The survivors continued to move, even higher into the freezing mountains. Tempestus Scions fell dead amidst the snows as they fell prey to the ridiculously low temperatures. Their skins blackened and their eyes and tongues frozen.
Marshal Amalrich ordered half of his remaining men to guard the pass they had come through, to halt the enemy for as long as possible and grant them some time. The enemy that was chasing them had fully arrived on the moon and was coming after them with increasing numbers. It was better, in his mind, that some remained behind and delayed them.
Through the night, those who had volunteered for this task could be heard fighting and dying, and as the sun finally rose, the last sounds of battle faded.
They had to press on. The sacrifice of the Black Templars would be remembered, but they wouldn't be griefed by this. It was their duty after all.
As the pale sun reached its highest point, the roar of war engines echoed through the dwindling snow. Land Raiders drove across the lower slopes, their jagged tracks digging deep into the permafrost as they clawed their way through the ice.
"We need not stop. We're almost there," Celestine urged the others.
Helbrutes roared their mad praises, and the wail of the Chaos Raptors' vox casters filled the air. The assault ramp of the nearest Land Raider crashed down, and Abaddon strode forth, flanked by his inner guard of Chaos Marines in Terminator Power Armour.
The Despoiler's presence was too much for the last of the Imperial Guardsmen. Frozen and exhausted beyond belief, they started to flee uphill, abandoning all discipline and loyalty. They had been hammered for days, and all that while they were the most 'normal' troops in this retinue.
As the Despoiler advanced through the snow, Cawl positioned himself at the forefront of his small company, preparing to die for a 10,000-year-old pact that would now never be fulfilled.
...
BBBRROOOOOOOMMMM---!!
A massive explosion sounded through the atmosphere, drawing everyone's attention to the sky.
There they saw it. A strangely shaped, ugly spaceship, without any of the typical cathedrals had just crashed into a smaller Chaos voidship's side, causing a large explosion.
"He's here!" Celestine exclaimed excitedly.
The Chaos ship, which had been flying rather low, suddenly started to lose altitude relatively fast and moved dangerously close to everyone's position.
Seeing this, Abaddon grew incredibly enraged and also a bit confused, as a ship exiting out of the Warp to appear here was not what he expected. Who could be so dense as to do this? There was no place more dangerous right now than the Warp.
"Destroy this craft!" his grinding voice commanded his ship, the Vengeful Spirit.
.
Abaddon was right, of course; only an insanely dense motherfucker would crash a Chaos party like this one. But Gerhard never claimed to be clinically sane. That was overrated anyway.
The Mother Pussbucket had made its way through the tumultuous Warp, being attacked by daemons the entire way, but being protected by the specially designed Geller Field. Gerhard was content with the stress testing of his tech.
To make an entrance, Gerhard pushed the Prism Mana core to full power, as well as the Void Shields and then added [Psionic Mana Shield] on the very front of the ship, using all of this to ram the Chaos vessel, which stood in their way.
The ship shuddered violently, and the damage was felt. But they actually made it through in one piece, while the other vessel was falling into its millions of components.
"WHAT WAS THAT?!" Sera shouted angrily as she had been shaken around in her seat.
"Minor turbulence."
"Huh?! What are you talking about?!" the Captain asked.
> Shields at twelve per cent! Reactors have been overloarded, Master. We're not yet fully ramming ready, it would seem.
Hans said calmly over the vox channels, his hands moving across the different dials in the reactor room. The Navigator and the Captain were not in good shape by then. The Navigator, especially, was almost losing his shit.
"Get me a few more minutes, we're just about there, and I want to take out a few more!" Gerhard said over the shaking and rattling sounds, bracing himself against the command chair as the ship buckled.
"Oh, and Hans, play ‚Free Bird'!"
A macro-cannon shell from Abaddon's flagship overloaded the Void shield and tore through the midsection of their vessel. The deck tilted violently and dangerously.
The sky above Klaisus became a swirling vortex of chaotic fire and scrap metal as the Mother Pussbucket began to break apart against all odds. All that held it together was the emergency mechanism and his repeated use of [Mana Rope] and pure will... in the form of [Psychokinesis].
The high-pitched scream of vox-casters and the roar of the burning Mana Core filled the air. Abaddon's aerial predators had arrived to deliver the final strike and destroy everything.
