Herald of the Stars: Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty

I always go back and edit the previous chapter after feedback from my Patreons. Usually these changes are small and not worth noting. This time I added an extra 300 words to clear up some confusion. I also put Killovie back in. I can't believe I forgot about her! You don't have to re-read it for this chapter to make sense, but those who were a little confused about all the fleet action the first time, may find this second attempt easier to read.

I am still unsure about the end of this chapter and would love some feedback. Cheers!

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I say, “Regardless of her motives, Igraine has gone above and beyond. That was a successful strike on every target vessel. Laisren, what are the actual numbers?”

“A moment please, Magos,” says Laisren. “The Machine-Spirits are having trouble filtering out the data. We are too distant for a proper count. The whole Enemy fleet looks like a burning white blob from here.”

“That’s the sort of technical issue I like to have,” says Odhran.

There is a snicker from Killovie where she is hiding among the Strategium operators, though I only hear her because of my ridiculous auspex. The real Strategium officers have settled down after their big cheer and are focusing on their tasks.

We wait for the augur to clear up.

Laisren says, “Preliminary estimates suggest that all 210 escort sized vessels have been crippled beyond recovery. The 90 light cruisers, 30 of which are carriers, have fared a little better. Perhaps half might be rebuilt with a decade in a shipyard. It would almost certainly be cheaper to scrap them all.”

There are smiles all around the Hololith.

“Please continue,” I say.

“I am uncertain about the cruiser-carriers,” says Laisren. I am confident that they’ve lost most of their main thrusters, a portion of their hangars, and a lot of the promethium for their Void Craft. 

“However, the stealth mines were insufficient to cripple the vessels. The cruisers will likely be ready to resume operation within weeks, though more as void stations than void ships. We’ve already blown up the docks that the Enemy were using when we destroyed the Excipio Stations. Their thrusters will not be easy to repair without a shipyard, especially as we’ve only spotted 32 factory ships in the Chaos Armada.”

I examine the Hololith and do not dispute Laisren’s analysis.

Laisren continues, “How many Strike-Craft the cruiser-carriers have remaining depends entirely on how effective the carriers’ internal fire suppression is, how they store them, and all manner of other factors we have no way of knowing. 

“Most Imperial vessels, Chaos or otherwise, do not stack their Void Craft as dense as we do. Their hangars are open spaces, spread across multiple decks, not mechanised stacks of Void Craft stored behind bulkheads that then get fed into Gravitic Accelerators and fired out of armoured ports. They still stock a similar number of Void Craft, but use far more space to do so. This is why I am uncertain how far any fires could have spread.”

During our refit at Scintilla, we finally managed to replicate the Gravitic Accelerators and rebuilt all our hangars to accommodate the new launch system. We also reorganised all our Void Craft so that we would not fall prey to the same attack we just used on the Chaos fleets. It’s how we got the idea for this specific attack in the first place.

Laisren continues, “The Machine-Spirits suggest that each cruiser lost at least one of three decks of Void Craft on each of their four hangar sections: a third of their capacity. An unknown number of these will be recoverable. It is also unknown how many Void Craft were expended in earlier years of the Lathes conflict, what their replenishment rate is, if any, and if Void Craft were present on the hangars our mines destroyed. My tentative estimate is 25% of Void Craft destroyed on the cruiser-carriers. Perhaps we could ask Arch-Magos Wahh for clarifications?”

I shake my head, “Arch-Magos Wahh only knows what Fulgrim and the Dark Mechanicum wants him to know. Not that he seems to have noticed. Far better to stick to our own observations.”

“I agree,” says Odhran. “I have read the details of his so-called resistance movement and was not impressed.” 

“What is happening now?” says Confessor Emyr Driskel.

