Battle of Calth - Order from Chaos: As the Word Bearers breacher squads were to begin their attack on the exterior of the flagship, the balance of the battle for the vessel's interior shifted. Pockets of organised and stoic resistance began to coalesce, individual warriors drawn towards leaders able to command the fight-back by their own heroic example.Chapter Master Klord Empion, commander of the 9th Chapter, was one such leader, a warrior who was attending to duties elsewhere on the flagship when the bridge was breached. Empion was fortunate to have with him at the time of the incursion a large number of warriors and sub-officers from his chapter's command cadre. He quickly built this into the core of a force with which to repel the attackers, and which was soon reinforced as it fought its way along Deck Thirty-five gathering dozens of Legiones Astartes, naval armsmen and Solar Auxilia troops. Empion had no explanation for thenature of the attack against the vessel, but he knew that only a steady and determined counter-advance towards the forward sections offered any hope of linking up with other forces and holding the ship.Meanwhile, Captain Heutonicus of the 161st Company had taken command of a small band of isolated Ultramarines initiates only recently ascended to the status of Legionary. The first battle these young warriors fought was against a foe none had any inkling how to counter and for many it would be their last. It fell to Captain Heutonicus not just to keep his charges alive but to lead them in battle, a task in which he excelled despite the odds against him. Barely a quarter of the initiates fighting under Captain Heutonicus survived that day, but those who did were blooded in extremis and many went on to become warriors of great renown. But that was far in the future and numerous indescribable horrors lay ahead as the captain led his force through the fiend-haunted chambers of Deck Twenty in an effort to link up with other survivor groups.Of all the tales of courage and honour told of the defence of the Macragge's Honour, one frequently recounted is that of Sergeant Aeonid Thiel of the 135th Company. At the moment of the breaching of the flagship's bridge, Thiel was under censure awaiting a hearing with the Primarch himself in an antechamber lined with dozens of Lord Guilliman's personal weapons. Confronted by the first of the attackers, Thiel had reached for the nearest weapons to hand -- an electromagnetic longsword and a Kehletai friction axe, both impossibly rare and incredibly potent examples of lost weaponsmiths' arts. Wielding the Primarch's exotic weaponry, Thiel fought his way through a horde of foes, quickly discovering that the creatures were significantly more vulnerable to the effects of his axe and sword than they were to those of his bolt pistol. Thiel was gifted with the rare ability to think outside of accepted dogma, indeed, it was this very characteristic that had earned him the mark of censure -- the red-painted battle helm which he wore still. Thiel named the invaders "Daemons", recognising that they were something other than aliens, psychic manifestation or even some unknown xenos strain somehow able to reside within the Warp. He saw that they were creatures from humanity's darkest nightmares in a very literal sense.As he fought, Thiel came upon other warriors fighting back to back against the waves of attackers. He was soon leading an ad hoc force of several dozen Legionaries, armsmen, Solar Auxilia and even abhuman stokers determined to fight for their flagship. He made brief contact with both Empion and Heutonicus, and between them the three were able to coordinate an advance across several decks that would see them converge in the proximity of the conning tower, or what remained of it. It was near this location that Thiel encountered the severely wounded First Chapter Master Gage, saving the senior Legion officer from certain death at the hands of a warp-born horror that had already severed his right arm.Still fighting off the blood-taint of a warp entity's venom, Gage saw straight away that Thiel's methods were working and should be disseminated throughout the whole force. The First Chapter Master agreed with Thiel's observation that the creatures were more susceptible to melee weaponry, though he reserved judgement on the sergeant's theory that this weakness was derived from arcane rituals used to summon them in the ancient myths of humanity. Nevertheless, Gage was an experienced officer and wise enough to know that in his wounded state he could not lead the force effectively. Tactical leadership was turned over to Thiel while an apothecary stabilised the First Chapter Master, and soon after, the forces under Thiel, Empion and Heutonicus were combined.