Rated M for obvious reasons-that-I-don't-feel-like-telling-you-what-they-are!
A feel of Destruction
Victory? What use is a victory? Let me have a battle of annihilation.
-Fleet Admiral Drussos
Unknown Location in Formless Waste
Unknown Time
Magnus swept under the daemon's weapon and cracked the bottom of the Nemesis at its right side of the face. The blow sent the Keeper of Secrets spinning widely with throes of sensations pounding in its skull.
"Feel the power of a Primarch!" he shouted, slamming the tip of the staff into its chest and creating a powerful telekinesis shock wave, sending the daemon shattering through the landscape and reducing them to dust.
Immediately, he began feeling thoughts of pleasure and desires invade his mind as an otherworldly presence oozed over his own. Gritting his teeth, he threw up barriers through powerful memories as anchors and silently recited litanies his father taught him to keep peace in his heart.
A loud shriek cuts through the air and blows aside the dust, revealing the Keeper standing unscathed in a long gorge. Surrounding it were swarms of Daemonettes all skittering and twitching in anticipation of a delightful hunt. Thrusting its twisted sword forward in a howl of euphoria, all the lesser daemons leaped in an orgy of ecstasy at Magnus to feel the sensation of ripping his bones in fragments and carving his skin with their claws.
The small golden eagle statue glowed in light as Magnus struck the cursed earth, causing several spears of twisted stone and metal to sprout from the surface and pierce any fortunate Daemonette. Cries of agonizing pleasure left the throats of these daemons as they indulged themselves deeper into these spears for greater satisfaction, their bodies jerking and quivering in relief.
Others reached Magnus as wave of warp fire suddenly greeted them and seared their exposed skins as their nerves exploded in pure bliss from the intensity of the heat eating away their flesh.
Spinning the staff and shutting off the flow of fire, he shifted his stance and swung his staff to his left, crushing two Daemonettes and squeezing the head of another. Moving quickly, he lifts his staff above him and releases bolts of charged energy as multiple Daemonettes shrieked in surprise glee at the feeling of electrical shock coursing through their bodies and frying it.
He swung around and thrusted the Nemesis forward, displacing the air to his left and crushing several Daemonettes in the zone to unrecognizable flesh blobs as they were compressed.
Leveling his staff at more targets, a spell formed in his lips but became cut off with the sudden feeling of several Daemonettes weighing on his back and whispering crud words of promises and sensations beyond any mortal's imagination while happily cutting away his shields to expose him. He reacted with a swing of his staff to his back to effectively crush them to paste, but a trio of others clung to his to arm and dragged it down. Cursing in several tongues as he tried to stay balanced from the unwanted weight, he felt more Daemonettes cling to his other arm and his body, their forms writhing across his armor and their claws raking in hopes of reaching his soul. Not to mention messing with his psychic link.
One Daemonette leaped into his face and tried clawing into his exposed neck joint but failed to pierce the synskin protecting him under the armor. It instead shoved its chest forward into his face, entrapping his head in between the fold of its four alien breasts with each one wiggling itself seductively. Ignoring the scene playing in front of his face and the suit's sensors reporting the nerve nodes feeling the other Daemonettes clinging to him performing ranges of pleasure such as one using the spikes of his right shoulder pauldron to pierce its stomach and aggressively shifted its body around while another eagerly chewed and clawed on his codpiece.
Snorting in frustration, he raised the power output of his armor, the mini-fusion reactor humming in higher frequency as he desperately tried to raise his right arm holding the staff, his psychic link muddled with the presence of the Keeper of Secrets. Noticing his action, more Daemonettes jumped unto his arm to hold it down but Magnus determinedly continued raising the staff until with a final cry of defiance, he broke his arm free into the air. "I will not be taken by the likes of you!"
Immediately the eagle quickly surrounded itself in a sphere of golden light and exploded outwardly, vaporizing outright the closest Daemonettes and burning away the furthest across the landmass. He sighed in relief at the empty weight on his armor.
His relief is cut short when the Keeper of Secrets immediately rams on top of him and stabs his head. He quickly dodges the sword and smashes the bestial daemonic face with his left gauntlet. Without warning, the three large breasts hanging on its chest start twitching from a spell as they rippled in effect and shifted.
"What the…?" he flinches back in shock and disgust as all three nipples of the Keeper of Secrets abruptly open up to reveal mouths filled with razor-sharp teeth eagerly snapping at his face. Biting his lips in concentration, he summons a golden form of the Imperial Aquila between the daemon and himself. An explosion of light and energy erupts as the daemon is throw high into the currents before Magnus grasps it in his psychic grip and violently slamming it deeply into the landmass, creating a crater over twenty meters long with several deep fissures running doubled the length from the hit point.
