V2 Chapter 98: Witness the Will of the Lord of Fire-Drakes
After the Eisenmark armoured battalion joined the battle, the situation on the Silver Guard's flank stabilised somewhat.
Whatever its designation, this armoured force had a scale approaching that of a reinforced regiment.
Leman Russ main battle tanks spread along the outer edge of the high ground factory district. Chimeras delivered infantry to the cover of collapsed factory walls. Hydra anti-aircraft vehicles lowered their large-calibre barrels to suppress the Blood Pact heavy weapons teams crawling over the ruins from above.
But the enemy's Bane Engines kept advancing through the Krieg heavy gun fire.
Their shields flickered under overload. Their hulls were blasted open in multiple sections. The desecrated armour carried scorched craters across its surface. Still they did not stop. The Blood Pact units accompanying them moved through the ruins continuously, attempting to close with the Silver Guard's line.
The Eisenmark armoured battalion's main guns, however, were not decoration.
Under Kleist's direction, the armoured battalion continuously coordinated target selection with the Silver Guard. The Astartes tore open the Bane Engines' outer shielding; the Eisenmark concentrated main gun fire on the marked weak points.
Over a short period, several Bane Engines of various configurations had been destroyed.
Some resembled tracked siege towers. Others moved on multiple mechanical legs. Others had sewn living flesh together with artillery arrays. All of them broadcast the name of the Heritor Asphodel in a continuous desecrated signal, their blasphemous sound waves mixed with the grinding of metal, attempting to undermine the mental stability of the surrounding combatants.
The Silver Guard held the noise inside bearable limits through Astartes fortitude and their armour's filtration systems.
The 112th assault companies and the Eisenmark crews, carrying the strength of Duvette's abilities, regarded the pathetic attempt at psychological interference with something close to complete indifference. They said nothing unnecessary, only continued calibrating their targets and pouring main gun and heavy weapons fire into the enemy.
Kleist sat in his command vehicle and watched the enemy markers on the tactical augury go dark one after another.
He understood that Duvette's main force had not yet arrived. The Silver Guard Chapter Master was obviously dissatisfied with the delay, but Kleist did not concern himself with that. He only needed to hold this flank until Duvette arrived.
As long as they kept fighting at this rate, they could last until the main force reached them.
In the moment that thought formed, a piercing noise overrode every sound of artillery around it.
It drove through the Leman Russ armour, passed through the headset filtering, and felt as though it had been driven directly into the crew's bones. Kleist's brows locked together. A sharp pain moved through his temples.
"What is that?" he shouted on the channel.
No one answered.
Whether it was the armoured battalion's internal frequency or the short-range vox to the Silver Guard, both had been contaminated simultaneously. What answered him was a confused noise of distant moaning, fractured litanies, and a deeply unpleasant low-register whispering.
Kleist gave the order immediately.
"Cut the contaminated vox."
The crew executed at once. The vox nodes were severed one by one. Inside the command vehicle, only close-range lamp signals and internal voice remained.
The battle became considerably more difficult as a result.
The high ground factory district was complex terrain: collapsed factory walls, fractured pipelines, abandoned conveyor frames, and old ferrocrete barriers at every angle. Without short-range vox, fire coordination slowed and the risk of friendly fire increased sharply.
Worse, the Eisenmark armoured battalion had been forced to halt.
The state in which their speed multiplied their destructive output had ended the moment the tracks stopped.
When movement ceased, so did the wind.
Kleist could only set his jaw and order the crews to continue engaging the Bane Engines whose positions were already confirmed. Their firepower remained significant. But without vox and without the freedom to manoeuvre, the armoured battalion could no longer achieve the concentrated precision strikes of a few minutes ago.
At that moment, the ground began to shake violently.
The vibration came through the tank's hull and into the compartment. Kleist raised a hand immediately, told the driver to hold position, and looked through the observation scope at the exterior.
The shadows in the distant ruins were expanding.
An enormous construct emerged slowly from the depths of the old industrial district. Its mass approached that of a Warhound-class Titan. Its outer armour was covered in black iron, cabling, and flesh that continued to move. Each step it took sent a tremor through the surrounding ground.
The expression on Kleist's face went flat.
That was absolutely not an ordinary Bane Engine. The thing was larger than anything they had encountered at Formal Prime.
Chapter Master Vegum saw it at the same moment.
He switched immediately to his power armour's external amplifiers and issued a sharp order to the combat brothers around him.
"Fall back! Clear the forward firing arc!"
The order had barely been transmitted when the giant Bane Engine's primary weapon array lit up.
A surge of terrible Warp energy swept across a position in the high ground factory district. It had been occupied by two Eisenmark Leman Russ tanks, several Silver Guard warriors, and a Blood Pact heavy carrier and infantry element that had been pressing forward.
