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Chapter 256: Colossus
🕑 Added 2025-08-30 15:27:15 +0000 UTCChapter 256: Colossus
"Warmaster! Legio Vulcanum has defeated the Imperial Knights! However, among the enemy Titans, we have encountered several new patterns. Their mobility is poor, but their firepower is exceptionally fierce! They are like mobile artillery platforms and are causing significant trouble for our advance."
In the distance, the wreckage of several Chaos Warhound-class Titans lay scattered across the earth. These god-machines had been destroyed by the Thors that Lucan had deployed. Although the traitor legions had, on paper, destroyed a considerable number of Thors, these single-pilot vehicles were constantly being repaired by SCVs and returned to the battlefield. With their internal combat-assist systems, they could even be easily operated as stationary turrets in an emergency.
At that moment, Abaddon stood with his grip tight on his daemon sword, Drach'nyen. The corpse of an Adeptus Custodes was still impaled upon the Talon of Horus on his other arm. Around him lay the bodies of both loyalists and his own Black Legionnaires. There were loyal Astartes from various chapters, Battle Sisters, Tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and a great number of Cadian soldiers outfitted in powersuits. He had not been able to stop them all; a few had managed to escape back to their lines.
Common renegades were now stripping the powersuits from the fallen Cadians, salvaging what they could for their own use. They had already experienced firsthand the massive boost these suits gave to the combat effectiveness of mortal troops. Some Warpsmiths were even attempting to bind daemons to the suits to make them function again.
The moment Abaddon had appeared on the battlefield, the loyalist commanders had organized a decapitation strike. While they had managed to kill many of Abaddon's Chosen, the attempt had ultimately failed. During the fighting, however, the soldiers in powersuits had managed to kill several of his Long War veterans in Terminator Armour in a frontal assault—something that would have been impossible before.
Abaddon contemptuously flung the Custodian's body aside. He despised these warriors who styled themselves as the Corpse-Emperor's masterpieces. The man had caused him considerable trouble and killed many of his followers.
Abaddon's silence told his warriors that he was clearly displeased with their current progress. The already tenacious Cadian soldiers, now bolstered by the powersuits, were making them pay for every inch of ground with unforeseen losses. When a soldier was killed, the Widow Mines hidden in their position would inflict yet more casualties on the troops who overran it. Abaddon's Black Legion was paving its path with their own lives.
Were it not for the daemonic legions summoned by his sorcerers, Abaddon realized his own forces might not have been able to break through the enemy's defensive lines. And now, even mere mortals could so easily threaten the daemonic...
The objective of the force Abaddon personally led was Kasr Kraf, where the shield array protecting the entire planet was located. But the Cadians had poured untold resources into their final bastion. Although Castellan Creed was not present, Logan Grimnar, the Great Wolf, had taken charge of the defense. Garadon of the Imperial Fists had also dispatched several of his sergeants to advise on the fortress's defensive emplacements.
Abaddon glanced towards the Blackstone Plains. The concentration of Daemon Primarchs there was causing strange phenomena to appear in the sky. He had assumed the Primarchs would be able to deal with the Imperial fleet in the void. Instead, reports from his fleet indicated that they had been forced to withdraw to the planet's surface. While this surprised him, it was ultimately a good thing. The Primarchs' assault on the Blackstone Plains would draw pressure away from his own front. As the Daemon Primarchs began their slaughter on the plains, Abaddon could already feel the resistance here lessening.
"Do not relent! Have the daemon legions and mortal cultists clear the way! Screen the advance of Legio Vulcanum! No matter how strong their infantry is, they cannot withstand the assault of a Titan!"
The two Titan Legions remained his most powerful asset.
At that moment, the defense of Kasr Kraf was being conducted by 20 regiments of Cadian Kasrkin, nearly a hundred regular Cadian infantry regiments, and close to 50 Astra Militarum regiments from other worlds. The Space Wolves, Dark Angels, and Howling Griffons Chapters were also garrisoned there. Dius and one other Custodian were on the Blackstone Plains, while the remaining two were stationed within Kasr Kraf.
