Warhammer 40k: The Harmony Crusade

                                                                                     Chapter 1

                                                                              High-Value Target

“Orbital insertion commencing. Firing in five, four, three, two....”

The drop pod screamed as it was shot out of the Inquisitional cruiser Hammer's Retribution down towards the smog-covered planet of Damscan II. The drop pod entered the war-torn upper atmosphere, narrowly missing the lance batteries of both Imperial and heretic cruisers alike.

“Hold her steady!” shouted Justicar Vakarrian to the pilot-servitor from his drop harness over the ear-shattering roar of the engines, “We don't want a repeat of last time!”

Dear Emperor, please not like last time prayed Brother Tarrik from his harness. Last time during a cleansing mission, they had landed more than a kilometre off target in the middle of a cultist camp, and wasted precious time fighting their way out. We almost failed, and damn, I wasted a lot of good ammo that day....

“Brother Tarrik!” Vakarrian shouted, snapping Tarrik out of his daydream. “Reminisce in your own time! We are approaching the landing point now, and you are first out clearing a path! Myself, Kaska, and Tarses will follow you out! Anvar will bring up rear with the incinerator!”

“Yes sir!” Tarrik heard Brother Anvar shout, barely audible from the other side of the pod.

The pod shot through the cloud layer and towards the battle. The ground was red, blood mixing with dust as las fire filled the air.

“Right Grey Knights! The Cadian 412th and 301st are already on the ground in heavy fighting! The Blood Ravens 3rd Company is descending to the east!” shouted Vakarrian, “Fix helmets, landing in three, two...”

The drop pod crashed to the ground, throwing dust and heretic remains into the air with the impact. The door swung open, and immediately Tarrik was first out, slicing through the heretics with his nemesis force halberd. The rest of the the squad fanned out after him firing their wrist-mounted storm bolters, the blessed rounds punching through heretics and daemons alike. Brother Anvar brought up the rear, his Incinerator spewing gouts of holy promethium over the enemy.

Tarrik glimpsed Brothers Tarses and Kaska near him. Tarses, ever the show-off, killed three approaching cultists at once with a long sweep of his halberd. “Feel the wrath of the Emperor, you thrice-damned heretics!” he growled over the comms.

Kaska brought his force hammer down upon a cultist whilst replying “This is no game Brother, we are here on a serious mission! If you are going to use comms, then use them as the tech-priests intended, not to vent your hate!”

“Shut up both of you! Everyone set objective markers to the enemy's command bunker! We will rendezvous with the Blood Ravens there!” shouted Vakarrian as he parried a blow from a daemon and plunged his sword through it's gibbering form. He spun around and lobbed a frag grenade into a group of cultists, blowing them limb from limb.

Great! thought Brother Tarrik, seeing the marker was over a eight hundred metres away. He spun his halberd two-handed by the shaft, decapitating two cultists and bisecting a third as he went. The blade crackled with psychic energy as he dodged a blow from a daemon and blew it apart with his storm bolter. Out of the frying pan and into the shit. He grimaced, This is gonna be worse than last time......

Inquisitor Emerson Hallaman of the Ordo Malleus stood aboard the command deck on the bridge of the Lunar-class Imperial cruiser Hammer's Retribution, anchored in geosynchronous orbit just above the planet of Damscan II. He was a tall man in his late 40's, with dark hair, a clean-shaven angled face and perceptive blue eyes. He was wearing a long black cloak emblazoned with the symbol of the Inquisition over a discrete suit of body armour. He probably would have been an attractive man, if it wasn't for the Ordo Malleus rosette pinned to his chest.  His ornate bolt pistol and his power sword were holstered at his hip, and he was intently watching the unfolding battle on one of the bridge's many pict-screens.

“Hmm....curious” he mused to himself.

He turned away to face the tech-priest sitting in front of the command consoles. “Magos Tevlan, how are we holding?”

The Magos turned slowly in his command chair, his servos and dendrites whirring around him. “We are holding up” he replied in his mechanical voice, “Void shields are stable, but there is a heretic cruiser moving to engage, and our escorts are otherwise occupied. We are finding targeting solutions now. I calculate the enemy has a 57.387% chance of breaching our shields.”