The Void Shields buckled finally, as power went out. The cargo bay doors of the dying ship groaned open, and the first of the Heldrakes crashed into it. These winged nightmares of brass and daemon-flesh began trashing the place, biting into the metal walls, and attempting to rip it apart, spewing Warp fire everywhere.
One particularly massive beast, whose wings shone with Warp-energy, banked sharply, its claws trailing lines of fire across the ship's hull.
Behind them came the Hell Talons. Their vector-thrust engines shrieked as they pivoted mid-air, their autocannons tracking the open bay and wounded side like vultures.
> Master! We have incoming signatures! Multiple Daemon Engines closing at intercept velocity.
"AAAHHHHH!!" the Navigator screamed as he felt the malicious energies.
Hans reported what Gerhard already knew, his mechanical eyes glowing a fierce red as he made his way to the ship's midsection.
"Well, that's suboptimal!" Gerhard said, slamming the emergency hatch shut and controlling the ship's descent.
His fingers flashed across the different switches and buttons, looking at the screens and checking his next course of action. Those around him were in different stages of panic. Only Lencillus and, mostly, Hestia were calm as usual.
"We're losing atmosphere. This won't be a soft landing," Lencillus said, his golden armour reflecting the sparks flying from the ceiling.
'What is he doing?!' Aleya signed frantically, not used to Gerhard's calm ways of handling pressure.
Gerhard looked at the tactical map. They were directly in between several Chaos warships that were constantly firing massive shells at them, but they were falling like a piece of lead. He looked at the massive cargo bay doors on his HUD.
On the ground of Klaisus, Abaddon watched with grim satisfaction as the strange and ugly spaceship was falling from the sky, smoking and burning. The Helldrakes were picking it apart. And finally...
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM---!!
The massive ship exploded in a ball of monstrous fire, killing the Helldrakes and the Hell Talons with it. The explosion was so powerful, in fact, that it blew two of the ships surrounding it back, and the shockwave travelled across the ground.
Had the Mana cores been full, the explosion would have evaporated the nearest Chaos warships and melted the ice on the moon below. But it was lucky that it hadn't been full.
Abaddon turned around and focused on the Imperial survivors again.
"Great prediction, heretic!" Greyfax spat at Celestine.
Suddenly, the ice in front of Cawl exploded in a burst of flashy light. Jetbikes hissed over the icy crest, with shuriken cannons, located on their undersides, firing at the Black Legionnaires.
Trails of fractured light followed, as vibrant colours danced and reformed around leaping, pirouetting Xenos warriors. The mountain top, which until just now had been occupied by the fleeing group, was now filled with graceful and extremely fast warriors armoured in a multitude of colours.
Behind them came slender walkers. These were not of Imperial design, but Xenos, as it turned out. Every large step rumbled the ground and spoke of grace and power.
"Eldar," the Archmagos said, recognising the Xenos species.
The Black Legion retreated before the sudden and fast Eldar onslaught.
They had prepared for battle against a broken and weary human foe, half-beaten by cold and despair.
Instead, they faced an Eldari Strike Force, along with the Wyches of Commorragh, warriors from the Craftworld Biel-Tan, and Eldar from various other craftworlds.
Abaddon, once again, flew into a rage and advanced into the chaos.
"DO NOT RETREAT!! ATTACK!!" he shouted at his warriors to follow.
Those who did so perished, sliced apart by dancing blades or shredded by razor-edged shuriken, weapons of the Eldari. But that wasn't the end of the Black Legion's problems.
BOOOOOOMMM---!!
A large explosion shook the ground and almost caused the mountain to crumble as a massive warship crashed farther down the slope. Abaddon looked behind him and saw that it was one of his. But why had it fallen? And why hadn't he realised?
He looked up.
"Is that...!!!"
"A tank?!"
"What the..."
"He lives!" Celestine rejoiced as she looked up.
...
A large, super-heavy battle tank was falling through the sky, attached to three quickly assembled parachutes. And it was firing its massive Mana Baneblade Cannon at the unsuspecting and baffled chaos warships.
And inside the tank...
🎶"Freeeeee Biiiird, yeah!!"🎶
The song had reached its best part, just as the Tank fell through the sky.
"Aaaaahh... that hurt..."
'What happened?' Aleya signed, as she pushed herself up.
"Everyone alright?" Gerhard asked.
"What are the chances they think we're dead?" Lencillus asked.
