Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures: Chapter One – Prologue
Lord Admiral Thalia Parrington
The Gloriana-class Battleship was one of the most powerful warships in all of the Imperium. The mighty fleets of the Legiones Astartes were the primary users of these devastating warships, but a few had found their way into particularly important battle groups of the Armada Imperialis. What the general public and many less informed members of the Imperial Army and even the Legiones Astartes didn't know was that the Gloriana was merely a catch-all term developed for a single class of warship.
Scholars argued whether the mighty class of vessel would owe its origins to the Martian Ring of Iron, or the orbital docks of Saturn or Jupiter. The truth however, was that the various patterns of the vessel owed their origin to all three shipwrights. The Saturnyne-pattern of the Gloriana was in heavy use with the Saturnyne Ordo and it is argued that the class alone was what staved off the various threats that had plagued them over the years.
It is this variant and the Jovian-pattern that would later see service in Battlefleet Solar and other Imperialis Armada fleets, as rare as they were. Some argued that it was because it was improper for other organizations in the Imperium to make use of the same vessels used by the Primarchs, however, the vessels created for the Primarchs for the most part came from the Martian Ring of Iron. These other patterns faded into obscurity in the eye of the Imperial public as the Primarchs led the expeditionary fleets with their flagships at the head.
For Lord Admiral Thalia Parrington, her vessel would always hold a special place in her heart. The Saturnyne-pattern Gloriana was little over 21 kilometers long, and had a frightening array of weapons. The prow mounted Ryza-pattern Nova Cannon was the ship's most striking feature, and was a seamless part of the vessel despite being a later retrofit to replace the damaged Jovian-pattern that had originally been mounted on the ship.
The ship's majestic armored prow and ostentatious display of firepower that was the prow slung Nova Cannon served to distract from a Plasma Accelerated Torpedo Tube hidden behind carefully placed blast doors. Dorsal weapons arrays consisted of three deadly and long ranged, but power hungry Godsbane-pattern Lance Battery emplacements. While the dorsal section of the ship was occupied by a single Jovian-pattern Landing Bay for deployment of atmospheric craft, the deployment of which was supported by a pair of Grav-Accelerated Saturnyne-pattern Bombardment Cannons.
Ships of the Imperialis Armada that joined the Expeditionary Fleets preferred to make use of energy weapons, as while they consumed more power and were harder to repair if critically damaged they prevented the weapon from being rendered altogether useless if supply lines were to be affected for any reason. It is for this reason that the Bombardment Cannons were not only used sparingly, but rather begrudgingly, the crew watching over the ammunition stores for the weapon with a vigilance that would put a mother Lion of ancient Terra to shame.
The energy based weapon preference was why the ship was equipped with a pair of Hecutor Plasma Broadsides that 'sandwiched' a Sunsear Las-Broadside, the faster firing laser batteries complementing the sheer power of the plasma broadside. Toward the rear end of the ship, on both sides, was a Jovian-pattern Landing Bay. The Ventral, Starboard and Port bays were all interconnected so that ships and supplies could very easily be shifted between them if need be.
A Castellan Shield Complex system was part of the many gifts the Martian adepts brought with them when the Imperium and the Saturnyne Ordo became allies, and the latter pledged its forces to the massive undertaking that was the Great Crusade. Somehow, the Tech Adepts of Mars had managed to integrate the system with the ship's segmented shielding system that allowed it to shunt power to vectors that were under greater assault.
It never ceased to amaze her how much better the combination of the Energistic Conversion Matrixes and STC based Mars-Pattern Class 5.B "Gamma" Drives were. When you combined that with the ship's Gyro-stabilization Matrix, powerful retro thrusters and arrestor engine baffle system that in essence gave the ship the equivalent of the thrust vectoring system found on terrestrial craft, the vessel behaved more like an oversized cruiser than a battleship. Her crew had proven to her just how much of the case that had been when she'd led the fleet into battle against foul xenos and non-compliant human empires.
Even all of this was not even scratching the technological marvels that made the ship function daily. A long time ago, realizing that this was what man was capable of when they came together. The liberation of her home world, along with her experiences during the Crusade had shown her that if man didn't unite, the universe would have no qualms with driving him into debased madness and deviancy. Open to treaties and dealings with foul xenos species, she didn't believe that there were any xenos species out there that were naïve enough to have 'good intentions' in mind for anyone they came across.
Lord Admiral Thalia Parrington had been serving the Imperium for one hundred and seventy-five years now, and this ship had been serving alongside her for that very same period of time. Most of its bridge crew had long died and been replaced over the years, but Thalia and her XO had been one of the few people that had been a consistent presence on the ship's bridge.
Thalia had been fighting against the enemies of Saturn long before she was fighting against the enemies of man alongside the other forces of the Great Crusade, and in all her years of fighting she never thought the great undertaking to reunite the lost worlds of man would ever end in this, that the mighty Astartes and their near God-like Primarchs would ever bring about a conflict against their brothers and the Imperium that would throw the galaxy itself into turmoil. Now one of the mightiest of them all, Horus Luprecal, no less than the Imperial Warmaster himself was leading the traitors. Oh, how the mighty had fallen.
Had the 21st Expeditionary not suffered such vicious losses in their latest operation against the Selobians of Selob IV, they would not have been sent back to Saturn to lick their wounds, had that not happened then they would not have escaped the treachery of the Warmaster and those who supported them. Seeing as they were slated to reinforce the forces of the Warmaster, but the losses taken meant that the 4th and 5th Saturnyne Rams were almost completely devastated, and combined into a single cohort, with a newly raised unit from Saturn joining to take their place.
She and their leader, Lord Marshall Bertie Lissie, went a very long way back. In fact, they'd served together as part of the attempts to free Saturn from xenos oppression. The Saturnyne Fleets were mobilized, and Thalia was attached to her father's fleet as they made a push to take back the moon. However, it would soon become apparent that it was an elaborate trap. Their fleet found themselves surrounded, and under fire from ground side defenses.
It became clear, that the only option was to try and get some troops down to silence the guns. A certain Marshall, Marshall Lissie in fact, had volunteered his men for the job. Thalia needed to get them close enough for their dropships to get them down to the surface. Surrounded, any attempt to break formation would spell certain doom. It was then that Thalia's father, recognizing the futility of their current situation, led a diversionary charge on the enemy lines.
It had its intended effect, the Xenos and captured Saturnyne ships were forced to attack Lord Admiral Parrington's ships. Thalia had two options, try and help her father and likely die alongside him, or get Marshall Lissie and his men close enough to get the guns offline. It was a decision that would weigh heavy in her heart for many years to come, but she used her father's distraction to get Marshall Lissie's Saturnyne Rams close enough to the planet to get their smaller dropships down.
Her father's last words to her were to tell her that he was very proud of the woman she'd grown into, and he knew she'd always do what was right, no matter how much it hurt. It was the one time she was grateful for the helmet she wore, so that her crew members didn't see the tears flowing freely down her face.
However, with the guns eventually taken down, what was left of the fleet were able to rout the Xenos ships for the time being. They'd won, for now. As a result of her actions, and given the loss of her father, she was promoted to Lord Admiral. A battered, but prized Victory-class Battleship was given to her to command. The Saturnyne Fleet held out against these xenos and the Ringers for long, and with the arrival of the Imperium, Thalia was able to lead her forces alongside theirs to take back their worlds. The brutal efficiency with which she worked, was not lost on the Imperial commanders or her own superiors. When the time came to join the Great Crusade, Thalia was given command of a freshly constructed Gloriana-class Battleship, one that was constructed specifically to replace the one her father had.
