Steel & Oil: Warhammer 32K

His earlier judgment had been proven wrong in an instant, but Kubik didn't even have room left in his mind to feel angry about it.

"Hays's expeditionary fleet? Impossible!"

But the facts were right in front of him. Kubik, who finally understood where Lin's hidden card lay, had no choice but to accept it. He tapped into the visual feed from the defense array and began rethinking his strategy.

The expeditionary fleet hadn't yet closed to engagement range, but Kubik could already see them.

He could tell that the seemingly massive fleet was mostly made up of transport ships—only a single battleship and two cruisers were actually capable of combat.

Combined with the Shanzheng's strength, Mars's orbital defenses now faced an enemy consisting of the Shanzheng, two battleship-class vessels, and five cruisers.

That was roughly equivalent to a single main battle fleet, and Kubik felt a measure of relief.

The scales of war in his logic shifted their weight from Mars's certain victory to a stalemate.

Ever since Mars had fallen to traitors fifteen hundred years ago, the loyalists who reclaimed it had placed special emphasis on building up orbital defenses. Even now, hampered by power shortages, those defenses remained the foundation of Kubik's ability to hold his ground.

"Lin is essentially a wedge driven into the ground. If they can break through the orbital defenses, they can strike from within and without, splitting Mars open at its heart."

"But if I can wipe Lin out swiftly enough, then with the hive city's void shields intact, even if the Ultimate Wall seizes orbit, they still won't be able to touch Mars. And I can use the fact that the Ultimate Wall started a civil war to condemn them before the High Lords' council."

Having reached this conclusion, Kubik glared darkly at the Shanzheng, resolving to teach these reckless Astartes a lesson they would never forget.

They were nothing but dogs raised by the Imperium, while the Mechanicus stood as the other head of the twin-headed eagle, equal to the Imperium itself.

Even though the Mechanicus had been reorganized into the far-diminished Adeptus Mechanicus after the Great Heresy, Kubik had never for a single day forgotten his grand ambition—to make Mars once again able to hold the entire Imperium in check.

Even if the teleportation project had failed, Mars was not something these gene-freaks could humiliate!

"Priority to the power supply for orbital defenses. I'm going to give these self-righteous Astartes a taste of what's coming!"

The still-functioning power centers across Mars readjusted their output strategies, and for the first time since the Beast War began, the defense array's lances received a full supply of power.

No longer limited to solid munitions, the array's energy weapons began to roar as well. Dense beams of light set the cold void ablaze, finally sinking into the Shanzheng's hull.

The Shanzheng's void shields swallowed the attacks whole, and its guns thundered back in answer.

Each blast from its terrifyingly powerful Nova Cannon could skewer several defense stations at once like beads on a string. But against the whole of Mars's defenses, it was still a drop in the ocean.

The Shanzheng's secondary weapon systems all suffered problems to varying degrees and couldn't operate properly. The Nova Cannon needed a long time to reload. Kurande knew that, at this rate, the Shanzheng couldn't achieve any great results on her own.

"Void shields taking damage. Failure threshold has dropped by two percent," the captain reported to Kurande.

"Your recommendation?"

"Pull back to range and use the Nova Cannon's reach to strike the orbital defenses."

The captain understood all too well the state the Shanzheng was in, having so recently been ravaged by the machine-spirit daemon.

She was no longer fit to serve as the spearhead of a charge; she belonged behind a protective fleet screen as a decisive weapon, held in reserve:

"Given enough time, we can use her full capabilities to win this battle."

But time was exactly what they lacked.

"Bring the Shanzheng in closer, Captain."

The captain thought he must have misheard, until Kurande repeated the order in a firm, unwavering tone.

"Continue advancing, Captain! Our will is the mightiest weapon we have!"

Surrounded on multiple sides, the Shanzheng refused to retreat and pressed on instead. It weathered the enemy's bombardment with stubborn resolve, like an unbroken beast set on tearing its enemies apart. It even shattered several stations outright with its own hull.

Such recklessness didn't come without cost. The Shanzheng's massive bulk meant it could never maneuver nimbly, and the destroyers closing in around it launched torpedoes that void shields couldn't stop.

The Shanzheng's currently weakened point-defense fire wasn't enough to intercept these killers, and she had no choice but to take the hits on her own structure.

"BOOM!"

Armor plating tore away from her hull in the blasts, and the enemy ships pressing in around the Shanzheng surged toward the torn-open gaps like sharks scenting blood, launching a fresh wave of attacks.

