Apotheosis (40K)

[Imperial Overlord]

The command bridge was a cramped place, but that was a thing of the flesh and the flesh was a distant third behind the mind and the machine. I gingerly sat down in my command couch overlooking my moderati. Graylen looked over at me as he caressed the command couch at the tactical position. "This is it princeps," he said.

Graylen was the smallest of us, shorter than Thrawlt and just as slim. He was quiet and competent and I liked him. Like the rest of us he had trained most of his life to be here. Like the rest of us, this would be the first time. I looked out through the massive armourplast window and saw the scurrying of human ants. Thousands of dark specs crawled and swarmed beneath my gaze. My moderati looked at me nervously.

Graylin leaned forward over the tactical display. "Incoming message princeps. The legate commands us to begin our mission."

"Signal acknowledgment," I said with a voice that I tried carefully to control. I must show no fear or weakness. Our flesh is weak, but we must be worthy of the colossal honour that has been bestowed upon us. Each of us anticipated being assigned a slot in a great and storied god. We knew so many names, so many histories, so many glorious careers. That was not to be. Instead we have this singular honour and burden. We must not fail. I will not permit it.

I key the vox. "Chief Enginseer, status?"

"Plasma reactor on standby princeps. Full power at your order. All systems green."

"Very good," I say as I reach behind me and pull the ends of the cables to the base of my skull. The prongs slip into the MIU unit grafted to my weak flesh. I am one with the machine. I see the data coursing through the newborn god's sensor systems and I feel the might of his roaring heart. His limbs are heavy, but responsive. I am one with the god. I am one with nothing.

There is no intelligence, no ferocious will and drive to meet my mind. The god is newborn, fresh from the forges of Iridantus, a storied world well known for the product of its Titan forges. The god has barely lived, walking from factory-forge to the transport barge and then across the stars to this dull and wet place that served as our staging area. He has never tasted battle and his personality, born of battle and passion, does not yet exist. The god slumbers.

"Moderati to their positions," I command. I hope my fear cannot be discerned. I have no god to support me in battle, no immortal and invincible fury to allay the weakness of my mortal flesh and spirit. I will have to coax him forth, if I am worthy. "Tactical, map display."

"Affirmative princeps," said Graylen.

"Right Carapace," said Tylrol.

"Left Carapace," said Monark.

"Left Arm," said Thrawlt.

"Right Arm," said Hishun.

"Chief Enginseer, bring the reactor to full power."

"Affirmative Princeps. Reactor to full power. You have full power."

I/We step forward. The earth shakes as we do. I take another step and then another. Gigantic strides carry us to the perimeter of the camp. The god's responses are smooth and timely, just as they were in a thousand training sims. There is no roar of his mind. Just silence.

"Princeps Halk," says a voice over the command channel. It is Legate Sung, commander of our legion.

"Your will legate."

"Good hunting princeps. May this be the first chapter in a great legacy."

"Thank you legate."

"Thank me by destroying the enemies of the Imperium." The channel went dead. In front of the me the window revealed a fog shrouded grassy plain. Beyond it was the dark blur of the marsh, a white shrouded combat hell where the Yanaka resisted the advance of the Imperium of Man.

The terrain was entirely unsuitable for tanks and the Guard and Skitari regiments deployed had few skimmer vehicles. Walkers could make some headway, but they suffered problems and only Sentinels were available in numbers. That left the infantry to carry the burden within minimal support and heavy equipment against Yanaka in their home terrain. The casualties were appalling and progress was agonizingly slow.

That would change. The Legio Divine Fury had arrived on Pertuba and the gods of war would consume the xenos in fire and wrath. "This is Vae Victis," I said. "We are now entering coordinates seven by thirteen on grid seven-beta. All nearby Imperial Guard units be prepared to advance in our wake. His will be done."

[Vehrec]

Apotheosis: The deification of a being. Is this young Princpes going to his doom, or to his glory? And just what will the Vae Victus bring, aside from woe to the vanquished?

Just what kind of baby-titan is this, anyways? A name like that, it doesn't sound like a Warhound, too ominous for a light titan.

[Imperial Overlord]

Just what kind of baby-titan is this, anyways? A name like that, it doesn't sound like a Warhound, too ominous for a light titan.

Warlord. More details in next installment. 2xplasma destructors, power first with built in heavy bolters, and melta cannon to answer your next question.

[Imperial Overlord]

"Activating void shields," I say crisply. Displays light up indicating the void shields are active and at full capacity. "Load and charge all weapons." I don't wait for the response. "Entering the marsh."

