Chapter 1: Armored Offensive
The enemy attack came right before dawn.
Colonel Yamada Yosuke had been ready for this. A veteran of several long campaigns, including the grueling siege of the Hive City Yarask, he had long since learned the multitude of assaults that the enemies of the Imperium favored. Whether it was the hit-and-run tactics of Eldar pirates, the near-suicidal but brutal and effective charges of Ork hordes, the relentless tides of Tyranid swarms or the cold and methodical long-range tactics the Tau Empire adopted, he had seen them all. He could not deny that he had lost a good number of those face-offs, but he had also successfully countered and pushed back a significant portion of those invasions.
The Great Enemy was no different. If anything, the strategies they used were probably the closest to the Imperium, the commanders having been former subjects before they turned traitors. Yamada had prepared for it, expected it even.
After all, had he been in the attacking commander's position, it was precisely what he would have done. For one thing, his men were sluggish and sleepy at this hour - an innate psychological human tendency that no amount of training could fully shake off. There was also the advantage of using the darkness as cover. As one ancient holo-vid had put it, the night was darkest just before the dawn. Hit the defenders then, and make use of the approaching brightness to mop up the survivors.
The Tactica Imperialis had often mentioned such crucial timings. That same Tactica Imperialis remained in use despite the traitors' renouncement of the Emperor. Yamada could hardly blame them, though. It contained the most effective military tactics known to man.
Seated in his command station aboard the super-heavy Stormsword tank, The Emperor's Wrath, he smiled grimly. This battle would most likely be decided by the commander with a better grasp of the Tactica Imperialis.
"Rouse all our men," he ordered his communications officer, a stout young man by the name of Sato. Even as flashes of light from an artillery barrage lit up the grainy holo-screens, temporarily turning night into day, Sato began shouting into the vox and linking up with the rest of the armored company. "The enemy is approaching from the east, as we were expecting. We're going to counter-charge."
"Yes, sir!" Sato repeated Yamada's instructions and waited for the belated affirmations as tank commanders slowly woke up from the deafening scream of artillery shells and reacting quickly. "All tanks accounted for."
"Very good. Let's begin."
The armored tanks of the 42nd Draconian Armored Defense Force regiment began moving out in a straight line, their heavily armored fronts already facing east. While the overwhelming majority of the artillery shells - presumably fired from stolen Basilisks - missed the armored vehicles entirely, the few that hit that mark harmlessly bounced off the tanks' front armor.
If they want to scratch the paint of a Leman Russ tank or Stormsword, they're going to have to do better than that, Yamada thought humorlessly. Even then, he reminded himself not to underestimate the enemy. Far too many imperial commanders had fallen into the trap of thinking that they had the Emperor's divine protection and made rash, reckless choices that doomed their regiments.
"Get the Vanquishers and Main Battle Tanks to open up with long-range fire support. Especially the Vanquishers. The moment they see an enemy tank, take it out."
"Yes, sir."
The vox channel must be open, for the next moment a Leman Russ Vanquisher, The Seals of Purity, opened fire. A high-pitched whine sailed through the air as the Vanquisher's signature armor-piercing round flew at hypersonic speeds and drilled right through the heavily armored front of a traitor Leman Russ tank. The tainted tank, which now bore the spikes and markings of Chaos, lurched backward before exploding into a shower of scrap.
"Good shot!"
The tank commander of The Seals of Purity was Sergeant Haise, and the gunner was Jumonji. Jumonji was one of the most accurate shots in the regiment, and boasted a few hundred armored kills in his long career. Despite his age, his skills had not declined.
Yamada was glad to have him on his side.
The other Leman Russ Vanquishers opened fire as well, with varying degrees of success. Spiky, chaotic Chimeras APCs were ripped open, the cultists in them swallowed by fiery explosions as armored-piercing rounds penetrated the transports' meager protection. Other Leman Russ tanks - mostly Leman Russ Main Battle Tanks and Leman Russ Exterminators - also blew up, with the latter unable to fire back. The Leman Russ Main Battle Tanks traded fire with the Loyalists, who replied with a barrage of ordnance that were directed not at the vehicles, but the occupants spilling out of doomed transports to find better cover.
