The ragged collection of soldiers, human and xeno, marched down the thin metal ventilation tube, some having to carry their wounded comrades with arms around backs, some lugging whatever bullet belts, grenade crates, and heavy guns they could get their hands on before they were expelled from their base. Ultramarine Astartes, frightened by the appearance of the four colossals, carried in their bigger arms the largest equipment, with artillery cannons, rocket launchers and gatling turrets adding weight to their already hefty steps.

Space Marine Company Captain Markus Kalad rushed through the crowd, flanked by his Librarian and the second and first Lieutenants of his force.

"I want a head count within the next minute," He spoke to his first, who already began sprinting down behind.

"Inventory within half an hour," his second went after the first.

With a simple head nod, a passing group of Astartes took that as their cue to join Kalad's band, which marched past the mix of green helmed guardsmen and blue space marine unimpeded, traffic moving out of their path like waves against a hundred meter tall boulder.

The Human crowds eventually gave way to the xeno sides; The Tau used drones to hover their equipment in utilitarian boxes, but grabbed very small amounts of gear. They relied on their mobile assembly drones to fabricate weapons on the fly from base material they had collected. The stout engineering earth caste tapped away at their green glowing tablets, creating build orders and going over damage statistics. They froze at the space marines stomping by. Fire warriors kept their guard up, and eyed the marines, rifles an inch from facing them.

But the marines ignored them, their destination lying past them. The hall ahead started to be filled with a mix of the two xeno races; Eldar aided wounded Tau on their feet, yet the unwounded kept to their respective lanes for the most part. The Eldar side had no equipment aside from whatever they had in hand, but this was because whatever they needed could be sung out of the warp, or whatever stood in for the warp on this world.

The crowd in front of the Space Marines gave way to another retinue that was approaching them; Farseer Talrys' cape billowed as she stepped towards them with a clatter of her spear against the steel ground.

"Astartes," She spoke with exhausted contempt.

"Farseer," Kalad returned. The rough Captain stopped his march. A Tau approached from behind the Farseer, meeting Kalad's height in a battlesuit reserved for the Commanders of his race, "Commander."

At the sight of his brothers itching to pull the triggers of their guns, Kalad cut to the chase. "I'm here to call for a truce," he said, the heads of his battle brothers swivelling to meet him in surprise.

"Terms?" Talrys didn't even hesitate to think of the offer, most likely having already foresaw its coming.

Kalad narrowed his eyes, "They die before the truce ends."

"Agreed," The Farseer didn't need an elaboration on the entities in question, "the Tau have already made a pact with my people, their ethereal lost to the colossals."

The Tau commander half bowed in confirmation, the hydraulics of his suit whirring slightly.

"Wait!" A voice called from behind the Space Marines. Imperial General Ignatov rushed towards the gathering, his retinue of Kasrkin Commandos pushing through the xeno crowds aggressively to reach them, "Wait! What is going on?!"

"A rare event," Kalad assured. Working with xenos was extremely taboo in the imperium, in some cases a high crime.

The General pulled the irritated space marine down to his level by the collar. "You're not seriously considering cooperating with the xenos?" he spoke through gritted teeth.

"Calm yourself, it's happened before, and under supervision of the Astartes it can happen again," Kalad brushed away the general's hand, and returned to face the xeno leaders, "What did you mention of the ethereal?"

Ethereals were typically the true leader of the Tau, and if they were alive and to be rescued, there's no knowing if they would honor the truce.

"Aun'O Lud was still in the barricade up above when the retreat was cut off," The Tau Commander's voice spoke through a microphone on it's suit.

The Farseer locked eyes with fellow psyker Quade, "Do you sense it too, Librarian?"

Quade closed his eyes and gripped his staff, focusing on the feeling he had since he began trudging through the dark tunnels. "They've been captured…" He opened his eyes and faced his superior, "As were the men in the base."

This knowledge weighed heavily on the minds present; tales of the imperium's own xeno dissection by the Magos Biologis filled their imaginations with gruesome fates, with images of guts and chest cavities torn open...

The First Lieutenant came sprinting through, feet clambering against the ground, "Sir, we've grabbed four astartes platoons on our way out, ten for the guardsmen."

Kalad did the math on the top of his head, "Which brings us short of a thousand men."

"Half a thousand for us," The Farseer spoke to the shock of her seer council. "A quarter for the Tau," the Commander stared at her, not expecting that.

Her underlings didn't approve of the hastily given vital information, "Farseer!"

"Be quiet!" Talrys snapped at them into silence.

"We had all our armies a quarter-way to their prime," Ignatov undid his collar, sweat beading down his forehead, "and we didn't even stand a chance!"

The vents in the Astartes power armor powered up, working to siphon out the built up heat from the occupants within.

"Cooperation is the ally we have now," The Tau spoke, his own vents blowing out air. "These...titans, aren't invincible. Their ferocity betrayed their fear."

"The Tau is right," The Farseer restrained herself from sealing off from the hot air with her helmet, deeming it unbecoming, "I felt their fear even as they smashed my company to bits."

Another set of footsteps came running at them. "Oh what now!?" Ignatov exclaimed.

"Sir!" It was a techpriest; the only enginseer that had managed to fall into the vent, "we must find an exit immediately!"

Kalad didn't take warnings from the machine cultists lightly, and already fingered the trigger of his bolter, "What is it, Techpriest?"

"The temperatures are climbing rapidly!" The Techpriest's mechanical third arm displayed a holographic screen, digits climbing by the tens in fahrenheit.

"If I'm not mistaken," He pulled diagrams of various human and xeno ships, highlighting the large pipes that moved throughout them, "the structure we are in is a thruster exhaust system!"

Kalad knew the strategy well, when he had to deal with boarding parties trying to find places to hide in starships he would be left in charge of...

His face hardened, "They're trying to burn us out."

"Why the hell is it so hot?" Adam asked, tapping the tips of his fingers against the clear plastic container. The tiny occupants were huddled together, staring up at him.

"I set the thermostat to max to flush those fuckers out," I swept up a mound of tiny corpses into the garbage can. "You mind giving us a hand?"

Me, Andrew, and Eric were hard at work; I swept up the loose bits and pieces, Andrew mopped the stains, and Eric broke off whatever they had actually bolted to the ground with a flathead screwdriver, working at it with a hammer like a chisel. A collection of shattered turrets, ripped up walls and unused artillery cannons piled up in his garbage bag.

"Nah," Adam opened the plastic wrap off the beef burrito he had microwaved, "I'll just pay for the new TV. You guys want some?"

"No thanks," I sneered.

"I wasn't talking to you."

Adam had a plate and a butter knife that he used to saw off two pieces that he dropped in the tupperware of both armies- the alien tans and the human greens.

The tan leader- I gathered it to be the robed one with the staff- inspected the food, the rest of their company watching them closely. The soldiers mirrored the leader when they retracted back from the pile of loose meat and cheese.

The greens weren't as unyielding. All but the red robed figure drew tiny combat knives, and used them as utensils to pick and monch on the food eagerly.

"Damn, these ones are hungry," Adam eyed the greens closely.

That scene reminded me of something in the back of my head; the sounds of voices in the vacuum cleaner. I grabbed the red canister Eric had abandoned, wheeled it to the couch and clicked the lid clamps off.

"Something's happening!" A tiny voice muffled through the plastic waste collector. "Ready yourselves Guardsmen!" Another voice shouted, which should have given me a heads up when I twisted and turned the lid open; a barrage of laser and bullet fire erupted out, stinging the exposed skin of the arm that protected my face.

"Argh!" I hissed in pain, and slammed the lid back on. Red sores collected along the appendage, already forming into tiny bumps, as if it was attacked by a swarm of wasps.

"They're majorly pissed with us," I left to grab some ointment from the kitchen.

In the tupperware filled with the surrendered Guardsmen, a Cadian private poked at food he collected in his helmet with his knife, "this isn't that bad."

"Beats the usual corpse-starch rations," Another one that chewed away at his meal spoke through a filled mouth.

Another Guardsman pressed his face against the clear plastic barrier towards the vacuum cleaner, "Did you see weapons fire leap out of that machine?"

"There's nothing we can do for them," A guardsman spoke cynically, and sat with his arms around his knees; a recently promoted Major who had manned the main terminals in command.

A corporal sat in the corner. A golden eagle necklace dangled from his clasped hands in prayer with closed eyes behind it, "May the emperor guide our feet to safety from the maw of the xeno, and the roots of the chao-"

"The emperor doesn't even see us!" The Major snapped. He leapt to his feet, "I heard the astropath speak to the commanders, we're out of his reach!"

"How dare you!" The Corporal's eyes went wide with offense. "Blasphemy!"

The Corporal balled his fists and flew into the Major, hitting his superior square in the jaw. The Major locked an arm around the Corporal's head and pummeled his chest, knocking the wind out of him and forcing the two to the ground.

Three guardsmen on the sidelines dropped their food and grappled the two, and pulled them apart, still sending kicks at each other.

"I was there too," The Guardsman who sat towards the vacuum spoke up, a look of guilt suddenly overtaking his features. All eyes moved to him, "when the battle was already starting, I read through the astropath's personal record. It said we were disconnected from the Imperium- and free from the grasp of chaos."

"Look where we are!" The Corporal screamed before taking a breath. "This is the work of the dark gods themselves!"

He pointed to the Colossal sitting on the couch, opening the hatches of thrown tanks, the crews killed by bouncing around in their steel cages; their bodies tumbled out one by one into a garbage bag.

An electronic voice spoke up, "no, it's not."

Eyes were drawn to the single techpriest that had surrendered with the group. This one had an extra augmentation than his other enginseer brothers; a DNA extractor with its own built in sequencer, able to analyze samples accurately.

"I sampled a piece of the colossal's epidermal DNA when his hand touched us," A needle poked out of the augment in question. "It is Terran."

The Major jolted his shoulders out of the hands of his underlings, "A mutant?"

"No," the group huddled together, whispering to avoid being heard by their captor, who was chowing down on the leftover burrito on the couch in front of them.

"His genes are the purest strain I've ever come across, no impurities by cosmic radiation, divergent evolution, or immaterium meddling," the techpriest eyed the colossal, face stained with food particles. "From what I can tell, not a single member in his family history has even set foot in space."

The Corporal's eyes started going wide, "But doesn't that mean…"

"We're on holy Terra itself," the Major finished.

The private took it further, "One that has not even seen the emperor or the Aether."

"But what are these colossals?" A Sergeant asked.

"Hypothesis?" The techpriest's mechanical red eye flickered with various statistics, record pulls, and gene markers. When nothing came up that could explain anything, he concluded something outside his realm of expertise, "They are not the ones abnormally sized."

The guardsmen eyed their surroundings after that. They darted between the various oversized objects littered throughout the battlefield, as the colossals made use of them…

Like a regular home. "Emperor's heel…"

They sent out probes through every vent; the techpriest's illuminating servitor skulls flanked the Tau's scouting drones, the white and tan machines covering more ground in the maze-like tunnels than they would have alone, splitting off into various turns and winding vents. They skirted close to the plastic bars of the vents on the floors of the upstairs bedrooms and bathrooms, kitchen, the basement, and the front hall occupied by the colossals.

They avoided rotating fans and the source of the incoming heat; what they believed to be the engines of a powerful ship. Eventually, a skull servitor hovered along a slitted door, one that was emitting fresh cold air.

The techpriest went through the mappings, baffled by the layout, and approximated something between a hydroponic lab or a coolant intake.

Either way, it was enough for the Ultramarines.

"Move! Move!" Kalad waved down the line of soldiers; of Tau, Eldar, Human and Astartes. The entire ragtag coalition was on the move.

Fire warriors attempted to support their human counterparts, only for many to smack away their hands, too focused on not joining those trampled in the cramp environment. Their twisted bodies dotting the trail like bread crumbs, one group running ahead of the entire army to avoid certain death…

In vain.

"AAAAA!" The front runners screamed all the way down a hole they hadn't spotted in the darkness, a crash cutting their voices off forever.

"Mind the gap, Astartes!" Kalad's legs sprang him forward and over the hole without effort, "Throw the Guardsmen over! Those ahead keep pushing!"

