Kapitel 24: Chapter Eighteen: The Battle of Ceres (Part I)
Location: The Palace of Malg-Dantu on Ceres
Date: 812.M30
Malg-Roth lounged within the depths of its Spore-Kins dwelling. The great void-coral palace was one of the 79 that dotted the harsh frozen surface of C'er. One for each of the 79 Clans of Q'Hrel who ruled the Belt of Sol. It was a perfect domain for Malg-Roths kin, barren and distant from the systems star, minerals rich and filled with tunnels and caverns perfect for slaves and spawns.
The Q'Hrel were an ancient species, with a history spanning million years. In that time Empires and species had risen and fallen. All throughout the Q'Hrel had waxed and waned. Surviving and existing in the dark fetid parts of the galaxy like the Molds they were distantly related to. During galactic Dark Ages, they prospered and fed upon the remnants of broken civilizations. Now was one of those times of plenty. The Meatlings of Terra had been broken by their Automata and the Endless Empire of the Crystal-Children had been dragged screaming into the Nether.
As the fires of those twin apocalyptic conflicts cooled the Q'Hrel had slithered into the former Crown-Worlds of the Terran Meatlings. The meatlings bred quickly and even the greatest cataclysm in their history had done little to quell their numbers. Lacking the legions of Iron that had once defended them they were easy prey for Malg-Roth's kin. For as long as the Story-Murals recorded the Q'Hrel had been the masters of breaking lesser species to their will. The enslavement and exploitation of other sentients had long ago been perfected by Malg-Roth's ancestors and the continuation of such a practice was quite useful.
Terran Meatlings, in particular, proved to be the virtually perfect slave-species. It amused the Q'Hrel that the species that had once claimed dominion over the stars proved such excellent fodder for their industries, agriculture, and subservience. Terrans bred quickly, even in the most odious conditions. They could survive and thrive on the most basic scraps, they could even be manipulated to turn on each other for better pickings of refuse to squash rebellion.
Unlike the Orks or other fast-breeding races, they could be easily broken into obedient slaves. Terran tissue was also quite nutritious and their warp-signature seemed to attract the attention of the Four from the Beyond. Making sacrifices of their Nether-touched an excellent source of boons.
They truly were the ideal Slave-species. Malg-Roth itself was waited on by one hundred fanatically loyal meatlings who all competed for the honor of having their cerebral-spinal fluid drank by their Master. The Spore-Clan of Malg owned 89,602,819 Terran slaves with a few hundred thousand more used for sustenance or materials.
Form its Xeno perspective Malg-Roth knew without a doubt Terrans were inferior livestock and that the enslavement and consumption of them would continue until every last one of them had been used up. Malg-Roth knew this because they would not be the first species to experience such a fate under the Q'Hrel's use. What Malg-Roth did not know was that the millennia of human enslavement and consumption was about to violently end. Or that it was about to pay for its crimes with its life as a barrage of fire reduced its palace to ash.
By their very Nature Voidship Lance weaponry strike first in a battle. This proved true as the first broadsides of hyper-focused energy burned through Ceres's defense field and unleashed hell upon the world below. Battle-tank sized bolts of light turned millennia worth of carefully grown Void-Coral into a plasmatic slurry of its component atoms.
The Palace of Malg-Dantu had proved an optimum first target of the First Legion. The isolated equatorial plateau would provide baseline information on the effectiveness of the fleets weapons. Scans also indicated the vast bulk of lifeforms matching human biological characteristics were located beneath the proto-planets surface. The strike would decapitate enemy leadership without causing unnecessary harm to the enslaved humans.
Lance fire lacerated the kilometer high structure. Leaving angular cuts that turned the thick layer of frost lacquered onto it into great clouds of vapor. Entire sections of the macro-structure were peeled away from the main spire and teetered precariously. As the vivisected structure started to settle from the devastation inflicted by Imperial energy weapons, the fleets Macro-cannon shells slammed into it.
Megatons of explosive force shattered the palace into frozen shards that flitted through the void, effected partially by the rapidly decaying artificial gravity of the palace. Forming a hauntingly beautiful spectacle of crystal-snow floating between earthquake inducing impacts. In less than ten minutes the once prideful center of Xeno-tyranny and all its occupants had been utterly destroyed by the First Legion.
Location: The Ty-Prydwen
Date: 812.M30
The first assault was a resounding success, the Xeno-fortress was reduced to ash without issue and the next phase of the battle had begun. Like the nest of vermin it was the protoplanet had been stirred into a frenzy. Defensive shields shimmered into being over the remaining spires. These were not the faint containment fields meant to simulate an atmosphere and protect from cosmic debris but barriers of eldritch energy and distorted space-time.
