Awesome / Space Marine Battles

The Space Marine Battles Novels Series is notable for several awesome moments, as their heroes and characters are all Space Marines.

Rynn's World

• The first novel in the series is chock full of these. How about Pedro Kantor beating the absolute shit out of the Arch-Arsonist of Charadon. He beat him up so badly, the Ork Warboss ran away. This is directly after one of the Captains got three of his limbs torn off by the Arsonist's lieutenant in the process of clearing a spaceport in order to save Rynn's World, by allowing reinforcements to arrive.
• The famously indestructible (even for a Space Marine) Captain Alessio Cortez' Major Injury Underreaction:
  I haven't lost an arm, brother. It's right over there.

Helsreach

• The death of the Godbreaker gargant. Two words: "Engine Kill".
• While the commanders of Armageddon's defense are meeting. Commissar Yarrick is talking about how Hades Hive won't survive the week, when a Captain of the Angels of Fire Space Marines Chapter steps up and says that they should try and defend it, because it was where the Ork invasion was broken sixty years ago. Yarrick is adamant in his decision, and the Astartes laughs at him, saying that he's underestimating them and that any Astartes in the room has more military experience than he does. Yarrick doesn't reply, doesn't say anything. He doesn't get angry, doesn't break down. He just stares at the Space Marine, until eventually the arrogant sap realizes he's goofed up and averts his gaze.

Hunt for Voldorius

• Kayvaan Shrike's Establishing Character Moment is him and two other Marines taking down an entire convoy of cultists (Ogryns, space-marine sized organic tanks included) and arranging everything so that it would seem that it was the locals who took them down. The Chaos doesn't find out about Ravens' presence until it's too late.

The Purging of Kadillus

• One of the lowly PDF soldiers, the most expendable form of Red Shirt in the entire Imperium, goes into a blind fury and leads a counter-assault during the final battle of Hoth Ridge, leading the squad he's in on a bayonet charge against the Orks that are attacking a Dark Angels assault squad. He gains the respect of a Space Marine that thoroughly chewed out his squad for being "ungrateful" (one soldier said that they'd be good if they had the equipment that the Astartes had) who hands the soldier he previously deemed unworthy of such equipment his bolt pistol. It was enough to get a personal commendation from the Dark Angels, whereupon he was awarded with a shard of Veteran Sergeant Naaman's carapace armor.

Fall of Damnos

• Dreadnought Agrippan is basically a walking, talking Moment of Awesome during the final battle, chasing down and ripping apart the Necron Lords.
• When Conscript Falka sees the Space Marine advance falter, he rallies 99 other conscripts up and riles up a bayonet charge. By all rights they should have been nothing more than a fleshy distraction, a sacrifice to draw the Necrons' fire. And yet the majority of the platoon survives, chops apart several squads of Necrons, and are hailed as heroes by multiple high-ranking Ultramarines.
• Captain Sicarius and two measly members of his command squad take on an entire Necron Monolith... and win.

Battle of the Fang

• Blackwing deciding to contact the fleet and get a relief force for Fenris. Bear in mind that after pulling off a crazy stunt Blackwing's ship has every damage indicator in the red, has been secretly teleport-boarded by the Thousand Sons, and every indication is that it will fall apart. Not only does it survive thanks to a Big Damn Heroes by the Navigator, said Navigator also stays at his post until the end, and even being jettisoned from the wreck does not prevent Blackwing from not only getting his information to the fleet, but snarking about the experience afterwards.
• While destroying some of the protective wards that prevent him from using his sorcery, Aphael stumbles upon a gaggle of scared and frightened children and decides to vent his frustrations by murdering them. The kids turn out to be far less harmless than he assumed, however, when one of them chucks a grenade at his face and knocks him off-balance. The rest of the kids then lob their own grenades and take off into the tunnels, avoiding every shot from Aphael’s Rubric Marines and laughing as they go. To put that in perspective, a gaggle of children just humiliated a Chaos Lord and got away with it completely unscathed, leaving him unable to do anything but fume in impotent rage.
• Ironhelm, Wyrmblade, Greyloc and Bjorn the Fell-Handed tag-teaming Magnus and banishing him. Even with Magnus weakened by his past shenanigans, he's still ultimately a Primarch - a force capable of ripping open tank armour bare-handed - backed up with psychic power that would have been incredible even without the dubious blessings of Tzeentch. And while only Bjorn actually survived the experience, insofar as a Dreadnought's existence can be considered "survival", this was the first time a Daemon Primarch was hurled back into the Immaterium - and without a single Grey Knight on hand, much less a hundred of them (as Angron would later require).

