Sigan's Story

The small portal way would open up into an abandoned structure set for demolition for some reason or another. Sigan stepped out from the gate into the hijacked webway portal. It had been months within the whims of the warp since Vrosh reported his discoveries to the rest of the council, only but three days in real-space, Clad in black armour the only mark to his allegiance, the mark of the Crimson Slaughter on his Vambrace. Ancient blasphemous tomes hang from chains about his waist and his bolt pistol slung in its human leather holster, a cloak of xeno fur hung from his back clamped to the main torso piece of his armour and between his powerpack. His force sword sheathed also at his waist. “yes this is the place...Illumene, come, my agents should be waiting with transport.”


From the portal, three other crimson slaughter marines stepped out and into the aging structure, the sounds of demolition hiding their own sounds and voices, two of these marines were ‘chosen’ these warriors were masters and veterans of wars long forgotten and thus acted as Sigan’s guards...Sigan was a cautious beast by nature, playing the fools from the shadows with whispers and lies.

The sound of a vehicle pulling up nearby, Sigan closed his eyes and using his powers of divination sought to see the realm around him, he stayed silent motioning with a hand for the two guards to move on ahead and meet with the agents, he opened his eyes and with his vox unit speak directly to the third who had come with him ”i do not trust the two reavers...they volunteered too suddenly for my liking, watch them” the Reavers abiding by their orders would make sure it was clear for their chaos lord, both activating a stummer which would silence their movements and make stealth easily done in their power armour they stepped into the alleyway, the brick wall blocked the way towards the transport.

Sigan left the building and turned his head looking at some poor wasted being and raised a finger pointing at the man, Sigan did nothing turning away and moving towards the wall, he had motioned for his underlings to do something about it. The likely answer was kill the poor fool, or drag his sorry hide along to bare witness and be a part of what was about to begin.

Sigan’s eyes would glow raising his hands towards the wall, he’d detach and break the cement holding it between the two buildings lifting the wall wholly away with the powers he knew from the psykic school, setting the wall aside.
the human followers, Sigan’s agents returned to the truck after keeping masked and covering up the few cameras watch the wall and street, they opened up the back. “My lord please get inside, if any of you are seen, we are doomed.” with a low chuckle Sigan removes his helmet and takes a deep breath of the air. “i have foreseen every outcome, i know our chances and i know your pain if you fail me.” Sigan had short hair almost buzzcut but his features each sharp and refined as if angels...or Daemons carved him to be a thing of beauty, he returned his helm to its place and approached the back of the truck. “hurry up, we’ve not the time to waste, already i sense the security forces preparing to deal with the cameras.”

The two

Reavers

Fell in having knocked out and brought the man along throwing the unconscious human into the back and then climbing into the back of the truck, waiting the brief few moments for the third to follow.

Even in these so called blackout zones, where Isirian surveillance was limited, the all encompassing eye of the Aschen were watching, through either the fine tuned sensors of the Watchtower anchored in the Gaelian system, or through the Reverence II that was looming in low geosynchronous orbit above Illumene.

It was some monitor within the Reverence II, someone watching the suite of sensors that detected the blip, the brief portal and spatial tearing within the city below that raised the alarm, transmissions moved among the large ship, and a call went out to the CPF's rapid response task force, an elite force tasked with dealing in alien incursions, as well as large scale rioting and insurrection.

Aboard a single Aerofrigate, a squad of roughly a dozen CPF Personnel prepared their weapons, as the small 500 meter long airship screamed over the city.

"Alright ladies and gentlemen, we have no clue what we're up against, Intel says it's likely a small group, given the size and duration of the spatial anomaly, if it's anything at all. We're to insert and investigate, ascertain the nature of the anomaly and identify threats." The Sergeant reported.

"Approaching Blackout Zone! Get tactical!" The Pilot called out, while the squad loaded their weapons, Type 53 Disruptor rifles, Type 03 PDWs were the main choices, considering the MC-1 Carbine hadn't trickled out this far.

