In the later part of 738.M41, an Imperial task-force comprising a Titan legion, several regiments of guard and a newly created Astartes chapter called the Furious Angels set out to reclaim the Centaurus Arm of Segmentus Ultima from invaders. Initial fighting revealed the foe to be the insidious Sigil of Discord, a kabal of Dark Eldar. The early stages of the war were to claim the Angel’s new homeworld, Ashiva, and it’s extensive mineral deposits.
"The auspex scans are complete. We're two klicks from the target, with no enemy in range and I want to be on our way out before those patrols return" As he spoke, Sergeant Rigan Vigor of the Furious Angels 3rd Company emerged from the tree line and descended down the hill, over half a dozen armoured giants in his wake. All clad from head to toe in red, black and steel coloured ceramite, Squad Adino formed an imposing sight and Rigan almost wished his foes could see them now. This was not his way, skulking and sneaking when he could be riding forward, headlong at the hated enemyin the squad’s Rhino transport "Emperor's Shield". However Rigan Vigor took pride in having never refused a mission and if this was how it was then he would play with the hand that the Emperor dealt him and succeed all the same. The mission was simple in definition if not in practice - reach the Dark Eldar compound, kill the commander, and destroy any and all forces found garrisoned there.
Easier said than done however, as Squad Adino and three others had set off together under Captain Yeril and his command squad five days earlier and things had not gone to plan from planet-fall onwards. Within two hours of landing on Ashiva a Dark Eldar patrol had spotted Cerle and his squad crossing a river, and even Astartes could not survive long when caught in the open with no cover or fire support. The loss of a squad was a high price to pay for only two or three of those skimmer bikes and their foul xenos crew – made worse as the mission was too important to risk reclaiming their progenoid glands until after the main objective had been completed. Two days ago Squad Filran had been forced to circle back towards the landing site to draw off more patrols, and Vigor hadn't heard from his commander or any other member of the command squad since a heavy storm drastically reduced spotting distance and disrupted anything more than short-range communications earlier that morning. Even with the combined forces of both squads this mission would have been tight, if there was no other squad then they'd need the Angel's own luck for this.
The terrain was fairly open, and they made good time crossing the wasteland surrounding the enemy supply point. Taking cover behind a half wrecked Imperial promethium tanker left over from the last attempt to take this continent, Rigan took stock of the objective and could not believe how easy this was. They were still half a klick from the collection of slave pens and storage bunkers, but how could they have not been seen already? The enemy was notoriously difficult to surprise, and this whole mission was getting more suspicious by the minute.
"Where are they? I'm getting nothing on the auspex at all, not even slaves!" snapped Eli, the sensor specialist and newest member of the squad. Noting the frustration and short fuse that could easy turn into bloodlust within an unfortunate member of a Blood Angel founded chapter, Rigan answered with a simple pair of gestures and sending one half of the squad to the edge of the compound, and the second kill team to establish fire-points. Leading by his actions as well as words, he ducked around the end of the truck and sprinted towards the nearest slave-built wall. From his new vantage point he watched Brother Tren settle in with a shoulder mounted missile launcher while the rest of the Secondary got themselves established overlooking the entrance to the enemy strongpoint.
"Primary, through the gates and by the numbers. You know how this works. For the Angel!" he exclaimed, as he took his place in the leftmost-rear position of a staggered cross formation. They moved methodically down the wide dirt path, checking every door or window they came across and marking the portals on their helmet map displays to show they had been checked, but found nothing but empty rooms bearing no sign of use.
"This is supposed to be a way point for their vehicles. Where are the skimmer trackers? Where are the slaves, or the Emperor-damned repair crews?!" cursed Eli in frustration. "I've seen none of the evidence we should expect, even if this place fell into disuse years ago"
"I don't like this either. Squad, reform at the tanker. We're taking this mystery home for the Strategium to consider. With no army here to destroy and no leader to kill, our mission is invalid. However there are still those patrols left to explain, so keep your eyes open."
As the half-squad double-timed it through the gate and back to the tanker, Vigor and his men were stopped dead in their tracks by a static build-up on the metal of their armour. "Energy source somewhere nearby - Primary, take up firing positions; Secondary, report."
"They're..." the vox spat, before dropping to static.
"Alpha to Secondary, say again?" tried Vigor. "Secondary, come in!"
This time, the reply was not just static. One by one, the status lights for Secondary team flickered out. Not to amber or red, but just... off.
Turning to face their last position, Brother-Sergeant Rigan Vigor of the Furious Angels 3rd Company knew he was in trouble even before he saw the tell-tale flicker of the webway portal opening out of the corner of his eye.
They had known he was coming all along.
(This was written for a "Fluff War", a writing competition on the Librarium Online forums. The first round I was paired against someone writing about Dark Eldar, with the theme being "catastrophe". I won the round, but for some reason didn't continue on despite receiving a great deal of praise from the judges for this piece.)
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