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Karian Icefang     Space...The Final Frontier. Though these are not the voyages of a famous space ship interested in diplomacy and peace. Instead, these were the glory filled tales of the Ragnarok, a Strike Cruiser belonging to the Imperium. It's journey has lead it to an Imperial Outpost currently under seige by a chaos warband belonging to the infamous Black Legion. The defenders, brave Imperial Guardsmen, knew they were outmatched, but at the sight of the Wolf cruiser, they let out a vox of praise and thanks, knowing they now had an actual fighting chance.
Mortimer Balman      Mortimer reclined in a seat built for people far bulkier than he. Polishing the blade of his oversized sword, the Grand Daiklave he called Magenesh. A weapon that would be considered worthy of Chapter Masters, by Imperium standards. Bright sun-kissed gold with a core made of lava-tempered red jade. Magnificent weapon, all things told. He was fond of it by now. It took a while to ensure such an oversized piece of metal was cleaned properly- even though it didn't rust or dull, because of the materials that it was composed of.

     He would tell some of the younger Blood Claws of how he came by such a weapon, because they enjoyed such tales before battle. How he originally had a much smaller 'Wavecleaver' daiklave, but lost it when throwing it into the heart of the mad god Discord in Equestria, which two of their brothers aided in fighting. And then this one was made for him, to fight Viridian Sunrise, the Emperor of the Multiverse, and a brief- EXTREMELY abridged- version of the final battle against the soul of the Emperor in Annu. Such stories are made to inspire and fill the listeners with visions of glory and victory. The truth.. Would not be glossed over or embellished, but it would not be lingered on for long.

     It had been some time since he'd actually performed a /marine/ action like this. He hoped they had drop pods for boarding, and not just teleporters. He hated their teleporters.
Karian Icefang     The Ragnarok moved quickly into the fighting line, mag-cannons firing off their payloads into the closest chaotic cruiser. "Drak! We're getting a priority alert from one of the cruisers. They're reporting that boarding torpedo's have struck and they have chaos marines moving for the bridge. We're diverting our course to render assistance. Once we're in range, your pod will deploy. Save anyone you can." Karian vox's down. He remained on the bridge, trying to spot out the lead vessel of the invaders so he could lead a marine action himself.
Mortimer Balman      "You lads stay here, Karian'll need you for his boarding action." Mortimer stood up and hefted the blade as though it weighed nothing, and began walking. One Blood Claw piped up, "But Drake! Will you not need suppo-" He was cut off by another Claw, "I've seen him in battle. He's a walking volcano, we would only risk being burnt up ourselves to be near him." Mort nodded, "Aye.. You lads be safe, now. Yer expensive little bastards, don't waste all the efforts what've gone into ya." A few shouts of luck and cheer, and Mortimer boarded his pod.

     A servitor voice droned on at him from a nearby cogitator. "Launch preparations set. Please buckle in. Do not attempt to disembark before the drop pod has come to a full and complete stop. Ave Imperium, Ave Imperator." Now.. The wait.
Karian Icefang     Karian nods softly once they were in range. A final volley from from Aft Mag-cannons clears the sky for Mort's Drop pod to deploy towards the Cruiser. All around it, the old firebadger would see on a tactical display that at least 3 torpedo's impacted the ship, leaving at least 24 Chaos marines on board. "Mort, My Iron Priest is transmitting over activation codes for the ships engine's. I imagine the tech-priests will likely have initiated a full shut down. The rites should rouse the machine-spirit to life again, provided it has not been lost. If it has, we'll lock onto your signal and teleport you out...I don't like teleporting any more then you, but your too well liked to be left on a dying ship...even if you did drunk my wolfguard under the table last feast."
Mortimer Balman      "I'll see what I can do, yeah. Hopefully some of the ship's crew have some basic experience with maintenance and activation rites, that'll make the job go faster. I anticipate jamming from Traitor equipment, so.. I'll give you a call when I've retaken the bridge." He adjusts his buckle a bit. "Have a nice day."

