Plan before you act

Humming a tune over his meal, with an hour left until arrival, Deika, the Chapter Master bound for the Taste System, was suddenly summoned back to the command room by the communications officer. Then he heard the absurd news.

His first reaction was, This has to be fake.

The rebel worlds of Taste have formed an alliance, huh?

The rebel army is asking us, the Imperium's Astartes, for help, huh??

They need help because an enormous Chaos Fleet attacked them, huh???

How could this godforsaken backwater have such a huge concentration of Chaos Space Marines?

If things really are as you say, are you another Atris?

We sort out your trouble, and you join us?

What do you take us for? What do you think we do??? (At the top of his lungs.)

Right. That is exactly what we do.

The Imperium's Space Marines needed no reason to fight Chaos.

Deika promptly placed an astropathic call to the Shadow Blades and Storm Will. Brothers, there was a big job waiting. Were they ready for their souls to return to the Emperor's throne?

As a son of Jaghatai Khan, Deika's keen instincts told him this was probably true. He immediately summoned every department to a meeting. The company captains, Chief Apothecary, Techmarine, and Grand Master of the Librarians all attended.

"That's the situation. Let's hear it, everyone. What do we do?"

"I believe it's true. I seem to sense an immense Warp threat approaching our Chapter." The Grand Master of the Librarians spoke first. With his capacity for foresight through Psyker Power, he had effectively confirmed the authenticity of the interstellar transmission.

"Interesting. Really interesting. The more I hear, the more ridiculous it sounds, and the more I believe it." The Sixth Company captain, the Chapter's renowned berserker, was already itching for action.

"I think we should stop farther out and scout first."

"Agreed. Send the frigates ahead."

"Leaving aside their battleships and Strike Cruisers, with three barges, shouldn't we estimate their strength at a thousand men at least?" Astartes did not count mortals among their enemies. The enemies they meant were the loathsome traitors to the Emperor, those foul renegade Astartes.

"But the transmission said two of their Battle Barges were practically half blown apart. Surely we can assume substantial casualties? I suggest counting each damaged Battle Barge as having lost half its complement. Around six hundred would be reasonable."

"That seems risky. I still favor planning for a thousand enemies. When can the Shadow Venom Blade Chapter arrive? We need support."

"They said over the vox that they could be here in two hours."

The Shadow Venom Blade Chapter had really struck it rich lately.

First, they had successfully "withheld" the Storm Will Chapter's supplies. Then they had received a Battle Barge for free. In high spirits, they went cruising around, fighting Xenos, and stumbled upon a high-gravity planet. Its Xenos looked like long strings of boulders come to life. They were incredibly hard and excelled at burrowing.

The Shadow Venom Blade Chapter captured one and discovered that every material in its body was exceptionally hard-perfect for making weapons. They immediately contacted the Adeptus Mechanicus. After a ten-day voyage, the Mechanicus arrived and were delighted by what they found. How could they not turn somewhere this good into a high-gravity forge planet? The kind where you could step outside and pick up raw materials!

They stopped worrying about whether a Chapter on a Penitent Crusade could receive supplies and signed a contract on the spot. Once the crusade was over, the Chapter would send men to serve as guards and catch those long strings of rocks. In return, the Mechanicus would provide supplies, starting right now.

And so, with another enormous stockpile of ammunition in hand, the Shadow Venom Blade Chapter's confidence soared. Though they had only a little over two hundred Astartes left, who were they? A successor Chapter of the Iron Hands. Give them enough ammunition, and they would blow even the Eye of Terror apart. (The newly rich really were getting cocky.)

The moment they heard the Green Templars calling for help, they set off without hesitation. The Green Templars were their brothers-good, honest fellows!

Hang on. They would be there in three hours.

When Storm Will heard the news, they thought things looked dicey. This did not sound like an easy battle, and the enemy would be no pushover. The Green Templars and Shadow Blades probably could not hold them off. They had to help. They still owed the Green Templars a favor, after all.

