In space, sound did not travel beyond the confines of a ship. Nevertheless, when making stealth approaches a silence fell over the whole ship and crew, who only spoke in hushed tones. Some would think this was due to the inevitable tension before war, but this was not the case. Boasts, celebrations and oaths were cast in fury and fire before war in the Howling Griffons, but never during stealth approaches. It truly did not make sense, but Brother Captain Lord Jeremy recalled the stories of ocean submersibles from humanity's past, when the water would carry the slightest sound to give away their position to their enemies.
“We are nearly in position, Lord Captain.” The serf kept a respectful distance and their head bowed, it was a sacred duty to attend one of the Knights of the Proud Eyrie.
He'd studied the tactical significance of their sallying into the crucible of war; the traitors were about to capitalise upon their earlier victories and cut off Imperial forces. Only those of a truly noble spirit like the Griffons could stop the Heretical Monsters. The Brother Captain activated his Company Vox.
“We ready ourselves for War, our Oath - the destruction of the armour of villainy.
We sally forth into the jaws of death, unbroken, unbowed we Knights of Mancora shall claim Victory.
With the song of Death to the Heretic and Traitor, our litany of Loyalty.
For Guilliman, son of the Emperor! For the Founding Father!”
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Warpsmith Dimas, though stripped of most of his emotions through cybernetics, was still in a foul mood. He had vociferously argued with Tkalčec that it was heavy armour that best suited the assault on Federal Fortress, not a horde of infantry as Bezhok had allowed. “The Astartes would likely rebel if they did not get the opportunity to fight at the Warsmiths side” Tkalčec had countered, clearly relaying that idiot Bezhok's fears; who cared if the flesh were upset? Only victory mattered, flesh could be regrown, replaced if defective.
A change in both the air and the Immaterium brought Dimas to the present; he was escorting a column of war constructs of the 144th,, intent on punching through the Imperial defences with a clear line to their fortress, a key weakness only the Iron Warriors could exploit. Moving ill-supported was a bad plan. Such terrain left them open to attack, everyone knew it. But they had been left with little choice and what's more the more “Flesh” Iron Warriors did not seem to care – emotional foolishness. Rising pressure registered in his War Constructs who started to scream against their constraints. Only Ancient Kolar remained calm, binaric canting to Dimas that they were about to be attacked from above by XIII Legion. Kolar still lived in the rebellion and did not distinguish between the thin blooded “Chapters”. Seeing now the descending drop pods, Dimas' fears were well founded as his coded data burst for reinforcements made no attempt to hide his venom.
“Prepare defensive position Gamma-30T5” intoned Dimas to his War Constructs, who started unnatural squealing and bellowing of warhorns in excitement at the prospect of carnage, which they would have - if they survived.
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Following the brutal and overwhelming assault against the Federacy, the Iron Warriors of Stahl's 144th Grand Battalion were forced to rapidly redeploy forces to ensure no other forces could take advantage. Stahl had gambled on the success of his attack against the Federacy and, while it had succeeded in obliterating their defence, the stalwart defence of the Librians ensured the necron key remained out of Chaos hands. Others were keenly watching the unfolding events and in late 11.018M42 the Howling Griffons intervened to exploit the weaknesses in the Iron Warriors' defences.
With so many Legion Astartes deployed against the Federacy, it had fallen to Iron Warriors' various machine and daemonic constructs to plug gaps. Warpsmith Dimas, one of the three Iron Warrior Smiths on Hexis, led a heavily armoured walker force to crush the North Western city front between Marateph and Grathos, Grathos being in Imperial hands but poorly defended against heavy armour. Escorting Dimas was Experiment MVI, a “constructed” Daemon Prince of Warsmith Stahl's. The Howling Griffons had, through long range augers and more traditional infiltrating 10th Company, identified the armour column as a key weakness in the Iron Warrior deployments and one which, if destroyed, would leave the Iron Warriors' defences disastrously open. Stahl's impetus to acquire the key had had left him and his forces vulnerable.
In the middle of the night on Hexis, the Strike Cruiser, Inviolable Honour, used Hexis' Moon and radiation flares from its sun to mask its planetary approach. Undetected till the last moment, the Strike Cruiser unleashed a force of Howling Griffons under Command of Primaris Brother Captain Sir Jeremy. Seeing the drop ships, the Iron Warriors immediately formed defensive positions. The Inviolable Honour unleashed a fierce planetary bombardment into the city to cover the Griffons' deployment. The combined Lance and Macro Batteries eliminated the infantry support of the armoured column, leaving the Walkers vulnerable.
The low visibility of the early morning prevented the Howling Griffons' Hellblasters from acquiring an effective fire pattern on the Iron Warrior Decimator. The Reivers also failed to capitalise on their surprise attack as Ancient Kolar, a Contemptor Dreadnought from the Heresy, cut one Reiver down with his Butcher Cannon. Warpsmith Dimas, realising the hopelessness of his defensive position, ordered the column to break and make their escape, repairing damage to Fire Support XV on the move. Under covering fire from the column, Experiment MVI propelled Ancient Kolar forward with warp energies into the Howling Griffons, who made short work of the Griffon mobile Cavalry support and moved on to confront Brother Captain Sir Jeremy. Sir Jeremy for his part raised his sword in a chivalric salute to his Brothers before upper cutting Ancient Kolar across his carapace, sparks showing from his body before he steadied himself once more.
