Chapter 333: Victory and Defeat Decided at Blade's Edge
The Antares Landing Zone was anchored by four major bastions: Tucana, Pavo, Apus, and Centaurus.
Centaurus had fallen early in the war, besieged from four sides. After a brief struggle, it succumbed to the warp-infused warship debris raining from the sky and the endless tide of daemons pouring from it.
The other sectors, bolstered by timely Astartes reinforcements, maintained resistance. Anti-air arrays systematically cleared the falling debris.
However, with the landing zone thoroughly destroyed, resource input for the remaining bastions relied entirely on ground transport—and the miracles of the Primarchs.
In this prolonged offensive, the Iron Warriors finally found a suitable breach.
It was the dawn of the 20th day of the 3rd month, Terra Standard Calendar.
Over the past three hours, the outer defenses of the Pavo Bastion had collapsed.
After nearly half a month of long-range bombardment by siege cannons and daemon engines, combined with concentrated orbital strikes, the void shields finally overloaded, exposing gaps. The enemy swarmed in.
The outer works and the first two concentric walls were lost. Then, in a catastrophic chain reaction, the third wall fell.
The traitor offensive, suddenly intensifying beyond prediction, forced the defenders to contract their perimeter.
The Black Templars holding the line and the Blood Angels launching counter-charges suffered casualties far exceeding previous engagements. Mortal Auxilia lay dead in heaps between them, crushed into bloody pulp by the avalanche of steel grinding against steel.
Thud, thud, thud...
The impact of iron boots on ferrocrete shook the earth, terrifying the very air, sending rubble cascading down.
"Iron Within!"
Warsmith Korvax of the Iron Warriors 2nd Grand Battalion, commanding a full strength Grand Company of one thousand legionaries, breached the battlements of Pavo.
Clad in artificer Cataphractii Terminator armor, he led his Siege Tyrant bodyguards—warriors who had fought by his side for ten thousand years—up the shattered ramparts. He was the first to break through the inner defensive ring that had held them back for so long.
The position was perfect. He could clearly see the rolling tide of iron, spearheaded by daemon engines, spreading from the breach along the Pavo Causeway. The familiar banner of iron and hazard stripes fluttered in the wind, neat ranks of armor reflecting the muzzle flashes of artillery.
"Our name and deeds shall be eternal!"
A roar of fury and victory erupted from his throat.
Glory. This was the glory reclaimed after ten thousand years.
To stand against Primarchs under the command of a Primarch.
He raised his tactical visor, hoping to spot familiar figures among the enemy. But amidst the smoke and the giants clashing in close quarters, he saw nothing but an endless sea of soldiers.
In the distance, the Apus Bastion roared. Massive plasma anti-air cannons spewed bolts of starfire, dismantling falling warships into fragments, then disintegrating the fragments into dust.
Traitor mortals, Dark Mechanicum, Chaos Space Marines—they were storming these impregnable fortresses at the cost of casualties several, even dozens of times higher than the defenders.
How long could such a glorious offensive last?
Doubt rose in Korvax's heart.
Their gains were bought with countless lives. Behind these broken bastions were more fully armed fortresses, and endless Imperial reinforcements arriving from across the galaxy.
Their strength was diminishing, while the Imperium's reinforcements were infinite.
When the losses of the Chaos forces reached a level unacceptable to everyone, this loose alliance would collapse at the first touch.
Whoosh—
A heavy melta blast aimed at him forced Korvax to abandon his unsettling thoughts.
He should focus on his own battlefield.
Looking at the molten metal slag at his feet, Korvax thought.
He had answered the Iron Lord's call, coming from the distant fortress world of Vulkans's Folly in the Tempestus Sector. He responded to this war, ready to display the siegecraft he had honed for ten thousand years. He believed the name and deeds of his Grand Company would be immortalized by this campaign.
And he—
Korvax stepped forward onto the wall.
He would also join the ranks of the glorious as the first to breach the Pavo Bastion under the command of the Great Iron Lord.
"Eternal."
He was just a screw, a cog.
