Arik Taranis never thought he would ever command an army again, especially not one from Terra. Sure, his master had sent him on some classified missions known only to a handful, but even on those he had only been accompanied by a dozen or so Custodians. Most of the time now, he remained secluded in the palace with his sole surviving son Ghota.
Arik Taranis do not like war, only the mad and insane can truly love the hell on earth that it is. Still, when he looked back to the first battles of the Unification Wars, he remembered fondly the relationship he and his sons forged on the battlefield, even though none of them ever knew his true identity as the Emperor's bastard child.
He supposed the relative quiet of his life during the Great Crusade was the Emperor's way of granting him a cozy retirement to make up for throwing him into some of the most hellish wars Terra had ever seen and for not raising him as he had done with his true sons.
That was not to say Arik despised the Emperor or his sons, his creator was the best hope there was for mankind in this blighted hateful galaxy. He had also aided the golden man in raising his 20 sons or 21 if you counted both Alpharius and Omegon. He recalled with a smile how they had sincerely called him uncle and how that felt, for some reason, right.
However, one day Malcador summoned him, as for why, he did not know. Arik had mostly cut himself off from the outside world, so much so that the average Imperial citizen only knew about the Thunder Warriors from the speeches of historitors, really just propagandists, of how they had gloriously fallen slaying the abominable intelligences of the ethnarchy. The fact that he was even still alive, while not exactly a secret, was also not widely known as he had long since retreated from the public eye.
So, when Malcador informed him of the events that had occurred in the past week and how he had been selected to lead an army of mostly green rookies through the anomaly that was now being referred to as the ''Gate'' or Unknown Solid Terrestrial Terran Interplanetary Portal Construct Type A, if you wanted to get technical and have your ears talked off by the cog boys. When he had inquired on why he had been chosen for this task, Malcador had simply retorted, ''Who else should be sent then Arik''. To this, he simply had no response as truthfully, he was indeed the only veteran general the Imperium currently had on Terra, with all others fighting many tens if not hundreds of thousands of light years away.
After pondering over the matter Arik finally relented on leading the expedition that would be sent across the Gate. He knew when duty called, after all, he was the Imperium's very first transhuman general.
In subsequent discussions it was decided that Arik would leave assembling and organizing the force to Malcador as he was never much of a logistician. Meanwhile he would have the honor of naming the army and preparing plans on how to bring the world on the other side into compliance. To accomplish this task, he would require intelligence on what he would be facing on the other side. Luckily for him, there were tens of thousands of prisoners with all of the knowledge he would require in the cells of the Arbites headquarters.
Adeptus Arbites holding cells
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Count Formal, lord of one of the most important centers of trade in the Empire, Italica, was close to having a nervous breakdown, he had never supported the Saderan Empire's expansionist policies, much less its policies on the horrendous treatment of demi humans and slaves. Nonetheless, he had joined the expedition across the Gate as the Empire had called for all nobles close to Arnus hill, which it had manifested on, to give support to the Empire's legions which would cross it and claim the land, people and riches on the other side in the name of Emperor Molt Sol Augustus. At least, that's what had been expected, but things didn't turn out that way, not at all.
When they had exited the gate, they saw a magnificent sight, buildings which soared so high they had the crane their necks to see the top of. Some of the buildings were so tall, they literally soared above the clouds, each and every one of them as white as the finest marble and decorated with golden symbols of a twin headed eagle. The street which they had stepped on in front of the Gate, was unbelievably wide, wider than any canal or river he had seen, much less any road built by any civilization known to him and made of a material that seemed far stronger than the concrete used by the Empire.
What most concerned Count Formal though at the time, were what seemed to be the knights of whatever polity's territory they had intruded upon. They were quite a few inches taller than the average Saderan legionary and bedecked in impressive black armor. The armored figures stood facing them holding blocky staffs, clipped to their belts could be seen maces. Beside the knights were what seemed to be vehicles of some kind, but their design simply didn't make any sense to the Count. The vehicles were easily the size of a house and clearly heavily plated, even more perplexing, was that the vehicles didn't seem to have anything to harness a horse to, to move them, although he doubted even a dozen horses could pull one of the things. Perplexing him further, were the metal flying constructs that circled above, he could never have dreamed that such a thing could fly, especially something so squared. Inside the sky born object, he could even make out the vague shapes of people inside.
Despite all this before them however, the general assigned to lead them seemed eager to plunder this land and its secrets after seeing the wealth and wonders it contained. Count Formal though, now found such a prospect far less certain than he had believed before seeing what he saw now, surely a nation capable of achieving feats such as these could not be so easy to conquer. As such he urged the general to be cautious.
Count Formal: General! I would advise that we act with more caution than we previously had planned.
Saderan General: You lack a spine Count, the Saderan Empire has faced challenges before, but has emerged victorious time and time again.
Count Formal: But sire thi-
Saderan General: SILENCE! I shall not have a fear monger infect the ranks with defeatism, Count, know your place, this is the army, not some soft trade city.
Before Count Formal could reply to the general, a voice was heard from the opposite force.
???: To the army which has exited the unknown construct, you are all intruding on the throne world of his majesty the Emperor, Master of all Mankind, you have thirty seconds to identify yourselves or you will be fired upon.
After hearing the stern commanding voice of the opposing leader and his ultimatum, the general was incensed.
Saderan General: How dare you barbarians make demands of your rightful superiors, and how dare your lord falsely declare himself the emperor of mankind! BEGIN THE ATTACK!
At the general's order, one of the signal men near him blew his horn, signaling the auxiliary monsters at the front to charge. What followed was the most gruesome display of power Count Formal had yet seen in his life, but it was sadly not destined to be his last.
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