"The decapitation strike failed," Logan Grimnar of the Space Wolves growled in frustration. "There are too many of those enemy god-machines. The Rogue Trader's Thors couldn't achieve a decisive result. And what are those Tech-priests of the Cult of the Holy Machine still doing in that forge? It was stripped of resources long ago! They should be here, helping with the defense!"
Although the Tech-priests had provided them with great assistance, Grimnar believed it was no excuse for them to avoid the front lines.
"Do not be so harsh on them," said the Dark Angel, Korahael. "We have no time to worry about such matters now. Our only concern is how to hold this position. This fortress is as important as the Blackstone Plains."
"My Lord! We have a situation! The lookouts report an emergency!" A Cadian soldier burst frantically into the command center.
"Calm yourself! What happened? Has Chaos launched another major assault somewhere?"
"No... not that... by the Emperor, xenos! So many xenos, and xenos war machines tens of meters tall... they... they are attacking the traitors! They just appeared on the battlefield out of nowhere!"
"What are you talking about? Where would xenos come from on this planet? Is the Chaos fleet in orbit just for decoration? Even if there were xenos, how did they break the blockade to reach Cadia? A sixty-meter-tall xenos machine? There's nowhere on Cadia to hide something like that! Could it be the Eldar, using the Webway?"
The assembled Astartes commanders were clearly skeptical.
"It's not the Eldar! I swear it on the God-Emperor!"
The commanders exchanged glances, then immediately rushed from the command center towards the front lines. When they saw the scene before them, they believed the soldier's words. "Many" was an understatement. This wasn't "many," it was an ocean of xenos.
A sea of purple carapaces, seemingly vast enough to cover the entire continent, swarmed across the land, while the skies above teemed with Zerg aerial units. Even from the forward trenches, they could hear the screeching of the Swarm, a sound so piercing it made their eardrums ache. This was the largest-scale appearance of the Zerg in this universe to date.
The commanders saw that the Zerg were emerging from the direction of the forge complex. Then, a message came through their vox-casters—it was the Tech-priests of the Cult of the Holy Machine. They were informing them that these xenos were friendly forces.
"These xenos are... friendlies? Emperor preserve us..."
Mortal soldiers poked their heads out of the trenches to stare at the unbelievable sight. They looked at their officers, their eyes all asking the same question: What do we do now? The officers were just as dumbfounded. You're asking me? I have no idea what to do.
And this wasn't even the full extent of the Swarm. The Nydus Worms were still continuously transporting Zerg from Char to Cadia. It wasn't just the Zerg, either. The Colossi had appeared on Cadia just as suddenly.
At that moment, Kerrigan stood atop the head of a Colossus. She looked down upon the land as the Chaos legions advanced. Using the resources at his disposal, Artanis had constructed a total of 30 Colossi. Three such machines could annihilate a civilization just beginning to achieve interstellar travel in a short amount of time. While the gap in civilizations was vast, it spoke to their efficiency.
These four-legged, crab-like war machines towered into the sky, dwarfing even a Warlord-class Titan. They were protected by the most advanced Protoss shield technology, and their primary weapons were devastating thermal beams. They could sweep the ground clear of enemy units with terrifying efficiency; one could think of it as a continuous, non-stop melta barrage that never needed to cool down.
The Colossus's only weakness was its inability to engage aerial targets. But Kerrigan's presence completely negated that disadvantage. The energy consumption of these unmanned war machines was immense, and building thirty of them had left Artanis with no resources to provide them with Protoss air support. Every Protoss unit was powerful, but every one of them was also a massive drain on psionic energy.
Fortunately, here, there was no animosity between the Protoss and the Zerg. Such intimate cooperation between the two races would have been an impossible sight in their home universe.
The vanguard of the Zerg Swarm was already engaging the daemon legions and mortal traitors.
