The Saga of the Runt (Youjo Senki/WH30k)
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Chapter 28, The War boss Hunt
Chapter 28, The War boss Hunt
840.M30
Tanya Russ
Oh, this campaign was a pain in my ass. It had been nearly four years since the campaign for the Wheel of Fire had begun and in that time we had cleaned up what could be best described as 70% of the Ork infestation.
Over that time I'd become quite acquainted with Ork tactics and their abilities to be stubborn and pull things that I could not believe were real out of their collective rear ends.
At this point I had fought the Orks on every conceivable type of terrain on fronts across the sector and the one thing I had certain knowledge of was that they could pull some absolute bullshit. Once we had exterminated the Orks on the first planet, New Vietnam, I had taken a few of the enemy guns for testing and found they didn't work in several instances. I was not even sure why. A few of them did work, but these ones tended to be actual weapons that had basically just had pieces of scrap metal stapled onto them while the other guns were literally just scrap that did not work. When I'd asked those who brought them in if they had been working when they fought the Orks, they would always respond that they had been. Which was… odd.
This had resulted in me finally having a long conversation about the Orks with Malcador and oh how that gave me a headache.
The idea that a species of creatures was out there that could simply think into being that weapons would work was painful to even comprehend, because if they could think a weapon into functionality… What else could they do?
Could they think ammunition into existence? So far It did not seem to be possible, they seemed to have some laws. To my understanding they could just bend things to their will but how far did their will extend?
At the end of this logic train was the terrible notion that if an Ork believed you to be something hard enough… Could they turn you into that something? If the Orks started believing Space Marines were monsters or war maniacs, would that suddenly affect the mentality of the Space Marines? For my sake and my men I had to hope that that was an overthinking of the subject. The fact that they could basically bolt pieces of iron together to build jet fighters was enough at this point, that warg energy having some ability to affect humanity was as terrifying a thought as could be.
Not to mention I was having to be a lot more thorough about destroying any gear we lost. There had been several instances where Rhinos had to be abandoned in the field, only for them to turn up more heavily armed in the command of Orks. This had resulted in me giving direct orders that if a heavy vehicle needed to be abandoned it must be destroyed.
Giving the enemy the ability to use your weapons platform and making them stronger was not something I wanted to do often. Sure that had lowered the stock pool of heavy vehicles and made me have to be more conscientious of their use but it did result in good outcomes for the most part.
Marines didn't really need the vehicles in most cases. Even in most of the more barren desert worlds we were able to move quickly enough to pin an enemy force and then grind it down before another enemy force joined the original.
And I was right, the prolonged fighting that my men were going through did improve their quality quite quickly. Over the course of the last four and a half years we had been slowly improving our ability to fight on any terrain, to the point that I think we could probably fight legions twice our size.
Now why did I think of fighting legions, considering as far as I knew the only Space Marines in existence were ones that were under my father's control? A bit of paranoia that I'd started to develop. During one of the sieges we had found evidence of power armors in similar sizes to what we owned, dating back to possibly before the Long Night.
Of course I had loaded it all up and shipped it back to Mars for their study, but I'd taken the time to look over it. Just to be sure.
I was now sure that something like the Space Marines probably had existed at some point. If they had existed in the past outside the Imperium and they existed now inside the Imperium then most likely they still existed outside the Imperium.
It may be a jump as I hadn't seen any evidence yet but pretending that the possibility that there were no superhumans out there that could possibly contend with us was foolish. No doubt we would run into them sooner or later and they would have a home field advantage, which was why I was pushing hard to get my men's skill level up as high as possible. With any luck, if we ever did run into an enemy force of Space Marines that skill level would be the defining feature that would see us winning.
That being said I had learned quite a bit about my Marines over the last four and a half years, especially the specifics of their ability to fight. Some of the fights we had been in were some of the most horrid situations I think I'd ever seen, trenches and swamps were something I really would never want to repeat but trenches in wet jungles were somehow worse.
Thankfully I was able to learn that Marines could do with a lot of bullshit. In both cases I expected a lot of men to fall ill but there were no major outbreaks of any known diseases I could put my finger on. There had been a few Marines who definitely got sick after being exposed to unknown toxins but, for the most part, they'd survived that. Losses generally came from combat and losses in combat were heavy.
I had known that sooner or later losses would pile up for my Marines but I had kind of hoped we would avoid anything too major. Thirty percent losses.
This campaign had seen 30% losses so far amongst my men. Granted those losses had been replenished with new Marines from Fenris arriving 2 years ago but it was quite apparent that the fighting here was going to get much worse as we were now coming close to the final goal of the campaign. Meaning what could be best called the imperial capital of this Ork empire.
The world had no name I cared for so I planned to change it to Rathvin, a fortress that most likely would hold out some of the more stubborn warriors in the entire galaxy. But first I had to conquer it with nothing but my legion. And what Imperial Army and Fenrisian Army elements I had at my disposition.
I had lost access to my better assistants along the way. The Star Hunters had been recalled first, apparently they were needed for some sort of operation that I was not informed about. Not a big loss, my men were pretty good at recon at this point and we had been able to prosecute the war without them without issue.
The Iron Warriors on the other hand were a more serious loss. Evidently the Imperium had got itself into a bit of an issue and they needed siege experts. So, even though I was facing a possible siege that would probably go on for 6 months to a year, I had lost those badasses to another siege they were needed at.
It was understandable really. This particular conflict was supposed to go on for 10 years, the fact that we were probably within a year of completing it might have sent a signal to the higher-ups in the government that two legions were not needed for this campaign. It was an unfortunate thing but I had made good use of them while they had been here and gotten my legion up to snuff when it came to siege tactics with their aid.
And I'd seen them off with a bit of a Fenrisian party as well, dedicating one of the recently conquered planets to their legion master. Planet Icrinda, which had been one of the first worlds we had taken, had been renamed to planet Diorius. Did it matter in the grand term of things? No, but he seemed absolutely proud and happy to have received such an honor and I hoped that it would foster good relations between the Iron Warriors and my legion in the future.
Had to thank Ventassius from the Star Hunters when I saw him again. He'd actually spoken to me sometime before he had left and mentioned how the Iron Warriors had a bit of an issue with enjoying the prestige of a thing. I had no problem with this, soothing a person's pride by giving their name to that planet would show that they had been involved in this conflict and had taken the first step. It was an easy thing to do.
Either way he had left last week with his legion, off to some planet somewhere far away from here.
Which left my legion for the final push, and what a push it would be as we could not let the Orks sit idly by. Every day we did they would build new weapons to fight us with so I'd let the Imperial Army send in the Navy, backed up by the fleet of my Fenris Wolves.
And for the last week we had been fighting Ork ships in orbit, trying to clear out enough space that we could begin landings on the planet below and start clearing the planet of its infestation.
Perhaps I was too soft, I admit this. The fact of the matter was the planet below was filled to the brim with Orks and this was the perfect situation to use one of the many planet-destroying weapons I had been given as part of the Gloriana's weapons allocation.
But I just disliked the idea of wasting the valuable human lives on the planet below, let alone the planet itself, with short-term destruction that would waste a perfectly fine opportunity to train my men up on harder conflicts.
Not to mention, something had been up with the last few fights, The Orks had responded differently to the conflict, seeming to have luckily guessed on where our forces were fighting from. Or going to be. I had suspicions that there might be something going on, someone feeding them intel. Destroying the planet outright may end the conflict quickly but it wouldn't help me figure out who and what was feeding them that information.
No doubt the emperor, boss, or whatever they called their particular leader in charge… Was it just Warboss but bigger? Who knows but anyway he would have some information so I planned to fight my way to him and beat him until he told me how his troops had been able to react well enough to cause several suspicious losses for my army.
I did not like the possibility that someone was either betraying my force from the inside or was possibly supporting the Ork forces with Intel-gathering operations that I was not able to destroy. So I would hunt down as much information as I could now, the more control of the situation I could gain now the better it would be in the long run for my army. If it was internal traitors they could be dealt with, if it was external spies then I knew they couldn't be Orks and I could and probably would have candidates for the next war that the Emperor would expect me to go on.
If some aliens were supporting the Orks against the Imperium then they were an enemy of the Imperium, no matter what lie they might say otherwise. So I would hunt them down and I had a good feeling I already knew what specific aliens were doing this. After all my lessons with Malcador had continued, especially on preventing mind reading, and the only alien race that I knew of that might have abilities like that were those washed-up elf look-alikes. At least from the description I had been given.
The possibility that the Eldar, or whatever name they went by as it seemed to change with every person I spoke to about it, could be supporting the Orks against the Imperium in some way seemed very likely.
Why else would Malcador be training me to defend myself against mental attacks?
Of course I needed proof. And even if I had proof I would still need to figure out how they were supporting the Orks, why they were supporting them, and where to hit them. But all those things could be accomplished in time.
The first step was to seize the enemy fortress on the planet below.
Which was going to be a bit of a problem.
Most of the Ork worlds I'd fought over for the last 4 years had a single fortress with maybe a few outposts and a collection of camps.
Also slave camps, but those tended to be get cleaned up real quick as I put them as a top objective in finishing this empire.
The first planet I'd actually taken in this campaign, New Vietnam, was now basically a thriving colony of former slaves. Mainly because it was hard to find the planets they were from since most didn't know. Some had apparently lived in this sector for their entire lives anyway.
That was fine by me though. Grabbing the materials that kept the Ork economy running and transporting them to create a larger human economy that would in a few decades probably be this sector's capital, one able to deal with Orks on their own and carry a little bit of vengeance for their ancestors, would be fine by me.
However the main problem was that this Ork world had what could be described as one Capital City full of Orks with five fortresses around it. Their anti-air was good enough that trying to smash through to the city would be foolish. It was like the Rhine Front's siege warfare all over again.
Granted, with the help of the Squats that wouldn't be too big of an issue. Their laying trains were very useful for moving supplies and, knowing the Orks, if we could destroy one of those fortresses and punch into the main capital… well if I could kill their WarBoss the Ork empire would self-destruct nicely enough.
Then it would just be a matter of fighting each individual force until they were all dead, burning all the corpses and any contaminated areas thoroughly, and escorting any and all slaves off-world.
It sounded easy but of course it probably would not be, those Orks had given us 30% casualties so far and there was still a potential to boost that number by 10% when we hit the planet's surface.
Thankfully we've learned most of the Ork tricks by this point so hopefully they wouldn't be able to pull a surprise like they had in the early days. Most importantly, as far as we could tell, there were no slaves in the outer camps. Which meant those fortresses were well and properly acceptable bombardment targets and in range for the orbital ships.
Most likely, once we started fighting, I would go ahead and give the orders for that bombardment. As much as I did not like wasting potential planets I did not like wasting my money either. If there was a way to clean up at least several of these fortresses, allowing the noose to tighten around the Warboss's neck quicker, I would do it.
From there I would probably be required to engage in either a full frontal assault on their fortifications, which hopefully would be lighter than expected, or choke them to death through a siege. The problem with that was that the slaves were inside the main city and they were likely to start eating those slaves.
I will not suffer cannibals. I know that Orks eating humans isn't cannibalism but sentient life is sentient life so I would most likely be required to move in on that City in an assault nonetheless.
Besides that, there was another demand made of me. I guess some member of Mars had mentioned that the planet might have ancient technology on it because it used to be a colonial world of the human federation before the Old Night. I didn't know if that was true or not, the little data I had been able to pick up since arriving here did indicate that humanity had controlled the planet at some point, but if so they hadn't had full control for a long time. Though some planets did have heavy fortifications that did look like they dated back to before the Old Night. Some of them could probably date back to before humanity walked on the moon, honestly.
But it had been a request that I do my best to besiege the city and find any information for the Mechanicus, especially anything about ancient technology that may have been lost. I saw no major concerns, I would attempt to do as they had requested.
Either way the fighting would probably be fierce in the first few days and, over time, break down into an unorganized rout. Orks did not tend to retreat, I had been told, but it seemed if you applied enough pressure they would attempt to fall back to a better position. As much as they enjoyed a good fight on levels that would make most war maniacs cringe, they knew that fighting in an untenable position was going to only end in their death.
And, unlike with my Wolves of Fenris, who had a vague mysticism about where they would go after they died, the Orks apparently had no real religion. At least I didn't think they had a religion outside their ideas on some pair of gods called Gork and Mork that were too confusing to be a religion in my mind. They would fall back to save their own lives and my men would push them till we won.
Tanya Russ
Most days, I like to tell myself that I do not like combat. After all, fighting for your life against monsters was not a valid form of entertainment. Fighting for your life against other living beings was just wasteful resource management as you could have easily worked the situation out and improved the world together.
Well I will admit I had started to notice over the years that, as much as I liked to say I did not like fighting… I was a bit of a hypocrite.
Covered in the blood and guts of various Orks that I had smashed my way through I stalked the city streets of the Ork empire's Capital. If you could call it that.
I had not seen many cities in this life. I had seen what I suspected were cities from the orbit of Terra and I'd seen small towns since the campaign started, but this? This was not a city.
This was a collection of trash heaps built next to each other and people told to live in tents around the trash heaps. It was disgusting conditions that no person should be forced to live in, be they human or Xeno, or maybe even spiritual. There was no sanitation, there was no public works to keep the streets clean, and there was definitely a stench about this place that was worse than I think I have ever experienced in my entire life. Probably worse than I'd experienced in all my lifes.
But, granted, this might only smell as bad as it did due to the enhanced senses of being a Primarch. Either way killing the Orks did not seem to be doing anything for the stench so I would probably have to order this place burned after we were done here. Granted, this wasn't the expected city, a barbarian camp would be a better term. I would need to burn this place down either way as it was infested in more ways than I liked. In fact, as I was about to turn a corner, I saw a hand burst through the ground. The green and ugly color told me exactly where an Ork was about to be born.
I walked over there and waited till the head popped out of the earth before shoving my chainsword through its skull, killing it.
Not the most glorious combat but we had broken through their line and currently everything was in flux. I was just behind the forward Space Marines who were pushing onward towards what we thought was the capital building. It was basically a bunch of debris piled over an entrance to an ancient cave system by the looks of it and the Orks were doing their damnedest to prevent us from getting to it.
In my mind it was pretty much obvious that it was where the leader of these Orks stayed. Why he was in there I didn't know, I had been informed that Orks preferred to come out and fight in the end but maybe he didn't realize this was the end yet. Either way soon we would be overwhelming that entrance and we would push in and kill the green bastard. Till then I made myself busy killing the monsters that managed to get behind our lines, a job usually dealt with by my wolves but they were a bit overtaxed at this point.
There were more Orks in this city than I think I'd ever seen in any of the other campaigns on this battle, no doubt more Orks than Space Marines. My forces couldn't move without stumbling over the creatures and ultimately they were hiding in every building. Which was where my wolves were coming in handy as they could easily pick up the scents of the Orks and lead my Marines to the houses they were hiding in. At that point it was up to what gear they had. Considering I saw large smoke plumes rising throughout the city it was more likely than not that most Marines detachments had already determined the best course of action was to simply burn the place down.
Not a terrible option considering that's what my overarching goal would always be for this place as long as they helped to get the civilians out first, which were proving to be not as numerous as I originally believed. Considering the number of bones that looked rather human lying about I suspected I may have arrived after they had already decided that civilians weren't worth keeping around for much longer.
Orks were disgusting creatures. The longer I observed them and the more of them I saw, the more I was sure of that. Granted I knew that holding them up to my moral standards might be a bit much but the victor writes history and, as far as I was concerned, I was going to be writing a history of the Orks being exactly what I had seen so far. A wasteful barbaric race that could put up a damn good fight when they wanted, one that was a threat to humanity that needed to be kept in check.
Absent-mindedly I chuckled at the knowledge that most likely, a few years ago, I probably would have attempted to find some sort of use for this race. There probably still was some sort of use for this race but how quickly I'd gone to burn them all out…
Mildly concerning too… I had to wonder if, even though I had not been completely mind-controlled by the Emperor, there wasn't some sort of instinctual command code to preserve humanity buried somewhere in my mentality. Or did the Orks have some sort of psychic ability to draw people towards the conclusion that they needed to be destroyed, perhaps? After all they loved fighting so much, what better way to make sure that alien races would fight them than to convince them that Orks had to be destroyed?
These were dark and dangerous thoughts when you really put your mind to them. Though I would acknowledge that there was always the possibility that the Emperor was controlling me in some way I was most likely just being a bit paranoid, some sort of habit I'd picked up that was probably not good for me.
That being said, there was use for the Orks when you really put your mind to it. A species that could be deployed to fight an enemy and grow their troops in the field? That was a useful bio weapon, it made me wonder if that's what they had been created for. That being said, if they were a bio-weapon, finding some way to use them for humanity was not an impossible thing.
If I ever found an enemy that needed a bit of work thrown at it perhaps I would engage with them as needed as mercenaries. These Orks though… I could not afford to do such things. The Wheel of Fire was an important path to the other side of the Galaxy. If it was not brought into compliance and left to be controlled by Orks it would become a pirate Haven in no time. Plus I needed to gain uncontested control of the sector and the Orks would not allow that.
It was an unfortunate waste of living resources but they were wasting resources with their existence and there was not much else I could do on the matter.
Really the only thing I could do at the moment was focus on the now so I stopped lollygagging and continued searching through these destroyed hovels they called a town and moved forward to the front lines, quickly finding my way there since I could move rather quickly with my long legs. The line was not too far ahead by this point anyway.
My Marines were taking cover behind various structures, most looking no better than the tents all around, and across from them was a horde of Orks doing exactly what I expected a horde of Orks to do: constantly charge and scream their roars of war and whatever Battlecry they had adopted. They were deafening the area around with noise.
I used a bit of the helmet's tools to lower the volume of the Orks and raised the volume of internal Coms so I could listen to the Marines around me as they worked out what they were going to do.
Generally it seemed like they were waiting for the Volkyte-equipped troops to arrive. We finally had a sustainable number of them, three full companies of the weapons, though only one was in a full company. The other weapons had been scattered about to various platoons and other units to give them a bit of a more punch.
The company that was carrying the Volkyte weapons should probably be arriving soon, from my memory they had been detached to deal with a bit of a counter-attack to the north of here as the Orks had apparently decided that would be a great idea to drive a whole bunch of vehicles that looked more like scrap metal than the regular scrap metal vehicles they usually drove around, all pipes and thin plates. If the vehicles didn't have such large main cannons on them I would have not even bothered but they did so I had to detach a unit to deal with them and at the time the soldiers in the Volkyte company were not really doing anything so they had seemed like the perfect candidate.
No matter the fortifications in front of the main Palace, I guess, if the Ork Lord or WarBoss or whatever you called an Ork leader that was at the rank of an emperor. I really had to talk to Malcador about that when I got the chance. Either way the fortifications in front of the main palace were slowly crumbling as my infantry laid down a rain of fire that kept the Orks either in place or losing their limbs when they tried to reach out to fire back. It was nice watching my men cover for each other, taking moments to allow other men to refill their rifles.
Sure this was a massive waste of ammo but we were putting so much ammunition down range that the Orks were basically pinned, and it was a good tactic to hold them in place because I could see from where I was standing that several Marines were attempting to go along the side of the fortress. They were most likely trying to find some way to get through the enemy fire and get up close, I didn't know why though I suspected they probably were carrying explosives.
Blowing up a hole in this fortification's walls and allowing us in would not only give us a clear entrance to the Palace but also cause enough chaos in the Ork ranks that we probably could sprint the distance between our makeshift lines and into their more fortified ones.
At least that's what I hoped. Turning my attention back to the comms I mainly heard what I expected: men complaining about just how tough the Orks really were. It's not as if I didn't see why: there were several Orks that had their limbs completely blown off and they were still fighting basically. The Orks were probably giving the same complaints to their commanders, considering some of my men were now missing limbs due to peeking out at the wrong time or being unlucky by the look of it.
Shaking my head I watched as the Marines equipped with explosives first sprinted out of cover, running across the no man's land from an angle that appeared to not have as many fire positions on it. They quickly covered the distance between our lines and the Ork lines and were already at the side of the fortifications. An impressive speed.
I watched with some pride, I had trained these men for almost going on a decade at this point in some cases so I think I deserved a little pride in their accomplishments. The Marines quickly set up an explosive charge on the side of one of the defensive towers and got to a safe distance by jumping into a torn-up part of land that probably had been hit by a bombardment from earlier in the conflict. The crater provided enough cover that they were not immediately incinerated as the tower's support was blasted free of the rest of the structure, causing it to pull portions of the outer wall of the defenses down as it toppled over onto the ground.
With a sound of clattering and shattering, pieces of wood and metal were flown across the battlefield and a squeak goblin… I still didn't know the name of these lesser creatures that made up the bottom of the Ork hierarchy… anyway it was thrown just a few feet in front of me, still holding onto the heavy machine gun that had been in a place of pride on the tower.
Raising my wrist I used the hidden bolter in the forearm armor, a recent addition to my equipment, to blast the creature to make sure it didn't try and pick up that heavy weapon and go back to aid in the defense of the fortifications.
The body which had been separated from its head fell down to the ground, which seemed to signal something to my Space Marines. Letting out something that sounded more like a howl than a Battle cry, they seem to have taken my killing of the little creature as a sign that it was the time to charge. Well… they weren't exactly wrong.
Sighing at their living up to the name of wolves of Fenris, I pulled out a chainsword and started walking forward, leading the way for my men towards the recently opened hole in the enemy line.
The enemy seemed pretty confused at what had happened, though they were starting to open fire again. Marines quickly suppressed the enemy as they began moving forward in a loose formation of around five men shooting while five men moved forward. This just kept up a hail of gunfire on the fortifications, allowing us to close the distance which allowed my men to either charge through the hole in the wall or climb over it. As usual various ropes and other kits had been assembled for this operation.
I was not the first person into the fortress. As much as I enjoyed a good fight nowadays I was not someone to risk my life for being the first. if I had to make a guess I was probably around the 50th in. Letting the Marines charge in first was an acceptable thing in my mind and, as I stepped in, I watched the Marines as they went to work clearing the fortification in front of the Warboss's Palace.
One thing that I had noted was that I would not have trained my men if they were not Space Marines, as they had a preference for fighting hand to hand. If you could kill enemies at a distance you should kill an enemy at a distance, they would probably do the same. However I'd quickly learned, and confirmed it over the years, that Space Marines were quite accustomed to close quarters combat and often moved faster than their enemies.
Closing the distance and killing a person outright was often a lot easier for them than shooting and so what I stepped into was a charnel House of murder, My Marines beating the life out of Orks with their bare hands if they didn't happen to have a rifle or bladed weapon to do it.
It was an ugly business but I had to admit that the Orks, while powerful in close quarters, weren't very fast. They may carry crude versions of our weapons but that didn't make them any less deadly as I saw a few Marines who got a little too overconfident take wounds and possibly die. Judging by their pristine armor I suspected those particular Space Marines were recruits recently brought in to replenish our losses, unfortunate but it would happen.
The battlefield is nothing but Darwinism on a massive scale, in the end those smart enough not to put their lives at risk will survive while those who put their lives at risk would remove themselves from risk through death.
Speaking of that, the newer boys tended not to wear their helmets. Though, considering many of them died laughing and with a smile on their lips, they were probably thinking they were going to Sto'Vo'Kor or Valhalla. Which I hate to admit was a useful tool for a soldier. Believing there was somewhere your soul would go after your death was after all often the thing that soldiers needed. What was the old saying? you won't find an atheist in a foxhole? I laughed at that rather openly before turning my fist to fire off a few shots from the bolter pistol into an Ork that charged at me.
I felt a twinge of pain as the creature fell, that phrase reminded me of something I may have said to the unknown being X. I wasn't getting as many headaches nowadays, I think I had broken through most of the barriers and now had most of the information from the second life. This was useful for my existence and I felt I understood everything I needed to know about my second life. A spiritual being of some kind got into a pissing match with me that had involved World War I.
Being able to view these memories from my third life I was able to detach myself quite a bit from that conflict and see the truth of the matter. Two stubborn beings had met each other and nearly destroyed a world with their fighting. That was a terrible thing to have happened to humanity, I would endeavor to prevent something like that to ever happen again.
Considering the other primarchs might have their own personality traits and other abilities the possibility that they might be stubborn and I might have an argument with them was not impossible. Perhaps something like that would happen between other primarchs too. Either way I would need to keep my eyes on it, letting life get wasted between two near demigods in power seemed like a good way to end all humanity.
I really had no time to spare to watch the festivities of this battle to the death though. The fact of the matter was that in a fight between Space Marines and Orks like this victory was most likely going to go to the Space Marines. Sure a large percentage of them were fighting for their own personal Glory, as was to be expected with warriors of their caliber, but a good percentage of the leadership in command were moving about the field attempting to rescue any Marine who got themselves in too much trouble. And, as I watched, more Marines entered a square and simply got to work taking over the fortification walls and bringing their rifles to bear down on our enemies firing into the Orks that were distracted by the Marines they were fighting in solo combat. Sure I saw a few Marines look a little bit annoyed as the Ork in front of them exploded into gore but they simply moved on to the next one since there was a large number of Orks across the square for them to fight. And even more coming every moment, it would seem that word that we had broken through the internal defenses of the Warboss palace… I think that's the name I'll stick with for this monstrosity… anyway word has spread. Not only were there Orks coming out of the tunnel system that no doubt linked the palace to various defensive areas across the city, but some were already simply charging across the area we had abandoned to take the palace from all directions, except the ones we had troops coming from. The green tide was charging at us, which resulted in many Marines who had been on the wall focusing their fire on the ones incoming instead of the Orks defenders. Which I think probably meant the Marines in the square fighting the Orks had been hasty in thinking they had kills stolen from them.
Moving through the square I did my best to clear a path through the Orks, killing as I went, trying to get towards the palace itself. Standing at the foot of said structures stood what I would best guess were the best-trained Orks I'd ever seen.
In fact it was rather impressive how they were holding off my Marines considering they were using tactics that were probably outdated by the time the Romans started conquering Greece.
Orcs, massive ones, big enough that they actually were almost on my level of size, were standing in full metal armor that looked as thick as some tank armor. They held a combination spear and gun which they were using to fire a few rounds and stab at anyone who got too close. To top off this absurdity they were holding massive Shields the size of themselves, with little openings that their Ork Gun-Spears could poke through.
Actually it just reminded me of an upscaled version of the shields the Mechanicus had sent us when we said we were about to engage in siege warfare, only more crude and scrappy looking.
I had to wonder which one came first, our Shields or their Shields. Had their creation of these shields been a response to our own use of gunshield lines during the sieges or were both reliant on some pre Old Night designs that had propagated across the universe? I could see that as a possibility, the shields did somewhat remind me a bit of riot shields so it was not impossible that the design had simply been upscaled by both factions on their own from that concept. Well I couldn't exactly ask them what and where they had gotten those Shields. Not only because they seemed uninterested in answering questions, simply screaming and shooting their guns at anyone who got too close, but also because I didn't have the time.
Every moment the Ork leader was alive was a moment one of my Marines could die so it was time to do some killing. The armor was too thick for my chainsword to break through though and the sword was likely to break even with the recent upgrades from Krakenmaw, I would need to pull another tactic out of my book of tricks. Pulling the Fenrisian sword Mjalnar from my back, its gleaming blue blade glowing a little with that strange light that it seemed to put off, I took a kendo stance. I tried to focus on drawing upon Fenris' Warp Energy, and only Fenrises, a tough task considering the distance between my adopted homeworld and this planet. But I was able to do it, drawing energy into my blade, taking it from its naturally cold deposition to something even colder, the light on it glowing even more brightly than normal. Taking in a breath I let it out as I moved as fast as my Primarch body and my power armor allowed me.
In what felt like only a second I moved from about the middle of the courtyard to right in front of the middle Ork, bringing down my sword and cutting right through the metal shield that was meant to probably survive a tank round given its thickness of it all. The shield did more than simply be cut in half though, along the cut ice-like structures formed making the metal even more brittle as it froze. As the final length of the cut reached the bottom edge of the shield the entire thing shattered into metal fragments as the cracks developed along the frozen metal.
The Ork stood there with that shield and probably would have looked rather confused if he wasn't screaming as his arm had also frozen to the shield and been shattered as well. He attempted to stab me and fire his gun spear at extremely close range. I however was quite adept with such movements and was able to dodge said spear, bringing up my blade in a countermotion that sliced through the end of the spear. It did not remain in contact with the metal as long as it had with the shield so the fractures did not transfer to the spear as much. However it didn't really matter considering I'd cut just a few inches above the Ork's hand.
The now one-arm or one-handed Ork looked at the stump that had once carried its weapon, very confused, before several Marines took the opening to fire some shots into him. Bolter rounds pierced through the comparatively weaker chest armor and exploded inside of him, causing him to topple over and leaving a rather large hole in the line of massive Orks.
With some skill that I had acquired over the years I slid into that hole and sliced at the backs of the Orks on either side of me, transferring the Frozen energy to their spines. They didn't exactly do well with that, toppling over too.
They were at least still in one piece but they were not going to be getting back up. With a much more massive hole now inside the line Marines who had been freed from the combat against the regular Orks started charging up towards the gap I had created. The Orks, now only about six of them in total, attempted to form two back-to-back circles, three Orks facing outward and trying to stab at anyone who came too close.
This would not do for my fighting so I reached down and picked up one of the Orks spear-guns. Quickly I imparted a piercing spell into the weapon before throwing it at the closest Ork. The blade pierced through the shield, leaving a rather large fist-sized hole in his armor then his torso and then into the back of the Ork behind it, leaving only one Ork standing in that trio. The remaining Ork did not last long since he had been facing a direction the Space Marines had not reached yet so my wolves simply opened fire with their bolter guns into his back.
With the three Orks to my left dealt with there was only the group of three on my right still standing, however I didn't bother dealing with them. They were already doomed as Marines were firing on them from all sides and I could already see rounds exploding inside the shields themselves. If anything the Orks were probably already dead even if it might take a few more shots for them to realize it. And they may not fall as they may just keep standing there because their weight was against each other.
Either way I moved past the entrance of the Warboss's Palace, kicking the door in. Well what could be best described as a door and looked into the throne room.
Could you call this a throne room? Yes! In fact I was noting a lot of Greek influence which raised the probability of this having been a human colony after all, one that the Orks had just built over because there really were a lot of Greek style pillars holding up the roof of scrap.
In front of me was what could be best described as a pond of heated water I guessed, turned green by whatever Orks had been killing and throwing in there. It had most likely been some sort of decorative thing at one point but it was now just radioactive sludge as far as I was concerned and looked unhealthy as all hell. Another thing to burn when I got the chance. Around the pond, in many directions, were marble steps which led to the pillars to the left and right and to the door they jutted from. Across the pond sat a blackened scrap throne, made up of various guns by the looks of it, and upon the throne was a massive Ork that looked more machine than living creature.
One of its eyes had been replaced by some sort of optical laser and it looked at me, trying to look very impressive I think.
"What's dis? an 'umie break'n into ma sanctum?" The massive creature said as it raised itself out of its chair."I recognize yer now, yer're bg booba wun, 'da leada uv 'da 'umie invadaz 'oo have destroyed so much uv ma empire. Kome ta face me 'n a final kombat an' meet yer doom like all da otha 'umiez 'oo have attempted ta unseat da ork empire uv da wheel uv fire."
"Sure," I said matter of factly as I stepped closer, stopping at the edges. "I'm here to fight you and end your reign of terror across the local sectors to open up a path between the Imperium of Man and the outer edge of the Eastern side of the galaxy."
"Haha! yer want ta reach 'da realms uv ultramar, don't yer, th pitiful empire. Do yer know dat dey claim ta be da true successors uv humanity? i wonda wot will happen when yer imperium uv man reaches 'der. Will yer go ta WAAAGH! wit' im as yer've gone ta WAAAGH! wit' us? i hear dey aren't 'actly da most welcom'n lot."
I shrugged at that and said, "Never heard of the realms of Ultramar, though I shall pass this information along to the Emperor. I'm sure he'll be quite interested to hear about a human civilization on the edges of the Eastern fringe, it probably explains why there's such a large trade route going by your little Wheel of Fire sector. If you weren't so known as being raiders of that trade route I probably would not have been sent here to deal with you actually. So I doubt we'll be going to war with this Ultramar as you put it, the trade is what's important after all."
The Ork laughed at that, "oh ya fink we were raid'n im? we weren't raid'n im, we were demand'n tribute ta keep da space peaceful from pirates as we have done for dousands uv years."
I shrugged at that before saying, "Well, according to my reports, you were raiding which would indicate to me that if you did start demanding tribute from ships that belong to the Imperium of Man you didn't exactly work out a contract with us beforehand. So you're bad as far as I'm concerned."
The Ork leapt at this statement, shouting,"so dis was all an 'cuse for humanity ta fight 'da wheel uv fire! well, 'dat's downright respectable den." He got up from his seat, revealing that he was nearly 14 ft tall, an impressive size for an Ork. His hands had also been either surgically removed and replaced with giant claws or encased in them. I wondered how he got anything done with that, considering he now had no digits to do anything but Ork technology was strange to me. Perhaps it was precise enough that it didn't matter that he was wielding claws?
Laughing, the ork stepped down from his throne and started walking directly towards me, each step seeming to echo on the marble stone floor as the weight of the armor he was wearing was enough that I swore I heard it groaning. "tell yer wot, 'umie! i've been fight'n' hard ta keep dis sector securely 'n ma hands for hundreds uv years. If yer surrenda now I'll let yer keep 'da world yer've claimed on 'da ol edges uv 'da wheel uv fire. Yer'd make fine orks wit' yer fierce tactics an' stubbornness an' i would enjoy hav'n someone ta fight for ma Boyz every once 'n a while."
"I don't think I would do that," I said stoically. "Why would I surrender the sector to an Ork, a creature that has shown itself to be rather destructive to humanity simply to indulge in its interest in fighting." As I watched the Ork stepped into the water in front of me, moving through the sludge rather quickly as it made its way towards me. It was already a fourth of the way here and was smiling rather brightly.
"Because yer are an ork. Yer make 'cuses for why yer want ta fight but yer want ta fight, deep down yer are jus like us. Yer're jus as destructive an' yer'll see it soon enough. 'umiez are jus orks without da ability ta get big but it would seem dat someone 'as made it so ya kan be almost as tall as a gud krork like myself."
"Kork? Never heard of that," I said as the creature got halfway through the pool, "but I'm afraid it doesn't matter what your opinions are on the nature of humanity and orks. What matters is that this world and this sector will soon belong to the Imperium of Man. It will secure the trade route between the Imperium, the leagues, and this realm of Ultramar you claim exists within shouting distance of this little empire. And when that's done? Well the Imperium will just keep on expanding, pushing you Orks and your violent destructive ways to the edges of the Galaxy till you're either tamed for the Imperium's use or removed."
The Ork laughed at that, replying, "and how are ya gunna remove dis?" It was now only three-quarters of the way across the pond and it raised its hands above its head to indicate that it was implying all of the armor and beast inside of it.
Shrugging, I simply answered, "The way I remove all my problems: coldly." Sliding my sword into the water in front of me I watched as ice literally shot across the water, trapping the Ork's feet in the sludge that had once probably been clear liquid at some point.
I held the sword there for a few minutes, making sure that it had frozen the entire liquid which had resulted in a greenish blue ice that looked even more disgusting than the liquid that it had been a few seconds ago. The Ork was busy trying to pull its legs free, completely stuck. It would seem that the ice was covering up several points critical to maintain mobility. I could even see the ice trying to grow up the legs of the metal and flesh of the creature.
"Hey wot 'da hell?? dis isn't a fight! wot weird-boy shit iz dis, dis isn't fair! ya are a disgrace ta yer kind, kome fight me like a man."
I shook my head and heard the sounds of boots behind me. A moment later I saw several dozen Marines starting to take up gun positions around me, aiming at the Ork that was now stuck in the ice.
"Mr Warboss I've already defeated your armies and we now hold the internal center of the city. There is no reason for me to fight you in one-on-one combat but I was willing to do it. But it would seem, Mr Warboss, that you forgot to do the important part of war: finding out about your enemy's abilities. Since you made that mistake you stepped into a place that I could use to easily defeat you. If I make no mistake you are defeated, which means I can do whatever I want with you. Since I want your Orks to start fighting each other over who should be the leader, I don't want you to control them anymore so… Well, I think we know what the order will be."
"You bitch!", The Ork shouted
"Yes, I've been called that. I'm afraid though it doesn't matter what you call me, this is your termination notice as ruler of the Wheel of Fire sector. I think the Imperium will be handing that rank out from now on. Wolves of Fenris, fire."
As one there was a wave of opening fire from the Marines around me, hundreds of rounds of bolter ammunition were expended into the Ork in front of us. Limbs went flying, pieces of gunk went everywhere, and most importantly the creature collapsed forward on its knees into the ice allowing us to shoot down its neck into the main body.
As it bled all over the ice I shook my head, before saying, "Clear the building, order the flamers up. We're going to need to burn this place out."
The Marines gave the sign of the Aquila before chorusing "Yes, my Primarch," and ran off to get to work.
Sighing, I turned to the frozen corpse of the Ork. Well that had been rather anticlimactic. Guess I was expecting an evil speech that would definitely confirm the existence of the Eldar in this sector in some way. Oh well the mission was accomplished, the objective done. Time to move on and get to work on cleaning up this sector of any remnants of the Ork infestation.
Turning to go I stopped as I heard a voice say "How very barbaric, Mon-keigh. Though I do say, a rather creative though rudimentary use of Eldar runes.
Sliding back around on the balls of my feet, putting both hands on my sword, I looked around, wondering where that voice had come from. I could see many of my other Space Marines were also doing the same, utterly confused as to who had just spoken and why.
Which I was thankful for. If my marines had been frozen solid, as if time had stopped, I'd be worried about the return of a certain Being X. However they were all moving, plus this voice had sounded rather female and… British of all things?
Stepping out of the shadows behind the throne came an armored woman, wearing a white material that looked almost made of bone. She looked around at the Marines who had quickly adjusted their guns to point at her but seemed to give them no mind, instead leaning on the strange bone-like material staff she held in her hands.
"Mon-keighs, mon-keighs, do not fear. I do not come to fight you, there's no reason to raise your guns at me, you lower life forms."
I was taking in all of this, trying to determine the best way to handle this, before I finally just said, "Do you mind not calling us monkeys, woman? If you wish to have a conversation show a little bit of respect for those you are trying to talk to."
"Of course. My apologies, human. Is that better or should I call you something else? None of you here are really humans, are you?"
"How about we make this a little bit easier then?" taking my blade I slid it back into its holster on my back before pulling my helmet off and holding it under one arm.
Giving a smile that I knew would show off the canine teeth that seemed to be common amongst my legion as well as myself I said, "I am Tanya Russ of the Imperium of Man. If you wish to negotiate with the Imperium of Man I'm willing to hear you out and transfer the information of this negotiation to my superior, though I will ask now if you were providing intel to the Orks of the Wheel of Fire sector. If so, why should we deal in good faith with you, considering you have obviously shown yourself to be a possible threat to the Imperium of Man?"
Obviously the Eldar seemed to think for a moment before nodding. She reached up and pulled off her own helmet, revealing a red-headed woman with sharp pointed features and fair skin with freckles. Mimicking me she held her helmet under her arm, though considering I was disarmed and she was obviously carrying some kind of staff, itwasn't a complete mimic. And considering that she had immediately focused on runes and implied that they might be related to her own culture's way of casting spells I would have to assume she was a spell caster as well of some type. She was not someone to be trifled with, that I could tell right away.
"Very direct, you go straight to the heart of the matter and produce very good questions." She seemed to think for a moment before saying, "Well, I'll make things simple then. The Orks of this 'sector', as you call it, have been of our people, or at least useful tools. I think you even considered that yourself in your statement, push them to the edges of the galaxy I think was what you said? Well that's how we viewed these Orks. We let them live in this sector that was basically cut off from most space and called upon them in times of war for our needs. I'm sure they've done a few things on their own but the most important part was when they were threatened we would provide them with data on the enemy they were fighting. Just the general direction they would come from and how they tended to fight. It was a pretty good deal, that which you've completely destroyed by the destruction of the Ork empire here. I assume you are going to replace it with your own Imperium so I don't think they'll ever be rising again to our aid. So unfortunate." She shook her head before continuing.
"As for whether my people are a threat to your Imperium? I would hope not, our goals do not need to be against each other. We have no interest in your galactic empire, we are busy with our own issues and the opinion of my particular homeworld is that if the lesser beings want to fight amongst each other for the control of the Galaxy we'll let them. As long as they keep out of our problems. Do that and we should be fine.-"
I nodded my head, simply saying, "A respectable thing then, you already had a deal and you stayed true to your deal. So if we were to make a deal you would stay with it too, is that the implication you're trying to provide by telling me the truth of the matter here or at least the truth you want me to have."
The other seemed rather impressed by that or was smugly smiling. It was hard to tell with such sharp features. She simply nodded and said "You're a sharp one, I like you. Yes, any deal we come up together will stay true as long as they don't interfere with other deals and don't interfere with our people. There's no reason for us to go directly to war with each other as far as I'm concerned. Perhaps a little proxy war now and again but simply because we had already ongoing issues in sectors to deal with."
I nodded my head, "Alright then. So a simple deal of non-interference? I can work with that, I'll send this up to the Emperor and let him figure out what to do on the matter. Until he gives an official statement on this I'll be willing to keep to a non-interference with your issues, if you do not interfere with ours. Sounds good?"
"Sounds excellent," the red-headed woman said before, with one hand, quickly shoving her helmet back on her head. "You are an interesting person, to find a barbarian with some sense? Something like that is rare in this galaxy, you'll go far." With that she simply turned and walked back behind the throne and didn't reappear.
Indicating with a motion of my head I sent two Marines to take a look and they turned to me very confused after checking, implying that somehow she'd simply just walked out of existence when she went behind the throne.
Muttering under my head, I said 'Great. Both British and a Ninja, that's all I need."
Writers note: And that the end of wheel fire campaign, you can only kill ork in creatives ways so many times… that being said this chapter was written before chapter 26 and 27 as even back then i was getting iffy about this campaign so good to get this out. So what did we have this chapter interesting things i hope. End of ork empire explanations for what was going on with eldar and bit of mage craft. Some might question the ice sword thing to them i say… apparently a later varrent of russ armor did exactly the same thing as defenceives feature… found that out later but yeah russ was always Ice power dude it would seem. I hope everyone enjoys this and next week, Tanya meets a sibling.
Edited by: Pierre
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udy15236, Horizon Walker
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840.M30
Tanya Russ
Oh, this campaign was a pain in my ass. It had been nearly four years since the campaign for the Wheel of Fire had begun and in that time we had cleaned up what could be best described as 70% of the Ork infestation.
Over that time I'd become quite acquainted with Ork tactics and their abilities to be stubborn and pull things that I could not believe were real out of their collective rear ends.
At this point I had fought the Orks on every conceivable type of terrain on fronts across the sector and the one thing I had certain knowledge of was that they could pull some absolute bullshit. Once we had exterminated the Orks on the first planet, New Vietnam, I had taken a few of the enemy guns for testing and found they didn't work in several instances. I was not even sure why. A few of them did work, but these ones tended to be actual weapons that had basically just had pieces of scrap metal stapled onto them while the other guns were literally just scrap that did not work. When I'd asked those who brought them in if they had been working when they fought the Orks, they would always respond that they had been. Which was… odd.
This had resulted in me finally having a long conversation about the Orks with Malcador and oh how that gave me a headache.
The idea that a species of creatures was out there that could simply think into being that weapons would work was painful to even comprehend, because if they could think a weapon into functionality… What else could they do?
Could they think ammunition into existence? So far It did not seem to be possible, they seemed to have some laws. To my understanding they could just bend things to their will but how far did their will extend?
At the end of this logic train was the terrible notion that if an Ork believed you to be something hard enough… Could they turn you into that something? If the Orks started believing Space Marines were monsters or war maniacs, would that suddenly affect the mentality of the Space Marines? For my sake and my men I had to hope that that was an overthinking of the subject. The fact that they could basically bolt pieces of iron together to build jet fighters was enough at this point, that warg energy having some ability to affect humanity was as terrifying a thought as could be.
Not to mention I was having to be a lot more thorough about destroying any gear we lost. There had been several instances where Rhinos had to be abandoned in the field, only for them to turn up more heavily armed in the command of Orks. This had resulted in me giving direct orders that if a heavy vehicle needed to be abandoned it must be destroyed.
Giving the enemy the ability to use your weapons platform and making them stronger was not something I wanted to do often. Sure that had lowered the stock pool of heavy vehicles and made me have to be more conscientious of their use but it did result in good outcomes for the most part.
Marines didn't really need the vehicles in most cases. Even in most of the more barren desert worlds we were able to move quickly enough to pin an enemy force and then grind it down before another enemy force joined the original.
And I was right, the prolonged fighting that my men were going through did improve their quality quite quickly. Over the course of the last four and a half years we had been slowly improving our ability to fight on any terrain, to the point that I think we could probably fight legions twice our size.
Now why did I think of fighting legions, considering as far as I knew the only Space Marines in existence were ones that were under my father's control? A bit of paranoia that I'd started to develop. During one of the sieges we had found evidence of power armors in similar sizes to what we owned, dating back to possibly before the Long Night.
Of course I had loaded it all up and shipped it back to Mars for their study, but I'd taken the time to look over it. Just to be sure.
I was now sure that something like the Space Marines probably had existed at some point. If they had existed in the past outside the Imperium and they existed now inside the Imperium then most likely they still existed outside the Imperium.
It may be a jump as I hadn't seen any evidence yet but pretending that the possibility that there were no superhumans out there that could possibly contend with us was foolish. No doubt we would run into them sooner or later and they would have a home field advantage, which was why I was pushing hard to get my men's skill level up as high as possible. With any luck, if we ever did run into an enemy force of Space Marines that skill level would be the defining feature that would see us winning.
That being said I had learned quite a bit about my Marines over the last four and a half years, especially the specifics of their ability to fight. Some of the fights we had been in were some of the most horrid situations I think I'd ever seen, trenches and swamps were something I really would never want to repeat but trenches in wet jungles were somehow worse.
Thankfully I was able to learn that Marines could do with a lot of bullshit. In both cases I expected a lot of men to fall ill but there were no major outbreaks of any known diseases I could put my finger on. There had been a few Marines who definitely got sick after being exposed to unknown toxins but, for the most part, they'd survived that. Losses generally came from combat and losses in combat were heavy.
I had known that sooner or later losses would pile up for my Marines but I had kind of hoped we would avoid anything too major. Thirty percent losses.
This campaign had seen 30% losses so far amongst my men. Granted those losses had been replenished with new Marines from Fenris arriving 2 years ago but it was quite apparent that the fighting here was going to get much worse as we were now coming close to the final goal of the campaign. Meaning what could be best called the imperial capital of this Ork empire.
The world had no name I cared for so I planned to change it to Rathvin, a fortress that most likely would hold out some of the more stubborn warriors in the entire galaxy. But first I had to conquer it with nothing but my legion. And what Imperial Army and Fenrisian Army elements I had at my disposition.
I had lost access to my better assistants along the way. The Star Hunters had been recalled first, apparently they were needed for some sort of operation that I was not informed about. Not a big loss, my men were pretty good at recon at this point and we had been able to prosecute the war without them without issue.
The Iron Warriors on the other hand were a more serious loss. Evidently the Imperium had got itself into a bit of an issue and they needed siege experts. So, even though I was facing a possible siege that would probably go on for 6 months to a year, I had lost those badasses to another siege they were needed at.
It was understandable really. This particular conflict was supposed to go on for 10 years, the fact that we were probably within a year of completing it might have sent a signal to the higher-ups in the government that two legions were not needed for this campaign. It was an unfortunate thing but I had made good use of them while they had been here and gotten my legion up to snuff when it came to siege tactics with their aid.
And I'd seen them off with a bit of a Fenrisian party as well, dedicating one of the recently conquered planets to their legion master. Planet Icrinda, which had been one of the first worlds we had taken, had been renamed to planet Diorius. Did it matter in the grand term of things? No, but he seemed absolutely proud and happy to have received such an honor and I hoped that it would foster good relations between the Iron Warriors and my legion in the future.
Had to thank Ventassius from the Star Hunters when I saw him again. He'd actually spoken to me sometime before he had left and mentioned how the Iron Warriors had a bit of an issue with enjoying the prestige of a thing. I had no problem with this, soothing a person's pride by giving their name to that planet would show that they had been involved in this conflict and had taken the first step. It was an easy thing to do.
Either way he had left last week with his legion, off to some planet somewhere far away from here.
Which left my legion for the final push, and what a push it would be as we could not let the Orks sit idly by. Every day we did they would build new weapons to fight us with so I'd let the Imperial Army send in the Navy, backed up by the fleet of my Fenris Wolves.
And for the last week we had been fighting Ork ships in orbit, trying to clear out enough space that we could begin landings on the planet below and start clearing the planet of its infestation.
Perhaps I was too soft, I admit this. The fact of the matter was the planet below was filled to the brim with Orks and this was the perfect situation to use one of the many planet-destroying weapons I had been given as part of the Gloriana's weapons allocation.
But I just disliked the idea of wasting the valuable human lives on the planet below, let alone the planet itself, with short-term destruction that would waste a perfectly fine opportunity to train my men up on harder conflicts.
Not to mention, something had been up with the last few fights, The Orks had responded differently to the conflict, seeming to have luckily guessed on where our forces were fighting from. Or going to be. I had suspicions that there might be something going on, someone feeding them intel. Destroying the planet outright may end the conflict quickly but it wouldn't help me figure out who and what was feeding them that information.
No doubt the emperor, boss, or whatever they called their particular leader in charge… Was it just Warboss but bigger? Who knows but anyway he would have some information so I planned to fight my way to him and beat him until he told me how his troops had been able to react well enough to cause several suspicious losses for my army.
I did not like the possibility that someone was either betraying my force from the inside or was possibly supporting the Ork forces with Intel-gathering operations that I was not able to destroy. So I would hunt down as much information as I could now, the more control of the situation I could gain now the better it would be in the long run for my army. If it was internal traitors they could be dealt with, if it was external spies then I knew they couldn't be Orks and I could and probably would have candidates for the next war that the Emperor would expect me to go on.
If some aliens were supporting the Orks against the Imperium then they were an enemy of the Imperium, no matter what lie they might say otherwise. So I would hunt them down and I had a good feeling I already knew what specific aliens were doing this. After all my lessons with Malcador had continued, especially on preventing mind reading, and the only alien race that I knew of that might have abilities like that were those washed-up elf look-alikes. At least from the description I had been given.
The possibility that the Eldar, or whatever name they went by as it seemed to change with every person I spoke to about it, could be supporting the Orks against the Imperium in some way seemed very likely.
Why else would Malcador be training me to defend myself against mental attacks?
Of course I needed proof. And even if I had proof I would still need to figure out how they were supporting the Orks, why they were supporting them, and where to hit them. But all those things could be accomplished in time.
The first step was to seize the enemy fortress on the planet below.
Which was going to be a bit of a problem.
Most of the Ork worlds I'd fought over for the last 4 years had a single fortress with maybe a few outposts and a collection of camps.
Also slave camps, but those tended to be get cleaned up real quick as I put them as a top objective in finishing this empire.
The first planet I'd actually taken in this campaign, New Vietnam, was now basically a thriving colony of former slaves. Mainly because it was hard to find the planets they were from since most didn't know. Some had apparently lived in this sector for their entire lives anyway.
That was fine by me though. Grabbing the materials that kept the Ork economy running and transporting them to create a larger human economy that would in a few decades probably be this sector's capital, one able to deal with Orks on their own and carry a little bit of vengeance for their ancestors, would be fine by me.
However the main problem was that this Ork world had what could be described as one Capital City full of Orks with five fortresses around it. Their anti-air was good enough that trying to smash through to the city would be foolish. It was like the Rhine Front's siege warfare all over again.
Granted, with the help of the Squats that wouldn't be too big of an issue. Their laying trains were very useful for moving supplies and, knowing the Orks, if we could destroy one of those fortresses and punch into the main capital… well if I could kill their WarBoss the Ork empire would self-destruct nicely enough.
Then it would just be a matter of fighting each individual force until they were all dead, burning all the corpses and any contaminated areas thoroughly, and escorting any and all slaves off-world.
It sounded easy but of course it probably would not be, those Orks had given us 30% casualties so far and there was still a potential to boost that number by 10% when we hit the planet's surface.
Thankfully we've learned most of the Ork tricks by this point so hopefully they wouldn't be able to pull a surprise like they had in the early days. Most importantly, as far as we could tell, there were no slaves in the outer camps. Which meant those fortresses were well and properly acceptable bombardment targets and in range for the orbital ships.
Most likely, once we started fighting, I would go ahead and give the orders for that bombardment. As much as I did not like wasting potential planets I did not like wasting my money either. If there was a way to clean up at least several of these fortresses, allowing the noose to tighten around the Warboss's neck quicker, I would do it.
From there I would probably be required to engage in either a full frontal assault on their fortifications, which hopefully would be lighter than expected, or choke them to death through a siege. The problem with that was that the slaves were inside the main city and they were likely to start eating those slaves.
I will not suffer cannibals. I know that Orks eating humans isn't cannibalism but sentient life is sentient life so I would most likely be required to move in on that City in an assault nonetheless.