     The pod screams across the void, alone. 24 Chaos Marines. Less than he'd feared, more than he wanted. But for common humans, 24 Space Marines may as well be an army. And they are woefully underequipped to fight it- as he recalled the ship's defense crews were often outfitted with shotguns and other close range combat weapons, which would put them at quite the disadvantage save for raw numbers. No matter. Rally the crew, save as many as can be saved, win the day. Straightforward task. No pressure.

     The pod slammed into a wall and disgorged Mortimer once a seal had been formed to prevent vacuum. He was outside of the ship's chapel, and could hear terrified voices screaming, crying, and praying fervently for salvation. A single traitor Marine was pounding on the door, slowly smashing through it- he'd made the mistake of taking his time, to prolong the terror of those within.. And then he saw Mortimer.

     That was the last thing he would see for some time, as the flames engulfed him and incinerated his organic tissues within seconds. "Pitiable wretches.. ...One down, twenty three or so to go."
Karian Icefang     Those inside the chapel could hear the sounds of the Chaos Marine's horrible expiring, and a brave guardsmen opted to open the door after a few long moments, shotgun in his hands. Upon sighting Mort, and the Space Wolf insignia on the drop pod currently buried into the hull, he sighs softly. "Thank the Emperor..." He says. He quickly slips back inside, and soon after a small group of guardsmen and one surviving tech-priest emerge. In total, 10 survivors. "Thank you for the assistance, My Lord. We thought we were dead for sure." The tech-priest spoke up next, his voice a monotone. "I can feel the machine-spirit crying out in pain. It tells me the heretics are trying to rig the engine core to overload. Last command personnel vox indicated a squad of Astartes were seiging the bridge. Ship captain is not responding to status ping. Suggest investigation or designation of new captain."
Mortimer Balman      "Fear not, children of the Emperor. I am a friend." Is the first thing that Mort says when the Guardsman pokes his head out. And a Tech-Priest, too! "Eleven, and I make twelve. Not the largest force, but it's a damned fine start." He quickly takes stock of the Guardsmens' situation, health, and arms. "You there-" He points to the soldier who looks least shaken, "Congratulations, you've been promoted. You will be my second in command of this little group. Your task is to escort the Enginseer to the engines and reactors, and get this ship back online. Form a five man squad. You and you-" He points to the youngest looking soldiers, "You two will follow me, and we will retake the bridge. The remaining three of you will stay here and protect the Chapel, any civilian personnel we find will be sent this way and you *will* protect them with your lives, am I clear? Nettle! Show yourself!"

     Wraithly giggles emanate as Nettle fades into the physical space from her place in Mort's head. "<The Dead heed thy call, my Master.>" "Accompany the Tech-Priest and his bodyguards, ensure they survive. Do not fail." "<As you wish, Master. Come, my little mortal darlings~ the souls of your fallen brothers and sisters yet linger here, and they will keep you safe so long as you keep faith~>"

     Mortimer hefts his sword. "We must be swift now, children, lest we lose control of the ship. Let's go."
Karian Icefang     The guardsmen are a bit unnerved by the sight of Nettle, but they quickly fall into place. The enginseer and his squad would find there was some traps along their way, but it was relatively uneventful. Meanwhile, poor Mort and his men would almost come immidiately under fire once they moved to the next level. "Quickly! Kill them, Brothers!We must take this ship for the Despoiler!" One man shouts to the other. "T-The Despoiler?!" One guard with the old firebadger shouts, before quickly regaining his mettle and trying his best to suppress the chaos marines.
Mortimer Balman      Nettle will not let the Engineer or his retinue come to harm. Her dark powers to control the shadows will be used to trigger traps from safe distances, and if any Chaos Marines show up.. Well, t hen the Guard will be treated to a grotesque sight as her head splits open like some kind of hideous langolier and she shreds them to pieces, cackling all the while. Or, if a Sorcerous sort shows itself, she will intone in tongues the Multiverse does not translate and they will watch skeletal hands and moaning skulls appear in their multitudes and leech the poor psyker until he is a husk. Which isn't very pretty either.

