V2 Chapter 76: The Krieg Combat Group
"What?"
General Bleddin stood inside his forward command tent, the expression on his face darkening as he looked at the order from the expedition's supreme command on the projection in front of him. Marshal Slaydo's authorisation seal floated clearly in the holo-display, with Macaroth's transfer order beneath it.
"We have exactly six independently operational ground combat groups left." Bleddin said, pressing down on the anger in his voice. "And now I am required to hand one of them to a Colonel-Commissar? I refuse. This campaign is mine to command. Why should a Colonel-Commissar be given authority over any part of it?"
Outside, the sound of artillery fire rolled in from the distance. The anti-vibration light fixtures in the tent's ceiling swung with each tremor from the ground.
On the other end of the vox channel, Macaroth's voice remained entirely even.
"This is an order, General Bleddin. The Marshal has approved it personally."
Bleddin stared at the holo-projection and was quiet for several seconds.
He was not unfamiliar with the name Duvette Erdmann. Macragge, Formal Prime, Ashek II, and now the orbital decapitation action just reported back. This young commissar had genuinely accumulated a record that most people could not explain. But a cogitator array, an enemy flagship, and an entire world like Sveren were entirely different problems. Sveren had Nev City, Colchis, Lamerly, and countless defensive lines already reduced to shrapnel, mud, and the wreckage of the counter-offensive's grinding advance. Bleddin had fought the first Sveren campaign. He knew what this world was.
"Understood." Bleddin drew a long breath.
"Good." Macaroth said. "I hope the cooperation is productive."
The channel closed.
Only the low hum of the hololithic sand table remained in the tent.
General Bleddin paced in the silence. He looked at the display periodically. Nev City layered under its red encirclement markers. The fallen Colchis outer districts. The Lamerly approach almost entirely under enemy fire coverage.
After a long interval, he stopped and pressed the vox key.
"Send the adjutant-staff in."
Shortly afterward, a staff officer pushed through the tent flap, entered, and rendered a salute.
Bleddin looked at the sand table. His voice came out cold and deliberate. "Record the following order. Notify the Krieg 1173rd Provisional Siege Combat Group on the northwest front."
The staff officer opened his data-slate immediately.
"The following units are to detach from their current positions at once: 771st Siege Regiment remnants, 904th Siege Regiment third echelon, 1288th Siege Regiment combat engineer detachment, 566th Heavy Siege Artillery Regiment two artillery battalions, 742nd Heavy Artillery Regiment partial strength, 312th Siege Engineer Battalion Group, and the 49th Death Rider Squadron."
Bleddin paused.
"With immediate effect, all of the above forces are placed under the unified tactical command of Colonel-Commissar Duvette Erdmann. The northwest front line is to contract; the gaps will be filled by the second and fifth combat groups."
The staff officer looked up at him briefly, as though something had occurred to him that he did not say.
"Execute." Bleddin said.
"Yes, General."
The staff officer saluted and left the tent.
Bleddin turned back to the sand table.
The 1173rd Provisional Siege Combat Group was not a complete Krieg regiment. It was a striking force he had assembled from the northwest front's available elements: siege infantry, heavy artillery, combat engineers, Death Riders, and the logistics and medicae capacity to sustain high-intensity operations in the short term.
The force had originally been assigned to press steadily toward the Colchis outer districts.
Now it belonged to the young commissar.
"Three weeks to take this world?" Bleddin said under his breath. "You must be joking."
He did the arithmetic alone. Breaking a relief corridor through to Nev City and destroying the encircling force would likely take more than three weeks by itself. That was before Colchis, before Lamerly, before the enemy's established anti-aircraft positions and artillery networks.
One combat group could not solve that problem.
"You would need thirty thousand Astartes." Bleddin muttered to himself, then looked coldly at the portion of the front that was about to be reassigned to a new operational zone.
"Show me how you do it, then. Big talker."
---
At that same moment, Duvette was in a transport craft moving with the 112th's advance element toward the northwest outer edge of Colchis.
Seventh anchor landing zone. The Ashbell Position.
It was one of the few forward assembly points on Sveren still in Imperial hands. It sat to the northwest of the Colchis outer districts, not far from the old Lamerly air transit road, and had not yet been directly exposed to the most concentrated enemy anti-aircraft fire.
The transport shuddered through the cloud layer. Impacts from distant artillery transmitted through the hull in a continuous series.
Duvette sat inside the compartment and looked at the data-slate in his hands. It was displaying the order of battle Bleddin had just transferred to him.
Krieg 1173rd Provisional Siege Combat Group.
771st Siege Regiment remnants. 904th Siege Regiment third echelon. 1288th Siege Regiment combat engineer detachment. 566th Heavy Siege Artillery Regiment two artillery battalions. 742nd Heavy Artillery Regiment partial strength. 312th Siege Engineer Battalion Group. 49th Death Rider Squadron.
Total strength: approximately thirty thousand.
"Krieg." Duvette said quietly to himself.
He brought up the image in his mind: soldiers in gas masks and heavy greatcoats, long-handled entrenching tools across their backs, advancing in silence through shellfire and poison gas.
Morale: stable. Discipline: extreme. Loyalty: close to unshakeable.
If the System panel could read them normally, they would probably produce numbers that were genuinely rare.
But that was where the complication lay. These forces were not truly under his command in the permanent sense. They had simply been detached from their original line by Slaydo and Bleddin for an independent tactical operation. Whether the Soul of the Legion would operate through them with full effect remained to be seen.
Duvette looked at the data-slate for a moment longer, then closed it.
He would find out when he got there.
Evan looked up at him from the adjacent seat. "Commissar?"
"Notify the commanders and commissars of these units." Duvette said. "When I land at the Ashbell Position, I want them reporting to me immediately."
"Yes."
"Also notify all 112th elements. Full readiness within six hours of landing. Reconnaissance companies, demolitions teams, and vox relay groups take priority."
Evan wrote quickly. "Timeline for first-phase operations?"
"Tomorrow. Pre-dawn."
Evan paused for a half-second. "That soon?"
Duvette looked out through the transport's observation port at the grey ground surface rising to meet them.
"They are assuming that a new commander taking over a Krieg siege group will need at least three days to sort out the order of battle." Duvette said. "We will give them eight hours."
Evan nodded. "Understood."
"The first assault will not go directly at Nev City, and it will not be a frontal push at Colchis." Duvette continued. "Have the Krieg deploy their siege array, move the heavy artillery forward, and get the engineers digging approach trenches."
"You want the enemy to think we are settling in for a traditional siege operation?"
"Not think." Duvette said. "We are genuinely going to have the Krieg tell the enemy, on the front face, that the Imperium has come to run a siege."
Evan looked at him. "And us?"
Duvette allowed himself a thin smile.
"We go in from the side they are not watching. I will find another way to let them know I have arrived."
If you're enjoying the story, toss a Power Stone or drop a review — it helps more than you'd think.
Advance chapters → patreon.com/Eatinpieces