A.N.: And here we begin. The Terra Invasion. Thanks for sticking with me so far, and I hope you'll enjoy this new chapter!
To Pathreader: No, tyranids cannot adapt the Pariah gene. They can do a lot, and I mean a LOT with genetics and psychic powers, but the synaptic network is the one key component they can never git rid of truly. At least, in this story. Who knows if we might see some pariah gene tyranids in canon!
It began with a single spore mine.
Floating slowly through the void of space, the sole bio-form floated within range of the first gun of the Solar defense force. For the past three days they had been expecting the arrival of the tyranid bio-forms; Preparing themselves for the inevitable onslaught. This wasn't quite the display of power and might that had been expected. For a few moments, confusion and hesitation plagued the operators of the various star forts in range of the spore-mine, before eventually someone gave the order to shoot it down. A single cannon fired, annihilating the organism with a super-accelerated tungsten projectile. It was unceremonious. Simple. And for an hour afterwards, nothing else happened.
Then another appeared. This one was shot down as soon as it entered firing range.
Half an hour passed before the next organism appeared. This one was no spore mine. It was a small, agile void vessel, barely as big as a gargoyle. Despite its small size it was fast enough to avoid the first few shots fired at it, the gun crew of the star fort that had taken it as a target quickly realigning their calculations before slamming it with a long distance point defense laser. It was enough to melt a hole into the creature, leaving it floating dead in the void of space.
Reports were flooding the vox-channels as the announcement of first contact with the Hive-Fleet was made. This was greeted with grim determination by the defenders, most of which had been forced to maintain battle readiness at all times for the past week.
Ten minutes after the new organism had been shot down, thousands of new contacts were registered on the long distance radars of the star forts. This was received with a deluge of firepower from the star forts, firing hundreds of tons of metal into the approaching vessels. Despite coming in the thousands, these small and fast void vessels similar to the previous individual one were coming from so many directions at the edge of the solar system there would be hundreds of kilometres between each of them. Within minutes not a single one of these were left standing.
The psyker contingent of most star forts had been put into containment due to the increased instability as the Hive-Fleet had drawn nearer. Many had been put down without question or mercy. Only the strongest and most experienced remained on the decks of the forts, gazing into the empty abyss of Space with singular focus.
Signals once more appeared on the radars of the star forts. This time however the readings sent pangs of fear throughout the operators that relayed the new information.
The new wave of organisms didn't count in the single digits. Nor were they in the thousands.
Billions upon billions of creatures swarmed space, coming from a multitude of directions in vast clouds of entities. Most of these were of the smaller variety, creatures at most no bigger than a standard fighter craft. Hiding in these swarms were some larger creatures; Frigate sized entities, large spore mines and other strange creatures. To the concern of many however, no actual bio-vessels had yet to make contact. They remained out of radar range, their presence deducted by the presence of the minor organisms but elusive in their numbers and location.
The matter at hand was the most pressing however, and once more the star forts opened fire. This time, they did not hold back in the slightest in the fact of the sheer onslaught that approached them.
Cannons fired. Missiles were launched. Batteries of laser cannons began unleashing beams of pure energy onto the coming swarms.
In a matter of seconds, the darkness of space was illuminated by a myriad of bright flashes and explosions as the arsenal of the star forts began making contact with the incoming tyranids. Vast swathes of them were wiped out in an instant by the powerful missiles, turned into floating chunks of innamate organic matter. Others were burned to a crisp, incinerated into ash by the powerful lasers that would engulf dozens of them at a time. The larger organisms were pounded by heavy ordinance, a single of the larger cannons on the star fort being enough to overkill one of these with a single shot. The tyranids were numerous, but the defenses of the Solar System had been designed for far greater threats than this swarm of minor vessels. Not one vessel reached even a single star fort.
For a moment, nothing else happened. Vigilance was not lowered however. Most had been drilled too well to simply assume the attack was over. They waited. Waited for their opponent's next move. The fleet Solar was waiting at the ready, remaining near Terra itself so as to be able to head towards the nearest point of conflict that would require their intervention.
Across the solar system, every single person was tense. Waiting. Preparing.
Down on Terra, Harrison looked up to the night sky above him as the vox caster in his office blared the news of the assault.
So it had begun.
Halcin had been a psyker aboard the star fort *Aegis of Man* for over forty years now. He had done much and seen more. In his lifetime however, none had been bold enough to risk attacking Terra. None so suicidal. So reckless. And yet here they were, with the enemy at the gates. And here he was on the first line of defense. Emperor have mercy. He closed his eyes, trying to find relief in the comforting light of the Astronomicon. So close to Terra it would shine bright, a brilliant beacon of golden soothing light that cast away the nightmares that plagued him so often. But as it had been for the past week, the beacon was now dimmed; Only visible through a thick curtain of darkness. Its soothing influence distant and hardly noticeable. The Shadow in the Warp was everywhere, a thick blanket that gnawed at his sanity and drained his powers. He shivered, rallying his strength as the star fort vibrated slightly with the firing of its weapons at distant targets. Then, for a moment, all was calm. He let out a sigh of relief, massaging his forehead.