Picking himself from the ground while absently checking currents for any Furies thinking him for a weak prey, he's pleased once noticing they're circling over the deep crater where he threw the Keeper of Secrets instead of him or carrying off any surviving Daemonettes. His smile however turns to a frown once realizing that he could still feel the presence of the Greater Daemon twisting around his mind.
An elated cry in a disgusting language catches his attention and sends the Furies in the air screeching in shock and fleeing for safety. From the crater, the Keeper of Secrets clawed its way out with its form marred and mangled from the devastating crash he gave it while drooling over the multiple sensations it was receiving.
Stabbing its sword into the earth, it heaved its chest back and released a powerful sonic scream at Magnus that reminded him of splitting glass and scrapping steel. He reacts rapidly with a force dome to deflect the attack as everything touched by the sound is instantly shattered to pieces, transforming the landscape of the landmass to that of barren.
Digging his boots down, he poured more energy into the barrier as he felt the ground shacking and… rumbling?
He looks down in alarm to see the ground in fact shacking violently and breaking apart. The pressure on his barrier is loosened as the Greater Daemon also notices the phenomenon and screams a perilous cry.
The ground beneath the Keeper of Secrets suddenly erupts as a monstrous mass of flesh and chitin sends the daemon screaming into the air and presents Magnus a view of the new guest.
Rearing at a height taller than a Titan Chassis and longer than a Heavy Frigate, the monster took the appearance of a hybrid between the Terran Amazonian centipede and the Terran Hydrothermal worm in the most horrifying way. Rippling across the skin were rugged plates of thick, sickly grey chitin moving flexibly whenever it twisted its body and slightly exposing the pale skin underneath the armor. Sticking from the sides of the body were short tubes of flesh sprouting tissues-like fans. Where its face would be was instead four thick tentacles covered in thousands of sharp barbs to grab prey while surrounding a large beak mouth filled with layers of jagged-shape teeth and a barbed tongue. Next to the mouth was a pair of large sword pincers sharp enough to pierce titanium and hold the most stubborn prey in its grasp. The one noticeably detail of the creature was the absence of eyes or any senses whatsoever. Magnus cursed once realizing he was in the presence of a predator that stalked the Waste, an Eerie Burrow.
Magnus regarded the Eerie silently as it rose a portion of its body from the ground hissing deeply after the Keeper of Secrets and promptly snatched the screaming Daemon with its tentacles and pierced it with its pincers.
The Daemon's screams turned to shrieks of pleasure combined with terror as the mouth of the Eerie Burrow quickly descended at it and devoured it with a bone-crushing snap as the Keeper of Secrets disappeared in its jaws.
Muffled shrieks could still be heard emitting from the mouth as the Eerie loudly swallowed its food and forced the Greater Daemon down its throat containing rows of sharp bone ridges to rip apart the unfortunate daemon spawn before reaching its stomach to be converted into energy to fuel the large warp beast. A process that would take years to complete. Not to mention the fact the Daemon was still alive along with the rift.
Magnus suddenly felt the air around chill a bit as the Eerie Burrow slowly turned its 'gaze' towards him as it sensed his location. Staring back at the beast, he silently gulped and willed the warp to his side carefully to not draw its attention.
In an instant, the Eerie's tentacles twitched slightly and Magnus opened a hole through the warp.
The Eerie suddenly darted forward faster than something its size should accomplish and smashed into the empty place Magnus just stood as its mouth tasted earth and stone rather than flesh.
Pulling its head from the hole it created and unaffected by the damage, it stared at Magnus who stood several hundred meters from his original position and growled deeply at him. He felt a shiver climb up his spine from growl as it reminded him of the rumbling crash of a waterfall striking bed rocks and the howling gales coursing through a broken canyon merged with ill intent.
Without warning, the Eerie thrusted its head forward and screeched with a raucous sound combined with scrapping boulders and ethereal power, forcing Magnus to summon a dome to filter the cry along with any spit that flew from its mouth and landed on his shield.
Still keeping the shield active, he spun the Nemesis multiple times to gather power and directed the tip towards the Eerie just as it launched itself at him again. A single streak of energy flashed from the tip and exploded in the face of the warp creature, creating a mighty blast and a rapidly expanding sphere of light as the Eerie was thrown back and Magnus teleporting before the violent power reached him instantly.
Magnus felt the air around him shift as he teleported, his vision temporally filled with vibrant hues of colors and whipping winds before replaced with the sight of land as he appeared roughly twenty kilometers east on a mountain from his last spot.
Looking back to where he was, he could see a large shallow crater surrounding the Eerie Burrow as it slowly shook from its daze it suffered from the explosion resulting in much of its face covered in burns and scratches but otherwise unharmed and very pissed. He saw the sign and began running down the mountain faster than any living sentient could hope to accomplish through the power of the warp to put a larger distance between the creature and him once it realized his missing presence.
