+++ 112.M42 +++
+ One year after the official end of the Indomitus Crusade +
+ Praise the Emperor for his divine protection.
+ Praise the Imperial Regent Roboute Guilliman for bringing hope to the forsaken.
+ Praise the Adeptus Astartes for their superhuman strength, endurance and their utter loyalty unto death.
+ Praise the Adeptus Mechanicus for their unstopping stream of supplies and their mighty Titan warmachines.
+ Praise the Imperial Navy for eradicating the skies above our worlds from foes and guarding the troops bringing salvation and hope to the planets of the God-Emperor.
+ Praise the noble soldiers of the Imperial Guard for fighting for mankind's survival on a thousand thousand worlds.
+ Praise them all, for without them, the alien will eat your brains and enslave your children, the heretic would bring ruin to the planet you treat on and sacrifice you to demons lurking in the beyond.
+++ +++ +++
+++ Sector Insignia, 000.M42 +++
+ A new Millennia, An old War +
At last, the week-long vision of Old Night receded and the light of holy Terra starts to pierce the new, horrible reality and ships are able to take on the risk of inter-stellar travel again.
At once, astropathic wailing and cries for help flood the psychic, interstellar communication network, killing and driving mad Astropaths in the dozen. It takes long before an at least partial accurate picture of the strategic picture is formed. While the commanders still struggle to cope with this horrific development, fast response battlegroups are already sent to deal with chaos incursions on the strategic most important worlds of the sector.
One such battlegroup finds itself assigned to intervene on the fortress world of Atria, where a civil war of massive, horrific scale has erupted, with local PDF and Imperial Guard regiments falling to chaos in the dozen, their bodies mutating rapidly and their minds all but devoured by the rift in reality.
Atria, a well-defended, civilized world is wrecked with chaos cult uprising and traitor guardsmen. The battle is fought in the extensive trench systems between the two fortress-hives 'Raised Shield' (loyal) and 'Riposte' (contested, likely fallen). All fortress-hives of Atria have been outfitted with powerful orbital defence lasers, bristle with AA and artillery batteries in anticipation of a tyrranid invasion.
Atria is the third planet of the equal-named system, the planets closer to the planet being irradiated wastelands, the two further-offs are one gas-giant and a frozen iceball where some promethium is refined from rare ice formations. Atria has a temperate climate but the combat zone is reported to be severely polluted, probably including chemical warfare residue. The planet has two moons, both of with housing well-defended bases with deadly, mechanicus-maintained orbital defense laser batteries and automatic ground defense systems.
- At least 6 regiments of traitor PDF infantry and 5 former Imperial Guard regiments (23. Atria Artillery, 11. Atria Armoured, 2. Atria Mechanized Infantry and 119. & 120. Atria Grenadiers).
- An unknown number of cultists and irregulars.
- 2 Cruisers with an unknown number of smaller ships was stationed in system. Current loyalty and disposition is unknown.
1 Imperial Guard Battlegroup
1 Subsector Fleet of the Imperial Navy
Small detachments from local Astartes and Mechanicus forces
Allies:
Remainders of two Loyalist Guard Regiments (1. Atria Storm Troopers & 87. Line Infantry)
Remainders of five PDF regiments
Unknown number of militia and irregulars in Hive 'Riposte'
Mere minutes after the imperial navy translates into system they receive a request for communication. It is highly encrypted and a highly focused directed transmission. Following the source of the transmission however leads into the dark space close to the planet. Where nothing is or even should be, given the unknown allegience of the system defence force boats.
Accepting the transmission lights up the holo field but nothing can be seen yet. A moment later a flickering image of a power armored giant with a beaked helmet walks into view.
"I am shadow captain Lysius of the Lightning Claws second reserve company. I am currently close to orbit of Atria III. My scouts will soon infiltrate the planet to assertain the loyalties of the local leadership. What news does the imperial high command bring?"
Data flashes across Archmagos Fulcrum's vision at a pace that would be dizzying to 99.9987% of the population. It was normal life for him. His cranial cogitator array sorted and collated reports from across the sector that were flagged for his attention. Recently, ever since the receding of the warp anomalies it has been nothing but fragmentary reports of scattered supply convoys, low supply inventories, forges in a state of near shut-down, and generally chaos made manifest. He was issuing directives at maximum capacity, but still it was not enough. Then came a truly worrying report. The magos delegated to subordinates immediately.
Atria was not the largest stronghold of the Mecanicus in the sector by far, but it was important to him. It held the prototype for his Titan grade drop harness. The situation was dire. The majority of his forces were required elsewhere securing his planetary interests, but he could not ignore the risk Atria presented.
Files flit before his consciousness, other deployed forces are analyzed, estimated strength of the rebels is calculated. The void war is almost certainly won by the deployed forces of the Navy, but the ground war is far from won.
