Warhammer: Starting as a Planetary Governor

Chapter 771 - 770: Mortarion: Horus, screw you. Are you targeting me on purpose? You call that a weak point in the line?!

Ooooo...The deep, mournful song of whales echoed through space, carrying endless sorrow and malice.

"Sevenfold blessings protect us!"

Amid the roar of plague daemons, the seven-multiples of rotten void-whales charged straight toward the outer armor of the steel wall under cover of Chaos warships and warp storms.

Blessed by the Chaos Gods, they brought with them Chaos tides that interfered with every orbital strike raining down on them.

The Imperium's macro-shells, torpedoes, and concentrated lance fire all struck the outer warp-veil and were eerily swallowed, shifted away into another dimension.

It was a veil-defense stronger than any void shield, sustained by the Chaos Gods' power extending into the galaxy.

And yet Imperial orbital fire was still too ferocious, like a dense downpour. Even with all the terrifying power of the warp-veils, some of the bombardment still broke through and slammed into the rotten void-whales.

This was realspace. Though the Chaos Gods possessed the authority to twist reality, they could not wholly erase physical law.

As the Chaos line pushed forward, more and more rotten void-whales were destroyed by gunfire and rolled belly-up through space.

Chunks of rotten flesh and the plague daemons inside their bellies spilled into the void, only to be burned away by the intense heat of plasma and lance fire.

But there was no question about it. The Lord of Plagues' herd of corrupted monsters was steadily closing in on the Savior's steel wall.

And that posed a deadly threat.

Under impossible conditions, the Dark Emperor Horus, through extreme micromanagement, had driven the corrupted beasts into the steel wall's defensive zone.

The ruinous viruses and explosive cysts they carried would destroy any metal armor, while also bringing horrifying plagues to every area they touched.

Human life and machinery alike would suffer severe disruption and corrosion from the plague.

That, in turn, would weaken the steel wall's firepower and transform large numbers of human defenders into living corpses, creating an opening for the full assault of the rest of the Chaos host.

"Seventy-seven plague-beasts have reached the designated zone. They are a gift from our great Grandfather to the Savior's defensive line. No one can refuse them..."

Standing atop a rotten void-whale, Mortarion was once again fiddling with his numerology, using it to keep himself calm during this grueling battle.

To make the numbers line up, he had even deliberately thrown away several rotten void-whales, provoking a stream of cursing from Horus, who was exhausting himself directing the battle from the rear.

Fortunately, once Mortarion had hit the right number, he stopped doing it. Otherwise the Dark Emperor probably would have come over in person to beat some sense into his foolish fallen brother.

After that, seventy-seven rotten void-whales endured the close-defense fire from the steel wall's weakest sector and began their final charge.

"Praise Grandfather!"

Mortarion stared at the enormous battle line now so close before him, excitement rising in his chest.

This was the weakest point in the steel wall, selected by Horus. By breaking through this node, they could smash open a breach large enough for the combined Chaos host to attack through.

More importantly, they had already entered close-defense airspace. The steel wall's heavy artillery could do little to them now.

They would destroy the heavy outer armor and the firepower arrays in this sector. That was a settled fact.

"Go, Mortarion. I have shaped the perfect opening. Now it is your time to perform and seize that delicious victory!"

Horus said this with a slightly pale face. The intensity of his micromanagement had drained too much of his energy.

The room was spinning around him.

But no matter what, he had done everything he could to create a perfect attack window for Mortarion.

"After the seventh bell tolls, the defense of this region will fall..."

Hearing that, Mortarion felt even more at ease and gave his promise to the Dark Emperor, that fallen brother of his.

Within the promised time, he would tear a breach into the line ahead, allowing more Chaos armies to invade the steel wall.

Horus had already identified the weak point in the line. If he, the Death Lord, still could not break it, then he truly would be incompetent, and the other fallen brothers would mock him mercilessly.

"A futile struggle."

