Adam breathed in the dusty, radioactive air, a mortal would be choking and on the brink of death, but a mortal he was not, he was chapter master of a proud, powerful chapter, undefeated in battle and having received accolades from many of the most prestigious forces in the Imperium. Replacing his helm on his head he gazed across the canyon, this battle was to be his magnum opus, an ambush to rival anything planned by the Primarchs in the age of the Emperor, to halt an Ork army quadruple your size, oh how they’d sing his name in every corner of the Imperium. His men, his brothers finished the final preparations. As the third company would be the focal point of the battle, the monstrous being that was their captain, waved squads forward, setting up heavy bolter positions and shouting at the top of his lungs unnecessary as it was as the vox network functioned just fine. He was an inspiring thing, even if the inspiration was sourced from his unnatural size even for an Astartes. As Caine set up the defensive line Adam waited atop the cliffs, his men were packed in holes mined into the sides of the cliff sides prepared to fire on the alien horde from the high ground. One of his terminator veterans stepped forward speaking in a brotherly tone that Adam had come to appreciate over the years. “Chapter master I’d like to ask a question” turning to face the warrior Adam smirks under his helmet, knowing what his friend was about to ask. “Are we really about to jump into the middle of a raging Ork army while our brothers fire on them, potentially hitting us in the process.” stifling a laugh Adam responds with only one word “Absolutely.” Abel raises his hammer to rest on his shoulder, laughing all the way. “Just the way I like it.” the first captain was always all too eager to do what he did best and use that hammer of his to make mince meat of the enemies of the Emperor. I couldn’t ask for a better staff Adam muses to himself, taking immense pride in the accomplishments and abilities of his brothers. Drawing his double handed blade from its sheath, never able to stop himself from appreciating the craftsmanship of the blade. Gold engravings ran the length of the blade, chronicling the name of every enemy champion he had slain with it. Uncountable in number, there were names from Eldar of craftworld Ulthwe, the newer engravings were of Greenskins he had slain but his proudest was at the very base of the blade, a lord of the World Eaters, born on Terra and fighting through the Great Crusade, Horus Heresy, and for ten thousand years in the Long War only to be felled by Adam, with his own sword nonetheless. Adam had kept the blade having it reforged into its current form by the chapters artificers and has felled champion after champion with it since. They would have a few hours before the orks would rear their ugly heads, so he sat back down with his guards and other members of first company. He looked around at the gathered warriors, a few vanguard veterans sat around the circle of hastily assembled benches, the Shomer Shemesh, his bodyguards clad in their ornate, robed, terminator armor stood unmoving as statues but were conversing amongst themselves as he could hear the clicks of their private channel on the vox, along with the thunderous steps of Abel approaching from behind, whistling a tune, bereft of his helm, twirling his offhanded blade as he walked. “Abel, could you please tell me why you aren’t wearing the helmet you had the artificer make specifically for your terminator armor.” Justus, one of his guards (though strangely devoid of the standard terminator armor) asked. The first captain’s reply was one that seemed annoyed that he was even being questioned, but that couldn’t be possible as Abel never let anything under his skin. “And hide this beautiful face” he says running his hand along the scars littering his face, "Beautiful isn't the word I’d use if you asked my opinion”, responded a new voice,one everyone gathered there loathed, the voice of David, the 8th captain, that little wretch. Abel whirls around and grabs David by the throat lifting him off his feet with the strength his armor provides him, speaking in an aggravated tone that nearly betrayed the strained smile on his face, “would you like to repeat that to my face you pompous little prick” The first captain was on the verge of strangling the annoying bastard, tempted as he was to let it happen Adam jumped up to separate the two managing to push Abel away from the far smaller figure that was David, now left coughing on the ground struggling to catch his breath. “What in the Emperor’s name are you doing you crazy bastard you were about to kill him!” Adam was nearly shouting at the hulking figure of Abel as the first captain began to feign innocence in his actions, “I was just joking around Adam, relax”. Adam reached his hand down to help David up while still scowling at Abel, “you damned well better have been. And while you’re at it Abel, will you go down to the canyon and inspect the defenses”. Throwing his hands in the air as he went, Abel stormed down the canyon, Justus and a few others following him as Adam returned to watching for the Greenskin horde.