     As for Mortimer.. The massive size of the daiklave allows it to be used as an impromptu shield, blocking boltshells and enabling him to get into close combat with Traitor Marines. Even at his age, both physica and psychological, he's far faster than any Space Marine, traitor or loyalist. And though many may be stronger than he is.. His blade can cut through power armor as readily as anything else, and he has little difficulty in lopping off heads or cutting torsos in twain. "Despoiler... Pfeh! A strange way to say /failure/." Taunting the Chaos Marines to focus on him will, ideally, keep his little charges from drawing as much fire.
Karian Icefang     "Trying to goad me, Mutant?" Calls out the traitor sargeant. If Mort looks close enough, he might actually recognize the man as one of the Blood Claws he once served with on an op. "No, no, no.....I'm not falling for it, Fire badger. I've seen how you fight before...or do you not recognize me?" He asks, firing rounds directly for Mort. Elsewhere, the were still no chaos forces. But rather once the group finds the engine core, they'd find a melta bomb rigged up. "By the Omnissiah! They intend to destroy the engine. I must disarm that bomb. Provide me with cover."
Mortimer Balman      Mortimer patiently moves the blade, following the path of the barrel. "....Ah.. Yes." His face hardens a bit. He actually just stands there for a moment, letting the bolts hit the blade. "...For what it's worth, son- I'm sorry." And then he drops the sword and falls to one knee, expelling a massive gout of flames to bathe the young traitor in cleansing fires until armor melts and flesh crisps. The Guardsmen will feel the heat even from far away, even if they're hiding behind cover. He's turning the area around the traitor into a veritable crematorium.

     Nettle meanwhile.. Fades out of sight, hiding herself into a wall. She waits patiently for the Tech-Priest to do his job, having absolute faith in his ability to disarm the explosive before it kills them all.
Karian Icefang     The once wolf screams out in pain. "Damn....you......old.....bastard!" He screams out, his hand slowly moving to his belt. Just as it looks like he was going to expire, the squad of traitors vanished, and the air was charged with the effects of a teleporter. Downstairs, the Enginseer quickly worked on the Melta bomb, managing to actually disarm it it surprisingly record time, for him at least. "Reporting bomb disarmed. Still awaiting designation or status of ship captain." The priest monotones, waiting for orders from the captain.
Mortimer Balman      Mortimer huffs a bit when the boy and his retinue teleport away. "Cowards.." A brief, sad shaking of the head. Then he'd call out to his Guard followers, "Double time now, children! Lead me to the bridge!" They know the ship better than he does. A wave of his hand dissipates the flames and heat, and they start running. "Well done, Enginseer. We'll be to the bridge soon- let us pray the officers staff has survived."

     Nettle reappears and settles herself on the Tech-Priest's head, "<Well done, dear heart!~>" He'll probably find it unsettling, but he'll have to deal with it nonetheless.

