Herald of Misery part 3

Chapter 1: Invasion

The Lume system is an Imperial system that had suffered a long ago forgotten cataclysm. The disaster ended the system's prosperity and filled the void with dust and gravity anomalies. Only three planets survived the cataclysm, each damaged on its own and struggling in isolation.

One of these worlds was Lume IV, a shrine world. Due to ancient administrative errors, the Imperial Church shared the planet with a sizeable presence of Admech from the Forgeworld of Metalica. The world's rulers struggled to maintain the peace between the two faiths, but inevitably across the centuries, tensions flared into periodic civil wars. However, the ideological friction came with one benefit for the world.  The industrial and religious centers of the world were heavily defended and fortified. Also, four massive defensive platforms guarded the world. They were called the Sword, Dagger, Hammer, and Glaive. These platforms were supported by the deep void Navy fort Leonus Stellarium and the sub-sector fleet.

Thanks to the daemonic Ferryman, the Ark's Obelyskane, and perhaps the favor of the Chaos Gods for being fed potent psyker souls, the Herald of Misery and its balefleet translated into Lume system with terrifying suddenness and precision.  Fortune smiled on Czagra, the Imperial navy's presence was thin due to half of its forces being deployed elsewhere to defend against an Ork invasion.

Swiftly Czagra formulated a plan of attack and set his forces in motion. He broke his attack into four headings. The first would intercept the Navy patrol in the system. The second heading was comprised of void war specialists and many of the capital ships of the balefleet. Its task was to take or destroy Leonus Stellarium. The third was a small raiding party led by the Dark Admech. Its mission was to ransack the abundant mineral wealth of the shattered world of Lume IX.

The fourth heading was made up of the remaining Balefleet. It was mostly troop landers and titan conveyers accompanied by bombardment barges.  The heading followed the trail of the Key fragment to Lume IV. In order to locate the key fragment, vast and methodical planet sweeps must be initiated. This suited Czagra's inclination well. He would take pleasure in slowly grinding the Imperial defenders beneath his iron heel. Also, it would give him the chance to fully test the Despoiler's gift.

The Ark did not disappoint its master. As the Czagra's forces divided and then closed on defense platforms like a fist, the Herald of Misery settled in the world's orbit like a darksome moon and began to systemically bombard the anti-void defenses. Czagra made no effort to evade the return fire of the Imperials. Imperial munitions impacted and exploded all over the  Ark to no effect. Whereas the Ark's fire obliterated Imperial defenses with rains of bombs and storms of plasma.

Cries of rapture issued from the faithful as the Cathedrum of the Emperor Wrathful sent salvoes of blessed missiles into the underbelly of the Ark. Their cries turned into screams of despair as the Herald of Misery answered back with beams and immense heat-based weapons.  The resulting explosion could be seen a hundred miles away.

The Iron Warrior landers descended into the zones devastated by the Ark's fire.  They established their landing zones virtually unopposed. They were followed by the titan conveyors, disgorging Chaos titans to reinforce them. The braying of the god machines' horns rolled across the battlefield and sent a quake of fear into the Imperial defenders. Despite this, the armies of the Admech and Sisters of Battle charged toward the heretic landing zones beginning the ground war.

The Iron Warriors made substantial ground gains in the first five days of the conflict due in no small part to the disorganization of the Imperial defenders. Though the armies of the Sisters of Battle and the Admech fought individually well, the mistrust between the Admech and the Church made unifying their efforts fail in all but the most extreme of circumstances. On one war front, Skitarii warriors whose presence might have tipped the tide in favor of the Imperials, chose to withdraw to escort tech priests to safety. This allowed waves of traitor guardsmen and cultists to overwhelm the Imperial defenders there. During the siege of one of the Admech foundries, the forces of the Church marched on past the beleaguered Admech defenders, offering them no aid except for prayers and hymns. The sent thoughts and prayers did little to help the besieged foundry's tech-priests.


