The Force of Chaos
"Gellar Field is holding, but under extreme stress." reported one of the bridge serfs aboard the Grey Knights Battlebarge, Eternal Flame. The indoctrinated and loyal crew members' voice didn't waver as he delivered his report. Only the ghost of emotion exists in the human crew aboard Ordo Malleus Warships. The better to shield their souls if the full range of human emotion is denied them.
The Eternal Flame and the rest of this Grey Knight fleet was shaking furiously from the rage of the warp outside. The indoctrinated crew and Grey Knights were indifferent to the conditions, this vessels Navigator and only passenger on the other hand weren't so lucky.
They still knew fear.
"Is this wise Grand Master? Ships have been lost under calmer conditions, and a full brotherhood is aboard the ships in this fleet" said newly elevated Inquisitor Lana Tektra. She was the sole source of movement on the bridge of the Eternal Flame, she had been pacing since the turbulence began nearly 2 hours before, her simple white robes flowing behind her gently as she moved.
"The Prognosticars said the bridge would appear here. So here we wait." answered Grand Master Core. His voice strong and filling the massive space of the bridge with no effort. In contrast to the young Inquisitor, he wore full Terminator armour, with his helm maglocked to his upper thigh. His massive Nemesis Halberd in his right fist. He'd been a near permanent fixture on the bridge since it left Broadsword Station with its fleet of escorts and other vessels 2 weeks ago. This sentence to Inquisitor Tektra was the most he'd moved since that time.
"Are they always so vague?" asked the Inquisitor.
"Blessed is the mind too small for doubt Inquisitor, and the future only reveals itself reluctantly."
"The force gathered on these ships could destroy an entire sub-sector with little effort. Your kind are too precious to squander."
Core thought back to when he was called before his Brothers. The 8 other members of the Grey Knights Grand Masters Council. A 9th Knight was there. Small and incredibly fragile when compared to the sheer physical might of his brother Grey Knights, but his mind burned brighter than any Core had ever seen.
"It's him. IT'S HIM IT'S HIM IT'S HIM! He must go to the bridge. Find those small things and shield us all."
That was all that the small, weak bodied forma Grey Knight had to say, he started to convulse there on the spot and died several seconds later. In his last seconds he gave Core the location for this place, and Core past this location to the Navigator before departure. The other Grand Masters then gave him his orders. Cores` mind snapped back to the present in an instant.
"What we may find could mean the end of chaos for all time young Inquisitor. Is that not reason enough to risk?"
"You are right Grand Master..." answered the Inquisitor reluctantly. "...I would still like to know why we are here and why you have brought with you more than just your warriors? An army of researchers from the Orders Hospitalier, and some archeotech experts of the Adeptus Mechanicus from the Steel Forge?"
Core moved his head and regarded the Inquisitor. She flinched ever so slightly as his unrelenting and merciless gaze came to rest on her. She was glad Core was her ally.
"That small thing we must find. I do not believe we will find it at the tip of a sword, and I swear to you, when I know the answer to your first question, I will tell you."
/
"Status of the fleet admiral? We should be nearing our destination." said General Skywalker as he walked calmly to the forward viewing windows on the bridge of his Venator Class Star Destroyer, Resolute where Admiral Yularen was commanding the ship.
"Impeccable timing as always General. We will indeed be dropping to sub-light in the next few minutes. The fleet is ready for combat, the fleets of Generals Bultar Swan and Xiaan Amersu also report ready. This will be hard fought General. We have never punched so deep into Separatist controlled space."
"Yes, but if we can capture Caramm V. We'll cut Separatists manufacturing capabilities by nearly 12%." said Skywalker.
"Agreed General. Also what is left of the population may be able to return their planet to something more habitable. Its defences will be formidable though" answered the Admiral as a clone officer brought them an update on the fleet via a data pad. The Admiral touched a small control by the window.
"We are about to leave hyperspace. All hands man battle stations." after Yularen released the control, the familiar howling alarms that gave the call to battle stations started wailing. Yularen and Skywalker left the windows and walked over to the holographic display near the stern of the bridge.
As they both regarded the holo-display, waiting for when their ships would drop to sub-light speeds, Skywalker shivered.
"I just had a very bad feeling..." he said quietly "...something's coming."
As the ship dropped to sub-light, everyone on board was thrown forward ever so marginally.
"That was a bit odd? Engineering station. Report!" ordered Yularen.
"Minor power surge in the hyperdrive. Excess energy radiated into higher dimensional space to avoid overload. Drive examination team is evaluating the problem" answered one of the clones from the bridge engineering pit.
"Understood. Admiral, liaise with your counterparts. Be ready to attack" ordered Skywalker. As the holo-display became live and started to display a real-time image of the soon to be battlefield, he tried to push his newly risen concerns to the back of his mind.
/
The ship shook harder for just a second before becoming calm. The wavering, rising smoke from incense burners became steady. Continuing to add to the ever present cloud that obscured the high reaches of the bridge of the Eternal Flame.
"The Navigator is reporting an opening into Ordered Space" reported one of the Serfs at the mostly inactive Navigational console.
"Order intrudes?" asks Core.
"As the Navigator says My Lord. He reports a path is forming through the warp to real space."
"Or a bridge?" said Tektra.
Core reached forward and reverently press a rune on his hololith, opening a one way communication channel with the Navigator of the Eternal Flame.
"Navigator. Follow the path to where it leads."
"Drive output increasing" reported the Navigational Serf.
/
"Fighter squadrons ready. Escort vessels ready. Landing craft ready. Capital ships ready. All units report ready for combat. 34 Munificent Frigates, and 16 Recusant Destroyers are arranged ahead of their 5 Providence Carriers. 1 Providence Dreadnought and 2 Lucrehulk Droid Control Vessels are holding in the rear of their formation." reported one of the clones.
"Those numbers are far in excess of what intelligence reported. Any chance they haven't detected us yet?" said Admiral Yularen as the Resolutes` sensors started to display more and more data about the massive fleet arranged in a holding pattern around Caramm V's only moon.
"They have sir." reported the clone. A second later and the holo-display started to show the waves of fighters and gunships launching from the surface of nearly all the Separatist warships and most were heading to orbit Caramm V.
"This is bad. Tell Swan and her forces to remain here. She's to be our reserve force. Amersu will move up with us. We'll harass their picket force and try to make an opening for those 2 control ships to take a beating through. I'll then call Swan up to punch through to finish them. With those fighters moving to Caramm V we'll have to scrap our simultaneous planetary assault plan. We'll need local space superiority for our gunships to have a chance of getting through." ordered Skywalker.
"An unusually subtle approach for you General. You're usually more direct, and letting someone else finish the fight?" commented Yularen.
"Maybe I'm having a calming influence on my Master." said Asoka as she walked towards the holo-display.
"Of course, and Coruscant isn't shiny."
"That's enough. Wait till I'm gone to start your little bash Ani sessions. Also wait till after Caramm V is liberated. Snips, your fighter squadrons will harass the enemy in support of Amersus` forces, she'll be leading the strike craft while..."
"General! Energy surge! In orbit of Caramm VA. It's not coming from the Separatist Fleet."
"Did you feel that Snips?" asked Skywalker.
"Yes Master. So cold and dark." Skywalker nodded.
"Something is coming. Admiral, we'll hold position here. Have all ships ready to open fire. "
"General, that surge came from close to the Separatist Fleet. We must remain mobile in case it is a new weapon."
"It is no new weapon, it feels old, very old. I have no idea what it is..."
/
"Wow. What do you think that is?" asked OOM541275, as it's sensors started to display the impossible readings emanating from roughly 1000 km away from the Separatist Fleet.
"How should I know, I just push the fire button." said OOM242612 sitting next to OOM541275 at its slaved weapons console.
"Good point. I must ask maintenance why I keep asking you things. Hello, Commander, I'm detecting a large energy surge approximately 1000 km from the fleet."
"Give me a Visual." asked the only organic member of this Separatists Fleet, a Holwuff named Wogna.
"Roger Roger."
A second later an image appeared floating in front of the fleet commander, showing the area being disturbed and the unknown vortex of energies that resemble a violent purple, red storm spinning round a maelstrom.
"Check library files for any similar occurrences. What's the Republic fleet doing?" asked the Tactical Droid assisting the Fleet Commander.
"The Republic fleet is holding position sir..." said OOM541275. "...wait, something is emerging from the anomaly. It appears to be a number of ships sir."
Outside, the swirling vortex was indeed ejecting a number of vessels. They were slow and cumbersome when compared to anything else in the system, but they were massive. The smallest being 1,300 metres long and the largest being 12 km. All were giant slabs of metal. Sheer sided with flat dorsals and keels. The vessels over 8 km had huge towers sprouting from their sterns just before their engineering areas and nearly all had pointed bows like a dagger. 4 vessels were different, with large boxy forward sections. In a large, slow, graceful arch, all the ships moved into formation and faced off against the Separatist Fleet.
"Nothing in the ships database is a match for those vessels sir." said OOM224561 at the bridges library and diagnostics console.
"A possible first contact situation." said TX72, addressing the organic commander.
"Try and establish communications." said Commander Wogna.
"Roger Roger, sending universal greetings in all mediums" reported OOM320349 at the communications console.
"Also include a live message from myself." said Wogna as he activated a floating video drone.
/
"We are receiving a vox transmission from the unknown fleet orbiting the moon of the 5th planet..." reported one of the serfs from the vox area of the massive bridge of the Eternal Flame. "...the information consists of mathematical formulas, basic pictographs, and a number of xeno dialects."
"Send the information to the Machined Blade, request a full examination of the message" ordered Core.
"Yes My Lord."
"Auspex, evaluate this systems occupants" ordered Core again.
"Data collection under way. Ready for your review at the command hololith" replied another serf.
Cores` hand moved for the second time in nearly 2 weeks. He began to manipulate the controls of the hololith as Tech-priests around the device preyed and reverently preformed delicate adjustments to the device as their rights demanded.
A tactical overview of the entire orbital plain of the 5th planet and its moon appeared.
"3 distinct groups of vessels" commented Tektra.
"So it would appear at first glance. Note the trajectories however." commented Core.
Tektra looked at the display noting each groups trajectory information.
"Has my Master asked you to instruct me Grand Master? Is that why I was assigned to your fleet?" asked Tektra.
"Instruction never ends. What do you see?" asked Core.
"The larger group is orbiting the moon, the smallest is moving towards the planet from what would be the others previous position at approximately -13 minutes. The last group is currently holding position relative to the moon, but are well outside the orbital plain. I would surmise that the smaller group came from the larger, maybe on a patrol. The largest is this systems guardians and the 3rd group are inbound, perhaps to resupply or reinforce, and they are holding station waiting for orders due to our arrival" said Tektra, her expression a little eager.
"A fair assessment given their disposition. Now look closer and tell me about each group in turn" instructed Core.
Tektra leaned over and manipulated the controls in front of Core, who didn't move to grant her easier access. The image showed the largest and closets group first.
"58 vessels, escort mass and lighter..." Tektra zoomed in the image to focus on the largest vessel. It was relatively long when compared to its fellows with a pointed bow and a dorsal fin that reached away from the vessel by about a 3rd of its overall length. "...they make prolific use of turreted laser based weaponry, although a number of small scale missile launchers appear to be evident. There is also a broadside hanger amidships. No massed weapons. A system defence fleet, nothing more" concluded Tektra as she focused on the smallest group. "...These are strike craft for that defence fleet. Very small, and very fast..." Tektra focused on the last group and paused for a second before continuing her evaluation of the auspex contacts. "...These vessels are different. They aren't members of the other fleet. The design philosophy is different. 36 vessels, of escort mass and lighter again. They also appear to be divided into 3 sub-formations. Their own strike craft are holding around the larger vessels, maybe small carriers..." Tektra focused on one of the larger vessels. A large triangular shaped vessel with its own dorsal fin that separated into 2 domes. "...Similar weapon load outs for these vessels. It's possible we've stumbled into a little war. Why haven't these vessels tried to contact us as well?" concluded Tektra.
"Why not indeed Inquisitor? I concur with your assessment. These forces were about to engage in combat and our appearance has given both sides pause."
"How can you know that for certain? It was only an idea, they maybe allies to each other" offered Tektra.
"I have more than the auspex of this mighty vessel to complete my picture of this theatre of war. I can feel the cool focus and muted anger on the smaller fleets vessels. Soldiers man them, and they are ready to commit violence, I can also feel something else. Although I can not explain what it is? I can only detect a faint trace of life within the other fleet. I can not explain why... Tactical, note the call signs I am assigning to the fleets in system" said Core as he again manipulated the controls of the hololith.
"My Lord. The Machined Blade is transmitting its conclusions regarding the vox transmission from fleet Alpha. It is ready for your perusal" reported one of the serfs at the vox station.
Core again manipulated the controls of the hololith and brought up the information from the Machined Blade. The summary read; `A diplomatic greeting with a number of universal constants linked to xeno languages.`
"A message for establishing contact between newly met xeno races?" questioned Tektra.
"It would appear so. Although many lost colonies of man have developed unique languages." commented Core as he activated a newly translated video massage.
"Greeting from the Confederacy of Independent Systems. My name is Wogna, and I welcome you to the Caramm Star System..." The aliens message continued for a few seconds before Core turned it off with a slow, deliberate depression of the runes on the hololith controls. He stopped listening to the message as soon as the hairy aliens head and shoulders appeared on the hololiths display. Anything this xeno had to say instantly became meaningless.
"Xenos!" spat Tektra.
"Vox. What was the source of this transmission?" demanded Core.
"One of the larger vessel's within fleet Alpha My Lord. The fleets formation indicates it maybe the flagship."
Core opened a vox channel himself, to all the ships under his command.
"All ships, our duty calls. Action Stations."
/
"Protocol requires us to attempt contact with unknown races" said Yularen as Skywalker paced back and forth behind the armoured windows on his bridge. His eyes glued to the tiny specs floating around Caramm V's moon. Yularen had been trying to send the universal Republic greeting messages ever since the unknown fleet appeared and Skywalker had ordered him to hold all transmissions baring intrafleet. The Resolute and her companion vessels also hadn't moved since Skywalker gave the order to heave-to.
"I know the Protocol" snapped Skywalker. He'd been moody ever since the unknown fleet arrived. If Yularen didn't know better he would have sworn that Skywalker was scared.
"What is it about this fleet? They're large and we've detected very powerful laser weaponry, but that doesn't mean they're hostile" asked Yularen.
"It's not the fleet itself Admiral..." said Asoka. "...The force is so strong around those ships. I've never felt such power, and the way it feels? It's wrong."
"Admiral, General. The unknown fleet is repositioning, they appear to be coming about" said one of the clones on the bridge.
"Are they leaving? Have they increased engine power?" asked Yularen.
"I'm not reading an increase in main drive power sir."
"Plot a course for Coruscant. Ready Hyperdrive engines, and recover our strike craft. Order the rest of the fleet to do the same" said Skywalker, he'd stopped pacing and was staring intently at the cluster of specs through the armoured window.
"Yes sir" said one of the Clones.
"Why? They aren't taking any hosti..." started Yularen.
Before he could finish speaking however, Yularen saw the tiny flashes of light amongst the Separatist Fleet. Up close those small flashes would be massive fire balls that engulfed entire droid warships.
"Record everything." ordered Skywalker. His gaze not diverting from the battle that suddenly started around Caramm Vs moon.
"Projection. Now..!" ordered Yularen, and the holographic projector displayed the unfolding fight in crisp detail. "...They have projectile cannons mounted in their broadsides. That's why they started to come about."
Skywalker left the bridge windows and joined Yularen at the holographic display, Asoka beside him. They watched as one of the smaller ships fired its laser weapon, smashing one of the Separatist Cruisers shields into nothingness and sending it spinning out of control, every unknown ship fired building sized explosive shells after building sized explosive shells into the Separatist Fleet. No shield could take the unstoppable kinetic force being unleashed. It was like this unknown was throwing exploding asteroids at the Separatists. The return fire from the Separatist Fleet was slow and sporadic, and seemed next to useless against the shielding used by these unknown vessels.
/
"Return fire is ineffectual, low yield laser weaponry." Reported one of the serfs.
"Incoming fire is not triggering our Void capacitors. Missiles are as nothing to our armour. The blessing of the Omnissiah are upon us. Shielding the faithful against the Techno-heretic" stated one of the dozens of Tech-priests preying all over the bridge of the Eternal Flame in their rapid binary bursts.
"Our Voids maybe proof against their weapons, but our assault craft lack such gifts..." said Core, mostly to himself. "...Advance the Proceeding Echo and her escorts into the mist of this xeno fleet. They are to prepare a full strike craft boarding. Hold launch until they are alongside their command ship."
"Aye My Lord."
"All other vessels are to provide covering fire and destroy all other xenos vessels."
"Xenos strike craft have come about My Lord."
"That's a problem. We're only carrying Stormravens and Thunderhawks." said Inquisitor Tektra.
"They will suffice. Our divine chariots will rise to the challenge. Scrabble all strike craft and order the Chariot of Providence to do the same, their orders are to engage the incoming xenos fighters."
"Aye My Lord. Relaying orders to launch bays."
/
The Strike cruiser, Proceeding Echo moved away from the bulk of the Imperial Fleet with her escort of frigates and destroyers holding tight all around her as they maintained their punishing rate of fire. The firing of their colossal weapons destroying their smaller opponents out right while shattering the shields of the Separatist battleships and leaving them disabled, helpless prey for another salvo. The rest of the Grey Knight fleet maintained a cordon of fire around the Proceeding Echo and her escorts as they closed in on the origin point of the transmission sent to the Eternal Flame. It took less than 5 minutes for the massive bombardment from the Grey Knight fleet to reduce all but the target of the Proceeding Echo to floating debris. Dozens of Thunderhawks and Stormravens were now launching from the launch bays of the Eternal Flame, and the Chariot of Providence. The Proceeding Echo held her strike craft for her impending boarding action. Unlike Imperial Voids, the shields of these xenos ships rejected everything. When the time came the Proceeding Echo would force entry through the xenos launch bays.
Even if the Strike Craft from the Proceeding Echo joined its fellows, they would still be out numbered nearly three to one. They would have to rely on the sturdy construction of their craft and the holy weapons at the Astartes pilots command to achieve victory against their faster and smaller opponents. The Imperial strike craft scattered on their approach forcing the Separatist fighters to dilute their fire power as they tried to hit as many targets as possible, while the heavy bolters and las cannons of the Stormravens and Thunderhawks exploded amongst their opponents. The bolter rounds smashing the shields and then hulls of the fighters to debris in a dozen hits. While the over kill of the las cannons smashed the Separatist fighters to rapidly spinning confetti. The return fire sent thousands of sparks flying off the gunships that were hit, but were unable to penetrate the thick armour. Only the odd engine and weapon sponson going dead as lucky hits found weak points where the armour didn't cover. Then they were in amongst each other, dodging and weaving at speeds that strained even the cyborg bodies of the servitors wired into the weapons of the strike crafts, backs would have been broken if not for the support harness holding them in place. The Thunderhawks and Stormravens couldn't match the manoeuvres of the small and nimble Separatist fighters. The turreted weapons on the strike craft and the thick armour of their hides were the only reasons the gunships were able to hold their own against the vast fleet of Separatist fighters, and little by little they whittled down their opposition.
More Thunderhawks and Stormravens burst from the launch bays of the Proceeding Echo, they blasted everything around the landing bay on the Separatist Ship in the first second of launching with bolter shells, las cannon blasts and missile strikes. By the second second the 3 Thunderhawks and 6 Stormravens had burst through the atmospheric shields around the launch bays and began deploying their cargoes of Grey Knights.
/
These things are pathetic. Thought Justicar Alban as he shattered one of the robotic abominations with the shaft of his Nemesis Helbard, sending the pieces of his foe scattering down the robot ships alleyway.
"Adjoining sections to the launch bay secure Brother-Justicar. These heretics are ineffective, they approach piecemeal" reported Brother Lajos from his position at one of the large hatches leading into the ship. His heavy psycannon in both hands and the front of his power armour sorting several scorch marks from the laser weapons used by these Men of Iron. The decking was more heavily damaged, it was like these things barely bothered to aim.
The 30 Grey Knights that boarded the ship soon discovered they massively outmatched these cheap reproductions of humanities divine form. Only a pair of Grey Knights guarded each of the dozen entrances into this launch bay, hundreds of these things littered the alleyways already. Apart from some sort of rolling machine that deployed small voids and required Krak grenades to breach. Since then, those things were destroyed with bolter fire before they came to a stop. All the other things were wrecked with ease.
"Looks like the conveyor belt of abominations have come to a halt Brother-Justicar. No movement on auspex. It feels odd, feeling unclean just being here, yet with cleanly surroundings. At least cleanly before we arrived." reported Tech-marine Odakota, as the auspex on one of his mechadendrite arms folded back behind his back. Alban could almost hear the ghost of a smile in his brother marines odd jest.
"I understand Brother. Secure access to this ships abominable intelligence. Disable any further internal defences. Brothers to forward, press ahead and cleanse the forward sections of this ship, Brothers to aft, hold here. We press aft when the forward sections are secure." Alban marched away from the hatches, underneath the hovering Stormravens and into one of the idling Thunderhawks to report his squads progress on securing the heretic ship.
/
"What the hell are these things?! I've seen shorter Wookies!" shouted Wogna as he watched these giants breach and secure the cavernous hanger bay of his ship and begin to press forward towards the bow of his ship in minutes.
"Unknown. Armour, weapons, vehicles and iconography do not match anything in our databases. They were extremely proficient in securing the landing bay and have dispatched a 3rd of our standing force with apparent ease." commented TX72.
"Could they be some sort of augmented Jedi?" asked Wogna.
"Unlikely. Augmentation and genetic experimentation are contrary to the beliefs of the Jedi Order."
"Send in some protocol droids to try and make contact, spread them out, maybe they'll find one of them that doesn't shoot on sight. Have all our battledroids muster at the command deck access points. If they don't respond to talk, we'll present a solid line of defence." ordered Wogna as he used his console to create a report on what was happening before sending it to General Grievous.
These things were a definite and clear threat, and have destroyed hundreds of battledroids in minutes.
10 minutes later, the tactical droid turned to the commander.
"Sir. The sections of the ship forward of the hanger bay have been lost to the unknown enemy. They have begun moving aft. All protocol droids that we sent out were destroyed on sight. I calculate that they will secure the entire ship with in the next 5 minutes." The lights started to slightly flicker and then all the consoles on the bridge went out. Followed by a string of useless chatter from the droids manning those consoles as they all asked the droid next to them if they knew what was going on.
"Bridge consoles are now out commander..." said TX72. "...Odds are good that our intruders have gained control of our systems."
Wogna closed his eyes and sighed into the palm of his right hand.
"What do you suggest TX72?"
"The fleet is lost. The ship has been boarded and is minutes away from capture. We have insufficient time and resources to mount an effective defence of the bridge. I cannot calculate a progression that will lead to a favourable outcome."
"When will they intercept our defenders at the base of the spire?"
"Unknown commander. It is possible they have already destroyed our defenders. Contact has been lost."
A loud bang sounded from the aft bridge hatch just after TX72 finished speaking. A huge hand print appeared in the hatch, and the fingers slowly began to curl inwards stressing the metal that complained by whining loudly. After the hand print became a fist, the hatch was wrenched from its mountings and thrown into the bridge. Shattering several of the droids on one side of the bridge. All the beings, alive and artificial, were standing when one of the giant silvery armoured warriors entered the bridge with deliberate slowness. Its massive footfalls echoing around the bridge as it advanced towards Wogna, its armour flashing, displaying the silver and gold in the flickering lights. Its massive weapons held menacingly and ready for immediate use. Others were following it into the bridge and spreading out.
"Destroy the abominable intelligences, I will take the alien to the Inquisitor." Wogna couldn't tell where the voice had come from, but he involuntarily started backing away. Knowing that the hard and dangerous voice promised something terrible when he was captured. The formation of armoured giants shifted, and spread out. One of them was walking straight towards Wogna, everything else became blocked out. The swift destruction of every droid on the bridge and the only thing Wogna was aware of was the cold blue unwavering lenses in the helmet of the giant warrior as it closed on him.
/
"30 minutes. From the first shot being fired to the capture of the Separatist Flagship. 30 minutes" said Yularen, mostly to himself as he watched the holographic display. Clearly in awe of the fire power and efficiency of this unknown fleet.
Skywalker and Asoka were watching intently also, however, worry was the expression on their faces.
"Bring the fleet about. Return us to Coruscant. I must report to the council" said Skywalker.
"Aye sir."
"What is this Master? So wrong, yet familiar." asked Asoka as Yularen and the clones went about the tasks required for leaving the star system.
"I don't know Snips, but I'll bet good money that the council will have felt this too." answered Skywalker as he moved up to the forward window to watch the unknown fleet disappear as his ships came about.
/
"Men of Iron?" asked Inquisitor Tektra as she listened in to the communications between Core and Alban.
"That's correct Inquisitor. Although how these things ever challenged mankind is beyond my understanding." said Alban over the vox channel.
"Such understanding is best left to the Mechanicus noble Grey Knight..." said Magos Vejra. Head of the Tech-priests among the fleet and captain of the Machined Blade. He was aboard his ship at present, listening in and commenting as required. "...Grand Master Core, I think it best the ship be turned over to my order. We are best equipped to deal with the heresys that are obviously abound aboard that vessel."
"I agree honoured Magos. I would ask to be kept informed" said Core. His request obviously an order, just a diplomatic one.
"Of course. I will begin dispatching shuttles with priests and skitarii to begin securing and cleansing the ship." Vejra then closed the channel.
"Brother Captain. One xeno was aboard, it appeared to be in command" said Alban.
"Must be the one from the video message." commented Tektra.
"We have secured the creature Inquisitor. Believing you would wish to interrogate it before its destruction."
"Excellent Justicar. Bring it to the Eternal Flame. Here's hoping it can tell us why we're here?" said Tektra. The last sentence directed to Core.
"Begin your withdraw Justicar. Your work for now is done."
"Yes Grand Master."
"Auspex. Status of the other fleet in system?" asked Core.
"They have come about and... they have gone" said one of the Serfs on the bridge. His tone at the end peaking Cores interest, a ghost of a feeling. Confusion.
"Gone how? We are too far in system to safely jump to warp space." said Tektra
"True My Lady. The vessels in question disappeared. Visuals confirm."
"Replay the Auspex sweeps. Go over every piece of information and determine how they disappeared" ordered Core.
"Yes My Lord."
"I don't know of any stealth Technology that would render a ship visually invisible" commented Tektra.
"Nor I Inquisitor, distort yes, but render invisible? However I can no longer sense the minds of the soldiers I felt earlier. It would appear that the ships have...gone."
"My Lord. It appears that the ships of fleet Beta accelerated to faster than light speeds. Just before we lost contact, our auspex returns from them became distorted. The distortion is consistent with effects coursed by Hyper-luminous travel" report one of the Serfs.
"Interstellar travel without the warp? What a dream" breathed Inquisitor Tektra.
"Indeed Inquisitor. If memory serves, the soulless Necrons possess similar Technology" commented Core.
"If memory serves? Has one of your number ever forgotten anything?" asked Tektra.
"Only our past Inquisitor..." said Core, and for the first time in 2 weeks he takes a step. "...When you interrogate the alien, I ask that you question it about what was aboard fleet Beta. The feeling I felt still lingers. If you'll excuse me Inquisitor. Serf, take the con, prepare a full damage report for my return" said Core as he walked thunderously out of the massive bridge. Each foot step echoing like thunder.
"Aye My Lord" said one of the Serfs in reply. Tektra assumed some sort of hierarchy was in place so that the Serf who spoke knew it was he that was being given the con. Tektra then left the bridge also. She had some people to brief before meeting her soon to be guest.
/
Wogna resisted as best as he could, but he may as well have not struggled at all. The grip around his throat was as unmoving as iron, and despite his thrashing, his capture didn't miss a single step. He had been taken from his bridge to one of the assault craft used to broad his ship and was simply held in the air by the warrior with its hand around his throat for the brief journey. He was dragged through a cavernous launch bay and down massive arching alleyways until he and his capture entered a small clinically clean room. He was held in place as horrendous cyborgs manacled him to a small metal table. His wrists, ankles, and head were bound tight. He was unable to move any of his limbs.
When he was secure the cyborgs and the giant warrior left. They hadn't uttered a word to each other, in fact no one and nothing had said anything to him or each other since he first saw them.
There wasn't much in this room. Just this table, and a few waist high tables on wheels with nothing on them, and a chair right opposite him between him and the door.
A long time passed. Wogna had no idea how long, at least a couple of hours. No means of recording time was present in the room and there was no noise or anything that may give the impression of the passage of time. He'd been aching for hours, being forced to remain in this pose, arms at full stretch to his sides, and his legs fully stretched a little more than shoulder width apart.
The hatch wheel in the middle of the door suddenly started to spin rapidly and the hatch opened.
