[hr][h3]XVII Legion - Serpents of the Sun[/h3][h3]Arel Extermination - Planet Vokun, Vokarr System[/h3][hr]
Dim red running lights cast the inside of the Land Raider in eerie shadows that danced and jumped with every movement of the formidable war machine. At the head of the troop compartment, the master-vox was alive with chatter as the battle for the capital city of Vokun raged on. Troop movements, unit conditions, positions, and several desperate calls for reinforcements and support from Imperial Army Regiments in the field rolled in over the vox channels. Responses from headquarters formations, artillery batteries, and aerial support answered in kind to those units in the most dire need of assistance, while even further support units called for position updates and route clarifications to reach evermore units in need of munitions and medical evacuations.

The muffled voice of the driver sounded over the internal vox channel and the Land Raider lurched heavily as it came to an abrupt stop, causing its sole occupant to reach for a handhold to keep steady as the sizable vehicle came to rest. A steady tone sounded briefly as the troop door unlocked and fell outwards, the whine of hydraulics easing the adamantium door to the ground with considerable effort filling the Primarch of the XVII legions ears as she ducked through troop hatch and stepped down to the mud of Vokun.

As quickly as Nelchitl had disembarked a pair of First Company Veterans took up her flanks as she strode through the tumult of the soldiers, adepts and medicae as they crisscrossed their way between tents, directed vehicles, and rushed supplies to resuscitation stations. The Primarch stopped to let a vehicle laden with wounded Imperial soldiers rush past before taking up her stride once more toward the command bunker at the center of the camp.

The pair of guards out front of the command bunker came to attention as they recognized the Primarch approaching, one of them breaking their stance to hurriedly open the blast doors of the prefabricated bunker to allow the commander of the entire Vokun Subjugation to enter the strategic center of her armies.

Entering the well lit interior of the bunker, the space was alive with the commands of officers, the information reports of adepts at vox stations and cogitator banks and the ever incessant buzz of the equipment they toiled over. There was a brief moment in which the eyes of a tired young officer met those of the Primarch as she walked to the strategium at the center of the bunker. It was at that moment that Nelchitl could practically feel the awe and admiration in the young officers as he realized the gift he had come to experience in the eyes of the demigod before him. As quickly as the officers eyes had met Nelchitl’s they were redirected with renewed vigor to the tasks at hand, the weary and exhausted face of the man replaced with determination and purpose in his every responsibility.

A group of Generals staff stood huddled around the holo-display at the center of a raised strategium in the command bunker, their faces drawn in distress and their words hushed and distressed as they attempted to sort the grim information streaming in from the front lines.

Without warning, the Primarch of the XVII Legion resplendent in her red and gold artificer armor despite the gore that adorned it, dropped her massive chainsword onto the strategium’s central holo-display with a resounding crash. Bits of organic matter and xenos blood splaying out around the weapon as it landed. Instantly the command staff of the bunker was focused upon her, all talk ceased to stare upon the Primarch with a mix of adoration and apprehension at whatever was to come next.

“This is unacceptable.” Nelchitl spoke to the room at large, anguish evident in her voice as the room hung on her every word, “Intelligence has failed us. The Arelian energy weapons are far stronger than had been assessed. But that does not make up for this stalemate that has developed. The Emperor has called upon the XVII and all her might to reinforce his undertaking in the Ullanor System, and yet we are unable to take this repugnant planet from the grip of the Xenos.”

Vox calls continued to roll in as the lower-ranked officers and vox-technicians, cowed as they were by their Primarchs initial outburst continued to perform their duties.

With the sweep of an arm at the arrayed Generals and their staff before her, wrath grew in the Primarch's eyes, “We cannot fail here. The Emperor awaits our arrival, without us victory may well be lost in Ullanor.” her hands danced across the holo-display controls before her, maps of the frontlines appearing to float in the air above the table and focusing in on a specific section, “I am mobilizing the Sixth, Eighth, and Ninth Companies from orbit to reinforce the Imperial regiments here.” a blinking symbol appeared on the holo-display above a conglomerate of regiments focused along the western edge of the Xenos capital city, “They will lead the charge to the curtain wall of the Arel capital with your regiments in close support. All other regiments are to hold the Arelian forces in combat at all costs that our spearhead can advance unhindered.”

Taking the hilt of her chainsword back in her hand Nelchitl hefted it above her head, “My Serpents will take the head of these Xenos, and Emperor willing, your regiments will stand at their side in this achievement that we may arrive to the Emperor with the winds of victory at our backs!”

Nelchitl could practically feel the atmosphere of the command bunker as it rose considerably from the shame of beaten men to that of warriors proud in their profession and worthy of their appointments to stand in the strategium of the XVII Legion, to stand at her side. “The intricacies are yours to decide upon, my Astartes await your guidance.” she lowered the chainsword and turned to exit the command bunker. Stepping down off the raised strategium the First Company Veterans fell back in at her side and flanked her return to the waiting Land Raider.

