Even before the Chaplain struck, Renato was already in the midst of the fray.

The Space Marines were already posthuman beings, able to move with a speed too fast for their size and build. Imbued with the power of the Sanguinary Quickening, Renato put even the jittery Noise Marines to shame.

The raw power of the Warp flowed through him, an overload of psychic energy harnessed to his own ends. A glittering field of indescribable colours wreathed about him, distorting and displacing anything that dared seek to harm him. That same power sparked on the edge of his blade, its inherent life-slaying abilities enhanced even further; neither armour nor flesh could now stand against its touch.

With preternatural speed, Renato tore into the Chaos Chosen. His Force Sword rent their iron-coated ceramite with ease. A Chosen with a pair of lightning claws charged towards the Librarian, only to have his skull cleaved in twain. Before the other Chosen could react, Renato slashed through two more Chaos Marines, rending power fist and power armour alike. The Codicier roared, the primal fury of his gene-seed unleashed upon his foes.

Within seconds of Renato’s strikes, the Chaos Chosen reached the rest of the Blood Angels’ line. Power weapons and ceramite-armoured fists swung on both sides, slicing and battering each other. A power maul slammed uselessly against Paolo’s invulnerable Terminator armour. One Chosen slashed his combat knife along Severo’s power armour, drawing a long, jagged line in the crimson paint.

Severo responded by slamming the butt of his meltagun in the Chosen’s helm, throwing the ancient Chaos Marine off-balance. With a furious roar, Severo lunged at the Chosen’s midsection, tackling him to the ground.

“Severin!” he called. “The heretic is vulnerable! Finish him!”

Brother Severin fired his jump pack, hurling himself high into the air. Taking full advantage of his genhanced senses, he carefully aimed his landing and slammed his ceramite sabatons on the Chosen’s head. The warped helm crumpled under so great a force, crushing the skull within.

A third Chosen rushed around his fallen brother and sought a most ambitious prey.

“Iron Within!” he roared as he lunged at Princess Luna, his power sword slicing through the hot air like butter. Luna, slowed by the heft of her Lance, could not dodge the blows. She cried out as the sword cleaved into her side. She stumbled, her breathing heavy as she tried to stabilize the bleeding wound and to restrain the rage that grew inside her heart. The Iron Warrior swung again, intent on taking advantage of the Lunar Alicorn’s moment of weakness.

However, pain had not dulled Luna’s instincts, and though the first blow had come as a surprise, the second did not. Night-blue light wreathing about her horn, Luna summoned up a magical shield, blocking the sword’s second strike.

Luna’s magic could only do so much, however, and with her attention focused on the sword-bearing Chosen, she failed to notice his fellow. Hefting a cruel-edged power axe, the Chosen hacked at Luna’s side, punching two deep gashes in her flank. Luna’s magic just barely rose up in defense, blocking what would have been the final blow. The Princess of the Night coughed up blood. Her heart pounded away as reserves of desperate adrenaline flowed through her opened veins. Her eyes ablaze with night-blue power, she hefted her ancient Lance, knowing that if she failed to fend off these attackers soon, she would not survive.

“Tia, I’m so sorry,” Luna whispered, a single, bloody tear falling from her night-blue eye. The Chosen stalked in, sword and axe raised and ready to finish her off.

“For the Emperor!”

A massive hammer, a weapon too large for any pony to ever hope to wield, swung through the hot evening air. With an explosion of blue energy, Paolo smashed the sword-bearing Chosen into the ground, crushing posthuman flesh and ceramite armour alike into dust. On her other side, Luna saw the golden-armoured Durante soar into the fray.

“Come on, xenos” he said as he punched out the chest of the axe-wielding Chosen. “The Chaplain needs us! Onwards!”

Dashing around the golden-armoured warrior, the veteran Astartes Fausto leveled his meltagun at another Chosen. The beam vaporized the Chaos Marine’s head, along with most of his upper body.

