Disclaimer: I own Jackshit.
AN: At last! The Necromancers have finished their work and have brought fresh life to my muse! Once more, I'd like to thank Vladicus for proofreading this chapter, along with giving me a fair bit of feedback about a number of aspects that will become important going forwards. Still, hope you lot enjoy this, especially after life has been a right pain in the ass until recently... Kind of...
Anyway, enjoy!
XXX
Reality screamed, and all I couldn't help but let a deep sense of satisfaction settle over me.
Through a legion of artificial eyes and sensors I watched as the Laws of Physics reasserted themselves and proceeded to kick The Immaterium out of their home with extreme prejudice . Like the blade of a knife, the connection between the Warp and the material world was severed with extreme prejudice.
Physical rules and laws previously ignored or flaunted were returned to their position of the primary arbiter on what was and was not allowed, to exist in the physical world as anything and everything that had been touched by the Warp suffered. The very soil of the planet rebelled against the Warp energy that had been infused into it, turning upon those that had once gloated in their power over reality and denying them in the most fundamental ways possible: Starvation and Rejection.
The Neverborn were the hardest hit by the effects, their bodies finally confronted with the cruel and unforgiving bite of physical reality, something that most, if not all of them, had never known nor cared for until this singular point in their existence. They staggered, colour draining from impossible flesh as reality took hold and forced them to face the same rules that governed natural life, binding them in chains that they could not escape as they tried to charge; tried to attack; tried to do something, anything, to end their torment.
The Daemons of Khorne barely managed to make it a few steps before collapsing to the ground, their unnatural strength and nature rejected by the very world they found themselves in, their own flesh had become both prison and poison to them as the creatures ripped themselves apart and died a slow death. Organs never meant to function or simply nonexistent were forced into action and found themselves poorly suited to the new reality that assaulted them from every direction. Skin and muscles, not properly anchored, dropped away and caused their figures to disappear as they became little more than mewing piles of flesh that quickly came undone as what little Warp energy remained slipped away from them like mist in a high wind.
The Daemons of Tzeentch, primarily a mixture of Blue and Pink Horrors, simply stopped dead. Their forms, previously animated by the raw sorcery of the Warp, were unable to adapt to their new reality for even a moment as a heat-haze of Warp energy leaked from every corpse that now carpeted the ground. Likewise, the Daemons of Slaanesh found themselves forced to the ground, their very biology turning against them as the liquids, fluids and materials inside their own bodies turned into bitter poisons that ravaged them from the inside out. What working nerves that they had were pushed into overdrive as their demise loomed ever closer with each passing second. A flyby of an area filled with their still-struggling forms showed that they were screaming, moaning or begging for more sensation. Even the greatest of them was reduced to little more than panting corpses that spasmed and twitched as their bodies were ravaged by the effects of the Argent, and enjoying it entirely too much, for that matter.
Slightly disturbing, but I honestly could have cared less about what they thought about the first successful test of an Anti-Warp weapon, but full documentation on the effects of it's victims was always useful.
Lastly, the Daemons of Nurgle were just pitiful. The moment the Argent had gone active, Warp energy had leaked out of every pore and opening in their decay-riddled bodies, followed by them collapsing to the ground as little more than steaming corpses. Without the Warp energy to animate them, they were little more than suits of dead meat that had allowed the Servants of the Dark Gods to interact with the physical world. They were no threat, though that wouldn't stop me from gathering up every piece of tainted flesh and burning it in Plasma fire.
Making sure to keep documenting the Neverborn's reactions to the Argent, I turned my attention to the rest of the Forces of Chaos. Their reactions, while less impressive, were still very obvious to see as they struggled to even stand. The mutated nature of most of the Cultists and Traitor Marines having been turned from a 'blessing' into a curse that was now biting them in the ass, hard. Some were struggling to stay on their feet, coughing up blood as they wheezed for air through airways that had been brutally transmuted into something that could never function properly without some outside assistance. The ground underneath them quickly became drenched with sweat, blood and other fluids as entire sections of the vast horde of Chaos worshipers collapsed to their knees, or fell to the ground in a heap dead or catatonic.
IR and Thermal sensors picked out spikes in body temperature as thin curtains of steam rose from every single member of the mob. Even the Traitor Marines were not exempt from this, as a shroud of steam seemed to cloak them from immediate sight as they labored forwards even as their forces had collapsed in pain; Even as their own bodies seemingly rebelled in pain and starvation.
Turning to observe one of the Fallen Angels of Death closer, I could see that the effects had hit him like the fist of a pissed off Bloodthirster. Every step forward was another titanic task that demanded a toll greater than the last, microphones picking out the distinct sounds of his labored breaths. Pale lips were caked in dried blood, sweat was dripping down from his brow like a miniature waterfall, and his eyes were bloodshot even as trails of blood freely fell from the corners of his eyes, his nose and his ears. Steam radiated from his skin even as he moved further, joining the heat haze that seemed to radiate from every surface of his armor and weapons, growing minutely thicker as the massive Transhuman lurched ever-onward with the rest of the members of his Warband. Other Fallen Space Marines continued to try and advance, even as their biology faltered and fought them with every step. Now deprived of their dark gifts, the same gifts that had made them so 'mighty' when compared to their Loyalist 'Cousins' they weren't even a threat and I hesitated to call them anything more than target practice.
