"Hold the line you damn sods! Do not let the Xenos closer." Commissar Benold screamed over the constant sounds of las fire. The battle was a losing one. The damnable T'au were gaining ground as their pulse weapons tore through the guardsmen. Benold watched as the Guardswoman in front of him had her head explode as a blast hit her. A bone fragment tore into the throat of the man next to her. He hit the ground letting loose a gurgling scream as his life blood left his body. The commissar took cover as he wiped the guardswoman's gray matter from his face. He looked back at the trenches seeing more of his squad falling. The world is lost, the damn Xenos have won. It is only a matter of time.
"Holy Emperor, guide my men and I to your side. For we have failed you." The prayer was quiet. It was unlike a commissar to be so reserved in the line of duty. Over the trench he could hear the sounds of the Battle suits walking toward his squad's position. He turned to them. "It was an honor to serve with you." The few that remained nodded. As one, they stood, firing at any T'au they could, ten of the blue skinned bastards fell from the surprise attack.
Sadly, the momentum did not last as the guardsmen were quickly cut down from the pulse weapons. The Commissar falling on his back from an explosion. When he regained his senses there was a battle suit standing over him Rail gun aimed at his chest. "Do it, kill me!" he spat pushing for his own demise. The barrel of the weapon began to glow and the Commissar closed his eyes waiting for death's release of duty.
In the distance the music of war was torn with loud thuds. The weapon was lowered as the Commissar opened his eyes. In the far distance of the atmosphere a fleet could be seen engaging the T'au in the void. 'At last reinforcements.' The man thought, then behind his trenches a tear in reality formed. He feared the worst as a ship started to come through the warp rift.
The ship was clean and brightly colored. The Emperor's Aquilla untouched by age or war. The point defense weapons used for void combat turned and fired at the T'au lines. Throwing dirt and viscera into the air. The Vox in the Battle suit roared as the xenos inside screamed in anguish and rage. The Commissar laughed at his fortune watching as transports and airships left the bays and rushed to the aid of the guard. Large side sections of the ship separated and dropped to the ground slowed by hundreds of thrusters. When they opened the occupants let loose the horns of war and death. Four Reavers and a Warlord titan marched forward lobbing artillery kilometers over the battle and deep into the enemy lines. Beside them marched a pack of ten Warhounds and fifteen knights of various patterns.
The battle suit turned and ran leaving the awestruck human to watch as a Legio Titanica made planetfall. The transports landed disgorging their accompaniment of armor and men. The vehicles were like nothing he had seen most floating across the war-torn ground and the armored suits of the soldiers looked like that of the Imperial guard uniform but there were no regimental insignia. One of the larger tanks that looked like a box stopped next to his position. The landing ramp in the back fell and the soldiers within dis-embarked. They began to tend to the wounded and the dead. They all Spoke in perfect old high gothic.
"Can you fight on?"
Benold turned to the voice. Meeting the helmeted face of the newcomer. "Commissar, I asked a question." The armored figure held out the las rifle of one of the fallen men. Seeing this the Benold nodded. Taking the rifle from the man.
"My prayers are answered. I will aid as best I can." He cried making his way to lead them. He was stopped by the man however.
"Wait, let our brothers stretch their legs."
Before Benold could respond, lights started to fly from the ship. Large airships flying high dropped bombs in the first pass clearing No man's land before massive taloned pods were launched from the massive warship. The Commissar has heard of these pods. ones that can turn the tides of battle they landed amongst the enemy lines depositing their load in the form of massive human shadows and the roar of assault cannons, heavy flamers and other weapons of the Astartes. Then came the cry. "FOR THE EMPEROR, AND THE IMPERIUM!" The Adeptus Astartes had arrived.
At this the soldiers with him cried charging over the trench and into the fray. Benold followed, he would not be out done and he would give his squad glory.
Far away from the front, lord commander Nura Folgvir was watching her war council yell at each other as messengers ran in and out with updates. The hive city was safe for now but the war was getting ever closer. The T'au fleet was out of the range of the orbital defenses.
As she watched the massive hologram showing the planet and enemy fleet, a new alarm sounded. The lord commander looks to see new contacts enter orbit. The T'au fleet began to move against the newcomers.
"By the Emperor. Who are they?" One of the men of her council yelled.
She stood from her chair. "I don't know. Reinforcements were a year away at the earliest." As she wondered, some of the contacts disappeared then reappeared planet side.
The room went silent. Nura voiced the impossible. "They short jumped to get into the atmosphere."
"That's impossible! Putting aside a void born warship entering the atmosphere doing such a jump would destroy the planet!" The Naval liaison Merek yelled, fear on his face.
"Then explain why there are ships over every major battle zone."
Merek shut his mouth and looked at the floor. He had no answers, it was impossible but there it was. Plain as day.
At this moment the door burst open. "Lord Commander, we have news from the front!" The servant yelled.