Besides that, there was another demand made of me. I guess some member of Mars had mentioned that the planet might have ancient technology on it because it used to be a colonial world of the human federation before the Old Night. I didn't know if that was true or not, the little data I had been able to pick up since arriving here did indicate that humanity had controlled the planet at some point, but if so they hadn't had full control for a long time. Though some planets did have heavy fortifications that did look like they dated back to before the Old Night. Some of them could probably date back to before humanity walked on the moon, honestly.
But it had been a request that I do my best to besiege the city and find any information for the Mechanicus, especially anything about ancient technology that may have been lost. I saw no major concerns, I would attempt to do as they had requested.
Either way the fighting would probably be fierce in the first few days and, over time, break down into an unorganized rout. Orks did not tend to retreat, I had been told, but it seemed if you applied enough pressure they would attempt to fall back to a better position. As much as they enjoyed a good fight on levels that would make most war maniacs cringe, they knew that fighting in an untenable position was going to only end in their death.
And, unlike with my Wolves of Fenris, who had a vague mysticism about where they would go after they died, the Orks apparently had no real religion. At least I didn't think they had a religion outside their ideas on some pair of gods called Gork and Mork that were too confusing to be a religion in my mind. They would fall back to save their own lives and my men would push them till we won.
Tanya Russ
Most days, I like to tell myself that I do not like combat. After all, fighting for your life against monsters was not a valid form of entertainment. Fighting for your life against other living beings was just wasteful resource management as you could have easily worked the situation out and improved the world together.
Well I will admit I had started to notice over the years that, as much as I liked to say I did not like fighting… I was a bit of a hypocrite.
Covered in the blood and guts of various Orks that I had smashed my way through I stalked the city streets of the Ork empire's Capital. If you could call it that.
I had not seen many cities in this life. I had seen what I suspected were cities from the orbit of Terra and I'd seen small towns since the campaign started, but this? This was not a city.
This was a collection of trash heaps built next to each other and people told to live in tents around the trash heaps. It was disgusting conditions that no person should be forced to live in, be they human or Xeno, or maybe even spiritual. There was no sanitation, there was no public works to keep the streets clean, and there was definitely a stench about this place that was worse than I think I have ever experienced in my entire life. Probably worse than I'd experienced in all my lifes.
But, granted, this might only smell as bad as it did due to the enhanced senses of being a Primarch. Either way killing the Orks did not seem to be doing anything for the stench so I would probably have to order this place burned after we were done here. Granted, this wasn't the expected city, a barbarian camp would be a better term. I would need to burn this place down either way as it was infested in more ways than I liked. In fact, as I was about to turn a corner, I saw a hand burst through the ground. The green and ugly color told me exactly where an Ork was about to be born.
I walked over there and waited till the head popped out of the earth before shoving my chainsword through its skull, killing it.
Not the most glorious combat but we had broken through their line and currently everything was in flux. I was just behind the forward Space Marines who were pushing onward towards what we thought was the capital building. It was basically a bunch of debris piled over an entrance to an ancient cave system by the looks of it and the Orks were doing their damnedest to prevent us from getting to it.
In my mind it was pretty much obvious that it was where the leader of these Orks stayed. Why he was in there I didn't know, I had been informed that Orks preferred to come out and fight in the end but maybe he didn't realize this was the end yet. Either way soon we would be overwhelming that entrance and we would push in and kill the green bastard. Till then I made myself busy killing the monsters that managed to get behind our lines, a job usually dealt with by my wolves but they were a bit overtaxed at this point.
There were more Orks in this city than I think I'd ever seen in any of the other campaigns on this battle, no doubt more Orks than Space Marines. My forces couldn't move without stumbling over the creatures and ultimately they were hiding in every building. Which was where my wolves were coming in handy as they could easily pick up the scents of the Orks and lead my Marines to the houses they were hiding in. At that point it was up to what gear they had. Considering I saw large smoke plumes rising throughout the city it was more likely than not that most Marines detachments had already determined the best course of action was to simply burn the place down.
Not a terrible option considering that's what my overarching goal would always be for this place as long as they helped to get the civilians out first, which were proving to be not as numerous as I originally believed. Considering the number of bones that looked rather human lying about I suspected I may have arrived after they had already decided that civilians weren't worth keeping around for much longer.
Orks were disgusting creatures. The longer I observed them and the more of them I saw, the more I was sure of that. Granted I knew that holding them up to my moral standards might be a bit much but the victor writes history and, as far as I was concerned, I was going to be writing a history of the Orks being exactly what I had seen so far. A wasteful barbaric race that could put up a damn good fight when they wanted, one that was a threat to humanity that needed to be kept in check.
Absent-mindedly I chuckled at the knowledge that most likely, a few years ago, I probably would have attempted to find some sort of use for this race. There probably still was some sort of use for this race but how quickly I'd gone to burn them all out…
Mildly concerning too… I had to wonder if, even though I had not been completely mind-controlled by the Emperor, there wasn't some sort of instinctual command code to preserve humanity buried somewhere in my mentality. Or did the Orks have some sort of psychic ability to draw people towards the conclusion that they needed to be destroyed, perhaps? After all they loved fighting so much, what better way to make sure that alien races would fight them than to convince them that Orks had to be destroyed?
These were dark and dangerous thoughts when you really put your mind to them. Though I would acknowledge that there was always the possibility that the Emperor was controlling me in some way I was most likely just being a bit paranoid, some sort of habit I'd picked up that was probably not good for me.
That being said, there was use for the Orks when you really put your mind to it. A species that could be deployed to fight an enemy and grow their troops in the field? That was a useful bio weapon, it made me wonder if that's what they had been created for. That being said, if they were a bio-weapon, finding some way to use them for humanity was not an impossible thing.
If I ever found an enemy that needed a bit of work thrown at it perhaps I would engage with them as needed as mercenaries. These Orks though… I could not afford to do such things. The Wheel of Fire was an important path to the other side of the Galaxy. If it was not brought into compliance and left to be controlled by Orks it would become a pirate Haven in no time. Plus I needed to gain uncontested control of the sector and the Orks would not allow that.
It was an unfortunate waste of living resources but they were wasting resources with their existence and there was not much else I could do on the matter.
Really the only thing I could do at the moment was focus on the now so I stopped lollygagging and continued searching through these destroyed hovels they called a town and moved forward to the front lines, quickly finding my way there since I could move rather quickly with my long legs. The line was not too far ahead by this point anyway.
My Marines were taking cover behind various structures, most looking no better than the tents all around, and across from them was a horde of Orks doing exactly what I expected a horde of Orks to do: constantly charge and scream their roars of war and whatever Battlecry they had adopted. They were deafening the area around with noise.
I used a bit of the helmet's tools to lower the volume of the Orks and raised the volume of internal Coms so I could listen to the Marines around me as they worked out what they were going to do.
Generally it seemed like they were waiting for the Volkyte-equipped troops to arrive. We finally had a sustainable number of them, three full companies of the weapons, though only one was in a full company. The other weapons had been scattered about to various platoons and other units to give them a bit of a more punch.
The company that was carrying the Volkyte weapons should probably be arriving soon, from my memory they had been detached to deal with a bit of a counter-attack to the north of here as the Orks had apparently decided that would be a great idea to drive a whole bunch of vehicles that looked more like scrap metal than the regular scrap metal vehicles they usually drove around, all pipes and thin plates. If the vehicles didn't have such large main cannons on them I would have not even bothered but they did so I had to detach a unit to deal with them and at the time the soldiers in the Volkyte company were not really doing anything so they had seemed like the perfect candidate.
No matter the fortifications in front of the main Palace, I guess, if the Ork Lord or WarBoss or whatever you called an Ork leader that was at the rank of an emperor. I really had to talk to Malcador about that when I got the chance. Either way the fortifications in front of the main palace were slowly crumbling as my infantry laid down a rain of fire that kept the Orks either in place or losing their limbs when they tried to reach out to fire back. It was nice watching my men cover for each other, taking moments to allow other men to refill their rifles.
Sure this was a massive waste of ammo but we were putting so much ammunition down range that the Orks were basically pinned, and it was a good tactic to hold them in place because I could see from where I was standing that several Marines were attempting to go along the side of the fortress. They were most likely trying to find some way to get through the enemy fire and get up close, I didn't know why though I suspected they probably were carrying explosives.
Blowing up a hole in this fortification's walls and allowing us in would not only give us a clear entrance to the Palace but also cause enough chaos in the Ork ranks that we probably could sprint the distance between our makeshift lines and into their more fortified ones.
At least that's what I hoped. Turning my attention back to the comms I mainly heard what I expected: men complaining about just how tough the Orks really were. It's not as if I didn't see why: there were several Orks that had their limbs completely blown off and they were still fighting basically. The Orks were probably giving the same complaints to their commanders, considering some of my men were now missing limbs due to peeking out at the wrong time or being unlucky by the look of it.
Shaking my head I watched as the Marines equipped with explosives first sprinted out of cover, running across the no man's land from an angle that appeared to not have as many fire positions on it. They quickly covered the distance between our lines and the Ork lines and were already at the side of the fortifications. An impressive speed.
I watched with some pride, I had trained these men for almost going on a decade at this point in some cases so I think I deserved a little pride in their accomplishments. The Marines quickly set up an explosive charge on the side of one of the defensive towers and got to a safe distance by jumping into a torn-up part of land that probably had been hit by a bombardment from earlier in the conflict. The crater provided enough cover that they were not immediately incinerated as the tower's support was blasted free of the rest of the structure, causing it to pull portions of the outer wall of the defenses down as it toppled over onto the ground.
With a sound of clattering and shattering, pieces of wood and metal were flown across the battlefield and a squeak goblin… I still didn't know the name of these lesser creatures that made up the bottom of the Ork hierarchy… anyway it was thrown just a few feet in front of me, still holding onto the heavy machine gun that had been in a place of pride on the tower.
Raising my wrist I used the hidden bolter in the forearm armor, a recent addition to my equipment, to blast the creature to make sure it didn't try and pick up that heavy weapon and go back to aid in the defense of the fortifications.
The body which had been separated from its head fell down to the ground, which seemed to signal something to my Space Marines. Letting out something that sounded more like a howl than a Battle cry, they seem to have taken my killing of the little creature as a sign that it was the time to charge. Well… they weren't exactly wrong.
Sighing at their living up to the name of wolves of Fenris, I pulled out a chainsword and started walking forward, leading the way for my men towards the recently opened hole in the enemy line.
The enemy seemed pretty confused at what had happened, though they were starting to open fire again. Marines quickly suppressed the enemy as they began moving forward in a loose formation of around five men shooting while five men moved forward. This just kept up a hail of gunfire on the fortifications, allowing us to close the distance which allowed my men to either charge through the hole in the wall or climb over it. As usual various ropes and other kits had been assembled for this operation.
I was not the first person into the fortress. As much as I enjoyed a good fight nowadays I was not someone to risk my life for being the first. if I had to make a guess I was probably around the 50th in. Letting the Marines charge in first was an acceptable thing in my mind and, as I stepped in, I watched the Marines as they went to work clearing the fortification in front of the Warboss's Palace.
One thing that I had noted was that I would not have trained my men if they were not Space Marines, as they had a preference for fighting hand to hand. If you could kill enemies at a distance you should kill an enemy at a distance, they would probably do the same. However I'd quickly learned, and confirmed it over the years, that Space Marines were quite accustomed to close quarters combat and often moved faster than their enemies.
Closing the distance and killing a person outright was often a lot easier for them than shooting and so what I stepped into was a charnel House of murder, My Marines beating the life out of Orks with their bare hands if they didn't happen to have a rifle or bladed weapon to do it.
It was an ugly business but I had to admit that the Orks, while powerful in close quarters, weren't very fast. They may carry crude versions of our weapons but that didn't make them any less deadly as I saw a few Marines who got a little too overconfident take wounds and possibly die. Judging by their pristine armor I suspected those particular Space Marines were recruits recently brought in to replenish our losses, unfortunate but it would happen.
The battlefield is nothing but Darwinism on a massive scale, in the end those smart enough not to put their lives at risk will survive while those who put their lives at risk would remove themselves from risk through death.
Speaking of that, the newer boys tended not to wear their helmets. Though, considering many of them died laughing and with a smile on their lips, they were probably thinking they were going to Sto'Vo'Kor or Valhalla. Which I hate to admit was a useful tool for a soldier. Believing there was somewhere your soul would go after your death was after all often the thing that soldiers needed. What was the old saying? you won't find an atheist in a foxhole? I laughed at that rather openly before turning my fist to fire off a few shots from the bolter pistol into an Ork that charged at me.
I felt a twinge of pain as the creature fell, that phrase reminded me of something I may have said to the unknown being X. I wasn't getting as many headaches nowadays, I think I had broken through most of the barriers and now had most of the information from the second life. This was useful for my existence and I felt I understood everything I needed to know about my second life. A spiritual being of some kind got into a pissing match with me that had involved World War I.
Being able to view these memories from my third life I was able to detach myself quite a bit from that conflict and see the truth of the matter. Two stubborn beings had met each other and nearly destroyed a world with their fighting. That was a terrible thing to have happened to humanity, I would endeavor to prevent something like that to ever happen again.
Considering the other primarchs might have their own personality traits and other abilities the possibility that they might be stubborn and I might have an argument with them was not impossible. Perhaps something like that would happen between other primarchs too. Either way I would need to keep my eyes on it, letting life get wasted between two near demigods in power seemed like a good way to end all humanity.
I really had no time to spare to watch the festivities of this battle to the death though. The fact of the matter was that in a fight between Space Marines and Orks like this victory was most likely going to go to the Space Marines. Sure a large percentage of them were fighting for their own personal Glory, as was to be expected with warriors of their caliber, but a good percentage of the leadership in command were moving about the field attempting to rescue any Marine who got themselves in too much trouble. And, as I watched, more Marines entered a square and simply got to work taking over the fortification walls and bringing their rifles to bear down on our enemies firing into the Orks that were distracted by the Marines they were fighting in solo combat. Sure I saw a few Marines look a little bit annoyed as the Ork in front of them exploded into gore but they simply moved on to the next one since there was a large number of Orks across the square for them to fight. And even more coming every moment, it would seem that word that we had broken through the internal defenses of the Warboss palace… I think that's the name I'll stick with for this monstrosity… anyway word has spread. Not only were there Orks coming out of the tunnel system that no doubt linked the palace to various defensive areas across the city, but some were already simply charging across the area we had abandoned to take the palace from all directions, except the ones we had troops coming from. The green tide was charging at us, which resulted in many Marines who had been on the wall focusing their fire on the ones incoming instead of the Orks defenders. Which I think probably meant the Marines in the square fighting the Orks had been hasty in thinking they had kills stolen from them.
Moving through the square I did my best to clear a path through the Orks, killing as I went, trying to get towards the palace itself. Standing at the foot of said structures stood what I would best guess were the best-trained Orks I'd ever seen.
In fact it was rather impressive how they were holding off my Marines considering they were using tactics that were probably outdated by the time the Romans started conquering Greece.
Orcs, massive ones, big enough that they actually were almost on my level of size, were standing in full metal armor that looked as thick as some tank armor. They held a combination spear and gun which they were using to fire a few rounds and stab at anyone who got too close. To top off this absurdity they were holding massive Shields the size of themselves, with little openings that their Ork Gun-Spears could poke through.
Actually it just reminded me of an upscaled version of the shields the Mechanicus had sent us when we said we were about to engage in siege warfare, only more crude and scrappy looking.
I had to wonder which one came first, our Shields or their Shields. Had their creation of these shields been a response to our own use of gunshield lines during the sieges or were both reliant on some pre Old Night designs that had propagated across the universe? I could see that as a possibility, the shields did somewhat remind me a bit of riot shields so it was not impossible that the design had simply been upscaled by both factions on their own from that concept. Well I couldn't exactly ask them what and where they had gotten those Shields. Not only because they seemed uninterested in answering questions, simply screaming and shooting their guns at anyone who got too close, but also because I didn't have the time.
Every moment the Ork leader was alive was a moment one of my Marines could die so it was time to do some killing. The armor was too thick for my chainsword to break through though and the sword was likely to break even with the recent upgrades from Krakenmaw, I would need to pull another tactic out of my book of tricks. Pulling the Fenrisian sword Mjalnar from my back, its gleaming blue blade glowing a little with that strange light that it seemed to put off, I took a kendo stance. I tried to focus on drawing upon Fenris' Warp Energy, and only Fenrises, a tough task considering the distance between my adopted homeworld and this planet. But I was able to do it, drawing energy into my blade, taking it from its naturally cold deposition to something even colder, the light on it glowing even more brightly than normal. Taking in a breath I let it out as I moved as fast as my Primarch body and my power armor allowed me.
In what felt like only a second I moved from about the middle of the courtyard to right in front of the middle Ork, bringing down my sword and cutting right through the metal shield that was meant to probably survive a tank round given its thickness of it all. The shield did more than simply be cut in half though, along the cut ice-like structures formed making the metal even more brittle as it froze. As the final length of the cut reached the bottom edge of the shield the entire thing shattered into metal fragments as the cracks developed along the frozen metal.
The Ork stood there with that shield and probably would have looked rather confused if he wasn't screaming as his arm had also frozen to the shield and been shattered as well. He attempted to stab me and fire his gun spear at extremely close range. I however was quite adept with such movements and was able to dodge said spear, bringing up my blade in a countermotion that sliced through the end of the spear. It did not remain in contact with the metal as long as it had with the shield so the fractures did not transfer to the spear as much. However it didn't really matter considering I'd cut just a few inches above the Ork's hand.
The now one-arm or one-handed Ork looked at the stump that had once carried its weapon, very confused, before several Marines took the opening to fire some shots into him. Bolter rounds pierced through the comparatively weaker chest armor and exploded inside of him, causing him to topple over and leaving a rather large hole in the line of massive Orks.
With some skill that I had acquired over the years I slid into that hole and sliced at the backs of the Orks on either side of me, transferring the Frozen energy to their spines. They didn't exactly do well with that, toppling over too.
They were at least still in one piece but they were not going to be getting back up. With a much more massive hole now inside the line Marines who had been freed from the combat against the regular Orks started charging up towards the gap I had created. The Orks, now only about six of them in total, attempted to form two back-to-back circles, three Orks facing outward and trying to stab at anyone who came too close.
This would not do for my fighting so I reached down and picked up one of the Orks spear-guns. Quickly I imparted a piercing spell into the weapon before throwing it at the closest Ork. The blade pierced through the shield, leaving a rather large fist-sized hole in his armor then his torso and then into the back of the Ork behind it, leaving only one Ork standing in that trio. The remaining Ork did not last long since he had been facing a direction the Space Marines had not reached yet so my wolves simply opened fire with their bolter guns into his back.
With the three Orks to my left dealt with there was only the group of three on my right still standing, however I didn't bother dealing with them. They were already doomed as Marines were firing on them from all sides and I could already see rounds exploding inside the shields themselves. If anything the Orks were probably already dead even if it might take a few more shots for them to realize it. And they may not fall as they may just keep standing there because their weight was against each other.
Either way I moved past the entrance of the Warboss's Palace, kicking the door in. Well what could be best described as a door and looked into the throne room.
Could you call this a throne room? Yes! In fact I was noting a lot of Greek influence which raised the probability of this having been a human colony after all, one that the Orks had just built over because there really were a lot of Greek style pillars holding up the roof of scrap.
In front of me was what could be best described as a pond of heated water I guessed, turned green by whatever Orks had been killing and throwing in there. It had most likely been some sort of decorative thing at one point but it was now just radioactive sludge as far as I was concerned and looked unhealthy as all hell. Another thing to burn when I got the chance. Around the pond, in many directions, were marble steps which led to the pillars to the left and right and to the door they jutted from. Across the pond sat a blackened scrap throne, made up of various guns by the looks of it, and upon the throne was a massive Ork that looked more machine than living creature.
One of its eyes had been replaced by some sort of optical laser and it looked at me, trying to look very impressive I think.
"What's dis? an 'umie break'n into ma sanctum?" The massive creature said as it raised itself out of its chair."I recognize yer now, yer're bg booba wun, 'da leada uv 'da 'umie invadaz 'oo have destroyed so much uv ma empire. Kome ta face me 'n a final kombat an' meet yer doom like all da otha 'umiez 'oo have attempted ta unseat da ork empire uv da wheel uv fire."
"Sure," I said matter of factly as I stepped closer, stopping at the edges. "I'm here to fight you and end your reign of terror across the local sectors to open up a path between the Imperium of Man and the outer edge of the Eastern side of the galaxy."
"Haha! yer want ta reach 'da realms uv ultramar, don't yer, th pitiful empire. Do yer know dat dey claim ta be da true successors uv humanity? i wonda wot will happen when yer imperium uv man reaches 'der. Will yer go ta WAAAGH! wit' im as yer've gone ta WAAAGH! wit' us? i hear dey aren't 'actly da most welcom'n lot."
I shrugged at that and said, "Never heard of the realms of Ultramar, though I shall pass this information along to the Emperor. I'm sure he'll be quite interested to hear about a human civilization on the edges of the Eastern fringe, it probably explains why there's such a large trade route going by your little Wheel of Fire sector. If you weren't so known as being raiders of that trade route I probably would not have been sent here to deal with you actually. So I doubt we'll be going to war with this Ultramar as you put it, the trade is what's important after all."
The Ork laughed at that, "oh ya fink we were raid'n im? we weren't raid'n im, we were demand'n tribute ta keep da space peaceful from pirates as we have done for dousands uv years."
I shrugged at that before saying, "Well, according to my reports, you were raiding which would indicate to me that if you did start demanding tribute from ships that belong to the Imperium of Man you didn't exactly work out a contract with us beforehand. So you're bad as far as I'm concerned."
The Ork leapt at this statement, shouting,"so dis was all an 'cuse for humanity ta fight 'da wheel uv fire! well, 'dat's downright respectable den." He got up from his seat, revealing that he was nearly 14 ft tall, an impressive size for an Ork. His hands had also been either surgically removed and replaced with giant claws or encased in them. I wondered how he got anything done with that, considering he now had no digits to do anything but Ork technology was strange to me. Perhaps it was precise enough that it didn't matter that he was wielding claws?
Laughing, the ork stepped down from his throne and started walking directly towards me, each step seeming to echo on the marble stone floor as the weight of the armor he was wearing was enough that I swore I heard it groaning. "tell yer wot, 'umie! i've been fight'n' hard ta keep dis sector securely 'n ma hands for hundreds uv years. If yer surrenda now I'll let yer keep 'da world yer've claimed on 'da ol edges uv 'da wheel uv fire. Yer'd make fine orks wit' yer fierce tactics an' stubbornness an' i would enjoy hav'n someone ta fight for ma Boyz every once 'n a while."
"I don't think I would do that," I said stoically. "Why would I surrender the sector to an Ork, a creature that has shown itself to be rather destructive to humanity simply to indulge in its interest in fighting." As I watched the Ork stepped into the water in front of me, moving through the sludge rather quickly as it made its way towards me. It was already a fourth of the way here and was smiling rather brightly.
"Because yer are an ork. Yer make 'cuses for why yer want ta fight but yer want ta fight, deep down yer are jus like us. Yer're jus as destructive an' yer'll see it soon enough. 'umiez are jus orks without da ability ta get big but it would seem dat someone 'as made it so ya kan be almost as tall as a gud krork like myself."
"Kork? Never heard of that," I said as the creature got halfway through the pool, "but I'm afraid it doesn't matter what your opinions are on the nature of humanity and orks. What matters is that this world and this sector will soon belong to the Imperium of Man. It will secure the trade route between the Imperium, the leagues, and this realm of Ultramar you claim exists within shouting distance of this little empire. And when that's done? Well the Imperium will just keep on expanding, pushing you Orks and your violent destructive ways to the edges of the Galaxy till you're either tamed for the Imperium's use or removed."
The Ork laughed at that, replying, "and how are ya gunna remove dis?" It was now only three-quarters of the way across the pond and it raised its hands above its head to indicate that it was implying all of the armor and beast inside of it.
Shrugging, I simply answered, "The way I remove all my problems: coldly." Sliding my sword into the water in front of me I watched as ice literally shot across the water, trapping the Ork's feet in the sludge that had once probably been clear liquid at some point.
I held the sword there for a few minutes, making sure that it had frozen the entire liquid which had resulted in a greenish blue ice that looked even more disgusting than the liquid that it had been a few seconds ago. The Ork was busy trying to pull its legs free, completely stuck. It would seem that the ice was covering up several points critical to maintain mobility. I could even see the ice trying to grow up the legs of the metal and flesh of the creature.
"Hey wot 'da hell?? dis isn't a fight! wot weird-boy shit iz dis, dis isn't fair! ya are a disgrace ta yer kind, kome fight me like a man."
I shook my head and heard the sounds of boots behind me. A moment later I saw several dozen Marines starting to take up gun positions around me, aiming at the Ork that was now stuck in the ice.
"Mr Warboss I've already defeated your armies and we now hold the internal center of the city. There is no reason for me to fight you in one-on-one combat but I was willing to do it. But it would seem, Mr Warboss, that you forgot to do the important part of war: finding out about your enemy's abilities. Since you made that mistake you stepped into a place that I could use to easily defeat you. If I make no mistake you are defeated, which means I can do whatever I want with you. Since I want your Orks to start fighting each other over who should be the leader, I don't want you to control them anymore so… Well, I think we know what the order will be."
"You bitch!", The Ork shouted
"Yes, I've been called that. I'm afraid though it doesn't matter what you call me, this is your termination notice as ruler of the Wheel of Fire sector. I think the Imperium will be handing that rank out from now on. Wolves of Fenris, fire."
As one there was a wave of opening fire from the Marines around me, hundreds of rounds of bolter ammunition were expended into the Ork in front of us. Limbs went flying, pieces of gunk went everywhere, and most importantly the creature collapsed forward on its knees into the ice allowing us to shoot down its neck into the main body.
As it bled all over the ice I shook my head, before saying, "Clear the building, order the flamers up. We're going to need to burn this place out."
The Marines gave the sign of the Aquila before chorusing "Yes, my Primarch," and ran off to get to work.
Sighing, I turned to the frozen corpse of the Ork. Well that had been rather anticlimactic. Guess I was expecting an evil speech that would definitely confirm the existence of the Eldar in this sector in some way. Oh well the mission was accomplished, the objective done. Time to move on and get to work on cleaning up this sector of any remnants of the Ork infestation.
Turning to go I stopped as I heard a voice say "How very barbaric, Mon-keigh. Though I do say, a rather creative though rudimentary use of Eldar runes.
Sliding back around on the balls of my feet, putting both hands on my sword, I looked around, wondering where that voice had come from. I could see many of my other Space Marines were also doing the same, utterly confused as to who had just spoken and why.
Which I was thankful for. If my marines had been frozen solid, as if time had stopped, I'd be worried about the return of a certain Being X. However they were all moving, plus this voice had sounded rather female and… British of all things?
Stepping out of the shadows behind the throne came an armored woman, wearing a white material that looked almost made of bone. She looked around at the Marines who had quickly adjusted their guns to point at her but seemed to give them no mind, instead leaning on the strange bone-like material staff she held in her hands.
"Mon-keighs, mon-keighs, do not fear. I do not come to fight you, there's no reason to raise your guns at me, you lower life forms."
I was taking in all of this, trying to determine the best way to handle this, before I finally just said, "Do you mind not calling us monkeys, woman? If you wish to have a conversation show a little bit of respect for those you are trying to talk to."
"Of course. My apologies, human. Is that better or should I call you something else? None of you here are really humans, are you?"
"How about we make this a little bit easier then?" taking my blade I slid it back into its holster on my back before pulling my helmet off and holding it under one arm.
Giving a smile that I knew would show off the canine teeth that seemed to be common amongst my legion as well as myself I said, "I am Tanya Russ of the Imperium of Man. If you wish to negotiate with the Imperium of Man I'm willing to hear you out and transfer the information of this negotiation to my superior, though I will ask now if you were providing intel to the Orks of the Wheel of Fire sector. If so, why should we deal in good faith with you, considering you have obviously shown yourself to be a possible threat to the Imperium of Man?"
Obviously the Eldar seemed to think for a moment before nodding. She reached up and pulled off her own helmet, revealing a red-headed woman with sharp pointed features and fair skin with freckles. Mimicking me she held her helmet under her arm, though considering I was disarmed and she was obviously carrying some kind of staff, itwasn't a complete mimic. And considering that she had immediately focused on runes and implied that they might be related to her own culture's way of casting spells I would have to assume she was a spell caster as well of some type. She was not someone to be trifled with, that I could tell right away.
"Very direct, you go straight to the heart of the matter and produce very good questions." She seemed to think for a moment before saying, "Well, I'll make things simple then. The Orks of this 'sector', as you call it, have been of our people, or at least useful tools. I think you even considered that yourself in your statement, push them to the edges of the galaxy I think was what you said? Well that's how we viewed these Orks. We let them live in this sector that was basically cut off from most space and called upon them in times of war for our needs. I'm sure they've done a few things on their own but the most important part was when they were threatened we would provide them with data on the enemy they were fighting. Just the general direction they would come from and how they tended to fight. It was a pretty good deal, that which you've completely destroyed by the destruction of the Ork empire here. I assume you are going to replace it with your own Imperium so I don't think they'll ever be rising again to our aid. So unfortunate." She shook her head before continuing.
"As for whether my people are a threat to your Imperium? I would hope not, our goals do not need to be against each other. We have no interest in your galactic empire, we are busy with our own issues and the opinion of my particular homeworld is that if the lesser beings want to fight amongst each other for the control of the Galaxy we'll let them. As long as they keep out of our problems. Do that and we should be fine.-"
I nodded my head, simply saying, "A respectable thing then, you already had a deal and you stayed true to your deal. So if we were to make a deal you would stay with it too, is that the implication you're trying to provide by telling me the truth of the matter here or at least the truth you want me to have."
The other seemed rather impressed by that or was smugly smiling. It was hard to tell with such sharp features. She simply nodded and said "You're a sharp one, I like you. Yes, any deal we come up together will stay true as long as they don't interfere with other deals and don't interfere with our people. There's no reason for us to go directly to war with each other as far as I'm concerned. Perhaps a little proxy war now and again but simply because we had already ongoing issues in sectors to deal with."
I nodded my head, "Alright then. So a simple deal of non-interference? I can work with that, I'll send this up to the Emperor and let him figure out what to do on the matter. Until he gives an official statement on this I'll be willing to keep to a non-interference with your issues, if you do not interfere with ours. Sounds good?"
"Sounds excellent," the red-headed woman said before, with one hand, quickly shoving her helmet back on her head. "You are an interesting person, to find a barbarian with some sense? Something like that is rare in this galaxy, you'll go far." With that she simply turned and walked back behind the throne and didn't reappear.
Indicating with a motion of my head I sent two Marines to take a look and they turned to me very confused after checking, implying that somehow she'd simply just walked out of existence when she went behind the throne.
Muttering under my head, I said 'Great. Both British and a Ninja, that's all I need."
Writers note: And that the end of wheel fire campaign, you can only kill ork in creatives ways so many times… that being said this chapter was written before chapter 26 and 27 as even back then i was getting iffy about this campaign so good to get this out. So what did we have this chapter interesting things i hope. End of ork empire explanations for what was going on with eldar and bit of mage craft. Some might question the ice sword thing to them i say… apparently a later varrent of russ armor did exactly the same thing as defenceives feature… found that out later but yeah russ was always Ice power dude it would seem. I hope everyone enjoys this and next week, Tanya meets a sibling.
Edited by: Pierre
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- Location
- Home
Lots of monologue and that final chat with the eldar was pretty stiff. Still liked it.
Neruz
Rogue Spiderbanana
- Location
- The Land of Fire and Poison
Miniature, unimportant nitpick:
'Warboss' is one word, not two.
Chapter 29, Fire and Wolves
Chapter 29, Fire and Wolves
844. M30
Tanya Russ
4 years short years since the end of the Wheel of Fire campaign and it felt like I had not found a moment's rest since that operation. Theoretically, I was on my way back to Fenris for a little bit of refitting and negotiations on creating an arsenal world out of that moon. However theories weren't exactly the reality as, though I could easily have just hard burned home, the fact of the matter was I was still technically on Crusade so I was taking the long way.
And when I say the long way I meant we were invading various problems sectors on the way there, trying to secure a route from the Wheel of Fire to Fenris. One interesting thing I had noticed about space was you couldn't exactly put it on a flat plane for a control map. Theoretically, again, I was passing through areas that had already been pacified as there was obviously trade going through it back to Terra, however there were systems just off the most traveled trail that were not. Those regularly raised issues such as pirates raiders and other criminals of various sorts in ambush on to the trail to kidnap, steal, and enslave. All those elements of destructive civilization that I just was not a fan of.
Thankfully the most I had to do in those cases was show up and threaten destruction if we didn't come to a table and negotiate. It seems that the propaganda department that the Imperium employed had heard of my complete cleaning of the Wheel of Fire sector and were spinning tales of how I was a vicious warlord crossing the stars and destroying terrorized enemies. On one hand that was kind of annoying, on the other I had to admit that it worked. It was a thing for the Mongols after all: you destroy one city and you get three others to concede, meaning fewer cities that you have to attack and defeat along the way.
That being said what I mostly dealt with were human civilizations, ones that had been cut off and had minimal tech. Some of them even didn't have Warp engines but were just close enough to the trail that they could put a slow-moving battleship there to hold up anyone who was taking a slow road between sectors. So when a Gloriana class warship warped in above their planets and said 'time to have talks or otherwise…' they were willing to listen. Since they were human they either signed on the dotted line or at least agreed to stop attacking and began the process of negotiating themselves into the Imperium.
However there were aliens I had to run into along the road back to Fenris and I would have to be a fool not to admit the reality that some of them were frankly playing assholes. Taralais were a prime example of the assholishness that you could run into in open space. Their civilization apparently dated back to before the Old Night and after everything fell apart… Well, they just sort of went on a conquest spree by nuking out of existence the human civilizations that didn't submit. The sector I found them had, according to maps that dated back to before the Old Night, been populated by 300 worlds, 200 to which had been devoted to farming and 100 to industry, research, and economic prospects.
Well, of those 300, 150 were still habitable. Those 150 had been farming worlds, the other 150 had all been nuked to unlivable status. From the testimony of the planets that I had been able to communicate with, those whose leadership still had some records, it seemed that they had tried to stand up to the Taralais and negotiate with them. And then the Taralais had surprise-nuked, those hundred industrial worlds with missiles that had been fired even before the Old Night happened. The Taralais had simply been waiting for an opportunity to press the red button while their missiles were kept hidden in some kind of stealth. The 50 farming worlds nuked had been targeted not too long after that as they had tried to take in refugees from the other planets. Supposedly what remnants of advanced civilizations that had been there had taken what they could and simply fled the sector, leaving the unadvanced farming worlds to the rule of the Taralais. And what a cruel rule it was, the records indicated that beforehand the planets had been settled with the general idea of family-ran farming. Well, those families still technically ran them but now as slaves to the Taralais plantation Masters. The food that was produced and any other materials they fancied for whatever purposes was then sent to their own planets.
Well, as you might imagine, I had not been a fan of that. So I unleashed the wolves, hunting down their planets and landing on them directly.
I suppose I could have attempted negotiation but the fact of the matter as it had been presented to me indicated that most likely all 150 planets that still had human life on them were at risk of being… well neutralized by mysterious stealth missiles if we even had tried to force the local garrisons off those worlds. That could probably still happen so I needed to do something big, threatening, and distracting enough that they didn't even think about it.
Which is why I had gone for a total invasion of their planets. We just started destroying stuff, which Marines are good at, power generators, water purification centers, industry, even local farming. The wolves were unleashed on their worlds, most of which were encrusted in urban centers so they weren't producing a lot of materials for themselves.
It was only after I had confirmed that the planet was now pacified from any potential industry that I had offered them a deal.
Surrender and I will not cut the food coming in from the 150 worlds that they had once controlled.
It was a simple deal. They didn't have a major fleet, they had surprise missiles but I had the ability to bombard their planet if I wanted to do. I explained to them that I was against that level of wastefulness, at least without a cause. So giving them the opportunity to surrender and turn their holdings over to the Imperium seemed like a reasonable first step.
Their response was to attempt to nuke all 150 worlds. Keyword being 'attempt'. I had suspected something like this might happen and I had dictated a line of ships around their planet to block communications out of the system.
Now I may not be the most unforgiving sort but I had given them a chance. They had committed massive genocide several thousand years ago, yes, but I couldn't really hold them for the sins of their fathers. But I could hold them for their own sins, because attempting to commit a genocide of the scale they just tried was about the point where I'd started counting them as a destructive element on civilization. I did not think that the Imperium needed their world anyway.
I ordered a retreat from the surface and, once my Marines were back on board, I bombarded the planet for a week or two straight while I dictated the imperial army to go deal with the local bases that they had off-planet.
Even after 2 weeks of bombardment they had refused to surrender so I sent in my troops and attempted to forcibly make them surrender. Their troops weren't that good and their weapons were rather primitive, still relying on slugs in most cases and not even explosive variants at that. It took time but eventually the planet was pacified and what population was left was handed over to the Administratum and the military to deal with, their local government so completely shattered that there was no one to surrender the planet. It was a simple conquest at that point.
I kept good to my word and confirmed I would not stop the local food shipments, but other than that the Taralais had been removed from power within the sector. The 150 farming worlds had signed on to the Imperium and I counted this as a massive victory. For the members of their species that had been off-world I offered to bring them back to their planet and deliver them there if they surrendered but some of those holding lands on those 150 worlds had attempted to fight back so it had taken a little while to remove them. The process of detaralaising that sector had taken a full year but I believed it was for the best.
After that I'd moved on, the losses we had taken on this campaign had been minimal to none so moving on to the next sector to clear it out of any such troublemakers was easy. Not to mention we were still getting shipments of new recruits every couple of years, though not as many as we once had as the initial burst of recruits had already been run through the process.
Out of the two alien species that I ran into at this point I currently had the most respect for the Orks. In that first fight the Orks had attempted to genocide their slaves but once they realized that I was there to free them they just sort of looked at them as an opportunity to draw me to fight them. They even used it against me and my men in one or two cases, I had noted. Something I kept an eye on. That was something they would use against me most likely in the future and, if I was not careful, could be my downfall.
The Taralais though were quite at the bottom of my list. Well it was a short list but it would grow. In fact I think I had found a species I actually liked with the next problem I'd run into.
The Saharduin were shark people, or maybe eel people. There seemed to be some sort of species or subspecies that looked more eelish while others looked more sharkish. Of course I was not a biologist and for all I knew what I was looking at was a difference between males and females but the point of the matter was they had a lot of teeth, they lived in water, and they had a tendency to fight the Orks quite a bit.
But they also had a tendency to hire themselves out as mercenaries, and that's how I found out about them on the way back to Fenris during the second year of the trip. We had stumbled across a water planet that was run by humans and was currently under attack by Orks, they asked for our aid and promised to join the Imperium so we had deployed. Except they had forgotten to mention the Orks had brought in water specialists, the Saharduin.
They had fought us on the beaches, in the white lakes, in the plains, in the mountains because even though they were water specialists they had suits designed to allow them to operate on land. They were carrying weapons that mirrored our bolter guns in effectiveness and their jaws were literally rows of sharp teeth they were not afraid to use to just bite off a limb. I had seen several instances of them just biting limbs off and swallowing them whole, though mainly amongst the sharkier versions.
That initial fight had been hell as the shark people didn't consider intelligent life sacred in the same way I did. Lots of the fishermen we were here to save simply got eaten by the shark people as provisions. I would have been more upset about the whole situation if the Orks had apparently not forgotten to pay them after the first 3 months of the conflict so they simply got up and left, using ships they'd hidden underwater to basically escape the conflict. Well, the majority of them. Some of them stayed and actually fought the Orks, which had been an interesting experience.
There was actually one instance where an Ork compound had been assaulted by us from land and them from sea and we had basically been in a race to see who would win the compound first.
The Orks had been dealt with, completely eliminated from the planet, and at that point I thought I was going to have to deal with them. But they immediately used their vessel to escape as well and I'd sort of… just let them go at that point. Well let them go as in not chased after them right then and there, nor trying to destroy the ship. I did have my ships track them as they left, just so I knew the general direction from which they had come from in case I needed to deal with them.
Which turned out to have been a wise move. Over the course of the next three systems I had been called on to help, usually against Orks, I'd run into their species each time. Each time under the employment of the Orks and fighting against humans, for what payment I didn't know. There was a perceptible preference in what planets they were willing to fight on though, they had to be somewhere wet and with somewhat stable weather and that had no real threat against themselves. I suspected it might mean that this was some sort of plan to sell the water-covered parts of the planet to the shark people while the Orks kept the emerged parts.
I had no guarantee nor surety that this was the actual plan, it's not like the shark people were willing to talk. They seemed to be more than willing to fight against me once paid and fought my enemies when not but talking seemed to be a step too far for them.
Either way though, in each case, my wolves won the conflict and we forced the Orks into Extinction and the shark people to flee off into space. After running into them three times it was now quite apparent that we were going to keep running into them.
They were a problem and, if my calculations were correct, the three points they had flown in indicated they were native to this area so I'd set sail for the general direction they came from.
Most expeditions by Imperial fleets were led by the Star Hunters as they were usually the ones to do pathfinding and thus initially meeting with potential threats or Allies. This would be the first time, at least as far as I was aware, that a Primarch would spearhead an operation to find out what was beyond known space.
And said operation went as well as I could have expected. Following the trail of the last space shark mercenary Force I arrived at a series of world that were terraformed to be almost completely covered in water. I'm sure there were some land masses scattered here and there but it was obvious that the fish people lived in the water.
Now, theoretically, this is not a problem for my Space Marines, their armor could handle underwater pressures up to a certain point and did have systems to allow them to breathe for a while. Not to mention the simple biological advantages already imparted to them. But my goal was not really to declare war with them if I could get around it.
As I had done with the human civilizations that I had forcefully recruited into the Imperium through simply showing up and declaring 'talk to me or else', I did the same.
Sitting above what I thought was their Capital world I demanded negotiation with their leadership to discuss the current hostilities between the Imperium and their people.
What I had been expecting to come from this I don't know but what I got was not at all what I was expecting. Especially after the fights with the Orks and the Taralais.
Within an hour there was an agreement sent back in relatively high Gothic, saying that a representative of the Saharduin mercenary guild would be dispatched to my ship within an hour or later probably. In fact something I found rather endearing was just how on the spot they were as said ship, looking like a shark swimming through space, came up from the planet and docked with my vessel.
From it came one of the more sharky-looking creatures in what amounted to their armor. It wasn't power armor but it definitely was higher grade and somewhat heavy. They didn't have their weapons with them though, which was a good sign. Still, considering their jaws could probably cut through the power armors we were wearing, they weren't completely disarmed. One of the more eel-like creatures followed the shark. He was wearing a similar attachment, allowing them to breathe through the gills above water, but beyond that had a funny hat that somewhat reminded me of a mix of a turban and one of those hats from the French colonies that I could not remember the name of. It even had a gold string thing hanging from the top of it. And he wore silk clothing that allowed him to easily hide his hands if they were folded in front of himself.
What followed was hours of negotiation demands for them to stop eating or harming humans and them saying they would do what they pleased as they were mercenaries and though they somewhat regulated the member companies that made up their people they were free to do as they wished. Which was actually a rather interesting point that I was able to use to my advantage.
Through negotiation, I was able to get them to agree that they would not support any company that would declare war on the Imperium. I made it quite clear that if they were not found in full compliance or attempted to deceive the Imperium we would be forced to take action against their systems and leave them no better than boiling seas.
But if they promised to end all support to any companies that attempted to raise funds to go to war with the Imperium we would be willing to hire some of their companies to fight against those renegades. Fighting fish people in the sea was not something that was going to be good for humans, so why not let fish people fight each other.
Oh I'm sure they would make some profit in playing both sides of any conflict but sooner or later there would only be one side, the imperial side. At that point it would be either adapt to a non-mercenary way of life or keep going further and further out to the edges of the Imperium to keep that same racket up. Once they had to get far away from their local cluster to find people willing to hire them? I was sure that they would find it easier to deal with the Imperium.
The leader of the delegation fought me rather vehemently on these ideas but even actually conceded that they would move forward with trying a simple system like what I'd suggested. And when the negotiations were over I felt I'd accomplished something great, as what I had basically created was a potential mercenary vessel for the Imperium: someone to do the fighting while people worried about improving the economy back at home.
Granted I was well aware that as far as the Imperium was concerned no alien could really be trusted but this is why I negotiated as finally as I could, to make it clear that any attempt to fight the Imperium could result in a proper response against their system.
They would either play by our rules or we would remove them from the game board as a player, that simple.
After I had assurances that the Saharduin would follow through on their word and watched about a dozen vessels leave orbit heading in all directions to recall mercenaries that may be fighting against the Imperium. I made sure to have this system noted down to be checked on every few years by a rotating force, just to make sure they were following the rules, and headed back towards Fenris as it was only a year away at this point.
It was at this point though that we had reached a point close enough to the leagues and the dwarves who had followed us into the Wheel of Fire returned to their homes. The negotiations on them taking over duties to help rebuild the Wheel of Fire were still ongoing though, they had left behind one of their ships to do a little bit of prospecting.
Well the majority of them did leave. At least one ship was continuing on the Warp trail with us as general Vavem, having completed his mission and activities, wanted to actually see Fenris. I was not against letting him tag along, an extra ship was an extra ship and the Squats were capable mechanics at the very least so having a bunch of them hanging around was useful.
That being said we didn't get too far on our trip back home before we got another call to deal with a situation. Along the final stretch of the route home there was a series of attacks from an unknown Force that had left many planets devoid of human life. These planets had just joined the Imperium so them being under attack meant it was our problem to deal with. In fact it was a major mistake for us not to have set up some sort of imperial Force there the moment they joined. Apparently whoever had attacked had left enough bodies to imply that this had been done as a warning about expanding further in that direction.
The reports that had been sent to me had been very vague on exactly who it could be, though the general indication from the fleet commanders in the region implied that it was probably Eldar.
Well if I was a foolish person I would assume all Eldars the same and be rather annoyed with the one we just talked with in the Wheel of Fire but we were light years away from the Wheel of Fire and the probability that the Eldars were that united was very unlikely. Most likely this was another faction of elves, one that had not shown enough respect to try and mend fences. instead they were seeking a way to cause trouble for the Imperium and going for it. So gathering the nearby fleets with my own I chased after this raider force, searching for them as they moved ever further from where my goal was until I tracked them down.
Where I tracked them down proved to be rather annoying. What I had found could best be described as a pirate harbor, a planet surrounded by ships of various species. Orks were in the majority though I saw even some of the shark people ships, as well as dozens of other designs.
Immediately upon entering the system the ships ordered our surrender and attempted to… Well, they tried to board.
This did not end well for them. Over the next 3 days the imperial fleet that had been trailing behind me jumped in and the pirate fleet I had been fighting was slowly destroyed and burnt to husks. During the first day I had mostly engaged in long-range firefights and kept my ship as far away as possible, there had just been more ships than I could handle in a fair fight. As more and more of my fleets arrived we had managed to pull this off and now that the space above the planet was cleared out I readied my wolves for a new campaign on the surface.
By my guess there was a population of unknown number of Orks, as well as several other species, spread out across the planet. They had been using this place as some sort of pirate harbor for who knew how long so there were probably slaves as well, knowing how greedy pirates tended to be.
Which meant this would have to be a hard-fought campaign to clear the planet and save as many civilians as possible, all while dealing with the possibility that more pirates could show up at any time. Assuming that I had wiped out the entire fleet would be stupid. I had wiped out the fleet that was present but it was possible that this was only a small component of a major power's assets. A larger fleet could be out there, just raiding different places across the Galaxy or ready to be called back.
Not a great position which is why I put in a request for more fleets in this area, to try and search for any more smaller fleets before they could join together and create some sort of bigger super fleet to hit me here. Of course finding smaller fleets would be troublesome but there was always signs: people who created destruction left a mark on a region and if the captains were smart enough they would figure out where the enemies were hiding.
My thoughts were interrupted as Captain Tetanus came down from the bridge. I had been sitting in the Great Hall, looking over a map of the planet and trying to figure out where the best place to lay groundfall to the place would be. There were several major settlements and one major city but attacking those right off the bat… It would be better to land in an area where we could build up our own supplies before pushing into their fortified places, I thought.
Either way the Captain came up to me and gave a bow, before saying, "Primarch Russ, an imperial fleet has just entered the system. They are claiming to have hunted a couple of dark Eldar ships to this system."
"Dark Eldar, uh?" I said rubbing my chin in thought. I think I heard mention of them before, some sort of offshoot of the Eldars. How exactly were they dark, I wasn't sure. Perhaps they were just dark-skinned elves? I could only hope it was that or I could be dealing with Gyaru-like elves with a fetish for suntanning.
That gave me a bit of a chuckle before I stood up and answered, "Well, tell him that whatever fleet they were chasing has obviously been destroyed. However they are more than welcome to join us in the hunt for pirate ships coming in and out of the sector if they wish to."
Captain Tetanus nodded his head before saying, "My Primarch, I believe I've made a mistake and not made things clear. This fleet belongs to the XVIIIth legion and their Primarch is aboard. He's asking to take part in the clearing of the planet below."
The Primarch of the XVIIIth legion? Well, that was unexpected. I hadn't actually run into any Primarchs except Horus so I was interested in meeting one of my potential brothers and sisters. After all if they were anything like me and Horus they were probably rather intelligent and logical beings.
Not to ignore that I was somewhat curious about what they had accomplished. Horus had managed to conquer his planet in a year from what I understood and was already on his way to trying to meet Father, as he liked to be called, when he'd been found. I'd done it in a little bit more time but I had less things to work with, being that it had been a medieval world after all. One that had been created in such a way that it just wanted to kill everything that lived on it.
So finding out how this particular Primarch had come out and what they'd accomplished was something I was curious about. Standing up to stretch out my back, I said "Well, that's wonderful. Send a message saying I would love to meet them."
Captain Tetanus nodded before replying, "They've already said they would like to meet you too, my Primarch. Unfortunately they say they are a bit too busy at the moment."
That raised an eyebrow. "Busy at the moment?" I asked. What could they be busy with I wondered.
The captain did not keep me waiting long as he rubbed the back of his neck and said "they've begun landing operations on the southern continent already. From what I understand they've detected a large majority of the slave population are settled there so they are moving to free them."
"Oh?" I said, somewhat surprised but not entirely angry about this. I would have liked to have waited a little bit, got in a better lay of the land, figure out everything that was going on. But apparently the leader of the XVIIIth legion was a man or woman of action and had gone straight for trying to free the slaves. Respectable, Just had to hope they didn't land themself in any trouble.
That being said I wasn't exactly going to let them run off and get themselves in trouble when I was right here.
Nodding my head I declared, "Send an order to my Varagyr Wolf Guard and have them prepared for landing immediately."
Without question the captain said, "Yes, my Primarch!" and turned to head back up the elevator to the captain"s bridge where he would have someone do the job. For myself I started walking towards my room.
Needed to get my armor on, of course, and get my weapons. Two legions attacking that small of a settlement was a bit of Overkill, that's why I only asked for my best men but obviously this was a Primarch who wanted to get things done and would only account actions taken while on the field. If I wanted to generate any respect with them I needed to get down to the planet as fast as his possible, and help free as many slaves as possible. That was old hat at this point so it shouldn't be that hard and, well… It would be interesting to see this brother or sister Primarch in combat.
Tanya Russ
Opposed landings are never fun, that's why I try and to avoid them as much as possible. Every moment you don't have a chance to fire at the enemy is a moment the enemy has a chance to fire at you then cause serious damage or death to a number of your men you'll need to succeed at the landing.
That said it is a bit easier when the enemy is already under assault from outside their compound. Landing my wolves via drop pod inside the compound that ruled over the southern settlements would, under normal circumstances, just be a terrible idea. But right now, with the XVIIIth legion Laying siege to the outer walls? It was a damn good idea.
And I had to imagine the surprise on the faces of the Xenos when a giant brick landed in the midst of them while they were already trying to defend against something else and wolves, of both the Marine and four-legged variety, were delivered from space and rushed out of a pod to just start attacking them.
However I didn't see much when I landed. My pod landed a little bit closer to the middle of the city and it was just me and my wolves, Freki and Geri. No one was around and it was rather, well… empty. No doubt all the forces had been called away to defend the walls that the XVIIIth legion was currently laying siege to, and what a siege it probably was.
I had not been able to see much while falling in the pod, due to g-forces and everything, but it looked like the entire Southern Wall of the facility was on fire. It must either speak well of their abilities to unleash chaos and mayhem with fire, or just a preference for using it. I would find out soon enough. Cracking my neck I looked around, wondering where the enemy was, before signing and taking a knee to pet the wolves on the back of the neck.
With little effort I opened up the radios and listened in to try and get an understanding of what was going on. Being in higher command it wasn't really necessary for me to be involved in the fighting, I just needed to control everything and it seemed that the Xenos were not blocking communications so I could literally control it from the front door of what looked to be a town hall.
Which made me wonder if they were possibly controlling their battlefield from there? I would have to check it out in a moment, but for now all I did was request several Marines that had landed near me to head to my position. From there I would move in and see if the town hall was where they controlled from and I'd cause chaos as best as I could if so.
