C. Goto - Dawn of War

For a moment, Gabriel saw himself in those eyes-he had once been a young Guardsman on Cyrene, before the Blood Trials, before the Blood Ravens had changed his life forever.

“Tell me sergeant, how fares the spaceport?” asked Gabriel.

“The orks have regrouped and are attacking in force, captain. Many civilians have been killed in the crossfire as they struggled to get into the spaceport, but we are holding out as best we can…” Ckrius trailed off, apparently unwilling to go on.

“Is there something else, sergeant?” asked Mordecai, overhearing the conversation and joining the group.

“Yes, there is something,” said Ckrius, puffing out his chest and steadying his voice. “It seems that some of the Tartarans themselves have turned against the Emperor-a number of squadrons have deserted their positions, including an elite Armoured Fist squad.”

“They are cowards, then,” replied Gabriel, remembering the scene that greeted him when he first set foot on Tartarus.

“It is worse than that, captain,” confessed Ckrius, flinching at the insult on the honour of his regiment, but unable to deny it. “The squads have not fled, they have turned their guns against us, and some even fight alongside the orks.”

“It is as we feared, Gabriel,” said Mordecai, turning to face the Blood Raven. “The Maledictum is working its dark magic on the people of Tartarus, twisting their wills against themselves. Their bodies were prepared by the taint in the soil itself, and now their souls are lost.”

“More and more turn every hour, captain. Before long, the spaceport will fall-the evacuation must be completed within the next few hours,” added Ckrius.

“It must be completed today in any case, sergeant,” responded Mordecai. “The warp storm will be here before the day is out, and when it arrives, it is all over for anyone left on the surface.”

“Thank you, sergeant, for bringing us this news and for joining us at this troubled time,” said Gabriel, impressed by the resolve and strength of the young trooper. He bowed slightly to the sergeant in a rare sign of respect for a junior officer. “Now, we have work to do.

“Sergeant, we are going to launch a two-pronged assault against the Alpha Legionaries in the Temple of Dannan. You and your storm troopers will assist Sergeant Tanthius and the Blood Ravens Terminators-you will storm the temple doors from the front. You will be supported by a team of Devastator Marines-but most of the heavy weapons batteries are still on the other side of this chasm. The Whirlwinds may be able to provide some covering fire from there, but the other tanks will be of no use. There is a ceremony being performed in the temple, and it is imperative that we do not allow it to reach completion-do you understand?” explained Gabriel quickly.

“Yes, captain. You may count on us to do our part,” replied Ckrius, saluting crisply, despite his fatigue and the grime that covered him.

“The rest of you,” continued Gabriel, turning to face Mordecai, Matiel and the remains of the assault squad. “The rest of you are with me.” He hesitated for a moment, looking for Isador. The Librarian was standing a little way off, talking to a small group of Marines. He nodded briskly to Gabriel as their eyes met, as though indicating some sort of understanding, and then he stalked off towards the temple with the Marines in tow.

A rocket zinged overhead, crashing into the steps of the temple and exploding into rains of shrapnel. Another fell short, drilling down into the flagstones in the square and excavating a large crater. The cultists who were collected outside the Temple of Dannan did not scatter-they stood their ground and were slaughtered in their dozens with each blast from the distant Whirlwind rocket launchers. In only a few moments, the rockcrete surface of the temple precinct was slick with blood and gore.

As the bombardment ceased, Tanthius stepped forward into the square, flanked on both sides by a short line of Marines with full Terminator honours. The Blood Ravens opened fire, punching a volley of shells through the square, shredding the cultists with splinters of flame and shrapnel.

This is too easy, thought Tanthius as his storm bolter spluttered in his hand. Where are the Alpha Legionaries?

The sound of breaking glass made him look up. Great sheets of stained glass were tumbling out of their frames in the upper levels of the temple. Huge monuments to the glory of the Emperor were being desecrated and shattered from within, as sleets of bolter fire flashed down through the early morning darkness. Tanthius could vaguely see the horned helmets of Alpha Legionaries moving in the shadows beyond the window frames.

Angling his bolter fire up towards the wrecked stained glass windows, Tanthius drew his power sword and lashed out with it into the throng of cultists, cutting through a swathe with ease. His brother Terminators echoed his movements, dragging their line of fire up the front of the temple and peppering the window cavities in the upper levels. Their secondary weapons continued to slice into the seething crowd of cultists-a plume of fire jetted out of a flamer on the arm of one, and the hum of power fists sizzled in the air as they pummelled anything that strayed too close.

Meanwhile, Sergeant Ckrius waved some quick signals to the storm troopers, who peeled into two squads. One knelt into a firing line and unleashed their hellguns, spraying a tirade into the throng of cultists at the side of the knot of Terminators. The relentless fire cut a sudden corridor into the crowd, and Ckrius stormed into it, his hellgun bucking with automatic fire as he sprinted towards the temple steps. Behind him came one of the storm trooper squads, pounding over the carpet of corpses, desperate to reach the other side of the square before the corridor closed in on them again.

Ckrius burst out of the crowd on the far side, diving up the steps of the temple and crashing his weight into the heavy doors. He rolled instantly, bringing his hellgun round to bear on the cultists once again. An instant later, and seven more storm troopers flew out of the crowd, launching themselves out of the reach of the grasping hands and turning to riddle them with lasfire.

The eighth member of the squad nearly made it, but the corridor collapsed just before he broke through, and the cultists pressed in on him from both sides, swamping him under the sheer weight of numbers. For a moment, his head rose above the throng, thrown back in agony as the cultists bit and clawed into his flesh, trying to bleed him dry.

Without breaking his firing rhythm, Ckrius snapped his pistol from its holster and clicked off a single round, striking the storm trooper directly between the eyes and killing him instantly. The pistol was reholstered immediately, as Ckrius grasped his hellgun back into both hands for better control-he hoped that his men would do the same for him, when his time came.

With a command from Ckrius, the line of storm troopers on the temple steps focussed their fire into a single strip of the square, cutting another corridor in the crowd, leading right up to the feet of the storm troopers on the other side. As soon as the corridor opened, the troopers broke into a run, sprinting across the square with their hellguns blazing before them. Ckrius rose to his feet and braced his gun against his shoulder, picking off cultists one at a time as they threatened to obstruct the storming troopers-he was determined not to lose any more men so early in the day.

As the two squadrons were reunited on the temple steps, the cultists found themselves caught in the crossfire between the storm troopers and the Blood Ravens Terminators. The whole precinct was instantly transformed into a giant killing zone, with lasfire, bolter shells and flames flashing maniacally through the space from both sides. Every shot hit something, and in a matter of seconds the crowd had been reduced into a pummelled, broken and bloody pile of corpses.