A/N: If this story gets buggy, please PM me. The uploader really doesn't like me right now, so I've resorted to editing an earlier document.

Disclaimer: In this particular reality, I do not own Warhammer 40k or Code Geass.

Chapter Two: Death of the Imperium

Imperial Battleship Emperor's Vengeance, Mars Orbit
Forty-Three Days After the Second Battle of Macragge

It was a fact long denied: Battle Fleet Solar was dying. Once the galaxy's mightiest fleet, Battle Fleet Solar was a mere shadow of its former self. The once-inexhaustible flow of ships from the shipyards of Mars dried up as Chaos overran the galaxy. The ships Mars could send them were flimsy, built using inferior modern techniques, and never in sufficient supply to replace losses. In such dark times, even these poor imitations of Imperial vessels were regarded as nearly priceless, and the loss of even the smallest escort was a devastating blow to Battle Fleet Solar. None of the High Lords expected the Battle Fleet to last past the century. As Chaos incursions grew larger and more frequent, many didn't expect Battle Fleet Solar to last past of the decade.

The Emperor's Vengeance was absolutely priceless to both the Mechanicum and the Imperium. One of perhaps only three Emperor-class battleships left in Imperial hands, the vessel was well over ten thousand years old. Its squadrons of attack craft could quickly turn the tide of a fleet battle, but what truly made it priceless was the technology it contained. Much of it was lost to the Mechanicum, and the ship was too valuable to risk reverse-engineering it. With more and more construction techniques being lost every day, the Tech-Priests of Mars were in universal agreement that, should construction of a ship the size of the Emperor's Vengeance be undertaken with modern techniques, the resulting ship would snap in half under its own mass. The Emperor's Vengeance was utterly irreplaceable and nearly impossible to repair. As the High Lords were reluctant to expose it to any kind of enemy fire, all that firepower was currently orbiting above Mars, while Chaos fleets had yet to penetrate even the outer fringes of the system.

While the ship itself was irreplaceable, the rest of Battle Fleet Solar possessed no qualms about cannibalizing its crew. Casualties, especially amongst the picket ships, were incredibly heavy, and the Emperor's Vengeance represented a ready source of extra manpower. Years of essentially acting as a troop depot left the battleship with a skeleton crew of barely two hundred thousand for a ship requiring in excess of a million men to operate efficiently. It had been reduced to a mobile command center for Battle Fleet Solar, using its few remaining Astropaths to quickly relay messages around the system.

"Lord Admiral, the picket ships have detected a large presence in the Warp. They have dispatched ships to investigate."

A presence in the Warp meant nothing good. Few Imperial naval squadrons were large enough to cast a noticeable Warp shadow anymore, and those squadrons never left Terra. Occasionally, a large troop convoy would arrive, bearing the remnants of one world or another, but those had stopped almost entirely a month ago. If there was a Warp shadow, it was undoubtedly a Chaos fleet, one of the many under the Despoiler that had harassed Battle Fleet Solar nonstop for years. At first, the fresh and motivated crews had driven back the Great Enemy with ease, but now these crews were exhausted and demoralized. Driving back each successive wave was becoming harder and harder, and rumor had it that the Despoiler himself was en route to Holy Terra with a fleet dwarfing all others before it.

Imperial Light Cruiser Mors Noctis
Outskirts of Terran System

The Mors Noctis, a name roughly meaning "Death of the Night" in High Gothic, was a light cruiser of the Dauntless-class. Thousands of such ships once patrolled the space lanes, their full complement of weapons batteries, lances, and torpedoes providing a devastating surprise to anyone underestimating the tiny ship. Those glory days are long past, and the Mors Noctis was nothing compared to its ancestors. Barely two hundred years old, the inferior modern construction techniques that went into building it precluded its participation in anything heavier than a skirmish, as even a few stray shots could disable it.

The five light cruisers of Ascendens Ius squadron, four Endeavor-class vessels and an Endurance-class, were the larger threat. Capable of fending off persistent attacks by escort vessels, they were truly fearsome when working in tandem, their combined firepower capable of gutting a cruiser. At roughly a thousand years old, they were of superior quality to the Mors Noctis, though they were still incapable of holding out in a prolonged firefight. Against the warships of Chaos, some of which dated back to the Great Crusade, they would stand little chance.

