New York city was hell to say the least. Virtually every major faction involved in this conflict had a major presence in the big apple, which was rapidly being reduced to a cratered moonscape. Virtually all the major structures in the city had been by now reduced to rubble. Everyone was either fighting or dead. A multi-way conflict had developed between the defenders, which the Talon had aligned themselves with, the forces of the Orks, the Black Hand and it's allies the GLA and Electrical Protectorate, the Mediterranean Syndicate, and Dathron's legions.
Johnathan ducked in a trench as a series of massive particle beams scythed overhead, pouring rivers of blue charged particles into a talon defensive line. But a cleric track soon rolled up to the fray and it's massive 225mm battle cannon sounded, shaking the earth as it pumped an enormous shell into the legionnaire lines, blowing apart the limbs of insectoids in a rain of body parts. It's heavy auto-crossbows and stormbows soon swept across the remaining infantry, blasting them apart as rocket propelled crossbows lodged themselves into their bodies and then detonated, creating more of the gory rain.
But the cleric track's frontal armor was soon scored by the white blast of a Black Hand scorpion tank's supercharged particle beam, blackening the armor of the vehicle and partially melting it. Rotating it's turret to the offending tank, the Clerick Track opened fire upon the Scorpion tank, blowing it apart with a single pony sized shell that ripped the Scorpion's turret clean off upon impact before exploding inside the black hand tank, detonating and smashing the Scorpion into metal fragments while liquefying the organs of the Millitans who were escorting it, causing them to fall onto the ground in a pool of their own blood.
Then the jagged line of an Orkish beamy deff gun's shot hit the glacis plate of the Cleric track as it started to rotate to a new threat, the orange arcs of power piercing through the Talon steel armor and hitting it's ammunition cache, causing the Talon tank to explode in a ferocious fireball, erupting outwards in all directions and sending the remains of the unfortunate crew in all directions. The loota who had blew apart the cleric track cheered and whooped loudly at the demise of the Talon tank but took cover as he saw a trio of hussar trikes advance, it's flamethrowers at the ready.
But at this point, a trio of tankbusters popped out from the rubble with rokkit launchers in hand and fired forth nine armor piercing rokkits into the side of the Hussar trikes, sending the Talon vehicles spinning head over heels, it's left side erupting in a petal style bloom and it's crew killed instantly. But before the Orks could celebrate, a wing of Templar lords came crashing down from the skies, carried forth on thermobaric jets. Taking aim with their thermobaric cannons, the Templar lords engulfed the orks with a ferocious cascade of fuel air blasts, incinerating the green skins.
Leaping out of his Trench, John advanced, joining the templar lords and activating his thermobaric jets to join them in another assault jump which sent them soaring above the ruins of the cfity into the midst of a group of heavy weapons specialists of Dathron's legions. Trying to turn their heavy weapons to bear upon these new foes, the heavy weapons specialists were caught off guard when a flight of Talon champions also joined them in the assault jump, crushing many of the enemies underfoot and then beginning to hack them apart with their ambriarically heated swords while the Templar Lords blasted apart several tanks with their thermobaric cannons, set to lance mode. Taking advantage of the time presented to them, the beseigers and brother knights in the company advanced forward and set up new defensive positions.
John himself took out his gatling gun and unleashed a long stream of ripping bullets that rent apart a horde of melee specialist aliens, the four armed reptiles being blasted apart by the advancing wave of superheated adamantium bullets, turning them into a large green coloured mist of blood and organs, copper based blood, John thought as he swept his gatling gun in an arc, ripping up the terrain and the enemies with equal abandon, slaughtering them in copious numbers as a railgun shot lanced out and hit a templar lord in the chest, piercing through his Talon steel armor with ease and spewing out his bloodied remains in an enormous, long thin stream.
The heavy auto-crossbow of a beseiger roared to life, sending forth a stream of rocket propelled bolts that penetrated then exploded in the bodies of many of the aliens, sending their body parts in a gory rain while Brother-knights opened fire with their own auto-crossbows, backed by a fusilade of ambriaric cannon shots fro the beseigers that engulfed large portions of the Dathroni horde, incinerating them instantly while the champions advanced forward and presented their shields as a first defense line. But the railguns sounded again and another battle-brother, this time a brother knight, was exploded as a railgun round passed through his head, his body being flung to the ground with a sickening thud.