The next instant, everything there was erased.
Armour, ceramite, flesh, and rubble vanished together into the distortion. The energy did not distinguish between sides. Several Blood Pact soldiers who had come too close were consumed along with everything else.
The giant Bane Engine continued broadcasting its piercing noise.
It drove over the Blood Pact allies beneath its feet. It hated everything still living. The Warp contamination emanating from it made the surrounding air heavy and thick.
Blood Pact elite soldiers who had shown no fear of death suddenly broke.
They screamed and twisted in place. The flesh beneath their armour began to swell. New tissue, bone spurs, and tendrils erupted from inside them. Most of them collapsed entirely in the process, becoming convulsing matter on the ground.
Only a very small number remained standing.
They could no longer be called soldiers.
Those twisted Chaos spawn released guttural sounds and drove themselves toward the Silver Guard.
Vegum was forced to engage them with the combat brothers around him directly.
Bolt weapons, melta arms, power swords, and Land Raider fire poured into the giant Bane Engine, but it carried a desecrated shield across its outer surface. The shellfire struck it and produced only disordered ripples across the surface.
The Eisenmark armoured battalion was also firing.
Leman Russ main guns continued to fire in succession. The cannon muzzles of heavy armoured vehicles flashed repeatedly. But without coordinated movement and vox, they could not replicate the precise concentrated fire of a short while ago.
The giant Bane Engine stepped into the factory district and crushed a Leman Russ attempting to withdraw beneath its foot.
The vehicle was compressed into twisted scrap. The crew did not manage to produce a sound. Warp energy swept through again an instant later, tearing apart a line of Sentinel walkers at a run. The wreckage tumbled into the mud.
The Bane Engine's various secondary weapons opened fire simultaneously.
Some launched corroded shells. Others discharged purple-black fire. Still others projected beams of contaminated energy at the Silver Guard's positions. One war machine had driven the entire battlefield back into crisis by itself.
Vegum brought his combat team forward against two of the Chaos spawn.
One had grown a mass of deformed arms. The other dragged a twisted spine and fused armour plate behind it. They could not truly overwhelm the Silver Guard, but they were sufficient to restrict their movement.
Vegum drove his chainsword through the chest of the first Chaos spawn. The second creature drove into him and pushed him back half a step.
At that moment, one of the giant Bane Engine's secondary weapons swung toward their position.
Vegum only had time to push one combat brother clear.
The fire struck his side directly. Ceramite plate was torn open. The silver shoulder guard was blown clear. His entire left arm was gone in the detonation. His body was driven into a broken wall.
"Chapter Master!"
Arentis's voice reached him from the distance.
Vegum pressed his remaining right hand against the ground and forced himself back upright. His combat team was pinned behind rubble. The Chaos spawn were still coming at them. The giant Bane Engine's secondary weapons were recalibrating.
On the other side of the fighting, Kleist's command vehicle was too close to the Bane Engine.
A Leman Russ attempting to shield it had its turret blown through by the enemy's heavy fire. Through the observation scope, Kleist saw the enormous construct turning in his direction.
He understood that he might not have time to withdraw.
In the deepest moment of the crisis, a mass of heavy fire sounded from behind them.
Vegum raised his head.
A new Imperial force appeared in the factory district's rear. Krieg soldiers in heavy grey greatcoats advanced through the smoke. The 112th assault companies in black armour spread across both flanks. Further back, artillery and heavy weapons teams were establishing their positions.
The mortal at the front was carrying a dragon-skull staff.
The dragon-skull's twin eyes were lit with a deep red glow.
Duvette Erdmann looked at the enormous desecrated construct with cold eyes.
Kleist understood immediately. The Commissar had arrived. The main support force was here.
The giant Bane Engine appeared to register something as well.
It stopped pursuing Kleist and turned its primary weapon slowly toward the newly arrived targets. A moment later, Warp energy surged from the barrel, driving directly toward the position where Duvette stood.
Kleist's chest tightened in spite of himself.
Even having witnessed Duvette demonstrate something close to the impossible on many occasions, the force of that discharge was overwhelming, and some instinct in him feared it would reach Duvette before anything could stop it.
Duvette produced a cold sound.
He tightened his grip on Entropy's Song and brought the dragon-skull staff down hard against the ground.
The red light in the dragon-skull's eyes blazed outward.
The force was not violent in the way the Warp energy was, but it was sufficient to place a weight on the chest of every person who looked at it.
"Face the wrath of the Lord of Fire-Drakes!" Duvette's voice came out hard. He raised the staff as the red light surged forward to meet the incoming Warp energy.