The Gildar Rift

• When the Red Corsairs board the Dread Argent, Prognosticator Brand ends up in a one-on-one duel with Huron Blackheart’s personal champion, the Chaos Sorcerer Taemar. When it becomes apparent that they’re too evenly matched, Brand takes a page out of Gandalf’s book and uses his force staff to shatter the floor, dropping them dozens of feet onto the bridge. Taemar hits the deck first, stunning him, and as Brand drives his force staff into the sorcerer’s chest and channels psychic energy through it to blow Taemar apart, Brand telepathically says this to his foe:
  ‘So will end all traitors. The Red Corsairs will never take this ship.’
• The activation of the Resurgent from the same battle. The Red Corsairs are gaining so much ground in their boarding of the Dread Argent that Captain Daerys Arrun orders Techmarine Correlan to hook Volker Straub up to the ship’s systems immediately, despite Correlan’s protests that the preparations aren’t complete. When he does so, every light on the ship goes dead and every system shuts down… and then Volker’s voice issues forth from every single speaker and vox-bead on the ship, confirming that the Resurgent project has not failed as he brings everything back online. The tide of battle then swings decisively in favour of the Silver Skulls as Volker starts venting Corsairs into space, trapping them in small rooms where he can suck the oxygen and shut off life support, and feeding the Silver Skulls a constant stream of information on the enemies’ whereabouts. The boarders are routed and massacred in short order.

Legion of the Damned

• The novel is filled with these. The best is by far one word: "Punisher", the little Thunderfire cannon that could. When Khornate Daemons overrun the eastern flank of the city the Excoriators are defending Punisher was the only survivor and continued to hold them off, alone. It held off Khornate Daemons, Cultist Hordes and berserk Chaos Space Marines by itself. And it that wasn't enough when Zachariah Kersh, the protagonist, sends out a signal to fall back Punisher goes on a search-and-destroy mission through the city. Then it blows down a wall, saving the main characters from being overwhelmed by World Eaters and allowing them to escape, before opening fire into the traitors and killing many of them, including 10,000 year old World Eaters veterans who fought at Terra! They finally kill it by flanking it. Punisher died, but it absolutely owned some of the galaxy's fiercest killers before it died.
  • Then the Legion itself. The Legion of the Damned arrive and absolutely destroy the traitors. Best example is the fate of Umbragg of the Brazen Flesh. By his own admission Umbragg has fought in every single major battle involving the World Eaters. He fought at Istvaan, Terra, Armaggeddon and many other battles. And one lone Damned Legionary comes up behind him and slits his throat, leaving him to bleed out in an alley. One of the galaxy's deadliest warriors died like a common thug in "a street so small and insignificant to the galaxy around it that it didn't even name a name.".
    • The Legion don't stop there. They fill the city and slaughter the Cholercaust. Some scenes described are a World Eater Lord and his cultists being herded into an open space, only to be fried by the Legion's flamers; A traitor named Slorak the Undying emptying an entire clip of ammo from his bolt pistol into the face of a Legionary, only to have his head cut in two; A traitor Techmarine being lured into a park and blown up by pre-placed grenades; Foresworn marines being lured into the catacombs beneath the city and actually being stalked and hunted one-by-one by the Damned Legionaries.
  • Then there's Scout Omar. During a mission outside the city Omar is ambushed and literally buried alive in a cultist horde after they force him into an open grave. He survives and makes it back to the city as the Cholercaust is siegeing it. Corpus-Captain Kersch rescues him, but Omar loses the lower half of his body to a gelatinous Daemon. That doesn't stop him from being a sniper spotter in the battle, and when his shooter is killed he takes the rifle and continues fighting. He is the last Excoriator to die, the bell tower he is firing on is swarmed by Furies. Even his death is awesome as Omar detonates the grenades he is wearing and takes the tower, and the Fury swarm, with him and the falling tower crushes a hell of a lot of cultists.
  • And in space... One lone ship is all that defends Certus Minor. They do better than anyone could have expected, taking down many ships with their sole lance cannon. But as they are being boarded a new ship appears. One that is actually visible in from the planet's surface, showing the massive size of the vessel. It then launches a single torpedo and destroys the Keeler Comet that the Cholercaust has been following, the comet was corrupted after passing through the Blood God's realm and had been travelling the galaxy for ten thousand years. And the Raptorous Rex destroyed it with a single torpedo. And then it goes on to annihilate the entire Chaos fleet which consists of hundreds of vessels.
  • Let's not forget the main character, Corpus-Captain Kersh, The Scourge, future Chapter Master of the Excoriators. He starts the book in stasis, suffering from debilitating nightmares and undergoes invasive brain surgery to stop him from being a drooling vegetable. Now, most of his brothers wouldn't be too bummed about leaving him to rot, so this procedure was only done because he was the only guy in the Chapter who might stand a chance at winning the Feast of Blades, a single combat tournament with no holds barred, and where the occasional death isn't uncommon. That's right, the guy goes from being comatose, straight into a series of brawls, with only a brief procedure bordering on lobotomy to prepare him for it. Obviously, he wins the tournament, reinforcing his reputation for being a ruthless bastard along the way, to the point where the final match is no longer a one-on one fight, but a three way showdown, because none of the other Chapters want to shame themselves by giving him a fair fight (although it was also a legitimate three-way tie in the first place). Oh, and he loses an eye in the early matches of the tournament. He's then offered the chance to replace it with bionic enhancements, but turns it down, because he feels the adjustment time might cost him a fight. So he just fills his empty eye socket with a ball bearing.
  • When Imperial forces finally arrive to the planet, they find it completely devoid of any civilians and assume the worst... and then an Inquisitor and a Chaplain see Kersh, the only and seriously wounded survivor they have found, reaching for a gravestone and chiming a little bell attached to it. They dont understand anything until they start hearing more and more bells sounding around because the entire population had been hidden inside the tombs and mausoleums before the battle and, after Kersh has given them the signal, they are now asking for help to be released again. As the recently arrived Inquisitor says: "The dead are rising, Santiarch. Miracles indeed."

