Chapter 6 Part 2

Chapter 6: Victory, you say?

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Part 2

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Word Bearers' base

Deimos Peninsula

Kronus

Screams, blood, delectable suffering, it all washed over Eliphas without making a dent in his sour mood. He was supposed to bring forth Kronus to the joys of the Gods, turn it into a full fledged Daemon World and use it as a stepping stone to conquer the whole subsector and beyond!

That was no longer the case. He was still back in the Eye of Terror, preparing his warband and waiting for the promised opportunity when a Daemon Prince, his current patron no less, manifested and gave him new orders. The Word Bearer winced at the memory. That bastard's voice still felt like claws tearing through his brain, the power it casually displayed was both infuriating and enticing – a success would open the gates for Eliphas to become that things equal if not superior, so envy twisted his guts at what was not yet to be.

Turning Kronus into a Daemon World would be nice, something to strive for once his mission was complete. There would be ample opportunities to win further favour with both the Gods and various powerful figures watching from the Eye. First however, Eliphas had to secure or destroy certain relics and records, some as old as his previous visit to this world ten thousand years ago.

The damnest thing was that he couldn't disagree. The great four had glimpsed a future that might not be, they saw the galaxy rend asunder by magnificent Warp Storm, saw Cadia finally fall, Abaddon's Thirteenth Crusade almost succeeding in breaking the Empire once and for all. Well, that was less than ideal. The Warmaster now suffered for his future failure, so he would do best next time. Chaos was plotting and working to ensure that the Empire would be weakened, that the Crusade would succeed this time. That in fact was his new primary mission here – set up the whole Blood Raven Chapter to be brought into the fold and with them, Subsector Aurelia. As far as Eliphas knew, that was merely one string of the plan, others sow the seeds of future plans, discord, opened the eyes of Corpse worshipers, the works. When the time came an the Thirteenth Crusade burst forth from the Eye of Terror to swallow Cadia, there would be no stopping it and this whole Segmentum would be eager to be liberated and shown the truth!

He knew this, he saw the logic, it still fucking grated! Eliphas wanted to be out there, spilling blood, taking skulls, proving his worth! Instead, he was busy properly fortifying his base of operation, building up his forces, while acolytes and sorcerers did their bloody work, sacrificing Corpse worshipers in order to open the warp portal and bring forth new units to add to his expanding army.

It should have been easy and simple to allow Chaos to pour through, yet the Corpse had some of his attention upon Kronus, not enough to be decisive, but enough to make Eliphas' job much harder than it had to be. Otherwise, he would already be engaging the Imperial forces at Victory Bay instead of missing the glorious slaughter currently unfolding there. He scowled at that thought. It wasn't bad enough that there were a lot of Corpse worshipers unlikely to see the light there, the never sufficiently damned bastards had allied with the soulless abominations slumbering below the surface. It would have been only worse if they allied themselves with the godless Tau!

At least there were some good faithful here on this part of Kronus willing to offer the Gods everything they were and had, like that group of young mothers bringing their children to be sacrificed so the Demon bound below the Eris Badlands could be finally released for good and unleashed against the unbelievers. The Word Bearer Champion nodded in approval at the gathered willing sacrifices, and made a shooing motion with his clawed gauntlet. He wasn't about to take any risks and would ensure himself that everything was done properly this time. Failure was not an option!

Four squads of heavy armoured Astartes fell in formation around the sacrifices, priests and Sorcerer who was going to lead the ritual. Acolytes made a final check on the transports carrying all other necessary supplies for the ritual and the small convoy finally left. Two tanks led the way, a pair of Dreadnoughts taking up the rear and a Hell-drake took to the air to provide both close air support and dissuade any enthusiasts from striking them from above.

Behind them, more and more troops poured in with every activation of the warp portal, bolstering the ranks of his Warband. Soon, Eliphas would have the numbers to burst out and sweep his enemies off the surface of Kronus.

He'd better, otherwise this time he might not be lucky enough to be thrown in the Basilica of Torments again…

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Victory Bay

Kronus

The whole area was in ruins, many of them burning or at least smoking, blood pooled at least ankle deep in what was left of the large avenue, an inferno blocked the way forward…

"This… this was awesome! We'll be legends after today, won't we, Inquisitor?!" Commissar Weber exclaimed gleefully.

I gave him a side-long concerned glance. Granted, I knew him for all of a five minutes if that, but he was enjoying his job a tad too much.

His regiment loved him despite that if the ragged cheers coming from all around us were anything to go by.

"It's a victory of a sort." I could allow that, I guessed. The fucking Eldar didn't slaughter us all, we might have achieved our objectives as well, and paid for it with a small river of blood too. Fucking Eldar, they weren't supposed to stand and fight like this!

"You hear that, folks!? We've done well today, the Inquisitor agrees! First round once this is over is one me!"

Well, now I was beginning to see why people kind of liked Weber. The man had a natural charisma and might be all right fellow, suicidal tendencies notwithstanding. Besides, I wasn't one to give him shit on that front.

"You did well indeed, boys and girls. You did the Emperor proud today!" I shouted at the top of my lungs and I had to admit, the cheers that met my words were something else…

"Victory? Victory, you say?" A metallic voice decided that this was a great time to rain on our parade. I turned around, raising my weapons in a defensive stance to see a bulky Necron carrying a very large weapon that hummed ominously tower over me. "Scarabs detected movements from what you call the Deimos Peninsula. The Abominations forces are stirring. The real threat remains unaddressed. We need to neutralize the Eldar and Tau fast, so we can concentrate on the Abominations, this my Lord decrees."

That flat statement was a great way to dampen our spirits and joy at simply surviving the bloody battle.