A/N: Here we go.

Chapter 3

I was taught all my life that all xenos were either self-serving, selfish, greedy opportunists who would use and abandon mankind as it suited them, or monsters that wanted nothing more than to drag humanity into bloody, violent oblivion. It was not until I met Reyalla that I ever considered otherwise, and it would be years still past that before I realized the truth: that some aliens are much the same as us, and can be valuable allies against those which truly are monsters. And even longer after that realization I found that, given enough time and near-death experiences, it is possible to achieve something close to friendship with the ones I once hated above all else.

-Lord Inquisitor Marthas Devinir, in his autobiography, In the Shadows.

Year 2183, Planet Virmire, AA battery #12

A small rain shower had just passed over as the white-armored geth shock trooper emerged from the control room of the anti-aircraft guns on its usual patrol rout.

The flooring of the exterior walkway was somewhat slippery, so the synthetic moved slightly slower to ensure that its platform would remain stable. Its visual processor scanned the rocky walls and sandy beach of the surrounding area for possible threats, but picked up nothing on either infrared, thermal, or regular visual frequencies.

Within the hardware of the platform, 1317 geth programs were, while directing their body on its sentry duties, also debating a matter most interesting, at least to them.

Earlier in the day, their platform had observed a pair of the large crab-like organisms that were commonplace on this part of the planet set a rudimentary trap using a large rock, a stick, and a piece of dead fish. This trap was used to capture and kill a small rodent-like mammal that the pair had then shared.

The programs were debating whether this behavior showed evidence of rudimentary sentience in the crabs, or whether it was the same simple tool-making behavior seen in thousands of complex organisms throughout the galaxy.

The debate had started out relatively even, with 655 programs on the side of Yes, and 662 on the side of No. Now however, the advantage went to the No side, with 711 programs versus 606 on the Yes side.

The No group was just rallying for a final argument when a loud bang! rang out and the platform's shields were obliterated.

Immediately, all the programs snapped into combat protocols, the shock trooper raising its pulse rifle as the single lens of its visual processor scanned for and found the source of the shot, a human woman with a sniper rifle who was taking cover behind a large boulder around twenty meters from the walkway.

The Geth let out a growling burst of binary to the other platforms guarding the guns as it returned fire, plasma-coated metal slugs hyper-accelerating out of the barrel of the rifle to flicker against the shield of the human combatant.

The woman ducked behind her rock as the fire stripped away a portion of her shields. The shock trooper heard the sounds of several footsteps coming from its right, but their IFFs quickly IDed as fellow geth.

Another crack of a sniper rifle rang out, this time from a position above and to the left of the suppressed human. To the left of the shock trooper one of its reinforcements had its 'head' blown off as another sniper round punched through the troopers shields and ripped off its visual processor, critically damaging the platform.

The shock trooper saw that this shot had come from a blue armored turian who was lying on a small ledge up on the side of one of the large stone pillars that littered the area around Saren's base.

The shock trooper let out another binary burst advising the two remaining platforms to concentrate fire on the second sniper. The pair sent return bursts of confirmation as they opened fire on the turians position.

They had not been firing for ten seconds when an asari appeared from behind a boulder fifteen meters from their position.

One of the troopers tried to shift its fire to the asari, but before it could re-target her body glowed with a blue aura and she hurled an orb of biotic energy at their position.

The shock trooper attempted to evade the biotic attack, as did the other two troopers, but when the sphere hit the wall behind them it exploded into a swirling biotic singularity which pulled the three platforms in, leaving them suspended helpless in the air.

The asari proceeded to pull a pistol from her waist and riddle one of the other platforms with rounds, while the two snipers fired into the other, destroying it.

Knowing that the white platforms' destruction was imminent, the 1317 programs inhabiting it left, abandoning the platform and uploading themselves into one of the geth ships in orbit over the planet.

As such, when the hail of pistol and sniper rounds tore the shock trooper apart, it was nothing but an empty shell.

Jane Shepard let out a slow breath as she lowered the scope of her sniper rifle from her eye.

She glanced over towards Liara, who still had her pistol raised towards the walkway that the team had just forcibly vacated a squad of geth troopers from. Jane scanned the walkway for further movement, but saw nothing. Still, she was not one to take unnecessary risks, so she opened up a line to the other members of her squad.

"Either of you see any more geth?" she said quietly, her eyes still scanning the walkway.

"Negative, I've got nothing. It looks clear." said Garrus.

"I agree. I cannot see any more geth. Shall we push up?" Said Liara.

"Affirmative. Garrus, switch to your AR and meet us on the walkway." Jane said, storing her rifle on her back as she moved out of cover, drawing her pistol as she did so.

Liara advanced alongside her, and Shepard spared her a glance before turning her attention back to the walkway.

They were approaching a ladder that led up to the construction. When they reached it, Jane scrambled up quickly, reaching the top just as Garrus dropped onto the walkway from above, assault rifle at the ready, having used a small rocky ledge to reach the position.

The two waited a moment for Liara to climb up the ladder, then slowly began to advance towards the control room.

