They ended up needing to abandon the outpost, and Palisade was more than a little annoyed at the loss of face. Sure it was unreasonable to expect anything but a core base or the main base to hold out against a full bug assault, but the fact that it happened in the first place was a show of weakness he did not care for.
And the meeting had been going …. Well enough up until then. The worst outcome had been an assault, abduction, and psychic brainwashing. A somewhat civilized conversation with two of his brothers and his creator was about the best result he had hoped for.
Sure the fact that Palisade would have to leave his home behind for an unknown amount of time to fight a massive war wasn't ideal but …. It was a chance to help the rest of humanity, and to truly prove himself in battle. To leave the factory's reach and spread his own wings, building a legacy of his own rather than just improving upon his fathers works.
The thought held some appeal, and it wasn't like home wouldn't be waiting for Palisade if he ever desired to return, or that his father and the minds wouldn't help or fight alongside him.
There was a relatively simple way to regain face, instead of taking the 'diplomatic' party to another ancillary outpost Palisade had instead asked the minds to direct them towards the main base, which even now was having a few storage rooms retrofitted into barracks and dining areas. A message sent to Isha via drone had confirmed she wasn't actually hiding in the main base at all, instead deep within one of the bunkers within the planet's mantle.
She was as safe and hidden there as anyone could be on Nauvis, as long as you ignore the fact that some of the rocks down there seemed to move of their own violation, almost swimming through the magma.
Most of the space marines and custodians had simply gotten back in their own flyers following the shuttle Palisade was in with the rest of his family. His two fellow 'primarchs' were staring out of the windows at the roads and railways covering the wilds between outposts, or at the massive defensive stations that were only getting larger as they got closer to the main base. It was Horus who spoke up first, voicing a fairly obvious question "how do you have so much industry yet keep the plant life so vibrant and the air so clean?"
Palisade smiled at the chance to give an explanation, though simplified it was "Partly as the plant life itself is resilient and can filter out pollution, and partly through the work of massive underground air scrubbers, contaminants are pulled from the air and processed into usable resources, or just weaponized toxins." at that he pulled a grenade out of his armor, the thing had to weigh more than twenty pounds and would be more equivalent to a bomb to a mortal, but in his power armored hands it looked nearly tiny. "This thing here has enough pollutants in it to render the air unbreathable for a few dozen meters around itself, works wonders on the orks if not the normal Nauvis wildlife"
Sanguinius reached for the explosive and Palisade handed it over, his brother turned the grenade around in his hand looking at it from all angles "I have rarely seen a gas weapon that can put an ork down, it'd be of great use breaking their charges" Palisade shrugged "it can melt the flesh off a gretchin in less than a minute, takes longer for an ork but they can feel pain so they usually don't just charge through. You can keep that one, we have quite literally millions" as he said that a drone flew over and put a grenade into the empty slot his old one had filled. Any supplies he used were always replaced within moments, even in the heat of battle logistics drones would fly around restocking ammunition levels in all the drones and tanks.
Palisade turned his attention to the horizon, where the first towers of the main base were coming into view. By now the place was miles upon miles of machinery packed so densely that nothing save for drones and the engineer himself could actually traverse it, save for the massive conveyor belts moving all the material around. But riding on those was a good way to get pulped. The only defenses were walls segmenting the machinery into 'zones' because for all defensive purposes each 'zone' was basically just a few thousand feet of metal. You'd need to tunnel through it while moving the debris out of the way, fighting drones and toxins as well as simple mechanical hazards, and inserter arm could rip an ork in half if it latched on.
There were paths through it, mostly for fresh vehicles leaving the production centers, but a few were set aside for quick traversal by the two sole humans. Lined with enough turrets, security gates, and bombs that you might have an easier time burning through the thick tangle of machinery.
Palisade gestured towards the horizon, "that's our main residence and base of operations, imaginatively named 'main base', it accounts for a full thirty percent of our full production capacity, reaching miles below the surface and only half a mile above it" by now the underground transportation network handled the bulk of resource transportation, the trains moving around on the surface were only the upper layer of transportation.
