A.N.: The End Is Nigh. Thank you all for the reviews and the reception on the previous chapter, I'm glad you all enjoyed it; And I hope you will enjoy this one as well!
To A Fan Of This: When I say billion, I mean a thousand millions and so forth; A trillion is a million million, a Quadrillion a thousand billion or a thousand million million and so on. Hope this helps clarify it!
Ayna stared down at the immense piles of soul stones. Shimmering crystal like opals, each containing the soul of a fallen eldar. Their leash on the craftworld, forcing them to work along them.
She felt frustrated. She had wanted to be part of the offensive; To stand side by side with her sister when she breached the Eternity Gate. And of course she would; Anya could only succeed. It was the only way.
Something blinked out of perception. She frowned, turning away from the pile. Well. It seemed she would have something to occupy her after all. Something had just killed an entire squad of patrolling termagants. How odd. She observed their last moment through the Synaptic Network. Walking through the flesh halls, observing their surroundings as they carefully examined every nook and cranny...And then poof. Dead within the blink of an eye.
Her eyes narrowed as she gripped her bonesword, reaching out to the various organisms of the bio-ship; Ordering them to enter a heightened state of agitation, moving many of them within the soul stone chamber itself. She also reached out to the five bio-ships hovering nearby, trying to get any piece of information from them on any possible ship near them. They quickly approached the main ship, trying to detect if anything was nearby.
Nothing. At least, nothing they could detect. Ayna felt a tinge of worry go through her as she felt another squad of termagants be extinguished in an instant. Whatever it was, it was moving; And fast.
She left the room, making it shut down by closing down walls of flesh and chitin around it; Blocking it from the rest of the ship utterly. Only the guarding organisms would be left inside, along with some venomthropes that drowned the air in toxic spore clouds. Any intruder without advanced filtration systems would find themselves choking to death in a matter of seconds.
She commanded an escort for herself, soon being joined by two dozen tyranid warriors and two carnifexes. She travelled in the most likely direction she estimated the intruder, or intruders, would be found.
As the group crossed a corner, a blur entered her vision; So fast she could barely keep up with its speed as it decapitated the first warrior and in the same movement pierced the chest of another with its fist, tearing out the heart of the creature and crushing it before ripping its head off in a single elegant kick. By the time Ayna was able to bring her sword down onto the intruder, half her escort was dead. The intruder didn't bother clashing back with her, instead easily stepping into her guard before bringing their weapon into her chest, crushing her lungs in a single blow. Filaments of a strange metal exploded inside of her, turning Ayna into minced meat in a matter of nanoseconds.
She awoke deeper in the ship as one of her replacement bodies startled to life.
That had been fast.
So ridiculously fast. Her escort had been wiped out in the few seconds it had taken for her to be transferred to this new body.
Now that she had some time to consider what had happened, she analysed what she had been able to observe about the foe. The grinning demon mask. The burlesque costume. The incredible speed and its alien weaponry.
"Harlequin..." She growled. No doubt there for the spirit stones. And a solitaire to that. Despite her incredible physical enhancements and her incredible resilience, it mattered little when her opponent outsped her by an order of magnitude.
She would have to use her powers to stand a chance against someone like that. She needed to slow them down, to impair their movements...or use something the foe could not simply dodge.
If it was even alone.
She drew her power out, saturating the air with it until it became hard for any other to move near her. She could taste the static in the air, the walls of flesh trembling as she passed. A scowl came to her face as she started to run to intercept the path of death the Solitaire was creating.
She would not fail her sister.
Harrison watched in sheer horror as the Phalanx was destroyed on the holographic projection in the central command. Silence permeated the air.
"We are doomed!" Someone screamed. "Doomed I tell you! Even the mighty Phala..." A gunshot rang the air as the corpse of the Navy Admiral slumped to the ground, the Lord Commissar lowering his bolt pistol. Harrison stared at the corpse in disbelief.
"Cowardice in the face of the enemy is unacceptable, even from those at the top of the hierarchy." The commissar droned. Harrison stared further.
"You...you shot him. You shot an admiral for panicking." He muttered. "We need every bloody man and woman we can get our hands on, and you shot one of the few people who actually understands how everything here works because he had a moment of panic." His hands clenched on the table. "You didn't try to calm him down, appeal to reason, nothing. Just...just shot him."
"Cowardice is an unacceptable trait in an admiral." The commissar mentioned. Harrison oh so dearly wanted to shoot him back. Call some nonsense such as executing a superior. But that would be playing the commissar's game.
