Chapter Twelve: Metal swarm.

The Super Battle Droids were moving through the decks of the ship, the hallways were cramped and narrow, with only two super battle droids capable of moving abreast at any one time. They were moving fast, in four groups to spread out the search each two hundred and fifty strong except the fourth which due to a stray macro cannon shell lost twenty droids as it passed through the swarm.

A B2-HA had been selected and specially programed to lead each group.

The passage way opened up and the droids poured out into more open space, this area resembled a mess hall by the looks of it and it was deserted. All the crew were at their battle stations or doing emergency repairs.

"Halt, spread out and secure the entrances." The droid ordered.

The droids did as ordered and a mass of sliver bodies filled the room.

It raised a small comm link on its arm to its vocabulator.

"This is B88827, report on your positions."

"We are pressing upwards, and have encountered several organics, they were terminated."

Another droid chimed in saying, "My droids have located a armory and dispatched the soldiers protecting it."

B88827 spoke once again, "We are six hundred meters away from the target area, group delta and beta converge on the target area, gamma and my group will reinforce as a second wave. Move out."

These messages were conveyed via binary as the droids had been ordered to only use that language to communicate to each other during this trip.

The sound of five hundred metal feet rushing forward into yet another narrow passageway would signal to anyone in the nearby area that they had been boarded.

A pair of sailors rounded the corner obviously doing something urgent by the looks on their faces and their panting.

"Get to the savior p…"

Facing them was what looked like a sea of metal bodies. The front rank raised their blasters and fired into the two men, killing them instantly.

They continued down the hallway, running into only a few more crew members at irregular intervals and dispatching them.

They flooded into a room filled with people and ammunition, massive shells being loaded into guns by the labor of hundreds.

The B2-HA paused and the rest of his force flooded in around him, something was off about his sensors and from what he could tell he should be heading in the direction of the bridge. As they were spotted and panic began to spread, he noticed armsmen rushing towards them, these ones armed with some type of slug thrower and others armed with lasguns.

The droids charged them, super battle droid's firing their blaster cannons and wrist rockets at them.

One of the droids took a shotgun blast to the chest and was knocked over, several others were felled by a massed lasgun fire.

Raising his oversized blaster cannon the droid fired a bolt straight into the closest armsman, sending the man flying backwards and leaving a hole where his chest used to be.

The weapons battery had been turned into a battle field and the crew who were pressed into loading the shells had been massacred to a man if they had not run. The wrist rockets had proven brutally effective and had splattered more than a few dozen into gore upon impact.

"Shutdown this battery, leave the capture of the captain to the others." And he spoke into his comm link, "we will distract the Imperials and draw response forces to us."

On the other side of the room a heavy bolter was being set up and he could see reinforcements pouring in to confront the droids. The Gunner got the droids into his sights and started firing, coring Super Battle Droids in bursts of explosions as the shells blasted apart inside the droids.

A pair of Flame thrower droids rushed it taking cover behind the various shells and gun parts of the room in order to make it to the target.

Meanwhile more armsmen were flooding through the entrance and more heavy weapons were being brought up to ensure that these droids were put down.

"Defensive maneuvers." The B2-HA ordered the remaining droids, understanding that it is hard to distract the enemy with destroyed forces.

The heavy bolter turned to fire at him and the first couple bolts impacted the area around him when twin jets of flame erupted from the two flame thrower droids cooking the unfortunate soldier in his place and temporarily separating the passage from the room with walls of writhing flames.

A B2 exploded as a lasgun shot penetrated through its armor and detonated the fuel supply of its jet pack.

The armsmen blocked by the flames began to lay down fire from their lasguns and a few missiles shot through the flames, detonating on whatever they happened to hit, be it droid or parts of the room.

One of the missiles struck the controls for the door on the other side of the room blocking that route of escape.

The crackle of static on the comms channel alerted the droid that it had incoming transmissions.

"We have encountered heavy resistance throughout the ship but groups delta and beta have reached the target."

"Extract the bridge officers from the vessel, the commander requires their information."

The bark of the heavy bolter caught the droid's attention and it could see the flames being put out and armsmen and what looked like regular shipmen armed with whatever weapons were available rushing into the room.

The sounds of bolter fire were caught by the B2, it saw what had been designated Sisters of Battle advancing. Several were armed with flamers and others with the infamous Melta weapons.

An explosion sent several droids to the ground as the ship was once again buffeted by Confederate batteries.

The Battle droids were spreading out seeking to surround the entrance in a semicircle of metal. One near him exploded as several bolt rounds shredded its chest plate and detonated inside it.

One of the Super Battle Droid flamethrower was drenched in the fire of a Sister in a sudden reversal of fates, its frame glowing red hot from the intense burst of fire.

