Amaron hated travelling in the warp. It made him sick to his stomach. Not just the physical feeling of nausea that travelling in another dimension brought with it but the sense that when you travelled through it, you were somehow dirtied. It was as if his soul was coated in a thick layer of slimy oil that was refused to come out. The warp was not a place for humans, of that he was certain.

Grimacing and swallowing down the bile that rose in his throat, the Inquisitor steadied himself and gazed over the bridge of his flagship, The Emperor's Hammer. The ship spearheaded a strike force of more than a hundred cruisers and other capital ships, carrying over a million souls. If Amaron was wrong, they would all die today.

"Sir, are you alright?"

"Yes, yes." Amaron irritably waved away the concern with his armoured gauntlet.

No. No, he was not. He was tired. Old and tired. While his genetically modified body was still strong as steel his mind was getting weak. After more than four hundred years serving humanity, Amaron had grown tired of the bloodshed, weary of the constant warfare, burdened by the many sacrifices. Soon it was time for him to finally rest.

Corruption came in many forms and Amaron knew them all. He could see the darkness in the eyes of his fellow man before it even reached their mind. He knew which whispers would lead the loyal astray and which thoughts were more dangerous than a loaded gun. He had stared evil in the face and emerged victorious over and over again. Now, in the end, it was with some satisfaction that he now knew he would soon pass his final test. The most dangerous kind of corruption had been denied a foothold in his soul. And it was not some daemon, not an enemy you could fight with ships and armies. It was the darkness inside himself.

He had seen it countless times, how indomitable champions of mankind had fallen to their own arrogance, how at the end, they had failed to turn their sharp eyes inward and draw the line where their servitude was finally at an end. Pride, honour and zealous devotion made it so that many could not accept it when their time was over. And through that door, that crack in their armour, corruption could slip in and eat everything they had once fought for from the inside out. Amaron was determined to slam that door shut and spit into the face of corruption one last time. He knew when he was done.

But before he could finally rest, he had one more thing he had to do. He had to murder one little Eldar girl.

His destination, the planet the explosion of light had originated from, lay before him. Once a thriving farm world, full of abundant fields, it had been home to millions of humans. Now they were all dead and the planet had gone dark. Or to be precise, half of it had. As if it was split right down the middle, the side of the planet that was turned towards the star was bathing in a brilliant light, playfully weaving up into the atmosphere. The other half was dark and smoky, like a barrel of boiling oil, bleeding dull hazy fumes high into space.

"What the emperor's name is that?" Amaron's second in command gasped in horror.

"We're going to find out." Amaron pressed down a button on his console.

"Scan that planet for warp shadows. Tell me what's down there." The inquisitor's hand were clenched inside his armour. Cold sweat was running down his back.

For a long time, only silence came back.

"Command to psyker section. I repeat, tell me what you see."

When he responded Amaron could hear that the man on the other end was shaken to his core. He didn't need to hear the man's words to know that he was in the right place.

"Sir, I...we...we've never seen anything like it before."

That was all Amaron needed to know.

"Weapon's room, give me a torpedo."

"Multistage cyclonic torpedo ready for deployment," came the crackling response back.

"Fire."

The massive torpedo raced towards the planet. Once it struck the first stage would ignite the atmosphere in a thermonuclear reaction, turning the whole world into one big radioactive fireball. The second stage would bury deep into the planet's mantle before detonating, cracking the surface open like an egg and spilling the molten interiors of the planet out onto the surface. The third charge travelled even deeper, into the planet's molten core where the explosion would destabilize the very centre of the planet, tearing it apart from the inside out. Nothing would survive the combined impact. Normally a single one of these torpedos would be more than enough. But Amaron took no chances this time. He had brought hundreds and would not stop firing until he was certain the threat to humanity was neutralized.

"Prepare a second torp-"

A brilliant spear of red light shot out of the darkness and the torpedo exploded mid-flight, well before reaching its target. For the briefest of moments, the space around the source of the beam shimmered, revealing the silhouette of an Eldar Void Stalker.

"Eldar, I knew it. All ships, target that ship and fire."

A barrage of deadly fire split the night in two. But when the dust settled there was no wreckage, no debris signalling a hit.

"Keep firing those torpedoes. They can't hide forever."

But as the fourth planet-killing torpedo yet again exploded prematurely Amaron had to reluctantly admit that he wasn't so sure. The captain of that Eldar ship seemed to predict his every move, always appearing from the direction where his ships had the worst angle of fire. Again and again, he fired all he had until his weapons systems glowed red without scoring a single hit. At first, he waited for the Eldar ship to come close enough to retaliate but the Void Stalker seemed to have no interest in firing on the imperial ships, content with only providing point fire support against the torpedoes. This meant it could keep its distance, making the hunt even harder. It was obvious the ship was stalling for something, and it was working. Amaron had to change tactic.

