Chapter 8

Flames of War

Part II

"An impressive display commander Sabbath"

Colonel Drake commenting on the AT-AT walkers

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"Scene fits the mood" one of the stormtroopers said solemnly indicating the heavy rain that was battering the hull of their transport, an old LAAT gunship, it was one of five advanced gunships that was sent to clear out the Dark Eldar landing zone and to prepare for the main forces landing.

"That it does trooper" Gabriel agreed as he checked the power pack of his blaster pistol before holstering the sidearm.

As Gabriel looked out the cockpit viewport he saw turbolaser fire break the dark grey clouds, leaving gaps of clear sky in their wake, the Vigilance was doing what she was designed to do, orbital bombardment, its target the enemy LZ. They had just made topside and were flying through the only passageway through the mountains, it wasn't long before he saw the enemy stronghold, what was once a tower shaped building overlooking the corridor but was now blasted rubble by turbolaser fire.

As the gunships swooped over the site the dings of splinter fire on the belly of the hull made it clear that there were enemy survivors down there, the ships flew round for another pass and this time pummelled the ground with laserfire from their side gun turrets, concussion missiles and laser cannons. The LAAT's flew around once more before settling down on the cratered ground and unloading their cargo of Stormtroopers, GA riflemen, YVH Battledroids and a Jedi.

The soldiers and droids took up defensive positions as the gunships hovered away and immediately came under fire as dozens of Dark Eldar warriors charged them, they were a terrifying site, their slender bodies encased in armour that was coloured with shades of dark purple and black, armed with splinter weapons and equally deadly looking blades.

The tall, Yuuzhan Vong shaped Battledroids saw them first and sprayed them with laserfire from their blaster arms, the Stormtroopers and GA soldiers added their blasterfire to that of their droid counterparts leaving several gaping holes in the first wave of Dark Eldar before the second wave fell upon them cutting, hacking and slicing.

Gabriel telekinetically shoved his lightsabre into his hand and activating it jumped into the fight, the emerald blade weaving and slicing. He cut through the abdomen of a Dark Eldar warrior and spinning on his heel sliced the head of another, he lifted his hand and unleashed a force push throwing a couple of them of a wounded soldier and sending them hitting of a ruined wall at breakneck speed, their limp forms fell to the ground. It was a few more minutes of bloody fighting before the last Dark Eldar warrior was killed.

Deactivating his lightsabre Gabriel assessed the damage to his advanced guard, half of his soldiers were lying dead, dying or wounded on the ground with the sparking wrecks of four Battledroids among them, the wounded screamed in agony from the venom received from direct splinter hits and the Eldar's poison covered blades.

Hums sounded the arrival of the second wave of five gunships, vehicle transports and a 300m long Imperium troop transport, once landed they unleashed their compliments of Alliance troops, Imperium Skitarii troopers and three 22m tall AT-AT walkers.

As the walkers began to march out of the main transport Skitarii colonel Bastell Drake, who like his Magi and many other officers of the Adeptus Mechanicus had mechanical implants on his face and body walked up towards the Jedi master, all around him medics began tending to the wounded.

"An impressive display Commander Sabbath" Colonel Drake said as he watched the towering walkers begin their march.

"You haven't seen anything yet colonel" Gabriel replied, the Jedi then crouched beside the nearest wounded person, a Zeltron with a nasty slice wound on her shoulder, his Jedi healing techniques were needed here even if the Imperium finds out he's a Psyker, he had to call upon the force to calm her and stop her from squirming as he assessed the wound, he turned his head to the colonel who was watching with awe as the wound slowly started to close "Before we move out we have wounded to tend…call back the gunships and tell the Star Destroyers to prepare their medbays"

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Captain Terse of the PDF stood among his men waiting for the Dark Eldar to show, he had heard from garbled reports that they had broken into the city, many of the outskirts were overrun and he ordered communications ceased because all they could hear was the screams of tortured prisoners and the laughs of the Eldar.

The first signs of the enemy's arrival were their supernatural war cries that made him tremble; Terse revved up his chainsword and waited for them. The Dark Eldar came but not by the street, they jumped in from the rooftops falling upon his militia who fired their lasguns taking down a few before they were on them cutting and slicing, his untrained troopers didn't stand a chance.

One of his honour guard was cut down by a power sword spraying the mans blood over Terse, wiping the blood from his eyes he rammed his activated chainsword into the Eldar's chest spraying more blood and bone fragments on him, he saw three Eldar drop onto the Chimera accompanying his unit and cutting through an opening threw a grenade into the tank before jumping off, the inside exploded with a flash.

The PDF captain fired several shots from his laspistol before his body was riddled by splinter rounds killing him.

From the rooftops Archon Deathstrike smiled venomously at the death and destruction that was taking place around him, the screams of captured humans was like a well played symphony to his ears. His Haemonculus guard couldn't help himself and started torturing the prisoners including the Ulthwe warlock, his helmet comm. Beeped and the Archon tore his gaze from the burning city to answer "What do you want?"