Several droids were felled by bolter fire as the Sisters rushed through the blaster fire, their power armor soaking up the impacts harmlessly. Several B2-HA s fired their oversized blaster cannons into the incoming Imperials.

A frag grenade exploded next to B88827 disabling his photoreceptor and causing critical damage to several droids around him.

Over two hundred super battle droids had entered the battery room and now there were only 40 left standing, slowly being pushed back to the opposite wall…

HK-217 was processing these events through a sub process in his cortex and knew that these droids had performed exactly as calculated.

An imperial vessel in front of the Star Hammer was venting atmosphere and drifted away from the combat, it had several massive holes in its side from super heavy turbo laser fire.

"HK-217, this is Commander Fredrick, how goes the orbital battle?"

"We are winning, the primary ship is in the process of being boarded by our forces, and the commanding Droid reports the capture of the Captain. What progress have you made against the imperial forces on the ground?"

"With the help of the frigate you sent me, we have broken through their lines and now are outside the Hive city. I have deployed Commando droids to infiltrate the city and open the gates from the inside. Currently we wait outside its gates."

Red flashing lights filled the bridge, and several of the OOM bridge officers looked up from their stations to quivery as too the cause of the disturbance.

"Sir the Confederate has lost its shields! We are venting atmosphere from the left arm and request immediate aid. Six frigates are pouring down hell upon us."

"Understood, redirecting forces to escort you out of there, prep for micro-Hyperspace jump."

"HK, we'll suffer significant damage if we divert power to our engines to escape."

"Do it anyway, you're too valuable an asset to lose."

HK-217 turned to the droid in charge of communications.

"Establish communications with the other ships."

"Roger roger,"

The hard sounding beeps from the console were the signal that the others had acknowledged him and were online and waiting for new orders.

"Retreat to the other side of the planet, this engagement is too costly, withdraw!"

Affirmatives from the captains of the other ships answered him. The Star Hammer would however stay behind until the droids brought the Ship's captain to him.

"Losses report!"

"We lost four Munificent frigates sir and the Confederate will require serious repairs before it can be deployed again. In addition to this the remaining frigates are in varying states of damage, this engagement has left us with only five battle capable vessels." The droid said in a flat tone.

From several holes in the hull of the ship, came the B2s swarming out like bees defending their hive.

"Have the remaining fighters defend them than regroup with the main fleet. I want that information."

"Sir, we are receiving transmissions from the enemy."

A picture of an older woman appeared on the display screen. Her face was just barely wrinkled by age, but she still appeared at the oldest in her forties, her black hair was cut short around her head and flanking her were two helmeted Sisters of Battle.

"So you're the commanding officer of the Sisters of Battle?" Asked HK-217 before she could say anything. He sounded remarkably unimpressed.

Her stern face transformed into a mask of anger.

"Metal abomination, know this soon your fleet will be laid low back into whatever hole you crawled out of. Holy flame will burn away your taint and leave another pure world for the Emperor beloved by all."

"You are mistaken crone, as we speak the metal fist of the armies of the Confederacy triumph against your forces, I look forward to the operating cycle where I see you at my feet. Place this into your processor, this world is ours and nothing you can do will stop us."

"Fear not heretical machine! Immolation will purge your abominate soul of such desires."

"What you do not understand meat bag, is that we've already won, this world belongs to us now. You'd do well to check the bridge of your vessel and notice the surprise I have placed there for you."

An explosion shook the sister and she fell out of their view.

"Close this transmission and send us to the rally point."

"But sir what about the prisoners?" asked one of the OOM droids.

"Send them to the holding cells, separate and sound proofed, there will be no communication between them."

The Star Hammer turned away from the badly damaged Imperial fleet and sped away, is shields easily absorbing the poorly aimed parting shots from the cruiser.

The Captain was marched into the holding cell by ten Super Battle Droids, somehow, these droids had breached through the defenses of his ship, which had withstood six hundred years of naval warfare, and slaughtered their way to the bridge.

After that he was unsure of what happened, except that the entire bridge staff had been executed and he had been taken prisoner.

He was trust onto a metal seat, and four energy fields cuffed his legs and arms to the chair.

The door was open and he could hear the tramp of metal feet on the deck. Something was coming.

A square bodied droid appeared in the doorway, flanked by a pair of cloaked and hooded droids. Their red eyes bored into him.

"Greeting captain, I am HK-217, commander of this naval taskforce. I will be asking you questions in regards to the nature and motives of your continued presence in Confederate space. I will have my answers."

"You can kiss an ork's ass. I am a captain of the Imperial Navy, I will not be treated in this fashion nor will I tell you anything. I've stared far greater perversions of the Emperor's light than you and I will outlast you, just as I outlasted them."

"Your name captain?"

The thing's response caught him off guard, he expected anger, maybe surprise but not dismissal.

"Your name captain." The droid asked again.

"My name is Lewis Galland."

