Tanya Russ
It turns out that tracking a massive Waaagh invasion fleet was quite the pain in the ass. That was something I could say with some surety. Normally what one would do to track someone would be to seek traces of their passing, or evidence of any location they might have been operating out of. Planetside this is easy because just by being there you leave evidence of your presence, in space however, you need to rely on other ships spotting something or the odd lucky find. This was, of course, much more difficult because of the sheer size of space.
Thankfully we had a context clue of the general direction the enemy fleet had gone. The only legion that wore yellow, at least to my knowledge, were the Imperial Fists whose Primarch I didn't know. Seriously, the Emperor will have to give up on this whole 'meeting each other without context' idea sooner rather than later.
Well, either way the Imperial Fists were operating not too far away from our location, mainly producing defensive works and fortifications along the frontier of Imperial Space and the unconquered regions. We're currently in newly conquered space so we're relatively close.
Apparently the orks had spotted their efforts to improve the defenses and had planned to counter-attack them across a wide front, and I mean a wide. The Imperial Fists were spread out across the entire border building defenses, and there appeared to be at least three to four different fleets attacking various areas. Those ork fleets had splintered again, attacking other areas along the Imperial Fist defenses, seeming to want to string out their lines as heavy as possible.
There weren't calls for reinforcements from the Imperial Fists so that was a good sign. Most likely they thought they could handle the situation because they had plenty of assets from the Imperial Army and the Mechanicum to supplement their legion's forces. There was quite a lot of work to be done, and we had to choose which of the four splinters to fight and even then there was a chance that more would come. We needed to reinforce the lines as quickly as possible and crush the orks once and for all on this front.
Being as it is, we had to break up our own fleet to counter the orks. I only had about half of my great companies under my control, which in total amounted to about 50,000 Legionnaires. There was also a spattering of Valkyrie units and Fenrisian guardsmen, which pushed my number of combat capable troops quite high. Granted 200,000 of those troops were basically base-line humans, but assigning them to Legionnaire units that they trained with over the last decade or so, and sometimes even fought alongside of, gave them the greatest chance of success. Now, how to break them up? There was a bit of an issue, there were after all four major battle zones. Thankfully breaking them up got a little bit easier thanks to our Allies in this war effort.
My brother Mortarion had at least 100,000 Legionnaires under his command, and was easily convinced to break his forces into chunks, 25,000 strong and send them after the larger sections. I even let him take most of the equipment and assets we'd been given for this operation to begin with, so theoretically the war should be easy for him on that front.
Although I have to admit that I got a slight feeling of uneasiness whenever I was around him.
Probably just because of the fact that I'd never seen their face. Since we met he wore a mask and hood that hid most of his face. The only thing I could tell about him was that he was taller than me and really thin. He also had a skin color that was as white as bone. Really if he wanted to cosplay as Death from that one Bill and Ted movie I'd seen in my youth he could pull it off with no issues.
He would just need to drop the armor and that voice modulator in their mask that's allowing them to be heard through whatever he was inhaling.
That was also a bit of a concern to me that I hadn't really had time to think about before. Yes, while he claimed that he needed a particular mixture of air because of where he came from, just the fact that he breathed that stuff in and out on every breath, makes me think they might actually be hooked on some sort of drug in his home planet's atmosphere, and this was some form of smoking for them, which was a terrible habit to have let alone spread.
Yes, us being superhumans made it a little bit inconsequential because of how easily we can repair the damage to our body, but the disease of cancer and other damages weren't the only things that made smoking a terrible habit, as smoke would leave stains wherever it went. Often sticky stains that would allow dirt to stick to it, making it an even more disgusting habit than normal. That might just be a bit of preconceived dislike, just me throwing my opinion out there, or perhaps I was onto something.
Either way I would keep an eye on him for the time being. After all, he did seem a bit apprehensive whenever we talked over the last week and he seemed to be avoiding me.
That in itself was quite interesting, but sadly I couldn't pay all that much attention to the issue given that we still had a Waaagh to track down.
Besides the forces that were taken by Mortarion to the Eastern frontier of Imperial Space which was currently being defended by part of the Imperial Fists, the rest would remain on Grel as they were detailed operations to remove any and all Ork spores with enthusiasm.
Which meant the only forces I could bring with me were my own forces from Fenris, so I split them into 100,000 Valkyries and Fenrisian Guard along with 25,000 Legionnaires.
Theoretically that would be enough, plus there are forces already deployed from the Imperial Fist on the ground, either some Legionnaires or their own Imperial Army elements, or at least that was what I hoped.
With my plans settled, I put an officer that was proving to be capable enough to be trusted with a position of leadership in charge of the elements being sent closer to Mortarion's forces. Commander Isulf Hakonsson of the 3rd Great Company. His record was impeccable having served with my forces since the campaign into the wheel of fire. So I thought I could trust him to navigate the political situation that would be developing there.
Said political situation I didn't know how it would shake out. Hopefully the Imperial Fists would just be happy to have reinforcements and the Death Guard would just be alright fighting alongside my Wolves, but you never know how some people would take a situation until presented with it.
My thoughts on that matter were interrupted as logistics officer Mackenzie Buckle came up next to me and said, "Primarch there is a report from the front."
Sitting down on the throne that my men insisted needed the honor of place in the Great Hall of my warship, I spoke. "Don't keep me waiting, what is this report? What do I need to know before we engage the Orks once more?"
