Imperium Ascendant

Chapter Eighteen: The Battle of Ceres

Location: Interior of Spire-5

Date: 812.M30 (30 mins since Cohort 5 made planet fall)

The Interior of the spire reminded Sgt Hawkwood of ancient spiral fossils he had seen once displayed in a museum. The Entrance opened up onto a gently sloping spiral road that traced the edge of the spiral. Going left would take you deeper into the spiral and going right would take you higher up. A veritable horde of twittering Cyber-Altered Task-Servitors or CATS were released into the dark interior. Each equipped with a scanner suite and programmed to venture and scan anywhere not mapped by the Legion.

The Predators took formation and prepared to descend into the Spire. Scans indicated the spiral road was composed of the same void-coral that made up the rest of the Spire. Yet it was more worn and damaged than anywhere else. It occurred to Hawkwood this was not natural erosion. It was an effect of thousands if not millions of slaves wearing away at it as they were moved by their masters.

Suddenly those masters descended from above, like twisted parodies of bats the Xenos flew from the shadowed heights of the spire they dwelled in. The same twisted lighting that had been unleashed earlier by the Xeno Energy weapons crackled down. Lashing at vehicles and marching Astartes in great gouts of cancerous energy.

Turret mounted weapons opened fire on the descending Xenos, Infantry Astartes deployed from their transports and joined the firefight. Bolt Shells, Volkite beams, and a few more exotic projectiles filled the dark cavernous spire. The Q'Hrel had realized very quickly with the destruction of their Vanguard beasts that they were disadvantaged on the field of battle. Guile, ambush and as the Astartes quickly learned psychological warfare would be the stratagem of the Xenos.

The psychological warfare in question was discovered as a squad of Jump-Infantry rocketed up into the darkness to strike the Xenos in flight. They were the first to see the next part of the alien attack. The squad captain voxed the entire Cohort in a brief warning of what he saw. "Inbound bombardment, biological weapons likely."

Ten meters from Sgt Hawkwoods Tank something splattered into the helix-road. Numerous Spotter lights fixated on the pulped mass of tissue. It twitched and slowly pulled itself to its feet. Even after a lifetime of slavery and the catastrophic trauma of impact the emaciated form of a human child was still recognizable.

Despite not being Warp-Touched and firmly protected inside the Predator he commanded Hawkwood felt the warps corruption ooze off the child-thing. Some curse akin to what had kept the War-beasts alive animated the corpse. Or what had seemed to be a corpse. Its dented skull turned to face the nearest Astartes who was slowly approaching it with bolter-ready. The child's mouth opened and vocal cords raw from screaming spoke. The dialect barely resembled gothic and it was more of a bloody croak than a sentence, but the Astartes could understand it still. "Make it stop, please make it stop."

As it spoke the child lurched towards the Astartes, puppeteered by some inscrutable force it flailed its limbs uselessly at the Space Marine. Kept alive by foul sorcery the child's mind was intact enough to suffer while its body was used to attack who should have been its savior. With no hesitation, pity or remorse the Astartes fired his bolter and extinguished the last traces of the child's half-life.

The battle continued and so did the bombardment, hundreds of mutilated children rained down upon the Astartes. They were terror weapons, meant to demoralize and horrify attackers. The Astartes only noticed them when they got underfoot or could be easily dispatched.

That is not to say they did not have an effect on the Battle-Brothers of the First Legion. A cold brutal fury similar to their gene-fathers own ignited in each and every Astartes witness to the atrocity. The Xenos would be purged with ruthless efficiency, once the first Legion had finished its duty the only evidence of the slaver-scums existence would be within Imperial Archives.

The battle raged and a handful of Astartes were slain under concentrated fire while thousands of Xenos were ripped from the sky. the Cohorts lead Chaplain opened up a general Vox signal and addressed the Astartes army as one. "Our Armor is Contempt, Our Shield is Disgust, Our Sword is Hatred."