At Eddards command the fleet opened fire on the other targetable fortress. Three folded under the bombardment, their barriers not solidified enough to withstand the Imperiums wrath. The other twenty were luckier and the shields shimmered with sickly light as they halted the bombardment. Even so, armageddon rained down upon the barriers, straining them and preventing any orbital defenses from being fired.
This did not prevent swarms of Xeno fighter craft from pouring out of their hives. The Fields reacted to momentum and would not block low-velocity objects from entering or exiting it. Confirming what he had expected the First Primarch gave the much-anticipated order to his Legion. "Ready drop-pods for Deepstrike insertion."
Thousands of Legionnaires entered their Drop Pods and prepared to be launched like living ordinance down onto Ceres. A hundred or so Battle-Brothers of the Eighth Formation boarded their strike-craft and took formation as squad-leaders of Auxilia piloted fighter-squadrons. They would defend the fleet and their battle brothers from the oncoming Xeno Horde.
Bolts of energy and mass-reactive shells spilled into the Void as the fleet's defenses came to life. Tens of thousands of Xeno fighters had already poured into the Void and were beginning to open fire with energy weapons. Even in massive volleys, the scorching Xeno-weapons could not threaten Imperial Void-Shields. Still, they fired, all while coalescing towards the Ty-Prydwen. Similar to the Astartes drop pods that thundered past them, the Xeno's sought to decapitate the enemy.
Not a single one got close enough to even touch the Gloriana-Class's Void-Shield. Deadly storms of flak fire and masterful pilots of the Eighth Formation ripped them out of the Void. It was now when the nature of the Xeno fighters were revealed by Imperial Strike-Craft observation. The Xeno Fighter-Craft were not Craft at all but individual specimen of the enemy.
At about eight foot long and sprouting many foul protrusions the horrific bilaterally symmetrical beings flew through the void on some unknown ether with fan-like wings. In its tendrils, they held queer directed energy weapons that lashed out with vivid bolts that tore through the Armor of any Strike-Craft unlucky enough to be hit.
Location: Ceres, Xeno Spire-5
Date: 812.M30
As the orbital battle between strike-craft and Xeno intensified the First drop-pods slammed into Ceres's surface. Control rockets had directed and slowed the pods to safely pass through the Xeno Palaces force-field. Hundreds of Drop-Pods smashed into and around each Spire. With practiced efficiency, the Astartes exited their transports and secured the perimeter around their craft.
The vast majority of the Drop-Pods had landed within a hundred meters of the base of the spire, a few struck directly into it though. Those Battle-Brothers had the somewhat more arduous duty of setting up internal kill-zones to occupy and distract defenders while the main force moved in. Once the landing forces had decided it was reasonably safe a signal was transmitted back to the fleet. Specialized Astartes from the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 7th Formations were then deployed with their wargear and vehicles.
Twenty independent armies of Astartes, each numbering in the thousands formed up. Columns of the newly manufactured Gen-I Rhino transports and Predator Tanks deployed. Squads formed up into Companies and Companies into Chapters. 3rd Formation scout craft quickly moved to scan the Xeno structure and access enemy forces and access points.
Orbital scans indicated each Spire was an entry point into a sprawling catacomb system of both human and Xeno origin. Taking these twenty spires would provide access to the proto-planets core. The 3rd formations initial reports indicated the Spires themselves were sparsely populated. More akin to a mix of pleasure-palace and fortress than a proper city.
As of now, the majority of their defenders were engaging in the orbital battle but more would soon be spilling out of the planet's crust once the Astartes assault was noticed. This was the key point of the battle for Ceres. The First Legion had to take the spires quickly and butcher the Xeno's before they could mount a defense.
The location marked by Imperial tacticians as Spire-5 was the first to be breached by the Legion. It was one of the larger Xeno-Structures and its entrance was a broad avenue leading to a semi-organic looking aperture. The other spires tended to have high up tubular access points with a few larger ones that seemed to be loading dock equivalents. The design was perfect for armored vehicles and a unit of 4th Formation Tanks and Transports carrying 5th formation Astartes charged the gate.
Once they were within a few hundred meters the reason for the atypical entrance point became apparent. The hab-block sized aperture opened up and two dozen hulking beasts rampaged out of it. Oily tentacled creatures each rivaling a Rhino in size. Festooned with brutal armor and blades attached to their extremities the monster was ready for battle.
