Amraphel moved up towards Sigismund; he sheathed his power sword and drew both of his plasma pistol firing a hailstorm of plasma shots to cover the knight. He noticed a wounded traitor lying before him; the fool tried to raise his bolter with his last energy, but amraphel simply kicked the bolter out of the marines hand. "Weak fool" , he said and incinerated the astartes head with deadly plasma from his pistols. Amraphel secured a small Perimeter arround the knight and said: " Tend to your steed Sigismund, I will cover you". All the while amraphel carefully watched the surrounding area, ready for any additional enemies that might turn up.
At this point, his serfs were useless. Either to scared to shoot or too busy dodging heavy bolter fire. With the blizzard, his helmet could only filter so much. The Blackshield had lost his partner and could only see about 100 meters around him. Even the approaching Astartes were hard to see details, like what company they were from or even what rank. For all he knew, he was going against 10 Vanguards veterans, a battle he would not win. The first one to come to close combat with Icelos was met with point-blank bolter fire. The Kraken barrage shredded the once holy armour. The Traitor took a swing, but missed and stumbled back several meters before his red and white armor met the matching snow. The second one to meet him used the speed of the jet pack burst to deliver his attack. Icelos had to act fast. Dropping his Bolter down and letting it catch on his foot, he pulled the Power Axe from his waist, barley meeting the Assault Marine's Chainsword. The blizzard must also be limiting their vision, only a fool would try to clash a Chainsword with a Power weapon. Obviously the Axe cut thought the swinging blow, completely decapitating the marine. The Traitors own speed becoming his end. Icelos caught the loose head. The lenses cracking from the attack. Turning his Vox caster up, Icelos taunted the sergeant. "Take your foul brother's head! It wont be worth the effort of mounting it, but I think I will take yours...". Icelos kept his promise and tossed the Marine's head at the Sergeant. Almost at the same time, he drew his Plasma pistol and fired two rounds down at the Sergeant. The only one carrying another Power weapon.
As a way had been blown into the keep, Doralliius kept making his way forwards, not slowing down, the faster the could so something about the heavy support of the foe, the earlier they could make a real push and take this keep. "FOR PROGINATOR AND EMPEROR" he yelled as he moved quickly forwards looking out not to get shot to piecis by heavy weapons.
<Battle for Knosos Keep> <Left Wing> Icelos's shots missed the intended mark as the Angel of Absolution was already on the move. Quite different than his men, which was perhaps expected, the Sergeant was a skilled warrior who easily deflected the incoming blow and swung his sword so it came crashing against Blackshield's shoulder, cutting open the armor and spraying the robes in blood. To achieve this, he was assisted by a hail of bolt fire that struck Icelos and prevented his timely parry. The five remaining Assault Marines arrived, showing their faces in the blizzard and it indeed looked as if it was over for Icelos, but the Chaplain's reinforcements finally showed up, the creature and the Blood Angel Marine hit their ranks, both of them taking two of the enemies alongside them. Sergeant roared as he pulled back his sword and was about to decapitate Blackshield with his next swing...(OOC you can kill Sergeant with your next post; the others will be dealt by NPC's (soz for that) and then you shall advance forward). Tempestus's shoulder charge hit the enemy Dreadnought straight in the center, taking a chunk of its metal flesh that his warp lighting firstly took away. The assault cannon was ruined because the enemy used it to deflect the sword blow, therefore allowing it to make another strike with its power fist, smacking Tempestus and damaging his wiring which made his movement a bit slower than usual. Both of the iron behemoths were wounded now, but still standing. "Where is your Emperor now?" the Dreadnought taunted as it got ready for another attack. <Right Wing> As Sigismund got back to his dying steed, Amraphel continued with his vigil but other than finishing up couple of wounded foes, no other enemy Marine came. Most of them were now located around the breach in the wall, fighting to prevent Inquisitorial forces for reaching the inside of the Fortress. On the forefront of this attack two figures, Excoriator and Flesh Tearer, could be seen leading the charge. "INTO THE BREACH BROTHERS! FOR THE EMPEROR AND SANGUINIUS!" Marmaroth roared as he spearheaded the assault, Excoriator moving few steps behind him and firing on the run, managing to snipe couple of Tacticals before they ducked. Behind all of them, Stromtroopers came next, some of them firing their hotshot lasguns while others carried melee weapons ready to sell their lives dearly for taking this Keep. (OOC You can emote your next post and killing as you see fit; imagine we are fighting around the rubble created by the gap in the wall, behind which Marines are holding up and are