V2 Chapter 100: The Black Shields' Support
The fighting on the forward approaches to the abandoned industrial avenue was considerably larger in scale than the engagement on the high ground to the left.
The Imperial forces in direct contact here numbered approximately fifteen to twenty thousand. The 8th Hyrkan Regiment, a portion of the 11th Hyrkan Regiment, the Mordian Iron Guard 11th, 16th, and 21st Regiments, the Corstaek Iron Hammer advance fire group, and attached engineers and artillery spotters were all being held down on this old industrial transit axis.
Strike craft and rear heavy gun batteries were providing fire support.
Further back, more Astra Militarum regiments and the lead elements of four armoured divisions were waiting.
Those armoured columns had not all pressed to the forward line. They were holding position on the rear section of the abandoned industrial avenue and on the temporary hardened roads, waiting for the Oligarchy Gate to be opened. Once the gate was blown apart, the armoured divisions would drive through that corridor into the interior of the Oligarchy Zone.
Gaunt was advancing with the 8th Hyrkan through an old industrial district.
Intense artillery continued to echo around him. The smell of propellant and scorched metal filled the air. The Blood Pact's counter-fire had not stopped. They were firing from abandoned factory buildings, fractured pipeline structures, and old cargo transport gantries, using heavy stubbers, rocket launchers, and mortars to keep the Imperial force from closing on the Oligarchy Gate.
The 8th Hyrkan was a capable regiment.
Gaunt had seen the Ash Watchers. He had seen the soldiers under Duvette's command who had been elevated by an unknown force to something that defied normal category. The 8th Hyrkan could not be compared to those, but in this kind of fighting they had demonstrated sufficient discipline and resolve.
Against elite Blood Pact, they had not been pushed back to their start positions.
That said everything that needed to be said.
"Commissar, I have two pieces of news. One good, one bad. Those damned Chaos scum are actually shooting back!"
Major Galen Chittle was half-crouched behind a broken wall, waving toward the forward position.
"First Section, push up! Third Section, covering fire! Don't let them get that heavy stubber back on its mount!"
After delivering the order, he turned to look at Gaunt beside him.
"Commissar. Which would you like to hear first?"
Gaunt leaned out from cover with a cold expression, raised his bolt pistol, and put two rounds into Blood Pact soldiers pushing through the smoke ahead.
That was the fifteenth and sixteenth traitors he had personally killed in this engagement.
"You know I have no patience for that kind of question, Galen Chittle." He pulled back behind cover and looked at the company officer with an expression that communicated the rest.
"Right, Commissar." Chittle pulled the grin off his face. "So: your old friend, the great Imperial hero, the legendary Commissar..."
"Get to the point."
"Understood."
Chittle cut the preamble immediately.
"Commissar Duvette of the Krieg combat group reports that they have opened a brief opportunity for us on the left high ground. He has also dispatched a support element our way to help us break through the enemy line and reach the Oligarchy Gate as quickly as possible."
Gaunt paused.
He had seen Duvette's assigned position in the pre-battle briefing. The left high ground and the reservoir dam direction were under pressure at least as severe as what they were facing here, possibly more difficult. The Silver Guard were also fighting those cursed desecrated constructs in their zone.
And Duvette had still found something to send them?
"How many?" Gaunt asked.
Chittle gave a slight shrug.
"Thirteen."
Gaunt looked at him.
"Thirteen?"
"Some manner of powerful Imperial elite, presumably." Chittle said. "In any case, we have support. Thirteen of them. Though how much difference that makes is, well..."
His last words were still in the air when a shout came through the vox from the forward assault section.
What followed was a short series of cut-off screams and the distinctive sound of bolt weapons firing.
Gaunt looked sharply toward the front.
Several of the fire positions that had been suppressing the 8th Hyrkan went silent in rapid succession over an extremely brief interval.
The crossing fire from the heavy stubbers on both factory roofs stopped. The Blood Pact rocket launcher team behind the drainage channel stopped responding. A fortified rubble position held by Chaos commissar-troopers went suddenly quiet.
Gaunt understood immediately.
A moment later, the 8th Hyrkan's commanding officer and several other officers arrived from the rear. Company officers from other sectors reported through the vox that the Blood Pact fire positions in front of them were being struck by some form of assault.
Heavy footsteps came through the smoke.
Three tall figures in black power armour appeared in front of Gaunt and the others. Fighting was still audible from other directions; the remaining ten support warriors had clearly distributed themselves across the other fire positions, clearing the most problematic interdiction points for the 8th Hyrkan.
"Throne above..."
Chittle's voice audibly caught. The expression on his face shifted into something that combined alarm with the realisation that his earlier comment had possibly been overheard.