"Captain Galland, I am reasonable, and I can assure that no harm will come to you so long as give me what I want. Now why does your government persist in sending reinforcements to this planet, what is its strategic importance?"

"This planet has several shrines on it that the Adepta Sororitas hold sacred. It also is a well-developed world that serves sector command as a rallying point to strike at the Ork Empire of Octarius."

"That is not all, if this was a simple rallying point why not make another one nearby that serves the same purpose, your Sector Command has devoted several ships of extreme size to its defense. This is not normal, we have engaged and destroyed two star dreadnoughts and crippled another alongside numerous capital ships, why are such massive vessels being devoted to the defense of this planet?"

The captain appeared puzzled at the mention of star dreadnoughts and capital ships.

"I take it you mean the vessels of the Holy Imperial Navy, what you saw was merely a small group of cruisers and their escorts.

One of the two magna guards stiffened and turned towards HK-217.

"HK-217, report to the bridge immediately. Have the droid 101 interrogate the Captain, I have more important work for you." His voice was rough harsh sounding but out of breath as if the Commander was both exhausted and simultaneously infuriated.

The droid left the room flanked by the two Magna Guards, as a dark shape appeared out of the walls behind them…

The view screen was almost entirely taken up by a transmission from Commander Fredrick, his towering form surrounded by a group of OOM commander droids and a bit further off from the screen was B7782.

The screen shook as something nearby exploded.

"HK, we need eyes on the enemy, deploy probe droids above the hive city and surrounding area."

His next request was cut off as an artillery shell exploded near the command bunker.

"Bring down some orbital fire on those gun emplacements, they are too well defended for assaults by ground forces."

On the ground things were terrible for Fredrick, several thousand soldiers had somehow appeared as if out of nowhere and were manning fortified positions along the heights of a large group of hills each one varying from two hundred to fifty meters in height and providing each other with interlocking fields of fire. Even the massive MTTs and five of the HATs currently in service could not approach without taking extreme damage from anti-tank and artillery fire.

Several divisions had been crushed battering themselves against these heights, along with many squadrons of star fighters. The Munificent was itself threatened by the massive defense lasers of the hive city so it had to hover behind the horizon to avoid fire.

Fredrick watched several Imperial supply columns approach the rear areas of the heights to drop off ammunition, food stuffs and other essential supplies.

These had to be disrupted if he wanted to capture the hive. Massive fortifications were being emplaced on the surrounding area and from what could be seen by orbital reconnaissance they were gathering forces for a counter attack. Large armored formations were also seen enroute to the besieged Hive city.

Massive dust clouds enshrouded the formations from optical observation but when the droid switched over to thermals it counted several hundred tanks and APCs moving as quickly as possible towards the city followed by a massive column of infantry.

Events were moving to change the war and he was running out of droids while the Imperials seemed to have a bottomless supply of manpower. He had to push past the last lines of desperate defense and take the Hive.

"B7782 what intelligence do have about the enemy's ability to resist infiltrators?"

"The rank and file and most low level officers will be fooled by our current models, however much of their organization is built to prevent infiltration, thus any infiltrators will either need to be heavily modified, human traitors or low level, brief encounters."

"Send commando droids under cover of darkness, have them disable enemy antiaircraft guns and ammunition dumps, and other key points in the enemy defenses."

B7782 was about to respond when one of the OOM droids stepped up and interrupted him, "Commander forward units report an enemy counter assault. Several hundred Leman Russ tanks and Chimera APCs have been spotted alongside large numbers of infantry. Artillery bombardment is being weathered throughout our lines."

"I want to know where the artillery is coming in from, have the HAGS counter battery it and bring in our aerial assets to compensate for the lost support. Get supply units ready to resupply our lines, and prepare fallback positions. Have artillery ready to strike at our positions for when they are overrun."

"Yes sir," said an OOM droid as it relayed its orders to other droids in command of supply, frontline units and artillery batteries.

Fredrick turned towards a map of the soon to be battlefield, it was a holographic projection and upon it were several representations of the forces arrayed against his. he saw several hundred thousand soldiers, possibly a million and over a thousand tanks not including the various lighter vehicles, artillery pieces and other Imperial equipment.

On his side of the battle he had roughly four hundred thousand droids and one thousand tanks with only 312 artillery pieces available as support, alongside the much smaller but more numerous proton mortars dispersed throughout droid groups at the platoon level. Hundreds of repeating blasters were dispersed through forward and fall back positions as the droids braced for the Imperial assault.

Overhead cover was being emplaced throughout their defenses and Turret Droids were being emplaced as anti tank guns and heavy support for the droid forces. Several HMP squadrons were already ready, filled with a mix of pure gunships and ones acting as transports for Super Battle Droid groups.

The Imperial Guard would soon make its move and when it did it would be a monumental hammer blow.