Minutes past as he ran halfway down the mountain before a shrill cry swept through the air as it finally pinpointed his location and grinding sounds quickly replacing its voice, indicating it had now gone under.
Magnus drew more energy around and him and increased his speed as he left the mountain slopes and pounded through the plains as the grinding neared his presence. He managed to cover numerous kilometers before the face of the mountain exploded in a shower of ethereal granite as the Eerie tunneled its way out into the air and collided with the ground in a titanic crash whiling pulverizing outright anything underneath its colossal size. Its massive body ploughed through the land, leaving a deep trench in its wake before it reared its head back and dug into the earth rapidly and disappeared from view.
Making several leaps across the land to cover more distance, his senses whip in frenzy as he once more shifts the warp around him into a tunnel form and re-positioned himself in time before the Eerie broke through the surface and snap at the empty air once more and tunneled in again.
Running over a large hill, Magnus bolts to the side as the Eerie bursts from the surface and misses him narrowly and enters the ground as he leaps forward with momentum. Covering a greater distance, he jumps into the air and twists around to face backwards just as the Eerie breaks out to catch him and slams a bundle of electrical energy into its face, momentarily frying its senses and causing it to crash solidly on the ground.
Using this opportunity, he spins around and gathers large amounts of psychic energy before smashing his fist into the ground and releasing all the energy at once. Without losing a beat, he continues rushing forward as the Eerie crushes the earth once more instead of him.
The chase continues on for many more minutes until the entire landmass mass begins to rumble in deep echoes as the floating land starts breaking apart with its foundations compromised. The Eerie screeches in rage at the dawning realization of its home now lost for good while Magnus smiles knowing his method worked.
Immediately, he comes to a halt as his sixth sense warns him of the end of the landmass before he could continue running off the ledge and into the warp currents. However much to his surprise, ahead of him and the floating landmass he stood on that was slowly peeling apart was another one three times the size of the current one with countless other smaller landmasses either connected to the main one or suspended above it through unknown means.
Not to mention the very ground he was standing on was being drawn in to the larger landmass while crumbling to pieces with him still on it.
The ground beneath him shattered into hundreds of large shards as the landmass collided on top of the larger one, throwing Magnus off his feet and fall to the ground. Twisting around, he glimpsed a large stone shard fill his vision before darkness obscured everything.
Azrael aggressively grabbed one of the humanoids in the neck with his right hand and smashed the fiend into the floor, pulverizing its collarbone.
In his left hand, his specially crafted Combi-Plasma weapon, Lion's Wrath barked in fire as every bolt shell and plasma shot found its target that lined within the sights of the barrel. It would take two shells and one shot to break through the armor and one of both to effectively kill the xeno underneath it.
Releasing his grip on the corpse, he dodged the swing of another and shoulder-checked the chin of the humanoid before shifting his weapon and fired a shell into its exposed neck, coating his weapon and hand with its blood and innards.
Warnings lit up in HUD as crystalline shards vaporized upon his shield and he twisted around, letting the Lion's Wrath bark fire at more targets until its magazine ran dry. Through centuries of experience, he detached the empty clip and used his minor psychic strength to snap a fresh one from his belt and continue firing uninterrupted.
An inhuman howl came from his left as one of those things charged at him with a sword buried in its ghastly chest and its horrid body marred with deep plasma wounds. Altering his stance, he fired several plasma shots in its legs causing it to stumble before strafing its repulsive body with shells until it swung its deformed right limb in arm's length. Ducking under the swing Azrael crouched down and fired more bolts into its vile face until it forced to cover its face and used the opening to blow out its weakened right leg.
Rolling away from the collapsing thing, he rose to his feet and yanked the Sword of Secrets from its hideous chest before finishing it off with a several bursts to the head.
In a flash, Azrael swung the sword behind and blocked the blade of a humanoid attempting to strike him. In quick succession, he delivered a strong elbow to the xeno and twisted his body around to face it while pivoting of its sword aside with his own before bringing the barrel of his weapon to its face and fired. Swiftly, the helmet of the xeno crumbled from the entry of the shell as the diamantine-tip broke through the armor material and pierced several centimeters of flesh before coming to halt. Four milliseconds ticked by for a pulse signal to travel the fuse after contact to reach the charge in the core. Another three milliseconds went by for the core to prime and detonate its charge after receiving the pulse signal. The entire head of the humanoid exploded in a shower of gore as the shockwave of the shell reduced the cranium to soup and ejected out the surface flesh and bone everywhere, covering Azrael in its viscera and dripping blood.