I can see everything. I know this experience from countless hours of simulation, but this is different. I really am striding across boggy ground and into a xenos haunted marsh. There's a surge of anticipation, not all of it my own. Could the titan be waking for battle? Engrams were imprinted upon the titan during the last part of the god's forging, engrams derived from the minds of predatory beasts. Could the god be stirring now that battle is near? I think yes.

The ground sinks beneath Vae Victis's feat. Ahead of me I can see the individual trunks of cormor trees, great wooden pillars supported by massive root networks. They mark islands of solid ground in the vast marshlands where the Yanaka have built their cities and pens. The tallest of them almost equals Vae Victis.

A crude corduroy road has been built by the Pathfinder brigades of the Imperial Guard. We control these outskirts of the marsh after pushing the Yanaka off the open plains. When I see "we" I mean humanity of course. We are newly arrived to this planet. The log covered road allows supplies and reinforcements to be sent to the front lines and fire bases with far greater speed and quantities if sent by foot. Unfortunately it doesn't extend far. The enemy is fierce and fights Mankind for every meter of ground.

I check the tactical display. Infra Red blooms and electronic noise are scattered all over the place. "Tactical, clarify display."

"The enemy has littered the swamp with jamming devices and false signals. Long range scanning is full of junk princeps and the fog limits visual range."

The god machine's eyes were built to see through radiation hell zones, fluctuating high strength magnetic fields, and advanced xenos countermeasures. We should not be blinded, even if my tactical officer was as green as I. "Unacceptable."

"Apologies princeps," said Gaylen. "I will endeavour to do better. Under current conditions the reach of our scanners does exceed normal combat ranges even with enemy jamming. We won't walk into an ambush."

"Understood. Continue your work." I urge Vae Victis forward. Vast pools of water are puddles to the mighty titan, sucking patches of mud are not even annoyances. We are slowed only slightly in our progress by the terrain, but the mist shrouds everything. I can see a small caravan of Chimeras on the road. Pacing them to either side are Sentinel walkers, each one taking long, birdlike steps through the mud and water. The multilaser is the most common weapon deployed on a Sentinel, but these ones mount lascannons and autocannons to engage Yanaka skimmers and striders.

A large blip on the tactical display grew larger. Firebase Seventeen, the furthest extension of the humanity into the swamp. A muddy berm taken, held, and quickly expanded into a firing position for a battery of Earthshakers to support combat operations deeper into the swamp. Our mission was simple: seek and destroy.

"Firebase Seventeen, this is Princeps Halk aboard the Vae Victis. We are beginning operations in your area. Acknowledge."

"Vae Victis, this is Lieutenant Sayonne," said a husky female voice. "Our thunder is ready to support you in the Emperor's cause."

"We shall show the enemies of Mankind the might of the Omnissiah," I replied. "Halk out." We strode passed the grungy artillery battery and its defensive lines of sandbags and trenches. This was contested territory. The enemy could be anywhere.

"Princeps!" Graylen said urgently. "Enemy contacts, moving in from two-nine-seven at one hundred eleven kilometers an hour!" I saw three blue triangles appear on the display. I slewed Vae Victis to the left to meet them and pushed the god to maximum cruising speed.

A Warlord class Titan is a roughly humanoid figure, albeit a hunchbacked one. The thick torso houses the plasma reactor and the void shield generators as well as providing the base for a pair of upper carapace heavy weapon mounts. Reavers and Warhounds have even more pronounced hunches, as if they were great apes preparing to run on their knuckles.

Victis has a Nemesis configuration load out, which favors the use of heavy support weapons. From the emplacements above and to the side of Victis's command bridge in the head are two heavy cannons with thick cooling jackets. They are plasma destructors, enormously power hungry and enormously destructive. In the right arm mount is the perforated barrel of a melta cannon, possibly even more destructive but short ranged. In the left is a titan sized power fist with heavy bolter mounts in the knuckles. We are ready to bring death to the unclean.

"Tylrol, Monark, target enemy skimmers and fire when you have a solution." I continue to push towards the skimmers. The cormor trees continue to block direct line of site and the vessels are low to the water, taking what benefit they can from cover.

"Firing," says Tylrol and streaks of blue-white plasma hammer the marsh. A twenty meter tall cormor tree explodes when hit by one of the bolts as it is instantly charred and the water within flash vaporizes and explosively expands. A series of massive steam explosions and shockwaves mar the surface of the water. Three signals continue to move on the tactical display.

