Thus Did The Imperium of Mankind Fight There

Part 10 The Battle for Arnus Hill

Arik Taranis came barreling out of the Gate with his son Ghota just behind him. The first thing he noticed about the other side, was that it was night when they'd left Terra during the middle of the day. Unsurprising, the chances of a planet, even those viable for human habitations, having the same day and night cycle as the Throneworld were nearly nonexistent. 

Although he'd forgone the use of a helmet, an informal tradition among the Imperial military's upper echelons, his superhuman senses more than compensated for his lack of night vision equipment. 

Ahead, he could see an army of xenos and humans that matched the one that'd stepped foot on Terra, only larger in size. He quickly estimated that the enemy numbered at least a hundred thousand. 

Author's note: The troop numbers in Gate, like 40k, don't make sense, it's stated that the deaths of something like 120,000 soldiers through and around the Gate were 60% of the Saderan Empire's strength. This doesn't make sense when you consider that the Roman army numbered 500,000 at its largest, it's complete rubbish when you factor in the lore that states the Saderan Empire was as large as the Mongol Empire which was six times larger than the Roman Empire was at its height. That is why I'm taking the creative liberty here to drastically increase the numbers from the original lore of several thousand to more than a hundred thousand even though the Empire already lost 100,000 on Terra to the 800 Arbites and the reinforcing Space Marines and Imperial Army. 

Knowing the enemy could see him as well, due to the torches they'd placed around the Gate and atop the hill, Arik decided to give the mortals one last chance to surrender before the battle started. 

"Soldiers of the Saderan Empire, I give you one final opportunity to lay down your arms before you meet the same fate as that of your comrades!"

At first, his demand was met with silence, save for the crackling of torchlight. Then there was a shout, next a horn sounded and finally the Saderans unleashed their xenos slaves upon him and his equerry, his warning unheeded. The hideous and disgusting creatures charged at great speed, closing the distance to engage with their simple clubs and crude daggers. 

When they finally met the posthuman pair the fight could hardly be called as such. The two Thunder Warriors had confronted horrors far more perfidious than this filth, and they slaughtered them all that much more easily. 

In one hand, the Primarch wielded his heavy thunder hammer, and in the other, a storm shield. With his weapons, all those who were brave, foolish or insane enough to face him, were literally crushed beneath his might. Meanwhile, Ghota, wearing an enlarged version of Mark II Legio Armor (basically MK 4 Maximus plate) and his old Thunder helm, fought beside his father, holding the army's standard aloft while fending off his attackers with a chain axe. 

Witnessing the incredible martial feat of just two men fighting off all the monsters in his army, the commanding Saderan general hastily ordered his ballistas to release their bolts upon them. Arik Taranis and Ghota were alerted by the movement of the enemy's forces and took cover behind the former's storm shield. 

The ballista crews fired their pieces and the whole Saderan army watched as the ballista shots cut through the air and the few remaining monsters before impacting the shield. A flash of energy was released from the storm shield's internal gravitic field generator as it repelled the simple wooden and steel projectiles, its systems barely registering a minute decrease in the field's integrity. 

The spectacle of thousands of monsters being smashed aside by two giants, moving with a speed, grace, and precision that completely contradicted their massive, armored frames and surviving a volley of ballista bolts entirely unscathed, was like nothing Saderan legionaries had seen before. 

For a moment, the battlefield fell quiet, with only the pitiful moans of dying monsters penetrating the eerie silence, the two warriors standing at the entrance of the Gate, drenched in the blood of those they'd slain. 

The temporary calm ended in the roar of jump packs as the squad of Night Lords came flying out of the Gate and into the sky above Arnus Hill. For a short while, they hovered over all in the flickering torchlight, their macabrely decorated armor, making them appear like avatars of death. 

But the sons of the Midnight Judge had brought with them something far worse than mere death, no...they'd come here to bring fear. 

Twenty seconds after their arrival, psychotic laughter echoed across the battlefield, causing all those mortals present, without exception, from the meagerest slave to the highest noble and all the soldiery, to feel a shiver crawl down their spines. 

The laughter grew steadily louder until it ended with a declaration for all to hear. "You have been watched, weighed, and found wanting". With that, the legionaries of the Eighth fell upon the helpless mortals with savage joy, working individually and with one another to sow as much terror and discord in the enemy's ranks as possible, looking to be both everywhere and nowhere as they maneuvered through the darkness. 

Next came the rest of the Astartes contingent, each of the squads from the various Legions using their own preferred method of warfare. The Phoenix Blades dashed into the fray, performing a beautiful and equally gruesome dance of swords. Breacher squads from the Solar Wardens, hefting massive boarding shields that deflected any attempt by the Saderans to attack at range, firing into them with their bolters. Then came the Steel Wardens, laying waste to the surrounding army with heavy weapons. 

In desperation, the Saderan general commanded the mages in his formations to target the glowing, red-eyed killers, but as the wizards prepared their spells, every being on and around the hill felt the earth itself shake. 

The tremors signaled the arrival of the Solar Auxilia and the Imperial Army. Columns of tanks and armored troop transports churned the soil beneath their treads as they left the Gate. Infantry disembarked from their vehicles, Testudos, Chimeras, and Crassuses from the Army, Dracosans and Auroxes from the Auxilia. 

At the tip of the spear were the four Baneblades, soon flanked by Macharius, Carnodan, and Lemun Russ tanks in that order. 

Immediately, the Saderans were given a taste of but a fraction of the massive amount of firepower the Exertus Imperialis possessed. The tanks fired their cannons, heavy bolters, and stubbers fired into the target practice that had once been the glorious Saderan Legions, the most formidable military force upon this world, until now. 

The infantry joined in with their own armaments, tens of thousands of red, strobing lasers, blue bolts of plasma, and the orange trails of frag rockets, blasted apart the primitives as the inhabitants of this planet, bore witness to the destructive technology of the 30th millennium for the first time.  

Arik Taranis barely had to give any orders as he joined in the massacre, however, there was a message he wished to deliver and to deliver it he would need to find the leader of this army. Looking to his equerry he gave a fateful order. 

"Find me their general and bring him to me alive!"

Comments would be appreciated.