Board Thread:Warhammer 40k Roleplay/@comment-14745711-20150116231447/@comment-14745711-20150116231526

The sound of bullets ripped through the air as the Chaos Spacemarines over turned the barricade the devastator had been using as cover. The heavy bolter wielding figured scrambled back hastily, even as one of the attacking marines slashed open his chest piece, the scarlet of blood spattering over the sky blue colours of the Angels of Reconciliation. The marine gasped for breath as one of his primary lungs was cut through and his secondary lung took over. He fired his weapon at point blank, the high power rounds punching through the armour of the chaos marine and shattering his internal organs. He fell back with a scream even as the second charged forwards and rammed him into the ground, knocking the weapon away from his hands. Even as he was about to finish his enemy and claim another skull for his dark god, several rounds from a bolt pistol hammered into the side of his head.

Captain Jeremiah lowered his smoking gun as the now lifeless form fell to the ground. “I suggest you retreat to the next line of defence brother, they will need you there,” he said, his voice echoing slightly as it came out over his vox transmitter.

“Yes Captain,” acknowledged the devastator as he struggled to his feet and disappeared between the two buildings behind him. Jeremiah looked around him; this particular street had been cleared for now, but two of his brothers lay dead after it, and such losses were unacceptable when compared with the number of their foe. Even now he could hear the sounds of battle coming from other parts of the defence line, the screams of the dying echoed off of the old stone walls which were stained with the blood of the slain.

With a sigh Jeremiah turned and headed off into the next street.

Chapter Master Avatus could only watch as the warp tendrils snuck out to encircle planet Barra even his fleet arrived above its surface. Those chaos warships not already engaged with the Sayian Knight and Imperial Guard ships that were already present turned to face his newly arrived battle barge. The astartes stood several feet taller than a normal human, his dark hair cut down to stubble on his head. A fir trimmed cloak was draped around his broad shoulders, made even broader by the large pauldrons of his armour, upon which were the faces of a roaring lion captured in golden metal. “How long do they have?” he asked the ship commander next to him.

“About two hours now until the warp storms make reinforcement or evacuation impractical.”

“Get them out of there then. This planet is lost and we need to regroup.”

“The civilians are still not off world, they’re boarding transports provided by the Sayian Knights.”

“What about Jeremiah?”

“The Captain is currently engaged but retreating back into the settlement. I fear it will not be long before he is beyond our aid.”

“Very well. Prepare those forces we have with us for drop pod deployment; we’ll punch a hole in their traitorous hides before retreating.” Avatus turned from the sight before him and his heavy feet booming against the walkway beneath him he left the deck.

A wall collapsed in a torrent of rubble crushing five unfortunate Planetary Defence Troopers (PDTs) beneath it. The Hellbrute crashed through, howling madly as it grasped a sixth trooper who was desperately trying to scramble away. The man struggled vainly for a few seconds before his head was rammed face-first into the ground turning it into a pulp. The limp body was hurled away to skid over the ground leaving a massive red smear in the dirt (OOC: because I like to keep things PG :P).

The Hellbrute stormed forwards opening fire with its plasma cannon and blasting away part of a wall which sent various pieces of rubble flying into more unfortunate soldiers. The men were just about to retreat and run for their lives when a swift moving blur appeared between them and the rampaging chaos engine. A power sword wielded with great skill cut through part of the mechanisms that operated the Hellbrute’s right leg causing it to stagger to one side and swing wildly in the direction of the blurry figure. Its fist thundered into the tarmac street leaving a small crater.

As the mech lifted its arm to take another swipe at its enemy, another blow severed the connection between the Hellbrute’s arm and torso. The fist hung at the metal beast’s side swinging limply. Katon-dressed in the bright yellow and red of the Sayian Knights-stopped in front of the Hellbrute, his weapon glowing with the energies infused into it by the techpriests who had forged it. “You men,” he cried to the PDTs who were still staring dumb struck at the scene before them. “Are you soldiers of the Emperor or cowardly dogs? Bring this thing down!”

