B7782 looked at the first batch of completed D-100 droids, they had been extremely expensive making even Destroyer Droids look cheap by comparison. Several of his attendant droids marked by three yellow lines on their shoulders inspected the new assault droids.
Fredrick's enthusiasm for the new droid class had failed to take into consideration how much more resource hungry they would in addition to added cost of preparing support equipment for them. OOM engineer droids would need to get schematics for them in order to conduct repair work, which was made more difficult by their extreme weight, it took a team of OOM droids to move even one of them.
Yet even the newly upgraded super tactical droid couldn't argue with the raw firepower each droid carried. B7782 knew that with these droids, assaults into choke points would no longer cost them absurd numbers of droids, as several times during the war in hive they had suffered 100 to 1 losses against dug in Skitarii and Sisters. They had tested the droids against bolter fire, melta weapons and even some of the recovered plasma weaponry. WIth shield raised the droid was resistant to melta weapons and could withstand plasma fire.
They would be potent shock troops to spearhead future victories but at the moment they would have to wait till they had proper support before they could sally forth as potent weapons of war.
B7782 gave his mark of approval and a shuttle was enroute to bring them to the Star Hammer where they would secure the flagship against any boarding parties.
He would send a request for a new seating arrangement and harness system for these droids as they were too big to use super battle droid harnesses yet too small to lock into place with those used for Ultra Battle Droids.
The so called IG-200 design was of great interest to IG-105 and he had sent several entreaties to B7782 to have several produced for the use of the Praetorian Guard.
The first of the massive planetary defense turbo lasers had been built and a second one was being laid down. Reactors were being ordered in order to provide power to ever growing energy needs of the Confederate army.
While B7782 busied himself with coordinating the build up the massive droid army HK-217 was organizing his fleets new additions. A Resculant light destroyer and three new Munificent frigates bringing the fleet total to 2 capital ships and 13 escort class vessels.
Starfighter production had exceeded hangar capacity even in the massive Lucrehulk battleships and countless vulture droids could be found in ad hoc hangers built into the structure of the orbital sprawl. With every passing day more and more droids and other tools of war built the strength of Fredrick's growing empire. Small outposts had been established in the system's gas giant in order to extract useful gases common to such planets.
In this moment of immense forward moment, a vessel arrived in system, far from the watchful eyes of the droid's sensors, it's appearance shrouded from the purely physical detection offered by the confederacy.
A craft touched down onto the icy planetoid at the edge of the system. It was the red of dried blood accented with steel and exhaultations of faith.
A massive boot crunched into the snow and ice. His helmet protecting his face from the biting wind. Adorning his armor was neatly ordered script extolling praise for gods and daemons. A burning daemon's face had been painted onto his pauldron and from dangling chains hung trophies to his conquests.
The Word Bearer stared at the broken fortress. It had been set upon since he had last been in this system to acquire more astropaths for the slaughter. He raised the banner that the Dark Apostle had entrusted into his care and slammed it thrice upon the ice. Following in his wake came the brothers of the host, armed with bolter and blade, finally a terminator appeared from the front hatch and in his wake came a heavily decorated brother, his horned helmet and gold trim marking him apart from his brothers. The First Apostle set his boot down and in that moment condemned any who stood against the will of the Ever Faithful Host to death.
They marched forward, a premonition sent by the Dark Powers warning Phlegethon of an impending danger. The brothers of this detachment had been hand picked by him for this purpose and the master had even lent him the services of one of Anointed for this mission.
They endured harsh winds scattering a hail of ice shards across the fields and the intense brightness of the star at the center of the system.
They passed into the killing fields of servitor guns and had they been dealing with a normal confederate presence they might have slipped by unnoticed. Their Hellbringer light cruiser had been blessed by devotes of the lord of change to be evade all but the most observant sentinels.
A sentinel saw them in its macrobinoculars. The droid was one of the expendable B1 type and it had silhouetted itself against the horizon when it scanned them.
"Lord, we've been spotted" and the terminator pointed up at the wall where a lone figure had appeared on his sensorium. It was to thin and frail to be human yet the proportions were all wrong to be an Eldar.
"Strike it down, leave no witnesses to our arrival."
The terminator raised his Reaper Autocannon and in a quick burst the enemy flew apart under the thunderous report of the auto cannon.
They did not anticipate the near instant reaction to the droid's demise as the minor but noted system loss registered with the garrison control.
"More are appearing, look!"
Upon the redoubts and in the various firing slits more of the enemy appeared and they began shooting. The Chaos Space Marines spread out and began firing, bolt shells impacting and shattering the frail bodies of the battle droids. The shrieking sound of a plasma gun's discharge could be heard and an explosion sounded as the gun slagged a droid.
