Perturabo
I looked out of the window of the Iron Blood Gloriana battleship at the planet of Mashogg. I had hoped to get here quicker but it seemed that it didn't matter when I arrived. The two legions already assigned to this task had managed to repulse the initial invasion and were now pushing well into the last stronghold of this alien menace, but they had stalled due to the enemy orbital defenses.
Not a single human foot had been put on the ground of that planet, simply due to the planet being basically covered with intensive and almost insurmountable defenses. Such was the number of ground-based anti-orbital heavy weapons and orbital defense platforms that it is a literal planet-sized fortress..
The other legions, the Wolves of Fenris and the White Scars, had already tried, multiple times even, breaching through their defenses to no avail.
As expected.
From what I'd heard of both legions, they were illiterate savages brought up to bare military standards and unleashed on the Imperial enemies with little to no fanfare. They are, however, the propaganda darlings of the Imperium; so I would have to play nice with them.. And unlike my legion though, they were not very techno-literate; so it is up to me and mine to figure out how to break through the planetary fortifications. By running several simulations, based on the available data, I can identify weak points in the Orks defenses.
Eventually, we'll figure it out. Shaking my head as I turned away from looking down at the planet and back towards the command and control area of the bridge, my Space Marines were theorizing various ways to deal with the situation. There were also four… gaming tables, if you have to call them that, where my sons were manually predicting potential ways on how the campaign would progress based on a rule system of my own creation.
Seeing them working hard at figuring out how to get through brought a smile to my face. I knew that I was not one of the more touchy-feely Primarchs out there, not like Guilliman and definitely not like that wall-obsessed Dorn, but I still considered them like my own flesh and blood. I just had a higher standard, one that they had needed to reach through the Meratara cluster's campaign, where they had been reforged into a legion I can call mine. Which was a much better situation than what I had before, when they had first shown up on my doorstep.
The Emperor had told me before that the fourth legion was one of their best legions, and I would have around 80,000 Marines under my command when they arrived.
46,000 had shown up on my doorstep. The former Legion Master of the Iron Warriors had taken a stop off at the planet Incaladion and engaged it in a year-long siege that wasted the Legion resources that I would have used and made it look like an absolute disaster.
As upsetting as the incident is, the rest of the crusade went competently enough, at least. Enough for me to believe the Wolves of Fenris Primarch glowing remarks when they assisted him in the Wheel of Fire campaign. Granted, from my understanding of that one, I probably shouldn't have taken it as glowing as I had been due to his barbaric history; the one I haven't been aware of then.
Initially I wanted to use an ancient practice from my homeworld: decimation. Where 1 in every 10 \would be put to death randomly, done so by their own brother to restore order.
But, my sibling's reports on how they had reshaped their legion in his long campaign had inspired me to some extent, and aside from copying their actions in my own campaign in the Meratara cluster, I added a bit of a twist on the decimation idea. 1 in 10 Marines were randomly chosen to bear the responsibility for the Incaladion campaign failure, they were to be set aside and served as the head of the first attack on every operation with only the bare necessity.
Any who survive the campaign would be redeemed of their failures and be welcomed back into the legion with open arms.
Almost a thousand had survived to the end. The former Legion Master, who had volunteered for the redemption division, did not join that number. It was commendable of him to do so, and since he had died during the campaign, I had far less concern about my Legion.
Granted, my decimation through combat had not exactly gone over well with some in the Imperial Court. I didn't pay much attention, but I understood that they, along with Guilliman, had argued quite fiercely that I was wasting good men. But the Emperor obviously believed I was right, because he told them to stuff it as far as I am aware.
And I took that to mean the Emperor approved of my effort to take control of my legion and redeem its faults through combat. I respected that.
The fact that the Emperor trusted me to handle the situation said a lot. I am a bit annoyed by the constant siphoning of my Marines for garrison duty, but that was just something I had to put up with. I'd much prefer keeping them all together to act as a good fist against hardened targets, but everyone needs to play their part in the Crusade.
"My Lord." came the voice of one of my soldiers as he approached, giving an Aquila and a bow. I nodded, and gave him permission to continue. He said, "The Primarchs of the White Scars have just arrived on board, the ship of the Wolves of Fenris will soon be landing as well. Should I have them held in the docking Bay to arrive together, or send them up as soon as they are on board?"
I thought about it for a moment, but then decided not to. "As soon as they're boarded, have them sent up. We need to start having conversations about what we're going to do about this planetary mess, no reason for any of us to waste any more time."
The Space Marine bowed his head before heading to the nearest communication systems.
