A dozen chapters. That's what this little raid had cost them. Almost a dozen chapters of Asartes had been lost in this campaign. Not completely mind you, but collectively they had lost almost 11,000 space Marines. Whole Crusades had been conducted with less casualties than was experienced taking one city, on one planet. The chapters were green by any standards, having been called in for this precise mission, but the fact that they had lost so many space Marines in what should've been an incredibly simple mission was horrifying to brother Sergeant Sarius. He was now one of the few remaining members of the Emerald Hawk chapter, which, by his current reckoning number, no more than 76 members total. Worst of all was the fact that he knew their chapter had been incredibly lucky overall. The Stone Knuckle chapter had been completely wiped out, as had the Swords of Absolution chapter.
The plan had seemed simple in theory. The combined fleet would make a bold strike towards the traitors capital, Cainopolis, seize the Palace, and from their move out to conquer the entire planet, thus completely destroying this so-called Protectorate from the top down. It was a plan that seem to project nothing but victory. As far as their intelligence said, the Protectorate was only one planet large, and even that was only really industrialized around a single city. Essentially, they only had to kill one man, this supposed Liberator, and the entire institution would just crumble. There was supposed to be some danger in that, considering that he was supposedly the direct servant of some greater demon, but this many Astartes being brought to bare, should have turned that from a major concern, into nothing more than a minor consideration. Even his retinue of a dark elder and a psyker were concerns on an individual level, but not a match for a full company, much less 12 full chapters. Not to mention the veritable hoard of imperial guards that were being brought along with them. Entire troop ships full of men almost 50 regiments strong. Any other mission this would've seemed like overkill. The fact the brother Sergeant was no longer sure if even five regiments of soldiers total remained was enlightning on how he had massively overestimated Imperial strength.
The issues began almost immediately when they had arrived in system, and found that somehow the planet had gained a second moon. A Space Hulk had, for some reason, become attached to the planets orbit, and now circled it as a monumental firing platform for thousands of weapons. This caused the plan to change rather quickly, as suddenly they didn't have the option to deploy wherever and however they pleased, and instead had to deploy in an incredibly limited timeframe. In fact, at the moment they had transitioned back into the warp, if they had advance, they would have run directly into the stations path and been in clear range of its firepower. And so they were forced to delay by almost 12 hours, as they plotted a course around its estimated firing arcs to safely avoid its attacks. This gave the Planetary Defence Force and System Defense Fleets time to react. By the time the strikeforce began to make landfall, the planets population was mobilizing and arming for a conflict.
Seeing this as also a potential opportunity, several dropships were sent to the Space Hulk in an attempt to capture it for the Imperiums own use. While communication would soon be lost with these forces, eventually it would be discovered that they had been firmly repulsed by the stations local defense forces. This failure to capture the star fortress would mean that much of their fleet was forced to continuously attempt to evade this circling mega structure, as they desperately held on for their own survival. From what the Sergeant had heard of their own fleet, any ship that didn't move out of its firing arcs fast enough was an Obliterated before it even had a chance to fire on the monstrosity. They had lost two of their five imperial guard troop ships to this gravitational doomsday weapon before the Space Marines had even secured a landing zone for the other Marine formations. It seemed even the planets natural forces were arrayed against the imperium.
Apparently, this was a conflict they had long predicted would come, and they had set up appropriately. In fact, for the most part, they were better prepared than the landing forces were. Anti-air towers, anti-armor positions, and even what seem to be specifically made anti-space marine tactics were all set up and Drilled in advance by the local defence forces. It was as if they had been given personal instructions by somebody who had experienced the space Marine style of warfare, to a degree that even the space marines themselves were unfamiliar with. The sheer level of preparation involved spoke of somebody either so well-versed in their methods as to be almost supernatural, or so bloody paranoid, and willing to spend other people's money that it bordered on comical. Regardless, of which, they had prepared enough firepower to turn every miss step by the marines into a costly defeat.
The plan to land at the palace and storm it through overwhelming shock and all tactics had been met with an advanced anti-air grid that destroyed dozens of drop pods, and had forced those chapters that could to divert into a local public park. The forced diversion was apparently predicted as no sooner had they landed, then artillery bombardments already began raining down on their positions. The brothers of the Cainite Crusades various chapters had managed to push out of the park and reach the local artillery battery, only to then be destroyed by secondary batteries, located further out. Those Marines who attempted to rush the palace were met by roadblocks, obstacles, and incredibly stiff defenses manned by those that the intelligence report identified as Liberator Guard, First Regiment. Regular humans were preventing their advance. Several sons of the Khan from the Silver Blade Chapter had attempted a rapid bike insertion through low flying ThunderHawks, which had unfortunately resulted in nothing more than multiple destroyed Thunderhawks and many dead marines. It seemed that if they were to make any progress, he would have to be through grinding attrition in a battlefield of the defenders own choosing.
Some of the officers attempted to call in for an orbital strike to simply level the palace, only to find that their own fleet was now engaged in a desperate battle for survival against waves of fighters, launched from the Space Hulk, along with converted merchant ships that were now Closing in on the Crusade fleet. For the first time in many of the Marines memories, they were out, played to such a degree the only point of comparison many of them could draw from was Istvan V, and the casualty rates of that particular engagement did not endear a great deal of confidence. Still, the collective marine chapters agreed that they would endeavor to take the city, and then the planet, in the name of the Emperor. The fact that they were already down almost 2000 Marines from the various traps, which had obliterated much of their forces was not mentioned, but ever present in their consideration.
