[center][h1][u][b]The Slaughter of Sanctii[/b][/u][/h1][/center]
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The snowscape of the Northern Urshic lands stretched infinitely in a mesmerizing pattern of brilliant white, broken seldomly by jagged rocks and cresting hills. Great mountains topped with alabaster frost leered over the lands as forsaken guardians to a ruined world. A massive crevasse yawned with cragged teeth beyond them for miles on end, an immense void slept unperturbed for time immemorial. Vast blankets of roiling clouds congested the skies of Terra, thick and dark with calamitous intent. Wind snapped through the land, biting and howling as a savage beast fraught with abyssal rage. Snow, sharp as serrated daggers, rushed alongside the wrathful gusts, cutting raw skin and rock alike. An impenetrable haze of frozen madness hauntingly lingered for unknown distances. Yet one thing stood defiantly amongst nature’s wroth.

A gleaming, alabaster city with walls as tall as megastructures of old Terra reigned audaciously in the glower of the raging blizzard. Sharpened hail uselessly pelted against an invisible, shimmering aura that protected those within. Shadows of great humanoids with sleek, glowing armor stalked through the haze in short distances from the walls. Grand turrets, brimming with indescribable power, scanned the horizons for threats with an unusual intelligence. Small silhouettes floated through the air in great lengths, their sublime forms flitting about as curious wraiths in a perfect wonderland. Lights from towering monoliths, divine structures, and a thousand domiciles illuminated the encroaching darkness of Terra’s night. Lingering in the shadows of the walls slept the remains of foolish warriors, Urshic raiders effortlessly slaughtered in sprawling swathes from previous invasions. The supreme hive remained, eternally undefeated in the wastelands of their dying world.

[b]Until now.[/b]

The first shell blossomed across the prismatic barrier in a grand explosion, waves of flames and plumes of smoke cascading to either side of the city. Night was unveiled in a glorious reveal of the surrounding area, silhouettes released of their umbral cloaks. The second shell fell far from its intended target, snow and rock exploding upwards in a geyser of destruction. Humanoids shifted with urgency, some swept from their feet in surprise. The third shell impacted forward of the city, detonating precisely laid mines in a beautiful display of combustion. A volatile web crackled across the frozen fields, ice and snow surging in several directions. The fourth shell impacted a tertiary building, jettisoning flames and metallic fragments in a cacophony of deadly noise. From that point onward, the shelling never halted once as night gave way to artificial day.

What had once been an innumerable torrent of lingering shadows over the Urshic plains, now revealed themselves to be a staggering rush of incalculable bodies. Figures clad in crimson sprinted across the landscape with the hurried gait of a fleeing herd. Fat, laboring vehicles with belching engines kicked into overdrive in pursuit of their ultimate objective. Screaming, preposterous machines on metallic wings screeched overhead from every angle. Even over the rushing sound of a raging blizzard, the howling of men bellowing orders threatened to break nature’s deafening calamity. Gigantic warriors, clad in tremendous armor, dashed with astonishing speed beside the warmachines and beyond the vast waves of red garbs. Missiles sang a dreadful dirge above as they sailed on shrieking rockets.

Panels along the walls of the city unveiled hidden defenses, turrets and spotlights reaching out into the raging frost to beseech fresh targets. Violent rays of prismatic energy danced from yawning rails, searing snow and flesh in equal droves. Humanoids in pristine armor, some towering as large as the oncoming giants, unleashed bolts of magnetic pain from the barrel of remorseless weapons. They backpedaled in a slow motion towards their city, aided by those floating machines that released hails of small, energetic lances. Enormous, gargantuan cannons across the pristine wall swiveled on their axis to dauntingly stare down at the invaders. Horrendous spheres of growing power began to coalesce on automatically-cooling rails, discharged upon completion of an unknowable charging cycle. Entire swathes of human life disappeared in an instant, red-garbed figures permanently removed from the tethers of existence. And yet they pressed forward.

