V2 Chapter 74: No Need to Worry. I'm Back.
Duvette waited briefly in the Resolute's vox room, and the Marshal's current position came through.
The Sveren system.
He did not show much surprise when he heard the name. Admiral Villent had the adjutant project the intelligence returned from the expedition's supreme command link onto the table surface, and the red markers covered almost the entire outer reach of the Sveren system.
The critical point was Sveren itself.
The world that Imperial forces had retaken three years ago was now under assault from Nadzybar's main counter-offensive, both a detached capital fleet and a full ground force driving in simultaneously. If Sveren fell again, the expedition's centre line would be torn open, and the attack window Slaydo had been accumulating toward Balhaut would be forced back further.
This was what happened when Operation New Discovery had pushed forward too fast: forces spread thin, the line extended further than it could hold.
"The Marshal is currently with the centre line mobile command group at Sveren's outer system perimeter," Villent said. "He is personally coordinating the Sveren, Cossiminus, Ashek II, and rear transport line situations from there."
Duvette nodded.
He already understood the shape of it.
The Sveren campaign, the protracted campaign at Cossiminus, the Rosewater Plague tying down forces in the Lucide direction, and Nadzybar's counter-offensive across several rear supply lines simultaneously. All of it had converged on Slaydo at once.
In the original timeline, the expedition would spend several years grinding all of this back down before it could truly turn toward Balhaut.
Five years.
Duvette ran the number quietly and had no intention of waiting for it.
He was back. There was only one objective.
Break Nadzybar's counter-offensive momentum as fast and as completely as possible.
Duvette looked at Admiral Villent. "My thanks for your assistance, Admiral. Your fleet held to the last. That was what kept Ashek II."
Villent looked at him. "And you cut the head off their flagship."
"Then we can call it a productive partnership." Duvette allowed himself a brief smile, then turned to Heinz at his side. "We should go."
Heinz nodded and said nothing more.
The Silent Verdict was already preparing to depart. The 112th's boarding element was accounting for its casualties, and the Shadow Wolves had returned to the isolated armoury section. Duvette did not give them much time to recover. The situation at Sveren would not wait.
When the Inquisitorial landing craft cleared the Resolute's docking bay, Duvette looked through the observation port one last time at Ashek II's high orbital approach.
The Styx-class heavy cruiser was still burning in the distance, like a body with its chest torn open.
---
In the Sveren system at that moment, a void engagement was underway on a scale considerably larger than anything around Ashek II.
Nadzybar had committed a significant portion of his centre line counter-offensive forces here, and the Imperial expedition fleet was in the process of drawing together toward the same point.
Unlike the Ashek II orbital defence action, which had been fought primarily with cruisers and light cruisers, the void theatre around Sveren's outer perimeter had produced something larger: battlecruisers and ships of the line, moving through the dark like cities given engines.
Ships the size of cities traded fire across tens of thousands of kilometres. Macro-cannon arrays threw millions of tonnes of ordnance at enemy hulls, each full broadside salvo carrying enough total mass to level an entire hive city district. Lances lit from spine and prow, crossing through escort screens and debris clouds to strike directly against opposing void shields.
Burning wreckage was everywhere in the void.
Escorts and destroyers threaded through the capital ships, intercepting torpedoes, attack craft, and boarding shuttles. The transport groups waited in the rear with the discipline of people who understood that any vessel that broke from the convoy lines would be taken by Chaos raiders.
On the flag bridge of the expedition's command ship, Marshal Slaydo stood before the large holo-projection.
He was not wearing the elaborate ceremonial armour that his rank entitled him to. He wore a field commander's uniform, the badge of the Warmaster's authority on his chest.
The projection refreshed continuously with reports from every front: Sveren, Cossiminus, Lucide, Ashek II, the rear transport columns. Each marker was consuming the forces in his hands.
"Marshal." Macaroth stood beside him and passed forward a new operational report. "The Rosewater Plague in the Lucide direction is still holding fifteen transport columns and three major fleet elements in place. The Departmento Munitorum has refused to clear suspicious supply loads. The Inquisitorial observers are demanding quarantine. The Ministorum priests are disputing jurisdiction over the quarantine zones with the local administration."
