Gadget the wolf wasn't a stranger to fighting an advanced enemy; he had fought in the war against EggMan, conquered his fear, and would happily stare down hordes of badniks, but this? This was different.

"Giants!" He yelled as he barely dodged a swing that sawed multiple soldiers in half; he looked at the giant, firing his wispon into it. They moved fast, way too fast considering how huge they were, and each strike seemed like they had already planned it a minute ahead.

"Heavy weapons!" Gadget yelled as he soon saw that his wispon was doing nothing to the giant. He quickly fell back as he ducked into cover. Three two-man teams carrying heavy weapons rolled out from cover and fired concentrated beams of energy at the giant.

Before they were even able to fire, the giant was already behind them, its chainsaw-sword tearing through soldiers like nothing while it fired off a bulky pistol, though when the melee weapon was too clogged with meat, the giant simply switched to its fists.

As the giant slaughtered his comrades, Gadget could only pray to Gaia that someone saved him, because this was worse... way worse than anything he'd seen during the war against Eggman, and as the giant approached him, it then looked up and went to reload its pistol before it was tackled by a large green blur.

"Pick on someone near your height!" Gadget looked up and saw Vector currently beating down on the giant; Gadget smiled as he got up, gripping his wispon before rushing to help Vector, hearing the sound of a crunch as the arm of the giant holding the large pistol flew off.

Sliding past Vector, Gadget pressed the barrel of his wispon against the giant's neck and pulled the trigger, the giant's head soon popping off as he and Vector stood up, only able to look at the carnage that had happened.

It was all so quick; one moment Gadget was leading an assault group to hold a street alongside G.U.N. units, and now the only survivor was Gadget, terrified at what he had just seen.

"Heard these guys are both flesh and metal; sounds like something Eggman would make. But man, that armor was tough; it actually made my teeth hurt a bit." Vector said as he kicked the giant's corpse, he then looked over and spoke, "Hey rookie, you okay?"

Gadget could only stare blankly before slowly nodding and speaking, "I... I'm okay." Vector gave him a thumbs up and spoke, "Well, you can join my group! We're off to go find Shadow's murder bot pal."

Gadget nodded and followed Vector into a large group of restoration forces. He quickly fell in formation as he saw some restoration members happily sitting on the back of Bradley's, some cheering that they were going to war.

As the group walked through a street filled with the wrecks of G.U.N. and Imperial vehicles, Gadget stopped in horror as they all heard massive stomps of something, the ground shaking as a massive mech turned the corner.

"Crud." Vector said as the mech blew a horn and raised its canine-looking head up to the sky, like it was howling.

And that's when the group was barraged from both sides of the streets...

Brother Teloch fired from his squad's position, bolters, las guns, and all manner of weaponry tearing through the xeno soldiers that had been caught in their ambush, with the Warhound titan soon opening up with its own weapons.

Every shot from him and his brothers hit; every shot was a kill, but even for the ambush, there were simply too many xenos, and some had run into the very buildings they were camped in. Weapon fire echoed beneath them along with curses and yells.

"Weapons to the stairs." Veteran Sergeant Roch said as both Astarte and a mortal pointed at the door, with Meve moving Vaine to aim at the door. They soon heard a burst of footsteps, and the Astartes immediately noticed as a giant xeno burst from a nearby wall.

"LET'S GO!" It yelled as it then tackled Teloch to the ground as its allies charged forth; Teloch felt his combi-plasma ripped from his hands. Teloch replied to the xeno ripping his gun away by using his enhanced strength to lift it up and toss it through a nearby wall; he went for his combi-weapon but soon found it was gone.

He unsheathed his combat knife, and in seconds multiple xenos were dead as he punched a mutant out the window and stomped onto another; the mortals were dying, but he and his brothers were standing tall, blood covering their black armor.

Teloch moved towards the giant xeno as he then saw on his HUD, the rune of Vaine goes dark as he hears his brother's death cry; he turns and saw that a metal object had been lodged into his neck, seemingly thrown from above him.

He then notices something seemingly fall on Meve, and a blade stabbed into his neck; he switched to thermals and saw that an invisible xeno had killed Vaine and Meve. Teloch communicated on Vox to the surviving members of his squad.

"Cloaked enemy. Switch to thermals." Teloch said, and his brothers soon aimed at the cloaked enemy, who dodged their bolt rounds as Teloch soon felt himself tackled once more by the large xeno.

As he was tackled by the xeno, he soon gave his reply with a punch to the head and a stab soon after, his knife sinking into the xeno's skin with ease, the xeno tensed up but started bashing his arms against Teloch.

