Battle at Ressax Prime
+ULTIMA SEGMENTUM+
+SUB-SECTOR RESSAX+
+RESSAX PRIME+
+CAPITAL CITY OF MINERVA+
+CHAOS SPACE MARINE INCURSION+
Lord Hershah looked from the balcony of the Governor's Palace' at the devastation the Chaos Marines did. The carnage and destruction pleased him as it would please Khorne and build up enough power to transform this world into a Daemon World from which he'd launch raids into other worlds.
He moved back into the inside of the Governor's room where the body of the aforementioned planet ruler lied along with his bodyguards. A Chaos Marine entered the room. He was clad in red armour and had the symbols of Khorne all over him.
"Lord Hershah, the Capital is in our control and the weakling Guardsmen of the Corpse Emperor are retreating to the neighborhood city to regroup. Should we pursue them?" - asked the Berserker.
"Leave them be. Slaughtering them would be more of an insult Ikhsten. Collect all the blood that was spilled and skulls that we collected and proceed with the ritual." - replied the Chaos Lord - "After we're done, we'll deal with them. And if not, then Khorne's starving hounds will. They pose no threat to us as we took care of most of them and their mechanized forces."
"As you wish Lord Hershah."
The Berserker left the room. Lord Hershah was displeased with the resistance the people of this planet showed. Weak, cowardly, didn't even bother to train their soldiers to actually meet the standards similar to those he saw while fighting Imperial Guard regiments. For him they insects that needed to be trampled.
"What a disappointment. Is there nothing challenging on this planet that would satisfy me?"
Walking down the great hall, and walking through the main gate into the now devastated gardens. Corpses of the house militia were all over the place. The warband's cultists were collecting the blood for the ritual. The skulls were already taken by the Chaos Marines to pile them on the grounds where the ritual were to take place.
The fallen Astartes would need time to enact the ritual. And before that, they'd need to summon warp storms that would engulf the planet. This way they'd take their time with transforming the place without anyone disrupting them.
Halfway walking through the gardens the Chaos Lord heard something loud.
"Explosions?" - he asked himself. Moments later came the sound of roaring engines as three onyx black Fire Raptors flew above him. Suddenly Lord Hershah heard Ikhsten through his vox.
"Lord Hershah! We're under attack from Loyalist Astartes! They came out of nowhere and are currently engaging our forces!"
"Return the favor then. I'll join you soon."
Lord Hershah was surprised as well as happy that the False Emperor's elite appeared. It wasn't long since he and his warband fought them. The last time was against the Hammers of Dorn. Much blood was spilled and many skulls taken.
Hershah readied his power axe and lightning claw and ran to meet up with his Chosen who were already fighting the Space Marines. When he finally reached them in the main road to the palace he also took a look at the marines they were fighting.
Black armours with the left chest parts and arms being either cyanide or red, golden visors and burgundy belts. Strange colour scheme, yet what stood out were the trinkets they had.
Oversized bolt pistols that looked as if they were needed to be loaded after each shot, strange swords that were sharpened from one side and incredibly broad. One had something that looked like a sabre, but it was wretched in a power field. Even more striking was the fact that instead of wearing a helmet, he wore a triangular hat.
The Chosen of the Khornate Chaos Lord managed to kill six of the marines before their master joined them, but in return three of the Chaos Marines were slewn in retaliation by the black armoured warriors either by quick strikes from the blades, or by shots from the bizarre bolt pistols. The last two were quickly slewn by the marine with the triangular hat. His sabre slashing deeply one of the Chosen and immediately stabbing the other one.
Hershah took a look at the Space Marine's face as he rose to see the Chaos Lord. The marine's armour had also a red left side of the chest and arm. Apart of his triangular hat, he had a bionic eye with a tiny purity seal affixed to it, and an impressive beard. Not as impressive as seen among Space Wolves that Hershah fought in the past, but still something.
"So you be t' Chaos Lord in charge o' this here warband, be I correct?" - spoke the marine with the hat. Hershah never heard such strange accent. - "T' name be 2nd Mate Williams o' th' Crimson Blades and I'm here t' slay you in t' name o' Him on Terra."
The Chaos Lord didn't expect him to introduce himself.
"MY NAME IS LORD HERSHAH OF THE WORLD EATERS YOU LAPDOG OF THE EMPEROR. I CHALLENGE YOU AND YOUR UNDERLINGS TO A FIGHT. FACE ME, IF YOU DARE!" - called Hershah, clearly excited by the display of skills the marine showed.
The other marines were ready to jump at the Chaos Lord, but Williams stopped them by raising his arm.
"Wait here lads. If th' scurvy cur wants t' fight, then we do so. Yet 'twill be only th' two o' us. Ye all jus' stay back 'n observe. If somebody comes in who ain't ours, then ye know wha' t' do. Th' heretic be mine t' fight."