Unfortunately, even as the marines try to advance, they found themselves to be in an incredibly hostile environment. Whether it was local defense forces who leapt on them from the rooftops, to massive bombardment that struck with near pinpoint accuracy, to even the fact that their own armored vehicles were so significantly out ranged as to make engagements almost Impossible, it seemed that the Cainite Crusade force were attempting to fight a war that the enemy could simply read like a strategy book.
They were even prepared for some of their more Venerated tactics. When members of the Ardent Vipers chapter had managed to destroy the central power plant for the city, hundreds if not, thousands of local power plants had automatically sprung to life, seemingly as a fallback for the moment the central power plant was disabled. Taking that plant had cost the Vipers their eighth company, and for all of the different it made, they may have well not have bothered. The localized power plants were connected through multiple redundant systems, which meant that, even with the central power plant down, and even the individual power plants destroyed, the auto defence Tourette, that seem to exist on nearly every corner, and held commanding zones of fire with overlapping fields could continue to rain shots down on the Leegard marines. The defenders had been armed with power armour and high power Lasguns that could easily pierce Space Marine armor, along with more tanks than most imperial guard regiments had handy. They had pulled out after a sufficiently determined assault, but the fact that they had dealt such severe casualties Had rapidly disheartened those Sons of the Gorgon. This was how it progressed for much of the campaign, with each tactic they employed, seeming to have prepared counter measures designed to completely destroy the Space Marines, and the local forces having a frankly absurd amount of specialized equipment that by all rights, they shouldn't have had.
It was as if somebody had spent a veritable fortune in this city, just to create redundant systems. Everything from power, communication, to the sewer lines, and even the road networks were made that whatever they did, the defenders would have numerous options in how they want to counter. The sheer cost of this in financial and manpower commitment was staggering. If this was the Liberators crown jewel, he must have been well primed, and how to fight against the imperial. For any other man, this would have seem to be an unreasonable waste of time and resources for nothing more than a pet project. But the fact that they had lost whole Platoons to Alley ambushes, venerable armoured vehicles pulverized by roadblocks, and even dreadnaughts obliterated by nothing more than local forces following pre-prepared battle doctrine, said that whatever he had paid for the cities construction in this manner, he had gotten his credits worth out of it. They had deployed more Marines than most high-level officials would see in their life and they had taken only one city.
That was another problem. Conquering the city was a very generous assessment. They had raided the city, and had managed to cause considerable damage to one of the Traitors house of Worship, the house of remembrance, and the Liberation Palace as they called it, but besides that much of the city actually remained outside of their control. As it turned out a lot of the citizen had taken to arming themselves with whatever they could, and considering that the cities Arsenal were filled with Laz guns that could pierce power armor, these had actually proven to be quite a threat. The amount of armoured hulls and power armor that seem to just be waiting in store houses for some kind of eventual mass mobilization of the populis had meant that the city had rapidly turned from being occupied by just a local defense force, to basically being entirely armored and armed with weapons that Wouldn't have been out of place in elite imperial forces. The imperial guard forces that had deployed alongside them had planned to march into the city and cull heretics from the population. Instead they have been stopped on the cities border, and the heretics were now moving towards them at a rather alarming pace. Brother Sarius had politely requested the Inquisitor's acolytes hurry the hell up with securing their Artifacts, but the Inquisitor had basically ignored him, while making some vague statements about it being necessary for their safe removal to take a great deal of care. Normally, the sergeant of the Emerald Hawks would have appreciated the amount of care the inquisitor was taking, but considering that, it looked like a good deal of the city was moving to counterattack their position, and was somehow capable of forming something resembling armoured regiments, he would very much have preferred if the Inquisitor could maybe speed that process up.
And then, of course, there was the gem on top of all of us. They had actually failed to capture theLliberator. Apparently he had been escorting a large group of civilian workers out of the palace, when he had been confronted by the chapter master of the Emerald Hawks, Falchion Jetta, and had taken a rather disapproving stance to the orders to stand down and accept execution. Sergeant Sarius had been listening in on the Vox at that moment, but the fact that he could hear his Chaptermaster being eaten, along with most of the First Company had indicated that whatever power of the liberator held, it was not to be underestimated. The reports had said that the greater demon Emili had favored the former Commissar enough to appear briefly in a diminutive form, but it hasn't mentioned the fact that he could apparently summon her to attack his enemies, as was apparently now the case. The inquisitor claimed it was just because a warp portal had been opened up, so that the Liberator and his charges could flee, but the fact that Sarius was now projected to go from Sergeant of the eighth company to captain of the first was not an encouraging statistic in regards to the Liberators power.
And now all the Inquistor who had led this full hardy mission seem to want to do was loot the man's office. All of this, so he could steal relics, that apparently the man himself didn't think we're worth packing up and taking with him. From the man's mutterings that had sounded like there was a rather impressive collection there, But the fact that the man had apparently spent more time trying to ensure that the palaces groundskeepers got out rather than these artifacts made the sergeant question whether or not any of them were really that important.
Sarius could only hope that whatever happened here wouldn't be a warning of things to come for the galaxy. Even on their approach, they had heard that ships of the Protectorate were appearing over dozens of worlds that the imperium held control over, and that the local population was rising in revolt. As much as Sarius felt the desire to see what they were doing as glorious and wise, thought that they had traded a dozen worlds for one building, in one city on one planet resonated quite deeply within his core. A city they were going to have to pull out of soon enough, as the local forces were beginning to get more organized, and it was only a matter of time before they began pushing them out of their positions and running them down. And despite himself, he was beginning to question the actions of this Inquisitor, and the Imperium that put so much trust into him.