The directives are issued:
-- Directive: Priority Alpha Red --
Overlord Battlecruiser Touch of Divinity is to accept command transfer of the following ground combat forces aboard the transport Holy Burden:
32nd Regiment Battle Servitors
113th Regiment Secutarii
Sicarian Killclades Oblivius Sanctus and Radiant Glory (three squads of Sicarian Ruststalkers accompanied by a single squad of Sicarian Infiltrators each)
Two Knight House Ageis detachment consisting of one each of Knights Crusader (close support), Castellan, and Valiant with a Halverin amiger from House Germinatus as scout and support.
Light Cruisers Prosecutor and Security in Faith will provide escort along with the escort ships attached to the Touch of Divinity.
Operational objective Alpha: Assist the Imperial Navy in securing the local volume of Atria and its satellites.
Operational objective Beta: Determine loyalty and degree of corruption of in-system Adeptus Mechanicus assets. Purge if corruption is found.
Operational objective Gamma: Secure Adeptus Mechanicus resources and facilities on the moons from Chaos infestation.
Operational objective Delta: Assist Imperial forces in securing the planet until further notice.
--End Directive--
Then the Archmagos sent orders to for a regiment of Skitarii to be raised for the occupation and defense of the moons. The Secutarii were not occupiers. They were guardians of the Titans, but the situation demanded that they be deployed.
The space marine strike cruiser 'Brewing Storm' under Shadow Captain Lysisus
receives the distress call from from Atria while early on a recruitment run.
Having recruited 50 scouts of the alotted 70.
Nonetheless duty calls and there is no such thing as voicemail in 42m. Lysisus reroutes the Brewing Storm to the system, translating in at the very edge and uses the raven guard style dark running to slip past the sdf boats without affirming their allegience either way.
He brings the ship close to Atria III but stops far enough away to stay in the shadow of the void and shielded from prodding sensors by the dark run shield.
Ready to strike at the sdf boats to aid a liberation fleet or to deploy the space marine payload silently.
The commander of the Overlord class Battlecruiser Touch of Divinity, Magos Alter Sparkswright, translates into the system with 8 ships and immediately sets a course for the third planet at moderate speed, keeping pace with the hauler that carried the bulk of his forces assigned from the Archmagos.
The forge worlds were almost reformed to their previous states of disorder and depleted supply. Thank the Omnissiah for his Will, the Forge of the Stars that had brought the malfunctioning manufactorums back online in record time and the holds of the Archmagos were back in operation before most others.
As he slid into system, he actively scanned with all available ships, determined to operate with as much information as possible.
The Subsector Fleet lead by Admiral Bellar sends his three Dauntless Cruiser to scout and periodic reporting. While his Mercury Battlecruiser, accompanied by the Sword Frigates ready to step in, advance Atria III to give cover and ensure protection against the potential threat by the likely corrupted ships.
Active augur scans whip through the systems as the combined fleet of the Mechanicus and Navy translates into system, causing the Tech Marines aboard the Brewing Storm to struggle to keep their shadow field up to the task.
Given the sheer power the leading vessel of the Mechanicus is putting out, they only manage to keep the solid reports down to a few pings with lots of time in-between. What the augurs aboard the imperial fleet will make of this, is unknown as of yet.
Orbital scans of the planet below show that heavy fighting is going on near the main gate to Hive 'Raised Shield'. It looks like heavy artillery barrages and massed lasgun fire (enough to highlight on the termal scan of the area).
The augurs atop the bridge report twenty very solid returns. The majority, 15 in number, are comparatively small craft, frigates or even smaller system defence boats, in three groups of 5 are stationed near each moon as well as Atria. The group over Atria is accompanied by one Cruiser and a massive return that is either something of the tonnage of a battleship or a very dense cluster of two or more Cruisers.
The final three returns are clearly hiding in the upper atmosphere of the gas giant, another Cruiser and two smaller, likely frigate-class ships.
Then, there is another return, that may or may not actually be one. At one cycle, it registers as something of the tonnage of a Light Cruiser, the next it is all but gone for several cycles to come, only to reappear again some time later. If it is there, it is near Atria, equidistant between two of the frigate-packs and not yet near the atmosphere - unmoving.
From the vox hails of the Mechanicus shrines, only one is answered by an automatic reply, hailing the Omnissiah and pleading for deliverance from a strong enemy attack. This message comes from the third moon, currently furthest away from the combined imperial fleet.
Lord General (or Pa-Soa as the title of her own homeworld) Sieng steeples her fingers as she considers the defences. They were of her own general design, a steel shell with long arms to hold off the ravenous biological menace of the Xenos Tyranid. To have it turned against her by Warp worshipping Heretics was irritating to say the least.