A young human woman walked in and sat on the chair next to the door, 3 other women of various looking ages walked in after her. 2 walked to the 2 small waist high tables on wheels and placed small metal cases on top of each, they wore white robes with an unknown 3 pointed symbol on their left breast and a tattoo on their left cheek, also a torch emblem on their left arm. The 3rd walked limply with a large rough looking walking stick, and dark robes with a hood over her head and a collar round her neck. She stood next to the first woman to enter. She clearly wore what she wanted while the others seemed to have a uniform to wear. She wore a tight black top that from the waist down became a long dress, and spiralling all over her cloths were golden words in a language that Wogna didn't recognise.
"Do you understand me, alien?" asked the seated woman.
"I do. Why did you attack us? Why have you taken me..."
"You will only answer my questions. You will not voice your own. Do you understand?" interrupted the seated woman.
"I will not submit to you..." answered Wogna. The seated woman started to reach out towards the robed woman with the walking stick. "...The Confederacy of In...AGGGGHHHH." yelled Wogna. Pain, like he'd never felt flashed through his body. As it subsided he was left panting and sweating. The robed woman looked down at the woman that was seated.
"That was fast. Even pampered nobles can stand more than that..." the seated woman gestured to the robed woman next to her. "...This is Alice, she is my assistant and a Psyker. She just convinced your body that you were on fire. You will only answer my questions. You will not voice your own. Do you understand?" asked the seated woman again.
Wogna looked at the other two women next to him, and then back to the seated one.
"I understand."
A small smile flashed up on the seated woman's face.
"Good. When we arrived there was another fleet inside this star system. Who were they?"
Wogna looked around confused. Why was this human asking about the Republic? Why wasn't she asking him about Separatist fleet movements or droid army deployments?
"You want to know about the Galactic Republic? They are our enemy. We fight them to gain our independence..." the woman's face soured instantly, but she waited for Wogna to finish before looking at the woman with the cane. "...Wait!? No! I AGGGGGGGHHHHH" yelled Wogna as a flash of fresh pain flared through his entire body.
"You will only answer my questions. You will not voice your own. Do you understand?"
"Yes! Yes I do."
"I hope so..." said the woman as she smiled slightly again. "...what can you tell me about this Galactic Republic?" asked the seated woman.
"It's a representative democracy made up of thousands of worlds that has existed for 25 thousand years."
The woman's eyebrows shot up at that last statement.
"25 millennia?" asked the woman.
"Yes."
"Impressive. Doubly impressive that a democracy could last that long. What do you know about the fleet that was here specifically? Do you know the identity of the commanders?" asked the seated woman.
"The lead vessel was the Resolute. Commanded by a Jedi Knight called Skywalker. A formidable warrior and a powerful Jedi. The number of Republic vessels would suggest 2 other Jedi Knights. I do not know who." said Wogna, a little panic entering his voice when he realised he couldn't give a complete answer.
"No need to panic. You won't be made to feel pain for not giving information you don't possess. The Commander of this fleet, felt something from those other ships. Could it be these Jedi?" asked the woman, she leaned forward slightly, as if sensing that she drew near to her goal.
"Possible. Although I've only ever heard of force users being able to detect other force users." the woman leaned forward more and stroked her nose with one of her index fingers obviously in thought. After a second, the random but recognisable expressions on her face vanished and was replaced with a mask of indifference with a hint of disgust.
"Sisters, begin your work. Learn everything you can about this thing. Down to the smallest microbe and cell."
The seated woman and the one with the cane then left the chamber.
The 2 women left with Wogna adjusted the table he was laying on to the horizontal and began arranging small silver tools on their tables. They both moved to his head, one of them was carrying a small delicate looking probe, while the other brandished a small circular saw that began to buzz slightly as it started to spin.
"NO! I answered your questions. I told you everything you wanted to know. Let me go! Please! AGHHH..."
Wognas protests, screams, begging, and pleading fell on deaf ears as the saw came into contact with his forehead and slowly started the process of removing his brain case.
/
The Reclusiam on board the Eternal Flame was quiet. It was always quiet. This is where Grey Knights came to prey, in the presences of the Chapters Champions and Founders. Depictions of these mighty heroes hung from the towering arched deckhead, or were rendered in ice taken from Titans surface and kept at its low temperature by the complex climate control equipment fitted into every Reclusiam aboard every ship, station and monastery claimed by the Grey Knights. At the end of the chamber was the original founder of the Grey Knights. The Emperor, his statue rendered in shining gold, and flickering slightly due to the smaller silver statue of Malcador the Hero with his ever burning staff. Smaller than every other statue in the room, but at the Emperors side.
Most Space Marine Chapters had a single Reclusiam, situated at the heart of their Fortress-Monasteries, or on their Fleets Flagship. They were used for housing their most prised relics and were considered the domains of the Chapters Chaplains. The Grey Knights had no Chaplains, they don't need their faith scrutinised. A Grey Knights faith is unshakable and without doubt. They used the Reclusiams as spiritual anchoring points and simply as places to pray.
Core was kneeling before the statue of Malcador and the Emperor. His soul reaffirming his faith in himself, his brothers and his Emperor, while his mind used this place as a spiritual anchor for examining the Realm of Chaos. It churned, it spun, it flowed, it violently clashed, and it claimed and then churned again. Always shifting, always changing, yet eternal and constant.
Yet it couldn't touch him. Something was shielding him. The daemons of the warp past over him and every other soul in his fleet as if they weren't there. Why? What was protecting them?
"Your interrogation did not last long Inquisitor." said Core as Tektra rounded the huge open hatch that lead into this chamber.
"That things ship will tell us more than it ever could. Also, I believe I've learned the information you wanted and saw no further need to remain in its damnable presence." said Tektra as she walked across the hallowed chamber towards the Grand Master.
"There are always further questions Young Inquisitor. I remember that your former Master held an Eldar witch captive for 30 years while he was hunting a pack of Traitor Marines and Daemons around the Storm of Judgement. He constantly questioned her in case a nugget of truth escaped her lips. Only after his task was done and she could not possibly be of any more use, did he destroy her." commented Core, his entire form not moving even a millimetre as he talked.
"Be that as it may, the deed is now done. If it isn't dead already, it soon will be."
"Indeed..." Core stood and turned to face the Inquisitor as she came to a stop a metre away from the giant warrior. "...what was aboard the ships in fleet Beta?"
"Jedi. An order of warriors that serve something called the Galactic Republic. I believe them to be Psykers, and I believe they are what you sensed. Although here, they call it the Force." answered Tektra.
"Mortals?" asked Core. Tektra paused for a second before answering.
"I don't know."
"There are always further questions. Remember this Young Inquisitor. We should return to the Bridge. Our post-battle assessment should be complete by now." said Core as he began to walk thunderously towards the huge door leading towards the rest of his ship.
/
Core thundered onto his bridge and stood in the exact same place he had been standing for the previous 2 weeks. His bridge crew non-reactive to his presence, so well trained were they. If he'd been anything that they considered hostile every serf on the bridge would be charging toward him with weapons drawn in an instant, with the same non-expressive look on their indoctrinated faces.
"Serf. Post-battle assessment." ordered Core, as Tektra came up beside him.
One of the Serfs turned and started to walk towards Core with a data-slate. Core held up his hand.
"Deliver the report orally, so as the Inquisitor may hear its contents."
"Aye Lord..." the Serf just stopped in his tracks and began to read from the Data-slate. "...All capital vessels emerged unscathed from the void conflict. Point of note, The Proceeding Echos' Void shield capacitor discharged during combat due to sustained and intense enemy fire. 4 Thunderhawks were downed while on sortie, 1 Knight was lost. The remains of the craft are being recovered by the Machined Blade. No loses during the boarding of the hostile enemy ship." finished the Serf.
"So their weapons aren't entirely ineffectually." commented Tektra.
"Indeed. Serf, did they report armour damage?"
"Minor scorching to ablative layers My Lord. No loss of capability."
"So with enough numbers, they could oppose us. Concentrate their fire power and destroy the fleet one vessel at a time." said Tektra.
"Yes. However they would require hundreds of ships to guaranty their victory against us, and their losses would be near debilitating." answered Core.
"Perhaps, but they use Men of Iron as their solders. They could have legions to spare."
"Serf. How far along is the Machanicus inspection of the heretic ship?" asked Core.
"A preliminary analysis of the vessels hull, propulsion, weapons, and control systems are already well under way and a summary should be available in a few days. An in depth assessment will not be available for at least another week."
Core nodded and activated the hololith, bringing up a view of the entire star system.
"Only the 5th planet in this system is habitable. We will make it our staging area in this region of space. There is no telling how long we will be here and we only have supplies to last us a few decades. Serf, order the fleet to the 5th planet. We will claim it in our Emperors name. Purify it of its occupying filth. Then turn it to our own glorious purpose..." Core turned to the young Inquisitor. "...Inquisitor, I ask that you take command and prosecute the void war. I will lead my Brothers and the Storm Troopers."
"Very well. Good hunting Grand Master." said Tektra.
"It will be no hunt Inquisitor. Nothing on that planet can challenge us. It will be a simple slaughter." said Core, his tone resigned to what must be done in the Emperors name. It would not be the first time he had lead the slaughter of an innocent world. He knew it wouldn't be the last. He also knew that it was completely necessary.
/
Ado Eemon watched helplessly as his vast hordes of HMP gunships, the hangers that housed and maintained them and his army of Droid and pirate allies disappeared in a second. Huge columns of smoke and dust that were visible from orbit and dotted all over the planet marking the locations of where his forces were mustering, readying themselves to meet the fleet that destroyed the Guard Fleet that had been orbiting his planets moon just 1 hours before. All of them now gone. All that was left was his personal guard. A hundred gunships and a battalion of Battledroids gifted to him from Count Dooku. This unknown enemy had, for now, left the planets manufacturing centres untouched. Luckily Ados' Palace was located on top of the largest facility. It was only a matter of time however until these aggressors launched ground forces to take their prize. On a wall mounted monitor he watched the colossal warships move around his world.
Ados' holographic communications panel started flashing and buzzing to draw his attention and after accepting the call, Count Dookus image appeared.
"Ado. General Grievous has informed me that the Guard Fleet stationed in your system has gone dark. Explain to me what has happened to my warships." said Dooku in his soft, reasonable tone that he always has. His tiny holographic form looking up at Ado with piercing eyes.
"They have been destroyed Count Dooku. By an unknown fleet of massive warships that is now laying siege to my world. Nearly all the gunships are gone, destroyed from orbit. It'll only be a matter of time before they launch ground forces to seize the planet. I need support."
"What do you have on these aggressors? Forward all the information you have collected so far." ordered the Count.
"I'm transferring everything to you now. How long do you..." the wall monitor displaying the hostile fleet in orbit of Caramm V started buzzing an alarm loudly. Ado turned to it and watched as a cluster of objects detached from the largest of the unknown warships. The one directly above his Palace. These things were on a ballistic trajectory straight for him. "...They've launched something at my palace."
"Transports?" asked Dooku.
"I don't think so. It's a ballistic trajectory. Must be a bombardment..." Ado watched as the objects moved slightly off the track they should be following. "...They've altered course. They must be missiles. They're seconds away. I'll keep transmitting as long as I'm able." said Ado just before his world was shattered to pieces around him. The ceiling had caved in throwing dust and debris everywhere. He was thrown from in front of the comms panel and landed several feet away covered from head to toe in the remains of his control room. He turned and saw a massive shape in the dust. 10 metres tall, and at least 5 wide. It seemed to explode outwards and what seemed like a hammer blow rocked his palace as giant petals crashed into the floor.
Ado watched in awed horror as a giant silver warrior walked towards him. 2 and a half metres tall and full of menace, but it shined. What little light there was in the dust covered chamber shone off the warriors armour. The gold worked into it glittering, and pieces of wax secured paper waving as it walked. Its weapons held as if relaxed swaying with it arms as it walked and the 2 blue lenses in its helmet holding firm on Ado, and they held him in place.
Without ceremony, and faster than Ado could see, his head was separated from his shoulders and it rolled away into the debris.
"Very impressive." said Count Dooku. His tiny holographic representation standing firm as the giant approached the panel.
"Know this. This world belongs to the Emperor. Come here, and you die." said the warrior. Its tone deep, powerful, and completely honest. It then raised its shinning blue sword and smashed the comms panel into pieces.
/
From aboard his personnel Munificent class warship, Count Dooku sat in the command chair on his bridge.
"Very Interesting." said the Count to himself.
"I'm sorry sir. Could you repeat that?" asked one of the battledroids manning the bridge.
"Transfer the data received from Caramm V to my chambers. Only disturb me for news of importance." Count Dooku then stood and left the bridge of the droid warship.
"You know, I don't think that's what he said." said the battledroid.
"Who cares? Just do what he told you." said the one sat next to it.
/
The battle for the Palace didn't take long. The drop-pods slammed into the Droid armies mustering station in the palace like an angry god smashing an insect. Crushing dozens of droids and damaging a number of their hovering missile platforms. Then the battle began in earnest. The pods exploded open and shinning giant figures tore from their confines. They were amongst the droids in a second and ripping the machines to shreds with their massive swords, pole-arms and hammers. When the droid army finally turned to engage, several seconds later. The Grey Knights were already deep within their ranks. Sparks flew from the giants armour, and it took time and concentrated fire to even give the Grey Knights pause. Explosions started to pop up all over the hanger as the HMP gunships finally brought their weapons into the fight. Missiles and lasers flew everywhere as the gunships covered the battlefield with fire. Grey Knights went flying, only to pick themselves up again, despite some of them missing limbs or being scorched nearly to a cinder. The Knights drew together into groups of 5 or 10 and fired their own weapons for the first time in this battle. Although a number of Grey Knights simply disappeared.
Unlike their opponents, the fire from the Grey Knights was pin-point accurate and each group concentrated its fire on a single gunship. The Gunships were covered in small explosions as the mass reactive shells hammered into the gunships hulls. They started to fell from the sky as vital components were hit or un-launched missiles struck.
Then the Grey Knights fell. Those that disappeared a second ago reappeared and fell upon the gunships. Their fists drawn back ready to strike and glowing a radiant blue. They struck the gunships and their fists broke them to pieces. As they fell through the debris of their first victim they threw Krak Grenades at others they passed and blew them apart in giant explosions that threw debris in all directions.
The Hammer blow of the Grey Knights had fallen and the site was secure in just over a minute. Fire and debris was scattered everywhere and the remains of 3000 battledroids of varying classes littered the floor at the feet of the 40 Grey Knights that hammered the palace. Outside, Thunderhawks and Stormravens circled the palace factory destroying any weapon emplacement that dared to defy them, and now several were moving to land to see to the few Knights that had been wounded.
All the Grey Knights that remained fit marched out of the palace factory silently as giant transport ships descended from the sky filled with Inquisitorial Storm Troopers and their armoured transports and tanks. They would finish securing the factory and set up a headquarters before joining the Grey Knights in their slaughter of the confused, innocent population whose screams of terror and pain were just beginning.
/
General Wingtom Cember watched impassively as nearly a third of the fighting strength he commanded moved off to assist the Grey Knights in putting down the alien filth that polluted this world. 30 Chimera APCs armed with Heavy Flamers and Multi-lasers moved into the burning city supported by hundreds of troops. They would hunt down and destroy anything that was left in the Grey Knights wake. 20 Leman Russ Main Battle Tanks charged around the outskirts of the city in an effort to beat the Grey Knights to the other side. Trapping any would be escapees between the mighty guns of his tanks and the unstoppable blades of the Astartes. The rest of his force was rapidly assembling the prefabricated building blocks, which once put together, would form his command centre and allow him to coordinate every single man and woman under his command regardless of wherever they happened to be on the planet.
Cember would be damned before making an alien fortress his HQ. The still burning remains of the alien fortress behind him was servilely lacking in its defensive potential in Cembers opinion. Only a dozen laser batteries to defend itself with, and no voids. The small curtain wall surrounding the fortress only had clusters of weapon emplacements ever 100 meters with minimal overlapping fields of fire. A few well-placed rounds from a squadron of Basilisks` and Cember could march his entire army through the gaping hole created, unopposed. Cember expected that the floating missile platforms and the Men of Iron army inside were the real defence for the alien fortress.
When his HQ was fully complete it would rival an Imperial Guard Fortress. A curtain wall a hundred meters high with fixed anti-tank, anti-personnel, and anti-air weapon emplacements dotting every free surface, and behind that, purpose built tank dugouts for supporting artillery. Barracks for half a dozen regiments and hangers for 50 squadrons of tanks as well as 5 squadrons of Thunderbolts at the end of the small runway that Trojan engineering tanks were already in the process of creating. No fighter craft were available on this occasion, so the runway will most likely be used for Valkyries and the strike craft used by the Astartes, and for musters of the infantry and armour. To round off Cembers HQ in full was an impressive Void Shield Generator. Unfortunately Cember wouldn't be deploying his Command centre in its entirety. The Inquisitors instructions would indicate that they would be on the planet for only a few weeks, a month at the most. The curtain wall would be reduced to several dozen guard towers, each in its own right a small fortress, and barracks and hangers for only half his men and armour. The rest would either be on patrol around the base or on cleansing missions around the planet. The Void Shield would remain in orbit.
Cember looked to his right and saw a searing streak of light scream through the sky and impact over the horizon. A blinding flash and then Cember knew that another city like the one he was standing in was no more but a crater. Cember turned and walked to his partially complete command centre. Not yet complete since its internal power planet had yet to be transported down from the giant troop ship in orbit. ISTV42070 or its unofficial name, Ice Queen. A name coined generations ago when the life support system reset unexpectedly to 5 degrees below what every other human vessel maintains, and despite efforts to correct the problem the issue remains.
For the moment, power was supplied from one of the landing craft that brought down the majority of the command centres modular components.
Cember turned and marched towards his command centre. It was nearly time for the Inquisitor to contact him for an update, and she was always punctual. As he made his way through the command centre to its Command Information Centre located in the centre of the armoured structure the floor under his feet shook, the shockwave from the falling weapon he saw earlier finally reaching him. He saw hundreds of his men working under the guidance of Tech-priests. Securing wall sections, with ratchet spanners. Carrying Cogitator components for the CIC or briefing chambers. All of his men worked while still wearing their full carapace body armour with their weapons secured in their combat webbing on their backs. Most carried Hellguns, but the bulky presence of the odd multi-melter and flamer were also visible on specially trained troopers. He walked into the CIC and made straight for the Hololith tac-table in the centre of the large room. Tech-priests and troopers were everywhere, continuing the work of building Cembers` HQ.
"Tech-Priest..." said Cember to one of the Tech-priests walking all around him. His gravelly voice pitched low so that it wouldn't travel far, his men had work to do, and he grows tired quickly of always have to say `as you were`. "...We will shortly be contacted by Inquisitor Tektra. Begin the rites of activation for our communications system and the tac-table." ordered Cember.
"As you command." the Tech-priest moved to the hololith and started slightly turning knobs, pulling levels and pressing buttons with its 2 hands and 4 manipulators that unfolded from beneath its red robes. A scratching, buzzing sound started to emanate from the priest as it started reciting prayers and rites of activation and awakening in its rapid binary language.
A beeping started sounding from one of the consoles around the edge of the room. A trooper moved to it and put the headphones on.
"General sir. Inquisitor Tektra wishes to speak with you." said the Trooper.
"Transfer it to the tac-table." ordered Cember. His voice louder and filling the chamber this time. "Lord General On Deck!" shouted one of his troopers. All the troopers rapidly stood to attention.
"As you were." shouted Cembers as an acknowledgement.
The Trooper with the headphones formed the aquila in front of his chest and said a prayer to the machine before inputting commands and transferring the communications link to the tac-table.
A green, slightly fuzzy image of Inquisitor Tektras head and shoulders appeared from the tac-table.
"General. Update Please." asked Tektra.
"Rudimentary operations have been transferred from my command vehicle to the Command Centre..." as he was speaking, Cembers` brought up an update on construction of his HQ and the disposition of his forces. The data hovered next to Tektras head. "...Construction is still on schedule and is due to be completed at 0600 tomorrow, ships time. Roughly a third of my fighting strength has been deployed into the city to support the Grey Knights. Another third is engaged in construction, and the rest is on standby awaiting orders. I noticed a bombardment taking place My Lady, will my men be required to deploy?" asked Cembers`
"They will General. Grand Master Core has orders for you. Only two other cities are situated near this planets manufacturing centres. Minimal defences. Auspex data is being transferred to you as we speak. Those sites are to be secured and the cities made clean. The other population centres on this planet will be destroyed from orbit. I will leave the battle-plan in yours and the Grand Masters hands. He should be on his way to you soon. However I want to be kept informed."
"Very good My Lady. I'll begin preliminary planning immediately. Are there any other secondary objectives?" asked the General.
"Negative General. Capture the Factories and destroy the population. Inquisitor Tektra out." the image disappeared a second later.
Cembers` reached out a hand and stopped a random trooper who just happened to be walking by.
"Find Colonels Donalds` and Carthage. Bring them to me." ordered the General.
"Yes General Sir."
/
"I don't think I can describe it Master. It was the Force, but it was also unlike anything I have ever sensed." reported Skywalker to the assembled Masters of the Jedi Council in the Pinnacle Chamber at the top of the Jedi Temple. The Resolute and her fleets had returned to Coruscant and Skywalker had taken the first ship he could get and headed straight for the Temple as fast as he could.
"This is a disturbing development. If the war wasn't difficult enough, we now have an unknown group of Force Wielders with unknown intentions and motivations." said Master Windoo.
"Indeed. Descended, storm clouds have around the Caramm system. Lost, the population is." said Master Yoda, his eyes closing for a few seconds as he communed with the Force to learn about the people on Caramm V.
"Anakins liberation fleet wouldn't have been able to stand against this enemy in a stand up fight. However, looking at the logs you brought back. I think we could outmanoeuvre them, and it appears their ships have next to no armaments covering there sterns." said the holographic image of Master Kenobe.
"I noticed that too Master, but we have to assume they are aware of the weaknesses of their own vessels and will have tactics and fleet formations prepared accordingly." said Skywalker.
"The design philosophy of the vessels themselves is what causes me the greatest concern..." said Master luminara. "...They appear designed to take and reciprocate great amounts of punishment. Those ships are giant hammers meant to smash everything they come across with brute force, but what do they come across that requires such force and endurance?"
"We will need superior numbers, but we will have our own advantage if it comes to conflict. Speed." said Master Windoo.
"True, but the ships to face this foe, we do not have. Needed they are, on the front lines." said Yoda.
"We need more intelligence about these people. A recon mission maybe on the cards here." said Master Fistoe.
"Agreed. Skywalker, you will take your ship and return to the Caramm system. You will learn everything you can about this group without being detected." said Master Windoo, with emphasis on the `without` part.
"The Stealth Ship, available for your use, it is." informed Yoda.
"Understood Masters. The Resolute will depart in the morning." with that Skywalker turned and left the Council chamber to prepare his cruiser.
"Is sending Anakin wise? His not exactly subtle." said Kenobe.
"A learning experience for young Skywalker this will be. Force of arms, rarely the only option it is."
"I would say `force of arms`, is all these strangers know." said Luminara before her image disappeared.
/
The Resolute dropped out of Hyperspace much further from the star Caramm then it did the last time that ship visited this star system. The Hyperspace course she followed to get here was an intricate example of navigational art. Weaving around the various systems and obstacles baring her way and exiting hyperspace right behind the gas giant of Caramm XI with Caramm V obscured out of sensor view behind Caramm XI massive bulk.
The lone Venator class Star Destroyer was to remain hidden here, while Skywalker, Asoka, and the small crew of the stealth ship ventured in system to find out all they could about the force occupying this star system.
After several hours of flight, the small ship was approaching Caramm VA.
"They have moved to the planet Master." said Asoka as she scrutinised the sensor panel behind Skywalkers pilot seat.
"So it appears. Scan the planet Asoka. Try and find any transmissions."
"On it Master."
"General. Most of their ships are holding orbit around the planet using some sort of magnetic tether. It appears to be holding the ships in position using the planets Geomagnetic field." commented one of the clones.
"Really. Why? Why not just maintain orbit using its mass and their inertia..?" questioned Skywalker. "...what's their engine status?"
"Minimal power. I would say their engines are on standby?" answered the clone. His tone confused.
"Then how do they correct their positions if their engines are...off" said Asoka, shrugging.
"They must use those tethers." said Skywalker.
"Like an anchor. The planets Geomagnetic field is the seabed and those tethers are the anchor holding them in place, letting the planet pull them around the star system..." said the clone, he looked round at Skywalker and Asoka who looked a little confused at the clone. "...Kaminos' a stormy water world. You think we wouldn't know about sea going ships?"
"Fine. That means they aren't prepared to manoeuvre. A fleet could jump in and attack with impunity." said Skywalker.
"A number of ships are still underway. They appear to be patrolling around the planet in a higher orbit." said Asoka.
"They may do this to conserve fuel?" said the Clone.
"Ok. We're moving in." said Skywalker as he brought the stealth ship closer to the `anchored` spaceships.
"And let me just guess which one you're going to have a closer look at." said Asoka.
"Why, the biggest one of course Snips. Where better to get the information about these people that we need?" asked Skywalker in a reasonable tone.
"Great. Giant killer spaceship here we come." said Asoka sarcastically.
"That's the spirit." said Skywalker, ignoring Asokas` tone completely.
The Stealth ship closed on the fleet of giant blocky warships without being detected, whatever scanners they used. The cloaking device appears to be proof against them.
"Master, I've completed scanning the planet. There's heavy cratering, and it appears the 3 cities that are left have been burnt to the ground. I am detecting some sort of transmissions. I'm only getting one that's being transmitted in the clear. It sounds like chanting?" said Asoka.
"Put it on." said Skywalker.
"can be no victory.
We have purpose.
Without the death, there can be no sacrifice.
We have purpose.
Without the ..."
"What is that?" asked the Clone as the words continued to come from the speakers in the walls.
"No idea. Sounds like nonsense to me. Turn it off Asoka, but record everything."
"With pleasure Master." the noise stopped.
"We're approaching the fleet." said Skywalker.
The stealth ship weaved its way through the flotilla of slab sided warships. Most were dark silver. Apart from a few emblems, golden script, and giant books impaled by swords. It appeared that the ships hadn't been painted. Just bear metal being exposed to the void. Massive engines were at the rear of each vessel and rows upon rows of weapons from cannons large enough for the stealth ship to park in, down to smaller rotary guns that must be used for point defence. Not much in the way of light escaped from the ships. Not a single window had been seen yet. 2 vessels stood apart however, both of them nearly 10 kilometres in length. One was near black with red highlights, covered from bow to stern in skull and cog symbols. The other was in more earthy tones, and was the easiest to see, shining a little with all the gold covering it. Especially the giant golden eagle atop the bow of the huge vessel.
"These things are huge. The Resolutes` a little shorter than even the smallest ship here."
"From what I can see though. We still have the upper hand in speed and manoeuvrability."
"There's the target Master." said Asoka as the massive form of the largest flying fortress appeared from behind one of the other ships.
"I see it. Moving in. See if you can find a docking port or an air lock." said Skywalker as the giant vessel grew in the forward windows.
"I've got an air lock on the Dorsal hull. Just forward of their conning tower. Our air lock won't be able to seat properly though. We'll need to spacewalk."
"No problem. Can avoid detection completely if we don't mate up. Suit up Asoka. Station keeping pilot when we're in position. Let's go buddy." ordered Skywalker as he brought the ship to a halt, hovering just above the hull of the massive 12 kilometre long warship. R2D2 beeped and whistled to itself as it followed Skywalker down the length of the tiny stealth vessel to its airlock.
/
"Is this thing made of stone..?" asked Asoka as she and Skywalker stealthed rapidly down the huge arching alleyways aboard this massive vessel as R2D2 jetted after them. The ship was more like a giant cathedral rather than a starship. Pillars reached up at least a dozen metres above their heads and were topped with small gargoyle statues. Despite the obviously Gothic atmosphere, the vessel was very light. White marble with flecks of black made up each pillar and all round light sources seemed to hover below the deckhead. "...Do you think this is why their vessels are so...unmanoeuvrable?"
"The weight of all this stone? I don't know? I wouldn't have thought anyone would be stupid enough to disadvantage their ships due to decoration." said Skywalker as he and Asoka paused at a corner while Skywalker checked for other people.
Skywalker openly gapped at what he saw coming down the alleyway towards them. When Asoka moved past her Master to look for herself what had given him pause, she gasped.
What was walking towards them was something that looked dead. No expression. No life. Just a flesh shell with mechanical implants forced into its body. No mind was present in that shell. It walked past on muscular legs contained in near rotting flesh. Its gait, awkward but mechanically sure. Seemingly not noticing the 2 intrudes.
"What was that thing?" asked Asoka, clearly disgusted.
"I have no idea..." said Skywalker, his disgust just as evident as Asokas. "...come on. We need to find a computer terminal for R2."
/
"Is this a detention area..?" asked Skywalker, mostly to himself. "...Could these be statues of giant guards to intimidate any prisoners..?" Skywalker and Asoka were moving down an alleyway. The rooms were a single room with a bed and a table. A shelf with a few very large books and small tools rapped in cloth. "...If not they're the worst cabins ever."
