Mortals against Mortals

Colonel Ikeda lowered his magnoculars and shook his head in dismay. Over the horizon, he could see the Traitor Guard army approach the Ryuusei Katana's positions. Worse, towering over the tanks and hordes of rabid infantry was a single Titan. A Reaver class, from what he could see, bristling with devastating weaponry capable of leveling a hive city.

Fortunately, he had a trio of Shadowswords under his charge. The Titan Hunter company had formed up behind a hab-block, trying to get a lock on the approaching Reaver. Its blood-red carapace reminded him of screaming hordes of berserkers, and he had to suppress a shiver. Ikeda had faced down World Eaters before, and he was familiar with the Legio Audax that served with them - as they had done so for the 10 millennia since the great Heresy. They mostly composed of Warhound Scout Titans, though, and a Reaver within their ranks was a rare sight.

No less deadly, however. It was lumbering toward them, not as swift as the Warhound hunting packs that Audax was renowned for, but faster than a Warlord. Right now, it was following the tactics of its smaller brethren, darting between towering hab-blocks to stay out of sight of the lethal volcano cannons of the Shadowsword. Instead, a single Shadowsword rolled up, its turret traversed to fire the first shot. Escorting it were Leman Russ battle tanks, Malcador tanks and legions of infantry, all of them speeding ahead to close in on the Ryuusei Katanas.

No Astartes support...for now. Ikeda breathed a sigh of relief. At least they wouldn't have to face Heretic Astartes.

His relief vanished when the enemy Shadowsword fired. The hab-block beside the Titan Hunter company was obliterated, the shockwaves rocking the trio of super-heavy tanks, but they remained intact.

"Fire back! Take that out!" Ikeda barked. It would be disastrous if they lost even a single Shadowsword before they could take a shot at the Reaver Titan, which still remained out of sight. As one, the three Shadowswords retaliated, laser lances tearing through hab-blocks. One of them caught the foe, and the Shadowsword - its hull daubed with unholy sigils - vanished in a colossal conflagration.

To the side, Aethon Heavy Sentinels hammered the hab-block that a lasrifle tercio had taken cover in, killing over half the squad with anti-personnel missiles. The survivors ducked, scrambling for shelter even as the structure crumbled around them. To the center, Major Murakami and his command squad seized a data crystal that provided vital intelligence for Fleet Command before hauling it back to their Dracosan Demolisher.

"We aren't sticking around to get masssacred," the grizzled major growled, eying the legions of braying infantry that had swarmed the central cathedral. Way too many for them to count.

"Get that data crystal out of there!" Ikeda instructed through the vox, his fingers tightening over the device. "We need to get the vital intel to fleet command, no matter what!"

"What do you think we're trying to do?" Murakami snapped, poking the driver's seat. "Drive!"

"Trying, sir," the driver replied, swerving the armored transport through the cathedral. Fortunately, the enemy had more tempting targets. The Malcador tanks were firing at the Stormblade, but without much effect. Instead, it was the Reaver Titan - who had finally loomed out of its cover - that destroyed one of the two Stormblades under Colonel Ikeda's command. Ikeda watched in dismay as the Stormblade next to his vanished under a flurry of tank-sized shells from the Reaver Titan's gatling blaster. Even if Lieutenant Rikudo's Stormblade had survived the volley, the accurate blast from the turbo laser destructor definitely finished it off, obliterating the super-heavy and glassing the area.

"Reverse!" He barked at the tank driver, who obliged. The Stormblade shuddered under the sudden change in direction, the plasma blastgun coughing and disintegrating one of the Malcador Vanquishers. Above, a fleet of Lightnings dove, their twin lascannons and Hellstrike missiles leaving fiery contrails before impacting against the Reaver Titan and taking out its void shields in a thunderous bang. Explosions engulfed the Reaver's frame, but the immense walker simply strolled out of the expanding inferno.

The Leman Russ tanks spun their turrets about and fired, and one of the Lightnings crashed, taken out by a lucky shot despite its supersonic speed. The Leman Russ Executioners, on the other hand, wiped out the infantry horde that was swarming toward Murakami's second tercio, the plasma beams incinerating entire squads into ash.

The Valdors braked and fired their neutron lasers, and a speeding Malcador Infernus rocked, but remained intact. The lascannons missed, unfortunately, and they ducked out of sight, hiding behind a hab-block for cover.