The Great Crusade wound on from then, and she and Bertie had formed a close friendship, and then perhaps what was little more than a close friendship. Happily married more than a hundred years was not often something one would hear someone say, but in all fairness it had taken Bertie the better part of eighty years to actually get her to agree. It was stupid, and ridiculous to some, but few understood the issues of trying to maintain a relationship when you're managing the Naval assets of a fleet as large as the one she was in command of. No matter how well Bertie played it off, she knew he was having issues as well.
"Here's the ground forces manifest, ma'am," said her XO, her voice snapping Thalia out of her thoughts as she looked up from the holographic display of the fleet that her command throne was displaying. Captain Serrina Mojaro stood over her, auburn hair that normally reached up till her shoulders was neatly tied and tucked her officer's cap, not a spot on her Solar-pattern Void Hardened Carapace Armor, each plate reflecting the Lord Admiral's own face in them. Serrina's officer's power sword and Saturnine-pattern 'Officer' Plasma Pistol sat in their sheath and holster respectively.
Thalia flashed her a respectful smile, followed by an equally respectful nod as she took the dataslate from her. "Thank you, Captain," she said, looking at the device's display. She returned the nod and went back to observing the status of the ship by monitoring the various bridge crew members. As he looked at the information on the screen in front of him, joining the 21st was a detachment of the Legio Cybernetica, Skitarii and even a detachment from the Collegia Titanica's Legio Irae.
Normally, Thalia would question what target would warrant this sort of force but at the same time would preclude the use of Astartes. But she knew the stakes. After news of the Istvaan III massacre had reached Terra, thanks to still loyal Astartes from the now traitor Legions, the Emperor prepared a massive response from seven other Legions to prepare to head out and confront the arch-traitor. But it was clear, without cutting off Horus' support from those Mechanicus worlds that had supported him, those clearly no longer allied to the Imperium, there would be no winning this war. Their orders were simple, attack a traitor Mechanicus forge world on the edge of what was now traitor space. Unfortunately, because as many Astartes as possible were necessary to potentially bring down the arch-traitor, none could be spared on this diversionary attack.
But this attack as everyone knew, both those directing it and those taking part in it, would not take place without heavy losses on both sides, and it was hoped that despite these losses, the damage to the forge world would be enough to prevent them from supplying the traitors, buying time for the other Legions to withdraw from their current engagements.
However, this was to be their last 'hurrah', their last journey out into the void. If they came back, they were to be decommissioned as with the rest of the Saturnyne Ordo's Navy, which apparently didn't fit the Departmento Munitorum's vision of the Imperialis Armada. All things said and done, this was hardly the worst way to go out, she could think of several that were worse.
Placing the dataslate on the armrest of her command throne, Thalia turned to her XO, "Captain Mojaro, inform Lord Marshall Lissie and Archmagos Reductor Hypax that I'd like to meet with them. Tell the Marshall that I'll be awaiting the arrival of the Archmagos in the port side launch bay." Thalia and Bertie both knew Hypax well. He'd been among the first forces of the nascent Imperium that they'd encountered, and the three of them had formed a fast friendship. They'd met years later, while serving alongside the forces of the Emperor's favorite son, Horus Luprecal, before Hypax and his force from the Ordo Reductor departed to join the enigmatic 20th Legion on a compliance operation. Such were the forces of the Ordo Reductor, drifting from battlefield to battlefield, and it was this that had earned them the moniker of the 'Brazen Vultures', both due to how their Galleas-class Long Ranged Warships they made use of had the appearance of a giant metal vulture and due to their battlefield roaming modus operandi.
"Aye, ma'am," said Captain Mojaro as she went about her orders, walking over to the communications station to inform the crewman of the message she wished to send. With that, Lord Admiral Thalia Parrington stood to her feet. She turned around, heading for the bridge exit, passing beeping cogitator banks and various bridge stations, crewed by Naval officers as well as Tech-Priests and their adepts.
As she walked on, the red robed form of Tech-Priest Severin stepped into his path. All sorts of pipes, cables and appendages snaked out from beneath his robes, a servo harness on his back. Most of the harness servo arms were folded out of reach to take up less space on the ship's bridge. "Lord Admiral," said Severin in his usual grating voice that was further distorted by his vox-caster. "Cogitator interlinks performing at maximum efficiency. I have personally checked the Auto-Stabilized Logis Targeter and further calibrations with our weapon systems given previous engagement data has increased accuracy by a total of two percent. I'm proud to report that the targeting matrix is as optimized as possible. All other automated systems are responding as they should."
"Thank you, Tech-Priest," replied Thalia. The complicated automated systems were required for a ship of this size to be able to efficiently target smaller craft, especially with its limited traverse broadside weapon mounts. This was something that few in the Departmento Munitorum understood, and she'd heard of a motion they'd tried to pass which removed autoloaders from smaller warships. The mere concept had given her a splitting headache as she tried to understand the brain dead thought process that spawned such an idea. She'd long given up trying to look at the man's face with all the cables and tubes flowing into the man's long hood that obscured his head and the machinery that covered his face. "I trust you'll inform me of any developments," she then said as her way of saying that she had nothing further to say.
"Of course, Lord Admiral," said the Tech-Priest as he stepped out of the Thalia's path, humming to himself, an electronic distortion giving a slightly eerie edge to his voice. Continuing toward the exit of the bridge, the Admiral caught sight of the Master Gunner looking over the weapon's consoles of several other crew man, smiling to herself as she heard the veteran remind the comparatively less experienced crew men about the defining characteristics of each of the ship's weapon systems, both defensive and offensive. She'd witnessed rookie gunners fail to understand the interface of the point defense weapons and overshoot a target. It was possible for the ship's targeting cogitators to control the guns, but manning the guns freed up its processing power to computer more accurate solutions for the main guns.
Nodding to the quartet of Saturnyne Void Hoplites led by Void Sergeant Boggs, she walked out of the bridge making her way toward the elevator that would take her down to the hangar. As she looked through the hallways of the ship, her ship, she dearly hoped that nothing got close enough to make a boarding attempt. Mechanicus forces used all manner of weapons that were deadly to organics, from phosphor weapons to rad weapons, she didn't relish the prospect of having to defend the bridge from such a foe, and she doubly hoped that any traitor Astartes didn't manage to board. Even though she had Ogryn Charonite squads, who were quite able to hold their own against even Astartes with their Charonite claws which could tear through ceramite armor plating with ease, she knew that the Astartes were deadly fast and given time could potentially overwhelm the Ogryn.
Thalia incidentally walked past one of those Ogryn units, their leader smacked his hand into his head in a clumsy imitation of a salute, "Mam." Thalia returned the salute, albeit with far more finesse, before continuing on her way. She sighed as she pressed the call switch for the elevator. With a low beep, the elevator arrived on the floor, opening its doors as a synthesized voice called out which floor it was on.
Once she had pressed the appropriate deck, the Admiral leaned back against the rear wall of the elevator. Her hands fell to the railing she was leaning on, just above her Volkite Serpenta pistol hanging from a dark brown grox hide holster on her left hip and Charnable saber that hung from its sheath on her right. The Lord Admiral was quite the accomplished duelist, and was just as good as she was back during her academy days where she'd seen off many an opponent
The constant droning of the elevator was a comfort to the Lord Admiral as it continued its path down to the main hangar deck, she reminded herself that it wasn't that she didn't like their chances of success, but that she didn't like their chances of coming out of the mission alive. The elevator slowed to a halt as its doors opened with a hydraulic hiss as a synthesized voice announced the deck it was on.
Stepping out, the Admiral walked down the passageway until she came to the blast door that opened out into the hangar, pressing the activation rune, the blast doors began opening with a hiss, and as soon as they were open wide enough to let her through the Admiral stepped through. As soon as she stepped through, the Admiral could see the ship's vast compliment of Corsair Void bombers and Saturnyne-pattern Fury Interceptors. Servitors, Enginseers and the maintenance staff of the Imperial Armada gave the craft final checks before the fleet made ready to jump so that on arrival they would be ready to stream out of the hangar into the black void of space, their crew ready to fight and die for the Imperium.
