844. M30
Tanya
San Katos
The planet of San Katos burned. Well, its cities at least. Across multiple fronts my legion and the forces of the salamander legion work together to destroy and break down every pirate holding there was from work to Eldar to several other variant species that I didn't know and of course the shark people but they seem to be more like hired muscle for whatever faction was willing to pay.
They must have been paid well because every faction was sending them in first to fight us and they were taking horrendous losses but they seem to care little for that. Was their morale just unbelievably high or did they just not care it was hard to say but either way we fought them and their Dark Eldar commanders as they continue to try and push us off the planet and failed miserably. I was trying to be very scalable about it all but the fact that there were Orks on this planet meant that I had to burn some sections of it just to be sure that we cleared out the fungal infections. Nothing on the level of new Vietnam. A name that had come to be a thing because I had muttered about the similarities between Vietnam and the planet we were fighting when we first arrived in the sector in front of someone who'd noted it down. Before I even had time to try and change that everyone was calling the planet New Vietnam, which was unfortunate. I'm sure the planet had some sort of name before I'd done that but now the only record read New Vietnam.
That being said the situation on the ground was completely handled between my Marines' skill at hunting mixed with Vulkan's Marines' skill at just burning everything down. They were quite effective at that, I acknowledged it. Together we were able to keep the enemy from getting in position to turn things around for themselves and, by my calculations, the planet would fall to our combined forces within 2 months. Maybe three if they pulled some sort of miracle.
Such as if we had trouble taking the capital, which was on our agenda for today.
The capital was a city fortress ringed by several walls on the edge of the Western sea. Well, maybe not the edge as several sections of the walled City actually floated on what was the sea. Many of their ships took advantage of this to just park right on the water.
In essence we were going to have to attack a massive naval harbor complex with infantry and other tricks it had been building up over the last few years. Casualties were expected to be relatively low, though with the amount of Shark people and Dark Eldars being a larger contingent of that city's population rather than just Orks it could be something different. Orcs were known to be more gung-ho about attacking in straight-up fights even when they thought they were doing sneak attacks. And though the Sharks tended to do the same they tended to do the same on the orders of the Orks. The Dark Eldars, a silly name as they seemed to just be Eldar but with Spikier armor from what I had seen so far, tended to favor night attacks and stealth attacks, which could make our losses a bit heavier if they got really good at sniping my men's weak points. Which, I will admit, had become a bit of an issue.
Weak points, I mean, when we talked of the Dark Eldars specifically set in the back area of the joints. I'd had a whole company devoted to finding out where every injury and damage had been taken on the armor ever since arriving on this planet, for the one goal of sending that information back to the Mechanicum as to let them know where the weaknesses were. Any improvement on the Mark 2, when it would be provided, would probably give us a lot of leeway in fighting the enemies of the future.
Back on the subject of the attack. We were going to have to attack a massive naval harbor, which meant we would need good precision in planning which is why I'd invited Vulkan to my ship for a conversation on the matter.
I would have liked to get started on this planning segment of the whole operation immediately but he had actually refused for two days now. Well refused was a bit of a harsher word, large segments of his legion were in contact with several forces across the planet and he simply didn't want to leave his men alone which was good commander instinct, to some extent.
He handled his troops in a way that was almost similar to mine in a way, treating them like his sons more than anything. Further than myself as I treated them as employees, good employees who did their jobs but simply employees. Still, I could get the notion of being there for your employees. But I would have preferred him to get his ass up to the ship so we could have a conversation on how we were going to proceed with the invasion of this half-water World City.
That being said he'd finally sent up a message that he would be attending the meeting, which was good. All I need to do was wait for them in my grand hall which I had made sure was set up with chairs that should be able to take his weight and my own, as well as chairs for Malcador who had said he wanted to meet Vulkan. General Vavem of the Squats was also attending since he was working on ways to bring his Land Train against a water City, something I did not think would work out but if he wanted to give it a try I wasn't going to stop him.
That's right where I was at the moment, sitting in the main hall with Malcador and waiting for Vulkan to arrive when Malcador asked a question I was not exactly expecting.
"So how are you enjoying fighting the Dark Eldar? I heard many things about them in my time, it seems like the kind of people that just would tick you off from what you've done in the Wheel of Fire."
I nodded my head at that, saying, "Oh they do annoy me, yes. I am not a fan of slavery at the worst of times and somehow they've found a way to go beyond slavery as a bondage issue to slavery as a sadistic issue." I had seen several of the slaves we'd freed from camps that had more of the Dark Eldar than the other species and they were all mutilated to some extent. The people I'd talked to who had survived the mutilations simply said that the pointy ears enjoyed causing pain, which was disgusting to me. Causing harm to another sentient for your own enjoyment was a level somehow beyond cannibalism in my levels of hatred. I had not thought anyone could get there but if anyone could do it it was those Eldars.
Shaking my head, I said, "If there is one species that, In my slowly growing opinion, needs to be removed from galactic politics for the foreseeable future, if not ever, it's these Dark Eldar. Even if they break the trope I was hoping to come across."
"Trope?" Malcador asked, his tone interested, and I sighed before answering, " Right, there was a trope in…" Remembering that the squad was sitting to my other side I decided to go with a little bit of misdirection that I'd let Malcador figure out. "In the legends of Fenris of creatures called darkness this or dark that weren't really evil, they just had darker skin tone."