[hr]
A turquoise Land Raider surged forward from behind an earthen mound and into a deluge of fluorescent energy weapons fire from the curtain wall. It was followed in close pursuit by three dozen more and the lumbering forms of Dreadnoughts bringing up the rear. The advancing spearhead of Land Raiders raked the curtain wall in lascannon and heavy bolter rounds. From above the shells of the Imperial Armies artillery rained on the battlements in a hellish barrage of high explosive and incendiary shells that cracked the very curtain wall itself. The Arel defenders unlucky enough to be caught on the receiving end of the opening barrage disappeared in clouds of superheated vapor as lascannon bolts met flesh, were torn apart as heavy bolters found their mark, or were simply vaporized in their dozens as high explosives fell amongst them. The formations of Land Raiders pushed ever forward through the still formidable amount of xenos weapons fire coming from the curtain wall. Forward toward the imposing outline of the closed gate that was to be their entrance, the Land Raiders’ weapons responding to the Arelian defenders' tenacious defense of their capital in kind.

“Major Anlin of the [i]Iron Duke[/i] reports capacitors charged and canticles complete.” came a calm voice from the commander of the lead Land Raider over the vox net.

“[i]Iron Duke[/i] you may fire.” Nelchitl voxed as she watched the battle taking place outside of her Land Raider on a screen mounted in front of her position in the passenger compartment. The night was alight with the Arelian’s multicolored energy weapons fire, and the answering Imperial lascannons and tracer rounds. 

There was no response from the commander of the [i]Iron Duke[/i] for no words were needed to respond to the order they had been given. From nearly two kilometers distant the Shadowsword’s barrel arced with discharging energy and the venerable super heavy tank’s Machine Spirit itself whined in anticipation as it unleashed the power of its main gun on the unsuspecting xenos defenders of the city. The [i]Iron Dukes[/i] response was nothing short of annihilation.

The astounding light show of the assault was overtaken and drowned out by a concentrated beam of energy so powerful that the exterior cameras of the Land Raider and Astartes optics alike were forced to automatically shutter themselves lest they be rendered useless. The air above the advancing Serpents’ spearhead abruptly flared in a blinding beam of orange and yellow as the Shadowsword [i]Iron Duke[/i] unleashed its volcano cannon upon the curtain wall’s gate.

The sky erupted in fire as the super dense laser beam made contact with the xenos structure. It stripped away layers of armor several meters thick in just milliseconds and ignited the air around it in a cataclysm few among the mortal Imperial attackers had witnessed in their lives. Pieces of debris larger than a Wolfram tank rained down in all directions crushing xenos structures inside the city and an unlucky Land Raider as they fell amongst the battlefield. Molten metal and stone slag ran in rivers from the remains of the curtain wall closest to where the gate had once stood, and a thick and toxic cloud of noxious vaporized materials hung in the air ahead of the Land Raiders.

The abrupt removal of the gate and a considerable portion of the curtain wall along with the defenders therein seemed to give the survivors pause as the Land Raiders streamed through the breach. Fire upon the armored transports was intermittent, undisciplined, and wild as the defenders seemed to be reeling and attempting to regroup in the wake of the cannon’s strike.

Nelchitl shrugged the harness from her shoulders as the Land Raider spearhead fanned out in the square that lay beyond the breach. Once more a steady tone sounded briefly to herald the opening of the troop hatch, but this time instead of a slow and steady release the door was dropped by gravity to slam to the ground as quickly as possible.

Nelchitl’s armored form hit the still steaming stone of the square already firing her plasma pistol at the defenders positions ahead of her. Beams from the Arelian weapons cracked into the ground around her and deflected off the armored transport beside her as she began to move forward. At her sides the Sisters of the Eighth Company began letting loose with their bolters and volkite rifles on the xenos scum that dared to resist their inevitable end. Quickly the Sisters of the Ninth Company joined the advance as energy weapons burnt away the outer layers of ceramite and left deep gouges in the adamantium of their power armor beneath. The Land Raiders kept up their fires, supporting the advance of their Primarch and their Sisters as they shrugged off hit after hit of Arelian energy weapons. 

Dropping into a trench on the far side of the square Nelchitl mag-locked her plasma pistol to her armor and took up her chainsword in both hands. With speed and reflexes beyond that of even her beloved daughters she began to hack her way mercilessly through the Arelian soldiers that occupied the trench. As her daughters dropped in at her side they made quick work of the remaining xenos and claimed the trench as their own in only a handful of heart beats.

“Excertus Imperialis at the breach.” came the vox distorted voice of Captain Felcia of the Sixth Company.

Turning her attention to the Imperial soldiers and the Sisters of the Sixth Company as they flowed through the breach with regimental banners held proud, Nelchitl felt something akin to purpose as she watched the mortal soldiers before her run head first into a living nightmare. To give humanity a galaxy that they could call their own, free of Xenos and the need for such acts of heroism was the ultimate vision of her Father, of her God. Opening a vox channel to the Company Commanders and Officers Nelchitl quickly relayed orders to cover the advance of the Imperial regiments. She rose from the trench and once more leveled her pistol on the xenos ahead.

Several Dreadnoughts pressed past the trench line of Astartes and into the city streets beyond with weapons bristling and warhorns blaring.

“Forward!” Nelchitl bellowed easily over the deluge of fires and through the open vox channel of her suit, “For the Fifth Sun!”

The Battle Sisters of the Sixth, Eighth and Night Companies answered her warcry in unison as they rose from the trench. 

“For the Emperor!” her daughters responded like thunder.