At roughly a hundred or so feet up above the streets, the Aerofrigate came to a stop, rappelling lines danging from it's sides.

Sigan and his men were safe for now, concealed inside the truck. The men rappelling down from the Aerofrigate seemed for the moment more interested in the building that was set for demolition, a quick call to the Foreman of the demo crew halted the process to allow the building to be swept.

Roughly a dozen or so blocks surrounding the immediate area, local police were being instructed to set up road blocks, with orders from their Aschen handlers to stop and search every vehicle trying to leave the contained area. This resulted in somewhat nasty congestion to form, as irritated Isirians were trying to go about their business.

Floor to floor, the squad began to move, sweeping and securing each dilapidated room of the building.

Sigun shook his head in silence, his divinations had perceived this, the aschen just played the world into his hands, Sigun while seated began his dark ritual speaking aloud to those around him who chanted with him, taking the man at his feet he slit the poor bastard’s throat.

The blood began to pour out from the bleeding Aschen citizen and form into a runic ritual circle on the bed of the truck...the taste of the untainted blood was all to alluring to the daemons he was summoning. The Heretics who heard the chanting would take their sacrificial daggers and slit their own throats as part of the sacrifice, such loyalty would be praised.

He drew power from the very souls and emotions of the angered Isirian people and the agitated Aschen defence forces, however those affected would feel themselves grow sluggish weaker, tired. And that was everyone within a three mile radius.

The skies darkened and gain the colour of crimson and and as if from another realm, a blade of fire stabbing out from the sky and drawing across it, the tear into the realm of chaos, blood rained from the sky and from this forming tear, the bloodthirsters came. Massive winged beasts, flying down and crushing cars under their hoofed feet and enormous size and weight, the more daemons that bled through the space between the warp and material plane thinned, not even the Planck packs the aschen put so much faith in would protect them from the tide of bloodshed coming.

Sigan rose from the truck, its metal casing peeling away as he continued his ritual, and around him gateways into the warp tore open and bloodletters, hundreds thousands of the Daemons began their wanton slaughter of man woman and children alike. Sigun and his cohorts, were dragged from realspace and into the warp through one of these doorways the ritual complete and the ever growing number of warp denizens only weakening the barriers between the material and the Warp.



The planet was put to the sword, and would drown in the blood of innocence claimed by khorne.

Ripped from realspace the group would clamber to their feet on the all to recognisable scene of the lost Hope spacehulk they call home. Sigun’s powerful mind numb from the ritual as he stumbled taking hold of the wall, he glanced across the crimson slaughter reavers and gave a slow applaud to himself laughing at how futile the Aschen fought against their own very nature...

Perhaps the Planck Packs were useless, perhaps they weren't. They hadn't been used in the scope of a Daemonic infestation as of yet so whether or not they would work was a mystery, that was until now.



The very first thing Admiral Leia Nash did was move from her ready room to the CIC of the Absolution, the 30km long Reverence II looming above Illumene.

Alarms blared, screaming throughout the ship with a crystalline echo as the ship's crew prepared for battle.

"Sitrep!" Admiral Nash called out, and the XO turned from his monitor to face her.

"The Planet's just been overtaken by some kind of anomaly, the Watchtower and the fleet is mobilizing, and ground forces are being overwhelmed. It's a slaughter down there!"

Gritting her teeth, Nash called out. "Assume attack position! Activate the Planck fields!"

The Absolution moved from it's position above the planet, over the massive tear and slowly eased down, armored panels retracted to reveal massive Turbodisruptor batteries, once recessed into the hull, they swiveled out and to the ready.

"Planck fields charged and ready!" An officer called out.

"Activate them!"

The second the order was given, the Reverence II Began broadcasting it's Planck field, which extended outwards at least an AU in every direction, for those on the ground there was a deafening thunderclap, the tear to the warp was forced shut, and the skies began to clear.

However this did nothing for the Daemons already on the planet, but it would stem the tide and prevent the ground forces from being overwhelmed.