"The Primarch of the Imperial Fists is engaged in heavy combat with a large element of the enemy ork formation at the center of the line we are heading towards, on planet Rennimar. He apparently only has 10,000 Legionnaires with him and is currently fighting a defensive action against ten times his number if some reports are to be believed."
"Well, that's not good." There wasn't much else I could say on the matter, another one of my brothers was apparently in heavy combat and needed some support. Turning to a nearby naval officer I asked, "How long will it take us to arrive at Rennimar?"
The naval officer checked something on his wrist, probably a communicator with other functions, before finally saying, "The fastest we can arrive is three weeks, two if the Warp is kind to us."
I thought for a moment about what to do before finally shaking my head and saying, "Set course for Rennimar. With my brother making a stand there, I think it's safe to assume that it possesses strategic importance, as such we must assist so the assault doesn't spill into neighboring systems."
"Yes, my Primarch!" The officer saluted before rushing off to an elevator that would take him to the bridge. As for myself I leaned back against the throne and thought for a moment before asking, "Do we know anything about the Imperial Fists? Their temperament, way of combat and other such things?"
My logistics officer shook his head and answered. "Most I've ever heard about the man is that the VII Legion hail from a world that had an interstellar empire before joining the wider Imperium."
"That's good then, it probably means that the numbers we've been given are probably not exactly true."
"What do you mean, my Primarch?" added the officer.
"Well it's quite simple. 10,000 Legionnaires to hold a planet seems like a rather impossible feat. While yes, they are the most powerful soldiers in the Imperium, you still need manpower for holding operations so presumably the 10,000 Legionnaires are just mentioning the most powerful forces on the planet. I would assume he has his own version of the Fenrisian Guard which works closely with his own Legion and assists with operations. But since they're not superhuman they're not mentioned in reports and requests for aid, because in the battlefield the Legionnaires are the heavy hitters, but because they are limited in numbers, well, the regular folk are there to hold the conquered territory."
"Makes sense, my Primarch." The logistics officer nodded his head in understanding before adding, "Although I agree with your words, I do wonder why none of the other Legions we've run into have implemented their own human auxiliary forces?"
"I wonder that myself." I muttered leaning back. I had noticed that the legions did seem to have a bit of a problem.
It was an ongoing issue where the legions, being their own capable units, were deployed to wherever they were needed, but were often paired with Imperial Army elements that had never worked with the legions, and had no option but to basically sit back and watch the legion do all the work.
From the operations I had gone out on with Horus, I'd seen him use those forces for more defensive operations than Germany probably pulled during World War II. Vulcan seems to avoid using auxiliary forces altogether, preferring to send his Legionnaires in to deal with the situation.
Khan from what I've seen was always on the move and outrunning his auxiliary. From what I had been able to see, Mortarion usually had no auxiliary forces either. Yes there were Mechanicum and Imperial army units with him now, but that was simply because we were already put together and sent on a campaign under Imperial Army orders. That didn't really mean that he had his own imperial forces.
Really, out of the Primarchs I had met so far, the only one who uses their auxiliaries in more than just a defensive flanking force or ground holding force was Perturabo, and most of the units he had were badly abused.
Perturabo was one for breaking an enemy formation with artillery, but he was also one for pummeling them until they broke down no matter what. Which meant he would send forces in charges, often fruitless charges that reminded me of World War I.
You would think that with Legion backup such operations would produce lesser casualties, but no, I'd seen the casualty reports. In fact, any auxiliary force that ended up under Perturabo's command tended to be ground down under the offensives he preferred to use, which was a problem I should really get around to talking to him about. Grinding offenses were effective, but costly, and while yes, we had the manpower to pay for such costs, it would cause problems in the future when planets that had lost their sons would be reluctant to aid the Imperium the next time we ask for reinforcements. Especially if they knew their sons' lives were being spent fruitlessly.
It had gotten so bad that the Imperial Army units had begun demanding that they weren't given to Perturabo, resulting in the more recent forces given to him being penal battalions. Units of murderers, killers, rapists and other criminals, who were good for being used in exactly the way they were used as cannon fodder by the Iron Warriors, which also was something that you had to pay close attention to.
If the Iron Warriors only ever interacted with that kind of class of person they would get a bad impression of the Imperium's regular folk, and that could lead to thinking of themselves as superior when compared to regular humans.
In my opinion, there was a benefit to working alongside regular forces that the other legions seemed to ignore; they kept you grounded and made you realize that your superhuman status didn't make normal humans unworthy or any lesser.
At least that's how I viewed things for the last 10 years or so. I had noticed that the closer my units were tied to each other, the better results we could get by cooperating. They know how to cover each other's weaknesses better because they worked with each other. Because the Fenrisian Guards were trained as Imperial Army soldiers they could better integrate themselves into Imperial Army structures meaning that there was a middleman formation between my legion and the Imperial Army, making working together a little bit easier.
Those are benefits that a lot of units didn't seem to consider. When I get the chance I am going to try and push for that to be more of a thing. It's not like there was no reason not to do this, perhaps on some of the planets like Khan and Vulcan's world there would not be enough humans to form such an Imperial Army formation, but in their case just some unit that can act as an intermediary could probably come to be. Perturabo had an entire planet behind him that was built up and producing gear for his army. Horus had one as well, though it had mostly been integrated into Earth's sphere of influence, it still was able to produce quite a bit of equipment and supply its own units.
