War Worlds Pt.1

Baldur and the 1st Fleet entered one of the Dark Zones to continue their portion of the Great Crusade but were met with a horrifying sight. As they entered the system, they noticed that there was debris all over and many ships moving about. These ships were engaged in fierce combat, tearing each other apart with their weapons. 

As soon as they all saw the giant Warp portal open, most assumed that it was some super weapon being released from another faction and started to fight with heavier intensity, hoping to stop the weapon before it was fully activating. One could only imagine their surprise when a fleet outnumbering all the ships present emerged from the portal.

The shock was so great that after one more volley, the 4 groups stopped. They were all wondering who the fleet was allied with and who they needed to work together with in order to ensure their escape. 

"This is a message from the Imperium of Man. We order you all to stand down by shutting off your engines and weapons. Refusal will be met with lethal force," Spencer sent out a message to all the ships. Even if they had outnumbered them, he knew that fighting so many opposing ships at once would be dangerous for the 1st Fleet. "Make sure that any communications outside of our immediate area are jammed. We can't let them ask for reinforcements."

"Va te faire enculer!" "Verzieh dich!" "Die, you pig bastards! (English)" 3 of the fleets replied in languages that were not in the Imperium's database. They each began to open fire on the 1st Fleet but none of their weapons were able to penetrate the powerful shields around the ships. 

"Thank goodness! Someone who speaks Low Gothic! These animals don't speak our language. We beg for your assistance!" only one of the fleets apparently spoke the same language which meant any peace talks would be very difficult

"Tell me about the specifications of their ships. How many void-shields do they possess?" Spencer asked the ship, ready to assist them and beat down the rest

"Void-shields? What are those?" the captain of the fleet responded

Spencer looked at Baldur to the side who shrugged his shoulder.

"There are humans on Feral Worlds that fight with clubs. There may be some that have space travel but lack shielding technology," Baldur told the captain. "Destroy all the ships except for the flagships. Disable them and then we can take their men prisoners to get a better understanding of what is going on in this system."

"Roger that, Lord Primarch," Spencer replied casually, having slowly become used to Baldur's speech and presence. "Understood. Stand down and do not interfere. We are taking their flagships and crews prisoner."

"Understood, Admiral," the captain replied, glad that they had found an ally in these dangerous times.

The 1st Fleet began to finally return fire on the smaller ships, tearing them apart easily. It wasn't just their weapons but even the armor of the ships were weaker as well. Just as the 1st Fleet was feeling confident, red, flashing lights suddenly appeared on the various bridges. 

"They have a nuke!" the science officer exclaimed on the Invictus 

"Fuck! Scramble some fighters. Shoot down any missiles they fire!" Spencer screamed his orders but it was too late.

The missile in question had already neared 1 of the escorts, striking one of them and detonating. The following explosion destroyed the ship and several nearby ones while knocking a few ships off balance. 

10s of thousands of lives were lost just in an instant. 

The rest of the fleet felt intense rage at the loss of that many of their men. Whether it was the Knights, Astartes, or soldiers of the Imperium, each one at least a few friends in that sudden, unexpected attack. 

Spencer was about to give different orders when he heard a cold voice next to him. 

"My orders remain the same. Only cripple the flagships. We need information," Baldur reminded him, not letting himself get distracted by rage.

As much as he hated the enemy for using the weapon and the Emperor for forcing his men on this campaign, he felt more rage at the captains' arrogance. Even if the enemies used a nuclear weapon unexpectedly, the ships had underestimated them and forgot to spread out for scenarios just like that. The captains of those ships were the ones that got all of his men killed, not the enemy. 

Spencer nodded and sent out the order again, reminding the other ships of the Primarch's order. They did as they were told and quickly eliminated the rest of the fleets, leaving only the flagships. 

"Send the Imperium soldiers in some Drakes and Dragons to board the ships and take the men captive," Baldur didn't want to lose any more of his Knights or Grey Knights in case the enemy self-destructed but he was more than willing to use the other soldiers under him. 

The Imperial soldiers could see that Baldur was using them as disposable men but followed them without question as that was how great their discipline was. Baldur had his reasons, though.

