In the first month of the year 837.
Bolti, a Catachan-born Shadow of Order, led his squad astride their Catachan wolves toward Foundry No. 19 of the Seventh Forge Temple.
The manufactorum had long since been reduced to ruin by the savage war-beasts of the Tarellian hordes.
Every Catachan-born warrior stood tall and powerfully built, larger than most Shadows of Order who were not transhuman, comparable even to the newly named Salamanders of the 18th Legion.
When the great Tarellian war-beast packs were first hunted, they were crushed swiftly.
For months afterward, the Catachan hunters continued to pursue scattered remnants of those beasts.
Bolti gently stroked his Catachan wolf's thick fur and said quietly, "Ungula, take the pack. Find the beasts and draw them in."
"Afterward, all the drake meat I've saved will be yours."
Ever since their Gene-Father had departed Nocturne, he had occasionally distributed drake meat to the legions. Bolti had received some of it.
Catachan was far from any agricultural worlds under legion control. Like most Imperial legions, the Seventh subsisted on triglyceride gels and amino gruels, injecting intravenous nutrient packs and nutrient paste during combat.
When they wanted to change the bland taste, they ate things like dried Catachan viper jerky.
To Bolti, the rare and tender flesh of the drakes was a true delicacy.
But this time, he decided to part with it, because after his victories against the Aeldar pirates and the Osirian campaigns, he had earned a chance.
Bolti had been informed he was now under consideration for the Honor Guard of their Primarch.
To earn the right to follow his Gene-Father personally, he had to outperform every other candidate in the cleansing of the war-beast remnants.
Ungla, the green-furred wolf, had lost half of its left paw in battle with a Catachan demon.
That was how it earned its name, and why it had become the alpha.
Broken Claw gave a low howl to the nine other Catachan wolves, then sprinted away. The pack followed swiftly behind.
Bolti looked to his squad, eyes glinting beneath his helm.
"The beasts have no armor plating like our wolves, and the Tarellians think simply. Their pursuit of the wolf pack will give us a clear line."
"So we'll seed the area with fragmentation mines, and make this a true hunt."
The Shadows of Order moved at once. They were veterans of Catachan's jungles, masters of traps and explosives.
After the mines were laid, the Catachan-born Shadows, ambush specialists all, took up positions.
They waited, patient and still, as true hunters do.
Then came the thunder of hooves, da-da-da-da, rolling across the ground. The Shadows could already picture the war-beasts surging like a tidal wave toward them.
Bolti saw Broken Claw leading the charge, and behind it, countless monstrous shapes flooding in.
Some were rhinoceros-like beasts with grotesque faces growing from their forelegs.
Others had leonine bodies with their heads hanging upside down from their bellies, bobbing wildly as they ran.
…...
Bolti pulled a signal flare from his belt, hurled it, and it burst into a blinding green light just ahead of the minefield.
The wolves veered aside instantly, sprinting to the flanks.
The war-beasts, however, were too slow to react.
They barreled straight into the killing field.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Thousands of fragmentation charges detonated in unison.
Tens of thousands of Tarellians were shredded to pieces, their limbs and blood raining down in a storm of gore.
"Open fire!" Bolti ordered. The rain of blood didn't hinder the Shadows' vision.
A storm of gunfire rained down upon the war-beasts, mowing through their ranks with mechanical precision.
Bolti emptied one magazine after another, watching the Tarellian life-sign runes vanish from his visor display.
The tactical HUD shifted their threat rating from Moderate to Low.
Only when the sensor net registered the war-beasts' numbers dropping to 10.25% did the alien minds finally realize what was happening.
The first leonine Tarellian turned to flee. The rest followed.
"Pursue!"
The Catachan-born Shadows drew their Demon Claws, their own variant of the power sword.
The blade's guard was shaped like a sharp-beaked bird, and its edge was a half-serrated cold steel fang.
Catachans called this weapon the Catachan War Blade, their longest reaching 1.2 meters.
Both the Seventh Legion and their Catachan auxiliaries forged similar designs for their officers, but the Shadows' weapons were longer, suited to their massive frames.
They charged like tanks at full speed, closing the distance in moments.
Their Demon Claws blazed with power, cutting through alien flesh in a blur of motion.
The wolf pack joined in from the flanks, lunging and tearing into the fleeing leonine beasts.
Time and again, the Tarellians tried to flee, but the wolves' superior speed trapped them. Only a few managed to escape.
In the fourth month of 837, within the territory of House Mordred, the mightiest noble family on Incaladion.
Explosions thundered. Rubble lay everywhere.
Within his Punisher-class Manticore Knight, the Abomination of Rebellio, Lord Victor, patriarch of House Mordred, powered up his reactor.
He watched another friendly rune vanish from his screen and shouted over the vox:
"I've called for aid from the Forge Temple! The Magi report that Primarch Lord Nareth himself has dispatched the Engines of the God-Machine to our rescue!"
"Hold fast! Reinforcements are on their way!"
He transmitted the message to all Knight pilots, hoping to steel their courage against the Titans bearing down on them.
Gripping the control gauntlets tightly, Victor maneuvered the Abomination Rebellio with desperate skill, dodging the fire of five traitor Titans.
The rebels had seized these Titans during the temple uprising. After long months of repair and retraining crews, they had unleashed them four standard hours ago against House Mordred.
Victor's house had resisted with unyielding defiance, destroying four Titans thanks to their fortifications, but at terrible cost: twelve Knights lost, their estates ravaged.
A colossal explosion shook the ground. Victor clenched his teeth as a massive yellow war engine charged toward his lines, swinging a gigantic chainblade down upon one of his House's Knights.
The severed steel arm of his comrade crashed beside him, fueling his fury.
Victor raised his Knight's left arm and fired the Avenger cannon, unleashing searing shells toward the traitor Warlord Titan.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The detonations echoed through the air, but Victor's expression remained grim.
His augury crown displayed the truth; the Titan's void shields held firm.
A chill of despair crept through him. The Abomination Rebellio could not stand against a God-Machine. His barrage hadn't even strained the voids.
He jerked the control gauntlets, forcing his Knight to weave and retreat with surprising agility.
The alarms screamed in his crown; three Titans had locked onto him. The traitors wanted the patriarch of House Mordred dead.
Just as despair swallowed him whole, new runes flared across his display.
A massive yellow war engine appeared ahead, not striped like the Legio Fureans, but gleaming gold-yellow, the color of the Legio Gryphonicus.
The Legio Gryphonicus Legion had been commanded by Nareth to reclaim the Knight Houses, using the reverence of the Mechanicum for Titans as divine engines, and to spearhead the assault on entrenched enemy positions.
Now, they had reached their final objective, the rescue of House Mordred.
Titan after Titan strode onto the battlefield, their overwhelming firepower raining destruction upon the traitor engines.
Under the crushing barrage, the five rebel Titans fell one by one.
Victor, reborn in hope, rallied his surviving Knights. Together with the Legio Gryphonicus, they unleashed a storm of vengeful fire upon their betrayers.
By the time the forty-first Legio Gryphonicus Titan entered the fray, all enemy Titans had been annihilated.