Yamada watched with satisfaction as cultists were reduced to bloody mists and fleshy pulps as the Leman Russ Battle Tank's ordnance rounds found their mark. The shockwave from these projectiles were so large that the tanks didn't even need a direct hit. A cultist caught by a glancing shockwave of the main battle tanks' cannons was sent tumbling head over heels into the dirt.
However, the Great Enemy had a lot more numbers than the single regiment sent here to stop them. More Chimera APCs poured out, and even a few Rhino APCs had joined the fray. At the back was a Land Raider, and even though The Seals of Purity managed to blow a massive, gaping hole in the horrifying armored personnel carrier, Yamada could see heavily armored figures jumping out of the smoking vehicle with predatory elegance.
Traitor Astartes. They were here too.
Those Chaos Space Marines that avoided the largely inaccurate fire of the Leman Russ Main Battle Tanks, largely thanks to their superhuman reflexes, bounded over the blasted landscape. A few were caught and vaporized by the huge ordnance, their power armor no match for the heavy firepower. However, many more were effortlessly evading the rain of destruction, slowly but surely advancing toward the approaching column of armor.
Well, that could be remedied.
"Leman Russ Executioners," Yamada said, confident that Sato would repeat his words into the vox-net. "Execute those traitor Astartes. Show them the moment they turned their backs on the Emperor, they're no longer fit to call themselves the finest."
As one, the Leman Russ Executioner tanks roared as they unleashed blue volleys of plasma, the fury of stars condensed into devastating blobs of energy that vaporized the incoming Chaos Space Marines. Even a squad of Terminators, whose Tactical Dreadnaught Armor were casually shrugging off fire from even the main battle tanks' ordnance, were annihilated when the five figures were caught flat-footed by a crisscrossing blast of plasma from two Executioners.
"Hell yeah!" Yamada pumped his fist into the air. "The Terminators have been terminated!"
The rest of his Stormsword crew ignored him, already used to his eccentric jokes.
However, the sheer number of cultists climbing out of wrecked Chimera APCs, and even a sizable Chaos Space Marine force from immobilized Rhinos were still making their way toward the indomitable advance of armor. Unlike the opposing force, Yamada did not have the large numbers of infantry to match them. The Draconian Armored Defense Force had always been primarily a tank company composed mostly of armored tanks, supported by a few squadrons of Vendetta gunships. What few infantry they did have had been organized into the Kamikaze Troopers, the Draconian ADF's counterpart for the Cadian Kasrkin and Death Korps of Krieg's Grenadiers. Even now, they should be en route via Vendetta gunshps, ready to grav-chute down into their location with disciplined and precise volleys of hot-shot las-fire, but at the moment Yamada had to make do without them.
Fortunately, he had an answer.
"Leman Russ Punishers, punish these traitors with extreme prejudice."
The Leman Russ Punisher tanks, normally built as siege tanks in urban warfare, had been leading the armored column this entire time. Not because they were expendable - no, every Leman Russ tank was a valuable resource to the Imperium, sometimes even more so than the crew crewing them - but because of the extremely short range of their Punisher Gatling cannons. All this while they had been accelerating forward without firing, but that was because they were bereft of targets. Now that they had hordes of cultists and even scores of Chaos Space Marines racing toward them, they could unleash whatever hell they had been storing up.
It was like shooting turkey in a barrel.
The Punisher Gatling cannons whirled before spitting out a punishing streams of rounds that tore the first line of advancing cultists into shreds. Splattered by the blood of their comrades, the cultists behind were instead spurred on and charged in with renewed ferocity. The insidious influence of Khorne, no doubt, even though it was hard to tell if these were really Khornate cultists. Nonetheless, the Leman Russ Punishers did not decline the invitation and they continued to pour out a deadly hail of bullets that smashed the next line. And the line after that. And the line behind that.
