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Karian Icefang     Over the Planet of Axiom Primaris orbits the forces the Space Wolves, and surprisingly, the Inquisition. "Lord Icefang. We have had our differences in the past, but for this one battle, let us put our past animosities aside. Atrox believed in you, and so will we. Prove his faith warrented." Transmits the Astropath from the 'Emperor's Light'. Aboard the newly christened Strike Cruiser 'Ragnarok', Karian nods. While still missing a heart, he had strength enough to see this battle through. "Brothers, friends...We know not what we walk into, nor how many of us will return. What we know for sure is that we go to end a thorn in our side, and to save our future. Dig deep into your hearts, find your strength to be more then an army in your own right. Fight the strength to be the instrument of the Allfather's will. Those of us from Fenris will remember the tales we heard as children, of how the bravest became those who were chosen to join the Sky Warriors. Today, we must show the same fury that made us all stand out. Today, more then ever, we must teach Orlox and whatever will stand by his side that our howls are the sound of their end. Today, we shall be the force upon which our strike cruiser has been named. Today, We shall be Orlox's RAGNAROK!!!" Karian calls out into his vox. A resounding cheer erupts throughout the halls. Moments after, drop pods would fire towards the planet. The Wolves were here, and as they had done so often before, they would bring destruction to their enemies.
Staren     Also orbiting is a ship that looks like a small castle with thrusters on it. Staren has transferred to his combat robot body in hopes of fighting more on the Space Marines' level, and waits, watching the drop pods' approach. Once they hit the planet, he'll beam down as well.
Mortimer Balman      On one of those drop pods, a pack of Space Wolf Blood Claws, who fidget in their eagerness for the battle, sit around an old man. An old man who does not wear power armor, he does not carry chainsword and bolter. He bears an ancient knife with cruelly twisting barbs and a very simple, basic pistol gifted to him by the Iron Priests.

     The young warriors are quiet, despite their excitement, for the old man is telling them stories as they wait for the drop pod to launch. He tells them stories of stars beyond their galaxy. Of ancient battlefields and glories that predate their whole Imperium. And they are glad to listen, because there are lessons in each story. Parables and morals to each tale, simple lessons of basic wisdoms that might help them live just a little longer than they would without, and carve themselves a grand saga in the course of time. They cheer when the Jarl calls that the battle is to begin, drowning the old man out for a few moments as the pod shudders and rockets to life.

     When they have calmed, he finishes his final story. It is not one of glory and honor- it is one of loss. One of survival against impossible odds, but pyrrhic for both attacker and defender. It is a cruel and important lesson that they must understand: that the only true victory a soldier may know, is that /all/ of their brothers and sisters might return from a battle without losses. In this.. They rarely, if ever win.

     It is a somber note to end upon, and the young Marines are silent as they contemplate this. A seed of understanding on the importance of the saga, and the pack, has been sown. Now they must live long enough to let it flourish. The old man will do everything in his power to ensure they get that chance. The pod slams into the ground, and safeties begin disengaging. An automated storm bolter swivels down and readies to provide covering fire for the Marines and their guest, now they wait for the doors to fly open.

     The old man rises up and pulls back the action on the pistol. "Come, little brothers. We've much to accomplish. We must secure an LZ for the Thunderhawks, otherwise we'll not enjoy too much in the way of armored support. Now then- listen up!" The doors hiss and steam, about ready to blow open, the old man's voice rises steadily into a roar, "Let the enemy know fear, for YOU are fear incarnate! For the Allfather, for Russ, and for the Chapter! CHARGE!" The doors fly open in all directions, and the young Marines rush out screaming, chainswords held high as the old man's fiery mane bursts into a brightly flaring torch. The enemy will be drawn to them in short order; the poor bastards.
Leyanne In amongst the flotilla, there's a small, unarmed ship. It's the kind used by adrenaline junkies and orbital skydivers the multiverse over. It gently jockeys into position as the drop-pods begin deploying. Aboard, Leyanne finishes final checks, making sure her bushmaster and its ammo/power pack are secured on her back, along with the grav chute she's going to need in about six minutes. She checks her helmet's seal is secure, and then pulls a lever.

The floor snaps open underneath her. The air blasts her out into the void, along with a slight electromagnetic impulse to send her down with the drop-pods. Just one red-armoured speck amongst larger specks. She cackles joyously, pulling herself alongside a random drop-pod and waving to the occupants through the window before she pushes off from it, plummeting through the air. Ablative panels on her armour begin to do their job, wreathing her in fire as she decellerates through the atmosphere. She surges ahead of the drop-pod wave for a few seconds, although she's got to deploy her grav chute before contact, meaning they slam down ahead of her. She lands next to a Drop Pod, unslinging her Bushmaster cannon and looking around for targets.
Xiaomu If having the Spave Wolves and the Inquisition on the same side of a fight is surprising, the presence of a Chinese fox spirit - someone (or something) who would qualify as a 'xeno' if she weren't from Earth, and a 'mutant' to anyone who didn't know better - raises the odds well on their way towards a frank impossibility.

But Xiaomu has fought alongside Karian several times, and against the forces of Chaos on a few other occasions, and Orlox's broadcast was a general challenge the likes of which the sage fox simply couldn't ignore. Besides, there are plenty of other familiar faces here as well - so she considers it 'good company'.

... that, and Mortimer and Leyanne are even further from human-looking than Xiaomu is, so even if she doesn't know the old firebadger *that* well, and the Martian mousewoman marginally better but not as well as she'd like? At least they have a thing or two in common. Kind of. Maybe a couple of somethings.

Rather than try to get cocooned inside a drop pod or trust her continued existence to a matter transporter, Xiaomu has chosen to hitch a ride with one of the Thunderhawks; she's offered up her own prayers for those who are interested (and she's comfortably certain the Adeptes Astartes would take very well to Fudou Myou-ou), she's checked all of her weapons, she has grenades and spare clips within easy reach, and her staff-sword is grasped securely as she rides out the descent.

She's actually holding a three-point crouch ON one of the tanks as it charges out of a Thunderhawk's hold, her hairtails flapping in the headwind and her staff raised next to her as she studies out the battlefield. She doesn't plan to ride like that all the way, of course, but hey - why not look dramatic* if you're going to stand out anyway?

(* - Okay, so there is a non-zero chance that somebody'll think she looks goofy rather than dramatic. It's an occupational hazard for those unaccustomed to Xiaomu's sense of awesomeness.)
Kirito Kirito hates being in crowded, noisy places. And the rickety, rough ride drop pods aren't his cup of tea. So the Black Swordsman's chosen to shack up with Staren for deployment. Staren and his wacky Glitch ship.

    He can appreciate all the hype and speeches to men deploying into a terrifying situation, but it doesn't much lighten the lump in his stomach. Once again he's deploying against real soldiers - and fanatics at that. Ones that won't hesitate to kill him or his friends.

    So far he's managed to avoid getting much blood on his hands. How long could such a streak continue?