His ears twitched as he started to hear something. Far, far away. He frowned. This wasn't coming from the star fort. He closed his eyes, opening with great reluctance his psychic senses in the hopes of figuring out what the sound was. It might after all be something critical to defending the fort. As he closed his eyes, he noticed some of the crewmen behind him rushing to relieve one of the gun crews slowing down, seemingly confused. So it wasn't just him then.
The sight that greeted him was both beautiful and terrible. He watched in a terrified awe as his third eye relayed the picture that it was witnessing.
A titanic entity rising larger than any ship; A behemoth with wings like an angel but the teeth of a monster. A gentle, childlike face that made him want to weep in fear for the sheer power the entity was radiating. He sobbed then, weeping openly at the sight as he fell to his knees. The creature began to sing, a soft lullaby that vibrated through his very bones sending shockwaves throughout his body. He could feel his brain shaking, melting in parts; The horrible pain of being slowly broken down as the song mournfully brought his death. He brought his hands to his eyes as he curled into a ball, the dreadful understanding of what it was exactly they were facing too much for him to bear.
The angel reached out, its hand both larger than the star fort itself and yet somehow managed to pluck him from the ground, fitting him in its fist with ease. None of it made any sense as the entity brought him up to its face, his soul staring at the terrible power gazing down at it with a mixture of curiosity and pity. He sobbed as its terrible jaws opened wide, a maw of endless hunger greeting him. The sight awakened something in him, those ancient instincts from a time Humanity was prey and he struggled, but could not escape the vice-like grasp the entity had on him. He was cast whole into the hungry pit, his soul consumed and devoured by the being.
In the star fort, the crewmen had fallen to the floor screaming, grasping at their heads as pain wracked their body from the horrible song. Psychic power coursed through them, stunning them into a near vegetative state as they squirmed and writhed on the metallic floors of the star port. But far worse was the fate of Halcin's body, now an empty shell deprived of his soul. One moment he was standing there, horrified gaze in his closed eyes, and the next he began to bubble and melt into the floor. No one noticed. They were all too focused on their own pain.
In the control room of the star fort the sound of something crossing the range of detection was drowned out by the pained screams of the crew. Alarms blared as the lights turned red, the scanners revealing something massive approaching the star fort. Then another. Then a hundred.
In the distance, the immense maw of a gigantic bio vessel rapidly approached the now almost entirely inert star fort.
Panic was spreading through the communication network of the star forts, trickling down to the numerous fleets under the Solar command. Reports of mass psyker deaths, crews falling into extreme fits of pain and heart attacks and worse. It was clear this was the work of a powerful psyker but little could be done in the current situation; Most of the means to counteract against such an attack were limited to Terra and Titan. Reports from a listening post nearby the star fort "Aegis of Mankind" indicated it had been destroyed by a colossal bio-vessel, a massive fleet following in its track through the breach created. Multiple other forts who hadn't taken quite as much of a beating from the sudden psychic attack were reporting similar assaults on various points of the star fort ring, fleets being dispatched in the hope of supporting the star forts enough to repel these attacks until they could be consolidated. They could not afford to respond to any one attack with too much force or risk leaving part of the defensive structure vulnerable to another attack.
The matter of the fleet that had penetrated the first set of defenses of the Solar system was hotly debated within high command before the Adeptus Custodes imposed their decision. The Solar Fleet would be deployed ready to intercept this enemy host, but first it would be left to the minefields to cull down the size of the attack so as to avoid unnecessary losses. This was a war of attrition they were reminded; If they used too much strength destroying one fleet, the tyranids no doubt had countless others to throw at them once they exhausted themselves.
The minefields deployed all around the Solar System were not composed of simple landmines of other such banal explosives. Each mine was massive; the size of a house and with an explosive ordinance great enough to seriously damage an average sized war vessel and even break through the armor of capital ships.
The tyranids were of course not mindless animals; And it only took a single mine detonating for them to recognize what the issue was. The fleet stopped as one, for whilst they could move around the minefield, the time this would require and the limited angles of approach further into the system resulted in a simple conclusion. It was better for the long term running of the campaign to clear the minefield rather than simply bypass it.
The first wave of organisms sent to deal with the minefields were massive explosive Mulcoid spore mines, specially modified to detonate in a shower of large fragments that would then trigger as many mines as possible nearby. This first wave encountered some success at first, but quickly enough the Imperials turned off the automatic triggering of the mines, instead turning them to manual detonation. The second wave of organisms resembled strange squid like creatures with drill breaks that would land on the mines and proceed to tear them apart, at first clumsy and resulting in many an exploded creature, but soon learning from the deaths of the others until they were breaking down the mines in such a manner that they could no longer exploded, isolating the explosive payload from them. The operators of the minefield could not keep up with the sheer number of these creatures and whilst they killed many by detonating the mines, the minefield itself was growing smaller and smaller. It was of course only the first of many occupying the solar system, but the fact it was being dismantled in less than an hour by the invading tyranid fleet was a concerning sight. The fleet had become an efficient mind sweeping machine, clearing the path for themselves with rapid efficiency.
