John was huddled in his tunnel, aware of the Imperial Garrison that was less than 2 kilometers above his head. The librarian stood next to him, taking the dictation, remembering every word, passing it on to the rest of his bretheren, the link forming and completing at Home.

"To Chief Apothecary Galen."

"When both Conrad and Ferrus have awakened, please transfer tactical control of the Iron Warriors and the Emperor's Children to Conrad Kurtz, and send him to Rally Point Omega. Ferrus Manus is to be given command of the Blood Angels and the Salamanders to supplement his own Iron Hands. All six Legions are to be ready for action very soon. Ferrus is to be acting in support and supply duty in addition to supplementing Conrad's forces. Have everyone gather their support units, and the Officio Assassinorum has been given approval to deploy a company of their troops. For the Light of Mankind."

He finished his dictation, sending the librarian away. He went back to his work at the factories, setting the construction team to work, modifying the final run of battle droids.

Home-

The medics had finished their work, and finally two of the ancients had awakened. Master Conrad Kurtz and Master Ferrus Manus had awakened. Their injuries had been severe, but they were awake finally. Their skins were covered with scars from many battles, and the nerual connection points for their armor was evident. They dressed quickly, going to the briefing room. Galen delivered their orders, and they boarded the ship, joining the rest of their people in flight. The battle agianst Chaos had been set aside, and it was time for the crusades to begin again.

Ferrus clenched and unclenched his fists in impatience. Ten years before, he had fought at Misery, walking the plains smeared with the blood of his men and their enemies. Now he was back where he belonged: active, on duty, with new orders from the Prophet.

The servomotors in his joints whirred as he turned to his aide. "Hand me my lascannon. I feel an ass-kickin' comin' through."

Conrad Kurze awakened from his long sleep. It had been ten years since the massacre at Istvaan V, now know as Misery to those who participated. His legion had seen some of the most bitter fighting Marine vs. Marine. It had been a long battle, one that the Imperium would be long in recovering.

Conrad stretched has hands, comming out of the hibernation. The cold sleep had lasted too long of a time and he longed to return to his post and over see he legion to once agian fight for the Light of Mankind.

Apothecary Galen stepped forward.
"You have been given command of you legion as well as those of the Iron Warriors and the emperor's childern, and you are to meet with the prophet at rally point Omega, there you will be supported by Master Manus and are to procede as requested to complete your required mission as directed and dictated by the Light of Mankind himself.

Conrad stared at the datapad containing his orders.

"Thank you Brother Galen, you are dismissed."

He stared at Ferrus Manus when he made his comment

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Aparrently the Cold Sleep had affected his mental faculties a tad bit.

"Exellent then we are ready to go. Brother Captain Xanatos ready the men and board the transports we are to move out and rendevous with the Prophet. READY AND MOVE OUT MARINES AND MAY THE LIGHT OF MANKIND SHINE UPON US TODAY! and remember your heritage lads, as Space Marine knows no fear. For WE are FEAR INCARNATE!"

(OOC:Warhammer 40k? At an SWRP board?

Tut tut...)

ooc: been going on for a while in various form besides can be easilly explained (well marines at least) using starwars technologly. Ta Ta sit back and enjoy the ride.

It had been a very long time since John had been an actual war Zone. Misery was the last bad one, when the icy fields of an entire planet was stained red with blood. This was a return to standard practice, swift decisive action and a determined lack of mercy. Hopefully, things would be just as deadly the last time the galaxy had seen his kind.

The galaxy had changed a bit since the last time, but not enough to change the face of war, it never changes, people always die, families are always disrupted. He thought about, thinking of why his people were created in the first place. The answer was simple in its complexity, The marines serving several different purposes. A mobile strike force that had no families to return to, no one to cry for them when they were gone, no one to riot because their sons would not be coming home from the war. They were fanatically loyal to their god, to their church, to their founders. Fearless, cold, calculating and mighty in their rage.

THey would be seen again, very soon, but now all was in the beginning of times, the most delicate of times, for all of history is song, the same three beats of war, peace and revolution keeping the song playing forever. Maybe, maybe that woudl change some day, but right now, Cilvilization was too barbaric, and time would tell how the galaxy changed...

Ferrus turned to his fellow Primarch. "Brother Conrad, we should attend to our strategy. Brother Murduck, bring up a schematic of our destination."

An image flickered to the monitor. Scanning over it, Ferrus started noting prime sniping points. "Do we have any readouts on the defenses? My Devestators would be perfect for removing any turrets."

He reviewed the legions available to him. The Iron Hands would be effective against anything armored, but infantry might be a problem. Perhaps dropping some Salamanders near that outcropping would help; it looked like a good place for a bunker, and any infantry would fall before their Heavy Flamers.

