V2 Chapter 78: The Krieg Fear Neither Life Nor Death
Deep in the night, Major Kleist von Ludwig of the 112th's Eisenmark Armoured Assault Battalion stood beside a Leman Russ and raised his observation scope toward the distance.
The position was a slight rise forward of the Ashbell Position, high enough to look past the front line and catch a rough sense of where the enemy's defensive line sat. In the darkness, artillery discharges lit the distance in a continuous sequence, like someone tearing a wound open in the black again and again.
The signal marking standard Terra midnight sounded.
In the next instant, every heavy artillery position already in place began its work.
The Krieg 566th Heavy Siege Artillery Regiment and part of the 742nd Heavy Artillery Regiment opened fire simultaneously. Muzzle flares along the rear of the Ashbell Position merged into a continuous blaze as heavy shells crossed over the friendly lines and came down on enemy trenches, fire emplacements, anti-tank positions, and approach routes.
The rolling barrage began its advance.
It moved at a preset rhythm, pressing forward metre by metre. Each salvo completed and the next extended further forward, a wall of explosions and fragmentation clearing the path for the forces behind it.
Kleist put down the observation scope and turned to look at the line behind him.
Nearly a hundred armoured vehicles had completed warm-up. The majority were Leman Russ tanks, with Chimera armoured carriers, Hellhound flame tanks, and several combat engineering clearance vehicles behind them. The engine noise had been held to a low rumble, but still produced a faint vibration in the ground beneath them.
The Engine-Seers were completing their pre-departure prayers. Several tech-priests and servitors moved slowly around the tanks, applying sacred oils and incense smoke to armour plate, breech mechanisms, and track linkages.
The Machine-Spirits were ready for the deaths ahead.
"It has been a while," Kleist murmured.
During this period, the 112th's operations had been almost entirely boarding actions, decapitation strikes, and small-team assaults. Those assault company soldiers had more than had their moment. Stroud's bald face appeared in practically every action report.
Meanwhile the armoured forces had waited in the rear for orders.
Armoured troops did not belong in narrow ship corridors, and they were not made for boarding torpedoes. They belonged in mud, shellfire, and open ground, and enemy lines crushed under their tracks.
At last, they had an operation to fight again.
This time, the steel knights of Eisenmark would crush everything that stood in their path. As they always had.
Several muffled detonations rolled across the sky.
In the dark, invisible fighter formations swept through the cloud layer and struck the enemy anti-aircraft positions. The occasional lance beam from the orbital fleet above briefly illuminated the night sky, and in those flashes Kleist could make out that the fighter formation was considerably larger than a standard close air support package.
"Looks like the bald one's operation carries some weight of its own."
He said nothing more, turned, and climbed into the Leman Russ command tank beside him.
The crew was already at their stations.
The driver had both hands on the control levers. The gunner was behind the sight. The loader stood at the breech. The vox operator maintained the channel to the other vehicles. Kleist settled into the commander's position, took out his pocket watch, and watched the hands move toward the hour.
The vox channel produced a brief burst of static, followed by Duvette's voice.
"Major Kleist. The Ashbell Position's front face is yours."
Duvette's tone was entirely level. "Don't advance past your own barrage."
Kleist produced a short sound. "You say that as though you have driven a tank, Duvette."
"Understood, understood." He snapped the pocket watch shut. "Eisenmark will comply."
Duvette was quiet for a moment, then spoke quietly: "For humanity."
Kleist raised his head.
"For the honour of Eisenmark."
He switched to the armoured battalion's channel. "All vehicles, cross the start line. Hold formation, keep with the barrage. Steel knights of Eisenmark, advance!"
The tanks began to move.
Tracks pressed into the mud. Chimeras and engineering vehicles followed behind. Hellhound flame tanks took position on the flanks. The armoured battalion moved forward into the dark, and behind them, the Death Korps of Krieg spread out like a black ocean without a visible far edge.
This was Kleist's first time fighting alongside these silent soldiers.
He was curious about them.
He hoped their performance would justify the reputation that preceded the Death Korps.
The tanks crossed the burning debris of roadblocks and wire, engineering clearance vehicles pushing aside shattered steel posts and bodies. Distant fire positions were still engaging, and through Kleist's observation scope the red indicators marking enemy positions kept appearing.