Jane was slightly ahead of the other two, with Garrus in the center and Liara at the rear. The squad quickly reached the end of the walkway and stacked up beside the door leading into the gun complex.

Jane held up a hand for her allies to wait, then slowly peeked around the edge of the open door. She saw a short hallway that led into, from what she could see, a large open room with several control consoles inside.

She leaned back and looked at her alien companions.

"Alright, I can't see any hostiles in there," she said quietly, "but that room looks like a control center. So here's the plan: I'll go in first, and you two follow a few seconds after me and wait near the door. If there are hostiles in the room, I'll get into position to flank them and give two clicks over the comms. That will be your signal to come in guns blazing."

Her squadmates did not respond, simply nodding their understanding and readying their weapons.

Shepard took a deep breath to calm herself slightly, then activated her tactical cloak and moved into the hallway.

As Shepard moved silently towards the open doorway she heard a slight scraping noise, like metal on metal. Her expression turned grim as she moved through the door to see that, indeed, there were Geth lying in wait for the rest of her team.

To either side of the door were geth troopers, in addition to a shotgun-armed geth destroyer waiting for the enemy to show themselves. There was also one of those thrice-damned geth stalkers stuck to the ceiling, just waiting to nail someone with it's cursed sniper-weapon.

Well, today I'll be surprising you, bastard. Shepard thought maliciously as she moved across the room, her upgraded cloak making her all but invisible to the naked eye.

She took cover behind a console, waited a moment, then gave the signal to her teammates, tossing a grenade at the stalker as she did so.

The disk flew through the air and magnetically attached itself to the ceiling right beside the stalker's head.

The machine barely had the time to whir in confusion before the grenade detonated, obliterating the stalker as drawing the attention of the other geth in the room.

Liara chose that moment to drop a singularity on the floor just beyond the door frame, dragging the two troopers out of their concealed positions just in time for Garrus' rifle to fill them with rounds, joined by the sharp retort of Liara's pistol.

The destroyer, seeing itself as the last geth standing, moved to enter the hallway, where its shotgun would be able to do the most damage.

However, Shepard was not going to let that happen.

She rose from cover with her omnitool activated, and with a gesture sent an overload program flying at the destroyer.

The geth staggered as the program ripped apart its shields and overheated its weapon, leaving it helpless as Shepard opened fire into the machine's back. The destroyer jerked as the tiny metal slugs ripped through its form before collapsing to a broken heap on the floor.

Garrus moved into the room, rifle raised and sweeping for more hostiles. Seeing none, he lowered his weapon and stepped over the destroyer, shooting Shepard an impressed look.

"Well, that went well." He said dryly, stowing his AR as he moved to the controls.

"Yes, that was very well done." Liara agreed as she entered behind him, her eyes looking curiously about the room as they always did when she found herself somewhere new.

"Well, this is just the first hurdle. Don't get too confident." Shepard said sternly, getting to work alongside Garrus. She couldn't help but crack a grin as she continued, "But that was a pretty awesome breach."

Garrus glanced at her. "Well, I don't know if I'd call it a 'breach' myself. After all, you were already inside when the attack started, and there wasn't actually a door to breach"

Shepard raised an eyebrow as she looked at Garrus incredulously. "Seriously? Just because I was attacking from a different angle doesn't mean it's not breaching! And who says you need a door? Liara, back me up here."

"Actually, I have to agree with Garrus. That was more of a pincer attack than a breach."

Shepard looked back and forth between her two teammates for a few moments, until she noticed that Garrus was laughing quietly and Liara was grinning in amusement. The redhead feigned anger at the realization of her squadmates teasing, but was soon chuckling along with them.

"You guys are assholes, you know that?" Jane said lightly.

"Yep, but we're your assholes; and you're going to be stuck with us for the rest of your life." Garrus said.

As he finished that sentence, the screens on various consoles around the room flashed red for a moment and then deactivated, followed by a cessation of the constant humming the machinery around them had been making as the system shut down.

Shepard turned her gaze back to the console in front of her, one of the few still active, and nodded with satisfaction.

"That's it, the gun's offline. Let's head back to the Mako and meet the Normandy at the salarian camp.

The other two nodded and moved to exit the room as Jane raised a hand to her helmet, activating her comms to the ship as she followed her alien comrades.

"Joker, the AA gun is down. You should have a clear shot at the base now."

"Roger that Commander, I just saw the guns' signature go dark. I'll head for the STG base now. See you there. Normandy out."

Shepard deactivated the com and hurried to catch up with Garrus and Liara, thinking to herself, despite my misgivings, this mission has been going really well. With any luck, we won't hit any snags.

Shepard winced slightly as this thought crossed her mind.

Damn, I hope I didn't just jinx it.

M 40, Y 984, Segmentum Tempestus, Unnamed system

"Brace for impact!"

The words had barely left the mouth of the helmsman before explosions rocked the vessel, knocking most of the standing members of the bridge crew from their feet, and causing the logistics terminal to catch fire, panicking the operator as his jumpsuit caught fire briefly.

