Leftenant Arthur Faraday leant back in his chair. He looked around the communal area and grinned as he saw that a large collection of his fellow fighter pilots were still examining the four crimson clad Astarte's waiting in their presence. He took another swig from his mug and turned to the other men he was sat with; Carl Wehner, a young lad who had only joined their air division two months prior, Rurik Lagunov, Faraday's closest friend and long time wingman and Lidya Sibine, a squad leader from a different team who had proven herself time and time again in combat.
Carl Wehner was twisted around in his seat looking over at the Astarte's, transfixed.
"Hey, Wehner. Why don't you go and ask them if they'll take a pict with you?" Faraday smiled, the younger pilot quickly turning back to the group, embarrassed.
"Sorry leftenant, I was only-" He stammered before Faraday raised a hand to assure him he was joking.
"Any word from the Sororitas who went out to Armryt yet?" Arthur asked no one in particular.
"Not a word, skip." Rurik replied, not looking up from his journal, which he had been scribbling in non-stop since they had all sat down.
The Adeptus Sororitas team had left the airfield not long after these new Space marines had arrived. With them, the Astartes had brought a stout bureaucrat looking man dressed in fine clothes. The Sergeant of the squad and the stout man had left the rest of the Astartes in the lobby and had headed out onto the airfield to inspect the Titan which stood a while to the side of the building the pilots were housed in.
The angels of death stood in front of the exit of the lobby, unmoving and constantly looking across the group of mortals before them.
Faraday's attention was grabbed when he heard a dozen pairs of armoured footsteps started ringing out from the other side of the lobby. He looked up and saw the rest of the Adeptus Sororitas who had remained with them, their leader who he had come to know as Sister Louise, took long strides ahead of the rest of them, her eyes set on the marines by the exit. Louise and her retinue stopped a few paces from the marines, every single pilot in the lobby was watching now.
Faraday examined the collected sisters porcelain like faces, each of them though damaged and scarred as they were, had a beauty to them. He presumed that he was not the only mortal man who had ever been attracted to the Sororita's but at the same time they scared him more than anything.
And now here they were, squaring up with the most lethal weapons that the Imperium had to offer, Space marines.
"Where is Sergeant Tybalt?" Sister Louise asked loudly, as if she wanted everyone in the lobby to hear the question.
"He and Governor Ougreb are over by the Mourning Fury making the final arrangements." One of the marines replied.
A movement behind the marines caught Faraday's eye and he soon realised that it was another battle sister behind the clear double doors that the marines were standing in front of. She wielded a flamer and she waited.
Faraday tapped Lidya's shoulder and nodded towards the Sororita waiting behind the doors, Lidya shrugged.
"Tell me, marine." Louise spoke loudly again, "How many of my Sisters of mine did you personally kill in Armryt?"
The next second felt like an eternity, Faraday didn't quite grasp what he had just heard, but in the next moment, the two clear doors were kicked open by the sister behind them and her flamer spat forth a jet of promethium fuelled flame into the group of marines. The angels of death roared out in surprise and pain, the fire sticking to their armour and spreading rapidly.
All of the pilots in the room including Faraday's group jumped back away from the combat and many were hiding behind their tatty sofa's or any other cover they could find.
"We're being enga-" The first marine cried out, but as he did, Sister Louise drew her pistol and fired it directly into the marine she had spoken with's faceplate. The marine's head exploded, sending gore and pieces of ceramite splattering over the rest of his squad. All of the sisters in Louise's retinue opened fire and quickly gunned down the rest of the marines, all of whom fell roaring in pain.
The sisters turned to the pilots, Louise being the first to speak.
"Men and women of sixth division!" The pilots cautiously began to emerge from their hiding spots, "We have been betrayed."
Sergeant Tybalt walked alongside Ougreb, looking around at tech serfs, adept and servitor that surrounded them. The head Magos in charge, Magos Alwin Silverstein, had greeted them and was already leading them towards the stationary Reaver Titan.
Magos Silverstein was more machine than man, which was not uncommon for Magos' or any Tech adept for that matter, but the affront to the person's humanity had always angered Tybalt. Any part of the Magos that was still human was probably hidden beneath the iconic thick crimson robe that the Magos wore. But for now he hid his prejudice for his goal was right in front of him.
Colossal scaffolding, which was crawling with Tech adepts, had already surrounded the god machine that towered ahead if him. The Titan itself was a sight to behold. A large multi-barrelled cannon hung from each of its arms, its beady eyed head glared out ahead of it. Its hoof like feet stood taller than two land raiders on top of each other and were decorated with heraldry riddled shields and other blessed tabards.
Tybalt knew that the scaffolding would lead up to the part of the titan where they could enter, which was the top of the machine's torso. In there they would stay until the Captain gave further instruction. The entrance would be open and would have to be sealed, which Ougreb would know how to do.
The adepts were working on platforms to either repair or bless the machine, nearly every single part of it being worked on. Tybalt sneered up at the Titan behind his helmet, the fools were fixing up the machine that would bring the renegade chapter its ultimate victory.
"As you can see, Lord Ougreb" The Magos said, "Every single measure is being taken to assure the Titan is in perfect battle condition. The scourge of the uprising plaguing your city will be a mere unpleasant memory once they see the might of the Mourning Fury on the horizon."
"And even more so once it blasts them from the Emperor's grace." Ougreb smiled.
"I must warn you, Governor, the Mourning Fury is armed with both a Titan grade Laser blaster and a Gatling blaster, these weapons will lay waste to much more than infantry."
"They chose to rebel against the city which houses them, I will choose to take much more than just their lives in return. A population must live in fear of its leaders and as such must be shown there are consequences for such actions as these."