Taking out his ambriaric grenade launcher, John took aim at the offending railgun totting powered armor suits and aimed just a bit up, sending the grenade in an arc towards the battlesuit group as it took aim and blew apart a Talon champion, firing forth, the grenade landed in their midst and exploded into a burst of electricity that fried the three Legionnaire suits, which collapsed in a heap, deprived of power. But a series of plasma lances from another set of battlesuits forced the knights into cover, taking potshots with their ranged weapons while blue-white streams of plasma ripped through the terrain.
Farsight enclave mercenaries...John thought, remembering some intelligence reports. These crisis battlesuits were ferocious opponents. Though they weren't the best at melee combat, getting there was nearly impossible. One Brother-knight who poked his head out too long to take a shot with his ambriaric gun was shot twice with plasma rifles that seared through his armor and left his chest a molten ruin. A champion was downed when he came too close to one battlesuit without trying to avoid it's notice, and the machine punished him with a shot from it's fusion gun, engulfing the champion in an incandescent blast that vaporized him instantly.
One battle suit turned to bathe the company with it's flamer, attempting to flush them out of cover, but this put him in the sights of a Beseiger's solar cannon, and an enormous yellow ray screamed out of the barrel of his gun, the beam roaring as it instantly heated the air before smashing into the battlesuit's abdominal region, piercing through it and then frying the pilot who didn't even have the time to scream. Waiting impatiently for his gun to recharge, the Beseiger didn't see another battlesuit aiming at him with it's Cyclic Ion cannon, rending him apart with a storm of charged particles that chewed through his armour and beatific body.
Taking aim with his thermobaric cannon's lance mode, John roared angril and fired forth a superheated lance that burned outwards, only to be intercepted by a shield drone's energy barrier that managed to hold while a gundrone aimed it's twin pulse carbines and let loose a storm of plasma at John, making him duck under cover before taking out his ambriaric gun and firing off a plasma blast of his own, impacting the drone on it's saucerpan head and causing it to spin out of control as it's front was melted into ruin. But the remaining battlesuits had by now taken cover of their own, and it would be too costly to force them out of their cover.
But a series of white rivers of energy followed by a series of EMP bursts heralded the arrival of a squadron of the most feared of the Black Hand's troops, the mighty Enlightened. The Crisis suits were short circuited by the EMP bursts, leaving them sitting ducks for the variable setting supercharged particle cannons that could either fire like a machine gun to chew apart infantry and light vehicles, blasts that could devastate massed infantry, streams that could deny areas and flush those in cover out of it, up to mighty beams that could cut through heavy armour and buildings. Dispatching the legionnaire battlesuits with ease after having caught them off guard, they seemed unstoppable. Or they did until a group of Orkish nobz slammed into them, letting loose their mighty cry of "WAAAAAAAAAGH!" and yelling something about "Whoite metal gitz!" as they charged into melee.
While the enlightened were certainly no sloucehes in melee combat, strong enough to send cars flying with punches or kicks, capable of deploying razor sharp claws from their arm cannons or energy blades and shields, they were no match for these one ton, ten foot tall, green skinned, war loving, and incredibly muscled fungoid killing machines especially when caught off guard. The ten enlightened didn't even get the chance to fire their supercharged particle cannons before a series of shots from kustom pistol shotas impacted them with large caliber bullets fired from tremendously loud double barrelled guns that seemed to rattle his ears, almost as much as their fearsome cries of "DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA!!!".
The Enlightened were forced back into a stumble while their ivory armor was dented and impacted by the shoota fire, but by the time they had regained their bearings and switched to melee mode, the first Nob in the group had reached the closest enlightened with his massive crackling power klaw extended. Even if the Power Klaw were not equipped with energy fields to slice through matter, the strength of the massive ork which was further enhanced by the mighty hydraulics, motors, and pneumatics of the power klaw would be enough to break even the Enlightened's formadible armor.
The first Nob swatted at the Enlightened with a strong backhand from it's power klaw clad right hand, sending it into a spun while the energy covered claws cut into it's armor as if it weren't there. A hefty pistol whip to the head from the ork caused the Enlightened to stumble forward, reeling from the hit before the ork punched it in the gut with his power klaw, the hydraulics of the mighty weapon whirring along with the Nob squad Nobz' cybork parts with enough force to send the Enlightened's wreck of an upper body flying away.