Luna paid little attention to the veteran’s kill, however. Instead, she turned her head at his words, and gasped at the sight she beheld. There, at the centre-point of this battle, Alessandro lay unmoving on the tarmac, with his victorious foe standing above him. Rage burned in Luna’s heart as she looked at the alien invader, a fury she could not understand, a yearning for vengeance as she saw his jagged, crimson-white axe raised above his horned, inhuman head, metal tendrils splaying out from his back like great, leathery wings, or a cruel, otherworldly whip.

The unfamiliar screams of a thousand dead cried out in Luna’s mind. The faces of a thousand dead ponies, civilians, supplicants, and dear friends, rose up before her. The bodies of her beloved Lunar Guard flittered before her like a phantom graveyard. Her eyes ablaze with power and her horn wreathed in night-blue light, she at last hefted the mighty Lunar Lance.

“Get away from him!” she roared. “And get thee away from our lands!”

Luna surged forward like a bolt of midnight-black lightning. She tore through the remaining Chosen, her Lance punching through ceramite with nary a hint of resistance. One after another the Chosen fell, slain at a stroke by Luna’s Lance. Power weapons clattered on the tarmac.

She cared nothing for this. Her night-blue eyes were fixed on her target, honed on the iron-clad object of her hatred.

With the force of a thunderstorm she struck. The invader’s axe shattered, its hafted snapped in twain. Metal tendrils were sliced apart. The Lance punched through his shoulder, sending the limb flying in a bloody arc through the air. He roared in pain as blood gushed from the open wound for those precious seconds before his genhanced physiology began sealing it. Following closely behind her Lance, Luna slammed her hooves into the invader, blasting him backwards. He slammed against the Land Raider and slumped to the ground, unmoving.

“Defend the Chaplain!” Renato roared, thundering to Luna’s side. The surviving members of the strike force rallied to his call. “Severo, tend to him. The rest of you, drive off that Land Raider!”

Brother Severo slid his meltagun onto his back and knelt, doing his best to patch the fallen Chaplain’s injuries. Severin and Fausto stood at his side, peppering the Chaos Land Raider with melta beams. Renato created a wall of boltshells with his storm bolter, driving back the tide of Chaos cultists that swarmed around them. Luna joined the Librarian, her eyes ablaze with power as she unleashed a one-pony barrage of magic.

“Brother-Librarian, the Warpsmith!” Severin called. Luna and Renato turned to see a band of Chaos Marines and cultists charging towards the broken body of the Warpsmith. Alicorn and Librarian took a single look at each other, and instantly came to the same conclusion.

Luna gave voice to their decision. “Drive them back!”

She and Renato turned their firepower on the Chaos warriors, joining the twin meltaguns of Severin and Fausto. Boltshells tore through the air, exploding against warped ceramite and heretic flesh. Cultists died screaming as spikes of magic ripped through their skulls. Melta beams seared the servants of Chaos, striking life from their profane bodies. Yet still they came, the corpses of their fallen fellows a shield for those who yet lived. Boltshells and autogun fire peppered the Blood Angels and Luna, buying yet more time for their duty.

One Chaos Marine, a Word Bearer, shouted, “Into the Land Raider! Back to base!”

A band of Chaos Marines lifted the broken body of the Warpsmith and carried him into the Land Raider, abandoning their fellows as the assault ramp closed behind them. The Land Raider rumbled backwards, its lascannons still firing into the distance, and its heavy bolter providing covering fire as the rest of the rescue group scattered back into the horde. Renato stomped into the fire while Luna threw up a magical shield, holding the fusillade at bay.

Just a few metres away, Durante and Paolo carried out their own battle for a fallen brother.

At the very moment Luna had struck down the Warpsmith, Durante and Paolo had turned to face their other fallen brother.

Durante clapped his free hand on Paolo’s back. “It would seem our elder brother has fallen and can’t get up!”

Paolo grunted and hefted his thunder hammer. “Dark times are they when the ancients of our chapter fall so easily.”

With a flare of red-white flames and the thundering of heavy ceramite boots, the veteran Blood Angels charged at the crimson-armoured Terminators. The Terminator Champion stood atop fallen Castello, sliding a fresh magazine into his combi-bolter.