"Huh? I've never heard of this trope back then." He said before shrugging. "Unfortunately the Dark Eldar are, well, one of the major surviving species of the Eldar empire that once existed. You've already met the Eldars that are considered the Craftworlders in the Wheel of Fire then there's the Dark Eldar who tend to be raiders and cause mayhem. There's also the Exodites which are, from what I can tell, Eldar that gave up all advanced technology to go live on a planet like their ancient ancestors."
I chuckled at that. "I wouldn't consider these full Dark Eldar though," he continued. "There are definitely Dark Eldar among them but I believe the majority of them must be the Corsair type, outcasts of the Craftworlds who have left for various reasons over the generations. Maybe some of them are on their way to becoming Dark Eldar I will note, it's not that hard to do for that species."
"Is it a cultural thing or a subspecies thing?" I finally asked, a bit confused by the wording.
"Both," Malcador said. "Maybe not genetic but most definitely cultural at the bare minimum. I've never actually spoken to any Eldar, I've mostly dealt with internal human politics. The Emperor has had a little bit more contact with them, I believe he even has a few friends amongst some of the Craftworlds out there. But the main difference between what's considered a Dark Eldar and an Eldar is sadistic torture. No one knows exactly why the darker variants are into that sort of thing but there are rumors, rumors I can't discuss right now." I had been watching his eyes and I saw where they went, noting that he'd gone to general Vavem which told me enough that these were top-tier highly classified rumors. The kind of knowledge that they didn't want spreading amongst the general population then.
Doesn't matter how high of a rank general Vavem is, he was a known braggart and I'd seen him talk quite a lot amongst his own people and our own during many drunken nights. More likely than not that if he was told something he might spill it, so better not to tell him.
Carefully, I bowed my head without revealing what I was doing to general Vavem, signaling I understood what Malcador was saying before adding. "These corsairs? Its an ancient Terran term for piracy, I believe. Is there any potential to use these pirates for our needs, possibly get them to surrender?"
Malcador shrugged before saying, "It's possible, we have actually hired a few groups like this in the past to work for us. They'll do the job if you pay them the right money though in this case I believe it's well past that point. As you pointed out to the shark folk a few months back, committing attacks on the subjects of the Imperium will not be taken lightly. This planet must be cleansed of its pirate population and that means no ships must be left around for them to be able to leave and go raiding."
"We offer them two paths then. They either die fighting or they surrender their vessels to be destroyed. They'll become Exodites on this planet, reduced to Stone age technology and left to be alone."
Malcador blinked for a moment, scratching his beard in thoughts, eventually saying, "That's not actually a bad idea. Reducing these pirates down to nothing more than Exodites could theoretically save us time. Granted I don't think you'll get the entire population to do it as the matter of if we have defeated all their ships outside this sector is still up in the air. If we simply destroy what's here and leave the population only for some ships to come in, well… It may slow down their attacks but they will pick up eventually."
I nodded, saying "That is a point of contention I hadn't considered. Well maybe we should offer them to surrender at the midpoint of the battle, once we've assured the complete destruction of their fleet and most of the city? Give those willing to give up their arms the chance to walk out into the jungles of the world and survive on whatever assets they can create through their own two hands."
"A wonderful idea, sister, if they weren't Dark Eldar." Came the booming voice of Vulkan as he entered from the end of the hall. He looked happy in his green and gold armor and he walked with a certain hop to his step that said that he was at home here on my ship.
"Is there a particular reason why them being somewhat connected to the Dark Eldar has a bearing on possibilities of getting them to surrender?" I asked, sitting back in my chair.
Vulkan shrugged before simply saying "My folk on my homeworld have always had to deal with Dark Eldar raids. My people will not accept their surrender, too many of our people have suffered at their hands. If some of them can prove that they are not Dark Eldar, or show that they have attempted to keep the Dark Eldar vices at Bay, maybe you might be able to get a few of them to be allowed to live. However I hold the opinion that the Dark Eldar and those who would consort with them must be eradicated from the Galaxy."
Genocide the Dark Eldar and genocide those adjacent to the Dark Eldar? I had simply wanted to remove them from political power in whatever Nation allowed them to do such criminally insane acts but apparently I was probably the nicest Primarch in this situation. Hope that was not a routine thing in the future.
Nodding my head I said, "Well, that is a point to consider. Perhaps they won't even give their surrender when we offer it, anyway. From what little of the Eldars I've seen they seem rather proud of who they are and are unlikely to take an offered surrender."
"This is true," Malcador concurred, nodding his head in approval. "They tend to be… Well, their hubris is the reason their empire no longer exists. Craftworlders do tend to be a little bit better than the Dark Eldars, it's mainly the Dark Eldars' fault that their empire no longer exists though so as you might expect the worst of the worst probably lead this band."
"Good," Vulkan said matter of factly, "I'd rather not have to deal with the Dark Eldar trying to falsely surrender." He pulled out a chair and sat down in front of me. The table in front of us had a small hole of a graphic projector on top of it, allowing us to have an overlook of the city from a man's perspective to give us an idea of every angle, and he immediately began observing it.
"Doubt they even gave that a thought." general Vavem said, "We fought them during the age of war and let me tell you… They do not offer or take surrender. They simply take what they want."