The Green Templars' estimate was still too optimistic. Skaro, Storm Will's current Chapter Master and former Second Company captain, thought their calculations were wrong. Putting himself in the enemy's position, their own three Chapters also had three Battle Barges and several Strike Cruisers. How many men did they have? Before fighting the Orks, they had numbered sixteen hundred.

No, that was not safe enough. They needed more help. If there was no one left in Segmentum Pacificus, they would call the closest Chapter in neighboring Segmentum Obscurus. That seemed to be the Dawn Angels, a successor Chapter of the Blood Angels.

The Dawn Angels answered the request for support, but the distance meant they would need almost a week and a half to arrive.

Skaro counted up his forces. With the Battle Barge they had just acquired from a Forge World, plus their own Strike Cruiser and Battle Barge, they could provide a respectable reinforcement fleet.

The Storm Will Chapter had just signed a contract at Stolov, a Forge World of the Adeptus Mechanicus. They would first receive one Battle Barge, available immediately, followed within a century by two more Battle Barges, eight Strike Cruisers, and all standard supplies, including ammunition, promethium, and other consumables.

They had signed the most common kind of multiparty contract. Since no one knew whether a Chapter would still exist a century later, anyone who signed on the spot-including the Chief Librarian, Chapter Master, chief recruit instructor, Techmarine, every company captain, Chief Apothecary, and so on-could come to collect. That also included anyone subsequently appointed in person by those individuals.

They had never seen such fervor from the Adeptus Mechanicus. News of a nearly intact, hundred-and-fifty-meter ancient Aeldari ship spread like wildfire across the Forge World of Stolov. Leading Magi, priests, clerics, and ordained ministers from every field rapidly converged on the area, almost bringing the whole of Candlelight Planet to a standstill. The Mechanicus bishop had no choice but to declare the area off-limits, stipulating that each district could send only five percent of its senior leadership during any given time slot. That shifted all the conflict into the individual districts, where people argued furiously over places in the first visiting delegation.

Storm Will had initially made an utterly shameless demand for five Battle Barges and three Strike Cruisers. But the Forge World simply could not muster enough materials to build that many Battle Barges, so they relaxed their demands to three Battle Barges and several additional Strike Cruisers.

Storm Will's Chief Librarian established direct contact with the Green Templars' Chief Librarian using Psyker Power. This would greatly shorten the time needed for Storm Will to rendezvous with the Green Templars, bringing it down to just five hours.

Meanwhile, because the Green Templars' Chief Librarian had diverted some Psyker Power to contact Storm Will, their own arrival time increased from one hour to two.

As for the rebel coalition on Planet Three... they would have to fend for themselves. They were not citizens of the Imperium anyway.

The Green Templars were now under full mobilization orders. Every Astartes and member of the Imperialis Militia sprang into action.

In the armory, the members of Fourth Company's Third Squad were thoroughly dejected. They had lost the drawing of lots and would not get to conduct reconnaissance in roaring space fighters-or go joyriding.

The good news was that Squad Leader William had not performed his deadly tangle of armaments this time.

"When facing Chaos warriors, everyone must remember that they are superhuman soldiers just like us. Though they may lose their reason, the Warp they worship enhances their bodily functions and greatly increases their resistance to Psyker Power. Be careful of the enemy Librarians during battle. Their psychic attacks are more powerful than those of our ordinary Librarians."

"Choose your weapons freely. Remember, the enemy are Chaos Astartes."

Evan chose a modified Bolter. It used a drum rather than a magazine, greatly increasing how long it could sustain fire before reloading. Previously, this design had been too heavy even for Astartes, reducing firing accuracy, so few had chosen it.

Now that becoming a Primaris Astartes had greatly enhanced his physique, Evan could handle the weapon reasonably well.

Evan had also changed the bolts loaded into it, choosing Vengeance Bolts designed for fighting Chaos Space Marines. These bolts had a degree of "fluxing" capability, allowing them to penetrate enemy Power Armour even more deeply than Kraken Penetrators. However, certain technical flaws made them highly prone to overheating a Bolter during sustained fire.

