Icarus moved faster than he ever had before, his mind racing as he spun and slashed, twisting around blows that would have cleaved a lesser man in two, pivoting on his feet to roll around the gangly Daemon slashing deep cuts into the foul creatures hide, the monster was bleeding from scores of wounds, its black blood pooling all around, spilling across the ground. It seemed like Icarus might just be able to stop this beast when suddenly his foot came down on ground that wasn't as solid as it should have been. The blood had soaked into the earth turning it into mud, eyes wide Icarus slipped, his weight top heavy from the jump pack strapped to his back. Desperately he fired the thrusters but it wasn't enough the Lord of Change lashed out with a whip like tentacle snaring Icarus around the waste, a slash of its great staff blasted the jump pack apart. The Great Daemon lifted the helpless Icarus into the air, crushing the marine slowly in its terrible grip. Icarus writhed, slashing with his claws in desperate fury, his righteous rage determined to kill this abomination. But no matter how many times his claws slashed the thick cord like tentacle it grew back and multiplied faster than he could tear free. Icarus was almost resigned to his fate when he heard something, a shout from somewhere. Turning his head on a neck that was ready to snap Icarus saw Sergeant Valius from the corner of his eye, charging full speed across the muddy ground with his power sword flashing with his pure hatred, raised high above his head. The Daemon turned to see what this pest was that would dare to interrupt its triumph, the Daemon turned just in time to see the power sword of Sergeant Valius flying through the air and into its head, the sword cut straight through the monsters thick hide and its mutated skull, burning away whatever was left of its brain. No matter how powerful the Great Daemon was, it was already badly damaged and this was just too much, with a roar of rage the Daemon began to come apart, its body parts melting away and turning to dust before the pools of liquid flesh hit the ground, burning and sizling Icarus watched the Daemon disintigrate as he fell from its grip. The last thing Icarus saw was the head of the Daemon come apart around the power sword as the blade shattered, shards flying in all directions, unable to cope with the great release of energy of a dying Lord of Change.

Faustus Dorar spun his staff catching his opponents lightning claw between two of its long and nimble blades. He heard the laugh of the vile Sorcerer as the cretin began to twist thinking to rip the staff from Faustus' hands but the marine had another idea, Faustus wrenched the staff the other direction, the force staff and power claws energy fields flaring with power as they tore against each other but of the two Faustus was stronger and with a roar he unleashed his hatred through the staff, the burst of pure energy blasting the lightning claw apart and taking the Sorcerer's hand with it. Screaming in rage and pain the Sorcerer spun trying to bring the other claw to bear but Faustus diflected the blow high with the but of his staff as the force weapon finished its spin, then he reversed his grip and twisted his body into a reverse spin, thrusting the head of the staff behind him as he turned and feeling the impact as the head of the weapon smash through the breastplate of the sorcerer, burning through his flesh and bones and bursting out the other side. With a grimace of triumph Faustus focused his mind on the staff and released one more flare of power, tearing the soul from the Sorcerer's body. Screaming in denial the foul traitor died, his lifeless and soul-less body collapsing in a broken heap. Sergeant Rafiel looked at Faustus and nodded. The old Librarian was about to congratulate the sergeant when a wave of bolter shells slammed into them, Rafiel was thrown backwards a shell tearing through the lower left side of his breastplate, the bolt going all the way through to explode behind the Sergeant, the man was lucky but he was knocked unconcious as he hit the ground. Faustus spun his staff spinning, the force weapon flaring with power as it blasted the bolt shells from the air. Backing up slowly Faustus was begining to slow, the fight with the Sorcerer having weakened him, bolts began to slip through his defenses and pang against his armor. The ancient suit protected him against the first dozen or so bolts but he knew one of them would be lucky before long. He knew he was dead, he couldn't survive this, he just couldn't, but then something happened. All of a sudden everything stopped. The rubric marines shuddered as a great scream tore through the air followed almost instantly by another. Faustus looked left and right and suddenly realised what had happened. Roaring its rage the Greater Daemon was disintigrating, its body coming apart around the power sword of Sergeant Valius, but that was not all, behind him the Despot of Xanthion, Sorcerer Lord of the Thousand Sons Hurios was on his knees, his arms cut clean off, the severed limbs with their lightning claws still sparking with power lay where they had fallen and through the lords chest the tip of a Nemesis Force Sword could be seen. The Sorcerer was screaming as his soul was torn from his body, Tzeentch did not like failure anymore than the other Chaos Gods, Faustus could only imagine what was happening to the Sorcerer and he really did not care. As he watched Justicar Bailien put his foot against the Sorcerer's chest and kicked him off his sword. The Justicar stood there with his one remaining marine, the bodies of his comrades littered around him. Nearby Brother Captain Alexian stormed out of the forrest, his blade slick with the blood of a Traitor Sorcerer.

The remaining rubric marines could not hold themselves together in the release of so much power, without the Sorcerer's to hold the portals together the warp was flooding the planet as the gates collapsed, their death knells tearing the world apart. Faustus leveled his bolt pistol at the one surviving Sorcerer as the spell caster fell to his knees, clutching his head and screaming. The bolt shell tore through the traitor's head, spraying a crimson mist into the air as the shell detonated.