Still the rest of the sector was, for the moment, tame, and so she had a free hand to crush this insolence. She sends out her orders.
We will buttress Raised Shield and then begin an assault on Riposte.
2 units of Line Infantry are to be sent to Raised Shield as well as a MASH unit and our veteran Defensive Siege specialists to hold Raised Shield. The ability of the remaning loyal PDF will be asssed on landing but the 87th Atria Line shall most likely be committed to the defense of the hive alongwith them.
I have called on the forces of Glory-B and they have responded. We shall have a member of House Elephant, a Knight Valiant Pattern Knight, as well as a House Raven, Knight Crusader Pattern. Elephant will move with the assult to protect against the enemy Artillery while Raven will stay near the back to destory it along with an Earthshaker unit to pound on them as well.
The front line of the assualt will be 1 Veteran Trench Warfare Infantry, 2 regular unit of Line Infantry in conjuction with a Chimera, a Sentinel, a Leman Russ Demolisher unit to break Riposte open and a Leman Russ Destroyer Unit to defeat the enemy Mechanized Infantry alongwith the Loyalist 1st Atrian Stromtroopers. Once the shell of the Hive is cracked, House Elephant will move in to support the assault as welln while House Raven keeps watch for other threats best destroyed from range.
As her orders start to filter out she notices other allies responding to the distress call.
It is good to see the Guard does not stand alone here, in this case at least. Shadow Captain if your scouts are able to root out the Heretics then their service would be most useful in both Hives of the Planet. On Raised Shield to root out any heretic insurgency and on Riposte to kill them and find out the extent of the heresy while our assault moves into position.
ArchMagos Fulcurm. Lord Admiral Nibal, our forces will not be able to land securely on Atria unless those battle moons are not brought back to the Emperor's light. My forces shall land in and around Hive Raised Shield. Thus the battle moon watching over it is of primary concern. Once landed my forces will move as a slow march on Hive Riposte making use of a creeping barrage to pacify the trenches as we advance. Once at Riposte, our Knights will move in and, alongwith Armor and Infantry, delve into Riposte, attempt to link up with local resistance if possible but with a primary objective of purging all heretics off the face of the Hive and then the planet.
Magos Sparkswright has a decision to make. Data flows though the systems aboard the Touch of Divinity and a clear consensus from analysis teams fails to materialize. The Magos then refers to his directives for guidance. There, by the blessed wisdom of the Archmagos, he finds clarity. His synthesized voice commands,
Set course for the gas giant. Hail the ships there on tight-beam frequencies and demand allegiance authentication. Continue scans of all in system contacts.
He turns to his chief augur operator, Increase frequency breadth and randomize pulse timing for sector A3-114w by 33E. I want to see what's there, if anything, but I don't want anyone else to know, understood?
I shall comply. replies the operator.
He then contacts the Prosecutor, a light and fast Dauntless class light cruiser. Directive. Scout and assess condition of the moon bases at range and test disposition of adjacent forces. Do not fully engage. If fired upon, fall back to the main battle group. Glory to the Omnissiah.
He then sends a message to the general on the ground. Pa-Soa Sieng. Intent acknowledged. The Archmagos is otherwise occupied. This is Magos Sparkswright. Leave the moons to us. Deus est Machina.
The Brewing Storm opens a channel to the incoming reinforcements, both Mechanicum and Guard/Navy.
A beam of highly focused radio transmission hits the respective flagships. The transmission is strongly encoded with a very recent high level imperial cipher. Signature reads 'Lightning Claws - Scions of the Raven'
The communication opens with a flickering image of an imperial aquila, being replaced after a few flickering moments by the stylised frontal view of a raven in the process of grabbing something. The stylised bird is black, the only other color in the flickering image are the eyes in the burning red of an Astartes battle helmet and the white lightning, sheathing the birds' claws.
This is replaced, after a few more moments of flickering, by a holo image of an Astartes in very dark green, almost black, Mark 6 battle plate. The red eye lenses of the beaked helmet seem to burn through the holo image, somehow never seeming to flicker. Or is that just a trick of the mind looking at it?
"Greetings. This is Shadow Captain Lysius on Strike Cruiser Brewing Storm. I am close to Atria III, preparing to infiltrate. What news does high command bring? What intel can you give me about the fight going on below?"
Magos Sparkswright takes the call personally. When he sees who it is, he immediately initiates sequestration routines and encrypts everything. He then transfers it to the comms suite next to the main bridge and replies there in private.
He returns the message on the same bands and to the same point from where the message originated. The magos is more metal than man, with most of his head replaced by implants and sensors. His voice is simulated, but not overly harsh.
Shadow Captain. Encoded underneath this message you will receive a high density data layer. Please adjust your receivers to frequency range Obscuris Theta 1137.45gHz.