A moment later Monark fires the other plasma destructor. More explosions of steam and charred wood. Only one signal left on the display. Monark has scored first blood. Something within the titan's mind growls in satisfaction.

"Princeps!" says Graylen excitedly. "More signals!" I saw them. Multiple groups. Some fast moving, others not. The Vae Victis was tough, but best not to be overconfident. I turned to the right to engage the nearest group.

Vae Victis's displays identified their signals. I could see them in our shared mind's eye. A pair of swamp striders, four legged walkers with large, hoof-like feet. They were armoured in ceramite with a coating of a chameleon coatings that covered their egg shaped bodies in shifting shades of green. A weapon with a long, fluted barrel was slung under the front of the strider.

The particle beam cannon could be fired in a high powered anti-amour pulse or as a lower powered, anti infantry beam. The Imperium had gotten very familiar with Yanaka particle beam technology over the last decade. Violet spears struck an invisible shell around Vae Victis. Cyan lightning briefly crawled around the impact points.

I checked the readouts. The Plasma destructors had almost recharged, one void shield was nearing capacity. I pushed the Vae Victis into a full out run. "Hishun, stand by to fire as we bear."

"Your will, princeps." The striders began to scuttle away. We cleared a tree and Hishun had a clear line of sight. The melta cannon roared like an angry dragon. A white-hot beam strikes the rearmost strider. It vanishes. The swamp around in explodes in a geyser of steam. The shockwave is enough to topple the other strider. I push the Victis closer, through the expanding steam cloud. I can see nothing of the first strider. The second is struggling to right itself. I move closer and Victis's foot comes down.

"Target terminated," I say. More symbols are appearing on the tactical display. Not red Imperial signals but the sky-blue glyphs of the enemy. A lot of them.

"Holy Throne of Earth," Graylen says hoarsely. "Princeps all signs point to a major enemy advance."

"I believe you are correct," I say with false calm. I cannot show weakness in front of my crew. My eyes rest on the glyphs that represent enemy full sized war striders. "Call for reinforcements." Other, lesser glyphs represent enemy skimmer tanks and swamp striders as well as infantry carriers and gun skimmers. There are so many, but the titan's first taste of battle cannot be a retreat. That will taint the god forever. "Inform the legate that we will hold the line."

[Rogue 9]

Obligatory:



Carry on.

Seriously, though. Well written as always.

[Ford Prefect]

Tanks can not punch people. That is all.

I can't recall seeing any Titan centered stories on the board before, so this is very cool. And Vae Victus is such a cunningly good name.

[The Grim Squeaker]

"Moderati to their positions," I command.
"Tactical, map display."

"Affirmative princeps," said Graylen.

"Right Carapace," said Tylrol.

"Left Carapace," said Monark.

"Left Arm," said Thrawlt.

"Right Arm," said Hishun.

"Chief Enginseer, bring the reactor to full power."

"Affirmative Princeps. Reactor to full power. You have full power."

I/We step forward.

Am I the only one who got Power Rangers vibes from that? .
Looks awesome, but it's hard for a giant god/war machine not to be

[Imperial Overlord]

So many targets. A Titan is a colossus that bestrides the battlefield. It is easy to see and easy to target. Without void shields, ceramite, and adamantine a Titan would be folly; too easily seen and too easily targeted with heavy weapons. But such things do exist and so the god-machines rule the battlefields. The Titan's great height also gives the princeps a superb vantage point. Nothing can escape my gaze or my weapons.

"Tactical, order a fire mission against enemy tank column designated gold. Let the Guard participate in their own defence. Plasma destructors, fire when ready on group emerald. Thrawlt, target skimmers. Hishun, stand by." Vae Victis strides forward in accordance with my wishes.

The Yanaka tanks are repulsor lift craft, slab-like blocks with sloped armour topped with a boxy turret. The main gun is a turret mounted railgun with a coaxial particle beam cannon for extra punch. It's fast, respectably armoured, and pure hell on our Sentinels. Like most tanks its best armour is to the front with weaker side, rear, and top armour. One of the advantages a Titan possesses the ability to target a tank's upper deck armour with ease.

Tylrol fires his plasma destructor. Water explodes into huge geysers of steam near where four tanks are pushing forward. A cormor tree is blown to fragments. Two tanks are buffeted by the explosions and almost flip, but none are hit. Monark fires, walking star hot plasma bolts over the two leading tanks. They explode instantly.