"I... I did not know they would be the Emperor's Angels."
The three tall figures paid no attention to his reaction.
They stopped in front of Gaunt, their crimson lenses scanning the officers present. The one at the front drove his power sword and his enormous storm shield into the broken ferrocrete at his feet, the blade and shield edge sinking into the rubble.
"Markus Sevian."
His voice was low.
"Inquisitorial. Black Shield detachment. Ordered by Commissar Duvette to support the 8th Hyrkan Regiment."
A Space Marine unit operating under a Commissar's orders. The thing that had no business happening had happened, and the officers around them went quiet with it.
Gaunt came to attention and rendered a salute immediately.
He looked up at the Astartes who stood considerably taller than him, his expression remaining level.
"Commissar of the 8th Hyrkan. Ibram Gaunt. We are grateful for your support, Brother."
Markus looked at him.
"Commissar Duvette's order is for us to operate under your tactical direction temporarily, until the Oligarchy Gate is opened."
A brief quiet settled over the assembled officers.
This was... Astartes willing to follow an Astra Militarum officer's tactical direction? That was not something that happened. Was this genuinely that legendary commissar's order? The people around them stood in something between silence and disbelief.
Gaunt broke the silence without delay and began exchanging tactical information with the Black Shield detachment.
More officers reached the temporary cover in short order, including the 8th Hyrkan's commanding officer in person.
After the situation was explained, the CO, several company officers, and Gaunt gathered around a damaged industrial chart, covered in dust and blood, and began working through the next phase. Artillery continued in the distance. Engineers were re-marking forward roads that had been blown apart.
The Black Shields' arrival had an immediate effect on the morale of the Astra Militarum troops in the surrounding positions.
The Hyrkan soldiers saw Astartes standing in their line. They saw the fire positions that had been impossible to approach cleared in a matter of moments. Something close to fervour appeared in their expressions.
Most Astra Militarum soldiers would never see the Emperor's Angels in their entire service, let alone fight beside them at this kind of range. This was absolute honour.
The officers were no different.
The Emperor's Angels were with them.
But Gaunt understood clearly that morale alone would not open the Oligarchy Gate.
He looked at the chart and raised his hand.
"The enemy's forward fire network has a gap in it." He said. "The Black Shield detachment cleared three anchor points. Between the left industrial drainage channel and the old cargo bridge, there is a passable route."
The 8th Hyrkan CO frowned.
"That is not a route, Commissar. That is a devastated ruin zone that artillery has torn apart. It is extremely exposed ground."
"Which is precisely why the enemy will not expect us to drive through it." Gaunt said. "If we continue on the original advance line, the Blood Pact will have time to bring up their reserves to close the gap. The opportunity we have right now will be gone."
Chittle looked at the map and made a decision in his jaw.
"The Commissar is right. The 8th has a chance to push through there and drive directly toward the Oligarchy Gate."
A company officer spoke immediately.
"That exposes our entire flank and rear to the enemy."
"I know." Gaunt said.
His eyes did not leave the map.
"But if we do not take that risk, we continue trading men for ground one metre at a time against the Blood Pact. The armoured divisions are still waiting for the gate to open. The Iron Hammer fire group can only hold their gun positions here. We have to break the enemy's tempo."
The CO was quiet for a moment.
"Commissar. You believe this is the opportunity?"
Gaunt raised his head and looked at him.
"I am not certain." He said. "But I am certain that if we wait any longer, it will not exist."
Another silence settled around them.
In the distance, an explosion threw up a cloud of smoke and dust. The Black Shield detachment had finished another fire position. More Blood Pact positions went quiet.
Gaunt continued. "The 8th Hyrkan still has more than three thousand soldiers. We can commit the first echelon. Notify the Mordian Iron Guard to hold the rear fire line. Notify the Iron Hammer to push their heavy weapons forward. And the Black Shield detachment handles the obstacles that ordinary soldiers cannot clear."
He paused.
"I will go with the first echelon."
Chittle looked at him, then at the CO.
"The Eighth can make this charge."
The CO did not answer immediately.
He looked at the industrial ruins ahead, obscured by smoke and propellant haze. He looked toward where the Oligarchy Gate stood in the distance, still masked by fire and black smoke. Every person present knew it was there.
He gave a single nod.
"Then we charge."
The order went through the line.
Gaunt turned and looked at the Hyrkan soldiers assembling around him. He raised the chainsword. Following the example of his mentor, and of the legendary commissar he carried in mind, his voice tore out across the position.
"8th Hyrkan!"
"Charge!"
The signal sounded. Gaunt was in the front rank. And the Emperor's Angels were with them.