Chapter 28 – The Fall of Warsmith Baldarun
The manufactorum shook with the dull echo of distant detonations. Dust sifted down from the high gantries, settling over the broken halls like a pale fog. The air was thick with the tang of burning promethium and scorched steel. Somewhere deep in the fortress, Baldarun's warriors regrouped, their heavy boots pounding like drums on the metal floors.
But they were already too late.
Captain Gaius of the Ultramarines stood at the head of his brothers, his armor scorched but unyielding, his power sword mag-locked to his thigh, bolter steady in his hands. His visor swept over the chamber gates ahead, thick adamantine reinforced with layers of Iron Warriors' craftsmanship. Any frontal assault would bleed them dry. He knew Baldarun was counting on it.
"Plant charges," Gaius ordered, voice calm over the vox.
Without hesitation, his squad split into pairs, moving with silent efficiency. Melta bombs were placed at weak points in the surrounding structure, not the gate itself. Pipes, supports, and reinforcing struts, all marked and primed.
Minutes later, explosions rolled like thunder. Walls buckled, floors split, and entire sections of the fortress groaned as breaches opened in unexpected places. The Iron Warriors had prepared kill zones at the gates, but no enemy came. Instead, Ultramarines poured through new wounds in the manufactorum's skin, firing from angles the defenders had not foreseen.
The once-united eighty Iron Warriors were scattered, dragged into smaller firefights where they could no longer bring their full strength to bear.
From above, Tony let out a low whistle. "That's… clever. He's not walking into Baldarun's trap, he's tearing it apart."
Naruto grinned, leaning forward. "Heh! Outsmarted them. That's what I'm talking about!"
Bolter fire shook the halls. The Ultramarines advanced in perfect lines, each step measured, each burst of fire precise. Frag grenades bounced across the floor, detonating in sharp flashes that drove traitors from cover. Those who broke from their barricades were cut down in disciplined volleys.
The Iron Warriors, once feared for their relentless sieges, were forced to fight piecemeal. Their furious charges found only steel walls of bolter fire.
In one barricaded hall, traitors fired from behind rusted plates of steel welded into crude bulwarks. The Ultramarines did not storm the defenses. Two stepped forward with flamers, unleashing roaring torrents of fire. Promethium washed over the barricades, flushing the Iron Warriors out in panicked screams. They stumbled into the open, where disciplined bolters cut them down before they could even raise their weapons.
The squad moved on. No cheers. No wasted words.
Naruto frowned, jaw tight. "…That's rough. But… I guess there's no other way, huh?"
The fortress groaned as more melta charges detonated. Corridors collapsed behind retreating traitors, cutting them off from their brothers. What had once been a unified force of eighty now fought in broken knots of ten or less. Trapped in dead ends, they were turned into targets.
Grenades thundered. Flamers roared. Every pocket of resistance was erased.
Tony spoke again, voice quieter this time. "That's not just force. That's experienced. They've fought sieges like this a hundred times."
Mindy hugged her arms to her chest. "…And they don't hesitate. Not even once."
Close quarters came soon after. In the choking smoke of the manufactorum's ruined halls, Ultramarines met Iron Warriors face-to-face. Chainswords screamed as they bit into ceramite, bolter pistols flared at point-blank range. But even here, where rage and brute strength might have overwhelmed lesser men, the Ultramarines did not break formation.
They fought in pairs. One parried while the other struck, one fired while the other advanced. No Marine stood alone. The Iron Warriors, driven by fury, were cut down one by one in the cold precision of brotherhood.
Naruto clenched his fists as he watched. "That's it. Watch each other's backs. Don't let them take you down!" though he shouted, only the other members of the chat can hear it and Gaius.
By the time the Ultramarines pressed deeper into the manufactorum's core, the Iron Warriors were broken. From Baldarun's eighty, fewer than twenty remained, clustered in desperation near the central forge. They fought with the madness of cornered beasts, but there was no hope left.
Flamers lit the chamber in pillars of fire, grenades bursting overhead, bolters hammering like a storm. One by one, the traitors fell, until silence swallowed the forge.
The last gun fell quiet. Smoke drifted. The Ultramarines stood among the dead.
Only Baldarun remained.
The doors to the central chamber groaned open.
Warsmith Baldarun stood in the heart of his forge, towering amidst machinery and burning furnaces. His armor was blackened iron, striped with hazard yellow, a chainfist whirring on one arm and a combi-bolter glowing with heat on the other. The light of the forge fires painted his form in hellish colors, his presence a storm of fury and hate.
"You think you've won, son of Guilliman?" Baldarun's voice boomed, distorted through vox-grilles. "I am iron. I am unbroken. I am Perturabo's will made flesh!"
Gaius stepped forward. His bolter lowered, mag-locked to his side. Slowly, he drew his power sword, its edge sparking with caged lightning.
"You are a heretic," he said, voice steady. "And heretic meets the Emperor's Wrath."
The Warsmith roared and charged.
The chamber exploded into violence. Baldarun's chainfist cleaved through a steel column, sparks showering as the pillar collapsed. His blows came like thunder, each one strong enough to smash tanks to ruin.
Gaius met him not with brute force, but with discipline. He sidestepped the first strike, his blade flashing, scoring deep cuts along Baldarun's chestplate. Sparks danced from the wound.
The Warsmith bellowed and swung again, forcing Gaius back step by step. Each strike rattled the floor, the sound of grinding servos and tearing steel filling the chamber. Baldarun fought with raw rage, but Gaius did not falter. His movements were precise, controlled, each step taken with purpose.
Naruto's voice rang out, raw and loud: "Come on, Gaius! Don't back down! You've got this!"
Baldarun lunged, chainfist slamming down. Gaius shifted aside, the blow shattering the floor where he had stood. He struck again, his sword biting through the hazard-striped armor, deeper this time, cutting into the flesh beneath.
The Warsmith roared, staggering, but still he pressed on. His combi-bolter blazed, bolts slamming into the walls. His chainfist carved a wide arc, catching only air as Gaius turned, calm even under the storm.
Then came the moment.
Baldarun swung wide, his chainfist burying itself in a pillar of machinery, lodged deep. The Warsmith struggled to wrench it free.
Gaius did not hesitate.
He surged forward, power sword thrusting straight into the exposed gap in Baldarun's chest. The blade pierced ceramite, flesh, and bone, its crackling edge bursting through the Warsmith's back.
Baldarun's roar broke into a choked gasp. His eyes widened, disbelief flickering in them. "Impossible… I am… iron…"
Gaius twisted the blade, his reply calm, final. "Iron rusts. Duty does not."
The Warsmith staggered, then collapsed, crashing to the floor with the weight of a fallen giant. His chainfist stilled, his forge fell silent.
The Ultramarines stepped into the chamber one by one, their armor scarred, their weapons smoking. They gathered around their captain, eyes turning to the fallen Warsmith. For a moment, none spoke.
Then Gaius withdrew his blade, its edge glowing faintly in the dim light. His voice came over the vox, calm and unwavering.
"The mission For the Helisar-IV: Forge-world, is now completed."
Yet unseen by eyes, the warp shifted. Something vast and cunning reached through the veil, its whispers curling toward Captain Gaius like talons seeking to claim a prize. But before they could touch him, a brilliance unlike any light, flared. Golden light swept across the darkness, unyielding, sovereign. The shadow recoiled, shrieking in silence, scattered like ash before a storm. For in that moment, the giant massive Sun's gaze was upon His son as well.
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