Heavy point defense guns swiveled to life, using precision targeting algorithms, the Reverence II began to shoot down those in the air, brilliant lances of plasma energy arced through the air, and through the Blood-letters unlucky enough to be caught in it's grasp.

Those on the ground were not spared either, with local police, CPF, and Imperial Marines regrouping, they would eventually all be pushed back from where they came from, as Illumene erupted into an open warzone.

If only one could comprehend the power of the warp, logical sense, impossibilities that would never happen in the material reality are not factors of the warp and would happen regardless of if its impossible or not, and when the warp seeps into realspace, this same effect occurs.

That the tear created by the blade only grew larger in its defiance to close, the very warp itself screaming with the rage of countless daemons, the lesser tears upon the planet would be slammed shut for now, but the presences of millions of daemons in realspace made for the Planks patching job to be not much use, the flaming hellblades of the flickering daemons on the surface ripping through armoured and unarmoured foe alike, taking them out at range was key, but many attempted to phase, with the active plank field this would be their undoing, weak compared to the will of their lord Khorne they disappeared trapped back into the warp. And so they did it the old fashioned way charging, some if not many were cut down.

But the armoured juggernauts were the first in amongst the aschen troops the bloodletter herald atop the armoured beast’s back swinging with insane glee and the beast itself charging down and ripping into its foes, the greater daemons of khorne the blood thirsters, greatest of his champion strode through the streets reaping kills with the 8ft bladed axes of the kind they multistory giants leading the assault from the front. Small arms fire failing to pierce the armour of khorne bestowed onto each of the greater daemons.

With a blood curdling rage the blade that had opened the tear surged from the tear at the Absolution aiming to skewer the ship, the result of this attack would begin filling the Reverence II class ship corridors and compartments with balefire roasting all the aschen aboard the ship without mercy, not even attempting to remove the smaller ship from the blade, it began to pull back dragging the ship towards the raging warp tear. Only causing further daemons to appear aboard the ship and rip into everything with hellblade and rage.

Despite millions of Daemons infesting the planet, the Aschen on the ground remained defiant to the last man, from the towering Bloodthirsters of Khorne, which after peppering them with disruptor fire that was found to be useless, would be subject to heavier weapons for now.

Across a town square, roughly a hundred feet or so from a raging Khorne Bloodthirster, a small squad of Aschen were calibrating their laser rangefinder, surrounded entirely by Chaos and raging daemons, they kept to their objective, even as the voices slowly crept into their minds.

"I've got one, Two seven three carom one nine six, requesting aerial support."

"Acknowledged, Aurora Alphas inbound!"

---

The Rampaging bloodthirster would be subject to the full might of this particular sortie, two Aurora Alpha tactical bombers launched from a nearby airfield, and at hypersonic speeds they passed over the greater Daemon of Khorne.

Each of the two Aurora Alphas dropped four 15,000 pound Joint-Direct Attack Munitions, which were a guided bomb directly upon the Daemon, with enough explosive force to level an entire city block it was hoped the Bloodthirster would be torn to shreds by the massive explosive force wrought by the munitions.

As quickly as the bombers came, they were gone.

---

Aboard the Absolution, Admiral Nash was going over every possible scenario, alarms blared all around her, and CIC officers worked diligently, shouting orders, but that was quickly silenced as the entire vessel shuddered, with all it's might the blade that had tried to skewer the ship, found that the ship still stood in defiance, the tip of the blade trapped in a shimmering milky white barrier that extended all around the ship.

The initial impact rippled energy across the barrier outwards in all directions, but all forward momentum of the blade was stopped then and there, though the shields began to protest and ripple more under the pressure of the blade as it attempted to skewer the ship.

"Admiral! Ventral shields are collapsing! The Planck packs are overloading! That rift isn't closing!" A Bridge officer shouted.

"Ventral shield emitters are beginning to overheat! That thing is trying to drag us into the rift!"

Grasping the railing, Nash called out. "Get two Tricobalt warheads primed and fire them at that rift! Let's hope the spatial tearing will destabilize the rift! We are not losing this planet!"