Another Nob, equipped with an 'Uge 'Ammer rushed at two Awakened who tried to train their heavy machine guns on the Ork, only for the first to have it's head crushed by a enormous overhead swing, the thunder hammer equivalent releasing a cacaphonic amount of built up energy that ripped apart the Awakened's upper body. The second Awakened was then met with a chest shattering right arc swing that ripped apart it's torso, leaving the Enlightened vulnerable.
The Ork ran forward at the Enlightened, only for the dead cyborg to jab it's supercharged particle cannon arm into the orks face and fire off a beam, spearing through and incinerating the Nob's head. But the victorious Enlightened had no time to celebrate, a chain choppa was applied to it's face until it's visor shattered by a second nob, and the ork forced it downward into it's skeleton, ripping apart the internal mechanics that kept the thing alive and causing it to fall to the ground in a heap.
The leader of the Nob squad finished off the last unengaged cyborg by spearing through it's abdomen with his massive Power Klaw, lifting his hand in victory and bellowing. But then came a Talon dragoon, the mighty Brother Thule, one of the oldest Dragoons in service, one who remembered the true origins of the Talon, armored in Divine Steel as opposed to the Talon steel used for non-venerable dragoons, Thule made his appearance known and smashed through a face of a wall of rubble, and brought out it's multithermo cannon to bear, setting it to sweep the area with explosive cones, consuming the orks who had enough time to let tout their mighty warcry before being consumed utterly. The venerable dragoon then advanced and stepped on one of the disabled Legionnaire battlesuits, crushing it's helmet beneath it's talon steel foot.
With a cheer John lead the Knights to advance, moving underneath the protection of the mighty dragoon, who grabbed a Black hand Dark Glass trooper who was hiding in the ruins of a building with it's massive power claw, crushing him into a bloody pulp with a squeeze of this limb and then casually tossing him away and setting it's cannons to lance mode, spearing a black hand scorpion tank that was engaged with a Legionnaire lizardlike warbeast. The warbeast was then set upon by Johnathan, who used his jets to assault jump onto it;'s necfk, taking out the sword of constantine and jabbing it into it's neck, then twisting the blade around to get a good swing in that decapitated the creature, sending it's massive head crashing to the ground.
The dragoon went onwards and came upon a Syndicate Titan security battlesuit which turned and let out "I pity the foo' who mess with the syndicate!" In an angry tone reminiscent of a metallic Mister T. "Death is the only way to cleanse your kind." Thule shot back as his stormbow riddled the knee joint of the Syndicate battle suit, forcing it to kneel. "Kneel before the might of the Talon's soldiers, and know death." Thule thundered as he brought his power claw into the face of the Battle suit and pulled it closer, bringing it right before his multithermo cannon, firing off two massive cones of explosive force that speared straight through the machine.
Charging forward into a mass of Hoplites, John brought up his shield to deflect an incoming railgun shot from one of the Hoplites, smashing into their shield lines with the Warhammer of Richard out. With a swing of his hammer, John sent many of the Hoplites flying in various directions, their bones and organs mulched apart while their armor and shields crumpled like so much tissue paper. Letting loose a cyclonic gust of wind around him, John blew apart the rest of the Hoplite formation, sending them in all directions, where a withering brace of fire from the Brother-knights in the company was able to blow them to pieces.
As this intersection was being fought over by the other four factions in this war, the 413th Knight's company was charging into a maelstrom of battle. Finally calling forth their teutonic bretheren that were for the time being kept in reserve, the 413th charged forward, letting loose the chant of the Talon's knight as the beseigers, Teutons, and Brothers let loose their storm of firepower while the champions, John, and Lords moved forward to engage in close combat. Their voices, both male and female, rang out into the air, speaking in a bastardized cross between the remnant memories of Gothic and Latin.
"Idivas, evo nos sudoni
Arhan asuvi varro
Ave - ni mach fordena
Avis, esu si surro
In avis, in novas, farsoni
Invere, vesu ves ni vox
Ire vas sumeni doni
Est vox menidis, varro"
They all joined in on the chant as they advanced like an unstoppable sledgehammer. Few things could stop a company of Talon Knights that had gotten the drop on their foes. In close combat, the Talon sliced through the dense ranks of the Syndicate that was busily engaging the Black Hand while the beseigers kept the Ork's heads down with a furious barrage from their heavy weapons. Five angel tracks advanced up, having caught up with their infantry elements while ten Eladrin fighting carrier tracks came forward. These elements were supported by four additional Dragoons, ancient battle brothers ready to bring down the foes of the Order.