Emerging from the gate came a horde of these new enemies, Phlegethon noted the outlines of far larger constructs moving towards them. He activated his power sword and called to the daemon bond inside the blade. Gai'ghik stirred and a blaze of strength and speed rushed into his body and the daemon vented its lust for the souls of material realm.
He rushed them, moving with speed beyond the ken of even the enhanced Astartes and smashed into the front rank, crushing the first droid underneath his bulk, the bolts of their las weaponry barely affecting the thick layers of ceramite that encased him.
He became a scythe through their number, hacking down first the frail skeletal enemies, before turning to the large hulking blue ones. One raised a massive glowing barrel built into its arm and the droid fired, the laser impacting and blacking the entire front of his breastplate, maring the countless lines of scripture he had painstaking etched into his armor.
These in the rear acted quicker and were evidently more durable, but nowhere near the capacity of an Astarte.
A burst of bolter fire shattered six of the droids and a burst from the reaper autocannon from Tal Bedar ended the cannon armed enemy.
"They fell easily Apostle, I thought we were to expect the Adeptus Mechanicus. These machines are new."
"Do not trouble yourselves brothers, it appears that the Gods themselves have set us this path."
He leveled his bolt pistol and shot a a new enemy that appeared from the fortifications, they were small wheel shaped constructions that unfurled into little turrets.
The bolt shells exploded against an energy field and a fusillade of fire came from the enemy, las bolts chewing the air.
The Chaos Space Marines strode through this hail of energy and it no more stopped them than hail would halt the path of a battleship.
They moved surprisingly fast for something of their size, their enhanced physiology pushing past the limits of mortal men. They were about to impact into the line of sphere shielded robots when a large glowing green projectile struck one of the word bearers in the chest. It was followed by several other similar projectiles.
A warning rune blared across his vision, a massive radiation spike had been registered and he scanned for the source.
A group of four of these new enemies stood far off, their glowing red eyes staring at them, their appearance reminiscent of that of a small primitive necron. Each one carried a long thick barreled weapon and they fired off a burst of more of the green rad weaponry.
IG-105 was at a terminal when a blaring alarm sounded on the bridge of the Star Hammer. It was a stream of messages, warning of first intrusion then an assault by a unknown group of enemies upon the outpost that he had discovered at the edge of the system.
The reaction time was critical as it would be time before a suitable contingent of droids could be dispatched to reinforce the garrison.
"Respond and tell the commanding tactical droid to hold and send as much information regarding the enemy as possible, instruct him that he is authorized to use the more exotic payloads recently deployed."
The droids rushed to carry of IG-105's order.
"Sir, we've received a holonet transmission from the commander."
"Display it."
Before IG-105 was a scene of utter carnage, the command center was covered in dismembered and destroyed droids. A magnaguard could be seen, cut down the middle, its left and right halves five feet apart.
The tactical droid's message was a burst of text that cut out suddenly as a monstrous figure plunged a sword haloed in crackling blue sparks into its back. A loud burst of explosions sounded and the transmission cut out.
IG-105 froze and began calculating what sort of force they were faced with, a mere twelve of them had been sufficient to in direct combat to destroy over one thousand droids emplaced in fortified positions.
"Sir, we have detected a major vessel in system, of a design not normal to Imperial standards, it is approaching the periphery."
HK-217 arrived on the bridge summoned by several of the crew in order to choose a path forward.
"IG-105, take charge of the garrison aboard the Star Hammer, I will not tolerate intrusions into Confederate space or attacks upon our outposts."
The engines of the battleship roared and the Star Hammer lurched forward, attendant ships moving into formation around the vessel. Acknowledgements flooded the bridge from other vessels and the new Resculant light destroyer took point.
"Bring star fighters online, I want all launchable fighter craft ready to engage once we are in range."
The enemy vessel was at extreme range, but was moving into the system in order to pick up whatever forces had been left upon the slaughter of the droid garrison.
IG-105 was bringing online many of the droids that would serve to defend the ship from boarders. B1s were left unactivated but the massive new D-100 assault droids were all brought online.
Thousands of more formidable droids were activated, and the tramp of metal feet rang from the corridors of the Star Hammer. The growing warmachine of the Confederate Navy was spinning up for a new war.
…
"Lord, we have detected several vessels on auspex scans and they are approaching us at speed."
Phlegethon heard the vox report and wiped one of the metal creatures off his blade.
"We need to evacuate, but I have to retrieve the relic first."