With this both the 2nd Mate and the Khorne Lord sprinted at each other.
"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!!" - roared Hershah as he stretched his lightning claw towards the 2nd Mate, but he Astartes quickly deflected the claw with his sabre.
Moments later Hershah's power axe swung from the right, but Williams immediately swung his sabre and used its blunt side and hit the power sheathed metal handle. Immediately after blocking it, Williams used his left hand and punched the Chaos Lord in the face. Hershah felt like being hit by a boulder, for such was the strength of Williams. Yet even that didn't faze the Champion of Khorne.
"That's quite the pragmatic way to fight. But this won't defeat me this way."
"I be jus' warmin' up." - replied Williams.
Hershah tried yet again to slash Williams with his lightning claw, but the marine made a short jump back while raising his sabre. The lightning claw scraped his chest armour, but the retaliation was quick. A rapid slash and Hershah screamed with rage as his claw arm was cut off.
"Wha' be it? Don't tell me a Khornate actually feels pain."
"Silence lapdog!! This is not over!" - roared back the Khornate Lord. Suddenly spasms started to shake the Chaos Marine as he suddenly grew an enormous mutated claw in place of his lightning claw.
"Now that's evident cheatin'. If ye be doin' that, then I too will do so." - With that Williams pulled out the pistol he had behind and immediately shot the Chaos Lord in the axe arm, shooting off his weapon along with his hand that still gripped it. The Chaos Lord again felt pain, but the rage dimmed it for him.
"YOU HONESTLY THINK THAT WOULD HELP YOU!?" - And in this moment a tentacle sprout out of the stump where Hershah had his axe.
"Now ye o'erdid it traitorous cur."
Williams plunged towards Hershah's power axe while avoiding the tentacle. The 2nd Mate grabbed the Chaos Lord's axe (while it was still gripped by the hand of the previous user) and quickly took a defensive stance.
"Picking up your enemy's weapon? Wouldn't that be considered a crime for you Imperials to use it?"
"I will be borrowin' it for a short time. I be not goin' t' keep it." - replied the space marine.
Hershah lashed out with the tentacle yet again, but Williams anticipated this and dodged the strike, only to stab it with his sabre.
The Chaos Lord now really got irritated and closed the distance to shred the Crimson Blade with his mutated claw, but was countered when the marine hit the claw with the axe. Although deactivated when it was shot off, the weapon was still powerful enough to bury itself into the claw, directly into the joint in between making it useless.
"DAMN YOU AND YOUR FIGHTING! ARE YOU PLAYING WITH ME!?" - Roared Hershah as he tried to free his limbs. Williams on the other hand moved towards the boltlock pistol he discarded in favor of the axe to pick it up and load it with a new round. - "FIGHT ALREADY COWARD! ARE YOU EVEN AN ASTARTES!!?"
At this point Williams loaded his boltlock pistol, turned around and aimed at the Chaos Lord.
"Fer cryin' out loud...shut up!!"
Williams at this moment shot the Chaos Lord. The marine aimed for the head of the Chaos Lord, but the bolt round blew off only the left half of Hershah's head.
"Remember this Chaos scurvy cur. Th' one that scuttled ye be no other than 2nd Mate Williams o' th' Black Locks Crimson Blades Company! Know this afore ye go t' th' warp!"
With this the final embers of consciousness escaped the surprised Chaos Lord as his now lifeless body slumped to the ground.
"'n that's also fer th' people ye massacred."
With the Chaos Lord Hershah dead, Williams sat down on the rubble and took out a blocky smoking pipe and small pouch of smoking weed. He loaded some into the pipe and took out a lighter in the shape of an aquila and ignited the weed. One of the marines that accompanied Williams approached him.
"2nd Mate. Of the six of ours, two will somehow get out of this. The wounds aren't this serious, so they were lucky. Brother Ansgar is in critical condition and the rest..."
"That's all fer it that lad. Call in a Storm Raven 'n tell th' Apothecaries t' take care o' th' rest." - interrupted him Williams - "Whas th' status on that ritual th' World Eaters were doin'?"
"We stopped them halfway through. The Witch Doctors are now dispelling the effects of the ritual."
"Ye Serpent Watch fellas know well how t' deal wit' this better than anyone o' us. 'ave ye contacted th' Imperial Guard?"
"Yes sir. They want to talk to you on the vox."
"Tell them t' wait. Now I needs t' clear me thoughts...'n then call in a Witch Doctor 'n a Chaplain. Wants t' be sure naught cancerous didn' jump into me from that axe." - replied Williams to the Serpent Watch marine and quickly added - "On th' other hand collect it fer purification. 'twill look gorgeously aft th' Techmarines are done purgin' it."
+END OF HOLOGRAPHIC MEMORY+
+DREADNOUGHT WILLIAMS+
+BATTLE OF RESSAX PRIME+
+456.40M+