An emergency virtual meeting was held just before the biggest engagement with the rebel army happened. Holographic busts of all the important people were arranged in a circle as the urgent discussion went down on virtual space.
‘Chaos cultists? And a blasphemous ritual utilising departing souls as fuel to open up a warp portal and summon daemons on my planet?!’ Khatalina voiced her disbelief, the level of shock she experienced shattered the joy she had experienced earlier today.
‘The ritual site appears to have quite a formidable defence with void shield generators, orbital bombardment won’t work. Inquisitor Thorn had tapped into the rapid response force we had reserved for the renegade Astartes to deal with the cultists, he and his team are heading towards the site as we speak. But the target destination is quite a distance away, it will take one and a half standard Terran hours just for the strike force to reach there.’ Kryptorer notified.
‘So, this was why my lady was pushing for a peaceful resolution, your boundless foresight and wisdom astounds us,’ praised Canoness Diadinah with a bow and the rest of the palatines followed suit, but I was feeling unwell and we had no time for these “sasuga” shenanigans, so I quickly and lightly brushed off the compliments and brought the topic back to its course.
‘We are but moments away from engaging the main rebel army, and as outrageous as it sounds… our main priority now is to scale down the potential casualties for both sides before the ritual is dealt with. Fortunately, I had brainstormed with Dominus Cykell before on such matters and we had come up with some solutions to minimise casualties on both sides.’ I summarised.
‘I will have to respectfully disagree on that statement.’ Surprisingly, Kryptorer refuted me and he continued, ‘almost all of these solutions were solely pushed by you in one of our much earlier discussions, I take no credit for such extreme approaches to nonlethal resolutions. Bless the Omnissiah these could now be applied to our current situation, largely thanks to your foresight.’
His words brought me another round of applause from the sisters, even some of the Nusquamese were joining in, making the meeting even more awkward for me. I did come up with some outrageous ideas in my naive attempt to save lives in our previous discussions, never expecting them to be implemented for real.
Kryptorer continued, ‘At any rate, I had taken the liberty of putting down some of those ideas into executable formations and engagement protocols just in case we have use of it, like now. Fortunately, our forces are already in place and ready, we just have to change the method of engagement. With cooperation from you all, we could in theory massively cut down casualties until the heretical ritual is dealt with.’ The dominus then started distributing the detailed information of his plan, again doing the real work here.
‘Very well, let’s do this.’ I declared and the emergency virtual meeting concluded in high spirits.
* * *
Soon after the meeting right in the afternoon, the grand northern army finally made contact with our forces. Banking on their advantage of dictating the engagement and having better-trained battle tank companies, the rebels tried to push through the defensive line by concentrating their forces in one spot.
Responding to this, we sprang our trap.
First, we bombarded the whole area with smokescreen shells from our artillery units, rendering visibility on the field close to nothing for a while, slowing their progress to a crawl.
Kryptorer then started to conduct his massive experimental warfare on the rebels: taking full advantage of our total air superiority, he deployed thousands of experimental probes from the air and had them swarmed over the rebels’ tank formation.
Utilising sophisticated auspex readings, he was able to pinpoint the position of each and every tank in the rebels’ formation and started detonating probes on their tracks, immobilising half of the spearhead tanks and leaving the rest in an awkward position on whether to press forward or leave their compatriots behind.
Next, he proceeded on doing the same with all the outlying vehicles of the battle formation, effectively attempting to trap the whole army with their own immobilised vehicles.
Finally, a portion of his probe swarm was dedicated to taking out the mobile artillery in the rebel army to deny them their indirect fire capabilities. The small number of mobile artillery tanks in the rebel army group, be it Basilisk, Colossus, Griffon, Manticore, Medusa or Wyvern tanks, were all hunted down and had their primary weapon disabled by a suicidal probe detonating at a critical point.
A few unfortunate incidents did occur as some of the artillery tanks were obliterated outright when a probe was detonated too close to their ammunition. I winced internally every time one of these rare cases occurred.
Alarmed by this unforeseen development, the rebels tried their best to shoot down the probes. Soon tracers of small arms fire were observed from their formation as they tried their best to bring the probes down. Good luck with that with all the smoke and the chaotic situation, and that was before taking the agility of the probes into account.
Kryptorer then took advantage of the chaos to sneak in his sophisticated spy probes and attached them to the turrets of the leading Baneblade super-heavy tanks. With my authority ability, we easily bypassed their security protocols and managed to covertly tap into all their communications.
