V2 Chapter 101: Gaunt's Gamble
After the Black Shield detachment joined the battle, the 8th Hyrkan Regiment finally broke through the enemy's blocking line.
The fighting that followed was no less dangerous. The Blood Pact had seeded heavy fire positions throughout the old industrial district, mounting heavy stubbers, rocket launchers, and autocannons in shattered factory buildings, at drainage channel entrances, and on abandoned cargo bridges, continuously preventing the 8th Hyrkan from closing on the Oligarchy Gate.
But those Black Shield Astartes changed the pace of the advance.
Time and again, a heavy fire position had barely opened fire, or had not yet fired at all, before it was already cleared by those enormous, devastatingly fast warriors. Power swords cut through Blood Pact soldiers' flak armour. Bolt weapons tore apart commissar-troopers and heavy weapons crews at close range.
Gaunt watched all of this as he advanced.
The tactical effect produced by the thirteen Black Shields was not significantly smaller than a frontal push from several assault companies of the 8th Hyrkan. In many cases they did not need to hold an entire position. Silencing the critical fire anchors was sufficient for the Hyrkan soldiers to press forward and take the rest.
What formidable strength.
What occupied Gaunt's attention more was the fact that warriors this powerful were willing to operate under Commissar Duvette's orders.
What kind of authority had the legendary commissar built?
In the intervals between artillery, Gaunt found his mind going back to the lectures at the Schola Progenium on Macharius. That was the highest achievement a mortal commander could reach. One of the rare names in Imperial military history that was worth returning to.
Gaunt had never liked drawing easy comparisons between the living and the figures carved into history.
But what Duvette was demonstrating had made that dangerous comparison arise in him regardless.
He pushed the thought down.
Because the Oligarchy Gate was now visible ahead of them.
It was an enormous high wall shrouded in void shielding. The massive primary gates were set between two support locking towers, their surface covered in Chaos sigils layered over the old Imperial structural numbers still visible beneath. Behind the wall, a tower that seemed to reach into the smoke and haze above flickered in and out of view.
The Plutocrat Tower.
Gaunt looked at that defensive node and his expression went heavy.
The 8th Hyrkan had paid a severe price to get here. The soldiers still capable of an assault numbered fewer than three thousand. With that force alone, a frontal assault on a void-shielded high wall and the Oligarchy Gate was not a realistic prospect.
A section of outer factory district still stood between them and the wall.
Gaunt advanced with his force and observed the enemy's defensive rhythm at the same time.
The Blood Pact fire was heavy. The heavy artillery, autocannons, and rocket arrays at the fortified positions before the gate covered the approach from multiple overlapping angles. Any infantry attempting an uncoordinated push would be destroyed. The Oligarchy Gate itself was not a simple barrier; it had three distinct components.
The main gate body was of extraordinary thickness; direct frontal fire would not breach it. The two support locking towers on either side maintained the gate's closure and its hydraulic sealing. The void shield made conventional long-range strikes considerably less effective.
Something that massive had to have power and cooling requirements.
Gaunt observed several things in short succession.
The fire turrets on the left side of the Oligarchy Gate produced a brief pause in their firing after each salvo discharge. The interval was short, the kind of gap that a soldier under fire would never have the attention to notice; but Gaunt had the time and the position to observe it, and he confirmed the pattern across three consecutive discharge cycles.
The second detail came from the ground.
Every time the left-side fire tower paused, an old drainage channel nearby released a burst of high-temperature steam. The steam carried the sharp chemical smell of industrial coolant. It was not consistent with an ordinary waste pipe.
The third detail was the most obvious.
The Blood Pact had placed a large number of soldiers at the entrance to that drainage channel. At one point they had abandoned a higher and more advantageous fire position to retake that apparently unremarkable entrance when it was lost.
A drainage channel entrance should not be defended that fiercely.
During the advance, the 8th Hyrkan had taken a damaged industrial maintenance chart from a position they had overrun. The chart was badly deteriorated, many of its markings obscured by blood and burn damage, but it still showed that a drainage channel ran along the left side of the Oligarchy Gate's structure.
