The second Warlord bellowed with both its warhorns and weaponry. Clusters of deadly projectiles streaked from its carapace Apocalypse missile launchers, shearing ork wrecks apart with violent detonations. The Imperial Knights using the hulking scrap as cover staggered from the shockwaves, but their ion shields held firm.
However, I knew our ion shields wouldn't be able to withstand even a glancing blow from the monster's volcano cannon.
Despite the overwhelming advantage in range, the Warlord Titan closed in on us, barging aside a slumped Gargant scrap in the process. Its Arioch power claw was raised, crackling with destructive energies, as it attempted to hunt down the Questoris Knights Styrix that had contributed to the destruction of its brother engine.
That turned out to be another trap. Weaving through the skyscrapers of twisted metal, the two Cerastus Knights Atrapos crashed into its back, their graviton singularity cannons spitting out dark, exotic energies. Miniature black holes appeared to consume the void shields of the Warlord Titan, folding adamantium and blasting out chunks of ceramite. However, the Warlord Titan was barely scratched by those powerful energies, clumsily whirling around to face this new threat. Both Knights Atrapos nimbly darted about, keeping to the back of the Warlord Titan even as they closed the distance. Their Atrapos lascutter flared to life, intense beams of thermal lasers slicing through the armor plating of the Warlord Titan and causing it to stagger.
Eventually, the Warlord Titan managed to turn its bulk around. Lashing out with its Arioch power claw, even as the two Knights Atrapos continued to hack away at exposed cabling and unveil the massive engine's Achilles heel, it seized one of the Knights. The power field exploded as it crushed the poor Knight suit, crumpling layers of thick adamantium and ceramite into chips.
The sacrifice of the warrior was not in vain, for the other scions of House Yato chose that moment to strike. Leading his personal court, Lord Takeda Takumi and his fellow nobles - all of whom piloted the venerable Cerastus Knights Lancer - plunged into the back of the distracted Warlord Titan, their shock lances discharging volatile energies. For a moment, it appeared that the Warlord Titan had received quite the jolt, stumbling as the Knights continued to hammer away with their fearsome melee weapons. The surviving Knight Atrapos, piloted by Sir Kanda Kintarou, continued to cut through the Warlord Titan's leg and cabling with his Atrapos lascutter, his lean and ominous suit showered by sparks and embers.
The third and last Warlord Titan lumbered forward in order to assist its brother Titan, its carapace Vulcan mega-bolters stitching up a line of destruction along the crowded battlefield and toppling over ork effigies. Its macro-gatling blaster shrieked as it hurled titanic shells at the Cerastus Knights. However, the projectiles detonated harmlessly against the void shields of its brother Titan. The Knights had cleverly snuck under the shimmering aegis to strike at the Titan's vulnerable parts, much like a swarm of sharks using their speed and maneuverability to attack a much larger kujira or whale's softer underbelly while using its immense size as shelter from other supermassive predators. Even those the Ardex-defensor cannons mounted upon the Warlord Titan's rear fired, their relatively minor beams - which were meant to take out conventional tanks and infantry swarming the legs of the Titan - dissipated harmlessly against the flared ion shields of the Cerastus Knights.
Once again, I recalled how we Knights of Draconis III were often called upon to exterminate the bake-kujira that dwelled within the depths of our homeworld's oceans. Come to think of it, they were also about the size of a Titan. Often, we would have our Knight suits wade into the shore during high tides to battle these beasts as they lashed out at coastal cities, particularly those that depended on fishing for a living. Draconis III was known for its seafood exports throughout the segmentum.
Whatever the case, the third Warlord Titan would not stand idle while its heretic brethren was suffering. It also approached, its Arioch power claw extended.
That was when we sprang the trap.
The three surviving Knights Styrix wove out of the labyrinth and fired from the side, their volkite beams flaying away its void shields. The third Warlord Titan swung about, its macro gatling blaster still howling as it chewed up broken ork constructs. Its Vulcan mega-bolters halted, for it was a waste of ammunition to keep them firing. Fortunately for us, the Titan's carapace weapons could only fire toward its front arc, a weakness that Lord Takeda planned to exploit when he hatched this stratagem.