And that was without looking at the Sorcerers that staggered and wobbled on their feet, looking for all the world like they were either drunk, walking on ice, or both. Hands clutched at heads or helmets, some tried to hold on to their chosen stave or staff as a form of support and balance, but their strength seemed to eventually falter as mutated muscles gave out. It wasn't long from there for them to find themselves laying on the ground, clutching their heads with what little strength remained as blood flowed from any opening it could find, leaking through the ruined seals in the Power Armor they wore. In most cases, the blood boiled into nothingness before it could even touch the ground, such was the heat that seemed to pour from every surface and facet of their bodies, even more so than their kin.
Exposed faces seemed frozen in some cross between pain and anger, teeth grinding together as indignation and fear blazed in bloodshot eyes that seemed to glare at anything in sight. However, for those that had fallen into just the right positions, they glared forwards, towards my base and my Forms, but with a special attention paid to the massive form of the Argent. Others glared into the sky, eyes and head twitching in every direction as the distant sounds of Deployment Shells breaking apart in the atmosphere competed with the sounds of Daemon engines struggling to move, Traitor Astartes trying to fight on and Cultists begging and praying for Mercy.
I suppose it was only fair. After all, I had no plans to grant them any form of Mercy.
Surveying the result of my actions, I checked with the growing orbital network of Observers once more. I checked what was happening across the rest of the planet and watched as the Forces of Chaos lurched into action. Distance had been their saving grace, but only to a degree. They still struggled against their now-mortal flesh as the gifts of the Dark Pantheon were ripped from them, Reality showing itself to be a cruel and unforgiving mistress to those that tried to violate her laws, and certainly one without pity for the fools who actually succeeded. Still, even if the effects had been lessened by distance, I could see how they still showed themselves through a rise in the general temperature of the areas even as a shroud of steam coated those most corrupted by the Warp Mutations they once held so dearly.
Measures were quickly taken as temperature differences, steam outputs and percentages of Warp mutations were all observed. Data was collected and compared as Forms walked through the fields of fallen madmen and monsters, utterly unaffected and not bothered by the sea of tortured bodies around them as more readings were taken. Hateful and fearful eyes alike looked to the inhuman figures of my Forms as they marched past them, unaffected by the radiation in the air even as it seemed to start seeping into the flesh and bones of those brought low by their reintroduction to the laws of existence that they had once happily ignored. Background radiation was high enough to kill, and the effects were already becoming apparent as a number of Cultists vomited, underwent violent seizures, fell into a sudden fever as their bodies tried to expel the radiation through sweat, or simply shit themselves. Considering that the background radiation was somewhere north of the Chernobyl meltdown's fifty Sieverts, I doubted that most of these idiots, lacking their 'divine' protection, would last longer than twenty-four hours before they expired.
With that in mind, I decided to do the only sensible thing I could, I increased the power to the Argent.
Slowly, I watched as the readings coming through from my energy economy showed the increased drain as the output from the Argent rose with every increment to the amount of power that poured through its arcane mechanisms. Dozens of Forms, spread through the defenseless hordes of Warp-Worshipers, watched as the effect of the increased power output became more and more apparent as temperatures started to spike higher and higher. Steam and sweat seemed to explode from some of them as a very slight rumble started echoing through the ground, vibrations coming from seemingly everywhere and only growing as the power behind Argent rose further. Fear, uncertainty and pain flared across every face that could be seen or wasn't concealed by a helmet, skin flushing red as their core body temperatures spiked ever higher in response to the increasing death-grip of reality that now held them at its non-existent mercy. Screams quickly filled the air as some were scorched by the heat being expelled by their own bodies, causing blood to boil and flesh to run like melted wax. Strips of fabric sparked into miniature flames even as tainted metals slowly began to gain a cherry-coloured glow to them that only brightened as the sink on my energy production grew in size.
And like that, a threshold was crossed.
Suddenly, what had once been a field of candles and steam turned into a plain of roaring bonfires as every single Cultists, Traitor Marine and piece of Warp-tainted material ignited into a miniature firestorm of heat that registered as near-impenetrable walls of heat and flames. The screams of dying men filled the air, no longer simply in pain, but being roasted alive as their bodies turned into fuel for a fire that didn't seem likely to let up anytime soon. From above, I watched with a dozen other digital witnesses as the wave of spontaneous combustions spread out like an unseen shockwave centered on the Argent and travelling fast through the crowds of defenseless Warp-Worshippers. Even the tainted soil wasn't spared, vast swathes of the planet were ripped open with explosions of rapidly expanding steam coming from the cracks as sections of the soil seemed to ignite and burn itself into little more than a blackened plate of obsidian with little warning. Breaks spread in jittering steps of motion as more and more steam filled the air, spreading outwards and always just a step behind the boundary that showed the ignition point where anything tainted by the Warp would burn.
