"Prepare for translation-" Sextus began
"Translate immediately and activate void shields," Medea broke in.
The helmswoman reacted immediately, and the vessel crashed out of warp with the usual shock of a hard translation. "Get those shields up!" Galene snapped. "All hands to battle stations!"
The strategic hololith lit, showing other ships crashing out of the warp after them, in no formation at all. There was a massive, tight knot of contacts some distance away, without the attached identity tags of the allied fleet.
"We're short of the Mandeville Point," the Master of Detection reported. "Unidentified ships are at the Mandeville Point, showing active shields."
"Ambush," Minerva growled. If they'd come out on schedule, they'd have been torn to pieces before they could light their voids, much less form up for combat. "Form up with the battle line. Thunderhawk deployment at your discretion."
"Yes, my lady," Galene replied. "Helm, put us alongside the Vengeance." The Armaggedon-class battlecruiser was their heaviest dedicated brawler, and would be trying to keep the enemy fleet away from the Light of Absolution and its carrier fleet. At least the Inviolate and Judgement had nova cannons.
Enemy identifications were coming in; the heart of the enemy fleet was the Desolator battleship Vision of Agony and a grand-cruiser sized vessel that conformed to no known pattern. Cruisers swarmed around them, and they were accompanied by a troubling number of defense monitors. They were comfortably outnumbered by the Imperial fleet, but at full burn they were no more than twenty minutes from lance range. With no expectation that they'd be plunged into immediate combat, half the fleet's attack craft wouldn't even be fueled up and loaded.
"Incoming transmission from Lord Admiral Gerax," the serf at the vox reported.
"Put it through," Minerva ordered. The Imperial fleet was starting to maneuver into formation, far more slowly than she'd have liked. Gerax's image flickered into being on the main hololith.
"You were right," he said grudgingly. "We should have brought more ships. But we're here now, and I need to know if you're going to be following orders."
"We'll fight alongside the fleet," Minerva replied, "But our combat operation will be at my discretion and that of Shipmaster Galene."
"Better answer than I got from the inquisitor," Gerax admitted. "We're going to try to time a torpedo volley with a bombing run, see if we can cripple that battleship. Can you at least synchronize with that?"
"Of course," Minerva replied. "Once they get closer, we're going to try a boarding torpedo attack on one of their lesser cruisers if we can get fighter cover."
"Fair enough," he replied. "Contact us when you're ready." His image winked out.
Minerva found herself in the familiar but frustrating position of having nothing to do. She'd previously been a frigate shipmaster; all the Astral Amazons who were expected to take captain rank did to train them for void warfare. However, Galene was a far more experienced shipmaster, and handled the duties of bringing a ship to combat readiness. She didn't have any escorts with her to command, and no advice to contribute that was worth interrupting the fleet commanders.
She contented herself with studying the hololith. Attack craft were finally straggling out of the imperial bays, but too slowly, and only the always-ready combat patrol. They wouldn't be able to strike before the Desolator made it into range. The imperial fleet fired a staggered wave of torpedoes, which the Furies began to escort to their targets. The Chaos fleet fired their own, smaller barrage back, targeting on the Vengeance.
"They're launching fighters," the Master of Detection reported. "A lot of fighters." She was right; it looked like every one of the warp-capable ships was launching fighters.
"They must have loaded up their shuttle bays," Galene commented. "Most of those classes don't have real launch bays. It will take much longer to replenish them. Only that grand cruiser seems to be a real carrier."
That would matter a great deal in an extended conflict, with repeated attack runs over vast distances. In the relatively close-quarters fight they'd managed to force, it meant they had a much stronger fighter screen than they should. That would seriously complicate Gerax's plan. Unfortunately, the fleet was effectively trapped, unable to abandon the transports to gain distance. They'd have to fight on the Thousand Sons' terms.
The Inviolate and Judgement drew first blood, nova cannon shells streaking across the black at nearly light speed. They tore apart a half-dozen small defense monitors providing a screen for the Chaos fleet, void shields overloading in the twin blasts. Then the Vision of Agony found its range.
