Chapter 1: The gates to hell open
A single pair of Thunderbolt class fighters silently cruised through an unremarkable system doing a routine patrol. The exhaust from their engines glowed a fiery yellow, and maneuvering jets flared briefly as they adjusted course. Sunlight gleamed off the cockpit windows, casting another small, bright point of light into the cosmos. The pilot of one of the Intruders looked up from his control panel to Lantanda, the subsector capital, off in the distance.
"There it is, Norm, our home. I never get tired to looking at it from a distance. Seeing the highly toxic waste clouds whistling over the spires of the hive cities, killing anything living that gets caught in them without a respirator." said Commander Samuel Jarin.
Lt. Commander Norman Vaughn looked over at his wing leader and long time friend's fighter. "Yeah, it always gives me a reason to volunteer for these totally boring patrol missions. After one day on the surface I'm longing for the look of adamantium walls and the emptiness of space."
"Commander Jarin, this is mission control" came a sound through the comm. "Long range sensors are picking up a slight warp disturbance about 300 thousand klicks from your position, close to the asteroid belt. Check it out please."
"Affirmative, mission control. Jarin out."
Both pilots tightened up their loose formation and turned their fighters to new coordinates. As they closed in, Jarin's hair on his neck started to rise. Over the years, Jarin learned to trust the so-called sixth sense that every soldier or pilot developed if he survived long enough.
"Vaughn, something's not right. Slight warp disturbances usually mean an exiting ship. But this is way out of the usual trade routes. Keep your eyes open."
"Will do Commander." came Vaughn's reply.
As they approached their destination, Jarin's neck hair was so erect that it seemed to fall out anytime. His sensors showed something strange.
"Vaughn, are you getting this? It looks like a miniature vortex of some sort. Barely visible on the sensors and invisible to the naked eye.
"Command, we have something strange here. Sending my telemetry data now."
Suddenly the vortex grew exponentially and something came out.
"Fighter! Looks like a Hell Blade pattern."
"Where? My sensors show nothing" Vaughn yelled in his comm.
"Dammit, Norm, use your freaking eyes. It's right in front of us and getting away."
Both Thunderbolts swooped down on the enemy fighter, trying to get a target lock. That seemed all but impossible, since the fighter wasn't showing on their sensors. To make matters worse, it was slowly getting away.
Jarin cursed. Hell Blades were fast and maneuverable. If they came into a dogfight, he wasn't sure if he and Vaughn came back. Suddenly the Hell Blade exploded in a bright flash, shattering its debris in every direction. Jarin banked hard to avoid the cloud.
"Got him!" Vaughn yelled into the comm.
"How did you do that without a target lock?" Jarin asked.
"You know, some of us can still shoot" came Vaughn's reply. Jarin knew Norm didn't mean to insult him. It was just friendly poking.
"Yeah, you got me. But don't get cocky. I bet there are hundreds of these where this one came from. We should hide in the asteroid field an observe. There might be a chaos raid imminent. I will alert mission control so they bring the defenses on line and alert the fleet. Better not get caught with our pants down."
Both fighters went into the asteroid field and watched.
It didn't take long.
Suddenly the vortex, that was barely wide enough for a fighter to pass through, exploded. Its diameter grew a hundred fold, large enough for battleships to pass through.
And battleships passed through. As Jarin watched, one cruiser was followed by another. And another. And another. Then came a heavy cruiser. And another. And a battleship. And another. Escort vessels flowed like blood. From every ship capable came fighters. Dozens. Hundreds. Jarin was speechless. Even the combined might of subsector battlefleet couldn't possibly win against this force.
"What do we do Commander?" came a whispered question from Vaughn.
"Command must have gotten this. We will try to head back to Lantanda and fight with our comrades. Alone out here we can do nothing."
"You're right. We should head deeper into the field and exit it on the other side of the sun. That way the enemy shouldn't spot us."
"Agreed. We wait until no more ships come out. Then we move." Jarin said.
The chaos ships continued to exit the warp gate. The flow became a trickle and stopped. Then out came transport ships. Again dozens exited. And Jarin knew they were in big trouble. The chaos forces didn't come to raid and destroy, they came to conquer.
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"Gentleman, you all know why we're here." said the person at the head of the large table.
"As you know, the Phyrias Sector was attacked five years ago by the archenemies forces and tore deep into our territory. Four sub sectors, namely Omalgon, Dementia, Kyron and Lantanda have fallen before we could stem the tide at Adumbria II and now we are at a kind of stalemate.
"I suggest, we undertake a crusade to relieve these worlds from the archenemies' grasp and bring them back to imperial control."
The suggestion led to the expected uproar. Shouts like "too much losses" or "not worth it" came from the assembled group. He memorized the faces of those who weren't deeming it worthy to free imperial worlds and citizens from the grasp of the archenemy.
An Inquisitor stepped forward into the light and the assembly fell silent.