Missile carrying servitor controlled ammunition carts carried missiles to both the fighters and the bombers. The rotary missile racks were lowered down from the underside of the Corsair Void Bombers as heavily muscled, augmented servitors lifted the missiles and loaded them into the rack under the watchful eye of a nearby Enginseer. Another Enginseer and group of accompanying servitors were attaching anti-armor missiles into the bay of a Fury Interceptor, which while far smaller than those being loaded into the Corsair Void Bombers, possessed highly advanced targeting cogitators and advanced thruster systems that allowed them to strike true into enemy craft or point defense turrets on enemy ships.
On the far end, she could make out the forms of Primaris Lightning Strike Fighters, Sunfury missiles being affixed under their wings. Thalia always liked the Voss pattern Lightning, it's forced-plasma Ramjet gave it great speed even if it didn't have much armor. It was designed for low fast strikes, to strike and fly off before the enemy even knows what hit them, it's Ramjet diffusion grid allowing it to evade the detection of even the most powerful of thermal detection measures.
Across from the Lightning Strike Fighter was the Thunderbolt Heavy Fighter, owing its origin to the forge world of Cypra Mundi, and hence was only a later addition to the hangars of the Saturnyne Ordo's ships. The heavy fighter had been the reason that she'd been able to keep air superiority while the lighter armed Lightnings were re-armed, for if not for the Thunderbolt she knew that enemy fighters would have punished their forces for the temporary lack in air cover. For that reason alone, she was glad for the ungainly looking craft.
As she made her way toward one of the hangar elevators that were ferrying supplies between decks, not wanting to go back to the elevator she came down on, she came across a group of Imperial Armada pilots walking away from their Starhawk bombers before their leader saw her and barked out a crisp, "Officer on deck!" His comrades straightened up and snapped off a salute as well.
Thalia returned the salute, before then letting her hand fall to her side, "At ease." Instead of just awkwardly walking past the pilots, she decided to make some small talk, a habit she'd maintained throughout her career. It was a good way to get a sense of what the crew was thinking, "You boys ready?"
"Aye ma'am!" said their leader. "Our birds are fueled and ready for us to kick some traitor ass, ma'am." The 'ma'am' was almost hastily added as an afterthought. Unlike Terran fighter jocks, Saturnyne fighter jocks were a lot more informal, and perhaps a little looser, but they always got the job done. It was a pity that many of them would not return from their mission. This was in contrast most of the officers that made up the ranks of the Saturnyne Ordo, who were very 'prim and proper'. Thalia however, though she was technically of noble birth, her mother wasn't, and Thalia had trouble getting along with many of the other nobles.
"Good to hear, pilot," said Thalia, giving them a polite smile seeing as her helmet was clipped to her belt, feeling a sense of camaraderie with these pilots. She remembered feeling and acting much like these pilots when she was that age. However, it had long since been tempered by years of service. "We'll make these traitors rue the day they decided to turn their backs on the Imperium."
"Just try and leave some of them alive for us, ma'am," said the pilot, a broad smile on the man's face, both out of enthusiasm and to return her own, clearly.
Thalia chuckled at the comment made by the Starhawk pilot for a moment before nodding at him, "Dismissed, pilot."
The man nodded, "Ma'am." He then continued on his path out of the hangar. "Come on boys." The other pilots followed behind their squadron leader. The Admiral continued toward the cargo elevator in the hangar, stepping on just before the preoccupied crewman pressed the button.
"Cutting it a little close crewman," said Thalia, who'd just made the distance with a quick dash and so she sounded a little more annoyed than she actually was.
"Ma'am!" blurted the crewman who snapped around, not having noticed the Admiral. "Didn't see you there, ma'am! Sorry, ma'am!" The aforementioned crewman snapped off a nervous and shaky salute.
"Don't worry about it, crewman," said the Admiral, then pausing for a minute to catch her breath. "I trust everything is going according to procedure?" Based on the determined work going on in the hangar so far and as she had seen earlier, the Admiral knew that their spirits were strong. Some may have been scared, but they were ready to fight. It was nothing less than she'd come to expect from her crew over the years.
"We'll make sure our boys are fueled and loaded with ordinance to blow those traitors into the warp," came the reply. "No matter what happens, we're ready to serve the Imperium, ma'am." Thalia didn't need to listen to the man's words to see his determination, she could see it in his eyes.
"And the Imperium expects nothing less, crewman," she replied in return. For many of them, this would be the last fight they'd ever fight, but she knew that they'd make it their best. The crewman nodded, turning his attention back to the dataslate in his hand as he checked the crates of ammunition just ahead of him, lying on their pallets, with the elevator continuing to let out a mechanical groan on its way down.
The elevator eventually came to a stop with a reverberating dull thud, Thalia stepped off, letting the crewman continue with his work as she looked around the hangar. Here, the hangar was filled with transport craft. Arvus Lighters, Saturnyne-pattern Stormbirds and Ursh-pattern Jackal and Prowler gunships all painted with the dull grey paint of the 21st, the black ram of the Saturnyne Rams proudly painted on the side of each craft's hull, while the Imperial Aquila adorned the wings of each craft.
She paused for another moment to look at the craft before her. Many thought the Stormbird a craft that was used solely by the Legiones Astartes, but what many failed to realize was that the Stormbird was a catch-all term, describing many a pattern of gunship that could full fill the heavy transport role as well. The Saturnyne Ordo had a gunship that fit that bill as well, what the name was earlier she couldn't quite recall, she'd gotten so used to calling it the Saturnyne-pattern Stormbird that the earlier name had faded from her memory, and she didn't see the purpose of looking the information up in their database.
The Saturnyne-pattern Raven gunship was a venerable craft, but the fact remained that forges of Ursh produced a better gunship than they had, but it hadn't taken much to secure a deal with the forge smiths of Ursh. Ursh would produce most of the craft, engines, hull, control surfaces and armor, while the Saturnyne Ordo would produce avionics, weapons, power plant and environmental systems. Parked in rows, both variants of the Ursh produced Saturnyne modified Jackal and Prowler gunships were present. The former used largely as fire support and tactical transport for Hoplite infantry, the latter which was equipped with advanced stealth features was used by the elite Veletaris.
A smile formed on her face as she remembered meeting with Lord Commander Namatjira. They'd agreed on the untapped potential the Jackal had, and how only it's production costs alone kept it from being a more widely used vehicle. He'd wagered that if not for its smaller sized troop bay it'd have been in service with the Legiones Astartes. Namatjira and Bertie however disagreed on which vehicle between the Scarab and the Dracosan was a better armored vehicle. The two called it a day and agreed to trade a few Scarabs and Dracosans to see how they performed. Namatjira and Bertie were both quite pleased with the other's vehicles that they ordered enough of each from Terra and Saturn respectively to an entire Mechanized Infantry division.
"Ma'am!" said a voice behind her, and for a moment the Admiral was starting to regret leaving the bridge, while she did stand on formality to an extent, this was getting a little tedious. She then recognized it as the voice of Lieutenant Drakken Dardashti, the leader of her protective detail. "We had to ask Captain Mojaro where you were, didn't think you'd leave the bridge before we got there."
Turning around, she smiled at the Lieutenant, "I don't think that anyone would try something at this point Lieutenant." The six-man detail of Veletaris were equipped with Volkite Chargers, deadly energy weapons that were capable of tearing apart even the most heavily armored foes, something that they needed now more than ever. Like other Veletaris units he had what many in the Imperial Army called 'Light Power armor', only it wasn't so much power armor as it was servo assisted carapace armor, which served to enhance the deadly capabilities of those that made up the ranks of the elite Veletaris.