Evan mixed Vengeance Bolts with Kraken Penetrators in the drum, greatly reducing the overheating problem.

Then Evan successfully inherited William's bad habit and began tinkering with his firearms. This time, he had his eye on an Ion Pistol. In normal firing mode, the weapon could only inflict effective damage on Power Armour, but with an overcharged shot, whether it could blast an Astartes to death depended on how tough the target was. Even against Ranger-pattern Terminator armour, one shot followed by Vengeance Bolts could inflict effective damage, provided he scored a headshot. But after an overcharged shot, a Plasma Pistol needed a long recovery period. Forcing it to fire again would make it explode.

Their faithful little strap bound the two guns together. The Plasma Pistol had no magazine, relying instead on a plasma reservoir above the weapon, so it could be mounted neatly atop the drum. And just like that, an armour-piercing gun specialized for killing Chaos Space Marines was ready. He also set the Plasma Pistol to fire only overcharged shots, sparing himself the trouble of merely scratching his targets.

With such a heavy firearm equipped, he chose a relatively light Power Sword as his other weapon for close combat.

Unlike Shi Zhengxiang, who now had a pistol tucked at his waist and was holding a Power Axe, polishing it.

Fourth Company's position was far from safe. They were aboard the ancient Strike Cruiser Blessed Forest, and their main targets were the two heavy cruisers. But those cruisers would most likely be guarding their damaged Battle Barges. As Evan and the others closed in, they would therefore face not only the heavy cruisers' attacks, but possibly covering fire from the Battle Barges as well.

To guard against the unexpected, Evan embraced the fine tradition of his great nation—eating. Eating like his life depended on it. Better to die with a full stomach than go hungry.

The Green Templars emerged into the dark void far from the Taste System. Using their sublight engines to "skip stones" along the light-speed threshold, they rapidly approached Planet Six. Reconnaissance craft of every kind had already dispersed to scout the system.

Whatever else one might say, they were professionals at this sort of thing.

The Green Templars' Battle Barge and Strike Cruiser slipped behind the wrecks of two battleships. Even they were deeply shocked by the carnage before them.

From their position all the way to Planet Three, the corpses of battleships, cruisers, and frigates lay thickly scattered. Fragments of every description floated everywhere through space.

Deika's face twisted into a cold sneer.

"Hmph. These preparations were meant for me, weren't they?"

Of course they were. Who would set up such an enormous ambush here for no reason? Whether a Chaos Fleet would arrive was anyone's guess, but Atris's transmission of thanks had been broadcast over the frequency bands. These rebel planets had probably heard it and panicked.

The forward reconnaissance craft reported that the Chaos Fleet had indeed suffered heavy damage. Everything in the earlier interstellar message was true. The enemy might be followers of Khorne, and the scouts were closing in for a closer look.

The reconnaissance craft threaded their way past the wrecks of various frigates. Most had had their reactors blown apart, while a smaller number had had their command compartments completely destroyed-the hallmarks of Astartes boarding tactics.

The reconnaissance craft quietly slipped onto the dark side of Planet Four to scout at close range. They discovered that one enemy heavy cruiser was bombarding Planet Three furiously, while the other three Battle Barges seemed to have launched a surprise attack on Taste II. One heavy cruiser stood guard around the Battle Barges.

It seemed their enraged enemies wanted a great slaughter to vent their fury.

"This is an excellent opportunity. We can find a way to ambush that lone heavy cruiser at Planet Three and destroy it first." Deika was holding a tactical meeting as he watched the footage transmitted by the reconnaissance craft.

To be fair, Florisi had trained this intake of recruits exceptionally well. The reconnaissance mission was proceeding smoothly.

These recruits had taken Evan as their role model and sworn to surpass his records as a recruit. Every day, they chattered about how they had beaten this record and were just short of that one, so they needed to work harder.

Deika could not help marveling. Evan not only had the makings of a champion, but the potential to become a Chapter Master as well.