"Your doubts are appreciated and acknowledged. But it doesn't impede the matter. We have to get these sub sectors back or we will show our enemies that they have an easy going with us after our losses during Abbadon's last incursion and our battles against hive fleet Leviathan and the orcs that still hold the forge worlds in the Agrippina sector." he said.
"Thank you Inquisitor. I share your fears about the losses. Fighting chaos is never easy. They are either freaking lunatics or ripe with diseases. We WILL lose men. We WILL have an enormous bloodshed. But we are here to choose the best commanders for this job, so we can make sure, that these losses are as light as possible."
And with these words, the assembly started the long and arduous task of planning.
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"Hey Maxim!"
Maxim turned away from the two Commanders he talked to to look who called him. He saw Anastasius Carter walking fast towards him, a big smile on his face. Seeing Maxim's look, Anastasius stopped shortly before him, the hand he put out for greeting going to his head in a sharp salute.
"Rear Admiral."
Maxim returned the salute.
"Mr. Carter. Meet me in one hour in the officers mess hall. Dismissed."
"Yes, Rear Admiral." said Anastasius and turned away.
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"Alright Gentleman. I think we agreed on the different commanders for this crusade. Let me summarize."
"Overall command lies in the hand of Lord General Hugo van Buyten" nodding to the man sitting to his right, "as he was the leading force of putting together this crusade and has the most experience in leading forces of this size and planning battles of this magnitudes. I'll let him introduce you the rest of his commanding staff. He will also brief you on his overall tactic."
The short and stocky man stood up and cleared his throat.
"As for the tactics I plan a multiple assault with one force for each sector. This is not because I fear the enemy reinforcing each other. Scouts have proven, that each of the four powers claimed one sector and sometimes they even fight themselves in skirmishes and raids. But if we attack only one sub sector at the time, the others have time to fortify themselves and it'll be exponentially harder to flush them out.
"The Omalgon sector is held by forces that follow the Chaos entity known as Khorne. In Dementia, forces apparently connected to Slaanesh hold power, while Kyron is infested by the followers of the plaque god and Lantanda is held by the forces of the entity we know as Tzeentch. Lantanda is also the one place where this incursion originated in the first place. We don't know if the warp gate is still active in the Lantanda system. If it is, we will have to find a way to close this.
"As for the commanders, I have decided the following.
"In the Omalgon sector, the space forces will be commanded by Admiral Konstanza Faris. She has proven herself in numerous space clashes against Orcs and Chaos alike, and is therefore somewhat familiar with their tactics, if you can call it that. As for the ground command, I will appoint General Falim Borus. He commanded 25 regiments during a battle during the 13th Black Crusade against a khornate force and prevailed despite being outnumbered 4 to 1. So he is in my opinion the best choice for this command.
"The space forces in the Dementia sector will be commanded by Admiral Sheamus Hauclir. He is experienced in space warfare and knows how to use the ships placed under his command. The ground forces will be lead by General Jesse Hauclir, brother of Admiral Hauclir. He has experience in battling forces that worship Slaanesh.
"In Kyron, space command goes to Admiral Carlos McNeil. He is known to be a restless pursuer and won't let any ship get away that carries the plaque. General Tyr Bruglir will be in command of the ground forces. Due to the nature of the enemy, every regiment placed there will have to be fully covered therefore most of the motorized regiments will go there.
"Lantanda space forces will be placed under the command of Rear Admiral Maximillian Macharius. I know that he is not as seasoned a commander as the others and only 42 years old, but if you check his inquisitorial record you will see, that he is an expert tactician, known to take on superior forces and emerge victorious. He is also the one responsible for the disappearance of the Fallos Belt ten years ago. The other thing ..."
He turned around to the Inquisitor who nodded. "Everybody has the necessary security clearance." he said.
"Maximillian Macharius is an untouchable. That means, he nullifies every warp activity around him. He wears an inhibitor that prevents his ability to roam unchecked, if you know what I mean. Battling against Tzeentchian forces could mean a lot of warp sorcery on the enemy's side and I need an edge there. The emperor help me, if I ever need it. Also, if we should reach the warp gate he might be the key to close it.
"I will personally command the ground forces in Lantanda. Long range probes show that it's strongest defended sub sector and the terrain doesn't favor us well."
The assembled men murmured but nobody had objections to the Lord Generals choices.
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As Maxim walked into the mess hall, he saw Anastasius sitting at a table close to the window, chewing on something that looked like meat on a stick. As he walked over to him, Anastasius rose to throw him another salute.
"At ease."
"Both men sat down. Before Anastasius could say anything, Maxim spoke.
"Listen, I know we're friends, but when I'm not alone, you should be addressing me with my rank and not yell my name across the observation deck. Is that clear?"
"Absolutely. I'm sorry." Anastasius said.
"So, we got that out of the way. How did you get along the last fifteen years?" Maxim asked.
"I'm still on the resilient. After Urag went into retirement, I became flight commander. We fought during the Dark Eldar attack on Attansic 5 years ago and my bomber wings managed to destroy two of their cruiser sized vessels. After that they fled and left their brethren on the surface to die. How did you do?"
