"WAAAGH! Come on boyz, show dem stinky lot wot we got!!!"
Inside the enormous, loosely bolted cockpit, a mob of Orks and Grots went scurrying in every direction, keeping the thing that looked to Zhou Ye as though it would fall apart at any second slowly lurching forward.
The Orks' target was simple enough. Nurgle. The Ork mind worked in unusual ways but it was absolutely not stupid.
Any ground corrupted by Nurgle stopped growing mushrooms. That, to the Orks, was the real danger. Without their spores, there were no new boyz. Without new boyz, the WAAAGH slowed down. That could not be tolerated.
So the Mega Gargant charged directly at one of the Warlord Titans without a moment's hesitation.
"Stop it!!!"
Watching that enormous Mega Gargant bearing down on his position, Typhus drew a slow, deep breath. He had always known what Orks were capable of. But building something this size in this short a time was something he had genuinely never considered possible.
So he immediately redirected one full Warlord-class battle group to intercept. At the same time the second battle group had no choice but to turn and advance against the Imperial side's Emperor Titan.
The Warlord Titan's Volcano Cannon swiveled on its mount and fired at full power directly into the oncoming mass.
Crackle.....
The shrieking collision of energies rang out. The assemblage of scrap and sheet metal that any rational observer would have called structurally incoherent absorbed a shot capable of vaporizing a mountain and simply kept moving forward. The Mega Gargant's vast frame crushed hundreds of plague zombies flat beneath its stride.
The Fallen Knights and smaller Titan assets supporting the Warlord opened fire as well. Down below, Nurgle's plague zombies and the Ork mob crashed into each other in a churning mass.
Cold sweat was running down Typhus's brow. He knew the Imperials would not sit idle at a moment like this.
As expected....
The next instant, the charge horns sounded across every Imperial frequency.
"Begin the sacrifice immediately! Bring the Father through!!!"
Typhus let out a sharp burst of vox-static, because he had just become the target of a two-front assault, both forces charging his position simultaneously.
As for the T'au making noise somewhere in the rear....at this point, who cared about the T'au.
.....
"Get your Phantom Titans moving. Support our Warlord."
Zhou Ye understood there was no reason to keep holding back now. He had originally been hoping the Orks might produce a standard Gargant, something to take a bit of pressure off his side. He had not expected a Mega Gargant. That had directly forced Nurgle to commit a regular Titan battle group to contain it. Loyalty through spectacle. No further persuasion required.
Given all of that, he had no reason to keep his own hand hidden.
The moment he finished speaking, the Aeldari Farseers who had long since infiltrated and taken up positions inside the Imperial line activated two enormous wraithbone transit gates. Two vast silhouettes stepped through from within.
Zhou Ye was not worried about a betrayal from the Aeldari. He was not worried about them cutting and running mid-battle. If it came to that, he could simply enter the field himself, and then regardless of outcome, no Chaos daemon would need to worry about destroying their Craftworld. He would do it personally. Even a manifestation of Cegorach in person wouldn't save them.
The moment the Phantom Titans materialized, every Imperial formation on the field froze for a beat. The wolf cubs especially had their mouths twitch sharply. This was not something they had been told about.
Under any normal circumstances these wolf cubs would have erupted. Pulling something like this without informing your allies was an outrage. But given that the absolute commanding authority of this battlefield was that particular individual, they swallowed it and kept their mouths shut.
Anyone that their own Ancient addressed the way he did, what right did they have to complain. And it had to be acknowledged that they had taken serious losses coming through the Warp storm themselves. Pulling out an Emperor Titan was impressive enough. The supporting Titans around it had been nearly entirely lost. Under these circumstances, two Phantom Titans were the best available option, however wrong the aesthetic felt.
"Exhale...."
The Krieg regiment's Commissar walked out of the command post. Three whistle blasts. Every Krieg soldier fixed bayonets in unison. Across on the other side, the Aestia Mixed Regiment's Commissar did the same, and every Holy Necron and regiment soldier advanced to the trench lip.
"For the All-Father and Russ!!!"
"Primarch-Progenitor, to your glory and the glory of Him on Earth!"
The Imperial Fists brothers charged out with their great shields raised. The enormous Imperial Fists Contemptor Dreadnought charged behind them. Volvok Blood-Howl felt his blood rise hot.
To die in a war like this was the greatest honor he could conceive of.
"Iron Within! Iron Without!!!"