Thrawlt is shifting her fist to track some gun skimmers. Thunder booms as rail gun slugs slam into Vae Victis's void shields, lightning briefly crawling around the impact points. Violet particle beams add to the fire. I push Victis closer to the enemy.

The gun skimmers are slim arrowhead shapes with cameoureactive hulls like the striders and dorsal particle cannon mount. They're much faster than the tanks, but not as hard hitting or as armoured. Thrawlt chooses her moment and then opens up with the heavy bolters mounted in the power fists's knuckles. Bolt rounds climb up the hull, punching through the thin armour to detonate inside. The skimmers noses into the water at more than a hundred kilometers an hour, coming apart upon impact. The others continue one.

Large holes punch through the side of one the skimmers and autocannon shells explode inside, gutting the vehicle and sending it crashing into the murk. A lascannon bolt narrowly misses another. Imperial Guard Sentinels advance, forming up along our flank. Vae Victis is not alone. Thunder and explosions mark the fall of the Earthshaker's shells.

Missile contrails streak through the marsh at Victis's feet along with the flickering threads of lasfire. Brief sweeping slashes of violet particle beam fire and strobe-like shots from portable versions answer back. "Thrawlt, suppress enemy infantry. Vae Victis's fist swings around, heavy bolters firing. Hundreds of rounds tear into the swamp.

Our void shields take more hits. Half of the god-machines shields are near overload failure and enemy fire is still coming in strong. The carapace mounted heavy bolters are adding their fire against the enemy infantry, but they are mainly targeting the Guard. Three war striders are nearing range. Two directly ahead and one off to the right.

"Hishun, skimmer cluster entering range."

"Tracking princeps. Entering effective range. Firing." The white hot blasts turns two of them to vapor. The exploding steam blast sends another careening into a tree where it tears itself apart. A lone survivor takes weaving evasive action but ends up catching a Guard missile in the flank and crashing. Incoming fire from the tanks is slacking off.

Fire from the Earthshakers has wrecked on. The tanks have broken their formation to evade the steel rain, but with the havoc Vicitis and the Guard have wrecked on their infantry and skimmer screen the Guard has been able to press forward before they could regroup. Autocannon and lascannon fire from the Sentinels. I watch a Yanaka tank take a direct lascannon hit in the glacis plate. Fire blows from its hatches as it noses into the water. Another has its exposed flank armour torn through by an autocannon. It buries itself in the marsh.

The Yanaka are hitting back, of course. A white flash marks the impact of a railgun round that disintegrates the upper body of a Sentinel, leaving a pair of legs to topple into the marsh. An anti-armour particle beam pulse leaves another a burning wreck. Yanaka swamp striders are moving up to support their tanks and infantry and behind them the war striders are almost in range.

"Tactical, redirect artillery fire towards the swamp striders." The tanks had exited the kill zone, were fast moving, and closing with our elements. They were a suboptimal target.

"Affirm princeps. Giving the Earthshakers new firing coordinates."

"Full display on those war striders." They were built much like the smaller strider designs, but built up to Titan scale. Four legs supported an egg shaped main body. A massive underslung particle beam was their primary armament with two wing pods mounting additional heavy weapons. They were protected by void shields and overall roughly equivalent to a Reaver with a light weapons load out.

The enemy had a heavier concentration of forces. I could pull back and await reinforcements to stiffen the line, but then all this labor would be lost. The war striders would soon be able to effectively target the fire base and push us back over ground that bought dearly with blood. Men and even god-machines might perish in great number to get that territory back.

The plasma destructors were at full charge. "Hold position," I ordered. "Thrawlt, Hishun, sweep away any enemy units in range. Carapace moderati target lead war strider and prepare to fire on my mark."

The war striders advanced with the swift and jerky movements of a flightless predatory avian. The two directly in front of us had missile batteries in their weapon pods. The one to the right mounted clusters of weapon barrels, probably railguns or particle beams.

Smoke marked missile launches from the war striders. "Incoming fire," announced Graylen. The missiles descended upon us and detonated. Fire hot enough to melt steel consumed everything within one hundred meters of our position. Trees further away ignited. A boiling cloud of steam expanded from our position. The ground beneath Vae Victis's feet was scorched and blackened. A shell of crackling lightning surrounded us. The displays showed two-thirds of our void shields near overload.

