Tanya Russ
Taxal
D-Day type landings were something that I really should try to avoid, considering how risky they are for ones life expectancy. Situations where you're more likely to be shot before even getting onto the ground are something that should be avoided.
Admittedly however, I amin a bit of a pickle. Lion El'Jonson was dropping on the planet, and she made it quite clear that she expected everyone else to do the same. So, here I am, dropping onto the planet Taxal. While I had pulled in as many as I could into this operation, I had to admit that my forces were no longer combat ready, at least on the strategic level.
Having endured years of intense combat, this war had rendered my personal goal of having 100,000 Marines ready realistically unachievable for the next decade or two. Oh, I had reached those numbers prior to this, and now, well, now I needed another 20,000 to refill my ranks with fresh Marines.
There were already those in training who could fill those spots, but it would take time, it needs to take time; and it wasn't complete losses. Dreadnoughts were becoming a rather large part of my army, but I don't consider them members of a Great Company in the same way I considered my Marines. Yes, they were attached to a Great Company, often with the same units they had served with prior to their injuries, but I categorized them as equipment best kept in one mind while growing my forces.
There will be no WW2-era German loss recovery system in my legion. There would be no "Well, the tank could be fixed in a couple of months when the necessary resources arrived." No, when it came to vehicle recovery, as well as troop recovery, I was going with the American method. If it could be recovered in three days, it was recoverable and still be included in the unit roster; otherwise it was considered lost and sent back to Fenris to either be rebuilt or scrapped. For Dreadnoughts, there wasn't much scrapping except for moving its sarcophagus to a new one when they become too damaged to be practically repaired on-site, but the point was made. I didn't want a unit going into combat with, on paper, 70 vehicles, while in reality, 20 functional vehicles, 30 barely working vehicles, and 20 vehicles worth of spare parts.
I digress, the point of the matter was that currently, dropping on the planet was 50,000 Wolves of Fenris Space Marines, as well as an equal number of Valkyries. The Valkyries would be coming in on the second wave, along with an additional 100,000 Fenrisian Guard, consisting mostly of veterans who were about to be mustered out. I was thinking that once this planet was taken, as that was in the plan, it would serve as a key linchpin to further penetrate into Rangdan territory and finish them off. It would also make for a good starting colony for rebuilding these sectors for humanity. And I'll even allow the Fenrisian Guard, or at least those who qualify for retirement, the choice to either start a new life here or go back to Fenris, as their retirement bonus paycheck. Lucky bastard
I would probably lose some Valkyries as well during that process simply because some had built relations with their counterparts in the Fenrisian Guard. But you have to deal with what you have to deal with; a loss was a loss, and I would simply have to start up recruitment back on Fenris.
But we weren't the only Marines dropping on this planet. There were about 100,000 Dark Angels joining in. I don't know exactly how they count their marines. They may or may not consider their Dreadnoughts as full Marines. But that was not the point of the matter. From my own understanding of their prior numbers they had raised before this war, they had been somewhere close to around 190,000 to 200,000 Marines. They were already suffering devastating losses, and it was likely that number would further drop by the end of this.
The Second Legion was also dropping with around 70,000 Marines. Having a similar story of taking significant losses in this conflict and being reduced to practically half their strength..
Really, you could just earmark every legion entering the campaign at full strength and ending up losing half of that by this point of the war.
Beyond that, there were about 70,000 other Marines from the Eleventh Legion, rounding things out to a nice 300,000 Marines participating in the drop. It was a good sign that we should be able to take this planet in an afternoon, according to the estimate.
The important part there is "should." If the Emperor was right in how they had been abusing the time-space continuum to give themselves an edge, what did that mean for what we would be facing down there? After all, Taxal had been at the core of the Labyrinth of Night, their main arsenal for the production of their war equipment. Once this planet's population was eliminated, theoretically we would achieve complete victory even if it would take a few more years to finish off the rest of their colonies.
Which meant this was going to be the most heavily fortified and reinforced world in the entire campaign.
It also meant that we would run into everything we'd ever come across throughout the entire campaign. And there were things that even I had not run across that other Primarchs complained about to me over the years, particularly their variants of the bioforms. Slaugth, for instance, was a popular complaint. They were some sort of worm-like zombie that had been encountered in the earliest Dark Angel campaigns that had forced them to keep their Imperial Army forces further away. As a point of fact, they would also be dropping onto the planet as well, but only after the Space Marines cleared out the area.
What made them a particular threat is their ability to psionically infest and devour its victims memory. This was a problem as they gained access to orders and information they shouldn't have and often caused problems in the rear. They were rarer than the more common bioforms that we had been fighting on the front lines though, so hopefully, there wouldn't be too many of them here.
Osseivores, on the other hand, would be the more common bioform we'd run into. They were most likely going to be what will be unleashed on us the moment we landed, as their kill-to-death ratio was rather . . . impressive. So much of their important organs were protected by 'natural' armor that they could take a significant amount of damage before dying, giving them plenty of opportunity to close the range, using the innate agility from their reptilian form, and make good use of their unnaturally sharp claws to rip through a marine standard thick armor.