I went back to looking at the space fortifications. Though part of me was curious about the other Primarch I was going to meet today, the other part didn't really see the point. We each had our reason for existence here: we served the Emperor as he created us to lead in the creation of a galaxy-wide empire. As far as I can see, it didn't matter what we thought about each other. But at least I know I can work with Gulliman despite his issue with the handling of my Legion, due to his own understanding of war and what was needed to wage it, especially in the matter of logistics. Better than the Primarchs of these Legions at least.
The living wall that was Dorn, on the other hand, would probably be the bane of my existence. Something about him and his preaching about the inherent superiority of defensive warfare just rubbed me in the wrong way. Besides, a determined enough effort can break through any defensive efforts anyway..
This planet would be no different, and would serve nicely as a quick and simple demonstration of that. The ample resources I have with me, alongside the generous donations by the Mechanicus only make the inevitable all the more quicker.
A shatterpoint will be identified, a weak point to be exploited, it is only a matter of time.
Of course, the stability of the region would fall to me. The other two legions would no doubt wander off to fight in some other invasion. A thankless job that must be done, needed to be done, and will be done even if I have to build a citadel on every planet bearing the burnt-out remnants of the Orks civilization. This sector will be brought into compliance.
My thoughts were interrupted as the door to the bridge was opened and a large man entered, no doubt one of the Primarchs I was here to meet. Going by the coloration of his armor, white, and the strange yellow Thunderbolts on the side, obviously he must be the Primarch of the White Scars. Smiling, I said, "Hello, brother. Well Met."
The white-armored Primarch before me nodded. "Well met, Perturabo." he replied as he walked past the gaming tables with an odd look, before joining me near the front of the bridge and extending his hand.
Smiling, as apparently my name had gone around, I took his hand and said, "It's an honor to be working with one of my brothers on this campaign. I apologize that it took me a few weeks to get here, the winds of the Warp were not favoring my fleet. But we're here now and my men are already planning ways to break through the enemy fortifications. Give me time and I will find us the best breakthrough point available, brother…" I fished for his own name since I had never come across it in my studies.
"Jaghatai Khan," he answered as he shook my hand, before continuing with, "I can provide some information and data about the fortifications we've managed to acquire from the last three sieges and my son's probing attack."
I nodded at the poor thing. "Oh, yes, I had heard that your legion was quite skilled at scouting missions. I gladly accept this information.
That was only half true. I accepted it but that would take a bit away from my efforts, I think. After all, if I found the weak point due to his data he would have some claim on the honor and prestige of breaking this iron dome. But I have let it go for now though, I have a duty to do so and be the better Primarch.
Khan nodded his head in understanding, before asking, "I've heard your legion specializes in siege warfare? That'll come in handy, my own legion isn't exactly well equipped for that kind of specialized operation. We prefer to move fast and hard, circling the enemy and breaking them up as quickly as possible."
Oh, yes. The siege thing. It was true that my men were good at it, but that was not our true calling. Understanding and using technology is. I was hoping that we would find some way to crack the code used on some of the orbital defenses, allowing us to shut off their platforms and create an opening. It was not an impossible task, but trying to understand Ork code was… confusing, to say the least.
A cursory examination at it seemed to indicate that most of it was just turning the lights on and off rather than the expected function, which could imply that most Ork equipment was analog. That is a pain to deal with, they likely would have slower reactions but at the same time their systems are virtually unhackable. The best I could do was shut off the lights and make them think some things had gone wrong. I can do it, but it would not be as effective as I would prefer. Oh well, I would keep at it. Just because some things didn't work the way I prefer it to be doesn't necessarily mean other methods would be similarly ineffective..
Outwardly smiling, I said, "Siege is one of our crafts, yes, though I prefer to think more about our other arts. We enjoy building things more than destroying things, even if we're really good at the latter."
Khan nodded his understanding. "The same, we all have our parts to play. I'm sure being able to build something will come in handy later in the Crusade."
That was rather annoying, I'd rather be building things now but I have to let it slide. He was, after all, a brother; albeit one with a savage's perspective. Once I accomplished enough glory and territory, I believe that I deserved some period of breaks to do as I wished. Until then, I just have to amuse myself with the construction of my clockwork-based automatons, two of which were already standing by the doorway into the strategy room looking like statues to serve as a hidden defensive measure. It also conveniently breaks up any fights should they occur in the room.
Shaking my head, I moved on, saying, "Well, it's a good thing you're so prompt then. I was a bit worried that I would not be able to have a meeting with all of my siblings. I feared you and Russ would be too preoccupied to take a moment to strategize."
Khan nodded his head before saying, "I understand, I would like to get in as fast as possible and put an end to this whole affair. But our last three efforts have not gone well. We need a fresh perspective, yours specifically, on what we need to do next."
Oh? That was pleasantly surprising. They weren't complete savages. If I could have other people's eyes on a problem, I would make great use of it in the coming campaign. Perhaps I'd be able to make sure that my glory would be inscribed on it yet.
