Editing Black Locks (section)

===Defence of The Cradle===
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''"Chaos can worm itself everywhere. Nobody is beyond it...save for The Emperor who is beyond the reach of the Great Enemy."'' - Executor Lombrasso of the Serpent Watch on Chaos
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A decade after the Chaos incident with House Gentius, the Black Locks needed to forge relations with the Colonial Powers that governed the colonies, as well deepen those that were already forged by individual companies. For this, the marines needed to visit a certain place that was essentially the only place that was considered both neutral ground for all the colonies and the Seat of the Lords there, as well as the main trade route between colonial territories.

The Cradle of the Azurean Star System, as it was called, was the first planet of the Calico Stars to be colonized by the ancestors of the current colonists. It was from there that four colony fleets left onwards to settle among the planets that would be known respectively as the Hive Colonies of Port Royalty, Saint Rico, Fort Parquet, and Blessed Philip (which later would expand further to other planets). There were times when the Colonial Powers rivalled between each other for resources and influence, yet these rivalries turned into isolated firearms incidents at worst, for the Lords and Noble Houses (well, the more competent) that ruled over the colonists made it sure that these incidents wouldn’t escalate into a full blown war for territories and religion. 

The Cradle was supposed to be a symbol that unified the colonies that were so different in customs, tradition and yet had many elements in common with each other. This neutral ground is where Master Alexander requested for an audience with the Colonial Lords. Soon the Master of The Dread Fleet and the other Captains got the permission for an audience and landed on The Cradle. The planet had enormous spires of gold sprouting from its surface, and on said surface below, were lush jungle forests. It was indeed a sight to behold.
The Captains met with the Lords in one of the spires to discuss matters on mutual aid. However, the Samdi Baron felt that something was not right. Due to this Alexander ordered Bernhold to look up the situation after the Hex Company Captain’s psychic awareness flared up. The rest of the Captains realized this, yet they wanted to continue the audience with the with the Calician Lords. When the audience was coming to a conclusion, alarms blared as enemy forces attacked. 

The Lords themselves were stunned with disbelief that the Cradle was actually attacked. The planet was defended with rings of long-range orbital torpedo launchers, anti-fighter emplacements, and more importantly, powerful fortress stations that were additionally defended with multi-layered void shields and aided by heavily armed battleships. The problem was that the attack came from the surface. How it happened was unknown. Additionally the defences on the surface were much weaker than the orbital ones since nobody expected that somebody would even try to attack the planet from space and pierce the aforementioned defences. How did ground forces appear was both not only a stupefying, but also a unbelievable thing. The Captains of the Dread Fleet called in their own men to aid the PDF against this unknown enemy. Soon the Black Locks found themselves facing the same enemy, yet even more terrifying than the last time.

The Cradle came under attack from a combined force of both Nurgle and Khornate armies made up from not only Cultists and Chaos Marines, but also of Daemons and Daemon Engines. The PDF fought bravely against the foul wave of Chaos Forces in the jungle areas, but even the bastions from which they were holding off the enemy were falling one after another. The Black Locks, along with detachments of Bondsmen, struck at the foul traitors and their daemonic allies without mercy, hitting them where it would hurt them greatly. Myst Graves and Warp Cutters sowed havoc among the flanks of Nurgle’s servants while Crimson Blades and Corsair Hearts clashed in melee with Khornate fighters. Rum Grails and Blazing Cannons immolated hordes of  ravening Cultists and annihilated Chaos armour. Holy Treasurers and Void Plunderers supported all three groups from being outflanked, while Black Cutlasses guarded the Witch Doctors under the supervision of the Hex Company Doctors from daemonic attacks until the ceremony conducted by the Elder Doctors was complete. When the ceremony was finished, a tidal wave of ghostly warriors appeared out of nowhere, cutting down every Chaos worshipper and daemon alike. The heretics and warp spawns tried to retaliate, but their hits and shots simply passed through the ghosts while the latter’s weapons passed their protections and cut their flesh.

Meanwhile in the spire where the audience took part, the Lords still tried to find out how a Chaos Force of such magnitude appeared on the surface of the Cradle without planetfall, while some of them coordinated the movements of the remaining PDF. Three of them acted strangely, as Lorius observed it, after the heretics and their daemonic allies appeared on the planet. 
Suddenly the room’s doors broke open and a horde of cultists barged in. For some reason they were neither Nurgle nor Khornate, but had the symbols of Chaos Undivided. Although they were armed with Autoguns, they were no match for nine of the most deadliest marines of the Dread Fleet. Shaktu was the first to make contact with the heretics as he cleaved them with his Crimson Reaver. The other Captains also answered the tide with melee and gunshots. Jean especially tore into the Chaos worshippers by firing his Assault Cannon. After dealing with the cultists the Captains realized that Chaos Forces already infiltrated the spires. Another alarm went off. The powers to the orbital defence systems have been shut down.

When the defences went silent, a large Chaos fleet appeared out of the Warp. Dozens of ships against the Dread Fleet and the Calician Fleet that was stationed there. Even with the Black Lock’s support, the Chaos armada had a large numerical advantage over the Imperials, and without the orbital defences active, the defenders would be easily wiped out. The Captains called in their men they left in the Thunder Hawks they arrived in. Gomez himself volunteered to restore the defences along with a group of Cog Brother Techmarines he called down for from orbit. Shaktu and Jean accompanied him along with their own men they called for, while the rest of the Captains except for Lorius and Carlos set off to aid the ground forces. The race against time has begun.

The three marines and their men got to the generators powering the orbital defences that were in the shorter, bulkier looking spire. The traitors blew half of them while the rest shut down in order not to go haywire, but luckily the heretics overlooked the emergency generators when they left. Already presuming that the enemy will find out that they overlooked the emergency power plant, Gomez and his lads enacted the rites for activating the power plants and the generators, while Shaktu and Jean along with their men guarded the Techmarines.