Sprinting forward past the dead body, he cleaved aside another humanoid in half from the shoulder to the waist without slowly down and blew out the spine of another from behind. "Look out Legion Master!"
He slid to a halt when a Deathwing Knight slams his storm shield in front of the Legion Master without warning and braces from a dark pulse striking the shield in Azrael's direction. The hulking Spartan bears his shield around to the right to block more attacks while Azrael loops around him to the left and fires at the responsible foe. "Lane eleven-zero*!"
The Spartan grunts in affirmative as he twists his shield over his head to the direction and stops more attacks while Azrael slides under his arms. "Lane three-zero, yours!" he growls out.
Azrael aims the Lion's Wrath and fires at two humanoids quickly puts one out of action and forces the other to seek cover or risk death. A shadow falls next to him as another Deathwing Centurion slams his shield down and rakes the field with his Gravis-pattern bolter above his cover, the magnetic field tech of the gun spewing a heavier version of the bolt shell at an outstanding rate overlapping that of a normal bolt rifle.
Suddenly to his right, a fiery psychic form of an ancient armored human on fire flies past him and swoops in on the humanoids roaring in rage as it incinerates those it strikes with a flaming sword or standing near it. Azrael looked back to see an Occult standing behind with his staff glowing in crimson energy and chanting a spell that fueled the current attack sowing chaos amongst the humanoids.
Around him, more and more Spartan's joined the group while others mimicked the action around the chamber as the members of the Deathwing used their heavy Centurion armor and storm shields to provide thick cover while their smaller brothers stood back and suppressed the enemy to prevent them from concentrating their fire on the heavy Spartans.
A whirring built up sounded off of Azrael's left side before a stream of bolt shells screamed through the air and tore apart any humanoids in its pathway. A large black armored Centurion hailing the colors of the Deathwatch lumbers past Azrael and continues firing a portable Heavy Bolter while Agente Ravenor follows closely with his boltpistol out of his holster and accompanied by two other Deathwatch Spartans providing him support.
"Legion Master! We need to break the deadlock the xenos have placed us in!" Ravenor shouted over the noise of fire in the neural-link. "It's only a matter of time before we run out of ammunition!"
"We can't!" He gravely responded. He flinches when the Spartan to his left catches an energy bolt to the shoulder while his shields were down, melting through a portion of the armor. He tore himself from the view to lean around a Deathwing Knight and fire a burst directly into the cranium of a humanoid. "That rift is preventing us from getting any closer to the hallway. Whatever these xenos are using, they're not affected by the malevolence of the warp like us!"
"Emperor-dammit! Merrick, can you see if there is any sort of defenses in this room?"
"Easier said than done!" he exclaimed. "That other guy left the entire network in shambles after activating the Dreadnought. It's a complete chaos in here!"
"But is there any weapon systems or something defensive you can activate?" Ravenor inquired hastily.
"What? You want me to activate the antimatter bomb underneath us?! Have you lost it again, Ravenor?!" he shouted over the link.
"I never said to activate the bomb you digital cog-brain!" Yelled Ravenor back exasperated. "Check for any systems that will protect us in this room and not kill us all!"
"Oh so now we're getting into name calling aren't we, hairless flesh-ball." Retorted Merrick.
"Just. Do. It!"
Huffing in irritation but otherwise complying, Merrick dove back into the trashed system to find the necessary security protocols and programs.
Ravenor cringed back from several crystalline shards splattering across his shields and quickly blew out the arm of a humanoid in retaliation. "Wonder how the fleet is handling the dreadnought? Probably not good at all." He muttered to himself.
[[[[[[[[+]]]]]]]]
Orbit over Curwen
Things could have been honestly better for the Imperial Navy fighting for control of Curwen's aerospace. For one, there would have been the likelihood of not needing to fight against a large rubbish fleet of ork ships or the Covenant of the Mantle trying to take the world from the Imperium. Or against a single, albeit massive ancient, high-tech ship completely wiping the floor with the Imperials.
Unfortunately for the Imperial Navy's day, it had to be the latter.
Crimson colored shields activated to life as countless munitions slammed into the Forerunner Dreadnought in a firework display as the Imperials tried to take out the incredibly dangerous opponent as quickly as possible. The ship however moved undaunted by the firepower and continued firing its phase beams into the Imperial lines.
Donavich gripped the side of the hololith as the sole capitol ship laughably tore through his fleet with just one set of weapon, one! "All ships scatter and assume formations Theta and Loner now! High-grade weaponry authorized and warm up all heavy weapons on standby!"
Complying with his orders, all the ships intact scattered in small groups with a cruiser or two and numerous escorts to support each other while the capitol ships pairing up together and moved forward to take the brunt of an assault and utilize their full arsenal without fear of friendly fire.
