Orenthal System
The hanger bay of a battleship was an immense room, housing hundreds of fighters and dropships. Marcus had seen the same room hundred of times but never had he witnessed what currently occupied the room. At the far end of the bay a huge relic stormbird was touching down. Well very rare to see a gunship of that size what, or rather who was being transported in it was millions of times rarer.
The only know loyalist primarch in the Imperium was coming here to oversee one of the most strategically important attacks in the Ultima Segmentum. The Syrix system was held by the imperium for thousands of years until the system governor felt the Tau were better allies than Humans. The system was in the middle of a warp nexus that allowed thousands of ships to reload and rearm before there next deployment.
The Syrix system was a big system housing hundreds of billions of human souls. It had 13 planets 4 gas giants and 9 rocky worlds. 5 of the nine rocky worlds were Agri worlds house only a few billion people each. 3 were hive worlds that hugged close to the systems massive blue giant star. The last of the rocky planets was a massive sprawl of refineries and manufactorum built to take the vast quantity of resources pulled from the gas giants and turn it into weapons. This world designated Signum Primus was well on its way to becoming an official forge world and was as of now overseen mostly by neighboring forge worlds. The main export out of Signum Primus was promethium and vast amounts of ammunition ranging from auto gun bullets to macrocannon shells.
Marcus was shaken from his thoughts on the Target system by a voice calling to him, "Lord general sir, he is about to unboard should we go meet him or stay her all day waiting." Marcus looked up surprised, his second in command Alexius was waiting impatiently for Marcus to respond. "I'm coming we best meet him at his gunship otherwise we might come off as uncivil, and that's no was to be acting for our new Lord Commander, is it" Marcus responded.
The two moved on at a fast pace to meet the Lord Gulliman at his stormbird. The walk was not a pleasant one even though it was only across a sing section of the hanger bay. The was a blocked by storage crates and troop dropships. The Lord Commander had given no warning to his arrival, so the Hanger wasn't properly cleared for a huge parade arrival as befitted a man of his status. As it was only Marcus and Alexius were there to great Gulliman. Not the grandest of arrivals, but they were the two highest ranking Imperial guard officers in the entire fleet and Marcus had been given overall control of the crusade to retake the Syrix System.
The ramp to the stormbird set down dramatically slowly, and Marcus rolled his eyes at it. He never understood the need for theatrics this was what felt like the end times and now more than ever did we need to be efficient with everything we do. That thought was ripped from his mind as he saw the beings at the top of the ramp.
No matter how many campaigns he fought with space marines he could never get over how ginormous they were. Standing up straight Marcus was six foot five and he barely came up to there chest plates. It made him feel small in a way that he never got over. He wasn't used to being small, his size and position normally made him feel like the biggest person in the room. Everyone always looked to him, but now he was just another general. Compared to who was behind the space marines he might as well have been just another speck of dust. Gulliman was here in the flesh.
Marcus was not one to bow but he bent at the waist faster than he had ever thought possible and knew deep down this was someone that needed and deserved every ounce of respect he could give.
Gulliman walked down the Ramp with his honor guard and looked at Alexius up and down then turned to Marcus. "Lord General Marcus Attrius Decum leader of the Syrix campaign, at your service my Lord" Marcus said. He didn't know how he had the frame of mind to speak, but his senses were starting to overcome the initial shock of the primarchs presence.
"I know who you are, I also know of your previous experience fighting with the Tau. I have done my research and know that you will be a strong ally in this coming war" Replied Gulliman.
"Thank you, my Lord," Marcus responded as he started to stand up straight again. "The command deck is this way if you want to talk about your strategies and force dispositions". Marcus added hastily to keep the conversation flowing.
"Yes, good idea we don't have much time. We need to get this battle underway fast otherwise the Tau and system defense forces will continue to dig in. They know we are coming they just don't know when so the sooner the better" Gulliman said agreeingly.
The walk to the command deck was a silent one filled with the soft sound of footfalls and the sharp clang of ceramite boots on metal. The quit whoosh of air marked the end of the journey and the opening of the blast door separating the hallway from the command deck.
The command deck was a noisy room always filled with the voices of serfs hard at work and the monotone reporting of servitors in the background. When the doors opened, and the serfs saw who was standing in the doorway everything went quiet. Somehow it felt like even the servitors knew not to make any sounds. A dull chirping sound was heard at one of the many cogitator stations, but know one seemed to pay any heed to the sound.
Gulliman took a few steps into the room looked around then asked, "well is anyone going to see what that chirping is all about." That pulled the room out of its stupor and everyone scrambled to look busy.
Marcus chuckled in the background and wondered how the primarch could ever get anything done when his aura seemed to draw the attention of everyone around him. He walked forward to direct the party to a holo-field projector in the center of the room.
Once everyone was situated around the projector Marcus pulled up a schematic of the forces gathered to bring the Syrix system back into the light of the Astronomican. The force was nothing to laugh at. Marcus had been gathering every available regiment to his banner. He had even managed to get a whole Knightly household and a titan legion to join. The guard forces at his command was the thing that really mattered. Hundreds of regiments had been gathered, this meant that there was well over ten million troops ready to follow Marcus into battle. Along with those infantry troops were a couple thousand leman russ battle tanks, ten full super heavy tank regiments, twenty-five artillery regiments, and Marcus' personal command leviathan.