And more importantly, according to what information I had the Imperial Fists' Primarch had an entire space empire of his own right at their back, and they weren't even the only ones! From what information I had managed to dig up there was supposedly another legion that had similar circumstances, though of course I hadn't met them yet so Father was keeping those records sealed.
The Administratum was truly effective at one thing, and that was being a pain in my ass. At times, I actually wondered if it was intentional or if Father asked them to do that.
Though that's a concern for another time. Yes, having a bureaucracy the size of a planet supporting the logistics efforts of the Imperial army and every other military force active in the Imperium was a great boon for logistics, but that didn't mean that there weren't some screw-ups or other mistakes going on.
Back when I had first started crusading alongside Perturabo, I mentioned how I had troubles with my volkite weaponry, and he brought forth a rather interesting idea of why that happened.
From his point of view the Imperium seem to have a problem with three types of individuals: xenos, who often had betrayed the humanity that existed in space and thus was why we were always fighting them across the Galaxy, religious figures, who were a common phenomenon thanks to many of the psychers shouting their own version of religion across the Galaxy, and mutants who were a common menace in the underhives of many hive cities as well as there being some subspecies of humans who probably came to be as a stable mutation.
And in his opinion my existence had triggered two of those worries amongst the Administratum. First of all my reliance on psychic powers had gotten back to the Administratum and they were not fond of that, especially considering I had benefited quite a bit from people believing I would fall in from the sky like some sort of God or such. That wasn't exactly helpful with the Administratum's opinions of me. Adding to that, well I was the first daughter, that's also a kind of mutation. Apparently I had probably just triggered the current staff to the point where they were worried that the legion under my control would not be stable. They had most likely gone out of their way to make sure I didn't get the best weapons. It was an interesting theory and I could see it.
If I had an employee who had two qualities that made him unreliable, I'm sure I would try and keep an eye on him and make sure he didn't get into too much trouble. Perhaps this was their version of that, and they were making sure that I didn't have the best weapons the Imperium had to offer. In essence, they were making sure that if I ever turned traitor or something of that nature I wouldn't get too far.
A funny notion as I don't believe anyone would turn traitor on the Imperium, but if the Administratum was worried about it, there wasn't much I could really do to stop them from doing exactly what they had done. At least it seems that after 20 years of a trial period they finally decided that I was loyal enough that sending me all the weapons I needed was not a problem. The volkite was starting to flow like water into my military forces, but I still didn't like the idea of replacing my bolt guns as well. They were just more reliable when it came to ammo usage, but I was not going to turn down a plasma throwing weapon that could incinerate the enemies of the Imperium.
Hell, if I could I would probably order more plasma guns. In my opinion they seem to be a bit more powerful than volkite but the Administratum also seems to be also less interested in producing those.
And not to mention I had noticed that my legion had a preference for CQC combat like me. Over the years they seem to prefer to get in close and beat the shit out of the enemy. In fact they enjoyed getting in close so much they were devising more and more weapons for that particular type of combat. For every Legionnaire I saw with a bolt rifle nowadays I saw some specialty weapon at their side, a sword or an axe.
With the amount of people I'd brought in to build weapons, it was no surprise that weapons are becoming a mainstay product of Fenris and its outlying planets. Most recently was the Mechanicum contribution of a new style of weapon, somewhat based on a concentration of volkite powered weapons.
Nicknamed Hell Frost weapons, that's basically what they did. They found crystals, most likely from the mountains near the top of the world, they were rare and there wasn't many of them, but enough to make a line of these weapons. I could say with some certainty that they were interesting, sending a beam of Sub-Zero energy at the Target, causing them to either freeze instantly or freeze some part of them instantly depending on the size of the Target and the size of the weapon. Some of the weapon designs were only mounted on transport aircraft, as they could be used like side guns, sending down frozen hell on anything that tried to get too close to them.
Also other designs were being acquired from across the Imperium for our use. My brother Horus preferred to use something called a lightning claw. A wicked looking thing that basically gave a Man four swords on the end of his hand. I was not really a fan of that, yes it was an effective weapon, but if it got stuck on something you're basically stuck with your hand in a wall as an enemy closes in on you. Better to have something that you can let go of and take out another weapon, than something strapped to your hand, at least in my opinion.
But some of my Legionnaires actually enjoyed them, and so they had been on a production line as well, often used by Sergeant rank and higher to the lords themselves, but instead of calling them lightning claws they were calling them Wolf Claws, and frankly I think most people just preferred them because it guaranteed a hit or if you didn't hit still caused savage damage.
Fact of the matter was most aliens you ran into didn't have very good armor compared to the Legions. Not sure we'd run into one or two aliens with something approaching armor, but in close combat it didn't matter. Especially since these blades were so sharp they often had their edges on the nanometers.
But of course that was not the only weapon to have found its way to my Legion. The Russ medium battle tanks were starting to find their way, as well a particular variant with a plasma cannon on top. It was a rather effective weapon and I had to say worked well with the guard formation, even though they were bolted pieces of junk. I had immediately asked for the welded version and not the more cheaper bolted version. They were good bunkers for the rest guard, and often were a key to holding positions in the line that Marines could not be attached to.