    "I feel SO out of place." He comments only half-seriously to his shipmate as he watches some displays of the others deploying and does a final check of his gear.

    Seriously. Huge, armored monstrosities of warriors built like brick outhouses - in matching armor - with all kinds of technological weaponry. And here is Kirito, wearing leather armor and sporting two swords. His thin, almost girlish frame and smooth face...

    The Spriggan has no speeches to give. Just a determind, "Let's go!" As he dives into the teleporter and is beamed down...
Staren     Staren just turns and shrugs to Kirito. The catboy isn't particularly large either, only a couple inches taller than Kirito, although the armor adds some slight height and bulk. And then the teleporter activates and he turns into a beam of red energy streaking down towards the planet. It activates again maybe a second later, sending down Kirito...
Karian Icefang     Karian's men happen to be in the drop pod Leyanne manages to catch up with, and she gets a nod in return. Even in the pod of the Wolf Lord and his guard, the thrill of battle is felt. Once the pods start ground impacts, the marines quickly deploy and set up an LZ with the practiced speed and skill of decades, even hundreds of years of experience. Once that was set up, the ground forces brought in by the Thunderhawks deploy both tanks and Inquisitorial Stormtroopers. Beyond that, another set of drop pods smash into the area. "Lord Icefang. You'll forgive my deployment, but we detect something on the edge of perception. We would face it here with you on the field, if you'll have us." speaks Justicar Torm. He and his fellow Knights step up near to Karian, nodding in recognition. "Of course, Torm. Let's see what the so-called 'Grey Legion' can do."
    Elsewhere, Orlox and his subordinate Grelx watch the pods crack the sky. "So....they've come at last. Grelx, take your men and prepare." A deep, gutteral growl sounds the response. As for that feeling Torm would report? It would immidiately begin to grow and reveal itself in the sky. A twisting, shifting hole rips itself into existance.
Tomoe Things have just been crazy for Tomoe lately, with IFO back home, the Dark Lady Quest Line, more things going on in Priscilla's home world. Not to mention the horror show that was Carna's home world? Tomoe had been run very hard but she had yet to forget about Karian's issue and she owuld stand by him, he was also keeping her ears hidden and she didn't want to raise trouble for Karian, well further trouble. She was alone was in the dropod, she gripped the hand holds inside as she was comming down from orbit. It was a teeth rattling ride then again it's a hell of a thing to get off her bucket list.

As the pod drops down and slams into the planet she launches out of the pod the moment it opens, naginata in hand as she does so wings flaring out looking all the part of an angry angel of war as she does so.

"THIS ENDS TODAY!"

She's also letting lose with the various buffs to her allies hopefully succesfully buffing their endurance as she does so.
Brikkfist
Orbiting around the planet is a certain colossally large Ork kruissa.

Bludflagg's Freeboota Ship.

"I juss dunno why yer putting yer stock with those posh 'umie gits, Brikkfist." Grumbles the Ork Boss to his first Nob. An equally large Ork with a rocket pack almost as big as he is strapped to his back. "Iz tellin' ya boss! Dis 'umies may be posh! But dey surez kno' where ta get tha' best foits! Juss now Iz be gettin' ta krump some Spikey boy gitz an' allz I haz ta do is not krump tha' 'umies!"

"Bah, woteva' hoists yer sails den lad." Cackles the Warboss. "Bring me sum spikey boy 'eads for tha' pole den! Oh! And see if ya can get me sum hatz too! I heard dem Inquisitive gits will be dere too!"

"Harharhar! Oi'll see wot can be looted Boss!!"

Shortly after, an Drop Prod that is decidedly not from the Imperium is seen flying down into the planet's atmosphere. Before the Drop Pod even hits he ground it explodes and out comes flying a Stormboy Nob, screaming the signature warcry of the Orks!

"WAAAAAAAAAAGGGH!!"

"Alright ya lot! Toothy grins all 'round!! Ol' Brikkfist is 'ere!!!"

Yes, a giant Ork just landed in the middle of Space Marine and Inquisition regiment actually grinning and cackling rather than shooting up their ranks.
Xiaomu Now this is a party, Xiaomu thinks wryly as she takes in just how *many* forces the Imperium is landing. Apparently, somebody back on Terra took Orlox's taunt just personally enough -

Which is what she's thinking when that vaguely unfamiliar sense of unease coalesces into a discrete, concrete, and overwhelming awareness of Hell on the horizon. Or rather, above it. Way above it. A Warp Portal.

It's her first time actually seeing one, and it's not pleasant. She does her best not to be openly intimidated by it, but inside, Xiaomu is more than a little worried - *she* doesn't have a good way to close a rift that size, or even a bad way for that matter. Her best hope is to find whoever *opened* that portal and make it impossible for them to *keep* it open ... but then, she's not the only person here, is she?

And then there are even more people - Tomoe's making her presence audible, and then an Ork joins the Marines and Inquisitors from right in their middle. A bit of radio discussion later, and Xiaomu is content that Ol' Brikkfist is an ally - at least for today.

"Right then ..." Xiaomu goes from her three-point crouch to a careful kneel atop the tank's turret, and takes a moment to double-check the loads in all three of her handguns. Chaos Sorcerors definitely sound like the anti-spirit ammo is in order - although the bullets will punch through mortal flesh as well as regular rounds would - and the Roc's Icebrand is elemental anyway, with its own requirements.

She holsters the latter, and raises Silver and Platinum, sighting in as best she can on the Warp Portal. If she can catch any of the Chaos forces in mid-air, all the better.
Leyanne Leyanne Mace isn't far from where Brikkfist lands. She looks at him, and his rocket backpack for a moment. "...I have got to get me one of those." she mutters, pulling the vac-mask off and unslinging her Bushmaster cannon. It takes her a few moments to rig the gun for firing, strapping a thick ammunition chute in place, and following that up with a power cable. The gun self-tests and then ammunition rattles down the armoured belt and into the breech. There's a loud ka-CHACK as the gun arms itself, and then a cheerful-sounding status bleep.

She reports in on the radio and then looks up at the warp portal, frowning. The thing is pumping out all kinds of electromagnetic noise, and to someone who can sense radiofrequency, it 'sounds' like souls screaming in torment. Oh, that's not cricket. She shudders, then lights a cigar, putting her game face on.
Staren     Staren looks around to see... nothing. He readies his laser rifle all the same...

    And then the true scale(?) of the threat reveals itself -- a rift on the edge of the atmosphere. It reminds him uncomfortingly of the encounter with Emrakul.

    Staren goes still for a moment. Since no enemies have shown up down here yet... He remote-controls the Star Hawk, attached to his ship, to ready its weapons and take aim at the rift. If some kind of giant monster starts coming out of a rift THAT size... Well, they're gonna need everything they've got!
Kirito Now that he's down on the battlefield, Kirito dives behind a sizable boulder for cover and takes stock of the situation. Enemy formations in the distance... and that ominous portal hovering overhead. He frowns. "That's way too obvious for the work of a 'master of deception.'" The boy muses. Perhaps it's safe to ignore. But the rift gives him this awful feeling in his gut from just looking at it...

