Tanya Russ
Looking out the window or screen… I still needed to look into the details of how they made the outside visible inside ships like these. Though asking stupid questions was not something I would want to do in my opinion. After all I'd come from a medieval-style world, start asking questions like 'is this glass or not?' could be taken as to imply you were not as intelligent as your primary brain should allow you to be. At the moment I was just betting it must be LCD screens of some type till I found some way to determine what was really going on without appearing out of sorts.
Anyways, back on the main subject, I was looking out the window at a collection of desiccated and barely functioning ships that could be best described as somehow brought to life by the will of duct tape.
The Star Hunters Pathfinders had tracked the Orks through a side passage into the Wheel of Fire and informed my fleet where this location was, from there I'd go into work moving my fleet to this location as well as elements of the auxiliary Militarum and the Squats expeditionary force.
From there we had pushed into this crack in the barrier that separated the Wheel of Fire from the rest of the galaxy and had found ourselves above one of the many fortress worlds that made up this Ork empire. A truly ugly planet, it appeared to be mostly covered in either rocky outcroppings or jungles. There were also a few of what I would have to guess were Ork cities and slaver compounds, probably just there to gather scrap considering they seemed to worship duct tape as if it was the cure to all known diseases.
We would have to fight our way through the fleet before commencing landing operations and, well, burning the planet as best we could again. There were civilians down there and, though I saw the logic in just bombarding the planet, if we could perform operations to get those civilians out we would get credit from the local civilizations. Yes most of them were feudal kingdoms that were on the level of Russ or worse, but it would do the Imperium's image very well in my opinion.
After all wars are fought on the battlefield but won at home. Being able to see that you were doing good, not only for people who could ally with you but also for your own people, improved people's morale. That improved morale meant more resources would make it to the front, which resulted in a nice little repeating cycle of 'the more resources get to the front the better operations go there, so the morale goes up'. So on and so forth until victory was claimed.
As I mused on that our fleet was already starting to move into position to begin combat with the Ork fleet. The one here wasn't as well-stocked as the one near the known entrance to the Wheel of Fire, which was good. Fewer combat vessels meant fewer casualties to be taken, I hoped. We simply needed to make sure that we had a successful fight here today and I had a feeling it would go well. The fact of the matter was that, with two-to-one odds in our favor and with us having bigger ships than them, I could relatively safely say we were going to win this.
And once we had security of space over the planet it would be easy to get to work cleaning up the planet below.
Not only that, our entrance into the Wheel of Fire here would pull ships from the 'official' entrance to try and secure their own planets from us. This would make the front weak enough that the Iron Warriors could push forward and begin sieging the fortress world next on the list of worlds that guarded the entrance to the Wheel of Fire.
Most of their ground forces were still pretty busy working by a third of my Space Wolves laying siege to the first planet we had assaulted. It was still holding out as the Orks had built a large supply network underneath their main fortress. Or they simply were eating each other, I don't know. What was important was that the planet was under siege and the Iron Warriors were in their element. I had read the reports sent my way by Legion Master Elyphis Diorius and he thanked me for a third of my army and told me that operations were well underway, he had given an outline that they'd have the fortress taken in the year. He apparently hoped that the initial bombardment would wipe the Orks out after we cleaned out the slave population but unfortunately the bombardment didn't reach deep enough and the Orks were well and truly really stocked from all appearances. However the good news was the planet had been cleansed up to that fortress. All mushrooms had apparently been tracked down and destroyed by various auxiliary Militarum forces. Once the remaining Orks were cleaned out the planet could be theoretically settled with any surviving slaves we managed to free from the other planets, if we didn't send them directly home.
Which was an intriguing thought. If we settled the gateway to this Wheel of Fire sector it could be a very useful tool in the future. The fact that we didn't have a read on this sector because the nebula hid it, and every movement inside it, meant it could be a very good redoubt for us if we could convert it to our own use. I was tempted to leave a garrison behind to watch over this sector when this conflict was over. Never knew when having a backup supply base would come in handy, especially this far out from Fenris.
Which was a line of thought all on its own. I was light-years away from Fenris at this point, I had traveled well past halfway across the galaxy. Yes, I could depend on imperial resources to keep us supplied but I liked the notion of having a backup plan a lot more than just assuming that the Imperium would always supply me. Fact of the matter was, Emperor was going to have some sort of dispute in the future with Mars and most of the resources came from Mars. Why else was he making moves to secure a secondary resource in the dwarves? Sorry, Squats. At least I didn't say that out loud.
He was already building redundancies into the system. If the empire of Mars ever tried to break away from the Imperium the Squat Leagues may be able to fill the hole that that rebellion would tear. Hmmm… if such a rebellion should ever happen, well there was a Forge World that was part of the Mars empire in this region. Having a logistical base, in case I had to be deployed in this area to deal with that, could be useful. That was thoughts for the future but I probably should look into establishing a few enclaves of soldiers on rotation, not only to maintain supply bases in case I needed to deploy to an area and didn't have supplies in the region but also to get them training on environments they wouldn't normally get the occasion to train in. After all Icrinda had been an icy alpine mountain world while the planet below me was mostly craggs and jungle. That was something we probably would come across regularly but not something we would train in often. If I were to set up some sort of training program here my wolves would have a better time when facing conflicts like this.