"Sacred's Oath and Steel Core, merge your beams with the Pillar of Light's to cover the Photep and the Invincible Reason and their battle groups!" he bellowed in the neural-link as the hull beneath him hummed in anticipation. He waited until one of the ensigns announced the cannon fully charged. "FIRE!"
The prow of the Pillar of Light steadily glowed in a deep cerulean hue emitted from a long turret as the massive twin-linked barrels lifted up and fired a beam of energy. The same action was mimicked by two other Retribution battleships as they fired their own respective Disintre-beams directly into the path of the first beam. Simultaneously hitting each other, the beams merged together to form a much more powerful beam that splayed over the crimson shield of the dreadnought, causing the shields to lose some intensity.
Moving quickly, the Invincible Reason lumbered from its previous position surrounded by eight Battle Barges as its escorts, the Angel of Retribution, Undying Faith, Unrelenting Fury, Vinco Redemptor, Archangel of War, Sins of Hell, Judgment, and the Immortals.
Moving parallel to its sister ship was the Photep and her own six escorts, the Ankhtowe, Scion of Prospero, Kymmeru, Sekhemra, Costenllu, and the Katyeni. Accompanying them was the Infinite Star Rise for added firepower.
Both of the ancient Gloriana battleships moved steadily forward into position as the ship slowly spun its teardrop structures around it in a faster pace as more phase beams launched from the prow and struck the titanic ships.
To the relief of Donavich and the bridge, the shields of the ships held against the unrelenting firepower of the dreadnought that took down one-fourth of the fleet in the beginnings of the engagement.
"Invincible Reason and Photep, launch a full tube spread of torpedoes!" Spat out Donavich in the link. "All other ships, fire a volley of Archer missiles of apiece."
From the view of the bridge, he watched as hatches across the hull opened up to launch several dozens of hexagonal cylinders of fire into the void which was copied by the rest of the fleet as they fired their own payload of missiles into the volley. Thousands of missiles streamed across the empty void as they passed the two forward battle groups and aimed firmly towards the lone dreadnought.
Reacting with extreme precision, thin rays of energies shot from concealed ports in the hull and felled dozens of missiles with each pass while a turbulent of plasma bolts flew from turrets and intercepted countless more of them with accuracy only an AI or something with a high neural input could accomplish. But despite the fact the enemy ship was destroying hundreds of missiles in minutes, thousands more still came through the firestorm and collided with the shield, obscuring its view in a lightshow of explosions.
Squads of cruisers and their frigate companions used the distraction to perform a small FTL jump in slipspace and dropping right next to the dreadnought. The cruisers quickly raked the sides of the ship's shields with their lance and laser batteries while the frigates swarmed across and fired their own weapons, forcing the ship to divert power everywhere in its shields to recompense its loss. And just as quickly as they appeared, the ships jumped right back into FTL before the ship could properly respond to the attack and annihilate them.
Reacting quickly, all the capitol ships fired a volley of Nova shells into the prow and the portside of the dreadnought, pounding the shields with powerful payloads of fusion cores. Reeling back from the fire, the ship responded with waves composed of dozens of protonic torpedoes as they traveled through space faster than aby ordinance the Imperial had in their arsenal and struck the larger ships.
"Evasive maneuvers!" Shouted Kiosk as the ship groaned and shuddered slightly thanks to dampeners in action as the emergency thrusters kicked in to move the large battleship from the path of the torpedoes.
"Captain, three of the torpedoes are locked in our position and will hit us in fifteen seconds!" An ensign spoke from his monitor.
"Raise the shields in the direction and brace for impact!"
Not too soon, two of the torpedoes struck the shields of the starboard side, knocking the shields down to dangerous levels before the last one broke through and smashed into the hull. The hull groaned deeply from the hit as Kiosk grimaced at the wound inflicted on the machine spirit. "Damage report!"
"Decks 49, 50, and 51 in sections C to F have been breached and are currently being vented. Hydra pods B4-B9 have been disabled along with Macrocannons Two and Three." Reported another ensign.
"Seal the breaches and get enginseers to restore the status on those weapons ASAP!"
"Admiral, eight more ships have been lost in the enemy volley and thirteen are venting!"
"Have half of the damaged warships that are still operational pull back and form Kilo battle groups as a last line while the rest place themselves over the planet and release all their transports to the surface. Those unable to function are to retreat to the coordinates behind Nova Prime III for emergency repairs. Coordinate with the rest of the fleet to reform into a Diamond-shield formation," ordered Donavich. "Give a wide-fleet communication for all capital ships to activate their Exterminatus weaponry and ready to fire on my command. Update our ground forces to either seek shelter or evacuate."
Many of the crew including Kiosk gaped in shock at the announcement of the order he placed down but otherwise obeyed and relayed the orders.
