807.M30 Segmentum Obscurus, Scarus Sector, Veridia System, Mora-Tau.
The battle with the Aeldari and Drukhari has been going on for almost a year now. Losses have piled up across the battlefield. Both humans and xenos fought with precision and savagery.
"[Analysis]: they are applying some sort of reanimation." Ferrum-Rho guessed, because they have not encountered 1 psyker yet.
Mora-Tau burned.
Not with wild, uncontrolled destruction but with calculated annihilation. Every meter of ground had become a variable in Archmagos Ferrun-Rho's equation, every life, human or xenos was reduced to a shifting value in a war of outcomes.
The vault stood at the center of it all and it is showing signs of falling. The outer defense rings had already collapsed.
Drukhari breaching teams had carved through adamantium blast doors using compact void-cutters, their progress precise and terrifyingly efficient.
Xerath-17 using the skitarii counter-assault units met them in the corridors tight, brutal engagements fought in flickering lumen light and choking smoke.
Galvanic rifles cracked in disciplined bursts, splinter fire answered with lethal accuracy. Both sides refused to give even an inch to the other.
Above, the war escalated into an apocalypse.
The Warmaster Titan Axiom Invictus strode forward, its every step reshaping the battlefield. Its Princeps fully integrated drove the god-engine with terrifying precision.
"Target-lock confirmed. Sector 7-G is a target-rich environment. Seeking ignition." a moderati sitting in the control cockpit of the god engine said
"Westward Vector. The Omnissiah's Wrath shall be satisfied" the machine-spirit intoned through vox-chatter.
The plasma annihilator fired again.
A wave of Drukhari constructs, Talos engines, Ravagers, infantry, vanished in a single incandescent sweep. The ground beneath them liquefied, turning ferrocrete and metal into flowing magma.
But even that was not enough. The drukhari changed their approach again, shifting the battlefield to suit themselves. From the webway tear, something new emerged.
Sleeker. Larger. More terrible.
Voidraven bombers screamed into the atmosphere, their hulls shimmering with alien energy fields. They dove low, releasing implosion missiles that detonated not outward but inward.
A Warhound Titan disappeared mid-stride, its form crushed into nothingness as space folded around it. The shockwave rippled outward, tearing apart nearby Skitarii formations.
Xerath-17 registered the loss relaying it to the Archmagos, who made immediate adjustments. Sending out instructions on redistribution formations across the battlefield.
"[Command]: Warhound packs disperse. Increase lateral movement by thirty-two percent. Maintain lateral engagements" Magos Xerath-17 commanded.
The surviving Warhounds responded instantly, breaking formation and accelerating into flanking maneuvers. Turbo-laser destructors fired in rapid succession, forcing the Voidravens into evasive patterns.
One bomber clipped by overlapping fire, spiraling into the manufactorum below. The other erased by a perfectly timed strike from Axiom Invictus, but the cost was mounting.
"[Reporting]:
7 Warhounds now destroyed or disabled.
2 Knights crippled.
Skitarii losses exceeding fifteen thousand.
"
Ferrum-Rho did not hesitate. He calculated the losses and viewed the fields remaining resources, and decided it was time to escalate this even further.
"[Directive]: Activate secondary Titan cohorts. Bring the xenos down in the name of the Omnissiah" binary screams passed through the noosphere, expressing the Archmagos' vexation with the current situation.
Across the battlefield, dormant titans which had been shut down because of a lack of pilots began activating. Training princeps were sent to a war without achieving 50% compatibility with the god machines.
Reavers that had stood idle for a decade roared to life, their machine spirits imperfectly bound without Princeps to guide them. Their movements were slower and less precise but their firepower remained absolute.
One unleashed its gatling blaster into a Drukhari advance, shredding entire formations into mist.
Another fired its melta cannon too early causing it to miss its target, but collapsing an entire section of terrain into molten ruin.
They were not a precise answer, they were a response of pure violence.
At the vault, the fighting reached its peak. The inner sanctum doors had been breached. The drukhari warriors flooded inside.
Ferrum-Rho felt something was wrong instantly. The sacred template was exposed to the xenos. His body shifted, plates moving across his back to form 2 jet engines, which propelled him forward with haste.