Mainly I just listened to what was going on. From the sound of it the XVIIIth legion was pushing through the southern walls while my wolves were making contact with them at the moment and helping them push through areas of stiffer resistance. At least that's what I was getting through the radio communications. It seemed that there was a preference for just burning the enemy out, which was probably for the best since most the reports indicated Orks and the best way to deal with Orks was with fire.
Beyond that there were reports that the enemies were using unconventional weapons, that Shark people were involved so they had their own version of the bolter gun, and that unknown weapons were being thrown at us. There were a scattering of many designs, one causing the most harm from reports were something like diamond shards being thrown at people.
Sounded unhealthy. I would probably need to have all the men checked in case there was anything mysterious with that kind of weapon. If diamonds or anything like gems had been in my last life then there could be unknown spells carved in them, which could be dangerous. I don't want to have one of my soldiers get back up to the ship and then explode in a pile of gore, killing two other soldiers who had been sitting next to him. Better to just remove any of these shards and make sure that they weren't anything more dangerous than exotic bullets.
Well these exotic weapons had taken my Marines by surprise but they were pushing through their power armor allowing them to deal with the damage that was given out and kill the creatures that dished it. Most reported long ears, which tracked with the mention of Eldars being part of this whole cabal.
I wondered if they were the leaders or just a member party of whatever this was, perhaps a pirate Republic with official votes? Doubtful, so far since Awakening on this world I had not heard much of official governments taking a republic or Democratic status. Hell I was working for an Imperium of all things! I had a distinct feeling that though I would love to push democracy, as it was a more effective tool for the economy, it would be a while before it would have working models for people to follow. t had probably been abandoned by anyone who wasn't cut off from the rest of the Galaxy by Warp storms.
Shaking my head I was about to listen in for where the Marines I'd called for had landed when four Marines came around the corner, wearing my colors. They immediately saw me and force-marched half a block in my direction, giving a smart salute as well as a sign of the Aquila in a few cases.
"My Primarch, we've arrived. The enemy is a little bit more prickly than we thought they'd be."
I nodded and said, "Yes their coordination appears to be not so great, the initial drop seems to have sown chaos across the city and that is in our favor. Let us sow some more so it's permanent." A that, indicating the town hall, I started to march. "Let us see if we can find their headquarters and deal with it, my boys."
"Yes, my Primarch!" came a chorus of voices as the Space Marines deployed to either side of me as we walked towards the townhall looking building.
It was not a pretty building, at least it wasn't anymore. It looked like, perhaps a long time ago, it had been designed to look like some sort of Greek pantheon with large Stone pillars with a relief in front of the roof's Arch. However it appeared that time had not been kind to it, time or the local population itself, as it was defaced, damaged, and generally looking like it was only being held together by what I could have guessed was Ork magic. There were several metal plates just banged into the stone to hold it together, obviously trying to cover up cracks in the pillars.
Part of me wondered if I should just order a bombardment right on it and then put the building out of its misery, another part of me wondered if there might be something important in this building. Perhaps some lost bit of history might be of use to the Imperium so I would let that stand for now and simply invade it, kill the occupants, and see what could be found in the days to come.
Walking up the steps with some little trouble as the steps had been designed for bog-standard-humans-sized beings and, well, even the boys had feet a little too long for these steps. I relied on momentum to keep us moving forward but once we were at the top I quickly moved to the front door. Another Marine stacked up to either side of me as I used my hearing, trying to determine if there was something on guard inside. That, of course, was an easy thing to do.
"what do ya mean 'dat dese aren't 'da Space Wolves?! Drkshadow said 'dat 'da space wolves would totally be drawn 'n by 'da attack on 'da frontia an we would get 'da WAAGH! uv a lifetime."came the deep voice of a leader class of Ork, sounding perturbed that things are not going his way.
"sorry, boss, but accord'n ta 'da frontline troops dese guys are wear'n 'da wrong kolor. Dey're green, green an' gold, not blue an' gray." Responded a lighter and screechy voice, possibly a Gretchin. Either way it sounded like something that could be punted across a football field so not the biggest threat in the world.
"but dey are marines, right?" The boss demanded
"yeah, boss! totally marines from wot we kan get. 'dat an dey have a propensity ta jus burn anyth'n 'dat gets 'n dere way. 'da kommandaz 'n 'da field are try'n ta get fings unda kontrol but more marines jus fell from 'da sky." This little sounding creature seemed to be the intelligence operator of the group, was that a common thing amongst their species or just something special to this particular planet?
"are dose ones da space wolves?"
What the hell were the Space Wolves? I thought for a moment, trying to figure out who they were referring to, before I heard more chatter.
"maybe, boss. Reports indicate dey are wear'n 'da right kolors an dey have kreatures dat look like wolves wander'n 'da streets now dat dey have arrived. Dough dey seem ta be jus mov'n 'n an' stomp'n', not really engag'n 'n WAAGH!."
"bah! dis iz wot I get for trust'n a kommando. Uv kourse 'e tells me fanciful storiez uv great warriors 'dat I kould stompn an' instead I get some wussiez 'dat won't even engage us 'n an upstand'n WAAGH! while dere green minions lay siege ta 'da wall."
I heard every single Marine near the doorway snicker. They had all heard that and they all were inhaling laughter. I didn't really want to spoil it for them but well we needed to end the threat to the attack so I slowly opened the door and stepped inside. I had to lower my head a bit to get in the doorway but once inside I got a good look around and could stand up tall. There were about 20 Orks inside, as well as 30 Gretchins and near the center of the room was the boss and what I guessed was the boss Gretchin, both wearing red clothes and, though I will never know why, they were wearing green hats too. For some reason. With an amused smile I asked, "Now, what's this about me being a wussy?"
There was absolute silence for a moment as everyone's eyes turned into my direction and then the Gretchin who was talking to their leader screamed like a woman and toppled over. Apparently fainting.
"huh, don't see dat every day." the boss said, looking down at his fallen compatriot before he reached for what looked like some sort of staff and pointed it at me. "kill 'dat wun."
Two Orks grabbed nearby weapons or rather, to call it closer to reality, a wooden chair and a metal chair. Still weapons, I guess? Technically at least but they weren't really going to do any damage to me. As they charged all I really did was raise one wrist and fire a couple shots into them, the bolter rounds blasting them to pieces.
With my right hand I reached down to my hip and unleashed my bolter gun, aiming it at another Ork who was charging from that direction. I held down the trigger, firing a burst of rounds into that Ork and exploding his guts towards a map wall. Unfortunate since that map wall could probably have Intel for the rest of the campaign.
"Now who's being a wuss?" I said, firing off another couple rounds at an Ork who managed to dunk under a table and come out with what looked like a double barrel shotgun, one with magazines of all things. And I do not mean a double-barreled shotgun with a magazine underneath it, I mean it was a double barrel shotgun appearing to be made from paper mache and two magazines rolled up. We did not get to find out if that worked or if it was going to explode, it very well could have to my mind, as the Ork fell over dead when my shots impacted it.
While I was doing this two Marines entered the room and began firing into the gathered mass of monsters, the other two stayed outside to watch for anyone trying to intercede in our execution of the command staff.
With the element of surprise at our side and the Orks apparently not having planned for the potential of orbital drop we were quickly able to kill off most of the room. Even the Ork leader, who had kicked a table to try and hide behind, was eliminated in good order.
For a moment I just stood there, looking over the room and the Carnage, wondering if anything had survived. It looked like we'd done a good job and I stepped further into the room, looking left and right to try to make sure that we had completely eliminated The Orks.
Nothing tried to shoot me so I think it was a success. Walking further into the room I tried to see if there were any plans or anything that could be gathered, unfortunately I think we had done a good job of destroying everything here. Even what I think was a radio had several bolter rounds in it, which hopefully would signal chaos for the Orks. Without a leader, of course, they tended to fight each other. And if they were fighting each other they wouldn't be fighting the Marines on the field. That was assuming that it was only Orks that we were fighting, as we'd already have confirmed that it was at least some sort of Eldar variant here.
Taking a few more steps I came to the center of the room where the body of the main Ork lay and quickly confirmed that, yes, it was dead, with a little bit of a double tap. It might be a bit much but I'd seen reports that Orks, especially the bigger ones, were tough to kill. Better to be sure than have one Ork stand up behind you and try and cleave you in half with a battle ax.
I was about to turn away when I heard a groan, causing me to tilt my head to look past a common obstruction on my vision directly beneath me. The Gretchin that had passed out the moment I stepped into the room was coming to and was holding its head as it looked around, confused. It looked left, then looked right, and then its eyes caught my legs right in front of it. Its head slowly tilted up towards me.
There was an audible gulp from the creature before it said, "i surrenda!" in the squeakiest voice I think I'd ever heard.
I raised an eyebrow before chuckling, turning to a marine who was coming up with his gun already pointed. I said, "Has an Ork or variant ever surrendered to us before?" He stopped and seemed to think for a moment before saying, "Not that I'm aware of, my Primarch."
I laughed at that before turning to the Gretchin and said, "This is your lucky day, I want to see what happens when we take one of you prisoner."
"My Primarch, are you sure that's wise? Bringing such a creature on board could spread its spores." I swear I saw that gun lift a little, the Space Marine in question already ready to blast the Gretchin to blood and guts.
I nodded to his objection before replying, "I agree but perhaps the Mechanicus can come up with some way to prevent them from spreading their spores. Maybe a cream they'll need to apply every day or something. It could be useful finding some use for the Orks other than problems we need to destroy. It always is a worthy objective, manpower is manpower wherever it comes from."
The Space Marine lowered his gun and nodded before looking to a nearby radio man and saying something on an internal channel I didn't hear, most likely calling for a very solid steel cage to keep the Gretchin in.
Looking back down at the Gretchin I asked, "If we got you a radio could you demand the surrender of all forces currently fighting the Space Marines in this town? You seem to be the last boss's right hand man and communications officer."
The Gretchin seemed to think for a moment, before saying "i kould do 'dat, boss lady. Yes, I kould do 'dat dough 'da pointy ears will probably ignore 'dat demand an well 'da sharp teeth will jus kome ere an eat yer."
"Oh? How unfortunate for them then, I don't think I'll be eaten that easily" I mused out loud before saying "And sowing chaos behind an enemy's lines is always good. Does this facility happen to have a spare radio?"
The Gretchin nodded before saying, "yes, big boss lady!" and immediately got up, walking a few feet to a carpeted rug and pulling it out of the way to reveal a hatch. It was made from wood, with a little chain handle to pull it open. The Gretchin attempted to do it but failed terribly. I moved over to it and took a knee, pulling the chain and revealing a very small radio room with three other Gretchins cowering in fear. The small concrete room appeared to have no lighting except what was coming through the hatch so I wondered if this was actually an emergency radio room or just a place they kept disobedient Gretchins in.
"don't kill me."
"i don't want ta be eaten."
"if only i'd been born an ork!"
Came a trio of screams as the creatures panicked, the first Gretchin jumped down into the hole and said "bust dis! 'da new boss tells everyone ta surrenda."
The Gretchins looked at him, a bit confused, before looking back up through the hole at me. I simply smiled, forgetting that I may have just bared my enlarged canines at them until after I did it. Either way they seemed to have gotten the… the points and immediately got to work, sending out calls for a general retreat and surrender to the enemy.
The first Gretchin turned and said, "job's done, boss! wot do I do now?"
Looking around I checked the hole and made sure there was no other way out, before saying, "Well if you're right and the enemy are now going to be moving towards this position from all sides it seems like you guys are in the safest place in the entire facility. So I would say stay here." Reaching into a pack on my side I pulled out a chemical light and cracked it against my leg before dropping it in the hole. "A little light to keep you safe while I deal with these 'sharp teeth' as you call them." and I shut the door.
There were some panicked squeaks but I really didn't care at that point. They were safe, they weren't going to die, and after I shoved the broken radio equipment on top of the door they weren't leaving. So they were well and truly contained, I could deal with them at my leisure at this point.
Turning around I saw my Marines already starting to gather near the entrance as they expected the counterattack. Quickly I joined them by the doorway, looking out for any incoming horde of monstrous Xenos looking to kill whoever just taken over their headquarters.
Nothing happened at first of, course. After all it would take a few moments for the commanders in the field to make up their minds about what was going to happen. But, after a little bit, the little Gretchin was proven right as a swarm… What do you call a group of shark people… I would have to ask the Mechanicus when I got the chance, I'm sure they have records on that.
Whatever you call them about 30 to 40 of them rushed into the Central square, headless of the fact that they were not in cover as they headed directly for the headquarters. I waited till they were about halfway across the square before saying "Open fire.", making sure that there was nowhere they could easily run to besides towards us for cover.
Thunderous bangs of our bolter guns unleashed into the oncoming horde of Xenos, their bodies exploding as they were hit mid-stride. They of course immediately responded to this attack, using their rather unnatural agility to attempt to get into cover to the sides though some of them did manage to get up onto the steps themselves before we annihilated them.
The surviving enemies took up positions and then unleashed their own fire at our position, trying to get us to stop firing at them. The old 'pin the enemy to a position' trick. Wasn't really much I could do about that… Well, there was one thing. Pulling out the magazine in my bolter gun I pulled out another one from my side, a specialty one that I had been working on. I wanted to see if it would work but I had lacked time to check it.
Today was the day to see how effective our bolter guns could be with a little bit of spellcraft.
Loading the rounds I took aim above the shark people's position and unloaded a spray of shots. The rounds hit the top of the building and a magnified blast caused it to crumple forward, large sections of the building exploding outwards and falling down. This forced the shark people into the square again, some of course immediately attempted to get back into their position. At that exact moment however, wolves of the bipedal type appeared from one of the streets, howling their victory calls as they charged blades in hand into the chaos already forming in the Central square.
The shark people who had been in the other position attempted to support their fellow Xenos while also trying to keep our position pinned but wolves of the quadruple kind rushed them from behind, forcing them out of their position. Then, before me, was a melee. A rather large one at that.
As I watched more Marines started appearing and more shark people and Orks started joining the fight, coming in from various locations as they made their way to the high command. I couldn't exactly get off shots with my explosive ammunition now so I detached that magazine and brought back a normal one before grabbing my short chainsword in my left hand. I said, "well, looks like it's time to get a little bit up and close and personal, my wolves."
The Marines around me chuckled as my two wolves came up to either side of me. "Let's get in this fight," I said, before jumping down the steps of the headquarters and right into the square where the fighting had intensified more and more.
A shark person attempted to bite at me the moment I landed but I simply shoved my chainsword in its mouth and pulled up, cutting its head in half. Not the hardest thing to do considering their bone structure was rather weak compared to both species.
An Ork, seeing its ally slain, attempted to rush me then, wielding double chainaxes. I blasted away with my gun, several rounds pulling a little bit to the right and hitting another Ork behind it, but its head was blown off and that was the important part.
Another Ork tried its luck but my wolf Freki tackled it and immediately grabbed its head in its jaws before breaking its neck. The shark that had meanwhile been trying to sneak up on me from behind had Geri deal with that by simply grabbing its tail and ripping it off with his jaw, resulting in one of the most horrid screams I think I'd ever heard.
All around me was a good old-fashioned brawl, soldiers beating the hell out of other soldiers. Well from what I could see it was generally leaning in the Space Marines' direction. Yes, the shark folk were fast and agile and able to put a lot of bite pressure down when they brought their jaws to bear but Marines were almost as agile as them and tended to know, after our last couple fights against them, how to handle them. Which was to shove your sword into the brain. It wasn't that hard except for the more eel-like variance, though apparently none of them were here.
The Orks were, well, Orks. They were hard to kill but once they went down they were dead and the possible Dark Eldar, or Eldar, or whatever they called themselves contingent did not make themselves known in the fighting though I saw several Marines pulling shards out of their armor. More likely than not they were trying to shoot at us from the side of the battle, helping their allies while not getting too involved themselves.
Shoving my chainsword through another creature, this one not one of the two I knew so hurray a new Xeno. I wondered if I would get the name of it, I internally joked, as the creature fell over dead. I saw that the battle was starting to settle into a central line, my Space Wolves fighting their way to be around me as we slowly killed every Xeno in the square.
This was a bit concerning as, well, the more we became centralized the more kills we could rack up sure… But that also meant the chaos was abetting and the enemy could just focus on one point and send everything they had at it. Granted I think we could survive that but I would prefer not to end up in that situation. So I was already looking towards the former HQ to see if we could possibly fight our way to that as having them fight their way up the steps would be a deterrent and we could better organize there, possibly even form a second line of actual shooting infantry to try and push these things back.
However that never came to pass as, though we were now encircled, none of our men were also in the enemy ranks. This seemed to be the go-ahead for something to just light their ranks on fire.
From the edges of the square gouts of flame and gunfire rolled into the enemy ranks as Marines in green armor began to push forward, unleashing torrents of hellfire as they did.
The Orks immediately turned and charged into the fire, some even making it through only to be smashed in the head by what looked like giant hammers. The formation of the XVIIIth legion seemed rather tight and well-conceived for dealing with uncontrolled charging.
Said formation pushed onwards towards us, seeming to give no care to the enemy's attempts to stop them and just cutting them down as they did. They burned, cut, smashed and repeated the cycle as a square of Marines push forward from three of the 8 ways into the square.
The Orks and sharks that have been surrounding us slowly realized that the threat behind them was breaking them apart and began to retreat from our lines, allowing my men a moment's rest as the green formations hooked up on either side of our circle. This secured the immediate area and more troops, I saw, were already pushing down alleyways and streets around the square. I quickly saw the sharks notice that as well as they began retreating. The Orks, being Orks, simply took a breather before coming as one in one last charge, but we had room now to fire and we did. We unleashed a torrent of Volkyte and flamethrowers and bolter guns, the two forces blue and green quickly decimated The Orks as they charged us, rendering them into Gunk on the street. What was left either died or retreated, heading away and towards the other side of the city where they would either hold up or more likely retreat into the jungle area around here and start heading towards one of the more Northern settlements. This was unfortunate, maybe I would just send some flyers to see if they could get rid of them before they made it. Oh, it was totally possible that the enemy knew we were coming and where we had landed but they wouldn't know how we fought unless those men survived. I would prefer to keep that information in the correct hands as long as possible.
Holding up my wrist I was about to press a call button to call up the ship and ask for such things when I heard a voice behind me.
"Sister!" Came a very cheery and happy voice before I felt a pair of arms around my lower section and then all the air was forced out of my body as I was lifted into the air in a hug and swung around a bit before I was put down in my feet.
A bit discombobulated by that quick action I slowly turned, trying to keep my balance, and saw a bald man with skin as dark as coal "It's a wonder to finally meet you, my little sister. How little you are, father never mentioned it." He said, clapping his hand down on my shoulder and I felt somewhat like a nail being driven into the ground there with each strike. "Then again, father never actually mentioned that you were a sister. I had to figure that out on my own. He needs to lighten up about his secrets, I think."
I blinked as, well, I agreed with him on that but before I could try and ask any questions he stopped and said "Oh! Where are my manners?" He stepped back and bowed a bit before saying, "Good evening, sister. I am Vulkan of the Salamanders legion, it is an honor to meet the Wolf Lord although should she not be the Wolf Lady?"
Finally getting a moment to speak, I said, "Tanya will do. Ancient traditions though on the Wolf Lord bit, though if you prefer Wolf Lady that's perfectly fine. How exactly did you figure out that I was the Primarch here?"
Vulcan laughed out loud before saying "Well, even if you are short by my standard," and what a standard he must have, considering he probably was almost 15 to 16 ft, "You are the tallest person here and, well, I've never seen a female Space Marine. So I have to make the assumption that, seeing you are not only female and tall, you must be one of The Emperor's children. And he did say children when we first met and not sons."
"Huhn how reasonable!" I said, enjoying the fact that this Primarch had the ability to think through a situation to its ultimate conclusion. Perhaps all my brothers and sisters would be on my mental scale after all.
"Well," I nodded my head before answering, "Welcome to San Katos, brother Vulcan. We have many enemies to defeat and many people to free from the bondage of the forces of destruction." At that, I offered him my hand.
"Oh, I like that terminology." He replied, taking my hand and then pulling me into another hug, this time crushing me against his lower chest. If I was not convinced he was just a hugger I might be worried he was trying to kill me with how little oxygen I was getting there. But, as he let go, I simply took in a deep breath and patted my chest to get some air flowing as he said "Mind if I steal that in case I ever need to whip up forces against the forces of destruction?" I simply gave him a thumbs up as, at this point, I needed a moment to catch my breath.
Well this was going to be an interesting campaign, I mentally noted as I turned to look towards the headquarters. At least I'd get to work with another Primarch, that would be new
Writers note: oh look tanya family… sure dose love to give hugs… this chapter was experiment ing spreading things along, after all there were two campaign off screen but did we need to see everything of thoses campaign? I think summary for thoses two story are fine. And now we get to see tanya interact with her first sibling… how will go not sure… still working on it.
Edited by: Pierre, Michael Sauer
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844. M30
Tanya Russ
4 years short years since the end of the Wheel of Fire campaign and it felt like I had not found a moment's rest since that operation. Theoretically, I was on my way back to Fenris for a little bit of refitting and negotiations on creating an arsenal world out of that moon. However theories weren't exactly the reality as, though I could easily have just hard burned home, the fact of the matter was I was still technically on Crusade so I was taking the long way.
And when I say the long way I meant we were invading various problems sectors on the way there, trying to secure a route from the Wheel of Fire to Fenris. One interesting thing I had noticed about space was you couldn't exactly put it on a flat plane for a control map. Theoretically, again, I was passing through areas that had already been pacified as there was obviously trade going through it back to Terra, however there were systems just off the most traveled trail that were not. Those regularly raised issues such as pirates raiders and other criminals of various sorts in ambush on to the trail to kidnap, steal, and enslave. All those elements of destructive civilization that I just was not a fan of.
Thankfully the most I had to do in those cases was show up and threaten destruction if we didn't come to a table and negotiate. It seems that the propaganda department that the Imperium employed had heard of my complete cleaning of the Wheel of Fire sector and were spinning tales of how I was a vicious warlord crossing the stars and destroying terrorized enemies. On one hand that was kind of annoying, on the other I had to admit that it worked. It was a thing for the Mongols after all: you destroy one city and you get three others to concede, meaning fewer cities that you have to attack and defeat along the way.
That being said what I mostly dealt with were human civilizations, ones that had been cut off and had minimal tech. Some of them even didn't have Warp engines but were just close enough to the trail that they could put a slow-moving battleship there to hold up anyone who was taking a slow road between sectors. So when a Gloriana class warship warped in above their planets and said 'time to have talks or otherwise…' they were willing to listen. Since they were human they either signed on the dotted line or at least agreed to stop attacking and began the process of negotiating themselves into the Imperium.
However there were aliens I had to run into along the road back to Fenris and I would have to be a fool not to admit the reality that some of them were frankly playing assholes. Taralais were a prime example of the assholishness that you could run into in open space. Their civilization apparently dated back to before the Old Night and after everything fell apart… Well, they just sort of went on a conquest spree by nuking out of existence the human civilizations that didn't submit. The sector I found them had, according to maps that dated back to before the Old Night, been populated by 300 worlds, 200 to which had been devoted to farming and 100 to industry, research, and economic prospects.
Well, of those 300, 150 were still habitable. Those 150 had been farming worlds, the other 150 had all been nuked to unlivable status. From the testimony of the planets that I had been able to communicate with, those whose leadership still had some records, it seemed that they had tried to stand up to the Taralais and negotiate with them. And then the Taralais had surprise-nuked, those hundred industrial worlds with missiles that had been fired even before the Old Night happened. The Taralais had simply been waiting for an opportunity to press the red button while their missiles were kept hidden in some kind of stealth. The 50 farming worlds nuked had been targeted not too long after that as they had tried to take in refugees from the other planets. Supposedly what remnants of advanced civilizations that had been there had taken what they could and simply fled the sector, leaving the unadvanced farming worlds to the rule of the Taralais. And what a cruel rule it was, the records indicated that beforehand the planets had been settled with the general idea of family-ran farming. Well, those families still technically ran them but now as slaves to the Taralais plantation Masters. The food that was produced and any other materials they fancied for whatever purposes was then sent to their own planets.
Well, as you might imagine, I had not been a fan of that. So I unleashed the wolves, hunting down their planets and landing on them directly.
I suppose I could have attempted negotiation but the fact of the matter as it had been presented to me indicated that most likely all 150 planets that still had human life on them were at risk of being… well neutralized by mysterious stealth missiles if we even had tried to force the local garrisons off those worlds. That could probably still happen so I needed to do something big, threatening, and distracting enough that they didn't even think about it.
Which is why I had gone for a total invasion of their planets. We just started destroying stuff, which Marines are good at, power generators, water purification centers, industry, even local farming. The wolves were unleashed on their worlds, most of which were encrusted in urban centers so they weren't producing a lot of materials for themselves.
It was only after I had confirmed that the planet was now pacified from any potential industry that I had offered them a deal.
Surrender and I will not cut the food coming in from the 150 worlds that they had once controlled.
It was a simple deal. They didn't have a major fleet, they had surprise missiles but I had the ability to bombard their planet if I wanted to do. I explained to them that I was against that level of wastefulness, at least without a cause. So giving them the opportunity to surrender and turn their holdings over to the Imperium seemed like a reasonable first step.
Their response was to attempt to nuke all 150 worlds. Keyword being 'attempt'. I had suspected something like this might happen and I had dictated a line of ships around their planet to block communications out of the system.
Now I may not be the most unforgiving sort but I had given them a chance. They had committed massive genocide several thousand years ago, yes, but I couldn't really hold them for the sins of their fathers. But I could hold them for their own sins, because attempting to commit a genocide of the scale they just tried was about the point where I'd started counting them as a destructive element on civilization. I did not think that the Imperium needed their world anyway.
I ordered a retreat from the surface and, once my Marines were back on board, I bombarded the planet for a week or two straight while I dictated the imperial army to go deal with the local bases that they had off-planet.
Even after 2 weeks of bombardment they had refused to surrender so I sent in my troops and attempted to forcibly make them surrender. Their troops weren't that good and their weapons were rather primitive, still relying on slugs in most cases and not even explosive variants at that. It took time but eventually the planet was pacified and what population was left was handed over to the Administratum and the military to deal with, their local government so completely shattered that there was no one to surrender the planet. It was a simple conquest at that point.
I kept good to my word and confirmed I would not stop the local food shipments, but other than that the Taralais had been removed from power within the sector. The 150 farming worlds had signed on to the Imperium and I counted this as a massive victory. For the members of their species that had been off-world I offered to bring them back to their planet and deliver them there if they surrendered but some of those holding lands on those 150 worlds had attempted to fight back so it had taken a little while to remove them. The process of detaralaising that sector had taken a full year but I believed it was for the best.
After that I'd moved on, the losses we had taken on this campaign had been minimal to none so moving on to the next sector to clear it out of any such troublemakers was easy. Not to mention we were still getting shipments of new recruits every couple of years, though not as many as we once had as the initial burst of recruits had already been run through the process.
Out of the two alien species that I ran into at this point I currently had the most respect for the Orks. In that first fight the Orks had attempted to genocide their slaves but once they realized that I was there to free them they just sort of looked at them as an opportunity to draw me to fight them. They even used it against me and my men in one or two cases, I had noted. Something I kept an eye on. That was something they would use against me most likely in the future and, if I was not careful, could be my downfall.
The Taralais though were quite at the bottom of my list. Well it was a short list but it would grow. In fact I think I had found a species I actually liked with the next problem I'd run into.
The Saharduin were shark people, or maybe eel people. There seemed to be some sort of species or subspecies that looked more eelish while others looked more sharkish. Of course I was not a biologist and for all I knew what I was looking at was a difference between males and females but the point of the matter was they had a lot of teeth, they lived in water, and they had a tendency to fight the Orks quite a bit.
But they also had a tendency to hire themselves out as mercenaries, and that's how I found out about them on the way back to Fenris during the second year of the trip. We had stumbled across a water planet that was run by humans and was currently under attack by Orks, they asked for our aid and promised to join the Imperium so we had deployed. Except they had forgotten to mention the Orks had brought in water specialists, the Saharduin.
They had fought us on the beaches, in the white lakes, in the plains, in the mountains because even though they were water specialists they had suits designed to allow them to operate on land. They were carrying weapons that mirrored our bolter guns in effectiveness and their jaws were literally rows of sharp teeth they were not afraid to use to just bite off a limb. I had seen several instances of them just biting limbs off and swallowing them whole, though mainly amongst the sharkier versions.
That initial fight had been hell as the shark people didn't consider intelligent life sacred in the same way I did. Lots of the fishermen we were here to save simply got eaten by the shark people as provisions. I would have been more upset about the whole situation if the Orks had apparently not forgotten to pay them after the first 3 months of the conflict so they simply got up and left, using ships they'd hidden underwater to basically escape the conflict. Well, the majority of them. Some of them stayed and actually fought the Orks, which had been an interesting experience.
There was actually one instance where an Ork compound had been assaulted by us from land and them from sea and we had basically been in a race to see who would win the compound first.
The Orks had been dealt with, completely eliminated from the planet, and at that point I thought I was going to have to deal with them. But they immediately used their vessel to escape as well and I'd sort of… just let them go at that point. Well let them go as in not chased after them right then and there, nor trying to destroy the ship. I did have my ships track them as they left, just so I knew the general direction from which they had come from in case I needed to deal with them.
Which turned out to have been a wise move. Over the course of the next three systems I had been called on to help, usually against Orks, I'd run into their species each time. Each time under the employment of the Orks and fighting against humans, for what payment I didn't know. There was a perceptible preference in what planets they were willing to fight on though, they had to be somewhere wet and with somewhat stable weather and that had no real threat against themselves. I suspected it might mean that this was some sort of plan to sell the water-covered parts of the planet to the shark people while the Orks kept the emerged parts.
I had no guarantee nor surety that this was the actual plan, it's not like the shark people were willing to talk. They seemed to be more than willing to fight against me once paid and fought my enemies when not but talking seemed to be a step too far for them.
Either way though, in each case, my wolves won the conflict and we forced the Orks into Extinction and the shark people to flee off into space. After running into them three times it was now quite apparent that we were going to keep running into them.
They were a problem and, if my calculations were correct, the three points they had flown in indicated they were native to this area so I'd set sail for the general direction they came from.
Most expeditions by Imperial fleets were led by the Star Hunters as they were usually the ones to do pathfinding and thus initially meeting with potential threats or Allies. This would be the first time, at least as far as I was aware, that a Primarch would spearhead an operation to find out what was beyond known space.
And said operation went as well as I could have expected. Following the trail of the last space shark mercenary Force I arrived at a series of world that were terraformed to be almost completely covered in water. I'm sure there were some land masses scattered here and there but it was obvious that the fish people lived in the water.
Now, theoretically, this is not a problem for my Space Marines, their armor could handle underwater pressures up to a certain point and did have systems to allow them to breathe for a while. Not to mention the simple biological advantages already imparted to them. But my goal was not really to declare war with them if I could get around it.
As I had done with the human civilizations that I had forcefully recruited into the Imperium through simply showing up and declaring 'talk to me or else', I did the same.
Sitting above what I thought was their Capital world I demanded negotiation with their leadership to discuss the current hostilities between the Imperium and their people.
What I had been expecting to come from this I don't know but what I got was not at all what I was expecting. Especially after the fights with the Orks and the Taralais.
Within an hour there was an agreement sent back in relatively high Gothic, saying that a representative of the Saharduin mercenary guild would be dispatched to my ship within an hour or later probably. In fact something I found rather endearing was just how on the spot they were as said ship, looking like a shark swimming through space, came up from the planet and docked with my vessel.
From it came one of the more sharky-looking creatures in what amounted to their armor. It wasn't power armor but it definitely was higher grade and somewhat heavy. They didn't have their weapons with them though, which was a good sign. Still, considering their jaws could probably cut through the power armors we were wearing, they weren't completely disarmed. One of the more eel-like creatures followed the shark. He was wearing a similar attachment, allowing them to breathe through the gills above water, but beyond that had a funny hat that somewhat reminded me of a mix of a turban and one of those hats from the French colonies that I could not remember the name of. It even had a gold string thing hanging from the top of it. And he wore silk clothing that allowed him to easily hide his hands if they were folded in front of himself.
What followed was hours of negotiation demands for them to stop eating or harming humans and them saying they would do what they pleased as they were mercenaries and though they somewhat regulated the member companies that made up their people they were free to do as they wished. Which was actually a rather interesting point that I was able to use to my advantage.
Through negotiation, I was able to get them to agree that they would not support any company that would declare war on the Imperium. I made it quite clear that if they were not found in full compliance or attempted to deceive the Imperium we would be forced to take action against their systems and leave them no better than boiling seas.
But if they promised to end all support to any companies that attempted to raise funds to go to war with the Imperium we would be willing to hire some of their companies to fight against those renegades. Fighting fish people in the sea was not something that was going to be good for humans, so why not let fish people fight each other.
Oh I'm sure they would make some profit in playing both sides of any conflict but sooner or later there would only be one side, the imperial side. At that point it would be either adapt to a non-mercenary way of life or keep going further and further out to the edges of the Imperium to keep that same racket up. Once they had to get far away from their local cluster to find people willing to hire them? I was sure that they would find it easier to deal with the Imperium.
The leader of the delegation fought me rather vehemently on these ideas but even actually conceded that they would move forward with trying a simple system like what I'd suggested. And when the negotiations were over I felt I'd accomplished something great, as what I had basically created was a potential mercenary vessel for the Imperium: someone to do the fighting while people worried about improving the economy back at home.
Granted I was well aware that as far as the Imperium was concerned no alien could really be trusted but this is why I negotiated as finally as I could, to make it clear that any attempt to fight the Imperium could result in a proper response against their system.
They would either play by our rules or we would remove them from the game board as a player, that simple.
After I had assurances that the Saharduin would follow through on their word and watched about a dozen vessels leave orbit heading in all directions to recall mercenaries that may be fighting against the Imperium. I made sure to have this system noted down to be checked on every few years by a rotating force, just to make sure they were following the rules, and headed back towards Fenris as it was only a year away at this point.
It was at this point though that we had reached a point close enough to the leagues and the dwarves who had followed us into the Wheel of Fire returned to their homes. The negotiations on them taking over duties to help rebuild the Wheel of Fire were still ongoing though, they had left behind one of their ships to do a little bit of prospecting.
Well the majority of them did leave. At least one ship was continuing on the Warp trail with us as general Vavem, having completed his mission and activities, wanted to actually see Fenris. I was not against letting him tag along, an extra ship was an extra ship and the Squats were capable mechanics at the very least so having a bunch of them hanging around was useful.
That being said we didn't get too far on our trip back home before we got another call to deal with a situation. Along the final stretch of the route home there was a series of attacks from an unknown Force that had left many planets devoid of human life. These planets had just joined the Imperium so them being under attack meant it was our problem to deal with. In fact it was a major mistake for us not to have set up some sort of imperial Force there the moment they joined. Apparently whoever had attacked had left enough bodies to imply that this had been done as a warning about expanding further in that direction.
The reports that had been sent to me had been very vague on exactly who it could be, though the general indication from the fleet commanders in the region implied that it was probably Eldar.
Well if I was a foolish person I would assume all Eldars the same and be rather annoyed with the one we just talked with in the Wheel of Fire but we were light years away from the Wheel of Fire and the probability that the Eldars were that united was very unlikely. Most likely this was another faction of elves, one that had not shown enough respect to try and mend fences. instead they were seeking a way to cause trouble for the Imperium and going for it. So gathering the nearby fleets with my own I chased after this raider force, searching for them as they moved ever further from where my goal was until I tracked them down.
Where I tracked them down proved to be rather annoying. What I had found could best be described as a pirate harbor, a planet surrounded by ships of various species. Orks were in the majority though I saw even some of the shark people ships, as well as dozens of other designs.
Immediately upon entering the system the ships ordered our surrender and attempted to… Well, they tried to board.
This did not end well for them. Over the next 3 days the imperial fleet that had been trailing behind me jumped in and the pirate fleet I had been fighting was slowly destroyed and burnt to husks. During the first day I had mostly engaged in long-range firefights and kept my ship as far away as possible, there had just been more ships than I could handle in a fair fight. As more and more of my fleets arrived we had managed to pull this off and now that the space above the planet was cleared out I readied my wolves for a new campaign on the surface.
By my guess there was a population of unknown number of Orks, as well as several other species, spread out across the planet. They had been using this place as some sort of pirate harbor for who knew how long so there were probably slaves as well, knowing how greedy pirates tended to be.
Which meant this would have to be a hard-fought campaign to clear the planet and save as many civilians as possible, all while dealing with the possibility that more pirates could show up at any time. Assuming that I had wiped out the entire fleet would be stupid. I had wiped out the fleet that was present but it was possible that this was only a small component of a major power's assets. A larger fleet could be out there, just raiding different places across the Galaxy or ready to be called back.
Not a great position which is why I put in a request for more fleets in this area, to try and search for any more smaller fleets before they could join together and create some sort of bigger super fleet to hit me here. Of course finding smaller fleets would be troublesome but there was always signs: people who created destruction left a mark on a region and if the captains were smart enough they would figure out where the enemies were hiding.
My thoughts were interrupted as Captain Tetanus came down from the bridge. I had been sitting in the Great Hall, looking over a map of the planet and trying to figure out where the best place to lay groundfall to the place would be. There were several major settlements and one major city but attacking those right off the bat… It would be better to land in an area where we could build up our own supplies before pushing into their fortified places, I thought.
Either way the Captain came up to me and gave a bow, before saying, "Primarch Russ, an imperial fleet has just entered the system. They are claiming to have hunted a couple of dark Eldar ships to this system."
"Dark Eldar, uh?" I said rubbing my chin in thought. I think I heard mention of them before, some sort of offshoot of the Eldars. How exactly were they dark, I wasn't sure. Perhaps they were just dark-skinned elves? I could only hope it was that or I could be dealing with Gyaru-like elves with a fetish for suntanning.
That gave me a bit of a chuckle before I stood up and answered, "Well, tell him that whatever fleet they were chasing has obviously been destroyed. However they are more than welcome to join us in the hunt for pirate ships coming in and out of the sector if they wish to."
Captain Tetanus nodded his head before saying, "My Primarch, I believe I've made a mistake and not made things clear. This fleet belongs to the XVIIIth legion and their Primarch is aboard. He's asking to take part in the clearing of the planet below."
The Primarch of the XVIIIth legion? Well, that was unexpected. I hadn't actually run into any Primarchs except Horus so I was interested in meeting one of my potential brothers and sisters. After all if they were anything like me and Horus they were probably rather intelligent and logical beings.
Not to ignore that I was somewhat curious about what they had accomplished. Horus had managed to conquer his planet in a year from what I understood and was already on his way to trying to meet Father, as he liked to be called, when he'd been found. I'd done it in a little bit more time but I had less things to work with, being that it had been a medieval world after all. One that had been created in such a way that it just wanted to kill everything that lived on it.
So finding out how this particular Primarch had come out and what they'd accomplished was something I was curious about. Standing up to stretch out my back, I said "Well, that's wonderful. Send a message saying I would love to meet them."
Captain Tetanus nodded before replying, "They've already said they would like to meet you too, my Primarch. Unfortunately they say they are a bit too busy at the moment."
That raised an eyebrow. "Busy at the moment?" I asked. What could they be busy with I wondered.
The captain did not keep me waiting long as he rubbed the back of his neck and said "they've begun landing operations on the southern continent already. From what I understand they've detected a large majority of the slave population are settled there so they are moving to free them."
"Oh?" I said, somewhat surprised but not entirely angry about this. I would have liked to have waited a little bit, got in a better lay of the land, figure out everything that was going on. But apparently the leader of the XVIIIth legion was a man or woman of action and had gone straight for trying to free the slaves. Respectable, Just had to hope they didn't land themself in any trouble.
That being said I wasn't exactly going to let them run off and get themselves in trouble when I was right here.
Nodding my head I declared, "Send an order to my Varagyr Wolf Guard and have them prepared for landing immediately."
Without question the captain said, "Yes, my Primarch!" and turned to head back up the elevator to the captain"s bridge where he would have someone do the job. For myself I started walking towards my room.
Needed to get my armor on, of course, and get my weapons. Two legions attacking that small of a settlement was a bit of Overkill, that's why I only asked for my best men but obviously this was a Primarch who wanted to get things done and would only account actions taken while on the field. If I wanted to generate any respect with them I needed to get down to the planet as fast as his possible, and help free as many slaves as possible. That was old hat at this point so it shouldn't be that hard and, well… It would be interesting to see this brother or sister Primarch in combat.
Tanya Russ
Opposed landings are never fun, that's why I try and to avoid them as much as possible. Every moment you don't have a chance to fire at the enemy is a moment the enemy has a chance to fire at you then cause serious damage or death to a number of your men you'll need to succeed at the landing.
That said it is a bit easier when the enemy is already under assault from outside their compound. Landing my wolves via drop pod inside the compound that ruled over the southern settlements would, under normal circumstances, just be a terrible idea. But right now, with the XVIIIth legion Laying siege to the outer walls? It was a damn good idea.
And I had to imagine the surprise on the faces of the Xenos when a giant brick landed in the midst of them while they were already trying to defend against something else and wolves, of both the Marine and four-legged variety, were delivered from space and rushed out of a pod to just start attacking them.
However I didn't see much when I landed. My pod landed a little bit closer to the middle of the city and it was just me and my wolves, Freki and Geri. No one was around and it was rather, well… empty. No doubt all the forces had been called away to defend the walls that the XVIIIth legion was currently laying siege to, and what a siege it probably was.
I had not been able to see much while falling in the pod, due to g-forces and everything, but it looked like the entire Southern Wall of the facility was on fire. It must either speak well of their abilities to unleash chaos and mayhem with fire, or just a preference for using it. I would find out soon enough. Cracking my neck I looked around, wondering where the enemy was, before signing and taking a knee to pet the wolves on the back of the neck.
With little effort I opened up the radios and listened in to try and get an understanding of what was going on. Being in higher command it wasn't really necessary for me to be involved in the fighting, I just needed to control everything and it seemed that the Xenos were not blocking communications so I could literally control it from the front door of what looked to be a town hall.
Which made me wonder if they were possibly controlling their battlefield from there? I would have to check it out in a moment, but for now all I did was request several Marines that had landed near me to head to my position. From there I would move in and see if the town hall was where they controlled from and I'd cause chaos as best as I could if so.
Mainly I just listened to what was going on. From the sound of it the XVIIIth legion was pushing through the southern walls while my wolves were making contact with them at the moment and helping them push through areas of stiffer resistance. At least that's what I was getting through the radio communications. It seemed that there was a preference for just burning the enemy out, which was probably for the best since most the reports indicated Orks and the best way to deal with Orks was with fire.
Beyond that there were reports that the enemies were using unconventional weapons, that Shark people were involved so they had their own version of the bolter gun, and that unknown weapons were being thrown at us. There were a scattering of many designs, one causing the most harm from reports were something like diamond shards being thrown at people.
Sounded unhealthy. I would probably need to have all the men checked in case there was anything mysterious with that kind of weapon. If diamonds or anything like gems had been in my last life then there could be unknown spells carved in them, which could be dangerous. I don't want to have one of my soldiers get back up to the ship and then explode in a pile of gore, killing two other soldiers who had been sitting next to him. Better to just remove any of these shards and make sure that they weren't anything more dangerous than exotic bullets.
Well these exotic weapons had taken my Marines by surprise but they were pushing through their power armor allowing them to deal with the damage that was given out and kill the creatures that dished it. Most reported long ears, which tracked with the mention of Eldars being part of this whole cabal.
I wondered if they were the leaders or just a member party of whatever this was, perhaps a pirate Republic with official votes? Doubtful, so far since Awakening on this world I had not heard much of official governments taking a republic or Democratic status. Hell I was working for an Imperium of all things! I had a distinct feeling that though I would love to push democracy, as it was a more effective tool for the economy, it would be a while before it would have working models for people to follow. t had probably been abandoned by anyone who wasn't cut off from the rest of the Galaxy by Warp storms.
Shaking my head I was about to listen in for where the Marines I'd called for had landed when four Marines came around the corner, wearing my colors. They immediately saw me and force-marched half a block in my direction, giving a smart salute as well as a sign of the Aquila in a few cases.
"My Primarch, we've arrived. The enemy is a little bit more prickly than we thought they'd be."
I nodded and said, "Yes their coordination appears to be not so great, the initial drop seems to have sown chaos across the city and that is in our favor. Let us sow some more so it's permanent." A that, indicating the town hall, I started to march. "Let us see if we can find their headquarters and deal with it, my boys."
"Yes, my Primarch!" came a chorus of voices as the Space Marines deployed to either side of me as we walked towards the townhall looking building.
It was not a pretty building, at least it wasn't anymore. It looked like, perhaps a long time ago, it had been designed to look like some sort of Greek pantheon with large Stone pillars with a relief in front of the roof's Arch. However it appeared that time had not been kind to it, time or the local population itself, as it was defaced, damaged, and generally looking like it was only being held together by what I could have guessed was Ork magic. There were several metal plates just banged into the stone to hold it together, obviously trying to cover up cracks in the pillars.
Part of me wondered if I should just order a bombardment right on it and then put the building out of its misery, another part of me wondered if there might be something important in this building. Perhaps some lost bit of history might be of use to the Imperium so I would let that stand for now and simply invade it, kill the occupants, and see what could be found in the days to come.
Walking up the steps with some little trouble as the steps had been designed for bog-standard-humans-sized beings and, well, even the boys had feet a little too long for these steps. I relied on momentum to keep us moving forward but once we were at the top I quickly moved to the front door. Another Marine stacked up to either side of me as I used my hearing, trying to determine if there was something on guard inside. That, of course, was an easy thing to do.
"what do ya mean 'dat dese aren't 'da Space Wolves?! Drkshadow said 'dat 'da space wolves would totally be drawn 'n by 'da attack on 'da frontia an we would get 'da WAAGH! uv a lifetime."came the deep voice of a leader class of Ork, sounding perturbed that things are not going his way.
"sorry, boss, but accord'n ta 'da frontline troops dese guys are wear'n 'da wrong kolor. Dey're green, green an' gold, not blue an' gray." Responded a lighter and screechy voice, possibly a Gretchin. Either way it sounded like something that could be punted across a football field so not the biggest threat in the world.
"but dey are marines, right?" The boss demanded
"yeah, boss! totally marines from wot we kan get. 'dat an dey have a propensity ta jus burn anyth'n 'dat gets 'n dere way. 'da kommandaz 'n 'da field are try'n ta get fings unda kontrol but more marines jus fell from 'da sky." This little sounding creature seemed to be the intelligence operator of the group, was that a common thing amongst their species or just something special to this particular planet?
"are dose ones da space wolves?"
What the hell were the Space Wolves? I thought for a moment, trying to figure out who they were referring to, before I heard more chatter.
"maybe, boss. Reports indicate dey are wear'n 'da right kolors an dey have kreatures dat look like wolves wander'n 'da streets now dat dey have arrived. Dough dey seem ta be jus mov'n 'n an' stomp'n', not really engag'n 'n WAAGH!."
"bah! dis iz wot I get for trust'n a kommando. Uv kourse 'e tells me fanciful storiez uv great warriors 'dat I kould stompn an' instead I get some wussiez 'dat won't even engage us 'n an upstand'n WAAGH! while dere green minions lay siege ta 'da wall."
I heard every single Marine near the doorway snicker. They had all heard that and they all were inhaling laughter. I didn't really want to spoil it for them but well we needed to end the threat to the attack so I slowly opened the door and stepped inside. I had to lower my head a bit to get in the doorway but once inside I got a good look around and could stand up tall. There were about 20 Orks inside, as well as 30 Gretchins and near the center of the room was the boss and what I guessed was the boss Gretchin, both wearing red clothes and, though I will never know why, they were wearing green hats too. For some reason. With an amused smile I asked, "Now, what's this about me being a wussy?"
There was absolute silence for a moment as everyone's eyes turned into my direction and then the Gretchin who was talking to their leader screamed like a woman and toppled over. Apparently fainting.
"huh, don't see dat every day." the boss said, looking down at his fallen compatriot before he reached for what looked like some sort of staff and pointed it at me. "kill 'dat wun."
Two Orks grabbed nearby weapons or rather, to call it closer to reality, a wooden chair and a metal chair. Still weapons, I guess? Technically at least but they weren't really going to do any damage to me. As they charged all I really did was raise one wrist and fire a couple shots into them, the bolter rounds blasting them to pieces.
With my right hand I reached down to my hip and unleashed my bolter gun, aiming it at another Ork who was charging from that direction. I held down the trigger, firing a burst of rounds into that Ork and exploding his guts towards a map wall. Unfortunate since that map wall could probably have Intel for the rest of the campaign.
"Now who's being a wuss?" I said, firing off another couple rounds at an Ork who managed to dunk under a table and come out with what looked like a double barrel shotgun, one with magazines of all things. And I do not mean a double-barreled shotgun with a magazine underneath it, I mean it was a double barrel shotgun appearing to be made from paper mache and two magazines rolled up. We did not get to find out if that worked or if it was going to explode, it very well could have to my mind, as the Ork fell over dead when my shots impacted it.
While I was doing this two Marines entered the room and began firing into the gathered mass of monsters, the other two stayed outside to watch for anyone trying to intercede in our execution of the command staff.
With the element of surprise at our side and the Orks apparently not having planned for the potential of orbital drop we were quickly able to kill off most of the room. Even the Ork leader, who had kicked a table to try and hide behind, was eliminated in good order.
For a moment I just stood there, looking over the room and the Carnage, wondering if anything had survived. It looked like we'd done a good job and I stepped further into the room, looking left and right to try to make sure that we had completely eliminated The Orks.
Nothing tried to shoot me so I think it was a success. Walking further into the room I tried to see if there were any plans or anything that could be gathered, unfortunately I think we had done a good job of destroying everything here. Even what I think was a radio had several bolter rounds in it, which hopefully would signal chaos for the Orks. Without a leader, of course, they tended to fight each other. And if they were fighting each other they wouldn't be fighting the Marines on the field. That was assuming that it was only Orks that we were fighting, as we'd already have confirmed that it was at least some sort of Eldar variant here.
Taking a few more steps I came to the center of the room where the body of the main Ork lay and quickly confirmed that, yes, it was dead, with a little bit of a double tap. It might be a bit much but I'd seen reports that Orks, especially the bigger ones, were tough to kill. Better to be sure than have one Ork stand up behind you and try and cleave you in half with a battle ax.
I was about to turn away when I heard a groan, causing me to tilt my head to look past a common obstruction on my vision directly beneath me. The Gretchin that had passed out the moment I stepped into the room was coming to and was holding its head as it looked around, confused. It looked left, then looked right, and then its eyes caught my legs right in front of it. Its head slowly tilted up towards me.
There was an audible gulp from the creature before it said, "i surrenda!" in the squeakiest voice I think I'd ever heard.
I raised an eyebrow before chuckling, turning to a marine who was coming up with his gun already pointed. I said, "Has an Ork or variant ever surrendered to us before?" He stopped and seemed to think for a moment before saying, "Not that I'm aware of, my Primarch."
I laughed at that before turning to the Gretchin and said, "This is your lucky day, I want to see what happens when we take one of you prisoner."
"My Primarch, are you sure that's wise? Bringing such a creature on board could spread its spores." I swear I saw that gun lift a little, the Space Marine in question already ready to blast the Gretchin to blood and guts.
I nodded to his objection before replying, "I agree but perhaps the Mechanicus can come up with some way to prevent them from spreading their spores. Maybe a cream they'll need to apply every day or something. It could be useful finding some use for the Orks other than problems we need to destroy. It always is a worthy objective, manpower is manpower wherever it comes from."
The Space Marine lowered his gun and nodded before looking to a nearby radio man and saying something on an internal channel I didn't hear, most likely calling for a very solid steel cage to keep the Gretchin in.
Looking back down at the Gretchin I asked, "If we got you a radio could you demand the surrender of all forces currently fighting the Space Marines in this town? You seem to be the last boss's right hand man and communications officer."
The Gretchin seemed to think for a moment, before saying "i kould do 'dat, boss lady. Yes, I kould do 'dat dough 'da pointy ears will probably ignore 'dat demand an well 'da sharp teeth will jus kome ere an eat yer."
"Oh? How unfortunate for them then, I don't think I'll be eaten that easily" I mused out loud before saying "And sowing chaos behind an enemy's lines is always good. Does this facility happen to have a spare radio?"
The Gretchin nodded before saying, "yes, big boss lady!" and immediately got up, walking a few feet to a carpeted rug and pulling it out of the way to reveal a hatch. It was made from wood, with a little chain handle to pull it open. The Gretchin attempted to do it but failed terribly. I moved over to it and took a knee, pulling the chain and revealing a very small radio room with three other Gretchins cowering in fear. The small concrete room appeared to have no lighting except what was coming through the hatch so I wondered if this was actually an emergency radio room or just a place they kept disobedient Gretchins in.
"don't kill me."
"i don't want ta be eaten."
"if only i'd been born an ork!"
Came a trio of screams as the creatures panicked, the first Gretchin jumped down into the hole and said "bust dis! 'da new boss tells everyone ta surrenda."