Not only that, it would improve our reputation in the system as well. No doubt the Space Marines would be a bit on the bored side and be willing to help the local population out in search of distractions. They would provide some good old propaganda by helping to cut down trees and such, keeping the population happy and connected to the Space Marines. Very well, something I should consider.
But these were thoughts for the future, once again. That probably would take 10 years if the Mechanicum' data was correct, an unfortunate idea. If anything I would like to cut that in half if possible but I'd also like to have fewer casualties than predicted. I would work with what I had.
To take me away from those thoughts though the battle had been joined as elements of the Imperial Navy began fighting Ork ships, the fleets engaging in broadsides and hit and run tactics. An Ork ship, not caring about what would happen, smashed into one of ours, smashing both to pieces. A one-to-one trade, it would seem, was something they were willing to take. Not good.
Sure we had the advantage of numbers for this fight and, one for one, I was willing to bet they were weaker. But more would show up and who's to say we would not meet two-to-one odds next time, maybe three-to-one. From the scout data that the Iron Warriors and Star Hunters had given me the fleet at the second stronghold into this sector was massed in heavy formations. They were unsure of the exact numbers but it was rather large, large enough that if it came here it might be a problem for my fleet.
Thankfully the nature of this sector and its strange Warp winds made it hard for them to move around to quickly assault places, just as it made it hard for us to do so. They would have to take the slow roads to fight back, giving us possibly months of time to worry about what was on the planet below. Hopefully though we have a bit longer.
Captain Nemmius Tetanus came up to where I was standing giving me a salute, which I returned before he said, "King Russ, the Star Hunter flotilla has transitioned through the crack and they wish to begin exploring as quickly as possible to find paths and ascertain our location within the sector."
I nodded, it was good to have allies who were good at their job and wanted begin working as soon as possible. So I simply said, "Give him permission and tell them good hunting. If they find out anything interesting they are to make sure to let us know, they are our eyes and ears in this sector and we're going to need to use them heavily for this."
The Captain saluted again before walking off to a panel and talking to the staff working there. Most likely finding the best way to send that message. No doubt there would be unusual radio events thanks to the strange Warp winds generated by this sector's nebula, which could block communications if not taken into account.
Turning my attention back to the screens, I saw the Orks launch a few asteroids in the general direction of our fleet. Most were destroyed by fire from friendly ships but one managed to actually make its way all the way through the fleet, smoking as much as a rock could smoke in space after taking so much fire. Only to bounce off the front of my ship. I barely felt the impact from where I was standing so obviously the amount of force they had thrown at us had either not been great enough or the shields had done a good enough work that whatever force they had was rather useless.
After about 30 minutes it looked like the enemy fleet was starting to disintegrate, either retreating or fleeing. Hard to tell as I didn't think there was really any good order to their movement. At a guess I'd go with fleeing. Which resulted in a bit of a cheer going up amongst the crew, already thinking that victory was in our grasp. I smiled as I watched this, knowing that this was only part one of what was to come. We would have to go down to the planet now and do the best we could but we would most likely end up having to burn the jungle down. The other areas of the planet had very little in the way of vegetation so searching out Ork spores would be slightly easier. I was still betting it would take a while, better just to burn it and let it regrow after a few years.
Thinking those slightly darker thoughts I was distracted from them by a beep on a comlink of sorts that I'd been given as part of my armor. Pressing that I heard the voice of Malcador.
"Good evening, Tanya. How goes the war?"
"The war goes well, we've just defeated the enemy fleet and will soon be deploying forces to the planet in order to free the slaves."
"You have a bit of a too kind heart, Tanya… or you're playing a very well thought-out game."
"I like to think it's a very well thought-out game." I mused, before saying, "Why are you calling me, Malcador?"
"Oh, nothing much, nothing much. I've been preparing a little test of your skills and I would like you to join me in my quarters for the conversation as well."
I raised an eyebrow but then I realized that he couldn't see that so I just said, "Well, I guess I can spare a few minutes. I should really be leading my men into combat."
"Your legion is well trained, Tanya, you've seen to that. Not only that, your men need to have moments of glory to themselves. Let them have their first fight without you now that you've trained them. Let them see that they can do things without you, so that they may know that they are trusted. Besides that this little game I have prepared is going to take us an hour or two, so I would prefer you to simply leave them be for now. After all I'm told there are only slaves down on that world and there will still be slaves tomorrow as well. Freeing them now versus tomorrow is really no difference to them."
I wasn't sure about that. If I was a slave I'd rather be free today than tomorrow but I would let him have his little game conversation he wanted, it would give me time to avoid Adelheid. She had taken an interest in helping my girls get me into my armor.
"Alright, Malcador. I'll be down there in a moment." I said.
Shaking my head I turned away and said to the captain, "Good work on the combat. As soon as space above the planet is cleared contact the company commanders and tell them to begin landings. They have the freedom to do as necessary while on the planet."
Nodding, the captain gave me a salute as I left the room and headed towards Malcador's chambers on the ship. Which happened to be right across from my own.
