Legio Draconis shall walk

"Anything from the front yet?"

Lord General Richard Grusin asked briskly as he strode down the corridor, a gaggle of followers and hangers-on trailing his rich leather coat. Tactician Jay Bolter glanced at his dataslate, his brow furrowing as he read through the scrolling rolls of data, and grimaced.

"Confirmed sightings of at least four Archenemy Titans."

"Emperor on Terra..." Grusin breathed as he shook his head. "And Segmentum Command expects us to hold this world with just twelve regiments? Eight of which are infantry regiments? They might as well call in the Commissars and execute us. It'll be a faster and less painful death."

"We all have our duty to the Emperor," Bolter reminded him. Grusin scowled at him.

"I know that, Jay. But the least He could do was provide us with something. A Titan maniple, a company of Shadowswords...anything that can make a dent on those Titans." He sighed as he consulted his own dataslate. "As much as we are lucky to have the 44th Cadian Armor with us, their Leman Russ tanks are hardly going to put a dent on those God-engines."

"I'll see what I can scrounge up with. We could scrounge up all the Basilisks from the 122th Valhallan Artillery and fire upon the Titans before they get within range of Leviatha..."

"Do you honestly think twenty four Earthshaker cannons will be enough to take out a Warlord Titan?" Grusin asked incredulously. "And that's assuming they all hit the same Titan at the same time. We'll be lucky to collapse the damned thing's void shields."

Bolter said nothing as he kept up with Grusin. The nobles of Leviatha followed, chattering anxiously amongst themselves as they caught snippets of information from the duo's conversation, but none of them was stupid enough to interrupt them. Just as well. Grusin was in a foul mood. The Planetary Defense Force had been nothing short of incompetent, and it took several gruelling months before Task Force Solaris brought the underground cults and heretics to heel. And just when they thought they had finally rooted out the source of the infestation, the Archenemy promptly landed several full maniples of Titans on the other side of the planet. Already they were beginning to march toward the capital city of the world of Ravinesburg.

Leviatha, a hive city with a population of ten billion. Evacuation was not an option. They would never be able to move so many people, not before the Traitor Legio reached them.

"Any word on those reinforcements they promised?" Grusin asked, his patience fraying.

"About that, Lord General..." a monotonous voice blared up from an unexpected direction. Grusin and Bolter raised their heads and spotted a tech-priest of the Adeptus Mechanicus sidling up toward them, his baggy red robes sagging over a strangely inhuman body. Mechadendrites snaked out from under the hem, probing the floor or just whirling around, and the Tech-priest fixed his optical sensors upon the pair. The monocle whirled and revolved with a faint hiss.

The nobles who had been following Grusin the entire time quickly fled, unable to bear the sight of the half-human monstrosity.

"Magos Rymilon," Grusin greeted him tightly. "I trust you have several pressing matters if you've chosen to approach me directly?"

"Affirmative," the tech-priest confirmed, his metallic voice droning from the vox emitters embedded in his ruined throat. Very few flesh remained of his original organic body, with his limbs removed and replaced by augmetics. "A delegation from a Draconian battlegroup wishes to see you."

"Draconian?" Grusin raised an eyebrow. The word sounded unfamiliar.

"Correct."

"The Draconian system," Bolter supplied helpfully. "The core of a cluster of worlds in the Draconian Coalition...never mind. It's a system in the far east of Segmentum Solar."

"Never heard of them."

"That is fine," Magos Rymilon said, his voice neutral. "The matter of import is not their origin, but that their fleet just happened to be passing through when they intercepted our Astropathic signal for help. They have diverted their fleet to assist us in our crisis." His lenses flared crimson for a moment. "I heard that you are experiencing...issues with Traitor Titan Engines landing on the far side of Ravinesburg."

"So what do they have?" Grusin asked. Magos Rymilon replied with a binharic blurt, and Bolter skimmed through the fresh data inloaded into his slate.

"Two Astra Militarum regiments..."

"Two? Just two?" Grusin scowled. "What difference would that make?"

Bolter gave him a sharp glare, despite the differences in their rank. "At least wait until I'm done speaking. They are all armored regiments. And each of them possess a company of the Shadowswords you were asking for earlier."

Grusin's expression changed when he heard that. "Thank the Emperor! Two companies of Shadowswords then!"

Honestly, just Shadowswords were not ideal, but their chances of surviving an assault from the Traitor Titan Legion had just risen considerably. At the very least, they now had a way of fighting back against the monstrous God Engines. Even if the daemonic titans leveled Leviatha eventually, they could at least take down a couple of those bastards with them.

"They also have several lances of Knights," Bolter continued, his voice rising a notch from barely contained excitement. "A mix of Questoris and Cerastus class Knights, with a lance of three Acastus Knights. Porphyrion chassis."

Grusin nodded, unable to speak. This was getting better and better. Even though Knights were hardly a match against a true Titan, they were still bipedal behemoths capable of tremendous destruction. They would lose many in the fight, but as long as they could get close, a lance of Knights working in concert could even bring down a Titan.

"...and a single maniple of Titans," Bolter finished before looking up. "Two Warlords and a Reaver. The Kagutsuchi, Ryuujin and Akatsuki."

Grusin felt his heart lift. Titans! They were actually getting Loyalist Titans for reinforcements!

"Our fortunes are turning up," he gasped in relief. "Praise the Emperor..."

"A delegation will be present soon," Rymilon informed the lord general. "There are...formalities to complete before they deliver the Omnissiah's wrath upon the Archenemy. I trust you will be capable of handling them?"