Which is exactly when the Fleet Solar struck.
The massive imperial fleet approached and started opening fire before the tyranids could properly react so focused they were on clearing the minefield. By the time the tyranids had turned their attention, half of their fleet had already been cleaved through by the insane amount of firepower the colossal human armada had brought to bear. The tyranids managed to retaliate with a shower of bioplasma, chitinous shards and boarding pods. Little came of it however; The fire was too dispersed and the shields strong. Only a few minor ships such as frigates and escort vessels were taken down by this attack, and the return fire from the solar fleet was overwhelming and final. The tyranid fleet was shattered, scattered and broken. What few ships remained were quickly hunted down by colossal hunter-servitors, grotesque abominations of amalgamated flesh and mechanical components, cyborgs the size of ships hunting down the remaining damaged tyranid vessels. The solar fleet quickly turned, dispersing itself into three segments as reports streamed through of further breaches in the star fort ring.
One issue dealt with.
Half a dozen more left, with countless more soon to come.
Rashi panted as he ran down the corridor with the rest of his squad. The full gear of the security teams aboard the battleship were heavy at the best of time, but he had been designated the heavy weapons specialist for this one. The meltagun weighed heavily in his hands as he followed closely their sergeant along with the rest of his squad. There were five of them in total, though hundreds of similar squads would be running around the battleship at this very moment. All around them alarms blared and red light flooded the normally white lit corridors. He gritted his teeth at the distant sound of lasgun fire being interrupted by a loud screech, soon followed by a horrific scream and squelching noise.
The squad came to a dead stop fifteen metres or so away from the next corner. He could hear the sounds of mastication from here. Bile rose to his throat, but he stood firm, aiming the meltagun forward. The rest of the squad deployed around him.
Something emerged from behind the corner with incredible speed, long claws digging into the metal bulwark to anchor it as it pivoted before rushing at them with a loud screech. Rashi remained calm despite his pounding heart and opened fire, drowning the abominable tyranid creature in plasma. The warrior let out an angry warble as it melted into the floor, dead within seconds. The rest of the squad remained in place, carefully waiting to see if any other creatures would emerge from the corner.
Rashi tapped his gun, waiting for it to cool down somewhat. He could hear scuttling; The sound of claws against metal, grating, scrapping...it put his nerves on edge.
Wait.
That wasn't coming from ahead of them.
Basil screamed a curse as a claw descended from above them and pierced right through Rashi's head, killing the man instantly.
"THE VENTS!" He cried out, blasting his lasgun into the ventilation system above. A screech soon followed, before the ventilation shaft gave way under the numerous holes carved into it by the barrage of lasgun fire the others had soon followed with. The corpse of a hormagaunt, its scythe-like arm still dripping with the blood of Rashi, fell with the pieces of superheated metal. Basil angrily snarled, kicking the corpse with his boot.
"We need to move." The sergeant barked. No complaints there. He hated leaving Rashi's body behind, but it wasn't like they could afford to drag him around. He muttered a short prayer to the Emperor as they turned the corner, his face paling at the carnage that had taken place ahead of them. Dozens of human bodies, most at least partially eaten, laid strewn across the ground. Many of the ventilation shafts above them had been torn open, either by lasgun fire or powerful claws digging them open to let whatever creature had been crawling in them through.
He never saw the thing that tore off his head.
The squad whirled around, Arnold's mind whirling with fear overcome solely through rigorous training and discipline as they lit up the hormagaunt that had managed to sneak up on them, continuing to fire as more began to stream into the corridor. He yelled out in fear and anger as he shot them one by one, watching as Dave was overcome by sheer numbers and ripped into shreds in an instant. Thankfully, the sergeant and he managed to put down the last of the beasts with only a leg wound for the sergeant.
They didn't have time to recover their spirits before he watched the sergeant get pulverized as something hit his side, sending his corpse flying into the wall.
The next shot of venom cannon put his panic attack to an end.
Brother Yasina had seen a lot serving as a space marine. He had fought many battles on various worlds and had stood besides figures of legends.
This however, he had never expected he would have to do.
"FIRE!" The commissar barked, Yasina charging through the hail of lasgun fire around him as he slammed his power axe forth, splitting the skull of a ravenous tyranid warrior before it could fire another venom cannon shot into the line of guardsmen defending the hangar bay. The star fort had been boarded in numerous places, its weapons destroyed by repeated bombardments from the now passing tyranid fleet. It seemed the star fort *Vigilance* had been judged sufficiently crippled by the enemy to simply bypass, leaving their boarding organisms to mop up the survivors.
