Fandom Imperial Honor (IC)

[SpazTheButcher]

They say safety is relative from your distance from the frontline. General Sev Corry knew this as well as any Dulicinean commander, and his safety had been slowly deteriorating for months. It started when the heretics first blockaded Anza, a smart decision, considering the little strategic value the planet had. They then battled the Imperial Navy over Dulicinea's skies for weeks. Neither side had won, but the heretics began deploying soldiers nonetheless. Hundreds of drop shuttles rained from the sky upon Hive Navaro, whose garrison was quickly overwhelmed by the tide of cultists the flowed against its walls. Intelligence suggested that these were not the only forces the heretics employed, for at their heart were the traitor guardsmen of the Cadian 7001st Rifles and Salvar 13th Armored, whose previous victories against Valhallan regiments resulted in a boost of supplies and weapons for their forces.

And then the barrage began. It was performed by the guns of the Cadian 82nd Artillery, or as Corry knew them, "The Ground Pounders." Their guns fired day and night at targets on the other side of the planet, the proximity of which could only be told by the sound of impacts. It was quiet at first, but soon grew as the front moved closer and closer to Curia Forge. The Kriegers of the 673rd Siege had dug themselves in much earlier, but the environment changed as well. Medical hospitals, morgues, and vehicle repair stations popped up to take in the influx of soldiers. Men whose regiments were decimated were shipped to Kasr Lovat to be assigned to penal legions, more specifically the 20th Penal Legion, "Owen's Redeemers." The had been one of the most crack Jungle Fighter regiments from Anza, until the quagmire on Nah Drong. There they were cut off, but with the ingenuity of Captain Laury Owen, they modified their las carbines to fight the heretics. Though successful, Captain Owen was executed for heresy, but the Mechanicus was so impressed with his troops that they were assigned as a Penal Legion. Since then, the 20th Penal has become synonymous with Dulicinean cockups.

Now the General stood atop a Hellhammer, named Owen's Fury. He looked to the distance with his scopes, and he saw it. Clouds from the debris of artillery impacts. The heretics were coming. He immediately told his staff officer and ordered that defenses be readied, and reviewed the units in his head. 673rd Siege, 82nd Artillery, 13th Infantry, 14th Infantry, 5th Armored, and an Imperial Knight, Wrath Unbridled. A servitor handed him parchment that told him that several important Mechanicus individuals would be arriving shortly. Great, more red robes, He thought to himself.

 

[VomitIcicle]

Hive Navaro was falling, of that much the Magos was certain. He couldn't afford to be certain of much anymore, but of this he was absolutely positive. Based on what preliminary data he had been able to scrounge before his connection to the noosphere had been cut, in addition to the far more primitive intelligence gathering provided by what few untainted survivors trudged into the foundry, local PDF strength was estimated at a seven percent. Attempts to make contact with other foundries had resulted in nought but silence. Either they had fallen in combat, or, the far more troubling option, had chosen to throw in their lot with these warp-plagued ilk.

Too many unknowns, too many factors, nothing to reference, no sense of the greater picture. For all of his predictive ability, he was still just as lost as the hive filth that now huddled within the walls of his Manufactorums.

Under his command were a smattering of skitarri, the mauled remnants of several PDF units, and several hundred frightened hive dwellers who had begged to enter the safety of the foundry. Against the better judgement of his predictive algorithms, Darak had taken all of those deemed untainted. Food stores were running low. Those who had fallen to hunger or thirst were discreetly gathered up, their remains pressed into a crude corpse starch to be fed to the rest. Such a situation was unsustainable. He had deployed the best of his Skitarri and the healthiest of the PDF in a breakthrough action, briefly swiping aside the hordes of cultists that threw themselves at the Manufactorums gates. Their fates were unknown, but they had succeeded in their mission. A makeshift retransmitter, taken from the vox equipment of a slain communications officer and its signal strength boosted immensely. Hopefully enough to break through the garbage chaff crowding Hive Navaro to reach the Imperial forced outside the city.

By the Omnissiah, let their sacrifice not be in vain.

The Magos spoke.

"Darak Veltelkan, Info-Executioner and current known leading Mechanicus authority within Hive Navaro. Broadcasting from Sub-forge Epsilon-A. Requesting evacuation."

