Chapter 415 - Far Future Ch. 125 – The Mighty Take Ship (1/2)

-Individually they are impressive, but their tactical doctrine sucks, and without psi-power, their big hits are not very impressive,- /sniffed Bastrid, reporting on the Obsidian Serpents' to Anatolia's Strategic Circle and me. -They initially weren't very happy to be split up among my squads and relegating to picking off the wounded xenos... but given how many wounded xenos there were, and how fast the kill numbers started rocketing, they couldn't make any kind of a logical argument, even if meant they didn't get to shoot the glorious big enemies. And,- he /added thoughtfully, -it conserved a lot of their ammo, so they didn't need as much resupply.-

-Well, they are sulking in their ship right now, so their performance is not your issue any longer. Hopefully the demonstration of teamwork with allies and effectiveness will open up some avenues of thought... but given their obdurate personalities that their hypno-training tends to hardcode into them, they will probably selectively forget this incident and go back to their normal tactics rapidly.- I did not hold out much hope for them, and word of them had spread rapidly throughout all the forces fighting on Janus Prime.

If the sneaky bastards wanted to pull their shit again, they were going to be 'strongly advised' to pick some battlefield all to themselves, or they might be running into a friendly artillery barrage. Either that, or get on the tactical roll and start obeying orders like good little warrior drones meant to die for the good of the empire.

On the other hand, the Thunder Bulls' reputation was soaring. Although they hadn't had a lot of time to rebuild their numbers, the Emperor's genetics and that +4 to all Stats was truly impressive when compared with equipment of that level... and active development of psionics. They were being employed as augmentation squads, deep strikers, heavy weapon crews of incredible mobility, and even area commanders where needed, and racking up quite the merits as they did so.

Them all having their own Markspace to work with also meant that battlefield communication was definitely not an issue, and being able to tap into the resources of the rest of the Markspace definitely didn't hurt.

Including the Elevator Music to Heaven. They had a rather glory-hungry, semi-fanatical mindset to begin with, and with Chalice's tunes pounding through them with a few tens of thousands of others singing along, they wouldn't mind dying fighting in the slightest... because they WOULD be remembered, and all those thousands and thousands of other warriors were there with them, watching and fighting as they did...

So, I had me a new pet not-a-Legion of Imperial Legionnaires.

The legal eagles had been over a lot of old documents concerning them. The consensus was that as long as they didn't gather in full strength and exhibit numbers that qualified them as a Battalion, they were not bound by the laws strictly governing and restricting the Imperial Legions.

Therefore, what would be happening is that we would be making multiple Companies of Thunder Bulls, but each of them would be based on their own vessel, and the intention was to stage them in different areas, especially in zones heavy with Warp influence.

They would never be a Legion, only Companies of Thunder Bulls, possibly the most dangerous of all Imperial Legionnaires... with the possible exception of some hush-hush elite companies based in the home system of ancient Tellus.

Captain Dornal was a fountain of information about the relatively closed world of the Imperial Legions, including views on other Legions, their doctrines, and different subdivisions within the many different battalions of the Legions proper. While the Coronals and Umbrans had a lot of similar information, the viewpoint of the Legions themselves as regards their brethren was a unique addition.

The Serpents, for example, had multiple different tactical doctrines by Battalion, but they were all marked by callous disregard for civilians, a preference for ambush tactics, and a general attitude of not working well with others. The Fire Serpents, often called the Salamanders, were known for casually putting cities to the torch to burn out any hint of rebellion or corruption within, cleansing it to the ground to be built back up again properly, for instance. The Poison Serpents were experts in the use of nerve toxins both gaseous and weapon-bound, and all too willing to deploy them even if allied and exposed troops were caught in the area of effect.

For all that, they were Imperial Legions, and generally successful at their tasks. If you wanted a rebelling world pacified, the Serpents were among the best at doing it, with fear, subterfuge, and mass slaughter all used without qualms to get the desired results. Naturally, in this shitass universe, they had some diehard supporters from on high who agreed completely with their methods.

The Bull Legion, on the other hand, was known for more straight-up tactics, shields, heavy armor, brute force, and both artillery and armored support vehicles. Having to rebuild their vehicular and support squads by company to complement this doctrine was one of the key items in their rebirth, and their open tactics lent themselves more to use with the Coronals than the Umbrans. However, as was tacitly pointed out, they did wonderful jobs as diversions for subtler work, as they were Throne-blessed professionals at being the bull in the china shop.

Sneaky folks love them some big, clumsy diversions.

These big, clumsy bulls now happened to be psions. The implications were impressive.

Sure, they wanted the power and armor-punching of the Sun Shots, and certainly weren't going to be denied in that area. However, there were many, many other things psions could learn to do, which had nothing to do with being the big clumsy bulls, and would probably shock the heck out of those who knew what the Bull Legionnaires were famous for. Some very unexpected surprises were good things.

The constant combat had definitely helped the new and old Thunder Bulls develop rapidly, and the high-performing gear was only better. There was a whole new world of development open to the Thunder Bulls, and the Coronals and Mentats were the best teachers they could have in this area.

They were eager students, indeed.

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