In the distance, the Titan’s guns flared brightly as they were unleashed, followed half a second
later by the cacophony of the barrage as it echoed up the narrow ravine. Hundreds of cultists were
instantly slain in the devastation. The timing for the Word Bearers’ advance was critical. If Kol
Badar timed it wrong, it would result in the destruction of hundreds of the Legion’s warriors. If he
timed it just right, then the slaughter of the enemy would be great.
Gods of the Ether guide me, he prayed, and he closed his eyes. A waking vision assailed him the
instant he closed his eyes, the image sharp and painful, leaving a dull ache in his temples. He wiped
a droplet of blood from his nose and watched as it instantly congealed to a dried crust upon his
finger. He would need to discuss this vision with the Warmonger at battle’s end, for its meaning was
obscure and disturbing.
“Come,” he said, “let us release our anger upon the foe.”
“I’ve got a lock, sir!” shouted Rachius. “Emperor damn them, there are more than fifty of the
bastards in there! Vector 7.342.”
Havorn swore and swung his crys-scopes around towards the location that Rachius had
indicated. “Get the Chimeras moving,” he shouted, but the words were lost as a series of detonations
ripped apart the mountainside, rocks exploding outwards spectacularly. One sizeable chunk of rock
smashed onto the front of his Chimera, denting the thick armoured plate, and others smashed
harmlessly against one of the massive feet of the Exemplis, no more than thirty metres from the
explosion. At such a range its void shields were useless. They were only effective from a certain
distance, and anything within them would be able to attack the god-machine directly.
With this thought running through his mind, he swore again and slammed his fist down onto the
top of the Chimera as he saw the dark shapes emerging from the cloud of dust surrounding the point
of the explosion.
Clattering gunfire erupted from weaponry as the figures stamped heavily through the rubble.
They were huge individuals, their armour plate thick and nigh on impervious to harm: Terminators,
the enemy’s elite.
Havorn banged on the top of the Chimera.
“Go!” he shouted. “Intercept them! And get some heavy support over here now!”
The engine of the APC roared as the tank surged forward over the hard packed earth. The other
Chimeras were already heading towards the foe, and Havorn saw one of them explode, oily, black
smoke rising sharply above the orange conflagration.
“Sir, you should come down here,” said Rachius from below, concern in his voice, but Havorn
ignored him, instead grabbing the pistol-grip of the pintle-mounted storm bolter. He swung the
powerful weapon in the direction of the Terminators and squeezed the trigger.
Kol Badar roared as his combi-bolter barked fire at the enemy. He was in the middle of the foe’s
colonnade, surrounded, and he saw vehicles and soldiers rushing towards him from left and right.
But the true target of his wrath stood before him: the massive Imperator Titan.
Grand steps descended from arched gateways upon the foot of the immense war machine, and he
strode towards them. Covering fire from reaper autocannons swept across the approaching vehicles
and Skitarii units, and raking fire tore down the enemy infantry that ran across the salt packed rock
to intercept their progress.
Nothing would keep Kol Badar from his target, however, and he strode relentlessly forward
through the increasing weight of incoming fire, driven on by steely determination and anger. The
defensive batteries built into the Titan’s leg bastion unleashed their wrath, engulfing the advancing
Anointed, ripping through even mighty Terminator armour with the force of their detonations. Air
bursting shells exploded overhead, scattering red-hot, scything shards of shrapnel down onto the
warrior-brothers and Kol Badar hissed as a shard the length of a man’s hand slammed into his
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helmet, cutting through his armour and piercing one of his eyes. Blood welled and congealed in the
wound and he broke off the end of the piece of red-hot shrapnel with a swat of his power talon,
leaving the tip embedded in his eye.
Such a wound would not keep him from his prize and he roared wordlessly as he continued his
relentless advance.
Arched doors ten metres up the Titan’s foot were thrown open and Skitarii warriors stepped out
onto the steps, firing their inbuilt heavy weapons down into the terminators. Kol Badar aimed his
combi-bolter into the throng of the enemy and strode on.
Enemy Chimeras screeched to a halt and blue-grey armoured Guardsmen emerged, firing their
lasguns into the mass of Terminators. Bolter fire ripped through the soft targets and heavy flamers
roared as they engulfed swathes of them in deadly infernos. Combi-meltas hissed as they targeted
incoming vehicles, and tanks were rendered into burning shells as they detonated, their crews
screaming in pain as they died.
