Editing The 13th Black Crusade (section)

===One Final Roll of the Dice===

[[File:BFGA2_Sven_Bloodhowl_volunteers.JPG|thumb|right|Yiff in defiance.]]

The Black Fleet was within a day's travel from Cadia, and the Null-Array was not even remotely close to ready, with even Magos Klarn morosely noting that even partial effective coverage was not possible in the time that they had left.

'''Sven Bloodhowl''' came forward with a bold suggestion: he and his Great Company, the '''Firehowlers''', would take the ''Firemane's Fang'' and use it to board the Blackstone Fortress, and do everything that they could to slow down its transit. The Firehowlers would not go on this suicide mission alone, and nearly two hundred Space Marines of the various Chapters already on-world joined them on the warship, along with the Cadian 13th regiment and a full maniple of [[Skitarii]]. The cheers of the defenders accompanied the daring raiders off, but these soon grew quiet when the battle barge finally broke orbit, and all communication was lost.

A day later, and Creed did his best to ease his soldiers' doubts and shore up their morale in every way that he could. However, even he had his doubts to the outcome of the coming battle.

The first ships of the Black Fleet arrived on schedule, the crippled fleet that held orbit around the planet opened up with whatever weapons they still had functioning, while planetary batteries threw up anything they could muster.

But this was merely the precursor, as the death glow of the last Imperial ship was destroyed, and the ''Will of Eternity'' moved into position to fire upon the planet. The fortress arrayed itself in orbit, and as its central eye glowed in the baleful energies of the Warp, it fired its ultimate weapon at the planet. A bright purple beam burst forth, promising ruin on the fortress world...

Except the beam dispersed harmlessly before it even hit the planet's atmosphere. The Null-Array had worked! The defenders cheered, but Magos Klarn was suspicious. Barely an hour ago, he had made a last-minute inspection of the projection grid, finding most of his adepts slain, and xenos technology buttressing the null-array's circuitry, which increased its efficiency to the point that a single projector could protect the whole planet. Cadia had been saved yes, but Klarn wondered who had been behind it.

After the clear evidence that the battle would not be won quickly, Abaddon and his forces ordered a second landing of the planet, with the objective being the Cadian Pylons, the Null-Array, and the Cadia in general.