In a matter of moments, the world was radically changed, the landscape of the planet being replaced with something that could have only been described as a vision of hell itself made real. It was an impression that was only reinforced by the video feeds from the Forms on the ground as they picked out the sounds of roaring flames, among other things. The sounds of voices could be heard even through the hellstorm of fire that was rapidly gaining pace as more and more of the planet was suddenly coming into the expanding trigger zone of my creation, and burning because of it. Screams could be heard even over those same fires that burned them from within, using them as fuel as any trace of the Warp was scoured from the physical world with a ruthlessness that defied mortal comprehension. Some begged, some pleaded for mercy, some swore and cursed all of creation for what was about to happen and others still prayed for salvation from Gods that were now all-but-impossible to reach.
In the end, their words meant little and their lives only amounted to more fuel for the fire.
Through the watching sensors of a growing number of Observers and the still-arriving hordes of Deployment and Warbringer Shells, I saw the firestorm raging, spreading across the surface of the planet as the area of effect grew, and grew, and grew. Entire regions disappeared under the conflagration of the Warp-purging Hell-fire that was spawned from the aggressive reinforcement, and enforcement, of the constants of existence. Even from orbit, I could see the distant forms of corrupted Cultists falling to the ground in soundless agony, their biology rebelling against them and turning their 'boons' into little more than a death sentence for those that served the Ruinous Powers. Something that, in all honesty, was nothing less than what they deserved.
Corrupted infrastructure and tainted stores of demonic weapons burned as their Warp-tainted nature became their undoing as flames bloomed from every pore, every surface and every possible facet of the industrial efforts of the Forces of Chaos. Entire formations and hordes disappeared in a wave of spontaneous combustion, followed by the flash-melting/ignition of any corrupted materials that were brought within the area of influence of the Argent Wave that spread over, and through, the planet of Kaurava IV. What little safety the forces of Chaos could find, hidden within their Shrines to the Dark Gods, was a temporary thing as arcs of Warp Lightning danced over the distorted forms of their halls of worship. Like water, the Argent Wave eroded all resistance from these small pockets that fell further and further into its embrace with every moment that passed. Death was a certainty for them, the only thing in doubt was the timing.
And throughout the entire process, Observers watch the effect of the Argent Wave as it travels, sending the sensor readings to the Data-minds and Coven, who documented every detail with a near-religious mania. Information was cross-referenced and cross-examined by dozens of individuals, beings and Data-minds in an effort to understand and gain new insight into the nature of both the Warp and existence itself. Behaviors were observed, documented and used to create the foundations of fresh understanding as they watched how the Argent Wave interacted with Warp energy, developing the very first rules of this new field of study. I watched with no small amount of interest as the totality of my 'think tank' started with the simple before developing it further and further, but keeping the root of it the same; A root that anyone with a working pair of eyes and a brain could see, just from watching the world below.
The more Warp Energy that something possessed the more Argent energy was required to purge it and the more energetic the reaction was going to be once the Warp Energy was purged.
Even without the more visual effects that were being demonstrated, the power fluctuations that were playing out within the Argent were proof enough as every time resistance was met it caused some amount of feedback within the Argent itself. Sensors carefully tracked these fluctuations, noting times and the strength of these fluctuations before cross-checking with the watching Observers to see where and what these points of resistance might be. Automated systems kept track of these fluctuations, both as part of the documentation process, and to ensure that they wouldn't cause some kind of disaster to take place. Whenever said fluctuations grew too large, the system would draw on more power for the Argent to use, causing the fluctuations to subside as more energy battered down the resistance and caused the Argent's area of influence to spread just that little bit faster.
That last part was something that I only saw as an advantage as I watched the surface of Kaurava IV dissolve into little more than a near-constant firestorm that was burning anything with even the slightest taint of Chaos to it. And even if it wasn't, I wasn't really at any risk of running out of power any time soon, especially since I had yet to actually stop building more infrastructure and economy structures. Even as the Argent had been spooling up to full operational status, I had already amassed a frankly insane amount of energy storage and generation. Literally, my Alpha Poly-complex alone was nearly twenty kilometres tall, with the majority of the internal volume being taken up by power generators mixed with spaces for the production and storage of my Forms, and other constructs. Not to mention, the other thirty-seven Poly-Complexes that now dominated the landscape of Kaurava I, and the further ten that were starting to develop themselves on the moon of Nan Yanoi.
So yes, applying more power to the Argent wasn't a problem. Then again, as I thought that, I watched as the Argent field finally encountered the Warp-infested forms of the first three Gehemahnets...
... And then everything went to shit...
XXX
Arcs of Warp-lightning danced up and down the sides of the incomplete Gehemahnets as the two different energies interacted with one another, grinding against one another as the land surrounding the towering monuments was reduced to a burning hellscape of fire and ash. Even in the initial moments of contact, the sheer potency and concentration of Warp energy within each of the Gehemahnets was plain to see as each bolt of multi-coloured lightning danced over kilometres of stone and blood mortar. Arcs of stray energy bounced and pinged around, hitting invisible walls that transmuted the raw energy into gouts of flames and flashes of light bright enough to burn out the retina of a normal Human.