 

[KaasVedas]

INTIALIZING RESPONSE A New World, A Familiar Battle 2022-03-03Thick smoke curled around Gaius' face, or rather, what remained of it. Two of his hands curled around the chain of his censer, feeling the steel links shift and move in his clutch, each piece moving to fit tightly within his bonecrushing grasp while the others were firmly clasped in the form of prayer. The holy oils wafted upwards into his face as he silently though a prayer to the Omnissiah. The words rolled through his mind silently, filled with emotion. Dread, fear, hope. These were the things he should shun, yet the things he found made his prayers most meaningful. As the final words of the prayer flew silently from his mind, he tilted his head up. The hydraulic pistons in his neck gently worked with the gears and servos, a perfect working between all the miniscule parts of his robotic form that made him proud.

His optics scanned the deck of the bridge as he focused most of his sight onto Magos Domina Vauss. He felt his lungs fill with filtered air through his skeletal face as his vox-box lit up, crackling as he spoke.
The unnerving noise was enough to make most around him mistake him for some piece of heretical, sentient AI. He had planned to fix the broken device, but found it to be more advantageous to never let those around him be able to truly read his thoughts, expressions, and emotions.

"QUESTION: HAVE WE RECIEVED COMMUNICATION FROM THE PLANETSIDE INFANTRY ON THE STATE OF COMBAT?"

The words came out harsh and distorted. The plain voice that emitted from the man was covered in a thin layer of static and electrical tones that gave him an uncanny sound. No emotion or context was to be found anywhere within his words, and thus he always made sure to state his intentions before speaking.

"STATEMENT: I HAVE READ THE RECORDS OF DULICINEA. ACCORDINGLY, THERE IS INFORMATION REGARDING A MEMBER OF THE ADEPTUS MECHANICUS CALLED DARAK VELTELKAN. LAST KNOWN COMMUNCATION AVAILABLE STATED HIM TO BE AT THE CENTRE OF THE INVASION AT HIVE NAVARO."

His mind recalled the information he had stored within his personal datastacks at a blazing speed, siphoning the information perfectly. He noted that information may be outdated now, and marked it for possible alteration or deletion should it be found that their fellow had fallen before they had even the chance to greet him. A disappointing but likely event that would be a frustrating development for the Explorator.

"CONCLUSION: IF HE IS NOT DEAD, HE MAY BE A VALUABLE ASSET TO OUR COUNTERATTACK."

While the words he spoke contained the logical and cold tones one would expect of an Adeptus Mechanicus, Gaius had more hopes than simply an asset for a counter attack. Darak Veltelkan was a gold-mine of data. If he had recorded any information on the warp-incursion, Gaius would give anything to get his hands on it. Knowledge of his enemy was hard to come by, and while he had a vast store of combat experience against them he would be frothing at the mouth to get the pure and beautiful calculations and data held by the Magos on Dulicinea. He had read much on the planet, and of the local establishment of his faction. Darak was living computer, an asset capable of providing him with more accurate simulations of battles than he could ever dream of attaining on his own. Such data was surely of strategic value for the battle ahead, but it was even more so precious to Gaius. Any edge he had on the enemies of the Adeptus Mechanicus and Imperium were edges he would hunt down with a righteous fervor.

As he spoke, he saw a nearby technician intercepting some distress call. Not an unlikely event in war, but what caught his eye were the words. Had he still a mouth to smile with, it would be grinning from ear to ear. He had to hold himself back from trampling the poor soul receiving the call to interpret it himself. He turned to face the Domina and spoke once more.

"ADDENDUM: IT APPEARS HE IS NOT DEAD. WE SHOULD ATTEMPT TO PERSUADE THE DEFENCE FORCES TO AID US IN HIS RECUE." He spoke, his mechadendrites tingling and twitching with excitement that the living super-computer was still yet alive.

 

[Karcen]

The Iron soul had made good time from the mandaval point to orbit, even the ancient ark Mechanicus was unable to violate the rules of not emerging in gravity wells, though with the added processing power of magos Gaius they had managed to shave off several standard days by arriving at the very edge of safety. The astropathic messages had mentioned an uprising and thanks to elevated standing Vauss had found out who was heading there. That was the main thing that drew her here to this world, who was on it, not what. Saving a holy forge of the machine god was without a doubt a worthy endeavor, but Vauss wanted something she saw as even more valuable. As the days had passed and they entered Vox range Vauss had scanned over it reading the come and go of it and using her tactical personality to put together a map of the conflict as best she could. The noosphere here was lacking so she would have to use the ship’s to cover her forces.

Vauss was engrossed in the data and the prayers to the machine god even as tactical lead the skitarrio in prayer and ritual in the hangar even as they boarded the transports. Through the Noosphere Vauss could smell the incense and antimicrobial oils being spread through the air. She could hear what to others would sound like buzzing, but to her were chants spoken in holy binary. As the massive tactical form moved from cohort to cohort she would place a hand upon the alpha who had the been given the imprint of herself and speak a line, the alpha would then answer back the next line and tactical would move onto the next.

