Artellus Numeon - Battle For The Draconius Gate: Despite the pilot’s best efforts, the gunship was sent crashing down, the twin-linked Avenger Bolt Cannons mounted in the Fire Raptors’ nose making short work of the Thunderhawks’ armour. Five more Drakes were killed as shots shredded through the troop compartment before the gunship hit the ground in the Arridian Plaine. In the distance, a fimiliar silhouette stood on the horizon -- Mount Deathfire -- their ultimate goal. Yet the mountain was way too far away for any hope to reach it on foot. Three more Fireborn had not survived the crash -- amongst them the pilot -- and thus, the Pyre had been reduced to just twelve warriors. Luckily Zytos and Gargo were counted amongst the survivors -- Numeon as well, but their survival was only a question of minutes. Trying to make a run for it would only end with their pointless deaths, run down by the relentless gunfire of the descending Fire Raptors. Likewise, their lack of heavy weapons meant that they could not hope to damage the aircraft. All that remained was to seek cover in the ruins of their downed gunship and wait for their killers to set foot on Nocturne. Despite their dire situation and demorilisation that they face imminent death, the survivors of the Charybdis found some solace in that they would at least die on the soil of their beloved homeworld.Extracting Vulkan's casket from the Thunderhawk, the Salamanders gathered for their a final last stand. One of the Fire Raptors overflew them, no doubt relaying their position to the Reaper’s Shroud’s mobilizing troops before turning back to make a strafing run. It's Avenger Bolt Cannons were cycling up as the gunship was suddenly hit by a missile which send the Fire Raptor to explode on a rocky wall. Three gunships, in the unmistakably green livery of the Salamanders Legion, rushed overhead, dispersing the Death Guard flyers which prudently retreated. From the lead gunship, a communication channel was established, the speaker identifying himself as the famed Nomus Rhy'tan, Lord Chaplain of the XVIII Legion and Keeper of the Keys of Prometheus. Quickly realizing the importance of this new arrival, Rhy’tan ordered his gunships to land to seek out Numeon who had likewise announced his identity across the vox. Stepping from the gunship’s ramp with his personal bodyguard of Firedrakes, upon meeting him, Nomus Rhy'tan clasped Artellus Numeon's hand in the old ways of warriors and quickly asked about Vulkan's condition. "He's sleeping," answered Numeon, confessing his belief in Vulkan’s possible resurrection. He told the Lord Chaplain of their hardships they had to endure to reach Nocturne. With the Reaper's Shroud descending into low orbit, time was short at hand and any lengthier explanation or tale of their adventures would have to wait -- war had come to Nocturne -- and no matter how severely depleted the ranks of the Salamanders Legion were, they intended to fight to their dying breath. To Numeon’s relief the Pyre soon found out that the venerable Chaplain had not waited for reliable information to act upon in regard to his Legion's status, but had heeded his own counsel and fortified Nocturne as much as he could. Several outposts, formidable in every aspect, had been erected to withstand just this kind of peril they were now facing, and the continued training of the Legion’s Neophytes meant that the Legion had almost 800 trained and armed warriors at hand. Legiones Astartes all, they could be quickly be gathered to man these formidable defences. Quickly gathering the survivors of the Pyre and Vulkan’s casket, the Salamanders embarked on the gunships and rallied to the closest of these new outposts, the Draconius Gate.As Vulkan’s chosen regent, the task to command the defense of the Draconius Gate fell to Nomus Rhy’tan, Numeon wisely choosing not to challenge the Lord Chaplain’s authority. In accordance with Rhy’tan’s intentions the veterans of the Pyre were disseminated along the line so that the Nepophytes may benefit from their experience. Iden Gargo, the former artisan had joined the Techmarine Covenant that would attend the outpost’s void-shield generators, which only left Zytos and Numeon to accompany Nomus Rhy’tan to his command bunker. The Lord Chaplain hoped that by mustering the strength of his Legion at the Draconius Gate he would lure the Death Guard to attack them head on rather than ravage Nocturne’s civilian settlements. It was a tactic Numeon was sure would work because the enemy commander obviously still wanted to claim Vulkan’s body. The fight would be a grim one: barely 800 Salamanders, most of them having never seen actual battle, yet fought Traitor Marines against a likely superior but most importantly battle-hardened force of the dreaded Death Guard. Yet the Salamanders would fight on their homeworld, in immediate vicinity of one of their most sacred grounds and to protect their Primarch. Perhaps these elements would make a difference?Faithful to their brutal method of war, the Death Guard began the battle with a prolonged orbital bombardment from the still-functionning guns of the Reaper’s Shroud. The bombardment was not a conventional one but had been comprized solely of vile virus-weaponry, flesh-eating bacteria and other deadly nerve-agents. While the shells themselves harmlessly exploded on the outpost’s void-shields, its deadly payload was not such easily dismissed. Most worlds would have died to such a bombardment, their armies reduced to slurry, their war machines to corroded and useless chunks of radioactive or contaminated junk, but Nocturne was not just any world, Nocturne