"B-b-but admiral!" Kiosk sputtered in disbelief. "If we use that much Exterminatus-grade weaponry this close to a planet, we'll risk collateral damage on the planet with our comrades still on the surface! There wouldn't be a planet left!"
"If we don't, there won't be a planet or a fleet left in this system once it's done!" Retorted Donavich. Staring intently at the hololith, he watched massive energy lances fired from light-material devices shred the Sins of Hell and Katyeni to pieces with ridicules ease and spear the Star Rise in its plasma reactor. Another squad tried to ambush the ship but it quickly responded with its tail hull spinning in different segments before auspex sensors rang crazy with the presence of heavy gravity emitting from the lone ancient ship. The formation of the squad instantly collapsed as each individual ship was caught and pulled apart by one of the natural fundamentals of the Cosmos. The Gloriana battleships quickly fanned out on each side and pounded the ship with their heavy broadsides batteries as their shields continued holding out against the unrelenting power.
"We cannot allow this ship to run rampant in the Imperium with the kind of technology it wields. The results could be very devastating or worse if it escapes functional." The windows immediately polarize from a blinding light as the Star Rise explodes into its namesake. "If we must sacrifice hundreds of thousands to save tens of billions in Segmentum Ultima from this, so be it."
Silence filled the bridge as everyone slowly digested the information they were given. Even though they hated to admit it, the admiral was correct in the assumption that if the ship was to leave this system in one piece, nearby sectors would be placed in danger of this unknown attacking them.
And Imperial Navy policy dictated that should a high-level threat discovered to be spaceborne, it must be eliminated through any means necessary regardless of the cost.
However, any last thoughts of doubt quickly vanished once the teardrops spinning around the ship stopped to a halt and suddenly expanded into skeleton devices and vibrated violently in the magnetic fields. A transparent sphere erupts outwards from the ship and collides with the closest Imperial ships, completely vaporizing the Archangel of War and any escorts nearby to shards and struck the fleet a blow.
Before their eyes, the sphere slammed into the titanic Invincible Reason, devastating her hull to a mangled appearance and crippling her escorts to float helplessly in the void. The Photep however along with her escorts survived through their additional psychic shields implanted in their ships but now otherwise faced the power of the ship alone.
Donavich slammed his fist in pure anger on the panel of the hololith, cracking the glass and causing the holograms to flicker slightly. He was too angry to think properly or feel his hand throb in pain. "ORDER THE PHOTEP AND HER ESCORTS TO RECOVER THE INVICINBLE REASON AND WHAT REMAINS OF HER OWN ESCORTS TO SAFETY! AND HAVE THE FLEET EMPTY THEIR MAIN BATTERIES ON THAT SHIP NOW!"
The crew rapidly threw themselves in their stations at the raging orders of their Star Admiral while Kiosk and the Pillar of Light machine spirit merged their minds deeper together and screamed in a fusion of organic and digital voice at the weapon officers to fire the heavy batteries at their limit.
Nova shells and lance beams swept through the void and collided with the powerful shields of the dreadnought in masked fury as the Photep and her escorts made an emergency jump next to her sister ship and tethered them with energy lines.
Not wanting to let its prey escape, the ship fired scattered volleys of protonic torpedoes at their engines and dug through their hulls with energy beams. The Costenllu buckled as a beam tore through the prow before a massive slipspace portal opens up and allows the group to flee the area.
"All capitol ships, fire!" Donavich shouted in the neural-link.
At once, hundreds of large missiles were fired from their secured pods while high-charged energy beams were fired at dangerous settings. Nova cannons fired specially designed but rare shells that swept through the void carrying their deadly cargo.
The beams were the first ones to reach the dreadnought, the crimson shields rippling in effect as a dozen beams slammed into their target and caused the shields to flicker slightly. The force of the attack was enough to push back the massive ship several meters from its original position before the second wave struck.
Tens of gigajoules of energy blanketed the dreadnought as each shell and missile collided separately and either created unstable nuclear cores or released highly compressed thermal energy at once. The dreadnought rocked violently in the shock wave of the blasts as its shields finally shattered under the strain of the power. Unfortunately despite the carefully firing solution by the Imperial fleet, a good portion of the shock waves failed to be absorbed by the ship and instead traveled straight into the atmosphere of Curwen and reacted.
The first to be affected by the shock waves was the exosphere, the many satellites that orbited the planet in one piece or pieces were rammed off their trajectories and forced into a collision course for the surface of the planet. The thermosphere and the mesosphere were unaffected by the by the unnatural forces but caused the falling satellites to light up into balls of molten metal. The stratosphere became next as entire banks of clouds were completely annihilated from existence and wind currents severed from their pathways. Finally, it entered the troposphere and touched the earth.
