V2 Chapter 29: Operation Codename: New Discovery
The Formal Prime campaign had finally drawn to its close.
The planet that had once been washed entirely in blood and Warp storms was now nothing but ruin in every direction.
The expedition's supreme command left seventy thousand Astra Militarum soldiers and a fleet element behind to conduct the long pacification work that remained, and to hold the vital staging post that now gave them formal entry into the Sabbat Sector.
Slaydo did not linger in the victory. Four days after the banquet he gave the order to break camp and depart with characteristic speed. Before the flagship left low orbit, he assembled the expedition's senior commanders one final time.
This time it was to plan the bloody road ahead.
With a low hum, the strategic hall's enormous central holographic table lit up. The star map of the Sabbat Sector spread out across it.
Marshal Slaydo stood with both hands on the metal table's edge and announced that Phase One of the strategy designated Operation Red Dragon had achieved its objectives.
Formal Prime, Chanhareth, Onscaude, and Indreth, all worlds held by Chaos, had been taken by the expedition in succession, and the Imperial twin-headed eagle flew once more from their ruins.
But in that senior command briefing, Slaydo's face showed nothing easy. He pulled up the latest intelligence transmitted from the front-line reconnaissance.
The intelligence indicated that Archon Nadzybar, supreme commander of the Chaos armies, had not descended into confusion because of the loss of the outer worlds.
On the contrary, he had assembled an enormous concentration of main-force troops around the Sabbat Sector's core systems and constructed fortifications that were proving effectively impregnable.
Nadzybar was like a void beast opening its jaws. He was waiting quietly for Slaydo's expedition forces to drive directly into them.
If the Imperial army advanced by conventional tactics, in a consolidated push, Nadzybar's superior numbers would close around them and swallow everything.
Slaydo drew dozens of red offensive lines across the holographic star map and formally established the second-phase strategic plan, designated Operation New Discovery.
The expedition would be broken up and dispersed into dozens of task forces of varying size, each targeting a different peripheral enemy stronghold across multiple simultaneous fronts. The strategy sounded strategically visionary in the command hall. Its essential nature was brutal.
Because many of the task forces assigned to the secondary fronts were not genuine assault forces at all. They were bait. They were expendable.
Slaydo's intention was singular: force Nadzybar to split his forces to relieve those worlds, tear apart the iron unity of Chaos's defensive line, and pave the way for a final assault on the Chaos heartland at Balhaut.
What looked like strategic manoeuvre at the level of high command fell on the shoulders of line soldiers as the wholesale erasure of entire regiments.
After the meeting ended, Duvette wasted no time. He led the 112th aboard landing craft and transferred to the fleet operating under Marshal Blackwood.
They were assigned to a large but extremely oppressive heavy transport. Standing on the boarding deck, Duvette looked back at the restless soldiers of the 112th behind him.
Under the urgings of servitors, they were pushing heavy ammunition crates and newly issued weapons down into the lower decks. After the brief rest period, these veterans had recovered the battlefield edge that had never fully left them.
Their new objective was Ashek II: formerly one of the most developed and most overcrowded hive worlds in this part of the Sector, now converted into a Chaos heavy industrial manufactory.
In the grand design of Operation New Discovery, Ashek II had been personally designated by Slaydo as a strategic fulcrum that had to be taken.
The Marshal's intent was to use the capture of this industrial and population hub to cut Archon Nadzybar's logistics supply line through this region entirely, and convert it into a forward supply base for the expedition's push toward the core.
Clearly, Duvette and his 112th, the elite force that had just distinguished itself so completely at Formal Prime, had once again been placed exactly where command expected the most.
He led the 112th's officers down the dim, narrow metal stairs to their independent quarters on the lower decks. The air carried the familiar smell of machine oil and sweat. No one complained about the conditions.
With all company and platoon-level officers assembled, Duvette issued his orders immediately.
The 112th's core officers gathered around the tactical sand table in the wide lower compartment. Duvette stood with both hands braced on the surface, his expression set.
"Listen closely." Duvette's voice filled the compartment with a flat, cold quality. "We are in serious trouble this time."
Bald Stroud showed a gap-toothed grin, trying to lighten the atmosphere. "Commander, what kind of trouble would give veterans who just walked away from a Greater Daemon pause? Are we looking at an entire Chaos Astartes warband?"
