I decided to march my squad back, rifles held across their chest in triumph, my newly found heavy bolter held out proudly in front of me, like the tip of a mighty spear. Partly the march was to do with pride, but mostly it was to mock the Custodian Guard that I had triumphed with the lowest of help, while they with their elite training and gear had failed. The Emperor would be proud.
As I approached the Custodians I realised just how arrogant they looked. They stood with their head slightly tilted up, in a way that made it looks as if they were permanently looking down on you. Their armour was solid gold, glinting in the sunlight as the light refracted through multiple gems encased in the armour. Each one had vast pauldrons and was about a head taller than a regular proto-Astartes. They were, in all respects glorious; if it weren't for their arrogance they would be the perfect embodiment of what any creature in the universe should aspire to be.
They stood in a squad, being only a select few, surrounded by army personnel. Behind me one of the soldiers lifted his rifle and bellowed at the top of his lungs, calling out a victory cry, in response all of the soldiers surrounding the Custodians joined in. The Custodians looked angry, their faces twisting into a scowl of resentment. All of them aimed their leers directly at me, knowing that they had just been bested by an Astartes.
There was a commotion at the back of the crowd and the people separated straight down the middle and from their midst came the Emperor, his face beaming with pride. I instantly dropped down to one knee, forgetting myself and everything that he told me. As he drew closer I realised that I dropped to one knee because my knees had given out beneath me. No matter how much I saw him I couldn't get used to him. His face had high cheek bones, a wide set chiselled jaw and piercing blue eyes. His eyes felt like they were staring directly into my thoughts, as if he could read every single detail of my mind. He chuckled as he drew closer.
"Rise, my children!" he bellowed, spreading his arms wide. "There is no reason to be humble, what you have done is a service to the Imperium and me. You are our saviours, and you, one and all, deserve to be honoured. So rise, and never again kneel before anyone." I grinned broadly from ear to ear at these words, amazed by the way he caused me to swell with pride, it was unnatural that any being could make an Astartes feel this way. I looked around and the soldiers were grinning too. The custodians on the other hand were not. As we all stood up a round of applause exploded from the surrounding crowds, even the Custodians clapped save for Herdoxitand; he stood there with a gruff look on his face, scowling horribly at me, as if his eyes were trying to melt my power armour.
The crowds dissipated around us and slowly people got back to their work around the camp. The Emperor strode up to me and clapped me with a large mailed hand on my shoulder. It took a fair amount of effort not to stagger forward. He chuckled and put his arm around me. I felt dwarfed by his might, no matter how many times he said that he was nothing special, I could feel the power emanating from him.
"I have a surprise for you, Tiberius." The Emperor told me, and extended a mailed, golden gauntlet out in front of him to reveal the beaming face of Julianos. Immediately the two of us charged at one another and locked into an embrace. Julianos and I where normally never separated for long, and by my recollection this had in fact been one of the longest times we had spent apart. Normally we would be separated for assaults on barbarian tribes, but that was only down into separate fire teams. And, as was the way with the Proto-Astartes, those fire teams never usually stayed separate for long.
Julianos clapped his hand on my back and broke from the embrace, grinning broadly still.
"Congratulations on your conquest, brother," he remarked, and then in a slightly more hushed tone; "and good on you for showing up those damned Custodes." I chuckled, and I swear I heard the Emperor laugh too, though that was impossible; there was no way he could have hear Julianos' comment.
"Come now my sons," The Emperor suddenly interjected. "There will be time for the reunification of brethren later; the reunification of your home still lingers on the horizon." His words brought me back to the reality of the situation, I had heard rumours that we were now close to final unification, but hearing the Emperor say so filled me with hope. Soon our conquest of Terra would come to a close, and we could set about reclaiming the galaxy in the name of the Emperor.
"Tell us what you would have us do my liege." I said turning to face him once more. Julianos stood beside me, standing as though his back were pressed against a wall. The Emperor turned and began to walk towards his command tent. Julianos and I followed, though it was obvious that Julianos was still largely unsettled by the Emperor's presence.
The Emperor walked over to a large map of Terra, a grand portion of it was now covered by gold, signifying these lands were under the control of the Imperium; however large portions of it were still clearly under the control of the techno-barbarians. Hy Brazil was one of the most noticeable ones, along with the Nordafrik Conclaves and the large area of The Kingdom of Urartu. You kept hearing horror stories from these 3 fronts. The Siege of the Wall surrounding the major cities of Hy Brazil was not going how anyone expected it to. What was meant to be a clean sweep operation lasting maybe a month at most had now been drawn out into a full on and lengthy siege of the wall, with the Imperium suffering high numbers of Casualties with little to no success. The stories from the Afrik fronts were just as concerning, the barbarians were technologically advance and were heavily dug in wherever the Imperium tried to launch an assault. The assaults on the Kingdom of Urartu where going no better, and in some places the imperium were being pushed back. The barbarians, whilst not advanced in the slightest, had vast numbers and were completely devoted to the defence of their realm to the point where it could be described as maniacal. The most concerning reports though were the unofficial ones, the ones whispered around the camps at night that spoke of dark powers and evil magic being used by the latter two of the Techno-Barbarian states. Soldiers spoke of men that could conjure up storms with the wave of their hand, and warriors who were twisted and warped into all manner of gruesome forms. Some of them sounded too disturbing to be real. Although, as with all rumours, I remained sceptical. When we launched the assault on our assault on Albyon the soldiers claimed that their warlord would drink the blood of our soldiers; clearly nonsense.