This stopped when the head of veteran Sergeant Roch's power axe buried itself neatly into the xeno's head; the xeno soon fell dead as Roch pushed the body off him, standing up and seeing that the mortals had suffered the most and the Xenos were all dead, even if Vaine and Meve were dead.

"Enemy commander killed." Roch announced over the Vox, and Roch soon ordered Teloch to grab the body; the veteran sergeant had an idea...

Metal Sonic crashed into the alleyway; the damage done to his system was minimal during his first battle against this Imperium. Metal Sonic walked through the alleyway and passed Charmy, Espio, and some wolf.

The three looked at Metal Sonic as he stepped out into the road and looked up at a massive mech currently stomping on top of the wreckage of a Bradley. The mech looked down at Metal Sonic, and before it could open fire, Metal Sonic had already dashed underneath it.

Or tried to, as he soon found that the mech had a shield around it that was going to cause a delay. He lifted up and sent out a powerful energy surge that took down the shield, which allowed him to crash right into the head of the mech. Before anyone could react; Metal Sonic's claws were already ripping and tearing through flesh and steel alike.

Rounds and lasers alike flew past him as a mixture of blood and oils spilled onto his frame, and once the crew was dead, Metal Sonic flew through the frame and into the sky, lasers and other types of weapons filling the air.

Weaving through the chaos, he crashed into a building, claws impaling one of the giants, called 'Astartes.' Metal Sonic ripped his claws out before stabbing the Astarte in the head before quickly dodging a blast of heat.

Using his plasma pulse laser, he reduced the Astarte to only his limbs as he removed his other claw to catch the grip of a large axe that belonged to another Astarte. Metal Sonic snapped the grip, the head falling next to him as he then spin dashed the Astarte, sawing right through him.

Metal Sonic flew through a window and into the adjacent building, where he soon came across the survivors of what appeared to be a firefight; unfortunately for the survivors, they were imperial. Metal Sonic flexed his claws and stabbed through a man and ripped him in two before leaping on another in less time than one would take to blink.

This scene repeated again and again as the Imperials tried to mount some defense against him but utterly failed to do anything, and at the end he flew into the sky once more, his frame caked in blood.

Metal Sonic patched into the comms of the restoration forces and heard the sound of one Blaze the Cat, "If anyone would mind helping me guard a shelter, then I would appreciate it." Metal Sonic then spoke; it was...uncomfortable for him to speak for some reason when not in his Neo-Metal form.

"Help is on the way." He said as he flew through the sky, punching through a few aircraft before crashing into the pavement right in front of the shelter, the road cracking as he looked over to Blaze, the princess nodding as he stood up.

Around was a mixture of G.U.N., Restoration, and Sol forces. All of them were prepared, and as they saw an enemy force approaching them, Metal Sonic decided to take command and spoke one more time.

"Orders are simple: Kill them all." Metal Sonic, as he and Blaze charged head-on at the enemy force...

Hospitaller Thorn tended an injured sister behind a chimera, the sound of las fire and bolter fire filling the air as her sisters and the men of the Steel Legion did battle. Once she had tended to the sister, she prayed over her before moving to where she was needed next.

"Hospitaller!" She heard a man yell and turned to see a squad of Steel Legionaries dragging their comrades behind a Leman Russ Vanquisher. She moved quickly over to them and oversaw the wounded.

The men had been burned badly and yet still clung to life. Hospitaller spoke as she looked up at the Sergeant of the squad, "I am sorry, but while their souls cling to the Emperor's light, their bodies keep them trapped in eternal pain."

The sergeant nodded and spoke, "Then do what you must; everyone else, follow me." The sergeant and his squad leave as the Hospitaller did her duty of ensuring the wounded would pass on to the Emperor peacefully.

After tending to them, the Hospitaller then heard something and turned only to sidestep a group of burning Sisters of Battle, armor and flesh melting off their bodies, some screaming for the Emperor to help them.

Thorn tried helping the best she could, but no matter what she did, she couldn't tend to them; she then started hearing more screams as a combination of Sisters of Battle and Steel Legionaries ran around, burning alive.

She found a sister that would live and started tending her while asking questions, "What's going on? Enemy flame tank? Ambush?" She asked, and the sister responded, "Witch, a heretical xeno witch! She controlled our holy fire with simple gestures and sent it right back at us!"

A wall of flame then passes by them, engulfing one of the Leman Russes. The tank endures, but before it can respond, some steel beam crashes into the front of it, ripping it open and tearing apart one of the drivers.

