The border between Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
Servo robots moved across the uneven ground without pause, their mechanical limbs pressing loose soil flat in overlapping passes before moving on to the next section. Prefabricated metal plate walls rose in sequence behind them, clicking into position one after another to form sealed storage rooms along the perimeter, each one filled with supplies before the next was even finished. The robots never rested, never slowed. The work simply continued.
Further out across the plains, newly completed stretches of compacted earth and temporary plating served as runways. Large transport aircraft were already using them, engines dropping from full roar to a low idle as cargo ramps lowered and hit the ground.
Rhino armored personnel carriers rolled down those ramps and spread out into staging positions. Behind them, the Wehrmacht Guards of Latveria moved with the practiced efficiency of soldiers who had rehearsed this kind of rapid deployment before. The first company to arrive settled into their assigned area and began operations almost immediately. It was clearly meant to be an opening act, and it felt like one.
Then the Thunderhawk formation returned.
The aircraft came in low, hovering in a loose arc over the command center with the ease of machines built for worse conditions than this. Their cargo bays opened. One by one, fifty Fortstar-class intelligent control robots stepped out into open air and dropped.
Each one carried a Hellhammer Lascannon across its shoulders. Each one hit the earth like something launched rather than fallen, raising a spray of debris in every direction. The ground shook in a rolling sequence as they landed across a wide spread, and the noise of it traveled through the boots of everyone standing nearby.
The agents of Divine S.P.E.A.R. had gathered near the perimeter. Local administrative staff from the official departments had joined them, drawn by the spectacle. Several stepped back instinctively. Most simply stared.
The Thunderhawks were already banking away when the last one descended.
It came in slower than the others, carrying something different: a mechanical form five meters tall, limbs folded for transport, silver catching the haze of afternoon light where vibranium plating was exposed. It dropped the final distance and hit the ground with an impact that resonated across the whole command center. Dust rolled outward in a flat ring. When it settled, the skull of Tech-Priest Raditus was unmistakable at its center, the silver vibranium casing as distinctive as ever, the eye sockets beginning to pulse red.
"What are you all looking at!"
The loudspeaker system had clearly been calibrated for maximum reach. The words carried across most of the command center without any difficulty. "Have you never seen a proper mechanical creation before? If you keep staring, I will start converting people into servitors!"
The assembled agents and officials did not know what a servitor was. They did not need to. The combination of the broadcast volume, the five-meter war machine behind it, and the general atmosphere around anything connected to the Mechanicus was sufficient. People remembered things they had meant to be doing. Work resumed.
Raditus activated the Knight Titan's transformation sequence. The massive frame folded itself into its crawler configuration with a series of heavy mechanical sounds, each component locking into the gear-drive mode with audible precision. Something that might have been a prayer ran continuously through the vox unit as the crawler moved between the prefab structures at a steady clip, threading toward David's position.
It found him a few minutes later inside one of the larger metal rooms.
Tony Stark was nearby, still in the gold and red of his armor, expression set. He was watching the activity outside through the open wall with the focused attention of someone working through a problem they had not fully solved yet. Thor stood to one side with several servo robots arranged around him, carefully fitting the components of the six-armed Terminator suit to his frame. The process required patience from all involved.
"Well, long time no see." Raditus looked down at all of them with its usual lack of ceremony. "Mustache, is the big fellow who shoots lightning actually here too? Things are lively outside. It almost feels like coming home." The red eye sockets shifted, settling on David. "David, Lord Primarch is having a rough time of it?"
David's metal head turned toward Raditus briefly, then back to Tony and Thor.
"An hour ago, the First Company of the Lamenters set out on foot. They are carrying a full ammunition reserve, field supplies, and heavy support weapons. Once the Taurus assault vehicles arrive with the second Thunderhawk formation, the Second Company will advance to join them. Together they form the first line of defense: direct engagement with the enemy, forward fire superiority."
"The second line is the Wehrmacht Guards of Latveria, assembled as a temporary armored infantry regiment. Their primary weapon is the Flamer. They will advance systematically behind the Lamenters, burning through plague infection section by section, and eventually close a surrounding perimeter."
"The third line is the Intelligent Control Corps. They are not at the front because they have a different task: constructing a ten-meter-high metal isolation wall along the full border of Uttar Pradesh. First, to prevent infected survivors from crossing outward. Second, to prevent unauthorized persons from entering."
"The fourth line is the armored force of the local official department. No significant combat role is expected of them. Their function is to maintain order along the border and keep desperate civilians away from the quarantine perimeter."
"Niwa of S.P.E.A.R. is personally handling negotiations with local authorities over command authority in the border zone. Whether those negotiations succeed has no confirmed data yet. The contingency, should they fail, is to wait for Doom's return and use charm witchcraft to temporarily assume control of the relevant area."
Tony's gauntleted hand came up.
"Wait." He was not raising his voice, but the word had weight behind it. "David, Nolan said at the beginning that this was a zombie plague, an unknown power leak from some conceptual Chaos Evil God. If the enemy is mindless plague walkers and Chaos Daemons, flesh and blood creatures, why does this look like we're staging for a full conventional war?"
"Last night, that assessment was accurate," David said. "However, the flesh and blood foundry our Lord destroyed this morning changes the picture. This Chaos Evil God has apparently done more than unleash plague. It appears to have brought the soul consciousness of a Chaos Astartes warband into this world."
"The specific situation requires our Lord to brief you directly."
Raditus, which had been sitting completely still through the entire briefing, spoke before Tony or Thor could respond.
"Machine God." The loudspeaker volume dropped to something closer to a normal register, though Raditus had never fully mastered that setting either. "David. Did you say Chaos Astartes?"
A beat of silence.
"Then what are we waiting for!" The volume returned immediately. "Use a large-yield nuclear weapon! Burn the whole area clean! If the base reserves are insufficient, I can produce one here on the spot!"
David turned.
The blue light in its eye sockets was steady.
"Raditus. Be quiet."
The words were not loud. They carried anyway.
"Do you believe my Lord and I have not already discussed this?" There was something in the mechanical voice that was not quite anger, but was close enough to it to be noticeable. "Do you understand how many people exist in Uttar Pradesh alone? Two hundred and ten million registered. That number does not include the unregistered."
"Do you know that Uttar Pradesh is the second largest grain-producing region in the South Asian subcontinent? A nuclear strike solves the immediate problem. The Lamenters and the Wehrmacht take minimal casualties. It is fast, and it is clean. But what happens to the survivors who are still resisting the corruption? What happens to the land itself, when nuclear contamination eliminates years of crop yield for a population that depends on it?"
"And Raditus." David's gaze remained fixed on the servo skull. "Are you unaware that under the laws and regulations of the Imperium of Man, any individual who proposes and implements an extermination order is subject to full accountability, and executed upon resolution of the operation?"