Cerabvores were the more recent threat that we had encountered in combat. Officially, they were just crystalline entities that had been spotted over the last few campaigns - Warp beings with unimaginable psionic power if left alone. The name was interesting enough because it was found that, in a few cases, they would eat the brains of captured Marines to gain access to their memory. This left some to believe that they may have access to the same technology as the Emperor, considering the abilities that come standard for all Marines.
I preferred not to think about that, simply because it reminded me that, theoretically, if my Marines engaged in what could be best described as cannibalism, they could interrogate their enemies without actually interrogating them. That just seemed wrong. I hadn't forbidden it, but I definitely did not encourage it. It did make me raise my eyebrows when I heard about it. Yes, use every weapon you can get at your disposal, I agree, but the whole idea of just eating a person's brain to learn their knowledge screwed with some ancient moralism left with me from Japan, maybe even the Empire. Cannibalism is not something you just do. In fact, maybe this was coming from an ancient biological incentive to not eat your own species.
But beyond that, we were also likely to finally see the Rangdan up front and center for the first time, without their multiple legions of bioform and mercenaries to defend them. I had some suspicions about the latter though., For example, the xenos mercenary species known as the Basemekanic. When we reach, what we strongly suspected, as their homeworld, what we found instead is a primitive planet-bound civilization.
What made the situation particularly . . . odd is that the Basemekanic we encountered in combat were heavily augmented, some of which we believe were used to control a similarly heavily augmented creature called Macrobeests. Both were found in their homeworld in their natural, non-augmented state with no historical nor recent evidence of any of them having a spare-fairing civilization.
All that we found is an abandoned Rangdan-owned space station orbiting the planet. The only conclusion I can come up with is the Rangdan forcefully augmented them as some sort of direct counters to our Marines as the war started, and using the former Labyrinth of the Night many space-time anomalies to basically skip the augmentation process and gain an instant and sizable heavy duty force.
Now that the Labyrinth of the Night was destroyed, they couldn't rely on those resources anymore. So that's probably why they had abandoned the space station. But it did make me think just how confusing time travel really is. Was it really that simple, if there was a chance that victory was possible, as to bring in resources from the future? Or were there some sort of rules? There had to be rules; otherwise, it would be complete and utter chaos with creatures coming back in time to shoot themselves so they could get another gun.
And if that was possible, which dear Emperor, I hope it wasn't, well, there'd be no order to things. As soon as an event should be set, it could be easily unset by anyone with the means of traveling back in time to unset it.
I can feel a migraine coming at the thought, and wishing I'd watched, or at least remember, more of that British television series. I think they explored a concept like that at one point and how the importance of an event would protect them from being meddled with by any would-be meddling time travelers, and their dog too.
And putting that confounding thought exercise aside.
The final, and most likely, creature we were going to run into was something that was seemingly ancient and probably the most appropriately dramatically-named entity in the entire galaxy - the monsters known as Enslavers. They were big giant brains with tentacles which sounded more like a D&D monster. They seemed to be under the control of the Rangdan. It was . . . difficult to determine exactly how they were working together. It was also possible that they weren't working together at all, and they just were simply a natural phenomenon that was on the planets found in this sector that had not been completely wiped out by the Rangdan and were just simply being used.
But they were common enough, and it was likely that they would be here as well. The main problem with them is that they could use their powers to convert entire companies against their will, causing no small amount of Space Marine on Space Marine combat.
My thoughts were interrupted as the Stormbird I was in bumped, possibly either due to hitting the atmosphere at an angle that was causing turbulence, or maybe that's the enemy anti-air defense.
I would rather hope for the former, as anti-aircraft fire had a tendency to cause problems I rather not deal with. We were supposed to be landing in the mountains far away from any of the enemy's major military bases, and to push out from there. So, if there was anti-aircraft fire here, that would suggest we're landing in a military base of some sort. And depending on how you see it, it can be a good and bad thing. Good because we'll be taking out an enemy base on entry, bad because we'll be directly within said enemy base defenses LoS while landing.
Those thoughts were immediately wiped from my mind as everything exploded around me, confirming that, yes, that was anti-aircraft fire, as the Stormbird's midsection was ripped in half, and Marines were sent flying off into the atmosphere from where they had been standing, holding on to the overhead bars too loosely.
A moment later, another round struck our craft as I heard the front of the ship explode, and then everything started to spin.
Thankfully, one good thing about this situation: I didn't hear screaming, which was a good sign. The men were staying calm even under this sort of situation.
As my augmented body started getting to work. Time seemed to slow down as I started taking in the data of the situation.
'How far up are we? The internal scanner said we were only about 30 stories up. We're definitely inside the atmosphere and coming into the mountain range. We're still quite a distance away from the landing zones, though. Which means those 30 stories were variable, and we could be 30 stories up from a low point or we could be 30 stories up from a high point. If it was a low point, then perhaps a proper angling of your task could get you to land on a mountain with some safety,' I thought.
Doing a check, I saw that there were still 10 Marines on board. The others had either been in the back section and lost, or had been thrown out by the increased velocity of the spinning craft.
Quickly, I pulled myself up and moved to the giant gaping hole and saw exactly where we were. I noted that we were 30 stories up, spinning as the craft was quickly descending. But we were close enough to a mountain that if we timed the jumps right . . .
