AN: Sorry if this ones a little weird to read, I'm like dead tired writing it. But I do hope you enjoy anyways, I did my best. Please like and comment, I really enjoy reading what ya'll have to say. And before you crucify me for the time skip, you will be getting to see the Titan destroy the cultists and Imperial forces in the next chapter through Dyrraths POV. This is just really to show how quickly this war is escalating as it passes the year mark.
He did not reach his current position by being idle, he didn't have the privilege and blood for such. He worked his way to his rank of Lord-General through years of hard work, blood, sweat, and tears. He had sacrificed millions in his search for ever greater rank and power, his family was long dead, his children lost in the endless lists of casualties, and his friends non-existent.
That was the life of Lord-general Urias Zachariah, and because of it death was his one and only companion in the campaigns he had fought in across the stars. Not that he particularly cared anymore, the pleasures of the flesh could be fulfilled with a whore, companionship by his subordinates, and spiritual healing through the worship of the God-Emperor.
In truth he couldn't understand why others need so many complicated and overly complex relationships, especially when they bring so much grief and pain. He tried his best not to flinch when he remembered the pain he felt when his son's had died, they didn't matter, they never had as he kept telling himself.
All that mattered was the Imperium, all that mattered was fulfilling the God-Emperor's will. If he could do that then it was all worth it, all the pain and death, every night wasted in a war room instead of with his long lost family would be justified. Because that was what the Imperium needed, it was what his Emperor needed from him, and most importantly it was what his ambition demanded.
"Urias, are you even listening to me right now?" The voice of the Lord-Admiral brought him back to the present. The war room was like it had always been, bleak and filled with reminders of the past that he so desperately wished he could forget about forever, it would make life so much simpler. "Yes I heard you and I think your plan is complete fucking nonsense, I won't allow you to bombard the hive from orbit, especially when I have six regiments stationed within it and more on the way."
The Admiral had been calling for an orbital bombardment of Nafith for the last six months as the war for the spire grew ever worse in the aftermath of the Xeno grand assault. Hundreds of thousands of his men lay dead in the aftermath, with tens of thousands of vehicles destroyed. It was a disaster that he had never seen coming, and it had cost him nearly half the territory he had secured in the fifth spire, leaving the rest for the Xeno scum to take for themselves with the cultists broken.
"I keep telling you Urias my ships are more than capable of precision bombardment, the rest of the hive wouldn't even be touched by the destruction beyond superficial damages. Simply pull your troops out of the spire and let me destroy the Xeno's once and for all." He wanted to punch the man, while Francis was never the sharpest tool in the shed he should have been more than smart enough to realize just why Urias was against the bombing of the spires.
"I won't say it again Francis, I do not give you permission to use your ships in the fight against the Xeno threat. This is the last time I will tell you such, do not ask again." He said. The other man could only scowl before trying to talk again, likely to try and convince the general once more that he should use his ships to their full effect. "Before you even try to speak once more, know that this meeting is over. Do not contact me again about this matter, I will contact you if I am in need of your aid. That will be all."
He ignored the sound of the Admirals grinding teeth as he turned towards the various reports from the front. A far more important matter than whatever the Admiral had to say. "Your will be done Lord-General, I will not move my fleet without your word." He ignored the general and waved him off, sighing in relief when the holographic display that they had been using to communicate finally cut off.
He could understand the good Admirals concerns, the appearance of a Xeno Titan had been a totally unexpected possibility after all, and one that had nearly ended with the total rout of his forces from the fifth spire. The losses it had caused were immense with its sheer destructive power were immense, and were it not for the deployment of all five of his baneblades to cripple the beast its likely the Xeno's would have won the spire for themselves that day and used it as a true foothold to jump off from.
Thankfully the thing had been beaten back, at the cost of two baneblades being destroyed and another two being damaged nearly beyond repair. He could still remember the terror he felt watching the thing zip around the battlefield, shearing through tanks and infantry with its spear while its guns brought enough destructive power to destroy entire platoons with every shot.
It was only made worse by the hundreds of Xeno tanks cutting through the rest of his line like a hot knife through butter while tens of thousands of the Xeno infantry stormed his lines. It was perhaps the worst day of the campaign so far and it had taken the full might of two regiments to stall out the Xeno assault with sheer numbers.
It only got worse when he learned that the Xeno's had been able to get assassins and saboteurs into his lines in the confusion. Thousands died in the following weeks and tens of thousands more were injured or made incapable of fighting as the Xeno scum killed, poisoned, and sabotaged everything and everyone they could get their hands on.