The second squadron of Leman Russ tanks hammered the Dracosan of the first tercio, pummeling the armored transport and wrecking it. Suddenly, the survivors of the first squad found themselves stranded.

"Our job is to retrieve the information in those data stacks," Ikeda said, monitoring the situation in the hololith display within the command station aboard his Stormblade. He swiped at runes, trying to revise battle plans and rectify strategies. The Reaver remained a threat, striding toward them with its guns opening fire. "Forget any last stands, and just grab whatever data you can!"

"Trying," Sergeant Sato muttered, limping away as his squad broke out of cover and ferried the data stacks back toward the tank line. Unfortunately, the Malcador Infernus bore down on them...only for its flamethrower to miss. He shook his head in disbelief, thanking the God-Emperor for small mercies. "They actually missed us with their giant flamethrower."

His hope was destroyed the next second when the Leman Russ tanks opened fire, their battle cannons reducing the remnants of his squad to dust. Ikeda cursed, wondering if the enemy cared nothing for the vital data they were sent to retrieve, but saw on his auspex that it had somehow remained intact. And the tanks were now rolling toward the data crystals that lay next to Sato's corpse.

His Leman Russ Executioner tanks fired, taking out two of the Leman Russ battle tanks. The Dracosan tried to emulate them, but the surviving main battle tanks withstood the lascannon barrage before retaliating, reducing one of the Executioners to a smoking husk. The Reaver Titan fired, its gatling blaster swatting one of the darting Lightnings out of the air, but its laser blasters and turbo laser destructor completely missed the Shadowswords - though, understandably, it was still pretty far away from the trio of Titan Hunters. One of the laser beams struck and rocked a Shadowsword, but the venerable tank somehow remained intact despite all odds.

"Fire back!" Ikeda yelled, relief replacing his rage and fear. The Shadowsword commanders didn't need him to tell them twice. A volley of engine-killing beams lanced out, spearing through the collapsing void shields and punching through the head of the Legio Audax Titan. The Reaver slumped before crashing backward, its face now a smoking crater.

The surviving Lightnings pulled back, their Hellstrike missiles and lascannons spearing through the Malcador tanks and blowing them up. The Valdor tanks fired at the Aethon Sentinels, destroying them, while the Stormblade's plasma blastgun struck one of the Malcador Infernus, which detonated, its fuel tanks set alight by the esoteric beams. Its squadron mate swerved to the side, its armored hull blackened but otherwise undamaged from the flames that had engulfed its partner. Even so, the tank driver appeared unnerved by his squadron mate's demise, and the Infernus turned and pulled back.

The Chaos Ogryns, on the other hand, crashed into the second tercio and butchered them, with only a single squad remaining and somehow killing two of them with bayonets. They suffered 75% casualties, though, but somehow managed to toss the data stacks to the Leman Russ Executioner tanks, who retrieved them.

"We need to seize the initiative," Ikeda muttered, switching orders and instructing his tanks to change positions. His flexibility paid off, and the Shadowswords erased the Leman Russ battle tanks to the west, along with the Valdor's efforts. That prevented the data-stacks that the late Sato had retrieved from falling into the hands of the Traitors. The Stormblade didn't fire, having retreated because Ikeda somehow broke morale. It didn't matter - Ikeda planned to accelerate his Stormblade toward the fallen datastacks. On the other hand, the Leman Russ Executioners took out a third Leman Russ main battle tank while suffering no casualties in return this time, with it being three versus one now.

The third Dracosan fired its gravis lascannon, and despite the gunner's accuracy, he failed to punch through the thick armor of the Leman Russ tank. Meanwhile, Major Murakami's Dracosan and Command squad withdrew to the rear of their lines, ferrying the vital intelligence to safety and securing one of their secondary objectives. The cultists maintained control of the central cathedral, the sacred relics within a lost cause.

"We can't recover those," Ikeda admitted to himself. He should be satisfied with the vital intelligence and two data-crystals that his tanks had recovered. The Ogryns had massacred the last infantry squad, but should they leap out of the hab-block whose interior they had painted in blood, they would be annihilated by the waiting Leman Russ Executioner tanks, though admittedly they still had that last surviving Leman Russ battle tank to worry about. The Lightnings could handle that, though.