The steam cloud dissipated. Sun hot fire erupted from the plasma destructors. Bolts hammered the lead war strider, covering its front arc completely with crawling lightning as they pushed the war machine's systems toward overload. I pushed the Victis forward. A war strider's particle beam narrowly missed us.

Victis hit maximum speed as I drove the god-machine forward. In the distance great plumes of water shot in the air, marking the impact of the Earthshakers. The war striders lurched toward us, eager to make the kill. Their ground forces scattered away from the fire zone, having no desire to be incinerated by their own striders' plasma missiles.

Vae Victis's void shields bled off their stored charge as we advanced. The god-machine was not easily slain. Two shots from war strider main guns hit us, one glancing and the other direct. The void shields repelled most of the glancing shot's energy, scattering it into the air. The other pushed our shields back towards overload. Fire from the particle cannon clusters on the third war strider's gun pods flickered around us, scoring some hits, but was mostly ineffectual. The particle beams had a respectable punch, but their effectiveness degraded over distance faster than laser weapons did. Undoubtedly that was part of the reason they wanted to close.

Missiles struck around us, some impacted the void shields directly. I pushed the Vae Victis through the blazing plasma cloud. I could feel the god-machine's anger and hate through the links. Multiple warnings signaled the void shields were almost at total collapse. Other indicator were more favorable.

"Plasma destructors, melta cannon, fire." The plasma bolts ate through the lead war strider's void shields and they collapsed. A white flash on its hull marked armour vaporizing from a plasma bolt impact. Then the melta cannon roared. A white-hot beam struck the war strider and then the plasma reactor detonated violently. Debris flew from site of the explosion. Trees were blown into burning chunks of wood that rained down on the swamp and the war strider next to it almost fell.

"All power to movement and void shields," I ordered as I headed towards the staggering war strider at full speed. The death blast of its companion had left the terrain between us open. The strider's crew must have still been reeling from the impact because the strider was staggering like it was on a three day bender. Particle beam beam fire from the third war strider hit us. Lightning crawled in a dome around the Vae Victis and then vanished. Void shield overload. We were naked.

The war strider loomed in front of me. "Thrawlt, stand by. Activate power fist." The particle beam clusters on the third war striders burned Vae Victis's hide, blasting divots in our armour but failing to do serious damage. Then we hit the war strider's void shields. Energy flowed back and forth from our overloaded and their almost untouched shield systems, establishing an equilibrium, as they merged in a shield dome that encompassed both of us.

Thrawlt didn't need my order to swing. Vae Victis's left hand lashed out and turned the cockpit module of the war strider into scrap. Scraps of metal and ceramic flew from the impact as the force of the blow sent the Yanaka war machine toppling backwards. I slewed Vae Victis hard towards the surviving war strider.

More particle beam fire slammed into us, driving our shields back to overload. A cluster of missiles arced down out of the mist and struck the war strider from behind, hammering its void shields. Lighting crackled over the war strider as blazing red beams struck it and a bright flash marked void shield overload. Another volley of high energy laser fire collapsed its shields.

The stricken machine tried to escape, skittering across the marsh away from its attacker. I trained the Vae Victis's sensors on that area as it fired again. The turbolasers burned through the war strider's back pair of legs and sent the Yanaka machine crashing down. The massive form of a Reaver Titan emerged from the mist. Hunchbacked and smaller than the Vae Victis, the god-machine carried a multiple missile launch canister on its carapace and a pair of turbolasers in each arm.

A transmission came in from the Reaver. "Lupus Rex to Vae Victis. It appears I arrived just in time."

"Thank you brother Titan. Your aid is deeply appreciated."

"Don't thank me brother princeps. Now you have to answer to the legate."

[Ford Prefect]

I was waiting for you to use that power fist.

[Imperial Overlord]

I was waiting for you to use that power fist.

The war strider loomed in front of me. "Thrawlt, stand by. Activate power fist." The particle beam clusters on the third war striders burned Vae Victis's hide, blasting divots in our armour but failing to do serious damage. Then we hit the war strider's void shields. Energy flowed back and forth from our overloaded and their almost untouched shield systems, establishing an equilibrium, as they merged in a shield dome that encompassed both of us.

Thrawlt didn't need my order to swing. Vae Victis's left hand lashed out and turned the cockpit module of the war strider into scrap. Scraps of metal and ceramic flew from the impact as the force of the blow sent the Yanaka war machine toppling backwards. I slewed Vae Victis hard towards the surviving war strider.