[b]War had come to Sanctii.[/b]

Aeternus watched from one of the snow-capped hills south of Sanctii’s walls. His dark eyes traced every individual that marched to their doom into the hive city’s horrific defenses. Miles of their forces stretched in an endless sprint of carnage. Lasrifles snapped beams of brilliant red, cannons howled shells of volatile incendiaries, and boltslingers barked dense bullets uselessly against the voidshield. Corpses already began to pile up wherever their forces weren’t immediately vaporized by disintegration carbines. Some of the Sanctiian protectors, he assumed, laid strewn about as they were trampled to death under a million feet. Those were few in comparison to the devastation already caused to their own forces. 

An enormous, scorching ray of volcanic energy erupted from behind his position, earning a quick glance. Those that surrounded his armored form, his cadre captains, equally turned to address the source of the beam. The mammothine form of their mobile command center, the Imperialis Praetorios, vented heat through several thermal vents along the barrel of its primary armament. He turned away from their armored vehicle to address the battles as it began to evolve, though Rex already knew it was in vain. The Primarch clenched his blackened fist around the handle of his precious blade as another wave of Imperials dissolved into nothingness.

“[b]Sheer insanity.[/b]” Captain Caligula stated with no shortage of revulsion. Aeternus could hear the phlegm building in his captain’s voice, despite the fact he wore a helmet. Caestus’ weapons were already born in both of his yellow gauntlets, tightly gripped in raw anticipation.

“Discard those emotions, Caestus. This is the war that we have [b]earned[/b]. The war that will infamize our name for eternity. [b]In His name[/b].” Primarch Aeternus replied solemnly, turning his attention back to the impossible stretch of the battlefield. His command earned a grumble from the veteran, yet compelled them forward deeper into the combat zone. Each step of their armored forms sent short gushes of ice and slush around them. Armored vehicles sped past them, sponsons and cannons firing with intense urgency.

“Tiberius. Status of our forces.” Rex spoke, his voice growling with the sleeping rage of a lion. The response from his third cadre captain was instantaneous.

“The Astartes that Malcador promised are nearby. The Black Hawk has reeled back to organize her ‘Stygian Talons’. The 43rd, 71st, and 88th Excertus Imperialis have engaged the wall, as you can plainly see. The God-Slayers are spread out amongst the dredges.” The monotone genewarrior coldly replied, releasing the dataslate from his left hand into Aeternus’ free gauntlet. An attached auspex confirmed the geopositions of their invasion, while the rest of the tablet sculpted information from a prewritten bank of cogitator-fed knowledge.

“And the Sanctiians?”

“Their voidshield was just as Negotiator Popov stated. It’s holding strong against even the trinkets of the Sigilite’s Vault. Squads of their protectors on the outskirts have been slaughtered wholesale, but not before taking dozens of the unaugmented with them. Everything else is as you can see. Turrets, drones, and bombardment cannons.” Captain Tiberius scoffed.

Primarch Aeternus grimaced at the dataslate in his gauntlet, dredging up the memory of the extraordinarily short conversation with the Sigilite. He will never forget the quickness in sealing Sanctii’s destruction, opening the forbidden vaults, and approving the request for reinforcements. Perhaps, to a degree, it was fated that the hive city would fall in this manner. “And what of Colonel Stavin and the Penal Legion?”

“Enroute to their objective.” The genewarrior replied, clicking his tongue in distaste. Annoyance was evident in his attitude, something that Aeternus knew would occur when their invasion was planned.

“Mind yourself. They were entrusted with this operation for a reason. Settle for slaughtering into the breach should they succeed.” The Primarch growled, chidding his superior officer. Tiberius responded with a nod, firmly sealing his lips in favor of enraging their commander. Aeternus quickened his steps, delving into a genewrought sprint as they began to approach the backline of their allied forces. Caligula, Nero, and Tiberius echoed Rex’s armored gallop with their weapons ready.

“Nero, what’s the status of the assault drills?” Aeternus asked as adrenaline cocktails began to empty into his veins. A pair of gunships careened overhead, releasing a torrent of screeching missiles before azure beams of blinding corona pierced their hull. Metal collided against metal as the gunships dove, smashing into a far-off collection of red-garbed auxilia. An explosive plume silenced their dying cries as fire ravenously ate flesh and snow alike.

“Same as the last attempt. Failed. The foundation of the city is too thick to be penetrated by our drills. What did you expect from a city as well defended as this!?” The second cadre captain replied, hefting a fallen auxilia in his left arm to use as a meatshield against a flurry of drone fire. Spikes of energy bit into the corpse, dismembering limbs and chunks of meat in seconds. A bolt round saw the drone explode in a ball of fire, allowing Nero to unceremoniously toss the body aside.