By the eleventh day, the void war was exceeding shifting in the traitors' favor. Dagger was overrun by heretic boarding parties, and its weapons were turned on the planet. Hammer was sabotaged by its defenders, rather than allow it to fall into traitor hands, sending it plummeting into the upper atmosphere. Glaive and Sword held thanks to the support of Imperial warships that managed to join the fight in time. However, they could do little to halt the rampage of the Herald of Misery. The Ark showed superficial damage, but its superstructure seemed to be able to shrug off infinite amounts of firepower.


Czagra delegated the command of the war fronts to his champions and began to monitor the progress of the Slave-psykers and their handlers. Hour by hour, they were closing on the Key Fragment. With dark glee, the Warsmith waited for the Warmaster's prize to be seized so that he would be free to unleash his full arsenal and annihilate the world.



Chapter 2: Foothold

With the Balefleet scattered around the system and the Ark distracted, this was the chance the Blood Angels needed to board it. However, this carried considerable risk. Traitor warships might detect their approach, alerting the Ark to their presence. The Ark possessed fearsome firepower that would make short work of their frigate, Star of Dawn. Even if they successfully boarded the Ark, its defenders might overrun them, or their frigate might be destroyed, robbing them of their means of escape.

The Blood Angels have to navigate through the dust clouds and wreckage of the void war to hide their presence and get close enough to launch their boarding torpedos. With that done, the Star of Dawn needs to fend for itself long enough for the Blood Angels to finish their mission and then extract them. The odds of success were slim, but Space Marines were created for such missions. Rhalion's conviction swayed the Blood Angels, and there could be no turning back now. The Star of Dawn sailed toward the Herald of Misery.

In an impressive feat of void sailing, the ship crew nimbly navigated the belt of debris and wreckage without being hit. The Star of Dawn dashed through the Ark's fire zones, fired the boarding torpedos, and made its escape from the Ark's clutches.

Six torpedos were fired. Four carried the Blood Angels and their Tome Keeper allies. The other two were decoys. Within the torpedos, marines endured G-forces that would have killed baseline humans. The torpedos' machine spirits evaded clouds of electro chaff and projectiles. None of the Ark's defensive fire managed to hit the torpedos. This caused the Blood Angels to mock and laugh at the Iron Warriors' ability to raise fortifications but fail to defend them. The mirth was cut short when an immense crimson energy beam blazed from the Ark toward the Star of Dawn. The radiation from the beam disrupted the vox channels so Rhalion heard in a static mess the panic of the Star of Dawn's crew as they attempted futilely to evade the energy beam. The beam impacted the frigate's void shields resulting in a plasma star forming and sending shockwaves through the void. The plasma star evaporated but not fast enough to spare the Star of Dawn from the worst of it. The frigate was crippled. It drifted helplessly in the void and could do nothing when a second crimson beam was sent toward it sealing its fate.


The death of the Star of Dawn coincided with the torpedos hitting their mark. Rhalion was doubly hit by the shock of impact, for he felt the death agonies of the Star of Dawn's crew. Vox communication between boarding parties was cut, perhaps due to the density of the Ark or the influence of its anomalies. However, the Blood Angel parties impacted close to each other, allowing them to unite their forces in time to face the Ark's defenders. The Blood Angels were faced with waves of Riven Reforged cultists. These proved to be no match for the Emperor's Angels of Death. Rhalion used his psychic power to boil the blood of the cultists before him while his battle brothers bludgeoned, hacked, and burst the rushing mass of cultists. Against the vengeful fury of the Blood Angels, the cultists faltered. With no Iron Warrior masters around to reinforce their resolve, cultists' morale broke. Some of the cultists attempted a fighting retreat, but a few bolter rounds in their direction sent the entirety of the cultist horde into a route. With that, the bridgehead was secured, with the Blood Angels only sustaining some minor injuries.

Rhalion made psychic contact with Bhakir. Bhakir reported that the Tome Keepers also managed to fend off the cultists and secure their bridgehead. However, they detect that more foes are massing to oppose them. Bhakir gave his condolences for the demise of the Star of Dawn and asked for orders from Rhalion since he was the mission commander.

Rhalion said they must regroup and use their combined psychic power to locate the Warp Portal. While they complete their mission, they would determine a way to escape the Ark. It sounded simple, but Rhalion knew in his hearts that the monstrous confines of the Herald of Misery would make nothing simple.