Smiling, I said, "Ah, so you both agreed? Well, that's good. I can't wait to meet my next brother, this 'Wolf King of Fenris'. I've heard stories about how they aided my legion in the conquest of the Wheel of Fire, and I'd like to meet them for myself."
Brother Khan seemed amused, before saying, "Yes, the king of wolves should be over here soon enough. They were right behind me before they had to deal with some sort of chaotic food fights on their ship, the men were a bit annoyed with the latest failures and needed a bit of aggression released. At least that's how they referred to it."
I shook my head at that, not liking the sound of that. It sounded like my brother didn't have complete control of their men. Perhaps they needed to go through a bit more of a bloody mess, to remind them how to act properly on campaign; but then again, it is my brother's legion. If they wanted their men to be barbarians… then so be it.
My thoughts of my brother's failings were interrupted as the doors opened again. I looked over there expecting to see the uncouth savage, imagining a 12 ft tall giant of a man with an unkept beard… Instead I saw some women in blue armor step in. She was unnaturally large, but still not my brother; most likely some lackey of his. Perhaps he had not bothered to show up and send some harlot to speak to me? That would be an insult, I stopped paying attention to the woman and looked back to Jaghatai. "What can you tell me about this unknown brother of mine?"
"Oh, not much. They just have an affinity for wolves, of course." I nodded my head, "Blonde hair, a love for battles, and a lust for life in my opinion." I nodded again.
"And they're standing right behind you." I blinked, confused, and turned to my side to see the woman again. Then, turning back to Jaghatai, I retorted, "What are you talking about?"
Smiling, JaghataiI said, "Brother Perturabo, meet our sister, Tanya Russ."
This threw me for an absolute Emperor damn loop.
At that I had to turn to look at the woman in confusion, who only smiled and waved before offering her hand. "Nice to meet you, brother Perturabo."
Confused, I took her hand, before saying, "The Emperor never said anything about sisters. In fact, he gave me the distinct impression that there were only males."
"Yes, he does tend to do that," Tanya answered the obvious question. "Apparently, female Primarchs are a bit unexpected."
I blinked as I said, "Primarchs are? More than one? I've already met two, three counting Jaghatai. Are you a specifically rare Primarch breed or have I just been lucky enough not to run into one before?"
Tanya shook her head before saying, "There are 20 Primarchs by my count. Assuming that the two you know are the two I have not yet met… Let me guess, Father encouraged you not to tell me the names of the ones you've met?"
I nodded, as He had said to not share the names of Primarchs unless they had met each other already. Something about it was a way to build relationships based on your first meeting or some such nonsense.
"Well then, we can confidently say that there is, amongst the seven of us already discovered, one female to 6 males. Which, if we factor things into a similar ratio, means there could be two to three other females. Of course that's entirely with very limited data and may be something completely different down the line."
I had to stop there and stare at her for a minute, somehow I'd expected her to not know simple math. Again, an assumption based on what I heard of this King was proven wrong.
Shaking my head I said, "Okay, so three or two females? Okay, very rare, good to know. Well it's an honor to meet you, sister." I said, holding out my hand and taking hers, giving it a shake. Now that I was aware that this individual was actually the Primarch, I gave them more of a look and had to shake my head at what I was seeing.
I had noticed amongst the few Primarchs I met a certain body shape that we all had; like lumbering Giants, our physical strength shows in our presence, even at a distance.
Female Primarchs apparently did not. They were quite large compared to a normal human, but were more slender and built for speed and ferocity. Not to mention the boob armor was rather distracting. Was that even structurally sound? I'd never actually looked into that information, but now I'm starting to wonder. Shaking my head and getting my eyes off of her, I said.
"Well, sister, now that we're all here we can now discuss how we are going to deal with that." I indicated the Ork fortress world.
Continuing, "Do you happen to have any additional information that can help penetrate their defenses?"
Tanya shook her head, saying, "I'm sure that, like a spear point, we can pierce anything if we apply enough power, but finding a weak point to apply said power proves difficult. I've asked the Mechanicus to look into possibly hacking their computer systems, but they screeched at me about Xeno technology and incompatibility with Imperial tech. I think the local Mechanicus group that were in the area are a lot more conservative than the ones I've used to work with. That, and apparently they relied extensively on analog-based technology, which means nothing we hack will be able to do anything significant."
Okay, this was starting to get annoying with the amount of surprises I was getting today. Not only was she capable, but apparently had a good working relationship with the Mechanicus and understood the difference between analog and digital.
I couldn't decide if I now liked her or hated her, but I would let this campaign play out and find out one way or another until I have an opinion on her.
"Well, then sister, I think I can find a way for your spear point to strike through the Orks' line. Can you give me the information of which ship you've been suggesting to hack the Ork Network? I would like to communicate with the Mechanicus forces on that matter and see what they have actually found."