One of the few members of the crew left standing was a woman wearing a long, flowing robe of a deep purple, highlighted at the neck, cuffs, and hem with a lighter, almost lilac color.

She also wore a chest plate made of elegant, flowing material jet black in color and decorated with silver inlays, swirls and runes that flowed together artfully, as well as a single deep-green jewel set into the center.

Attached to the front of a simple lilac belt, as well as several leather pouches and a holstered pistol, was a tabard that echoed her chest armor's color scheme, black and edged with silver, with a white rune on it, appearing to be a stylized humanoid figure caught mid-dance.

Sweeping up behind the woman, framing her head, were two wing-like constructions that were attached to the back of her chest plate. Beneath her robe she wore a black bodysuit, which covered all of her body up to her neck, leaving only the woman's head exposed.

Her features were, by human measure, near-perfect; with elegant bone-structure, flawless, glowing skin, beautiful amber eyes, and well kept, silky platinum-blonde hair which she wore in a long braid that reached down between her shoulder blades. She was a quite tall for a female, standing at six foot eleven inches tall, but that could be waved off.

However, her inhumanly graceful movements, and long, pointed ears showed that the woman was not a human, but an Eldar, and more so her garb and the leaf-bladed spear she grasped in her hand marked her out as a farseer, one of the most powerful and respected individuals in Eldar society.

"Farseer, are you alright?"

The psyker looked over to where the Captain of the ship, a relatively young male named Teriss Vakoll, had quickly regained his feet and was nervously making his way towards her, worried for the safety of his superior.

"I am fine, captain. I would suggest you focus on the battle." She replied, her voice carrying the barest hint of disapproval in its tone, so small that a human would likely have missed it. However, to an eldar, it was a blatant reproach for his lack of discipline and professionalism on the bridge.

The captain's face paled and he quickly turned away, calling out, "Status report! What's the damage?"

His first mate turned from her console to look at the captain, her expression grim. "The holoshields diverted most of the enemy fire, but we've still taken serious damage."

She turned back to her holoscreen and began swiping through the various damage reports, listing them off as she dismissed them.

"A lance strike hit the lower solar sail, and we've lost a quarter of our speed. Two torpedoes hit near the forward pulse lance battery, so we've lost half of our forward armaments. In addition, a stray boarding torpedo hit near the rear of the ship, more by chance than anything. The Harlequins responded quickly and slaughtered the cultists, but not before the boarders damaged the rear portside holo-array, so we should avoid displaying that section to the enemy. We have fires and minor hull breaches on several decks, but those are being handled."

Captain Teriss let out a breath he had not realized he was holding; the damage was considerable, but it was nothing critical, and the ship was still quite combat-capable.

"What of the Mon'key vessels?" He asked. Hopefully the damage we suffered was worth it, He thought.

It was the sensor officer who answered this time, "We were able to destroy or disable all of their raider-sized vessels, and one of the frigates. The other two enemy frigates are chasing our escorts and should be dealt with shortly." He paused, then spoke again with grim satisfaction. "Correction, one enemy frigate is fleeing from our escorts. The other has been destroyed."

"Good. What of the enemy flagship?" Teriss said.

"Unfortunately, our weapons have had minimal effect on that monstrosity; the shields held for the most part, warp damn them, and the hull we did hit seemed to...absorb the damage."

By Vaul's hammer, what will it take to kill this thing? Captain Teriss though, a sliver of fear making its way into his thoughts.

"The vessel is still on course for the Isha's Dreams, captain," the sensor operator continued.

Instantly, the Captain squashed that fear and took control. He glanced at his tactical display and quickly determined a plan of attack. "Tell the Voidstriker and the Swiftblade to circle around behind the enemy vessel. The Deathdancer can take care of that last frigate. We'll try and draw the enemy vessel away from Isha's Dreams and…"

"Captain!" The sensor officer called out, interrupting Teriss, "I've detected six warp-rifts that have opened fifteen thousand kilometers behind and below the enemy vessel!"

Shit. Thought the captain. "Chaos reinforcements?" he asked, his voice filled with trepidation.

The sensor officer opened his mouth to respond, only to be interrupted.

"No."

The voice of the Farseer rang out through the bridge. All eyes turned to her as she strode from her position at the rear of the bridge until she stood before the viewscreen of the bridge, her eyes locked on the six violet rips in the fabric of reality.

As soon as the rifts had appeared, she had sensed it. A psychic signature that was unmistakably powerful and annoyingly familiar.

Of course, it would be him. She thought with equal parts irritation and relief.

"Farseer?" The captain's questioning voice broke into her thoughts. "Who is it, if not Chaos?"

She did not turn, and so none of the bridge crew saw her usually stoic expression crack into a small smile as she answered.

"Imperials."

...

His Silent Blade roared from the warp at full combat readiness, void shields raised and weapons primed. The White Execution and Black Revenge emerged around 900 kilometers ahead to the port and starboard, somehow having switched positions somewhere in the warp, and the escort-wing with the Guardian of Faith and her corvette charges a few thousand beyond that.