"Captain, we have detected multiple Warp signatures off port bow. Auspex scans have identified them as a Chaos fleet consisting of eighteen vessels."

The Mors Noctis and its escorts sped towards the Chaos fleet, pushing their engines to the limit, in order to take advantage of their close-in firepower. As the Ascendens Ius squadron moved into torpedo range, the Mors Noctis provided covering fire with its lance batteries. One of the high-intensity energy beams slammed nearly head-on into an Infidel-class raider attempting to lock its torpedoes onto the approaching squadron. The lance punched through the unarmored prow of the escort ship, through several decks, before exiting out the lower left stern. The vessel went dark, and tumbled through space for several seconds before its plasma reactors went critical and exploded. The debris momentarily confused the sensors of the other Chaos vessels, giving the escort squadron time to close in.

"Ascendens Ius squadron is making attack run!"

The four Endeavor-class vessels split into two groups, each taking one flank of the Chaos fleet. They fired broadsides into the midst of the enemy fleet as fast as the crews could load fresh shells into the batteries, with little regard for a firing solution. The two fleets were already practically on top of one another. One of the light cruisers pivoted in space, firing a full spread of torpedoes into the Chaos fleet. Several of them impacted an Idolator-class raider, disabling nearly every weapon battery on the port side and sending the vessel spinning through space with several gaping holes in the hull. Atmosphere spewed from the wounds, the air crystallizing as it met the void. A barrage of lances from the Mors Noctis broke the ship's back, causing it to buckle and then split in half.

By now, the Chaos fleet had recovered from its initial shock at losing two ships, and began to fight back. Lances and torpedoes crisscrossed through space between the two fleets. The pair of cruisers the Chaos formation was centered around traded lances with the Mors Noctis, though at those ranges, they were doing little more than annoying one another. The void shields of the Mors Noctis held for the first few salvos, as the Ascendens Ius squadron broke off their attack run to strike the cruisers. The Endurance-class vessel used its lances to pepper one of the cruisers' shields while the four Endeavor-class vessels closed in, firing salvoes of torpedoes in hopes of disabling the cruiser's lance batteries.

As the Imperial light cruisers concentrated their efforts on the Chaos cruisers, the escorts struck back. A lance from one of the escort vessels punched through the taxed shields of Ascendens Ius Beta and strike unprotected armor. The armor glowed for a second, before finally giving way. The lance beam exited out the opposite flank of the ship, punching through ammunition stores and gun batteries. The already-catastrophic damage was compounded by secondary explosions, threatening to tear the fragile vessel in two. A torpedo salvo from another Chaos vessel slammed into the escort amidships, blowing in half in one enormous explosion, peppering the void shields of Ascendens Ius Gamma.

The loss of Ascendens Ius Beta was not in vain, as Ascendens Ius Delta and Epsilon were able to flank around the cruisers while the Chaos escorts were busy ripping the other escort group apart. Swinging their hulls around, the two Endeavor-class escorts unleashed the broadside firepower they were so well known for, sending salvoes of weapons fire into the lightly-protected rear of the Chaos cruiser. A volley of torpedoes slammed into the engines of one of the cruisers, disabling them. The sudden loss of propulsion, coupled with the inertia of the torpedo hits, send the crippled ship careening towards the second cruiser. The crew of the cruiser noticed its disabled counterpart too late, and the two cruisers collided. The second cruiser was sliced in half, as a barrage of lances from the Mors Noctis and Ascendens Ius Alpha finished off the first cruiser.

It didn't take an Inquisitor to realize that something was wrong. The Chaos vessels making up the fleet in front of them were flimsy imitators, built with modern techniques. As the forces of Chaos swept through the galaxy, they captured countless Forge Worlds and the vast repositories of knowledge they contained. Many of their ships used superior construction materials and techniques dating back to the Age of Imperium, and some went back as far as the Great Crusade. The presence of flimsy modern ships indicated only one thing: a probing attack. And a probing attack always indicated a bigger fleet.

The captain of the Mors Noctis was the first to realize this, turning towards his communications officer. His tone, underscored with panic, left no room for question.