It took them an hour to properly search the base, but they found it, recessed into a small wall. A thick adamantine door. Tal Bedar raised his power fist and smash it into the door, ripping a massive hole into the metal. He raised it again and peeled back another section of the plasteel. A third and a fourth blow followed until at the fifth the door no longer stood in the path of the Word Bearers.
There resting upon a small pedestal was a massive iron and brass collar, Imperial script had been inscribed over the place but nothing except one run marred the collar's surface.
He felt the Daemon in his blade, Gai'ghik cried out in his awareness but the First Apostle strode forward, and grasped the collar, lifting it from its mount and attaching it to a chain hanging from his waist.
They left the burning and gutted bastion and trudged back through the ice and snow to their Thunderhawk.
Right as they caught sight of the thunderhawk the ambush was sprung. A pair of Dwarf Spider droids opened fire upon the marines, rapid energy blasts striking the chests of the front most brothers in their powered armor, while several battle droids manning repeating blasters opened fire.
Long range fire came in, as the concussive force from mortar shells shook the Astartes. Various droids appeared and while their weapons were far from effective, that wasn't the point.
A pair of Persuader tanks appeared, four B1 battle droids clinging onto their outrigger treads.
Autocannon shells began impacting on the armor of the immense droids, stripping them of their riders and damaging several of their external components. The tanks opened fire, their heavy repeating blasters tearing burning chunks out the path and smashing into chaos space marines, and a flurry of concussion missiles spat towards the marines.
The ambush was executed well and had lesser soldiers been caught in it, they would've been butchered. However these were no ordinary soldiers.
Bursts of bolter fire eliminated battle droids and the plasma gun armed brother aided Tal Bedar, destroying two of the Dwarf Spider Droids, which had started to recalibrate their cannons to shooting anti armor shots.
Phlegethon sent a vox message to their Thunderhawk, instructing it to come to their position.
In the scant remaining time, in the remaining time they would have to fend off the droids till their transport arrived.
The advancing tanks had forced even the terminator armored Tel Bedar into the limited cover available, their punishing salvos threatening even the heavily armored space marines. Concussion missiles had already gravely wounded a handful of the Word Bearers.
The droid forces were bringing immense firepower down upon the exhausted Word Bearers. Ammunition was low and the droid tanks prevented them from engaging in melee combat, their firepower making a charge a suicidal tactic.
Until the Thunderhawk arrived.
The massive gunship destroyed the pair of tank droids and used its mounted heavy bolters to scour the ambushing infantry from their positions. The immense firepower and armor of the gunship made the droid's assault futile and they pulled back.
They sprinted up the ramp of the gunship, blaster bolts impacting its hull dissapaiting against the ceramite armor.
The engines roared and the vessel accelerated, climbing towards the heavens and the waiting voidship that would take them into its fold.
"Lord, we've received word from the Herald of the Primordial Truth, vessels are converging on it position at great speed. Two are vessels of similar tonnage to a Lunar Class."
The pilot, Judicari was iterating the news while dodging a burst of missiles fired from some ground battery, black streams of smoke trailing after the vessel like crows harassing a hawk.
"Get us to the Herald."
The presence of these strange metal xenos was an odd turn of fate. Something about them was wrong to those among Word Bearers most attuned to warp, as if they had encountered something that had no place in this galaxy but was spreading and growing like one of the pustules of Nurgle.
They could see it, it was a Hellbringer light cruiser, armed with four massive lance turrets that had seen countless engagements since it was first birthed from a forge of the Dark Mechcanicum.
It was turning away from them, presenting its broadside to the enemy, its massive barrels turning towards the encroaching ships and four beams of red light spat towards the incoming vessels. The Thunderhawk passed beneath the lance fire and dock aboard a small hanger on the bottom of the ship.
…
HK-217 was listening to a readout from one of the other droids, they had been hit by massive energy weapons known as lances. The shields of the battleship had held but these weapons were a matter of study, as beam weaponry had never been produced at such scale.
They were out of useful range for their turbolaser batteries except for the immense forward batteries of the frigates, which were firing out volleys to box in this new enemy vessel. It was of such a different design from what had been seen prior that they placed it as belonging to a rival faction. It was by the Anaxes War college definition a battlecruiser, smaller than the hulking Lunar Class but it dwarfed the lesser craft of the confederate navy.
Other turrets along the spine of the vessel rotated and began firing, their triple barrels letting loose macrocannon rounds.
"Commander Fredrick has ordered this vessel interdicted and destroyed, set target points for our fighter craft and move in for the kill."
