V2 Chapter 121: For Tanith.
The moment the Chaos fleet crossed the alert threshold, Admiral Villent gave his order.
"Fire."
Almost simultaneously, the Imperial fleet concealed in the planet's shadow brought its main drives online. Four cruiser detachments came out of their silent state. Macro-cannon arrays completed their final calibration. Lance weapons locked onto the lead escort group of the enemy fleet.
The void was torn open an instant later.
The first lance salvo drove through the hulls of two Chaos escort warships. Thousands of tonnes of macro-cannon fire followed immediately and hit the enemy's forward element. Several small raider vessels had not yet begun their evasive manoeuvres when the detonations knocked them off course, their wreckage trailing fire into the deep void.
The Chaos fleet's response was immediate.
The Murder-class cruiser flagship began its turn at once, void shields flickering under the sustained strikes. The four light cruisers dispersed, attempting to use the escorts and transport vessels as a buffer against the Imperial fire while buying the capital ships time to drive forward.
"Enemy fleet is not reducing speed." An aide called out quickly. "They are continuing to advance toward Tanith."
Villent held his gaze on the hololithic chart. His eyes narrowed slightly.
He had expected them to attempt withdrawal, or at least to stabilise their formation first. But after being caught in the ambush, this Chaos fleet had pushed its drives to maximum.
It appeared they had already understood they were not getting out.
So they had decided to take whatever they could before they were destroyed.
"The Silent Verdict is engaging." Another aide called out. "The Inquisitorial vessel has locked the enemy flagship's port flank."
The black cruiser advanced from Tanith's near-approach corridor, its lance weapons and macro-cannon fire hammering against the Murder-class cruiser's void shields. At the same time, the Salamanders strike cruiser in Tanith's night-side orbital shadow completed its ignition sequence and cut out of the darkness to strike the enemy light cruisers' flanks.
This was the task Harath Shen had confirmed before the engagement.
The Salamanders were not seeking the honour of sinking the flagship, and they would not commit their warriors to transports already exposed to cannon fire.
Their purpose was to break the escort fire cover from the enemy light cruisers, tear open the Chaos fleet's flank, and strip the armed transport vessels of their protection before they could finish putting forces onto the surface.
The strike cruiser did not close on the enemy flagship. It directed its fire against one of the Chaos light cruisers attempting to screen the transport group.
When the lance weapons breached its outer void shields, boarding torpedoes were already leaving the launch tubes, driving toward the enemy vessel's flank under escort fire and Thunderhawk cover.
The Thunderhawks did not press close to the hull. At close range, the enemy's point defence arrays would have destroyed them.
Their task was to suppress the enemy's close-in defence turrets at a distance, clear interceptors, and keep a final approach window open for the boarding torpedoes. Several Chaos assault craft attempted to intercept and were knocked into tumbling wreckage by heavy bolt and nose cannon fire.
The first boarding torpedo struck the light cruiser's flank.
Melta-cutting rings ignited. The armour layer burned through. The torpedo hatch blew open in steam and fragments. Warriors in green power armour stepped into the enemy vessel's corridor, and promethium flamers lit the narrow passage immediately.
"Objectives: bridge, fire control core, macro-cannon deck."
Harath Shen's voice came through the company channel.
"Silence it."
The Fourth Company's response was low and measured.
"For Vulkan. For the Emperor. For humanity."
Within a short time, the left-flank fire of the Chaos light cruiser began losing coherence. Several macro-cannon positions lost synchronisation. Secondary detonations came from the bridge section. The fire network that had been protecting the transport group showed a clear gap.
But the enemy had already put too much into the air.
Several Chaos armed transports, with their screening fire now broken, opened their external deployment bays and released their contents without slowing down. Large numbers of landing craft, drop pods, and assault carriers were launched simultaneously toward Tanith's atmosphere.
"Enemy committing ground forces by forced drop!"
"Surface anti-aircraft positions opening fire!"
"All surface billeted units to combat status!"
Villent spoke with controlled calm. "Continue suppressing the enemy flagship. Notify the surface forces: anything that gets through is theirs to handle on the ground."
Tanith's sky began to burn.
Anti-aircraft gun emplacements, Hydra platforms, temporary missile batteries, and orbital intercept fire all opened at once. Large numbers of enemy drop pods were destroyed in the upper atmosphere and their debris fell trailing fire into the forests and the settlements' outer edges.
But a great many things came through.
The landing craft and drop pods were not maintaining formation. They were not performing standard deceleration. They simply fell toward Tanith, carrying what remained of the Chaos fleet's malice, aimed at the cities, the forests, and the camps below.