The girl's eyebrow raised, before she said, "Friends with the Mechanicus, don't you?"
I smiled and replied, "Yes, I think I have some of the best relations with them. At least amongst the brothers I've seen so far."
Tanya nodded before saying, "Good, good. I've been trying to improve relations myself by building some space stations around my own planet, even offering them a small moon in the sector to try and improve the potential equipment that can be built in my own system."
I blinked, before commenting, "Really? That's very similar to my own attempts. Very much in the vein of how you took yours through the Wheel of Fire, I took the opportunity to bring back as many shipyards and factories as possible to build up a war industry in my home system."
Tanya nodded sagely at that, before commenting, "That's a good way to handle that, I should be doing that too. I have no doubt there were a few planets where I could have done that. It always felt like I should just leave it for the Imperium to sort out, maybe I could have brought back a few empty shipyards from planets that had their technological base wiped out. It's not like they were going to be using it."
Giving a thumbs up, she said, "Improving our own independent logistical system is, in my opinion, one of the best things we should be doing, Perturabo. Well done!"
I smiled at that, nothing like getting approval from someone who agrees with your tactics to lighten the mood. Nodding my own head, I replied, "Well I'm sure there will be plenty of facilities we can scavenge from this world after this. Some of those machines are obviously of Terran nature, we just need to salvage what was stolen from us and send it along to Fenris and your own home planet too, Jaghatai," I offered, seeing an opportunity to ingratiate myself to the two and add a little bit of prestige to the inevitable efforts to break up this planet's resources amongst the three of us. ¨Probably the local Mechanicus forces would want a piece as well, though if the three of us agreed that at least half went to us that would most likely be acceptable to the Mechanicus." I would probably have to act as the negotiator on that, as much as Tanya seemed to be astute at technology I doubted she could speak their language as well as I did.
"Sounds like a wonderful plan, we now just need to find a way to break in," Jaghatai demurred, bringing our heads back to the problem ahead of us.
"I think I have it," one of my men called out from one of the gaming tables, drawing all three pairs of Primarch eyes to him.
This entire time, I noticed, my men had continued to work diligently and tried to find some way to break through the orbital defense fortress, although a few seemed to be glancing at my sister. Anyway the rest were solely focused on the problem they had been given.
Apparently, a young recruit near the end of the table had stumbled onto something. Given that I needed to see what he had stumbled on before the others did, I quickly moved over to look down at what he was showing off.
The gaming table used holographic tokens to represent things and he had programmed it to model the situation on the planet and his orbit from what information we had hoped that looked sufficiently accurate. There were still holes in our knowledge, holes I hoped Jaghatai's information would fill, but I did see that there was something interesting in the holograph ahead of me.
"Is that a gap?" I said, looking at the defenses in question. The planet was nearly completely surrounded, but there was a rather large gap near the North Pole, one that I was sure was not there when I was looking at it earlier today.
"Yes, Lords," he answered, bowing before explaining, "I have progressed the simulation forward, watching for any glitch that would form instead of trying to defeat it as today or tomorrow."
I nodded, "So, using the orbital information we have, you tried to figure out if a disruption in their lines would naturally form and you have now found a gap, I see. When does this one form?"
"By my calculations, as long as the data is accurate… this gap will form in about 2 weeks."
"Be a hell of a thing to pull," Tanya said, coming to stand next to me and looking at the same thing. "There's still a few good anti-orbital weapons in that gap but still theoretically manageable. If we manage to do it and get down there we'd have access to those same weapons to use on the orbital defenses itself . . ."
"Excellent," I said, nodding my agreement. Turning to Jaghatai as he came up to my left, I said, "The sooner we have your information, the sooner I can update this simulation and ensure that this would work."
"Yeah," he approved, adding, "I'll have my men bring over the data right away, but that hole leads to dangerous ground. It's almost like they want us to invade there."
"It's a flat ground," Tanya said, nodding her head, "not a lot of mountains to defend from and it seems to have some small number of hilly territory. Either this is a situation where they forgot to build defensive platforms to cover the area, or was designed specifically to draw people in for a good fight. Knowing what I know about Orks… It's probably a bit of both."
I nodded my agreement, before saying, "We could program a number of missiles to come down before we landed, it would clear up the area immediately around this entrance and give us more time to fortify the area."
She nodded, replying, "That is the chance we'll have to take. The enemy will most likely expect this is coming sooner or later, especially if they knew about the gap. But it's either keep pounding our head or try to break the wall from the inside, I believe that our only option is clear."
"Agreed," I said, turning to the others. I offered my hands, saying, "I think we are all in agreement that, in two weeks' time, we will launch an assault on this gap, providing if it is still there by that point."
"Agreed," Tanya answered, taking the hand and shaking.
