And now he could see tiny figures moving within the chasm-like streets, and, more importantly, on the ramparts of the Citadel. Targeting icons flitted from one ant-like figure to another, as Dagan's suit cogita-tor assessed the threat potential of each in turn, ready for the moment when he decided to fire. Dagan currently held his plasma pistol and deactivated chainsword close against his chestplate, for the duration of the descent, almost as if in an attitude of prayer. The rest of his squad were similarly armed although the other Space Marines bore bolt pistols.

This combination of powerful side arms and scything close-combat weapons gave the assault squad great flexibility. They could fire whilst still at a distance and yet also meet any opponent in close combat immediately upon entering the fray, dropping right into the heart of a conflict thanks to their jump packs, as they planned to do here.

The wind rushed past Dagan, the comms system in his helmet relaying the sound to him as clearly as if he were not wearing his helmet at all. The whiz-crack of shellfire detonated in the air around him, and whistled over the roar of the rushing wind. They had

been spotted. The Shinarii on the roof of the Citadel had opened fire upon them.

'Brothers.’ Dagan said, 'in the name of the Light-Bringer, Ferrus Manus, prepare to purge the weak and the unclean from this palace of the Emperor's servants.'

Each man took aim with his pistol and activated his chainsword. As Dagan thumbed the activation stud on his own sword he cast up a prayer to the Omnissiah and the spirits of his wargear, that they might not withdraw their favour from him at this time of battle.

Tanned faces, with blasphemous passages of anti-Imperial creed tattooed onto their exposed skin, looked up with a mixture of anger and horror, as the Space Marines twisted in the air, preparing to land feet first.

Thirty seconds after disembarking from the Thun-derhawk, two thousand metres above Antipax, Assault Squad Dagan touched down on the battlements of the Citadel - within the very heart of the Shinarii cult's operations - in a furious outpouring of the Emperor's divine retribution.

Dagan landed directly on top of a black-swathed cultist who was taking poorly aimed pot shots at the Iron Hands' sergeant with a lasgun of antiquated design. As he crushed the insurrectionist's skull Dagan was already firing into the feral pack of fanatical Shinarii hurrying to repel the assault squad's siege-breaking insertion attack. The chest of another cultist exploded in a red spray even as Dagan gutted a charging scimitar-wielding maniac from neck to groin with one chewing swipe of his chainsword.