THE BATTLE FOR PTOLEMY

[obliterator]

*EDIT - PLEASE GIVE THIS STORY A CHANCE.

THE BATTLE FOR PTOLEMY

It was an overcast day on Ptolemy, the land ahead of Captain Knoll's force was pock marked with craters of all sizes. An occasional hill reached skyward upon the wasteland ahead of the patrol force; the hills blasted time and again, perhaps targetted countless times simply because they were not flat ground and thus deemed worthy of shelling. The hills had been shredded to the bone, all dirt long since blasted off the rock core of the once lushly forested hills.

"Such change since the Chaos fleet emerged from the deep of space and beseiged planet Ptolemy" thought Captain Knoll. "No matter, we shall fight them until they are no more" Captain Knoll resolved.

It had been a bumpy ride in the back of the force's Chimerae as the tracks rumbled down the crater pocked road that had led them out to their current position. Reports had been passed down of a splinter Chaos force that had been harrassing Europa supply trains and the forces that had so far been dispatched to track them down and annihilate them; today was the end of that all to well known waiting period that separated the times of horrible and violent battle that made up a warrior's life.

Old Ironsides, the company's Leman Russ Demolisher came to a halt beside the company command Chimera in which Captain Knoll and his staff was riding in. Popping the hatch, Lieutenant Ernst appeared out of the turret of the Demolisher and regarded his commander who was surveying the scenery from out of the top hatch of his command Chimera.

"Sir, Auspex is picking up readings at maximum distance, I'm having a hard time distinguishing the size of the contact, but I'd bet my lucky silver beltbuckle that them's the boys we're sent out here to take care of" Lieutenant Ernst spoke.

Nodding slowly to the overweight tank commander, Captain Knoll returned "Lieutenant Stephens, our sanctioned psyker, senses the presence of Chaos emanating from the warp close by, so I dont think you'd lose your lucky beltbuckle today if we made that bet. Lets get ready to take this scum down..today we've got a suprise for these bandits."

motioning to the Land Raider Crusader, Predator Annihilator, and a fearsome pair of fire support dreadnoughts flanking the Black Templar Column, Captain Knoll signed that contact had been made with the enemy and it was time to deploy.

Keeping silent the communication between the guard contingent and the Black Templars marine force had been Captain Knoll's ploy to suprise the Chaos marines who he hoped were still unaware of the Loyalist Space Marine presence.

Getting on the comm, Captain Knoll ordered his men to dismount and deploy north of the east west road they'd been travelling on. With one last coded radio transmission, the Imperial Guard Captain reported in hostile contact and requested support.

Dismounting and taking to the ground, Captain Knolls men began their foot patrol into the cratered wasteland of Ptolemy's countryside.

Responding to confirmed auspex reports of the Chaos raid group, Captain Knoll sent the patrol's one serviceable sentinel to top one of the crater blasted hills to the northwest.

taking cover behind a large crag of rock that jutted up out of the cratered field, the company mortar team quickly set up their mortar and the company standard was taken up to the top of the rocky crag and planted atop it, a mark of defiance to the traitorous Chaos scum that were inbound to their location.

With a crackle of the vox, the sentinel pilot's report came in "CONTACT!" to his west Captain Knoll saw one of the sentinel's legs separated from the rest of the vehicle at the knee by a brilliant, thick red laser beam, one that could only come from a lascannon. The sound of the hit finally reached the Imperial commander's ears about the time that the sentinel had hit the ground, having fallen over sideways, it's gyroscopes unable to balance with a missing leg.

As Sergeant Fitz scrambled out of the top of his fallen sentinel, traitor autocannon rounds punched in the face of the fallen sent, wrecking the vehicle but good.

Before Captain Knoll could speak any orders more thick red laser beams ripped open the predator annihilator that was rolling up behind the sentinel. The Black Templar Predator blew up with a hit to it's internal fuel tanks, and as the crew was scrambling out of the vehicle that was spewing more and more fire out the engine bays (thank the emporer for fire shields built into the predator design) a loud 'WHAWOOMP' sounded, reporting the dread sound of a traitor demolisher cannon as it fired, the sound reaching Captain Knoll's ears as the Black Templar Land Raider Crusader took a Direct hit, Blowing one side of the Raider's frag launchers as the round punched thru and de-tracked the Raider.