It didn't slow to bring its broadsides to bear, instead firing its forward guns and turrets at the Vengeance, burning at its void shields. The lesser cruisers joined in with prow lances, ancient patterns that held longer range than their imperial counterparts. The Vengeance replied in kind, its own broadsides too short-ranged to engage immediately.
"They're going for the carriers-" Galene began, when the hololith flickered and whited out for a moment. "Auspex, what happened?"
"Energy surge from the grand cruiser," the Master of Detection replied tensely. "Struck the Vengeance and burned through its shields and frontal plating. It's a daemonship."
"Not a viable target for boarding, then," Minerva noted. "We'll see what makes it through the torpedo volley."
The battlecruisers fired their nova cannons again, once more striking at the escort ships to clear a path for the attack craft. More defense monitors burned, as the fighter screens met. The imperial Furies split off to dogfight the swarm of Heldrakes and Hell Blades, struggling to keep them off the bombers and torpedoes.
"Torpedo impacts on cruiser escorts. Majority targeted on battleship are being inter-" the Master of Detection began. "Emperor's bones!"
"Report," Galene snapped.
"Warp energy flare at the battleship," the Master of Detection replied. "A large portion of it is just… gone."
"Vortex weapon," Minerva recognized the signs. "I suppose the inquisitorial ship is armed with them."
"Is it still operational?" Galene asked.
"Still under power," the report came back. "It's turning to present its starboard broadside. The bombers are about to hit it."
"Get out of its line of fire," Minerva ordered. "I will head to the boarding torpedoes. Find me a target."
o - o -O - o - o
Gerax glared at the strategic hololith as if he could dispel the tactical situation by sheer force of will. It shouldn't even have been possible to prepare an ambush at the Mandeville Point; it was a sphere around the entire system light-hours across. There were specific locations that were easier to emerge at, but they hadn't used one. The traitors must have a damned seer of their own.
"Vengeance has lost primary power," a lieutenant reported. "They've begun to abandon ship." The hulk would probably be recoverable, but it was out of the fight.
"Vision of Agony has broadside range on us," another called. The Light of Absolution shuddered as its void shields strained. "They're ignoring the line cruisers."
"Trying to kill our bombers in their bays," Gerax growled. The second wave was still loading up, the lion's share of the fleet's firepower lying helpless. "Have the Inviolate and Judgement retarget on it now that its shields are down."
He could see the enemy cruisers were also pressing forwards, largely disregarding the front line, while the surviving system defense boats, two of them cruiser-sized themselves, were engaging the frigate screen. It wasn't going to go well for the loyalists; without the need for a massive warp engine defense boats were powerful for their size and Astor had produced enough to draw quiet concern. Concern that had proven well-founded.
The carriers, unlike the sea-based ones he'd seen in use on Meridor, weren't entirely helpless. Light of Absolution carried a formidable array of broadside macro-batteries that were beginning to get into action against the leading enemy cruisers, and its consorts had guns of their own. The Mars-class battlecruisers especially were nearly fit for line engagements.
It would be brutal, but with the battleship maimed by their initial bombing run and the inquisitor's surprise, he'd ordinarily be confident in victory if not personal survival. There was, however, one additional factor. That cursed grand cruiser.
"Get me a channel to the inquisitor," he ordered, gritting his teeth. The damned Astartes woman was bad enough, but the inquisitor not only wasn't under his authority but was arguably in charge, and no inquisitor he'd ever met was a navy man. He'd be lucky if the man could even read a naval hololith.
"Admiral," Malachi said, calm as could be. Gerax had enough experience projecting calm himself to know that could well be an illusion.
"They've got a daemonship," Gerax said without preamble. "A big one, and I'm not sure how powerful it is. It could turn the tide of the battle. Is there anything you can do about it?" He felt the void shields on the Light of Absolution fail, the ship rocking as the lance barrage burned through.
"We have special munitions," the Inquisitor replied. "I'm looping in captain Gamma," he continued. "Captain, the admiral wants us to kill the daemonship."
"Vortex torpedoes are probably a bad idea," the captain said. Good to know the inquisitor had a specialist and was willing to listen to him. "Cyclonics will be hard to hit it with. We have four of the other specials. Those should do it, but then we won't have them for bombardment."