    No, this is definitely Orlox's last stand. He's got little left to gain from subtlety. There might be further surprises, but that portal...

    "Gh. Guess we'll just have to go for it and see what happens."

    Kirito reaches up for a sword - and then in comes Brikkfist!

    This is surprising enough that he climbs partially up the rock to get a clearer look at the Ork - a figure who leaves him gaping with the utmost uncertainty.

    Especially given the accent. The boy blinks rather stupidly, open-mouthed with disbelief at this turn of events. But his hand goes up to his sheathed sword soon enough.
Brikkfist
Brikkfist's first move after introducing himself is to flash a smile to Leyanne. "OI! Youze Tiny aren't ye?? Iz recognize yer voice from tha' talky box!" Cackles the Freeboota when he notices her checking out his Rokkit. "Ya loik me Flash!? Iz tha' Rokkiest in tha Crew Iz tell ya!" His broad mouth full of giant tusks continues to grin as he too checks out what she's packing. "Oi like yer Shoota by tha way! Datz sum real gud gubbinz ya got dere!"

Ork's senses are rather keen believe or not and Brik also spots Kirito gawking at him. "Oi!! Quit hiddin' dere like a grot an' come get stuck in! Dun ya want any 'eads fer yer Boss pole!?" The giant Ork waves a hand over to Kirito almost like an old friend telling a fellow kid to come out and play. To those familiar with Orks they'll realize that Brikkfist is as strangely childish despite his size and apperance like the rest of his race.
Karian Icefang     Karian growls softly as the orks hit the field, but once things settle down a bit, he starts walking towards the portal. His men follow, after offering a nod of thanks towards Tomoe for her buff, and imitation of a Living Saint. Sure enough, his approach was enough of a trigger to call forth a change. Firstly, the weather suddenly changed from calm to all out hurricane with lightning strikes all over. Then from the portal, they come. A sheer mass of Sapphire armor and bolter. The Rubric Marines look up, watching and waiting. Emerging through the ranks was what was clearly a sorceror. "Hello, Brothers. It's been....10 millenia by my count. I have such things to show you..." He says, before hurling bolts of chaotic energy towards the ground forces. Mort and his squad would find rubic marines firing at them, as would everyone else.
    Up above though, they would have a different threat. A Trio of Chaos Strike cruisers emerge and fire on the united fleet. "All is Dust..." is the only vox from the ships.

    Elsewhere, Orlox watches the scene closely on screens, secretly hoping for a dark miracle.
Xiaomu And there's the bad guys, arriving fashionably late.

Xiaomu hunkers down flatter against the tank's turret, then pokes her head and guns up again to start shooting at the Chaos troopers - mainly trying to rain bullets on that sorceror, but if she winds up shooting Rubric Marines? Eh, her biggest worry is not wasting perfectly good bullets on armor that they can't get through. Sure, armor always has weak points, but when she's dependent on the tank she's 'riding' to move or dodge, she can't be THAT sure of precision aiming.

At least that first Sorceror is making himself a *really obvious* target. Xiaomu doesn't fancy getting a faceful of Chaos magic - she's had enough of that from Fayt in her time, and *he's* a good guy. So if she has to dodge, she dodges.

If dodging means leaping *off* of the tank and continuing the battle on foot? ... well, better alive on foot than riding comfortably but dead. She'll take her chances however she needs to - and she's willing to bet she's fast enough on foot to give these guys plenty of trouble. It's not her first time fighting Chaos Marines, either.
Mortimer Balman      The Blood Claws around Mortimer give pause. There had been no real enemies to fight at first. Now there were. "Hmph.. Sorcerors, eh? If that's all they can threaten us with.. C'mon lads, follow me and try not to fall behind!" The half-taunt to the young Marines was all the spur they needed to charge off screaming behind Mort as he ducked low under the incoming bolter fire. Returning fire with his own pistol- though, absolutely shit with his aim- he manages to get up close to one of the Rubricae and his far more agile body ducks between the ancient Marine's legs, and then starts climbing up his power back.

     The Rubricae briefly manages to activate the stabilizer jets on the power pack, but these do not deter Mortimer in the least- they can't burn hot enough. A knife is plunged into the Marine's neck.. But nothing happens. The Rubric Marine simply reaches up, yanks the knife out- and Mortimer with it- and then slams him into the ground like a big sack of potatoes. Mort lets out a surprised howl of pain, and then looks up to see the boltgun staring him dead in the face..

     And then the Blood Claws crash into the Rubricae, causing the one who had Mort in its grasp to go flying and haphazardly toss the old badger aside. He lands, unceremoniously, on some rocks, and grunts. "Nngh.. What the fuck?" When one of the young Marines finds himself being overwhelmed by the more experienced Traitor, he opens his maw and belches out a great gout of flames, torching the millennia-old armor and all that lurks within it. The Blood Claws are smart, and move as fast as they can to get out of the way- they know how hot the old man can burn, and have no desire for a premature ending!

     The ancient suits of armor lock up and collapse to the ground. Adamantium is hard for Mortimer to simply /melt/ as if it were mere steel, especially with the armored ceramite sandwiched into the plating, but the /joints/.. The power cables, wiring, all the sensitive electronics.. And the flesh within. It all melts so nicely, and the armor lays on the ground, smoking.

     But there is no stench of burnt flesh, only metal and ozone. Mortimer kicks at the armor, unsure if this is a trick. The helmet flies off.. And there's nothing inside.
Staren     Oh, and there are orks. Orkz? Staren's so focused on the rift in the sky he misses this for a bit. It takes him a moment to remember that orks are from the same world and have a reputation for mindless violence. Well, these ones clearly aren't mindlessly violencing, so... multiverse. The Imperium is working with plenty of other xenos today, after all.

    And then, rather than the giant interdimensional horror Staren was expecting, armies and fleets come through. This is probably better overall, but it's one thing to take some shots by remote and another to manage a full-on space battle. His mecha redocks, and Staren's castle-ship maneuvers behind the Imperium ships and tries to FTL away.

    On the ground, Staren finds himself facing chaos-worshiping space marines and a sorcerer or something. Initially, he stays in back, firing a half-dozen minimissiles in an arc at the rubic marines, trying to catch them in groups with the plasma fireballs that result from detonation.
Leyanne Leyanne Mace grins to Brikkfist. "That's me... Nice to meet ya." She grins. She's about to say more, to have a bit of gun-talk before the gunfire... but, well, the gunfire's here already. She yelps, leaping behind a boulder to avoid getting too badly shot up. Okay. Now that wasn't very nice. She stands, bracing herself a moment before returning fire of her own. Big, heavy 25mm fire - rounds the equal of the heavy bolter, even if they're a little louder. The recoil of the gun is fierce enough that she can only fire ten or fifteen rounds before she's got to re-adjust her footing, bracing herself against her tail to stretch out just a couple more shots.

