A Narrow Escape on Possiah

‘Fan out Astartes,’ whispered Brother-Librarian Nicholas, ‘And hold your fire until I give the signal.”

…

“Unleash Fury Disciples!”

The sky lit up with blue streaks of entrenched lascannons and autocannons amid screams of glory and pre-mature victory. When the dust had cleared, the corrupted armor of the thousand sons still showed their hideous blue and gold against the bright sun.

The cords from Nicholas’ hood grew tighter, forcing an aching pain along the middle of his neck; then an icy cold. A vision of the large serpent with glowing green eyes flashed in front of his bionic eye.

“Ahriman” he managed to gasp, the frosty grip of his hood growing stronger and stronger. No wonder the heavy weaponry had gone astray; he had used the warp to see it coming.

The massive defilers spun around and powered up their battle cannons.

“Take cover Angels!”

The Disciples of Caliban were not prepared for a long range fire fight. Nicholas knew that with the power of Tzeetch behind him, Ahriman’s renegades would obliterate them at this distance. But none of that mattered, what mattered was getting the ancient tomes out of this area and back to the stormbird for his master.

Lady Aja and Brother-Veteran Aldaron (the last two nobles from the ancient house of Lupus, Luther would never have approved of their presence, but they had pledged their loyalty to Cornelius and to Caliban, and the Dark Angels needed their support) in their venerable dreadnoughts took to the right flank and were instructed to delay the wretched Ahriman long enough to get the tomes excavated without comprising their integrity. Followed by the Techmarine Orion, they rushed the transports of the traitor marines. Under a hail of lascannon fire and havoc storms, the rest of the squads fanned out into defensive positions among the ruins.

Master Adso brought his terminators down about 2 clicks in front of the front line and ran into cover, hoping to distract the foolish marines from the objectives.

“Brother-Sergeant Septimus, take your squad and begin extraction of the tomes,” bellowed the Librarian. “I will try to hold off Ahriman’s treacherous sorcery with everything I can.”

Nicholas knew he was not match for the mighty Ahriman, he just hoped to stall long enough to complete their mission.

The trap was sprung. The tainted Astartes crashed into Master Adso and his terminator retinue. Even the mighty defilers were distracted from their barrages enough to charge into the ruins. The terminators were able to repel the first wave, but the mighty war machines of chaos were too much. Massive legs and claws ripped apart the heavily armored infantry. Tossing them aside like the helpless larvae of the reaver worms.

Brother-Librarian Nicholas was bent at the waist, leaning against a ruined column for most of the fight. Trying with all his might to focus on the rotes he was taught by the inner circle in hopes to delay the vile wizard.

After thrashing the terminators, the defilers moved on the ancient library, climbing the walls with their steaming, screeching appendages. The screams from the trapped daemons within shook the Disciples to their very core.

Nicholas took up his sword and his eyes began to glow a deep red as he uttered ancient words from a long forgotten language. The sword began to glow and crackle as well; as he stood alone against the might of the heavy war machines. The outright display of limitless courage inspired the rest of the Dark Angels.

As the defilers reached the summit of the interior of the library, a blue flash shot across the sky. A lascannon shot straight through the battle cannon, igniting the ammunition and exploding the top half of the walker. Horrid screams of agony filled the air as the daemons escaped the twisted metal and fled into the warp. Another flash and the second defiler exploded, throwing a storm of shrapnel into the air. A well-timed and placed multi-melta shot from one of Orion’s servitors.

A few moments later Brother Septimus presented the newly excavated tome for the librarian’s inspection. “This will do nicely,” Nicholas said, “good work Sergeant. Now let’s get back to the Stormbirds.


Final result:
Disciples of Caliban 2 objectives held . Ahriman’s Renegades 1.