The Imperium's game.
He felt sick.
Even now, with the foe at the gate, they could not help but eat themselves from the inside.
"The Solar Fleet will need reinforcement." A general tried to bring the conversation back to the issue of the conflict. "Without the Phalanx and with the Custodes Fleet currently occupied with the newly arrived orks, they're left painfully exposed to whatever manner of weaponry took down the Phalanx." On the display, an entire battle barge was vaporised by the unknown force. "Emperor protect us..."
"It must be the eldar. Who else has such firepower?" The Ecclesiarch snarled. "Damned xenos!"
"The necrons." A whisper was said. Silence permeated the room.
"This is not their technology." A binary cant echoed in the silence. All eyes turned to the magos who spoke. The representative from Mars. "This is Eldar."
"A xenos alliance between orks, eldar and tyranids..." The general spoke, shaking his head. "To think I'd see the day..."
"We are unsure of an actual alliance. For all we know, the arrival of the orks could be coincidental. We might even get them to fight with the tyranids." The ecclesiarch spoke. But even as the words were said they rang hollow; No one believed in such a coincidence.
"What forces do we even have that could assist the Solar Fleet?"
"Pull them back." Harrison spoke then.
"Excuse me?" The general said.
"Pull them back. The Solar Fleet. You've said it yourself, they're far too exposed. Nearer Terra and Luna we have anti-ship weaponry and orbital strike capacity, yes? Then at least we can support the fleet."
"That would mean allowing the enemy dangerously close to Terra." The ecclesiarch said, a dangerous tone in his voice. "You would let the xenos come near the throneworld?"
"You misunderstand, Ecclesiarch." Harrison spat the title like an insult. "The xenos will land on Terra."
"Heresy! The mere suggestion..."
"It is not a suggestion. It is a fact." Harrison gestured to the holographic display. "Look for yourself! The enemy is still numerous. They have not taken truly critical losses, and our fleet is left ripe for the picking. The custodes fleet is strong, but faced with the orks, the tyranids and whatever trickery the eldar have managed to unleash on us they will be overwhelmed. And then what?" Harrison let the words hang in the air before continuing. "They will come here. They will orbit Terra, and not even the combined might of Luna and Terra's defences will prevent them from getting a foothold on the throneworld. This war is not lost." He added, though the words felt false to him. "But a land battle on Terra is inevitable. If we pull back the fleet at least we can multiply their power and inflict a few more losses on the foe before the inevitable."
"...Your point is made." The general sighed. "Who will pass the order?"
"It is the responsibility of the admiralty." Harrison grunted. "The admiralty whose representative was just shot. I'm sure they will be thrilled." He got up from his chair. "I will pass along the instructions with the help of the Custodes. This should get things moving fast." He glanced at the various members of the war council. "We should prepare for the land assault. I doubt it will take longer than a day before the first tyranid bio-ship obscures the skies of Terra."
The Solar Fleet was in chaos.
The loss of the Phalanx had sent even the most disciplined of captains into a frenzy; Some channelling this nervous energy in rallying the nearby ships to form smaller fleets and hold against the coming tide of tyranid bio-ships; Others trying to escape, only to be picked off by bio-plasma shots and rammed by colossal hungry behemoths. The panic only increased as the largest capital ships began getting annihilated by the same strange weaponry that had burned through the Phalanx; Cutting through the chain of command like a hot knife through butter. The well organised and powerful Solar Fleet was suddenly left near leaderless, its most powerful ships and anchor in the madness ripped away from them. The sheer numbers of tyranid ships threatened to overwhelm them, and the hope of seeing the custodes fleet relieve them became ever more distant as the radio chatter made it clear the custodes were struggling themselves against the sheer number of orks ships.
When the order came through to pull back to Luna, it was followed without hesitation. The coolest heads managed to keep their splinter fleets together, uniting in large groups that pierced through the encirclement the tyranid armada had started forming. The losses were tremendous as they did so, but at least some of the ships made it through.
Those that had panicked, who had lost themselves to the madness of seeing their fellow men and women decimated by the foe, were utterly defenceless from the predations of the xenos.
By the time the last of the ships managed to escape from the nightmare, the Solar Fleet had been cut down by half; Of the remaining ships, few were those that did not suffer some form of substantial damage. It was a disaster.
