It must be my stupid luck striking again, but I found Forge Ryza under a massive Chaos invasion, with a dozen xenos species corrupted by Chaos providing the bulk of their armies, and only a few thousands Chaos Marines and Chaos Titans. I must have demolished and destroyed quite a lot of the Chaos forces if they had to resort to gathering forces from other species.
But now I had not only 4 million Thalax Lorica cyborgs I could use legally, but also 20 Psi-Titans and 3000 Grey Knights, and plenty of Xeno Auxilia, mostly Tyranids.
I could win much faster and easier by abusing the tesseract, but this was another test for myself and my troops. The dimensional shift was not always working, and not everything would die if flicked into a sun. C'tan or their Shards would actually get stronger, if they didn't outright block the tesseract completely. And there were very few suns deep in the Warp, and those that did exist worked by different rules anyway.
"These Chaos fools have sown the wind, now they shall reap the whirlwind!" I declared from my bridge, mostly to boost morale.
"That sounds great, but these 'Chaos fools' still outnumber our single ship by 1000 to 1. I hope you have a plan, father..." my daughter Athena said with a soft voice, which sounded a bit strange coming from a Centurion power armor suit larger than my Terminator plate.
Canis glanced back from the main screen and nudged my left hand with a bored face. Like saying 'what are you waiting for?'
Fine. A few Nova Mines to thin the herd won't be so much of a cheat. Five mega-blasts lit up the void in the distance, while the Singularity sped up to combat speed and the Blade began listing worthy targets for our Singularity graviton weapon. I chose the single Chaos battleship for our target, then lined up the shot as our trajectory took us below Ryza Secundus, the huge shipyward and space fort that guarded the Forge World.
Unlike the gravity beam so useful against Tyranids, the Void Claw weapon could also fire pinpoint dots of compressed gravity, and while the singularity black dots didn't look very grand, they still crumpled ships under their own mass. The enemy battleship fell inward and became a dense sphere of metal barely larger than a dropship, and everything inside was compressed in that same volume.
Pretty scary stuff, I admit. And the Speranza had 42 similar guns, perhaps even stronger. That was also the reason Forge Machina didn't suffer much from constant Ork invasions, when the tin-cans of the Orks became hyperdense metal alloy, very useful for any Forge World.
Perhaps choosing the largest target wasn't the best option this time, as a Fra'al_Battlecruiser changed course to intercept us, and their deadly Ether Cannons began slicing through our Void Shields with too much ease.
'Void Shields mostly ineffective! Ion Shield ineffective, powering up the Neutron Shield.' the Blade spoke rapidly in my mind, while Canis just snorted then howled with his golden jaws. Crunch!
That also works! I realized a bit late, since Canis was already a powerhouse, and the mangled xenos battlecruiser turned slowly to make their escape. They were venting atmosphere already, as the spiritual jaws punctured the xenos hull and created dozens of gaps. Only sealed voidsuits and power armor could be used now to board this ship, but luckily all Astartes and Thalax armor were built for void warfare.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Not on my watch, you don't!
I emptied their engine room and replaced the xenos engineers with a Chapter of Grey Knights, then an escort of Thalax Suits and several tech-marines. Boarding action! Spending over 300 years with the Grey Knights did allow me to link them into the Sounding Board empathic channel. 'Try to capture this voidship intact if possible. No need for prisoners.' I ordered the troops, then changed my focus on the planet, and began deploying troops and vehicles as needed.
For the rest of the xenos ships, I simply sent a few thousands Tyranids, plated with adamantium over their vulnerable spots and painted in Lamenter Auxilia colors, including the bleeding heart.
My own xenos wolf, Lash shifted at my side with a similar outlook, adamantium plates over his chest and neck, and a bleeding heart sigil where a real wolf would have a heart.
Canis rose and powered up his collar shield, then begged me with a pitiful wail. "Fine! Both of you can go. Don't get injured too much..." I allowed with a disgruntled tone, although these two wolves alone probably matched an entire Imperial Battlefleet and then some.
"I guess that takes care of securing the orbitals. Athena, you and the girls stay behind the Lamenters! Keep heroics to the minimum." I demanded as I began to spread the Lamenter Companies and their Centurion support to secure the Western Forges where the Stormblade variants of the Baneblade were produced.
Tarantula turrets and more Thalax suits dropped to the surface to provide cover fire for the Skitarii and Secutarii of the Mechanicus, so there was only the Endeavour Forge-City and their knowledge vaults remaining to defend. Also, where the Chaos Titans and Marines were heading as well, likely to obtain some STCs for the Dark Mechanicum, or just destroy what was left of the ancient knowledge of plasma that Ryza was famous for.
My Psi-Titans and remaining Grey Knights would be useful there, as well as the entire Ryza Legion of Thalax Lorica cyborgs. Those carried both sigils of their loyalty, my House Lancefire green and blue orb, and the Ryza orange and black R with a skull in the center.
'Orbitals secure, Captain. You may deploy with Sabaktes if you want.' the Blade notified me as I was getting antsy in my command throne.
"I'm heading down in my Titan, Valerian. Keep the bridge safe." I told my bodyguard, and vanished before he could deny me my fun.
Sabaktes, or the Destroyer was rarely used these days, and he needed to stretch his legs a little. So I chose my insertion point just above a Warlord Chaos Engine, and dropped on top of it, with my Power Claw raking the back of the Titan while the Melta Cannons on the forearm filled the gashes with melta fire.
"Engine Kill!" Sabaktes proclaimed in a triumphant voice, just as I kicked the falled Titan in the head and it burst into oil and blood.
The shoulder-mounted Turbo Laser batteries evaporated a score of Chaos Marines and a smaller Reaver Titan, then I stilled the Titan for a millisecond to use the planet's rotation to plow through a hundred Chaos Knights, and explode them in a red wake.
I felt something tingle my extra senses, and turned with my left hand's Sinistramanus Psi-cannon ready to fire. The fallen Titan I struck first was rising again, this time with green wings and a shitty grin on its belly. The lack of a head didn't kill the damned thing.
An Unclean One! I kinda forgot these Great Daemons were still around. "Pef Lancefire! I've been waiting to suck the marrow from your hollow bones!" the Daemon proclaimed just as Sabaktes fired.