On the bridge of the Blade, Marthas quickly looked over the holographic display of the combat area, and could not help but be surprised.

I must say, this is unexpected. He thought.

Of Gerakas' original eleven ship fleet, only his flagship, the Eternal Adoration, remained; ten dead hulks and expanding debris fields all that marked the dying places of his raider and frigate escort-craft.

The cause for the destruction of the chaos vessels was a quartet of eldar starships which bore the colors of craftworld Dan-Varr, a trio of one-point-three kilometer frigates which had just finished off the last chaos frigate and were circling around to attack the Eternal Adoration from the rear, and a four-point-eight kilometer long light cruiser which was currently trying to divert the implacable advance of the Chaotic Grand-cruiser on the most unexpected vessel in the sector.

An Eldar Craftmoon.

The massive vessel looked like a miniature version of the titanic craftworlds that the majority of the remaining eldar population inhabit. It was over fifty kilometers in length from nose to stern, and around twenty kilometers wide. Through the massive transparent dome that covered the top of the vessel, one would see scattered woodlands and large swaths of farmland surrounding a (relatively) small city.

Craftmoons were normally seen in twos and threes accompanying craftworlds, used to provide surplus food in addition to that grown on the main ship, as well as acting in a similar role to their namesake celestial bodies, orbiting the craftworld and giving a comfort to its inhabitants.

The fact that this vessel bore the colors of Dan-Varr, like its escorts, did not bode well for its parent craftworld.

No time to worry about that now. Marthas though. Stop Gerakas first, then you can deal with the eldar.

The Imperial ships found themselves in an ideal position, behind and below the enemy vessel, and completely outside of its firing arcs.

An advantage Marthas planned to make maximum use of.

"Captain, have strike group secundus move up into range of their weapons batteries. They should hit the enemy vessel from the opposite side to the approaching eldar frigates."

"Yes my lord." Dracov said, and Marthas saw the forward formation break off and begin to swing up and around behind the chaotic vessel. "What of us?" Dracov asked.

"Bring the Blade and the firestorms up into lance range and prepare to fire. In addition, load up a pair of Valem's new torpedoes and get them ready to launch."

"Aye. We'll be in lance range in five minutes."

Now, as was usually the case in void warfare, they would have to wait. This was something that the history texts and propaganda vids didn't' talk about; just how long space combat took. Of course, when you looked at the distances involved, it made sense, but that logic did nothing to make the tension of waiting any less.

Of course the bridge crew, veterans of dozens of conflicts, were used to the waiting that came with ship-on-ship combat. Only two people on the bridge seemed to be anxious about the waiting; Comms Officer Albus, and Interrogator Quiriam.

Marthas, who was watching the holotable intently, sensed more than saw his apprentice shift uncomfortably, and he barely had to access his powers to sense the waves of unease and impatience rolling off of her through the warp.

Marthas sighed quietly at his students impatience and tapped into his telepathy, touching the surface of Bethany's mind.

Beth, Marthas thought at her, and he felt her start with surprise at the foreign voice in her head; he couldn't help feeling some amusement at that.

There was a flare of warp energy behind him as Bethany tapped into her own powers to establish a tenuous connection with him (Telepathy was not her strong suit).

I asked you to stop doing that. She thought/said, annoyed.

And I said no. Marthas replied, unconcerned with her annoyance. Why are you so uncomfortable?

Bethany fidgeted mentally. It is just...the waiting. Gerakas is right there, but we-I-cannot do anything about it because this ship is so damn slow.

Marthas gave a mental headshake. Bethany, this is the way of void combat. You must learn to be patient, use the time that it takes to complete maneuvers to plan ahead, to try and predict your opponent's actions and reactions, and counter them. Void combat is like a giant game of regicide: you must always be thinking three steps ahead of your foe.

His apprentice sent a complaint feeling through their link. Of course, my lord.

Marthas decided to relent at that point. I can understand your eagerness, Bethany. Let us see if we cannot distract you until battle is joined.

The Inquisitor severed the link, their conversation having taken only a few seconds, and said to Dracov, "Captain, can you bring up a magnified image of the Eternal Adoration on the main screen?"

"Of course my lord." He said, and with a thought brought up an enhanced image of their target on the bridge's main screen.

As the image of the vessel resolved itself, many members of the crew muttered expletives under their breaths, and a few of the more devout, Bethany included, made the sign of the Aquila as they laid eyes on the corrupted vessel.

While the Everlasting Adoration may once have been a Massacre-class grand cruiser, it was now both far less and far more. While it still retained the general shape of the ancient class, as well as the eight-kilometer length, it was now changed almost beyond recognition by the 'blessings' of the Warp.

The hull of the vessel was covered in dozens of places by fleshy growths, which crawled, expanded and retracted as the imperials watched, growing the odd tentacle, mouth or eye before absorbing these growths back into the growths.