The emperor nodded at that looking at the main base with an odd intensity but it was Sangunius who spoke "how long did it take you to build all of this?" Palisade didn't actually know, warp travel without any steering meant that time in the warp had passed at a significantly slower rate than the materium, "I landed roughly fourteen years ago warp time and we've been in real space for two years now" that brought Sanguinius up short "your only 16?! We were lost over a hundred years ago now!" Palisade hadn't actually made the mental connection that his brothers would be so much older than him. "I suppose I would be the youngest brother then….?" Sanguinius and Horus both smiled at that, Horus speaking with mirth "I suppose you would be".
That would be interesting, Palisades would be leading troops with far more experience than he had. "I have been meaning to ask, but when will I have the occasion to talk to my…. Sons? It feels odd to call them such, most of them are likely older than I am." Sanguinius and Horus both smiled, but the emperor spoke before either of them "you can meet with them once they land at your 'main base', your father can take us on a tour while you do that"
If Palisade hadn't been connected to the factories network he wouldn't have noticed his own decision making being biased towards listening to the emperor, but it wasn't by a significant margin. Something in his soul just called for him to obey his creator, but that influence was easily shaken off by the steadying power of the factory network. The Emperor likely wanted to get Palisade away from his father in order to question the maker in 'private'. Palisade doubted the emperor knew that everything one of them saw, heard, or felt the other could access with a thought.
Distance hadn't separated Palisade from the minds or his father ever since his first round of augmentations. And there was no real reason to refuse the offer, his father not being opposed to being the sole bearer of the Emperor's attention. So with a smile on his face Palisade responded "that would be wonderful! I'm certain my legion will be something to see!" Horus flashed a hesitant smile back at Palisade "well they are very by the book, a more reliable legion doesn't exist"
--
Now that Palisade was actually taking a closer look at his legion Horus's comment about being 'reliable' was most likely just a kind way of saying 'predictable and generic'. The other legions had some personality and soul to them, adorned armor and a theme. His were just….. Grey, the armor looked like it had been put on straight from the forge without even a simple coat of paint.
Still there had to be three hundred of them in the large hanger, and his legion had thousands more elsewhere in the galaxy or in the orbiting fleet. Each super soldier was kneeling before him, they hadn't moved since he had entered the room. It was …unnerving, to be subject to such awe and worship, he had never been among anything but equals before.
His soul called for him to make his first command, and he knew it would set the tone for the rest of his time with his children. "Raise your heads, you need not kneel before me. Which among you is the ranking officer?" He did not need servants, Palisade didn't even really need soldiers, but if he had them he didn't want automata that only obeyed orders and worshiped the ground he walked on.
"That would be I sire, I command all the astartes of the 4th legiones astartes present in this system" a soldier spoke then, the only discernible difference being his higher quality weapons, still if they were to be his legion they would not be walking around with such ….subpar armaments and armors.
That thought firm in his mind he reached out into the factories network, finding the nodes that were Bulwark and Labyrinthine, the conversation was more ideas and images than words and happened so fast that there wasn't even a noticeable pause as Palisade responded to his son. "I wish to see my legion in action, under your command so I may better learn how to lead you" and so the minds could see what purposes the armors and weapons needed to fill, what chinks needed to be patched.
A steely resolve overtook his son's voice, changing it from the dull monotone it had previously been. "Who are to be our foes? We will fight in your name" Palisade smiled, though it couldn't be seen under his helmet, a steel resolve, that suited his legion quite well. "I heard from my brothers that you specialize in siege warfare, there is a fort that we use to test new siege weapons and tactics. You are to take and refortify it, and then repel a light assault from one of my robotic legions" that got a nod from his son and a salute from all of his children.
--
Actually setting up and explaining how the simulation worked took an hour, robots with human strength and simulated human durability manned the fort's defensive works, and they fired harmless lasers or holographic bullets, any battle damage would be calculated and shown as similarly holographic damage to the marines armor. So if they 'lost a limb' or were 'severely wounded' they'd need to pretend to actually have those injuries. there was some risk from shrapnel and explosives, as you can't simulate a wall falling, but shields imbedded in the ground would slow them and redirect shrapnel away from vital areas.
The space marines themselves were using live weaponry, the battle shouldn't have been an issue. Augmented soldiers with superior weaponry would have no issues taking a fort from 'unaugmented humans'.