The Knights Styrix continued to draw the third Warlord Titan's attention, the thermal rays of their volkite chieoroviles continuing to strip the massive engine of its shields. The heretek engine was not without its fangs, however. Its macro-gatling cannon relentlessly bellowed and two of the Knights Styrix vanished in a cloud of detonating shells. Sir Kanda Keisuke, the sole survivor, was forced to break off, disappearing behind another blasphemous ork effigy. The already wrecked Stompa was then blown apart by the roaring Vulcan mega-bolters.
However, they had already achieved what they had set out to do. The last layers of the Warlord Titan's void shields flickered out and died, exposing the super-heavy engine to open air once more.
Sir Honnouji didn't waste the opportunity the Knights Styrix bought him. His volcano lance flared, the incendiary beam searing the air before landing a direct hit on the Warlord Titan's corrupted torso. Rivulets of red-hot metal dripped from the gouge in its body as it staggered, but it was simply a scratch. Its warhorns snarling, the daemonic entity that possessed the blasphemous engine spun around to fire its macro-gatling cannon in the direction of Sir Honnouji's Knight suit and forcing him to duck.
Once again, the Dominus Knight Castellan only proved to be a distraction. Sir Takeda Takuya's banner of Knights Errant emerged from hiding, their thermal cannons opening up. Melta beams corched the back of the Warlord Titan's torso, a coordinated strike that ripped a hole clean through the weakened metal. The Titan staggered, having sustained critical damage. Its reactor leaked plasma, shrouding the wounded engine in smoke. Once again, it roared in defiance, swinging around to face the new Knight banner, only to take another glancing hit from Sir Honnouji's volcano lance.
It wasn't just us Knights. A squadron of Stormblades had joined in, their plasma blastguns spitting Titan-killing blobs of plasma. More armor plating glowed hot and liquefied from the sheer heat, the Titan stumbling about in its last death throes.
However, the job wasn't done yet. Not just yet. While both Titans fought and took more lives of the noble warriors who did their very best to take them down, reinforcements emerged from an unexpected quarter.
I was first alerted to this by the machine-spirit of Karyuu. It snarled and tugged at my senses, forcing us to swivel away in a direction opposite the Warlord Titans. I glanced at the augur arrays, but came up with nothing.
"What's wrong?" I asked quietly. Karyuu snarled and continued to pull, almost as if it wanted to head in another direction. I wasn't very sure if I should indulge it because I would be disobeying the Daimyo's orders. However, Karyuu was rarely wrong, if ever. If it thought there was an enemy there, then it was most likely worth checking out.
Taking a deep breath, I scanned the area with my augur arrays, but the auspex came up with nothing. Nonetheless, I felt compelled to check the place out. When I moved my mount, the machine-spirit of Karyuu finally eased up.
"Sir Tanaka, where do you think you're going?"
Honda Haruka, who also piloted a Knight Preceptor, spoke up in slight annoyance. I swallowed and thumbed the button for the vox.
"Karyuu senses something. I'm checking it out. It might be an enemy."
There was a pause before Sir Honda relented. "You might be right. Yato no Tsuurugi is also restless. It is telling me that there's something out there. But all augur scans turn up empty. I thought it might be nemy Secutarii, but..."
Now that he mentioned it, we had seen no sign of the twisted, corrupted cyborgs that served as the skitarii guards for Legio Mortis. Usually a Titan Legion would be escorted by Secutarii, elite skitarii infantry that marched in their wake and cleared out enemies too beneath the notice of such towering god-engines.
Their absence unnerved me. Karyuu especially didn't like it and it was trying to warn me of something. Even though Lord Takeda's stratagem was paying off and we would finally destroy the Titans of Legio Mortis - albeit at great cost - there was still something gnawing at me. Not just the anxious machine-spirit of Karyuu, but something else.
It was almost as if Karyuu had recognized the presence of an ancient foe.