The Gretchins looked at him, a bit confused, before looking back up through the hole at me. I simply smiled, forgetting that I may have just bared my enlarged canines at them until after I did it. Either way they seemed to have gotten the… the points and immediately got to work, sending out calls for a general retreat and surrender to the enemy.
The first Gretchin turned and said, "job's done, boss! wot do I do now?"
Looking around I checked the hole and made sure there was no other way out, before saying, "Well if you're right and the enemy are now going to be moving towards this position from all sides it seems like you guys are in the safest place in the entire facility. So I would say stay here." Reaching into a pack on my side I pulled out a chemical light and cracked it against my leg before dropping it in the hole. "A little light to keep you safe while I deal with these 'sharp teeth' as you call them." and I shut the door.
There were some panicked squeaks but I really didn't care at that point. They were safe, they weren't going to die, and after I shoved the broken radio equipment on top of the door they weren't leaving. So they were well and truly contained, I could deal with them at my leisure at this point.
Turning around I saw my Marines already starting to gather near the entrance as they expected the counterattack. Quickly I joined them by the doorway, looking out for any incoming horde of monstrous Xenos looking to kill whoever just taken over their headquarters.
Nothing happened at first of, course. After all it would take a few moments for the commanders in the field to make up their minds about what was going to happen. But, after a little bit, the little Gretchin was proven right as a swarm… What do you call a group of shark people… I would have to ask the Mechanicus when I got the chance, I'm sure they have records on that.
Whatever you call them about 30 to 40 of them rushed into the Central square, headless of the fact that they were not in cover as they headed directly for the headquarters. I waited till they were about halfway across the square before saying "Open fire.", making sure that there was nowhere they could easily run to besides towards us for cover.
Thunderous bangs of our bolter guns unleashed into the oncoming horde of Xenos, their bodies exploding as they were hit mid-stride. They of course immediately responded to this attack, using their rather unnatural agility to attempt to get into cover to the sides though some of them did manage to get up onto the steps themselves before we annihilated them.
The surviving enemies took up positions and then unleashed their own fire at our position, trying to get us to stop firing at them. The old 'pin the enemy to a position' trick. Wasn't really much I could do about that… Well, there was one thing. Pulling out the magazine in my bolter gun I pulled out another one from my side, a specialty one that I had been working on. I wanted to see if it would work but I had lacked time to check it.
Today was the day to see how effective our bolter guns could be with a little bit of spellcraft.
Loading the rounds I took aim above the shark people's position and unloaded a spray of shots. The rounds hit the top of the building and a magnified blast caused it to crumple forward, large sections of the building exploding outwards and falling down. This forced the shark people into the square again, some of course immediately attempted to get back into their position. At that exact moment however, wolves of the bipedal type appeared from one of the streets, howling their victory calls as they charged blades in hand into the chaos already forming in the Central square.
The shark people who had been in the other position attempted to support their fellow Xenos while also trying to keep our position pinned but wolves of the quadruple kind rushed them from behind, forcing them out of their position. Then, before me, was a melee. A rather large one at that.
As I watched more Marines started appearing and more shark people and Orks started joining the fight, coming in from various locations as they made their way to the high command. I couldn't exactly get off shots with my explosive ammunition now so I detached that magazine and brought back a normal one before grabbing my short chainsword in my left hand. I said, "well, looks like it's time to get a little bit up and close and personal, my wolves."
The Marines around me chuckled as my two wolves came up to either side of me. "Let's get in this fight," I said, before jumping down the steps of the headquarters and right into the square where the fighting had intensified more and more.
A shark person attempted to bite at me the moment I landed but I simply shoved my chainsword in its mouth and pulled up, cutting its head in half. Not the hardest thing to do considering their bone structure was rather weak compared to both species.
An Ork, seeing its ally slain, attempted to rush me then, wielding double chainaxes. I blasted away with my gun, several rounds pulling a little bit to the right and hitting another Ork behind it, but its head was blown off and that was the important part.
Another Ork tried its luck but my wolf Freki tackled it and immediately grabbed its head in its jaws before breaking its neck. The shark that had meanwhile been trying to sneak up on me from behind had Geri deal with that by simply grabbing its tail and ripping it off with his jaw, resulting in one of the most horrid screams I think I'd ever heard.
All around me was a good old-fashioned brawl, soldiers beating the hell out of other soldiers. Well from what I could see it was generally leaning in the Space Marines' direction. Yes, the shark folk were fast and agile and able to put a lot of bite pressure down when they brought their jaws to bear but Marines were almost as agile as them and tended to know, after our last couple fights against them, how to handle them. Which was to shove your sword into the brain. It wasn't that hard except for the more eel-like variance, though apparently none of them were here.
The Orks were, well, Orks. They were hard to kill but once they went down they were dead and the possible Dark Eldar, or Eldar, or whatever they called themselves contingent did not make themselves known in the fighting though I saw several Marines pulling shards out of their armor. More likely than not they were trying to shoot at us from the side of the battle, helping their allies while not getting too involved themselves.
Shoving my chainsword through another creature, this one not one of the two I knew so hurray a new Xeno. I wondered if I would get the name of it, I internally joked, as the creature fell over dead. I saw that the battle was starting to settle into a central line, my Space Wolves fighting their way to be around me as we slowly killed every Xeno in the square.
This was a bit concerning as, well, the more we became centralized the more kills we could rack up sure… But that also meant the chaos was abetting and the enemy could just focus on one point and send everything they had at it. Granted I think we could survive that but I would prefer not to end up in that situation. So I was already looking towards the former HQ to see if we could possibly fight our way to that as having them fight their way up the steps would be a deterrent and we could better organize there, possibly even form a second line of actual shooting infantry to try and push these things back.
However that never came to pass as, though we were now encircled, none of our men were also in the enemy ranks. This seemed to be the go-ahead for something to just light their ranks on fire.
From the edges of the square gouts of flame and gunfire rolled into the enemy ranks as Marines in green armor began to push forward, unleashing torrents of hellfire as they did.
The Orks immediately turned and charged into the fire, some even making it through only to be smashed in the head by what looked like giant hammers. The formation of the XVIIIth legion seemed rather tight and well-conceived for dealing with uncontrolled charging.
Said formation pushed onwards towards us, seeming to give no care to the enemy's attempts to stop them and just cutting them down as they did. They burned, cut, smashed and repeated the cycle as a square of Marines push forward from three of the 8 ways into the square.
The Orks and sharks that have been surrounding us slowly realized that the threat behind them was breaking them apart and began to retreat from our lines, allowing my men a moment's rest as the green formations hooked up on either side of our circle. This secured the immediate area and more troops, I saw, were already pushing down alleyways and streets around the square. I quickly saw the sharks notice that as well as they began retreating. The Orks, being Orks, simply took a breather before coming as one in one last charge, but we had room now to fire and we did. We unleashed a torrent of Volkyte and flamethrowers and bolter guns, the two forces blue and green quickly decimated The Orks as they charged us, rendering them into Gunk on the street. What was left either died or retreated, heading away and towards the other side of the city where they would either hold up or more likely retreat into the jungle area around here and start heading towards one of the more Northern settlements. This was unfortunate, maybe I would just send some flyers to see if they could get rid of them before they made it. Oh, it was totally possible that the enemy knew we were coming and where we had landed but they wouldn't know how we fought unless those men survived. I would prefer to keep that information in the correct hands as long as possible.
Holding up my wrist I was about to press a call button to call up the ship and ask for such things when I heard a voice behind me.
"Sister!" Came a very cheery and happy voice before I felt a pair of arms around my lower section and then all the air was forced out of my body as I was lifted into the air in a hug and swung around a bit before I was put down in my feet.
A bit discombobulated by that quick action I slowly turned, trying to keep my balance, and saw a bald man with skin as dark as coal "It's a wonder to finally meet you, my little sister. How little you are, father never mentioned it." He said, clapping his hand down on my shoulder and I felt somewhat like a nail being driven into the ground there with each strike. "Then again, father never actually mentioned that you were a sister. I had to figure that out on my own. He needs to lighten up about his secrets, I think."
I blinked as, well, I agreed with him on that but before I could try and ask any questions he stopped and said "Oh! Where are my manners?" He stepped back and bowed a bit before saying, "Good evening, sister. I am Vulkan of the Salamanders legion, it is an honor to meet the Wolf Lord although should she not be the Wolf Lady?"
Finally getting a moment to speak, I said, "Tanya will do. Ancient traditions though on the Wolf Lord bit, though if you prefer Wolf Lady that's perfectly fine. How exactly did you figure out that I was the Primarch here?"
Vulcan laughed out loud before saying "Well, even if you are short by my standard," and what a standard he must have, considering he probably was almost 15 to 16 ft, "You are the tallest person here and, well, I've never seen a female Space Marine. So I have to make the assumption that, seeing you are not only female and tall, you must be one of The Emperor's children. And he did say children when we first met and not sons."
"Huhn how reasonable!" I said, enjoying the fact that this Primarch had the ability to think through a situation to its ultimate conclusion. Perhaps all my brothers and sisters would be on my mental scale after all.
"Well," I nodded my head before answering, "Welcome to San Katos, brother Vulcan. We have many enemies to defeat and many people to free from the bondage of the forces of destruction." At that, I offered him my hand.
"Oh, I like that terminology." He replied, taking my hand and then pulling me into another hug, this time crushing me against his lower chest. If I was not convinced he was just a hugger I might be worried he was trying to kill me with how little oxygen I was getting there. But, as he let go, I simply took in a deep breath and patted my chest to get some air flowing as he said "Mind if I steal that in case I ever need to whip up forces against the forces of destruction?" I simply gave him a thumbs up as, at this point, I needed a moment to catch my breath.
Well this was going to be an interesting campaign, I mentally noted as I turned to look towards the headquarters. At least I'd get to work with another Primarch, that would be new
Writers note: oh look tanya family… sure dose love to give hugs… this chapter was experiment ing spreading things along, after all there were two campaign off screen but did we need to see everything of thoses campaign? I think summary for thoses two story are fine. And now we get to see tanya interact with her first sibling… how will go not sure… still working on it.
Edited by: Pierre, Michael Sauer
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- Location
- Home
Did Tanya check the nuked worlds for any tech or databases that survived? You said there was a few research worlds, and I doubt there wouldn't be any stored in a secure bunker.
Chapter 30, Wolf and Salamander family time.
Chapter 30, Wolf and Salmander family time.
844. M30
Tanya
San Katos
The planet of San Katos burned. Well, its cities at least. Across multiple fronts my legion and the forces of the salamander legion work together to destroy and break down every pirate holding there was from work to Eldar to several other variant species that I didn't know and of course the shark people but they seem to be more like hired muscle for whatever faction was willing to pay.
They must have been paid well because every faction was sending them in first to fight us and they were taking horrendous losses but they seem to care little for that. Was their morale just unbelievably high or did they just not care it was hard to say but either way we fought them and their Dark Eldar commanders as they continue to try and push us off the planet and failed miserably. I was trying to be very scalable about it all but the fact that there were Orks on this planet meant that I had to burn some sections of it just to be sure that we cleared out the fungal infections. Nothing on the level of new Vietnam. A name that had come to be a thing because I had muttered about the similarities between Vietnam and the planet we were fighting when we first arrived in the sector in front of someone who'd noted it down. Before I even had time to try and change that everyone was calling the planet New Vietnam, which was unfortunate. I'm sure the planet had some sort of name before I'd done that but now the only record read New Vietnam.
That being said the situation on the ground was completely handled between my Marines' skill at hunting mixed with Vulkan's Marines' skill at just burning everything down. They were quite effective at that, I acknowledged it. Together we were able to keep the enemy from getting in position to turn things around for themselves and, by my calculations, the planet would fall to our combined forces within 2 months. Maybe three if they pulled some sort of miracle.
Such as if we had trouble taking the capital, which was on our agenda for today.
The capital was a city fortress ringed by several walls on the edge of the Western sea. Well, maybe not the edge as several sections of the walled City actually floated on what was the sea. Many of their ships took advantage of this to just park right on the water.
In essence we were going to have to attack a massive naval harbor complex with infantry and other tricks it had been building up over the last few years. Casualties were expected to be relatively low, though with the amount of Shark people and Dark Eldars being a larger contingent of that city's population rather than just Orks it could be something different. Orcs were known to be more gung-ho about attacking in straight-up fights even when they thought they were doing sneak attacks. And though the Sharks tended to do the same they tended to do the same on the orders of the Orks. The Dark Eldars, a silly name as they seemed to just be Eldar but with Spikier armor from what I had seen so far, tended to favor night attacks and stealth attacks, which could make our losses a bit heavier if they got really good at sniping my men's weak points. Which, I will admit, had become a bit of an issue.
Weak points, I mean, when we talked of the Dark Eldars specifically set in the back area of the joints. I'd had a whole company devoted to finding out where every injury and damage had been taken on the armor ever since arriving on this planet, for the one goal of sending that information back to the Mechanicum as to let them know where the weaknesses were. Any improvement on the Mark 2, when it would be provided, would probably give us a lot of leeway in fighting the enemies of the future.
Back on the subject of the attack. We were going to have to attack a massive naval harbor, which meant we would need good precision in planning which is why I'd invited Vulkan to my ship for a conversation on the matter.
I would have liked to get started on this planning segment of the whole operation immediately but he had actually refused for two days now. Well refused was a bit of a harsher word, large segments of his legion were in contact with several forces across the planet and he simply didn't want to leave his men alone which was good commander instinct, to some extent.
He handled his troops in a way that was almost similar to mine in a way, treating them like his sons more than anything. Further than myself as I treated them as employees, good employees who did their jobs but simply employees. Still, I could get the notion of being there for your employees. But I would have preferred him to get his ass up to the ship so we could have a conversation on how we were going to proceed with the invasion of this half-water World City.
That being said he'd finally sent up a message that he would be attending the meeting, which was good. All I need to do was wait for them in my grand hall which I had made sure was set up with chairs that should be able to take his weight and my own, as well as chairs for Malcador who had said he wanted to meet Vulkan. General Vavem of the Squats was also attending since he was working on ways to bring his Land Train against a water City, something I did not think would work out but if he wanted to give it a try I wasn't going to stop him.
That's right where I was at the moment, sitting in the main hall with Malcador and waiting for Vulkan to arrive when Malcador asked a question I was not exactly expecting.
"So how are you enjoying fighting the Dark Eldar? I heard many things about them in my time, it seems like the kind of people that just would tick you off from what you've done in the Wheel of Fire."
I nodded my head at that, saying, "Oh they do annoy me, yes. I am not a fan of slavery at the worst of times and somehow they've found a way to go beyond slavery as a bondage issue to slavery as a sadistic issue." I had seen several of the slaves we'd freed from camps that had more of the Dark Eldar than the other species and they were all mutilated to some extent. The people I'd talked to who had survived the mutilations simply said that the pointy ears enjoyed causing pain, which was disgusting to me. Causing harm to another sentient for your own enjoyment was a level somehow beyond cannibalism in my levels of hatred. I had not thought anyone could get there but if anyone could do it it was those Eldars.
Shaking my head, I said, "If there is one species that, In my slowly growing opinion, needs to be removed from galactic politics for the foreseeable future, if not ever, it's these Dark Eldar. Even if they break the trope I was hoping to come across."
"Trope?" Malcador asked, his tone interested, and I sighed before answering, " Right, there was a trope in…" Remembering that the squad was sitting to my other side I decided to go with a little bit of misdirection that I'd let Malcador figure out. "In the legends of Fenris of creatures called darkness this or dark that weren't really evil, they just had darker skin tone."
"Huh? I've never heard of this trope back then." He said before shrugging. "Unfortunately the Dark Eldar are, well, one of the major surviving species of the Eldar empire that once existed. You've already met the Eldars that are considered the Craftworlders in the Wheel of Fire then there's the Dark Eldar who tend to be raiders and cause mayhem. There's also the Exodites which are, from what I can tell, Eldar that gave up all advanced technology to go live on a planet like their ancient ancestors."
I chuckled at that. "I wouldn't consider these full Dark Eldar though," he continued. "There are definitely Dark Eldar among them but I believe the majority of them must be the Corsair type, outcasts of the Craftworlds who have left for various reasons over the generations. Maybe some of them are on their way to becoming Dark Eldar I will note, it's not that hard to do for that species."
"Is it a cultural thing or a subspecies thing?" I finally asked, a bit confused by the wording.
"Both," Malcador said. "Maybe not genetic but most definitely cultural at the bare minimum. I've never actually spoken to any Eldar, I've mostly dealt with internal human politics. The Emperor has had a little bit more contact with them, I believe he even has a few friends amongst some of the Craftworlds out there. But the main difference between what's considered a Dark Eldar and an Eldar is sadistic torture. No one knows exactly why the darker variants are into that sort of thing but there are rumors, rumors I can't discuss right now." I had been watching his eyes and I saw where they went, noting that he'd gone to general Vavem which told me enough that these were top-tier highly classified rumors. The kind of knowledge that they didn't want spreading amongst the general population then.
Doesn't matter how high of a rank general Vavem is, he was a known braggart and I'd seen him talk quite a lot amongst his own people and our own during many drunken nights. More likely than not that if he was told something he might spill it, so better not to tell him.
Carefully, I bowed my head without revealing what I was doing to general Vavem, signaling I understood what Malcador was saying before adding. "These corsairs? Its an ancient Terran term for piracy, I believe. Is there any potential to use these pirates for our needs, possibly get them to surrender?"
Malcador shrugged before saying, "It's possible, we have actually hired a few groups like this in the past to work for us. They'll do the job if you pay them the right money though in this case I believe it's well past that point. As you pointed out to the shark folk a few months back, committing attacks on the subjects of the Imperium will not be taken lightly. This planet must be cleansed of its pirate population and that means no ships must be left around for them to be able to leave and go raiding."
"We offer them two paths then. They either die fighting or they surrender their vessels to be destroyed. They'll become Exodites on this planet, reduced to Stone age technology and left to be alone."
Malcador blinked for a moment, scratching his beard in thoughts, eventually saying, "That's not actually a bad idea. Reducing these pirates down to nothing more than Exodites could theoretically save us time. Granted I don't think you'll get the entire population to do it as the matter of if we have defeated all their ships outside this sector is still up in the air. If we simply destroy what's here and leave the population only for some ships to come in, well… It may slow down their attacks but they will pick up eventually."
I nodded, saying "That is a point of contention I hadn't considered. Well maybe we should offer them to surrender at the midpoint of the battle, once we've assured the complete destruction of their fleet and most of the city? Give those willing to give up their arms the chance to walk out into the jungles of the world and survive on whatever assets they can create through their own two hands."
"A wonderful idea, sister, if they weren't Dark Eldar." Came the booming voice of Vulkan as he entered from the end of the hall. He looked happy in his green and gold armor and he walked with a certain hop to his step that said that he was at home here on my ship.
"Is there a particular reason why them being somewhat connected to the Dark Eldar has a bearing on possibilities of getting them to surrender?" I asked, sitting back in my chair.
Vulkan shrugged before simply saying "My folk on my homeworld have always had to deal with Dark Eldar raids. My people will not accept their surrender, too many of our people have suffered at their hands. If some of them can prove that they are not Dark Eldar, or show that they have attempted to keep the Dark Eldar vices at Bay, maybe you might be able to get a few of them to be allowed to live. However I hold the opinion that the Dark Eldar and those who would consort with them must be eradicated from the Galaxy."
Genocide the Dark Eldar and genocide those adjacent to the Dark Eldar? I had simply wanted to remove them from political power in whatever Nation allowed them to do such criminally insane acts but apparently I was probably the nicest Primarch in this situation. Hope that was not a routine thing in the future.
Nodding my head I said, "Well, that is a point to consider. Perhaps they won't even give their surrender when we offer it, anyway. From what little of the Eldars I've seen they seem rather proud of who they are and are unlikely to take an offered surrender."
"This is true," Malcador concurred, nodding his head in approval. "They tend to be… Well, their hubris is the reason their empire no longer exists. Craftworlders do tend to be a little bit better than the Dark Eldars, it's mainly the Dark Eldars' fault that their empire no longer exists though so as you might expect the worst of the worst probably lead this band."
"Good," Vulkan said matter of factly, "I'd rather not have to deal with the Dark Eldar trying to falsely surrender." He pulled out a chair and sat down in front of me. The table in front of us had a small hole of a graphic projector on top of it, allowing us to have an overlook of the city from a man's perspective to give us an idea of every angle, and he immediately began observing it.
"Doubt they even gave that a thought." general Vavem said, "We fought them during the age of war and let me tell you… They do not offer or take surrender. They simply take what they want."
That raised my eyebrow. The way he said that sounded almost like he had been around during the Age of War, which theoretically should not be possible. From what I understood the Age of War had officially ended the moment the Imperium had arrived and there hadn't been major conflicts in this age for the last 500 years. How old did squats live however? I have to look into that.
Vulkan apparently had finished looking at the map, simply saying, "I could have my legion attack from the land there, wouldn't be that hard to push the Eldar and their minions to that front and keep them busy."
He pointed towards the front entrance, the most expected and hardest point to attack in my opinion since they had been digging trenches and fortifications. Or rather forced slaves to dig trenches and fortifications. There was probably a war crime in that but considering that if they were being used to dig trenches and fortifications they weren't being tortured I think the slaves were in a better position in the front lines than they would have been if we had not come down to the planet. And isn't that a dark thought when you think about it?
Definitely need to deal with the Dark Eldar when I got the chance to find out where they came from and burn it to the ground.
Putting that thought to the side though, I said, "Well my wolves aren't exactly known for Aerial combat but we do have quite a large supply of air transports. If you can keep the enemy focused on the front Gates I could probably drop my men right inside the city. Won't use drop pods though," I said, looking at the water areas of the city. Pods would probably burst through whatever structure was holding the building up and end up with a whole bunch of half-drowned Marines.
I mean there was the possibility that they would break through, go into the water, and then just swim back up. But still it would put them on the back foot. The enemy was preoccupied fighting soldiers at their front gate we wouldn't need rapid decent drop pods and could use regular landing craft easily enough.
"I think our new Land Train can help you get right up into that city rather easily." General Vavem said, looking at the map.
"Oh?" Vulkan asked. "What a Land train?" "What's a land train? Oh, you'll see, you'll see and you'll love it. Trust me, everyone loves a Land Train and this one… This one may soon be considered a Sea Train if I'm successful with the modifications," The general replied with a wide smile, before getting up from his seat and saying, "Which reminds me: if that plan is the basics of it I can get back to my ship and get to work on finishing those modifications. Is that right with everyone?"
"I believe that's everything," I said, looking at Vulkan. "Yes I think this general plan will be the main idea. we might have some points of interest that our Space Marines will have to talk about but if you need to get going to work on the project feel free."
General Vavem nodded his head and then gave a bow before saying, "Talk to you Giants later," and walked out, his pompadour hair popping up and down as he did.
"Strange little man," Vulkan noted, before saying "But I do want to see this Land Train."
"He's right about one thing, it is an enjoyable sight to watch those things crush their way across the battlefield. Even if they do have a tendency to get their wheels knocked off. Don't know how he's going to make it a Sea Train but I'm willing to see how he does it," I added.
Before continuing and saying "Anyway. What interrogations I've been able to get out of my men from the enemy indicate this building," I pointed to a place near the center of the city, a small chateau-like mansion with a large swimming area, that either was a personal landing pad for a vessel or just a large swimming area for some sort of sharky parties, "may be the house of the ruler of this planet, a man going by the name of Bazhasath. He's been in charge for nearly 3,000 years although one guy said something like 8,000 years so it's hard to say. Either way we take that central point and we'll probably cut off whatever lines of communication hold the city together. With the chaos caused we can break the enemy's lines from behind and allow your men to enter the city."
Vulkan nodded his head in a subtle agreement, before commenting, "Most of the city seems to be made of wood. If there were no slaves in it I would recommend we just dump some explosive and fire-combusting material across the city to burn it all down."
I nodded. "I noted that as well but, as I said, perhaps after the battle we'll do that. There are plenty of land-based cities across the planet to settle any slaves that don't know where they came from so they can build up their new lives here. No reason to keep that seaport though, it will probably be just full of the holes that we're going to leave, I'd be surprised if much is left standing after it's all over."
Vulkan nodded just I was saying that, "I would agree to leave it full of holes and leave the Eldars nothing. If we can burn it all down we should." I nodded before adding "Still, we should probably be on the lookout for any relics in this city. If this planet has been colonized by humanity some time in the past and then taken over by the Eldar and their subjects here on this planet sometime in the last 8000 years, that means there could be things that the Mechanicum would be interested in."
Vulkan nodded his head in agreement before saying "If there are any relics I think they're in that central mansion. I know Eldar and they usually keep everything they consider worth something to them close at hand."
I nodded at that, before a thought occurred to me, "Close at hand as in ready to be grabbed to run away or close at hand because they just enjoy the look."
Vulkan shrugged before saying, "Both, I guess."
Looking at the pool that could be a personal landing pad I wondered. Could they have stashed a ship under the water there? Scanning hadn't been done to see if there were things beneath the water and it would make sense to hide your escape vessel where your enemy would not be totally expecting it to be. I would issue some orders about that to make sure that, when the attack went off, if there was a vessel there it was not getting away.
My thoughts on that though were interrupted as Vulkan leaned back in his chair and said, "Well I think we've discussed the matters of importance for this operation now. Sister, let us talk as family! I barely know anything about you and I'm sure you barely know anything about me as Father is rather secretive about our family. Tell me, what is your homeworld like?"
I smiled and quipped, "Cold. Real cold, there's ice almost all year long and a year is two Terran years. For about 3 months out of the Year there is a period that is almost warm enough that the entire continent dethaws but the oceans are so boiling hot that it's not safe to be near. There are monsters you would not believe in the water, ones who pull ships under when they try to make voyages around that time of year, cutting them people off from each other. Fenris is a tough world, one that weeds out weakness and favors the strong but, through hard work and determination, people can master its conditions and thrive. That's what I think I've proven the last few decades of my rule."
"Sounds hazardous though not much more hazardous than my own, though less cold and much hotter. Prometheus is a world of fire and lava though there are other conditions like your planet. During certain times of the year it gets rather cold in fact but for the most part the massive Moon that orbits our world draws out fire and flame, polluting our sky with smoke and causing rivers to run with alkaline and other not-so-healthy chemicals."
"How do your people survive in such conditions?" I had to ask, Fenris was dangerous because of its cold and monsters but fire was something on a level that I just didn't think anyone could survive in.
"Hard work. The population lives in great underground cities for the most part. We do go up to the surface now and again and we have to fight off the Dark Eldar when they make raids. Survival has made us stronger, I think."
I chuckled at that, "Seems humanity has a way of surviving the worst and coming out better for it." I wouldn't be surprised if that was true. Although I was curious that, of the Primarchs I'd have met so far at least two, counting myself, had ended up on what would be considered Deathworlds and one of them ended up on what could be considered a crime-ridden hell hole. I wondered if that's going to be a theme with our other siblings.
"Well, it very well could be. I guess if it was something we all shared then, that great adversity making us stronger and giving us a better chance of surviving these coming Crusade to unite humanity. Perhaps it was a good thing," Vulkan mused.
I nodded at that before saying, "A rather large task that Father has given us. I believe that trying to unite us across the Stars will take a long time, unless of course the Imperium is just so successful in its efforts to unite humanity that we just start to draw in civilizations who want to be part of this success."
Vulkan replied with enthusiasm, "Well that's why we're out here, to show that we are the most successful at building humanity up I would assume. I fought on three campaigns so far but most of them were against Orks and the results of all three were bringing in several human federations that were interested in the protection the Imperium would offer."
I smiled at that before saying "I think I've been on three myself at this point and the campaign of the Wheel of Fire was a long one, most of them have been against Orks as well but there was one species that was in my opinion worse than the Orks."
"Are they as bad as the Dark Eldar?" He asked. Man, I had to sit back in my chair to think. It was a good question, the Taralaiss had been sort of evil bastards but there had been some logic to it… I couldn't see what logic the Dark Eldar had for just torturing people except self-gratification and even that was the most disgusting version of logic I think I could come up with. "I guess I could say better than the Dark Eldar but not by much, they were willing to genocide several hundred farming worlds mostly populated by humans out of sheer pettiness at losing their rule."
Vulkan nodded and said, "What happened to them?"
"Not sure I can say. After I defeated their forces, destroyed their communication networks, and left their planet pretty much reduced to a stone age I left it to the Administratum to deal with. I would assume that they've probably imparted several warnings and fines on the Taralaiss left on that planet and we'll have to figure out some way to pay them back for several genocides and attempted genocide they are responsible for."
Vulkan sighed before saying, "If they're that dangerous wouldn't it be better to just wipe them out completely? After all what if they get the ability to commit the genocide they were prevented from doing this time?"
"They can definitely never be allowed to get to a tech level where that would be possible again but just wiping the entire planet out is a waste of resources, better to make the few survivors of that war work for us than wipe them out and get nothing from them. Besides if we just destroy everything we come across because we can it makes us no better than the Orks. Destroying civilization because we can is what they do. We need to be better than that in my opinion, build things up even if we have to knock a few things down to do it."
Malcador coughed and laughed at that moment, before saying, "Are you sure about that? I mean didn't the Orks build up their own civilization after they knocked down human civilization?"
Well damn it, I mentally thought before I nodded my head, admitting his remark, "Good point. I think I let myself get a little too focused on the humanity aspect of civilization there."
"Oh in one sense that's a good thing, "Malcador said. "Remember that one of the reasons the federation that once held all beings together fell apart is because we trusted the Xenos to be loyal in times of hardships. When those time came, they decided to go build their own empires on human worlds. The realities of the Galaxy are complex but also simple. Yes, we all want to build civilization. But we all have to decide which civilization we want to exist in. Do we want to live in a brutal Ork society or do we want to live in a human society that at least will attempt to create some sort of peace? The Orks will always fight against us and other species have already shown that they will betray us if we turn our back on them. If we can find the few that are willing to work for us and be contained within their systems that's fine, but they have to prove that they didn't do anything during the Old Night. If it turns out that they did do something then they are not trustworthy and I expect that the Administratum will not be taking kindly to any planet that can be proven to have betrayed us during the Old Night."
That raised an eyebrow. I turned to look at him, "What do you mean they won't be taking it kindly?"
Malcador shrugged before saying, "Well I would not be surprised to hear that that planet will be given just the bare minimum of supplies to survive and they'll just try and let nature take its course."
"Oh." I muttered as what that meant sunk in.
"What does that mean?" Vulkan queried, slightly curious of my reaction.
Taralais had been a world covered in cityscapes, they had to bring in food from those farm worlds. If those farm worlds output were, let us say, redirected to Imperium worlds there would be no food coming. At least not in an amount that could support several billion people. "We destroyed quite a bit of the infrastructure on the planet to begin with, which means they have a food deficit."
"Oh. Vulkan mirrored me, seeming to get exactly what I was going at.
"They'll either have to work together to survive or die out, and their civilization will never be able to recover to anything close to what it was before they were visited by your wolves." Malcador said matter of factly before continuing, "Plus, from what I saw, they had all their records on digital so, having no power, they can't maintain their records anymore. I imagine that world will quickly fall apart into post-apocalyptic barbarian strongholds. Not too dissimilar to what Terra endured during the Old Night."
"Haven't we then just set ourselves up for a repeating of the cycle? We were put through the Old Night, now we put them through their own Night. What's going to stop them from crusading in 15,000 years?" I asked, not liking the implication that we had just sown the seeds of our own possible destruction.
"Well, if they survive, I imagine you two will still be around to stop them. No, I doubt they'll be given the opportunity to completely rebuild. More likely that, in a thousand years or so, someone will try to begin a process of colonizing worlds that have been left to go fallow as their environments rebuild themselves. By that time that planet will have been added to that collection of worlds and, if there is any survivors of that species, they will be integrated during the colonization or dealt with by the settlers."
Well that was rather dark, I mused. I hadn't really considered the fact that humankind might even want to get a little bit of revenge for the Old Night but I couldn't exactly say anything about it. This is just how humanity worked.
Well that made it clear that every civilization I got to surrender without getting themselves destroyed had a better chance of surviving the new order we were creating. I'd have to keep that in mind when dealing with future civilizations and never forget that every civilization that I brought to near destruction would probably have the job finished by the Administratum.
Nodding my head I simply said "Well that's good to know, but I hope the Administratum doesn't get too comfortable with that method of dealing with problems. More likely than not that it will make more problems for us in the future. Simply trying to cut off a civilization and letting die alone will most likely result in unexpected consequences."
Malcador nodded his head, agreeing, as he said, "Yes, let's hope they come up with a few better methods when dealing with troublesome issues such as those Xenos. As much as they have it coming some could probably be of use in the Imperium. Perhaps some form of the way you handled those sharks, that was a rather splendid way of dealing with them. Finding out what they wanted and offering it to them in exchange for promises. If they ever break those promises it's not good for them but if they stay true to them they will have a good place in the galaxy under the Imperium. We can always use warriors that are well adapted to fights on Ocean Worlds."
"Hmm, about that…" I looked at the map and said, "I wonder how honorable those mercenaries are? Is their honor only to coin or are they true to their word?"
"What are you thinking, sister?" Vulkan asked, leaning forward. I shrugged before saying "Well we have a deal with the shark people's homeworld and there are's shark people here. I wonder if we offered them payment to switch sides, would they do it? If they did that would give us an actual force they could swim up right on the city and cause mayhem in some of its ports just before we launch the Aerial landings."
"Hmm?" Malcador seemed to think about that before saying "Well it's not a bad idea perhaps, worth investigating. It'll also give us an idea of how well we can trust these shark people, at least outside their system. We'll know if they are honorable to their word or if they'll backstab us the moment someone offers them more money."
I nodded and said, "If the employer believes you will switch sides for a little bit of money they're unlikely to employ you. At the bare minimum that will either encourage the shark people to be more honorable to their word or we'll know for a fact we can't trust them and can't use them in conflicts unless it's so far away that they can't risk upsetting their employers."
Vulkan asked "How do we get in contact with the mercenaries then? After all they're shooting at us when we're in range of them."
"Good point, perhaps a parlay between one of the battlefronts? We can find out where the majority of their troops are and try and pull that. It might be successful though that'll be dependent on them knowing and respecting a parlay."
"It'll take a couple days to get everything together for this attack anyway so we can put down some standing orders to try and get in contact with the shark folks. At worse nothing happens, at best we have a little bit more firepower for the assault on the city."
Vulkan nodded before saying "It's worth a shot, every one of those sharks that died fighting for us is one of our children who survived so it's worth seeing if we can pull it off. Though what exactly would we pay these shark folk with? I'm not exactly familiar with their currency and I doubt they take the imperial money yet."
I snorted before saying, "I believe sooner or later they will go on the imperial credit but right now they're using Ork credits, or teeth. Before I set out from the Wheel of Fire I made sure to take a large stockpile of their so-called money into the vaults of my ship, one never knows when we need to might pay off Orks to fight each other and It seemed better to have Ork money at hand if I ever had to recruit Orks".
Vulkan said, rubbing his chin, "I might have to do that myself the next Ork fight I get into, sounds like a good way to keep the Orks from unifying into something worse if we just pay them to fight each other."
"Exactly," I noted, "though of course we would have to fight them eventually, never fighting an enemy just leads to what happened with Byzantium and Rome: you paid them off and they got somewhere else, inevitably coming back. No better to pay them off to fight each other, to keep each other weak, and then step in to destroy both sides." It was a more solid plan in the long run.
Vulkan nodded, saying, "Understanding your enemy and using that understanding to ensure that we win? Not a bad way of doing things. Personally I just prefer to light things on fire and return it to Ash when it's a problem but making things easier on us is not a bad idea. I'll definitely have to see about using this method in the future."
Cracking my neck I got up from my chair and said, "well, I think we've concluded the initial planning and we've got to know each other a bit better. Is there anything you want to talk about, brother?"
He got up, towering above me as he cracked his own neck, and said, "Not particularly, though I quite enjoyed our chat today. I think we should do it more, creating good relations between the legions and our family is probably one of the more important aspects that we need to do during this crusade."
I chuckled at that, "Same, you sound like Father."
He smiled, obviously taking that as a compliment. "Good. That's where I got the idea from, well I have to admit it's one of these strong suits of my people. Close family connections is how we survive."
I nodded at that and moved around the table to hold out my hand so we could shake, "Well then, to a successful campaign here on San Catos."
"To a successful campaign," he said, reaching out to take my hand. However before both of us could start shaking we both froze. I don't know why he froze exactly though I could take a guess as I felt a presence enter the sector, one heavy with weight and pride. We both blinked as we somewhat tried to make sense of what was going on though Malcador commented first on what we were both thinking.
Laughing he got up from his chair but didn't put it back into place. He said, "Looks like your father has come to say hello, about time. He said he would be here years ago, I wonder how many Primarchs he got sidetracked with." Shaking his head he tapped his staff against the ground as he started to walk towards the elevator that went up to the bridge.
"Come along you two, I'm sure your father has much to talk about with you and I'm sure he has thoughts on this whole crusade up to now. Perhaps he'll even tell us about your other siblings? Quite annoying that he keeps these things to himself in my opinion."
I nodded before finishing the shake for which I had given my hand to Vulkan in the first place and said, "Well, then I guess our meeting is not over yet."
"Yes, it would appear so. Father is a busy man so whatever he's here for must be rather important."
I laughed at that before saying "It's just as likely he's here because he heard two of his children were meeting for the first time and wanted to be here for it, he seems like that kind of father."
Vulkan laughed at that. "I will admit he does seem to enjoy the aspect of being a father, even if he seems to have been denied the whole raising the children part. Though perhaps he just brings orders for us on our next campaign after this one."
"If we're sent on the same campaign that means it's a pretty terrible place, considering I was sent on a campaign that was supposed to last 10 years with minimal support from legions that did not have a Primarch. Sending two legions with their Primarchs would mean a nightmare scenario in my mind, Some great unknown threatening to invade Imperial space and coming to defeat us all or some such nonsense."
"Huh," He said, thinking on that before saying "That is a rather dour take. If that's the realities of the Galaxy that means we would never really run into each other, except by accident or when a massive emergency was coming to be an issue. That's a rather sad thing."
I shook my head brushing my hair back a bit with my hand and said "It's a sad thing but I think we'll probably, as the war goes on, get more time to ourselves. We'll be able to have a little bit of free time for meetings away from the war and the other exhausting activities that we will generally be doing all the time. Good management always makes time for that sort of stuff, bad management would run us all ragged and leave us tired of Father before we even got to the whole Imperium thing being a galactic thing. Considering he did manage to conquer Earth all by himself and his original legions I would think he knows how to manage a campaign correctly. We'll get our time to be generally family as the years go on."
Vulkan nodded his head in agreement before slapping his hand down on my shoulder… Which actually hurt, surprisingly much more than I expected. Seemed that he got a little bit more strength than he knew what to do with I immediately thought as he spoke, "That is a wonderful way of looking at the world. Yes, things are currently chaotic and we need to run around and fix things, but once things calm down we'll have more time to ourselves. That is a lovely thought. And by that same thought the sooner we get everything chaotic dealt with, the sooner we can have that time. Let us go meet Dad and find out what wondrous adventures he has planned for us so we can have that time to be a family."
Man, Vulkan could be really upbeat when he wanted to be. It was kind of infectious because even I was smiling at the idea of adventures to get to a peaceful retirement.
Tanya Russ
"Vulkan, Tanya, good to see you!" came the booming voice of Father as he stepped onto the bridge of the vessel. he seemed to have shrunk a foot or two, probably to fit inside.
"Good to see you too Fath-" I didn't get to finish that word as he took both of us into a giant hug, getting a rather good squeeze of it too. I needed to take a breath after he let go, slapping both of us on our shoulders. He said, "I've been paying attention to both your dispatches and you seem to have been doing great jobs out there. I would come by and say it more often but tracking down your brothers and sisters is a bit of a hassle."
"Sisters?" I queried, raising an eyebrow. I was aware of my condition being related to possible being X meddling so the fact that there might be more sisters was a bit concerning at the bare minimum and made me wonder what their souls had been before being ripped out of the Warp to be used as the internal core of these bodies.
But, unfortunately, my question went unanswered as he simply said "I don't want to spoil the moment for you, you'll meet them sooner or later." He then simply stepped past us further onto the bridge, his Custodes right behind him taking up positions of guarding.
Looking down at the planet through the windows he mused out loud as he said. "I see you two are having fun cleaning up some Xenos who have been problems in this area for millennia."
"Yes, Father," Vulkan said seeming proud of his work. "We've just been discussing how we are going to remove these Xenos as a threat to the future of the Imperium and we're planning the final assault on their main capital."
He nodded and said, "Good, good. The more secure we get this area of space the better it'll be in the future."
Stepping forward and being a little bit inquisitive about this matter I decided to ask a question that had been on my mind for a while now. "Father, what Primarchs have been found since I left Terra for the Wheel of Fire campaign?"
He chuckled and said "Don't even need to ask if any were before I say it? Good, finding Intel is a good skill." Looking out the window he said "Well if we're just to go with the ones that have been found since you left… In order it was the Primarch of the 13th legion, which you opened the gateway to find, then the Primarch of the 15th who is actually on my ship right now though I'm still getting them up to speed on certain things so your meeting with them will have to wait. The Primarch of the 9th legion and the Primarch of the first legion, who I think you'll get along with really well, were next."
"And the Primarch of the fourth legion, which has been reconnected to their legion recently…" He seemed to look annoyed for a moment, before shaking his head and sighing. "Though they are still learning the ropes of it but they are very effective at what they do."
He shook his head again before saying, "Besides that I'm running down a few leads on a few possible other Primarchs. I expect that number to grow by four more by the end of the next decade with any luck."
"I thought it an insane task to find 20 people across a galaxy, but finding 12 of us already and four more to come that quickly is impressive. And with that done there will be only four more brothers and possibly sisters missing out there. I'd say as insane a project that it is to try and find 20 missing people across an entire galaxy you're doing an excellent job at that, Father."
"Why, thank you. But you don't need to butter me up, Tanya, that Wheel of Fire campaign already did that." He looked at me, eyes full of mirth before continuing, "Getting rid of those raiders opened up a trade route to the other side of the Galaxy and we found one of your siblings because of that. Then I found that they had acquired almost an entire empire out there, I am impressed with them. And I can't wait for the day you two work together, really. Something tells me that's going to be terrifying for the enemies of Terra, seeing the second and the 13th coming at them.
That raised an eyebrow. So the 13th was someone that I would get along with? Well I'd have to look into that but I wished he wasn't being so wishy-washy about the details. Sure it was somewhat amusing to discover them on my own and I was sure I would meet them sooner or later so it wasn't like I needed to know who they were right now. Still I would admit that if I knew who they were now it would allow me to do a lot more prep work for our meetings, to make sure that we would have a better starting working relationship. And a good working relationship was key to any business objective, be it acquiring money or acquiring planets.
My thoughts were interrupted as another of The Emperor's Custodes entered, this one wearing the most uptight of uniform codes I think I'd seen amongst them. Most seemed to embellish their armor in some way but this one seemed to be by the book to a level that was somewhat impressive. He was carrying a long cylinder of some type, covered in a fabric sock, and he approached the Emperor before offering it to him. "There you go, my Lord." He said with a cheery tone
"Ah, Katyan. Thank you, I almost forgot about this, " He said, taking the pole before motioning me forward. "Wish I could have done this sooner, Tanya, but we are on a clock. Every day some human civilization is facing an Extinction event and we must save as much as we can, so we must do what we can in the field."
Pulling the red sock off the Pole revealed it to be a golden spear with intricate carvings and I could see bits of runecraft in some areas of it.
"Primarch Russ, leader of the sixth legion, the wolves of Fenris. For accomplishing the conquest of the Wheel of Fire, I present to you a weapon I forged during the bad days. This is one of the first weapons I forged to try and help rebuild humanity on terra. This is the Dionysian Spear. A spear that grants enlightenment to those that it pierces."
"Thank you, Father," I replied, taking the offered weapon and immediately feeling power flowing through it. There was something unnatural about it and I could tell that just by touching it. That spear almost reminded me of… Well, whatever it was reminding me of was giving me a headache so probably something from my second life. And my eye twitched in a way that apparently was obvious to the Emperor as he reached out his hand and put it on my shoulder, leaning in and saying, "You don't need to take a full on piercing. Slice your hand on it when you get the chance, I think it will help."
I blinked as I realized what exactly he was implying. This might help me remember my second life, which had two indications in my mind: One that the emperor was a damn good boss that was looking out for me. Of course he considered me his child so there was a little bit of that mixed in there but the important part was that I had landed an employer who was going to look out for me. This was a much better situation than I had in my second life if the memories I did recover had anything to say about it.
The other thing was that my headaches would soon be a thing of the past, because no matter how much I was disliking the feeling that was coming off of this spear… The possibility to get rid of the headaches and find out what I had lost was too much of an opportunity not to take it. So far I had been lucky that none of the headaches had ever come during a combat, as it could have been disastrous for my life. It didn't mean that would never happen so getting rid of the headaches would improve my chances of survival. Finding out what happened in my last life would also explain some things at the very minimum and rob this Being X of any satisfaction it may have had for throwing me into the Warp.
Smiling at this realization I simply said, "I will, Father! Thank you for holding on to the spear." while wondering what exactly it would show me when I got the chance later."
With that done he moved on to Vulkan and, clapping him on the shoulder, exclaimed, "And I've heard you've been having a good time campaigning, Vulkan. All reports I've been reading indicate that we'll see the Imperial Army enjoy their time working with your men quite dearly and civilian casualties are close to absolute zero which is rather unusual. Even Tanya over here has mentioned several civilian casualties in her anti-slavery raids."
"Thank you, Father!" Vulkan said, nodding his head. "I do my best."
The Emperor tapped him on the chest and said, "Keep doing your best as it seems to be the right way to do it. We're going to restore humanity to the place we had before the Old Night and we need to be shining examples of how humanity can stand amongst the Stars. You two are doing a great job of creating that example."
"Thank you, Father!" We both said, bowing our heads.
He simply smiled before clapping us on the shoulders and saying, "Well, now that we've had a bit of overall boost to morale I think it's time we retire from this claustrophobic bridge and head down to the main hall I believe is on this ship." He said, looking towards the elevator. "It has been a long voyage from Olympia. I would like to hear more of what you two have been up to outside of the combat reports I've been receiving. We could have a nice meal together while we talk."
"Of course, Father. Should we invite our other sibling on your vessel to join us?" I asked, poking at the obvious question that should be asked."
He chuckled and replied, "They're not ready to meet and you, they're currently busy going through almost every book in the entire library on that ship so I think they'd say no even if I offered."
"Interesting," I said, mentally noting that this still unknown Primarch was a bookworm. I'd Have to keep my eyes on that for future interests, having someone who is well-read and intelligent as a comrade was something that was always useful in a conflict. I would have to hope he was good about actually doing his job and not some slacker. Trying to work with an individual who is no better than a neet could be rather annoying.
Emperor seemed ready to head out with both of us before suddenly stopping to look at Malcador. "That explains why there's a large stockpile of paperwork at the palace nowadays."
Malcador immediately chuckled and said, "Well, what can I say. I've been trapped on Terra for a long time and I thought I'd go on a little adventure."
"Teaching Tanya how to use her gifts, I assume?" The emperor requested, folding his arm and looking a bit amused.
"Reteaching more than anything, she's got a good head and she's had teaching before as you already know. She just needed a little bit of a refresher."
"Well that's good but I have to ask if your adventure is coming to an end anytime soon. Because the Administratum is asking someone to fill out that paperwork and I'm needed at the front looking for the Lost Primarchs."
Malcador sagged before saying, "Okay, okay. I'll be on the next ship heading to Terra, is that fine?"
"Perfectly fine, that being said, come join us for a little drink, eat, and make merry."
Tanya Russ
Well I'm going to need to stockpile up on more supplies, I thought, as I stumbled back to my room using my newly acquired spear as a walking stick. Considering we drank enough to get us a little bit buzzed…
Granted I was pretty sure I had mentally turned off parts of my ability to filter out poisons again so I was getting the full effect that way. If I wanted to I could turn it back on but well sometimes you just needed to be drunk.
For the last 7 hours I think we had just partied, drank, and had long talks about our first meetings. Vulkan seemed rather surprised that I had technically won the contest against Emperor. He apparently had pulled the same trick he pulled on me, showing up as some unknown stranger. Except he actually, technically, won in the end.
I was surprised that Emperor had pulled that trick twice and asked if he just enjoyed showing up, which got a bit of a laugh from him and an answer of maybe. That was a 'probably, yes' in my book.
Both Vulkan and I had tried to get the first meeting of the Emperor and Malcador out of them both but the Emperor had left it off and said it was too long ago and he didn't remember while Malcador had simply teased that some secrets are best kept secret or they're not worth keeping.
Rather infuriating but if they wanted to keep their secrets they could do it. It's not like it was a matter of life or death and I'm sure with a little bit more work someone would get it out of them. Perhaps, when the crusade was over, we'd get them so drunk they would just spill it… Something to keep in mind and attempt.
That being said I was too drunk to do anything more than stumble into my room after opening the door. I think I opened the door? Why was there a hole in the wall? I was too drunk to deal with this right now. I stumbled over to my bed and sat down, starting to pull off what armor pieces I had on, before laying back and looking up at the ceiling.
It was rather plain compared to what I'd grown accustomed to at the start of this life, just metal separating the decks. Perhaps I should hire an artisan next time I was on Fenris; have them improve the general look of my room. I was after all a king and Primarch, a general with quite a bit of experience under their hat. At this point it would be expected of someone of my status to have a degree of opulence in their main room.
Shaking my head I tried to get up but fell back in the bed, realizing that I was not going to be doing much today. That being said as I looked around my room I noticed the spear was right next to me. Seeing that I didn't have anything else to do figured that I might as well get this over with so, pulling off my armored glove, I took the spear and looked at it a bit closer. It was gold, with a golden eagle near the top as a sort of blocker to prevent it from going in too deep and getting stuck. It felt rather impressive but had a weird boxed-in form that made me wonder if there was not a bolter gun hidden beneath the eagle.
I'd have to examine it closer when I was more conscious, see if it was capable of that. If it could function as a rifle as well as a spear that would be useful, though my bolter rifle would probably be better than an up-gunned spear.
Shrugging I lowered the spear till I looked at the blade, which looked rather nicely done. Father had made this? he was a good Craftsman, that's for sure. Shaking my head I wondered if I needed to think of something before I did it but Father had not exactly given me a good explanation of what to do. So I thought 'why do I have these headaches?' before running my hand along the blade, cutting it rather nastily as I flipped some blood across the room.
Nothing seemed to be happening so I wondered if I'd done something wrong and then I blinked and there was a tree in my room. I blinked once again and it was snowing, a couple more blinks and my room just started to dissolve more and more until I was no longer lying on my bed but was laid in a field of snow then trees. Confused I looked up and saw a rather familiar sight. It was the Moon, as I had remembered it. There was no city or even any light, it was a dead world exactly as it had been for most of humanity's existence. At least before this life. I blinked once more and everything simply flashed out of existence as I lost track of everything.
What had happened simply needed to be experienced to understand I figured, as everything seemed to flow together before reforming and I found myself lying in the snow with a massive pain in my chest and 6 feet smaller.
Writers note: and there we go this chapter gives couple interesting things i think will not send folk thue the roof no siry… by they way have bunker ment with stand virus bombs, i be in that for nex 2 weeks.
Seriously though bit an issues that popped up Pierre gotten a new job and is moving so he not going to have as much time as he has had for some time, this could be an issues with getting chapter out, so this golden opportunity for the Community editers if you edited this work in the past contact me anyway you can and i see if i can't add you to the discord to help with getting theses chapters out.
Edited by: Pierre
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844. M30
Tanya
San Katos
The planet of San Katos burned. Well, its cities at least. Across multiple fronts my legion and the forces of the salamander legion work together to destroy and break down every pirate holding there was from work to Eldar to several other variant species that I didn't know and of course the shark people but they seem to be more like hired muscle for whatever faction was willing to pay.
They must have been paid well because every faction was sending them in first to fight us and they were taking horrendous losses but they seem to care little for that. Was their morale just unbelievably high or did they just not care it was hard to say but either way we fought them and their Dark Eldar commanders as they continue to try and push us off the planet and failed miserably. I was trying to be very scalable about it all but the fact that there were Orks on this planet meant that I had to burn some sections of it just to be sure that we cleared out the fungal infections. Nothing on the level of new Vietnam. A name that had come to be a thing because I had muttered about the similarities between Vietnam and the planet we were fighting when we first arrived in the sector in front of someone who'd noted it down. Before I even had time to try and change that everyone was calling the planet New Vietnam, which was unfortunate. I'm sure the planet had some sort of name before I'd done that but now the only record read New Vietnam.
That being said the situation on the ground was completely handled between my Marines' skill at hunting mixed with Vulkan's Marines' skill at just burning everything down. They were quite effective at that, I acknowledged it. Together we were able to keep the enemy from getting in position to turn things around for themselves and, by my calculations, the planet would fall to our combined forces within 2 months. Maybe three if they pulled some sort of miracle.
Such as if we had trouble taking the capital, which was on our agenda for today.
The capital was a city fortress ringed by several walls on the edge of the Western sea. Well, maybe not the edge as several sections of the walled City actually floated on what was the sea. Many of their ships took advantage of this to just park right on the water.
