Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Warhammer 40K games, books or movies. They belong to their creators and/or copyright owners. I make no money from this story. It is not for sale or rent.


Chapter 6: Victory, you say?

=ATBS=

Part 1

=ATBS=


Tau forces

in the vicinity of Victory Bay

Kronus

He should have know this was a trap! Even against the humans, plans almost never went off so well unless you were doing something the enemy believed they could exploit. The only thing Commander Kais wasn't aware of if this was merely enemy action or did their allies betrayed them as well. Drones confirmed that the Eldar were still fighting, their own mobile forces had ran straight into the humans super-soldiers, which had turned into a mutual bloodbath. The Tau officer was glad he hadn't thrown his own army straight into that particular meat-grinder. In comparison, grinding his way through five human regiments and taking on their dug in armoured reserves was much easier to swallow, and survive. Let's not forget that.

Figuring out the hard way that the Eldar failed to neutralize the bulk of the enemy artillery for good came as a rude surprise heralded by all available sensors screaming in warning the moment they detected a massive barrage incoming. It was fired for effect, coordinated so it would strike in one fell strike, which was a small blessing that gave the Tau a whole minute to react. All available anti-air units shifted to present as many weapon barrels as possible towards the incoming bombardment, tanks, APCs, and IFVs raced for any trace of cover that could help them, yet most of Kais forces were presented with the unpleasant choice of either moving to better survive the coming bombardment or keep their best armour profile aimed at the dug in Human tanks.

Obviously, there wasn't a right answer to that question.

Kais himself jumped into a nearly hole dug in by an explosion and called his shield drones to him. They weaved a protective barrier that might keep him intact from anything but a direct hit, he hoped. Then the world ended, the ground erupted and broke, there was only thunder that probably deafened him despite his enclosed battlesuit, constant shocks slammed into the Tau like sledgehammers. All he could do was curl into his hole as much as his arms and armour allowed, endure and watch the battlenet shred as the enemy bombardment damaged or outright destroyed Tau units.

After this, Kais wasn't surprised to see the human armour surge forth from their defensive positions. It was a good thing that every single vehicle crew that was still alive could see it too thanks to their surviving sensors and command channels. The incoming enemy air-strike they could now detect too was even less welcome.

All that was bad, though Kais was still confident that he could fight, perhaps even win if the Eldar could at least keep the Blood Ravens off his back. Of course, only then, when the trap was about to shut, he figured out how much the humans suckered him in. He got that revelation while digging himself out of the hole he took cover in, courtesy of the ranking Kroot Shaper in charge of securing the breach in the enemy defenses.

"We're under attack by huge machines! We need help now!" The alien screamed, and for the first time in his life, Kais had the privilege to hear nothing but sheer terror coming from veteran Kroot. He really wasn't looking forward to finding out what caused it, however he feared he would be doing so the hard way very soon. A few commands on his display called a drone feed from the former Imperial lines. Sure enough, there were the Kroot swarming over the area, fighting flying amalgamations of metal skeletons and flying sleds, that had fully fledged such robots riding on their backs. In the distance, he could see a huge monolith made of dark green metal slowly crawling towards the Kroot positions.

It was a trap, all right.

"Captain Toris, take your forces and counter-attack the humans. You need to keep them off our backs! Everyone else, we're pulling back to reinforce our Kroot allies, they're being overrun!' Kais snapped order after order as fast as he could. He sent a priority alert to his base of operations to scramble what little forces he had left there to keep it safe so they could move in and help him save as much of his mobile assets as possible.


=ATBS=

Balbas the Shaper had twenty thousand of his fellow Kroot to accomplish a simple task – keep the large breach in the human lines open at all costs, and if practical, begin turning the flanks of the regiments on both sides of his lines. As an incentive, his people would be able to take and keep all enemy bodies so they could later feast and evolve. He also had a whole battalion of Tau infantry and a few of their large, heavy armoured suits to provide fire support. While those were useful, Balbas much preferred his own fire-support, the guns strapped on the Krootox were more than adequate to deal with the humans and he had a lot of those, along with whole packs of hounds still alive after he used them to soak enemy fire during the initial assault.

The Kroot Shaper had been confident that nothing the humans could throw at him would be more than an inconvenience, any enemy attack he could absorb then feast on the bodies of those daring challenge him.

Balbas might been right as far as the PDF regiments nearby were concerned. The silent mechanical killers that came from the haze to the south-west were something else entirely. His first idea that something was wrong arrived on the heels of green lighting that tore the sky asunder, shattered the ground and flayed the flesh away from any Kroot unfortunate to be anywhere near where it struck. The slaughter itself wasn't enough to phase Balbas, he had seen much in his long life. The waste of perfectly good food this way? That infuriated him.

The Shaper screamed orders, pointed at the approaching enemy and spurred his army to counter-attack. Only then did Balbas figure out that he could still feel fear. The ground nearby burst open and mechanical killers came out, swinging scythe like blades that sliced through flesh, bone and armour with ridiculous ease. Every one of them wore the still wet skins of humans, Tau, Kroot and even Orks like clothes and their evil green eyes blazed with eternal hunger.

Balbas was a Kroot. Eating your enemies, friends too once they died, that was a natural state of affairs to make you stronger. Those things however, there was something terribly wrong with them that made the primitive part of his brain shake with terror. The Shaper had barely enough time to call his Tau allies for aid before the ground around him blew up as a whole group of the metallic murderers surrounded him. He managed a single swing with his weapon aimed at the closest machine before they struck and tore him apart in a shower of blood. The Shaper died before he could see how useless his act of defiance was and his Kroot followed suit, dying without being able to even slow down the Necron advance.