Jaghatai did the same, shaking my hand, before saying, "I will have my men ready for that eventual breakthrough. It is a rather flat plane there, we are specialized in that kind of terrain."
I nodded my agreement, mobility there would serve us well especially if that opening would not stay open for long
Turning back to my soldier, I declared, "Good job, son. Keep the work up and see if you can find any other gaps, just in case we need to find another way in or out."
"Yes, sir!" he said, giving a salute before I turned back to the others.
"Now that that's settled, I have some drinks waiting in a common area. Would you two like to join me?"
"Sure, Brother, I think I'd be willing to join you for some drinking."
"A little moderate drink would not harm, I think," Jaghatai offered.
"Wonderful."
Tanya Russ
Looking out over the blasted hellscape that had once been the plains of this planet, I had to wonder if I would ever come across a battlefield that did not look like a blasted hellscape. Most of the combat in this life seemed to result in that. World War I and II each did too as well. It made me miss the early days of my life on Fenris, the battlefields there usually tended to look like icy, somber forested areas rather than the current same devastated area.
All around me was torn and dug up dirt as explosives had gone off throughout the day, not to mention the corpses of both Marines and Orks..
My wolf priests were already searching through the bodies, rescuing those who can be rescued and salvaging from the rest, geneseed stock included. Perturabo and Jaghatai Khan's forces apparently didn't have similar practice, they apparently had no issue with their geneseed stock.
The benefits of not being weird, I guess. If I didn't have my memories of being Tanya very deep down thanks to being Ex's meddling, I probably would have ended up just like them. Instead, rather than relying directly only on my Geneseed, I'd prefer having as many genetic samples as possible for my Priest to work with. The more genetic samples we had, the more information they could gather and the better the chances of creating a Space Marine for our Legion.
Up above the battlefield, I see the planetary defenses slowly collapsing in on itself. We had managed to destroy enough of them with the Orks' own guns that they were colliding with each other now. This resulted in parts of the fortress along with their occupants falling to the planet, looking like shooting stars.. Not exactly a great mental image to have, but at least it was a thorough way to get rid of the spores in orbit.
The plan proposed by Perturabo's underling had worked like a charm, an opening in the defensive nets that we had been able to push through. Like I had suspected, it was a trap but apparently they didn't have a good idea when it could be. We were basically given a couple hours of uninterrupted time as we rained down our invasion. They didn't respond quite fast enough to stop us, but they did respond in good numbers once they did. It had been a hell of a fight resulting in the blasted-out landscape all around us. Of course, we initially won that fight. Fresh Orks just came screaming and charging on us as soon as they were in sight. Granted, that's like most Orks… usually there were a few Commander types or veteran types who kept them in order, but they weren't there.. We crushed the initial wave and by that point, most of our heavy equipment made landfall and it was too late to stop us. The Iron Warriors themselves had brought in plenty of artillery and had blasted most of the Orks' own heavy equipment before it even got in range.
Those that survived the artillery were soon hunted by the White Scars specialized mobile Jetpacks units and Land Speeder, while the rest of us held the line and protected the artillery from Orks counterattack.
Granted, we had also been involved in taking one mountain range that could have been problematic, with its line of sight and proximity to our landing site. But we managed to take it and hold it against several counterattacks, allowing for our formation to keep expanding till we control the blasted-out battlefield. We then proceeded to turn the nearby planetary orbital defense platform to the orbital fortresses above us.
By that point, the battle was officially over in my mind. We still have a whole lot of areas to clear on the planet, but with their defenses down and additional reinforcements incoming with fire support, it's only a matter of time.
But for today at least, I'll be taking a moment to appreciate this victory.
At present I was taking a moment to sit with the other two Primarchs and share a drink. It seemed reasonable enough after all, we didn't have many chances to have conversations and we might as well get the most out of the ones we did to get to know each other as best we could. We were after all, according to the Emperor, siblings. Even if you didn't take that into accordance, their souls probably were sprung from the Warp from great warriors, as mine had been. They were my co-workers and I needed to have a good relationship with them, in case an emergency ever happened.
All three of us were sitting at a couple boulders that had been found and were using it as a makeshift table as we drank. Of course I'd supplied the alcohol, since… well my warriors enjoyed a good drink after a battle, and I had quite a large stockpile aboard my warship. The other two were just supplying the company and there were of course other Marines, both mine and theirs wandering around, securing the area and making sure all the Orks bodies littered the area were dead even if the combat was drawing to an end today. What's left to do is a cleanup operation to finally secure this sector.
We've been sitting here for five minutes and the conversation is still about the current operation and an additional information exchange regarding Orks general capability. This information is too vital and needs to be shared, but it didn't serve its purpose of ingratiating myself to them. Distance does not assist in establishing a working relationship after all.
