There is Only War

## The first Deployment of the Melyrian 1st

### MISSION 1

The Melyrian 1st, under command of the Astra Militarum, as supplied by the Munitorum, was deployed to a planet whose name I partially remember, something like Kalaab Iib.

As a drop troop regiment, we were assigned to attack an airstrip behind enemy lines. HQ squad, then called Section 1, was to take out an Auspex installment. Section 1, then called Section 2, was to take a strategic point and set up an unknown device (we would later find out this was a beacon).

The operations went successful, we fought heretic Guardsmen who we then found were also infected by genestealers, and equipped with Tau weaponry. We also ran into an actual genestealer in the tunnels, who was tough as shit, so we sealed off the tunnels.

The beacon allowed HQ to shell the shit out of the area, setting everything on fire and making section 2 forever paranoid. Some Phoenix chapter astartes dropped in and cleaned up everything else.

### MISSION 2

Mission 2, we identified that the genestealer cultists were hanging out in a nearby city of Vosbury. We got resupplied but found out much of our resupply had strange symbols on it - later in the middle of the mission we found out that they were Tyranid symbols, indicative that our Militarum supply lines were compromised. For now though, we were told to assess enemy strength in the city of vosbury, of their walls and within their mines. Section 1 ran into a lot of firepower in a firesack in the tunnels while section 2 ran into a witch. After a lull in the fighting, Zia discovered the extent of the Genestealer infection within HQ command, and her Sororitas command ordered her to cut all connection to militarum command and dispose of all resupply items. Luckily, her squadmates were amicable about removing militarum HQ's frequencies from their vox-casters.

Earlier on Zia was also given a handheld targetter. Once both sections had gathered sufficient evidence of the Genestealer infiltration into militarum command, they evacuated the city without performing any recon sweeps of enemy forces, and Zia used the handheld targeter on the city. Turns out there was an Inquisitorial vessel in orbit who nuked the city. Section 2 was further scarred into paranoia cuz they had barely made it out of the blast zone of the nuke, cuz they wasted extra time to steal an enemy leman Russ...

The sisters of battle arrived in a drop church to pick us up.

### MISSION 3

A nearby volcano stirred a bit from all the bombardments, spewing ash into the atmosphere.

Cut off from militarum command and Munitorum resupply, the sisters armed us with all sorts of assorted weaponry, esoteric to guardsmen of course. This included some high-brow stuff like a stalker bolt rifle, and a xenotech gun which Zia now wields, wrapped up in a canvas to preserve her squadmates' sanities. Here is also where we met the enigmatic Sister Ceries, and her superior, sister Ananka. They seemed very chill for being sisters of battle, and some of the paranoid men of section 1 thought the sisters to be infiltrators. We later found out the sisters in question are actually also members of the Inquisition.

Our platoon, reinforced with some kriegsmen, was to take on a series of enemy trenches with heavy guns on them, including a Tau hammerhead vehicle and Leman Russ with a powerful gun. We were loaned an immolator tank for each section (section 1 now renamed to HQ section, and section 2 now bring section 1). HQ section also made some dummy tanks by disguising normal trucks as fake lemans, and having some servitors drive them to avoid heavy fire for our own vehicles. Using the ash from the volcano as partial cover and a rolling barrage of sisters artillery support as well, we drove up to their lines and piled into their trenches and most of the platoon engaged in trench CQC. Zia used her xenotech gun, designated as "Ryza-pattern adv AT device" to disable the Leman Russ turret and heavily damage the hammerhead and sentinels the enemy sent at us. The rest of the squad did a good job at securing the trenches, even encountering a Kelermorph genestealer which was tough as shit.

### MISSION 4

After we took the trenches (which was necessary to allow the main sisters' Mission to attack the nearby city without getting bombarded from the position we took), we were informed we would assist the sisters in retaking the Grand Cathedral of St Mallia. Apparently it housed an orbital defense platform which could help take out an approaching Tyranid hive fleet before it could land on the planet. As drop troopers, we would land on the roof of the cathedral and work our way down. In particular, HQ section's gunner, Helbrin, whose rifled indicated to him that the Kelermorph was a high value target last mission, also indicated to him the strategist of the local enemy forces (we would later find out it was a Nexos). Due to poor communication, the method of transport to the roof of the church was a bunch of sisters seraphim literally picking us up in their arms and then dropping us above the church. HQ section didn't freak out but Section 1 did, the Ogryn in its panic meeting a seraphim to the ground as it picked up Rylan, their section commander, causing the jetpack to explode and seriously wounding them, before the mission had even begun. We would find out that Sister Ceries had infiltrated the enemy defenses, which allowed us to safely land on the roof because she hacked/messed with the Hydra emplacements which fired way off course.

