached for his plasma pistol on reflex, the accompanying Majors retrieved their side arms too. Geart gestured to one of them, Major Craft, to enter the deck after an all clear he entered himself, followed by the other officer, Major Hentol. The sight that presented itself to him was beyond anything he would have guessed.

The floor was dented and buckled, covered in the shattering remains of the viewing glass, massive slabs of high density glass meters across. The blast shield had deployed when the window had broken, preventing him from seeing out, but most interestingly a large white tube, made from a crystalline material lay against one wall, it had clearly bounced against the doors, causing the damage and came to rest against the opposite entrance. But where had it come from? Could anybody have survived its crash through the observation glass?

The three men cautiously approached the vessel, a crash from within the Xeno object startled them and they took cover behind blocks of glass. Watching closely, a small blue face appeared from behind craft, which Geart had by now worked out was an escape pod. Hentol levelled his pistol.

'Freeze, you are aboard an Imperial vessel. Surrender at once!'

The blue face ducked back behind the pod. Hushed tones could be heard, after several moments, the squared barrel of a pulse carbine slid out and fire on the officers. The plasma pulse hit the glass protecting Geart, hissing and turning the glass a milky white.

'Son of a...' Geart exclaimed, returning fire with his pistol.

The Tau gunman dived from cover and sheltered behind another glass boulder. Another followed but was flanked by a well place las round from Hentol, Craft began a manoeuvre around to get a better field of fire, but was forced into cover by the fire from the enemy.

The flanked Xeno released bubbling yelping sounds, pleading to his kin for aid. Hentol took aim, silenced him with a neat shot, ducking back into cover from the return fire.

Geart risked a glance out, and counted 2 gunners, but they obviously had superior range and rate of fire over him with the compact rifles they had. Geart had to use the numbers to his advantage.

'Craft?' he called, trusting the Tau were not capable of understanding him.

'Sir!' he nodded, awaiting Gearts orders.

'Continue your run around the room, Ill cover you. Hentol?'

'Aye'

'I want one of those swine alive! We need to find out what the hell is going on, and they may be able to tell us.' Geart said with a sneer. He would rather just shoot them both, but needs must.

Geart and Hentol raised from cover and fired, Geart kept his shot high, the ball of plasma hitting the wall behind the target, Hentol let loose a volley of shots into the glass barricade. Grant had made his run, and was now across the viewing hall with a nice wide view on the targets. He left a shot fly and caught the Tau behind the escape pod in the shoulder, there was a pained sound and the injured alien dropped its gun. Hentol made a run, charging towards the alien aggressors. Geart watched on coldly as the remaining pulse carbine filled Hentol with white hot fire, Geart took aim, blasting the head off Hentols killer. Grant moved from cover, and cautiously approached. The survivor was flailing, trying to reach the weapon but the pain in its shoulder was too great.

Craft kicked the pulse carbine away, and held the now captive Xeno at gun point. Geart knelt by Hentols ruined body, he was dead, Geart closed Hentols blank eyes and whispered a prayer for his soul to reach the emperor. He stood, waited a moment and walked to Craft. Looked at the body of Hentol's murderer and gave the corpse a swift kick.

'Xeno scum' he spat. Then slowly turning to Grant. 'You hurt Major?'

'No Sir!' came the assertive reply.

'Then take that,' he pointed to the terrified creature on the floor 'to a cell, I'm going to see if we have anyone who can translate for us. Then we can find out what the frak happened here.'

'At once General'

'Oh and Craft' Craft turned back to the grizzled General

'Good work'

'Thank you Sir'

The reports were not good. The main portion of the Cadre was decimated, the fleet was silent and Nen'sho had a Gue'la Marine force standing between him and the last real objective of his campaign. If he took the capitol, he could begin reinforcing this world, but while there was still resistance he couldn't risk the resources, and Aun'El Cha'riss Uanta would not consent to any civilian earth and water caste settlers until the world was secure. He had ordered a return to the drop site, he was in the open after securing the villages, and any remnant forces would hopefully head back to the drop site too.

