As always, there are three advance chapters on P-atreon (remove the spaces and dash): p-atreon/ SkySage24
Heliosa gasped for breath as the pressure receded, the booming voice fading away.
But the image remained in her mind, of a golden titan robed in fire, with endless voids for eyes and a voice like thunder, demanding surrender.
The wrath of God had come to Luna.
The instinct to surrender, to just give up and avoid the terrible fate that awaited her was strong. Who knew what would happen if she fought on-
No, no.
She was Heliosa the 54th, High Matriarch of the Lunar Cults. She was the heir to a lineage that stretched back to the Golden Age. She was an immortal, and with every new life, she strode further towards ascension.
She would not be so easily cowed into submission by a Terran barbarian! By a sorcerer-king with delusions of divinity!
Heliosa forced herself to her feet, noticing that all her useless subordinates had fallen to the floor, only a handful being on their knees, and even they were gasping for breath.
"Up!" She shouted. "Get up, all of you. Fight! We are the Children of Luna! We are not so easily broken!"
Her words reached into their brains, their indoctrinated loyalty forcing each and every one of them to get up and organize themselves.
But before they could do anything, before Heliosa could consider any strategy to implement, the halls erupted.
The subterranean hives of Luna were some of the most durable constructs in the Solar System. They had been designed as hidden fortress shelters previously, to survive anything. They had endured orbital bombardments, civil wars, and even Ancient superweapons.
But now, after all these millennia, the walls and floor of Heliosa's fortress shattered like glass as great thick vines and trees erupted from nowhere, turning the hall into a forest.
Heliosa staggered backward as the smell of flowers filled her nose. She felt something growing around her legs and looked down, barely stifling a gasp as she saw knee-high blades of grass had replaced the previously pristine marble floor.
All around her, her subjects were screaming. She could not even see most of them, obscured by the leaves and the foliage.
Heliosa's enhanced mind whirled at speeds that would have shamed even the most intelligent baseline human. How had this happened? There had been no forests on Luna for centuries! The only plants were in the gardens and labs carefully tended by the Selenar cults, used for sustenance and experiments.
Had one of the experiments gone out of control? Had the Emperor unleashed some Ancient bioweapon? Had one of her followers betrayed her for him?!
Heliosa was so caught up in her thoughts that she almost didn't notice the vines erupting from the ground to wrap around her.
Almost.
Heliosa hastily jumped back to avoid the vines, but she would still have failed if one of her Endymions had not shoved her aside and taken her place.
Heliosa watched in horror as her loyal soldier, one of the best genecrafted warriors in the world, struggled against the green vines holding them in place as they pulled them into the ground, vanishing into the depths of the grass. Their enhanced strength, their armour, their weapons, it was all useless.
She knew, without a hint of a doubt, that she did not want to suffer the same fate.
She cast another look around the forest that had overtaken her castle. Most of her subordinates and slaves had vanished, save for her loyal Endymions, who were still with her. All she could hear was screams.
There was no point in trying to save the rest. She needed to save her own life, preserve her knowledge, and the purity and perfection of her genome. If she died here, if Luna fell, then there would be no more Heliosa, and the path to ascension would be lost forever.
"Retreat!" She ordered her Endymion, and they followed her as Heliosa fled back into her throne room, carving a path through the forest with their rifles and energy blades.
The doors to her throne room were overgrown with moss, but the inside of it was as always…for now.
A chill went down Heliosa's spine as she saw that the greenery was ever so slowly but visible expanding into her throne room, grass overrunning the floor by inches as bright flowers began to bloom and saplings grew faster than they had any right to.
She forced herself to ignore it. There was no time to waste. She needed to get out there and rally the rest of the Selenar Houses, to fight back this invasion.
She sprinted towards her throne, faster than the growing forest, her Endymion at her heels like loyal dogs. Reaching her massive throne, Heliosa ducked behind it, pressing her hand against the seemingly smooth, unmarked surface.
But the throne lit up with red lights at her touch, burning like a crimson flame.
"Emergency countermeasures," Heliosa spat. "Unleash all weapons, this is a Typhon-Class emergency!"
Cannons emerged from the walls and lightning began to crackle across the floor as the throne activated the emergency defenses.
