The streets were quiet, perhaps too quiet for what was to
come. The Shadow Lords moved cautiously
through the streets expecting the worst. Captain Aerius Gaius glanced into the
distance, careful not to stare at the dim lights emanating from the the holy
shrines that the Sororitas were stationed at to protect, lest his night vision
get compromised. The night felt strange,
clammy, foggy. Aerius felt eyes on him
but could not discern from where they came from. Successors of the Raven guard have never felt
this way. They were the Masters of the
Shadows… It almost felt like some foul
sorcery at work.
With a sudden roar of engines, the fog lifted. Cultist threw off their camouflage and rose
from the shadows as one. ‘Death to the
False Emperor!’ Midnight-clad bikes blazed down the streets, taking the Shadow Lords
by surprise, screaming challenges to their Imperial counterparts. True to their
name, the Shadow Lords recovered quickly and counter-attacked. Aerius charged the cultists, his vigorous
attack tearing down a wall. Pinned down,
a cultist got a lucky shot in, causing him a grievous wound. Regardless of the gaping hole in his gorge,
and precious blood and fluids leaking out, Aerius carved through the cultists
before limping to the protection of a nearby tactical squad.
Sororitas fire tore into the nearby bikes from the safety of
their shrines, their bolt shells igniting the promethium, or whatever fell
concoction powered them. Screams could be heard in the death-throes of the
burning bikes. The Stygian Claws were fear
incarnate and they would bring anyone in their way to their knees. The remaining bikes blazed past, out of the
range of the sisters.
Purged with plasma and bolter fire, scores of cultists fell,
but there was an unending supply of them streaming through the streets. Razing and occupying the nearby buildings,
the cultists were proved difficult to dislodge.
Land speeders let loose their heavy bolters, assault cannon,
missile launchers. Jinking and avoiding
fire, the Stygian Claws Champion raced into combat with the speeders. His powerfist carved a hole in the leading speeder’s
gravitic plate, causing it to lose height and crash. Trapped in its harness, is
pilots were quickly dispatched by the other bikers. The 2 remaining speeders lifted off hastily
avoiding the combat range of the Stygian Claws.
Peppering them with returning fire killed one biker at range, buying
time for the Champion to reach them on his bike.
From the speeders’ flank Chaos terminators burst through the
shattered hull of a Shadow Lords Predator, its chassis and crew reduced to
molten slags from their combi-meltas.
Power axes and powerfists quickly claw through the speeders. The Shadow Lords had their revenge as the
assault cannon ammunition detonated, shards and shells pouring into the Champion
and a nearby Obliterator and wounding a Shadow Lords marine.
At the other end of the street, more Stygian Claw bikers
engaged a Shadow Lords Tactical Squad.
Suddenly, upon columns of flame, Lord Gallowbraid, smashed
into the tactical squad, shattering armour and bones. Spitting curses against the Chaos Lord, the
tactical squad sergeant received a reply in the form of lighting claw slashes,
cleanly taking his head off in pieces.
With the tactical squad neatly dispatched, Lord Gallowbraid moved to
engage Aerius’ Vanguard squad that were skulking in the shadows…
After dispatching a squad of Obliterators foolish enough to
appear in his line of sight, the Shadow Lords Venerable Dreadnought Xandar immolated
a squad of cultists attempting to sneak up on a squad of tactical marines
stationed in a building. In his
victorious glee however, Xandar failed to notice a squad of bikes drawing a
bead on his armoured chassis. A blast of
plasma smashed into him, knocking his systems offline temporally, but long
enough that he could not cover his fellow brothers as Gallowbraid and his
raptors assaulted the Vanguard. Taken by
surprise, the Vanguard was quickly dispatched.
Lightning claws clashed between the Gallowbraid and the Vanguard’s Vet
Sarge. In a moment of mutual triumph however,
both Gallowbraid and the Sergeant laid low.
Grievously wounded, Gallowbraid was brought to safety by his Raptors.
Aerius looked around.
The sisters and shrines were safe, but his Shadow Lords were all but
wiped out. Against all his calling, he
issued the command to pull out and regroup, leaving the foul Chaos to ransack
the city, as though they were looking for something.
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