The Assault Begins
As Ky'ei and Archon conversed, Qin Mo had already comnced the attack.
Leading his Thunderborns and ten regints of Legion soldiers, he had teleported to the surface, directly outside the fortress, concealed beneath layers of ancient glacial ice.
The air was frigid, a suffocating cold that gnawed at the lungs and clung to armor like frostbite incarnate, but his forces did not falter.
The fortress guards were still on patrol, unaware of the looming threat, until an entire army materialized around them, like spectral retribution summoned from the void itself.
Panic seized the defenders. Alarms howled like dying banshees, their shrill cries ricocheting through the colossal subterranean cavern beneath the ice. Red warning runes flared across auspex terminals, casting a sinister glow upon the watchn's terrified faces.
Defensive positions were hastily fortified.
The forces stationed here were no re militia rabble, they were elite troops, so from Talon I Hive Cities, but most from Talon II.
They had been personally chosen by Archon, his finest warriors.
But elite or not, they had no ti to react.
In less than a second, the First Legion had already begun their assault.
Within thirty minutes, the defenders had fully mobilized, manning the fortress' vast array of heavy weaponry and returning fire.
Qin Mo stood at the heart of it all, observed everything.
....
The Polar Fortress
This massive underground structure had been reinforced with adamantium plating centuries ago.
The glacial walls were further protected by shock-absorbing layers, ensuring that even intense orbital bombardnt would not cause the entire ice shelf to collapse.
The fortress itself was monolithic and angular, bastion-shaped, with only two main gates: one to the north, one to the south.
Legion forces were assaulting both.
With no natural cover, the infantry advanced behind the rolling bulwarks of their armored support. Leman Russ battle tanks ford a moving shield wall, while graviton shields flickered into existence, their shimring barriers capable of absorbing even Knight-class weaponry.
The Thunderborns had already breached the outer periter.
Propelled by their jump packs, they vaulted over the walls, their descent marked by the white-hot trails of their thrusters. Enemy kill-zones were torn asunder as they landed amidst the defenders, unleashing bolt-rounds and plasma fire in brutal, close-quarter slaughter.
The only one who remained at Qin Mo's side was Yoan.
With the enemy's main forces distracted, the inner defenses had been severely weakened, exactly as Qin Mo had planned.
Now, he and Yoan could strike at the heart of the fortress without interference.
His true target awaited.
Qin Mo could feel its presence, a psychic stench that clawed at the edge of his mind, an abomination even more powerful than Venomfang, the Chaos-corrupted monstrosity he had once vanquished.
"New developnt."
Qin Mo's tactical overlay flickered, displaying Klein's face.
"Two Knights from the Resistance have erged from the sewer tunnels and linked up with my regint. Now that the hive-city conflict is settled, they wish to join the main assault. I've already patched them into the comms network."
Two new holo-images appeared.
A woman with cropped, ash-blonde hair, her gaze cold as tempered steel. The light of unyieldingwarrior's resolve burned within her eyes.
Beside her, a middle-aged man stood, his face marked by years of battle. A thick beard frad his features, lending him the somber dignity of a grizzled campaigner who had long outlived the glories of youth.
Both were fully suited, their void-hardened pilot suits sealed and pressurized, ready to mount their war machines.
"House Lannis stands ready to serve."
The older man raised his fist in a salute, his voice unwavering.
"At your command, Lord Governor."
Qin Mo wasted no ti.
"Equip teleportation stabilizers. Prepare for imdiate battlefield deploynt."
Klein nodded sharply. "n! Get the stabilization rigs on them!"
The Knights' retainers moved with precision, affixing the protective devices to their pilots, ensuring they would not be torn asunder by the violent currents of teleportation.
Then the Knight pilots ascended into their war machines.
Once they confird readiness, the teleportation sequence began.
As before, the AI-controlled teleportation matrix calculated safe deploynt zones, factoring in the positions of every soldier on the battlefield.
When the energy reserves of the teleportation units reached critical thresholds, two Knights materialized.
One outside the northern gate.
The other outside the southern gate.
The Knight that erged before Qin Mo was a towering colossus of crimson ceramite, blackened adamantium, and burnished gold.
A House Lannis sigil adorned its right pauldron, mounted atop an ion shield generator.
Its armant was brutal and direct:
Reaper Chainswordon the left arm.
Thunderstrike Gauntleton the right.
Stormspear Rocket Podmounted atop its carapace, now empty, its payload spent during earlier engagents.
The machine knelt as it erged, its pilot whispered the sacred canticles of ignition, reverent in her machine's presence.
Then the Knight's engines roared.
It rose to full height, towering above the battlefield.
Within the holo-feed, the female pilot scanned the battlefield, her Knight's head mirroring her movents.
Her gaze locked onto Qin Mo.
"Donna and the Crimson Rose stand ready!"
Without hesitation, she charged.
Enemy defenses erupted in response, volleys of lascannon and autocannon fire streaking toward the advancing Knight.
The Knight's ion shield flared, a golden energy barrier absorbing the first salvo.
This was the strength of theion shield, a defensive high-intensity force field projected from the Knight's power core,a curved energy barrier designed to absorb imnse kinetic and energy-based impacts.
Though its coverage was limited, but wherever it projected, it was near-impenetrable.
Under its protection, Donna's Crimson Rose stord the south gate.
Her Reaper Chainsword carved through enemy infantry atop the battlents, sending mangled bodies hurtling to the ground below.
Then, her Thunderstrike Gauntlet punched through the reinforced gate with a single, devastating blow.
"Gallant-class Knight." Qin Mo identified her Knight pattern.
Gallant-class Knights were specialized lee combatants, forgoing ranged weaponry in favor of brutal close-quarters dominance.
Still, she was not without recourse against ranged threats.
A Rapid-Fire Battle Cannon was mounted on her left shoulder, its autocannon shells ripping through defender formations, each shot sending limbs and torsos cartwheeling through the air.
As enemy reinforcents flooded the gate, the ion shield continued absorbing fire, while Donna's Reaper Chainsword and Gauntlet carved through their ranks.
"Bless , O Machine God! Let withstand their blows! Let silence their cries!"
Her prayer echoed through the vox.
Then, she ripped the gate asunder.
"For the Emperor!"
With a thunderous charge, she crashed through the walls, plunging into the enemy's ranks.
Tanks and infantry sward her Knight, but the Legion forces surged behind her, flooding the breach like a tide of steel and fla, securing her flank as they pushed into the fortress interior.
....
The Northern Front
anwhile, the bearded Knight pilot advanced with calculated precision.
Unlike Donna's direct assault, he fought in sync with the infantry, thodically clearing defenses before breaching the northern gate.
His progress was slower, but far safer.
Both strategies were effective.
Qin Mo watched the battle unfold.
Then, he turned to Yoan, speaking casually.
"You know… I must admit. Having Knights is convenient."
Originally, he had planned to obliterate the gates himself.
But that was no longer necessary.
Yoan nodded.
"Undeniably so."
The Legion advance continued.
With both fortress gates breached and the walls crumbling under the weight of war, the final battle had begun.
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