The Custodes Fleet were similarly instructed to retreat back to Terra. Using their superior speed and technological advantage, the custodes fleet quickly managed to extricate themselves from the ork armada and beat a hasty retreat hounded by the ork vessels who were soon joined by the ever growing tyranid armada.
In the distant void of space, a craftworld silently followed along, surrounded on all sides by tyranid bio-vessels.
Ylsen considered firing on the fleeing human ships. They were still within range after all.
But Anya was no longer insisting he do so, and so he didn't. He would not do anymore than was needed.
"...The Solar Fleet in retreat. To think I'd see the day." The voice murmured behind him. He gulped.
"I would have thought you at the front lines." He dared mention. A childish chuckle echoed in the air.
"Oh no. I did my part in this particular battle by shattering the minds in the Star Forts." Anya's voice giggled. "I will keep my strength for the land battle."
"You seem eager." He commented. Anything to distract himself from what he had done. From the amount of lives he had condemned."
"And you feel guilty." The words sent a shiver down his spine. "I can understand. You just killed a lot of people." He could see her now, just at the edge of her vision. A face barely visible behind large white wings, standing at his side. Faintly glowing yellow eyes focused on the holographic display. "And whilst it would be easy to simply claim it was I who truly killed them...you know better than to deceive yourself so."
"If you are here to guilt-trip me, there is no need." He bitterly said.
"You misunderstand my intentions." She stayed silent. "I am sorry. I struggle to find the right words at times." He almost baulked at the words. Hearing her apologise was the last thing he had expected.
"..."
"Well I can't blame you for not answering. You hate me after all, and with good reason." The wings pulled back a little, revealing the childlike face of the tyranid leader. "Still, you understand that those you have slain today would have killed you without a moment's hesitation?" She smiled bitterly. "There is truth to the saying that the Imperium would sacrifice a million humans to kill a single eldar."
"I know."
"And yet you still feel guilty." She gestured to the Solar Fleet. "These people would slaughter your people at the first opportunity. The only reason they do not is that they are not strong enough to do it whilst preventing the fall of their Empire." She shook her head. "The moment they get the strength, they will kill each and every one of you."
"You are ill placed to judge people on wanting to kill Eldar. I do not think there is a single human alive that has killed more eldar than yourself." Ylsen pointed out.
"I'm a monster." She acknowledged. "But you would kill me without a moment of hesitation. Is it that these haven't sought conflict with you yet?" Ylsen stayed silent. "In that case, you are a fool. Leaving mankind alone because they haven't attacked you yet is a fool's endeavour. The galaxy is a graveyard full of the tombs of the xenos species that died for no other crime than existence."
"You are awfully pessimistic of your own species."
"Becoming part of another gives one a unique perspective." She softly said. "And mankind is capable of wonders. Of kindness and empathy. Of cooperation and benefiting each other." He could feel the hate in the air as she spoke. "But the Imperium has shackled these things away. Burnt them away in the name of a secular Imperium, then in the name of a God Emperor. It does matter the form it takes, or the arguments it uses. The Imperium is mankind's greatest foe." Her wings opened wide. "When we were but cavemen, huddled around the fire, it was not by tearing into each other that we defeated our predators. It was not by throwing our weak and elderly into the flames that we grew the capacity to care for each other and fight alongside each other. Compassion was what united us and made us strong enough to face it all." She opened her arms wide. "Can you imagine mankind truly united? Good and kind to each other, encouraging progress and understanding? That does not shy away from anything new or different, casting it in the dreaded word of Heresy and burning it at the stake? That does not see a helping hand as an opportunity to drag the other into the same levels of misery one is themselves cast in?"
"Is this what you want?" Ylsen dared ask.
"No. It is what I wish would have happened." She gazed out of the windows of the craftworld. "It is too late for that. Hate, fear and ignorance are too deeply ingrained into our kind. There is no saving mankind." She shook her head. "There is no saving me. I chose the path of survival and selfishness a long time ago."
"Then what is it you want?" Ylsen asked.
"I want to live. And if I can, wipe the slate clean." Her wings closed on themselves. "Use the tyranids as the purging tool they are. Those who are willing to try something new, to embrace change, will be given a place among us. The Hive Mind will remove the taint of the Imperium from their mind." She shrugged. "I want to survive, and Live. Make the galaxy a nice place to live in. No matter how much violence I have to employ to do so."
"...You'll forgive me for not wanting to live in what you judge a nice place."