Two Ultramarines formed a checkpoint at the start of the hole, grabbing and tossing guardsmen and Tau alike over the end to continue their run, letting the occasional physically superior Eldar and battle brother go through and make their own leaps.

The Techpriest picked himself off of the ground with his staff, making room for the next toss. "Two hundred meters!" He blared through the tunnels, audio at full volume.

Without his helmet, Kalad felt the heat climb rapidly, the smaller members of the army feeling it through their boots, blistering their feet. The Farseer, his marines and his Librarian sprinted with him at the spearhead of the force.

"There!" Talrys pointed to the incoming panel with her spear, "Light is shining through!"

At that, Kalad unrestrained himself, his body shrinking the distance at his full speed rapidly, locking a hand on his elbow and aiming forwards with his armored shoulder.

SMASH!

The Space Marine had torn through the dead end, shattering it under his accelerated weight and sending him spinning in the air. The wind whistled against his body. Snowflakes disintegrated into water against his hot armor. And then gravity pulled him down. His body broke through the surface of the snow- but he didn't stop falling until he was in a hole a good twenty feet.

The Farseer, Librarian and Tau Commander reached the end afterwards. The general took half a minute to catch up with them, only to join them in gaping at the sight before them, "What in the Warp…"

Massive wooden walls dominated the world before them, a tree the size of a small mountain blanketed in snow towered over monolithic objects that littered the view, all the while giant flakes of snow fell from the sky aggressively…

They had caught the backyard during dawn, in the middle of a blizzard.

Backpack thrusters roared as Marines took flight to hover down to their Commander, buried under a mound of snow. The sprinting coalition had been forced to stop, but received a reprieve from the ice cold air tempering the boiling hot metal of the vent tubes.

The two hovering marines grabbed both sides of Kalad, and lifted him up to the exterior heat exhaust vent above them, which had been closed up for the winter.

Kalad eyed the techpriest that had caught up with the front, "Thruster exhaust system…?"

"The proportions threw my calculations off," the techpriest pulled forth a tablet, relabeling data and running some numbers, "It was a standard ventilation system, but the heat their colossal forms required no doubt would have boiled most of us alive."

Ignatov peered over to see the three body deep hole Kalad had made, "Look at how deep that snow is!"

"There's something wrong with it," Kalad observed; at the levels he had fallen down, he should have hit a stable compact of ice.

The techpriest plucked the answer out of the air with his mechanical arm; a snowflake the size of his palm, "It's not just the giants, everything is big here…"

Kalad turned towards his temporary allies, "How far can your armies make it through this snow?"

The Farseer peaked into the future using her prescient abilities; she watched her army, as graceful as it was, continuously fall under snow, "If the top was stable, it wouldn't be a problem."

The Tau Commander, Ilit he said his name was, didn't need visions of the future to see the problem, "We'd be buried within the first step."

Actually stepping on the snow was off limits, so Kalad started brainstorming other methods, "What about assembling a craft to fly above the snow?"

"We can gut our drones for their hoverpads," A tactical display of his own force's inventory rolled over his hud. "But to create a frame to carry us all... We'd need more material."

Talrys convened with her seer council, "and our power stores have run too dry to sing forth something big enough out of wraithbone."

"And this is ignoring our other problem," Librarian Quade eyed the big, oak walls. "What could be beyond the snow."

His words brought forth a worry that the coalition had tucked away in the corners of their minds.

"You don't mean there could be more of them out there?" Ignatov pointed to the vast empty space, "There's nothing beyond!"

"That's going by our units of distance," Kalad reminded everyone, his second lieutenant finishing his inventory report with him. "A hundred meters to them must feel like a couple feet."

"Ten by my approximations," the techpriest confirmed.

That sank into the group like a ten ton boulder in the ocean; for all they knew, they could've been smack dab in the center of a densely populated area.

"Then it's settled," Kalad straightened his posture, eyeing the long line of soldiers down the tunnel. "We have to fight them from here."

"Here?" The Imperial General rubbed his chin in thought, observing the bunker-like tubes surrounding them. "...That could work."

The techpriest extended his metal arm to scan the air, "The subzero temperatures are enough to fight off the heat. I can improvise a ventilation system to circulate the cold air throughout our encampment."

"The fabrication drones from my earth caste can provide material and a workforce," Ilit offered.

"And my guardsmen can fortify the entrances and exits," The general started to pitch in to the coalition with more and more enthusiasm.

"My marines can handle extreme temperatures," Kalad's lieutenants listened to their commander intently, "They can set up outposts all around the tunnels so we don't end up cornered."

"My people can also handle the heat," The farseer pulled off her helmet, her long dark hair billowing in the cold wind, "they can move swiftly to support your Astartes should something happen..."

Crackling came through Kalad's vox. He moved around, looking for where the signal was strongest. He stopped, dangling his head out in the falling snow.

"KKKKKKKKKK-in force commander, come in force commander," The radio finally gave way to a voice, "This is Scout Sergeant Lantis."

The group huddled around Kalad, "This is the Ultramarine force commander, I read you."

"We remain above the battlefield," The Sergeant said. "The Titans are unaware of us."

This sent smiles throughout the Coalition leaders; they now had a reliable source of intel, eyes to watch the Colossals every move.

Kalad quietly waved a hand for the techpriest to get to work. "Report in, Sergeant."

"The Tau stealthsuits lay in hiding across from us," Sergeant Lantis peaked his head out, seeing the Tau scouts behind the white plastic candles, spinning the barrels of their gatling guns in warning.

"Their cloaking tech was disabled during the firefight," he guessed. He rested his back against the wall behind the picture frame, his entourage popping grenades into their launchers. "We stand ready to take them out on your orders."

"Do not engage," Kalad's stern voice ordered through the vox, "the Tau and the Eldar have entered into a truce with us against the Colossals."

"Understood sir," The scouts looked at each other wearily; they weren't naive, they knew their side alone couldn't take on the Giants that had wiped out the four armies, but they trusted a gun put to their head more than the xeno.

"Are the Colossals within your vicinity?" The Commander asked.

The Sergeant peaked around the corner, seeing that the room was still very much occupied...

While the Scouts watched from their hiding spot, the housemates were learning more about their situation.

"So the Tau invaded this Skull planet-"

"Skillane V, sir," The Major corrected Adam.

I gaped at Adam, dumbstruck while he used my phone to speak to the tiny soldier- a major in what was called the Imperial Guard, go figure- interrogating him on everything from the history of the two sides fighting, where they were from, and how they got here.

"...So the Tau invaded this planet, forcing your empire to send you guys and these Ultramarines- basically super soldiers- to fight them off?" Adam's phone was beside the tupperware, set on speaker.

"That's essentially how it went," the microphoned end of my smartphone dipped into the plastic container, the soldier in question speaking into it, his comrades surrounding him.

"But how did you get here?" I asked, leaning closer and nearly falling into Adam.

"We don't know-"

"We do know!" One soldier shouted, pulling the major away by the shoulder to get his words in, "It was the bloody Eldar meddling with the Warp!"

This seemed to have started a ruckus, the 'Guardsmen' entering into a shouting match with each other, pointing fingers, jostling some by their collars and strangling each other.

Adam grabbed and shook the container, causing an earthquake that brought them to their feet, my phone falling on top of one of them.

"Okay! It doesn't matter!" Adam shouted, the tiny men cupping their ears; he already had the voice of a stadium megaphone at his normal speaking volume. "What matters is what happens now."

I stared at him, amazed at how stern he was being.

He pulled the phone back up, the guardsmen underneath having shielded his head with his arms, "This can go either very good, or very bad."

He gently pushed them close to the end of the scorched up coffee table, got up, grabbed one of the garbage bags, and tipped it over, spilling the contents out over the floor.

"Adam, what the fuck!" Andrew shouted from the couch; he and Eric had been browsing the internet on their phones, googling everything the guardsmen told us.

"Look!" Adam pointed at the mess. "Look at what happened to your armies!"

He grabbed the see through container, the guardsmen again falling on their knees under the sudden movement, "Look at what we did in barely a minute!"

The Guardsmen gulped at the sight beneath them; the bodies of Tau, Eldar, Space Marine and Guardsmen alike littered the floor, besides the crumpled remains of the versatile Leman Russ tanks, the Ultramarine's superior predators beaten to flat pulps, Eldar wraithlords with shattered legs, and pulverized Tau battlesuits.

The captured Guardsmen prayed in grief, shook in rage, cried in sorrow, and simply watched on in numb despair.

The Corporal went through all four stages before he found his resolve. "Is this supposed to scare us into submission-" He looked straight up, unyielding in the face of a mountain- "Beast?"

"No, actually," Adam sighed, putting them back in their place on the table, Eric and Andrew glaring at him as they went to clean up yet again. "What should scare you is the fact that we aren't warriors."

Obviously, I missed something, because this got the attention of all the guardsmen. Adam pointed at me, "He works in a customer service center, answering calls and dealing with complaints and whatnot."

He pointed at Eric and Andrew, "He works in a warehouse as a stock hand, and he's a delivery guy for a pizza store. I flip burgers and fry fries."

The guardsmen eyes widened as the point started to reach them- and me.

"Putting it simply," Adam clasped his hands, pointing at the tiny captives, "you and your enemies just got your asses handed to you by civilians."

"They're civilians, Commander Kalad," Lantis reported the words he heard the Titan arrogantly give away.

"Civilians you say?" This information was a boon to their forces; it meant that their opponent had no true knowledge in strategy and tactics, just their size and their amateur imaginations. "Listen to what else they say, keep an eye on their every move. And the Tau Commander can't reach the coms of those stealthsuits, so get me on the radio as soon you can talk to them without alerting our foe."

"Yes sir," The scout whispered into the vox headset, eyeing the Tau position; they had disappeared behind their cover.

"-and where there are civilians," Adam continued, laying on the villainous monologue fairly thick, "There are warriors, soldiers to protect them."

There it is. The point that caused the strong postured corporal to waver slightly.

"If you were really a threat to us," Adam picked up his phone, holding to show it off, "one press of a button and the real danger comes, wiping you out faster than you can blink."

The Corporal continued to press, "we will fight every last one of you to the last man-"

"All seven billion of us?"

That did it.

He actually paled, visibly. His legs started to shake, "The Imperium is four quadrillion strong."

Adam raised a brow, "The same Imperium you were disconnected from?"

Okay, I missed something again. "You heard that!?" Another Guardsmen shouted as the Corporal fell to his knees, his will broken.

"I can actually hear you fine without the microphone, that's just so all my friends can listen in," Adam surprised me at every word; he was proving to be a natural...Diplomat? Torturer? I'm not sure exactly what he was going for, but he did exceedingly well in breaking the morale of this group of captives. Even the tans- Tau pressed up against their prison, watching Adam verbally rip them apart.

The Major patted the Corporal, gently nudging him away from the mic, "What do you want from us?"

Adam's answer surprised all of us, "Co-existence."

Eric, Andrew and I eyed each other; the Guardsmen gathered towards the end of the tupperware, as if God himself came in, salvation in a bloody basket.

"I'm not gonna lie," Adam rubbed his chin, smiling down at them, "you guys are small but you're pretty badass. If you're really stuck here, we can feed you and give you a place to stay- maybe even in luxury compared to us, and your size makes it easy too."

"Our size?" One of them echoed.

Adam seemed to do some math with his fingers, "I can probably feed you all twenty times over with a buck or two of food."

"He's right," Eric finally made his presence known, watching Adam at work with excitement. "Technically speaking, it would be like caring for an ant farm of tiny humans."

Adam's tone became more sympathetic, "you don't have to run, you don't have to hide, you don't have to die."

He stood up, towering over the guardsmen at his full height.

"Join us."

...I expected someone to make "and we shall rule the galaxy!" comment, but the atmosphere of the room had gotten serious for everyone. The Guardsmen stared in silence, not speaking to Adam, nor debating amongst each other, as Adam waited for their answer…

It came first from the Tau tupperware. "We join you!" The Tau leader- an old woman by the sound of it- shouted at the top of her lungs. "We join you for the greater good!"

The Guardsmen stared agape at their xeno counterparts, before they too erupted into a scuffle of acceptances. "I join you too!" "I'll fight and die in a trench for you!" "I'll follow! I'll follow!" "No! Accept me!"

The tupperware shook with the Guardsmen piling onto each other, eagerly trying to get their words heard. The Tau kneeled gracefully to their new master.

