Day 15
At the edge of Monstrum's solar system, a fissure split space apart, a hellish storm that glowed with impossible colors and thundered with lightning in the empty void. Broken detritus and more spilled through the wound, some chunks the size of a man's closed fist, others larger than mountains. In the center of it all was a colossal shape, neither natural nor constructed by any mortal race. It was a fusion of asteroids the size of cities, ancient warships that had once roamed the stars freely, and other artifacts, some as young as the Imperium, others hailing from the days before life on Holy Terra had even risen from the primordial spawning pools in that world's earliest years.
The space hulk rolled through the void as the Warp portal snapped shut behind it, leaving no trace of the storm's presence in the material plane. It dragged along its many satellites with its own gravity as it moved deeper into the system at a slow, patient pace. Yet, the beings within the hulk were anything but.
"WHERE ARE DA MEKBOYZ!" Warboss Grinhide shouted, snatching up one of his kommand centa's grotz and tossing it at the nearest Nob, intending to strike him in the head. The large ork simply opened his massive maw and caught the squealing git between two sets of power teef. With the loud snap of bone and the suddenly ended squeals, the grot was swiftly devoured. Grinhide would have cackled at the entertaining sight, but all it did was lessen the building anger slightly.
"Dey got ate, boss!" Another grot exclaimed. Annoyingly, it had backed away from Grinhide far enough that he could reach down and crush the critter without rising from his kommand throne. "The warpy gitz got 'em!"
The 'Kommand Centa' was the former bridge, or what the orkz thought was the bridge, of an old 'umie vessel. Once, its vast walls had been covered in the gold and marble commonly seen in Imperial craft, with sacred banners hung from every bannister. Such days were long behind this craft. Anything that had not worn away with the passage of time had either been subjected to careless destruction by the orkz or pilfered if it was sufficiently shiny enough. Only the stained-glass windows that had previously provided a view through the top of the ship and now allowed one to see the theoretical 'front' of the space hulk. Even its transparent material was dirtied and seemed to have been almost drained away.
"IF YER DUNT GET MY ENGINES RUNNIN', I'LL ATE THE LOT OF YA!" Grinhide howled, slamming his power claw down upon the arm of his kommand throne with enough force that it shook the centa and had the entire crew scurrying to do what he ordered or at least appear as though they were doing so.
Throughout the hulk, other orkz were doing the same, repairing patchwork systems with any scrap they had on hand, wrangling squigs that had gotten loose during the transit and subsequent brawl, or howling at smaller orkz to get their jobs done faster.
The massive engines that covered the side of the space hulk opposite to the kommand centa sparked and ignited intermittently, sudden bursts of power that shoved the hulk in random directions, sending it spinning, halting it. One outright exploded, incinerating hundreds of orkz in an instant and sending nearly a thousand more hurtling into space. A few ships in the affected area were still functional enough to automatically slam shut their blastdoors in response to the hull breach, but none of the orkz elsewhere aboard the hulk either noticed or particularly cared. They had two dozen other unexploded engines, after all.
It was hours before the engines were running again, something that had made Grinhide's mood even fouler and resulted in the deaths of an additional six grotz and two boyz at the Warboss' hands.
Eventually, however, the engines roared to life, sending vibrations through the hulk as it rocketed through the void. It was still not fast enough in Grinhide's opinion.
"GET ME TO DAT ROK NOW OR I'LL KRUMP ALL YOU RUNTZ!" Grinhide bellowed, pointing at the flickering point of light on one of the many displays that surrounded his kommand throne, unaware that the light in particular had no actual function other than periodically blinking. The light next to it displayed the only planet with a large energy signature in the system and it was there that the Ork navigators turned their hulk. It would be a day before they reached orbit of the planet and almost certainly many more dead grotz as well.
Grinhide's lips widened with a cruel smile and every ork in sight scattered out of view in fear of Da Biggest Boss. Grinhide's next words were as close to a whisper as the warboss's thunderous voice could produce.
"I'M COMING FOR YA, 'UMIEZ…"
Ah, fuck, Orkz.
Most hive cities' had powerful augur systems, at least on Monstrum. Each one had the range to detect anything within the system, provided there was sufficient mass or power signature. And, since Tide was watching the people watching those augurs, he knew when something unusual happened.
Something unusual like a space hulk dropping out of Warp in the middle of a storm. That alone was a rare enough occurrence for alarm. However, the subsequent detection of a massive power signature followed by said space hulk suddenly rushing directly towards Monstrum, was raising so many red flags it was practically a communist rally.
There was only one race in 40k that was insane enough to turn a space hulk into a massive starship and pilot it through a Warp Storm.
