"Wait, did we just travel 10,000 years back into the past?" Tanaka asked, looking around. At least he was in his Questoris Knight suit this time, making full use of an Errant-pattern with thermal cannon and a Stormspear rocket. Even better, he was the Seneschal this time, which meant he was the big boss.
The +1 bonus to his Ballistic Skill and Weapon Skill was the cherry on the cake. God-Emperor, I love the Horus Heresy.
"Daimyo Tanaka, what are you doing?" One of his subordinate Bushi, Sato, asked as he steered his Armiger Warglaive forward. "We've been tasked by Lord Dorn to take to task a traitor detachment of Ultramarines."
"What? Ultramarines? Traitors? There must be some mistake."
"No, not really," Watanabe said gravely, his Cerastus Knight Lancer loping forward. The Tsurugi was gleaming under the bright rays of the sun, the rarely seen pattern a common sight during the Age of Darkness. Tanaka couldn't believe he was able to witness such a venerable suit. To think they had entire armies of Cerastus Knights ten thousand years ago.
How much had been lost over the ten millennia that had flown past since Horus Lupercal's betrayal?
"The Ultramarines Praetor, a bloke by the name of Mariaden Suh, has decided that he wanted to rule a sector like Ultramar, and so his company rebelled against Lord Guilliman and took up authority here."
"Well, we can't let that happen, can we?"
Tanaka couldn't help but feel pride when he saw four Armiger Warglaives escorting Kazan and Tsurugi. Not only that, but the Mechanicum had fielded their own exotic Knights too, with four Armiger Knight Moiraxes accompanying them with esoteric weaponry.
"Careful!" Watanabe warned as Tsurugi stalked through the demolished hab-blocks. "Legion Shadowsword ahead!"
Before Tanaka could bring his attention to the super-heavy tank, he found his front armor riddled by high velocity rounds from a heavy support squad. Ten Ultramarines, bearing autocannons, were firing on his position and overwhelming his ion shield through sheer volume of shots.
"Oh, f off already!" He yelled and Returned Fire, his Reaction taking out a chunk of the heavy support squad. They immediately took cover, ducking under dusty ceilings, but over half of them vanished in the superheated blast from the thermal cannon. Tanaka blinked in surprise. "Huh, no more rolling 2D3. We're back to using blast templates now. This feels...refreshing, actually."
"What are you talking about?!" Sato yelled. "Pay attention to the front!"
"Yikes!" Tanaka rotated his ion shields to withstand a barrage of missiles from the Arcus, as well as sundering ruby beams from the Shadowsword's sponson lascannons. He steeled himself for the deadly shot from the volcano cannnon...but it never came.
Instead, the Shadowsword chose to fire its volcano cannon at the four Armiger Warglaive escorts.
"Huh?"
Thankfully, the Knights of House Yato were Eternal Warriors. A couple of the Warglaives rocked, their ionic deflectors overwhelmed by the sheer fury of the violent blast. A third Warglaive stood strong, its ionic deflector...well, deflecting the shot by the most miraculous of chances.
"Good thing we no longer have D6 plus 6 wounds or hull points with no saves of any kind allowed," Tanaka murmured, shuddering at the memory of the previous edition where Destroyer or Strength D weapons were pretty much cheese.
The Contemptor Dreadnoughts advanced, along with a tactical squad and a group of Fulmentarus Terminator squad and Invictarus Suzerain squad accompanying them. The Mechanicum dentured Armiger Knight Moiraxes opened fire, their haywire grav pulsars wreaking havoc on the Contemptor Dreadnoughts' systems and frying them. Both Dreadnoughts dropped, convulsing as their normally impenetrable hulls cracked and were crushed by gravity.