Well he'd be damned if he made the task easy on them.
The space marine snarled as he pulled his axe from the corpse of the warrior, watching the horde of hormagaunts charging through the hangar bay get cut down by the hail of lasgun fire. Thank the Emperor for the Guard and their tireless work. Another warrior let out a challenging roar, stepping towards him with rapidly accelerating heavy steps. The thing swung its bonesword towards him, Yasina dodging with the agility of a veteran centuries old. His axe lashed out, expertly cutting the arm of the creature at the elbow. It screeched, two crushing claws lunging out and threatening to crack open his armor like a rusted tin can. A step back avoided this fate, but the thing's fourth arm wielded a horrible organic whip that used his moment of distraction to wrap around his arm, the strength of it enough to prevent the space marine from finishing the beast off with his axe. His other arm immediately brought up his bolt pistol, unloading a whole mag into the beast's chest. It visibly recoiled, but was disgustingly still alive. He snarled, before lashing out in desperation with a vicious headbutt. This did little to bother the creature, its chitinous armor more than enough to absorb the blow.
Before it could bring his career to an end with a single striking blow, the creature's skull vanished into a thin mist as an autocannon blew it apart. Yasina did not pause to thank his saviors, immediately returning to the melee, trying to ignore the way his arm lanced with pain from where the whip had sizzled through the armor and burned his arm damn near to the bone.
There was more fighting to be done, he thought as he intensified the power field of his axe as a carnifex bellowed charging through the hangar, slamming a fighter to the side. With a cry of defiance, Yasina threw himself at the beast, his axe high.
She felt as the human vessels engaged one of her scouting fleets. It wasn't much of a contest; Even a third of the Solar fleet was more than enough to mop up the tyranid hive-ships. They'd take some damage, sure, but it remained a victory for them. That was fine. Losses were expected.
What she needed was information.
She had some, of course. From the informants. The cultists. Those consumed by the Hive who held memories of Terra. But none of that was as valuable as the real time data she was acquiring in this conflict. Having so many disposable ships was a strange experience. She could throw thousands upon thousands of ships, each large enough to fight an imperial frigate on equal grounds, some as large as battleships, and still have many more to use. And she had yet to use the truly useful and powerful ones.
Leviathan had vast resources. She was sure to put them to good use.
Jane extended her will towards the fleet, focusing on micro-managing the individual vessels, analyzing how the Imperial ships reacted to different situations, to different weapons. To tactics, to opponents. How they coordinated. Which ones were slower to react, more reluctant to rush to the aid of their comrades. Which ones surged ahead, which ones trailed behind. Grudgingly, she had to admit that the Solar fleet was impressively coordinated. There was little room for error or failures of coordination in this well oiled machine.
But no system was perfect.
And she had a million eyes with which to find the cracks.
She grinned as another star fort was overwhelmed by one of her scouting fleets, rushing forth only to be intercepted by one of the Solar elements.
All for Amica.
"Hate the xenos, for the xenos hates you." She clenched her bolter gun tight as the preacher walked in front of their tightly formed ranks. "Abhor their very existence, for they abhor yours." She mentally counted drom from ten as she tried to stabilize her breath. She'd only just graduated from the Schola, and already thrown into the front lines. Emperor protect her. And with the enemy at the gates too! "The xenos is vile. The xenos is cruel. The xenos is despicable. The xenos is godless. The xenos is a base animal, whilst we are Human and therefore superior." The preacher rattled, frothing at the mouth. His conviction and zealous rage, whilst usually a source of annoyance to her, was a strange comfort from the nightmare knocking at the doors of the Solar System. "Vigilance has fallen to the alien menace, but their fleet is scattered, broken! Before more can come, it is our task to ensure the xenos is purged and the station ready for the next assault, to defend the precious jewel of the Imperium!" She bit her lower lip, willing her limbs to stop trembling. The doors of the hangar they had been standing in opened, the preacher wielding his battle mace towards the battle station looming ominously in the horizon. "Now, we go! Purge the Xenos!"
"PURGE THE XENOS!" The sororitas cried out as the battleship hovered right at the edge of the station, a ramp extending linking both of the voidborne entities. Within an instant, thousands of battle sisters bridged the gap into the station, their weapons at the ready, immediately greeted by a barrage of strange projectiles. Dozens fell within the first second, the open hangar they were boarding quickly turning into a chaotic battlefield. She ran forth, watching another of her sisters be sent flying back with her helmet cracked as some strange beetle-like creature devoured her face. She was already gone. No use in helping her. Instead, she threw herself to the ground as a surge of bioplasma passed over her, the crackle of gunfire and alien screeching filling the air almost loud enough for her to not hear the screams of rage and pain from her sisters.
She crawled up to a knocked over void fighter, peeking out with her gun and firing onto one of the aliens visible. She noted how they had deployed in a manner perfect to create killing zones, overlapping fire onto the attacking sisters of battle with heavy weaponry and a myriad of small gun fire. This showed far more intelligence than she would have expected from mere bestial creatures.