On each specimen back was its Xeno-handler. The Q'hrel grasping tendrils each held some sort of energy weapon and they were protected by an armored howdah. Fully utilizing the mobility advantage provided by their quadruped ape-like stance the creatures charged the Astartes Armored division.
With practiced certainty, the Rhino transports moved themselves and their cargo out of the creatures reach and behind their predator siblings all while firing into the pack of monsters with their storm bolters. Taking up frontline positions the Predators blasted away at the war-beasts. Even under a hail of bolt shells and Autocannon blasts, the creatures did not falter. Their armor rippled with oily light that muted the destructive power being unleashed against them. Even so, the great volume of mass-reactive shells filling the air managed to rip through the Xeno-armor and explode inside the war-beasts.
Instead of bleeding or breaking like a fully natural creature the war-beasts flesh oozed over the injury like a grotesque fluid. One of the more massive specimens reared up and brought its armored forelimbs down on a Predators turret. Its riders weapons unleashed etheric tendrils of electricity that crackled and lashed out at the Tanks armor.
Barely dodging the crackling power-claws bonded to the war-beasts flesh as it sunk through the turret's armor the Tanks lead gunner aimed its Auto-cannon into the beast's chest. With an explosive crack, the round blasted through the creatures chest cavity and detonated as it reached the beasts spine equivalent and back-armor. A mixture of organic and metal shrapnel spewed out of its back and reduced the war-beasts rider to a fine paste.
Instantly the War-Beast pulled away as if the Predators hull scalded it. Backing away with twitchy movements the Creature slumped forward, its head pressed against the frozen rock of Ceres. It took a moment for the Tanks crew to decipher the Alien-body language of what they had assumed was a brutish gene-crafted animal. It was bowing, a near-universal mark of supplication and respect.
A moment later the grey clammy flesh of the Xeno-beast started to slaught off of it. Wounds from both this battle and previous ones ripped open. Scars faded into being and became gaping injuries as the Xeno died before their eyes. The patterns even upon such an alien form were unmistakable. Brands and lash marks that always accompanied slavery. This was no animal but a sentient being forced into violence and servitude that was so severe even death could not be an escape. Some foul warp-craft of Xeno-heresy forced the Xeno-slave to keep living and was dispelled with its master's death.
Showing the initiative and understanding that had earned him his command Tank-Sergeant Hawkwood quickly voxed the other tank commanders. "Aim for the Xeno-riders, they are the source of the Beasts resilience. They are just as much Slaves as the mortals toiling below. Euthanize them efficiently."
Reacting with startling speed the Ten tanks of Hawkwoods division gained firing lines on the Q'Hrel riders and pulverized them with concentrated fire. The Armor and shields of their diases did little to stifle the vengeance of mankind. Soon all that was left of the twelve slave-Xeno's were malformed skeletons quickly covering with void-frost. A marker beacon for the Xenos Biologis was deployed on them and the Tanks advanced upon the Gate.
Bolts of energy from turrets hidden in the void-coral flew down upon them, a quick hail of bolter fire quickly silenced them and the gaping entrance to the Spire awaited. It appeared the Xeno's had attempted to shut the bastion once they realized the battle had turned against them. A few stray bolt shells had turned the fleshy aperture into a wound in the spires side.
Assembling quickly the Astartes prepared to march into the Spire. A Cohort of Astartes numbering in at Five thousand Battle Brothers along with Armored transports, Tanks, Flyers, Attack Bikes, Mech Suits, Specialty Forces and support Astartes prepared to enter the Spire. Doom and destruction was coming the Xeno's and liberation in life or peace in death was coming to their victims. They were the Emperors Angels of Death, and they would know no fear.
Location: Interior of Spire-5
Date: 812.M30 (30 mins since Cohort 5 made planet fall)
The Interior of the spire reminded Sgt Hawkwood of ancient spiral fossils he had seen once displayed in a museum. The Entrance opened up onto a gently sloping spiral road that traced the edge of the spiral. Going left would take you deeper into the spiral and going right would take you higher up. A veritable horde of twittering Cyber-Altered Task-Servitors or CATS were released into the dark interior. Each equipped with a scanner suite and programmed to venture and scan anywhere not mapped by the Legion.
The Predators took formation and prepared to descend into the Spire. Scans indicated the spiral road was composed of the same void-coral that made up the rest of the Spire. Yet it was more worn and damaged than anywhere else. It occurred to Hawkwood this was not natural erosion. It was an effect of thousands if not millions of slaves wearing away at it as they were moved by their masters.