I was not wearing my typical armor today, though I should have probably gone ahead in getting ready for this battle. I had taken things a little bit easy today on that matter. Though I did wear the undersuit! I think Leave had commissioned some clothing in my size, almost normal in style. It looked very similar to the Imperial Army's uniform, besides a bit of fur here or there to show my Fenris roots.
Quickly traveling the hallways I found myself arriving at Malcador's room and, making a point of it, I rapped on the door as loudly as I could without accidentally knocking it open.
After a moment the door opened to reveal… no one standing there to beckon me to enter. Shaking my head I simply poked my head in and said, "First Lord of Terra, are you in here?"
"Yes. Of course I am!" came the old voice of the Emperor's confidant, sounding annoyed that I had not simply entered.
"Well then, Malcador, may I come in?" I asked from the doorway, really rubbing in the fact that I would prefer him to do the same when trying to get my attention.
"Yes, yes, come on in," came the old voice which I immediately responded to by walking inside, taking note of just how dark the room was. It really wasn't hard to figure out why, apparently he preferred candles for his lighting fixtures. I would have figured those were unsafe but I guess they were spiked into the wall sockets.
Looking around I quickly saw him standing at a table with a board in front of him as he looked over the pieces in interest, "I have come up with an interesting lesson plan for today, I think: Trying to help you improve your sight. Take a seat," he offered, pointing towards the seat across from me.
"Improve my sight?" I asked, walking over and quickly noting he'd apparently had one of the chairs from my room brought over. Another invasion of privacy, although maybe he'd simply had one commissioned that could fit me. Being a giant I did have to be careful not to sit on something that would result in me tumbling backwards, so it was at least nice of him to have something prepared.
Beyond that, on the table, was a chess set. It looked a lot like a chess set at least, two rows of eight pieces staying across from each other. One was black, one was white, and they seemed to be on a checkered board very similar to what a chess set would display. Beyond that there was a small device at each corner of the board that seemed to be blinking and I wasn't sure what they were for. I shrugged and walked to the seat across from him, seating myself.
It was only after I took the seat that I figured out what those devices were for, as everything in front of the white pieces except for the first space went black. I may not have been a major strategy gamer in my day but I played once or twice and I could get the concept of this right away. "Fog of war?" That got a nod of approval from the old man.
"This game is called regicide, the hooded version. If you're interested in the exact variant we start the match with 16 pieces each, one line of pawns in the front that can move forward one to two spaces. They are followed on the second line by specialty units such as-"
"Rooks, Knights, Bishops, King, and Queen," I said, trying to take a stab at speeding this idea up. We were just explaining chess might as well show that I knew something.
"Not bad. You've obviously played one of the original versions, I know that the general rules haven't changed much just the technology around it. So let's take a stab at this, what do you not know?"
"I'm going to assume that the fog of war can be lifted by our pieces to a point? That's new to me for chess though other games had similar ideas, Age of Empires and such."
"Never heard of it." He said matter of factly before getting us back on topic. "Alright. Well, yes. Pawns give you a sight of one, Knights going to give you a sight of two, the piece you referred to as a Queen also does. Bishops and Rooks though still have a sight of one."
"Makes sense, scout units have better sight while units meant for destroying formations through better movement have sight equivalent to a Pawn.
"You may move your piece first," Malcador said. "I didn't have any reason not to so I reached out and grabbed a pawn near the center, moving it out of the full two spaces and clearing the zone to my sight. I wanted to see what was in front of me.
"So, what's the objective of this little game?" I asked, vaguely feeling something prodding at my mind that I tried to block. I believe I did it? Well he seems unfazed.
"Quite simple. The objective is to win. All you have to do is to win," He said, sounding a little bit coy on that answer as he moved a piece out in the dark. I suspected I already knew what was going on so I moved this Pawn forward again. Only one spot, just to see if I was right.
As I suspected there was a Knight waiting right there; in position to take my Pawn if I moved to that one space. Looking up at Malcador I immediately said, "This is a test to see if I can penetrate your mental defenses enough to figure out what you're doing outside of my sight."
"Correct." He answered, moving his piece and taking my Pawn. "I can't see your Pawns, you can't see my Pawns but we can see each other, we can mentally reach out and try and figure out what we're each doing. Thus we have a better idea of the board than simply what's revealed to our eyes out of the shadows."
"Putting my abilities to the test, I see," I mused, before adding "Though it seems odd that you would use a game to do such a test of ability." As I said this I moved a piece near the edge of the board, trying to keep my defenses up as heavily as possible so he didn't know what I was doing.
"True, true. I will admit I haven't had anyone play regicide with me for a long time and I've needed a good opponent. Or at least a student who could learn quickly enough to be consistently good at it."
He moved a piece that I couldn't see and I moved another piece on my side of the board, a knight unit ranged to give me a better view of the board and showing me that he had in fact moved a Pawn to try and counter my Pawn.
"You do need some work on your defenses though. Anyone of lesser abilities would have plenty of trouble seeing through it but I will admit there are things with stronger abilities than myself out there. The Emperor for one, the Eldar for another."
I raised an eyebrow. I didn't know why he brought up Emperor, it seemed an odd statement considering his loyalties but maybe I was looking too deep. I doubted someone who was an ally of Emperor would attempt to plot some sort of mad overthrow with a member of his family. That would be madness and stupidity on levels I hope humanity had abandoned at some point. But then again they apparently had blasted a galactic empire back to the stone age so you never know.