He had long since stopped asking where those indicators came from.
Fighting under Duvette's command required knowing one thing. The red indicators generally meant the enemy was genuinely there. And the shells should fall there.
"Second vehicle, fire point left front, armour-piercing."
"Sixth vehicle, suppress the trench corner."
"Hellhound section, wait for my order before closing. Do not advance past the barrage."
Orders from Kleist came in an unbroken sequence.
The Leman Russ main guns began thundering. Shell after shell crossed the churned ground and struck enemy trenches and fire emplacements. Concrete emplacements were blown open. Machine-gun nests were torn apart. Blood Pact soldiers at heavy weapon stations were destroyed along with their sandbag positions.
Kleist became aware of something wrong, or something that felt like it should be wrong.
The tanks had not been fitted with new engines. The main guns were the same combat cannons they had always been. All instrument readings were normal, chamber pressure was normal, the drive shafts showed nothing unusual.
But the results on the battlefield were not normal.
As the entire armoured battalion accelerated forward, every impact became more direct. When tracks crossed reinforced obstacles, the steel reinforcement and concrete broke as though struck by something heavier than the vehicle's actual weight. When shells hit enemy emplacements, the explosions tore deeper into the cover than they should have. The effect was already beyond what 120mm combat cannon rounds were rated to produce, and every armoured vehicle's engine was outputting above its normal ceiling, the way a human body pushes past its limits under adrenaline.
Even the Chimeras, when they rammed through wire and sandbag positions, moved like something considerably heavier than they had any right to be.
What is happening?
The thought surfaced in Kleist briefly, and he pressed it back down.
Was this the result of the tech-priests' prayers before departure? Or the Commissar?
He did not pursue the question. He seized the change instead.
"All vehicles, maintain speed." Kleist said. "Do not stop, do not slow down. We have become the storm. Carry death to the enemy!"
The armoured battalion pressed forward at a pace just under the rolling barrage.
The Death Korps followed in armoured infantry cooperation. The soldiers in their heavy greatcoats moved through the flanks and rear of the tank formation, crossing through the pauses between explosions to enter enemy trenches and clear the dead ground the tank main guns could not directly reach.
Kleist watched them through the observation scope.
He quickly noticed the change on the Krieg side as well.
These silent soldiers were advancing faster. Their formation remained what it had been, but the time they needed to cross mud and shell craters had shortened considerably. Combat engineers crossing wire obstacles moved faster than they should have. A Krieg soldier drove his entrenching tool into a fortified obstacle with enough force to shatter the wooden frame outright. The wire was physically dragged aside. Another soldier ran through the mud with an ammunition crate, keeping pace with the formation ahead at a speed that ordinary human physiology should not have allowed.
Kleist looked at it and reached his conclusion quickly.
This was absolutely Duvette's power acting on them.
The change was direct in the Krieg's case. They had always followed orders. Now they were faster and stronger, and their advance efficiency had reached a level that was difficult to quantify. Their target identification had changed as well. A heavy stubber in a shallow trench began traversing, and the Krieg forward team had already thrown a smoke grenade. A fire emplacement on the other flank had not fully opened fire before combat engineers were moving a demolition charge toward its side wall.
The Krieg channel carried voices filtered through gas masks.
"Fire point three confirmed."
"Threat axis marked."
"Demolitions team advancing."
"Individual status anomaly logged. Continuing mission."
That was their response.
They had registered the change. And then they continued with their orders.
Shortly afterward, a Krieg infantry group began pressing toward a stretch of enemy shallow trench that was still firing. Two heavy stubber positions remained there, raking them from the flank. By Kleist's reading, those positions needed tank suppression first before infantry could clear them.
But the Krieg were already moving.
They came through the mud in loose formation directly into the enemy fire. The first rank went down. The second rank kept moving. Several combat engineers with demolition charges ran in the middle of the line, faster than the expected pace.
A Krieg soldier reached the trench edge and drove his entrenching tool into an enemy weapon mount. The metal frame was destroyed outright. The soldiers behind him threw grenades in.
The Blood Pact in the trench were not lacking in courage. They continued firing, continued fighting back, continued throwing grenades and going at the Krieg with close-quarters weapons.
Kleist pressed his teeth together.
"Vehicle three, traverse right to the shallow trench. Hellhound one, move up and burn those two fire positions."