"Get me the Emperor's Vengeance, and don't take no for an answer!"

The realization had come too late. The communications officer had scarcely established a channel with a Warp rift opened, the massive form of a Desolator-class battleship pushing through. The vessel plowed through half the Chaos scouting force, ironically doing more damage than the Imperial squadron sent to meet it. A salvo from its main batteries reduced the Mors Noctis to dust. With the Dauntless-class out of the way, the Ascendens Ius squadron stood little chance. Their torpedoes and lances were pinpricks against the battleship. A few more salvoes silenced their brave, but ultimately futile, resistance.

Imperial Battleship Emperor's Vengeance, Mars Orbit
Ten Hours After the Destruction of the Mors Noctis

"Lord Admiral, the Mors Noctis and its escorts have disappeared from our sensor net. We have detected a significant Chaos fleet near the patrol's last reported position."

The Lord Admiral turned to face the unfortunate captain, his expression that of somebody facing something particularly unpleasant. The captain gulped, fully expecting that the Lord Admiral would just shoot him right then and there. For one moment, the captain swore that he saw the Lord Admiral's hand twitch towards his laspistol. The Lord Admiral closed his eyes, as if collecting his thoughts, before turning to address the captain in an almost dangerously calm manner.

"What do we have that can make the intercept?"

"Lord Admiral," the captain began, motioning for a nearby crewmember to activate the hololith display, "seven cruiser battle groups are deployed in these locations," the captain reeled off as he jabbed a points on the map, "and a battle cruiser group stationed here," he pointed to Jupiter's orbit, "can be underway in four hours, totaling just under five hundred."

"How long under they can engage the Chaos fleet?" the admiral asked, his concentration almost exclusively on the swarms of little triangles representing Chaos and Imperial ships alike.

"The Chaos fleet comes from above the system plane, and, as a result, the closest battle group is approximately forty-three hours away."

The captain was interrupted by a naval orderly whispering something into his ear. The captain's face took on a shocked expression, as the hololith updated itself.

"Lord Admiral, we have received reports that the remnants of Battle Fleet Ultima and the Ultramarines chapter fleet have appeared at the edge of the system. They totally seventy-five ships, and are in direct path of the Chaos fleet, and will enter firing range in seventeen hours."

The Lord Admiral closed his eyes again, leaning his head back as if deep in thought. Within thirty seconds, he had made his decision.

"Open a line to Battle Fleet Ultima."

Imperial Battleship Glorious
Outskirts of Terran System

Morale aboard Battle Fleet Ultima was near the breaking point, having endured a harrowing forty-day journey through the Warp from what was once Ultramar. Even in the best of times, Warp travel was dangerous, and even a split-second interruption of the Gellar Fields spelling doom for the ship and its occupants at the hands of foul daemons. With the untold thousands of blasphemous rituals taking place all across the Chaos-held galaxy, not even the Gellar Fields were needed more than ever, yet provided less and less protection as time passed. Ships were destroyed in massive Warp storms stretching light-years, and the seventy-five ships present represented all that was left of Battle Fleet Ultima and the Ultramarines Chapter Fleet.

Daemons besieged the fleet all throughout their flight through the Warp, and many ships were ripped apart in their frenzy to reach the souls within. Even the loss of all those ships, however, could not compare to the loss of the Caesar, ripped apart by hostile Warp currents a mere two days from the relative safety of Terra. The sacrifice of hundreds of thousands had been in vain as the Caesar was lost along with its entire Ultramarines complement. A portion of the chapter's fighting strength had been aboard its strike cruisers at the time, but the loss of three entire companies along with all their equipment was a huge blow even with the chapter at full strength.

"Sir, we have received a message from Battle Fleet Solar command. We are to change course immediately and head towards these coordinates."

The hololith activated, as a dot appeared on the map. Had the resolution been better, one might have seen that it was pulsing. A swarm of red triangles, more than twice the size of the group of blue triangles that was Battle Fleet Ultima, appeared to be heading towards that point as well. The logic engine rapidly spat out that the estimated time to arrival was seventeen hours.