In the temporary camp of the Third Tanith Regiment, Corbec was standing beside a transport vehicle with his head down, checking his lasrifle.
For the past several days they had been running exercises alongside the infantry regiments detached from the 112th Combined Battle Group. The outsiders were difficult to deal with: orders came fast and constantly, and the training pace had driven most of the Tanith people to private complaint more than once.
But Corbec had to admit, privately, that they were good.
The soldiers of the Second Assault Infantry Regiment could put a position together in the time it took other units to locate their equipment. The Third Assault Infantry Regiment could deploy quickly across broken terrain. The First Assault Infantry Regiment's formation and fire coordination were difficult to criticise.
"They are considerably better than us." Corbec said quietly.
Rawne was sitting on an ammunition crate nearby and looked up at him.
"You're taking the side of the Imperial bastards now?"
"I'm stating a fact." Corbec looked toward the 112th soldiers on patrol in the distance. "They know what they are doing."
Rawne gave a contemptuous sound. "They can be as good as they like. They are not our kind. They stand there to keep us in line."
Larkin was sitting on the ground with his long-las across his lap. He had been working on the stock for some time, the nalwood worn warm under his hands from the repeated attention.
"I don't like the sky tonight." Larkin said.
Rawne looked at him. "Are you starting that again?"
Larkin did not argue. He simply raised his head and looked at the cloud cover, which had already been lit from somewhere in the distance.
"It's too bright."
The next instant, the anti-aircraft alert sounded across the camp.
The sharp, sustained tone overwhelmed every conversation and complaint. Corbec's head came up hard. The sky at the far edge of the camp's horizon was already red with fire. Burning trails cut through the cloud layer and drove toward the ground at speed.
"All units, form up!"
"Weapons in hand!"
"Assembly signal! Assembly signal!"
The Tanith troops were scattered by the sudden alert. Many of them did not yet understand what was happening. They grabbed weapons and moved in confused circles looking for their sections, or stood staring at what was falling from the sky.
Corbec recognised some of the shapes.
Landing craft.
Drop pods.
And more, things he had no names for.
The scale of it was comparable to the 112th's landing when they had first arrived. The difference was that what was coming down from the sky this time was the enemy.
The contempt left Rawne's face.
Larkin pulled his long-las tight against his chest and swore quietly. "Feth. I knew it."
The chaos was still spreading when Gaunt appeared on the temporary platform at the camp's centre.
He did not wait for quiet. He raised the vox-caster and let his voice go over the alert and the distant artillery both.
"Tanith! Listen to me!"
Officers and sergeants were forcing the three regiments into some kind of order. Corbec, Rawne, and Larkin were pushed into the crowd along with everyone else. They looked up at the black-uniformed Commissar on the platform and found, for the first time, that his expression was actually something that made a person afraid.
"The enemy is entering the atmosphere." Gaunt said. "They have broken through the orbital intercept. They are putting landing forces down on your cities, your forests, and your homes."
The noise in the crowd dropped.
"They are going to destroy Magna. Destroy Attica. Destroy your spaceport and your camps. They will kill your families, burn the forests you know, and leave Tanith as rubble."
No one interrupted.
Gaunt stepped forward. The black commissar's uniform was sharp under the alert lighting.
"This fight is no longer an exercise. The blood you shed today will not be recorded only in the expedition's battle log. The weapons in your hands are for the ground beneath your feet."
Corbec heard the breathing around him change.
Rawne, who had been ready to find a flaw in anything an Imperial officer said, was quiet. His expression was not contemptuous now. He simply watched the man on the platform with the same eyes he used for calculating a threat. Larkin's gaze was still drifting, but his hands had settled on the rifle, and he was adjusting the unusual sight mounted on it.
Gaunt continued. "The Imperium needs you. Because only you know Tanith's forest. Only you know which paths disappear and which forest lines move, and which places you can send an enemy into and never see them come back out."
He paused.
In the distance, the first drop pods were close to the ground, and the fire they trailed lit every face on the assembly ground.
"This fight is for Tanith." Gaunt said. "It is also for you."
The crowd was silent for several seconds.
"He's right, Rawne." Corbec said.
Then he was the first to raise his weapon and shout.
"For Tanith!"
More voices followed.
"For Tanith!"
For the first time, the three scattered Tanith regiments called out something together, and they called it as one. The sound spread out from the camp and went over the alert sirens, and over the shriek of falling objects cutting through the air in the distance.
The first drop pod hit the far edge of the forest.
The ground shook. The nalwood canopy swayed violently in the firelight.
The battle for Tanith had begun.