"I don't think these things are statues." Skywalker turned around and found Asoka jumping upwards and landing on one of the giant statues massive shoulders and then lifting up its helmet with considerable effort.
"Get down from there." hissed Skywalker as he entered the room.
"These things are hallow. I think they're suits of armour." said Asoka, clearly astonished.
Skywalker looked at the giant suit of armour and then back to Asoka.
"What could fill that thing? Wookies aren't even this big." said Skywalker.
Both he and Asoka then spun around, sensing the approach of someone. Huge thundering footsteps started echoing down the alleyway towards them.
"Get down from there. Time to go." ordered Skywalker. He and Asoka then charged down the alleyway. Letting instinct and the force guide them. R2D2 hot on their heels.
/
Skywalker and Asoka rapidly stealthed around the ship for hours. Seeing things that they just didn't understand. More horrific cyborgs moved around the ship preforming tasks that looked half ritual or pray and half maintenance. They did finally stumbled across normal crew members after a while. They walked everywhere in silence, even when in groups. They only noise they heard from them were hymns being sung. They congregated in large, ornate chambers filled with burning torches, paintings, statues and coloured panes of glass. All bowed before large golden statues of a radiant figure that left Skywalker and Asoka in awe whenever they saw it.
Apart from the thundering footsteps, Asoka and Skywalker never encountered the giants that filled the massive suits of armour, although statues of them in heroic, defiant poses were everywhere. Eventually they found their way to what looked like an engineering area. The cyborgs were everywhere, mostly embedded in the wall or attached to consoles. A few other cyborgs were around also and they were definitely different to the others. They wore red robes and gave the impression of still being more than just a shell, again, no voices like everywhere else on the ship apart from the religious areas. However, there was a high pitched electronic screeching coming from all the red robed figures.
"I don't see any access terminals for droids." said Asoka as she looked around the massive chamber thrumming with energy and power, from her vantage point 50 metres above the cavernous space on huge pipes that snaked around the gothic architecture.
"Well...we haven't seen any droids. So why would they have terminals for them..." said Skywalker reasonably. "...However, I think we may have another option." Skywalker pointed to one of the red robed cyborgs and Aoska caught his meaning immediately.
Metal tentacles snaked from its back and slotted into holes on the consoles they were using. Obviously to facilitate the exchange of information between the cyborgs and the ships computers.
"So we need to secure one of those consoles. There are dozens of those cyborg things in here and hundreds of those nearly dead ones."
"I don't think we need to worry about the nearly dead ones. In fact I think we could use them to our advantage. They have no will."
"You think you can manipulate what's left of their minds? Do you think there is enough left to work with?"
"We'll find out. I'll create a shield of them covering that corner, the one by the giant...cog skull thing. You and R2 will then join me and we'll plug him in. Wait for my signal." Skywalker then jumped from the pipe work to other pipes and then to the tops of giant generators and off the walls until he landed silently near the corner he intended to occupy. He moved to one of the horrific cyborgs and waved his hand in front of it. Nothing happened. The cyborg continued to methodically apply some sort of lubricant to an array of pistons. Skywalker closed his eyes and seemed to collect himself. He then held his hand out before the cyborg again. This time the cyborg stopped what it was doing and walked over to where Skywalker instructed. It then started to apply the lubricants to thin air.
Skywalker did this half a dozen times. He made a shield of cyborgs around that corner of the giant space, some of them appeared to be trying to perform their tasks. Miming pushing buttons or turning dials. Skywalker moved into the shielded area and signalled for Asoka and R2 to join him.
Asoka followed the same path Skywalker did to get to the deck of the chamber. R2 flew directly above the space and then just dropped straight down.
"Asoka, you hold him up and angle him properly against the console. I'll keep a look out."
Asoka lifted R2 and held him at a roughly 50 degree angle and a foot away from one of the consoles. R2 extended his Electric Pike since his terminal arm was useless here, and began firing pulses into the hole to exchange hand-shake protocols with the ship.
/
It took R2 less than a second to begin examining the computers aboard the unknown vessel. It wasn't like the computers that R2 was used to working with. The interface was almost instinctual rather than structured. No looking through endless menus and folders, R2 wanted to find something, and he somehow found it very easily. He'd learned general information about this vessels 8000 year history, its shields and weapons. However, when R2 tried to pry deeper into any subject he was met with failure and he wasn't able to determine why. It was then that R2 began to notice that something was following him around the insides of the computer system. R2 got the impression of terrific age, wisdom, and caged rage. It was the computer system. Somehow this massive ship was an example of artificial life and it had taken notice of R2s presence. R2 attempted to make contact with the machine intelligence, but it ignored his attempts. R2 tried to probe the entity, and was rebuffed by thoughts, images...and feelings that R2 simply couldn't understand. R2 was becoming surrounded by the entity inside this virtual reality. R2 had foolishly allowed curiosity to outweigh his caution and he had over committed himself to this endeavour. Usually his core self would stay with his body, but this time he allotted more of himself to the task. The entity was trying to capture him and he now knew that he had to escape. The machine intelligence burned out paths of escape when R2 tried to take them, it threw itself at R2 in an attempt to catch him and in those few close calls R2 saw its objective. It wasn't trying to capture or expel him. It was trying to kill him. To utterly and completely obliterate his core personality. It was driven by anger and hate. A machine?
R2 finally found a means of escape after an exhaustive search where he was continually hounded. He charged back into his body just before the entity could follow and fired his thrusters. He screamed out of Asokas` grip nearly burning her, and landed in a corner shaking.
"What happened?" demanded Skywalker.
"I don't know, but look at him..." said Asoka. "...His scared to death."
"He was only in there a few seconds? What happened R2?"
R2 beeped and whistled to himself quietly, rotating his head section from side to side.
"I don't think he'll be willing to try again Master."
"I agree. We've pushed our luck as it is. Let's head back to the stealth ship." ordered Skywalker.
After a few hours of speeding through the bowls of the giant ship Asoka and Skywalker finally found there exit and then space walked back to the stealth ship. It sped out of the system and returned to the Resolute. R2 didn't really start to calm down until after the ship went into hyperspace.
/
Core awoke from his mediation as soon as Skywalker left the Battlebarge.
"Impressive."
/
"Honoured Grand Master. Our preliminary analysis of the abominations vessel is complete." said Magos Vejra standing at the threshold to one of the training chambers that Core currently occupied.
"Honoured Magos. I am surprised that you would travel to the Eternal Flame in person to bring the report to my attention." said Core as his Halberd spun about his body, his plain white robes flowing as the blade cut the air, pushing it aside with a constant high pitched whistle.
"A small idiosyncrasy of mine Grand Master. I appreciate greatly the feel of a living vessel beneath my treads. I rarely sit idle on the bridge of the Machined Blades, I can connect to the Noo-sphere anywhere to monitor and command the mighty vessel and I take the opportunity to compare the feeling of other vessels whenever I have the opportunity. Regardless, would you like to hear the report?" finished Vejra as he moved into the training chamber and towards Core.
"Please proceed Magos." said Core as he came to rest and stood facing the Tech-priest his Halberd across his body and cradled in his arms. His breathing steady, as if he hadn't spent the past couple of hours in constant, vigorous motion.
"The hull and space frame alloys are all composite metals of some sophistication. Although they are used in minimal quantities. The ship, designated as a Providence Class Dreadnought, is nowhere near as sturdy a chariot as our own and the hull armour is of equally diminished proportions. 2 hits from any of our capitol weaponry would be more than sufficient to destroy the vessel. I have assumed that you will have no use for the elemental proportions involved in the alloys and other similar Technical data."
"You assume correctly Magos. You said that his vessel was designated as a Dreadnought, it was only 2177 metres long as I recall."
"You recall correctly. The species in this universe appear to rely on small, relatively nimble ships when compared to proper vessels of our Imperium." said the Magos.
"Please proceed with your report Magos, I assume your comment about `this universe` will be addressed in it."
"You assume correctly. The weapons of the vessel are principally massed turreted lasers of varying scale. Individually they are of no threat despite being very accurate, however they appear to be used in massed salvos targeting general areas of a ship during combat. They also use small missiles with an unfamiliar warhead that despite its small size carries noticeable destructive power. I would estimate that 27 of these vessels firing all their laser weapons in concert would trigger our vessels void capacitors beyond our ability to maintain. Their missiles will be a threat during any engagement, they cannot damage as large an area as ours can but we will find intercepting them to be much more difficult than intercepting torpedoes that we and our foes at home use giving there smaller size.
"The shielding used by these heretics is very sophisticated and come in 2 types for defending against energy and physical attacks and the geometry can be altered as required. Power output controlled. They can even stop torpedoes and strike craft from breaching them and they appear to come in a variety of different frequencies. Despite the sophistication, they do not have dedicated power systems and overload capacitors like ours. Making them much less resistant to damage.
"The engines are simple Ion Engines powered by fusion reactors. The lower masses of the vessels are what allow for their nibble manoeuvring. The main power generators are unfamiliar, using some unknown faster than light particle to generate power and to move their vessels faster than light. If I could remove the taint of the alien and the abomination from this device and bring it into the perfect light of the Omnissiah, we could travel free of the warp."
"A wonderful dream Magos...Could the particles be used as a shield?" asked Core.
"No. Power generation and faster than light travel are the only benefits to caging this particle."
"So, we are still looking for that small thing. To summarise...their vessels are fast and more manoeuvrable, however they cannot project the fire power we can, nor can they take the punishment our mighty vessels can withstand. Is there anything else I should know for any future engagements?"
"The computer systems aboard the ship are extensively automated as well as using abominable automaton crew members. Reaction times maybe faster, but predictable." finished the Magos.
"Thank you Majos Vejra. I look forward to your more in depth assessment of the heretic vessel when it's complete, views on the heretic culture from your unique point of view may also be useful." said Core.
"Very good Grand Master. I look forward to our next meeting." the Magos then turned and left the chamber. Core left straight after to meditate on the information Vejra had left him with.
/
"Good day My Lady. How may I serve you?" asked Sister Mary, Canoness of the contingent of Sisters from the Order of the Torch. Veteran medical experts in all forms of life from the Convent Prioris on Terra.
"Yes Sister Mary. I want an assessment of your progress to date. I understand you have established a field base on the surface of the planet behind General Cembers` guns?" said Tektra from behind her large black stone desk in her huge chambers aboard the Eternal Flame, data-slates spread over it in orderly piles.
"That's correct My Lady. We've been studying the corpses of the local xenos, we've now begun to catalogue and study the local fauna and flora. We intend to look for any common factors and anomalies that may further the Grand Masters mission alongside the good priests of the Mechanicus." said Mary, standing at ease before Tektras` imposing desk. Her dark armour over her white robes and her Power Maul and Inferno Pistol standing her apart from her Sisters.
"Anything found so far?" asked Tektra.
"Nothing is of real note about either the species you gave us or those that use to inhabit the planet. Although they share a common microbe in both their systems, which is curious for its presence in both lifeforms but of no practicable purpose from what we have been able to determine." said the Sister.
"Well. We have a while to wait until the captured vessels secrets have been revealed. Return to the surface and continue your work. I'll be moving down to the surface base as well. Need to stretch my legs, see what I can learn myself." the last sentence Tektra said to herself, she then just stood and left her chambers. After a second, Mary left as well assuming she'd been dismissed.
/
"The recordings can explain them better than I can. It was just horrific." said Skywalker to the assembled members of the Jedi Council.
"Indeed. Examining your mechs memory, our engineers are."
"It was more than just what we saw Masters. Everything on that ship seemed to be...humming with the force. As if it affected everything. Not just the humans, but the ship itself." added Asoka.
"Medicloriens only appear in biological lifeforms. Saturate those ships, they cannot."
"None the less Master Yoda. That is what we felt." said Skywalker.
"We may not know how, but we can't assume that those vessels aren't somehow saturated with the Force. Would it make a difference if they were? A starship has no will, and therefore cannot communicate with the Force." said Master Windoo.
"We should work with what we do know rather than spend our time in endless philosophical discussion regarding the Force. Anakin forwarded me the relevant parts of R2s` memory before the Resolute made orbit. The ship they boarded was 8000 years old, and has been involved in over 14000 separate engagements. I know of only 1 or 2 pieces of technology that can last that long, let alone last that long and remain in very active service. More evidence of their vessels endurance Master Luminara." said Kenobe.
"True, are there any specifics about these battles available?" asked Luminara.
"Not much. When R2 tried to get more details, his path was blocked." answered Skywalker.
"Tell me more about this suit of armour you found." asked Windoo.
"Well, it stood about 2 and a half metres tall and at least 1 and a half wide. I would guess that it can become a completely sealed environment. A large calibre weapon was secured to the left arm of the suit and massive swords, polearms and hammers were nearby each, and I don't think they were ceremonial despite the craftsmanship." said Asoka.
"It's hard to believe that something that big would be nimble enough to be effective in close-combat." said Windoo.
"Actually, I think R2 did get something about these...giants combat prowess..." Kenobe looked around in his computer system for a few seconds until he found what he was looking for. "...Ahh. Here we are. It's a video log from something called a servo-skull." said Kenobe as be began the play back.
The Council Chamber immediately filled with the thunderous sounds of multiple explosions.
The `servo-skull` was flying over a massive battlefield. Fires were burning everywhere, and the skull seemed to bank and weave round columns of smoke. On the ground the fighting was close and intense and sickeningly brutal between two human armies. Tank columns were charging at each other heedless of anything or anyone they ran over, firing the whole time. When they closed with their opponents they rammed them and kept firing at point blank range. When crews escaped a burning tank, they picked up whatever was available and charged again. Stabbing their opponents or hitting them with bits of metal or whatever came to hand. Some even leaped from their burning transports or tanks and started strangling their foes. The infantry of both sides were equally as mindlessly lost to rage and hate as the tank crews. Firing their laser weapons for as long as they were in range before fixing bayonets or drawing swords and clashing with each other using nothing but brute strength, rage fuelled skill and sharpened steel. As the skull flew on the council saw uncountable dead. Some men and women literally haven been ripped apart by the bare hands of their foes, and it was true for both sides. No quarter was given in anyway, and absolutely everything and anything was being used by both sides in an effort to destroy the other. No one on the council could comprehend the type of mind that could sink to these types of barbarous depths to win a battle. Yet here was proof that whole armies wherever these people came from adopted this behaviour as possibly common practise.
"Fanatical, these people appear. Or desperate." said Master Yoda.
"I'm glad some can view this dispassionately. I'm finding it painful to watch." commented Luminara. Her unease at what she and the rest of the council were viewing clearly evident on her face.
"Do you have any specifics about this particular engagement?" asked Windoo as the image continued to show the servo-skulls flight.
"This battle was called `The Trantrix Purge`. Approximately 2,000,000 Guardsmen, their main infantry force, and 30,000 armoured vehicles were used to contain some sort of outbreak?" said Kenobe, his tone betraying his disbelief at the numbers involved and how a medical emergency descended into what he and the council were seeing on the holographic display.
"That's a massive number to commit to a humanitarian operation, and how did it descend into that?!" asked Luminara, gesturing to the display.
"I think they're using the word `Outbreak` in a different contents to what we would use." said Master Windoo, slowly, as understanding dawned on him and every other member of the council.
Then the screaming began. Purple, vaguely female looking creatures just somehow appeared, and fell upon some of the humans. The sides became clear at that point. The cleaner lines and paint work of the uniforms and tanks of these creatures victims contrasted sharply with their foes now. Defaced symbols and scrawled on pictures adorned the armour and tanks of the purple creatures' allies.
These purple creatures were completely merciless. Their claws allowed them to rip their victims apart in seconds, and they did so screaming and laughing as blood sprayed and covered them from head to foot. Their victims couldn't stand against them. Some simply stood still and stared as they were killed. Others seemed to just fall over dead with no discernible cause. The very few that seemed able to fight back were no match for the creatures that fell upon them and lasted mere seconds against the creatures speed and strength.
Then in another second, everything changed again.
There was a blinding flash, and a visible ripple spread out through both armies and the creatures. The cleaner army, seemed to rally as the effect reached them. They re-doubled their efforts. Where they were on the verge of being over-run they threw back their enemies. Where they were about to give in to despair they got up and charged yelling their devotion to an `Emperor`.
Their foes had the complete opposite reaction. Some fell to their knees crying, some smashed their heads against any solid object until their skulls caved in, and most screamed and acted as if in terrible pain. The purple creatures acted that way too. All were in pain and some had even fallen to the ground and lay squirming on the blood stained soil. After a second the purple creatures appeared to master whatever pain they were feeling.
10 giants stood in the open between the two armies.
Easily the tallest beings involved in this war, everything seemed to pause as they appeared and they instantly became the centre of the conflict.
Their armour was just as Asoka described. Massive and medieval, yet obviously technologically advanced. It was a shining, unblemished silvery grey with intricate gold lettering worked in across its surface and long pieces of paper were attached that fluttered slightly in the breeze. Their weapons were a mix of blades and poles and hammers and all of them glowed blue slightly. Bulky fire arms were attached to their left forearms.
As one they raised their left arms and fire spread out before them and consumed everything it touched. In its wake they stepped forward and from that moment onwards, they never paused or took a backwards step. They slaughtered any human foe that got close with contemptuous ease, barely even noticing that they were there. A second later they met the purple creatures and the world itself seemed to shake. These 10 giants smashed every single creature they came across. It was like this unit of 10 were one being, covering each other, co-ordinating attacks and moving in an all most instinctual way. They never once risked each other despite their weapons spinning and striking around them faster than the Jedi Council could easily see.
On and on they went despite everything their foes were directing at them. From hordes of infantry to tanks shells and the tanks themselves trying to ram them. They were unstoppable.
"There is several hours of this footage..." said Kenobe. "...I'll skip to the end if you don't mind."
The image showed the last purple creature being sliced in two and then silence finally filled the Council Chamber.
The giants were covered from head to foot in gore, some of it was steaming away while a lot of red flowed down their armour to the ground.
Their allied human army approached, and to a man, knelt before the giants who turned to regard them.
"Your duty is done. You have saved this world. The Emperor awaits you. Go to him, while your souls are clean." said a deep and powerful booming voice that carried across the entire battlefield.
The humans looked up and without hesitation, took up a small vial that was around their necks and drank the liquid that it contained down.
A few seconds later, and every human was dead. No sign of pain or fear. They drank the liquid, looked back at the giants with reverence, and collapsed.
"Inquisitor, objective complete. The Emperors host has been swelled by the worthy."
A second later the blinding flashed appeared again and the giants were gone. The holographic image faded.
"Most disturbing that was. Extremely effective those warriors appear." said Master Yoda.
"Unstoppable is the term I would have used Master. In open conflict our armies would be hard pressed to combat such...zeal? Let alone those giant warriors. We'll need to start distributing some manor of close-combat weapon to our troopers. Those tracked APCs` will allow their armies to close quickly."
"Zeal maybe an understatement. I didn't notice any supporting aircraft. We may have an advantage there, or they simply weren't utilised." said Windoo.
"Regardless, what can we use to counter those giants? Our troopers aren't a match for them and you saw what they did to armour. They ripped hatches off their mountings to gain access. I think I even saw one punch a tank, and come off the better." said Luminara.
"Counter them, we will. The Jedi, their match will be." said Yoda.
"Masters? Why have none of you suggested contact? We do not know the particulars of the battle we witnessed. We can't assume they are beyond reason. What advanced space-faring culture can't listen to reason?" said Asoka.
"She has a point. So far we haven't tried any form of contact." said Fisto.
"Hmm..." said Yoda as he closed his eyes. "...Dark the future is. Around the temple, dark clouds will descend. Come here for us, they will. Attempt contact to avert this, we must. Master Fisto, adept at first contact you are. Proceed to the Caramm system you will."
"Very well Master. I'll leave as soon as my ship is ready and I've had a chance to go over the material Skywalker brought back." Fisto stood and then left the chamber.
/
Sister Mary entered the Stellar Chamber aboard the Eternal Flame and walked to the space she hadn't filled in this chamber since before the fleet left Titan. Tech-priest Majos Vejra, Inquisitor Tektra and Grand Master Core were already present around the Hololith in the centre of the room. A holographic representation of Caramm V and the fleet floating in the space between them.
"Welcome Sister. I was under the impression that you and your Sisters had already dismantled their camp on the planet and returned to the Sister Ignatious Torphantom?" asked Core, his armour flickering in the green light of the large hololithic display.
"That's correct Grand Master, I and my Sisters were preforming post-mission prays on the planet when I received your summons for this meeting. My apologises to all for my tardiness."
"No need Sister. If you came from the planet surface you've made excellent time." said Vejra.
"Indeed Sister. I should have made myself aware for your orders post-battle rituals. However, now that we are all here we can begin our brief. Majos Vejra, would you begin." instructed Core.
"Of course Grand Master..." the hololithic image floating in the room disappeared and was replaced with an image of the supposed Dreadnought, statistics and labels dotted all around the relatively small vessel as it spun in place. "...This vessel belongs to a group of races calling themselves the Confederacy of Independent Systems. A group of Planetary Governments and interstellar corporations that wish to remove themselves from this galaxies current interstellar super-power called the Galactic Republic. The 2 sides are currently at war. This vessel represents..." the Majos gestured to the holographic projection. "...a standard heavy capital ship."
"But its tiny..." interrupted Tektra. "...how can they possibly defend themselves against this universes many evils with something so pitiful."
"They don't face the evils we do Inquisitor..." said Core. "...Majos Vejras said `this universe` to me earlier. I believe the good Majos will now explain this particular detail."
The Hololithic image changed again and this time a galaxy appeared floating between this little war council.
"This is the navigational map taken from the heretic ship. It is not our galaxy. Few of the stars are in the right place..." the image zoomed out to show the local group. "...None of the local galaxies are ours..." the image continued to zoom out rapidly. "...Nothing in their astrological files denote any familiar planets, stars, or galaxies for as far as their astronomers have looked..." the image continued to zoom out. Thousands of galaxies were now being displayed and the number quickly grew. "...They have looked very far."
For a few seconds there was silence as all 4 beings in the chamber considered what this could mean. "The minds of the other fleet were human, very uniform, but human. Of that I am curtain." said Core, breaking the silence.
"I do not doubt you Grand Master, which is why I don't think we are in a different galaxy. I think we have breached the bounds of our universe and are now trespassing in another. Another where the only similarity appears to be human kind."
"And the Warp..." said Core, his voice grave. "...but something is smothering it. The beasts there do not see us. We are still feeding them with our fears and wants, our hearts and minds, and I can draw upon its power, but it is blind to us. How?"
"The warp maybe blind, but it's still manifesting evil, if only indirectly. Honoured Majos, if I may?" asked Tektra. The image switched back to that of the fleet around Caramm V.
"Of course Inquisitor."
"I have examined this regions, I guess I should say this universes, history. The warp may not see us, or invade this plain, but it still has its influence through the forces of good and evil. However subtle."
"Those terms are objective My Lady. May I ask how you define them here?" asked Sister Mary.
"The classic sense. Before necessity and survival became our watch words. Good, helping others, selfless, humane. Evil, selfish, harming, conscienceless. There are forces in this universe that fit into these categorises. The evil are Sith, the good are Jedi." while she was talking, Tektra walked round to one of the free standing hololithic controls and called up a recording she'd found during her investigation. 2 beings were fighting each other with swords made of light. They were moving so fast, jumping and spinning. Each strike sure and strong, each defence sound and impenetrable. Core thought for a second that this may have been a choreographed display, un-augmented beings cannot coordinate their bodies so fast and fluidly, until he saw the intense looks of hatred on the face and in the body language of both combatants, more so in one than the other.
"They are mirrors of the other. Almost complete opposites and they have been doing battle with each other for thousands of years since their respective founding."
"They are why we are here..." said Core. Tektra turned to comment but Core continued before she could speak. "...Do not ask how I know this Inquisitor, but understand. I do know this."
"These Jedi were commanding the vessels of the Republic fleet, were they not?" asked Sister Mary.
"Correct Sister." said the Majos.
"Then let's go find them and get the Grand Master his answers." said the Canoness.
"Do you have anything to report Sister?" said Core.
Before she could speak, the hololithic display changed and showed the region of space around the Grey Knight fleet as it was before, with one exception.
"My Lords and Ladies. Forgive the interruption. Auspex has detected a vessel. Silhouette matches that of a Venator Class Republic warship." said a disembodied voice.
"It's not very far away." said Sister Mary.
"Correct. It is as I suspected. They can exit and enter FTL at will. We will need to keep all vessels underway to prevent being attacked without warning when at anchor." said Vejras.
"Agreed. I will make the arrangements." said Tektra as she moved to a communications panel to contact the bridge.
"My Lords and Ladies. We are receiving a vox transmission. Transferring to the Stellar Chamber."
A second later and the body of a human appeared floating in front of the small war council.
"Greetings. I am Admiral Hawkins, and I welcome you to this part of the galaxy on behave of the Galactic Republic. We are here in the hopes that we can establish peaceful contact between our two peoples. We await your reply." the image paused and Core brought his hand away from the hololithic controls.
"They appear human." said Sister Mary.
"So it would seem. I can sense that same presence on their ship. I think one of the Jedi maybe with them..." said Core. Core reached forward and re-opened the vox channel with the Republic ship. "...This is Grand Master Core. Commanding the Grey Knight fleet of the Brother Hood of the Eternal Watch. We are open to establishing a dialogue. Do you have one among you who can speak for your Republic?"
"Yes. A member of the Jedi Order has been empowered to make first contact with you. He awaits your permission to come aboard your vessel." said the flickering green human.
"Permission is granted. Docking instructions will be forwarded to you momentarily." Core then closed the channel and called the bridge of the battlebarge.
"Serf, ready the dorsal hanger. Forward relevant docking information to the Republic ship."
"Yes my Lord."
"I want to be present when you meet this Jedi." said the Inquisitor.
"As you wish." said Core as he turned on the spot and marched out of the stellar chamber with heavy, thunderous footsteps.
/
"That is most certainly a large ship..." said Master Fisto. Fisto was standing behind the clone pilots of his shuttle craft as they guided the small craft towards the monstrous mass of armour and horrendous weapons that make up one of the largest vessels Fisto had ever seen. In its own way it was a beautiful piece of art. Sculptures were craved into the ancient metal depicting giant warriors, 2 headed birds, and books impaled upon swords and Fisto could see some sort of intricate golden script worked into the hull. "...Skywalker hasn't ever shown any interest in the inherent beauty of things."
"Perhaps he was more concerned with the martial aspect of the craft General..." said one of the clones. "...Those cannons bested dreadnoughts in seconds."
"We are approaching the dorsal hanger General." said the second clone pilot.
"Take us in."
The craft carried on and gracefully penetrated the atmospheric shield covering the entrance to the hanger bay. Fisto took in its contents in a second. Massive, boxy looking shuttles covered in large turreted weapons and massive dorsal cannons. Smaller craft with thrusters on the ends of their wings and still covered from bow to stern in weapon sponsons and cannons. All of the craft were like their parent vessel, silvery grey with red and white icons depicting books and swords, gold script and carvings of 2 headed birds.
Servicing these craft were armies of cyborgs, and unlike their blunt but beautiful charges, they looked horrendous. Mechanical parts looked like they had been pushed into the flesh of these creatures by force rather than with careful surgery, and the flesh itself looked close to death. Obviously little to no care went to these poor things despite the important function they seem to serve. A few cyborgs were different, they wore some sort of red robe over their bodies leaving little visible. All were shaped differently and some of the robes seemed to ripple, as if serpents were coiled around the bodies within. Normal looking humans were also everywhere, preforming tasks Fisto was unsure about. He couldn't tell if they were praying or doing maintenance.
After a pause hanging in mid-air above the deck, the pilot brought the shuttle around and landed. The shuttle looked small and pathetic next to the giant silver machines arranged around the hanger.
The hatch opened as soon as the shuttle touched down and Fistoe marched out with a broad smile on his face.
He had immediately sensed the nearly overwhelming presence of the force the second his cruiser dropped out of hyperspace, but being surrounded by it now was almost smothering him. He now understood more about what Skywalker and Asoka were saying about the ship. It did seem to literally hum with the force.
Fisto walked straight towards the largest being in the massive hanger deck. It really was a giant. If anything the description Skywalker and Asoka provided was an understatement. This being seemed to radiate a presence of power and will. Something to be feared and held up as a paragon in equal measure.
Its armour was just as beautiful as the massive ship itself. Silvery grey with gold script worked into the legs, chest, arms, shoulder guards and helmet. Odd pieces of paper were secured to the giant with red wax, but Fisto couldn't for the life of him figure out what purpose they served. The helmet was secured to the giant warriors' leg revealing a worn, handsome human face criss-crossed with a number of small scares. There was nothing around the eyes that gave the impression he smiled or laughed. The near scowl struck Fisto as the expression this giant generally had on his features.
Just as Skywalker and Asoka described, the giant had a massive large calibre weapon secured to his left fore-arm and in his right fist, he held a massive shinning pole-arm. The pole itself was black with golden trim at the bottom. The blade appeared to be nearly a metre long and at its base appeared to be some sort of device covered in gold plating. Another piece of paper was attached to this weapon. It fluttered slightly and reached from the gold plated device to roughly half way down the poles length.