That raised my eyebrow. The way he said that sounded almost like he had been around during the Age of War, which theoretically should not be possible. From what I understood the Age of War had officially ended the moment the Imperium had arrived and there hadn't been major conflicts in this age for the last 500 years. How old did squats live however? I have to look into that.
Vulkan apparently had finished looking at the map, simply saying, "I could have my legion attack from the land there, wouldn't be that hard to push the Eldar and their minions to that front and keep them busy."
He pointed towards the front entrance, the most expected and hardest point to attack in my opinion since they had been digging trenches and fortifications. Or rather forced slaves to dig trenches and fortifications. There was probably a war crime in that but considering that if they were being used to dig trenches and fortifications they weren't being tortured I think the slaves were in a better position in the front lines than they would have been if we had not come down to the planet. And isn't that a dark thought when you think about it?
Definitely need to deal with the Dark Eldar when I got the chance to find out where they came from and burn it to the ground.
Putting that thought to the side though, I said, "Well my wolves aren't exactly known for Aerial combat but we do have quite a large supply of air transports. If you can keep the enemy focused on the front Gates I could probably drop my men right inside the city. Won't use drop pods though," I said, looking at the water areas of the city. Pods would probably burst through whatever structure was holding the building up and end up with a whole bunch of half-drowned Marines.
I mean there was the possibility that they would break through, go into the water, and then just swim back up. But still it would put them on the back foot. The enemy was preoccupied fighting soldiers at their front gate we wouldn't need rapid decent drop pods and could use regular landing craft easily enough.
"I think our new Land Train can help you get right up into that city rather easily." General Vavem said, looking at the map.
"Oh?" Vulkan asked. "What a Land train?" "What's a land train? Oh, you'll see, you'll see and you'll love it. Trust me, everyone loves a Land Train and this one… This one may soon be considered a Sea Train if I'm successful with the modifications," The general replied with a wide smile, before getting up from his seat and saying, "Which reminds me: if that plan is the basics of it I can get back to my ship and get to work on finishing those modifications. Is that right with everyone?"
"I believe that's everything," I said, looking at Vulkan. "Yes I think this general plan will be the main idea. we might have some points of interest that our Space Marines will have to talk about but if you need to get going to work on the project feel free."
General Vavem nodded his head and then gave a bow before saying, "Talk to you Giants later," and walked out, his pompadour hair popping up and down as he did.
"Strange little man," Vulkan noted, before saying "But I do want to see this Land Train."
"He's right about one thing, it is an enjoyable sight to watch those things crush their way across the battlefield. Even if they do have a tendency to get their wheels knocked off. Don't know how he's going to make it a Sea Train but I'm willing to see how he does it," I added.
Before continuing and saying "Anyway. What interrogations I've been able to get out of my men from the enemy indicate this building," I pointed to a place near the center of the city, a small chateau-like mansion with a large swimming area, that either was a personal landing pad for a vessel or just a large swimming area for some sort of sharky parties, "may be the house of the ruler of this planet, a man going by the name of Bazhasath. He's been in charge for nearly 3,000 years although one guy said something like 8,000 years so it's hard to say. Either way we take that central point and we'll probably cut off whatever lines of communication hold the city together. With the chaos caused we can break the enemy's lines from behind and allow your men to enter the city."
Vulkan nodded his head in a subtle agreement, before commenting, "Most of the city seems to be made of wood. If there were no slaves in it I would recommend we just dump some explosive and fire-combusting material across the city to burn it all down."
I nodded. "I noted that as well but, as I said, perhaps after the battle we'll do that. There are plenty of land-based cities across the planet to settle any slaves that don't know where they came from so they can build up their new lives here. No reason to keep that seaport though, it will probably be just full of the holes that we're going to leave, I'd be surprised if much is left standing after it's all over."
Vulkan nodded just I was saying that, "I would agree to leave it full of holes and leave the Eldars nothing. If we can burn it all down we should." I nodded before adding "Still, we should probably be on the lookout for any relics in this city. If this planet has been colonized by humanity some time in the past and then taken over by the Eldar and their subjects here on this planet sometime in the last 8000 years, that means there could be things that the Mechanicum would be interested in."
Vulkan nodded his head in agreement before saying "If there are any relics I think they're in that central mansion. I know Eldar and they usually keep everything they consider worth something to them close at hand."
I nodded at that, before a thought occurred to me, "Close at hand as in ready to be grabbed to run away or close at hand because they just enjoy the look."
Vulkan shrugged before saying, "Both, I guess."
Looking at the pool that could be a personal landing pad I wondered. Could they have stashed a ship under the water there? Scanning hadn't been done to see if there were things beneath the water and it would make sense to hide your escape vessel where your enemy would not be totally expecting it to be. I would issue some orders about that to make sure that, when the attack went off, if there was a vessel there it was not getting away.
My thoughts on that though were interrupted as Vulkan leaned back in his chair and said, "Well I think we've discussed the matters of importance for this operation now. Sister, let us talk as family! I barely know anything about you and I'm sure you barely know anything about me as Father is rather secretive about our family. Tell me, what is your homeworld like?"
I smiled and quipped, "Cold. Real cold, there's ice almost all year long and a year is two Terran years. For about 3 months out of the Year there is a period that is almost warm enough that the entire continent dethaws but the oceans are so boiling hot that it's not safe to be near. There are monsters you would not believe in the water, ones who pull ships under when they try to make voyages around that time of year, cutting them people off from each other. Fenris is a tough world, one that weeds out weakness and favors the strong but, through hard work and determination, people can master its conditions and thrive. That's what I think I've proven the last few decades of my rule."
