The Gathering Storm 1: The Fall of Cadia

[Music] the Gathering Storm full of Cadia for 10,000 years the Bleak nether wastes of the eye of terror nor did the fabric of the galaxy spewing their Horrors into the Imperium of man and for every one of those ten thousand years kailia stood firm an adamantium bastion given strength and purpose by the flesh blood and bone of the faithful there are no records of how many valiant cells have fallen defending the fortress world of the kadian gate but by their sacrifice the tide of traitors heretics and demons is stemmed by their example a thousand worlds have known what little peace can be sought in this bleakest of epochs but as the darkness grows ever darker and the blaze of the astronomic an gutted like a windblown candle the eye of Terror pulsed its baleful energy spiraling outwards Abaddon the Despoiler heir to the cursed mantle of the arch traitor Horus at last unleashed the full might of his 13th Black Crusade with a shriek that echoed through nightmares from Medusa to ultra ma the despoilers fleet slipped its moorings eternally vigilant Cadia linchpin of the Imperium defenses was the target Qadir stood ready a bronze campaign had long been foreseen by mystics and strategists alike and the fortresses of the gates prepared for its coming Leviathan warships of Imperial battle fleets prowled the ice currents of deep space from the radiation torn wastes of prosign to the ice ridged planes of solar Moratti 'us slab-sided as our bastions were expanded they're already formidable Garrison's of shock troopers were reinforced by forces from across the Imperium the splendid colors of Knightly households flew alongside the proud sigils of the adept assessed at ease scuttling war engines of the Adept is mechanicus mustered alongside gleaming ranks of the adapter sorata's and everywhere the Warriors of Cadia itself drilled and trained for this moment in this moment alone awaited the battle that would define the galaxy for thousands of years to come millions perished in the opening assault and millions more in the inexorable slaughter that followed worlds burn warriors uncounted bled their last for scraps of worthless ravaged ground graveyards of twisted wreckage twitched in the solar winds marking the demise of fleets whose firepower could have unmade whole systems there was no time for mourning for despair kaydee as defenders battled on until all strength left them and then went again into the fight for there was no respite from the onslaught had this been a simple contest of arms the Imperium might have had confidence in cadiz defenses but a burdens weapons were not limited to mortal means the blessings of the dark gods were upon him and their talents his to command plague devoured fortresses before a shot could be fired madness claimed the devout and the profane alike and betrayal the false promises whispered by prophets of damnation this was the mightiest card in the despoilers hand as heresy spread brother for brother regiments were torn apart from within or purged with fire bastions their secure from invaders collapsed into in fighting as the righteous vied with the corrupt yet it was from one such betrayal that Hope blossomed anew when a cataclysmic act of treachery so the slaughter of the kadian High Command at tyre Rock fields or a Sukkah Creed commander of the famed KD n8 tuck up the role of Lord castellón and shouldered the burden of directing que Diaz embattled forces Creed's rise altered the course of the conflict his cold calculating demeanor commanded the respect of common born soldiers the war tempered Brotherhood's of the adapte societies and even it is said of the xenos forces rumored to have played some part in que diaz defense through Creed's efforts and through those of unsung heroes to numerous to tally the chaos incursions slowed and was finally repulsed in its wake it left a planetary system on the edge of collapse then warriors to weary for celebration que Diaz defenders had no way of contacting the system's outer worlds comms relays and choir beacons had been shattered those Astro paths who risked setting their minds adrift on the tides of the warp suffered seizures or else were consumed by the ravenous entities lurking beyond reality's veil as our two faces labored to restore the humble defenses and sporadic battles raged with those invaders still present on Cady and soil Creed contacted the remnant of the Imperial Navy still in orbit at his request there is few vessels capable of moving under their own power and departed to perform a reconnaissance of the outer system in that absence Creed grew ever more convinced that another assault was on its way in all the long months of fighting there had been no reports of Abaddon himself making or would the Despoiler mortal foe of everything the Imperium stood for yield his conquest without so much as lifting a blade in its cause Creed's instincts told him otherwise and he was too old a soldier not to trust them Crete knew there was nothing he could do to prevent a spoilers fleet for making passage through the kadian gate what vessels of the Imperial Navy yet remained in orbit were little more than listing the wrecks the one exception was the space wolves battle barge fire mains Fang coaxed from the brink of reactor overload but administration's of its iron priests it alone could fight as a warship should the others would roar like dragons should the foe come within range but they could not pursue an enemy chorong hard for deep space on the other hand Creed suspected their pursuit would not be called for acadia was a symbol of the Imperials resilience and abalones repeated failure pride would surely not let him bypass Cadia though they would perhaps perish in the process the armies of Qadir could fulfill one last vital function every day they enjoyed every hour was time in which reinforcements could arrive and cast Abaddon's forces back into the warp and this time for good thus Creed set his mind to issuing a challenge to the Despoiler that he could not ignore only one of cádiz chief fortresses had survived the invasion Kazik laughs lay on the edge of the Elysian Fields a great expanse on Cadia second as' dominated by their famously unfathomable kadian pylons Creed withdrew his command behind Kazik rafts walls and set about what preparations he could to ready the fortress for what he increasingly regarded as an inevitable battle under Kree it's basilisk gaze archaeologists tunnel networks and caverns were expanded and made ready for a last-ditch defense adepts of the Koch mechanicus labored night and day stripping components from shattered bastions to coax new life into repairable ages defenses and weapons emplacements all across Qadir second ders the tale was the same regiment upon regiment of Shock Troopers laboured to restore defenses ravaged by bombardment and invasion they did not strive alone savage the depth is a starties battle companies sometimes reduced to little more than a handful of squads took their place in the defenses their colors and heraldry bright against the drab KD and fatigues north of Kazakh laughs orphan - garrisoned his battle brothers in the ruins of Kaiser Jack however the Fenris born gray company was seldom to be found within the walls electing instead to scour the cratered plains for the demons who had roamed there only days before there still haunted by the cost of recent campaigns and the Spaceballs were determined to bring honor it's about their new Wolf Lord and their old the slain a girl iron wolf whose icons and name the company still bore until the stain of his death could be washed away further north still the Dark Angels fourth company reinforced the ruined superstructure of their own crash strike cruiser sword of defiance enough of whose armaments that survived the crash to render the down battleship a formidable fortress in its own right guttural prayers echoed across the broken bastion lines to the south of Kazakh Wrath each syllable in the thick sanctum chant of the black Templars even now Marshall Marius amel record little faith that the kadian Guardsmen would hold and had divided the Warriors of the cruxes crew seyed amongst them to thicken their ardor across the valley from Creed's fortress the sisters of our martyrs lady garrisoned the sprawling shrine of st. mark on whenever the wind blew from the east it carried gusts of incense across Kazik rafts walls Creed was glad to see the determination the pungent fumes instilled in his troops but felt little stirring in his own heart he had long since placed his faith in the roar of bombardments and the fighting spirit of the Acadian soldiery to his mind there was no sense wishing for miracles unless you are prepared to Forge them yourself and so he did in the days that followed creed thrilled his soldiers hard leaving them so weary that they had no energy for doubts or even for fear for the first time the massed regiments of Cadia understood the harsh tutelage that had made Creed's own command the KD n8 the formidable instrument of war it had become that's for the a themselves they took perverse pride in the hardships meted out on to their comrades the veterans among their ranks knew exactly why Creed acted as he did they even welcomed his tirades knowing they would temper others as they themselves had been tempered but Creed's preparations were not restrained to the reforging of flesh and blood he salvaged the remains of the choir beacon from ruined castle Luton and had it installed in cassock laughs the beacons bonded astra pass were long since dead and so creed requisitioned whatever psyche has remained to him on Cadia and ordered them inducted into the jury-rigged a beacon there if you were asked about most were sanctioned cycles of the scholasticus ikana but Creed gambled that their raw power would help the true astor paths punch through the psychic turbulence that had severed Cadia and bring him some badly needed rien Horseman's this strategy met with objections within Creed's own command a few viewed in a squandering of a finite resource and most feared that untrained Minds would draw warp borne Horrors directly onto Cadia itself Creed had already resolved to press ahead when a defense monitor the sole survivor of the reconnaissance fleet limped into outer orbit the pie racks all caddis starboard flank was a ruin of scored and seared metal 2/3 of its crew were dead and the rest would perish from rat poisoning before the day was out the sole remaining officer gave a garbled account of what he'd seen but the sensor readings allowed no ambiguity Abaddon's black fleet was inbound for Cadia an angry swarm of warships demon vessels and space hulks so massive it eclipsed the Stars worse at its core sat the malevolent planning killing bulk of a black stone fortress Creed's fears had come to pass Avedon's 13 Black Crusade had intended indeed it had barely begun buried secrets far from Cadia amidst the dust blown wastes of re-add 6 a 50-year labor teetered on the brink of disaster for thousands of years the Ariat system had been considered worthless bathed in the radioactive grip of an angry star its planet said little in the way of resources to make colonization worthwhile strategically it had been judged expendable in early m3 to the Imperial Navy established an orbital outpost at Perry at 6 for a time the world was used as a staging area only to be abandoned when Abaddon the Despoiler SH fourth Black Crusade swept through re-add in m3 for the great citadel of chromic under threat from Abaddon's forces naval high command had no desire to squander limited resources on an outpost with so little value the defense of area at six and it almost with the first salvo and Abaddon's crusade swept onwards Aeneid went unremarked upon by the scribes of the administration for nearly six millennia until warp storm story ow forced the expletive vessel way would I to make an emergency reentry into real space locked within area and by the vagaries of story ow the way when eyes captain took it upon himself to perform a detailed survey of the system in the process he discovered that the surface of area 6 had been subjected to massive bombardment in the distant past subsequent investigations revealed technological fragments of unknown origin scattered across the northern continent with the suggestion of further secret sealed deeper beneath the surface it was unclear how such treasures could have gone unnoticed during the Imperials presence in the system but the wayward ice captain surmised that the bombardment itself must have revealed Ariat Six's secrets before the captain could complete his investigations the warp storm at last cleared long overdue the wayward I submitted a report of its findings and left the Ariat system behind as uninhabited as the day the exploration had arrived it would not remain so for long in the years that followed two fleets arrived at area'd the first was the conclave aqua sutorius of arch Magus Belisarius Corps having received the wayward eyes report on route to his original destination called waylaid the fleets mission to make orbit hungry to learn the secrets hidden beneath areas cratered skin the ancient tech priests had spent the better part of 10 millennia engaged in his repetitive labors on Mars man the temptation of new discoveries was too strong to deny establishing a compound in the artifact rich fields of the northern continent coal began the delicate business of retrieval and investigation the recovered artifacts buried massively in size some were no larger than a servo skull while others dwarfed the cat of Ronis who stood silent Sentinel upon the dig sites perimeter all refused and cracked giving few clues to their original purpose but the mysteries tantalized call and he resolved to bore deeper into areas crust to find his answers it was then that the second fleet arrived in the system coal ships had been drawn to Erie ad by the lure of hidden knowledge the newcomers and orc fleet under the brutish dominion of big mech Ganga wreck were drawn by the engine signatures of calls own vessels Ganga wreck had visions of seizing the mechanicus ships swelling his own fleet to match his ambitions in this his reach and badly exceeded his grasp Ganga wrecks ramshackle vessels were obliterated in a savage near orbit battle his crews escaping fiery demise only through a last-minute teleporter evacuation call satisfied that the victory had fallen well within calculated parameters returned his attention to his excavations Ganga Rex boy is quickly adapted to arid sick seas hi rad environment more than that they thrived spared the fury of orbital bombardment by roiling dust storms they hurried called compound each raid garnered wrecks and stolen technology to be pressed into service alongside the kill Cruiser debris still raining down upon arid e'en Badlands calls adepts so only the sporadic nature of the raids and did not recognize the larger plan it chiefly because gang rock had no fixed girl the mech was unpredictable even by orcs standards this was an asthma to the rigorous methodical warriors of the Omni sire what they could not anticipate they could not defeat time and again skit re patrols found themselves ambushed and overrun Mayan Striders brave the dust storms to close in on Ganga racks outposts only to discover that the lean-to buildings had been mined and of their own staging bastions were under fire finally the call ripped his attention from his studies taking direct command of the incipient disaster and recognizing the need to set Ganga wreck an irresistible lure he ordered the next Supply Drop to occur on the very edge of a compound the mechs hunger for looted material had been the only constant in his inconstant war and core was determined to take whatever advantage he could thus when Congrats boys storm the landing fields they discovered transport craft not bursting with supplies but with waiting Scutari the ensuring battle lasted well into the frozen era day and night shooter file and bellowed war cries vying with the methodical volleys of Scutari rifles and the machine argot of electro priests and a calls direct leadership the warriors of the adapters mechanicus won their first real victory since the green skins had come to area at 6 the mechanicus compound held there only by the slimmest of measures the turning point came with gang wrecks fiery demise in the Rays of calls solar atomizer but there the orcs withdrew thousands more remained beyond the arc fences it was clear to the arch mayor's that his hold on area at six was slipping weighing the probabilities he regretfully decided to abandon his studies and return to his original mission that had brought him from Mars he had indulged his curiosities for too long imperiled the valuable cargo aboard his ship and forgotten his obligations giving the evacuation order call descended into the tunnels one last time $1 s warring the first alarm came from the bell of st. Agosto for thousands upon thousands of years at it sat in silence upon its pedestal content to while away eternity in the vast collection of artifacts possessed by tries on the infinite then on it is seemingly little different to any other in the unchanging hallways of Salaam Ness the Bell began chiming with ever greater force in full an inexplicable defiance of the stasis vault housing it the first doleful noted chimed split the vaulted ceiling of the bells stasis chamber unleashing a flood of coolant that instantly dissolved the last examples of all X sounds sculpture in existence the second notes triggered a logic cascade within the circuits of solemnities master program causing it to wrongly command each and every one of the tomb world's warrior legions to return to stasis sleep by the time the bell of st. gastão sounded its third chime the reverberations had grown sufficiently destructive that even the composite Alois of necron flesh could not withstand its onslaught sure as on last five surrogate bodies in his increasingly desperate attempts to bring about Silas after the 13th chime and just as the collateral damage finally outpaced Salaam mrs. can optic custodians ability to contain it the bell of st. Gaston finally fell silent pausing only to cast the contraption into the depths of the web way where he profoundly hoped it would be devil the Eldar as much as it had lately inconvenienced him the Lord of Salaam Ness pondered the meaning of it all departing solemnest the journeys are made for Thanatos Crone world of the Arisaka dynasty and home to the wonders of the celestial or array his welcome in these halls was less than effusive in part due to the misunderstanding of the or a sucker glyph of dominance which had gone missing during a prior visit however after bargains were struck and promises made treason was finally permitted access to the orally itself if under the watchful gaze of Horus cars lych guards as he stepped into the whirling sphere of living metal and holographic light trace on realized something was amiss the intricate webs that form the links of the orrery were under lit by a crimson stain it pulse beneath the weave of worlds like an infection forcing its way to the surface something was coming something that could change the shape of the galaxy thus far it had gone unnoticed but there was no hiding anything from the celestial or array for it was not merely a representation of the galaxy but a perfect reflection of it Prasanna realized that or a scar had known about the rise in corruption for centuries perhaps even millennia but it made no move to combat it they could not for an action was the price of custodianship but Rahsaan had no such restraint indeed he acknowledged no master save his own amuse he could act if he chose after untold millennia there was some appeal in playing at selflessness but where to begin where was the cause of the corruption trees on lost track of time studying the honoraries pathways searching for the wellspring of the galaxy's woes the source of the blight worming its way through the galaxy's heart at last he found it far out of the Galactic Northwest bordering the eye of terror in the orrery that world was categorized as a string of Triana Reed ater the whose details treason deliberately forgot to the Imperium it was known as Cadia Shazahn can recall setting foot there not in all his travels days understanding it was a drab gray world of interest only to the bellicose on the other hand if the role of Savior grew tiring kdo would surely offer opportunities to expand his collection their faiths bothell acts as the tides of the 13th Black Crusade washed across the kadian gate jealous eyes sought advantage elsewhere the iron warriors wore Smith Shan - and the demon Prince Bella Corps thought to upstage Abaddon's latest crusade by striking directly at terror imagine from a warp rift that the hearth of the battle fortress phalanx they sought to seize command of the mighty vessel and turn its unparalleled weaponry on the emperor's palace itself victory seemed assured five companies of the Imperial fists had already departed upon the crusade of vengeance unleashing the righteous fury of dawn against the fortresses of Metron guard three others were scattered across the sick mentum obscurus on missions of vital import that left some thirty battle brothers