It was a nightmare, and it took two whole months to track down and kill the majority of the bastards. One had even been found hiding in the ceiling of his office waiting to kill him! He had instantly increased his security tenfold in the aftermath of that little incident.
All of this was to say he could empathize with the Admiral, and if it weren't for one very important factor he would have ordered the entire world bombed to oblivion long ago. Politics. He couldn't be seen losing against a small scale Xeno threat with far superior numbers and strategic positioning and then relying on another to fix his mess.
Not only would it destroy his career, but it would also jumpstart the Admirals own, likely giving him the political capital he needed to get promoted and surpass Urias himself in rank, something the General would not allow. He was nearly a hundred years more experienced than Francis, and far more intelligent. He would be damned to eternal torture in the warp before he followed the highborn pricks orders.
So he ordered the Admiral to stand down, if two regiments alone wasn't enough to stomp out the Xeno scum. Then Sixteen would have to be enough, sixteen regiments, eight million men, he would drown the alien whores in numbers alone if that's what he needed to do. They were already near their breaking point under the weight of two regiments after all based on what his reports were telling him.
He just needed to hold the line a bit longer and the last of his regiments would arrive. Just a bit longer and the aliens would die under his assault, restoring his honor and reputation. From there he would turn on the cults and crush them under his might, saving the world from the siren call of chaos. He would be a hero, he would be an icon on his homeworld, with stories told of his exploits for a hundred generations to come.
As the general dived deeper into his own delusions he never saw the slow drip of an unknown liquid into his drink. Nor the hidden silhouette of the fey above him. His slow descent into madness yet to truly take a turn for the worst.
-
She had long run out of anger when the latest reports from the war with the Green reached her. It was just what she expected from it at this point, another defeat, another thirty thousand dead and the last of their territory in the fifth spire lost. She simply looked over the report a few times to make sure she wasn't missing any details before ordering the messenger out.
She had long since killed most of her previous high council and replaced them with more competent leadership, loyalty had long since been thrown out the window, she couldn't care less for their personal loyalty as long as they were good at their jobs. It was a must when the Green was rapidly growing to become the dominant power in the hive, and likely soon after that on the planet.
Which is why she had finally given the order for summonings to begin in earnest, it was obvious after the destruction of her forces to the Green Titan the time in which this conflict could be won on the back of pure human numbers was long gone. They needed more than numbers, they needed skill, power, and sorcery to win this battle.
So despite her hesitation she called upon them. Daemons by their thousands, sorcerers by their hundreds, and Marines by their dozens. It took all of her personal power to keep them in check, and dozens of strengthening rituals to ensure she was never surpassed in strength on her own world, but in the end it was worth it.
The Marines alone had been a grand boon from the gods, matching and exceeding the skill and abilities of the Green hunters by a vast margin with their millenia of experience and variety of mutations given to them by the gods. For the first time since the war with the green had begun she actually had forces that stood equal with the green hunters in every field, and it was glorious.
The reports of defeat had grown fewer, and as the sorcerers and Daemons lended their support to the war effort those reports only begin to dwindle ever more rapidly. But she wasn't surprised when the betrayal came, it was simply in the nature of those that worshiped the dark ones to be forever seeking, and ever covetous of those that stood above them in power.
She had killed off the betrayers to a man, ripped out their hearts and bound Daemons to their armor, creating her own much cruder version of the famed Rubric marines of the thousand sons. In the wake of the betrayal she summoned more Marines to replace the ones that had tried to depose her, and for a time they fought for her like the previous had, doing just as well if not better against the Green's raging hunt.
Their betrayal had been no more unexpected and the process played out the same as it had last time. Six months this cycle would repeat and for six months she put down rebellion after rebellion, slowly building up her own little private army of Daemonette Rubric's, a full hundred of them.
Looking up from her reports and to them, she thought about it for a moment, calmer than she had ever been in her life and called upon her aide. She would repeat the ritual a few more times, the marines would be of use against the green for as long as they were loyal, but their true use as sources of material for her Daemons to possess was far more valuable in the long term.
Soon her plans would come into fruition and she would retake the fifth spire for the cult. All she needed was a little more time… just a little more time and she would be unbeatable. The high priestess of Slaanesh felt her body spasm with uncontrolled pleasure even as she tried her best to focus on the reports and plans that had flooded her desk.
Pleasure could wait, first she had a war to win.