Gerhard looked at the display, showing the massive battlefield.
Ischara had probably been a pleasant world before Chaos invaded it. Now it was ugly and on fire.
Black ash fell from the sky, covering the Ashen Meridian in a layer thick enough to suffocate in. Manufactorums burned along the horizon. Broken towers leaned against one another like exhausted giants, while the Warp storm above turned the clouds red and purple.
Gerhard watched it all through his command display.
In front, the super-heavy tanks moved across the ruined industrial Hab blocks at nearly one hundred kilometres per hour. Four hundred tonnes of mana-reinforced adamantium, auramite and unimaginable engineering tore through Chaos trenches, crushed Space Marine barricades and sent abandoned and corrupted war engines crashing down.
And that was merely the first of the new 'group' Gerhard had created. A small platoon of tanks, all of which had been created by Gerhard and were under the control of Gustav.
The lead vehicle fired its Mana Baneblade Cannon.
A blue-white flash swallowed an entire fortified hab-stack. The upper floors lifted from their foundations before disintegrating, while the lower levels collapsed into the trench network beneath them and crushed those who hid there.
The other tanks fired a fraction of a second later. Five impacts impacted across the enemy line in terrifying succession, destroying bunkers, ammunition stores and anti-tank and aircraft positions.
No human crews could have coordinated their fire so precisely and used the tanks like an infantry unit, while being constantly on the move.
Thankfully, they did not have human crews.
Each tank was a golem, under Gustav's control. He could control every track, weapon and targeting system simultaneously, if he wanted, but that's not what he did most of the time. He gave them instructions and acted as a team leader, but they could act on their own once they had them.
This was the first true automatic armoured tank formation Gerhard had created. The fact that every vehicle was technically a golem might become confusing later, but Gerhard preferred it this way, as he didn't want more artificial spirits than necessary.
For now, it worked, and it was glorious.
Inside the command block, Gerhard felt the movement beneath his feet. From the outside, the latest project had just rolled up; Hans and Sera Vahl looked at an enormous, heavily modified super-heavy tank.
It was wider than a regular Baneblade, with a sharply angled blue hull and a massive mana cannon running along the centre. Heavy tracks carried it across the broken ground, while armour plates shifted constantly.
Yet it was not a tank. No, it was, but not only. This monster would see its first battle today, as the first and only of its type and line.
"Are we ready?" Gerhard asked.
"We are, Master," Hans confirmed.
"Then get ready. Uriel, Claudius, you two follow Hans' and Sera's command. I'll take my personal vehicle," Gerhard told the two Ultramarines standing guard.
"As you command, Lord Gerhard."
The two Space Marines followed Sera as she made her way outside to board the 'super heavy tank', while Hans looked at Gerhard for a while longer.
Gerhard waved his hand and took out his personal vehicle from his inventory.
"There it is. Hehehe..."
"Master, you're giggling again," Hans said.
"I can't help it. Who would have thought that I would one day drive this car?"
"I don't understand what you like about it, Master. It is, forgive me for saying this, the worst thing I have seen you create."
Gerhard gasped in Italian and looked at Hans with disgust.
"How dare you. This is a Lancia! A Lancia, Hans! Do you understand this? A Lancia Rally 037... This is a piece of ancient history."
Gerhard wiped away a tear.
"And it's glorious."
"Master, a lot of the things inside this... car aren't working," Hans said with as much exasperation as a creation such as him could manage.
"Of course not! If everything were working, it would be an Audi. And it's clearly a Lancia. You still have much to learn."
-_-
"... Clearly, yes."
"Now, get going. It's time we start our experiment and test the newest addition to our fighting force."
"As you say, Master."
Gerhard, meanwhile, despite his name, loved Italian cars. Because, why wouldn't he? What was there not to love about them? Sure, they didn't always work, some of the parts weren't doing anything, and it was mostly about how it looked... but those were details, really.
And while it looked and drove like a genuine Lancia Rally 037, Gerhard naturally added some things to make it very powerful for him in almost any situation.
He pressed the start button and powered up the massive engine.
"My word... this is the most erotic thing I have ever experienced in this life. The Necrons and the prissy Eldari can all fuck off. 'Cause humanity's back, baby!"
🎶🎶Woah,
Joyner, Joyner
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, I done did a lot of things in my day, I admit it
I don't take back what I say, if I said it, then I meant it
All my life I want a Grammy, but I'll prolly never get it
I ain't never had no trophy or no motherf- ribbon
Fuck the system, I'm that ----, bend the law, cut the rules
I'm about to risk it all, I ain't got too much to lose
Y'all been eatin' long enough, it's my turn to cut the food
Pass the plate, where my drink?
This my day, lucky you, fuck you too. WOO! 🎶🎶
.
Gerhard sped through the wide and broken streets, keeping up with all the information that was transmitted to him via the link he had with Hans and listening to his own interpretation of Eminem.