"Leave that to me." Grusin was brought back down to earth for a moment. Negotiating with the Princeps of a Titan Legion and the Nobles of Knightly houses was a delicate matter. To stave off a threat of this magnitude, Grusin had to ensure that all the military elements under his command cooperated perfectly and carried out his orders in unison.

However, Knight nobles tended to have excessive pride, and the Princep commanders of Titan Legions took orders from no one, save the Omnissiah Himself. He couldn't afford to offend them, or they would literally just pack up and leave.

That was a risk Grusin was willing to take, though. For the first time since he received the terrifying news of enemy God Engines landing on Ravinesburg, he saw a ray of hope.

Drawing a deep breath, he instructed Bolter to make the necessary preparations.

*

Lord General Richard Grusin watched the surprisingly short procession of Titan Princeps and their Moderatii flock into the strategium. Then again, there were only three Titan crews from Legio Draconis, so there weren't many of them to begin with. The Dark Dragons had always been a small Titan Legion. They were vastly outnumbered by the enemy Titans, but right now Grusin would take as many God Engines as he could get. Three were better than zero, and even better they were all battleline Titans. A Myrmidion Heavy demi-maniple with enough apocalyptic firepower to demolish an entire hive city.

However, just three of them would not be able to halt the advance of at least three enemy maniples marching toward Leviatha at the moment.

The Titan crews were escorted by Secutarii. At least two squads of Titan Guard accompanied the crews, serving as both honor guard and protectors. Each of them were armed with lances and shields, their armaments crackling with lightning as they marched in perfect step before turning smartly around and forming two rows on either side of the entrance. They stood extremely still, and if it weren't for the intense, glowing electricity, Grusin would have thought the highly augmented soldiers were statues.

Shortly after the Titan crews took their seats, several dozen men in extravagant robes swept in, their hair as black as night. The Knight nobles of House Yato had arrived, along with a contingent of their Stormtrooper retinue. Dressed in carapace armor, the Stormtroopers escorted the nobles into the strategium, and like the Secutarii, they took up positions near the entrance to ensure no intruder could trespass without a challenge. Their features concealed behind environmental hazard helmets, they almost resembled the silent Secutarii with their smooth, metallic helms. Holding their hellguns at port, they stood rigidly as the nobles flowed into the chamber.

Each of the Knight nobles were armed with a sword. Long, curved blades that were held at their waists, they were an antique weapon known as katana. Grusin heard from Bolter that despite the ancient pedigree of these weapons, the katana had been modified by the Martian priesthood, and they were basically a fancy power sword. Not that Grusin cared what the nobles called them. As pilots of super-heavy walkers, they were hardly going to use those fancy power swords in battle, not unless the armor they rode in was ripped apart by the enemy.

"Greetings, esteemed guests from Legio Draconis, and the honorable Sirs from House Yato." Standing up, Grusin kept his voice in a respectful tone. His regimental commanders stirred, but they knew the game as well as they did. None of them was stupid enough to think they could survive without the help of the Titans of the Dark Dragons, or the Knight nobles of House Yato.

Fortunately, the regimental commanders from the two Astra Miliarum Draconian armored regiments had already taken their place. Even though they were technically seconded to House Yato as their military retinues, out of respect to the Lord General, they had acceded to the chain of command prevalent to the Imperial Guard. It made things...easier.

"As you all have probably heard, the Archenemy has landed Traitor Titans on Ravinesburg."

"Legio Mortis. Three Maniples, Axiom Configuration. A total of fifteen Engines." Princeps Kaneda Ryuuji declared with a nod of his head. Grusin glanced at him, surprised. It appeared that the Dark Dragons had more updated information than his command.

"That is correct," Grusin confirmed after a glance at Bolter, who looked just as bewildered and lost as he felt. Fortunately, when he caught sight of Magos Rymilon, the tech-priest nodded imperceptibly to affirm the information. "As such, we would like to request assistance from your venerable Legion to halt their advance."

"Our forces are at your disposal," Princeps Kaneda said, much to Grusin's pleasant surprise. "The God Engines of Legio Draconis shall walk."

"As will the Knights of House Yato." Daimyo Takeda Junpei declared as he rose from his seat. "These foul heretics have turned their back on the Emepror for too long. The Knights of House Yato will march against the enemy!"

"I am immeasurably relieved and delighted to hear that." Grusin had been expecting a much more difficult time, as was his experience when dealing with previous Princeps of other Titan Legions and the proud nobles of more well-known Knightly houses. "I will be relying on you then."

Kaneda nodded, and with a flick of his hand, the hololith in the center of the strategium flickered and changed. Grusin stared, astonished at the Princep's usurpation of the command terminal. Presently, a full-scale map of Leviatha hovered in the middle of the large chamber, displaying the hive city's defenses, assets and fortifications.

Kaneda did not seem to care much about the response, however, and directly addressed the stunned Lord General. "Where would you have us?"

Grusin swallowed, and did his best not to be thrown off guard. The Princeps of the Adeptus Titanicus were closely related to the priesthood of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and thus they wielded exotic technologies often not available to the common soldiery of the Astra Militarum. Taking a deep breath, Grusin gestured toward a massive emplacement.

"If you would set your engines down here, next to the south gate, we could perhaps begin mobilizing them for the march toward the Prenara Plains. I aim to stop the enemy before they reach the hive city. Perhaps engage them in the Plains where we wouldn't have to worry about collateral damage. How long do you need to unload your engines?"

"There is no need to." Kaneda smiled. "We have already landed our engines in the Plains. We are ready to march out to meet the enemy at any time."