Caterina surveyed the carnage that was laid out before her. The star of this dusty reddish world was starting its trip across the sky, barely rising in time to behold the vicious onslaught that was about to unfold. The battlefield of bastion A-21 was riddled with craters caused by powerful explosions, smoldering hulks of armored vehicles, and pools of the Emperor’s faithful servant’s blood. It was a dismal scene, but the day was won.
Past the array of fortified aegis barriers, the Imperial officer that was sent to aid the Palatine and her forces was working with his vox-man to raise any elements of his men that might be lost on the battlefield. Several squads were committed to the front line defense of the bastion. They braved the night and the fire that scorched the sky and earth around them.
The men of the Planetary Defense Force stood bravely against the planet assault of the Adeptas Astartes. Despite their best efforts, nothing could prepare them for the ferocity of battling the Raven Guard. Some of the scattered men may return, but she knew they would find just as many dead, just as she would find many of her sisters.
The palatine turned her head to a groan that came from the ground, one of the space marines stirred. She was not at all surprised he was still alive; she only severed his hand, arm and destroyed the front of his armor with her blade, devastating his abdomen. He was a space marine after all, most of the wound would heal itself immediately, bleeding would stop, the power armor and gene-seed of the Emperor made these men almost impossible to fell for even several of her sisters. He was too wounded to fight, but with aid would return to the battlefield in a matter of days.
Her head turned to face a large crater full of burning metal, a piece showed the white Raven like emblem of the chapter across it. A well placed melta shot detonated the drop pod as she and her seraphim battled for their lives with space marine terminators and a squad that charged to help. Now along with the burning pieces of the drop pod, bodies of seraphim lay strewn across the ground with large hulking marines in black armor. Her seraphim were sisters with jump packs, they plummeted to the ground in mid battle to give much needed support and surprise the enemy. She was the last of the ten to be standing.
Quickly Caterina jerked her head to the patch of rocks further away. Three large rocks were packed close together, the gaps protected by more Imperial Guard Aegis defense fortifications. She scanned the area for a black figure that appeared earlier on the battlefield. At the pile of bodies she watched the terminator space marine sergeant fell her last seraphim, Caterina watched as he blade deflected pathetically off the personal shield that the special armor gave the marine. He turned to face Caterina for the final show down. Their blue lighting wreathed blades met, but she was forced on the defensive early as her blade deflected once again from the marine’s personal shield. He made no sound as he pressed the attack, Caterina having no such protection was forced to parry blow after blow away or lose her life.
Suddenly a black blur caught her eyesight in a flash, but was gone. She worried it was a fellow marine but it moved too quickly. The sergeant she was battling missed it entirely, and that proved fatal. Standing behind the eight foot tall marine was a woman sheathed in a protective skin tight suit, a shimmering blade held in her left hand. The assassin danced in behind the man and slashed her sword across the power source of his terminator armor severing several leads and the man’s spine. His face turned into a painful grimace and Caterina gaped as the assassin delivered two more blows before the marine hit the ground. The shield never had a chance at stopping that blade, the blade of the C’tan, a definite call-sign of the Callidus temple. Those blades were nothing short of the power of a star-diety melded into the fixings of a sword. It allowed the blade to pass through any armor and shield regardless of thickness or power.
The assassin was present on the battlefield, but as fast as the night began to turn to day, she was gone. The dust storm was quickly approaching and there was no time to waste. Caterina knelt on the ground beside the wounded marine and took his arm.
“My brother, this field is lost to you today. It would be an affront to the Emperor himself to let anymore of his faithful bleed to death on this rock. Contact your brothers, advise them we will be caring for your wounded and sending a Hospitaller rhino to the drop zone with whatever survivors we can find. On this I swear to the holy Emperor himself.”
The marine laid there a moment, digesting the words the fellow warrior standing over him. “As you wish it…” the marine’s metallic voice echoed deeply from his helmet.
“Palatine Caterina, of the Sisters of the Burning Blade,” she added.
“Palatine.” The marine nodded and began to signal through their internal communications to command.
A deep red rhino barreled quickly up beside Caterina, kicking up more sand and dust everywhere. She shielded her eyes and most of the debris clung to her blood coated armor.
“Mistress!” a younger woman dressed in white and red robes shouted as she leapt wildly from the vehicle before its magnetic brakes finished engaging. “Are you injured!?” The young woman wore a small panel and computer on her wrist that she immediately activated and began waving in front of Caterina. The woman was barely in her twenties, her hair covered by a white head dress and a white shawl hung at the side of her face.
The woman was a Sister Hospitaller; the image of a blade with a single drop of blood shown on her chest piece signified she was part of the order of the Sacred Wound. These sisters we masters of mercy and could keep even the more grievously wounded soldiers alive to fight for the Emperor once more. Likewise their skills of healing are of great value to Inquisitors who need to extract valuable information by way of pain and torture. The sisters Hospitaller despise the heretic and the witch and few are often found alongside an Inquisitor acting as a chirugeon, to aid in extracting information.
“Persephone!” Caterina grasped the younger woman’s arm tightly to cease the arm waving scan. The girl jumped, taken aback by the commanding voice of the Palatine. Even though the tone was stern it was not harsh, she stopped scanning as her fears diminished, seeing no wounds upon her charge.
“I’m sorry my lady, forgive me,” the robed women said as she bowed her head reverently.
“No need,” Caterina took her by the hand again and led her to the fallen space marine. “Aid him and any others in this area with the rest of your order here. I will have the rhino take you to the drop zone where you will leave the Astartes in the best condition you can for retrieval. Understand?”
The woman nodded her head solemnly and knelt down to begin administering to the marine’s wounds. Caterina turned from them and strode to the rhino via the side access hatch. A sister in red power armor was manning a vox and turned to regard the Palatine as she approached.
“Your will, Palatine?”
“Open a channel to our forces. We have little time to prepare.”
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