[Enemy artillery has adjusted its aim,] Hans reported from the station inside the former Questoris Knight. [Impact in four-point-three seconds.]
Gerhard examined the tactical display.
"How many?"
[First barrage: forty-eight shells. Second barrage: ninety-six. A third group of batteries is waiting to observe our response.]
Sera looked up from the Astra Militarum command channel. Gerhard gripped the wheel harder and performed a hard turn around a hab block.
"Gustav, scatter the platoon. Hans, move hard right."
The transformed Questoris Knight's tracks locked on one side while the opposite assembly accelerated. Nearly a thousand tonnes of metal swung around the corner of a ruined manufactorum with an agility no vehicle of its size should have possessed.
Gustav's tanks separated without slowing down. Two went left, smashing through hab-blocks. Another drove directly into a drainage channel. The remaining pair turned towards the Imperial rear lines.
The first Iron Warriors shells rained down on them. The barrage struck in complex patterns, destroying roads, collapsing more buildings and cutting off the routes Gustav's tanks might have used to escape or flank their positions. The traitors were firing at where the tanks could go.
Explosions rolled across the ground as the Chaos Marines unleashed the firepower that the Iron Warriors were known for. They were real and hardcore warriors, and against anyone other than Gerhard, they would have posed a serious challenge.
Entire buildings came apart. A hab-tower collapsed across Gustav's golem tanks' path, forcing the super-heavy tanks into a narrow industrial avenue.
Hans watched the new trajectories appear and calculated responses.
"The second barrage is targeting our predicted evasive positions."
"They knew which way we would turn?" Gerhard asked.
"They prepared solutions for nearly every available route. Quite impressive, if I may say unheretically."
Sera's expression hardened as the information came through the live feed.
"Iron Warriors."
The sons of Perturabo did not fight like the howling Khorne worshippers Gerhard had massacred en masse before. They did not charge in blind rage, trusting divine favour to carry them through gunfire.
Every ruined tower had been converted into a position for them to fight from and to turn into a trap at a moment's notice. Every road had been mined, every open space covered by overlapping weapons, and every apparent weakness had been designed to draw attackers into another kill zone.
Hundreds of Chaos War Engines were flying through the air or waltzing through the streets.
In a way, Gerhard saw them as the human antithesis to Orks. They were a much stiffer version of Gerhard. Also more corrupted and far less outrageous than he was. Because, while they saw this as a tactical battle, where they fought for their cause and all that Chaos bullshit, Gerhard saw this as a testing ground and nothing more.
This was his chance to beta-test his newest weapon.
.
The second barrage landed, and a shell struck the Questoris' front armour. The command compartment jumped slightly despite the stabilisers. Warning sigils flashed across the display as the energy from the detonation covered the transformed Titan in fire.
Sera caught herself against the console, while Hans didn't move. He had connected himself to the Questoris and was micromanaging everything, while sending information back to Gerhard.
|Outer armour penetration: 11.4%
|Kinetic force dispersed
|Polymorphic Necro-Wraithbone Armour responding
|Mana distribution initiated
|Damage fixed
|Resistance to enemy siege ammunition increased by 15.82765%
"That was not a standard shell," Sera said.
"No," Hans confirmed. "Adamantium penetrator, created from Chaos forges. It contained a delayed plasma charge and a Warp-reactive secondary payload."
The two Ultramarines frowned as they heard that.
"All in one shell?"
"The Iron Warriors apparently considered us a primary threat. Quite smart of them. They impressed me today."
"Heretic scum."
The third barrage began, but this time the Iron Warriors targeted Gustav. They had realised that while the biggest danger was indeed the transformed Imperial Titan, the powerful super-heavy battle tanks were moving into position and attempting to encircle them.
The tanks were still moving independently, but the traitors had memorised their speed. Shells fell ahead of them, hitting the ground and moving backwards towards the approaching formation.
"Counter-battery fire," Gerhard ordered over the command channel.
"Basilisk batteries, coordinates are being transferred now," Sera said.
The Astra Militarum artillery responded just as Gerhard had instructed them. Before the battle began, he had assigned the soldiers to specific positions and ordered them to wait for his signal and know when to fire.
Hundreds of guns hidden behind the Imperial lines opened fire in a perfect pattern. Their shells passed overhead with increased speed after being improved by Gerhard.
...
For several seconds, nothing happened.
...
Then explosions appeared along the Iron Warriors' distant artillery ridges as well as in the air, as the shells impacted one another and prevented them from reaching Gustav's tanks.
Hans studied the results.
"Estimated enemy battery losses: nine per cent."
"Only? That barrage would have destroyed a conventional artillery regiment," Sera commented.
"Their emplacements are neither conventional nor exposed. Most of the visible weapons were decoys," Claudius said.
The veteran Ultramarine naturally knew the Iron Warriors and how they worked. It was their minds which Gerhard appreciated the most. They were the most flexible, and next to the White Scars and Salamanders, Gerhard liked the Ultramarines the most.