What to do with the Blood Angels... Best put them to the front, and keep a tight reign on them. From our orders, we are to take the location with a minimum of damage to the equipment or native population. Ferrus shook his head. This would make things a bit more difficult, but not impossible.

This was right. This is what he had been created for. And by the Honor of the Imperium, their enemies would know Fear.

---Two months earlier---

A shocked look froze the Gand's features for several moments before breaking way to laughter. In between outbursts, Jander was able to explain the reasoning behind his histerics. Looking at the human, Sunstar said, "John, it's hard to believe but I long ago learned that sometimes you just have to go with things as they come. Believe it or not, the ship your friend was in is aboard my ship out in the asteroid field."

Phantom Leader shook his head back and forth, "That would certainly explain some things. I'll have Tripwire send off a message to the 'Fury', I've got some slicers and tech experts aboard. They can come down in the 'Knight Errant', land with my ship. I like your plan, let's keep with it. Might be able to get out of this situation yet."

Jander used his comlink and his droid Tripwire to relay a message to the Galofree hiding out in the asteroid fields above the planet. Very carefully, thier cloaking device and sensor mask operating at full capacity, the YT-1300 made it's way down. By the time the techs aboard reached Sheridan and thier leader, Tripwire was nearly finished mapping the old network systems.

"Get to work boys, we've got lot's of work to do," the Gand told the newly arrived techs. "So John, where shall we head next. Tripwire thinks that any of these three areas might hold control centers. Shall we let the techs double check and then procede?"

The Human nodded as the two tacticians looked back over the diagrams they currently had...

He pulled the welding hood up, nodding. "You seem to have teh natives pretty well in hand, i think i ought to let you figuree it out, however, my forgemen will be ready when things get found. I have a couple of things i am working on. Take Invictus with you, he can keep me informed of eevrything you find, i reccomend we find the command and control center first, from there, everything else should come fairly easily."

John was studying schematics of his own, chuckling as he thought about the chaos that would erupt. "Take a squad of scouts down as well, they need the training opportunity."

Conrad sighed Perhaps Brother Manus was not as daft as he had originally thought. He took a quick look at the outlying of the Planet the primary continent looked to be scarcely defended, and hte secondary continent appeared to hold only a contingent enough to keep the locals in check.

"Brother Manus" he intoned looking at the holoprojection, we need to concentrate our forces here at what appears to be a fortress built from the ground its self, it is no doubt "moderately defendable" and should be taken with as much force and as quickly as possible to disrupt communication."

if there was one thing the Iron Warriors under his command were good at it was laying a withering seige, only once in recent memory had they faild to hold a siege to its bitter end and Kurze was not in the mood to thiink about that. The emperors childern took their pleasure from the fight its self, they had a tendency to stubbornly continue through out the end, very rarely were they ever disheartend enough to leave a battle still not won. His Night Lords had a much more subtley way of doing things, much more akin to teh way the Conrad prefered. They had exellent night vision even without their helmets and visors, and they knew the way of fighting in the unseen places.

"If you posistion your forces here in this sector of the sub continent and press steadilly forward, I can swing the entiretyu of the Iron Warriors forward into posistion here" he gestured to a large building like area near the main out cropping of the structures. They will be effectively blockaded and ariel support they send can be easilly mowed down before it become a threat by both your Iron hand and the Iron Warriors meanwhile we break the Emperor's childerrn into smaller strike forces of about 100 each and send them in various points as a counterstrike measure, or a shock troop assault, whichever shall be needed more and quicker in our engagement. My Night Lords will assume a role as the back bone of our line here. (points to a rocky ridge overlooking the entirety of the enemy location) WE will wait till night fall to begin any major advance in posistoin and keep them covered throughout the day."

Ah the space marine each one genetically engineered to be as tough and more durable than over 5 expertly trained soldiers, as those soldiers are more well trained than nearly 50 battle droids. Even against whole armies it was usually only necessary to send 100 or so marines to take out their numbers, as the army struggled to bring its numbers to bear even in the largest of battles the marines with their small numbers but superior advantages would more often than not take the day as theirs. Here they had 6 Legions of marines more than enough to single handed ly hold a sector, over 50,000 marines the number was too large to accurately count at this time but kurze would bet the number neard 75,000 or more. and yet this was only a quarter of what the Light of Mankind had to spare, and more than adequate for this mission.

there was no need to get cocky though every battle was hard fought no matter the strength of the forces

"Brother Manus let us treat this conquest as dearly as we would treat the defense of our home world. Our orders are to not harm the local populace as much as possible. Alien they are, heretics they are, but useful to us the remain. If some happen to get in the way of our guns though, I doubt they will be missed. For the Light of Mankind my Brothers we strike so that others may be free."