was a Death World, a world ending life since it creation where only the hardiest of survivors endured. As soon as they were released the airborne poisons burned in contact with Nocturne’s volcanic atmosphere. Yet such was the deluge of shells that this was not enough and soon a bite-yellow miasma began to creep ever closer to the Draconius Gate’s outermost bunkers. Rhy’tan however quickly saw the danger for what it was and orderd the burners engaged: batteries of auto-flamers releasing an inferno that sanatized Nocturne’s surface for good. After twenty minutes of continuous burn, the Death Guard realized that their stratagem had failed and stopped he bombardment. Now the true battle could be joined.As the Death Guard began to land their troops, the outpost's anti-air and orbital weapons exacted a heavy toll, shooting down some of the Death Guard's Fire Raptors and Thunderhawks while others crashed to the planet's surface, their turbines choked by the volcanic ashes carried upon Nocturne's hot winds. The Death Guard would however not be so easily denied, that much Numeon knew for certain. The Death Guard commander, the relentless Malig Laestygon, was determined to claim the honour of being the very first Astartes to truly slay a Primarch. As the Death Guard casualties mounted and their batallions gathered on the plaine, it quickly became apparent that the Salamanders were greatly outnumbered and outgunned. The XVIII Legion supported only three gunhips which hadn't even taken to air and there was no heavy armour support on the ground. Meanwhile, the Death Guard had deployed several armoured battalions they were justly famed for -- great formations of Land Raiders and Sicaran Battle Tanks -- capable of overwhelming the void-shields through their shere firepower. Yet the Salamanders stayed oddly inactive. Zytos did suggest trying to discreetly exfiltrate Vulkan’s casket to Prometheus, but Numeon didn’t consider it seriously for more than an instant. They had reached Nocturne and this story would end on Nocturne, so much he told Zytos before fixing the assembling Death Guard, waiting intently for Nocturne to show its true strength.The landing zones chosen by the Death Guard accounted for the first casualties, as gunships and Drop Pods landed in magma-trenches or vanished in opening chasms. Some of the less fortunate were cooked alive within their own battle plate or their transports as these were caught in searing geysers of super-heated steam which erupted from Nocturne's soil. Any warlord trying to assault a Death World was a fool, even if that warlord was of the Legiones Astartes, but the Death Guard had always vaunted themselves on their tenacity and resilience and were confident in their eventual victory. It would just be harder fought than what they had initially anticipated. In contrast, the Salamanders knew fully well what dangers lurked beneath the ground and eagerly anticipated the moment the Death Guard would realise it. As the Death Guard's armoured battalions assembled, the seismic disturbance created by so many tanks awakened the aggressive fauna of Nocturne. Soon gnarlwyrms, urdrakes, basilysks, wyverns, drakons and targons spilled forth from their earthly domains and ran rampant amongst the Death Guard formations. The more massive gnarlwyrms charged the Sicaran and Land Raiders, their horns more than able to rip asunder the tanks armour, while the fire-breathing urdrakes burned legionaries and tank armour to molten slag. By now the XIV Legion's assault had been badly mauled, just as Nomus Rhy'tan had predicted.Seeing the Death Guard beleaguered forces in disarray thanks to the monsters in their midst, Rhy'tan as overall commander of the Salamanders ordered the void-shields lowered and the Salamanders to charge. As last survivor of the famed Pyre Guard, Artellus Numeon was invited to join the Lord Chaplain amongst the Firedrakes, the very best of the XVIII Legion. Leading the couterattack from the fore, Nomus Rhy'tan and Artellus Numeon picked up speed and charged the Death Guard’s front ranks. As both formations were about to meet, sensing a turn in the tide of battles, the drakes of Nocturne let go of their prey, leaving a virtually disorientated and helpless Death Guard preciously little time to reorganise their ranks and receive their charge. From the Draconius Gate Thudd Guns shelled the Death Guard's rear lines to further disorganise the enemy while the charge hit home. The Death Guard’s front ranks were quickly overwhelmed, but the Death Guard would not be undone so easily, even when a Talon of counter-charging Death Guard Contemptor Dreadnoughts were brought down by disciplined fire from both Lascannons and Volkite Culverines, Mortarion's sons died fighting, weapons in hand. Overhead the artillery duel between the two opposing forces continued unabated until a large magma chasm opened up and swallowed a large part of the Death Guard's artillery-train. With the battle quickly turning in favour of the Salamanders,the only true treath remaining were the enemy commander -- Maelig Laestygon and his Terminator-elite. Still convinced he could snatch victory from the hands of defeat Laestygon announced himself in pompous fashion, but his angry diatribe was swiftly cut short in single-combat by Numeon. With their commander’s death the heart of the Death Guard's assault had been cut out and those that remained only faced utter annihilation. Soon Nocturne would swallow and destroy every sign of the Death Guard passage and the very name of the warlord who had believed he could conquer the Salamanders’ homeworld would be lost to time.