On Heliosa's Second Continent, the Eighth Chapter's 1st Company launched an assault on War-Hold Four.
The slender, tall Avenian warriors were slightly taller than the average Shadows of Order.
Their forms were elegant, their frames delicate, yet their faces were sharp and angular, much like the jagged mountains they inhabited.
A "Warrior" swung a longsword forged by the Cather sword-smiths, striking at an Avenian warrior of similar height.
With a clash, the "Warrior's" gleaming blade deflected the elegant sword.
The "Warrior" delivered a swift second strike, cleaving into the light black armor.
The psychic blade bit into a gash. The "Warrior" noted that the reinforced fibers were similar to Astartes power armor mechanisms.
The "Warrior" drove his right foot forward, putting his full weight behind the blade.
Bang!
The "Warrior" forced the Avenian's slender blade down, then stepped forward with his left foot and swept his sword.
The gleaming edge tore through the form-fitting black armor, cutting into the seemingly fragile form.
The "Warrior" felt the blade meet resistance. He leaned into the strike, tearing through the Avenian's resilient bones.
In the heat of the moment, Captain Buka of the 1st Company leaped forward.
The "Guardian," clad in his prototype Saturnine-pattern Terminator armor, moved with the speed of the wind, swifter even than a "Warrior" in Mark II power armor.
The gleaming psychic sword in his right hand spun, shattering light black armor and flesh with detonating crashes.
He raised his left arm with ease. A plasma cannon swiveled, spitting streams of molten fire.
Bang, bang, bang...
Blazing green plasma streams engulfed Avenian warrior after Avenian warrior.
Buka led the charge, carving through the enemy lines and being the first to step onto the gleaming bridge spanning the mountains.
Countless Avenian warriors surged from all sides, encircling the black-armored warriors.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Three white forms screamed towards him, their sharp beaks aimed at Buka's head and arms.
Bang!
The "Guardian" slammed his right knee onto the bridge. His longsword blazed with the light of dawn, becoming a "Sword of Dawn."
Showers of dawn-light scattered, covering the bridge.
Bang, bang, bang...
A dozen slender blades and shrike beaks, which had pierced power armor without resistance, struck the translucent wall repeatedly. Yet no edge reached the "Guardian's" massive form.
Buka rose abruptly. The greatsword planted in the ground bloomed with shards of dawn-light.
They converged, enveloping Buka, and erupted into a "Lightstorm" that swept outward.
Boom, boom, boom...
A series of detonations: light black armor shattered, fragments and shredded flesh scattering.
Shrikes burst apart, their bodies crashing to the ground.
The space around Buka was clear. He surveyed the battlefield. From hundreds of silver towers on the mountainsides, countless Avenian warriors streamed towards the connecting bridges.
Heliosa's interior was a world of mountains. Travel between peaks, besides riding various birds, relied heavily on the interconnecting bridges, especially for large-scale transport.
"Defensive formation!"
As the 1st Company established a defensive line on the bridge, serving as the anvil to draw the entire war-hold's Avenian, two Shadow-pattern Stormbirds descended silently.
Lord Santiago Bergkamp of the Fifth Chapter led a hundred members of his Honour Guard down the ramp.
Santiago checked the Legion's tactical network, confirming the Eighth Chapter's 1st Company's situation, then looked towards a nearby peak, from which the sounds of battle were faintly emanating.
Santiago, the Legion's premier psychic artisan, took a crystal ball of his own making from his belt, cradling it in his right palm.
The full-fledged "Astrologer's" gaze encompassed both the peak before him and the crystal ball. A light flickered within the crystal.
The light rippled like water, revealing a deep image:
A wide cavern, connecting five passages.
Tall Avenian warriors hurried back and forth.
Some raised weapons, others dragged supplies.
'Just as I suspected.' Santiago returned the crystal ball to his belt.
He had inferred from the intelligence provided by the Black Emperor that the Avenian had carved passages within each peak to facilitate movement between towers.
Others might not be able to exploit this, but he could.
