Chương 33: Chapter 32: Escalation

POV: PDF Officer Redrico Shirtan Redrico looked out over his post at the western outer wall in the lower section of the Halo Alphos hive just above the underhive. He could look down and see the small layer of smog resting down at ground level. A slew of roads, massive pipes, and railway lines led away from the hive towards their sister hive some hundred miles distant. A slew of traffic moved in and out of the hive daily shipping materials to the hive itself or to send up the orbital elevator.

Redrico yawned and checked his chrono, only twenty hours left in his shift. He blinked as he spotted a dust cloud in the far distance, squinted, and pulled out his monoculars. He could just barely see a collection of vehicles. He returned to the little outpost on top of the wall and voxed his neighbor.

"Hey Frank, was the PDF supposed to have maneuvers scheduled today?" he asked as he double-checked the schedule.

"No? I don't think so. Why?" Frank replied after a minute.

"Well, from what I am looking at there are a whole gaggle of vehicles out in the wastes by the main highway kicking up dust. Looked like PDF to me." Redrico replied as he peered through the smudged glass window and tried to spot the vehicles again. He blinked spots away as he saw some odd flashes in the distance. Moments later Redrico suddenly heard an odd whistling sound, "What the frak?" he wasn't given time to consider much else before the high explosive shells landed.

His world became filled with pain and fire, removing the guard post and Redrico from the face of the wall. —-------------------------------------------------------- POV: Lord Cornelius Aarark The moment his transport returned to his spire, Cornelius was on the vox contacting the leaders of the local Imperial Guard garrison, the Adeptus Arbites, and the PDF.

"I'm calling for a debriefing within the hour." He looked over to his wife who was nearly as stressed as he was.

"Alright, I'm going to get us some recaf." Rhonda told him as his secretaries rushed into his office to update him on the situation.

"Invite the Archmagos, Lord Drakios, Captain Bolaar, and the Inquisitor to the debriefing. Prepare the war room. One of you please escort the purchases from the auction to our chambers." Cornelius said as he rubbed a hand over his face.

"It's going to be a long night." One hour later on the dot he was in the war room. Of the individuals he had invited only the Archmagos and Lord Drakios had attended with portions of their retinues. Cornelius looked to his lead General of the PDF, General Ashica van Styr.

"General Styr, I trust you have an update?" The older woman stood up and saluted, "Sir, at 21: 00 hours the western wall was attacked in two locations by two forces consisting of a mix of artillery and fast attack vehicles. They breached the walls and have since continued their assault. One force has attacked the industrial sector and is currently still causing havoc. The second force attacked the guard vehicle depot and has been bogged down.

Preliminary reports mark the individuals and armor of the Cycladon PDF forces though they seem to be bereft of any high-ranking officers. The individual soldiers' behavior is extremely erratic."

"Erratic how?" Lord Drakios asked as he sat back in his chair.

"The few individuals that we captured were spewing various rhetoric but none of it was cohesive. They were acting a lot like they had been dosed with combat drugs. Each group, according to reports, has a psyker with them. We do not include psykers in our regiments. The guard have some sanctioned individuals in their ranks, these were not individuals we recognized." General Styr explained.

"My report matches that of General Styr. I noted the presence of one of my own troops that was stationed in Cycladon amongst the attacking force." Castellan Galen Krag growled out.

"Our forces have stalled their assault on our vehicle depot but there was some damage. It seems that the forces of Cycladon have been compromised." Archmagos Doll shared a glance with Lord Drakios before he spoke, "Based on the available data this is not a standard rebellion. Cycladon has fallen to Chaos." Doll declared flatly.

"Archmagos are you certain!? that seems extreme." General Styr said in a concerned tone.

"I concur with the Archmagos." Bolaar interrupted.

"My Chief Librarian has detected unusual warp fluctuations from the hive and confirmed their presence with the crew of the Argent Drake. The behavior of the soldiers is consistent with the mental manipulation employed by Chaos sorcerers." Bolaar crossed his arms as he stood in the imposing Saturnine suit.

"That is not all. Our sensors indicate that the corrupted forces are gathering in great numbers. This was a preemptive strike to try and hobble your defenses - though poorly coordinated." Lord Drakios said as he tapped a finger on the table.

"I have a list of all the units and vehicles stationed in Cycladon. If the entire hive has fallen to corruption we have a rough estimate of their total armor." General Styr states as she presents the data.

"That's more armor than average for a hive." Drakios pointed out. That got a chuckle from the General, the Castellan, and the Marshal.

"Our world is richer than average and Lord Cornelius has managed our budgets exceptionally well in the last century. All three of us have seen well-paced increases in funds, allowing us to steadily accrue equipment and soldiers for part of our tithe." Cornelius coughed into his hand bashfully, "Be that as it may, while we have more vehicles than Cycladon it is still a considerable force."