Outside, it was apparent that the Ultramarines chapter fleet had received a similar message, as the vessels began to peel out of formation. Normally, the Ultramarines would have asserted that they were a sovereign Astartes chapter, not subject to the authority of Imperial Navy command. No objection was heard this time. If somebody had so much an inkling that ramming a battle barge into a Chaos vessel might buy Terra more time, they probably would have done it without hesitation.

Ecclesiarchal Palace
Holy Terra

Even in such dark times, the Adeptus Ministorum, better known as the Ecclesiarchy, still commanded the loyalty and faith of the Imperium. As Chaos pressed in from all sides, Imperial citizens flocked by the billions to listen to the Ecclesiarchy's priests speak of salvation and deliverance. The Reign of Chaos and the Age of Dying was the Emperor's final test for humanity, to weed out the unfaithful so that humanity may ascend into a new Golden Age. After centuries of preaching the same message over and over, even some of the Cardinals began believing it, ignoring the massive Chaos warbands that roamed the galaxy, plundering whatever worlds caught their attention.

While reduced to barely a formality, the daily drawing of the Emperor's Tarot was still attended by the High Lords of Terra. The drawings never gave good news: the Great Eye, the Despoiler, the inversed Emperor, all signs of a time of trial for the Imperium at the hands of Chaos. More than one man had been drive insane upon drawing one of the worst omens of all: the Eye of Horus, the Great Hoste, the Galactic Lens, the Shattered World, and the inversed Throne. Such an omen, signifying a triumph of Chaos, was drawn nearly every day at the Ecclesiarchal Palace.

Today was different. The Senatorum Imperialis gathered in the chamber as the Ecclesiarch lead them in their daily prayers. Lesser men would have had their faiths broken long ago at the thought of so many payers for deliverance gone unanswered, but the High Lords of Terra were not "lesser men. The prayers concluded, the Ecclesiarch began to draw the Tarot cards as lesser members of the Ecclesiarchy continued chanting in the background. The customary five cards were drawn, but as the Ecclesiarch revealed the first one, he paled. He drew a vial of consecrated oils from the folds of his robes, sprinkling it over the cards as he chanted prayers.

After a few minutes, the Ecclesiarch was apparently satisfied, and turned towards the other eleven High Lords.

"It appears that the Emperor has a message of great importance," he stated cryptically, as he revealed the cards to all. Despite four of the cards not being present in a normal Emperor's Tarot deck, the High Lords immediately knew their identity.

The first was familiar: the Despoiler. Normally warning of a powerful champion of Chaos, the Despoiler was inversed, indicating the rise of a champion to challenge the forces of Chaos.

The other four cards, none of them had ever seen before.

The first depicted a young woman, perhaps twenty, with her eyes closed. Her waist-length green hair seemed to float, as if weightless, barely concealing a band of red on her forehead. She possessed an ethereal beauty, and all twelve of the High Lords immediately knew the card's identity: the Empress.

The second depicted another young woman, her eyes wide open, displaying a most vivid shade of violet. Chestnut-brown hair cascaded over her shoulders, and there was an air of innocence around her. She was sitting on the ground, surrounded by a holy aura. The Sibling, all twelve High Lords immediately thought.

The third depicted two back-to-back warriors, one male and one female. The armor on the male was a gleaming white, and he wielded two flaming swords. The female donned crimson armor, and one arm was longer than the other. Close inspection revealed it to be a three-clawed arm, the hand alight with cleaning flame. These were the Knights.

The fourth and final of the unknown cards was one that drew a great deal of attention from the Inquisitorial representative. It depicted a malformed trident head, silver in color. Similar symbols had been sighted all over the galaxy, though nobody knew exactly what they meant. Yet, a nagging in the back of their skulls told them that these were the Chosen.

The Ecclesiarch suddenly found himself compelled to draw another two cards. Reaching towards the deck, he drew an Emperor. The other eleven Lords were complete silent. With a trembling hand, the Ecclesiarch grasped the next card and flipped it over. He was confused for a second, as the card depicted a flaming bird rising from the ashes. His mind dredged through long-forgotten lessons of Old Terran legends, before realization hit him. It was the Phoenix, symbol of rebirth.