But more likely this was about the Eldar. Could there be some sort of Eldar presence in the region? I had yet to see them, I only heard rumors of their existence in reality and they had apparently been one of the causes of the Long Night. Supposedly. And apparently they had some sort of empire well before humanity did, which meant they were someone that I should not take lightly and follow Malcador's beliefs. I should work on improving my mental fortitude in case we ever ran into them, that much was probably a sign that I should improve my mental fortitude. With that thought, I redoubled my efforts to try and build some sort of blocking wall to keep him out as he moved his next piece, another Pawn, to the side of my Cavalry. He was obviously trying to draw me into an outward assault, most likely so that something else could kill it.
Instead I again moved other piece, building a solid defensive line as far forward as possible without going over to his side of the board. I was trying to draw him in or find out what he was planning. For the most part the board remained quiet and my efforts to pierce his own mind were not going well. though with whatever little data he did provide me I was able to get a good estimate that he was testing to see if he could find a weakness in my line. Which could implicate that either he was having trouble seeing my plans or he wasn't sure where to go from there.
Well apparently he'd been toying with me. I made one move and then all of a sudden the game sped up as pieces began to be exchanged, before long it was obvious he would win. "Fine." I put my hand on the table reflexively, before saying, "I believe you won this game, Malcador."
He nodded, his eyes looking at my hand with interest, before saying "You did good. For the second half there I wasn't getting as clear of a view of what you were planning or what you were doing. The first half though had given away most of what your plans were so I just relied on what I had already seen from your actions and motions."
I shook my head before saying "Good is not good enough in a combat situation. Here, sure, but if someone were able to try that in the real field a lot of good men would have just died."
"A reliable point, yes." He said matter of factly, before saying "Though you're not hopeless, you'll get the hang of it soon enough I feel. Hopefully before something that requires its use happens. Now here's a question that's bugging me: Why did you put your hand on the table like that when you offered your surrender?"
Looking down I shrugged before saying, "Used to play a card game where, in order to offer surrender, you would put your hand down on your deck when you realized you were done. Old habit, hadn't played it for a good long time by the time of my death." It was only after it said that that I realized I'd screwed up. I played Yu-Gi-Oh when I was in my first life as a salaryman and it's been a very short stint because I had to go on to college rather quickly. I played only a year or two but it had been a fun game at the time in the 2000s.
Which was the problem. My first life in the 2000s. As far as Malcador knew I remembered only my second life, which had been in the 1930s give or take regarding the general period from what we had narrowed it down to at this point. As far as he was concerned I didn't have many memories of that 1930s life, I had utterly screwed up on this one.
Turning to look at Malcador I waited to see what would happen, guarding my thoughts as heavily as possible just in case he was peeking.
He seemed amused at something, before saying "Oh it seem this has had an added benefit: we've uncovered two interesting things today. One, some of your memories from your life before this can be regained by association. Two, it's very well possible that the game known as PBVFDHCSP existed 28,000 years ago. There were only rumors and theorized beliefs about the matter, no evidence though up to this day. Quite interesting."
I blinked as my good luck had just saved myself a headache. The fact that humanity had lost so much of their history had created enough wiggle room that a mistake like that could easily be overlooked. Although the idea that a card game that had existed 28,000 years ago still kicked about was a bit of a hard sell. 90% sure that a little bit of cardboard with tin foil wouldn't last that long.
"PBVFDHCSP? I've never heard of this," I said, trying to get more details.
Nodding his head in though Malcador said, "Deck of 60 to 40 cards, you draw five cards at the start of the game and you draw one each time it's your turn. You have so many life points before you lose and you summon monsters to fight each other. Sound familiar?"
"Vaguely, it sounds a bit like the card game I'm thinking about. Yet I find it hard to believe it would have existed this long."
Malcador shrugged before saying "At some points in history those cards' prices were more stable than the currency they were being bought with. As a result, a couple times they were in fact currency for a few governments. Though those were very short-term governments.
As far as they are nowadays, they're simply back to being a card game that people enjoy. Usually among the upper class since we can actually afford the cards. From what historical documents can be found it appears that large swaths of the cards that once existed have been lost to time. Not to mention some cards that do exist mention cards that don't exist now, increasing the likelihood that we don't have a full deck on what was created back then. Multiple attempts to rebuild the ancient texts of the cards have been made, which has resulted in several different leagues and styles of plays."
"Huh," I said, sitting back a bit, shocked by all this information and wondering if I could possibly profiteer off my knowledge on this lost bit of History. I didn't remember everything from back then but if there were a few cards that people were looking for that I could remember then selling the knowledge of what was there seemed to be reasonable. It would help fund my campaigns. Helping to improve Fenris was a goal after all to make my life easier on that planet so I could retire in peace and simply focus on my wolves.
I was brought back from those thoughts when Malcador said "If you want I could recommend a deck or two that I think you'd like. It will cost you a pretty penny I'm sure but I've been looking for someone to play that game with as well. It seems like you have some idea how to play it so if you're interested?"
