Eldar versus Witchhunters part 3

[rintinglen]

“They know we are here, Sisters,” spat Gabriella as she quickly took not of the enemy’s deployment. “See how they position themselves? Either they used some vile magic of the warp, or we were spied upon, but they know where we are.”
“It could be that both are true, Blessed Sister,” Said Sister Janine. “I saw a shimmer over by those rocks there. At first it seemed nothing more than sunlight on a quartz stone, but it was on the wrong side of the boulder, in the shade. I have looked more closely, but I cannot see anything else.”
“If what they say is true, you probably saw one of their Scouts, and were lucky to do so. Yet it makes sense, see how that position enfilades our line. If they have snipers there, It is up to us to root them out, or they will do great harm.” Gabriella drew her plasma pistol and checked the charge, drew a deep breath, keyed the mike and gave the command,
“Engage targets, Fire at will.”
Immediately the Exorcists roared into motion, the twin missile pods tracking targets as they did so.
“Target Lock, firing five” came the sound of Sisters Gwen’s voice over the vox.
She must have keyed the wrong channel to broadcast to them all, but any notion of reproving her vanished with as three of them impacted on an on-coming Wave Serpent. It smashed into the ground, spilling the occupants onto the ground.
Meanwhile, Sister Danielle had fired four missiles at a squadron of war walkers, one of them burst into flames while a second sputtered to a halt, momentarily stunned.
A squadron of jet bikes screamed into view to be met by a volley of heavy bolter fire.
The sleek, deadly jets screamed unscathed straight towards the Seraphim.
“Incoming, 11 o’clock!” shouted Vanessa.
Pistols and Swords swung to meet the oncoming threat as the Seraphim stood their ground. The Shuriken Catapults spat a stream of Monomolecular discs that spattered the ground all around the waiting Sisters. Miraculously, no one fell though the spang of armor being stricken rang out several times.
“Now!” exclaimed Gabriella, the Seraphim sprang into action, battering the speeding jet bikes as they screamed past, with no apparent effect. A long arm wielding a slender blade flickered from one of the bikes and then they were gone.
“Steady on, Sisters,” cried Gabriella, “We are needed elsewhere,” stilling the urge to pursue that had gripped the Seraphim. Sister Gina swayed and then fell, her face caught in a grimace of painful ecstasy as she crumpled.
Gabriella had caught a vox call from Delta Squad. They were taking sniper fire from the very hillock that Sister Janine had pointed out earlier, and had two sisters down already.
“Delta Squad, we are moving to engage. Target: those hills at one o’clock, yours. Move up to support,” she ordered.
With a gust of flames the Seraphim leaped into the sky, streaking across the desert towards the suspected position of the Eldar Rangers. Meanwhile, the survivors of Delta Squad were up and running that way as well. The elder, perhaps stunned by the on rushing sisters, fired hastily and to no effect. Pistols at ready, flamers to the front, the seraphim charged into the hillock.
Hunkered down amidst the scattered rocks, the Eldar Exarch rose up to shoot, but screamed when he saw the gouts of flame washing over the kill towards him. It was all over in a moment. Where the eldar had been, now there were only lumps of burning meat that stank of death.
Gabriella glared fiercely, reveling in the righteous death that had been inflected.
That moment of triumph failed to last out the minute, even as she glanced up a second elder Grav-Tank jetted up to loom threateningly over head. Its weapons barked out, but not at the scattered seraphim. They were aimed at the distant Tank of Sister Gwen, but to no avail. The bright beam glanced harmlessly off the highly polished track links that had been slung for extra protection across the bow of the Exorcist. In response, the missile turret pivoted and two missiles shot out, one blearing past the floating Eldar ship, but the other smashed into the side, exploding in a fiery ball. The elder ship halted and hung there smoking. The back hatch popped open and Green clad warriors scampered down ropes like so many spiders. A Squad of Blue clad Warriors clutching Shuriken Catapults came vaulting over the hill as well. Meanwhile, yet a third Squad of Eldar warriors came scrambling up from some shallow depression that had shielded them from the sisters’ righteous wrath. Their guns blazing they poured a hellish volley into the on-rushing members of Delta Squad.
Only two remained on their feet: Sister Carmella, though slightly wounded, and a young sister, Ellen, little more than a novitiate, who had grabbed the meltagun when it had fallen from the stricken hands of one of the other sisters. They were not deterred and continued their charge.