Then the Shogun's words came back to me and I flinched, my connection with Karyuu flaring up through my neural sockets. My mount hummed its approval when it sensed my enlightenment. As for me, I felt more dread than pride at being right.
"House Malinax."
"What?" Sir Honda snapped, his voice tense. "Where?"
"I don't know. But they are out here. Karyuu can feel them. They are somewhere out here. Watching us, even."
There. A shadow. I wasn't sure if I had seen it correctly - it could have been a ghost on my visual auspex, but I thought I saw something flitting behind one of the hulking ork constructs.
"I see something." A bondsman, piloting one of the Armigers Warglaive, reported. What was his name? Suzuki? "It's fast...and huge."
Then with a howl, something smashed past the destroyed shell of an ork Stompa to charge at us. Clad in the gray and ochre colors of House Malinax, the corrupted engine bellowed as it charged toward us, its reaper chainsword whirring and its Thunderstrike gauntlet crackling.
"Contact!" Sir Honda yelled, already moving Yato no Tsurugi into position to intercept the crazed Knight Rampager. He first fired a high intensity blast from his las-impulsor, which flared brightly against the Knight Rampager's sickly glowing ion shield. Even so, it was slowed by the shot, its movements hampered as volatile energies engulfed it. Thanks to that, Sir Honda was able to parry its rusting Reaper chainsword while sidestepping a swing from its Thunderstrike gauntlet.
War Dogs loped from behind mishappen pieces of ork vehicles, their autocannons or thermal lances firing. Our House's Armiger Knights surged forward, vengeance on their lips, their chain cleavers revving. House Yato and House Malinax had been sworn enemies from before I could remember. Most warriors of our House probably were unaware for the reason for our deep-sated resentment against House Malinax, but I had managed to access a sequestered historical archive that dated back to the Great Heresy.
Even though most of the information had been redacted and banned from my contemporaries, from what I could gather, our grudge stemmed from a single battle...in a world called Prospero. It was strange, for I couldn't find any other mention of Prospero in Draconis III's archives or data systems. It was a planet that had been struck off all Imperial records, apparently. For reasons unknown, though I had my suspicions. From what I could piece together, Prospero was the former homeworld of a Traitor Legion. The Thousand Sons. Once a loyal Legion of the Emperor, my ancestors used to fight alongside them. We had a strong bond, especially since it was the Thousand Sons who brought us into the fold of the Imperium during the Great Crusade. Details were sketchy, but eventually their Primarch, Magnus, had committed some sort of crime and the Emperor called for him to be arrested. He sent the Adeptus Custodes, the Sisters of Silence and the entire legion of the Space Wolves to bring Magnus back in chains, but for some reason they decided to raze Prospero too. Being staunch allies of the Thousand Sons, House Yato had pledged their support and fielded several lances to protect Prospero from invaders. There, my ancestors (or rather, the ancestors of the current House Yato) had fought against the corrupted scions of House Malinax, with each of them accusing the other of being traitors. The result of the battle wasn't clear, and I had no idea what befell the fate of those warriors who fought for Prospero, for they had simply been struck off the records.
There were a few mentions of House Yato sending lances to fight House Malinax in the Beta-Garmon system, as well as during the defense of the palace of Terra when Horus Lupercal attacked the Imperial homeworld. House Malinax had revealed their true colors during those acts of treachery, and ever since then House Yato and its many branches had sworn to destroy them.
And now we had our chance.
I staggered back as a colossal beam of light slammed against my ion shield, collapsing a layer. A Knight Desecrator was loping toward me, its skull-like helm in a permanent snarl that was almost organic. I faced down the predatory machine and unleashed my las-impulsor, my fingers twitching within my haptic gloves. My opponent tried to dodge, but several of its ion shields blew out and sparks flew from its laser destructor. Apparnetly I had succeeded in taking out its arm weapon.
Not that it mattered much. The screaming Kight Desecrator slammed into me, intent on drawing me into close combat. Its crackling Thunderstrike gauntlet snatched at me, but I swatted it away with my Reaper chainsword.
