In the Fourth month of 869, the Legions had established their footholds in the mountains and begun brutal siege warfare.
The Legio Gryphonicus had enthusiastically answered the call of their ally, Nareth, committing to the battle.
In Sector S-4, a Warlord Titan and two Reavers advanced along cleared paths.
Glasner, princeps of the Warlord Titan Silver Sovereign, felt the machine-spirit's yearning for glory.
Though the Legio Gryphonicus had already lost fourteen Warlords and thirty-five Reavers, he felt no fear.
He longed to avenge the Legion against the xenos in battle, and to win glory.
Within the cockpit, linked via the mind impulse unit, Glasner felt the machine-spirit's desire.
"Silver Sovereign, you and I shall walk together."
"This may be our final battle. We shall water every sacred metal with xenos blood."
"Princeps, sensors have acquired a target." The voice of the senior operations officer sounded, and Glasner immediately focused outward.
"Calculate firing solution."
"Solution calculated."
"Fire!"
At his command, the light intensity on the Silver Sovereign's arm cannons spiked rapidly.
Scarlet beams lanced out, striking a pig-like xeno Overlord.
Its personal energy shield shattered instantly. The xenos evaporated.
Arcs of lightning leaped from the heads of countless pig-like creatures, streaking towards the Titan.
Like a power plant core being breached, the crackling detonations erupted against its void shields.
"Suppressing fire!" At Glasner's command, the Reaver on the left fired its Apocalypse missiles.
One salvo equaled the full firepower of a standard Imperial artillery battery, slamming into the xenos positions.
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!
A sea of fire tore through hundreds of pig-like xenos. Blood rained down.
The Titans strode forward through the flames. The roar of golden griffins tore through the lingering mist, vortexes swallowing the enemy in waves.
BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!
A piercing alarm echoed in the cockpit. The Silver Sovereign lurched.
"Plasma reactor damaged. Power output reduced to 83.5%."
Hearing the senior operator's report, Glasner said angrily.
"Cunning xenos. They know our weaknesses."
"I'll deal with it personally." Glasner felt the machine-spirit's fury.
"Princeps, we've lost the sensor systems."
The seasoned princeps quickly found a solution.
"Compile the targeting servitors' fields of view."
"Executing. Compiling targeting servitor fields of view..."
"Compilation complete."
The data stream flooded into Glasner's mind via the mind impulse unit, forming an image on his retina.
Glasner moved his left arm. The Silver Sovereign's arm followed.
A blinding beam lanced out, striking a Osseivore.
Three of the Osseivore's arms blazed with searing beams, screaming towards the Titan.
The dazzling light echoed between the two giants.
The Silver Sovereign shuddered, threatening to fall.
But it did not fall. It advanced with unwavering steps towards the xenos.
Withstanding the beam assault, the Silver Sovereign's power claw blazed with dazzling blue light.
"Die!"
The Silver Sovereign's claw shrieked, tearing through the personal energy shield, then struck again at the flowerbed-like crown.
The smoke-blackened Silver Sovereign lurched. The senior operator nervously activated the gyroscopic stabilizers.
The blackened giant steadied after a moment of rocking.
"Princeps, we've won."
The senior operator turned as he spoke, seeing Princeps Glasner's pale face and the blood at his lips.
With the Titan damaged, the feedback through the mind impulse unit had also injured Princeps Glasner.
"Silver Sovereign will triumph. Glory to the Griffon."
As Glasner declared victory, tripod walkers from the 2nd Chapter advanced through Operational Zone C-11.
Wilshere observed the new tripod walkers. They were vastly different from the Gardinaal versions.
During the Vicious Sector campaign, all captured Gardinaal walkers had been thrown into battle.
The pilots within their 'coffins' had burned out their final sparks of life, killing forty-six Osseivores and countless other xenos.
Techmarines had collected combat data.
Though time was short, the Master of the Forge had completed the Black Emperor's primary task for him, improving the cockpit.
The cramped, dark cockpit had been expanded, allowing the pilot to exist within as a human.
With the cockpit expansion, the current tripod walkers were now the size of Warhound Titans.
Power systems were now required to allocate more energy to life support and other functions, resulting in slightly reduced firepower compared to equivalent Titans.
But the pilots' lifespans were also effectively extended. They were no longer short-lived gene-castes.
A major advantage over Titan crews was that, thanks to the Gardinaal gene-caste technology, the first generation of pilots, freed from slavery, could rapidly acquire piloting skills from their genetic heritage.
Training time was drastically reduced, far shorter than the average training time for Titan crew members.
Gardinaal's production lines, refitted and fully utilized, with eleven worlds operating at full capacity, provided robust support, enabling the construction of sixty-one walkers in five years.
Wilshere watched twenty walkers navigate the mountains. Their tripod structure made them more agile and stable than Warhound Titans.
A blinding flash erupted in his vision. A tripod walker was pierced by three beams.
There had been no time for brand-new improvements on these experimental walkers. They had not attempted to use Knight-scale plasma shields or Squat void-shield technology, let alone miniaturized void shields.
They had no defense systems, only the mature energy weapon systems the Gardinaal had developed.
The tripod walkers twisted, their energy beams shifting rapidly.
Blazing beams lanced out, raining down on the Osseivore.
CRACK, CRACK, CRACK!
Amidst a series of cracks, the expanding energy shockwave tore through the xenos around the Osseivore, vaporizing the mountain rock to ash.
Another tripod walker crumbled to ash as the group launched their second salvo.
Energy beams screamed, slamming into the Osseivore's head and upper body.
Eighteen glowing holes appeared in its tree-like form.
The light rapidly spread across the Osseivore's body. Its green form melted away.
Wilshere watched the metal arm crash heavily to the ground, thinking to himself.
'The new tripod walker experiment was a success.'
Other Legions lack the capability for large-scale production of similar weapons to counter the Osseivores.'
'The Mechanicum's Warlord Titans achieve less than a one-to-one exchange ratio against Osseivores. Over thirty Titan Legions have already been destroyed.'
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