Well, actually, there were two now, with Chaos and its Arks of Omen, but Tide was fairly certain those weren't a thing yet. Unless he was wrong on the calendar thing. Assuming that hadn't happened yet and there was no Warp fuckery going on, which wasn't exactly impossible or even unlikely, this was almost certainly Orkz.
He already had to deal with genestealers and a Chaos cult, he did not need this right now.
Perhaps this could be a good thing for him? Or, at least, an opportunity to be taken advantage of. The Orks would wreak havoc across the planet. Any attack by them on Malum would end up with the lot of them being either killed by PDF or succumbing to the internal damage wreaked by Flood spores. Further 'proof' for the Inquisitor and possibly even enough to get her to begin spreading 'Organism-04' to the other cities. That is, if he didn't spread throughout them naturally via those cultists he had begun to infect.
The space hulk itself was also a potential gold mine of technology. Setting aside the possibilities of infecting an Ork, assuming he could even wield their technology let alone make it, such hulks were veritable treasure troves of ancient vessels. Even a single relatively intact vessel would be immensely valuable and he had enough scientific understanding to at least try reverse engineering more interesting pieces of tech.
Of course, he'd have to reach the hulk first, but that wouldn't be too difficult. While there were only a few space capable vessels on the planet, most of which were in the north and were too small to have a chance of threatening such a behemoth, he did not need to rely on such things. All he needed was an airtight container he could filled with a special surprise.
He reconfigured one of his factories in a few hours and set it about constructing said container, already thinking of which Flood Pure Forms would be most suited to the attack. It would take a day before the space hulk was close enough that he could 'throw' the container with any real accuracy. He would try to send up his surprise before the Orks launched their planetary assault, but he'd be cutting it close.
Of course, he wouldn't be the only one who had noticed the Orks encroachment, so he suspected the various hives would have at least some preparation of their own. Those in charge of the augurs of Malum were already confirming the readings and sending their reports to the capital, which likely had already noticed as well.
Ah, throne, Orks.
Catherine Ellen could have slammed her head against her display, as though that might send a shock through the machine spirit that would make it realize the space hulk it showed was an error. She did not, however, instead merely frowning at the green orb slowly tracing an arc through the Monstrum system. Vidriov and Purilla both stood to her side, silent observers.
The space hulk's arrival in the middle of a warp storm had been enough of an ill omen, but the massive power surge and subsequently more intensive scans by the capital's powerful augurs had revealed the worst. Ork engines covered the chimera-craft and it was likely crawling with the vile greenskins.
She did not need this right now, but perhaps she could turn it into an opportunity.
Orks were not as simpleminded as the Imperium preferred the average citizen to believe, but that did not mean they were immune to manipulation. If she could direct their attention towards the genestealer-controlled hive cities, she could shunt the worst of the attack onto the xenos parasites. With the Imperial Guard she could create a bulwark in the north and force the Orks to either remain in the genestealer cities or spread to the other southern hives. If they remained, the genestealers suffered more. If they spread, the southern nobles would take massive losses and any thoughts of rebellion would be annihilated along with most of their forces.
Malum remained a variable she couldn't predict and it was what gave her the most pause around this plan. Organism-04 might leak through the quarantine if the Orks attacked. It was only by the God-Emperor's grace that it hadn't already, given the genestealer attack. Then again, perhaps it had and was wreaking havoc across the genestealer ranks, but if that was the case, they showed no sign of it.
The question then was whether the Orks would also be affected by Organism-04 in the same way as genestealers were. If it really was human in origin it would, of course, be equally opposed to any other kind of xenos. Or, if there was someone trying to make them believe it was human in origin, anyways.
The Orks would go where the fighting was heaviest, which meant Enyo. Whiro needed its reinforcements more than ever, but there was likely going to be no push south by the Hammer of the Imperium any time soon. The destruction of the transit system across the barren lands came to mind, but with the Orks likely possessing space-capable transports she would prefer to keep the rails intact if possible. If they were threatened, however…
Would eight regiments be enough against the Orks? She was hesitant to contribute more of the guardsmen she had in case the Orks, or someone else, decided to attack another, more vulnerable part of the planet. It depended on the numbers of the enemy, numbers she didn't know and likely wouldn't know until it was too late.
There was one other force on the planet she could call upon, but she was loathe to do so. As much as the Sisters of Battle had stated their loyalties lied with the Imperium, Ellen knew they had their own interests as well. Granted, their interests were in serving the God-Emperor as best they could, an irreproachable goal… almost.
