The Lost Primarch Quest

Merry christmas everyone! and happy new years!

[X] Plan Concluding Business
-[X] The Mitu Conglomerate - While the Xenos had previously been embroiled in a conflict with the Orks, a series of reverses has occurred allowing them to end the threat of the Xeno menace. However, this leaves the Mitu still capable of military conflict, albeit diminished after Sanguinius' actions, and as such the Wardens have been assigned to deal with the situation. If needed, Sanguinius has tentatively offered the assistance of his first captain. Threat Level: Maxima Extremis
--[X] Oriacarius + Otto + Vigilance + 70000 Astartes + Titans
-[X] The Fractured Conclave - After Ashani was released and subsequently executed, the Fractured Conclave fell apart. While the Alpha's death has introduced some semblance of order, their military strength has fallen drastically. Moreover, a subversive cult worshipping Kesar has been causing them no end of problems. The situation has temporarily stabilized, but the Wardens have been tasked with bringing the worlds into the Imperium. Threat Level: Hard
--[X] Night Watch + 100 Astartes
-[X] Typhon - An isolationist world containing an understrength but highly skilled Titan element, the locals were dealing with a routine raid by Galain forces. Acting quickly, the local Imperial Army helped drive back the raiders, and negotiations were reluctantly opened up by the Typhon government. Thus far, they have proven to be incredibly stubborn and protective of their Titans. Even the Mechanicum is impressed at the lengths they are willing to go to keep their Titans operational and whole. Despite this, the goodwill earned by assisting in the defense of their world has opened negotiations to a world that normally would have spurned such things. *Threat Level: Hard*
--[X] Baldur + 10000 Astartes
-[X] Galain - A world of bloodsport, several thousand extremely skilled gladiators fight within artificial urban stadiums on a daily basis. These men and women form the elite of their military elite, only subservient due to a highly addictive drug dispensed weekly. The Imperial Army has reported that the enemy forces are incredibly dangerous within the urban hives, but are far more manageable in open terrain. Threat Level: Extreme
--[X] Solarus + 30000 Astartes
-[X] Arbelis - A brutal dictatorship in the midst of a rebellion, the local Imperial Army commander was minutes from supporting the dictatorship before several incidents came to light following a desperate push from rebel forces. Following the incident, a section of the upper hives on Arbelis was bombarded by Imperial forces before anti-orbital weapons forced a withdrawal. Initial reports show a highly skilled rebel force with high support among the local populace. Nonetheless, the upper hives have proven to be deathtraps for the Imperial Army. Perhaps Astartes may be different. Threat Level: Extreme
--[X] Maticus + 25000 Astartes + Knights
-[X] Moreau - A forge world run by heretical tech priests. The local mangos have focused on creating hybrids of xeno, human, and animal DNA. Their creations have been wildly uncontrollable, and the use of live test subjects disgusted the local Imperial Army commander. Moreover, there is evidence they have been incorporating artificial intelligence within their hybrids, a crime for which death is a must. Threat Level: Hard.
--[X] Doom Slayer + 30000 Astartes

Oriacarius' year began with a bit of good news. A new forge world had willingly joined the Imperium, one that built Titans. While normally this would still be pleasant, it wouldn't have been an event he truly noted. What elevated it enough to receive a mention was the unique design of their Warhounds. Sleek and agile, these Titans were meant to face other massive creatures in melee. Wielding claw-like hands and possessing incredible agility for their size, they have proven their worth multiple times against a nearby Xenos race that had long since perished. Already, the forge world was receiving a large number of orders for the Ursan Pattern Warhound, and they reportedly had a backlog long enough to last two millennia. However, as a representative of a Primarch, Oriacarius was able to secure an order of Titans to supplement the Legio Decio.

*Gain several Ursan Pattern Warhounds. Warhound Titans meant for melee combat.*

Deploying the Legion took quite a bit of thought on Oriacarius side. So many factors had to be considered from the logistics of a campaign to deciding which commanders and Astartes were sent. It was a daunting task, one he had seen Kesar struggle with at times. Nonetheless, careful consideration and near-constant vigilance and paranoia guided Oriacarius into his decisions. Astartes companies were chosen in pseudo-random patterns to prevent diviners from predicting his actions, false orders were sent and retracted to fool informants and spies, vox communications containing no useful information were sent out to fool any nearby cloaked ships, and every world was assumed to be as dangerous as a Maxima Extremis world.