"On the contrary, ma'am," said the Lieutenant, his helmet's vox-caster distorting his already gravel tone. "I think now's a time more than ever to be worried about someone trying something." His tone was serious, and the Lieutenant presented nothing but an inscrutable Saturnyne-pattern Enhanced Void Hardened Carapace Armor helmet, so the Admiral just nodded.
"I may be pushing two hundred, Lieutenant, but I'm not a defenseless old woman," said Thalia, a smile on her face. "In fact, if I remember correctly, Lieutenant, it was I who beat you in our last duel, was it not?" she asked in her best, 'little old woman' voice.
Drakken sighed, "Correct, ma'am. I believe you did win our last duel. Still, playing it safe never hurt anyone, and with respect I believe as head of your protective detail, I reserve the rights to shoot or stab the bastard trying to kill you." He paused for a moment and then added, "Though Lord Marshall Lissie has quite the claim as well."
Thalia shook her head, naturally the implication there was that as her husband Bertie naturally would like to 'run through' or shoot the 'blighter' who dared try and harm his 'dashing naval officer'. Of course, she'd heard such promises from Bertie before. "Speaking of my husband, Lieutenant, would you happen to have an idea of just where he might be?" asked Thalia.
"I'd look for his Falchion, ma'am," said Drakken as he nodded at the far end of the hangar where Solar Auxilia tanks were being loaded onto Stormbirds with vehicle carrying provisions for preparation to be launched at a moment's notice. Squinting, she could just make out the form of a Falchion Super Heavy Tank Destroyer with the added antennas and scanner arrays of a command tank.
"Then I think I know where the good Lord Marshall is," said Thalia as she walked toward the Super Heavy tank.
Lord Marshall Bertie Lissie
Lord Marshall Lissie was supervising the loading of his cohort's tanks onto the transports. He wanted them to be ready to move the moment the Lord Admiral had cleared enough traitor ships from them to begin their landing. As he watched, he mentally ticked off the vehicle off a list of tanks that his cohort had access to. So far, his Cohorts Stormlord, Stormblade and Baneblade Super Heavy Tanks had been loaded onto the transports. The two other Falchion Super Heavy Tank destroyers were still not loaded however, and that was just for his own Cohort, he'd left the other Cohort Marshall's to supervise the loading of their own vehicles. After all, he couldn't babysit everyone, now could he?
The Cohorts' Falchion Super Heavy Tank Destroyers were their primary anti-titan weapon, armed with twin Volcano cannons they could pose a serious threat to enemy Titans. They had these largely Legiones Astartes equivalent weapons to face off against any potential traitor Titan Legions that they might encounter at the renegade forge world, not to mention heavily defended static positions. While the Stormblade, which was in fair number in the Cohort was also capable of damaging a Titan with its Ryza pattern Plasma Blastgun, it was largely incapable of dropping a Titan's void shields.
Bertie leaned against the pintle mounted autocannon, the fire selector switch obviously set to safe, as he watched the last of the Stormlord Super Heavy tanks loaded on. This particular one was armed with an extra pair of sponsons, a search light and had a pintle mounted Storm Bolter. The cohorts that made up the 21st Expeditionary's infantry were very fond of the Stormlord, its large transport hold behind the main gun allowed them to use it a mobile fortress as they advanced up on the enemy, it's heavy armor weathering all but the most mighty of blows.
The last time he'd truly seen one of them blow up it was when a massive point defense laser had blown it and it's three escorting Lykaon Cascade tanks. All of the Lykaon variants had been loaded, save for the Lykaon variant which mounted a Jovian-pattern Plasma Carronade, and the last he heard from his Enginseers the plasma coils were giving them issues during sustained firing, and he'd much rather the issue be resolved before the tanks were loaded than for a critical containment field failure to occur while they were fighting the monstrosities of the fallen Mechanicus.
Thankfully, all the support and artillery weapons as well as the armored personnel carriers had been loaded. The Dracosan Armored Carrier would be the only way the cohort's infantry would survive to be able to push into traitor lines, it's thick armor provided defense against radiation and phosphor weapons favored by the Mechanicus.
He couldn't however, deploy the much longer ranged Mars-Solar pattern Basilisks until their landing zone was secure, but the much more heavily armored Minotaur could very certainly be deployed along with the Rapier weapons platforms.
That was when his eye caught sight of a tank he'd come to hate for the simple fact that the damned rattletrap contraption was a logistics nightmare and a safety hazard to boot. "Vaarsuvius," he called down into the tank below. "What the devil is that damned rattletrap piece of junk still doing on our ship!? I thought I'd made it quite clear that the eyesore of a logistical nightmare was not to be dropped off on us again!?"
"We could always rig it with explosives and send it right into their lines, sir," countered Vaarsuvius, remembering his superior officer's hatred for the Stormhammer Super Heavy Tank. A smile formed on Bertie's face, after more than a century of serving alongside him, Vaarsuvius knew exactly what he was thinking. Poor chap hadn't really wanted Rejuvenat treatments, but Bertie had yet to find an officer who could replace him as his second in command, and Vaarsuvius eventually agreed. Seemed that he had that sort of effect on most people in his life. After all, that's how he got Thalia to finally warm up to the idea.
Movement in the left corner of his eyes however caught his attention, a woman in Solar-pattern Void Hardened Carapace Armor, with rank bars and epaulets of a naval officer. Flanking her on either side were Veletaris from the 21st, Lieutenant Drakken and his squad if he recognized their unit markings correctly. This would mean this was none other than his dear wife. As the group came closer, he could make out her steel grey eyes and her always neatly trimmed hair that framed her features. He remembered back when they'd only just married how he couldn't stop embarrassing himself by grinning like a school boy every time he saw her, thankfully for them both that was something he had managed to reign in. "Lord Admiral," he said, addressing her by her rank instead of her first name. "What brings you down to this part of the ship?"
"Did I not send word through Captain Mojaro to tell you that we're supposed to await the arrival of Archmagos Hypax?" asked the Admiral, half smiling. 'Oh dear, it would appear you're in the dog house again, Bertie old boy,' he thought to himself as he tried coming up with a reasonable excuse. He knew Hypax wouldn't mind the delay, but it was terribly rude to keep a guest waiting, especially an old friend like Hypax.
"I'm merely waiting productively, my dear Admiral," replied Bertie with the most charming tone of voice he could muster. She just shook her head, even one hundred years later he was just the same. "The Magos is quite obviously taking his sweet time too, probably doing the same thing I'm doing, organizing the men." The multitude of Skitarii, Legio Cybernetica Automata, Ordo Reductor tanks and armored vehicles and not to mention the Titans of the Legio Irae couldn't be the easiest thing to coordinate, then again, Hypax had a knack for this sort of thing. It was probably that combined with his undoubtable loyalty to the Imperium that got him assigned to this operation.
"Quite right," said the Lord Admiral, nodding. "Come then, I'm sure given that you're almost done, he's probably already on his way here." Almost as if on cue, she raised her hand to her ear, listening to the transmission coming in on her microbead. "Thank you, Captain."
"That's Hypax's Stormbird coming in then, is it?" asked Bertie as he stepped out onto the side of his tank, tossing the dataslate to his Vaarsuvius who caught it in a display of practiced ease, clearly having gotten used to his tendencies after one hundred years of serving alongside him. "Be down in a jiffy," added Bertie as he leapt down off the side of the tank, landing just short of the Lord Admiral. Noticing the look she was giving him, he continued on toward the standard designated landing zone with feigned innocence, "Well let's not keep the man waiting then."