"'Ere Brikkie. Do me a favour, yeah? I'm gonna draw a lot of fire with this thing... you reckon you can do some distracting?"
Kirito And now the Ork is bossing Kirito around. He makes a face at this, but just snorts exasperatedly. The boy plants a hand atop his boulder and flips his body around up and over... slams both boots against the rock as he sees the traitor marines descending from the portal...

    "I'll settle for a few achievements." He cracks jokingly. Wings appear in a rush of black-white light from his back outwards. Large, dragonfly-esque translucent black wings that shimmer cast off pixie dust sparkle for a few brief moments. These wings revv up into a blurry thrum and WHOOOOOOOOSH, Kirito kicks off the rock with enough force to CRACK the boulder's face and rockets across the battlefield at insane speeds for the enemy lines. The moment anyone starts firing at him though he starts an evasion pattern of zigzagging and diagonal swoops and exploits ground cover as well as possible - only periodically rising way high up to throw the marines off!
Bahamut      As the rift starts to spew forth the sea of sapphire soldiers, another much smaller rift appears behind the gathering of Space Wolf forces and allies, and in front of it forms a set of golden-white runic circles. There is a very draconic roar before a fearsome-looking, majestic, powerful metal dragon with colorful wings and a golden gyro wheel hovering above his back comes rocketing through the rift, then crashes through those runic circles. They shatter like glass before disintegrating into golden powder and disappearing.

     The Dragon King, Bahamut, finds the field already embattled. He growls and grins as he sees the ocean of opposition, then he roars out to those below. "I, Bahamut, Aeon of Bevelle and King of Spiran Dragons, offer my claws to the Space Wolves." he declares before he takes off toward the enemy ranks. He flies with the speed of a rocket once again and takes off over the sea of enemies. He lends not his claws for now, though. Instead, he fires explosive bursts of Flare into the crowd. Not appropriate for frontline use in close quarters, but every enemy he can destroy is one that someone on the ground does not have to fight. The Flare spells explode in white-hot bursts. They are not fire so much as pure energy, but they can burn even more effectively and even oversaturate materials until they explode on their own.
Tomoe Tomoe is here todraw and take fire, she honeslty thinks that he's job, keep the suffering and pain on her so others need not suffer in her place. So she moves on deeper into the enemy forces she sees the huge rubric marines she knows shes not oging to take them up in close combat without trying to soften them up, so she utters in a tongue likely long dead to the humans of this world. Golden runes dance about her, it takes a moment. Then comes the bolts of fire into the ranks of the chaos worhisphers but it could just be a diversion it's not as powerful as Tomoe in melee but it will get their attention hopefully.
Mortimer Balman      There aren't nearly enough Rubric Marines on the ground. Not yet at least. The portal overhead will no doubt begin spilling daemons and traitors en masse soon, but all this looks to be so far is a /tease/. Mortimer re-torches the squad of Rubricae around him. "This LZ is cleared, lads. Set up a defensive perimeter, make ready for the Armor to land. And hopefully my crate of "party favors" will be with it." "Aye, Drake! But when do we join the main battle??" "Soon, son. Soon. First, we secure the landing zone. Then we move up." "Yes.. Then we will have Rhinos to get us there even faster!" The lopsided grin from the young overgrown human- now missing some teeth- was enough to make Mort laugh. "Patience, lads.. Patience is always the hardest part.."
Brikkfist
Why yes, here was Brikkfist ready to engage in polite bragging of size of guns with Leyanne when he was rudely interrupted by chaos bolts fired at his general direction.

"Oi! Wez gettin' shot at!!" Comes the all too obvious statement from the giant Nob of an Ork as he tries to duck. Gotta display some Cunning Brutality sometimes to live through WAAGHs after all.

While he's cower--err, taking cover, he whistles at the display from Leyanne's barrage. "Now datz a lot o' Dakka!" He exclaims while fully aware that the Kirito lad is snorting back at him. He forgets sometimes that 'umies don't respect the chain of who's tha' Biggest iz tha' Boss

"Juss a few achivementz!? Lemma ya showz ya 'ow ya truly get sum gubbinz, boy!"

The giant of an Ork and nods to Tiny. "Sure, mate! Keep yer Dakka on 'em! Oi'll fill deri faces full o' Ork!!!"

"'EEEEEEEEEERE WEEE GOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

He puts his goggles back on and blasts off with his rokkit pak directly into the enemy. For a moment it looks like Brikkfist can actually keep up with Kirito's neck breaking speed as he Rokkit Pak spews fire and smoke behind him.

Except.. of course.. instead of weaving gracefully through the enemy fire Brikkifist slams HEAD FIRST into the cadre of Thousand Sons, barreling through their ranks like a bowling ball until -something- manages to stop him.

"OI! LOOK AT ME YA GITZ!" He roars taking Leyanne's orders about distracting them a bit too literally.
Karian Icefang     Karian curses softly as he falls under fire, but his allies quickly move in to assist. Brikkfist does wonders in providing a distraction for 'Tiny' to shower the rubricae in fire. While their armor is tough, she would learn a very important thing. Headshots put the marines down permanently. All around though, soldiers would suddenly find mysterious chains wrapping around their legs, as well as waves of anguish. A quick look shows the chains linking to the hand of the sorceror. "Forward, Rubricae! Kill everything that stands against us!" He shouts. The sapphire legion marched on, until Bahamut's bombing run struck true and took out a fair score. But those not in direct impacts simply rose back up and walked on through flames and explosions, unphased.
    As Kirito flied over the field, he'd spot the ritual alter. Blood claws were already chained up to it and the sorceror's there were already in full chant. They were ripping the life essence from the young marines to fuel the portal. Sure enough, they ramped up the strength, burning out two in order to pull the warp close. Deamons howled out and in everyone's mind whispers could be heard...Until a seemingly gold aura akin to that which those in Karian's mind saw. "NO! Deamonic Fith, you will not touch their minds! So long as I draw breath, YOU SHALL NOT HAVE THEM!!!!" Howls out Justicar Torm, unleashing the Impressive Psychic power of the Grey Knights, shielding everyone's minds.
Leyanne Leyanne Mace grins "Gotta love the dakka!" She shouts after Brikkfist, probably not heard over the roar of his jetpack, and continues to keep up the fire - after all, if he's risking his arse to provide a distraction, the least she can do is keep up the dakka. Big smoking shell-casings spit out of the chaingun's breech; the mouse only pausing in her barrage to adjust her footing. Chains raise up and wrap her legs, causing the mouse to snarl, though the wave of psychic anguish which is rapidly blotted out by the Justicar. Note to self; give that armoured dude a cigar later.

She looks around for the source of the chains - that sorcerer. "Sorry Brikkie! Gonna have to pause fire to deal with these chains!" she shouts, swinging her aim up to send a sustained burst of fire at the sorcerer, letting the bindings on her feet keep her in place - using them against him!