As one the Cohort responded with the Hypno-indoctrinated response. "In the Emperor's name let none survive"

For nearly an hour the 5th Cohort of the First Legion butchered the Xenos. The Q'hrel were naturally physically tough and further augmented by sorcery and technology. The cold of the void or Ocean depths did little to inconvenience them. Even so, Bolt shell reduced them to pulped slurries, and Volkites burned them to ash. The puppeteered children could be dispatched with the destruction of the brain stem and posed little threat to the Emperors Angels. Even the Xeno energy weapons required several seconds of sustained fire from multiple sources to kill an Astartes. It occurred to Hawkwood the Xenos weaponry might have been designed to maim and torture slaves or beasts, not cutting through centimeter thick ceramite.

The few straggling Xenos were killed by roving squads of sixth formation CQC infantry who had been supporting beleaguered fifth formation fire-teams. All were slain except one. A particularly large and gaudily decorated specimen whose left wing and graspers had been blown off. A faint mewling escaped the Q'Hrell occasionally and it attempted to drag itself out of the ring of Astartes that circled it. An armored kick to its injuries dissuaded it each time.

Hawkwoods Tank company was close by and watched the captured creatures meet its fate. It seemed the Infantry had been ordered to capture any enemy commanders if possible. The reasoning became readily available when an Astartes in the trappings of the Librarius approached the Xeno. The Q'Hrel sensed what was coming and its efforts to escape redoubled.

Witch-Fire streamed from the Librarians eyes and his Psychic-Hood crackled with Warp-Lighting. The sigils on the Psykers armor marked him as Telepathica Librarian, a specialist in ripping open the minds of the enemy and twisting the perception of the weak. The Librarian telekinetically restrained the creature, a mist of warp-frost coating its limbs. While he chanted psi-mantras to ground himself and focus his powers.

All but the most psychically dull could sense what happened next. Like an adder sinking its fangs into its prey, the Librarians mind struck the Xenos. The Creature thrashed and squealed as knowledge, secrets and it's very thoughts were ripped out of it and analyzed by the Librarian. Centuries worth of Xeno memories were sifted through and the most important details were plucked away.

The Librarian was thankful despite the Xenos appearance its neurology was not too radically different from humans and deciphering the memories was fairly easy. Tactical information was acquired and basic knowledge of the Xeno's language and communication methods.

A small pack of Calligraphus and Vox Servitors were disgorged from the transport the Librarian had exited. Electrical bursts erupted from the Librarians hood and arked over to specially designed receptors attached to the Servitors. Knowledge torn from the Xeno's mind was injected into the lobotomized cyborgs. It was recorded perfectly by the Servitors and Voxed in data bursts to the Orbiting fleet who then analyzed it.

Drained of its knowledge the quivering Xeno was released from the Librarians telekinetic grip. A brutal thrust with a force sword finished the broken Q'Hrel, the tattered remnants of its soul burned in Witch-Fire. The Cohorts Lord Commander ordered a detachment of three hundred Marines to clear out the top of the spire and then ensure the security of the landing site and spire base. Spire-5 would be the beachhead the Imperium needed.

Armed with new knowledge that quickly circulated through the Cohort and new orders from the Fleet the rest of the Fifth Cohort advanced into the Depths of Ceres. Down and down they went, the Helix-road showing no signs of ending until they were nearly three kilometers below the planet's surface. Eventually, it emptied out into a massive underground cavern.

Stretching as far as the Astartes sensors could detect the Cavern was roughly cross-shaped, with the helix-road coiling down from the Spire-shaft that formed the crosses junction. This was an entry point to a great subterranean highway that connected the Spires, mines, and slave pits of Ceres. Carved from solid bedrock by ancient humans and widened and modified for the Xenos insidious purpose.

Sgt. Hawkwood for a brief moment wondered if a Titan-Equivalent could be in these tunnels, they were certainly big enough to comfortably hold a smaller one or a Knight-mech. He doubted it, such a weapon would have already been used in the conflict. These tunnels were the size they were to allow easy transport of minerals and millions of slaves.

