Having gotten used to being ensconced within the safety of my Throne Mechanicum, protected by layers of ion shield and thick adamantium-ceramite armor, I feared no enemy. My Knight suit towered over even the largest battle-tanks, reaching about nine meters in height. It wasn't unusual for me to develop a belief in the invincibility of our Knight Lances, and when our massive super-heavy walkers went to war, we literally bestrode the battlefield as gods, above the concerns of the myriad of mortals that dwelled the ground beneath our titanic feet.
But if there was one thing bigger than even our largest Knights, it was the Titans. The god-machines of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and their twisted counterparts who bore fealty to the treacherous Dark Mechanicum, they towered over even our super-heavy mounts. Even their smallest scout variant, the Warhound pattern, was half again as large as my Questoris Knight, and several dozen times heavier.
Unfortunately, what we faced was no mere scout Titan. It was a Warlord. And even as the ground quaked beneath is titanic feet, I saw two of its brethren emerge from around the mountains of scrap that formerly composed of ork Gargants.
Three Warlord Titans. And they were all marching toward the hive city of Augerilla. All three were armed with crackling Arioch power claws, eager to bring such ruthless weapons to bear. One of them leveled its volcano cannon at the hive city and fired. The incendiary beam almost blinded me, and would have if my auxpexes hadn't automatically dimmed it down. There were a massive explosion and one of the void shields glowing over Augerilla blinked out. The other two continued to lumber forward, with the first of them raising its Sunfury plasma annihilator. I shuddered when I recalled how it disintegrated an ork Gargant.
"It's a Myrmidon Maniple, but exclusive to Legio Mortis." Kanda Keisuke's voice crackled over the vox. I glanced back in reflex and saw that his Knight Styrix had picked itself up and was limping toward the edge of the gradually dissipating void shields. "The Death Heads are one of the few titan legions capable of fielding so many Warlord Titans."
"This can't be good," I muttered. Then I shook my head. "How are you doing? You took quite some damage in the previous fight."
"I'll live," Sir Kanda replied tersely. "We don't have a choice. If we don't do anything about those Titans, then none of us will survive."
He was right, but I wasn't able to suppress the dread of witnessing the heretic god-engines close in on us. They were so...massive. This close, they almost filled out my entire visual auspex, blotting out anything I could see.
There was a slight snarl within my Throne Mechanicum, accompanied by ghostly whispers. I shut my eyes and tried to focus. The machine-spirit of my mount, Karyuu, tugged at me through the neural sockets plugged into my cranium. Through our connection, I could feel it bellowing in defiance. Unlike the flesh component, the parts that were steel and machine felt no fear. Karyuu hungered to slay the massive beasts before us, to claim immense glory and honor.
For what was a warrior if he did not fight? What was a warrior worth if he avoided a challenge?
Calm yourself down, I told Karyuu sternly. Taking a deep breath, I tried to impose my will upon the firebrand machine-spirit of my Knight suit. I forced myself to meditate, just like the old master, Ishida Ichiro, instructed. Empty my mind. An unfettered mind. Become one with my sword.
The blade of Karyuu's Reaper chainsword whirred and hummed, and the las-impulsor growled as superheated energies built up within its barrel. I gritted my teeth and focused on the present. I would not shame myself as a warrior by losing control over my mount. The warriors - the bushi of Draconis III were calmed, composed and disciplined fighters who reined in their mounts. We conducted daily meditations and emptied our minds to ensure we wouldn't be dominated by the fiery machine spirits of our Knights suits. By freeing ourselves from our past and our woes, we insulated ourselves from the haunting whispers of the ghosts within our Throne Mechanicum, the spirits of our ancestors, warriors of long times past who left a psychic imprint within the cockpit.
The essence of Zen was to help us fight more efficiently. I would not - could not - allow myself to be inundated by Karyuu's desire to charge at such a monstrous foe. House Yato was known for being the Slayer of Beasts - our yearly cull of the Orochi and perhaps even the dreaded Yamata no Orochi attested to that - and so Karyuu hungered to slay the beastly Warlord Titans advancing toward our position.