"Sounds hazardous though not much more hazardous than my own, though less cold and much hotter. Prometheus is a world of fire and lava though there are other conditions like your planet. During certain times of the year it gets rather cold in fact but for the most part the massive Moon that orbits our world draws out fire and flame, polluting our sky with smoke and causing rivers to run with alkaline and other not-so-healthy chemicals."
"How do your people survive in such conditions?" I had to ask, Fenris was dangerous because of its cold and monsters but fire was something on a level that I just didn't think anyone could survive in.
"Hard work. The population lives in great underground cities for the most part. We do go up to the surface now and again and we have to fight off the Dark Eldar when they make raids. Survival has made us stronger, I think."
I chuckled at that, "Seems humanity has a way of surviving the worst and coming out better for it." I wouldn't be surprised if that was true. Although I was curious that, of the Primarchs I'd have met so far at least two, counting myself, had ended up on what would be considered Deathworlds and one of them ended up on what could be considered a crime-ridden hell hole. I wondered if that's going to be a theme with our other siblings.
"Well, it very well could be. I guess if it was something we all shared then, that great adversity making us stronger and giving us a better chance of surviving these coming Crusade to unite humanity. Perhaps it was a good thing," Vulkan mused.
I nodded at that before saying, "A rather large task that Father has given us. I believe that trying to unite us across the Stars will take a long time, unless of course the Imperium is just so successful in its efforts to unite humanity that we just start to draw in civilizations who want to be part of this success."
Vulkan replied with enthusiasm, "Well that's why we're out here, to show that we are the most successful at building humanity up I would assume. I fought on three campaigns so far but most of them were against Orks and the results of all three were bringing in several human federations that were interested in the protection the Imperium would offer."
I smiled at that before saying "I think I've been on three myself at this point and the campaign of the Wheel of Fire was a long one, most of them have been against Orks as well but there was one species that was in my opinion worse than the Orks."
"Are they as bad as the Dark Eldar?" He asked. Man, I had to sit back in my chair to think. It was a good question, the Taralaiss had been sort of evil bastards but there had been some logic to it… I couldn't see what logic the Dark Eldar had for just torturing people except self-gratification and even that was the most disgusting version of logic I think I could come up with. "I guess I could say better than the Dark Eldar but not by much, they were willing to genocide several hundred farming worlds mostly populated by humans out of sheer pettiness at losing their rule."
Vulkan nodded and said, "What happened to them?"
"Not sure I can say. After I defeated their forces, destroyed their communication networks, and left their planet pretty much reduced to a stone age I left it to the Administratum to deal with. I would assume that they've probably imparted several warnings and fines on the Taralaiss left on that planet and we'll have to figure out some way to pay them back for several genocides and attempted genocide they are responsible for."
Vulkan sighed before saying, "If they're that dangerous wouldn't it be better to just wipe them out completely? After all what if they get the ability to commit the genocide they were prevented from doing this time?"
"They can definitely never be allowed to get to a tech level where that would be possible again but just wiping the entire planet out is a waste of resources, better to make the few survivors of that war work for us than wipe them out and get nothing from them. Besides if we just destroy everything we come across because we can it makes us no better than the Orks. Destroying civilization because we can is what they do. We need to be better than that in my opinion, build things up even if we have to knock a few things down to do it."
Malcador coughed and laughed at that moment, before saying, "Are you sure about that? I mean didn't the Orks build up their own civilization after they knocked down human civilization?"
Well damn it, I mentally thought before I nodded my head, admitting his remark, "Good point. I think I let myself get a little too focused on the humanity aspect of civilization there."
"Oh in one sense that's a good thing, "Malcador said. "Remember that one of the reasons the federation that once held all beings together fell apart is because we trusted the Xenos to be loyal in times of hardships. When those time came, they decided to go build their own empires on human worlds. The realities of the Galaxy are complex but also simple. Yes, we all want to build civilization. But we all have to decide which civilization we want to exist in. Do we want to live in a brutal Ork society or do we want to live in a human society that at least will attempt to create some sort of peace? The Orks will always fight against us and other species have already shown that they will betray us if we turn our back on them. If we can find the few that are willing to work for us and be contained within their systems that's fine, but they have to prove that they didn't do anything during the Old Night. If it turns out that they did do something then they are not trustworthy and I expect that the Administratum will not be taking kindly to any planet that can be proven to have betrayed us during the Old Night."
That raised an eyebrow. I turned to look at him, "What do you mean they won't be taking it kindly?"
Malcador shrugged before saying, "Well I would not be surprised to hear that that planet will be given just the bare minimum of supplies to survive and they'll just try and let nature take its course."
"Oh." I muttered as what that meant sunk in.
"What does that mean?" Vulkan queried, slightly curious of my reaction.
Taralais had been a world covered in cityscapes, they had to bring in food from those farm worlds. If those farm worlds output were, let us say, redirected to Imperium worlds there would be no food coming. At least not in an amount that could support several billion people. "We destroyed quite a bit of the infrastructure on the planet to begin with, which means they have a food deficit."