Grabbing a Marine, I tossed him out right at the moment so he might have a chance to hit the mountain and survive. Then another, and I kept doing it until all 10 were out before jumping myself, using the momentum given to me by the spinning craft to give me enough of a boost to maybe survive this.
Flying through the air was a slightly familiar feeling. Kind of wish I could do this more before I crashed solidly into the side of the mountain, its rocky face of black stone banging up my armor and denting the snout of my wolf helm.
I laid there for a moment, blinking, making sure that everything was still working and breathing before I finally started to pull myself up out of the rubble. Looking back at where I jumped from, I saw the Stormbird was accelerating its spin further downwards before finally crashing into the side of the mountain and exploding further down the slope.
Looking up, I saw hundreds of Imperial aircraft coming down. Around me, I saw hundreds of guns opening up towards the air, not just big anti-aircraft guns either. Small personal firearms were also shooting, which meant we had unwittingly chosen the worst possible place for a landing zone.
We'd come down right in the middle of their base of operations and we were now surrounded.
"Joy " I thought before pulling together my equipment to make sure it was still functional. Scornspitter, my bolter, is still good along with my blades, Mjalnar and Krakenmaw. Same with the Dionysian Spear my men started calling Gungnir. Looking around to see if there were any nearby anti-air emplacements to take, my thoughts were interrupted when I saw three Marines running down the mountain. They were survivors from those who I tossed out of the craft earlier. They gave me a salute as they said, "My king, thank the All Father you're all right." I made my way over with a nod before saying, "I'm fine. How many survived the crash?" Looking up the mountain, wondering about the other seven I tossed out.
"All of us survived, but four were severely injured. As for the others, status unknown but we did find several bodies as well as the crashed remains of the back end of the stormbird further up the mountain. No explosions were detected, so more survivors are possible."
So out of the 40 Marines I came down with, only 6 are still functional while the rest are either dead, missing or incapacitated.
Tapping my helmet, I said, "This is Primarch Russ, please come in." Hoping to get in contact with forces either in the region or those up above flying over towards the landing zone, which was, by my calculations, just over the next mountain range.
As I watched, more Stormbirds were being shot out of the air. Several craft realized they were not going to be able to pull this off, either ordering the Marines to jump out of their craft as they came in low near mountains or crash landing on the other side.
The army was going to be scattered across this entire valley and the next one over. This was not good. A scattered force was one that could easily be taken piecemeal by piecemeal.
However, it got even worse. Having my vox come up with nothing, I turned to the Marine and said, "I appear to have a broken vox. See if you can get in contact with other commanders in the region."
He nodded and got to work, trying to get in contact with anyone. But after a few moments, he shook his head. "I think we're being jammed, my Primarch."
"Of course we're being jammed," I said sarcastically with a shake of my head. This entire situation was going to be a shitshow, a big shitshow.
The only good thing is that the Imperial Army is still in orbit. So, it would be a shitshow showdown between Imperial forces with the ability to resupply us, and the Rangdan forces attempting to hold their ground against overwhelming air superiority.
It'd be hell, but it's still possible to succeed in this operation.
Shaking my head, I turned to the nearby commander and said, "Gather up as much of our forces and gears as possible and try to get our wounded mobile. We're going to try and make for – there" Looking down the mountainside, I pointed to a slope on the hill that appeared to be a second peak. It would be somewhat more defensible than the side of the mountain, as it was wider and had more space..
Where we are standing, there was no shrubbery or bushes, just hard rock. But that second peak was covered in bushes and strangled trees, or what looks like this planet equivalent. So, the ground there should be less compacted, allowing for an easier fortified position.
"If we entrenched it well enough, it could serve as an outpost and a rallying point for any scattered unit in the valley." They will no doubt feel my presence, and as their Primarch, they should have a sense of where I am. Hopefully, they will trust their senses and come rallying towards me. "With enough numbers and an entrenched position, we can hold out indefinitely until reinforcements come, wherever it may be."
Or, we could gather everyone together and fight our way out. It's not impossible, though unlikely with the current situation. Shaking my head, I focused on the here and now, worrying about getting over those mountains can come after we get everyone rallied.
Turning back to the Marines, I said, "I'll go investigate up there and make sure any survivors head to the same place," pointedly looking up at the wreckage.
The men nodded, and two of them ran down the mountainside to secure the location, while the commander ran back to where the other survivors were gathered to give orders.
Looking back up at the ongoing destruction and watching my legion getting scattered, I shook my head in disgust. The only good thing about this situation was that we were not pinned down. With this much unit scattering in what appears to be a fortification of some sort, my men would probably be paying the enemy back for this. They have too much training and aggression to do anything else, considering the many sounds of combat and melta explosions throughout the area.
Pushing my way up the mountain, I found myself not too far away from the downed Stormbird when I first saw something that had me blink three times in utter confusion.
There were xenos up ahead, blue-furred fox-like xenos. Some were a few other colors, but the blue dominant color was making me tilt my head in confusion because it reminded me of an ancient game I once played. Not to mention that this is the first time we encounter this xeno variant. They were inspecting the craft that had just been shot down and the prone body of one of my Space Marines, and for the most part, they were not looking down the hill in my direction. Did they not have good vision, or had they just not spotted me?