Adam watched them all, arms crossed and a smile spreading on his face...

"Traitors," Scout Sergeant Lantis sneered with disgust.

He prepared to call it in, ready to receive the execution order for this act of treason by the cowards below...when he heard the safety of a bolt pistol click off behind him.

As a Scout Sergeant, the men in his squad were the least experienced of the Ultramarine chapter- to the point that they were not even fully considered Astartes. They were Neophytes; teenagers plucked from the civilian population to undergo initiation into the space marine chapter.

So their loyalties were the least solidified.

He looked into the corner of his eye; they all stared at him, undoing their safeties one by one, the eight of them readying their hands to push the barrels of their silenced bolters, close quarters shotguns and armor penetrating sniper rifles- into their stubborn NCO's face.

"...Sergeant?" One of the youngest scouts spoke up.

"Yes, Damian?" Lantis responded, knowing full well that the scout aimed to shred his legs with shrapnel.

"We aren't going to win this war," He pleaded, trying to get his superior to go with them.

Lantis twitched his finger over the holster holding his bolter, "Then we'll die with dignity."

Damnian's lips quivered...

"...Then die with dignity."

Just as Adam gently plucked the Guardsmen and Tau out of their plastic containers, tiny gunfire erupted from above us.

"What the fuck?!" Andrew held a hand over his head, Eric actually running and ducking for cover behind the arm of the couch.

"That sounded like gunfire!" The Guardsmen called out.

I stood up, careful to keep my head below the source of the sound; the shelf above the couch me and Adam had been sitting in.

I grabbed my airsoft helmet off the coffee table to protect my face, and stood up on the cushions of the couch.

A small group of soldiers walked out from behind the picture frame, dropping their guns and holding their hands behind their heads. One came out clutching with a bullet wound on their arm, seemingly unfazed by it, "We surrender. We want the deal you offered the group down there."

My voice was slightly muffled by my mask, "We heard gunfire."

"It was nothing…" The scout in particular seemed to look down, guilt on his face. The rest had frozen features.

Not buying it one bit, I pulled the picture frame back to reveal the shot up corpse of another soldier, this one clearly older than the rest.

"Was he your squad leader or something?" Adam got next to me, clearly working out the situation ahead of me.

"Yes sir," The bleeding one confirmed, his voice breaking slightly.

"What do you do with your dead?" I asked, trying to catch up with Adam completely owning the situation.

"We gut them, take their armor and weapons to equip the next Astartes," Another Scout answered, standing at attention, as if he was being tested on his knowledge of tradition.

"Uh…" I had no idea how to respond to that.

"We'll see what we can do," Obviously, Adam was ahead of his game today.

Behind them on the coffee table, the Tau stealth suits that had been hiding with the scouts appeared next to their Ethereal, having taken off in their jetpacks the moment their cloaking came back online.

"Celestial one," They bowed, "We've come to rescue you!"

"It is okay my loyal warriors," The wizened old lady held a comforting hand on the steel battlesuits shoulder, "These creatures have shown me the next path in the greater good, and we shall follow them."

"Your words were sincere?" The Stealthsuit leader exclaimed in surprise, "We are joining them?"

While the Tau convened, the Guardsmen went over their new situation. "We've done it now boys," A logistics specialist mused, "We're traitors. The General and the Ultramarines will have our heads!"

Shame overcame the Corporal, who had driven his voice hoarse shouting at the giants to accept his defection, "We've foresakin the emperor!"

"We're still under the protection of the Colossals!" The Major assured everyone; solidifying a new position for himself.

"House lords," Said Adam to the shock of both groups, having overheard both groups speak behind his back. "Not creatures, not colossals, not the fee-fucking-fo giants; the House lords."

"Are you for real dude?" I said from beside him, carrying the new additions down from the coffee table.

"I'm being very real, Jackson," He leaned towards the two groups- now one council- leveling with their eyes, his chin pressing against the edge of the table. "The ones that crawled into the vents are going to be a problem, I take it?"

The Coalition were each individually fast at building; together, they worked near the speed of lightning.

A wraithbone wall plugged up the hole Kalad had charged through, vents taking in the ice cold air and circulating it inside through tan colored pipes built by the Tau fab drones, blowing out of fan vents within the tubed shape makeshift base. They kept cool the mixed species barracks, the physically weaker Tau and Guardsmen half asleep and snoring to recuperate their energy, the supply room ahead of them holding their lasrifles, handguns, swords, rocket launchers and artillery cannons.

Past that, the Techpriest sat in a wraithbone chair, among a circle of Tau earth caste members around a table, going over reports from probes they had sent out in the snow.

"Composition of artificial structures suggest an industrialized society," a Tau material's specialist went over the molecular imaging data on his tablet, "molecular manufacturing capabilities in the mid-range."

"The sample size is far too small to hold that last theory up," A water caste member joined in; a natural diplomat and social psychologist. "Higher tiered techniques could be unavailable to certain classes."

"We have to get past the walls to make final conclusions," the augmented human concluded.

"We've tried that already," A Tau drone specialist who spent too much time cleaning snow out of his machines, "the drones can't handle the current wind conditions without being swept away during the climb up."

The enginseer slammed his fist on the table, "The Colossals must have an exit!"

An Earth caste construction architect sat back unimpressed by that dramatic display, "It'd be through the greater structure, meaning we'd have to go through them to get to it."

"Then we must find a way to kill them," A weapons specialist this time.

The biologist chuckled at that, "We have no idea what they even look like under that armor."

"So we send a drone to watch them," The drone specialist hopped on the weapons specialist's plan, "Study them."

"And if they catch the drone?"

The answer was simple, "Send another one."

Each member paused, no one having any solid objection. "That could work."

In the room past that, the Commanders of the Coalition stood over a near complete green holographic mapping of the ventilation system. Various dots in intersections and tunnels that feed straight into the base represented teams of Ultramarines that have set up outposts to watch out for anything the Colossals could send into the vents after them.

Kalad crossed his arms, his brows weighing heavy on his head, "I've lost contact with the scouts up above. They've either since been preoccupied...or discovered."

"I wager discovered," Ignatov scoffed, Kalad glaring at the general in insult.

"New information has to come to light thanks to them," Kalad looked between his eagerly waiting counterparts. "The Colossals have no warriors among them."

A round of chuckles met this news, the situation made all the more easier.

Tau commander Ilit had left his battlesuit, standing with them in a skintight black jumpsuit, "So their only weapon is their size."

"Which they've managed to do a lot with," the farseer reminded.

"Not being soldiers means they have no experience against stealth tactics," Ignatov was perhaps the most made happy by the news, "of someone sneaking into their bed and slitting their throats while they slumber."

"So stealth is our advantage in this war," Librarian Quads had stayed with the coalition command, offering his wisdom and psychic foresights, "still begs the question of how we slit their thick skinned throats."

Kalad unsheathed and lingered his arm length and foot thick sword in the air, "If our swords don't get the job done, poison might."

Just then, the Tau commander's personal comm-link headset blared.

"Commander Ilit," the voice of his ethereal superior came through.

"Cease your conflict with the masters of this domain," The Ultramarine's eyes fell on the Tau. "Call the rest of your cadres to join me to pursue a new greater good in this world."

The Librarian noticed the locked gaze of his commander, and joined him.

"The techpriest can probably drum up something for the poison," Ignatov added, unaware of what was happening. "I can imagine we need… a lot..." He suddenly took notice of the entire group staring at the Tau. The ones with superior senses.

"Kill the vicious Gue'la and the pointy eared foe."

The Tau noticed the other Coalition leaders staring at him. Kalad's sword remained in his hand, a tiny electrical spark crackled through Quade's fingers, and the Farseer gripped her spear…

"Commander Ilit?" The Tau leader repeated into her personal mic.

The defected Scouts told us of the truce between the three different armies in the vents; it sounded like an enemy of my enemy type of situation.

She repeated into her radio a couple more times, before giving up, "My commander isn't responding."

"Can you reach someone else?" I suggested from the couch. We had her handful of soldiers guarding the vent underneath the couch, in case they planned to sneak back through.

She shook her head, "No, I can't."

"Didn't you say they were at war with those other guys?" Eric had found where these things had come from with a simple google search of Tau, Guardsmen, and Space Marine; an old science fiction fantasy series called Warhammer 40,000. "Maybe they got...you know…"

"Then we shall memorialize them," Lud nodded solemnly. "For their service to the Tau'va…"

Eric had snuck up with pictures on his phone, showing them to me and the other guys. We saw figurines, artwork, and paragraphs of lore that absolutely matched everything we've seen and heard so far; The Imperium, a fascist interstellar human empire, the socialist caste society of the Tau, the psychic elven Eldar, and several other factions we luckily didn't catch, because this world. Is fucking. Dark.

Religious persecution, torture, genocide on a daily basis, and war. Constant. War. This universe was so fucking metal, the method of travel across the stars was to punch a hole through what is basically space hell and come out the other side, hopefully not driven insane or eaten by whatever the fuck lives there. It seems that outright attacking rather than trying to be buddy buddy on the go was the best option we picked.

But it was a fucking game!

A fictional universe had come to life and infested our home. They were in the floors, they were on the shelves, they were in the fireplace, under the couches and on the damn coffee table!

Despite how horrible they may have seemed, Adam seemed intent on making new friends. He dragged in a larger empty container from the basement, one that he used to bring in his stuff when he first moved in with us. He picked up the vacuum canister, and slowly tipped it over. Voices called from inside, startled by the movement of their entire world. He placed it in the big blue container, and with his airsoft gear covering the upper parts of his body, he undid the lid and dumped the contents into it.

In the dark and crampy and filthy space of their shaking prison, the Space Marines took the front when what used to be the ceiling started to open again. Guardsmen with bones shattered by their violent entry took behind the Ultramarines with their weapons drawn, still being tended to with what little equipment the Apothecaries had on hand.

The Tau fire warriors, smaller than the Astartes and shorter in number than all the humans combined, were punched, grabbed and dragged to the very front, forced to take whatever came at them first lest the super soldiers wielding sword, axe and bolter gun alike would cut them down for refusing them.

The lid finally spun away, and their weapons erupted once more with lasers, bullets, and grenades whizzing by- at empty space.

"Hold fir-AAH!" An Astartes lost balance as the ground tipped, the Tau first to slide down, scratching and clawing for purchase against the smooth surface.

The line of Astartes locked themselves by driving their blades as deep as they could into the incredibly strong plastic, interlocking their arms and blocking their smaller fellows from following the screaming Tau.

A giant gloved hand reached down and plucked the fallen Tau between their fingers and thumb, and pulled them out of sight.

An Astartes took that as his chance.

He broke from the line. The Guardsmen slid down through the hole between their confused protectors. The Astartes in question had launched into the hand.

"AH FUCK!" He had driven the tip of his blade into the exposed skin in the back of the Colossal's wrist. He gripped onto something as the hand was yanked out of the container, its owner shaking it vigorously to throw its attacker off.

"Smack him into the ground!" Another voice called, but the Astartes had already climbed away with his sword as the empty gushing spot hit the floor. He crawled past his elbow and up his shoulder, and spotted an exposed and vulnerable spot on his neck, where his mask didn't cover.

Then, the Titan leaped into the ground, rolling over, the marine crushed and stunned between the giant's shoulder and the floor. He still held on nonetheless.

A metal claw then clasped over his body, gripped his head and upper torso. It pulled him off the spot he was clinging to.

The thumb-sized super soldier squirmed under the grip of the tongs Eric held, a small trail of blood flowing down Adam's hand.

"Motherfucker!" He got up from the ground and took the bandaid Eric had gotten from the kitchen. "Felt like a box cutter slashed my hand!"

He went to the vacuum and violently shook the rest into the container, not bothering grabbing the rest of the Tau.

The ones he did get had rejoined their ethereal, quickly forming a protective circle around her before she reassured them and got them up to date with the situation, staring up at their new, gigantic allies, in awe at how their leader had calmed the rage of the Titans…

We let that small embellishment slide.

The final guardsmen tumbled out of the red prison, their captor holding the massive container over their heads, before closing the lid above them, returning them to darkness again. The Astartes that had jumped out was never seen again.