firing on us and taking melee weapons to deal with us. With my next post we shall finally enter the Keep.) <Center> Due to the defensive effort of both Volorox and Feron, Sister Jean managed to survive this close encounter, the last Marine that attacked her only managed to score a deep cut on her left arm before he was slain by Dragonfire rounds. A squad of Stormtroopers also arrived, creating covering fire and pushing those remaining Assault Marines back. Jean listened to Salamander's orders and regrouped to help Fenix and Edd, who were at the moment hunkered behind a wreck of one friendly Chimera, shooting back at the group of Devastators that got a lock on them. Volorox had a freedom of what he wanted to do - stay here with Feron and try to hold the line or go somewhere else and support their effort there. Seeing that there was nothing wrong with the Ratling, Sirius moved in front line, helping the wounded and saving lives. Angelous on the other hand, assisted Commissar Strauss with mopping up those loose elements in the rear before arriving at Feron's side, staying silent as ever and assessing the situation. As for Feron, he received couple of replies. "My Lord," Sergeant Brent was the first one to respond, "The enemy have the line covered in a way we can't go around it. Perhaps we can get closer and try to fight in melee, but that big vehicle would shed us to pieces." And indeed, couple of more zealous squads tried to continue with the push and take the gates with a charge. Their remains were splattered all around the ground as the Land Raider proved to be quite efficient at dealing with such threats. There was also that thing that most of the troops went to support the other wings, leaving Salamander with precious few soldiers to mount any special attack on the enemy, despite the fact there was around 20-25 Marines holding the gate besides their tank, all of them were hunkered up and ready to claim every life of those 150 remaining Stormtroopers. Perhaps the only good news were those which came next, in voice familiar to Feron. "Talon Prime is toasted. Only 2 Valkyries are still flying as much as we can see, but there are no enemy aircraft soaring the skies of Knosos anymore," it was Gaius aboard their Stormbird, giving the report. "The enemy assets are destroyed. Where do you need us Brother?" Lukion nodded and led them into a small crack in the stone, the winds blowing hard up here which made their navigation a bit difficult. But the journey outside in the snow came to an end once Librarian reached a little bit different stone formation, that once better investigated would prove to be human-made. With couple of clicks, the hidden door opened and stale air welcomed them as they entered the dark tunnel. The path was quite narrow, allowing for only one Marine to move at the time and it was descending into the unknown. "Stay close," Lukion warned, pointing in the dark, "We are inside of the mountain now, if you slip, I won't be coming for you," it was clear what he meant the moment they took couple of more steps, seeing that they were indeed on a path that was "engraved" in the rock, the wall being to their right while a gaping abyss on their left, with no places to hold their hands at while traversing this icy path. "We shall reach the bottom in an hour or two. I would like if you prevent yourself from using vox now, since we are really close." And so, their slow trek into the darkness began, with only howling wind from somewhere above and their own footsteps being the only sound they heard...
Keeping his burning sword sheathed, Draconion nods in assent to Lukion's request for vox silence and taps Steinar on the shoulder to do the same. Reaching out with his telekinesis, he covers the steps under their feet and a few steps ahead in an invisible web of power that gives them sure footing, preventing any accidental slips or stumbles that might pitch them headlong into thin air, as well as give them firm grounding against any sudden gusts of wind.
Amraphel turned towards Sigismund and spoke plainly:"We need to move towards the breach, the chaplain will need our aid". He saw the chaplain and the Excoriator fighting amidst all the rubble, trying to force the breach. Without waiting for Sigismund Amraphel quickly ran towards the breach, hoping to aid the others. He saw traitor marines firing from inside the keep; Amraphel aimed his twin plasma pistols at them and took out two foes with a concentrated hailstorm of super heated gas. The plasma burnt through the traitors helmets, frying their brains; the fools colapsed with irritating spastic twitches as their nervous systems overloaded with pain. He moved forward step by step, firing with his pistols all the while. moving upwars on the mountain of rubble leading towards the breach. Amraphel unleashed his wrist mounted flamer into the breach, moving the flame from left to right, hoping to burn the fools out of their rathole. Two traitors were caught in the burning wave of promethium; not even their power armour could protect them against such extreme heat, the ceramite melted away while their nerves began to overload from the extreme pain. The fools literally Feeling his fiery wrath.