Gabriella had only a mount to glance at her vid display, before the scampering eldar were upon her. What she saw filled her with a fury, white-hot and horrific to behold. The Eldar Jetbikes had returned, piling into the Celestians of Sister Superior Allice. Even as she looked on, the flitting blue images of the eldar fled, leaving only a handful of immobile white spots to mark the place where the battle had occurred. Grasping the long handle of her great chain sword, “Terminus in Pace” she spun to greet the first of the eldar as they came.
On the right flank, sister Gwen saw their peril.
”Target: Grave Tank, 2 O’clock. Target lock, Firing four missiles.”
The hovering Falcon, its cargo of Striking Scorpions delivered, shuddered under
the impact of yet another hit, tilted and smashed to the ground. Fire began to lick at the crumpled hull. No survivors managed to struggle out of the wreck.
Also on the right, Sister Colleen had finished her duel with the War Walkers. All three were burning brightly, variegated smoke drifting upwards from the shattered eldar walkers. Her engine strained as her vehicle rumbled southward to join in the combat taking place there. The Retributors heavy bolters were not silent. From afar they rained death on the survivors of the Wave Serpent where it lay smashed on the ground. One by one, the suffering survivors fell. Until, at last, no longer able to bear up under the murderous barrage, the last pitiful survivors ran for their lives, forsaking the battle field to save their wretched selves.
Of this, Gabriella had no idea. She and her battle sisters were caught up in a swirling combat. No matter how many elves they layed low, more came. A pious fury filled her heart, and though she saw it not, a golden nimbus around her grew steadily brighter. She chanted a portion of a battle litany over and over as she swung the great chain sword.
“Great,” swing,
“Emperor,” swing,
“of,” swing,
“Mankind,” swing.
With each blow her wrath grew and her blows became stronger. Several Sisters had fallen beside her, but she took no notice, striving to perfectly serve The Emperor in each stoke of the whirring blade. Eldar Fell, rent asunder while their own blows were bouncing harmlessly off her armor. Once only, the nimbus around her flickered when she saw Sister Katerine Angelica fall, did a darting blade pierced her armor low in the side. Yet that wound felt like bliss to her, she laughed and resumed her grisly work, slicing open the chest of her assailant on the fore swing and then beheading him on the back swing. Her next stoke shattered the weapon of another Dire Avenger, forcing him back, and still she swung and chanted.
The other sisters had all fallen, dead or disabled, yet She and Sister Vanessa gave no sign of tiring nor of retreating. A looming shadow appeared and a huge spindly walker of deadly aspect entered into battle swinging a huge sword, twice the length of a man. Sister Vanessa screamed in rage and frustration as the huge blade slashed through her arms, cutting off both hands and disarming her. She battered the bloody stumps against the leg of the alien monstrosity, vainly seeking to expiate her rage. With a negligent kick, the Wraith Lord knocked her aside to reach for Gabriella.
Gabriella paid no heed, she smote left and right and the last surviving Eldar turned and ran, casting aside their weapons as they fled in terror from the righteous anger
of the injured Canoness. She swayed, and with a cry launched herself at the Eldar Dreadnought.
Across the Battlefield, the aliens attack sputtered and ended as the bolters of 28 sisters finally shattered the spell-shield guarding the Eldar Farseer. Even as he swung his lance at the side of the Exorcist of Sister Danielle, shattering the armor and smashing the engine, a burst of fire hammered him from the seat of his jet bike. He fell, staggered erect, only to be blasted to pieces as a shower of missiles from Sister Gwen’s Tank pounded into the shimmering shield he sought to throw up.
With his death, the great arm of the wraith lord slowed and halted. Gabriella swung twice more, but with no response from the alien dreadnought, she finally stopped. Panting, the words of the litany still mumbling from her lips, she darted her head from side to side, seeking further enemies. None came to view. The great weight of the chain sword finally made her lower the blood-splattered blade. Her vid screen showed her that 32 of her sisters were still operational, with numerous injured sisters being tended to under the watchful guns of the retributor squad. She slung the great chain sword on its carrier and turned to tend Vanessa and the other injured sisters. As she did so, she began to hum a hymn of thanksgiving that she had heard when she was a little girl and almost forgotten. Soon one of the injured sisters began to sing softly, the sweet tune rising softly over the battlefield.