The third Dracosan was thundering toward the enemy's lines, to ensure that they didn't remain defiant under the Loyalists' onslaught. Hopefully, that would allow them to secure a foothold, even if they surrendered the cathedral to the traitors. Ikeda was all right with leaving it to them because he stood by the Imperial Truth and didn't hold much stake in Saints and the Imperial Cult. Though the citizens of Ryuusei believed in the divinity of the Emperor as the descendant of the Sun God, they didn't buy the zealotry that the preachers spread via the Lectitio Divinitatus.

"At least we won," he murmured. They must have lost all their infantry, but they maintained aerial and armored superiority. The Chaos Ogryns, perhaps realizing it was suicidal to leave the safety of their hab-block, had retreated instead of furiously charging the Leman Russ Executioner tanks, and even the enemy Leman Russ was reversing, pulling back. Ikeda thumbed the vox. "Don't pursue. Let's retrieve whatever data we can, and withdraw."

He would call in for an orbital strike on the cathedral later, as a final "feth you" to the Traitors celebrating their desecration of the supposedly holy site. The Ecclesiarchy could complain all they want later, but they weren't the ones risking their lives here.

Hopefully, the Lord Commander recovers the Nihilus half of the Imperium, Ikeda thought to himself, praying that the recently returned Primarch - Roboute Guilliman - would save them all. There was also a rumor regarding the "Knight of Nihilus" being another Primarch, but deep in Imperium Sanctus, it was hard to confirm such gossip.

Nonetheless, Ikeda was determined that the Ryuusei Katanas wouldn't fail the Primarch Reborn. They would follow the Avenging Son and save the Imperium from the traitors.

Ryusei Katanas and House Yato take on the Sons of Horus and Legio Mortis

"Huh, so after the debacle in Bertual, we're now posted to Roseville." Colonel Ikeda heaved a sigh and looked up a the titanic trees in the supposed death world. The trees here towered over even the spires and hab-blocks of the Imperial colony. Roseville, apparently, provided agricultural material to much of the Imperium, having been discovered during the early days of the Great Crusade. The herbs and plants found among the enormous wildlife held immense medicinal values.

And the Sons of Horus were here to plunder the planet.

Ikeda could guess why. In addition to medicine, the vegetation in Roseville could be harvested for narcotics and stimms, much of which was supplied to the berserk Cthonian Headhunters. Already he could see a colossal contingent of Traitor Auxilia accompanying the Sons of Horus, formations of infantry marching alongside tanks. Peering out from his cupola, Ikeda could count at least two Baneblades, two Malcador tanks, and four Leman Russ Vanquishers. Almost a mirror of his own armored cohort, except that he had Malcador Valdor tank-hunters instead of the usual Malcador Vanquisher tanks.

But more intimidating were the Legiones Astartes company, with tactical squads striding beside two Sicarian Omegas and four Contemptor Dreadnoughts. Yet, the most terrifying component of their force was the single Warlord Titan that lumbered toward them, its armor painted in the colors of Legio Mortis. The colonel felt a chill run down his spine.

"What do we do?"

"We fight," I replied from my Throne Mechanicum in my Cerastus Knight Lancer. "The Lord Praetorian has charged us with the defense of Roseville, and so we shall protect this world with all our might."

Honestly, I wasn't a fan of fighting in a death world, but Lord Rogal Dorn had issued his orders, and so we obeyed. The honor of House Yato and our chivalric code demanded nothing less. After the massacre at the hands of the Emperor's Children and their gunships, I was reluctant to charge into the teeth of another Traitor Legion again, but the Emperor and his Loyal son called upon our aid.

"Everyone, direct fire on the Warlord Titan," Ikeda ordered, sliding into his Baneblade. He thumbed the vox. "Lightning squadron, provide air cover. Valdors and Vanquishers, first fire! Everyone, advance!"

Only the Knights didn't follow his orders, for we followed our own chain of command. I transmitted a message to my fellow scion, Sato, and the two of us guided our steeds forward at full stride, weaving through the titanic trees and hab-blocks that made up the half-biological, half-concrete jungle.

Neutron lasers hammered the Warlord Titan, the shock pulses from the exotic beams bursting several layers of void shields, but the mammoth engine's defenses held. Lascannons from both the Valdors and Vanquishers continued to pummel it, and eventually, the void shields gave out, exposing the immense walker to the open.

