Chapter 122: Ultra Tyranids Make a Grand Entrance (Supplement 4) (Patreon)

At Heydrich's command, the entire craftworld sprang into motion.

In truth, Heydrich only had three worlds to his name, and the tavern's transport capacity was limited. He'd left a certain defensive garrison behind on the other two worlds, so he couldn't afford to pull too many troops away from them.

According to the plan, Heydrich broke the operation down into several steps. First came all his elite units — Titus, Loken, and Akurduana among them — meaning his Space Marines and his own Palace Guard.

Next, his Titan legion, packed away in his dimensional pouch — the fruit of years spent grinding away like his life depended on it.

Nearly every warship he'd produced had gone to Guilliman and Calgar, and in exchange for those resources he'd finally managed to assemble one complete Titan legion.

It included two Imperator Titans, thirty Warlord Titans, and roughly equal numbers of lesser and support Titans.

All of it was currently stowed away in his storage pouch, while the crews followed behind him. Once a safe zone had been cleared, he'd let them out to board and deploy.

As for the Astra Militarum, they'd have to come out gradually. But it was clear that for a long time to come, the true backbone of this world's war effort would still be the Planetary Defense Force and the Astra Militarum.

"Titus, take Guilliman's writ of authority and go at once — issue a request for assistance to this planet's general, in the name of the Ultramarines' 2nd Company captain. Viktor, you take charge of your Tech-Priest, disperse them among the regiments, and liaise with each colonel-commander. Make sure the orders get through — our numbers this time aren't very large."

Heydrich let out a sigh he couldn't quite hold back. With transport capacity what it was, simply throwing numbers at the problem was never going to be realistic — this time, he'd have to lean on the local forces.

In that respect, the local forces of the Underworld system were practically a model for the whole Imperium — or at least, throughout the entire Underworld campaign, aside from the navy that had thrown itself away for nothing, everyone else had performed like absolute legends.

Whether it was the Cadian Lord Castellan who'd thrown millions of Cadian troops into a death-grip struggle against the Tyranid swarm, or the local Sector Governor —

This governor was quite the character too. Both his parents and his younger brother had been turned into Genestealers. Worse, his brother had become the patriarch of a full Genestealer brood, with combat strength enough to rival some Space Marine Company Champions.

Even so, the governor had managed to turn the tables against all odds and kill his own Genestealer-infested parents. His brother only escaped because he ran fast enough. After doing everything he possibly could against the Tyranid swarm, the governor had shut himself away in the depths of a local dungeon to drown his sorrows in drink.

In any case, he hadn't dragged his feet once through the entire campaign — compared to the governor of Armageddon, that alone made him practically a saint.

So the situation in the Underworld system looked dire on the surface, but perhaps because the enemy was simply too strong, there wasn't a single incompetent teammate on their own side outside the navy — and that was what put Heydrich most at ease.

As far as he was concerned, even if one of the four Dark Gods came down in person, he had ways to make them regret it in the physical universe. Even if a Daemon Primarch descended, and the four Dark Gods possessed him besides, he still had some means of dealing with it. Worst case, he'd flip the table — even the Dark Gods had to pay a price for personally getting involved.

But if it came down to a bunch of teammates busy sabotaging themselves, then Heydrich really had no way to cope.

So it wasn't a godlike enemy he feared — it was a pig of a teammate. Take the Siege of Terra, for instance: thanks to the information gap, and with the four Dark Gods pouring everything they had into the effort, every clash between the Traitors and the Loyalists had been a case of many against few.

Yet between the whole motley crew of monsters on the Traitor side, by the time they reached the Solar System they were practically out of steam. Aside from Perturabo, everyone else was busy tripping each other up — or simply wasn't strong enough, and ended up feeding the enemy a fresh batch of kills. Take Abaddon, for instance, who fed the last of the Sons of Horus and Emperor's Children's elites straight into Rogal Dorn's meat grinder — after that, things turned genuinely farcical.

From that point on, the main assault force at the Siege of Terra was essentially just daemons from the four Chaos factions; the Traitor Space Marines were more or less spent.

