The room was lit by dozens of lamp packs hastily hung from the walls and strange scented perfumes were thick in the air. Canoness Taula of the Order of the Argent shroud looked up at the dozen crimson red and gold marines stood before her. The bulky warriors parted and held their fists over the golden lion centered on their chests in a salute.

The roaring Lions: 5th Company.

Both her order, the Order of the Argent Shroud and their sister order, the order of the Wounded heart, had dispatched little under a hundred battle sisters collectively with a dozen immolators, several exorcists and four penitent engines to support this company against the heretical insurgencies that the region was suffering.

They were all currently in the fortress of Armryt, the fortress had stood for at least five hundred years and had been used to defend the neighbouring hive city, Keelo Prime.

The ancient structure was large enough to house both the ecclesiarch and the space marine forces, upon the turret structures on the wall, sniper teams assisted by Retributor squads stood vigiliant and manning the walls Marines and Battle Sisters stood together.

They had returned here after their last engagement within the streets of Keelo, in which they had put over thirteen hundred cultists to the sword. The cultists had spoken praise for the Emperor to their last breaths, claiming that both the Space marines and the Ecclesiarch forces were agents of Chaos and dissent. The insults had made her battle sisters fight harder and no mercy was offered, the marines waded through the streams of people slaughtering as they went, no one was spared.

Taula removed a strand of white hair that blocked her eyes and strode through the space the marines had made, stopping at the large oak table that was in the centre of the room. Quickly following her was the Celestian retinue that acted as her command squad. Dialogus, Lyra stood to her right, the large parchments hanging loosely off of her silver battle armour and the laud hailer bright from recent polishing. Then filing in to her left stood Celestian, Castella, standing with a gauntleted hand resting on the hilt of her sheathed power sword.

Behind them stood another three Celestians each armed with Storm bolters. Silver helmets with red trim hid their faces and all of them were watching the marines gathered.

Taula looked around the room and noticed a lot of regular marines were present. The crimson and gold trim marines lined the walls still as statues and turning back, she realised that the marines who had parted for them had filed back, blocking the door.

"We were told a briefing was being held." Her strong voice echoed around the near soundless room. "Where is Captain Praetus?"

A set of heavy footsteps was heard from the back of the room. Taula turned and once again the marines parted to let Captain Praetus through. The captain shared the other marines' colours, but his helmet was forged into that of a lion's head, the teeth bared and the mane intricate and wild. Upon his leg rested a bolt pistol and on the other a large power sword with a lion crested hilt. His cape draped over his shoulder pads and dragged along the floor as he walked.

Flanking him was a Chaplain; this was obvious from the fact that his armour was jet black apart from his left shoulder that shared the other marines' colours and a skull helmet donned upon his head. Since arriving on this planet she had not once seen the chaplain's face. His ornate helmet forever hid his features and he barely spoke, Taula had not seen him during any of the battles either.

Also following the captain was the company champion who held his combat shield upon his right arm and his left hand rested upon the hilt of his own sword.

The Captain and the chaplain came to stand opposite Taula and the Celestians while the champion walked past them to join the marines to their rear. The Captain reached up and removed his helmet with a hiss from the armour, revealing his scarred yet handsome face and his well-grown blonde hair.

"Canoness Taula." He said with a smile. "Sorry to have kept you waiting."

Taula dismissed the notion with a wave of the hand. "Let us proceed."

The Chaplain cocked his head slightly before speaking.

"Where are Cannoness Lethe and Preacher Kyroren?"

"It would appear they are running late. I have sent one of my sisters to find them; I shall relay anything they miss." Taula replied coolly, "Now. Let us proceed."

The Chaplain and the Captain gave each other a look before quickly turning back to her.

"Yes let's." Praetus agreed. "After both your own and Lethe's orders sent us your support force we have made a considerable amount of progress in this sector of the region. After taking the neighboring city and relieving the PDF defenders of this fortress we believe we have the insurgents on the run."

Taula nodded. She was listening, but her eyes were scanning the marines assembled around them. All were in full battle plate and armed with an array of weaponry, this was not rare as they were still in an active warzone, yet all of them still donned their helmets and stared back at her.

"What is the next course of action?" Taula said, looking into Praetus' pale blue eyes.

"The next phase is to remove the undesirables and head on to phase three." He smiled as he spoke.

Suddenly from outside the room, the clunky cracks of bolter fire could be heard echoing through the drafty halls. Taula turned and expected the marines behind her to mobilise at once, but they remained staring back at her. Before she could say anything, the Captain spoke again.