Next to the giant warrior, for no other description would ever fit the giant, was a relatively petite human woman. Unlike the giant she wasn't wearing any armour that Fisto easily recognised. She wore a black rode over her pleasant looking form. A leather belt was around her waist and on it were secured a simple looking sword and an odd looking pistol that Fisto didn't recognise. Her eyes were predominantly green and blue with flex of brown and her blond hair was tied up above her head in a little bun that was held in place by 2 silver clips. The only piece of decoration she wore was dangling around her neck, a red I with a small silver skull in the middle and a golden boarder and chain.
"Greetings my new friends..." said Fisto enthusiastically as he continued to walk towards the pair. "...My name is Kit Fosto. I have been empowered by the Jedi Council and our great Senate to come here and bid you greetings."
The giant started to walk towards Fisto with thunderous, echoing footsteps. The pieces of paper fluttered around the giant like water around the bow of a ship. His pole-arm held level in his right fist, the blade pointing ahead. Fisto and the giant came to a halt roughly 2 metres apart.
"I am Grand Master Topher Core. I command the Brotherhood of the Eternal Watch, and I welcome you aboard my Flagship. The Eternal Flame." said Core his deep and powerful voice filling the hanger with ease despite only being at a conversational volume.
"And what a sight she is to behold. A magnificent feat of skill to create such a craft. Speaking of sights to behold. May I enquire as to your name?" asked Fisto as the woman came to a halt next to the giant. Her face a mask of anger, confusing the Jedi. She did not speak.
"This woman is Lana Tektra. Representative of the Ordo Malleus of the Emperors most holy Inquisition on this endeavour." answered Core.
"An honour My Lady..." said Fisto with a slight bow. "...I have no doubt that you have things you would like to ask me, I have things I would like to ask you. We cannot build a friendship between us until we understand each other."
"Agreed. Serf." a human ran over and bowed before the giant.
"Yes My Lord."
"Escort this being to the Stellar Chamber. Fisto, I will be with you shortly." said Core. First addressing the bowing human and then Fisto.
"Very well. So my friend, you work on a magnificent ship. Who long did it take to carve the statues I saw on the hull?" asked Fisto to the Serf as he followed the human out of the hanger.
/
"Why have you welcomed that thing aboard?! It sullies this mighty vessel with its foul presence." hissed Tektra when the alien was out of sight.
"It will have information that we require. These Jedi are the key to finding that small thing that will shield the Imperium, I'm sure of it. As you said Inquisitor, necessity and survival are our watch words. This would not be the first time I have had to negotiate with aliens to get what we need." said Core.
"What! The Grey Knights openly consort with xenos!" Tektra practically spat.
"Do you honestly think that a human mind could create something as wrong as a Tesseract Labyrinth? Do you believe the Weaponsmiths to be a simple human subspecies that we tolerate? Chaos is the enemy to all young Inquisitor and if these aliens alone can create what we need then they will be spared the Imperiums wrath. For now though such knowledge is beyond your rank, but know this, one day your life and the Imperiums future will likely rest in the hands of our few xenos allies and the tools and knowledge they alone possess." said Core in his ever present calm, rumbling tone. Core then turned and left the hanger. Tektra followed a second later. She may be furious about the situation but she was the Inquisitions representative here. She'd be damned before being remiss in her duties.
/
The alien was very talkative. Core could hear it still trying in vain to strike up a conversation with the chapter serf that escorted him to the Stellar Chamber.
"Your people seem to have an affinity for stone. It appears to be covering all the bulkheads on your vessel, and the sculptures are very impressive. Intricate and detailed."
"You are wasting your breath Fisto. The crew of this vessel are born and raised to see only to their duties and little else. The safety of their souls and the completion of our work demand such discipline..." said Core as he walked into the Stellar Chamber with Tektra just behind. Core moved into the chamber while Tektra waited by the door. The massive image of local space was still floating in the middle of the room displaying the Grey Knight fleet and its allied vessels from the Mechanicus and the Sororitus, as well as the lone Republic warship. Sister Mary and Majos Vejra were no longer present. Their shuttles leaving from the ventral hanger to return to their respective vessels. "...Serf, return to your duty."
"Yes My Lord."
"The safety of their souls? From what?" asked the alien in a conversational manor.
"Chaos..." said Core simply. "...How do you wish to proceed?" asked Core.
"Well...usually I would have a specific agenda. On this occasion, the Republic knows next to nothing about you. So I'd like to just be conversational, until we get to know each other a bit better."
"Your spies that penetrated this vessel didn't bring you back any useful information?" asked Core. His tone one of curiosity rather than accusing.
"What spies?"
"They were Jedi. They felt as you feel. I and my brothers felt their presence before they even got close to this vessel. Both young. Both skilled. Both allowed to explore so that a more mature member of your kind maybe drawn here. I have questions Jedi. I require answers."
"Actually, we did manage to get some information. I'm hoping that what we saw was the exception rather than the rule of how things are done where you come from."
Core just stared at the alien for a few seconds. His eyes slightly unfocused as if he was looking at something just beyond Fistos face.
"Ah. The Trantrix Purge." said Core, turning to the Inquisitor.
"A recent minor outbreak. Only worthy of the attention of a single squad of Knights." commented Tektra.
"The Keepers Brotherhood sent that squad out. Cromm requested the use of the Eternal Flame due to heavy hostile fleet elements in orbit of the target world." answered Core addressing Tektra.
Fistos eyes boggled as he heard this. "Minor? That was minor? Armies of millions descending into barbarous madness and you consider it minor." asked Fisto, clearly shocked.
"What they witnessed on that world drove them to madness. Their minds were lost the second they saw the warp spawn and their foolish pawns. Your tone is no longer conversational Jedi? Have you been un-nerved so easily?" asked Core.
"I wouldn't say that. It's just hard to believe that you can accept the loss so readily."
"We'll make any sacrifice to preserve the Emperors Realm." said Tektra. The first words she'd uttered directly to Fisto, and it was obvious she didn't want too.
"Now I have questions. We are looking for a small thing that can shield us from chaos. It is in the possession of your Order." said Core
"I don't know what chaos it is you speak of, let alone what we could have that would act like a shield."
"You lie!" spat Tektra.
"It speaks the truth Inquisitor. None can lie to me. In that case, what would you consider the most likely location that'll house the information I seek."
"I don't know."
"Now you lie..." Cores' eyes went unfocused again for a second. "...A repository of knowledge you call the `Archives` exists in a temple that you have called home since you were a child. All knowledge is there. Technology to biology. History to religion. You know of no other place that could direct us to what we need."
"Only Jedi can access the Archives."
"We will find a way. What is its location?" demanded Core.
"Perhaps we could talk about something else. Get to know each other better first before I invite you to my home."
"No! Tell us what we want to know alien!" shouted Tektra as she took a step forward and released her sword in one fast and fluid movement. The blade shone. It glowed silver with tiny flashes of lightening playing along the blade. Fisto had never seen a blade do that.
"This doesn't need to become violent. We can still..." Fisto looked away from the woman and looked at the giant. His scowl was unchanged but Fisto could see a small flash of an expression on his lips. A tiny smirk seemed to appear for an instant before vanishing.
/
Core felt Tektras hate burning hot. Core was surprised that she held herself in check for as long as she did in fact. She charged the alien. A small tube attached to his side flew into his hand and in a flash of green a similar weapon to that Core viewed in the recordings Tektra showed his council was braced in a guard position, ready to meet Tektras charge. The 2 weapons came together and Core observed with interest. The 2 weapons stopped each other dead. White lightening tore along the lengths of both swords as the opposing energy fields of both weapons screamed as they came into contact.
"You can't beat me. I am a Jedi Master, and I have faced far worse than you." said Fisto through clenched teeth as the Inquisitor and the Jedi pushed against each other.
"I have fought daemons for 70 years under my Master, alien. Creatures that can drive mortals insane with a look. That can throw tanks with a flick of their wrists. That can drown worlds in blood and madness. I have bested them! I have to be worse than them in my Emperors Name! YOU HAVE NEVER FACED ANYTHING LIKE ME!" screamed Tektra. She threw the Jedi back with a yell of rage and charged again. Her sword flashed and lightening crashed between the combatants as the Jedis` weapon met Tektras with super natural speed. With his improved mind, eye sight, reflexives, and experience, Core was able to see early on that the Jedi was reacting to Tektra before she herself started to move to strike. It wasn't intuition. Some unseen force was guiding his hand.
Tektra fought with a righteous anger, and un-caged rage and aggression lent her speed and strength that as of yet hadn't allowed the Jedi to take the initiative. Her sword, fist and feet darted everywhere.
Core watched as after 10 seconds of combat had passed, that the Jedi got faster. He was no longer parrying Tektras sword as much. He was dancing round it with centimetres only to spare. Spinning, twisting, and jumping to avoid the Inquisitors blade. Core had observed Tektras training and knew she was extremely well trained and skilled. Only the unknown guiding force of this alien allowed it to still live. Still the Inquisitor fought on. Her pace and aggression frustrating the alien and denying it the ability to strike back, as even with its unknown assistance the alien could only move its body so fast.
As Core looked on with the first minute coming to a close. Core knew that Tektra would lose. Even her radiant hate couldn't fuel her body forever, and she was starting to slow. She is only human.
/
She's right. I've never fought anyone like her before. Thought Fisto as he narrowly dodged another strike from this woman. Fisto could feel the rage and hate come off her like she was on fire. Fisto had never guessed that humans, or anyone for that matter could feel something as hot and raw and powerful as the emotions radiating off of his opponent. It was lending her a speed and strength that Fisto hadn't yet been able to get past. At present it was a stand-off. He had no opportunity to get to her and she couldn't breach his defence.
He had to be patient. The force would guide him, and it did. With a deft flick of his wrist, his lightsabre danced through the Inquisitors guard and removed her sword hand at the wrist.
The woman screamed in pain and then lunged at Fisto again. Her remaining fist connected straight with his jaw and sent him spinning, he brought his sabre round with him and was a hairs breath from running the Inquisitor through.
/
Her hand was on the deck with her sword. Burning pain flared up her arm from where it now ended. Her fist flew and connected with the aliens jaw. She watched as the alien spun and its laser sword came right for her chest. She didn't care. Rage and Hate was fuelling her. All she wanted was the alien dead. She had to press the attack, but her body was too slow.
She went flying, she landed roughly a few feet from where she was standing. She looked back and saw a shining suite of terminator armour. The sight of it cooled her rage and reason re-entered her mind. Core had deflected the laser sword with the blade of his halberd and struck the alien across the face with his armoured fist. Dark blood slowly dripped from the aliens face as it flew across the room and landed 5 metres away.
"Serf. Report to the Stellar Chamber and escort Inquisitor Tektra to the medicare bay. She is to be seen by Brother-Apothocary Justin and Tech-marine Othello." said Core in his ever calm voice. Core then walked towards the alien on the deck as Tektra watched.
/
"Stand alien. Time to test yourself against the Emperors finest." said Core as he walked towards the alien. It stood, its dropped weapon flew back into its hand and activated showing its green energy blade.
"The bigger they are." said the alien, Core noticed a hint of anger, but the alien was still mostly calm and collected. It charged. Core brought up his halberds shaft to block and the green alien weapon cut it in half cleanly. Not missing a beat, Core adjusted his grip and used what was left as a short sword and a baton.
Core deflected the green energy blade with easy. His speed and strength just too much for the alien and not even its mysterious guiding force could allow it to best Cores guard.
With a twist of his arm, Core sent the alien weapon flying using the blade of his halberd and in the same motion broke both of Fistos legs using the improvised baton sending him crashing to the ground.
Core had fought the alien for 10 seconds before disarming and disabling him. 10 seconds was all that was required to learn what he needed to know about this creature's combat prowess and how it utilised its weapon.
Fisto yelled in pain as he hit the deck, after a second he raised a palm and Core was knocked back a foot.
"What I seek is shielding you even now. I felt the warp course through you, however, it is...cleaner. Like the corruption has been filtered by something..." Core raised his own palm and heat radiated from it before flames shot out and burned both of Fistos arms to blackened stumps. "...I can feel it in myself also. Whatever is shielding you is now also shielding me." Fisto looked at his arms in shock. Seemingly oblivious to what was going on around him now, or what was being said as the scent of his own burned flesh clogged his airway.
At that moment, a chapter Serf and 3 others bearing the ancient coiled serpent symbol of medicine entered the chamber.
"Take the Inquisitor to the Medicare bay. Do what you can to stabilise the alien. I will need to question it. Have the alien weapon taken to the Machined Blade, I would like Vejras` opinion."
"Yes My Lord."
"Majos Vejra. Do you copy?" said Core into the vox link in his ear as he turned from the alien on the deck and left the Stellar Chamber for the bridge.
"Affirmative Grand Master." came Vejras reply a second later.
"Can you learn anything from the Republic warship? Would it be worth capturing?"
"We won't learn anything new from the Venator Class vessel that we haven't learned from the Dreadnought. The 2 empires routinely board or capture each other's vessels and possess extensive technical information about each other's forces."
"Very well. Then I will have the vessel destroyed." Core was about to disconnect the link when Vejra said.
"Grand Master. If I may. Although of no real use as a resource or a source of information. I would like the Skitarii under my command to board and take the vessel. It may be prudent to evaluate the effectiveness of the Clone Troopers garrisoning the craft."
"Will you require support?"
"Negative. The Machined Blade will not be challenged by this lone vessel." said Vejra, Core came to a stop and then changed direction, heading towards the Eternal Flames armoury decks.
"Understood Majos. Inform the Serf currently in command of the fleet of your intentions and keep me appraised. Regretfully, my halberd has been damaged. I can now attend to it with the issue of the Republic vessel in your hands. Also the weapon of the Jedi I fought will be transferred to your vessel shortly. I would appreciate an examination."
"Confirmed Grand Master."
/
There was one more reason why Vejras wanted to capture the vessel. He wanted to know how it felt. The Machined Blade, Vejras personal miniature Ark Mechanicus that was the size of a grand cruiser was a cool, calm, and faithful giant. The Eternal Flame and the other warships were hot blooded, rage filled predators, even the Sister Ignatious Torphantom, being a repurposed Dictator Class Cruiser. The Dreadnought was a cold, sterile corpse. Despite the abominable intelligences aboard, the ship itself was dead. No spirit resided within its hull, and Vejras had to wonder at that. Was it devoid of a machine spirit because it was constructed by a machine intelligence rather than the by the limbs of living creatures? This Republic ship was crewed by men. Undoubtedly it had been crafted by their hands through sweat and toil.
After closing the vox link with Core, it took 20 seconds to inform his elite Praetorian Maniples of the mission objectives and to transfer the required information to them about the Republic ship. After that it took 15 seconds for those orders to reach the Hypasist Centuries and for the squads to start moving from their holding areas to the assault boats and boarding torpedoes. After another 40 seconds the Machined Blade was ready to make war. The well-oiled machine that was the Priests and Servitors that worked and maintained the machine all moving flawlessly through its confined innards. As the raging hearts of the Machined Blade came to full power.
Lastly, usually dormant sub-routines in Vejras mind activated. He became Majos Prime, and his mind slipped into and assumed command of the combat noo-sphere.
400 Hypasist Centuries armed with Hellguns, armoured with carapace suits.
100 Praetorian Maniples with boltguns and armoured again with carapace suits. All 500 beyond mere human, with augmetic limbs, organs and senses.
50 Electro Priests armed and armoured only with their gifts from the machine god, but deadly beyond nearly anything else aboard the Ark.
1 and a half minutes after giving the first orders the Machined Blade, which was at rest, surged forward and flights of assault craft and boarding torpedoes started flying towards the tiny, unsuspecting Republic ship.
/
"Sir one of the unknown vessels is breaking formation. It's heading straight towards us? It's launching strike craft and torpedoes!" yelled one of the clones on the bridge of the Republic warship.
"All gunners. Target the incoming strike craft and open fire. Bring us about and prepare for light speed..." ordered Hawkins. He turned from the bridge forward viewing windows and walked to the holographic table near the rear of the bridge as space lit up with his ships laser batteries.
"...Contact the General." he ordered as he approached the table.
"No response sir." said one of the clones a second later.
"Damn it. Time to light speed?"
"20 seconds till we're in position."
"The first torpedo will reach us in 15 seconds. They're armoured like nothing I've seen. It like shooting at a solid lump of armour."
"We can't track the strike craft very well. Their manoeuvres are compounding our targeting system. It's like they know our barrage solutions." reported a number of clones in quick succession.
"Switch to manual targeting. Do what you can." Hawkins looked back out the viewing windows at the other end of the bridge and saw the first giant torpedo smash into his ships shields.
The Redoubtable shock hard and everyone standing was thrown from their feet. Consoles exploded filling the bridge with shrapnel, and smoke started to slowly fill the bridge. Some of his men were yelling in pain from broken arms or legs. Some not making a sound and unmoving with their necks at odd angles.
The torpedo didn't explode. It was crushed, haven crumpled against his ships shields and its remains started to tumble away. Then another crashed into his ship and became lodged in her hull. Then another. Then another.
Each hit threw the ship around like a sail boat in a hurricane, more of his crew went flying. Then everything became calm. He looked out the windows and saw the familiar blue glow of hyperspace travel.
Those things were jutting from his ships dorsal hull. Half of the torpedoes made it to his ship before it jumped. None had exploded. These things were massive, easily three of four times the size of the clone troopers' gunships. If they were packed with explosives his ship would be in 2 halves by now from just one of them. If they weren't filled with explosives. What had they brought to his ship?
Hawkins ran to the holographic table and hit the intercom.
"All hands repel boarders!" shouted the Admiral.
"This is the main hanger. We've got hostiles down here." the sounds of battle could be heard over the intercom. The familiar sharp pop of blasters competed with other less wholesome sounds. A Cracking like a whip and thunderous booming filled the bridge along with the screaming of men dying and the barking of orders.
"Get troopers down to the hanger decks. Don't allow them to break out into the rest of the ship." shouted Hawkins.
"Troops are on their way sir."
"Time to Coruscant."
"8 hours sir."
"I have a feeling this is going to be a very long 8 hours." said Hawkins. As if to punctuate his words the ship shuddered briefly from an explosion as it continued to hurtle through hyperspace.
/
What the hell are these things. Thought Hawkins to himself as he watched the battles for his ship unfold for the past hour. These things were definitely human, if a bit bigger. He had no doubt about that, but how could they take the punishment his clone troopers dished-out. Each one took 3 or sometimes 4 shots to take them down, at best. Usually they just disabled an arm or a leg and these things just compensated. Dragging un-useable limbs behind them as they continued to make forward progress, shuffling from cover to cover. Only the mini-guns carried by a few of his specialised troopers seemed to give these things pause, for a few seconds until a lattice work of lasers literal cut the trooper to pieces. Burning through their armour like it was butter.
Most of them appeared to look very similar. All with red lenses over their eyes and wearing the same bulky black armour covered in cog and skull symbols. A few were wearing red robes that obscured what they were or what they looked like. They were so well co-ordinated. It was like they were of one mind. No orders had been yelled yet by these beings and yet they always moved by squads in near perfect formation. Always covering advancing squads, always maintaining a blistering curtain of fire covering all approaches, and every advance was in time with small groups of close-combat…things that somehow electrocuted his men with a touch after they descended from above like a predator. Hawkins hadn't made up his mind yet about whether these close-combat troopers were human or not. Some of their movements couldn't have been carried out by a human being and metal tentacles flew everywhere along with their limbs as they landed amongst his defending troopers and butchered them to a man.
The weapons were equally as devastating as the soldiers carrying them. The laser rifles were connected to a power source on their wielders backs and they burned pencil thing holes clear through his troops, and the booming cannons held by a few of these boarders blew his soldiers to pieces. A good number of his men were blood soaked rag dolls with gaping holes in their chests. So far it was only through superior numbers that his defending troops were able to hold the invaders within the hanger.
"Admiral. Strong points are ready." reported one of the clone troopers standing with him around the holographic table.
"About time. Order our troopers to fall back to those points. If what we have there can't hold them then nothing will stop them from taking the ship."
A few seconds later, and the holographic table started to show his troops making a withdrawal. The boarders didn't make it easy. With their un-canny co-ordination, dozens of clone troopers were cut down as they left cover to fall back.
Around the hanger bay heavy weapons had been moved up and secured behind barricades at the ends of long alleyways. It would be a killing ground, even for these things.
"Seal the hanger when our men are clear." ordered the Admiral.
"Hanger secure. Cordon in place and manned."
"Vent the hanger." ordered the Admiral.
"Beginning atmospheric purge."
Hawkins watched as the seconds ticked by and he allowed a sigh of relief to escape his lips. He watched as, as one, all the boarders took a deep breath and then carried on with their tasks, which appeared to be consolidating their position. A frown appeared 30 seconds later when none of the invaders fell unconscious and the pressure in the hanger read zero.
"Check the sensors. Confirm hanger pressure." ordered the Admiral.
"Confirmed sir. A member of squad 12 has been monitoring the readings locally."
"So they aren't effected by vacuum. Good to know. They will attempt to break out soon. Get everyone we can spare on the cordon." ordered the Admiral.
/
"Command. Objective achieved." reported one of the Centuries as the remainder of its squad located and brought to the attention of one of the Priests, the source of the loss of atmospheric pressure.
"Report to hull section 37J and standby." came the command from the noo-sphere. The Republic warship was no longer within vox range of the Machined Blade and so the Machanicus Soldiers defaulted to their back up command structure. The few Priests onboard along with the squad leaders of the Centurions and Praetorians formed a small noo-sphere of their own and coordinated combat actions as well as decide on attack strategies. The Priests made decisions while the soldiers provided the information and experience required to evaluate and test those decisions as well as the raw processing power required for the noo-sphere to function. It had been decided that they would consolidate their position here before pushing out into the rest of the ship.
The information and experience available from all the combatants aboard lead to an 88% probability that the ships defenders would have prepared fixed heavy weapons and defensive strong points around the hanger and throughout the ship. It fitted in with the observed behaviour of their opponents to date, as well as similar actions observed by others in similar situations. As such the push would not come from the hanger. More than half of the Skitarri would exit the ship and by-pass these defences and then fall upon the defenders while the remainder pushed out in support when the defensive emplacements became embattled with their fellow Skitarri that preformed the space walk.
"At hull section 37J, Standing by."
"Confirmed. All units in position. Commence Operation."
The cruiser shook violently as the half dozen squads tasked with the extravehicular section of the operation detonated their breaching charges and moved out onto the outer hull of the space craft.
/
"They're out on the hull? Walking round our defences?"
"Yes Admiral."
"Not good."
"Understatement Sargent. They'll be able to enter the ship anywhere with those breaching charges. Pull a quarter of our cordon off the line. Form them up into squads and have them stand by in the ships core areas. They're to act as our fast reaction force."
"Understood sir."
The ship shook again, hard, several times in quick succession. The Admiral looked at his holographic display with dismay as he watched the invaders fall upon his troopers and his men doing all they could to defend themselves at such close quarters. The invaders were merciless and all but ripped his men apart.
"They didn't bypass our cordon. They fell upon it like a hammer. Lock all systems. We can't maintain a static defence till we reach Coruscant. We're switching to Guerilla warfare. Key personnel, abandon the bridge and proceed to the safe rooms. The rest of us have a very hard fight ahead." said the Admiral as he drew his blaster and walked from the bridge to fight for his ship.
/
"This is Coruscant Fleet Command to the Redoubtable. Respond. I say again, This is Coruscant Fleet Command to the Redoubtable. Please Respond." said the Clone at communications on the bridge of the Republic Cruiser Endurance Second Wind.
"They are still unresponsive General. They will drop out of hyperspace in minutes." said the Admiral supporting Jedi General Windu.
"There is fear. There is anger and rage. There is also something cold..." Windu mostly said to himself. He paused a second before turning to regard his men that crewed the bridge of his ship. "...We must assume the ship is hostile or contested. Gunnery, Fleet batteries to ready. Prepare to fire." ordered Windu.
"Batteries to Ready Status. Aye sir."
"If the ship is contested sir?" asked one of the clones.
"We will wait for them to fire first. They can't damage any of our ships before the fleet can retaliate and destroy them. If they don't fire, we'll board them and assess their difficulties. Have boarding parties standing by." said Windu. He never turned his gaze from the huge windows at the front of his bridge and he seemed to be fixated on one spot. As the minutes ticked by and the soldiers around him and throughout his ship prepared themselves for combat, Windus` gaze proved correct, the Redoubtable came out of hyperspace right in the middle of his field of vision.
She was a complete mess. Large cylinders were jutting from her dorsal hull and hull breaches were evident along her length, some still bleeding atmosphere into space. As her conventional drives fired up she started to list over to starboard and slowly started to fly in a large circle.
"Heavy hull damage sir. Apart from the cylinders in her hull, all of it appears to be caused by small arms and larger man portable weapons. It appears that only the Port side Ion engine fired, none of the counter thrusters are being used. I'm having trouble accessing her computer systems for a local damage report." reported one of the dozens of clones in the lower section of the bridge.
"General! I have movement on their hull, looks like a squad, they're moving from cover to cover. Looks like the ship is contested sir."
"Admiral. We're receiving a transmission. Very distorted. I'll do my best to get a lock."
"General. That ship is trying to communicate." said the Admiral as he began walking down the length of the bridge to the holo-tactable. Windu turned and followed.
"Hello. Coruscant Fleet Command can you hear us. Anything yet ears..? ...No sir. We're transmitting but I can't gauge the quality of our transmission. They may not hear it." the quality was indeed poor, laced with static, but it was audible.
Windu marched past his assembled officers and hit the transmit button on the holo-tactable.
"This is Windu. We hear you."
"General Windu..?" the static laced voice was clear for those 2 words. His surprise clear in his voice. "...General, this is Captain Tylor. This ship is contested and we need immediate support. We have minimal information on our attackers. They appear..."
"General! Additional contact on the hull of the Redoubtable. They don't look like bothers. They're on the Ventral hull moving up. They'll intercept the friendly squad very soon."
"Copy that Fleet Command. We need support here as soon as you can get it to us." the line went dead as Windu listened to the exchange.
"Get our men ready Admiral. I want to flood that ship with troopers." Windu marched away and towards the hanger decks where he was going to meet up with his assault forces and liberate the Redoubtable.
/
"Damn it! Give me Droids any day of the week!" shouted Hotshot as more laser fire burned into the walker he and his squad was using for cover as they tried to hold their ground against some of the weird soldiers he and his boys had been fighting for hours. Streams of laser fire lit up the vehicle hanger as the rapid firing lasers of their opponents slowly melted through the walker.
"They're advancing Hotshot!" shouted Legs from further along the walkers smoking body as he pumped out a few shots before returning to cover and moving position so that his head wasn't shot from his shoulders by the uncanny coordination and precision of their foes.
"At least they don't seem to run as fast as we can. Alright lads! I want smoke grenades covering our retreat to the Port side hanger access. We'll regroup with Tango squad and re-consolidate..." shouted Hotshot. "...Toddy, Teddy and Trevor, with me on suppression. The rest of you be ready with those grenades and prepare to move. On 3. 1...2..." before Hotshot could finish his count the deck between his squad and the advancing enemy exploded upwards. Spewing smoke and debris in all direction. As Hotshot looked back he saw a purple lightsabre flash into existence. He watched it twirl in the smoke before it leaped into the air. As the smoke cleared Hotshot saw his saviour land amongst the advancing enemy soldiers. To their credit they held for longer than Hotshot had ever seen anything stand up to a Jedi. They immediately drew knifes that they fixed to the barrels of their rifles or drew swords and charged into combat.
They obviously knew what they were doing, but against a Jedi in close quarters they stood like chance. Their swords were cut in half just before they were, their rifles hacked to bits. The Jedi was a blur of motion and finished the squad of 7 soldiers in short order.
Then Hotshot saw something fall from the deckhead. It was one of the robed soldiers that seemed to specialise in close combat and that he'd seen slaughter untold hundreds of his brothers. The Jedi met the attack in typical, stoic fashion. The Jedis` weapon cut through the metal tentacles of the robed figure with ease, but after a few seconds the attacker changed its tactics. Staying just out of reach and using its odd physiology to bend and twist in manors the clone had never seen.
The 2 combatants danced around each other for nearly a minute, the Jedi trying to close the distance and using his powers to catch his foe or place obstacles in its path to slow it down. While the Robed figure used its remaining tentacles and obvious strength to throw any object it could reach at the Jedi.
As the 2 were fighting, clone troopers climbed through the hole in the deck and started to fan out through the hanger and then into the rest of the ship.
The fight ended in a blur, the Jedi stretched out his hand and finally managed to snare his robed foe. He pulled it close and cut it cleanly in two. The two halfs fell to the deck past the Jedi and sparked briefly before machine fluids and a tiny amount of blood pooled on the deck.
The Jedi then turned and walked towards Hotshots squad as if nothing had happened. As if he'd just walked into a room for a meeting.