++This is Faustus Dorar to all surviving marines, our mission is accomplished, gather the dead and wounded and prepare for evac, for the Emperor Brothers.++

This is the point where my opponent conceded defeat. After 3 hours of play the battle was finally over. So in the end I won by a small margin. There was a little less than 600pts of Thousand Sons left and I had a little less than 1100pts of my army left. So with a margine of about 500pts I won by a comfortable margin but not a great one. A minor victory but at least it was a victory, the forces of chaos have been stopped this day. But at the end of the game I gave up tallying up the points killed and simply tallied what was left alive, it was quicker by far. 1100pts remained out of 2500, Alexian was wounded and Icarus had fallen. Multiple squads were dead or below half strength and most of my armor was dead too. But the Thousand Sons had suffered worse. Only two squads were left, one at half, the other below half. The final rubric marine on the left falling just as we finished the game to the tac marines of squad Valius. With all 3 HQs dead and time up we called the game. A very interesting battle, at first luck was very poor on both sides with rolling far, far below average. Then it swung to my opponents favor with a lot of my men dying very quickly and then it swung in my favor with the enemy falling in large numbers but in the end it evened out for the most part. It was the beautiful deaths of the Greater Daemon, the Sorcerer Lieutenant and the Sorcerer Lord that really opened the gap and allowed victory. So a good battle and I hope you enjoyed reading it and the fluff involved. Now for a bit of a conclusion to the events in a final piece of fluff.

Icarus limped into the debriefing room. His wounds still unhealed. He had taken a massive beating at the hands of the Greater Daemon. Sergeant Valius had saved his life and dragged his unconcious and wrecked body from the battlefield to the extraction Thunderhawks. In total only 2 men from squad Lucianus had survived and the sergeant himself was dead, their bodies had been loaded onto the Thunderhawks and upon return to the Bleeding Angel, the 5th Companies Strike Cruiser their gene-seed was removed and their bodies interred in the ship's vaults for return to the Omnis Arcanum, their wargear went to the armoury for repair and to later be given to initiates who earn the rank of full battle brother. The chapter would survive. Of the 6 scouts, 2 had still been standing after the fight with the Daemons and 2 more had been savable. All four had been given their armor as battle brothers. Still the cassualties were heavy. Five men of squad Valius survived and with the three from squad Lucianus, Squad Backus and four from squad Rafiel had made it alive back to the ship. 16 men had died from the force of the force of 40 was not terrible cassualties for the battle, the wounded would fight on and the dead would live to fight again when their gene seed is given to a new generation of initiates into the chapter. With this knowledge in mind Icarus sat down in the briefing room. Without his armor and weapons he appeared much smaller than before but it was mostly an illusion. Dante looked the Captain up and down. Alexian was without his armor as well. His head wrapped in a pressure bandage, his psychic powers had backfired during the battle but he would survive, he had suffered worse. Of the three officers who had led the team only Faustus was unharmed.

"It is good to see you up and about again Captain, your injuries were severe." Dante said, showing a grim smile.

"I have suffered worse, and I will likely suffer far worse in the future. I still have all of the organs and extremeties I was born with, which is more than men far younger and who have seen much less action than I can say." Icarus replied shrugging and ignoring the pain that flared through his body from the movement.

"So Captain Alexian, what is the situation?" Dante said looking at the Grey Knight.

"The warp portals are destroyed and the Sorcerer's slaughtered, the warp that flowed onto the planet with the portals destruction was reversed when the portals finally collapsed. The only thing left is just a lot of desperate and weak cultists. They have no food and no supplies. In two months when the Imperial Guard arrive to reclaim the planet they will likely find nothing but corpses and certainly nothing that they cannot handle." Alexian said bringing scans from the Inquisitorial Strike Cruiser's sensors up in the tabletop screen of the table. The Banishing Blade was outfitted with advanced sensors for monitoring warp activity. The planet was now no more warp active than before the Sorcerer's had shown up. Pyres were burning all over the planet as the desperate cultists appealed to their unforgiving gods for salvation that would never come.

"The mission was a success then, the rest of the Imperium will never know what happened here, and that is as it should be." Dante said nodding to the officers assembled. "Well done gentleman, I could say the Emperor is proud of you but that would be rather arrogant of me to claim knowledge of that, nevertheless I would not be surprised if he is."

"We are the Blood Ravens Inquisitor, we are Adeptus Astartes, it is our duty to serve the Emperor and protect his domains." Faustus said, speaking for his Captain.

"Once again I am impressed by the valor and skill of the Blood Ravens, taking on a Greater Daemon is no small feat, and according to your sergeant Valius the honor of the kill belongs to you." Alexian said nodding in respect to Icarus.

"It was the sergeant who dealt the killing blow." Icarus said dismissively.

"Nevertheless you wounded the abomination terribly, the honor is yours, Valius admits such himself. I am also told by Justicar Bailien that it was Epistolary Faustus who was responsible for killing Sorcerer Karindal, not an easy task." Alexian said looking at Faustus.

"It was my duty to Sergeant Lucianus who fell to the traitor, and my duty to the Emperor." Faustus replied humbly.

"The Purge of Xanthion has many tales of bravery, it was none other than Justicar Bailien who slayed the great Sorcerer Lord Hurios." Dante said. "I shall make note of the valor of the Blood Ravens and the Grey Knights in this mission, may the Emperor's light protect you all. I believe our bussiness here is concluded. May our paths meet again, Captain, Epistolary, farewell."

Standing Icarus and Faustus saluted Captain Alexian and Inquisitor Dante who did likewise in return. There were many in the Inquisition who would see the Blood Ravens named excomunicate traitoris and destroyed but Dante was not one of them, the man had certainly earned Icarus' respect even if he had not been part of the mission on the planet below. The man knew his limits and that was honorable. Captain Alexian would also be named in Icarus' report as the one to go to in the chapter's future relations with the Grey Knights, the man was strong and honorable, an exemplary Astartes. The Daemons had been banished, the sorcerer's slain and suicide survived. Icarus would heal by the time he returned to the Omnis Arcanum to give his report in person to the Chapter Master as he had been ordered. His armor would be repaired, his men healed and new recruits to fill the ranks. A mission well done. The Purge of Xanthion would go down in the Chapter's records as a victory against the foul forces of chaos, and that was a victory he could be proud of.