Herald of the Stars: Chapter Three Hundred and Twenty-Nine

I watch Arch-Magos Vilhelm Warick Wahh toddle off, his incense burner swinging from his tail-like mechadendrite. Dear Emperor! How many hints and humiliations must I pile on one man before he fucks off! Dare I say that Lyre was more subtle and less irritating?

With a huff, I stand, check the Xenos Librarium for any surveillance that Vilhelm might have ‘forgotten’ and find none. I secure the room, then return to work. Unlike what I told Vilhelm, I do not immediately send a stealth drone to Het. His news can wait for our next shipment of goods as I originally planned. 

Regardless of its veracity, whatever Fulgrim is up to doesn’t actually matter. I can’t do anything about it now and I have little confidence that a message from a captured Arch-Magos delivered from an unverifiable source will be taken seriously. If anything it will affect the credibility I am trying to establish with Arch-Magos Castellar. I’d much rather mix Vilhelm’s report with correspondence and debriefs from every individual we have rescued.

The Daemon Primarch will only be stopped by force and my best move is still to disrupt him at every opportunity, forcing him to spend resources that he has few ways of replenishing. Any grand plans to stop Fulgrim will have to wait until I visit Het for proper coordination.

I don’t need to go to my office to read through my reports, but I do so anyway. Having a place where I go for work helps me place myself in the right mindset. Brigid has flagged a document as urgent and, to my dismay, I realise that this is a notice I’ve been waiting for. 

The Stellar Fleet is running low on resources. 

We have plenty of hydrocarbons and water, but we are running low on iron, silicates and all manner of other rare and precious minerals. The large number of stealthy cargo containers, munitions, and Void Craft that we have manufactured were a significant drain. The fake base pushed our resources from low to critical. If we want to make anything else, we’ll have to start recycling vehicles, like our disassembled tanks, or even emergency spare parts for our void ships, which I am not going to do.

Without being able to skim the sun for energy, the Moth Class can’t convert many materials, and even if they could, they could not synthesize them in the quantities we require. They can turn some of the hydrocarbons into iron, but anything with a higher atomic number will require an external power source of immense size. Making such a common element is a horrible use of their capabilities and isn’t going to dig us out of our resource hole either.

The biggest source of materials in the system is the Space Hulk at one of the Praeculsio Anchor Points. Recycling the Space Hulk would require leaving the Oort Cloud and I don’t want to do that for multiple reasons.

The Oort Cloud for Sentanim is approximately four Earth Masses. 0.5% of its objects are rocky asteroids, most of which are silicates, or D-type asteroids. The rest are frozen water and gases, all of which are essential for running a void ship. 

Each object over a kilometre in size is typically separated by tens of millions of kilometres. As we are trying to hide and are not sending out high powered auger pings, thousands of drones, or risking divination, finding the tiny percentage of dark and dusty metals among the vast quantities of various reflective ices is a matter of luck more than systematic study. Even if we do find a metallic asteroid, chances are it won’t have all the elements we want anyway.

This material shortage is no great surprise and we have multiple solutions in place, depending on what the three enemy fleets searching for us decide to do.

I’m really hoping that the information left in the fake base makes the three fleets split up into small task groups as they hunt all the other imaginary bases in the Oort Cloud.

During the next week, we complete our fake base and withdraw from the location, travelling 200 AU to the next methane ice comet we have identified for suitable harvesting. We could have chosen a nearer one but I don’t want to be too close to the decoy base. The journey will take 40 days. 

15 days towards our next destination, I return to the Strategium with the same crowd as before, minus Abbisine and Ivraine, to observe the Stellar Fleet attacks against the three Fleets besieging Lycosidae.

Our huge fleet of Void Craft are as cautious as possible on their final approach, coasting along a pre-planned trajectory, their thrusters silent and their power plants shut down, the Void Craft sustained by batteries and emergency RTGs. They’ve had plenty of time to cool and even if they are spotted behind their Empyrean Mantles and Ruby Stealth coatings, their approach trajectory is timed to look like asteroids flung from the belts of Etiam by a recent micro-singularity. Their formation is scattered and carefully calculated to help sell the illusion.

We can’t actually see our Void Craft on our Hololith, but our passive sensors can see the 979 Chaos vessels orbiting Lycocidae and infesting the rocky remains of its shattered planet, one that I’ve finally learned is referred to as the Lycocidae Fields.