A moment passed and the assault ramp of the crusader opened up, the Templars inside yelling and bailing out of the vehicle. All was not well when Captain Knoll saw the crew bailing out of the vehicle and shouting that the hurricane bolter's ammo bay was cooking off from the hit.

Receiving reports from his men scattered in a line between him and the ruined space marine vehicles to his west, Commander Knoll ordered his men to hold their ground and engage the enemy at long range.

Receiving coordinates for fire missions, Captain Knoll ordered his comm officer to report to the mortar crew nearby.

Churning up muddy dirt as it rolled up to the rocky crag that was serving as the field command post for the company, Old Ironsides came to a stop and set to blasting with it's demolisher cannon at targets downrange.

The Black Templars had brought up support to the east of the Imperial command post that was now engaged in lobbing mortar rounds to aid the guardsmen that were engaged in a fleeting phase of long ranged target practice. A Templar fire support Dreadnought with twin lascannon and missile launcher had taken cover behind Old Ironsides and was blasting twin blue beams of Lascannon fire downrange at enemy targets.

Popping the hatch of his track, Lieutenant Ernst popped his thick frame out of the top of his tank and called out over the din of heavy weapons fire at Captain Knoll. "Sir! we have a traitor Vanquisher at 12 O'clock! Requesting Templar support in toasting that sucker!"

Getting on the vox, and switching over to the templar frequency, Captain Knoll reported the coordinates given from Lt. Ernst to him to the Templar Commander. "The Emporer protects." Finished the Imperial Captain as he turned back to his men to issue more orders.

With a swiftness that belied it's lumbering appearance the fire support dreadnought that had taken cover behind the Imperial Demolisher strode out from it's hiding spot and loosed a devastating volley that finished the imposing Chaos Vanquisher.

Cheers went up across the imperial lines and the templars struck back on the western front, blowing up a Chaos main battle tank, that once appeared to be a leman russ.

By now it was clear that the enemy was from the Chaos faction known as the Black Legion, thier light absorbing black armor mixed with glimering gold outlines and 8 pointed Chaos stars gave little to guess at as to their affiliation.

His squad of Kasrkin reporting to him, Captain Knoll ordered they take the fight to the enemy on the eastern flank. Looking up to his scout who'd planted the company standard atop the hill, Sergeant Kaufman looked back to his CO, turning away from his binos for a moment to report a metamorphosizing chaos entity making his way towards the lines and a Iron Warrior's Rhino hunkered down behind a distant hill.

Ordering the squad of Kasrkin to take down what seemed to be a Chaos Obliterator, the squad of elite guardsmen moved off with nothing but a loyal salute.

Reports came in from multiple line squads at once that a Gigantic Demon Prince had been sighted rounding the west side of a ruined graveyard which was north of the middle of the imperial lines.

Focus fire on that foul entity, bring it down! For the Emporer!" replied Captain Knoll into the vox. Weapons fire renewed from the middle of the imperial lines; it seemed as if fear of the oncoming beast was overruled by the men with each weapon firing, and that it brought them just enough hope to keep them from turning and fleeing.

The veterans of Captain Knoll's men encouraged their men. Everyone had heard of the Captain's first time into battle, during the height of the 13th black crusade and how at that time the force which had just been a platoon had brought down a demon prince in one healthy volley.

Following a descending whistle, A deafening roar of painful heat, fire, and fragmentation tore thru the command section's reality. A thunderous 'BOOM' pressed the Captain and his men's faces into the dirt with the concussion of the secondary explosion. Blood streamed from the Captain's ears and he disorientedly righted himself, most of his command squad had lived thru the blast, but as he looked over at Old Ironsides he saw that it's left track had been totally obliterated by an enemy shell. A gigantic gouge had been carved down thru the side of the old Demolisher that gave away the trajectory of the enemy guns.