Domnhall says, “The Battle Automata are still going at it. The lack of weapon discharges on the transport hulls implies that they are boarding in a standard manner. I believe that Fleet Marshal Yorath intends to do to the transports what we originally planned to do to the carriers: distract the crews from the mines, then finish off anything that survives. No mines for this additional attack though, so she must be planning to sabotage the Enginariums or Warp Drives.”

“I think not,” says Brigid. “Fleet Marshal Yorath would not be so predictable after flipping the metaphorical grav plates.” 

“Either way,” says Domnhall, "splitting her efforts is what resulted in the sub-par result for the cruiser-carriers and they were our most crucial targets. Depending on how her self-assigned tertiary objective goes and what the Lathes do to capitalise on it will determine if the trade-off was worth it. 

“The Battle Automata are meeting heavy opposition. You can see all the shuttles rushing to the rescue from the other transports. This implies that Fleet Marshal Yorath has found some way of targeting the supply ships, rather than the troop transports, without giving herself away. There would be no need to reinforce if those vessels were stuffed with Traitor Guardsmen and other cultists.”

Odhran points at the three strike cruisers lurking within the Chaos Fleets, “They just launched Drop Pods and Thunderhawks. Fulgrim and his commanders are getting desperate, an excellent indicator of success. Every Traitor Marine lost to a Battle Automata is a massive gain, even if it takes a company of Battle Automata just to kill one. I’d much rather Traitor Marines were destroyed than Strike Craft.”

“How do you think the Traitor Marines will perform?” I say. 

“Poorly,” says Odhran. “Fighting those Battle Automata is a menace. They’re nothing like the ones we deployed against the Necrons. Their only real weakness is strategic awareness, even at as low as a company level. Not a problem when you have Human overwatch, but that won’t be happening inside the Chaos vessels. The Battle Automata are most effective at the squad level and work best when used as decoys for an attack alongside Heralds, not as the sole attacking force.”

Domhnall nods along to Odhran’s explanation and I let his words flow over me as he gets around to making his point.

Odhran continues, “In simulations similar to the current battle, the Barghests initially traded a platoon of Battle Automata for an Astartes until we devised specific countermeasures. After that, they were fairly easy to defeat with minimal casualties. 

“Stellar Fleet Battle Automata are somewhat vulnerable to having their individual squad networks hacked if you can disable one and get access to their cogitators. They also fare poorly against Tempest rounds and Arc weapons, as one would expect.” 

Laisren grimaces as Odhran picks apart Laisren’s work. Despite the blunt analysis, Laisren keeps his silence and returns to highlighting relevant data on the Hololith, backing up Odhran’s words with endless statistics. Laisren’s mechadendrites chain light incense as he mutters a prayer. 

Odhran continues, “I think it is unlikely that the Dark Mechanicum would have supplied any weapons that are good against their infernal machines, however. That Fulgrim wishes to invade three Forgeworlds defended by blessed mechanisms would be irrelevant in their tainted optics.

“Without access to the Stellar Fleet’s knowledge and educational systems the average Astartes company would be wiped out long before they discovered how to counter the Battle Automata. Assuming a standard boarding action or Hive City conflict and no deviations from the Codex Astartes, that is. 

“To conclude, there are enough Automata remaining to hold off a legion of 10,000 Space Marines if they don’t take this seriously. They have no artillery within the corridors of a void ship to act as the great leveler. Dreadnaughts will bring them victory on the vessels they deploy them on. A handful spread across 256 ships? Those Astartes are going to end up as rations for the survivors.”

“Even in death, they’re still served!” Killove voxes from the Hololith.

A heavy silence fills the Strategium.

Killovie voxes, “Those are some incredibly white teeth you have there, Force Commander.”

Odhran says, “Stop lurking and join us, little Vanus. You have more insight to offer than remarking on my joy.”

“Laisren is hogging the Noosphere connection up there. I prefer an untampered feed. You’ll get my insight if he misses something. Isn’t that right, Mr Artisan?”

Laisren tuts but otherwise ignores Killovie.