"Well, after the Fallos Belt incident I was rerouted close to the region around Agrippina to battle the orcs there. The imperium is still struggling to get back the forge worlds."
He leaned in close to Anastasius. "One good thing about the orcs having conquered a forge world. The Adeptus Mechanicus was never so forthcoming when you asked them for support. I told them that I needed at least a thousand servitors to improve my ships performance in battle. Less than a week later I got a shipment of two thousand and five hundred of them for me to do what I wanted. After I destroyed an orc kill cruiser it rammed my ship with its momentum. They cut it out and repaired my ship in 3 days after I told them, I was going to destroy every orc ship I encounter."
Maxim checked his watch. "Oh, look at the time. I have a meeting with Admiral Sirius. He is giving me new orders. See you around." Then he got up and left the mess hall.
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Gorak the Beautiful killed the last of his immediate enemies and looked around. As of his orders, his underlings captured many survivors. Despite having conquered the subsectors together, the bond between the four powers shattered after the forces of the false Emperor managed to stop the chaos forces at the battle of Adumbria II. Gorak's piece of the cake was first attacked by Tzeentchian forces, so Gorak retaliated and raided a Tzeentchian conquered planet.
A giggling sound of a prisoner got Gorak out of his thinking. He walked over and smacked the wretched being with a powerful back swing. It landed ten feet away, continuing to giggle.
"What is so funny, you mutated monstrosity??" Gorak rambled.
Calling a chaos influenced being a mutant was inane of course. But if gave Gorak a way to express his rage. The thing seemed to start to talk.
"Funny Gorak. Fighting the forces of my masters, while the forces of the blood god are led by the one man who destroyed your dominion all those years ago..." The rest of the sentence was lost in giggling, followed by a gurgle as Gorak ripped out its throat.
"KILL THEM ALL!!!"
Nothing more coherent came out of Goraks mouth. All he could do was screaming his rage. All this time looking for the one responsible and this being was almost next to him for the last five years.
Gorak swore to hunt him down and slowly kill him.
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Aemos was still sitting on his throne, collecting all the information his minions collected of his archenemy, Harkanos. He had to prevent him from becoming strong enough again. If he was, Aemos knew he would be finished.
But, having persuaded the slaaneshi commander to attack the khornate forces would only make him stronger. As long as his master, Tzeentch, was getting stronger, he himself became stronger.
To be continued...
End of Chapter 1.
Addendum: The battle of Adumbria II
Adumbria II, located in the Adumbria system, is a fortress world at the outer edge of the Omalgon sector. Knowing that the chaos incursion fleet was at least five times bigger than Battlefleet Phyrias, Lord Admiral Korchenbach, supreme commander of Battlefleet Phyrias, decided to lure the chaos fleet to Adumbria. During the fights against the raiders, seeing that he could never defeat them, Korchenback gave the order to fortify the Adumbria system.
Minefields were laid in the outer asteroid belt, weapon stations and torpedo launchers put on the bigger asteroids. The fortress world was fully manned and supplied, depleting the depots of several close worlds. Two Space Marine chapters were ordered to the fortress worlds, lending their fleet strength and almost a thousand Space Marines to the ground forces.
After Korchenbach arrived at Adumbria, he waited two days for stragglers and activated the minefields afterwards. As predicted the Chaos fleets arrived at Adumbria to smash away the last considerable imperial space forces in the Phyrias sector. Thanks to the mines and weapon stations, almost a third of the chaos fleet was destroyed before it even reached the imperial lines.
When it did, the fortress world proved its worth ten fold, destroying several battleships and battlecruisers. The Space Marine ships also proved to be worthy by destroying a lot of ships with their close range batteries. When chaos ground forces landed on the force world, the Space Marines took the brunt of the fighting, driving the landed enemy forces out time and time again, suffering heavy losses themselves. Thousands of guardsman died in the struggles.
When the chaos forces started to gain the upper hand, Korchenbach showed his last hand by having made a secret alliance with a nearby craftworld. A large fleet of Eldar vessels suddenly appeared behind the chaos lines, destroying a lot of cruisers and support vessels, along with several transports, which hadn't unloaded their troops yet, giving the defenders on the fortress world precious breathing room.
With the remainders of the chaos fleet stuck between eldar and imperial forces, they were slowly but surely wiped out. One third of the fleet managed to flee into the warp where the eldar ships couldn't follow. The imperial fleet wasn't in position to pursue. They suffered extreme losses, but Battlefleet Phyrias had all but ceased to exist. The remaining ships are either in repair or distributed around the rest of Phyrias.
Now, Adumbria is like the Cadia of Phyrias. All chaos forces that want to attack the rest of Phyrias have to go through Adumbria. The system is still heavily fortified and a lot of the reinforcements are stationed there to prevent further incursions. Furthermore, Adumbria will be used as a staging point for the crusade to liberate the four subsectors and bring them back under imperial rule.