In some places, the metal of the outer hull seemed to have fused with the demonic flesh, becoming the notoriously durable material known as fleshmetal. These sections seemed to pulse with life, expanding and retracting as if in response to breathing, or showing giant veins pulsing with black ichor that flowed to an unholy heartbeat, as if the ship was no longer merely steel and wiring, but a great living beast.

At the bow of the ship, where the main lance battery would normally be, there was a great round 'mouth', lined with hundreds of giant teeth the size of thunderhawk gunships. As the bridge crew of the Blade watched, a disconcerting greenish-purple glow began to emit from this mouth, and a moment later five distinct beams of light, three the sickly green of Chaos lances, two the vibrant purple of condensed warp-energy, lanced forth from the cavity to strike at the eldar cruiser, which dove nimbly to avoid the attack.

The eldar vessel used the evasion to get itself into perfect position for a close range attack run on the Adoration. From its prow flickered two streams of pure-white laserfire as it opened up with its main pulse lance battery, and they could see a dozen trails of fire streaking through the void as the vessel launched a close-range torpedo barrage.

The Imperials watched with baited breath as the fire from the alien vessel struck their target. Void shield sprung to life as the lance fire hit, crackling and sparking for a moment as they absorbed the majority of the laser fire. Only the last few pulses from the eldar lances broke through, cutting into the thick armor of the mutated cruiser and doing little more than surface damage.

The torpedoes struck soon after, and though four were destroyed by fire from the Adoration's point-defense weapons, the eight that impacted did considerably more damage than the pulse lances.

Eight miniature suns bloomed on the flank of the grand cruiser as the plasma warheads detonated. As the light faded, Marthas saw that the torpedoes had left large, blackened holes in the exterior of the ship, in some instances showing the corrupted interior of the vessel.

A few of the bridge crew let out short cheers at the damage caused to the enemy vessel, only to quickly fall silent as they remembered the strike was done by a xeno vessel. Then, as they watched, something disturbing happened.

Before their very eyes, the steel and daemonic flesh of the corrupted ship began to ripple and flow, slowly but surely knitting together the damage caused by the plasma explosions.

"By the Emperor…" Mathas heard one crewman whisper in horror and disgust. Across the bridge, many of the crew were giving similar sentiments of horror and disgust, but Marthas was simply intrigued.

And a touch concerned.

"It would appear that the dark gods have given the Adoration two additional lance analogs. And the ability to repair itself, to a limited degree. That level of alteration does not bode well for what the interior of the ship will be like." Marthas said quietly to himself. He raised his voice slightly and turned to Bethany. "Interrogator, your thoughts on a boarding strategy?"

The young woman tore her gaze away from the abomination on the main screen to look at her master, her shocked mind taking a moment to process his question.

"Uh…" She stammered slightly, still a little offput by the sight of the chaotic starship. However, she forced herself to study the enemy ship, and after a minute or so formed a response.

"The area around the bridge looks considerably less corrupted than the rest of the vessel. I would suggest that we enter in that region. Also," she paused, "I would suggest that brother Sar'al and brother Gorvax bring heavy flamers as opposed to their usual armaments, as I feel that copious amounts of cleansing fire will be needed on board that ship." She finished, making the sign of the Aquilla for good measure as she turned from the image on screen.

Marthas only nodded, but he was proud of the assessment. Exactly what I would have done. She is turning out quite well, all things considered.

"My lord." The weapons officer called out, drawing the Inquisitors attention. "We are 15 seconds from lance range, and combat group secundus is almost in range for their weapon batteries. Orders?"

Marthas returned his attention to the battle; the time of waiting had passed.

"All vessels are to target the engine sections of the ship. We will fire first to weaken the void shields; then, group secundus shall fire everything they can at the section we've weakened. The Retribution and the Execution are to hold fire until the void shields fall, then strike the engines of the enemy vessel. The instant the shields fail, I want us to launch both torpedoes."

"Aye aye!" Several voices across the bridge called out, as hands flew across consoles to make the Inquisitor's instructions reality.

Ten seconds passed.

"We are in lance range, Inquisitor." Dracov said quietly.

Marthas felt a savage grin spread across his face.

"Fire." He snarled.

...

At the bow of His Silent Blade, beneath the armored prow, a trio of long, metal cylinders began collecting power. In a few seconds, their barrels went from cold grey to burning red as incredible thermal energy collected, just waiting to be unleashed.

And with the press of a button over four kilometers away, that energy was released.

Three red-orange beams of light slashed from the lances towards their distant target, the incredibly powerful lasers containing capable of spearing planets and blasting cities from existence.

And yet, they were stopped a mere two hundred meters from their target by the crackling, struggling form of the Adoration's rear void shields, the strike stripping away a half dozen layers of the defensive shields; they held in place, but only barely.

The battered defenses of the chaos vessel would receive no respite though, for just as the last of the energy from the lances of His Silent Blade was absorbed and dissipated, a volley of smaller laser impacts battered the vessel.

It was the Guardian of Faith, as well as the Watchful Gaze and the Steady Hand. They blasted away at the grand cruiser with their dorsal, turret mounted weapons batteries. All three ships mounted laser based weapons batteries, either double or triple barreled Hephaestus-pattern Volcano Cannons, more powerful versions of the weapons used on titans and Shadowsword superheavy tanks.