Then she remembers she has a radio.
Staren     Headshots work? Good to know! Staren's ready to start doing that... when it's revealed that they have captured space wolves and are using them to power magic (a not unfamiliar idea to Staren, as it's a common practice by sufficiently unethical magical practitioners on RIFTS Earth). Sparing lives has to take priority, so Staren takes cover behind the space marines to focus on sending a quadrotor up to assist in targeting, and then firing another half-dozen, much smaller missiles (the size of magic markers, about) towards the sorcerer. They spread out to prevent being taken out by a single explosive, then converge on the sorcerer from multiple angles, airbursting a short distance away to trigger their shaped-charge warheads, creating thin lances of heavy plasma that go through tank armor like a supersoaker through tissue paper.

    Quite possibly there will be a magic shield. But maybe he'll weaken it, and on the off-chance they weren't prepared for something like this, taking out the sorcerer fast is too good a chance to pass up!
Xiaomu Bullets didn't even *faze* that Sorceror? Or did he just not notice getting shot at?

Eh, whatever. Xiaomu re-holsters her handguns, grabs her staff, and leaps off the tank with a shout of "HIGH SPEED XIAOMU~!!" as she *does* charge on foot. She's focusing *heavily* on dodging, evading, and generally Not Being A Convenient Target. There are a lot of Chaos Marines (or whatever these Rubicae are) and they have a lot of guns, but the sage fox is focused on getting past them, rather than fighting her way through them - she vaults, rolls, even does the occasional cartwheel if that's what it takes, all the while trying to close in on the Sorceror.

And as soon as she gets to some of those chains he was tossing around, Suiren flashes out of its staff-sheath, ice-element magic cloaking the blade as she tries to *cut* the chains, flash-cooling the metal links just as the sword's edge touches them.

The chains are largely a secondary priority, though. First priority is the walking dungheap who's holding those chains' ends.
Tomoe Tomeo hasn't said much other than she's trying to wade into battle with the enemy or at least keep them back with her spell work, which was more emulation og magic than actual magic. She will keep pushing ahead though as she makes ready to use mooncutter and its' superior reach she also attemps to not sit still ash she'll come under fire as she attempt to close, better still for her she will make use of flight here and there to make herself a harder target as she close with the Rubrick Marines.
Kirito Kirito sees a very troubling thing from his aerial vantage point and it changes his tactics. After suffering a few grazing shots from the Chaos Marines to his extremities - paltry for his regeneration to take care of! - he dives down into the midst...

    And his decision is made. The answer is the blades he holds in both hands.

    He will not value the lives of these Chaos cultists. The ritual must be stopped no matter what.

    A glare cold as steel but heated as an erupting volcano's flashed up at the nearest Chaos Marine...

    And Kirito crosses his blades in the beginning stance for one of his unique Sword Skills.

    Cerulean starlight envelops both his blades, accompanied by a sharp charge-up whine...

    "HUUUUUUOOOOOOOOAGHH!!"

    And the true power of Celestial Blades is displayed. With huge inward sweeping strikes that trail massive sparkling overlays of light he pummels ALL of the warriors near him with his blades and the magical energies they unleash. Shockwaves and sparkling explosions that resemble solar flares and dazzling starlight splash every which way and engulf a solid thirty feet around him as he carves a path forward ten paces like a living dervish of bladework!
Brikkfist
Everything has to a stop at some point. Inertia works that way as does a pile of Thousand Sons piling on a single Ork Nob. "ARGGH!!" Comes an Ork roar from underneath the Chaos Marines before Brikkfist EXPLODES out of there by overloading his Rokkit and flying directly up. He has no style, he has no grace.. but this Ork..

Has a funny face.

"WAAAAAAAAGH!!"

A face that soon the Chaos Space Marines get well acquainted with as he uses it to power through their ranks and escape. This Ork is certainly very experienced in the arts of getting stuck in. He's getting in and out fast, hitting hard and getting out of the way before getting overwhelmed.

He hovers overhead for now firing down at the crowd while trying to make sense of the battlefield. All these 'umies together with no green to distinguish them makes it confusing and he has to pause to make sure he's stomping the right 'umies.

At the very least being this high up and directly over the Thousand Sons means he makes a very poor target for the chains of torment of the Sorcerer.
Bahamut      Bahamut roars in satisfaction as he blows a few groups of those Rubicae sky-high...but that doesn't seem to help much. And then the soldiers start sending out reports about chains and daemon voices. And then comes the order. Kill the Sorceror. Bahamut banks around and flies right toward the sorceror, and as he does the gyro on his back starts to spin up. Gold-white energy arcs between it and his head, and as he closes in he is already forming in front of his mouth. Those chaos shots strike sparks on his thick armored hide, leaving deep gouges and sometimes bleeding wounds.

     He flies to within a short distance of the Sorceror manipulating those chains, then roars out a warning. The energy that has been focusing near his mouth explodes into a swirling, brightly glowing orb of swirling blue, purple, white, and grey. The orb grows until it is nearly as wide as Bahamut himself, then Bahamut drops to the ground as he unleashes his most powerful attack.

     Mega Flare!

     The swirling energy orb explodes outward into a sustained beam of pure destructive power, aimed at the chain-wielding sorceror. Of course, Bahamut is hoping to catch as many of these armors in the blast as possible. The sustained beam of pure energy first disintegrates most things in its path, but those that are not simply obliterated are lucky enough to see the result of all that energy saturation. A powerful explosion of that swirling multi-colored energy along the entire path of the beam, with the strongest devastation centered around the sorceror.
Karian Icefang     Xiaomu's blade cuts through the chain easily, shattering it and the link to the sorceror. He, meanwhile, has to quickly drope the spell in order to block against the continued attack from Xiaomu and from Staren's plasma. All of it pales, however, to the power of the MEGA FLARE! A look is all the sorceror can give before he's obliterated. But that's...when something strange happens. All of a sudden, the Rubricae stop and freeze in place. No gunfire, no melee fighting, nothing. They become like stones.
    Over where the sorceror's were, another strange thing occured. Grelx was seen with fellow soldiers, though they wore the colors of Khorne. In a flash, they slaughter the remaining sorcerors. "Icefang!" He calls out, actually dragging Orlox behind him. With a rough throw, the old inquisitor is thrown forward. "Icefang! Take this fool! KILL HIM!" He screams.
Mortimer Balman      When the next Thunderhawk transport comes down, it rapidly begins deploying fresh Space Wolf Grey Hunter and Long Fang squads, along with supporting light armor- Rhinos, and a Razorback, mainly. A Dreadnought stomps its way out from the back, dragging with it a huge crate marked #1123-E. The crate shudders a bit, rattling until the ancient warrior cracks it open with a power claw.

     A massive wolf, bigger than the tanks, bursts out of from the confines of the crate. It carries in its jaws a sword taller than Mortimer, made of gold and red jade. The great beast drops it at Mortimer's feet and sits at attention. The old badger lifts it up as though it weighed nothing, and hoisted himself up onto the massive Thunderwolf's back. "Alright boy, this is your first real battle.. Ready?" It yipped and shook itself out. "Good boy.." Mortimer looked back into the crate. Glowing eyes stared back out at him.