"If we can't kill that ship we're not going to be bombarding anything," Gerax snapped. As if to emphasize his point, the strategic hololith blanked again and came back with one fewer Dictator cruiser on it.
"Use them," Malachi ordered.
"Yes, my lord. We'll need to mix them in with other torpedoes and fighter cover or they'll be intercepted. We'll fire in five minutes if you can get us that cover."
"I can," Gerax promised. "Flag to fighters; the inquisitorial ship will be firing torpedoes in five minutes on the grand cruiser. Provide them with all cover. All torpedo ships, synchronize volleys with the inquisitorial ship."
The battlecruisers fired their nova cannons again, this time at the Vision of Agony, scouring its broadside. Battleships didn't die easily, though, and he could see it coming about to bring its port guns to bear. The Gothics forming the front line had to look to their own defense against the traitor SDF as the enemy cruisers bored through. He could see the Astartes ship firing torpedoes into a Murder-class, which didn't detonate. So, the Astartes were doing what they did best.
o - o -O - o - o
Minerva led Atlantae's squad out through the hole cut by the boarding torpedo, scanning for threats. None presented themselves; they'd penetrated a secondary corridor that looked to have been abandoned, most of the overhead lights burned out. She had a map projected on her terminator helmet, runes showing the locations of the other boarding parties. None of them had hit as close to their targets as she would have liked.
"Cornelia, Helen, converge on the bridge," she ordered. "Europa, you're with me and Atlantae for the enginarium." Medea had remained behind, to focus on meditating for battles ahead, while the scouts were insurance against a counter-boarding and Arachne ran the enginarium of the Alecto.
The bulkhead at the end of the corridor was sealed, but it wouldn't have been a serious obstacle to even normal power armor. Minerva's powerfist shattered it in a single blow, opening the way into a storage room adjacent to the shuttle bays. Beastmen in void suits were fleeing the chamber, abandoning crates of autocannon ammunition in the rush. Minerva raised her assault cannon and opened fire, short controlled bursts that avoided the volatile ammunition.
"Preparing for a fast load of their fighters," Atlantae noted. "Looks like they weren't even planning to repressurize the bay."
"They've drilled for this," Minerva replied. That had ugly implications for the ground campaign, if the Thousand Sons could extract that kind of discipline from their slaves. She'd read that their beastmen -Tzaangors- were more intelligent than the others of their cursed breed, but she'd expected the usual indiscipline of human Chaos forces out of them. "Plant charges and keep moving." They'd brought along enough explosives to spare some to cripple this bay.
Minerva deliberately steered them away from the weapon batteries; the plasma cannons of a Murder-class were dependent on the primary generator and would fall silent when they crippled the engineerium, and she didn't want to be delayed battling through them. It was entirely possible the crew had set the reactor to overload as soon as they were boarded.
The first actual resistance materialized a few doors later, in the form of autocannon fire from down the corridor as soon as Minerva tore through, rounds denotating against her massive armored chestplate. She flipped her assault cannon to full auto and swept it across, tearing through the mutants manning the gun and several others in flak armor with lasguns. These ones weren't full beastmen, showing extra eyes or tentacles on otherwise human forms. They died just the same.
She voxed a warning about the heavy weaponry to the other squads and continued onwards. There wouldn't typically be much; an Astartes boarding party was a rare foe indeed and shipmasters preferred weapons that wouldn't tear their internals apart. Between the ambush at the Mandeville Point and the massive fighter complement against carriers, though, she wasn't inclined to take chances. They might have weaponry that could breach even her armor.
Helen soon reported encountering resistance of her own; more mutants with lasguns and a heavy stubber. They didn't hold for long, unsurprisingly. Europa encountered a force of beastmen with chainswords and autopistols, and tore through them in a hail of bolter fire. Once again, Minerva was troubled by their apparent organization; they'd secured strategic points throughout the ship rather than swarming to the sound of the guns or running for the savior pods when they realized who was boarding them. It wouldn't make a difference here, but on the planet it would be another story.
More resistance materialized as they advanced; mutants with lasguns behind improvised barricades. Several of them showed the sense to break and run as soon as they saw a terminator coming through the door; they died just the same. Minerva kept a wary eye on her ammo counter, knowing how rapidly she could eat through the entire supply with continuous fire. A normal assault cannon would jam long before that, but Arachne had persuaded the machine spirit of this one to absorb heat more effectively with a sheathe around the barrels shot through with cooling pipes.
