'What in the name of Chaos is that?'
'I do not know, half-breed, but it is where Kroeger has gone.'
'I don't understand,' said Honsou as the shimmering vision faded to nothingness.
'Nor I, but the whereabouts of Kroeger is the least of our worries. We need something to shift these thrice-damned Warhounds.'
As if in response to Forrix's demand, the thunder of something impossibly vast slamming against the earth shook the ground,
loosening giant rocks from the breach. The massive vibration hammered through the ground again and Honsou turned as he felt
the presence of something ancient and fearsome approaching.
More rocks tumbled downwards from the breach as the tempo of the thunderous impacts grew.
The smoke parted and the Dies Irae limped from the smoke and strode towards the citadel.
HIGH IN THE command bridge of the Warlord Titan, Honoris Causa, Princeps Daekian heard the excitement in Princeps Carlsen's
voice even over the vox, and smiled with grim resignation.
'It's the Dies Irae, it's mobile again. Emperor knows how, but it's coming straight for Vincare bastion, princeps!'
Carlsen's warning was unnecessary; Daekian's forward observers had already reported the appearance of the corrupted Emperor
Titan. He could sense the unspoken desire of Carlsen to come and join the fight against the Dies Irae, but even a cursory glance at
the tactical plot told Daekian that Carlsen's Warhounds were best employed covering the breach.
'Hold fast, Princeps Carlsen. Stay where you are,' he ordered.
'Aye, princeps,' replied Carlsen, his disappointment plain.
Daekian expertly walked his Warlord through the gateway of the inner wall, ducking the Titan's massive head to avoid losing its
carapace weapons. The two Reavers that followed him, the Armis juvat and the Pax Imperator, were smaller and passed below the
gate without trouble. All three Titans had undergone hurried repairs after their first engagement, but none was yet fully
operational.
Daekian had faith in his crews and the fighting spirit of the Honoris Causa, but he had made his peace with the Emperor before
climbing to the bridge of his Titan. He had long known that it would come to this and though he was sure it would mean his death,
he was honoured that it would fall to him to avenge Princeps Fierach.
Already he could see the effect the Dies Irae was having on the battle. Imperial troops were streaming back in terror from the
gargantuan apparition that had emerged from the smoke. The Imperial Fists fell back in good order, even the Space Marines
realising the futility of standing before this beast. Their ramparts were no protection against such a towering monster, able to cross
the bastion with a single step, able to obliterate the walls with a shot.
Daekian cursed as the troops fled beneath him, unable to step forward for fear of crushing whole platoons beneath his tread. The
Dies Irae had reached the third parallel and was barely seconds away from reaching the walls.
'Moderati Issar, take down that abomination's shields!' he yelled, raising the massive foot of his Titan and praying that the men
below would get out of his way.
'Engineering deck, give me slow striding speed.'
He watched as flaming traceries of staccato gunfire pumped from his carapace-mounted Catling blaster, the high velocity shells
ripping across the body of the Dies Irae. Bright pulses flared as void shields collapsed, but Daekian knew that it would take more
than the gatling blaster to finish this beast off.
The Armis Juvat and Pax Imperator spread out to his flanks, firing as they went, as he gracefully manoeuvred the Honoris Causa
through the mass of fleeing troops. A massive explosion threw up chunks of rockcrete as the enemy Titan's plasma annihilator
opened fire and vaporised a corner gun tower on Vincare bastion, melting the rockcrete of the walls and causing them to sag under
the intolerable heat.
Daekian grunted as he felt shields collapsing under the weight of fire from the Dies Irae, cursing as he swung his Titan left into
the bastion, stepping over the lines of entrenchments.
His monstrous foe was before him, and a cold, lead weight settled in the pit of his stomach as he clearly saw the terrifying form of
the Dies Irae over the jagged top of the broken ramparts. Its body was blackened and scorched by fire and its head was a molten,
dented mass, green fire blazing from behind its single remaining eye. Gunfire blazed from its weapon mounts, sawing through the
ramparts and hammering the Titans of his battle group.
The Armis Juvat staggered, a round from the enemy Titan's hellstorm cannon defeating its shields and clipping the knee joint of its
left leg.