"Hotshot. That's General Windu." said Legs, his voice betraying a little awe.
"Really? It's rumoured his the most powerful Jedi alive. No wonder he dispatched those things so easily." said Hotshot, as he turned from Legs back to the scene beyond the walker he jumped back to find Windu already standing on their cover, less than a foot away.
"Report Trooper. I need numbers and disposition."
"Aye sir. We believe at least 120 hostiles made it aboard the ship. We have confirmed kills totalling 73. They are extremely resilient. Requiring concentrated weapons fire to guaranty a kill. They are very strong, fast and precise. Their marksmanship is uncanny, and they always seem to try for close-combat over ranged."
"Friendlies?"
"Approximately 420 remain aboard. 300 are troopers, the rest are ships personnel. We're scattered throughout the ship in a Gorilla holding pattern centred on section 17J port side."
"Understood. Link up with my beachhead force in the port side hanger. They will see you resupplied. You are then to join the hangers defence." ordered Windu. He then leap off the dead walker and ran off into the ship.
With the flood of reinforcements the ship was secure in just under an hour. None of the invaders surrendered or were captured, and they took another 700 souls with them into oblivion.
/
"You've lost the Republic vessel?" asked Tektra from the bridge of the Eternal Flame.
"That's correct Inquisitor. The vessel went to FTL speeds just before the bulk of my fighting force was able to board. I do not believe those that successfully breached the vessel will be sufficient to secure the craft and reverse its course." said Vejra. His head and shoulders floating before the Inquisitor from inside the hololith.
Tektra hit the hololith podium with her right hand, smashing some of the interface and causing blood to seep from where her flesh met the new prosthetic device replacing the original lost to the Jedi.
"Check your anger Inquisitor. The new limb will not be stable for the next 2 weeks." said Brother-Apothocary Justin from the Bridge access hatch. His mild rumbling tones filling the bridge as effortlessly as any of his brothers. Despite his warnings about Tektras` fragile new limb, he knew he would need to stay close to her to make sure the good work of himself and Brother Othello wasn't undone by the impulsive and emotional young Inquisitor.
"Do you have its course?" said Tektra, pointedly ignoring the Grey Knight.
"Yes Inquisitor. It appears they left on a curved course that would take them to a planet called Coruscant. The capital planet of the Galactic Republic."
"That is where we must go..." said a deep booming voice. Tektra turned and saw Core striding into the bridge with a nod to his brother. The blade of his Halberd was attached to a new pole and appeared as if it hadn't been severed at all. So skilled was the Grand Master at being a Weaponsmith. Tektra knew it was the same blade. It took years to consecrate and attune a new Nemesis weapon for a Grey Knight. Core wouldn't accept a weapon his psychic mind wasn't in perfect sync with. "...We will go to the Jedi Stronghold on Coruscant. We will breach its defences and take what will safe guard all life in the Imperium."
"How can you know that?" asked Tektra, small droplets of blood forming and flowing across her artificial hand.
"The Jedi. Its will was strong. It was pure. It is now mad... I showed it what we face. I showed it the horrors we few hold back..." Core was now standing next to the bridge hololith. His huge frame dwarfing the Inquisitor. "...It couldn't understand. Its mind fractured and became as easy to read as a book. It's nothing now. A vegetable. It would take a serious psychological shook to re-form its mind now."
"You sound almost sorry." said the Inquisitor. Her tone accusing.
"I am. A life unsullied by the warp? Pure? It doesn't exist where we come from. So yes Inquisitor..." Cores` gaze turned to Tektra and held her in place. Cores` cold eyes were smouldering with a rage Tektra could never match. Yet his facial expression never changed. Only his eyes and the cold fire burning in them gave any impression as to the turmoil and intense emotions boiling in the Grey Knight. "...I am sorry for the crime I have committed. It was not the first and won't be the last. However it is our burden to bear. We knights have broad shoulders, and we will carry any weight, any burden, and any sin, to see our Emperors will be done. Recall your troopers Inquisitor, we'll head to the nearest translation point as soon as this world has been made pure. Order the fleet to fall into formation. It is time to burn the pure and noble for the benefit of the ignorant and the wrong. In our Emperors Name."
/
3 weeks. It took 3 weeks for the Confederacy of Independent Systems to assemble a fleet to retake the Caramm System. 15 Dreadnoughts, 30 Cruisers and 80 Destroyers and Frigates. 2000 fighters surrounded this mass of military power. Easily one of the largest formations of vessels gathered together that wasn't used for planetary defence since the beginning of the war, and it took more promises, lies and blackmail than Count Dooku had ever had to preform before to see his Masters will be done, but the fleet was now here. Dozens of star systems now had little or no defence fleets now however, but his Master viewed this as an enterprise worth the risk.
The Invisible Hand was at its core, Count Dooku was leading this fleet personally. He too was very interested in these new players on the Galactic stage. His Master sensed their power, the unfathomable rage and hated that boiled and yet was caged inside these warriors gave even Darth Sidious pause.
Dooku walked, standing tall, onto his bridge as the fleet was exiting hyperspace. As the planet appeared his next step faltered, and he rested a hand on the command seat. He stood, numb for a second as he watched the fiery black and red planet floating in front of his fleet.
"TX20, confirm this is Caramm V."
"Confirmed Count Dooku. Galactic position is a match and the planets mass and size correspond to our records." replied the droid.
"What happened to the planet?" asked Dooku as he sat in the command seat and started pulling up data himself.
"The planet appears to be breaking up. It would appear that the planet was subject to a massive and sustained asteroid shower that eroded the integrity of the planets crust before a planetoid impact caused the crust to shatter. Energy transferred to the planets core has disrupted its gravitational field and this is now insufficient to hold the planet together against the Centrifugal Force of the planets rotation." responded one of the droids manning Dookus bridge.
"Where is the debris from the asteroid impacts?" asked Dooku.
"Unknown. No excess mass has been located that would account for this scale of asteroid bombardment." said TX20 as it accessed the sensor data itself remotely.
Dooku turned back to the large forward windows and watched as the tectonic plates that made up the planet slowly floated apart and shattered. It wasn't a violent looking act from the bridge of the Invisible Hand, the pieces of the planet just floated apart. Dooku knew however that on what remained of the planet's surface, it would be impossible to stand. Anyone down their now would be thrown around and smashed into a bloody pulp by the upheaval that even he couldn't imagine. Of course, everyone on the planet died weeks ago at the hands of this new power.
"Count Dooku. System scan complete. No other vessels are within range..." said TX20, pulling Dookus' thought away from the planet below. "...Aside from the planet, the only anomalous reading is a dissipating exhaust trail from a numerous high yield Plasma engines that leads to the system edge."
"What is its galactic heading?"
"346.6 by 005.3..."
"346.6 by 005.3 degrees. Thank you..." Count Dooku leaned forward in his command chair and put his finger tips together. "...What planets are along the course from this system. Allow for a cone of 1 degrees."
"There are 12 million inhabited planets in that section of the galaxy." said TX20.
Count Dooku sat straight up again, his eyes wide.
"And one of them is Coruscant." Dooku didn't phrase this sentence as a question. It was a statement of fact.
"That is correct Count Dooku."
A broad grin slowly spread over the Counts face. He knew what this new player was doing, going to the Galactic Republics capital. He could feel the titanic struggle the Jedi were about to face.
"Open a communication link to Darth Sidious. I can't help him learn about this new enemy, but I suspect the Jedi are about to be his test subjects for a very informative demonstration."
/
"Close they are now. Short our time is." said Yoda as he walked to his seat in the Jedi Council Chamber. He was alone in the room, the other masters of the Jedi were aboard their ships in orbit. They and 600 other vessels stood vigil over the Galactic Republics capital, presenting a barrier of martial power that few could match.
"I feel it too master. A cold mass is heading straight for us, if at a sedate pace." commented Kenobe from his own vessel, he and the other members of the Jedi council were glowing blue holograms that sat in their chairs.
"This will be difficult. Those ships are like nothing we've faced. I can also sense something else. Something broken and fractured, but familiar. I think Master Fisto may still be alive aboard one of their vessels." said Master Windu.
A squawking alarm starting sounding from all the gathered Masters, and as one they turned to address them. Every glowing blue hologram turning to speak with the officers aboard their vessels. Mace Windu was the first to turn back to Yoda to fill him in on the latest development, despite the fact that Master Yoda could already sense the mass of force and cold feeling that had just entered the outer edge of the star system.
"Master Yoda, The Ulabos satellite ring has just detected 28 vessels inbound." said the glowing Mace Windu.
"28 against 600, and we now have a massive open field to manoeuvre in. More than half the star system lies between Coruscant and Ulabos, and we now have a day or so to observe and plan before attacking..." said Skywalker, standing next to his forma teacher aboard Kenobes ship. "...good thing they don't have engines like we do. Thousands of lives maybe spared due to this advantage."
"Perhaps, but reach Coruscant they will. Resilient their ships are, and single minded the crews." said Yoda.
"We should begin observations. Rig up drone controlled vessels for probing their offensive and defensive capabilities. Get stealth probes in to infiltrate their computer systems." said Windu as he waved over people out of view to start dealing out orders.
"Bloody, this will end. Focused on us they are. Unbending their duty is."
/
"So...We're here. The capital of this Galactic Republic. Time till we reach the planet?" asked Tektra as she absent mindedly rubbed her wrist. Her new hand was now stable but it still itched. Brother- Apothocary Justin said the itching may last for an indeterminate amount of time. Either an hour or until Tektra died. The new appendage was strong however, she'd successfully crushed a solid lump of stone in her new hand when she tested its strength a day ago.
"We will reach the planet in approximately 29 hours My Lady." said some random Serf somewhere on the bridge.
"Very good assume formation Gideon Sphere. Power to all weapons and voids. Assume we have been detected and that hostiles will appear within our combat sphere without warning..." ordered Tektra to the cavernous space filled with Serfs. "...Inform the Grand Master that we've exited the warp and that we are inbound for the target planet."
"Very good My Lady."
A blaring alarm sounded catching Tektras attention.
"My Lady, Auspex has detected a vessel 400,000 kilometres from the fleet. It is a Republic warship. It appears to be an Arquitens class light cruiser." said a Serf.
"Can you draw a firing solution?" asked Tektra. Despite the great distance, Tektra had served with some ships gunners that were of such skill that they could hit another ship at such a distance. One even hit an Elder raider from 300,000. A difficult task even when in optimal firing range where gravitational and solar eddy forces were a negligible factor.
"Yes My Lady. The target is quite small however, and it will take 8 seconds for our munitions to reach the target. They could evade or escape in that time."
"Run out the guns, inform me when you have a firing solution. Bring up a visual." the hololith before Tektra changed and shifted, now showing her the small Republic vessel instead of the mighty fleet that was at present, hers to command. It was a flat triangle with 3 engine units at the rear. It obviously shared the same design philosophy as the larger vessel that ferried the Jedi to them before they left the first system they came to in this new universe. It was again a pitiful example of a warship. Small, minimal weapons. Undoubtedly very manoeuvrable thanks to its slight mass, but what good is that if it can't deliver the punch needed to end its foes. Then Tektra remembered that its foes where just as pitiful as it was. Nothing in this universe could stand against the forces humanity battled.
The fleet she command right now was a minor element compared to the vast battlefleets that prowled her nightmarish home galaxy. Here it was arguably the most powerful military force this galaxy had ever seen. With these 28 ships she could conquer this galaxy and remake a new Imperium free of the warp. A new Imperium with Tektra as its new Empress.
A heavy, unyielding but gentle hand appeared on her shoulder. Encased in shinning Ceremite and Adamantium.
"Many have thought as you young Inquisitor. To remake the Emperors realm. To make a better universe for humanity to rule, under their watchful eyes. I can see that you have discarded this idea with all the other unique and impossible scenarios that you have dreamed up over the past few weeks. I caution you however. All have failed due to the ruin they would bring. Only our Emperor can keep our universe alive and sane..." The heavy hand left her shoulder and she turned and regarded the towering demigod standing before her. His unblemished Terminator plate shinning in the dim light of the cavernous bridge. The Grand Master was almost haloed by the light shining from his armour. His massive height dwarfing the Inquisitor, his repaired halberd held at ease, horizontally. He swung it up and placed the base against the deck. He did that action quickly and yet not a single sound was created from the contact between the heavy weapon and the solid deck. "...know this Inquisitor, that if your plan to create a new Imperium in your image hadn't been discarded, you would be dead now. You have passed, just like the innumerable righteous heroes that have come before you. For now, you are as loyal a servant as I. Your Master choose wisely when he plucked you from that hole you were born into and raised you up..." Core turned and began to walk towards the bridge hatch. "...My fleet is yours Inquisitor. I will not resume command as discussed. Get my Brothers and I to the surface. We will be in prays until it is time." with that Core left.
"My Lady. We have a firing solution." said a Serf.
Tektra turned and regarded the tiny vessel monitoring her fleet.
"Fire." Tektra felt the deck quake slightly as the building sized munitions were expelled from the Eternal Flame at a 6th of the speed of light. She watched as the 8 seconds ticked by and the vessel vanished. The force of the weapons so great that the vessel just shattered into non-existence. The remaining parts of the salvo passing harmlessly around the wreckage, until they hit something in the future turning that unfortunate object into more confetti, or shaking a world.
/
"No chance of out-ranging them then." said Skywalker to himself from the bridge of the Resolute after meeting with his old Master. He, Asoka and Admiral Yularen were standing around the holographic projector that was displaying the scene on the edge of the Coruscant star system. No longer, with the destruction of the monitoring vessel the image vanished.
"I'm bringing the scans back up." said Yularen as he manipulated the controls and brought up the image of the unknown fleet entering the system and then destroying the ship that was sent to investigate the anomaly that preceded said unknown fleets arrival. He slowed the image down when the unknown fleet opened fire. It appeared to be a broadside salvo from the largest vessel. Yularen watched intently as the slowed image showed the objects launched from the vessel travel too and then impact and completely obliterate the comparatively tiny, monitoring Arquitens class vessel.
"That's some very accurate shooting..." said Yularen, mostly to himself. "...Do you have any idea how many variables they would have needed to calculate to make that shot? All the way from the initial acceleration of the projectile to the final point of impact. Our targeting computers would take several hours to work out that salvo, only droids and our Navigational computer have the necessary raw computing power required. Our weapons are relatively simple to use by comparison. Point and click. Minimal interference from space with Lasers compared to their projectiles." said Yularen.
"Well yeah. It's just range and bearing to target, and targets relative heading and speed." said Asoka.
"Put simply, yes. These ships however us projectiles. They need to take into account the effect their vessels movement has on the projectile, the effects of the propellant and the barrel of the weapon. All the effects that will interact with the projectile as it moves towards it target like solar winds and gravitational effects, and finally the final effect of the projectile with the target." said Yularen.
"The final effect? Boom? They need to calculate that?" said Skywalker sarcastically.
"Well, maybe not the final impact but just before could have a detrimental effect. The gravitational effect of the ship could cause a deflection."
"All we've learned from this is that they have indeterminate range with massive destructive potential. We already knew that." said Asoka, slightly exasperated.
"We've also discovered that they have some serious computing power at their command and some very accurate and varied sensors. An 8000 year old AI is probably going to be a powerful thing to confront. No wonder R2D2 was so scared after the encounter..." said Yularen, he turned the holotable off and faced the 2 Jedi. "...This will be difficult General. Our losses will be great. I can't think of any way to avoid that."
"Our vessels are still more manoeuvrable. Carefully coordinated hit and run attacks could whittle them down before they reach the capital." said Asoka.
"That's still our only real advantage. Numbers and speed." said Skywalker.
"Sirs, General Windu is calling a conference meeting. I'm tying in our communications now." said one of the clones manning the bridge. A few seconds later, and the holotable was filled with miniature Jedi Knights and Masters.
"You were all monitoring the recon vessel and have no doubt deduced that we can't out-range the unknown fleet. You have also reviewed the records of the engagement between the unknown fleet and the Separatist Fleet in the Caramm System. A head on confrontation would result in devastating losses assuming our gathered forces are able to destroy them with overwhelming numbers..." Windu paused for a moment. "...At present we are going to proceed with probing strikes against the unknown fleet to better gauge their reaction times and tactics. A number of recon drones will jump in and provide sensor data for our precision hyper-space jumps. Fleets will jump in, fire several salvoes while the vessels re-align for their exit jump and then leave combat as soon as they are able. Until we can gauge them better all of you are to use every precaution..." Windu seemed to pointedly look at Skywalker as he said that. "...If we are unable to destroy or deter the intruders, we will assemble in the orbit of Centax 3 for a concentrated strike. Does anyone have any questions..?" no one spoke up. "...You will receive your orders shortly. May the Force be with you." with that, all the little Jedi disappeared from the table.
"I hope it doesn't go as far as reaching Centax 3. Padma loves it there." said Skywalker.
"Maybe they want to relax at the resort moon but they have a weird way of asking." said Askoa, trying to be funny.
"Be more careful with your words Asoka. 50 clones were aboard the recon vessel. " said Skywalker.
"Of course. Sorry Master."
"General. We're receiving our orders and the attack plan." said the clone comm officer again. The data appeared before the trio and they quickly reviewed it.
"We're the 5th wave..?" said Skywalker. "...We have the most experience with those ships. We should be going first."
"Perhaps, but Master Luminara is a more experienced Jedi and considered a cool and precise combat commander. Your skills in that regard are less developed and are required for this type of plan." said Yularen.
"True, odds are Skyguy here would jump in his fighter and charge straight at them." commented Ahsoka.
"Ha ha. Also that's not a bad plan. In their last engagement we observed a lack in dedicated fighter support." mused Skywalker.
"You've given him ideas. Perfect..." said Yularen as he turned and walked down the central walkway to the forward area of the bridge. "...Helmsmen, plot a course to our designated holding coordinates. Comms order the rest of the Open Circle fleet to fall into formation with us." as Yularen was giving out his orders to his bridge crew, other fleets orbiting the capital were already jumping out and preparing for combat.
/
The Tranquillity and its accompanying fleet was in position and reviewing the recon drones positional data about the invading fleet. Shields were raised and ready. Turbo Laser Batteries charged and ready. Engines ready to immediately re-orient the ship for its exit jump from combat. 12 Jedi cruisers were waiting for the order to attack the invaders.
"All is ready Master." said Bariss Offee, as she walked up to the large forward windows and stood next to her Master.
"Very good..." Luminara and Bariss then turned and walked back to the holo-table and the waiting senior officers. "...Begin operation gentlemen. Remember, this is a fast hit and run operation."
"Yes General. Commence Jump. Gunners open fire as soon as you have visuals on hostile vessels." ordered the Admiral of Luminaras fleet. A second later and the ships jumped into hyperspace and appeared 1000 kilometres from the enemy fleet and immediately opened fire. The giant cathedral like spacecraft were hit repeatedly, but to apparently no effect. Their shields absorbed the punishment as if it were nothing.
The Tranquillity Fleet altered its heading a few degrees while continuing to light up space with their weapons fire. 15 seconds after jumping in, those in the fleet started to notice that the massive weapon emplacements on some of the ships started to move towards the fleet. Although the ships themselves remained on course.
"In position for exit jump." shouted one of the clones from the helm station on the bridge.
"Execute exit jump." shouted back the Admiral.
30 seconds after jumping in the Tranquillity Fleet jumped to the other side of the star system. Through the recon drones every commander of every ship began evaluating the tactics and damaged caused to and by these aggressors, elsewhere in the system also, another fleet was preparing to make its own attack run.
/
The fleet was making steady progress through the system. The fleet was being attacked repeatedly after the first hour of entering the system. Tektra guessed that these Republicans had some means of tracking her fleet from afar. So far these attacks hadn't proved threatening. More frustrating. Tektra wasn't able to re-align the fleet and aim their guns fast enough to destroy the irritants before they left, disappearing from auspex. As yet they hadn't come from the same direction twice, but all had been within 2000 kilometres.
They weren't causing any damage though, a dozen of these ships opening fire for about 30 seconds before retreating. No chance of triggering the blessed void capacitors that stood ready to dump all their caged energy into the void generator.
Weapons were so powerful in the Emperors universe that voids could only stand up to one volley before failing, and the capacitors brought the voids back to full strength while the capacitor accumulated another charge.
In pitched battles, the voids of even the strongest battleships are tested as capacitor after capacitor discharges to ward off each volley, and even the largest ships can only have so many.
The Eternal Flame had 3, as did the Machined Blade. The Sister Ignatious Torphantom had 2 and every other vessel was only equipped with 1. As yet, only the void capacitor of the Proceeding Echo had been tested, and that required the concentrated fire power of 25 hostile vessels.
The fleet had weathered 4 waves of attackers so far, and Tektras` patients was wearing thin.
"Prep for area denial. 360 degrees on all plains. Re-orientate the fleet and have all gunners ready for my order. Set fuses between 1 and 2 thousand kilometres. The second they appear we will open fire." ordered Tektra. Her fleet was about to become the centre of an inferno as every ship repositioned to present as many weapons as possible in every direction.
/
"Admiral, General. All preparations are complete. We are ready to attack on your orders." said one of the clone officers standing with them around the holo-table.
"Their fleet is altering formation. They appear to be presenting their bows outwards." said Yularen as he continued to review the data coming in from the recon drones.
"We must be weakening them. They must have stronger bow shielding." said Skywalker with his typical confidence. Not unfounded confidence either as so far every attack fleet has been able to retreat unscathed.
"Possible..." mused Yularen. "...The attack plan is unchanged. Stand by to jump to hyperspace on my mark. 3, 2, 1, Mark."
/
"My Lady, Threat contact."
Tektra pressed a rune on the holo-pit.
"All ships open fire..!" shouted Tektra. "...Blanket space in fire! In our Emperors Name!"
/
"We're in position." said a clone officer.
"Commence re-alignment and open fi..." Yularen never finished his sentence as blinding light streamed through the forward windows and the ship started shaking.
"Sir. Explosions all around us."
Skywalker was standing at the forward windows and all he could see in all directions was blinding explosion after blinding explosion. He looked round and saw one of his ships explode as it was hit.
"Jump to hyperspace! Now!" shouted Skywalker.
A second later and the Resolute was calm again. Skywalker was now bathed in a warm light as his fleet exited Hyperspace just short of running into the sun.
"That was close." said Skywalker.
"Get me a fleet wide damage report and an accounting of our losses..." shouted Yularen as he marched up to Skywalker. "...They weren't presenting stronger shields. They were preparing to carpet bomb space. They can't target us fast enough so they shot everywhere."
"Sirs. We're receiving a signal from fleet command. It's the order to fall-back to Centax 3..." said one of the clone offices. "...I also have our losses. We lost 2 cruisers with all hands. The rest of the fleet only suffered minor vibration damage."
2 cruisers, this was supposed to be easy. Thought Skywalker to himself.
"Sir, I have General Windu online."
The Admiral and Jedi walked back to the holo-table and activated the call.
"Skywalker. Are you alright? What is your status?" asked the miniature Windu.
"We lost 2 cruisers Master. The other ships are still functional." said Skywalker, his tone unusually unanimated.
"I see. The recon drones report that they haven't stopped firing. They are maintaining a continuous firing pattern, blanketing space all around themselves. We can't risk hit and run attacks now. Master Yoda has called all Jedi to the Temple. We are to leave the fleet and the battle in space to our fleet officers. We are to meet them on the ground."
"I understand Master. How will we know where they will land their ground forces?" asked Skywalker.
"They will attack the Temple. Master Yoda has heard the cries from the Force. All are needed if we are to survive this. Windu out." the miniature version of Windu disappeared.
"Set course for the Centax 3 rendezvous. Asoka and I will travel from there in our fighters." Skywalker then left the bridge without another word.
"You heard the General. Set course." ordered Yularen.
/
The hours ticked by slowly. After Tektra lashed out in her fit of annoyance at the Republic ships of the 5th wave to attack her, they didn't attack again. This angered her even more. A little bloody nose and they run apparently. The 28 ships under her command couldn't cover every avenue of approach, Tektra kept her ships constantly moving inside the formation to never leave any gaps in their combat envelope open for too long. These gaps were something a skilled commander could exploit, but they didn't. She was invading their capitol star system of their Republic and they were allowing her to progress unmolested. Madness. If any hostile fleet entered Sol, every ship for a thousand light years would descend on the interlopers like a hammer wielded by the God-Emperor himself.
After 5 hours, Tektra ordered a stop to the saturation fire her ships had been pumping out. She kept her fleet in their shifting formation ready to fire again but after another 5 hours they didn't reappear. With nothing to do she handed over the con to one of the Chapter Serfs and left the bridge to meditate and sleep. 8 hours later she returned to the bridge and saw there was no change. There was now 9 hours left till the fleet reached the orbit of this Galactic Republics capitol planet.
"My Lady, We can now review reliable auspex information in the vicinity of the target planet." said one of the Serfs.
"Show me." order the Inquisitor.
The hololith shifted from showing her fleet, to an image of the target world, its moons and the 600 strong enemy fleet orbiting the moon that lay closest to her fleets' flight path. As she watched the enemy ships started to move to present a firing line in space facing her fleet.
"No strike craft? Maybe they'll be launched as we close..." wondered Tektra out loud. "...Re-orientate the fleet, bows on our current heading. We still have a little bit to wait till we can engage." ordered Tektra.
"Yes My Lady."
/
"They are closing Admiral. 400,000 kilometres. That's their maximum observed range..." said one of the clone officers on the Jedi Cruiser Resolute. "...Engines, weapons and shields on all ships are at full readiness to close with the enemy when they open fire."
"Very good." At least we'll have a few seconds to close with those ships after they've fired their first shot. Thought the Admiral to himself.
The Resolute `stood` beside her fellow vessels presenting a solid wall of grey with splashes of some of other colours. A formidable barrier that would require a fleet of thousands to subdue effectively. In this case it was arrayed against a small fleet of 28 vessels. Although not one of those vessels looked like anything ever seen before in this star system. These massive slab sided vessels which had withstood everything sent against them so far had slowly come about from their spherical formation to present their bows to the gathered might of the Republic Fleet, and the larger vessels were spreading out with the smaller but still large escorts spread amongst these Gothic looking flying fortresses.
"I've had a thought Admiral, what about Coruscant?" asked one of the Clone Officers.
"What about the planet?" said the Admiral.
"Well...If we dodge their fire, won't it impact Coruscant."
Admiral Yularen turned and looked towards the clone as he said that. Coruscant only figured into the planning of this engagement as a navigational obstacle. However, taking into account the type, and potent nature of the enemies' weaponry the planet could suffer noticeable damage. If the fleet held its position and took the hits that would spare the world below than the fleet would be lost before they could retaliate.
"Forward that thought to the `Endurance Second Wind`. Confirm our battle-plan." ordered Yularen.
Damn it! We didn't take into account the effect their weapons could have on the planet. Thought Yularen to himself.
"Admiral. The order has been confirmed. Emergency units are being mobilised planet side. Command says the fleet has to engage the enemy if Coruscant is to be saved. They believe any damage to the planet can be contained." reported the clone officer at the communications console.
"Then stand ready. Execute attack plan as soon as the enemy opens fire."
May the Force be with you all down there.
/
"Inquisitor. We are entering maximum effective range." reported one of the Chapter Serfs.
Tektra looked at the hololith again. The enemy fleet was so close together. Barely 4 or 5 kilometres between each ship. One good Nova Cannon shot and a dozen or more enemy ships would disappear. Sadly, no Astartes vessel anywhere is equipped with a Nova Cannon and the Dictator Class Cruiser, the Sister Ignatious Torphantom and the scaled down Arch Machanicus, Machined Blade were also not equipped with the potent long-range weapon.
She did have 3 very potent guns at her disposal however. The Battle-barge and the 2 Strike Cruisers were equipped with Bombardment Cannons. Not a pure anti-ship weapon, but very powerful and against a crowded hostile fleet, devastating. At full saturation, the Bombardment Cannon fires roughly a hundred heavy Magma Bomb Warheads like a giant space shot gun with explosive pellets, and each pellet warhead can level several miles square. Most of the Bombs would miss their targets, but the ones that hit can easily destroy any one of the Republic ships. Tektra doubted they'll need the potent weapons to provide orbital support on this occasion as Core wanted the target intact. However, when orbit was achieved she was going to reconfigure the weapon on the `Eternal Flame` to a more focused state in order to hit single ground targets if needed.
Tektra had opted to open the engagement with the Bombardment Cannon first. Its range was less than the weapon batteries and lance arrays of her fleet, but given the more nibble state of her enemy Tektra wanted to get as close as was prudent before opening up, and 3 hundred Magma Bombs was going to be an impressive opening salvo. Even if most did miss.
"Status of weapons." ordered Tektra.
"All weapons are armed and ready to fire." answered one of the Serfs.
Tektras face, lit by the eerie green glow of the slightly flickering hololith cracked a small smile.
"Begin Attack! Open Fire!" yelled Tektra.