"...?"
One of the wolf cubs blinked, then turned to look. He found a group of warriors who bore the Star of Trailblaze's colors standing absolutely motionless with that battle cry on their lips, and for a moment he thought he had misheard.
"No Pity! No Remorse! No Fear!!!"
"...What?"
Another pause, and then he watched the warriors who had always carried such an excellent reputation among ordinary soldiers transform before his eyes into something else entirely. Into something that looked like frenzied killers. Ten thousand years of suppressed hatred for the Traitors, finally given a target and an outlet.
"That sounds like it belongs to the War Hounds......"
The Iron Warriors were one thing, there weren't many of them. But a full company of World Eaters Gene-seed warriors was something else. This Chapter was hiding an extraordinary amount of depth in a very small frame.
Hearing that battle cry, the wolf cubs felt reality starting to tilt sideways. Death Guard Gene-seed warriors were one thing. But World Eaters? And what was this unit doing here? Why not throw in some Sons of Horus while they were at it -- who would be Warmaster then?
Surely not....
"We are not your sons. We are the Luna Wolves."
Actually yes. And somehow heavier than expected....
Hearing that ancient battle cry, the Space Wolves experienced a sudden vertigo.
This did not feel like the Forty-First Millennium. This felt like the Great Crusade. That ancient, magnificent, glorious age when the Imperium was at its height. When the Emperor walked among His sons and humanity was reaching for the stars.
It was only now, at this moment, that the wolf cubs truly understood what they were looking at. They were fighting alongside ancient warriors of ten thousand years gone.
"Worth dying here today. No question!!!"
Under the lead of their own ancient Dreadnought, the Space Wolves charged.
The one thing that felt like a loss to them was the absence of the Emperor's Children. If those sons had been here too, this would have been complete.
As the Warp concentration steadily thickened, conventional ranged weapons were becoming progressively less useful. They were not servants of Khorne, but they still benefited from a certain protection in this environment. Close combat was without question the correct call now. And beyond that....
The Warp density was approaching the point of overflow. They had to punch directly into the center of the enemy formation and disrupt the ritual before it completed.
So at Zhou Ye's command, the Emperor Titan raised its enormous Void Shield and strode forward. One footfall obliterated a wide spread of plague zombies into fragments of wet matter. Below it, the Aeldari Phantom Titans swept methodically through every dangerous unit they encountered.
At the same time, the Skitarii, the Imperial Knights, and the massed Astartes companies advanced together alongside the Contemptor Dreadnoughts in a coordinated forward push.
The combined force rolled directly toward the green-tinged Nurgle host like a blade, driving at the ritual at its center. The Emperor Titan's terrifying fire coverage blanketed the field, pouring fire into the opposing Warlord Titans, every shot breaking open across Void Shields in brilliant cascades of annihilated energy.
Below, the massed plague zombies and Plaguebearers pushed through the Void Shields and tried to close the distance. The Astartes gave them nothing. Not a meter of approach toward the Emperor Titan, not a single opportunity to board or sabotage.
The mortal forces under Astartes command moved in precise coordinated volleys.
The War Hounds had been given a partial enhancement by Zhou Ye when he fabricated them, a deep attunement that let them feel what ordinary soldiers were feeling. Natural empathy. Which also meant natural command. And in the time they had been operating together, something had formed without anyone ordering it into existence. The War Hounds and the Astra Militarum had developed genuine battlefield cohesion.
Just as the glorious Solar Auxilia had in the days of old.....
Against the Imperial force advancing like a sharpened blade, the entire Nurgle host was cut open like soft pressed curd.
Meanwhile....
"We are not your sons. We are the Luna Wolves."
"No Pity! No Remorse! No Fear!!!"
"Iron Within! Iron Without!!!"
"For the All-Father and Russ!!!"
"Primarch-Progenitor, to your glory and the glory of Him on Earth!"
"......"
Listening to the battle cries echoing across every vox frequency, watching those black-armored warriors charging with methods he knew with intimate familiarity, a flicker of confusion passed through Typhus's rotting eyes.
Where was this. This was supposed to be Warhammer 40,000. Since when had someone dragged him back into the Great Crusade. What had happened here.
"Sacrifice! Sacrifice! Get the sacrifice moving NOW!!!"
His rotting mind had not fully processed what was in front of him. But Typhus screamed the order at the cluster of Nurgle Sorcerers behind him regardless.