Suddenly those masters descended from above, like twisted parodies of bats the Xenos flew from the shadowed heights of the spire they dwelled in. The same twisted lighting that had been unleashed earlier by the Xeno Energy weapons crackled down. Lashing at vehicles and marching Astartes in great gouts of cancerous energy.
Turret mounted weapons opened fire on the descending Xenos, Infantry Astartes deployed from their transports and joined the firefight. Bolt Shells, Volkite beams, and a few more exotic projectiles filled the dark cavernous spire. The Q'Hrel had realized very quickly with the destruction of their Vanguard beasts that they were disadvantaged on the field of battle. Guile, ambush and as the Astartes quickly learned psychological warfare would be the stratagem of the Xenos.
The psychological warfare in question was discovered as a squad of Jump-Infantry rocketed up into the darkness to strike the Xenos in flight. They were the first to see the next part of the alien attack. The squad captain voxed the entire Cohort in a brief warning of what he saw. "Inbound bombardment, biological weapons likely."
Ten meters from Sgt Hawkwoods Tank something splattered into the helix-road. Numerous Spotter lights fixated on the pulped mass of tissue. It twitched and slowly pulled itself to its feet. Even after a lifetime of slavery and the catastrophic trauma of impact the emaciated form of a human child was still recognizable.
Despite not being Warp-Touched and firmly protected inside the Predator he commanded Hawkwood felt the warps corruption ooze off the child-thing. Some curse akin to what had kept the War-beasts alive animated the corpse. Or what had seemed to be a corpse. Its dented skull turned to face the nearest Astartes who was slowly approaching it with bolter-ready. The child's mouth opened and vocal cords raw from screaming spoke. The dialect barely resembled gothic and it was more of a bloody croak than a sentence, but the Astartes could understand it still. "Make it stop, please make it stop."
As it spoke the child lurched towards the Astartes, puppeteered by some inscrutable force it flailed its limbs uselessly at the Space Marine. Kept alive by foul sorcery the child's mind was intact enough to suffer while its body was used to attack who should have been its savior. With no hesitation, pity or remorse the Astartes fired his bolter and extinguished the last traces of the child's half-life.
The battle continued and so did the bombardment, hundreds of mutilated children rained down upon the Astartes. They were terror weapons, meant to demoralize and horrify attackers. The Astartes only noticed them when they got underfoot or could be easily dispatched.
That is not to say they did not have an effect on the Battle-Brothers of the First Legion. A cold brutal fury similar to their gene-fathers own ignited in each and every Astartes witness to the atrocity. The Xenos would be purged with ruthless efficiency, once the first Legion had finished its duty the only evidence of the slaver-scums existence would be within Imperial Archives.
The battle raged and a handful of Astartes were slain under concentrated fire while thousands of Xenos were ripped from the sky. the Cohorts lead Chaplain opened up a general Vox signal and addressed the Astartes army as one. "Our Armor is Contempt, Our Shield is Disgust, Our Sword is Hatred."
As one the Cohort responded with the Hypno-indoctrinated response. "In the Emperor's name let none survive"
For nearly an hour the 5th Cohort of the First Legion butchered the Xenos. The Q'hrel were naturally physically tough and further augmented by sorcery and technology. The cold of the void or Ocean depths did little to inconvenience them. Even so, Bolt shell reduced them to pulped slurries, and Volkites burned them to ash. The puppeteered children could be dispatched with the destruction of the brain stem and posed little threat to the Emperors Angels. Even the Xeno energy weapons required several seconds of sustained fire from multiple sources to kill an Astartes. It occurred to Hawkwood the Xenos weaponry might have been designed to maim and torture slaves or beasts, not cutting through centimeter thick ceramite.
The few straggling Xenos were killed by roving squads of sixth formation CQC infantry who had been supporting beleaguered fifth formation fire-teams. All were slain except one. A particularly large and gaudily decorated specimen whose left wing and graspers had been blown off. A faint mewling escaped the Q'Hrell occasionally and it attempted to drag itself out of the ring of Astartes that circled it. An armored kick to its injuries dissuaded it each time.
Hawkwoods Tank company was close by and watched the captured creatures meet its fate. It seemed the Infantry had been ordered to capture any enemy commanders if possible. The reasoning became readily available when an Astartes in the trappings of the Librarius approached the Xeno. The Q'Hrel sensed what was coming and its efforts to escape redoubled.
Witch-Fire streamed from the Librarians eyes and his Psychic-Hood crackled with Warp-Lighting. The sigils on the Psykers armor marked him as Telepathica Librarian, a specialist in ripping open the minds of the enemy and twisting the perception of the weak. The Librarian telekinetically restrained the creature, a mist of warp-frost coating its limbs. While he chanted psi-mantras to ground himself and focus his powers.
