A day with the Steel Dragons

"Brother-Captain, are we really going to attack that position?"

"Why shouldn't we, Brother-Sergeant?"

Fushi gave Tetsuhara a withering stare, but the veteran sergeant didn't back down. Instead, he grimaced as he consulted his dataslate.

"The Thousand Sons Legion is down there, and we know not of what sort of sorcery they wield."

"I guess we'll find out. We have Librarians of our own. They should be able to counter the Thousand Sons' three different disciplines with our brand-new Technomancy discipline!"

"You do realize that the Technomancy discipline usually buffs our vehicles, and destroys our opponents' vehicles? If they don't bring their heavy armor, our psychic powers will be limited to repairing our own machines."

"That's fine," Fushi assured Tetsuhara with a grin. "With their psychic hoods, they get a +1 to Deny the Witch tests. Those Thousand Sons Sorcerers had better be packing hot dice or they'll be at a disadvantage without any bonuses to their casting, despite them being a Brotherhood of Sorcerers and specializing in psychic powers!"

"We are at a disadvantage if we want to smite them, though. Our Librarians will probably be better off sticking to restoring our vehicles instead of running up and denying the witch."

"Even better! Speaking of vehicles, get the squads ready. We'll be swooping down in our new infantry fighting vehicles! I can't wait to see how the new Impulsors fare!"

Fushi strode quickly to the hangar of the massive battle barge Shouri, rubbing his gauntleted hands in anticipation. Tetsuhara hurried to catch up with him, his thunder hammer swinging slightly across his back. Ever since the Codex had decreed that Intercessor Sergeants now had the option to take Thunder Hammers, the Steel Dragons Chapter were appropriating bits from the armory that formerly belonged to the older Space Marines. Tetsuhara himself had been eager to requisition the thunder hammer from a Devastator Sergeant after the latter elected to wield a chainsword instead, because the heavy investment would be wasted on him. Intercessor Sergeants, after all, had more attacks than older Space Marine Sergeants, barring the Veterans.

Almost lost in his thoughts, the steely Tetsuhara cleared his throat as his captain stopped suddenly in the bay of the hangar, his jaw dropping in bewilderment.

"Where are the Impulsors?"

"I meant to tell you, Brother-Captain, that we have not received the Impulsors yet."

"What?! But they were announced literally months ago?! Why haven't they arrived yet?!"

Tetsuhara rubbed the back of his barely exposed neck. "Well...I'm sure the Adeptus Mechanicus have already manufactured them and stored them in many forge worlds across the Imperium, but due to logistics and uh...bureaucractic complications, the Impulsor IFVs will only be distributed to all Space Marine Chapters in two weeks."

"How can this be?!" Fushi demanded. "But the Iron Hands were fielding Impulsors last week in the Swedish Grand Tournament!"

"They kitbashed their own using Rhinos and Repulsor bits, I believe. Conversions."

Fushi threw up his hands in despair. "Okay. Then we'll ride the Repulsor Executioner then. Get the squads ready." He paused and frowned when he caught sight of the single Repulsor Executioner, Fudou, in the hangar. "Huh? We only have one Repulsor Executioner? I'm pretty sure we ordered two of those things?!"

"Yeah, but Brother Honda hasn't assembled the second Repulsor Executioner yet. It's still in its box." The techmarine had been busily assembling a new Razorback and replacing its twin lascannons with twin assault cannons from a nearby forge world. Tetsuhara didn't blame him. Honda had a lot of things to deal with recently, including but not limited to the maintenance of vehicles and weapons. Just last week he had to stabilize a "dancing" Invictor tactical warsuit that looked as if it was on the verge of doing the...jiggle. He had to add props under its foot so that the pilot could stabilize it and make it look like it was running instead of dancing.

"Emperor of Man!" Fushi exclaimed and shook his head. "All right, let's get everybody to the Razorbacks then. Move it!"

The Intercessor squads under Sergeant Tetsuhara's command moved with a grace that belied their power armored forms, jogging toward the row of Razorback APCs that lined the hangar. They were about to dive through the hatches and strap themselves in the passenger compartment when one of the other Space Marines showed up to stop them.

"Sorry," Devastator-Sergeant Daichi apologized as he raised a hand to forbid them entry into the Razorbacks. "But you can't get into those vehicles."