"Oh. Vulkan mirrored me, seeming to get exactly what I was going at.
"They'll either have to work together to survive or die out, and their civilization will never be able to recover to anything close to what it was before they were visited by your wolves." Malcador said matter of factly before continuing, "Plus, from what I saw, they had all their records on digital so, having no power, they can't maintain their records anymore. I imagine that world will quickly fall apart into post-apocalyptic barbarian strongholds. Not too dissimilar to what Terra endured during the Old Night."
"Haven't we then just set ourselves up for a repeating of the cycle? We were put through the Old Night, now we put them through their own Night. What's going to stop them from crusading in 15,000 years?" I asked, not liking the implication that we had just sown the seeds of our own possible destruction.
"Well, if they survive, I imagine you two will still be around to stop them. No, I doubt they'll be given the opportunity to completely rebuild. More likely that, in a thousand years or so, someone will try to begin a process of colonizing worlds that have been left to go fallow as their environments rebuild themselves. By that time that planet will have been added to that collection of worlds and, if there is any survivors of that species, they will be integrated during the colonization or dealt with by the settlers."
Well that was rather dark, I mused. I hadn't really considered the fact that humankind might even want to get a little bit of revenge for the Old Night but I couldn't exactly say anything about it. This is just how humanity worked.
Well that made it clear that every civilization I got to surrender without getting themselves destroyed had a better chance of surviving the new order we were creating. I'd have to keep that in mind when dealing with future civilizations and never forget that every civilization that I brought to near destruction would probably have the job finished by the Administratum.
Nodding my head I simply said "Well that's good to know, but I hope the Administratum doesn't get too comfortable with that method of dealing with problems. More likely than not that it will make more problems for us in the future. Simply trying to cut off a civilization and letting die alone will most likely result in unexpected consequences."
Malcador nodded his head, agreeing, as he said, "Yes, let's hope they come up with a few better methods when dealing with troublesome issues such as those Xenos. As much as they have it coming some could probably be of use in the Imperium. Perhaps some form of the way you handled those sharks, that was a rather splendid way of dealing with them. Finding out what they wanted and offering it to them in exchange for promises. If they ever break those promises it's not good for them but if they stay true to them they will have a good place in the galaxy under the Imperium. We can always use warriors that are well adapted to fights on Ocean Worlds."
"Hmm, about that…" I looked at the map and said, "I wonder how honorable those mercenaries are? Is their honor only to coin or are they true to their word?"
"What are you thinking, sister?" Vulkan asked, leaning forward. I shrugged before saying "Well we have a deal with the shark people's homeworld and there are's shark people here. I wonder if we offered them payment to switch sides, would they do it? If they did that would give us an actual force they could swim up right on the city and cause mayhem in some of its ports just before we launch the Aerial landings."
"Hmm?" Malcador seemed to think about that before saying "Well it's not a bad idea perhaps, worth investigating. It'll also give us an idea of how well we can trust these shark people, at least outside their system. We'll know if they are honorable to their word or if they'll backstab us the moment someone offers them more money."
I nodded and said, "If the employer believes you will switch sides for a little bit of money they're unlikely to employ you. At the bare minimum that will either encourage the shark people to be more honorable to their word or we'll know for a fact we can't trust them and can't use them in conflicts unless it's so far away that they can't risk upsetting their employers."
Vulkan asked "How do we get in contact with the mercenaries then? After all they're shooting at us when we're in range of them."
"Good point, perhaps a parlay between one of the battlefronts? We can find out where the majority of their troops are and try and pull that. It might be successful though that'll be dependent on them knowing and respecting a parlay."
"It'll take a couple days to get everything together for this attack anyway so we can put down some standing orders to try and get in contact with the shark folks. At worse nothing happens, at best we have a little bit more firepower for the assault on the city."
Vulkan nodded before saying "It's worth a shot, every one of those sharks that died fighting for us is one of our children who survived so it's worth seeing if we can pull it off. Though what exactly would we pay these shark folk with? I'm not exactly familiar with their currency and I doubt they take the imperial money yet."
I snorted before saying, "I believe sooner or later they will go on the imperial credit but right now they're using Ork credits, or teeth. Before I set out from the Wheel of Fire I made sure to take a large stockpile of their so-called money into the vaults of my ship, one never knows when we need to might pay off Orks to fight each other and It seemed better to have Ork money at hand if I ever had to recruit Orks".
Vulkan said, rubbing his chin, "I might have to do that myself the next Ork fight I get into, sounds like a good way to keep the Orks from unifying into something worse if we just pay them to fight each other."
"Exactly," I noted, "though of course we would have to fight them eventually, never fighting an enemy just leads to what happened with Byzantium and Rome: you paid them off and they got somewhere else, inevitably coming back. No better to pay them off to fight each other, to keep each other weak, and then step in to destroy both sides." It was a more solid plan in the long run.
Vulkan nodded, saying, "Understanding your enemy and using that understanding to ensure that we win? Not a bad way of doing things. Personally I just prefer to light things on fire and return it to Ash when it's a problem but making things easier on us is not a bad idea. I'll definitely have to see about using this method in the future."
Cracking my neck I got up from my chair and said, "well, I think we've concluded the initial planning and we've got to know each other a bit better. Is there anything you want to talk about, brother?"
