Nareth's golden wings swept together behind him. Dozens of particle beams lanced into his living metal form, only to be deflected away.
With a beat of his wings, he shot forward in an instant, arriving beneath the head of a tripodal walker.
The Sword of Vaul swept out. Blue-white light flashed. The heavy metallic head crashed to the ground.
Nareth landed, his momentum unbroken as he charged towards the left.
Even as he did so, he spared a glance to the right, where the Knights of Gios Vyronii surged forth.
At Nareth's behest, the Magi of Mezoa had constructed a precious Questoris-class Knight Magaera for Gios.
To commemorate his family's extermination of the native false god on Damaetus III's second moon, Gios had named it Dei-phagia, God-eater.
The name was identical to the one from Nareth's memory, though its construction had been advanced by over a century.
Subsequently, Rosicky had replaced its power output with a Punisher-class reactor, addressing the sole weakness of the Questoris-class Knight Magaera.
The Knight Magaera's atomantic reactors was notoriously unstable, prone to radiation leaks.
Most pilots underwent extensive Mechanicum bionic augmentation to reduce their fleshly mass, avoiding death by radiation in combat.
Dei-phagia's ion-shroud weathered a barrage of particle beams from the tripodal walkers.
As a Mechanicum custom pattern, it was loaded with powerful technological armaments, capable of engaging targets ranging from light infantry to super-heavy tanks.
Unlike the ion-shields of other Knights, the Questoris-class Knight Magaera was entirely enveloped in a particle shroud.
It required no active manipulation and boasted superior defensive capabilities.
Gios felt the burning combat-urge of the machine-spirit. It, like him, yearned to prove its strength in battle.
With a thought, he increased the auspex magnification, layering a thermal detection filter over the standard view.
Runes scrolled across his retina. The Prince of Vyronii rapidly absorbed the streaming data.
Gios opened a comm-channel, directing the Vyronii Knights.
"Thirty-four targets. Enemy formation is dense. Prepare saturation fire."
He raised his right arm. The Lightning Cannon fired first, sending a brilliant arc of energy towards the ten o'clock position, five hundred and eighty meters out.
Gios didn't wait for the results, nor for the Lightning Cannon to recharge. He strode forward.
He burned with the desire to repay his Lord Nareth for the salvation of Damaetus, to seize glory before the master he served.
Gios's fervor transmitted through the neural link to his Throne Mechanicum. Dei-phagia's reactor roared. The Hekaton Siege Claw on its left arm howled as it tore through a shield. The underslung twin-linked heavy flamer spewed a torrent of superheated promethium.
The Gardinaal pilot within the wallker was engulfed in an instant.
Nearby tripods immediately concentrated their fire on Dei-phagia, targeting the machine that bulled through their lines like a raging auroch.
Gios raised his auto-banner to its highest and lifted his manipulator gauntlet.
"For Vyronii! For the Lord!"
"Loyalty and Glory!"
The Hellfire Siege Claw descended, shattering a particle-blade.
The comms echoed with the fervent shouts of the Vyronii Knights.
"For Vyronii! For the Lord!"
"Loyalty and Glory!"
The unified roar subsided. Unlike other Houses, who might bellow frequently in battle, the Vyronii were more somber.
The Knights unleashed a second barrage at their targets. Gios's auspexdisplay flashed with contacts.
Signum crackled in the gale-force winds. Dei-phagia strode forward, its torso twisting, the siege claw ripping into an enemy's flank.
Through the strategic distribution overlay, Gios saw the runes of the Vyronii Knights closing fast, charging the enemy.
He also noted that the Vyronii runes were still outnumbered below, and steadily decreasin, proof the tripodal walkers still held a numerical advantage. Gios knew that without the Primarch personally leading his Honor Guard in the assault, the Vyronii Knights would have had no chance of victory alone.
Though the green Vyronii runes were rising in the strategic overlay, it was still a brutal engagement.
Resolving to seize the initiative with a new charge, Gios barked an order over the comms.
"Sacristan Maintenance Corps, I require your timely support."
Behind the Vyronii Knights, the High Sacristan acknowledged his Prince, then devoted his full attention to the real-time data-stream, monitoring one hundred and forty-two systems.
Aside from those undergoing repairs on the family estates and Knights in training, Vyronii had committed every available machine to the expedition.
His duty was to monitor the battlefield while preserving Vyronii's strength as much as possible.
To this end, the High Sacristan diverted part of his cognitive processing to the exchange between the Crawlers and the comms-net, spanning both the Vyronii network and allied channels.
The majority of his processing power was dedicated to the constant monitoring of the Vyronii Knights' myriad parameters:
Hull integrity, shield strength, system operability...
The High Sacristan watched as the Vyronii Knights formed a spearhead around Dei-phagia's banner.
A green spear, moving in perfect unison, thrust towards the enemy's heavily fortified position.
Enemy and friendly runes flashed frenetically, filling his vision like a meteor shower.
Grey and green runes vanished at a staggering rate, like spent fireworks.
Among the countless runes, the brightest was Dei-phagia's. Other green runes, grouped in fives, slammed into clusters of grey.
In the ensuing clash, one or two would be lost.
Dei-phagia plunged alone into the heart of the grey mass, and the enemies around it continually disappeared.
As the grey runes dwindled, starbursts of runes flashed madly, orange and red filling his sight.
One particular rune blazed at the center of his vision. The High Sacristan's aupex immediately zoomed in, dedicating most of his analytical processing to this priority target.
His primary monitoring subject was, of course, Dei-phagia, the foremost task he had set for the Crawler's machine-spirit.
After expending five terabytes of calculation, the High Sacristan completed the data analysis.
'Ion-shroud system compromised.'
'Blessed Auto-repair Icons activated. Dei-phagia's systems are self-repairing non-critical damage.'
The High Sacristan reallocated processing power, assigning a higher-than-normal priority to Dei-phagia.
He opened a channel, first issuing a warning to Dei-phagia.
"Prince Gios. You must halt and reboot the ion-shroud."
Simultaneously, he selected the most severely damaged Knight for his Crawler and assigned tasks.
"Crawler Two, to Bitter Bamboo."
"..."
The High Sacristan's voice brought Gios back to reality. He released his grip on the manipulator, allowing his slightly trembling arm to steady.
He checked the strategic overlay again and couldn't help but smile as he saw the green runes now overriding the grey.
His hand gripped the manipulator once more. Feedback from the machine-spirit told him it was ready to fight again.
He was about to launch a fresh offensive when the High Sacristan's voice suddenly cut through the command channel.
"Anomaly detected."
Gios's auspex instantly focused on the target marked by the High Sacristan. Countless flashes sped past. The real-time image feed shuddered violently, tilted, and vanished.
The Prince of Vyronii watched in horror as over twenty green runes disappeared in a single instant.
Gios was stunned for a moment before regaining his senses. He looked at the resurgent grey runes, at the tripodal mechanical form displayed on his screen.
His eyes widened in disbelief, and he murmured aloud:
"What is that?"
.....
If you enjoy the story, my p@treon is 30 chapters ahead.
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