"Why the hell not?!" Captain Fushi demanded irritably. "We're due for a combat drop in ten minutes! We need the APCs to spearhead our armored formation, and we've to use Razorbacks because we haven't gotten the Impulsors yet!"

"Well..." Daichi hesitated for a moment, and then shrugged. "You guys are Primaris Space Marines."

"So?"

"So...you're not allowed to embark upon Rhinos and Razorbacks."

"What the frak?!" Fushi threw his hands up impatiently. "Why the bloody warp not?!"

"Because you guys are Primaris Space Marines. You can only embark upon Repulsor-class tanks and Impulsors."

"Who said so?!" Fushi growled impatiently. Daichi gave him a look, as if to say it was obvious.

"It's in the codex. Lord Commander Guilliman decreed it so. If you have a problem with it, take it up with him. Look, Brother-Captain, I know it's stupid, but I'm not the one who wrote the rules."

Fushi buried his face in his palm, trying not to let his frustration show. "Okay, so what do we do now? I suppose the Intercessors will have to move on foot. But without IFV support and only one Repulsor Executioner..."

"We have Dreadnoughts," Daichi reminded him brightly. "Contemptor Mortis Dreadnoughts with heavy plasma cannons. They'll provide long-range fire support."

"That's good then." Fushi heaved a sigh of relief. "At least we have some...vehicles that can make use of our Flesh is Weak Chapter Tactic...we are Scions of the Forge, after all. But only two Contemptor Dreadnoughts, a Repulsor Executioner and a Razorback...since you're the only squad that can use a Razorback if Primaris Marines are not allowed into them...that's not as many vehicles as I would like to have."

"Oh, we're testing out the new Invictor tactical warsuits today." Tetsuhara gruffly gestured to the corner of the hangar where two humanoid walkers stood. Fushi smiled, the tension easing from his grizzled face.

"Excellent. Just what I want to hear. I believe it would be the phobos armor guys who are piloting them. Let's see how quietly they move on the field, and how they emerge from their concealed positions..." He stopped when he got a better look of the two walkers and his features twisted into a confused scowl. "Wait, what is this?!"

One was certainly the Invictor tactical warsuit, but the other walker was...an Armiger class Knight.

"They are Invictor tactical warsuits," Tetsuhara told him with a straight face.

"No, no, no." Fushi was shaking his head. "I know this one is an Invictor, but the other one, no matter how you look at it, it's an Armiger class Knight. An Armiger Knight Moirax."

"We're proxying it as an Invictor. So for all intents and purposes, we are going to treat it as an Invictor."

"How the hell does that work out?!" Fushi bellowed. "They have completely different weapons!"

"The rad cleanser can be passed off as an incendium cannon, the volkite veuglaire as a heavy bolter and Ironhail heavy stubbers combined, and the Moirax siege claw serves as a good substitute for the Invictor fist."

"That's not what I'm asking!" Fushi was grabbing at his closely cropped scalp in despair. "In what universe do you proxy an Armiger Knight as an Invictor and then pretend they have the same weapons, and everything works out?!"

"Our opponents, the Thousand Sons, say it's okay. Therefore it's okay."

"..."

Fushi gave up. For a second, he suddenly realized that if they were going to proxy, they might as well proxy the Razorbacks as Impulsors. Then they could pretend that everything was all right. However, when he turned back to the other side of the hangar, he only saw one Razorback. The rest had disappeared because his company evidently didn't have the models for them.

Hell, he realized that they couldn't even do a combat drop because they didn't have anything that could represent a Thunderhawk. Oh, wait...they did. That black Citadel figure case in the center of the hangar. Right. They were always calling the Thunderhawk gunships the ultimate flying metal box, but right now it seemed the Emperor wanted to make it literal.

Fushi fumed. Trying to stifle his urge to kick something, he turned his back on his sergeants and sealed his fancy helm in place to conceal his enraged and confounded features.

"Combat drop in five minutes," he ordered impatiently. Sucking in a deep breath to calm himself down, he muttered an oath. "Proxies, stupid transport rules, whatever, deal with them however you see fit, and then we'll drop. Let's kick some Traitor ass. I heard that we're supposed to dominate the meta now."