"You might change your mind when you see what is outside this galaxy." She droned softly. "The tyranids have seen much. They have travelled far. You might find my rule to be the kindest and most reasonable you may find."
He wished the words of the alien didn't disturb him as much as they did.
"Now what?" He asked instead.
"Now? You follow along our fleet and continue to break their own." She smiled softly. "The time to land on Terra approaches. I will give the signal to the cults and our agents within the hour." She chuckled. "Let's sow a little chaos."
Ayna felt the moment the solitaire entered her psychic field.
As she expected, the eldar harlequin was still insanely fast despite her excessive attempts to crush the annoying gnat. Her powers kept slipping away from the Solitaire, as if something kept plucking the strands of powers that she managed to grip it with and cast them off. But it was slower than before. Just a bit, but enough for Ayna to actually keep up with.
She clashed with the Solitaire, and this time they were forced to deflect her blow. Speed it might have had, but in strength she surpassed the eldar by orders of magnitude. She saw how the harlequin's arms shook with the impact, how only the excessive deflecting of her attack saved it from being crushed under the attack. It jumped back and she followed, only to be struck by a deluge of shurikens that tore through her carapace and flesh. The ever so subtle slowing of her movements from the severed muscles and tendons before they regenerated was unfortunately enough and the Solitaire did not hesitate; Slamming the wire weapon into her and shredding her into pieces. She saw as her soul was sucked out of the body to be placed into another body that more harlequins followed in the trail of the Solitaire, their grinning masks mocking her as she fell to them. She snarled in fury as she awoke into a new body.
Damn clowns.
She wasn't sure what to do. She didn't have enough elite organisms here to prevent a strong host of harlequins from reaching the spirit stones.
She would have to try desperate measures.
Anya had made it very clear that under no circumstances were the spirit stones to be damaged.
But...the ship itself?
That would be fine.
A small grin appeared on her face.
The ship's pools bubbled with frenzied activity as thousands of the creatures inside of it threw themselves into the digestive acids of the ship, allowing their biomass to be used for other purposes.
Across the ship from numerous birthing pods, thousands of spore mines flooded its corridors, its tunnels, its spires.
And detonated all at once.
The corridors of the ship rippled under the thunderous explosions, flesh and blood pouring into the empty halls. The harlequins were fast, but they could not dodge such an attack.
Still many survived the attempt. A quarter of their host was taken by the attempt, but the rest had managed to protect themselves with shielding technology. And now, the ship was defenceless.
Ayna raged as she realised her attempt was unsuccessful. She sprinted towards the chamber full of spirit stones, brandishing her bonesword, pumping herself full of power and adrenaline. She decided to take the path of the hybrids and injected her body with a mad cocktail of hormones, chemicals and other strange enhancements that would destroy her body in a matter of minutes.
Any engagement with the solitaires would be a matter of seconds.
She burst into the room, finding the harlequins already there, teleporting whole piles of spirit stones away using some strange device. She screamed in rage and in an instant was upon them. The clowns did not panic, did not disperse. They pounced on her in a deadly dance, exchanging blows and clashing with her. She crushed, stabbed, murdered.
It wasn't enough.
By the time she had managed to kill twelve of the harlequins her body was already melting into goop. Almost all of the spirit stones had been taken. The solitaire was still alive.
As the last of her life left her, being dragged to yet another body, the Solitaire gave her a mocking bow, disappearing along with the rest of his troupe and the last of the spirit stones.
Rage and sorrow swirled into her soul, and she let out a frustrated scream that echoed throughout the Synaptic Network.
She had failed.
Gasirus brought his guardian spear down at the nob that threatened to shoot one of the pilots, whirling in a deadly swing before stabbing the heart of another of the green brutes with ease. All around him across the bridge were the corpses of dozens of orks who had teleported using their crude means to the bridge, all of them large beasts dangerous enough to nearly match him in strength. Thankfully, he still far surpassed them in speed, reflexes and equipment. The crew had provided great support by firing on the creatures with their weapons as he fought, but many of them now lay dead despite his best efforts. In the distance, he could see the majority of the fleet making their escape. His ship would not be so lucky; The engines had been crippled by a passing rok. There would be no retreat for them. This was to be his last stand.
A flash of lightning caught his attention as a new wave of orks emerged with their teleportation, screaming wildly as they threw themselves onto the crew in a wild slaughter. Amongst them was the biggest ork Gasirius had ever seen; A monster larger than a dreadnought that only fit in the space due to the colossal size of the control room. The beast roared as it threw itself at him, its colossal mechanical claw striking against Gasirius' guardian spear.