"Quick! Call out the injured!" An apothecary ordered; his hands moved at the speed of a blinking eye, suturing wounds, applying disinfectants, and injecting anesthetics with extreme clinical precision.

Many bones had been crushed, either under the falling space marines or from having been under the pile in the tight spaced and crowded canister that they had been inhaled into. The bigger container had at least given them the breathing room to tend to the wounded.

The leftover Tau, groaning and grumbling in pain from being landed on, were largely ignored by the human medics, prioritizing the care of their brethren over the xeno.

A hand gripped the leg of an Apothecary, "Where is my lasgun?"

Commissar Theradeus laid pale skinned on the ground, having lost a lot of blood before his wound was sutured.

"You need to rest-"

"I need a gun!" The Commissar attempted to climb up the Apothecary's leg, stumbling on his knees. "He shot me! He shot me!"

The Apothecary looked down at the Commissar, his own gun already in hand. "Who shot you?"

"The Sergeant- Damn his name!" The Commissar didn't bother getting it.

The Apothecary grabbed the Commissar by his shoulders, "Do you hold his face in your mind?"

At his nod, the Apothecary swept Theradeus up, his massive arm acting as a seat for the Commissar to look from up high, "Point him out to me."

The Commissar scanned the crowds of Guardsmen, Space Marine, and Tau, when his target had made the mistake of spotting him first, his fear causing him to stand out...

"There."

The Sergeant bolted- knocking over his comrades as he fled into the crowd, blocking the aim of the Apothecary's bolter. They pushed through to give chase, his battle brothers watching from afar and not understanding, followed him to keep a careful eye on the situation.

The Sergeant further made a second mistake- of seeking safety in the xeno crowd.

BANG! The Apothecary let loose with his bolter, Tau exploding into bloody messes in the trail of the traitor Sergeant, causing the rest to panic- and open fire on the human crowds.

The tough armored Astartes quickly scrambled- assembling into a line of cover for the guardsmen to hide behind.

The Apothecary dropped the Commissar down to safety behind the line, refocusing on the firefight he had started, when the light poured down from above, the lid opened once more with two colossals staring down at them.

"Okay," One of them clicked a steel claw in it's hand. "That's enough."

Men yelled in rage as they were grabbed and pulled out, disappearing out of sight, the three groups firing at their towering aggressors to no avail. One Astartes tried to mimic the one that had found purchase on the Colossal's hand- only to be smacked away with a flat yellow wall, the fly swatter flanking the tongs for protection.

In the chaos, the Commissar dragged himself through the broken up Tau crowds, hefting the abducted Apothecary's bolter behind him. He spotted his mark cowering in a corner, fumbling the magazine of a Tau rifle he snagged.

Theradeus didn't bother standing. He propped the heavy gun in front of his face, its large magazine acting like a single leg on the ground. His finger pressed down the trigger.

BANG! The shot struck the blue plastic wall beside the Sergeant, the bolter's powerful recoil jolting the gun out of the Commissar's hand and into his face, his nose crooked with blood trickling down his mouth after the impact...

Before the claw clamped around his torso. "Damn you!" The Commissar slammed his fist into the metal appendage, "Let go of me!"

The weight of the bolter proved too much for the small dangling human, and it soon fell to the ground, knocking unconscious the Tau it had landed on, and the Commissar disappeared from sight.

"They're taking all the Astartes!" One Ultramarine observed, blasting his bolter into the Giants above them. He was right; their number was already dwindling to a handful, plucked from the container alongside the Tau.

The Ultramarine was the last to be pulled away, still shooting his bolter into the body-sized fingers gripping the other end of the tongs to no avail, and all that was left was the injured and terrified Guardsmen, a handful of the remaining Enginseers among their ranks…

"Attention enemy combatants," A deep voice ringed through all the vox and radio transceivers of the coalition soldiers. It awoke them from their naps in an instant.

"You have invaded our home, and so you must pay for this," Guardsmen, Eldar, and Tau alike pulled out of their sleeping bags, gathering around those who kindly played their radios for all to hear.

"We have extinguished the life of one of your leaders, Ethereal Lud," The Tau troopers gasped at this, some clenching their fists in rage and others offering a prayer for their fallen religious leader.

"The rest of your brothers have betrayed you for their lives, and you still have the chance to join them," This ignited whispering among crowds.

"Bloody xeno…" Some Guardsmen weren't surprised at the betrayal, and many readied whatever weapons they had on hand to put down any Tau willing to accept that offer...

Before another voice came through the vox and struck it down. "This is Commander Ilit of the remnant Tau force, we reject your offer," At this, the Tau troopers broke into cheering and applause, calming the fears of the Guardsmen, some even joining in. "For the murder of Aun'o Lud, you have made an enemy of my people. If those traitors choose to fight on your side, then they will join your fate as we cut you down to our size for this heinous crime."

The cheering morphed into a joyous roar, vengeance on the mind of every Tau fire warrior in the base.

The voice responded with a tone of absolute contempt, "So be it…"

At the sound of cheering in the next room over, the Techpriest switched off the channel, and turned to the gathering of Coalition commanders behind his shoulder. "It is done."

General Ignatov crossed his arms, eyeing his compatriots, "You think they really fell for it?"

"They're in the dark just as much as we are, of course they fell for it," Kalad had sheathed his power sword, but still kept a hand on it.

"Techpriest," The robed figure stood at attention to the Ultramarine Commander, "go around camp modifying all the vox and Tau com-links. I don't want any more errant words from the Ethereal bleeding through."

He bowed at this, and sprinted through grey wraithbone doors, leaving the Commanders alone with their thoughts. Many turned to the very much alive Tau Commander.

"Does this not bother you, Tau?" Farseer Talrys peeked into the Tau's mind, searching for any sign of malicious plotting- only to find none against them.

"The Ethereal would have me betray this rare union between all our species," Ilit growled out the words in contempt for his former leader, "it soils the very mission of the Greater Good."

The Commanders were surprised at how quickly Ilit turned on the all-powerful spiritual leader of the Tau. But Librarian Quade sensed something in particular, "I can feel the influence of someone else on your decision."

"Yes," Ilit closed his eyes. The name came out with incredible reverence and respect, "O'shovah."

Kalad narrowed his eyes, "The Farsight Enclaves."

O'shovah. Commander Farsight. The hero of Vior'la. A traitor to the Ethereals, renounced after disobeying their commands and going off on his own, with a loyal army of Tau warriors supporting him as he claimed territory for himself; the Enclaves. His betrayal of the Empire left those who looked up to the legend confused, but not Ilit. Ilit knew what he had to do. It's why he ran from the Ethereal as soon as he could...

"So it's settled?" Ignatov held his hands on his hips, avoiding eye contact with the Tau Commander. "The Tau remain on our side, just like that?"

Glares met his direction. Noone was happy with the one person trying to drive a wedge between the already fragile alliance.

Ignatov turned his back from the stares he was starting to get from everyone, thinking on his words. "What if they learn of the survival of their ethereal?" He pointed to the door leading to the mixed species barracks, "How can I trust them not to shoot my men in the back!?"

"You can't," Ilit's words surprised the group not for the second time, "you can't trust my men anymore than I can trust yours, rightly so."

They knew what he referred to; even with the truce between the leaders, there were regular...incidents. Fire warriors beaten in their sleep, drones coming out of the darkness and slamming into guardsmen skulls in the tunnels, tussles between the space marine outposts and Eldar scouts. Each side even had the occasional suspicious migraine, psykers Quade and Talrys glaring at each other after sensing the same thought together.

The only thing keeping them together was the presence of a greater scourge.

"Pushing that matter aside," the old man general grabbed a seat, "we still haven't thought up our next move."

"The techpriest and the earth caste are working on weapons, poisons to destroy the colossals," Kalad crossed his arms, "for that, they've requisitioned use of the outside drones to venture back where we came to study our foe closely."

Ignatov looked up to the towering space marine with impatience, "And did you approve?"

Kalad brushed the surliness aside, looking to all of the commanders, "Obviously, I wished to bring this up to the war council first."

"And that's what we bloody are now?" Ignatov scoffed, "A war council of man and xeno in matrimony?"

"Now that they have traitor Tau on their side," Farseer Talry ignored the ignorant general's babbling, although it did grate on her, "they can easily track down the signals controlling them should they be discovered."

Ignatov chuckled sardonically, "I rest my case."

Ilit was clearly offended at the jabs on his race, "Our drones can function fully autonomously-"

"Then our new problem is the Tau sending their own drones down here," Kalad put forward, eliciting a glare from the Tau commander. "Or perhaps, if they've turned as well, the stealthsuits."

A round of groans met him; the stealthsuits were the most headache-inducing units of the Tau, using the most cowardly of hit, disappear, and fly away tactics on the battlefield. The tunnels were dark too, full of too many twists, turns, and corners to sprung out from. The only ones capable of even spotting them are those who wield psionic powers.

"My sanctioned psykers are low in number," Ignatov reported, "enough perhaps for a quarter of the outposts."

Kalad waved a hand, "I can spare my astropath to bolster those numbers."

"By only one you mean," Talrys quipped at a frowning Kalad. "I can scatter my guardians out on patrol, party leaders specialists at detecting camouflaged invaders."

Kalad glanced at Quade, a signal to run a veil over the thoughts of the attending humans, knowing they would be distasteful to the farseer; The Space Marine Captain, along with the imperial general, were growing uncomfortable with the growing reach of the Eldar among the coalition. Not only were the very furniture and walls the base made use of were fashioned out of Eldar wraithbone, but they had troops placed everywhere, from between the outposts, in the lower vacant tunnels and outside in the snow, essentially covering everywhere the humans could run to, and while the forces of the imperium outnumbered them in total, the physically outperforming xeno race outnumbered the equally imposing Astartes...

Truthfully, a single Eldar warrior was worth a hundred guardsmen.

"So that's it then?" Ignatov brought the conversation back to the present, "Each side picks at the other to see what they're made of before an assault actually happens?"

The Farseer's attitude cracked, "Is the mon-keigh general disappointed?"

The humans stared at her; that was far from the picture of respectful collaboration the Eldar were pushing.

"Hold your tongue, Xeno," Kalad's tone may as well have been the tip of his sword. He softened slightly, "We need to cover all our bases."

"If your species are so superior," Ignatov started with a wry smile, unaware of the glare Kalad was shooting at him, "why not use your most awesome psychic powers to make the bastards choke on their tongues?"

Talrys narrowed her eyes down at the general, "Psykers influence life and matter connected to the immaterium, from which we are currently completely and totally cut off."

"What?" The wording threw Kalad off, "I thought we were just cut off from the emperor and the reach of the heretical gods?"

"How else would you be able to vomit out all that wraithbone?" Ignatov so helpfully added.

"It appears the cut off has nipped some of that warp energy in the bud, so to speak," Talrys half-spoke through her teeth, the general's jabs started to get to her. "We Psykers carry with us a cloud that draws on energy from whatever it can find, subsisting on the dendritus of decaying matter."

Kalad looked at her- and his own librarian- as he fidgeted the hilt of the power sword on his hip, "Life energy?"

"No, something artificial," Talrys either didn't notice or pretended not to, "most likely what powers the colossal's home."

A thought travelled through the group like the whiff of a fresh hot meal; it was the scent of something they never got to know in their old world, in the domains of the imperium, the Tau empire, or the Eldar craftworlds. It was the smell of peace. To be free from the torments of the warp, no more plagues of Daemons, the corruptions of Chaos, and the scourge of warp storms. They could all build new empires here, ones that could conquer without trouble and impedance…

And the only thing that stood between them and this new and exciting future, was a race of primitive giants whose only weapons were large sticks and stones, having never known the warp, and by consequence, having never known true war...

Ultramarine battle-brother Cortis struggled over the sticky silver bonds wrapped around his body, locking his arms to his chest, and three arm length fingers gripped his legs. They were the only thing preventing gravity from pulling him face first into the razor sharp blades spinning at high speed above his head.

"This supposed to scare me?" He shouted at the pointy-nosed giant holding him above the blender. "I have a scar on my chest from a chainsword that was bigger."

"Pathetic xeno!" Marine Sergeant Janice shouted through the plastic container he and the rest of the captured Ultramarines were being held. "I've seen rusted snotling daggers more intimidating!"

