L-I-1179 ACTIII Tomb of Galahad
Silently the Sable Night slipped into reality, leaving but the smallest murmur in the warp from its departure of the immaterium. The seemless flanks of the strike cruiser absorbed the incoming light from the Helix Clusters sun as it lazily came about, facing its prow towards its prey, the source of all the commotion..the Galahad. With that, the powerful plasma core engines powered up speeding the Sable Night onward. The hunt had begun.
On Deck Sigma 1, Captain Ezra was furiously engaged in a desperate firefight with none other than the royal guard of the emperor himself whom had fired upon them at first sight. Grimly returning fire he knew his chances of survival were slim at best, but Ezra would do as commanded and secure a breach into the Ark. Amidst a flurry of fire Ezra and his assault cadre bounded across the deck expanse, cutting down custodes warriors but paying for it dearly with many lives of Caliban’s sons. Eventually reaching a dreadclaw which had already disgorged its cargo into the awaiting Ark, Ezra and his team planted their melta charges, ready to vent the innards of the Ark out into the void and secure a passageway for his forces to assault the command terminals in the decks below.
Back on the hull of the Sable Night wing commander Talion revved the engine on his Jetbike, alongside him his Ravenwing counterparts did likewise, what they were about to do was a risky venture at best but if Ezra was successful in opening up the Arks hull for even a small period of time, it would allow them direct access to one of the Arks many shuttle bays, a nice wide open expanse allowing them to flood in and spread out across the neighbouring areas of the Ark in search of the command terminals.
As the Arks communications blackout took effect, Vox traffic from Ezra was abruptly cut off, any further communication would now be all but impossible, with no other option available Talion and his riders waited for their chance.
As the final charge was laid Ezra and his fellow assault units withdrew, using the anti-gravity to bound up and over the incoming Custodes warriors, blowing the charges as they sped away from the danger zone. Silently the assault claw began to tear away from the Arks hull before a mass decompression blew the assault craft clear, venting the inner hull and providing a means of entering the Ark for the awaiting Ravenwing forces..
Talion saw the melta charges blow and knew it was now or never, without need of any signal the ravenwing sped into action. Gathering speed and making his final corrections for the jump, Talion reached terminal velocity and lifted off the deck of the Sable Night and into the void separating the two vessels.
Floating in space the Ravenwing Knights were defenceless should any anti-personal weapons from the Ark remain active, however luck was to be on their side and the ships defences lay dormant still. Time seemed to drag on for an age as Talion and his knights made their way across the gap left between the two ships, the hole created by Ezra coming ever closer. Silently the Iron Ram sped past the Knights, charging up its melta lance it fired on full spread, making short work of the breach provided by Ezra, widening it enough that the Ravenwing forces could slip through unimpeded.
Amidst a flurry of activity Preator Locke strode onto the command deck of the Ark Galahad. Bee-lining for the command console where Pallidus, Forgefather of the expedition was currently attempting to placate the ships machine spirit. Locke crossed the expanse taking in the bloody scene within milliseconds. The command deck was choked with smoke and damaged consoles, the ground was littered with the bodies of dead Ravenguard warriors from the recent firefight, two forces pushing for the same objective.. allegiances mattered not as both forces knew they could not willingly cede to another access to the command centre over their own legions plans. ‘ a shame’ muttered Locke as he strode past, he hated the senseless deaths of fellow Astartes, ‘ ‘ especially those whom descended from honourable legions, but none would stand in their path, ‘ ‘ no one was to be trusted, that much was certain after Perturabo’s actions.. ‘ ‘ never again would the Sons of the Lion be made fools of. ‘
Much has transpired to bring Locke here, Ezra facilitating an opening in the Arks hull. Talion invading the training decks and effectively halting the advance of the oncoming IVth legion forces as they made their way to the command station. Mikael selling his life dearly fighting a boarding force of noble VIIth legionnaires holding them off just long enough to extract the command stations hidden coordinates from a docked shuttle which in turn led Pallidus and his forces to breach ever deeper into the Ark before arriving at the command station itself.
As Pallidus gained access he trawled through the incoming data before accessing the command sequences they had come here for, preparing the stations defences and removing safety protocols he targeted the nearby Klevestev station.
‘Weapons primed my Lord’ said Pallidus.
A simple nod was all Locke gave, standing alone infront of the viewing station he watched as the Arks gun batteries were brought to bear on the station orbiting nearby, how many lives had they given to this foresaken Ark already? mused Locke, he just hoped that the information provided to him was worth the lives of Calibans sons as the first salvo of shells wreaked havoc on the station, blowing apart the docking bays and crippling the station. Slowly Locke turned, ‘return to the Sable Night immediately, leave the batteries on automatic cycling and cover our trail’ he commanded and left the command station.
See also L-I-1179 Scions of the First Dawn