Roof battle was fierce but with Ceries' tech assistance she hacked the enemy tarantula turrets and shield/gun drones which kept us alive even as a genestealer sniper was posing a very deadly threat to us. It took a full face-blast from Zia's xenotech anti-tank gun and was still fine. Very scary. We identified a hidden hatch in the ceiling and breached it with lascutters and quickly dropped in before more reinforcements would stream onto the roof. Curiously this coincided with an unknown force's artillery fire blanketing the roof.

Once inside, we rendezvous with Ceries who we now know for sure to be an infiltration expert. She explains the importance of taking out their command structure before they can escape - the church has 55 floors. We go in rainbow six siege style, blowing open walls with lascutters to avoid hallway killzones, and witness Ceries leap in and start solo-ing all the enemy command targets and some of their bodyguards while we struggle to fight the rest of the bodyguards and genestealer acolytes. We do manage to survive and eliminate the targets though Helbrin is on the edge of death, having burnt 2 fate points to stay alive.

### MISSION 5

We find out that our main target, dubbed "primary target" was never on this planet the entire time, it was a ruse. We find out they were in a different system altogether, in a planet called Tenebris. While everyone recuperates from their wounds, requisition plans are made. For some reason Sister Ananka is able to requisition some pretty odd and considerably heretical items. Somehow we end up with an astartes Astraeus, several astartes stormspeeders of various makes, and even a xenotech vehicle. Tenebris is an ice planet hence the need for grav vehicles. Wheeled or tracked ones would not do well when average daily snowfall is 2 feet deep. HQ squad also had to determine the entirety of the supply situation for the duration of the 2 month mission, everything from rations, to how many clips of ammo, to making sure everyone had a survival suits for the Sub-Zero temperatures we would face. Once we finalized the list, we headed out to a canyon where we pile into the vehicles. We drive in silence twisting and turning among canyons for 2 hours until we drive into a cave and right through a wall. A false wall. That leads to a xenotech portal. OOC we know this to be a webway portal. Sister Ceries also had been doing flips on her jetbike the entire time, she's a wild one.

Traveling an hour through the webway we pop out the other side onto Tenebris. A frozen land.

We are to hunt down the primary target in the north west of the planet, but find out some heretics have set up in the south, and intend to make for a Blackstone prison which holds a powerful daemon entity within it. We decide to detour to deal with the heretics first. This mission involved scouting out some enemy Blackstone mines. HQ section blows up an astartes razorback and some heretic cultists, just to then see four chaos marines (later identified to be word bearers) running out of the caves to fight us. We use our brains and immediately withdraw. Section 1 had a similar task to scout but also install a listening device on the enemy auspex. They were (foolishly) braver at fighting the heretic astartes that approached them but managed to complete the mission and leave before taking casualties.

### MISSION 6

We find out that several different Chaos forces are moving south to approach the warp prison containing some sort of powerful warp entity. We plan to disrupt their plans until more serious Imperial forces can arrive, and set up a three-pronged assault on their mines. We also become aware that the primary mining installations are operated by forces of Tzeentch and find out a force of Nurgle plans to assault their positions. We time our assault to that of a Nurgle air raid against Tzeentch front lines. HQ squad faces down a Malcador Defender tank, several sentinels and a horde of Pink and Blue Horrors as well as some Tzaangors, managing to destroy the landing pad, all enemy transport trucks, and two large crates of blackstone (stealing one of them), as well as finding and stealing a locked box of artifacts. 1st Section manages to similarly raze a mining installation and recover a box of artifacts as well. These include an archeotech auto-sanguine (installed into Lieutenant Kade for his penchant of falling into critical wounds every other session), a Drukhari razorflail, an Iotan Gorgonnes bolt pistol blessed by the Order of the Matron, a tyranid bioweapon, a necron gauss rifle, an ancient Solar Auxilia lasgun, a vehicle-operated relic auspex scanner, and a Holy Relic of Terra (under Inquisitorial seal).