"I'm tired of playing this game. Carpet bomb the entire area. Let's clear the way for the torpedos."

At once all hundred imperial cruisers unleashed swarms of plasma missiles. Soon after, the space in front of the imperial lit up with a thousand artificial suns. With a satisfied grin, Amaron smashed his armoured fist into the console.

"Got you, you bastard. Fire the next torpedo! Now!"

This time, finally, the torpedo flew unchallenged towards the planet. Ten seconds, then it would all end. Amaron held his breath. Nine. Eight. Deep down he had always hoped it would not come to this. Seven. He really liked that little girl. She was funny, smart and loved her people. Six. And she had been upfront and straight with him. Never tried to fool him. Five. Such a shame that he had to kill her. Three. Two. One.

One last beam of red light stabbed out into the darkness, obliterating the torpedo just as it was about to hit the atmosphere. The debris burned harmlessly in the atmosphere. But that angle, it was impossible, it seemed like the shot had come from...unless. Of course. There was one location where they could still hide.

"All engines full reverse!"

Of all the people on the bridge, only Amaron was not surprised when the Void Stalker decloaked just in front of his ship, so close that you could throw a ball between the two ships. His com screen flickered, suddenly filled by a huge Eldar man, clad in what looked like beast furs and reptile skins.

"I commend you on your skills in battle, human. You're a worthy opponent. But now it seems our hunt has come to an impasse."

Amaron could see the Eldar ship powering up its heavy weapons. At this range, both ships could annihilate each other in the blink of an eye. All over the delicate solar wings, arrays of disruption cannons were angling themselves straight at Amaron's flagship. So the reports have been correct, the Eldar now deployed disruption cannons on their spacecraft. Shields and armour were useless against these weapons, which ripped apart reality itself to form miniature warp breaches inside their target. The Eldar ship in turn, which relied heavily upon its cloaking for defence would be cut to pieces by his heavy weapons in seconds. Not to mention that the destruction of one of the ships would most certainly take the other down. The ships were like two boxers standing head to head, each with armed hand grenade inside their glove. It didn't matter who struck first.

"What do you say, shall we sit and talk this out like men? Or shall we die together, human?"

"There is nothing to talk about, Xeno. You have but one ship and I have a hundred. You are all alone. Yield or die."

"That's my wife and daughter down there on that planet. I don't know what your business here is but even a human must understand that I will not stand down."

Although he didn't move a muscle, Amaron was shocked to hear this. The Eldar was sending people down there? Did they know what awaited them? Smoke and shadow accompanied by hunger so ravenous even daemons ran from it. But none of that mattered. Amaron hadn't come here to talk, his mind was already made up. Still, grudgingly he responded with the briefest of nods. This enemy, at least, was a man he could respect.

"I will give you a warrior's death then."

But before he could give the order to fire the exodite laughed, a booming fearless laugh that echoed on the bridge.

"I like you human! But I am not ready to meet my ancestors quite yet. Besides, it seems like our hunt isn't quite over yet."

The exodite warrior bowed and the com display died. His ship instantly re-cloaked and started to slip away. But before Amaron could give the order to pursue the alarms started screaming.

"Captain!"

Between the imperial fleet and the planet, a webway gate suddenly erupted with light. Amaron swore, he should have known there must have been one nearby. In his urgency to get the job done he had missed securing the area. Soon the gate started to convulse like it was turning inside out. Wider and wider it expanded, blooming like a bleeding flower, spilling out the warp into all directions. What looked like the tip of a great silver spear slowly pierced through the void, swarmed on all sides by glittering Eldar voidcraft, like birds flocking to a tree. A vast drop formed vessel of silver and bone slowly started to emerge from the gate, brimming with blooming crystal biodomes and flashing solar sails. Amaron could not help but to gape at the spectacle.

"A whole damned craftworld. A small one but still, I've never seen one this close before."

The com display flashed angrily again and the image of a red-haired Eldar woman filled the screen. Her body was wrapped in fluttering pieces of white cloth and her face heavily painted making her look like a voluptuous butterfly. Her eyes, however, were burning with wrath. And if you took your eyes off her figure and studied her clothes you could see that the white was splashed with red.

"To human fleet: That ship and all the souls on it are ours. You and your kin have struck without provocation against me and mine, fired the first shot in the back against those alone in the night. A hundred against one, that was your boast, was it not? Well, we have come to even the odds. So take your band of ruffians and turn tail like the cowards you are before I turn you all to ashes!"

She spat the last words through gritted teeth, a visage of disgust on her face. All around him people glared wide-eyed at the scantily clad apparition that filled the screen. But Amaron knew better, for he knew that face.