The Terminators continued to fire their hellfire plasma missiles, destroying an Armiger Knight Moirax with lightning locks, but the other decimated the tactical squad with rending blasts of electricity. Unfortunately, the resulting explosion killed a Tech-priest Auxilia who was trying to repair the damaged Knight Moirax, and also wiped out 3 of his accompanying servo-automata. The Archmagos Macrotek, on the other hand, survived without any problems, his specially designed weapon proof against such attacks.
On the other side of the battlefield, Watanabe charged the Shadowsword, his shock lance smashing a hole in its front, shocking the crew. However, the venerable super-heavy tank held strong, its resilient superstructure resisting the deadly strikes and the crew firing in retaliation. Tsurugi raised its ion gauntlet shield, tanking the blasts, but he was unable to finish off the wounded machine.
Tanaka had worries of his own, however. As he and his accompanying entourage of Armiger Warglaives charged forward, the Arcus and surviving autocannon-bearing fired upon Kazan, determined to bring down the big Knight. Kazan staggered from the onslaught, almost on his last legs, but Tanaka was able to rotate his ion shields in time to tank a full blast from the Shadowsword's volcano cannon, the super-heavy tank's turret traversing to fire at him even as the sponson lascannons spat angrily pointblank into Tsurugi. Watanabe deftly deflevted the majority of the shots, but his attempts to destroy the tank were thwarted as his shock lance found no purchase through layers of adamantium.
"The Shadowsword is proving to be a tough nut to crack!" He complained.
"Quit whining and just keep it busy for now!" Tanaka snapped. Fortunately, the Armiger Warglaives had blown up the reversing Arcuses with their meltaguns and thermal spears, and more of the superheated rays lanced out at the Fulmentarus Terminators, laying waste to at least half their number. The remainig Armiger Knight Moirax with lightning locks fired and killed off a bunch of tactical marines, forcing the lone survivor into retreat. Disobeying his furious Praetor, the coward ran off the battlefield.
"Hey!" The Praetor bellowed, and then turned just in time to see his Fulmentarus Terminators charged by one of the Armiger Warglaives. His Invictarus Suzerain bodyguards were getting pasted by another blast from the thermal cannon before Tanaka had enough and charged the autocannon squad. He finally scythed one of them down before stomping on the Masters of Signal who was accompanying them and pulping him into bloody paste.
"Phew..." He breathed a sigh of relief as he checked the condition of Kazan. The Knight suit was literally on its last legs, its integrity on the verge of blowing up. Just another lucky shot and he would die.
Not to be denied victory, the Praetor and his sole surviving Invictarus Sizerain charged another Armiger Warglaive, even as the other one was locked in combat with the Fulmentarus Terminators. The poor bodyguard was cleaved in half by the reaper chain-cleaver, but the Praetor deflected the next few attacks with his refractor shield.
Realizing that he had no anti-tank weapons yet, save for the Shadowsword that was being locked in combat with Tsurugi, and only a tactical squad remained...about to be stomped to oblivion by Tanaka, the Praetor threw his power sword down and raised his arms in surrender.
"Fine! We'll rejoin the Imperium! Don't kill us!"
Tanaka blinked in disbelief and glanced at the others, who shrugged. Watanabe, piloting the other Lord of War, deferred to him, for he was just a Dolorous and not a Seneschal. As the Warlord of this particular Knight Lance/Banner, the choice was for Tanaka to make.
"All right." Tanaka considered, eying the Shadowsword. The super-heavy tank would be a valuable asset, as would the surviving Fulmentarus Terminators. "We accept your surrender. But you'll have to prove your loyalty to the Imperium."
"How?" The Praetor demanded. Tanaka shrugged.
"Um...by a penitent crusade against the Warmaster's forces, I suppose?"
"...I guess we have no choice."
With no other options, save death, the Praetor raised his arms and called for his private army to lay down their weapons and rejoin the Imperium.
Watching them, Tanaka felt his chest swell with pride. Taking a deep breath, he punched the air inside his Throne Mechanicum.
Oh, God-Emperor of Mankind. I love the Age of Darkness!
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