This ritual had been going on for hours and normally would not be led by a mangos, but Vauss and her split self could manage to be in both places at once and thus not lose time. It was as Vuass was communing with herself that Magos Gaius spoke up. To hear a voice, even if it had not been as broken as Magos Gaius, was an almost physical blow to the concentration of Vauss who normally operated on her ship almost completely in the noosphere. It was much faster to speak in code and through packets where you could have an entire conversation in microseconds, it was a step closer to the machine god. The words were stored in a buffer for the picoseconds it took Vauss to orient herself and be ready to actually process them. To others it wouldn’t even appear she had been stunned but in the noosphere the slight stutter could be felt.

Vauss took in the words of her fellow magos and did wish he would fix the vox he used to speak to leave any part of a magos broken was almost sacrilegious. She also just found it rather annoying, he did not speak in the noosphere so the least he could do was have a pleasing or even tolerable voice. It was as Giaus started his second line that Vauss primary turned to him, her white robe with its gold trim immaculate thanks to how rarely it was sent down to war. She regarded her fellow magos with what seemed to be a mostly flesh face and let her dislike of his voice show. The priests of Kadath were more liberal with their emotions viewing it as something they shared with the machine spirit and machine god. Still despite giving Gaius attention Vuass was running scans of vox traffic in the background and as tech priest Darak was mentioned Vauss focused on any traffic mentioning him or the hive itself. It was as Gaius reached his conclusion that Vaus registered a vox broadcast, though weak, that matched what she was looking for.

Primary sent this information via the noosphere to Tactical, who even while finishing the blessings of some of Vauss’s more unique troops would update her plans, and send revised charts back to primary. This was all done in the time it took Gaius to finish his sentence proving again why vocal speech was inefficient and should only be used for communication with those not possessing a link to the noosphere.

“ I have updated the plans to include this new information already Magos” Vauss said. Her voice sounded like she still had vocal cords and none could guess it was just a very finely tuned vox caster. She even moved her lips as if pronouncing the words instead of being able to just open her mouth and speak anything. Looking human was part of the duties of primary so Vauss had made sure to make the body extremely human-like and to act like one when it was active.

Vuass was sure that Giaus did not want to stay on the ship with primary, given his wording not mentioning just sending skitarri macroclades down to lift the siege. That was fair enough Vauss would not be staying herself and an exploritor had to be able to hold themselves in combat so he would not be in the way. Primary sent another packet of information to Tactical to include Giaus in calculations. Tactical now finished sent back another revision of the plans.

“ I have revised the battle plans to induce you Magos, your suggestion is correct, the liberation of the hive and the shrine within will be the first target. ” Vauss agreed not needing to preface her words with her mood of what she meant, tone and emotion clear in her synthetic voice.

“ Head down to the hangar you will land with Tactical, the rituals have already been completed. I will send word to the other forces and send them my battle plan as soon as the iron soul can broadcast noosphere links planetside.” Vauss said, her voice calm and controlled, but not the monotone of a machine, just the calm of one assured of their plans. “ And do try to control yourself Magos the unaugmented are not as tough as servitors” Vauss jabbed her tone making it clear her words were just a joke given he had nearly trampled the servitor receiving the distress message.

KaasVedas

 

[HighSanguinaryPriest]

At Last! Back To The Trenches!

​

Six months on a paradise world. Six months of hell for any sane Kriegsman. No trenches, no bombardments, no chemical weapons! It had taken Watchmaster Hans Von Lichtenstien (Hans for short), several local solar rotations to actually fall asleep in the deafening silence of the Paradise world of Askelphion Secundus. After months of nearly succumbing to madness, and thanks to the persuasive words of a Domina he had defended despite the cowardice of subsequent execution of his commissar, his sentence had been reduced. Although, personally, Hans would have preferred being sent into a penal legion than half a year of Peace and "Tranquility". By the Emperor, he had to settle for digging a foxhole instead of a trench to sleep in. A FOXHOLE! But alas, he was finally able to return to the 673rd, and fight in the Emperor's name.

The first few days on the surface of Dulicinea had been some rough fighting. While his regiment had yet to establish trenches, he and his half mad brothers and sisters had managed to gain a highly prodigious foothold only six miles outside the hive Navarro. Of course, when you're a soldier who has been blessed/cursed by the Emperor as a Perpetual, others tend to use you as an effective meatshield. Never the less, a trench was dug and Hans never felt so happy in his entire 28 years of life.