"Don't you dare to try to take the high road on this, witch," he roared back, pointing at the planet below. "A whole world down there is dead. Millions of lives gone and here you are, shielding the murderer. I have come to avenge them and make they did not die in vain. And don't think I don't know who you are, blade breaker. Your pretty face does not fool me. Tell me this Eldar, wasn't all life supposed to be sacred?"

At his words, Ikaria visibly flinched.

"Who told you those words?"

"The same person whom I suspect murdered all those people down there."

There was a long pause and the pair stared at each other. Finally, the Eldar spoke again.

"I do not deny the crimes committed here. But the criminal is ours even if the crimes committed have been against your people. My dearest friend is down there as we speak, trying to put an end to this. In the name of peace, will you please let us deal with this matter? I beg of you."

The Eldar maiden fell to her knees, hands clenched in front of her, head down. Now it was Amaron's turn to flinch. Never before, in four hundred years, had he even heard an Eldar so much as say the word 'please' to a human. This, what he was witnessing now, an Eldar commander on the floor, begging, was unheard of. Yet, once again, it didn't matter.

"No."

"Then you leave me no choice." As she rose again, the beautiful maiden radiated sadness, her elegant posture slumping just a tiny bit. "I wish it didn't have to be like this."

"For what it's worth, neither do I."

The screen flickered and died.

Seconds later, swarms of Eldar void stalker battleships raced towards the imperial fleet, their silhouettes blurring into the night as the hallucination fields powered up. The tactical display showed how they moved into position, surrounding the imperial fleet on all sides. Amaron sighed. The blade breaker had been right, this was such a waste. He had hoped he would die fighting real evil, not in a political conflict like this. Yet there could be no retreat now, the path forward was clear.

While Amaron, as a human, mostly dealt with the Eldar armed forces or diplomatic corps he knew the craftworld housed mostly civilians, women and children. Those were now his only remaining target. When fighting the Eldar, the imperial doctrine was to use overwhelming firepower and area denial to box in the enemy fleet in and draw them into a close quarter battle of attrition, where the fragile Eldar ships were no match for the imperial behemoths. But this tactic assumed the Eldar were outnumbered and forced to adopt their tactics thereafter. That was almost always true. But not today. As the cloaking Eldar voidcrafts vanished one by one from the tactical display Amaron knew that today he was as much prey as hunter.

The lightning-fast Eldar vessels would weave in and out of sight, out of range of his heavy weapons, picking at his fleet like a flock of crows. He would hunt them but they would always slip away. Slowly his fleet would get pulled out of position and torn to shreds. Fighting this many Void Stalkers at once, where they could continuously support each other, would be like chasing shadows. Shadows with fangs and claws. Amaron knew that and would not fall into the trap. If there was one reason the dwindling Eldar still remained alive in this galaxy full of things that all wanted them dead, it was their fleets. In space, if nowhere else, they still remained unmatched. Even with a hundred capital ships, he would never be able to position his fleet for orbital bombardment against a force like this.

But all was not lost, for the craftworld, the reason his enemy could masse this many ships, couldn't hide. Now that the fleets were committed, there was nowhere for the massive glittering vessel to run. He had to make the Eldar pay such a high price for their lives that they would never dare use a craftworld offensively again. Butcher their precious few civilians en masse. Burn their children and take their future away from them.

Amaron swallowed hard. He faith still held firm, for he knew what he was doing was for the good of humanity. But still. One life was bad enough but this. Destroying a whole world. He had really hoped he would not go to face the emperor drenched in the blood of little children. Even if it was xeno children. Images of a cheeky little Eldar girl flashed through his mind, grinning mischievously up at him. His old heart ached inside his chest. Even if he succeeded the Eldar would make him pay a dear price. How many of his brother's would he send to their deaths on this day? How much death was too much?

Did he really have to do this?

"Perhaps-"

But then the inquisitor's bit his tongue as he remembered those eyes. Black as night, yet blinding to everything else. He looked at the planet down below, where the dark side boiled with shadows just like the ones he has witnessed before.

Those eyes had held no mercy. Amaron had to respond in kind. This had to end today.

"All ships: Target the craftworld. Make sure none survive."

"Sir, cyclonic torpedoes will not be effective against ships. And at this range, none of our other weapons will be effective against a vessel of that size."

The Inquisitor glared at his second in command. When this was over he would have to have a talk with the man about stating the obvious during times of crisis. The man cowered under Amaron's stare.

"Then close the distance and engage them at point blank range. Tell the ships to target the biodomes and civilian areas first."

"Yes, sir! But if I may ask, what about the planet? The Eldar are launching landing crafts."

"I'll see to that personally this time," Amaron grabbed his communicator.

"Space marines, the time has come for you to fulfil your oaths! Prepare for ground assault! For humanity!"

Author's note: Thank you to everyone who's still reading this story despite the infrequent and inconsistent updates. It might take time but I promise that I will eventually finish it. Not many chapters left now until we reach the end.