The imperial navy fleet was nothing to scoff at either. With two emperor class battleships and twenty smaller cruisers along with their escort ships, and most surprisingly of all a Ramillies class star fort. Marcus didn't know why all these forces were being gather for a single system even if that system was home to a warp nexus. This was the start of a massive crusade fleet one that could rival many whole sector fleets in size and power. Now with the additional forces brought by Gulliman, Marcus couldn't help but wonder of something was happening that wasn't being shared.
Gulliman took in all the information about the force dispositions and other logistical information at incredible speeds. Only stopping to ask quick clarifying questions. Once he had finished, he looked up at Marcus and said, "This is quite a force isn't it." He looked down again and pressed a couple runes on the holo projector and brought up another fleet's worth of data.
This fleet was not an imperial navy fleet, instead it was space marine vessels, many of them. Seven strike cruisers and two battle barges all ultramarine ships were shown mixing into the imperial navy fleet to swell its numbers to what once could have been an expeditionary sized fleet in the great crusade. The one ship that truly took Marcus' breath away was the behemoth at the heart of the ultramarine fleet. Gulliman's flagship theMacragge's Honour. It was a massive twenty-six-kilometer ship rippling with guns and hanger bays. Nothing that big should be capable of moving on its own thought Marcus. Gulliman seeming to read his mind stated, "If you think that my flagship is vast then you would be overawed by the Phalanx." Marcus tried to meet his gaze but wavered slightly at the last moment and decided to look and what ground forces the ultramarines had brought with them.
Five whole companies were here. The first, second, fourth, fifth, and ninth companies had all gathered at full strength with there primarch. Marcus kept looking at the files seeing another list of forces. This one comprised of vehicles, so many vehicles. thirteen land raiders, twenty-five rhinos, thirty predators. That wasn't even counting the whirlwind artillery and the land speeders. What really caught Marcus off guard was the vast amount of relic tanks in the armories. Two fellblades, three glaives, five falchions, twelve sicaran battle tanks, twenty different siege tanks, and finally a mastodon troop transport.
Marcus took in all this information and looked back towards Gulliman and asked, "why did you bring this force with you? Don't you think we could have easily stomped out any defenses with the already oversized imperial guard force."
Gulliman had expected this question and looked over at Marcus and responded, "I know that right now it looks like much but if you knew what I know you would wish we had a thousands times the numbers you see before you. What lays in the Syrix system and beyond will bring us a fight I wish never needed to occur. To prepare for that fight requires utterly destroying the Tau forces in the system and preparing every defense imaginable for the coming storm."
Marcus didn't like the sound of that at all. He had expected to get in and take the system back then move onto the next place. Not to take the system and dig in that was not normal. "Might I ask why we are needed to stay in system and defend it once the Tau are taken care of." Marcus replied.
Gulliman took a breath and thought for a moment before speaking "Many forces are moving in to claim this system and we need to stand ready to repel them. This system will be the staging point for the next phase of the indomitus crusade and my traitor brothers will stop at nothing to keep that from happening." He finished talking and looked back to the screen. He then started talking again. "I have called for more reinforcement already but what we have here will be more than enough to quell the rebellion and crush the Tau."
"Why did you choose me my Lord. I read the orders and they came right from your desk. I might have experience with the Tau but so do many other more senior commanders" Marcus asked.
A sigh escaped Gulliman's lips and he looked at Marcus straight in the eye and said, "I have read the reports. You are the most efficient commander in this entire segmentum, and don't stick to the massed wave attacks normally employed by your more esteemed colleagues, your strategies bring me back to the days of the great crusade, and that give me great pleasure."
Marcus nodded taking the compliment to heart. Then he asked, "Should I signal the fleet to enter the warp?" Gulliman nodded and Marcus made a gesture at one of the chapter serfs to get the fleet moving.
"This should be a short jump of only a few days, as we are only a single system away" Marcus said. Of course, Gulliman already knew that but Marcus wanted to fill the silence that had surrounded them. Gulliman looked over and said "Yes and hopefully an uneventful journey. Now I must get back to my ship and converse with Lord Richard and Princeps Riley, otherwise they might think me ungrateful of their help".
Gulliman was already walking away before Marcus could even reply. Marcus had had many meetings with Lord Richard and Princeps Riley, and he felt bad for what Gulliman was about to get into.
The Knights of Ganor was a very old knightly house and was filled with many very old traditions that took to much time in Marcus' opinion. But their armories were full of relic knight suits. Like the Lancer, the styrix, and some of the extremely rare acastus pattern war suits.
Princeps Riley and the Soul walker titan legion was much easier to talk to. Both the knights and titans came from the same system, so they were very closely tied together. The titan legion was also stock full of normally rare titans. With two emperor class titan one imperator and one warmonger tian very, few forces could match those on the ground. Backing up those behemoths came packs of battle titans and scout titans.
This whole battle force boggled Marcus' mind. Never had he seen such a massive force, and before battle had even started reinforcements were in route. The upcoming battles must be serious indeed perhaps Apocalyptic.
Author's Note:
Thank you for reading my first chapter I'm sorry it is so rough I came up with this as I was sitting around in my accounting zoom lecture. I have been so disappointed with other stories not showing a true apocalypse size war, so I wanted to try my hand at it. I have modeled the armies off of my miniature armies in real life except for a few extra relic vehicles. I feel like the old relic vehicles don't get enough coverage, so I decided why not add them in. Like the ginormous mastodon troop transport. Overall, I hope you guys enjoy my story and I can't wait to continue uploading chapters.