Either was possible. But before I could ruminate further, I saw one of them shooting into the prone marine. They either just killed him outright or ensured he stayed dead. This obviously marked them as confirmed enemies, and made the next course of action simple as I summoned my golden-coloured spear.
Marcus
Looking at the dead gene-altered creature, I wondered what monstrosities had come to our homeworld. The empire of the evil one, the man who would be a sun, had come. His diplomats called, and he unleashed his hordes of monstrosities upon us.
Man-shaped, but twice the size of humans in most cases, they had come and dropped onto our planet and destroyed the ancient connection with our distant ancestors and our future descendants, and now they aim to do the same to Warwood Angolf, our home.
Giving the sign of the Moon, I wondered why they had come here. Yes, I knew that our ancestors decreed that the best way for the survival of the Rangdan was for us to push back the monsters at our borders, to push them back and dissuade them from further transgressions; so that the so-called Imperium would not overwhelm our borders and destroy us like they had destroyed so many other Xeno-empires throughout the galaxy.
This was apparently a mistake. For 10 long years, it has only been defeat after defeat. Yes, I knew that there was supposedly a reality where we won. How else would we have been able to communicate with our future descendants? But something had gone wrong. The Great Labyrinth of the Night, the stockpile of time and reality was gone, and with it, the protection for Warwood Angolf. And now, we were simply fighting for the last true hope for rebuilding the Human Federation and its Golden Age. Against warrior monsters who knew no fear, under the will of a man who saw himself superior to all others before him.
Shaking my head, I checked over another corpse, making sure it was dead. This craft had been shot down in the earliest wave, and it had been split in half by the looks of it. The survivors had already either vacated the area or died from the impact..
"Who would give up their humanity to become such a creature?" I thought, looking at the giant and kicking it with my foot.
Granted, giving up their humanity wasn't the correct term, perhaps. My ancestors had once been human. They had given up what these people consider human, the pale pinkish forms bestowed by generations of genetic stupidity, to become Rangdan.
These creatures still had those pale human forms, but they had already betrayed what it meant to be human, to find common ground with your fellow man, and instead became a monument for war. Is this the dream of that sun-like man who intends to take over the galaxy? To be replaced by these giants, these man-eaters, these monsters who would turn the galaxy into an endless war of extermination against everything else?
Shaking my head again at the foolishness of it all, I brought forward my las rifle to my shoulder and fired a shot into the skull of the creature, making sure it was dead. Saying nothing, I started to turn to ask Damien where we should go next. He was the commander, after all, he would know what to do.
But as I turned, I saw a golden flash go through Damien and stab into Gerald. In that brief moment I saw a ridiculously long and ornate shaft with a golden wolfish theme, ending with a big golden blade at its tip, its color stained with blood as it impaled through them. Before I could react, the golden spear-like thing ripped itself out of their back and disappeared back into the darkness.
As they collapsed, I knew that my life was short if I stayed put. I dropped down on all fours and skittered behind the cover of the downed craft before taking a position by the gap, making sure my gun was fully charged.
Carefully, oh so carefully, I used the minor connection to the warp that I had as a Rangdan to try and blend myself into the background and hide from a monster I know is hunting me. I kept my breathing calm, I knew of a hidden nearby garrison and hoped that reinforcements would arrive soon as I carefully clicked a SOS pattern on my communication system.
I heard a sudden movement of heavy boots on the rocky soil, nearby. Keeping my breath slow and calm, I took a risk, peeking around the corner and through a bit of wreckage to keep myself hidden.
Then I saw it. A monster larger than the one I had just shot, coming up the hill carrying the golden spear in one hand and a bolter in the other. They are obviously scanning the area, face hidden behind what could be best described as a wolfish helmet. Their snout seemed to be open, and I could hear loud sniffing, as if it's a wild animal searching for my scent.
On one hand, I felt fear; on the other, a strange feeling. This . . . creature matched the depictions of the goddess Loona, the head Goddess of the Moon, and the one who had protected us during the old night. It was from her that we learned the secrets of the warp, bioengineering, and the Labyrinth of the Night.
Was this a sign that there was still hope for Rangdan, or a sign that we had lost their favor and protection? Was this thing going to be our doom, or our savior?
Neither option was unimaginable. The only thing I could say for sure is, "Damn, those are some big boobs."
Blinking my eyes, I stopped focusing on that and kept an eye on the giant's movements, waiting until they seemed distracted by their fallen comrade before I decided what I was going to do.
They aren't invulnerable, I know that. When dealing with them, the standard practice involves aiming at their weak spot which we were drilled on, and from an ambush. But this one seems more . . . dangerous than usual. Not to mention it's holding the very same spear that killed the others.
That alone is a good reason to avoid fighting it in the open. Maybe I can throw a grenade, wait, no, it was with Damien. Or maybe I can salvage one from the crashed transport, surely they have a few explosives here I can use, right? When I find something, and with that open door back there, I could roll it down from there and deliver it right to their face. Nothing can survive an explosion to the face, right?
But before I could plan any further, my thought was interrupted as a golden blade smashed just an inch away from my head. It knows exactly where I am, and it was dumb luck that saved me.
Then the blade started to slide towards me, I don't know how they know I am alive or where I am to move it accurately enough, but I am not staying to find out.
