V3 Chapter 47: I Hope None of You Disappoint Me and Lord Guilliman
Duvette's notice of the pre-campaign strategy council quickly spread through the Macragge's Honour and the surrounding fleet.
Generals from every Astra Militarum battle group, Astartes Chapter Masters, captains, and Chapter representatives, noble representatives of the Knight houses, Archmagi from the various forge worlds, and the Abbess of the Battle Sisters were all summoned to a large strategic command centre aboard the Macragge's Honour.
Duvette arrived ahead of everyone.
This strategic command centre resembled an enclosed war hall more than an ordinary bridge. At its centre hung a massive twin-world hologram, Vulcantia and Cereris projected in mid-air, surrounded by a great many hovering red markers.
Duvette stood before the hologram, hands clasped behind his back, eyes closed, waiting.
He had attended a great many pre-campaign councils of this scale before. Every time in the past, he had sat below, watching senior officers argue among themselves before Warmaster Slaydo, waiting for a final order to come down.
But this time, he stood at the front.
One after another, the sound of hatches opening came in sequence.
Attendees arrived one after another from their respective vessels. Astra Militarum generals came with their staff officers, Astartes representatives filed in silently, Knight house nobles wore elaborate finery, Mechanicus Archmagi were trailed by data-servants, and the Abbess of the Order of the Sacred Rose entered the hall under the escort of several Battle Sisters.
When some of the mortal senior officers looked at Duvette, their expressions shifted briefly.
For a moment, they seemed to glimpse another shadow behind the young Commissar. It was the sense of order Guilliman left behind him, calm, oppressive, like a campaign map already laid out in full.
Only when the last set of footsteps came to a stop did Duvette slowly open his eyes.
He looked around the room.
Generals, Chapter Masters, captains, Knight nobles, Archmagi, and the Abbess were all fixed on him. Many of them held enough standing that an ordinary Astra Militarum officer would have bowed low and trembled with tension in their presence. Duvette merely gave a short laugh.
"You've all been waiting long enough."
His voice carried through the hall's vox-amplification array.
"So as not to delay the crusade, this council will now begin."
He raised a hand and gestured toward the hologram.
The image of Vulcantia immediately enlarged, its equatorial foundry belt stained a fractured red.
"Vulcantia first."
Duvette said.
"This world's star port and the upper structures of all five space elevators are destroyed. We cannot rely on those facilities for landing. Xenos fighters and ground-based anti-air installations remain active in low orbit, along the upper atmosphere, and across the ash wastes. Large xenos forces are also present in the deep subsurface."
Within the hologram, several mine shafts, the edges of the scrap seas, and the ash plains were marked out.
"The enemy struck from underground, bypassing Vulcantia's strongest perimeter defence network and tearing the foundry belt open from within. The Chief Fabricator-General is missing, and is currently suspected to have been assassinated. What still resists now is primarily Primary Foundry Sector One, the area around the main furnace, and a handful of subsidiary defence zones."
Next, the image of Cereris enlarged.
Vast tracts of agricultural land had turned grey, and the markers for the water network and climate towers flickered continuously.
"Cereris is equally dangerous. The Governor's estate has lost contact. Two granary cities and one large water purification reservoir are still holding. Most of the climate towers have fallen, control of the water network is nearly lost, and the local PDF and agricultural militia have suffered heavy casualties."
Duvette paused briefly.
"This is where we stand. Both worlds are in extreme peril."
He looked around the hall.
"So from here on, I want every one of you to listen closely to each strategic assignment I give. I hope you will not disappoint me, or Lord Guilliman."
When those words landed, several representatives in the hall frowned.
Placing himself and Guilliman in the same sentence did make some present uncomfortable. But Guilliman himself had granted him overall command of the ground campaign, so no one spoke up to object.
Duvette gave them no time to dwell on it.
"Deployment of forces is as follows."
He swept a hand across the hologram, and a dense cluster of blue markers appeared over Vulcantia at once.
"The 112th Combat Cluster, along with the remaining six combat groups, Triplex Phall's forge-world combat forces, the Victory Legion's Titan formations, companies and strike groups from three designated Astartes Chapters, part of the Knight houses, and the majority of the Order of the Sacred Rose's Battle Sisters will commit to the Vulcantia axis."
His finger then shifted toward Cereris.
"The remaining combat groups, rapid-reaction forces, the Ultramar Auxilia, Astartes companies, part of the Knights, and airborne and mechanised units will go to Cereris."
Several staff officers in the hall began recording rapidly.
"Vulcantia is the decisive battlefield."
Duvette said.
"The enemy's primary silence source, control systems, and highest-value structures are concentrated there. Once we destroy or seal off most of the core nodes, this system's communication suppression and its xenos fighter deployment network will both suffer critical damage."
He turned his head toward the other side.
"But Cereris is equally critical. It holds the granaries, the water sources, and the climate control infrastructure."
Duvette projected several subsurface markers.
"According to the intelligence we've gathered, Cereris also has xenos transfer devices and a secondary silence source underground. Should the situation at Vulcantia turn against the enemy, they will very likely redistribute forces to Cereris through fixed phase nodes. So the objective for the Cereris theatre is clear: hold the granaries and the water reservoir, and destroy the underground transfer devices."
When he finished, he switched to a brief overview chart of Necron unit types.
"Next, points of caution for engaging the Necrons."
"This comes from Archmagos Belisarius Cawl's long experience dealing with these xenos, gathered across ten thousand years of ceaselessly working to recover ancient human knowledge and lost technology. He passed this to me, and I hope you will place your trust in an Archmagos of Mars with ten thousand years of accumulated knowledge."
Many in the hall grew visibly serious, and several of the Mechanicus attendees could not help letting out a few binaric phrases, urging Duvette on.
