Siege of Ophelia VII

With Xan'tha having dispatched the preacher, the crowd began to panic, fleeing the vengeful weapons of the Chaos space marines and the remaining Hellions who had managed to return to the fight. In all, only 4 hellions had died in the assault, all had been new members, and as such were of no consequence to her. Xan'tha did not know if Andrash was still alive, but if Xan’tha knew him, it would take more than a hundred angry humans to finally put him down.
The Shadow Bolts drank in the glorious waves of pain and torment rolling off of the crowd as they fled retribution. Xan’tha lazily picked off 3 of them with one expertly placed splinter, before impaling another 2 on her stun claw. Suddenly, and explosion rocked her world, and she turned in time to see a chaos space marine with a bear head aiming another shot at her.
“Run you filthy Xenos, Huron isn’t here to protect you now”, and with that he loosed off another shot, Xan’tha and her Shadow bolts dived and swooped, to avoid the fire, and returned fire of their own. Even with all their skill however, the Shadow Bolts only managed to kill 4 chaos marines, including the one who had addressed them, who had a splinter introduced to his brain courtesy of the eyes. However, Xan’tha knew they could not win, and did not want to lose any more hellions that day. Reluctantly she sounded the retreat, and sped off into the night. However, as she was about to leave, she noticed a spire above the Chaos lines and smiled. The spire was badly damaged, and large chunks of it were only being held up by wires. Triumphantly she fired her grenade launches, allowing the detonations to destroy the brick work holding the wires. The chunks of masonry fell towards the Chaos lines, as Xan’tha lead the Shadow Bolts away, to plan their next assault.

The flight across Hive Thor lasted only ten minutes, but to Fatima it had felt almost like an eternity. Soaring above the shattered hive, the Seraphim had been given a full view of the devastation that the Traitor Marines had wrought. Habs and administratum buildings lay gutted and wrecked, smoke and flame billowing from their ruined frames. Once resplendent archways and buildings now lay as piles of sooty rubble on the streets, canals and collonades, and shrines and waystations for pilgrims were now defiled in every way imaginable-- offal and filth lay piled in front of devotional markers, statues of the Emperor and His Saints were maimed and torn, holy parchments were shredded or doused in fresh blood. Fatima felt her choler rise at every passing sight, and added to her hatred of the Traitors as she flew onwards. The heretics would burn for this, she promised to herself. They would all burn.

The long flight also gave Fatima and her squad a better view of the fighting. All told, things did not look good for the forces of the Imperium. Once or twice they flew over scenes of embattled PDF troopers or zealots being overwhelmed by Traitor Marines, the heretic Astartes seemingly unstoppable as they rampaged across the city. Clanking, twisted walkers stomped across streets and through walls, howling for blood through warped vox-units, and once or twice Fatima saw glimpses of twisted, half-formed things scampering from strange ripples on the ground-- each time, Fatima was forced to tear her vision away and mouth the Rites of Protection. She soon learned that it wasn't just the Traitor Marines who were attacking Hive Thor, however-- lithe figures in barbed armour ghosted through the streets, and sleek skimmers raced between buildings with shrieking engines. Fatima was quick to recognize them as the twisted shapes of Eldar pirates, and it merely made her stomach churn further to know that such fell foes were defiling the Emperor's shrines, slaying His soldiers, and inflicting suffering upon His faithful. Time and again, Fatima wanted to lead her squad downwards, to swoop down on the Emperor's foes and save the embattled trooper she saw. But she and her sisters had their orders, and duty always came first. She was, all the same, thankful that none of the Chaos forces had spotted her squad yet-- silhouetted against the tortured grey sky, the white armour and blazing jet exhausts of the Seraphim must surely have stood out.