"Fucking how," I muttered, firing off a few shots at the wall as I ran towards a hidden hatch further up the hill. I hoped that once I got inside, I'll be safe.
I am encouraged to move faster as the spear smashed right next to me. Either the Goddess is looking out for me, or the monster ability must have some sort of limitation to it since it's the second time it barely misses me. Maybe it requires some sort of direct line of sight?
Either way, I'll put it in my report once I am safe. I got to the hatch and smashed open its lock to rush through it, once I did I closed the hatch door behind me and braced it, just in case. Hopefully, the hatch camouflage is enough to keep it hidden from that monster.
"Marcus, what are you doing here?" came a voice, reminding me that I am no longer alone. I turned and saw Commander Richard.
"There's a giant monster outside," I said, shakily.
"There are giant monsters all over the mountain. Get out there and fight it," he said, the cigar in his mouth puffing as he stepped towards me with a flamethrower already ignited.
"Open that door. I'll burn the damn thing. These things burn like anything else. You just have to put a fire on them," he added.
"That's not wise," came a calm voice from behind Commander Richard. Another three or four soldiers appeared, their las rifles already prepared for a fight.
"The creature outside has a tremendous warp presence, most likely one of their psykers. The flames would do nothing but anger it, I think," the Mage officer said, leaning on his staff.
"Oh, wonderful. Hey, Marcus, go further into the armory and get me a plasma launcher. That should shut this psyker down," Richard said, running further into the facility.
I stepped away from the door, saying, "Maybe we should just stay quiet. I don't think they can see well, it missed a few times and I managed to get away"
"They didn't miss," the psyker said, looking straight at me. "They have ocular implants and helmets that have the ability to track targets. They knew exactly where you were. The only reason they would miss is if-"
They didn't get to finish that sentence as the metal above us started to groan, as something began pulling at it.
"Defensive position!," Commander Richard said, ordering the surrounding soldiers into position to receive incoming attack, I took the opportunity to take position with the mage at the rear.
The metal was bending, that is not a good sign. It was at least an inch thick of iron steel, meant to hold out against orbital bombardment.
"Ha, must be a big bastard. Maybe one of those robo things. What are they called, Mage?"
"Dreadnought. If so, you must target its weak points, the connections between the armor or the head. Sometimes they have their head on full display, showing their lack of care for their own life," the Mage replied.
"They're not Dreadnought, they're just really, really big," I said, bringing my gun into position as the metal creaked and groaned even more. Something else was also happening, as finally, a small gap formed in the roof of the bunker. The surrounding temperature started dropping quickly. I could see ice literally forming around the hole that had been created - a sheet of white growing from the entrance point around the halls.
"What in Loona's dark hell is this?" Commander Richard said, taking a step back as finally, the upper door was ripped free, and a winter storm blew harshly into the room.
Commander Richard opened up with his flamethrower, unleashing a torrent of fire into the open gap, trying to burn whatever was trying to break in and combat the freezing cold. The troopers around him unleashed their own shots into the open gap, hoping to hit something to stop the incoming hailstorm.
For a good several seconds, nothing but fire and brimstone seemed to be coming to that hole, before the fire itself somehow froze in place, as if it had been turned into an ice sculpture. Whatever is coming through that door is so cold that the flaming gelatin being launched from the flamethrower had frozen mid-air, as the froze made its way to the nozzle of the flamethrower, freezing it mid-firing.
"What the fu..." Commander Richard didn't get to finish his sentence before the ice climbed up the gun and onto him, freezing him solid in seconds.
The soldiers beside him stepped away in shock before I saw a golden blade smashed through the ice that had been the flames and into the body of Commander Richard, violently shattering him into frozen bloody chunks, with the blade embedded itself through the floor and gore
It took a moment for me to realize the blade was actually the tip of the spear from earlier, with its long unfortunately familiar metal pole standing at an angle on the floor. My closer proximity to it only made me notice just how intricate the wolf ornate is on its shaft. Head seemingly snarling you can almost hear it, and eyes glowing blue with unknown power.
"Behind me," the Mage said, calmly stepping forward and smashing his staff into the ground, forming some sort of spectral sphere at our front as the cold rushed further into the room.
The spear visibly vibrated before furiously pulling itself back to the black void outside, leaving behind what's left of the commander and pieces of the floor. But just before it exited, a giant armored hand grabbed the fierce spear on its shaft. The monster is here, standing with all its terrifying glory at the entrance, as white snow angrily flow into the room
With the slowly dying light at the entrance, I finally got a clear view of it. The wolfish helmet with trails of vapor rising from its snout indicating that whatever it is, it still requires breathing of some sort. With armor similar to the more normal armor the other monsters are wearing, only with far more complex intricacy barely visible behind an unnaturally black pelt. Shots fired from the others with better alacrity than I barely stained its armor, much less hurting it. Despite the properties of our shots, most of it only glanced off the armor while a few barely scorched the armor directly before disappearing entirely.
Our only saving grace was the tunnel was made for our smaller dimension. The monster's intimidating height only served to hinder it.
Yet, despite the difference in size, it doesn't seem to care. It violently forced its way into the tunnel, seemingly comical but the sheer violence of the attempts smashes all the ice from proximity alone. The ground shakes and the wall seemingly joining them only serve to highlight just how - powerful this creature is, and it was obvious to all that if it wasn't for the tunnel's dimension, all of us would be dead. But before we could react any further than from our useless shots, the creature brought its own similarly proportionate bolter to bear and took aim at the mage.
