Classic Blood Angels fiction

So I was buzzing about when I found this classic bit of Blood Angels fiction and thought it would be rude not to share it with all you out there (especially those who remember this the first time around like me).

With a roar of rocket motors a great cloud of dust was blown up from the parched earth as the five-man assault squad landed. The Blood Angels captain approached the Imperial Guard unit positioned behind a hastily-constructed barricade of wrecked tanks. "What do you have to report, Sergeant?"

"One of the remaining units of Varlak's rebels are still holed up in part of the command centre, Sergeant Mordax of the Mordian Iron Guard explained. 'We've attempted an assault on the bunker but Varlak's men are well armed and we can't get close enough without them picking us off."

The Space Marine could not but fail to see the truth of the Guardsman's report, for the bodies of several Mordians lay unmoving in the dust between the makeshift barricade and the ruins of the command centre. Although Lord Varlak's rebellion on Korsk II had been suppressed, pockets of resistance from those loyal to the rogue psyker still held out against the Imperial forces across the planet. Most had been crushed, but here the rebels' position was simply too strong, and so the Blood Angels had been called in.

"You may need to call for more men, Sir," said Mordax, looking at the small group of Blood Angels.

The Space Marine captain pulled himself to his full height and glowered down at the Guardsman. "You insult us, Mordian," he growled. "I will have words with you after we have dealt with the rebels."

With a signal from their captain, the squad launched themselves skywards, their jump packs carrying them high over the barricade and in the direction of the rebels. Descending on the command centre, the Space Marines let fire with their bolt pistols. Already weakened by the tank bombardment the side of the structure gave way and the Blood Angels burst right into the heart of the rebels' rathole. Without a pause for thought about their actions the elite warriors began blasting away at the humans and cutting into them with whirring chainswords.

Yelling a battle-cry Mordax led his Imperial Guardsmen forward into the fray. But the cry died on his lips when he came to the gap tom in the wall and he saw the charnel-house scene within.

Although there were only five Space Marines compared to at least six times as many rebels, the barely-contained animalistic fury of the Blood Angels made up for their comparative lack of numbers.

Broken bodies lay scattered among the ruins, not just cut down by gunfire but butchered in ways that the Guardsman would only have expected from an alien horror such as the Tyranids. Here a rebel killed by a gunshot to the stomach had had his heart tom clean out of his chest; there the corpse of another man testified to the fact that, while still alive, his head had been ripped from his body, taking half his spinal column with it. That such destruction could have been caused in so short a period of time seemed almost impossible.

Frozen with horror, the Mordians looked on as the Emperor's elite went on with their slaughter. The bloodlust was on the Space Marines now and nothing would stop them purging Korsk of the rebels. Only half the defenders remained. His armour splattered with blood and gore the Blood Angels captain slashed sideways with his buzzing chains word, slicing one of Varlak's men in half from shoulder to midriff. A rebel Guardsman leapt at one of the Blood Angels, his lasgun firing. However, against the mighty armour of the better equipped Space Marine the weapon's energy blasts had little effect. Turning on his assailant with superhuman speed, the Blood Angel struck out with his left arm. His power fist, its energy field crackling, hit the rebel full in the face, shattering the glass of the man's helmet and splintering his skull at the same time.

Close by another Blood Angel hoisted a rebel into the air and hurled him across the room with contemptuous ease, emptying the clip from his bolt pistol into the helpless Guardsmen as he slumped to the floor. The Guardsman's stomach and chest exploded in a bloody shower of intestines and internal organs.

In moments it was all over and all that was left was a scene of devastation and carnage. Mordax waited uneasily in the deathly silence that followed the battle as the Blood Angels captain strode towards him over the corpses of Varlak's troops. It required all of the Guardsman's will power not to cower before the seven foot tall warrior that was approaching him. He could imagine the captain's eyes burning with barely-suppressed bloodlust behind the visors of his helmet. The urge to kill was still on him.

The Blood Angel halted and leant forward, his visor mere inches from the Guardsman's face. There was a moment of tense silence as the Mordian dared not imagine what might happen next. A sound like a low growl emerged from the Space Marine's helmet.

"Praise be to the Emperor!" he suddenly roared and then, turning on his heels, marched away with his squad across the churned up battlefield. Praise be to the Emperor indeed, Mordax thought with an unrestrained sigh of relief.

Ah the memories of that classic Angels of Death Codex. :)