It was a slaughter.
There were several explosions that dotted across the cultists' lines. Apparently a good number of them had been carrying flamers, and several stray punisher rounds had penetrated the promethium fuel tanks in spectacular fashion, igniting whole blobs in blazing fireworks.
Maybe the commander didn't read the Tactica Imperialis after all. Even Yamada was surprised by how one-sided the fight had become. The inexorable advance of the two armored columns had finally met, and despite their best efforts, the tainted Leman Russ Exterminators were unable to exterminate their armored opponents. The Leman Russ Vanquishers continued to vanquish them at an alarming rate, their cannons a hard counter to any armored vehicle.
The enemy probably didn't do enough research on the Imperial Guard that was sent to crush them. Or perhaps Lord General Leeds had his operatives feed them false intelligence before cunningly switching things up and placing the Draconian ADF here to face an ill-equipped force. Judging from their weapons, which included the flamers that were still blowing up as punisher rounds ripped them apart, and the heavy bolters that the Chaos Space Marines were carrying, the enemy had expected to face a well-entrenched infantry defense.
Instead, they found themselves confronting the armored front of behemoth tanks. Had they been carrying meltaguns, melta-bombs and other anti-tank weapons, Yamada would have been worried. However, he saw no sign of those, not even a missile launcher or lascannon. The only thing that could remotely threaten them was a single plasma cannon wielded by a Chaos Space Marine, but he was brought down by concerted fire from Leman Russ Executioners and Leman Russ Main Battle Tanks before he got close enough to use it.
"Shall we open fire too, sir?"
Yamada nodded at his gunner's request. Takahashi had been waiting for permission to pull the trigger, and rightly so. The Stormsword siege cannon mounted aboard The Emperor's Wrath was a horrifying weapon that unleashed destruction of immeasurable magnitude. It was not a weapon that could simply be fired as and when Takahashi wished.
"Aim for the back, Takahashi. Try not to hit our own tanks."
Takahashi grinned before adjusting his aim and pulling the trigger.
The Stormsword rocked as its cannon shrieked, a massive projectile propelling from its short barrel and whistling toward the center of the massed ranks of the enemy. In an instant, an entire section of the horde was obliterated. It was as if an entire segment had simply vanished, leaving nothing but a massive, smoking crater in its wake.
The Stormsword siege cannon was designed to blow apart cover, a monster capable of single-handedly breaking sieges in urban warfare. The sheer power of the projectile was capable of ripping apart even a Leman Russ tank, and no one, not even an Astartes in Terminator armor, could survive a direct hit. Additionally, its area of effect was ridiculously massive, easily covering several blocks in a typical Hive neighborhood.
It was also the pride and joy of the Draconian ADF. Thanks to their well-established relationship with the neighboring Forge World of Draconis IV, the ADF received a consistent supply of Stormsword tanks to bolster their armored forces. It was also the reason why they could afford to run a tank company. Draconis IV gave them priority in receiving the Leman Russ tanks that streamed out of their production lines.
I almost feel bad for them, Yamada thought as he watched another group of cultists and Chaos Space Marines vanished under another apocalyptic blast from the Stormsword siege cannon. Almost. Well, it's their fault for turning away from the Emperor's light.
Just when Yamada thought this was going to be a rout, the tables were turned.
Suddenly, one of the Leman Russ Punishers exploded. Yamada jerked up and stared at that particular holo-screen, trying to absorb what had just happened. Did the enemy finally scavenge a melta weapon?
However, as he watched, the terrifying whir of a giant chainsword filled the air, slicing through the husk of the doomed Punisher and dropping it to the ground. A large, shadowy shape walked through the smoke, its hulking form crushing both the remnants of the tank and cultists unfortunate enough to be in its way.
"That's..."