While the blade failed to pierce the powerful defense shields of the Absolution, the Reverence II was still struggling to keep from being pulled into the warp, it's massive engines fired in protest, attempting to dislodge it from the Blade, but also divert power to it's ventral shields, which shimmered even brighter in defiance.

Two armored panels retracted on the dorsal side of the carrier, and a pair of Thunderbolt missiles rocketed fourth, surging towards the event horizon of the rift, and detonating into massive spatial tears of their own, these tears were tears to subspace, with the resulting eddies from subspace starting to destabilize the very fabric of reality

The warp tear included.

"Sir! Shields are not going to hold forever! I've also got a DRADIS Contact! It's a Thunderbolt missile! I'm detecting Thalaron signatures!"

A snap decision had to be made, and Admiral Nash prepared a daring escape. "Disengage the Planck packs, the moment the planck packs disengage, disengage the shields and jump!"

The Absolution's XO Shouted in protest. "Coordinates?"

Nash quickly shouted in response. "No time, just do it, Colonel!"

---

In a Synchronized fashion, the Planck fields and the Absolution's shields disengaged, freeing the blade, but before it could make contact with the hull, the massive carrier winked away, the resultant void causing a massive rush of air and spatial energies to fill it.

Immediately after there was a brilliant flash of green in the skies above Illumene, and in an instant the entire Blackout Zone would be rendered devoid of life, as the Thalaron radiation spread quickly, destroying all organic matter, Human and Daemon alike, turning them into petrified statues where flesh once was.

The blade withdrew from realspace, a dark laughter filling the minds of all upon the planet, the subspace tears being eaten by the warp tear forcing it to grow, risking the creation of a permanent warp rift, however the tear would of its own volition close, or so many would think, feasted the daemons faded from reality, no evidence of their being there apart from destruction wrought by them and the aschen, and the added destruction caused by the thalaron device, only hit them with further blame.

Sigun watched through his powers of prescience watching the aschen ship abandon the planet to its fate, he left a message ingrained in all minds upon the planet and even those of the crew of the fleeing reverence II class ship “you squabble and fight fate, the fate that my lord Tzeentch has written, know this mortals of the aschen, this war is already won, you haven’t realised it yet, your own governments resort to self destruction, consigning billions to oblivion, at the mere presence of a single agent of mine, they do not hold any safety for you, bend your knee to chaos and know freedom, know the power to decide your own fate. The choice is yours…”

Sigun strode through the Lost hope spacehulk towards the Armageddon once aboard his ship he made his way to the bridge and looked across his crew “ALL WARRIORS OF THE ARMAGEDDON HEAR YOUR LORD, WE READY TO JOIN THE FLEET IN THE AURORA![/b]

Falling back to seat down in his throne, Sigun looked out into the warp beyond those windows and low under his breath he spoke “The seeds of chaos are sowed…” The 20km ship disengaged from the spacehulk and floated away from the moon sized amalgamation of ships rock and flesh, other smaller ships, those of heretics, renegades and traitors flooding to join the crimson slaughter the [i]Armageddon began its warp jump to meet with the fleet.

For ill or better.

The Fifty thousand strong fleet had returned to the Lost Hope, the home of the crimson slaughter, at the behest of Sigun, Vrosh strode through the corridors. around him angered and agitated brothers of the crimson slaughter bickered and fought amongst themselves as chaos was to do, when it didn’t have a set goal, and victims to crush.

Vrosh entered the throne room and all but one chair was empty and that was Sigun whom had taken a seat in his place, the throne which was reserved for the warmaster of the Crimson slaughter, Kranon the Relentless, or so he thought…

Sigun stood and bowed his head towards Vrosh. The Sorcerer didn’t wear his helmet, leaving it resting on the table. welcome back to the Lost hope Warmaster Vrosh. Vrosh froze and stared at the sorcerer before growling out the wordswhat is the meaning of this, Sigun?