Waves of explosive fire rippled across the Shanzheng one after another. Even Kurande, far away on the bridge, could feel the tremors running through the ancient beast.

"My lord, how far should we press forward?!" the captain shouted, seeking confirmation from Kurande.

"Not one step back! Even if we fall from the sky, I'll count it as our final charge!"

Watching the Shanzheng single-handedly hold off the whole of Mars's defense network, and recalling the task Lin had given him earlier through astropathic message, the expeditionary fleet's commander felt his anxiety rising.

"The Shanzheng is buying us a window into orbit with her own hull. Push forward faster—we can't leave her to fight alone!"

He urged his fleet to pick up speed, but Hays, standing beside him, cut off the order.

"Turn the fleet."

Horner looked to his superior. The Lord Commander Militant never normally interfered with fleet decisions, so Horner trusted there had to be a deeper purpose behind this.

He followed Hays's order, and the whole fleet adjusted its heading slightly. Before long, Horner understood the reason behind it.

The entire expeditionary fleet had positioned itself squarely in front of Lansung's Solar Fleet, blocking the escape route of a Lansung who was trying to slip away.

Lansung, who had likewise recognized the expeditionary fleet's transponder codes, groaned in dismay.

By the Emperor, he'd only come to Mars to stand watch on the Imperial Commander's orders—how was he supposed to know Mars would suddenly erupt into war?

He'd already been thinking of pulling out back then, but Udin Macht Udo had forced him to stay in orbit and keep gathering information.

Not gathering information would have been fine—but the moment he did, he saw the Shanzheng openly trading fire with Mars's orbital defenses.

The scene was so explosive that Lansung slapped himself a dozen times over just to make sure he wasn't caught in some warp-born illusion.

No longer caring about Udin Macht Udo's orders, he gave the command to withdraw from Mars immediately—only to find that his moment of hesitation had let the expeditionary fleet box him in.

Lansung had no way to guess the intentions of a fleet the High Lords had long since declared missing and presumed dead. He was still hesitating over what to do when the other side opened a channel first.

"Hays?"

His eyes went wide. "Aren't you supposed to be dead?"

"Like hell I am. Do I look dead to you?"

As for the fact that the expeditionary fleet had reached Cath Maximus's Mars, the Fabricator General—who had long since stopped communicating with Terra—hadn't informed the High Lords of it.

The Inquisition, harboring its own agenda regarding the High Lords, had likewise chosen to keep silent. The other High Lords, none the wiser, had already appointed a new Lord Commander Militant.

Lansung's mind raced, weighing what his own return might mean for the situation on Terra. But Hays didn't care about any of that. "Lansung, you're coming back with me."

"Back where?"

"Mars."

Lansung didn't process it for a moment; he even wondered if he'd misheard. "Mars? The Ultimate Wall is at war with the whole of Mars there!"

"Exactly why we can't stand by and do nothing."

Shock gave way to sudden understanding. Lansung began to admire the Lord Commander Militant's foresight. "If we help Mars drive back the Ultimate Wall, we could forge a political alliance with the Fabricator General afterward…"

He decided he ought to follow Hays's lead—only for Hays's next words to plunge him into an icy pit.

"Quite the opposite. We're going to help the Ultimate Wall crush Mars."

"Hays, you've lost your mind!"

Snapping back to his senses, Lansung roared out and immediately ordered his fleet to combat readiness.

But Hays's flagship had already prepared for battle—the Retribution-class battleship's macrocannon ports all yawned open, trained on the Solar Fleet.

"What in the void are you doing, Hays! Whether you attack me or force us to attack Mars, either way you're igniting a civil war within the Imperium!"

"A civil war? No. I've come to end this fight."

Hays looked, expression unchanged, at the Lord High Admiral now drenched in sweat. "This isn't a multiple-choice question, Lansung."

Lansung couldn't fathom what Hays was after.

The Solar Fleet had only two battleships left, but that still gave it an absolute advantage over the expeditionary fleet with its single battleship and handful of cruisers. Lansung had only to give the order to fire and he could certainly cut a bloody path through the expeditionary fleet.

But he couldn't bring himself to give that order.

He thought back to his battle against the Attack Moon at Port Sanctus, to the wounds he'd suffered after returning to Terra, and to the inexplicable upheaval on Mars ever since Lin had landed there.