The newly arrived tanks and IFVs turned their guns on the black hand, tearing through their lines and punching holes, forcing the hand and it's GLA and protectorate allies to seek cover and effectively keeping them pinned. The mighty Brother Knights brought their ranged weapons to bear upon the orks, assisting the Beseigers with their task while the ranged Teutons and Dragoons focused upon the Dathroni forces, forcing them to seek cover in the face of Talon might.
A mars pattern battle suit flailed around as it's arm and shoulder mounted railguns proved to be useless in close combat, With a swing of his hammer, John slammed the mighty artifact into the chest of the Syndicate battlesuit, blowing it's torso apart with a tremendous thunderclap and sending the wreckage tumbling to the earth. Turning to face a frightened Legion security soldier, John bashed his face in with the hammer, continuing the warchant of the Knights of the Order of the Talon, quickly turning to send his shield bashing into the face of an approaching insectoid Dathroni warrior armed with a staff, stunning it and allowing John to sweep his clockwork wings in an arc, neatly bisecting the beast.
"With me brothers! For the freedom of the earth! We are the angels o death!Est vox menidis, varro!" The Dragoon cried out as an enormous Talon Cataphract advanced in the area, it's enormous steam cannons letting loose an enormous barrage that shook the very earth as it's enormous cannons sounded, sending forth titanic shells bigger than trucks that roared as the sound barrier issued it's protests, slamming into the ground with awe inspiring amounts of force, blowing apart the remaining enemies who were blocking their advance, allowing the 1st Talon Irish regiment to advance.
The 1st Talon irish regiment regiment of light infantry, the footmen in this regiment were equipped with stealth cloaks and lighter armor than was typical for Footmen. As the company of talon knights made their advance, setting upon a force of Dathroni legionnaires who resembled the Greys from Zeta Reticuli. Going in for another assault jump, the Talon got right up into their front lines while the 1st Irish regiment came around to assault their rear, their solar rays firing off a precisely aimed stream of yellow solar rays that impacted into the backs of the aliens, frying them in a cascade of holy light.
John spun around with his bladed wings extended, the divine steel instruments gliding cleanly through armor, flesh, bone, and shielding, spraying forth viscerae in all directions as he took out his hammer and rushed at one of the Aliens who raised it's energy weapon in defense, only for the hammer to come smashing into it's face while the distant cataphract blew apart a dathroni tripod with a salvo from it's enormous cannons, the smoke belching automatons being audible from a distance as they did their bloody work.
A nearby champion waded into the melee, this sergeant being equipped with his ambriaric sword and power fist. His sword sliced right into the gut of another Staff wielding insectoid as it tried to bring it's blasters to bear, his power fist roaring as it's matter disrupting field came to life, the strength enhancing implements of the steam powered fist smashing apart the exoskeleton of the insectoid with ease. A templar lord to his left calmly advanced, taking aim with his thermobaric pistol and setting it to lance mode, spearing through the head of a Kroot mercenary for the Dathronis, then swinging around his ambriaric axe to hack a skrull soldier in half, the cauterized injury spilling no blood.
A Teutonic Champion charged into battle, his ambriaric claws at the ready. An unfortunate cybernetic wampa stood in the way of the bulkily armored battle brother, but as it raised it's huge fists to try to pulverize the Teuton, the knight made a right slash with the claw, carving open the abdomen of the creature while a stabbing punch with his right hand speared through it's heart, impaling it's major organs. Yanking his claws out the warrior went on to cut a monstrous crablike alien's pincers off with a well aimed slash before stabbing another claw into it's front, twisting his blades around until he cut up it's brain, upon which he withdrew the claw.
Ducking under the lightsaber swing of one reptillian creature, John brought his shield forward to block the next downward slash of the purple scaled creature, the lightsaber failing to even make his divine steel shield hot. But John's retaliatory uppercutting swing blew the upper torso of the eight foot tall alien apart, sending it flying, or at least, the gory remains of whatever was left of it. In the meantime, a squadron of men at Arms brought their Solar Majoris Guns to bear, letting loose a rapid fire stream of yellow bolts.