As for why he was sending Titus in, well — it mostly came down to the Ultramarines carrying weight. As the absolute mainstay of the entire Warhammer 40K era, especially with how high the parent Chapter's reputation stood, it made all the difference.

"With Guilliman and Calgar both away this time, I suppose I'll have to command in person."

Thinking about it, Heydrich's head throbbed a little. Grand battlefield command genuinely gave him a headache.

Every step of it was a hassle, and for years now Heydrich had been tagging along with Guilliman and Calgar just to catch up on the basics. That was exactly why he'd created Wondrous Shadow — he needed someone who could hold her own front independently.

That way, whenever he found himself stretched too thin, she could step in — ideally she'd just take over entirely, and he could coast along in the back, handing out supplies.

That day was still a long way off, though. For now, she was throwing herself into her studies with such devotion she forgot to eat or sleep, and reporting her grades to him every single day — which gave Heydrich a rather strange feeling.

But clearly that little routine was on hold for now, at least until this war was over.

So soon, at Heydrich's command, Titus led the charge straight into the command room.

"The great Space Marines."

Sure enough, the moment Titus arrived with a full company of Space Marines behind him, the cloud of gloom hanging over the Underworld burst into waves of cheering.

People always said that if you saw three Space Marines show up, you were allowed to cheer — but if a whole company of Space Marines deployed at once, you'd best go find yourself a grave to lie in.

That saying came with one precondition, though: you had no idea what you were up against.

The threat of the Tyranid swarm, though, was visible to the naked eye. This wasn't Chaos — there was no Enigmata to it at all. You could size up exactly how much power they had just by looking.

Once you knew the enemy's strength and numbers, every extra wave of reinforcements was cause for celebration — unless that reinforcement was so overwhelming it became absurd, like Guilliman showing up with the main force of the Indomitus Crusade's First Fleet.

If Guilliman turned up with the First Fleet to reinforce him without warning, Heydrich would panic too — not because of what he personally had to face, but because once your troop concentration crossed a certain threshold —

— it was bound to draw the Warp's attention, and then everyone would want a piece of the action. There was one exception, of course: the Tyranids, a common enemy shared by the entire galaxy and the Warp alike.

During the first Tyranid war, after all, Warp rifts had shown an uncanny precision — swallowing up the Tyranid hive fleets while leaving the Ultramarines' ships untouched.

The same held true for the Underworld campaign, the vanguard action ahead of the Battle of Baal. The Imperial Navy had managed to muster and deploy here so smoothly that it seemed the Dark Gods hadn't just refrained from meddling, but might well have given them a helping shove.

And then this crowd went and threw themselves away regardless — Heydrich figured even the Dark Gods of the Warp must be getting headaches watching it.

"In the name of the Primarch, I'm taking over the defense here until the Blood Angels' reinforcements arrive. I hope you'll cooperate."

Looking at the exhausted Cadian general in front of him — still hooked up to a nutrient drip — Titus produced the Primarch's writ, along with a token of the Ultramarines.

"Ssh— what did you say... your... your great Son of the Emperor, Lord Guilliman, has awoken?"

At Titus's words, the IV-tethered Cadian general lurched upright. Ever since the Great Rift had opened, he'd been stationed in the Underworld Sector. Since Baal, the Blood Angels' homeworld, also lay within this sector, no Ultramarines successor Chapter had ever been posted here.

So the general hadn't known any of this. But seeing not just an Ultramarine but the captain of the Ultramarines' 2nd Company standing before him left no room for doubt. Even though the current 2nd Company captain was technically Acheran, Titus's standing still carried weight here — especially now that Heydrich himself had vouched for him.

"Besides Guilliman, an ancient one among humankind has also returned — it's him leading the reinforcements here this time."

Seeing the state the Cadian general was in, Titus explained.

Just then, the door swung open, and Heydrich walked in — standing over four meters tall, clad in golden power armor. There was no one here who recognized him personally, and given the chaotic state of the Imperium of Man, he'd simply decided to scale himself to Primarch height. Every piece of that armor was a phantasm he'd conjured.

