Chapter 210: The Liberation of Lycaeus
The two smoking soldiers stared wide-eyed at the Primarch, but before they could react, Corax kicked them away. He walked over and snapped both their necks.
"This is revenge for the Pure Love Faction," Corax muttered, looking down at the bodies. Then he turned to Raven on his shoulder. "So, how about it? Want to make a deal? Ninety-nine different flavors of fries or ketchup, and you'll have my help."
"No need. I'll lead them to victory myself," Corax said.
He strode into the Black Tower's depths, moving like a ghost through the shadows.
Sentries at critical positions were eliminated silently. Eventually, he reached the core control area.
The slaver enforcers stationed there died before they could scream.
Corax seized control of the systems.
"Lycaeus gains her freedom today."
He shut down the surveillance network and defense systems, then injected his pre-prepared virus into the mainframe, disabling the automated weapon arrays.
When the searchlights over the mining zones went dark, the first explosion rang out alongside gunfire.
A massive detonation echoed through the tunnels.
Enraged slave miners poured from underground with weapons in hand, shouting for freedom as they charged the slaver army.
The enemy forces were caught off guard.
They were still trying to figure out why their systems had failed when the miners, people they'd brutalized daily, came rushing at them, guns blazing.
The rebels opened fire, sweeping las-beams and bullets across the slaver ranks.
The concentrated firepower hit like a tidal wave.
Within moments, the enemy broke and ran.
They fled in chaos.
But the slavers quickly reorganized, seizing key chokepoints and cutting off life support to the underground sections.
The rebels had prepared for this day extensively, rehearsing every detail of the plan.
The initial assault went well, but the slavers' superior firepower took a heavy toll.
When the rebels used their atomic mining charges to destroy an enemy command hub, swarms of combat drones descended, raking the ground with devastating fire.
The slaver army counterattacked hard.
The battle turned brutal. Rebel casualties mounted rapidly.
Corax threw himself into the fighting.
His lightning claws tore through enemy soldiers with ease.
But there were too many of them, and the body count kept rising.
The slaver garrison held a fortified stronghold bristling with heavy weapons, drone squadrons, and automated war-walkers.
"So many are dying," Raven said from the Primarch's shoulder, watching the carnage.
"My offer still stands," Raven continued. "With what you have now, winning this fight will cost you dearly."
"You really only want fries and ketchup?" Corax ripped out an enemy soldier's throat. Blood sprayed across the rockcrete.
"Yes," Raven said simply.
Corax looked at his struggling forces in the distance. "Fine. I agree. Just help reduce the casualties."
"Excellent."
Corax waited a moment, then looked at Raven expectantly.
"Where's the contract? Shouldn't we sign something?"
"Contract?" Raven shook his head. "No need. I trust you. Now I'll summon my exclusive battle pet."
"Battle pet?!" Corax frowned. This was starting to sound sketchy.
"Come forth, Big Golden Corn!" Raven raised one wing, and a glowing portal opened above them.
Several golden figures plummeted through.
They hit the ground with earth-shaking impacts.
It was Valdor and several senior Custodian Tribunes.
They'd been inspecting biological research facilities, reviewing plans to upgrade the Custodes with fourth-generation gene-engines and develop specialized fifth-generation variants.
Then a portal had appeared out of nowhere and swallowed them whole.
'Who am I?'
'Where am I?'
'What just happened?'
Valdor looked around, completely disoriented.
"Big Golden Corn!" Raven flapped his wings enthusiastically. "Get to work! Wipe out that slaver army!"
Hearing that voice, Valdor's head snapped around. He saw Raven perched on a Primarch's shoulder and immediately understood.
"RAVEN!!" Valdor's blood pressure spiked.
Being treated like a servant was bad enough. Now he was a summoned pet?!
'You just snap your wings whenever you need something?!'
'This is too much, you damned bird!!'
"What's that you're mumbling?" Raven asked innocently.
The Captain-General of the Adeptus Custodes clenched his fists, took a breath, then smiled with remarkable self-control. "I merely meant that you shouldn't trouble yourself, my lord. Allow me to handle these enemies. It's an honor to serve you, Lord Raven."