It fires once, yet its flashes are blinding and the sound alone almost deafens us. Thankfully, the shield miraculously survives, protecting us from the beast wraths. Our own fire only momentarily stops due to our debilitation from it, before we resume our firing discipline.
As for the creature itself, It seems - annoyed at our continued survival, like looking at a pest that wouldn't die from a simple slap. Barely acknowledging our own counter-fire, the creature's head seemingly tilting, it only took me a moment to realize it is looking at the pipe running along the ceiling. Not even a shot aimed at the exposed 'neck' didn't force it to acknowledge us.
"What kind of monster is this?" one of the men asked, another thought of the more important
question. "What is it doing?"
The creature reached its hand up and grabbed one of the pipes, before it violently brought the pipe down, using it like some sort of makeshift whip and smashed it down on the shield. This only added to the mages strain in addition to holding the frost back.
I can only watch helplessly as layers of the shield were slowly eroded from the combined freezing storm and smashing pipes.
"Run, you fools! I can't hold this thing back forever, and when it breaks through, it's going to unleash a frozen hell on us."
I didn't need to be told twice and started running. I dropped my weapon, it was useless anyway, on the way. We need more than what we have now to take this thing down. It only took me a moment to realize I was the only one running, either they are braver than I am or scared stiff, I didn't stop running to look back and check.
I heard an explosion behind me, and with cursed curiosity beckoning me, I turned my head to see what happened; being a Rangdan however, I thankfully don't have to stop running.
I saw a few figures turning, as if to run, while the rest were holding their weapon in a firing position, and one holding a staff stabbed into the ground. But even from a distance and at running speed, I can see that all of them were frozen solid. And the ice seemingly raced down the tunnel, as if it was chasing me. Hunting me.
Looking past them, I saw it again, the wolf-headed monster that seemed to mimic and defile the image of the night goddess Loona. Its burning red eye, it has a blue core, why does it have that? saw me.
Perhaps it was just the warp nature of the creature and its powers, or perhaps it was just the helmet itself, shaped like it was snarling and wanting to rip me apart. Either way, I felt fear and knew that thing would rip me to shreds if it ever caught me. .
With great primal fury, I saw it pushed into the tunnels slowly. Realizing that running me down in a tunnel not fit for it is not going to work. I really hope it tries though, it breathes after all and I hopeknow there's more of us here, and with enough mages and man we can drown it with our bodies if we have to.
The creature looked at me one last time before letting out a howl that sounded more like a beast than that of a man. The howl had power to it, seemingly energizing and speeding up the ice storm engulfing the building.
All I can feel is fear, and that fear compelled me to do the smartest thing I could do: run, run as fast as I can. I stopped watching my back and just concentrated on running. As I did, I could feel the air around me grow colder, as if there was some manner of beast nipping at my heels, to rip the living heat and flesh and souls from my bones.
If I had a door, one of the many dividers between the facility's sections meant to be used in case of environmental contamination, would I make it in time? I don't know. Would I be able to close it after I made it through? I don't know. Would it even matter? I really don't know. I just ran.
Lion El'Jonson
Well, this landing had gone better than I expected it would. I thought we would have had fighters coming in from all across the planet to smash up our forces as we came down. Well, that was still happening, but apparently, my chosen landing zone was a secret airfield that controlled the majority of their better equipment. So, they had to fight past my infantry that were landing all around them to get them in the air, meaning we were doing a good job of preventing that from happening.
Also, currently, areas of the planet that were considered military bases were under orbital bombardment from the fleet above. So, the amount of air forces they could muster was quickly being drowned out as my men tried to secure the landing zone.
It could have been much worse; as the Wolves offensive has proven. Unfortunately, their landing zone had been north of my position and should have been the safest of them all, as they would have had time to build up defenses in the mountains while we secured this lower valley and dealt with any incoming forces. At worst, it is suspected that we may be pushed out of this lower valley and fall back into the already prepared defenses of my sister.
Unfortunately, that was not happening; it was Opposite Day, apparently. My sister's forces were apparently scattered across half the mountain range, and my own were quickly transforming this valley into a defendable though chaotic battlefield with no sign of reinforcements on the way.
There was also the problem of jammers. The mountains apparently played host to a lot of the jamming equipment, which was preventing communication with elements of my sister's forces. Elements being the key word, some of my sister's forces were in contact with this part of the valley, and we were able to send messages the rest of the way through either low line communication or runners.
It was not optimal, but it was getting the job done, and the job indicated that we were winning this, even if my sister was currently missing.
Part of me worried about her; she was, after all, my only sister, but the other part of me knew that she was a wild animal in a fight according to the records I've seen, and I would pity the Rangdan for cornering her anywhere. They would probably regret it quickly enough.
As for Nobunaga of the Second Legion, he had come down on the western side of the mountain range, closer to the closest city on the entire planet. Communication with him was limited. Runners were not very effective, and with the jamming issue, it was unlikely for the situation to improve.
