Chapter Text
Chapter 20
-Tanya-
-897 M30-
Like most military operations I participated in during my second life, we struck at zero hour with overwhelming fire power.
The first round of artillery shells serving to break the orks fortress open, and then we stormed in from different angles, most from the four different cardinals directions as my legionnaires and Fulgrim’s stormed the place, others from hidden tunnels that once were metro lines, and fewer even from the very sky as storm birds got close enough to drop troops in conjunction to drop pods raining from the sky like steel rain.
Before knowing what truly were the orks, I would’ve just argued that we orbital bombed them to smithereens, whatever industry that the orks pillaged was so little and so technological inferior that the loss would be inconsequential, but then as I heard more about the orks I realized that that would be impossible, the only true way to end an ork Waaagh was to go the the frontlines and slay it personally, preferably with a melee weapon.
It was clear that Being X wanted me to suffer by making it so that even with a high ranking position such as Primarch where I led one of the 18 spears that this Impeerium used to destroy its enemies, I still had to be in the frontlines, damn you Being X!
Memories of my conversation with Fulgrim flashed around my eyes as I waited for the right moment to slay the warboss at the petition of my superior, Fulgrim, in many ways he was right, and once we finish this I’ll be off to make some changes.
Either way, right now I was in a stormbird, my honour guard was also here in terminator armor, ready to just jump from five kilometers into the middle of a military camp full of enemies that wished to kill me, overall total battle maniac behaviour, but with a fake smile, I turned to them and shouted.
“Ave dominus nox!” I said before putting my helmet on, a war cry that was reciprocated by my companions who then themselves put on their helmets like instructed before we jumped all together towards the fortress.
Tsk, what a bunch of battle maniacs.
-Sor’k Oyo-
I saw some of the big humies approach, especially those dressed in the colours of midnight, they were here before, stalking through our defenses and watching for weak points, I let them be, this was going to be the biggest fight ever since we came to this planet on the rock, the humies here whilst initially strong and willing to fight thanks to both the spiritual guidance of their leaders and some of their battle stims, now just served as wild game or cattle.
But now these big humies arrived, and I knew that we were going to taste defeat, they were too much for us to handle, but for an ork, defeat whilst fighting is not defeat, it's still winning!
So I shouted to the biggest of humies to catch her attention so that I may win, even in defeat.
“Oy, ya big humie, show Sor’k Oyo here whaz zat shiny shovel of yourz iz made of!” I shouted at the big humie, my eyes met with her own helmeted ones, and she uttered a single word with utter calm.
“No”
She said and quicker than what I could’ve ever processed, she took her big shoota and fired at me.
A true volley of bullets came my way, exploding as they impacted my body, my fungal flesh tearing apart till only my head remained.
“You, cheated” I said in my last moments at the injustice, I wanted to die fighting, not like this!
The only response that I had was her boot stomping on my head, ending me forever.
-Malcharion-
I did not know what I was expecting, perhaps an epic climax as my primarch fought valiantly against the xeno horror.
But rather than any of that, she just lazily took her bolter, took aim against the ork, uttered a single word and fired away.
It was… Anticlimatic, especially if we considered Fulgrim's own extravagance, but it was efficient, that much I could say.
And so, we moved on, the resulting chaos due to the slaying of the warboss could already be felt, as orks fought themselves, and their weapons failed more as the waagh field diminished.
But before continuing I heard one of the local soldiers say something in their local dialect.
“Ils sont fous ces impériaux!” The soldier said before shooting again at an approaching ork.
-Fulgrim-
I crossed blades with one of the ork’s lieutenant, as terran steel met ork steel, the result was obvious before the clash happened, the terran steel won and the ork was bisected, quickly another ork showed up, swinging his sword in a 270 degrees angles, but in doing so he left his arms exposed which I quickly took advantage of as my blade crafted by my dear Ferrus cut trough that damnable alien.
I took a queen’s guard once again, my blade shining both metaphorically and in reality ready to slay some more enemies, but as I approached the next one, I saw the orks fighting one against the other and smiled at what it meant.
“My sons, Tanya has slain the warboss, lets not get behind” I shouted to my sons, it wasn't really that big of an achievement most primarchs, and elite space marines have killed warbosses before, but the fact it was her first still filled me with pride.
“Children of the Emperor, Death to his foes!" A shout from my sons resonated as we continued our noble task of killing these orks.
-Evangelyne-
I stood in front of a fat man for a lack of a better suited descriptor.
Despite his excess of fat he wasn't morbidly obese, but rather was the result of a sedentary life combined with the occasional high society party that offered plenty of food.
If anything the man in front of me was quite handsome, penetrating brown eyes, a strong jaw and hair the colour of the night, overall he was without a doubt the perfect example of the new merchant class that my queen, I mean Tanya, took so much effort into creating.
He also was one of those merchants that were part of the agreement that Tanya did with the emperor, allowing the people of Nostramo to do business more easily across the stars and not be held down by the various regulations.
“And that is my business plan, any questions?” The man said with a smile as the holo-projector stopped working, exposing the data in a visual manner, leaving the room darker than before.
I did have questions of course, but those were not of the nature of the IRR or ROI, but rather if whatever from an ethical point of view I should accept his proposition.
Once I decided to go along with her in that great crusade of hers, it was quickly determined that I was going to be the one responsible for dealing with what happened next to planets.
In paper that was to bring them into the imperial truth, uplift them into current technology amongst many other hallowed responsibilities.
What was left unspoken was the fact that I was also supposed to insert first Nostromian enterprises, deport into Nostramo proper all of the highly skilled workers in a phenomenon Tanya once described as ‘brain drain’ and import all abhumans already native to Nostramo based on some genetic markers.
Right now agreeing with the merchant plan would mean that the entire population and culture of this planet would be erased, as enterprises would demolish anything that they deemed unprofitable.
Of course they would also get access to all the privileges that come with working with an Nostramian enterprise such as liveable wages that left enough for luxuries, something that unfortunately wasn't common in this imperium.
Overall, I would be trading their culture for physical well being… A worthy trade off all things considered, after all physical needs were below psychological needs in that pyramid of needs that Tanya once created, and so with that in mind I answered the man.
“Of course, I think it's a very good idea, let's discuss more about it with other entrepreneurs that had the same idea at a later established date!” I smiled and he smiled back. None of us were truly happy, the merchant unhappy that he would have to concur, and I wasn't that happy about the ethical cost of this new operation, but in the professional world, a smile could go a long way.
As he step out of my office, I let my eternal scowl come back, I wonder if my family would be proud of what I became or they would be disgusted at the fact that destroying entire cultures was just the usual tuesday for me, it didn't help that lately Tanya wasn't as warm as she used to be, now most of our interactions being purely professional and short as we both now had so many more responsibilities to attend to.
With a last look at a framed photo at my desk portraying my family as it used to be, all happy despite the misery, I did not regret my choice of not jumping from that building, but I wouldn't lie that in my darkest of times when I was alone, I anew craved the freedom that it could give me from all of these conundrums.