"Really?" Raven tilted his head skeptically.
Behind Valdor, Ra and Sagittarion were barely holding back laughter.
Watching their normally unshakeable commander getting trolled by a bird was surprisingly entertaining.
"Yes," Valdor said through gritted teeth.
"Good, then get moving. Oh, and this is Corax—the Nineteenth Primarch."
Raven wasted no time assigning the mission while making introductions.
Valdor studied Corax. "The last one to be recovered?"
"Primarch?" Corax looked confused.
"You didn't tell him?" Valdor shot Raven a look.
"That's not my job. You Custodians are supposed to retrieve Primarchs and brief them. Why are you asking me?"
Raven's casual deflection made Valdor want to scream.
Of course. Still the same lazy, food-obsessed bird.
"You're the Emperor's son. Commander of the Imperium's Nineteenth Legion," Valdor said, activating his gene-engine to transmit a data packet into Corax's mind.
Corax's eyes went wide.
He stared at Raven.
This bird actually served his father, the Emperor he'd never met.
"Alright, enough talking. Get to work. Move it, or I'll have you on koi pond duty," Raven told Valdor.
Valdor didn't dare argue with Raven's orders. He could only take out his frustration on the slaver army.
He activated his weapons and charged into the enemy like a golden war god.
Ra and Sagittarion followed, launching their own assault.
"You dare resist!" bellowed an augmented soldier, massive and heavily modified.
Before he finished the sentence, Valdor obliterated him.
A red mist hung in the air where the man had been. Bloody fragments scattered across the ground.
Ra and Sagittarion unleashed equally devastating force.
Corax watched the three Custodians hit the battlefield, stunned.
The rebels beside him stood frozen in shock.
They couldn't track the kills. Couldn't see how the enemies died.
Everything happened too fast.
The Custodians wielded no guns—only spears wreathed in golden energy that cut through armor like cloth, destroying everything they touched.
Tanks, bipedal mechs, defensive turrets—all were torn apart and reduced to flaming wreckage.
In minutes, the fortress that had cost the rebels so dearly to assault was breached by the Custodians.
The garrison commander's severed head was mounted on a flagpole above the smoking ruins.
With the Custodians' help, Lycaeus was liberated within hours.
Even Kiavahr itself, the industrially advanced primary world, fell soon after.
Against three demigods who could tear holes in space and cleave war machines in half, the planetary oligarchs had no chance. They were butchered efficiently.
The system was free.
"You owe me ninety-nine different flavors of fries or ketchup," Raven said to Corax, who still looked like he was processing a fever dream.
Corax snapped back to reality. "That's easy. I can get those delivered quickly."
"Ones I've already tried don't count," Raven clarified.
"No problem," Corax said confidently, having no idea what he'd just committed to.
Valdor, mission complete, looked at this Primarch with genuine pity.
'The poor bastard had racked up astronomical debt before even reaching Terra.'
He hoped Corax could keep that confidence after learning the truth.
New fry flavors commanded absurd prices in the Imperium.
In an age where Rogue Traders casually conquered worlds, even a hundred planets wouldn't cover this debt. People would trade entire sectors for unique potato strains.
Not that the Primarchs cared about such deals.
For them, conquering planets was routine.
Several were currently waging wars in alternate universes.
Planets? Those were easy to acquire.
"Big Golden Corn, you're done here. Take young Corax back with you. He'll study on Terra for a while before taking command of the Nineteenth Legion," Raven said. "Have him work hard to pay off my fries and ketchup."
Corax hesitated, reluctant to leave the newly freed Lycaeus.
But Raven convinced him easily.
"You need to go to Terra. Here on Lycaeus, you can't really help them. They need reconstruction. They need outside resources and technology. Go to Terra, and you can secure all of that for them."
A spatial rift opened.
After one last look at Lycaeus, Corax followed the Captain-General through the portal.
The spatial distortion twisted, then normalized.
[End fo Chapter]
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