Boom! Boom!
The planetary defense orbital cannons were the first to open fire.
Nuceria's orbital cannon arrays were no ordinary macro-cannons.
They were super-heavy orbital cannons, retrofitted under the supervision of Solus Prime. The barrel of each gun rivaled the main cannon of a battleship, and their destructive power was far beyond that of a typical defense battery.
When the first salvo of light tore through the void, the vanguard of the Word Bearers fleet did not even have time to raise their void shields.
BOOM—!!!
Blinding white light pierced through three cruisers.
One of them was vaporized instantly, while the other two disintegrated in catastrophic secondary explosions. Their burning wrecks plummeted like meteors into Nuceria's atmosphere.
The Word Bearers' fleet command channel erupted into a cacophony of chaotic roars.
"Evasive maneuvers! Evasive maneuvers!" the commanders of the Word Bearers vessels screamed as they scrambled to take emergency action.
"Their orbital fire is too—" A commander's sentence was cut short as his ship was torn apart by the immense firepower.
The second wave of shots followed in close succession.
This time, the Word Bearers fleet finally managed to react. The void shields of several capital ships flickered to life, barely withstanding the bombardment, but a worse situation was about to unfold.
This time, Axis's Golden Legion had come fully prepared for war. Every single one of their orbital cannons was supplied with more than enough power to fire relentlessly.
The pressure on each Word Bearers vessel was so immense that their void shields reached critical limits almost instantly, collapsing under the overload.
One of their battleships took a direct hit to its port side. The armor was melted clean through, and the internal ammunition stores ignited in a chain reaction. The entire vessel broke in half, its burning hull twisting silently in the vacuum before exploding into a brilliant firework display that obliterated countless Chaos cultists and traitors.
Lorgar stood on the bridge of his flagship, his face grim.
"Axis… you damn bastard, you were ready for this!" Lorgar roared in fury.
His original plan had been to have Nuceria voluntarily lower its defenses, allowing him to launch a direct drop-assault on the surface. But now, his fleet could not even get close to the planet's orbit.
Worse, the main fleet of the Golden Legion was now closing in on him. More importantly, he still had not seen his primary target, the Celestial-class battleship Solus Prime, the largest warship in the entire Imperium.
"All ships, concentrate fire and destroy that main gun battery!" Lorgar commanded, pointing to the largest orbital cannon platform on the hololithic display.
The Word Bearers fleet turned their weapons.
The main cannons of the Chaos battleships began to charge, a vile, purple-black energy gathering within their barrels.
"Fire!"
Dozens of Chaos energy beams shot towards the orbital emplacement. But just a moment before impact, a pale golden energy barrier suddenly manifested—a Sacred Shield defensive field deployed by the Golden Legion.
The Chaos bolts exploded against the shield, causing little more than a ripple. This was not a void shield but a pure energy field, a shield system created from technology Solus Prime had reverse-engineered from the Rangdan, supplemented by techniques provided by the Necron known as Grandu.
It could be used in conjunction with void shields, providing a dual layer of protection for Imperial planets and warships alike.
Axis's voice echoed psychically across the entire battlefield.
"Lorgar, did you truly think I would let you touch my planet? You are delusional. I will show you the meaning of despair."
Just then, the planetary defense cannons ceased their fire, because the main ships of the Golden Legion fleet had finally reached the optimal distance for a boarding action.
"Boarding pods, prepare for launch," Khârn's voice rang out across the comms, "Let them witness the Golden Fury."
As the Word Bearers fleet burned in orbit, the Golden Legion's strike cruisers stabbed into the enemy formation like daggers.
The first wave of boarding pods smashed through the decks of the Word Bearers' warships. Before the assault ramps were even fully down, the buzz of chainswords already filled the air.
Upon setting foot on the enemy vessels, the warriors of the Golden Legion immediately unleashed their Golden Transformation. A golden aura flared to life around each of them as they charged toward the surrounding Word Bearers.
"We shall not fail the Golden Blood!!" the sons of Axis bellowed as they began their assault.
Lorgar's furious roar resounded throughout his flagship, ordering his own warriors to counterattack.
But the sons of Axis had already torn through the first bulkheads.
Leading the charge, the 15th Company Captain, Klemont, his fists wreathed in golden flames like twin suns, punched straight through an oncoming Chaos Space Marine. His foe was annihilated before he could even scream. The disparity in power between the two sides was staggering; a captain's Golden Transformation amplified his power by at least six-fold.