That was when the Vanquisher cannons boomed, armor piercing shells shrieking as they crossed the distance between us and our foes and punching through armor plating. The head crumpled, but the Warlord Titan shrugged off most of them, weathering the anti-armor barrage.

However, that wasn't all.

The Lightnings swooped, their twin lascannons and hellstrike missiles searing through air. The latter left fiery contrails in the air before they slammed into the Warlord Titan's core in blazing detonations, engulfing its head violently. The Warlord Titan slumped, decapitated by the aerial strike, smoke fuming from where the cockpit had been.

"Engine kill!" One of the pilots, Aozaki, whooped.

Unfortunately for his squadron, the enemy Baneblades opened fire. Though the Lightnings jinked and soared through the air at supersonic speed, one of them was clipped by the powerful anti-armor shell and exploded, its wreckage crashing into a hab-block and demolishing it. Ikeda's Baneblades retaliated, taking out another Baneblade, while the Vanquishers responded by taking out one Baneblade in his squadron. The Sicarian Omegas mirrored the Baneblades, the Sons of Horus targeting the aircraft with pinpoint accuracy. The plasma melted the wing of a second Lightning, causing it to spin into an uncontrollable dive before it plummeted.

Holy Terra...how did the Sons of Horus and Cthonian Headhunters take out two aircrafts?!

On the other side of the battlefield, I realized that my Knight banner wasn't faring as well. The Aethon Heavy Sentinels bombarded us with multilasers and missiles, but our ion shields held. However, the Malcador tanks had more success, their armor piercing rounds smashing past our ion shields and causing Sato's Knight to stagger from the immense impacts. His steed limped now, smoking, but fortunately, he hadn't gone down.

Yet.

The Dracosans had zoomed out to disgorge their passengers, with Major Murakami's command squad, the two lasrifle tercios and their flamer support section jumping out to garrison two hab-blocks. The Veletaris Storm Section did the same thing, disembarking from their Dracosans to garrison a hab-block behind my Knight banner. In contrast, the hab-blocks directly opposite were being garrisoned by two tactical squads and a single large lasrifle tercio, complete with flamers.

I frowned, wondering if there were Terminators in one of those hab-blocks. There were definitely Ogryns, though. The abhumans were barreling toward my and Sato's Knights. We ignored them for now, especially when they chose to garrison a hab-block of all things, and instead charged the Aethon Heavy Sentinels, smashing them apart with our lances. While we did so, the Vanquishers and Valdors fired again, destroying the final Baneblade and two Vanquishers. The enemy Vanquishers retaliated, taking out three Vanquishers in return. Ouch. Meanwhile, the Malcadors fired at our Knight Lancers, but our ion shields deflected the powerful shells.

"Having a 3+ ion shield save is immense," I muttered. Even with the AP -2 on the Malcador's Vanquisher's shells, we still had a 4+ save - and we didn't need to reroll successful saves from their armorbane because they counted as invulnerable saves and not armor saves. Hah!

The Lightnings swooped down once more, their twin lascannons and hellstrike missiles destroying the Contemptor Dreadnoughts, bathing the smaller walkers in explosions. The Sicarian Omega damaged Ikeda's Baneblade with plasma, rocking it, but Ikeda instead targeted the huge tactical squad that was double timing (or triple timing) toward the hab-block where the lasrifle plus flamer tercio was garrisoned in. The Baneblade cannon completely missed, but at least the autocannons and lascannon sponsons took out a couple of squads.

The Dracosans fared better, their gravis lascannons accurately singling out the Sicarian Omegas and puncturing their hulls, blowing them up spectacularly.

We continued to push our advantage, and the Dracosans killed three pairs of Ogryns with their demolisher cannons, the shells so powerful that they ignored whatever cover the structure provided. One of the drivers cheered. "Hell, yeah! Take that, you filthy abhumans!"

"Bro," Murakami said with a sigh. "Vox discipline."

"Sorry, sir."

The Vanquishers continued to push their advantage, taking out our final Vanquisher, but the Valdors succeeded in eliminated one of them. Phew. The Baneblade and Dracosans continued to bombard the swiftly approaching tactical squads, but the Legiones Astartes - famed for their transhuman resilience - shrugged off plenty of the exploding shells and lascannon shots. Still, several squads continued to go down, blasted apart by weaponry meant for anti-tank purposes.