"Archon our landing zone has been taken, scanners report a force of troops and vehicles are heading for this settlement"

"Send a force to meet them and test their capability" the Archon said while smiled viciously "The rest of your force will continue as planned, destroy the contingents of Imperial Guard and PDF, and round up slaves"

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Warrior Dralkenne gunned the engines of his Jetbike and lead his squad out of the ruined outskirts of the city back to where the watchtower once stood. He had gotten the message from his superior about an enemy force moving to try and reinforce the defenders and had been ordered to weaken their numbers.

The ruins of the watchtower came into view now and Dralkenne grinned venomously, the enemy would fall to his splinter cannons today.

His smile vanished from his face as he saw the force moving towards the city, three massive four legged machines that stood at least 22m tall were trudging through the mud filled valley ground towards the city, around the massive walkers were nine smaller, two legged walkers that reminded him of Imperium sentinels and above them was a group of fifteen troop gunships.

Leading his squad he circled around and attacked the side of one of the large walkers, blasting it with his splinter cannons, his squad mates followed suit and to their disappointment found that their splinter barrage bounced harmlessly of the armoured plating.

As his squad circled around for another pass they came into view of the front walkers box-shaped head, it traced them and fired long beams of red energy from cannons on the sides of its head.

Two of his kin were caught by the blast and vaporised in a barrage of red light, gritting his teeth Dralkenne broke his jetbike into a sharp climb up towards the gunships, if these main walkers couldn't be stopped then the escort walkers and gunships had to be destroyed, one of the small sentinel-shaped walkers lost a leg to concentrated splinter fire and exploded when it's head hit the ground.

He aimed for the lead gunship and fired, the small shards of white light collided with the cockpit and sheared through the view window and the pilots, the gunship started into an out-of-control spin towards the surface, the ship smashed into the surface with a blinding flash.

Drelkenne laughed as the downed ship exploded but in his celebration he didn't notice the second gunship unleashing a barrage of laserfire from its side ball turrets, one of the jets of laserfire sliced through the left wing of his bike sending it into an out-of-control spin, throwing components in all directions as it fell. The last thing the warrior saw was the ground coming up fast.

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Lieutenant Mathew 'Blank' Jones heard the dings of splinter fire hit the side of the overturned car he was hiding behind, he peeped out the side of the vehicle and shouldering his lasgun fired several rounds before taking cover again.

He and his unit of PDF were one of the last surviving defenders on the outskirts of the city, behind them was a road leading to the watchtower, in front of him was the winding, wreckage strewn streets leading towards the innards of the city, which were a maelstrom with Dark Eldar fighting the last units of Imperial Guardsmen and PDF soldiers.

The sudden sound of concentrated splinter fire and war cries made the Lieutenant shiver, the Commissar had ordered another charge of the dwindling Imperial Guard, a few dozen soldiers charged past his men's location and were gunned down by the Eldar sharpshooters. Jones grimaced; at this rate that madman was going to kill them all.

He stopped dead when he heard the mechanical winding of joints and the sounds of large feet hitting the ground just outside of the city, he turned and squinted through the heavy rain to see large walkers march towards their location. The mechanical hum and overhead shadows turned his attention to the skies were large winged ships glided overhead and bombarded the Dark Eldar line with laserfire, he didn't care who these people were, he cheered and lead his squad in a charge, they would win here or die trying.

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The doors opened and Gabriel looked out over the city, several buildings were burning, many more were ruined structures with walls and floors blasted apart.

"Commander" Gabriel turned to Colonel Drake who was now wearing a jump pack and checking the power pack of his lasgun "Shouldn't you take a jump pack?"

The Jedi master smiled, shook his head and dived out of the gunship, he straightened himself out for several seconds, somersaulted and sent a force push to the ground cushioning his fall as he landed. The Dark Eldar in front of him didn't see him until he activated his lightsabre, the slender humanoids swung around only to be cut down by several quick strokes from his emerald blade.

A deadly barrage of blasters and lasgun fire from the sky signalled the arrival of dozens of soldiers using Jump packs to glide to the ground right on top of the entrenched Dark Eldar, cutting most of them down with laserfire before they saw the Alliance soldiers and Skitarii above them. The AT-AT walkers were now entering the city and the Imperium forces were charging under their cover fire.

Gabriel took a deep breath, gathered the force around him and jumped up to the roof of a small building, an Eldar sharpshooter fired his splinter rifle at him but the Jedi deflected the splinter fire and in a downward stroke cut the warrior from the head to the groin, slicing him neatly in half.

Gabriel didn't break his stride, running across the rooftop and jumping to the next building and then the next, three Alliance soldiers and two Skitarii jumped in behind him and used the roof he had just cleared as a sniping position, he saw that one of the Imperium soldiers was Drake, the colonel glanced in Gabriel's direction, probably wondering how he survived the fall.

As he came closer to the centre of the city he was hit by a shockwave of pain through the force and nearly stumbled as he landed on a rooftop. He almost instinctively followed the trail to its source, a four storey high building and force-jumping towards the structure he straightened out into a dive and crashed feet first through one of the windows, landing in a crouch Gabriel activated his lightsabre to illuminate the darkness.

