A/N: So, the last chapter was my longest one written at over 4,000 words. Though the general response is positive, can I kindly request guests and those with accounts reviews of reverence to that specific story, not an essay of the Warhammer Universe like one guest (Anon) did. However, the release of this "Data" in Titanicus will be touched upon in this chapter. However, the UNSC will openly stand with Invicta on that one. There will be a small time jump to Argentum Hive.
Chapter 6: Shaltar Refineries
Imperial Guard Brigadier General Alphant Bulwar, 1st Narmenian Armour Division, Imperial Lord Governor Aleuton Strategium, Principle Hive, Orestes Forge World, 779.M41.
In the personal residence of the Lord Governor, Imperial officers were listening and reading the after action report that the UNSC had sent to High Command. Gun camera footage had been sent to them, showing the crushing defeat of Archenemy Forces at Undergox Edge. The recovery of the Nicomach Ignix and her crew had improved morale of the hive populations. Over 500 Heavy Main Battle Tanks, 300 Armoured Infantry Fighting Vehicles and 24 Heavy Gunships had engaged and eliminated over 4,000 enemy units with minimal casualties. It had also reported Invicta had intercepted a Warhound-Class Scout Titan attempting to flee the battle. The Lord Governor was pleased with the result and that they history regarding UNSC Forces had stayed true. He himself was happy to see a mechanicus, dark or not, be so throughly destroyed with only four dozen crippled tanks and two crashed gunships. No fatalities were reported, either.
"My Lord, Legio Tempestus' Tantamount Stridex, Vanquist Solace, and Legion Invicta's Dominatus Victrix, Cour Valant and Imperius Crux report an engine-to-engine engagement." said an aide, dressed in the drab mustard yellow uniform of the Narmenian Armour Regiment.
"How many enemy titans have they encountered?" asked the Lord Governor.
"Uh," Head down, looking through the vox-scripts from the front. "First report was two engines. Reaver-Class, My Lord."
"Send the UNSC a data packet, I want them to intervene." said the Lord Governor, as the aide walked away to the . He wasn't trusting the Mechanicus Forces like he had before this data was released. He was outraged when it went public, especially in a time like this, when Orestes might not survive. Whilst the Imperial and Forge were at each others throats, the UNSC had remained as neutral as possible. Something to do with the mission they'd been assigned at the start of the campaign and because of this, he trusted them to carry out his orders.
"Response from the UNSC, sirs." the aide said, returning from the vox-sets. "The UNSC has a Brutus-Class Destroyer in Low Orbit. It'll be descending into the atmosphere momentarily." Aleuton and Bulwar nodding to the aide, dismissing himself as the Brigadier General and Lord Governor entered his Private Residence.
"So do you trust Legion Invicta, my Lord?" Bulwar asked, there was some concern in his voice.
"Whether I trust them or not, I must think of the survival of Imperial interests on Orestes. The titans are distracted by this data, we are distracted too. They appear to be free of turmoil inside them." he replied, "Otherwise they're very good at hiding it."
Princeps Guido Prinzhorn, Dominatus Victrix, Legio Invicta Warlord-Class Titan, Warlord-Class Command Head, Shaltar Refineries, Orestes Forge World, 779.M41.
"My Princeps, The UNSC will be aiding our engagement with heavy gunships." Scanning the data-packet sent to him, he felt betrayed by the Lord Governor's lack of trust they could complete the task.
"Moderati Tarses," addressing him directly, barely containing his frustration. "Tell them that their assistance is not required." He felt Victrix's powerful vox-caster begin communicating with them. Hearing Tarses quietly talk with another voice, calm and reserved was boldly stating that the Lord Governor personally ordered them in. Proceeding with his action plan to deal with these ambush engines.
"Princeps, they are reporting that they will attack when the enemy walkers have been sighted." said Tarses. It was going the best he'd get out of them. Turning his attention back to the three possible engines and the fact that Martial Nox was being pummelled by two archenemy titans. Advancing into the maze of towering metals and minerals, taller than Victrix herself.
"Sensori Kalder," addressing the auspex operator by name. "Is there anyway of detecting those engines passively?"
"No." replied Kalder immediately. "Not from Victrix's auspex. You'll need another source. Active pings will give us away without definite chance of locating the enemy." Gesturing to the terrain around them, "You'd need something high above this crap to get an accurate fix."
"Thank you, Sensori," acknowledged Prinzhorn. "Moderati Tarses, get me a link to those UNSC Gunships."