"HA! YOU FLASH' MARINES ARE TOUGH!" The ork bellowed. "WHY DON'T YA ENTERTAIN ME WHILE WE'Z 'EAD TO TERRA?"
"I will be your end, Ork." Gasirius somberly declared. It did not matter what he actually thought of his chances of winning. He would do nothing less but his absolute damndest to kill the creature before him.
"Dat'z where you'z wrong golden git." The ork growled in a surprisingly thoughtful tone. "You'z just a warm'up for da real boss."
Silence hung heavy over the surface of Luna. If one were to pay close attention, they could hear the subtle bustle of the troopers doing their last preparations; Checking over the weapons battery, ordering people around, checking if the last of the important personnel was evacuated to bunkers.
Then, one of the largest batteries installed on the surface, large enough to be confused for a skyscraper at first, opened fire. The sound was deafening; The shockwave of the shot was powerful enough to be physically felt kilometres away.
The projectile flew thousands and thousands kilometres, straight into the core of a large bio-ship, exploding it into chunks of flesh and chitin as it was about to catch up to one of the Solar Fleet vessels.
In an instant, the entire surface of Luna lit up with thousands upon thousands of super-heavy anti-orbital defences, saturating the space above the moon with explosions. The first wave of the tyranid fleet was vaporised under sheer weight of fire, the remnants of the Solar Fleet turning as one to pounce on the opportunity and firing in turn on the tyranid bio-vessels. More of them were destroyed by Imperial firepower; Only for the anti-orbital batteries to suddenly find themselves far busier than they wanted as hundreds of thousands of ork ships began descending into orbit, falling down in a straight line towards the ground. Ork roks came crashing down from orbit, the Imperial cannons destroying many of them but failing to annihilate all of them. Soon powerful explosions rocked the Luna surface as ships began smacking into the defences, the orks that survived the impact flooding out of the wreckage and entering combat with the defenders. Soon, the lunar defences were too busy firing on the assaulting ork ships and being themselves attacked by ork ground forces to continue saturating the tyranid armada; Who proceeded to continue in their pursuit of the Solar fleet and custodes fleet remnants.
On the ground, the orks found themselves faced with some of the very best of the Solar System defenders. Regiments of Imperial Guard fought the orks with such relentless fury it caught the greenskins off-guard at first; And with such numbers that without the constant flood of further xenos they would have been overwhelmed. Battalions of tanks clashed with killa-kans and deff dreds, looted vehicles fighting the models they were looted from. Blaring horns echoed as Imperial knights followed the Titanicus Legio assigned to the moon as they went cleaving through gargants and stompas; And even the mighty Mega-Gargants found themselves faced with overwhelming strength as the defenders revealed one of their greatest assets: Ordinatus Engines. The mighty artillery pieces could in a single shot rend entire hordes of orks apart, tear down the great idols that were the mega gargants and pulverise a Squiggoth.
Any other opponent would have recognized this as a formidable weapon to give a wide berth to and take down from afar, if their morale didn't shatter the moment it opened fire.
The orks hooted with excitement and rushed it with such numbers that even the Ordinatus piece could not keep up.
The war on Luna exploded in a matter of hours, turning into an urban hellscape as every inch of ground was fought for bitterly.
Ylsen watched as the craftworld's weaponry carefully aligned itself, ready to unleash its deadly payload onto the custodes fleet tearing into the vanguard of the tyranid fleet. He could see the bulk of the tyranid armada passing by Luna; Such an immense amount of bio-ships that it made him feel a tinge of fear that he could not quite crush.
He thought about what Anya had been telling him. In truth, he knew she had a point. The humans he was assisting in the annihilation of were zealous fanatics who would gleefully torture his kin before exterminating if they had the chance. And yet, he still had a sour taste in his mouth. Was it that he was forced into action? That he was made to obey one who had slaughtered billion of his kin for the chance to save those that remained? Was it that he hated the idea of falling as low as the Imperium itself, justifying himself with a mentality of them or us?
Perhaps all of them.
Regardless, he had a duty to his people as Autarch.
"Prepare to fire." He said softly.
"Perhaps I can make you reconsider." The voice made him whirl around, eyes wide as he took in the figure behind him. He saw how his guards jumped into action, clearly having failed to notice the individual until they announced their presence.