…
As the receivers are adjusted a copy of the AdMech sensor readings is downloaded into your cogitators.
This is Magos Sparkswright on deployment by order of Archmagos Fulcrum. We have initiated scans of the area and have determined several areas of resistance. Our primary objectives are currently the complexes on the two moons in the system. If they were to fall they would represent a significant deterrent to any landing operations.
We are currently securing the local volume from potential threats.
Readouts of contacts (excluding you, leaving whether the AdMech actually detected you an open question) are downloaded including positions and any details gathered so far.
We are en route to the gas giant to investigate the ships in hiding there. When that is complete we will secure the moons. If you have any squads who need practice in low gravity, these installations would be excellent targets of opportunity.
The transmission ends with the personal sigil of Archmagos Fulcrum, a Cog set upon a Titan "T" and filled with stylized circuitry.
After sending the message, Magos Sparkswright moves back out onto the bridge. He goes back to the Sensor Operator and says, Contact has been identified and classified. Redirect efforts to the gas giant contacts.
He then returns to the center of the bridge and supervises the burn toward the contacts.
Sieng's eyebrows shoot up when an Astartes communication comes in. Space Marines were... capricious to say the least but she would never turn them away, not only for their awesome power but to keep it from being turned on her troops under suspicion of heresy.
Shadow Captain. The fighting on the ground is concentrated on the two hives of the planet. There is no communication from Hive Riposte and likely fallen to traitors, while Hive Raised Shield is fighting the remnants of the loyalists as we speak. As the ArchMagos and the Admiral take control of the battle moons my forces will land to buttress Raised Shield before pushing the fight back towards Riposte.
"My scout forces are not suited for space and thus possible void combat, I will recon and infiltrate the hives ahead of you. I will contact you when needed. Otherwise you will know us by our work.
May you stand in the light for we rule the shadows. Lysius out."
Having contacted the other forces Lysius leans over the tactical display of the scans of the world.
He marks 'Raised Shield' as 'presumed loyal' while marking the other hive as 'presumed traitor'.
"Master of Augers. I want a full scan of frequencies used for planet wide anouncements. The planetary governor must have made a statement of either treason or to increase morale. If not the governor then any other official will also do.
If no anouncements can be found get me coordinates of a broadcasting station or satelite in orbit of Atria III, we'll go get our informations ourselves if necessary"
Activating the ship intercom he anounces:
"Upgrading condition to yellow 1, all Neophytes are to be armored and armed for imidiate deployment but continue duties. All Sergeants are to be ready for combat briefing within 20 minutes of new orders."
Step 1:
- Make sure which side is actually which.
- Make sure which side the (possibly former) imperial officals are on
- If imperial officials are loyal: Find the figurehead of the rebelion
Librarian-Captain Ramius enters the bridge of the Retribution. The astropaths had been unable to make contact with forces defending Atria, a fact that displeased Ramius, but the Blood Ravens were on their way regardless; the auguries had predicted no trouble with their arrival in-system. Rising from the command throne, Commodore-Captain Andres turns to Captain Ramius, "My Lord, we are approaching our translation point. With the Emperor's blessing, we will shed the Immaterium in 10 minutes."
Ramius nods to the Commodore-Captain, his deep voice even and untroubled, "Very good, Commodore, at your discretion."
Andres salutes and turns to his Vox officer, "Sound General Quarters and the Translatio Decime." As the alarms sound through the ship, the activity on the bridge increases in its carefully orchestrated routines; deck officers strap themselves into their stations, bulkheads are sealed, and power is routed to the powerful warp drives.
With the Warp as smooth as a realm of pure Chaos can be, the Retribution slips from the Warp with barely a shudder. The Warp-stuff clinging to its gellar field makes the strike cruise appear to be smoking. Its escorts, the destroyers Red Talon and Fist of the Fallen make successful translations in the handful of seconds following the Retrivution's own.
Ramius turns to Andres, "Commodore, lets find out what there is to know." The orders are relayed to the Auger and Auspex operators, and powerful sensors begin to scan the Atria system.
As the battle group minus the Prosecutor starts its burn outward in the system plane toward the gas giant, another three ships transition into Realspace. Not long after that the fleet is swept by active pinging, and the Admech fleet returns the favor. Signatures from the ping itself and from the data gathered by their own scans soon identifies the bogeys.
Magos Sparkswright sighs inwardly. Blood Ravens. There must be more going on down on that ball of unrefined materials than meets the eye. Still, these Astartes are allies, so he simply logs their arrival and tracks their trajectories.
To be safe, he complies a preliminary report and transmits it to the Archmagos. The forces in system seemed significant, even for a hive-scale conflict such as this.