The genewarriors momentarily hunkered down behind the ruins of a battle tank, several other red-garbed auxilia using the husk as improvised cover. A vibration of raw energy began to violently hum as a ball of indescribable power landed, expanded, and dissolved several squads of soldiers twenty meters away from them. One of the auxilia dropped their weapon as their hands trembled in fear. Quicker than Aeternus had ever seen a human perform, the auxilia unleashed their sidearm and pointed it against their own skull. A splash of gore painted their fellow comrades, brain matter decorating helmet and uniform alike. None dared to pay attention in the heat of battle, ignoring the death of their companion to continue suppressive fire.

“Caligula, what status do you have on the Astartes?” Primarch Aeternus asked, picking himself up from his position to unleash a salvo of ammunition from a wrist-mounted weapon. Several drones, red-garbed auxilia, and stray protectors burst into an inferno of blue flames as the projectiles exploded. The Primarch ducked as turret fire began to pocket their position, slicing through metal with ease. Those auxilia that remained beside them were pierced, cut, and slaughtered. Without a second thought, the genewarriors swiftly egressed from their cover.

“They’ll arrive in the next wave of reinforcements! Hopefully with our fair lady alongside them!” The ancient veteran said with a grunt of effort, sliding into a half-dug trench devoid of sandbags or barbed wire. Several other of the God-Slayers remained here, their brutal bolters firing without care or coordination. Tiny explosions plumed from spots on the voidshield the bolts contacted. They ducked to reload as Aeternus, Nero, and Tiberius entered the trench.

“Amalasuntha will arrive, so too will these Astartes. Trust in the Sigilite’s words.” Primarch Aeternus stated, recalling the last words spoken between himself and Malcador. An enormous vehicle rolled to a halt next to their trench, smaller than the Imperialis but larger than the standard battle tank. A heavy cannon the size of a carnosaur swiveled to aim up at the wall-mounted turrets. The roar of a thousand guns echoed all at once in a single shot, perforating the sound barrier and deafening the unaugmented around it. The shell impacted the voidshield in a cloud of rippling detonations, yet failed to pierce the city.

“It would be easier to butcher them all if they would come out of their fortress! How much longer ‘till we reach the walls, Tiberius!?” Nero demanded with a roar, his ears slightly ringing from the heavy battle tank’s ineffective shot. He watched it roll forward on enormous tracks, the engine pushed to ridiculous heights to advance their assault. Several moments later, the tank exploded in a flurry of beams and plasma.

“Approximately a kilometer and three-hundred-and-seventy meters. At our current pace, we will reach the wall in thirty minutes. If we survive.” Tiberius replied, his body already moving out of the trench to scout for a new piece of rubble. He spotted it several meters away, the ruins of a building blown away by their first shelling. One of his yellow-armored digits signalled to the rest of the genewarriors, who began to follow him.

“Not [b]if[/b], Tiberius,” Aeternus stated as he swiftly moved to the front of their formation, pushing the third cadre captain back into the trench. Brilliant energy pierced the air in a matter of seconds, threatening to sunder the Primarch’s form in a flurry of volatile death. Power accumulated in a spherical barrier around the thunder warrior, golden light illuminating Rex as his refractor field activated. Instinctively, his gargantuan, obsidian blade was brought up to protect him. The harmful rays dissipated, reflecting away from the shimmering Primarch. The knightly helmet turned to address the thunder warriors in the trench. “[b]When[/b] we survive. [b]Raptor Imperialis![/b]”

As if on cue with the Primarch’s words, golden jet bikes flew over their position alongside a similarly golden clad Dropship making full haste to the walls of the city. Turret fire slammed around the vaunted fire of the custodians, who ducked and weaved, unable to give the defenders a beat on their path. The Dropship let loose an esoteric las shot that slammed into the void shield. In response, a single ray of energy impacted the Orion-class, and it seemed for a moment that the custodian vessel would fall had it not been for the flare shield roaring to life. In the moment, the Emperor’s finest turned and sped away from the walls, the defender’s resistance too much even for them to break through for the time being.