The Fall of Canaris Prime 2

 

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The battlefield was now a riot of sound and fury, heavy explosions that hurled earth, plascrete and men into the air before smashing their broken remains back down, criss-crossing flashes of light as tracer rounds from Imperial guns passed blue, white and red pulse rounds, missiles streaking through the sky to crash to earth behind the trenches or hitting plascrete barracades or plas-steel gunshields. The guardsman panted as he tried again to pull his bayonet from between the armour plates of the dead enemy warrior, with a sickening sucking noise the knife eventually slipped free and he wiped the bluish purple blood from his blade on the dead warriors fatigues before sliding it back into his sheath. He rose up and as he did he looked into the eyes of another guardsman on the far side of the corpse, he had his lasgun in one hand and the xeno's rifle in the other, he looked it over, testing its weight, suddenly the company commisar was there and the other guardsman dropped the xeno rifle and snapped back to his firing slot, the commisar nodded and moved on down the trench. The guardsman retrieved his lasgun from against the wall of the trench and turned back to his place on the shooting step, before he could even raise his lasgun though a blast of bright white light cut across the sky, he lowered his lasgun and rubbed his mouth, as he looked up the glare of the explosion dimmed and he could make out the shape of a navy cruiser or destroyer, he wasn't sure, but as he stared he could see the blackened hull toward the stern of the ship, buckled and blackened hull sections spiraling away, the ship lurched, secondary explosions blowing out more hull plates and he realised the ship was falling, grimly he tightened his grip on the lasgun the leather of his gloves creaking he took aim and began shooting at the enemy lines he aimed at one of the enemy troopers as he dodged around a burned and bent upright beam from a fallen building, his first shots stricking the steel the enemy trooper ducked his head, the guardsman re-adjusted his aim and his next burst stitched across his chest and the warrior dropped his rifle and pitched forward into the dirt, two down more to go, he thought sighting on another target moving up behind the melted column.

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The shipmaster could not look away his mouth pressed into a thin line, his brow creased his stiff posture hiding his sorrow as he watched the light cruiser Valiant fall toward the planet bellow, eventually he tore his eyes from the doomed vessel, placing his hand on the pommell of his sword he re-focused on the rest of the battlegroup as the ruined Valiant was left behind. The remaining 21 ships of the Imperial defence fleet assigned to defend the planet remained in formation there void shields shaking off the stand off long range torpedo strikes aimed at them from the outer system and the battered remains of the enemy fleet. He quickly reviewed the dataslates seeing the torpedo strikes were not unduly straining the fleets shields or defences so turned his scopes and attention to another element, a massive ship almost as big as an Emperor class battleship, its pale grey hull covered in heavy bombardment turrets and missile tubes, the massive embarkation decks easily able to accomodate the returning Thunderhawks and landing transports the smaller more nimble escort Stormtalons breaking off at the last minute to slide into there own landing decks. As the huge ship rolled, way more nimbly than its massive bulk would suggest was possible the inverted Omega on blue background symbol became visible and in golden high gothic script under this symbol was the ships name proudly displayed Aeternus, moving silently in the void like a deadly spear slicing the darkness the vessel accelerated as it passed above the light strewn continent on the planet below a long series of silent flashes along its keel and that of the smaller but equally sleek but brutal looking strike cruiser moving in formation alongside indicated drop pods being released, they speared down into the atmosphere below, the Aeternus and its escort its main job complete continued its acceleration. The shipmaster tore his attention from the viewer and with rapid sure steps born of years of familiarity with his ship and its layout strode over to the navigation holotank and watched as the projected course of the space marine warships narrowed from a wide cone to a single line, burning close past his orbiting fleet and straight towards the outer planets where the torpedoes bombarding his ships, the orbital installations and the planet itself where being launched from.