The Lion of Caliban led four thousand elite Dark Angels veterans in a drop assault on Hydra's landing port. The vast majority were Inner Circle veterans of the Deathwing and Dreadwing.
The First Legion's internal structure was exceptionally complex. The Lion had divided it into knightly orders, chapters, and the six wings to keep one another in balance. Though the Dark Angels' Inner Circle was not a specific post, the various orders and secret societies within the Dark Angels had made its emergence inevitable.
At times, an unremarkable company soldier might be an important member of some order. They guarded their own secrets and possessed all manner of unique methods of war.
These silent, stern, reserved elite veterans were the true foundation of the Dark Angels Legion. Whenever the Lion rampaged through enemy lines, the Inner Circle veterans always followed close behind like shadows.
Clad in Stasis-pattern Terminator armor and wielding heavy Terra greatswords, their loyal plasma projectors fired again and again. They had become the very embodiment of death.
Even Alpha's equally elite Lernaean Terminators fell like rotten wood before the Dark Angels' advance. In a frontal battle, the Dark Angels could utterly slaughter Alpha.
The absolute generational gap in their equipment made the disparity even more terrifying. This was an unequal war.
Realizing that the situation had taken a sharp turn for the worse, the Alphas immediately scattered and concealed themselves. They broke into small groups, doing everything possible to exploit their stealth and infiltration capabilities.
Alpha reconnaissance squads hid amid the landing port's enormous gantry bridges and mountains of cargo containers. This had originally been a transit hub for material transport, and its terrain and environment were exceedingly complicated.
The Alpha Legion was no stranger to the new technologies emerging in the Far Eastern star region. Back