The battle group stalked through the city, crushing ruined vehicles and slaughtered guardsmen underfoot. The warhound Mortis Phobos fired its vulcan mega bolter, blasting the ork hordes in front of them, while Tempestus Majesti fired its Turbo Laser, turning the ork horde into ash.
Suddenly a roar from the orks challenged the titan group. The titans stopped in confusion, when a group of mega dreads and super heavy tanks rolled around the corner, the warhounds made to move forward.
"Warhounds, step aside, Apocalyptus hungers for a kill." Princeps Heran spoke through a mind-link to his warhounds. "Understood princeps primus." One of them responded Through external cameras and the giant glass eyes of the god-machine, Heran looked at the horde of ork machines. Apocolyptus raised its giant weaponry, and sounded its warhorn, as it made ready to fire irs weapons. "Princeps, plasma annhilator 60 percent ready, quake cannon and missile launchers ready to fire" Moderati Kalus spoke to his Princeps, twitching in his control throne.
The skitarii leader looked up at the Warlord titan as it sounded its warhorn, his augmetics filtered the sound to tolerable levels. Suddenly the pressure in the air dropped as the plasma gun of the titan sucked in air. He gave the order in binary to fall behind the titans.
Princeps Heran leaned in his amniotic tank, and the god-machine mimiced his movements. "Fire the launchers!" The princeps yelled through his vox-speakers. The moderati looked at each other as they felt the rage of the machine spirit through their nerual-links. The god-machine braced itself, and a loud thunk-thunk-thunk filled the air as its apocalypse missile launchers fired, the missiles flying out and towards the orks. An explosion consumed the area where the ork vehicles had been. What was left after was little more then a smoking black crater filled with debris and charred corpses. The titan settled back, the servos straining after the sudden burst of recoil. Princeps Heran twirled in his tank, looking back out through the god machines eyes, amd at the now destoryed ork horde. "Move forward, continue as standard." Heran spoke through vox-casters, nerual link and external speakers. He winced slightly and closed his viewports, his shoulders and knees aching after the strain. "My princeps, are you alright?" Heran opened his eyes to see Kaldus in front of his tank. "I am alright Kaldus, thank you." Heran spoke softly. Kaldus nodded and sat back down. Heran closed his 'eyes' again and was flooded with images from battles and wars past, Apocalyptus' grating voice entered his ears again. In his visions, he saw the god machine standing over an enemy titan, half of it burned to slag by a shot from Apocalyptus' own plasma weaponry. Suddenly a voice pulled him from the memory "Great Princeps!" Herans augmetics reactavited to see a warning flashing and sirens in his ears. "Sensors detect enemy engine!" The other moderati, Rayen, shouted, twitching as he managed power levels. Heran connected to his furthest warhound, Mortis, "Mortis, what do you smell?" Heran spoke, his arm aching as he readied the plasma cannon. "Some sort of, titan, princeps primus, but not an ork gargant. Its presence, offends uss-" Mortis' connection glitched, and was cut out. Heran watched, through his titans eyes, as Mortis was rocked, and pushed sideways into a crumbling defensive wall, by a barrage of fire. Heran shouted in rage, the machine spirit nearly consuming him, the titan began moving, against the shouts of the moderati and other titan princeps. As Apocalyptus rounded the corner, it came face to face with an enemy worse then the orks, a chaos titan. "Defiler! Ruiner of sacred tech! Traitor!" Heran yelled, his moderati spasmed as they felt the anger rising from the god machine. "Fire everything!" Heran cried. Apocalyptus sounded its horn, and a loud whirr filled the air as all weapons made to fire. The chaos titan blared a challenge in response, and began firing its gatling blaster, Apocalyptus' void shields flared up, negating the shots. "Princeps all weapons ready to fire!" Moderati Kaldus shouted. "Fire everything!!" Heran shouted, raising his arms. The titan mimiced his movments and braced for the massive recoil. The chaos titan blared out a final challenge, before it was obliterated in a hailstorm of devastation. The plasma blast, a volley of apocalypse missiles and a shot from the quake cannon burned through the void shields and armour it had. The crews of Apocalyptus, Canus Dies, and Tempetus Majesti watched as the now ruined Ravenger-Class Titan chassis groaned and began to collapse under its own weight. "Any life signs from Mortis?" Heran groaned softly as coolant flooded the plasma annihilatior, the burning in his arm fading. "We are detecting signs my Princeps, and the skitarii are reporting that Mortis can be brought back to operational status, it just needs a few hours." Reyan spoke softly, managing things like coolant levels and the sudden strain on servos and the generator.
A vox channel opened on all the titans. "Moderati, who dares breach our sacred channels?" Heran growled softly, the vox casters glitching, amplifing his disgust at this. "I do not know great princeps" Kadus spoke, scrambling to rectify it. "Titans of Legio Iracundia, this is Prefect Kal Theta of the Ordo Sinister Psy-Titan, Abominatus Defensor. We require you stand down, and hold position, i understand you just killed a chaos titan, well done, but that brings you under my jurisdiction now."
YOU ARE READING
Apocalyptus Aeternem: A WH40K Short
Science FictionA short story about a small titan battle group deployed in support of a invasion force on Caromi I during the Belkian Campaign.