/
Fire rippled around the Imperial ships as they continued their charge towards the massive barrier of ships arrayed between them and the planet. A second later and that barrier scattered and started moving towards the onrushing mass of Gothic might heading towards the planet and started deploying thousands of fighters and bombers, and by second 3 men started dying. Despite the Republic fleet scattering to avoid the munitions launched against them, the sheer volume of weapons fire rendered it impossible for every ship to evade successfully.
Dozens of massive explosions blossomed amongst the Republic fleet as ships died. Some became huge fireballs with only particulate debris remaining. Some shaken so severely that they fell apart slowly as decks, engines, weapons and hull plating flew apart in the general direction that the vessel, when it was whole was travelling in. Some ships were only clipped by the earth shattering munitions without them detonating, and those vessels careened out of control, falling out of formation, 2 colliding with other cruisers destroying all 4 vessels, and for every capital vessel that suffered, a dozen more escorting fighters and bombers ceased to exist.
By second 5, the planet was on fire. Around 2 hundred Magma Bombs didn't find their targets, and those weapons carried on past them regardless and smashed into the planet. Tens of thousands of square miles were now smoking craters. Habitation blocks, factories, parks, gardens. The indiscriminate and unintentional bombardment killed millions on the city planet. Secondary explosions and waves of fire carried by the failing technology, as huge chunks of the city worlds infrastructure disappeared, wrecked massive sections of the planet.
As fire spread amongst the Republic fleet and on the planet behind them, more weapons fire spewed from the Imperials, solid munitions with explosive cores the size of buildings were hurled towards their targets. Torpedoes a hundred metres long screamed from launch tubes, hunting for any target in their narrow field of visions. Furious beams of cold blue light blazed a path of death between the fleets and more Magma bombs were being readied for launch.
3 or 4 Republic vessels dead every 15 seconds or so when an unlucky vessel evaded into a passing projectile, and as of yet they hadn't had the opportunity to retaliate.
A minute later, with no strike craft launching from the Imperial ships, the fighters and bombers of the Republic surged forward ahead of their mother craft. As they closed and just before they could open fire, masses of smaller shells were spat from the Imperial ships as their close in weapons systems opened fire. Thousands of dedicated anti-fighter and anti-missile turrets created a near wall of weapons fire. Hundreds of Republic strike craft disappeared as their shields and then their hulls gave out under the intense barrage.
All that changed when the Republic fighters and bombers closed to within 2 hundred metres of the Imperial ships. Being so close, and being so small when compared to Imperial fighters and bombers, the anti-air weapons on the Imperial ships couldn't track them fast enough. The weapons moved too slowly to be able to follow the fast moving strike craft, and now, finally, the Republic could strike back. The fighters and bombers of the Republic fleet strafed the giant ships at extremely close range. Explosions blossomed in their wake as they tore up and down the length of the Imperial vessels.
As the fire balls died with no oxygen to sustain them, the Republic looked back to evaluate their good work. The results were...disappointing.
Paint was scuffed, a few exposed pieces of equipment were destroyed and one cannon out of thousands had been disabled. No clouds of escaping gas, no secondary explosions. The armour on the Imperial vessels was just ridiculous when compared to the vessels of which the Republic navy routinely enters into conflict, such a strafing run would have destroyed a fleet of Separatist vessels, and the exposed technology outside of the Imperial armour itself must be extremely robust.
The anti-air wasn't helping the Republic cause either. The weapons had stopped trying to track the fighters and bombers and switched to a shifting barrage. Denying the Republic strike craft the room they required to operate effectively, and every couple of seconds another fighter or bomber exploded as the pilot unluckily flew straight into a stream of shells.
The minutes ticked by, and the Imperials maintained their punishing rate of fire as the 2 fleets closed. 479 Republic capital ships were still charging the invaders, 121 ships were dead. The Republic strike craft continuing to chip away at the behemoths they circled, explosions in their wake, tiny when compared to the sheer size of the vessels invading the star system.
After 5 minutes at full burn, the Republic Navy finally started firing.
Space lit up as Republic lasers burned across space, smashing into Imperial shields.
The Republic was evenly distributing their fire power between the closing Imperial Fleet. 16 or 17 vessels firing at a single target. The Imperial shields absorbed this punishment with ease. The Proton Torpedoes on the other hand were a different matter as they passed through the shield envelope of the Imperials and detonated against the thick hulls of the giant warships with only a dozen or so being intercepted by the invaders anti-air barrage.
This produced better results than the fighters and bombers, but the damage was still depressingly minimal. Although the Imperial fleet was now covered in small explosions that were slowly having a cumulative effect on their fleets' performance as one cannon after another fell silent, it wasn't slowing it down. The 5 massive core vessels of the Imperial fleet never wavered once in their course to the planet while the 22 smaller, though still large, escort vessels flew in between the core ships formation. The last vessel was holding tight to the largest of the invading warships and was mostly being screened from the Republic.
The 2 fleets continued to close and it soon became apparent to the Republic Admirals that they weren't going to win this game of chicken. From the estimated mass of the hostile fleet and the observed thrust output from their engines, the point of no return for them to make a course correction to avoid impact was passing with no signs of activity from their manoeuvring thrusters. The Republic fleet tried to scatter. However, they were in a tight formation. The plan was to maximise the fire power of the entire fleet and hit the invaders with everything they had. One ship couldn't find a clear path to avoid collision in time and were rammed by the most massive flying fortress. It was rammed head on by the largest vessel and it simply ploughed straight through the unfortunate ship and the resulting fireball. It emerged trailing smoke from the inferno, it had taken noticeable damage to it flat bow and some scaring down its length from debris, but it carried on and kept firing. As the 2 fleets passed, 3 dozen Republic capital ships exploded. The massive broadside batteries that had been waiting patiently for the enemy to pass opened up and immediately made themselves felt.
Then the 2 fleets passed by each other.
The massive advantage in fire power disappeared as the main guns of the Imperials fell silent with their enemy outside of their sights. The Republic came about and continued to fire upon the sterns of the Imperial fleet, and as the massive invaders altered course to reacquire their targets, the Jedi Cruisers kept pace and stayed in their blind spots. 4 of the invading ships didn't alter course however. They remained steady, heading straight for the planet. Some of the Republic ships tried to pursue, but were blown to bits the second they re-entered the weapons envelope of the covering Imperial ships that altered course to re-engage the Republic fleet.
The remaining 408 Republic ships and the 24 covering Imperial ships started a dangerous game of hide and seek with the unique twist of remaining in sight of one another. The Jedi cruisers would try and remain hidden in the blind spots of their opponents, while the Imperial guns would try and seek them out.
The Imperial guns made the Republic pay dearly for every mistake. While the Republic finally started to concentrate their fire power. The first Hunter class destroyer lost her shields, her hull being peppered with explosions as the Republic slowly ate through her tough, thick hide.
The 4 ships that escaped the Republic fleet made orbit uncontested. They positioned themselves above the Jedi Temple, and made ready to deliver their deadly cargo.
/
"They've taken a geostationary orbit above the Temple. Only one vessel has launched any landing craft. ETA 5 minutes." reported Asoka from the Command Centre inside the Jedi Temple. All of the Council of Masters were present as well as a number of Knights and their Padawens.
"Clone Troopers are already barricading the Temple. They'll have a hard time breaching our defences, but why haven't the other ships done anything. The largest one is the one that we boarded and I get the feeling that the people who wear those giant suites of armour aren't on that other ship that's launched its landing craft." said Skywalker, his tone slightly confused as he walked around the large holographic projection.
"You saw what those cannons can do, maybe they're going to provide ground fire support." said Kenobe.
At that moment Yodas' ears stood straight up and he whirled around towards the exit of the Command Centre. A second later and without a word he took off at speed with his lightsabre flying into his hand. After a second of looking at each other, the Masters, Knights and Padawens all took off after Yoda. They all followed Yoda to the massive, arching north entrance hall. He was standing at one end looking down towards the huge open doors. Light from the evening sun and the burning city threw flickering shadows all around the room. Other Jedi were standing around in confusion, and outside the doors the Clone Troopers would be setting up barricades and portable heavy weapons. One statue in this room looked very different from all the others, and it was standing in the centre of the massive entrance hall. A shining outline of a 2 and a half metre tall statue silhouetted by the sun and burning city. This statue was the focal point of everyone's attention save for the troopers outside the large doors setting up on the external stairs. The giant took a step forward and the hall thundered as its massive armoured foot smashed the marble floor causing it to shatter and cracks to spread out in a jagged spider web.
"It looks even more imposing when moving, and it's still half the hall away." said Asoka, her voice hushed and clearly in awe.
The giant came to a stop a metre from Yoda, the 2 couldn't be more different in stature, but everyone in the room could sense the power flowing from both of them. The familiar and controlled Force from Yoda, and the barely contained energy of rage and hate radiating from the giant in waves. Both different and yet similar.
"Here, you should not be."
"Here, is where I am required alien. Give us what we search for. Take me to your archives. Fail, and a hundred more such as I will descend upon you like avenging Angels of Death. For His Kingdom." The giants tone was deep and rumbling, effortlessly filling the huge entrance hall, and it held all who heard it in place with awe and fear. The hall itself seemed to shake in the presence of this giants` voice.
"You think to threaten us..?" said Master Windoo, his voice and tone calm considering the situation. "…There are nearly 10,000 Jedi in residence here. You have invaded our home. Killed our people and even now you hold one of us aboard your ship while your fleet continues to battle our defenders. Too much has already happened, we will not submit."
There was a blinding flash and a blast of displaced air that threw people backwards and forced them to shield their eyes. When they looked back, a hundred more towering giants filled the entrance hall standing at their Masters back. All similar, but all very different. All wore massive suites of armour like their master. No two armours were the same, gold script was different on each one. Pictures on shields were all different. Paper secured with wax were fixed at different positions and were of different lengths and with different wording, although some suites of armour looked lighter than the one worn by their Master. All had massive firearms attached to their left forearms. All of them had equally massive handheld weapons. Swords, Halberds, Hammers, all massive and all glowing blue softly. All of these giants radiate the same power that their leader does.
"Your submission is not required…" heat haze started to radiate from the giant army with the odd lick of blue flame flashing from seals and joints in their armour. "...Only your deaths."
"For we are the Emperors Chosen!" shouted the army. The Temple did shake at that battle cry and fire spread out from them in all directions, engulfing everything.
/
Cembers Valkyrie tore through the sky ahead of the 2 dozen other Valkyries carrying his elite squads and escorting the 5 heavy lifters that were carrying the bulk of his forces. He and his men were ready. He and his men were eager to face a worthy foe. Killing unarmed civilians had its place in the many wars that he had fought, keeping the Inquisitions secrets always demanded a heavy price in innocent lives. Cember did his duty however, he knew it had to be done, and there were always more people to take the place of those culled.
Now he and his men were charging towards an enemy that would bring honour to their Emperor upon said enemies defeat.
"General Sir. We're approaching the target building. ETA 3 minutes." said the pilot of Cembers Valkyrie the `Duties Hard Choses`.
"Understood Pilot…" Cember released his harness and walked to the command vox suite located on the bulkhead just before you enter the cockpit.
Ordinarily Cember wouldn't have left his harness during a combat insertion, but on this approach there wasn't any incoming anti-air fire to throw his Valkyrie about. At the command panel he brought up the topographical image of the target building being supplied from the auspex analysis gear of theIce Queen. It showed this `Jedi Temple`, a big square building with 5 spires, 1 spire for each corner and 1 taller spire in the centre. Cember activated the overriding command vox and started addressing his army.
"Attention all units. You know your orders. Command squadron will secure the north entrance. Squadron 2 the east, 3 the west and 4 the south. Squadron 5 will deploy in a holding pattern around the central spire and move to assist any squadrons meeting resistance they can't overcome. Heavy Lifters will then follow their escorting Valkyries to deploy our main force before returning to the Ice Queen. Heavy Lifter Cage of Fire will remain with squadron 5 and deploy as needed to secure the perimeter of the building. The Emperor watches over us Ladies and Gentlemen. Begin attack!"
With those words, Cember ran back to his harness as the escorting Valkyries screamed ahead of the heavy lifters they were escorting and charged towards the Jedi Temple. All 5 squadrons were heading to their respective targets with all weapons loaded and ready.
The 5 squadrons scattered to move towards their respective targets. Cember felt and heard the `Duties Hard Choices` shake and roar as it approached the large stairway leading to the Temple. The heavy bolters, las cannons and missiles in the command squadron tore the stairway to pieces and ripped the garrisoning Republic soldiers into red gory streaks. Cember couldn't see the damage done by his Valkyries, but he'd been in enough battles to see with his minds eye the small explosions caused by the heavy bolters as they hit the stone stairs and threw stone fragments at the defenders, and the exploding soldiers as those mass reactive shells detonated inside their bodies. The stone glowing red as it was hit by las cannons and melting, and the remains of soldiers when they were hit and bits of them simply evaporated. The massive explosions from the missiles as they smashed anything they came into contact with into dust.
After a time that seemed far too long to Cember, but that was in reality only a few seconds, the Valkyrie came to hover over the stairs and he lead his men from the craft as he jumped out of the ship from 40 metres in the air. He and his men putting their faith in the grav-harnesses that was holding them in position on board the Valkyrie, and was now serving as their means of rapid deployment.
As was usually the case, General Cember hit the ground first. His Powersabre and Helpistol already in hand, and he ran up what was left of the stairs looking for something to kill. He heard more explosions from around the rest of the Temple as the other squadrons under the command of his Colonels attacked. He heard reports and updates in his vox-bead in his ear, but Cember had long learned how to filter everything coming through his vox and concentrate only on what was happening around him. He was unconsciously listening out for keywords while his left arm holding his Helpistol came up and pointed directly at the back of a white armoured soldiers head. Cember pulled the trigger, and the soldiers head popped as the intense heat from the laser weapon burned through the mans skull. Lasers blew past Cember as his men took a knee and laid down a blitz of Helgun fire. The pencil thing beams punched clean holes straight through the few defending soldiers that had survived the onslaught from the Valkyries of his command squadron. Cember continued his charge and was nearing the huge doors leading to the interior of this Temple.
Cember saw the last 2 soldiers that his men hadn't dispatched yet, these last 2 were in cover behind some debris. Cember jumped over their cover and struck. His sword came down and sliced one of the soldiers head in half vertically. His body went limp and fell. Cember turned and was struck in the head by the butt of the last soldiers' weapon. Cember lost his balance and went to one knee as the soldier levelled his weapon. Before said soldier could pull the trigger and end Cember, the soldier was riddled with red lasers that practically cut the soldier into small chunks that promptly fell apart.
"General Sir!" shouted one of his men as he ran up the stairs.
"Damn it. I'm fine. Get into cover and prepare to repel. They'll be coming soon." said Cember with a smile on his face as he pulled himself up. The soldier saluted and moved to start planting demolition charges. Cember turned and walked over to the huge doors that lead into the Temple. He watched for a second the battle taking place inside the Temple. The Grey Knights were surrounded by fire, and butchering everything that got close. Cember watched as shafts of thin light in a dozen colours spun and rapidly moved in the smoke. Some stopped dead abruptly before disappearing, obviously having gotten too close to the Grey Knights. The rest seemed to fall back cautiously before disappearing down corridors. It would appear that these Jedi weren't going to blindly rush the towering giants in their Temple and instead force the Knights to spread out and hunt them down.
The inside of the Temple wasn't Cembers concern however. He was to secure the perimeter and hold it until ordered to withdraw.
"Colonels, report." ordered Cember into the vox-bead in his ear.
"This is Donalds, east face secure. 3 men down. Deliverer of Wrath is inbound to deploy my men and heavy weapons."
"This is Carthage, west face secure. No casualties. Herald of Doom is already deploying my heavy weapons handlers and reinforcements."
"This is McArthur, south face secure. Look before Leaping and the squad aboard her were downed by hostile anti-air. No other casualties. Beached Whale is inbound to deploy the rest of my force."
"This is Barth, force still airborne. No hostile sightings. No reinforcement requests."
"Good…" answered Cember as he walked a little down the stairs as his heavy lifter, Floating Throne descended to deliver the rest of the force assigned to the north face of the Temple. "…get bunkered down as fast as you can. Would you dally if someone came to our homeworld. I know I'd be a tad annoyed. Expect anything. Call out contacts as they appear. Cember out." the smile on Cembers face didn't diminish. He was bread for war, and it had been far too long since he'd done good work in his Emperors name.
/
Space was filled with the light of explosions as ships died and expended munitions detonated. The effect was like orange strobe lights going off outside the bridge windows. Admiral Yularen was gripping the edge of the holo-table with one hand while manipulating the controls with the other as the Resolute shock all around him. He was furiously calculating blind spots in their opponents' weapons coverage, looking for areas large enough for the Resolute to hide in and feeding that information to the helm. With all the hostile ships constantly shifting position his was a gruelling task. At least the Republic Fleet was starting to make some headway. Although more than half of the Republic Fleet was now drifting wreckage, they were still fighting and now their rate of loss was diminishing with the Fleet having closed with the enemy and out manoeuvring them.
Although the fleet was now slowly chocking up kills, each one was a gruelling struggle and came at terrific cost. The first kill, and one of the smallest of the invading ships, took 4 cruisers with it when it finally died. As every Republic ship concentrated their fire power on the one ship, its shields just popped after a second. Then they had to chew through its ridiculously thick armour. Hundreds of Republic cruisers rained down fire on this one vessel, covering it from bow to stern in explosions. Yet it stubbornly clung to life, and continued to kill. The hugely resistant and resilient technology continuing to operate under the relentless barrage of the Republic. Explosive Cannon Shells the size of gunships slammed into the Glorious overwhelming and blasting the ship to pieces, and crippling several others. After several minutes the hostile ship started to lose control and seemed to be drifting. As it approached 3 other Jedi Cruisers who had moved in to use the dying ship as cover, the hostile ship exploded. A blinding white flash appeared by the hostiles` engines and spread out in an expanding fireball of Plasma that engulfed the 3 Jedi Cruisers. Their shields and then their hulls quickly gave out under the onslaught and all 3 ships exploded. As this first ship died, a dozen more Republic warships perished to enemy fire. The second ship to die seemed to take a more active role in exacting a cost from the Republic, this one was armed with a massively powerful laser weapon as its main armament and was a couple of hundred metres larger than the smallest ship. After its shields fell it charged towards the closest Republic ships, colliding with and destroying several vessels that had lost their main propulsion but not their weapons. The Imperial ship suffered massive damage to its forward sections due to these collisions but it continued to head for other vessels. Eventually the ship started to break up. The sections exploding raining even more debris into the chaotic battlefield. Some of it colliding with and damaging other vessels before they could evade.
The 3rd invading ship to die, about the same size as the second but armed with more giant cannons, died in a way Yularen never wants to know about again. Its shields popped, the Fleet of Jedi Cruisers ate relentlessly through its thick armour, and then everything went straight to hell. Lightening tore up and down the length of the ship in colours that Yularen didn't recognise. He saw the invading ships scatter and flee from the dying ship, but the Republic didn't follow suite fast enough. The ship exploded and lightening smashed into a dozen Republic ships. 9 of them simply exploded. 3 however didn't. The comms channel was flooded with screams. Reports were spotty at best. Red skinned raging beasts ripped the crews apart. Their kin was of every colour, some were massive with insects buzzing in and around them, and some were grotesque, vaguely female looking creatures that seemed to torture to death everyone they could get their hands on. The last obvious group was ever changing. Never staying the same shape or colour for more than a second. They ripped the ships crews to pieces with claws and tentacles and hands. These creatures only ever appeared for less than a minute before disappearing in pain, but in that short time they cut a bloody path through anything they came into contact with. After a few minutes, the screaming stopped. Those 3 ships drifted away from the battle quietly.
The Resolute shook hard as the Nobility exploded in close proximity. Showering the Resolute with debris. Her shields failed under the impacts and the hull became breached in multiple places. The ship started to vent atmosphere and fall out of formation with the rest of the Open Circle fleet.
"Admiral. The current target is burning out of control." said one of the Clones. The target ship spiralled out of control as fire raged on all its decks as explosions rocked the vessel. After a few minutes the vessel just died, drifting with no sign of life.
"About bloody time one of them died quietly." said Yularen to himself.
"Sir, main sub-light engines are out. We only have manoeuvring thrusters. Dorsal weapons are also down." reported one of the Clones.
"Sir. We've been ordered to fall back. To regroup with the other disabled ships." said another Clone.
"Understood. Calculate jump coordinates. Secure for intrasystem hyperspace jump. Jump when ready." ordered Yularen. He looked away from the holo-table and watched as the remaining Republic ships moved to attack one of the largest invading ships. This ship was covered in symbols and icons that were different from all the other ships in the invading fleet. This one was covered in giant Skulls and Cogs. Then the Resolute was elsewhere, holding position with the few crippled ships that managed to escape.
/
"The Immutable Justice has been destroyed My Lady." said one of Serfs manning the bridge of the Eternal Flame from its position in geostationary orbit above the Jedi Temple.
"The cost?" asked Tektra.
"Minimal My Lady. Habitable compartments burned before a price could be exacted from our opponents."
"A shame. That Hunter had a proud history. I used it to destroy the Alessa Hive City before it could become corrupted." mussed Tektra to herself with a little smile on her face.
It looks like the tide maybe turning. If the Machined Blade and the Sister Ignatious Torphantom can't take what these Republic ships can dish out. The fleet won't be able to stand.
The Imperial Fleet was hard pressed. Although they massively outmatched the Republic in terms of arms, armour and shield output. The Imperial Fleet was outdone in manoeuvrability, and weapons coverage. As Tektra watched on the slightly fuzzy hololith display. She cursed as the ponderous ships under her command tried to keep the Republic ships in their gun sights. It was like watching little flies buzzing around giant scorpions.
"Damn it. We've never had to face any race that can move like they do. Looking now, space combat moves so slowly back home."
All the Grey Knights were on the planet below. It was just her and the chapter Serfs onboard and they were terrible for conversation. Although they were completely faultless and efficient in their tasks aboard ship and they're faith was beyond question, they made poor company.
"My Lady, Ground scanning auspex have detected Republic Gunships and heavy Lifters heading towards the target structure." reported one of the chapter serfs.
Tektra manipulated the controls of the hololith to display a tactical map of the Jedi Temple and the approaching Republic forces.
"The General will have his work cut out for him." Tektra mused. The displayed showed hundreds of gunships heading towards the Temple from all sides, and following them were larger transports carrying large walking tanks.
The gunships and transports were fast. Already they were entering the no-fire zone General Cember had requested around the Jedi Temple. Even if the bombardment cannons were pointing in the right direction, it would have been too late to open fire. At the moment the cannons and every other weapon of the Eternal Flame, Chariot of Providence, and the Proceeding Echo were ready to open fire on any warships that appeared within their combat sphere since there appeared to be no defensive structures on the ground.
Combat symbols started to appear all around the Temple as Tektra watched.
"Cember has never been one to sit idle." said Tektra to herself as General Cembers army of Inquisitorial Storm Troopers opened fire on the approaching Republic forces. The `target destroyed` symbols that flashed all around the Temple before disappearing, a testament to said armies skill and wrath, and eagerness to give their foes a warm welcome.
/
"They are coming Master. I think I can hear their footfalls." said Ashoka. She, Skywalker and 5 other Jedi were hiding in an air vent. Waiting for any of these Grey Knights to appear in small enough numbers to engage. Skywalker could hear the footfalls as well. The thundering sound of the giant warriors' footsteps, slowly growing louder than the escalating sounds of battle taking place outside the Temple.
Skywalker thought back to the battle that took place not 20 minutes ago in the entrance hall. Hundreds of Jedi were present when the Grey Knights struck and despite the advantage in numbers the Jedi were driven from the hall in minutes with only a few dozen escaping.
They were terrifying, silent, unstoppable giants of war. No commands were shouted. No hand gestures to communicate intent or convey warnings. They all moved with the purpose of those who believe without doubt, and with the coordination of one mind. Their giant Swords, Halberds and Hammers spun and struck without fail. Never once putting their own in danger. Sometimes only a few centimetres separated a swinging sword and an ally, but in the confined space of the hall with 100 giants battling 400 Jedi, they effortlessly used every square centimetre to their own advantage.
Before the retreat, Skywalker remembered one near miss above the others. A Grey Knight had its back turned and was fighting several Jedi. Its massive sword moving faster than makes sense. It sliced one Jedi in half vertically, the braced lightsabre pushed aside by the giants' sheer strength in the same motion that cleaved its wielder in 2. The 2nd Jedi was moving forward before the giant could bring its sword back up to guard. Instead the giant backhanded the Jedi. Her face was completely deformed by the blow and her body went flying, landing and twitching for a few seconds several metres away. The Grey Knight then reached for the last Jedi it was fighting and its massive hand gripped his entire head. It threw the Jedi to the ground at its feet and stamped on his head. The Jedi's' head was completely flattened. It didn't offer any resistance to the Grey Knights armoured boot.
Skywalker was leaping towards the Grey Knight about to strike at it in that moment, when the Grey Knight became a spinning blur. Its sword came round. It was so fast that its passage left a soft blue arch in its wake. The sword blocked Skywalkers lightsabre and pushed it, and Skywalker away. Skywalker flew through the air and it was only thanks to the saving grace of the Force that he was able to steady himself before crashing shoulder first into one of the massive support columns. His shoulder dislocated, Skywlker looked back in pain and saw the Grey Knight he had attacked through the thinning smoke, 15 metres away and already running another Jedi through with its massive sword.
That was when the call to fall back and scatter into the Temple was voiced. Luckily these giants didn't jam their comm-links. The Council of Masters quickly formed a plan of action and relayed it to all the Jedi in the Temple. Most would head to the inner areas of the Temple while groups like Skywalkers would remain behind to monitor and gather information about their foes. As his group climbed into the vent Ashoka had punched Skywalker in his shoulder. Popping it back into place.
"There..." said one of the other Jedi hiding in the air vent. "...2 of them."
There were 2 of them. Instead of a Halberd one of them carried a large staff topped with a silver skull surrounded by a spiked metal ring. The shield on its left shoulder was different, all the wax secured paper were different. This one was wearing the giant armour that matched their leader. The other giant was wearing the lighter version of armour. It was missing a shield, but wielded a matching pair of shorter swords. Shorter being a relative term since the weapons were about the same size as Skywalkers lightsabre when ignited.
Both giants instilled the same feeling of menace as the rest of their kind. They walked calmly down the corridor. No fear what so ever that they may be attacked at any moment. Power radiated from them with a surety that nothing could challenge them. That each and every one of their kind was a force of nature that conquered all.
All the Jedi looked to Skywalker for instructions, by chance he was the most senior knight present in this small group.
"We will wait until they are directly below us..." whispered Skywalker, so quietly that the other Jedi could barely hear. "...I will jump down first and attack them from behind. As they turn, you are to drop down on their other side from me and attack. Any questions?" asked Skywalker. Silence greeted Skywalkers question, and for some reason that made a spark of fear flash in his soul. He looked down into the corridor and saw that the Grey Knights had stopped walking and were looking directly at him through the air vent grill. The cold blue lenses in their helmets seeming to bore into him. Judging him.
The giant with the Staff raised its free hand and began chanting. The words making no sense and causing Skywalkers head to ache. Amongst his group there was a flash and a small purple ball of energy appeared. He looked at it for a second and his senses started to scream at him to get away. The Force all but taking over his body in order to put distance between himself and the sphere. All he sensed from the sphere itself...was madness.
"Get away from it!" shouted Skywalker as he and the other Jedi scrambled to move in the confined space. Then the sphere expanded, in an instant the small ball had grown to 2 metres in diameter and had caught one his comrades. Her leg was inside the sphere and she couldn't move it. She was beginning to panic as she tried to claw her way away from the sphere.
"Something has me! I can feel it on my leg! Joetil help me please!" she screamed. Joetil moved forward and grabbed her arms and heaved. He had her for a second before she was torn screaming from his grip and into the sphere. Her scream of pure unbridled fear echoing down the air vents. The sphere then vanished, taking everything with which it had come into contact with it. Leaving a 2 metre diameter hole in the vent. The Jedi just looked on, stunned and shocked at what had just happened. The Grey Knights below them just looked on impassively, as if nothing out of the ordinary had just occurred.
"No...no...Kinimil..?" Joetil spoke softly as if not believing what had just happened. "...AAAGGGHHH..!" Joetil had screwed his eyes shut and just yelled out. Giving voice to the rage and hatred that had just been kindled inside him. "...I'll kill you all!" with that he jumped from the vent. A second later his fellow Jedi followed, knowing he would stand no chance alone. They all landed neatly together in front of the Grey Knights. As one they charged. 3 Jedi going for each giant. Joetil, Ashoka and Skywalker were charging the giant with the Staff while the other 3 charged the one with the matching swords.
As Skywalker, Ashoka and Joetil closed with the giant and were about the strike, the giant lifted its staff off the floor and brought it crashing back down. The 3 lightsabres hit some sort of shield around the giant and the force of that shield threw them all back. Ashoka and Skywalker landed further away than Joetil and he managed to get back up faster than them. He charged again yelling. The giant tossed his Staff into the air and caught the very end of it and brought the spiked ring crashing down onto Joetils head 3 meters short of him getting into range. The Jedi just stopped in his tracks, and then fell. The giant holding the staff in place for a second as Joetils' blood dripped from the spikes. In those few seconds, Skywalkers other 3 companions had also already been dispatched.