Europa soon broke through to them, having dispatched her own opposition along the way. Together, they forged through to a gallery filled with beastmen with autoguns and a pair of heavy bolters. It served as an ideal killing zone for anything short of a terminator. Sustained fire might breach even that. Minerva didn't give them the chance, striding forwards through the hail of projectiles and focusing on the gunners, allowing her more lightly-armored sisters to advance into the room and for Atlantae's squad to set up their own heavy bolters.
"Do you think they knew we'd board this cruiser in particular?" Atlantae asked casually, dropping a beastman with a single aimed headshot.
"If they had a seer tell them that, they'd have brought more," Minerva replied. "So far we've only seen squad support weapons; no plasma or anti-armor. They're prepared for an imperial navy boarding, not Astartes."
"You realize what that implies," Europa remarked as the last beastman fell. "If this cruiser isn't a trap for us, they're all like this."
"If we are fortunate," Minerva replied, "it means they have dedicated a large portion of their heavy weapons to fleet security." She suspected they were not fortunate.
o - o -O - o - o
"Torpedoes striking the grand cruiser," the report came in. "Three of the inquisitor's got through. Minimal dama-"
A scream tore through the minds of everyone in the fleet, a pained, primal thing. Gerax held his feet by sheer force of will as the strategium staff staggered around him, several sprouting nosebleeds. "Back to your stations!" he snapped. "Report on the grand cruiser!"
"Physical damage minimal, but it's shut down. Reading no energy signature. It's dead in space."
Gerax considered for a moment. "Have all ships avoid the hulk. Ask the inquisitor what he wants to do with it." Gerax himself was tempted to pound it into vapor as soon as the opportunity arose, but the inquisition might get something useful out of it. "Status of the Vision of Agony?"
"Starboard broadside appears to be out of action," a lieutenant reported. "Port broadside at seventy percent. It's raking the Inviolate and has breached its void shields."
"Telerion's shield is abandoning ship." That was another Dictator. He hoped its Marauder complement would be recoverable for the ground action, at least.
The news from the battleline ships wasn't exactly promising either. The Alecto was the only one still in fighting trim, the "ship for supporting planetary assaults" bearing thicker armor than almost any vessel its size. All three Gothics were battling internal fires, and the Redoubtable was on the verge of evacuating as well. They'd taken the SDF forces with them, but all of them were due for a dockyard at the very least. Their support screen was largely wrecked hulks.
Thankfully, the enemy cruiser fleet was faring little better. Even an Emperor battleship, the closest the fleet had to a pure carrier, bore fangs sharp enough to maul cruisers, and the battlecruisers brought their broadsides into play even as they focused their lances and nova cannons on the Vision of Agony.
o - o -O - o - o
The door to the enginarium was cold, showing up blue in thermals. "Psyker," Minerva said. Doubtless channeling their power, preparing something for when they broke through. Everything would be focused on the door. Mortals tended to put instinctive trust in walls. "We go through the sides. Europa, you're with me. Atlantae, take the port side."
The side walls were heavily armored, but they weren't the thick exterior armor. Melta charges blew through them, providing egress and a critical few seconds of disorientation to the waiting defenders, a swarm of beastmen and mutants, with a trio of autocannons trained on the door. The psyker was obvious, a beastman holding a staff crackling with energy and surrounded by hoarfrost.
Minerva fired her assault cannon before it could react, tearing holes through its torso, but with the hideous vitality common to psykers channeling their powers it stayed on its feet and unleashed a bolt of lightning. Warning runes lit, recording damage to her breastplate. It had burned deep, but not through.
With the bolt came a pressure on her mind, the psyker trying to get her to feel… something. The sensation was vaguely familiar, but she couldn't place it. Maybe from her childhood, a century and a half gone. Whatever it was, she forced it from her mind and raised the assault cannon higher, placing another volley directly between the creature's horns. Brain matter exploded outwards, and the corona of power around the staff faded.