     Once Mortimer and his crew have reached the main doors to the bridge, Mortimer will take the short route and simply superheat a large spot on the door and smash right through it. DYNAAAMIIIIC ENTRYYYYYYYYYY.
Karian Icefang     The guardsmen lead mort up to the bridge and as they enter in, they would see the entire crew was slaughtered, with tell-tale signs of beast claws. In fact, they'd be a bit similar to Ulbrechts. "The....The captain's dead! What do we do?" He calls out. Down below, the Tech-Priest quickly runs around, checking over all the gauge's and switches, ensuring things are running. MEanwhile, a staticy vox breaks through. "Mort! I hope your hearing this...We just detected ships coming out of the warp near your position! We're covering as best we can, but I'd suggest you get your arse moving out of there!"
Mortimer Balman      Not much time. Never much time. "Alright kids, guard the doors in case the Traitors return. Where's the Cap.." He sees what'ss left of the ship's captain on the floor, and sighs. No sign of a commissar.. Probably eaten whole, given those claw marks. ...Irritating. He runs over to the vox casters, "Attention all surviving crew, under authority of the Space Wolves and with the blessing of the Ordo Malleus, I am taking control of this ship for the time being- we will appoint you a new captain later. All hands, ready for battle. Load the macro cannons. Engine room, get us as much power as you can. Helm! Bring us about to port!" And then a broadcast, wide band, to the Wolves. "Bridge retaken. Traitor Marines fallen back. Ship is ours, give us a few more seconds!"
Karian Icefang     From near the pair of ships emerge a large trio of Strike cruisers from the warp. they fire indiscriminately at the claimed Cruiser and the Ragnarok, who returns fire with gusto. "Hope you've got a plan with that ship, Drak...Lock teleporters on their signals just in case." Karian orders, grimmacing at the idea.
    Over on the ship, everyone runs into place, their training kicking in like clockwork. Guns come up online first, with the engines a close second. "The Machine-Spirit is coming online, Captain. Engine's awakening."
Mortimer Balman      "Excellent. ALL GUNS, FIRE AT WILL! TARGET THE ENEMY'S WEAPONS PLATFORMS!" The Cruiser's macro cannons begin joining the Ragnarok's- they don't expect to destroy the Chaos ships. Merely drive them off, if possible. This crate has suffered heavy losses and is in no condition for a prolonged battle. Which may be what they are counting on. "Keep a safe distance from us, Karian! We don't want to risk crossing each others' line of fire! Tech-Priest, see if you cannot give us afterburners and retro-rockets for high speed turns, we'll be in the thick of it soon!"

     Return fire from the Chaos ships rocks the poor battered Cruiser- this isn't even a major military vessel. But with a Space Marine Strike Cruiser there, and a whole company of Space Wolves... They might just have the firepower needed to drive back a few Traitor ships. At least.. They would have been able to do that. If there weren't more on their way.

     "Lord uhh.. Dr-drake?" "What is it, Helmsman?" The pilot shakily points at his holoscreen feeds. "More ships are coming. Three.. Four.. FIVE more ships, sir! That's a battleship!!" "Calm down lad, calm down. TECH-PRIEST, WHERE ARE OUR AFTERBURNERS?! We need to retreat, NOW! Ragnarok, come in, begin falling back, the enemy is going to overwhelm us- I say again, fall back! We're preparing emergency warp translation shortly!" Frantically, people continue at their posts. It's a madhouse almost, as cannons are loaded as fast as is humanly possible. More ships begin to appear around the local space. They are outnumbered. And there is a full fledged battleship at the forefront.

     This is no longer a battle. It is a desperate effort to escape.
Mortimer Balman      The much smaller Naval cruiser, beaten as it is, is slow to try and keep up with the much faster Strike Cruiser. She has better armor, but not better engines. This represents a problem, because the Strike Cruiser will be forced to slow down to stay within range of the teleport beacons.

     And that's a REALLY big problem, because all of the Chaos ships are bearing down on the Cruiser, while lances and nova cannons are used to harass the Strike Cruiser. They're forcing the Marines away from their prize- and the Marines are well aware that a single Naval Cruiser is not worth half as much as a Space Marine vessel, even a smaller one. The Chaos battleship looms close behind the Navy Cruiser, arcs of lightning visible across the void of space as Chaos Terminators warp on board. Another pair of smaller craft rapidly move alongside it- they are pounded by the Cruiser's macro cannons, but are nonetheless firing payloads of drop pods.