It took days of planning, and more than one of the Wardens were frustrated by his seemingly nonsensical orders and requests. The Veterans of the Legion followed his plans without pause, but the Scouts and less experienced Wardens often hesitated and asked their direct superiors if this was some sort of hazing ritual. It irritated the First Captain at times and made some of his contingencies more complex than needed. But in the end, they were still his brothers, and he had to acknowledge that to most, his orders would seem strange and unnecessary. Preparation, however, was critical, and he would be damned if he sent in his brothers unprepared.

---

Negotiations with Typhon were far simpler than Baldur initially expected. Opening up with applauding them for their well maintained Titans seemed to earn him enough goodwill for them to take him seriously. Combined with the gratitude that came with fighting off a raid, it left the Captain with considerable leverage.

But that alone wouldn't have been enough. Promises that they would be treated as a normal Titan Legion slowly eased the suspicion that was forming against the Imperium. As he continued negotiations, Baldur mused that it was similar to discussing a matter with the First Captain. He always would assume you were some sort of infiltrator and his paranoia had to be eased in order for a proper conversation. There were some interesting parallels between the resources the Sigillite had sent him and the methods the First Captain used, but that was for another time and place.

Right here and now, Baldur was slowly wrapping up negotiations. Typhon adamantly refused to allow their Titans to join the Legio Decio, and Baldur was careful not to push the topic. There were tech priests that held Titans in lower regard than the people of Typhon, and the last thing Baldur wanted to do was alienate such a world. While the Wardens could certainly crush their military, doing so would also cripple the Titans and earn a rebellious planet. Instead, it was better to take what he could get and move on. But there was something else that he could do.

"Forgive me for asking this, but what would it take to conduct a joint military campaign on Gallain?"

---

The answer was transport and the ability to act as an independent force. Captain Solarus was rather pleased with the reinforcements, even if he did treat them as he would a mercenary task force of considerable strength. The Typhon Titans seemed slightly put off by Solarus' sheer exuberance, but the presence of Zachariah by his side seemed to be a moderating influence on the Captain, preventing any stronger feelings from bubbling up.

Having a princeps in the command center was a rarity, and one that wasn't afraid to go against Astartes was unheard of. There was certainly an element of irritation from some of the Wardens, but Solarus seemed unphased by the frequent questions and requests for changes to the battle lines that came from the princeps. Only a select few were acquiesced to, but it mollified the princeps, so the Wardens counted it as a win. What did surprise them, however, was one of their requests.

In Solarus' career, he has yet to find a problem that cannot be solved with enough explosives. Naturally, this leads to preposterous claims that he uses far too much. And so, what the Princeps requested from him was beyond rare. "I'm concerned Captain Solarus, that we're not using enough explosives in this operation."

Just like that, the volume in the command center died down, as the 27th Captain turned to face the Princeps. Hesitantly, as if wondering if this was a dream, Solarus spoke. "Would you prefer more danger close artillery strikes at your position?"

Running a quick series of mental calculations, the Princeps nodded. "As long as orbital weapons aren't used, the God-Machines will scarcely notice. Their vision may be clouded, but they are well used to the chaos of a battlefield."

Turning towards Zachariah, Solarus' face took on a gleeful smile. "And you told me to tone it down for their sake. Oh, there's so much more to do." Turning towards the Princeps, Solarus listed his ideas. "Tell me, how do you feel about incendiary bombs, chemical bombs, and cluster bombs?"

"No phosphex, and nothing corrosive."

Sighing happily, Solarus looked the Princeps up and down before giving his thoughts on the Typhon Titans. "I have a feeling you and I will get along just fine."

And they did.

The battle that followed was little more than Titans breaking into hives as artillery cannons fired volleys of explosive shells around them. Void shields easily prevented damage to the God-Machines, and devastated any Gallain forces that tried to charge the Typhon Titans. Where Titans did not go, deathstrikes did, as Solarus watched his symphony of destruction consume entire armies.