Nodding my agreement, I said "I'd like that. I think I'll give that a try. Meanwhile I guess we'll continue to try and play the game of reading each other's minds."
"Oh, of course. That and a few other tricks that I could teach you through that game as well."
Tanya Russ
It was officially a week since we had started bombardment of the planet and rescued all the slaves we could find. In that week I believe we had destroyed over 70% of the biosphere.
On one hand that was an incredible waste of life. On the other hand it was plant life and harboring enemy soldiers. Reenacting Vietnam on a planetary scale by dumping fire and other harmful death substances all over the planet was not what I expected to be doing on this campaign but then again it was working. We were slowly digging out exactly what locations the Orks cared about and were protecting and what locations they were not. Not only that we were coming to find that even though the Orks didn't appear too far entrenched in our first few days there were areas they were further entrenched, primarily on the northern continent. We had hit things in the jungles but the Orks had fortifications of several lines around what could be best described as a castle. One that predated Ork ownership of the world by my guess.
So even though we were bombarding the planet, burning the atmosphere, killing everything that lived that could support life on that world… The Orks still held at that fortification. As long as they held that fortification there was not much we could do in the matter of rooting them out from this planet, something I would really like to do. Having full control of it would provide us a supply base inside the sector.
The captain of my battleship had recommended the use of what was called World Killer weapons to finish it off. I was actually considering it. Destroying the biosphere completely and getting rid of the Orks would be one way to settle the matter of this world quite neatly. Sure it would mean sure that any civilians we had missed were as good as dead and would be a disgusting mark in my opinion on the humanitarian image I had been cultivating for myself the last few months but acceptable losses were acceptable losses and it shouldn't be too hard to brush the whole mess under the rug.
However that would do me no good in building a strategic supply point for our forces in this sector. We could burn every planet in the sector but we would still need to be able to hold something, otherwise someone else would just move in and take it for themselves.
No we needed to take the planet, that was the simple fact of the matter. We needed to take it, crush the Orks, and cleanse the last few pieces of land they controlled of their mushroom kingdom. Problem was of course that we would need to begin another round of landings, this time with an eye on destroying their fortifications.
Sure I had ordered bombardments of the planet in the regions they held to try and soften those fortifications up but objectively we would need to land, move forward, kill anything in there, and secure the area. During that process we were going to take casualties, there were no if, ands, or buts about it. You did not run across No Man's Land without taking casualties and that was what we were facing. Granted we had plenty of armored personnel carriers and tanks to hide behind, as well as plenty of aircraft but they also had plenty of AA guns.
It would be a battle about which side could maintain air control. That would probably be the main determinant and maybe, just maybe, my Space Marines would be able to pull off a win.
Well, we would not be alone. I had asked for the Iron Warriors to send over a contingent of their troops to help teach my men how to lay siege to a fortress. And to make sure everything went well I also invited the Squats to land their armored land trains. I didn't know how well they would do but I figured having mobile fortresses and bunkers might draw some fire from my armored personnel carriers. And they might be able to push further than we could, some of those trenches looked rather deep on the map. Deep and wide, I worried that the armored personnel carriers would not be able to cross them. Instead, they might get stuck in the mud of the trench with their back exposed for any enemy to fire at.
No doubt we would need to have engineer units on standby to build a few bridges across the trench works, just to get us across in a few places. That also might mean that the infantry would need to push ahead to the next set of trenches to secure ways for the APCs, which made them almost useless for their intended purpose.
I shook my head, there was not much I could do about that now. I needed to focus on getting ready to go to the planet below, to get an idea of what we were looking at here. Already about 3/4 of my legion were deployed to the planet, building siege fortifications around their strongholds to keep the Orks hemmed in. The only reason I wasn't down there yet was because I was waiting on Miss Adelheid of Mars to finish tightening a few bolts.
The girls were helping as well but I had to admit her mechadendrites were far more successful in sealing the gaps in my armor as tight as they needed to be. Even if I had to suck in a little bit of extra air to make sure it didn't get too tight when they were tying the chest piece.
I thought we had done a pretty good job of it today and everything was handled until Robo girl spoke up, saying something in that binary language of hers before continuing in high Gothic. "When this campaign is over I'm going to need to take a look at that armor and make some more adjustments. I think you appear to have grown in a few areas since I was given the information of what your sizes would be."
I let out a sigh, nodding my agreement to that. At least I hadn't gotten taller though I seemed to be becoming more of an icon of femininity. Emperor had obviously made some massive mistake in his thinking on how he was going to design these bodies, because being a pinnacle of humanity might not mean much for a male outside strength and toughness… But for a female it meant a few other things it would seem.
Secretly I was beginning to suspect there was a bit more magic to this whole thing than he had exactly explained. Oh, sure I had some general thoughts after meeting Orks and the Emperor himself that simply implied that he had attempted to replicate the way the Orks chose a leader by providing some sort of psychic field that would cause their leader to grow. Well, that was fine and dandy for an all-male species. They would grow just taller and stronger. For a female? Well, if your existence was partially based off what other people expected and thought about you after meeting you… There were going to be some oddities mixed in with the psychic pool you were bathing in.
Shaking my head, I said, "Thank you, Adelheid. I will see to it that we have a consultation about this matter when I get back up to the ship and we can see about improving the design of it I guess."
