As Lord van der Skar had warned me about some months ago, the Dawnshadow did not accompany my forces beyond New Cealis; the Inquisitorial Starfort remained firmly within the established boundaries of Ixaniad, not to be risked elsewhere. Much of Battlefleet Ixaniad stayed with it. But, as he had also predicted, Admiral Alejandro Batos elected to accompany my forces with a detachment of the primary fleet of his command. Indeed, it seemed Batos had not forgotten our interactions surrounding the Hestia Majoris affair, and though he had cleared himself of wrongdoing in the events that had killed Hans Okustin, my Interrogator at the time, Batos appeared eager to win over more of my favor. And who could blame him; an aspirational Admiral would love to have an Inquisitorial operative on their side when it came time to hand out promotions within the Battlefleet.
But Lord van der Skar had not given me a full picture of all the allies I would be taking with me beyond our borders. Sergeant Santinus Astal, his squadron of Brothers, and two other Squads of Red Hunters—the 3rd and 4th Tactical Squads of the 3rd Company—were put under my charge as well, at van der Skar’s orders. I found I had much to learn from Astal, which was no surprise to me. For his part, he at least seemed to enjoy my company as well.
So, with Inquisitorial, Astartes, and Sector forces combined as one, we set out beyond Ixaniad’s borders together, into uncharted, enemy territory, with one goal in mind: Jaegetri, the world once hinted at being the operating hub for the Shatter Corps, and more importantly, the alleged location of Valeran Mortoc.
Our journey was, all things considered, short—we arrived at Jaegetri two weeks after departing from New Cealis. Never again did I see Bliss Carmichael, since our argument shortly after the battle at New Cealis. From my perspective, she may as well have changed ships, and in fact very well may have; not only did I never physically see her, but I also never sensed her while reaching out with my mind, and I did look on more than one occasion in that way. It seemed, indeed, that we were entering into the final stages of this war without my best Agent by my side. I was not particularly motivated by this loss, which may have been her point. Would it have been better, I wondered, to let the Callidus Assassin do her thing? Throne knows she probably could have; average operatives of her Temple had taken out far greater targets in the past than a Traitor Marine Captain, and she was far from average. Even so, I found myself worried about her—partially for her, but mostly worried about the effect losing her would incur on my ability to wage this war and any other that I would fight after it. She was too valuable to be squandered on Jaegetri for nothing, and as she was beyond my oversight, I did not know of her fate.
In any event, upon our arrival at Jaegetri, we found the world besieged by familiar faces: vessels belonging to the VIth Legion, the Space Wolves, were currently engaged in orbit with those of the IVth, aka the Iron Warriors. It had been some time since my first meeting with the Wolves during the Phaenonite affair over Amnes Minoris; I had almost forgotten them, but I had not forgotten their fangs nor their bitter promise to us. They would fight against the Iron Warriors, they said, but they made it clear they would not fight alongside us. I did not know whether I should have expected this war to devolve into a three-way-brawl or if it simply meant the Iron Warriors had two independent fronts to handle on their own. I assumed the latter, but upon seeing the Wolves again, I knew I should also begin to prepare for a battle on two fronts, if it came.
But for now that was not the battle before us. Instead, we found ourselves engaged with the last hurrah of a fleet of vessels better at sieging than surviving on defense. Though we had been battered on our journey across Ixaniad to reach Jaegetri, I was not much concerned with the void theatre anymore; experience had shaped my resolve and familiarity with the ebb and flow of its combat, and so, too, were much of my retinue made veterans of void combat across this terrible campaign of ours.
As evidence of some of that experience, in conversations with Santinus Astal about the possibility of teleportarium assaults, he was adamant it was something I should prepare for. So, I did. Thus far the Iron Warriors had been deploying their heaviest forces, via boarding torpedoes, in two locations, primarily: command bridges and engineering bays, to capture and to cripple, respectively. On approach to Jaegetri, I, therefore, disseminated many of the Red Hunters and Sisters of Battle at my command throughout the fleet to both such locations on each capital ship of outwardly-apparent strategic importance, in anticipation of further such boardings, by torpedo or teleportarium.
And I was glad I did, as when I sensed an unfamiliar disturbance in the Warp amidst our voidbattle in orbit over Jaegetri, I beamed out a single, two-word command to my allies: +Intrusion. Kill.+ Moments later, in a flash of profane light and an unholy gasp as reality collapsed in upon itself, four Iron Warriors found themselves almost instantaneously slain upon the deck of the Coldbreed, a hail of Bolter fire from all sides reminding them of the holy strength of faith they had turned their backs on. Their assault lasted single-digits of seconds, and while deafening due to the overwhelming amount of Bolter fire involved, sufficed only to advance one or two steps beyond their initial intrusion before all fell to their knees and, shortly thereafter, their faces. The sound of munitions being reloaded and restocked was all that followed in the moments immediately after, beyond which the command bridge returned to its regular duties as the battle waged on. “Varnus. They’re yours. Disassemble them, and see to the reconsecration of this deck when this battle is won,” I told my mechanical friend.
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“It shall please the Omnissiah to do so, Inquisitor,” he agreed, and silently ordered some of his servitors and fellow admechs to move the traitorous Marines off the bridge.