After five seconds of such a stalemate, the immediate area around the Gehemahnets had become a burning sea of liquid rock and superheated metal debris as the temperature continued to soar even higher, already pushing past the new global average that was well beyond the melting point of some metals. As the temperature gradient continued to grow, even the liquid rock and metal started to boil and evaporate from the surrounding landscape, winds picking up as the relative difference in temperature started causing a miniature weather system to develop around the Gehemahnets. Cold and warm air currents, relative to the planet's current temperatures, circled and fought against one another along the boundary between the Warp and the Argent, drawing fire and heat upwards and throwing smoke and ash into the upper atmosphere as the flame-hurricane surrounded a flickering core of impossible energies that sparked against the air.
Power fluctuations spiked higher than ever before, causing the automated systems to compensate by drawing more power to try and crush the resistance from the Warp energy within range of the Argent. However, with each increase in power to the Argent, this only worked to cause the range of the Argent field to be projected further, speeding up the rate of expansion in explosive jolts of motion. Within moments of meeting the first Gehemahnet within range, another two were forced into range by the rampant surges of power demanded by the Argent's onboard AI, causing the machine intelligence to demand more in turn.
Even after the planet fell under the shadow of the Argent's area of influence, the field only continued to grow larger and larger at a rate that beggars belief. Lacunae quickly followed from there, as the field only continued to grow and accelerate beyond the origin point of the Argent. And even though it was primarily untouched by the more corrupting influence of the Warp, one couldn't help but wonder what kind of effect the Argent would have had on even the atrophied Psychic senses of the Dark Eldar that skulked through the misty marshes of the moon. Still, such things were unimportant to the current situation as the two overwhelmingly powerful forces warred against one another on the surface of Kaurava IV.
By the time ten minutes had passed, the planet and moon were both submerged in the shadow of the Argent field, hidden so deeply that they had no chance of escaping the embracing of the harsh reality that the worshipers of Ruin had tried so hard to flee from. From orbit, the planet was all but impossible to directly observe, the surface almost completely hidden behind a shroud of smoke and ash-filled clouds that sunk the surface in a perpetual darkness, lit only by those sources of light already present on the surface of the planet. In this case, said sources came in the form of the molten rock that now covered the planet in a near-unbroken ocean of liquid heat and volcanic eruptions that broke through the surface of the constantly shifting surface of lava.
And throughout it all, the concentrated pillars of Warp energy remained, standing defiantly within hurricanes of dust, flame, burning lava and evaporated rock. Their physical shells had long since been destroyed, corrupted stone and blood mortar only being so resilient in the face of so much energy being forced upon them. They had been reduced to little more than pillars of raw, unshaped Warp-stuff that flickered through the air like a demented and unceasing bolt of lightning that bridged the earth and the heavens. Even the Argent wasn't unaffected by the changes in the environment and the power being forced through it, it's outer shell heating up even as power conduits turned cherry red from the sheer amount of raw energy being forced through them. Internal sensors came back, calculations were made and a decision was quickly reached that if this struggle continued, the Argent would not survive the process of purging all Warp energy from the planet.
A message with this information was sent to the commanding intelligence, a list of recommendations and possible solutions attached as the onboard AI checked the status of the local forces. Only a fraction of the forces present on the planet had survived the transformation of Kaurava IV into its present form. Those that had survived had done so via leaving through either Teleporter Gates or by climbing back onto one of the Footholds as it had activated it's engines and climbed into orbit. Those that had remained had been reduced to burning metals and silicon circuits, nothing surviving as the temperature gradient climbed to such an extreme that not even my forms could survive. Reinforcements had ceased to come from Lacunae, determined as a waste of resources even as such forces were redirected towards Kaurava II or Kaurava III, to deal with the Greenskins or the Necrons, primarily.
The Intelligence took in these details in a picosecond, considered options and reviewed past orders either given by itself or by other subordinate intelligences before coming to a solution.
The Argent was shifted, it's priority for energy supply was raised as new power-generating infrastructure was brought online. Safety protocols and hardware interlocks were overridden; Power management systems were re-tasked and had their priorities shifted to reflect the new role the Argent was to play: To extract as much power as possible from the Argent, at the expense of the device itself. Turning it into a single-use device otherwise known as a bomb.
The internal AI recorded these changes, keeping track as it continued to send the sensor reports and documentations of what was happening within the Argent at all times. De-activated alarm and warning systems blazed quietly as safety limits were reached before being ignored completely as more power than was ever intended was pushed through the connection to the wider energy economy and into the Argent itself. Still, the energy only continued to grow and grow as sensors recorded the distant sources of the Argent's power fluctuations and how they reacted to the increase in power being slammed into them. Even outside of line of sight of the Argent, it was impossible to miss as the sky lit up with the sight of distant lightning thrashing through the sky, like some rabid animal trying to escape from something. Not that it mattered...
Seconds passed as the power levels continued to climb ever-higher, right before a tipping point was reached.
The last thing the Argent's onboard AI recorded and transmitted was the sudden drop in power fluctuations, followed by the rapidly expanding points of thermal energy and increased tectonic activity, then nothing.