So what now stood before the Cadian general was an overwhelming, towering giant.

"Gulp... great... uh..."

"No need to kneel to me. I'm not your master. But the Tyranids are our common enemy now, and I've brought enough..."

"Whew, great one — it's wonderful you're here. I'm just so tired. I'll leave this place to you and rest for a while..."

But before Heydrich could even finish his sentence, he watched, dumbfounded, as the Cadian general's eyes fell shut, his body went slack, and he simply collapsed on the spot. He never hit the ground, of course — Titus caught him.

"What is this? Here I was expecting to have to actually do something — even prepared to force the Path of Remembrance on him and shove memories into his head if talks broke down."

Heydrich stared wordlessly at the Cadian general, who'd finally let his guard down and dropped off to sleep the moment Heydrich arrived. He honestly didn't know what to say. Was it because of his own Path of Enigmata? So many people had already taken his identity for granted that it had simply become fact in their eyes.

Or maybe it was just his intimidating height. Or maybe the man was simply exhausted — the moment he saw someone who could shoulder the load, he let go completely and this happened.

Well, since things had turned out this way, Heydrich simply had Titus carry the man off to a nearby rest room. This Cadian Lord Castellan clearly hadn't slept properly in a long while — it was time he got some real rest.

The real fighting hadn't even started yet — who knew what state things would be in once it did.

"Right, Loken — come here. You used to handle most of the real work for the Shadowmoon Wolves back in the day, so you should understand the current position better than I do. Tell me where you think my Titan legion should be deployed. And Kamir, you too..."

By now Heydrich had made his way to the war room and taken over the command systems there in an instant.

He called Loken and Kamir, the head of his Palace Guard, over to join him. His Palace Guard had grown to four members for the time being.

Besides Kamir — a stable Ultramarine and his first successful experimental subject — the other three were one each from the Emperor's Children, the Iron Warriors, and the World Eaters.

Since Heydrich knew his own weaknesses, he needed a way to make up for them. So these Palace Guard doubled as his assistants — they were made to study military affairs, history, literature, and every other necessary field of knowledge.

As for who had the most experience commanding large formations, that was Loken, hands down. Akurduana was out of the question — good only as a vanguard, nothing more — and Titus was in much the same boat.

But since Loken had been the sole designated workhorse and stress-absorber of the entire Shadowmoon Wolves, he was the one who'd have to take point.

As for Heydrich's mechanized armored legion, it was of no use here for now — this was a hive world, after all. Beyond the hive's outer perimeter, there was nothing Heydrich could do for the time being. He hadn't gone quite mad enough yet to march his forces out into open-field battle against the bugs without the hive's protection.

"Here, here, and here. These positions need Titans holding the line, and then..."

Loken quickly spotted a few weak points — though calling them weaknesses wasn't quite fair. The general had laid out his positions with real care, but he'd only had so much to work with, so Loken set about reinforcing the lines he'd left.

With only a few days left before the Tyranid swarm's assault, any major restructuring or redeployment was clearly out of the question. Soon...

"Compared to the Tyranids themselves, it's the Genestealers that pose the greatest threat."

Looking over the current deployment, Loken quickly noticed another force at play: the Genestealers, the Tyranid swarm's vanguard — and, so far, the greatest threat of all.

"That's a problem. If we deploy a full Soul-Banishing Death Field outright, there won't be many living people left on this planet. A weakened version probably won't be enough to sever the link between the Genestealers and the Great Devourer."

Heydrich stared at the panel in his hands, deep in thought. A Soul-Banishing Death Field just wasn't going to work here.

"Let me handle it. We'll split into small teams, take out the Genestealers' leadership first with a decapitation strike, then..."

"Wait. Let him out."

But before Loken could finish, Heydrich cut him off. At his signal, a container was brought forward.

Inside was a Tyranid creature with an oddly chibi, adorable look to it. The moment Titus and Leandros beside him spotted the enormous Ultramarines insignia plastered on its body, both their eyes twitched in unison.

"My creation — the Ultra Tyranid Agent. He can simulate signal patterns similar to the Great Devourer's own and slip right in among the Genestealers..."