The two walked toward the middle portion of the hangar, where all newly arrived craft that weren't a part of the ship's compliment come in for a landing. "Ready to take a stab at those traitors?" asked Thalia, turning her head in his direction. It was a subject that they'd largely avoided speaking much about before this, brought on by the fact that not only was it not a very pleasant topic as far as conversation topics went and they'd just about only received word two days prior, rather unfortunately interrupting their shore leave.
"Just like old times," chuckled Bertie, a confident smirk appearing on his face. "You just get me and my men close enough and we'll make sure that nothing's standing." His mind went back to when he'd first said that to her, over one hundred and seventy-two years ago. When he was just a Marshall, and she was a young Captain. The odds were very much against them then as they were now, as they were then. He saw the slightest of smiles form on Thalia's features, as no doubt her mind was flooded with memories, much as his was. It may be their last fight, but he'd be damned it if wasn't their best.
As they were talking, a dull black Tempestavex-pattern Stormbird flew into the hangar bar, the noise of its four vectored rocket engines drowning out any hopes of continued conversation. The massive craft looked like a miniature version of the Galleas-class it left, four vectored engines now folding back into the massive wings. The craft's Heavy Gatling Bolt Cannon mounted on the underside of its sharp beak-like nose twitched from side to side once before the servitor piloted automata craft set down on four landing struts that resembled the legs of a bird more than mechanical struts. The craft's forward assault ramp lowered with a hiss and atmosphere poured out as the airlock cycled.
Out of the haze of atmospheric gasses two Conqueror-pattern Battle Automata and four Thallax stepped out of the craft. The two Conqueror Battle Automata wielded massive heavy chain blades sized for them in their left 'hand' and a massive Volkite Culverin in the right with a Solex-pattern Heavy Lascannon was slung over their left shoulder. Two of the Thallax had Multilasers, rapid firing powerful anti-infantry weapons that could scythe down hordes of infantry, while the other two carried Phased-Plasma Fusils, weapons that Bertie had seen light up the night sky with salvos of deadly energy.
Once his escort had stepped out, Hypax himself stepped out. Forced to be interred within an arcane life-sustaining device following grievous injuries that he sustained during a compliance action, Hypax used a modified Conqueror-pattern Battle Automata as his 'body'. In one massive arm, Hypax has a deadly Darkfire Cannon. Mounted on the left shoulder is a twin Mauler-pattern Heavy Bolter. In his right hand is a deadly blade that bears resemblance to the Tempest war blade mounted on Castigator-pattern Imperial Knight chassis. The chassis itself is painted in the standard matte black of the Ordo Reductor, with D-07 painted on the right shoulder and just below the right armored knee pad.
Bertie knew that he concealed a lot more underneath the rest of the chassis, but as Hypax had lamented once, they were all 'sadly various utility tools' as the reactor 'didn't have enough power for all the weapon systems I wanted, and the risk of being consumed by an overloading Darkfire weapon was not appealing'. An ear-to-ear smile formed on both Thalia and his face as they saw Hypax. "Archmagos Hypax," said Thalia with a respectful bow. "Good to see that you could join us."
"It is only fitting, my friends, that we are assigned to this operation together," intoned Hypax in his monotone vox-distorted voice that was off-putting to many. Not to the two of them however, and the two of them however were long past the point where such trivial things mattered to them. Hypax was their friend, and they weren't going to let this get in the way of their friendship.
"Shall we continue this conversation elsewhere?" asked Thalia. "Somewhere where we can discuss this in more detail?" The hangar wasn't exactly a briefing room and didn't exactly offer the facilities of a full-fledged briefing room.
"Of course," said Hypax, before adding a moment later, "though maybe this time keep the fine china away from me. I understand the Lord Primarchs' problem now, everything seems terribly fragile when you get to this size." Hypax was just about as large as some of the Primarchs, not nearly as tall as the taller of them, but at the same time somewhat taller than the shorter of them.
Thalia led the way to the briefing room, which wasn't far from the hangar, thanks to the sensible design of the ship. As soon as they entered the briefing room, Bertie's eyes immediately fell on three individuals, two men and one woman. Two of them, one of the men and the woman were clad in a black form fitting body glove. The man had a load bearing harness on which were various different large caliber rounds and magazines. His face was hidden by a mask, which had red lenses in place of eyes and was of a mostly dull metal construction. The man was tall too, easily around six and a third foot tall. It was only after processing the rest of his appearance did he notice the rifle, that was easily almost as long as the man was tall, slung across his back.
The woman was lithe, and her body glove left very little to the imagination. Bertie reminded himself that she was more than trained to use the various weapons on her person and didn't doubt that she had several concealed weapons on her person as well. There were three daggers strapped to her right thigh, no doubt for easy access. Hanging from her belt on the left side was a strange pistol of some kind, it's barrel was a transparent section with some sort of green glow contained within, and on her right, was a metal gauntlet of some sort. Both had what was presumably power cables going up toward her back.
The final man was clad in a long brown robe, and unlike his two comrades, Bertie could see his face. He wasn't much shorter than the sniper, only about two inches if he was to guess. The man had dark skin, and he could clearly make out a stubble on the man's face under his hood, which was drawn. A lit Lho-stick stuck out from his mouth. His right hand had a simple black fingerless combat gloves, while his left had a very complicated looking gauntlet mounted device that was displaying a hololithic display pane. As the man tapped at the display with his right hand, his cloak flowed back enough to reveal a Ikanos pattern Bolt Pistol with a sound and flash suppressor attached.
To Bertie, and from the look on his friend's face, to Thalia as well, it was quite obvious who they were. These were clearly Imperial Throne Agents of some kind. A moment after they had stepped into the room, the hooded man look up from his display, "Ah, Lord Admiral, Lord Marshall, Archmagos," he said nodding at each of them after removing the Lho-stick from his mouth and extinguishing it against the chest plate of carapace armor he wore. "Operative Arold," he said. "My colleagues and I were dispatched to assist you."
The plan of attack had already been made, but the three commanders wanted to go over them once more. "Understood Operative Arold, your assistance is most appreciated," said Lord Admiral Parrington. When it came to assistance from Terra itself, such as the three Throne Agents now standing in front of them, it was better not to ask too many questions. Any at all if you knew what was best for you, and Thalia was perceptive enough to know better than to do so.
Thalia began working the controls of the holotable at the center of the room before the cloak clad Throne Agent spoke up. "Allow me," said Operative Arold as he tapped and swiped at the hololithic panes projected by his gauntlet before a map of the forge world appeared on the holotable. "There."
"Thank you," said the Lord Admiral as she gestured to the lines of defense stations and the defense monitors clustered around them. The Mechanicus defense monitors Bertie noted, were not that different from the ones used by the Imperialis Armada. Frigate sized craft with weapons batteries and lance weapons, but where the difference lay was that the Mechanicus variants were clearly automated to a far larger degree. Just ahead of the planet, a fairly large fleet of Mechanicus Cruisers and Light Cruisers was present. "Once we've arrived in the system, our fleets will open up with a Nova Cannon and Torpedo barrage. The objective is to cripple much of the traitor fleet while our fleet moves into optimal weapons range. At that point, massed lance and weapon battery fire will provide covering fire for our Avenger-class Grand Cruisers to move in and break a hole in the enemy's lines, and then keep that hole open while the rest of the fleet moves in and finishes the remnants of the traitors."
As the Lord Admiral spoke, the actions she described were displayed in holographic form. "It is then, that we will begin our next objective. We will deploy a diversionary attack using the bulk of our forces to draw the traitors out. The home field advantage should make them overconfident, as should the defense guns and void shield generators placed around their main forges. While the bulk of our forces are engaged, a team comprised of Operative Arold and his colleagues, as well as Sicarian Infiltrators and a Veletaris unit will infiltrate and disable the void shield generator, allowing our ships to bombard the defense guns from long range, allowing an armored push to damage enough of the main forge till one of our ships can get within orbital strike range to finish the job. From there, after assessing the situation, we'll move on to our secondary objectives."
