Battle of Zhuko V

This article is about a battle in the /tg/ Heresy project, a fan re-working of the Warhammer 40k universe.

"Only in retrospect do events seem driven by choice and judgement. Those who fight rarely know why they are, and those that lead rarely see clearly enough to make any real choice besides saying "we will fight them here because this is where we are"."

– Rytrion, Grand Khedive of the Outremars, speaking in council with the Emperor of Mankind.

Background

Few are interested in the history of the world that Zhuko V was before the devastating war which had nearly consumed it. It was an inglorious planet, inhabitants both humble and industrious, contented with simply serving the interests of the Emperor's Imperium through working the many manufactorums upon their surface to supply the needs of the Great Crusade. Before the arrival of the Expedition Fleets, the Zhukons had not the resources or technological capability of sustaining their population, and pressure was quickly growing in the crowded factory-cities. Quick action by Arch-Magos Telesnius, the Mechanicum representative to the forty-seventh Expeditionary Fleet that found Zhuko, allowed for machinery to produce foodstuffs from simple materials stabilising the populations of the bloated Hives until further steps could be taken. Telesnius was happy to explain where this aid came from, declaring it was from the Omnissiah whom he served. Images of the Emperor were shown, with Telesnius explaining that this was the Omnissiah made flesh. In this one act, the entirety of Zhuko V swore allegiance to the Emperor for all eternity, and also binding itself to the Mechanicum who were only too happy to make this world their satrapy.

This is why Zhuko would never bend to the Warmaster, which set up the events which would later see it choked in metal.

Before we devolve into the savagery of that most dark of times, let us first explain some facts which gave Zhuko V its strategic importance. Firstly was its manufactorums. Several Hives had been founded next to huge industrial structures built during the Dark Age of Technology. Within were assembly lines stretching out for miles, with manipulator units able to lift a section of a Baneblade's chassis with ease. It is precisely for this reason why the Mechanicum had such a strong interest in Zhuko V.

Shifts were long, and tiring, but the Zhukon spirit kept them going. Their belief was that if the Emperor was the Omnissiah, then all the machines they produced were part of his grand plan for unification and the Imperial Truth. This semi-religious thought was encouraged by the Mechanicum overseers, who handily held the Iterators off, allowing Zhuko V to rise to prominence in the Segmentum Solar through its combination of hardy spirits and advanced production capabilities.

As the years of the Great Crusade carried on, Zhuko began to stockpile the tanks which were not being shipped out. Expedition Fleets had pushed out further away from the world, causing for less frequent trips to its surface. Thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of vehicles were stored in great underground mega-warehouses, placed directly next to their Tsiolkovsky Towers to allow for the rapid movement of cargo to orbit.

All this made Zhuko V a strategic locale that the Warmaster could not ignore, much like Paramar on the other side of Segmentum Solar. The Warmaster doubtless wished to repeat what had happened to Paramar with this campaign. So he dispatched the Mastodontii, one of his most loyal Legions, to secure Zhuko for his cause.

The Mastodontii force sent to Zhuko V consisted of ten Mingghans (Chapters), and a single war maniple of the Legio Olitau, the Fell Bats. In addition were several battalions of the Jäakäri, the Legion's own auxilia. Ice Shaman Issitoq, Chief Librarian of the Legion was tasked by his Primarch into bringing the world under his fold. The massive amount of surplus armour, munitions and fuel held in its northern polar bunkers would be a boon to the Warmaster's efforts, and if possible securing the rare and irreplicable manufactorums.

The standing forces upon Zhuko were few, as no one expected an attack. They were so far beyond the range of any attackers, safe within the heart of the Imperium. The Mechanicum had gifted them a comprehensive network of fortifications. Yet, it could do little to stem the assault to come. Word had not yet reached Zhuko of the Warmaster's betrayal, and the Mastodontii arrived welcomed as friends and comrades.