+Sergeant Astal. Varnus. Lucene. Ms. Trantos. With me,+ I commanded them all, stepping forward up to a viewport I had stood at far too often as of late. Astal was the first by my side, which in hindsight should not have been surprising, but I was quite used to the first being Lucene.
“Inquisitor?” Astal asked me when the group arrived behind me.
“We are here to execute a rather arrogant assault,” I began, overlooking the orange pile of rocks that was Jaegetri. In doing so, I witnessed the ships of the Space Wolves breaking off, leaving us to fend against those of the Iron Warriors ourselves. The Wolves intended to make landfall first, when they were no longer engaged with voidships of the Iron Warriors. We would find Wolves down there, as we found them up here. “When this battle in the void ends, the real one shall begin. On the ground, on that blasted heap of worthless dust and gravel. In its cities of profane worship, or, similarly heretical, overt defiance. It is there that our mettle shall be tested. And in our arrogance, we will inevitably lose lives for the cause of positively identifying, and subsequently terminating, a single man. This is a war of assassination. We go to the ground, we find Mortoc, we kill him, and then we leave. There is nothing else of value here on Jaegetri.”
“You intend to go down there yourself, don’t you, Cal?” Lucene asked. “Surely you understand how foolish that is.”
“All too well, yes. There’s no reason for me to be down there. And, yet, that lack thereof does in turn provide every reason. Valeran Mortoc has, thus far, wanted me alive. This means that wherever I am, he will hit a little less hard. Pulling his punches, so to speak,” I explained. “I shall place myself on the front lines, then.”
“An Inquisitor should not be on the front lines,” Astal noted.
“Not usually, no. But the front lines are unlikely to find Mortoc. Their only job will be to secure whatever beachhead we initially find purchase of on Jaegetri. If my presence amidst their ranks will ease the task of that security, then I shall be there,” I responded. “I expect you will join me there, Lucene.”
“Of course, Cal,” she replied, repressing something of a giggle from behind her Sabbat helm. I had known her too long to miss the hidden emotional levity within her responses, though she so often appeared composed and resolute.
“Good. That will help. But there will be other objectives of import that we must identify and destroy. Varnus, that is where you will come in, joined by Ms. Trantos. Find the war machines that most threaten our troops, find the surfaceside defense batteries and capital installations, and relay such information across the fleet and to the ground. Sergeant Astal and Tactical-1 should be your points of contact for disseminating such information. Astal, the Red Hunters must prioritize the more-hardened of these installations as they can. I think it is not unlikely you may find Mortoc in one of them, anyway,” I explained further. Astal, Varnus, and Zha each nodded with their orders, but I had more for the latter. “Ms. Trantos, while the battle on the surface rages on, I want you to prepare an Exterminatus. We have no use for this world once we have confirmed Mortoc’s death, and I would not leave its fortresses in the open for any aspiring warlord to come and claim for themselves. No, better to see Jaegetri and its villainous heresies removed from all memory in one fell swoop.”
“And the Wolves?” Zha asked then, perhaps responding to the fact that the first of their drop pods began to fall upon the world below.
“Consider us neutral, for now. Pay them any courtesy they are owed, and make it clear to them that we intend to destroy this world when we are done with it. Let them clear themselves off the world on their own. But do not make the mistake of considering them our allies. They are not,” I answered. “Show them no sign of weakness, as they may seek to take a stab at the Inquisition if they can get away with it undetected, such as by killing us all here and making it look as though the Iron Warriors were to blame. If your vessels are approached, deny any boarding from them. If your vessels are fired upon, return fire with maximum prejudice. Please relay these rules of engagement with Alejandro Batos at your earliest convenience.”
“I shall,” Zha assured me.
“And what of myself, and the faithful of the Omnissiah?” Varnus asked me.
“We will have many fronts, Varnus. As explained, I want you up here, with Ms. Trantos, identifying key strike targets and eliminating any that a lance battery can take care of. But as for your own, assign them as you see fit. Assist the Red Hunters with their equipment and Machine Spirits as needed, or coordinate with Tactical-1 to ensure the readiness of our shock assaults. I do not imagine your associates will need to busy themselves with Alejandro’s infantry, as they should be self-sufficient,” I acknowledged. Alejando Batos had brought with him approximately eighty-thousand soldiers of the Astra Militarum, to be deployed on any surfaceworld that demanded their bulk numbers. Jaegetri would be so-demanding. I expected a few techpriests among their ranks, sanctifying their armaments, and perhaps even a Commissar of their own.
Moments after answering Varnus’s question, I had a temporarily-pleasing view of a heretic vessel erupting into flames. I say ‘temporarily-pleasing’ because though the vessel did rupture and shatter into a thousand baleful pieces, a non-negligible assault of drop pods fell upon the world below from its hull. The Iron Warriors were redeploying themselves unto their home turf, saving any traitor Astartes they could for the coming battle, rather than losing them in void combat. Mortoc knew this was a resource game; I had seen that knowledge in his fighting forces since the invasion of New Cealis. And every last resource available to him on Jaegetri would be squeezed to the extreme. Taking any and every inch from him, here, would involve a bloodbath. “You all have your marching orders,” I declared shortly after considering the above. “I expect we’ll be ready for landfall soon. Best to hit the enemy as quickly and relentlessly as we can, to minimize their ability to prepare for us. So do prepare yourselves for planetary insertion. The Emperor protects.”