The fortress itself was a small one, only an outer and inner wall each lined with turrets and firing holes, the field around it lined with barbed wire. It was nothing special and had only been used to test and train new siege drone variants, the original design had been more 'orkish' as well but it had only taken a few hours to build it with human sensibilities in mind.
So it was that dozens of astartes and their armored vehicles marched in formation on Nauvis for the first time.
The battle started rapidly, the space marines taking shelter behind their armored vehicles while digging earthwork defenses, their tanks spraying death back at the artillery that fired upon them, blowing massive chunks from the fortress and crushing dozens of robots under the falling rubble, once the walls stationary defenses had been largely disabled by the overwhelming firepower of the tanks the astartes marched up in the cover provided by their vehicles armored bulk.
It wasn't that one sided though, the larger weapons emplacements had 'disabled' the treads on a third of the vehicles and already eight of the marines had 'died' to armor piercing rounds. The defenders may have been within human limitations but they were elite, any limb that could be hit was, any vulnerability that could be exploited was done so ruthlessly. it was a test to find weaknesses, it needed to push his sons to their limits.
Palisade watched in vague horror as the marines ignored their wounds and losses and pushed onward with resolve, not changing their approach in the slightest to account for their continued losses.
They were attacking like a rank and file armored battalion on its first deployment, not showing any of the superhuman intelligence and planning he knew his sons should have been capable of.
They charged forward like the very idea the defenses would even slow them down was repulsive.
Still while grueling their tactics were effective, and they breached the outer wall far faster than Palisade had imagined they would, but with nearly thirty percent higher than expected casualties, both in vehicles and troops. They took down the mechanical defenders with machine-like efficiency, making excellent use of their armored bulk to ignore the relatively small arms fire the robots carried.
The inside of the fortress was even more brutal though, lined with false explosives and traps, corridors too narrow for their bulky armor to navigate and winding tunnels that prevented them from easily firing back at the robotic defenders.
But while this 'killed' them faster they didn't slow down or hesitate, walking into the killing fields and brushing aside any attacks that didn't mortally wound them. Taking grievous casualties instead of trying different approaches.
It reminded Palisade disturbingly of how drones behaved when disconnected from the factories network, following their 'protocol' even when it was not effective or efficient. Reliable was the right word, they'd do exactly what their commanders told them even if it killed them, as long as there was the barest chance of success or the slightest advantage to be gained.
If his sons had been fighting like this for dozens of years just how many had died? How many could he have saved if he had just been found sooner? Palisade was almost tempted to call the exercise off, but he needed to see this through to the end.
The inner fortress fell in short order, the gate on the outer wall forced open to allow the vehicles to breach it, and once the inner fortress had been breached the robotic defenders fell rapidly. No match for the superhuman capabilities of his sons.
Then they only had to wipe up the last few centers of resistance and fortify as best they could in thirty minutes. When the 'counter attack' would arrive. Palisade noted that none of them had found the explosive hidden under the center of the base, and that technically that meant the entire legion had been eliminated. Another mark, if they had kept any 'prisoners' the robotic warriors would have mentioned it, either trying to spare their own skin or to mock their attackers with the certainty of mutual destruction.
But his legion had taken none, not even when the robotic soldiers had thrown down their weapons and tried to surrender. So no one had noticed the bomb and if it wasn't sent a signal from the base's robotic commander every ten minutes it would detonate. Said commander was dead, and the bomb hadn't been disabled. Palisade didn't call off the test even though his legion had technically lost.
Instead he let them fortify, their broken armored vehicles towed by the working ones and moved to block the holes in the outer walls, their turrets still mostly functional, smaller holes were patched with rockcrete or rubble and within twenty minutes the fort actually looked even more defendable than it had before his legion had wrecked it.
A mark in their favor for sheer speed and skill. Still while the counter attack was thirty minutes away, the enemies artillery was in range within only twenty. To his sons credit they were not caught off guard by the early attack, taking shelter in their rapidly built bunkers or armored vehicles.
They weathered the barrage with far more grace than they had displayed in their assault, taking only minor casualties and wounds with only a few vehicles hit by the raining shells. Which Palisade noted were far less accurate than they could have been, Balistraia must have been soft balling them.
The artillery barrage slowly petered out and his sons were no fools, they knew what that meant. The assault proper would be beginning. Already some of his sons reported seeing the trail of dust left behind by the rapidly moving tanks. Their eyes picking out a force with more than double their number in armored vehicles. Palisade grimly smiled at his son's lack of any fear in the face of the assault.
