[h3][center]Battle-Sisters of the Fiery Thorn[/center][/h3]

[i]“To the gangs of the Hive City VI, you have been condemned to death on the grounds of heresy against the Emperor and His government. Surrender, drop your weapons and your execution will be quick and merciful”[/i] blared out the transport’s loudspeakers. Sabine had no illusions the gang would oblige her message, but at least the district’s civilians would have a warning to stay out of the Sisters’ way. Not that they were any less innocent of heresy.

“Thirty seconds to the site. Prepare for drop”, the pilot’s voice echoed in Sabine’s helmet. “There are zero hostile contacts or activity on site.” “Understood”, Sabine responded. She ran her fingers on the hilt of her sword and the grip of her bolt pistol. “Sisters, you know your duties. Be prepared for anything.”

The transport spacecraft thundered across the sky, weaving between mile-high buildings and slums. There were no windows, but Sabine could imagine the sorry state of buildings. The Silver Fang gang was one of the largest of the hive city and held the district under its heel. “Ten seconds to touchdown. Opening hatch” the pilot said. Their drop site was a square with barely enough space for their craft, but the pilot knew his job, and Sabine trusted him. The Sisters rose up to stand. The dim lighting of streetlights poured through the hatch. Their Sabbat pattern helmets could filter bright light and help them see in darkness.

There was no one at the center of the square, but a few civilians scattered and huddled on the sides of the nearby buildings. The Sisters drew their weapons as their left the transport. [i]It is quiet[/i], Sabine thought. [i]A bit too quiet for my taste.[/i]

“Sisters, follow me. We are crusaders in unholy territory from now on. Communicate only when necessary.” She drew her power sword and activated it. The [i]Furious Rose[/i] had a red hue, when it’s power was activated, and it hummed noticeably when Sabine moved it through the air. It felt like it was made into her arm. She loaded and locked her bolter pistol. They started to make their way to their target. The transports ascended from the drop site and blared a message from its loudspeakers.  [i]The Sisters of Battle have entered the district. If you into their way, you will be mercilessly cut down. Do not resist.[/i]

The district could be described as a sprawling maze of slums and deserted warehouses, but their helmets received navigational data for their target. They found the warehouse in no time at all. Sabine stopped her squad at a junction just before the warehouse. “Now”, Sabine said. “Sister Emilia, take Sisters Adriana and Anais and attack from the side.” Sabine pointed her power sword to a nearby street. “The side entrance I spoke of is that way and to the left.”

“Understood. The Emperor’s Will will be done” Sister Emilia said and led her detachment to the warehouse’s flank. Sabine turned to Iona and said “Sister Iona, with me. We are going the rough way in through the main entrance.” The young Iona nodded, and they left for the entrance. It was guarded by half a dozen gangsters in street clothes and what looked like rudimentary low calibre stubbers. They seemed on alert. [i]Good, it is not going to be too hard.[/i]

Sabine walked upright towards the entrance. The gangsters saw her, towering over them in her power armour. They weren’t very tall people compared to Sabine. Hivers rarely were. It took them a good few seconds to start removing the safety from their weapons.  Sabine shouted to them. “In the name of the Emperor, I am here to execute his will! The pain for your heresy is death!”

Sabine broke into light running and raised her bolt pistol, removing the safety. Iona came closely behind, revving up her chainsword. The gangsters’ eyes widened from the sight. A larger gangster shouted commands in heavily accented Low Gothic Sabine barely understood, but the intent was clear. [i]Shoot at them![/i], he clearly said.

Her power armour caught a few rounds, but they barely scratched her armour before she closed the distance to the nearest gangster. She cleaved his arm almost cleanly off and shot the next one to the head. The first one fell to the ground, shouting in agony, the other’s body just stayed on it’s feet for a half a second before falling down like a sack of potatoes. Sister Iona brought one down with a nasty strike from her chainsword. A gangster went down with a ugly chest wound. Soon enough she scored another hit with her chainsword to another gangster, sawing his head off.

The last two were barely a challenge. Sabine attacked with a ferocity worthy of an Ork. She had fought Orks quite a few times, and gangsters were not much of an obstacle for her. In few seconds, the sounds of the skirmish went down. They could hear the sounds of distant chainsword in the background. Sister Emilia clearly had flanked the gang and getting the better of them, too.

The ground was littered with the bodies of half a dozen dead gangsters. Sabine examined her surrounding and saw no other movement from nearby buildings. She went to the main entrance and inspected the great warehouse doors. They were locked by a simple chain and a lock. She hit the lock a few times with the [i]Furious Rose[/i] and it gave way, breaking down at no time at all.

The doors opened into a great storeroom with many shelves of contraband goods and weapons. The gang’s main income was from extortion and selling contraband goods as far as Sabine knew. Sabine could move through the shelves, but her power armour knocked a few shelves off balance. “Be careful, Sister”, she said to Iona.”