The two forces met in the air between them.
The red light released from Entropy's Song was considerably smaller than the torrent of destruction coming toward it. But it was not consumed.
It behaved as though it were issuing a command to the Warp energy, ordering it toward its end, making its edges fade, making its internal structure collapse layer by layer.
The Warp energy deteriorated rapidly in the air.
The distorted light fragmented, then extinguished entirely in the space of metres before Duvette.
Vegum saw it happen.
He said nothing for a moment. The force had the quality of a negation issued by something older and heavier in its intent.
He watched the desecrated construct pour secondary weapon fire into the mortal commissar in a continuous stream: solid shells, energy beams, and desecrated flames alike. All of them became ash before they made contact. Something invisible extended around him and turned incoming fire to nothing.
Duvette was not paying attention to anyone else's assessment.
He used the interval while the primary weapon recharged to raise Entropy's Song again and direct the dark red light toward the giant Bane Engine.
The force of time settled against the outer surface of the desecrated construct. Its shielding began producing unstable flickers.
At the same time, Duvette opened the System panel.
[King of War: King's Edict -- available to activate.]
He did not hesitate.
[Blessing of the Omnissiah] activated simultaneously.
[King of War]'s will descended onto the battlefield for the first time. The force reached the flesh of mortal soldiers and drove it forward. It drove the Machine-Spirits of vehicles into a sharp and furious response, without cost, without side effect. It was a force that came from the origin of war itself, from Duvette's own will.
In an instant, every vehicle and vox node within Duvette's command structure was pulled back into order. The contaminated channels became clear again. The Machine-Spirits began responding. Fire control systems reacquired their targets.
After a brief silence, the Eisenmark armoured battalion came back to life like a pack of steel predators waking together.
The moment Kleist heard the vox restore, he grabbed the handset.
"All vehicles! Primary target, the giant Bane Engine directly ahead!"
"Main guns, fire for effect!"
"Do not stop!"
The fire began.
Leman Russ main guns, Chimera multilaser arrays, Hydra anti-aircraft batteries, Krieg heavy guns, 112th heavy weapons positions: all of it concentrated on the desecrated construct.
With the combined effects of [Blessing of the Omnissiah] and [King of War], this volley exceeded anything they had produced before. They had sufficient firepower to destroy anything standing in front of them.
Vegum saw something else.
The silent Krieg soldiers were charging at the Chaos spawn.
Their pace was well beyond any ordinary mortal soldier. At close range it approached an Astartes assault tempo. Dense Warp contamination saturated the air around them. The soldiers did not hesitate and did not collapse. They fixed bayonets and raised entrenching tools and drove themselves into the creatures directly.
One Krieg soldier was knocked aside by a Chaos spawn's impact. Two others immediately filled the space.
An entrenching tool drove into the twisted flesh. The force was sufficient to produce a scream from the creature. An instant later a grenade was forced directly into the wound, and the detonation tore the Chaos spawn and the Krieg soldier apart together.
More Krieg soldiers pushed out of the fire and continued toward the next creature.
Vegum had not encountered a mortal force like this at any point in his service.
He knew the Death Korps did not fear death.
But this was not simply courage. What he was watching was a Legion that had been forcibly elevated by some war-intent beyond the ordinary. Was it Chaos contamination?
The giant Bane Engine produced a sharp, pained sound.
Under the force of time from Entropy's Song, its desecrated shield began to overload. Shellfire tore through it continuously. The outer armour began to decay and fall away. The black iron structure fractured piece by piece. Flesh and cabling dried and split open.
Duvette stood at the centre of the line. The red light of Entropy's Song pulsed without stopping.
"Continue firing."
His voice came through the vox channel.
"Drive it back to scrap."
The Eisenmark armoured battalion answered him with the next volley, denser than the last.
This time, several shells struck the chest armour where the decay had already opened fractures. The Krieg heavy guns followed and drove through the Bane Engine's core structure entirely.
A sound of agony rolled through the entire high ground factory district.
The giant Bane Engine staggered forward one step, then came down with its full weight. Its body crushed a wide section of ruins beneath it. The residual Warp energy flickered several times in the broken shell, then went entirely silent.
For one brief instant, the battlefield was quiet.
Vegum pulled himself upright.
His left arm was gone. The side of his power armour was split through in multiple places. Silver Guard warriors moved in quickly around him, attempting to shield their Chapter Master, but Vegum raised his remaining right hand and signalled them to hold their positions.
He looked at the mortal commissar in the distance.
Duvette looked back at him.
Through the short-range vox, Duvette's voice came through.
"My apologies, Chapter Master."
A brief pause.
"Fortunately, I still arrived in time."
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