He only needed to fully perform his function in this massive offensive machine, and then enjoy this war that still made his blood boil after ten thousand years.
The rest was not for a Warsmith to worry about.
Korvax looked down.
Iron Warriors and daemons were pouring in through the breach. Mortals and Astartes were mixed together, desperately resisting the assault.
At this moment, on the walls of Pavo, blood flowed like rivers.
This was his masterpiece, the return on ten thousand years of siegecraft!
He had fulfilled Lord Perturabo's command and stood here.
"Eternal!"
Servo-controlled flamers mounted on his massive pauldrons began to spew fire.
Spikes protruded from his forearms and greaves—the heavy siege claws that had helped him scale the steep wall, curved like the talons of a hawk. The power claws extended, poised to strike, then began their deadly dance.
The combi-bolter held in both hands roared, its voice rising above the din of conquest.
Then, a blade grazed his body.
The Black Sword pierced etched plasteel, ceramite, and layered padding.
The power plant encased in an adamantium frame was severed, spraying a shower of sparks.
Coolant lines ruptured; the flamers on his pauldrons began to melt.
Squelch~
The blade drove deep, cutting through ceramite plate, reinforced undersuit, segmented liner, and fragile skin.
It sliced through the fused black carapace, destroyed the implanted organs and spinal cord.
Struck by the sweeping blow, Korvax staggered at the edge of the wall. His chest collapsed inward as viscera spilled from the wound. His combi-bolter fired wildly in all directions as he stumbled, hitting the flying corpses.
Those were the bodies of his Siege Tyrant bodyguards, severed cleanly by the blade.
With a single horizontal slash too fast for the eye to follow, the entire squad of Siege Tyrants was annihilated.
The Knight who had instantly slaughtered the bodyguards swung the Black Sword again.
Korvax fell backward.
His head flew.
His body plummeted.
He tumbled down the steep wall, his bulk knocking other climbers off the rock face.
Blood Angels equipped with heavy jump packs descended from the sky into the smoke below, beginning the slaughter.
His moment of eternity lasted less than a second.
Arthur did not spare a glance for his defeated foe's long fall. He had already turned to face the next opponent.
The Black Sword whipped up a howling golden light around him. In a flash as swift as sunlight, heads were separated from bodies.
Behind him, dense teleportation flares heralded the arrival of the Knights of the Round Table who followed his lead.
In the last moment of fading consciousness, Korvax finally saw something familiar.
Kay, Galahad—warriors and commanders renowned even during the Great Crusade.
Black and red, Cataphractii Terminators bearing the Broken Claw emblem on their pauldrons—the elite of the Order of the Broken Claw, the Dark Angels charged with guarding the Rangdan Xenocides relics.
And Deathwing Terminators, their armor bone-white, wielding heavy plasma weaponry—the Dreadwing Destroyers.
Korvax's face showed excitement. He had always yearned to face the renowned First Legion, yet during the entire Heresy, he had found few opportunities. The Dark Angels seemed to have vanished, rarely appearing on the main battlefields.
Being unable to fight Corswain at the Astronomican had always been a great regret of his life.
And—
And...
On the rampart, chaotic with the beheading of its commander, Korvax finally saw the existence that took his life.
He died without regret.
"Where the Prince's sword points!"
Kay and Gareth raised their swords the instant the Knights of the Round Table materialized.
"There our blades strike!"
The Dark Angels responded, advancing along the opened teleportation corridor.
Beacons deployed, striking from the enemy's rear.
Teleportation flares lit up continuously. Troops that were on the equatorial front moments ago were deployed to the other side of the planet in an instant.
Iron cavalry charged; the enemy panicked.
Heavy Cataphractii Terminators surged forward, unleashing a storm of firepower, blasting holes in the Iron Warriors' formation. Limbs flew like scattered flowers.
Having breached the enemy line, surrounded by foes, victory and defeat would be decided at the edge of the blade.
As the Iron Warriors concentrated their fire, the Knights of the Round Table raised their longswords, the iron halos behind them glowing bright.
"Kill!"
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