What we did know was that he was fighting his way towards the city under the assumption that the jamming equipment must be there. I wasn't so sure about it. My own forces were currently trying to break into the airfield that was on the side of the mountain, but the Rangdan were giving us problems. Multiple heavy metal doors blocked the only entrance that we could find, and we were cutting through it at a good pace, but they kept finding ways out and shooting at us from various places, slowing us down and allowing them to do whatever they were doing inside that mountain.
My best guess was that they were prepping as many airframes as possible. As soon as the door was blown out, they would try to send them through as fast as possible, unloading their cannons and machine guns into us as they went. However, this was something I would not allow to happen, so I had several men move wrecks into the direct path of the gate. If they did somehow manage to blow past my men, they would crash into a solid wall of their own destroyed craft. It should do a good job of preventing any further forward movement from them.
As for the 11th Legion, they were currently scattered to the north of the second Primarch. Their forces were closer to a ritual site that they were trying to secure.
From orbit, I had noticed a large moon carved into the side of a mountain. The fact that there wasn't a lot of population around it told us everything we needed to know. So, on the off chance that there might be something psychic there, we had deployed the 11th Legion there first. They were supposedly able to deal with warp-based items. According to father, he had hoped that they would be helping to spread the law of the Imperium and destroy any warp-based monstrosities.
I got to see them at work before, and understood that they could strip the Warp energies from an item with nothing but a few chants and some fire, leaving the item mundane and easily destroyed.
Beyond that, while the fleet in orbit was dishing out a lot of punishment to anything on the ground, it appeared that this planet had, as we suspected, been fortified from siege and invasion to some extent at one point in its history. Could it be preparing for this inevitable day, or maybe it could be as simple as some ancient fortifications that they kept in good condition? We didn't know, and we didn't need to know. All I needed to do was kill everything that raised a gun to us that didn't look human.
So far, all we had seen were the Rangdan themselves, which was a good sign. We were actually fighting them and not their proxies or mercenaries. We were actually hurting them as they had hurt us for nearly ten years, and now, now we were going to hurt them even more.
My thoughts were interrupted as I stared off across the landing fields. Drop pods were still coming down along with shuttles full of troops and gear. Luther came up next to me with a nod, saying, "Word from the second indicates that they've managed to take the outskirts of the town, but they've run into bioforms."
Tilting my head, I asked, "Which type? Their psychic-powered ones or their flesh ones?"
Luther shook his head before saying, "Neither, a variant of the Slaugth apparently. Several of their Marines have actually been devoured by these worm-like creatures in the last few attacks, and they're putting up a good fight using equipment from their fallen foxes and our own men."
"Damn, I was hoping to some extent they wouldn't use that on one of their homeworlds. I guess I was wrong to assume that they wouldn't release their biological weapons."
Luther nodded before saying, "Most likely, they're in a bit of a desperate bind. they probably didn't expect us to come down where we did; mountains aren't exactly the best landing zones, after all."
I nodded at that as he continued, "Plus, their armies probably deployed to other places scattered around the planet, waiting for us to arrive. This area was probably meant to be their last stronghold, the place they would come to to outlast us, I would bet."
"'Makes sense," I said with a nod before looking out over the airfield towards the north.
"You worry about your sister?" Luther asked, causing me to look at him and shake my head, saying, "No, I don't worry about her. She will be fine, I'm sure."
"Are you sure, my brother? I could have some forces dispatched to head north and check around, see if she perhaps landed close to our lines."
I smiled at that before shaking my head, saying, "No, our own forces are needed here. We must secure this area and start spreading out towards the south. What about the enemy forces to the south of here? There was a harbor town, if I'm correct, right?"
Luther sighed before saying, "Yes, my brother. There's a harbor town to the south of here with a good rail line to several other cities further down the coast. We already have a few aircraft patrolling the area, though we're not able to get too close to those towns. They have good anti-aircraft guns, but from what we can tell, they are moving large numbers of infantry and vehicles for whatever positions they were in, in this general direction. They plan to fight us in these mountains, I would estimate, or at least encircle them and keep us from getting out of them."
"Hmm, so we are an army surrounding an army, surrounded by another army. I feel like there is a story like that in the ancient human past, and Father mentioned it once," I mused.
Shaking my head, I said, "We need to get a good portion of the legion deployed to that border. Then, we need to have defenses built to keep them from breaking through our lines and linking up with the army inside the fortifications in these mountains."
"What if they already are linked up? We don't know how deep these tunnels go; they could go well below the mountains and allow them to enter," Luther pointed out.
Nodding my head, I said, "Hopefully, with enough air power, we can knock out enough of these anti-aircraft guns to be able to keep them from resupplying those inside. This is going to be a bit of a siege, but it will be necessary so that we can have safe internal lines of supply for the push out into the rest of the continent."
"Not to mention," I said with a smile, "If they are out in the open around these mountains, keeping us boxed in, that"s a good place for our own aircraft and orbital bombardment to hit, don't you think?"
Luther smiled and said, "I think that does sound like a good place for our guns and bombs to come down on."
Smiling to myself, I moved my eyes along the line before they caught on something: a figure staggering towards the northernmost part of the perimeter.