He got up, towering above me as he cracked his own neck, and said, "Not particularly, though I quite enjoyed our chat today. I think we should do it more, creating good relations between the legions and our family is probably one of the more important aspects that we need to do during this crusade."
I chuckled at that, "Same, you sound like Father."
He smiled, obviously taking that as a compliment. "Good. That's where I got the idea from, well I have to admit it's one of these strong suits of my people. Close family connections is how we survive."
I nodded at that and moved around the table to hold out my hand so we could shake, "Well then, to a successful campaign here on San Catos."
"To a successful campaign," he said, reaching out to take my hand. However before both of us could start shaking we both froze. I don't know why he froze exactly though I could take a guess as I felt a presence enter the sector, one heavy with weight and pride. We both blinked as we somewhat tried to make sense of what was going on though Malcador commented first on what we were both thinking.
Laughing he got up from his chair but didn't put it back into place. He said, "Looks like your father has come to say hello, about time. He said he would be here years ago, I wonder how many Primarchs he got sidetracked with." Shaking his head he tapped his staff against the ground as he started to walk towards the elevator that went up to the bridge.
"Come along you two, I'm sure your father has much to talk about with you and I'm sure he has thoughts on this whole crusade up to now. Perhaps he'll even tell us about your other siblings? Quite annoying that he keeps these things to himself in my opinion."
I nodded before finishing the shake for which I had given my hand to Vulkan in the first place and said, "Well, then I guess our meeting is not over yet."
"Yes, it would appear so. Father is a busy man so whatever he's here for must be rather important."
I laughed at that before saying "It's just as likely he's here because he heard two of his children were meeting for the first time and wanted to be here for it, he seems like that kind of father."
Vulkan laughed at that. "I will admit he does seem to enjoy the aspect of being a father, even if he seems to have been denied the whole raising the children part. Though perhaps he just brings orders for us on our next campaign after this one."
"If we're sent on the same campaign that means it's a pretty terrible place, considering I was sent on a campaign that was supposed to last 10 years with minimal support from legions that did not have a Primarch. Sending two legions with their Primarchs would mean a nightmare scenario in my mind, Some great unknown threatening to invade Imperial space and coming to defeat us all or some such nonsense."
"Huh," He said, thinking on that before saying "That is a rather dour take. If that's the realities of the Galaxy that means we would never really run into each other, except by accident or when a massive emergency was coming to be an issue. That's a rather sad thing."
I shook my head brushing my hair back a bit with my hand and said "It's a sad thing but I think we'll probably, as the war goes on, get more time to ourselves. We'll be able to have a little bit of free time for meetings away from the war and the other exhausting activities that we will generally be doing all the time. Good management always makes time for that sort of stuff, bad management would run us all ragged and leave us tired of Father before we even got to the whole Imperium thing being a galactic thing. Considering he did manage to conquer Earth all by himself and his original legions I would think he knows how to manage a campaign correctly. We'll get our time to be generally family as the years go on."
Vulkan nodded his head in agreement before slapping his hand down on my shoulder… Which actually hurt, surprisingly much more than I expected. Seemed that he got a little bit more strength than he knew what to do with I immediately thought as he spoke, "That is a wonderful way of looking at the world. Yes, things are currently chaotic and we need to run around and fix things, but once things calm down we'll have more time to ourselves. That is a lovely thought. And by that same thought the sooner we get everything chaotic dealt with, the sooner we can have that time. Let us go meet Dad and find out what wondrous adventures he has planned for us so we can have that time to be a family."
Man, Vulkan could be really upbeat when he wanted to be. It was kind of infectious because even I was smiling at the idea of adventures to get to a peaceful retirement.
Tanya Russ
"Vulkan, Tanya, good to see you!" came the booming voice of Father as he stepped onto the bridge of the vessel. he seemed to have shrunk a foot or two, probably to fit inside.
"Good to see you too Fath-" I didn't get to finish that word as he took both of us into a giant hug, getting a rather good squeeze of it too. I needed to take a breath after he let go, slapping both of us on our shoulders. He said, "I've been paying attention to both your dispatches and you seem to have been doing great jobs out there. I would come by and say it more often but tracking down your brothers and sisters is a bit of a hassle."
"Sisters?" I queried, raising an eyebrow. I was aware of my condition being related to possible being X meddling so the fact that there might be more sisters was a bit concerning at the bare minimum and made me wonder what their souls had been before being ripped out of the Warp to be used as the internal core of these bodies.
But, unfortunately, my question went unanswered as he simply said "I don't want to spoil the moment for you, you'll meet them sooner or later." He then simply stepped past us further onto the bridge, his Custodes right behind him taking up positions of guarding.
Looking down at the planet through the windows he mused out loud as he said. "I see you two are having fun cleaning up some Xenos who have been problems in this area for millennia."
"Yes, Father," Vulkan said seeming proud of his work. "We've just been discussing how we are going to remove these Xenos as a threat to the future of the Imperium and we're planning the final assault on their main capital."
He nodded and said, "Good, good. The more secure we get this area of space the better it'll be in the future."
Stepping forward and being a little bit inquisitive about this matter I decided to ask a question that had been on my mind for a while now. "Father, what Primarchs have been found since I left Terra for the Wheel of Fire campaign?"