Meanwhile in space the situation was dire. Despite utilizing long ranged weapons to blow up or cripple a large number of the enemy ships, both the Dread Fleet and the Calician Joint Navy of The Cradle barely even slowed down the Chaos Fleet. Both Imperial fleets knew that if the orbital defences wouldn’t come back on-line, then they and the planet would be blown to kingdom come. 

The situation on ground on the other hand turned out differently. Both the Chaos Forces and the Imperials were matched, yet despite the heavy air support provided by the Black Locks (and that all cultists and Chaos Marines were dealt with), Chaos Daemons didn't seem to even have their numbers reduced. Instead the vile warp creations’ numbers were still growing. The Captains that arrived on the field got intel from orbit that the daemons are coming from a gargantuan cave in the centre of the jungle regions. In a normal situation the Black Locks would have bombed it from orbit, but the fleet was occupied with slowing down a incredibly sizeable Chaos armada until the Cradle’s powerful defences got back online and wiped the threat. The other problem was that due to the size of the daemonic incursion, the Locks were forced to limit themselves to entrenchment and hit and run tactics because of the amount of daemons that were flooding out of the cave. Add to this the even greater anti-air defence and it left the marines and the PDF with their hands tied down.

There was however a small thing that everyone forgot about. Bernhold was still out there. The Captain of the Myst Graves along with a small lot of Cutthroats infiltrated the jungles where the cave was located. When the marines got there, they discovered that inside the cave was a warp portal. From its looks somebody must have constructed it previously, as it was impossible for daemons to simply build it without making anyone notice it. Bernhold knew that something would go wrong after the Samdi Baron’s psychic awareness flared up and that there was a high probability that it wouldn’t be the last time the chapter would meet The Great Enemy. Normally the Myst Graves, master infiltrators, wouldn’t be capable to sneak behind the daemons without being detected by those of them that were more psionically attuned to sensing living beings, if it wasn’t for a ace up Bernhold’s sleeve that he called in when the invasion began. The marines were accompanied by a Culexus Temple Assassin that covered them from being detected with its null powers. Finding an alternative route into the back of the cave, the Myst Graves sneaked inside and planted powerful timed demolition charges. After the group quickly exited the same way they got in, the charges exploded, and the portal shut down.

After this, the Imperials could defeat the Chaos Forces that were on the ground, yet the battle in orbit was still raging on. While the Locks and the PDF fought the now finite numbers of daemons, the fleet above had it more difficult. 

Despite the impressive barrage of Melta Torpedoes, the Chaos Fleet was simply slowed a little. Using the smaller frigates of which they had a abundance, the large core element of daemonic warships sped towards the defenders. Meanwhile the three Captains and their men that went to fix the orbital defence’s power issues came under attack by cultists, probably the group that blew up half the generators and came back just in case. Though numerous, the chaos worshippers were no match for the superior firepower of the marines. It changed when Khornate Berserkers suddenly joined the fight. The Locks went on the defence in order to protect the generators while Gomez and his lads were fixing them. The fighting was in favour of the Crimson Blades and Blazing Cannons, due to having variety when compared to the traitors who were kitted out for close combat. Jean’s Terminators shredded the madmen from range, while those who got close were cut down by Shaktu’s Vanguards. 

Finally Gomez and the Techmarines activated both the surviving main and back-up generators. Above the planet, the enormous defensive rings and space stations came back to life and immediately started to open fire on the Chaos armada. The hailstorm of melta torpedoes and heavy guns blew ship after ship. Even the heaviest of Chaos vessels were blown apart or damaged.

After a very long time of fighting, both Chaos forces on ground and in space were either defeated or routed. When the captains that were in the field returned to meet with the Lords that were left along with Lorius and Carlos, there was a surprise waiting in the room the conference took place. Two of the Lords were dead, while a third one was beaten and tied up by both Black Lock Captains that were left. These were the Lords that behaved strangely when the Chaos Forces attacked. It was discovered by both Lorius and Carlos (after interrogating the surviving one) that they were actually the ones that set up the attack on the Cradle. The entire coup was meticulously planned, yet none of the instigators predicted the marines would appear. This forced them to simply hasten their plans. When the battle on the planet’s surface raged on, the three tried to actually kill everyone in the room with some bizarre warp pistols, yet Carlos slashed the nearest of them and Lorius shot the second with his plasma pistol, while the third was wounded by flaming chunks from the latter. Why did they wanted The Cradle to be claimed by Chaos was clear. If Chaos claimed the planet, then it would not only serve as a staging ground for various Black Crusades, but also to demoralize the Imperial Guard Regiments and Colonies. Added how close the Calico Stars were to the Galactic Centre, not to mention to Terra, it wouldn’t be surprising for the Forces of Chaos to try everything do something like that. They only needed to lure people influential enough with promises of power.

Now seeing how much the Black Locks did, the Lords trusted the chapter completely. Some would say that the Cradle incident was that one event that won over the Colonial Lords to the Black Locks’ side. If it went for the planet itself, then much purging had to happen. Many of both the PDF and the Locks needed to be mind scribed for corruption, as Castor himself taught them that everyone can be corrupted by being near anything Chaotic, or at least there would be a large possibility of this happening. The ancient jungles from which the Chaos Forces were coming from, had to be isolated and burned to cinders, while Chaplains and Witch Doctors further purified the purged soil with shamanistic rituals and holy prayers. The bodies of both dead Locks and PDF were collected and buried. In case of the first, the geneseeds that survived, the Apothecaries collected and screened for mutations so to create new Black Locks.

And thus the Locks gained a new ally in their quest.
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