Mortarion cut off the transmission and turned toward the incoming close-defense barrage, a hint of disdain in his eyes.

This level of defensive attack could no longer threaten him.

The torpedo swarms racing toward him visibly decayed the moment they entered his vicinity, turning into useless scrap drifting in the void.

Invisible plague pathogens corroded everything on them and rendered them inert.

Still not satisfied, Mortarion lifted the giant scythe Silence, its blade rust-eaten and filthy, its chain-teeth polluted and foul.

More importantly, a terrifying plague-entity resided within the weapon, granting it tremendous evil power.

With a light wave of the weapon, he sent forth an unclean miasma in the shape of a blade.

That miasma rapidly expanded, becoming an unnatural energy-cleaver several kilometers long, which destroyed all Imperial firepower in its path before striking the outer armor wall and corroding a deep scar into the metal.

"Savior preserve us!"

The Death Lord's horrifying unnatural power filled the Solar Auxilia on the outer armor line with deep shock and a trace of fear.

They had never imagined that a single strike could inflict such damage on an alloy wall of that scale.

And even worse, with the Death Lord having swept away the close-range anti-air fire along the route, the sevenfold corrupted beasts were closing in even faster.

They showed no sign of stopping.

It was a suicide charge.

"All personnel fall back to secure zones. Repeat, all personnel fall back to secure zones..."

The moment Holmes, commander of the Thirteenth Defense Zone, saw this, he issued the withdrawal order at once.

He knew there was no way this sector could withstand a Chaos suicide strike. Pulling back to reduce casualties was the only sensible choice.

Once that order went out, the Solar Auxilia abandoned the thick metal walls as fast as they could, including the crews manning the large close-defense batteries.

The corrupted beasts were too close to the line. Continuing to fire would accomplish nothing.

Boom!

One rotten void-whale slammed into the outer armor wall of the sector with a mournful wail, shaking the entire battle zone.

"Corrode!"

Then more rotten void-whales smashed into the wall. Their heads burst apart on impact like rotten melons exploding.

Under Holmes's horrified gaze, the pus-like fluids pouring from their bodies flooded over the wall, sweeping away Solar Auxilia troops who had not escaped in time.

By the time those men rose again, they had become abominable living corpses, now part of the plague host.

In an instant, thick smoke rose through the region. Unnatural pus kept spreading, while yellow stinking vapor drifted deep into the defensive line.

The plague-corrosion was so severe that even the sanitation engineering systems struggled to purge it.

Under that dreadful impact, the defensive line along the outer armor wall began to teeter on the edge of collapse.

Then, as if some ritual had been triggered, the corpses of the rotten void-whales that had died in the collision rapidly bloated from gases building inside them, then burst like balloons.

Unnatural putrid fluid gushed out like a tidal wave battering a dam, and the outer armor wall, which had stood kilometers high and dozens of meters thick, rapidly dissolved into a huge cavity.

The filth then surged onward and wrecked more machinery, damaging power conduits and throwing even the most basic lighting systems into chaos, flickering between light and dark.

Darkness was descending.

"Report to Terra command. The outer line of the Thirteenth Defense Zone has been destroyed. We require immediate reinforcement."

Seeing this, Holmes did not hesitate for a second. He immediately sent a request for aid to Terra command.

With only his own forces, holding the position would be nearly impossible.

And just as the Solar Auxilia commander was racked with worry, more rotten void-whales began pushing through the breaches in the outer armor, slamming into the defense platform's firepower arrays.

The attack was utterly ruthless. Hundreds of heavy gun towers were crushed on the spot, after which yellow fog spread through the area, throwing more weapon arrays into disorder and temporarily knocking out their firepower.

The other machinery and communications systems in this war zone were also disrupted to varying degrees.

The plague host had broken through the outer defensive line of the Thirteenth Defense Zone.

