Chapter 466: Trading Value, Buying Weapons
Kian watched the ejector seat streak off into the distance, and knew that letting the tiger back into the mountains meant future trouble. He wanted it dead.
Unfortunately, the anti-air lascutters had just been firing continuously and were now overheated, needing ten seconds to vent.
Kian locked onto the ejector seat and counted down the cooldown, second by second.
Ten, nine, eight, seven...
But by the time the cooling system finished venting and the weapons were ready to fire again, the ejector seat had already flown clean out of sight, off to god knows where.
Kian lowered all four lascutters and grumbled:
"This is exactly like something out of some hack third-rate novel, dragging a villain along forever, letting him run, letting him live. Cheap, predictable garbage writing."
While he was still grumbling to himself, a comm request came through, the Planetary Governor.
"Count Voss! Good news! The Orks are routing, a total collapse! We won!"
Sure enough, with the Gorkamorka Walkers destroyed, greenskins across the entire planet had descended into panic and total collapse, and humanity was now pressing every advantage against them.
Kian replied:
"Move fast! Get your forces to reclaim lost territory, burn every mushroom field, tear down every scrap heap, whatever you can manage!
The totem walkers are gone, but Three-Arm and Blackiron are still alive, they had escape pods, they got away! If we don't kill them both, they'll come crawling back eventually!
We need to wipe out as many Orks as possible and retake as much lost ground as we can, before they have a chance to rebuild!"
The Governor's brow furrowed, understanding immediately.
"Understood. I'll order a full offensive across every front."
The comm cut out, and the Governor conferred briefly with his Marshals before mobilizing hundreds of millions of troops into dozens of strike spearheads, launching an offensive against Ork-held territory on every front simultaneously.
They knew full well the Orks hadn't been broken outright, only routed temporarily. If they didn't seize this window to press the advantage now, the moment the Orks recovered, the opportunity would be lost.
So humanity launched its full counteroffensive, beginning the reclamation of lost ground.
The destruction of the Gorkamorka Walkers had sent a violent psychic shockwave rippling out across the planet, plunging greenskins everywhere into panic and severely gutting their fighting effectiveness.
Orks who now knew nothing but flight were caught and cut down in droves by the pursuing Astra Militarum.
Following close behind the front-line troops came the Mechanicus's sanitation corps, their templar-guards carrying flamers, methodically scorching the earth inch by inch.
Their heavy vehicles could project columns of fire over five hundred meters long, incinerating entire mushroom fields with devastating efficiency.
Mechanicus salvage vehicles rolled up to the scrap heaps and simply hauled the metal wreckage away to be melted down.
The hive cities even mobilized local militia, handing out lasrifles and stationing them as watch posts across the reclaimed territory, on guard against any surviving spore mycelium that might still be lurking underground.
Vast stretches of territory were reclaimed, the Orks retreating further and further. If this pace held, humanity could genuinely retake the entire forge world.
Meanwhile, at the ruined hive city where Kian had fought, the Astra Militarum had secured the site completely.
With the Orks driven off, the Astra Militarum planned to occupy the ruins permanently, converting the site into a fortified stronghold.
Kian's mission had been a success. With the Gorkamorka Walkers destroyed, he led his force back to the Titan Temple for repairs and resupply.
Inside the outfitting hangar, the Preceptor's cockpit opened, and Kian climbed out, telling the chief maintenance tech:
"Inscribe it in the cockpit: on Forge World Primo-496a, destroyed one Ork totem war-machine."
The chief maintenance tech said:
"My lord, your deed shall be preserved forever alongside this Knight."
Kian moved to the neighboring hangar, where Luca's Lancer stood waiting.
He walked up beneath it and asked, smiling:
"So, Luca, was this battle to your satisfaction?"
The Lancer's vox carried Luca's faintly ethereal voice in reply:
"An overwhelming rush, a thrill without equal. My blood runs hot and fast, if I still had blood to run.
But the battle is over now, and I feel my exhaustion returning. I would like to return, for a while, to that warm place, that field of golden wheat, and sleep.
My friend, should battle call again, please, summon me."
The red glow in the Lancer's mechanical eyes went dark, the cockpit armour automatically sliding open, ejecting the shrine connected to the throne, the golden flute still gleaming warmly inside it.
The candles and incense within the shrine had burned down completely. The tech-priests carefully retrieved the shrine, kneeling in reverent worship as they carried it away.
Kian told the chief maintenance tech:
"Refill the incense. Light fresh candles. Do not disturb his rest unless war calls him again."
The tech acknowledged the order, and a hundred tech-priests gathered around the shrine, murmuring soft prayers, soothing the fallen hero's spirit.
Kian then went to find Tech-priest Boothe, asking him to get the damaged Rogal Dorn tanks repaired, and to check how much weaponry his accumulated value could buy.
Per their agreement, Kian earned Mechanicus value points by defending the Titan Temple and killing greenskins, points he could then redeem for weapons and equipment.
Kian asked Tech-priest Boothe:
"How much value have I accumulated so far?"
Tech-priest Boothe's mechanical arm projected a display onto the wall.
"My lord, as of this moment, your total accumulated value stands as follows:
Two Ork totem war-machines destroyed, total value: 200 million.
176 large Ork mechs destroyed, total value: 25.53 million.
259 medium and small Ork mechs destroyed, total value: 18 million.
268 Ork armoured vehicles destroyed, total value: 15 million.
3,860 Ork infantry killed, total value: 3.86 million.
After deducting ammunition and maintenance costs, you currently retain 220 million in usable value, available for weapons purchases."
He then projected a catalog of weapons and their prices onto the wall, and Kian focused in on a handful of items that caught his interest.
The arc rifle: a high-penetration weapon capable of shorting out mechanized electronics or frying an organic brain, semi-automatic, 5,000 value per unit.
The lasrifle-radium variant: a high-penetration, irradiating weapon, its radiation specialized against organic targets, semi-automatic, 6,000 value per unit.
The meltagun: capable of firing an instantaneous burst of directed thermal energy, more devastating the closer the range, and when fired point-blank into an enemy's face, functionally an execution weapon capable of dropping even a Greater Daemon on the spot, 20,000 value per unit.
The plasma rifle: 12,000 value per unit.
These were the infantry-grade weapons that most caught Kian's interest, all top-tier gear. Equip his troops with these, and his private army's combat effectiveness would skyrocket.
He decided to order 1,000 arc rifles, 500 meltaguns, 500 plasma rifles, and 100 radium lasrifles to hold in reserve, just in case they proved useful down the line.
Once these weapons arrived, Kian's private troops would become a genuine heavy-weapons legion outright, with even standard lasrifles relegated to second-tier gear.
Tech-priest Boothe recorded the order and said:
"My lord, your order has been received. This purchase totals twenty-five million in value, with delivery in three months.
My lord, you still have nearly 200 million in remaining value. Is there any other weaponry or equipment you'd like to acquire?"
Kian flipped through the rest of the catalog. Large vehicles and tanks caught his eye, but building them from scratch, who knew how long that would take.
And Trasolh's flagship had limited storage space to begin with. He could hardly cram a hundred tanks aboard, the cargo hold simply wouldn't fit them.
After weighing his options, Kian decided to spend the remaining hundred million entirely on power armour, specifically the jump-pack variant.
This was a standard-pattern power armour, except fitted with a jet-thruster pack on the back, allowing infantry to make short-range flights or powered leaps, giving them maximum mobility across even the most complex terrain, priced at one million value per unit.
Kian went all in, spending the entire remaining balance on jump-pack power armour, a total of 200 units.
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