Then the destruction began.
Entire swaths of land were instantly flattened from the pressure and any life whether plant or animal were crushed to paste into the ground before they were aware of what was happening Like an expanding ring of destruction, the shock waves traveled their way across the surface, destroying everything in the path. Mountains were grinded to pebbles, valleys buried under earth and oceans emptied of their water as the very air shook from the power that swept through. Here and there, a small town would lie in the pathway and would be smothered from existence or a wandering ork mob unaware of what was coming quickly reduced to a pile of pulp flesh, nothing stopped the destruction.
Then came a city of glass and steel, its presence soaring proudly into the sky and stretching across the horizon. A sign of power and immortality to those who gaze upon it with their eyes.
The outermost part of the shock waves reached first, shattering all the glass panels in the city in one sweep and blowing away empty vehicles. Then the heart of the force arrived before the glass could separate, tearing out the frameworks and crushing the support of countless buildings. Their forms groaning in protest of the treatment as they tipped over in broken pieces in an agonizing slow speed or collapsed in a chorus of twisting metal and crunching stone. Short or tall, all fell under the power of this force as the proud city transformed into a shadow of death and sorrow in a blink of an eye.
Finally, the valiant Imperial men felt it come for them.
Scurrying for their transports knowing doom was coming for them. Machines and weapons were mournfully abandoned except those of high value as men crowded the holds of the crafts to their limit. The old veterans stayed back to accept their fate, choosing to allow the younger a chance to continue their life and earn their honor whilst they had enjoyed theirs for centuries. The engines of the crafts straining to make the multiple journeys back and forth as fast as possible.
Disaster reached them.
Like a vengeful god, the shock wave swatted aside many transports in its path and sent them careening into the ground in blossoming explosions, most still carrying their screaming passengers. Men and machines outside were crushed and left unrecognizable in the coming storm, their screams drowned by the howling of death. None were spared, none were overlooked and none lived.
Farther away, a lone ancient installation stood silently without care in the world as a steady sight of earth crumbling approached rapidly with a stream of multiple gunships speeding for the structure as fast as their engines could go. Faster than a blinking eye, the shock waves easily overtakes the last craft and smashing it into the ground, its form crumpling under the pressure. Hearing the fate of their companion, the rest spur on faster to reach their target before it saw what was approaching.
Another blink, a second gunship is overtaken, its right wing violently ripped off and forcibly sent spinning helplessly into the earth before sharing the fate of its last companion.
Another blink, a third loses control of its stability and is thrusted into the ground, tumbling across the unforgiven ground until flattened in an instant.
Three blinks, the installation's rusty sensors detect the magnitude force approaching and responds with ancient protocols. A massive barrier begins to slowly form a solid shield between the station and the destruction approaching.
Another blink, the first gunships flies through the forming shield and halts instantly before it could redecorate the walls with its remains.
Another blink, a fourth and fifth are quickly reached and slammed onto the ground, leaving behind deep impacts and snuffed explosions.
Another blink, a second and third gunship enter the incomplete barrier safely and halt.
Another blink, a sixth gunship is caught and violently thrown to its doom.
Another blink, a fourth succeeds in entering before the barriers solidifies its existence, the fifth trailing behind fails to see the change in time and collides into the shields.
Another blink, the seventh and the sixth, the last gunship sees its target locked out and abandons the objective, pushing its engines to faster speeds to escape above. But not fast enough.
Two blinks, the shock wave sweeps through and swats the lone gunship from the air, sending it spinning widely without control until the earth greets it.
Another blink, the ancient shield strains and slightly cracks as a great force attempts to crush it as the entire surroundings are ravaged and twisted.
One last blink, the strain disappears as the force passes and the cracks quickly repair as the sensors follow the line of destruction until it begins losing power and finally fades away after its terrifying act.
And in one act, Curwen bled.
I'm back suckers with chapter 14 guys!
You may noticed the fact that this chapter was slightly shorter compared to the ones I usually write: I wanted to make up for you guys for taking to long with the last chapter and leaving you lot ripping your hair out in frustration.
Reviews NOW:
SPARTAN-626: Yeah sorry about taking so goddamn long but hey life isn't perfect. I agree the DE must suffer absolute pain buuut unfortunately not all will get that fate. The Emperor will be making a scene next chapter and will kick ass, so don't worry if he doesn't show up to dominate the battle. The next chapter will finish up Curwen and continue with the good-old plot. You can say their reaction will be...unpleasant. As for how the hell the Spartans got to that position, for one none of the Spartans have their sex drives removed (else why would you join them if it involves removing something so great?), so discipline and focus keeps it down acceptable levels (which creates the challenge being able to seduce someone with that kind of mentality). Plus with the fact that female Spartans of the third legion can be considered exotically beautiful combined with psychic, even tough men break unless they're gay or castrated. Yes Spartans can have families such as the Ultraspartans or Salamanders while the Iron Warriors pretty much look down on intimacy as "waste of time".