of the first company alongside the newly reconstituted and unbloodied third to repel the assault on their beloved sanctum captain tor Garrard on master of the third took come on rallying the bomb serves a phalanxes crew alongside his battle brothers though badly outnumbered the defenders of the venerable battle fortress knew every Hall in chamber of their home and use that knowledge to bloody effect ground was yielded only to draw the snarling demons into the jaws of ambush armored Castellon fortresses within the fortress and kept firing until their ammunition was spent in their positions overrun by the iron warriors clanking war engines it was not enough assaulted by the insidiousness of the dark gods and the machine viruses of chanteuse war Smith's the very flesh of phalanx rebelled automated defenses turned on their creators rad baffles cut out flooding hallways with reactor wastes gravan support failed across the entire Ford superstructure angers vented without warning and wherever the iron warriors advanced elegance stonework and golden paneling that are endured since the time of dawn arrived and twisted screaming faces distended the surfaces from within soon hold decks resembled nothing so much as the nightmare bastions of Metron guard the imperial fists held their ground with tenacity worthy of their long dead Primark but with every passing moment more of the fortress ship succumbed to the infestation already the Machine spirits of its dorsal batteries eroded beneath the warp Smith's insidious designs gathered on new that a planetary bombardment would soon follow the last testament of Dawn's great prize would be one of failure worse it would be one of treachery faced with the unthinkable garrard on tuck the only course open team this was a fair that could not be bested by bolter and chain sword nor through the unswerving valor of the Adept assist at ease withdrawing his forces from the infected sections he ordered phalanx his weapon returned inward with them he would cut away the disease as would corrosion Garrod on felt each strike of the fusion beamers as if upon his own flesh but the necessity of the hour allowed for no compromise fully 1/10 of phalanxes mass was lost to that scouring either obliterated by the strike of its own weaponry or cut free by the same to suffer a fiery demeyers in Terra's atmosphere but the sacrifice had been worth it as holy terror consumed phalanxes ravaged flesh the machine viruses hold was shattered seizing the opportunity it gathered onset phalanx onto a blind heading hurling the fortress adrift into the tides of the immaterial whatever the fortresses fate he would not be wielded as a weapon by the ruinous powers with the worst of all fates cheated Garrigan rallied what remained of his battle brothers and set forth to scour the last of chanteuse presents from phalanx melis the gara dawn had underestimated his foes though the bulk of the iron Warriors had perished during the excision the phalanxes corruption the fury and resolve of Balor caused demon said heighten the moment the fortress plunged into the immaterial thus though chanteuse death beneath the vengeful power fist of Terminator squad Ferran did much to restore lost honor they did little to alter feelings his fate his forces weary and diminished gathered on elected to make his stand in the chamber of storms beneath the granite gaze of chapter masters long dead witnesses to their inheritors valor as the golden cloth of the 3rd company's banner defiantly unfurled bellicose mocking laughter echoed around the chamber the defenders of phalanx gave no ground that day the roar of bulk guns vied with the screams of dying demons and the blasphemous curses of the Damned Hellfire blackened the walls and shriveled the souls of the Fallen Bella Corps spent his forces carelessly hurling them into oblivion with the surety of a general on the brink of victory malice and disappointment doubtless played their part also but with phalanxes departure from Terra Bella cause quest to over march Abaddon's glories had met with rank failure once again the fries damned had slipped into the shadow of a mortal champion thus Bella Corps spent the coin of his laurels lives carelessly confident that the tides of the warp would replenish his ranks where there is a phalanx his defenders would only diminish but not all forces within the unpredictable immaterial bend nitu the dark designs of chaos as bellacourt at last deign to join the battle one such fraction drew nigh Hellfire found itself contested by the flames of sacrifice as the spectral battle brothers of the Legion of the Damned interred the fray demons withered in the spirit fires and no matter how Bella called railed and pleaded with his dark masters his ranks were not renewed caught between the sons of dawn and the Sepik Ural warriors of the Legion the demons Grey Poupon phalanx slackened the chamber of storms no longer the site of a last stand now became the stage upon which a great victory played out by the time Bella Corps his undying flesh rent and pummeled by the grasp of gara Dawn's power fist cast himself into the nothingness beyond phalanx's Goeller field the outcome was no longer in doubt phalanx had been saved as phalanx his crew wrestled to bring the mighty fortress under command he got it on took stock of his losses the price of victory had been steep a tenth of phalanxes structure had been lost to save the remainder the ravage toll was marred by altogether too many erect weapons emplacements launch bays and shield projectors and manned by a crew little above half strength of gathered instead company the Sentinels of terror only 48 battle brothers would fight again now sergeant fir'aun's deme company of the first Emir fifteen survived that seemed ever the case a great victory for the sons of d'Or had come at an equally great cost oddly the Legion of the Damned had not vanished at battles close as was usually their wants instead they stood silent vigil in the chamber of storms and moving and unspeaking safe Agera Don himself all avoided that hallowed place discomforted by the grim specter whose presence seemed to chill the air even as fire crackled across their armor but not even garrard on could bring himself to question a cadaverous sergeant who stood at the legions head that they were waiting for something seemed obvious but what Commodore Trevor phalanxes senior surviving officer recommended that the battle fortress set return cause for terror or else make full speed for the great shipyards of Mars to commence much-needed repairs it Gera Don was minded to agree but can shake the feeling that faith had other plans for venerable phalanx no sooner had phalanx is heading altered towards Terra once more then librarians intercepted a garbled and desperately brief distress hymnal kailia called for aid travaux and furin argued that neither phalanx nor its crew were in any condition to respond but Garrett on overruled all objections the sword shift he argued served no-one phalanxes first duty was not to itself but to the Imperium and all present new que Diaz importance the decision made phalanxes age plasma drives fired anew plowing anew for Oh through the immaterial only when the tremors of stressed metal faded away did Garrigan's I fall across a shadowed corner of the fortresses command sanctum fire flickered in the darkness and the legions sergeant offered what might have been a brief nod war might equally have belong entirely to Gardens imagination the might of the Despoiler in the interplanetary void of the kadian system Abaddon's true assault gathered pace like a spear cast from the depths of the eye of Terror the black fleet flew truth the chief passion of resistance remaining within the gate the black fleets out riders were but fodder to shield their grim proud warships that came behind interplanetary haulers in cargo hulks they were barely armed but their crews possessed all the fiery zeal of recent converts to the way of unbelief beyond this swarm came scored upon score of blasphemous war vessels the airborne cruisers of the Despoiler zone chords played ships they're lumpin hulls belching vile fluids into the void with every course correction the cabal ships of the thousand suns and the blood-red leviathans of the world eaters and amongst them vessels of malefic legend the virulent terminus s the fortress of agony and the ominous bulk of the will of eternity last known survivor of the black stone fortresses few under Abaddon's command knew his true purpose in grinding Cadia beneath his heel most gave it little thought for the dark profits of the word bearers and their teeming disciples this was destiny foretold by the chaos gods long ago for the night Lords and their ilk this was the hour in which terror would reign for the Alpha Legion this was but another stage in a many-faceted an eternal design no more or less vital than a dozen other strands the other warlords came to spread the blessings of their gods to forge their own legends or to slack 10,000 years of hatred in the blood of the Imperium defenders the others still had no lucid motivation the madness of war was upon them and they would fight until its fury was spent all who saw to stall that onslaught passage paid with their lives and their souls the remnants of battle fleets Corona and scaris themselves bloodied during the first wave crusade met the outliers of the despoilers fleet in the outer orbits of vigil artem their crews fought to the last mantras of faith upon their lips even as the atomic fire of breached plasma reactors consumed them still Avedon's fleets swept on as the first chaos cruisers entered the iron graveyard the drifting remains of Acadian sector fleet loss during the very first Black Crusade their room would flank evaporated beneath sustain Nova cannon fire that Murrell dosed off that concealed the surviving victory class battleships of his battle group amidst the lifeless wrecks and they now soared retribution for their comrades lost at vigil artem that valor alone been enough to light the forges of triumph dust off would have sniffed a mighty blade in that hour but Abaddon could have suffered tenth of the losses dosed off inflicted before it even sparked his notice fresh bones littered the iron graveyard and still evidence fleet swept on on Cadia the revelation that Abaddon yet had a black stone fortress at his command through Creed and his fellow commanders into a flurry of activity the black stone alone possessed sufficient firepower to cleave kei Diaz crippled orbital defenses and then scour all traces of life from the world itself one hope remain from the very moment Abaddon have revealed the black stones true potential back in the days of the Gothic war the cult meccanica said labour to counter the warp beams fury conventional defenses alone were of little use neither shield nor armor could abate the roar and making energies of the immaterial itself necessity being the wit crack behind invention a partial solution was found by amalgamating the sciences of the void shield and the Goeller field it was possible to emit an energy canopy to destabilize and diss ada warp beam k dias Nullah array had been completed shortly before the first onset of the 13th Black Crusade unfortunately none of the projection emplacements has survived the siege intact thus far Creed had focused his reconstruction efforts on restoring the defense's necessary to fight a conventional war with word of the will of eternities approach this now changed every adept of the machine God on Cadia was tasked with breathing new life into the null array bastions and emplacements painstakingly restored to function were stripped anew tech priests and engine seers labored without rest passing far beyond natural tolerances as they strove to achieve the impossible by the time a madhan's fleet was within a day of orbit it was clear that those efforts would not be enough Kenya was rich in flesh and bone in faith man even in determination but time time had run out Magus clan dourly reported that even at best projections Kazik rafts null array could not be coaxed even to partial effectiveness more time was needed and there was none it was then that Sven Bloodhound of the space wolves proposed a solution or at least the hope of won his battle barge the fire mains Fang was the sole motive vessel left in orbit around Cadia his fire howlers would take the ship into the heart of Abaddon's fleet board the will of eternity and do what they could to slow its progress such was the counsel of desperation but in dark times desperation must be embraced and transmuted into strength thus blood house great company did not undertake this mission alone all told near 200 battle brothers of the Adept is's starties embarked the fire mains bang only 50 a tale from Sven's own brother others came from companies that had been torn asunder during the invasion loan battle brothers and shattered squads determined to strike one last blow against the despoilers forces and claimed revenge for their fallen brothers so too when the survivors of the kadian 13th accompanied by a full Manipal of martians qatari the garrison of casa craf cheered as the bright star of fire mains fang broke orbit but contact was lost almost at once and the cheers faded soon after Creed's mantra of Cadia stands echoed along the readouts and bastions of KD a few embraced it at first though all the center's were careful to avoid voicing their doubts kailia had already severed Abaddon's left hand perhaps the right could be similarly crushed but even valor needed firm ground on which to stand and the will of eternity had the power to strip that away Creed knew the mood of his soldiers for their doubts were also his inactivity gnawed at him so he combatted it with action as the projected hour grew steadily closer Creed remained on the move touring the defenses of KD our second us greeting his officers with firm handshakes and clear eyes addressing the assembled ranks of veterans and initiates alike with confidence that could have moved mountains had he only set it to that purpose that confidence billowed in all who heard his words holding back the fears each man and woman felt Qadir stands the words took on new meaning in Creed's wake kailia would stand for the Emperor but it would also stand for Creed none could have guessed that Creed's fears were every ounce as heavy as their own perhaps more so but with each passing hour he grew ever more convinced that the light of the Emperor longer touched upon the kadian gate that the father of mankind had abandoned them all to darkness plead chided himself for his doubts reminded himself that such thoughts were those of the apostate the heretic yet still the doubts remained hidden from all or almost so though the two never spoke of it jaren Kell knew the darkness gathering in Creed's mind but he kept that secret as he had kept many others over the years the vanguard of Abaddon's fleet arrived at dawn greeted by a salvo of fire and defiance the crippled warships in orbit leveled their last fury against the black fleet joined in wrath by the planetary batteries Creed had worked so hard to restore plasma drives flamed and went dark delivering traitor vessels into the merciless embrace of cádiz gravity well the sky blazed with pinpricks of fire each marking the creation of another martyr or a heretics long overdue demise but this was merely the forerunner the prologue as the last of cádiz hobbled fleet blazed into darkness a new moon appeared in the sky an eight-pointed star of abyssal stone broken only by the angry red glare of a single cyclopean eye all of Cadia held its breath the will of eternity had come at the appointed hour Blood Howell had failed his sacrifice and that of his battle brothers had been for nothing the eye blazed a beam of searing light left planet wood and dispersed amongst the clouds cheers erupted across Casa graph none more heartfelt than those of the Lord castellane only Magus clan remained silent he personally inspected the cassock rough projection grid less than an hour before only to find his adepts slain an alien technology into woven with the arrays circuits technology that goaded the troubled machine spirits to treble deficiency making that one array capable of shielding all of Cadia the mystery rankled a clan who even without the depths of his acolytes would have distrusted any binary miracle that did not arise from his own hand but as the cheers faded and the skies blackened with traitor dropships he taught his attention back to the breaking storm the mystery would wait the siege of Cadia ii us had begun the siege of Cadia ii us that an unseen signal bright sparks marred the brooding silhouettes of the black fleet with a thunderous roar the first bombardment wave hammered past the descending dropships heralds of death for the slaughter to come the bedrock of Cadia ii s already battered from the first invasion churned anew beneath a storm of macro cannons melter torpedoes and Hellfire boy chills buckled under the implacable storm sky shields crackle some held others collapsed in bursts of brilliant light secondary explosions coming close behind and as the barrage swept the stones clean of life outbound fire blazed from the bastions of Cossack RAF the fortresses defense lasers and sky fire batteries scouring the heavens for incoming drop ships most fired blind but accuracy mattered little the despoilers forces swarmed like flies come to a feast west of Cossack wrath the macro batteries of cassis stark roared one last time the bellow of the guns consumed by the deafening thunder crack as a melt a torpedo peers the subterranean magazine to the north the wreck of the sword of defiance roared a broadside into the sky the spread of cannon fire destroying the skull proud dropship and sending its hell drag escorts pinwheeling away valkyrie gunships of clay von strucker's howling one hundred and 19th screamed into pre-arranged clear fire corridors between salvos then broke away across the furious skies braving fire and counter fire as they hunted their prey across the readouts of KD a second us anxious hearts prayed that the foes nerve would break that the siege would be won in the skies and not upon the walls of kazakh raf and its outliers such was a vain hope the drop ships were too many and the defense's too few the southernmost spur of Kazakh rafts Martha's rampart shattered as its voyage shields failed fresh salvos crashed home to exploit the weakness unseating guns the size of half blocks and burying hundreds beneath charred rubble creed saw the destruction and sent orders for the survivors to withdraw cassock raf had yet free unbreached and thinly defended curtain walls about its central keep there was no sense in losing lives in a wasteland when fortifications cried out for defenders and once the kadian defenders abandon the martyrs rampart risking the bombardments fury to reach the comparative shelter of Cossack wrath fortune abandoned hundreds in that hour soon the churn filled between the southern rampart and the first curtain wall was a field of smoldering wrecks and scorched corpses but for every stalwarts soul who perished and of a fall reached the outer curtain officers bellowed instructions and the survivors rallied to Thresh defenses only the black Templars made no move to retreat marshal Amarok spot on Creed's orders he had chosen his ground and were defended to the last as the drop ships close to a final approach their hell drake escorts peel away strafing the ramparts of Cossack wrath and the makeshift readouts of the shrine of st. mark on a new sound filled the air now shrill wail like sinners burning in the fires of damnation but multiplied 10 thousand times over seconds later the first red claw slammed into the walls of Cossack wrath ramps crashed down disgorging warriors of the word bearers in the Alfa Legion into the heart of Creed's defences at first the mass volleys of the Astra militant drove the invaders back but then blasphemous icons rose high into the air choked with smoke and dying screams the fabric of reality cracked and howling demons joined the fray everywhere the tale was the same the roar of traitors bolt guns joined by the bellowed battle cries of blood slick demon kin gun emplacements fell from within even as they traded fire with the foe the defenders torn apart by hell blade and core some platoons stricken with terror threw down their arms and fled most fought and died to the last urged on by the fiery sermons of their minister Wharram priests their resolves stiffened by the certainty that there was no escape in this hour in that bloody channel a soldier's only freedom was to choose how he died most clutch their weapons tight and met their doom with defiance nowhere in that initial onslaught was the fighting harder than the shrine of st. mark on the tang of the battle sisters faith was both irresistible and an asthma to the ramp and demons and the lure of it goaded them time and again onto that ground but alone perhaps of those who fought that day the order of our martyred lady never wavered never took a backward step under the twin gazes of cannon aces Genevieve and Ella nor they met the howling horde with bulk gun and holy flame driving old tank from the walls of the shrine for those who