The second giant had blocked 2 of the lightsabre with each of its swords and had kicked the 3rd. Although she did manage to injure the giant. Her lightsabre had gone straight through the giants' foot. Unfortunately being stabbed didn't stop that foot from continuing forward, crushing her lightsabre and then crushing her chest. As she was flying through the air, the giant spun its swords around its hands and then with a deft flick of both wrists, decapitated its last 2 opponents. Head and bodies just dropping were they once stood.
The 2 giants turned to Skywalker and locked him in their gaze again. They started to walk towards him. He couldn't move. Fear paralysed him. He had taken on legions of battle droids, fought monstrous creatures and Siith Lords. Yet these 2 silver giants held him in place with their gaze. Part of Skywalker wished they would run at him rather than approach at a casual walk. That was allowing him to see clearly how every footstep was a carefully control release of power that Skywalker somehow knew he would never be able to match.
"Master get up! We have to get out of here!" shouted Ashoka as she pulled on his arm. This broke the spell he was under and he leap to his feet and he and Ashoka sped down the corridor. The Grey knights didn't follow.
As he sped down the corridors he activated his comm-link calling his old Master.
"Master. My group and I unsuccessfully attacked a pair of Grey Knights. Ashoka and I are the only survivors. We have learned however that our lightsabres can breach their armour. Olga managed to stab one of them in the foot."
"We've received similar reports from other groups. Those that have attacked have all failed to eliminate any of these Grey Knights. Some however have managed to cause injure. Although those injuries have not seemed to faze these things in the slightest."
"At least our lightsabres have proved their worth once again Master." commented Ashoka as she kept pace with Skywalker.
"Very true Ashoka. Anakin, we are pulling back everyone from the outer areas. Return to the Command Centre." said the tiny hologram of Kenobe.
"Understood Master. We'll see you soon." Skywalker closed the comm-link and continued to speed down the corridor now heading for the Command Centre with Ashoka beside him.
/
Missiles, bolter rounds, plasma, lasers, flame, and the odd knife were flying all around the Jedi Temple with wild abandon. Smoke from the countless raging fires obscured the Temple from view. If the rest of the planet wasn't already burning and in a state of panic, its residence would be wondering what was occurring in the Temple, and who would be bold enough to strike at the Jedi in their home as the sounds of battle and the flashes of light through the smoke escalated.
Cember was having the time of his life. He was breed for war and war alone. If he had a life before service to the Inquisition he couldn't remember it. His mind, like ever soldier worth the effort, had its memories removed. The better to protect his soul if the deeds he had performed and the monsters he had bested were forgotten. He often wondered to himself if his thirst for war was a product of his memory wipe. That something had been implanted as his mind was altered. However when battle was joined. He quickly stopped caring.
Cember and hundreds of his men were laying down a torrent of Helgun fire upon their foes. These white armoured soldiers fought well but they were a shadow compared to the men he commanded. Their fire was sporadic, ill-aimed. While his disciplined firing line laid down indiscriminate salvos. His men adjusting their aim slightly, only when something entered their sights. Cember was an exception. His Helpistol was holstered at present, he had acquired a Long-las from an unlucky trooper that took a hit directly to his face as he was setting up his weapon. Cember was popping the heads of the advancing white armoured soldiers as soon as they appeared. He was only using standard laser packs for the weapon. The armour his foes were issued with was nothing compared to the power of a Helgun. Using the Hot-shot packs would have been a terrible waste of power, and only provided around 20 shots. Not to mention requiring him to replace the barrel of the Long-las, and he had no spare barrels. Using the standard laser pack allowed him 1000 shots.
Cembers sabre, which was waiting patiently for their enemy to close was currently sticking out of the solid stone stairway with the energy field deactivated. Ready to be drawn and used at a moments` notice.
As Cember lined up for another shot on the head of a Republic trooper, he grinned. He pulled the trigger, a sharp crack sounded and the targets head found itself with a new pencil thin hole bored from one side to the other. The soldier fell.
"By the Emperor. I could do this all day." said Cember to himself.
Unfortunately the rest of Cembers army wasn't enjoying this engagement as much as he was. These Republic Troopers were pressing in from every direction. Hundreds upon hundreds of Republic soldiers were dead and dying around the Temple as they tried to break the siege and relieve the Jedi. They tried mass charges. They abandoned that pretty quickly. Stealth teams, Special Forces, Aerial Insertions, and using light armour to screen another infantry assault. Cembers men with their superior position and heavy weapons repelled every attack, but as is so often the case. The Imperials were outnumbered, and Cembers men paid a price for every small victory.
In the air was a separate battle. Cembers Valkyries fought against the Republics air forces. The Valkyries were hopelessly outmatched. They couldn't keep up with the Republic fighters and were in a desperate fight for their very lives, rarely being in a good position to provide support for the ground forces, but at least their presence prevented the Republic fighters from turning on the Imperial ground forces. The Republic fighters swooped in at high speeds and tried to down the Valkyries and 13 of them were now smoking wreckage. Luckily the Valkyries were made to be highly manoeuvrable at low speeds. They spun and dodged around everything that they could use as cover. Their ground scanning auspex an Emperor send, allowing them to find statues, or columns, or anything that would allow them to survive by providing even a little bit of protection.
"General sir..." came McArthurs` slightly strained voice. The sounds of heavy weapons fire was also heard over the vox-link which competed with the sounds around Cember. "...Things are starting to get a bit sticky here."
"Be a bit more specific McArthur. Sticky can be used to describe a great many situations..." answered Cember as he sighted what appeared to be a commander directing troopers. "...I think it was a Chaos Titan you were having trouble with last time things were sticky." Cember pulled the trigger and the Republic Commander fell dead.
"Very true sir. These Republicans are massing armour and infantry just out of our range. The armour that's massing is significantly heavier than the bipedal walkers we've seen so far. These new ones have 6 legs and more armament. The number of light-transports deploying troops is also increasing. Several hundred have been sighted holding position around their forces. A massed infantry charge of this magnitude with armour and air support will be difficult to repel." finished McArthur.
Barths' forces are already deployed. The remaining Valkyries' may be able to make a pass to take out the armour but they won't survive the attack with the Republics air superiority. Thought Cember.
"All Valkyries proceed to South face. You have a fire mission on the massing Republic forces. Engage at your discretion. Primary target is armour. Secondary is infantry. Make one pass then return to previous objectives. Fight well." ordered Cember.
Cember looked up as he heard the roar of a Valkyries ram-jets thrusting the 2 Valkyries from his initial squadron of 5 across the north face of the Temple. He recognised both craft. The `Horrors we Face` flying overhead first. Its main autogun on the nose and pintle-mounted heavy bolters from her side doors chewing the ground and any Republic soldier standing on it to shreds. The `Faiths Guiding Hand` following close behind. Her wings still holding several Helstrike missiles. A potent display of the havoc and wrath she was about to unleash.
Cembers decision was the best of bad choices. The Republic air power didn't seem to have much ground punch apart from their gunships which his heavy weapons can deal with, and it was only a matter of time before he lost all his Valkyries anyway. Better they fall, allowing his men to hold for a little bit longer. Stalling a massing ground offensive for even a few more minutes was worth the price. A few seconds later Cember felt the ground tremble and heard several massive roars from the other side of the Temple. He grinned again, and then started laughing as he looked through the sights on his long-las.
There's your proof that we're His hammer. Thought Cember.
"I think our General maybe a bit nuts you know mate." shouted one of the Inquisitorial Storm Troopers a little ahead of Cember. The man was confused when he heard Cember laughing and it took him a second to place the sound.
"Considering what his seen and done? Of course he is..." shouted the Trooper next to him as they both continued to fire down-range. "...who better to lead us against madness?"
/
"The Machine is in pain." said one of the hundreds of tech-priests on the bridge of the Machined Blade. The mighty vessel was covered from bow to stern in explosions as the still 2 hundred strong Republic fleet fired everything they had upon it. Yet the machine refused to yield. Its weapons continued to fire. Its void capacitors continued to charge, covering the vessel for a few seconds before discharging again. Its point defence system continued to destroy fighter after fighter and bomber after bomber. Yet despite its resistance. It would not be able to claim victory.
"Power failure on deck 287 section 58, power reroute rites are being performed."
"Port deck gun 27 is on longer responding."
"Threat vessel 103 destroyed. The machine will not be denied."
"Void Generator active. Capacitor charged."
"Resetting CIWS barrage solution from C27 to C28. Weapons firing. The Heretics will feel the Omnissiahs wrath."
"Evasive pattern Omega complete. Pattern Penitence now in effect."
"Void Capacitor discharged. The patience of the Machine wears thin."
Hundreds of updates like these were being sent throughout the bridge of the Machined Blade every second. Vejra gave every one of them his attention. The gifts he has received from his Machine God allowing him to process the vast amount of information.
"Honoured Magos. The Machine is reaching its limit. If it is to survive we will need to make our withdrawal shortly." said Vejras personal assistant and apprentice. Tech-priest Tarpaulin. Tarpaulin was nowhere near his Master, being in the Engineerium but with the gifts of the Omnissiah and the blessed noo-sphere, distance mattered little for communications.
"I am aware apprentice. As is the Inquisitor. When we deem it necessary they know we will withdraw."
"We will not survive a withdrawal without support."
"That is why the Sister Ignatious Torphantom will be withdrawing with us. It and we have copies of every piece of information we have been able to learn about this new universe. If either of our vessels ran the risk of destruction we are to withdraw and return to our home universe. The Grey Knights will stay and cover our escape."
"Honoured Magos, the Grey Knights can't sacrifice themselves for us. It would take a millennia for them to recover from the loss of a Brotherhood."
"I have had this conversation with Grand Master Core. He deems the information worthy, and his will can only be changed by Him. We will begin our withdrawal. I will signal the Sister Ignatious Torphantom."
This conversation between Master and Apprentice began and finished in the time it would take a normal person to blink. Vejras sent the signal to the Sister Ignatious Torphantom and then waited.
He had to wait for seemingly an age. He perceived the world digitally, a few minutes for everyone else past before the Sister Ignatious Torphantom acknowledged the withdraw order. In that time Vejras dealt with thousands of reports and updates, coordinated firing solutions and computed the best course to use to head for the nearest translation point. After all that, and then acknowledging the Sister Ignatious Torphantom receipt of his order. He then had to wait for the humans on that ship to relay their commands to more humans who then had to input those commands to the ship. Luckily the Tech-priests of Mars are very experienced in dealing with the innumerable mass of humanity. They were very patient.
"The Sister Ignatious Torphantom is in position Magos. We are withdrawing."
"Thrust is down 7%. The Machine protests the abandonment of its fellows."
The 2 massive vessels moved away from the combat area pursued by the Republic. Luckily as soon as they got a few thousand kilometres away from the rest of the Imperial Fleet, the Republic Fleet came back into the gunsights of the frigates and destroyers still fighting. Dozens of Republic ships exploded into nothingness forcing them to break off their pursuit and re-engage the Grey Knight Fleet. It would take several hours for the Machined Blade and the Sister Ignatious Torphantom to reach the translation point and enter warp space bound for the system they first arrived in in this new universe. They would find their way home there and report what has happened to the Inquisition and hope that something that they brought back may be of use. The loss of a Brotherhood of Grey Knights must not be in vain.
/
"My Lady. The Machined Blade and the Sister Ignatious Torphantom are withdrawing from combat." reported one of the Serfs.
"Damn it..!" shouted Tektra as she hit the hololith console again earning agitated binary noise from the tech-priests on the bridge. "...We need heavier ships to stand up against these Republic vessels. The Frigates and Destroyers we have left won't stand for long. Order the Proceeding Echo and the Chariot of Providence to break orbit and return to the Void battle." ordered Tektra.
As the 2 powerful warships moved away from the planet. Tektra watched the hololtih display as the Flaming Dagger exploded violently. These Republicans were learning, if at a price. They weren't trying to use any disabled ships as cover any more and they weren't getting too close. Like the Immutable Justice, the Flaming Dagger couldn't extract a price from their enemy for its death. This now reduced the 2 destroyer squadrons to below half strength.
"My Lady. We have new ground auspex contacts."
"What makes them worth noting?" asked Tektra, since the battle began a steady stream of Republic reinforcements flooded to the Temple. An army thousands strong was now facing Cembers force on every cardinal point. Cember and his men showing their worth for continuing to hold out.
"The contacts are not proceeding to the Jedi Temple. Several hundred gunships have launched and are heading towards the Eternal Flame." answered the Serf. A predatory grin appeared on Tektras` face before she replied. Although she was an excellent void fleet commander, she relished the adrenalin rush she could only get from ground combat. She reached forward and gently pressed one of the runes on the hololith. Her voice boomed throughout the ship.
"Our good deeds are inbound my fellow servants of our God Emperor. Prepare to repel boarders." Tektra knew that no joy would be felt by the crew of the Eternal Flame. No member of the indoctrinated crew would ever feel anything but the barest ghost of an emotion ever again, but Tektra had to say something. If only for herself. She relished in offering praise to the God Emperor, and the purest form of praise in the Imperium was righteous combat.
Tektra turned and left the bridge. She had a ship to defend, and she'd be damned first before she'd cower on the bridge while a ship under her command was boarded.
/
"Grand Master. We believe one of our Brothers has located these Archives." said Brother-Captain Menkalinan, his voice like that of every Grey Knight filled the hall without effort. Menkalinan was standing in the centre of the entrance hall that he and his men teleported into with his Nemesis Force Sword held in an inverted grip with the blade pointing behind him. He was surrounded by dead Jedi and the faint traces of smoke from burnt cloths and bodies. He was completely unaffected by all of it as he coordinated his Knights over the Psychic Communion that he shared with his Brothers. With him in this hall was his ever present bodyguard. Brotherhood Champion Merak was a silent stature close at hand to his commander. Despite being unmoving, he was completely aware of everything going on around him. His heightened senses picking up the slightest sound through the air or tremor through the floor. Forever watchful for any and all threats that may threaten his Brother-Captain. His massive Anointed Blade held with its tip against the floor and the pummel held in both hands.
Grand Master Core was the only other living soul in the entrance hall. Since the hall had been secured he handed over command of securing the Temples outer areas to his immediate subordinate, the Brother-Captain, while Core casually walked around the hall with his Nemesis Force Halberd resting on his shoulder inspecting the various statues, banners, and painting for any clue as to what they were looking for.
"These Jedi possess great skill. This force of theirs would allow their strongest to hold their own against even the speed and skill of the Eldar. At least for a time. The detail in their artwork also speaks of great patience and a keen eye to even the smallest of details. Where does our Brother believe these archives to be?" asked Core.
"Above us…" started Menkalinan. At that moment Merak stormed into action. He crossed a dozen metres in a second and charged into one of the adjoining corridors. Core heard the igniting of a laser sword, a cut off scream, and then Merak walked back into the hall heading for the spot he had started from not 2 seconds before. "…apparently it is a large library split into 4 distinct halls..." finished Menkalinan as if Merak hadn't even moved. "…anything of note to report Champion?"
"Negative Brother-Captain. 4 adults and 3 children. Possible threat eliminated." stated the Brotherhood Champion.
"Has anything in this new universe challenged you Brother?" asked Core, turning to address the Champion of the Brotherhood of the Eternal Watch.
"Nothing offers me great concern Grand Master."
"Not even that small green xeno?" asked the Grand Master again.
"Possibly Grand Master. I will admit its stature and the speed at which it moved surprised me at first. However if it had not retreated the xeno would not have lived."
"Brother-Captain. We will remove ourselves to this library our Brothers have found and secure its contents…" started Core as he began to walk towards the library. "…I do not believe we will find what we are looking for there however. Can you not feel it Brothers? Something burns at the centre of this Temple."
"We all feel it Grand Master. It does no feel like the Warp. I had concluded it was some other psychic phenomenon native to this universe." commented Menkalinan as he and Merak followed the Grand Master at his flanks.
"It is different, but it is the warp. Where at home this would be a raging warp rift spewing forth the horrors of the Immaterium, here it is a soft warming glow. We will proceed to the library and confirm that nothing there is of use. Then we will proceed to the centre of this Temple and see what we will find."
/
In the Command Centre in the Jedi Temple, just after Core had finished speaking. Yoda turned his head away from the conversation his fellow Masters were engrossed in.
"Located the library, they have. Stop there, they will not. Too the centre, they will go. Too our core." said Yoda, his voice causing all other conversation to stop.
"The Tranquillity Spire? What it means to be Jedi is there. Our history. The lessons learned by those that went before us. Some of our oldest and most prised relics from our past. We must stop them, somehow before they all but literally take our identity away." commented Kenobe, becoming slightly frustrated at their apparent inability to do anything to stop these invaders from doing whatever they want.
"Interested in our history, they are not. Deeper into the Temple, they will go. Sense the mountain, they can."
"The Sacred Spire. The Force Nexus…" whispered Windu. "…how can we stop them?"
"We can not…" said Yoda sombrely. "…Reach the Mountain, they will. On its slops, we will meet them. Penetrate further, they must not."
Everyone in the Command Centre looked around in confusion. They all knew of the Sacred Mountain that the Jedi Temple was built around. All the Jedi began their training as initiates in the rooms surrounding the tip of the mountain. However for as long as any of them can remember, none have ventured into the labyrinth of the old temple to reach the mountains base, and only a few knew of the existence of the Temple built into the mountains depths that would take you right up the solid black walls that surrounded the Force Nexus itself.
"No one knows the way Master. No one in living memory has ever been to the First Temple. Those that have tried have failed. Exiting hours after entering not knowing how. The Force spinning them around to keep its secrets." said Luminara.
"875 years old am I. Longer than most, my living memory is. Still remember the way, I do. Gather all Jedi. Where we need to go, I will lead us." Yoda than turned fully and left the Command Centre with his characteristic slow limp. All the Jedi followed him. This would be the first time so many Jedi would stand on the mountain for thousands of years. It would be the first time that blood would be split on its sacred slops.
/
"My Lady. The Sacred Savour has been destroyed." said one of the Serfs on the bridge of the Eternal Flame. His voice coming over the ships PA system as Tektra dodged laser fire.
She and dozens of other Serfs were defending this alleyway of the ship as the hundreds of boarding parties tried to penetrate further into the ancient warship. Around Tektra thousands of new bullet holes and scorch marks marred the old marble deck, bulkheads and pillars. The strobe effect of the weapons fire travelling up and down the passage would have disorientated lesser soldiers, the Chapter Serfs of the Grey Knights however praised Him through war just as much as their Masters. She had nothing to fear from them, they would follow any order without question and march into the very jaws of death if so ordered. There were few as disciplined as these Serfs. The Indoctrination that secured their souls saw to that.
It did mean they lacked initiative though. They fought very well and very hard, but a fearless soldier with no thought to self-preservation and fighting beyond their current orders more often than not, died quickly.
Tektra assumed that the Republic boarders had something built into their helmets to help nullify the detrimental effects of the battle taking place.
Tektra wasn't going to try and acknowledge the update given to her from the bridge. Firstly, she couldn't reach a vox-station without exposing herself to hostile fire. Secondly, she didn't need too. The Serfs knew what to do. She was an extra hand here. The war would be effectively prosecuted without her presence. The announcement being transmitted over the general PA system also didn't concern her. None of the Serfs were going to be effected by the loss of that Frigate and their fellows aboard it.
Tektra launched herself from cover and fired a shot from her las-pistol. The pencil thin beam of light catching one of the Republic soldiers in the neck and burning straight through to melt his spine. He fell knocking over his comrades cover. Exposing them for a second.
"Move up!" shouted Tektra as she took her own advice and charged the vulnerable Republic soldiers. A storm of shotgun fire followed her as the Chapter Serfs with her advanced. Against the solid shells the Republic soldiers armour held, but cracked. The force of the weapons pushing them back and making them stumble. The second shot nearly always shattered what remained of their armour and turning the men into a bloody mess. The Republic couldn't coordinate fast enough and Tektra and the Serfs were among them in seconds. In close range these soldiers were pitiful. They all adopted the same fighting stance, showing that they had some close quarters combat training. However against the righteous servants of the God-Emperor, to whom praise though combat was what all strived for, and the sword being one of the most prominent symbols of mankinds` faith, they were quickly overcame.
The slaughter that took place was no battle.
These Republic soldiers didn't stand a chance. The swords and axes of the Chapter Serfs, and Tektras own powersword cut the boarders to ribbons in seconds. The emotionless faces of the Chapter Serfs contrasting sharply against the rage filled anger being displayed on Tektras. It was difficult to tell who the Republic found more intimidating thanks to the helmets they all wore.
After the last Republic soldier fell, Tektra spotted a vox-station further past the cooling bodies.
"Secure this area. Ensure no other hostiles have used this airlock for entry." ordered Tektra as she walked over to the vox-station. The Chapter Serfs organised themselves into pairs and began to search the area without uttering a word. The odd weapon discharge signalling when they found a boarder that hadn't yet past on.
"Bridge, this is Tektra. Give me a report on the status of all breach points." ordered the Inquisitor.
"Aye My Lady. The boarders have not been able to breach beyond the initial outer areas near our airlocks."
"Very good. How many Republic Soldiers remain? What are their locations?"
"Approximately 640 remain My Lady. Less than half are located in the adjoining areas around our Port side air locks. The rest are scattered over the Eternal Flames hull and have yet to attempt entry." reported the Serf.
"Get squads ready for EVA. Remove these pests from our ship." ordered Tektra. She was about to cut the link with the bridge when the Eternal Flame shook slightly several times in quick succession.
"Serf, Report! Were we fired upon!?" demanded Tektra.
"Negative My Lady. Several large explosions have taken place on our outer hull. Port, Starboard, Bow, and Ventral thrusters are inoperable. Main Engines have been disabled and have gone offline."
That was bad. The Eternal Flame was presenting her ventral hull to the planet's surface in geostationary orbit. With all those thrusters down the ship wouldn't be able to re-orientate itself, and without the main engines the Eternal Flame wouldn't be able to break orbit. The Dorsal thrusters were useless without their counter parts on the Ventral hull. Using any of them would simply send the ship spinning towards the planet.
"My Lady..." continued the Serf. "...The remaining Republic troops have all begun to disengage. They are all leaving the ship via small jet packs that are propelling them towards their gunships which took station behind our main engines…" The ship shook slightly again. "…ISTV42070 has just exploded My Lady."
Tektra cursed herself inside her mind. She didn't think those gunships were worth launching the few Thunderhawks and Stormravens she had available to go and hunt them down. They were still on standby should the Grey Knights need them planet side. She thought they would try and destroy the Eternal Flame, not disable its engines. The warships main armament was still fully operational. Any Republic ship that came close would be blown to bits, so long as they approached in the warships firing arches. The loss of the Troop Transport wasn't really of much concern to her, there were untold millions of transports all over the Imperium. The Imperial Guard was there to die and the weapons aboard were largely ineffective against the gunships.
"My Lady. Additional gunships and heavier transports are gathering astern." reported the Serf again. Still no sign of feeling over the vox, and Tektra felt like she could use a little feeling around her from her fellows right now.
"So...they intend to board and take the ship. This first attack was a diversion to ensure we don't interfere with their sabotage..." said Tektra to herself. "...can we maintain orbit?" asked Tektra. If she and the crew could hold out long enough the tech-priests aboard may be able to repair the main engines and the ship could leave orbit. She and the Serfs could fight and protect the ship for weeks.
"Affirmative My Lady, however we will not be able to maintain our geostationary position.."
"Have the tech-priests given a report on how long repairs to the main engines or thrusters will take?"
"Main Engine cannot be repaired without a dry dock. Full repairs for manoeuvring thrusters is 20 days."
"Can we de-orbit the ship and land?" asked Tektra, her old resolve coming back to her.
"We can de-orbit the ship My Lady. However the ship will not survive the impact."
"I am returning to the bridge. Prepare the ship for a siege."
I've been a fool. I should have returned us to the void battle, the Grey Knights don't need help.
/
The Valkyries were all down. All of them were burning wrecks on the ground surrounded by dead Republic soldiers and war machines. Cembers brave pilots didn't even have to try to exact a cost from their enemy. The army arrayed against Cembers forces numbered in the tens of thousands now surrounding the target building Cember and his men were defending. The Valkyries just had to fall out of the air to kill dozens of soldiers or some manor of walking tank.
When the last Valkyrie died, the air became the domain of the Republic and the battle became hopeless. Everything his men did now was to delay the inevitable.
His army had the backs of the Grey Knights. He and his men would literally be fighting till their last breath. The Grey Knights were the Emperors gift to human kind. To fail them is to fail the Emperor, and no matter what the situation that was something he and his men just weren't able to do.
The Republic gunships pressed their advantage as soon as the last Valkyrie fell. They charged the Imperial lines in an effort to finally break the siege and aid the Jedi. The corpses of those gunships were lying next to their Imperial counterparts. Rockets and heavy weapon teams greeted the gunships. Bolt and autocannon rounds hammered their hulls sending most spinning out of control and colliding with the unforgiving ground. Krak rockets and the few lascannons turned the rest into confetti.
After the hours of fighting, the defensive lines for each side in the battle became well established. All manor of weapons constantly flew around the Temple. Deafening weapons fire, thundering explosions and blinding light were all around. The Republic artillery pounding the Imperials while the heavy weapons Cember possessed did the same to the Republic. Thousands of laspackets from the Helguns backpack power supply littered the ground around Cembers feet and that of his men. They didn't have the time or means to recharge them. Cember knew the time was fast approaching when his men ran out of ammunition.
"General Sir..!" shouted Carthage over the vox. " …We've exhausted our ammunition. Bunkering down and awaiting their assault." Cembers force was minutes away from exhausting their ammunition also, as well as the other forces around the Temple. The vox filter in Cember brain picking out the details he needed to remain apprised of in this theatre of war he had come too.
"You know the scale Colonel."
"Fear not sir. I don't have to tell my boys to fix bayonets. They are ready for the end as am I. It has been my honour General Sir."
"Fight well Colonel. Emperor waits for you on the other side." said Cember somberly.
"Know no other way to fight sir. They are advancing. Stand Ready Men...!" shouted Carthage to his men. "…This is Carthage, out."
"I'm out." shouted someone to Cembers left.
"I'm out." shouted another to his right.
"I'm out."
"I'm out."
"I'm out."
Those 2 words came thick and fast from his force as their rate of fire dropped. Soon no one was firing and his men were hunkered down behind debris fixing bayonets to their guns or drawing knifes and swords.
Cember drew his sword from the stone floor in his right hand and readied his laspistol in his left.
"Cember to all. Remember, the Emperor watches over us. He sees our deeds no matter how far we are from Holy Terra. It is his will that The Imperial Guard die standing. Although we have long since stood aside from our Guardsmen brothers, we all started standing on the line of battle against an entire galaxy that wants us dead. Shoulder to shoulder with our fellow man. My Colonels`, take command of your formations. Fight as I and the Emperor know that you can…" Cember could see the Republic soldiers coming out of cover and advancing cautiously towards his men. All his men were ready to meet them. As is so often the case, it comes down to sharpened steels and mortal muscle. "…So long as a single Trooper lives these filth do not get pass us! For the Emperor!"
Cember switched his voxbead to his force only and laid out his plan.
"Wait for them to approach. We will charge as one. If you can secure their weapons, I'm giving you leave to use them. We continue to press ahead and we will not stop. I've had enough of playing defensive…" at that Cember saw a number of his men nod and field small grins on their faces. "…time to test these soldiers in a real fight. Await my order."
It wasn't long before the Republic troops reached his men. He was confused when they didn't fire on sight. They seemed to be trying to get his men to surrender. This just confused everyone. He and every one of his men would have opened fire on sight. They were the enemy. They were to be removed from the Emperors galaxy without mercy.
These white armoured soldiers continued to gesture and speak to his men as they moved deeper amongst their ranks while his men glared back at them unmoving. This was better than Cember would have hoped. He was going to call the charge when the first shot was fired by their enemies. Instead they were practically mingling. Cember stood up and the Republic soldiers started to move towards him assuming correctly that he was the commander and wanted to parlay. One of them approached him.
"You in command?" asked the soldier. Cember just nodded, glaring at the Republic soldier.
"Tell your men to surrender their…"
"CHARGE!" yelled Cember. He activated his powersabre and brought the blade up between the republic troopers legs in less than a second. The body promptly fell in half spilling the contents of his skin over the once beautiful stone, but now debris chocked stairway. His men reacted just as quickly as Cember himself. Releasing a deafening warcry as they charged the closest Republic Trooper. Bayonets stabbed, swords hacked, and rifle butts burgeoned. In short order disposing of the Republic soldiers in their midst. A number of his men paused to collect dropped Republic weapons before continuing the charge. Most however ran as fast as they could over the few hundred metres separating them from their enemy.