He chuckled and said "Don't even need to ask if any were before I say it? Good, finding Intel is a good skill." Looking out the window he said "Well if we're just to go with the ones that have been found since you left… In order it was the Primarch of the 13th legion, which you opened the gateway to find, then the Primarch of the 15th who is actually on my ship right now though I'm still getting them up to speed on certain things so your meeting with them will have to wait. The Primarch of the 9th legion and the Primarch of the first legion, who I think you'll get along with really well, were next."
"And the Primarch of the fourth legion, which has been reconnected to their legion recently…" He seemed to look annoyed for a moment, before shaking his head and sighing. "Though they are still learning the ropes of it but they are very effective at what they do."
He shook his head again before saying, "Besides that I'm running down a few leads on a few possible other Primarchs. I expect that number to grow by four more by the end of the next decade with any luck."
"I thought it an insane task to find 20 people across a galaxy, but finding 12 of us already and four more to come that quickly is impressive. And with that done there will be only four more brothers and possibly sisters missing out there. I'd say as insane a project that it is to try and find 20 missing people across an entire galaxy you're doing an excellent job at that, Father."
"Why, thank you. But you don't need to butter me up, Tanya, that Wheel of Fire campaign already did that." He looked at me, eyes full of mirth before continuing, "Getting rid of those raiders opened up a trade route to the other side of the Galaxy and we found one of your siblings because of that. Then I found that they had acquired almost an entire empire out there, I am impressed with them. And I can't wait for the day you two work together, really. Something tells me that's going to be terrifying for the enemies of Terra, seeing the second and the 13th coming at them.
That raised an eyebrow. So the 13th was someone that I would get along with? Well I'd have to look into that but I wished he wasn't being so wishy-washy about the details. Sure it was somewhat amusing to discover them on my own and I was sure I would meet them sooner or later so it wasn't like I needed to know who they were right now. Still I would admit that if I knew who they were now it would allow me to do a lot more prep work for our meetings, to make sure that we would have a better starting working relationship. And a good working relationship was key to any business objective, be it acquiring money or acquiring planets.
My thoughts were interrupted as another of The Emperor's Custodes entered, this one wearing the most uptight of uniform codes I think I'd seen amongst them. Most seemed to embellish their armor in some way but this one seemed to be by the book to a level that was somewhat impressive. He was carrying a long cylinder of some type, covered in a fabric sock, and he approached the Emperor before offering it to him. "There you go, my Lord." He said with a cheery tone
"Ah, Katyan. Thank you, I almost forgot about this, " He said, taking the pole before motioning me forward. "Wish I could have done this sooner, Tanya, but we are on a clock. Every day some human civilization is facing an Extinction event and we must save as much as we can, so we must do what we can in the field."
Pulling the red sock off the Pole revealed it to be a golden spear with intricate carvings and I could see bits of runecraft in some areas of it.
"Primarch Russ, leader of the sixth legion, the wolves of Fenris. For accomplishing the conquest of the Wheel of Fire, I present to you a weapon I forged during the bad days. This is one of the first weapons I forged to try and help rebuild humanity on terra. This is the Dionysian Spear. A spear that grants enlightenment to those that it pierces."
"Thank you, Father," I replied, taking the offered weapon and immediately feeling power flowing through it. There was something unnatural about it and I could tell that just by touching it. That spear almost reminded me of… Well, whatever it was reminding me of was giving me a headache so probably something from my second life. And my eye twitched in a way that apparently was obvious to the Emperor as he reached out his hand and put it on my shoulder, leaning in and saying, "You don't need to take a full on piercing. Slice your hand on it when you get the chance, I think it will help."
I blinked as I realized what exactly he was implying. This might help me remember my second life, which had two indications in my mind: One that the emperor was a damn good boss that was looking out for me. Of course he considered me his child so there was a little bit of that mixed in there but the important part was that I had landed an employer who was going to look out for me. This was a much better situation than I had in my second life if the memories I did recover had anything to say about it.
The other thing was that my headaches would soon be a thing of the past, because no matter how much I was disliking the feeling that was coming off of this spear… The possibility to get rid of the headaches and find out what I had lost was too much of an opportunity not to take it. So far I had been lucky that none of the headaches had ever come during a combat, as it could have been disastrous for my life. It didn't mean that would never happen so getting rid of the headaches would improve my chances of survival. Finding out what happened in my last life would also explain some things at the very minimum and rob this Being X of any satisfaction it may have had for throwing me into the Warp.
Smiling at this realization I simply said, "I will, Father! Thank you for holding on to the spear." while wondering what exactly it would show me when I got the chance later."
With that done he moved on to Vulkan and, clapping him on the shoulder, exclaimed, "And I've heard you've been having a good time campaigning, Vulkan. All reports I've been reading indicate that we'll see the Imperial Army enjoy their time working with your men quite dearly and civilian casualties are close to absolute zero which is rather unusual. Even Tanya over here has mentioned several civilian casualties in her anti-slavery raids."
"Thank you, Father!" Vulkan said, nodding his head. "I do my best."
The Emperor tapped him on the chest and said, "Keep doing your best as it seems to be the right way to do it. We're going to restore humanity to the place we had before the Old Night and we need to be shining examples of how humanity can stand amongst the Stars. You two are doing a great job of creating that example."
"Thank you, Father!" We both said, bowing our heads.