Drinking about half of the cup in front of me, I finally decided to make a move and change the situation.
"Make sure to thank the soldier who spotted that opening," I said, "without his aid and your Legion technical capability, it might have taken us a while to break through this fortress."
I watched his face as Perturabo smiled but still seemed a little bit tense, confirming to me that the thing I'd seen with the former legion Master of the Iron Warriors; a trait where they had an issue of wanting the prestige for themself, probably originating from the Primarch himself..
He probably wanted to take all the credit for himself to some extent. It was only grudgingly that he approached the idea of giving the credit even to a man within his legion. Thankfully, there are ways to handle ambitious project leaders that could apply here.
"Yes, I put them forward for promotion."
I nodded my approval before continuing small talk, "Well, I'll make sure to put it in the report to the Administratum that your legion is instrumental in breaking through the defenses of this planet. Without your aid. we would have been stuck out here for years."
"Thank you, sister," He said, giving a more genuine smile now. As I figured, massage his ego and he'd probably be one of the nicest people on the planet. Don't, and he'd be a bit on the bitter side about everything. I'd seen that type in the workplace before, not exactly the best employees especially when they weren't as perfect as they thought they were..
Shaking my head, I said, "It's been a long time since I've seen the Iron Warriors, I haven't heard much about your exploits since going on campaigns, and what happened to the old Legion Master?"
Perturabo nodded his head, before replying, "The old legion master died fighting in my first campaign. He pushed a little too hard on one of his operations, got us a success in the end but his passing was an unfortunate casualty."
I nodded my own head in solidarity. "Unfortunate. My own passed away on my first campaign too. Good man, little overzealous in executing my will but the propaganda victory he gave us made sure that the Wheel of Fire will be a solid imperial foothold for the long-term."
Perturabo nodded his own head in agreement, seeming to have taken something from my words, before he said, "Oh yes, the Wheel of Fire. That campaign reassured me. The campaign immediately after that nearly destroyed my legion. I was worried that they were not as good as I had been promised; but looking through the records, I was at least reassured by your words in the reports."
"Wait?" Jaghatai spoke up, saying, "How could you have read reports from her and not known she was female? Tanya is not exactly a male name as far as I'm aware."
"That is a good question," I admitted, noting that that didn't make sense at all actually.
Perturabo rubbed his chin in thought, thinking. "True… It was always marked as 'Russ', I saw no indication of female or male, no pronouns nor first names or adjectives."
I sighed and shook my head, coming to a conclusion, "So either Father was playing around with the reports and had it set aside so that some things would be lost to keep the mystery going or someone in the censorship department is not a fan of the fact I'm a female." I drank down again, before admitting, "I don't know which, but I'd prefer it being Father screwing around. If we got some sort of weird woman hater in the Administratum, that's going to be annoying to me or our probable sisters. Especially considering gender is of no issue to us."
There was a pause before Perturabo spoke up, asking "What do you mean?"
Jaghatai spoke up as well, saying, "That is an odd statement, even for me to understand here."
I looked at the two, before remembering Father's tendency for keeping secrets. So, I spilled the beans a bit. Leaning forward conspiratorially, I said, "Father can become Mother and, according to him, if we all live long enough, so can we. Or, in my case, I can become male."
The two looked like they had had their minds blown at that, before saying 'What!' in unison.
I chuckled at that, before adding, "You do realize that we are a small bit warpy, right? Yes, we have physical bodies and we live in this realm of existence, but Father was created by a thousand of ancient human Druids giving their lives to be reincarnated in the same body. He is somewhat of a Warp being himself, and he put a bit of him in all of us."
"That is somewhat disconcerting," Jaghatai Khan said as he leaned back, stroking his beard, "and I don't even know how to take that, really."
"That explains a lot," Perturabo said, holding his forehead with his hand.
"What has it explained?" I asked as one of my Valkyrie came up, holding a new container of alcohol. Smiling, I took it and gave her back the old one.
"Have you ever looked at the Maelstrom and just felt… judged and found wanting?"
I raised an eyebrow before saying, "Maelstrom?" He looked up to the stars and pointed, when I followed his hand with my eyes, to an area of space I had seen once or twice but never given much thought to. It looked like it was a rather large nebula, something about it was a bit discomforting but I could not say why.
"I'll be honest, brother: I have never actually looked up at the stars. I have always been a little too focused on the here and now, perhaps that's why I've never actually felt that way."
Jaghatai also nodded his head in agreement, saying, "I've always focused on what was before me as well, the situation on my homeworld was a mess so I found very little time to worry about the Stars."
Perturabo nodded before saying, "Well, that Maelstrom… As far as I can tell it's some sort of Warp storm, one of the largest in the galaxy, besides the one hidden by all the stars. Whenever I look up to it I just have a feeling of being judged, and as if something was spying on me."
