V2 Chapter 97: The Silver Guard
The Silver Guard Chapter's homeworld and fortress monastery had never appeared in any public expedition records.
The origin of their gene-seed was kept under equally strict internal seal. Some observers, noting their collection of large numbers of old-pattern power armour, their stringent adherence to the Codex, and the combat traditions they favoured, had speculated at possible ties to the Imperial Fists bloodline or even some connection to the legacy of Sigismund.
Chapter Master Vegum had always declined to address those speculations.
At this moment, a Silver Guard advance assault formation comprising five companies was engaged against Bane Engines in the high ground factory district on the flank of the Oligarchy Zone.
Three enormous Bane Engines had crawled out of the old industrial warehouse districts and underground hangars, dragging masses of cabling and desecrated armour plate. Land Raiders, Predator tanks, and Silver Guard fire teams were pouring fire into them in an attempt to suppress their advance.
The surrounding old factory district had been reduced to wreckage.
Crane rails had collapsed. Chimneys had snapped. Abandoned transport platforms were coming apart section by section under the shellfire. Blood Pact infantry and Chaos heavy carriers advanced with the Bane Engines, establishing a counter-assault fire network in the ruins.
The Silver Guard were not incapable of destroying these massive constructs.
But the high-speed assault and precise decapitation strikes that Astartes were built for had been suppressed here by heavy fire, the fractured terrain, and the Bane Engines' heavy armour. Vegum understood that this was the prepared counter-attack the enemy had arranged for them.
And further beyond, more heavy targets were approaching.
Chapter Master Vegum stood beside a Land Raider. His chainsword was already covered in enemy blood. The engine's roar expressed his anger more economically than words. His power armour was a deep purple, the silver helmet and chest Aquila catching the cold light of the shellfire.
He was still furious about the communication he had received.
Duvette Erdmann.
The mortal commissar had opened an excellent breakthrough window. His combat group's rate of advance had exceeded all projections by a significant margin, enough that Vegum had briefly allowed himself to acknowledge that this particular mortal had something in him worth Slaydo's attention.
Then the man had informed him that the main force would be arriving late.
Because of slave-workers.
Preposterous.
Vegum still remembered his own voice in that channel exchange.
"Commissar Duvette. Where is your main force?"
At that moment, Captain Arentis's assault spearhead had already engaged the Bane Engines. A Silver Guard squad had just been pinned behind rubble by enemy heavy artillery fire. Another squad was trying to work their way toward the Bane Engine's joint structure from the side.
On the other end of the channel, the mortal commissar's adjutant had been entirely composed.
He stated that the Eisenmark armoured battalion and the Krieg heavy guns would continue their support, and the main force would arrive somewhat later.
Vegum had lowered his voice almost immediately.
"Somewhat later?"
The fury in his tone required no elaboration.
"Your so-called mercy and compassion are costing me combat brothers."
The mortal had not responded with anything approaching appropriate deference to a Space Marine Chapter Master's anger.
He had simply replied, with the same composure, that they would arrive.
Vegum felt that anger rising again.
A group of worthless slave-workers.
What the mortals called mercy and compassion was being paid for in the blood of proud Astartes warriors. Comparing the lives of a mass of slave-workers to his combat brothers was, in Vegum's estimation, close to absurd.
He directed his fury at the enemy in front of him.
"Third Company, suppress the enemy anti-armour positions on the left."
"Arentis, continue forward. That Bane Engine's right-leg joint structure has already fractured."
"Land Raiders, concentrate fire."
The orders went through the Chapter frequency.
The Silver Guard's counter-push sharpened immediately. Several Astartes used a collapsed factory wall to close the distance to one of the Bane Engines. Melta guns discharged white light at close range and burned straight through its side-abdominal armour.
The Bane Engine, which appeared to have been reconstructed from Imperial Knight wreckage and reshaped by Chaos power, produced a deep resonant groan and swung its massive chainblade arm across the ruins.
One Silver Guard warrior took the impact and was driven into a mass of broken pipe work. He pulled himself back up quickly, but his chest plate had been caved inward and his movements were visibly slower.
Vegum led the veterans in personally.
He dropped from high ground in the ruins, his chainsword driving into the exposed tendon-like cable bundles on the Bane Engine's exterior. Several veterans threw melta bombs simultaneously, pushing the charges into the armour gaps the strike had torn open.
After a violent detonation, the Bane Engine finally went to its knees.
Its enormous bulk collapsed into a section of the old factory. The twisted flesh representing Chaos power still twitched in the wreckage. The Silver Guard did not call out. New target markers were already appearing in the augury feeds inside their helmets.
Two more Bane Engines drove forward.
They advanced through the concentrated fire of the distant Krieg heavy guns, their bodies blasted open in multiple sections, pressing forward on damaged frames through the rubble. Blood Pact infantry followed behind them, using their enormous bodies and shielding to advance through the factory zone under cover.
Vegum produced a sound of raw anger.
He was about to order a fresh rally for the counter-push when a volley of accurate artillery fire struck from the flank and rear.
The shells hit almost simultaneously on the exposed side-abdominal weak point of one of the Bane Engines still engaged in the fighting. The outer armour there had already been torn open by Silver Guard fire; the concentrated main gun strikes drove straight through the breach.
An internal detonation chain erupted inside the Bane Engine an instant later.
Fire blew out through its joints and the splits in its underside. The enormous construct toppled sideways and crushed a Blood Pact unit that had been pressing forward beneath it.
Vegum turned to look.
From the direction of the Mud Lake perimeter, large numbers of Imperial armour were pushing into the outer edge of the high ground factory district. Leman Russ main battle tanks, Chimeras, Hydra anti-aircraft vehicles, and Sentinel walkers were moving along routes through mud that should not have been passable, their turrets continuously traversing to new targets.
The Eisenmark armoured battalion.
This so-called armoured battalion had a scale that exceeded many Imperial armoured regiments. More significantly, the precision of its fire was not normal. The power of those coordinated main gun salvoes was beyond what Vegum had assessed standard Astra Militarum armoured units to be capable of.
The expression behind his helmet eased slightly.
Only slightly.
A short-range vox request came through.
Vegum accepted the channel.
"Silver Guard, this is the Eisenmark Armoured Battalion. Colonel Kleist von Ludwig." The voice was steady. "We are here under Commissar Duvette's orders to provide armoured fire support to your flank."
Vegum produced a cold sound. "I think we no longer require your support."
Kleist was silent for a second.
"My apologies. Our main force may be somewhat delayed."
Vegum's gaze settled on the Bane Engine still advancing in the distance.
"I have already heard that statement once."
Kleist did not argue the point.
Vegum continued. "You will need to provide an explanation that satisfies me. Otherwise, the blood my combat brothers have shed today will be something you answer for as well."
The channel was quiet for a moment.
Then Kleist said: "My commanding officer will arrive with the second assault element."
Another round of Eisenmark fire came down and destroyed a Blood Pact anti-armour position that had been in the process of reforming.
Kleist's voice continued.
"When he does, he will explain in person."