Tybalt smiled. Ougreb was a rat of a man, he too had initially rejected the new direction that Captain Praetus was taking them in and only after being threatened with death had Ougreb joined them. The man was a coward and cowards weren't trust worthy.
"We're being engage-Argh!"
The vox message had come as such a surprise that Tybalt stopped in his tracks, causing both Ougreb and the Magos to turn.
"Something wrong, Sergeant?" The Magos asked.
"No." Tybalt said uneasily, "Take us up to the head."
"But surely you would want to see the condition of the parts we are replacing-"
"No, Take us to the head Magos." Tybalt ordered.
The Magos tilted his head for a moment before nodding and beckoning for them to follow.
Tybalt opened his squad's vox channel again and heard nothing.
"Squad, come in." He said expectantly. No reply came.
The Magos lead them onto an elevator platform and once all three of them were on, it began to rise up the scaffolding. They rose higher and higher, passing the other platforms as they went. Tybalt turned and looked across the airfield to the main building where he had left his men. To his shock, he saw a Sororitas Rhino transport driving across the runways towards the Titan, the stormbolter mounted on top had a sister manning it. The Rhino would be upon the base of the Titan within the minute and still the elevator rose sluggishly.
"Ougreb." Tybalt said gruffly.
"Y-yes?" Ougreb turned to look up at Tybalt and following the marine's gaze he saw what the problem was. The Rhino had stopped near the feet of the Titan, the rear hatch swung open and half a dozen sisters exited. The sister on the mounted storm bolter looked up and spotted Tybalt, she raised the gun.
Tybalt unclamped his bolter from his leg and held it loosely in one hand. The Stormbolter would be terribly inaccurate at the arc it would have to shoot at.
"Stop, traitor!" Sister Louise roared through the Rhino's vox caster.
The Magos turned and spotted the Rhino down below.
"What is the meaning of this?" He said to himself, but before he could do anything else, Tybalt grabbed him by the throat.
"Sergeant!" Ougreb cried out as the storm bolter opened fire. The high explosive rounds started to strike the support beams around the lift as well as the bottom of the lift itself causing it to shudder with each strike.
Tybalt lifted the Magos with one hand and shoved the barrel of his boltgun into the Magos' mouth with the other. He fired one shot, the round detonating within the Magos' metallic head and blowing the back of it off. He threw the ruined Magos' body from the lift and down towards the Rhino.
"Sergeant!" Ougreb screeched as the bolt rounds continued to explode around them.
"Silence you coward!" Tybalt roared, grabbing Ougreb. He looked up and saw that the lift had reached the Titan's entry point. He lifted Ougreb and carried him under one arm, jumping from the elevator platform and landing on top of the Titan. He ran across the top of the god machine and leapt down into the inside of its torso. Tybalt dropped Ougreb harshly to the floor once he realised that a Tech Preist was in there with them.
"Seal the entrance, now!" He roared at the crimson robed man.
"Why? What is happening?" The Tech preist replied.
"Hostiles are trying to take the Titan, Magos Silverstein is dead."
"By the omnissiah…" The Tech priest turned and immediately started entering in commands on the terminal that lay before them. Tybalt waited and watched. The top layer of armour for the Reaver hung a good ten feet above the actual Titan by a crane and it slowly began to lower. The armour plating lowered until it touched over the Titan, blocking out the sunlight.
"Seal it."
The Tech priest keyed in several more commands and several locking mechanisms were heard clunkily locking the armour to the top of the Titan.
"You have served your Imperium proud, Tech adept." Tybalt half sneered, "Open the cockpit."
"At once, Astarte." The Tech priest complied and the circular door into the Reaver's head opened, revealing three men in Titan operator uniforms.
"What?" Ougreb's eyes widened, "What are you all doing in there?"
The men began to file out of the circular door and came to face Ougreb and Tybalt. Two of them wore heavy-duty helmets that hid their faces with blue jumpsuits, the princep wore the same apart from the helmet. He stepped forward to introduce himself.
"Princep Harold Burken, we were doing a machine spirit check." The Princep replied, "It is appeased and still very much active, a little too active even. What is going on?"
Ougreb whimpered and looked up at Tybalt. The Marine glared down at Burken.
"You do his job, correct Ougreb?"
Ougreb nodded and licked his lips, his eyes wide.
Princeps Burken tilted his head and squinted at Ougreb.
"You are a Princep too?"
Before Ougreb could reply, Tybalt violently grabbed Burken by the throat, the force of which had already broken the man's windpipe. The marine lifted Burken and slammed him against the roof; the man's head obliterating in a sea of gore in a second. The two Moderati screamed and the Tech priest spat out a sentence in binary. Tybalt turned and kicked the Tech priest in the torso, shattering both ribs and any machinery that resided there. He finished the Tech Priest off by stamping on his head, causing a similar effect to what happened to Burken.
"Get back in the cockpit, now!" Tybalt roared, "You too Ougreb!"
Ougreb was deathly pale and still looking at Burken's destroyed head.
"NOW OUGREB!" Tybalt bellowed, causing Ougreb to urinate where he stood, the stain becoming visible on his fine trousers. The man scrambled inside the Titan's head, as did the Moderati.
Tybalt opened his long-range communications network.
"Captain Praetus, this is Sergeant Tybalt. I have the Titan."
Pain. He shuddered in abseloute sick delight as he awoke to the burning sensations he felt in several parts of his body. Each sensation's origin was a wound from power swords and a general hum of agony rippling through his body, presumably from the fall.
Eisen forced himself to roll over onto his front and licked his lips. His suit's internal system was alerting him that his suit's power core was damaged and therefore weakened. No matter. He would have no use for this suit soon enough. He rose to his feet and looked out across the wastes, spotting the three sets of tracks left by the Sororita vehicles.
"Death to the false Emperor."