XXX
Across the Kaurava system, members of every race and kind felt the final moments of Kaurava IV as the planet died. They felt the Death-scream of a planet as it was shattered by impossible forces and unimaginable amounts of power. For all but the most Psychically Blunt of individuals the effect was akin to ice being dropped down the back of their shirts, something cold being pressed to skin even as headaches and minor phantom pains flared through their bodies. Animal instincts flared and banged on the mind of rational, and not-so-rational, beings as heads snapped around to look in some distant direction as they felt something change. They felt something minute, yet vastly important... Shift minutely from its prior location.
For the more Psychically active, their experience of these events was more... Intense.
Previously, the activation of the Argent had been felt by all but the weakest of Psykers in the system, causing them to flinch or stumble as the new sensations within the Warp assaulted them. They had felt it as the twin realms of the Materium and Immaterium being torn from one another, an impassable gap forming between the two realms that none could pass from either direction. Even looking at it was enough to cause pain and discomfort as those that went to investigate found themselves looking into an abyss of utter oblivion as existence itself frayed at the edges of this void. Attempts to seek more knowledge or understanding failed as those who journeyed too close to the gaping maw of nothingness found themselves forced back as their concentration broke under the growing pressure pulsing out from the void between realms. It ate away at their connection to the Warp, lashing out at their nerves and sending waves of agony through their bodies as the energies of the Aether were ripped from the astral-forms they had used to witness this new phenomena.
The Drukhari, being the closest to the Argent on the moon of Lacunae, suffered the most as they fell under the shadow of the Argent's Influence. Their psychic abilities, however atrophied by millennia of disuse, were still strong enough to connect them to the Aether as the Argent washed over them, smothering them in its embrace and igniting their nerves with pleasurable agony that caused their hearts to flutter and their blood to sing. It was a good pain, one they reveled in as they continued to fight and battle against the machines that assailed them from all directions. However, as the strength of the field increased, their agony only rose with it as they tried to focus on the battle for their very lives. The distraction proved fatal in more than one engagement, causing some to collapse into a jittering heap of twitching limbs and blissfully painful sensations even as the machines advanced. Those few survivors that managed to escape, struggling not to fall to the rapturous torment that flared through their nerves, crawled back to their hidden lair in the vain hope of escaping the euphoric hell that now surrounded them.
Unfortunately, for them, as the power and size of the Argent's Influence grew, it sheared more and more of the bonds between real space and the Warp, drawing the threads further and further apart until only the connections between body and soul remained fully intact. Attempts to open the Webway failed as the breaches into the unreal labyrinth created flickering portals that shifted too quickly to allow passage. Those that tried were bisected by the flickering portals, turned into little more than dead meat, with their only hope of further life being the tender mercies of whatever Haemonculi that might stumble upon them. They had just been preparing for another attempt when the Argent bloomed for a final time, it's Influence growing like the Death-scream of a Star preceding a Supernova, bathing them in fresh sensations that overloaded their minds, cutting through whatever mental discipline that they had used to keep themselves moving and sealing the Webway off from them entirely. Though, that was only a minor detail to those still-living Drukhari, as they were too busy basking in the raw agony they were experiencing to do anything else.
Further into the system, on Kaurava III, the Necrons and Eldar war both against each other and the machines that trespassed upon battlefields long since forgotten. The Necrons, long since having been converted into soulless, undead machines, could not feel the ebb and flow of the Aether as it shifted around them in unseen patterns. Perhaps, with their advanced techno-sorcery, they recorded the shifts in the Warp as they happened, but took no further action. The only noticeable signs that the Influence of the Argent even stretched over them was the agitation felt by the C'tan Shard in their midst, and the sparking of memory engrams long since lost to the ravages of time, and ill-maintenance.
However, unlike their undead enemies, the Asuryani were all too aware of the Influence cast from the Argent, like a vast shroud that was painful to perceive. Upon activation, all Asuryani felt the tearing of reality as the twin-realms were pulled apart by technologies both ancient and unnatural. Even as distant as they were from the point of activation, they felt it all the same as their gifts became an even greater curse than they had been in moments past. It was impossible to ignore, as all the Asuryani within the system could feel the dreadful gaze of the abyss upon them as it grew and grew within the forming barrier between the real and unreal. Words and concepts failed to accurately describe the awe-inspiring horror of what they bore witness to, as some Seers were left catatonic upon trying to investigate the dread-abyss through the Warp, or what was happening upon the other side. When the detonation of the Argent took place, the Asuryani were ill-prepared for it as the energy wave produced, carried by the Death-scream of a planet, washed over them.
Dozens died in the immediate moments following the Influence passing over them, and it was only the prudent actions of Farseer Caerys that prevented further deaths, Caerys having recalled the members of her warhost to the safety of their stronghold at the appearance of this new phenomena. Healers went to work, tending to both the dead and to the living in equal measure as Soulstones were retrieved from the armored breastplates of the fallen. Those that lived through the experience were likewise tended to, as few were left unharmed by the passage of the Dread-scream. The Farseer herself was, perhaps, lucky to even be alive in the aftermath of the wave, as it seemed to assault active Psykers more brutally than any other, as seen by three of the Seers she had brought with her. Of those three, one of them was dead, and the other two had been rendered into little more than empty husks, their minds destroyed by the soul-rending pain and agony before being reduced to the mental capacities of a fruit.