[Vehrec]

There exists a school of thought that anyone who uses a Power Fist on a Titan is either fighting Orks, or is doing it wrong. These are called the Lamers, for they take all the fun out of things. The opponents of this school of thought are known as Simonists, for their great leader who liked to make inspirational speeches from his command throne before smashing a Chaos Titan's head in while demanding to know who it thought he was.

[Imperial Overlord]

I bring Vae Victis to a halt next to the boarding gantry constructed in the plains. The Titan drifts uneasily back to a dreaming state as systems are shutdown or reduced to stand by. I could feel Victis's mind beginning to awake during battle, but now it subsides. The god-machine has barely tasted life. So much is ahead of it.

I disconnect the MIU plugs from the back of my head and I am once again alone and weak, confined to a feeble shell of flesh. The meat feels heavy. I lift myself out of the command couch. "Make sure the repairs commence and then get some rest," I order the crew. "They may send us out again soon."

The docking corridor has mated with the hatch. I open it and stride down the passage to the gantry elevator and descend. Legate Sung was waiting for me at the bottom with a pair of Skitari.

The legate was shorter than I, although most men are. We both had the same pale flesh and thin builds. The legate's head was completely shaven while I kept my dark hair short. We could be mistaken as kin and our black bodygloves and stormcoats only added to the impression. The augmentic replacing his right eye reminded me of a targeting scanner.

The Skitari were armed with hellguns fed by backpack units. Matte black carapace armour covered their bodies and scarlet targeting beams swept out from their visors. "Princeps Halk," rasped the Legate.

"Your will legate." I saluted, fist to chest.

He didn't return it. "You endangered your god-machine," he rasped.

"He is the fist of Mars," I replied. "The Titan must not shirk battle, especially his first battle. The enemy fell before him."

"Thanks to Lupus Rex."

"His aid was appreciated, but we would have won without it."

"Perhaps."

"We won sir. And that territory was hard won. To lose it would have been costly, to regain it would have cost more. And the enemy paid for it in blood and oil. Even if we had fallen it would have been at great cost to them."

"Yes," said the legate. "You are sure of your actions. Good. A young god-machine needs a strong princeps so it too grows strong. Do not needlessly endanger your Titan. Mere men and lesser machines are not worth the life of a sacred Titan of Mars. Do not let your lust for glory or your Titan's lust for battle cause you engage when it is not prudent. You pushed too hard this time, even if it turned out well. Do not repeat the mistake."

"As you say legate."

He looked at me for a moment. "I hope you mean that. You are a promising young princeps. It would be a pity if your hubris lead a god-machine to an early death instead of a long and glorious career." He saluted me. "You are dismissed princeps. See to it that your crew has some rest and your Titan is swiftly restored."

I returned his salute. "Your will." Swiftly restored. That meant an offensive. I couldn't help but smile. Soon I would be one again with Vae Victis.

[Ford Prefect]

You know, there is something strangely compellling about the Adeptus Titanicus, apart fromt he giant robots.

[[R_H]]

Very nice. How sentient are Titans, about the same as a dog?

[Imperial Overlord]

We stand like gods over a map of the xenos city. Ardeth Sunatra's virtual foot crushes a suburb as he strides around the islands containing the surface to space defence batteries. No one says a word. Sunatra has been restless for a hundred years and as the princeps senoris of the legio's Wolfhounds it is fitting. Legate Sung's gaze flickers over each and everyone of us. No one flinches.

"The Yanaka have suffered heavy casualties among their mobile forces and the Imperial Guard has moved up to secure positions in the mire. Imperial artillery can now reach the heart of the enemy city.

Unfortunately the city is void shielded." Sunatra stalks through the coastal waters, peering for weaknesses. Legate Sung continued. "We now possess a decisive advantage in all engagements happening around the city, there is no way conventional artillery will bring down those voids. Even an ordinatus, which we do not have, may be insufficient."

"So we attack," says Daniella Myer. The lean and predatory woman is the legio's most formidable Titan duelist. She is known for overriding the weapon controls of her moderati and personally blasting enemy engines to scrap.

"We attack," confirmed Sung, the ghost of a smile on his lips. Myer has long served as his fist for as long as he has commanded detachments of the Legio Divine Fury. "Reconaissance has determined that the city's defences are mostly against orbital attacks. A comparatively small number of weapons can be deployed against the god-machines of our legio.

"We will advance our main battle line on the city, clustering to merge void-shields on any endangered machine. Once we penetrate their voids we gut the city's defences while the light units move up in support."