I couldn't help but be amazed by the legionnaires, but I had concerns of my own. Sato and I charged the Malcador tanks, taking them out. Meanwhile, the Cthonian Headhunters lasrifle tercio had spilled out of their barracks, but their lasrifles and flamers did nothing against our Knights. Out in cover, they were pulverized by demolisher shells from the advancing Dracosans. The lasrifle and flamer tercio hunkered down and took potshots at the sprinting legionaries, but no less than a couple went down, their power armor prove against light arms.

At this point, there wasn't much left of the Sons of Horus, to my surprise. Their Terminators appeared to still be in reserve, or they didn't have any of their famed Justineran for some reason. Perhaps this was an Inductii force? I had heard that the Sons of Horus were desperately accelerating the Astartes training and surgical process, and many of the Legionaries facing us were newly-spawned warriors without any actual experience, press-ganged into battles with little more training other than hypno-indoctrination.

Was that why they were falling so easily to our guns, or was this whole thing a trap? To lure us into complacency?

Ikeda was having none of it, though.

"Fire!" He yelled, still directing the Baneblade fire at the advancing tactical squad. The survivors dodged most of the Baneblade cannons and lascannons, though several of the autocannon shells hit home. Even so, a significant number of them were left, and they finally made their stand, planting a standard in front of the hab-block where the lasrifle tercio nervously waited. Instead of assaulting the infantry, they spun around and charged straight into the Dracosans, only to be run over by the armored personnel carriers.

The Ogryns finally stumbled out of the crumbling hab-block. Driven into a frenzy, the surviving pair aggressively charged the Dracosans in revenge, and tore apart three of them before the final Dracosan ran over him. Meanwhile, Sato and I proceeded to massacre the survivors of the lasrifle tercio, stomping on them with our titanic feet and disintegrating the rest with swift sweeps of our shock lances. The Vanquisher damaged one of the Valdors, only to be obliterated in the return fire, the neutron lasers punching through its hull.

With that, we stood defiant in the face of the Sons of Horus onslaught - the enemy only having two tactical squads (or perhaps one of them being Terminators) garrisoned in hab-blocks far away. Upon annihilating the Cthonian Headhunters in our side of the battlefield, Sato and I had claimed the Traitor barracks and leveled it to deny them training facilities. Even if the Solar Auxilia weren't Legiones Astartes, they were still a deadly enemy. One that we sought to reduce the numbers of as much as possible.

"Phew," I muttered, realizing that I had survived a battle for the first time. Most of the foe's firepower had been directed at the Baneblades, Vanquishers and Lightnings. The enemy was in full retreat - apparently, they had achieved their objective by planting a standard in front of our hab-block. I had no idea what the significance of that was, but I contacted Ikeda over the vox. "Colonel, perhaps we should do something about that standard."

"Yeah...we'll destroy it. Flamer section!"

I watched as the flamer section incinerated the Sons of Horus standard, even as I prayed to the Emperor that it wasn't some sort of foul ritual by the Traitors. We had heard increasing reports of Traitors conducting what appeared to be superstitious rites, only to result in catastrophic emergences of exodimensional xenos.

Were they trying to achieve the same thing here?

Well, we've stopped them...for now. I studied the holo-screen in my Throne Mechanicum and inclined in my seat with a sigh. I pray to the Emperor that they don't have anything else up their sleeves.

Even if they did, the Knights of House Yato and our Ryuusei Katanas auxiliaries will stand up to defy them again. I hope, anyway.

Thousand Sons unleash Devastating Sorcery on Commorragh

"Are you sure about this, Ignatius?" Chronos raised an eyebrow as I guided my battle barge, Honor of Tizca, through the webway. "This leads to Commorragh...the city of the Drukhari. They'll be everywhere."

"Trust me, bro," I said, trying to put on a reassuring expression as best as I could. "This particular Archon just took a beating from the Adeptus Mechanicus. Uh, 428-Sigma Hunter Cohort, was it? The Skitarii Marshal, Sigma 44-Kariya, is an old friend of mine. I trust that he pretty much crushed the poor Dark Eldar. They're at their most vulnerable now."

"Your old friend?" Egnis snorted. "I'm pretty sure the servants of the corpse god don't consider us friends."

I said nothing. Inwardly, I maintained that I was still loyal to the Emperor even after ten millennia of being cast out of the Imperium, but whatever my personal feelings, it was true that the Imperials didn't feel the same.