One Remembrancer captured an eight-minute sequence where the Warhound Titan Lightbringer broke through a hive wall, tore a whole through dozens of Olympia battle tanks, and let lose a dozen shots which collapsed a fortified spire. All the while explosions thundered around it, setting fire to everything, while a cloud of white tear gas spread across the district, churned up with every motion of the God-Machine.

Gallain fell in a matter of weeks. With Astartes forces easily taking hive after hive once the defenders broke. Gladiator after gladiator charged the Titans, the promise of extra doses of their drugs motivating them into action. Gladiator after gladiator died in the process, either killed by artillery, or by the Titans themselves. It was an effortless compliance and one which was the first official engagement of a new Titan Legion.

---

On the world of Moreau, the battle was rather simple. Doom Slayer deployed alongside his brothers, and then he ripped and tore. Initially, the battle plan called for orbital bombardment followed by lightning assaults before the cycle repeated. In reality, what happened was that Doom Slayer killed everything he saw too quickly for such a plan to be viable.

Instead, the plan evolved into following the trail of carnage left by the Astartes and make sure that he doesn't get swarmed. In fairness to Doom Slayer, he did make sure not to travel too far from his brothers, and to always make sure that he wasn't endangering them. However, he also did not hesitate to advance wherever and whenever he could.

The battle plan became a race where the orbital bombardment line was the finish line, one that kept moving forward. It represented a constant lightning assault across the planet as Astartes shattered entire cities worth of monstrosities before moving on, leaving the Imperial Army in disarray as they set up garrisons and patrols in the rapidly shifting theater.

The hereteks of Moreau were shocked at the sheer speed of the assault, as were the officers aboard the fleet above. Initial expectations had the western hemisphere conquered after two months. Instead, the Wardens had taken it within 4 weeks. It was a mastery of carnage wrought by the Wardens, one that would be used as both a training video and propaganda under the orders of Captain Maticus. And of all the Wardens present, none embodied the sheer brutality that the Doom Slayer showed on Moreau.

The number of kills credited to the Doom Slayer would never be accurately known. Estimates range from the low ten thousands to nearly a million. Through the entire battle, there was just a single creature that managed to slow him. A horrific hybrid of what seemed to be a wolf, human, and lizard. It took him several minutes to kill it in a way that didn't regenerate. As he repeatedly stabbed it with Eviscerator, he seemed more annoyed at the delay than anything, although several Astartes were relieved at the short rest they were given.

The Imperial Army task force present was also suitably impressed. Despite several unofficial statements saying that the four-month compliance could have been completed in four weeks if the guard could have kept up, the overall mood was positive. The few glimpses they got of Doom Slayer, however, stuck with them. With a number of Imperial Army guardsman saying that if they could have kept up with him, they would have been done in four days. It was a magnificent compliance, one that stood in staunch contrast to the next report Oriacarius received.

---

Arbelis was a compliance that began with disaster. The Imperial Army had nearly sided with the nobles present, and it was only a near-crippling assault by rebel forces that ended with a rebel soldier missing an arm bursting into the Imperial command center that prevented such an act. Evidence of acts including torture dungeons for the amusement of certain nobles, a strange legal system that declared non-nobles to be little more than livestock, and most damning of all, evidence that several supposed rebel attacks on Imperial forces were orchestrated by the nobility. Furious, the Imperial Army commander ordered a general assault, and billions of soldiers landed on Arbelis, forcing the noble forces back into the upper hives.

It helped that the rebels were highly skilled at what they did, as well as being more than happy to differ to the trained Imperial Army soldiers. The initial planetary landings went well, but the heavy defenses led to Astartes support being requested. Following that request, the foothold on the planet slowly expanded, linking up with rebel strongholds and facilities and gaining more and more control over the planet's infrastructure. Despite constant attrition, the Imperial Army was holding.

That is until the air turned poisonous. One day, the Imperial Army was assaulted by legions of combat servitors, forcing a brutal firefight that took the lives of millions of soldiers. It was in those opening hours that everything fell apart.