<Feron> Frustration and relief all around Feron sent a simple quip to Brent. "Back to the trenches then, guns up and heads high. " Then onward to the rest of their line. "Feron to all points use your fire wisely! Prioritize enemy las-cannon and missile units to cover our air support! Gaius take both those Valkyrie and get us immediate fire support on enemy gate defenses. Prioritize enemy infantry, that Land Raider won't cause nearly as much damage as them with so few vehicular targets about. Just stay above its sponsons so those las-cannons can't spear you out of the sky." His final krak grenade was popped into the grenade launcher, finding it a fair bit more useful than he initially imagined. "Of course if that Storm Bird is as capable as I was told feel free to take it out too. " Thwump the grenade was out set on a crash course for the Land Raider's forward mounted heavy bolters, once that was quiet it would only have las-cannons which with narrow field of fire and a fairly long charge up time would be wasted on their Storm Troopers. "I want our Valkyrie to bug out after the initial firing run and spread out one to each wing for extra support. If one goes down prioritize reinforcing Tempestus' advance. " Running through various reports across the field the Salamander idly fired off his bolter another trio of Kraken shells expended to follow up on trying to cripple the Land Raider's anti-infantry arnament. With a clunk the catch was released dropping the empty clip into the bloodied snow, his second kraken clip slapped into place after it while he had already swapped to his Dragonfire shells to light up the position of several Tactical marines. "Special weapons troopers spread out don't let them get a bead on more than one of you at a time, if a grenade takes a melta-gun I want a plasma gun returning the favor elsewhere! " He watched the fat form of a plasma ball arc toward his position eyes going wide at the sight even as his legs carried him instinctively down the trench line away from the devastating attack; and right into the path of several frags which forced him to crouch and cover himself with an arm weathering the burst of shrapnel and heat. Armor registering a dozen different breaches in his armor he grit his teeth and rose up only to go back down under fire from several bolters, it seemed they knew where he was and intended to take one of the heads off the assaulting force. (@Vulpas @DaKaptin ) "Volorox suggest you move toward the breach to support the Chaplain, not much here but death for anyone wishing to engage in melee. Edd I want you sticking around in the trenches though in case they try to launch another assault. "
Tempestus turned with rage in his heart "you shall not live" and with that he let searing warp fire roam around his blade forming a molten blade as he went and cut through the enemy dreadnaughts armor "my emperor is in my soul"
- Edd Edd's BONE'ead implant responded to Feron's Vox channel, picking up on Edd's need for orders. [CHANNEL OPEN] "Ello, Dat you Feron? Fenix es hurt n derz too many ov dem big-gun traitors. He needs ta get a medic sir! An I wasn't gonna leave dis front anyways Boss, don't ya worry." Edd finished reloading his rippergun with wot ever he had left, a red box. Slamming it into place without looking at it, a serious feat for an Ogryn I assure you. Firing dragonfire rounds at random upon the entrenching Alpha legionnaires. - Rocky (OOC: I'm actually not sure where he went to be completely honest. One minute he was next to a Land Raider, the next he was ignoring an Apothecary. Very unusual behavior of the Rattling coward. Give me a minute and... Oh, there he is. Next to Feron. How didn't anyone see him? No more fourthwall breaks.) "Might want to cancel that flight plan Sir. No way they're making a run on that and flying away. We'll need those to get troops over those walls, no going through it with these numbers. We should hold the line until we have orbital support. A few hits from the lights guns should send those Traitor marines back to arse of the universe from whence they came... With all respect Sir Feronm sir."
OOC: Considering the only Land Raider on the field is enemy aligned I don't think Rocky was anywhere near it. Previous positions would of all been roughly adjacent/behind Feron whom has been sitting up in a conquered trench for the last two rounds. Don't think Rocky ignored Sirius in anyway reading the last post~ <Feron> "Advice acknowledged but I'm afraid that A there won't be any orbital support and B we won't be making it past the walls without air support. Lord Marmaroth leads the current strike on a breach in the walls and the Left will hopefully make superior progress and penetrate as well. Between the Blizzard and thinning enemy forces along with the enemies lack of air support I think our pilots can manage for a bit at least. My real concern is what that Land Raider might be carrying. " It would be both odd and yet likely that the Land Raider was holding a payload of the Angel's first company and the last thing they would want to see was a five or ten man squad of Terminators lumbering out into this mess. "Edd, Sirius is up near your position now expect him to arrive shortly. " A priority dispatch ping was sent to the Son of Guiliman to make sure it was so.
