Storm Brothers: The Darkest Hours

In the hive city Escariot Prime the armies of the imperium waged war against the rebel forces under a grey sky fixed in twilight. For eight months 153rd Drenden Light Infantry had pressed through the network of narrow streets and a maze of tightly packed buildings. The casualties of the 153rd were heavy, accounting for nearly 47 percent of the original forces at the beginning of the campaign. The price of victory was steep, and the blood of men soaked every inch of ground they gained. Yet victory had not come, and as artillery rained from overhead it seemed as though it might never come.
Captain Regalios Shard of the 8th company, watched the urban war from space aboard his frigate-ship "the Draconis".From the darkened bridge Capt. Shard stared at the pict screen as the observation camera's of the ship relayed images from the planet's surface. In nearly every shot of guardsmen and rebel alike were killed by the dozen. The bridge was silent, and the nighter captain brooded quietly to himself. His orders were to retrieve a millenia old data slate owned by the planetary governor, who kept the relic locked in a vualt inside his residence. The paradox was that the rebellion offered both a diversion and a deadly guantlet to run before even getting to the governor's mansion. Behind him a black-hooded marine approached the screen, stopping several feet away.
" My lord, The men await your command" said the black hooded marine with his usual plain spoken demeanor .
" Thank you sgt. Crone" said Shard turning slightly,
" What do you think of all this?" Sgt. Crone looked up to the screen,
"On Lacrimosa The high lords would' ve strung the rebel instigators from the governor's square and had their family's murdered in their homes." Replied Sgt. Crone.
"All This could have been prevented" said Capt. Shard, "I guess we can't expect every world in the imperium to be as civilized as ours. We will begin the operation in thirty minutes; have the men ready" Capt. Shard paused," And let them know this will require a greater than ormal level of civility" Capt. Shard returned to the pict screen in time to see a handful of men tear each other open with rifled bayonets, "completely uncivilized".
Three flyers broke through the amosphere and flew toward the capital city. Three black landing shuttles soared over the ruined city scape of Escarion prime. Small arms fire from the ground peppered the shuttles as they sped toward the governor's mansion. Like the rest of the city the area around the mansion was devestated by the fighting. The mansion itself was well fortified though thankfully unoccupied by the governor at the moment, who had seen to his departure at the first conflict. The shuttles landed in what remained of the governor's manicured garden behind the mansion itself. Most of the sentry guns had either been knocked out or were otherwise offline, the remaining turrets were being jammed by the shuttle's onboard equipment.
Three groups of astartes exited the shuttles forming up behind a large section of rubble.Along with captain Capt. Shard was his retinue; assualt squad Versago. As well as tactical squad Crone and scout squad Arkon. "The plan is simple: find the vault, get the dataslate, and get the frak off of this planet." Captain Shard looked at the marines, "any questions? There are three levels to the mansion. two above ground and one below. Sgt Crone will take to the ground floor, Sgt Arkon has the basement, and the top floor is mine. Signal if you find anything; the vault is the priority, but if it looks high value take it." The marines nodded, and moved to the mansion.
A melta charge blasted the doors open, throwing the heavy plasteel doors far into the room followed by burst wood and metal fragments. Sgt Crone entered the into the main room, his plasma pistol raised scanning for targets. The room was a large hall with a wide staircase leading off to the second floor. Besides the staircase there were four passages to the rest of the building. Data maps super-imposed over the marine's helmets with overlays of spots of interest where the dataslate would most likely be. Squads Arkon and Crone fanned out in the room, covering open the doorways and blindspots. Capt Shard and his assualt squad Activated their jump packs and soared to the top of the stairs. After a brief inspection the three squads made their way further into the mansion.
Sgt Crone made his way down the left wing of the mansion after forcing the sturdy double doors open.