Invasion

Issitoq organized the fleet into position while giving pleasantries to Chief Manager of Manufactorums. Even as they spoke, his fleet began the bombardment with the Chief none the wiser until the first salvos struck. The Battle for Zhuko V began in silence, no one suspecting the attack. The northern polar orbital defence station vanished in a blaze of harsh blue light. Curtains of an aurora danced across the south polar defense grid as the graviton detonation warred with Zhuko’s magnetic fields.

The global defense network began to wake. Auspex scans cut into space, looking for targets. They did not have to look hard. Hundreds of ships enclosed Zhuko V in a shrinking sphere. It was a surprise to see that these ships were coloured in a cold blue of polar ice, trimmed with ivory. They had known that Legion in better times, had supplied them with war materials for the Emperor’s crusade. But they were no longer the Emperor’s warriors. They had come on some unknown mission of malice, driven by the greed, the lust of Zhuko's stocks of tanks.

The planet's defenses began to respond in kind. Torpedoes slid from launch tubes. Turbo-lasers fired, running their capacitors dry as they drew networks of light across the darkness. But they were too late. Two more nova shells fired from the Mastodontii fleet, destroying utterly the equatorial stations. Squadrons of destroyers slipped into high orbit and launched spreads of torpedoes at the remaining weapon platforms. New constellations blinked into existence in the skies over Zhuko V as they died, one by one. The only batteries left for protecting the planet lay on its surface, all those in the heavens blasted apart.

Within the Hives the Zhukons had no way of knowing what was bearing down on them. The bombardment had stripped them of nearly everything. All they were able to understand was the enemy was here to take the world. That had to be the only reason all of Zhuko V wasn't reduced to ashes by the superior force invading them. Magos Telesnius II, chosen ward of the Arch-Magos and given the responsibility of watching the promising planet, moved into action.

A full scale mobilization was ordered, tens of thousands were mustered to hold the walls and crew the tanks. Rows and rows of the indomitable machines lined up in columns, Gaudins and Malcadors, Baneblades and Shadowswords. All were hastily crewed and sent out to fight, some without even paint upon their armoured hides. It was in this frenzied air of desperation that the Mastodontii attacked.

First blows

Mastodontii formations landed and formed up, moving with terrible speed across Zhuko V. Armoured Cohorts and Line Companies supported by Land Raiders proceeded forth, crushing the few entrenchments arrayed to stall them. This was a mere fraction of their strength, enough men to break down the cities, secure the manufactorums and stockpiles, and then move on to the Tsiolkovsky Towers to swiftly take the collected material off-world. There was no expectation of needing any more numbers than this. They were not here to burn the world or siege it. This was a snatch and grab, but on a vast scale.

The first targets of the Legion were the cities of Izotovberg and Smetanin. Both held manufactorums, both were lightly defended compared to the other, larger cities. The assault began with a thunder of fire from orbit. No indiscriminate bombardment, this was carefully selected and targeted to knock out as may defensive systems as possible before the ground assault. The Hives held most of the fire back, but enough damage was done for the Legion’s purposes. It was then that the formations of armour moved into view. As expected, there was not enough ground defences, with one Anti-Armour emplacement for every ten tanks, making it impossible to effectively stop them.

The defenders of the walls now faced the storm of armour alone. But as the Mastodontii were about the breach down the main entrance, a deluge of firepower poured out to greet them. Battalions of Gaudins stumbled forth, bellowing out a defiant cry before being crushed by the combined might of the Mastodontii's superheavies. Behind them were Baneblades and Shadowswords joining the fray, choking the front gates of Izotovberg and Smetanin with shredded hulls and torn treads. It took the Legion hours before finally breaking through.

It was here though, that the true strength of the defenders weighed. In the twisted cityscape, the defending armour held the advantage. By using ambush and hit-and-run attacks, the defenders began to bleed the attacking armour for every corner they turned on. Tanks were not at their most effective in urban combat, the attackers had hoped to shock the foe into submission and thus avoid a costly confrontation. But now they were finding for themselves that the defenders were not about to give them their war materials without a fight.