The daemonologist took down his force staff. The psychic crystal blazed with blinding light.
The psychic circuits on his Yeld-pattern suit, along with the runes on the five CORV drones surrounding him, blazed in unison.
A surge of Warp energy washed over them. A thin layer of frost formed on the Honour Guard's armor.
Whoosh!
A beam of light shot skyward. The daemonologist and his hundred Honour Guard members vanished.
Inside the mountain, the "teleported" Shadows of Order launched their surprise assault.
Five "Tricksmasters" shook their bodies and swung their arms in unison, sending shards of frost flying as arrows, covering a fifteen-meter radius.
A dozen Avenian dodged with practiced grace, evading most of the incoming ice-arrows.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...
Lethal "Freeze" beams, concealed within the ice-arrows, burst out, striking angular faces.
After Santiago's force had secured the mountain's transportation hub, he checked his tactical display.
Temperature dropped by 4.9 degrees.
Santiago knew he could no longer use psychic powers. He made a decision.
On the five CORV drones, another set of runes flared.
Santiago felt the surging tide recede, the chill seeping from his veins.
He rapidly marked the five passages, each leading to towers at different heights. "Attack!"
Santiago, with his five CORV drones and ten Honour Guard members, charged down the horizontal passage.
The Avenian passage was smooth and clean, without any damp or musty smell.
One "Trickmaster" wove his hands. "Shadowfall" cloaked the entire passage.
The Shadows of Order advanced silently. The Hunter modules on the CORV drones' displays flickered.
They raised their Bedrock-pattern boltguns, unleashing a deadly barrage on the unsuspecting Avenian warriors.
Amidst the roar, the formation advanced.
When the passage suddenly widened, a flash of silver caught their eyes.
A tall silver tower stood before them.
Bang, bang, bang...
A dense barrage erupted from the gleaming door.
The Avenian, though unsure how the enemy had breached their lines without a breakthrough, had realized they were under attack.
One "Trickmaster" raised his hand, and mist billowed.
Another raised his hand, and a thunderous boom echoed from nowhere.
Amidst the noise, the only "Apprentice" in the formation stepped forward, pressing his hand to the silver wall.
A hazy, insubstantial blue door appeared on the wall.
The "Trickmaster" who had created the "Boom" was the first through the blue door. He raised his left hand, conjuring a gale at the threshold.
In the howling wind, the Avenian staggered.
The Shadows of Order raised their boltguns, a burst of fire clearing the area before the door.
A shriek echoed. A shrike, circling in the dome above, dove like lightning.
Its sharp beak, like a gleaming lance, pierced the Mark II power armor.
The shrike's wings beat. Its claws scraped the ground as it lunged for the black-armored figure in the doorway.
Whoosh!
Its sharp beak drove into the Mark IV armor's waist, lodging there.
The "Trickmaster," his waist bleeding, pressed his hand to the wound. A surge of electricity coursed up the beak.
The "Shock" made the shrike instinctively pull back, recoiling.
Santiago, entering the tower behind his Honour Guard, raised his archaeotech pistol.
A beam, extracted from the radiation layer of Gurgan's dim star, struck the white bird.
Bang!
Flames erupted. A red rune flashed across his tactical display.
'The new Mark IV power armor offers significantly better protection than the Mark II. One of my battle-brothers survived.'
'Its overall mobility is also superior. It is ideal for my Chapter.'
Santiago gathered his thoughts, leading his Honour Guard forward, pushing open the tower's silver doors.
The Shadows of Order raised their boltguns, sweeping the Avenian.
Bang, bang, bang...
A hail of fire crashed into the Avenian's backs, mowing them down.
Santiago, saw a phantom, slowly turning book reflected in his eyes. The Dunnic runes for "I came, I saw, I recorded" flared.
White-hot spears screamed, impaling Avenian after Avenian.
Buka's sword shattered an Avenian warrior. The space before him was suddenly clear.
He looked towards the silver tower. 'It is the Light Lord.'
'He stormed this peak and routed the Avenian from the rear.'
....
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