"Legate," began Lionus Paulin, "we risk heavy casualties if the enemy's defences are stronger than we believe."

"We do," said Sung. "However, the data we have on their defences has been verified by multiple sources and I am confident that it is uncorrupted. Tomorrow we walk."

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The battle line is twenty-one Titans long. Lex Talonis anchors the middle, an imperishable cathedral dedicated to the God-Emperor of Mankind in His Aspect as the Omnissiah. Rain pelted off the carapaces of the god-machines and ran down their nearly unbreachable armour as they waited for the order to be given. Today, Omnissiah willing, the Legio Divine Fury would effectively end the campaign to break the Yanaka on this world by reducing the coastal hive city to ruin and obliterating the weapons that kept the Imperial Navy at bay.

I retract the armoured shutters that seal the cockpit. The last of the service gantries had retracted four and a half minutes ago. The order would come soon. "Power up reactors," came the order from Legate Sung. "Prepare to advance."

"Chief Enginseer," I command. "Bring up the Plasma Reactor to full power."

"Your will princeps." I feel the Vae Victis's fiery heart rise from dormant to full wakefulness. Power floods the limbs of the god-machine. My limbs.

"Power to all systems. Bring them to stand by status." My moderati obey. I can feel the Vae Victis's mind wake. The Titan calls to me.

"Walk," commands Legate Sung. Vae Victis steps forward and so do all of his brothers and sisters. I bring Vae Victis up to two-thirds cruising speed and activate the void shields.

"Chief Enginseer, stand ready to divert all available non-motive power to the void shields."

"Ready princeps."

"Moderati, load all weapons and charge capacitors. Tactician Graylen, full auspex scans." The plains vanish quickly and the mist shrouded swamp beckons. I can almost nothing from the cockpit windows. I lower the armoured shutters. The auspex shows me everything.

I can see the specks of heat and metal that mark the machines of the Imperial Guard. The data streams of comm broadcasts are as plain as day. The void shield around the Yanaka city is unmistakable. The pools and the flora of the swamp are insignificant. My brother and sister Titans are omnipresent. Gods march forward and the earth trembles.

I see the launch tracks of Yanaka missiles as they fly through the overlapping layers of distortion and jamming that our legio produces. Smart missiles are rendered deaf, blind, and stupid and go astray; their detonations send up plumes of water. Others impact against void shields in blasts of fire and hyper velocity metal. They are too few and are voids are too strong to matter.

A half dozen violet hellbeams lash out at us. They converge on Fidelus Eternus and burn down his voids. Two brother Titans bracket him, the Machinus Magnus and the Dominus Mundi. They merge their voids with his and all three god-machines devote their full strength to there shields. They will last. They have to. I push the Vae Victis forward at flank speed.

I raise the shutters. The city is close now, enshrouded by the faint green glow of shield-atmosphere interaction. None of us has wasted power shooting at it. It's so close. Inside the shield slender alien towers tower above low broad domes, all of them glittering iridescent shades of pink and jade. I can clearly make out the defence towers. There is less than one minute until contact with their voids.

"Tactical I see the defence towers but I have no auspex readings."

"I'm sorry my princeps," responds Graylen, "there is heavy interference from the city's void shields. Only rudimentary data available until we penetrate the void field."

"Feed all available targeting data to the moderati. I want to be killing weapon emplacements as soon as we breach the enemy's voids."

"Data already fed to the moderati," responded Graylen. Ten seconds to void shield penetration. IR bloom! Five hundred meters dead ahead!"

"Belay firing!" I order. "Stand by to engage enemy engines!" There was a crackle as we stepped through the city's voids.

"Movement!" shouted Graylen. "War striders converging on our position."

I reduced movement to cruising speed as two tower mounted particle beams swung around to engage the Vae Victis. Two war striders emerged from around one side of a dome and a third came out from behind a massive tower. The auspex showed a swarm of greater and lesser returns behind them. I urged the Victis forward, putting the dome between me and the third war strider. Two large missiles streaked by Vae Victis, missing it by barely more than a meter. A heavy particle beam lashed the void shields around my Titan's left leg, but they held. A lighter beams tore at the shields guarding the Victis's chest. "Enginseer, priority to weapons. Tylrol, Monark, kill the leader."

[Ford Prefect]

A cruel moment to have a cliffhanger, just as the real fun was about to start.