"Sounds as good a plan as any," said Bertie, nodding as he considered the places it could go wrong, such as if the infiltration team were to fail. But they didn't have much choices, the defense guns in place were strong enough to take on Titans, including some of the larger more powerful Titans in the Legio Irae. If they could take on Titans, they would have no problems in dealing with his tanks. The current plan was the best and quite honestly one of their only choices. After that, it was clockwork, they had more than enough forces to hold the traitor garrison and he was confident that portion of the plan would surely hold.
"The wrath of the Omnissiah will be poured out in full measure on these traitors," said Hypax as he studied the map in front of him. "We are ready," he said, then with the mechanical whirring of servos he glanced at his two old friends before adding, "as we'll ever be."
"As is the 21st," said Bertie proudly. "We'll deliver the judgment of Terra to those traitors." Interestingly enough, the three throne agents did not say anything.
The Lord Admiral also, did not look for an answer from them either, "Then it is settled, I leave you to return to your men. I must begin our final preparations before we make the jump."
With that, all the room's occupants departed their own ways, to ready themselves and their men for what must be done. As she was leaving, Bertie caught Thalia's attention and mouthed, 'Be careful'. To which she mouthed back, 'You as well.'
Clade Vindicare Operative Meyek Maksimov
It had never been done before, three different assassins of three different clades all working together. Three different clades that could be no more different from each other at that. The Vanus, that preferred to wield information as a weapon and have others make the kill in their stead. Callidus, masters and infiltration and subterfuge, their shape shifting operatives able to take on any identity, and certainly some of the galaxy's most capable close quarters combatants who while certainly not as strong as an Astartes were certainly much more agile and dexterous. Then there was Meyek's own Clade, Vindicare, easily the best marksmen in the entirety of the Imperium. Every part of their equipment tailored for the job, their weapons, their mind and even their body.
This however, was no cooperation between Clades. Ranked at Epsilon-Dan, Meyek knew all too well about how each Clade were always trying to justify their own existence, sometimes over the others. This would not happen until they were truly desperate, concluded Meyek. No, what had happened between Meghann, Ray and himself was between three people who saw no more reason to not work together when their own lives and quite possibly the safety of the Imperium was at stake.
Of course, it wasn't nearly as easy as that, and it took a while and some long tense moments of staring down each other's weapons to come to an agreement.
One hour earlier, storage bay H-01B
The storage bays near the main hangar were a fantastic place to hide if you didn't want to be seen by a ship's crew. Prior to leaving for a combat mission, they've already moved the spares that they need from the storage to a more easily accessible temporary parts store in the hangars themselves. But of course, if you were unlucky enough to still be there during a combat situation, and doubly unlucky enough for there to be a need for parts not taken out earlier, then you were in trouble.
But then again, If you were this unlucky, then you really shouldn't be an assassin in the first place. Because no matter what people told you, assassination required a certain degree of luck as well. While training, skill, preparation and the right equipment offset this degree, it never removed it altogether. After all, there was never a way to account for every single factor in a mission.
This, was one of those times. It had never been mentioned to the veteran assassin that there would be other operatives from the Officio Assassinorum here. Yet, here was, looking at the lithe form of what was clearly a Callidus Assassin. Meyek recognized her war gear the moment he laid eyes on her. Meyek had one job, to help the other forces of the Imperium destroy or disable the void shield generator protecting the facility, and preventing the use of orbital bombardment in destroying the defense cannons that prevented the Titans and Super Heavy Tanks from moving in on the planet's primary forge.
If Meyek was paid, he'd bet that this was what her objectives were too. Many plans ran through his mind as he stood on a stack of large containers, hiding in the room's shadows. His stealth suit already rendered him invisible, but you could never be too careful. He continued to look at the woman through his Exitus rifle's scope. His spy mask analyzing the target, telling him that the quickest way to kill her would be to put a bullet in her brain.
As he was considering what to do, he heard a little squeak and noticed a little rodent scurrying about just ahead of him. It looked like maybe this storage room needed a better looking through, which was funny, because this was one of the better storage rooms that he'd been on as far as Imperialis Armada ships were concerned. He finally made his decision and with his crosshairs settled over her head, he opened a vox channel to her mask's receiver, "So, it's an awfully crowded cargo bay, isn't it?"
"I knew I was not alone," said the Callidus as she got to her feet quickly, beginning to move around the room, seemingly in search of him. She also seemed to catch on that he was a fellow assassin very quickly, after all, only an assassin could stalk another assassin. She wasn't dead, which meant that in her mind he was either a fool or not an enemy, yet, "Given that I am the only Clade Callidus operative on this mission, it means that you are likely one of those Vindicares, hiding behind your rifle scope."
"That's me," said Meyek over the vox back as he watched her walk behind another set of containers. His auspex losing track of just where she was. "Any chance you want to tell my why you're here?" he asked tentatively, knowing that he was probably not going to get an answer.
There was a perceptible pause on the other end, "You are joking…" said the other operative, Meyek could tell that there was almost a hope that he was.
"If you tell me what you're here for, I'll tell you what I'm here for, and we can avoid stepping on each other's toes," offered Meyek. There was no response for a good minute or so before Meyek began to get concerned, and so it turned out, for good reason. His auspex scanner picked up something moving behind him and he barely managed to roll forward and away as a scary looking blade whooshed over his head, the sound it made was so subtle that if he didn't have his spy mask on he wouldn't have noticed it.
As he came out of the roll, he brought his rifle up and pointed it at the Callidus assassin standing just ahead of him. "Is this what you do to everyone you meet? Try to eviscerate them?"
"It would have merely temporarily crippled you if you had stood still," said the Callidus, as if that was why he should have stood perfectly still. Meyek however knew enough about human anatomy to know that she was taking into account his enhanced physiology, a 'regular' human would most certainly be permanently crippled.
"Yeah, I'll pass on being crippled. Temporarily or permanently, not really into that sorta thing," returned Meyek, sarcasm dripping from every word.
"Do not test me Vindicare, were you sent to eliminate me?" she asked, clearly confused about why the both of them were there. Given the schism taking place in the Imperium right now, with the Warmaster's cronies everywhere, he couldn't quite blame her for considering the very distinct possibility that he had forsaken the Imperium and turned his back on his brothers and sisters in the Assassinorum.
"Eliminate you?" asked Meyek, scoffing. "Don't flatter yourself, I had no idea you were going to be here until I saw you in the cargo bay!" he spat back.
She snarled at him, ready to slice his weapon in two with the long blade coming from her gauntlet. But that was when the both of them heard a voice in their earpieces, "How about the two of you try and not murder each other?" The voice was deep and firm, but at the same time, gentle.
"I'm good with not being murdered," answered Meyek back. "But uh, who is this?" he asked, wondering who was this now. He had an idea of who it could be, but he wasn't sure. Plus, that might just make the situation even more complicated.
"Down here," said the voice over the vox once more. Casting a glance at the Callidus to see if she would try and attack if his attention was turned elsewhere even for a fraction of a second. But he could see she had relaxed her stance, if only slightly. Looking over the side of the container, he could see a man in a long brown robe. On his left hand was a cogitator gauntlet, and in his left was a sound suppressed Ikanos pattern Bolt Pistol. What was stranger, was the psyber-eagle sitting perfectly still and quiet on his shoulder. The man's hood was drawn back, and so Meyek could see his brown eyes, dark skin and shaven head. "Clade Vanus operative Raynod Arold, but you guys can just call me 'Ray.' Now just hear me out here. This mission isn't going to be easy, and we're all on the same team here. We all have our objectives, but if we helped each other out, then there's a higher chance we actually get the job done."