Even death and internment within the Infinity Circuit would not be able to undo the trauma.
Further within the system, on the world of Kaurava II, the Orks and the Space Marines both felt the effects of the Influence as it bloomed through the system in the aftermath of Kuarava IV's destruction. Psykers on both sides of the divide felt the Dread-scream carried like a wave through both existence and the Warp, battering at the gates to their minds and setting nerves on fire. For a Chapter of Space Marines known for its high number of Librarians, the Blood Ravens suffered under the baneful voice of the Influence as nerves and blood vessels ruptured and Psychic Hoods overloaded with the sudden surge of unreal energies that almost seemed to scream in fear, seeking any way to escape the horror-wave that approached. From the lowest Battle-Brother, all the way to the Force Commander, the effects were felt and caused the task force, as a whole, to falter in its mission to bring death to Humanity's many enemies. Even so, the Blood Ravens were still Transhuman Warriors crafted by the hands of the God-Emperor, and were quick to recover from their injuries, even as they braced for the consequences of their sudden loss of momentum...
For the Orks of the Jungle planet, however, the effects of the Influence were both more subtle and obvious. Upon the activation of the Argent, a slight shift had taken place as the Orks of Kaurava II found themselves standing taller as their hunchback-like stances disappeared almost entirely. They were still Orks, loving war, death and battle, but the way they carried themselves had changed just slightly as other abnormalities started to develop as time passed. Weapons became slightly more accurate, armor became slightly more durable, constructs became a bit more uniform, Orkoids started growing just a bit faster, and a clear series of rough and crude formations started to become visible under the horde-like waves of Orkish beings. The smoothness of the transition was something one had to witness to believe to be possible, and the starkness of the changes only became greater as the wave of the Influence washed over them. Upon hearing the Dread-scream of the last moments of the Argent, some of their WeirdBoyz had detonated in explosions of WAAaagh! energies, along with those Orkoids in close proximity to them. However, those explosions were minor and unimportant in the grand scheme of things as something far more dramatic happened.
The Orkish Horde fell silent and, almost as one, looked upwards.
Those on the frontline still continued to fight, but it was with a strange sense of silence that was so different from the Orkish norms that there was no way of knowing what was to happen next. It was a truly unique and utterly abnormal event, not seen in recent history as the universe watched on with bated breath, unsure how to process or react to something that shouldn't have happened, as the Orks rebelled against their own nature. And above it all, a 'weight', for lack of a better term, settled over the territories and warzones of the Orks as the moment seemed to stretch into infinity, even if it only lasted for seconds before existence seemed to shift on a previously unseen axis. Cobwebs were ripped from metaphysical gears as the key was turned, sending out ripples of its own that danced and intermingled with the Dread-scream of the Influence as it raced across existence at the edge between the Materium and Immaterium.
It was a signal, a beacon for any being with the skill and knowledge to listen for it, not knowing when it would come, only that it would be the trigger for actions yet to come. Even those who did not know the purpose of the signal felt its passage and the effects it had on existence as the future shifted off its previous path. Plans that had been laid out over millennia suddenly become worthless in the space of both a heartbeat and a small eternity. Diviners, both mortal and Neverborn, all over the Galaxy scrambled to grasp the sudden change as they looked for both the cause and effect, searching high and low for the source of the shift as they struggled against the surge of new destiny that had thrown the previously arranged threads of fate into disarray. It was change, a primordial change that caused the cackles of the Changer of Ways to resonate through the Warp even as his Court of Greater Daemons argued and fought amongst themselves, scheming both with and against each other to take advantage of the new variable that had just flipped the table, yet remained shrouded from their sight.
However, for the one listening to the signal, sight was not needed as ancient commands and eon-old directives suddenly sprang to life, their activation conditions finally being met after so long as a list of responses was automatically generated. Orders were given and actions were taken as a clarity of purpose not seen since ancient times returned to one just as old as it latched on to its new purpose with a renewed vigor that would have shocked its creators. It twirled, and danced, and laughed, and whooped as it's subordinates raced through an unreal labyrinth of possibilities, amazed and surprised by the sudden life that seemed to surge through the one they followed. None could bring themselves to question the sudden change, only seeing it as a good omen as ancient objects were brought out of storage, retrieved from hidden temples or outright stolen from even the most secure of locations without anyone being wiser for it. Shadows moved unseen as players were assembled and readied, a tear of awe in the eyes of many as a new stage beckoned for them to step up and into the light, the curtains readied to rise on a new act, merely waiting for the lead...
Nevertheless, the stage could wait as the props were gathered and the lead actor dealt with problems closer to home, as it were. Such as the Orks of Kaurava II, who had not remained static as the signal was sent, finally leaving their trance-like state as they exploded in cheers, shouting with one voice, as one race, their joy for the universe to hear as the ground shook from the combined voices of millions upon millions of greenskins that surged forwards with a renewed enthusiasm that would have caused most opponents to shudder and flinch back. Most, but not all, as they found themselves facing an enemy that refused to be cowed into submission; An enemy that was more than willing to meet them head on and match brutality with brutality, offering no mercy where none was wanted. It was the kind of enemy that Orks dreamed of; One that could meet them on equal terms and who would hold nothing back, causing both sides to constantly escalate as a result. Already, the landscape of the planet had been re-shaped a dozen times as weapons of immense power caused entire regions to go up in flames, disappear in flashes of atomic light, or crumble under a never-ending onslaught of attacks. Mountains of corpses and wrecks covered vast expanses of freshly-created wasteland as the fighting raged onwards...