Andrew suppressed a groan, not wanting those tiny little shits to see his frustration. The blue guys made themselves known as the most troublemaking of the prisoners when the one he held nearly took Adam's eye out; they were mini-badasses who he knew right away needed to be taken down another micro-inch more.

So he pulled them away, ominous like, expecting he can make them scream within half a minute. He's been at it for fifteen.

"I'm going for the fucking microwave," He said, giving in to the urge he fought at the beginning.

He tried to drown the supersoldier in the sink, but he just stared up at him for five minutes straight. He took a hammer to his legs, expecting him to cry out in pain at the flattened limbs that now dangled from my fingers, but he reacted like he was barely scratched. That's when I put myself into a corner- I couldn't just move on to someone else that was weaker, I had to keep pushing until I broke the guy I was working on, because right then his friends were cheering him on to push through.

"Do you think you're gonna live after today?" He spoke up from his hand. "Release me now and I promise- your painful death will only be dragged on through half of the month."

Andrew slipped up, and a gulp ran down his throat. That's when it really hit Andrew; he was torturing honest to god soldiers. Real, in the mud, drag through their friends intestines to beat their enemies with their own skull soldiers...

He opened the microwave and threw the fucker right in. "I'm merciful-" He tried to sound badass but came out nervous- "you'll only get three minutes."

He shut the door in front of the wiggling Ultramarine, and pulled the clear tupperware prison to watch what happens next.

"This is what happens when you fuck-" He fumbled for his next words in his head. "WITH THE HOUSE LORDS!"

He set the microwave to three minutes. The box lit up through the dotted glass door, the plate beginning it's rotation as the familiar popcorn popping, noodle steaming whirl of heat sounded through. But he didn't seem to react right away, leaving what Andrew said hanging as the Ultramarines bursted into belly laughs after a minute…

"...Ah."

Janice stopped his laughter after hearing a single sound emit from Cortis, the chuckles of his other battle-brothers dying soon after.

"Ah. Ah...aaaaAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Cortis' yells transformed into shrieking screams- sparks rippling from his body as the low whirl grew into a loud electronic ripple.

"eMpErOr ProToCct!" Cortis voice came out distorted, as if a cattle prod was taken to his vocal cords. "Proteeeeeee-"

His voice became glitchy. A plume of dark smoke blackened the microwave window. Then the men in the tupperware began to scream in pain. "What the fuck is happening..." Andrew, who only expected the man to pop like a red-filled balloon, looked on in horror- as the same glitched wails from the microwave seemed to infect the men in the tupperware.

Janice prayed. He prayed to the golden throne. To the Emperor. He tried to pray away the visions from within the menacing box- pray away the sensations of Cortis' rupturing and boiling body. For he felt it. He didn't imagine it, nor empathize it; he felt it, as did all the men. It was as if a psyker had linked all their minds- just so they can experience Cortis' pain and confusion.

"jAnIcE."

He froze. Cortis' distorted voice came from the microwave- and the men to his side.

"heLP MeeeE," Janice clutched his mouth; it was speaking out the words too. And then, the distortion lifted, and Cortis' normal and healthy voice came out. Out of everyone.

"Kill me."

Andrew pressed the scoop of a wooden spoon on the microwave ejection button, stopping the machine and sending a gust of smoke towards the kitchen ceiling, setting off another fire alarm.

"What the hell's going on?" I said as I walked into the kitchen, pulling off my shirt and fanning the smoke away from the alarm.

Andrew protected his mouth with a cloth, "something fucked, Jackson."

I saw the smoldering oven and connected the dots, "did you put one through the damn microwave?"

Andrew's shoulders tensed, "I didn't expect this to happen!"

Eric came rushing as the fire alarm died down. He carried something with him; a plastic stick connected to a lego piece from his junk toy chest. "What's going on?"

I pointed to the scene of the crime, "he stuck one in the microwave."

Andrew grabbed a plate, placing it in front of the microwave, and then jammed the tongs into the oven. It was only an inch or two out- before he dropped it and the tongs in a squeal of shock.

Sergeant Janice watched as his battle-brother, the most skilled and willful in his squad, dangled half out of the steel box- three pairs of melted together eyes staring lifelessly in the distance. He was deformed; a mangled extra arm sprung out from his right armpit, his mouth stuck in a painful scream- as well as plastered all over his body, with toothy and drooling gapes coming out of his belly, his knee, and where an ear would be. Color seemed to shift all over, the Ultramarine blue of his power armor streaking onto his face, while his light coloured skin formed patches on the armor itself, as if something simultaneously melted the paint and regrew skin in the wrong places.

Many of Janice's Battle-Brothers reared their faces in disgust. But he saw the fear spread like wildfire. They knew a daemonic transformation had just taken place. They knew the perfected will of an Astartes had just shattered like glass under its weight. And he saw the seeds of defection take root...

"Dude…" Eric pressed a finger on his lower lip as he eyed the whirling tendrils of electrically glowing smoke trailing from the small mutated body. "I think this is u-fog."

Instant recognition widened my eyes, "No way."

"They are from Prince Edward Island!" Andrew exclaimed, half-relieved at finally having answers.

I sighed. Of course. They didn't just magically appear. They came from something.

"We have to call it in now," Eric pulled out his smartphone.

"No we can't," I said, but Eric wasn't listening to me. The tones went off as he started dialing.

"Eric stop!" Andrew, alarmed at the sudden threat to his career, went for the phone.

Eric held it above out of his grasp, "what are you-oof!"

Andrew's fist met Eric's gut, and he nearly keeled over, the phone ripped out of his hand once in reach. "What the hell?!" Eric coughed out.

"Adam's drugs?" I reminded.

"My student status?!" Andrew pointed at himself, waving the phone out of reach.

"None of it will matter if it spreads!" Eric picked himself up off the floor. "They're fucking dangerous!"

Suddenly, a voice caught their wide eyed attention, "We can stop them."

Footsteps echoed throughout the vent tunnels; one set soft and graceful, the others like metal boulders banging against the thin metal. It was only through mysterious science and technologies within their armors that the Astartes didn't leave dented footsteps in their wake.

They moved in a semi-loose formation around a nonhuman- an Eldar guardian, a specialist psyker that detected hostile intentions from entities within their view, around corners, buried underneath or even cloaked with technology or psionics. Hovering behind their whole escort were the three probes the put-together research team had dispatched to study their hundred meter tall foes.

Sergeant-Brother Lorsid covered the right flank of the Aeldari, bolter sweeping over corners with the speed of a darting eyeball. "No tricks, xeno," he warned the alien he protected.

Guardian Boromela bathed her surroundings with her ambient energy, making the ground and the air sensitive to breathing, movement, and intention. She scoffed through her focus, "Did you really wait all the way here to say that?"

Lorsid took a moment of sweeping before answering, "...Yes."

Boromela felt a presence- and felt relief when she realized it was just a harmless, head-sized spider hiding from the cold. "I can tell you struggled between fibbing or being honest."

The Space Marine covering the retinue's behind, walking backwards on his feet, glared at Boromela through the corner of his eye. "Are you confessing to prodding in his mind, Psyker?" He accused her.

Lorsid didn't want any friction during the operation, "I don't think you need to be a Psyker to read my hesitation, brother."

"He's just looking for an excuse." Boromela spat back.

"You imply we need one?" Lorsid quipped, "I can always say you just slipped into a hole and broke your spine three ways about you."

Something else caught the Guardian's attention. She pointed to a tunnel that curved upwards, "There."

They moved quickly for it; artificial caramel coloured light leaked through the white plastic grate over head. The Astartes looked to the Eldar psyker- who gave the all-clear with a nod of her head. Two battle-brothers knew what to do; they climbed up and wedged themselves between two opposing corners of the grate, weapons holstered, and hefted the whole thing above. Lorsid waved the drones to move forward, to which they whizzed out through the wide crack the Ultramarines had made.

Once cleared, they slowly lowered the whole thing shut, and rejoined their brothers.

"That went off without a fuss," The Eldar mused.

"We're not done, Eldar," Lorsid's neural implants ticked off letters and words into a report that lit up in the hud over his eyes, sending a present assessment of the situation. "Our escort work is finished, now we must make our rounds."

The Space Marines hunkered down, some staying on their feet while others bent a knee, guns still primed in their arms.

"And I can always explain away your inevitable aneurysm as faulty Astarte bioengineering," Boromel continued the conversation, finding joy in the banter.

This earned glares from the transhumans through their red-eyed blue helmets. "Easy brothers," Lorsid assured, while preparing a quick extra report- detailing Boromel's untimely death after arrogantly charging out of the vents to fight the Titans herself. "Witticisms exist even among the xeno."

The world rumbled as if a rockslide occurred overhead, gathering their attention. They jumped into formation, training their guns on the only entrance.

"Eldar?" Lorsid said to their intel gatherer.

"Three," Boromel joined her Star Slinger rifle to the mix of armaments. "One colossal."

"What of the other-" Lorsid is cut off by the flash of light bouncing into the tunnel as the grate is lifted, a moving shadow rippling a hole in the beam from above.

They came in firing before their targets even came into view. Red laserbeams shredded the chest pieces off the Ultramarines holding the mid front, giving the superhumans only a millisecond to fire off their weapons in vain.

"Brother shields!" Lorsid called on a tactic only used in the most dire of situations; His remaining two battle-brothers grappled the belts and back collars of the dead Ultramarines, holding them up to use their armor and bodies as cover.

"Pull back! Pull back!" Lorsid made the call, recognizing the sound of a heavy-armor infantry decimating lascannon ahead of them. The squad retreated deeper towards the corner they rounded from, dragging the feet of their body shields as they shot off their bolters from around them.

Lorsid had to risk a glance. He crouched, and peaked out from under the legs of his fallen comrades, aiding him even in death, and he growled at the sight ahead of them; On a shiny red platform attached to a wooden pole, imperial guardsmen manned the turret that was firing on the ultramarine squad.

"Traitors," He caught up with Boromel, pure disgust radiating off of him. "The Imperial Guard's been compromised."

"Of course the smaller mon-keigh turned," She and Lorsid made the corner, and the Battle-brothers dropped their fallen protectors. "They're just pigskinned Tau."

They ran off back to base, Lorsid contacting his commanding officer with his com-link.

Eric pulled the cake pop stick out of the opened floor vent, tiny soldiers holding tight on the leg panel piece hot glued to the end of it.

"I can't believe that worked," Adam said from behind Eric, being extra careful not to blow off the radio-carrying soldier clutching onto the string tied around Eric's ear, keeping him from sliding off his shoulder.

While Andrew and the had boys dealt with the mess in the kitchen, Adam propped the turncoat Guardsmen into the big container and watched them convert the terrified prisoners. It wasn't hard; they were pissing themselves after the quick loss of their superhuman protectors, and that 'Major' did a good job at rounding them up.

"Yeah well, these guns looked pretty useful-" Eric flipped the stick to study it, only to stop himself right once he realized his mistake, catching the falling soldiers in his hand- "Gotcha. Leaving them locked down on site leaves them vulnerable, but this gives them mobility."

"Which is more useful," Adam found that he could occasionally stick with Eric's train of thought.

"Yup." Eric stiffened himself, trying to stabilize the platform carrying the fragile equipment as he walked back to living room, exiting the hallway.

Adam had moved the container prison below the arm of one of the couches. The Tau scientists had offered to cut a hole and make a door, so that we could keep using the container as a prison. Evidently, they found it very sturdy when they were trapped in it with everyone else.

The major and his colleagues stood atop the arm with a rope ladder leading into the plastic box. He held a datapad as he was flanked by an armed entourage, a nervous guardsmen prisoner in front of him.

"Previous placement?" He asked with impatience; he was working on overdrive and trying to speed through, no doubt trying to please House Lord Adam.

"Mechanized company sir," The prisoner tried to avoid staring at the mountain sized beings standing beside him. "I piloted hellhounds sir."

"Head to site Epsilon," The major's fingers tapped away at the datapad. "A cogboy will take the reins, Trooper."

"Trooper sir?" The Trooper's voice became infuriated with despair. "I'm a bloody Sergeant!"

"Not in this army!" The Major shouted back at him, signalling his guards. They grabbed the pilot by the collar and dragged him over the arm, causing him to fall into the cushion. Defeated, he hightailed for the rope ladders the other new recruits were trailing down from.