In essence we were going to have to attack a massive naval harbor complex with infantry and other tricks it had been building up over the last few years. Casualties were expected to be relatively low, though with the amount of Shark people and Dark Eldars being a larger contingent of that city's population rather than just Orks it could be something different. Orcs were known to be more gung-ho about attacking in straight-up fights even when they thought they were doing sneak attacks. And though the Sharks tended to do the same they tended to do the same on the orders of the Orks. The Dark Eldars, a silly name as they seemed to just be Eldar but with Spikier armor from what I had seen so far, tended to favor night attacks and stealth attacks, which could make our losses a bit heavier if they got really good at sniping my men's weak points. Which, I will admit, had become a bit of an issue.
Weak points, I mean, when we talked of the Dark Eldars specifically set in the back area of the joints. I'd had a whole company devoted to finding out where every injury and damage had been taken on the armor ever since arriving on this planet, for the one goal of sending that information back to the Mechanicum as to let them know where the weaknesses were. Any improvement on the Mark 2, when it would be provided, would probably give us a lot of leeway in fighting the enemies of the future.
Back on the subject of the attack. We were going to have to attack a massive naval harbor, which meant we would need good precision in planning which is why I'd invited Vulkan to my ship for a conversation on the matter.
I would have liked to get started on this planning segment of the whole operation immediately but he had actually refused for two days now. Well refused was a bit of a harsher word, large segments of his legion were in contact with several forces across the planet and he simply didn't want to leave his men alone which was good commander instinct, to some extent.
He handled his troops in a way that was almost similar to mine in a way, treating them like his sons more than anything. Further than myself as I treated them as employees, good employees who did their jobs but simply employees. Still, I could get the notion of being there for your employees. But I would have preferred him to get his ass up to the ship so we could have a conversation on how we were going to proceed with the invasion of this half-water World City.
That being said he'd finally sent up a message that he would be attending the meeting, which was good. All I need to do was wait for them in my grand hall which I had made sure was set up with chairs that should be able to take his weight and my own, as well as chairs for Malcador who had said he wanted to meet Vulkan. General Vavem of the Squats was also attending since he was working on ways to bring his Land Train against a water City, something I did not think would work out but if he wanted to give it a try I wasn't going to stop him.
That's right where I was at the moment, sitting in the main hall with Malcador and waiting for Vulkan to arrive when Malcador asked a question I was not exactly expecting.
"So how are you enjoying fighting the Dark Eldar? I heard many things about them in my time, it seems like the kind of people that just would tick you off from what you've done in the Wheel of Fire."
I nodded my head at that, saying, "Oh they do annoy me, yes. I am not a fan of slavery at the worst of times and somehow they've found a way to go beyond slavery as a bondage issue to slavery as a sadistic issue." I had seen several of the slaves we'd freed from camps that had more of the Dark Eldar than the other species and they were all mutilated to some extent. The people I'd talked to who had survived the mutilations simply said that the pointy ears enjoyed causing pain, which was disgusting to me. Causing harm to another sentient for your own enjoyment was a level somehow beyond cannibalism in my levels of hatred. I had not thought anyone could get there but if anyone could do it it was those Eldars.
Shaking my head, I said, "If there is one species that, In my slowly growing opinion, needs to be removed from galactic politics for the foreseeable future, if not ever, it's these Dark Eldar. Even if they break the trope I was hoping to come across."
"Trope?" Malcador asked, his tone interested, and I sighed before answering, " Right, there was a trope in…" Remembering that the squad was sitting to my other side I decided to go with a little bit of misdirection that I'd let Malcador figure out. "In the legends of Fenris of creatures called darkness this or dark that weren't really evil, they just had darker skin tone."
"Huh? I've never heard of this trope back then." He said before shrugging. "Unfortunately the Dark Eldar are, well, one of the major surviving species of the Eldar empire that once existed. You've already met the Eldars that are considered the Craftworlders in the Wheel of Fire then there's the Dark Eldar who tend to be raiders and cause mayhem. There's also the Exodites which are, from what I can tell, Eldar that gave up all advanced technology to go live on a planet like their ancient ancestors."
I chuckled at that. "I wouldn't consider these full Dark Eldar though," he continued. "There are definitely Dark Eldar among them but I believe the majority of them must be the Corsair type, outcasts of the Craftworlds who have left for various reasons over the generations. Maybe some of them are on their way to becoming Dark Eldar I will note, it's not that hard to do for that species."
"Is it a cultural thing or a subspecies thing?" I finally asked, a bit confused by the wording.
"Both," Malcador said. "Maybe not genetic but most definitely cultural at the bare minimum. I've never actually spoken to any Eldar, I've mostly dealt with internal human politics. The Emperor has had a little bit more contact with them, I believe he even has a few friends amongst some of the Craftworlds out there. But the main difference between what's considered a Dark Eldar and an Eldar is sadistic torture. No one knows exactly why the darker variants are into that sort of thing but there are rumors, rumors I can't discuss right now." I had been watching his eyes and I saw where they went, noting that he'd gone to general Vavem which told me enough that these were top-tier highly classified rumors. The kind of knowledge that they didn't want spreading amongst the general population then.
Doesn't matter how high of a rank general Vavem is, he was a known braggart and I'd seen him talk quite a lot amongst his own people and our own during many drunken nights. More likely than not that if he was told something he might spill it, so better not to tell him.
Carefully, I bowed my head without revealing what I was doing to general Vavem, signaling I understood what Malcador was saying before adding. "These corsairs? Its an ancient Terran term for piracy, I believe. Is there any potential to use these pirates for our needs, possibly get them to surrender?"
Malcador shrugged before saying, "It's possible, we have actually hired a few groups like this in the past to work for us. They'll do the job if you pay them the right money though in this case I believe it's well past that point. As you pointed out to the shark folk a few months back, committing attacks on the subjects of the Imperium will not be taken lightly. This planet must be cleansed of its pirate population and that means no ships must be left around for them to be able to leave and go raiding."
"We offer them two paths then. They either die fighting or they surrender their vessels to be destroyed. They'll become Exodites on this planet, reduced to Stone age technology and left to be alone."
Malcador blinked for a moment, scratching his beard in thoughts, eventually saying, "That's not actually a bad idea. Reducing these pirates down to nothing more than Exodites could theoretically save us time. Granted I don't think you'll get the entire population to do it as the matter of if we have defeated all their ships outside this sector is still up in the air. If we simply destroy what's here and leave the population only for some ships to come in, well… It may slow down their attacks but they will pick up eventually."
I nodded, saying "That is a point of contention I hadn't considered. Well maybe we should offer them to surrender at the midpoint of the battle, once we've assured the complete destruction of their fleet and most of the city? Give those willing to give up their arms the chance to walk out into the jungles of the world and survive on whatever assets they can create through their own two hands."
"A wonderful idea, sister, if they weren't Dark Eldar." Came the booming voice of Vulkan as he entered from the end of the hall. He looked happy in his green and gold armor and he walked with a certain hop to his step that said that he was at home here on my ship.
"Is there a particular reason why them being somewhat connected to the Dark Eldar has a bearing on possibilities of getting them to surrender?" I asked, sitting back in my chair.
Vulkan shrugged before simply saying "My folk on my homeworld have always had to deal with Dark Eldar raids. My people will not accept their surrender, too many of our people have suffered at their hands. If some of them can prove that they are not Dark Eldar, or show that they have attempted to keep the Dark Eldar vices at Bay, maybe you might be able to get a few of them to be allowed to live. However I hold the opinion that the Dark Eldar and those who would consort with them must be eradicated from the Galaxy."
Genocide the Dark Eldar and genocide those adjacent to the Dark Eldar? I had simply wanted to remove them from political power in whatever Nation allowed them to do such criminally insane acts but apparently I was probably the nicest Primarch in this situation. Hope that was not a routine thing in the future.
Nodding my head I said, "Well, that is a point to consider. Perhaps they won't even give their surrender when we offer it, anyway. From what little of the Eldars I've seen they seem rather proud of who they are and are unlikely to take an offered surrender."
"This is true," Malcador concurred, nodding his head in approval. "They tend to be… Well, their hubris is the reason their empire no longer exists. Craftworlders do tend to be a little bit better than the Dark Eldars, it's mainly the Dark Eldars' fault that their empire no longer exists though so as you might expect the worst of the worst probably lead this band."
"Good," Vulkan said matter of factly, "I'd rather not have to deal with the Dark Eldar trying to falsely surrender." He pulled out a chair and sat down in front of me. The table in front of us had a small hole of a graphic projector on top of it, allowing us to have an overlook of the city from a man's perspective to give us an idea of every angle, and he immediately began observing it.
"Doubt they even gave that a thought." general Vavem said, "We fought them during the age of war and let me tell you… They do not offer or take surrender. They simply take what they want."
That raised my eyebrow. The way he said that sounded almost like he had been around during the Age of War, which theoretically should not be possible. From what I understood the Age of War had officially ended the moment the Imperium had arrived and there hadn't been major conflicts in this age for the last 500 years. How old did squats live however? I have to look into that.
Vulkan apparently had finished looking at the map, simply saying, "I could have my legion attack from the land there, wouldn't be that hard to push the Eldar and their minions to that front and keep them busy."
He pointed towards the front entrance, the most expected and hardest point to attack in my opinion since they had been digging trenches and fortifications. Or rather forced slaves to dig trenches and fortifications. There was probably a war crime in that but considering that if they were being used to dig trenches and fortifications they weren't being tortured I think the slaves were in a better position in the front lines than they would have been if we had not come down to the planet. And isn't that a dark thought when you think about it?
Definitely need to deal with the Dark Eldar when I got the chance to find out where they came from and burn it to the ground.
Putting that thought to the side though, I said, "Well my wolves aren't exactly known for Aerial combat but we do have quite a large supply of air transports. If you can keep the enemy focused on the front Gates I could probably drop my men right inside the city. Won't use drop pods though," I said, looking at the water areas of the city. Pods would probably burst through whatever structure was holding the building up and end up with a whole bunch of half-drowned Marines.
I mean there was the possibility that they would break through, go into the water, and then just swim back up. But still it would put them on the back foot. The enemy was preoccupied fighting soldiers at their front gate we wouldn't need rapid decent drop pods and could use regular landing craft easily enough.
"I think our new Land Train can help you get right up into that city rather easily." General Vavem said, looking at the map.
"Oh?" Vulkan asked. "What a Land train?" "What's a land train? Oh, you'll see, you'll see and you'll love it. Trust me, everyone loves a Land Train and this one… This one may soon be considered a Sea Train if I'm successful with the modifications," The general replied with a wide smile, before getting up from his seat and saying, "Which reminds me: if that plan is the basics of it I can get back to my ship and get to work on finishing those modifications. Is that right with everyone?"
"I believe that's everything," I said, looking at Vulkan. "Yes I think this general plan will be the main idea. we might have some points of interest that our Space Marines will have to talk about but if you need to get going to work on the project feel free."
General Vavem nodded his head and then gave a bow before saying, "Talk to you Giants later," and walked out, his pompadour hair popping up and down as he did.
"Strange little man," Vulkan noted, before saying "But I do want to see this Land Train."
"He's right about one thing, it is an enjoyable sight to watch those things crush their way across the battlefield. Even if they do have a tendency to get their wheels knocked off. Don't know how he's going to make it a Sea Train but I'm willing to see how he does it," I added.
Before continuing and saying "Anyway. What interrogations I've been able to get out of my men from the enemy indicate this building," I pointed to a place near the center of the city, a small chateau-like mansion with a large swimming area, that either was a personal landing pad for a vessel or just a large swimming area for some sort of sharky parties, "may be the house of the ruler of this planet, a man going by the name of Bazhasath. He's been in charge for nearly 3,000 years although one guy said something like 8,000 years so it's hard to say. Either way we take that central point and we'll probably cut off whatever lines of communication hold the city together. With the chaos caused we can break the enemy's lines from behind and allow your men to enter the city."
Vulkan nodded his head in a subtle agreement, before commenting, "Most of the city seems to be made of wood. If there were no slaves in it I would recommend we just dump some explosive and fire-combusting material across the city to burn it all down."
I nodded. "I noted that as well but, as I said, perhaps after the battle we'll do that. There are plenty of land-based cities across the planet to settle any slaves that don't know where they came from so they can build up their new lives here. No reason to keep that seaport though, it will probably be just full of the holes that we're going to leave, I'd be surprised if much is left standing after it's all over."
Vulkan nodded just I was saying that, "I would agree to leave it full of holes and leave the Eldars nothing. If we can burn it all down we should." I nodded before adding "Still, we should probably be on the lookout for any relics in this city. If this planet has been colonized by humanity some time in the past and then taken over by the Eldar and their subjects here on this planet sometime in the last 8000 years, that means there could be things that the Mechanicum would be interested in."
Vulkan nodded his head in agreement before saying "If there are any relics I think they're in that central mansion. I know Eldar and they usually keep everything they consider worth something to them close at hand."
I nodded at that, before a thought occurred to me, "Close at hand as in ready to be grabbed to run away or close at hand because they just enjoy the look."
Vulkan shrugged before saying, "Both, I guess."
Looking at the pool that could be a personal landing pad I wondered. Could they have stashed a ship under the water there? Scanning hadn't been done to see if there were things beneath the water and it would make sense to hide your escape vessel where your enemy would not be totally expecting it to be. I would issue some orders about that to make sure that, when the attack went off, if there was a vessel there it was not getting away.
My thoughts on that though were interrupted as Vulkan leaned back in his chair and said, "Well I think we've discussed the matters of importance for this operation now. Sister, let us talk as family! I barely know anything about you and I'm sure you barely know anything about me as Father is rather secretive about our family. Tell me, what is your homeworld like?"
I smiled and quipped, "Cold. Real cold, there's ice almost all year long and a year is two Terran years. For about 3 months out of the Year there is a period that is almost warm enough that the entire continent dethaws but the oceans are so boiling hot that it's not safe to be near. There are monsters you would not believe in the water, ones who pull ships under when they try to make voyages around that time of year, cutting them people off from each other. Fenris is a tough world, one that weeds out weakness and favors the strong but, through hard work and determination, people can master its conditions and thrive. That's what I think I've proven the last few decades of my rule."
"Sounds hazardous though not much more hazardous than my own, though less cold and much hotter. Prometheus is a world of fire and lava though there are other conditions like your planet. During certain times of the year it gets rather cold in fact but for the most part the massive Moon that orbits our world draws out fire and flame, polluting our sky with smoke and causing rivers to run with alkaline and other not-so-healthy chemicals."
"How do your people survive in such conditions?" I had to ask, Fenris was dangerous because of its cold and monsters but fire was something on a level that I just didn't think anyone could survive in.
"Hard work. The population lives in great underground cities for the most part. We do go up to the surface now and again and we have to fight off the Dark Eldar when they make raids. Survival has made us stronger, I think."
I chuckled at that, "Seems humanity has a way of surviving the worst and coming out better for it." I wouldn't be surprised if that was true. Although I was curious that, of the Primarchs I'd have met so far at least two, counting myself, had ended up on what would be considered Deathworlds and one of them ended up on what could be considered a crime-ridden hell hole. I wondered if that's going to be a theme with our other siblings.
"Well, it very well could be. I guess if it was something we all shared then, that great adversity making us stronger and giving us a better chance of surviving these coming Crusade to unite humanity. Perhaps it was a good thing," Vulkan mused.
I nodded at that before saying, "A rather large task that Father has given us. I believe that trying to unite us across the Stars will take a long time, unless of course the Imperium is just so successful in its efforts to unite humanity that we just start to draw in civilizations who want to be part of this success."
Vulkan replied with enthusiasm, "Well that's why we're out here, to show that we are the most successful at building humanity up I would assume. I fought on three campaigns so far but most of them were against Orks and the results of all three were bringing in several human federations that were interested in the protection the Imperium would offer."
I smiled at that before saying "I think I've been on three myself at this point and the campaign of the Wheel of Fire was a long one, most of them have been against Orks as well but there was one species that was in my opinion worse than the Orks."
"Are they as bad as the Dark Eldar?" He asked. Man, I had to sit back in my chair to think. It was a good question, the Taralaiss had been sort of evil bastards but there had been some logic to it… I couldn't see what logic the Dark Eldar had for just torturing people except self-gratification and even that was the most disgusting version of logic I think I could come up with. "I guess I could say better than the Dark Eldar but not by much, they were willing to genocide several hundred farming worlds mostly populated by humans out of sheer pettiness at losing their rule."
Vulkan nodded and said, "What happened to them?"
"Not sure I can say. After I defeated their forces, destroyed their communication networks, and left their planet pretty much reduced to a stone age I left it to the Administratum to deal with. I would assume that they've probably imparted several warnings and fines on the Taralaiss left on that planet and we'll have to figure out some way to pay them back for several genocides and attempted genocide they are responsible for."
Vulkan sighed before saying, "If they're that dangerous wouldn't it be better to just wipe them out completely? After all what if they get the ability to commit the genocide they were prevented from doing this time?"
"They can definitely never be allowed to get to a tech level where that would be possible again but just wiping the entire planet out is a waste of resources, better to make the few survivors of that war work for us than wipe them out and get nothing from them. Besides if we just destroy everything we come across because we can it makes us no better than the Orks. Destroying civilization because we can is what they do. We need to be better than that in my opinion, build things up even if we have to knock a few things down to do it."
Malcador coughed and laughed at that moment, before saying, "Are you sure about that? I mean didn't the Orks build up their own civilization after they knocked down human civilization?"
Well damn it, I mentally thought before I nodded my head, admitting his remark, "Good point. I think I let myself get a little too focused on the humanity aspect of civilization there."
"Oh in one sense that's a good thing, "Malcador said. "Remember that one of the reasons the federation that once held all beings together fell apart is because we trusted the Xenos to be loyal in times of hardships. When those time came, they decided to go build their own empires on human worlds. The realities of the Galaxy are complex but also simple. Yes, we all want to build civilization. But we all have to decide which civilization we want to exist in. Do we want to live in a brutal Ork society or do we want to live in a human society that at least will attempt to create some sort of peace? The Orks will always fight against us and other species have already shown that they will betray us if we turn our back on them. If we can find the few that are willing to work for us and be contained within their systems that's fine, but they have to prove that they didn't do anything during the Old Night. If it turns out that they did do something then they are not trustworthy and I expect that the Administratum will not be taking kindly to any planet that can be proven to have betrayed us during the Old Night."
That raised an eyebrow. I turned to look at him, "What do you mean they won't be taking it kindly?"
Malcador shrugged before saying, "Well I would not be surprised to hear that that planet will be given just the bare minimum of supplies to survive and they'll just try and let nature take its course."
"Oh." I muttered as what that meant sunk in.
"What does that mean?" Vulkan queried, slightly curious of my reaction.
Taralais had been a world covered in cityscapes, they had to bring in food from those farm worlds. If those farm worlds output were, let us say, redirected to Imperium worlds there would be no food coming. At least not in an amount that could support several billion people. "We destroyed quite a bit of the infrastructure on the planet to begin with, which means they have a food deficit."
"Oh. Vulkan mirrored me, seeming to get exactly what I was going at.
"They'll either have to work together to survive or die out, and their civilization will never be able to recover to anything close to what it was before they were visited by your wolves." Malcador said matter of factly before continuing, "Plus, from what I saw, they had all their records on digital so, having no power, they can't maintain their records anymore. I imagine that world will quickly fall apart into post-apocalyptic barbarian strongholds. Not too dissimilar to what Terra endured during the Old Night."
"Haven't we then just set ourselves up for a repeating of the cycle? We were put through the Old Night, now we put them through their own Night. What's going to stop them from crusading in 15,000 years?" I asked, not liking the implication that we had just sown the seeds of our own possible destruction.
"Well, if they survive, I imagine you two will still be around to stop them. No, I doubt they'll be given the opportunity to completely rebuild. More likely that, in a thousand years or so, someone will try to begin a process of colonizing worlds that have been left to go fallow as their environments rebuild themselves. By that time that planet will have been added to that collection of worlds and, if there is any survivors of that species, they will be integrated during the colonization or dealt with by the settlers."
Well that was rather dark, I mused. I hadn't really considered the fact that humankind might even want to get a little bit of revenge for the Old Night but I couldn't exactly say anything about it. This is just how humanity worked.
Well that made it clear that every civilization I got to surrender without getting themselves destroyed had a better chance of surviving the new order we were creating. I'd have to keep that in mind when dealing with future civilizations and never forget that every civilization that I brought to near destruction would probably have the job finished by the Administratum.
Nodding my head I simply said "Well that's good to know, but I hope the Administratum doesn't get too comfortable with that method of dealing with problems. More likely than not that it will make more problems for us in the future. Simply trying to cut off a civilization and letting die alone will most likely result in unexpected consequences."
Malcador nodded his head, agreeing, as he said, "Yes, let's hope they come up with a few better methods when dealing with troublesome issues such as those Xenos. As much as they have it coming some could probably be of use in the Imperium. Perhaps some form of the way you handled those sharks, that was a rather splendid way of dealing with them. Finding out what they wanted and offering it to them in exchange for promises. If they ever break those promises it's not good for them but if they stay true to them they will have a good place in the galaxy under the Imperium. We can always use warriors that are well adapted to fights on Ocean Worlds."
"Hmm, about that…" I looked at the map and said, "I wonder how honorable those mercenaries are? Is their honor only to coin or are they true to their word?"
"What are you thinking, sister?" Vulkan asked, leaning forward. I shrugged before saying "Well we have a deal with the shark people's homeworld and there are's shark people here. I wonder if we offered them payment to switch sides, would they do it? If they did that would give us an actual force they could swim up right on the city and cause mayhem in some of its ports just before we launch the Aerial landings."
"Hmm?" Malcador seemed to think about that before saying "Well it's not a bad idea perhaps, worth investigating. It'll also give us an idea of how well we can trust these shark people, at least outside their system. We'll know if they are honorable to their word or if they'll backstab us the moment someone offers them more money."
I nodded and said, "If the employer believes you will switch sides for a little bit of money they're unlikely to employ you. At the bare minimum that will either encourage the shark people to be more honorable to their word or we'll know for a fact we can't trust them and can't use them in conflicts unless it's so far away that they can't risk upsetting their employers."
Vulkan asked "How do we get in contact with the mercenaries then? After all they're shooting at us when we're in range of them."
"Good point, perhaps a parlay between one of the battlefronts? We can find out where the majority of their troops are and try and pull that. It might be successful though that'll be dependent on them knowing and respecting a parlay."
"It'll take a couple days to get everything together for this attack anyway so we can put down some standing orders to try and get in contact with the shark folks. At worse nothing happens, at best we have a little bit more firepower for the assault on the city."
Vulkan nodded before saying "It's worth a shot, every one of those sharks that died fighting for us is one of our children who survived so it's worth seeing if we can pull it off. Though what exactly would we pay these shark folk with? I'm not exactly familiar with their currency and I doubt they take the imperial money yet."
I snorted before saying, "I believe sooner or later they will go on the imperial credit but right now they're using Ork credits, or teeth. Before I set out from the Wheel of Fire I made sure to take a large stockpile of their so-called money into the vaults of my ship, one never knows when we need to might pay off Orks to fight each other and It seemed better to have Ork money at hand if I ever had to recruit Orks".
Vulkan said, rubbing his chin, "I might have to do that myself the next Ork fight I get into, sounds like a good way to keep the Orks from unifying into something worse if we just pay them to fight each other."
"Exactly," I noted, "though of course we would have to fight them eventually, never fighting an enemy just leads to what happened with Byzantium and Rome: you paid them off and they got somewhere else, inevitably coming back. No better to pay them off to fight each other, to keep each other weak, and then step in to destroy both sides." It was a more solid plan in the long run.
Vulkan nodded, saying, "Understanding your enemy and using that understanding to ensure that we win? Not a bad way of doing things. Personally I just prefer to light things on fire and return it to Ash when it's a problem but making things easier on us is not a bad idea. I'll definitely have to see about using this method in the future."
Cracking my neck I got up from my chair and said, "well, I think we've concluded the initial planning and we've got to know each other a bit better. Is there anything you want to talk about, brother?"
He got up, towering above me as he cracked his own neck, and said, "Not particularly, though I quite enjoyed our chat today. I think we should do it more, creating good relations between the legions and our family is probably one of the more important aspects that we need to do during this crusade."
I chuckled at that, "Same, you sound like Father."
He smiled, obviously taking that as a compliment. "Good. That's where I got the idea from, well I have to admit it's one of these strong suits of my people. Close family connections is how we survive."
I nodded at that and moved around the table to hold out my hand so we could shake, "Well then, to a successful campaign here on San Catos."
"To a successful campaign," he said, reaching out to take my hand. However before both of us could start shaking we both froze. I don't know why he froze exactly though I could take a guess as I felt a presence enter the sector, one heavy with weight and pride. We both blinked as we somewhat tried to make sense of what was going on though Malcador commented first on what we were both thinking.
Laughing he got up from his chair but didn't put it back into place. He said, "Looks like your father has come to say hello, about time. He said he would be here years ago, I wonder how many Primarchs he got sidetracked with." Shaking his head he tapped his staff against the ground as he started to walk towards the elevator that went up to the bridge.
"Come along you two, I'm sure your father has much to talk about with you and I'm sure he has thoughts on this whole crusade up to now. Perhaps he'll even tell us about your other siblings? Quite annoying that he keeps these things to himself in my opinion."
I nodded before finishing the shake for which I had given my hand to Vulkan in the first place and said, "Well, then I guess our meeting is not over yet."
"Yes, it would appear so. Father is a busy man so whatever he's here for must be rather important."
I laughed at that before saying "It's just as likely he's here because he heard two of his children were meeting for the first time and wanted to be here for it, he seems like that kind of father."
Vulkan laughed at that. "I will admit he does seem to enjoy the aspect of being a father, even if he seems to have been denied the whole raising the children part. Though perhaps he just brings orders for us on our next campaign after this one."
"If we're sent on the same campaign that means it's a pretty terrible place, considering I was sent on a campaign that was supposed to last 10 years with minimal support from legions that did not have a Primarch. Sending two legions with their Primarchs would mean a nightmare scenario in my mind, Some great unknown threatening to invade Imperial space and coming to defeat us all or some such nonsense."
"Huh," He said, thinking on that before saying "That is a rather dour take. If that's the realities of the Galaxy that means we would never really run into each other, except by accident or when a massive emergency was coming to be an issue. That's a rather sad thing."
I shook my head brushing my hair back a bit with my hand and said "It's a sad thing but I think we'll probably, as the war goes on, get more time to ourselves. We'll be able to have a little bit of free time for meetings away from the war and the other exhausting activities that we will generally be doing all the time. Good management always makes time for that sort of stuff, bad management would run us all ragged and leave us tired of Father before we even got to the whole Imperium thing being a galactic thing. Considering he did manage to conquer Earth all by himself and his original legions I would think he knows how to manage a campaign correctly. We'll get our time to be generally family as the years go on."
Vulkan nodded his head in agreement before slapping his hand down on my shoulder… Which actually hurt, surprisingly much more than I expected. Seemed that he got a little bit more strength than he knew what to do with I immediately thought as he spoke, "That is a wonderful way of looking at the world. Yes, things are currently chaotic and we need to run around and fix things, but once things calm down we'll have more time to ourselves. That is a lovely thought. And by that same thought the sooner we get everything chaotic dealt with, the sooner we can have that time. Let us go meet Dad and find out what wondrous adventures he has planned for us so we can have that time to be a family."
Man, Vulkan could be really upbeat when he wanted to be. It was kind of infectious because even I was smiling at the idea of adventures to get to a peaceful retirement.
Tanya Russ
"Vulkan, Tanya, good to see you!" came the booming voice of Father as he stepped onto the bridge of the vessel. he seemed to have shrunk a foot or two, probably to fit inside.
"Good to see you too Fath-" I didn't get to finish that word as he took both of us into a giant hug, getting a rather good squeeze of it too. I needed to take a breath after he let go, slapping both of us on our shoulders. He said, "I've been paying attention to both your dispatches and you seem to have been doing great jobs out there. I would come by and say it more often but tracking down your brothers and sisters is a bit of a hassle."
"Sisters?" I queried, raising an eyebrow. I was aware of my condition being related to possible being X meddling so the fact that there might be more sisters was a bit concerning at the bare minimum and made me wonder what their souls had been before being ripped out of the Warp to be used as the internal core of these bodies.
But, unfortunately, my question went unanswered as he simply said "I don't want to spoil the moment for you, you'll meet them sooner or later." He then simply stepped past us further onto the bridge, his Custodes right behind him taking up positions of guarding.
Looking down at the planet through the windows he mused out loud as he said. "I see you two are having fun cleaning up some Xenos who have been problems in this area for millennia."
"Yes, Father," Vulkan said seeming proud of his work. "We've just been discussing how we are going to remove these Xenos as a threat to the future of the Imperium and we're planning the final assault on their main capital."
He nodded and said, "Good, good. The more secure we get this area of space the better it'll be in the future."
Stepping forward and being a little bit inquisitive about this matter I decided to ask a question that had been on my mind for a while now. "Father, what Primarchs have been found since I left Terra for the Wheel of Fire campaign?"
He chuckled and said "Don't even need to ask if any were before I say it? Good, finding Intel is a good skill." Looking out the window he said "Well if we're just to go with the ones that have been found since you left… In order it was the Primarch of the 13th legion, which you opened the gateway to find, then the Primarch of the 15th who is actually on my ship right now though I'm still getting them up to speed on certain things so your meeting with them will have to wait. The Primarch of the 9th legion and the Primarch of the first legion, who I think you'll get along with really well, were next."
"And the Primarch of the fourth legion, which has been reconnected to their legion recently…" He seemed to look annoyed for a moment, before shaking his head and sighing. "Though they are still learning the ropes of it but they are very effective at what they do."
He shook his head again before saying, "Besides that I'm running down a few leads on a few possible other Primarchs. I expect that number to grow by four more by the end of the next decade with any luck."
"I thought it an insane task to find 20 people across a galaxy, but finding 12 of us already and four more to come that quickly is impressive. And with that done there will be only four more brothers and possibly sisters missing out there. I'd say as insane a project that it is to try and find 20 missing people across an entire galaxy you're doing an excellent job at that, Father."
"Why, thank you. But you don't need to butter me up, Tanya, that Wheel of Fire campaign already did that." He looked at me, eyes full of mirth before continuing, "Getting rid of those raiders opened up a trade route to the other side of the Galaxy and we found one of your siblings because of that. Then I found that they had acquired almost an entire empire out there, I am impressed with them. And I can't wait for the day you two work together, really. Something tells me that's going to be terrifying for the enemies of Terra, seeing the second and the 13th coming at them.
That raised an eyebrow. So the 13th was someone that I would get along with? Well I'd have to look into that but I wished he wasn't being so wishy-washy about the details. Sure it was somewhat amusing to discover them on my own and I was sure I would meet them sooner or later so it wasn't like I needed to know who they were right now. Still I would admit that if I knew who they were now it would allow me to do a lot more prep work for our meetings, to make sure that we would have a better starting working relationship. And a good working relationship was key to any business objective, be it acquiring money or acquiring planets.
My thoughts were interrupted as another of The Emperor's Custodes entered, this one wearing the most uptight of uniform codes I think I'd seen amongst them. Most seemed to embellish their armor in some way but this one seemed to be by the book to a level that was somewhat impressive. He was carrying a long cylinder of some type, covered in a fabric sock, and he approached the Emperor before offering it to him. "There you go, my Lord." He said with a cheery tone
"Ah, Katyan. Thank you, I almost forgot about this, " He said, taking the pole before motioning me forward. "Wish I could have done this sooner, Tanya, but we are on a clock. Every day some human civilization is facing an Extinction event and we must save as much as we can, so we must do what we can in the field."
Pulling the red sock off the Pole revealed it to be a golden spear with intricate carvings and I could see bits of runecraft in some areas of it.
"Primarch Russ, leader of the sixth legion, the wolves of Fenris. For accomplishing the conquest of the Wheel of Fire, I present to you a weapon I forged during the bad days. This is one of the first weapons I forged to try and help rebuild humanity on terra. This is the Dionysian Spear. A spear that grants enlightenment to those that it pierces."
"Thank you, Father," I replied, taking the offered weapon and immediately feeling power flowing through it. There was something unnatural about it and I could tell that just by touching it. That spear almost reminded me of… Well, whatever it was reminding me of was giving me a headache so probably something from my second life. And my eye twitched in a way that apparently was obvious to the Emperor as he reached out his hand and put it on my shoulder, leaning in and saying, "You don't need to take a full on piercing. Slice your hand on it when you get the chance, I think it will help."
I blinked as I realized what exactly he was implying. This might help me remember my second life, which had two indications in my mind: One that the emperor was a damn good boss that was looking out for me. Of course he considered me his child so there was a little bit of that mixed in there but the important part was that I had landed an employer who was going to look out for me. This was a much better situation than I had in my second life if the memories I did recover had anything to say about it.
The other thing was that my headaches would soon be a thing of the past, because no matter how much I was disliking the feeling that was coming off of this spear… The possibility to get rid of the headaches and find out what I had lost was too much of an opportunity not to take it. So far I had been lucky that none of the headaches had ever come during a combat, as it could have been disastrous for my life. It didn't mean that would never happen so getting rid of the headaches would improve my chances of survival. Finding out what happened in my last life would also explain some things at the very minimum and rob this Being X of any satisfaction it may have had for throwing me into the Warp.
Smiling at this realization I simply said, "I will, Father! Thank you for holding on to the spear." while wondering what exactly it would show me when I got the chance later."
With that done he moved on to Vulkan and, clapping him on the shoulder, exclaimed, "And I've heard you've been having a good time campaigning, Vulkan. All reports I've been reading indicate that we'll see the Imperial Army enjoy their time working with your men quite dearly and civilian casualties are close to absolute zero which is rather unusual. Even Tanya over here has mentioned several civilian casualties in her anti-slavery raids."
"Thank you, Father!" Vulkan said, nodding his head. "I do my best."
The Emperor tapped him on the chest and said, "Keep doing your best as it seems to be the right way to do it. We're going to restore humanity to the place we had before the Old Night and we need to be shining examples of how humanity can stand amongst the Stars. You two are doing a great job of creating that example."
"Thank you, Father!" We both said, bowing our heads.
He simply smiled before clapping us on the shoulders and saying, "Well, now that we've had a bit of overall boost to morale I think it's time we retire from this claustrophobic bridge and head down to the main hall I believe is on this ship." He said, looking towards the elevator. "It has been a long voyage from Olympia. I would like to hear more of what you two have been up to outside of the combat reports I've been receiving. We could have a nice meal together while we talk."
"Of course, Father. Should we invite our other sibling on your vessel to join us?" I asked, poking at the obvious question that should be asked."
He chuckled and replied, "They're not ready to meet and you, they're currently busy going through almost every book in the entire library on that ship so I think they'd say no even if I offered."
"Interesting," I said, mentally noting that this still unknown Primarch was a bookworm. I'd Have to keep my eyes on that for future interests, having someone who is well-read and intelligent as a comrade was something that was always useful in a conflict. I would have to hope he was good about actually doing his job and not some slacker. Trying to work with an individual who is no better than a neet could be rather annoying.
Emperor seemed ready to head out with both of us before suddenly stopping to look at Malcador. "That explains why there's a large stockpile of paperwork at the palace nowadays."
Malcador immediately chuckled and said, "Well, what can I say. I've been trapped on Terra for a long time and I thought I'd go on a little adventure."
"Teaching Tanya how to use her gifts, I assume?" The emperor requested, folding his arm and looking a bit amused.
"Reteaching more than anything, she's got a good head and she's had teaching before as you already know. She just needed a little bit of a refresher."
"Well that's good but I have to ask if your adventure is coming to an end anytime soon. Because the Administratum is asking someone to fill out that paperwork and I'm needed at the front looking for the Lost Primarchs."
Malcador sagged before saying, "Okay, okay. I'll be on the next ship heading to Terra, is that fine?"
"Perfectly fine, that being said, come join us for a little drink, eat, and make merry."
Tanya Russ
Well I'm going to need to stockpile up on more supplies, I thought, as I stumbled back to my room using my newly acquired spear as a walking stick. Considering we drank enough to get us a little bit buzzed…
Granted I was pretty sure I had mentally turned off parts of my ability to filter out poisons again so I was getting the full effect that way. If I wanted to I could turn it back on but well sometimes you just needed to be drunk.
For the last 7 hours I think we had just partied, drank, and had long talks about our first meetings. Vulkan seemed rather surprised that I had technically won the contest against Emperor. He apparently had pulled the same trick he pulled on me, showing up as some unknown stranger. Except he actually, technically, won in the end.
I was surprised that Emperor had pulled that trick twice and asked if he just enjoyed showing up, which got a bit of a laugh from him and an answer of maybe. That was a 'probably, yes' in my book.
Both Vulkan and I had tried to get the first meeting of the Emperor and Malcador out of them both but the Emperor had left it off and said it was too long ago and he didn't remember while Malcador had simply teased that some secrets are best kept secret or they're not worth keeping.
Rather infuriating but if they wanted to keep their secrets they could do it. It's not like it was a matter of life or death and I'm sure with a little bit more work someone would get it out of them. Perhaps, when the crusade was over, we'd get them so drunk they would just spill it… Something to keep in mind and attempt.
That being said I was too drunk to do anything more than stumble into my room after opening the door. I think I opened the door? Why was there a hole in the wall? I was too drunk to deal with this right now. I stumbled over to my bed and sat down, starting to pull off what armor pieces I had on, before laying back and looking up at the ceiling.
It was rather plain compared to what I'd grown accustomed to at the start of this life, just metal separating the decks. Perhaps I should hire an artisan next time I was on Fenris; have them improve the general look of my room. I was after all a king and Primarch, a general with quite a bit of experience under their hat. At this point it would be expected of someone of my status to have a degree of opulence in their main room.
Shaking my head I tried to get up but fell back in the bed, realizing that I was not going to be doing much today. That being said as I looked around my room I noticed the spear was right next to me. Seeing that I didn't have anything else to do figured that I might as well get this over with so, pulling off my armored glove, I took the spear and looked at it a bit closer. It was gold, with a golden eagle near the top as a sort of blocker to prevent it from going in too deep and getting stuck. It felt rather impressive but had a weird boxed-in form that made me wonder if there was not a bolter gun hidden beneath the eagle.
I'd have to examine it closer when I was more conscious, see if it was capable of that. If it could function as a rifle as well as a spear that would be useful, though my bolter rifle would probably be better than an up-gunned spear.
Shrugging I lowered the spear till I looked at the blade, which looked rather nicely done. Father had made this? he was a good Craftsman, that's for sure. Shaking my head I wondered if I needed to think of something before I did it but Father had not exactly given me a good explanation of what to do. So I thought 'why do I have these headaches?' before running my hand along the blade, cutting it rather nastily as I flipped some blood across the room.
Nothing seemed to be happening so I wondered if I'd done something wrong and then I blinked and there was a tree in my room. I blinked once again and it was snowing, a couple more blinks and my room just started to dissolve more and more until I was no longer lying on my bed but was laid in a field of snow then trees. Confused I looked up and saw a rather familiar sight. It was the Moon, as I had remembered it. There was no city or even any light, it was a dead world exactly as it had been for most of humanity's existence. At least before this life. I blinked once more and everything simply flashed out of existence as I lost track of everything.
What had happened simply needed to be experienced to understand I figured, as everything seemed to flow together before reforming and I found myself lying in the snow with a massive pain in my chest and 6 feet smaller.
Writers note: and there we go this chapter gives couple interesting things i think will not send folk thue the roof no siry… by they way have bunker ment with stand virus bombs, i be in that for nex 2 weeks.
Seriously though bit an issues that popped up Pierre gotten a new job and is moving so he not going to have as much time as he has had for some time, this could be an issues with getting chapter out, so this golden opportunity for the Community editers if you edited this work in the past contact me anyway you can and i see if i can't add you to the discord to help with getting theses chapters out.
Edited by: Pierre
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- Location
- Home
So, is visha gonna be making an appearance?
she might have already... but maybe not sure still bouncing ideas around.
i can say this NO multi cross
A bit of a shame, but better to have the setting staying relatively the same as canon is easier for comprehension.
Chapter 31, A Drunken wolf Vision
Chapter 31, A Drunken wolf Vision
Tanya von Degurechaff
I coughed up something, not exactly sure what. The impact into the ground had been rather devastating and who knew what internal damage I was dealing with. I was trying to use my magic to generate some form of healing but my hands were too cold and I couldn't move my fingers correctly.
Today had been a terrible day. I finally got in my unit out of rotation on the front line in Russy and was trying to get us some kind of desk job before we were all sent back to the fight. So far It had not been a very easy thing to accomplish but things were generally moving in the right direction.
Until the Americans joined the war and then things went south again.
Well… North, actually. An American expeditionary force had landed in the Entente and was currently arming the remnants of their military and taking control of that territory for themselves.
This, of course, could not stand. Given that my force was already well on its way to being rebuilt we were in a perfect position to be sent North.
I would not be granted a moment's peace to try and get myself back into fighting shape or at least get me out of the fight. So Northward we had been sent, the entire army group Salamander. We had been fighting the Entente remnants and the Americans for the last half month, stalling out their advance and pushing them generally back towards the mountains in Norway. Of course we couldn't push them too hard because they had withdrawn into places where they could easily defend.
Really, all of this was standard at this point. Things got unstandard in the fact that the damn berserker who had fought me all across the federation somehow got herself reassigned to the front I was now fighting on and well… Whenever we met things got explosive.
As it had today, the fighting had probably destroyed a couple miles of forest and things had not looked great. Not that things were looking pretty right now but… Oh, I think… I think I won?
Laying across from me was the berserker, her body broken though not her life as she was still moaning in pain. Her legs and arms were most definitely broken as they were facing ways that really were not humanly possible unless they were broken.
It was a great victory as she seemed to be delirious and unable to attack me but I seemed to be dealing with internal injuries.
Unfortunately, things weren't much better on my end. I wasn't really sure where my mage backup was but I was definitely behind enemy lines and my radio was kaput. I was definitely looking at either death by cold or, if I was lucky, I'd be taken prisoner by the Americans.
Although… all things considered, that wouldn't be a terrible outcome, would it?
If I was in an American prison camp I'd probably get an okay life when this is all over and, as far as I was aware, the Empire never committed any war crimes on the level of the Third Reich. So I was probably looking, at worst, whatever treatment German POWs got in World war 1. Well then again maybe even better than then, because being an officer for rank and a teenage girl could come in handy. Maybe I could play up the fact that I was just a dumb teenager swept up in the war. That could possibly work. I might feel sorry for screwing over the Empire but, well, if I was going to be a prisoner of war I'd rather spend it in comfort than misery if I could help it.
Coughs alerted me that my erstwhile enemy had finally woken up. She muttered something and said 'papa' before blinking several times and then she saw me.
Rather interesting, watching her face contort. When she had been unconscious her face had looked absolutely charming but the moment she saw me all that beauty went away and was replaced by a bitter rage.
"Devil!" She called and tried to sit up, immediately screaming as her limbs responded with just pain.
Coughing, I said "I'd recommend not doing that. You're pretty screwed up from what I can see and if you want to live with functionality restored you better just wait till some sort of medical corp finds us."
I Spoke in Scandinavian, with the hope that maybe we could have some communication and my English was not exactly top-notch as I had not had many occasions to practice it in this life.
"I won't live with any functionality unless I make sure you die, you killed my father."
I sighed and shook my head., "Do you have the slightest idea how little that narrows things down? I can't even begin to count how many fathers I've probably killed in this war."
A ragged cough escaped my lips, but the look on Mary's face made me push through. "After all, the Empire sends their best to the bloodiest battlefields and, well, not to be immodest…but I was one of the best. Ugly as it might be, I have quite the kill count."
Blinking, I looked up at the sky before adding, "although… I guess if you're speaking Scandinavian that does cut down the options a bit, doesn't it?"
"What do you mean you were the best?" The brown-haired girl said, sounding disgusted and annoyed by my statement.
"Well I have internal bleeding, I'm sure of it, so most likely I'm not going to make it unless I get some good medical care. Unless your allies find us any moment now I'm probably dead for the world."
"Good, a monster like you deserves to die here alone in the cold."
I coughed at that and said, "I'm not alone though, am I?".
"Well, enemies don't count! Guess I've just been granted a front-row seat confirmation of your death."
I chuckled at that and pulled out my pistol and pointed it in her direction, the look of fear that came over her as she realized that I could take away that front row seat was somewhat humorous if not truly sad.
"Bang," I said, before lowering it back down to the ground. "As much as you think I'm a monster I'm really not, I just went where the military sent me. I attempted to never bring my feelings, except for wanting to live into the battlefield, unlike you."
"You killed my father, I'm allowed to bring my feelings onto the battlefield."
Coughing, I asked, "How do you know I killed your father, by the way? That's really been bugging me over the last couple of years, you keep saying that but you've never explained it."
"Your gun, it has my father's initials on it. You obviously stole it from him after you murdered him."
I coughed and thought about it and then nodded. "Oh! That guy. To be fair he came right at me trying to kill me for patriotism's sake when we were withdrawing, so stealing that from him was not really the point. More something that just happened and he didn't even die when I stole it from him."
"What?" The girl said leaning forward, seeming to have been granted some hope that I had unfortunately unleashed.
Coughing, again, and damn that hurt, I said, "He did not die in our first battle. Heck, he didn't even die in our second, though the second one is when I stole the gun. I killed him in our third encounter, over the Channel."
"So, you admit you've murdered him? At least you'll have some forgiveness for your sins."
I coughed and said, "Can you knock off the good godly girl crap? What are you going to do when someone comes after you for murdering people during the war, are you going to let them kill you because you killed their father?"
The girl stuttered and said "You're the bad guys, you invaded my country! Anything that happens after that point is a totally responsible-"
"Bullshit!" I cut her off, leaning forward. "I was there on the very first day of the war, the Entente invaded the Empire. If you're trying to make that argument you are sorely misinformed about how the war actually started."
Coughing again I raised my hand to try and stem it a bit but it came away wet with blood. Sighing I leaned back against the tree, "The world is not black and white, berserker. I'm a damn orphan, I joined the military so I could have a chance at a reasonable life. Then the war broke out and I defended myself. You came to this war to kill me because I defended myself in a war. Which one of those sounds more like the bad guy in the scenario here."
I expected some sort of comeback but all I got was silence. Focusing my eyes better I saw that she was looking at me, biting her lips in thought. Finally she said, "Mary, my name is Mary."
Coughing, I answered, "Tanya," returning the name in exchange since I had no idea what she was thinking.
Well, apparently what she was thinking was rather painful as she flopped her arm down into somewhat of a usable position and screamed as she straightened it.
"Is there some reason you're engaging in self-harm?" I asked. She slowly maneuvered her arm into a better position to reach something on her side.
"My radio is still functioning, I think. If you surrender I'll use it to call for help." Mary said, still slowly reaching down towards what I could now see was a somewhat busted box by the looks of it.
Well, considering I was all for actually surviving… I said, "I surrender. You have my parole, Miss Mary."
She nodded and slowly unclipped the radio and brought it to her face. "This is Mary Sue. I've gone down in the woods somewhere, can anyone hear me?
There was a brief pause but nothing came back. She shook her radio and said, "Well, I guess a quick escape is not going to be guaranteed."
"Unfortunate" I replied, only to be interrupted as the radio broke whatever silence was ongoing.
"Sir, there's no sign of Mary and the enemy mages are pushing on our flags." Came a female voice.
Mary's face lit up as she talked into the radio, saying, "I'm not sure where I am but I'm here."
"Damnation! We can't hold this location, we have to pull back," Responded an older male voice.
"Guys? Guys?" Mary was questioning, trying to figure it out.
Shaking my head, I said, "Transmitter must be broken but we are still able to get communications or overhear communications."
"Ducking damn it," Mary said in a mutter. How old was she?
"What about Mary, we can't leave her out here." The female voice said again.
"That's not our problem now. Our command is putting this defeat on her shoulders, that explosion took out the center of the line and a lot of people are dead. If we see her we're supposed to arrest her... Better to have died a hero than come back and be charged."
Mary seemed stunned by that bit of info but really I was surprised that this had taken so long. Her antics had cost her side quite a number of victories in my opinion. I just scraped by each time so apparently was scraping by this time.
If I was petty I might try and rub that in, but I was in far too much pain and Mary was getting some functionality back to her arms. Better to not tick off the person who was already considering strangling you.
Instead I said, "Well, Mary, on the off chance that it's my people that find us first, do you want to surrender or should we just leave that situation standing here and now?"
She gave me a glare, which I nodded my head at. "Leave that for now, got it."
"Can't believe they just left me. Aren't we the good guys? Aren't we supposed to be watching out for each other?"
The urge to roll my eyes was a thing that I had to fight but I think I managed it quite well. Instead, I said, "You're an accomplished mage, Mary, they're going to assume you can either figure out how to survive on your own or you're already dead. I don't know if you know this but mage combat is not one where prisoners are taken all the time, we're far too dangerous to be left to each other… And infantry tends to carry grudges against us."
"Damn it." Mary muttered, before throwing the radio right above my head. It impacted the tree, was smashed, and fell to pieces around me.
"Bit much," I muttered, but not much else I could say on the matter. Instead I reached down and put the pistol back in my holster before pulling myself up with a branch.
"What are you doing?" Mary asked as I got myself standing, coughing into my hand before starting to stumble in her direction.
"Well, we are in the Northern latitudes and it's snowing. We are very likely to die if we sit across from each other for this entire night. The fact of the matter is the only chance we'll have of surviving is to share body heat." I came to a stop next to where she was lying and then slowly lowered myself till I was against her shoulder. 'That's what we're going to do. Even if it's just a minimal bit of heat it might keep us alive long enough for someone to find us. Hopefully the fact that we're not shooting each other will encourage them not to shoot either one of us when they show up and we can be taken prisoner by whichever side is the one who finds us. Sounds like a deal?"
Mary nodded before saying "Fine, Devil, that sounds like a deal."
Coughing I looked up at the sky and said, "Well, probably not the way you thought you'd spend today?"
"No. No, it is not." Mary muttered.
Sighing I asked a question that had been bugging me, one that normally I would not ask. In fact I was very well possibly going to die before I got the answer but something spurred me on. "So, does being X talk to you?"
"Who?" Mary asked, sounding confused.
"When your eyes glow yellow and you feel unnatural amounts of power flowing through you, does a voice talk to you to spur you on and tell you what to do?"
She shook her head, seeming confused, before replying, "No. That's not something that has ever happened."
I coughed before saying, "Man, you really hate me then. Guess being X wasn't pushing you to attack me."
"Who is this being X?"
"A parasitical creature that calls itself God," I said, before coughing again. Looking up I saw the snow had stopped falling and not in the sense that the clouds were clearing, more in the sense of the time had stopped.
"Really, now? This is the first time you actually try and talk to someone about me. This is momentous, my child. I'm quite inspired by this, to have the disbeliever go to the believer to try and understand."
Coughing, I looked around and saw a figure walking toward me, this time it was a muscular man with a beard and wearing a toga.
"Speak of the parasite," I muttered as he came closer.
"Please, my child, we have known each other so long and you still call me Being X and a parasite? Have I not made it clear that I am who I say I am?"
"You've made some things clear, still not going to worship you as some all-knowing god."
"Wait, what? Are you saying this is God?!"
I stopped and looked to my side, seeing Mary was still functionally here and not frozen. Turning back to being X, I asked, "Why is she here?"
"I don't know…" X murmured, his face going weird as if he was scared or confused. The answer was forthcoming though as a chuckle came from the woods around us.
"Oh, what a grand show! What a bloody good time this has been. Two players of strategy locked in a contest of plans within plans, fighting to achieve their goals at each other's expense. This was a grand sight that I do not wish to ever see go away again."
There was a thump, loud enough that it reminded me of a T-Rex taking a step in the Jurassic Park movies, then another. Out of the trees came a grotesque figure, a bird-like creature that stood a good 10 ft tall. Its feathering was in majority blue though there was a riot of other colors showing as it leaned over and gave a bow, using its walking staff as a way to give it the most depth without falling over.
"Good evening, my entertainment. I must say this has been a wonderful show for me and my master over the last few years, and I am honestly quite sad to see it go. Truly, I am."The creature grabbed its chest and looked up at the sky what might have resembled a twisted mockery of a smile, had it not been for its beak., I think it was smiling but it was hard to tell considering it wore a beak."To have it end with the death of the Berserker and the Devil as they take a moment to actually get to know each other and share warmth, as they both slowly pass into that good night… Ah, it warms my heart!"
"What are you doing here, Daemon?" Called being X as he turned on the creature, drawing a lightning bolt out of The ether and holding it like a javelin.
"Haha? Mimicking Jupiter, or is it Zeus… Which would you prefer? You minor gods all look the same to me."
At that insult being X tossed the lightning bolt at the creature, which stopped it amidst air with a simple wave of its feathered arm.
Chuckling, it said, "Quite an amazing feat you tried there, to slay a minion of The God of change. I'm afraid I'm going to have to say no to that, God of Reincarnation. I think it's time for you to leave this world as we have no need of Reincarnation here."
With that it raised a feathered hand into the air and a chain shot out from the snow, quickly encircling being X, and began to pull him down. A blue flaming circle quickly drew itself over the area as he was pulled through the ground to some unknown place, leaving me and Mary sitting there stunned.
