MISSION 01 AFTERMATH
Captain Maximus Ensis awoke with a start, ready to defend himself.
His heart raced as memories of the gigantic daemon came rushing back at him and he futily reached for a weapon that wasn’t there.
"Its ok Max, your safe now...", came a deep, soft voice and Maximus opened his eyes to see his Commander smiling down at him, his bold, shiny head gleaming in the white room, a light from behind giving the Commander an almost angelic presence.
Captain Ensis relaxed back down into the softness of what he now realized was a bed; the instruments and harsh beeps of the room signalling his heart beats clearly indicated that he was in the Medical facilities back on the "Shadow Guard", and Maximus had never felt so relived to be back on the magnificent Battle Barge.
"What happened?" he managed, his voice cracking at the dryness of his throat.
Commander Daniel D'Angelo looked down at him with worry in his eyes." you don't remember?" he asked.
Maximus slowly shock his head, searching his memories. "No... The last thing I remember was." He thought for a second, then his blue eyes went wide as the memory came back to him. "- Flying through the air." He looked dumbfounded up at his Commander.
Daniel looked down at him and smiled again. "Yes!", he slowly said, pulling a chair over to the bedside and quietly, with a sigh he sat down.
"It seems we sorely underestimated the enemy's strength.
You where faced with a greater daemon Max, and I do believe he was trying to make you fly there at the end."
Maximus knew that his Commander was trying to cover up the severity of the situation with some sort of humour due to his current health situation, and he wouldn’t have it. "Tell me what happened, I need to know everything." he said, sitting up in bed and wincing slightly as the sharp pain of a cracked rib-plate filled his side.
Daniel looked at his first Captain again, nodded slowly, then carefully began a debrief.
"You have been out for three days Max.
You where on a mission escorting 1500 civilians under Land-Train transport, to be evacuated off-world at Deimos Space Port.
Some twelve clicks outside Deimos the train was routinely stopped and your forces moved in to investigate a possibly compromised area on the train's route, after one of the Imperial Guard recon patrols in the area failed to report in an all-clear.
Your forces landed in three Thunderhawks around one click out from the patrol area, then moved on-ground to investigate while the Thunderhawks stayed on station.
Upon arrival in the general vicinity of the missing patrol, your task-force was assaulted by a group from the Traitor Legions that quickly moved in to engage our forces."
Captain Ensis moved uncomfortably in the bed, sitting more upright as the memories came back to him, and commander D'Angelo handed him a glass of water and a data slate containing image captures of the battle, captured from Marine helmets, Servo Droids and satelites.
D'Angelo sat back in his chair, continuing the story.
"Our satellite images of the area where unclear as a stormy cloud-cover moved in over the general area, but our initial images coupled with on-site reports indicate that a large force of Berserkers moved on from your north-western flank, while an even larger number of traitor marines moved in from the east.
Due to the rapidity of their assault, it is also possible that they had marines hiding in the area already and later reports indicate that they where backed up by a Defiler providing artillery cover as well.
Your right flank was ultimately blocked and you left a force of Scouts and a Tactical unit to secure the area while you shifted the mainstay of your force towards the west to meet the brunt of the enemy attack, pulling the enemy force away from the train tracks.
Once in position, the small bombed out village of the battleground became a liability to our forces.
The enemy was hard to spot or target through the blackened and burned ruins, and you where forced to pull your forces closer in order to get clear firing-lanes. - That is when the enemy sprung their trap.
Marines hiding among the ruins assaulted our forces, tying them up and buying the rest of their force valuable time to get into position.
For a while a fast moving melee was fought in the ruins and it seemed we where winning, our heavy support moving up the middle and along the western flank to cut of the enemy reinforcements; Then all Hell broke loose!"
Captain Ensis felt his hands go cold and a cold shiver came rushing up his spine.
"Daemons!" he said, breathing the word out through clenched teeth<s like a forbidden secret.
"Yes!" Daniel said, looking somewhat sad as he studied his first Captain and friend's reaction.
"Daemons."