The red robed figure nodded as her metal arms seemed to fall back into her robes. "Yes we'll have to do a better sizing, amongst other things. I'm sure there are other bits of armor that we should talk about. That reminds me, have you given any thought to the optional upgrades I pointed to in the book the last time we talked?"
I let out a deep sigh before saying, "Yeah, yeah I did. Most of my fighting seems to end up being at close quarters, though the bolt gun I have works well, but I did take note about the wrist-mounted bolter gun that was offered. It does not have a lot of shots in it, of course, but having the ability to fire off a couple shots at close range if your gun is ever knocked away is a useful trick."
She nodded before saying, "A very useful trick, my Primarch. I will see about getting together the materials right away." She started to step away before stopping and turning to the girls before asking "My Primarch, another question? As you know my field of study is in the creation of female armor… I was wondering if you'd be willing to let me have these girls here for a bit of experimentation in that field."
I raised a rather heavy eyebrow before saying "And what exactly would be happening in this experimentation?"
"Well, I would like to try and figure out a base style light power armor that could be easily reproduced for your Valkyries, as your Space Marines refer to your shield maidens."
I rubbed my armored glove on my chin, thinking. Currently my Valkyries, as apparently the people were calling them, were armored in little more than a black vest which might be a bit better than something you'd see in a terrible movie in the 90s. So getting them in a lighter version of power armor would be quite useful, though I did worry about stepping on the Auxiliary Militarums toes too much. They so far had not lodged any complaints about the fact that I had basically raised my own forces besides the Space Marines but that could always change. Maybe there was a way to avoid causing too much trouble? The Sixth legion's number of quote-unquote 'background personnel' was up to the roof in general and on the ship but I only had about 2 to 300 for personally serving me in various ways. Every other Valkyrie was basically taking up logistic roles or support roles, or maybe supporting their former husband, boyfriend, or brother who joined the legion. So, instead of possibly funding armor for that entire force, maybe I would just fund enough for those directly connected to me. At least until I knew for sure if I was pissing off someone in higher command. Also, the three girls who always helped me get into my armor were giving me puppy dog eyes over the fact that the possibility existed that they could wear armor of a similar style. I wasn't exactly going to break their little dream now, was I.
Letting out a breath, I said, "Yes, they can help you create this armor. Though do not go too wild with your ideas here. I will not be arming the entirety of the shield maidens on this ship in power armor, just those that I feel will be going into combat situations that especially require it more than others."
The red robed woman nodded and said, "Of course, Primarch! Nothing too insane, nothing too heavy. I doubt I would find any Fabricator Generals in the local Forge Worlds that would be willing to create large stockpiles of armor anyways. They are after all quite close-minded on such subjects I fear."
That raised an eyebrow but I let that one slide for now, though it reminded me of my plan to possibly sell Svellgard to Mars in order to build a Forge World inside the Fenris system to support my legion from there. I wonder how I could go about that, would it be as simple as asking the woman in front of me if she'd be interested in becoming a Fabricator General of a new colony in the Fenris system? Maybe not the wisest selection but, as far as I'd seen, she seemed like a reasonable sort.
I would have to prod her in the future, see what I could learn about this situation. But for now, I simply said, "Well, just do what you can. I need to get going," as I looked at my arm which bore a small tactical relay that told me the time and how long I had to get to the next set of ships that would be landing on the planet.
Looking up at the Mars woman, I said, "Thank you for the help and see you next time."
We exchanged cordial goodbyes and I was on my way, walking through the halls of the ship to one of the larger landing areas. Already there was a shuttle waiting for me, half full of Space Wolves that were ready to return to combat.
Popping my helmet on, I walked into the ship, grabbing onto one of the overhead bars as I really couldn't fit in the seats they provided for Space Marines very well. Better just to hold on on my way down, it was easy to lock my armor so that I could remain in the standing position and my feet would be pretty much stuck to the floor thanks to magnets.
The flight down to the planet was rather uneventful. We departed the ship, the shuttle having no real way to view it, and I had to rely on basically the movement of the shuttle to determine if we had even left. Then we started going through the atmosphere. I had been told that when the Marines had first deployed to the planet the drop had been rather nice as there hadn't been many clouds on the planet in the region we were landing and they had enjoyed smooth sailing.
The bombardment and burning of the jungles appeared to have undone that smooth sailing as the ship tended to jerk a bit more than I think it should be doing, either that or the pilot needed a lesson on how to fly but more likely it was just the smoke-filled atmosphere. Which would do the most harm I think in the coming future to the planet's biosphere. Yes, we burnt down most of the forest and killed most of everything that lived but there were areas we would miss, areas that we had determined were not necessary to destroy, areas that were salvageable.
The smoke in the atmosphere would probably kill them or at least let only the toughest variants of life on this planet survive. After all, we basically unleashed a nuclear winter on this planet. Snows would fall, plants would die, and animals would starve for probably 10 to 20 years. It would reverse after that time as the smoke and carbon that had been thrown in the air would fall back to the ground and life would pick up at some point but the planet would probably have a shape far different from the jungle mountain we had originally found when we came here.
What that shape would be was still up in the air. Hopefully it would not be too far away from its original shape but I could see having to import plant life from local systems to try and rebuild what was on this world as a possibility.
