[hr][h3]XVII Legion - Serpents of the Sun[/h3][h3]Arel Extermination - Planet Vokun, Vokarr System[/h3][hr]

Outrage did not describe the Primarch of the XVII Legion’s mood effectively. Nelchitl was incensed. At the Arelian defenders for refusing to die. At the Auxiliaries for not pushing fast enough. At her own gene-daughters for failing to take the capital in the prescribed time frame. The Emerald Priestess was furious.

Her anger, as intoxicating as she had ever felt it, pushed her further into the city with every pump of her hearts. She felled entire units of Arelians alone as she moved ahead of her daughters in a fit of rage. Voxcalls from her Company Commanders to slow down and allow them to reform with her went unanswered as her chainsword whirred in one hand and her plasma pistol spat bolts of death from the other. There was little hope for the Arelian’s that stood between the Primarch and the city center and yet they still tried to stop her relentless advance.

Turning a corner onto a long promenade, Nelchitl was met with the fire of several dozen of the multicolored energy weapons of the Arelian’s. Like concentrated bolts of lightning the shots cracked and popped as they made contact with the ground and the Primarchs armor, leaving shallow gouges and steaming streaks where they hit.

Nelchitl leveled her plasma pistol and let fly a trio of bolts that laid waste to several positions of concentrated defenders, but the fire barely let up. Letting loose another pair of well placed shots Nelchitl advanced forward and shrugged off the energy weapons impacts in a fantastic fluorescent show of sparks and arcing electricity. 

Now only a few hundred meters from the Xenos positions Nelchitl found a new sense of purpose as several Xenos defenders unmasked heavy weapons from their hides among the rubble of the city. These weapons had been prevalent at the curtain wall, and though formidable they had proved to be little threat to the well armored Land Raiders of the XVII. But against a lone Primarch these weapons were more than enough and even Nelchitl knew she had been caught out in her lust to end the fighting. Her blind desperation to join her Father in the Ullanor System was to be her end.

Charging another bolt from her plasma pistol Nelchitl was weighing whether or not to seek cover from the emplaced guns ahead when a cacophony of bolter fire laid waste to the Arelian guns and made her decision for her.

One of her gene-daughters came on-line with her, firing as she spoke, “My Lady, the Second Company sends it’s apologies for our tardiness.”

Knowing the voice of the Captain of the Second Company as though it were her own Nelchitl answered her daughter as she too let loose with a bolt of plasma, “Captain Mayalen, push the Second forward, I expect no more delays in this extermination.”

Her voice was cold steel as she ordered her gene daughters forward to end this battle once and for all.[hr]Through a wide square Nelchitl walked past the ruined bodies of Arelian defenders and Serpents alike. There had been a great battle, here at the gate to the Arelian capitol building, and the Second had done well to overcome the Xenos filth that held the entrance but it had not been without cost.

The still smoldering bodies of dozens of her daughters lay haphazard about the square, their armor penetrated and the Legionairres within laid low by the exotic energy weapons. Though Nelchitl felt sorrow at the sight of so many of her daughters lost, she took solace in the fact that their sacrifices were not in vain as she passed a trio of Apothecaries extracting the geneseed from their sisters.

As the Primarch of the XVII entered the capitol building her sense were immediately met with the smells of burnt ozone, cordite and death.

A squad of Serpents from the Second waited for her just within the threshold of the gate and quietly began off in the direction of the final hold out of Arelian’s in the building. Their Primarch needed no prompt or intruction to know to follow.

As they made their way down the maze of passageways and rooms Nelchitl passed yet more of her slain daughters. At first they came only one or two at a time, but as they got closer to their destination the bodies became more frequent in number. The Second had delivered on their Primarch’s order, and they had paid dearly for their results.

Stopping before a single vaulted door Nelchitl turned to find Captain Mayalen once more among the group of Astartes waiting for her. Spotting the armor of the Captain of the Second, Nelchitl simply waited for her report.

“The Arelian’s are dug in deep on the other side, we’ve lost contact with the first two Squads that entered together and I did not believe it wise to commit more to this push without your approval.” the Captain of the Second was obviously upset, whether it was with her performance or the losses her Company was sustaining Nelchitl didn’t truly care. The Emerald Priestess cared only for results, and the bloodbath that undoubtedly awaited on the other side of the door.

“We blow the door and sweep through, standard wedge. I will lead.”

“Lord.”

Moments later the door exploded in a fury of fire and debris, the smoke parting ways as the Serpents and their Primarch entered the room in a perfect wedge, bolters barking as they did.

Around Nelchitl her daughters fell. Concentrated energy beams boring straight through their armor, multicolored arcs of electricity boiling their targets alive as they touched ceramite, and countless other grotesque forms of the end of an Astartes took place just behind the Primarch.

In only a few heart beats the fire had ceased, the Arelian’s at the far side of the hall lay broken and Nelchitl stood triumphant among a perfectly formed wedge of her lost daughters. Victory had been achieved. 

Nelchitl allowed herself a smile.