All around me, terse voices of warriors and bondsmen spoke over the vox, reporting engagements. There were at least five Questoris-class Knights, three of them Despoiler-class and wielding an assortment of weapons. Six War Dogs. In contrast, we only had three Questoris Knights Preceptor and ten Armiger-class Knights to hold them off.
"Hold them off for as long as you can," Lord Takeda commanded. The dying wail of a Warlord Titan drowned out his next words as the Cerastus Knights finally finished it off. They had taken off a leg from the Warlord Titan and it crashed down, secondary explosions rocking its body and blowing its weapons apart. The Cerastus Knights strode away, getting clear before the heretek engine could go nuclear. "We will come to your aid..."
They didn't get a chance. A fresh banner of Cerastus Knights lunged from behind the broken form of a Gargant, all clad in the colors of House Malinax. Two Knights Castigator and two Knights Acheron. The bolts of the former hammered into the ion gauntlet shields of the Knights Lancer, to no avail, while blazing promethium from the latter washed over them, turning the battlefield into a sea of fire.
Sir Kanda Kintarou didn't wait, his Atrapos lascutter slicing through one of the Knights Acheron before it could bring its Reaper chainfist to bear. The super-heavy walker staggered, and retaliated with another tide of flames. Sir Kanda unleashed another miniature black hole that tored the entire arm of the Knight Acheron off and detonated the promethium tanks, engulfing the engine in fire. Its immolated figure staggered for a moment before it fell.
Then the Knights Lancer and Knights Castigator clashed, the shock lances blazing azure as they traded blows with the eerily glowing Tempest warblades.
I wasn't able to see much of their battle for I was embroiled in a melee of my own. Swinging my Reaper chainsword, I batted away the Knight Desecrator's Thunderstrike gauntlet. In my peripheral vision, I caught sight of an Armiger Warglaive hacking away at a War Dog with its Reaper chain-cleaver, galvanized by my presence, whereas the latter was moving with smooth precision. No doubt the poor thrall had been enslaved by the pilot of the Knight Desecrator, his Helm Mechanicum overriden by the latter's Throne Mechanicum.
I would probably be doing him a favor by freeing him.
Parrying the Knight Desecrator's gauntlet with my blade, I plunged my las-impulsor into my opponent's chest and opened fire at pointblank range. The laser tore through the armor plating and blew out the Throne Mechanicum. For a moment, the Knight Desecrator slumped, its power draining away as it died. I then stabbed the limp Knight Desecrator with my Reaper chainsword, obliterating the pilot and finishing him off. Kicking the Knight Desecrator off, I then moved to aid my fellow warriors. With the death of his master, the pilot of the War Dog found himself overwhelmed by the bondsman beside me. Suzuki deftly moved to the side before carving his mount's Reaper chain-cleaver through the exposed side of the corrupted war machine, shearing off its melee weapon.
Satisfied that Suzuki had the battle well in hand, I was about to depart...only to feel a chill run down my back. Karyuu was warning me of something...that something was amiss. That I shouldn't turn my back on my dead enemy.
Pivoting about, I spun to face the dead form of the Knight Desecrator. Only that it wasn't exactly dead. The daemonic entity that possessed its figure had forcibly brought the corrupted machine back to its feet, its mechanical joints twisting in unnatural shapes. Organic substances wove over adamantium, almost seeeming to have the texture of flesh. The claw-tipped Thunderstrike gauntlet of the Knight Desecrator, already resembling talons of a predator, took on a more horrifying shape, growing right before my eyes. Its obliterated laser destructor had bent and distorted to turn into a bone-like lance, its tip sharp and edges serrated. The red glow of its ruined helm came back to life, the broken visage distorting to turn into a monstrous maw with half-metal, half-organic fangs.
And in the gaping hole of the daemon knight's chest, where the pilot had once been, a beating daemonic heart now filled the smoking wreck of the Throne Mechanicum, made from flesh and fire.
With a roar, the daemon knight charged at me.
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