Warmaster Kranon has left this multiverse and returned to the home realm,with the rest of the warband, leaving all that are here under your control. Vrosh began to laugh, was this some kind of joke, apparently not Vrosh moved through the hall and took a seat upon the throne. Perfect, Sigun, i assume you’ve some plot for us?


not as of right now, the magus has been silent since her work began and our own warpsmiths have taken the planet killer to her forgeworld for the finishing repairs. Sigun drummed his fingers upon the helmet. I also intended to seek you out to grant you power fitting of your station.


Vrosh smirked and shook his head. are you just after the position yourself now? the both of them laughed and Sigun added no, if i had i would’ve challenged you the moment i saw you, no i seek to aid your rise.


Sigun stood and lead Vrosh though to the sanctum, a great hall where the psykers are granted clarity to seek the use of their powers, in the centre a ritual circle and sacrifices had been prepared, Vrosh would be lead to the centre of the circle and Sigun would begin his ritual, it would take several hours? Possibly or seconds, time is of no existence in this place. But the armour worn by Vrosh would buckle and warp his helmet falling away and from his head horns grew. His skin darkening and his teeth turning to sharpened blades, from his back bursting forth from his armour a pair of great wings extended, beastial and usable, he fell to his knee and in his left eye the mark of khorne had burnt itself into it, leaving the eye usable but with a permanent mark of whom his soul now belongs to.

Vrosh had become a khorne Daemonkin, a beast worthy of leading a bloody crusade against the light.

There was a slow clapping sound as footfalls entered the Hall and the sounds of wings flapping ever so gently. Footfalls announced her presence as Adsiltia entered the room, helmet off as well but still clad in her power armor. Her Omnisian Axe rested in her tails grip with her weapons latched onto her back. The clapping continued until she was several feet away from the newly made Daemonkin and bowed to him in respect.

"A just reward for locating our finest work. Commendable and welcome to the realm of Daemon-hood brother on behalf of Chaos. The Daemons of the Warp greet you as Khorne surely smiles upon you. The rush of power, the thrill of your vessel being given the gifts of the Powers that be. Savour this feeling...relish in it. For you have ascended past humanity and have become something more."

Sil would have smiled in politeness if she could but mere settled with another bow of her body, her wings opening for a moment then closed behind her as she looked to Sigun with a nod of her head. She seemed to be doing that a lot lately, perhaps she should have her neck servo adjusted later on.

"I am glad I was able to witness it, if only through the Warp. Good day brothers of the Crimson Slaughter. I apologies for the delay in news, I was having a lovely chat with a member of the Imperium. Things are going better then I had originally hoped"

The Magos tapped the ground twice with her axe as she put her hands behind her back.

"All plans laid out have begun to take root and soon we shall bear the fruit of victory. A victory well earned and hard fought against not one, but two of our enemies"

Welcome aboard the Lost hope, Magos, quite a surprise to see you aboard Vrosh, flexed his fingers into a fist as if put into a new body or suit of armour, the voices, no longer tormenting him but, his mind was clear, the voices protected his mind and would aid him in the coming battles.

Sigan bowed his head.allow us to return to the throne room, warmaster, the other lords will need to swear their allegiance. Sigan turned, leaving to gather the lords. Vrosh, stepped away from the ritual markings, the ground seared and bodies charred, the putrid grip of charred flesh and blood thick upon the hall, watching the Magos carefully.


you must have business with the crimson slaughter to bring you here, other than the repairs to the ship. Vrosh kept walking, his natural stride carrying him far with each footfall, upon entering the empty throne room, Vrosh made his way and took the throne, motioning for Sil to take a chair of her own desire.


such power, at my beck and call...this is how emperors must feel he let out a low amused chuckle, watching as the chaos lords under his command filed through into the room taking their seats, none if not most of them were crimson slaughter and unaligned to any god, taking their places and removing helmets these renegade warriors were visibly agitated.