BRRROOOOOOMMMM---BOOOOOMMM--!!
"Not great," Gerhard answered.
"Please tell me we're not on the voidship..." Navigator Slovo stuttered fearfully.
"Yeah, please tell me that," Sera said.
> We're not on the voidship. No worries.
"Gerhard, if the Helldrakes get to the chutes, we will drop considerably faster," Lencillus warned.
"I cast [Psionic Mana Shield], and we still have the Void Shielding as well. We should be safe for now," he answered.
> I believe, you have just 'jinxed' it, Master. We will die now.
"Always so negative. Let's fire up Gustav's weapons system!" Gerhard said excitedly. "Hans, get to the control terminal, and Sera, get to those weapons stations. The Las-cannons aren't going to fire themselves... well..."
"WHAT?! We are falling through the air inside a bloody TANK!! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!!" Slovo shouted.
"I spent too much time with Orks. Now, shut the fuck up, and Sera, get your ass over there. Lencillus, try not to move too much in the termiantor armour, we'll need the space, and you'll hurt someone otherwise."
"Understood."
'What shall we do?' Hestia signed.
"What about us?" Captain Erefan asked at the same time.
"Nothing. We should have this one covered, so enjoy the ride."
"If we die, I blame you, Gerhard!" Sera complained from her position. "This is precisely why I hate flying!"
"Technically, we're not even flying."
"Fuck you!"
"Bahahaha!!!"
'He's insane,' Aleya signed and the others nodded.
Thankfully, Gustav was an artificial spirit who had learned a lot over the last couple of months and battles. He was by no means a fresh spirit anymore. So he was able to function without problems. And because Gerhard had upgraded him, his range of motion was far wider as well.
The Helldrakes and Hell Talons shot forward, all the while Macro Cannons from the chaos ships fired at the 'small', fast-moving tank, plunging towards the icy grounds of Klaisus.
Sera bit her teeth as hard as she could, swallowing her vertigo and firing the two twin-lascannons with wild abandon. She was by no means at the top of her game, but Gerhard had chosen to give her her [Essence] back, as this wasn't the time for stupid experiments.
A Helldrake arrived and hit the shield, which didn't phase the tank in the slightest. As a reward, it was blasted by Sera's use of the Lascannons that damaged its midsection and caused it to let go and fall with a shriek.
BOOOOOOOOMMMM--!!
Several Macro Cannon Shells finally hit the Void Shields, and one actually managed to pass through, hitting the Psionic Mana Shield and causing the tank to shake and shudder.
Hans was connected to Gustav's main core, adding his processing power to the tanks and elevating it to ridiculous heights. This allowed them to use all the weapons available with razor-sharp accuracy.
"Hans, we're off the target by several miles. Turn the turret by 67° to the left."
H: > Got it.
"Fire!"
The Mana Baneblade Cannon fired and shot through the air at blistering speeds. It was so powerful that it punched through an approaching Helldrake and zoomed through the sky, colliding with a voidship, exploding and harming the shielding.
The tank didn't move as much as Gerhard wanted, because his stupid ass, naturally, constructed the tank to have extremely reduced recoil. But there were still some, so it would take a lot of shots. Thankfully, there were an endless number of enemies.
"Turn to 87°."
H: > Got it.
"Fire!"
'What is he doing?' Kaelen signed as she was rocked with the tank after another shot.
"I believe Gerhard is flying the tank," Lencillus said.
'Flying?'
"Yes."
'A tank...'
"So it would seem."
"YOU'RE INSANE!!" Sera screamed.
"Well, thank goodness for that, otherwise this would probably never work."
"WE'RE GONNA DIE!" Slovo screamed.
...
Hundreds of Helldrakes and Hell Talons were in the air, largely ignoring the Imperial survivors on the ground and desperately chasing that falling tank in the sky. But they were shot by different types of weapons, which were so much more powerful than they were supposed to be.
Finally, after almost a full minute of falling, a Macro Cannon managed to disrupt the different shields surrounding the tank and damaged two of the three parachutes.
The tank tipped forward and lost its horizontal position.
"Ohhhhh, SHIIIITTT!!!"
H: > This seems suboptimal, Master.
Lencillus, the Sisters of Silence, and the others held their positions as the tank fell to the ground, the front pointing downwards.
"Oh ye of little faith," Gerhard said and started to punch a few buttons and commands.