Her target fell to the ground, its torso a smoking crater from where the bolt shell had impacted it. Before something could fire back, she immediately darted back behind cover, grabbing at a grenade. Before she could throw it however, something floated up above the downed fighter, looming above her. She raised her gun.
The thing exploded in a powerful detonation, her power armor losing its shielding in an instant. She cried out in pain as she was flung back in the open. Before she could recover, a shot nailed her right in the head. She did not rise up.
Around her corpse, the battle raged on.
Dinp carefully checked over his gun. Fifteen charges left. He'd emptied most of them repelling the earlier boarding attempt by a tyranid pod that had managed to sneak past as the ship's shielding dropped, drained from the repeated bombardment from the tyranid hive fleet their segment of the Solar Fleet had been sent to clear. It had hurt to kill the star children, but it had been necessary. Such a paltry amount would never have succeeded in clearing the battleship.
No, there would be a better time to serve Amica.
"Dinp! Come on man, we're called to the batteries. They want some extra hands on deck to make sure the ships are fully armed for the next engagement." He gave an eager grin to his superior, climbing to his feet.
"Yes sir! Think they'll let me sign one of the shells?"
"You can certainly ask the tech-heads!" The lieutenant laughed as they walked off. Dinp clenched his gun tighter as he laughed.
Not now.
But soon.
For Amica.
In his long years of service as an Imperial Commander of the Battleship Scorn of Luna, Samuel had seen much. He'd fought many opponents, crushed insurrections, seen heresy and xenos invasions alike on nearby systems. Never had he had to fight in the realm of Solar.
The sight of the star fort *The Locked Door* wrecked and left to slowly fall into the orbit of Pluto as the tyranid fleet they had been sent to intercept moved on to their next target made him feel a sense of deep sorrow and rage. Bitter tears threatened to come to his eyes at the sight of the dominion of man so flagrantly violated. He thought of the tens of thousands of souls that would have called that station home, brave soldiers who had given their lives to fight tooth and nail for the safety of mankind's cradle.
Ravaged and destroyed by the abominable xenos.
He heard the voice of the admiral speaking through the voxcast, transmitting her orders to the battleline. He pushed his emotions aside. There would be time to mourn, time to grieve and rage and bitterly rant at the universe.
For now, he had to be a man of rational and logic. One of careful consideration.
He had the lives of hundreds of thousands under his sole command aboard this ship, and he fully intended to bring them home once this was done.
A flash of hesitation came to his mind at the sight of the thousands of tyranid hive ships approaching. Each fleet they had been sent to fight had been bigger than the last.
There would need to be a home to go back to in the first place.
Natalie cursed as a massive piece of debris almost slammed into her corvette, watching as Scorn of Luna was hit by a colossal hive ship. She and many other escort vessels had been attempting to protect the battleship from the swarm of tyranid smaller organisms that had been harassing it, draining its shields and leaving it exposed to the biological ordinance of the larger vessels. As the engines of the battleship gave out under the repeated assaults, one of the larger vessels moved in for the kill. Around them thousands of imperial warships battled with the tyranid swarm fleet, inflicting crippling casualties to the xenos armada. But already she could tell this battle was not quite the one sided fight the other engagements had been. The Scorn of Luna was only one of the multiple casualties they were taking here. A small loss in the grand scheme of things compared to how many vessels remained; But every tyranid fleet seemed to be growing stronger and stronger, whilst every loss on their side was irreparable in the time scale the conflict was taking place.
She did not like this.
She didn't like it one bit.
Her eyes widened in awe and horror as the bio ship opened colossal jaws, closing them in an all mighty crunch onto the prow of the Scorn of Luna. It was over. The ship they had been assigned to defend was done for.
It didn't take long for the order to come through for their reassignment to the escort of another battleship in a perilous situation. She turned her back to the Scorn of Luna, feeling her heart breaking a little every time she caught the sight of the glorious ship torn and set upon by the tyranid hive-ships.
Damien carefully aimed his rifle down the corridor of the ship. He could hear them coming already. The teeming hordes, the horrors the boarding spores had unleashed into their ship. As the first crossed his field of vision it was already dropping dead, the lasgun having precisely pierced between its eyes. The one behind it stumbled on the corpse of its brethren, getting killed in turn. The makeshift barricade made of bodies allowed him to kill three more of the abominations before one managed to run down the corridor, threatening to cut at him with its scythe-like talons. He did not panic. He merely raised his gun and rammed it at the precise moment, stabbing the bayonet into the throat of the creature. It let out a gurgle, still trying to swipe at him even as life left it. He did not react, merely kicking the thing away from him before going back to aiming. Another one of those things was trying to climb above the others.
Dead.
More screeching came from the other side of the corridor as something smashed into the pile, crushing its way through only to be blown to bits by a grenade he'd lobbed the moment he'd heard the heavy stomping.