"Next!" A guard called down to the reduced but bustling crowd of prisoners gathering below the ladders, one already taking the climb.

The Major turned his attention to the observing House lords, and dropped to his knees and lowered his head, the guards around him joining in. "My lords, nearly all the prisoners have accepted your light!"

Adam and Eric stared wide eyed at the sudden religious overtones. "Uh...That's good to hear," Adam said.

"Is Epsilon ready?" Eric drew glances from Adam; when Adam had turned all the guards, Eric went to work strategizing with them and the Tau.

"Yes sir," The Major stood and worked on his datapad, ignoring the red robed prisoner climbing up to meet him. "We have many that were relatively undamaged, asides the occasional blood spatter and vomit puddle…"

He looked up at Eric, "We're ready to dispatch at your orders."

"Go now," Eric commanded swiftly. "The Tau drones caught an incursion attempt. They're already making their move."

"Join the Tau, Cogboy!" He shouted at the robed prisoner, who promptly started sprinting away.

Adam felt his eyelids weighing down, and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Whatever dude," He placed a hand on Eric's shoulder, "you handle this. I'm gonna take a nap."

"Careful, they're lurking in the innards of the house," Eric warned. Adam responded by turning his back to him and heading for his room to catch whatever hours of rest he could grab.

"What's the meaning of this!" Ignatov growled at the Ultramarines that escorted him from his cobbled together private quarters, having attempted to finally grab some rest. They pulled him into the busied command room by his elbows. The Commanders all waited at the map, glaring at him with strong whiffs of suspicion; they'd taken note of his intolerant attitude and didn't put betrayal beneath him.

"We should be asking you that, General," Talrys hissed, hiding a smile in the corner of her mouth.

Kalad eyed the General for any sign of treachery. "Are you in contact with the Guardsmen left behind?"

"No!" Ignatov grew only more inflamed under the Space Marine's glare. "The vox can't reach them!"

Kalad closed in on the smaller general, casting a shadow over him. "Did you send any out from the base?"

"Without being seen by your damned space mar-" The General stopped, and considered the words being levied against him. It dawned on him that the spotlight was not on him, but his guardsmen.

"The prisoners the Colossals took," his tone went softer, a little tinge of defeat laced along it. "They betrayed us, didn't they?"

Kalad nodded, pulling back slightly, but not quite giving the general breathing. "Fired on the drone escort with a Lascannon."

"Lascannon?" Ignatov felt a chill run down his spine; he hadn't ordered the assembly of an Lascannon at any point. He looked to the Tau commander, "I don't suppose the earth caste could've…"

Ilit shook his head, "They don't work with imperium technology."

"Then they've got the blasted cogboys too," Techpriests were the backbone of the imperial general's army, making and maintaining all their weapons. "It's only a matter of time for the Ultramarines then."

"They'd sooner die then turn their backs on the imperium," Kalad's lips pulled upwards into a sneer. "This travesty portrays how poorly you've kept your army in line."

The General finally paled under the glare of the Imperial superhuman.

Librarian Quade, who ran regular mindscans over the General, reached for Kalad's attention. "Brother, I feel that you are being too harsh on him."

"It's not on me that I was issued cowardly men!" Spittle flew from Ignatov's nervous expression as he spoke, "Mark my words, Ultramarine, they'll all be executed shortly!"

"That's if they don't die by my people in battle," The farseer and the General glared at each other, the tension between them toxic. But just then, far outside the base, within the perimeter of the Farseer's psionic sphere of surveillance, a foot stepped in. She twitched, staring towards the direction of the psionic alarms.

"They're coming," Eyes shifted to her. "I can feel it."

Along one of the vent tunnels that lead into the coalition base, a tube squirted out a green paste into the mouth of a human face, dotted with bits of metal implants embedded throughout Ultramarine Lance's career. He and his surrounding comrades left their helmets on the dirt crusted metal floor, the temperature having suddenly dropped to comfortable levels to do so.

Lance gulped down the paste, eyeing both directions up and down the long dark tunnel. He and his brothers knew why they weren't sweating bricks through their faces; something was coming their way. They left the safeties off on their bolters, many keeping some in hand, while others left their swords unsheathed- in the event a stealthsuit would pop into existence, they would be hacked to pieces.

They weren't worried; the fire warriors were nothing against the might of an Astartes squadron, even with a better hold of tactics. Lance snorted. Even if they got the best of them, they created an opening for the rest of the Coalition- the large quantities of "friendly" Tau fire warriors and guardsmen- to come and meet their mettle.

They don't stand a chance, Lance observed.

But suddenly, the metal around them started to vibrate. The eight Ultramarine strong patrol stood to attention. It feels like an engine, they all thought together. A light around a corner far down the tunnel earned the fixation of their gun barrels.

Then, one after the other, they lowered at the appearance of the Cadian Guardsmen escort, the Imperial tank finally revealing itself, its tracks the source of the vibration. They let out sighs of relief, confident that the Coalition engineers- human and xeno- had made quick work in assembling mechanized infantry to support their position. But Lance felt a pang of suspicion ring out in his head; no one had warned him of the reinforcements.

The Guardsmen approached silently, nervousness plain on their persons even through the darkness shrouding their faces in shadows, but that was always how the small humans were around the Adeptus Astartes.

Regardless, Lance still felt the need to call it in straight to the Force Commander. "Come in Brother-Captain," His index and middle finger pressed on the coms implant behind his ear.

"What do you sense?" Kalad's hand itched towards his hilt, the sense of danger from the Farseer's voice not alluding him.

"Familiar minds getting closer-" A cascade of proximity violations threatened to give her a migraine- "hundreds."

Her eyes narrowed at Kalad, "Human and Tau."

Kalad looked to his psyker for verification, "Brother-librarian?"

Quade felt the approaching murderous intent, adrenaline already priming his hearts to beat faster. "They mean to harm us, Markus."

Ignatov's face grew an extra shade paler, "Emperor…"

The heads of the present swivelled in the direction of a group barging in through the wraithbone door. They calmed at the sight of the techpriest flanked by the Earth Caste scientists.

But the enginseer didn't carry good news with him, "The probes we sent are not reporting in."

Kalad wasn't surprised; the quick response of the traitor guardsmen indicated they must've seen the intrusion, and have already destroyed the drones in response. Kalad was just about to get the enginseer up to speed, when a voice got his attention through his coms.

"Come in Brother-Captain, do you read me?" It was one of his own.

"I read you battle-brother," He responded, when a sliver of sudden awareness ran down his spine; he hadn't let the patrols know about the traitor guardsmen.

"Did you greenlight a hellhound to aid us, sir?"

It was too late. A river of fire spewed forth from the barrel of the black tank. They were bathed in flaming prometheum tar that stuck to their armor, the dark blue now singed black, the heat soaking its way towards their flesh, cooking them from the inside. They collapsed to the ground, screaming, until they fell silent.

The invaders advanced, two squads of four lugging massive guns to the front, until they skidded to a halt and propped their large weapons on tripod legs, the gunners aiming down the electronic sights while their partners spotted out kills with binos. They picked off the still squirming Ultramarines with red laser fire.

Kalad's voice buzzed through a vox radio, "Brother, those guardsmen are traitor forces-"

"I know Brother-Captain." Battle-Brother Lance- the second last to be scalded by the fire- laid on the ground facing the approaching army, half of his bare face burnt to crisps.

"I haven't got long, so listen well-" Lance hacked a cough. He maintained his remaining eye on the advancing traitors, "One hellhound coming down this sector, flanked by approximately twenty Cadians, one Lascannon and one Autocannon covering their advance."

He suppressed a cough as four machines zoomed past overhead, through the corner of his eye he saw them continue closer towards the base.

Kalad assumed the pause meant he was finished, "Thank you brother-"

"Drones just flew overhead, scouts by the look of it," He didn't bother turning his head back to the advance. Even as the sound of running tracks grew and louder. He closed his eye, and dropped his voice to a whisper. "May the emperor guide our eternal souls through the storms we weather."

"Emperor guide us, brother."

The Ultramarine didn't make a sound as he was crushed under the full weight of the hellhound tank rolling over his body.

The sound of weapons fire echoed through the tunnels of the ventilation system. Swarms of Tau drones buzzed around the Ultramarine outposts, firing off at them and wasting their enemy's ammunition.

The fast-moving and far reaching Eldar Guardian patrols came running- the back end of their number writhing from being set aflame. They ran while returning fire with the advancing platoons of hellhound supported infantry. The traitor guardsmen marked themselves with sashes- white strips of pleather torn from the House lord couch tied around their torsos. When the retreating Eldar finally mixed in with the Ultramarines, they were pelted with shrapnel explosions set off by grenade launchers, sweeping many of them off their feet.

They were too slow to recover, and the hellhound flamer tank had already covered the distance. Their screams joined the bouncing echoes of similar skirmishes throughout the ventilation system. The sound of the traitor army's march was heard alongside them as well.

Battlesuits rattled their gatling guns off into charging Ultramarines. Eldar Rangers moved under the cover of darkness, hoping to ambush the assaulters, only to be scorched and cut down upon revealing themselves, the traitor guardsmen having psykers among them. Whenever the hellhounds met too much resistance, they fell back and let the lascannon placements cut their foes down.

The Traitor Tau- or loyalist considering the ethereal being on their side- reinforced the areas behind the pushing guardsmen, covering intersections with rail gun toting battlesuits, preventing coalition forces from looping back around the guardsmen assault teams.

All the way past them, in front of the coalition's tunnel base, loyal guardsmen and Tau scrambled to set up defenses. Three tunnels fed into the base, their convergence the point of fortification.

Sandbags filled from the dirt underneath the outside's snow were dragged and stacked into barriers to cover their own lascannon and autocannon placements, Tau and Guardsmen pulling them into place. Whatever few drone squads the earth caste could whip up were locked into the rounded walls. Artillery cannons were dragged out by the Ultramarines and Eldar to cover two of the three tunnels. Everyone prayed; faces buried in clasped hands, incense burners dangling as words were spoken in latin, speakers and listeners alike hoping for it to reach not just their god- but every god the coalition members worshipped.

When the prayers were finished, Kalad, Quade and Ignatov got back on their feet to spearhead the defenses.

"The left-most tunnel will have the hole blocking their way," Brother-Captain Kalad observed, eyeing the tunnels as the occasional retreating Ultramarine and Eldar came running through. "An assault marine team will take care of the stopped vehicle."

"The concentration of Psykers from both the guardsmen and the Eldar will render the stealthsuit's main tactic worthless," Quade added, his sight giving him a stronger picture of the approaching forces.

"The Hellhounds will try to get close enough to scorch us away," Ignatov always favored the tanks- when they were on his side. "The artillery and autocannons will slow their advance."

"Drone squads will take care of the closing in infantry," Ilit sauntered in, the motors of his battlesuit whirling as they drove his feet towards the group.

"My rangers can take care of them from afar," The Farseer filed from behind Ilit, her seer council flanking her. "Their long rifles can strike from a distance."

Soon, all the forces patrolling the outer reaches of the base managed to fall back home, attaching to the defense effort. "My head enginseer," Ignatov called on the lone and now promoted techpriest, "dispatch skull drones to these key areas."

Red-eyed probes hovered through the defenses, setting up an early alert system. Everything was ready; Ilit, Kalad, and Quade took their places in the front, Ignatov and Talrys coordinating from the back. The scramble finally halted as everyone found their station. Silence reigned supreme…

Quade groaned in pain, not to be unnoticed by Kalad. "What is it brother?"

"The psykers on their side…" Sweat beaded down his forehead. "They're blocking me out."

"So it's true then?" Kalad closed his eyes and shook his head at the ground. "They've turned all the captured Guardsmen, even the psykers."

"Something's coming down!" A guardsman shouted suddenly, signaling his human and Tau comrades to aim their guns down the direction he was pointing at.

It hovered towards them, alone in the dark tunnel. "It's not mine!" Ilit reported, his sights honing in on the Tau drone.

"It's a scout!" Ignatov swiftly produced his own sword, "don't let it get close!"

The Guardsmen and Tau fire warriors opened fire, first sending it spinning, and then causing it to flip, crashing on its back against the floor. The weapons fire echoed throughout the tunnels.