watch the embattled walls of Kazakov it's seen that the smoke spume of war found no purchase on the shrine of st. moroccan driven back by the golden light dancing about its spires to the east the first landing craft touched down in the cratered valleys demon-possessed war engines rumbled across the broken ground driving hard for Kazakh rafts Eastern curtain walls battle cannons roared from concealed emplacements as the tanks of the kadian 250 second open fire the Black Legion spearhead disintegrated in a tangled mass of metal and corrupted flesh but theirs was a tide without end chaos bang blades rumbled on their treads crushing the wreckage of their forerunners their shells hammering at the curtain walls with a mighty Rumble the eastern outer wall partially collapsed the rubble crushing three squadrons of Lehmann Russell tanks there growling engines drowning out the roars of victory a swarm of skull bedecked rhinos broke cover from behind the mighty bane blades and drove hard for the newly formed breach far to the north the patchwork defences of Casa Joc shuddered beneath the shell fire of an iron warrior's siege battery upon the choleric Plains unwilling to wallow behind the walls whorfin high fell ordered his brothers to their transports war Smith Crum gat had come prepared for a counter assault having fortified his position we've dropped bastions and lines of cursed Aegis designed to slow any attacker long enough to bring their big guns to bear but caution had never been high fells way and no spawn of the demon forges would stay the fury of the Fenris borne sweeping aside all in their the iron wolves descended into Crom ghats citadel using its own trenches and bastions as cover against the raging artillery hours past days still the battle raged some defenders seized what snatches of sleep they could in the fighting sparse lulls and the hush that fell between the bombardments most remained awake pushing health and sanity to their limits with whatever Kem's they could scrounge rather than suffer the nightmares blowing like the wind over Cadia second dose the walls of kazakh wrath was swept clear only to come under fresh assault from the horrors of the war Casa jack so lately saved from crumb GATS bombardment perished at the infernal sorceries of elux stains cyclopia cabal three times did the blood mad berserkers of the world leaders hurl themselves at the sword of defiance his wreck three times did master Cora Hale rally the battle brothers of the Dark Angels fourth company three times were the Saiyans of corn hurled blood Lee back only for their federal chant to rise again in the darkness beyond the cruisers crumpled hull despite the intercession of the Knights of house Raven the breach in the outermost eastern curtain wall was torn wider Raptors and night law Terra pax were swift to take advantage screaming into the space between the walls in search of prey to their honor the defenders were treated in good order one regiment laying down covering fire long enough for another to withdraw but the Raptors were too Swift too hungry for slaughter they overtook the stragglers and then the rearguard Creed ordered the gates of the second Kurt more closed sacrificing thousands to save ten times that number eighth of the mighty portal slammed shut severing their line of retreat hundreds perished at their bases desperate Souls howling please for the variants at the comrades that taught that gothic Barbican x' the stoic readying their weapons for one last stand but two of the gates remained open in East the Barbican Scamander held the gate too long so desperate was he to preserve each and every soul who clamored for the safety of his fortifications as the gates at last rumbled closed hell brutes hurled themselves forward holding the passage open through the strength of their demon Forge sinew desperate fire rained down from the Barbican zkk rest the hell brute sward and fell power scourge is thrashing as vile life left them but their sacrifice had brought time for a vast war band of possessed to slip through the gates who knows what the cursed warriors would have wrought if not for their joint sacrifice of the nova marines second company in the Akkadian 400 and third who held that demonic onslaught in the shadow of the Joris redoubt long enough for the massed battle tanks of the KDM 185 to pound the traitors to bloody ruin scarce a hundred conscripts of the four hundred and third survived and the last Nova Marines succumbed to his wounds before the echoes of battle cannon fire faded away in the West the gate mechanisms failed eaten away by decay that sprang from no earthly cause the Barbican x' commander ordered the 113 death heads bein blade company to plug the gap with their armored bulk but he was an age to late a swarm of cultists inner to pain by their heresy hurled themselves into the flesh shredding storm and they kept coming by the hundreds by the thousands every bolt has overheated autocannons ran dry the weapons of war unable to keep pace with a horde uncaring of in pain only when the last cult has perished that the Black Legion advanced amidst the carnage a tide of hatred far beyond the weary defenders ability to stem the West Gate fell and with it the second curtain war was lost the seventh day opened with the roar of a new bombardment too long that the sword of defiance stood vigil over Casa crafts northern flank and now the invaders took steps to silence its guns once and for all shell after shell rain down pulverizing the downed cruiser and unseating its few remaining guns even then Cora L would have held firm for now scion of Caliban yields his ground willingly but this was no ordinary bombardment it held from the diseased book of the terminus test flagship of typhus each shell that burst omits the swords hallowed halls brought with it an unspeakable contagion diseases potent enough to take root even in the Augmented flesh of the adept as a star teased with his brothers liquefying inside their Armour Cora Hale had no choice but to abandon the sword of defiance alas the plane still teamed with world leaders hungry to spill the Lions blood faith yet burn bright at the shrine of st. mark on but mortal might whoever shorter in supply that outpost alone had seen unremitting assault since the opening days of the siege and all inside were bone weary the basilica had coward assaults it had never been intended to face but even for blessed readouts there comes a breaking point for the shrine of st. mark on that breaking point at the form of three lords of skulls Unleashed from the heart of Abaddon zone demon forges to overcome the shine beacon of faith warp crafted cannons belched and roared drowning the stones of the sainted Basilica in boiling blood scores of battle sisters boiled alive in their armor dozens more were swept away still the demon engines ground on and bones and rubble alike crunched to dust beneath their leviathan tracks hearse or Delhi cannon s Genevieve led the counter-assault the fury of a Seraphim cleaving aside demons so that the massed fire of retributive could fell the rumbling bear moths melted beams converged cutting out the lead war engines black heart with a yawning thunderclap the lord of skulls reactor went critical its fiery demise consuming one of its dark brothers and the entire northeastern corner of the shrine the basilica's walls could take no more inch by inch the stones split apart arches that had withstood millennia falling away into ruin as the wounded Genevieve was borne away to the hospitalist cannon s Eleanor made preparations to retreat on the choleric plains the space wolves at last won their mighty victory against Crom gasps after days of brutal trench warfare the war Smith was torn apart and his body cast into the fires of his once proud citadel the price had been high fully half of the iron wolves lay dead and the land radar iron fist would never see another battlefield yet even as the sons of Fenris ruled their victory their scouts cited new foes advancing from there Gahan us rich the Titans of the liji oval kaanum I felt burned to test himself against the newfound enemy but the wisdom of his trusted wolf guard all off Ironhide prevailed recovering their fallen the iron wolves took once more to their transports and fell back towards craf one by one Casa crafts outposts had fallen but far to the south defiance yet burned marshal amel racks black Templars had sworn to defend the martyrs rampart and defended they did we've every iota of the zeal and fury for which their chapter was known the walls were little more than rebel they fought on an island of stalwart steel emits the shifting tides of chaos Black Legion word bearers and more saw to overwhelm Emmerich's outnumbered band with chain sword and hellfire battle brothers perished in ones and twos and their crusade banner many times toppled from the crest but the living found fresh strength in the sacrifices of the dead and each time the banner fell it was raised higher than before by the dawning of the eighth day the walls of Kazakh RAF came under direct bombardment from the wastelands and its defenders valor ab2 many had witnessed the fate of the far-flung outposts or else had heard rumors of the slaughter upon the curtain walls nan truly knew the scope of the onslaught and that ignorance fan fears to a bright and hungry flame neither priest nor commissar could still the whispers no matter how loudly they chanted the canticles of faith or how brutally they suppress dissent too swiftly the belief spread Cadia had enjoyed too much it could endure no more but for creed the fortress might have fallen the Lord Castelar knew well that the only way to combat unseen horror was not my speech or by threat but by example the screed forsook his command bunker then joined his soldiers upon the walls he ate with them stole what little sleep he could along item as assault after a salt crashed into the golden Craig Ian Gates Creed stood his turn upon the aegis lines firing volleys alongside the common soldiers with a borrowed Laz gun those moments of theatrical defiance were the only times he looked upon the fair at all others he kept his back towards the carnage a deliberate gesture of disdain he took to pacing the top LeGrande bastion even though it's void shields had never recovered from the initial bombardment he walked the ramparts where sky shields had imploded risking the rocking fire of Hell Drake's with those he commanded and where Creed went Kell went also the tattered colors of the KD n8 rousing those hearts Creed's example could not amanda Creed's gaze the Creegan gates endured but in the east the faith of Kazakh RAF teetered on the brink there at least there was no shortage of resolve the surviving Valkyries of the howling 119 had ferried what remained of the north and eastern Garrison's behind Kazakh raps wolves battle sisters now tuck their place on those ramparts the wounded geneviève amongst them and more of the black livery to sulk carriers braved the angry skies that carry the remnants of the iron wolves and Cora Hales forth inside the strong cold yet not all of the iron wolves had returned so it was said rumors abounded of feral warriors prowling the killing ground beyond the wall and wild howls touched the ramparts whenever the wind was in the east if often high fell knew anything of this he offered no explanation the Lee GA Volk Arnhem ground on implacable unstoppable the traitor print caps malice Tyrone had honed the business of war for 10,000 years and new exhaustively the god engines under his command indeed his consciousness flowed through them all a gift from the Dark Gods for his unswerving devotion possessed war hounds were his eyes and ears the warlord Titan vessel of damnation his strong right arm the Reaver Manipal the bunched fingers of his left fist when confronted by a foe war machines across the formation combine their fire with uncanny accuracy as void shields faded under the defenders fire tyrone reconfigured his formation letting titans as yet undamaged bear the brunt thus the vanguard of liji oval carnem crept ever closer to the walls of casa craft the god engines overrun scarred despite the ferocity of their foes the defenders of the eastern walls were saved just as they had been before by the intervention of the howling 119 with munitions running low and barely a dozen flight worthy assault craft the squadron tuck wing one last time driving hard for the advancing Titans the skies above the liji oval kaanum swarmed with hell Drake's but the pilots of the 119 furred learned a great deal about the demon engines in the preceding days not enough to stand any chance of clearing them from the skies all together for their numbers were legion nor even for surviving more than a few minutes before being shredded by warp forged talons but then survival was not the 119th plan Clavin Straka commander of the 119 had noted how the lesser titans seemed almost in thrall to the will of the lead monstrosity vessel nation destroy the warlord or so Strecker reasoned and the others might also for three Valkyries were ripped asunder by hell Drake's before they even entered weapons range two more strayed into the path of a volcano cannon blasted to cinders before their crews even knew their danger the others sped on buffeted by surface-to-air fire armor clattering beneath the roar of Hades autocannons another Valkyrie disintegrated but the first he'll strike missiles were away vessel of dam nations void shields flared and gutted as the missile struck the 119th banked away strafing clear of ground-based water cannon fire and prepared for another pass only three Valkyries of the 119 remained but vessel of dam nations void shields were down alas force trekkers last throw of the dice the strikes of his squadrons multi lasers were but pinpricks against the god machines hull a third pass and striker was alone his wingman torn from the skies knowing he'd not live to make a fourth stretcher commanded his soul to the Emperor set a collision course and triggered his Valkyries afterburners the fireball marking the last act of the 119th blossoms sky words clearly visible from Casa crafts eastern ramparts vessel of damnation Jeddah to a halt green fire Gauteng from its ravaged skull the remaining Titans lurched suddenly directionless in the midst of battle one war hound Titan came to a complete standstill long enough for macro cannon batteries to track and blow it to scrap cheers rang out but faded as the god engines of the Liege oval carnem recommenced their advance only vessel of damage she remained unmoving its helm lost amid belching smoke then came a black Thunderbolt from the skies above the defenders cheers died ashen on their lips as the battles architect at last took a personal hand in its prosecution this was not the Despoiler himself but his lieutenant the demon Prince a Kansas commander of the black fleet and scourge master of the hounds of Abaddon the council said being entrusted with securing the destruction of Cadia but Abaddon's patience was not without limit and under a camp Thor sought to deliver victory before it was entirely expended as the black miasma of the traitors teleport beams crackled into nothing a great howl arose among the mangled bodies beneath the golden Creegan gates the Kansas spread his wings wide and the hounds of Abaddon hurled themselves at their golden gates behind them came a fresh wave of demon engines warp spawned weapons spitting death at the battlements up the bloody ground the hounds surged trampling the dead of both sides heedless of the defenders fire their war cry was a booming bellow more like the growl of a beast than the speech of men blood blood blood macro cannon shells burst amongst the formation hurling broken bodies down the hills of corpses still the hounds came on blood blood blood Creed bellowed orders from atop the Barbican man the approach blazed brilliant with last fire still the hounds came on blood blood blood by prearranged signal a new bombardment began the vessels of the black fleet pounded the approach to the Creegan gates uncaring of their dark brothers I've tortured sky shields flared and died defenders were snatched into the abyss or cast from their shattered strongholds traitors perish two slain by the capricious fury of their own warships but still the hounds came on inch-by-inch acanthus gained ground at last reaching the unsullied foot of the Creegan gates the hounds ignored wounds that would have felled a lesser men they disdained the burning Promethean that set their flesh ablaze they would have nothing less than victory that day victory for Abaddon war master of the eye of terror and blood for the Lord of battles charges were says in the Creegan gates weakened by the eight-day bombardment of starship and artillery fire finally it tore asunder with a roar of triumph acanthus swept into cossack ruff the hounds of Abaddon hard upon his heels the fall of Cossack Raph when the Creegan gates came down the defensive KDF fell upon the shoulders of a Kazakh in Creed had kept free regiments in reserve throughout the fighting husband for a desperate hour such as this now he sent them to hold the line Laz guns flared the ruined Creegan Barbican vanished beneath the acrid discharge of cannon shells the leading edge of the hounds of Abaddonn vanished torn apart by the greatest single volley yet seen on Cadia second death yet the hounds were undismayed by their losses indeed the slaughter lent them new fervor the survivors struck the massed line of bayonets like a red wind glorying at the wall of armored flesh without thought for their own lives o canthus led them each swipe of his claws snatching the squad into corns bloody embrace where every foe that fell the demon Prince felt that blood God's blessings blossom his armor fused flesh thickened until it was harder than adamantium as blood slicked across his wounds they scabbed and closed acanthus looked upon the massed ranks of kazakh in and saw not a fair to be bested but a banquet and offering in the making to the only true god of bloodshed the cassock in battle Don beneath the ruin of Casa crafts gates but they did not fight alone creeds barked orders air code from the Vox casters set across the fortress walls sending ever more men into the meat grinder at the gates conscripts of the two hundred and first fought and died alongside grizzled veterans of the ninth regiments from more daeun and vestroia entered the slaughter fighting for a world not their own as was so often the duty of the Astra military but numbers alone could not win out against the hounds demon spawn might worse or can Thor said reinforcements of his own slobbering demons emerged from the pooling blood then sprang forth to further slick the stones maddened cultists urban clad black legionaries hell wrought bare moths they stormed across the ruined gates seizing the opportunity to slaughter and to perhaps catch the Restless eye of the Dark Gods the kazakian of the second perished where they stood not a man amongst them gave ground others were not so vile aureus the discipline of the thirty-third shattered when their colonel was torn apart by raptors wavering hearts turned callow like a dam giving way before storm waters the thirty-third broke and ran with them went all hopes of holding the Gateway and their cowardly example sapped the valor from their comrades surely as a demons war the trickle of the 33rd route became a flood as panic spread regimental colors were abandoned and weapons cast down what had once been a bastion of defiance had split asunder and her cans losses victory lay within his taloned grasp even as the heart of Casa Kraft wavered old perils were renewed beyond the eastern wall Berenice viruses Knights fought a losing duel with the surviving Titans of liji oval carnem though the god engines could no longer draw upon print caps Tehran's direction their firepower greatly outstripped that at the command of the nobles of house raven vowed us was no fool indeed she'd slain men in jewels for even hinting such was true and commanded a fighting retreat thus far it had served her well casting her only for brother nobles in exchange for one traitor Riva destroyed and another crippled yet a fighting retreat required ground to retreat to in the Knights of house were Aven were rapidly running out of room to maneuver as the weary Baroness ordered yet another withdrawal her Lance mate disintegrated in an eruption of superheated light hurried interrogation of a synapse web confirmed vertices greatest fear vessel of damnation had rejoined the fray further south knee deep in the bodies of his foes marshal amalric experienced an uncharacteristic moment of doubt though still offered their lives up to the black Templars position but no longer in the numbers that had graced previous days gazing north Hamrick recognized the storm gathering over Casa crafts Creegan Yates at last the marshal acknowledged what had been obvious to his peers from the first that the black Templars strength would have been better employed upon the walls of the fortress then at the martyrs ramp but even generations after the fact the stubbornness of Dorne still haunted his inheritors but perhaps there was here time to unmake the error one of the cruxes crusades Thunder Hawks had been destroyed during the opening bombardment but the other injured untouched in a subterranean hangar swallowing the last of his pride Nomura gave orders to abandon the martyrs rampart a cossack ruff the hounds of Abaddon slacked their blades and thirsts upon the routing Guardsman a Kansas Bela hood with delight he had been given one task in one task alone breach the fortress and destroy the machine that held the will of interna T's fury in abeyance but now the scourge master saw no reason to stop at such half measures proud Cadia had broken its defenders trampled one another in their eagerness to flee his coming he or canthus would do what Abaddon never had he would shatter the last resolve of the fortress world the rewards of triumph would be his and not the war masters a volley C at the air its fury hot enough for the demon Prince to feel through his callous skin we're moments before there had been only a fleeing rabble now the hounds of Abaddon faced a man Aegis line formed bayonets and the unwavering ranks of the kadian 8th Cadia stands alone voice obdurate as the stones of casa craft somehow carried across the thermals of battle other voices took up the battle cry the ranks of the ones desperate sickening around their standards Qadir stands the third chorus was lost beneath the defiant roar of battle cannons and the dying screams of demons newborn defiance rippled across the muster field as the soldiers of the astra millet Arum found a new there Thunder courage at the epicenter jerem Kell held aloft the colors of the KD n8 and his side his implacable expression giving no clue to the doubt in his heart Lord castellane Osaka II Creed bellowed his mantra once more kailia stands acanthosis herself grown overconfident in slaughter burst against the breakwater of the KD n8 the hounds of Abaddonn bore the brunt torn to scraps by roiling cannon fire Raptors took to the air seeking to pluck Creed from his command as they had the erstwhile colonel of the 33rd Vox amplifiers wailing they rip deep in tikrit splatoon but where the thirty-third had broken and fled the veterans of the eighth closed ranks scores perished before a bayonet rammed into the final Raptors primary heart but Creed was not amongst them Kell sleeve was crimson with blood little of it his own and dead at his feet lay a raptor who come closest to laying low his beloved general the battle for the muster field stalled both sides yet with numbers unbound Earle into the battle but neither able to gain traction over the phone but the advantage had asked lay again with the defenders for Creed Ford like a man who's our had at last come he had never once laid hand on pistol nor blade instead he wielded his soldiers as his weapon striking hard for a weakness when it presented and drawing back in the face of overwhelming odds hundreds thousands of lives he spent in those desperate hours though never carelessly he brought time with the blood of his Shock Troopers nor in the hope that help would arrive for creed had long since abandoned such fancies but because every moment of defiance was now a prize without price a woo and to Abaddon's pride Qadir stood it was true but only because Creed stood with it around the fortress Creed's allies lent what aid they could Cora hells dwindled fourth company force beside the iron wolves in the muster fields Eastern extent and their neva party would ever acknowledge as much each was the salvation of the other on many occasions theist artis of other chapters their battle brothers lost at Akkadian wars set aside rivalries forming a single deme company of every color and hue the sisters of our martyred lady marshaled before the command Bastion their holy flames the bane of many a demon they're righteous presence instilling fresh valor in the conscripts of the 111th deployed immediately to their four but the greatest triumph in that hour belonged to marshal MRX black Templars their Thunderhawk hull smoldering and crippled engines belching smoke plowed into the muster field discouraging the vengeful warriors of the cruxes crusade into the heart of the heretical foe each blow struck by a son of dawn that day was one of penance as much as fury then was all the mightier for it acanthosis dreams of glorious victory withered in the face of that defiance and his thoughts again turned to his orders destroy the null array in every drop of the defenders valor would be for naught burned away by the unstoppable energies of the black stone fortress gathering the remnants of the hounds of Abaddon to his side the canthus carved a path for the command Bastion and the prize within Creed mark the demon princes assault but could do little to counter it for it coincided with the arrival of a new threat an armored column the traitor bane blade vac anthos at its head ground its way over the dead and dying about the Creegan gates the Thunder crack of demolisher cannons echoed around the crumbling bastions creeds leading ranks disintegrated under the bombardment boxes crackled sergeant's bellowed orders Nana defenders pattern of fire shifted to engage the cancerous the white shield conscripts of the one hundred and eleventh were a little match for a canvas his retinue of Damned but they held the line to the last yet even when they were overcome the demon Prince's route remained blocked this time by the ardent battle sisters of our martyred lady acanthus hurled himself into the sisters ranks exultant at each drop of martyrs blood to Fleck his claws bolt afire parted off his carapace and even the incandescent fury of multi melters were but a dull warmth upon his skin behind him came his last remaining hounds of a dark brethren once numbering in the hundreds now only a score remained lacking their masters protections the chaos Space Marines died hard but died they did it mattered not their purpose had only ever been to bring their master to his target before the last black heart stilled its motion who counts thus reached the command bastions a gricean gate but one last obstacle remained a prayer upon their lips the sisters Genevieve and Eleanor led a host of Seraphim to bar a countess his path bellowing with laughter the demon Prince struck his assailants from the air dashing their bodies to the ground as one might scatter a swarm of insects pain flared in a can sources mutated chest again Genevieve struck her blessed blade blazing with light as it clove the beasts cursed flesh now canthus staggered away talons raised to shield against the Canon esses strike an exultant genevieve pursued blade flashing but in her zeal the canon s was deceived the demon Prince was not cowed but a waiting opportunity as Genevieve struck again the canvas ripped the blade from her grip closed the talent hand about her throat seeing her sister's danger Eleanor lunged at the Beast her frenzied flurry hacking deep into his armored skin and all but severed a tattered wing he was not enough geneviève spine splintered and her captures unholy strength her last act to headbutt the brutes between his burning eyes loosing a desolate cry Eleanor lunged with all her strength the point of her sword lodging between acanthosis black heart the demon Prince bellowed and smote her lifeless to the ground then he stalked away the power sword still trapped within his flesh in the muster field marshal Emmerich prepared another assault against the looming for kin throws one had already failed hurled back by the info lighting fire of the Bane blades havoc escorts but as McCann thrust his turret swung to bear on the aegis line of the KD n8 the black Templars gathered themselves for another attempt become crosses turret locked into position but didn't fire the super-heavy tank throws in position like some great metal beast locked in the throes of confusion then at an unseen command its weapons blazed to life not that the black Templars of the cruxes crusade nor the Akkadian eighth but at its own compatriots the warriors of the Black Legion never stood a chance the count forces sponson mounted weaponry shredded the habits who moments before have preserved it from a more XP the turrets swung about on to a new bearing their heavy shells ripping apart an alpha Legion predator spear as if their hulls were forged of glass for a heartbeat neither side knew what to make of the sudden betrayal nan had marked the cloaked figure who ducked briefly from the shadows of a ruined bastion a flood of silvery nanomachines flowing from his hand and into the crannies of a canvases armor that heartbeat was all Crede needed that is bellow the heart of the eighth's marched for the breached command Bastion the slaughtered white shields and battle sisters told a gruesome tale and one boding ill for those who had fought so hard for Cadia inside the command bastion acanthus led the mangled body of magus clan slide from his claws a half mana pool of Scutari had barred his way to this chamber but not one of the omnis iose for weapons and hurt him so much as the blades of the twin cannon s's Eleanor's sword still protruded from his flesh the hilt burning like fire whenever the demon Prince touched it but at last his goal was now within sight beyond the edge of the buckled walkway half a mile straight down into the bedrock of Cadia second Asst the null erase capacitors arced and crackled destroy them and Cadia would be at the mercy of the will of eternity once more sweeping back his wings acanthus plunged from the walkway picking up speed as kay Diaz gravity embraced him echoes of the past Belisarius call hand intended to remain on Airy add six logic detected he leave protocol insisted every moment he lingered the greater the toll inflicted upon his forces by Ganga Rex inheritors yet the arch Magus could not bring himself to depart the mystery called to him stirred emotions long atrophied by millennia of self augmentation he had to know the meaning of veil walker's cryptic advice was it tied to the relic we sealed aboard the iron revenant could he take the chance that it wasn't the shadow seer had implied that the secrets of area six would be uncovered now or not at all Cole didn't doubt that his and Vale Walker's interests were at best in temporary alignment but even a fleeting alliance at the potential to alter the Imperials course he'd seen it happen so many times even if he could no longer recall the details or even the names of those involved too many broken fragments of yesterday scattered like a mosaic for all of cause attempts to preserve it the past like the texture of today thus called the deeper even as the defenses of his compound wore away beneath the fury of area at six rad storms and the bellicose deeds of the green skins each ruddy Dorne brought fresh assaults on the perimeter each night sore bastions abandoned thus qatari fell back to secondary lines still called dug pushing their borders to their limits in his hunger for knowledge as predicted each new level excavated board greater knowledge the fragments grew larger the warping less pronounced one piece confirmed the arch Magus is growing suspicions the artifacts of area six predated not only humanity but most of her life in the galaxy the techniques of forging the absence of visible circuitry these all pointed to an origin in the darkest of times perhaps the hands of the old ones themselves or else the nekron tear coal's quest encompass all 37 hours of the yridians Sun the deeper into the planet's crust he dug the more urgent his search became occasionally he called Vale walker watching him from the shadows the shadows seer seemed visible only to him she came and went as she pleased passing through shielding lines and vacuum bulkheads like a ghost Cole came to wonder if she was truly there at all nor conjured by memory walk men's suffering rad degradation each time caused conclusion was the same it no longer matters the madness of discovery was upon him he had to know by the fifth day thus Kotani had fallen back to their inner perimeter the orcs had suffered horrendous losses for their victory but that only made them strive harder the compound had become a challenge guarantee of a worthy fight on a world otherwise bereft of life all projections insisted that if the green skins launched another sustained assault the compound would be overrun unfamiliar frustration clouded his secondary lobes call at last issued the order to withdraw he was then of course that the breakthrough came as the colossal tunneling machine settled into their final excavation patterns one breached the roof of a vast natural cavern the weakened rock beneath its treads gave way and the Bora plunged into darkness the machines bleating warning signals were severed by the finality of its impact with the stalagmites strewn cavern floor but its last transmission contained images of a slab-sided structure of black stone at once call issued a hold on the evacuation commanding the Scutari to defend the landing zone until his return he descended into the dead we've got a glance the arch Magus knew that this was what he had sores expletive orange red the edifice to be a little more than 250 yards in height and as many again broad the jagged crest implied that the artifact had not survived the bombardment entirely unscathed that the top ARF and much of its flank had been lost to the ravages of time the enigmatic stone yielded no clue as to its purpose the bird call needed non he'd seen such creations before intact and reaching into the sky on Cadia struck by fevered inspiration the arch makers revisited the historical record it now seemed obvious that the long ago bombardment had come at the hands of Abaddon during the Fourth Crusade but why would the Despoiler trouble himself with an uninhabited world unless unless the coming of the black fleet to Ariat had not been chance but design coal accessed his data store of tech anomalies correlating them with the paths of the Black Crusades careless belliston Vigrid to the list went on some with confirmed remnants of pylon like structures all of them sites of archaeological surveys all of them caught in the furrows of destruction plowed by the despoilers forces Howard no unnoticed it had been known for millennia that the kadian pylons pushed back the war what if the Imperium had underestimated Abaddon's ambitions the fires of salvation she came reeved in holy fire an angel cast from the Emperor's hand and into the horror of war down she swept a thunderbolt shrieking from a golden star newly arrived in the skies of Cadia as she drew closer to the beleaguered walls of Cossack wrath the defenders gave voice to a name it began with the survivors of the order of our martyred lady but it spread like wildfire borne upon the lips of the faithful utter them reverence and in jubilation celestine prayers had been answered the miracle had come she smoked the muster field without slowing the firestorm of her wakes cowering besiegers from the stones on celestine swept her sword a blur of silvered light among the spiraling smoke demons scattered before her seared from reality by the blade of one who was a blazing counterpoint to their unfathomable darkness strength returned to weary limbs defenders who had forsaken all hope forge new metal from despair the emperor was with them still why else would he have sent his living Saint to guide them to victory United they rose for one final effort no fear remaining in their hearts even Creed lost to seething emotion forgot the threat of the black stone fortress in distant orbit and fought alongside his men with the exception of the zealous black Templars only the warriors of the adaptive societies felt no stirring at the sight of Celestine the Imperial Creed was not their faith theirs was a bond of brotherhood of duty to long dead pry marks but if the homilies of the minister 'm would deliver victory that then so be it for one moment one glorious moment the attackers rank shuddered the bane blade of a cancerous still locked in sightless combat with the nanomachines shredding its system vanished beneath a zealous tide of humanity keltus scattered their epistatic dreams dispersed by the living Saints onset then the Black Legion met the defenders newfound fury with their own blasphemous resolve despite their resurgence outnumbered and outmatched the defenders counter-attacks stalled but faith renewed was not the only gift Celestine had brought to cassock RAF plasma drives roared in the darkness landing gears crunched onto PLAs Crete the discordant notes of battle hymn swelled the chimes of blessed bells echoing along the walls even more than faith even more than hope the defenders of cassock raff had needed reinforcements and the living Saint I provided Celestine had found them in the warp their transports plasma drives all but dead through a traitor's act its gala fields failing five companies of the order of our martyred lady afford lost some 1,400 years her lights served as a beacon drawing the wounded vessel into the path of another craft and binding the two until real space claimed them both once more now they came forth as her fiery sword and two Avenger seeming eternity adrift amidst the immaterial with their onset the battle shifted once more this time in the defenders favored beyond the eastern wall baroness vados had marked the fire in the skies but knew nothing of its meaning she knew only that her bid to blunt the fury of the liji oval carnem and failed too many of her lance mates were dead all that remained was the glory of an honour all deaf yet as vada skied her Knights reactor to overload gold liveried Thunder Hawks and storm Hawk interceptors roared from the skies the starboard quadrant of vessel of dam nations carapace disintegrated under brilliant turbo laser beams and the Thunder Hawks peeled away with a grim smile vada secured her reactor from overload a suicide run was the strategy of the hopeless and her hope was reborn in orbit the weapons batteries of the battle fortress phalanx rumbled to life already the black fleet was reacting to the presence in its midst but phalanxes aging shield generators held firm beneath broadside after broadside captain guerra Don didn't care in recent days he'd fought alongside the spectral Legion of the Damned he torn the heart out of his own sacred charge to prevent it falling into the hands of the foe man he'd witnessed a crippled Imperial transport dock with the phalanxes forecastle omits the term out of the war so many things he'd been sure he'd never see so many events he'd swore he'd never understand but this phalanx alone against the black fleet this was retribution long overdue but where was the Legion of the Damned as phalanx had entered real space they faded to nothing as silent in departure as arrival phalanx bore down on the will of eternity shields crackling as it brushed aside the leading edge of the black fleet at Gardens command flank batteries engaged the traitor battleships but its formidable proud guns lay silent phalanx had suffered too much from the ravages of time and its recent sacrifices and its master sought to make sure that first planet cracking salvo counted another vessel would have perished already battered into drifting scrap by the fury of the black fleet but phalanx was the fist of dawn his first and greatest gift to the Emperor of mankind even decaying and under crude no vessel in all the heavens was its pier even without the escort fleet there was it's right the mighty battle station held its own but it could not do so forever already the sensor panels lit up in warning as the main body of Abaddon's fleet broke orbit to engage garrard on paid those warnings no heed there would be no surrender no retreat if this was to be phalanxes last battle then so be it thus guerra Don held his course straight into the will of eternities Blackmore flame doubted from the will of eternities flank it was the tiniest of pinpricks insignificant against the black stone fortresses vast bulk but with it the shields across the lower portside quadrant sputtered and died from the strategy of a phalanx guerra Donna witnessed the moment of weakness witnessed and embraced it the vessels main batteries dormant for centuries roared with a fury to make their long dead creator proud the first salvo cracked the will of eternities gleaming armor the eleventh pounded it to dust traitor cruisers drove hard for fouling seas main batteries their captain's ramming headlong into the fortress and hope of halting their fury some guns fell silent but not enough never enough phalanx nor the black stones obdurate hide battering ever closer to its heart inch by unforgiving inch guerra dawn ignored the wailing Klaxons warning of hull breaches and the worded reports from his strategic Roux this was the black stones hour to die and phalanx was to be its executioner a novice although and something inside the will of eternity shattered a crack split the black stones core brilliant purple light bleeding across the stars as the battered phalanx limped to safety the rupture spread swallowing those vessels nearest to it with a silent scream that echoed for the minds of every living soul across the kadian gate the will of eternity broke apart it's arcane engines dissipating in dazzling aurorae across the outer atmosphere by the time the glow faded the third of the black fleet was gone snatched into the immaterial yet more ships lay strewn across Cadia southern pole their blackened carcasses smoking by some fluke of fate the empty and cracked husk of the will of eternity remained in orbit they darken lifeless moon staring blindly down at its former prey planetside the Knights of house Raven joined their fire to that of the Imperial fist Thunder Hawks their volleys unceasing until vessel of damnation was naught but fused and blasted scrap the kdn a fern the sisters of our martyred lady at their head the defenders of casick wrath drove the heretics from the master field as Kell planted the flag of the eight atop the reclaimed Kragen gates Celestine and her gemini superior the slain cannon s is Genevieve and Eleanor reborn through the glory of the Living Saint cast the lifeless corpse of the demon Prince acanthus from the walls it was impossible to say whether it was that or the coruscating flare of purple light in their heavens that broke the will of the traitor Lord but it broke all the same Herod by the iron wolves and barrenness viruses Knights the procedures fled south cultists and heretics their apostasy spent threw down their arms and begged for forgiveness but the only mercy they found was that of holy promethium thousands died but as many escaped despite phalanxes victory in the heavens air superiority remained with the despoilers forces drop ships swarm the skies gathering the scattered war bands in readiness for a new assault in the shuttered remains of Kazakov creed through fresh plans he knew this was no victory at best it was survival Cadia held its breath the clarion of truth as dawn broke the next morning promethium flames lit hungrily towards the Stars the defenders of cassock referred neither manpower no time to bury their dead and so honored them the only way they could in cleansing flame be times the wind shifted carrying with it the thunder of battle from the south as Baroness viruses Knights obliterated those traitors abandoned by the black fleet the pyres burned for two days and nights fed by whatever fuel could be spared preserving the honor dead from the corruption of the dark gods and the defilement of their living froze those final rites said come at Celestine 's insistence man Creed had yielded not out of necessity nor even out of respect the law of castellón sought solely to keep his soul his minds and bodies occupied the activity fruitful or otherwise was always the best way to buttress failing morale they'd realize the grim truth soon enough their truth Creed had embraced even before Celestine had hurled acanthosis corpse from the top of the wall Kazik rafts greatest moment of defiance had been its last when the despoilers hordes came again then Creed was certain that they would if only because the abyssal specters of the Legion of the Damned stood silent century out on the elijan pile on fields the defiance of Cadia will continue elsewhere if it did so at all thus Creed left the living sent to her administration's amidst the flames grateful for whatever resolve she awoken entertained unthinkable notions of retreat the arrival of phalanx offered a new opportunity though devastated in the course of its lone stand against the black fleet the battle station was still capable of warp travel it could carry a vast portion of the forces stranded on Cadia to safety her voice in Creed's had urged him to remain to fight on but the more he dwelt upon the matter the more Creve came to wonder if that voice spoke with the forked tongue of pride rather than duty perhaps kts battle was at last done and it was time to defend the outer doors of the gates from Agra pinna or Bellis Corona little by little reinforcements dribbled in from the outer system some were lost the moment they hit real space ill-fortune bringing them under the guns of the black fleet others fared better braving the dead fire zone between ke diaz equator and coming safely into the waiting arms of mighty phalanx first to do so were captain roost for Kantos 5th company of the crimson fists driven back from Casa parte ox with the remnants of the akkadian 14th a dozen battered cruisers limped in from Sola maratti they're hangers crammed with the tanks of the arm at 51st and the Knights of house taranis their crew whispered tales of an escape in the face of inconceivable odds one achieved only went slate-gray cruisers had emerged from the warp and boarded the leading vessels of the pursuing fleet upon learning those cruisers bore the faded brands of the space wolves Creed inquired of Auburn high fell if further reinforcements and might yet arrived from Fenris he received no other answer than a stony glare the last to arrive was not only the most unexpected but also the most welcomed a mechanicus fleet inbound from the arid backwater of the re-add system there were the pragmatist Creed saw their arrival as an opportunity to remake a portion of Cadia shattered defenses in this he was disappointed the newcomers had suffered travails of their own though the fleet remained battle-ready their Scutari Manipal had been greatly thinned by strife and the ranks of our turf aces and battle Mason's expended to defend a now abandoned archaeological site worse the fleet's commander the arch Magus Belisarius call intoned a warning the Creed was initially loved to believe for it meant that the danger to the Imperium indeed to the galaxy as a whole was far greater than any yet new in a council of war held within the remains of Kazakh rafts command bastion call laid out the scope of his discoveries on Ariat few understood the detail of his theories the arch Magus constantly slipped into and out of the buzzing binary can´t of the Omni sire and even those parts of the explanation rendered in high gothic dealt in subjects so arcane that call might as well not have shared them at all yet the singular awful truth was plain enough before long eons the Akkadian pylons and others like them had held the galaxy together without them as the tides of the immaterial would consume all Abaddon had spent 10,000 years obliterating the pylon fields weakening the stitches holding reality together non present who wanted to believe calls words but the Clarion of truth was a sound peculiar to itself moreover the theory made new sense of so much the rising darkness of the passing millennia the ever increasing prevalence of warp storms the despoilers obsession with kDa Avedon's Black Crusade so long dismissed as failures if ones greatly to the Imperials cost had been the product of strategy more layered than any had believed cancellous Ark ref remark the Gothic war for millennia they had been viewed as causes in and of themselves now they will reveal this camouflage for Abaddon's true agenda one envisaged by an immortals I in the prosecution of a war without end Cole did not speak of everything he knew or guessed Vale Walker's cryptic missives remained his secret but he assured all that hope was not lost that the pylons contains the key to Abaddon's defeat as well as his victory this last was merely a projection the first guess the arch Magus had entertained in many centuries if not the first lie offered to allies Unversed in illogical precepts of the omnis sire and yet Cole told himself his words contained a kernel of truth the pylons were tools man it was one of the founding precepts of the depta smacking aqus that the difference between tools and weapons existed only in narrow minds to hear call speak of it there was no way to know how many pylons had already fallen or how close to the tipping point that galaxy had come yet one thing was clear to creed retreat from Katia was no longer an option Abaddon would be denied his prize today as he had in millennia past all that remained was to determine how that impossible goal was to be achieved and swiftly before the quiescent black fleet who went to new fury the first move occurred in the skies phalanxes abused plasma drives hauled the battle fortress southward across the equator attaining geostationary orbit over the pylon fields of Cadia second ders every eye upon the bridge scoured the astral or speck sees and sensor banks for the black fleets attempts to counter the move no such retaliation came phalanx had taught Avedon's captain's caution if not respect it seemed non amongst them had any stomach for mutually assured destruction that day with the skies thus secured from the threat of bombardment Creed fashioned a new defense trench works and Aegis lines were established across the elijan pylon fields the catacombs below originally envisioned as a final line of defense now became the sprawling heart of a makeshift fortress above ground massed kadian ranks waited alongside the sisters of our martyred lady below calls adepts labored beneath the unblinking gaze of their Scutari protectors the dwindled adept assist at ease now reinforced by the crimson fists faith and the survivors of gardens depleted command formed a single strike force and a Master Cora Hale only the iron wolves forsook unity of purpose striking out on their own to roam the elijan perimeter Cora hell disdain their choice blaming the ancient emnity between the sons of rus and of the lion but Guerra Don wasn't so sure he had fought alongside the Wolves of femoris many times before and had never known any so taciturn as the iron wolves that night when the wind carried distant howls across a lesion a chill passed through Guerra Don's bones though he did not know why ours crawled by with every second the inevitable grew closer fevered anticipation of the fateful hour grew worse than the fear of death all who waited on the elijan fields with a born of Cadia or some distant world silently yearned for the battle to begin for death or triumph to find them now while they yet had nerve and strength to face it Celestine and her Gemini superior hovered silently in the skies above their radiant sprites against a dark future yet even the living Saints felt foreboding in those hours waking dreams assailed her with each new dawn visions of a fortress of fire of its defenders drowning beneath a bloody tide her wings damaged in those dreams Celestine could not have run that flood each time she made the attempt its waters claimed her and yet each time there was a presence beyond the tide a warrior's silhouette familiar and yet not trapped behind a wall of ice strewn with the black legions dead each dawn Celestine blinked the vision away knowledge would come in its own time until then the Emperor would guide her as he always had she was his hand amidst the roots of the pylons Belisarius call wrestled with secrets denied to mankind for ageless millennia fusion welders assailed the faceless stone blazing silently for hours untold as they sought samples for analysis calls and servitor probes into smooth-edged breaches in the pylons flanks set loose every functional tex crier he had salvaged from the abandoned compound on area at six nothing both roof the black skin resisted all attempts to breach it contact was lost with each servitor precisely six seconds after it vanished into the depths and thus Criers found nothing that was not already on record all call knew for certain was that the low-level resonance amply quantified by generations long dead was growing in amplitude indeed the several of the pylons showed signs of fatigue as if they're silent exertions whereas damaging to the structures themselves as to the squalling currents of the immaterial call hypothesize that as one pylon field was destroyed the burden intensified upon those that remained when one fields ceased to function those on distant worlds automatically adapted was Cadia the last the arch Magus had their way of knowing but decided it was only logical to assume that it was still the pylons refused to yield their secrets until that was a cloaked figure made its presence known with his thoughts thus directed the arch Magus at last grasped the elegance of the pylons construction of technologies whose meanest function far outstripped the dreams of his long dead mentors there the detail remained as far beyond him as his explanation of the pylons function was beyond his allies on the surface call at last grasped the shape of the makers intent imagination awoken to fevered life by the possibilities call began his Labor's anew meanwhile in the silent void above que DEA's southern pole dormant hangers stirred to life and the first drop ships blazed into an outer atmosphere choked with the debris of failed conquest the Battle of Elysian was about to begin the Battle of Elisha Enfield's the first wave came from the West Landis skirted the outer edge of phalanxes bombardment zone vomiting a filthy tide across the pylon field they came from a hundred worlds liberated from the worship of the false Emperor their petty desires stoked by blasphemous canticle and empty promise until they ruled like a furnace hive Ganga's manufacturing workers deserters from the Emperor's lies they swarmed about the pylons a mass given purpose by the demagogic dark apostles railing in their midst as they crossed a line invisible to the mortal eye phalanxes bombardment cannons roared snatching hundreds of ragged madmen to their deaths still the cultists came on the survivors of the kadian ninth held their fire to the very last moment ignoring the reckless auto gun and Stuber fire whining over their heads every man amongst them recalled the shame of the Creegan gates where they had fled alongside the thirty-third every man had lost comrades in the brutal culling that had followed , czars instilling discipline fruit bloody example but one factor let them resolve more than any other the chanting mass bearing down upon the ninth served as a dark mirror a licentiousness that faith been a little different the soldiers of the 9th hated the cultists were daring to embrace a path they themselves had forsaken and now punished them for that barked words of command ix rose up out of their trench line and opened fire ragged cultists scream their last and fell dead amidst the dust the voices of apostate preachers faded as cannon fire sucked the air from their lungs hundreds crumpled beneath last fire and Earthshaker bombardment but thousands more came on the boots of the living stompin the dead - bloody awful in their determination to reach the kadian lines even as the cultists thronged for the doleful roar of plasma drives heralded the arrival of new landing craft ramps slammed down into the dirt to the north and east and a baton second assault began the battle sisters of our martyred lady held the northern line Celestine at their head they met the rush of flame belching demon engines with a steadfast roar of bulk guns and the coral bellow of their exorcists Seraphim Sisterhood's jinked and sword for the maze of pylons hunting warps myths before their dark ministrations could return thundered war engines to the fray to the east Baroness Vardis his knights served as artillery support for the tanks of the 185 meeting the battle scar Titans of the liji oval carnem and the massed tanks of the crimson slaughter with fury fit to shake the roots of the world itself but it was in the south where the KT innate and 21st held the line that Abaddon's true assault fell there amidst the ruins of pylons toppled in antiquity the Black Legion advanced through the shrieking ruin of phalanxes bombardment they came in an armoured column two miles wide and twice that deep the dust clouds of biker outriders upon their flag and banners that had once challenged the defenses of terror itself ripping and snapping in the slipstream shells fell like black rain in their path littering the southern approach with twisted wrecks held rakes screeched overhead strafing volleys shredding the makeshift artillery positions the hydras of the eight engaged the demon craft but it was an unending flock mortal might could only disperse it not see it destroyed with his allies beset on all sides and with no orbital support say phalanxes bombardment Cora hell divided his adept Astarte strike force amalric's black Templars and Gardens Imperial fists reinforced the southern lines while the crimson fists in Cora Hell's fourth company led their might to the north of the iron walls there were no confirmed sightings though the ape spotters noted that the wrecks of the Black Legion column latest near a ruin de bastion some distance southwest of the trench line hours passed Abaddon's war bands closed around the pylon fields like a gauntleted fist squeezing tight about Creed's command to the south the Black Legion cast aside their battered transports and hurled themselves bodily at the eighth there guttural battle cries a marrow chilling herald to their onset in the east Baroness Vardis found an honorable end worthy of her forebears her crippled Knight dealing the death blow to the traitor Riva Furioso Rex before reactor containment failed the Baroness's death redouble her lance mates determination in the proud history of house Raven non perished so valiantly as they in that hour bereft of the night's heavy armament the colonel of the 185th ordered a fighting retreat in his terror forgetting there was no longer any round two yield the eastern lines would have fallen in that hour and put for the intervention of Cara Hell's Wharf company and try kantos fear screaming from the skies in golden thunder walks they reached the breach trench line in the very moment service desk ran on led his crimson armored traitors in a final assault as the crimson fists veteran devastators dueled with the surviving Titans steadfast angel and fool and saber clashed amidst the charred remnants of house Ravan bitter history lending fury to every blow mckusick rough the kadian ninth had fled at the Elysian field they died by the hundreds without faltering matching the madness of their foes with a coward zeal for redemption yet little by little their line of bayonets shrank inwards overwhelmed seeing the danger Creed ordered new reserves into the West but the foe were too many though the banners of the seventy thief and the one hundred and third reached the Western trenches before they were overrun the ninth was beyond salvation in death they had earned Redemption day ground on in tonight and then in today once again each fleeting hour standing witness to martyrdoms by the score not one demon engine later warped claw on the northern trench lines for the sisters of our martyred lady met them on the open plain beyond the light of battle was upon them the will of the Emperor coursing through their veins the battle sisters paid a bloody price for their resolve but they felt neither pain nor loss for celestine presence was both a balm and a spur to holy madness in the east rouse tri canto perished upon the chain fist of baron ochs that blood haunted only to be avenged in kind by Cora Hell's relic sword in the south the colonel of the 21st driven mad by demonic voices that at home since the fall of kazakh rough seas the Vox caster and ordered his soldiers to retreat he perished before he could repeat that command the Emperor's mercy delivered from commissar Strang smoking bulk pistol but the damage had been done the 21st their morale already upon a bayonets edge wavered Creed strove to rally them his voice booming across the Vox grid as it had so many times before but now the Lord casted on himself came under assault Abaddon had sworn to crush K Diaz last resistance himself and now he came to do so he did not enter the maelstrom of battle alone the bringers of despair their trophy rocks thick with the heads of kadian offices teleported into the hearts of Creed's commands sky shield dozens perished in bloody moments ripped apart by the fury of the black legions finest warriors only Creed survived shoved the board of Valkyrie a Kells hand the color sergeants last act too failed here in a lifetime of unflinching service with the Apes command scattered or slain and the 21st in full retreat the southern front collapsed dark praises on their lips the chosen of Abaddon overrun the few remaining trenches held by the 21st and rampaged east across the elijan fields american garden planted their banners full in the black legions path a ceramide wall of black and gold to serve as a breakwater against the tide that valor alone been the measure of victory the elijan fields would have been won that day but the sons of dawn were too few and the Black Legion many their redoubts became an island swallowed by a sea of madness and the traitors swept on the artillery companies of the 185th perish first overwhelmed from ground they food secure as the Black Tide consumed the 180 v command squadrons the battle-worn brothers of the crimson fists v counter-attacks their Baltar's reaping vengeance for their fool and captain robbed of his staunchest Ally Cora hell rallied the last of the dark angels in the shadow of a skyscraping pylon as the Crimson slaughter how old fresh battle cries the sons of Caliban prepared to sell their lives dearly in the West the 75th and the four hundred and third defended a rampart of dead the wall of charred and bloody flesh grew taller with each new onslaught a treacherous goose licked mass that claimed as many lives as the defenders volleys yet still the cultists came on as yet another assault ended in sudden ruin the town of the cultists chant altered hell fire flared across the points of rusted icons dark prayers billowed with the smoke and the first demons clawed their way on to the elijan fields the hell spawn flickered inconsistent as dreams in the shadow of the ancient pylons but their tour was cut as savagely as always there whispered promises and the droning of flies no less pervasive for the infirmity of flesh warped fire scored the bloody rampart lie some demoness danced into the breaches than the Western Front crumbled Celestine saw the danger only to the north that the traitors assault crumbled entirely hammered and split by the unwavering zeal of the adaptive sorority oz the battle sisters had paid a high price for their victory but it was victory nonetheless the lights of the Living Saint Shan as bright as ever the valor of her reborn Gemini superior undimmed southwards they went hymns of battle echoing about the pylon the thunder of bulk guns never far behind as the remnants of the KD n8 we've drew into the catacombs Avedon lettuce terminators in bloody pursuit other war bands followed and soon the outermost passages resounded to the thunder of autocannons and the screams of the dying their ranks bolstered by calls qatari the eighth fought like lions for every inch of those catacombs each blast the war became a choke points where sacrifice for precious moments each crossroads a corpse crew read oust greed Ford with the rearguard leading by example wherever he could with their colours lost their command dead upon the field above he knew the ape needed a talisman a promise of hope in a battle swiftly turning to defeat the eight did not disappoint him not lightly had they been named the Lord castellane zone they would have followed Creed into the fires of demon worlds and only he led them there and with every defy and curse every rearguard sacrifice to the despoilers on set they prove themselves worthy of their beloved general deeper still in the catacomb Network arch Magus call labored on at Rosen's direction-- he focused his attention on the pylon that served as the command node for the elijan fields with each moment the tendrils of his machine consciousness Wendy deeper into the pylons pathway his understanding of its arcane constructions magnifying with each binary calculation at last he comprehended the full scope and purpose of the pylon fields the elegance of a design millennia beyond the advances of the adept is mechanicus trees on the infinite watched from the shadows careful not to provoke the cutter fron breaches tasks with his obliteration should he attempt betrayal he still did not know himself if he intended the possibilities offered by the immediate future were too tempting yet to finally balanced and he come as a thief or a savior did he any longer know how to make the choice the uncertain the necron watched the arch Magus at his work the western wall of the vast cavern collapsed with an ear-splitting roar black armor traitors crashed into the line of waiting electro priests align the collapse within moments of the first blow now it on himself hacked and tore at their head the demon sword Drac nyan cleaving alloy and bone without effort call saw none of this his tri-level consciousness locked in the joys of discovery trace on watch the breaches torsion cannons rip into the traitors ranks man knew at once that the katha Franz could not prevail thief or savior the decision had been made for him at least for the moment reaching beneath his scaled cloak the necron weave drew a gleaming fractural tohsaka labyrinth and hurled it into the fray it bounced twice the shifting energy fields decomposing into glowing go Samir strands then its captive dimensions unfolded in a burst of dazzling light disgorging a new army into the war-torn cabin this was not a necron Legion nor even a body of troops drawn from a single world the tesseract contents comprised the merest fragment of trey songz imperial collection drawn from archives filled to bursting or storage vaults given over to duplicate exhibits some had languished in sol manassas stasis vaults for millennia the fleeting century is passing unnoticed others had joined the collection in but recent times their captivity measured in months or years for Lieutenant Commander Quran T's of the ultramarines barely an eye blink had passed since the days the heresy for his contempt at dreadnaughts and mortal brothers alike no guidance was needed save the presence of the blasphemous icons of chaos and the Imperials double-headed eagle the dreadnought talon at their head the time lost ultramarines prosecuted their eternal battle and knew the others were not so Swift to react the vestroia 21st taken during one of the innumerable green-skinned offenses along the segmental obscurus found themselves beset with stasis sickness their heads swimming as perception snap back into step with reality but the roar of battle curses many ills of the mind and the desire for survival transcend all existential doubt orders rang out and the shaken vestroia pnes entered the fray joined by snipers from long dead Tanith salamanders thought lost during the clovie and disaster and a lone warrior in golden armor his scarlet plume and eagle heraldry seldom seen so far from the cradle of mankind with the arrival of the impossible reinforcements the Black Legion assaults stalled his self-appointed duty done treason returned to the shadows the role of Savior might perhaps have suited him in that hour but self-sacrifice was a task he gladly left to organics yet there was born amongst the tesseract loose group who did not join the battle but surveyed it coldly from the fringes Katarina gray facts Inquisitor of the or doha rheticus was not known for leaping to rash conclusions for she counted rashness as but one of the many paths to heresy her bodyguard drawn from the fifty-fifth kept ik eagles had learned this harsh lesson over many years of indentured service their last guns were leveled and safeties disengaged not a single scion fired the despoilers wrath the nodal caverns shook with the fury of war the bedrock of the planet trembled at the clash of immeasurable wills as in the Elysian Fields above this was no battle of tactics of grand strategy calculated and unleashed it was a brawl for what at the closest of quarters the dying near enough to see the hatred in their Slayers eyes lieutenant commander Chianti's knew something was amiss the broad strokes of the battle were correct but the details were wrong it seemed obvious that the foe was some nest of traitors fallen from the Emperor's light but their heraldry was unfamiliar even the war gear of his allies was wrong somehow cruder then it should have been but one certainty overrode those doubts the foes of the Imperium had risen and would be put down by the might of ultra Mar the thunderclap of a demolish issue ripped call from his by narak reverie just as the last synapse connection snapped into place many-faceted eyes took in the losing battle in the cabin his cerebrum slipped into war mode it would take time for the Pilon know to process his instructions for the schema he had fashioned to unfurl his carapace crackled as tertiary life-support bled power into his weapons augments Vox grills cleared the syllables of the lingua techni striving without conscious thought around the chamber the voices of electro priests and Scutari took up the chant and wavering lines found strength in the Omni sighs blessings the hunched figure of Belisarius called quickened an unfamiliar uncertainty in Abaddon's black heart had the adepts of mars at last divine the strategy of eons the uncertainty blossomed into doubt the Despoiler had sought to break Cadiz defenses before assuring them into oblivion the brutal hierarchy of the black fleet required a show of strength the dark gods demanded it but had he heard Horace said failed in his grand design by succumbing to bravado for seeking battle when nan was needed had he Abaddon now fallen into the clutches of pride recognizing that the battle for Cadia had reached its last deadly crux Abaddon commanded his sorcerers to breach the immaterial no sooner had the first cracks torn reality's veil then a host of blood hungry demons burst free into the cabin with a snarl not entirely directed at his first the Despoiler dragged up every last scrap of his warp granted strength and hurled himself into battle anew the last contempt affair ripped apart by a trio of Hell brutes and the ultramarines faith grew bleak fire danced through the air coalescing into the sombre shadows of the Legion of the Damned on yielding they marched to the ultramarines rescue Baltar's spitting soul fire to consume the corrupt a many armed sloshy demon led a capering horde into the vestroia ranks false and blasphemous promises spilling from its lips call sola atomizer flared and the Beast disintegrated into glowing dust scions of the Kappa giggles collapsed retching blood bile through their rebreathers as the bountiful gifts of nurdle found perches in their lungs cata fronds converge their fire melting a pack of maula fiends to scrap the cavern trembled dust scattering from newly opened fissures colossal stalactites millennia in the making fell like stone pulping traitor and loyalist alike Cadia stands the battle cry thundered across the ruin of the breached cavern wall it issued from a thousand voices searing four from a quarter the Black Legion assumed tight within their merciless grasp the kdn a fired again then with Creed's battle cry the call to arms that had kept Qadir defiance for those past weeks still upon their lips they surged over broken stone and bloody corpses to avenge their comrades howling shapes came with them blurs of Fang and slate grey armor the iron wall of sigil upon every polygon woven led the charge battle brothers lost to the space wolves ancestral curse since K Diaz encirclement even those who followed hi fella monks them fought with a feral wildness in their eyes their humanity slipping away with every blow struck the iron wolves had embraced this knowledge they knew with certainty that the savagery of war would only accelerate their devolution but they loosed the beasts in their souls all the same for us and for the all-father the Black Legion ground on 10,000 years of hay drove them ten thousand years of Pride and fury the bringers of despair tore at the time lost ultramarines with blade and fists rending cataphract a armor and pulping the flesh beneath the talon of horus ripped Koran Tessa's sword arm from its socket Drac nyan split him into the captains loss only stiffened his battle brothers resolved and they met the fury of the Black Legion with discipline instilled at Gilman's own hands but even as the kapa kegels poured their fire into the black legions flank it became apparent that discipline and fury alone who would not overcome ten thousand years of blessed hate something more was needed with a yawning groan an area of ceiling the size of a landing field gave way Acadians and kept excatly the debris the Black Legion fought on Abaddon parentheses sundered corpse lifeless at his feet sought out the soul whose obliteration would at last break the defenders will pride had led Abaddon to this hour it could not be ignored only sated his black gaze settled on the heavy said general who had barely escaped him on the planes above Creed kailia had stood long through his efforts and the dark gods would now take his soul a bellowed command and gore slicked demons sprang screaming at the KD n8 the terminators of the Black Legion close behind golden light spilled through the sundered ceiling flooding the nodal chamber Celestine the living Saint corpse bride of the eternal Emperor she showed no hesitation no doubt fire streaming from her wingtips she swooped to confront the Despoiler demons pounced but a sweep of the ardent blade cast them broken to the ground wind possessed sword talons clawing at limb and blade but the Gemini's superior clothed them from the air soon they faced one another spiritual daughter of the beneficent Emperor and heir to the greatest traitor in the history of mankind no words were spoken none were needed soul fire roiled as the ardent blade struck drat nyan the wail of hope and despair shivering the spirits of all who heard Babylon was the mightier by far alone Celestine had no hope of triumph but she was not alone the Gemini superior were ever at her side the free fighting hers warned against the Despoiler of Legends at last slivers of dator congealed in the mechanical recesses of calls mind the nodal grid was ready a labor that might yet overshadow 10,000 years of lesser works was prepared and yet the arch Magus suffered an onset of doubt what if the necron had lied calls delving 'he's had only scratched the surface there was still so much about the pylons function that he could only guess at as the last of the time lost ultramarines was struck his dying blow calls priorities snapped back into focus logic dictated the unmistakable danger before his eyes take precedence over and substantiated premonition offering one last prayer to the Omni sire call sent the command it began slowly the resonant pulse of the pylons normally unheard by all save warp sensitives who grew steadily in pitch in volume louder it pulsed a dull Rumble consuming the roar of battle all across the elijan fields black lightning crackled along the pylons flanks combatants from both sides collapsed blood streaming from ears and noses psychos froze as their connection to the immaterial faded their conscious Minds dragged into oblivion black light left from the pylons pinnacles not just from those upon the elijan fields but every functioning pylon yet on Cadia the beams converged in the upper atmosphere the outer edge brushing phalanxes golden flank as the battle fortresses engines flared in evasive action the monolithic beam seared across the Stars mess able Lance aimed at the heart of the eye of terror slowly the shift to small for even the most sensitive of instruments to tally the oculus terribly began to shrink though nominee nodal Calvin knew the scope of calls undertaking its effects were immediate and pronounced Avedon's host of demons their whole unreality already made fickle by the pylons formerly dormant state slipped further into the abyss that spawned them demon fused tracers bellowed their last as their cursed halves were torn into the void possessed war engines fell silent greyfox screamed wordlessly as the immaterial purging grasp of the pylons clawed at her mind righteous anger her anchor on reality Shores she clung to the precipice refusing to yield even Abaddon staggered under the assault and but the Despoiler had ever stood as much apart from his dark patrons as at their side and he endured the fading of their blessings with snarling fortitude others were not so fortunate the Legion of the Damned their presence in the mortal world ever inconstant blinked out like wind gutted candles their flames snuffed by the pylons power even Celestine the manifestation of the Emperor's will grew dim the golden light faded and with it their hopes of mankind faith the same faith that had sustained carriers defenses in those darkest hours began to recede valor faded alongside not just from within the ranks of Creed's swollen regiment but also among the kepi keegels and the vestroia so recently said loose from trey songz prison as for the Black Legion they cared not that the better parts of their demon host was swept away and the remainder weakened they saw only the physical proof of their ancient belief the false emperor's light was fading and took new strength from the sight the battle for the nodal cavern shifted its pace quickening even - I'd amongst his snarling brethren gauntlets locked about the blood thirst as throat even as the beasts tore him apart woven avenged him ripping the demon asunder with Fang and claw and but one by one they too succumbed to their wounds in the wake of dead and dying traitors one last offering to the old father Creed stood firm the eighth with him their example spread to the Stern men of vestroia the keppa keegels determined that the scions of the scholar progeny 'm would not be outdone by mere Guardsmen found their courage him pride through it all the jewel of ideologies war on the Despoiler on one side the living Saint and her Gemini superior upon the other what had begun as an equal battle now favored Abaddon before the Dark Gods had blessed him he had stood amongst the mightiest of the adapte societies seldom bested in battle bereft of the Emperor's light Celestine was a mortal shell reborn too many times from the tides of the material her handmaidens were extensions of her faded light weakened by the immaterial recession though they're resolved in waiver the outcome was never in doubt Eleanor spiraled away from the duel blood oozing from her lips blackguard closed around Genevieve a wall of Terminator armor and roaring chain blades that even her blessed sword could not pierce again and again the ardent blade clashed with drat neon but Celestine efforts were now given never solely to her own defense and even these desperate Perry's grew weaker with every stroke at last a backhand blow cast Celestine to her knees Crete saw the living Saint fall and knew at once that her death would mark the end of all they had striven for bellowing orders he threw the eighth Ford in one last desperate charge drachma and slashed down Celestine screamed and convulsed as Abaddon raised the demon blade for a second strike the living Saint clambered unsteadily to her feet one hand clamped over a bloody gash in her armors side but her gaze was unfaltering agony exploded behind Abaddon's eyes searing pain arctic Ross his sign abscess neurons flared and died consumed by an attack channeled through the fading skins of the immaterial the demon blade meant to pierce Celestine's heart froze mid strike Katharina gray fox gritted her teeth channeling into a psychic assault all the rage she had known since her reawakening though she was loved to admit it trace on had been correct her priorities had strayed and inquisitors duty was to the Imperium not to her own slighted being moreover while all heresies must be purged by a fire some clamored for its caress more urgently than others retribution would find the full saints of that gray fox was certain but Abaddon sins held the prior claim blinded and staggering the Despoiler fought back his indomitable will meeting the psychic fire with some of its own strength already sapped by a constant battle against the pylons pull gray foxes hold on his mind snapped but she wasn't yet done as the malediction faded the inquisitors condemned herb Alton roared shells scattering off his armor Abaddon stuff towards Celestine once more a rush of bayonets blocked his path the KD n8 were determined to preserve their beloved Saint even at the cost of their lives than die they did by the Dozen by the score hacked apart as the Despoiler strove to reach the wounded Celestine with their blood they brought the Saints Precious Moments the chamber shuddered the noble pylon flared again seeding war mode functions to his secondary and tertiary consciousnesses arch Magus call interrogated the data streams from his surviving servitors it was working the impossible was coming to pass the KT and pylon fields dormant for thousands upon thousands of years were actually pushing back the eye of Terra's warped embrace across the cavern demons lost their last foothold in real space cast back into oblivion by the pylons black light leaving behind naught but the bodies of their victims in space above navigators lost their bearings the kadian gate a legend of becalmed warp tides since the earliest days of the Imperium a grew motionless as a frozen millpond the layered voice yields of phalanx collapsed to nothing as their connection to the immaterial faded teleport relays flickered their transit corridors diffusing as the war proceeded from phalanxes strategic Commodore travaux tuck in the rush of reports and wondered what it all meant ahead beyond the jet-black utterances of que Diaz pylons chaos cruisers broke cover from amongst the will of eternities debris field and drove hard for the safety of the black fleets big guns as recon Thunder Hawks burned towards the black stones grave travaux kept a suspicious eyes fixed on the all specs hollow grid his instincts screamed of imminent danger but his conscious mind saw none and prepare to embrace one over the other travail watched and waited for new data Abaddon stood like a rock jutting in a river of flesh and bone Drac nyan carving a bloody sway with every strike the Despoiler and the wounded Saint became the battles focus every soul within the nodal chamber living or damned knew that victory or defeat turned upon the fate of those champions the terminators of the Black Legion regained their masters side only to come under renewed fire from hotshot las guns the vestroia 21st were torn apart by a counter-charge of power armor chosen the stalemate ground on battle bloody enough to whet corns appetites not only the lord of battles being able to peer through the growing dead zone of the kadian pylon field slowly the fate of the northern flank turned the Black Legion driven from the beleaguered kept agiels but