They were so effective as a weapon that I'd actually commissioned an even further upgraded version of the Executioner Russ, thanks to these trying to remove as many welds as possible and going to a solid cast design, and then making a design for my own Marines to use. I proposed alterations such as making more room for them to get around inside of it, miniaturization of some weapon systems and leaving out other weapon systems for room.
Theoretically they were less deadly than the russ tanks of the Fenris Guard, however if they needed to hold a position, they could hold it more effectively. I had them tested and not a lot of things could actually pierce a fully casted Russ's armor, and they were so simple to use that the internal mechanisms would not easily damage.
Heck, there was more of a chance the crew would die than the tank would, and being as it may, again since they were so simple to use, it was possible to outfit a Tanya Russ with a minimum of two Legionnaires and a couple baseline humans working together, fostering more of this message of 'We're All in This Together' between the Wolves of Fenris and the Fenris Guard.
That being said, I had also invested in quite a bit of rhinos along other heavy weapons and super heavy weapons platforms. Lots of women did like to get up and close and personal when they went into a fight, but that didn't mean that we didn't need and deserve armored vehicles that could stand up to enemies at a distance, it just meant we needed those armored vehicles to buy us the time to close the distance.
Hopefully we will get to use some of those vehicles as I hadn't had a chance to implement them in any of our combat since getting my hands on them.
It was always more economical just to drop on the enemy and start killing then to perform any long reaching tank battles.
A strange thing it was good that we had these weapons, but frankly it felt like we invented the tank, before World War I was even a thing. In most combat either we were fighting aliens that were outnumbered but had weapons that could fight us, or aliens who were outnumbering us but weapons were not on the same tier as to be a problem.
Hopefully that would continue but I always had a bad feeling that the next foe we ran into would break this status quo.
Mortarion
Slashing my scythe down severed another ork head from its body, causing it to roll around in the dirt.
All around me fighting was going on as my army, my Death Guard murdered its way through the ork hoard that had landed on this planet.
We have been here for nearly a week fighting the orks in every place they landed, mostly in the outer reaches of a massive fortress complex that the Imperial Fists had built. So far the ork had not penetrated into that complex. Our own contact with the insiders was a bit minimal. We gave them directions on where to drop artillery and they dropped the artillery down, in accurate and consistent steel rain.
I had to approve of this arrangement. Really the orks were so focused on trying to attack the rock that prevented them from getting at the civilians and eating and enslaving the population of this world, that they allowed my men to do as they wanted, moving from area to area and grinding them against said Rock.
It was a real buddy buddy sort of team work operation, and soon enough the green fungus would be eliminated from this world so we can move on to the next. We followed the orks from their home worlds to this planet as fast as possible, and the fact of the matter was that they had split up as soon as they had arrived in this area of space. Even though we had quite a large section of them sealed up on this world and were slowly killing them, there were smaller bands out there causing mayhem.
Yes, I had bits of my army out there chasing them, but it would take time to track them all down and destroy them. Time that was valuable and going to be a bit of an issue.
The only good thing was that the warboss of this band had not come with it and we had eliminated him on their homeworld. Why he had not gone with this invasion was a bit interesting. From the armies I had seen of orks before, they tended to be led directly by their warboss, but maybe he expected that those armies would be rebuffed and they would return to his homeworld, bringing more forces of the Imperium to fight him there.
I did note that while we had been on that planet there were quite a bit of fortifications so perhaps he thought he would drain us dry in the fighting there, but because he had sent out so much of his own forces to do this operation there had been no one there to secure his throne world.
I must assume he paid for a mistake he was continuing to pay for even in death, and a mistake his orks would pay for. Even if they escaped this planet and tried to return to their homeworld they would find some of my own forces waiting there to finish them off.
There would be no ork menace when this was done. These worlds would be cleansed of their disgusting flora, and these worlds would know peace under the imperium.
Bringing my scythe down on another ork that tried to spring up behind me, I turned and fired a few bolt rounds from a gauntlet into the creature making sure it was dead and watching several of my Legionnaires come up real quick unleashing flamethrowers onto the creature, burning it completely.
For once I was glad that I wore this mask. Sometimes I wondered if it was a bit much, but the fact of the matter was the smell of our work was awful and this cleaned that smell up.
It made fighting them easier, preventing their biological disgustingness from having effect on us like it may have on some of the auxiliary troops that were already on our sides while we commenced operations like this in our massive encirclement of the ork warband.
The orks hopefully would not find a way to escape from this encirclement. We had landed between them and their ships for the most part. There might have been one or two closer to the rock that they were assaulting, but the fact of the matter was it didn't matter. AA guns from the surface and our own lines should allow us to completely mulch anything that attempted to flee. These orks will be rendered into ash and through their ash guarantee that there were plenty of nutrients in the soil for the next generations of this world.
Those thoughts were getting interrupted as another ork started to come out of a trench, trying to charge me but he didn't even get a few feet before he was annihilated by my Death Guard. Their volkite weapons rendered him to dust in the wind.
I smiled at my men's work. I trained them well on how to fight in close quarters like this, and they took many of the old practices from the old Death Guard, the one I'd led on Barbaros, to hear.
Often wielding anything, even shovels in combat to such profound success that it brought a tear to my eye.
My thoughts were interrupted as a marine came up and gave a salute before saying, "My Primarch there's a ship in orbit wanting to speak to you. Orders have come through from the Emperor, the operations to destroy this infestation are now no longer a top priority. According to the emperor, the 1st Legion, the Dark Angels, request our aid in combat in the North, towards Andromeda.