A shame really but when dealing with an infection that literally could grow in the shadows you had no other choice but to burn it all out.
Which was why we had to go into the caves and fight the Orks in their fortresses. Yes, we might be able to bombard the fortress to dust, but if they were in the caves the only other way to kill them would be to use planet-killing weapons. And, well, I'd already given my thoughts on that, not to mention the whole reason for taking on this campaign was to get my legion experience. Getting them experience on bombarding a planet from orbit was not exactly going to, well, train them on how to fight the things we'd end up fighting.
Orcs were apparently the most common Xenos in the known galaxy, only humans had more numbers. So it was most likely that we would be fighting their kind for the rest of the Great Crusade, mixed with maybe a few other xenotypes.
My thoughts on this matter were stopped as the ship came into a low fly, indicating we were about to land. A few moments later I heard the distinctive noise of landing gear coming down and then the bang of a safe landing.
After a few moments the shuttle doors opened and I stepped out into the sun, seeing a burnt-out blasted wasteland that could best be described as hell. Granted there were fewer bodies than usually seen on the Western front- Oh! That was a headache, oh that was a major headache. I did my best to hide that thought that just appeared, guess this was the first time I'd actually seen large-scale trench works in this life and it immediately brought back memories of my hidden second life. In this case, apparently, I definitely served in World War One because those trench works I'd seen in the flash of hell that I'd seen before me reminded me quite a bit of old photos from that time.
Shaking my head I stepped over the burnt and scorched landscape towards what appeared to be a bunker that was half-buried in the ground. On one side of the bunker was the symbol of the Wolves of Fenris, wolf head on the prowl. On the other was a symbol of the Iron Warriors, an Iron Skull. This was obviously the bunker where the commander I'd put in charge, the former Legion Master Rathvin, and the commander that the Iron Warriors had sent across were discussing what was to come. Also I noticed another banner which appeared to be a mining pick next to my wolf banner, which may indicate that the dwarves -sorry, the Squats- had already landed and had their commanding officer meeting with ours. Perfect place for a talk then I assumed, opening the door and stepping inside the bunker.
Thankfully whoever had been digging this bunker had been given enough information to make sure it was tall enough that I could stand without issue. So, as I stepped in, I could get a good look at everybody as they worked their various jobs relaying communications from various fronts to other commanders in the field who needed to know. As well as one black-haired officer who was one of the few who had unfortunately gained a face that remarkably resembled mine from the process and was apparently handing out large stacks of paper with information about what resources needed to go where.
I did my best not to think about those kinds of officers, soldiers who had gained my face in one semblance or another. The genetics of imprinting your own DNA on someone was weird, it felt almost like a violation of their personhood in a way and the fact that they seemed to have gained my skill with paperwork made that feeling even more so.
Granted they had all volunteered for their job, all volunteered to go through the process, and they all knew the risks. I'd made sure of that. So it was not exactly my fault they were now doomed to look a bit like me for all eternity. But I didn't feel exactly right about it on any level, like I had violated a portion of their existence. But all things considered they were the lucky ones, there were some extremely rare cases I was keeping under wraps while my people figured out what the hell was going on. The odds were around one in 100,000, supposedly, from the sample size of three times that we had. Whatever, the mishap had happened and, well… It stepped on Father's wishes about there being no female Space Marines. Oh, that one of them I think probably wouldn't count for that exact deal.
Shaking my head off of the strangeness of genetics that was Space Marines I took a look across the room again. Across from me were what I would guess for the three high officers, my former legion Master Rathvin who was having a chat with Mettiunnias Titutus of the Iron Warriors.
They were what was to be expected of Space Marines, their helmets having been taken off to sit next to them on the table or holographic table which was displaying large swaths of the battlefield for them to view and talk over. The third member though was different as was apparent, mainly because someone had to get him a stool so he could get a good view of the map. Though that was not the only difference I think, most Space Marines would not let being shorter than an average Space Marine mean he would have a harder time seeing the information.
What I noted was slightly different as what he was doing struck memories in my own brain, thankfully not of my second life. I did not need to deal with that headache as I considered what I was looking at.
The Squat was standing near the map with his own version of power armor I think. For the most part, it was not very different than what was expected. Ours tended to be of gray and blue and the Iron Warriors just gray while the one worn by the Squat was sort of a white and gold. He had a thick beard that went down well past his stomach, which did not look very combat efficient. But hey apparently the ancient colonizers, upon realizing that humanity was shrinking on their set worlds, had played well into the concept of dwarves. I could not exactly blame them. Tolkien's influences were everywhere and they already knew about what could be best described as space elves by that point, so might as well have a little fun with the whole situation of your population shrinking but not because of the birth rate.
No, what drew my notice was the fact that he had the hairstyle. The large amount of hair, seeming to brush forward and then up into a wave. The hairstyle made popular by animes in the '80s and 90s about biker delinquents.
I had to hold myself together from laughing though I was on the crux of that from the absurdity of this entire situation. That and the fact that no one else in this entire galaxy besides maybe the emperor would even get the insanity I was looking at and laugh with me.