It wasn't long before they cleared the urban areas and found themselves soaring over the grounds of the Governor's Palace. Strobe lights and tracer fire crisscrossed back and forth across the palace, and Fatima could make out the odd aircraft making passes overhead as well. On the ground in the distance, she could see the all-too familiar sight of a battleground-- of armoured vehicles and infantry on two fronts, of earthworks, the pinpricks of small arms fire and the dull boom and candle-like blaze of explosions. As they approached further, Fatima made out the shapes on one side-- PDF troopers in their flak armour, and the gratifying sight of Sororitas in Godwyn plate.

"Descend!" she ordered. As one, the Seraphim touched down near what appeared to be a PDF command post, their jets kicking up dust and debris. Stunned PDF soldiers whirled around to face them, but lowered their weapons when they recognized them as Adepta Sororitas, the Daughters of the Emperor.

"Who's in charge here?" Fatima demanded.

One PDF soldier in the livery of an officer stepped forward. "Lieutenant Crogan, Hive Thor Primary," he said, flashing a salute.

Fatima returned the gesture. "Sister Superior Fatima, Order of the Blessed Damsel," she replied, before gesturing to her squad. "My Sisters and I were at the Chapel of St. Kyrillios when we heard a call for reinforcements."

Crogan nodded. "That was us," he replied. "We're working with Canoness Lavinia to try to take back the Governor's Palace."

Fatima frowned. Nearby, a PDF Leman Russ rumbled, shaking the ground as it opened fire at a distant target with its battle cannon. "Take it back? You mean the heretics have seized it?"

The lieutenant gave a weary nod. "We've seen Traitor Marines stationed by the main gate. They're dug in pretty tightly, and we don't know about the status of the Governor. All communications into the Palace have been blocked."

The news made Fatima's frown tighten. "Then we'll have to crack the Palace open to find out," she replied.

"In a sense, yes," Crogan replied, turning in the command post to gesture into the distance. Beyond the PDF earthworks, Fatima saw some similar entrenchments ringing the main gate of the Governor's Palace. Fatima's keen eyes quickly made out two entrenched groups of Traitor Marines, their red armour reminding her of gashing wounds against gangrenous skin as they blazed away at the PDF lines with heavy bolters. Situated between them was a tank, built on a Predator chasis, its autocannon turret traversing left and right and belching out shells while its heavy bolter sponsons did the same.

"We're trying to get across open ground," Crogan explained, "but the Traitors have too much heavy weaponry on that side. We dont have enough heavy weapons to deal with them, and our Russes have been unable to knock out that Predator. If we're going to maintain our advance, we need to knock out that tank."

For a moment, Fatima was silent. The Predator was positioned almost perfectly between the two enemy Havoc squads. Any attack on it would be subjected to fire from the heavy bolters as well.

"And I suppose you need a jump assault unit to break through?" she asked.

Crogan gave a weary shrug. "Yes, um...if you please, Sister Superior."

She turned to fix him with a glare. "A simple yes would have been enough, Lieutenant Crogan," she said. "Indecisiveness is an unfitting trait for a soldier of the Imperium. I want you to concentrate as much fire as you can on one of those heavy weapon teams as we cross the gap-- we want you to keep them distracted for as long as possible." Spinning on her heel, she turned to her Squad. "Seraphim, prepare for a short jump. Be ready for intense enemy fire. Ave Imperator."

"AVE IMPERATOR!" her squad responded as one.


The Seraphim are going to fly up and shoot at one of the Havoc squads at close range, casting their Act of Faith as they do so. If possible, they will try to hit some members of the other Havoc Team with their flamers as well if possible. All the while, they will try to have the PDF fire into the other Havocs. If any Havocs from the first squad survive, then the Seraphim will charge them, and try to multi-charge into the Predator in the process and hit it with krak grenades/Fatima's eviscerator.

If their shooting wipes the Predator out, however (which is wholly possible, as they have multiple flame templates that will hopefully be rerolling wounds), then next turn they will flame and charge the other Havocs, and, in the process, again try to multi-charge the Predator as well.