"For the Golden Legion! Attack!" Power axes clashed against power swords, boltguns spat fury, and beams of plasma and energy crisscrossed in the tight corridors.
In the hundred years Axis had been away, his Space Marines had been widely equipped with energy weapons, making the fighting even more brutal.
"For the Dark Gods!" a Word Bearer roared, charging a warrior of the Golden Legion.
But the difference in combat prowess was simply too vast.
The Word Bearers were ordinary Space Marines, while every single member of the Golden Legion could utilize the Golden Transformation and had their combat potential specially enhanced by Axis. A single one of his warriors could easily handle several Word Bearers.
"Shield wall! Advance!" squad leader Drake bellowed.
Ten men instantly formed a tight phalanx, their boarding shields locked together to form a wall that ground forward inexorably. The Word Bearers' bolt shells hammered against the shields, leaving only dents, but they could not slow the Legion's advance.
Five meters, three, one— "Attack!" The shield wall suddenly broke apart as chainswords thrust out like fangs.
One blade split a Word Bearer's helmet in two, its teeth shredding bone and spraying brains across the bulkhead.
A second boarding pod pierced directly into a warship's main chapel.
As the Golden warriors smashed through blasphemous idols and stormed into the hall, they found thirty Word Bearer chaplains in the middle of a ritual.
The eldest chaplain had just raised his profane Chaos crozius, tearing open a flesh-and-blood Warp portal from which countless Daemons began to spill.
Hordes of vicious Warp-spawn surged forth and threw themselves at the Golden warriors. The appearance of these lesser Daemons briefly eased some of the pressure on the Word Bearers. Without them, the Word Bearers would have been completely overwhelmed by the Golden Legion within hours. Even so, their defeat was only a matter of time.
Since the boarding action began, not a single member of the Golden Legion had been killed. Blood was spilled in every corridor as the two sides fought in the most primal ways imaginable.
Lesser Daemons summoned by the Word Bearers lunged from the shadows, only to be burned to ash by the golden warriors' energy fields. The power gap was simply too great. Forget common Daemons, even a more powerful entity would have posed no threat to the sons of Axis.
The summoning circle had been erected in haste, with few sacrifices prepared. According to Lorgar's original plan, the mass ritual sacrifice was supposed to have begun on the surface of Nuceria. By sacrificing the planet's billions of mortal inhabitants, he had intended to open a massive Warp rift, powerful enough to drag the entire world of Nuceria into the Immaterium. But for now, with only the Chaos Sorcerers, Librarians, and Chaplains aboard his ships, he could not summon anything of significant power.
"For the Golden Father!" the Golden Legion warriors roared, their fighting spirit growing with every kill.
As First Captain, Khârn led by example, personally spearheading a strike by his most elite Terminator squad directly onto the flagship's bridge.
The ship Khârn had chosen to board was no mere escort, but Lorgar's own Gloriana-class battleship. To catch the serpent, one must first seize its head. This was the mission his great Father had given him: to execute the traitor Primarch Lorgar.
Wielding two power axes, his body blazing with a golden aura, Khârn's every strike pulped a Word Bearer, armour and all.
To him, the common Chaos Space Marines were no more than foot soldiers, unable to withstand a single blow.
"Lorgar!" Khârn's roar boomed through the massive vessel, "Your betrayal ends here! Come and face me!"
When Khârn burst onto the bridge, he found Lorgar standing before the command throne, his eyes burning with the fires of Chaos.
"Khârn…" Lorgar's voice was like a whisper from the abyss, "So Axis's dog has finally arrived. Did your Father really send a little welp like you to see me?"
Khârn did not reply. He simply raised his power axes, and his golden energy erupted like a volcano.
Ten-fold Golden Transformation!
BOOM—!!!
A golden aura exploded outwards like a miniature star.
With a ferocious roar, Khârn launched himself at the Primarch, his axes raised high.
Lorgar burst into maniacal laughter, chaotic energy swirling around him.
The unholy runes on his power maul lit up with a blinding purple light.
"Come! Let me see how strong Axis's spawn truly are!" Axis was indeed the most powerful of the Primarchs, but Axis was Axis. A Space Marine was just a Space Marine. Between them lay an unbridgeable chasm. Their strengths were not on the same level.
As Khârn charged, the floor of the bridge buckled and cracked under the force of his advance.
His first axe swung down. Lorgar raised his maul to block.