His eyes widened at what he saw, people lay bound on the ground, fresh cuts covering their bodies. Gabriel moved to the closest person, the man was lying on his belly, gulping Gabriel turned him over, lifeless eyes starred up at him and shaking his head the Jedi placed his hand over the mans face closing his eyes.

He then stretched out his force-awareness to overlap the entire building, he sensed five people still alive, two were humans, another four had the dark and twisted feeling of Dark Eldar and the last felt somehow familiar, felt like an Eldar as well.

He ran up the stairwell and force-pushed through an emergency exit, he saw three Dark Eldar warriors, two were standing over the body of a young woman, holding blood covered blades while the other was stalking a small girl who was standing in a corner, trembling in fear.

Gabriel ran through the door catching the Eldar by surprise, he used the force to quicken his pace and swinging his lightsabre he decapitated one of the warriors and holding out his free hand to the other threw him through a window with a force-push, convinced those two were taken care of he turned to the Haemonculus who had turned away from the girl to face him, he smiled showing that his teeth were stained crimson red before raising his blood covered blade, Gabriel in turn raised his lightsabre into a defensive Soresu stance.

The two charged each other and lightsabre meet power sword for the first time, breaking off the Haemonculus spun trying to slice through Gabriel's sword arm but the Jedi proved just as quick and side-stepped the attack, the two traded strikes for a while, just missing each other by millimetres, the Eldar began to look impatient and dived forward, aiming the blade for Gabriel's chest, the Jedi master calmly side-stepped him and carved his lightsabre through the monsters abdomen, the Eldar collapsed with a scream, his own blood joining that of his victims on the floor.

Deactivating his lightsabre Gabriel walked to the fallen woman's body and checking her pulse shook his head, she was too far gone. He glanced over to the girl, she was sitting in a corner, shivering, her head resting on her knees, her green eyes were bristling with tears as she glanced pleadingly at him.

He clipped his lightsabre to his belt and walked over to her, she shied away further into the corner, trying to make herself small.

"It's alright" Gabriel said softly as he held out his hand "You're safe now"

"Really" said a hissing voice, the girl shied away again as Gabriel turned around to see the last Dark Eldar, his face reminded him of the Eldar he had meet a few weeks ago but his skin was paler, veins throbbed at his head and blood was dripping from his mouth, he held a pale, bloodied Eldar woman in front of him, holding a long bladed sword to her throat.

"Drop your weapon" the Eldar Archon sneered, placing the blade closer to his hostage's throat, drawing blood. Gabriel finally recognised her, that Eldar warlock from a few weeks ago, he didn't notice right away because she always wore her helmet when she was on the Vigilance.

Gabriel unclipped his lightsabre and dropped it to the ground but he also telekinetically lifted a chair behind the Archon, the Dark Eldar sneered as the lightsabre hit the floor.

"Fool" he said "You'll be next"

As he was about to slit her throat Gabriel tossed the chair, it smashed into the Archon's back making him fall forward, he screeched more in surprise than in pain, Ishta took the chance and dropped to the ground, lashing out with her left leg and kicking the Archon in the stomach, he flew backwards through the busted door.

The Jedi master threw the fallen lightsabre into his hand using the force and activating it, Ishta dived for a splinter rifle and levelled the weapon at the door but the Archon was gone, growling she spun to face Gabriel, splinter rifle shouldered as Gabriel drew his blaster pistol with unnatural speed and aimed it at the exact moment.

"Well what's your plan now?" she asked tiredly "Hand me over to the Imperium and let them kill me, or would you like that pleasure yourself"

"Actually I was planning to smuggle you up to the Vigilance and offer you sanctuary" Gabriel replied after a brief pause as he holstered his pistol and deactivated his lightsabre "Or you could shoot me and take up your grievances with the Imperial Guard"

She sighed and nodding her head in defeat dropped the weapon, Gabriel nodded in return and turned to the child, still hiding in the corner, he walked over to her and held out his hand "It's going to be alright" he said softly, she lingered for a moment before she ran up to him and burying her head into his shoulder started to cry, the Jedi master hugged her gently letting her cry on his shoulder before picking up his comlink and thumbing it on "Sabbath here, I need an Alliance gunship to the following coordinates"

"This is Reaper one. I'm on the way"

"Roger that...how's the view from up there?" Gabriel asked.

"It's pretty much a mopping up job now sir, the main bulk of the Dark Eldar has been beaten"

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Archon Deathstrike screamed in anger, how could he have been so stupid, he could usually sense a human psyker a mile away, but this one was different, he didn't have the self-destructive aura of an Imperium Psyker, if anything this new breed seemed more calm and calculating, a rare quality in a human.

Checking the area around him was clear he contacted his cloaked battleship, Burning Agony and activated his webway teleporter, he would gather a new fleet, he would get his vengeance on Taldeer's child and that human psyker and he smiled as he imagined their agonised screams before he vanished in a flash of bright blue light.

Phew, what a rush, anyway what ya think? In the next chapter the inquisitor arrives to inspect the Alliance, what will her reaction be to the different alien races and the Eldar Warlock onboard, and Gabriel make's a discovery about the girl he saved…tune in for the next chapter to find out.

Question – What do you think the Inquisitors reaction should be? And what do you think the Jedi master's discovery will be?