If all is going to plan, the Strike Craft and command shuttle will be hiding in the shadow of the metallic core of the planet as the unmanned shuttles open their bays and deploy 4040, Leman Russ sized stealth mines, primed with melta explosives. Unlike torpedoes, these will, I hope, approach slowly enough to sneak through the Enemy’s Void Shields.

No vortex weaponry this time. They were all used up destroying the Excipio Stations and damaging Fulgrim’s battleships. We don’t have the materials or time to replace them either.

Our primary targets are 45 carriers, a mix of cruisers and light cruisers. Our secondary targets are the 270 warships, corvettes, frigates, destroyers and light cruisers, that guard the specialised carriers. We’re after anything that has the potential to catch the Stellar Fleet, not actually blow up the transports and help out the siege. Why? Because we have no idea which transports are empty and we have no way of finding out without our Void Craft giving away their position.

The game is up when the 58 Class Three and 260 Class Two D-POTs disgorge 477,120 Battle Automata, or 14.2 Automata Auxillia regiments into the void to descend upon the hulls of the enemy vessels.

Our Goliaths have been rather busy during our long voyage, increasing our Automata Auxillia regiments from two to 20.

It might sound like a lot, and it is, but 14.2 regiments is less than the total population of a single Lunar Class cruiser spread between 315 vessels, assuming that their vessels have similar populations to my own. 

Unlike Stellar Fleet vessels, most of those crews will be a mix of untrained, unarmed slaves that a single Automata can mow down by the hundreds. Even if they pack their vessels tighter than we do, it won’t make much of a difference, or so Odhran predicts.

To my absolute surprise, and that of those around me, the response of the Chaos fleets is rather lackluster as we catch them entirely unaware. I really thought they would see through the deception earlier than this, especially after our last stealth attack. How could the Dark Mechanicum not have developed any countermeasures yet? Did we catch them with their pants down a second time, maybe even literally?

The shuttles are quick to zoom off, letting inertia and jet packs carry their Battle Automata to target as the Enemy CIWS are overwhelmed with targets approaching from the rear and just out of reach of the main thrusters of the target vessels. The stealthy shuttles turn around and retreat unopposed, without ever exposing themselves to defensive fire.

Dear Emperor! Is this going to be the mythical zero casualty mission?

Patrols of enemy Strike Craft are quick to respond, but they don’t chase the empty shuttles and instead focus on the 14 regiments of Battle Automata closing in on their home vessels.

Space lights up with a brief flash of lasers and bolter fire as Strike Craft and Battle Automata exchange fire. The exchange rate is about one to seven Strike Craft to Battle Automata and the Strike Craft are obliterated in seconds. Were the Enemy Strike Craft not so grossly outnumbered, the exchange would have been far worse for us.

By the time the Battle Automata reach their targets, we’ve lost less than a thousand of them. Turns out that tuning all of your Close In Weapon Systems to deal with missiles, torpedoes, and Strike Craft makes them less effective at swatting a swarm of murderous robots that can jink, twirl, and actively dodge income fire. Especially when one uses heavy bolters, auto-cannons, and las-cannons because all you have is millennia old ships patched by slaves using looted gear from barely armed freighters. 

They do not have a proper micro-laser defence grid backed up by sacrificial drones, stolen from the Tau, that coordinate with every vessel in the fleet. Hell, these ships aren’t even swapping data, treating each void ship like an unsupported city state instead of coordinating their defensive fire. There are so many wasted shots!

Who could have seen that coming, eh?

Reigning in my gloating, I glance around the room. High Purser Brigid Issengrund, and Master Psyker Reina Benetek are discussing this year’s Festival of the Victorious Dead. I’ll have to carry a lot of lead lilies with gold script this year. Today is going well, but we have many other planned operations.

High Factotum Seraphine Lebarcham, Fleet Marshal Lonceta Ridel, and Confessor Emyr Driskel are watching the Hololith with little smirks on their faces. It would appear I’m not the only smug arsehole in this room today.

Herald Primarus Domhnall Noake, Force Commander Odhran, and Artisan Laisren Toolin are as serious looking as ever, though their conversation is not as they speculate on the outcome of a battle that might have already finished. We’re 277 hours, or 11.54 days behind.

