Chapter 489: An Armed Bid for the Titan
By this point, roughly fifty Astartes had already sought refuge aboard Inquisitor Trasolh's flagship, pulling back from the fighting on the surface below.
Astartes aren't front-line soldiers in the conventional sense; they're the finest, sharpest tactical blade any Chapter possesses.
In a battle that hasn't yet spiraled entirely out of control, that kind of blade earns its worth by cutting straight to an enemy's command structure, decapitating leadership and sowing chaos.
But in a situation like this one, throwing fifty Astartes onto the front line against the greenskins would be pointless. A single volley from the Gargant's 300mm guns would kill an Astartes just as thoroughly as it would kill an ordinary Astra Militarum trooper.
Reluctant as it made him, once Captain Doron concluded this planet was beyond saving, he chose to preserve his remaining strength, writing off the people on the surface below and withdrawing his company to shelter aboard Trasolh's flagship.
Right now, Doron stood beside a viewport, gazing out through the thick armourglass at the dusty, sand-colored world below, and closed his eyes.
His Primarch had taught them, from the beginning, to love mankind, to protect the Imperium's people from xenos harm.
Not merely as an abstract collective ideal, but love directed toward humanity's individual, living members as well.
That teaching set the Salamanders apart, morally, even among their fellow Astartes cousins, held to a notably higher standard.
But faced with a greenskin catastrophe of this magnitude, even Doron had no answer.
He couldn't afford to throw half his company into meaningless casualties. They were a precious blade, and blades like that belonged on battlefields where they could actually make a difference.
Beside him, Inquisitor Trasolh stood with his hands clasped behind his back, gazing down at the same dying world, and said:
"By the Emperor. Barring some unforeseen turn of events, Exterminatus will fall upon this world within the month."
Doron said nothing, staring down at the yellowed, dust-choked planet below, an indescribable weight of sorrow behind his eyes.
After a long silence, he suddenly asked: "Where's the Count? Where is he right now?"
Trasolh answered:
"He should still be on the surface. He struck an agreement with the Mechanicus, they'd repair his Knights, and in exchange he'd help defend the Titan Temple.
But given the current situation, it looks like his losses will be severe. Even the handful of Knight Houses I brought along were wiped out instantly against that Ork Titan. There's no realistic way he can hold the line."
The moment he finished speaking, a comm request chimed in Doron's earpiece.
His brow twitched, and he excused himself from Trasolh, retreating to his assigned quarters and summoning all fifty Astartes together.
The gathered Astartes had already received word themselves, their expressions grave as they looked to Doron.
Doron projected an image onto the wall, Kian's face filling the display.
Kian said: "I just sent you the plan. You in to help me pull this off, or is that a no?"
Moments earlier, Kian had relayed his intention to ascend to the Titan and take on the greenskins head-on, and Doron had immediately gathered every Astartes present to weigh whether to commit to the plan.
Doron asked: "Are you certain you can actually pilot that Titan?"
Kian said: "No idea, honestly, never done it before. But I just withstood twenty-four hours of psychic overload from five thousand cogitator arrays."
Librarian Budas let out a sharp breath.
"Five thousand cogitator arrays. Your psychic capacity exceeds even an Astartes Librarian's."
Doron shot him a curious look, and Budas explained:
"I've never actually tested my own limit formally, but my best estimate puts my own tolerance at roughly three thousand arrays."
That settled it for Doron. Kian genuinely had the psychic capacity to ascend to the Titan and get it running. But other questions still remained.
"Why do you need us to help you seize the Titan by force? Do you understand the nature of our relationship with the Mechanicus?"
The Imperium of Man is, in practice, a fractured, medieval-style empire in space, its constituent factions bound together loosely at best. Even where formal hierarchies exist, subordinates who grow powerful enough tend to accumulate substantial independent authority regardless.
And the Adeptus Mechanicus's relationship with the Imperium wasn't even one of subordination at all, it was one of equal footing.
When the Mechanicus first joined the Emperor's newly forged Imperium, it did so as an original founding stakeholder, not as a conquered subject. Which gave the Mechanicus a degree of autonomy within the Imperium that most other factions simply didn't have.
The Astartes have no authority whatsoever over the Mechanicus's internal affairs. If Doron's company helped Kian seize a Titan by force, it could easily draw the Chapter into a diplomatic disaster, the Mechanicus was more than capable of making life miserable for the Crimson Bite Chapter afterward, if they wanted to.
Seeing Doron hesitate, Kian cut straight to the point:
"That damned, Titan-obsessed worm is never going to let me anywhere near it willingly, it would feel to him like he's being cybernetically cuckolded.
If you don't help me take that Titan by force, I have no other path to it whatsoever, and this entire planet dies as a result."
Doron considered this for a moment, then asked:
"Count Voss, don't you have Knights of your own? Couldn't you use one of those to seize it instead?"
Kian shook his head.
"That damned worm must have anticipated exactly that possibility, because he had someone tear the plasma reactor clean out of both my Knights!
Reinstalling those reactors would take at least half a day, minimum."
Kian had, in fact, originally planned to go seize the Titan himself. But when he'd gone to the outfitting bay, he'd discovered his Knight and squire-suits had already had their plasma reactors completely stripped out.
Ferrocore had given the order the moment he learned Kian was still in the chair, still enduring the throne's psychic shock.
That, to Kian, was an unambiguous signal: Ferrocore was driven by an overwhelming, self-destructive impulse.
He didn't care whether anyone could actually pilot the Titan. He didn't care whether the Temple could be defended at all.
Every single action he'd taken had been in deliberate, single-minded service of one goal: dying together with his Titan, in a final act of union.
With everything laid out plainly, the decision now rested with Doron.
He was quiet for a long moment, then asked one more question:
"Count Voss, if I may ask, why are you doing this? Are you genuinely so obsessed with saving the world?"
Kian's answer to this question would determine whether Doron chose to take the risk.
Kian thought it over briefly, then said:
"You already know I can't actually die, right? So, as the old saying goes, when poor, perfect yourself; when successful, better the world. I'm not really risking anything by doing this.
You, on the other hand, would genuinely be putting your lives on the line to back me up. So, what do you say? What if it actually works, and we save the world?"
Doron found himself unable to easily judge that answer. He turned and looked back at the Astartes gathered behind him.
Half his company. Fifty battle-brothers. Every one of them, standing here right now.
A hundred-plus years ago, his Chapter Master had entrusted him with command of this company. And now, his decision here would determine the fate of both this planet and his own men.
His gaze swept slowly across the resolute faces of his brothers, finally settling on Sergeant Nor'n, lingering there for a long moment.
Seeing his captain's gaze fixed on him, Nor'n gave a solemn, deliberate nod.
"Captain. I believe in him."
Doron drew a deep breath, and nodded firmly in return.
"Understood. Everyone, ten minutes. Gear up, board the shuttles. We're going to the Titan Temple."
☆☆☆
-> 20 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Inkshaper
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you