Take that! Heliosa thought triumphantly as the encroaching greenery erupted in flames and was torn apart by massive steel shells, being obliterated utterly.
The Emperor thought they could invade the heart of Luna so easily? Heliosa would show them they were wrong.
But even as she felt a surge of victory at watching the defenses tear apart this assault on her domain, the smouldering plants regrew.
Far faster than they had been growing, they regenerated as if nothing had ever happened and swelled further. A wave of grass swept across the floor, ignoring the electricity from the hidden systems beneath the surface as if it were nothing. Trees thicker than Heliosa was tall emerged in front of her cannons, blocking the artillery fire…and returning it by firing branches of wood as if they were bullets, colliding with the shells and exploding in the air, generating sounds that would have made Heliosa's ears bleed if she were not the High Matriarch.
And behind the encroaching forest came an ominous mist, slower than the rapidly encroaching greenery, but just as implacable.
Heliosa had absolutely no desire to find out what kind of chemicals and gases were in that mist.
Ducking behind her throne again, this time Heliosa willed it to open.
The marble slid apart despite no visible hinges or markings, revealing a staircase leading downwards.
"Follow me!" She commanded her Endymion, sprinting down the staircase. "Not you two," She added to the last duo. "Hold the line, delay it as long as you can!" The two guards nodded obediently, willing to sacrifice their lives for her without hesitation.
As it should be.
The door automatically sealed itself behind Heliosa and her remaining Endymion as they ran down.
This was not the end. Heliosa had far more than just one palace. There were dozens of legions and fortresses sworn to her within the hives of Luna and they could withstand any siege.
The Imperium would live to regret this assault, Heliosa vowed.
But before she could flee to a safer place, Heliosa intended to make the Imperium bleed for daring to do this, perhaps even destroy whichever bioweapon they had unleashed upon her.
Reaching the end of the staircase, the door at the end slid open automatically, and Heliosa entered her secret lab, illuminated by white lights.
She felt a sharp surge of glee as she looked around at the rows of massive glass tubes all around the room. Suspended in green liquid were all the secret weapons that she, both in this life and her previous ones, had secreted away.
There were monsters shaped in the image of legendary creatures such as the gigantic Cyclops. There were hellhounds the size of trucks, and horses that ate flesh. And then there were the truly dangerous creatures, misshapen monstrosities, chimeras fusing countless different ideas, that could not be controlled, but were too valuable to simply dispose of.
The time to unleash them had come.
Heliosa rushed to the cogitator bank. The screens flared to life under her touch, and Heliosa quickly input a series of commands.
She and her Endymion needed to leave this place, but the instant they were gone, the tubes would open, unleashing all these creatures for the Imperium to deal with.
Once she was done, Heliosa turned away from the computer bank, but as her gaze settled on one of the tubes, she saw something that was impossible.
Within the tube was one of the chimeras. It had been a human once, but it was unrecognizable as such now. It was covered from head to toe in black scales, and it had four arms, each one with gleaming silver claws in place of fingers. Grey-feathered wings spread from its back, and below them was a scorpion's tail.
The only human thing about it was the shape of the body.
It had been a weapon that Heliosa had designed and discarded some years ago. She had hoped it would be the first of a new generation of shock troopers, but that had not come to be. It had proven too unstable to control, so she had sealed it away here.
And now it was awake, looking right at her.
Its golden eyes with the slitted pupils were focused intently on her, recognition in those eyes.
Impossible, the liquid should have kept it asleep. It was a sedative Heliosa had designed herself, and it had never failed before. Indeed, each tube had a different type of the same sedative, engineered for the subject within.
But the chimera was undeniably awake, staring at her. It did not move, it did not speak, but it was awake.
And as Heliosa stared back at it, she could have sworn its eyes briefly glowed with a spark of green light.
But she had no time to dwell on that as she looked around the room and saw that all the subjects were awake.
Each and every one of them.
They did nothing and made no effort to break out of their prisons, but they were all looking right at her.
Her heart beating faster than it ever had in her life, Heliosa ran.
She sprinted to the other side of the lab, cursing herself for having such a vast workplace. Her Endymion behind her, Heliosa reached the exit and tore the door open, barely giving her Endymion time to follow her through before she slammed it shut.