All but the most psychically dull could sense what happened next. Like an adder sinking its fangs into its prey, the Librarians mind struck the Xenos. The Creature thrashed and squealed as knowledge, secrets and it's very thoughts were ripped out of it and analyzed by the Librarian. Centuries worth of Xeno memories were sifted through and the most important details were plucked away.
The Librarian was thankful despite the Xenos appearance its neurology was not too radically different from humans and deciphering the memories was fairly easy. Tactical information was acquired and basic knowledge of the Xeno's language and communication methods.
A small pack of Calligraphus and Vox Servitors were disgorged from the transport the Librarian had exited. Electrical bursts erupted from the Librarians hood and arked over to specially designed receptors attached to the Servitors. Knowledge torn from the Xeno's mind was injected into the lobotomized cyborgs. It was recorded perfectly by the Servitors and Voxed in data bursts to the Orbiting fleet who then analyzed it.
Drained of its knowledge the quivering Xeno was released from the Librarians telekinetic grip. A brutal thrust with a force sword finished the broken Q'Hrel, the tattered remnants of its soul burned in Witch-Fire. The Cohorts Lord Commander ordered a detachment of three hundred Marines to clear out the top of the spire and then ensure the security of the landing site and spire base. Spire-5 would be the beachhead the Imperium needed.
Armed with new knowledge that quickly circulated through the Cohort and new orders from the Fleet the rest of the Fifth Cohort advanced into the Depths of Ceres. Down and down they went, the Helix-road showing no signs of ending until they were nearly three kilometers below the planet's surface. Eventually, it emptied out into a massive underground cavern.
Stretching as far as the Astartes sensors could detect the Cavern was roughly cross-shaped, with the helix-road coiling down from the Spire-shaft that formed the crosses junction. This was an entry point to a great subterranean highway that connected the Spires, mines, and slave pits of Ceres. Carved from solid bedrock by ancient humans and widened and modified for the Xenos insidious purpose.
Sgt. Hawkwood for a brief moment wondered if a Titan-Equivalent could be in these tunnels, they were certainly big enough to comfortably hold a smaller one or a Knight-mech. He doubted it, such a weapon would have already been used in the conflict. These tunnels were the size they were to allow easy transport of minerals and millions of slaves.
New Orders came in, The Tank Company Hawkwood was part of would lead the scouring and conquest of the Northern route of the Highway. The Cohort would be subdivided into Four elements that would spread out and claim the subterranean passages for the Imperium. A senior Chaptermaster would each lead one while the Battle-Master would coordinate and oversee the occupation from the quickly assembling basecamp in the Xeno-Spire.
The Fifth Cohort marched forth into the depths of Ceres. Each cohort-fourth formed an unstoppable tide that poured through the tunnel. Like a wave of cleansing fire, they blasted through numerous Q'Hrel blockades and defensive positions.
Recon squads occasionally splintered off into mining-crevices that dotted the cavern's walls. Most of the mines they explored were long abandoned, littered with the bones of long-dead slaves. A few held work-gangs of humans and Xenos. Utterly broken in mind, body and soul the slaves had to be ordered at gunpoint to leave the mines and head towards the basecamp quickly assembling at the spire. They would be useful labor until refugee ships could arrive to pick them up.
The Cohorts main divisions butchered through the tunnel at a steady pace. Their orders were to meet up with any friendlies who had entered from different spires. This happened to Hawkwoods semi-cohort a few hours into the tunnel battle. A horde of Xenos and their war-beasts had tried to fortify a segment of the cavern into a makeshift bunker. The Xenos had the terrible luck to be assaulted by two different Astartes forces simultaneously. Forced to subdivided themselves to face the twin encroaching forces they were easily ripped apart.
When the Predators Cogitators notified him friendlies were in the area Hawkwood ensured his crew was careful with their volleys. Avoiding friendly fire has always been a priority on the battlefield. Eventually, the twin forces met in the center of the Xeno encampment. Commanding officers exchanged pleasantries and information. The friendlies were a mixed formation chapter from Cohort 9. Plans were made to work together to clear a side-tunnel the Mixed-Chapter had discovered.
Right as the joint operation prepared to roll out a massive planetquake shook the cavern. Stone cracked and baseline humans would have been thrown to the ground. After a few seconds of shaking it stopped. The tunnel settled and thankfully no debris larger than a human head fell from the ceiling. As the Astartes grounded themselves a simple message blipped through the vox. "The Second Legion has joined the battle"
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein