ARKS OF OMEN - THE LION - FULL READ THROUGH

arcs of omen the lion [Music] long slumbered the lion in tragedies wake far wandered his sleeping mind following strange paths through the arboreal Mists of a shattered world even as slowly so slowly his broken body healed monstrous and otherworldly were the things he hunted through shadowed ghost Glade while Beyond his crypt the Stars wield and the sounds of time world upon holican winds the lion slept on Darkness deepened between the Stars tragedy piled upon tragedy hope became the opiate of fools and even such Heroes as Lionel Johnson dwindled into whispered myth then right then wakefulness then striding tall purposeful armored blade in hand cowled and watchful the Mind dislocated from its old truths even as the body burned with fresh vitality and the hearts beat with the cold resolution of vengeance parting veils or silvered Shadow through the ghosts of caliban slain Forest the lion walked abroad in the Galaxy once more for loyalty for the hunt for the emperor the story is so far in the closing moments of the 41st Millennium abadanta the spoiler looked upon the war-torn Galaxy and saw the threat of mutual Annihilation looming he had not fought his long War for ten thousand years only to see his time poisoned by the forced patronage of the dark gods or the Galaxy ripped apart by so many warding factions that their only Victors were entropy and nihilism Abaddon did not believe that marshalling his armies would be enough by itself he sought some device or weapon of such irresistible Pearsons that he would afford him the Strategic and martial Advantage he needed to launch a final and decisive conquest of the Galaxy entire abaddon's unlikely Ally in this Quest was a demon demigod vashtor the archifane already the master of the Soul forges this malevolent entity sought apotheosis to True chaos godhood he believed that by aiding abadon to final Victory he could reap sufficient power to achieve this aim first or knew where truly Mighty weapon had been sealed away during a primordial age and he knew how to assemble the key it would unlock its vault the arcophane offered abroad on this knowledge and fashioned the terrifying arcs of omen to scour the Galaxy for the fragments of the key as well as the three potent artifacts of power it would bring it to life combining their vast and terrible armies and Gathering Mighty bail fleets to a company that arcs to war Abaddon and vashtra Unleashed a nightmarish new Crusade across the Stars countless battles raged from one end of the galaxy to the other for an ancient cataclysm had scattered the key flagmans far and wide Bale fleets descended upon human and xenos words alike fortified fastnesses and unsuspecting backwaters where the psychic Spore of the fragments LED the arks of omen struck as the key fragments were amassed so vashtra Incorporated them into the engine of terrible power that was his key day by day this Abomination took shape deep within the tainted region of space known as the somnian Stars yet even as archifane's labors neared completion still there were those powers in the Galaxy that opposed his will eldari War hosts ospans of the leagues of voltan rampaging all corns necron Legions and others besides still resisted the arcs of omen or even launched attacks upon them in Revenge for the Carnage they had wrought meanwhile the emperor's own angels of death gathered to strike at the key itself collation report 3-4 slash U slash beta authorization epistolary antennas report commences Lord Dante I present my summation of the racula and investigatory effort undertaken at your command by the librarians I command the battle brothers who aided Us in this Quest and honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice in its name Auto logs prophetic analyzes supporting combat accounts atar can be found in the appended data files as you know Lord we first detected our Target's unique psychic Spore during the boarding of the Ark of omen night terror there we found only the hacked and blasted bodies of the ox heretic Masters and crew as well as traces of anomalous and withered plant life it was from prognostication and Imperial energetic analysis of these samples that we picked up a trail to be followed even as the arcs of omen have raided across the Galaxy so our strike forces have pursued that trail as it leapt between the Stars it has tested our libraries to its limit to track these manifestations especially amidst the challenges of the Imperium nilas it seems probable we have identified only a handful of its full appearances yet this has been enough in each case the signature meshes with the coming of a singular being to whom many names have been given on Catholic they called it the unforgiving night in the carnath expands they named it Tierney's end Beast Slayer or made us five the coward giant a lucitain beta on the shattered Road the pilgrims even dared name it the emperor incarnate many eyewitnesses stray into lurid mythologizing certain similarities persist however he is a warrior larger than any battle brother but clad in ornate power armor he goes hooded and cloaked he Bears a mighty sword and glowing Golden Shield he Steps From The Shadow roads of a Dark Forest that is not truly there his hatred of Chaos in all its forms is absolute his slaying of monsters and Tyrant Swift and thara sometimes he fights alone sometimes accompanied by blank armada depressostartis whose Natures remain mysterious what picked and vid capture we have recovered corroborates these accounts it is all included in the data files and is in places truly remarkable along with empiric divining analytic augury and macro spectral sampling it has helped us in our pursuit to close the gap I will not speculate on the nature of this being my lord for you are as able as I to draw the obvious startling conclusion as to his possible nature and identity rather in data file 001 slash primer slash h67p I simply provide the auto prophetic coordinates with the Librarians believe this being can be intercepted no Tottenham secundus attached to this report is sub-file w4d87 V 7. therein is a full account of Liberia's vinato rallyon and his variant if costly accounts aboard the herald of misery it is through the selfless sacrifice of many battle brothers lies that we have at last been able to triangulate the astrogational coordinates my Lord we know at least where these key fragments are being said it is a system on the very border of the warp Rift known as the somnian Stars as soon as our Pursuit is concluded I urge that we make all haste to investigate this Locale with whatever additional support can be redirected my instincts whisper that the two matters are intertwined and the great Dooms may turn upon their resolution May the Primark guide our steps in these coming days [Music] boars had been counted amongst those whom the Dark Angels named Fallen he was a hulking Warrior whose black power armor bore the scars and wear of long service scars fit to match those of his body and soul a metal patch was bolted into his skull to cover a missing eye this crackling power fist was of an old but venerable pattern his mind was a strange repository besieged by the attritional forces of extreme age and frequent Transit through the tainted ocean of the warp it's still capable of recalling snatches of the fall of once Mikey cariban boers remembered Luther's dark charisma he recalled moments of the last Savage battle that had seen the dark Angel's Homeworld shattered and the Fallen scattered across the Galaxy by a colossal warp storm and he remembered All Too Well the countless years sent lived as an exile hunted from one bolt hole to the next one place he had never expected to be was in a training Hall aboard the blood Angel strike Cruiser absolution's ire surrounded by loyalist Space Marines until recently he would have considered such Warrior's foes as surely as he did the Scions of Chaos it was thanks to his Lord that all that had changed Primark lion l Johnson the demigod who had pardoned his sins stoked in him a loyalty he had not known he could still feel offered him a second chance at Redemption infertility to humanity and his genes are the very same being who was now storming towards him with a glowing Relic blade in hand adrenaline shot through boars as the lion swept his sword failed he in a flashing overhead Arc and swung it down like a thunderbolt boers brought up his paraphus to block the blow the huge strength behind it drew him to one knee yet behind that devastating impact he felt precision and control the force of the strike could he knew have been far greater felt he could have sighed through his fist and his body not halting until he buried itself in the Hall's dick plate you are taking it easy on me Lord he granted balls Twisted away eating a sliver of space in which to slide out from under the blade and roll aside the Lion's lips quirked in a hard smile no benefit to me if I break you bores you are more useful as a sparring Potter with body and soul United I make a fine destruction too Lord shot back as his father's brunon and rufail lunged towards the lion veteran assault specialist that he was came at Lionel Johnson from the side with howling chainsaw in each hand Raphael Struck from behind the line with a Power sword borrowed from the training racks Moses Brothers attacked as he taught them blending the Marshall Grace of calibanite Knight with an opportunistic ferocity of honorless piratical Raiders so had they survived the Perils of a hostile Galaxy as Outcast Has Fallen the lion world to meet his attackers with blinding speed this was far from the first time he had employed bands of his redeemed Knights as sparring partners he knew how they fought they in turn knew never to hold anything back their lord would not thank them for entertaining the worry that they might harm him besides when attacking a Primark the only way to stand a chance of Landing a blow to go all out even then Boris thought that chance was slim enough failed he met one of Bruno's blades with a clash that rang through the training Hall at the same time the lion somehow interposed his shield the empress Shield to name it truly between Raphael and the chestplate of his ornate armor the impact triggered the Masterwork conversion Field built into the shield listing a blast of light and force Rufio was thrown back by the Shockwave he slammed down on his back rolled and came up in a fighting Crouch even as his blade skittered away across the decking already the lion had returned his attention to brunon and was driving him back with a blistering series of cuts and thrusts parrying wildly roonin gave ground we have audience enough without you joining them shouted the assault Marine ores realized with a jolt that he had become hypnotized by the flowing economy in Greece of the Lion's blade work what bronen said was true more than a dozen blood angels and at least as many serfs spectated the bout from doorways and balconies boers felt unsettled in such company already without some golden-haired Sonos sanguinia smirking at him for lollygagging when he ought to be fighting Bros broke into a charge black armored boots pounding the deck plates as he reached to brune's Aid rufail followed his lead ripping his paired combat knives from their shoes and surging in from the Lion's blind spot to be caught between three such ancient veteran Space Marine Warriors would have been death for almost any foe the lion barely broke stide a blow from the emperor's Shield through brunon onto his back flowing smoothly onwards the lion extended the attack into graceful leap that carried him over his prone opponent and opposed boonan's toppled form as a sudden and unexpected obstacle between boars and roof ale the two practiced Warriors sides to brune with fluid ease yet the effort slowed them both by a Split Second to being of such inhuman skill and swiftness as a lion it might as well have been an hour Boar's lightning raised Haymaker met their Emperor's shield and he was blown backwards amidst a raging over of golden light half-blinding boar saw Ruther as a dark silhouette stretched long as his brother lunged with a knife the Lion's cloak pillowed as he executed another skillful sidestep and allowed Rufio to overextend center of balance gone the flatter failed he connected with rufio's backpack and the redeemed Knight was hurled onto his face again rufia rolled with the impact and regained his footing Rich Crimson blood ran from his newly crooked nose where it had struck the dick plate but his eyes remained fixed intently on the line the Primark paused and put up his blade his brother circled weary bruised bleeding breathing hard the lion looked as fresh as when they about had begun give us the room to little Johnson he did not raise his voice yet his words reverberated through the redolent with such assurance and force of will that the blood angels and their serfs obeyed instantly Rogue figures faded back from balconies door hatches his shot boers wondered Not For the First Time whether there was something Supernatural in the Lion's effortless ability to impose his will on others and whether it had always been that or whether it was something that had changed in the Millennia since caliban once again boers wondered what had happened to the lion after the destruction of caliban on the onset of the warp Rift the planet had been Torn to Pieces the Fallen had been snatched up and flung through time and space boys knew this much had lived it and he wondered if the same had been true or the lion we did not know and it seemed that from what little they had discussed of it the Primark did not either the lion had told his redeemed only that his first memory since those cataclysmic events was her finding himself walking upon the shadowed part of what he called his Forest the strange half-real routes to a shadowy arboreal realm of Mr Monsters the boys believed must pass through the warp and which seemed always to bring the lion to that place where he was needed most it was but one of the Mysteries that shrouded the lion as surely as his hooded cloak but then thought bars we were ever a secretive breed the lion watched them Circle then barked out in a parade ground shout what are you Dark Angels my Lord they replied you Scout I still hear Echoes of another name behind those words my sons I tell you again to unburden your suffer it for I have absolved you you may speak freely in this place for the Watchers ensure None Shall hear us you are Fallen no more you never truly fell there is no taint in you or I would have known it when first we met and that moment would have been your last so tell me again my risen's sons what are you Dark Angels this time Wars and his brothers roared the words and as they did he felt the fierce need to be worthy of the title where did I find you the lion demanded upon the questing road upon the liberator's path amidst the shadow in the misty ways and whom do you serve my sons the lion they cried the emperor those words still felt unfamiliar in boze's mouth she had long ago thought himself divorced from Humanity in their carrion Lord an arrangement of mutual loathing he had found wholly acceptable yet him bending the knee to the lion and accepting his Gene size forgiveness boss had found himself wishing to be worthy not just of the Lion's service but by extension the service of the emperor himself boers is unnaturally long life and the cruel administrations of time and the warp had seen many early memories buried or corroded he could not recall if he had ever truly served the emperor before he remembered fleeting shards of caliban of Luther's uncanny influence the bitterness that Fallen Lord had engendered in his followers then had come the lion after so long a span of time scattered Exile offering a chance at Redemption so perhaps boys had never truly served the emperor before but he knew that now no matter how strange it might seem even to him he wished to do so boers wanted to acquit himself such as to truly earn his absolution the three years and warriors had regrouped Ruth real recovering his borrowed Power sword en had exchanged his damaged chainsaw its buckled teeth half sheared away for another from the rags boars and his Warriors took stances ready for the next round but the lion remained statue still you hesitate my sons you are discarded why they can't stood one another word is we are even now nearing the somnian Stars said boys that is so well Johnson replied Commander Dante is more certain than ever this blight that has troubled my father's realm stems from this place I hear Whispers of my own to confirm it but this you already knew boers noted his Lord's continuing reticence to give the imperiments title he heard the sliver of contempt that underlaid the control in The primark's Voice not aimed at the emperor for the lion was as loyal as a son to him as ever a father could wish for not for mankind either not really the lion had told Boars in a moment of Candor that he could not despise those whom his father had always intended to give Stars though he was dismayed at a squalor ignorance and fear he had witnessed since his Awakening no thought balls it was for the dignitaries and bureaucrats to the lion reserved his contempt and the throngs of pompous and pusillanimous Adept and Priests this was erosing to boers and his Lord shed it is not the battle that awaits the score said Rufio but rather it is those who alongside whom you will soon fight the lion finished he let out a slow breath expression unreadable then dropped into a fighting stance the implicit command was unmistakable the pause was over a new bout began the lion flourished his blade and fainted towards brunon the old assault veteran was too canny to be fooled he held his ground and firmed his stance ready to threaten the Lion's Franks when the Primark chooses to Target oh Johnson flashed a rye green then his face set into unreadable Stone again you still Harbor resentments he asked bores felt himself stung by the disappointment he heard in the Lion's voice hard to look past them hunting us for centuries lord said Boomers but no that is not it he stepped swiftly in and aimed to blow at the Lion's right side he expected the attack to be deflected which it was but he also hoped it would create an opening for brunon to exploit did not the veteran assault Marine reeled back from another flare of The Emperor's Shield then what after lion Wheeling taking them all in as they circled him like a pack of forest beasts closing around a night alone amongst those trees oh Johnson fated again this time turning the move into a lunge the caught ruthio off guard and forced him to backpedal or take a blade through his chestplate seeing the lion extend his reach boers and brunon both surged into attack only to be beaten back by blistering set of cuts and pies boar suspected that his Lord already knew what was in their minds was simply drawing it out of them for their own good the lion seemed to know much that by right even he could not boers wondered what the Watchers in the dark whispered to the Primark when no other was there to hear even now the strange creatures lurked in the Hall's deepest Shadows when not even the blood angels had detected them we were Fallen said Boaz the words escaping his lips amidst harsh grunts as he traded Fierce blows with the lion to The Unforgiven we still will be the lion pressed Golding boars to Evermore ferocious counter-attacks then suddenly feeded back like parting Mists wrong footed bore stumbled forward and was forced to waste a precious second writing himself he wheeled expecting a blow but or instead that the lion had crossed the distance to rufian disarming then laying him out with swift blows brunon was next and he weathered the Lion's strikes better but was forced into a stumbling Retreat that left boars alone before his Lord I sought you out said the lion prowling towards boars and pushing him back with a string of deft strikes I looked into your souls knew you knew you for who and what you are forgave each of you I offered Absolution and you took it do you believe that my word on this will not be good enough for the rest of my sons that they will try to do you harm against my Express command Boris was forced to give way before the Lions blowed it came to him as the last strike caught him across the temple and threw him onto his back that the lion was airing his own concerns and why would he not boast or dazedly all l Johnson had seen of his father's realm since his return was intolerance and ignorance fear and superstition he must hope that his own loyal Sons would be above such weaknesses but he could not know where the rod had stopped and he had been failed before after all Vision swimming back into Focus Boar's read Contrition the Lion's Noble features the Primark knew he had vented a portion of his frustrations upon boars and regretted it it resists that resolve bores to be completely honest with his Lord as a lion hauled him to his feet the old pirate shook his head I hope they have the wisdom to obey your commands Lord but even if they lose me I would still fight to Aid them if that is your command and do so gladly all we resin would do likewise run and Rufio all the others aboard this vessel and yet that's the lion our presence taints you Lord trying to keep the bitterness from his words for ten thousand years The Unforgiven have hunted us now in an age when the Imperium is harder Preston it has been since caliban sundering in a Galaxy where all the old certainties are unupended you return but you do so with us at your side the Dark Angels and they get are insular paranoid utterly merciless added refill they are unrelenting as a pack of lupids with the blood sent Lord and dogmatic to the point of thoughtless intolerance said Bruner making no effort to hide his anger and resentment the lion deactivated the power field of failting Arrested the blades Point against the deck plate he swept his gaze overboards and his brothers each in turn it was an effort of will for boys to meet his jean size eyes he felt suddenly foolish an unsettled by something Faye an almost wild that he saw lurking behind the Lion's glinting pupilars Boaz seemed suddenly to send the Mist wet canopy a damp loam of the forest to feel its shadowed bowels pressing close about him until his skin prickled with that touch he heard the first breathless Stillness and the 30th movement of something huge circling creeping closer he caught accurate animal mask Crossfire old blood caked into Jaws lasered in drawer the hot breath of something ancient and Dreadful seemed to pull impossibly against the nape of his neck while before his eyes a lion became indistinct as always dismissed Daniel Johnson barked a hard laugh and the spell was broken the forest tendrils receded it's imagined denizens with it ball stood once again in a Training hall on the absolutions Ayah with his Gene sire before him and his brothers close to hand darn she is fealty bores and his brothers deactivated or set aside their own weapons understanding about to be at an end the Dark Angels are my sons said the lion in a tone the book no disagreement all the Dark Angels those who named themselves Unforgiven and those they call Fallen I have not forgotten this and you may take my oath upon it that I will not allow it to be overlooked by anyone else I care not way they be lowly surf or my father himself upon his Golden Throne my lord said Wars his heart's starting he dropped to one knee driven down by the force of conviction the Lion's calm but utterly Relentless words he saw his brothers follow suit I reject none but the faithless L Johnson continued the betrayers those who spurned all that the first Legion ever stood for those who instead Sully their magnificence with a poisonous taint of Chaos Mazda did the traitor set effects as did looser no matter the Millennia that had passed and all the miles uncounted that he had traveled since that last Terrible Day on caliban still the name of the arch betrayer caused Wars a shudder of anger and guilt even such as they may know my forgiveness said the line his words hard and clipped but understand my sons their only Absolution comes beneath the Keen edge of my blade so shall I end their suffering their corruption and the dishonor that they embody by their very active being but you the lion set aside blade and shield to reach down with both hands he cast boars by his shoulder guards and raised him back to his feet again he moved between them and repeated the process for each of his kneeling Warriors before he spoke again you are my risen Sons you do me nothing but honor by your presence on my side so shall it be known by all Boaz was unable to find any words to express the pride and gratitude he felt in that moment before he could Marshal his thoughts and crack some blared through the hall and then fell silent first translation Clarion the hour draws nigh and we shall be at equals and more said the lion with such absolute conviction that Poor's knew it has a truth and fundamental to his very being we are with you Lord you said earning that we all are fortunate Gathering up his War gear and raising his cowl so it shadowed his face the captain gaunted his hand against boz's shoulder guard as he made for the nearest door hatch gather the redeemed and make ready for battle my sons we go to do the emperor's work not for Glory of a vengeance but because loyalty is its own reward the Risen and redeemed lohawk whose wrath blazed forth in Star Road beams whose oil hearts beat ever to duties rhyme whose name was called the red whisper bores whose was called one eye it always so true whose strike was sudden singular Unstoppable whose oath was to leave but not to Realm zabriel whose voice was the voice of the Redeemer King whose Hope was the hope for all of mankind who's gotten and whose blade blazed righteous asbiel who prized above all the lies of his brothers in arms whose tarnished honor his ministrations did solve who stood unyielding as a tower of Pale Stone rufao whose service was unfaltering even through the darkest times whose eye felt Keen where death soon followed for his foes who stood in the breach at the Inka and wavered not Africa he who was ancient and yet ungraven by time whose trust grew slowly yet whose fail to you was Ironclad who struck true despite the Tempest and the shadow nothing now remains of the realm my father wrought whatever light we spread between the Stars has guttered and died and in its place stretches Darkness Without End our enemies move freely through the Galaxy of Shadows and believe themselves always to be Hunters never pray that is their mistake I will teach them to fear the darkness in which they dwell and to dread the shadow they believe they are allies for there is no greater Terror hunting the stygian void then a lion of caliban Lionel Johnson bane of chaos Knight of the Niners lord of the shadowed path The lure in the way called vashtra's attack upon the rock the Dark Angels turned their talents for torture and interrogation upon the heretic astartes that had been captured in the fighting they thought vastra's whereabouts so they might Revenge themselves upon the demon they gained the insights they desired yet the manner in which this Revelation was delivered seemed deeply suspicious within the kamalan sanctum of the rock the masters of the Dark Angels had gathered crew surfs attended to their stations around the tumor's edges maintenance services lumbered past two limited and single-minded to be distracted from the repair work still required after heretic assault and still damage remained that would yet take months in some cases even years to make right the Masters stood in a circle armor and skin patchworked in Harlequin Hues By the Light falling through the command sanctum's huge stained were armor glass windows Supreme Grandmaster Azrael led the Gathering his body was now fully used to its primarily enhancements and healed of the wounds suffered dueling with vashtor with him stood Master Belial with the Deathwing Master samayo of the Raven Wing Chief librarian Ezekiel and interrogator chaplain asmodai as well as a number of the chapters company Masters augmenting this August assemblage were the heroes of numerous Unforgiven chapters the dark Angel's successes and closest allies Seville were present in person chapter master modren in the bone and gray of the angels of absolution Master the fazia boosting the halved heraldry of the angels of redemption Grand Master nakir in the Sable of the consecrators captain Herald's Kazar over the cold Wardens others such as Master sikora of the breeds of Vengeance and captain lyceus of the Pennington blades were present as flickering horolithic projections the Dark Angels had been Gathering the strength of The Unforgiven ever since they had learned the location of rashkul stronghold all at once after weeks of excoriation all of their Heritage captives had suddenly known and willingly blurted the precise astragational coordinate seeing as surprised as the Dark Angels they had given up not just a region to be searched on the frequences of the wharf Rift known as the somnian stars but it further pinpointed the remote idolatross system Azrael and his comrades could not fail to recognize so obvious of trap as Master samio observed it was taunted by vashtra would somehow implanted the knowledge in their captors Minds for just that purpose yet the sons of the lion could not ignore the challenge issued the legions of avadon and Vascular continued to wreak havoc across the Imperium and the Dark Angels were Duty bound to end the Carnage and banish the arcophane if they could moreover they had been done a grievous insult by the invasion of the rock one supreme Master azeram meant to see answered to walk into a trap unprepared would be foolish of course the Dark Angels were not rushed into danger like over eager near fights instead they had convinced preparations even as they set the rock into a steady heading towards their destination short warp jumps were employed to minimize risk to The battle-damaged Fortress Monastery while every available Tech Marine conservator stove to effect repairs as Swifty as they could secretive means Supreme Grandmaster Azrael summoned not only those Unforgiven chapters he could contact but also as much of his own as could be recalled from Crusade consternation plighted sewer in dompter's Crusade battle groups as their Dark Angel compliment left without explanation and vanished into the warp in answer to this coded summons with each translation from warped space The Rock rendezvous with reinforcements larger and larger grew azrael's combined Force until more than three quarters of the might of The Unforgiven was it the Supreme grandmaster's command rarely since the mighty Space Marine Legions of old had so great in Assemblies of adeptosastatis Warships and warriors amassed to assault a single Target yet the Dark Angels and their allies knew that Brute Force alone was no guarantee of Victory an adaptable battle plan would be required informed by all the Strategic intelligence they could gather prior to launching their attack it was the task of the gathered Masters within the strategium of the rock to formulate that plan forewarned The Unforgiven have long history of hunting the Fallen to seek locate and run to ground such cunning and dangerous Quarry or Kaya specialist formations of Warriors trained exactingly in the Arts of stealthy intelligence gathering and Swift Ambush across both Interstellar and planetary theaters amidst the ranks of the Dark Angels this Duty Falls primarily to the second company The Raven wing they in turn have acted as the template for numerous similar formations within other forgiven chapters now Azrael and his fellows tasked those formations with racing ahead of their advance and scouting the system bordering the somnia stars in detail it was their mission to uncover what enemy strengths lurked in that region and if at all possible what manner of trap awaited them forgiven The Scouting forces were to remain undetected the better to keep the okefenes followers guessing if or when Vengeance would descend upon them the debate between the Masters moved to matters of force disposition extended command structures and overlapping combat doctrines amidst this discussion Chief librarian Ezekiel offered another suggestion though the primary focus of The Unforgiven Librarians was the Insidious art of interimancing there were many amongst their number talented in scrying and oracular foresight these brothers could try to tease apart the strands of fate and learn what awaited in the idolatrust system it would be a terrible risk for them to cast their minds out onto the tides of the warp while surrounded by the Raging Tempest of the Imperium nairas yet Ezekiel argued that as a rock and its sister ships were already braving those legless maelstroms with every perilous warp jump they were already at risk regardless besides there would be greater danger still as The Unforgiven were to miss some vital detail that allowed Vash door's trapped to ensnare them thus he was granted permission to proceed by azrael's Council of Masters the Master's planning continued for many hours even as their fleets maneuvered into position around the rock ready for the next jump towards their destination in the end while it Incorporated many strategic complexities the overall plan decided upon was straightforward and robust their Fleet would translate from the warp as one spread out across an extended region that would make it nigh on impossible to ambush for warned of their foe's dispositions The Unforgiven would halt the jaws of any trap as they attempted to close then press on overwhelming their enemies locating rashdor and putting an end to his infernal imaginations sidebar tutulcha deep within the rock lies sacred vaults containing esoteric weapons some of which date back to the Dark Age of Technology amongst the strangest of these is mysterious to Georgia engine ostensibly a device of alien manufacture and breathtaking Antiquity the tutusa was recovered by Lionel Johnson it displayed an unsettling intellect communicating through puppet revenance and seemingly almost obscenely Keen to offer its strange band of Aid which involved acting as a pilot engine for a natural Swift and accurate warp Transit after the catastrophic death of caliban and The Disappearance of the lion the truth Ultra engine was stored in or found its way into the Rock's deepest vaults where it languished long and Shadow yet the engine's fate was bound to that of the Dark Angels and in the dwindling years of Millennium 41 it was rediscovered with dramatic consequences upon the brink the final mustering point of The Unforgiven prior to their assault upon rashkar stronghold lay in a desolate region of wilderness space by the time they gathered there The Voyage Through the tumultuous Shadows of the Imperium nihilate and taken its toll despite all precautions ships had been scattered damaged or lost with each dangerous leap into the Imperium after each such setback Supreme Grandmaster Azrael had bitterly castigated himself he was one of only a few Dark Angels who knew that the tutotra engine lay deep within the Rock and that had he been prepared to risk its taint he might have eased his fleet's Passage you're the one time he and his fellows of the Inner Circle had employed the device in living memory the consequences had been dire and the great warlord of chaos had almost succeeded in damning The Unforgiven wholesale would shoulder the burden of lives and warships last more gladly than he would risk tossing the true to engine again he consoled himself with the knowledge that the fleet he had assembled was still a colossal Gathering of Might despite the losses of Transit moreover he and his fellow Masters had taken every precaution to prepare for the coming battle the fleet had not long gathered at their mustering point before several Swift Scout frigates returned from reconna touring the enemy's positions the ship Masters had left the bulk of the Raven Wing another Scout squadrons could continue their observations and had brought their accumulated intelligence back in person they had sworn to ensure it reached azrael's Council of Masters without risking it being intercepted by the foe or tainted by warped distortion this Choice had led them to both the bone dagger and the variant blade suffering damage during warp Transit while the frigate Onyx raiment had been hurled off course and would not return in time for the coming battle but the Strategic value of their findings Justified such risks slipping undetected through the fringes of the idolatus system and its neighboring Sacro limb and a posture systems Unforgiven Scout ships had confirmed the presence of multiple heretic fleets by The Cold Light of Sacrament Giant star a mingled Armada of Emperor's Children and Renegade warships had been cited and its considerable strength assessed subtle or spec sweeps and energistic Analysis and revealed a second gathering this time of death guard black Legion and word Bearer vessels lurking amidst the dense particulate nebula of their posture system largest of all was another world blade Bell Fleet a gathering of demonic void barks and dark mechanicum Ford ships led by their colossal and good task Arc of omen this force awaited in the idolatrous system itself much of its strength was reported orbiting the system's three settled and seemingly enslaved world while other vessels Patrol the deeper void though it had proved impossible to gain detailed insight into their composition the Bale fleet's forces displayed a strong tendency towards Tech heresy an infernal industry while the Arc of Rome in itself was bloated with techno-organic extrusions that hinted at extensive augmentation and experimentation there could be little doubt that here were worshipers of the arcophane ezekiel's Librarians had also had some success in their scrying effort this esoteric intelligence gathering had not been achieved without caste good is here cesic of the consecrators had died of catastrophic empiric trauma while several other Librarians were so mentally and spiritually damaged that their recovery was doubtful for their pains their Acura Cavern had gained a vision of a darkened Mirror haloed by the Blazing light of a poisonous Star as they watched lines of fire had spider webbed that mirror before it blew apart into a storm of jagged shards that rushed towards them before The Shard struck home and the vision was ripped apart the Librarians had seen the star's infernal light wretched in roiling fumes even as the light itself became a pair of vast lantern-like eyes Chief Liberian Ezekiel affirmed that rashkar did indeed a wait in the idolatrous system and that he had readied some diabolical trap there that either involved the system star or else would originate from that quarter the mirror the Librarians agreed suggested that the demon scheme would draw upon the nature of The Unforgiven themselves turning some element of their own culture or Dogma against them this was an especially disquieting notion for those of the chapters inner circles and to Azrael and his fellow Masters most of all for they knew dark and troubling secrets about their chapter that most of their battle Brethren did not some elements of the intelligence gathered were easier to interpret and act upon than others but all were taken into consideration as the Council of Masters issued their final battle orders The Unforgiven fleets of the cold wardens Blades of Vengeance and Guardians of the Covenant as well as accompanying elements from several other chapters were assigned strike coordinates against the enemy ships waiting in the sacralim and imposter systems those heretic ambushers surely waited for a signal to dive into the warp and close the trap in the idolatrous system instead they would be struck by sudden Unforgiven surprise rambushes would be ambushed and the more obvious elements of vashtra's trap disarmed meanwhile Librarians and chaplains spread themselves out across as many ships as possible in the main assault Force which consisted of the dark Angel's Fleet and all their remaining Unforgiven allies while the Council of Masters could not be sure exactly what the vision warning meant they could do what was possible toward their ships against infernal powers every battle brother was girded for war from the horius veterans to the greenest neophyte every void craft intercepted a Dreadnought ancient a war engine was roused and ready the fleet ship Masters have been briefed to expect an emergency translation order should vashkar's trap turn out to be the explosive destruction of the system star or some equally Grand and mutually destructive lunacy The Rock itself would hang back as the command and control center for the entire vast Onslaught meanwhile more than a dozen separate battle groups of Unforgiven warships would deploy in a supporting spread focused enough to crush any opposition but widely spread so as to prevent easy Ambush or encirclement at the Supreme Grand Masters order the signal riffled out through the war fleets of The Unforgiven Bells told and prayers Rose through engineerims as warped dry his style to life and Geller field shimmered into being the veil of real space tour asunder and the vengeful sons of the lion roach to war ahead of us lies conflict with foes Insidious and infernal that they will employ duplicity in the dark powers of the warp against us is a certainty yet such weapons can gain no purchase upon hearts and Minds armored in certainty Duty and absolute knowledge of righteousness so do we gird ourselves in the armor of contempt so do we Harden our souls against the tricky of demons so shall we walk once more into the fire my brothers an emerge victorious in the emperor's name interrogated Chaplin asmodai into idolatras The Rock erupted from the warp at its destination streamers of unreality tattering off its crackling Shields like Penance burning to Ash scores of Unforgiven warships translated all around it in a rapidly established combat formation that spoke to the skill of Navigators and ship masters of both the moment Wharf Transit shutters were raised and all speakers arrays awoken the Space Marine sensors were Awash with vast and unnatural Energies where the Scout ships had risked only passive sensor sweeps to minimize the chance of detection this Armada was about to turn its full and inescapable glare upon the idolatrous system it detected an aberration the contact was still too distant for visual Imaging apparent efforts had been made by vashtor to mask its presence using the Raging energy output from both the system star and the unnatural nebula of the somnian Stars the churned close at hand yet nothing could fully hide the mysterious contact waiting near the heart of the system for a radiated vast energy signatures both conventional and empiric there could be little doubt that here was the end result of rashdor and abaddon's efforts to gather Arcana from across the Galaxy whatever it was Ezreal deemed there to be no more important contact in the entire system who ordered a steady Advance upon it by all craft as reported an entire bail Fleet lay between the unforgivener and the Mystery contact it was however scattered between the system's world and its various Patrol routes moreover even had it been concentrated into a single formation the Heritage fleet was neither as numerous nor as mighty as that of The Unforgiven this did not stop the Netherworld blade and its escorts Rising like carrion birds from their orbit around the nearest world and setting an intercept course for the Rock heretic Patrol groups swelled their formation as they poured on speed closing the Gap with the eagerness of zealot soon enough Shoals of torpedoes were rushing soundlessly through the void and clouds of interceptors were spilling from the launch Bays of Booth fleets standing at the heart of the rock strategium his eyes fixed on the Tactical void screens Helm under one arm Azrael allowed himself a wintry smile it seemed the Heretics were offering him a fight dread defense the first blows of the battle of idolatras were struck by defensive laser batteries and squadrons of void-borne fightercraft knocking out on rushing torpedoes Nephilim jet fighters and dark Talon interceptors blew apart one heretic projectile after another even as a Wheeling flock of helldrakes and winged demons attempted to do the same to the masked Ordnance launched by The Unforgiven here and there a salvo or Torpedoes broke through only to blossom into fiery ruin amidst the crisscross fire of defensive toilet or detonate against warship's dancing void Shields next the fighter craft met in fierce dogfights in the cold and merciless void even as they spiraled above one another in a flip in a flicker-lit Dance of Death so the squadrons of combat craft were dwarfed by the Leviathan warships they escorted these rumbled past the skirting dogfight or else forced them to scatter like sea monsters sweeping through Panic Shoals of fish Lance batteries bombardment cannons and biomechanical weapons of indeterminate nature lit the void with their Fury as the warships closed on one another The Unforgiven had a significant advantage in numbers and even the smallest of their Scout frigates boasted far power worthy of a far larger vessel for all this the worshipers of vashtra were privy to the darkest secrets of infernal manufacture and many of their systems defied the laws of physics moreover these weapons piercings was only enhanced by the proximity of the somnian Stars their strange biomechanical veins and receptors extended to harness the warp energies pouring from the rift so it was that even as fresh salvos or Torpedoes filled the darkness and Lance plus bit deep into multiple traitor warships the Heretics began to inflict stinging casualties upon The Unforgiven the strike crew is a boundless resolve was struck by tendrils of livid Crimson lightning that erupted from the emitters of a freakish dark mechanicum warship with the Carmine energy crawled across the strike Cruiser's Hull metal bubbled and ran like hot wax within the space marine Vessel the lightning manifested as screaming Electro Geist that blasted their victim Souls from their bodies with butter touch at the same time the penitent blades frigates Watchmen and Sanctified manners were slammed together by a colossal grave Beamer and ground into ruin as they struggled to disentangle themselves more grotesque yet were the weapons of the Demonic warships some of these strange vessels might once have been craft of Mortals lost upon the tides of the Imperium and claimed by the malevolent Servants of the ruinous powers these boosted holes transmuted into rugger's flesh or flame-reached Crystal and were armed with snaking tendrils cavernous fanged Moors batteries of brazen Karen AIDS firing exposes skulls the size of drop ships and Myriad other nightmare weapons then there were the vessels that could only endure in real space thanks to the Unholy energies of the nearby warp storm archaic galleons of glittering silver that Unleashed Prismatic beams from shining sails vast flies encrusted with bizarre structures and weapons batteries batwinged pyramids of brass and Bone the size of capital ships whose flanks teamed with demonic Warriors eager to board their foes and butcher all in their paths amidst these nightmare vessels Advanced and there's a world blade hails of parasitic missiles corrosive beams of Rocket conflagration blasts and unreality glances erupted from every inch of its mutated Hull in the opening minutes of the engagement alone the Ark of omen accounted for an entire Squadron of Disciples of caliban frigate as well as the strike Cruiser's retribution incarnate and Voyager in darkness in the face of such disproportionate Carnage many foes would have broken and fled The Unforgiven instead closed the gaps in their formations swore fresh Oaths of Vengeance for the slain and fought back with renewed Fury strike Cruisers of the Dark Angels and the Bringers of judgment conducted a skillful pincer attack upon a formation of dark mechanical forged ships striking from above and below simultaneously rolling as they pass between their phones the Space Marine warships hammered their targets with volley after volley of Lance and Battery fire they left the dark mechanicum vessels Gorgon nebulous mind spawn of losing and acororkum burning and drifting in their wake at the same time the battle barge is redoubtable and Bane of Heretics quarter Trio a freakish demon ships between them and brutalized them with an intense Crossfire accompanied by chaplains and Librarians stalled water boarding parties of Unforgiven struck at the founder in Demon vessels to administer the death blow many battle buzzers who survived ensuing boarding actions refused to speak of the horrors they witnessed aboard those unnatural warships yet as the last archangel's borders withdrew drenched in icor and wearing haunted Expressions they left only this corporated masses of ectoplasm and wreckage behind them Azrael and his Council of Masters observed the developing shape of the battle some from strategiums or the command Thrones of Warships others from amidst the blood and fire of boarding assaults they saw their own battle lines bow under the initial chaos Onslaught only to tighten and reform those tendrils of the Bale Fleet that are broken through towards the rock found themselves surrounded battered from all angles by loyalist Gunnery until their ships came apart amidst the storm others that had attempted to outflank The Unforgiven or had held back to trade fire with them became prey for Swift counter-attacks by faster strike Cruisers and frigates after its initial charge it became clear that the Netherworld blade was seeking to evade and stall as best it could its Masters likely awaiting the arrival of ambushing allies destined never to appear ambushed and the apostra and sacralim systems The Unforgiven Ambush Fleet struck with devastating Force the imposterous system in particular the nebulous void clouds allowed the coward wardens Blades of Vengeance and attached rifling squadrons to keep close to and encircle their foes before they struck ferocious void battles erupted in both systems as the Traders realized their Peril and shrugging off Grievous casualties turned at Bay to fight back conscious that the trading elements of the bail Fleet were rushing to reinforce their Ark of omen and unwilling to waste time lest he give rashdor a chance to escape Azrael ordered an all-out attack The Unforgiven Fleet surged forward as one unfolding the Netherworld blade like a mini limbed monster grasping its prey Master Samuel was the first to land a telling blow upon the immense Arc his Flagship implacable Justice striking suddenly from beneath the Leviathan and Blasting a glowing rent in its underbelly into that sparking Chasm poured Unforgiven boarding craft by the score disgorging entire strike forces of merciless Warriors who drove the Heretics before them with bot and blade masked bombardments from Unforgiven Capital ships knocked out the Ark of omen's huge engines one by one even as squadrons of interceptors streaked low over a towel to eliminate defense turrets and shield nodes with strafing runs and hills of missiles the Netherworld blade did not die quickly it slew the redoubtable and sorely damaged five other Unforgiven vessels even in its death Thrones you die it did with a tide blasted and rent even as its inners were torn apart from within by the time the Unforgiven Drew back from the ruin of the Netherworld blade what have been a fearsome Arc of omen was nothing but a hollowed-out hog tumbling ponderously away through the void satisfied the Council of Masters ordered all those ships still battle-worthy to reform and press on towards the system star their true Target awaited them nightmare revealed The Unforgiven pressed deeper into the idolatrous system with the real space engines blazing minutes then hours called past as I drew closer to their target periodically Force appropriate squadrons peeled off to intercept the remnants of the Bale Fleet rushing at them with suicidal Fury each such engagement made the heretic Defenders look more desperate especially in light of their ambushes failure to arrive none amongst the Council of Masters was fooled into believing that Victory could be won so easily however naturally suspicious at the best of times The Unforgiven maintained watchful vigilance for fresh threats even as they waited impatiently for visual confirmation of whatever Horrors Vash store had fashioned at the system's heart it was during this approach the tech Marines aboard the rock reported a growing warp resonance a subtle empiric harmonic shuddering through the battle station at a steadily increasing pitch no Source could be found for the phenomenon worse as it built in power so it began to interface with delicate mechanical systems at the same time while the strange resonance could not be physically heard or felt by any aboard the rock it nonetheless spawned a growing sense of surreality and nightmarest dislocation even veteran Space Marines found themselves unsettled forced to repress sudden bouts of anger or distracted by Phantom movements in their peripheral vision that triggered their hard-wired combat instincts words sped through the fleet that while the weird warp resonance was confined to the Rock itself the calling sense of dread an invisible threat was not chaplains prowled the decks and Tony writes a spiritual fortitude Librarians worked what rewarding rituals they could or probed carefully with their powers to discover the source of the supernatural dissonance Azrael did not need the psycho's effort to confirm what had already become a certainty in his mind however this Aura of disquiet and heightened threat emanated from whatever Infernal Device vastral had fashioned it would only be banished by the destruction of that same Abomination whose visual Imaging was moments from appearing upon the extreme range vid feed of his Fleet the Supreme Grandmaster girded himself for whatever manner of horror he was about to witness confident in his battle brothers abilities to endure and overcome then came the first images of their target a planet-sized mass silhouetted against the light of idolatrous's star Azrael realized with a photogenous lurch how long he had been the dimensions of mass of the thing came first confirmation of an entire world hanging in the void as are waiting for the Dark Angels then came surface detail cartographical analysis and empiric orography and with it a revolution of utmost horror Israel's eyes danced over images of a world that was part industrial hillscape part heaving masses of fire veined bedrock part colossal piston-driven Cog field machine he saw exploring cities atop Pinnacles of iron-bound stone or lurking in sulfurous shrouded chasms Ablaze with the glow of infernal industry he saw the distorted outlines of Continental land masses where tortured Stone and Jagged iron are butted oceans of molten metal or blazing petrochemicals he saw all the dark masses reminiscent of forests surely impossible upon a world so choked by pollutants and orbiting so close to a ferociously blazing star all was monstrous to behold yet it was as nothing to the lines of data script dredged from the deepest and most ancient cogitator banks of the Rock by emergency recognition subroutines the Dark Angels had not even known existing unfiltered unexpected uncontrolled the information spilled in a screed of text across the auto senses of every Unforgiven warrior in receiving range pattern identification was out of phase but close enough to eliminate any possibility of error coastlines Urban spores oceans and forests gross empiric signature all were distorted and deformed yet the match was close enough to eliminate Reasonable Doubt the world The Unforgiven were approaching was caliban Madness at first Azrael could only stare at him blank in comprehension shock had him so profoundly in its grasp that even with his post-human mind and centuries of combat experience he was paralyzed the Supreme Grandmaster reeled he struggled to accept what he was seeing could the ancient data Spirits be mistaken was a monstrous edifice before him some mocking simulkram a trick created to a pool and unbalance was he seeing an illusion tea somehow from The ancestral memory within the shared Gene seed of The Unforgiven by vashtra's artifact could that not be the Trapper Ezekiel and his brother Librarians had warned off on some level deeper even than Instinct asrael knew that none of these suppositions were true impossible and nightmarish as it seemed he was looking at the remains of the shattered dark Angel's home world by Supernatural artifice Beyond azrael's capacity to imagine the arcophane had Resurrected caliban in the most grotesque and disrespectful manner possible it was a desecration of the bleakest sword a blow to the very soul of every Unforgiven chapter perhaps worst of all it was a corporeal exhumation of the dark Angel's hidden shame a Titanic blasphemy that surely had the potential to bring down doom and judgment upon them by the simple fact of its existence there was so much Azrael did not yet know or understand how had vashtra done this and why had the demon chosen caliban of all worlds how did the Gathering key fragments connect to the undead Planet before him as a firestorm of Wrath burst to life within him Azrael knew one thing with absolute Clarity this abominant had to be purged of whatever foul beings inhabited it and then if at all possible it must be utterly destroyed the memory of caliban must be put to rest Anew and its Legacy buried forever becoming aware of the Ferrari engulfing his fleet's Fox network Azrael realized he was not alone in this conclusion he knew the outrage spreading Through The Unforgiven was a kind of Madness likely spurred on by that same Aura of disquiet and danger his Tech Marines had reported he knew also that he should find his Center doused the Flames urge caution and stoicism yet the site before Azrael was a provocation that even he could not withstand seized by an all-consuming spiritual outrage and profound shock the Supreme Grandmaster ordered All Ships onto an attack heading already reports were coming in of enemy warships rising from the infernal plant's orbit and of countless potential defensive weapon emplacement Awakening on its surface then came the inexplicable auspects readings that are fragmentary and Confused seemed to suggest a fresh heretic Fleet of giant size had appeared as if from nowhere to sail directly from the heart of idolatross's star though they were not so lost to rage as to ignore these dangers none check the fury of The Unforgiven it was as though all their collected guilt and bitterness had fermented to become a maddening drug they would sweep aside whatever Heretics stored in their path they would strike at every potential weak spot across the planet's surface and drive their blades Deep In Search of a means by which to strike a fatal blow so vowed Azrael to himself as he stole to join his brothers preparing to perform combat drops onto the infernal world already strategic cogitators were wearing furiously as they computed likely Drop science possible enemy strength and unexpected void assault vectors The Unforgiven would funnel every iota of their strategic skill and martial might into this assault and no matter what it cost them they would put an end to vastava's Twisted schemes star trap avadon and vashtor had known their ambushing fleets in the neighboring systems might be neutralized if The Unforgiven came in force they had accordingly fashioned a birth with their own combined Fleet could wait for battle without risking detection during his invasion of the rock flashdor had employed an infernal technology that allowed him to cage pockets of warp space and bind them into the fabric of reality then it had been employed to power his colossal weapon the unmaker now he had expanded his efforts to create a sub realm of warped space within the heart of the idolatross's system star connecting to its surface by a stabilized War corridor so had their last and largest heretic Fleet awaited the onset of The Unforgiven ready to strike when their foes were confronted and thrown off balance by the horror of caliban remade as the Dark Angels reeled then rallied commence their Planet strike avadon and vastral's Armada burst from within the star to launch an ambush of Their Own Avalon stood upon the bridge of the vengeful spirit with focus kymer at his side the ancient warship was even now clearing the inner Corona of the idolatrous system star the battering Fury of the celestial body held at Bay by vashtaw's empiric artifice Abaddon was impressed despite himself his alliance with the demon demigod had been strained but in this moment he was glad he had not turned upon the archifane as his instincts had urged him to upon the bridges gargoyle more vid screens the resurrected cadaver of caliban loomed large no not caliban Abaddon corrected himself had christened his grotesque Planet wormwood the name conveyed no special meaning for avadon but he felt something pretentious in truth he didn't care what the archifane called this hybrid world he had built to Abaddon it mattered only as the key it was merely a means to a far greater end yet this key was not complete not yet so many seemingly random artifacts installed in biomechanical Tech shrines across wormwood's surface the symbolic power feeding the Demon World and at its heart two out of three inexpressibly ancient devices install the third and between them they would create what vast or termed is dissonance engine the plague heart I've done murmur as his ships laid into formation with a wedge of black Legion battleships the order bars we lack only the true engine yet without it all will have been for naught Lord said kyber Abaddon did not reply he watched the scores of Traitor warships found out around the vengeful Spirit as the orac Myriad surged from within the star accompanied by its Barrel Fleet as wormwood's Supernatural defenses flared in response to the onslaught of Unforgiven warships and drop forces there's a spoiler watched it all play out and as he did he thought back to the day he and vashtor had first held Council on the vengeful Spirit strategium chamber before battle was joined he raked over that exchange one more time probe for fault sought any hint of trickery in the occupane's words rushed or proud into the strategium deroded pillar stolen from the iron Angel's reclusium was born before him by the mass of biomechanical limbs that had once been at suspenser field generator Abaddon followed he signaled to falcus Cairo to secure the chamber's doors and guard them from well out kyber radiated distrust of the demon yet knew better than to question his orders everyone was gratified as the heavy strategium doors boomed shut behind him sealing him in with vashtor he would show no weakness or worry to this entity they test him if it dared within the heart of his Flagship and at the height of his powers it would regret the decision everyone was confident of that but vashdor did not launch some ill-judged attack instead the demon made the pillar Bearer clamber up onto the marble desk that served the strategium as a table then he turned to face avadon his voice rumbled from the room's Fox emitters even as it whispered up from the static in avadon's own gorgeous Fox you seek the mechanism by which true Victory assured be is not this true and sneered you already know what I want archifane the Galaxy will burn but I shall not burn with it I am no nihilist I want the corpse Emperor toppled from his shattered Throne I want to grind his realm beneath my heel I want Conquest and then rule none of that would happen if the Galaxy slips into madness or is torn apart by beasts and Aliens before my killing bloke and fall and so the weapon said faster his Lantern eyes burning but before the weapon the key everyone clear that fashion waiting for the demon to elaborate vast or haremed with a sound like gears grinding flesh seemingly disgruntled by the warmasters silence then spoke again long before the forebears of your race squirmed amidst primordial ooze a war there was between entities you would think God I know of the great game and the gods would play it started on I'm not that porn I want nothing of any weapon they control waved the objection aside different gods these were Pantheon's bound to the realm of what are things that had what their own divinity on one side they who are named the old ones on the other the parasite gods of void and star Ferrari they raised across the void dead Powers they Unleashed such even that they with their mantles of omnipotence comprehended not fire the yoked never believing it would burn them determined not to gratify the demon by showing how intrigued he was avadon merely cooked an eyebrow within his chest though his heart speed quicker such power was precisely what he sought long and long raised their conflict heavy was its price one after one they toppled Vanessa mines called in their wake Craven desperate they saw not the power of their fresh Master's devices but only the terror of what such Technologies had wrought that which they could not break apart or unmake the fearful sealed away in Realms neither empiric nor copper real The Vault they locked key they sundered and you know with this what lies how to unlock it asked Abaddon Hayden lies The Vault from even my sight restaurant but fashion we the key and it shall find for us it's lock for he is not the singular longing of all tools to be used as their purpose dictates come to the point demon said everyone gesturing at the pillar Atop The Dance what do you want of me and what does that number Stone to do with any of this three were the worlds to which these ancient servants bow into crucial mechanisms of the key hoping there forever to imprison them answered vashtra one world has long since rotted and plague heart was Unleashed another became empty and desolate and all its jailers long dead and turned to dust escaped for a desired needed to be used and the third world to whose Essence the aura Boris was bound the third was shattered by a betrayal most gratifying for that word's name great to spoiler as cariban Taliban the Homeworld of the Dark Angels explain and so vastor told all that he knew a secrets of bitterness and betrayal of the Hidden tragedy of the Dark Angels and the origins of the Fallen some of it avadon had known or else had guessed other elements fascinated and delighted him yet as vashtor finished his account that the spoiler wandered aloud a pleasing diversion demon but what has demise of caliban to do with our purpose you give me fragments show me the whole will be gone Presto gave a Vox blurt that could have indicated irritation or approval look upon the pillar with eyes that knowledge opens the figure to top it all robed and winged a Time worn blade in hand the Sea of souls ripped caliban apart it scattered not just the Fallen but also many fragments of the world once they've hailed broken statutory weapons devices fragments of masonry or armor or pottery even broken chunks of the world sundered bedrock bound into each a portion of the culture the essence the very soul of a world and its people through them the order Paras bring enough of them back together and you conjure this Aura Boris you have it on better yet applied the demon and something in the timber of his projected voice conveyed cruel amusement to bring it as a whole the key requires a housing something saturated with the stuff of the warp something broken that I may rebuild in the image of my choosing caliban said to the spoiler feeling a cold smile twist his lips what greater sight to their Fool's honor can they be caliban shall rise again as wormwood and at its heart the dissonance engine together shall they form the key whose power is to bore through the space between the Imperium and the corporeal you speak of the web way I'll stop it on in Surprise one of the great tunneling engines it once was nothing of gouging and ruining shall I make of it like a worm that is a God shall it chew through the spaces between until at last it finds a lock into which it fits I would all laughed then unable to help himself at the thought of the devastation such a weapon would reek upon his foes even before it unlocked the true weapon perhaps we can make a bargain after all right trash eyes glowed bright with approval an Unholy eagerness and a dark bargaining began in earnest no Avalon thought as a vengeful Spirit accelerated to attack speed the arcophane was like no demon he had ever dealt with a being of the warp yet one also of orderly almost obsessive frankness and pragmatism there was no trickery in this bargain they had only to Prevail in this last crucial battle and it would be honored all stations prepare to engage the loyalist filth his voice Vox Amplified across the bridge leave the archifane and his orac miliad to claim the final prize our task this day is Slaughter wormwood says let us offer it a libation fit to fill oceans even as his Decker crew cheered and stalled dark oath everyone could not restrain a mirthless chuckle the blood of The Unforgiven would resurrect more than just a dark animus of wormwood send the command to the planet's surface he ordered kind let the summoning ritual commence the corpse worshipers have no idea what comes for them this day the Damned world wormwood surface comprised vast expanses of dragon Bedrock bound together over churning starter of infernal Machinery that vanished down towards the world's core city-sized Pistons sound back and forth cyclopean cogs ground rivers to flesh what was one moment a rocky Plateau with a commanding view might plummet the next into a valley-rised in boiling Steam and Sparks it was a nightmare Battleground filled with terrible hazard wormwood pulse with energies that fouled voxen or specs or cause them to overload in showers of Sparks its atmosphere was thick with smog storms through which demonic auroras rippled like oils shimmering on water still The Unforgiven were able to pinpoint the areas of greatest energy output and whatever passed for settlement on the demon world's surface in part thanks to the information provided by The Rock's ancient calibanite Cotter geographs even though they were by a fury bordering on Supernatural compulsion the Dark Angels and their allies were still amongst the most disciplined and strategically gifted Warriors in the Imperium as their warships blasted a path through the biochemical defense platforms and mutated void craft choking the plant's orbit the Council of Masters used their scant intelligence to formulate a plan of attack individual strike forces were assigned to designated hot zones on the demon world's largest continental megastructure supported by those air assets not already committed to defensive dogfights these forces would upon Landing look to inflict maximum damage to key enemy assets across that continent strategic Doctrine prioritize the destruction of any site or mechanism that looked to be linked to planetary defense or power transmission The Hope was that with each such Victory The Unforgiven would widen a clear orbital Zone above the primary continent while this effort was underway their Fleet would fight to hold back the incoming traitor warships and keep the orbital exclusion zone free from on high the moment their Zone was cleared the rock itself would settle into a geosynchronous orbit above the target continent and ready exterminators class ordinance born within its weapon vaults since the days of the Horus heresy The Unforgiven ground forces would fight their way back to their drop craft and evacuate even as The Rock struck the killing blow so with the last uncorrupted Shard of caliban that was cleanse the taint of its chaos corrupted Revenant Echo War infernal hundreds of armored dropships streaked down to wormwood's roiling Atmosphere as they punched through the miasmal pollutant layers so the Unholy landscape spread out below them in all its good taskery spoiling forests whose trees were either dead black skeletons or Jagged sculptures of iron reused in wire and leaking noxious fumes insane City engines whose brass and steel structures were equal parts industrial hillscape and pollutant choked Fortress rivers of glowing molten metal or targed black bubbling slime Tangled Transit networks of Road and rail that interconnected in impossible ways and constantly reorganized trapping countless damned mortal souls in never-ending convoys of misery rising from cracked ferrous planes and towering over Canyons filled with gantries furnaces and conveyor belts were bastions of Twisted Gothic architecture that had the look of Imperial cathedra and weapons batteries yet these were more diabolical than anything ever fashioned by loyalist hands into this dread realm plunged The Unforgiven a storm of fire Rose to meet them gargoyle encrusted Wetlands batteries swiveled and spat rockets and energy beams at the descending loyalist teeming hordes of demon engines cultists and traitor Space Marines spilled from within monstrous Factory bastions to meet at the Invaders royalist gunships transformed into tumbling Fireballs or spiraled downwards with wings shot away and engines built in flames squadrons of Unforgiven interceptors peeled off to engage flocks of hildegs and other flying demon engines that surged from the eaves of Unholy structures the air came alive with streams of trace of fire as aircraft rolled and spun between maces of pipes gantries and smoke stacks trying furiously to shoot one another down amidst blistering firestorms The Unforgiven forces carved out footholds in enemy territory at a site designated the dark Cathedral iron Cloisters and crenellated gantries rang with impact as drop pods and squads of inceptors slammed down in their enemies midst guns blazing war cries ringing out over the howl of the foal and the Thunder of infernal Machinery Warriors of the angels of absolution and Blades of Vengeance cleared the way for heavier dropships to land a sizable Strike Force assembling under the banner of Master modern they cut a path towards a dark cathedral's heart at other sites designated by the Loyalists with names such as the shadow manufactory the Unholy batteries vodkaist mountain and the burning Tower the scene was echoed squadrons of land Speeders raced low over the bizarre science games the crews executed daring strafing runs or wove between the pounding pistons and presses of Titanic assembly lines armored spearheads and bike mounted Warriors clad in the black of the Raven Wing sped along sinui roadways and Blaster gaps in fortifications lowered in by nesso chains and police to block their advance the smog choked shrines of the archway City rang with gunfire as a mass teleport attack by consecrators Terminators tore the heart from the enemy's defenses as was their honor and right Azrael and the cream of the Dark Angels struck at what appeared to be the greatest site of infernal power on the Continental megastructure designated the warp Forge Palace it was a city-sized mass of Twisted industrial workings and towering fortifications over which roads are crown-like arrangement of biochemical spines that arced high into the troposphere the site radiated a singular warp signature which the Dark Angels Tech Marines had described as reminiscent of a terraportalium yet of a magnitude to dwarf even such ancient and Powerful arche attack Azrael and his comrades guested here perhaps was the bound portal from which the many key fragments had emerged after their acquisition by abaddon's champions if that were so then what better place to find the archifane himself than at the heart of his Ironclad web and if restaurant were not here in person they reasoned then surely there could be no better or more valuable sight to strike at upon all this damn Demon World accompanied by many of his chapter's greatest heroes and leading a combined force of more than two-thirds of the dark Angel's total strength Azrael led the attack upon the warp Forge Paris his hosts of angels made Planet form amidst the belt of ruling demonic forges and gorfield Vats that appeared from orbit more structurally stable than most of the paris's environs even as Azrael Bilal Ezekiel and azmodai led their battle brothers down the ramps of their drop craft so diversionary strike forces of angels of redemption cowled wardens and blade Keepers Space Marines struck at other locations throughout the warp Forge Paris defending host erupted from every hatch and Archway to meet them advancing behind tides of rising texborne enchanting Servo cultists came weaponized servators demonic engines obliterated cuts and darks guitari as well as Renegade Space Marines hailing from multiple degenerate War bands bald fire echoed between tendon's strong gantries and spike-studied Towers Plasma Blast screamed a massive explosions Ward like Beast as Vox howlers vomited audio barrages of scrap code and cogs and pistons standard everyone it was a Bedlam War a conflict no less a warrior than a Space Marine could have fought in and long remained sane yet fight on The Unforgiven dead cutting through their enemies with a cold-eyed and murderous ferocity resolved in his purpose ezrael lit his forces north and east in a Relentless advance there are all specs Vox and even many warriors Auto Centers were crippled by scrap code and warp Geist yet even this did not cause the dark Angel's Onslaught to fault her each Warrior knew his role in The Wider strategy and through a mixture of Amplified shout and sign language battle can't the Dark Angels maintained tactical efficiency beneath the Shadows of the fortresses Twisted spines which curled over the sight in a manner of the reminded Azrael of a dead arachnid's legs they blasted a path through every foe that came at them when a string of flame belching Towers Rose from below to block the Dark Angels of France tank fire and heavy weapons ruptured them and opened the way when the indentured demon Prince Parallax easy led a host of demons and Tech mutants in a flanking charge fresh drop ships swept in low and discouraged The Raven Wing to Counter-Strike many riders roared off the ramps of their craft and into the fight from a good 20 feet up when the palace reconfigured itself around the advancing Dark Angels into a lethal kill box of artillery positions and bunkers the Loyalists implacable resolve and supreme fire discipline saw them fight their way out of the Trap and leave thousands of slain foes in their wake Lord bloody cast many nightmares hours after first setting foot on the Demon World Azrael and his comrades at last reached the heart of the warp Forge Palace they are in a wide Plaza of caliber night ruins and Industrial Machinery beneath the distant tips of the arachnoid spines they were confronted with a horror quite different to anything they had expected to meet onslaught in the void The Unforgiven found themselves hard-pressed as avadon and vashtra led heretic armadas on the attack the despoiler engaged The Unforgiven contesting wormwood's orbital zones seeking to board enemy vessels wherever possible in search of sacrificial captives meanwhile vastor's Bale Fleet made straight for the battle group of warships protecting The Rock yet even as these void conflicts rage warped signatures warned a fresh fleets converging on the idolatrous system it seemed the odds were about to become even worse for The Unforgiven the altar the structures in this place appeared ancient their architecture uncomfortably familiar to Azrael yet infested with parasitic biomechanoid technology and Industrial good tesquery gangling Crane armatures and portals of iron cable and flesh hinted that this was indeed the site through which the key fragments had been ferried yet all such mechanisms were Now overshadowed by huge brass Shrine studied with skulls whose Central altar Rose atop the highest tower in the complex at a guns Azrael took in the coronate icon supporting blazing braziers that Rose over the site the rivers of Gore running along channels from dozens of secondary altars and the masses of corned cultists World eaters and even Knights of treater house bazca packing every stair and roadway or howled praise to the blood God Enchanted the words of some dark ritual many stood over heaped and headless corpses offered up in Praise here was a source of empiric power that Dark Angels had sought but it was not vasht or sanctum not even a valuable defense Target to be destroyed instead it was a vast summoning Circle even now vomiting shock waves of rage and hate as red robed priests performed their final sacrifices upon their Brazen altar before Azrael could draw breath to order an attack the chanting reached a crescendo the high altar detonated with tremendous Force the explosion of warp flame obliterated the red robe Priest The Altar itself and the top eight levels of the Tower from within that Titanic blast flames and darkness coiled into a Titanic monstrosity that surged forth angron the red Angel was made manifest and his followers roared with redoubled bloodlust as they turned upon the invading Dark Angels Azrael saw the demon Primark takes to the air and bear down upon his Strike Force for the first time since their attack had begun the Supreme grandmaster's resolution faltered replaced by dread darkness and blood [Music] even as War raged on the surface of wormwood so the battle in the void became ever more Savage abaddon's Millennia a strategic experience had helped him to swiftly gain a sense of The Unforgiven battle plan and how best to counter it key individual Spirit had led a swift strike against the loyalist warships attempting to clear their orbital exclusion Zone some of abaddon's Fleet dove in close to subject their foes to blistering broad signs and vicious boarding actions while other heretic squadrons remained outside of the orbital Battleground trapping the Loyalists between themselves and the world below and subjecting them to Relentless pinpoint lancefire left to oversee the orbital conflict Grand Master Nakia of the consecrators did all he could to meet the despoilers tactics but The Unforgiven vessels were caught between wormwood's defenses and The Guns of the heretic Fleet even as the cream of the black Legion blasted their way aboard one vessel after another to fight blood drenched boarding actions the sanctimonium The Binding oath and the venerable battle barge champion of Valor were all destroyed in a matter of minutes Abaddon and focused kyber led a Teleport assault onto the Raven Wing Flagship implacable Justice and though the spoiler was disappointed not to find its Master still present they overran its Defenders spiked its warp drive then sent the scuttled vessel tumbling into a loyalist Fleet its empiric detonation annihilated several more loyalist warships when more than two score fresh warp translation signatures bloomed dangerously deep into the idolter system Grand Master nakir at first steeled himself for word of more Heretics incoming even when loyalist choral beacons were detected and the ships identified as belonging to the blood angels and the navis imperialness he commanded the data interrogated for signs of trickery The Unforgiven had kept their Crusade a secret so how could Imperial reinforcements have found them or known of their peril yet there was no trickery a no mistake Grand Master nakir frowned over his or spec screens as he watched the contact runes form up and begin their approach the Imperial warships really had arrived to join the fight the questions in the Care's mind were how and why from the bridge of the strike Cruiser absolution's Ayah Commander Dante watched screens of his own an appalled silence shrouded the warship's bridge as the blood angels and their Cruisers saw vashdor's Demon World for the first time falling back on rigorous training headed officers gathered or Spec's data that revealed the rapidly worsening position of The Unforgiven Fleet sharp intakes of breath marked positive identification of the vengeful Spirit leading the battle in the demon world's orbit cerators quote reports of The Rock and its picket Fleet being engaged in the interplanetary void by an arc of omen and its Barrel Fleet kamada Dante absorbed each new fragment of information even as he found himself unable to tear his eyes from the grotesque machine Planet silhouetted against the glare of the system star he did not know what had driven the Dark Angels and their successors to launch such an all-out attack upon this world but could wear understand a desire to erase it from existence here he knew was a destination of all the stolen key fragments knowing this he quickly assumed that Azrael and his Warriors sought to prevent some dark machination from reaching its conclusion kamada Dante ordered the attack he had not born the lion himself through his raging warp only to sit back and watch the primark's jeans on to be destroyed indeed he would have valued Eldon's strategic guidance yet to his surprise no one aboard had seen the lion or his Knights since the absolutions Ayah had translated in system realizing the mysterious Primark must have departed by his shadowy path to be about the emperor's work Dante proceeded with his own plan the Dark Angels Commander had gathered a flotilla of Imperial Navy vessels To His Banner on route to insomnian stars as well as a formation of astrom militarum troop ships thrown off course and separated from their Crusade Fleet these auxiliaries he now sent to reinforce the defense Fleet around the rock judging that to send unaugmented Mortals to fight on the Demon World would simply consign them to Madness and death his own blood angels Fleet he led straight towards a desperate orbital battle Angels Vox officers swiftly made contact with the unforgiving counterparts the responses they received were kg and stiff feeling as though his news deserved a more auspicious moment Dante nonetheless patched himself through to the inner Fleet rocks and told The Unforgiven that he had the singular honor of reporting that their Primark had returned seemingly from Beyond the Veil of death moreover the Primark and his Knights had ridden aboard the absolutions Ayah to join this very battle any bitterness Dante felt at making this announcement he kept to himself for it was not the fault of the Dark Angels that sanguineous would never return to his sons as a lion now did or the blood angels Gene sire would ever be to his sons was an echo of nobility of Madness in their veins Dante's announcement of course shocked silence to fall Across The Unforgiven Vox net for almost a full minute then came a storm of questions and ooze so which Grand Master nakia's voice cut Like a Knife if Commander Dante's claims were true he said then he and his fellows would owe the blood angels a death they could never repay doubtless the sons of the lion would have many questions not least how l Johnson came to be aboard a blood Angel ship instead of having been reunited directly with his own Gene Sons however for now Swift Marshall action was needed and all other matters could wait Grandmaster Nakia ordered an immediate strategic ex-load shunted from The Unforgiven capital ship to the blood Angel's Fleet he asked their immediate aid in stabilizing the situation both in the void and on the planet below finally he requested the commander Dante allow him to speak directly to his returned Jean sire Dante responded that the blood angels would Aid the Lion's sons in every way they could but that l Johnson himself had already departed his vessel by means unknown when and where he would make himself known to his Gene sons was unclear but it would surely be soon the red angel on wormwood surface The Unforgiven fault on with the Vox channels drowned in scrap code they had no way to know all that transpired in orbit and so they simply kept fighting hoping their victories and sacrifices would be enough so it was at the warp Forge Palace angron's ferocious charge had driven as real and his forces back in a Welter of Blood Fire and bodies A desperate rear guard action by the Deathwing and the best of the chapters Librarians had held back the onslaught long enough for Azrael to pull his main Force back into a string of Gothic structures there he hoped they might weather the heretic storm the cast had been terrible great numbers of the deathwinger Librarians had been slain while master Belial had been born away in Retreat mangled by angron's ax spine grinder and barely breathing successive attacks by the world eaters and a monstrous Primark have been repelled by the Dark Angels masked Firepower a fierce counter assault though the cost and lies was Grievous each time Azrael had been forced to pull his Warriors back retreating deeper into the industrial ruins are bringing down Avalanches of masonry Iron Work sparking cables and molten metal to cover their retreat angron was an Unstoppable Terror and it seemed only a matter of time before the encircled and besieged Dark Angels would have nothing left to retreat to now Azrael watched from a shattered window Arch as angron stomped back and forth working his world eaters up into a Killing Frenzy for their next charge the Supreme Grandmaster cursed bitterly he loathed himself for succumbing to the madness and anger that revealed him upon seeing caliban's memory so defiled he hated just as vehemently the demon who had so cynically lured the Dark Angels into battle with the lord of the world eaters asrael's brooding was disturbed by cries or surprise from his battle brothers occupying nearby defensive positions amidst the ruins he followed their pointing fingers his gaze Rising Skyward to behold the golden host descending on Wings of Fire the Supreme Grand Master was no adherent to the Imperial Creed yet in that moment he half believed some miraculous manifestation was upon them yet he registered the Flames of jump packs and the red-hulled gunships that streaked down amidst ascending Warriors somehow the blood angels had arrived to join the fight shock and horror ward in azrael's breast with a surge of exhilaration every Instinct screamed that what transpired here must be hidden from fellow adapter societies most of all yet Azrael had lost many warriors this day and the sudden arrival of reinforcements filled him with the fierce hope of Vengeance suddenly within his grasp as a blood angels plunged into the battle with guns blazing the world eaters raised a demonic howl of challenge Azrael barked orders to his surviving Warriors they would counter-attack now and catch the foe between them with their newly arrived allies together they might yet secure victory ezrael and his Warriors burst from the ruined structures like Knights launching a last charge from their crumbling keep with black CAD bikes and Speeders to the fore and tanks in green and Bone whites rumbling in support battle brothers from every Circle stormed forward as one ahead over Twisted rooftops and between Tangled pipes they could see the blood angels plunging into the rear ranks of the foe asrael's post-human sight allowed him to pick out Commander Dante soaring down in the Vanguard to secure the ruined Tower atop which angron had been summoned hundreds of blood angels fanned out around his position Landing by jock Pond jump pack gunship or tank transporter they went about demonstrating why their chapter's reputation for shock assault was rightly earned though he could not establish Rock's contact with his blood angels counterpart Azrael understood Dante's plan well enough with one loyalist Force to their rear or another just now charging out to meet them from the front The Corned horde wavered amidst the Ferocious Crossfire bans a world eater stormed on to answer the Dark Angels charge with chain axes howling blood mad cultists were cut down by bolt fire as they vacillated between following their masters into battle or turning back to vento fury on a new enemy to their rear coordinate formation slammed together and became entangled Gore drenched Berserkers cursing and snarling as they hacked at erstwhile allies to clear themselves apart chaos Knights trampled cultists underfoot as they looked like hunting hounds through the Press without fresh attack waves to sustain it the charge against the Dark Angels faltered even as the blood angels reaped a heavy toll blood for the blood God angron's battle guy was loud enough to crack armor glass and burst eardrums Wings beating with thunderous booms he took to the air and streaked towards the blood angels a thunder hawklander tried to bank aside from his path but it was hacked in half it turned the two bar Predators it had carried plummeted to the ground with meteoric Force blood Angel support troops who had taken up firing positions in the wound Tower focused fired upon the demon Primark so that he vanished amidst the blaze of explosions slazbolts and plasma blasts Wings tattered body bloodied and blazing angron swept through the barrage and slammed through the side of the tower into the blood Angel's midst he spitted several Blood Brothers upon the blade some nearly as before bisecting more with a swing of spine grinder a Savage World saw yet more blood angels smashed from their feet and thrown out through the sundered flank of the Tower angron wheeled and charged up the broad spiral stared inside the tower making for the blood angels Commander somewhere above reached and fire in a shimmering Supernatural mist of Gore he burst out onto the Blasted Tower top the destruction of the brass altar had left the structure Hollow and blackened open to the churning skies and Scattered with rubble and Corpses skulls for the skull throne the red Angels Battle Cry was met by another that came in answer for sangreneurs and the emperor born on Wings of Fire Commander Dante and his sanguinary guard fell upon angron from every side nor were they alone more red armored battle brothers jetted onto the tower to hit the demon Primark from all angles while up the steps behind him came a pair of blood angels redempted dreadnoughts with their guns blazing Dante had laid his trap swiftly and well and he even angron staggered upon the onslaught vengeful spirit seeing the blood angels Fleet inbound I've done ordered his warships to disengage from the beleaguered Unforgiven this was not a retreat but rather a tactical relocation to Superior positions a chance to reorder formations before diving into attack again avadon had no intention of letting his Fleet be encircled as he had trapped The Unforgiven just hours before the maneuver meant seeding orbital control to his foes and cleared the way for the blood angels to commence what avadon saw as their all too predictable planetary Invasion drop he was content for them to do so wormwood was an engine of death a device that would chew up every loyalist that attacked it and spit them out as mangled meat besides everyone reason every Space Marine attacking wormwood meant one fewer standing between vashtawa and the real prize and when the key awoke every Imperial lap dog on the surface of wormwood will be just on our sacrifice to be devoured vashtra's prize deep in the void Imperial Navy warships thundered in to reinforce the picket Fleet Around The Rock star felt irked at their arrival when components of reality meshed with his designs in unexpected ways there was always an irritating sense of dissonance watching from the bridge of the orac Myriad the Allies rushing to the aid of The Unforgiven registered on his Consciousness like a waving engine note or flickering Amber warning Rune whose Saucy could not Trace he considered that something greater might be at work a powerful Tremor moving behind the veil of reality in such an infinite Galaxy teeming with powerful entities such a thing was certainly possible but he reasoned the best way to counteract any unforeseen Factor was to conclude his own designs as swiftly and efficiently as possible adventure's unspoken command is bail free to Drew into a tight formation and burned hard towards a rock with every gun firing The Brute Force maneuver scattered the enemy picket chips and saw several surprised and overwhelmed yet it also placed the orac Myriad and its escort in an untenable position surrounded and firmly in range of a sizable Imperial Fleet as well as The Rock's own Titanic batteries vashtra heard his enemies confusion and stolen Vox snatches jarling with the blind face that suffused his own followers Transmissions wary or Rapture us many on both sides believed that his seemingly suicidal battle plan besides something far more cunning in a way Vash door thought with cruel Amusement they were right as his Arc neared The Rock vashtor marshaled his full cogitational intellect a supernatural logic engine more powerful than world's worth of cogitators he correlated cross-reference and triangulated every scrap of data that he and his followers had gathered during his invasion of the Dark Angels Fortress monastery he overlaid it onto his visual field manifesting an empiric schematic of the rock whose dimensions and complexity would have driven even the greatest Tech Priests of Mars swiftly mad data Revelation blooms through vastral's consciousness following its growing gothamer thread he sent tendrils of his animus questing across the void and through the tiny flickering distortions in The Rock's force field his mind quested inward racing along data conduits and cables copper nematodes borrowing through solid Stone and metal to exuding fresh wires where no connections existed the arcophene ignored the shuddering of the orac miria as it was pounded with fire the cries are dismayed from bale-free captions as their ships founded and died the blaring of alarms and tooling of warning Bells as a spiritual intrusion onto the rock was detected who drove deeper and deeper to where he knew by an infinitely complex process of conversational elimination and logical analysis his prize must lie a single wire emerged from the wall of a gloomy and stifling chamber near the heart of the Rock it spouted optic lenses like glowing red barns through them the store beheld a mass of ancient Machinery that squatted to the chamber's Heart Like an inmate in a cell weird energies dance through the device's core a desiccated human corpse Stood Beside it a puppet propped up by the machine on thick cables it watched a vegetables intrusion with the appearance of mild interest carrier waves bore vastra's offer to the ancient alien processing cause of the tuhulcha engine be no more the captive of frightened Primitives serve your function let me reunite you at last with the plague heart and the order for us the thing in the chamber spoke a single word through lips dry and tattered as parchment yes the occupane and the time lost fragment of Old One's Machinery exchanged more meaning then a blisteringly fast two-way traffic of questions and answers Enlightenment and instruction and understanding at its end swirling energies billowed through the chamber while also entangling with vashtra's corporeal self and reading him too an instant later even as they alarmed Silence of the orac Myriad howled out a death sturge of betrayal and despair both the tuhulcha engine and vashtra vanished into another realm entirely Supreme Grandmaster Azrael fought his way forward through a screaming press of Heretics the sky above was a churning storm of burning petrochemical clouds and blistering dogfight gunfire clashing blades and bellowed oats blended into a deafening cacophony Israel's armor was drenched in Gore as was the bone white plate of the Terminators and blaegard who fought at his side corpses constant squirched under their every advancing footfall guns thundering fists on blade swinging the Deathwing hurled back the cottage mobs and butchered them to the last man and woman Azrael LED his Warriors up a wide metal ramp riveted together with bone Pistons strung with pumping muscles formed a wall to one side while to the other the ramp dropped away towards a valley of iron and crumbling Stone where Loyalists and Heretics battled furiously amidst ever turning machines azrael's Instinct was to turn and Aid his battle brothers but with rocks and auspects useless he had to reach high ground to regain Clarity on The Wider strategic situation starting over a carpet of the broken dead Azrael crested the ramp and marched out onto a wide open platform he ignored the blood wet clots of Machinery that jutted from the platform's surface and the yellow eyes set into their dripping flanks that swivel to follow his advance moving to the platform's edge where a nest of rusted gantries and stairways LED back down to the street level below he stared out across the heaving turmoil of the battle on the right flank samael and his Raven Wing had cut deep into the foes lines and encircle the sways of tech mutants and coordinate Renegades near the foot of A Clockwork edifice the Swift Space Marines were even now culling their victims mercilessly the Left Flank by comparison had developed into a ferocious firefight as Dark Angels armor met stalking chaos Knight amidst crumbling Gothic towers and thundering engines of iron and Bone ahead Israel could see red armored figures battling one another furiously as the blood angels and the world eaters clashed in dozens of separate conflict the curled spines of the warp Forge Paris loomed overhead looking more arachnid and menacing than ever for all the dark Grandeur of this spectacle ezrael's attention was drawn to the ruined top of the high tower now less than a quarter of a mile ahead with the elite of the blood angels fought angron the fury of that fight had blown out Wars and sent Avalanches of masonry raining down into the streets around the tower angron and his enemies now battled in full view between The Surreal remnants of interior Wars columns and denuded stairways corpses CAD in red or gold armor was scattered everywhere Azrael wished for a moment that his vision was not so Keen for it showed an inescapable detail the catastrophic wounds that had reduced once proud Warriors to so much mangled metal and meat some bodies even dangled from lengths of Twisted rebar but jutted from the walls impaled with tremendous force and left to hang like trophies I redempted Dreadnought spool burned and broken against a shattered column Rich red blood coated every surface and drooled in clotted ropes down the tower's walls andron was himself torn and bloodied his armor buckled greasy smoke boiling from the Flames that licked at his wings yet where he had butchered almost all of his attackers their efforts to banish him had not even slowed the red angel on fought like a bloody Whirlwind Wheeling hacking stomping and roaring as he sought to slaughter the last of the Warriors who opposed him even as Israel watched in dismay the demon primark's ax ribs through Commander Dante's personal Banner Bearer and hurled the bifurcated sanguinary guard across the tower fresh blood soaked into the Fallen standard weight clay desperate to Aid the blood angels appalled at the price they had paid in their attempt to Aid his Warriors Israel raised Lyons wrath and opened fire upon angron the Deathwing needed no order to follow his lead a fuselah had a fire split the air between the platform and the tower top deadly accurate despite the range angron roared in Fury as he was peppered with rounds some of which rips through his corporeal form and gouts of molten Gore as a demon Primark World towards his new attackers a golden armored figure rocketed from up top a broken stairway and swung his growing ax at angron fast as Fury the demon Prime oxbone ignoring the dark Angel's Firestorm as he parried Commander Dante's attack a shock wave exploded out a spine grinder met the ex mortalis angron staggered back from The Exchange Dante by comparison was smashed from the air and into the stone steps hard enough to crack them lay still and did not rise that's why I cried out in dismay as I'm gone through back his head and roared his Triumph the blood Angels chapter Master lay defenseless before him open to the killing blow yet as Azrael watched powerless Shadows suddenly coiled around the red Angel and his victim tendrils of mist obscured the figures and from amidst the vapors spread incongruous green shoots of what looked to Azrael like a plant's life shifting shapes unfurled resembling nothing so much as a sketch of a dream of half-remembered trees the dense Powers more Shadow than substance in the next instant Israel's bewilderment gave way to War at all figure in a flowing cloak stepped from the Mist to place himself between angron and Dante Space Marines and black armor manifested around him and spread out down the stairs but Azrael barely noticed them he could only stare at the warrior with a glowing blade and glinting Shield it did not matter but Azrael had only seen him before in tapestries frescoes and stained glass is very blood new this Warrior's identity this Gene seed sang with the truth catering as close to being overwhelmed as it was possible for a Space Marine to come Azrael went to one knee he was looking at the Zion returned to his Gene's Sons at the hour of their greatest need some part of Israel squirmed with Dread for the Primark had also returned in time to witness The Sins Of The Unforgiven RIT large his mind dwells with self-recriminatory images dark defiled my Invasion Luther's escape the horrors Unleashed by the Tahoka engine yet even these memories could not undermine the surge of raw vitality and exaltation a galvanized Azrael at the sight of the lion alive and returned the battle brothers of the Deathwing bellowed amazed Oaths as words spread from one band of Dark Angels to the next the survivors of the strike force surged into their foes with a double zeal Atop The Tower even angron had paused to glare at his former brother if the spell was broken as a red Angel howled and launched himself at a lion their Mighty Blaze clashed again and again Sparks reigning from each impact the sword samyarius struck the Lion's shield and rebounded in a concussive pulse of light and force several of the black armored Space Marines who accompanied the lion lunged to take advantage of the opening in the demon primark's guard and only now did Azrael register with disquiet the resemblance to Warriors of the Fallen andron swept spying grinder in a roaring Arc unblooded corpses scattered away from him Israel saw the lion bark an order and suddenly the black armored Warriors melted away down the tower steps towards the battle below The Lion now backed away from his foe an angron stormed after him as Rael realized that this was no retreat but rather an attempt to draw angron away from the Fallen Dante back and forth across the tower topped the two demigods battle angron reigning a constant storm of blows upon his foe while the lion demonstrated Sublime martial skill and fending off were evading every strike flames on roiling missed World about the two combatants tattering apart each time another shock wave burst from the Lion's Shield Azrael was torn away from the spectacle as a hail of bald shells whipped Up From Below to Ricochet from the death Wing terminator's formidable armor Vox Amplified Hal's Rose warning of a fresh band of world eaters storming up the gantries from street level to assault azrael's position he realized he had been entranced by his Gene sire's arrival but the Daya was a battle to be fought in the Here and Now but even as he rose and let fly into the foes Climbing Up From Below Israel could not deny himself last guards at the tower top he was in time to see the lion backing towards the edge of the tower trading blows with angron but still fighting defensively as though to Gold his berserk opponent between one blade swing and the next Earl Johnson looks directly at Azrael and their eyes locked the sensation of his primark's regard hit Azrael like a physical blow fire seemed to race to his veins no words could they exchange yet in that moment the Supreme Grandmaster knew precisely what is gene sire wished of him oh Johnson was risking himself to draw the rampaging demon Primark away not only from his own sounds but from the blood angels also that left Commander Dante and any others of his honor guard who might still cling to life blind wounded amidst the ruins there was a blood debt here a matter of honor and Duty that the Dark Angels could not ignore Israel had his quest from his liege Lord and he would see it completed whatever came after he would deal with it if he lived that long the lion leapt from the tower top and vanished from side roaring his hate angron lunged in Pursuit brandishing the sword of secret as well stepped forth to meet his own unrushing foes for the lion he bellowed his war cry was taken up by the Deathwing and then by the Dark Angels fighting in the warp Forge Paris soon the air rang with their shout even over the Thunder of battle and the endless churning of the planet's infernal machines for The Lion and the emperor gods and demons near wormwood's core in an empiric sanctum beyond the reach of Mortals The arcophane employed all his dark genius to combine the oroborus the plague heart and the tuhuka engine and fused them irrevocably into his Demon World as he fashioned his dissonance engine so it began to thrum like a dark heart and worm would quickened around it when The Unforgiven launched their assault upon the archifane's Demon World the battlefield it presented had been a nightmare of Relentless industrial motion such unnatural perils wears nothing to the churning violence that now racked the planet from its core outwards however gargantuan cogs clattered into new alignments and accelerated with sparking ferocity until the vast changed they hauled upon became a blur damn Souls wailed in hideous cacophony as they were vomited from city-sized Hoppers into colossal furnaces that burned them up by the billion plumes of sulfurous pollutants and eruptions of greasy flame burst from canyon-like vents ringing with gnashing fangs jetting up into space like Titanic solar flares arcs of green and purple lightning crackled through the heavens forming Unholy runes and hideous visages as they left between metallic mountaintops antara battlefields rumbled Skyward as I was rotated apart or plunged into fume wreathed pit killing or trapping countless Warriors as the player's unnatural continents reconfigured themselves with frenetic violence from space the Demon World resembled an immense mechanical puzzle shifting through infinite complexities as its Mysteries were unlocked by the hands of some invisible guard weird energynistic auroras danced through the plant in furnacephere chased by leaping firestorms and cyclonic masses of pollutant fears loyalist or Spectators previously drowned in muttering static now awoke and that one began to scream their arm at the unnatural energy signatures radiating from the heart of the planet shipboard services twitched and burned as they tried to analyze those readings or specs Adept reeled back from their consoles in horror wailing of impossible signatures spiring off the chart even as Unholy runes Rose like Wheels across their flesh and their minds collapsed into madness a collective shadow of horror ripples through the loyalist forces battling on and around wormwood meanwhile aboard the bridge of the vengeful spirit Abaddon the despair permitted himself a cold and Victorious smile he did not need to communicate with vashtawa to understand the import of what he was seeing the arcophane had constructed his dissonance engine wormwood the long-desired key was complete and was Awakening to its full power whatever the Loyalists did now it was too late or had one the Jew you are nothing but a skull to be cast before the blood God's Throne your meat to be bled for his glory now fight me and die so I can get on with butchering your miserable Sons angron demon Primark of the world eaters to Lion l Johnson the warp Forge pass heaved with obscene life sinui Gore wet flesh surged from greats and vows strung through with sparkling wires glowing eye lenses and gnashing metal fangs roadways crack down their middles then yawned open like mile long trapdoors spilling battling Warriors and vehicles down into furnace pits where cogs gnashed and piston-driven Crushers pulverized metal flesh and souls High overhead the arachnoid spines creaked into motion their tips curl down and inward like the mandibles of a vast insectile Moor gunships and flying demon engines were smashed from the air by the descending masses of metal and Metal Shadows pooled about doomed combatants who looked up in despair before they were crushed through it all battle angron and the lion l Johnson was disgusted by his former brother's hideous form contemptuous of the monster angron had made of himself yet he did not underestimate the supernatural might the dark apotheosis had granted the demon Primark the lion fought with every iota of skill he possessed traveling all the lessons he had ever learned about combating wild and warp tainted beasts for his part angron felt little beyond the Furious pounding pounding pounding of the butcher's nails he dimly recognized the lion but Al Johnson was just another foe to be sane an eternity of unending rage and hate had blunted the red Angel's capacity to revile one enemy more than any other angron would take his one's brother's head for corn just as he had taken those of so many of the Lions Gene Sons already this day the two demigods fought their way across a mechanical Plateau where piston columns pounded maniacally and jets of white hot flame erupted from hidden apertures andron sword to Lop L Johnson's head from his shoulder but felty was there to block the blow samyarias rebounded against the emperor's shield and as the shock wave drove and run back the lion seized the chance to duck around a pummeling row of pistons and gain some space angron dropped his head and bullied straight through the slams of machinery he bellowed as he ranged aside sparking mechanisms and hacked apart steel braided sinew only to recoil as the lion smashed the emperor's shield into his face Johnson retreated again a strategy cohering in his mind as he catted down a spiraling brass stairway he was gaining a sense of his foe andron was a devastatingly powerful and unrelenting enemy but the lion thought he knew how he might defeat his former brother his train of thought was disrupted as the stairway gave a violent Lurch looking up hill Johnson saw angron had taken to the air letting his weapons dangle from the chain manacles as he grasped the stairway superstructure then wrenched the entire edifice away from the side of the mechanical plateau with an oath the lion lived clear as the spiral stair buckled under its weight and collapsed he dropped cloaked Rippling behind him and landed atop the roof of a Gothic ruin despite the tumorous masses of biotechnology That Grew From it Earl Johnson felt a horrible sense of familiarity as he glanced around the crumbling rooftop and saw the hooded statues that dotted it he did not know precisely what the structure had been but he recognized the architectural style of caliban before Imperial compliance the lion had no time for bitter reflection angron fell upon him like a roaring Thunderbolt spat from Skies of dancing Flame the primark's weapons clashed and clashed again as a lion gave ground before his enemies brutal onslaught lost to rage engram might have been but hardwired Instinct coupled with the dark Gifts of his Patron guard lent him tremendous martial skill unleashing a Flurry of Blows upon the lion he forced open a gap in his opponent's guard before landing a kick to L Johnson's chest that cracked his armor and threw him through a statue with punishing Force sensing what was coming next Earl Johnson kept rolling even as angron's ax slammed into the rooftop where he'd be in the split second before reaching the roof's Edge the lion threw himself out Into Thin Air and dropped onto a tilted metal platform some 30 feet below he rolled with the impact and came up in a guard stance shooting a quick look at his surroundings as he did so the site that greeted him was a surreal one this region of the warp Forge Paris appeared to have contorted a top vast unseeing gimbals so that what had been a flat plane of riveted metal plates had now become a treacherous landscape of steeply angled ramps crackling energy pylons through Skyward from between the Crooked plates it looked as though loyalist and heretic War engines had been dueling here before the cataclysmic Awakening of the plant began Dark Angels on world Eater battle tanks lay helpless where they had been hurled onto their roofs all blazed where they had smashed together or had slid into contact with the lightning wreathed pylons more tanks and a handful of Staggering chaos Knights were still mobile some Crews looked to be falling back trying to maneuver their vehicles onto more stable ground others prizing hatred of Vengeance even over life Photon as best they could even as their War engines slid inexorably towards Oblivion angron swooped from atop to Gothic ruin and fell upon the line again this time Earl Johnson was prepared dropping to one knee we raised the emperor's shield and caught the full force of angron's meteoric descent upon it golden energy erupted in a tremendous shock wave and the red Angel was held to smash down amidst the precariously battling War engines if the lion had respected a moment's respite from this Gambit he was disappointed and Grand Rose was an incensed howl and hurled a world eater's Predator towards the lion with an underhand swing of his ax seeing the improbable projectile coming oh Johnson Dove aside however he was not quick enough to avoid the next tank a dark Angel's impulsor that angron sent slamming and bouncing end over end in his Direction the vehicle hit the line and smashed him back into the wall of the gothic ruin hard enough to Crater the stonework andron howled and charged beating his wings to give himself more impetus bloodied and in pain but knowing that he had moments to act the lion heave decided the crumbling wreck of the Imposter and left atop it he spared a moment's thought for his Gene Sons signed within the ruined vehicle an anger smoldered within him andron lived to strike and a lion Dover side leaping away from the wreck and hammering the emperor's shield into the back of angron's skull as he went propelled forward by the blow the red Angel smashed headlong into the ruin and was buried in an avalanche of rubble as the Wall came down upon him now Johnson backed swiftly away limping slightly dimly aware of Tanks still dueling around him even as he kept his attention on the rubble Heap he knew angron could not be so easily defeated but he hoped at least to have wounded his former brother if nothing else the enemy of being buried alive with a stoked angrand's Fury to New Height something the lion was counting on the rubble Heap erupted flaming chunks of masonry rocketed through the air several striking tanks with the force of wrecking balls angron came at the lion in a red blur eyes blazing hate weapons swinging wildly so Southern and ferocious was the Assad that even l Johnson could not react in time he managed to bring the emperor Shield up between himself and angron but the angle was poor and the Titanic discharge of energy threw him backwards as violently as his foe the ground fell away beneath the lion as he tumbled back then down into the fume wreath golfs beneath the Tilted platforms angron bellowed a war cry and plunged after him again shifting tides with the destruction of the orac million the remaining ships of its Bale Fleet found themselves disastrously out of mesh already more than half their number were blasted wrecks now the remainder were forced to choose between desperate flight or the fanatical desire to take as many foes with them as they could more than a few heretic vessels chose the latter course overloaded warp drives and headlong ramming Maneuvers claimed several loyalist warships even at the moment of their victory yet as The Rock plowed through the wreckage field with battle barges strike Cruisers and Imperial Navy warships in formation around it the blitzing loyalist Firestorm could pay to any heretic warships not already planned piling on Speed The Rock and its escorts power towards a demon world they aim to reinforce the beleaguered Unforgiven and blood Angel ships still fighting in its orbit survival by the time they reached the tower top Azrael and his Deathwing had linked up with a force of second company bodyjours under Captain afael also rushing to their chapter Master's side they found only Commander Dante and four of his angry guards still alive the commander himself was conscious but badly hurt able to limp along in his buckled armor with some Aid one of his angry guard was in a similar condition other meaning three had fallen into healing Comas Commander Dante brimmed with dark Fury the horrors wrought upon his Warriors controlling his wrath to an obvious effort of will Azrael sought words of gratitude and consolation but they sounded Hollow amidst the scene of Butchery some Jean seed could at least be recovered from the slain by the sanctuary priests and what relics and War gear could be salvaged were swiftly gathered up the blood-drenched banner of the sanctuary guard Dante himself reclaimed raising it Aloft and leaning upon it for support a swift Council of War took place Atop The Tower as the sky is crackled and boiled overhead the landscape right and the sound of battle and Anarchy Rose Up From Below there were those I failed Chief amongst them who wanted to Revenge themselves on the heretic hosts but Azrael and Dante counseled against it though it was clear the latter wished nothing more than to tear every Foe on the planet limb from limb the madness that have possessed Azrael and his fellow Dark Angels seemed to have abated with the appearance of their Primark the mere presence of the lion acted as a spiritual bomb freed from the grip of goaded Rage Israel saw clearly that his Ground Forces could achieve nothing more they had done all they could do to clear a path for the rock to unleash its ordinance upon the Demon World I now risked being consumed by the plant and Arctic quickening as a small Mercy that transformation seemed to have altered the atmospheric energy Specter so that while they were still choked with static and horribly unreliable both Vox and or specs had returned to some semblance of functionality the news they brought was Dire all across the continent unforgiving forces had been scattered by the churning mechanical landscape and many were now fighting simply to survive the same was true of the blood angels would reinforce them only to find themselves embroiled in a waking nightmare the only saving grace was that the heretic Force seemed just as shocked by the sudden change and had been hit every bit as hard fighting a coherent campaign was no longer viable for either side amidst the Unholy Anarchy consuming the world and trusting the final stages of the planned exterminatus to Grand Master nakir Azrael and Dante now focused on extracting their surviving Warriors this would not be easy however with the landscape churning madly and the air fouled with demon engines and jets of Unholy energies it was tremendously risky for the Space Marine gunships to land and pick them up however after a Swift and frustratingly broken exchange with Grandmaster Nakia who was still in the thick of the Void War Israel Andante agreed a plan orbital orugury revealed three comparatively stable zones still remaining on the continent each several miles across and located at the epicenters of networks of empirical a lines there were other such zones dotted roughly equidistant all across the planet's surface which suggested some significance or functionality to them but for now they presented the best extraction sites remaining orders flashed through the laboring Vox networks bloody strike forces swung into action those Warriors closest to the stable zones would do all they could to secure and defend them aided by squadrons of gunships and interceptors meanwhile more distant Dark Angel and blood Angel forces were ordered simply to reach the extraction zones by whatever means necessary from there gunships and drop craft lead them with survivors would attempt to perilous fight up through the boiling atmosphere and dare the fury of the Void War to dock with their parent vessels it was a desperate plan with an alarming number of variables that could go horribly wrong moreover while the Loyalists had no way of knowing why the Demon World churned with such a violent change the spiraling energy levels suggested some cataclysm drawing Closer by the moment it seemed clear that time was of the essence at such a moment unaugmented human soldiers might have fallen prey to Madness and despair Space Marines however were psychologically incapable of countenancing defeat instead Azrael Dante and their Warriors shouldered their burdens reloaded their weapons whilst muttering catechisms of hate then descended the tower and plunged back into the fight still raging below the coordinate forces in the warp Forge Palace were already on the verge of defeat their strengths had been eroded over successive attacks upon azrael's defensive positions and then sorely called when the blood angels launched their Counter-Strike now facing the resurgent Dark Angels and bereft of the brute guidance of their demonic Primark they had lost all Direction the angels of death drove the dregs of their foes into gnashing mechanical chasms and lakes of Malta metal or annihilated them with withering crossfires though the immediate battle was over quickly it still caused loyalist lies the butcher's Bill only continued to rise as the warp Forge Palace rise around their loyalists eruptions of infernal flame and the sudden Heaven of metal and stone claiming more Warriors and Dante ordered their surviving forces to form up and make for the nearest extraction point with all possible haste they would have to fight their way out of the warp Forge pass then through the cocktail nightmare of industrial insanity and Undead Forest Beyond but they were determined to make it to safety Supreme Grandmaster Azrael had sworn a silent oath to his returned Primark to ensure that the lord of the blood angels escaped this world alive as for the lion Israel did not know where he or his mysterious companions had gone but knew with the conviction of absolute faith that Errol Johnson had not returned only to vanish again so swiftly the Primark would be with them he would not perish along with the Demon World when The Rock smelted from on high the Angel and the Beast the lion battle angron sustigian industrial dams they dueled amidstarter of grinding machinery and Rising muscle dancing lightning and roaring Bale fires the closer one Drew to the core of wormwood the further one slid through the veil between real space and the warm so that soon empiric currents flowed between the two battling demigods where angron's weapons struck home they manifested fiery blasts of hate to Scorch the Lion's skin Willow Johnson flowed around his berserk foe's attacks his cunning became Rising tendrils of mist and smoldering Shadow grows that confounded the red angel diminutive Road figures peered from between the ghostly trees here and there but that angron's approach they vanished back into the Shadows the dueling foes entered the region of demonic furnaces and biomechanoid assembly lines where tormented Souls were being bound into runic blades and firearms hissing overseers watched the fight wear Lily the sinew whips coiled as though wishing to lash out and Taste the demigod's Blood onwards battled angron and the lion plowing through curtains of flayed skin and out onto a wide circular plane of Steel whose surface flowed into screaming faces and clawing hands l Johnson staved off another ferocious Onslaught by angron parrying aside a decapitating strike and deflecting spine grinder with the emperor's Shield then came a waterfall Roar of discharging Steam and a vertigious Lurch as the battlefield in truth the top of a Titanic piston hurtled up and up as poison huge daylight returned the lion ran and threw himself clear of the Piston's top before it could plunge into the dips again back on the demon world's surface Earl Johnson now found himself amidst a maze of pipes and heaving fleshy Mounds whose translucent skin revealed glowing wires and toothy Moors Within these could test Helix belch very colored warp smog in such vast quantities that the air would stick with it and visibility reduced to a matter of feet even for those with a primark's natural senses the lion could hear more of the Colossal Pistons hissing and banging up and down nearby from somewhere overhead came the monotonous wump of huge turbine blades though they did nothing to clear the omnipresent of miasma the clanger of battle was just barely audible it echoed weirdly through the smog from afar the lion smiled mercilessly for here was the perfect environment for the culmination of his strategy he faded into a Smogon incident ahead of angron who howled with Fury to find his opponent vanished the red Angel was by now apoplectic though incapable of feeling fatigue angron was not accustomed to the mounting frustration of fighting one opponent for so long while they maintained a Relentless defensive stance he'd claimed no skulls and shed only the merest drop of blood for what felt like an eternity the insistent pounding pounding pounding of the butcher's Nails suffused his being with white hot agony his capacity for reason had been drowned in molten Fury and pain to find his foe vanished then was near unbearable angron could send the Lion's potent biology and the lapping powders of his armor he could hear the primark's heartbeat his foot forms the servo wine of his battle plate he glimpsed the furnace like Beacon of air Johnson's Soul burning in his warp side yet the phantasmic smog occluded even angron's demonic senses the lion for his part had less trouble keeping track of a foe that roared and styled Oaths and imprecations with every heaving breath andron hacked at half imagined geisten bellowed with rage in response the lion surged suddenly from the flank and stuck with the emperor's Shield sending angron recoiling into the air with wings beating the demon Primark lunged but l Johnson was gone again into the fumes and gron thundered after his prey again the lion evaded struck and Faded back from his enemy's lightning fast counter-attack in his mind he fought monsters again and the Mysteries calvinite Forest a few times angron landed a blow the emperor Shield was always there to block it and send the demon Primark reeling back all the while agron's rage mounted until they danced to cause his body as a spectral Flame his muscles and eyes bulged as though he might literally burst from the anger swelling within him then came a piston rushing up from the depths and discharging steam as it slammed to a halt at its apogee for a moment a blast inside the veil of smog the lion was revealed an act of slipping around angron's Frank for yet another golden strike there was no thought only the Primal urge to kill as angron beat his wings and hurled himself the lion like a living Avalanche he swung his weapons in wired arcs as he came aiming to scissor them through L Johnson's net in a move no Shield could possibly block yet this time the lion made no effort to defend with blistering speed he instead dropped to one knee braced his Blade with his whole body and let anger on sound straight into its Rising point the demon primark's own impetus Dove the glowing blade up through his torso until it erupted from the nape of his neck in a fountain of Gore born on by the force of angon's charge the two demigons rolled and bounced through the fumes angron came to rest on his back One Wing pinged under him his corporeal form unable to re-knit his calamitous wound with fatality still transfixing it the red Angel thrashed and howled one clawed hand dug into his wounded synonym in search of the Blade's icore slick grip the lion loomed over angron armor bloodied undented he gripped the emperor's shield with both hands and gave angra no time to react with a roar Lionel Johnson brought the glowing edge of his shield down upon the demon primark's head driving it through the bridge of angron's nose with such force that it embedded itself in the metal surface beneath angron's corporeal form detonated like a tank round whose propellant was distilled hate blasting his animus apart with such a tremendous force of released rage that even the demon primark's indomitable will could not draw it back together l Johnson was thrown clear of the blast and came back up with his cloaks smoldering and his cracked armor scorched breathing hard his body wrecked with the pain of countless wounds sustained while battering angron he limped back to the blood-streaked crater in which failed he lay as he recovered his Blade the lion felt certain he would see his former brother again likely sooner than he might hope for now though angron was banished the lion side and shook his head he tuned his arm as rock speed to the dark Angel's command Channel and listened intensely hefting blade and shield the Primark set off South towards the nearest extraction site as he limped along he considered his deeds this day his choice of his Gene Sons Over The Wider Galaxy he had so much to tell them so much to do it was time to rejoin his Unforgiven sons and to begin the work of ensuring his sacrifices had not been in vain [Music] betrayed many Immortal worshipers of vashtor had descended to Wormwood to Garrison its fortifications as the planet convulsed around them those unfortunates realized their demigod had deemed them Expendable once his machine was completed though some embraced what they saw as the Divine gift of being consumed by the Demon World many others fought to escape the surface a vocal Calamity overcame them extraction elsewhere out upon the tormented continent Azrael Dante and the surviving warriors were Drawing Near to their own extraction Zone they had fought through one nightmarish landscape after another to reach that point scattered bands of Renegades and manifesting hosts of demons had taken their toll upon the retreating Space Marines as had the sudden and violent shifts of the landscape twice ignoring direct orders Valiant gunship Pilots had brought their craft down in an attempt to airlift the chapter Masters and their accompanying Heroes to safety on the first occasion an immense tentacle of braided cable and muscle rows up from a nearby Chasm to Swatch the gunships from the sky but the Casual cruelty of a child killing insects the second attempt was aborted when Airborne demon engines screamed in low to engage the descending Space Marine craft in a dogfight the battling machine spiraled back into the polluted skies and were soon lost a sight soldering on across mechanical land masses that heaved with reconfiguration and burned with strange energies the Space Marines plunged into a belt of metallic Woodland and bubbling petrochemical lengths they could now see the distant flares of Rangers that marked loyalist gunships lifting off from the designated extraction point and punching skywards asrael exchanged brief Fox messages with the Defenders up ahead establishing through howling static that they were under attack from scattered bands of Renegades and heretic Tech priests who appeared to want to hijack their drop graft to escape the churning world Azrael was mid-sentence when the ground beneath his feet gave a Titanic heave metal trees toppled with awful screeches and petrochemical filth spewed from ruptured Lakes as blocky metallic shapes rose up all around the Space Marines the structures resembled huge bunkers or Fleet elevators atop which squatted iron-clad artillery guns they were crude by cackling and cadaverous Horrors whose bodies meshed with their rusted weapons even as the Cannons belt spoke and clattered to Life fanged bass doors yawned in the flanks of the bunkers to disgorge miasmal Vapors from image them shamble hordes of plague demons the Dark Angels and blood angels had been fighting non-stop for many hours most were wounded and the weapons and War gear were heavily battle damaged ammunition was critically low nevertheless despite being ambushed out Frankton outnumbered they responded with speed and determination squads folded back into interlocking battle lines and guarded the flanks of their armored vehicles Ezekiel led the surviving Librarians to unleash their powers against the demons blasting many back into the warp with crackling skeins of empiric energy Israel took command as the strike Force's combined heavy fire assets directing tanks Devastators and hellbusters to return fire upon the infernal artillery meanwhile Dante and master Samuel led the assault elements of their combined forces to hold back the first ways of a floor lopping beast and thrumming plague drones rust fur demon engines clattered forward on piston-driven legs several