Bringing a bit of flavor to the general forum from the Disorder side as the megabattle draws near. Come on, get in the mood!
A blast shook the superstructure of the building holding a warlord titan in repair, a girder falling onto its damaged cockpit. “Get it out of here and onto that ship, we need to evacuate!” yelled someone from the other side of the chamber. Small blasts rung in every direction and the enemy infantry… or what used to be infantry, the men now disgusting forms, devoid of all compassion, penetrated the inner gates. The alarms which had been sounding all day continued to blast, their siren only adding to the wash of noise that had taken over the building they were on. The planet was falling, and despite the best counterassault with the support of an entire legion, the collapse did not pause.
The Princeps Maximus continued to stare at his world destroyed - not simply the planet, but the factories and base which his titan legion had called headquarters. A voice in the back of his mind kept telling him – no, suggesting – to find the secrets buried deep in the world. Below this base there was an ancient tunnel system, and within that system rooms and libraries and workshops that had fallen silent millennia ago. These places were forbidden to enter, and the Princeps had never considered what might be there. Other legions had explored secrets forbidden to them and had become the enemy. How could their history turn them into maniacal savages?
On this day however – the day he witnessed the enemy slowly rise to be victorious – he knew he only had one chance. Taking his most respected advisers, the High Princeps was last seen following a man who had arrived just days earlier into a catacomb which nobody had ever been seen alive in, and was never viewed coming out.
After that, a change began to happen in the legion. Weapons which had never been seen by anybody on the planet were produced and distributed to the soldiers – the weapons annihilated entire squads with one well aimed shot. The gear the skitarii began to be equipped with showed visibly different markings. The Mechanicus symbol looked deformed, as if the forces began to distrust and dissent against the leadership. The armor and technology was darker, sharper, and no longer reflected the glory of mankind and the Mechanicus.
This was not Chaos. They did not become the enemy. The sirens and explosions quickly ended as the remaining titans spearheaded the advancing forces. The enemy troops which had at one point been ready to claim victory were now on the run, fleeing as fast as possible to their ships. They weren’t fast enough. Every last enemy soul on the planet was hunted down and destroyed. Their ships were taken in and broken down to use for repairs.
The Adeptus Mechanicus lied. The secrets hidden deep away were not dangerous. They were powerful. Had they never been revealed, the entire planet would have fallen to this dark force. The High Princeps, sitting now inside a brooding looking Emperor titan, looked over his forces lined up for parade. Repairs had quickly gone underway and the only sounds coming from the plant now were those of hammer and weld. Looking at his titans and the men, he couldn’t figure out why they looked so different. Yes their gear had changed, but all he could see was new power. New weapons equipped to each man – no, not men. They were more than men now, more than the technologically enhanced skitarii they used to be. The High Princeps smiled, spoke into his radio, and a dropship landed with the new symbol of the Mechanicus painted on. Two titans stepped on and were secured as more dropships appeared in the skies, ready to take the legion to where the war they had been fighting for years had ignited again.
The planet was saved. The factory was saved. The Legion was saved.
Ignatum falls.