"Solitaire..." Came the awed whisper from those assembled around him at the sight of the figure. The harlequin had somehow snuck behind him without any of his guards noticing.
"Greetings Autarch." The Solitaire gave a bow. "I believe you are currently in dire need of casting off a leash." Ylsen slowly nodded.
"You believe well."
"What if I were to tell you the foe no longer holds the sway they used to over you?" The Solitaire looked up to him. "And that perhaps now is the time to give some payback?" Ylsen considered the words of the Solitaire. The temptation to unleash their arsenal onto the tyranid fleet was great, he had to admit. And if what the Solitaire was implying was what he thought it was...
The image of a child sitting on a nearby console, white wings opened and casting an ominous shadow over him brought his thoughts to a stop. It was clear Ylsen was the only one who could see it; None of the others were reacting. The child sighed, before pointing a finger in the opposite direction of Terra. The message was clear. He was free to go.
He felt the stare of the child as he considered his options.
He could unleash the full might of the craftworld onto the tyranid hive fleet.
He could side with the Imperium of Man and help them fight off the tyranid invader.
They might even win and have the Imperium spare them as a truce.
But.
But if Anya came to the craftworld in person.
He remembered the sight he had witnessed as he connected with those who had survived her awakening on the craftworld.
A dawn of fire and psychic power. A star born on the ship, burning all away through sheer intensity. The mighty avatar cast down. Their every defender broken at the feet of the tyranid child.
"...We will leave. Depower the weapons." The Solitaire glanced at him with that grinning demon mask.
"Are you afraid, Autarch?" The words were said with subtle menace.
"No Solitaire." Ylsen walked past the Harlequin. "I am terrified. Now, about those spirit stones." The Solitaire stood still for a time before following with unnatural grace even for an eldar.
"If that is your decision. We have gathered them, we can bring them through the craftworld's webway gate..."
Jane frowned as the craftworld started to pull back from the rest of the tyranid armada. For a moment, she thought to send her ships after it. It was a key component of their attack power, and whilst the tyranid bio-vessels she had crafted would be more than enough to break the foe, avoiding casualties was always something to be preferred as long as the objective remained accomplished.
She felt Amica's presence in her mind. She already knew. Jane chastised herself. Of course Amica knew. It was Amica after all. She closed her eyes and listened carefully to what her leader said.
Her eyes opened.
So it was time.
"Break them."
The tyranid armada surged as one. The Solar Fleet, now deprived of the protection from Luna, at first attempted to retreat further to Terra as the custodes fleet had. But the tyranid vessels were no longer slowed down by the imposing craftworld; And they pounced onto the damaged and slower Imperial vessels. Within minutes the weapons on both sides were firing, slugs and point defence lasers exchanging blows with bio-plasma and chitinous tentacles.
Jane guided her fleet with a precision and calculation ability unmatched by any human mind; a minutia that would only be possible through a machine. She watched as swarms of tyranid fighter organisms descended upon the large capital ships, overwhelming the point defence systems and harassing their shielding. Imperial frigates and corvettes deployed themselves in desperate attempts to stave off the assaults only to find themselves relentlessly hammered by massive long range tyranid vessels. She frowned as the Imperial Battle Barges and battleships opened fire, watching as many of her own ships were torn and ripped asunder. There was only so much you could do to make a biological creature resistant with limited biomass.
She watched as her ships surrounded the ragged fleet. There would be no escape for them.
This was to be the final blow to the Solar Fleet.
Natalie watched in disbelief as the battleship Neptune's Glory was savagely ripped apart by three massive creatures. To call them ships was a grotesque mockery of what the beautiful vessels of mankind were; Those were Leviathans born from the abominable xenos, world eaters capable of crushing a ship's hull between grotesque jaws the size of multiple hab-blocks. All around her she could see the rest of the Solar Fleet desperately fight its last stand, some ships going so far as to ram into the tyranids and detonate themselves to take out as many of the abominable xenos as possible.
She could barely gather the strength to order her crew to fire into the mass of fighters harassing Jupiter's Thunder with the little impact they were doing. It felt like none of their shots mattered, every tyranid fighter organism they shot down was replaced by five more as they continued whittling down the ships shielding.
She saw in the distance a colossal behemoth of a ship open its jaws, bio-plasma gathering in between its teeth.
"Fuck fuck fuck, Jupiter you need to get out of there!"
