Tainted

The distinctive sound of an Eldar Heavy weapon cracked through the dawn air once more, and the White Sword column picked up the pace, the pounding sound of their Power Armoured feet being partially drowned by the engines of the three tanks. Sergeant Levin called up the tactical net, and saw that there were no swarms of Tyranids reported in the region, so what where the Eldar shooting at? Far away in the distance another sound became audible, the snap crack of Las guns. It seemed that the Eldar had engaged either the local guard or PDF, Levin swore that the Perfidious Xeno's would pay for this betrayal.




Captain Aelux had obviously also heard the sounds as he ran over to one of the Predators then pulled himself onto the roof and ordered it to speed up. Soon the tank was out of sight and Levin hoped that the somewhat headstrong Captain was not speeding to his death at the traitorous hands of the Eldar forces.

The Column continued moving as fast as it could, and soon the sounds of combat became more obvious, and ahead they saw a number of ruined buildings surrounded by Low scrub landd and the ubiquitous Furca Trees of Talaross. These were still healthy, a good sign that the Tyranids had not yet landed in the region. The Marines began to deploy into combat formation but Levin waved them to a halt. Ahead in the cover of a building he could see Captain Aelux gesturing angrily towards someone or some thing round the corner of the building. Fearing the worst Levin unsheathed his chaninsword and then ran over to see who the Captain was speaking with.

In the cover of the building out of sight of the other Marines stood one of the Blue armoured Eldar Levin knew as Avengers. His armour however was more ornate than the others and he carried two of their shuriken firing weapons. At his feet lay the body of one of the PDF, and the Eldar was pressed back against the wall of the building by the point of Captain Aelux' power sword.

"You had better have a good explanation for this Treachery Xeno" growled the White Swords leader, as Levin moved to flank the Eldar.
"I do Mon'keigh" the Eldar seemed calm despite it's position, "remove this creatures armour and you will see".

With a twitch of his head Aelux ordered Levin to do as the Alien suggested and Levin reached down, placed a foot on the corpses chest and tore the armour from it with one hand. Both Marines looked at the torso of the former PDF trooper, disgusted at what they saw. Against the creatures chest, below it's main arms and held close to it's ribs were two smaller arms, clawed and covered in purple chitin. Aelux lowered his sword from the Eldar's throat, and it visibly relaxed. Suddenly all around them other Eldar appeared and lowered their weapons, and Levin realised just how exposed he and the captain had been.

"Genestealer Hybrids then?" Aelux asked
"Yes and their sympathisers, we believe that they attacked the base of one of your World Defender Units and stole their equipment. We were moving to the Moon and Stars Point when they opened fire upon us", the Eldar's voice had a lilting quality that reminded Levin of a singer, but it's military terms meant nothing to him.
"You can be assured we will help against this foe. We will deploy in your support in three minutes" Aelux turned his back on the aliens and marched away, leaving Levin to nod to the Eldar leader and then jog back to his Squad.

Anticipating his captains orders Levin ordered his Marines to split into two units, one unit of five along with Brother Kreel and his flamer joined him, and the other squad with the Plasma cannon he placed in the hands of Brother Dolan. Dolan was a veteran of almost as many wars as Levin, a huge and scarred marine of a singularly steadfast nature. Over on the other side of the formation Levin could see Aelux speaking with Sergeant Gant with the other Tactical squad. Gant was newly raised to sergeant but Levin had served with him before and in his opinion the other man should have been a sergeant years before. Gant's Squad was also splitting up, with the section toting the missile launcher moving to support the two predator tanks manoeuvring into position on the Left. The Whirlwind tank rushed into position behind a building, and as it's missile pods angled skywards deployed the stabilising bolts that would hold it in position. Levin saw the top hatch open as the marine tank commander worked to replace the missiles to ones more suited to fighting traitorous PDF. The Marine manhandled the Incendiary missiles, each of which was almost as long as himself out of the Launcher and replaced them with Vengeance missiles. Levin nodded to himself, against men wearing armour the vengeance missiles would be much more effective.

