Chapter Thirteen
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"Sanguinius. It should have been him. He has the vision and the strength to carry us to victory, and the wisdom to rule once victory is won. For all his aloof coolness, he alone has the Emperor's soul in his blood. Each of us carries part of our father within us, whether it is his hunger for battle, his psychic talent or his determination to succeed. Sanguinius holds it all. It should have been his…,"
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"WAAAAGHHH-,GLURK!" that is as far as the screaming of the Ork boy goes as a bolt from a bolter shoots straight into his mouth and exploding, scattering his brains and pieces of his skull all over the place. Around more Ork Boys are exploding, courtesy of devastator fire and tactical fire from the sixth, eighth and ninth squads of the Angels Encarmine, both of them are devastator squads while the other is a tactical squad to provide support for the two Devastator Squads in the unlikely event that the Orks manage to get through the heavy bolter fullisade the devastators are dishing out.
Long story short, the Orks are making a problem of themselves here at the Forge World of Icate, they have arrived in force using asteroids as rokkits to get past the planetary defenses and stations straight to the unsuspecting worl below where they then start rampaging around the Forge World, their warboss, Mizter Sneaki preferring to scatter his forces all over the forge world looking for scrap and looking for fights. They are many and sneaky ambushing Tech Priests and their servants stalling the work of the Forge World and being basically a major nuisance that is starting to get serious as a threat as they gather more "Scrap" for their guerilla war in the world of the Mechanicus. This is the issue that the Aquillian Crusade found the planet in when the Seventh Company Fleet of the Angels Encarmine arrive planetside. Sanguinius wastes no time deploying his sons to the field to aid the beleaguered Tech-Priests whose planetary militia is getting the beating of their lives against the Orks.
The plan is simple for them, make a stand here and be a nuisance enough. That is the tactic that their father wanted them to prepare. Everything else would flow right after. The Orks after all are drawn out to where the fighting is heaviest. They would be unable to resist the attraction of a proper "krummping". Like clockwork it happens, the moment the Space Marines are dropped all over the strategic sites to the planet, the Orks immediately swarm such positions like flies to a rancid piece of meat. They come from every hidey hole and dark place, running while waving their choppas, as they descend to the fray.
Right straight to the heavy guns of the waiting Space Marines of the Angels Encarmine Chapter and from whatever Skiitari and Milita Guardsman conscripted into Sanguinius' plan.
For the record, Sanguinis really admires the Codex Astartes penned by his brother Guilliman. It is a treasure trove of ideas about how to deploy an entire Chapter of Astartes into different missions, into different fields, into different climates and warzones. He readily admits that it is a window in the mind of the genius that is Roubutte. Even he, Sanguinius admits would not be able to think half of the things that his brother writes in his Codex Astartes. Making however the Chapters permanently compliant to his Codex leaves a sour taste to Sanguinius' mouth. Every Astartes Legion after all since time immemorial has a way of doing their own thing and not everyone can be as compliant to the Codex due to their nature. Take his Blood Angels Legion for example. They prefer fighting their enemy by overwhelming them either through firepower or great Banzai Charges via Jetpacks. One cannot do that however when there are only two squads per company assigned for Devastator or Assault Marine category. Thus for this assault, Sanguinius promptly ignores the Codex by making sure that every Squad that drops in-planet have something akin to a heavy bolter that they could mow down the Orks by sheer force of firepower alone.
It works splendidly.
Orks are turned to green mist the moment they show their ugly snouts as Space Marines rake them with heavy bolter fire. Those that manage to escape the firepower of the Space Marine Devastators fell to the combined guns of Tactical Marines, Guardsman Militia and Skitaari units deployed on the heavily contested zones. The Orks have no care for their lives, like the fungus they are, they come without tactics or charge as they simply try to overwhelm the landing zones with sheer force of numbers. The landing zones however are specifically chosen by Sanguinius to be surgical places where one can focus on simple focal points of firepower and prevent a smaller force from being overwhelmed by a larger force. Thus despite the Orks crawling out like ants in an attempt to reach their foe, few if any reach their intended targets.
That is at least until vox came pinging the location of the Warboss near the Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Squads of the Seventh Company who finally manages to show his ugly mutt around with so many of his boyz being turned to paste by the devastator rounds.
"WAARRRGGHHH!" the Orks roar out as they come like a roaring tide to support their Warboss, an ugly thing with a power pack at his back powering his power klaw and his megafizt. Nobz, Meganobz and a Weirdboy also appear ignoring the heavy rounds of the Devastators as they advance. Guardsmen scream out in terror in the first line as they get overrun by the tide of green, choppas falling down on them turning the ground red with their blood.
That is as far as the Ork Advance goes however. Sanguinius quickly springs his trap now that the main forces of the Green Horde are making themselves shown.