New Orders came in, The Tank Company Hawkwood was part of would lead the scouring and conquest of the Northern route of the Highway. The Cohort would be subdivided into Four elements that would spread out and claim the subterranean passages for the Imperium. A senior Chaptermaster would each lead one while the Battle-Master would coordinate and oversee the occupation from the quickly assembling basecamp in the Xeno-Spire.

The Fifth Cohort marched forth into the depths of Ceres. Each cohort-fourth formed an unstoppable tide that poured through the tunnel. Like a wave of cleansing fire, they blasted through numerous Q'Hrel blockades and defensive positions.

Recon squads occasionally splintered off into mining-crevices that dotted the cavern's walls. Most of the mines they explored were long abandoned, littered with the bones of long-dead slaves. A few held work-gangs of humans and Xenos. Utterly broken in mind, body and soul the slaves had to be ordered at gunpoint to leave the mines and head towards the basecamp quickly assembling at the spire. They would be useful labor until refugee ships could arrive to pick them up.

The Cohorts main divisions butchered through the tunnel at a steady pace. Their orders were to meet up with any friendlies who had entered from different spires. This happened to Hawkwoods semi-cohort a few hours into the tunnel battle. A horde of Xenos and their war-beasts had tried to fortify a segment of the cavern into a makeshift bunker. The Xenos had the terrible luck to be assaulted by two different Astartes forces simultaneously. Forced to subdivided themselves to face the twin encroaching forces they were easily ripped apart.

When the Predators Cogitators notified him friendlies were in the area Hawkwood ensured his crew was careful with their volleys. Avoiding friendly fire has always been a priority on the battlefield. Eventually, the twin forces met in the center of the Xeno encampment. Commanding officers exchanged pleasantries and information. The friendlies were a mixed formation chapter from Cohort 9. Plans were made to work together to clear a side-tunnel the Mixed-Chapter had discovered.

Right as the joint operation prepared to roll out a massive planetquake shook the cavern. Stone cracked and baseline humans would have been thrown to the ground. After a few seconds of shaking it stopped. The tunnel settled and thankfully no debris larger than a human head fell from the ceiling. As the Astartes grounded themselves a simple message blipped through the vox. "The Second Legion has joined the battle"

Location: Outer orbit of Ceres

Date: 812.M30 (Four hours since the First legion made planetfall)

The Void was alight. Weapon fire from thousands of barrels poured from the Imperial Fleet. Lances, Macro-Cannons firing both material and plasma-shells pelted the surface of the Slaver-world. The grand shields of the Xeno's protected most of their spires but another six (with no deployed Astartes inside) towers were reduced to rubble by the bombardment.

Mass destruction while certainly, an effect of the attack was not its goal. Eddard Fendragon had wagered Xeno-Vessels were hidden across and below the dwarf-planets surface. The Q'Hrel fleet stationed in the Asteroid Belt was fast assembling and approaching, it was forming up into a single massive armada in hopes of challenging the First Legion Fleet. Having a second fleet disgorged from Ceres would prove a tactical nightmare. So the bombardment continued. All while Drop-ships rained down, providing armor and supplies to the advancing Astartes within the planet.

Eddard watched on the grand-tactical map as new information poured in. Formed from memories stolen by the Librarius and real-time tactical data it allowed the Primarch to observe and coordinate the battle. A wave of green dots on the map representing allies slowly pushed the Xenos deeper and deeper into the planet. The legion formed an ever-tightening noose, forcing the enemy into less territory.

The battle would only get harder from here. The planets depths had time to attempt to fortify, and any survivors of the hastily created defenses would further bolster the Xenos. This could not turn into a siege battle. The Astartes needed to crush the Q'Hrel in one solid push. It seemed something located deep within the planet was the center of the Xeno-Fortifications. Records supplied by Malcadors agents indicated it was some sort of Golden-Age communication nexus.

Taking it would be difficult but not impossible. The deployed Legion would encircle and pressure it. Forcing them to divide their forces, then Eddard would lead the First Cohort to breach the defenses and decapitate the enemy leadership. The First Legion landing forces were doing their duties well, but Eddard would not leave the Orbital war until his brother arrived.