Duvette didn't answer. He didn't even look at Stroud. His gaze moved over the assembled officers with an expression of complete, measured stillness.
Seeing the commissar's absolute seriousness, Stroud's grin gradually went rigid. Every heart in the room sank.
Duvette nodded at his vox officer Evan.
With a faint electrical hum, the tactical table's holographic projector came to life. A multi-legged, arthropod-form Daemon Engine appeared before them.
"Remember this?" Duvette asked, pointing at the projection.
Clayest frowned beside him. "We remember it, Commissar. So the next mission will also involve constructs at this threat level?"
Duvette nodded, his tone carrying no inflection whatsoever. "This type of Chaos construct is called a Bane Engine. What we are about to face will not be a single one.
"They form the enemy's primary strength. There are close to a hundred of them."
Every officer went still. The compartment was entirely silent except for the weight of laboured breathing. What did it mean that constructs capable of challenging Imperial Titans were the enemy's primary strength? And there were close to a hundred?
A single one had cost them hundreds of casualties and over a dozen tanks to bring down. Against five or more there would be nothing to do but die.
Duvette paid no attention to the despair settling across their faces and continued. "The enemy commander is called the Heritor Asphodel. A Chaos warlord of considerable notoriety. A man completely divorced from sanity. He has converted Ashek II into a massive Bane Engine manufactory."
Duvette paused. He looked at the grim faces of the 112th's officers around him, rapped his knuckles on the metal table surface, producing a sharp sound. "As the Marshal's elite heavy infantry regiment, logic dictates we would be placed in the first wave to go ashore and face these things head-on.
"However," Duvette stopped for a beat, "I spoke with the Marshal. I gave him a detailed account of what those engines cost us when we encountered one in the lower hive. So I have brought back one piece of good news and one piece of bad news. Which do you want first?"
The officers looked at each other, exchanging uneasy glances. Finally Stroud broke the quiet again. "Good news first, Commissar. Worthless soldiers like us prefer things sweet before sour."
Duvette nodded. He pulled up a roster of the primary forces assigned to the Ashek II assault, and several lines of names were bolded.
"Because of my recommendation and insistence, the Marshal modified the operational plan. An entire loyal Titan Legion, plus two Knightly Houses, are sailing with this fleet. On the battlefield of Ashek II, they will take our place as the absolute primary assault element on the frontal engagement."
Hearing that a full Titan Legion would be providing frontal cover, the tension across the assembled officers released visibly. The compartment exhaled. As long as they weren't being sent flesh and blood first into those Bane Engines, this battle could still be fought.
Then Duvette's next sentence landed on them like a bucket of cold water.
"Don't celebrate yet. The bad news is, we remain a primary force, and the most central element in the entire Ashek II operational plan."
Duvette leaned forward, hands still on the table. "Do you remember the grav-chutes the Marshal just approved for us?"
At that, Clayest's complexion instantly went pale. His kind, old armoured infantry used to the solid protection of ceramite and the feel of ground under their boots, had a deep, instinctive physical aversion to the concept of leaving the earth.
"You have three Terran weeks to familiarise yourselves with those grav-chutes in the transport's training bays." Duvette's tone left no room for negotiation. "While the Titan Legion and the Knights hold the Heritor's full attention on the frontal engagement, we will conduct a high-intensity orbital drop and go directly through his rear."
Duvette switched the holographic projection and pointed at the designated hive city. "Our objective is to locate and destroy the command nexus controlling those Bane Engines."
Dead silence in the compartment. Several of the veteran troublemakers had already started cursing quietly to themselves. Wrapped in a few plates of ceramite, dropping from the upper atmosphere directly into a Chaos warlord's stronghold? That was the kind of assignment that sounded indistinguishable from dying.
"The danger level of this mission far exceeds anything we would face going head-to-head with those Bane Engines on the frontal assault." Duvette straightened, adjusted the front of his black greatcoat, and delivered the final pre-mission words.
"Get ready, soldiers. This time, we are the blade for a decapitation strike. Either we drive straight through the enemy's throat, or this blade breaks apart in that hive city."
He looked at the faces around him, watching their expressions shift from fear through the particular ferocity that desperation produces.
"There is no third outcome. Dismissed."
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