Suddenly away to the right of the White Swords quickly organising battle line came some of the Xenos in the distinctive blue armour of their Avenger Cult. One of the figures seemed to stand apart from the rest dressed in far finer armour studded with gems, and carrying a huge sword almost as tall as most men. Levin spared him nothing more than a cursory glance as the Alien gestured to his warriors deploying them into cover. He was far more interested in the Eldar Tanks. Called Fire prismss by the Legio Technicals, the Eldar Tanks looked flimsy near the reassuring bulk of the Whirlwind, like leaves floating in the air. The weapons in the turret however were brutally effective, firing a blast of light energy that detonated with spectacular force. Levin had faced such Eldar weapons before and was somewhat glad that this time they would be turned on the enemies of the Imperium, rather than against it's defenders.

Levin finally spared a moment from his preparations to observe the battlefield, the ruins of some refinery building stood on the edge of an area of wood and hills, certainly the sort of place traitors would choose for an ambush. Indeed from here he could not actually see any of the enemy but the sporadic sound of Lasguns told him that they were still firing on the Eldar troopers.

Now ready the Marines began to move forward into the scrub land around the ruins. Ahead Levin could see the Blue armoured Eldar warriors and moved his combat squad up next to them, ordering Dolan to deploy into the cover of a broken down workshop. He scanned the scrub once again unable to spot any of the enemy despite the help of his Power Armours autosenses. On the left of the Line Gant's Missile Launcher team hunkered down in the cover of a wall in support of the Two Predators. The valley had gone strangely silent, as if waiting.

The silence was broken however as the furthest left Predator known as Vengeance, rocked back on it's treads and belched smoke and flames from a huge hole in the front glacis armour. The other Predator Justice began to return fire as the solid bulk of a Leman Russ battle tank rumbled towards it, The Auto-cannons of the Predator glanced off the front armour of the tank leaving a smear of metal in the paint, but having no other appreciable effect. Over to the Far Right the Eldar Tanks also began firing, bobbing up to fire over the ruins before sinking down to use them as cover. Levin could not see what they were firing at but the boom of another Battle cannon told him that there was at least one other Leman Russ in that direction.

The Marines line began to surge forward, Levin used the Eldar troops as cover for his men as they advanced towards a large stand of trees. The Eldar did not seem to be moving swiftly but they soon out paced the Marines with their strange graceful movements, eating up the distance towards the other part of the wrecked industrial complex. Their rifles moved in unison describing small arcs in the air as they moved forward. Levin concentrated on his own movements, but was aware that he must look brutish next to the graceful aliens. He would back his troops against the aliens however, they might be brutish, but they were almost as fast as the aliens when they needed to be, and far more strong.

As the sound of battle intensified Levin saw Captain Aelux and Gant's combat squad crash into cover out of sight of the Leman Russ' swivelling turret. Where the rebels had taken the tanks from Levin did not know but if the cannon was not silenced it could do immeasurable damage to the force, Gant's Missile launcher had also realised this as the marine carrying it loaded a green tipped Krak missile before firing it squarely onto the side armour of the tank. It was clouded in smoke and debris for but a moment before it cleared, revealing the tank to be utterly undamaged. The Predator fired again and the tank was still undamaged. Levin swore loud and long adding a few choice words from his native tongue, he started to order the Plasma cannon to add it's fire to the missile launcher but was cut short as something hit him in the shoulder pad with enough force to throw him off balance. He looked over towards the Eldar and saw three of them crumpling to the ground, one with the better part of his helm blown away. Looking further ahead he saw several small figures lying in the long grass rapidly reloading their Sniper Rifles. The Eldar however gave them no chance to reload, their weapons spat sharpened blades at the tainted Ratlings. Soon there was no sign of the creatures, just a red stain on the morning grass.