To the eastern edge of the main continent the wealthy mines had created an erratic and twisting structure of streets, winding this way and that. It made armoured assault a nightmare for the Legionnaires, having to deal with infantry tank-hunter teams and dug in Vanquishers and Destroyers. The mastery of armoured warfare that was the hallmark of the Mastodontii counted for naught in the narrow streets of Izotovberg, and the sheer number of vehicles and bodies the defenders had swung the balance. As the frustration grew, the attackers began to indiscriminately level buildings and fire upon anything that crossed their path. This further delayed their advance, and after six hours, they were still not any closer to controlling the factories they had come for. It was thought it would only take three hours at the most to secure them to begin with.

In Smetanin, every street was a battlefield. The bodies piled high in the streets as people used their own factory tools to dismantle the treads of light vehicles moving across the street, usually suffering horrible fates as the enraged Mastodontii would dismount to butcher them. While doing so, tanks would roll out, hitting them while disembarked. Unlike Izotovberg, the Mastodontii decided to lure out the Zhukon tanks, led by an Overseer named Klara Eissner. The woman desperately tried to call her overconfident troops in, but it was too late. Outside of the city, they were easily dealt with. The blow was enough to hammer in the last nail for the city, but Klara decided to put her full might behind an assault outside the city. While doing so the people evacuated towards Vinograd to the north, but it was barely a tenth of the Hive's population.

Among the bones of long dead xenos-beasts, the cracked and blackened hulls of well over a thousand tanks smoldered. The battle was at first thought decided, but soon it devolved into a massive struggle between the two forces. Eventually though Klara's tank was spotted, overtaken as all the nearby Mastodontii focused on the command vehicle. Reinforcements from Legio Olitau made quick work of any remaining defenders, allowing the Traitors to finally achieve the victory they had demanded.

"Not a step back!"

But what they did not realize was the fates of these Hives mattered little to the Zhukons. Their sacrifice had bought the others time. Telesnius II was able to rally the workers into an organized fighting force, not the confused and terrified militia rallied to face the Legion's wrath like before. The coming battles would not be stalling tactics or last stands, it would be the Zhukons best attempt to bleed the Traitor's dry. To the last drop of oil.

The Mastodontii had thought the battle would be over that that point. After the bombardment and initial shock and awe assaults they expected little resistance in appropriating the war machines and manufactorums for the Warmaster’s armies. Their first battle losses corrected that understanding. Their response was to pour more forces onto the planet's surface. Ice-coloured macro-landers sank into Zhuko V atmosphere to dump armoured vehicles onto the varied plains that made up the planet’s surface.

Typhon siege tanks, Sabre tank hunters, Sicarans, Land Raiders, Predators, and Fellblades rolled from the landing grounds in neat formations. These were the vehicles of the Legiones Astartes, crewed by the Mastodontii, foremost in their use in battle. Beside them came detachments of Mechanicum war engines, Legio Cybernetica maniples, and the war machines of half a dozen human cohorts bonded to the XXIV Legion. Tens of thousands of vehicles spread out from a dozen dropsites across Zhuko V’s lone continent.

Mastodontii signals ran across the surface, blowing and clicking across bombed out factory cities and the rusting tank graveyards of previous battles. The signals rose from the slab-sided landing craft of the invaders, and ascended to the sky and the mighty warships that waited above. Buried in their shelters and cities the survivors listened. Comms Arrays trawled the air, snatching scraps of code and taking them beneath the earth to where men and women sat hunched in the half-darkness, listening to the intercepted signals. They did not know exactly what the Mastodontii were saying, but they knew that it meant that the enemy had now come in strength.

The defenders' own signals, carried on buried cables beneath the cities and under mountains, went unheard by the invaders. A few amongst the leaders of the scattered shelters spoke of waiting, of surviving beneath the earth in silence. The survivors were alone, they argued. They had no way of calling for help, even if there was help that could come to them. But more were the voices that said that the invaders must bleed no matter the cost.