"Something is off." Captain Bolaar says firmly.

"Why reveal themselves now? The forces mustering to attack us and these two initial strikes. They are provoking our response, Halo Alphos has greater forces and orbital superiority. If this is the work of Chaos then this is all likely a screen for their true objective."

"There is a significant likelihood that the individuals in Cycladon were connected to the individuals we purged from the Halo before they could enact sabotage. If that is the case we are dealing with followers of Tzeentch." Archmagos Doll said as he considered the issue. The mood around the table darkened considerably as everyone considered the ramifications.

"I think we should call the Inquisitor here for a debriefing, does anyone know where he is?" Marshal Thane Praxos said as he looked around.

"He is currently in the library with my disciple and Magos Xor. They are in the process of verifying his credentials." Archmagos Doll said as he looked off into the distance.

"We already checked his credentials when he arrived, Archmagos." General Styr said politely.

"I expect you did. However, being thorough is prudent and the vetting process of the Mechanicus is much more exact than yours." He replied. —------------------------------------------------------- POV: Nicole I was planning to stay in the library and do some in-depth studying of my new gear. That was interrupted when the Inquisitor arrived with Magos Xor. I pocket the Dueling Pistol and the Eclipse Pulsator.

I pass the Power Pickaxe to one of the Scyllax and use a Dendrite to hold the small case with the Draconic Scales.

"I hope you understand our need to verify your identification Inquisitor." Xor said as he held out a hand.

"It's fine, is hair fine or do you need blood?" The Inquisitor asks with a sigh as he hands over his Rosette.

"Hair will suffice." Xor said as he took the Rosette and then the plucked hair from Radic.

"Ah Nicole, here you can check his credentials while I compile his biosignature." Xor said as he passes me the Rosette. I look down at it with surprise but I take it and start to probe the Rosette. The machine spirit inside is surprisingly potent and has multiple layers of security protecting the various functions. I pull up the profile registered to the device. Name Radic Dhamne, Ordo Hereticus, his basic biometrics all checked out. I didn't stop there of course.

"So, Inquisitor Dhamne, do you mind if I ask you some questions?" I ask in my best perky childish voice. Radic looks a little taken aback "Sure, why not?" He says after a moment.

"So which Ordo Hereticus Lord Inquisitor nominated you to the status of a full Inquisitor?" I ask bluntly. Radic rocks back on his heels in surprise as he blinks and he replies "That would be Lord Inquisitor Agatha Striker." I nod that checks out with what is listed in the Rosette.

"Did you serve under her as an Interrogator? Working on a Black Ship must have been a rather interesting experience. Especially if you got Inquisitor Lord Fyodor Karamazov to approve your nomination." I say as I continue to probe the Rosette.

"I did for several years. I never met Lord Fyodor personally but I did several investigations for him. Most of my work I cannot speak about." He says with a chuckle. Something has upset the Rosette's machine spirit but it can't tell me why, not won't or doesn't want to, can't which rubs me the wrong way. The security codes check out, and the Rosette is real, however, there is a minor discrepancy gap in the usage logs. Master Xor forwards me the bio-metrics which I start to check against the data and it matches.

"Oh! It seems like we've all been summoned to the war room. I can continue running through the verification steps while we move." I say as I turn towards the door. Master Xor and Radic follow behind me along with Lael, and my other guards.

"When was the last time you had your Rosette serviced?" I ask him as we take a short lift ride up a few levels.

"Hmmm, That was a year or so ago? Before I got dropped off here for certain." Radic says as his fingers twitch towards the small rectangular bulge in his pocket which my scan despite the interference tells me are lho sticks and he sighs. I still haven't figured out what is jamming my scans yet.

"Do you have an Interrogator working for you? I imagine you have at least one support team." I inquire.

"Unfortunately he got shot just before this assignment and while I have two teams none of the individuals have met the criteria for elevation to Interrogator." He says with a hint of disappointment.

"Not having your own ship must be a bit annoying. Especially with the new travel restrictions." I say as I continue to make small talk as we exit the lift and approach the war room.

"That it is. I have been told that if my performance in my next few assignments is good enough I may be given one of my own." Radic says with a wistful tone. I don't ask another question as we enter the war room. I move to stand off to the side just behind Master Doll with Xor. A few people glance my way since I am openly holding the Rosette in the palm of my hand as I run through the various checks.

"Thank you for joining us, Inquisitor. We were hoping you could brief us on the state of Cycladon as you were recently there. Did you notice signs of Chaos cult activity in addition to the rising dissent and fermenting rebellion?" Captain Bolaar is the one who asks. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. As the Inquisitor gave his report I tuned it out focusing intently on the Rosette.

"Master Doll, Master Xor, one of you may need to take a closer look at this. Something is wrong with the machine spirit." I message them discreetly.