I tilted my head at that. It was unexpected. I wasn't one though to leave a job like this undone. Looking over at the formation around me, I thought for a moment before saying, "Round up 10,000 Marines from this formation and another 10,000 from the formation we sent out to hunt the smaller hoard. Load them up aboard the Endurance, and we will begin operations to move to help the Dark Angels Legion."
"Yes my Primarch", he said, giving me a salute before running off.
Nodding my head, I turned back to the operation in front of me. Assuming what troops I left behind could handle it, this was pretty much already over the moment we'd killed their Warlord and we were now just cleaning up remnants of an older plan. That being said, I wonder who else would be called up to handle this problem. From what information I knew, the Dark Angels were a quickly growing legion on their way to 200,000 Marines from one report I'd read, so why did they need help?
If they were requesting help it was probably a big problem. I'll have to leave orders for every soldier who was here to pick up everything and get ready to go and join me on this next campaign as soon as they're done cleaning this up. Hopefully there would be more than just me going as well.
It gave me a bit of a pain, as I realized that probably I would have to work with the ice mage, the wolf girl as she made clear, again. Well, I would keep an eye on her. I was not a fan of her magic. Yes, though hopefully it would not be too much of a problem.
Rogal Dorn
Dead at orks for miles and miles all around the fortress. That's all I saw. The orks had been turned to dust in the grinding assault against this fortress. Their bodies splattered as if they were barrels of paint hit by a speeding rhino.
Fields around this fortress were painted a mix of green and black, both from the dead and dying of orks, and the large amount of fire we had to use to eliminate their spores. By the end of this campaign we would need to clean this entire area up. Most likely it would be all black.
The orks had come at us with everything that they had in this little fortress, but a small installation of no more than 10,000 Space Marines had held out. It brought me some pride to know what we had achieved.
There had been one or two close calls where they did get over the wall, or under it in one case, but the men had managed to hold the line and force the orks back out into the kill zone.
This planet I was supposed to be a farming world the population were nothing but simple farmers and would probably have to take a long time to recoup their losses when this was all over currently that population were stored deep within the fortress storage areas they were giving food and whatever we could support them with so that when this was over they would have something to start over with.
One small benefit from this whole conflict was the soil would probably become very fertile. After the orks were turned to ash, it would leave plenty of minerals and other nutrients that the plant life of these worlds would greatly benefit from in time, making it more productive.
At least that was the hope. There had to be some good to come from all this destruction, otherwise what was the point of holding this planet?
Granted, he knew why he was here. His forces had been positioned in this place to build fortifications not for orks, but for a coming conflict with another empire possibly to the north of the Imperium in the Halo Stars of the Segmentum Obscurus.
These fortifications were a redoubt in case advancing into their space failed. They did prove themselves capable of stopping orks this day, but they had not shown themselves able to fight the enemy that they would potentially be fighting, whatever that creature may be.
Much about this enemy was unknown simply because there were apparently no witnesses of how they actually operated. The only one who knew much about this foe was the First Legion, and they were being rather secretive about what they might be facing. Hopefully that secrecy would end soon, though if there was a reason they were keeping things secret he had a feeling that there was a good reason for it.
No one hides something for no reason. There was a purpose to this secrecy, and these aliens that apparently had caused some harm to the First Legion most likely were some sort of hazard that they were still trying to work out.
Better for them to look into it for themselves than risk other legions poking around. Most likely they had experience with the creatures, and legions without that experience could make mistakes that could make things worse.
There were also rumors that these creatures were not just one creature, but a confederation of some kind. This could be true, it could be false, but only time would tell on that matter. And time would tell, that's one thing that was always certain in the universe. If you could hold out, time would tell you what was going on.
Checking my wrist I saw that it was nearly noon. The battle today had been rather shorter than the battles we had to endure over the last three weeks. Perhaps the orks are finally running out of forces? It was possible. It took time to make more orks, even if they pretended like they had infinite numbers. It would still take them several weeks of growing to get even one of their species on this planet, and they weren't getting reinforcements out of that. Space was somewhat contested right now, but my ships in orbit were able to provide plenty of information on the situation, and currently the orks not bringing in any reinforcements. That must mean that everything here was all that they had.
I, on the other hand, had to acknowledge that more troops would be useful in this situation. Yes we had held this fortification for the last three weeks, but ammunition was running a bit low and our walls were slowly degrading under the constant bombardments from their artillery. Something would give sooner or later, so calling for help was the best option.
Of course with the entire frontline under assault, it was going to take time for that help to come. My ship, the Phalanx, was currently near the center of the line organizing efforts to resupply the front line that was under assault, so that might be a while, assuming the other legions in the area would come through. If they didn't, well I would hold this territory until every ork was dead, and there would be no step back on that.
These fortresses holding this line would be shown to be successful, and if the issue with the Dark Angels prove themselves to be as problematic as some were suggesting they would be, this line would be able to form a perfect redoubt.
And we would hold until reinforcements from the rest of the Imperium made their way here, and we could push back against whatever dark foe waited for us beyond the borders of humanity and the galaxy, really. The area of space that these foes were coming from was getting quite sparse on stars, and nearly at the edges of what was known as the Galaxy of the Milky Way.
What lay beyond those stars was a mystery, to not only me but probably most of the galaxy. Only the emperor probably had some idea, and if he did he was not talking about it.