making straight for the Deathwing Warriors still bearing along the Gravely injured master belisle before the infernal machines could reach their victims Commander Dante in a band of blood angels barred their path and Unleashed a furious storm of Fire Dante himself blasted a glowing tunnel through one of the engines with his Perdition pistol causing it to stagger backwards then collapse a stinking icore jetted from its ruptured form endings even as conflict raged in the idolatrous system the void battles in the sacralim and a posture systems were spiraling towards their own Savage conclusions after a ferocious duel that saw the mutual destruction of both the Emperor's Children Flagship Bounty of agonies and the coward wardens battle barge Knight of flames the remaining Renegades in the sacralim system were scattered and put to flight amidst the dust nebulae of the posture system however it was the worshipers of the dark Gods who gained the decisive upper hand after a formation of death guard warships absorbed the initial Fury of The Unforgiven surprise attack the black Legion of word bearish ships encircled their foes and systematically picked them apart thus why one loyalist Ambush Fleet plunged back into the warp on route to the adulterous system the other was already picked over and looted by rapacious traitor legionaries on the surface Swift voxy changes made it clear that with heretic forces still pressing on the extraction zone no reinforcements could be freed to Aid Azrael and Dante's Force Master Samuel instead launched a breakout attempt at the head of his surviving Raven wing seeking to punch through to the extraction Zone and open a gap through which the rest of the strike force could fight their way clear his charge was met by hugely bloated great unclean one a pallid Monster named UGA blacks whose rotten flesh oozed pollutants and was studded with smog belching Vents and pipes this Demon Lord had labored long in servitude to the sole forges and now saw a chance to pay off its debt to vashkar with an offering of slain Space Marine Lords as it lumbered forward so the petrochemical Slicks around UGA blacks spared and Rose into a re-king tide that engulfed the unrushing Dark Angels bikes and skimmers modern filth The Raven Wing fought for their lies as fresh waves of demons Rose dark and dripping from the Ooze to attack Ezreal cast about for some way to fight clear of this Insidious snare the lion had only just returned to his Gene Sons he had given Azrael a duty to fulfill it could not end like this amidst bubbling filth and fly thickened fumes a fitted demonic Herald hurled itself at Azrael and he met it blade to Blade styling curses into its festering face suddenly the entity's head exploded smashed to ruined by a black power fist Israel recognized the weapons wielder as one of those who had arrived with the lion he was a roguished looking warrior with an eye patch riveted into his flesh looking around the Supreme Grandmaster saw an entire War band of black armored Space Marines had joined the fight though he had no idea how they had moved up so suddenly and unnoticed the Warrior's Armor was battered their weapons thick with Gore Ally they had been fighting their own battle since arriving on this world Azrael wanted to know where and why indeed he had many questions for these Warriors who felt to him so much like Fallen but UGA blacks loomed over him at the head of a heaving mass of plague demons it was clear there was no time the warrior with the eyepatch grabbed azrael's shoulder guard and urged him to lead his forces to the extraction point the Risen he said would hold the demon back for they had debts to pay Israel almost threw off the Warrior's hand and struck him driven by instinctive disgust if the space Marine's next word stayed his hand duty is its own reward Supreme Grandmaster he reminded us he expects no less of you but a commanding cry from one of his followers the warrior turned away to rejoin the fight deep and visceral suspicion still seized in azrael's pressed but he had seen these Space Marines arrive with the lion and do his bidding and he did not doubt their loyalty to the Primark as a black armored Warriors hurled themselves at the great unclean one and its demons asrael sees the opening that they created he ordered Samuel to press the attack and break through the Demon's lines at any cost as UGA blacks reeled under the assault of the Warriors in Black its demon surged inward like a tide rushing to Aid their master meeting them head on and punching through their lines the Dark Angels and blood angels exploded out of the Ambush that had trapped them gaining momentum the surface of the planet shook furiously underfoot geysers of warplane roared up into the heavens Beyond the Horizon scattered packs of demons silverged through the thickets of wild and steel trees but they were not enough to Halt the angels of death when their salvation was so close to hand looking back Israel was in time to see the great unclean one Rising under Furious onslaught of the Warriors in Black many of their number had fallen beneath their talons and Spoon filth of their foes but still there remained a fought on then came a thunderous volley from the demon artillery positions firing wild into the midst of the fight both demons and black armored Warriors vanished beneath clouds of smoke and Fire Israel felt deeply conflicted as he and his forces burst from the forest's fringes and onto the metal plane of the extraction Zone scattered bands of Renegades turned at their approach and fought back with desperate ferocity Court as they were between the zones Defenders and the newly arriving Dark Angels and blood angels they did not last long passing heaped wreckage and blast riddle bodies Azrael LED his survivors to the dropships waiting Beyond his and Dante's force was the last to fall back to this position and as they mounted their craft so the Defenders collapsed their cordon and joined them the landscape heaved on all sides the skies were a flame with racing auroras and arcs of lightning it might already be too late to escape as well thought but the attempt had to be made he had a duty to the lion I meant to see it done you hope that whatever else happened his forces had done enough to allow the rock to strike the killing blow the key awakens the minutes that followed saw Azrael both relieved and bitterly disappointed under the direction of Grand Master nakir and with Aid of The Rock and its attending Fleet avadon's warships had been driven back from the planet's orbital engagement Zone though the flight was still littered with perils although almost a third of all extraction craft had been annihilated while fighting their way out of the planet's orbit this was enough to allow hundreds of Unforgiven and blood angels to escape the Demon World as azrael's gunship streaked up into the void he heard the voice of the lion himself rumbling across the fleet wide rocks to remain within proximity of the Demon World the Primark said was to risk Annihilation for no conventional mortal weapon could now destroy what the Heretics had awakened all the Loyalists would achieve by remaining was their own death l Johnson ordered All Ships to form up on the Rock and perform a fighting withdrawal great haste was to be made for time was all but up the horror here could not be prevented however the angels of death would live to fight another day and overcome the machinations of Traitor and Demon alike none amongst the loyalist ship Masters had the authority no will to gain saying her Primark thus even as a demon World convulsed beneath them the Dark Angels blood angels and navis imperialis vessels gathered up the last of the fleeing drop craft then burned hard for the Deep interplanetary void they were intent only on putting distance between themselves and vastua's unnatural world avadon felt a mixture of Triumph and bitterness as watched them go on the one hand his moment of Victory had arrived the loyalists were fleeing and he had exacted a colossal butcher's Bill upon them scores of broken wrecks tumbled through the void or had been reduced to slowly expanding debris clouds between the void battles and the surface War shocking numbers of loyalist Space Marines have been slain The Unforgiven chapters might never regain the strength that they had possessed before this day on the other hand still felt victory was incomplete especially in light of the news that lion l Johnson had stepped from ancient history to join the long War the despoiler could not help but Wonder in light of government's indomitus Crusade what impact a second loyalist Primark would have upon the wider strategic picture yet for all that victory was indisputably his and Vash stores he conceded to himself as the archifane's voice crackled from voxemitters throughout the vengeful spirit sounding uncharacteristically gleeful the demon recommended abadon withdraw his Fleet to a safe distance the key had awoken the dissonance engine was ready wormwood lived and the realm of real space would never be the same again now the hunt for the lock could begin in Earnest and then the weapon ordered his Fleet to pull back as the insane energy readings emanating from wormwood spiraled into Rangers No mortal device could measure he watched with Fascination as a plant's infernal Radiance grew brighter and brighter it was time to see what their key could do interrogator May strode into the chambers of Lord Inquisitor Cortese her heart thumped from her run through the fortress's corridors the brass massive tube was a cold weight in her grip Cochise looked up from a desk buried beneath data slats and Venom star Maps plastered the wall behind him busy with annotations pertaining to Bale Fleet and the Bloody conflicts they had triggered his cyber Eagle hunched atop a bookcase one head glaring Bale 3 had mace agent Algiers report idolatus system she panted The Inquisitor held out a hand and she thumped the tube into its Palm Coates broke the tube seal before sliding it into a projector device of brass bone and glass at the end of his desk a twitch of a control Wanda dimmed the room's Electro sconces cuties then muttered a writer of Awakening the machine cutter to life it threw a square of grainy light onto one of the chamber's walls while sound hissed from a Vox phone on the projector's flank the image was blurry but quickly settled to show a man's face with the suggestion of a dim-leaded chamber behind him mace recognize the blunt features and bionic eye of agent dalgir but she had never seen the redactable mortion look so frightened my Lord Inquisitor he began voice crackling with static image glitching slightly I remain embedded within the bridge crew of the Paladin mistress verenica read the tarot true this vessel was amongst a naval formation Consolidated into the blood Angel's Fleet on route to the idolatrous system Lord the events that have transpired here even with my training macewatched Algeria struggle visibly for words you will find a full account of the conflict that has taken place here data linked to this missive suffice to say Lord the Heretics prevailed we're even now in full Retreat and approaching the system's Mandeville point dalgear shot a nervy look over his shoulder then continued you were right Lord your reading of the signs the so-called Knight of nihilus the Primark l Johnson is returned again a full report is linked to this massive locked with your 57th Cipher the lion is aboard the Rock and even now preparing to depart the system second loyalist Primark risen from history mace felt faint she wished she could sit down while she processed this revolution she remain standing however knowing her Lord Inquisitor would not approve she wondered if she had mistaken dalgia's expression seeing fear when instead there was awe his next words banished at Hope I wish that were the only monstrous event I had to report Lord but there is more and it is terrible even the Lion's return could not halt our enemies plans cannot speak to the veracity of the rumors included in my full report The Whispers of an ancient world resurrected from the Dark Angels past what I can swear upon my faith in The Golden Throne however is this our foes have created a technological abomination in Planet form as to its precise nature of purpose dalgia faltered and shook his head what follows is vid capture of the moment the Demon World Unleashed its power you may make more sense of it than I Lord dalgia's image was replaced by footage from aboard the bridge of an imperial warship captured mace presumed using dalgear's optic augmenting ahabawa voices accompanied the footage the reports exchanges prayers and binary blurts of a bridge crew at work as mace watched dalgear's Viewpoint swung left and right taking in the pale faces Hasty movements and bandages wounds are a bridge crew who had clearly seen hard battle they hunched over their consoles while speaking of retreat vectors and projected safe minimum distances dalgia's Viewpoint suddenly jerked up to focus on the ship's main vid screen as it did the voices around him Rose in alarm mace could not suppress a gasp even inquis de Cortese mermaid and oath there magnified on the screens hung the okefenes Demon World in all its dark magnificence discs of phosphor bright light glared in a geomantic pattern across its surface blinked by lines of vivid green fire runic designators and cutaway screens showed were a fleet of heretic warships lurked in the void beyond the glowing planet they also highlighted where damaged loyalist vessels limped frantically away from the world trailing in the wake of the main Imperial Retreat like debris part of mace's subconscious conditioned to operate autonomously under stress absorb this peripheral information meanwhile all her conscious mind could do was recoil It Horror from the wrongness of the infernal Machine World on The View screens at the same time she found herself unable to look away energenistic reading spiraling called a voice from somewhere to dalgia's left holy Emperor these numbers they don't how can it on the food screens the Bale fires burning across the planet's surface plays brighter then brighter still alert multi-spectral analysis indicates massive non-emperic relativistic trauma to localized space Blair the Amplified voice of a tech priest out of shot detecting correlating choristic data points to xenoform sub realm Gateway activation but upon a macro Cosmic scale Beyond cogitational capacity it is an impossibility it is an affront to the omniscaya mace watched in appalled Fascination as a searing glow of the Demon World occluded even the light of the system star as it did strange phenomena warped to the image on the vid screens The Voyage around the glowing World buckled and flexed as though being viewed through a fisheye lens space itself Ripple as though it were black cloth snatched and bunched up by the hand of a careless guard reality distorted around the Demon World they're fractured interrogator mace's mind refused to make sense of the side from the cries of horror and denial they crackled from the voxophone she was not alone in this she could not work out with the light of the Demon World was ripping the fabric of the Void twisting and tearing it like an auger being driven through flesh or where reality was splitting as tendrils of Misty silver energy thrust through from some ghostly void Beyond plumes of glowing Vapor thousands of miles long erupted from the tares in the stuff of real space the warping clenching twisting and tearing of reality around the Demon World accelerated until the planet sat at the center of a deepening whirlpool mace felt her Gorge rise and her senses Rebel she was forced to look away and to throw out a hand to steady herself curtisser's disapprove will be damned a final blinding flash Drew her unwilling attention back to the projection she was in time to see the Demon World plunging into the whirling Abyss to gouged in the skin of Rarity a black orb falling into an infinite ocean of silver light a swarm of shadowy darts followed it in tight formation the heretic Fleet mace realized led by no lesser vessel than their vengeful Spirit itself in their wake was left a semi-visible fissure in reality not a warped Porter but instead something more ethereal and regular yet no less terrifying mesa's senses were insufficient for the task of truly perceiving disgrowing wound yet she sensed the violation and wrongness of it even witnessed third hand upon a vidriel dog years recording ended and his face returned the image jerky and stuttering as he completed his report mace did not take in his words even the psycho-conditioned filtration engrams in her mind had been overwhelmed by what she had witnessed she saw it again and again the Demon World plummeting forward outward down as it tore its way into a liminal space that nothing should have been able to violate mace massaged her temples as a mind ate with a strain of processing input Beyond her sensory capabilities interrogator mace bark The Inquisitor snapping her back to herself the recording had finished she realized the electro sconces burned brightly again her master was watching her intently his expression Stony and unreadable Lord Inquisitor what is thy will she breathed slowly and deeply there is work to be done interrogator he said questions we must answer are you fit to serve the god emperor in this I Am Lord she asserted we must understand what we just witnessed so Coates zunoform sub realm Gateway activation that is what the techmaker said if that is so where the eldari in this frown you're right Lord they have the power of foresight and a more vested interest in the labyrinthine dimension than any why did they not intervene she gestured at the projected device or most helplessly some of the psycho cast came to me in the guise of allies Cochise after himself doubtless they sought to spend human eyes in place of Their Own so I rejected their entreatings that cannot have been the limit of their efforts however Del Dahlia ancient their message duplicitous and strange we must understand their involvement in this why they have remained aloof or if they have not what prevented their intercession but more important still we must learn more of this world engine to the spoiler and the arcophane have fashioned what is it what is its function and where is it going and the Bale feeds Lord added mace many are still at large have they served their purpose or do they still follow some wider pattern we cannot see fixed her with a hard stare activate every acid we have he commanded make contact with the gray conclave and our agents within Fleet septum Mass make no mistake interrogate her our enemies have won a great and terrible Victory here one that we in our ignorance cannot yet fully comprehend we must understand what it is the Heretics have created what they seek to do with it and we must learn how to counteract it if we fail that I fear they will build upon their Triumph to the ruin of all the god Emperor's Realm [Music] foreign

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Keywords: ARKS OF OMEN - THE LION - FULL READ THROUGH, ARKS OF OMEN THE LION, Lion El Johnson lore, Arks of Omen Conclusion, Arks of Omen the lion, Arks of omen lion el johnson, Baldermort, Baldermort's guides to warhammer, Vashtorr the arkifane, Vashtorr, Abaddon the Despoiler, Abaddon, Farsight, Blood Angels Lore, Dark Angels lore, Black Legon lore, Chaos lore, Warhammer lore, 40K lore, warhammer 40000 lore, Warhammer audiobook, Audiobook, Warhammer stories, 40k

Id: m4xWS7SpkLg

Length: 193min 57sec (11637 seconds)

Published: Fri May 05 2023