--Initiate encryption code Obscurus Equinus--
Status: Nominal
Condition: Maneuvering
Combat condition: Vigilante Primus
Contact with elements of two Astartes Chapters in addition to expected elements of the Astra Militarum and the Imperial Navy. Suspected increase over predicted resistance levels. Directives Unchanged and Unchallenged.
Gloria in excelsis Red Mars.
END REPORT
The system is quite packed with ships, more than half of which are clearly edging slowly into the system, battle-ready and performing scans too.
They broadcast various Imperial Ident codes, including Imperial Guard, Knight Households, Mechanicus and Navy.
Soon you receive a heavily encrypted, short transmission from the leading AdMech ship which is currently nearing the gas giant of the system.
The small flotilla floats closer to massive helium planet and only as you near weapon range of the ships in hiding, they reply on a very low-band that is likely to be rendered incomprehensible to anyone further away than your ships.
The message reads:
+++ This is Captain Dirgent aboard the light Cruiser 'Emperors Thrust'. All hail him on Terra, it is good to see some friendly faces at last. I have with me the remains of the SDF forces: the two twin frigates 'Raised Sword' and 'Holy Strike'. The rest of our ships are either destroyed or turned traitor during the long night. I advice extreme caution when approaching the planet. We were evenly matched before the traitors were reinforced by traitor Marines brought in-system by their cursed battle barge.
You detect very little communication, most is low bandwidth, encrypted traffic and the few exemplary extracts your TechMarines were able to decode show those to be typical, local regimental communication and inter-squad comm. Most of this communication is concentrated near the outskirts and the spaceport of 'Raised Shield', one seems to be coming from an Arbitrator squad battling with a mob of sorts. 'Riposte' is completely dark as far as you can tell.
Your scans reveal an orbital communication network of small satellites and a larger, orbital communication hub in geostationary orbit above an equidistant point between the two hives. It does not seem to be operational.
After some time, your TechMarines are rather confident to have isolated a command frequency, coming from a highly defended bunker complex around the main gate of 'Raised Shield'. It seems a Col. Tuna is commanding a force of badly mauled IG, loyalist PDF regiments and Auxilia forces. He or she is trying his/her best to keep the situation under control - which boils down to telling the forces in the kilometre-wide trench system to hold the line, while trying to clear up the clearly chaotic situation inside 'Raised Shield' such that he/she could use those forces currently inside the system to reinforce the trench-fight.
The Magos suffers from a bout of annoyance. So much wasted time.
+++ Message received, Captain. We require all data on the identity of the enemy and all data on your previous encounters with the enemy. Include all sensor data and available personal logs including all observed tactical analysis, weapons utilized, damage your forces inflicted, etc. Also, any report on the state of the moon bases and ground forces should be transmitted.
Bring your engines up and prepare to join Lord Admiral Nibal.+++
The magos sends that along the same vector and waits for a response. There was no point in passing along incomplete information.
He turns back to his crew. Data takes a moment to converge in his mind. The presence of Chaos Space Marines made everything vastly more complicated. The risk of moving to the moons now was very high considering the Marines tendency to dive into close proximity fights.
He then tells his crew, Prepare to burn out-system toward the Retribution. All security teams, prepare internal defenses for maximum standoff. Prepare to seal all critical areas. Non-essential crew, prepare secure shelter areas.
He messages the Prosecutor, seeking a report of what they found and updating them with the Battlegroup's new course.
It takes agonizingly long moments before a stream of raw data starts to come in.
The most important bit is a grizzly, long-range augur scan of the battle barge, clearly of archaic design and long since deformed by the touch of the warp, but still bearing the resemblance of the mighty battleship it once were.
Data analysis work for minutes before spitting out a match: it is the 'Steel Cordon'. One of the many, many warships of the Iron Warrior Traitor Legion.
Data logs tell of massive short range firepower and a staggering amount of launch bays and torpedo tubes.
At last the data stream ends and the Captains unaugmented voice annoys the data processing again, while the three ships burn thrusters to leave the upper atmosphere of the gas giant with barely acceptable precision and efficiency.
+++ This is all we got. Had to break contact or we would have ended as a new asteroid belt.
The moons, yes, guess they are interesting for you. The one above the traitor hive is very likely to be in enemy hands.
We saw the enemy landing traitor marines and armour support on the moon as we burned thrusters and that was twenty days ago.
The one above 'Raised Shield' was still under loyalist command as we retreated.
Held the enemies at bay and prevented them from bombarding the city.+++
Gathered intel:
- Name and allegiance of enemy capital ship
- Class of all remaining warships in system (nothing out of the ordinary, half of them are sword-class frigates, the others are in-system boats below 700m in length and one Lunar-class Cruiser near the 'Steel Cordon'
Just after the data is sufficiently processed Sparkswright composes and transmits all the ship data to the navy and the two local Astartes groups.