Now the smoke, ash and after flare of the orbital bombardment had cleared, the Hellblasters had no issue acquiring their target. Having sworn an oath to destroy the armour of the traitor, the Primaris Marines unleashed shot after shot into the Hellbrutes Karath the Fallen and Tong, destroying Karath. One of the Primaris, Brother Corin, lost his right arm at the shoulder to venting plasma, however with his last ounce of breath he bellowed his oath and speared Tong with a single plasma blast, sending the Hellbrute's monstrous form slumping to the ground. The Reivers, led by Ser Dagonet, took the lead and managed to isolate Warpsmith Dimas, riddling him with auto-bolt rounds. Despite the injuries the Warpsmith still stood, but Ser Bedwere's Intercessors unleashed fire into the ruins that Dimas had taken cover in; the wall collapsed under under bolt round detonations and crushed the Warpsmith.
Despite the loss of the Dimas, their infantry support, and the Hellbrutes Tong and Karath, the column pressed forward with the whole line breaking into a charge directly at Brother Captain Sir Jeremy. Momentarily distracted, Ancient Kolar managed to grab the Captain with his Dreadnought fist slamming him again and again into the ground, killing him. Powered by death and absorbing the soul of the Captain, the rent in Kolar's armour healed. Fire Support XV levelled both its Butcher Cannons at the Hellblasters, raking their defensive positions and cutting down a number who further wounded the Decimator as they fell. In response to the charging beasts, the Intercessors of Ser Bedivere, Lieutenant Ser Palomides and Ancient Ser Tegyr charged. Bolt round after bolt round blasted into the injured Decimator, driving it to its knees as Ser Bedivere reversed his longsword and drove the point through its skull, slaying the daemonic machine.
The remains of the Iron Warriors' column was in a bad condition; with Griffons closing on all sides the battle hung in the balance. Enraged, Experiment MVI lunged forward spearing both Ser Palomides and Ser Tagyr on its claws and bisecting both. Kalor, the only true Iron Warrior left standing, butchered Ser Bedivere and his Intercessors in combat and cut down the Hellblasters with his Butcher Cannon. The power of blood, death and fleeing souls further empowered Kalor's rampage. Both Experiment MVI and Ancient Kalor escaped, leaving the Howling Griffons to collect their dead and injured.
The remaining armoured column and the already present forces of the Iron Warriors smashed through the weakened Imperial defences, taking both Hegrist and Grathos. However, if not for the intervention of the Howling Griffons, the situation would have been far worse. The Howling Griffons came within a hair's breadth of breaking the Iron Warriors forces completely.
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Scout Squire Maelwys had missed the battle, the Codex Astartes was clear in its application of Scout squads in such engagements; outflank and pick off officers. This role however had been given to Ser Dagonet's “Reivers”. It irked all the young Scouts - the Codex Astartes was the greatest tome ever written on warfare, as near perfect as any treatise could be, but Lord Guilliman had returned, and his “Primaris” units had swept away many of the doctrines of the Primarch's own Codex. He still had to study it of course, even those parts seemingly falling to obsolescence, his newly enhanced brain memorised much of it and the contradictions with the Primaris annoyed him. Maelwys' Codex assigned duty was now reconnaissance and intelligence, something the “Reivers” were ill-suited to. Maelwys may have been too proud to admit it but he hated the Primaris, especially the Reivers. Reivers were neither the Knights of the sky that his village elders spoke of nor Codex approved soldiers, they were murderers and terror troops. It rankled him - the proud traditions of the Griffons were sullied by such tactics. He had sworn he wouldn't accept the extra organs, even at his young age his mind was made up.
His squad had fanned out, sweeping the area under the watchful eye of Ser Yuber, picking through the ruins in Marateph behind enemy lines where the ambush had taken place. Difwich had ranged ahead, taking up a covering position far forward with his sniper rifle. At times the solitude of a sniper sounded nice... Minor shifts in the ruins and debris caught Maelwys' attention, and he snapped his bolter towards the sound. Moving cautiously, Maelwys moved towards the sound in a manner the Codex demanded. “Awareness, Discipline, Precision”, Maelwys repeated to himself, his favourite volumes and mantra. Before he could react, before even his vision could focus, a snake of steel shot up from the debris shearing Maelwys' bolter in two. Without hesitation he went to draw his knife but a second and third snake shot up; the fanged maw of the second clasped his forearm and crushed the carapace, while the third, its snout ending in a drill, darted precisely through his lung, shunting the breath from him and preventing him from giving a shout of warning. Warpsmith Dimas' biomechanical eyes glowed as his repair systems finally brought him back online. His half broken body rose from his rockcrete tomb; with a mind impulse his Mechanidrils slammed the Griffon Scout head first into the wall behind Dimas, utterly crushing his skull. The Warpsmith's flickering display came to life: 43.22092% functional. He needed to return to safety, he thought, as his Mechanidrills were already extracting the Scout's Geneseed organs and storing them for analysis. Behzok and Tkalčec would pay for his humiliation.
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