It had once connected the outer factory district of Balopolis with an inner water-cooling circulation system.
Gaunt studied the chart for a long time, then located a senior combat engineer attached to the regiment.
"Where do you think this drainage channel leads?"
The engineer took the maintenance chart and examined it under a swinging tactical lamp, his finger tracing the damaged lines slowly before stopping at a point near the left flank of the Oligarchy Gate structure.
"If the old structure has not been sealed off, it may connect to the cooling return layer on the left side of the gate body."
Gaunt looked at him.
"May?"
The engineer hesitated.
"Only in theory, Commissar. The Chaos garrison may have modified the whole thing. The passage itself could be entirely collapsed."
Gaunt did not speak immediately.
He looked again toward the distant Oligarchy Gate.
Was this worth the gamble?
If that drainage channel genuinely connected to the cooling return layer on the gate's left side, they would have a way past the frontal fire coverage and a chance to destroy the support locking towers' cooling and hydraulic systems from inside. If the gate lost its synchronised lock, the external artillery and the follow-on armour would have a genuine breach point to work with.
If the assessment was wrong, they would die in a drainage channel.
Gaunt found the 8th Hyrkan's commanding officer shortly afterward.
He explained his reasoning and laid the old maintenance chart across a section of damaged armour plate. The CO's expression when he finished was not good.
"Commissar. This is too much of a risk."
"I know."
"This passage may already have collapsed. It may lead nowhere. It may be an enemy trap. Even if it does connect to the cooling return layer, you cannot guarantee that reaching it will open the Oligarchy Gate."
"I cannot guarantee it." Gaunt said. "But I can confirm that the enemy does not want us going in there."
The CO looked at him steadily.
Gaunt continued. "Colonel, this is my recommendation. It is also a judgement I am prepared to carry personally."
The CO was silent for a long time.
The artillery continued in the distance. The Black Shield detachment cleared another fire position. Hyrkan soldiers used the window to pull their wounded back.
In the end the CO exhaled, raised his hand, and put it on Gaunt's shoulder.
"Take care of yourself, Commissar."
Gaunt gave a nod.
He then found Major Galen Chittle.
Chittle was crouched beside a wrecked Chimera, distributing ammunition and advance routes to several section leaders. After he heard what Gaunt was asking for, the expression on his face went somewhat fixed.
"Commissar. You are saying I should follow you into a drainage channel that may have collapsed, to blow apart a gate that can absorb direct heavy artillery fire?"
"Yes."
Chittle produced a short, pained smile. "Commissar, I assume I do not have the option of declining."
"You are welcome to try." Gaunt allowed a smile that was rare from him.
Chittle shook his head. "Fine. I might at least get to see this cursed gate actually come down before I die."
Gaunt said nothing further, thought for a moment, then turned to find Markus.
The Black Shield's squad leader was standing near a recently cleared fire position. His power armour was covered in dried brown blood. The crimson lenses watched the battlefield ahead in silence.
Gaunt explained what he had found and what he intended to do.
Markus went quiet after he finished.
Gaunt added immediately: "I only need a small element to assist us. I am hoping you can spare that."
Markus looked at him.
"You do not want us placing the demolition charges?"
"No." Gaunt said. "Your task is to clear what my people cannot handle. The demolitions are carried out by my soldiers."
Markus was quiet again for a moment, then gave a slight nod.
Something in Gaunt settled marginally.
With the Emperor's Angels alongside them, the risk was considerably lower. But he understood clearly that the actual assessment was still his to carry. If this drainage channel turned out to be a dead end, the Black Shields could not turn a wrong decision into a victory.
What Gaunt did not know was that Markus had contacted Duvette during their conversation.
On the other end of the channel, Duvette listened to Markus relay Gaunt's request, then produced a short sound of quiet amusement.
"Go with him."
Markus did not respond immediately.
Duvette continued. "He will succeed. With or without you. Consider it your chance to watch how he does it."
"Understood." Markus said.