Five leathery brown primate like aliens dressed in a strange sort of flak armor were blasted in the chest, their torsos cratering as the mighty solar rays burnt their way through their armor and then explosively vaporized the parts of the body they hit, sending them down in a bloody mess. An ambriaric gun equipped man at arms was thens ignalled up, the full face helmeted half plate equipped men at arms utterly anonymous. The ambriaric weapon hummed as it charged up before releasing a orb like molten pulse that screamed through the air, smashing into a heavily armored war robot's chest and leaving it a molten ruin, causing the machine to come to a sudden halt.
A horde of goblin like Dathroni hordelings charged at the Footmen coming to their other side, but a Man at arms calmly levelled his flamethrower and sent forth a stream of holy napalm that engulfed the incoming soldiers, who flailed and screamed even as their bodies were quickly renderred into ash, the Man at arms sweeping the burning jet around to catcfh more of the enemy in the heat and force them out of cover, where the footmen's solar guns were able to fire into them, followed by a fusilade of ambriaric pulse blasts that downed the heavy infantry.
A footman heavy weapons team had by then set up it's autocannon and took aim at a group of massive heavy infantry clad in thick plastic armor plates the color of midnight, their menacing green visors concealing their faces as they brought their disruptor blasters to bear, instantly incinerating many of the men at arms and footmen who disappeared in flashes before leaving only dust. The autocannon was then fed 100mm rounds and began a "thwuk-thwuk-thwuk-thwuk" as it lobbed these massive rounds at a rate of 600 per minute.
The first of these monstrous midnight troopers to be caught by the autocannon took a 100mm round to his shoulder, causing the four armed juggernaut to stumble backards and roar in an agonized fashion as the arm was blown apart, blue cobalt based blood spurting out like a fountain. The air split with a high pitched whine as it fired another shot from the disruptor, sending a red bolt that incinerated a Man at arms, leaving only dust in it's wake.
But two more rounds slammed into it's torso, gouging out huge holes in it's chest and causing it to slump forward from the damage while it's comrades incinerated a Brother-knight with a fully charged shot from it's disruptor cannon, sending a blue pulse that hit the chest of the brother-knight and causing him to disintegrate, screaming all the while. Firing at a group of footmen, the Midnight Trooper incinerated ten of them in a cone mode for it's weapon that seemed to do less damage, thus restricting it for use on less armoured targets.
But the midnight trooper never quite expected to become the target of one Angel track tank whose twin autocannons blew it apart in a hail of 100mm rounds. The heavy weapons team with the autocannon swept it around, blowing out craters and sending limbs flying in all directions. A dathroni AAT tried to turn it's well armed and armored front to the approaching footmen, hoping that the Midnight troopers, huge burly mollusk aliens possessed of incredible strength, durability, regenerative powers, and surprising speed and intelligence who formed an deadly elite in the legions of Dathron, would cover it's rear.
Firing their disruptor cannons, the midnight troopers managed to keep the Knights away from the rear of the AAT, the blue bolts of their weapons earning a healthy level of respect from the 413th company. But a besieger simply took out his Solar Cannon and fired, ripping through the air with a yellow beam that speared straight through and flash vaporized the midnight trooper, continuing straight on and blasting through the tank it was guarding, destroying it's repulsor lift engines and causing it to crash to the ground while fire bloomed out of it.
Thule advanced forward, heedless of the enemy fire that could do nothing to his thick divine steel plating and prepared his multithermos for another sweep, and soon a huge series of fiery cones blew apart the remaining Dathroni soldiers, incinerating their remains and casting them to the winds, leaving naught but dust and smoke in his wake. John was admittedly, still very much in awe of Thule's tremendous firepower, and he definitely looked up to the venerable warrior.
With no foes left, the 413th company moved forward. But as they advanced, the 1st Irish regiment aimed their solar guns at the knights. "What is the meaning of this!?!" Demanded one of the templar lords. "We serve a new master...one that Igzvald has always served." The Colonel in charge of the Irish regiment responded. The 1st Irish regiment unflinchingly kept their weapons trained on the Knights, some starting to cackle a little, and now that the adrenaline was starting to fade, John could see that these soldiers were...touched...by unholy influences, subtly different, spikier, bearing the blasphemous symbols of an ancient enemy.