Any other Chapter would not be able to stomach what Gerhard did. Still, it was hard to argue with divine blessings, the words of a living Primarch and most importantly: results.
.
The surviving Iron Warriors changed positions, and fired again. Their counter-battery barrage struck the Imperial artillery less than thirty seconds later.
Red icons vanished from Gerhard's display. They had allowed the Imperial guns to fire once merely to locate them and then moved out of the way to use a retaliation strike.
It was really enjoyable for Gerhard to fight the Iron Warriors. Quite competent. But the Astra Militarum soldiers he had placed at the artillery had been instructed to abandon post after their initial strike and then take up their next positions.
"They sacrificed their decoy batteries to identify ours," Hans said.
"Yes."
"And now they know exactly where everything is."
"So do we."
Gustav's voice came through the command link.
"Master, I have encountered resistance."
On the display, Gustav disappeared into the narrow industrial avenue, where the ground beneath it exploded.
Melta charges buried under the road turned the earth into liquid fire. The super-heavy tank's forward section dropped into a concealed pit, its tracks tearing through unsupported rubble, which slowed their speed considerably.
The Iron Warriors had built the trap beneath three metres of reinforced ferrocrete. Gustav's main gun remained operational, and he used his turret to rotate towards the surrounding buildings.
Before he could fire, though, the buildings moved.
Armoured shapes tore free from beneath camouflage netting and sheets of rusted metal. Not only that. They also broke through the ground entirely, coming forth from deep caves. They had been buried within the ruins, their reactors kept cold and their daemonic occupants silent until the trap was sprung.
Maulerfiends charged from everywhere suddenly. One of them climbed onto Gustav's turret and drove its claws into the gun housing.
Gustav fired anyway.
The Mana Baneblade Cannon discharged at point-blank range.
The shell passed through the Maulerfiend's chest like a hot knife through butter, continued through two more, several buildings and detonated somewhere beyond them. The daemon engine's upper body disappeared, but its legs remained locked around the tank.
A second Maulerfiend tore into one of Gustav's golems' exposed track assemblies.
"Assistance required," Gustav said.
"Gustav-Two and Four, support Three. One and Five, maintain the advance."
Gerhard, who was driving towards a particularly heavy fortified position, connected to Hans.
"Bring our newest friend online."
Waves of mana began moving through the Questoris's hull. Hans transmitted the commands and redirected power, while preparing for the approaching change.
The immense cannon mounted on the Questoris changed shape. Armour panels withdrew as rings of metal separated around the barrel and energy started to gather between them, forming a sphere of compressed light-blue light.
Hans selected a massive cluster of Maulerfiends attacking Gustav-Three.
"Particle mode ready."
"Fire," Gerhard ordered.
The cannon discharged. It sounded like a bottle of champagne that was opened.
A line of bright blue energy seemed to materialise across the battlefield sky and in the same instant... the Maulerfiend vanished.
...
There was no explosion. The beam passed through armour, daemon-flesh and the ferrocrete beneath it, reducing everything along its path to glowing particles and energy.
The single surviving daemon engine turned towards the approaching Questoris tank. Its mechanical mouth opened, showing Chaos flames that it was about to fire at the approaching doom.
Then Gustav-Two struck it from the side.
Four hundred tonnes of super-heavy tank slammed into the Maulerfiend and drove it through the wall of a manufactorum, while Gustav-Four followed with its Demolisher Cannon fired.
*BOOOOOOMMM*
Metal, stone and pieces of daemon engine rained across the area.
"Gustav-Three is immobilised," Hans reported. "Self-repair systems require approximately six minutes."
The battlefield had become chaotic. But it was clear that Gerhard held the upper hand, despite what it looked like. Everywhere there was fighting. Ultramarines fought Chaos Marines, the Astra Militarum was doing what it could, while Gerhard and the super-heavy tanks took the brunt of it.
"Right, time for close-quarter chaos. Brace!"
As the command left Gerhard's lips, he threw the Lancia into a violent rally, the rally car's tyres screaming against the pulverised and melted terrain of the battlefield as music blasted through the cabin.
Hans initiated the sequence.
"Activating bipedal combat protocols. Commencing 'structural reconfiguration'."
Inside the heavily modified Questoris command throne, Sera Vahl and the two Ultramarines braced themselves as the impossible happened. The entire hull of the super-heavy tank seemed to fracture, but instead of breaking apart, the polymorphic Necrodermis and Wraithbone fusion shifted with as much mechanical grace as possible.
Treads folded inward, forming massive, heavily armoured legs. The front chassis split and rose, elevating the command bridge into the chest cavity of a towering, bipedal titan.
The massive particle cannon seamlessly integrated itself into the construct's left arm, while the right formed a heavily reinforced mechanical hand.
Finally, the "head" locked into place—a cyclopean helm featuring a single, glowing blue orb that burst with concentrated mana.
"Welcome to the battlefield... Shockwave."