He and I had talked long about what was to come, what the dream of the Imperium is, but he always had subjects that he liked to avoid; such as what the other primarchs were like. I had run into a few by now, so that was no longer a mystery but there were still many I had not met. Perhaps I should try and get Father to have some sort of party or something. This whole, 'we'll run into each other when we run into each other' thing was fun at first, but it's been nearly thirty years. I would like to meet the others for myself, not just depend on reports that he was obviously editing to keep mysteries alive.
I had met my brother Perturabo, who I did not agree with on some things, and I met Guilliman, who I agreed on with many things, and I had met Horus who was the finest commander in the entire Imperium. From the few times I'd met him there were still a whole 16 other siblings out there. What were they like? Yes, some of them had not been found yet, but I still wanted to meet them. They were the people I will be working with for millennia, and the sooner we got to work creating the bonds of friendship and family the sooner we would be able to work together to make sure that humanity was safe in the coming future.
"My Primarch." Came a comment from behind me, causing me to turn, and to leave my meditational state.
Standing there was Captain Camba Diaz, giving an Aquila as he said, "News from orbit. A fleet of ships has entered and engaged in combat with the ork ships above. We are waiting on confirmation on who it is but reports are that this new fleet is winning."
Hmm. This really was unexpected. I thought for sure it would take a few more weeks for reinforcements to get here. But never punch a gift horse in the mouth, or so father warned me. If reinforcements have come, reinforcements have come. "Prepare all defensive equipment to be calibrated for friend or foe identification. We don't want to shoot down our friends as they come to our aid, but also be ready to fire on any ships if these turn out to be something other than friends."
"Yes my Primarch!" the regimental commander saluted then left.
I turned away and looked up to the sky, watching it with interest and wondering who had come to this little planet of Rennimar? What force would be here to meet us in this effort to knock out the enemy?
Standing there, staring up at the sky, I tried to use as much of my superhuman vision as possible, and I could just barely make out flashes of the firefight going on in space. Who and what was being fired at was a mystery to me without more intel, but I could tell there was fighting, that was what's important. I watched for I don't know how long, as the fighting continued until the shooting stopped. At that point I figured that whoever had come had won given the poor state of the ork flee prior to their arrival. Now was the chance to find out if they were friend or foe.
I did not have to wait long as soon one of my Marines came up from the bunker that weused as the command center and said, "Sir, the Primarch of the Sixth Legion has arrived in orbit and wishes to deploy their forces to defend our castle."
"The Sixth?" I said, tilting my head in the direction of the Space Marine. I was not very familiar with the Sixth. I was not very familiar with many legions. I was really only familiar with the propaganda that the Administratum sent out that portrayed a barbarian king that conquered all they saw.
The Administratum loved their propaganda to a ridiculous degree, and had forced me to write letters to their propaganda departments on multiple occasions. Especially with the posters they'd put out a few years ago. That was meant to show off the silhouettes and majesty of the heroes of the Imperium, the twenty Primarchs or at least those that have been found to this point.
For the most part there was just symbology and an example of a marine from that unit, as well as their armor colorations, though from what I remember the Sixth Primarch's poster had gone out of its way to show off wolves on almost every piece of armor and emblem.
The corners even had wolves howling at the moon, which was funny. The Lunar Wolves were not given such artistry. I knew that the Lunar Wolves did have some wolf-like creatures as pets, though they weren't ever seen in combat so it was hard to find them. They were genetically modified wolves from Earth so perhaps there was something special about the Wolves of Fenris that had earned them this propaganda push.
I was also curious why they were also referred to as the Space Wolves in a few of the more recent posters, instead of the Wolves of Fenris. Was that name changed on purpose, or was the Administratum making some mistake? Perhaps I would talk to this new Primarch when I got the chance.
That would make them my older sibling when it came to the crusade, at least by a few years.
Well that was a relationship I would need to discuss with them when they landed.
Turning from the sky I walked past the Marine into the command bunker, and quickly made my way to a communications relay.
"Connect me to the commander of the Sixth in orbit." I said to a marine who was not busy and quickly got to work. There was a moment's wait before a connection was established and the screen in front of me turned on. Well the Sixth was an amazing sight that was for sure.
I don't know what to expect. The 'Barbarian King' was descriptive of a dirty man with much fur, perhaps some jagged weaponry at his side. Definitely a throne room that was for sure, something I'd considered a possibility after all. As a former Emperor myself I had a throne room on the Phalanx.
I got some things right. There was a throne room, brightly lit and well carved materials were used for it. The materials were finally carved from raw resources, very earthy in there being made of wood and furs, and well done. It showed a lavishness, but was not barbarous in my opinion.
As for the 'Barbarian King', it would be better to call them the Barbarian Queen. I could tell instantly that this form was female just by the front plate of the armor, which was news to me. Apparently father was keeping secrets more devastating than just who the Primarchs were. I had a sister. That was surprising.
Was this a common thing? I ran into four other Primarchs and they'd never mentioned a sister before, so it must be rare. Then again thanks to father's efforts to keep us separated, I had to maintain the possibility that perhaps the males were rare.
Why had he chosen to create female Primarchs though? The truth of the matter was the material you use to make a Space Marine would affect the outcome of the product, and well a female was less strong than a male. There was no shame in this knowledge. This was simply the truth of biology that went back millions of years and seemed to grace almost every sentient race across the galaxy, as far as I had seen.