When the front-most elements of the rebel tank formations finally met with the defenders, more troubles awaited them. Knowing exactly where they would strike, we had placed Khatalina’s most capable tank hunter units in entrenched positions to meet their assault head-on. Units of Mechanicus Onager Dunecrawlers armed with neutron lasers were present at key areas to provide accurate fire support, immobilising tank after tank with their pinpoint accuracy.
In this clash, we would make a point of immobilising and destroying the primary weapons of the first few rows of enemy tanks with precision fire from our units and suicide probes, creating a barrier of lame-duck units at the forefront of the rebel armour spearhead to further buy time.
A makeshift system had been set up, enabling Kryptorer to share targeting data acquired from the Mechanicus’ sophisticated sensors with all friendly units. Such features enabled the governor’s forces to operate optimally even under the heavy cover of smoke screens, firing anti-tank rounds at the maximum distance to disable more rebel tanks.
With me keeping tabs of their command chatter and providing a god’s point of view over the entire battlefield to direct resources, we were able to outgun the rebels despite the majority of our forces being less capable in actual combat performance, putting up a fierce fight against the rebels' armour advances with all our stacked up advantages.
Meanwhile, the rebels struggled to bring their superior tank numbers and gunnery to bear, working in very difficult conditions of low visibility due to smoke screens and suffering from constant communication errors thanks to me messing with their short-range vox via spy probes scattered in the field.
Soon the rebels’ armour assaults were hindered by an ever-increasing number of immobilised and disabled vehicles. Any hostile vehicle that could break through our lines of fire would be visited by one of Kryptorer’s suicide probes and had its track blown off, halting any tangible progress.
Then to top it all off, in the chaotic mess Kryptorer exploited our total air superiority again to drop a massive EMP bomb on the rebels’ battle formation, carefully calculating the area of effect so the electromagnetic pulse would mostly hit hostile units.
Contrary to what a typical sci-fi movie would have you believe, most military hardware was shielded against such an attack but the dominus was aiming to cripple their targeting systems and add further woes to their already dire situation.
According to the very first plan Kryptorer had suggested, this would be the point where we dropped all the artillery rounds to finish the stranded rebels off, but we were not helping that dark ritual today. The glorious combat Lord General Luthor was hoping for had become a quagmire of impossible scenarios.
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All these actions so far provided the perfect cover for the bulk of Khatalina’s reserve forces to quietly deploy further outside of the combat area. Exploiting our total control over the information the rebels were receiving on the battlefield, we were able to slowly encircle Luthor’s army without him noticing.
After about an hour or so of non-stop gruelling tank battle where we were busy disabling hostile tanks while the other side was basically shooting blind, the rebels finally caught on that they were in a hopeless tarpit situation.
Anticipating they would be making their next move soon, I had my attention focused on the inside of the leading Baneblade Indomitable Fury. Despite the overall environment being noisy as heck as the inside of a tank operating on a battlefield should be, with all the sensors available and my superhuman hearing, I still managed to make out what was being said.
‘My Lord, the latest reports are in.’ Someone said inside the tank. ‘Let me see.’ A voice I recognised to be Luthor replied, there were hints of frustration in his tone. A while later, the lord general spoke again, ‘What in the Emperor’s name… this casualty number is no mistake?’
‘Yes, my lord. I double-checked it myself.’
‘We have fully engaged the enemy on the front, and you meant to tell me until now we have a lot more immobilised vehicles than casualties!?’
‘Confirmed, it seemed to be a deliberate act of the enemy.’
‘So… what are they playing at? Are we being toyed with!?’
There was a brief moment of uncomfortable silence before he continued with a snarl, ‘Unacceptable! Relay my new order, send in the forward infantry divisions for a frontal assault. The enemy should be over compensating for anti armour warfare, we will see if they can continue to toy with us!’
‘Yes, Lord!’
It was then I backed off from eavesdropping and warned the commanders of our side on the impending infantry waves.
Thus the rebels switched from armoured to massed infantry assault, sending waves of infantry battle formations through their immobilised vehicles to charge our defensive lines. Anticipating that, what awaited their infantry charge was an unconventional formation of Sororitas in the front with massed Skitarii rangers behind.
Under the supervision of their canoness and palatines, the battle sisters were ordered not to return fire unless they were absolutely sure their shots would not kill the rebels.
Before long the rebel infantry formation reached our line like the waves of a human tsunami, it was then Kryptorer invoked the Mechanicus’ Protector Doctrina Imperative protocol for his entire army, affecting all the Skitarii troops on the field via enhanced data tethers that were scattered across his units. The protocol temporarily buffed all the Skitarii units to enhance their already deadly marksmanship. The rangers were soon putting their extreme gunnery skills to use, but were ordered to take only nonlethal shots.