"All of you, stay here!" She snarled. "Guard the gate and allow nothing to leave! Only you are to come with me," She added to the Captain of the Endymion.
They all took formation without question and Heliosa turned away from the door.
This escape room was linked directly to the subterranean railway network that the Lunar hives used for transport, and to her relief, Heliosa saw that her escape shuttle was right there, a tear-drop shaped vessel, the surface shining white where it was on top of the silver rails.
She did not know what she had expected, but everything else so far had gone wrong for her very quickly.
Though calling it an escape shuttle was something of a misnomer. It was large enough to comfortably accommodate a dozen people, equipped with luxuries that would have beggared lesser houses. The inside of the vessel had a thick blue carpet, a refrigeration unit containing the finest food Luna had to offer, and long sofas where she could rest comfortably in style.
Entering inside, Heliosa felt a sense of calm sweep over her. She was safe and would be gone from here soon.
"Activate the engine, I want to leave immediately." She ordered, and her Captain dipped their head, heading to the pilot's seat.
Heliosa went to the cogitator, inputting commands that would flow to the secret self-destruct systems of her lab and this escape room.
It was infuriating to sacrifice an entire fortress to the Imperium, but Heliosa would do what had to be done to preserve the dream of Ascension.
That accomplished, Heliosa felt the engines of the shuttle buzz to life, and relaxed that last little bit.
She took out a glass of wine from the refrigeration unit and settled into the nearest sofa, waiting for the shuttle to begin moving.
"High Matriarch Heliosa-54."
Heliosa was startled, the glass of wine dropping from her hand as she saw that a woman was sitting opposite her.
The woman had not been there a moment before, Heliosa was sure of that.
But she was there now, sitting on one of Heliosa's seats, sipping from her own glass of wine.
She was impossibly beautiful, even to Heliosa's eyes. Her features were so flawless, so perfect. Her red hair fell to her waist, shining like rubies, striking a sharp contrast with her bronze skin. Her eyes were like someone had set emerald suns on a face, boring into Heliosa.
She was too perfect. Too alien. It was as if a statue carved by the greatest sculptors to ever live had come to life, not a real, living person.
The only flaw, if it could be called that, was the pointed ears. But in no way did they detract from the woman's alien beauty.
"Who are you?" Heliosa forced herself to speak. She only had to wait for her Endymion to notice and come to her aid.
"That is none of your concern," The statue-like woman dismissed, even her voice sounding like the most perfect music ever conceived. "But I know who you are, Heliosa. The queen of an empire of slaves, a madwoman obsessed with genetic purity, sneering at all those who do not match your impossible standards as subhuman filth. A monster, who has slaughtered countless innocents, both by your own hand in those disgusting experiments of yours, and through the orders you have given to your slaves."
Heliosa stiffened in outrage. "How dare you speak to me like that? You have no right to judge me! I am a goddess!"
"A goddess?" The woman repeated, an amused lilt to her voice. "Debatable. But in any case, I am not here to judge you, Heliosa. I am only here to give your victims the ability to judge you."
"What are you talking about?" Heliosa hissed.
The woman only raised an eyebrow, but before Heliosa could demand any further answers, her Endymion Captain emerged from the pilot's room.
But the Endymion was not like Heliosa had ever seen them. Their helmet had been cast aside, revealing a bald head and bland features, and there were…tear tracks on their face.
Impossible. The Endymion was not designed with the capacity for such emotions or abilities. That was all suppressed from birth.
But there were indeed tears flowing from the Captain's eyes. Eyes that, for a moment, shone with the same spark of emerald light she had seen in the chimera's gaze.
"I have given your slaves free will, Heliosa," The woman said quietly. "Now they will judge you."
To Heliosa's horror, she watched as the Endymion drew their gun with shaking hands, pointing it at her even as they continued to silently weep.
"No, you can't do this!" Heliosa shouted. "You are loyal to me, you were programmed to be loy-"
A gunshot interrupted her, and a moment later, Heliosa-54 slumped, a bullet hole through her head.
Isha stood, not giving the corpse of the High Matriarch a second thought as she instead went to the Endymion Captain, who had sunk to the floor, their weapons discarded as they cried.
Isha wrapped her arms around the Endymion, stroking their head as they wept for all that had been stolen from them.