Steel & Oil: Warhammer 32K

In that moment, Kubik was certain something called 'regret' had surfaced within his logic core.

But he could not, and would not, admit it.

"Where is our artillery!" he demanded of the Skitarii commander below him. "Why isn't counter-battery fire being conducted?"

"We're trying, but—!"

The Leman Russ chassis, ungainly once fitted with penetrating shockwave cannons, still counted as a form of self-propelled artillery.

Each Martian counter-battery attempt only bought a brief lull in the siege tanks' fire; the moment their repositioning was complete, that deadly cannonade resumed.

The penetrating shockwave cannons needed no cooldown, no barrel-clearing, and their shells even flew faster than anything Mars had on hand.

Mars's solid-shot weapons were utterly outmatched by the shockwave cannons, while its energy weapons remained crippled by power grids the Plague Scrapcode had thrown into chaos and had yet to recover.

With power having to be prioritized for orbital defenses and the hive city's void shields, what capacity did they have left to counter anything?

Mars's counter-battery attempts achieved next to nothing, while the siege tanks' return fire inflicted no small losses of their own.

The gap between them was no longer something Mechanicus Priests could close simply by calculating firing solutions faster.

In this short span, the Skitarii had already suffered heavy losses. By deliberately seeking cover they had managed to keep the damage within acceptable limits, but pinning down the Astra Militarum through offense was now impossible.

Worse, they now had to weather the Astra Militarum's counterattack!

Having seized the strategic initiative, the Astra Militarum had spread their forces out, with more troops continuing to drop from orbit and being deployed elsewhere by Hays.

But at that moment, the Titan Legion to the rear finally sent word that preparations were nearly complete. Three God-Machines were expected to reach the battlefield within two hours.

The news lifted Kubik's spirits somewhat.

A Warlord-class Titan was enough to reverse the outcome of a battle, but achieving that required coordination on every front.

On reflection, it was obvious a Warlord Titan couldn't go around picking off infantry one by one with its Volcano Cannon and Inferno Gun — using such weapons to clear out mere Astra Militarum troopers would be nothing short of an offense against the Omnissiah.

But the Knight houses that would normally escort a Titan Legion and mop up such lesser targets had already been routed earlier, and the Skitarii were pinned down besides.

Kubik could no longer count on the arrival of these unescorted Warlord Titans to reverse the Astra Militarum's advantage. He had to accept, as settled fact, that their landing had already succeeded.

Still, given what lay ahead, he had to at least attempt something to salvage the situation.

"Concentrate the Skitarii's strength. Have them support the Warlord Titans and smash the Astra Militarum's line head-on."

If they could break the Astra Militarum's formation even once, and let the Titans hunt down and destroy those Leman Russ siege tanks, this Astra Militarum force wouldn't remain so fearsome on Mars.

Whatever happened, he would not allow the Astra Militarum to run rampant on Mars — which, for now, was still his territory.

Before long, the three Warlord-class Titans reached the battlefield.

Their advancing footsteps shook the Martian surface, their massive frames bearing heavy weapons that crackled with arcs of annihilation.

Under the shadow of the three Warlord Titans, the remnants of the Skitarii rallied and launched another assault on the Astra Militarum's positions.

"Inferno array charged and ready!" A Titan captain's cold, mechanical voice crackled over the comm channel.

The next instant, a torrent of crimson energy surged from the Warlord Titan's cannon, melting the Astra Militarum's hastily built cover and their Chimera transports into boiling slag.

The soldiers sheltering inside were vaporized in the heat before they could even scream. The Skitarii surged forward in the blast's wake, pinning the retreating Astra Militarum down on the scorched earth.

The mortals watched these three gods of destruction with awe, but that did not make them give up the fight.

The siege tanks tried to mass their fire and unleash a volley at the Titans.

They fired high-explosive shells that void shields couldn't intercept, but the slow-moving rounds only burst into useless sparks against the Titans' adamantium armor plating.

No matter how the tanks fired, they couldn't halt the Titans' advance — their own muzzle flashes only gave the Titans a fix on their positions.

Realizing these weapons were, exactly as he'd predicted, powerless against heavily armored units, Kubik felt he'd found his opening.

"Advance. Show them what a true God-Machine looks like!"

The Astra Militarum couldn't possibly field anything comparable. The Titan Legion craved grander battles, but it didn't mind demonstrating its might on those who knew no reverence for the Omnissiah either.