     Crackling psychic power emanated from the depths of the crate as Switchbait /floated/ out, his wings as still as death. The butterfree could feel, could /taste/ the daemonic presence, in his mind. Such forces infuriated him, for he could hear their terrible whispers and foul promises as clearly as if they were standing in front of him in the flesh. And the temptations they promised.. Filled him with aught but hatred and rage.

     "FREEEEEEEEEEE!" The ground /trembled/ as bolts of psychic lightning lashed off of the oversized butterfly's body. "<Direct me.. At the enemy.. Sir.>" "..You got it, Langley. Let's go." Nettle too, had followed, but she was hiding near the back of the Thunderwolf- the little ghost seemed genuinely fearful of the butler's wrath, in his current state of mind.

     "Fenryka! I leave you to your own orders, and go to hunt the enemy myself! Fight well, little brothers!" A cheer and a battle cry from the Wolves, and Ulbrecht began galloping off toward the scent of daemonfoe, while Switchbait blitzed on past them, tearing up the ground beneath him as he flew.
Brikkfist
Diplomacy??

Wot's that!!?

Brikkfist has no absolutely no bloody idea if there's an ulterior motive as to why Grelx would want the Imperior to kill Orlox. The Ork is legitimately confused! He's fought Thousand Sons before and he's fought Khornites as well, and he knows that if Khorne followers want something dead they'll kill it themselves. Not have someone else do it for them! The thought of it is ludicrous! Like an Ork having someone do the stomping for him.

Eetz juss not propa'

So! After the fiery display from Bahamut in comes barreling Brikkfist from the skies, directly where the Khorne 'Zerkers are.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAGGH!!!"

Instead of going for the headbutt like before though, Brik throws in two stikbombs at the Zerskers first to keep em honest -and blowing them up- before bringing out his Choppa and his Stabby bitz on each handing swinging for the Khornite Boss.

"Oi Spiky git! Yer 'ead iz goin' on tha' Boss' pole!"
Xiaomu One Sorceror down, three to ...

Wait a sec. FOUR Sorcerors down, three of them by other hands than Xiaomu was keeping track of. On the plus side, none of the Rubricae are doing anything else now, which means the sage fox can focus on what some people would refer to as a 'rapidly evolving situation'.

She's not really acquainted with Khorne, but it's clear enough that he's ANOTHER of the Chaos Gods - and that Grelx and the others pledged to Khorne's worship are Highly Displeased with how Orlox was doing things. And they want the Space Wolves, the Inquisitors, and the others to murder Orlox themselves ... in Khorne's name, which is what bothers Xiaomu the most about the whole thing.

She's trying to sort out how to deal with this when Brikkfist shoots his mouth off and the Khornites decide to start trying to kill everybody.

Which is about all Xiaomu is going to sit still for. She flicks Suiren's blade clean, re-sheathes it, then pulls something *else* out of her vest: a little object that looks like a high-tech baton. She thumbs a couple of buttons, breaks the baton in half -

And hard light starts tracing lines and curves and shapes from where the baton was 'separated,' quickly outlining the shape of a lightcycle - and then rezzing up into its full form. "COMING THROUGH!!!" Xiaomu calls out on the heels of chiding Brikkfist - and the lightcycle takes off, barreling through what's left of the Chaos forces to try and make more of a path for her allies. Her goal is the Khornites - not necessarily to run any of them over (though she wouldn't MIND doing that), but just to keep them off-balance while Brikkfist, Mortimer, and the others charge in.
Leyanne Leyanne Mace watches the Khornate throw the rogue Inquisitor out. SHe's a little confused, but then a bolt pistol shot from the melee slams into the armour protecting her cybernetic shoulder. The armour panel spins away in pieces, revealing some fresh damage to the joint itself but it's not enough to stop Leyanne bringing up Crocodile - her cannon - and pouring shots into any group of Khornate berserkers dumb enough to leave the main melee.

Where she is, the mouse provides quite a handy defended point to fall back to, with good boulders for cover. She realises this and gets on the radio, adding her firepower to the path clearance.
Bahamut      After the Mega Flare dies down, Bahamut watches the armors around him go still and grins. He spreads his wings and takes to the air again. He looks a bit tired after unleashing all that energy, but his claws still work fine. He also is not familiar with these Khornites, but without hesitation he follows his allies into combat and dives into the ranks of the enemy like an eagle pouncing its prey. The metal dragon is a pretty big target, so should draw some attention. Perhaps not as much as Mortimer's armored brigade or the loud-mouthed ork, but still it gives the enemy something to focus on while the faster and still very deadly allies do their work.

     Those sword-like claws lash out over and over as Bahamut stomps his way through the ranks, heading toward the leader of this group.
Staren     Okay, the blood claws are out of the fire, but they're still in a frying pan. All this talk of hostages and studying the rubicons is secondary to the next objective: Saving lives. And Karian is clearly being daemonically influenced to try to study the rubicons. Not that it means it's definitely a bad idea, but still, they can't take them naively.

    For now, though, Staren races after Kirito, taking advantage of the path he cleared to reach the bloodclaws. With his robot body's strength, he can definitely move one, maybe more. But six is a problem. He may have to settle for a pair, grabbing them and dragging them back to the vicinity of the Space Wolves and Grey Knights, using thrusters and flight to add every bit of thrust he can to pull them. Then he'll have to return for the next pair!
Tomoe Things are just going to hell in a handbasket she moves she'sbeen pressed the chaos marines pack a lot of power close combat she's been hurt more than a bit but she's sitll going the moon cutter lashes out again in a rapid combination of strikes. Tomoe does not quite get nature of the deed she does as the Chaos Marine finally falls before her attack her wings flare out again and she's taking flight the calls to go after the Chaos leader, well the one behind the ritual has gone out and she rises up.

Also Karian was in danger of falling she would take the skies to join Kirito and Staren as fast as she could.
Karian Icefang     Karian grimmaces, but quickly, and thanks to an intimidating butterfree (?!) he quickly moves to get his brain together. As he does, he's suddenly facing down a pair of Bloodletters. A howl echoes out, and he's in the midst of battle once more. All around, deamons were beginning to pop into existance all over. Once word comes that the blood claws were rescued, he gives the call for a retreat. Yet, something was calling him, pulling him to stay. The battle, the beast within was starting to take him, moreso with the warp so close. All of the Wolves, even the veterans were starting to struggle..
Kirito With Staren blasting through and all their opposition going still... Kirito takes the moment to fall in line with his scientist friend and take flight to try and snatch some of the captives away and utterly WRECK whatever altars or other probably-important gear is on display with a few strategic Sword Skills.

    Because take every opportunity you can. That's just how battles are.