The man paused to let that sink in. Meyek had to admit, it actually made perfect sense. He was perfectly up for this. "Now," continued Ray. "I'm fine with leaving the two of you to continue trying to kill each other. But that'd be a waste, and I'd very much like the both of you alive. You have the tactical skills I need to reach my objective. I have the…other skills…required to make sure you have all the mission data you need."
Meyek nodded slowly to himself, but in reality, he was in, "Alright Ray," he said. "I'm in."
"Excellent," said Ray nodding to himself, then turning to Meghann as Meyek did the same. It was down to her now.
"Your offer is acceptable," said Meghann nodding as well, although hers were faster yet still very fluid motions in comparisons to Meyek's.
"Awesome," said Ray, a broad smile forming on his face. "Do you want to introduce yourselves? If you don't, I'll do it for you. I already know who you are."
Meyek and Meghann shared a look, but then again, Clade Vanus kept tabs on just about everyone and everything in the Imperium. They probably knew how many sugars the Sigilite had in his morning recaf. Seeing that the Callidus didn't look like she was going to say anything, Meyek waved rather animatedly at the both of them with his left hand after raising his mask, the Exitus rifle's barrel resting on his knee. "Meyek Maximov, Clade Vindicare." While his identity didn't exist, it was the ultimate sign of trust between assassins.
"Meghann Lestourgen," replied the Callidus, pausing for a moment before she pulled off her mask. What he saw took Meyek's breath away for the briefest of moments. Silky brown hair neatly tied into a ponytail fell free of the mask, reaching just below her shoulder blades. Very distinctly feminine features, notably a pair of green eyes studied both men as she added, "Clade Callidus."
"And this is Bloodwing," said Ray, gesturing to his psyber-eagle. "Now that we're all acquainted, how about we all gather our gear from wherever it's been stashed. I found us a better room than this cargo bay." Meyek smiled as both he and Meghann went off to get their gear.
Present time
As they entered the room, Bloodwing cawed at Ray, who walked over and stroked him once, "No, I didn't bring anything for ya Blood."
"Aww," said Meyek as he approached Bloodwing, not having done so before as the bird had been perched on Ray's shoulder. "Who's a cute little birdie?" asked the Vindicare as he reached out to scratch the bird under his chin.
Ray, tapped at one of the hololithic panes projected by his gauntlet, causing the door to shut after Meghann entered the room. "He'll take your finger off," he said without even looking up.
Meyek immediately withdrew his finger, "Oh-kay then. Maybe not." He then looked from Ray to Meghann, "So we playing the waiting game now?"
"Not for much longer," answered Ray. "According to what I can see, the Lord Admiral has the crew making last minute pre-jump checks."
Meyek settled down on a crate in the room, leaning back as he thought about what had happened and what was about to happen, then letting out a quiet, "Exitus Acta Probat." Because in the end, the end was all that justified the deed.
Lord Admiral Thalia Parrington
"All pre-jump preparations complete Lord Admiral," said Captain Mojaro as she walked back onto the bridge. They walked beside each other toward her command throne. "All ships reporting in. The Navigators have charted the fastest course." This was it, there was no turning back. They would either crush the foes of the Imperium, or die far from home at the hands of traitors. "We're just waiting on your word."
Thalia sat herself down in the command throne, "Thank you Captain," she said nodding as she keyed the transmit key on her throne, which patched her in to the whole fleet. "All ships, this is Lord Admiral Parrington. Execute Warp jump. Repeat, execute Warp jump." She then clicked on the ship wide intercom, "Crew, this is Admiral Parrington, all hands prepare for Warp jump." She then watched as a swirling hole in the fabric of material space opened up ahead of her ship and the ship was pulled inside alongside every other in the fleet.
Before long, the black void of space was replaced with the swirling purple of the immaterium, or the Warp. All around his ship could be all sorts of warp entities, trying to devour his crew and the others embarked on his ship, but the ship's powerful Gellar fields kept them exactly where they were, outside. "Charge Nova cannon capacitors, load the bombardment cannons and warm the laser and plasma batteries, I want the fleet to be ready to engage the moment we drop out of the warp."
Twenty standard Terran Days later
It had been twenty days, twenty long days since they'd entered the warp. The Navigator had informed her that he'd lost his ability to guide the ship through the currents of the warp, that where and when they would arrive was out of his control. But ships entering the Warp and never leaving was not unheard of, but it was always something that you heard about happening, and certainly not something that even in her most terrible nightmares had Thalia even imagined this happening to her.
With some of the best navigational technology available to the Imperium, with some of the best crew in the Imperial Armada, there was nothing that she could do. However, she and Captain Mojaro had kept the crew busy. It was better that they didn't have too much time to think about it. The unfortunate truth was, that as much as she'd tried to keep herself busy, she still couldn't stop thinking about it. Thinking about how long they were going to be stuck in the Warp, how long, if they would ever leave and if they would hear from some of their comrades ever again.
A total of fourteen ships of the Imperial Armada were gone, all communications ceased and never to be heard of since. Sixteen Warder-class Saturnyne-pattern Escorts and twelve Onager-class Saturnyne-pattern Siege Frigates. The loss was devastating to even think of. That many lives quite possibly simply snuffed out. The loss of the ships was one thing, but the crew was another. One thing was to give your lives in battle, in the name of the Imperium, but like this? No, this was no way to go.
Archmagos Hypax and his Mechanicus forces had thankfully managed to retain communications, and with Lord Marshall Bertie on the ship it meant that he was alive too. She and Bertie had discussed the situation, it had occurred to both of them that with their assault delayed this long, if they did drop out, the traitors would have no doubt received word and would have bolstered their defenses. They both had no illusions about the fact that there were likely traitors within the Imperium who had yet to reveal themselves.
Admiral Parrington sighed as she wiped the water from her face, she had been woken up because apparently their Navigator had some very good news, news that had most of the ship quite literally bubbling with excitement. There was also a clear air of nervousness; it would seem that they were due to drop out of the warp soon. She checked her armor for any faults as she attached her sword to her belt and dropped her Volkite Serpenta into its holster. Brushing a stray strand of hair out of the way, she began to make her way back toward the bridge.
As the Lord Admiral arrived on the bridge, she could see all the crewmen attending to their stations with a renewed diligence than what she'd seen over the last twenty days, which was still no means below what was expected of them. Clearly, the fact that they were finally leaving this hellish dimension had given then a renewed burst of resolve. Noticing her arrival, Captain Mojaro turned and walked over to her, "Ma'am, all ships that we still have contact with have carried out your previous orders. Navigator Caelan wanted me to tell you that we're about to drop about, he says give it anywhere between five and twenty minutes."
Thalia's eyes wandered over to where the Navigator was connected into the ship via cables going into the back of his shaved head, his third 'eye' on his forehead was very much open and glowing, but his two physicals eyes were slammed shut. Clearly the man was on the edge of his wits and physical abilities. Of course had she looked directly into his 'third' eye without it being covered by the headdress that connected him into the ship, she'd have gone insane for sure. "Has he said anything else?" asked the Admiral as she turned away from the Navigator.
"No ma'am, that's all he's said," said Captain Mojaro. Thalia nodded as she walked toward the fore end of the ship's bridge, she didn't feel like sitting down right now. Mojaro followed behind her, waiting a moment before she spoke, "What do you think we're going to find when we drop out, ma'am?"
As she looked at the swirling purple currents of the Immaterium, the Lord Admiral was faced with one undeniable truth; that she had no idea whatsoever. She was about to answer when he heard she heard Caelan painfully croak out, "Prepare." And just like that, the ship was dropped back into real space, back into the materium, all of the survivors in the same perfect formation that they'd left in.