"Nonetheless," I finally spoke up. "The Drukhari possess a relic that we'll need for our research. You know Ahzek is searching for a way to reverse the Rubric...and these bozos happen to be our only clue toward the Ynnari. Remember when Yvraine resurrected several of our brothers? Hopefully, this Ynnari relic in this remote region of Commorragh might have hints toward there."

"You, along with Ahzek, are one of the few in our Legion who still seeks to reverse the Rubric," Hathor Mathias muttered quietly. Clad in his ancient Tartaros Terminator armor, he towered over most of my warband, with me being an exception because I was still wearing the old Cataphractii plate from the Great Crusade. However, instead of the resplendent ruby it used to be, it was now a deep sapphire.

"We will do what we must." I conjured a half-arcane holo-pict, which solidified into a tiny Sky Splinter fleet. "Thanks to our still loyal friends in the Adeptus Mechanicus, the Drukhari raiding party has been vastly reduced in strength. They're seeking to assault this tower to claim the relic, but we'll beat them to it."

Leaning over, I magnified the sleek, spiky shapes. Two Raiders, two Venoms, a soaring squad of Scourges armed with dark lances and a Cronos. Embarked within one Raider was the bitter Archon, still fuming over the defeat by 428-Sigma Skitarii Hunter Cohort, and his Incubi retinue. The other transports ferried three squads of Kabalite Warriors, the unit on the second Raider sporting exotic weapons such as blasters and dark lances.

Unseen, lurking in the shadows, were the Mandrakes, looking to seize the opporunity to strike. It was only thanks to my sorcery and warp sight that I was able to spot them.

"They'll die easily," Chronos vowed.

"That they will," I agreed. "You guys lead Acastus and Tukhan's squads of Rubric Marines. I'll teleport directly into the tower itself with Hathor and his platoon."

"As you will it, brother." Egnis clasped a hand to his gleaming breastplate and inclined his head. He placed his plated helm back, the neck-seals hissing, and turned to search for Acastus. Chronos did the same, heading toward Tukhan.

We barely managed to get into positions, but the aggressive Drukhari were upon the two Rubric squads before we could counterattack, the Raider surging toward Egnis and Acastus. Before they could do anything, the Archon and his Incubi leaped out and slaughtered them, cutting down the Rubric Marines with their glaives and deadly weapons. To make matters worse, the Scourges continued to bombard their position from afar with their dark lances, scything down whatever Rubric Marines remained, despite their esoteric protection and shimmering kine-fields. Egnis cursed before he teleported himself and Acastus back to the Honor of Tizca, their armor breached and their physical bodies wounded.

Being of the Pyrae cult, it would take them longer to heal their wounds. Sometimes, I wished we had more Pavoni experts.

Meanwhile, Chronos and Tukhan had troubles of their own. Dark lances were pelting their position, blowing their cover to bits and vaporizing three Rubric Marines before they could even fire a single shot. But a twist of fate allowed one of them to, uh, be destined to survive somehow.

+Those Drukhari are really nasty,+ Chronos complained with his mind. +Ignatius! When will you show up?!+

+Soon. The Drukhari are well prepared. We can't just teleport into their midst. Give me a few minutes.+

+We don't have a few minutes!+ Chronos whined, but his arcane vortex roared and engulfed the Incubi. Along with Tukhan and his surviving Rurbic Marines, they showered the Incubi with inferno bolt shells and soulreaper shells, dealing devastating wounds and cutting down almost the entire squad. The Archon hissed as he leaped away, but Chronos would not let him get away. The Infernal Master and his Rubric retinue pursued, their force staves clobbering the last of the Incubi and even managing to somehow injure the fleeing Archon.

"Filthy mon'keigh!" The Drukhari leader snarled, only to duck under Chronos's staff. He whistled before cartwheeling through the air and somehow embarking upon the Raider that had brought him here.