"They know we're here now," Quade felt the psyker's push draw closer.

"Techpriest!" Ignatov fumed at the robed cyborg. "How did it get past?!"

"I've upped the sensors on the skull probes," the enginseer tapped away at his datapads, "it won't happen a-"

Something caught the Enginseer's attention, the commanders swivelling their heads to see the suddenly silent cogboy.

"Two of the probes have been destroyed!" He exclaimed.

Kalad's eyes widened, "Which tunnels?!"

He pointed to the middle and rightmost tunnel, which made sense to Kalad. They must've spotted the hole down the other one.

A Tau fire warrior braced his rifle, "More of them coming down the middle!"

Down the tunnel, dozens of the tan colored drones floated around the corner. No men or tank in sight.

Kalad's tone was calm, "They're sending in the drones to pick at our defenses first."

"Of all the most cowardly…" Ignatov growled. "Turret placements save your fire for the real push, rifle bearing infantry- Open fire!"

The Tau and Guardsmen line erupted at the oncoming swarm of traitor Tau drones. The drones were the cheapest, assembled on site by drone harbinger vehicles tucked away around the corner. The attacking clouds swirled towards the defenders, the spearhead drones shedding off three by three, only to be replaced quickly by four more behind them.

When the distance was closed enough, the front hovered into the formation of a wall. That's when their guns opened fire on the front defenders. Blue blasts poked dirt leaking holes in the sandbags, stained tan and green armor with black scorch marks, and blinded exposed faces.

The Autocannons didn't need the order to start firing at the surrounding machines, slicing their front flyers like butter. Within seconds, the wall was dispersed. But that's when they revealed their escort, standing out from the floating dishes; it was a collection of saboteur skulls.

By the time everyone saw them, it was too late. They closed in on the turrets, and tendrils of lightning erupted from them. The fire of turrets within the radius cut off suddenly, leaving the rest of the swarm to continue advancing. A couple dozen of them were the first to break the defense perimeter. Hundreds waited behind them.

The remaining Ultramarines and Eldar filed forward to help the smaller defenders clear them out. Quade gathered whatever Psyker they had left around him.

"Pykers!" Lightning arced from his body and attached to the sanctioned psychics, amplifying their powers together as one. "Curse these mechanical trespassers!"

A wave of purple energy bursted forward. It washed over the attack drones, stopping their advance and neutering their guns, and the wave of immobility flowed all the way down the tunnel, until the swarm that was cutting in their defense was nothing more than hundreds of floating scrap metal.

The defenders made quick work of them, an onslaught of tracer fire shredding them to bits and pieces. Ignatov waved a hand to the enginseer, "repair the autocannons now!"

"They're here!" A guardsman shouted, panic in his voice. The techpriest immediately sprinted into action, servitor skull carrying tools flanking him as he moved to prepare the anti-vehicle cannon- to deal with the line of flame spewing tanks that were rounding the corner down the middle tunnel.

"Hammerheads!" A Tau fire warrior reported, terrified at the sight of the tanks from his own side. "Right tunnel!"

The floating railgun platforms filed in as well. Hands were now shaking at the incoming enemy force, having not expected something as big they were getting down in the dark tunnels.

Farseer Talrys, in an act of desperation, flung her mind outwards.

"What are you doing, Farseer?" Her seer council gathered around the sitting Eldar, feeling her energy ripple out at random.

"Support me, my council," She shouted, their voices feeling very far away from her. "I can sense that one of them is sleeping…"

They all sat one by one, tiny bits of power already leaking from them and into her. "Who, Farseer? Who?"

Drool dripped from Adam's mouth and onto his pillow case with each snore he took. "Hguuuuuugh...mm...Hot elf lady…" he whispered in his sleep with a sweet smile. "...Hiiii.."

"Artillery?!" Ignatov demanded a quick report of the two big guns they had, the hellhounds and hammerheads closing in.

"One's on the fritz!" The gunners facing the middle tunnel reported.

"We can still manage!" The ones facing the hammerheads added in.

"Listen up!" Kalad got everyone's attention, standing on a sandbag. "Move the downed gun out of the way until the techpriest repairs it."

They already got to work, dragging it.

"Ultramarines!" His blue armored comrades straightened their postures. "Heft the other gun between the two tunnels! It alone will have to cover the Hammerheads and Hellhound!"

"Fire that damn gun already!" The general shouted at his men.

The Ultramarines and guardsmen worked together, and the smoke plumed from the cannon. Its thunder nearly deafened the defenders. Its strike left a sizable dent in the hammerhead's armor, verging on penetrating completely. And yet it did not stifle its advance.

The two gatling guns in front of the Tau tank rattled off, firing into the crowds of defenders who returned their own fire.

The defender's infantry may have added to the bulk of the firing, but the Autocannons dealt the most damage. Holes started to appear all along its hull, threatening to eventually reach the pilot.

The Ultramarines grappled the back end and the barrel of the artillery cannon with all of their arms. They pivoted and pushed it- facing it down the tunnel the hellhounds were advancing from. The guardsmen that manned the thing opened its back hatch, slid a round in, closed it and locked it with a spun of the handwheel.

"Wait!" Quade stopped them from pulling the firing lever.

"Sir?!" They shouted back over the loud gunfire.

Quade's mind felt for the floor the hellhounds were moving; he sensed a weak spot.

"Fire three feet in front of them!" He commanded.

The guardsman nodded and got to work. One used binoculars to spot it out, calculating the speed of the approaching tank, traitor guardsmen moving through the sides to fire down at the defenders. He called in the coordinates, handwheels lifted and adjusted the barrel to strike its mark like an archer about to arc his arrow.

"On my mark!" He held a hand up...and then flew it downwards. "Fire!"

The shot rippled through the air. It's explosion sent enemy foot soldiers flying- and tore a hole through the thin sheet of metal that was the very ground they walked on. The forward end of the hellhound barely touched the edge, but its weight caused the rip to widen. Like a sunken ship, it slid downwards, tipping its front end through the hole, the occupants struggling to crawl out through the top hatch.

They joined the tank as it tumbled out of the vent- and smacked the concrete floor of the basement.

This elicited cheers from the defenders covering that tunnel, watching the advance of the hellhounds crawl to a stop at the sudden appearance of a hole in the ground. The cheering stopped when the hellhounds doubled back, seeking to join the hammerheads in their closing advance.

"I don't suppose we could do that again?" Ignatov crouched up behind the hulking librarian.

"No," He already sensed the effects the tear had on the whole system. "One more and it all collapses."

"Last resort then," The General locked eyes with Quade, a smile on his face. "Always need those."

The defense focused their attention on the intact tunnel. Men crowded sandbags, replacing soldiers that fell only to fall themselves and be replaced again. The Ultramarines shifted the cannon, and it was managing to poke holes through the frontmost hammerhead.

Earth Caste drones ceaselessly ran repairs on the hammerheads, patching holes and soldering damaged circuits back together.

"The Turrets are repaired!" The Techpriest reported, already moving onto the broken artillery cannon.

"Get them up here! All of them!" Ignatov waved them with his sword. The heavy weapon teams lugged the guns to the right tunnel, setting them up and doubling the wall of fire raining down on the attackers.

Further down the leftmost tunnel- the one ignored because of the hole that would've prevented any vehicles from crossing- feet landed with loud clunks on the other side.

"We're doing it!" Ignatov felt a rush of excitement as he watched the hammerheads start to slow down.

Holes collected too fast for them to repair, and the movement of infantry to cover their front was now an instant death sentence.

The feet down the other tunnel sprang into a sprint, their steps like hammers against steel.

"It's almost done!" The bright arc of the techpriest's welding arm heated up melted bits of metal that kept the back hatch from opening.

The heavy footsteps closed in.

"It's done!" The Techpriest shouted to the Ultramarines, who surrounded the cannon.

A figure flew out of the darkness- an Ultramarine with the omega symbols on his shoulder pads scratched out- and landed his power sword into the back of the Space Marine that hefted the barrel.

It tore through the backpack, stunning the Ultramarine. The attacker drew his bolter and shot the guardsmen that were moving to man the cannon. The stunned Ultramarine spun with his own power sword, slashing through the helmet from the top, killing his attacker- just as the rest of the traitors came charging in from the ignored tunnel.

They went for the important bits first; the squad manning the cannon were mowed down, blown to bloody bits and pieces. Grenades were flung at the turret placements, the gunners flying in the air as their tools were destroyed forever. It wasn't long until the Ultramarines sprung into action against the traitor marines.

"Traitors!" Kalad seethed with rage, hacking one attacker down until all that was left was a torso, a leg, and an arm.

The defense was broken. The smaller Tau and Guardsmen were forced to focus on the hulking mass of invading space marines breaking through their perimeter like a hot blade against ice. The front hammerhead was halfway to breaking when the barrage lifted, a swarm of earth caste drones orbiting the tank as they managed to regain their momentum. They closed the distance between them and the defenders- and the railguns went to work on the barricade.

Explosions forced the defenders to retreat from the hole, falling back to the rows of sandbags in front of their base. Eldar, Guardsmen and Tau alike packed into them, the remaining Ultramarines keeping their traitor counterparts from breaking through to them.

Lightning shot out from Quade's hands, burning through squadrons of traitor marines- when one shot through the falling crowd and tackled the psyker. "Quade!" Janice shouted down at the librarian. "Surrender yourself!"

"Janice!" The Librarian spat out the name, his eyes glowing purple. "I remember when you were still a neophyte, barely a century ago, excited from surviving your first venture into a tyranid hive ship." He bared his teeth at his former battle-brother, "Those were worse conditions than this! How could you turn now!"

When silence met him, Quade reached in slightly. He reeked of fear. "Coward!"

"I fear for your life, brother!" He shouted back, sadness in his eyes. Then, his voice fell into a whisper, knowing the psyker would still be able to hear it through the battle. "Look deeper."

And so the librarian did. He dived into the traitor's mind all the way- until he felt the signals that controlled his two hearts. But then, Jonas stopped himself. He saw the clouds of emotion that guided the Marine's decisions, and sorted through them...

He did not see the make of a traitor.

Then, Quade's eyes widened in terror. A psionic message pulsed throughout the battle- something only meant for the Eldar to pick up. The voice was Farseer Talrys: My people, she spoke with the gentleness of a mother caressing her child's forehead, take down Ultramarine Captain Markus Kalad, Imperial Brigadier General Grados Ignatov, and Tau Commander Ilit.

He gaped at the Eldar surrounding the unaware Tau and Guardsmen, We are surrendering.

Kalad's sword fell out of his hands- as blades pinned his arms to the ground. "Aaargh!" He screamed in a homicidal rage.

"AAAAA!" Electricity arced from Ignatov's body, glaring in horror at the Farseer's betrayal.

The Eldar ripped through the smaller guardsmen and fire warriors from behind, first cutting off the heads of sergeants and spraying fire team leaders with shuriken stars collecting along their backs and faces.

Attack drones swarmed in once more. Ilit, too preoccupied with the attacking space marines, started leak fluids from his battlesuit. Gradually, it lost power and became his steel cage.

Finally, all but the Ultramarines dropped their weapons and threw up their hands in surrender, held at gunpoint by the Eldar. The small number of remaining Ultramarines abandoned the protective circle they had formed, now aiming to kill as many traitors before the last of them were shredded by the gatling turrets of the hammerhead, knocking over piles of sandbags as it hovered in.

"We surrender!" Farseer Talrys shouted out with hands above her head, her seer council following afterwards.

The Traitor marines aimed their weapons but didn't fire, "On your knees!"

Her and the rest of the Eldar guardians obeyed, the guardsmen and Tau following their lead.

And so, the Alliance of Tau, Eldar, and Man was defeated beneath the floor.

"They're surrendering sir," The major reported to the towering human. The 'cogboys', as he called the red robed cyborg dudes, had fixed a command terminal for him to relay intel on the battlefield.

"They did it," Eric said, looking at me and Andrew.

Andrew let a prideful smile grow on his face, "and just when we sent the Space Marines in."

"Yeah no kidding," Eric pinched the skin on his arm; he did that when his 'masterful' tactics backfired. "It was looking like we would've lost without them."