I shivered at that, visions of Being X controlling a meat puppet that used to be a dead bomber pilot showing in my mind. "You feel a bit paranoid, as if something is watching you even when you're alone?", I asked.
He looked up, replying, "Sort of, yeah? I thought you said you never found anything like that from the Maelstrom?"
I shook my head, saying, "Not from the Maelstrom, but I have felt something like that before."
"How did you deal with it?", he asked. I shrugged before sipping my drink then said, "I kept busy. I raised my wolves, I tried to survive, and I built up a community of people who relied on me so they would keep me busy."
"Yeah, yeah that's kind of what I did too," Perturabo said, nodding his head and sipping the drink in front of him
"What do you do to keep busy?" I asked, wanting to try and learn more about this new brother.
Perturabo smiled as he said, "I like to build! Not just machines, but I happen to have a large vault inside my ship's workshop filled with designs for various buildings of various utilities and purposes. From fortified hive cities to amphitheaters, I've designed quite a bit."
"A builder," I said with a smile, adding, "I can respect that. I'm willing to admit that me and my Legion would not be as good in that field. Mostly, I just direct people to create something based on various notions I come up with. That seems to work out well for me, but you're actually designing them. Mind showing me some of it sometime?"
"Thank you, I would love to. Unfortunately I've not had much time to build anything yet…" He trailed off, sounding a bit sad about that.
"Why not?" I asked, curiously.
"Well I've been busy with the crusade, of course," he said matter-of-factly, pulling his arms across his chest. "My duty is to execute the Emperor's will and leave the planets better than I found them. No Xeno traders, no mutants, ripe for settling by the Administratum."
I blinked before saying, "Well, it is true that we need to focus on getting as many planets brought into the imperium as possible but… why do you not have time to at least administrate the construction of some of those buildings?
He blinked, looking confused, before saying, "Well, I want to be there to oversee the construction personally, to make sure it is done as I would have done it."
I blinked again before replying, "That might be true but… If you made a schematic as perfect as it could be, taking into account all possible effects of a building's structure, what does it matter if the Primarch who designed it is also its supervisor? After all, some of those buildings probably will take hundreds of years, right? You said one was a hive city so that would be at least fifty years to get a small one going, I think. Do you really want to be around to watch every hive tower be built, or do you want to be working on the next project that might even be a better improvement than a hive city?"
Perturabo slowly put his drink on the table, "Huh, that's a… that's a good point. Hmm, guess I never really thought too deeply about that… I've always focused on the, as you said, here and now."
"Maybe you should send some designs back to your homeworld, offer them up to be built around there? I'm sure that would save some of your creativity." He nodded before I continued, "Not to mention it is alright to take a year off or two. I took a couple years off to rebuild my legion after I finished the Wheel of Fire campaign, and I checked up on my homeworld and made sure everything was running all right. Running around and burning the wire at both ends is only going to burn you out, you need to replenish yourself, otherwise you're going to be a mess that'll affect your campaigns."
Jaghatai nodded his head sagely in agreement as he said, "Nothing defeats a warrior faster than the will to fight going away. You need to have a reason to fight, brother, and that reason could very well be the construction of those buildings that you are interested in creating."
"Guess you're right…" Perturabo said, nodding his head, "Well, that's settled! I guess when I detach the men here to oversee this planet and make sure that the Orks don't rise again, I will send some information back, see if they're willing to build some of the stuff I've been designing."
I blinked before saying, "Oh? I thought I was the only one doing that, I usually leave some forces behind on every campaign just to do simple clear up operations and to help the civilians resettle themselves."
Perturabo blinked before saying, "Really? I thought I was the only one the Administratum was telling to leave men behind, I was expecting that they were letting you keep your men in order to be a sort of a sword point and send them into the enemies."
I shook my head, saying, "No, the Administratum is not telling me to do this. I see it as a way to help keep my men focused and trained in regions that they're not familiar fighting in."
"What?" Jaghatai asked, seeming confused.
I shrugged before explaining, "Fenris is cold and mountainous, it's not a place to train on desert warfare or jungle warfare or temperate warfare, there are a lot of conditions we can't train in at home; not even urban combat, although that's slowly changing," I added the last bit, thinking about how the one small hamlet I lived in was now the planet capital city at this point.
"So I often leave a company in each sector I've involved my men in, to train in that region as well as making sure it's as secure. I don't know how long I'm going to let men stay up on guard duty, but I use it as a position that can be moved around. Say I take the company that's there and turn it back to formations I'm using in combat while I send a company that's not been involved in that kind of warfare to the region, to gain practical experiences on similar terrains. Having expertise in mountain fighting is good, but having the ability to fight in every region with a little bit of a surety of what we're doing is better."
