V2 Chapter 93: King of War
After the blood oath, Duvette did not linger in the conference hall.
Slaydo had given the operational framework. What remained was for every commander to return to their forces, digest the briefing, and confirm their landing sequences, supply routes, and battlefield responsibilities.
Balhaut would not give anyone much preparation time. When Operation Hellstorm actually began, every mistake would translate directly into casualties.
When Duvette returned to his quarters, the first thing he did was open his System panel. The reward from the conclusion of the Sveren campaign was still waiting.
[Your victory has altered the established course of a crusade. Emperor's Wrath +2,000.]
He had not expected so much. The campaign's difficulty had not felt comparable to some of the harder situations he had survived before. The only explanation for the volume of the reward was that his actions had changed the established history, rendering Nadzybar's counter-offensive completely ineffective before it could run its intended course.
It appeared that altering a fixed sequence of events produced considerably more reward than a straightforward victory. The greater the disruption to the established course, the faster his capabilities developed, and the more he gained. Was there perhaps some latent ability connected to fate itself?
If he could protect Slaydo's life through Balhaut, he expected a substantial further reward. And if he managed to awaken Guilliman ahead of schedule...
Duvette set those thoughts aside for the moment and turned his attention to the skill panel. After the god-tier [Purification] unlock, the subsequent skills required considerably fewer Emperor's Wrath to access.
He now had three options. The first was a war-branch composite skill designated [King of War], which enhanced both the Legion's collective capabilities and his personal combat ability. The second was a sacred-branch passive aura designated [Augustus], which amplified personal authority and command presence. The third option was to upgrade his existing skills to extend their active duration.
After considering at length, Duvette spent 1,500 Emperor's Wrath to unlock the composite skill [King of War].
Its effects were as follows:
[King of War]
[Passive I: Throne of Fire] [While in a state of active war, battlefield intensity accumulates continuously. The rate of accumulation increases with the scale of combat, the volume of casualties, the strategic importance of the objectives contested, the strength of Chaos contamination, the size of friendly forces committed, and the scope of command authority held.]
[Passive II: Laurel Mark] [Each campaign victory generates a Mark of Glory and Victory. These Marks provide all-round enhancement to all Legion members, including but not limited to: physical conditioning, psychological resilience, Warp resistance, Machine-Spirit reinforcement...]
[Active: King's Edict] [Drives all Legion members and vehicles into a state of comprehensive enhancement, consuming large quantities of battlefield intensity per minute. (Current battlefield intensity insufficient. Cannot be activated.)]
[War forges my throne. Victory crowns me. The Legion is my sceptre. Where I advance, conquest follows like the tide.]
Duvette allowed himself a smile. This was a skill that suited what he was becoming. He could barely imagine the combined effect of [Flesh Engine] and [King of War] running simultaneously. The Legion's combat capability would in all probability exceed that of standard Astartes.
Nadzybar believed he was facing a large force of mortal Guardsmen and a small Astartes complement. When the battle reached its most intense phase, he would discover that what he actually faced was an Astra Militarum force approaching the combat capability of a Heresy-era Legion.
The prospect was one Duvette found himself genuinely looking forward to. He could not identify an enemy on this planet capable of stopping him.
If the skill had a single weakness, it was that it required time to reach operational effectiveness; battlefield intensity had to accumulate first. That was not a significant concern.
The remaining 500 Emperor's Wrath he spent upgrading [Flesh Engine], extending its active duration to two hours.
After completing the upgrades, Duvette opened his personal data-slate.
His assigned mission briefing had decrypted. The Warmaster's office seal was stamped at the top of the document, and the detail inside was considerably deeper than the broad framework from the conference. Duvette sat at his desk, scanned the directory, and went directly to the surface assault section.
His assignment placed him in the left-flank assault sequence, designated the Oligarchy Zone.
Duvette would lead the Krieg 1173rd Combat Group and land in the Mud Lake perimeter landing zone. He would operate in coordination with the 8th Hyrkan Regiment under Commissar Ibram Gaunt, the Mordian Iron Guard 11th Regiment, and other attached forces, advancing from the Balopolis core area toward the Oligarchy Gate.
The briefing's description of the Oligarchy Gate was direct.
It was a critical defensive barrier and the primary gateway into the inner reaches of the Oligarchy Zone. Ahead of it lay multiple layered fire positions, armoured interdiction lines, rubble fortifications, and enemy war engines. Behind it stood the Plutocrat Tower.
Once Imperial forces took the Plutocrat Tower, the core of Balhaut's Oligarchy Zone would be genuinely torn open. Nadzybar's High Palace would be directly exposed to the Imperial main advance.
Duvette looked at the map and exhaled slowly.
The enemy strength on Balhaut was overwhelming in scale. Multiple Chaos commanders under Nadzybar would be fighting on this planet, and among them was a figure he had encountered before: the Heritor Asphodel. In all probability, Asphodel would be present in the Oligarchy Zone's main battle area.
Which meant the Bane Engines would be on that battlefield again.
Duvette's finger rested beside Asphodel's name.
He had been tangled with that name for a long time. From Ashek II to Balhaut, Asphodel kept leaving his mark on critical engagements. Duvette knew the man would not die easily to ordinary fire.