"That thing with the microwave freaked the fuck out of them," I said, remembering my gaping mouth as the supersoldiers all pledged their allegiances on one knee each. It was especially badass watching them use their swords to cut the iconography off their armors.

"What are your orders with the prisoners?" The Major asked. The boys looked to me to answer. I sighed.

"Hold them in the prison container thingy, you can hold trials but no executions," I waved a dismissive hand, "I'll buy hamster cages for whoever gets sentenced."

Another thought came up. "What happened to their supersoldier guys?" I asked. Eric's eyebrows raised at my choice of naming.

The Major spoke into his headset, a pause for a moment as he waited for the report. He looked up to me, "All but the leader were cut down."

"Oh, that's...fine I guess," I deflated. I wanted to recruit the remnants- make the handful of supersoldiers slightly bigger. They were badass after all.

Another voice drew the Major's attention away for a second. "One more thing, the sergeant that commanded our marines is requesting to be the one to deal with the Ultramarine leader."

"He can do whatever the hell he wants," I shrugged, "he just can't be easy on the dude."

The gunfire finally ended. A guardsman ignored the filing in soldiers, and clutched the body of a fallen friend. Former comrades wearing the white sash attempted to comfort him by the shoulder, only to have their hands smacked away, the guardsman screaming at them with rage seething through his features.

Others fell to their knees and clutched their heads, wailing at feeling the despair of defeat for a second time. The wounded from all sides were treated by the Apothecaries, swept up in the defection of the Space Marines. Those that still walked were all pulled into formation by the traitor marines, who tied them all together with ropes, strings provided by the House Lords.

Kalad's armor was half stripped of his armor and weapons, his bare and wounded chest exposed with the bits of metal tubing sticking in and out of it. The blood already coagulated around the wounds dealt by power swords. Quade and the remaining psykers were kept together, psy-jammers locked around their heads by the traitor tech priests, the unbounded psykers surrounding them and preventing any retaliation attempts.

Ilit struggled to move in his tipped over and crippled battlesuit, fire warriors from the victor's side gathered around watching his every move. Ethereal Lud came striding in, and pressed the bottom of her staff into the suit. "So you are alive, Coward."

"I'm the coward?" Ilit wished he could spit at the Ethereal through his suit. "you betrayed your people to save your own life!"

"I think given time with me and the truth," She leaned into the red eyepiece, her face taking up his glitching screen, "your men will think otherwise."

The techpriests worked through the base with entourages of Guardsmen and Tau, stripping it of all it's parts; ammo stores, building materials, and research data units. By the time the remaining earth and water caste members of the research team were dragged out, the innards were picked clean.

The defeated were led through the tunnels. They passed burnt bodies whose aroma bleached the air of the cramped space. Railgun wielding battlesuits covered any opening in the tunnels the prisoners could run through, and kept the formation tight and orderly.

The Traitor Guardsmen were gentle with their job, not wanting to hurt their former friends any further, but the fire warriors, angered at the betrayal towards their Ethereal and not holding sympathy towards the other races, were cruel. They kicked and shoved the slow movers, those that gave talkback had to be untied as they were beaten half to death.

Eventually, they all climbed out of the vent in the living room, the couch springs hanging above them. Earth caste drones had sliced a large hole out of the plastic prison container, a round tan metal door being assembled over it.

It slid open with steam hissing out, and the prisoners were filed in one by one.

"And you'll leave us alone?" Talrys questioned the mon-keigh towering over her. House Lord Adam sat in a wheeled black leather chair, the Eldar Farseer standing on his desk looking up at him.

"Well, we'll bring up food to make sure you're well off-"

"But you'll leave us alone?" She repeated, almost in a pleading way.

Adam held up a hand, "I promise to leave you alone."

Farseer Talrys looked down and sighed. She had touched his exposed mind during his sleep- but not far enough to make him choke on his tongue. Instead, they talked. And when she got frustrated with his ceaseless lusting over her, she decided to do something useful and used his mind to divine the future.

She gripped her staff with a shaking hand. The visions she saw revealed a truth- one that resulted in half of the spectating seer council's suicides.

The images of what they saw were burned into their minds: a black, crystallized tree screaming with the sounds of pain, happiness, anger, love, lust, dreariness, sadness, pride and life. They remembered seeing the stream of thoughts and personalities flicker and die and reborn. They remembered looking into mirror images of themselves, the branches of the tree penetrating their bodies and merging with their blood vessels.

They remembered seeing the strange rooms full of Mon-keighs in white coats and face masks, picking and prodding at their exposed innards with tools the size of spears. And oddly enough, she remembered watching from a glass dish, as a grossly bearded mon-keigh eyed her with a microscope…

Kalad spent the sunfall toiling in the container, when they came for him in the night.

They stood over him as he sat in a corner by himself. The red paint they had used to cover their blue was cheap and unseemly, chips forming constantly under each movement. "Move."

He grumbled, but got to his feet anyway. Another squad dragged Ignatov by the elbow and pulled Quade by rope.

"What is the meaning of this?" The General attempted to hide his nervousness behind a commanding tone. "Where are you taking us?"

"You will bear witness-" the speaking marine turned to Kalad- "to his example."

Kalad breathed through his nose. He knew they'd come for him first- the Ultramarine Captain posed the greatest threat among the prisoners. He wondered what treatment the so-called "House Lords" had in store for him…

He didn't need to wait for long.

The Traitor marines gathered around an opening to the outside- the blizzard raging once more, with flakes sprinkling the tiled floor. The cold air spilled in like an icey wave, and Ignatov shivered under its weight.

"What are you doing?" The General's bluster broke. His eyes darted between the gatherers, who stared back at him with silent menace.

One without a helmet walked forth- Privia Janice, the new Chapter Master of the recently assembled Adeptus Astartes chapter: The House Guard. He returned gazes with Kalad. "Take off the rest of his armor."

The "rest of his armor" was whatever covered his lower waist. He was left stark naked, the cold now wrapping around all corners of his body.

"Markus Corivius Kalad," Janice began to chagrin of Quade and Ignatov, "For the crimes of tresspass, warmaking, mass murder, and conspiracy to commit murder against the House Lords, you are hereby sentenced to die at the hands of the elements."

Kalad tsked at the sentence. "Don't have the stones to do it yourself, Traitor?"

A smaller human stepped out from behind the Chapter Master. He wore a mismatched uniform; a great coat, commissar hat and the general's own epaulette shoulder pads were looted to put it all together. "You will know what it means to not receive the warmth of the House Lord's domain you ever so shunned."

"Major Quelch!" Prisoner Ignatov's eyes flared with anger and recognition at his former administrative assistant. "You weasely fuck!"

Quelch, the former Major, sneered at the former General. "That's Lord Commander Militant Quelch of the House Watch now!"

Janice glanced at the ambitious upstart. He had suggested the name House Watch for the new Space Marine chapter, but Quelch fought him on it with a dreary House Lord Adam overseeing. The "Lord Commander" wanted to leave behind the title of the Guard, evidently.

Janice pulled himself from Quelch to face his former Company Commander. "Markus-"

"You don't have the right to call me that!" He spat back. The landing spittle burnt it's mark in the floor.

Janice's eyes widened at the outburst, in what Kalad interpreted to be mock hurt. Then, they slowly hardened. "Walk out the door, and never come back."

Kalad seethed at him, "and I suppose you think you can stop me if I do?"

"Kalad." Rounds clanged out of Bolters as the barrels were fed with new ones, training themselves against Kalad. "Don't make this harder than it has to be."

Kalad didn't hear them; his mind was too abuzz with thoughts on what to do. They kept a good distance, and he wouldn't be able to cross it fast enough to reach for their guns. He'll die, surely, but he could still drive his thumbs through the eyes of their self proclaimed leader before they stop him-

"Do as he says, Kalad."

Quade's voice got through to Kalad, perhaps stopping him from getting himself killed. They looked at each other. Kalad always trusted the Librarian's judgement, for it had the benefit of foresight. He must've known something- perhaps that his chances of living to fight were greater out in the cold, without his power armor…

Or perhaps he felt that the House Guard, with their itchy trigger fingers, would've gun them all down if he didn't stop him.

Breathing heavily, Kalad stepped forward. He passed the maliciously smiling "Lord Commander" and the passively staring "Chapter Master". He hopped over a long flat metal lining along the opening- what he realized to be the track for a door. Snow crunched under his feet, the layers so high it covered him waist high.

The bits of his body- toes, legs, and balls were already numbing from the cold. He turned to look back at the party seeing him off. Ignatov looked on with grief plain in his eyes, his head sunken. Quade closed his eyes, sneaking in a nod as well. Kalad hoped it meant something…

Janice nodded at his marines. Four lined themselves along the glass, and pressed their hands on it. Their knees pushed against the ground, and the massive door started to squeak forward. It was loud and grating on the ears. Ignatov flinched at it. Kalad then noticed the man sitting atop the door's handle, up high.

Markus glared hard at Janice. This isn't the last you're gonna see of me.

He glared, even as the white frame of the door passed by, even though Janice's reflection overtook the sight of Kalad on the inside. Janice didn't look away as he spoke, "lock it up."

The guardsmen- or watchmen, as they've been renamed- hefted the giant lever downwards. The lock clicked into place.

Kalad looked away from the former members of his army, now all prisoners and traitors, and started wading through the snow.

"Dude, holy shit," Andrew stared wide eyed at his phone.

The activity of the living room died down. The Tau had the generosity to make barrack buildings for the Guard- Watchmen, and the Space Marines, now coated with that red paint I had managed to rummage from our hallway closet.

"What?" I said from beside Andrew, Eric and Adam catching sleep in their rooms.

He tilted his phone for me to look. It was breaking news on youtube, titled Little Green Creatures Shoot at Forest Officers.

Out of sight, in the barrack buildings of the House Watch, a Watchmen, a former Guardsmen Sergeant now a trooper again, gritted his teeth in anger while looking at the object in his hand.

A woman with dark short hair sat in front of the camera, "After a string of small animal corpses were found littering the La Verendrye Wildlife Reserve, conservation officers traced the mysterious phenomena to a strange nest along the Lac de la Vieille lake."

Video played; it followed the POV of a conservation officer moving into what looked like tiny buildings made of junk. Tiny green humanoids scattered around the base like ants, manning rusted turrets and swarming the men's knees with guns shooting upwards. The conservation officer in particular swore a storm, "Argh! It's like getting stung by hornets!"

"I'm a fucking traitor." Tears ran down the former Sergeant's cheeks. The men around were fast asleep, having finally gotten through the long day and earned some rest. "I'm a fucking traitor," his hands shook, and the pin started to clack against the shell.

The video then cut out, and the voice of the woman narrated images of a smashed up tiny rusted boat with very sharp edges, almost like they wanted to make it look like a toothed monster. "After this scene, two small boats came out of the nest, the cannons on it's deck almost like a small handgun. It wounded one of the officers before a rock could be thrown at it. The officer in question is now making a speedy recovery, and the creatures living in the nest were soon captured, and are now going through the lab to verify their origins."

Me and Andrew looked at each other, knowing what "going through the lab" really meant.

"The standing theory is that this event is no doubt linked to the Prince Edward Island, ABM labs outbreak event currently sweeping parts of the world, back in February of 2030."

The video stopped, and I pressed my mouth into my fist. This wasn't just here; it was happening all across southern Ontario. I looked at the watchmen, moving around the floor in patrols, which seemed utterly pointless to me if not for the sake of deluding them into thinking they're doing something actually useful.

The pin clicked as it was pulled from the grenade. "We are all traitors."

Whatever. I'm sure the smart guys with University degrees working in the labs will figure it all out. POP!

The sound of a firecracker going off jolted me and Andrew. Tiny men shouted from a smoking barracks. They called for Medics and... Apothecaranaries, whatever the hell they were called. I stared at Andrew, whose breath was calming down from going rapid.

What the fuck are we gonna do?

Author's Note: Well, here it is; the second part in the three part House War story. I fitted as much as I could in it, a lot of tasty bits and explorations. Some parts feel a bit rushed to me, but this whole thing is suppose to wrap up in only three chapters, and it feels way bigger than that. But I know if I planned it to be any longer, we're probably never going to see the end.

I hope you had fun reading! And if it feels like some details were dropped, some holes were left opened, don't worry; that's probably the stuff I have planned for the last chapter. See you then!