Lounging back on a crate of fragmentation grenades, and cleaning his Lucius Pattern Mark 22c like a doting father to their offspring, the watchmaster sighed in contentment, which to many outsiders would have sounded like a wheeze from his respirator. The sound of gunfire, the bloodslick mud, the smells of smoke and burning flesh. He was home once more. Yet despite his undying nature, he was happy. Of course, like all good things, they too must come to an end.

"Vatchmaster, ve've received orders to charge ze enemy und capture zeir trench." A private said, looking down upon his lounging superior. It had to have been his first true engagement if the minute shaking could be enough to discern. Jumping to his feet, Hans clapped the young soldier on the shoulder and slung is Mark 22c.

"Zat iz Exzallent news trooper! I vas starting to get bored vith all zis sitting around. Gazer ze ozers unt join ze line! Today ve spill heretic blood for ze Emperor!" Hans said jovially as if the prospect of getting shot at was of no concern. And in reality, it wasn't for the Watchmaster. "Now, if you vill excuze me, I must vibe vith ze artillary!"

 

[KaasVedas]

INTIALIZING RESPONSE The Hull Spider 2022-03-05
The hulking man-made-machine turned to face the Domina and bowed his head in respect towards her. He slipped into the noosphere, out of courtesy rather than a desire to use it, and thanked her quickly. For all the merits the noosphere had, months of disconnection from its bustling and constant flow of data had left him feeling unfamiliar with it. His last mission had gone awry, and he was stranded without contact for months and we still readjusting to life around others. He felt the servos and pistons of his body contract and push as his legs splits apart. He fell to the floor on all 8 of his limbs, looking like a grotesque spider, an abhorrent display to most humans but that fastest way to move in the confines of a ship. Gaius made full use of his limbs, shifting and morphing his body to aid him in whatever environment he found. He gave a quick sprint towards the nearest walls, carefully and precisely pulling himself up the iron walls towards a ventilation duct. He had surveyed the blueprints and layout for the Iron Soul when he first boarded, making a simple navigation system to get him quickly from one end of the ship to another. His servitor skulls followed alongside him quickly, sliding under his mechadendrites and nestling in at his command.

His scamper could be heard leaving the bridge as his optics gave a brief whine and adjusted to see in the low light of the vent. He moved quickly, thankful for the sturdy build of the ship as he slid and slithered towards the hangar. He sent out a transmission to Vauss Tactical through the sea of information as he continued to fly through the ships veins. He ducked and weaved through pipes as he arrived above the hangars. He looked down with disappointment as a gate sealed his entrance to the hangar. He stuck his hands into the thin crack and pulled it open, feeling the machine fight against him. He pried it open as far as he could manage and quickly shot himself through as the metal snapped shut angrily behind him. He twirled to the floor and landed with a heavy thud, the sound echoing through the hangar and playing off the walls. He surveyed his surroundings, doing his best to take account of the situation within the room. He reluctantly sunk deeper into the noosphere, letting the torrent of communication overwhelm him as he sifted through and connected to the communications within the hangar.

Gaius was, by most accounts, a stain on the Adeptus Mechanicus. He refused to fix his broken vox-box, was known to avoid communication, and generally was an outcast. He didn't mind, and having friends in high places on Mars had certainly made his life possible. He stood straight and snapped his legs back together to assume a bipedal form once more. He began to make his way towards the hulking Vauss Tactical and sent out a greeting through the noosphere.

"How go the preparations?" he inquired, his messages travelling at a blazing speed. He had forgotten the utility of the noosphere. Perhaps the Domina had a point in it's use after all, at least in such densely populated and bustling areas. "I am sure Vauss Primary has informed you of the plan. Do you require my assistance in anything here?" he asked, again feeling the data travel like a lightning bolt through the invisible web of communication. If Gaius did not value his own solitude, he would be engrossed in it as so many of his fellows were. It was a beautiful and holy concept, and he respected it. In the time it had taken him to ask those two questions he had not even finished one step towards his superior.

Karcen

 

[Soviet Panda]

The machine spirit of Wrath Unbridled tugged at their shared connection, trying slip from the incorporeal leash it was on and reek untold destruction upon the blood cults that cowered in their trenches and artillery positions. So great was this urge, that the seasoned Knight Pilot Boyar Vizier had to spare a fraction of his conscious thought to soothe and control the spirit. If he had to do that, he could only imagine what his impromptu squire, Knight Arin, had to do to keep her Gallant Fury Manifest in check. Even as he glanced over with his auspex, he could see the gold and purple machine behemoth passing impatiently to his left. "Control yourself, Arin. You and your steed will have your glory soon enough. All we must wait for is the order." He chafed at that, waiting for the order. He had made it clear that these knights that chose to follow him were his and his alone. But needs must, and their needs was to observe a more strict and united chain of command.