Several Leman Russ tanks rotated their turrets simultaneously. The main guns fired. The trench edge was blown in. The Hellhound moved close behind and forced fire into the trench.
The Krieg group pushed into the shattered position and cleared what remained.
Kleist had expected a short but brutal trench action.
It was faster than he had expected it to be.
When the Krieg soldiers entered the shallow trench, several Blood Pact immediately raised weapons. The first Krieg soldier did not pause. He drove his shoulder into the nearest man and put him into the trench wall with enough force that the man and the weapon both stopped functioning. The entrenching tool came down next. Helmet and skull caved together.
On the other side, several Blood Pact tried to force the Krieg who had entered back with combat knives and bayonets. The moment they made contact, the disparity was apparent. A Krieg bayonet knocked the weapon aside and drove into the Blood Pact soldier's chest. The Krieg soldier lost control of the force behind the thrust and half the rifle's barrel went in with it, but he registered this for only an instant, pulled it free, and turned to the next target.
A Blood Pact officer drew a chainsword and tried to reform the line. He had barely issued his first order when two Krieg combat engineers moved in from the flank. A demolition charge hit the knee armour and took both his legs at once. Three bayonets followed and pinned him to the trench floor.
The Blood Pact did not lack courage. They kept fighting, kept shooting, kept throwing grenades and trying to drive the Krieg back with close-quarters weapons.
But the close engagement did not last long.
The enhanced Krieg advanced faster and hit harder. Entrenching tools destroyed weapon mounts. Bayonets took limbs. Demolition charges were sent directly into the trench corners. The Blood Pact tried to hold every section, but they were steadily forced back to the next barrier.
Kleist watched it all through the observation scope, his expression still tight.
He knew the Blood Pact were not ordinary traitors.
But right now, the Krieg were simply pressing them down at close range.
And once the Krieg understood what those red markers in their vision actually indicated, their clearance speed increased at a rate that compounded on itself.
The moment a red marker lit up at a trench corner, the Krieg forward team was already turning. Two grenades went in. After the detonation, three soldiers moved into the smoke and killed what was still breathing inside.
The Krieg channel carried short, flat reports.
"Right section of shallow trench cleared."
"Fire point three disabled."
"Continuing advance."
Kleist listened to those calm voices and arrived at his conclusion.
Duvette's force had not changed how the Krieg fought.
It had simply made their already brutal method of fighting more effective.
As the frontal engagement continued, the enemy began to fall back.
The Krieg did not shout or surge forward. They did not press past the pacing of the advance.
They simply kept moving, taking the trench sections one by one.
Kleist watched the silent soldiers and kept the tightness in his expression.
Their courage was undeniable.
Their method was still brutal.
Duvette's force had made this siege unit faster, hit harder, and better suited to tearing through a frontal defensive line. Kleist acknowledged it. He still did not like this way of filling fire positions with soldiers' bodies. He had never liked it, and fighting alongside people who were constitutionally indifferent to it did not change that.
As the frontal advance continued, one enemy position after another was cleared by the combination of the armoured battalion and the Krieg infantry. The rolling barrage continued its forward movement. The 112th's armoured battalion kept pace behind it. The Krieg filled the gaps the tanks tore open.
Kleist was preparing to order the second armoured wave forward when a black identification marker appeared on the augury display.
Then another. And another.
They lit up one after the other in the enemy's rear, and several enemy artillery and anti-aircraft nodes that had been operating at full capacity went dark.
Kleist looked at those markers and understood immediately.
Stroud's element had completed the first phase.
The enemy's rear had been cut open.
The enemy was not weak. But their rear was being carved apart by a second blade at the same time their front was being hit. And Duvette had now made the frontal Krieg and armoured forces into a hammer that was both faster and heavier than anything the enemy had prepared to face.
"Smooth." Kleist said quietly to himself.
This was the defensive line that had held the Imperial forces for nearly a month? How quickly it had become fragile.
The vox operator spoke: "Major. Do we continue the advance?"
Kleist closed the pocket watch and looked at the enemy's second trench line still burning in the distance.
"Continue."
He picked up the vox again.
"All vehicles, keep the speed. Don't let this advantage close."
The Leman Russ engines roared.
The steel knights of Eisenmark and the Death Korps of Krieg drove forward together.