'Armis Juvat and Pax Imperator, brace for firing!' shouted Daekian as he increased speed and thundered towards the bastion's
flank.
The princeps of the Reavers planted their Titans' feet squarely on the ground and unleashed a deadly volley of fire at the Dies Irae.
The enemy Titan returned fire as it continued to advance. Daekian initialised the linear accelerators that powered the Volcano
cannon and took command of the weapon himself. Not that he did not trust and respect the Moderati who controlled the weapon,
but if there was to be a kill shot, he would be the one to make it.
Graham McNeill ?Storm of Iron?
Another shot from the Dies Irae's plasma annihilator blew apart a further section of the wall as it stepped down into the ditch,
crushing hundreds of corpses with every ponderous tread. He flinched as a flare of bright light to his side briefly illuminated the
bridge and he craned his neck to see what had exploded.
The Armis Juvat toppled backwards, the top half of its upper body blown away. Geysers of plasma fire spilled from the ruptured
reactor as the slain Reaver crashed to the ground. The Pax Imperator was suffering under the barrage of fire from the daemon
Titan, but was still fighting.
'Void shields failing, princeps!' shouted Moderati Issar as a volley of shells struck the Honoris Causa.
'Full speed! We must close with the monster before we suffer a similar fate!' replied Daekian.
Less than a hundred metres separated them now and Daekian could make out the terrible damage Princeps Fierach had managed
to inflict on this warp-spawned beast before being dragged to his death. Huge steel plates were crudely welded across the Dies
Irae's midsection and all manner of auxiliary mechanisms had been grafted to its legs to allow it to move.
Fire from the gatling blaster blasted off more of its void shields and as Daekian saw a single shell explode against its upper
bastions, he knew that the beast was stripped of its infernal protection.
He pushed the Honoris Causa forward and raised the volcano cannon.
'This is for Princeps Fierach,' he snarled and fired.
He watched the searing beam of unimaginably powerful energy streak towards the Dies Irae's head, knowing, even as he fired,
that the shot was true.
His triumph turned to disbelief as the beam struck on a void shield, repaired at the last second before impact. The Dies Irae
ground its torso towards him, the white-hot barrel of its plasma weapon aimed directly at him.
'Evasive manoeuvres!' he bellowed, even as he knew it would be too late.
The Honoris Causa lurched sideways as the plasma bolt fired.
Princeps Daekian was almost quick enough. Almost.
The shot impacted on the Warlord's volcano cannon, instantaneously vaporising the weapon in a seething ball of plasma. The
explosion ripped up the Titan's arm, the adamantium structure flashing molten in a heartbeat.
Daekian screamed in agony, convulsing as the flashback from his arm's destruction flared along the mind impulse link. Blood
streamed from his nose and ears, but he kept true to his course, striding towards the hazy outline of the Dies Irae through the
smoke filling the command bridge.
He reached the walls at the same instant as the Dies Irae, the raised ground inside Vincare bastion bringing him level with his
foe's head. The Pax Imperator circled around to his right, its carapace running with plasma fire and limping as its leg joints trailed
streamers of white sparks.
Daekian lashed out with the Honoris Causa's one remaining arm, his battle claw slamming against the Dies Irae's chest. The
massive Titan rocked back under the powerful blow, swinging its arm against the lip of the bastion and smashing through the
rockcrete and hammering into the Honoris Causa's upper leg.
Daekian felt the leg crack and heard the screams over the vox from the engineering decks. He had moments at best.
He swiped again at his gigantic foe, ripping the armour plating away from the Dies Irae's belly as it pummelled his wounded flank
with its arms. It lurched backwards, attempting to protect its now vulnerable reactor.
The horrendously damaged Pax Imperator charged into the fight, its chain fist ripping through the upper bastions of the Dies hae,
its blade shrieking as it tore downwards towards the war machine's bridge.
The Dies Irae's barbed tail swung and pulverised the knee joint of the Pax Imperator, shaking loose its chain fist and staggering
the mighty god-machine.
Daekian watched the Dies hae turn and hammer the barrel of its plasma annihilator into the bridge of the Pax Imperator and fire at
point-blank range.