Killovie is pretending to be one of the Strategium operators. I have no idea why and see no reason to ask.

It would appear that the initial strike has filled everyone with confidence.

I clap my hands once, “Don’t count the bodies before the artillery shells have landed, everyone. This could still turn boots up.”

The conversation dies and all sensors and transhuman eyeballs turn to the Hololith.

The Automata descend upon the enemy vessels and soon after the hulls begin to ripple with small explosions. The Enemy sends more Strike Craft, only for them to get shot down by their own turrets.

“That wasn’t part of the plan,” I say. “They should have breached by now, not turned themselves into Gun Servitors.”

Laisren brings up several sensor readings, “Look here, Magos. I believe Fleet Marshal Yorath has come up with something more effective.”

“Oh my!” says Brigid. “Are they disassembling the vessels from the outside?”

“That is what it looks like, isn’t it,” I say.

Odhran says, “A most novel strategy. I did not know that your Battle Automata were capable of such behavior.”

“Technically they are up-armoured Janus Pattern Servitors,” says Laisren. “They have the same programming as our mechanical labourers and identical equipment to a Herald Acolyte. That includes a mechadendrite with a plasma cutter and other tools. 

“The Battle Automata are equally capable of construction and deconstruction with minimal supervision, so long as the correct STCs have been uploaded. They are better at problem solving than your average Imperial serf and are capable of conversation, much like the Cyber Mastiffs your Chapter is so fond of, Force Commander. The subverting of Enemy systems however must be directed manually. The command staff will have to be purified when they return after looking at so many corrupted systems.”

Odhran says, “That is a significant sacrifice they are risking.”

“It is not something I would condone,” I say, “no wonder they kept it from me. I cannot deny its effectiveness. I feel irritated, proud, and impressed.”

“You remind me of my days as a Sergeant," says Odhran. “It would seem that all the joint exercises and cross training has led to your people taking on the brashness of the Bargehests, Aldrich.”

I sigh, “Success forgives many sins.”

“If Fleet Marshal Yorath is not invading the interior of the vessels to plant explosives, what is she planning with the mines?” says Emyr. “Perhaps she will go after the transports after all? What could she possibly have discovered that would lead to such a drastic change in objectives?”

Domhnall says, “We will find out soon enough. Besides, I would not call this a change in objectives, Fleet Marshal Yorath is still going after the primary and secondary targets. I do believe she is chasing extra opportunities though. Perhaps she is looking for a full time position with Fleet Command.”

“She has been sneaking into more and more of our meetings,” I say. “Not a bad thing, I think. Perhaps our repeated calls for her presence have led to a misunderstanding.”

“There is no point in speculating further,” says Brigid. “Fleet Marshal Yorath will explain herself when she gets back.”

Seven hours after the operation began, the Battle Automata withdraw from the hulls of the carriers, light cruisers, and escorts then head for the transports in a mad dash. Many hide behind large armour plates that they have ripped from Enemy hulls. 

The Enemy launch about 1800 Strike Craft, though none from their compromised carriers lest they be shot down as they launch. 

Hiding within the shadow of the compromised vessels and their stolen cover, the Automata avoid most of the defensive fire from the cruisers and heavy cruisers. The Strike Craft, however, are a different matter, as is the defensive fire from the transports the Automata are assaulting. The Automata have far less speed and no subtlety with their second assault and are torn apart. There are still over 400,000 thousand of them when they move and the Enemy destroys a third of them before the Automata descend upon the transports like ravenous ticks. 

The Enemy Strike Craft do not escape unscathed. They are butchered by the compromised defences of their own vessels as well as the Battle Automata who have as much difficulty striking them down as they did the first time. By the time the Automata have arrived at their new targets, 256 transports, what few Strike Craft remain are retreating back to their cruisers and the damaged battleship.

Just as the Automata land on their new victims, 4040 stealth mines explode across 315 vessels, each mine guided by scans and lasers of sacrificial Automata. The mines slip inside thrusters, sneak into hangars, and glide through holes ripped into hulls just above fuel reserves.

Every target vessel erupts in white hot flames. Their hulls start to glow as fire melts through internals, running amok through the toxic atmospheres of their decadent vessels.

The whole Strategium, including the attending officers, burst into cheers.