Sabine could hear the gangsters shouting and running at a distance. They probably were organising resistance and bringing the heavier weapons against them. Lighter stubber rarely could punch through power armour, but heavy stubbers could inflict great damage on them.

The whole warehouse was dimly lit, but it proved nothing to hinder Sabine and Iona. They moved with a fast pace though the storeroom, moving deeper into the warehouse. A handful of gangsters without weapons stood in their way, but they were swiftly and mercilessly cut down.

The next storeroom had many more gangsters, almost ready with their defences. They had brought a few shelves and piled all kinds of obstacles to act as improvised cover. A heavy stubber provided overwatch on a balcony over the room. There were at least a dozen gangsters in the room, as far as Sabine saw. [i]No matter, they shall fall![/i]

“You shall not escape this place alive, Daughter of the Emperor!”, a heavily muscled gangster at her. He was taller than most other gangsters. It seemed to Sabine that he had an archaic looking powered exoskeleton on him and a chainsword in his hand. The gangster had a battery pack strapped to his back. The exoskeleton had armoured plates bolted into arms and the stomach, but Sabine could tell it could not provide much protection against her powersword. “You and your whores will die here!”

“Then I shall join His side! You shall not, heretic” Sabine replied to him. She had planned that Sister Emilia’s element would come at any moment now from the flank, but it seemed they had been delayed. [i]No matter, plans never work as well as you make them.[/i]

A hail of bullets hit her surroundings as soon as Sabine moved towards them. A shot from the heavy stubber hit her arm. The bullet did not go through but left a noticeable dent in her armour. She had to take cover. Her power armour could take punishment, but her intention was not to catch every bullet the gangsters had in their armoury. Sister Iona followed suite. Iona had started to chant one of their battle hymns with her clear voice. It didn’t carry well over the sound of booming stubbers and bullets hitting all around them, but it did provide courage to the young Sister under fire.

They moved from cover to cover towards the gangsters’ positions. A few hails of bullets hit them, but the gangsters firing, and accuracy was shoddy at best. They clearly trusted in the quantity of fire more than in the quality of their aiming. “Sister Emilia”, Sabine hailed with her commlink. “What is your situation?”

“On our way, Sister Superior” her voice answered. It was steady as it always was. “Sister Anais took a hit from a heavy stubber to her side, but otherwise we are good and heading your way.”

“Good. May Emperor watch over you” Sabine responded. She put her bolter pistol aside and took a frag grenade, pulling its pin and threw it at pack of gangsters in a one smooth well-drilled movement. “Grenade!” Sabine heard one of the gangsters shouting and jumping out of the way. She also heard the explosion and at least a couple of the heretics blowing up.

They were finally close enough to charge at the heretical gangsters. Sabine rose from behind her cover and pointed her bolter at a gangster and firing a short burst at him. The bolts crashed at him and burst into small explosions in front of her. She charged towards a few of them and swung the [i]Furious Rose[/i]. The powersword cut flesh and bone almost like it was thin paper. Sabine heard Iona’s chainsword biting into flesh near her. Her chanting had not stopped for a beat.

They cut down most of the gangsters in what felt like seconds. Stubbers fell silent after one another, and after a short while, only the exoskeleton wielding brute was left. Sabine pointed her power sword at him. “Pray for your salvation, for I shall cut you down, heretic. Sister Iona, leave him to me.”

The brute pounded chest with his fist and revved his chainsword to speed. He had fury and anger in his voice. “I will avenge my men and make you bleed for what you have done today, bitch!”

The brute tried to strike Sabine with a fast swing, but she had trained sword fighting for most of her life, ever she had joined the Schola Progenium. [i]You are too slow, maggot[/i], she remembered her Drill Abbess scolding her a lifetime ago. She barely remembered her face, but her training had stuck in her muscle memory. [i]Slowness will kill you and turn you into worm food.[/i]

The brute was strong, but also quick in his feet. He changed his footing and tried again and again in quick succession. Sabine took a hit, leaving nasty marks into her armour, but it still held on. She countered and parried his attack, making a riposte and striking his plate in the stomach. The blow made a deep dent in the plate and punched the air out of him. The brute fell down into his knees. The brute could not produce any  intelligible words or sounds.

“Pray for your salvation, heretic, for I shall not” Sister Sabine said to him and drove the [i]Furious Rose[/i] through him. The brute fell down with a dull look on his face. The sounds of battle echoed in the hall for few good seconds. A ghostly silence fell in place. After a while, Sister Emilia’s element joined Sister Sabine. “Warehouse has been cleared, Sister Sabine. No casualties”, Emilia said in a matter of fact tone. Her armour had taken hits and dents, and all of their armours had been drenched in blood and intestines. “We have been victorious today.”

Sabine nodded with approval and said to her Sisters. “Yes, we have. Let us call for our transport and move out to the extraction point. The Inquisitor is waiting for our report. Better not to keep her waiting.”