He wasn't thinking about it from an emotional mind but a logistic one. His Knights and Grey Knights were simply worth more. A single Knight in their power armor was worth as many as 20 soldiers. His Astartes were worth even more. 

The battle on the ships were intense but after an hour, the soldiers were victorious. They had killed most of the soldiers but most of the engineers, medics, and officers had been able to be captured alive. 

With their capture, they were all stripped bare to ensure there were no bombs or hidden weapons on their bodies before being brought back to the Invictus for interrogation. Baldur also did the same for the 'allied' fleet, taking all the officers back to The Invictus while having the rest of his ships lock their weapons on the fleet.

He was not willing to take any chances with their fleet after seeing the nuke that their enemies had used. 

With everyone on his ship, Baldur waited for the Apothecaries and his interrogation experts to get all the answers that they could out of the 4 forces. The process took 2 days before the interrogators thought they had enough information to present to Baldur from each side's perspective. 

"This entire system is at war and there is a planet of Chaos Cults?" Baldur couldn't believe that he had come across such a chaotic system. 

According to the information that the interrogators had received, the system consisted of 5 habitable planets. The 4 groups they had come across were the secondary powers in the system, fighting for supremacy amongst each other. 

The planets had been warring for nearly 1,000 years without a clear sign of a winner. Each had decent technology but they were lacking compared to the Imperium. 

Besides the 4 lesser planets, there was the last planet. The planet had a cult for each of the major Chaos Gods and they openly used Daemons to assist them and raid the other planets if they were in need of sacrifices. There was warring on the planet itself against but the cults put up a united front whenever another group tried to attack them. 

"So that means we need to conduct 5 or 6 simultaneous wars at the same time in order not to get surrounded by the other forces," Baldur analyzed, not willing to risk being put on the back foot. They were the new power in the area and the biggest threat. If anyone knew about them, they would immediately unite with the others in order to protect themselves against outsiders, just as the chaos cults were already doing. 

"So how will we divide the forces?" Kharn asked, hoping he would get to dive into the fiercest battle himself

"Should we perform Exterminatus?" Spencer asked, also unsure of if they should actually fight or simply destroy the planets and move on

"We can't," Selene was looking over the information that the interrogators brought back. "Each of these planets can be turned into a valuable planet for the Imperium. If word gets back, we will face consequences for it."

If it was just the Knights and Astartes, she would have agreed as well. But with the Imperium Army and Navy with them, they couldn't just take the shortcut.

Baldur tapped his fingers on his chair, going through different scenarios in his head. This was going to be a costly war if they did not end it fast but they simply did not have the means to perform rapid, shock attacks and end the battles in a single move unless they simply bombarded the planets which would risk him earning the ire of the Emperor. 

"The planets are nearly in alignment," Baldur finally spoke up. "We will move as one force and push down the line, breaking off as we meet each planet's defenses. We keep the fleets out of range from any missiles from the ground and deploy ships to perform bombing runs on military compounds. If that doesn't work, the commander of the separated force will decide whether to wait for permission to Exterminatus the planet or send down a ground force and subdue the locals."

"And the Chaos Planet?" Spencer asked, knowing that for a planet such as that, they could destroy it without any questions asked.

"I'm going to personally infiltrate it. They have knowledge on summoning Daemons which means they also know how to control them. If we reverse-engineer that knowledge, that is another way we can counter those creatures," Baldur explained, though he knew that many would not like him going down there. 

But in his mind, there was little choice. From what they learned, the humans seemed to be in control, not the Daemons. If those people had some way to control them and suppress them, he had to investigate it. 

"At least bring your Paladins with you," Selene requested, knowing that she would be one of the ones to lead the assault on one of the other planets. "You don't know how dangerous that place is."

"Fine. Spencer is in command for the assault on Emo, Kharn can lead the Pari assault, Selene is in charge of the Welsh, and the Grimes will handle Herren," Baldur gave out the roles he felt suited each one best based on the information that they had gathered. "The remaining 7 Paladins and I will infiltrate Aither. Any more questions?"

"What do we do with the remaining Emo fleet?" Isaiah asked. 

"Order for our ships to fire on them and kill all the prisoners. We can't allow our presence to be known."