Shaking myself into control I stepped forward and said "Good afternoon, gentlemen. How goes the war?" I figured talking would be the best way to cover up the laughter that wanted to tear its way out. Maybe they'd say something so shocking that I would forget about what I was seeing.
The Legion Master nodded and spoke first, saying "The war goes well, my Primarch. In the next few hours we're about to launch a new assault on the enemy lines, thanks to Bomen here," he said, indicating the Squat who was… smiling, I think? Somewhat hard to tell through the mass of hair over his mouth.
"Oh? What gives us the ability to launch an assault, I've been hearing reports that there is trouble with that effort."
"The land trains, oh tall one." The space dwarf said, sounding overly smug before he continued.
"We've deployed the first combat ones yesterday and they will be in position to start their assault on the enemy lines in the next few hours. The bastards won't know what hit them, we'll roll across their trenches like they're nothing and turn the ground to a flat plane that your little tankettes can fall behind. You'll be able to clear up any enemies who somehow do not die to our superior automation."
"You seem very self-assured about this," I said before saying "Do you have some sort of backup plan? In case your land trains dewheel, preventing them from moving forward."
"Of course I do! We'll deploy bikers to the area around the tanks and clear up as much as we can, give the crew time to fix the trains and then start moving again. Your tanks will probably be useful in keeping our sides clear during such operations but either way we will push forward into their lines and kill every goddamn green bastard we see."
I nodded before looking toward the leader of the Iron Warriors, saying, "Any other thoughts on the matter?"
He spoke up, saying, "You've been bombarding them for nearly a week straight. The enemy is cut off, surrounded, and has nowhere to go. Not only that you've committed several smaller assaults to waste some of their ammunition, this overwhelming assault of land trains seems reasonable enough."
Looking at all three leaders I realized they had already decided the operation would go this way, they were just waiting for my okay. I saw problems with this plan though but then again It also could work. As always, without contact with the enemy, without seeing what they had, there was no way to know if it would fail outright or work. And most of all this would give my men training on how to deal with defending armored columns which could be invaluable in coming conflicts.
Nodding my head, I said, "Alright then,. The plan seems reasonable enough, when does it begin?"
The Squat lifted his wrist and looked at a panel on his armor before saying "Two hours, my dear. 'Bout that, do you perhaps want to ride aboard the lead armored train to combat.
I shook my head at that, "My place is here with my men. I will follow along in the tankettes as you call it." That was more of a side step, the land trains were going to be the main target of any fire from the Orks. Big slow crap like that would be death traps. 50 percent chance we weren't going to be much better but at least then I would be able to pull back and give orders if things went too terribly wrong and that's what really mattered. I need to retain control of the attack at all times, otherwise why was I even here? To provide genetic material for the legion to produce super soldiers… Okay, that technically was something I could get away with but that would only be the bare minimum and would not look good on my reports to Emperor, which would probably adversely affect Fenris's updating and upgrading. So I needed to be at least near the front of the lines in most of these conflicts, just to make sure that I got enough credit that Fenris would be well looked after and improved while I was off on campaign. It was just the hard material facts.
The dwarf nodded its understanding before jumping off the stool, landing a few feet down and revealing the back of his armor had some sort of mural or something on the back. The fact that this was reminding me more and more about bikers, both American and Japanese style, told me a lot about who might have been involved in the initial minds that set up the core of what would become the Squats' home territory. Something told me that their culture was made up of Lord of the Rings memes and old biker ideas.
Either way he walked up next to me and gave a proud, for someone who barely came up to my knees, nod before walking out of the room and heading towards what I would assume be either his bike or some other transport back to wherever the Land Trains were being assembled.
Shaking my head I wondered if these were the kinds of people who had survived the Old Night then what other insanity had survived it? Before I turned to Legion Master Rathvin and said, "How are the men doing? Are they ready for a good fight?"
He nodded before continuing, "They're not just ready, they're spoiling for one. Hell, the wolves are itching forward as well, we've caught several of them trying to dig tunnels from our trench lines to theirs. 'Few cases we've actually had to follow the wolves through into little breeches and forced their line back a bit.
I chuckled and then wondered if it was just hunger driving them forward or if they really were being effective at trench warfare. I would have to take a look but I would guess any mammal that could dig through dirt fast enough could be useful in a fight. Heck in this kind of fight a giant mammal would probably be very useful in digging through the enemy trenches.
Which led me to wonder if any more variants of humans existed in this universe. Considering the craziness I'd seen so far I would not discount it. Shaking my head I simply said, "Good, good. Well then before we get off on this little war I'm going to go pay a visit to the men and see how they're doing. I assume we'll be starting with a bombardment to soften their lines up?"
"Bombardment, and then aircraft support as we go in, that's the plan. The tanks and other vehicles should be able to take any fire they can get out and we believe most of the AA has been taken out already. They still possibly have a few units left but we've had some of the ravens preparing for a similar trick to what you pulled on I, they'll search for any active AA and deploy some grenades. It will hopefully give us air superiority."
I gave a nod of agreement before saying, "Well then good luck, and here's hoping we all make it through this fight together. To see you all tomorrow." Before I turned and walked out of the bunker. I headed for the nearest trench that would take me to the front, I wanted to get a good look at the enemy lines before this all kicked off anyways.