This was going to be a long day.
The outer ring was broken. Many of the minefields had been cleared by successive waves of tyranid hive ships. The space of the Solar System was filled with floating carcasses of tyranid bio-ships and Imperial vessels alike. Battle still raged as the divided Solar Fleet desperately tried stamping any fleet that went past the now gutted star forts. Large defensive stations were used by smaller allied fleets of various organizations ranging from space marine ships, imperial navy battleships, mechanicus battle barges and sororitas vessels to engage in conflict against the tyranids the Solar Fleet could not reach in time. It was a constant, raging battle happening all across the Solar system every moment of the day. For twenty four hours this back and forth lasted, the tyranids unable to make any significant gains past the star forts whilst the Imperials found themselves slowly grinded down by the constant assault of tyranid forces.
But rather than slowly wane, the assault only seemed to intensify. More tyranid fleets kept on pouring into the system, forcing the Imperials to spread themselves thin to plug any hole in their defenses or risk having vessels make it past them all the way to the inner defenses. The last thing they wanted was for a land battle to erupt on Terra, as inevitable as such an outcome seemed to become by the hour.
That was until the Phalanx joined the battle.
In an instant, what had seemed an inevitable grind down of the disparate elements of the Solar Fleet turned into a slaughter of tyranid ships, the colossal war station doing a short warp jump to reappear in the middle of the Imperial formation where the fighting was the fiercest and the tyranids the most numerous. Its ancient armements were unleashed unto the xenos, carving massive swathes within their armada and allowing for many overtaxed imperial ships to fall back for repairs and relief, regrouping and protecting the massive vessel as it laid waste to the tyranid fleet.
Cheers erupted from the bedraggled defenders at the sight of the venerable battle fortress joining the fighting and striking the tyranids back, annihilating them with contemptuous ease.
This war could be won yet.
Vorn Hagan grunted as the phalanx rumbled to life once more, firing upon a particularly large bio-ship, breaking it apart in a single blow. He could hear from the chatter on the vox network that the mood amongst the Solar Fleet had shifted; Morale would be up. Still, concern plagued him. The Phalanx had seen better days, and having to deploy in such a flamboyant fashion was not doing it any favor. Already he was getting warnings from tech priests that the weapon systems of the war fortress were showing signs of strain. They wouldn't be able to hold a prolonged fight. Then again, if he played his cards right they wouldn't have to.
Opening a private communications channel, he watched as holographic representations of the various men and women in charge of the Solar Defenses flickered to life.
"Chapter Master." The Admiral of the Solar Fleet spoke first. She had the regal look of a highborn, her military uniform richly decorated. Her face, once beautiful, was marred with scars and burns, and had the strange dragged look that was typical of those exposed to a vacuum induced pressure loss. "Thank you for your assistance. You've spared us losses that would have been keenly felt in the inevitable next assaults."
"A pleasure." He grunted. "What is the status of your fleet?" He took the time to examine the others who had joined them. Lord General Sanais of the Lucifer Blacks. Trajaan Valoris, Captain General of the Custodes. At the sight of them, even in a hologram, he felt himself stand straighter. The Fabricator-General of Mars, the massive mechanical bulk of them scaled down to be more reasonably sized amongst those present. Ecclesiarch Resseus. None of the High Lords were present. Either too busy or... He shook his head. There would be time to deal with them later. For now he needed to focus on the matters at hand.
"Given the situation at hand, pretty good. We're at ninety-two percent strength, with the remaining eight percent accounting for ships either destroyed or too crippled to aid in the fight. Of the ships I have left, I'd say one in five could use some form of repair, but frankly we're doing good. So far our kill ratio against the tyranids is astronomical."
"But our defenses are weakened." Rumbled the Captain-General, his deep voice sending the others into silence. "The star forts have fallen, and the mine fields have been cleared. The Phalanx was forced into action. The Solar Fleet is divided, and we cannot afford to regroup it lest we leave a flank exposed." The Captain General cast a long look to the others. "They're laying the groundwork for their actual assault."
"It certainly seems that way, Captain General." The Ecclesiarch said with much respect in his tone. "My forces are currently battling the insidious tyranid foe in the star fort *Vigilance* in the hopes of retaking it, but the alien is proving harder to get rid of than expected."
"Pull your forces back." The Captain General ordered. "The fort is lost. The tyranids cannot make good use of it. We will bombard it from afar to deny them the troops they have used to take it."
"As...as you wish." The Ecclesiarch gulped, nervously looking away. The attack had been ill-conceived, Vorn knew, but there had been no time to discuss this with the Ecclesiarch until now. Too busy putting down the many fires in the Solar System to stop them from starting new ones.
"Fabricator General. When can we expect the fleets of Mars to join the Solar Fleet and relieve some of the pressure from them?" He decided to ask. He knew the custodes were generally reluctant to deal with the Mechanicus, but this was not a matter where such decorum could be kept.