Even against this barrage, the grand cruiser's ancient shields held, bolstered by the unholy energy of the dozens of Neverborn that inhabited her massive steel body, and turrets set near the rear of the ship turned to return fire of the vessels that plagued them.

However, just as it seemed that the chaotic vessel would recover, the Eldar arrived.

The Voidstriker and the Swiftblade had seen the course the imperials were taking, and had maneuvered themselves to reach their mutual foe at the same time as their makeshift allies, strafing the enemy Endless Adoration with blasts of plasma and laser bolts from their more advanced weapon batteries.

This was, as the saying goes, the stick that broke the grox's back. With a bright flash, the last layer of void shields shattered, a few stray bolts of plasma searing the hull as the eldar frigates sped away.

Then, two more bolts of orange light pierced the darkness of space, and this time the Imperial lances would not be denied.

The first beam, that of the White Execution, struck the port-side engine, carving through millennia-old metal, starting a chain reaction of explosions that crippled the engine, causing the engine to sputter and die.

The second beam, that of the Black Revenge, struck the far engine, traveling part of the way into the massive construction before piercing the hull, melting dozens of critical systems to slag and near-instantly disabling the other engine.

Now crippled, the massive starship finally seemed to recognize the threat posed by the Imperial starships. It began to turn, ponderous and slow, trying to bring its batteries to bear on the escorts, and shield its vulnerable rear from further attack.

But before it could move more than a few degrees through its turn, the pair of torpedoes fired by His Silent Blade impacted the rear of the ship.

These were not the usual explosive, melta, plasma, or even boarding torpedoes used by many imperial starships. These were a custom built (and slightly heretical) design based on a technology used by many races throughout the galaxy, be it the EMP grenades of the Tau, the Arc Weapons of the Mechanicus, or the Haywire Cannons used by Eldar Harlequins.

Weaponised Electricity. In this case, an electromagnetic pulse.

When the haywire torpedoes impacted, they unleashed massive explosions of azure lightning that arched across the surface of the ship, shirting out systems and causing smaller, more conventional explosions where they overloaded power sources or storage devices.

In moments, the Everlasting Adoration was left as a floating, powerless hulk, with barely any damage having been done to it whatsoever.

...

The bridge of His Silent Blade erupted in cheers as the enemy vessel was rendered powerless by their torpedo strike.

Marthas had a satisfied smirk on his face as he gazed around the bridge. He met the gaze of Captain Dracov, who was also smiling slightly, and nodded to him.

"Well done, old friend. Give my commendations to the other captains."

"Thank you, Marthas. I will."

"Master."

Marthas turned to see that his apprentice was standing by the door to the bridge, attempting to keep a serious expression on her face, but failing to hide a small smile. "We must move quickly if we are to capitalize on the enemy's confusion. I suggest we make haste for the hangar."

Marthas nodded and turned back to Dracov. "Captain, you have the bridge…"

Whatever Marthas was about to say was cut off as the comms officer shouted out.

"Inquisitor! The eldar cruiser is hailing us!"

This immediately piqued Devenir's interest. In his experience, when aided by imperial forces, eldar ships tended to try and leave as soon as the foe was destroyed, fearing attack from their momentary allies. Rare was the instance when they attempted to communicate with imperial vessels.

"Put it onscreen." Marthas said, stepping forwards.

"But, master, Gerakas…" Beathay began.

"...will still be on his ship in five minutes after I hear what the eldar want. Patience, Interrogator."

Bethany fumed, but nodded and stopped talking.

The main screen of the bridge changed, turning from the image of the disabled chaos vessel to a view of a bright, orderly room, the walls curved and elegant, the crew similarly so. The majority of the screen was taken up by the face and torso of a stunning eldar woman, who gazed sternly at the human bridge crew until her gaze fell upon Marthas, when her face softened ever so slightly.

"Inquisitor Devinir. I thought I recognized this ramshackle fleet from somewhere." The eldar said, her voice lilting and musical.

"Farseer Reyalla. Always a pleasure to see you, and save you from some chaotic force or another."

The farseer's eyebrows furrowed in annoyance. "You did not 'save' us, Inquisitor, we had the situation well under control." She said, her voice superior.

"Of course, my lady." Marthas said, bowing sarcastically. The farseer let out something like a snort, but far more regal. The Inquisitor grinned, then straightened, his face entirely serious.

"In any case, thank you for your assistance, Inquisitor." The farseer said, finally relenting enough to acknowledge their help.

"No issue farseer, we have been hunting this vessel and its master for some time now. We plan to board the vessel to try and retrieve an artifact the captain stole some time ago, as well as ensure his death. If you have any warriors to spare, we would greatly appreciate…"

"Uh, Inquisitor? the Everlasting Adoration just sent us a message, text only." The comms officer interrupted.

Marthas shot the man a withering glare, and simply said, "Onscreen."