With a mighty roar, Valkyries hidden from high altitude soar down, the proud sigil of the Cadian Tenth emblazoned on their sides. Heavy machine guns fire down as the Valkyries start making runs to the Orks down below caught out in the open stalling the Ork advance. They circle above the clouds creating a cordon of safety for those below as the heavy rotors continue to throw down slugs by the thousands per second turning the air red with the color of Ork blood. Gunners at the side of the Valkyries pour out heavy explosive slugs sending entire swathes of green to explode upon impact of their guns. The Valkyries finally clear enough of a cordon and then one by one each hover and out jumps members of the Cadian Tenth led by Captain Mira. They aim and fire their hotshot lasguns sending Orks tumbling after one another. Precise fires from the Cadian Tenth are added to the fire power of the Astartes and the members of the defense forces of Icate. Orks come down like dominoes, their advance stalled and their forces beleaguered.
To add insult to injury, the air suddenly also smell like ozone and with a flash, Farseer Elindra arrives with three Terminators from the First Squad their thunder hammers crashing down like a judgement from the gods to the Orks. Her hand raises up and lightning chains from one Ork to the other throwing them even more off cohesion. From above, Assault Marines of the Angels Encarmine come crashing down ripping through the Nobz and Meganobz with their chainswords heralding the arrival of the golden figure that comes down like a thunderbolt in white light.
Sanguinius slams like a meteor straight at the Ork Warboss. The big Ork barely has time to raise his hands to block the light before Sanguinius' spear cuts through his forearm and straight to his throat in a single decapitating blow. With almost a lazy effort, Sanguinius swipes his spear sideways removing halfway through the head of the Ork Warboss who flops on his neck like a dead fish, the remaining half flesh keeping it attached to the body.
Cheers immediately go through the Imperial line at the victory of the Primarch as the Orks lose cohesion and Nobs and Meganobz start fighting one another even as the Imperials advance running down any Ork that their guns, swords, and many other weapons can reach. For Sanguinius, he simply swipes his spear sideways cutting the heads of five Orks at once before flash frying another dozen using the Spear of Telesto. He needs do none after more of that as the Terminators makes a cordon of protection around him shooting their combi bolters to the scattering horde even as they ran in all direction back to the darkest and damp places of the Forge World where they would be hunted down one by one by the servants of the Mechanicus.
Sanguinius sees the Farseer clamber atop the corpse of the Ork Warboss which he is stepping at to stand at his side.
"So the first of the planets you liberated," she comments making Sanguinius wince.
"The first out of twelve," he adds morosely remembering the empty and void planets that the fleet has jumped into near Thracia. Nearly all are destroyed, overrun by daemons, ruined or brought to ruin by traitor forces and xenos with nothing worth liberating.
"At least this one is a what….forge world? With this you can arm whatever forces that you have and hopefully resupply the Seventh Company Fleet. You have to say that you are lucky the first gene-sons that you meet are your sons, others would not be as generous on wanting to get back to their Chapter after so long being left out in the Warp,"
"Yeah, you have a point there….Farseer," says Sanguinius. Indeed, Elindra's words holds truth. The Angels Encarmine Seventh Company has eschewed their desire to go back to their Chapter House in favor of following their father in his desire to bring back the planets back to Imperial fold and protection.
"You have to be very careful with them son of the Anathema," the voice of the Farseer warns. "Every death that they suffer would lessen the strength that this crusade of yours has. Until you can get to their Chapter House, you would be unable to replenish their numbers,"
"Maybe I would be lucky and I would find another Space Marine Chapter," quips Sanguinius making the Farseer snort.
"Knowing your string of luck, son of the Anathema, that would be something that would probably be possible,"
Their little talk however is broken as binary chattering makes the two turn to the Red-Robed magos followed by other Tech-Priests who immediately fell prostate with their faces to the ground in front of Sanguinius.
"All hail the finest work of the Omnissiah who brought us salvation from the savage greenskins. We are truly blessed that his work has touched us in the holiest of ways," drones the Fabricator-General making Sanguinius sweatdrop mentally. This is not the first time that the Magos in charge of the planet to fell in worship of him for being the Son of the Emperor, but the worship given to his father and to him in proxy is still disturbing to him.
Behind he can feel the amusement of the Farseer making what might have been a blush in his countenance if not for him mastering it immediately. "Stand up Fabricator General, as promised I laid waste to the Ork Warboss. In return I expect the aid of your Forge World in resupplying my Crusade with ships, weapons and supplies for the liberation of more worlds,"
"This servant is unworthy, this servant will do everything that is in its power to fulfill the will of the greatest creation of the Omnissiah. Our Forge World specializes in the creation of Lunar Class Ships and the five at reserve ever since the Cicatrix Maledictum would be intoned as an offering for the Blessed son of our great lord," the Fabricator General says with so much reverence that Sanguinius' gets the feeling he is a second away from having holy light descend from on high.
As it is he puts a lid in his frustrated groan at the kow towing Tech Priests as he nods in affirmation to their support. "Are you in any contact with other Imperial Worlds Fabricator General?" Sanguinius asks to the man who once again kow-tows at him making Sanguinius grit his teeth especially since he can hear Elindra at the back sniggering fully now at his discomfort.