"Negative, our engines are shot down, we can..." She cried in frustration as the shields finally gave out, the bio-plasma engulfing the upper deck of the battleship they were defending pulverised and set ablaze. The ship started listing, lifeless as tyranid fighters began hunting down any lifepod that made out whilst others rushed into the crevasses and holes dug into the ship. It was as if watching carrion hunters descending upon the corpse of a large whale.
Rage overcame her.
"Full power to the weapons! Blast those sons of bitches back from whatever hole they crawled out of!" Cannons fired. Lasers blasted. Dozens of tyranids organisms were sundered, a swarm of them taking her ship for target.
She pulled out her side arm and prepared for the last stand.
It came in blood and fire as her ship was torn apart from frenzied creatures the size of houses.
"The Solar Fleet is gone." His mouth was dry as he said the words. Harrison watched numbly his display as he watched the last ship be swallowed whole by a monster of a ship. The entire Solar Fleet. Gone. Luna under assault by the orks, unable to provide support. Mars hiding away on their planet, content to ignore the problem as long as it wasn't bothering them directly. No doubt gathering forces and preparing to attack after the tyranids expanded their forces assaulting Terra.
A ground assault would be happening within a matter of hours. The tyranids were not a force that needed to rest and recuperate. Some ships would stay behind to start recycling their losses, but most would be headed to Terra at this very moment.
Which meant, in all likelihood, all hell was about to break loose on the surface of the planet.
"Vela." The arbites looked at him with empty eyes. She seemed broken. Defeated. He could hardly blame her. Seeing the Phalanx fall had for her been the beginning of the end. And yet, still she would fight. He knew it. "Have all regiments on world be prepared for sabotage and insurrection operations. Genestealer cults and whatever poor desperate bastards they have managed to enrol to their side will no doubt be making their play now."
"Understood sir." She shambled towards the vox caster as he turned to Ashley.
"Ashley..." He gulped. Emperor forgive him for what he was about to say. "I want you to take the lead of the sororitas contingent on the world. If the Ecclesiarch protests, tell him to take his complaints to the Custodes."
"And what shall I do at their head?" She asked with a frenzied look in her eyes.
"Burn them all. The Heretics, the Xenos Lovers. The Traitors. Let not one remain."
The smile she gave him made him want to shoot her right there and then.
Dina hummed as she walked into her usual workplace. She let the guard inspect her, checking that she wasn't carrying any explosives or weapons on her, before making her go through a scanner that revealed she wasn't concealing anything inside of her. She let this all happen without protest, being let into the military base she'd been working at for the past thirty years. She walked by colleagues who looked like they hadn't slept in weeks, exhausted and ragged. She felt a twinge of pity at the sight. These past few days had been difficult for them all. And the looming invasion was on everyone's minds. She saw the local regiment parading through the base, passing in front of their commanders for inspection. She felt that the last hours of their lives could be better spent in preparations than usual postering to feed the commanders' egos, but who was she to judge?
She entered the command room, sitting down at her communication post. Her lieutenant instructed her that she was in charge of passing information regarding sub-section thirteen of the fourth quadrant. She nodded.
Time to feed misinformation.
For Amica.
Uras frowned, sitting at his guard post between the seventh and eighth district.
"Hey captain." The man grunted, observing the displays of the tyranid fleet approaching orbit from the various listening posts still functional around Terra. "Was the thirteenth Battalion supposed to be coming through here?" The captain shook his head, getting up from his post.
"No. They were meant to head to district six and support the anti-air positions there. The fuck are they doing here." The captain seemed nervous, Uras noted. "Oi!" He called out to the various men and women dispersed through the guard post. "At the defences. Better safe than sorry."
"Sir!" The captain then turned to Uras.
"Contact them. Tell them to return to their instructed positions or we'll fire without a warning shot."
"Understood sir." Uras lowered his voice as he spoke into the vox caster. "Battalion thirteen, you are out of position. Return to your designated area or be fired upon." Silence for a moment.
Then, one of the leman russ turrets swivelled upwards towards the lascannon positioned above the guard post. Uras' eyes widened.
"SH..."
The tank fired, destroying the lascannon position. Immediately the guardsmen began opening fire with every piece of heavy equipment they had on the deployed tanks, whose formation began unleashing all hell in return. Uras ducked under his position as a trail of autocannon fire ripped the room he was in open, lasgun fire and grenade explosions quickly filling the air.