The bird-like being stepped forward onto the recently scorched ground where being X had once stood and ran its claws through it, almost seeming to inspect something, before Mary asked, "What are you?" with a bit of fear in her voice.
This inspired the bird to look at us, its strange eyes seeming to hum with power in a way that I don't think most mages could.
"Change. And now Reincarnation, after all someone has to take over the job now that little minor God has been vanquished and since I was the one doing the vanquishing I guess I get access to all his powers. And all his toys." As it said this it looked directly at us, making its intentions towards us rather clear. I reached for my pistol first but somehow Mary managed to get her pistol up at the same time and we unloaded our chambers into the creature. Her m1911 and my Mauser were both left smoking and the creature, still standing in front of us utterly unconcerned, had blood pouring from numerous holes ripped through its form.
"Oh, no! I've been shot! However may I recover?" the bird said in the most mocking tone I'd probably ever heard, all as it continued to give that weird facsimile of a smile.
Finally it just started laughing at us and said, "You have no power over entities of the Warp, the one who does is currently far far away from this Coast… Though I can feel him already turning in this direction, so I think it's time for us to go."
Snapping its quad fingers there was a flash of light and everything around us changed, it was as if the earth we were sitting on had been scooped out of its place and deposited somewhere else. Three feet around us there was snow and then there was just this new ground, strange glowing blue stone walls to either side of us.
"Now, here's what's going to happen, "the bird said, seeming to stalk around us like some sort of overgrown turkey. "You are currently within the labyrinth, there are only a few places to go in this realm. Make it out and you'll find your way home, don't and well… This realm is connected to multiple dimensions and times, there are monsters within here that have not seen the light of day in millions of years and will not see the light of day in millions of years. There are also monsters from realms that don't exist as you understand it and they're hungry, so I imagine you understand what will happen if they find you."
Coughing, I said, "How the hell are we supposed to find our way out when we're severely injured?"
Its macabre smile widened, "Why, that just adds to the challenge."
"Sounds more like you're just trying to kill us."
The bird stopped and tilted its neck to look in our direction. "Well death is just the beginning for you, I think. After all, I can reincarnate you over and over and over and gleefully watch you fail each and every time. Or succeed! That would certainly be a massive, and fascinating, change in my plans. Have fun, girls, and don't die too quickly."
It stopped and snapped its feathery fingers, as if it had just remembered something."Oh! By the way if you stare into the abyss too long you'll go mad so… don't do that. Also be wary of what doors you open as you might find yourself in the war proper instead of this little maze beneath it and… Well, there are things out there much worse than in here. Toodaloo."
And like that the bird was gone, leaving us sitting there against a tree in a labyrinth that I had no idea where the hell even was. Coughing I pulled off my coat. It wasn't as cold now so I didn't need it and got to work looking over Mary.
"What are you doing?" She asked as I looked over her injuries.
"Compartmentalizing things. We need to escape. In order to escape you need to be able to walk. In order for you to walk I need to set your legs into something reasonable." With that I looked at the tree, called upon a mage blade, and sliced through a couple branches. Then I cut my coat in half and started to set her legs. "This is going to hurt but if we're going to escape you need to bear it. Got it?"
She nodded and I did the job. Her screams were loud, and I realized too late that I Probably should have given her something to bite down on to keep her calm so we didn't draw any notice. Once her legs were set I said about carving up the first branch until I had something she could use as a walking stick, then I went about helping her get up.
"Why are you helping me?" She asked. "It seems to me I'm kind of a burden in this situation and well… I wasn't exactly not rooting for you to die a moment ago."
I nodded and replied, "I understand that, but from the sounds of things, the fact of the matter is that we're surrounded by unknown monsters who'd happily have us for dinner. That means the only people we can trust are each other. It sucks, but that's the reality we're living in, no use whining about it. If we can get out of here maybe we'll have time to complain later."
"And if we don't?"
I looked up at her and shrugged before saying, "Well as the bird said, it's probably just going to reincarnate us over and over again…and I think sooner or later madness will take us. unless of course we get lucky and it forgets to reincarnate us."
Mary chuckled and said "So we're hoping that the bird brain just forgets about us so we can stay dead? Well, that's better than nothing."
"Sometimes my optimism surprises me." I idly quipped. "And today? Well, today I just want to live."
With that we exchanged nods and again tried to move down the hallway. She used the staff to hold herself up on one side and I held on to the other as we moved.
Question of what the void was was quickly answered as we came to a window and saw, well, complete blackness. Now I could assume that we were just under something and had no light out there or I could assume that the void we saw meant actual void and if we fell through that window we would fall for eternity.
Either way I said, "Don't look out there." as Mary turned to look at the window.
She nodded and we kept going, walking further into the labyrinth, me coughing occasionally as I tried not to move as much and her groaning as her limbs settled into something that was probably not going to be healthy in the long run. I generally kept us connected to the right side of the wall by leaving my hand there as we did, remembering some old tactics from when I was a kid and was interested in this kind of stuff.
"Why do you have your hand on the wall?" Mary asked after a while. I shrugged before saying, "You keep your hand on one wall, you'll reach the end of the maze eventually. Sooner or later you'll have exhausted all outcomes."
"Okay but what if we're on some sort of middle segment without really the connection to the edge of the maze?"
"Well that teaches us something," I said. "We move on to the next segment and just keep going until we hit something that doesn't go around in a circle."
"Okay, then what if the maze is changing every time we're not looking at it?"
"Well then we're screwed," I replied with a shrug. "We have to hope that there's some sort of fair rule in this game that we've been sent to. Otherwise, it's just trying to kill us."
"Didn't he say he was a servant of the god of change?"
I made an annoyed sound at that before saying, "Parasite of change but, sure, I can see your point."
"Parasite?" came a voice from behind us causing us to turn to see… I don't know what I saw. There were teeth, some sort of floating creature, I couldn't tell up or down about it. All I could tell was that it was looking insulted.
"I don't like to interfere in the games of my minions but that was rather insulting. I think a change of rules is required." It snapped its fingers and Mary was gone. Where to I don't know, or perhaps it was I that had changed places? Possibly. It was hard to tell since the labyrinth seemed the same but the creature was gone as well. Although I could still hear its voice like it was right next to me.
"That's more like it. Now the game is fairer! Oh I doubt you'll find your way free of this place now and, just for that insult, new reincarnations for you."
I heard another snap of its fingers coming from nowhere, and the creature added with enthusiasm.
"Oh hey want to hear a story? inside this maze there are two wolves: one is young and stupid, thinking they know everything about the world and know nothing at all. The other is old and wise but a fool who has traveled far from his home in hopes of undoing the past. Neither will reach their goals really but it will be amazing to see which one will survive."
"What the hell are you on about?" I simply asked, drawing my pistol as I leaned against a wall.
"Oh, it's quite simple. Look behind you." I blinked, confused, before turning and finding a monster standing there. It was a werewolf, a goddamn werewolf, standing up to 14 feet tall and having barely any room to move in the labyrinth. Its hands were splayed to show its clawed fingers as it slowly stalked forward, its golden fur making it easy to see its blue eyes shining with unnatural intelligence and bestial instincts.
More terrifying of all was the fact that it was wearing gray bits of armor that looked ill-fitted to its form.
As soon as our eyes met, it howled and started rocketing towards my location, scratching up the walls as it charged. I pulled out my gun and unleashed a series of shots into its head but it seemed to have too strong of a skull as it bowled me over and attempted to bite down on me.
I rolled out of the way as it bit the ground where my neck had been. Taking the fraction of a second it gave me, I cast a mage blade spell on my hand and tried to slash at the armored chest in front of me.
It barely noticed, instead swiping at my hand and slicing off my arm effortlessly. I watched, stunned for a moment as the magic faded from my severed hand and it tumbled across the ground, but I quickly forced myself to roll out of the way as another bite came for my head. Blood was everywhere and I was feeling weaker by the moment but I held on tight to my determination as adrenaline sang in my veins.
Moving back to give myself space and time, I tried again, summoning another mage blade, and this time inspected the armor closer to try to find any weak point. By some luck I noticed there was a crack just above the heart. It wasn't much, but I had a target.
It turned around, hunger burning bright in its gaze, its massive claws twitching in anticipation, and its razor-sharp teeth gleaming in the unnatural light. I could feel my injuries catching up with me, the blood loss getting to my head and the agony pounding my chest. I knew I only had one last chance to make it out of this.
So I gathered up all the mana I had left. Time slowed to a crawl as my perception spells burned out the last of my focus. Power gathered at my feet, ready to shoot me forward like a bullet. The searing light of my blade blazed brightly in my hand.
Then the werewolf moved.
I ducked, barely missing its claw as it cut through my hair, wind whistling as it passed. From below, I shot up with the force of a gun, bladed hand extended to meet its chest flying towards me. It tried to dodge at the last second, but it was far too late. With the laser precision born from overclocking my mind with magic, I shoved my mage blade directly into the crack right over its heart.
For a moment, my hand stopped.
Then something cracked, and it burst right through.
Even as it knocked me over, my hand plunged into its chest, burrowing through muscle and bone. Finally, I felt my hand wrap around something pulsing behind its ribs. It had to be the creature's heart. Just then, the creature sprung up, dragging me with it, and sending the top of my head crashing into the underside of its jaw. The collision knocked the last bits of focus from me, and the mage blade spell slipped from my mind.
Not yet!
I don't know what it was. Maybe adrenaline, or human survival instinct, or maybe a level of stubbornness I didn't know I had, but in that moment I pushed through the pain, the blood loss, and the existential terror, and I squeezed.
The creature cried and stumbled around, but I held on till but I held on with every inch of determination I had left in my body. I squeezed and squeezed, crushing the life out of it like I had nothing else to live for in this world. .
I can't really recall if I was successful as blackness, either from the loss of blood or the release of death, overcame my vision and my consciousness faded.
Tanya Russ
I groaned as I pulled myself out of my bed, confused by everything, as I sat up and looked around. For one I now remembered everything from my second life, and what a crappy second life that had been. For two my perception had been thrown off a bit, being so close to the ground for even a few moments in my dream had every move making me a little bit dizzy when I woke up.
Also, apparently, I had been stripped out of my armor while I slept. Not hard to see why as there were a couple of my girls sleeping next to me. They must have come in while I was out and helped me out of my armor. Why do they decide to stick around to sleep next to me?
… Well, I was told I was quite warm, and these days I had no wish to complain about these sorts of things.
Sighing I got up from the bed and looked at my hand, seeing the wound already healed. That was good, I didn't want to risk an infection. Shaking my head I stumbled over to a table and jotted down the important bits about the story I had just been given.
Had that really happened, I wondered. The spear was supposed to help me see what had happened… So, theoretically, yes, but I had also been drunk off my ass last night. Maybe what I had been given was a bit of an interpretation through an alcoholic lens? So I probably only had to keep the important parts in mind..
I nearly died at the end of a war, was picked up by one supernatural entity that thought itself a God, who was swiftly defeated by a different, and somehow far worse, such entity, and then had a werewolf sicked on me in some kind of hell maze. It was probable that at least one of these elements was fueled by alcohol, but I couldn't say that for sure. I would need to ask the Emperor when I spoke to him next.
There was something else to be considered as well. Was Mary currently still trapped in The Labyrinth? After all, it had been tens of thousands of years since we'd been thrown in there. Assuming any of it was real.
Was the maze even a real thing or not?
On one hand I shouldn't really care what the berserker was up to, after all she tried to kill me enough times. On the other hand, well…
The only reason she would be stuck in there would be because of the pissing contest between being X and me, a thing that had been going on too long and drawn the notice of paranormal entities beyond his parasitical control. As much as I'd like to say it wasn't my fault I did possibly bear some blame. At the very least, I felt a little guilty about getting her involved. Assuming that the same energies that kept my soul together in the Warp would have affected hers, that might mean she was still in there, and perhaps I would need to look into finding a way to get her out.
Not because she needed to be saved but because well she was a danger to me. In my last life she was about to see me dead and the only reason that hadn't happened was that she had been unbelievably broken by her attack. She was a tool that could be used to fight me and leaving a tool that could be used to fight me in the hands of creatures whose motives I did not understand was a bad idea.
Of course, I could be overthinking this. It had been tens of thousands of years. there was a good possibility that whatever remnants of her soul that had existed had been used up in the constant experiments of reincarnation. The damned bird that sent us there might have even forgotten about her, or gotten bored, and just left her dead by now. There was also probably no way to actually get into that labyrinth without the enemy's aid as far as I knew.
Who I needed to speak to about this was the Emperor. In fact the matter was urgent as I was playing in a game without knowing the rules or the participants. Emperor would have a better idea of the situation at the very least and could clear up things that didn't make sense to me.
Turning to the girls I thought about waking them up to help me get my armor on but I honestly didn't need my armor for this. Instead I went over to the closet and pulled out a pair of pants and a linen shirt, pulling them on over the hard suit I'd slept in. Once I had that handled I grabbed a jacket, just for a little extra warmth, and started to walk out of my room. I only stopped when I noticed something odd by my door. The spear I used to cut myself last night was sitting there but it was different, the head of the spirit near the front of it had been of an eagle. It was the head of a wolf now, which was weird. I started to reach for it and it jumped off the wall and into my hand as if I beckoned it.
I blinked several times before shrugging. As much as I would like some explanation for a spear shapeshifting to go on brand with my Wolf theme, the fact that it could jump off a wall to my hand if I summoned it pretty much made it clear that this spear was as paranormal in nature as anything else the Emperor made.
Laying the spear back against the wall I shook my head before walking out into the Hall and heading towards the shuttle bays. Grabbing a communicator off my belt I called up to the bridge and asked "Captain Nemmius Tetanus is the Emperor's ship still in the local sector?"
"Yes, my Primarch, he's still here though I don't know for how much longer. Malcador has just transferred over to His ship so he's probably getting ready to take off."
"Ask him to wait a moment and get clearance for me to shuttle over there. I have to ask him a question."
"Yes, I will endeavor to do so for my Primarch."
Quickly I made my way down to the shuttle area and negotiated one of the vehicles for transport to the other ship. Granted there wasn't really much of a negotiation, more an 'I need your shuttle' but that's just a perk of being in charge.
After a few moments, I got clearance to move across the void to Emperor's Ship and was on my way.
Didn't take long and as soon as the shuttle landed and I stepped out I found myself staring at Custodes waiting for me. I gave a nod and they answered me in kind. One said, "The Emperor is waiting for you in the library, we are to escort you there."
"Thank you," I acknowledged, before saying, "Lead the way." and they did. Walking through the Emperor's personal ship revealed some interesting things of note. Mine had slowly become more rustic as the years went on, becoming more akin to the world of Fenris. This one was… well, gold. There was lots of opulent wealth but in color it was all gold. Real gold? Hard to say but it definitely matched the style of his armor and his Custodes.
Through the wide hallways of the ship we soon arrived at a heavy set of golden doors. There were imperial eagles all over the place that basically screamed that this was the Emperor's personal library and the fact the two guards stopped and took a position by the door told me enough. nodding my thanks I opened the door and stepped in.
Which was when I found myself surprised, it wasn't that opulent. Oh, sure, there was a bit of gold but it looked more like a library than a statement about what a library could look like. I saw hundreds, if not thousands, of books as well as scrolls and other stone tablets, some of them behind museum glass.
The room was set up in a massive circle and, stepping in, I saw that it went up at least three levels if not more and that was only what I could see. It seemed that once you got up to the third level there might be hallways, which was interesting.
In the center of the room was a round table where the Emperor was sitting, having a discussion with Malcador. For the most part that was all I saw, except for a figure currently reading a book behind the Emperor.
I couldn't tell much about them. They were only about 5 ft tall and were wearing brown robes that discouraged identifying any further details.
"Tanya, welcome to my sanctum," the Emperor said, his hands outstretched to greet me and welcome me in. "I was about to have our ship get on your way when I got your call. Does something trouble you, my daughter?"
"Yes and no, "I said, looking over at the brown-clothed figure. The Emperor quickly spotted where I was looking and said, "Do not worry about them, they are safe to speak around. They won't tell a single secret learned in this room, trust me."
Nodding, I stepped forward and pulled out a seat, which thankfully was large enough for me.
"I used that spear you gave me last night."
The Emperor nodded and said, "I hope that was an enlightening experience. Did it clear up the headaches as I hoped?"
"The physical headaches are gone so far," I said. "If they come back I'll give it another try, instead I now have a mental headache from the information that was given to me."
"What information is that, my daughter?" The Emperor asked, leaning forward.
I sat, before saying, "To make it quick and easy, I have reason to believe there is another like me trapped in the Warp. Me and this other individual were pulled into the war by a bird-like entity claiming to be a servant of change."
The Emperor started rubbing his chin in interest while Malcador sat up. "Well now, isn't that interesting." Malcador said, running his hand through his beard.
"Do you think it's possible that her soul was as strong as yours and capable of surviving its existence within the Warp Emperor asked as he motioned with his hand?"
I shrugged and said, "It is not impossible, she was… Driven, let us say. I saw her do some quite impossible things in my time and I fought her enough to know that she would not have died without a fight."
"Then perhaps she's already escaped the confines of the Warp." came a female voice from behind the Emperor.
The brown-robed figure was still facing away but beginning to turn. Most of their features were hidden though I could see locks of red hair coming through the opening of the hood they wore.
"Escaped?" I asked, "How did someone escape the Warp without aid?"
The figure stepped forward and replied,d "I never said they didn't have aid. After all, you had to have escaped the Warp with the aid of the Emperor. Who's to say he did not help do the same with this unknown friend of yours?"
"My understudy here raises a good point, even though they were told not to talk during this," said the Emperor as he tapped the table with his fingers. "Primarch souls were created using the souls of powerful humans who were left in the Warp for millennia, it is well within the possibility that this friend of yours was amongst the 19 other souls that were chosen."
"Perhaps," I agreed. After all, I had no idea how the exact mechanics worked, though it seemed unlikely that I would be that lucky. "Perhaps but I would like some way to be sure. If there's one person that berserker-"
Malcador spoke up, asking, "This individual of the same time period as you, what is their name?"
I shrugged before replying, "I only really… Actually, I think I learned their name in our last few days, she was called Mary Sioux."
The Emperor immediately stifled a laugh and snorted. "No, we're serious. What's their name?" He asked, looking at me intently.
"That is their name." I countered, confused by that reaction.
"That can't be right."
"Why?"
"Because Mary Sioux is the name various armies gave to mages who became too much of a nuisance in the latter part of the 20th century. Idiots who would put their own Glory or revenge against what their Nation wanted and were often drummed out of the military because they were not stable."
Well…that sounds about right.
I shrugged and stated, "There were several notable instances where Mary screwed up a potential victory for her side in her blind quest for revenge.."
"Huh… I suppose I Should have looked into it at the time. Then again I was busy with plenty of other missions and objectives at that time period, the world was a busy place then." He looked off into his memories before shaking his head before saying, "Well, as it stands, if this Mary Sue is still in the Warp it is very likely that they no longer bear any resemblance to what you remember.
"If by some chance they've gotten out of the Warp due to my efforts to create Primarchs, your mission objective has already been achieved and it's just a matter of figuring out which Primarch is this enemy/friend. You will have to either make sure they never figure out who you are or attempt to smooth over this awful business that apparently set her on a path to get revenge against you."
True enough, I nodded. It was not like I could just kill a Primarch simply because we'd been on opposite sides thousands of years ago. We would need to learn to work with each other, or at least be able to live with each other if they were amongst the souls chosen.
"I will keep my ears close to the ground and poke around amongst your siblings. If anyone reacts to the name Mary Sioux I'll let you know. Until such time, how is the spear doing? I had always wondered what would happen when I gave it to someone."
I shrugged my shoulders before saying, "The eagle turned into a wolf. And apparently it can come to me if I just will it now."
"Hmm, interesting. I wasn't aware it had such powers, but it's likely a sign I chose the proper child to give it to." Emperor mused, rubbing his chin, before adding, "That reminds me. When is the assault on the planet below supposed to take place?"
"Tomorrow I believe, or perhaps the day after. Depends how long I was out cold, but either way we'll be breaking up that City and freeing the sector from Pirate raids within the week."
"Good, good," the Emperor said, nodding his head.
His understudy, a woman if the subtle curves under the brown robe was any indication, coughed into her hand, likely trying to get the Emperor's attention.
He looked over to her and nodded his understanding before saying, "Well I think we've had our conversation and gotten most of this trouble sorted. With that handled I think it's about time for you to go back to planning the attack with your brother Vulkan and for us to be on our way."
"Of course, Father," I said as I got out of my seat, giving a nod to him.
"Thank you for meeting with me and clarifying some of this issue, I hope that you're right and that they were pulled out of the Warp."
"For an enemy you seem rather worried about them," Emperor said.
I simply smiled and replied, "If they had not been involved with me they would not be in the place they are and I feel some responsibility for that."
Before I even finished I felt Malcador poking and prodding, then he started to laugh."You mean kinship. You feel some kinship because you were both screwed over by a thing from the Warp."
I couldn't help the smile on my lips. "Perhaps I do, yet either way my statement stands. I feel some responsibility towards them."
"What thing in the Warp?", the cloaked figure asked, getting the Emperor to look at her before saying.
The Emperor shot her a look. "As I've said before, young sorcerer, there are things in the Warp that should not be trifled with. It is an ocean of psychic potential, and like with any other ocean, there are strange and dangerous things that lurk just below the surface.."
"Of course, my Emperor," the young woman said, nodding her head.
I caught an annoyed, if suppressed, tone in her voice. A familiar one, born from an inadequately answered question. It was understandable, explaining these creatures fully could probably alert them to your existence considering how even muttering that one was a parasite had alerted it to my existence while in The labyrinth.
But it was a risky thing to not tell your subordinates all the information they needed to know. I'd have to have a more private conversation to discuss this with him at another time. I needed to get a better understanding of what exactly the entities in the Warp could tag on you and learn about through simple conversations here in reality.
Anyway It looked as if our conversation was over so I gave a bow to the three and said, "Till we meet again, Father. I will go conquer this planet and then move on with my mission. Are there any tasks that you have for me before I do this, though?"
The Emperor shook his head before stopping and thought before saying, "Between here and your home world is a planet called Nova Borilia, the Mechanicum has been bugging me about sending an expedition there to try and free it from an unknown threat. It was a forge world that they lost so if you were to stop by that planet and clear it out the Mechanicum would be very thankful and I would as well."
I nodded my head and gave a bow before saying, "It will be done, father." With that being said I turned to Malcador and said, "Goodbye, Malcador. Hopefully we can go on another trip someday and discuss my progress on some of the various lessons you have taught me."
He laughed before saying, "Yeah, that would be fun. Maybe in another 20 years or so." Getting up he bowed before saying, "Good luck, king of wolves."
Turning to the third entity, the understudy, I said with a rather cocky grin, "Make sure to listen to the Emperor, he may be a bit secretive but he's got good reasons. Trust him." With that I turned and left, hoping that whoever this understudy was would take that lesson to heart as I didn't want to have to deal with whatever would happen if the Warp broke through over their stupidity.
Vulkan of nocturne
I hummed to myself as I worked the metal beneath my hands. The fighting down below had been near constant for the last few days and yesterday had been the first break I got in since first stepping foot in this sector.
I have fought on several planets since I joined the Emperor's crusade and I've come to be used to the constant danger of it all. It was not even a worry on my radar nowadays.
I was more interested in making sure my Salamanders came through the conflict alright than if I tired myself out, but when I was forced to take a break I would make the best of those breaks.
My sister calling me up for a conference to figure out how we would deal with the final capital of these pirates had been the impetus for a break and I will admit it have been a nice one.
The joyous time to party and make Merry with my father and sister, as well as get to know them a bit.
But as the evening had ended I asked to borrow my sister's bolter. She seemed nonplussed but she let me do it and that's what I was working on tonight.
I had noted that her gun wasn't working at peak efficiency in my opinion during the few times we fought next to each other. It was good but it could have been better and I was just doing some little bit of modifications, handcrafting pieces to replace parts from Mars using good steel from Nocturne.
What happened was shaping up to be a vast improvement in my opinion, with accuracy going up a good 30 to 40 percent. My plan was to give her back her bolter, as a gift for helping with this fight on the planet. Granted, depending on how you look at it, I was helping her but it really didn't matter. In the long run we both came to this planet by our own paths and we both were going to see the end of these pirates. That's what mattered in the long run.
That and how professional she was. I had had chances to watch her during the fighting the last few weeks and I could quite easily say, she looked after her space Marines like I and seemed to have a similar outlook on treating them like her family. She wasn't as expressive as me and gave more of a quiet approval whenever they did something right, less outward and physical approval than me, but it was there all the same.
And I had been listening to her radio communications, seeing that when someone started doing something really stupid she could be a real spitter of scorn. Hmm… oh, that's a good name.
But back on topic she seemed to be the type to build up her soldiers, make them better than when they came to her, and that I could approve of. I had not met any other siblings yet but I hoped all of them had a bit of her level-headedness, and a tendency to be careful about where to deploy her assets was always useful.
The coming fight for that capital city would probably be a hell of a thing but I had a feeling that it would be successful just because both of us were level-headed and able to deal with situations as they came.
Granted I admit that I was in favor of burning the whole place down. Eldar, dark or otherwise, were a bit of a pain in my back and I would prefer them to be removed but if Tanya thought they could be negotiated to surrender, or at least brought to some sort of state where they would not be a threat to the Imperium, I was willing to not burn the entire city down. This time.
Finishing the heavy work I stepped away from the machinery and used the towel to wipe off some sweat that had built up while I was working on the equipment. Checking the nearby clock I made sure that I still had a few more hours before I should take some rest so I was fresh for combat tomorrow. Once I confirmed that I got to work on the next step.
As I got to work on some of the more finer details of the job, cleaning off rough edges and adding a little bit of etching to pieces before I started to slowly screw pieces together and solder it all together, a beep came. It was the one alerting me that someone wanted to communicate to me from the bridge, putting down my work I got up and walked over to it, picking up the communicator.
"Vulkan here," I said with a joyous tone, to hear what was on the other side of this phone.
"My Primarch, Captain Nemmius Tetanus here. I wanted to let you know that the Emperor is departing and he wished us good hunting on our combat strike tomorrow."
"Good, send a signal back saying we shall hunt these pirates with extra enthusiasm thanks to that."
"Will do, my Primarch," Captain Nemmius Tetanus said before continuing, "Also I thought you'd like to know that Primarch Russ paid them a visit before leaving.
"Really?" my eyebrow raised at that, though he couldn't see it.
"Yes. She just had a 30 to 40 minute meeting with the Emperor before He left. I don't know what that was about but it was a thing."
I laughed before saying, "Well, no need to pry too much into other Primarch's business. An interesting thing, yes, but I'm sure it was nothing. Let me know though if Primarch Russ wishes to talk to me. If anyone else calls you can tell them I'm currently busy with a project, unless it is absolutely necessary and a matter of life or death I need to be uninterrupted all night."
"Of course, my Primarch," Captain Nemmius Tetanus said before adding, "Good luck with your project, sir."
"Thank you. Have a good night, Nemmius Tetanus." I hung up the phone and turned it back towards the table. The fires from the forge were starting to die and I really needed something a bit more bright to actually see what I was doing so I walked over to a nearby wall and dialed up the light settings, revealing my workshop. I had modeled it a bit on my old workshop back on Nocturne, a fake facade of bricks had been installed along the walls to give it a more homely feel. And along those walls were instruments and tools that I used for crafting, as well as one wall dedicated to works and equipment I had built over the years. Weapons and such.
Humming to myself I walked back to my work desk and looked at the yet to be named gun, though I was starting to come up with one now and again, to get to work on etching a wolf into one side since that seemed to be her favorite animal.
One strange thing I had noticed that separated our legions was where the name came from. Hers apparently came from an animal that was both the fiercest creature on the planet but also their most loyal ally while mine came from the Fire Salamanders, creatures that were a menace and needed to be hunted. If left alone they would cause problems for my people. Both were some of the most powerful creatures on the planet, so it made sense to be named after them.
It was a strange thing that our animals were similar but slightly different and I wondered if that would carry over into other legions, if they would have animal names and use them differently. I guess I would only know when I ran into them and there was already quite a bit already on the moves supposedly.
I could not wait to meet the rest of my brothers, and I guess sisters possibly as well. Yes father had kept the fact of our first sister as a mystery to us but I had quickly figured it out, and if he said there was at least one other there might be at least one other. I wondered what they would be like but I imagined they would all be somewhat different, all with different goals and all with different ways of handling the problems of this galaxy, but I would love them all the same. They were family and family was the most important thing on Nocturne for survival, something I had learned and talked to my people over the years I had been there.
If we had not worked as a family to stop the threat of the Eldar we would still be fleeing into the caves whenever the Eldar rating party showed up on Nocturne. That was a lesson that must be imparted to all members of our family, be it the littlest scout initiates to my brothers and sisters. Working together, we can defeat anything. Smiling, I got to work, assembling a few pieces together.
Slowly the gun took shape and as it did it became an excellent bolter pistol. It was large enough that Tanya would be able to wield it with one hand without issue, light enough that it would be perfectly possible to wield another weapon in the other hand and most importantly the accuracy was quite good. I think the best part of the weapon was the underslung capabilities as I traded a weapon that could easily be combined with another weapon and that was with my next project.
Looking across the room I saw several weapons I had brought up from the armory. My plan was quite simple: I would take them apart, find out what could be made as small as possible, and create versions of them that could be underslung on the bolter pistol. This would make it a Combi weapon with multiple choice options. Before every battle she would be able to choose what weapon would work best as its underslung weapon. That would probably be the most useful thing of all, having the capability to switch between a plasma gun and a flamer depending on the situation.
Smiling, I finished up the initial pistol and observed it. It was a bit small in my hand but should fit her hand perfectly and, once I was sure it was not going to fall apart easily by giving it a good few shakes and a whack against the table, I pulled out a painting kit and got to work painting it in her legions colors and adding a bit of artisticness to the Wolf on the side of it. After all this was, in other words, a 'nice to meet you' gift and I might as well make it a good gift I thought as I worked.
I would have to have a meeting with her before The siege though, to make sure she had it and explain how everything worked.
Writers note:i was bit worried i might not get this chapter out this week but surprises with little help from meteadragon and guardsman pias, and the surprises return of Preier we pulled it off, this why i went to two week mode give my editores as much time as they needl. Anyways hope everyone enjoy this chapter and its twists and turns, mysteries, birds and fish. let me know what you all thing, and what ever you think… is wrong HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Edited by: Preier, Metaldragon, Guardsman Pius
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Tanya von Degurechaff
I coughed up something, not exactly sure what. The impact into the ground had been rather devastating and who knew what internal damage I was dealing with. I was trying to use my magic to generate some form of healing but my hands were too cold and I couldn't move my fingers correctly.
Today had been a terrible day. I finally got in my unit out of rotation on the front line in Russy and was trying to get us some kind of desk job before we were all sent back to the fight. So far It had not been a very easy thing to accomplish but things were generally moving in the right direction.
Until the Americans joined the war and then things went south again.
Well… North, actually. An American expeditionary force had landed in the Entente and was currently arming the remnants of their military and taking control of that territory for themselves.
This, of course, could not stand. Given that my force was already well on its way to being rebuilt we were in a perfect position to be sent North.
I would not be granted a moment's peace to try and get myself back into fighting shape or at least get me out of the fight. So Northward we had been sent, the entire army group Salamander. We had been fighting the Entente remnants and the Americans for the last half month, stalling out their advance and pushing them generally back towards the mountains in Norway. Of course we couldn't push them too hard because they had withdrawn into places where they could easily defend.
Really, all of this was standard at this point. Things got unstandard in the fact that the damn berserker who had fought me all across the federation somehow got herself reassigned to the front I was now fighting on and well… Whenever we met things got explosive.
As it had today, the fighting had probably destroyed a couple miles of forest and things had not looked great. Not that things were looking pretty right now but… Oh, I think… I think I won?
Laying across from me was the berserker, her body broken though not her life as she was still moaning in pain. Her legs and arms were most definitely broken as they were facing ways that really were not humanly possible unless they were broken.
It was a great victory as she seemed to be delirious and unable to attack me but I seemed to be dealing with internal injuries.
Unfortunately, things weren't much better on my end. I wasn't really sure where my mage backup was but I was definitely behind enemy lines and my radio was kaput. I was definitely looking at either death by cold or, if I was lucky, I'd be taken prisoner by the Americans.
Although… all things considered, that wouldn't be a terrible outcome, would it?
If I was in an American prison camp I'd probably get an okay life when this is all over and, as far as I was aware, the Empire never committed any war crimes on the level of the Third Reich. So I was probably looking, at worst, whatever treatment German POWs got in World war 1. Well then again maybe even better than then, because being an officer for rank and a teenage girl could come in handy. Maybe I could play up the fact that I was just a dumb teenager swept up in the war. That could possibly work. I might feel sorry for screwing over the Empire but, well, if I was going to be a prisoner of war I'd rather spend it in comfort than misery if I could help it.
Coughs alerted me that my erstwhile enemy had finally woken up. She muttered something and said 'papa' before blinking several times and then she saw me.
Rather interesting, watching her face contort. When she had been unconscious her face had looked absolutely charming but the moment she saw me all that beauty went away and was replaced by a bitter rage.
"Devil!" She called and tried to sit up, immediately screaming as her limbs responded with just pain.
Coughing, I said "I'd recommend not doing that. You're pretty screwed up from what I can see and if you want to live with functionality restored you better just wait till some sort of medical corp finds us."
I Spoke in Scandinavian, with the hope that maybe we could have some communication and my English was not exactly top-notch as I had not had many occasions to practice it in this life.
"I won't live with any functionality unless I make sure you die, you killed my father."
I sighed and shook my head., "Do you have the slightest idea how little that narrows things down? I can't even begin to count how many fathers I've probably killed in this war."
A ragged cough escaped my lips, but the look on Mary's face made me push through. "After all, the Empire sends their best to the bloodiest battlefields and, well, not to be immodest…but I was one of the best. Ugly as it might be, I have quite the kill count."
Blinking, I looked up at the sky before adding, "although… I guess if you're speaking Scandinavian that does cut down the options a bit, doesn't it?"
"What do you mean you were the best?" The brown-haired girl said, sounding disgusted and annoyed by my statement.
"Well I have internal bleeding, I'm sure of it, so most likely I'm not going to make it unless I get some good medical care. Unless your allies find us any moment now I'm probably dead for the world."
"Good, a monster like you deserves to die here alone in the cold."
I coughed at that and said, "I'm not alone though, am I?".
"Well, enemies don't count! Guess I've just been granted a front-row seat confirmation of your death."
I chuckled at that and pulled out my pistol and pointed it in her direction, the look of fear that came over her as she realized that I could take away that front row seat was somewhat humorous if not truly sad.
"Bang," I said, before lowering it back down to the ground. "As much as you think I'm a monster I'm really not, I just went where the military sent me. I attempted to never bring my feelings, except for wanting to live into the battlefield, unlike you."
"You killed my father, I'm allowed to bring my feelings onto the battlefield."
Coughing, I asked, "How do you know I killed your father, by the way? That's really been bugging me over the last couple of years, you keep saying that but you've never explained it."
"Your gun, it has my father's initials on it. You obviously stole it from him after you murdered him."
I coughed and thought about it and then nodded. "Oh! That guy. To be fair he came right at me trying to kill me for patriotism's sake when we were withdrawing, so stealing that from him was not really the point. More something that just happened and he didn't even die when I stole it from him."
"What?" The girl said leaning forward, seeming to have been granted some hope that I had unfortunately unleashed.
Coughing, again, and damn that hurt, I said, "He did not die in our first battle. Heck, he didn't even die in our second, though the second one is when I stole the gun. I killed him in our third encounter, over the Channel."
"So, you admit you've murdered him? At least you'll have some forgiveness for your sins."
I coughed and said, "Can you knock off the good godly girl crap? What are you going to do when someone comes after you for murdering people during the war, are you going to let them kill you because you killed their father?"
The girl stuttered and said "You're the bad guys, you invaded my country! Anything that happens after that point is a totally responsible-"
"Bullshit!" I cut her off, leaning forward. "I was there on the very first day of the war, the Entente invaded the Empire. If you're trying to make that argument you are sorely misinformed about how the war actually started."
Coughing again I raised my hand to try and stem it a bit but it came away wet with blood. Sighing I leaned back against the tree, "The world is not black and white, berserker. I'm a damn orphan, I joined the military so I could have a chance at a reasonable life. Then the war broke out and I defended myself. You came to this war to kill me because I defended myself in a war. Which one of those sounds more like the bad guy in the scenario here."
I expected some sort of comeback but all I got was silence. Focusing my eyes better I saw that she was looking at me, biting her lips in thought. Finally she said, "Mary, my name is Mary."
Coughing, I answered, "Tanya," returning the name in exchange since I had no idea what she was thinking.
Well, apparently what she was thinking was rather painful as she flopped her arm down into somewhat of a usable position and screamed as she straightened it.
"Is there some reason you're engaging in self-harm?" I asked. She slowly maneuvered her arm into a better position to reach something on her side.
"My radio is still functioning, I think. If you surrender I'll use it to call for help." Mary said, still slowly reaching down towards what I could now see was a somewhat busted box by the looks of it.
Well, considering I was all for actually surviving… I said, "I surrender. You have my parole, Miss Mary."
She nodded and slowly unclipped the radio and brought it to her face. "This is Mary Sue. I've gone down in the woods somewhere, can anyone hear me?
There was a brief pause but nothing came back. She shook her radio and said, "Well, I guess a quick escape is not going to be guaranteed."
"Unfortunate" I replied, only to be interrupted as the radio broke whatever silence was ongoing.
"Sir, there's no sign of Mary and the enemy mages are pushing on our flags." Came a female voice.
Mary's face lit up as she talked into the radio, saying, "I'm not sure where I am but I'm here."
"Damnation! We can't hold this location, we have to pull back," Responded an older male voice.
"Guys? Guys?" Mary was questioning, trying to figure it out.
Shaking my head, I said, "Transmitter must be broken but we are still able to get communications or overhear communications."
"Ducking damn it," Mary said in a mutter. How old was she?
"What about Mary, we can't leave her out here." The female voice said again.
"That's not our problem now. Our command is putting this defeat on her shoulders, that explosion took out the center of the line and a lot of people are dead. If we see her we're supposed to arrest her... Better to have died a hero than come back and be charged."
Mary seemed stunned by that bit of info but really I was surprised that this had taken so long. Her antics had cost her side quite a number of victories in my opinion. I just scraped by each time so apparently was scraping by this time.
If I was petty I might try and rub that in, but I was in far too much pain and Mary was getting some functionality back to her arms. Better to not tick off the person who was already considering strangling you.
Instead I said, "Well, Mary, on the off chance that it's my people that find us first, do you want to surrender or should we just leave that situation standing here and now?"
She gave me a glare, which I nodded my head at. "Leave that for now, got it."
"Can't believe they just left me. Aren't we the good guys? Aren't we supposed to be watching out for each other?"
The urge to roll my eyes was a thing that I had to fight but I think I managed it quite well. Instead, I said, "You're an accomplished mage, Mary, they're going to assume you can either figure out how to survive on your own or you're already dead. I don't know if you know this but mage combat is not one where prisoners are taken all the time, we're far too dangerous to be left to each other… And infantry tends to carry grudges against us."
"Damn it." Mary muttered, before throwing the radio right above my head. It impacted the tree, was smashed, and fell to pieces around me.
"Bit much," I muttered, but not much else I could say on the matter. Instead I reached down and put the pistol back in my holster before pulling myself up with a branch.
"What are you doing?" Mary asked as I got myself standing, coughing into my hand before starting to stumble in her direction.
"Well, we are in the Northern latitudes and it's snowing. We are very likely to die if we sit across from each other for this entire night. The fact of the matter is the only chance we'll have of surviving is to share body heat." I came to a stop next to where she was lying and then slowly lowered myself till I was against her shoulder. 'That's what we're going to do. Even if it's just a minimal bit of heat it might keep us alive long enough for someone to find us. Hopefully the fact that we're not shooting each other will encourage them not to shoot either one of us when they show up and we can be taken prisoner by whichever side is the one who finds us. Sounds like a deal?"
Mary nodded before saying "Fine, Devil, that sounds like a deal."
Coughing I looked up at the sky and said, "Well, probably not the way you thought you'd spend today?"
"No. No, it is not." Mary muttered.
Sighing I asked a question that had been bugging me, one that normally I would not ask. In fact I was very well possibly going to die before I got the answer but something spurred me on. "So, does being X talk to you?"
"Who?" Mary asked, sounding confused.
"When your eyes glow yellow and you feel unnatural amounts of power flowing through you, does a voice talk to you to spur you on and tell you what to do?"
She shook her head, seeming confused, before replying, "No. That's not something that has ever happened."
I coughed before saying, "Man, you really hate me then. Guess being X wasn't pushing you to attack me."
"Who is this being X?"
"A parasitical creature that calls itself God," I said, before coughing again. Looking up I saw the snow had stopped falling and not in the sense that the clouds were clearing, more in the sense of the time had stopped.
"Really, now? This is the first time you actually try and talk to someone about me. This is momentous, my child. I'm quite inspired by this, to have the disbeliever go to the believer to try and understand."
Coughing, I looked around and saw a figure walking toward me, this time it was a muscular man with a beard and wearing a toga.
"Speak of the parasite," I muttered as he came closer.
"Please, my child, we have known each other so long and you still call me Being X and a parasite? Have I not made it clear that I am who I say I am?"
"You've made some things clear, still not going to worship you as some all-knowing god."
"Wait, what? Are you saying this is God?!"
I stopped and looked to my side, seeing Mary was still functionally here and not frozen. Turning back to being X, I asked, "Why is she here?"
"I don't know…" X murmured, his face going weird as if he was scared or confused. The answer was forthcoming though as a chuckle came from the woods around us.
"Oh, what a grand show! What a bloody good time this has been. Two players of strategy locked in a contest of plans within plans, fighting to achieve their goals at each other's expense. This was a grand sight that I do not wish to ever see go away again."
There was a thump, loud enough that it reminded me of a T-Rex taking a step in the Jurassic Park movies, then another. Out of the trees came a grotesque figure, a bird-like creature that stood a good 10 ft tall. Its feathering was in majority blue though there was a riot of other colors showing as it leaned over and gave a bow, using its walking staff as a way to give it the most depth without falling over.
"Good evening, my entertainment. I must say this has been a wonderful show for me and my master over the last few years, and I am honestly quite sad to see it go. Truly, I am."The creature grabbed its chest and looked up at the sky what might have resembled a twisted mockery of a smile, had it not been for its beak., I think it was smiling but it was hard to tell considering it wore a beak."To have it end with the death of the Berserker and the Devil as they take a moment to actually get to know each other and share warmth, as they both slowly pass into that good night… Ah, it warms my heart!"
"What are you doing here, Daemon?" Called being X as he turned on the creature, drawing a lightning bolt out of The ether and holding it like a javelin.
"Haha? Mimicking Jupiter, or is it Zeus… Which would you prefer? You minor gods all look the same to me."
At that insult being X tossed the lightning bolt at the creature, which stopped it amidst air with a simple wave of its feathered arm.
Chuckling, it said, "Quite an amazing feat you tried there, to slay a minion of The God of change. I'm afraid I'm going to have to say no to that, God of Reincarnation. I think it's time for you to leave this world as we have no need of Reincarnation here."
With that it raised a feathered hand into the air and a chain shot out from the snow, quickly encircling being X, and began to pull him down. A blue flaming circle quickly drew itself over the area as he was pulled through the ground to some unknown place, leaving me and Mary sitting there stunned.
The bird-like being stepped forward onto the recently scorched ground where being X had once stood and ran its claws through it, almost seeming to inspect something, before Mary asked, "What are you?" with a bit of fear in her voice.
This inspired the bird to look at us, its strange eyes seeming to hum with power in a way that I don't think most mages could.
"Change. And now Reincarnation, after all someone has to take over the job now that little minor God has been vanquished and since I was the one doing the vanquishing I guess I get access to all his powers. And all his toys." As it said this it looked directly at us, making its intentions towards us rather clear. I reached for my pistol first but somehow Mary managed to get her pistol up at the same time and we unloaded our chambers into the creature. Her m1911 and my Mauser were both left smoking and the creature, still standing in front of us utterly unconcerned, had blood pouring from numerous holes ripped through its form.
"Oh, no! I've been shot! However may I recover?" the bird said in the most mocking tone I'd probably ever heard, all as it continued to give that weird facsimile of a smile.
Finally it just started laughing at us and said, "You have no power over entities of the Warp, the one who does is currently far far away from this Coast… Though I can feel him already turning in this direction, so I think it's time for us to go."
Snapping its quad fingers there was a flash of light and everything around us changed, it was as if the earth we were sitting on had been scooped out of its place and deposited somewhere else. Three feet around us there was snow and then there was just this new ground, strange glowing blue stone walls to either side of us.
"Now, here's what's going to happen, "the bird said, seeming to stalk around us like some sort of overgrown turkey. "You are currently within the labyrinth, there are only a few places to go in this realm. Make it out and you'll find your way home, don't and well… This realm is connected to multiple dimensions and times, there are monsters within here that have not seen the light of day in millions of years and will not see the light of day in millions of years. There are also monsters from realms that don't exist as you understand it and they're hungry, so I imagine you understand what will happen if they find you."
Coughing, I said, "How the hell are we supposed to find our way out when we're severely injured?"
Its macabre smile widened, "Why, that just adds to the challenge."
"Sounds more like you're just trying to kill us."
The bird stopped and tilted its neck to look in our direction. "Well death is just the beginning for you, I think. After all, I can reincarnate you over and over and over and gleefully watch you fail each and every time. Or succeed! That would certainly be a massive, and fascinating, change in my plans. Have fun, girls, and don't die too quickly."
It stopped and snapped its feathery fingers, as if it had just remembered something."Oh! By the way if you stare into the abyss too long you'll go mad so… don't do that. Also be wary of what doors you open as you might find yourself in the war proper instead of this little maze beneath it and… Well, there are things out there much worse than in here. Toodaloo."
And like that the bird was gone, leaving us sitting there against a tree in a labyrinth that I had no idea where the hell even was. Coughing I pulled off my coat. It wasn't as cold now so I didn't need it and got to work looking over Mary.
"What are you doing?" She asked as I looked over her injuries.
"Compartmentalizing things. We need to escape. In order to escape you need to be able to walk. In order for you to walk I need to set your legs into something reasonable." With that I looked at the tree, called upon a mage blade, and sliced through a couple branches. Then I cut my coat in half and started to set her legs. "This is going to hurt but if we're going to escape you need to bear it. Got it?"
She nodded and I did the job. Her screams were loud, and I realized too late that I Probably should have given her something to bite down on to keep her calm so we didn't draw any notice. Once her legs were set I said about carving up the first branch until I had something she could use as a walking stick, then I went about helping her get up.
"Why are you helping me?" She asked. "It seems to me I'm kind of a burden in this situation and well… I wasn't exactly not rooting for you to die a moment ago."
I nodded and replied, "I understand that, but from the sounds of things, the fact of the matter is that we're surrounded by unknown monsters who'd happily have us for dinner. That means the only people we can trust are each other. It sucks, but that's the reality we're living in, no use whining about it. If we can get out of here maybe we'll have time to complain later."
"And if we don't?"
I looked up at her and shrugged before saying, "Well as the bird said, it's probably just going to reincarnate us over and over again…and I think sooner or later madness will take us. unless of course we get lucky and it forgets to reincarnate us."
Mary chuckled and said "So we're hoping that the bird brain just forgets about us so we can stay dead? Well, that's better than nothing."
"Sometimes my optimism surprises me." I idly quipped. "And today? Well, today I just want to live."
With that we exchanged nods and again tried to move down the hallway. She used the staff to hold herself up on one side and I held on to the other as we moved.
Question of what the void was was quickly answered as we came to a window and saw, well, complete blackness. Now I could assume that we were just under something and had no light out there or I could assume that the void we saw meant actual void and if we fell through that window we would fall for eternity.
Either way I said, "Don't look out there." as Mary turned to look at the window.
She nodded and we kept going, walking further into the labyrinth, me coughing occasionally as I tried not to move as much and her groaning as her limbs settled into something that was probably not going to be healthy in the long run. I generally kept us connected to the right side of the wall by leaving my hand there as we did, remembering some old tactics from when I was a kid and was interested in this kind of stuff.
"Why do you have your hand on the wall?" Mary asked after a while. I shrugged before saying, "You keep your hand on one wall, you'll reach the end of the maze eventually. Sooner or later you'll have exhausted all outcomes."
"Okay but what if we're on some sort of middle segment without really the connection to the edge of the maze?"
"Well that teaches us something," I said. "We move on to the next segment and just keep going until we hit something that doesn't go around in a circle."
"Okay, then what if the maze is changing every time we're not looking at it?"
"Well then we're screwed," I replied with a shrug. "We have to hope that there's some sort of fair rule in this game that we've been sent to. Otherwise, it's just trying to kill us."
"Didn't he say he was a servant of the god of change?"
I made an annoyed sound at that before saying, "Parasite of change but, sure, I can see your point."
"Parasite?" came a voice from behind us causing us to turn to see… I don't know what I saw. There were teeth, some sort of floating creature, I couldn't tell up or down about it. All I could tell was that it was looking insulted.
"I don't like to interfere in the games of my minions but that was rather insulting. I think a change of rules is required." It snapped its fingers and Mary was gone. Where to I don't know, or perhaps it was I that had changed places? Possibly. It was hard to tell since the labyrinth seemed the same but the creature was gone as well. Although I could still hear its voice like it was right next to me.
"That's more like it. Now the game is fairer! Oh I doubt you'll find your way free of this place now and, just for that insult, new reincarnations for you."
I heard another snap of its fingers coming from nowhere, and the creature added with enthusiasm.
"Oh hey want to hear a story? inside this maze there are two wolves: one is young and stupid, thinking they know everything about the world and know nothing at all. The other is old and wise but a fool who has traveled far from his home in hopes of undoing the past. Neither will reach their goals really but it will be amazing to see which one will survive."
"What the hell are you on about?" I simply asked, drawing my pistol as I leaned against a wall.
"Oh, it's quite simple. Look behind you." I blinked, confused, before turning and finding a monster standing there. It was a werewolf, a goddamn werewolf, standing up to 14 feet tall and having barely any room to move in the labyrinth. Its hands were splayed to show its clawed fingers as it slowly stalked forward, its golden fur making it easy to see its blue eyes shining with unnatural intelligence and bestial instincts.
More terrifying of all was the fact that it was wearing gray bits of armor that looked ill-fitted to its form.
As soon as our eyes met, it howled and started rocketing towards my location, scratching up the walls as it charged. I pulled out my gun and unleashed a series of shots into its head but it seemed to have too strong of a skull as it bowled me over and attempted to bite down on me.
I rolled out of the way as it bit the ground where my neck had been. Taking the fraction of a second it gave me, I cast a mage blade spell on my hand and tried to slash at the armored chest in front of me.
It barely noticed, instead swiping at my hand and slicing off my arm effortlessly. I watched, stunned for a moment as the magic faded from my severed hand and it tumbled across the ground, but I quickly forced myself to roll out of the way as another bite came for my head. Blood was everywhere and I was feeling weaker by the moment but I held on tight to my determination as adrenaline sang in my veins.
Moving back to give myself space and time, I tried again, summoning another mage blade, and this time inspected the armor closer to try to find any weak point. By some luck I noticed there was a crack just above the heart. It wasn't much, but I had a target.
It turned around, hunger burning bright in its gaze, its massive claws twitching in anticipation, and its razor-sharp teeth gleaming in the unnatural light. I could feel my injuries catching up with me, the blood loss getting to my head and the agony pounding my chest. I knew I only had one last chance to make it out of this.
So I gathered up all the mana I had left. Time slowed to a crawl as my perception spells burned out the last of my focus. Power gathered at my feet, ready to shoot me forward like a bullet. The searing light of my blade blazed brightly in my hand.
Then the werewolf moved.
I ducked, barely missing its claw as it cut through my hair, wind whistling as it passed. From below, I shot up with the force of a gun, bladed hand extended to meet its chest flying towards me. It tried to dodge at the last second, but it was far too late. With the laser precision born from overclocking my mind with magic, I shoved my mage blade directly into the crack right over its heart.
For a moment, my hand stopped.
Then something cracked, and it burst right through.
Even as it knocked me over, my hand plunged into its chest, burrowing through muscle and bone. Finally, I felt my hand wrap around something pulsing behind its ribs. It had to be the creature's heart. Just then, the creature sprung up, dragging me with it, and sending the top of my head crashing into the underside of its jaw. The collision knocked the last bits of focus from me, and the mage blade spell slipped from my mind.
Not yet!
I don't know what it was. Maybe adrenaline, or human survival instinct, or maybe a level of stubbornness I didn't know I had, but in that moment I pushed through the pain, the blood loss, and the existential terror, and I squeezed.
The creature cried and stumbled around, but I held on till but I held on with every inch of determination I had left in my body. I squeezed and squeezed, crushing the life out of it like I had nothing else to live for in this world. .
I can't really recall if I was successful as blackness, either from the loss of blood or the release of death, overcame my vision and my consciousness faded.