Thorn grabbed her bolt pistol while the sister grabbed her bolter. Thorn dragged the sister behind another chimera, banging on the door of it, and spoke, "By the Emperor's will, open the door!"

She kept banging until the door opened as the driver stepped out. "Get your white arses in here!" The sister spoke, "Watch your tone, guardsmen!" The driver spoke as the two sat in the seats, "Well, I just saw an entire group of my brothers were just set aflame, and it seems you girls aren't doing much better!"

"Close the blasted door!" Thorn yelled, and right as the door was about to close, a metal claw pulled it down, and the three could only stare as the metal xeno abomination walked in. Thorn and the sister fired their bolters, but it had no effect.

The abomination sharpened its claws as the three backed up to the driver's seat, but the hatch to the top turret opened as a flashbang dropped in; the three covered their eyes only to feel the abomination beat them... but not kill them.

The last thing Thorn heard before going unconscious was someone saying they had finally received some POWs…

Inquisitor Akia sat at the circular desk, sitting right across from the mass of metal and scented oils, that being Arch Magos Lin-10, the leader of the Mechanicus forces in the fleet. Akia spoke as she placed down her recaff, "Arch-Magos, you have summoned me for my duties; may I ask why?"

The Magos splurted a combination of binary and mechanical screeching before finally speaking Gothic, "It has come to not only mine but many of the high-ranking members of the fleet that the Inquisition, outside of quelling the rare taint of chaos, is useless in this war."

"And what, Arch-Magos, makes you say that?" Akia questioned, but she herself was asking that question sometimes; the Inquisition ship was aligned with the Ordo Hereticus. If it was aligned with the Ordo Xenos, then things would be very different.

"There is no taint of the arch-enemy here, and even the false religions of this world don't align with that of the arch-enemy. You will not be cleansing the traitors and heretics because there are none."

Akia sighed. She spoke, "I…understand that. However, I can still offer whatever military assistance to this war." The Arch-Magos made more machine noises and replied, "That is what I have come to ask you. Because while your ship bears the iconography of the Ordo Hereticus, you carry with you nine Astartes of the Death Watch."

That was true; the nine Astartes were sent by a nearby watch station to do some mission. It was just that their ship was the closest and had offered nine of some of the best soldiers humanity has to offer a ride to their destination. That was before they ended up wherever they are now.

All of them came from the original nine loyal chapters of the Emperor's angels. "We do…" The Arch Magos spoke, "Then I will ask for their assistance. We have detected large spikes of energies in certain places, and I have calculated that their skill can assure us answers to these spikes."

Akia thought of the request and nodded before speaking, "You will have your angels of death. They will be at your disposal. The emperor knows that the nine have been hungry for battle, and this will hopefully give them the opportunity to deliver some blows to the enemy."

"Good. You are dismissed." The Arch Magos said, and Akia stood up and left, walking through the halls of the ship until getting to the hangar, where her Valkyrie was. She boarded the aircraft and communicated to the pilot.

Maybe they wouldn't be useless in this war…

"HOW THE FUCK DID YOU LOSE THEM?" The Emperor said calmly as he played through another game with near-perfect accuracy, Kitten finished making the curry while Dorn started building fortifications.

"They are quite small and can just sneak through the vents." Karstodies claimed and Magnus spoke as he read another comic book, "We are chasing after a child and a female anthropomorphic chipmunk."

"PLEASE DO NOT CALL HER THAT... IT REMINDS ME OF SOMETHING AWFUL." The Emperor asked, and Magnus looked at one of the other caskets. He said, "Maybe if we open another one, we can trick her into coming back."

"Magnus. It would not be logical for us to open another casket if we have already lost one xeno, and said xeno has Boy in her mitts." Dorn stated, and Kitten spoke, "Wouldn't paws make more sense?"

"SHUT IT."

"Yes, my lord." Kitten said, and Magnus grabbed one of the caskets and popped it open, only to find a massive storage bank.

"Huh?" Magnus looked around the casket and saw it was essentially a giant computer, which didn't make much sense, but there was a button.

"MAGNUS."

"Button."

"MAGNUS, NO."

"Press." Magnus pressed the button and out digitized another xeno, a lynx this time. Magnus summoned the books, and the Emperor paused the game as everyone looked at the xeno.

"Hello there….Nicole, yes, Nicole. Welcome to the—

She then disappeared, and Magnus spoke, "Fuck."

"NICE GOING." The Emperor said, and the Emperor ordered the three nudiers to find them; he felt like a headache was coming on…