Even though I knew it was suicide. I gritted my teeth and reined it in. I was the pilot, the master of this particular machine. I should be controlling it, not allowing it to control me. Well, I say control, but I knew deep down that this was a partnership, a bond between man and machine. I could never command or control Karyuu, not really. We fought as one, with an understanding few could reach. That was also why the warriors of House Yato (and Draconis III) underwent Zen training. To empty our minds so that our own individualism wouldn't suppress the bellicose machine-spirits that inhabited our mounts. We were to work together, not inhibit each other.
Focus, Karyuu, I instructed. I'll give you what you want. We will find a way to slay those god-engines, but if we were to charge at them now, we'll only die. A futile death is worse than failure. It is a dishonor that we cannot recover from. At least if we live our failure, we still have a chance at redemption.
My mount finally calmed down, though I could sense the dissatisfied growl in its plasma reactor. Well, that would have to do.
"Lord Takeda," I said. Takeda Takumi had remained the Daimyo in charge of our Lances. I was obligated to report this to my master. Even after ascended to the ranks of full warrior from bondsman, he had remained my superior.
"I see them, Tomoyuki," Lord Takeda replied gruffly. "I'm mustering all the Knight lances under me right now."
A ping in my auspext told me where to go, and I immediately had my Knight Preceptor lop off in a gallop. The clanking behind me told me that Sir Kanda was right behind, his limping Knight Styrix doing its best to keep up. Beside him was the surviving Armiger Moirax, whose pilot I did not recognize.
Lord Takeda was waiting within his mount, Kensei. It wasn't Ryuugiri, the Questoris Knight Errant that I remembered from the days of my bondsman. Kensei was a Cerastus Knight Lancer chassis, while Ryuugiri had been handed to his son, Takeda Takuya. Takuya was present, commanding a banner of Knights of his own, three Questoris Knights Errant and six Armiger Warglaives. His father led the lance, his honor guard consisting of three other Cerastus Knights Lancer. My Knight was part of another banner under Lord Takeda's lance, along with two other Questoris Knights Preceptor and a handful of Armiger-class Knights tailing us. Our huge banner had split into three groups, with each Knight Preceptor leading an Armiger talon. As I was relatively inexperienced, I did not have any bondsmen to command. Not that I resented it. Sometimes I felt more like a Freeblade, used to operating on my own.
Rounding out the lance was a support banner of two Acastus Knights Porphyrion and a single Dominus Knight Castellan, the Kasan Jigoku, which was piloted by a veteran by the name of Honnouji Hotaru.
I had yet to include the auxiliary lance from House Kanda, a Mechanicus Knight lance featuring rare, exotic suits. Including Sir Kanda Keisuke's Taiyou no Hikari, there were four Questoris Knights Styrix in total. Even though they were rare in the wider Imperium, Draconis IV had produced plenty of the Styrix chassis to serve alongside their native Titan Legion. It was a pity that none of the Dark Dragons was on this planet with us. On the other hand, we had two Cerastus Knights Atrapos, which were designed to destroy enemy engines...such as the Titans we now faced.
However, I was under no illusion that two Knights Atrapos could destroy three Warlord Titans. However, every bit counted. I was glad that we had an additional Mechanicus Knight lance reinforcing us. Apparently the Archmagos Dominus of Draconis IV had forseen this eventuality...though I questioned why they didn't dispatch a Titan then.
"The Astra Militarum are trying frantically to hold the Titans at bay with their Stormblades and Leman Russ Executioner tanks, but they are taking heavy losses," Lord Takeda explained after we had all gathered. "We will need to make a move shortly."
"How do you want to do this?" Sir Honnouji asked cautiously.
"We will charge straight at the Warlord Titans and cut them apart," Sir Takeda Takuya said fiercely.
"As much as I am heartened by your courage, my son, that is sheer recklessness." Lord Takeda sounded simultaneously stern and indulgent. "Remember, there is no honor in foolishly throwing your life away. There is more honor in fighting cleverly and claiming victory for the Emperor."
"You sound like you have a plan." Sir Kanda Kintarou, the warrior who led the Mechanicus lance but deferred to Lord Takeda's overall command, said.