### MISSION 7

The 1st Melyrian Stormtroopers are to follow some leads into an old tunnel mining systems where their original target, the genestealer cultists, had set up mining operations many decades ago. Traveling downwards, our guardsmen soon realize that while the area was rich in blackstone, the crude ore turned into highly refined surfaces - they had stumbled into a necron tomb. However, as their mission was to retrieve any GSC communications devices (or destroy elements of their command team), we had to press on. Fighting off a carnifex and a swarm of ‘gaunts, HQ section prepared to enter the ancient necron tomb as they had followed the trail of both tyranids, genestealers, and genestealer cultists into it. They saw how necron scarabs had been de-atomizing the remains of GSC vehicles and tyranids before finding a large mass of GSC bodies. Searching through it we recovered several strange items as well as equipment with details as to their command structure. However, the tomb began to awake for some reason - HQ section believes it was due to the much louder tactics of Section 1 - and the party scrambled to flee as scarabs, warriors, immortals, and errant flayed ones beset themselves on the guardsmen. However, not fast enough - the Overlord emerged from his sarcophagus as the entire room seemed to come to life, legions of warriors emerging from their tombs. However, none fired a shot as the party scrambled to the exit, before the Overlord seemed to give a smirk as he sent forth a lychguard, a deathmark, and immortal, and three necron warriors to stand in their path. It seemed he was “kind” enough to ask us to duel a small contingent of his force before we would be allowed to leave his tomb. And so the party readied up for a pitched fight and was able to emerge - though at the end of this excursion, Kade and Helbrin were seriously wounded as most others took some damage, and Ceries having tanked \*three\* lychguard strikes (a single one which instantly brought Kade into critical condition) and still stood standing, her mysterious drugs and cybernetics keeping her alive.

### MISSION 8

It has come to the Command Staff’s attention that due to the liberal use of ammunition, that the Company’s ammo reserves are starting to become a concern. An old battlesite between Indomiuts and T’au forces had been identified a few days’ travel from their last location, so a plan is drafted to scavenge the frozen battlefield for ammo. However, it is revealed that a local Deffskullz Ork clan is in the area who have been continuously scavenging the same massive battlefield as well. Initial skirmishes saw the 1st Melyrian Stormtroopers dispatch roving gangs of Ork boyz and Gretchin before the location of the Warboss and a Kill Tank are found. While the 1st section battles a rise in cultists and orkz for resources, HQ section works to separate the Warboss from his Nobz and Boyz before performing a daring assault to liberate another Imperial Relic found on the Kill Tank as well as assassinate the Warboss. However during this attempt the Lieutenant is once again slain and stabilized by his newly installed archeotech nano-meds, while the Imagifier loses her arm in the battle. By the end of the mission, the company is properly re-supplied and focuses on their main task - eliminating the Genestealer Magus.

### MISSION 9

The squad infiltrates a T’au city in order to eliminate the GSC Primus there. He is one of 11 such xenos who have infiltrated the T’au bureaucracy and eliminating him and showing evidence of Genestealer presence should alert the local T’au into investigating and purging the GSC from within. HQ Section manages to get in using old Arbites codes scavenged off of fallen GSC Arbites they encountered earlier in the story. They have trouble navigating the many floors while maintaining stealth, running into a tyranid hatchery and tripping a silent alarm while doing so. The GSC Arbites are more than ready when the squad finally busts into the conference room where the Primus is concluding a meeting. The party chases them down under heavy fire - the Primus and his bodyguard flee aboard a Valkyrie and the party gives chase with two hijacked ones, ending with the elimination of the Primus as Trudy leaps out after the parachuting Primus and Power Fists him to death. 1st section causes a lot of distractions below to allow for HQ section to exfiltrate without the Arbites’ further notice, as well as further exposing GSC presence in the city.