He peeked out, lobbing a grenade at the nearest tank. There were thirty in total, accompanied with three hundred shock troops and fifty infantry vehicles such as chimeras. There was no way their guard post was stopping that. He grabbed the vox caster.
"This is listening post Sierra fifteen! The thirteenth battalion is compromised!" An explosion rocked the guard post, sending rubble tumbling down on many of the guardsmen. He saw as one of his friends was crushed to death, his arm sticking out from under the pile. "By Leman's balls, we're going to get overr..." An explosion blasted him apart as distantly a valkyrie took off for a strafing run.
All over the surface of Terra, similar events were taking place.
A guardsmen stabbed his commanding officer from behind.
An anti-orbit defensive position discovered their ammo was sabotaged as it detonated into their cannon, disabling the installation.
A guard regiment marched into an anti-air position, slaughtering its defenders.
Sororitas marched down into the streets, finding themselves faced with millions upon millions of raving cultists flooding the streets with weapons smuggled away from the guard, battle erupting in the avenues of Terra, blood pouring on the steps of temples as traitor and loyalist regiments clashed.
Infiltrators passed false information, sending squads to be ambushed, their gear stolen; Saturated communication channels with static and painful screeching and generally made an absolute mess of the coordination of the defenders.
Explosions rocked sites of importance; Bombs having been planted all over the planet with some managing to avoid detection until too late.
Billions of rebels emerged from the underlevels, seeing this chance as the only one they would ever get to overthrow the Imperium that had for so long made them live in fear and abject misery.
Those anti-air and anti-orbital positions that had found themselves unaffected by the sudden surge of rebellion from various forces on Terra burst into action as the tyranid vessels entered the lower orbit of Terra, so numerous that the custodes fleet could not engage enough of them to prevent the bio-vessels from unleashing their deadly cargo down onto Terra. The crackling of anti-air guns mixed with the sounds of violence filling the streets as the Throneworld descended into chaos.
The tyranid invasion of Terra had begun.
Secundus felt the gentle pulsing of the ship as she walked with bare feet on it, her eyes half closed as she spoke through the mouths of Patriarchs and psykers loyal to their cause; Guiding the rebels, pointing them in the direction they would be most useful. As she entered the large transparent room she opened her eyes, finding her sister standing there, staring down at the world they were assaulting.
"Big sister." Secundus softly spoke. "I have done as you asked."
"Excellent work." Anya's voice was strange. It felt like behind her words were many other voices; Muted, simply repeating what she spoke. It was unnerving even to Secundus. "We've come this far...part of me is still in disbelief."
"All thanks to your guidance." Anya chuckled, shaking her head.
"No. No, this event would have come to pass one way or the other. The Hive Mind was drawn here like a moth to a flame. The Emperor shines bright. A tempting meal to say the least." Anya's wings bristled. "I have merely accelerated our course."
"Well, regardless we are here. No one can claim this victory is not of your doing." Anya stayed silent. "Sister?"
"Sorry. I am...thinking." Anya muttered. "I suppose it will be time for me to join in the fighting." She sighed. "It's too late for hesitation."
"You? Hesitate?" Secundus stuttered. "But...but you're the strongest of us! What makes you hesitate?" Anya seemed to think for a moment as if uncertain what to answer.
"It's...it's Him." She eventually confessed. "The Emperor." She said the name with a mixture of reverence and revulsion. "I knew what I was getting us into when I declared the war on Terra...knew what I was intending the moment I realised there was no other choice. But now that I am actually here..." She gulped. "Now that I stand so close to him...that I can feel his power, that radiant beacon of psychic might...of order and will..." She shivered. Secundus' eyes widened at the sight. "I..."
"You're afraid..." Secundus whispered in realisation. Anya nodded.
"Yes. Yes I am. You would be too if you could see what I see." Anya shivered once more. "It's...it's terrifying. No wonder this man conquered the galaxy."
"...So what now?"
"Now?" Anya opened her wings now. "We've come too far to back down. He scares me. But I've been scared my whole life." Anya's eyes blazed with power and determination. "I Will Live. I Will Survive."
"No Matter The Cost."
Solitaire: "How many speeds are you on right now?"
Ayna: "I don't know, like, twelve or something."
Solitaire: "You are like a child. Observe."
Proceeds to speed blitz Ayna three times in a row.
"HONK"
Bonus!
Ayna: "I have been humiliated! Beaten by...by a literal fucking clown!"
Custodes: "First time?"