Another Punisher tank was crushed, lifted up as giant metallic fingers curled around it, crushing the armored vehicle as a destructive energy field hummed around it. Spinning around, the towering figure threw the poor tank at another nearby Punisher, overturning the latter and sending it spinning across the ground. The tank that was used as a projectile skidded across the ground, leaving black trail marks, before it finally crumpled, the devastating energy field taking its toll.
As the armored humanoid reared to its full height and advanced toward a hapless Executioner, missiles streaking from a rectangular box atop its head, Yamada finally saw what it was.
"A Chaos Knight."
A chill ran down his back. Knights were awesome, mechanical armored suits piloted by nobles. Armed with powerful, highly destructive weapons that could even threaten a Titan, Knights were also protected by a-near impenetrable ion shield and thick, adamantine armor that the Mechanicus forged with painstaking effort. They were mini-Titans, small versions of the Emperor's God-Machines themselves, but no less terrifying.
With their immense firepower, the intimidating presence of a Knight was always welcomed in the battlefield. Conversely, the Chaos Knight's appearance as an enemy was just as demoralizing to his men as it would have been had he a Knight on his side.
Sensing that the tables had turned, the cultists and Chaos Space Marines sprinted forward in renewed vigor, drawing chainswords, power weapons and other melee weapons that would crack open the tanks that were thrown into a disarray by the Chaos Knight's interference. Yamada heard screams over the vox as one tank blew up, and another taken by the enemy.
This can't be happening. This can't be happening!
The battle, which had been going so well until now, had abruptly altered its flow, the imperial defenders finding the tide inexorably turned against them. His hands trembling as he gripped the armrests of his command chair, Yamada gazed numbly at the flickering holo-screens that featured tanks being destroyed by Chaos Space Marines and the Chaos Knight. This close, he could see the former in their red power armor, bearing the familiar markings of Khorne. He did not recognize the chapter symbols, however, but was vaguely aware that they were slight different from World Eaters. Most likely they were a splinter chapter that broke off from the original XII-th Legion.
"...do, sir? Sir?"
Sato's voice brought Yamada back to reality. He realized that his communications officer had been speaking to him for the past minute or so.
"Are you listening, sir?"
"Uh, yes. Report status."
"We lost The Divine Faith and Unity in Strength. The Severe Retribution is heavily damage and immobilized, sir. They are requesting for help. On the left flank, The Killing Ground has been overwhelmed by Khorne Berserkers."
Yamada nodded absent-mindedly as he glanced at the respective holo-screens, watching the destruction of his tanks and the deaths of his men.
"What should we do, sir?"
Yamada gritted his teeth as he desperately glanced through the flickering holo-screens, trying to suppress the frustration that welled within him. No matter how many scenarios and plans he went through his head, there seemed to be only one viable answer.
"Fall back. Spread the word to the entire squadron. Keep their distance from the Knight. Get the Leman Russ Vanquishers to provide cover fire. The Main Battle Tanks should also launch a bombardment to keep the infantry from following us. Make sure all the tanks reverse - keep the front armor facing the enemy. That will increase their chances of survival."
"What about the Severe Retribution, sir?"
"Let me speak to Sergeant Shimada." Sato nodded and Yamada picked up the vox at his station. "Sergeant Shimada, this is Colonel Yamada." He waited for an acknowledgement. "I'm sorry, but you're on your own. I can't spare any reinforcements. Try to take down as many enemies as you can. The Emperor protects."
"The Emperor protects," Shimada echoed, his voice tense. Over the vox, Yamada could hear bloodcurdling cries of frenzied cultists penetrating the crumbling armored walls of the immobilized Punisher tank. "You heard the colonel, men. Let's make sure we go out with a bang."
As the armored column retreated, the Vanquishers fired volleys of armor-piercing rounds at the nimble Chaos Knight. The Chaos Knight evaded most of the rounds with a grace that belied its massive size, and the few rounds that found their mark (Yamada could see Jumonji landing a hit with pinpoint accuracy) were deflected by an ion shield that flared bright whenever projectiles bounced off it. The pilot had cleverly positioned his ion shield to deflect the worst of the blasts.