Brigid clears her throat then says, “The Emperor’s Children were never a numerous Legion. Too many flaws. After 10,000 years of fighting with nothing but raiding to sustain them, the Barghest’s Cyber-Marines and First Born Astartes likely outnumber them, even if their gene-sire gathered every single one of them across the Milky Way. I am trying to temper my optimism, but Force Commander Odhran is making it terribly difficult.”

“Then we shall pray and watch the Hololith.” I peer over the railing at Killove and add, “in silence.”

This time, the fighting goes on for four days as our Battle Automata quickly subsume the enemy transports, slaughtering their crews and replace their cogitators while holding off waves of cultists that shrink with every attempt at capture as the Enemy’s shuttles, boarding torpedoes, and other means of assault are are whittled down.

On day two, as the Enemy run low on shuttles, two dozen transports attempt to dock with the contested vessels only to get blasted by close range macro-cannons and forced to retreat.

By day three, Fulgrim’s troops resort to copying the Automata, spending hours in leaky Void Suits as they jet between their transports and the contested vessels. 

Towards the end of day four, just when we’re all wondering when the Enemy will give up and resort to shooting their own transports to avoid the Battle Automata spreading a third time, the contested vessels lurch into action.

With thrusters burning bright, the transports make a suicide run at the Enemy warships. This, at last, goads Chaos Armada into bombarding their own vessels. Corrupted Lance batteries and sorcerous Macro-Cannon shells pound the contested transports as all Enemy forces capable of abandoning ship retreat like rats, only to be splattered by the aftershocks of their own broadsides.

The warships, a mix of cruisers, crippled cruiser-carriers, and a damaged battleship, attempt a retreat. Most of the cruisers are quick to abandon the damaged vessels. Two cruisers ram the battleship, attempting to push it to safety.

The Traitors’ struggles are meaningless.

Over 15 minutes, 256 transports pull the most extreme 90 degree vertical ascent they can manage, exposing their keels to the frantic fire of the Chaos warships. Many transports are knocked out of alignment, others lose power as Lance fire punches through their hulls and out the other side.

Every transport that is still capable of doing so ejects their Warp Drive cores directly at the Enemy warships. The remaining captured vessels detonate twelve seconds later, ripping open a massive portal to the Immaterium and destroying every captured transport. 

The ejected Warp Drive cores, already unstable, also detonate. Such is the might of the combined explosion, the Warp Storm surrounding the system is briefly dragged into the Materium, flowing over the Chaos fleet and sweeping up Lycocidae in its fury.

Even with Her blessings, the Chaos Fleet writhes in torment and pleasure. Metal, ceramics, and flesh fuse and ripple with mutations. The three Chaos fleets are dragged towards the portal, even as legions of Daemons stream forth from the rent in reality, eager to consume everything in their path. Whatever xenos device that has enslaved Sentanim brooks no Daemons. The foul creatures burn under its purifying light, unable to gain a foothold before they are discorporated. The display is deceptively beautiful, their myriad deaths appearing as an elegant meteor show upon the Hololith.

Under the extreme reality warping of so many shattered Warp Drive cores, the Chaos Fleet is fused into a single Space Hulk. Fierce Warpfire and cracking Warp Lightning shimmers over the new Space Hulk.

I do not need to see it to know that Lycocidae is dead.

It is not the new Space Hulk that is their death, but the Warp Storm enveloping the moon. Whatever remains of their forces will be twisting into rage filled abominations.

43 minutes later, Sentanim shrinks a little and grows brighter. A pulse of psychic null energy washes over the Stellar Fleet at the same moment as we detect it sweeping over Lycocidae and the new rift.

The rift snaps shut and the Warp Storm fades in seconds.

All across the Stellar Fleet Gellar Fields blow out. The wards across my skin flare and burn.

I fall to my knees and scream.

The last thing I see is everyone collapsing alongside me as a wave of golden light envelops us all.