Leman Russ siege tanks too slow to retreat were run down by the Titans, who — knowing this Astra Militarum force had no Baneblade of its own — wantonly reduced the tanks to burning wreckage.

The Astra Militarum had no choice but to organize a retreat and reposition, but the Titan captains — infected by the Warlord Titans' furious, wrathful machine-spirits — had no intention of letting them go.

"In the name of the Omnissiah, crush them!"

They roared from within the God-Machines' mechanical thrones, pouring out everything they had.

Even with the siege tanks already retreating, they kept sweeping up the remaining Astra Militarum, as if bent on wiping the entire landing zone off the map.

Hays, who had already braced himself to lose some tanks, hadn't planned to fight to the last on this battlefield. But seeing the enemy press their advantage without mercy, he understood this was no time to turn tail and run.

"We need to counterattack — at the very least, take some of the wind out of their sails."

He contacted Matt Horner, asking whether he had spare capacity to fire an orbital lance strike at the ground, but the answer came back negative.

As the price for pushing into orbit before the defense grid had been knocked out, the allied fleet — even with the Shanzheng providing cover — was now stretched too thin to spare the firepower.

Hays realized there was now only one option: bring in something that could match these Titans.

"Contact Colonel Christina. We need her support!"

The Gate of Fate Titan Legion had one Warlord-class Titan of comparable power. It could only reach the battlefield aboard a specialized Mechanicus transport vessel, so pinning all hope on that single Titan's rescue was clearly unrealistic.

But the Gate of Fate Legion now had something far easier to deploy.

Just as the Titans reveled in their slaughter, three heavy transport aircraft broke through the smoke hanging over the Martian sky.

Slung beneath their bellies on thick steel cables and grapples hung massive metal crates, each over ten meters tall. The aircraft dropped these iron boxes not far from the battlefield, then peeled away.

In the last instant before impact, the crates deployed retro-thrusters, then slammed down into the scorched Martian earth with a thunderous crash.

The Titans' sensors began blaring alarms. The captains looked up to see the outer shells of the three fallen crates splitting apart as if alive.

Folded armor plates unfurled layer by layer, revealing intricate weapon modules within.

With a sound like cracking bone as metal joints locked into place, thick hydraulic limbs sprang out from within, massive feet driving deep into the ground to bear the weight of the colossal frame.

The upper half of the crate rose and rotated; four 250mm Punisher Gatling Cannons folded from its back up onto its shoulders, while the twin Thor's Hammers on its arms began to crackle with dangerous arcs of energy.

Finally, an angular cockpit rose out of the armor. When its blood-red indicator lights flared to life, the entire battlefield fell utterly silent.

The whole transformation took less than half a minute — the mech, standing nearly twenty meters tall once fully deployed, was already combat-ready.

Its vox-array crackled to life, and everyone could hear the veteran pilot inside, giddy as a child clutching a favorite toy.

"Thor is here!"

What in the world was 'Thor'?

Even the most well-traveled Martians had never seen a creation so 'heretical.' For a war machine comparable in size to a Reaver-class Titan, it bore no Skulls, no engraved litanies.

In their place were sharp-edged armor plates and exposed piping, like a killing tool mass-produced straight off an assembly line.

They could find not a trace of reverence for the Omnissiah anywhere on this 'Titan.' Its cold, hard rivets and crude weld seams seemed to mock a thousand years of Martian machine-worship.

"This is blasphemy against the Omnissiah!"

The Titan captains erupted in fury. Without even waiting for Kubik's order, they moved on their own to surround and attack it.

Volcano Cannon fire lanced out, but Thor had transformed too fast — its deployed Energy Shield was already braced for the impact.

Crimson beams sent violent ripples of energy across the shield. Fueled at full output by its ion reactor, the attack was ultimately neutralized by the shield system.

Inside the sarcophagi piloting Thor, the Hunter noted the energy reserves had dropped by a full five percent. Lin's shield technology might be versatile, but its power draw was just as terrifying.

Fortunately, they wouldn't have to weather attacks like that constantly. A Volcano Cannon needed at least five or six minutes to recharge — more than enough time for Thor to unleash its own divine might.

"Feel the power of Thor!"

The twin Thor's Hammers on its arms roared to life, an unbroken stream of ion beams pounding against the Titan's void shields.

Unfortunately, the hammers' effectiveness was unimpressive, and the Titan crew — who had been tense at the sight of the weapons' large caliber — relaxed.