a masked fire of calls maniples seizing the opportunity the gray fox rejoined the embattled Shock Troopers herevery barked order laced with unambiguous threat more afraid of the grim Inquisitor than the guns of the Black Legion of the Eagles advanced taking command of a Kazakh in platoon a Creed led another charge across the bloody ground the Lord castellane had no doubt about his abilities a match Abaddon might for might but the astra military mess 'we had ever been to overcome with numbers that which could not be bested from skill trees on the infinite watched the battle from a rocky perch aware that history unfolded before him his taste for glory had faded replaced by the urge to claim a trinket from the momentous hour perhaps a thief was all he was meant to be metal fingers toyed with a tesseract labyrinth its unfathomable dimensions fit to carry a single trophy from embattled Cadia but what should that trophy be so many prior is worthy of preservation clamored for attention astray culverin blasts shudder trees on stalagmite and he retired to safer ground the tesseract would wait whatever his prize its historic value would only increase as the course of victory tipped one way or the other creed cited on his pistol and Center laser burst through a chaos terminators cracked eyepiece before him AG out of warp tainted Promethean immolated a file of kazakh in a dark shape loomed from the flames eyes burning like curls the Talon of Horus roared snatching the rest of Creed's escort into oblivion the death of defiance a baton lurched away from Celestine her blade ripping free of his flesh the wound sieved as if aflame it had been millennia since he had been hurt so and his spirit boiled with the need for revenge but as the KD n8 surged to reclaim their beloved general Avedon realized he had no time for the luxury of pride the last vestiges of the war were retreating before the pylons arcane energies if he were to depart it would have to be now reluctantly his eyes never leaving celestine Abaddon gave the order to withdraw as the vengeful spirits teleport anchors engaged the honorable warrior Abaddon had once been acknowledged the feat kts defenders had managed they had lost though they did not yet know it but they had also won he had sought to break Cadiz spirit send the vanquished cells of its garrisons screaming into the warp he had not done so before the defenders incredulous gazes and as your lightning crackled across the nodal cavern and the surviving warriors of the Black Legion faded into nothingness Creed polled angrily away from the medic attempting to treat his hand blinking away after images as the implications hammered home I said this world's fate in motion before I even made planet form Abaddon had said the Lord Castellon wished he could believe the words were mere bravado but his heart knew otherwise following the sudden cessation arch Magus calls first fort was to recheck the nodal grids function finding it satisfactory he broke from war mode and took inventory of his remaining forces greyfac shook with the effort of keeping her soul centered as the warp vacuums or to claim it treason slipped the tesseract labyrinth beneath his cloak man regretfully allowed that Ezekiel Abaddon would not grace his collection at least not that day now as for Celestine the living Saint stared upward through the ruined cavern roof and into the starlit skies beyond her manner that of one who already knew what would happen next on the surface the Thunder Hawks of the crimson slaughter and warped dropships of the traitor legions braved the defenders fire retrieving whatever dark brothers and demon engines they could the cultists and heretics citizenry never more than fodder to weary que Diaz guns were abandoned to their fate tall Guerra Don rallied what remained of the Imperial fists scarce a score of battle brothers from the third company still fought some through horrendous wounds of the first only sergeant furin remained Guerra Don was struck by the irony the third had only been on phalanx because they had been considered too inexperienced to join the chapters crusade of vengeance those who remained that nothing more to prove assuming they survived what was to come next by contrast marshal Amer X black Templars harried the retreating traitors slaughtering the crew of one drop ship before they could take flight and bringing another to down with missile fire even discounting amor X efforts not all the Black Legion arrives safely at their destination caught in the turbulent currents of the warp scores were torn apart or simply scattered as monomolecular dust across que DEA's atmosphere but Abaddon survived bloody and consumed with fury at his failure from the vengeful spirit stratagem he sounded the kneel of que Diaz doom deep within the will of eternities debris cloud warp sniffs heard Abaddon's order all across the largest fragments of debris a mass of ancient stone the size of a small moon banks of plasma drives roared into life the black stones Corp shuddered as engines for to overcome the inertia of orbit then slowly at first but with ever-increasing velocity the ungainly missile broke orbit and roared planet wood across the black fleet plasma drives blazed as soon as the last dropship were aboard pulling away from atmosphere at whatever speed their captains could urge as the ventral spirit led the Exodus Abaddon beheld the blue gray orb of Cadia one last time for ten thousand years that world had been as much as fair as the Warriors their garrisoned its fortresses but nothing defied the will of chaos forever nothing defied his will forever loosing a peal of dark laughter the Despoiler decanted a drought of broke wine into a chalice fashioned from the skull of Fabio's biles clown of Horus and toasted the death of one ancient Pharaoh with the remains of another aboard phalanx Commodore travail at last realized the chaos cruisers purpose within the debris cloud and ordered the battle stations batteries to engage the improvised missile but in death the blackstone resisted phalanxes fire as it had failed to do in life a section of the ramshackle drivetrain went dark beneath the bombardment but by then que Diaz gluttonous gravity well had seized the plunging black stone all travaux could do was broadcast a warning to those on the planet's surface down the blackstone wreckage plunged its outer edge blazing red with atmospheric friction but the will of eternity had been forged to withstand fiercer fires than that nature could provide though the last of the warp Smith's perished their HAARP shelters burned away by Callias wrath the main body plunged on a bolt of flaming brimstone cast from Abaddon's dark hand all upon the planet's surface the black stones coming it's soul wrenching on sets screeched through the quickening winds its presence already disrupting the complex web of thermals and weather patterns across the beleaguered planet on KT etosha s-- half a world away from the slaughter of the Elysian Fields the defenders of scattered Garrison's deemed too insignificant for Abaddon's attention beheld the black stones on set as a pinprick of fire emits shrieking skies at first it was taken for a ship's reactor going critical in how to rob it but as the moments tick past the fireball grew ever larger it became clear that the light heralded an altogether different scale of disaster winds howling about it the artificial meteor impacted Qadir therefore love Cadia kailia shuddered impossible forces jarring it loose of age-old orbit the survivors clinging to the ruined fortress of Cadia Tartarus barely had time to scream those beneath the vast impact site perished first superheated wind roaring in their ears before it seared flesh from bone and reduced bone to scatter - the black stone remnant struck gouging a crater hundreds of miles inbreds mountains crumbled to dust seas vanished into plumes of scalding steam continental plates rumbled and groaned as they shifted beneath Titanic forces not seen since Cadia first cooled from the starstuff of the galactic void the tremors spread tidal waves and screaming particulate winds there heralds coastal bastions that had survived bombardment and siege drowned beneath the unnatural tide ripped from their foundations and dragged beneath the squalling seized the island of Rands storm vanished entirely its shell ravaged landing fields drowned beneath the waves a thousand miles inland on Cadia second us the enduring spires of kasev ark at last fell smashed apart by waters of their Cadoo Cadiz see as the tidal shelves buckled forests that had been old when mankind first settled Cadia burned away in the briefest of moments crusto platelets shattered and split the Furious lifeblood of the world boiling forth long dormant volcanoes flare to life along the Ross var mountains pyroclastic flows consuming all in their path the great killing fields of Tyre Rock site of Creed's Ascension split asunder and vanished into magma Goom swallowed by the world's torment at the elijan fields half a world away from the impact site they heard the roar of the winds and saw the dark on rush of particulate clouds that blocked out the Sun the canny sword what cover they could amongst the pylons and ruin war machines the slow-witted perished torn apart by the vaporized bones of Cadia the prayers of battle sisters and cultists alike were snatched away by the planets dying breath unheard by any deity or Saint in the noddle cabin the ceiling cracked wider still raining boulders down on Creed's bloodied victors the wind grew hurling tanks across the pylon fields crushing those who had sought shelter beneath them ancient pylons gave up their grasp on the bedrock toppling like petrified trees the pylon fields beam of dark light flickered as the monoliths fell the retreat of the immaterial faltered man then slowly reversed the storm rage for minutes that seemed eternities and then fell away into hurricane winds they blew over a world forever altered Cadia Tosh's was gone obliterated by fire and ground beneath howling seas the korean fault bane of Cadia Tashia since the age of strife had ruptured one last fateful time and the planetary crust split apart Qadir Primus was half drowned its forested mountain sides now isolated islands scattered across a new ocean kailia second Earth's lay reeved in fire its continental plates sinking as the pressure of their neighbors forced them steadily inwards none of it mattered Cadia was already dead but even then there was worse to come as the aftershocks of impact rip through the dying Rock more pylon shattered against the dust room Tundra not just that the elijan fields but at the lesser sites of Kisan troske and vogue as the pylons fell the nodal web stuttered and then withered entirely the dark light beam calls spear into the heart of the eye of terror flickered once more and died a new sound peel through the howling winds the dark laughter of gods too long denied their prize the crimson maelstrom of the eye of terror pulse the new and reached out to embrace sundered Cadia save for the presence of the pylons the immaterial would have claimed Cadia long ago the long dead artisans who had set the pylon fields and Cady as living rock could not have foreseen the eye of Terra's cataclysmic birth could not have known the vital bulwark their works would become but now with the pylons fall that tendrils of the war played their first loving caress upon kadian real space and the demons of the Dark Gods spilled forth these were not the flickering manifestations so lately loosed upon the world their presence in real space and a constant challenge by the pylons power these were the God's servants hail and hell fed by the raw stuff of chaos they first appeared amidst drowned Cadia Tosh's where the black stones demise had torn a rent in reality's veil but as the eye of Terror slipped its ancient bonds The rifts multiplied dragging the beleaguered world into the bowels of the immaterial dark laughter echoed across skies still choked with particulate matter Kania surviving cycles at last freed from the tyranny of the pylons came under new assault from the perils of the war most were slain at the hand of former allies they're possessed bodies ripped apart by Lars and bolt afire as flesh reshaped into new and terrible forms only those with a will of iron held back the demons pouring at their thoughts and only Caterina gray Fox found the strength of mind to repel them entirely and yet in that darkest hour hope was reborn for the restoration of the immaterial saw also the renewed ascension of Celestine and her Gemini superior the light of the emperor restored she led the survivors out of the chamber and into the wasteland of the Elysian Fields non-recognized the sight they beheld magma wended its sluggish path amidst the fallen pylons consuming the bodies of the dead and their armaments of war here an air across the plains sporadic fire rang out as the first demons clawed their way into the war-torn fields as the scant survivors of the Elysian Fields converged drawn like flare moths to Celestine sleight the kadian ape once again looked to Creed for leadership for the first time since he had joined the white shield so many years ago none was forthcoming the Lord castor lion looked out upon the ruin of his world his Cadia a new only despair recognizing the Creed's mind now roamed distant fields and determined not to allow authority to fall into celestine 'he's dubious hands gray fox seize command using what remained of the planetary fox net she issued the evacuation order kailia had fallen even if it endured the physical trauma of the Blackstone's collision the war would soon claim it victory and the imperials name was worth the sacrifice of thousands of millions but the Inquisitor knew no victory could any longer be hard on Cadia every living soul abandoned upon its sundered shoes was but a sacrifice to the dark gods gray fox expected Celestine to challenge her order to exhort Cadia to one last glorious stand but the golden Saints merely took wing north through the howling winds to carry her blade against the demons are sailing the surviving adept s Aurora toss thus began the last exodus of Cadia from across the globe they came in landing craft and transport vessels barely fit to fly plasma drives burning hard for the safety of phalanx and the ragtag fleet sheltering in its shadow not all came safe to their destination the overburdened engines failed emits the howling winds condemning their cargo to stomach lurching free fall until the oblivion of impact others were peeled apart by winged demons or simply at their weakened holes imploded under the fantastic pressures the Caelian twenty-seventh perished to the last man as the tetrarch's pilot succumbed to warp cast madness and plowed the limping bear off into the remains of the tradeoffs mountains held rakes and harbingers operating far from the trailing edge of the black fleet risked the savage winds to spill more blood for the dark gods dogfights unfolded among swirling dust storms as the last of the Imperial fist storm hawk interceptors sought to clear the skies yet they were too few to keep the Fokin tained and the evacuation fields of elijan became shell riddled mausoleums elsewhere that the evacuation was dogged by the panic of stampeding masses just as the material came to consume Cadia terror sought to devour its populace some regiments kept their order others disintegrated into mindless mobs clambering the top over loaded transports in their desperation to escape a castle Luton and Kazakh orsk officers ordered their Kazakh into fire into the crowds and this order became full-blooded riot at the Elysian Fields the evacuation became a fighting retreat every transporter target for so hungry demons in the north celestina depta sorority us slowly gay ground but at a high cost to their foes to the south the tale was the same the demons were held by a ragged line of Guardsmen but wrists at either end by Gera Don's Imperial fists and the black Templars of the crux exclusive but despite their heroism it soon became clear to gray fact that the evacuation fields would soon be overrun flight-worthy crafts were too few and growing scarcity of each passing moment some would have to be sacrificed for the rest to escape it was then that Creed at last roused himself from despair the Lord castellón zone would held Qadir one last time he decreed they would buy the time needed as kDa ever had with an offering of blood and bone orders were issued their bleak consequences plain to all who heard but the KDF they don't blanch at the duty placed before them there was not one amongst them who did not feel the cold hand of fear but non broke ranks or attempted desertion Creed was Cadia but more than that he was of the eighth he had led the regiment safely through fire and death where others had been consumed there was not one amongst those ranks who did not know the Lord castellane their lives and all accepted that the death was due as the last transport soared into the hellish skies the eighth fought and died amongst the ruins of their world the sisters of our martyred lady and marshal MRX black Templars were the last to depart their bloodied survivors crowding aboard transports sent from the iron Ravan and to reclaim the Knights of house Tyrannis gray fox departed with them her suspicious I ever upon celestine but as the landing thrusters flared the Inquisitor thought she heard a bellowed cry clear and proud over the howling winds and the roar of cannons it was a deep voice bowed by the horrors of war but not on broken defiant - the last Cadia stands in the teeth of this storm and so a shrunken fleet of battered vessels and weary Souls left kts orbit and said calls for the system's edge the eye of Terror no longer contained spilled from its ancient bounds a crimson trail of roiling flame bleeding through the kadian gate and into the galaxy there was no jubilation abroad the fleece no sense of victory despite the odds endured too many had perished before gray facts issued her evacuation order and even then a bare fraction of Cadia surviving outposts had heard the desperate box cast mat the 13th black crusades inception Cadia had been a world of some eight hundred and fifty million souls scarce free million now sought salvation from Abaddon's forces the legend of Cadia might yet one day endure on another distant world but now its bloodlines teeters on the brink from the outset warp travel was decreed unwise the starships navigators unable to see safe routes through the immaterial with the fall of the pylons the navigable corridor of the kadian gate was collapsing in upon itself there was now sure a way to embrace oblivion and to risk those turbulent tides so it was that the fleet's plasma drives were pushed up too and sometimes beyond their limit once more under tall Garrigan's command phalanx took the lead the threat of its guns driving traitor cruisers from the evacuations path behind came the battle scarred vessels of the Imperial Navy and those few civilian craft that had survived Katie is for last came the mechanicus vessels of Belisarius Corps the adepts of Mars had come late to the Acadian war zone and their ships were the least damaged as a consequence as the evacuee fleet crawled beyond her eyes of que Diaz gravity well this changed in the ER to the dangers of travel within the eye of terrors Corona Abaddon's most opportunistic captains now swarmed in relentless pursuit the void blazed with light as waves of courses brave the adept aspec Anika's broadsides to claim prizes amongst the retreating fleet all perished their atoms scattered across the collapsing kadian gate by the unfaltering fire of coals fleet but few without leaving their mark twenty hours into the retreat the dictator class cruiser hand of Satoru was crippled by enemy fire to the loss of all hands and ten thousand cells in the next ten hours two frigates and a light cruiser met the same fate call Bor the losses sterically interpreting them as penance for his hubris on Cadia and exhorting his servitor crews to further effort forty hours into the retreat the plasma drives failed on the Agricola pride of saint Kara force faced with the choice of risking the hill fleet for the sake of those crammed like a slaughter herd into the haulers hold the garden took aboard what sparse transport craft escaped the wreck but reluctantly abandoned the pride to the enemy the captains of the Emperor's RAF and Dominus Victor appalled at guerra Don's pragmatism defied his orders and went to the prides aid their choice proved noble but foolish scarce half of the kadian soldiers aboard the pride of Saint Kara Faust had been taken aboard the two battleships when the leading edge of the black fleet caught up with them emperor's wrath died without ever disengaging its docking beams torn apart by a traitors broadside Dominus Victor broke away fires blazing all along its starboard flank but it's plasma drives roaring at full force with fortune and perseverance it might even have regained the safety of calls rear guard had not its captain been slain during the fight in panic his subordinates ordered an emergency warp jump even knowing the dangers such a course presented what heading he ordered was a mystery food ominous Victor never