An odorless gas was released in the hives, one that closed the trachea, preventing breath or screams. Men and women of the Imperial Army simply seized up, their eyes widening in horror as they clutched their throats. A silent death, but one that was all the more terrifying. Several commanders received vox communications, but all they heard were three short taps, three long taps, then three short taps. Some commanders ordered NBC warfare equipment to be donned, but they were, unfortunately, the minority. A wave of death spread across the hives, damning billions to death. The few rebels and Imperial forces remaining had no choice but to hide in rebel bolt holes. A few plans were made to retake ground, but eventually, the forces left understood that they would have to rely on Astartes.

Maticus did not let them down. The first sign of his arrival was when several mushroom clouds appeared on the horizon. Nuclear weapons unleashed at probable landing sights after Stormbirds and Stormravens were detected entering the atmosphere. The skies turned white as lance batteries struck back as the 3rd Captain's feints succeeded in drawing out the first wave of nukes. A second wave was launched, but Maticus had learned from Oriacarius, and ensured his forces had gone to some of the less desirable landing sites instead.

New chemical weapons were unleashed, a gas that corroded metal within minutes, a gas that targetted the nerves making one unable to even move, more mundane gases such as tear gas were around every corner. But the most common weapon was the nuclear missile. Thousands of detonations coated the planet as war began. One in which neither side held back. Maticus had ordered the Warden fleet to commence unrestricted bombardment, with areas with known rebel forces left whole. Continents broke as lava spilled from the cracks, the sheer weight of explosives straining the planet to its limit.

Then, as the last of Arbelis' nuclear weapons were unleashed, the bombardment of the Wardens ceased, and Astartes were able to bring this world to heel. Assisted by rebel maps and force analysis, the Wardens under the command of Maticus were able to break through hordes of servitors and dozens of artillery volleys and burn the upper hives. It was a war of area of effect weapons, where even in the upper hives heavy ordinance was used. Neither side hesitated to do so, for by now the two had escalated too far to go back.

When Maticus finally cleaved the last head with the Sword of the Lost, Arbelis was a ruin. One that appeared as if the Death Guard had fought on. Not a single city was untouched, and not a single home lacked a bullet hole. Despite the carnage, Maticus did not weep, for it was a single act of kindness that convinced him that this was the correct course of action. A middle-aged man that seemed more at home in a factory than a battlefield came up to him. Wearing hastily made rebel coloring, he was the local leader of the rebel forces now that the entire upper leadership had perished. When he was told that the Nobles were dead, Maticus was expecting some condemnation. Even if he had done everything correctly, the world was still little more than ruins. But the man surprised him when he spoke.

"You don't know how bad it was before you came. Every day I wondered, would this be the day my little girl was taken as a Noble's plaything. Would I come home to some seventh son of Noble burning it down with my family inside? There's not one person here that didn't lose a family member to those monsters. I'm old enough to remember the last time someone fought back in public. I barely got my family out of the neighborhood before I saw the fires and heard the screams. When I went back days later, that image of charred corpses of my neighbors haunted me. Don't let anyone tell you that these monsters didn't have this coming. They escalated beyond reason when they heard you were coming. What you did here, was minimize the destruction. And for that, Arbelis will always remember to thank you."

---

The Mitu Conglomerate was a broken empire. Ravaged by the Imperium, then looted by the Orks, the once-proud xenos were a shadow of their former self. Yet, even in their defeated state, they were still dangerous. Enough that they expected another of those Primarchs to break them one last time.

Instead, they got Oriacarius. With the genius of Admiral Otto and the unending plans of Captain Oriacarius, the battle in space was merely a formality. Weak points that had been cataloged on the captured Mitu vessel were targetted, and every move they made was countered by the First Captain while Otto acted as a supporting officer, ensuring Oriacarius could focus entirely on the main parts of the battle.

Throughout the battle, the First Captain focused on cutting off any and all avenues of retreat. When the Mitu realized the battle would end in death, they broke apart, trying to find some semblance of escape. They failed and they died.

The ground battle that followed was expected to be far more dangerous than it was. Oriacarius was well and truly in his element with every one of his actions based on a series of contingencies that turned the battle into a chess game where he had prepared for every possible game. None present were disappointed in this, as the Mitu defensive lines crumbled before the command of the First Captain.