The men before paralysed sprang into action struggling to load a rocket launcher that had fallen to the ground after its owner was killed by falling rubble. The Hellbrute fired its cannon madly directly hitting one PDT in the chest, causing him to scream in agony as much of his body was melted away. Katon rolled under the fire and slashed at the machine’s chest plate, but was unable to damage it further than he already had. The rocket once it was fired hit the Hellbrute square in its face, mutilating the already unnaturally scarred visage.

The Daemonic fiend howled its rage and stumbled forwards towards the PDTs, but was halted by another rocket hitting it, this time in the centre of its chest. Before it could continue Katon had leapt on top of it, as if the Hellbrute where a bull he was trying to ride. Bringing his sword up, he rammed it home, penetrating through sheets of metal until the point shattered some internal vital part. The Hellbrute staggered left, then right, then left again before falling forwards onto its face.

Katon yanked his sword free from the Hellbrute and whipped the black and green liquid from its blade. The blue glow that surrounded his head slowly faded and his eyes-which had been hazed in the same blue-white light-faded to normal. “Well done men, your distraction was invaluable to me. But I would advise you not to so easily turn to flight in the future; others might not be so forgiving.”

“Yes sir. Thank you sir,” stammered the sergeant saluting.

With a curt nod Katon hurried away, pausing only to cut the head off a Bloodletter that had been foolish enough to leap onto a nearby barricade. This part of the line was holding well, Katon reflected, but in several other places the traitors were overrunning them at the last he’d heard. He turned a corner just in time to see a PDT’s body fall lifeless to the ground. The figure which had just dropped the lifeless corpse was only visible as a black stain in the air for a few seconds before it vanished from sight, leaving behind the smell of something dead, even though the respiratory system should have filtered out any gases that could have produced it.

“What in the name of the Emperor?” Katon exclaimed under his breath, just as Jeremiah came hurtling around a corner and into the courtyard the two captains were now sharing.

“Brother, we need to withdraw to the next defence line the traitor’s numbers are-“ Jeremiah stoped mid sentence as he saw the way Katon starred at a point just next to where he was standing. “What is it? Why do look like that?”

“There was, something here. It killed that, soldier!” answered Katon, the last part of his speech turned from mild confusion to surprise as he realised that the body that had lain there only a second ago, was dissolving into ashes. Jeremiah looked too, just in time to see the last wisps of smoke float away into the wind.

“There is something here we don’t understand,” concluded Jeremiah, “but there isn’t time now. We need to withdraw our forces into the city centre, most of the line has collapsed, only this part still remains intact.”

“Very well,” Katon nodded, shrugging off the strange visitation he had glimpsed in favour of the present crisis. “But I suppose you realize that after this we have no where left to go?”

“Yes. But we may have a better chance with our forces less thinly spread. At least I hope so. To be honest brother, I do not like our hopes of survival.”

Umbra watched from the Diadel, that layer of the Imaterium that his master had managed to separate from that roamed by the other beings of the warp. No, the key was not here, nor here, this planet was useless; it was empty of all value, at least of anything of value to him. The dogs that his master had turned hither would of course not leave until the planet was taken and their slaughter complete. Still, he mused, that wouldn’t be very long now would it? After all the astartes and PDTs had retreated right back to the centre of the city, and the civilians were already off world but for a comparative handful.

Umbra idly reached out into realspace and pushed himself through. He casually strode over to where Zhufor was hacking the head off a PDT. “Stupid mutt,” Umbra muttered to himself, walking invisibly amongst the struggle. The cry was now going up to withdraw to the city centre, and under his helmet Umbra allowed himself a smile. “Zhufor may be an idiot, but he is good at what can do, I suppose. It doesn’t really matter that he won’t leave until his battle is over, but at least, it should all be over soon.”

Suddenly his train of thought was shattered by a great boom behind him. He turned to see a drop pod, which had managed to land on top of Khornate berserker. The door fell down to reveal the imposing figure of Chapter Master Avatus, and a squad of assault terminators. Umbra sighed, this might be about to take far longer than he had wanted.

OOC: Whew! Well that is my first post for the written only story. Any followers or players in Angels of Fire, would have noticed a few changes made, but well they’re all to make a more coherent story line I assure you. Also, the chapters will now be far shorter when compared to an actual RP, since there won’t be any OOC clarification needed, or short post dithering.

So, there it is and I hope you enjoyed it.