That created multiple firepower dead zones in the airspace under its responsibility, allowing more of the combined Chaos host to rush toward the breach.

Without question, the Thirteenth Defense Zone under Holmes's command was taking concentrated fire on a large scale. Chaos had clearly chosen this line as a major breakthrough point.

Not long after the distress call was transmitted, more rotten void-whales descended onto this gigantic defense platform.

Wet wooden planks extended from their bellies to serve as gangways. They looked laughably crude.

Then the plague host began limping down along the planks. The dripping slime and pus even corroded the surrounding metal.

Rust bloomed before the eye.

These were elite armies of the Lord of Plagues, capable of corrupting any region they entered.

Splat.

The swollen foot of a plaguebearer touched the ground of the steel wall's Thirteenth Defense Zone.

One hideous one-horned creature after another lumbered forward, faces grim as they muttered sacred numbers to themselves.

There were fully seven thousand seven hundred and seventy-seven of them, and that was only the force carried by a single rotten void-whale.

These loathsome plaguebearers advanced to the sound of broken, discordant music, gathering speed as they moved.

More plague daemons followed behind. Many did not bother with the wet gangways at all, instead simply hurling themselves down or clawing their way out of slabs of rotten flesh.

Wooo!

A daemon vanguard raised a massive brass tube and blew a harsh, obscure note from it.

The sound was deafening.

Then came the voice of a Great Unclean One from the Seventh Plague Hall of Nurgle, stumbling and stuttering as though even speech were difficult for it.

"Hum... humans have rejected Grandfather's gifts. Disgusting.

Ahem, in the names of chancroid, lymphogranuloma, and inguinal plague-cysts, we march this plague-war."

It scratched itself below, spraying maggots and pus everywhere.

"Lord Mortarion, the one favored by Grandfather has given the order. Before the seventh bell toll ends, we must occupy this region!

We shall grant them every disease and shatter their hope!"

With the Great Unclean One's roar, that plague host surged deeper into the defense platform.

And it was not only them. Other plague armies, again in multiples of seven, were attacking different sectors at the same time.

The combined Chaos host would use the anti-air gap as well to occupy other giant defense platforms.

"The Savior's wall will be undone from within..."

Watching the scene, Mortarion nodded in satisfaction. The campaign to encircle and destroy the False Emperor had reached a key stage.

Once they occupied this gigantic defense platform, they would turn it into plague-territory, while the dark enginseers would move in to corrupt all its machinery and make it part of Chaos.

That would allow them to use the very defense platforms the Savior had built to strike at other key nodes in the steel wall from the inside, wrecking the entire line.

Hummm.

Behind Mortarion, his servants lowered a giant clock into place, and the second bell rang.

With that toll, some invisible force spread outward. Fungus from the abyss began growing through the void and slowly wrapped itself around nearby machinery.

He was seizing control of the platform, extending his own domain into the region.

Of course, this required the plague host's cooperation. They had to establish seven plague-circles at key nodes before a platform hundreds of kilometers long could be fully converted into Chaos territory.

Once that was done, the Chaos Gods could use it to summon even more daemons.

The Death Lord watched the plague-march in the distance, and the fury in the plague-things rising higher and higher.

He could not help smiling, as though he could already see victory.

"Horus, we will finish the great work left undone ten thousand years ago," Mortarion said, a rare burst of spirit surging through him.

"That is the inevitable outcome."

Horus's phantom replied with imperious certainty, then added a reminder:

"Brother, follow the route I marked out. Attack the Imperial weak sectors. That is the only way to gain greater advantage."

The Dark Emperor was still micromanaging, controlling the advance routes of the combined Chaos host in pursuit of final victory.

Everything was proceeding according to plan.

Thirteenth Defense Zone, second line of the giant defense platform.

The plague-march thundered onward. Rot-fly cavalry buzzed everywhere, raiding gun emplacements, while dense human artillery fire tried to halt them.

Splurt.