+++
Local defense remnants located. Information on in-system enemy assets procured.
Major enemy assets include one Lunar class cruiser and several sword class frigates along with sub-700m support craft.
Also identified in system is the Trator Battlebarge 'Steel Cordon' of the Iron Warriors. Relevant data is being transmitted with this message.
Traitor Astartes legion troops confirmed deployed on the moon above the traitor hive Riposte along with armor support. Moon has likely fallen. Moon above Hive Raised Shield was resistant as of 20 days ago.
+++
As the Ad-Mech and SDF detachment takes course towards the newly arrived Strike Cruiser, two of the traitor patrols change course as well.
It soon becomes obvious that they are on an interception course with the Navy and Guard ships.
The small flotillas near the moons break orbit as well and seem to converge towards the bigger fleet containing the traitor barge.
Lyisus studies the changing tactical situation when he spots the opening he wants.
"Veteran Sergeants to the bridge. Briefing in 5. All neophytes to combat station."
"Shipmaster, silent run. Get us as close to the com station as you can without risk of being spotted."
First mission is the capture of the coms station. Insertion via Thunderhawks. Silent running just like the ship.
Primary Objective:
- Capture the station without any alarms. If it is abandoned all the better.
- Tech Marines rig the station for automatic sending of a propaganda video 30 minutes after we extracted.
- The video will be broadcastet to the whole planet surface.
- The video will camouflage the relay of chapter vox through encryption into the datastream
The propaganda Video is an almost static image, flickering from the imperial aquila to the chapter symbol with the text "The emperors angels are coming" in the foreground. With the barest outline of a Mark 6 power armor emerging from the shadows of the background.
Secondary Objective:
Find recordings of the statements of the planets nobility either pro imperium or therwise. I want to know who stands with who down there.
Sieng pinches her nose. Traitor Marines. Of course. Why should she be surprised by this turn of events. While the general population was kept in the dark of their very existence one did not become Lord General without learning some very distrubing things about the nature of their war torn galaxy.
If the Lord Admiral and the Archmagos are unable to deal with the naval blockade heading our way the there is nothing the Astra Millatarum can do to relieve Raised Shield. I would suggest that the heretics be dealt with swiftly.
As the signal returns update the tactical display in the holo-tank, Ramius turns to the Commodore-Captain, "Commodore, please transmit a greeting and an offer of assistance to our esteemed colleagues of the Imperial Navy and the Mechanicus. Use encryption protocol Corvus Theta Zulu Ninety-Seven, my authorization."
When the vox officers indicate the system is ready, the Commodore faces the pickup, <In the name of the Emperor, this is Librarian-Captain Ramius of the Blood Ravens. It seems that the party has started without us. Perhaps there is still room at the table?"
The vox receiver lights up and it takes the cogitators a moment to recognize the code. Corvus Theta Zulu series. Interesting. It is good that this one is using proper encryption protocols. Thinks Sparkswright. He orders, Respond in identical manner, establish uplink if handshake protocols are allowed.
--message begins---
In the Omnissiah's Light, greetings, Library-Captain. The "party" is not yet engaged. The local volume is currently controlled by Chaos forces including at least one Battle Barge of the Imperial Fists, which you should find uploaded into your cogitators. We have recovered several ships that will be joining the Navy contingent. All other assets in the system are presumed hostile.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The vox receiver lights up and it takes the cogitators a moment to recognize the code. Corvus Theta Zulu series. Interesting. It is good that this one is using proper encryption protocols. Thinks Sparkswright. He orders, Respond in identical manner, establish uplink if handshake protocols are allowed.
--message begins---
In the Omnissiah's Light, greetings, Library-Captain. The "party" is not yet engaged. The local volume is currently controlled by Chaos forces including at least one Battle Barge of theImperial FistsIron Warriors, which you should find uploaded into your cogitators. We have recovered several ships that will be joining the Navy contingent. All other assets in the system are presumed hostile.
With encryption protocols satisfied, the data uplink is swift and the ships already detected by Retribution's Augurs are quickly grouped into traitor and loyal. Interestingly, there is data on one vessel that Retribution did not detect.
Ramius takes a moment to study the tactical holo-tank, seeing several of the icons update their status with the Mechanicus data. <A Battle Barge of the Iron Warriors. That is grim news, indeed, Magos. Let us clear the outer system of this chaff that we may bring our unified strength against this foe.>
Ramius turns to Commodore-Captain Andres, "Commodore, bring us to battle readiness if you please. General Quarters and prime all weapon systems. We shall purge the traitors, by the Emperor's will."
Orders pass between the three ships of the Blood Ravens battle group and their helms begin to come about as their weapon systems are brought from the ready-standby of their recent Warp translation to full battle readiness.
Tactical procedures concur. Combat routines activated. All Glory to the Omnissiah.