emerge from the immaterial the panic of those within delicacy for thirsting / thus another quarter million fell to the black fleet guns a tenth of whom had perished true nor say misguided compassion in an effort to avoid further losses Gera Don Sloat phalanxes pace so as not to place unnecessary strain on vessels already overburdened the least space worthy vessels were brought aboard phalanxes full deck hangars their hatch is sealed tight to prevent the curious or treacherous entering the battle fortress proper having almost lost phalanx to invasion weeks earlier guerra Don refused to take any chances with it now especially as the fury of its guns was the only thing keeping Avedon's capital ship sent where respectable distance still the loss is mounted fatigue now as deadly affair as the Corsairs of Avedon's fleet sleep was but a memory banished by the Kem's consumed with rations during the long hours at battle quarters two days after Dominus Victor's disappearance mistakes by a weary gunnery crew aboard the tox relievers saw the destroyer superstructure blown apart setting the ship adrift within hours of that disaster a primary psycho aboard Hades seven succumbed to the whispers in his waking dreams the emergent Keeper of Secrets rampaged across free decks before the white shields of the kadian 79th by now as veteran in thought indeed as any of their comrades brought it down with unrelenting last fire even after the demon was purged Gera Don ordered Hades 7 quarantine from the rest of the fleet that status remained until calls Ark mechanicus acting under Katarina grey faxes orders blasted the destroyer to twist it to prevent any possibility of the heresy Ruben infecting others 112 hours into the retreats at the very moment that the demon world once known as Cadia finally succumbed to its fiery death throes the evacuation fleet approached the outer orbit of classiest Casa hones icy moon phalanxes navigators at last pronounced the tides of the warp clear enough to attempt to warp travel of the 29 ships that had left Cadia 16 remained bearing just over two and a half million souls between them it was in that hour that the capital ships of the black fleet lost their apparent fear of phalanxes guns they dropped out of the warp transit just inside weapons range 10 of the black fleets mightiest vessels the vengeful spirits at their head a mix of grand cruisers and battleships they drove hard for the evacuation fleets adept as mechanicus rearguard eschewing the oblique advances favored by captains seeking to minimize their losses Abaddon had come and hell rode upon his heels panic combusts crackled across phalanxes strategic cut off one by one as the vessels of the evacuees slipped into the relative safety of the warp cruisers heavy transports freighters mining Scouse all departed the system for the last time grateful to have escaped ke Diaz doom but fearful of the future that lay ahead Gera Don had time for a single heartfelt curse before phalanx followed its countdown to far advanced for safe interruption with the yearning and creaking of strained metal the mighty battle fortress let's slip the anchors of real space and plunged into the immaterial calls fleet their departure deliberately staggered to guard against any vessel being left stranded was alone the first shells burst amongst Cole's formation fired at such extreme range accuracy was impossible thus it was only the most damned ill fortune that saw one shall explode against the ark mechanicus aft shield the detonation knocked two of the vessels plasma drives out of alignment far worse it crippled the iron revenants Goeller fields for call and all aboard his ship there could be no escape into the war consumed with fear at the prospect of losing his sacred cargo call brought the iron revenant about to an evasion heading as their flagship saw to make its escape the remainder of the adapters mechanicus fleet swung around into blockade formation their captains accepting without question the sacrifice required of them the last surviving interceptors boiled from their hangars the first salvos roared silently away into the void raking the oncoming cruisers of all calls fleet only the ark mechanicus could match one of Abaddon's vessels broadside to broadside and even then the iron revenants weaponry was but a pale shadow of the vengeful spirits but the directness of the chaos fleets approach offered initial fire superiority salvo after salvo pounded the traitor vessels overloading shields and buckling armor servidor crews labored with mechanical efficiency loading and firing with our trace of the fatigue that played an augmented crews explosions flared in the ever closing gap between the two food says the outnumbered interceptors clashed with held rakes and held talons prow Lance's fired and liquefied adamantium ran like tears across the armored flanks of the adaptive mechanicus ships the Sanctus malefic prow reduced to a torn and pop mark ruin by torpedo salvos and its strategic crew dead peeled away on the rim of jammed rudders but even had twice the vessels barred Abaddon's path there would have been no halting that advanced the captain of strokers fist his all specs array blinded by shells lost his taste for ahead longest and gave orders for his grand Cruiser to instead trade extreme range volleys Apocrypha in the vengeful spirit battered but hale reached calls picket line of cruisers the first chaos broadsides thundered caught between the two are cassis Fobus melted like ice before the flame it shields an armor boiling into space moments before a destabilized plasma reactor consume the vessel from within zan Thorson ever ask Mundus endured the first raking Salvas only to perish in the teeth of the chaos cruisers that came behind Cerebus died snarling trading broadsides with a grand cruiser twice its size before one last salvo broke its back stellaris Mons its targeting systems obliterated by cannon fire said collision course for its tormentor the detonation of its plasma reactor shattering the chaos battleships drive section leaving it drifting amongst the debris alpha Sion it's intercept a screen shredded by the black fleets fighters was swarmed by assault boats as its captain ordered a last valiant Stan Black Legion boarding parties ripped through the cruisers breached bulkheads and slaughtered at the bridge crew one by one the ships of the adapters mechanicus fleet went dark or detonated in a flare of plasma these sacrifices were not in vain every moment brought was a moment in which the iron ravans damaged yellow field could be repaired but the arc mechanicus quickly lost ground before the vengeful spirit which alone of the traitor fleet had ignored the blockade and come full burn after its fleeing prize now Abaddon secured the battleships prow guns from firing not wanting their ferocious recall to slow the pace of pursuit little by little the battleship closed with its prey recognizing the inevitability that the vengeful spirit but soon overtake his injured Ark call push the systems beyond maximum taller superheated steam roared from cracked coolant pipes klaxon sounded across the drive decks and pressure manifolds exceeded safety thresholds it made little difference whatever additional acceleration the arch Magus coaxed from the iron revenants damaged engines it was never enough the vengeful spirit was closing too fast in a matter of minutes the battleship would draw level and the broadsides would begin again and again core process the probabilities of survival each time the calculations returned vanishing and distant odds curiosity had led called Acadia pride had held him there now the iron revenant would be lost and its precious cargo alongside he had failed so the iron revenant said calls for clear the ice moon under celestine Direction stressed plasma tribes brought the ark mechanicus around on a new bearing the motion affording the iron revenant one furious unanswered broadside at the pursuing vengeful spirit the black fleet flagship taken unawares by the sudden change of course had no opportunity to evade the swarm of torpedoes that spared like rippy fish towards its prow shields collapsed armor crumbled the prow cannons were blasted free of their mountings and the colossal a pointed star that served as the vengeful spirit's figurehead was reduced to mangled scrap but that battleship had survived the siege of the Emperor's Palace it had borne wounds far greater than any the iron revenant could inflict it would not go so quickly whatever salvation awaited the iron Ravan and on closest Celestine's guidance now but the ship within the range of the vengeful spirits main guns abandoning their head-on course a baton closed obliquely his starboard batteries blazing as they gnawed at the arc mechanic as his hole unable to outpace the battleship the iron revenant did the only thing it could it endured meeting the vengeful spirits fury with its own the two ships pounded at one another for over an hour the pale disk of closest growing ever larger the iron revenants macro cannons crashed back on their bearings unseated by enemy fire torpedo tubes spot their last hundreds perished in every broadside their bodies thickening the arc mechanic as his causeways were expelled by violent decompression to bob along the mangled outer hull aboard the vengeful spirit traitors flooded to their assault claws now long passageways crushed by the iron ravenous broadsides the Despoiler meant to claim his prize for himself or else burn it to nothing in closest his thin atmosphere as the battleship shuddered with one final broadside silencing the iron revenants last interceptor batteries the dread crew screamed across the void as the garbled reports of boarding parties reached the iron Raven and strategic coal knew the ship was lost but it had served its purpose the dueling vessels were now deep in Klauss is's orbit and the relative shelter of the moon swirling blizzards was but minutes away ceding command of the dying ark to the crew call headed deeper into the ship and began the process of unsealing the stasis vault as the adapter Sorority us made for the undamaged portside hangars Marshall Emmerich declared his battle brothers were in Shu the iron revenant died fighting gray fox argued against this course to her mind Kor was already half under celestine spell and the Inquisitor wanted allies of her own close to hand still Amarok was resistant the Marshalls pride chafed from the long retreat and only the presentation of the inquisitorial seal bent him to gray faxes will so it was that the flight transport spiral planet words bearing their weary cargo they used the dying iron rod and his cover against the vengeful spirit and the last of the doomed arks fighter craft as escort as iron revenant at last began to break apart and the first hell Drake screamed in pursuit the fleeing convoy vanished into the howling snowstorms the snows were places the blizzards of frozen places might have blinded Abaddon's pursuit but they did not end it in rage that his quarry might yet escape the Despoiler launched every flight worthy vessel at his command scouring the surface for any trace of his prey thus called trek across the glaciers became a fighting retreat the survivors sent scrambling for cover amidst the rocks each time a hell Drake shrieked overhead such precautions were born more of Hope than strategy there was no hiding the modified trails conveyor that contained calls precious relic we will the lumbering Knights of house Tyrannis but good fortune held for the first few hours of planet for lawn they trudged the adaptor sorority's following Celestine's holy lights each as unfaltering as she even though the living saints offered no clue as to the path she struck or the purpose for doing so with them came the survivors of the Kappa giggles flesh blackening with frostbite but determined to prove as unswerving as the battle sisters Inquisitor gray Fox and Marshall Emmerich's black Templars brought up the rear each battle brother grima's death in the teeming blizzard call followed Celestine unfalteringly through the swirling snows with each step he grew increasingly certain that the living Saint knew his purpose the burden he had carried for so long and if that was so perhaps that had been veil Walker's purpose in directing him to Cadia not to unlock the secrets of the pylons but for Celestine to lead him to the packs completion the living Saint was a vessel of the Omni size tripartite will his purpose was hers step by step calls resolved returned he told himself that his path from area at six had been a pilgrimage a test he chastened himself for ever doubting the ominous eyes purpose and pressed on then the snows stopped the hell Drake's came again soon after their strafing runs leaving trails of dead and dying across the glacier two of the demon craft perished without even touching the frozen ground blown out of the skies by crack missiles a third tore a squad of Tempesta Saiyans apart with tooth and claw ripping a chunk of armour from the trials before calls ax split its warped metal skull asunder from that moment on there was now silence now reprieve alerted to their quarry's presence the Black Legion war bands converged upon the glacier running battles broke out upon the snow fields the thunderous echoes of one skirmish scarcely fading before another began Havoc's rained fire down from the mountainous heights Raptors struck from cloudless skies their discordant battle cries further shredding the nerves of men and women weary from weeks of strife bikers prowled the flanks roaring into weapons range only when they believed their quarries attention was elsewhere all perished Seraphim swept the crags clear the backwash of promethium melting ice formed centuries before lasgo and volleys cleared the skies of Raptors the pounding cannons of Tyrannus knights purged the ice fields of the despoilers bikers but there were always more their numbers ever replenishing while the ranks of calls S Corps grew thinner with each passing hour as ever more succumbed to their wounds the survivors drew in closer to the triose conveyer its projected void shields provided some protection for those closest to it and inexplicably every Imperial cell presents felts it's their duty to protect whatever was inside gray faxes psychic interrogation of her wounded foes revealed that they were surrounded and the noose was but there was nothing more to be done other than keep moving - perhaps break out of the encirclement and by a few hours of respite on celestine journeyed leading her tattered pilgrimage ever higher into the jagged mountains Tempesta scions fell dead amidst the snows skin blackened and eyes frozen by this time gray fox had abandoned her attempts at questioning celestine purpose redoubtable there the Inquisitor was hers was not the Jean forged fortitude of the adept assist at ease and she needed all her breath for the endless March still the Black Legion pursued the roaring plasma drives of their dropships a constant echo through the mountain passes as the mismatched company reached a Ridgeline gray fox caught sight of a column of traitor tanks sickest beetles in the valley below when calls s cord reached the sunken gate of some ancient structure its surface smooth flat by the driving winds they found it held against them by a sorceress cabal another bloody skirmish saw the Gateway claimed but the smoke clouds rising from the wreck of a predator revealed the company's position as clearly as any signal beacon before the last sorcerer fell dead the roar of engines echoed up from the valley marshal Emmerich detailed half of his surviving battle brothers to remain behind and guard the pass the pursuit they faced was now no me a Ravel of scattered war bands he argued but a column armed and arrayed for battle better a few of their number hold and delay that pursuit buying time for the others to proceed volunteers were sought and found the Emperor's champion garyun led his battle brothers away down the dreary slopes knowing that the next battle would also be their last mon Celestine Spath wound ever higher into the peaks as night fell the echoes of battle faded from the slopes below there is black temple are still at call side knelt a moment the snow's a murex rumbling voice leading a warrior's chant of benediction for lost brothers then they pressed on unburdened by grief or killed by dawn the snows came again shielding calls company from prying eyes but also slowing their advance to a near standstill they Forge onwards though at a painfully slow pace and even Celestine sleight seemed to fade as the pale Sun reached Apogee the roar of engines came again through the slackening snows land Raiders slewed across the lower slopes their teeth tracks biting deep into the permafrost as they clawed their way in pursuit that Celestine urgings calls company pressed on as the Knights of house Taranis rained fire on their pursuers their comrades fell back by squads each given covering fire for those that followed make spending their last precious ammunition in the wild climb for the summit the heavy snowdrifts were taking their toll on the trioses tracks and progress slowed to a crawl call spirits restored by faith during the long climb wavered anew as he sought to soothe the conveyors wounded spirit hel brutes bellowed they're mad praises and the wail of the raptors vox casters set the air screaming the assault ramp of the nearest land raider crashed down and Abaddon strode forth he's in a guard of terminators at his back the despoilers coming was too much for the last of the kept illegals frozen and weary beyond reckoning they fled uphill all discipline forgotten as the Despoiler advance for the snows call took his place at the forefront of the dwindled company and prepared to die for a pact that would never be fulfilled the ice in front of call exploded in a burst of dazzling light jet bikes hissed over the icy crest underslung shuriken cannons rasping death at the Black Legion trails of fractured light followed the whirl of vibrant colors dancing and reforming around ping pitter wetting warriors the crest so lately occupied by the fleeing Saiyans thickened with graceful warriors armored in myriad colors behind them came slender walkers their every stride rippling with grace and power the searing light of their armaments unanswerable the Black Legion fell back before the Eldar onslaught they had prepared for battle against the fractured am weary foe half beaten by cold and despair instead they had been met by the oath we strike force and behind them The Witches of Kimura Warriors of Belton and elder from a number of other craft worlds Abaddon advanced into the Maelstrom bellowing at his warriors to follow those who did so perished sliced apart by dancing blades or shredded by razor edge shuriken twice the Despoiler led a charge towards the trials twice the elder hurled the Black Legion blood early from the crest through it all call and his company staggered deeper into the xenos ranks until the crest was behind them the head nestled in a natural valley stretched the elegant spires of a web Way gate its columns blazing with light Celestine hovered above the portals dancing energies arms outspread in silent prayer Cadia had been lost but the war continued thanks very much for watching everybody that was a bit long bit longer than I meant it to be but I hope you enjoyed it the other ones will be coming thick and fast I'm working on the second one as this one is going to be released so expected within a few days of this one coming out I hope you enjoy this I hope it was entertaining I hope it was informative the this series is troubling to me there are some really good things in it and there's some really shockingly odd and bad things in it but I'll leave that for you all to discuss in the comments as you were as you will thanks to everybody supporting the channel you can see your names here thank you everybody really means a lot and really helped me do this and if you'd like to join them please consider becoming YouTube becoming a YouTube member or a patron over on patreon and yeah I'll really appreciate it and thanks to everybody who does it means a lot and yeah I'll be bringing most of it very very soon the this obviously this Gathering Storm series all I'll do all of them they'll be very long episodes there's two more books to come now the next one will be mostly concerning the Eldar and the birth of you need and their their new God and then it'll be the rebirth of Gillman and the tearin crusade which is full of very silly things okay thanks very much for watching everybody I will see you next time Jess you you

Channel: ABORDER PRINCE

Views: 762,400

Keywords: 40k audio, warhammer 40k, warhammer 40000, fall of cadia, warhammer audio, 40k narration, warhammer narration, the gathering storm book 1, cadia stands, gathering storm lore, belisarius cawl, belisarius cawl and trazyn, belisarius cawl lore, cadian pylons, ursarkar creed, abaddon the despoiler, black crusades 40k, trazyn the infinite, trazyn the infinite battlefleet gothic, cadia blackstone, desturction of cadia, battle of cadia battlefleet gothic, destruction of cadia

Id: BedBwhDfgU4

Length: 221min 55sec (13315 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 01 2020