Editing The 13th Black Crusade (section)

===Snowbound Pursuit===

[[RAGE]] filled Abaddon's mind at the chance that his prey might escape ''again'', so he ordered every flight-worthy craft he had to search the surface of Klaisus.

As for the fleeing Imperials, it became a bad game of hide and seek as they took cover every time a Heldrake shrieked in the skies above them. They were lucky so far, but there was simply no concealing the Knights of House Taranis or Cawl's own [[Triaros Conveyor]] for long. It was just a matter of time.

Visibility was non-existent, and the temperature deathly cold, but despite this Saint Celestine continued to lead the Imperial survivors towards a destination only she could see. The Living Saint and the Sororitas took up the lead, and was followed by Cawl then Greyfax's Kappic Eagles, while the Black Templars and the Black Templars brought up the rear. Cawl himself was lost in thought, but had shaken off whatever despair he had initially felt. The Archmagos now saw everything since Eriad IV as a pilgrimage, a test to his purpose and conviction.

So of course the snowstorm had to stop.

A trio of Heldrakes screamed down on the convoy, and their strafing runs left trails of blood and the dying in their wake. Two were then blown out of the sky by krak missiles, while the remaining daemon-engine left bloody ruin among the Tempestus Scions it landed on before Cawl put it down himself.

From then there was no reprieve, as the Traitor forces converged on their location. Running battles broke out, as Raptors, Havocs, and Chaos bikers each tried to outdo each other in baiting the Imperial convoy. Every single one of these warbands perished to the defenders, as lasgun volleys cleared the skies of Raptors, while the cannons of the Knights of House Taranis disposed of the bikers, while Seraphim and cleared the cliffs of Havocs.  

It was becoming a battle of attrition however, and the Imperials were slowly losing, as many succumbed to their wounds or the cold, while the Chaos forces just seemed to keep on coming almost like an unending wave.

And yet Celestine led the tired procession on, deeper and deeper into the mountains. Against all reason they managed to lose their pursuers, but as Greyfax glumly observed, there was still a massive Black Legion column down somewhere waiting for them in the valley below.

Soon enough the Imperials beheld a sunken snow-filled bowl, with what looked like an ancient ''alien'' structure, all detail on it smoothed out by the moon's icy winds. They were not alone there though, as a bunch of sorcerers with their transports were camped in front of it. The Imperials cleared these squatters quickly enough, but the signs of the skirmish was quickly picked up by their Black Legion pursuers. The Imperials now they had nowhere to go, their backs against a gate to nowhere.