Chapter 16 The build-up

Konrad POV:

The gathering of the two legions met in orbit of a cornered enemy. Looking over the desert planet and its vast land mass is Konrad sitting upon his command throne. Deciding to turn back to his brother on a salvaged holo display.

"I know the plan that is brewing in your head perturabo, and I shall never let you use my forces in such a meat grinder."

I stated quite blandly, enjoying the slight shock on my brother's face before his usual scowl returns.

"Then do you have a better plan, brother? If so, do share, and I shall prove your incompetence. "

He grumbled from his own throne.

"From the data you sent me of our foe, they prefer to fight at close range where their abilities over time is at its strongest. With such information, I suggest we use our overwhelming artillery, and with the nature of mine, if you can lure them into a killzone, they shall be atomized. With such a battle plan, we won't have to sacrifice many of our sons and mortals to achieve victory." I stated

It's a rather interesting sight when my brother is going over information, and if I didn't know better, I would say he was impressed until confusion took over his features.

"And what makes your artillery different from mine, brother? Aside from the green glow, they seem to function similarly to the equipment of other legions. Is it perhaps your ammunition?." He asked

"No, it is extremely different to the standard. It is a re-engineered version of an ancient xenos weapon capable of burning away mater at the atomic level. Of course, this has put me at odds with the cult mechanicum, and due to this, I've had to salvage many of the blueprints from captured equipment, hense the at surface level similarities between our equipment." I explained

And seeing his interest peaked and a new glint in his eye of something that he couldn't understand at first glance.

"Very well. If we are successful, I'll offer my assistance in perhaps designing some wargear or even help in any research of this very complicated technology." perturabo stated with a slight eagerness in his tone.

Seeing he was about to terminate the call, I stopped him with a single sentence.

"Another thing, brother. I know what haunts your mind as it haunts our fathers mind as well."

Seeing I have grabbed his attention again, I continue to try and explain his gift to him.

"The eye is the gate way to a great enemy that our father sorely wishes to be destroyed, and it is something that all of humanity must be defended from. I shall never believe myself to know our fathers plan, but I can make a few guesses."

"And what guess is that Konrad?"

"That he gave you the tools to be the defender of humanity of what lies beyond thay gate, perhaps the reason he favors the fist over iron is not due to favoritism but a preparation for the fist to guard Terra but hardening the iron to make a near indestructible bulwark against that gate."

"I shall think on this brother."

With that, he cut off the call, and the bridge grew dark until the lights returned. I turned to my own group of command staff and the first captain of my sons, Jago Sevetarion.

"Gather most of the officers, and I want artillery grids drawn and all digital practice drills running, above all else, prepare the men for battle. Sevetar, prepare your brothers for recon and surveillance. we need to know where our enemy is currently hiding on the planet, and please choose the path that leaves us with the least casualties. I would rather not want to bury any of my sons on such a planet."

With my orders given and the preparations for Planet Fall begins and already I can see many stealth valkyries leaving my sons voidships and seeing in the visions of how this conflict will effect my sons all I can do is sigh and hope for the best by trying to stack the deck in my favor.

I gathered my wargear and boarded a ship to the surface. Once reaching the surface, I helped the egineers design the layout of our forward operating base. After the base was built, i traveled to my brothers base, and seeing the number of siege works being built was staggering of what they achieved in the time it took me to build a simple base. Entering the HQ of the base, I found my brother looking over a holo map of the planet.

"Peturabo, I have received word from my scout units of where our enemy has dug in and where their ships are situated. The way I see it, we have two options. We could go for their ships trapping this group on this planet, but it will leave our flanks exposed or we can temporarily split our forces with one holding the dug in groups in place while the other removes their path of escape."

"A sound strategy, and I find myself agreeing with you, Konrad, but we have our own ships. So I believe the most efficient option would be to bomb the ships from orbit while we both send our elite forces in a clean-up operation" Perturabo states while handing me a data pad with the information needed for the operation.

With a nod, I sent a muster order to the first company before turning back to Perturabo, and for the next few hours, we ironed out our plan and what ships should remain to give support along with which forces could be the best bait. After many hours of debate on the justification, we decided to use our rapid response units as the bait with their greater chances to escape any mortal damage.

Later, I was sitting in a trench along with my sons and the mortals, for I could never put my sons through something I could not do myself. looking upon the installed holo display on my arm made by Perturabo [Think like the holo projectors from Star Wars] looking upon the captain I gave the oder to begin the bombardment and in the distance I see the horizon light up and with my enhanced eyes I can see the fire balls lighting upon the planet surface.

Turning back to my sons, mortals, and my nephews in the distance, I grimaced seeing some of their deaths. Steeling myself, I give the order by shouting, "SHATTER THEIR SKY!"

Following my shout was the sound of thousands of artillery positions firing nearly blocking the sunlight. With an explosion that shook the planet, the battle began.

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Hello author here

sorry for the slow updates, and I hope you all still enjoy this amateurs story.

The next chapter will be from others POV to show how the non primarchs will react in such a war. And for those unsure of the exact timeline, it's a little bit after dorn became the praetorian and about a fourth of the way into the hrud war.