“Very well”, replied Inquisitor Hallaman, turning away. “See to it the cruiser is destroyed, and keep the ship systems nominal, I want to make sure of a swift departure once the primary objective has been completed.”

“Yes, Inquisitor”, replied the Magos, just as the starboard lance batteries fired. The shots punched through the void shields of the enemy ship, blowing apart the engines and aft section of the ship. A second later, the ship's engines detonated. For a moment, the ship shone as brightly as a supernova, then exploded in a fiery ball that filled the view of the bridge's starboard viewing screen.

The Inquisitor smiled, watching the fire show. “Good riddance to bad trash” he murmured to himself.

“Sir!” came a voice from behind him. Hallaman turned around. It was his two personal bodyguards, Vindicare Assassin Levin and Callidus Assassin Umbra. They were both wearing the typical stealth suits of their temples, but come to think of it, Hallaman had never seen them wear anything else, and he had never seen their faces.

Levin was carrying his matte-black Exitus sniper rifle, and its counterpart pistol was holstered at his hip. There was a monomolecular-edged knife in a sheath attached to his left shoulder. Umbra had both her needle pistol and power sabre in their sheaths at her hip, and several stimm-injectors full of the shape-changing drug polymorphine in a sleeve down the length of her right arm. They both carried pouches of grenades and other supplies strapped to the sides of their legs.

“Sir”, Levin repeated, “Grey Knight Squad Purge 1 has been deployed, but landed a kilometre off target. They are fighting their way towards the enemy command bunker now. The Blood Ravens have already made it there, and are holding position until the Knights arrive. They know they cannot face off against a possible Greater Daemon by themselves.”

“Yes” continued Umbra, “They are approximately three hundred metres out now, but are still facing heavy resistance. The Cadian regiments are holding off the majority of the enemy forces, but are losing men fast. I suggest we deploy the reserves.”

“I will do as I see fit” replied Hallaman, “However, you may be right. I will send the order to deploy the 807th Reserves Brigade. We cannot fail this mission, doing so would result in loss of control in this sub-sector, and that is something we cannot afford. Besides, we need the HVT alive, and we will need all the help we can get.”

“There are too many Captain!” shouted Corporal Reiss from the wall of the barricade, firing his hotshot lasgun into the mass of cultists encroaching on their position.

“I know! Just keep firing until the reinforcements get in!” yelled back Captain Belknap, his chainsword disembowelling a screaming cultist. Warm blood splattered over his hands and face.

“I will contact the other squad, get a fix on their position!”

The two elite Cadian Kasrkin squads had been dug in for the past hour, holding off a seemingly never-ending horde of daemons and cultists. Their orders had been to hold the position to allow the Blood Ravens time to fight their way to the enemy command bunker. The Blood Ravens had made it to the objective, and were waiting on the Grey Knights so they could enter. If there was a good time to fall back now their objective was complete, this was that time.

“This is Captain Belknap of Kasrkin Squad Solace!” shouted Belknap urgently into the vox. “Come in Squad Aquila!”

“This is Acting Sergeant Roland of Squad Aquila! We read you Captain!” came the reply.

“Acting? What happened to Sergeant Rex?” yelled Belknap.

“Dead, sir!” came the reply, “Killed around 15 minutes ago by a cultist!”

That came as a shock to Belknap. He had fought side by side with Sergeant Rex for several years, to see him finally dead......No! he thought. It is the price to pay for serving the Emperor! He was a good man and will be remembered....He shook his head and continued into the vox.

“We cant wait for reinforcements! Where are you?”

“Around two hundred metres to your west!”

“Very well Sergeant! Fall back to the Blood Ravens position at the enemy command bunker! We will meet you and hold the line there!”

“Yes sir!” replied Sergeant Roland into the vox, decapitating a cultist with a shot of his hellpistol. “You heard him men, fall back!”

There was a scream next to him and he swung around to see one of his men dismembered by a daemon. He picked up Sergeant Rex's fallen chainsword and sliced it, revving, through the daemons chest. The daemon screamed in anguish and vanished in a cloud of blue smoke.

“Dammit! Retreat now!” he screamed.

“Burn heretics!” Brother Anvar yelled as his incinerator engulfed a clutch of fleeing cultists, the cleansing flames searing the flesh from their bones.