"Oh? Allow me." Xor replies and I pass the Rosette over. As Xor starts to work through the codes on the device I look up and watch as the Inquisitor puts a hand to his ear.

"If you'll excuse me a moment one of my teams has an update for me." I watch as he idly scratches his neck. The Inquisitor goes out into the hall and leaves my Auspex range as everyone continues to discuss the plan of action. —------------------------------------------------- POV: Radic Dhamne"What is it?" Radic grumbled as he walked past the guards outside of the War room and kept moving.

"Individual: You, Status: Compromised, Solution: Flee" ZR-999 hissed into his ear.

"How? I thought he said it would hold up to scrutiny?" Radic asked as he moved towards the elevator. Thinking back the Princeps had been taking a while to examine his Rosette.

"Deception: Imperfect. Close examination triggered an alarm program. Time: limited." ZR-999 said with concern.

"Call the teams back. We need to leave the city." He barked out.

"Action: Predicted. Shuttle Status: Ready. Action: Sabotage feasible?" ZR-999 asked.

"Negative. The Trader and Archmagos are well guarded and the Astartes are present. They still have the Rosette." Radic hissed as he walked briskly.

"Loss of Item: Rosette is unfortunate. STC Fragment Retrieval Mission: Priority. Possible locations eliminated. Three remain. Two located in Cycladon." ZR-999 said to placate Radic. Radic quickly got onto his personal shuttle and told the pilot the moment he was onboard "Get us out of here quick."

"Yes, sir!" The shuttle lifted off and streaked into the distance just as the call went out to try and prevent them from leaving.

"Communications compromised! Purge Logs! Purge Logs!" ZR-999 screeched into his ear making him yank out the comm bead which started releasing loud high-pitched tones.

"Punch it!" Radic snarled and the ship shot off into the horizon. —------------------------------------------------------ POV: Nicole I continue to wait patiently while Master Xor inspects the Rosette. It's only been a few minutes but he has sat down and seemed to really focus on the object while everyone else continues to discuss the situation at hand.

There is a sudden burst of binaric cant from Master Xor conveying a staggering amount of data to Doll and I before he passes the Rosette to Master Doll who examines it intensely before he lets out a sub-vocal screech. I immediately search out for the Inquisitor's digital tags but it seems like he's already flying away. I hijack the local network towers to break into his encrypted communications channel and extract the recent logs.

Unfortunately whoever he was speaking with was competent and I only managed to snag the last few exchanges before they went dark.

"The report from the Inquisitor wasn't very helpful." Captain Bolaar says as he examines the holo map displaying the two hives and land between them.

"Disregard the Inquisitors reports." Master Doll growls suddenly.

"Could you elaborate, Archmagos?" General Styr asked as everyone turned to look over.

"The Inquisitor is dead. We were speaking with an imposter." Master Doll hisses. The room freezes as everyone lets that sink in. Lord Drakios asks "How certain are you, Doll?"

"Most Inquisitorial Rosettes have a function buried deep in the heart of the device that monitors those they are attuned and assigned to, removing this function is impossible. This one recorded the death of Inquisitor Radic over a month ago and the spirit was trapped almost immediately after in a subtle logic loop that has corrupted its chronological function. The exact time is unknown." Doll explains as he holds up the device which has finally broadcast the message it had been trying to send for the last month.

"By the Throne, he's been here for ages!" The Governor said pale-faced.

"Our previous plans have all been compromised. We must assume all the intel he provided was false. We should assume his actions over at Cycladon have been assisting rather than hampering the Heretics." Captain Bolaar growls.

"We need to determine all the assets he could have compromised," Xor says with distaste.

"We need a new plan. We could bombard Cycladon from orbit." Lord Drakios suggests getting horrified looks from the Governor and locals at the suggestion.

"Unfortunately… That's off the table Lord Drakios," I say as I step forward "While the false Inquisitor's hovercraft has fled the city with him onboard. Before he got out of range I managed to brute force his encryption and grab copies of his exchanges with his co-conspirators. He's looking for an STC fragment and has narrowed it down to three locations, two in Cycladon and one deep under Halo Alphos." I forward the data to Master Doll and the Magi.

Master Doll is already transmitting orders to the ship to mobilize the Skitarii.

"We must track down the false Inquisitor and secure the sacred STC fragment before they do."

"The longer we wait the more troops they can corrupt. There are just under a billion PDF forces in that hive and forty billion more residents. We have one point six billion of our own forces." General Sytr says as she crosses her arms.

"Thankfully most of my troops are stationed here in the capital. We are a hundred and five million strong." Castallen Krag admits.

"We mobilize what we can and hit them hard with everything immediately." Lord Drakios says, glancing at Captain Bolaar.