Castello roared beneath his foes’ boots. “Away, heretics! Be gone! Brothers, purge this filth from my hide!”

“In the name of Chaos Undivided, the Primordial Annihilator, the Word Which We Bear…” the Champion began. A hail of high-power boltshells cut off his words.

The Chaos Terminators turned to face their new foes. They cast a disorganized hail of boltshells and autocannon rounds at the charging Blood Angels. Not but a handful struck true, and even they proved useless against the masterwork of the armourers of Baal.

Durante struck with the force of a meteor, his jump pack hurling from the sky like a thunderbolt, while Paolo came in like a roaring tank. The Terminator Champion hurled himself off Castello’s chassis, slashing at the Blood Angels with his power sword. Durante fired his jump pack, leaping over the Champion before the blade could connect. Paolo raised his hammer high, his viridian eyepieces blazing like a green star.

“In the name of Sanguinius, die!” Paolo roared as he swung his hammer.

Thunder hammer, power fists, and chainfist swung alike, their power fields flaring in the red light of the evening sun. Paolo’s first swing passed by a Chaos Terminator’s power fist, deflecting the power fist with the heavy slab of his storm shield while his hammer crushed the Terminator’s skull in. As that Chaos Terminator fell, Paolo swung up at the Terminator Champion. The other Chaos Terminator hurled himself forward, scratching the blade of his chainfist along Paolo’s storm shield. The chainfist-wielding Terminator died as Paolo’s thunder hammer blasted through his chest, shattering his ancient armour across the battlefield.

The Terminator Champion took a step back, aiming his combi-bolter at Paolo. But a half-second later, Durante’s power fist burst through the Champion’s chest, the remains of his two hearts sizzling away on the weapon’s power field.

“Now, I don’t mean to be heartless,” Durante said, his words infused with the cocksure smile that was surely on his face. “But they were simply pathetic.”

“Now is no time for bad jokes, brother,” Castello rumbled through his vox. “Tell me, what has happened? I cannot see! Is the Land Raider dead?”

“Durante, keep the cultists off us,” Paolo said, pointing his thunder hammer at the mass of heretic humans and mutants swarming towards the defensive line. “I will handle the Astartes.”

“Brothers, tell me!” Castello boomed. “I cannot see, brothers! The foul heretics have left me blind and lame!”

“We have faltered,” Paolo said as he bunkered down behind his storm shield, scanning the Chaos horde for any sign of attack. “The Land Raider retreats, but it is unharmed, and will surely return. And Aless is fallen.”

Castello fell silent, brooding on this tragic turn of affairs while his two guardians kept watch above.

“Paolo! Durante!” Renato called. “Cover us as you can! We’re bringing Aless over!”

Under cover of boltshells and melta beams, the rest of the attack force stalked over to Castello’s fallen form, Brothers Severin and Severo carrying Alessandro’s broken body with them. The Blood Angels and Luna rallied around the wrecked Dreadnought.

Around them the horde of Chaos slowed and turned, cultists and Chaos Marines alike shifting their attention from the meat grinder ahead to the encircled attack force in their midst. Boltshells and autogun bullets began tearing through the air at them, while warriors bearing all manner of weapons bore down on them. From up high, Iron Warriors havocs opened fire, throwing autocannon shells, krak and frag missiles, and lascannon beams screaming through the air.

Renato turned to Luna, his Terminator armour showing steel-grey patches as the fusillade seared away the paint. “Take wing and fly, xenos. You’ve no need to die here.”

“Hast thou so little faith?” Luna replied. “We shall not abandon ye in this hour of need.”

“Very well,” the Codicier said. He turned to his brothers, slapping a fresh magazine into his storm bolter. “Let us honour the Emperor, brothers. Fight! Keep them back, and let not a single heretic finger fall upon either of our fallen kin!”