It truly was a masterful display of strategy and tactics. One second only to Primarchs. Desperate strategies were employed by the xenos, and horrific organic psytech monsters were created and deployed. Every one of them was countered by the First Captain. Whereas the Doom Slayer's compliance of Moreau was quick and unstoppable, Oriacarius' conquest of the Mitu was slow but unstoppable. The Legion of Wardens marched forth, and the xenos broke before them.

All that was left was what seemed to be a warp rift, but one the Astartes had never seen before. The Storm Seers confirmed that they could close it if needed, but the lack of daemons spilling from it gave Oriacarius pause. This could very well be a trap, and closing the rift may be what triggers it.

Sending out a servitor, a set of temporary fortifications were constructed around the area, one prepared for a dozen different enemies. The servitor walked towards the warp rift before turning back. Its memory was uploaded to a dataslate and then that was viewed by Oriacarius.

GM Note: Special thanks to @TinyGladiator for the following snippet. He's the one that wrote it.

He saw a bridge of bone, a great spinal cord big enough for constant convoys to deliver their cargo of flesh. Vehicles that looked as armored sea life left abandoned, carapace thick as a tank's yet left transparent to reveal the bodies and viscera housed within.

Surrounding them was darkness. There were no stars, no lights, no other worlds. It wasn't physically outside the galaxy, so far off into the outer reaches of space that there was nothing. It was a realm even further away, contained in a bubble so that the nightmares outside couldn't enter as they were pushed away by the empty dreams of psykers culled and processed.

And the Astartes saw a tiny world on the other side of the far bridge. Maybe it was once a moon or a large asteroid, or maybe it was once the original home of the Mitu. Whatever it was before didn't matter, what did was what the world was now. The center of the Conglomerate, the heart and brain of the Xenos race.

It was covered in jutting towers of hardened flesh and bone and metal all merged together until it was seamless in its connections. From the tips of almost every one of the towers were what looked like broadcast relays that glowed brightly as they discharged energy away to keep this space from breaking. Other towers existed too, some with weapons unmistakeably perched and grown out of them. The whole world appeared as some sort of giant, nightmarish thing of the deep sea.

It was named The Reef by those that saw it. It was the home of the Mitu and it was where their last stand would commence. And it would be their tomb.

It would be simple to end them. Simply close the warp rift and let them starve. It would be a poetic end to their existence. They spent centuries preying on psykers in fear of the warp, and now they would be trapped within it.

And who knew what manner of difficulties there would be in taking the Reef? It was an island in the warp, one with a single entrance. It was undoubtedly fortified beyond anything the Wardens had encountered before and reality may not even match the reality of the materium. If so, it would be good practice for the daemonworlds of the Maelstrom, but losses will be high.

Privately, Oriacarius feared that perhaps the xenos would be made enough to collapse the bubble, leaving them all stranded in the warp. A prospect that phased even him. There was also the fear of reaching too far. This warp rift was surprisingly fragile according to the Storm Seers. If left unsustained, it would collapse within a month's time. If conflict within the realm destabilized it, such a fate would befall the Wardens as well as the xenos. In the end, Oriacarius decided to

[] Close the warp rift and let them starve.
[] Order the Wardens forward. The Reef will be the Imperium's. Expect heavy casualties.

Hiya! Uh, well, I decided to make this omake (rather quickly too, jeez what happened) after reading through the update and really thinking on the idea and merits of invading the Mitu world (which I still think is worth whatever happens, and would give the perfect experience needed for training for the upcoming Maelstrom War and also to help make plans for it, although I perfectly understand if ya don't agree.) and then just getting inspired to write about what might be happening in The Reef. Anyways, uh, hope it's good! 0u0
-----
The Great Barriered Reef.

Within what was now known as 'The Reef' by the Imperium, there was discord and desperation.

Thousands of hulking transport constructs quickly moved as fast as possible all across their stronghold planet, all bloated with as much flesh that they could hold both processed and unprocessed, as the Mitu race prepared for the calamity that they were facing.