[Imperial Overlord]

Both plasma destructors roared on sustained fire. Intolerably bright blue-white bolts slammed into the war strider's void shields, blasting them away and burning through the war machine's armour and carapace. The plasma reactor went critical and blew. A shell of blue-white fire blasted away from the where the wrecked machine stood, sending chunks of war machine flying passed Vae Victis or smashing off the Titan's void shields. The explosion decimated the troops advancing behind the war striders and blew out the structural supports of the nearby tower. Slowly, it began to topple.

The war strider next to it manage to remain on its feet, but the blast overloaded its void shields. Two antitank particle beams slashed across Vae Victis's torso. Data transmitted through the Mind Impulse Unit and into my brain told the princeps what he already new: Vae Victis's forward void shields were nearing overload. I paid no attention to the data. It didn't matter. The god-machine's survival depended on him doing exactly what I was doing now. The strider shifted position, bringing all of its gun pods to bear on the Victis. "Melta cannon terminate second strider."

The tower struck the ground and the earth shook with the impact. The strider paused a moment to steady itself, its guns slipping slightly offline. Hishun fired. A ravening beam of white hot death struck the war strider's undercarriage and ate away the armour and connection points for its legs. The carapace slid away from its collapsing legs and then smashed into ground. "Target terminated my princeps," replied Hishun.

Thrawlt was already firing the power fist's heavy bolters into the carnage behind the destroyed striders, suppressing reinforcements and killing those who came forward. "Enginseer, reactivate fallen voids and rebalance energy loads," ordered Halk. "Charge-"

The third war strider came out from around the dome. I turned the Vae Victis forty degrees to engage the engine with all of the Titan's weapons. Particle beams flashed around and into Vae Victus. Lightning crawled away from impact points and voids collapsed in brilliant flashes of light. The plasma destructors were still recharging and they were enormously power hungry. The melta cannon had just fired and as deadly as it was, the war strider's own voids would require multiple hits to down. The wing mounted particle beam arrays charged quickly. Vae Victis was going to take a beating, no matter what. The god-machine might, just might, survive to engage at close quarters. I pushed the Titan into a run.

A dome behind him exploded outward as Carnifex Maximus walked through it. The Titan unleashed the gatling blasters in its arm mounts, inundating the war strider's void shields with a barrage of high explosive shells. Blossoms of fire and crackling lightning completely covered the voids facing Daniella Myer's Titan. The guns spun down as new shells were loaded, but Myer was not finished yet. The turbolasers in the Warlord's carapace mounts burned off the strider's left weapon wing and bit deep into the machine's body. It crumpled over and fell.

"Ave Carnifex Maximus," I sent.

"Ave Vae Victis. Don't get ahead of yourself. There's plenty of kills for everyone." Lupus Rex appeared on Carnifex Maximus's flank.

"Hold and await unified advance," came the orders from Legate Sung. The urge to walk forward and destroy was strong in my mind, in our mind. He was awake. I could feel it. Vae Victis was urging me to conquer and destroy.

"Heard and understood legate," I responded. Energy load balances on the void shields were stabilized and dissipated as all weapons were reloaded and recharged. The Titan growled impatiently in my mind. It's mind was simple, but it new itself and had the instincts of a predator. It was ready to stalk and kill. A shadow passed over Vae Victis. It was the Lex Talonis.

The Imperator class Titan strode forward and we reformed around it, war gods following their king into battle. What could stand against us. The Lex Talonis opened fire with its carapace weapons and holes were blasted in the buildings in front of us. Huge chunks were calved away like melting icebergs and then the structures collapsed into ruin. Before us were revealed tanks and striders and infantry all striving for position like ants in broken open hive.

"Fire at will," ordered Legate Sung. Vae Victis and I were in perfect accord with our legate. Thunder shattered the air as weapons opened up. The power of lightning and the might of the sun were bound in our weapons. The earth shook with our fury and the works of mortals were overturned and shattered by our wrath. The living became the dead and the city became a ruin.

Who is more fortunate than a Titan princeps? We serve the mightiest of masters, the God-Emperor of Mankind in his aspect of the Omnissiah. The high secrets of technology are our lifeblood, their use and preservation our purpose. We become gods in the service of the highest god. From this day forward there is no turning back, not other destiny possible. I am Vae Victis and where I walk the enemies of mankind shall perish.

[Ford Prefect]

Rather exciting, but you change perspective around them iddle from first person to third.

[Imperial Overlord]

Rather exciting, but you change perspective around them iddle from first person to third.

Fuck, I thought I had corrected all of that. Until the editing gets fixed, so shall it stay.