"I do." I could see Lord Takeda's smile through the holo-screen in my visual auspex. "We don't have much time, but here is what we will do."
A few moments later, the Knight Lances emerged from Augerilla, circling around the approaching Warlord Titans while using the scorched heaps of wrecked ork machines as cover. The Stompas and Gargants were huge enough to conceal the silhouettes of our Knights, something I was grateful for. Meanwhile, Lord Takeda had coordinated with the commanders of the Astra Militarum and had the super-heavy Stormblades and conventional tank squadrons pull back.
"Now!"
At Lord Takeda's command, the banner of Questoris Knights Styrix surged forward, their volkite chieorovile spitting ruby beams at the lead Warlord. The towering heretek war engine simply turned around completely unaffected.
Or so the Princeps commanding it thought.
The searing thermal rays of the Knight Styrix's volkite chieoroviles had a special property. They were capable of flaying away the void shields of even a venerable Warlord Titan very quickly. Already the once azure screens of energy were turning into a dull red upon contact from the volkite beams, and then flickering out completely. The Warlord Titan slowly spun around, trying to deal with the relatively immense agility of the fast-moving Knights, who darted around like a kappa escaping from a same in the huge green lakes of Draconis III. They continued to strip the dying void shields of the Warlord Titan even as the heretek engine fired a massive blast of plasma from its Sunfury. One of the Knights vanished, a colossal crater of glowing, red-hot rock left behind in its place. Fortunately, most of the shots had went wide and the surviving three Knights Styrix weaved through the labyrinth of broken ork machines, disappearing from sight.
The Warlord Titan lumbered forward, clenching its Arioch power claw in fury as power crackled through the vicious digits. The daemon dwelling within its heart shrieked, almost causing my ears to bleed. The machine spirit of Karyuu snarled back, resisting the ominous feeling of dread that threatened to worm their way into my Throne Mechanicum. Moans from the ghosts haunting my cockpit blew past my ear, sending chills down my spine, but just as I was taught by Ishida Sensei, I closed them out and subconsciously emptied my mind.
Right now, I had to focus on the present.
The first Warlord Titan tried to pursue the evasive Knights Styrix, but before it could get too far, eight crimson beams seared from the distance and punched into its head. The Warlord Titan staggered for a moment, sparks flying from molten metal that ran in rivulets from its now ruined, misshapen head. I didn't understand how the Princeps and Moderatii had survived. Perhaps they didn't, and the daemonic entity that possesed the once venerable god-machine was still driving it forward despite the mortal wounds it had taken. Or maybe the damned crew had been cursed by whatever foul gods they worshipped beyond the Great Rift, their immolated corpses forcibly reanimated so that they could continue piloting the Warlord despite the excruciating agony they must be experiencing right now.
It made no difference. Seconds after the ferocious bombardment of twin Magna lascannons from the support banner of Acastus Knights Porphyrion, their assault was joined by the volcano lance of the single Dominus Knight Castellan in our lance. Sir Honnouji had fired with impeccable accuracy, the incendiary beam from his devastating weapon striking the head dead center. If the crew hadn't died from the previous attack, they were definitely dead now. A colossal explosion ripped the Warlord Titan apart expelling what was left of its obliterated head. The massive engine stumbled backward before falling onto its back, its plasma annihilator letting loose another blast of defiance. However, its final shot went wide and the superheated matter washed over the shimmering void shields of one of its brethren.
The princeps of the second Warlord Titan was not amused. He shifted the aim of his volcano cannon and fired, obliterating the position of the Acastus Knights. I flinched when I saw the fireball consume their location. Acastus Knights were rare, particularly in the 42nd Millennium. Only the most advanced forge worlds continued to manufacture them, and even then only in small quantities. House Yato was fortunate that we even had a few of them at all.
However, two Acastus Knights and one Questoris Knight for a single Warlord? That was a trade Lord Takeda would take anyday. He was already giving out crisp orders and I subconsciously obeyed, bringing my Knight into position.
There were still two other Warlord Titans storming Augerilla City, and the surviving Knights had all sworn an oath to bring them down.
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