"Before it turns into a meat grinder and a numbers game. We have seventy Astartes and both my house and Archmago's Doll's Skitarii forces." Lord Drakios looks around the table before looking straight at me and smirking "We also have Nicole."

"I concur. That is our best option to quickly eliminate the enemy. A blitz." Captain Bolaar states.

"Governor, with your permission?" Lord Drakios asks politely. Governor Aarark is slumped back in his seat wide-eyed as he tried to follow the discussion. He looks to his advisors and after getting nods from each of them he nods "Permission granted. How soon will the troops arrive?" He asks as he wipes his brow.

"Drop pods launched. Impact in two minutes. Targeting the invading forces." Captain Bolaar informs the room before switching to the local vox.

"Attention loyalist forces. This is Captain Bolaar of the Star Dragons chapter. Brace for Dreadfall on your location ETA sixty seconds!"

"Launch the Drop Keep, it's loaded with heavy armor, we can use it as a forward operating base." Master Doll suggests. Lord Drakios smirks and calls the ship.

"Argent Drake, this is Lord Drakios. Princeps Cavalerio would like her Sword. Express delivery." I quickly lean forward and point at a location on the map adjacent to combat for the guard vehicle depot forwarding the targeting data to the Argent drake.

"There!"

"Pod away. ETA two minutes thirty seconds. Drop Keep deployed ETA four minutes. Launching Aeronautica Lightning Dragon squadrons 1 and 2. Launching Aeronautica Marauder Dragon squadrons 1 and 2."

"Imperial Guard units 13 and 24. This is traffic control, brace for Knightfall at your location. ETA ninety seconds." I peel off my robes and pass them to Lael.

"Lael, you stay here and coordinate the ground forces. Delta-A3, The Scyllax, and the sisters will stay with you. The Thallax and Brother Silverwalker to me!" I yell with a grin as I turn and run out towards the balcony. Fiery red streaks falling from the sky as the first round of drop pods land in the distance. Heart thudding in my chest as I run at full speed slipping my helmet on just as I reach the edge.

I steel myself as I leap off the balcony, deploying the wings of my jump pack as gravity asserts itself over me. Behind me Brother Silverwalker sporting one of the new Jump Packs follows without hesitation, the Thallax trigger their own inbuilt Incunabulan jetpacks and together we plummet through the air along the outside of the main hive spire. —------------------------------------------------------------ POV: Tank Commander Nova van Grimm Commander Grimm was having a bad day.

She had complained for years about the layout of their primary vehicle depot having the main vehicle storage separated by a large main stretch of road from the crew quarters. Now she found herself validated as an enemy force had driven right up the middle of the base cutting them off from a majority of their armor.

Her troops had managed to stall the enemy but the presence of a Leman Russ Punisher and a Vanquisher along with the dozen Chimera, a dozen Scylla Light tanks, and twice that in Tauros vehicles were sitting between her and her tank! The only silver lining was the crews over by the main depot had made the sensible decision to get in their tanks and take up defensive posts keeping the enemy from them just as much as the enemy was keeping her.

"Attention loyalist forces. This is Captain Bolaar of the Star Dragons chapter. Brace for Dreadfall on your location ETA sixty seconds!"

"What the hell is 'Dreadfall?'" one of her subordinates who was crouched behind the concrete pylon with her as they occasionally peeked to take potshots at the enemy.

"No idea but BRACE!" She called out as the timer ticked down. Exactly sixty seconds after the notification all hell broke loose. Something from the sky slammed into the Vanquisher with a thunderous crash. It crushed the tank obliterating the vehicle in a massive fireball that made her teeth rattle. She peeked out just in time to see the metal shell peel open and the form of an Astartes Dreadnought walked out with surprising speed and grace.

The Punisher was sitting side on to the Dreadnought and brought its turret-mounted Punisher Gatling Cannon around to bear at point-blank range, the barrel started to spool up. Before she could call out a warning the Dreadnought reached up and grabbed the barrel with its combat claw and halted the spinning barrel. Only a single round went off that plinked harmlessly off its armor.

"DIE, HERETICS!" The Dreadnought yelled as it brought its weapon arm around and fired it into the side of the tank. The blast penetrated the armor and cooked off an ammo explosion that blew the turret upwards. Rather than let go the blue Dreadnought adjusted their stance and kept a hold of the turret. Wielding it by the barrel of the gun. The Dreadnought swung the turret down like a mace, directly onto the top of the nearest Chimera crushing it, all while cackling madly.

"By the Throne…" Nova whispered as she stood there frozen for a long moment. Another flash of blue further away drew her attention as another dreadnought kicked one of the Tauros with enough force to send it rolling across the road.

"Fuck it." She tightened her grip on her pistol and yelled "Support the Astartes! Kill the Heretics! For the Emperor! Charge!"