He simply smiled before clapping us on the shoulders and saying, "Well, now that we've had a bit of overall boost to morale I think it's time we retire from this claustrophobic bridge and head down to the main hall I believe is on this ship." He said, looking towards the elevator. "It has been a long voyage from Olympia. I would like to hear more of what you two have been up to outside of the combat reports I've been receiving. We could have a nice meal together while we talk."
"Of course, Father. Should we invite our other sibling on your vessel to join us?" I asked, poking at the obvious question that should be asked."
He chuckled and replied, "They're not ready to meet and you, they're currently busy going through almost every book in the entire library on that ship so I think they'd say no even if I offered."
"Interesting," I said, mentally noting that this still unknown Primarch was a bookworm. I'd Have to keep my eyes on that for future interests, having someone who is well-read and intelligent as a comrade was something that was always useful in a conflict. I would have to hope he was good about actually doing his job and not some slacker. Trying to work with an individual who is no better than a neet could be rather annoying.
Emperor seemed ready to head out with both of us before suddenly stopping to look at Malcador. "That explains why there's a large stockpile of paperwork at the palace nowadays."
Malcador immediately chuckled and said, "Well, what can I say. I've been trapped on Terra for a long time and I thought I'd go on a little adventure."
"Teaching Tanya how to use her gifts, I assume?" The emperor requested, folding his arm and looking a bit amused.
"Reteaching more than anything, she's got a good head and she's had teaching before as you already know. She just needed a little bit of a refresher."
"Well that's good but I have to ask if your adventure is coming to an end anytime soon. Because the Administratum is asking someone to fill out that paperwork and I'm needed at the front looking for the Lost Primarchs."
Malcador sagged before saying, "Okay, okay. I'll be on the next ship heading to Terra, is that fine?"
"Perfectly fine, that being said, come join us for a little drink, eat, and make merry."
Tanya Russ
Well I'm going to need to stockpile up on more supplies, I thought, as I stumbled back to my room using my newly acquired spear as a walking stick. Considering we drank enough to get us a little bit buzzed…
Granted I was pretty sure I had mentally turned off parts of my ability to filter out poisons again so I was getting the full effect that way. If I wanted to I could turn it back on but well sometimes you just needed to be drunk.
For the last 7 hours I think we had just partied, drank, and had long talks about our first meetings. Vulkan seemed rather surprised that I had technically won the contest against Emperor. He apparently had pulled the same trick he pulled on me, showing up as some unknown stranger. Except he actually, technically, won in the end.
I was surprised that Emperor had pulled that trick twice and asked if he just enjoyed showing up, which got a bit of a laugh from him and an answer of maybe. That was a 'probably, yes' in my book.
Both Vulkan and I had tried to get the first meeting of the Emperor and Malcador out of them both but the Emperor had left it off and said it was too long ago and he didn't remember while Malcador had simply teased that some secrets are best kept secret or they're not worth keeping.
Rather infuriating but if they wanted to keep their secrets they could do it. It's not like it was a matter of life or death and I'm sure with a little bit more work someone would get it out of them. Perhaps, when the crusade was over, we'd get them so drunk they would just spill it… Something to keep in mind and attempt.
That being said I was too drunk to do anything more than stumble into my room after opening the door. I think I opened the door? Why was there a hole in the wall? I was too drunk to deal with this right now. I stumbled over to my bed and sat down, starting to pull off what armor pieces I had on, before laying back and looking up at the ceiling.
It was rather plain compared to what I'd grown accustomed to at the start of this life, just metal separating the decks. Perhaps I should hire an artisan next time I was on Fenris; have them improve the general look of my room. I was after all a king and Primarch, a general with quite a bit of experience under their hat. At this point it would be expected of someone of my status to have a degree of opulence in their main room.
Shaking my head I tried to get up but fell back in the bed, realizing that I was not going to be doing much today. That being said as I looked around my room I noticed the spear was right next to me. Seeing that I didn't have anything else to do figured that I might as well get this over with so, pulling off my armored glove, I took the spear and looked at it a bit closer. It was gold, with a golden eagle near the top as a sort of blocker to prevent it from going in too deep and getting stuck. It felt rather impressive but had a weird boxed-in form that made me wonder if there was not a bolter gun hidden beneath the eagle.
I'd have to examine it closer when I was more conscious, see if it was capable of that. If it could function as a rifle as well as a spear that would be useful, though my bolter rifle would probably be better than an up-gunned spear.
Shrugging I lowered the spear till I looked at the blade, which looked rather nicely done. Father had made this? he was a good Craftsman, that's for sure. Shaking my head I wondered if I needed to think of something before I did it but Father had not exactly given me a good explanation of what to do. So I thought 'why do I have these headaches?' before running my hand along the blade, cutting it rather nastily as I flipped some blood across the room.
Nothing seemed to be happening so I wondered if I'd done something wrong and then I blinked and there was a tree in my room. I blinked once again and it was snowing, a couple more blinks and my room just started to dissolve more and more until I was no longer lying on my bed but was laid in a field of snow then trees. Confused I looked up and saw a rather familiar sight. It was the Moon, as I had remembered it. There was no city or even any light, it was a dead world exactly as it had been for most of humanity's existence. At least before this life. I blinked once more and everything simply flashed out of existence as I lost track of everything.
What had happened simply needed to be experienced to understand I figured, as everything seemed to flow together before reforming and I found myself lying in the snow with a massive pain in my chest and 6 feet smaller.