?
The Warp

Deep in her sanctum, the Guardian observed the entire scene play out. She looked upon the tradition of the Emperor's Tarot with some disdain. As if the Emperor could spare time from his battle with Chaos to play cards! Nevertheless, the tradition did have its uses. She was disturbed from her line of thought by a ripple in the Warp. Without bothering to look, she grabbed the offending object from off its shelf. While it appeared to be a leather-bound book, it was neither leather nor a book, but a psychic manifestation of something as intangible as the strings of fate.

Running a willowy finger down the spine, she fished a pair of reading glasses from the folds of her dress before opening it. Neither the act of reading the nonexistent book nor using reading glasses were actually necessary, but she liked to cling on to a few semblances of her past life. Sighing, she slammed the book shut and tossed it back onto its shelf. With a wave of her hand, the infinitely comfortable armchair she had conjured from the raw psychic energies of the Warp, and which she had spent nowhere near enough time relaxing in, vanished.

With another flick of her wrist, she conjured up a staff. Even after nearly fifty thousand years on the job, she still couldn't abandon the notion that guardians were supposed to have a staff of some sort. She tapped the "floor" of her sanctum-which was, like the book and the bookshelves, nonexistent-twice, opening up a portal to the Materium. Taking a deep breath-another unnecessary habit she'd clung on to-she focused her vast reserves of psychic energy. She was going to burn more energy in the next few hours than she had in the last millennia.

Stepping through, the Guardian remarked in a chiding voice, "Oh Lelouch, what would you do without me?"

Unknown Location Within Space Station Ikaruga
One Hundred Twenty Hours From Holy Terra

Nunnally's eyes shot open as she winced slightly. She turned towards the others, probably suffering from headaches similar to her own at the moment.

"Did you feel that? Something's moving through the Warp, trying to push its way into real space. Something massive, and it's not just Abaddon's fleet."

The other three immediately nodded.

"The battle for Terra is already beginning. Battle Fleet Ultima is buckling under the Chaos vanguard, and the main body has yet to arrive. I doubt even Battle Fleet Solar could stand up to the main fleet for very long."

Kallen was the first to speak, "Even if they could, there's no way we'll arrive in time to make a difference. Should we use it?"

"Ideally, we won't have to reveal it until the out main fleet has arrived in the system. At this rate, there won't be a system by the time we arrive. The Avalon and its squadron are the closest ships to Terra, and they're over ninety hours away," Suzaku added.

Some token argument continued back and forth for the next few minutes, with CC looking on impassively as always. It was already infinitely clear that they needed to play that particular card to allow the Imperium a fighting chance, but the Black Knights didn't survive undetected for so long by not discussing alternate courses of action.

With a consensus reached, Nunnally closed her eyes, focusing her psychic power.

Inquisitorial Fortress, the Rings of Saturn
Terra System

The Inquisitorial fortress of Saturn prided itself in its secrecy and security. Home of the secret Grey Knights chapter and some of the most dangerous Chaos artifacts in Imperial hands, the Great Enemy had searched for the fortress in vain for millennia. The Inquisition boasted amongst itself that nothing around Saturn escaped their attention. They were wrong.

Deep in the bowels of Saturn's atmosphere, an ancient craft, a fabled relic of the Dark Age of Technology, awoke from its twenty thousand year slumber. The long-empty ship shook as its Machine Spirit bought long-unused systems back to working order. The plasma thrusters, the legs of thevessel, simmered to life. A few experimental test firings confirmed them as in working order. The ship hummed as its weapons batteries, the fists of the vessel, warmed up. Had any Imperial sensors been tuned to the right frequency, they would have sensed the vessel's sensor bursts, as the vessel tested its eyes.

Those still aboard the Inquisitorial fortress looked in awe as a streak of light emerged from the atmosphere of Saturn. Several volleys from the defensive batteries were fired, but the streak moved far too quickly. It soon became a speck in the distance, heading out to aid its besieged brethren of Battle Fleet Ultima.

Unknown Location Within Space Station Ikaruga
One Hundred Twenty Hours From Holy Terra

Nunnally opened her eyes again, a bit faint from the psychic energy she had just poured into that beacon. She had kept the connection up until she confirmed everything had gone according to plan. Taking a breath and withdrawing the excess psychic energy back into her mind, she turned towards the others.

"It is done. The Damocles rises again."