"Tell us man! What news do they bring?"
"The barren sea reports the landing of a Titan legion, multiple mixed guards units and Space marines. All of unknown origin and heraldry."
This worried the lord commander. She had contacts in the inquisition from her predecessors. They hunted the unknown regardless of allegiances.
"What is the heraldry? What did they describe?" She commanded her eyes trained on the planetary hologram.
"Reports describe the Titans bearing black standards with a woman adorned in a dress of stars holding a galaxy in her hands. Alongside that is the high gothic numeral for 2."
This meant nothing to everyone in the room. Nura leaned on the codjutator console deep in thought. Just then another messenger came rushing in. "Lord Commander! We have been hailed. The channels were ancient as was the message.""
"Read it man!"
"We are home."
The message was a strange one and everyone in the room went silent again.
High above a man in a massive suit of armor stood on the bridge of his flagship.
"Sir, the message has been sent on the wide channel. Battle reports are coming in. They are pushing the non-humans back." The woman at the comms station reported.
"It is good that the men, women and brothers got the chance to stretch their legs. How goes the battle here?" The lord of the fleet said, his voice distorted by the helmet's vox.
The comms woman talked into her head set. "The battle has gone well. No losses and the enemy is routed. They are slow and two Dagon cruisers are broad siding their flagship as we speak."
"Excellent. I want the void cleared of all hostiles and the ground forces mopped up to the best of our abilities. We have a mission to complete after all."
Back on the planet the T'au forces were broken and scattered. The unknown forces pushed forward as a splinter force stayed back giving aid to any guardsman or human civilian they found. They also collected the dead and saluted their service and life.
Benold watched, having his charge stopped by the aid force. He listened to their words of farewell.
"Thank you for your service. The second avenges."
It was too short, and no words to speak of the god emperor. Normally he would stand and berate them waving his bolt pistol between their heads. But seeing how not only did they aid them when hope was lost, they also fought with single minded determination. Every move performed as if done endlessly for a thousand years.
Benold sat on an upturned dirt pile to catch his breath. Listening to the sounds of distant fighting and the thundering steps of the god machines behind him. Still sending artillery beyond the horizon.
Three hours later a loud horn sounded from the war cruiser hanging in the sky. Shaking not only the ground but the Commissar's very bones. The god machines stopped their supporting fire, their massive forms slowing then stopping.
He watched as the machines let out their own horns before turning back to their landing pods. Transport ships flew out from their hangers collecting their men from the battlefield. One of them a female this time, her body lithe in build, saluted in the old ways, the side of her index finger touching the brow of her closed helmet.
He gave her the salute of the aquila, arms crossed with a fist on either breast. She cocked her head to the side in confusion but quickly recovered. She pushed her saluting hand forward and down. She then turned and ran to meet her squad in the tank. In the distance the drop pods were collected by large ships with their holy cargo back inside, job done.
As quickly as they came the forces left. Leaving destruction and death of the xenos in their wake. They also left hope as wounded guardsmen were found by the quartermasters. The numbers were more than any other battle. Men thought dead were found alive and waiting to be sent to the field hospital.
Benold was found and brought back to the forward operating base for debriefing.
"So your squad was about to be sent to the Emperor's side when the unknown forces arrived?" The field commander asked.
"Yes sir. I gave my last curse upon the Xenos scum and awaited my end. Then the reinforcements arrived and sent the xenos running."
"You mentioned that you were the only one to charge after them. Why?"
"One of the arriving guardsmen handed me a las rifle as my bolt pistol was destroyed. He told me to do it for my men. They were to wounded to continue and were being tended by the newcomers."
"Why didn't you give them the Emperor's mercy?"
"I was caught up in what was going on and didn't think. I saw the xenos running and men running after them. I felt that I didn't want to be left behind."
The field commander nodded. "One last question, What was their warcry?"
Benold smiled as he remembered. He straightened his back and said their war cry. "For the Emperor and the Imperium!"
The Field commander wrote a note in his book and motioned for the commissar to leave. Once the commissar was gone he looked back at his book filled with matching reports.
"Who were they?" He muttered before calling for the vox. He needed to get the reports to the Lord Commander. Maybe she would know.
Sadly Nura was equally as confused. The after battle reports were coming in. All of them read the same. Scarily so, hundreds of titan formations and mechanized infantry as well as multiple regiments of well armed and armored guardsmen. Let alone the numerous Astartes reported. Numbering well over a chapter.
All of them bearing the same standard. "This is worrying." She muttered as she debated her next move. She needed to inform the greater imperium. What she feared was what the Inquisition would think. She let out a prayer that her home would be spared. "Have the astropath inform the reinforcements that were sent by the administratum. Let them deal with it."
She turned her eyes back to the hologram of the planet as the massive fleet warped out of the system. Making her mutter again. "Who are you?"
