Within his suit Obolis’ form seemed to float in a warm darkness. Screens and view monitors floated in the darkness about him. He checked the status of his other teams via a proximity map that appeared to float down at his right hip. It was angled up toward his head. One team was entering on the second floor of the warehouse. They had jumped to the upper floors. He could hear them above. Glass and masonry smashed apart as they entered. A third team was still outside the building protecting the flank of the Tau’s approach.
The suits to Obolis’ left and right quickly fanned out, securing the large storage room, their targeting lights cutting green lines across the darkness. A proximity light erupted on a display within his suit. A report from a Pathfinder team bumped in front of his field of vision. It showed several Imperial tanks crossing a bridge. A report chirped a message to him, he recognised the voice as his old friend Matrun.
“Marines dismounting on the south side of your position. They’re right outside the warehouse”. Obolis’s eyes grew wide. He looked to the other side of the chamber and saw boarded up windows that would have looked out at the Del’Chan River. A similar sized door as the one his team had entered sat in the center of the wall. Obolis saw an opportunity; either the Marines were planning to assault the building and them within it or they were unaware of his presence. Either way he saw a position of strength. He quickly tapped commands into his communication consoles. He directed two mechanized Fire Warrior teams to move from reserve to the roof of the building. He commanded the crisis team that was still outside to come around the side of the building and flank the marines. To the suits above him around him he spoke directly into his com.
“Heavily armed humans outside the south wall. Fire for effect”. At this command the suits reacted as though in a carefully prepared dance. All three suits turned toward the south wall, their plasma guns spasming with a green light. And then a riot of color and heat erupted from their wide barreled weapons. The fury of color issued against the south wall, the boarded windows and shuttered door. Holes appeared in the dark wall and light issued fourth. The marines outside had been on the verge of entering the building when the wall erupted. Most of the marines were unfazed by the haze of plaster and wood chips blasting about them. One or two received hits and staggered away from the wall. The rest charged into the building, shouldering the doors open and other pulling themselves through the windows.
Obolis could hear and see plasma shots reigning down on the marines from his suits above. He watched as a hail of plasma fire stabbed down at a marine and seemed to follow him as he entered the building. The stabbing shots, like flaming sword, issued through the air and then exploded from the ceiling as the Crisis suit clearly tracked the movement of the targeted marine. It eventually caught the human, slicing through his bulky armor. The marine crashed down. Obolis and his team dusted off and lifted into the air as swarms of marines entered the building. They continues firing while they settled on a catwalk above the marines. Random shots came up at them and one of the shield drones exploded, overloaded from the fire, but Obolis’ team kept firing. A door at the end of the catwalk opened and from it issued dozens of Fire Warriors. Their transports had landed on the roof and they had quickly joined the fight. They began firing as they came spreading out along the catwalk. The reign of fire had become too much for the marines below. Super heated shot issued at the marines from all directions. Plasma shots bucked through the walls from the suits that had flanked the building. Dozens of rifle shots poured from the catwalk above. The beleaguered marines’ assault into the building had stopped in its tracks. Most were dead and the last few were crouching behind scattered boxes and crates. Obolis’ connected his suit’s targeting systems to the let marker lights coming from his Pathfinder teams and let them guide his shots. The suit systematically targeted a marine with a green reticule, and shot him, targeted another, and shot him. A third, the marine dropped with a crater in his head.
The number of shots from the catwalk had slowed as the number of targets disappeared. Quiet was broken occasionally by the odd shot from a Fire Warrior sniping at wounded marines. Obolis scanned the room. He saw the occasional movement but the Marine’s were done. He saw that his Pathfinders had ruined the two transport tanks that had brought the marines forward. Directed rocket fire had made short work of them. He powered down his weapon and tapped his com link bar opening a channel to all units in the field.
“The warehouse has been secured. All units return to orange line stations. Good hunting today”.
The Kabal of the Rancid Blade 