Atlantae's squad moved in, and the four with heavy bolters opened up into the mass of defenders, shredding them apart. Autogun fire whined back, deflecting off ceramite plating. There was plenty of cover to be found, solid enough to denotate mass-reactives, but that only meant targets for grenades. It was over in less than a minute.
"Atlantae, check the reactor and cover our rear," Minerva ordered. "Europa, sweep and clear with me." She wasn't sure how bad the damage to her breastplate was, but she wasn't inclined to sit around doing nothing.
"They didn't complete the rites to overload it," Atlantae reported. "Powering it down." Most rites of reactor operation were beyond them, but Arachne had extensively drilled them in the Rite of Deactivation for precisely this scenario, so they would not have to chance destroying an active reactor.
o - o -O - o - o
"The ship the Astartes boarded has deactivated its reactor."
"Good," Gerax said. He'd been worried about leaving it untouched while they fought through its interior, but he wasn't going to fire on allied forces. They'd actually disabled it faster than he'd have expected of sending a cruiser to duel it. He focused on the one remaining threat, the mauled but still fighting Vision of Agony. "Have the bombers concentrate on the port broadside of that battleship. Pull its teeth."
"Inviolate has taken critical damage to its lances; it's maneuvering to present its broadside."
"Make sure they keep the range open," Gerax snapped. "I don't want them getting rammed."
There was, in truth, little chance of that. Even with the mammoth size of ships, they were mere specks in the vastness of the void. Ramming required superior maneuverability or an opponent asleep at the helm. Still, more than one ship had made the mistake of assuming an enemy with no operational guns was harmless and paid the price.
The severely attritted enemy fighter screen made its last stand around the battleship, breaking through the imperial fighters to engage the bombers. The Starhawks fought back with lascannon bursts from their defense turrets, and fighters and bombers alike burned in the void. But the disparity in numbers was too great, and most of the bombers made it through.
"Vision of Agony has ceased firing," the lieutenant reported.
"Stand off and finish it," Gerax ordered. It was all over but the cleanup.
o - o -O - o - o
"They got us good," Gerax said balefully. "We had a third more tonnage than they did, and they mauled us. They were ready to fight our fleet, and we came out entirely too close to them even with the Astartes' warning. If it hadn't been for those torpedoes the inquisitor brought-" he nodded at Malachi "-we could easily have been defeated entirely."
This meeting was entirely by hololith; in an active combat zone they weren't going to concentrate their entire command staff on a single ship even if all threats had apparently been purged. Minerva had returned from the Murder-class after a thorough sweep assisted by naval boarding parties, and the generals, magos, and princeps had joined the meeting.
"So they have their own seer,' Brant said disgustedly, "And a stronger one."
"I wouldn't be sure about stronger," Malachi replied. "Seer predictions can be erratic, and a weaker seer could easily predict a specific event from further out."
"Medea believes the daemon that attacked us initially may be providing them with limited informational support," Minerva replied. "She defers specific questions about how that might manifest to the inquisitor."
Malachi nodded. "Daemons of that ilk are known as Lords of Change. They possess considerable sorcerous abilities and varying degrees of foresight. I'm afraid I don't know about this one specifically, and did not banish it as thoroughly as I would have liked. It would be difficult to manifest it again physically, but the Thousand Sons may be able to consult it."
"But they failed," Princeps Krane pointed out. "They mauled the fleet but lost their own, and didn't break through to the transports. They committed to a losing battle."
"Daemons are fickle and treacherous, even to their allies," Malachi replied. "It may well have foreseen that outcome and steered the Thousand Sons to their defeat for reasons of its own. Such entities are never to be trusted, however they may be bound."
"I don't like the idea of going into a ground war where the enemy could know our every move ahead of time," Solon said. "Can we stop them from consulting it?"
"Not in a straightforward and simple manner," Malachi told him. "We would have to slay their sorcerers or prevent them from performing certain rituals. I'll strike with a kill-team if we have the opportunity, but we can't teleport through the hives' void shields."
"The Imperium regularly defeats the Aeldari," Minerva reminded them. "They have powerful seers as well."
"First things first," Brant said. "We need to find out if there's still loyalist resistance on the planet."
"Medea says the acting planetary governor is loyal," Minerva replied. "He will contact us shortly."