Lt. Ernst and his crewmen crawled, in obvious pain from their hatches with the pained hurry of an injured crew escaping their vehicle before any rounds could cook off and kill them from inside their own track.

"Who's got eyes on that Basilisk that just levelled us over here?" Captain Knoll called into his vox.

"Sir, 190th here, we've got eyes on the enemy tango, but she's bed down behind a spine of rock and we've got close to nil for a shot at her, want us to engage anyways?" came the reply.

"No, focus fire on that demon prince, we've got to bring that sucker down or this day is going to get really painful for all of us; lets hope that that basilisk focuses it's energy elsewhere for now." responded Captain Knoll.

The Templars looked like they were having a rough time of things, their assault marine reserves had been called up and had arrived in a bottleneck with the survivors of the land raider wreck just in time to receive the fire of the traitor basilisk, vindicator, and defiler all in rapid succession.

The vox came to life "Sir, enemy demon prince eliminated, request permission to continue our advance and engage the Traitor Rhino."

The Kasrkin squad had done it's job and now wanted to bite off more than they could chew. "Emporer protect you, permission granted." replied Captain Knoll. He was going to gamble this one and hope that backup arrived before the remaining special forces troops he had out there could be cut down by whatever was riding in that Chaos Rhino.

Reports were coming in, and multiple guard squads had been taken out of the fight by enemy fire, casualty reports were climbling, and some of his guard squads had failed to comply with his orders about taking down the demon prince after the initial volley of firepower had been merely shrugged off by this infernal demon prince; instead the guardsmen had engaged a squad of chaos marines making their way thru the soldier graveyard north of the middle of the imperial lines. though they had done major damage to the squad, the Obliterator had almost reached the imperial lines.

Cries of suprise reported thru his vox caster as a squad of 10 chaos terminators crackled into reality, teleported directly in front of Lieutenant Bracen's command squad as it surged forth to direct his soldier's fire onto the Obliterator. Caught flat footed, the Lieutenant and his squad were engulfed by the flames of the chaos terminator's flamethrowing weapons. they stood no chance, and were all burned to death in a firey hot inferno of Abbadon's wrath.

The lines had begun to break, it would only slide downhill into a total route now. Captain Knoll hoped that the imperial support he'd requested would arrive soon enough to cause the Chaos forces to attempt to flee for the shadows from whence they'd come before the day's fight could reach it's now evident conclusion.

Just after the Chaos Obliterator reached the imperial lines and begun his massacare, support arrived, and the wounded contingent of Imperial forces retreated from the field, to return for their dead after the Chaos forces had been forced to flee.

"Damn the Chaos control of the airspace, because of that we'll end up facing these scum another day, and that day I will look forward to, to avenge my men who've fallen this day to them." Captain Knoll vowed.

As the remanants of the Captain's patrol reached it's transport column, a brigade of Imperial armor raced northward in hot persuit of the now fleeing Chaos raid group.

After getting the report of dead and wounded, the Imperials set about recovering their kinsmen from the battlefield; some would make it to the surgeon, some were already gone, and some would go on the way.

Blood Soaked hands recovered the company standard from it's perch atop the jutting rock that it'd been driven into and a battered imperial force came home to lick their wounds.

Suddenly the vox crackled into life, it was the the leader of this faction the Black Legion "I  am ZEUS Chaos Lord of the Black Legion,  you may have won this battle but know this we shall return MUHAHAHAHA."

Hope you all enjoy my story about the battle on Ptolemy remember chaos is everywhere even in those that are deemed holy and good.

[obliterator]

Sorry its a bit long but wouldnt fit in my journal so had to do it here.

[Zebulon]

Warhammer meets the VOID - good writing.....like the style.  :D

[obliterator]

Thanks Zebulon there will be more of this to come i couldnt get online visiting reletives so no FL disc, so took to writing a story. Im big into warhammer hence joining the Black Legion fits my RP style. My stories will be a mixture between good and evil it is not clan specific but i will try write many clans into these stories.

[[BLK_LGN][X]Zeus]

Nice story, DoW and FL combined.