V2 Chapter 94: The Storm Descends
At the distant Mandeville boundary of the Balhaut system, reality began to distort.
The Warp tide tore open the veil between dimensions, and a silent fleet slid through the breach into realspace. They did not ignite their main engines immediately. After a brief heading adjustment, they moved along the designated route toward the far side of the local star.
Fortunately for them, a large mass of enemy warships was already assembling in the direction of Balhaut. The spatial turbulence and gravitational disturbances inside the system were intermixed and compounded by the star's own intense interference. No one noticed that Admiral Kristor's fast attack warship formation had arrived.
They entered the system sixteen standard solar hours before the offensive formally began and held position on the star's far side.
The stellar radiation masked their outer sensor readings. Every warship shut down active scanning arrays and maintained only the minimum necessary passive observation. On the bridge, augury officers ran continuous calibrations on their arrays; Mechanicus priests murmured suppression litanies in dry, flat voices.
A single errant pulse could alert Balhaut's planetary detection network to their presence.
Kristor sat in the command throne and kept his eyes on the darkened tactical screens.
"Maintain silence." He said. "All ships hold formation on the designated pattern and await orders."
The fleet did not respond in the conventional manner.
Confirmation signals were compressed into low-power rune transmissions that moved slowly through the formation. Kristor watched the green markers light up one after another and understood that the actual attack had not yet begun.
What they were doing now was hiding behind a star.
And waiting for Admiral Shefr's engagement signal.
Five standard stellar hours later, the second wave arrived at the system's outer edge.
Vice-Admiral Gaernhost's troopship fleet was substantial in scale, comprising large personnel transports, heavy orbital assault vessels, and a significant number of landing support ships.
These vessels, if they had pushed into the inner system, would not have escaped the detection network's notice. Instead they held position in the organic dust clouds and nebula clusters at the system's outer perimeter and waited.
The transport carrying Duvette was among them.
When the ship dropped out of the Warp, it immediately entered highest silence protocols. All vox channels were locked with the Warmaster's cipher. The astropathic choir ceased all non-essential transmissions. The broadcast in the troop compartments carried only landing preparation notices.
Duvette stood beside the armoury compartment and watched the 112th assault companies running their final equipment checks.
Stroud was finishing his last check on the force-feedback power armour. He raised each arm in turn, letting the servo-locks seat properly, then pulled the hotshot lasgun from the weapons rack. Anderson and Elias were going through the demolitions charges, short-range beacons, and underground pipe network schematics with their respective teams.
On the decks below, the Krieg 1173rd Combat Group had already begun moving toward the landing craft bays.
The Death Korps soldiers were, as they always were, silent. They moved under their equipment in numerical order into their designated compartments. Colonel Holst was in the command node confirming the position of each company. Commissar Rein stood to the side, speaking with several officers.
"The road-laying assignment after landing exists to get the heavy guns and the armoured battalion into the fight." Rein said. "It is not an opportunity for companies to compete over how quickly they can produce casualties. Please ensure that message is communicated clearly."
A Krieg officer gave a nod.
"The order will be passed."
Rein looked at a second data-slate and produced a quiet exhale.
"Good. I would prefer my report not to include an entry about a particular company disrupting the entire steel-plate road laying line through excessive initiative."
Duvette overheard that and allowed himself a short laugh.
Rein looked up at him.
"What is it?"
"Nothing." Duvette said. "Only that you suit this unit rather well."
Rein straightened his gloves.
"Someone has to keep things human. There are not many candidates."
The moment of attack came quickly.
The third wave, the main assault warships under Admiral Shefr's command, translated directly into the inner system in a simultaneous jump.
It was an extremely dangerous manoeuvre. Near a star and its planets, the boundary between realspace and the Warp is considerably more stable, and heavy warships forcing their way through it risked hull damage, navigation drift, and the possibility of collision within the formation.
The Imperial fleet had clearly decided the cost was acceptable.
The veil of realspace was torn open, and a mass of Imperial warships drove through the distortion and into the void. They brought their flanks to bear on the high and low orbital anchor stations and the orbital defence platforms, and the moment their positions were confirmed, the macro-cannon arrays and lance batteries entered their firing sequences.
Against an assault this sudden, Balhaut's warning systems had no time to respond.
By the time the orbital defence platforms' gun turrets began to traverse, the main warships of Shefr's fleet had already fired.
The first salvo struck the outer armour of the high orbital anchor station. Torpedoes and lance fire followed immediately. The orbital platforms raised void shields, but the continuous fire overwhelmed their recharge cycles and the shields collapsed.
Nadzybar's fleet had been no more prepared than the fixed defences.
Several warships had barely left their parking orbits, their formations incomplete, when the Imperial main fleet's fire was already on them. The confusion above Balhaut expanded rapidly. Intercepted Chaos signals and augury alerts filled the vox channels.
Admiral Shefr's engagement signal went out to the waiting forces the moment the first strike was delivered.
Kristor's fleet, hiding in the stellar far-side, moved immediately.
The fast attack warships drove out from the stellar radiation cover and cut into the inner system on the predetermined angle. They did not engage the enemy's main fleet elements directly; instead they drove straight for the large orbital shipyard facilities at Balhaut High Station and the Halidon threshold.
The enemy only realised at this moment that a second Imperial force had been waiting behind them.
The surviving orbital shipyard facilities on Balhaut began releasing defensive fire, but Kristor's warships were faster.
The first wave of strikes and torpedo groups drove into the outer structures of those shipyards. Macro-cannon salvoes followed and tore the armour belts open. The enormous orbital installations began losing power. Several enemy warships that had not yet completed their departure were trapped in their berths and consumed by the successive explosions.
Inside the transport, Duvette watched through the tactical relay.
He gave a single quiet nod.
"That opening strike from Marshal Slaydo was ruthless."
Evan stood at his side, watching the same feed as the enemy markers went dark.
"Orbital superiority is not fully confirmed yet."
"It will be soon." Duvette said. "As long as Shefr and Kristor keep the pressure on, Gaernhost's fleet can move in."
The words had barely left him when the red alert lights in the transport activated.
The broadcast issued the landing preparation order.
"First ground assault elements, board the landing craft."
"Repeat. First ground assault elements, board the landing craft."
The landing bay doors opened.
The 112th assault companies began moving. The Krieg soldiers from the lower formation decks filed into their assigned transports. Further down the ship, the Eisenmark armoured battalion's Leman Russ tanks and Chimeras were secured inside the heavy orbital assault vessels, turrets locked, engines warming.
Duvette ran a final check on his power sword and plasma pistol.
Entropy's Song hung silent at his hip, unchanged.
He walked toward the landing craft entry, the soldiers about to be committed to Balhaut moving into position behind him.
Balhaut was directly below.
The storm was coming down.
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