However, what lay of them wasn't a forge world. There were no defense stations or automated defense monitors. There was no defense fleet, no advanced weaponry or all manner of machines 'waking' to render their vessels into cosmic dust. Just a single planet that lay ahead of them, orbiting the star that was to the rear of their vessels. From on the ship, she could make out patches of blue and green, but it was largely red brown. She speculated that maybe, it had breathable atmosphere, but didn't want to take anything for granted.
The Lord Admiral's crew were just as shocked as she was, but that didn't stop them from carrying out their duties. The Admiral watched various stations as the ships auger arrays and various pict-recorders probed out into the planet ahead and the space around it.
"Admiral," droned out Tech-Priest Severin, his cybernetics allowing him to receive information from the ship's systems almost instantaneously. "Auger arrays indicate that the planet has breathable atmosphere, and its average temperature is as of expected of a civilized world. Thermal scans indicate that there are no signs of civilization."
"What planet is this?" asked the Lord Admiral, trying to figure just where In the galaxy they'd landed up at. "Are we on a charted Imperial World?" The possibility that they'd moved beyond the known areas of Imperial space had occurred to her, but the crusades had stretched far and wide, reuniting most of the planets that used to be part of mankind's galaxy stretching civilization.
Severin paused for a minute, then finally said, "There is an anomaly." His head looked up from the Auger scanner station that he didn't really need to look at and up at the Admiral, "According to the charts, this is the planet Molov, of the Segmentum Ultima. Molov however, is an industrialized world, with a large population."
"And this planet is uninhabited, no human life," said Admiral Parrington, realization dawning on her at last. "But if this is Molov…what happened?" No part of Thalia's brain was able to wrap around what she was faced with. How could this be Molov, but at the same time be nothing like the Molov they knew? What sort of Warp trickery was this?
"Ma'am," said one of the crewman as they checked their station. "We're detecting no Warp jumps in the area, nor are there residual traces of a Warp jump. If someone's ever been here, it hasn't been for a long time." That was something that just added to his confusion, not clearing it up any more.
Admiral Thalia activated her microbead, patching him to Caelan, who was on the far end of the bridge quite far away from where he was right now. "Caelan…give me some good news." She really hoped the Navigator would find something that would give him a more concrete idea of what was going on here.
"Lord Admiral, I have lost sight of the Astronomicon…" replied Caelan, panic creeping into the Navigator's voice. He said nothing more, clearly desperately trying to use his psychic abilities to find some portion of the Astronomicon's light. She didn't purport to know what it was like to have such mutations, but she did know that without the Astronomicon, there was no chance of a Navigator finding their way through the tumultuous warp storms that were raging through the Immaterium. "But…the Warp is oddly calm, there is no interference, no storms…"
The Lord Admiral was about to say something, questioning why that might even be when one of the auger system operators spoke up, "Ma'am! Unknown vessel coming around the planet now! Emissions not detected, but the auger sensors picked up its movement." Finally. An unknown vessel was the best news that she could have gotten. This, she knew what to do with. Hopefully, whoever they are, they would have some answers.
"Both its thermal signature and its size make it too small to be a manned craft," said Captain Mojaro as she looked at the data readout. An automated craft? This craft had done the opposite of what she'd hoped it would, it raised more questions than it answered.
"Not only that, ma'am, it's mass reading is near impossible even for something of that size," said the crewman who had spoken earlier. He then looked up at the Admiral's face, which was frowning in confusion and deliberation.
"Launch fighters," said Thalia finally after thinking for a while. Since it was automated, trying to communicate with it would be useless. "Disable it and bring it aboard. We'll see just what this thing is." Before very long, the Admiral was watching three Saturnyne-pattern Fury Interceptors streak past the bridge viewport as they flew toward the craft out in the distance, not visible from the bridge.
"Void Eagle lead to Fist of Judgment," came the voice of the pilot over the bridge speakers. Target is in sight, lascannons warmed and ready, approaching firing range now." Everyone on the bridge was silent as they waited for the pilot's response, the beeping and whirring of cogitators was the only sound that could be heard. "Target disabled! Repeat, target is disabled! Void Eagle lead returning to hangar, you can send in the transports, ma'am." With a sense of triumph, the bridge crew returned to work, congratulating each other and the pilots, they were never really worried about losing their pilots, but were silently worried about the ship having some sort of advanced defensive measures. Admiral Parrington smiled, things were going well, now they'd find out just what in the name of the Throne was going on.
Salarian STG Base, undisclosed location
Corporal Jegik Reral watched his station with as much interest as he could muster, but really he'd been assigned to the most boring systems in the entire galaxy. The STG had always seen fit to put drones in every system, even the uninhabited ones, but Jegik was wondering who he'd pissed off to get this posting. He'd been accepted with fantastic marks. Sure, he didn't have the experience the others did, but when the system did most of it for you, what kind of factor was experience?
The drone was completing its movement around the sole planet in the Phaeron system of the Celestial Abyss. Increased gravitational and other strange readings that seemed to linger in the area almost caught his attention, but he dismissed it as the probe's finely tuned sensors malfunctioning again, they were known to do that momentarily, especially the older model deployed in largely unimportant areas of space like this.
But the moment the drone came around the planet, Jegik nearly fell right out of his seat. The drone's systems showed him several impossibly large ships, twenty-three if the drone was to be believed. For a moment, he thought it was some idiot playing a trick on him, hacking his console, but a quick system checked shot that theory down. One of those ships was over twenty kilometers long, dwarfing even a Quarian flotilla liveship. It was just shy of half the length of the Citadel! Another ship was just as wide as the other was long, and reminded Jegik of some of the predatory avians on Sur'kesh. The energy readings coming from the all the ships was beyond terrifying, he could only imagine what they were powering.
Jegik was a little too stunned to react, something that he'd grow to regret later. He watched as three smaller craft flew toward the drone, he didn't even manage to get a mass reading but their massive engines were certainly unlike anything he'd ever seen and they were bulky and to his eyes quite unsightly, even compared to Krogan ships. But if what he thought were weapons were indeed weapons, they were heavily armed.
There was a huge energy spike, and suddenly his screen was filled with static, his eyes barely catching the last transmissions of the three unknown ships discharging brilliant blue beams from what were now obviously weapons mounted on their wingtips. After staring at his display, and even replaying the last transmission one more time he turned his head around slightly, "Lieutenant Filorn! I think there is something you need to see."
"What is it Corporal?" asked the Lieutenant, Jegik did his job without complaint despite his reservations so his Lieutenant knew that if he was calling him over it had to be important. Once the Lieutenant stood behind his chair, he wordlessly played the transmission and watched as the expression on the Lieutenant's face changed from piqued interest to that of horror.
The Lieutenant could only muster enough courage to utter four words it would seem, "Get me STG command."
So that's that. Please feel free to review or PM me with any questions or comments. Hope you enjoyed this. I went through great measures to try and make sure I kept everything as accurate as possible.
I had to take several liberties here, and given the room given to writers in Horus Hersey I decided to make the most of it.
So as part of a visual reference guide I'm going to add the following:
Saturnyne-pattern Fury Interceptor – Retaliator Bomber, Star Citizen
Corsair Void Bomber – Aegis Hammerhead, Star Citizen
Saturnyne-pattern Stormbird Heavy Gunship – Redeemer Gunship, Star Citizen
Ursh-pattern Raven/Prowler Gunship (Vanguard Hoplite, Star Citizen)
Lykaon variants (Black Eagle tank with different main guns/sponson weapons)
I will also be using Solar Auxilia and Ordo Reductor vehicles from the 'the – manufactorum . blogspot' which you guys should totally check out if you haven't already
Till next time…