    But with Karian suddenly howling he pauses in the midst of this and sends a worried look the Wolf Lord's way, across the battlefield...
Brikkfist
A relatively smart Ork would realize there's something wrong with Karian and his marines. The beakies are all about the Emperah or somefin', they talk like 'umie gitz and rot.

They don't howl like mad men though. That's for Spikey Boyz!

But Brik isn't a smart Ork by any means he ain't no Mek, nor Dok, not even a Kommando. He's a Stormboy and the beakies want to keep fighting he's all too happy to oblige.

"WAAAAAAAAAAGH!!"

He throws his muscled arms up in the air and joins in with the howling.

Not because he's being possesed by Khorne. Orks are notoriously resistant to the Warp madness.

He's just, you know, an Ork!
Mortimer Balman      One of the Bloodletters would suddenly find itself set up by a massive wolf, caught in jaws that it cannot escape. And then shaken and shredded like a child's toy, until it has fallen all to pieces, and those pieces began dissipating back into the Warp from whence they came. The other one would discover Mortimer's grand daiklave sticking from its chest while it tried to free its comrade. Mortimer began rattling off a series of coordinates to Staren- by mouth, through radio- places where the Space Wolves could rapidly regroup and create safe spots, so that Xiaomu could make wards to protect them. It was not a perfect, ideal, or even potent defense- but it was better to have a buckler strapped to your arm than no shield at all!

     But while Mortimer is dealing with a few of the lesser daemons and trying to get to Karian, so he can bring the Wolf Lord TO one of those locations he hopes to secure ever so slightly, Switchbait has broken off from him. He floats in mid-air in a lonely spot, staring at... Well, to someone in the physical universe, he's staring at nothing. "<I know you're there.>" His voice is monotonous and deadpan. He floats less like an insect and more like a doll being carried by unseen hands. "<Come out. The longer you hide behind there.. The worse it will be for you.>" The energy around him crackles louder and more ferociously, spontaneously shattering small rocks and kicking stones around. He knows what's there.. It's driving him mad. But not in the way it most likely expects to be driving him mad.

     "<I can see you..>"
Leyanne Leyanne Mace continues to lay down covering fire against the Khornate hordes. But that dude on the radio harping on about rage, he's annoying her quite a bit. And... she's angrier than she should be. She doesn't notice, at first, but when half your brain is cybernetic, you tend to notice when things are happening in the meaty part and not the other. The dissonance between the two is irritating as all hell too. But she's not going to let it get to her. No. Not until later, when she can shape some metal with her bare hand to let the steam off, and get the two halves of her mind back in synch with eachother.

For now, there's bloodletters to take out. She pours 25mm fire into the nearest daemon and its companions, hoping it has the same effect as it did on the marines.
Xiaomu Things just keep getting worse and worse, don't they? Whatever's left of the Khornites - Xiaomu literally didn't take time to look at what's happening to Grelx and his buds - there are monsters popping up all around, and the kind of howl rising from various of the Space Wolves that has *no place at all* in a human throat. Chaos's influence, from the sound of things - but it still reminds the sage fox of old (and not-yet-forgotten) beliefs in spirits possessing humans. Fox spirits in particular. Maybe wolves were supposed to be able to do that too.

Mortimer's voice on the radio breaks in on Xiaomu's rueful reminiscing, and a plan is quickly hatched. It's not much of one - but given that Xiaomu's already on her lightcycle, it's enough of one to make it work. And she HAS done something like this before ... even though it's been a while.

Fortunately, the perimeter of the battlefield isn't all that far away - and Xiaomu's lightcycle is fast enough to cover that distance faster than she can describe it. So once the battle is just barely behind her, she executes a hard right turn - and begins leaving a trailwall behind the 'cycle, a translucent layer of yellow-hued hard light, with more intense light occasionally forming visible Chinese characters suspended in the wall itself. The sage fox glances to her side occasionally, making sure she's not leaving anyone outside this initial ring ... and as she keeps tracing it, those ideoglyphs start to appear on the ground as well, just inside the circle she's tracing.

At least she doesn't have a hard time focusing on what she's trying to keep out - the Chaos influence is trying to gnaw at *her* mind as well, but it finds remarkably little purchase. The huli jing may not like to think of herself as 'domesticated,' but she's got a distinct soft spot for mortal humans as a rule, and she hasn't seen them as 'prey' in well over seven centuries. Sure, she has her immature, irresponsible side, and she has a temper when pushed, but it's going to take a lot more than Chaos to turn Xiaomu evil.

The biggest downside about what she's doing? It *will* take time to finish. The foundation circle is finished off pretty quickly, though - and as soon as she connects the trailwall around that outer perimeter, she calls out a quick incantation in some old Chinese dialect - and the initial field of counter-Chaos magic spreads through the enclosed field.

Now she just has to make the inner 'compartments' of the ward - the areas which will be FULLY shielded against Chaos, as Mortimer asked her to do.

If the Chaos Gods have any idea what the sage fox is up to, they have a limited amount of time to stop her ...
Karian Icefang 5r    Karian feels the rage building, or more exactly, the beast within feels the rage. It feels gooood. Another powerful howl erupts from Karian as he looks towards where Mort was going. He lunges after him, part of him wants war, the other half warring to take over. But overall, most of the marines know the feeling and begin to pull out, and once the circle comes down, allowing them to help secure the exit. Along the way, Xiaomu managed to break out Artox and got him to a thunderhawk. The Khornites revelled in the battle, leaping onto the rubricae, killing them all.
    Switch...had not one creature, but two looking at him. A Vulture Lord AND Bloodthirster were currently fighting each other at the warp portal, struggling to get out.
Brikkfist
"Oi! Weirdlass!!" Brikk is plenty fast to catch up with Xiaomu, he paints his Rokkit RED after all, and he pulls out of the group of chanting Space Marines to join up with Xiaomu and the rest of tha Boyz.

On the way there though, he'll take some of the Khornite's heads. Khorne heads always look good in tha Boss Pole after all!
Leyanne Leyanne Mace hears the order to get back to the lady and the magic, pulling back towards the others and spraying anything that seems to be getting too close with big-bore cannon fire. She doesn't turn towards the thunderhawks, trusting her ears and the fact that they're pretty significant sources of radio noise for her antennae to pick up to guide her. She walks backwards the entire way.

She's about three quarters of the way to the ramp when her ammo supply runs dry - the Bushmaster cannon spits a string of five tracers instead of the usual 4:1 hi-ex, and then she blinks, turns, and runs for the dropship.
Staren     Two down, four to go...

    And now Staren sees that the chaosites are busy fighting eachother. If it can be called a fight when one side is motionless suits of armor. Still! It's enough of an opportunity for him to just beam the other four space wolves up!

    ...