Duvette said little more. He gave a nod and began his account.
"First. The enemy possesses a range of powerful weapons: particle weapons capable of firing streams of antimatter particles, arc weapons that discharge living lightning, and so on. Their most common units carry weapons called gauss flayers, which unmake defences at the molecular level. Do not stand and trade blows with them, and do not judge them by your past experience fighting Chaos traitors or Orks."
"Second. These xenos maintain a specialised assassination unit, dedicated to killing high-value personnel. They can shift position rapidly through some form of pocket dimension, and may open fire in places you believe to be safe. You must constantly confirm the security of every angle and corner around you."
Several Astra Militarum generals exchanged glances.
Duvette continued, "Third. When you encounter a large, high-threat target, you are forbidden from charging in on your own initiative. Notify the Titan Legion, the Knight houses, or the fleet in orbit immediately. Any target the Titans can smash, do not spend infantry lives to fill the gap. It accomplishes nothing."
He looked around at everyone.
"Also, do not advance blindly. All large-scale operations must wait for my theatre command to issue an operational window. Any uncoordinated push will disrupt fleet fire support, Titan advances, the landing, and the rhythm of my command."
That line drew slight head-raises from several Astartes representatives.
Duvette did not avoid their gaze.
"I know all of you are among the Imperium's sharpest weapons. But this campaign is not short of courage. What it lacks is the correct order of advance."
Next, he began assigning detailed tasks to each combat unit.
All combat clusters were assigned the first wave of ground advances across every direction once Vulcantia's primary landing window opened.
The Triplex Phall Skitarii forces were tasked with reconnecting the surviving forge facilities, restarting the anti-air data-link, and confirming the location of the silence-mineral structure nodes.
The Victory Legion's Titan formations would serve as the heavy breakthrough force, destroying exposed obelisks and underground lift-shafts across the ash wastes and scrap seas.
The Astartes strike groups were tasked with rapid decapitation strikes and destroying the fixed phase nodes.
The Knight houses were tasked with guarding the Titans' flanks, and supporting the 112th's assault group in clearing heavy constructs.
What Duvette gave the greatest weight to, however, was the Battle Sisters.
He looked to the Abbess of the Order of the Sacred Rose.
"Abbess, I need your Sisters distributed throughout the mortal forces."
The Abbess raised her head.
"Give your order, Marshal-Commissar."
"The enemy possesses a form of silence technology. Ordinary soldiers who remain in that field too long lose discipline, judgement, and sense of self. They grow sluggish, or turn to frenzy. In severe cases, only instinctive reaction remains."
Duvette held the Abbess's gaze and continued.
"I need your Sisters to lead the mortal forces in the charge, and I also need them to sustain faith along the defence lines, at the casualty evacuation points, around the standards, and at the landing beachheads. Their devotion, their prayers, their fury and their war cries will keep ordinary soldiers able to understand orders and able to keep pulling the trigger."
Several representatives in the council chamber wore complicated expressions.
Some Astra Militarum officers disliked the framing, and the Mechanicus priests plainly had little interest in the judgement that faith could sustain combat effectiveness.
But the Abbess was clearly gratified.
She pressed a hand to the holy seal on her chest.
"The Order of the Sacred Rose will be their torch. So long as the Emperor's name is still called out, the mortal line will not break easily."
Duvette gave a nod.
"Good. Your numbers are limited, so they will be assigned to the positions most likely to break. The primary assault axis at Vulcantia takes the majority. Cereris's granaries and water reservoir will each retain one detachment."
Having said this, he felt a measure of ease settle in.
Soul of the Legion should offer some measure of resistance against it.
But he could not gamble everything on himself alone. The Battle Sisters were an insurance policy, and that insurance had to be in place.
Finally, Duvette switched to a model of Vulcantia's low orbit and the ash wastes.
"Next is the first phase before landing."
Everyone looked to the hologram.
"Both worlds are covered by the enemy's high-velocity fighters. These xenos craft are extremely fast, their manoeuvres far exceeding what any Imperial pilot could endure. They have no need to engage us directly. Simply by continuing to strike landing craft, transport pods, and anti-air installations, they can make the formal landing extremely costly."
He raised a hand and circled several grey zones.
"Most of the enemy's structures are hidden underground, in the scrap seas, across the ash plains, and within the restricted mine zones. We cannot currently confirm all their positions."
"So the first wave will not be a landing."
Duvette's tone grew heavier.
"The first wave is a feint."
He enlarged the deployment sequence.
"Unmanned transport pods, servo-probes, decoy landing craft, false landing beacons, discarded cargo containers, and a small number of scout craft will enter the atmosphere disguised as a large-scale landing sequence. Their task is not to seize ground. It is to force the xenos fighters, ground anti-air installations, subsurface deployment ports, and silence structures to reveal themselves."
Across the hologram, lines of orbital fire fell one after another from the fleet's position toward the ash plains.
"Once coordinates are confirmed, Lord Guilliman will authorise the fleet to carry out orbital strikes."
Duvette looked toward the Archmagos of Triplex Phall.
"The equatorial foundry belt, the main furnace zone, and any facilities still holding loyal garrisons are excluded from the strike range. The xenos structures across the ash plains, the scrap seas, the restricted mine zones, and confirmed abandoned areas will be cleared by fleet fire."
The Archmagos did not object.
"Once the orbital strike is complete, the second wave will be the true landing. At that point, your forces will enter the atmosphere, establish a beachhead, and advance toward Primary Foundry Sector One, the main furnace zone, and the subsurface objectives."
Duvette collapsed part of the hologram.
He looked, finally, at everyone present.
"Prepare your forces."
He paused briefly.
"For the Emperor. For mankind. All of you, prepare for battle."
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