"Our Forces Are Currently Preparing For A Siege Of Mars. To Pull Our Orbital Forces Away Would Leave It Dangerously Undefended. If Mars Falls, So Will Terra." The Fabricator answered, his voice scrambled by mechanical implements. The thing was far more machine than human by now and it made Vorn uneasy whenever he had to deal with them.
"If the Solar Fleet is defeated, then there will be no stopping the tyranids. Better we fight them in space than on the ground."
"*Then what of the Custodes fleet?*" Vorn felt his hands clench. Damn them! Even now, they would play politics?! He wished he could reach through the hologram and throttle the Fabricator. But no, he had to think longer term than this. If they won, there would be a future after this, one where the bitterness born today might come and doom them.
"We have had to hold back in reserve over Terra due to the high risk of a rebellion erupting." The Captain General answered. "However, with the situation being as it is, we will be deploying most of our orbital forces. Some ships will be kept near Terra in case of any nasty surprises."
"Thank you Captain General." The admiral of the Solar Fleet nodded. "We can hold the line as it is, but every ship lost is one that cannot be used for the next attack. The more overkill we can apply, the better we will fare against the foe's attrition tactics."
"Attrition is not what they are going for." The Captain General warned. Vorn could see how those words surprised the people gathered. "These have been but scouting parties. The enemy has brought multiple full sized hive fleets and multiple tendrils of Leviathan. Make no mistake, what we have faced so far is not the bulk of their forces."
"Emperor merciful..." The Ecclesiarch whispered. "Then, what is your opinion?"
"They are prodding. Looking for weaknesses. Or...they are waiting for something."
"What could they be waiting for?" The Custodes looked to the side, and suddenly Vorn got the feeling that the man knew more than he was telling them.
"...Reinforcements."
Jane knew it was time. She had learned much, understood more. She could feel Amica's will like a powerful storm in her mind, a razor sharp focus of might that left no room for discussion. Jane knew why Amica chose now to attack. She could feel what her Amica felt.
There was a tearing in reality soon to come to fruition. A distant roaring only her Amica could hear for now. A sonorous warcry that echoed louder and louder as it approached.
As one, the Hive Fleets moved.
Gasirus had been a member of the Adeptus Custodes for three thousand years now. He was relatively new compared to some of the veterans that composed the old guard, but was still much older than the most recent of their ranks. It was why he had been chosen to be a part of the fleet sent to reinforce the Solar Fleet. Experienced enough to be trusted on the front lines, but not so much his skills would be a necessity should the worse come to pass and the conflict reach the Imperial Palace, or even worse, Eternity Gate. The very thought of such an event was enough to send tremors of outrage throughout his body, but he quickly stilled himself. There would be better soon.
"Alert. Warp anomaly detected." He clenched his guardian spear tighter, his eyes sweeping the bridge he was keeping watch over. He watched the many technicians and operators scrambling around in a controlled rush. These men and women were far too well disciplined to ever panic over such an event, and their rush was carefully managed to avoid making a mistake. He thought to himself as warp tears began to appear over the custodes fleet. The Great Enemy? Had they smelled the weakness of Terra and decided to take their chance?
"My Lord! Something is emerging from Warp Space! Emperor protect us, the number of ships detected!"
A warp tear appeared right over their ship, and from it emerged a collection of ramshackle vessels; More scrap than actual components, held together by little more than string, grox skin and dreams. He felt a sense of deep tiredness fill him as the battle barge began firing upwards, disintegrating the ships as they rapidly approached. No, not the Great Enemy.
Orks.
Many, many orks.
Too many to be a coincidence. Of course. If someone was going to do such a stupid thing as to not appear at the Mendeleve point, blindly jump into the warp and hope to just reach their destination and somehow, somehow, appear at exactly the worst moment for the Imperium...
It was the orks.
Damn the greenskins.
He carefully observed the amount of ships emerging from the warp tear above them. From the corner of his eye, he could see there were many such tears, all over the custodes fleet and beyond, flooding Imperial Space with ork ships.
He ignited his Guardian Spear.
Too many to avoid a boarding action. And he knew there would be a boarding action. The damnable greenskins just could not help themselves.
He grit his teeth as the numerous ork ships continued falling towards them, uncaring of their grievous losses.
Let them come.
Vorn watched in utter disbelief as in an instant millions of ork ships suddenly appeared from the warp, descending like a swarm of angry green wasps onto the distantly approaching custodes fleet. An Ork Waagh?! Here?! In the middle of the Solar system?! NOW?! What were the bloody odds! He felt his hand squeeze tightly, crunching the metal bar he was leaning onto.