"Yes, my Princeps." replied Tarses, his hands dancing across the manifold link. Grasping the block of UNSC Aircraft in his hands, he expanded it to initiate a link with its commander. "Link is ready, Princeps." Tarses responded. "Let's get started." Prinzhorn replied.
Captain Alexander Blackburn, Callsign: Razor, HG-84/HTC Hawk Heavy Gunship, UNSC Navy, 30,000FT Above Shaltar Refineries, Orestes Forge World, 17:03 hrs, 23rd February, 2895/UNSC Military Calendar/Military Standard Time.
"Dominatus Victrix is hailing us, Captain." reported Flight Officer Adams, his co-pilot. "They wanna discuss an action plan."
"You mean the one that didn't require our assistance?" He replied, know damn well that it was that arrogant shit in his fish tank.
"Patching them through now, sir." the image of Princeps Prinzhorn appeared in the top-left of his extensive helmet HUD. A female face had popped into view next to the princeps, ready to jump in at any attempt of slander.
"Thank you, Adams," Changing his attention he addressed the titan commander directly, smirking under his helmet. "To what do I owe the pleasure of this, Princeps?"
The woman opened her mouth only for a curt sound to be made and holding his hand up by the princeps to shut her up, without an argument. Looking to him now, he asked something in a language he'd never understand. Then a data-packet from Victrix's Moderati, Tarses was his name, replaced the face onboard the titan. Reading it over a few seconds, he muttered to Adam to forward this to the other Gunships in the flight. "This plan involves us actively pinging the combat zone, and the source will be 30,000FT in the air."
"Yes, it would reveal that we have an aerial support squadron." replied Prinzhorn, nodding. "If we revealed our own position, they'd move accordingly."
"Wait one. If we ping first, they'd move to avoid us. If you then ping a moment or two afterwards then they have very limited options. Risk detection by a Warlord-Class or by supposed Imperial Navy squadron." explained Blackburn, "You mentioned a triplet of titans, so… when we root one out, the others will follow too."
"An action that will gladly be executed by us." replied Prinzhorn, "I will hand you over to my Moderati whilst the action is exloaded to the other titans of the second front."
His helmeted head nodding, he closed the link with Prinzhorn and opened a new one with Moderati Tarses, with his face appearing alongside two others. Tarses then nodded to him that these two men can be trusted. Addressing all of them he began the revised plans, ones that called for them to take the brunt of the attack. While in the past Redapo missiles have proven effective, they have never been fired on an active Titan-Class void shield. These crew members know that and also know they can soak up enough punishment for a few seconds while the flight of gunships begin attack runs. "Begining operation." were the words that Tarses had stated. Relaying that to the other 36 gunships in the flight, they spilt up to prepare their attacks.
"Contact, Contact! Enemy Reaver-Class has been identified!" informed another gunship. Turning his head to look for the source transmission and found it on Commander Faust, a solid, high experience and long-time friend. Contacting to his feed, he saw the last moments of the Reaver-Class smashing through a burning warehouse. Brick work, metal piping and chimney stacks crushed underfoot or by its bulk pelting away at full-stride. Zooming out, he tracked 5 Missiles out of the dorsal missile box of the Victrix, bolting after the fleeing Reaver-Class and without mercy, collapsing its voids with 3 and blowing out the torso with the fourth when the fifth missed and demolished a silo tower. That's when another Titan was sighted about three and half a kilometre from Victrix's rear. Without hesitating, he decided his gunships would swarm the lone machine.
"Enemy Reaver-Class sighted, 3.5 clicks from Victrix. Multiple Angled Attack Runs advised." informing them was the boring part, an order to engage was not. "Razor squadron, Engage enemy Reaver." The 13 Hawk gunships of Razor inverted and the pilots pulled back on the stick, sending them straight towards the jagged refineries rushing up to meet them, leaving Warthog to orbit. At 300FT the gunships levelled out, straight down the central avenue between the main processing stacks and the gigantic warehouses, all the while avoiding supply pipes, personnel walkways, conveyer belts and burning debris dislodged by other gunships further ahead. When 13 HG-84/HTC Heavy Gunships are charging towards a Reaver-Class Titan's rear without a care in the world for what it is, especially when there is a wall of munitions ahead of it, you're in for a bad day. Closing to 2,000 Metres was a bold move, almost reckless if you didn't read the squadron service record. "Arm and Deploy Redapo Missiles," ordered the Captain. At 1,500 Metres he gave the order for squadron to split into three groups with two having four Gunships whilst the third would take five. The plan would be the three groups to attack the Reaver Titan using concentrated Redapo Missile barrages at the titan's weapon mounts, forcing them to re-direct their voids to the punishment, while the third group would effectively knee-cap the walker.