"Listen to your master, squire." Said another voice. It was Sir Boyd, of the Knight Crusader Immortal Emissary, resplendent in hues of green and blue. Boyd was ever the dour individual, in sharp contrast to the two pilots that regularly threw themselves headlong into combat. The few members of their lance, a Castellan Pilot that insisted she be called by her mount's name, Fortitude Incarnate, and a formation of various armigers dubbing themselves the Hunting Pact, were deployed elsewhere. "The bombardment is beginning to lighten. I suspect we will have our orders soon enough."

And sure enough, through the ears of their great war machines, they heard the distinctively shrill pitch of trench whistles. It seemed like the Krieg were readying a charge, though that was foolish. Auspex scans signified the enemy's approach. It would be more prudent to remain in the defensible trenches and gun down the would be attackers in no man's land. And then commence with a counter charge.

"They are coming. I assume you two know what the plan is." Vizier said, the silver and red of his steed shining in the ashy light of the bombardment. His two comrades responded with action, Boyd moving wide and towards the center of the line to more easily provide fire support where it was needed while Arin forced her machine back behind the trench line, no doubt feverishly scanning with her Auspex for a target. Vizier, for his part, overtook Boyd and moved to farthest flank of the trench line to stand vigil, Arin instinctively following her senior and mentor. There he would stand resolute, correcting any foolish notions the enemy may have of attempting to take a weakened flank.

 

[Karcen]

Tactical sent Giaus a data packet that included the updated maps and battle plan. Those familiar with mechanicus war strategies would notice the plans seemed rather lacking. They weren’t incomplete or missing calculations, but where other domini would have time tables and exact plans of what would happen Vauss left most of that out. It was a different kind of plan that Vauss used as she didn’t need to plan out everything she could trust the judgment of the alphas and tactical was there to aid in minute to minute calculations.

“ I have just finished loading the special units” Tactical said via the noosphere moving with Giaus over towards another transport ship.

Despite being huge enough to tower over even a space marine and with her white robes looking like some hunched white insect almost similar to the extra galactic tyranids, her skittering spider-like legs only lightly clicked. With her white robes far more stained at the bottom hem that primary, the slender mechanical legs just barely showed, it was hard to count their number and given how little it clicked it was apparent there was some kind of anti gravity device inside the workings of tactical.

If analyzed the plan would actually not include Giaus in any time tables. “ You have not been analyzed so are not included in plans, use your best judgment when engaging ” Tactical explained again, likely giving her fellow magos more freedom in the plan than others. Few plans for war said do whatever you think is best. Still it was likely for the best to not try to bind an unknown to a timetable they would do as they did.

 

[SpazTheButcher]

Owen's Fury

The guns opened up once more, and General Corry stared.

"Sir!" A guardsmen called out to him, parchment in hand.

"What is it?"

The guardsmen saluted and handed him the parchment. "Immediate orders. Following units have been assigned for forward assault. The 14th, 5th, 673rd, and the knights. in addition, they have assigned the 71st Rifles to our number." General Corry cursed. They ordered things without his permission.

"Who ordered this?"

"The Lord Militant, sir." The General grumbled and had all the orders relayed to their commanders.

Battery A, 82nd Cadian Artillery.

Captain Hertz was there when the assimilated gun crews from the 291th Truskan Artillery regiment had proved their worth on Verion VI. When the Cadian 5002nd had failed to hold the line, the "new" recruits had utilized their Basilisks as mobile anti guns, and knocked out the heretic armor as it passed into range. Since then, there had been no debate whether they were "Cadian enough."

He was a quiet man, not known to have much "feeling," but he smiled when he inhaled the spent casings of Earthshaker shells. The guns had been given new coordinates, and now they opened up.

Heretical Lines

From far and near the heretics readied themselves. The uptick in artillery meant that a charge was coming, and the cultists and heretic guard readied themselves with their stolen weapons and gear. Heavy bolters were loaded, stubbers were checked. Kidnapped and brutalized Ragnarok, Leman Russ, and Destroyer pattern tanks were dug in for defense. Uparmored Tauros', Salamanders, and Cargo 8s were also readied. The heretics steeled themselves for the assault to come.