A Chimera with arrays of aerials caught the Coryphaus’s eye and he recognised it as belonging
to an officer of high rank.
“Take it down,” he ordered. Reaper autocannons swung around, spraying bullets from their twin
barrels.
Bolter shells struck Kol Badar, knocking him back a step, and he snarled and squeezed a burst of
fire from his combi-bolter at the figure manning the pintle-mounted weapon, forcing him to duck
back into the Chimera. He swung his heavy head back towards the target. Only twenty metres now.
The Skitarii spilled steadily down off the steps of the Titan’s foot as more emerged and others
advanced around from the limb’s three further assault ramps.
“Keep on the target!” he roared, knowing that if the Anointed were held for too long, the Titan
would simply walk away, leaving them horribly exposed.
The Skitarii marched straight into the advancing clump of Terminator-armoured warriors,
attempting to keep them away from their charge through sheer weight of numbers and the power of
their guns. The steps were packed with the enemy and they unleashed a storm of fire upon the
Anointed, each tech-warrior firing over the heads of their companions as they stepped slowly
forwards.
Rotating cannons tore through more of the Word Bearers, ripping through ancient plasteel
plating and flensing flesh from bone.
High above, steam and smoke was expelled sharply from pistons and locking mechanisms
ground as they were released. Kol Badar recognised the signs of the Titan preparing to move.
With a roar he smashed into the ranks of Skitarii, battering them out of his path with sweeps of
his power claw and ripping through them with his combi-bolter on full-auto.
“Forward, Anointed! For the glory of Lorgar!”
The Chimera slewed to the side as it took heavy incoming fire and one of its tracks was ripped to
tatters. Armour piercing rounds tore through the shell of the APC and two officers within slumped
in their seats, their blood splashing the interior. Havorn slammed his fist onto the glowing rune-plate
and the release valves of the assault hatch hissed as the ramp swung down. He was exiting the
Chimera even as the ramp was still falling and he flicked his plasma pistol into life.
“Sir, let us at least take the lead, since you seem set on this course,” said Rachius in his
concerned voice.
Havorn’s ogryn bodyguard emerged from the confines of the Chimera and breathed deeply, its
eyes narrowing. It stepped protectively in front of the brigadier-general, shielding him from fire with
its muscled bulk.
“We must stop the enemies from reaching the Titan! Why in the Emperor’s name hasn’t it
moved yet?” Havorn shouted.
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“Our units are converging on them, sir. You do not need to enter the battle!”
“They are coming too slowly,” shouted Havorn. “We move, now!”
With that, the Elysian commander pointed the way and the ogryn began loping towards the
enemy who were climbing the stairs on the Titan’s leg battlement.
They were too late, Havorn thought. The Terminators were already past them and his body was
old and slow. He cursed the debilities of age and pushed himself on. Fallen Elysians and Skitarii lay
strewn across the ground, as well as the occasional bulky form of a fallen enemy. Few of them were
truly dead and they lashed out, grabbing and killing any foe within their reach. Even at the point of
death they were more than a match for a Guardsman.
The ogryn raised its heavy ripper gun, a thick finger pulling the trigger. Empty shells scattered in
its wake. It did not roar or bellow as it charged. Such base, animalistic behaviours had been erased
from its simple brainpan, but no amount of augmetics could improve the aim of the ogryn and the
bullets from its ripper gun sprayed the area, hitting nothing.
Havorn snapped off a shot with his pistol, the streaming blue-white bolt of plasma dropping one
of the Terminators.
Bolter fire raked towards him, striking the hulking abhuman, who grimaced in pain. Chunks of
flesh were torn from its arms and chest, but the three metre creature that dwarfed even the
Terminators did not slow. It lowered a shoulder and smashed into one of the enemy, knocking it
from its feet. Raising the butt of its heavy ripper gun, the ogryn began caving in the helmet of the
fallen warrior, smashing it down onto the prone traitor again and again.
