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Chapter 146: We Can't Go Back, Missing the Great Crusade
🕑 Added 2025-09-13 13:48:59 +0000 UTCChapter 146: We Can't Go Back, Missing the Great Crusade
"Lord Romulus, we have reached the near orbit of Optus."
The captain stood before the command console, his gaze locked on the flickering data-stream of the fleet's auspex. His fingers slid gently across the control panel, adjusting the display range to ensure that no detail was missed. The command deck was dimly lit, the blue light of the auspex reflecting on his face, making him look exceptionally solemn.
"The local area has suffered a large-scale invasion by the ground forces of the Iron Warriors and their Titan Legion. The central fortress has fallen. The threat has not yet expanded. The planetary population retention is approximately 72% of pre-war levels. No obvious signs of corruption have been detected," he continued to report, a hint of relief in his voice. The planet's surface had not fallen. This was unprecedentedly good news.
"The ground fortress has multiple layers of internal void shields. Orbital strikes will have limited effect. A ground assault is recommended." The captain paused, his gaze sweeping over the enemy force distribution displayed on the holographic projection. "The enemy's combat strength is preliminarily composed of two thousand Iron Warriors, a Chaos Titan Legion, and an unknown number of cultist troops."
Romulus stood in the center of the command platform, his hands clasped behind his back, his gaze like a torch as he stared at the holographic model of the planet.
The sons of Dorn, having just finished chopping up the Iron Warriors, were rubbing their hands together.
Clearly, the previous boarding action had not been enough to satisfy them. An average of three or more sons of Dorn for every Iron Warrior—these Iron Warriors had truly committed a heavenly sin.
"Maintain a minimum level of orbital strikes. Contact the surface defense forces. Transfer control of the anti-aircraft facilities," he commanded.
The officers in the command deck moved quickly, their fingers flying across the control panels, transmitting Romulus's orders.
Then Romulus's gaze fell on the holographic projection again, his brow slightly furrowed. He knew that the coming battle would not be as easy as the previous boarding action. The fortresses of the Iron Warriors were as troublesome as those of the Imperial Fists, and even more dangerous. If the fortresses of the Imperial Fists were built of solid stone, walls that were difficult to breach, then the fortresses of the Iron Warriors were meat-grinders made of steel.
To launch a rash attack would only be to repeat a mistake, just like their commander, Idriss, down there in the fortress, who had lost an Emperor-class Titan, half his Grand Company, and his own four limbs.
"Dan, as a tactical advisor, we need your opinion."
Romulus turned his head and looked at Dantioch, who was standing at his side. Dantioch nodded, without a hint of hesitation. He quickly walked to the holographic projection, his fingers flying across the control panel, and brought up a detailed data map of the fortress. Although ten thousand years had passed, it still had considerable reference value.
He had participated in the construction of this facility.
At that time, the Iron Warriors were advancing from north to south in the inner part of the Ultima Segmentum. After gnawing down this planet, which was occupied by a species of xenos that lived in a black fog, they had run into a migrating species of xenos called the Hrud, who could manipulate time, in their next war. After that was a great defeat caused by the Primarch's misjudgment. Dantioch, who had aged several thousand years, after giving Perturabo a good scolding, had been exiled to Schadvermund and had stayed there until the Great Betrayal.
"The structure is very complex. There is a lot of room for tactical counter-attacks," Drakus said, seeing at a glance the difficulty of this fortress as a defensive position. It was easy to get in, but it would be very difficult to annihilate the traitors within. Even if you were familiar with the terrain, it would be difficult to judge the enemy's fire distribution. There were too many one-way passages, which could easily cause huge casualties to both sides.
"We need to destroy these load-bearing areas to compress the enemy's maneuvering space," Helbrecht said with a frown, analyzing the fortress structure. The Black Templars were not just mindless berserkers. It was just that with Romulus in command, they didn't need to think so much.
And they were no longer surprised that these elders could casually pull out things from ten thousand years ago. Just like the Eternal Crusader, many of its functions had only been restored after the return of the elders of the Phalanx Warders.
"Then we will need heavy firepower to open the way. We must create as many breaches as possible and advance in a straight line. This way, we will have enough time to withdraw after the demolition is complete."
Everyone thought of the Ordinatus gun and immediately looked at Cawl.
"The lost technology has multiple layers of encryption. I am in the process of deciphering it," Cawl immediately said. The encryption technology of this Ordinatus Majoris involved the Dark Angels from ten thousand years ago and was specifically designed to counter the existing system of the Adeptus Mechanicus.
And the technological encryption of Warhammer tech was also encrypted in the Warp. To crack it, you could either use an overwhelming amount of Chaos corruption or rely on professional knowledge to decrypt it.
Some members of the Dark Mechanicum, lacking the necessary knowledge, had tried to take a shortcut with Chaos corruption, which had brought countless troubles to the Adeptus Mechanicus. Chaos corruption was absolutely not an option. If it was used, all relic technology of the same model would have problems. For humanity, it would be an unprecedented loss. So they could only rely on physical decryption.
Besides finding the Ironwing who had set the key at the time, only Idriss and his personal guard in the fortress below knew it.
"By the way, here is a combat record we just retrieved from the database." Romulus presented another document. Recently, Ramesses had been helping Romulus to specifically check the combat records of the Iron Warriors to run models against them. As a result, he had drawn a few Iron Warrior veterans as keywords and had gotten a hold of Idriss's tactics for operating the Ordinatus.
"Idriss once conducted a tactical experiment on the paradise world of Phoe-ros, against over a hundred Emperor's Children who were guarding a palace-fortress. This is the specific record of that time. He used this very Ordinatus. It can be used as a reference."
"..."
Everyone was a bit stunned. Even the observing Dark Angels had a look of horror.
Don't tell me the Ultramarines also have an organization that monitors all the Legions? Yes, for Guilliman to be able to persuade the Lion to participate in the establishment of the Imperium Secundus, he must have had a plan long ago.
Askelon felt it was necessary to remind the Knight-Lord. Although a deep friendship was the strongest bond between them, they had to be wary of the ambitious Ultramarines.
"Don't be anxious. We have plenty of time," Romulus reminded them.
The Dark Angels had rescued a considerable number of mortals during the Iron Warriors' invasion and had occupied more than half of the fortress's main city. This would greatly limit the Chaos side's ability to hold their ritual.
"Understood."
Everyone nodded and continued to discuss the details of the battle.
Under normal circumstances, for the Imperium to conquer such a fortress, excluding the use of an Exterminatus order, it would usually take years. Even with the powerful crusade fleet, in the psychological expectations of the M41 commanders, it would take at least several months. It was only with the input of the elders and various ancient war machines that the annihilation of the enemies of Mankind could be compressed into a matter of days.
At the same time, the various Astartes from this fallen age of M41 had, in one battle after another, clearly realized what a hard life they had been living before.
To be honest, they were having a hard time adapting to the present.
The combat model of the Great Crusade era was just too satisfying.
Author's Postscript: I have a civil service exam on Saturday, so the updates will be a bit less for these two days.