The upper half of the Reaver vanished in a searing blast, enveloping the two battling Titans with liquid fire. The remains of the
Pax Imperator crashed over the walls of the bastion into the ditch, huge plumes of black smoke trailing from its burning hulk.
But its death had given Daekian the opening he needed.
He rammed his battle claw against the heat-softened midsection of the Dies Irae's reactor chamber, through the wound first
opened by Princeps Fierach. He roared as he punched through into his foe's guts, gripping its nuclear heart in his iron grip and
crushing it with all his might.
HONSOU WATCHED THE battle between the enormous war machines through the drifting haze of smoke, willing the majestic form
of the Dies Irae to smash its inferior foes to scrap metal. He sheltered in the lee of the breach, his armour dusty and bloodstained.
His frustration grew with every explosion above him. They could not force the breach like this.
He watched as the leviathans struggled on the far bastion, their battle shaking the ground as though a powerful earthquake gripped
the world. 'Forrix!' he yelled over the din of shells exploding at the crest of the breach. 'One way or another, this battle will soon
be over. It is time to withdraw!'
Forrix shook his head, sneering. 'I should have known your cowardice would finally come to the fore! We stay and take this
breach.'
Honsou felt his anger flare and gripped Forrix's armour, shouting. 'We have to go! The attack has lost its momentum and the
enemy will be regrouping behind the walls. We only reinforce failure if we stay. There will be another time!'
For a second, Honsou thought Forrix was about to rebuke him again, but the fury drained from his eyes and he nodded, turning
without a word and scrambling down the breach.
Honsou followed him and the Iron Warriors retreated from the walls, falling back to the ditch in disciplined groups. As he
clambered over an iron-bar-studded chunk of rockcrete, the day was lit by a terrible brightness. The sky was bleached of colour
and everything before him was bathed in the blinding light of a star.
Graham McNeill ?Storm of Iron?
The Dies Irae was enveloped in a dazzling ball of incandescent fire, huge sprays of plasma gouting from its belly. The enemy
Titan with the burning white eyes had its fist buried in its guts, tearing and destroying the magnificent daemon machine. Locked
together, the two Titans wrestled to escape each other's grip, the ground heaving with their battle.
As Honsou watched, a terrible groaning rent the air as the two machines rocked past their combined centre of gravity and slowly
began to fall towards them into the ditch.
'Run!' he shouted, all thought of a disciplined retreat forgotten in the face of this new danger. He sprinted past the ravelin and leapt
up the rubble slopes of the ditch as the two war machines slammed into the outer face of the curtain wall between Vincare bastion
and the gate. Their massive bodies scraped down its face, trailing flaming sheets of burning plasma and ripping another great tear
in the walls.
Honsou scrambled over the lip of the ditch, desperate to reach the safety of the earthworks. Forrix ran alongside him, his new
bionics enhancing his speed, despite the Terminator armour he wore.
The two Titans slammed into the ground, the impact throwing Honsou from his feet and hurling him forward. He smashed into the
top of the earthwork, rolling over its top as a river of plasma spilled from the ruptured reactors of the Titans.
Burning plasma flooded the ditch, incinerating the corpses that filled it in an instant. The Primus Ravelin was destroyed, crushed
beneath thousands of tonnes of armaplas and ceramite. Huge flames and geysers of magma-hot steam ripped along the ditch,
vitrifying the rocks throughout its length.
Razor sharp chunks of white-hot debris rained down inside the citadel, one shard from the Honoris Causa's bridge section
hammering through a section of ramparts less than five metres from Castellan Leonid.
Both war machines thrashed weakly in the molten soup that filled the ditch, grappling to the last as the searing fires consumed
them.
The first attack had failed.
FIVE
CASTELLAN LEONID POURED himself a glass of amasec and drained his glass in a single swallow. He set down the glass on his
desk and sat on the edge of his bed, his entire body aching. He winced as stitches from a dozen shallow cuts pulled tight across his
arms and legs, rubbing his temples in an attempt to ease the pain of the last few days.
Such a miracle was beyond his powers. He poured himself another glass, looking through the armoured loophole in the tower's
wall. A dim glow still radiated from the dying plasma fires in the ditch where the two Titans had fallen and he raised his glass to
the light. 'Here's to you, Princeps Daekian. May the Emperor watch over your soul.'
