Snippet #823541

Carving through vast hosts of chaos horde flesh, squads eight and nine rammed and diced their way through the field of soon-to-be dead. Brother-Captain Jonas himself was making more gore than almost the entire rest of the team, spearheading the formation, and with the number one most lethal weapon in the pack. The crazed cultists were just that, in pure lunacy, where the few cultists smart or level headed enough to still have fear in the front were pushed forward into the meat grinder of chainswords by the cultists in the back who wanted their attempt to take out one of the legendary super soldiers of the imperium.

Waves and waves of cultist grunts fell into the Ultramarine base camp. Some of the perimeter guards that Galenus had set up from squads eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen were making jokes back and forth, the occasional banter about how if these cultists wanted to die for their lord, that the marine would be pleasured to fulfill that desire. Or something about how they had been so unable to do any damage, that a duct-taped lasgun was a weapon only a cultist pussy would be willing to hold. Soon, however, the cultists drew back, instead of attempting to flood the base-camp, the cultists held at distance, firing their ranged weapons rather than sacrificing their lives so fluently. The five base guard squads, consisting of 34 men, fired rounds out after the cultist forces. Their job had now almost seemingly turned to hunt and kill.

Galenus heard the sudden drop in the sound of chainblades. It was almost unfamiliar of the battlefield. He came over the vox-link, speaking into the units of the five guarding squads. "Ladies, I don't hear any buzzing. Why aren't you giving these cultist scum a haircut for the record books?" The return came back from brother-captain Keanu of squad eleven, the highest-ranking member of the guarding squads. "They've pulled back, sir. Still supplying fire, but they aren't in chainblade range, sir."

Captain Galenus thought to himself. This was an unusual move of cultists. Naturally an anti-imerial cultist group so pathetically under equipped as these would come rushing into the space marine camp like lambs to the slaughter. Not these. Something was up. There must be something going on, some figurehead leading these chaos swine more than just a particularly charismatic idiot with a pedestal. “Take up the dead bodies” Galenus’ response to his guarding members was. “make a wall. If they’re going to give you the space, make them regret it. I’m sending squad ten to assist.”

“Yes sir” Keanu said, and so Galenus closed that particular vox link. “You heard the captain!” Keanu barked over the vox to the rest of the men. “Get to work! Heavy Bolters sweep for cover fire, the rest of you, stack as many bodies as you can get! Go Go Go!”

Marines let lose a torrent of hellfire from the heavy bolters, enough to brutally slaughter the first row of chaos and send their bodies falling back against the cultists behind. Just as soon as that began, the members of the six marine squads not holding heavy bolters scooped as many cultist bodies as they could and threw them together to pile the cultists. Squad ten itself went deep, charging the cultist line with chainswords in hand to procure more bodies, which they in turn brought back to pile up as well. The wall of bodies was growing, and growing fast. Soon the cultists would no longer be able to bother the ultramarines with even the slightest of lasfire. Galenus’ voice came over the vox to Keanu. “I want to have one exit, and I want the direct line into base from that exit to be blocked by pods so that no weapon fire can get in without cultists knocking on our front door.”

Meanwhile, brother-captain Jonas and his two squads of marines was fairing spectacularly well. With their charging the enemy to get into the Cadian lines, they hadn’t even noticed a change in cultist behavior. So fast were the marines that the cultists couldn’t have run away if they had wanted, let alone the fact that there was a sea of other cultists clogging all escape routes. Jonas was the first one to spot the banner of the Cadian 501st, and turned to intercept. The formation didn’t even close to break, staying tight in mass slaughter. The Vanquisher tanks, being so much taller than the general crowd, would most likely notice the divide in cultist forces that was trailed by flaming bodies, both screaming and dead alike.

The two marine squads, fully cutting a path through to the Cadian 501st with minimal damage, minorly depleted ammunition and some seriously stained armor, fanned out in front and along surrounding the twenty or less infantry that were left. Twelve space marines were plenty enough to give the infantry a full surrounding cover. It was in this time that the cultists had the opportunity to back up away from the space marines, which they did, and although a bit of light weapons fire spattered the marine armor, none got through to the Cadian infantry.

Brother-captain Jonas left ranks, the two squads totaling thirteen marines, which left the twelve marines to cover-fire for the Cadian infantry. Jonas went straight through the crowd of infantry, and headed to the front-most Leman-Russ Vanquisher tank. He knocked power-armored knuckles on the side of the tank. “Your highest ranking officer, we are here to speak with the chief leader of the Cadian 501st. We carry a message.”

Squad one and squad six were the terminator squad and the marine squad sent to accompany them. It consisted of fourteen marines, eight of them terminators. This squad had been busting through hive city buildings and walls, going deeper and deeper into the city in search of whatever it was that was leading this chaos campaign. Galenus’ voice came in over the vox unit, crackly and almost out of range. “There’s someone bigger than a cultist head leading this, boys. Watch your backs.” That was all he said. Brother-captain Warren of squad ones terminators gave a nod to the rest of the men. They knew they were in for something big. They crashed through another wall, this time being one too many, and soon the building they had just gotten out of began to collapse backwards.

The building fell, a tall monstrosity of achievement compared to how low tech the backwater world was. It tilted, and began to fall, crashing through houses and buildings, and knocking over other buildings like a domino effect. It decimated almost every last cultist and chaos worshiper who had been in the southern end of the hive, and even toppled several of the taller buildings out to crush chaos forces in the main field of battle.

“Well… That’s an unexpected present. Thank the Emperor.” Came the voice of one of the marines from squad six inside the hive. Another said “May the Emperor have pity on their souls.” And so, the two squads, squad one the terminators and squad six, moved deeper, in search of whatever it was that was causing this on this planet.