    ...Oh hell, he had his ship run away because of the fight up there. Plan B! He hurries to gather the bloodclaws together, and himself, by the other marines, so they can be picked up by Thunderhawk.
Mortimer Balman      Switchbait stares at the two greater daemons as they quarrel. The fact that they have stopped quarreling long enough to look at this tiny thing that's acting /threatening/ to them, perhaps, is the only reason why. Switch for his part seems quite serious about wanting to shred them limb from limb, but even in his hate he's not dumb enough to actually try and go INTO the Warp to fight them. "<..Wretched, filthy things. No value. No purpose. /Pathetic/.>" A bolt of energy snaps across the ground, leaving a sharp divot. He begins floating away. "<Next time your pitiful pawns won't prematurely end this, and I will send you back to your masters mewling and weeping.>"

     Mortimer, meanwhile, has been fighting his way through Bloodletters, the great Magenesh blade sweeping through them with almost laughable ease- it IS a holy weapon, after all, and these are most unholy creatures. "Ulbrecht! Grab Karian, and run for the sweet-smelling lady! GO!" after some effort to throw a daemon off of his leg before it could stab him, Mort grabbed the wolf by the mane and held on tight-

     Massive legs allow for massive jumps, and the pair were swiftly by Karian's side. He probably would not be happy about being snatched up in a pair of enormous jaws, no matter how gentle they were, but frankly neither the Thunderwolf nor his master cared too much. What mattered was them tearing through the enemy and into the warding circle. "Hang on, Karian, we'll be there in a moment!"
Xiaomu The shout of 'Weirdlass' prompts a decidedly irritable look to cross Xiaomu's face, doubly so when it becomes apparent it's directed at *her*. But she gives the Ork a second glance and just shrugs to herself; she didn't introduce herself yet, he didn't know better what to call her, she'll have to attend to THAT before they go their separate ways.

More importantly, the ward - and almost as important if not slightly moreso, covering their retreat. Xiaomu focuses on making the inner arrangement of trailwalls short enough to be stepped or jumped over; there's a lot of slewing and fancy maneuvering involved, and it actually takes enough attention not to spill from those maneuvers that it's *easier* to keep the walls shorter - less energy going into them, though still enough to make sure they're actually there. In slightly more time than it took to set up the initial barrier, there are about eight 'pockets' around the perimeter of the soon-to-be-erstwhile battlefield which are solidly insulated against Chaos's influence. Any Space Wolves who were at risk of succumbing *should* be able to get enough of a breather in one 'pocket' or another to get their heads back on straight.

And with that maneuver complete, Xiaomu brings her lightcycle to a halt and lets it de-rez back to baton form. She stays crouched for the space of several seconds, channeling enough additional chi into the barriers of the ward to let it stay intact for a few minutes ....

Then it's time to head for one of the Thunderhawks or whatever they're called. She's actually going to need somebody to lean on to make decent time; hopefully Brikkfist or somebody will provide the needed support. If it's the Ork who does so, she thanks him with a woozy, "The name's Xiaomu, by the way. Glad to meet you."

.... she *might* be woozy enough to introduce herself to anyone else who supports her in the Ork's stead, actually. It's been one of those days.
Karian Icefang     Karian is picked up easily by Ulbrecht and despite the challenging growls and the want to fight, once inside the circle, the urges die off. "Thank you, Drak <Drake>. The warp's preceanse aroused the beast..." He says, motioning for everyone to pile onto the Thunderhawk. Once the group way away, the bombardment began....and naught but dust would be left...
Bahamut      Bahamut is inherintly resistant to things like chaos influence, but he can still feel the tug on his mind. However, as he does not have a wolf spirit or something inside him trying to urge him into mindless combat he instead covers the retreat of the others. "Go! I will cover the retreat!" Bahamut roars as he drops Flare blasts just beyond groups of the Space Wolves and lets out roars of challenge to try and draw as much attention as he can. He will be able to get away easily enough, after all.
Brikkfist
Sensing Xiaomu faltering a bit, Brikk gladly carries the fox girl bridal style since its the propa thing ta do. "Ello! Nice ta meet'cha too, mate!" He says with a toothy grin as he runs away with fox in arms.
Mortimer Balman      And somewhere, Switchbait floats over to the giant dragon. The ferocity of his psychic anger vaporizes several smaller daemons into clouds of red, bloody smoke that quickly fades back into the Warp. "<Greetings, King of Dragons.>" Even in his rage, he is the epitome of good manners. At least, to those he ISN'T angry at. "<My common name is Switchbait, I am servant to Mortimer W. Balman. I am afraid I must humbly request your assistance in extrication from this damnable rock.>"
Tomoe Tomoe is reaching the end she arrive a bit too lter but she has at least kept a numerb of enemies off her friends an allie she will be moving back to join the others and just lands with them looking very tired and very worn out.
Bahamut      Bahamut blinks as a large butterfly lands on his head, then chuckles. "I am honored to grant your request." he says as he follows the others. "Mortimer...he is the flaming weasel creature, right?"

     Bahamut makes his way onto the Thunderhawk with the others, and it isn't even that cramped thanks to the Space Marines being so large and using such large equipment themselves. He doesn't really need the ride, but he suspects Switch might. And the fire badger is in there, too. "That was a glorious battle." he says with a slight rumble and a grin. "I rarely get to unleash my full power. It is good to simply let go every now and then."
Mortimer Balman      "<Badger, actually, your Majesty. I thank you for the proverbial 'lift'.>" Switch would of course be a good passenger and assist Bahamut how he could- probably by using his psychic powers to nudge orbital shells off to the side so that the two of them would not be struck. "<Glorious? ...If you say so, Majesty.>" Once aboard the Thunderhawk, he would flutter off of Bahamut's head, down to Mort. He looked.. Tired. He wasn't like Mort, maintaining that kind of energy spike was horrendously exhaustive.

     Fluttering became erratic until he simply landed on Mort's lap. "<Do.. Forgive me, Master Balman, I think I.. I believe I rather need a nap.. Zzz..>" "No worries, it's.. ..Heh, already out. Thanks, big fella. I was scared I might have left him behind inadvertently.. I owe you one."
Bahamut      Bahamut rumbles lightly at Switch's comment. "Well, we routed the enemy and managed to save all we could. And we looked good while doing it. I would say that counts as glorious, yes." he says, then blinks as Switch is suddenly out. "Hmm. Is he injured?" Bahamut asks before shaking his head. "You owe me nothing. Brothers-in-arms look out for each other. I would feel just as responsible if he were left behind."
Mortimer Balman      Mort would look the little butterfree over. "He's okay. Just tired. He was never trained for war, like I was- these sorts of outbursts tend to tire him out." He looks way up at the dragon. "And yes, I do owe you- at the very /least/ I owe you a drink. Which I will absolutely insist on to the point of irritation, if need be."
Bahamut      Bahamut blinks, then laughs boisterously at Mort's threat. "Very well. It would honor me to share a drink with you. You are quite welcome to bring a barrel of your finest to the Temple of Bahamut in Bevelle, Spira." he says.
Mortimer Balman      Nods firmly. "Good! I have no idea where the Hell that is, but I can read maps fairly well and I have a pretty good truck. Once I get him home I'll end up swingin' by that way, err.. Once I find it, of course."