"Because they're approaching along a different route, the Shadow Blades may emerge into open space without wrecks to conceal them. That will make hiding their presence difficult, so I suggest we launch our surprise attack the instant they appear."

Normally, the sons of the White Scars excelled at forcing their way through enemy lines in a sudden assault and cutting down the enemy leadership. But against Chaos Space Marines, unless it was someone like Abaddon who had brought different legions together, enemies belonging to the same faction would not immediately collapse even if their leader was beheaded.

It was just like when the Storm Will Chapter Master had been blasted into critical condition by the Gork Dreadnought, and the Second Company captain had swiftly assumed acting command and continued fighting.

"We'll ambush the heavy cruiser at Planet Three first, then tie down their Battle Barges. Once Storm Will arrives, we won't just rout them. We'll wipe them out."

The Green Templars' Strike Cruiser would advance behind the Battle Barge to reach the heavy cruiser's flank. The Battle Barge would open fire first to destroy its defensive turrets, then the Strike Cruiser would launch a boarding action. The Battle Barge would not board, instead charging straight toward the enemies at Planet Two. Meanwhile, the Shadow Blades' Battle Barge and Strike Cruiser would attack the enemy from another direction. Both forces only needed to keep the enemy occupied for two hours until Storm Will reached the battlefield, after which they could swiftly surround and annihilate them.

Pushing the wrecks of two battleships ahead of them, the Green Templars' Battle Barge and Strike Cruiser stealthily slipped behind Planet Five. Then, switching to the wrecks of two heavy cruisers, they slowly approached Planet Four.

Reconnaissance craft roamed through space. The enemy's security screen seemed inadequate, or perhaps they had simply paid it no attention.

That was normal enough. When you arrived in a godforsaken star system, suddenly came under attack by a powerful force, and then wiped it out, would you really expect fresh enemies to appear in such a desolate place?

As for that astropathic message, hmph. It was no different from praying to the False Emperor before dying. Would it help? No.

Suddenly, a powerful Warp disturbance erupted in the empty void, and the Shadow Venom Blade Chapter's Battle Barge charged out of the Warp portal at the head of the fleet.

The Chaos Space Marines quickly spotted them. Those on Planet Two rapidly assembled and were transported back to their Battle Barges, while the two heavy cruisers immediately changed course and charged toward the Shadow Blades' warships.

As the enemy heavy cruiser at Planet Three turned away, the Green Templars' fleet swiftly burst out and began bombarding it. Though their long-range firepower fell short of conventional cruisers and battleships, it was enough to delay the enemy.

The enemy fleet seemed momentarily stunned, as though unable to understand how two ships had suddenly appeared here.

The enemy commander reacted swiftly. Every ship at Planet Two headed straight for the Shadow Venom Blade Chapter.

So you like trading bases? I'll destroy your exposed Strike Cruiser and Battle Barge first, and have the heavy cruiser at Planet Three hold your other fleet in place. Then you'll definitely suffer greater losses.

However, after one shot from the Green Templars' Battle Barge's bombardment cannon overloaded the enemy's Void Shield, and its Macro-cannon arrays exchanged a volley with the opposing ship, it sailed straight past and charged toward Planet Two.

They intended to catch the enemy between themselves and the Shadow Venom Blade Chapter. Both sides would conduct a running ship-to-ship bombardment, retreating when the enemy advanced and advancing when the enemy retreated. They would keep the range beyond boarding distance and await the Storm Will Chapter's arrival.

Evan entered an assault pod. The front of this specialized crewed assault craft housed a powerful melta weapon that could instantly breach an enemy ship's outer hull and carry them inside.

The assault pod also seated ten. This time, two battle-brothers from Third Company had joined the squad, leaving no empty seats.

With a faint mechanical sound, the Astartes' assault pod detached from the Blessed Forest. After a brief glide, it began accelerating.

The enemy's remaining point-defense guns tried desperately to stop them, only to be swiftly reduced to space debris by Starhawk Bombers.

The powerful melta burned through the enemy hull, successfully delivering the deadly guests to the table of a bloody banquet.