Corrupt pus smashed into a metal wall, rapidly eating a huge hole through it and exposing the Solar Auxilia logistics personnel behind it.

"By the Savior, we've lost the cover of the line!"

Those logistics workers, suddenly stripped of their barrier, stared blankly at the plague warriors outside.

For one frozen instant, both sides simply looked at each other.

Then fear took over.

The workers dropped ammunition, tools, and weapons, and ran for their lives.

"Humans!"

"Corrupt them. Tear them apart!" a plaguebearer roared, swinging a rotten hammer as he gave the order to attack.

In truth, the plague warriors did not even wait for him to finish. They were already flooding through the gap, chasing after the fleeing humans with savage excitement.

They had endured days of relentless artillery bombardment and were furious beyond measure.

Now, seeing so many living humans before them, they could no longer restrain their desire to kill.

"Rot! Let everything rot!"

The plague warriors caught the slower logistics workers and cut them down with ruined iron swords.

The humans screamed under the torment of disease and slowly transformed into plague-zombies.

But the plague warriors had not pursued them long when they suddenly saw the fleeing logistics workers split apart and scatter to both sides, as if something ahead had blocked the way.

Then the plague warriors saw what lay beyond the horizon.

"Those unplagued bastards!"

At the breach, the plaguebearer muttered a few curses as he watched wave after wave of plague warriors charge inside.

Then he dragged his swollen legs forward, preparing to enter and do some corruption of his own.

But before he could get in, the plague warriors came screaming back out again at even greater speed, scattering in panic and fleeing for their lives.

???

The plaguebearer blinked in confusion and turned to look into the breach.

Then his entire mind went numb.

The golden light nearly blinded him.

What he saw was a dark mass of warriors in shining auramite armor slaughtering plague-creatures in great swathes, every strike taking several plague-lives at once.

It was all golden giants, unstoppable.

Custodians. So many, so many sevenfold Custodians of the Cursed One.

The plaguebearer could not understand it.

Was this not the palace? And hadn't Lord Mortarion said this was a weak point in the line? Then why were there so many Custodians here?!

He did not have time to think any further. Twisting his huge backside, he fled with the rest of the plague-things, terrified of being left behind.

This place was impossible to hold. A Custodian force of this scale was not something they could fight.

"For the Emperor!"

It was not long before that plaguebearer, along with much of the plague host, was swallowed by the Custodians.

Cries of misery filled the air.

???

When Mortarion received the report, his face turned greenish-blue. The plague armies sent to assault the supposed weak sectors had been completely annihilated.

The garrison in that region consisted entirely of Custodians, numbering in the thousands, and beyond that, they had even more elite Space Marines fighting alongside them.

That was a weak sector?

That was practically the most core defensive position in the entire steel wall. He had charged straight into the heart of the line.

He turned and demanded an answer from Horus, his voice rough with anger.

"What exactly is going on? Are you certain we chose the easiest section of the line to break?!"

So much for micromanagement. This was the result?

More importantly, the Imperium seemed to have far more Custodians than the reports had ever claimed, not merely twenty thousand.

Otherwise there was no way to explain how they could appear simultaneously across so many sectors.

Horus fell silent in the face of all this, a cold sweat breaking out on him.

He had thought of another problem.

And Mortarion had thought of it as well.

If the weak sector was guarded by Custodians, then what about the sectors that were not so weak?

Before he could react, a vast crimson mushroom cloud rose in the distance. The shockwave rolled toward them and blew Mortarion's hood back off his head.

The two fallen primarchs sank into a deep silence.

Horus looked half-stunned.

This was getting bad.

"No... Typhus..."

Mortarion's whole body trembled. His most capable gene-son, Typhus, was gone.

And the army Typhus had commanded no longer existed either. That had been the most elite force within the Death Guard.

Mortarion's face grew even greener, and he exploded in fury.

"My elites. Horus, damn you to hell!"

(End of Chapter)

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