Admiral Bellar commands to message Pa-Soa Sieng:
“Lord General Sieng, the Imperial Navy will crush the heretics and everything that comes near your transporters. You're free to move on with your mission we'll keep the sky clear and your ships save. We will start with the traitor ships in striking distance and will push forward to prepare your landing.”
Than he orders:
“Advice the ships, get ready for Protocol Hussar, target marked. FOR THE EMPEROR.”
*** Skill & Fate: The bane of battle plans ***
The 'Hussar' maneuver is a full success and catches the heretics completely off-guard. The pincer attack against the southern group leaves the three SDF boats as nothing but drifting debris and the two frigates badly mauled and with damaged engines - easy prey for the soon joining Blood Ravens. Having dealt with the one group, the Navy detachment burns thrusters and timely intercepts the second group trying desperate to get into range with the defenceless Army transports. Not one of their ships get close to them, as the Navy rushes through their scattered formation. Two SDF boats turn tail and burn away towards the planet as fast as the coworldy crew can manage, leaving the other three ships to die like the dogs they are after turning from the light of the Emperor.
The boarding action goes according to plan. The few mutants aboard the station are no match for astartes scouts, let alone their sergeants.
While no alarm is rung, the augurs aboard the strike cruiser soon detect a rise in scanner activity of the enemy fleet, followed soon after by one traitor frigate changing course towards the communication station.
The Tech-Marines aboard the station barely have time to rig the systems according to the briefing before commencing a hasty extraction.
After deployment analysis indicate that the frigate may have gotten a few, far-between solid returns from the escaping thunderhawks, their augurs to powerful up close for the shadow field to obfuscate all of them.
The magos watches with detached interest as the navy demolishes the out-system forces. He orders logs on everything down to the operational statistics of each individual gun and maneuvering thruster. After he has sufficient data to reliably predict the effectiveness of his allies, the Magos orders, Alter course to rendezvous with the Prosecutor. Let's see what our scout has seen.
My compliments Lord Admiral Sieng voxes as the path to the beleaguered planet is cleared. The Lord General gives the command for the Guard transports to start advancing while remaining behind Naval cover.
Shadow Captain Lysius watches the strategic hololith as his plan is implemented.
The barest hint of a frown can be detected at the corners of his mouth as the enemy frigatte changes course towards them
"Command word CAPTAINS LOG. Select all pilots and copilots on Thunderhawk duty. EACH append penance, duration 14 days. Append note: 2 days of penance to be purged for every entry of valiant stealth in the coming war. Command word CLOSE."
"Collect and Restock all Thunderhawks. Bring ship to combat speed. As we hit maximum combat speed cycle shadow field to void shields. Plot course: Slingshot manouver with added dive to unleash Thunderhawks. Insertion point: above enemy artillery. Load Bombardment Cannon with ECM. Route bombardment canon target stream and trigger routines to my armor.
Relay orders to sergeants: planetary insertion. Strafe target artillery with gunships while under ECM cover. Do as much damage as possible but do NOT under any circumstance prioritise destruction of enemy above a safe extraction while still under ECM cover. Primary objective is getting down in one piece and undetected. Secondary objective is disturb artillery batteries.
Shipmaster. I will order Bombardment from my Thundrhawk before insertion. Once all Thunderhawks are away complete the Slingshot manouver and speed away from enemy ships. You are not to enter hive Ripostes anti void engagement zone during any manouver.
The Ship will return to orbit and contact me as the allied flotillas clears out the void defenses"
With the immediate threat neutralized, the Magos orders a course that takes advantage of the nearby gravity wells and uses their pull to assist in getting toward the planet quickly and join up with the Prosecutor.
With a satisfied smile, Captain Ramius gives the command to follow the Mechanicum forces in and the Blood Ravens' small fleet begins to come about and accelerate towards the nearby gravity wells. Ramius watches the tactical displays, his smile fading as he considers the traitor battle barge.
The maneuver succeeds and the Strike Cruiser gets away with it, only lightly damaged - void shield overload during a direct hit from the enemy battle barge suffered during the last loop, soon to be repaired by the enginarium servs.
The troop deployment went well, catching the enemy forces by total surprise, eradicating an entire regiment within the first day of engagement, clearing a 5 square kilometre area of the trench network of heretics.
Ground-to-air fire was very sporadic. Whether this was due to the enemy being mostly unaware of the landing, was completely caught on the wrong foot or lacks the reported AA capabilities is unknown. Your forces are able to establish vox (and in several cases direct) contact with loyalist forces. Two batteries with earthshakers were found and destroyed by your thunderhawks.
The enemies did choose not to advance on you, as you close in on the side of 'Raised Shield'. You reached high anchorage above the besieged Hive.