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“Come on ‘Umie, izzat all youz got”, the Warboss hefted his scrap metal sword to strike at Adam again, normally this creature would have been slain by now, however in the confined space atop the Greenskin leader’s tank Adam was out of his element. The Solar Lion was thrown against the railing of the platform, Adam was struggling to right himself and the Xenos was moving closer. Is this the end? Adam was uncomfortable asking himself the question, but to his surprise the Ork stopped, a gauntleted hand on the hulking brute’s shoulder that then turned the creature around. All Adam heard was a wet crack and saw the Ork stumble, he took the chance heaving his blade in an upward slash that connected with the monster's neck, severing its head and ending the life of the alien beast. Caine stood above the fallen warboss with blood dripping down his forehead, though you would be forgiven for thinking that that was there before confronting the warboss with how much splatter had coated his warplate. Offering a hand to Adam and laughing at his Chapter Master. “You really ought to be able to kill just one Ork, Adam, how else are you gonna tell stories around the campfire”. As Caine mocks the performance of his lord the noise of a thunder hammer ripping through metal sounds around them. Abel has evidently broken into the internals of the Orkish tank “Come on you two we’ve got a tank to clear!” Caine was characteristically enthused by this, Picking up his custom tooled power axe. A beautifully crafted weapon, a two handed weapon with a deep red glow to it and the Imperial Aquila crafted in a small amount of auramite as the pommel, from where Caine acquired the material used in the armor of the Emperors personal bodyguards only he knows, and will not tell. Finding an opportunity for humor Abel motions to the hatch and with barely concealed laughter says “Ladies first”, an unamused Caine glares at him “are you a child Abel''. Using the strength given to him by his terminator armor Abel grabs Caine by the pauldron and throws him through the opening to the tank. Adam watches the two “it’s a shock that those two weren’t raised brothers'' he mused to himself putting his damaged helmet, that had been knocked off during his duel with the Ork lord, back on his and following his brothers down into the bowels of the tank.

The three had soon made their way to the engine room of the Orkoid vehicle, a surprisingly advanced piece of technology, the tank seemed to be powered by the reactor of a salvaged Imperial Knight, Abel takes a moment to examine the outstanding engineering that went into constructing it. “I’ve studied these in-depth should we ever come to blows with a knight house, what we need to do to disable this would be-” before the first captain could finish his sentence a shrill crunching sound filled the room as Caine put his fist through the reactor, proceeding to tear a large, sparking piece of Something out of the center of the reactor. He then proceeded to throw it across the room. Abel stared on in complete bewilderment and Adam, being apparently the only living thing in this vehicle with a functioning neurological system, grabbed the two by the shoulder and with a quick “Let’s move you morons” began a mad dash for anything that could pass as an exit.

Soon enough the three had come across a large breach in the tanks armor though unfortunately not large enough for an astartes, yet. “We’re doomed aren’t we” Abel sighed as he tried to squeeze his way into the breach, unsuccessfully, soon enough an extremely powerful voice behind him told him one simple command “move”. Mere moments after Abel had distanced himself from their prospective escape a hulking mass of ceramite, combat stimms, and either shocking intelligence or sheer stupidity barrelled through the breach fast enough to break the armor even further, now large enough for two astartes to fit through, conveniently enough there were two still in the tank however they soon followed their less refined comrade out of the vehicle. Not even a single terran standard second had passed before the massive hulk of scrap metal exploded with a violence to rival the largest of Imperial Guard artillery.

Only two rose from the rubble of the detonation, Caine was nowhere to be found. “Where the hell is that bastard!” Abel screamed as he tore sheets of scrap metal from the ground trying desperately to find his lost brother, even if only his geneseed was recoverable. Adam placed a hand on his brother’s shoulder to both comfort and try to pull away the raging first captain “He is lost, brother, there is nothing we can do for him now save for record his name amongst the chapters greatest heroes.” Abel began to stand when as if an act of fate a piece of the tank that had gone unmoved fell out of place and there lay the third captain, very much alive and while he was still laying on the ground threw his hands toward the sky and shouted, his words slurred almost certainly from a head injury. “Can we go again that was awesome” before falling unconscious and evidently needing to be expedited to the apothecarion.