Dariar shifted slightly, feeling the thrum and roar of the stormravens engines reverberated through his armour. He twisted and clicked his neck, stretching and realigning his muscles, attempting to remove an annoying knot. It shifted after a couple of stretches, slowly being moved down his back before dispersing. He shivered, not entirely from the chill of the cabin, before locking his helm into place. The suite of augur runes and vox channels sprang into sight as it connected with the core of his power armour. He checked his wrist mounted storm bolter, ensuring it was correctly interfaced with his armour and that the magazines were secure in their housing. With a brief thought he opened the vox channel.
“Squad Dariar, Vox check.”
“Venias, Check”
“Senidar, Check.”
“Nescar, Check.”
“Minos, Check”
“Therier, Check.”
“Golthar, check.”
“Ascindir, check.”
“Nyxos, Check.”
“Rygill, Check.”
“Chaplain Norn, Check”
Dariar nodded towards the chaplain, acknowledging the presence of his superior, before continuing with the briefing. “The situation on Dadrila was triggered one standard month ago, there was reports of a xenos insurrection, followed by a mass uprising. This was subdued by planetary forces, but not before a second assault occurred. We have yet to confirm who these second group of assailants are, but judging by their recent movements, we believe that they are traitor Astrates from the Gangrenous Claw Corsairs. There is already reports of plague vectors throughout the hab zones of the world.”
He glanced back up to his battle brothers, willing a hololith to be projected into the cabin. “Our squad will be inserted here,” He pointed at a large tower standing in the city. “from there we will progress down, further into the city. Considering the situation the city itself is currently locked down, deliveries of corpse starch arrive for each hab block on a daily basis, along with inspections by Hospitaliers of the Adeptus Sororitas.”
“Let the maids deal with the mortals, I am looking forwards to purge these traitors wherever they hide.” Ascindir growled, hefting his multi melta for emphasis
“That is, if you can hit them with that weapon, Brother,” Nyxos needled, inclining his head slightly, his voice its usual purr, “What was it that happened last time with the Aeldari?”
Ascindir chuckled “They were too fast! none of them would sit still for me to burn them! Except that arrogant one. Thought I had killed them with a solid shot.”
Dariar smiled beneath his helm and continued to look at his battle-brothers, Their Copper-Bronze armour shining from the dim lumen strips of the cabin, whilst reflecting a slight blue-green tinge from the light given off from the plasma gun wielded by Nyxos.

A vox ident rune began flashing in Dariar’s helm, he blink-clicked to receive the incoming message.
“Kyras here, we are taking on heavy fire from below. we have yet to pinpoint the position of hostiles, so be on guard when you deploy.”
“Message received Brother Sergeant, good hunting to your squad.”
“And to yours. Kyras out.”
Dariar let out a long breath that he didn’t know he was holding. Before he could relay the message to his squad, the stormraven shook slightly, as something impacted against its hull.
“hostiles encountered, taking evasive action” Warned the gunships pilot over the cabin vox.
“Message received, how long until insertion?” Dariar growled.
“Three hundred seconds aproximately Brother Sergeant.”
In response a chronometer appeared in the corner of his lens, counting down the seconds. The chattering sound of the assault cannons starting up could be heard above. He looked back at the hololith, seeing the position of the two stormravens descend towards the towers of the city. A barrage of impacts made the aircraft to shudder, causing Dariar to register a flicker of fear. He breathed, acknoledging it before burying it deep within his mind. The floor shifted as they jinxed past another barrage of heavy fire.
“Who watches from the darkest night?” Intoned Norn, his voice almost appearing from nowhere beneath his skull mask.
The battle brothers looked up at the chaplain before responding “The sentinels.”

“who guards the deepest void?”
“The sentinels”

“Who’s armour burns with his light?”

“The sentinels.”

Dariar checked the chronometer ticking down, less than ninety seconds to go. Above the sound of the assault cannons was joined with the hum of multi meltas picking off more heavily armoured targets. Checking the hololith, Kyras’s squad had missed their insertion point, instead finding an alternative landing point on the ground, the squad ident rune appearing below their gunship as it pulled away, trying to move out of the hail of fire.
“Who are the burnished sons of Dorn?” The Chaplain had reached the peak of the chapters vow of affirmation, just as the rear ramp of the gunship began to open.
“The Sentinels!”
“With me Brothers!” Chaplain Norn turned to the ramp at the rear of the stormraven, breaking off into a short run before leaping off, onto the rooftop of the building below, his onyx terminator armour glinting in the light of the planet’s sun. The field of his rosarius flared as small arms fire began to concentrate on his form. Dariar and his squad followed him out, rolling with the impact as they landed and bringing their weapons to bear on their attackers. The building overlooking them seemed to where the majority of their assailants were concentrated. Quickly assessing the situation, Dariar led his squad into cover behind an air filtration system. He crouched down, bringing his storm bolter to bare against the hostile forces above. A flash of a heavy weapon made him duck beneath the cover, only to hear a scream from nearby. He turned to see the source of the sound.
“Throne! I’ve been hit.” Senidar shouted, clawing his way into cover, his left leg removed at the thigh from what was clearly an anti tank weapon. Already his transhuman physiology had begun to seal the wound, efficiently clotting and closing off the damaged arteries and veins. His battle brothers carefully grabbed his arms, pulling him into the shadow of the filtration system.
Dariar took a breath to centre himself before opening a vox channel. “This is squad Dariar,....”

Kyras watched as the storm raven gunship ploughed into the sky, smoke trailing from its damaged engines. The journey down had been rough, particularly once they had hit the storm of fire that had greeted them as they neared the insertion point. The intended area for the squad to deploy had been overrun, although it was not yet clear as to by who. The pilot had skilfully avoided the worst of the storm, putting them down by street level in the shadow of one of the high rise towers that made up the capital of Dadrila. He turned to the two accompanying officers for his squad, Leiutenant Ratica and Apothecary Gulliasi. Ratica had already removed his helm, mag clamping it to his hip and tasing the air of the new world. Kyras could tell that Gulliasi was glaring at the leiutenant from beneath his helm. As he was about to address the assembled squad the vox rune in his helm flashed in is helm before connecting him with the incoming message.
“This is squad Dariar, we successfully landed at our insertion point but are pinned under heavy fire, what is the situation with you?”
Before Kyras could reply, Ratica had already responded.
“Recieving you Dariar, had a bumpy ride in and our insertion point was already occupied, luckily our pilot moved to the shadows to keep away from the hostiles. Preparing to meet up with the hospitalier teams presently. Do you require air support?”

“Air support would be much obliged Lieutenant, Dariar out.”

Ratica sighed, his hands briefly waving over his twin plasma pistols, already he was itching for a fight.
“You will have your fight soon enough brother. Need to send that request in first.” Gulliasi advised.
Ratica nodded, before setting his vox to send a message to their command.