The Chaos horde surged closer, coming within but a few feet of the encircled Blood Angels and Luna. Cruel-edged blades and crude, makeshift weapons bounced through the hot air, their wielders screaming curses in unholy tongues. All manner of projectiles were hurled at the encircled warriors. The cacophony of battle drowned out all other sound, the roar of automatic fire, psychic beams, the clatter of metal, and the screams of the wounded and dying.

“For the Emperor…” the Blood Angels said. Three meltaguns were leveled, crimson beams striking down foes with searing microwave beams. Boltshells blew poorly armoured flesh apart. Luna’s beams battered against warp-twisted flesh and ceramite. Force sword and thunder hammer rose to the sky. “And Sanguinius!”

The Blood Angels charged, unchaining the Thirst that boiled in their blood. At their side soared Luna, her Lance wreathed in a night-blue aura. They surged outward, forming a circle around Castello’s wrecked chassis and Alessandro’s broken body. Mutants, heretics, and traitor guardsman were mixed with Word Bearers and Khorne Berzerkers, and fought and died just the same. Paolo, Durante, and Renato led the charge, Terminator and artificer armour fending off cruel-edged power swords. Fausto stood behind the invulnerable trio, sniping any who dared approach with a heftier weapon in hand. Severin and Severo fired and punched in sequence, one covering the other before switching positions. Luna kept the gaps clearing, sealing any opening in the circle with a flurry of night-blue beams and thrusts of her Lance.

Cultists died in their dozens, their makeshift armour worthless against such fury. The Chaos Marines fared far better, staving off fatal blows with the might of their armour, and striking back with equal wrath. The Blood Angels began to lose ground, their guns running dry and their armour cracking under the weight of so many blows. Even Luna could only strike so many at once, her strength fluctuating as the faces of dead friends flashed before her eyes. The Lunar Alicorn harnessed the full might of her mind, fighting with equal desperation against the hordes of Chaos and the hallucinations that screamed at the fringes of her vision.

A field of corpses at the foot of the Slaughter-Lord. A massive scorpion bearing down with murder in its eyes. That wretched claw rising above blood-stained wings.

Then there came a rumbling and a roaring of firepower. Boltshells and open flame chewed through the Chaos lines. An unending stream of stub-rounds ripped through the air, chewing through flesh and armour alike. Five warriors flew on wings of flame, hurled by jump packs into the fray. Rainbow beams flashed through the Chaos horde like pellets from a shotgun.

A red-armoured warrior with a golden helm and a gleaming power sword landed in front of the encircled Blood Angels and Luna, his blade cleaving through a Word Bearer like a hot knife through butter.

“Brothers!” Orlando called, raising his combat shield in greeting. “It is good to know you still live. Tell me, where is the Holy Chaplain?”

“Fallen,” Paolo reported. “Struck down by a Warpsmith. Brother Severin tended to him, but we need…”

Domenico landed next, his snow-white armour coated in fresh blood. He sheathed the Crimson Knife and strode past Paolo. “I’m here. By Terra this is bad. Orlando, get the Rhino up here. We need the Chaplain moved to safety, now.”

“Dabriel! Front and centre!” Orlando called. A Rhino rumbled forward, its path cleared by the firepower of the Baal Predators. Its doors swung open, releasing Squad Murata.

“Marco, take three men and keep the cultists off us. Severo, get over here, we need that gun,” Dabriel shouted. He pointed to two of his remaining Marines. “You two, get out the cables, link them to Castello. We’re not leaving him here.”

Luna set down at Renato’s side. “’Twould seem we have survived.”

“For the moment,” Renato said, his lips twisting into a grimace, turning around and gazing at where the Land Raider had retreated. “But not for long.”

Author's Notes:

Sorry about both the long wait and short update. I’ll try and get back on schedule and regular length soon. I’ve been busy and sick a lot the past few weeks, and my muse is currently waning. To be clear, I’m not losing interest in the story; I’ve still got a lot of story to tell, and I intend to write every word of it. Just that I’m facing a bit of writer’s block, thus, short update.

Also, the fight in the first half was based on the rest of the rolled combat from last chapter.

As always, comments and criticism appreciated.