"My children," The emperor suddenly said. "I know that it was you two that ended the assault on Franc. I was hoping you could do the same again in Hy Brazil." Julianos and I stood there, dumbfounded with no logical response. Ending the Francish Tribe had been relatively simple, the resistance had been minimal, they were unorganised and had very old equipment, the Hy Brazilians are the complete opposite. Well armed, well armoured and well organised, the Hy Brazilians are one of the toughest armies the Imperium had faced to date. Their walls appeared to be nigh on impenetrable too, and any attempt to get close was met by fierce shelling. How exactly the emperor thought that two thunder warriors could change the tide of battle was beyond me. Eventually Julianos piped up. "My liege, I'm confused, how do you plan on us two ending the Siege, we are but two humble warriors." The Emperor looked up from the map, a small crooked grin on his face, as if he was concocting an evil master plan.
"That," he murmured. "Is the best part." He waved his hand and a servitor rolled into the room carrying a holo-projector. It rolled up to the side of the table and activated the projector, revealing what looked like a slowly rotating tear drop.
"My children feast your eyes on the future of warfare, the drop pod." The emperor said, marvel dripping from his voice. "It will allow troops to be dropped directly into the heart of fighting with minimal casualties. It will also allow for surprise attacks and rapid deployment of reinforcements."
Whilst I thought this new technology was impressive, I failed, at that moment to see what importance it was to us, though when I glanced over at Julianos the nervous look on his face told me he had worked it out.
"I want you two, along with a squad of my finest to be the first to try it out." The Emperor stated. My face dropped. The idea of being dropped from the sky in a hunk of metal straight into one of the strongest cities on Terra did not appeal to me. Neither did the prospect of working with a squad who I would presumably never have heard of. And, chances are, for a mission like this they would probably be Custodes. Not something I was looking forward too.
The Emperor continued: "You will be flow, by Stormbird, in a low orbital route to above Hy Brazil, where you should remain outside of the range of the AA servitors. Once you are above the main power generators for the city you will be dropped, by drop pod, into the heart of the power plant. Once inside you will be tasked with spreading out and causing enough damage to cause the plant to shut down. Our engineers estimate there will be at least a 30 second window before the backup generators come online, during that time the city will be completely undefended. When the defences go in my forces will move in and take the city. The 30 seconds will be enough for the forces to move inside the walls. Once inside they will be able to take the city from the defending forces."
The plan sounded insanely risky, with the entire thing being based on the idea that a small group of Astartes could take and destroy a power plant guarded by some of the finest troops on Terra. Before I could voice my concerns though, Julianos decided to speak his mind.
"My Emperor, it would be an honour. Hy Brazil will be yours by the end of the week." He was on one knee with his head bowed in subjection. The Emperor grinned and clapped him on the shoulder.
"Just as it should be Julianos" he laughed. "Now go, return to Franc, the armourers will outfit you with the necessary equipment, you will also meet your battle brothers so you can organise your assault. Tiberius, you will head the fire team. Go, there's a Rhino waiting to take you to Franc." Julianos and I turned and made our way to the transport that was waiting outside. I wasn't sure I was comfortable with being in charge of Astartes. Being in charge of humans is simple; an Astartes is naturally superior to them. I had never felt particularly superior amongst my battle brothers though. I was usually satisfied with being another line trooper. I wouldn't mind being in charge of a fire team when assaulting a small barbarian camp, especially when there are lots of other troops around. If I screwed up it wouldn't put the entire assault on the line. In this situation there was no room for error. If our team didn't take out this generator then who knew how much longer the siege would go on. These thoughts plagued me all the way to franc and up until we met the fire team. There were six of us all together, all Proto-Astartes which I was grateful for; had there been Custodians I doubt I would have been able to focus properly.
Our plan was simple; we would split up into pairs and each target a key component of the power plant. One pair, comprised of Adamus and Felix would target the safeties, the cooling vents, the anti-flood ducts, and so on. The second pair, Ezekiel and Georgius would target the control room, taking out any of the important computers for controlling the plant and in the process killing the majority of the key personnel of the plant. The final pair, Julianos and I, would target the reactor itself. We were laden down with heavier weaponry than normal. Each of us had a melta-bomb strapped to our sides, we all had four grenades, our standard issue bolters and each of us had a power sword. We were all also granted a plasma pistol side arm, an impressive honour for one of us, but the fact that all of us had one was unprecedented.
The trip to Hy Brazil in the Stormbird was tense and uncomfortable. Other than Julianos and me none of us particularly knew each other. We all knew what was at stake, and just how challenging this mission would be. At the same time we were all looking forward to getting Hy Brazil finally under the control of the Imperium. It had defied us too long and had caused us too many problems. It was a dangerous mission, practically suicide, but the rewards far outweighed the consequences. That and we were all terrified by the prospect of dropping into enemy territory in nothing but a small metal tear drop.
The pilot's voice screeched through the intercom, alerting us that there was 1 minute till the drop zone. We all got up and made our way to the drop pod, clearly anticipating the battle to come. We strapped ourselves into the grav harnesses whilst servitors whirred around finalising the launch procedures. At last, the pitch of the engines changed as the Stormbird entered hover mode. The doors closed and there was a hiss from the pneumatic doors beneath the pod. There were a few moments before the pod was release from its moorings. The feeling was incredible.
There was a moment of weightlessness as the pod detached, and then the thrusters kicked in. The amount of G-force was incredible. The only thing keeping us all from being crushed was the combination of the grav harnesses and our gene-enhanced forms.
The drop was meant to last about 30 seconds. The first ten seconds were an incredible rush, then the next ten were spent preparing our minds for battle. Then the warning sirens sounded as we were targeted by the AA servitors. We heard the gunfire speeding around and above us, but their targeting matrices weren't programmed to deal with something traveling at this speed.
Then the pod jerked violently as it hammered through the roof of the plant, and then came to an incredibly sudden and abrupt halt which jarred my spine.
Then the doors flew open.