Tanya Russ
I groaned as I pulled myself out of my bed, confused by everything, as I sat up and looked around. For one I now remembered everything from my second life, and what a crappy second life that had been. For two my perception had been thrown off a bit, being so close to the ground for even a few moments in my dream had every move making me a little bit dizzy when I woke up.
Also, apparently, I had been stripped out of my armor while I slept. Not hard to see why as there were a couple of my girls sleeping next to me. They must have come in while I was out and helped me out of my armor. Why do they decide to stick around to sleep next to me?
… Well, I was told I was quite warm, and these days I had no wish to complain about these sorts of things.
Sighing I got up from the bed and looked at my hand, seeing the wound already healed. That was good, I didn't want to risk an infection. Shaking my head I stumbled over to a table and jotted down the important bits about the story I had just been given.
Had that really happened, I wondered. The spear was supposed to help me see what had happened… So, theoretically, yes, but I had also been drunk off my ass last night. Maybe what I had been given was a bit of an interpretation through an alcoholic lens? So I probably only had to keep the important parts in mind..
I nearly died at the end of a war, was picked up by one supernatural entity that thought itself a God, who was swiftly defeated by a different, and somehow far worse, such entity, and then had a werewolf sicked on me in some kind of hell maze. It was probable that at least one of these elements was fueled by alcohol, but I couldn't say that for sure. I would need to ask the Emperor when I spoke to him next.
There was something else to be considered as well. Was Mary currently still trapped in The Labyrinth? After all, it had been tens of thousands of years since we'd been thrown in there. Assuming any of it was real.
Was the maze even a real thing or not?
On one hand I shouldn't really care what the berserker was up to, after all she tried to kill me enough times. On the other hand, well…
The only reason she would be stuck in there would be because of the pissing contest between being X and me, a thing that had been going on too long and drawn the notice of paranormal entities beyond his parasitical control. As much as I'd like to say it wasn't my fault I did possibly bear some blame. At the very least, I felt a little guilty about getting her involved. Assuming that the same energies that kept my soul together in the Warp would have affected hers, that might mean she was still in there, and perhaps I would need to look into finding a way to get her out.
Not because she needed to be saved but because well she was a danger to me. In my last life she was about to see me dead and the only reason that hadn't happened was that she had been unbelievably broken by her attack. She was a tool that could be used to fight me and leaving a tool that could be used to fight me in the hands of creatures whose motives I did not understand was a bad idea.
Of course, I could be overthinking this. It had been tens of thousands of years. there was a good possibility that whatever remnants of her soul that had existed had been used up in the constant experiments of reincarnation. The damned bird that sent us there might have even forgotten about her, or gotten bored, and just left her dead by now. There was also probably no way to actually get into that labyrinth without the enemy's aid as far as I knew.
Who I needed to speak to about this was the Emperor. In fact the matter was urgent as I was playing in a game without knowing the rules or the participants. Emperor would have a better idea of the situation at the very least and could clear up things that didn't make sense to me.
Turning to the girls I thought about waking them up to help me get my armor on but I honestly didn't need my armor for this. Instead I went over to the closet and pulled out a pair of pants and a linen shirt, pulling them on over the hard suit I'd slept in. Once I had that handled I grabbed a jacket, just for a little extra warmth, and started to walk out of my room. I only stopped when I noticed something odd by my door. The spear I used to cut myself last night was sitting there but it was different, the head of the spirit near the front of it had been of an eagle. It was the head of a wolf now, which was weird. I started to reach for it and it jumped off the wall and into my hand as if I beckoned it.
I blinked several times before shrugging. As much as I would like some explanation for a spear shapeshifting to go on brand with my Wolf theme, the fact that it could jump off a wall to my hand if I summoned it pretty much made it clear that this spear was as paranormal in nature as anything else the Emperor made.
Laying the spear back against the wall I shook my head before walking out into the Hall and heading towards the shuttle bays. Grabbing a communicator off my belt I called up to the bridge and asked "Captain Nemmius Tetanus is the Emperor's ship still in the local sector?"
"Yes, my Primarch, he's still here though I don't know for how much longer. Malcador has just transferred over to His ship so he's probably getting ready to take off."
"Ask him to wait a moment and get clearance for me to shuttle over there. I have to ask him a question."
"Yes, I will endeavor to do so for my Primarch."
Quickly I made my way down to the shuttle area and negotiated one of the vehicles for transport to the other ship. Granted there wasn't really much of a negotiation, more an 'I need your shuttle' but that's just a perk of being in charge.
After a few moments, I got clearance to move across the void to Emperor's Ship and was on my way.
Didn't take long and as soon as the shuttle landed and I stepped out I found myself staring at Custodes waiting for me. I gave a nod and they answered me in kind. One said, "The Emperor is waiting for you in the library, we are to escort you there."
"Thank you," I acknowledged, before saying, "Lead the way." and they did. Walking through the Emperor's personal ship revealed some interesting things of note. Mine had slowly become more rustic as the years went on, becoming more akin to the world of Fenris. This one was… well, gold. There was lots of opulent wealth but in color it was all gold. Real gold? Hard to say but it definitely matched the style of his armor and his Custodes.
Through the wide hallways of the ship we soon arrived at a heavy set of golden doors. There were imperial eagles all over the place that basically screamed that this was the Emperor's personal library and the fact the two guards stopped and took a position by the door told me enough. nodding my thanks I opened the door and stepped in.
Which was when I found myself surprised, it wasn't that opulent. Oh, sure, there was a bit of gold but it looked more like a library than a statement about what a library could look like. I saw hundreds, if not thousands, of books as well as scrolls and other stone tablets, some of them behind museum glass.
The room was set up in a massive circle and, stepping in, I saw that it went up at least three levels if not more and that was only what I could see. It seemed that once you got up to the third level there might be hallways, which was interesting.
In the center of the room was a round table where the Emperor was sitting, having a discussion with Malcador. For the most part that was all I saw, except for a figure currently reading a book behind the Emperor.
I couldn't tell much about them. They were only about 5 ft tall and were wearing brown robes that discouraged identifying any further details.
"Tanya, welcome to my sanctum," the Emperor said, his hands outstretched to greet me and welcome me in. "I was about to have our ship get on your way when I got your call. Does something trouble you, my daughter?"
"Yes and no, "I said, looking over at the brown-clothed figure. The Emperor quickly spotted where I was looking and said, "Do not worry about them, they are safe to speak around. They won't tell a single secret learned in this room, trust me."
Nodding, I stepped forward and pulled out a seat, which thankfully was large enough for me.
"I used that spear you gave me last night."
The Emperor nodded and said, "I hope that was an enlightening experience. Did it clear up the headaches as I hoped?"
"The physical headaches are gone so far," I said. "If they come back I'll give it another try, instead I now have a mental headache from the information that was given to me."
"What information is that, my daughter?" The Emperor asked, leaning forward.
I sat, before saying, "To make it quick and easy, I have reason to believe there is another like me trapped in the Warp. Me and this other individual were pulled into the war by a bird-like entity claiming to be a servant of change."
The Emperor started rubbing his chin in interest while Malcador sat up. "Well now, isn't that interesting." Malcador said, running his hand through his beard.
"Do you think it's possible that her soul was as strong as yours and capable of surviving its existence within the Warp Emperor asked as he motioned with his hand?"
I shrugged and said, "It is not impossible, she was… Driven, let us say. I saw her do some quite impossible things in my time and I fought her enough to know that she would not have died without a fight."
"Then perhaps she's already escaped the confines of the Warp." came a female voice from behind the Emperor.
The brown-robed figure was still facing away but beginning to turn. Most of their features were hidden though I could see locks of red hair coming through the opening of the hood they wore.
"Escaped?" I asked, "How did someone escape the Warp without aid?"
The figure stepped forward and replied,d "I never said they didn't have aid. After all, you had to have escaped the Warp with the aid of the Emperor. Who's to say he did not help do the same with this unknown friend of yours?"
"My understudy here raises a good point, even though they were told not to talk during this," said the Emperor as he tapped the table with his fingers. "Primarch souls were created using the souls of powerful humans who were left in the Warp for millennia, it is well within the possibility that this friend of yours was amongst the 19 other souls that were chosen."
"Perhaps," I agreed. After all, I had no idea how the exact mechanics worked, though it seemed unlikely that I would be that lucky. "Perhaps but I would like some way to be sure. If there's one person that berserker-"
Malcador spoke up, asking, "This individual of the same time period as you, what is their name?"
I shrugged before replying, "I only really… Actually, I think I learned their name in our last few days, she was called Mary Sioux."
The Emperor immediately stifled a laugh and snorted. "No, we're serious. What's their name?" He asked, looking at me intently.
"That is their name." I countered, confused by that reaction.
"That can't be right."
"Why?"
"Because Mary Sioux is the name various armies gave to mages who became too much of a nuisance in the latter part of the 20th century. Idiots who would put their own Glory or revenge against what their Nation wanted and were often drummed out of the military because they were not stable."
Well…that sounds about right.
I shrugged and stated, "There were several notable instances where Mary screwed up a potential victory for her side in her blind quest for revenge.."
"Huh… I suppose I Should have looked into it at the time. Then again I was busy with plenty of other missions and objectives at that time period, the world was a busy place then." He looked off into his memories before shaking his head before saying, "Well, as it stands, if this Mary Sue is still in the Warp it is very likely that they no longer bear any resemblance to what you remember.
"If by some chance they've gotten out of the Warp due to my efforts to create Primarchs, your mission objective has already been achieved and it's just a matter of figuring out which Primarch is this enemy/friend. You will have to either make sure they never figure out who you are or attempt to smooth over this awful business that apparently set her on a path to get revenge against you."
True enough, I nodded. It was not like I could just kill a Primarch simply because we'd been on opposite sides thousands of years ago. We would need to learn to work with each other, or at least be able to live with each other if they were amongst the souls chosen.
"I will keep my ears close to the ground and poke around amongst your siblings. If anyone reacts to the name Mary Sioux I'll let you know. Until such time, how is the spear doing? I had always wondered what would happen when I gave it to someone."
I shrugged my shoulders before saying, "The eagle turned into a wolf. And apparently it can come to me if I just will it now."
"Hmm, interesting. I wasn't aware it had such powers, but it's likely a sign I chose the proper child to give it to." Emperor mused, rubbing his chin, before adding, "That reminds me. When is the assault on the planet below supposed to take place?"
"Tomorrow I believe, or perhaps the day after. Depends how long I was out cold, but either way we'll be breaking up that City and freeing the sector from Pirate raids within the week."
"Good, good," the Emperor said, nodding his head.
His understudy, a woman if the subtle curves under the brown robe was any indication, coughed into her hand, likely trying to get the Emperor's attention.
He looked over to her and nodded his understanding before saying, "Well I think we've had our conversation and gotten most of this trouble sorted. With that handled I think it's about time for you to go back to planning the attack with your brother Vulkan and for us to be on our way."
"Of course, Father," I said as I got out of my seat, giving a nod to him.
"Thank you for meeting with me and clarifying some of this issue, I hope that you're right and that they were pulled out of the Warp."
"For an enemy you seem rather worried about them," Emperor said.
I simply smiled and replied, "If they had not been involved with me they would not be in the place they are and I feel some responsibility for that."
Before I even finished I felt Malcador poking and prodding, then he started to laugh."You mean kinship. You feel some kinship because you were both screwed over by a thing from the Warp."
I couldn't help the smile on my lips. "Perhaps I do, yet either way my statement stands. I feel some responsibility towards them."
"What thing in the Warp?", the cloaked figure asked, getting the Emperor to look at her before saying.
The Emperor shot her a look. "As I've said before, young sorcerer, there are things in the Warp that should not be trifled with. It is an ocean of psychic potential, and like with any other ocean, there are strange and dangerous things that lurk just below the surface.."
"Of course, my Emperor," the young woman said, nodding her head.
I caught an annoyed, if suppressed, tone in her voice. A familiar one, born from an inadequately answered question. It was understandable, explaining these creatures fully could probably alert them to your existence considering how even muttering that one was a parasite had alerted it to my existence while in The labyrinth.
But it was a risky thing to not tell your subordinates all the information they needed to know. I'd have to have a more private conversation to discuss this with him at another time. I needed to get a better understanding of what exactly the entities in the Warp could tag on you and learn about through simple conversations here in reality.
Anyway It looked as if our conversation was over so I gave a bow to the three and said, "Till we meet again, Father. I will go conquer this planet and then move on with my mission. Are there any tasks that you have for me before I do this, though?"
The Emperor shook his head before stopping and thought before saying, "Between here and your home world is a planet called Nova Borilia, the Mechanicum has been bugging me about sending an expedition there to try and free it from an unknown threat. It was a forge world that they lost so if you were to stop by that planet and clear it out the Mechanicum would be very thankful and I would as well."
I nodded my head and gave a bow before saying, "It will be done, father." With that being said I turned to Malcador and said, "Goodbye, Malcador. Hopefully we can go on another trip someday and discuss my progress on some of the various lessons you have taught me."
He laughed before saying, "Yeah, that would be fun. Maybe in another 20 years or so." Getting up he bowed before saying, "Good luck, king of wolves."
Turning to the third entity, the understudy, I said with a rather cocky grin, "Make sure to listen to the Emperor, he may be a bit secretive but he's got good reasons. Trust him." With that I turned and left, hoping that whoever this understudy was would take that lesson to heart as I didn't want to have to deal with whatever would happen if the Warp broke through over their stupidity.
Vulkan of nocturne
I hummed to myself as I worked the metal beneath my hands. The fighting down below had been near constant for the last few days and yesterday had been the first break I got in since first stepping foot in this sector.
I have fought on several planets since I joined the Emperor's crusade and I've come to be used to the constant danger of it all. It was not even a worry on my radar nowadays.
I was more interested in making sure my Salamanders came through the conflict alright than if I tired myself out, but when I was forced to take a break I would make the best of those breaks.
My sister calling me up for a conference to figure out how we would deal with the final capital of these pirates had been the impetus for a break and I will admit it have been a nice one.
The joyous time to party and make Merry with my father and sister, as well as get to know them a bit.
But as the evening had ended I asked to borrow my sister's bolter. She seemed nonplussed but she let me do it and that's what I was working on tonight.
I had noted that her gun wasn't working at peak efficiency in my opinion during the few times we fought next to each other. It was good but it could have been better and I was just doing some little bit of modifications, handcrafting pieces to replace parts from Mars using good steel from Nocturne.
What happened was shaping up to be a vast improvement in my opinion, with accuracy going up a good 30 to 40 percent. My plan was to give her back her bolter, as a gift for helping with this fight on the planet. Granted, depending on how you look at it, I was helping her but it really didn't matter. In the long run we both came to this planet by our own paths and we both were going to see the end of these pirates. That's what mattered in the long run.
That and how professional she was. I had had chances to watch her during the fighting the last few weeks and I could quite easily say, she looked after her space Marines like I and seemed to have a similar outlook on treating them like her family. She wasn't as expressive as me and gave more of a quiet approval whenever they did something right, less outward and physical approval than me, but it was there all the same.
And I had been listening to her radio communications, seeing that when someone started doing something really stupid she could be a real spitter of scorn. Hmm… oh, that's a good name.
But back on topic she seemed to be the type to build up her soldiers, make them better than when they came to her, and that I could approve of. I had not met any other siblings yet but I hoped all of them had a bit of her level-headedness, and a tendency to be careful about where to deploy her assets was always useful.
The coming fight for that capital city would probably be a hell of a thing but I had a feeling that it would be successful just because both of us were level-headed and able to deal with situations as they came.
Granted I admit that I was in favor of burning the whole place down. Eldar, dark or otherwise, were a bit of a pain in my back and I would prefer them to be removed but if Tanya thought they could be negotiated to surrender, or at least brought to some sort of state where they would not be a threat to the Imperium, I was willing to not burn the entire city down. This time.
Finishing the heavy work I stepped away from the machinery and used the towel to wipe off some sweat that had built up while I was working on the equipment. Checking the nearby clock I made sure that I still had a few more hours before I should take some rest so I was fresh for combat tomorrow. Once I confirmed that I got to work on the next step.
As I got to work on some of the more finer details of the job, cleaning off rough edges and adding a little bit of etching to pieces before I started to slowly screw pieces together and solder it all together, a beep came. It was the one alerting me that someone wanted to communicate to me from the bridge, putting down my work I got up and walked over to it, picking up the communicator.
"Vulkan here," I said with a joyous tone, to hear what was on the other side of this phone.
"My Primarch, Captain Nemmius Tetanus here. I wanted to let you know that the Emperor is departing and he wished us good hunting on our combat strike tomorrow."
"Good, send a signal back saying we shall hunt these pirates with extra enthusiasm thanks to that."
"Will do, my Primarch," Captain Nemmius Tetanus said before continuing, "Also I thought you'd like to know that Primarch Russ paid them a visit before leaving.
"Really?" my eyebrow raised at that, though he couldn't see it.
"Yes. She just had a 30 to 40 minute meeting with the Emperor before He left. I don't know what that was about but it was a thing."
I laughed before saying, "Well, no need to pry too much into other Primarch's business. An interesting thing, yes, but I'm sure it was nothing. Let me know though if Primarch Russ wishes to talk to me. If anyone else calls you can tell them I'm currently busy with a project, unless it is absolutely necessary and a matter of life or death I need to be uninterrupted all night."
"Of course, my Primarch," Captain Nemmius Tetanus said before adding, "Good luck with your project, sir."
"Thank you. Have a good night, Nemmius Tetanus." I hung up the phone and turned it back towards the table. The fires from the forge were starting to die and I really needed something a bit more bright to actually see what I was doing so I walked over to a nearby wall and dialed up the light settings, revealing my workshop. I had modeled it a bit on my old workshop back on Nocturne, a fake facade of bricks had been installed along the walls to give it a more homely feel. And along those walls were instruments and tools that I used for crafting, as well as one wall dedicated to works and equipment I had built over the years. Weapons and such.
Humming to myself I walked back to my work desk and looked at the yet to be named gun, though I was starting to come up with one now and again, to get to work on etching a wolf into one side since that seemed to be her favorite animal.
One strange thing I had noticed that separated our legions was where the name came from. Hers apparently came from an animal that was both the fiercest creature on the planet but also their most loyal ally while mine came from the Fire Salamanders, creatures that were a menace and needed to be hunted. If left alone they would cause problems for my people. Both were some of the most powerful creatures on the planet, so it made sense to be named after them.
It was a strange thing that our animals were similar but slightly different and I wondered if that would carry over into other legions, if they would have animal names and use them differently. I guess I would only know when I ran into them and there was already quite a bit already on the moves supposedly.
I could not wait to meet the rest of my brothers, and I guess sisters possibly as well. Yes father had kept the fact of our first sister as a mystery to us but I had quickly figured it out, and if he said there was at least one other there might be at least one other. I wondered what they would be like but I imagined they would all be somewhat different, all with different goals and all with different ways of handling the problems of this galaxy, but I would love them all the same. They were family and family was the most important thing on Nocturne for survival, something I had learned and talked to my people over the years I had been there.
If we had not worked as a family to stop the threat of the Eldar we would still be fleeing into the caves whenever the Eldar rating party showed up on Nocturne. That was a lesson that must be imparted to all members of our family, be it the littlest scout initiates to my brothers and sisters. Working together, we can defeat anything. Smiling, I got to work, assembling a few pieces together.
Slowly the gun took shape and as it did it became an excellent bolter pistol. It was large enough that Tanya would be able to wield it with one hand without issue, light enough that it would be perfectly possible to wield another weapon in the other hand and most importantly the accuracy was quite good. I think the best part of the weapon was the underslung capabilities as I traded a weapon that could easily be combined with another weapon and that was with my next project.
Looking across the room I saw several weapons I had brought up from the armory. My plan was quite simple: I would take them apart, find out what could be made as small as possible, and create versions of them that could be underslung on the bolter pistol. This would make it a Combi weapon with multiple choice options. Before every battle she would be able to choose what weapon would work best as its underslung weapon. That would probably be the most useful thing of all, having the capability to switch between a plasma gun and a flamer depending on the situation.
Smiling, I finished up the initial pistol and observed it. It was a bit small in my hand but should fit her hand perfectly and, once I was sure it was not going to fall apart easily by giving it a good few shakes and a whack against the table, I pulled out a painting kit and got to work painting it in her legions colors and adding a bit of artisticness to the Wolf on the side of it. After all this was, in other words, a 'nice to meet you' gift and I might as well make it a good gift I thought as I worked.
I would have to have a meeting with her before The siege though, to make sure she had it and explain how everything worked.
Writers note:i was bit worried i might not get this chapter out this week but surprises with little help from meteadragon and guardsman pias, and the surprises return of Preier we pulled it off, this why i went to two week mode give my editores as much time as they needl. Anyways hope everyone enjoy this chapter and its twists and turns, mysteries, birds and fish. let me know what you all thing, and what ever you think… is wrong HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Edited by: Preier, Metaldragon, Guardsman Pius
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- Location
- Home
I prefer mary to be dead and stay dead. I can't like the character since to me she's just... insane. I don't like her.
- Location
- California
Poor Mary, F.
At least, Tanya has some inkling to what happened though the timeline has some blindspots. Like what happened after she crushed the heart, and went unconscious? Did she phase out of the maze and into the Emperor's grasp? Also, did Tanya not see it relevant to mention Being X? It doesn't seem like he's going to be part of the story, but letting a Daemon power up through robbing Gods feels like a bad thing.
Also, get bent Tzeentch. You are, in fact, a parasite.
At least, Tanya has some inkling to what happened though the timeline has some blindspots. Like what happened after she crushed the heart, and went unconscious? Did she phase out of the maze and into the Emperor's grasp? Also, did Tanya not see it relevant to mention Being X? It doesn't seem like he's going to be part of the story, but letting a Daemon power up through robbing Gods feels like a bad thing.
Also, get bent Tzeentch. You are, in fact, a parasite.
Well I think she's dead I don't think anyone would survive standing in the warp for too long.
Perhaps she did, oh I do wonder why that where wolf had power armor...
As for BMX I think you got to mention in there but he's like a minor deity on the problems they have to deal with.
And yes get bent Tzeentch
...Angron?
- Location
- a local spacial anomaly
Oh that'd be fitting, funny, and fuckin' sad (what with the butchers nails and whatnot).
Though I personally think it might be Magnus. In canon he and Leman have quite the rivalry after all.
EDIT: That is to say as far as I'm aware, most of knowledge of canon comes from AdRic
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Chapter 32, A Wolf Rage
Chapter 32, A Wolf Rage
San Katos
Tanya Russ
Preparing for the final assault was probably the easiest part of this whole campaign. There were already many companies across the planet, hunting down the last of the pirate scum with some adventures in vengeance trying to bring them to justice. We wanted at least to destroy anything they could use to ever become pirates again, leaving them trapped on this world.
I imagined that by the end of the month all the outer colonies would be completely burned or turned over to the slave population that we were turning into the now Freeman population. But as for the assault on the capital city, the main heart of this dark pirate empire, that would be a bit of a thing. The plan to take it out was already underway Vulkan's troops were marching to war and surrounding the city's land access, while my troops would soon be taking up to the sky for a contested landing on the city.
It looked to be a hell of a thing and we would take a few losses but we had to do what we had to do, and what we had to do was defeat these pirates in their nest.
How we were going to do it though, that was a bit of a thing. Alongside with the land trains that had been apparently altered to drive on water, it was also cheaper to not drop directly from orbit with some of the troops. Oh, certainly, there would be some drop pods landing in sections of the city that were a bit more stable, areas that were obviously islands that had been built over and not just wooden ramps and extensions built above the water. But for the most part we would be taking the aerial vehicles we had under our control and fly at low altitudes to the city. From there we would execute our part of the plan and cause so much mayhem behind the lines that Vulkan could push through the front of the city. Then, well, the burning would begin.
So instead of prepping up in the ship above today I was prepping down on the planet below, on a nice sunny beach in fact. Once this whole conflict was over I might give my boys and girls, the Valkyries as they had come to be termed by the boys, a day off to just relax on this beach. Maybe a week? We were in no rush and having a bit of time off would not hurt them. We had gone from campaign to campaign for the last few years, fighting our way across the stars and killing a lot of Orks. Sure there were parties but those were standard Fenrisian parties: find a nice warm place and drink till you dropped or wandered off with someone for a night on the town.
Beach barbecue parties were not on that agenda, mainly because Fenris didn't have many beaches where you could pull that off. Oh, sure, the beaches existed but they were kind of cold and there was always the chance of monsters living in the water inviting themselves.
Granted there'd be a chance of monsters living in those waters too but they could drop a few bombs in the waters around the beach, which would scare off most of the big things. Only real problem was… I didn't think any of my people would really have much in the way of beach wear. After all warriors don't usually have time to go buying bathing suits, and when salt water was usually just above the freezing point there wasn't much market pressure to invent such luxury items.
When I got back to Fenris I was going to have to see about that, I firmly decided. For the last 20 years of my rulership I had focused on building up the economy and security as well as education, to try and bring the people of Fenris to the more modern standards of living that I preferred, but I never really invested in luxuries. The fact of the matter was I probably could quite easily do that now. Fenris was a geologically active planet, it wouldn't be impossible to build hot springs resorts for people to enjoy. Once you had something like that they'd probably develop the technology of swimwear.
I'd also need to investigate another thing as well. As I sat on a crate, my girls helping me get my armor fully attached to my bodysuit, I noticed that several of the Valkyries were going into the water but never deeper than knee-deep. The same was true for many of the Wolves of Fenris, they enjoyed the shallows but they weren't going too deep, and I had a suspicion I knew why.
No doubt, none of them actually knew how to swim. Oh I'm sure there were some Fenrisians who knew how to swim, after all about a fourth of the population lived on water for most of the great year, but that was quite a small number amongst my troops as most of my warriors came from the main continent of Fenris and never had any reason to learn.
Now that was an important thing I needed to get solved, even beyond the luxury needs I had been reflecting on before. The ability to swim would very useful for these campaigns whenever we were fighting near and around water. Having the ability to actually swim and not just drown because you couldn't tended to be useful. When I got back to FenrisFenris I would have to see about building a system of pools. Or maybe could I build a heated lake? Fenris was geologically active so if I hired the Mechanicus to build some sort of system to keep our lakes warm all year long in the lowlands… That would benefit not only the population's swimming practice but could also very well be a generator of some economic boons. Warm water probably meant more things would be able to live around us. I was not an engineer though, maybe it would be just easier to build pools. Large ones for the people to swim in and learn how to.
That was something to look into when I got back to Fenris in a couple years. Amusingly enough I actually was feeling somewhat excited about it. I had been gone from the planet for 10 years and I had initially thought I wouldn't want to go back, considering how much of a frozen wasteland it tended to be. But I guess I had grown fond of that cold world after all and I wanted to see how it had developed in the time I had been away.
I'd put in quite a bit of laws and work into building the support network for this legion before I left, I wanted to see how it matured. Not to mention that the fortress for my legion had been under construction when I left and should be probably a good way done by now. There were a lot of things that needed to be done on Fenris if that fortress was done. Moving a lot of infrastructure to now service it, one way or another. Not to mention that, if it was done, I would need to schedule how we would conquer the rest of the mountain range and turn it into an area dedicated to the training of my Space Marines, and the valkyrie to some extent, and no doubt Fenris national guard or just the Housecarls. I made a note that I would need to upgrade them to more modern weapons when I had the chance. After all, on Fenris everyone fought to survive, quit and you died. By that same thought, everyone who could contribute to the war should have the best weapons and gear and training that I could give them, to make sure that they survived it.
Frankly now that I thought about it, I had a lot to do back on Fenris and I was somewhat excited to get back to that. Now that I had been on campaign I had a generally better idea of what threats the people of Fenris would face and I needed to prepare them for it. As much as Fenris was a death world because of its fauna they had not had to deal with Orks before and would need to learn how to handle them. no doubt I would need to send some of my more experienced veterans to train the local Housecarls on how to deal with them. And we'd never had to deal with raiders from space before, no doubt this whole conflict on this little know-nothing planet would pique the interest of anyone who was allied with them and they'd probably seek vengeance upon those who destroyed their allies. I'd need to prepare Fenris for any counter-assaults, just in case.
And maybe I would speak with the AllFather again. Been a long time since I'd spoken to him and I had a better general idea of what was down in those caves now, I think, after that vision I'd had. Perhaps it was time for a little expedition down there to clear out of as many of the cave dwellers as possible and see if there was anything worth scavenging. Yes all those years ago he said there was nothing but, considering Fenris was very active geologically, perhaps they had been using geothermal power to run those facilities. If so taking those facilities for ourselves and running the power up to the surface would bypass having to make it for ourselves.
Not to mention I still had to work out that deal with the Mechanicus, see if I couldn't get the planet Svellgard sold off or at least lent to them to build a mini Forge World to try and supply my troops with gear.
Really I had a lot of things to do and though the campaign was important I think it was about time to get home as quickly as possible. I'd just make a stop at that planet that Emperor wanted me to help out and then I'd head directly to Fenris.
With a snap, the final element of my armor was pushed into place by Helga Arndottir and she let up a sigh of relief as the suit began to power up.
"Thank you, girls," I said with a smile as I stood up, cracking my neck. "When this conflict is over make sure to visit me afterward. I imagine today is going to be a very exciting day and I'll need help getting this off."
"Yes, my Primarch!" The girls said, giving salutes before walking over to a table where my weapons and kit were and starting to bring things to me.
First was my short sword, Krakenmaw, which I attached to my side followed by my long sword, Mjalnar, that I put over my head and magnetized to the back of my armor. Finally came my spear, Dionysian, that I was still learning to use. There was definitely some strangeness to its existence as I noticed that, even though I had left it on the ship, somehow it had found its way down to the planet.
I questioned the girls about it but they said that they didn't bring it. I question many of the staff that would have been able to get in my room, to see if they possibly brought it down. As far as they were concerned they had never seen it.
This meant that either I'd somehow forgotten that I packed it, which was very unlikely considering my memory was probably the best it had ever been especially since I touched the golden sphere. Or it got down here on its own.
Now if it was a normal spear that would be crazy but this was some sort of magic spear or psychic spear. It was very likely that it had some sort of will of its own, a will that seemed to have determined it wanted to be with me. And I wanted to test that to some extent, see exactly how far that went, so I was bringing it along on this battle.
Carefully I put it to my back and let the magnets hold it there, I would have a chance to experiment with it later. For now, I turned back to the girls before saying, "Have a wonderful battle, my girls. Don't get too close to the main fighting and make sure the enemy can't escape." They nodded and gave a salute, smiles all the way.
I'm sure they wanted to actually be part of the landing forces going into the city but they would serve better as forces I was having dropped off on islands around the city that the enemy apparently had found no use for. Unfortunately for them, I did find quite a good use for those islands. Dropping my Valkyries on them, along with some heavy equipment, allowed me to easily build a line of anti-air equipment. Which meant once the battle started and they attempted to put their ships to space it was very likely that some of them would be shut down by groundborn guns on Islands they had just not bothered to hold control of. That would be the most humiliating thing I think a pirate would ever feel.
Turning from the valkyrie I moved along the lines of tents we had been building up this island we were using as the main deployment point for this assault since the last 36 hours. Most of the tents were mainly there to keep the environment from getting into equipment and ammunition, although I did see a few Marines using them. They were taking a few moments before this fight to catch a few hours of sleep by the looks of it. Good for them, as much as I had confirmed that the Marines could go possibly a week without sleep it was still better for them to get as much sleep as they could between times of combat. That way they would be at full mental capacity and able to do as much damage to the enemy as possible.
I stopped as I recognized one of the faces in the crowd. I recognized quite a number of them, of course, but this one was somewhat special in a way. "Kori Bretakollrsson," I said, giving a wave to the former king of the other side of the continent.
He turned and saw me before giving me a bow. "My king, it's been a long time. I don't think we've seen each other since the fighting on new Vietnam."
I nodded, I did not remember seeing him there but if he said so I would agree. "That was many years ago," I said, stroking my chin with my hand before asking, "How goes your life, get many combat honors?"
He nodded and said, "Yes, my king!" He stopped for a moment, thinking, before saying, "In fact I was wondering if my comrade Bjorn of Tra and I could be transferred to your personal guard."
Attempted nepotism? Not something I was expecting today but I should have expected it. My personal guards were going to be the force going in first on the combat today, I trusted them to be the best and so I knew they would be able to secure the initial landing points. He wanted to be at the tip of the spear but, unfortunately, I couldn't allow him to do that today. Operative word being today.
Nodding my head, I said, "I will look through your combat records and I will determine if you are worthy of joining the Varagyr. Everything is already all planned out for today's combat and it would be a bit of a stretch to shuffle some new man into the ranks today. But I will note that there will probably be a few openings when this is over and I will be looking over your combat record for the battle of San Katos. If you and your friend show yourselves to be Varagyr material I will have you transferred and you can be part of the next major assault."
Bretakollrsson immediately gave a sign of the Aquila, folding his hands over each other to form that two-headed bird, and said, "Yes, my Primarch! It would be an honor to join your guard and I will endeavor to make sure that it happens."
I clapped him on the shoulder and said, "Good luck then, and try not to die. I don't want to have to go through the record only to find out that you stepped on a landmine or something."
"Of course, my Primarch," he replied, bowing his head, and I moved on, walking towards the set of shuttles. Already several of my Varagyr were prepping for the assault but there was one shuttle that was not part of the assault waiting there. It was not part of my legion either, mine tended to be a gray to grayish blue in coloration while this one wore very green colors which told me exactly who it belonged to.
Those thoughts were interrupted as I heard, "Sister!" As two man-sized arms wrapped around my lower gut and brought me up into a hug, forcing the air out of my lungs for a moment.
"Brother, good to see you," I managed to croak out before he loosened his grip and put me back down, allowing me to get some air.
Turning around I saw my brother Vulkan smiling proudly as he struck a pose, several of his salamanders standing behind him rather nonchalantly. "Glad I made it here in time, I was worried I'd miss your flight."
"You're about 2 minutes early, I was about to begin the first preparations for the assault." I said matter of factly, still trying to get it enough oxygen back into my system.
Vulkan nodded his head, "Of course, of course. Well it's good I caught you then, as I wanted to give you this." He turned and one of his green-clad men came forward, carrying a case. Picking it up Vullkan turned and offered me a bolter gun, a rather impressive one if I do say so.
My original alterations were still there but they had been refined quite a bit, giving me a weapon that was a bit smoother in look than most of the guns out there. Taking it, I noticed that it was rather light, and looking down the sights I saw that had been calibrated. Damn well, too. Not only that, there seemed to be a slot for an underslung weapon built into it now. I would have to ask about that in a moment.
"I've reforged many of its pieces and its casings with some of the best material I had on board my ship. I've carefully replaced many of the internal components with, in my opinion, better materials. This should be much more accurate and much more fight-worthy than the older model you were using."
I nodded as I looked at it then at a nearby tree. I considered pulling the trigger, just to see how much it could do. No one would exactly blame me but there was some decorum about firing a gun in a camp to follow, so I lowered it back down. "Thank you, brother. I will use this in today's fight, give it a good first combat inspection."
"Good, good!" Vulkan said with a smile, clapping me on the shoulder as I had clapped Varagyr just moments before. I had to wonder if I was as brutal a clap, considering I felt like my shoulder was just barely holding itself back into its socket after that.
Moving my arm to try and make it feel better I asked, "How goes your preparations for the assault on the city?"
"They go well, most of the area around the city is already surrounded. It's all about moving forward at this point, there is one or two smaller outline outposts will have to deal with but once we're through them nothing is going to stop us from breaking through to the city. Then we'll just have to get through the walls."
"Well with any luck we'll have the gates opened by the time you get there and you can just drive right in with your armored vehicles." I commented as I carefully brought the bolter gun to my right side, activating the magnetic clamps to hold it there. It did look rather neat on my side and from this angle I noticed that there was a little wolf emblem emblazoned on one side that I initially missed.
Vulkan nodded, "I think we'll reach the gates long before that will be necessary."
"Oh, really now?" I asked, a thought occurring to me. "You want to make a game of it then?"
"A game?" Vulkan requested, curious. "What do you mean?"
"First legion to open the gate into the city gets to rename the capital city of this planet to something of their choosing."
"Hmm…" He thought for a moment, looking off into the distance in contemplation before saying, "That's not a bad challenge. Nothing major so we can take our time and it's an objective we already were planning to do… Yes, I think this would be a fun game my little sister." He held out his hand and said, "first one to the city Gates then."
I took it and we shook, though he really needed to work on his control of his strength as I felt like I was going to have my arm pulled out of its socket again. As soon as he let go I rolled my shoulder blade to put it back in place before saying, "See you in the city, brother."
"See you in the city, sister" he answered, starting to turn before adding, "Oh, silly me. I nearly forgot to tell you the name of the gun."
"You named the gun?" I asked as he turned back one of the other Green Space Marines coming forward with another box.
"Yes, any weapon worthy of a Primarch should have it's own name and its name is Scornspiter. Might it serve you well," He then turned and grabbed the container before offering it to me. "And may these serve you as well." Taking the box I opened it and saw about three or four underslung components for the gun, all of them masterly crafted, all of them looking like they wouldn't add much weight to the weapon.
"Thank you again, brother. I'm sure it will." I said as I examined the underslung weapons with some interest. There were quite a few choices but I decided to go with something I figured would be a good all-around use weapon, taking out what it was obviously a downsized plasma weapon and sliding it into the slot for the combi feature on Scornspitter.
"Now then let us drive out these pirates and Eldars." He said as he turned to his men and started walking back towards the green transport that would soon take him back to his legion.
"Yes, let's drive them out." I concurred, turning to a member of the Varagyr who came up beside me and was obviously waiting for orders. Handing them the box with the combi weapons I ordered, "Have someone who put this in my tent."
"Yes, my Primarch." he agreed, taking the box before walking away and leaving me there to look at the transports. Today would be an interesting day, I thought. This would be one of the first Aerial assaults across water that the Wolves of Fenris had ever participated in. We had done a few through water and a few near beaches but never over it, and we'd have to protect the bigger transports of the dwarves, but it would be a generally good fight I think. It would teach my men a few new skills.
=
Holding on to an overhead strap I looked at one of the open doors of the aircraft as we made our way closer and closer to the enemy city, the enemy anti-aircraft fire increasing at an alarming rate as we did. But thankfully their entire fire seemed to be absolutely trash, not that I hadn't seen one or two of the transports go down from my point of view but one or two out of a couple thousand was not a big deal and I deemed it unlikely to stop this advance on their position.
My craft would be one of the first ones into the melee, with about another hundred around us carrying the spear point Onn company into the fray. Behind us was about another two to three companies that would come in waves every 5 minutes, theoretically that would put 4,000 soldiers into the city within the next 20 minutes. 4000 soldiers that would need to then fight their way to important points, take them and hold them or destroy anti-aircraft fire for the next wave of roughly 4,000 soldiers. Those waves would be carried by the same aircrafts after they had been reloaded with as many soldiers as could be stuffed in them.
And theoretically there would be another thousand or so soldiers dropping from orbit around the same time we were landing further into the city, closer to the wall. Hopefully they would be able to take it and provide an opening for the Salamanders to drive their forces directly to the city. If not they would at least divide a pretty good distraction and we would have an added objective to link up with them to establish lines of communication.
Another craft off to my left to went up in an explosion as several anti-aircraft fire shots got lucky and hit some sort of fuel tank. For the most part it looked like it still held together, though I started seeing Marines jumping from it already towards the sea below.
Over some parts of the ocean that would be a problem. After all if you got deep enough it didn't matter what kind of armor you were wearing as it would crack and you'd die. In this part of the ocean though it would be fine, those islands that I'd set up as anti-air positions to keep the besieged from escaping served as boundary markers of the continental shelf for the most part, which meant there was only about 30 to 40 ft of water before you hit the seabed. Now some of them might get stuck in the mud marching the rest of the way but it was very likely that they'd still be able to get themselves free and eventually meet up with us there. Though they may have to abandon their entire power armor to do it.
No doubt the Mechanicus would hate hearing how I had given the order that this was condoned if necessary but, well, what was more important? The man or the armor? In my opinion, the man with the experience.
Well if they really wanted that armor to be recovered they could always send their own forces to recover it and put up an effort to try and find any that was lost in this campaign. The fact of the matter was the Imperium could produce as many armors as it would ever need so why worry about a few losses here or there? It was not like it was in limited numbers.
More anti-aircraft gunfire started to unleash on us but thankfully the pilots were able to go even lower, below the range of most of them. There were probably too many buildings between our vehicles and their guns anyway, allowing us to complete the journey across the sea as shuttles began to come above various places above the city. Anti-aircraft fire, and now regular fire, was still coming up at us but it was a lot more limited. As my shuttle, along with four others, came above the mansion that we had identified as a possible center for Command and Control it was only three anti-aircraft guns firing at us. At this range even the lesser weapons of our transport ships were quickly able to decimate their crews.
As soon as we had the initial landing site cleared troops started pouring out of the transport ships, landing below into the mass of enemies waiting. Which were not many, most had already been butchered by the transport crafts, but a few still stood. They put up a decent fight, firing shard weaponry at my man. A few of them went down, lots more got on to the ground and immediately unleashed hell into those who dared to try to stop them.
Quickly the landing zones around this command and control center were established and, seeing that it was now safe, I jumped down from the aircraft with a rather loud bang. I Thought I was good but it seemed that I had made a mistake as the place I jumped to happened to have been weakened. There was a cracking noise as my foot went straight through the wood and I nearly followed it into the water.
Thankfully I was able to grip both edges of the hole to stop my fall and pulled myself back out. A little bit of a screw up on my part but I had it under control, I thought as I pulled myself out, looking around and seeing that most of my men were too busy dealing with the enemy trying to attack us to see that embarrassing screw up by their Primarch.
Shaking off my foot to get some water off of it I took my short sword and ran a little bit of energy through it before hitting the area underneath the dock area, freezing it so if any more of my men happened to jump down in that area they would not go through straight to the bottom. Once that was secured I got ready to deal with the next situation. Turning around I opened my arms and Freki jumped down into them. "Good boy," I said, setting him down before raising again so that Geri could jump down from the shuttle as well. Once they were both out I signaled the shuttle to get out of here and it started moving away, slowly but speeding up as it went.
Now to deal with the problems of this attack I thought, turning to the large Mansion across the lake-large pool of water that was obviously a wet landing Bay for spaceships. Already I could see my Marines opening fire at some of the Corsairs or Eldars, it was hard to tell which variant I was dealing with since they seemed to be intermingled here on this world. They were putting up a good fight it seemed, trying to push us from entering the main house but their weapons were not as well tuned for this fight as ours. They weren't penetrating my men's armor as easily when we knew which way they were coming from.
So, slowly and steadily, I watched my men push forward, taking parts of the dock piece by piece and forcing the Eldars to withdraw from the windows of the mansion. Soon enough only a few shots were coming from the mansion and was looking like it was almost under our control. And then my expected issue arrived.
The water in front of me began to bubble and boil as light sprung from it then fired and then a rather smooth and sharp design for a ship rose from the water, it immediately began to turn to bring what I guessed were its main guns to bear on some of my men to the left side of the mansion. Unfortunately for the pilot of that craft this had been what I was waiting for.
Studying my target, I pulled my spear t from my back. I quickly cast a few spells on it, piercing being the main one, and took aim at where I believed the pilot would be. To make sure that I hit that target I also added a bit of tracking to the shot so it would track toward that general location. And then, once I was sure that I had the target locked, I let fly.
Throwing the golden wolf spear I don't know what I was expecting. What I got though was significantly more spectacular than I thought it would be. The spear, of course, had been augmented with a couple of my spells so it moved rather quickly through the air and should have penetrated through the craft without issue. And as far as I can tell it did do that. It also cast an illusion of a giant golden wolf's head biting the damn craft in its teeth. I did not expect that. That was not a power I had added to its abilities, which meant that was something it could just decide to do on its own. More evidence that there was something a bit odd about this spear. Thankfully it appeared the wolf head was just that, an illusion, but it seemed to have scared the pilot for a moment and it had stunned him enough that he didn't move.
So the spear, moving at penetrator levels speed, went right through the craft in a shower of golden light. For a moment nothing happened then the spear came back through the other way, literally cutting through the front of the ship and leaving another needle hole there as it returned directly to my hand. Well… that suspicion that the spear would want to return to me if I threw it away proved both correct and a useful thing. I could get a lot of use out of the ability to throw something that would come back to me, the real question was how much could I really throw on this. Could it survive an explosive spell? I would have to be careful to test that but that was something to keep in mind for the future.
As of right now I watched the craft slowly start spinning and lose its ability to stay up. After about a minute of smoking through the holes that had been left in it and spinning it crashed into the dock on the right of the mansion, slowly sinking back into the water from there. A great cheer went up from my men as they saw the thing sink and I was myself rather impressed. One-shot one kill was always a good average to have though, again, if it could go through one target and come back could I get more in one shot? Testing for future combats I decided again.
Shaking my head I walked along the wooden dock to the front lines of the right attack vector. There I saw a company Commander doing his best to organize a defensive action on one flank, as apparently reinforcements from within the city had tried to reinforce the HQ complex, while trying to organize the attack on the HQ complex itself.
As soon as I came into view he immediately snapped off an Aquila sign before saying, "My Primarch, we are almost into the main headquarters now but this counter-assault is slowing our efforts."
I nodded before asking, "Have we secured all entrances and exits to the headquarters?"
The captain nodded before confirming it. "As far as we can tell, yes. There may be underwater exits that we don't know about but at the moment all above ground ways in and out are closed. I have several Marines dropping over the side to see if there are any tunnels, they have explosives and they'll tig any tunnels to explode. At the very least it'll flood the lower levels and prevent anyone else from escaping, if someone has already."
I nodded my head in approval before saying, "Good, good. Hold the line here, I'll take control of the attack."
"Of course, my Primarch!", He said, giving another Aquila salute before turning to go get better control over the defense against the counter-assault.
I myself moved further along, quickly finding myself at the front lines of our siege of the headquarters.
The firing from the house had diminished quite a bit since our arrival, indicating that the defenders were either low on ammunition or nearly dead or knew that anytime they popped their heads up they would probably get more bolt rounds and volkyte fired at them than it was worth popping up for. This meant, theoretically, that I could order an advance and we could break in. Of course fighting in a house was a pain and there was another option open, might as well give it a bit of a try.
Stepping forward I activated several speakers on my armor that would magnify my voice and exclaimed, "To the Eldar Lord of this house and this city! This is your one and only chance to surrender, if you do so we shall negotiate the end of your pirate career but not your life. If you agree to hear the terms out wave something white out of any window."
As I was calling this I waved off my men so they would stop firing and give the opportunity for whoever was inside to attempt to wave out the window. It made no sense to blow off the hand of the person trying to surrender after all.
There was a pause, a bit of silence settling around the house while fighting was clearly going on throughout the rest of the city, but finally a white dining room tablecloth was waved outside the window. They were willing to surrender then, I was tempted to congratulate myself on finding an opportunity for a peaceful resolution. Turning to my men, I said, "Hold the line, I'll go in and talk to them."
"My Primarch, shouldn't some of us come in with you?" One of the Marines asked and I shook my head before saying, "I think I have full control of the situation at this point, everything will be safe. Just wait for me to come back outside."
They nodded and I turned, stepping forward towards the house. My wolves started to come with me but I waved them off. They weren't needed for negotiations, not yet I thought. Plus there was a chance that, as I made my way across the field, they would open up fire on me to betray the white flag of truce and all that. I could survive that, I was sure, but better to leave those who didn't wear armor to safeguard their back.
As I crossed the open square not a single shot was fired, so obviously they weren't betraying the ceasefire. I made it easily enough up the steps to the front of the mansion, there the doors opened revealing a tall female Eldar in… not very much, it was a few pieces of armor over vital areas but there were also a few rather glaring openings in that armor that would make them easy to kill in a good fight.
"The Honorable pirate lord Arzursar will meet you," She said, giving a bow, "but he asks for the name of his conqueror before you are allowed into the mansion."
I nodded my head before saying, "Tanya Russ, leader of the Wolves of Fenris, child of the Emperor of Mankind and leader of the Imperium of Man."
She bowed before closing the door on me for a few seconds, seeming to walk away and then come back. She opened the door again and invited me in, "Please come in, Miss Russ of the Wolves of Fenris."
The door opened and I stepped into a rather lavishly decorated entryway. The place was probably more expensive than the Mansions of the Kaiser I had visited on one or two occasion in my second life. Heck some multi-billionaires from my first life would have been hard pressed, I think, to match the opulence on display. One thing though that was drawing my notice was there was someone singing, in a rather beautiful voice all things considered. It was in some foreign language, probably Eldar in nature, but it sounded rather sweet. For some reason it evoked thoughts of young love, which was strange considering I had no idea what language it was… Could this language have some sort of magical context to it, some psychic way of making itself be clear even to those that were not aware of the language enough to speak it? A mystery for another time I decided as I followed the half-dressed elf woman to a room off to the left. Carefully she opened the door, revealing a man in somewhat heavier armor and furs. He was sitting at a desk and, like before, the room was optimally decorated. however damage from the counterfire had streamed across the windows and the walls, indicating that this room had been used as one of the redoubts during the fighting.
Several sculptures up one wall appeared to be completely destroyed and some of them looked to have been from Earth in make, all were unfortunately lost to whatever history they belonged to. Shaking my head I stepped forward and said, "I'm here to discuss your surrender, Lord Arzursar."
The eldar Lord looked up and nodded before saying, "Yes, yes, my surrender. An unfortunate thing but these things happen." He shook his head, saying, "The good days are ending again. Order will be restored to some extent in this little space, it shall be somewhat sad to see the world turned right but the important part is not to continue in the past but to adapt to the Future."
Standing up he came around the desk, saying, "My pirates would be willing to go under contract of this Imperium of Man, working for them if you would be willing to spare some of our fleet and not continue your campaign of destruction across this planet."
Well that was to be expected, I thought. Of course the moment things were going bad he would seek to try and create a situation that was favorable for him and his people. Nodding my head I said "We may be willing to work out some deal but I'm afraid that your stance on slavery is rather disgusting to me and my people, especially what we have heard of your ties to the darker members of your brother species."
The Corsair seemed to think before saying, "So to get peace we must renounce our ties to the Dark Eldars? This is understandable, I could see that as a possibility. If I have guarantees that this city will stand I will expunge all official members of the dark Eldars from the city and you can deal with them as they return to their hidey holes. As for slavery itself I understand that you humans have an issue with it so I could pass several laws preventing slavery of humans if that would be amenable to you."
Not really I meant to leave that flavoring itself was a crime at the top of my list of things I hated, right next to Communism. In theory they weren't exactly the same but in practice they were the exact same, they took away a people's abilities to decide their own fate. Taking away someone's ability to do that was a crime that I considered an almost immortal sin, humans were a free people with a free will and to dictates one's fate without giving them a choice was a disgusting practice.
However I had to admit that getting humans safe from being enslaved would be a step in the right direction and I could impress upon these elves to continue to emancipate their slaves as time went on.
Nodding my head I replied, "That will do for a start."
"Wonderful!" the elf lord exclaimed, clapping his hands in front of him before putting them behind his back, "Now can you call off the attack across the city? I would very much like to save as much of it as possible. After all this world is going to rebuild and I'm going to need an economic power base."
I nodded and started to reach for my coms before I noticed the singing again. It was louder now but I didn't see where I was coming from off the top of my head. There was no woman in this room beside the half-naked one next to me and she was not singing. In fact she looked absolutely creeped out and terrified.
Raising an eyebrow, I said, "What is that noise?"
"Oh that? Well that's my predecessor, the former Lady of San Katos," he turned and pointed to a statue in the corner that I hadn't noticed before, which was not surprising considering for the most part it looked like an exact statue of some female Eldar appearing to wear some fancy dress… however, on closer inspection, I realized that though everything about it appeared to be stone the jaw was real living flesh and was moving along with the voice.
"What the…" I said, trying to piece together what I was seeing.
"She was the greatest ruler of San Katos, some say. Of course she wasn't that great, if she was I would never have been able to replace her."
"She also used to say that she had the best voice. In my opinion that wasn't so true but I was willing to help her perfect her form, removing every flaw until there was just the perfection of her voice as it should be. Now she really does have the best voice in all of San Katos."
"Removed?" I asked, feeling something I didn't think I had ever felt before. Not in this life at least, this life had been rather easy-going when you really thought about it. Yes, I had to fight for my life in several incidents but that was fighting for your life. This… This was something else.
"Yes! Unnecessary limbs, eyes, some parts of the brain, everything that was not necessary for the voice to be perfection was removed and what remained was encased in some of the finest Stone craftsmanship I could get at the time. One of my proudest works I think." The Eldar said, seeming to be lost in his own world as he looked upon the stone mockery of a sentient being.
There were many things in this galaxy that I felt I had proven pretty good at handling: fighting, killing, building, and growing. It seemed that I could not handle righteous indignation very well.
What was standing before me was a mockery to free will, a person who had been able to rule a city reduced to nothing but a set of lungs, throat, voice box, and mouth so that they may sing for eternity at the pleasure of the person who did this to them. Their free will and ability to decide for their future having been taken from them and replaced with being an object.
And I just felt anger.
Out of my own control my hand went to my combi-Bolter, released it from my side, and pointed it directly at the elf Lord. Without even thinking twice I pulled the trigger on the plasma gun and, as the elf Lord turned to find out what the noise was, blue fire engulfed his head and killed him nearly instantly.