The Venoms were hurtling forward, along with the Raiders, while the Chronos stood sentinel at the base of the tower. The Scourges, the Raider with the Archon, and a Venom pummeled Chronos's squad with splinter cannons and dark lances, and at the end of it all, only Chronos was left standing. On the other hand, the Mandrakes finally slipped out of the shadows, and the Infernal Master sprang his trap, engulfing them in an arcane vortex that all but eviscerated them. Fortunately, before he went down, the final Rubric Marine with the soulreaper cannon also managed to gun down the remnants of the Mandrakes, annihilating them. Chronos tried to direct the Rubric Marine, only for him to burst apart under a shower of splinters. The Infernal Master staggered when the Raider charged into him, its prow careening into his chest, but somehow remained stnading. Smacking the spiky ship with his force stave, he reached out with his thoughts.

+Uh, some help here?+

"Coming."

I finally teleported next to the heart of the tower, along with an entire retinue of Scarab Occult Terminators. Leaving half of them to Hathor Mathias, we split fire, weaving spells of utmost potency and unleashing devastating sorcery upon the Drukhari. Ensorcelled Infused inferno bolts thundered into the Chronos, which was bathed by my coruscating flames, and it succumbed to our vicious bombardment. Missiles from hellfyre racks smashed the Raider with the Archon into bits, and the Drukhari commander spilled out in an indignant heap. Chronos smirked as he summoned his Screamers through an invocation and butchered the Archon before he realized what had just happened.

The Scourges were torn apart by another volley, directed by Hathor, while the soulreaper cannons ineffectually pinged away at a jinking Venom. That was...embarrassing. However, we charged into it, cutting it apart with our kopesh swords. I didn't even need to hit it with my force staff - my Scarab Occult Terminators basically tore the transport apart coldly and methodically. The Kabalite Warriors embarked within slashed out with several parting shots, but bounded away so that their brethren could fire at us.

The remaining Raider spun around and its dark lance boomed. By a twist of fate, a Scarab Occult Terminator was able to avoid his demise, but his tactical dreadnought armor buckled from the volume of shots from several splinter cannons from the Kabalite Warriors embarked within. The second Venom flew away, hiding around a corner of the tower and rounding about so as to avoid being gunned down by the implacably advancing Terminators.

"We have you now!" I crowed and directed them mentally toward the single largest target that remained on the battlefield. At the same time, I cast Temporal Surge so that we could reach the tower more swiftly. The end goal was just within sight - I could almost taste the relic within. It was emanating power - power that nullified our kine-shields and whatever esoteric protection the Drukhari was sporting, turning off forcefields and the like, but still a treasure nonetheless.

I would not let the Drukhari get in our way. We will reverse the Rubric, no matter the cost.

The Raider blew up as missiles and inferno bolts hammered it. Unfortunately, there was no other target as we had all but eliminated the Drukhari. Realizing how screwed they were, the Kabalite Warriors from the destroyed Raider doubled time toward the Scarab Occult Terminators, their dark lances and blasters blowing apart at least three of them. Meanwhile, Kabalite Warriors dropped out from their Venom, only for Chronos to spring his trap once again. Empyric flames devoured their shrieking figures, the Dark Eldar thrashing about as they fell just inches away from their transport.

The Venom sought vengeance for its fallen passengers, spinning around and pelting Chronos with splinter rounds. He finally succumbed, unable to endure the constant barrage, and a safety spell teleported him back to the bridge of the Honor of Tizca, where he could convalesce alongside Egnis and the sergeants.

At my command, the Scrab Occult Terminators unleashed a salvo upon the last squad of Kabalite Warriors, wiping them to a man...well, not really, for there was a single survivor. The sole survivor looked around in panic, realizing that he was...screwed. Even more so when the Venom was laid low by the soulreaper cannons, its fragile hull riddled with holes by the high caliber shells.

"...uh...I surrender?"

I watched him flee, but didn't bother hunting him down. We had more important objectives. Turning around, I entered the tower and reveled at the sight of the ancient xenos artifact hovering within. Primordial glyphs decorated its night-black hull, and it reminded me...of the Necrons.

Wasn't Ahzek busily running from a Necron army at this moment? I wasn't worried about my brother, though. He was Undying, after all. Still, to think that such threads continued to link us...my lips curled in amusement.

Though I had no idea what schemes the Changer of Ways had woven, I vowed not to fall into his intricate plans. Like Ahzek, I had no intention of dancing in the Chaos God's palm. We shall see the Emperor ascendant, or...die trying.

But first, we need clues to reverse the Rubric. I didn't know what connection this seemingly Necron relic had with the Ynnari, but surely sometime in the future, the intertwined paths would all be unveiled in all their glory.