-X-
A meeting was held at the command bridge of Golema Doxia, the giant Overlord class Battlecruiser.
"Well met brothers, we are gathered to decide our next move and unearth some dire news." declared Chaplain Galieo.
"What news?" asked Chief Apotheracy Ioras as direct to the point as ever.
Galieo showed no discontent towards Ioras' attitude if he felt any, his face was a mask of cold iron will.
"First I need to as you Apotheracy, what is the situation of the Tempes squad?" asked Galieo.
"Brother Achagon is nearly recovered, brother Julius as you know it is already all full health."
"What about the rest."
"Well, brother Modius needs to receive bionics to continue serving the Chapter and brother Aegon" he stopped for a moment "will never fully recover." he stated grimly.
"Have brother Modius receive proper bionics." ordered the Chaplain.
"I will personally see that brother Modius is well taken care of, my lord." said Techmarine Garatio.
Galieo didn't replied but looked at Julius "Brother Julius, do you have anything to say about your squad's condition?"
"I am deeply ashamed and..."
"Keep your apologies to yourself Julius, we are stretched enough both in time and manpower as it is." Galieo cut in.
"Are you ready for a new assignment or are you going to gloom more?" Ioras asked sarcastically his face still had the same cold expression.
Julius was shocked, he expected a reprimand or lecture, or even better, his long waited repentance.
"Lords, I am puzzled, am I not to repent for my failure?" he asked.
"You are and you will." answered Galieo.
"You will repent by serving the Emperor's will under dangerous conditions, marine." said Ioras.
"We don't need a depressed, sad failure in our ranks Julius, so you better pull yourself together and start obeying orders." said Galieo coldly.
"Yes, lord." said Julius standing upright to show his eagerness to redeem his failure.
He continued "The squad Tempes suffered a number of unfortunate casualties by my fault and we are unable to execute operations at the moment. I am awaiting your orders, lord" he said to Galieo.
"Brother Julius, due to recent events and your insubordinate acts towards my command, you are relieved of your position as sergeant of the Tactical squad Tempes, your squad is hereby disbanded and you are reduced to ranks." declared Galieo.
"Yes, lord." replied Julius with a resolute voice, he expected such a thing to happen and wished to have it worse. He hated himself for his failure and wanted to suffer for it.
"Now that the formalities are done for, let's move onto that news you are about to give." hurried Ioras.
"Before we made planetfall in Imperial World of Idagenia, our orders came to us by an Astropathic communication from the Chapter Master." said Galieo.
"Observe." said Galieo and pressed a button and a message globe illuminated above the command table.
The image of the Chapter Master came into view.
"Brother Galieo, I need you to transfer your forces to Idagenia sector." The image turned fuzzy as the quality of the transmission reduced. "Our brother Chapter, Lion Warriors called for backup to the system to quell an Ork invasion. The current status of the system is unknown to me but I know you will do the right thing once you arrived at the system."
Vision once again turned fuzzy and came back. "I need you to go to Planet Idagenia and uncover the mystery surrounding the Ork invasion there. There seems to be something wrong with..." the feed was lost.
"We only received this portion of the message so far. At first we obeyed as ordered and attacked Idagenia to prevent the Ork incursion. Lion Warriors also pointed us to Idagenia but the Ork numbers were to great compared to the tactical data they provided us with." explained Galieo.
"But we were unable to hold Idagenia against the Ork, my lord." pointed out Julius having first hand experience of the Ork strength.
"Have we failed then?" asked Ioras.
"No, we haven't, even though brother Julius went against orders and intervened with the defenses of the Wallfire bastion, it allowed us to uncover something more sinister than we ever expected."
"What happened to the bastion if I may ask, my lord?" asked Julius.
"Thanks to your...sacrifice, the bastion was able to hold of the first Ork attack but the 222nd guardsmen unit suffered most of its force at that first attack and was unable to hold the bastion any longer. The Idagenia Regulars along with the command structure evacuated the planet and left it for the Orks. There were reports of pockets of resistance towards Orks but the planet is lost to us. The Lion Warriors chapter ignored all call for assistance, they don't care about Idagenia at all." said Galieo.
"But how can that be, lord? Isn't Idagenia the prime planet of this system? Why would the Lion Warriors point us towards a planet that don't even care about?" questions came one after the order. Everyone was curious about the answers.
"It's because the Lion Warriors Chapter tricked us." said Galieo through gritted teeth.
"What?" said Ioras.
"They pointed us at a target that they didn't care about at all to keep us away from their objective." said Galieo.
"What objective?" asked Ioras.
"Their true objective, the secret they have been guarding even from us." explained Galieo.
"They were willing to sacrifice our forces to keep it a secret then." deduced Julius.
"Yes, but the successful evacuation of the Wallfire bastion not only allowed the personnel to survive but the transmission logs as well." said Galieo.
"What do you mean?" asked Ioras.
"The transmission we received from the Chapter Master. It's tempered with." declared Galieo.
"How can that be? Who would be so treacherous?" asked Ioras clearly irritated.
"Lion Warriors." said Julius realising the plot against them.
"I assume so." said the Chaplain and continued "the Idagenia's main astropathic relay was a powerful one and also received the message Chapter Master meant to send us."
"Here it is." said Galieo pressing the feed button.
The feed once again came alive with the Chapter Master's image.
"Brother Galieo, I need you to transfer your forces to Idagenia sector. There seems to be something amiss going on with the system. Our brother Chapter, Lion Warriors called for backup to the system to quell an Ork invasion. The current status of the system is unknown to me but I know you will do the right thing once you arrived at the system. Galieo, do not trust the Lion Warriors, I sense they are up to something within that sector. I need you to go to Planet Echtesia and uncover the mystery surrounding the Ork invasion there. It seems to be something wrong with the actions of Lion Warriors and the whole Ork invasion. Go with the Emperor's Blessing, brother."
The feed ended and every figure in the room was frozen with terror except Galieo.
"This is outrageous, those bastards." said Ioras through gritted teeth.
"How did this happen? How did we not realised this?" asked asked Julius.
"They must have intercepted it, tempered it and then re-relayed it with their own astropaths." explained Techmarine Garatio.
"They also tempered the request of the Chapter Master and changed the planet name from 'Echtesia' to 'Idagenia'." pointed out Galieo.
"They are hiding something there. They wanted us to be as away from it as possible" said Ioras.
"Our brothers died because of them." said Julius his hands clutched into fists.
"We will deal with them later but now we need to decide our next course of action." said Galieo.
"Our future is once again uncertain, brothers" declared Ioras.
"But we shall triumph." said Galieo.
He continued "We will destroy those who stand before us, we will crush those who stray us from the Emperor's paths. We will have our retribution."
"For the Emperor!" shouted the gathered marines in one voice.
"Pierce their soul." shouted Chaplain and the gathering echoed.
Pierce their soul!