I turned the gun on the half-naked elf minion who immediately fell to the ground and started begging for her life. for a moment I considered sparing it, for another moment I considered ripping her skull out of her own head. For now I pistol-whipped her unconscious with the edge of my bolter gun, just to get some anger off, before bringing the bolter gun back to bear on the stone statue that used to be a person.
I quickly fired off a few shots, ending the infernal torment that that woman had been put through, before walking over to the corpse of the now fallen down Elda lord and putting a couple shots into its chest to be sure. Yes, I had taking his head off but I wasn't seeing the world as it was at the moment, I was seeing a monster that needed to be killed and you need to double check your kills when it comes to monsters.
There was a turmoil noise behind me before the doors that had led into the study burst opened and three Eldar in heavier armor entered the room, bringing their guns to bear. I fired off a dozen shots at them, forcing them to retreat though one of them lost his legs as he fell to the ground.
Feeling nothing but rage and anger I smashed open the window enough so I could peer out at my own Marines and called out, "Burn this cesspit to the ground."
Vulkan of Nocturne
Enemy fire was rather unimpressive I would say. Oh they kept it up quite well as our tanks moved into position but as the rounds binged off the old Rhinos as they trundled forward and friendly forces began landing within the city. The fire slacked and we were able to drive right up to the front gates, from there the job of breaking in was rather easy. My men quickly strapped several layers of explosives on the gate and blew it up. Oh yes they did blow it. Blowing it up would have been a lot harder, of course, but blowing it in? That was easy. Once the doors were hanging off their hinges, inward facing, all we needed to do was drive in.
And that's what we had done, taking the gate first I think. I thought that perhaps the Wolves of Fenris would have been able to do it first, Tania was after all dropping forces into the city from orbit during this fight so it would make sense that they'd be able to take it first and open it for us, but something must have not going to plan.
Well my sister may be a good thinker about tactics and strategy but it must be expected that she would find something she couldn't get her head around, once in a while. We all had those things I assumed.
Hell, I even was a bit suspect about her thoughts about letting some of the Dark Eldar flee into the woods. Sure they would be rendered a toothless enemy over time but I didn't trust the Dark Eldar or these supposedly 'Corsair' Eldar to do nothing and stay out of the way of the human colonization efforts. In my opinion they should all be burnt down but my sister wanted to be a little bit tactful and I was willing to hear her out.
At least that's the situation as I understood it before I entered the gates. Then I saw a Wolf of Fenris chasing down a Corsair Eldar, a large blade in his hands as he slashed at the retreating elf. One lucky strike managed to find a weak point in the armor and skewered the elf, killing it as the Wolf raised the entire elf up above his head on the blade before throwing him away.
The Wolf turned and saw me along, with about 30 of my Marines, staring at him with confusion. He seemed unsure of what to say before finally saluting and saying, " Primarch of the Salamander Legion, it is an honor to meet you."
"Yes, an honor…" I said, looking across the street and really getting a good look at what I was seeing. I had seen plenty of battlefields fighting Dark Eldar across several planets but this seemed off, at least when compared to how I'd seen the Wolves operate before.
Across this planet, wherever they went in, I had noticed a lack… of what's the term? I would say 'enemy civilian casualties', an effort put forward to make sure that the only one harmed were soldiers themselves.
That seemed to have gone out the window as large sections of the city were already burning, well before my own troops had entered the city to start unleashing their own flamethrowers. Black smoke was blurring out the sky and I could see that several transport ships of the Wolves of Fenris were circling, appearing to have trouble finding a place to land. Confused, I stepped forward and asked, "Wolf of Fenris, what is going on here? I was under the impression that I would be the one setting the city to burn after we had defeated the enemy here."
The wolf nodded before saying, "King Russ put out an order about 20 minutes ago to burn it all down, we are following that order."
I blinked in confusion. She had put out an order to burn the city? That was unusual for her, from what I had seen. She had always seemed to have a preference for order during a battle, to start burning down the city would assuredly cause chaos in the midst of battle. And chaos tended to not go well for those fighting in it.
Confused, I asked, "Do you know where your king is? I must speak with her."
He shook his head before replying, "Last report I had before the order of the extermination on the city was put out was that she had entered the headquarters of the Corsair pirates to negotiate a surrender. Things must not have gone well and they must have betrayed her or something."
Had they now? Well that was not a good look, attacking someone while under the flag of truce. It was a monstrous act so I could understand the Dark Eldar wanting to do it but why would the corsairs do it? Perhaps they were more Dark Eldar than Corsair. Ahh they were too hard to tell apart and that had been the most annoying bit of all this, how were we going to separate the Dark Eldar from the Corsair? Apparently we were not anymore though. If Tanya's orders were to be followed to the letter extermination was the game now. Whoever managed to flee the city may survive but anyone inside it would burn with the city itself.
Shaking my head I pointed to several of my men and said, "You are to follow me into the city, we'll search for Primarch Russ and get a full story of what happened. The rest of you spread out through the city find any human slaves and save them. Pass the message to anyone else that if any Eldar surrenders you're to round them up and keep an eye on them, there's a chance that they are simply trying to buy their time for a counter-attack."
The green-clad troops smacked their foot down onto the ground, creating a racket before saying, "Yes, Primarch Vulkan!" before breaking up into their component formations. Already a communication team near the back of the 4th was spreading my orders throughout the rest of the break-ins across the wall. No doubt the city would fall rather quickly now with the Wolves running throughout the entire city and my force is pushing in slowly. The Dark Eldar and the Corsair were soon to be squashed underfoot, it was only a matter of time.
That said I started to march into the city, watching the streets with careful eyes and wondering what had resulted in this unleashing of chaos. Tanya had seemed very put together every time I had seen her in combat. To let something go out of control like this was not like her, it was concerning in a way I did not think I had ever felt before.
Moving forward my formation soon came across a barricade of Dark Eldar or Corsair, their weapons were so interchangeable you couldn't really tell sometimes, and they unleashed a hail of fire on us. Fortunately they didn't have anything too heavy so I simply stepped out into the fire and walked forward, keeping an arm up to block any shots that would go for my face, before arriving before the blockade and using my power hammer to smash it to debris. Already the Dark Eldar had seen that their attempt to slow us down would not work and were starting to run but several of my Marines had followed me in and they rushed through the gap I made, unleashing their bolters into the backs of the fleeing enemy.
We started moving again but we were soon interrupted as several Eldar ran off a street in front of us, seeming to be in a panic. They didn't get far as several Fenrisian wolves, the actual wolf-wolf type, rushed out of the same street and began ripping the soldiers apart, tearing at them with their claws and teeth as if they were nothing but easy game for a hunt.
I looked at the wolves, they seemed even more feral than the usual. They were not the pair that followed Tanya around so they must be some of the wolves belonging to higher-ups amongst the Wolves of Fenris. They looked back at me, licking their muzzles and observing me, before going back to their lunch and seeming to give me no care, allowing me to pass. I suspected that if I followed the general direction this fighting had come from I might find my sister, after all what else would these Eldar be fleeing than the biggest and meanest soldier on the battlefield.
And my suspicions were right. As I passed through an alleyway I came out into an empty square not too far between the center of the city and the mansion and found Tanya… I think. I had seen her in combat a couple times since this campaign had started and she had always been under control. The creature in front of me did not appear to be under control. In one hand was her massive sword, in the other was Scornspitter, and both were active. She was moving across the field, quickly slashing at Eldar as they came out of their hidey holes to attempt to assassinate her, leaving nothing but ice sculptures in her wake Those who were out of range and attempted to shoot her would often fall to a bolt from her bolter gun as she would quickly locate where the fire was coming forward, then unleash a hail of fire of her own. Marines were already moving into the square but they seemed superfluous to Tanya who was… Unleashing the beast by the looks of it, that was the best way to put it. Her helmet was off, her air was flying in the wind, and her teeth were bared like one of her own wolves with incisors that seemed to have grown into proper fangs. I thought I'd spotted those before but she never smiled enough for me to have observed that properly and confirm it but there they were.
Stepping out into the field I wondered if she would have enough control to stop herself in her rampage or if she would attack me. It was hard to tell, she seemed to be operating on some sort of bestial instinct to murder, rip, and tear. I was happy to see I was wrong as, though she did immediately come to face me as soon as she seemed to sense my presence, the primal rage that seemed to be guiding her assault appeared to dissipate and she gained control of herself.
Stepping past the ice sculptures that had been Dark Eldar, I said, "Sister, what goes today? You seem to be in an extremely bad mood."
"A bad mood doesn't describe what I feel right now," She retorted, sounding filled with righteous indignation. "I've seen what the Eldar are capable of on their own and I think I now understand your interest in burning them out."
Ah, that explained some of this then. Though Tanya had taken part in several of the attacks on the lesser settlements the worst she'd only ever seen was most likely the best cases of slavery instances. She had probably run across something so wretched and horrid that it just triggered some deep-seated need for vengeance for the human race and what it suffered, the same sort of feeling I had felt upon seeing the Dark Eldar at their work.
Nodding my head I walked closer to her till I was almost in front of her as I said, "Little sister, it is to be expected that you would see the worst in these creatures eventually but you seem to be a bit out of control right now. Try and take a breath."
"I don't need a breath, I need to make sure this degenerate pit of monsters is cleansed of its filth!"
Well she had a point but she needed to get more of a control over that point so I reached forward and took her into a hug, squeezing her tight into my chest. "That may be true but you need to have more focus, being nothing but a ball of rage and murder will do your Wolves no good. They are scattered throughout the town, working as lone soldiers, and that will get them slowly picked off. So, with me, take one breath." I took a breath and let it out and I let it out. "Now, we repeat."
Tanya made some sort of noise, muffled as she was by my armored chest, and did struggle a bit but eventually she stopped. She even let go of her sword, letting it fall to the ground. Taking this as a sign that she had come down I slowly lowered her back to ground and let go of her.
Looking down at her I saw her face was not as rage-filled as moments ago but seemed to have calmed down. "There. Are you feeling better, my little sister?"
She sighed then smiled and said, "Much better, Onii-Chan."
I looked at her, confused, before she snickered and said, "Always wanted to do that. Yeah, I'm calm now." Snapping her bolter gun to her thigh she pointed past me to a marine and ordered, "Bring me a communicator! Let us see if we can get this back under control." Turning to look back at me she said, "Thank you. Let's get back to the work of clearing out this Liberty forsaken Hell hole." Kneeling, she picked up her sword before putting it back in place on her back.
"That I can agree with, we have much freedom to spread to the people here who have been unjustly tormented by these monsters." I declared, putting my hand on her shoulder before we both turned to face the direction of the city. There was still a bit of it to be burnt out and cleared and I had the feeling we would not rest until this city was rubble at the edges of the sea.
Writers note: and there we go the end of San katos, in fire and wolves, tanya got to see dark ness of eldar and found point she gose murder happy. Also brother sister bonding it was cute. This was fun chapter and i hope everyone enjoy so feel free to give me your that and what not.
On subject of Eldar there, there this quote i heard where some stone sculptur said perfection was found be removing eveythign unnecessary... That where idea for that living hell i presented came from.
Edited by: Pierre,Guardsman Pius,
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San Katos
Tanya Russ
Preparing for the final assault was probably the easiest part of this whole campaign. There were already many companies across the planet, hunting down the last of the pirate scum with some adventures in vengeance trying to bring them to justice. We wanted at least to destroy anything they could use to ever become pirates again, leaving them trapped on this world.
I imagined that by the end of the month all the outer colonies would be completely burned or turned over to the slave population that we were turning into the now Freeman population. But as for the assault on the capital city, the main heart of this dark pirate empire, that would be a bit of a thing. The plan to take it out was already underway Vulkan's troops were marching to war and surrounding the city's land access, while my troops would soon be taking up to the sky for a contested landing on the city.
It looked to be a hell of a thing and we would take a few losses but we had to do what we had to do, and what we had to do was defeat these pirates in their nest.
How we were going to do it though, that was a bit of a thing. Alongside with the land trains that had been apparently altered to drive on water, it was also cheaper to not drop directly from orbit with some of the troops. Oh, certainly, there would be some drop pods landing in sections of the city that were a bit more stable, areas that were obviously islands that had been built over and not just wooden ramps and extensions built above the water. But for the most part we would be taking the aerial vehicles we had under our control and fly at low altitudes to the city. From there we would execute our part of the plan and cause so much mayhem behind the lines that Vulkan could push through the front of the city. Then, well, the burning would begin.
So instead of prepping up in the ship above today I was prepping down on the planet below, on a nice sunny beach in fact. Once this whole conflict was over I might give my boys and girls, the Valkyries as they had come to be termed by the boys, a day off to just relax on this beach. Maybe a week? We were in no rush and having a bit of time off would not hurt them. We had gone from campaign to campaign for the last few years, fighting our way across the stars and killing a lot of Orks. Sure there were parties but those were standard Fenrisian parties: find a nice warm place and drink till you dropped or wandered off with someone for a night on the town.
Beach barbecue parties were not on that agenda, mainly because Fenris didn't have many beaches where you could pull that off. Oh, sure, the beaches existed but they were kind of cold and there was always the chance of monsters living in the water inviting themselves.
Granted there'd be a chance of monsters living in those waters too but they could drop a few bombs in the waters around the beach, which would scare off most of the big things. Only real problem was… I didn't think any of my people would really have much in the way of beach wear. After all warriors don't usually have time to go buying bathing suits, and when salt water was usually just above the freezing point there wasn't much market pressure to invent such luxury items.
When I got back to Fenris I was going to have to see about that, I firmly decided. For the last 20 years of my rulership I had focused on building up the economy and security as well as education, to try and bring the people of Fenris to the more modern standards of living that I preferred, but I never really invested in luxuries. The fact of the matter was I probably could quite easily do that now. Fenris was a geologically active planet, it wouldn't be impossible to build hot springs resorts for people to enjoy. Once you had something like that they'd probably develop the technology of swimwear.
I'd also need to investigate another thing as well. As I sat on a crate, my girls helping me get my armor fully attached to my bodysuit, I noticed that several of the Valkyries were going into the water but never deeper than knee-deep. The same was true for many of the Wolves of Fenris, they enjoyed the shallows but they weren't going too deep, and I had a suspicion I knew why.
No doubt, none of them actually knew how to swim. Oh I'm sure there were some Fenrisians who knew how to swim, after all about a fourth of the population lived on water for most of the great year, but that was quite a small number amongst my troops as most of my warriors came from the main continent of Fenris and never had any reason to learn.
Now that was an important thing I needed to get solved, even beyond the luxury needs I had been reflecting on before. The ability to swim would very useful for these campaigns whenever we were fighting near and around water. Having the ability to actually swim and not just drown because you couldn't tended to be useful. When I got back to FenrisFenris I would have to see about building a system of pools. Or maybe could I build a heated lake? Fenris was geologically active so if I hired the Mechanicus to build some sort of system to keep our lakes warm all year long in the lowlands… That would benefit not only the population's swimming practice but could also very well be a generator of some economic boons. Warm water probably meant more things would be able to live around us. I was not an engineer though, maybe it would be just easier to build pools. Large ones for the people to swim in and learn how to.
That was something to look into when I got back to Fenris in a couple years. Amusingly enough I actually was feeling somewhat excited about it. I had been gone from the planet for 10 years and I had initially thought I wouldn't want to go back, considering how much of a frozen wasteland it tended to be. But I guess I had grown fond of that cold world after all and I wanted to see how it had developed in the time I had been away.
I'd put in quite a bit of laws and work into building the support network for this legion before I left, I wanted to see how it matured. Not to mention that the fortress for my legion had been under construction when I left and should be probably a good way done by now. There were a lot of things that needed to be done on Fenris if that fortress was done. Moving a lot of infrastructure to now service it, one way or another. Not to mention that, if it was done, I would need to schedule how we would conquer the rest of the mountain range and turn it into an area dedicated to the training of my Space Marines, and the valkyrie to some extent, and no doubt Fenris national guard or just the Housecarls. I made a note that I would need to upgrade them to more modern weapons when I had the chance. After all, on Fenris everyone fought to survive, quit and you died. By that same thought, everyone who could contribute to the war should have the best weapons and gear and training that I could give them, to make sure that they survived it.
Frankly now that I thought about it, I had a lot to do back on Fenris and I was somewhat excited to get back to that. Now that I had been on campaign I had a generally better idea of what threats the people of Fenris would face and I needed to prepare them for it. As much as Fenris was a death world because of its fauna they had not had to deal with Orks before and would need to learn how to handle them. no doubt I would need to send some of my more experienced veterans to train the local Housecarls on how to deal with them. And we'd never had to deal with raiders from space before, no doubt this whole conflict on this little know-nothing planet would pique the interest of anyone who was allied with them and they'd probably seek vengeance upon those who destroyed their allies. I'd need to prepare Fenris for any counter-assaults, just in case.
And maybe I would speak with the AllFather again. Been a long time since I'd spoken to him and I had a better general idea of what was down in those caves now, I think, after that vision I'd had. Perhaps it was time for a little expedition down there to clear out of as many of the cave dwellers as possible and see if there was anything worth scavenging. Yes all those years ago he said there was nothing but, considering Fenris was very active geologically, perhaps they had been using geothermal power to run those facilities. If so taking those facilities for ourselves and running the power up to the surface would bypass having to make it for ourselves.
Not to mention I still had to work out that deal with the Mechanicus, see if I couldn't get the planet Svellgard sold off or at least lent to them to build a mini Forge World to try and supply my troops with gear.
Really I had a lot of things to do and though the campaign was important I think it was about time to get home as quickly as possible. I'd just make a stop at that planet that Emperor wanted me to help out and then I'd head directly to Fenris.
With a snap, the final element of my armor was pushed into place by Helga Arndottir and she let up a sigh of relief as the suit began to power up.
"Thank you, girls," I said with a smile as I stood up, cracking my neck. "When this conflict is over make sure to visit me afterward. I imagine today is going to be a very exciting day and I'll need help getting this off."
"Yes, my Primarch!" The girls said, giving salutes before walking over to a table where my weapons and kit were and starting to bring things to me.
First was my short sword, Krakenmaw, which I attached to my side followed by my long sword, Mjalnar, that I put over my head and magnetized to the back of my armor. Finally came my spear, Dionysian, that I was still learning to use. There was definitely some strangeness to its existence as I noticed that, even though I had left it on the ship, somehow it had found its way down to the planet.
I questioned the girls about it but they said that they didn't bring it. I question many of the staff that would have been able to get in my room, to see if they possibly brought it down. As far as they were concerned they had never seen it.
This meant that either I'd somehow forgotten that I packed it, which was very unlikely considering my memory was probably the best it had ever been especially since I touched the golden sphere. Or it got down here on its own.
Now if it was a normal spear that would be crazy but this was some sort of magic spear or psychic spear. It was very likely that it had some sort of will of its own, a will that seemed to have determined it wanted to be with me. And I wanted to test that to some extent, see exactly how far that went, so I was bringing it along on this battle.
Carefully I put it to my back and let the magnets hold it there, I would have a chance to experiment with it later. For now, I turned back to the girls before saying, "Have a wonderful battle, my girls. Don't get too close to the main fighting and make sure the enemy can't escape." They nodded and gave a salute, smiles all the way.
I'm sure they wanted to actually be part of the landing forces going into the city but they would serve better as forces I was having dropped off on islands around the city that the enemy apparently had found no use for. Unfortunately for them, I did find quite a good use for those islands. Dropping my Valkyries on them, along with some heavy equipment, allowed me to easily build a line of anti-air equipment. Which meant once the battle started and they attempted to put their ships to space it was very likely that some of them would be shut down by groundborn guns on Islands they had just not bothered to hold control of. That would be the most humiliating thing I think a pirate would ever feel.
Turning from the valkyrie I moved along the lines of tents we had been building up this island we were using as the main deployment point for this assault since the last 36 hours. Most of the tents were mainly there to keep the environment from getting into equipment and ammunition, although I did see a few Marines using them. They were taking a few moments before this fight to catch a few hours of sleep by the looks of it. Good for them, as much as I had confirmed that the Marines could go possibly a week without sleep it was still better for them to get as much sleep as they could between times of combat. That way they would be at full mental capacity and able to do as much damage to the enemy as possible.
I stopped as I recognized one of the faces in the crowd. I recognized quite a number of them, of course, but this one was somewhat special in a way. "Kori Bretakollrsson," I said, giving a wave to the former king of the other side of the continent.
He turned and saw me before giving me a bow. "My king, it's been a long time. I don't think we've seen each other since the fighting on new Vietnam."
I nodded, I did not remember seeing him there but if he said so I would agree. "That was many years ago," I said, stroking my chin with my hand before asking, "How goes your life, get many combat honors?"
He nodded and said, "Yes, my king!" He stopped for a moment, thinking, before saying, "In fact I was wondering if my comrade Bjorn of Tra and I could be transferred to your personal guard."
Attempted nepotism? Not something I was expecting today but I should have expected it. My personal guards were going to be the force going in first on the combat today, I trusted them to be the best and so I knew they would be able to secure the initial landing points. He wanted to be at the tip of the spear but, unfortunately, I couldn't allow him to do that today. Operative word being today.
Nodding my head, I said, "I will look through your combat records and I will determine if you are worthy of joining the Varagyr. Everything is already all planned out for today's combat and it would be a bit of a stretch to shuffle some new man into the ranks today. But I will note that there will probably be a few openings when this is over and I will be looking over your combat record for the battle of San Katos. If you and your friend show yourselves to be Varagyr material I will have you transferred and you can be part of the next major assault."
Bretakollrsson immediately gave a sign of the Aquila, folding his hands over each other to form that two-headed bird, and said, "Yes, my Primarch! It would be an honor to join your guard and I will endeavor to make sure that it happens."
I clapped him on the shoulder and said, "Good luck then, and try not to die. I don't want to have to go through the record only to find out that you stepped on a landmine or something."
"Of course, my Primarch," he replied, bowing his head, and I moved on, walking towards the set of shuttles. Already several of my Varagyr were prepping for the assault but there was one shuttle that was not part of the assault waiting there. It was not part of my legion either, mine tended to be a gray to grayish blue in coloration while this one wore very green colors which told me exactly who it belonged to.
Those thoughts were interrupted as I heard, "Sister!" As two man-sized arms wrapped around my lower gut and brought me up into a hug, forcing the air out of my lungs for a moment.
"Brother, good to see you," I managed to croak out before he loosened his grip and put me back down, allowing me to get some air.
Turning around I saw my brother Vulkan smiling proudly as he struck a pose, several of his salamanders standing behind him rather nonchalantly. "Glad I made it here in time, I was worried I'd miss your flight."
"You're about 2 minutes early, I was about to begin the first preparations for the assault." I said matter of factly, still trying to get it enough oxygen back into my system.
Vulkan nodded his head, "Of course, of course. Well it's good I caught you then, as I wanted to give you this." He turned and one of his green-clad men came forward, carrying a case. Picking it up Vullkan turned and offered me a bolter gun, a rather impressive one if I do say so.
My original alterations were still there but they had been refined quite a bit, giving me a weapon that was a bit smoother in look than most of the guns out there. Taking it, I noticed that it was rather light, and looking down the sights I saw that had been calibrated. Damn well, too. Not only that, there seemed to be a slot for an underslung weapon built into it now. I would have to ask about that in a moment.
"I've reforged many of its pieces and its casings with some of the best material I had on board my ship. I've carefully replaced many of the internal components with, in my opinion, better materials. This should be much more accurate and much more fight-worthy than the older model you were using."
I nodded as I looked at it then at a nearby tree. I considered pulling the trigger, just to see how much it could do. No one would exactly blame me but there was some decorum about firing a gun in a camp to follow, so I lowered it back down. "Thank you, brother. I will use this in today's fight, give it a good first combat inspection."
"Good, good!" Vulkan said with a smile, clapping me on the shoulder as I had clapped Varagyr just moments before. I had to wonder if I was as brutal a clap, considering I felt like my shoulder was just barely holding itself back into its socket after that.
Moving my arm to try and make it feel better I asked, "How goes your preparations for the assault on the city?"
"They go well, most of the area around the city is already surrounded. It's all about moving forward at this point, there is one or two smaller outline outposts will have to deal with but once we're through them nothing is going to stop us from breaking through to the city. Then we'll just have to get through the walls."
"Well with any luck we'll have the gates opened by the time you get there and you can just drive right in with your armored vehicles." I commented as I carefully brought the bolter gun to my right side, activating the magnetic clamps to hold it there. It did look rather neat on my side and from this angle I noticed that there was a little wolf emblem emblazoned on one side that I initially missed.
Vulkan nodded, "I think we'll reach the gates long before that will be necessary."
"Oh, really now?" I asked, a thought occurring to me. "You want to make a game of it then?"
"A game?" Vulkan requested, curious. "What do you mean?"
"First legion to open the gate into the city gets to rename the capital city of this planet to something of their choosing."
"Hmm…" He thought for a moment, looking off into the distance in contemplation before saying, "That's not a bad challenge. Nothing major so we can take our time and it's an objective we already were planning to do… Yes, I think this would be a fun game my little sister." He held out his hand and said, "first one to the city Gates then."
I took it and we shook, though he really needed to work on his control of his strength as I felt like I was going to have my arm pulled out of its socket again. As soon as he let go I rolled my shoulder blade to put it back in place before saying, "See you in the city, brother."
"See you in the city, sister" he answered, starting to turn before adding, "Oh, silly me. I nearly forgot to tell you the name of the gun."
"You named the gun?" I asked as he turned back one of the other Green Space Marines coming forward with another box.
"Yes, any weapon worthy of a Primarch should have it's own name and its name is Scornspiter. Might it serve you well," He then turned and grabbed the container before offering it to me. "And may these serve you as well." Taking the box I opened it and saw about three or four underslung components for the gun, all of them masterly crafted, all of them looking like they wouldn't add much weight to the weapon.
"Thank you again, brother. I'm sure it will." I said as I examined the underslung weapons with some interest. There were quite a few choices but I decided to go with something I figured would be a good all-around use weapon, taking out what it was obviously a downsized plasma weapon and sliding it into the slot for the combi feature on Scornspitter.
"Now then let us drive out these pirates and Eldars." He said as he turned to his men and started walking back towards the green transport that would soon take him back to his legion.
"Yes, let's drive them out." I concurred, turning to a member of the Varagyr who came up beside me and was obviously waiting for orders. Handing them the box with the combi weapons I ordered, "Have someone who put this in my tent."
"Yes, my Primarch." he agreed, taking the box before walking away and leaving me there to look at the transports. Today would be an interesting day, I thought. This would be one of the first Aerial assaults across water that the Wolves of Fenris had ever participated in. We had done a few through water and a few near beaches but never over it, and we'd have to protect the bigger transports of the dwarves, but it would be a generally good fight I think. It would teach my men a few new skills.
=
Holding on to an overhead strap I looked at one of the open doors of the aircraft as we made our way closer and closer to the enemy city, the enemy anti-aircraft fire increasing at an alarming rate as we did. But thankfully their entire fire seemed to be absolutely trash, not that I hadn't seen one or two of the transports go down from my point of view but one or two out of a couple thousand was not a big deal and I deemed it unlikely to stop this advance on their position.
My craft would be one of the first ones into the melee, with about another hundred around us carrying the spear point Onn company into the fray. Behind us was about another two to three companies that would come in waves every 5 minutes, theoretically that would put 4,000 soldiers into the city within the next 20 minutes. 4000 soldiers that would need to then fight their way to important points, take them and hold them or destroy anti-aircraft fire for the next wave of roughly 4,000 soldiers. Those waves would be carried by the same aircrafts after they had been reloaded with as many soldiers as could be stuffed in them.
And theoretically there would be another thousand or so soldiers dropping from orbit around the same time we were landing further into the city, closer to the wall. Hopefully they would be able to take it and provide an opening for the Salamanders to drive their forces directly to the city. If not they would at least divide a pretty good distraction and we would have an added objective to link up with them to establish lines of communication.
Another craft off to my left to went up in an explosion as several anti-aircraft fire shots got lucky and hit some sort of fuel tank. For the most part it looked like it still held together, though I started seeing Marines jumping from it already towards the sea below.
Over some parts of the ocean that would be a problem. After all if you got deep enough it didn't matter what kind of armor you were wearing as it would crack and you'd die. In this part of the ocean though it would be fine, those islands that I'd set up as anti-air positions to keep the besieged from escaping served as boundary markers of the continental shelf for the most part, which meant there was only about 30 to 40 ft of water before you hit the seabed. Now some of them might get stuck in the mud marching the rest of the way but it was very likely that they'd still be able to get themselves free and eventually meet up with us there. Though they may have to abandon their entire power armor to do it.
No doubt the Mechanicus would hate hearing how I had given the order that this was condoned if necessary but, well, what was more important? The man or the armor? In my opinion, the man with the experience.
Well if they really wanted that armor to be recovered they could always send their own forces to recover it and put up an effort to try and find any that was lost in this campaign. The fact of the matter was the Imperium could produce as many armors as it would ever need so why worry about a few losses here or there? It was not like it was in limited numbers.
More anti-aircraft gunfire started to unleash on us but thankfully the pilots were able to go even lower, below the range of most of them. There were probably too many buildings between our vehicles and their guns anyway, allowing us to complete the journey across the sea as shuttles began to come above various places above the city. Anti-aircraft fire, and now regular fire, was still coming up at us but it was a lot more limited. As my shuttle, along with four others, came above the mansion that we had identified as a possible center for Command and Control it was only three anti-aircraft guns firing at us. At this range even the lesser weapons of our transport ships were quickly able to decimate their crews.
As soon as we had the initial landing site cleared troops started pouring out of the transport ships, landing below into the mass of enemies waiting. Which were not many, most had already been butchered by the transport crafts, but a few still stood. They put up a decent fight, firing shard weaponry at my man. A few of them went down, lots more got on to the ground and immediately unleashed hell into those who dared to try to stop them.
Quickly the landing zones around this command and control center were established and, seeing that it was now safe, I jumped down from the aircraft with a rather loud bang. I Thought I was good but it seemed that I had made a mistake as the place I jumped to happened to have been weakened. There was a cracking noise as my foot went straight through the wood and I nearly followed it into the water.
Thankfully I was able to grip both edges of the hole to stop my fall and pulled myself back out. A little bit of a screw up on my part but I had it under control, I thought as I pulled myself out, looking around and seeing that most of my men were too busy dealing with the enemy trying to attack us to see that embarrassing screw up by their Primarch.
Shaking off my foot to get some water off of it I took my short sword and ran a little bit of energy through it before hitting the area underneath the dock area, freezing it so if any more of my men happened to jump down in that area they would not go through straight to the bottom. Once that was secured I got ready to deal with the next situation. Turning around I opened my arms and Freki jumped down into them. "Good boy," I said, setting him down before raising again so that Geri could jump down from the shuttle as well. Once they were both out I signaled the shuttle to get out of here and it started moving away, slowly but speeding up as it went.
Now to deal with the problems of this attack I thought, turning to the large Mansion across the lake-large pool of water that was obviously a wet landing Bay for spaceships. Already I could see my Marines opening fire at some of the Corsairs or Eldars, it was hard to tell which variant I was dealing with since they seemed to be intermingled here on this world. They were putting up a good fight it seemed, trying to push us from entering the main house but their weapons were not as well tuned for this fight as ours. They weren't penetrating my men's armor as easily when we knew which way they were coming from.
So, slowly and steadily, I watched my men push forward, taking parts of the dock piece by piece and forcing the Eldars to withdraw from the windows of the mansion. Soon enough only a few shots were coming from the mansion and was looking like it was almost under our control. And then my expected issue arrived.
The water in front of me began to bubble and boil as light sprung from it then fired and then a rather smooth and sharp design for a ship rose from the water, it immediately began to turn to bring what I guessed were its main guns to bear on some of my men to the left side of the mansion. Unfortunately for the pilot of that craft this had been what I was waiting for.
Studying my target, I pulled my spear t from my back. I quickly cast a few spells on it, piercing being the main one, and took aim at where I believed the pilot would be. To make sure that I hit that target I also added a bit of tracking to the shot so it would track toward that general location. And then, once I was sure that I had the target locked, I let fly.
Throwing the golden wolf spear I don't know what I was expecting. What I got though was significantly more spectacular than I thought it would be. The spear, of course, had been augmented with a couple of my spells so it moved rather quickly through the air and should have penetrated through the craft without issue. And as far as I can tell it did do that. It also cast an illusion of a giant golden wolf's head biting the damn craft in its teeth. I did not expect that. That was not a power I had added to its abilities, which meant that was something it could just decide to do on its own. More evidence that there was something a bit odd about this spear. Thankfully it appeared the wolf head was just that, an illusion, but it seemed to have scared the pilot for a moment and it had stunned him enough that he didn't move.
So the spear, moving at penetrator levels speed, went right through the craft in a shower of golden light. For a moment nothing happened then the spear came back through the other way, literally cutting through the front of the ship and leaving another needle hole there as it returned directly to my hand. Well… that suspicion that the spear would want to return to me if I threw it away proved both correct and a useful thing. I could get a lot of use out of the ability to throw something that would come back to me, the real question was how much could I really throw on this. Could it survive an explosive spell? I would have to be careful to test that but that was something to keep in mind for the future.
As of right now I watched the craft slowly start spinning and lose its ability to stay up. After about a minute of smoking through the holes that had been left in it and spinning it crashed into the dock on the right of the mansion, slowly sinking back into the water from there. A great cheer went up from my men as they saw the thing sink and I was myself rather impressed. One-shot one kill was always a good average to have though, again, if it could go through one target and come back could I get more in one shot? Testing for future combats I decided again.
Shaking my head I walked along the wooden dock to the front lines of the right attack vector. There I saw a company Commander doing his best to organize a defensive action on one flank, as apparently reinforcements from within the city had tried to reinforce the HQ complex, while trying to organize the attack on the HQ complex itself.
As soon as I came into view he immediately snapped off an Aquila sign before saying, "My Primarch, we are almost into the main headquarters now but this counter-assault is slowing our efforts."
I nodded before asking, "Have we secured all entrances and exits to the headquarters?"
The captain nodded before confirming it. "As far as we can tell, yes. There may be underwater exits that we don't know about but at the moment all above ground ways in and out are closed. I have several Marines dropping over the side to see if there are any tunnels, they have explosives and they'll tig any tunnels to explode. At the very least it'll flood the lower levels and prevent anyone else from escaping, if someone has already."
I nodded my head in approval before saying, "Good, good. Hold the line here, I'll take control of the attack."
"Of course, my Primarch!", He said, giving another Aquila salute before turning to go get better control over the defense against the counter-assault.
I myself moved further along, quickly finding myself at the front lines of our siege of the headquarters.
The firing from the house had diminished quite a bit since our arrival, indicating that the defenders were either low on ammunition or nearly dead or knew that anytime they popped their heads up they would probably get more bolt rounds and volkyte fired at them than it was worth popping up for. This meant, theoretically, that I could order an advance and we could break in. Of course fighting in a house was a pain and there was another option open, might as well give it a bit of a try.
Stepping forward I activated several speakers on my armor that would magnify my voice and exclaimed, "To the Eldar Lord of this house and this city! This is your one and only chance to surrender, if you do so we shall negotiate the end of your pirate career but not your life. If you agree to hear the terms out wave something white out of any window."
As I was calling this I waved off my men so they would stop firing and give the opportunity for whoever was inside to attempt to wave out the window. It made no sense to blow off the hand of the person trying to surrender after all.
There was a pause, a bit of silence settling around the house while fighting was clearly going on throughout the rest of the city, but finally a white dining room tablecloth was waved outside the window. They were willing to surrender then, I was tempted to congratulate myself on finding an opportunity for a peaceful resolution. Turning to my men, I said, "Hold the line, I'll go in and talk to them."
"My Primarch, shouldn't some of us come in with you?" One of the Marines asked and I shook my head before saying, "I think I have full control of the situation at this point, everything will be safe. Just wait for me to come back outside."
They nodded and I turned, stepping forward towards the house. My wolves started to come with me but I waved them off. They weren't needed for negotiations, not yet I thought. Plus there was a chance that, as I made my way across the field, they would open up fire on me to betray the white flag of truce and all that. I could survive that, I was sure, but better to leave those who didn't wear armor to safeguard their back.
As I crossed the open square not a single shot was fired, so obviously they weren't betraying the ceasefire. I made it easily enough up the steps to the front of the mansion, there the doors opened revealing a tall female Eldar in… not very much, it was a few pieces of armor over vital areas but there were also a few rather glaring openings in that armor that would make them easy to kill in a good fight.
"The Honorable pirate lord Arzursar will meet you," She said, giving a bow, "but he asks for the name of his conqueror before you are allowed into the mansion."
I nodded my head before saying, "Tanya Russ, leader of the Wolves of Fenris, child of the Emperor of Mankind and leader of the Imperium of Man."
She bowed before closing the door on me for a few seconds, seeming to walk away and then come back. She opened the door again and invited me in, "Please come in, Miss Russ of the Wolves of Fenris."
The door opened and I stepped into a rather lavishly decorated entryway. The place was probably more expensive than the Mansions of the Kaiser I had visited on one or two occasion in my second life. Heck some multi-billionaires from my first life would have been hard pressed, I think, to match the opulence on display. One thing though that was drawing my notice was there was someone singing, in a rather beautiful voice all things considered. It was in some foreign language, probably Eldar in nature, but it sounded rather sweet. For some reason it evoked thoughts of young love, which was strange considering I had no idea what language it was… Could this language have some sort of magical context to it, some psychic way of making itself be clear even to those that were not aware of the language enough to speak it? A mystery for another time I decided as I followed the half-dressed elf woman to a room off to the left. Carefully she opened the door, revealing a man in somewhat heavier armor and furs. He was sitting at a desk and, like before, the room was optimally decorated. however damage from the counterfire had streamed across the windows and the walls, indicating that this room had been used as one of the redoubts during the fighting.
Several sculptures up one wall appeared to be completely destroyed and some of them looked to have been from Earth in make, all were unfortunately lost to whatever history they belonged to. Shaking my head I stepped forward and said, "I'm here to discuss your surrender, Lord Arzursar."
The eldar Lord looked up and nodded before saying, "Yes, yes, my surrender. An unfortunate thing but these things happen." He shook his head, saying, "The good days are ending again. Order will be restored to some extent in this little space, it shall be somewhat sad to see the world turned right but the important part is not to continue in the past but to adapt to the Future."
Standing up he came around the desk, saying, "My pirates would be willing to go under contract of this Imperium of Man, working for them if you would be willing to spare some of our fleet and not continue your campaign of destruction across this planet."
Well that was to be expected, I thought. Of course the moment things were going bad he would seek to try and create a situation that was favorable for him and his people. Nodding my head I said "We may be willing to work out some deal but I'm afraid that your stance on slavery is rather disgusting to me and my people, especially what we have heard of your ties to the darker members of your brother species."
The Corsair seemed to think before saying, "So to get peace we must renounce our ties to the Dark Eldars? This is understandable, I could see that as a possibility. If I have guarantees that this city will stand I will expunge all official members of the dark Eldars from the city and you can deal with them as they return to their hidey holes. As for slavery itself I understand that you humans have an issue with it so I could pass several laws preventing slavery of humans if that would be amenable to you."
Not really I meant to leave that flavoring itself was a crime at the top of my list of things I hated, right next to Communism. In theory they weren't exactly the same but in practice they were the exact same, they took away a people's abilities to decide their own fate. Taking away someone's ability to do that was a crime that I considered an almost immortal sin, humans were a free people with a free will and to dictates one's fate without giving them a choice was a disgusting practice.
However I had to admit that getting humans safe from being enslaved would be a step in the right direction and I could impress upon these elves to continue to emancipate their slaves as time went on.
Nodding my head I replied, "That will do for a start."
"Wonderful!" the elf lord exclaimed, clapping his hands in front of him before putting them behind his back, "Now can you call off the attack across the city? I would very much like to save as much of it as possible. After all this world is going to rebuild and I'm going to need an economic power base."
I nodded and started to reach for my coms before I noticed the singing again. It was louder now but I didn't see where I was coming from off the top of my head. There was no woman in this room beside the half-naked one next to me and she was not singing. In fact she looked absolutely creeped out and terrified.
Raising an eyebrow, I said, "What is that noise?"
"Oh that? Well that's my predecessor, the former Lady of San Katos," he turned and pointed to a statue in the corner that I hadn't noticed before, which was not surprising considering for the most part it looked like an exact statue of some female Eldar appearing to wear some fancy dress… however, on closer inspection, I realized that though everything about it appeared to be stone the jaw was real living flesh and was moving along with the voice.
"What the…" I said, trying to piece together what I was seeing.
"She was the greatest ruler of San Katos, some say. Of course she wasn't that great, if she was I would never have been able to replace her."
"She also used to say that she had the best voice. In my opinion that wasn't so true but I was willing to help her perfect her form, removing every flaw until there was just the perfection of her voice as it should be. Now she really does have the best voice in all of San Katos."
"Removed?" I asked, feeling something I didn't think I had ever felt before. Not in this life at least, this life had been rather easy-going when you really thought about it. Yes, I had to fight for my life in several incidents but that was fighting for your life. This… This was something else.
"Yes! Unnecessary limbs, eyes, some parts of the brain, everything that was not necessary for the voice to be perfection was removed and what remained was encased in some of the finest Stone craftsmanship I could get at the time. One of my proudest works I think." The Eldar said, seeming to be lost in his own world as he looked upon the stone mockery of a sentient being.
There were many things in this galaxy that I felt I had proven pretty good at handling: fighting, killing, building, and growing. It seemed that I could not handle righteous indignation very well.
What was standing before me was a mockery to free will, a person who had been able to rule a city reduced to nothing but a set of lungs, throat, voice box, and mouth so that they may sing for eternity at the pleasure of the person who did this to them. Their free will and ability to decide for their future having been taken from them and replaced with being an object.
And I just felt anger.
Out of my own control my hand went to my combi-Bolter, released it from my side, and pointed it directly at the elf Lord. Without even thinking twice I pulled the trigger on the plasma gun and, as the elf Lord turned to find out what the noise was, blue fire engulfed his head and killed him nearly instantly.
I turned the gun on the half-naked elf minion who immediately fell to the ground and started begging for her life. for a moment I considered sparing it, for another moment I considered ripping her skull out of her own head. For now I pistol-whipped her unconscious with the edge of my bolter gun, just to get some anger off, before bringing the bolter gun back to bear on the stone statue that used to be a person.
I quickly fired off a few shots, ending the infernal torment that that woman had been put through, before walking over to the corpse of the now fallen down Elda lord and putting a couple shots into its chest to be sure. Yes, I had taking his head off but I wasn't seeing the world as it was at the moment, I was seeing a monster that needed to be killed and you need to double check your kills when it comes to monsters.
There was a turmoil noise behind me before the doors that had led into the study burst opened and three Eldar in heavier armor entered the room, bringing their guns to bear. I fired off a dozen shots at them, forcing them to retreat though one of them lost his legs as he fell to the ground.
Feeling nothing but rage and anger I smashed open the window enough so I could peer out at my own Marines and called out, "Burn this cesspit to the ground."
Vulkan of Nocturne
Enemy fire was rather unimpressive I would say. Oh they kept it up quite well as our tanks moved into position but as the rounds binged off the old Rhinos as they trundled forward and friendly forces began landing within the city. The fire slacked and we were able to drive right up to the front gates, from there the job of breaking in was rather easy. My men quickly strapped several layers of explosives on the gate and blew it up. Oh yes they did blow it. Blowing it up would have been a lot harder, of course, but blowing it in? That was easy. Once the doors were hanging off their hinges, inward facing, all we needed to do was drive in.
And that's what we had done, taking the gate first I think. I thought that perhaps the Wolves of Fenris would have been able to do it first, Tania was after all dropping forces into the city from orbit during this fight so it would make sense that they'd be able to take it first and open it for us, but something must have not going to plan.
Well my sister may be a good thinker about tactics and strategy but it must be expected that she would find something she couldn't get her head around, once in a while. We all had those things I assumed.
Hell, I even was a bit suspect about her thoughts about letting some of the Dark Eldar flee into the woods. Sure they would be rendered a toothless enemy over time but I didn't trust the Dark Eldar or these supposedly 'Corsair' Eldar to do nothing and stay out of the way of the human colonization efforts. In my opinion they should all be burnt down but my sister wanted to be a little bit tactful and I was willing to hear her out.
At least that's the situation as I understood it before I entered the gates. Then I saw a Wolf of Fenris chasing down a Corsair Eldar, a large blade in his hands as he slashed at the retreating elf. One lucky strike managed to find a weak point in the armor and skewered the elf, killing it as the Wolf raised the entire elf up above his head on the blade before throwing him away.
The Wolf turned and saw me along, with about 30 of my Marines, staring at him with confusion. He seemed unsure of what to say before finally saluting and saying, " Primarch of the Salamander Legion, it is an honor to meet you."
"Yes, an honor…" I said, looking across the street and really getting a good look at what I was seeing. I had seen plenty of battlefields fighting Dark Eldar across several planets but this seemed off, at least when compared to how I'd seen the Wolves operate before.
Across this planet, wherever they went in, I had noticed a lack… of what's the term? I would say 'enemy civilian casualties', an effort put forward to make sure that the only one harmed were soldiers themselves.
That seemed to have gone out the window as large sections of the city were already burning, well before my own troops had entered the city to start unleashing their own flamethrowers. Black smoke was blurring out the sky and I could see that several transport ships of the Wolves of Fenris were circling, appearing to have trouble finding a place to land. Confused, I stepped forward and asked, "Wolf of Fenris, what is going on here? I was under the impression that I would be the one setting the city to burn after we had defeated the enemy here."
The wolf nodded before saying, "King Russ put out an order about 20 minutes ago to burn it all down, we are following that order."
I blinked in confusion. She had put out an order to burn the city? That was unusual for her, from what I had seen. She had always seemed to have a preference for order during a battle, to start burning down the city would assuredly cause chaos in the midst of battle. And chaos tended to not go well for those fighting in it.
Confused, I asked, "Do you know where your king is? I must speak with her."
He shook his head before replying, "Last report I had before the order of the extermination on the city was put out was that she had entered the headquarters of the Corsair pirates to negotiate a surrender. Things must not have gone well and they must have betrayed her or something."
Had they now? Well that was not a good look, attacking someone while under the flag of truce. It was a monstrous act so I could understand the Dark Eldar wanting to do it but why would the corsairs do it? Perhaps they were more Dark Eldar than Corsair. Ahh they were too hard to tell apart and that had been the most annoying bit of all this, how were we going to separate the Dark Eldar from the Corsair? Apparently we were not anymore though. If Tanya's orders were to be followed to the letter extermination was the game now. Whoever managed to flee the city may survive but anyone inside it would burn with the city itself.
Shaking my head I pointed to several of my men and said, "You are to follow me into the city, we'll search for Primarch Russ and get a full story of what happened. The rest of you spread out through the city find any human slaves and save them. Pass the message to anyone else that if any Eldar surrenders you're to round them up and keep an eye on them, there's a chance that they are simply trying to buy their time for a counter-attack."
The green-clad troops smacked their foot down onto the ground, creating a racket before saying, "Yes, Primarch Vulkan!" before breaking up into their component formations. Already a communication team near the back of the 4th was spreading my orders throughout the rest of the break-ins across the wall. No doubt the city would fall rather quickly now with the Wolves running throughout the entire city and my force is pushing in slowly. The Dark Eldar and the Corsair were soon to be squashed underfoot, it was only a matter of time.
That said I started to march into the city, watching the streets with careful eyes and wondering what had resulted in this unleashing of chaos. Tanya had seemed very put together every time I had seen her in combat. To let something go out of control like this was not like her, it was concerning in a way I did not think I had ever felt before.
Moving forward my formation soon came across a barricade of Dark Eldar or Corsair, their weapons were so interchangeable you couldn't really tell sometimes, and they unleashed a hail of fire on us. Fortunately they didn't have anything too heavy so I simply stepped out into the fire and walked forward, keeping an arm up to block any shots that would go for my face, before arriving before the blockade and using my power hammer to smash it to debris. Already the Dark Eldar had seen that their attempt to slow us down would not work and were starting to run but several of my Marines had followed me in and they rushed through the gap I made, unleashing their bolters into the backs of the fleeing enemy.
We started moving again but we were soon interrupted as several Eldar ran off a street in front of us, seeming to be in a panic. They didn't get far as several Fenrisian wolves, the actual wolf-wolf type, rushed out of the same street and began ripping the soldiers apart, tearing at them with their claws and teeth as if they were nothing but easy game for a hunt.
I looked at the wolves, they seemed even more feral than the usual. They were not the pair that followed Tanya around so they must be some of the wolves belonging to higher-ups amongst the Wolves of Fenris. They looked back at me, licking their muzzles and observing me, before going back to their lunch and seeming to give me no care, allowing me to pass. I suspected that if I followed the general direction this fighting had come from I might find my sister, after all what else would these Eldar be fleeing than the biggest and meanest soldier on the battlefield.
And my suspicions were right. As I passed through an alleyway I came out into an empty square not too far between the center of the city and the mansion and found Tanya… I think. I had seen her in combat a couple times since this campaign had started and she had always been under control. The creature in front of me did not appear to be under control. In one hand was her massive sword, in the other was Scornspitter, and both were active. She was moving across the field, quickly slashing at Eldar as they came out of their hidey holes to attempt to assassinate her, leaving nothing but ice sculptures in her wake Those who were out of range and attempted to shoot her would often fall to a bolt from her bolter gun as she would quickly locate where the fire was coming forward, then unleash a hail of fire of her own. Marines were already moving into the square but they seemed superfluous to Tanya who was… Unleashing the beast by the looks of it, that was the best way to put it. Her helmet was off, her air was flying in the wind, and her teeth were bared like one of her own wolves with incisors that seemed to have grown into proper fangs. I thought I'd spotted those before but she never smiled enough for me to have observed that properly and confirm it but there they were.
Stepping out into the field I wondered if she would have enough control to stop herself in her rampage or if she would attack me. It was hard to tell, she seemed to be operating on some sort of bestial instinct to murder, rip, and tear. I was happy to see I was wrong as, though she did immediately come to face me as soon as she seemed to sense my presence, the primal rage that seemed to be guiding her assault appeared to dissipate and she gained control of herself.
Stepping past the ice sculptures that had been Dark Eldar, I said, "Sister, what goes today? You seem to be in an extremely bad mood."
"A bad mood doesn't describe what I feel right now," She retorted, sounding filled with righteous indignation. "I've seen what the Eldar are capable of on their own and I think I now understand your interest in burning them out."
Ah, that explained some of this then. Though Tanya had taken part in several of the attacks on the lesser settlements the worst she'd only ever seen was most likely the best cases of slavery instances. She had probably run across something so wretched and horrid that it just triggered some deep-seated need for vengeance for the human race and what it suffered, the same sort of feeling I had felt upon seeing the Dark Eldar at their work.
Nodding my head I walked closer to her till I was almost in front of her as I said, "Little sister, it is to be expected that you would see the worst in these creatures eventually but you seem to be a bit out of control right now. Try and take a breath."
"I don't need a breath, I need to make sure this degenerate pit of monsters is cleansed of its filth!"
Well she had a point but she needed to get more of a control over that point so I reached forward and took her into a hug, squeezing her tight into my chest. "That may be true but you need to have more focus, being nothing but a ball of rage and murder will do your Wolves no good. They are scattered throughout the town, working as lone soldiers, and that will get them slowly picked off. So, with me, take one breath." I took a breath and let it out and I let it out. "Now, we repeat."
Tanya made some sort of noise, muffled as she was by my armored chest, and did struggle a bit but eventually she stopped. She even let go of her sword, letting it fall to the ground. Taking this as a sign that she had come down I slowly lowered her back to ground and let go of her.
Looking down at her I saw her face was not as rage-filled as moments ago but seemed to have calmed down. "There. Are you feeling better, my little sister?"
She sighed then smiled and said, "Much better, Onii-Chan."
I looked at her, confused, before she snickered and said, "Always wanted to do that. Yeah, I'm calm now." Snapping her bolter gun to her thigh she pointed past me to a marine and ordered, "Bring me a communicator! Let us see if we can get this back under control." Turning to look back at me she said, "Thank you. Let's get back to the work of clearing out this Liberty forsaken Hell hole." Kneeling, she picked up her sword before putting it back in place on her back.
"That I can agree with, we have much freedom to spread to the people here who have been unjustly tormented by these monsters." I declared, putting my hand on her shoulder before we both turned to face the direction of the city. There was still a bit of it to be burnt out and cleared and I had the feeling we would not rest until this city was rubble at the edges of the sea.
Writers note: and there we go the end of San katos, in fire and wolves, tanya got to see dark ness of eldar and found point she gose murder happy. Also brother sister bonding it was cute. This was fun chapter and i hope everyone enjoy so feel free to give me your that and what not.
On subject of Eldar there, there this quote i heard where some stone sculptur said perfection was found be removing eveythign unnecessary... That where idea for that living hell i presented came from.
Edited by: Pierre,Guardsman Pius,
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Well this was the most evil thing I've read in quite a long time. I can't even remember the last time I've read something that vile.
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when was the last time you read twilight or harry potter fanfic?
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I don't read the dark stuff, and I've never touched twilight in my life.