### MISSION 10

The squad infiltrates the Imperial Fist Fortress at which the Magos and Patriarch of the GSC are reported to be housed at - the company’s kill targets. The mission is of such priority that squad member survival is only a secondary objective. The primary objective for the Company is to eliminate the Magos and Patriarch. It is unclear what the objective is for the Inquisitors that ordered this operation - they did not accompany Alpha Platoon. After a week and a half of covert travel through T’au controlled space they arrive. Coordinating an assault with mysterious Blufor forces, the company manages to sneak in without the GSC too aware of their successful infiltration. The party is quite close to the inner sanctum and everyone seems poised for a final battle with the Magos and Patriarch. At once the teams breach into the respective lairs. For HQ Section, they encounter the Patriarch alongside a Zoanthrope, two Aberrants and a massive horde of assorted gaunts. The party painstakingly fights their way through a disadvantageous position into the room. As they get closer and manage to start to open fire on the Patriarch, they notice that it had been accelerating the growth and spawning of a massive Trygon. Trudy activated a Wraithbone communication device she had which caused an orbital D-cannon to fire into the chamber. It created a vortex hole, sucking in and destroying the Trygon, but also causing the Patriarch to panic, with suddenly Helbrin's comrade utilized this as a chance to make the Primarch into a sacrifice, revealing himself to have been an agent of chaos. A Keeper of Secrets burst into the chamber alongside a horde of daemonettes as the party now struggled to fight against this new threat while already battered by the hard fight against the genestealers. Luckily at this time their backup forces arrived as the Sororitas that had been fighting alongside them charge into the room. It turns out that the "green" squad of Sororitas were actually a cover, as each of them were revealed to be experienced Celestian Sacresancts. In the fight against the Keeper of Secrets, several squad members were stunned and panicked from the sheer terror of experiencing such a powerful daemon. However they were able to finally destroy it and banish it into Kade's comrade Janine's special sword. She had revealed herself to have been an Ordo Malleus agent the entire time under the guise of Kade's vox-operator. Trudy however was cut in half after she had been exposed to the warp vortex and cleaved in two by the Keeper of Secrets before it was destroyed. Victorious but battered, HQ section withdrew from the Imperial Fist fortress for debrief. 1st Section similarly had a hard-fought battle against the Magos, though that was a setup for chaos forces as a daemon prince sprung forth. Similarly here, 1st Section fought hard to destroy the beast and were ultimately successful as well despite their injuries and casualties.

## The Second Deployment of the Melyrian 1st

After two years, Inquisitor Syleen recalled the members of the Melyrian 1st for another deployment. HQ Section was now composed of Dialogus Zia, Repentia Superior Trudy (who was curiously looking hale and hearty despite having been cut in half two years ago), Arbites Judge Kade, Field Agent Helbrin, Navy Officer Colton, Krieg Trooper A-01, and Crusader Gillot. The member of 1st Section were now Garret (sanctioned as a battle psyker), Irke (enhanced by brain implants and cybernetics), Phi Phi, S-11-K3 (promoted to Captain), and two new arrivals, the Astropath Katherine and the bounty hunter Meggy "Blue" Fandrosa. They were recalled as Inquisitor Syleen required them to gather information about the Tenebrisian Dynasty of Necrons waking up underneath the namesake planet.

### Elucidator Squad - Mission 1

The squad was sent to Tenebris proper to find clues directly from the source. After blasting their way through some automated defenses, the party wandered cluelessly through the giant tomb, noticing that an Ynnari strike team had made their way through the tomb earlier (and may have been in the progress of still doing so), a giant "charging station" for canopteks, a voidship hangar and a deactivated necron warmachine garage. Without knowing it, the party accidentally stumbled onto a Teleportarium equivalent and found themselves aboard the bridge of the Voidship. Hoping they could find the data they needed there, Zia interfaced Colton's MIU with an Adaptive Logis Engine into the Necron terminals. This eventually caused the Necron vessel to animate, though the automated canopteks largely remained neutral of the Imperials on their ship. The ship was ordered into voidcombat, and suddenly the party found themselves several lightminutes away over the planet of Helaphyyx, witnessing the Necron fleet buzzing an Ork attack moon Deff Star. The party scrambled to find a solution to get out of this situation, when all of a sudden several Purple Orks Da Jump'd onto the bridge, blasting through the canoptek defenders and forcing the party to react. Eventually Colton was finally able to decipher enough of the ship's teleportarium to teleport them to safety - into Hive City Sheol.