A few Marines and some soldiers quickly came towards them, but stopped when the figure emerged into better lighting, revealing themselves to be cloaked in a brown cloak. The Marines did not take any chances and leveled their guns at the creature, unloading several bolts into it, causing it to fall over. However, it got back up and whipped out an arm of incredible length, smashing into one of the Marines and cutting open his armor like a tin can.
"Slaught" I said, reaching for my own blade and preparing to do battle with the creature, looking past it to try and see if there were more coming out of the darkness. I didn't see anymore, which was a good sign. Perhaps it was just a rogue agent, or perhaps it was an initial infection. The only good thing was that it appeared to be wearing nothing but the local garments, not Space Marine armor. That meant I should be able to kill it with ease.
Luther stepped forward and said, "My brother, these creatures are well within the ability of your Marines to handle. There's no reason for you to take up your blade today over such a small situation. You're needed in command, not in the field."
It was an annoying comment, but he was right. Besides, it was probably proper to let some of my sons have a chance to prove themselves. Folding my arms, I watched as two Marinesengaged the creature. Using numbers to overwhelm it would be more successful, but there was only one, and they needed to learn how to fight one-on-one.
One was using a blade to defend himself from the strikes, the other was using a shield, keeping it up while moving slowly closer and closer, deflecting any of the appendages as it attempted to slice through the shield.
Obviously, the creature had rather sharp limbs. The only reason that they weren't cutting through the men and their weapons was that they were angling their armor enough to deflect and not actually take the hits. Carefully, they surrounded it on both sides. One Marine came at it with three quick swipes, charging his power sword to full and attempting to kill the thing, but only managing to remove one of its limb-like appendages. That would only be gone for so long; it would regrow in time.
The other Marine used this moment of pain from the creature's gurgling screams to push through another attack on its arm, cutting that limb from its body as well, rendering it defenseless. However, their power weapons would not be able to kill the creature. Thankfully, there were plenty of volkite weapons in this legion.
Soldiers came forward with their volkite guns and immediately unleashed a torrent of energy on the monster, rendering it into dust in a few moments, and then shooting at the decapitated limbs and anything that had fallen off of it to make sure that it was completely destroyed.
This form of bioform had been spotted since the earliest parts of the war, even on the supposed home planet of the Rangdan when my legion first came into contact with them. So we were familiar with how to deal with these monsters. However, the best way to deal with them was with fire and blazing energy. These creatures were monsters that could even infect enough to start a pandemic if left unchecked.
They were like orks, yet somehow worse. At least orks could form some form of rudimentary civilization. These creatures, well, they only wanted to kill and consume you. They were monsters that must be destroyed. Orks, well, they also must be destroyed, but you could push them beyond the frontiers. You need to do at least for a little while until those frontiers need to be pushed back again.
"Well, that seems to be that," Luther said, turning away. Though I kept my eyes on the horizon, watching as one of the Marines moved off the side of the base to look around. What I saw did not make me believe that was the end of it, as a long, worm-like arm ripped out of the dirt and strangled him, pulling him into the ground.
More Slaugths pulled themselves out of the ground, covered in nothing but mud and debris. Like a horde of corpses, they stumbled and staggered in our general direction, alerting everyone that something was wrong, as Marines opened fire on them.
Grabbing my sword, I said, "It seems that we are not done just yet," and ignoring Luther's counsel, charged into the combat, slashing and cutting the monsters as they stumbled towards our lines. Marines, both those with melee and ranged weapons, brought their weapons to bear to try and force the monsters back, as it seemed an almost endless horde seemed to rip itself out of the dirt.
I brought my sword down on one particularly big one, cutting it in half, and watched it act like the worm it was, as whatever it had for nerves fired involuntarily making limbs kick and writhe pathetically in its death throes.
Thankfully, a power sword down the middle of that rendered the creature completely useless.
We would need to bring flamethrowers, volkite, and plasma to every single one of these monsters. It was the only way to be sure that they were completely dead. And after that, we would need to spend time cleaning our armor and making sure that there was none of its infectious matter on us, as that was one vector for the loss of a Marine to these creatures' taint.
It only took one worm to get beneath the skin and slowly bring a Marine to insanity and the enemy's side. We needed to be careful that that didn't happen. When this was over, battle brothers would have to pair off and check each other, making sure that there was nothing on their armor before they removed it. Then double-check the armor to make sure there was nothing hiding in any cracks or crevices, burning anything they found.
That is the type of war the Slaugth brought with their disgusting worm-like being. Why the Rangdan created such a monster, I didn't know. We have been trying to investigate, but civilians who had anything to say on that matter were far and few between. There were a few records that have been found in various places, battlefields that were not completely destroyed, that indicated that a Slaugth might have been an independent race at one point that had been brought into the Rangdan at some distant point in the past. Some monster that they promised something to, though to be sure that those were the exact same creatures, it was impossible to be sure. The records indicate that those worms could not control human hosts, so that either meant that they were a different creature or the Rangdan had altered those creatures to this current form.
Their genetic mockeries of humanity and the destruction of humanity seem to be a prime goal of the Rangdan, creating nothing but these horrific failures of creatures that take human form but are not really humans.
Whatever the goal of these Rangdan was with their war, it would have failed eventually. But it was something that warmed my heart with each slash, knowing that I was truly fighting nothing but monsters that needed to be brought down for the protection of humanity and the Imperium.