His massive form surged forward, the jet engines propelling him with unnatural speed. Skitarii followed in his wake, forming a living wall of firepower as they advanced.
Archon Leprio intercepted him, as he approached the gates. His movements akin to a shadow.
Where Ferrum-Rho moved with precision and weight, the Archon moved with grace and impossible speeds, his form flickering between positions, his blade a whisper of death that struck faster than human perception.
SKINNNGGGG
The first blow landed as the sound of metal against metal came from Ferrum-Rho's outer plating as it split. A precise incision that would have bisected a lesser being, but this did not slow him down.
"[Data processing]:...
Speed differential acceleration
[Analysis]: predictive model generating
[Conclusion]: Countermeasure project. Begin predictive overlay."
This was the first time that Ferrum-Rho had been forced to use his calculation ability to the extreme like this.
All the way in the vault on Cygnis III, on Caspian's body, the tattoo of the gear began changing. After taking it to solid black with deep gold outlines. The gold began to dim slightly, and some part of it became silver.
Meanwhile with Ferrum-Rho, time fractured into probability. Every movement the Archon could make is calculated, predicted, countered.
Leading to the second strike meeting greater resistance than the Archon had planned for.
Ferrum-Rho's extension arms snapped forward, intercepting the blade mid-arc. Sparks erupted as alien metal clashed against ancient Mechanicus alloy.
The Archon twisted, fluid and lethal, attempting to disengage, but Ferrum-Rho did not allow it.
His Vault Crafted Ancient weapon fired.
The beam caught the Archon's shoulder, not cleanly, but enough to be felt. As reality tore through his body taking with it his armor and flesh.
Leaving a void-edged wound that did not bleed. This was not what the Archon expected as he staggered.
Around them, the battle turned savage.
Skitarii poured into the vault chamber, firing in controlled waves that forced the Drukhari back step by step. Magos Biologis Theron join into the battle herself also, bringing with her some of her toxins, spreading them without thought of collateral damage
With the objective in sight, the xenos would not give up even with losses like this. The came a Talos engine that breached the inner chamber only to be instantly obliterated by a direct strike from a Reaver Titan firing through the open vault roof.
The structure shook.
"[Reporting]: Structural integrity at thirty-one percent," said Magos Kroll to Ferrum-Rho as he noted it Irrelevant.
The Archon struck again, faster this time and with much more malice.
This time, the blade found its mark, driving deep into Ferrum-Rho's torso, severing internal systems and rupturing power conduits.
"[Data processing]...
Variable power distributor severed, controller chips 8-19 malfunctioning, multi-functional arm variation capped at 30%
[Conclusion]: restrict form variation, activate direct control node, perform single limb manipulation"
His response was immediate. Some of his extension limbs fell to the ground with a… thud… he seemed to move more fluidly. He activated his combat chip, using Custodian Aurelian Gaius Trajan as a template.
His remaining limb impaled forward from an angle even he could not calculate, forcing the Archon back. A power sword hidden in one of his arms caught the Archon through armor, locking him in place for a fraction of a second.
Long enough for…
VWOOORPP.
The second time this weapon at him Archon Leprio to intuit the angle of the blow. He successfully avoided a killing blow but….
Not entirely.
His arm disappeared. Erased from ever being.
Silence fell between them for a moment, then the Archon laughed. Even as he bled, his people lost their lives, even as he lost. A reaction that flailed to register with the Archmagos
Ferrum-Rho processed the reaction.
"[Query]: Purpose of laughter…
[Conclusion]: fanaticism.
"
But behind them, the STC activated for the first time. Not by design, but by proximity.
Its systems, already stirred due to Ferrum-Rho himself, awakened under the stress of battle. Holographic data streams erupted into the chamber, filling the air with cascading blue light.
Schematics. Material. Biology beyond comprehension.
Every Drukhari turned toward it.
Ferrum-Rho made a calculation.
"[Analysis]: If the STC cannot be secured…" "[Conclusion]: …it will be denied."
Above, Axiom Invictus received the command. Princeps Kaelor Vhane did not hesitate. The plasma annihilator began to charge.
The Archon and his drukhari felt urgency for the first time. He now understood the Mon-keigh he faced would give him no quarter.
Ferrum-Rho was prepared to burn his own world to ensure victory.