Fortunately, this time the Imperium was committing sufficient force to press the advantage properly.
Joghaten Khan, leading the Brotherhood of the Scimitar of the White Scars, would be attacking the Saint's Wall defensive line of the Oligarchy Zone from a different direction. The sons of the Khan's performance in mobile operations required no commentary; Duvette was already familiar with their methods.
The second Astartes force was the Silver Guard Chapter.
They were led personally by their Chapter Master, Vegum, and were responsible for the Liberation Outer Line on the Oligarchy Zone's flank and the subsequent advance. Per the briefing, the Silver Guard would be conducting a considerably dangerous assault assignment before heavy armour support could arrive.
He continued reading.
The overall Oligarchy Zone assault was commanded personally by Marshal Slaydo. That alone confirmed this as the most critical ground engagement at Balhaut. The outer combat zones were similarly important but were being handed to senior officers for independent management.
Zaybess City was assigned to Marshal Blackwood. Boru Naz hive was assigned to General Skalia. The remainder of Balopolis was under General Curell, with Macaroth available to coordinate or assume direct responsibility if required.
For the Oligarchy Zone, Slaydo had chosen to stand there himself.
This sector was genuinely the decisive line. In the original course of history, the Silver Guard Chapter had encountered massed Bane Engine resistance on their assault route, and it had been Gaunt who led a force to the Oligarchy Gate within nine days before going on to take the Plutocrat Tower.
That achievement was part of what earned Gaunt his promotion to Colonel-Commissar. Duvette had no intention of taking it from him. His own objective was to work with the Silver Guard to clear the Bane Engines from their path, and then in the confrontation between Nadzybar and the Marshal, to keep Slaydo alive and take Nadzybar's head himself.
Duvette closed the strategic overview and opened the landing zone data.
The Mud Lake perimeter landing zone's conditions were poor. The sustained orbital bombardment planned before the assault, along with the atmospheric disruption it would produce, would turn the intended approach zone into a waterlogged morass of toxic smoke, collapsed pipelines, shattered industrial structures, and ground that had been repeatedly churned open by orbital fire.
Heavy vehicles could not be deployed directly into terrain like that.
Leman Russ tanks, Chimeras, towed heavy artillery, and ammunition carriers driven straight into the deep mud would very likely be immobilised by the terrain before the enemy had a chance to open fire. Duvette was not going to commit his armoured elements to conditions where that was the outcome.
He called in Dylan, Evan, Kleist, Holst, and Rein quickly and began confirming the assault plan.
The first landing element would consist of the 112th assault companies and a portion of the Krieg infantry. Their task was not to drive immediately toward the Oligarchy Gate but to secure the old industrial embankments at the Mud Lake perimeter and the high points levelled by the orbital bombardment.
At the same time, beacon teams and engineer survey groups would land with the first wave to confirm ground load-bearing capacity, mark usable routes, and clear unexploded ordnance and surviving enemy fire points.
"So our first step is to seize the road." Dylan said.
"Correct." Duvette gave a nod. "Without a road, the Eisenmark armour and the Krieg artillery cannot get out of the landing zone."
Kleist studied the map with a deep frown. "The hard ground landing area is some distance from the main advance route. If the enemy responds quickly enough, they can cut the connection between us and the forward element with artillery fire."
Colonel Holst's voice was level. "The 1173rd engineer detachment can lay the first section of steel-plate road within one hour of landing. If enemy fire intensity exceeds projections, advance rate decreases by thirty percent."
Commissar Rein glanced at Duvette.
"The Krieg can absorb that casualty rate. But I suspect that is not the kind of answer you want to hear."
Duvette smiled slightly.
"You are correct. I will use those abilities when it becomes necessary."
Rein gave a slight shrug. "In that case I will keep the engineers alive longer. I will watch the company officers and make sure they do not interpret the road-laying assignment as an endurance test in dying."
Kleist spoke up. "As long as you get me a road, the armoured battalion will handle whatever is left."
Duvette looked at him.
"The Eisenmark armoured battalion and the Krieg artillery regiments unload at the hard ground landing area. Engineers lay the steel-plate road, rubble channels, and temporary crossing bridges first, then the Leman Russ tanks, Chimeras, and towed heavy guns advance along the fixed route toward the Oligarchy Gate."
Evan added: "Recovery vehicles and towing units will be positioned at three salvage points. If a heavy vehicle gets stuck, subsequent vehicles in the column divert around it. Nothing waits on the same road."
"Write that into the orders." Duvette said.
The meeting concluded quickly.
Everyone present understood that no matter how carefully the plan was constructed, some portion of it would be broken apart by Balhaut's mud, artillery fire, and Chaos war engines. But it would at least keep them in order during the first critical hours of the landing.
Duvette looked one last time at the mission briefing.
The Oligarchy Gate. The Plutocrat Tower. The High Palace.
And Nadzybar.
He closed the data-slate, stood, and walked to the viewport.
In the distance, the fleet had already begun its final transit sequence. Warning lights were rising through the decks in succession. The Mechanicus broadcast was delivering its countdown prayers. The ship would enter the Warp again for one last short-range transit before Operation Hellstorm began.
Less than forty-eight standard Terran hours remained until the Battle of Balhaut.
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