### Regicide Squad - Recovery on Shiru

*Main article: Recovery on Shiru*

While HQ fought their way into Tenebris, 1st Squad was sent to recover data from a Necron vessel that was going to crash on the moon of Shiru. Landing at the Indomitus-controlled spaceport, the team infiltrated below the lines into Chaos territory, using speed to pass unnoticed and reaching the pre-identified crash site.
After exploring a nearby city and scouting the surroundings out, they started evalutating their options, ultimately choosing to overrun the isolated planetary laser battery nearby to increase their chances of successful exfiltration. They then attempted luring a Khornate force to fight other nearby enemies. Unfortunately, the only result was the scramblign of a pair of Thunderhawks, so they had to make haste to the fast-approaching wreckage.
Managing to get to it before any of the Chaos factions, they made their way inside, heretics hot on their heels. After a brief holdout against Flayed Ones, Deathmarks, and Tzeentchian Daemons, the squad activated a portal, and found the vessel's command bridge. More fighting ensued there, with cultists and Chaos Spawns attempting to overrun them, but ultimately the retrival was successful. The team made its way to the open top of the wreckage, where Lidyah came to pick them up in the Aquila Lander.

### Regicide Squad - The Amitzer Investigation

*Main article: The Amizer Investigation*

1st Squad, now renamed Regicide Squad, is similarly tasked to find and hopefully acquire anything that may be useful against the C'Tan threat. A last-minute change in their destination sees them to the Amitzer system, where they learn of unusual ship-weapon shots striking an asteroid field out of nowhere.
Logic and some quick confirmation by the local Indomitus forces leads them to the largest of the two ship graveyards of the sector, specifically, to a trio of Space Hulks. A team is assembled to track down the source of unusual reading in the largest of them, and at the heart of the gargantuan relict they find an ancient xeno vessel of bizzarre construction.
Proceeding through the crystaline halls, the Acolytes finds themselves transported to an unnatural plane of islands floating in the void, along with an enormous, transformed lance battery still attached to a lost Imperial vessel. Navigating the ambient takes a while, as it is partially leaning on the Immaterium, and as such has attracted a few foul entities: the group pushes through a three-way conflict between Enslavers and their thralls, Rak'Ghuls aided by seemingly-possessed Imperial vehicles, and Orks invading by Telly-porta.
Eventually however, they are once again moved by the physics-defying nature of the location on the ship itself. The group is momentarily split, and while Aurelius, Garret, Irke, Sable and Sho'ka barely survive walking into an ambush of rogue machinery, Natalia and Peirce navigate outside the hull to the transformed tower that once housed the bridge, finding that the greenskins have rallied enough forces to launch an assault on the vessel itself.
Coming together once more, but low on resources and wounded, the Acolytes choose to attempt destroying the Irradial Cogitator sitting at the base of what used to be the tower hosting the command bridge by dropping a Hellhound flame tank on it from the alcoves above. This devastates the Rak'Ghul guards that surrounded it, but it is unclear whether the tainted machine actually was destroyed, as a corrputed mist began to rise up the spire. The team escaped upwards, coming into contact with a space-distorting object at the very top, through which they were transported back to the xeno vessel, to be found by a patrolling squad of Silky's 659th Combat Engineers escorting Gamma Gamma Thi. The Magos identified the unusual red sphere nearby as a pocket dimension, but they scarcely had the time to pick it up that they discovered more Rak'Ghuls were in pursuit along the halls. The squad hastily and masterfully navigated the halls of the hulk back to the hangar the Kriegers had fortified, and all boarded the transport back to the *Hariolor*.
That wasn't the end however, as the xenos' landing craft raced to the ship to retrieve the artifact, and so a great struggle ensued in the ship's hangars. After an intense fight against the largest of the attack waves, the ship was free to jump back to the vicinity of the Indomitus' space station, where a group of Adeptus Custodes jumped in lightning-fast to eliminate the last of the Rak'Ghuls.
With their mission's task hopefully satisfied, Regicide squad returned to the Inquisitor...