“We're coming up on the command bunker now!” Kaska shouted as a Tzeentchian Screamer came hurtling down towards him. He jumped and brought his hammer down upon its head, crushing it into the ground in a bloody mess.

Tarrik and Tarses leaped past him, severing daemons and cultists alike. Tarrik twirled his halberd round his body and thrust it into the nearest daemon, the blade emerging out it's back. The daemon perished with a howling scream. He heard a loud weapon discharge over his shoulder as Tarses fired his storm bolter at an charging cultist. The explosive rounds penetrated his armour and detonated, blowing open his chest and sending him sprawling to the floor in a shower of blood.

“Twenty metres!” called Vakarrian over the comms.

“Almost there!” called Tarrik in a strained voice as another group of daemons advanced towards him. Suddenly there was a crash and a flash of red and bone-white as they were shredded by a hail of bolter fire and revving chainswords.

A squad of jetpack equipped Blood Ravens emerged from the resulting dust cloud, their melee weapons slick with blood. The rest of the Grey Knights formed up around Tarrik, the cultists and daemons momentarily halted.

Vakarrian stepped forward. “I am Justicar Vakarrian of Grey Knight Squad Purge 1. I assume the bunker has been secured?”

One of the marines stepped forward, removing his helmet. “I am Sergeant Morentz of Blood Ravens Assault Squad Talon. Yes, sir, while the bunker has been secured, we have yet to enter to capture the target. Our orders were not to go in without your squad.”

“Your orders were correct, Brother-Sergeant” replied Vakarrian.

“Very well. Now that you are here, we can launch the final assault on the bunker. I daresay the heretics want it back, they have been launching desperate counterattacks since we captured it. Here, come with me. Brother-Captain Uriel is expecting you.”

The Sergeant led them over to the sealed doors of the bunker. There was a squad of Terminators outside, their energy fists crackling and their assault cannons glinting in the half-light.

One of them stepped forward, dust springing up from the ground with his footsteps. “Brother-Captain Vakarrian” he said, making the sign of the aquila across his chest.

“Brother-Captain Uriel” replied Vakarrian, returning the gesture.

“Shall we?” asked Uriel, indicating to a small holo-table set up to the side of the main doors.

The squad followed him over to the table, where he began to speak. “The 807th Cadian Reserves Brigade is arriving now to provide extra support while we are capturing the target, who is located inside this bunker. The bunker extends underground, where we believe he is attempting to summon a Lord Of Change, a Greater Daemon of Tzeentch to aid in his master's unholy plans. This daemon would bring with him not only chaos and destruction, but entire armies of daemons, and perhaps even the Traitorous legions. We cannot allow this, lest we risk the destruction of the entire sector.

The Inquisition wants the target alive for interrogation at the Inquisitional facility on Enceladus. We do not know his name or what he looks like, but he will be overseeing the summoning. Do not shoot to kill if you believe you see the target. The margin of error here is too large for my liking. Most of the men in the summoning chamber will be savants or psykers, so be careful.”

“I see” said Vakarrian, turning round, “Right Grey Knights! You heard the man! Breaching formation around the door! Anvar, you will be first in with the Incinerator!”

“Yes, Captain” replied Brother Anvar, igniting the flame at the nozzle of his Incinerator.

The Terminators placed charges on the door and took up formation next to the Grey Knights. “Right Brothers, ready weapons, prepare for heavy fighting once inside! Breaching in three, two, one!”

The charge detonated, completely blowing the doors from their hinges. The soldiers charged inside, Purge 1 leading the way as the Thunderhawk Gunships of the 807th Cadian Reserves flew overhead.

“Sir!” Vindicare Assassin Levin approached Inquisitor Hallaman as he stood by one of the bridge's tactical consoles. Hallaman turned around and inclined his head, indicating that he was listening.

“The Grey Knights have made it to the bunker and have met up with Captain Uriel's Terminator Squad. They have just breached the doors and are heading inside. The 807th Cadian Reserves have landed and are deploying troops to aid the embattled Blood Ravens and the 301st and the 412th. They are defending the bunker at all costs while the Grey Knights complete their mission.”

“Very good, thank you Levin” replied the Inquisitor. “Everything is going according to plan, thank the Emperor for that, but pray to Him that they succeed now.”