"Tell me, Canoness, what alerted the Inquisition to us?"

Taula turned back to him and raised an eyebrow. "To you?"

The Captain nodded. "What gave the Inquisition reason to suspect?"

Taula noticed Castella had inched her sword out of its scabbard an inch and had stepped one foot back.

"You have been fighting these insurrections for months now and we were dispatched to support you." Taula said slowly, "You know this, yes?"

The sounds of gunfire outside were growing louder now, explosions adding to the noise and still the marines present remained. Something is wrong.

"Yes I know the lie you told to weasel your way in here, Wench." Praetus' face screwed up into a visage of hatred as he spoke.

"Canoness Taula come in!" Taula's vox piece suddenly crackled into life, the voice that spoke belonged to Sister Superior Halie and was accompanied by the sound of erratic gunfire.

Before Taula could react, the room exploded into an orgy of flashing lights and explosive gunfire so loud that her ears felt as if they would bleed.

Taula's eyes widened as she saw the marines around her were firing into her command squad. She turned just in time to see Castella fall with her power sword flailing. Her silver armour was ruptured in several placed and splattered with crimson blood that blended in with the fabric and the armour trim she wore.

Lyra cried out as a bolt round detonated within her elbow and sent the entirety of her forearm spinning away. The bone of the rest of her arm jutted out awkwardly and she fell to the hard ground with blood spraying profusely from a dozen other wounds. Her body was obliterated as the shots literally tore her apart.

The message coming over the vox network was drowned out under the intense noise around them.

Taula turned back to the captain and drew her power sword in one motion.

"Face me, traitor!" Her sword was pointed at his head. The Captain smiled smugly.

Before she could make a move, Taula felt a sudden and burning pain shoot through the back of her shoulder and then through her chest. Her arm spasmed and the power sword fell from her limp fingers.

She attempted to say something but instead spluttered a small spray of blood from her mouth. Looking down at the source of pain she saw the glowing form of a power sword protruding through the right side of her breastplate.

The gunfire in the room stopped and she slumped to her knees, the Champion's sword slid free as she fell, no less painful than it was going in.

"Get her up." Praetus' voice sounded distant and the next thing she knew, two sets of hands lifted her up by the arms. Her wound surged with pain as they lifted her, but she would not cry out, not for them.

"Look at me."

Her head hung loosely. She had neither the energy nor the inclination to raise it. On the floor around her, blood pooled and she could see the severed limb that Lyra had lost.

"Look at me!" A gauntleted hand grabbed her pure white hair and yanked her head upwards.

The Canoness looked into the blue eyes of Skyvar Praetus, Captain of the Roaring lions 5th Company, and recognised the taint of Chaos clear as day, how had she not seen it before? His eyes were filled with hate; squirming and staring at her hard but they bore no life within them, no spark, no humanity. The Chaplain next to him stood immobile, his skull-faced helm hiding any emotion he might be showing.

"All of your sisters are dead." His face twisted into a cruel grin as he taunted her.

Taula tried to curse him, but her words came out as a wheeze and a dribble of blood.

"I can't hear you, and neither can your false Emperor." He let go of her hair. Her head dropped once more and she began to murmur a prayer as the room blackened around her.

She faintly heard the cocking of a bolt pistol and she knew the end was here.

She cleared her throat as best she could. Shuddering, she rallied the last strength available to her and raised her head to look up at the barrel of the pistol that the captain had bore on her. She screamed with a splutter of blood.

"I die for the Emperor of mankind! Your time will come Heret-"

The pistol fired and her head jolted back. The round detonated within her skull and caused the contents to explode out the back of her skull.

The two marines dropped the lifeless body to the floor and stepped away.

Captain Praetus turned to Chaplain Eisen.

"I want a report of the battle in the Fortress, we can't allow any of them to spread the word of this." His words were echoed by another loud explosion from outside.

"Not to worry, My Lord." Eisen replied, "We had two devastator teams ready by their vehicle bay and the element of surprise."

"Good, it was a risk to kill these wenches with Hyroxes so close, and what of the other Cannoness? And the Preacher?"

"They will be taken care of soon enough, my Lord and by the time Hyroxes realises what has happened, we will be in position to strike at them."

"My empire begins today, Eisen." Praetus sneered down at the Canoness' immolated corpse. "From here, I will make this sector bleed."