     "Damn it! All hands, prepare to repel boarders! Every man, woman, and child who can use a weapon is hereby ordered to take up arms! Ready yourselves, we're not getting out of here without a fight! Tech-Priest, how much longer?!" "Another.. Minute, maybe two, Captain. ...I cannot make it go any faster. Forgive me." "Nothing to forgive. We must hold out."
Karian Icefang     Karian curses a litany as he spots the battleship and cruisers moving in. "I want every weapon on this ship firing on those Traitor ships or..." He started, until he noted the battleship locking onto the Ragnarok. "Damn it. Double up the shields! Get our engine's moving." "Jarl, what about the drake?!" "Keep us mobile but stay in range!"
Mortimer Balman      Drop pods slam into the cruiser's hull. Chaos Marines and cultists spill out in their multitudes before the anti-boarder guns can be fully brought to bear. Hundreds.. Thousands of them. And they aren't alone. Sorcerors are there as well, summoning daemons by the dozen to augment their forces. This ship has meaning to them for some reason or another- but who knows what that meaning is?

     The ship's local vox chatter explodes with screams and gunfire. It's become a massacre in there. The enemy has them outnumbered, outgunned, and outclassed. And there is nothing anyone can do to stop it, not with a mere two loyalist ships.
Karian Icefang     Within moments, civilians were being ported off of the doomed ship onto the teleportarium of the Ragnarok. The shields were holding for the moment, but they were taking a beating. Mag-cannons and lance's were barking back, scoring an engine kill on one of the chaos ships. "Fine shot, but we're not out of the woods yet."
Mortimer Balman      And then, quite suddenly, the teleportarium stops working. Entirely. As though a thread was cut. No more people are getting off that boat.. And Mortimer is still on board.
Karian Icefang     "Get that damned teleportatium fixed, Damn it!" Karian barks out. He watches the scene unfolding in front of him, cursing and swearing vengence upon the forces of chaos on this day, but he quietly was slowly beginning to realize there may only be one way out of this, much as he hated to say it.
Mortimer Balman      The vox casters on the Naval ship slowly go silent, one by one. Mortimer's voice finally crackles back to life on Karian's end. "...Get out of here, son. It's time to go. ...Don't argue with me, and don't waste time. You're out of it. We're.. Out of it. ...Go."
Karian Icefang     Karian fell quiet for what seemed like an eternity. Once he finally did speak, his voice was mixed with sorrow and rage. "...Take as many of the bastards with you as you can...Until Next Winter, old friend." He looks to his brothers. "You heard the Drake...get us out of here. Today, the chapter lost a hero, and we will honor his memory."
Mortimer Balman      Chuckling comes from the vox caster. "Of course.. ..Be safe, my boy." The cruiser executes a high speed turn, the bow scraping across a disabled Chaos ship's hull, tearing a great hole in and half-ruining the beautiful double headed eagle motif. The ship's main engines and afterburners roar to life, searing the ship behind it as it rights itself to aim for the main battleship.

     The main battleship is attempting to get away, realizing what they are going to do. It's initiating an emergency warp, but there will not be enough time for that..
Karian Icefang     The Ragnarok manages to disengage from the fight, shifting all power to it's engines. Once it reaches a safe distance, it too begins to prepare for warp transition. "...Prove me wrong, old man..and kick death's arse into bringing you back." He says, mostly to himself. Then, once more to his crew he speaks. "Check on those we were able to bring aboard. Tend to their wounds, if any....And make sure we have a pict of the enemy ships. We will hunt them down."
Mortimer Balman      The cruiser is fired upon by the battleship, but by this point it is far too late. All of its fuel is being spent at once, all engines pushed to the point of collapsing and self-destruction.

     The lesser ship slams full force into the bridge of the Chaos battleship, at the exact moment it begins it's warp translation.. Parts of an explosion are seen- some of it is sucked into the Warp, much of it is not- and an expanding vapor cloud is all that remains in space.

     The other Chaos ships will start leaving, seeing that they cannot catch the Space Wolves' Strike Cruiser. They have wounds to lick.
Karian Icefang     Karian waits until the explosion and for the boom before his ship leaps into the warp, leaving the area. The Wolf Lord reaches to his belt, and draws forth a flask. He takes a long shot from it, and then pours out a measure, the exact measure the drake always enjoyed. No words are spoken, no songs or boasts of glory. But rather the seething anger, and pain of a great loss.