The robotic scout tanks smoothly dodged around the trenches and pits dug around the fort, firing their main cannons at any of his visible sons, even a glancing hit would have been fatal and the holographic wounds spared no gory details. His son's responded in kind, their cannons and bolters sounding out and striking the scout tanks with unerring precision and failing to even marr the tanks paints. Shots aimed at treads and weak points fared the same as any other.
The scout tanks were only the vanguard, and the interceptor and assualt drones soon arrived, a cloud of metal dense enough that the sky couldn't be seen beyond them, his sons changed to fire on these new threats and began knocking scores of drones from the skies. Only the heaviest of their weapons remained firing upon the tanks but heavy weapons they were, and eventually the tanks shields broke. Scout tanks started to fall one after the other but before more than a third of them could be eliminated from the fight the drone swarm fell upon the wall, absorbing the fire with their sheer bulk and numbers.
The drone swarm even parted to allow the scout tanks clear lines of fire to anything too armored for their weapons.
His sons fell rapidly, the outer wall standing no chance, yet none of them abandoned it. The few marines manning the inner defense were not moving to reinforce and no retreat or fall back plans were made.
Then the main tank force arrived, with a command tank in tow. By now the only defenders on the outer wall left were those in the armored vehicles that were safely hidden in the stone walls. A few 'shots' from the command tank silenced those defenders, and the swarm of spidertron scaled the wall like it wasn't even there. His 'dead' sons stared at both them and the command tank with shock and despair.
The vehicles scanned the building and finding no hostages or living friendlys the spidertrons unleashed a missile barrage on the inner base. Without anything in there that they needed they had no reason to take the base.
His sons had been eliminated to the last by overwhelming force, and had never once thought to retreat or surrender. Palisade thought they might even be proud of that fact. They had destroyed far more drones and tanks than it had been predicted they could. And Palisade knew that if it hadn't been a training exercise they likely would have pulled the pins on all their grenades just to take a few more with them.
--
His son in charge of the defense met Palisade at the entrance to the fort, without the illusionary damage the place hadn't taken long to repair. His son kneeled, followed rapidly by the rest of his legions command staff. "I have failed you sire, I failed to hold the fort." it was obvious he and his command staff were playing the scapegoat to keep his 'wrath' or disappointment from falling on the legion at large. And he wasn't wrong, he had failed the test, just not in the way they likely thought. Palisade spoke, inflecting his voice with faint disappointment "Yes you have, is that how you conduct every battle". His son nodded "those are our legions standard tactics, as we were asked to demonstrate" Palisade nodded, the phrasing there implied they had only adhered to their tactics with such zeal because he had told them to demonstrate how the legion fought, so they fought with 'standardized methods'. They had shown how they always fought.
"Then your tactics need to change, this was a test. And you failed, I may not know how wars in the greater universe are fought but I doubt it involves ignoring cover, withdraws, and repositioning to more advantageous positions. You fed yourselves into the meat grinder without even looking for an alternative method" his son nodded, not looking up from the ground "it is as you say sire"
Palisade took off his helmet at that and crouched down before his son, his face softening "this was not a battle I expected you to win, but it was one I had expected you to survive. Your lives are far more valuable to me than any victory could have been." he took his son by his shoulders and stood him up. "If you had attempted retreat or surrender, or even simple fallen back into the inner fortress you would not have failed. And if it had truly been a last stand you performed exemplary, taking down far more of the attacking force than I thought possible. But it wasn't a last stand." in the fake pre battle briefing they had been told to treat the main base as safe territory, or a fort under their control. They had been simulating attacking to claim this fort, but they could have called in for fire support or reinforcements. But they hadn't.
It may have been because they hadn't thought they could… but Palisade doubted they would have even if he had left the option explicitly open. They would have seen it as a failure to ask for help or retreat.
Palisade nodded, his new course set. "Stand all of you, I have learned much from this and I thank you for it. We will return to the main base and the next day we will repeat this exercise with new tactics. We will learn, grow, and adapt and we will not fail again"
AN -
the muse mused for this one, I wrote the battle scene rapidly.
is still a thing
likes and reviews feed me