Slaydo glanced at the report. "If we force the reallocation of those forces?"
"Possible. They will not refuse you." Macaroth replied calmly. "But the plague would very likely travel with them into the front-line transit fleet. If it reaches the Sveren assembly group, we lose considerably more."
Slaydo said nothing.
After a moment he asked: "What is the ground situation on Sveren itself?"
Macaroth raised a hand and opened the Sveren surface map on the projection.
"Nev City is under full encirclement. General Petrov is still holding, but per his last report, the enemy's numerical advantage is severe. Inner city ammunition reserves have at most seventy-two hours of sustained combat remaining."
The encirclement markers on the projection's image of Nev City were layered in red.
"Colchis outer districts have fallen; vox contact is intermittent. The Lamerly assembly point has been cut off by enemy air superiority and anti-aircraft positions. We cannot land reinforcements there in sufficient strength at present."
Macaroth continued. "In summary: we have not entirely lost the ground advantage on Sveren, but we are losing it."
Slaydo studied the map.
"Bleddin?"
"General Bleddin has reached the outer theatre, but his forces are still consolidating. He is requesting additional armour, artillery, and at minimum three weeks."
"Three weeks." Slaydo repeated it.
Macaroth did not respond.
Both of them understood that three weeks was Bleddin's fastest realistic estimate. The general was not incompetent; he knew Sveren well, having taken part in the campaign that reclaimed it the first time. But Nadzybar was not going to give them three weeks. Everyone in the room knew that too.
"The other fronts?"
"Cossiminus is under assault from the second-largest enemy force concentration after Sveren." Macaroth said. "The Rosewater Plague and transport line disruption mean we cannot pull sufficient strength to relieve it in the near term. Ashek II has just reported a victory: the enemy counter-offensive fleet was driven back, a Styx-class heavy cruiser reduced to wreckage."
Slaydo finally raised his eyes.
"Duvette?"
"Yes." Macaroth nodded. "Colonel-Commissar Duvette Erdmann is confirmed returned to the order of battle. Lord Inquisitor Heinz Werner and his Inquisitorial cruiser are operating in the same theatre."
Slaydo was quiet for a moment.
Among this accumulation of bad news, Duvette's return could not single-handedly reverse the entire crusade's situation.
But Slaydo remembered that young commissar.
After Formal Prime, they had spoken privately. He had understood in that conversation that Duvette was not a standard battlefield hero. He had a quality of tearing open gaps in situations where no gap should have existed.
And a gap was precisely what Slaydo needed right now.
"Marshal." Macaroth spoke again. "Friendly Warp-emergence signal detected at the system edge. Identification codes match the Inquisitorial black cruiser Silent Verdict. They are requesting communications."
"Put them through." Slaydo said.
A familiar face appeared on the holo-projection a moment later.
Duvette Erdmann stood before the bridge projection, his commissar's greatcoat still carrying scorch marks that had not been fully cleaned away. He appeared somewhat more settled than three years ago, but the quality that made it difficult to determine what he was actually thinking had not changed.
"Marshal." Duvette allowed a slight smile. "It looks like these three years have not been easy on you either."
Slaydo looked at him. "The three years you were absent made this crusade considerably harder to fight. The enemy's bones were too dense. We were missing a hydraulic press."
He continued: "I have already seen the Ashek II report. You came back and immediately took the head off one of Nadzybar's counter-offensive fleets."
"Just good fortune." Duvette said.
"You say that every time."
"That means my fortune has been consistent."
Slaydo did not smile. He looked at Duvette through the projection. "Do you know what is happening at Sveren?"
"I do." The slight smile on Duvette's face drew back.
Slaydo looked at him. "Then what do you intend to do?"
Duvette did not answer immediately.
He glanced at the Sveren surface map at the projection's edge, then back at Slaydo.
"No need to worry, Marshal. I am back, after all."
"The fire at Ashek II has been put out."
"Sveren is next."