"Jurulas, you are in charge of luring the Orks to the forge," said Lord Araghast, addressing a tall Chaos Space Marine near the front. Jurulas knelt. "Yes, my lord."

"Eliphas, you will command this rabble and wipe out the Blood Ravens reinforcements."

The crowd fell silent. A traitor that, up until a few moments ago, had no armour and no affiliation, that had killed three of their number, leading them? Eliphas heard the dissent spreading like tendrils through the crowd. He himself was confused by the choice, as if he was in Araghast's position, he would not have let himself spring the trap.

This all begged the question: what would Araghast be doing?

"I will travel to Aurelia, to prepare an attack there upon the Blood Ravens."

Fleeing to another planet? Oh, excellently planned, Araghast.

None of them were expected to survive the attack. That was the stark reality of it. He doubted the gullible fools around him realised it, but they were to be a distraction, drawing the attention of the loyalists away from the real threat on Aurelia. A game of Regicide sometimes had to be won by sacrificing a few pawns. Eliphas, as it happened, was not particularly eager to die again. He had vengeances to exact, punishments to mete, empires to conquer before he could allow himself to fall.

So, then, to business. Eliphas strode back over to his new Lord, and knelt as Jurulas had done.

"My Lord, what is your plan for the trap?"

"Our contacts with House Vandis, who you have met, have a considerable number of security and Planetary Defence Forces under their sway. Use them, as well as all the Marines here. It is your responsibility how you command my troops. If you fail, pray you die in the attack, or else I will find you and take your skull for Khorne. Leave us now, and plan."

"Yes, my Lord." Eliphas got up, turned on his heel, and left, his mind already buzzing with tactical manoeuvres and ways in which he could dismantle the formations of Imperial Guard and Blood Ravens.

From prior experience, Eliphas knew that security forces were pathetic fighters and quick to rout. PDF troops showed slightly more backbone than security, but still paled in comparison to the Imperial Guardsmen who would no doubt outnumber them. If dug in, they counterintuitively would be more effective against Space Marines who could not throw mass waves of soldiers into the meatgrinder or overwhelm them through pure numbers.

His first instinct was to wait until the Guard and the Orks were at their weakest and then send the troops in to mop up and fortify against the Blood Ravens, flanking with the Black Legion when it became prudent. However, Eliphas had experienced first-hand the speed of the response of the Space Marines, underestimating the rapid pace their battle doctrine dictated, and thus had fallen. If the Blood Ravens responded quicker than the security and PDF could make ready their defences, the Marines would sweep through and massacre the traitorous forces, and that was a risk Eliphas was not willing to take. Sacrificing troops unnecessarily was a luxury Eliphas could not afford.

After dissecting his first plan, he thought back to Istvaan V, one of Chaos' most successful battles. The key component of the victory was that the traitors had not yet revealed their true colours, instead slaughtering the loyalists at their most vulnerable. He remembered that day with something close to fondness, as he had fired upon his former brothers from the defensive wall, chanting Lorgar's sacred phrases at the top of his lungs, exhorting his Word Bearers to epic feats of slaughter as the haggard Raven Guard formations crumbled under the grinding bombardment of shot and shell.

Along with the Drop Site Massacre, most successful Chaos incursions relied on the element of surprise, waiting until the enemy became vulnerable and then striking with all they had. Based on this, Eliphas had a sudden idea.

A slave chose that exact moment to appear, trembling in front of his massive armoured form. He was holding a holopict of what looked to be an overhead view of Angel Forge. Impatiently snatching the picture, the slave had already been forgotten about as Eliphas wheeled around, trying to regain his train of thought.

The Imperial Guard, upon receiving reports of Ork looters invading the Manufactorum, would panic, sending as many of their troops as possible. Surely they would not object to being reinforced by security forces? Surely the PDF would be accepted easily? The Guard would be desperate for numbers, and Eliphas would graciously provide.

Studying the plans, he spotted what looked to be a massive wall surrounding the inner complex. They were thick enough to protect from the most withering artillery fire, and they looked to be tall enough to thwart the Jump Packs of Assault Marines. Combined with an ample number of buildings to hide in and fire from, this would be easy to fortify quickly. When the Guard and traitor forces had taken the defensive ring, the traitors would turn on the Guardsmen, reinforced by Black Legionnaires deep-striking directly into the ring. Even if the Blood Ravens were present, they would fall in the surprise attack.

The main risk was that the subterfuge might be discovered prematurely and the traitors killed. If that was the case, Eliphas would deep-strike the Traitor Astartes behind the wall early and dig in. Admittedly that risk was rather large, but Eliphas was confident that they'd play their part until they fought their way past the wall.

Now he had a plan, he then needed a way to escape the planet. No matter how well the plan went, he was still pitting a couple of hundred mortals and a few dozen Astartes against thousands of Guardsmen and Space Marines, which would certainly be unendingly reinforced until the last heretic was slain. Finding a ship was out of the question – Eliphas wanted to be in the midst of the bloodshed before his position was overrun. He would need a psyker to teleport him away, and the only one he could see was talking with Araghast. He was not kneeling – it seemed as though they were speaking as equals. Interesting.

Turning up his vox-caster, Araghast spoke to his warband. "I go now, brothers! Take the Forge and soon this planet shall be ours!"

The rabble responded with a cheer as a circle of warpfire built around Araghast. The flames flew up, as if to consume the Terminator Lord, and when the flames died down, Araghast was gone.

Well, at least he now had a psyker who could spirit him away. He probably wouldn't do so willingly, though. Perhaps he could be persuaded.

The sorcerer noticed him, respectfully walked over and bowed. Eliphas sensed the treachery insinuated within every action. He spoke in a deep voice which seemed perpetually mocking and preternaturally echoing. "Lord Eliphas, what would you have of us?

"What would you have of the Black Legion?"

A/N: The creative juices were flowing more today so I wrote this chapter up early. I hope you enjoy. If you feel the story's getting a little filler-y, then fear not! Next chapter will at least start the assault on Angel Forge, but having never played Dawn of War II I'm probably missing a few details and making a few errors.

Criticisms/suggestions are always welcome. Thanks for reading!