"We need something bigger," Yamada murmured to himself. Turning to Takahashi, he growled. "Takahashi, fire the Stormsword siege cannon at that abomination."
"We're too close, sir. Some of our tanks will get caught in the blast."
"They will get ripped apart by that Emperor-damned Knight anyway if we don't do anything. Just fire!"
"Aye, sir."
Takahashi complied grimly and shifted his aim. The short barrel of the Stormsword tilted and pointed at the grey-green armor of the Chaos Knight, whose machine-spirit was howling with unbridled rage over the vox. Some kind of corrupted code...Yamada would need the tanks' vox systems scrubbed clean if they ever make it back to base.
He didn't recognize the desecrated heraldry on the Knights' tattered livery, its former beauty stripped bare by corruption. It wasn't from any of the Knightly houses from Draconis III, which gave him some sort of relief. He would have no qualms bringing the Knight down.
A roar shuddered through The Emperor's Wrath as Takahashi squeezed the trigger. His aim was true - the massive projectile impacted against the front of the Chaos Knight and exploded, sending the great machine reeling back from the force as its ion shields flickered. Taking advantage of the Knight's fading shields, the Vanquishers flung a volley of armor-piercing shells at it. The Chaos Knight let out a bestial bellow as the rounds cracked its adamantine armor, blowing off pieces of metal from its corrupted body.
However, it still wouldn't go down.
"Continue the retreat!" Yamada ordered. "Full gear in reverse! Concentrate fire on the traitor Knight if you can, but prioritize the retreat. I doubt it's going down so easily."
He gazed at the Chaos Knight, which had dropped to a knee as Vanquisher rounds blew off chunks from its carapace. A few missiles from its Ironstorm missile pod straked out and impacted harmlessly against the Leman Russ Vanquishers, but while they did little to no damage, the mild explosions were sufficient to throw off the gunners' aim.
"Takahashi, fire again."
"Aye, sir."
This time, the Chaos Knight lurched to its feet when it noticed the projectile coming straight at it. Swiftly dodging it, it angled its ion shield to protect it from the worst of the blast when the Stormsword siege round went over its head and detonated behind. Leaping, it landed right next to a struggling Executioner tank, and kicked it over before ravaging it with its reaper chainsword.
Yamada grimaced as he heard the dying shouts of his men as the Executioner was split open. The Knight must have ruptured something in the Executioner's volatile and unstable plasma weaponry for the helpless tank erupted in a superheated explosion of plasma that washed over the Chaos Knight's recovering ion shield.
"Damn it."
The Stormsword might have excelled in line-breaking and flushing out firmly entrenched infantry in densely populated urban areas, but it was not designed to duel another super-heavy. Right now Yamada wished he had a Shadowsword by his side. The volcano cannon would have vaporized the Chaos Knight in a single hit, and not merely send it staggering about like the powerful but inefficient Stormsword siege round.
"Continue support fire!"
While the Leman Russ Punishers were still making mincemeat of cultists and occasionally an unlucky Chaos Space Marine, their numbers were slowly dwindling thanks to the Knight's charge. Left to fend for themselves, they were vulnerable to the charging masses of infantry, their slowly-depleting ammunition running out at an incredible rate. Without the support fire from the Leman Russ Main Battle Tanks, which were ineffectively taking potshots at the Chaos Knight and either missing entirely or harmlessly bounced off its ion shield and thick armor, they were getting picked off.
"Tell the main battle tanks and Executioners to redirect their fire at the infantry. Only the Vanquishers should aim for the Knight. And you too, Takahashi. Don't let your sight wander."
"Yes, sir."
"I'm on it."
Yamada knew that with the sheer amount of shots he had from so many Vanquishers, he would eventually be able to bring down the Knight. However, the question was whether he could destroy the Chaos Knight before it reached the rest of his armored column. His tanks were helpless in close range.