CLANG—!!!
The shockwave from the impact of metal on metal shattered every screen on the bridge. A numbness spread through Lorgar's arms, and the Chaos runes on his power maul flickered erratically.
"You… how is this possible?" Lorgar stared in disbelief. In their first exchange, Khârn, in his ten-fold transformation state, had not been at a disadvantage. In battle against him, a Primarch, he had not been instantly killed.
In fact, Khârn's axe blade had left a deep crack in the head of his maul. A Space Marine—even the strongest son of a Primarch—should never possess such strength.
"Surprised, traitor?" Khârn sneered, his golden aura burning like the sun, "The Golden Blood is far stronger than you can imagine! This is the strength bestowed upon me by my great father. This is his gift."
He had wondered just how powerful a Primarch could be. In the past, he had often sparred with his brother Kratos.
Although he could never win, their fights had always been a close contest. Now, fighting a Primarch for the first time, Khârn found his opponent rather unimpressive. In that last exchange, he felt his own strength was even slightly superior.
Khârn's lip curled into a cold smile as he brought his second axe around, faster and fiercer than before.
Lorgar twisted aside hastily, but the axe's edge grazed his pauldron, tearing through the master-crafted ceramite as if it were paper.
Blood immediately began to well from the wound.
"Damn you! You wretched thing! How dare you wound me, wound a great Primarch!" Lorgar was utterly incensed.
Chaos energy boiled within him, and he unleashed a lightning-fast counterattack, swinging his maul, wreathed in the blessings of the Dark Gods, toward Khârn's chest.
CRUNCH!
Khârn made no attempt to dodge.
He took the blow head-on. As his chestplate buckled inward, he countered with a heavy fist to Lorgar's face, sending the fallen Primarch staggering backward.
"That was for my Great Father," Khârn spat, a trickle of blood on his lips.
Lorgar touched the wound on his cheek.
The blessings of Chaos were already knitting the flesh back together, but his shock was only deepening. This mortal… had actually wounded him.
"Impossible… why is your strength… your strength is…." For the first time, Lorgar's resolve wavered.
Khârn gave him no time to think.
The golden warrior rushed forward like a tempest, his twin axes becoming a lethal golden whirlwind. Lorgar was forced back again and again, his every step leaving deep impressions in the metal deck. Even so, fresh cuts began to appear all over his body. In terms of pure combat experience, he was simply not on Khârn's level.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Each parry sent a jolt of pain up Lorgar's arms. Khârn, in his ten-fold Golden Transformation, was his equal in strength, perhaps even slightly superior.
Only a few days earlier, Axis had once again used the fruit of the Tree of Might on the entire Legion, and as his most powerful son, Khârn had received special treatment.
"Argh!" Khârn punctuated his relentless assault with a battle cry, "What the Golden Father has given us is far purer than your filthy Dark Gods! This is true power!"
A heavy axe swung down, shattering Lorgar's breastplate and spraying a torrent of blood.
The Primarch of the Word Bearers finally let out a howl of pain as raw Chaos energy spewed from his wound.
The Word Bearers on the bridge were frozen in shock.
Their Father… their glorious father… was being overpowered by a mere Space Marine?! They could have accepted him being bested by another Primarch like Axis, but to be dominated by a Space Marine… was their father truly this weak?
Then again, their own performance was hardly any better. The Golden Legion was crushing the Word Bearers across the entire fleet.
For the first time, Lorgar's eyes betrayed a hint of fear. This Khârn… this son of Axis… what kind of monster was he?
Lorgar roared, ripping away his sundered breastplate to reveal a torso covered in glowing runes. "Let me show you the true power of the gods!"
Dark Chaos energy erupted like a volcano, and the bridge began to transform into a hellscape of flesh and blood.
At that moment, a strange spatial distortion rippled through the air, and a massive portal tore itself open where Khârn and Lorgar were fighting.
A host of Chaos Space Marines clad in blood-red armor suddenly appeared on the battlefield.
The tell-tale sign of the Butcher's Nails was visible upon their heads.
Their leader also carried twin axes, but his eyes were filled with a bloodthirsty, unchained insanity. And his face… was identical to that of the Khârn who was currently thrashing Lorgar.
Their legion was known as the World Eaters, and their leader was the Chosen of Chaos, Khârn the Betrayer.
"Is this… ten thousand years in the past?"
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it's 200 ps per bonus chapter!