V2 Chapter 95: The Reservoir Dam
After Admiral Shefr and Admiral Kristor's fleets completed the first wave of orbital suppression, Vice-Admiral Gaernhost's troopship fleet finally received its low-orbit delivery window.
Fire still flashed above Balhaut. The remnant traitor orbital gun platforms and ground-based anti-ship installations were still attempting to acquire targets, but the Imperial fleet had torn open a gap wide enough to use.
Masses of heavy transport clusters separated from their parent ships, avoided the firing angles of the major cities with ground-based anti-ship platforms, and began their descent toward their designated landing zones.
Knight households and the Mechanicus Titan Legions would arrive with the second heavy landing sequence. What was going down in the first wave was Astra Militarum, engineers, assault companies, and frontline beacon teams.
Duvette sat in the rear compartment of a heavy transport.
The craft was shaking violently. The outer armour transmitted a continuous series of small impacts. Air currents and anti-aircraft fire made the entire vessel feel as though it were being dragged by an irregular force.
Inside, the red alert lights pulsed. The Krieg soldiers sat silent in their restraints. The 112th assault companies ran final checks on their weapon locks.
Duvette looked down at the System panel in front of him.
[Current Command Authority: Ash Watchers-Eisenmark 112th Armoured Infantry Regiment, Krieg 1173rd Combat Group]
[Total personnel: 34,000 (all elements included)]
[Heavy vehicles: 70 Leman Russ main battle tanks, 150 Chimera troop carriers, 20 Hydra anti-aircraft vehicles, 15 Trojan ammunition carriers, 200 Mars-pattern Sentinel walkers]
[Overall supply: 100%] [Overall loyalty: 100%] [Overall morale: 100%] [Overall stability: 100%] [Chaos Corruption: 0%]
[Available skills: Flesh Engine (Level 2), Iron Crusade, Silence, King of War, Blessing of the Omnissiah, Eye of Judgement]
[Available relics: Master-crafted power sword, Master-crafted plasma pistol, Star of Terra, Macragge Honour Medal, Sabbat Worlds Honour Medal, Token of the Wind, Gift of the Ocean]
Duvette looked at those accumulated capabilities and felt the shape of what was coming settle into clarity.
The Ash Watchers, the Eisenmark, the Krieg 1173rd: these forces, operating under his skills, his relics, and his command on the battlefield, had been pushed into something that could stand face to face with serious threats. Ordinary Blood Pact would struggle to hold them. The genuine difficulty lay in the Bane Engines, the Chaos Astartes, and Nadzybar himself. But that was only going to be a difficulty, not a wall he expected to stop them.
The transport shook hard.
The shipboard broadcast sounded.
"Approaching Mud Lake perimeter landing zone."
"All units prepare to disembark."
Tens of seconds later, the transport's underside retros burst into reverse thrust. The heavy bay door ground open under its mechanical drives. Mud, smoke, and the smell of propellant poured into the compartment. The surface of Balhaut appeared before every soldier in the bay.
The landing zone was exactly the low-lying ground the briefing had described.
The terrain was waterlogged, the surface churned and soaked as though it had been bombed and flooded in alternation.
To the left, on the old industrial high ground, a massive reservoir dam stood at the horizon's edge, cutting off the upstream water supply. Its formal designation on the military chart was the Balopolis Outer Ring Regulation Hub. Duvette looked at it once and filed it as the reservoir dam.
The attached engineer regiments were already laying steel-plate road and rubble channels at maximum speed. Beacon teams drove locating stakes into the mud. Krieg combat engineers hauled heavy tools forward. Behind them, more transports continued to come down.
Duvette's combat group had a clear mission.
Seize the reservoir dam and the old industrial high ground. Lay stable road. Then advance toward the Oligarchy Gate.
To the right and slightly behind, the 8th Hyrkan Regiment under Gaunt and the other attached Astra Militarum units would approach the Oligarchy Gate along a different abandoned industrial avenue. That route was almost certainly covered in trenches, fire positions, and derelict factories.
Further ahead, in front of Duvette, the Silver Guard Chapter had already driven directly toward the Oligarchy Gate. They were absorbing the most dangerous frontal pressure.
The moment Duvette's boots touched the ground, he activated [Flesh Engine] and [Iron Crusade].
The force expanded outward immediately.
The Krieg soldiers' pace quickened. The 112th assault companies' movements became sharper and more decisive. Approach lines that would normally have required clearing and confirming section by section were torn through at a speed that exceeded any standard Astra Militarum regiment by a significant margin.
Their rate of advance immediately exceeded the planned timetable.
But Nadzybar was not going to allow it to continue unchallenged.
Even if the enemy had not been able to confirm every transport's landing point in the initial confusion, the flight paths of the transports and the fire from their landings had exposed the Mud Lake perimeter landing zone to any nearby enemy commander who was paying attention.
Large numbers of elite Blood Pact began pressing toward the position. At the same time, at the outer edge of the strategic map, heavy red markers began appearing in the old industrial warehouse districts and underground hangars.
The Bane Engines were powering up. They were about to come directly for the Silver Guard Chapter. Duvette looked at those brightening markers and understood that he had to move quickly.
He had to reach the reservoir dam before his skill duration ended.
The Krieg 1173rd infantry and the 112th assault companies drove forward at close to their maximum sustainable pace.
They ran directly into the first interdiction force before long.
These Blood Pact soldiers were well-equipped and their formation was solid. They had spread across the edge of the mud ground and were attempting to use heavy stubbers, laser arrays, and rocket launchers to cut the Imperial vanguard off.
They did not have adequate cover.
Against a combat group enhanced by Duvette's skills, a frontal blocking action was not going to hold. The Krieg soldiers drove into the position through the incoming fire. The 112th assault companies cut in from the flank.
The Blood Pact's willingness to hold their ground at the cost of their lives left them with nowhere to go when the force differential was this wide. Dying in place was all they could manage.
Duvette's combat group did not slow.
A Blood Pact officer raised a chainsword and was shot through the upper torso by the plasma pistol before he could bring it forward. A fire position had not completed its retargeting when Stroud brought his element in through the side and rear and cleared it.
The fighting ended quickly.
Duvette's combat group pushed over the bodies and the mud and gave the enemy no window to reform their line.
Before long, the reservoir dam that had been a feature on the distant horizon appeared directly before them.
The dam structure was enormous, seated in the old industrial high ground, holding back the upstream lake water and a significant volume of industrial effluent. At a distance it looked like an industrial city built into the face of a cliff. Pump stations, sluice gates, lower-level maintenance sections, and dense networks of old pipe infrastructure ran along both sides of the dam structure. Ruined factories and transport platforms surrounded it.
This was not simply a dam.
It was a complex of old industrial infrastructure in its own right.
Duvette raised a hand and signalled his force to reduce pace, then looked at the tactical map. The Silver Guard Chapter's markers were continuing to push forward ahead of him. The heavy red markers representing the Bane Engines were still brightening.
They had not yet fully committed to their positions.
That was the opening.
They had to clear the threats in and around the reservoir dam and then drive through it quickly. If they could reach the Silver Guard's flank before the Bane Engines finished deploying, they could tear apart Asphodel's prepared counter-attack before it had fully formed.
Duvette tightened his grip on the power sword.
"Clear the dam." He said.
The officers around him looked toward him immediately.
"Do not stop."
Duvette's gaze moved past the reservoir dam toward the Oligarchy Gate in the distance beyond.
"We have to reach the Silver Guard's flank before those things settle into position."
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