"This servant is unworthy! This servant regrets to tell you that the only world that we are in contact with is the Fortress World of Certi, a few light years jump away. We usually resupply them in arms and ammunition in exchange for manpower to keep the blessed machines of the Omnissiah's forge running and for food. Though lately we have been of lacking with the latter,"
"Then good news to you Fabricator General for the Agri-World of Thracia would be more than happy to supply you with food in exchange for weapons and protection. As long as you supply their Planetary Defense Forces with weapons and ammunition plus whatever ships you can spare, alongside their needs to keep their planet going, they have already given me their pledge that they would support whatever food you need,"
"This one is thankful for the blessing of the Omnissiah's son! This one is unworthy!" the man half-shouts, half-grovels making Sanguinius wish to want to smack his own face from the religious fervor. He contains it though as he simply nods.
"If that is all Fabricator-General then I must be off to my command ship. Some of my sons would remain here and mop up the last of the Orks that are hiding in the darkest of your places. They will rendezvous with me once the Orks are all finished with the ships you promised us, with the supplies and everything else. I trust that you will give them the respect and comfort they deserve,"
"For you oh blessed one we will give them the best of the accommodations that we can give while they deal with the wretched Greenskins that dare sully the Omnissiah's golden work," crows the Fabricator General again.
Nodding in silence, Sanguinius boards one of the Thunderhawks waiting for him alongside the Three Terminators and the Farseer. Around him he can see also the rest of the Adeptus Astartes minus those that are staying behind alongside the Guardsmen of the Thracian Volunteers and the Cadian Tenth also boarding their own vehicles which easily returns to the sky where the great ships of the Seventh Company Fleet of the Angels Encarmine awaits.
It does not take long for Sanguinius to find himself once more walking in the familiar main bridge of the Purgatory, Captain Tyrion bowing from the waist at his presence.
"Congratulations in your victory against the Warboss Lord Father, it is an efficient kill, clean and simple," praises the Captain making Sanguinius give off a genuine smile.
"It is all because of you my sons. You all made me proud of your actions. I am glad to see that the lethality of our legion has not eroded even during the long years that I am gone," says Sanguinius. He does not fail to notice that the Space Marines in the bridge stands a little taller and a little bit prouder at his words. They are terribly easy to please for some reason.
"So do the cogboys pledge allegiance to the Crusade father?" asks Tyrion making Sanguinius nod in affirmation.
"They pledge allegiance to us and are offering us for the start five Luna Class Cruisers as part of the support fleet for the crusade with many more to follow once they have them crewed. The Sixth, Eighth and Ninth Companies would be bringing them after us once they finish mopping up the Orks down in the surface below," says Sanguinius.
"That is good to hear Lord father, I hate to admit it but our support fleet is only at half capacity at the moment. Having more ships for the Aquillian Crusade would be of great help and also manpower,"
"Also send word to Thracia and Governor Athelstane that the Crusade has made contact with another Imperial World. His services and that of his world are needed. The Forge-World of Icate will trade weapons, supplies and whatever else Thracia may need in exchange for their food,"
"Very well sire," says Tyrion waving for an adept to do exactly what Sanguinius is saying before shooing him off.
"Where are we at next sire? We are fully supplied due to the efforts of the Fabricator General and we are at a go in your order,"
"Have the Magos sent the corresponding coordinates to the Fortress World of Certi?" asks Sanguinius to the Captain who turns to the data slate at his hands before nodding in affirmation.
"Then that is where we are going next. Other than the Thracian Volunteers and the Cadian Tenth, this crusade is woefully undermanned. Hopefully once we made contact with this Fortress World we can gain more navigational data and more importantly more men that we can spare for the campaigns that is to come captain. We are lucky that we lost nothing less than a hundred men from the Thracian Volunteers in this small campaign against the Orks,"
"It is all thanks to your brilliant planning Lord Father. If not for your plans then we might have lost more," says Captain Tyrion with no small amount of pride.
"I highly doubt that Captain, the result might have been the same even if simply with you and your brothers leading the charge. Greenskins after all might be savage, but they are none too bright. Emperor forbid if we ever face a Greenskin who knows how to use tactics and plans like we do,"
The Captain simply responds with a chuckle before the pinging of the bridge sounds which would mean the ship is ready for Warp Travel again.
Sanguinius simply places a hand on his son's shoulder pauldron.
"Let us go, shall we?"
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Author's Note:
Another chapter done. Hopefully you like this. And we get a better look at life inside Imperium Nihilus here. Hopefully I am doing the warhammer 40K world justice. I am not that good yet when it comes to Warhammer lore. All my learnings and ideas come from reading fanfics and books simply about Warhammer 40k or listening to the Templin Institute about it.
Tell me if I suck okay?
Anyway please review for as usual, your reviews are the song and inspiration to this writer's heart.