Chapter 43: The Current State of Agathos
The waiting was torture. Intermittent messages returning from Agathos let Lucan know the situation was constantly worsening.
The characteristic of these Chaos cults was their rapid spread. Once the corruption fully metastasized, he would have no choice but to bombard the hive city, even if he didn't want to.
When the last Banshee was produced, Lucan immediately ordered the squadron to depart.
Meanwhile, within the hive city of Agathos…
In the Spire District, at the very tip of the hive.
Planetary Governor Rebecca was in her gubernatorial mansion, directing the loyalist defense efforts.
Looking at the mountain of documents piled on her desk, Rebecca retrieved an injector from a drawer and jabbed it into her neck.
As the neural stimulant flooded her system, Rebecca's exhaustion was swept away. She hadn't slept in ten days, and the effects of these stimulants were becoming progressively weaker.
The news of the Rogue Trader's return had indeed uplifted all the loyalists. At that time, they could look up and see the fleet in orbit. But by the same token, they had also witnessed the planet's own ground defense batteries driving those warships away.
This had cast an even heavier pall over the loyalists' hearts.
Rebecca had never expected this power struggle to escalate into full-blown war. She and her family were not of the Mongorte bloodline; they had joined the Dynasty after its establishment and gained the Rogue Trader's favor.
On the opposing side, however, the leaders attempting to seize power were blood-kin families of the Dynasty. The glorious blood of the Mongorte Dynasty flowed in their veins, yet they had chosen the path of rebellion, even stooping to harness the powers of the Warp.
And precisely because they were families who had existed since the Dynasty's founding, their control and infiltration of Agathos far exceeded Rebecca's imagination.
The moment they decided on an armed coup, it instantly swept through Agathos's various departments. The most devastating blow was to the primary armed force, the Planetary Defence Force.
From the moment the coup began, the armed forces Rebecca could mobilize were reduced by at least half. Over the years of the Dynasty's existence, the rebellious blood-kin families had grown into a behemoth, their numbers terrifyingly large. A great many scions from these families had entered the military and, with the aid of their influence, had become officers, thereby allowing the rebels to control a significant portion of the army.
At present, the loyalist combat forces were divided into four types. First were the former Enforcers, belonging to the Adeptus Arbites. These Enforcers were even more combat-effective than her own Planetary Defence Force units.
Not being part of the Mongorte political system, they had not been infiltrated by the rebels and still maintained their fighting strength. They continued to maintain order here as before and participated in battles when needed.
The second type was the loyalist Planetary Defence Force units, who were also the mainstay of the frontline battles.
The third part consisted of civilians hastily conscripted from among the refugees. These people lacked professional military training and could only take up arms temporarily to join the brutal war.
And the fourth part comprised the clergy of the Imperial Cult, specifically the Church of Saint Drusus.
This branch of the Ecclesiarchy venerated Saint Drusus, a saint blessed by the God-Emperor himself, the great pioneer of the Calixis Sector, the bane of xenos. It was rumored that Saint Drusus's blood was potent enough to banish even a Greater Daemon.
When the internal political struggles within the Dynasty began, the Church personnel had merely been cold observers. They were not under Mongorte jurisdiction and held a transcendent status within the Imperium. As long as one still professed faith in the God-Emperor, who held the right to rule this planet was of no consequence to them.
However, when the armed coup began and heretics who slandered the God-Emperor started appearing among the enemy soldiers, the nature of the conflict changed completely.
Those priests, usually gentle and refined, who spent their days in chapels leading the faithful in prayer, erupted with unimaginable combat prowess when facing heretics. They would not retreat, invoking the God-Emperor's name to drive out all impurity. Although they also suffered considerable losses, they managed to stabilize the situation during the initial chaos of the uprising.
And it was these priests who kept alive the belief among the people that the God-Emperor had not abandoned Agathos.
Within the Ecclesiarchy here, there was also an affiliated Order of Battle Sisters.
This contingent, composed of 100 holy Battle-Sisters, had forgone fortifying the uphive and instead advanced directly into the underhive. They intended to find the source of the Chaos corruption directly and purify it.
Initially, when they left the uphive, contact could still be maintained. But as they delved deeper, Rebecca lost contact with them. She could only pray to the God-Emperor for them.
Since the power struggle began, Rebecca had consciously been secretly stockpiling weapons, food, and various essential supplies. She always prepared for the worst, and it was precisely because of these resources accumulated over the years that she could continue to maintain control of the uphive.
However, as negative emotions constantly built up, various problems also began to emerge continuously. She could only place her hopes in Lucan, this new Rogue Trader, to find a solution.
Compared to the population of the uphive at this time, the vast populations of the underhive, and even the hive bottom, served as a recruitment pool for those traitors. Even if only one percent willingly or forcibly joined Chaos, the numbers would be immense.
Rebecca knew they had no chance of victory in a war of attrition, not just because of the disparity in numbers, but because the enemy was becoming increasingly difficult to deal with and ever more insane.
Psykers from the Astropathic Conclave saw shadows of the Warp beginning to envelop Agathos; a great terror was about to arrive.
Those rebellious families were originally from the uphive; they had been there longer than anyone and were equally familiar with the uphive's various defensive deployments and some of its secret passages.
Meanwhile, in the underhive of Agathos Hive City…
Within the DT-31 factory district.
The factories that once produced various goods for the Dynasty had now been converted into blasphemous workshops of the Dark Mechanicum.
Workers who once worshipped the God-Emperor now lay on operating tables, their eyes rolled back and white.
Even as their bodies were vivisected while alive, life support systems kept them breathing. One by one, Tech-Priests who had pledged themselves to the Dark Gods were modifying their bodies with various heretical technologies.
They seemed to have completely lost their sense of pain, continuously muttering, "For the Final Dawn."
"Dawn, these combat servitors will soon be refitted. In the next offensive, they will assist you in breaking through the defensive lines of those False Emperor worshippers. My Tech-Priests will also continue to control those ground defense batteries to prevent those fleets from approaching!" a Dark Mechanicum priest said.
"You have done well. I will provide you with all resources. There are plenty of living subjects here for modification," another figure replied.
Looking at these humans being transformed, the man known as "Dawn" was very pleased with the work of these Dark Mechanicum Tech-Priests. If not for this group of Tech-Priests helping him seize control of the cannons, and if the Rogue Trader's fleet had actually arrived, the war situation would not be as it was now.
He and these blasphemous Tech-Priests of the Dark Mechanicum merely had a cooperative relationship; they worshipped different Dark Gods.
Originally, these Dark Mechanicum Tech-Priests had only been supplying them with weapons. But just a few days ago, they seemed to have received a divine oracle from the god they worshipped.
They began to throw themselves into this war without reservation, even personally joining the battle. He didn't know the specific reason, but he was happy to see this development.
Just as the two were conferring, a soldier entered.
"Clan Head Valentin, that group of Sisters has attacked another of our outposts!"
"I told you, I am no longer Valentin Mongorte. Address me as Dawn!"
"Forgive… forgive me, Lord Dawn!" The soldier began to tremble with fear. He couldn't help but glance at the profane modification scene nearby and quickly looked away.
Lucan and Rebecca had both been mistaken about one thing: it wasn't that the rebellious blood-kin families were colluding with the cult; these people were the cult itself.
(End of Chapter)