Chapter 8 Part 5
Chapter 8: The calm before the storm
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Part 5
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Deimos Peninsula
Kronus
In the days following the battle for Victory Bay, the Imperial forces on Kronus didn't stay idle. Even as multiple units spent the next three days in a recovery period, various commando and Blood Raven units ventured forth into the lands claimed by traitors and assorted Chaos scum. Five units of Astartes Scouts formed the tip of the spear, backed up by squads of Tactical Marines and long-range artillery in case they either ran in anything they couldn't handle or needed a target reduced to ashes, yesterday.
Brother-Sergeant Whent went back to the accursed region as a part of the force meant to give the scouts some teeth if they needed them and just two hours after slowly creeping into the Chaos blasted area, the first such occasion materialized. As the Emperor would have it, the newest additions to the Company, Brothers Griffith and Amadeus, found trouble first, and it was a lot of it. It came in the form of a Traitor Guard unit, the "elite" Regiment slatted to protect the high-end resorts making up much of the southern part of the peninsula. Very soon it became clear that those soldiers didn't have the grace to die valiantly after failing to sniff out and stop the Chaos incursion in its infancy. As if that wasn't bad enough…
"They're all some kind of mutant or another, Aquila Actual." Spear One-One, Griffith, said over the vox. "I'm seeing tentacles, growths, some people are now bigger than Ogryns and they obviously weren't ones to begin with and the Ogryns…"
"Spear One-One, they have Ogryns?" Aquila Actual demanded confirmation. "The only Ogryns supposed to be on Kronus remain loyal to the best of my knowledge and are currently with General Alexander's troops. I'll make sure the Inquisitor knows and investigates. Continue your report, Spear One-One."
"Continuing report, Aquila Actual. I have eyes on modified, up-armored and up-gunned Sentinels and Leman Russ tanks, various Chimera variants, and at least three Salamanders. Every Sentinel I've seen so far has heavy laser armaments, missile pods, and additional armor plating, the same goes for the other vehicles. They're all covered with Chaos sigils and runes, it's almost painful to look at."
"Spear One-One, Aquila Actual, keep observing and for now don't call artillery on them. I'll scramble what support we have available to hit them before they can reach something important. Aquila Actual to all Dagger elements, carefully converge on Spear One-One's location. We've got eyes on Traitor Guard heavy element moving out of Deimos Peninsula, we need to intercept and destroy it. All Spear elements save for Spear One-One, keep to your assigned areas and report anything out of the ordinary, Aquila Actual, out."
Sergeant Whent checked his location and the map, then Spear One-One's assigned area, before issuing the relevant orders to his Brothers. It was a good thing they came heavily loaded with anti-tank and other assorted anti-vehicle weaponry, which was only logical after that insane road-chase that almost got them all killed…
"Sergeant, we can't kill a whole regiment by ourselves," Corporal Titus pointed out. "Not in open combat anyway, when they have weapons that can actually hurt us."
"We won't be trying to kill them all. Not at once, anyway." Whent grumbled good-naturedly. Titus was one of his most experienced Astartes and always a pessimist. Sadly, this darkness covered universe tended to prove the grizzled old veteran right more often than not.
"Slow them down? Stop them until reinforcements could arrive and help us kill all the traitorous bastards?" Whent grinned under his sealed helmet. "That much we can do, especially if Griffith can vector us into a nice ambush site."
"That's why I'm carrying all those explosives…" The unit's explosive expert, Techmarine Victus rapped an armored gauntlet over his chest plate, which was barely visible from various harnesses loaded with gear, most of the explosive variety.
Obviously, they all tended to go to considerable lengths to ensure no one-shot Victus before he could unload and stash his explosives somewhere safe, preferably in very close proximity to the enemy.
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World Bearers positions
Deimos Peninsula
Kronus
Even the pleasant and persistent smell of freshly spilled blood and screams of prisoners who refused the word of the Gods did little to lessen the headache plaguing Eliphas the Inheritor. The Black Apostle of the Word Bearers Legion suffered from it ever since that never sufficiently damned green-skinned brute foiled what should have been a simple, clean and fast operation. The displeasure his patrons expressed didn't help any, and now it compounded the pounding, nearly skull-splitting headache something fierce with a kind of geass meant to ensure that his primary objective won't change, neither would his resolve to carry it out no matter out, falter.
To that end, Eliphas dispatched the local Guard Regiment, which was among the blessed souls who accepted the word of the true Gods. They received all kinds of blessings as their just reward and now the Black Apostle dispatched them to secure the Eres Badlands, while he tried to do his best to figure another way to release the Khornate Daemon imprisoned below the desert. A secondary objective, a very important one, granted, was to murder or open the eyes of the Corpse-Emperor's servants so he could take Victory Bay and release yet another Daemon, this time one of Nurgle's.
Wisely, Eliphas didn't ask aloud how those two got themselves caught and bound, and how useful they would be in the future after such failure in the past. His patrons weren't particularly happy with him right now after all…
The Black Apostle strode through his Astartes' base camp, which was taking proper shape already, and headed for a waiting vehicle, which would bring him to one of the largely untouched resort complexes to the East. That was one of the places where a lot of the faithful waited either to receive proper blessings or to find a good way to serve their betters, which was needed now. Eliphas needed to gather more willing sacrifices in order to break the Daemon free, fast, and they needed to be the right kind. Just any odd souls and blood wouldn't do, if it was that easy, he would have fulfilled his primary objective already!
There was always the option of bunkering down and waiting for enough troops to arrive so he could overwhelm the enemy, but that unholy alliance between the cursed soulless machines and the Corpse's worshipers could be a threat if it struck before there were enough servants of the true Gods on Kronus.
Such an eventuality had to be avoided at all costs and that was why he had almost everyone available digging in, building fortifications, including the Sorcerers. It was… unfortunate that those magic-slinging wretches didn't have the raw power to release the Daemon the simple and straightaway way if that was possible in the first place! At any rate, the next competent Sorcerer to arrive would be heading for the Eres Badlands along with a contingent of Astartes and proper fighting vehicles, to not only further reinforce their hold on the area but examine whatever kept the Daemon bound in detail. It was simply too bad that the one Sorcerer who specialized in that kind of thing was now very dead…