They are taking anchorage above 'Riposte' in force. Long-Range scans indicate that landing operations are performed on the battle moon and the fallen hive.
As you get close, fragmentary, automatic communication reaches the ship.
It seems the station on the moon is on an emergency, fully-automatic defence mode, threatening to lethally attack anything closing towards the moon surface - or the installation.
Augur scans of the installation show battle damage on the structure and lots of weapon fire within.
Magos Sparkswright bathes in data. His entire attention is now focused on the moon. The traitor forces in the void have chosen to leave them uncontested, to their peril. The heavy transport Holy Burden slid toward low orbit above the moon, pregnant with mechanized death.
The magos attempts contact with the distressed station transmitting ident codes given by the Archmagos and embedded with the Archmagos' personal verification keys.
Prepare to deploy ground forces on my command. Secure all privileged data and drive the foe from the moon. In the name of the Omnissiah, burn them!
The orders filtered down the chain of command in seconds. The cavernous holds of the transport ship went from tomb quiet to roaring, thumping deployment almost at once. Heavy lift transports opened, loading the two House Ageis Knight detachments. Swarms of lighter transports loaded the Sicarian elements.
The 113th was to be deployed first with the 32nd close behind. They would ensure the fight was stabilised and would assess the situation on the ground. The Sicarian Killcades would follow and assault the enemy's weak points, using their unique abilities to their advantage in the close quarters installations.
The Ruststalkers are assigned to scout duties and are permitted to engage targets of opportunity.
The knights are scheduled to come in last as the hammer that smashes the enemy's positions deemed too tough for the other forces.
The news of the arrival of the angels of death and the coming of a relief battleforce causes a considerable morale boost for the loyal citizens and soldiers of Hive 'Raised Shield'.
A Brigadier General Morrison has assumed overall command over the Atrian forces and formally greets the first Imperial Guard Officers that make planetfall.
Battle inside the hive has dwindled in intensity, to a degree which makes further aid from the task force necessary.
The battlefield between the two hives on the other hands, sees an increase in violence. The appearance of single squads of traitor marines on the field of battle brings renewed purpose to the traitorous PDF elements. Worse still, are the regiments ofmutant foot soldiers and tainted warmachines the arch-enemy brought to bear.
Trench-line after trench-line crumbles to dust under day-long artillery barrages followed by massed infantry assaults.
Clearly, the Iron Warriors assumed overall command of the traitor forces, ordering them and wielding them in a hideous, but well-planned way.
The battle on the moon above 'Raised Shield' is quickly decided in the favour of Magos Sparkswrights forces. The enemy and the local Mechanicus forces having grinded each other to the brink of mutual extinction in the central, massive enginarium. The remaining traitors and hereteks offer little resistance to the concentrated Skitarii attack, while the Knight pilots find a hidden drop site of the enemy in a crater seven clicks north of the main installation. They emerge undamaged, leaving the wreckage of ten small, once agile shuttles behind, their crews and small group of defenders burned beyond recognition.
The installation took serious internal damage but three of its original 10 orbital defence batteries remain functional.
The Lightning Claws keep their current strategy of covert ambushes and lightning assaults via thunderhawks. They do not directly engage traitor marines. Rather when encountered they wait for an opportunity to fall into their backs(preferably with sniper fire rather than melee combat) when they engage loyal troops.
They do not meet up with the troops pushing out from the hive and instead stay in cover in the enemy backline, moving back with it and sabotaging supply lines, flanking manouvers and ambushes designed to counter the imperial offensive
Land the rest of our forces. Set up the MASH in the secured area of Raised Shield and cycle the weary ground forces through to get them back to fighting strength and add them to the defensive forces holding the Hive. Everything not on defense is to advance through the trenches to the fallen Hive under the protection of the House Elephant Knight, while the House Raven Knight and our artillery softens the enemy with a creeping barrage as our assault moves in!
Pa-Sao gives her clipped commands.
Recall all forces. Prepare to assault the second moon. Dispatch technical teams to restore the orbital batteries to full function where possible and establish an uplink with the Pa-Sao on the ground. These weapons should be utilized where possible.
He issues his directives, then sends a ping over to the navy requesting current positions of enemy void forces.
As the magos ran holy battle simulations of several different deployment strategies, he came to the realization that the probability of his full Knight houses forces being properly utilized to full efficiently was low. He runs hundreds more battle simulations and cannot find a way to bring their efficiency up above the required 90%. Finally, he concedes that it is not possible in the limited time frame he has and contacts the General on the ground.
Pa-Soa. Know that I am deploying a detachment of House Aegis knights to your theater. Please provide the required tactical data and provide a communications link with your deployed Knights for maximum efficiency.
The enemy fleet is in high orbit above 'Riposte' and thus halfway between the surface and the second battle moon.