A Good Day Starts with a Boarding Action

"So, can we pin down roughly what we're up against?" Lorgar asked Slox.

"This is what we learned during the battle. It's all we know."

Seeing Slox's earnest expression, Lorgar could hardly press him further.

Still, several hundred Space Marines had died this time. Guilliman would probably be beside himself when he found out—and launch the Revenge Expedition at once.

Lorgar sighed. Only now did he understand what those words truly meant.

Among the stars, humanity was surrounded by enemies.

That hardened Lorgar's resolve. Those loathsome xenos, good or evil, would be reduced to ash beneath the Imperium's sacred Great Crusade fleets, whether they liked it or not.

In the name of the Imperium, make humanity great again!

"So we need to capture one of them next? Interrogate it, find out where their homeworld is, then hammer it with Vortex Torpedoes."

Lorgar summoned Chapter Master Rockefeller. He was desperate to take a xenos prisoner, force the location of its homeworld out of it, then make its kind answer to Exterminatus.

"But where am I supposed to find them in all this vast universe?"

As Lorgar sighed, a legion Archon walked in.

Archon was a Space Marine rank used in the Legiones Astartes during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy.

Within their legions, Archons were commanders second only to the Primarchs in skill, fighting ability, and wisdom. They bore titles including First Company Captain, Chapter Master, Lord Commander, Great Khan, Warsmith, and others. Most often, they commanded the legions' Chapters.

The man who had come to see Lorgar was Colesler Evans, Lord Commander of the Word Bearers.

"My Primarch." Evans saluted.

"We've detected a Warship prowling around the eastern hemisphere of Otheros," Evans reported. "It appears to be hiding there until we leave."

"Report the enemy Warship's position. Prepare for battle!"

"Get the Boarding team ready! Leave one alive for interrogation."

Lorgar issued his orders at once. The Fidelitas Lex and the Chronicle of Ashes, two Battle Barges, broke away from the Fleet and swept toward the enemy's reported position.

The other Warships spread out, sealing off the entire star system with Macro-cannons and Lances.

"Enemy sighted!"

The force was led by Katrans, commander of the Third Chapter's 5th Company.

"Bring the ships in close! Prepare for close-quarters combat!"

The two Battle Barges accelerated, their massive Macro-cannons trained on a sleek, silver-white Warship ahead.

The vessel was streamlined, like a drop of water glowing blue among the stars.

The Warship had clearly spotted the approaching Battle Barges. Captain Katrans could see a flurry of activity aboard it.

"For our battle-brothers! Deliver the Imperium's punishment!"

The first attack began.

Mountain-sized Macro-cannons took aim at the enemy warship. At the order of an Adeptus Mechanicus Magos, the first volley slammed toward it.

An explosion followed a few seconds later, but the Warship was clearly not destroyed.

The Deflector Field on its armour had knocked the shells off course. Fortunately, their explosions had overloaded the enemy's Defence Shield.

Now it was time to Boarding.

Legion veterans clad in Cataphractii Terminator Armour stood with weapons in hand, awaiting the order to Boarding.

Cataphractii Terminator Armour was the precursor to Indomitus-pattern Terminator Armour and saw widespread use during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy.

In many respects, Cataphractii resembled the Indomitus-pattern Terminator Armour widely used in the 41st millennium, but the two differed in a number of features.

Cataphractii had large, layered pauldrons, plated belts protecting the thigh and elbow joints, and helmets more like those used with Mark III Power Armour.

Terminator Armour, also known as an exo-armour system, was first developed during the Dark Age of Technology. These sealed work suits allowed spacecraft maintenance crews to work in extreme conditions, including vacuum and hostile atmospheres.

From the late 30th to the early 31st millennium, these technologies were repeatedly rediscovered and brought back to the Imperium as their worlds were brought into compliance.

Cataphractii Terminator Armour was the first model of Terminator Armour.

Click!

As the red warning light turned green, the Word Bearers' 13th Heavy Assault Squad, tasked with breaching and Boarding the enemy ship, boarded a Caestus Assault Ram.

Since the Great Crusade, the Caestus Assault Ram had been one of the combat craft countless Adeptus Astartes and Imperial Navy personnel relied on for ship-to-ship boarding actions in the Void.

One of the marvels discovered by the renowned Adeptus Mechanicus Magos Arkan Land in a lost vault beneath the ruins of Mars, the Caestus had several anti-gravity field generators built into its hull. These allowed it to fly within the gravitational fields of planets and similarly sized celestial bodies.

That adaptability transformed the Caestus Assault Ram from a craft used solely in Void warfare into a versatile assault vehicle capable of striking enemy strongholds both in space and on Planet surfaces. It earned an important place in the arsenals of the Astartes Chapters.

The Caestus Assault Ram's most distinctive feature was its twin breaching compartments. These could carry Astartes battle-brothers wearing Power Armour or Terminator Armour.

The compartment doors were fitted with a complex interlocking restraint system called Misericordia. It combined heavy mechanical braces with highly focused inertial-dampening Force Fields drawn from the main anti-gravity array.

Together with the breaching compartments' sturdy construction, this system allowed their passengers to survive the impact when the ram struck a Space Hulk's hull or an enemy fortress.

And the Caestus Assault Ram did not have to rely on brute force alone to make an opening.

Between its two breaching compartments was an enormous Meltagun of a kind normally seen only on large war machines.

As the ram approached its target, the gun could unleash a dazzling melta blast. Few known forms of armour could withstand such an attack.

Even if the struck hull plating was not vaporized, the lingering melta heat would soften it to the consistency of melted butter within seconds. The Caestus Assault Ram could then smash through with little effort.

Once the breaching compartments' Logic Engine determined they had reached maximum penetration, the Misericordia system released its restraints and lowered the assault ramps.

The Astartes assault troops it carried would disembark two at a time and advance toward their objective.