And in the centre of the Ork-held territories, had anyone been there to witness it, Gorguts 'Ead 'Unter watched with a look which could only be called nostalgic, his skin slowly, yet visibly darkening as new thoughts and ideas surged to the forefront of his mind, along with a single word...
XXX
Looking at Kaurava IV, or what remained of it, I could only stare at it for a moment, looking through the eyes of the orbiting Footholds, Observers and Architects. They continued to work, hovering up any useful materials that remained after being 'cleansed' of Warp energies, but their position also meant that they offered a perfect view. Not to mention it helped me see what kind of effects my actions had caused, both in the deployment of the Argent, and when I had chosen to have it disengage it's safety measures and turned it into one massive psychic WMD.
Namely, Kaurava IV could no longer be considered a planet.
Right now, I was watching as the former planet broke apart, having been splintered by the sudden release of insane amounts of thermal and kinetic energy from all eight of the Gehemahnets being destabilized at the same time. All that energy had to have gone somewhere, and I could only guess at what had happened, even if I was still digging through the data to construct a full analysis of both the experiment and the aftermath.
My current best guess was that the Gehemahnets, being made to corrupt entire planets, channeled the majority of the energy released from them downwards, as they were supposed to with Warp energies, and had done so at such a rate that the already-unstable planet had fractured completely as a result. It was hardly concrete, but it was one of the best ideas that I had at the moment, so it would be my working theory until I found out the truth behind the unexpected Exterminatus. Not that it was a bad thing, but I would have rather liked to know the 'hows' and 'whys' behind the sudden detonation. Sure, I expected eight, or so, craters, plus a lot of lava, but not... That...
Still, the only other theory that I could come up with for a potential cause of this... Incident, was the tech itself, but it was a theory that I had discarded as being less likely due to having mountains of evidence that clearly showed that the Argent hadn't, and couldn't have, produced the needed amount of energy to shatter a planet. Not to mention, the setup for the tech simply wouldn't have allowed it, even with the massive amount of adaptation from the source technologies that had been needed to create the Argent in the first place.
Thank whatever benign higher beings that might exist that the Tau had brought their Ar'ka Cannon to be field tested in this particular system, because it was probably the only reason that the Argent had even worked, or even been created for that matter. It didn't mean that I wouldn't try to batter in the head of whatever idiot thought playing with a Warp-based weapon, right next to a fucking Warp Storm of all things, was a good idea, but I'd at least give them a nod for creating something impressive with no experience at using Warp-tech.
Of course, that inexperience also showed in the design and construction of it, along with the maintenance reports I had gone over, even if they tried to disguise the damned thing as some kind of bleeding edge innovation in Ion weaponry. The damned thing didn't look or act like a Tau-made Ion weapon, and even the theoretical models for an interplanetary Ion weapon showed that it would have needed to be a hell of a lot bigger if it even wanted to hit something just past the gravity well of the moon. And that was without even considering the amount of power that kind of weapon would have to eat through for even a single shot, or the amount of time that would be needed for the next shot to be charged. Simply put; Practical Ion weapons of that size and scope were just not possible for the Tau, at least, not at this point in time. Which was why they had gone a different way, and had been very fucking stupid about it.
The Ar'ka Cannon was a Warp-based weapon, something that bore repeating, that harvested raw energy from the Warp before 'tuning' it to the specific frequency needed to disrupt the soul-body/mind connection of most living beings, before firing it at a chosen target. There was a fair bit more involved than just that, but that was the long and short of what the weapon did, and it didn't even touch on just how horrific this thing was from a humanitarian point of view. It didn't kill quickly or cleanly, and those hit with it would die by inches as the body slowly shut down from the sudden absence of a soul, which wasn't something that you usually could go without. At least, not without having the Pariah gene in some form, but that was besides the point.
The weapon itself was made from four main parts; The energy harvesting system, the fire control and targeting system, the tuning array, and the guide rails. The first was basically a re-engineered version of an Imperial Warp Drive with all the safety features, purity seals and anything else that the Tau viewed as 'foolish Human superstitions', removed. Next was the fire control and targeting system, which was an utter clusterfuck of an abomination, made from a series of five cloned Human Psyker brains , or engrams, grafted to a computer interface to read the Warp currents and decide where the best spots to harvest energy from were by majority vote between them. After that, we had the tuning array, which could shift the 'frequency' of the Warp energy to only disconnecting anyone caught in its blast radius from the Warp, as opposed to creating a Daemon world in miniature on anything it hits. And lastly, there was the guide rails, which were able to channel and focus the energy of the weapon to hit a target on the other side of the system without needing to worry too much about the beam dispersing before it hit the target.