Small escort swarms from the Belt Fleet were already harrying the First Legion fleet. Spread out over the Dwarf-Planet in bombardment formation the Fleet was not in a state to handily win the oncoming engagement. They would, but at too high of a cost. This is where the Second Legions duties would come in. They would soon arrive and strike down the Xeno-fleet, allowing the First Legion to continue and win the ground war.

The Second Legion should have arrived earlier to prevent this situation, Eddard could telepathically sense some of his Fleet-captains starting to wonder if moving into a more defensive situation was advisable. Yet even as the Xeno Armada got closer and closer to firing range Eddard held firm. He trusted his brother and had a strong (possibly psychically based) hunch of what Aleixo Garvia was planning.

Those suspicions were realized as an urgent astropathic message blared through the First Legion Fleet. All it said was "Hold Fast"

On all channels, Eddard ordered his fleet to brace for impact and swore internally to himself. The Xeno fleet was bunched up, all desperate to strike the invaders and help save their property of Ceres. Thousands of strange Xeno-ships and individual Q'hrel massed together and prepared to attack the fleet. A few seconds later two-thirds of the fleet would be reduced to ash and plasma.

The Second Legions fleet arrived into the battle, no, into the enemy fleet itself. While moving at a disturbingly high percentage of light speed. Executing a maneuver that had been labeled extremely dangerous during the Golden Age and barely theoretically possible in the Age of Strife the Second Legion struck.

Alexio Gravia used his tremendous intellect and skill in voidcraft to perform a technique ancient Void-Admirals called Insteins Fist. His entire fleet under his careful orders and calculations had arrived at near light speed. Precise manipulation of the fleets grav and shield systems created a pseudo-bubble of normal void-conditions around the fleet as its Plasma-Drives accelerated them to relativistic speeds in a matter of moments. After a few minutes of this travel the vessels rapidly deaccelerated through auxiliary thrusters and further gravitational manipulation right on target.

The end result was the Second Legion and Imperial fleet leaving Martian orbit and arriving in Ceres orbit after only a few minutes of travel The fleet was cloaked in a wave of plasma, as the accelerating had caused any matter encountered in transit to undergo a fusion reaction, detonating into a cloud of energy and radiation. Additionally, the sheer momentum of the fleet caused space/time itself to bend and twist. Forming a near-fold in spacetime as the materium tried to cope with the sudden creation and dissolution of a truly massive gravity well

So when the Second Legion and Imperial Fleets arrived into the massed Xeno armada they did so cloaked in simultaneous nuclear detonations and riding an artificial Gravitational Wave. The cataclysmic amount of energy released was carefully funneled by the positioning of the arriving ships. Protecting the Imperial Fleet while wrecking devastating upon the Xeno fleet.

Annihilated instantly the Xeno counter-assault was broken, gravity waves rocked the fleet like an oceanic tide. Massive fissures ripped open in Ceres crust. Some of the remaining unbreached or unbroken towers collapsed under the artificial tectonic stress. Eddard mused that sending his brother data of the battle had allowed Alexios genius to figure out a way to aim the gravity wave that efficiently.

The First Legion Fleet watched with a mix of shock and awe as the wave of annihilation spread out and the newly arrived fleet took up battle positions. Quickly subdividing the Second Legion and Imperial Armada formed into hunter-groups. Each lead by an Astartes-Admiral tutored by the Second Primarch. They spread through the Asteroid Belt crushing any resistance and bringing the maze of rock and void-scrap under Imperial Compliance.

Data, tactical information and more were rapidly exchanged between the fleets and Eddard was confident the Void was under Imperial Control. Turning a part of his attention to the tactical map he was relieved to learn there had been no fallout in the tunnels. They were deep and stable enough to protect the Astartes from the quakes, he did wonder how many slave mines collapsed from the attack. Acceptable but unnecessary losses, he would need to have words with his Brother…

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