…Lin?

His thoughts suddenly cleared, and he remembered what Lin had said to him before setting off for Mars.

If that moment ever comes, I hope you'll make the kind of decision a truly intelligent man would make.

He'd thought the words meaningful at the time, and recalling them now left him drenched in a cold sweat.

"Had you already planned this, Hays? Did you have this operation against Mars mapped out months in advance?"

"No, most of this plan came together on the fly, adapted as the situation demanded. Lansung, there's no room here for you to gamble on the sidelines. Every choice we've made has been all-or-nothing."

"And if something goes wrong? Who could possibly bear that responsibility?!"

"That's exactly why I'm here."

Lansung froze. He looked at Hays and found him calm as still water.

Ever since Lin had summoned him back to Terra, Hays—who had already turned his back on the High Lords once before, staying on Cath Maximus to fight in its defense—had known exactly what Lin intended.

He'd come here to take the blame.

He knew that going back meant he could never escape the reckoning that would follow, no matter what. But he'd set off for Terra without hesitation all the same, and led his forces onward to Mars.

"Win or lose, I'll answer for this operation to the end, as a High Lord."

"This operation… what could it possibly accomplish?"

"Even if it's only temporary, we're going to force Mars to bow before us."

Lansung fell silent.

He knew full well what fate awaited Hays. But studying him closely, he saw a man burning with an intensity he could scarcely imagine—nothing in him betrayed a career, and perhaps a life, standing at its final dead end.

Lansung didn't understand why Hays would stake everything on this. But somehow, he suddenly felt a stab of envy.

His two remaining battleships stood ready to strike back. His adjutant came to ask whether he should give the order to fire, but Lansung shook his head.

"I hope we're both in the right, Hays."

"At least more right than following Udin Macht Udo, wouldn't you say?"

The battle-ready Solar Fleet turned and merged into the expeditionary fleet.

The newly consolidated fleet advanced once more toward Mars's orbit, drawing closer to the Ultimate Wall, which had been fighting alone until now.

Mars's orbital defense network had already spotted the uninvited guests, and several defense stations swiftly swung their guns around and opened fire first.

A blazing white torrent of light-lance fire tore through the darkness, only to burst into a sky full of shattered sparks the instant it struck Hays's flagship, leading the charge.

"Void shield power down zero-point-one percent!"

The number looked small, but it meant that even a battleship couldn't withstand more than ten hits at that intensity.

Everyone was stunned by the raw power of Mars's weaponry. If fire that couldn't even breach the void shields was already this devastating, no one could remain optimistic about the battle ahead.

"Give up resistance just because the odds look bad? There's never been such logic under heaven."

Hays glanced at Horner beside him. Horner, who understood exactly what Hays meant, took command of the fleet.

"Form a wedge formation and punch through the defenses—close on the Shanzheng! My ship takes point and draws the fire; the rest of the fleet screens the transports and prepares to provide point-defense support for the Shanzheng!"

The fleet, built around its three battleships, shielded the transports carrying the Astra Militarum, aiming to link up with the Shanzheng.

Only now did the Fabricator General grasp what they were trying to do.

The Shanzheng and the expeditionary fleet's push forward looked like it was throwing away any chance of victory in the fleet engagement—but in truth, all they needed was to buy a window for landing.

The Shanzheng's massive hull would serve as a natural shield for their orbital landing, and Mars's conventional anti-air defenses…

A wounded, divided Mars was already stretched to its limit just covering both orbit and ground. Anti-air defenses had never been a priority for the Priests' repair efforts before this—so where would they find the firepower now to repel a landing?

By the time the fleet reached the Shanzheng's side, Hays's battered flagship had already withdrawn from the battle line.

But Lansung's two battleships took over his role, flanking the Shanzheng with the rest of the fleet and sweeping aside the smaller ships and torpedoes closing in on her.

With the pressure on her reduced, the Shanzheng's speed and efficiency shot up dramatically. Freed of restraint, she could pour out her fury without reservation.

That fury, channeled through her Nova Cannon, set the whole of Mars's skies ablaze. Destroyed defense stations turned into burning meteors as they fell through Mars's atmosphere.

The space they'd once occupied now belonged to the Ultimate Wall, and the Shanzheng cast an unsettling shadow over the entire hive city.

Within that shadow, the Astra Militarum's transport fleet swiftly gathered.

A full-scale airborne assault on Mars was now imminent!

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