MEleeSmasher: the Imperium isn't going to take any Forerunner tech, they're going to instead melt it down to scrap and subject it to Exterminatus, twice. You'll see soon what they'll be doing.
OMAC001: its not the Didact, rather another exclusive Forerunner we know of (hint: he copycatted Horus from 40k)
...
Did Magnus survive the crash and hopefully avoid being eaten by that over-sized earthworm? Was the Dreadnought defeated and did the fleet survive to regret their decision?
Find out next time on Galaxia's Wars!
Memor ut totus decisiones ferre per consequens secundum quod sumitur.
Don't forget to Favor, Like and post Reviews for criticism and fuel for my writing!
Here's a sneak peek of what could possibly occur in the future of Galaxia's Wars.
Not however it can change, but this is still a tatse of the future!
Silently shifting through the dense shrub of the forest, Major Domo Val 'Oramee led his small decurion of Sangheili scouts as they carefully swept their surroundings for anything.
The old Sangheili watched his every angle as he moved, his experienced eyes taking in all details he observed and his sharp ears picking up all noises in the forest that would alert him of an unknown. The younger scouts meanwhile behind him struggled to observe the same thing he could see and simply inspected the obvious rather the specific.
Gazing the ground intently, a glint flashed in his eyes as he quickly notices a very faint imprint in the soil nearly covered in leaves. Had Val not been an experienced scout himself and not gone on dozens of missions similar to this, he would've easily missed this detail or pass it off as belonging to the wildlife here. But he knew better than to overlook it.
Steadily lifting his right arm to present two fingers, the decurion silently stopped as he cautiously stepped forward and kneeled next to the imprint. Gently swiping aside the leaves for a better visual, he carefully scrutinized the mark, taking in everything he saw and comparing them to what he knew. Val prodded the imprint gently for confirmation before mussing over his discovery: something else was in this area with them at this moment.
Rising up to his hooves, he flagged down two fingers followed by three and slowly moved it in a circle. Silently nodding at his orders, the young Minor Domos spread out in a loose line and readied their weapons as Val led the group forward.
The decurion managed to cross around ten hoof steps before a faint creak reaches Val's ears.
He swiftly whipped around and fired three bolts from his energon rifle into a dense tree, shattering the calm silence of the forest. The rest of the decurion snapped into battle positions and aimed their weapons at the tree.
A few agonizing planesecs passed before they are rewarded with the body of a lightly armored Human tumbling from the branches of the tree and impacting the ground. Two vapor holes could be seen on his chest and one where his visor would be.
One of the scouts cautiously approached the corpse and prodded him with his weapon to confirm his death before giving a 'clear' sign.
In a silent manner, the decurion regrouped together once more and huddled around the corpse as Val himself inspected the Human for any intel.
"How is there a Human scout here already?" One of the scouts hissed in nervousness. "I thought intelligence marked the invasion fleet to be only several cycles from reaching the edge of the system."
"He could possibly be part of a vanguard force sent ahead to probe our defenses we placed on this unclaimed world to halt the invasion." Another scout suggested. "It's not unheard of them to do so."
"True but that's with smaller fleets, not with a massive one like the one currently heading for us!"
"Don't you mean one of the massive ones?" A third scout corrected. "You recall there's others heading through other systems where our brothers are going to face them."
"I heard that the Human Emperor is personally leading main invasion with most of his sons." Whispered another.
"That's just a rumor."
Unnoticed to them, Val shifted through a holographic device on the Human's wrist before his ears picked up a new sound and briefly looked up. "It now begins…" he murmured to himself.
The scouts hushed themselves and strained to hear what their Major said. "What?"
Val simply stood up straight and pointed directly behind them in the air. Following his aim, they all turned around and felt their breath stifle in their throats at the sight.
High above in the violent-colored sky, fiery streaks of fire could be seen slowly descending from the heavens, their numbers reaching in the tens of thousands and seemed to be everywhere.
"What…are they?" A scout hesitantly asked.
Val didn't answer at first, instead choosing to step forward and stare intently at the streaks of fire. "Drop pods."
"Drop-pods?" A scout skeptically asked before turning to panic. "You mean the same ones the Humans tend to use to land directly on our heads in a battle?!"
"Yes." Val answered to the younger scout. "All of you get ready, war has finally reached this world."
As if fate decided to hammer his words, an echoing explosions vibrates through the atmosphere as a large, fragmented warship collapses through the sky and crashes into the earth, releasing a blinding light.