Though I did not doubt the Father's call on this matter, I simply found it odd. If he decided that we needed a sister, then a sister we had. It was that simple.
Beyond that,the other elements of the room that were interesting. I could now see why wolves were such a motif for this Primarch. Not only were there wolves on their armor, there were two pet wolves at either side of her hands, watching the screen with her. I think she even had a wolf cloak over her shoulders.
Nodding my head to the screen, I said, "I am Rogal Dorn, Primarch of the Imperial Fists. Welcome to Rennimar. You've come at an auspicious time. The enemy has been grinding itself against our fortress for weeks now, and they must be weakened. Your forces would be very useful and finishing them off.
The female Primarch nodded, speaking in a rather cold and yet humored voice, "I am Tanya Russ, Primarch of the Wolves of Fenris. We got your signal for reinforcements 2 weeks ago, and made as much time as we could to get here as fast as possible. We have just managed to clear out the enemy forces. As far as I can see we have removed the enemy in orbit and I am preparing to start dropping my troops off around your fortification, however scans of the planet do not detect much in the way of orks left.
I blinked at that before saying, "Really now, that's unexpected. I thought there would be plenty left the way they came at us today. The satellite network around this planet has been knocked out, so we have not been able to keep track of the enemy forces. What do your ship sensors see, exactly?
"From what my men tell me there's probably less than a thousand orks across the planet. That, or they've dug down and are preparing something a little nasty. Either way, I'm sending my troops down now to start searching the area and helping your forces clean up the mess that these creatures leave.
That's very efficient for a barbarian, I noted internally before saying, "Well then your help is welcome. May you come down yourself Primarch of the Sixth Legion? I have been quite curious to meet my brothers and sisters."
She instantly caught on what I was doing, and smiled at the camera and said, If you're asking if I know about any other sisters, the question would be the same to you, so no as far as I'm aware I am the only sister, though the father has teased that I am wrong in that assumption."
"Father sure enjoys this game of his. I was just ruminating on the fact that it has probably gone on a little too long. I think we would all work better if we all knew each other." I said with a nod, seeing that my sister Primarch nodded her head in agreement.
"Agreed, though there are some benefits to this method of finding each other. We each get to make our best impression first without having siblings or the media make direct implications about who we are."
I chuckled at that, before saying, "My sister, have you seen the propaganda from the Administratum?"
She raised an eyebrow before shaking her head. "No, I found the propaganda department rather dull when they started casting me as some sort of barbarian king in order to encourage worlds that I was near to surrender. I stopped paying attention."
Oh that explained it. Smiling, I said, "Well, I'm afraid they continue to spread this propaganda of you being the Barbarian King so much so that I was under the impression that I would be seeing one when this screen turned on. I do find that what I have actually met is quite better.
Tanya seemed to think for a moment before finally chuckling and saying, "Well that's not the best outcome, but to exceed expectations is somewhat better than to have none at all."
I nodded my head at that, as that seems like a wise saying. "Perhaps so. Perhaps you should write a few letters to the Administratum. I found that they are willing to talk about their representation of you and their media if you write them enough letters."
Tanya nodded her head, before saying, "I will take that inconsideration. Who knows? Perhaps I can get them to soften the editorial portrayal they give my legion… Well, perhaps not too much. After all, if a planet surrenders before we have to fight on it, is that not better for the Imperium in total?"
"It is a worthy sacrifice. I surmise a bit of your reputation for peaceful annexation of human worlds is almost worth it. Though personally I'm against such things the truth is always better than the lies we tell."
Tanya nodded, seeming to agree on that matter, though she also had a bit of a look in her eyes that said sacrifices were required. Oh well, truth was something that needed to be mastered eventually. After all it was humanity's destiny to master truth, not to fall into lies.
Tanya finally rose from her seat and said, "Well, I think it is about time that I get down to the planet and we meet in person. After all there's many orks to kill and little time to do it. See you down there, brother."
"In a bit, my sister." I said. I stood and turned, heading back up out of the command bunker.
But my return was stopped as another Marine popped up, saying, "My Primarch, we just got another beep. It looks like another fleet has entered the system. They are moving at a slow pace and do not appear to be threatening. They are identifying as friendly and they're taking a long time to approach, though."
"Hmm. Curious." I said. Who else had come to this little world, I wondered? Turning to the Marine I asked, "What does their identification say? Which legion do they come from?"
The Marine looked at the console for a bit and typed a few things, seeming to be a bit confused, before finally saying, "It looks like it's the Second Legion's capital ship, my Primarch."
Hmm an unexpected boon. Another Primarch why were they coming in slow, though? That was a bit weird, but I would worry about that another time. At this range the vox communication would not be instantaneous, so I told the Marine what must be done. "Send them information on where we are and what's going on. Inform them that the Sixth Legion is here as well, and that we are preparing to finish off the orks on the surface. They are welcome to join us as soon as they arrive in orbit."
"Yes, my Primarch," the Marine said, giving a salute before I left the bunker. I looked up at the sky again, and watched many vessels descending from high orbit.
By my calculations there's probably somewhat close to several hundred vessels coming down, probably carrying ten Marines or more each. Perhaps twenty. That meant that the first wave would most likely be around 10,000 Marines, a compliment to my own number and who's to say that that was all that was up there? I couldn't guess exact numbers, but I could assume there were probably more Marines than that, and maybe they had Imperial Army forces with them? I didn't have any with me, just my Space Marines and that was enough in most cases to do the job, there was no need to endanger the mortals more than necessary in my mind.