Architect of Fate

Wrath of Iron

The Siege of Castellax

The Death of Antagonis

• Sister Setheno, big time. Twice she gets ambushed, first by a fallen space marine and later by two Tzeentch daemons, and both times she fights them off using nothing but her skill with a power sword, shrugging off woulds that by all rights should have killed her in less than a minute. Even the sneering Inquisitor Lettinger — who regularly stands up to space marines — is terrified of her in the last few seconds of his life.
• The final battle inside the last xeno temple. Tohoran has the whole temple locked down in a deadly gauntlet of fire points. Volos responds by smashing a cyclonic torpedo through the ceiling, then charging in before the traitor marines can stand back up.
  • At one point, one of the Disciples of Purity reveals himself to be a psyker and summons up an Avenger, an obscure character from the 2009 Space Marine Codex that takes the form of a spirit of fire. This Avenger singlehandedly halts the Black Dragons, spelling certain doom for their mission. In a last desperate move, the loyalist Librarian Ennyn sacrifices his life to kill the Disciples psyker... whereupon the Avenger is able to recognize the Black Dragons, spins around, and starts hacking up the Disciples of Purity instead!

Death of Integrity

• The confrontation between Archmagos Plosk and the Artificial Intelligence at the core of the titular Space Hulk is simultaneously intimidating and impressive. Plosk initially has every confidence that he can defeat the "Abominable Intelligence" in its own digital realm... and is then sharply made aware of just how out of his league he is when he discovers the A.I. has already usurped control over his servitors, and paralyzed both Plosk and the Space Marine Terminators through its control over their cybernetics and Powered Armor respectively. It then proceeds to destroy the Space Marines, as well as two of the Mechanicus ships, before tearing free of its Space Hulk prison and departing unmolested into the void between galaxies, all whilst laying down a combination of scathing denouncements of the Imperium and Badass Boasts.
  Your ancestors bestrode the universe, and what are you? A witch doctor, mumbling cantrips and casting scented oils at mighty works you have no conception of. You are an ignoramus, a nothing. You are no longer worthy of the name "man". You look at the science and artistry of your forebears, and you fear it as primitives fear the night. I was there when mankind stood upon the brink of transcendence! I returned to find it sunk into senility. You disgust me.
  Fool you are to fling your superstitions at me. Your Omnissiah is nothing to me. See how your so-called holy constructs dance to my desire. Puppets of technology, and I am the mightiest of those arts here present.
  I do not want you as my slave, degenerate. I want to be away from this warp-poisoned galaxy. The universe is infinite. I would go elsewhere before the wounds of space-time here present consume all creation, and I do not intend to take any passengers. I spurned cruelty. But you have taught me the meaning and utility of wickedness. Mankind has become sick, and will die as all sick things die, but you will not live to see it, of that I will make sure.

Malodrax

• Lysander approaches a daemonic gate, guarded by a Sphinx, who says he must pay a toll. Since she is a servant of Slaanesh, the "toll" must be some kind of sensation, something that she has never felt before. She airily declares that for a being as old as she is, no human mind has anything new to offer her, especially a mind as narrow and monkish as a Space Marine's. Lysander invites her to read his mind, and he treats her to his memory of a campaign the Imperial Firsts conducted on a daemon-infested world. Seeing this campaign through his eyes, the Sphinx is scorched by the pure, sun-hot hatred that all sons of Rogal Dorn feel for the denizens of Chaos and is amazed to feel a tiny frisson of something she's heard of and seen many times before, but never actually experienced herself: fear. And the toll is paid, and she allows him to pass.
  • Capped by Lysander's Badass Boast: "My kind were created to feel no fear, but we understand it. We were all once men who felt fear as does anyone else, and we must know it because it is a weapon we wield."

The World Engine

• The Astral Knights and a collection of other Chapters are trying and failing to breach the shields of the World Engine, a Death Star esque mobile fortress of the Necrons that has already glassed one planet and run roughshod over the Imperial response fleet. Everyone, even the Ultramarines, are ready to throw in the towel and try to come back with more ships, but the Astral Knights? They deduce that the World Engine's void shields aren't powerful enough to take a massive impact, so they power up the engines of their battle barge and ram the World Engine at full speed, giving the Astral Knights an opening to deploy to the planet's surface and turn the tide of battle in favor of the Imperium.