The Order of the Cleansing Rains were as devout in their faith, as they should be, and had even hailed Ellen as being the foremost instrument of the God-Emperor on Monstrum… but that could change. Fanatics were fickle in their loyalty if one wasn't the sole object of their devotion. If they deemed her orders to no longer be in line with the God-Emperor's wishes, as impossible as that would be given she was an Inquisitor, they would turn on her without hesitation.
The Order of the Cleansing Rains only had a thousand Sisters of Battle, but they were even more well-trained and better equipped than the Guard. Her Tempestus Scions could likely match any Sister individually and they were vastly outnumbered by regular Guardsmen, but the strength of the Sisters did not lie solely in their arm, but their faith and the fervor they could inspire in others. The Sisters were perhaps second only to the Astartes themselves in the righteous fury they could inspire in the masses, and even the space marines could not direct that ferocity as well as the preachers any Holy Order would have. The Sisters themselves were small in number but they could raise an entire hive city as their army in days.
That was why she had not deployed the Sisters yet and kept them close at hand, despite their Canoness' repeated requests to leave for the field of battle. In the capital, surrounded by twelve regiments, she could both keep an eye on them and ensure their support for her did not deteriorate. However, the increasing frequency of those requests as the days went on was making it readily apparent that Ellen could not simply ignore the Adeptas Sororitas until this war was over.
Her frustration must have shown on her face, since Ellen knew Purilla would never dare delve into her mind or even read her surface thoughts, as the psyker turned to face her. "Something the matter, Inquisitor?"
Purilla was calm and even relaxed, despite the situation at hand, and Ellen's eyes snapped over to her. "We're being invaded, in case you hadn't noticed." She replied with a steeliness in her voice. Ellen needed Purilla to be alert, not acting as though they were on a leisure planet.
"Apologies, Inquisitor, but it seems we have the perfect counter for that?" Purilla said, gesturing to the display, its holographic light shuddering before transforming into the city of Malum as its controls were altered by Vidriov. Ellen's eyes narrowed slightly at the coordination. The two weren't on bad terms by any means, but they rarely interacted outside of these meetings. Ellen was aware the two had met prior to this, but she had not suspected they'd… colluded.
"Organism-04 remains stable in all human test subjects," Vidriov stated. "Captured genestealer subjects taken from Hive City Enyo have consistently shown violent reactions to administration of Organism-04."
"And, as we discussed at length," Purilla paused, letting her words linger for a moment. "There is no Warp presence behind those changed by the organism."
"You read one human," Ellen countered. "That is not proof. A powerful warp entity could have hidden itself or you may have simply not looked in the correct places."
"If you are not confident in my abilities to read beings, why have me do it at all?" Purilla asked rhetorically, crossing her arms. "The Genetor and I agree there is no threat to humanity from Organism-04, be it material or immaterial in nature."
"This is correct," Vidriov stated, nodding his hooded head.
"There is no need to deploy Organsim-04 in any such manner," Ellen said, resisting the urge to grind her teeth.
"Apologies, Inquisitor, but as you said, we are being invaded," Purilla countered. "We may not have a chance to-."
"Enough!" Ellen snapped. "I have said we will not deploy Organism-04, so we will not deploy Organism-04!"
Both Purilla and Vidriov remained silent at her outburst and simply bowed their heads in supplication. Ellen watched them both closely for any sign of dissent or dissatisfaction, but they either had none or had learned to hide such things from her.
Ellen turned her attention back to the display and the problem at hand. She ignored the urge to rub at the dark circles that had begun to form under her eyes.
Ah, Dark Gods, Orks.
Ahsael considered the display of the encroaching space hulk, chin resting on one gauntleted fist. What he'd initially thought a portent of victory sent by the Gods was now merely another challenger for control of this world. How… annoying.
Well, not quite. This could actually be quite useful for him. With the greenskins and the genestealers to occupy the Corpse-Emperor's forces, Ahsael's cult would likely be able to move with less fear of immediate reprisal when the time came for the uprising. The pieces were already falling into place, but it would be days before their modified plan was ready to be fulfilled.
Ahsael would have preferred a world without an ork infestation, but he supposed once he'd conquered all they could proof a worthwhile diversion and test for his forces. To ensure things did not grow… dull.
Vra'kzil had still not returned and Ahsael was beginning to suspect the daemon had indeed been banished by whatever it had found inside the head of the PDF trooper they had captured. Such a thing was cause for concern and Ahsael intended to address the source of it sooner rather than later, but his attention was elsewhere for the moment.
When the time came, Malum would be the first city to fall under the weight of his legions. Until then, he needed to ready those legions for rebellion against the yoke of the Imperium.