Space Marines were built for war. Others were not.
Tanya Russ
Okay, color me impressed, I thought as I looked around trying to find any orks. The last 4 hours my men had been deployed to this planet searching for well or their spawn. The problem of course was they were all dead. There might be some around here somewhere, but they were obviously broken off from the main group and it would take time to hunt them down.
Surprisingly, hunting down an orc that didn't want to fight was a lot harder than most would think. Perhaps it was just a simple mind switch that you need to learn, since you were so used to having orks charge at you without any sense or goal.
Well, either way the situation remained the same. The ork population was nearly gone. Apparently they had butchered themselves attacking that fortification until there was nothing left.
An entire army sent itself to death fighting against a fortified compound and lost. We weren't needed. In fact if anything, I'd say we were well and truly late for the party. The Imperial Fists knew their business and had ground the enemy down on their fortifications and for that I had to be impressed.
Their legion must be very good at defensive operations. No wonder they've been given this goal of building these rear line fortified areas.
I couldn't help but wonder what else they were good at and what useful skills my could men gain from them?
When I got the chance I would have to talk to Dorn and see if he would be interested in some tactical exchange; see if we couldn't set up some units working with each other. Actually, really I should see about doing that with all the primarchs. The more skills that we all could do somewhat decently, the better.
But that would wait. Right now I was tracking my way across a burnt out hill towards said fortification, a literal castle of stone and iron built for one goal and one goal only. To drain ork lives by the boatload with volkite, considering how much of the ground around the fortification was darkened with ash.
Territory around here basically reminds me of a World War I battlefield, with the amount of pockmarks and mud mixed with ash there was.
And even with most ork's dead, the ground stank with their filth. People would probably have to dig up the mud and make sure the bodies were burnt underneath it, as I'm sure those would turn into spores with enough time and if didn't do our job right.
Shaking my head, I was coming up to the top of the next hill when I saw two things of interest. One, my newly discovered brother Primarch Dorn kicking some dirt as he looked across a dead body of an Ork. Apparently he'd come out with some of his Marines to make sure that everything was burnt down and nicely destroyed. Not seeing him through a camera, I realized how tall he was compared to me. Again this issue of being a female Primarch leading to me being shorter was a bit of annoyance, but what could you do? The other thing was that while his Marines were wearing yellow, he was definitely wearing goldish armor which said a lot about him in my mind. A similarity between him and Father, and their choice of colors that they preferred to wear.
I didn't really put much thought into that for the most part. After all, I wore light blue gray because it was simply the clan color of Russ and somewhat matched the snow of Fenris thanks to its blue sun.
Perturabo wore gray, but that seemed to be more of a canvas for the mud of his conquest as he didn't do a good job cleaning while on campaign, and it allowed the armor to quickly be covered in soil providing some camouflage. Vulcan wore green and I did not know why. I should probably ask him when I got a chance. As for Mortarion, he wore a different green thatt seemed to match the natural colors of most planets, so perhaps he was looking for a bit of camouflage as well.
Dorn wore yellow and gold which drew eyes to him, perhaps as a way of keeping men aware of his location, perhaps simply because it was his favorite color. Perhaps there was a lot of Yellowstone on his homeworld. I would have to ask him when I got a chance.
Of course that was just one of the things I spotted. The other was a man in red armor, a marine to be more exact, though his armor was not a color I was familiar with. It was mostly black and red etching, and had a strange, yet somewhat familiar symbol on the shoulder plate. I couldn't recall where I'd seen it before, but it looked a bit like a flower if you were to look down upon it and it was highlighted by a gold color. Most marine legions I'd seen so far preferred two color tones, though I guess with there being a possibility of 20 out there you would have a few that would go one color more just so they could differentiate themselves better.
Shaking my head, I quickly jogged over at a leisurely pace to my brother Primarch and this unknown individual, men giving away as I approached. My two wolves were quick at my heels, following behind as well as several marines that had been hunting orks with me.
Whatever was going on, I should find out why there is another Marine legion poking around here, and this would be the first meeting with my newest brother Primarch so I should do my best to greet them and get to know them.
"Dorn!" I said as I got into the talking distance and he acknowledged me with a nod before saying, "Russ, good to finally meet you in person. I've just been getting a report that the First Legion is calling for reinforcements on the Northern frontier."
I nodded at that before saying, "Well my men are more than willing to pick up and get going. Everything here is almost completely killed. Leave a thousand Marines behind and they'll track down the running orks and finish them off."
"I'm thinking the same, though it will take time to get one of my ships in orbit to pick up most of my Marines. Do you have room on your ship for at least five regiments of Marines?"
I nodded before saying, "More than enough room my brother. Who is this?" I said, indicating the still unnamed Marine.
"A representative of the Second Legion, he's actually asked us to come aboard his ship so we can explain the situation in detail."
Well, a third brother, I thought. This could be nothing but fun! Smiling, I said, "That sounds like something I'd be willing to do."
Dorn started walking towards the ship that the unknown Marine had come down on, and I followed behind quickly, telling one of my Marines to inform the Captain of the Hrafnkel of what was to happen.
Two brothers in one day, this was going to be an interesting conversation I think.