"Commander Faust, proceed with the attack." Ordered the Squadron Leader, a blue acknowledgement light was the only reply.
The 13 Hawk Gunships rocketed off towards the Reaver, launching a precise Redapo strike on what would be the groin of the titan. The walker in question noticed the RADAR signatures for the missiles and suddenly began to turn within a few seconds, only for it to squeal an alarm and in the process, take full barrage of missiles to the the right shoulder. Another squeal of scrapcode was emitted from the walker, clearly it was hurt from 91 missiles and it was clearly visible with the void shields re-aligning to provide the maximum protection, with scorch marks developing under the high heat of the plasma. Razor squadron split up into the designated groups, moving apart from each other. Four to the north, five to the west and the last four to the south. Massive processors and chimney stacks between them and the Reaver, not that it stopped it from demolishing half a dozen or more just to get at the extending gunships. The Reaver was hurt, and it was distressed, no Imperial aircraft could deal out the amount of punishment that they dealt. It squealed scrapped on all channels to attempt to either force them back or attract attention from its brethren, not caring that an Imperial Warlord was nearby.
The Reaver was tracking the last seen vector of the gunships, not knowing that the Hawk gunship could turn on a dime using its four individual engine nacelles and additional twelve manoeuvring jets. Allowing the aircraft to make subtle adjustments for weapons and in this case, make hard banks and turns to avoid enemy fire and falling masonry. The titan was searching for the illusive attackers, the hunter had become the hunted, the torso was traversing rapidly, weapon limbs rotating, attempting to seek out the interlopers. Firing a burst from its port mega-bolter in frustration, only to puncture a nearby fuel depot, spraying refined promethium over the exposed armour and unprotected joints. Valuable intel that the 2nd attack exploited. The attack came from opposite directions, forcing the titan to focus on the assault from the south. The seven Hawks emerged from the processing units and unleashed a blistering amount of high calibre shells, punishing the void shields to breaking point. They finally shattered under the strain and were visibly falling apart before them. The cannons never stopped the onslaught on the opposing Reaver especially when the shells were pockmarking the adamantium, the missiles from the Hawks weren't silent either, the pods launching the last barrage of Redapo Missiles. While the armaments on the Hawks never ceased to fire, the Reaver didn't just stand there and fall without taking a pound of flesh. The port weapon limb, a Vulcan Mega-Bolter spun up and unloaded a torrent of high-explosive shots, impacting against the fortified hard light shields on the Gunships. The starboard weapon limb, a Single Barrelled Laser Blaster began to glow a dark blood red on the muzzle of the weapon. Then the ferocious discharge and Ozone stink met a Hawk right on the nose, it ceased to exist after a catastrophic explosion forced another to break off trailing an unhealthy coloured smoke.
But before it could claim another air kill, the other six gunships emerged from the manufactory behind the Reaver. On a slow hover the six of them formed up and launched the last of their missiles in the rear of the titan. Eight Redapos smashed into the two weapon limbs with four apiece, another eight targeting the two knee joints. The waist was given six missiles to cripple its ability to traverse, the final twenty targeted the area behind the cockpit, magazines and reactor. The missiles hit the target with devastating results, the legs gave way under the weight and the upper torso tipped off the lower assembly whilst the weapon limbs simply dropped. All the wounds had molten metal and slag streaming out of the entry wounds and then finally… the reactor went up and flattened what remained of the processors for 350 meter radius. By then, the remaining twelve Hawk Gunships of Razor Squadron were extending out of the area and banked away to form up with the other gunships of Churchill squadron. They left the smoking crater of the enemy Reaver-Class behind, but they won't ever forget the 8 friends of the lost gunship. The signal from Dominatus Victrix declaring 2 Reaver-Class kills and congratulated Razor and Churchill squadrons for their anti-titan action. Other vox-signals from the other Imperial Titans, Legio Invicta and Tempestus, were congratulating the UNSC's selfless actions in aiding the clearance of the Second Front. The attack on Argentum Hive can finally begin.
A/N: Rather lack lustre chapter I'll admit, however, it was the best ending that I could do without it dragging on. You'll be wondering why Churchill squadron never got involved with the Reaver Titan or with the Victrix either, reason was they were providing top cover with for Razor. Character Bios for Razor Squadron will be up soon on the UNSC Codex: Character Bios. I'll try to get the next chapter up in two weeks after this chapter's publication.
SmokeTinyTom.
