The world was in a black haze as Rainbow Dash felt herself regain consciousness.
Any of you been like this before? You know how you don't know your surroundings, a bit confused on what had just happened and everyone sounds like a wookie to you?
That's exactly how Rainbow Dash felt.
It took a while for her to get over her disorientation, but she did it eventually. She found herself looking up, making eye-to-eye contact with a human in bone-white armor.
"She's fine. Vital functions are normal."
"Good. That was the most impressive thing since Prospero." Russ said grabbing a splinter rifle and began to examine it. "It seems the good portion of the Dark Eldar air force won't be bothering us for a while. Will that cloud by any misfortune descend upon us?"
"From my calculations: No. Even if it did, it won't effect US when we have our helmets on. But I doubt the same can be said for any of the freed slaves."
"Alright then. So... how are the Dark Eldar defenses holding up?"
"Our scouts have done several sabotage operations, and the White Scars have caused enough carnage to allow several slaves to escape. Currently, riots are occurring over all the city. With no small-help from us after all. We were able to arm many of the slaves."
"Good, that will keep them off our backs for a while. Khan, should we begin with phase 2?"
"Let's start."
From out of nowhere, Russ pulled out a map of the surrounding area of Commoragh. One of which was circled in red.
"See this massive district? This is where Vect makes his base of operations. You know what we're going to do?"
"Run in there, kick his flank and then get Fluttershy?!"
"Seems like you speak my language. Khan, get ready. Rainbows, you're with me. Be my eye in the sky."
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You see, Russ and Khan weren't the only ones who had been gathering intel on their enemy.
Vect had a spy listen to Russ's conversation. Now he sat down in frustration. He knew the weakness of every last being in this galaxy, yet no being's weakness would be harder to exploit than the primarchs.
Grabbing the element of loyalty, he quickly got to work, intent on tapping into it's power. Times were growing desperate for him.
A soldier walked in with a frightened expression.
"What is it?"
"The humans have begun assaulting and surrounding the entire district! A good portion of our air force has been decimated and the slaves are revolting almost everywhere! Our district is cut off from the others! We are surrounded!"
This could be the work of one man.
Time to hurry up.
But as Vect worked, he thought about what it would be like if he were to triumph over his two foes. Then every being in the galaxy would have to bend knee to him.
Him: Vect, the destroyer of TWO of the galaxy's greatest warriors.
That would be nice. He quickly formulated a plan.
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Russ had decided to partake in the storming of Vect's headquarters. There was a few Raider's that had attempted to swoop in down on them and rip them to shreds.
Russ decided to be sporting and not use his anti-armor equipment on ALL of them. Saving a few for himself, the Dark Eldar crews found themselves impaled, throttled, being strangled or crushed by their own vile tools of torture. A just fate indeed.
Turning to a group of freed slaves, the primarch escorted them out. Many were weeping tears of joy at being freed from the clutches of the Dark Eldar and were more than glad to find a way out through either the webway or by getting a lift. A few stayed back to aid their saviors in battling the hated Dark Eldar.
Cyrus took a shot, and smiled mirthlessly with cold satisfaction at the screams.
Aiming again, he dropped another one of those damn Eldar.
Nothing really surprised the Dark Eldar more when about a hundred Deathwatch marines came out of nowhere right on top of them, shredding their defenses to let the rest advance.
Russ perched on the remains of a broken Raider, grinning viciously at the battle. Opening up another canteen, he took a long swig before wiping his mouth and belching loudly.
"I want another frontal assault." Russ said over the vox to his men. "Another charge, we barge in, slaughter them all and grind their bones to make our bread!"
The astartes gave their battle cries in answer. Unfortunately, Vect totally saw this coming.
Dropping down a few (insanely large number) literal tons worth of heavy weapons and soldiers, the lord of Commoragh made sure that he would continue his work undisturbed while the astartes battled his warriors.
The two armies were at a stalemate.
Or were they?
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From above the massive slaughter, Rainbow Dash watched, trying to find any potential gap in the Dark Eldar defense.
There wasn't any. That was a problem. The two armies would be locked in battle for perhaps days on end before one of them broke formation.
"There's literally no opening." Rainbow Dash said after a few more moments of scrutinizing the Dark Eldar army.
"Then.... let's make this a bit more amusing." Khan replied. Taking out his trigger, he had two squads of terminators stand by the massive teleporter.
"Remember." Khan said. "If you want to go back, you have a personal one. Press your own trigger if you are in danger."
The terminators nodded. Their own miniature get-out-of-death-free card was a small device located on their chest. Small to the point where it could be held in one's hand.
The Dark Eldar were hit hard by the arrival of two squads of terminators who made mincemeat of anyone around them. The wretched aliens could only scramble to make a response as the Deathwatch teleported in the rest of the kill-teams, sowing havoc among the Dark Eldar.
Rainbow Dash looked down to see Cyrus among the kill-teams. She nodded to herself and flew on another path, perching on a rooftop.
Nearby, a raider opened fire with it's dark lance upon the space marines. Formidable as the power armor of the astartes was, it might as well as have been tissue paper when pitted against the vile weapon. One unfortunate brother just thought of this before being vaporized.
Leman Russ saw this. Running over, he jumped aboard and began to violently throttle the gunner. A lone sniper went to attempt on a pot-shot on him.
Rainbow Dash hit him like a bolter round as the Dark Eldar was sent flying into a wall. The Space Wolves primarch seeing this out of the corner of his eye and chuckling partly to himself, partly to intimidate this victim.
Said victim was as good as dog wolf food. Who knew Russ was so literal at times?
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Vect grasped the element of loyalty tighter feeling some of it's power surge through him.
Not enough. He need more.
His greed and ambition drove him to go through whatever depths necessary to obtain this power.
It didn't matter how many of his men died. All that mattered is that he achieved his goal.
Elsewhere, Fluttershy found herself surrounded by a group of Dark Eldar who had remained inside with their leader.
She gave a small whimper when she found herself being pinned to the ground.