No. Calm. He needed to remain calm. His eyes went onto the scanners. The tyranids were finally making the move they had been expecting from them. Tens of millions of ships, each big enough to be a problem in and of itself... even for the Phalanx and the Solar Fleet, it would be an overwhelmingly difficult fight. They would have to throw everything they had at them, and even then...it might not be enough. That they would start moving only some time before the orks arrived was too much of a coincidence to be discarded. Working together perhaps? The boy Harrison did warn that the tyranid leader was unusual... the xenos were not known for making alliances. And with the orks of all people?
Regardless, the custodes could handle themselves. There were too many of the damned orks for the custodes to destroy themselves, not with just the fleet that was present, but they would be more than able to hold on for some time. Vorn could use that time to strategically target specific portions of the tyranid fleet, damage their clusters and pull back elements of the Solar Fleet that could be spared to assist the custodes. If the custodes could be relieved enough and the orks pushed back, then the Imperial elements combined would stand a better chance by fighting together.
Something flickered on the sensors. It was only for the barest of moments, but Vorn caught it.
He had seen something like this before, back when he had been but a battle brother amongst so many others. His eyes widened.
"ELD..." The left side of the Phalanx burst into pieces of molten metal as a massive energy beam hit it straight on, only deflected slightly by the phalanx's powerful shielding. "...AR!" His heart dropped at the sight of the carnage that had been inflicted on the legendary battle station. In a single attack, the phalanx had been gutted, a quarter of its structure annihilated and its shield shattered.
Emperor save them all.
That had been eldar weaponry, of a power beyond any he had seen before. The silhouette on the sensors had flickered to life only long enough for the attack to strike at them.
What had hit them?!
What in the Emperor's name had hit them?!
What sort of weaponry could inflict such destruction on the Phalanx?!
Worse, why in the world would the Eldar fire upon them! Did they see a chance to cull the upstarts? Did they seriously think they could defeat the tyranids by themselves?
"Get me some readings! What have we been hit by!" The operators, normally so calm and collected, were in utter frenzy; Having never seen their vessel so critically damaged so fast.
"Sir! It's...the listening posts, the ones that remain, they managed to get a read on the origin point...sir whatever hit us, it was huge! Far bigger than the Phalanx! Estimated at least continent size!" Vorn nearly staggered back, his eyes widening.
Continent sized. But that could only mean...
"Fire back!"
"We're trying to get a lock on sir! But the enemy ship is shielded by masses of tyranids, and some sort of interference in the form of holo-fields is messing with the instru..." Another colossal beam of light slammed into the phalanx, burning away its engines and more of its weaponry. He was nearly sent to the floor from the sudden movement of the now destabilized war station. He saw his communication flashing and activated it with a grunt.
"Vorn here."
"Vorn! What the hell is happening to you?!" The voice of the Admiral, for the first time since the beginning of the invasion, betrayed fear.
"Eldar."
"Eldar?! First orks now fucking eldar?!"
"So it would seem."
"Sir!" An operator screamed. "Evacuation procedures have been started! We're firing all weapons onto the tyranid swarm, but we won't survive another hit from whatever it was that's targeted us!"
"Admiral." Vorn calmly spoke to the communicator. "The enemy has somehow brought to itself the full firepower of an eldar craftworld. They have the range and technology advantage, and we cannot use numbers to press them due to the numerous tyranid bio-vessels blocking our path. The Phalanx will fall the next time the enemy fires upon us." He took a breath. "Our engines are dead. We cannot escape. Hold. The. Line." Silence.
"...It's been an honor, chapter master."
"Aye. It has."
His end came in a blinding flash of light.
Ylsen stared with a stony expression as the holographic display of the Phalanx fizzled out. Silence permeated the craftworld's main command room.
"Good job." The voice sent shivers of fear down Ylsen's spine as he felt a presence behind him. "That will cripple their moral and their firepower." Ylsen remained silent. "Keep at this range and continue focusing on taking down the main enemy ships. Focus on the big ones. You'll know the ones." The feeling of the presence vanished. Ylsen dared look behind him.
No one.
"Autarch? What now?" One of his aides asked, their voice quiet.
"...Put the Solar Fleet on display." It did not take a farseer to tell the reluctance Ylsen held regarding this, but the aides obeyed regardless. Thousands of ships in various states of damage appeared; Far too much for a regular individual to keep track of. For Ylsen however...
His arm rose. He wasn't sure it was of his own will. It felt as if phantom fingers were gently wrapped around his wrist, guiding his arm as it pointed to one of the large battle barges. "That one." He spoke. He was not sure whether he hoped it was his own will that his lips moved to say the order: "Fire the Nebula Lance."
The gigantic main weapon of the Craftworld slowly began charging energy. Ylsen clenched his fist a few seconds later as the ship vanished from display.
"Target destroyed."
As he opened his mouth his arm moved again. The cold phantom fingers' grip could be felt once more.
"Next one." He spoke as a soft voice whispered those same words in his ear.
Ayna: "Another one."
Ylsen: "Please..."
Ayna: "Another one."
Ylsen: "Please stop, what the fuck are you talking about."
Ayna: "Another one."