"They came out of nowhere, tying up forces on the western flank and in the middle ground just as our forces where assaulted by Chaos Marines on the eastern front as well.
A Greater Daemon pulled in the raging assault around it like a black hole pulls in light. - There was no stopping it and it killed Marine after Marine.
What had previously been a seeming victory against the Traitors suddenly became a slaughter for our men, and as honour demands you pulled your team in to support them, calling in everything you had in the area and signalling the Land-Train to go full speed for Deimos.
The enemy was now truly tied in as a vast melee raged across the whole battlefield.
As the land-Train rushed passed, our forces where slaughtered.
Recon units on the western flank went down while our attack bikes where assaulted by raging berserkers.
On the eastern flank a wild melee raged between our forces there and the grittled Chaos Marines, while in your battle at the war zone’s middle, the rage of the Greater Daemon was unstoppable.
It tore down walls, throwing Marines into collapsing structures and tore others limb from limb.
You, the doctor and Alexander where the only ones standing up to it in the long run, and in the end you where facing it alone.
You where both wounded when it finally took hold of your head and threw you more than fourty meters through the air to land in a heap inside a dangerously unstable building. - We had to activate your emergency teleport-homer immediately to get you out alive."
Captain Maximus looked up at D'Angelo with a pained expression on his face.
"And the rest of the men?" he asked. "What happened to them? What happened to the civilians on the Land-Train? Are they safe?"
With a heavy sigh, Commander D'Angelo leaned forward in his chair, looking his Captain straight in the eyes and shaking his head.
"We failed horribly!" he said.
"Most of the men are safe, evacuated out by Thunderhawk transport.
Once our Task Force was combat-ineffective, the enemy lost all interest and instead went after their original target.
We lost eleven Marines; another twenty-three where injured in varying degrees and around twelve of them are still undergoing medical treatment much like yourself.
We also lost a vindicator, a destructor, a Land Speeder, some Rhinos and some bikes.
Most of these can be repaired, but a few will need to be replaced; Specifically the Vindicator and Predator.
Lt. Commander Alexander got the same flight you did, but required only minour repairs to his bionic body before getting back to his feet; he is currently analyzing our tactical decisions for the mission.
As for Joshua, well; he got a real pounding and got knocked over the head pretty bad, but he is already back on his feet, insisting to lead the medical teams and generally being his same old grumpy self."
Captain Ensis smiled for a moment, but Commander D'Angelo wasn’t done yet and he retained such a serious demeanour that the smile on Captain Ensis' face quickly dissipated.
"The civilians?" he asked, somewhat feebly.
D'Angelo continued, his voice graven; "The Chaos force was blunted by our defence and we bought the train some time, but not enough I'm afraid.
The enemy caught up with the civilian transport a few clicks outside Deimos.
They where able to cut six wagons loose from the train and a short but ultimately hopeless battle broke out between the civilians, the Imperial guard posted with the wagons as well as our Scouts onboard.
After the carnage was over, the Imperial Guard backup arrived to the area only to find their men dead along with three of our scouts and 173 Civilians. - Another 353 civilians are missing and believed to have been taken prisoner for ritual sacrifice.
All in all 525 civilians where lost, but at least our battle slowed the attackers down enough to let the other 975 escape to Deimos. - I believe they are already being evacuated off-world."
Commander D'Angelo got up from his chair, then looked down at his friend, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder with a slight nod, his eyes shining like blue gems as he looked the Captain straight in the eyes.
"Don't worry my friend!" he said. "We will make them pay for this! I will see to that myself!"
With that, the mighty Commander of Fourth Company turned and left the room, leaving the failed Captain alone in the room to fight his daemons by himself.
Captain Ensis pulled aside his blanket and with some pain he got to his feet and started donning his armour.
He wouldn’t be lying down for something as trivial as this when there was still a war going on.
There was work to be done, battles to be fought, revenge to be had!
The people of Medusa V still needed him, and he would be there; Relentlessly Protecting Humanity to the end.
Mission 01 Images