Beyond the trees however a spattering of Las fire began combined with the harsh crack of a Las cannon. Another of the Eldar was killed, almost vaporised by the Las cannon as they were caught in the open. Over on the left of the battlefield the Leman Russ continued firing, it's heavy gun firing at the squad of marines around the missile launcher. Marines were thrown into the air like broken dolls, falling to the ground in terrible twisted forms. One however dragged himself half upright, and trailing broken legs began to set up the missile launcher one more. The Predator fired once more, knocking the tank's turret slightly askew, but with a grating of gears it continued to traverse. Behind it came another vehicle, a tall machine on stilt like legs, but with a heavily armoured cab. The Sentinel marched forwards and turned, it's huge laser firing directly at Captain Aelux. Levin gasped as he saw it, but the explosion of power was too bright for just a laser bolt. The light dimmed, sinking into the Iron halo worn on the captains backpack, leaving him unharmed. With a roar that Levin could hear even without the Vox net the captain charged, and Gant's squad followed him. The Sentinel tried once more to bring it's gun to bear as the captain leapt into the air, slamming his fist into the side of the machines leg. As he landed an actinic blast echoed from the machine where he struck it, the leg fusing rendering it unable to move as the marines swarmed around it's feet.

The Fire prisms continued to fire on what Levin believed was another Leman RRuss They both bobbed upwards into the air firing their weapons off towards the right, but as they ducked back into cover one was struck and the turret blown clean off. The tank crashed to the ground in flames, but a plume of smoke from beyond seemed to show that their weapons had struck home.

Levin's squad had reached the cover of the woods, beyond them he could see the shapes of the enemy. Several squads of traitorous troops stood in readiness beyond and Levin crouched and began to relay information to the Whirlwind behind him. As the Eldar continued their charge towards the position the rumbling roar of a missile passed overhead and was followed by the squeals and screams of the enemy caught in it's blast. The Eldar led by their ornately clad leader did not even pause, charging into the smoke and debris with piercing war cries. As the Eldar began the slaughter, Levin’s squad opened fire on another of the disorganised squads. Bolt rounds shredded the twisted forms of the gene-stealer hybrids, as the blue armoured Eldar completed the short but brutal decimation of one squad and charged into another.

Far away Levin could see that the Leman Russ on the right had blown the remaining predator's left track clean off, but the marine crew continued to load and fire the Auto-cannons sadly to no effect. The maimed marine also continued to load and fire the missile launcher, but Levin saw that blood loss was affecting his aim.

Aelux had continued fighting with the Sentinel, but he was unable reach the main cab with his bombs. Eventually the captain leapt to grab the vehicles main gun, aided by two of Gant's squad, and pulling himself up to plunge his power sword repeatedly into the cab, the crackling energy field cutting through the thick armour again and again until thick red blood ran from it, spattering the captain. Aelux dropped to the ground but before he and the combat squad could move on the Leman Russ that was taking such a heavy toll the Tank exploded, scattering parts several metres from it's burning hulk. The Plasma gunner raised his cannon as it vented the over-bleed of energy in curling clouds of steam, before moving after Dolan who was moving into position to assault another of the now panicking squads of traitors.

The Eldar warriors had plunged deep into the enemy formation but found themselves now embroiled with warriors who lent themselves more thoroughly to their inhuman progenitors, their skin thick and chitinous under their armour. Their clawed hands gripped wicked looking blades that they were putting to good use on the blue armoured Eldar Several of the warriors had been dragged to the ground and the crazed hybrids were stabbing them over and over, however such ferocity could hardly hope to match the skill of the Eldar leader. The warriors huge sword cleaved through the enemy leaving the dead and dying in it's wake. Levin moved forwards to aid them.

Levin tumbled skywards, turning end over end in the early morning sun before crashing back to the ground. Around him lay the broken bodies of his squad, helms torn off and bodies leaking thick red blood through cracks in their ceramite armour. One, Brother Darius Levin believed, seemed to be clawing at his throat unable to get breath through a larynx now shattered by the blast. Levin tried to raise himself to find that his arms no longer obeyed him, one broken and the other missing. Turning his head he saw the Leman Russ that the Fire prism tanks had been firing at rolling forward, it's turret and the battle cannon that had shattered Levin and his men, turning to face the Eldar.

Levin sank into blackness, his battle done.