The Air Marshall was not willing to sit and wait for long, there was a world to reclaim in the Emperor's name, and he wasn't going to have the 122nd Astryan Airborne only a footnote for having sat around waiting for a response or orders. Looking over to Atreides, Sturmburg nodded to the man before dispatching orders. "Master Sergeant, mobilize the Drop Troopers and prepare to deploy. We need your men to find a suitable ground base of operations to sortie from. The Marauders and Thunderbolts still have the ability to deploy from orbit, so we can still maintain air cover from here with them."

Atreides nodded, making a brisk walk off the bridge before breaking into a smooth run, already on the vox with the Drop Troopers in the barracks. By the time the man had arrived, troopers were already on their way out, heading for the various flight decks built into their ship, where assigned Valkyries and Vulture escorts were on standby. Once a suitable operational facility was located, they would operate and deploy from there. Planetary scans revealed a highly elevated power station, currently on the border of Chaos held territory, that supplied nearby forges and also provided near total control over any who dared approach by land. That would be the fatal flaw in its defenses. Sturmburg remained in orbit to coordinate the aerial assaults while attempting to raise the other Imperials, so he could minimize the potential for friendly fire incidents, and begin joint arms actions against the Orks and Chaos heretics.

Master Sergeant Atreides was watching the Space Marine deployments from the main hanger bay, leaning on one of the Valkyries as the first wave was almost embarked, his command squad moving their gear into the Valkyrie, which would drop off what couldn't be carred by hand after the plant was secured. Atreides could respect the drop pod approach, even if the Asartes were far better equipped than his men and women. A tap on the shoulder by his second in command alerted him the first wave was ready. [b]"All Valkyrie pilots, stand by for deployment."[/b]

The Master Sergeant stepped on board, as the engines roared to life and each craft's hatch shut and sealed against the void, creating the internal atmosphere most troops relied on until entering orbit. Drop troopers still had their own O2 systems hooked up just in case a stray AA round breached the hull. Once all pilots sounded off ready, Atreides gave the signal to launch the Valkyries, briefing the drop troopers as the first wave of transports shuddered and launched.

[b]"Alright ladies and gents, you know the stakes already. The heretics and greenskins want this place, we're here to give 'em a swift kick off world. For that, we need a surface side operations base. We found ourselves a border power plant, chaos held currently, that provides some rather marvelous overview of any approaching foes, be they by land or sometimes air. But they, Emperor willing, won't be looking too far up. We hit 'em from the inside out, set up our defenses, and let the Valkyries bring in heavier automated turrets to take over and our vehicles for further excursions. We jump high, engage the grav chutes low, minimize exposure time. Standard drill, really. Make me proud, Troopers, and let's raise some hell."[/b]

There wouldn't be a roaring amount of blind bravado and chest pounding, they were all consummate professionals and experts, and some veterans, in their field of warfare. Like his own command squad, men and women were doing final checks on their weapons, from autoguns and hunting rifles to heavy stubbers, lascarbines, and mortars. Atreides own squad carried mostly autoguns, two of the ten regular Troopers carrying las carbines instead of autoguns, his second in command had his hunting rifle, while Atreides still favored his tried and true combat shotgun. The Valkyries were almost in position, the Troopers standing up to prepare to jump, double checking each other's grav chutes one last time. Atreides verified one of the troopers while another checked his own. All good to drop, and as they waited, he could hear vox reports as the first men and women made the jump, but before long, the hatch on the Valkyrie swung open, the high altitude sucking the artificial atmosphere clean out. By twos, each trooper jumped, Master Sergeant Atreides last to leave alongside his squad sniper.

Most normal men and women, Guard or not, would find jumping [i]out[/i] of their transport more than a handful of feet above ground suicidal, downright insane, or very likely both. Most weren't trained like the 122nd trained its Drop Troopers, however. It was another day jumping into some Chaos controlled hellhole to stick it to the daemon worshiping freaks. Atreides prayed that this border territory didn't have any daemons already summoned, they tended to complicate matters greatly. Even falling at terminal velocity, it took what felt like hours to begin properly zeroing in on their target. Atreides could see weapon fire beginning to spark off from troopers swooping in on grav chutes, unaware and unprepared Chaos heretics being cut down from the furious assault. Hitting the key altitude, Atreides barked his orders. [b]"Troopers, deploy chutes and get to the walls, use the cover against them, Staff Sergeant, any leaders you spot leading the Heretics, put a round through their skull with your rifle. Corporal, cover and spot. The rest will be on me!"[/b]

Atreides activated his grav chute, slowing his descent rather than trying to arrest it all at once, which was a rookie mistake. They weren't designed for that, but done properly, he was able to coast right onto the power plant outer barrier, wall he called it, and with a roll was on his feet without any ill consequences. Other troopers were landing, and while it literally rained hell on the heretics, Atreides vaulted off the wall and hit the ground running, other troopers following to take advantage of the shocked and disorganized heretic resistance. Atreides counted at least two heretics he personally dropped, buckshot tearing them down like so many targets at the range, and volley's of autogun and lasfire covering the heavy stubbers and grenade launchers as they began pouring fire into the main heretic holding point.

Heading up to a vantage point, Atreides grabbed a trooper with one of the long range vox sets along the way, hauling him up to set a temporary communication link with the orbiting 122nd Airborne, opening a shaky communication line to inform Sturmburg of their process, before ordering the Staff Sergeant in charge of the vox to scan for Imperial chatter and patch him through, but until then, he moved down to continue organizing the purge of the power plant. Standing orders for Traitor Marines were simple, withdraw, and if pursued, krak grenade and focused fire on joints and other not heavy armor plated. Eye sockets, mainly, if joints failed. If they didn't pursue, bring up grenade launchers and heavy weapons to saturate the positions before moving in, preempted with krak and frag grenade deployment. Meltas were popular, and many Trooper squads had at least one melta for clearing out Traitor Marines.

The operation took barely an hour before the Power Plant was swept from top to bottom, the preliminary sweep at any rate. Located a decent travel time, by ground, away from the nearest bombed out city made it a secure position, but patrols and sentries were to be organized. Marching into the control center of the power plant, which had been converted into a Guard command post, Master Sergeant Atreides began dispatching orders. [b]"I want Drop Section Omega on sentry duty, get the walls manned, heavy weapons set up with overlapping fields of fire. As supply drops arrive, augment as necessary to free up Troopers to reinforce the walls and defenses. Section Zeta, combat engineering, get the walls patched and reinforced, use the drops to help Omega get the defenses in place. And make sure some of it is set up for AA, we don't know the full Chaos air power yet. Or greenskin, for that matter. The rest of you, full resweep of the plant. I don't want any nasty surprises. Foxholes, tunnels, anything suspicious or unusual, investigate [i]after[/i] reporting. Vox operator, tear down and set up in the communication building, take your guards with you. Reroute communications here, and let me know if you can raise any of the other Imperials. Move out!"[/b]