Donatos War - The Axe Falls: The Loyalist Imperial Knights headed west, wading through a sea of enemy combatants and Chaos Cultists. They died by the hundreds, mowed down like wheat before the scythe by the Knight's coordinated fire or crushed beneath their armoured feet. Those weapons truly capable of harming a Knight -- tanks and self-propelled artillery -- were expertly targeted and destroyed before they could open fire. The true fight came at the rear of the Imperial formation, where a rearguard led by Garath Dar Draconis held back the pursuing Renegade Knights. At the vanguard, Danial Tan Draconis, his sister Jennika and the High King's Herald, Markos Dar Draconis, pressed on. Their target was a wide transit bridge, large enough to allow six Knights to cross it abreast over a deep canal that was half a kilometre wide. If the retreating Imperial troops could cross that bridge and bring it down behind them they could still find safety.A few hundred metres before the bridge's entrance, Lady Suset Dar Pegasson's Knight detected strange energy signatures, largely hidden by the body heat emanating from the human mob surrounding it. She tried to warn her comrades, but her words were cut short as the yet unidentified enemy opened fire. Missiles, large calibre ballistic rounds and powerful energy streams hit the overlapping Ion Shields of the foremost Knights.One House Draconis Knight, Sire Poldred was destroyed, his Knight's legs blown out from under it. Using their own cultists as cover for their movement, Chaos Space Marine infantry and tanks had deployed across the bridge, hoping to trap the Imperial Knights between them and the pursuing Traitor Knights. With no time to lose, the High King ordered his ranks to charge through the enemy lines. With commendable discipline the Word Bearers held their ground, pouring fire into the advancing Imperials.In the first line of the Loyalist charge stood Danial Tan Draconis. Oath of Flame’s Ion Shield deflected the twin-linked lasbeams of a Chaos Predator Annihilator, while its armoured legs withstood the powerful blasts of hurled Krak Grenades and Autocannon rounds. Oath of Flame kicked an enemy tank, flipping it onto its turret and causing it to explode. The High King's Knight, Fyreheart, was attacked by an Aspiring Champion in hook-festooned power armour wielding a Power Fist.Before the High King could react, the enemy champion ripped off part of Fyreheart’s ankle, crippling the high king's mount. With a shout of anger, High King Tolwyn brought his Tempest Blade to bear, smashing the Aspiring Champion aside with the flat of his blade, its momentum strong enough to send even an armoured Space Marine flying through the air. But the damage had been done.With Fyreheart crippled, High King Tolwyn knew he would only slow down the escape and possibly put the entire venture in jeopardy. His duty was clear: the collective survival of his Knights was more important than his own. He also had to ensure that his son, the Kingsward, survived so that the Draconis line might be perpetuated and someone might challenge Gerraint's ambitions to the throne of Adrastapol.With a heavy heart, Tolwyn gave his final orders. Any able-bodied Knight would cross the bridge and cover the Sacristans and Cadians as they readied the bridge for demolition. Sire Garath was relieved of command over the rearguard, which would assemble around Tolwyn and help him defend the bridge from the enemy. Only those Knights crippled or injured beyond their meagre means of repair were allowed to stay with the High King, who would slowly fall back if circumstances allowed. Despite Jennika's and Danial's strident protests, the order was carried out as the High King wished. Markos Dar Draconis, Tolwyn's oldest friend, considered disobeying these orders, but in a private channel Tolwyn tasked him instead with a secret mission: to watch over Jennika and Danial after he was gone.High King Tolwyn stood proudly on the bridge. He was joined by one of his bodyguards, Sire Daeved in Pyrefang and two other Knights of House Draconis, Sire Natan in Drake Ascendant and Sire Kristov in Crimson Sword. Two wounded Minotos Knights completed their small group, as well as a ragtag assortment of Sacristan Crawlers, Cadian Tauroxes and Leman Russ tanks that had suffered damaged tracks. Against them stood the surging masses of House Chimaeros, their leader, the Traitor Gerraint Tan Chimaeros, at their head.Drake Ascendant and Crimson Sword were the first to fall, slain even before the enemy charged. In close combat the odds were clearly in favour of the retreating Loyalists, as the bridge funnelled the enemy's numbers so that the rearguard could confront them one on one. In pouring rain, Therianthros, Gerraint's Knight, charged Fyreheart. The two former friends exchanged thunderous blows, but the rain thickened and obscured the duel from sight. An explosion illuminated the grey skies as High King Tolwyn detonated the Demolition Charges expertly planted by Polluxis' Sacristans. The Knights of House Draconis and the two other Houses had escaped the ambush set for them, but it had cost them dearly.