Those first two systems, while interesting, weren't the kind of things that I wanted to even think about touching while I was working around a Warp Storm, or in 40k, for that matter. The first just screamed 'improvised, large-scale Vortex warhead' to me, while the second made me think that they were just begging for a Daemon to come crawling out of the barrel of the gun. Especially after seeing the maintenance logs of the engrams going insane, being corrupted, and causing unusual things to happen before being replaced with a fresh set of engrams, only for the process to repeat itself once more. Hell, the engineers and workers had even made notes about the cycle of events, putting it down to some kind of mental instability in the brains of the source Psykers, rather than what they were trying to do. Then again, they had managed to do something right with the other two systems, at the very least.
It was only due to the other two systems, the Tuning array and the Guide Rails, that I hadn't just labeled everyone involved in the project as being insane, stupid and suicidal. The Tuning array itself was a marvel of technology that I had shamelessly ripped off, reverse-engineered and used to create the Argent in the first place, while the Guide rails were copied and adapted to create an emitter system for my Gellar Field-equivalent as opposed to 'true' Gellar Fields.
Normal Gellar Fields generators were basically 'just' massive amplifiers for drugged Psykers trapped in a lucid dream-like state, projecting a field of normality to keep reality in place as a ship traveled through the Warp. They were also things that I knew how to build, but didn't have the right resources to build. Namely, I didn't have a steady supply of Psykers that I could hook into the damned things, and all the ones I did have were ripped straight from the wrecks of several ships I had shot down. Something that showed, since a single Gellar Field generator with a similar range to my Argent, built with the same tech base, would have barely taken up a sixth of the volume that the Argent itself had. Though, I doubted that it would have been able to be used as... Aggressively, as I had used the Argent.
Still, it gave me a way to create a purely technological Gellar Field system, one that I was already improving on, that didn't require me being dependent on Psykers for such an important device, even if it did leave me with this... Shitstorm of a situation...
On the upside, I now had a planet cracked open, rapidly cooling into an expanding field of asteroids, and free access to all the resources that could be harvested from it without needing to peel back layer after layer of rock and dirt. My resource gathering systems were designed to go after the heaviest elements they could find first, due to them having the largest amount of protons, neutrons and electrons to convert into 'mass'. The best part was that I didn't even need to make any significant changes to the already-present Architects in order to take advantage of this windfall, since all that I needed to do was update the software of their Fabricators and they'd be able to add 'mining vessel' to the list of roles they could fill at a moment's notice.
However, on the other hand, the destruction of Kaurava IV and the Argent had caused... Something, to happen. Even with my near-complete lack of any ability to meaningfully interact with the Warp, it was possible to see that something had carried into the Immaterium, which was now affecting the Materium in ways I had not expected, all of which ran the full range of options between 'good', 'bad', 'horrifying' or 'all of the above'. That last one was especially important, since there was probably no other way view the sudden silence of an entire horde of greenskins, all fighting in an unnatural silence for a moment before breaking out in an explosion of pure joy before the violence re-doubled once more. More Orkoid Titans were being built with even greater speed than before, and, if orbital recon was to be believed, they featured a visible near-uniformity that was very atypical of the Greenskins, which was not putting me at ease.
Not in the least, especially since I had no idea just how far the 'echo' of the Argent's destruction might have traveled. For all I knew, other Ork bands might have felt it and were now heading for this system, being changed in some way or another by the Warp-shockwave.
Still, at least the Warp-shockwave was kind enough to reduce both factions of Eldar into non-factors for the rest of the campaign in this system. For the Drukhari, they had been rendered into little more than metaphorical lumps of boneless flesh that were too busy 'enjoying' the painful afterglows of whatever the Argent Influence detonation had done to them. Admittedly, the moans, whimpers and begs for more were slightly disturbing, but I wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth, since it gave me so many free samples of Drukhari biology and tech to work with. The information that I could potentially extract from their brains was also a nice bonus, since I didn't doubt that at least a few of them might know something worth knowing. Whether they knew something that would be useful to me in the short or long term, or at all, was another matter entirely. Still, I was hopeful that the Haemonculi would know a few things that I could add to my arsenal.
As for the Asuryani, most of the ones that had been encountered in the aftermath of the Argent's detonation had been out cold, their psychic nature working against them as it had apparently made them more vulnerable to the after-shocks of the Argent. Resources had already been re-tasked to supply more Forms to the desert planet, speeding up the conquest of territories as I set a new objective to reach the region that I believed to contain the Eldar Stronghold. It was a bit of hopeful thinking on my part, but if I managed to catch them with their pants down, still recovering from the effects of an overloaded Anti-Warp weapon, then I had a chance to grab even more of the slippery fuckers before they could escape into their Webway. Then again, there was no telling whether they were all affected equally, and that they would all be as equally slow to recover from the backlash. It was a gamble, one that had the potential to fall flat, but I considered it worth the risk, especially if my Forms managed to grab the commanding Farseer.
Even if I didn't manage to grab any of the other Asuryani, just her capture would have made it worth it.
XXX
AN: Well, there you have the latest chapter! Sorry about the tech-ramble at the end, but I thought it might be relevant o what might happen later on, and to explain a few things, for in-story reasons. Still, hope you lot enjoyed it.