Worker drones swarmed all across the floors and towers of the bio-mechanical fortress, carrying slabs of human and Ork flesh to be used as raw material to wherever they were needed by their Mitu masters. Whenever one broke down or began to run too inefficiently it was cannibalised by another one of its kind, most of the body eaten with the rest left haphazardly to be fully recycled later.

The Mitu themselves were no less rushed as they scrambled across their secret world. Some of them were collapsing from the amount of psychic strain they were undergoing from rapidly and precisely managing as many constructs as possible. Or from communicating countless orders and directions to other Mitu, trying to keep order. Or from using and maintaining any of the psychic barrier towers that kept their dimension from falling.

The Warp was feared by the Mitu Conglomerate nearly as much as it was researched and manipulated, its powers and properties used to their whims. The stronghold planet was meant to have the Warp used as a defence, unable to be breached or destroyed from afar, and it would allow them to further understand the Warp and safely channel its potential in a sealed environment. The idea that the sealed nature of the world could result in it's doom was considered and discarded, the benefits were seen to outweigh the consequences.

The world was more useful for research and the development of new Warp based technologies instead of where a final battle would commence. In the event that an enemy managed to reach as far as the portal to the world and the constructed dimension it was hidden in, protected in, and there would be no Mitu specimens on the outside able to reopen the way that lead to it then it was already considered too late and that all Mitu would die. And now, as that precise event had occurred, it seemed like that would very likely happen.

The Mitu were to be sealed off. They were masters of several worlds, ones of humans and other beings, and now they would slowly die on a world made and powered from their slaves. Despite all that they had built with their power, how careful they had been to harness and use the energies of the Warp, they would be trapped in it and it would slowly consume them.

But the desire to survive, to cling to life, was strong in many beings and the Mitu were no exception.

With the amount of recovered bio-materials harvested from all the Orks that were culled and brought back to the fortress there was a tiny, almost impossible, chance that a self-contained system of perpetuity could be made if they were used. The spores of the Orks grew easily and quickly, and while individually the psychic potency of an Ork was negligible it was possible to use it for their Warp technology.

It held incredible risk, and disaster could strike again if even one batch of farmed Orks managed to break out of their processing facility, and it had a high chance of not working, that it would just hasten the Mitu's demise before any gains exceeded the losses if they went with the project. And they had to try it, for they had no other options that did not involve what dwelled outside their dimension.

But then the possibility that the Astartes would launch a last attack through the portal, or to even actually invade them, instead of just sealing them off came. A possibility that too was discarded until evidence for it started to rapidly build up.

Even as several defence towers and weapon constructs were already being repurposed or dissembled to frantically keep up with the projected designs and material costs needed for potential survival, even when the chances for survival without the war reaching their fortified stronghold were already extremely low and would drastically get lower, the Mitu began to prepare for what they knew would be their end if the Astartes army came through that gateway.

Some Mitu suggested that they should close the portal to ensure that they could not be invaded. But to close the portal could prove to have dire consequences for the survival of the Mitu, as they needed as much time as they could before they could develop any means of self-sufficiency and the stability of their pocket realm could rapidly lose cohesion if it was forced to close in such a manner.

The proper controls for the portal only existed outside of the created dimension, in case that the beings inside the Warp ever managed to breach the barrier due to a catastrophic experiment or massive attack that would somehow overload the stabilisation towers and a dimensional quarantine or complete separation was required.

Other Mitu suggested, in the event that an army did arrive through the portal to invade the hidden stronghold, that the portal should be closed then to seal them in. Those foolish to even suggest this were culled and used as material, a fate that only rarely happened since they had first discovered and enslaved those of other races. To cut off their only means of retreat meant that each and every warrior that came would fight to the very end, potentially causing more damage than they would otherwise if they could run.

No, yet again they only had one true course of action for potential survival in case the enhanced human warriors came to invade them. Fight them off until they ran, or impossibly kill all that would arrive without destroying their pocket dimension and stronghold, and force them to close the portal from the outside all while the Mitu focused as much power as possible in sustaining their realm's stability.

And so the Mitu prepared, both in the event that they would be left to starve and in the event that they would fight a coming army of extermination.

They prepared for their end.