"What is the meaning of this blasphemy?" A champion asked, his voice raising in fury. "We speak of the power of Chaos....the Seraph Igzvald has always been loyal to the true Gods. Join us, and know the glory of Chaos undivided! Refuse and the warp shall take you into it's empyreal abyss!" The Colonel cackled. "Aldeon is coming for the bastard children of Symaar. Join him and serve the true gods as champions! And you John, you could be a mighty Daemon Prince if you would but see the truth! Cast off the chains of servitude to a false god based on the bastardized memories of the false navigator! Be free of your weak flesh and accept and see the glories of a blessed form comprised out of the essence of the warp!" The Colonel said as he brought out the eight pointed star of Chaos undivided, focusing his attention on the young saint.
For a time, John was silent...he couldn't believe it. He thought that the seraphs were simply corrupt, but to think that one of them actually served one of the greatest enemies of the Talon, the four gods of Chaos, which had long fought the Talon ever since the warp's influence had first began to seep to the earth....it was just mind boggling....But then finally, the blue eyed knight looked up, his winged helmet focusing on the speaking Colonel. He breathed in, letting the cool pressurized, recycled air fill his lungs before speaking, the gears of his armor working constantly.
"Thank you....You've helped me see the truth that I was unable to see alone....You've shown me just what lies at the heart of the order....You've shown that I've been working for the very forces I've fouought against all my life....But I am not going to go, turn around,a nd join Chaos. No, I will not turn my backs ion the people I serve! No, the only one who's shuffling off this mortal coil is you!!!" John said with an ever increasingly loud voice before jabbing the sword of Constantine into the chest of the Colonel, causing his to ignite in an agonizing blaze, his body consumed in the fires of the righteous.
One third of the six talon crusader cells in the city of New York began to turn on their allies. One third of the entire order of the Talon began to show their true loyalties, their loyalties towards chaos. The efforts of the defenders of the Earth had just been crippled from within. From within his chambers in his personal crusader cell, the Seraph Igzvald fluttered on his six wings, leading a ritual meant to call forth a great host of Chaos to the Earth, reaching out into the Empyrean, the corrupted Talon created a warp portal, not large enough to consume the Earth, but enough to bring forth the attention of the forces of the Dark Gods.
From this portal emerged a figure in ebony black armour trimmed with gold. Xaraghoul, mortal warmaster of Chaos. A first step on the path to summoning forth Aldeon. "Who summons me to this world?" The chaos space marine thundered haughtily. "We, oh mighty warriors of chaos, bring you forth to this world to claim it for the Dark Gods...the last sons of Symaar are dead....and the time has come to forever alter the Earth's destiny to the whims of the warp....bring forth your mighty war host, oh great sons of the Dark Gods...and cleanse this impure world in the fires of the warp!" Igzvald beseeched, his melodious voice taking a sinister tone as his winged form hid a monstrous body that was given the "blessings of chaos."
"And it shall be so....the war bands are already on their way...and you shall be blessed for your services to the Dark Gods...Igzvald....for your form shall be chosen as the vessel that Aldeon shall use to manifest in the Materium. Rejoice, for you have earned the honour of becoming a sacrifice to the Dark Gods to bring forth the mightiest servant of Chaos undivided!" Xaraghoul crackled as the first elements of his war band began to stream through the portal....the mighty chaos space marines had arrived to bring forth a new element to this war. And now the darkest hour of the earth began, as six factionsravaged across her fair surface, it would be the blackest night in all of history.
Not only did a third of the Talon reveal it's true colours, a fourth of the syndicate, and a fourth of the Black Hand and it's Protectorate and GLA allies also turned traitor, along with fully half of the World's armies. Half of the seemingly defending soldiers declared their allegience, or more correctly, revealed it to the world. In a single stroke, Igzvald had virtually crippled the Earth's defensive efforts. As if to make matters worse, warp portals were opened by all of the traitor black hand, syndicate, and talon cells, allowing the forces of the Empyrean to step forth into the materium, having waited for the day to alter the future destiny of the Earth for thousands of years.
Vast fleets of Chaos Ships began to emerge from the Warp, tearing themselves into reality after leaving vast multicoloured swirling vortexes that lead back into the Warp, the huge fleets quickly set about blasting their way through the mess of ships below, from the mighty spacehuks down to the smallest hell reaver interceptor all to allow vast spacebourne forces to be deposited on the planet, while others began boarding actions and engaged in disorderly space combat above. The battle for Earth was quickly transforming into the largest space battle to have ever been fought for countless centuries, with the news of the fight spreading across the galaxy, bringing more Chaos, Black Hand, Protectorate, and Ork fleets over to the Earth in hopes of finding a fight.