On the other hand, the Chaos Knight was clearly a Knight Gallant. A monster constructed solely for melee combat, it had traded its conventional knight weapons to specialize in close combat, and thus sported its signature reaper chainsword and a Thunderstrike gauntlet, both of which were devastating to vehicles and huge xenos creatures alike.
The moment it got in the middle of the tank company, they were all doomed.
Despite the full retreat, the Chaos Knight was slowly catching up while dodging the majority of the Vanquisher rounds. Another Stormsword siege round found its mark, stunning the Knight for a few seconds as it struggled to bring its ion shield online while weathering the volley of armor-piercing fire from the Vanquishers. However, grabbing a nearby Punisher tank that had ground to a halt after running over too many cultists, it hurled it at the long-range tanks, blocking their line of sight and forcing them to scatter from the makeshift projectile.
Screams, followed by an explosion rang across the vox as the Punisher smashed into the ground and shattered into a fiery contraptions. Yamada clenched his fists, his fingers digging deeply into his palms as he desperately sought a way out of the crisis. All hopes of victory gone, he could only pray to the Emperor to spare his men.
"Sir! The Knight is almost upon us!"
The Chaos Knight had marked out The Emperor's Wrath as the flagship tank and was bounding toward it. A typical strategy that was as effective as it was old. Cut off the head by killing the command, and the rest of the body would fall apart.
Yamada would have complimented the beast on its intelligence if he wasn't its target.
"Takahashi!"
"We won't make it in time!"
The gunner was yelling over the screeching of the auto-loaders as The Emperor's Wrath struggled to reload the next Stormsword siege round. Yamada ground his teeth and watched the holo-screen with an air of inevitability as the Knight closed in, its hideous image growing larger with each step. Its whirring reaper chainsword was almost upon them...
And then it suddenly reeled to the side as several ordnance rounds smacked into its right.
"Emperor in Terra..." Yamada whispered, taken aback by the sudden salvation. As the Knight staggered, more rounds struck its side armor, giving The Emperor's Wrath time to pull the distance between them further.
The Chaos Knight had directed its ion shield to the front - undeniably a potent defense that had thus far thwarted the Leman Russ Vanquisher's attempts to bring it down and one powerful enough to endure a direct hit from a Stormsword siege round. However, in doing so, it had left its side and flanks bare. While in effect a miniature one-man Titan, the Knight's generators still weren't powerful enough to produce an ion shield that could envelope the entire suit. Possessing barely sufficient power to project an impenetrable ion shield on only one side, Knights were often trained to not allow themselves to be surrounded.
Glancing across his series of holo-screens, Yamada caught sight of his regiment's savior. A nearly identical mechanical suit lumbered into view, its black and gold armor proudly bearing the livery of House Yato. Unlike the corrupted Knight Gallant, the newcomer was equipped with a rapid-fire battle cannon that was a more efficient version of the weapon mounted on Leman Russ Main Battle Tanks, and an Avenger Gatling cannon on its left with an underslung heavy flamer. It was firing with the former now, the high ordnance shells slapping the adamantine surface of the Chaos Knight.
However, the Knight Gallant reared up and deftly dodged to the side, bringing its shielded front to meet the new threat. The Loyalist Knight Crusader came to a stop and maintained its distance, its Avenger Gatling cannon whirring to spew a deadly stream of uranium rounds.
"Thank the Emperor," Yamada whispered, conscious that his crew and regiment were probably mumbling the same thing. The presence of the Imperial Knight had sparked renewed hope and belief in the Loyalists, its awe-inspiring figure alone halting the panic that had spread across the armored column during their retreat.
As if aware of the impact his machine had on the Imperial Guardsmen' morale, the pilot of the Knight Crusader opened a channel to the loyalists' vox network.
"This is Tanaka Tomoyuki of House Yato. I've come to reinforce the 42nd Draconian Armored Defense Force regiment. Let's flush out every traitor from this world. For the Emperor!"
A cheer erupted across the 42nd Draconian regiment as the tanks halted their retreat and resumed their armored advance, their cannons barking in unison at the disbelieving traitors.