Thus another really weird battle went underway. Already outranging the standard las guns by a huge margin and equipped with advanced optics, the rangers went to work, subjecting the rebel troops with pinpoint accurate small arms fire before they even had the chance to shoot back.
Each time a ranger would fire his or her galvanic rifle, a rebel trooper would either lose a weapon or suffer a nonlethal wound to the leg or arm. The downed troopers would then be ignored and soon a huge number of wounded or unarmed troops were reported on the front, straining resources and morale for the rebels.
Those making further progress charging into the defensive lines would be met by a line of battle sisters who would not shoot back. Fighting the Sororitas alone was already quite a hard sell for most of the rebel troopers, adding to the fact that the sisters were not shooting back brought a whole new level of eeriness. Most were unnerved and refused to engage the Sororitas, for those who pushed on to engage, the battle sisters’ power armour and entrenched position made a mockery of their desperate efforts.
Some had reported having been shot at by the sisters. However, the bolter rounds always just exploded inches from their feet, cementing the notion they were only firing “warning shots” but could kill them anytime if the sisters wished.
While these odd standoffs were happening, the Skitarii rangers at the backline never stopped on their assigned task, picking off weapons and delivering nonlethal blows with typical Mechanicus cold machine-like efficiency. Overhead the Nuntius Hailers continued their flyovers broadcasting messages asking the rebels to surrender.
Such displays of dominance were soon having a catastrophic effect on the morale of the rebels who were saddled with an increasing number of weaponless and wounded soldiers, resulting in mass surrenders in certain areas.
These surrendering troops would be handled by the governor’s regular units who were stationed behind the Skitarii, freeing the more elite sisters and rangers from the burden of such operations while the process was being repeated and recorded. The recorded pict-feed were then displayed on the Nuntius Imagifier flyers for their flyovers, resulting in another chain reaction of surrendering across the front line.
In the midst of the oddly one-sided firefight, a squad of really dedicated rebels successfully forced their way into a line of battle sisters, only to be bested by the sisters in the ensuing hand to hand combat, swiftly being pummeled by power armour fists and awarded with black eyes and broken noses. After that, they were then unceremoniously dragged out of the combat zone to become prisoners of war.
Soon the battlefield became flooded with vox from the rebel side calling for medical aid and support. I was closely monitoring everything through all the data feeds, reacting to the action of the rebels and swiftly issuing general orders to the relevant on-field commanders while keeping tabs on the information coming out from the Indomitable Fury.
This continued for a while until Lord General Luthor von Norden’s frustration reached a feverish point, soon he had called for a vox meeting with all his generals to decide on the next course of action.
WHAM!
The sound of a bare fist hitting a flat surface came inside the Baneblade after an overview report was delivered, it was followed by Luthor cursing out loud, ‘By the Emperor’s teeth!’
‘My Lord, the rate of our men being either wounded or disarmed is worrying, this is unsustainable. The fact that most of our troops who had made contact with the enemy were left alive has severely strained our resources and morale. We are getting requests on orders with what to do with whole battalions of wounded men.’
Luthor breathed heavily for a while before finally answering, ‘It is fine, we have reserves. What about the key objectives? Any progress?’
‘The weakest points of the enemy defences had been identified.’
‘Finally, some good news. How is the reorganisation of our operational vehicles coming along?’
‘On that front, we will be ready soon. Of all the immobilised units a small portion were managed to be repaired on the field.’
‘Good! Give the orders, we will be moving out soon.’
‘My Lord, what about the wounded?’
‘Leave the wounded behind to continue the standoff on the stranded sectors. We are making an all-out attack with everything, that includes the left and right flank groups. We will all be pushing at the least guarded part of the enemy line. This ends now.’
One of the generals communicating on their vox network wanted to voice his opinion, ‘My Lord, should…’
‘Say no more!’ The lord general sharply rebuked before his subordinate could finish a statement. ‘It is decided! This time I will lead with the Indomitable Fury at the front! The left and right flank groups will join with the same example.’
The intensity of his voice made me wince and suddenly I found myself grabbing the podium to stabilize myself as another wave of dizziness hit me again.
Behind me came the surprised gasps of Welminah and Veritta, my condition had deteriorated until the point I could no longer hide my weakened state from them.
My strength and focus were rapidly slipping away. Meanwhile, the mad general was hell-bent on sending his entire army on a desperate mission for personal vendetta and would be starting his suicide run soon.