On the earth, Chaos Space marines, Traitor Guardsmen, Heretics, and Daemons all emerged from their portals where they were summoned, coming forh as an vast host of utter horror. The already beleagured population of the Earth panicked utterly, this final addition to their already mounting list of problems was too much for many of them, and many gave into despair, throwing themselves with whatever army they were closest to in some attempt at surviving. This pleased the forces of Chaos, for vast flocks of people gave into worship of the dark gods as they shot past the despair event horizon, though it also bolstered the forces of Dathron, the defending armies, the Syndicate, and the Cult, it was doubtful that the Orks did much of anything with the mass droves of humans who threw themselves at them in hopes of mercy.
Xaraghoul himself soon marched out of the portal he was summoned from and into another with his personal escort into the city of New York, where the rain of ork roks was joined by a rain of stormbirds and dreadclaws that deposited the chaos space marines, while valkyries and dropships deposited heretics and traitor guardsmen, followed by minor warp rifts bringing forth Daemons into the city, summoned forth by traitorous Black Hand liches.
"Ahh...a new world to ravage...and not just any world...but the past incarnation of Terra...now warriors of the dark gods! Come with me! For we shall alter the future here and now! And thus the worl let the galaxy burn! Let the heavens bleed!' Xaraghoul roared, raising his mighty daemon blade above his head to rally his warriors, who returned the hearty cheer as they went forth into this maelstrom of slaughter and death. In the meantime, the 413th company was pinned by the Irish 1st who had opened fire the moment John stabbed the Colonel. A series of solar gun shots forced the knights to duck and hide, while thermobaric lances shot out and crippled one of their Angel tracks, the vehicle spinning around a bit before it's engine exploded, leaving a smoking wreck. Thule roared with seething anger, firing off a series of thermobaric lances to attempt to punish the traitor footsmen, but the arrival of a chaos Predator Annihilator forced even him to stand back and seek cover.
The tank of the black legion, decorated with the crucified corpse of some long forgotten foe and countless spikes, along with a havoc launcher, took aim at pinned Talon knights and let loose crimson streaks of energy that sheared their way through the collapsed rubble of a building, kicking up dust while a fwooshing noise filled the air as the air was split by the sudden heat of the lasers.
Emerging from his cover with a gatling gun in hand, John fired his weapon at once and scythed down no less than fifty of the traitor footsmen, who exploded into a pink mist as the bullets ripped their bodies asunder. But a series of bolter rounds impacted his breast plate, knocking him backwards into a stumble. He looked and saw plague marines, devotees of nurgle famous for being almost invulnerable.
One talon brother-knight emerged to fire a shot from his ambriaric gun, but the mighty predator tank quickly moved to intercept the shot before firing off some havoc missiles, which exploded into fragments over their heads, showering them with shrapnel and causing some superficial injuries. But as he rose to take another shot, the incoming plasma gun shot from one of the plague marines proved to do not quite so superficial damage, leaving the brother-knight's chest a boiling ruin of burnt flesh and white hot metal.
One of the teutonic knights emerged to fire his mortis autocannon, blowing apart another sixty of the traitor footsmen, whose limbs flew in all directions as the high explosive shells raked out across the enemy. But the Plague marines had wisely taken cover, and they brought out a bile spewer, an nurglite alternative to the flamer that was all the more horrific. Shooting forth a horrific smelling green sludge in a jet, the plague marine swept it across five of the brother marines nearest to him. The armor of the talon soldiers held for a little while, but the decay soon seeped in and then rotted their armour and stripped flesh from bones in mere seconds, their rapidly decaying bodies screaming until their vocal cords rotted.
The predator annihilator then turned to face another angel tank and speared through it's side armor with twin lascannon beams, spearing through it's side armor and blowing out it's ammunition cache. Turning it's sponson guns, the Annhiliator took out two eladrin tracks, punching holes in them that dripped with molten metal, while two krak missiles flew forth from plague marine launchers and took out a Dragoon, whose armour erupted in an massive explosion as his autocannon rounds detonated within. With more of the chaos forces approaching, the situation was turning desperate, John needed reinforcements now...or he feared that this would be his last fight.
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