They held their void shields up and patiently waited for their own weapons to cool down, but before their guns cycled back online, the enemy's ceaseless barrage left them baffled.

"Why do they keep firing nonstop? Don't their ion weapons need to cool down at all?"

Too bad Lin couldn't hear the Titan captains' confusion, or he'd have had a retort ready.

Morons — a basic attack is just swinging your arm, isn't it?

The Hunter, a veteran who'd fought his way through the Great Crusade, had ample combat experience. He ordered the other two Thors to focus fire with him on a single Titan.

Even if a single Thor's attack chipped away only a little at the void shields, the combined fire of three Thors and six hammers, sustained for over ten minutes, was enough to wear a Titan down.

The three Warlord Titans managed barely one more volley before the one under focus fire had to divert its main power supply to its void shield system.

Fortunately, the Titans had also adopted focus-fire tactics, and to greater effect. Under concentrated Inferno Gun and laser cannon fire, one Thor's power reserves could no longer keep pace with the drain.

Its Energy Shield began to collapse; the armor plating exposed directly to the energy weapons warped and burst under the heat, and nearly half its body melted into glowing red slag.

Thor itself carried no separate shield system of its own; it weathered the blow through the structural defenses it had once been proud of in its home world, combined with the adamantium-ceramite composite plating built into its own Thor's Hammers. It wasn't destroyed outright — only stripped of most of its fighting strength.

The Titan Legion's morale surged as they realized these supposedly equivalent metal giants were considerably weaker than they'd expected.

They were the true God-Machines!

They tried to press their advantage, but a laser beam lancing past from behind the Thors struck true, hitting the very Titan the Thors had focused fire on earlier, and overloaded its void shield system completely.

Hays, who had been worried for the Thors a moment ago, immediately relaxed.

"That's our Titan! The tide's turning our way!"

The Warlord-class Titan that had been ferried down to the surface the traditional way, aboard a heavy transport vessel, had finally arrived!

With a single Volcano Cannon blast — the same weapon its enemies wielded — as a fiery opening statement, Christina drove the Titan Legion's momentum straight back.

Seeing this, the remaining two Thors wasted no time adding a few shots of their own, melting several gaping holes through the enemy's adamantium armor.

The attacks weren't lethal, but they served as a warning to Kubik.

He couldn't press the attack any further.

He could see that Thor was, in truth, far inferior to a Titan. If it truly came down to a fight to the finish, victory would surely lean his way.

But he couldn't afford to trade his precious God-Machines one-for-one with the enemy. If he forced the Titan Legion to press on and take needless damage in the process, the Legion might well withdraw the only aid he had left.

Kubik slumped in his seat, realizing the momentum had turned decisively against him — he had lost the one chance of his life.

"Fall back," he said.

He waved a listless hand, issuing the order.

"Regroup with our main force. Even if we can't seize the initiative, we need to concentrate our strength. We won't be grox meat for the slaughter."

The remaining two Titans covered the one whose shields had overloaded; they stopped advancing and began a slow withdrawal.

The Astra Militarum fell into stunned silence at first — no one could believe that these God-Machines, once as immovable as mountains, were actually retreating.

Once they had confirmed the fruits of victory with their own eyes, their cheers surged together into a roaring sea.

"Getting to witness a battle like this — even dying now would be worth the price of admission!"

In that moment, nothing could stop their advance across Mars any longer!

The Skitarii's defeat did not go unnoticed by those Magos harboring their own agendas; they were already preparing their next move against the Fabricator General.

But not everyone saw the Fabricator General's defeat as an opportunity.

A blue-feathered, bird-headed creature watched the retreating Skitarii, its tone thick with disappointment and contempt.

"They can't even stomach taking losses — how did they turn out so useless?"

"I don't think you're in any position to say that, M'Kachen."

Vashtorr, likewise watching the battle unfold, was displeased with the outcome as well. He hadn't deliberately let the Skitarii slip away just to watch the Astra Militarum beat them senseless.

But what displeased him even more was this blue-feathered freak bird with the gaping scar across its face.

"You promised me the Cath Maximus reinforcements wouldn't reach Mars so quickly, M'Kachen! If it weren't for your failure, we wouldn't be standing here watching the Skitarii collapse, praying Lin and his people don't succeed! You call the Skitarii useless — but how are you any different from them?"

The blue-feathered creature stiffened its neck and shot back, "That's not the same thing at all — at least I owned my losses! Losing the fight is a different matter entirely!"

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