He turned back, very annoyed, to see that Reyalla's feed had moved to the side, and the message from the chaos vessel was now shown on screen.

It read;

You think you have won, Inquisitor, but the Dark Gods shall have their due. The Dark Prince will feast on these xeno souls, and I shall be exalted for dragging you screaming to their feet. For the glory of Chaos Undivided!

Marthas got a confused look of his face as he read the message.

How does he plan to do any of this? We disabled his ship…

"Lord Inquisitor!" The auspex officer called out, her voice tinged with fear. "I've detected an anomaly within the enemy ship. It...it seems a warp-rift has opened."

Marthas' eyes widened as realization hit him. He's...he's going to…

"Inquisitor?"

Dracov's questioning, uncertain voice pulled him from his shock.

"ALL SHIPS, RAISE GELLAR FIELDS NOW!" Mathas roared, startling the entire crew. "Maximum speed away from the Adoration now! All ships, GET AWAY FROM THAT VESSEL!" The tone of desperation and panic in his voice sent the crew scrambling to action, hands flying across consoles.

Marthas watched desperately as his ships began to turn away from the Endless Adoration; slowly, far too slowly.

"Master? What's happening?" Bethany's concerned, slightly frightened voice broke into Marthas' thoughts.

"Indeed, what is the meaning of this Inquisitor?" Farseer Reyalla questioned, also concerned with the sudden change in the man's demeanor.

Devenir's head snapped around as the eldar spoke. "Farseer, you need to get your ships away from the enemy vessel. Gerakas is going to detonate his warp-core to try and destroy us both!"

The eldar's eyes widened in shock, then she turned and began shouting at her own crew in her native tongue. Then the screen went black as the line was terminated, and Marthas saw that the eldar vessels were also beginning to flee from the area, faster than the imperials, but still too slow, Marthas felt.

Then he sensed it, a building pulse within the warp' centered on the enemy ship.

"Master...what is this…" The Inquisitor turned to see that Bethany had fallen to her knees, clutching at her head. She looked at him, her face wracked with pain, and he saw that her eyes glowed with purple light, raw warp energy leaking from her.

He rushed to her side and called upon his powers to try and shield his apprentice from the building surge of energy. As he reached into the immaterium, feeling the predators of the warp screaming and clawing at his mental defenses, he felt it.

The moment of perfect silence before the explosion.

Desperately, he reached out with his powers to the only two other psykers with any real power on board; Epistolary Persax and Choirmaster Jak Nemmet.

He only had enough time to shout a warning:

PROTECT THEM!

"All hands, brace for immediate warp transfer. Hold on to something!" Marthas heard Dracov distantly shout.

And then, hell itself exploded from the belly of the Endless Adoration.

And I had so much I wanted to do...thought Marthas as his consciousness was ripped from him.

...

At one moment, the void was silent, as a dozen vessels moved through the emptiness of space, all fleeing from the central most ship.

The next, a rip in the material universe screamed forth, tendrils of energy reaching from the realm beyond as the rift expanded.

First it consumed the Endless Adoration, devouring its progenitor like a greedy parasite.

Then it took in combat group secundus, the Guardian of Faith, Watchful Gaze, and Steady Hand each grabbed by tendrils of energy and dragged into the screaming abyss.

Next were the eldar frigates, the Voidstriker, Swiftblade, and Deathdancer managing to evade the tendrils for a few moments before the expanding mass of the warp rift sucked them in.

The eldar cruiser, the Will of Kaine, was next, unable to outrun the warp-energy, quickly followed by the Black Revenge and the White Execution, who in true fashion for the vessels, entered together, engines straining all the way.

His Silent Blade was far enough from the blast that it seemed they may be able to escape the grasp of the warp. But it was not to be, as six warp-tendrils burst from the immaterium to wrap around the midsection of the cruiser and pulling it in.

The last ship standing, the massive craftmoon Isha's Dream, bore witness to the fall of the other ships. At last, the expanding rift reached the hulking vessel, and for a moment it seemed as though the incredibly powerful gellar fields of the ship would repulse the rift, allowing the ship and its precious cargo to escape this horrid fate.

But then the rift got a measure of its foe, expanding to envelope the craftmoon and dropping the 1.3 million eldar on board, save one, into unconsciousness.

Then, its prey captured, the rift snapped back in a blink and sealed.

And where once there was two fleets of massive starships, now there was only silence.

...

Within the warp, however, there was no silence to be had.

In the depths of Slaanesh's realm, in the center of the palace of pleasure and pain, the Dark Prince of Chaos rose from his throne in a rage.

He had felt something he had never before experienced, something he never thought he would.

He felt over one and a half million eldar souls, tied to him since the day of his creation, suddenly vanish, severed from him, lost to his grasp forever.

And even worse, one of those souls had already been promised to him by his oldest foe.

Slaanesh turned his beautiful, disturbing face towards the ceiling (or was it the floor?) and let out a tormented, enraged scream that tore across the length and breadth of the immaterium, birthing then destroying a million daemonettes with its power, and heard by many beings.

