V2 Chapter 15: What Do You Mean a Commissar Killed a Daemon Engine?
Major General Petrov Duval was pacing the length of his command post. His heavy boots struck the floor in rapid, sharp impacts.
Behind him, the massive hololithic tactical map cast green light above the strategic cogitator array.
At the map's centre, marked as the most critical strategic node of this entire combat zone: the Dukarala Gate of the main hive city.
This position had been won at the cost of mountains of dead and seas of blood.
Petrov stopped pacing and stared at the hololithic projection. He had always felt that Marshal Slaydo's assessment of Formal Prime had been far too optimistic. The progress of the hundred thousand advance forces was significantly below every projected figure.
To seize the great auramite gate and the broad assembly square behind it, the Imperial forces had already paid an extremely painful price.
Although in the assault's opening phase they had deployed the sacred Warlord-class Titan as the absolute centrepiece, supported by an enormous armoured formation driving the advance, the Daemon Engine that had erupted from the shadows had completely disrupted the entire campaign's rhythm.
It was an incomprehensible, blasphemous construct.
In a very short span of time it had destroyed the Warhound-class Titan responsible for flank cover. At the instant the God-Machine fell, the Imperial force's formation had briefly broken, and the front-line Astra Militarum were once again trapped in close-quarters slaughter against the Khorne-faithful.
Fortunately, the Imperium had managed to hold the line. Petrov had rapidly redeployed the two Reaver-class Titans that had been elsewhere providing support, plus another Warhound, and had finally managed to retake and consolidate the outer wall position.
And with conventional artillery heavy siege mortars roaring without pause day and night, supported by the Warlord-class Titan's main gun conducting targeted eliminations, the heavy guns mounted on the hundred-metre outer wall and the fortress batteries built into the wall structure itself had finally been entirely destroyed.
The frontal threat to the Dukarala Gate had been cleared.
But there was no relief in Petrov at all. The blasphemous construct that had destroyed a Titan with a single shot remained a massive strategic threat hanging over the campaign.
What made him feel most like something sharp was pressed against his back was that he had absolutely no idea how many more of these terrible constructs the enemy had concealed in the dark.
While Petrov was working through the problem, the command post door was pushed open. A senior adjutant entered at a pace that communicated urgency.
Petrov turned with a frown. "What is it? Why didn't you use the comms channel?"
"General..." The adjutant stopped, breathing hard. He gathered himself before he continued. "I think you need to hear this in person."
The adjutant cleared his throat. "The remnants of the 8th Hyrkan Regiment have returned to the Dukarala Gate."
Petrov turned back to the hololithic map, his voice carrying a trace of impatience. "An Astra Militarum unit returning to the line. What's the concern there... hold on..."
The words stopped in his throat. He snapped his head around and fixed his eyes on the adjutant.
"The 8th Hyrkan." Something had registered. His voice dropped immediately. "The withdrawal route of that blasphemous construct, that went directly through their position."
"Yes, sir, yes!" The adjutant nodded rapidly with the expression of a man who has seen something he needs someone else to confirm. "They did encounter it."
"How did they successfully withdraw?" Petrov's voice was heavy.
"Withdraw?" The adjutant shook his hands in a rapid negative. "No, General. No. According to the first soldiers of the 8th Hyrkan to return: the Colonel-Commissar of the 112th personally ended that blasphemous construct."
The command post went to a dead silence.
"They resolved it," the adjutant repeated, placing weight on each word. "They ended the blasphemous construct."
"What?" Petrov's voice came out at a volume he had not intended. His eyes stayed on the adjutant. "You're telling me that legendary commissar ended a construct that could destroy a Titan."
"Yes, sir." The adjutant wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and stepped forward. "According to reports from several 8th Hyrkan soldiers, the strength and speed displayed by the 112th's warriors at the time was not inferior to the Emperor's Angels. Some personally witnessed a 112th soldier knock off a thick mechanical limb of the construct with a single hammer blow."
"That is complete nonsense." Petrov brought his hand down on the table.
"General. Commissar-General Delane Oktar has also confirmed that this is what actually occurred."
At the Commissar-General's name, Petrov drew a slow breath. "I need a detailed report. Where is the 112th now?"
"Commissar-General Delane Oktar reports they are currently still at the outer edge of the ruins, consolidating the aftermath," the adjutant said.
"Have them return. Call them back here." Petrov issued the order, his eyes moving quickly across the hololithic map.
"And then, General?"
Petrov looked up. His eyes had taken on a particular coldness. "Have someone isolate that commissar and his 112th immediately. Send your best people to watch them. I want eyes on them at all times."
The adjutant froze. "General, this... this falls outside established procedure. They have just accomplished something significant. Placing a Colonel-Commissar under restriction without grounds will not hold up under Imperial law."
"Follow the order." Petrov's voice dropped. He cut off whatever else the adjutant had been preparing to say. "Use Warp contamination prevention as the justification. Require them to undergo the strictest possible isolation inspection in the outer zone before they enter the main camp. No one has contact with them without a written order from me. No one."
The adjutant grasped the general's intent immediately. As a justification within Imperial Guard doctrine, it was unassailable.
"There is something wrong with them. This is too far outside any normal range." Petrov turned back, his gaze somewhat unfocused on the hololithic map. Mortals who suddenly acquired strength beyond the ordinary only ever pointed toward a deeper problem.
In this universe, mortals suddenly obtaining strength they should not have typically meant only one thing: the corruption from the depths of the soul had already taken hold.
He had been in the Imperial military for decades. He had seen too many examples like this. People who believed they had awakened some innate talent on the battlefield, it turned out, every time, to be nothing but the seed Chaos had buried deep in the soul.
"I need to report this situation to the Marshal." He muttered to himself in the busy command post, his voice carrying an absurdity he could not suppress.
"A commissar ended a Chaos construct capable of destroying a Titan..." He shook his head slowly. "You have to be kidding..."
If he said this to the Conclave, they would send an investigation team to look into this commissar. And perhaps that was exactly what he should do, report this matter to the Conclave's people.
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