The only thing that gave them pause was stopping to dispatch the small number of rampant machines that invited themselves to the slaughter.


=ATBS=

Part 2

=ATBS=


Word Bearers' base

Deimos Peninsula

Kronus

Screams, blood, delectable suffering, it all washed over Eliphas without making a dent in his sour mood. He was supposed to bring forth Kronus to the joys of the Gods, turn it into a full fledged Demon World and use it as a stepping stone to conquer the whole subsector and beyond!

That was no longer the case. He was still back in the Eye of Terror, preparing his warband and waiting for the promised opportunity when a Daemon Prince, his current patron no less, manifested and gave him new orders. The Word Bearer winced at the memory. That bastard's voice still felt like claws tearing through his brain, the power it casually displayed was both infuriating and enticing – a success would open the gates for Eliphas to become that things equal if not superior, so envy twisted his guts at what was not yet to be.

Turning Kronus into a Demon World would be nice, something to strive for once his mission was complete. There would be ample opportunities to win further favour with both the Gods and various powerful figures watching from the Eye. First however, Eliphas had to secure or destroy certain relics and records, some as old as his previous visit to this world ten thousand years ago.

The damnest thing was that he couldn't disagree. The great four had glimpsed a future that might not be, they saw the galaxy rend asunder by magnificent Warp Storm, saw Cadia finally fall, Abaddon's Thirteenth Crusade almost succeeding in breaking the Empire once and for all. Well, that was less than ideal. The Warmaster now suffered for his future failure, so he would do best next time. Chaos was plotting and working to ensure that the Empire would be weakened, that the Crusade would succeed this time. That in fact was his new primary mission here – set up the whole Blood Raven Chapter to be brought into the fold and with them, Subsector Aurelia. As far as Eliphas knew, that was merely one string of the plan, others sow the seeds of future plans, discord, opened the eyes of Corpse worshipers, the works. When the time came an the Thirteenth Crusade burst forth from the Eye of Terror to swallow Cadia, there would be no stopping it and this whole Segmentum would be eager to be liberated and shown the truth!

He knew this, he saw the logic, it still fucking grated! Eliphas wanted to be out there, spilling blood, taking skulls, proving his worth! Instead, he was busy properly fortifying his base of operation, building up his forces, while acolytes and sorcerers did their bloody work, sacrificing Corpse worshipers in order to open the warp portal and bring forth new units to add to his expanding army.

It should have been easy and simple to allow Chaos to pour through, yet the Corpse had some of his attention upon Kronus, not enough to be decisive, but enough to make Eliphas' job much harder than it had to be. Otherwise, he would already be engaging the Imperial forces at Victory Bay instead of missing the glorious slaughter currently unfolding there. He scowled at that thought. It wasn't bad enough that there were a lot of Corpse worshipers unlikely to see the light there, the never sufficiently damned bastards had allied with the soulless abominations slumbering below the surface. It would have been only worse if they allied themselves with the godless Tau!

At least there were some good faithful here on this part of Kronus willing to offer the Gods everything they were and had, like that group of young mothers bringing their children to be sacrificed so the Demon bound below the Eris Badlands could be finally released for good and unleashed against the unbelievers. The Word Bearer Champion nodded in approval at the gathered willing sacrifices, and made a shooing motion with his clawed gauntlet. He wasn't about to take any risks and would ensure himself that everything was done properly this time. Failure was not an option!

Four squads of heavy armoured Astartes fell in formation around the sacrifices, priests and Sorcerer who was going to lead the ritual. Acolytes made a final check on the transports carrying all other necessary supplies for the ritual and the small convoy finally left. Two tanks led the way, a pair of Dreadnoughts taking up the rear and a Hell-drake took to the air to provide both close air support and dissuade any enthusiasts from striking them from above.

Behind them, more and more troops poured in with every activation of the warp portal, bolstering the ranks of his Warband. Soon, Eliphas would have the numbers to burst out and sweep his enemies off the surface of Kronus.

He'd better, otherwise this time he might not be lucky enough to be thrown in the Basilica of Torments again…


=ATBS=

Victory Bay

Kronus

The whole area was in ruins, many of them burning or at least smoking, blood pooled at least ankle deep in what was left of the large avenue, an inferno blocked the way forward…

"This… this was awesome! We'll be legends after today, won't we, Inquisitor?!" Commissar Weber exclaimed gleefully.

I gave him a side-long concerned glance. Granted, I knew him for all of a five minutes if that, but he was enjoying his job a tad too much.

His regiment loved him despite that if the ragged cheers coming from all around us were anything to go by.

"It's a victory of a sort." I could allow that, I guessed. The fucking Eldar didn't slaughter us all, we might have achieved our objectives as well, and paid for it with a small river of blood too. Fucking Eldar, they weren't supposed to stand and fight like this!

"You hear that, folks!? We've done well today, the Inquisitor agrees! First round once this is over is one me!"

Well, now I was beginning to see why people kind of liked Weber. The man had a natural charisma and might be all right fellow, suicidal tendencies notwithstanding. Besides, I wasn't one to give him shit on that front.

"You did well indeed, boys and girls. You did the Emperor proud today!" I shouted at the top of my lungs and I had to admit, the cheers that met my words were something else…

"Victory? Victory, you say?" A metallic voice decided that this was a great time to rain on our parade. I turned around, rising my weapons in a defensive stance to see a bulky Necron carrying a very large weapon that hummed ominously tower over me. "Scarabs detected movements from what you call the Deimos Peninsula. The Abominations forces are stirring. The real threat remains unaddressed. We need to neutralize the Eldar and Tau fast, so we can concentrate on the Abominations, this my Lord decrees."

That flat statement was a great way to dampen our spirits and joy at simply surviving the bloody battle.