"Huh, I haven't thought about that," Perturabo said, nodding his head, "Frankly I've just been annoyed that I had to leave a company behind on every planet I've had to clear out, to build a fortress to look over it, and making sure nothing horrible happened while we were gone. I felt like it was draining resources every time."
I shook my head, saying, "Wrong way to look at that, in my opinion. You're losing resources now for campaigns, sure, but you're investing in resources for the future. After all, aren't those planets that are now secure thanks to your aid are more likely to send troops or resources to your aid when you call for it?"
He seemed to go quiet at that as if he was in thought, but I continued, "My marines, for instance, besides clearing out enemy positions that might have survived the initial campaign, also assist the civilians in various ways. They have extra muscle, helping build a house is no problem and they have plenty of survival training so sharing that with civilians that were city folk is a way to help them survive a few more years. I imagine the reason your legion is getting that guard duty specifically from the Administratum is because of your legion's tech versatility."
He blinked, before admitting, "Because my legion is good with tech, they would be of use teaching people how to use them."
"Exactly! In fact, if you want to, you could probably throw out some of your designs to be built on the planets you clear that still have large populations. After all, I'm sure there's a lot of destruction after you've done your job; I've seen your artillery work, and the surviving populace need places to live. Actually, having a plan to build a city or town is probably more useful to the population. Easier to build a family if the future looks dependable."
"Huh, I've never thought of using my skills in that way before." he said, seeming to think about it more.
"You should, after all, every legion can bomb out a planet like this," I said, pointing to the area around us, "but not many can build it up. I tried my best, but If you corner off the market on that you could reshape entire planets to look how you feel they should, every planet a new canvas for your creativity." I smiled as I saw him slowly coming to the realization that what I was saying was within his possible control. This would both appease his need for building, distract him from his worries about the warp, and appease the Iron Warriors' tendency for validation and confirmation. After all, besides my own efforts to build up something after I left, none of my other brothers had seemed to be doing something similar. If he could build whole cities with his mind, it would only mean that he could corner the market quite substantially.
"I will have to give this a lot of thought," he finally said, leaning forward, his silver-grey armor reflecting some of the fire from a falling space station. "Thank you, Tanya," he concluded, offering his hand.
Smiling, I gave it a good shake, before saying, "No problem, brother. We are family after all. As Vulkan would say, we need to be there for each other."
"Who?" Perturabo asked, reminding me I just screwed up.
"A brother you haven't met yet," Jaghatai said, before continuing, "commander of the salamanders."
I blinked and turned to him, asking, "Have you met him yet?"
He nodded, saying, "Yes, a few months back. Our ships met for a bit then we talked, I haven't had a chance to serve with him yet though."
"Hmm. Well, when you do you'll enjoy it. He's a good man, I think. It also proves one thing: no matter the secrecy, things will eventually leak." I admitted, shaking my head.
"True, true, but since you leaked one I think I'll leak on one of my own," Perturabo added with a nod, "We have a brother named Roboute Guilliman, and he is extremely good at logistics-based warfare. I'd say he'll probably be one of the people I'd be competing with on the idea of building up planets after I leave them. Apparently he was able to forge an empire of his own, some 500 planets."
I blinked as that jogged the memory. I said, "The realm of Ultramar?"
Perturabo nodded, asking curiously, "How'd you know about that?"
I shrugged, admitting, "I ran into an Ork in the Wheel of Fire campaign, saying something about a realm of 500 planets. I don't recall the exact conversation, I was too busy killing him, but he mentioned that he believed I was there to kill him and his people because the Wheel of Fire was between the Emperor and that realm. I don't think that was the reason, because that would imply that the Emperor knew where some of us were while, as far as I can tell, he's searching hard but not 'see into the future, know where they are' hard."
"Are you sure about that?" Jaghatai said drily. My eyes went to him in interest and I gave him a nod to continue, I wanted to hear what he implied. He continued, "As you said, the Emperor is somewhat 'Warpy' in nature, and apparently so are we. Could he not somehow sense us through the Warp, maybe? Even be granted visions of how to get there?."
I scratched my temple at that before saying, "I guess it's possible. I wouldn't trust any visions that came out of the warp though."
"Why not?" Perturabo asked
"The warp is the reason we have anti-warp intrusion practices. The creatures there do not like us, and if there's something that can come out of it… Well, I would not be surprised if they could be influenced by those creatures."
"So, in your mind, visions that come out of the Warp are likely to be lies?" Jaghatai asked.
I nodded, confirming it and explaining further, "Not only are they likely to be lies, but they'll likely be misinformation. Some things will be true and some will be outright lies, just to make it even more complex. Best to enter any situation where you have to deal with them with a careful hand and a lot of back-up plans."
"Sounds reasonable," Perturabo said with a nod, sipping from his goblet.