Skitarii and Guardsmen were all around Havorn, filling the air with las-fire and high-velocity
bolts. The traitors were on the steps and held a tight defensive formation. More than half of the
bastards had been taken down, most from the devastation wrought by the Titan’s cannons and the
powerful weaponry of the elite tech-guard warriors. It would be but moments before they breached
the blast doors that led into the Titan.
“Take them down, men of Elysia!” he hollered, his steely, field parade voice carrying over the
din of battle.
Suddenly, victory was snatched away as the Titan raised its massive foot high up into the air,
carrying with it the traitor Terminators and hundreds of tech-guard warriors still fighting upon the
steps. Many of them were knocked off as the Exemplis raised its leg, falling ten metres to the valley
floor as the foot was raised higher and higher.
“Damn it!” swore Havorn.
“We are through, Lord Coryphaus,” reported one his Anointed brethren. The chainfists had made
short work of the blast doors that had sealed the entrance to the leg bastion, carving through the
thick metal with a minimum of fuss.
“Into the breach!” roared Kol Badar as he crushed the augmented, semi-mechanical skull of a
Skitarii warrior and hurled it over the edge as the Titan’s leg continued to rise. At his command, the
Anointed entered the Imperator class Titan.
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CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Flames roared up the spiralling metal staircase, clearing the way. Two abreast, the Terminators had
been climbing for what seemed like an age, assailed from above and below by an apparently neverending
stream of Skitarii warriors. Inbuilt defence turrets were stationed at every second level, their
hard-wired servitor controllers built into the heavy wall panels of the interior staircase, and they
swung their weaponry upon the intruders, filling the cloying, hot air with shells and gunsmoke.
It was hard going, the Word Bearers forced to fight for every step of the mammoth climb up the
interior of the Titan’s lower leg. Kol Badar’s destroyed eye, still with the shrapnel shard jutting from
the socket, was throbbing in his head, but he pushed the sensation away as he stamped up the heavy,
grilled stairway, blazing away with his combi-bolter.
He was at the front of the line of Terminators, the heavy-flamer wielding Anointed warrior
Bokkar at his side. Between the flames of his comrade and the bolts of his combi-weapon, few of
the Skitarii could stand against them. Those few that survived were ripped apart by the warlord’s
power claws and hurled over the railing to fall down the open expanse in the centre of the spiralling
stairwell to join a growing pile of sparking, shattered corpses.
The resistance from above slackened. Clearly the last of the Skitarii had been neutralised,
leaving just the inbuilt, servitor-guided sentry guns to hamper their progress. The going was
unsteady as the heavy Titan foot smashed down into the ground with devastating force and rose
once more into the air.
Kol Badar allowed a pair of cult members wielding reaper autocannons to advance past him, for
their powerful guns were able to rip through the armoured plating protecting the sentry guns far
more efficiently than flame or bolt. It was a torturous task, for they had to advance up through a
barrage of gunfire before they could get a clear shot at the servitor housed just beneath the turret, but
time was of the essence.
Up and up the Terminators wound, under constant, desperate attack from the Skitarii climbing
behind them and the sentry turrets. Ammunition was running low, and with a blast of fiery
promethium directed down over the open stairwell to melt the exposed flesh of a dozen enemy
machine-warriors, the last of the heavy flamer reloads was expended. Even if they had not a bolt
shell remaining, Kol Badar would fight on and succeed. He would die, with all his Anointed at his
side, before he would allow the bitch of a Titan to best him once again. He would rip it apart piece
by piece with his bare hands if need be.
The noise of turning machinery became increasingly loud as the Terminators neared the
Imperator’s knee joint. Abruptly, the last sentry gun was silenced, the milky life-blood of the
servitor dripping down through the latticed grill to fall upon its brethren advancing from below. At
Kol Badar’s direction, blinking demolition melta-charges were attached to bulkheads where he
indicated, as scattered gunfire roared up from below, shearing through the metal stairs. Scores of
charges were placed, four times the amount that were used to blast away the mountainside. Kol
Badar was taking no chances.
He nodded as he studied the placement of the blinking charges.
“Commence the descent,” he ordered and the Anointed warriors began to fight their way back
down the staircase that they had just fought so hard to ascend.
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“We are entering the range of the Imperator, First Acolyte,” hissed Burias. The massive Titan had
already blasted every cult warrior apart.
“If he’s failed, this war is going to be over very quickly,” replied Marduk.