In Nurgle's workshop, the eldar Goddess Isha looked up from her curled up position on the floor of a rusted, smelly cage as the scream echoed through the garden of nurgle. Tears spilled down her face as she wept with joy, for that sound could only mean that their plan had worked, and her children would live on regardless of what happened in this reality.

Nurgle himself looked up from his great Cauldron of Plague as the scream reached his ears, and Isha's weeping began. He looked down at his guest/prisoner in concern, then realized what the scream had meant, and began to laugh loudly, a terrible sound to hear.

"Cleverly done, my beautiful fly!" He roared with mirth, flecks of foam filled with a dozen lethal pox flying from his mouth as his diseased form jiggled with glee. "That will put that prancing fool in his place for a few centuries!" Nurgle's laughing spell ended quickly, but as he went back to his work at the Cauldron, the fat beast had an enormous grin on his face.

In other parts of the warp, the other chaos gods heard the scream of their youngest sibling. Khorne, on his great throne of skulls let out a rare, barking laugh at the anguish experienced by his greatest rival. And Tzeentch stopped for a moment in his endless planning to admire the intricacies of the trap that had been laid for the god of pleasure.

Slaanesh's cry was not just heard within the Warp, for such was its power that it bled into the material realm, and even the webway.

Across the Imperium, ten thousand astropaths and sanctioned psykers were instantly driven mad by the Scream of Slaanesh, as it would be called in the years to come, and many, many more Inquisitors and Space Marine Librarians, as well as the aforementioned 'mortal', psykers, would feel its effects.

In the planet of Baal, Chief Librarian Mephiston of the Blood Angels was struck low with pain as the cry pierced his mind. Months later, he would confer on the attack with his fellow Chief librarians, Tiguaris of the Ultramarines and Vel'Cona of the Salamanders, who would both admit to similar episodes. This would incite an investigation by the three chapters, as well as the Grey Knights and the Ordo Malleus, which would cause the destruction of five chaos cults on nine different worlds, the thwarting of an assassination attempt on Chapter Master Tu'shan by the Night Lords, and stopping a massive invasion of the Verifax Sector by a combined force of the Death Guard and Thousand Sons, as well eventually leading to the naming of the 'anomaly' as the Scream of Slaanesh.

Though the cause of the Scream would never be found.

The Farseers of a dozen craftworlds also heard the scream, and many would attempt to find its cause in the twisted web of time. Only the high council of Ulthwe would succeed, and proceeded to spread the story across all the known craftworlds via the Harlequins, who had not seemed all that surprised when told of the events in the far off, unnamed system.

In the Webway, the Dark Eldar felt the brunt of Slaanesh's wrath, as two million of the debased creatures had their souls ripped from their bodies as the dark prince sought comfort for the pain of losing the one and a half million craftworld eldar, with an extra half million added on top for the loss of his promised soul.

To Asdrubael Vect, Lord of the Dark City, this event was little more than an inconvenience, resulting in a mild headache and an annoyance as the two servants who were fanning him while he tallied the loot and slaves of his most recent raid died suddenly, leaving him without a breeze for a few minutes as more servants were summoned.

Of course, he learned later from the Harlequins what had happened, and then he flew into a controlled rage and slaughtered dozens of minor nobles who had irritated him over the millennia before eventually calming in the arms of his dozen courtesans and shrugging off the whole event.

Deep in the farthest reaches of the webway, the eldar god Cegorach heard the faintest echoes of the scream of his oldest rival began to cackle and dance with glee at Slaanesh's rage. When his concerned traveling companion, a giant of a man in tarnished, faded white armor and a curved sabre at his side, asked what had happened, the Laughing God smiled and said, "Just a great plan finally coming together," before laughing again and scampering off, leaving his companion cursing as he tried to keep up.

And far away, on Holy Terra, within the throne room of the God-Emperor himself; the Lord General of the Adeptus Custodes heard a faint, echoing scream of anger and reflexively raised his guardian spear in response to a possible threat. After a moment, he lowered his weapon, sure that it was simply the strange acoustics of the Imperial Palace playing tricks on him again. Then, his superhuman hearing picked up a faint creaking sound coming from the golden throne.

The General wheeled quickly, worried there may have been something wrong with the ancient life-support device, but he saw nothing untoward.

Although…

As he turned, and beheld the skeletal, rotted form of the master of mankind, he could have sworn that the skeletal, naked skull of his Lord...

Well, just for a second, it seemed that the Emperor smiled.

...

A/N

Well, that was massive. This is, I think, the longest chapter of anything I have ever written. A week away from wifi really helps get things done.

Anyway, we've finally reached the crossover part of the crossover. And can I just say, i think that GW designed the warp for use in crossover stories. I mean, it is so perfect (and easy) to use the warp to justify why, for example, a Tyranid Hive-fleet can show up in the outer rim of the starwars galaxy.

In any case,, thank you to all the people and/or things that followed and favourited this story. Feel free to leave a review, follow and fave if you haven't already, and ready yourselves.

For next, there will be blood.

Imperator senatus et populi Romani Dinosaurs!