The Aun would not be happy about this. But then nor was he, but he could not have done anything. The fleet failed to hold the enemy from reaching the surface, and he did not trust Ele'ty to not undermine him if he had sent him to secure the surrounding villages with a supporting officer.

Besides, He would likely have been killed in the marine attack, so at least he could counter them rather than the whole campaign have ended there and then. He would weather the Ethereals questioning and reclaim glory from the jaws of defeat.

'Shas'El Jut'an, have we received any news of survivors from the Gue'la Strike?' he questioned through the comms.

'Some units have returned Shas'O. A number of squads have returned, though only those with dedicated transports, 3 Crisis squads have returned, though none were at full capacity, and of those that did return, much damage has been sustained. Only one of the Riptides survived, the other is confirmed as destroyed'

Nen'sho let loose a groan of frustration, At least his strike force was untouched.

He expected a Gue'la follow up action soon. And he had to assume the fleet was destroyed, even if only a small enemy force had landed, they could have any number of reinforcements waiting in orbit. Nen'sho had to make a decisive move, but he had few options left. He would regroup and speak the Aun'El.

'Shas'O, incoming transmission from Manta gunship' came the comms unit in his ear

'Go ahead'

'Shas'O, we have performed an atmospheric run' Said the Manta pilot

'Right, what have you found?'

'Well there was a lot of static up there, I don't even know that we are getting accurate...' Nen'sho cut him off

'Just tell me what you found, you wouldn't have made contact if it wasn't important!'

'The entire fleet is just drifting, completely silent, the Gue'la vessels are the same all just drifting loose.'

'Any sign of what caused it.'

'The static indicates a drive explosion, but we couldn't identify exactly where it came from, somewhere further out in the system, and there was an energy signature from a vessel, but it was faint and we couldn't track it far, it went to the far side of the planet, the interference cut our sensors off.'

'I appreciate the contact'

'Our pleasure Shas'O, signing off'

The commander was puzzled, it seemed as though both fleets had been simultaneously incapacitated. The Gue'la were without support too. Nen'sho might be able to save this campaign after all.

Nivvon was struggling to stay awake, Sergeant Jules had insisted he would take a watch when Nivvon wanted a break, but he just didn't trust his wounded officer to be able to keep them safe. He had been up all night, the first rays of sunshine came from over the hills. The sudden visibility making him feel suddenly exposed. Jules stirred a little, then jerked awake.

'Morning Sir'

'Morning? I thought I was supposed to take a watch?'

'You needed the rest sir.' Nivvon stated flatly 'And it's not morning anyway, only just gone midnight I would guess.'

'Well I'm ready, get some sleep.' He slowly pushed himself upright, the burnt flesh feeling tight, it seared with pain at every movement.

'Don't think I have time for that.' Nivvon knelt up and put his grenade launcher to his shoulder, he only had two grenades left, but it was his favoured weapon. The Lasgun at his side remained untouched.

Jules peered out into the dull haze, roughly making out a small group of figures heading towards them.

'Ah, Alishia's back' he smiled 'Don't mind having her around I must say, much easier on the eye than the rest of..'

'It's not the group!' Nivvon Interrupted 'They are coming from the wrong direction'

'You sure? Jules unclipped his laspistol, weakly lifting it

'One minute!' Nivvon snapped, The sergeants light attitude clearly grating on Nivvon is his sleep deprived state. 'Tau, five of them.'

'Right, they are heading past us. Just lay low' Jules whispered. Nivvon fired the launcher the blast landing far beyond the group.

'You're too tired for this shit Nivvon' Jules said angrily

He took aim and fired his pistol. The shot hit the target on the shoulder, but the armour plate stopped the round. Nivvon dropped the launcher 'Piece of Groxshit!' he cursed grabbing the lasgun. He fired blind on full auto, his usually controlled volleys lost to exhaustion. He scored a lucky leg shot, but otherwise just wasted shots.

Jules yelled for him to stop firing and blacked out. The sudden fire fight putting too much strain on him. There was white hot pain in Nivvons chest, the shot from the Rail rifle had gone straight through him. His vision swam and he fell forward, he lay there a moment and just saw the foot of a tau pass in front of him as he slipped away.