The Republic Troopers were shocked. They had expected the invaders to surrender, not charge. Even battle droids have surrendered when the battle was hopeless. They were stunned for several seconds as the army that now only numbers around 250 charged across the battlefield at the thousands strong Republic defenders. The front rank of Republic Troopers raised their rifles and started firing, dropping more than half the charging army, but then they were amongst each other.
The massive numerical superiority of the Republic dropped away as those in the rear ranks stopped firing from fear of hitting their comrades in the swirling melee and only so many bodies could be pressed into one location.
Cembers men found themselves surrounded and facing an enemy that couldn't match them. The decades of training and combat experience fighting monsters and nightmares that had been hard won by the Inquisitorial Storm Troopers allowed them to effectively fight 3 or 4 of the Republic soldiers at a time. Knifes and swords flashed in the light from the burning city. Cutting throats and impaling white armoured bodies. Hands furiously gripped other human beings and broke arms, legs, backs, and twisted necks. Men fell every second and the body count continued to rise steadily.
It didn't take long for the Imperials to determine the nature of their enemy. Every man who had his helmet knocked off was the same. Cember realised that his army was facing a disposable army made of clones. Cember wasn't sure what to make of them. Part of him pitied them. Manufactured soldiers. Not men defending their society from the horrors of space, but lumps of flesh sent to fight in the place of the obviously pampered residence of this city world. The rest of Cember hated them. They were his enemy and it was his divine duty to put them down and end the stain their lives made upon the galaxy.
Cember sword was flying everywhere. Cutting everything that came into contact with its energised blade and the butt of his pistol distracted and bludgeoned anyone his sword couldn't yet reach. He always hoped he would die like this. In the same way as so many Guardsmen have before him.
Standing.
Not cowering in a hole. Not despairing on some blood soaked lump of rock. Not lying in bed in his sleep. Standing with his fellow man, fighting for his Emperor against everything. After nearly 12 hours of constant fighting, first at range and now up close, his body was feeling the burn. Fury and Faith fuelled Cember and his men, but they were only human. His men were stampeding over the dead of their enemy but one by one they were falling. 100 against thousands and he knew that his colonels and their men would be doing exactly the same.
A flash of blue caught him in the shoulder and his arm went dead. His pistol falling to the ground. He looked up and saw the shooter. A path seemed to be waiting for him between himself and the Republic soldier, made of the furiously clashing bodies of his men and these clones. Cember raised his sword and charged yelling a wordless howl of rage. The point of his powersabre never wavered as he ran to his shooter. The Republic soldier kept firing as he took one back step after another. Fear etched into every movement of his body. Shots hit Cember again and again and he could feel his body beginning to fall as it died. Then before he knew it his sword was embedded in the shooters body straight through his heart and they had both collapsed onto the ground. Cember managed to role onto his back as his last breaths left him.
Damn fine day My Emperor. I pray for your sons' success. Here I come.
/
Core and his Brotherhood walked for hours into the depths of the Jedi Temple. The Archives his brothers had found were definitely worthy of the name. An impressive library heavy with knowledge, and free of taint. That place was a large store of lore, but it paled in comparison to the vast vault that was the warded Sanctum Sanctorum. These Archives contained information on every subject. From Biology to Technology, from Politics to Religion. Yet it was still dwarfed by the scale of the vast halls that held information on barely a dozen subjects back on Cores` home of Titan.
Cores` Tech-marines searched through the information and could find nothing referencing the warp, or daemons, or anything that could be used as a shield against either.
The Tech-marines were very curious about a collection of small cubical objects that appeared to be advanced storage mediums. However upon a brief examination of one of the devices, and finding that it housed an Abominable Artificial Intelligence. The Tech-marines placed Melta-charges throughout that small vault and destroyed every example of the unholy technology. They determined that nothing was of value to their mission and reported such to Core. He then guided his men towards the centre of the Temple. The Grey Knights moved inwards from all directions from the outer areas of the Temple. They observed as evidence slowly appeared in their surroundings that they were entering areas of the Temple that weren't travelled often, if at all. Dust, and fading artwork were everywhere now that they had moved so deep into the Temple.
The Warp rift was like a blazing beacon to the Grey Knights, guiding their way through the maze of corridors. All of the Grey Knights felt something pushing against them, trying to make them take wrong turns or to try a different avenue of approach. These subtle attempts came up against the powerful mental fortresses that were the minds of the Grey Knights and were completely useless in altering their course.
Eventually the Grey Knights emerged at the foot of a mountain. All 100 of them roughly spaced evenly around the rather small base when compared to the mountains height. The Jedi were waiting. Millions of alcoves were carved into the mountain and in those surrounding the base were thousands of Jedi, all with their lightsabres active and adding a deep throbbing hum to the chamber. Core could sense the power of the warp through the rock of the mountain and he knew that its source must be deep within.
He examined his surrounding with his mind as he came to halt a few metres into the vast, mountain chamber. There was no taint here. The foal stench of the warp was not present and hadn't been since Core and his Brotherhood entered this universe. A warp rift was right in front of him yet he wasn't surrounded by daemons or deluded pawns. No storms of madness raged above his head. No rivers of blood flowed around his feet. No wars that would destroy the minds of billions.
"WHY..!" shouted Core. His voice booming out and shaking the mountain before him. His brothers looked at him in surprise as they moved round the mountain to close ranks. They had never heard such feeling coming from their leader before. Emotions feed the warp and the Grey Knights saw no reason to give their foes strength. Yet for the first time in nearly 800 years of life and service, Cores' voice carried more than simply the meaning of words.
Rage, Resentment, Hated, Frustration. As Cores' voice travelled around the mountain his voice carried these feeling like a tidal wave, and it was a wave that brought several of the Jedi to their knees as it hit them. "…Thousands of wars against evil are raging every day in our home universe. Billions die to hold back the inevitable for even a single extra moment of sanity. Madness and insanity is slowly claiming everything. Yet here everything is so peaceful. The Warp, which I can feel burning inside that mountain right now…isn't something that will spell death, destruction and chaos. It has made you into paragons. What you have is what the Emperor envisioned for our Imperium. What makes this universe different! What makes you worthy enough for the warp to pass over! Why does the Warp torment us! WHY!"
By chance, the small green xeno was standing in one of the alcoves directly in front of the Grand Master. It took a step forward before speaking.
"Know your universe, we do not…" said the little green alien, its voice calm. "…Know the Warp, we do not. Only you, have we experienced. Here, you should not be."
The small xeno raise its arm and every Jedi on the mountain did the same.
"Leave Here." they all said in unison.
"Leave Here!" their voices grew louder and the Grey Knights felt something pushing against their mental defences.
"Leave Here!" shouted the Jedi.
The force of the Jedis` words hit the Grey Knights like a gale force wind pushing against their broad frames. Core smashed his Halberd into the ground and channelled his psychic might into the formidable weapon. His blade flared blue like a star and shined around the entire mountain, rallying his Brothers. Core and every one of his Brothers raised their weapons and opened fire as one. Two thousand Jedi fell dead in 3 seconds as most of the army of force users charged from the alcoves in the mountain. 2 seconds later after the Grey Knights had reloaded and fired again, another two thousand Jedi were lying dead at the foot of their sacred mountain. With only 1 reload left for their stormbolters, the Grey Knights reloaded and charged. Heavy thunderous footsteps echoing around the massive chamber as the Grey Knights ran towards their enemy at full tilt. The distance between the 2 armies evaporated in seconds. Fire leapt from the Grey Knights again as they charged. Some of the elder Jedi in the front ranks bated the flames aside while hundreds of others died screaming in agony. Then the 2 forces were amongst each other and their final struggle began as blades forged of light and steel and empowered by will clashed.
/
Tektra was furious. She had made a massive mistake and because of it she was going to lose a Grey Knights Battlebarge to a group of heathens and heretics. The Eternal Flame was trapped in orbit of this Emperor forsaken world and the ship had already started to drift out of its geostationary position. The Republic Transports were remaining out of range behind what was left of the main engines of the Eternal Flame. She couldn't move, and unless anything wondered across her gun sights, she couldn't fight. Supplies would last for about a decade if she started rationing now. But there was no way Tektra was going to be sitting on her hands and doing nothing for that long. The trip from Caramm too here pushed her patients once already.
"My Lady. We are receiving a vox transmission from the planet. It is not coming from any of our ground forces." said one of the Serf on the bridge.
Tektra wasn't surprised. She had managed to get back to the bridge in time to watch General Cembers` last defence of his position. The man had always impressed her and now he had proved his courage and valour beyond any shadow of a doubt. He was standing beside the Emperor. Tektra hoped with all her heart that when her time came she would display such courage. No contact from the Grey Knights since they had made planet fall, the warnings she had sent down to them about the Generals men having fallen had not been answered.
"Open a Vox Channel." ordered the young and angry Inquisitor. The head and shoulders of an older man appeared in the Hololith display. He was wearing dark rodes and seemed to have a calm parental air about him despite his obvious expression of anger and concern. Underneath it all though was something very wrong. Tektra was gifted at reading peoples facial expression and she could tell that everything on this man's face was fake. His expressions were skilfully schooled. All of her decades of experience told her that this man was evil, and Tektra was very good at finding and destroying evil.
"I am Chancellor Palpatine. Current High Chancellor of the Galactic Republic. Your ship is disabled, you cannot escape, and you have laid waste to a massive amount of our world and have killed nearly a billion of its inhabitants. Yet I will still offer you this one and only chance to surrender…"
"No." interrupted Tektra. The man looked at her confused and annoyed for a second at the interruption.
"Just…No?" asked the man.
"You asked me a yes or no question heretic. Why sully myself by saying more to an Emperorless heathen."
"You are trapped up their young lady…" said this Palpatine in a scolding tone. "…You will eventually starve assuming your life support systems don't give out first. You would chose to die slowly in orbit rather than live in prison?"
"We do not surrender heathen. We fight. We survive. We die. That is the way of Humanity. Better to die in our Emperors service than live for ourselves. We will take as many of you with us into death as we are able."
"Have it your way. I will wait for you to die and then take your ship as my own…" the mans voice changed as he spoke this last sentence, it became scratchy, higher in pitch. The scolding parent was gone and in its place was the true face that Tektra suspected existed since she saw this man a minute ago. "…Its secrets will be mine and I will find your Emperor and take his realm as my own. I only need to wait, then I will come to you if only to see your corpse." the face of evil then smiled.
"We will meet sooner than you think…" Tektra then cut the Vox link. "…Serf, were you able to pin-point the source of that transmission?"
"Yes My Lady."
"Helmsmen. You are relieved." said Tektra as she started to walk to the very front of the massive bridge.
"I stand relieved My Lady." the Serf didn't move, he simply waited in his seat should Tektra return him to duty.
At the very front of bridge of the Eternal Flame was something that hadn't been used since the great vessel was built 8000 years before. A large wooden wheel with metal spikes sticking out pointing away from the centre and attached to a thin podium that was able to pivot back and forth. Next to the wheel was a free standing brass telegraph a metre and a half high with some other levers and dials attached to it lower down. This arrangement was at the very front of the bridge by itself and had an unobstructed view of the massive bridge porthole that showed an impressive amount of the void outside the ship.
"Porthole Display..." ordered Tektra. The view outside became overlaid with the current navigational data for the Eternal Flame. "…Display vox-transmission source." On the massive Porthole Display covering the huge porthole a red dot appeared. Tektra grabbed the tiller and took a deep breath. She was an expert in orbital mechanics, but she'd never personally piloted a vessel as large as the Grey Knight Battlebarge she was currently in control of, and she'd never piloted a vessel as handicapped as the Eternal Flame currently was.
She let her breath out slowly as she delicately manipulated the wheel and telegraph before her. Miniscule adjustments that sent the remaining thrusters on the Eternal Flame firing in a rapid and precise pattern that slowly and with obvious effort pivoted the ship until it was in the perfect angle. The vast ship pitching and rolling with the use of its few remaining dorsal thrusters. The vessel was now slowly heading towards the planet just as the Inquisitors deft touch at the controls demanded. She wasn't done yet however, the ship still needed a push to reach its target.
"Open all internal bulkheads and hatches, lock them into position. Prepare to open all aft facing external hatches and doors." ordered Tektra. This was going to be her final act. She was going to crash an 8000 year old, irreplaceable, sacred machine of war into a planet as her final act of defiance.
"Ready My Lady." said one of the Serfs.
Tektra stared at the massive Porthole display for another second, she took a deep, calming breath and was a little surprised that she was so calm. She hadn't felt this tranquil and centred in a very long time. Tektra turned and looked out across the bridge of the Eternal Flame, there was no way that the bridge serfs didn't know what she was about to do. Yet they were still carrying out her orders. For a second she felt honoured that they were willing to give their lives and those of their comrades for this action, but then she remembered who they were. They had no expression. They displayed no feeling. She may as well be surrounded by servitors. No matter how many died from the order she was about to give, her order would be followed.
"No last speech for me. Rallying the masses was always so tedious…" said Tektra to herself. "…Open external hatches and doors. Begin atmospheric purge!" shouted Tektra. No matter how unfeeling the crew, passion burned in her and always had.
All the hatches and ports that were aft facing opened and the giant vessel began to empty itself into the void. Air, equipment, and crew were thrust away from the Eternal Flame in an effort to move the colossal craft forward towards its target. The vessel moved slowly at first but gradually started to pick up speed as gravity added its own might to the forces gifting motive power to the massive bulk of the Eternal Flame.
It took longer than Tektra thought for the Rupublic vessels to react to her ships movement. 50 of the remaining 120 Republic vessels appeared around her ship, leaving the remaining 70 vessels to maintain the attack against the 2 Grey Knight Strike Cruisers and the remaining escort vessel the lone Gladius Class Frigate of Providence Squadron. The remaining ships of the Grey Knights once mighty fleet had been slowly whittled down during the hours upon hours of gruelling void warfare.
Several of these repurposed Republic vessels exploded as the Eternal Flames guns finally found targets, but several aft weapons batteries were silent as the crews for those weapons suffocated. Tektra could feel the gentle breeze push around her as the air left the ship in a rush. The sheer vastness of the Eternal Flame requiring her and the serfs in the forward sections of the ship to wait for death to catch them.
While the vessels crew slowly died, the mighty ship itself continued to fall at the mercies of the forces acting upon it. The ever decreasing thrust generated by the escaping atmosphere of the ship coupled with the force of gravity manifested by the planets bulk drew the craft towards what was now its inescapable destiny. The Republic warships continued to fire every weapon they could at the proud and mighty vessel as it came into contact with the planets' atmosphere. The explosions blossoming all along the Battle-Barges hull were suddenly eclipsed by the inferno that engulfed the entire vessel. The Eternal Flame blazed across the heavens, a fiery omen of death, heading unfailingly towards its target. Smaller dots of flame gave pursuit to the mammoth fireball as they tried to destroy the ship before it hit the ground.
Their attempts were futile. The Eternal Flame was unstoppable.
The massive vessel smashed into the planet bow on. As per the late Inquisitors instructions in order not to waste any of the accumulated kinetic energy. Skyscrapers crumbled before is mass, and then the ship impacted the planet a blink of an eye later. The explosion was permanently blinding to anyone unlucky enough to be looking in the impact sights location. The resulting shockwave smashed all the buildings for miles in every direction to rubble. Further out buildings continued to fall as the once sound supports gave out against the force of the pressure wave. A hundred miles away, glass shattered and rained down on those in the streets.
An instant after the initial impact, the potent generators and engines of the great mechanical beast ruptured and exploded. A wave of fire charged outwards engulfing everything it came into contact with and reducing it to ash. For the next several seconds a blazing, ever expanding golden ring thousands of miles in diameter appeared on the planets' surface, and inside it was nothing but black ash and smoke.
Although Tektra would never know this, her final act failed.
Despite the hundreds of millions that died in those few seconds, that number did not include her target. Just outside of the blast zone, a convoy of ships made their escape. In the centre of that convoy was a black armoured and shielded luxury limo containing the Supreme Chancellor.
/
Although the Grey Knights felt the ground shake beneath their feet, they didn't know its cause. They felt the psychic emissions around them fade as the shockwave and firestorm of the destruction of the Eternal Flame destroyed everything it touched, but they knew not what purged so much life from the planet.
To the Grey Knights, this tremor and the massive cost it took to create it was a simple tactical advantage that the Grey Knights instantly put to use.
The Grey Knights since the start of this conflict were outnumbered 100 to 1, and these mortals that they faced were dedicated to their cause and were of great skill, and they were very intelligent. Most of their number, mostly the young were kneeling in the alcoves around the mountain. They appeared to be meditating and it became apparent what they were doing when the Grey Knights and the Jedi clashed. Somehow, those that were meditating were empowering their fellows. These already skilled warriors with nearly the speed of an Eldar and a measure of precognition were now stronger, faster. They knew that they couldn't take advantage of their numerical superiority effectively. 100 people trying to get at one target would only get in each other's way. Instead the veterans and elder members of the Jedi were fighting the Grey Knights at around 10 to 1 instead while the other 5000 allowed them to fight at the Grey Knights level through their meditation and acting as a reserve. Taking the place of the fallen when some unseen command reaches them. Swords of light and glowing blue steel flashed and spun and cut all around the mountain. Each Grey Knight was weaving a complex web about themselves, deflecting laser swords of a dozen different colours with their massive Nemesis Force Weapons. The weapons of all the combatants moving so fast as to be nearly invisible. Only the soft afterglow of their passage allowing any lesser person to know the weapons were there at all.
The powers these Jedi wielded were also improved. The power of the Force was now finally able to occasionally pierce the protection of the Aegis. The Grey Knights were being physically thrown about the cavernous space by several metres, a second of thought blocked the power of the Jedi again but it was a strain to strengthen the Aegis, use their own abilities and combat 100 opponents. Hundreds of Jedi were dead at the feet of the Grey Knights as they steadily advanced towards the mountain. However the bodies of dead Jedi were not alone. As the ground shook, 15 Grey Knights lay dead. Each with limbs severed, burning and cauterised stab wounds and heads removed. The Jedi learned quickly that disarming or stabbing a Grey Knight didn't not remove the threat he represented. The Jedi had to inflict horrific damage to their opponents to get them to finally stop fighting. After removing a limb it still cost the Jedi 2 or 3 lives before the Grey Knight was finally killed.
In the second that the ground shook, 200 Jedi died as they momentarily became distracted. Allowing the Grey Knights to take another step towards their objective.
Core was at the fore of the fighting with Brother-Captain Menkalinan and Brotherhood-Champion Merak at his flanks driving forward as an unstoppable wedge. These 3 were the most powerful and experienced of the Brotherhood. Their combined age nearly 2500 years. Hundreds of dead Jedi behind them and hundreds more ahead of them as their blades spun around each other at speeds that made them nearly invisible save for the soft blue glow. The Grey Knight Brotherhood was as silent as ever as they fought. No words ever needing to be said as experience, skill, and the psychic communion they shared allowed each Knight to know what the others were doing and allowed the Grey Knights to fight as one. Each positioned perfectly to make the entire Brotherhoods' defence near impenetrable, and their offence a steady advance that couldn't be stopped.
The Grand Master, Brother-Captain and Brotherhood-Champion swung their weapons about themselves in a massive and perfectly synchronised arch that pushed back all the Jedi around themselves by several meters. As one these 3 demi-gods of war raised their free hand and sent forth a torrent of burning white, purifying flame. Some of the Masters of the Jedi order managed to redirect the fire away, such as the dark skinned human with a purple lightsabre, which true to his word showed no sign of submitting and fought with great skill and strength. The 3 avatars of war swept their arms left and right creating a wide path through the Jedi ranks. Grand Master Core charged in the wake of this cleansing flame and ran headlong into the dark cave in the base of the mountain. After Core ran a dozen Jedi, however none of the Grey Knights moved to support their Leader as thousands of Republic Storm Troopers entered the cavern as Core disappeared into the Darkness. The Grey Knights silently came together, forming a shining silver ring as they fought now back to back. Their task was to hold for their Master now.
The Jedi with their Clone Trooper reinforcements and the Grey Knights continued to battle each other for days as thousands more Troopers continued to pour into the cavern. The reinforcements having to climb over a mountain of dead to reach the invaders.
Brotherhood-Champion Merak was the last to fall, and true to his position and calling, he did not go quietly. As his bodies life blood slowly left him and his body died, haven been stabbed and slashed hundreds of times and his left arm being the only limb still attached to his body, he surveyed the good work of he and his brothers. In all, 700 Jedi survived the battle and none were unscathed. The survivors were dirtied and bloody, exhausted to the point of collapse and looked around in confusion. Not believing that 100 could bring their mighty order low and cause so much death and destruction to the Republic they served.
Although Merak wouldn't know this, 27 Billion of the Republic Capitals population of approximately 1 Trillion souls lay dead. 27 Billion Heretics consigned to oblivion in his Emperors Name. As his last breath left his body Merak saw 4 of the Jedi exit the cave in the mountain. The small green alien and 3 of the traitor humans. The dark skinned man, the gentler man with the beard and the youth. All looked just as bad as their fellows in body and spirit.
Unfortunately, that meant Meraks' Leader, Grand Master Core was dead. He would be the last of the Brotherhood of the Eternal Watch. It would take a millennia to rebuild this Brotherhood. Merak knew that it would exist again however. The gaze of the Grey Knights has never faltered in 10 thousand years of demonic warfare. The Brotherhood of the Eternal Watch would protect mankind again.
Finally Meraks body died, and his soul sped through the warp to the safe embrace of the Emperors Angelic War Host. There he would wait with his Brothers for the battle of the End Times.
/
Core could feel it all around him now. The soft glow in his mind that in his home universe would be a raging inferno trying to burn him out of his own mind to replace him with something else. Something other. Something evil.
This warming glow was like a beacon to Core, drawing him towards it despite the unknown Force trying to steer his course elsewhere. Core could also sense the presence of his foe in pursuit. They were divided, the overwhelming presence of their Force within the mountain confusing their senses. Yet Core could still sense their strength. They numbered a dozen, and they were the mightiest of their Jedi Order and they were still being empowered further by their comrades outside. The small green alien, the human that voiced his defiance in the hall. The young adult that penetrated the Eternal Flame. He was the most powerful if not experienced. He was now glowing with the power of the warp coursing through him. The others Core did not know. It also did not matter.
Core believed now that he had failed. His grand mission to find something that would forever shield the Imperium and return with it was a failure. He somehow knew that he and his Brothers would not be exiting this Temple, but by the Emperor, Core was going to have his answer before the end.
There was no light in the cave save for what was being generated by his Nemesis Force Weapon, its soft blue glow was illuminating his path before him through the dark caves. After hours of walking deeper and deeper into the mountain until the presence of the Force began to cloud ever Cores` senses. He has reached his goal, and it wasn't what he had thought. There was no raging inferno of warp energy, no blasphemes portal leading to the realm of hell and chaos.
Just black stone. So black that it looked more like a hole in the universe, but it was only stone. Core reached forward and placed his fingertips against the long undisturbed material and nothing happened. No infusion of other-worldly power. No barrage of hell spawn attacking his mind. This was without a doubt a rift into the warp, but the daemons of that hellish realm were blind to everything.
How? Why?
"Found your answers have you? Worth the price was it..?"
Core turned and saw the Jedi gathered before him. The light from his weapon not quite reaching them, leaving them nothing more than black masses in the darkness.
"…Nowhere else for you to go there is. No deeper or further back in time our Temple goes. Finished, you are." said the small alien standing in front of its gathered cohorts.
"You have no idea how lucky you are alien. Living in such a world as this, free of madness and chaos."
"Thousands of our brothers and sisters dead. Tens of thousands more in the Clone army and the fleet. I don't know how many innocents in the city above us! All for nothing!" shouted one of the Jedi.
"There are no innocents in the war against chaos." Core hefted his Halberd. Its blade ready to strike. The Jedi ignited their laser swords illuminating them. Blues, Greens, and a purple. Shining against the forms of their wielders. 3 traitors and 9 other humanoids.
Core couldn't summon any of his cursed abilities. The presence of this Force was too much even for him to pierce, but the Jedi had no such problem. They all pushed against him with their power and he had only his enhanced body and the Aegis to keep him steady. He was pushing with all his might to stay standing and in place, and then with an effort from his foe he went flying and smashed straight into the black stone. A ton of Space Marine should have smashed its surface but it held together with no damage. They stopped and he fell to the ground. In a second his Halberd was sticking out of one of the Jedi. Core had altered his grip and hurled the weapon like a spear in an eye blink. His psychic abilities maybe jammed, but Core was a Space Marine. A member of the Adeptus Astartes and a Grand Master of the most elite group of warriors to ever walk the universe.
Core was following his Halberd as it flew through the air. His right fist smashed into the skull of some diminutive alien with large ears and it fell dead as his first victim became impaled on the far wall. With surprise gone and the Jedi recognising that Core was indeed still a major threat, the battle began in earnest. Light and shadows playing everywhere as the battle continued in the darkness for hours as Core dance his bulk around the Jedis` attacks in the confined space. Lightsabres nipping at Core and were slowly killing him as he lost more and more blood and eventually limbs while Core killed as fast as he could. Going from 10 Jedi left to 9, to 8. Each one killed with his armoured hands. His Halberd was too large a weapon to wield effectively in the confined cave, and Core was already at a disadvantage due to his surroundings. Unable to move as fast as he wanted without colliding with walls and losing his momentum, and he was hampered even more with his abilities clouded and the Jedis` still strong. On occasion being able to wrong foot Core as the battle continued.
Eventually Core fell to the ground. Both legs had been removed in quick succession by the small green alien resulting in the fall, joining his left arm that had been sliced off earlier after he'd slain his 6 Jedi, a female humanoid with sickly green skin and black clothing.
Cores` armour was now slashed and open. Blood flowing out of him from too many places and pooling around his dying body.
The remaining Jedi surrounded him. 4 out of the 12 remained.
"The damn thing is still alive. What should we do with it?" asked the bloodied and bruised Jedi with a beard.
The small green alien approached Cores` right side and he lashed out. His remaining limb just catching the alien and sending it flying several metres before it landed and slowly picked itself up again.
"Well. That answers that question." said the powerful youth as he approached Cores` left side with his lightsabre and promptly severed Cores head from his shoulders.
/
"Thank you Magos. As expected, your report was extremely detailed. Are you sure that there was no way to retrieve the Brotherhood?" asked Grand Master Vorth Mordrak. To lose an entire Brotherhood was a devastating blow that would take a thousand years to recover from if not more, and being the Admiral of the Fleet and losing the Eternal Flame,The Chariot of Providence, and The Proceeding Echo. This was one of the darkest days in his memory.
"Negative Grand Master Mordrak. These Republic vessels in the numbers they opposed us with were too much for the fleet to overcome as it was deployed. Despite the damage caused we were not able to achieve space-superiority to facilitate another landing to enter the Temple and extract the Brotherhood of the Eternal Watch.
"So we're down to 8 Brotherhoods. I don't think we can ever truly recover from so devastating a blow. It will take a millennia to replenish our numbers." said Grand Master Rothwyr Morvans, Keeper of the Sanctum Sanctorum.
"We will further study your reports Magos for any further insights. Thank you again for lending us your aid in this endeavour…" said Grand Master Anval Laraon, High Seneschal of the Fortress. "…I have no doubt you wish to tend to the wounds your vessel received."
"Indeed Grand Master. I will take my leave. May the Omnissiah guide you." replied the Tech-priest before turning and exiting the Chamber.
"Canoness. Is there anything of note you wish to add to your report?" asked Grand Master Valdar Aurikon.
"No Grand Masters. There was 1 biological anomaly of note, but the microbe samples we brought back with us are dead. They appear to have died from whatever they feed upon. Whatever it was, there was too much of it here?"
"Very well Sister. Thank you." with that the Canoness left the chamber for her ship to return to terra.
"A failed endeavour, and we have paid a hefty price. Whatever shields this other universe is now lost to us. My Prognosticars can see no way to return to that place and the path Core followed has faded to nothing." Said Grand Master Drystann Cromm, Keeper of the Augurium.
"Then we fight on Brothers. As we have always done. Ever watchful and ready to defend our Emperors realm from the forces of the warp. For we are His gift to mankind."
The End
The Force of Chaos fleet list.
Battle-barge = Eternal Flame
2 Strike Cruisers = Proceeding Echo, Chariot of Providence
Cruiser scale Arch Mechanicus = Machined Blade (Turrets to 3, weapons batteries to 6, lances to 1, shields to 3, range 40, hits to 8, no Nova Cannon)
Imperial Dictator Class Cruiser = Sister Ignatious Torphantom (fighters and bombers replaced with landing ships)
Imperial Transport = Ice Queen
2 Nova Class Frigates + 2 Gladius Class Frigates = Echo Squadron, Providence Squadron, Flame Squadron
5 Hunter Class Destroyers = Future Squadron, Past Squadron
28 ships
Space Marine Fleet = 1545 points assuming no addition point cost for Terminators as they are relatively common in a Grey Knight army
Total Fleet = 1970 assuming 15 points for Ice Queen and 190 points for Machined Blade
P.S. shame battlefleet gothic is gone. At least we're getting a computer game that looks pretty awesome.