"It feels good doesn't it? As if you are now able to fight a legion of Astartes, to feel the surge as the Gods give you their blessings. I remember how my ascendancy transpired and how good it felt to feel the Warp rush through me. I can tap into the warp and machine as I would my own arm. Its something to truly enjoy"

Sil moved along with him, taking the Ax in hand and leaned on it while she walked. She took a seat nearest to Vrosh so she could better see him. Out of all of these men, she was the only one to display devotion towards one God: Tzeentch. Her symbol of Tzeentch was displayed on her chest and she was wearing a set of long purple robes. But when she sat down, she draped her tail over her lap and addressed Vrosh.

"I have been working on a gift for the Crimson Slaughter as thanks for returning the Armageddon Gun back home for it's repair. I am truly blessed to be working with such a fine machine. It will take some time to complete the restoration but it will be able to finally fulfill its intended purpose. But I have an even better piece of news for you. With your fight to the Aschen, there is a good chance you will have the Imperium knocking on your doorstep as well. I planned to have them participate...and with which you could annihilate their forces as well as the Aschen in a single swoop"

She leaned back slightly in her chair "Im sure you would enjoy yourself to face off against two such enemies. With the Armageddon Gun at your disposal, Im sure you could easily mop the floor with those dogs"

Vrosh glanced at the Magos as she spoke and smirked at the thought of further bloodshed, but at the mention of the imperium, he scoffed. do you truly believe that they would fall for such a ploy?. Vrosh’s eyes fell upon the gathered lords of the crimson slaughter before him. Standing to address the astartes under his command.

Warriors!, of the Crimson Slaughter, the time draws near that the killing begins anew, join me and i’ll see that each and every one of you earns favor in the eyes of the gods!, if not well, i’ll see you a coward and kill you myself.

One of the chaos lords spoke up Vrosh, you’ve no right to lead this crusade, you are weak, i challenge you! the chaos lord raised his helm from the table and put it on, Vrosh scowled death at the man and silently took his power axe from his side and walked down from the throne, his wings folding in keeping them tight against his back.

The two chaos lords squared off circling in a mockery to a noble duel, Vrosh allowed the chaos lord to strike first swinging his powersword for Vrosh’s head, stepping back the blade missed, and Vrosh retaliated; swinging the poweraxe, cleaving into the power armour but not drawing blood, yet.

"According to my reports, the Imperium has also been attacked by the Aschen. Not to mention they know you will be coming"

Sil crossed one leg over the other and pulled it in close while the two Astartes fought against one another. Her servo skull returned to her side and began to speak to her in Technalingua, Adsiltia nodding a bit before letting the skull watch the fight from a distance. This was well outside of her jurisdiction and not within her pervue to intervene on. She merely watched looking completely expressionless.

"They know you will be making an offensive and by the time it reaches the upper tiers of command, I will have completed work on the Armageddon Gun and test fired it to make sure it's functional. You will have the chance to cripple the Imperium and destroy the Aschen in one fell swoop. Id say that is worth the gamble, besides. I know the Imperium wont refuse a chance to kill Chaos whenever it gets the chance. I was more impressed with the Captain I spoke to though. He actually knows of the Imperial Truth. He might even fall to Chaos if he meets with me again"

The powersword would shatter against Vrosh’s right shoulder guard, so vrosh twisted bashing the chaos lord with his left shoulder, reaching around and grabbing the breastplate and threw the man over himself and onto his back on the floor, there was no mercy as Vrosh buried the power axe in the breast plate, pulling the axe from the corpse Vrosh walked away leaving the corpse on the floor with his axe coated in blood.

There was an uproar of cheers from the gathered lords, Vrosh would have to protect his new station but he earned the respect from the other lords. weak, let his warband know it will fall in with mine or they will feed the mongrel beasts in the lower decks. he fell into the throne and glared across his lessers.

anymore of you want to die? the chaos lords laughed and shook their heads some staying silent others looking about expecting others to challenge. But nothing happened,the hall sat in silence for almost a minute.

well put, Vrosh, though,fellow lords, prepare your warbands, the time draws near. Sigan glanced about and the lords each departed, going about their own business Sigan glanced to Vrosh and then left also.

Leaving Vrosh to contemplate upon the throne.

Sil remained behind with Vrosh, reclining a bit in her seat before allowing her illusory veil to disappear, letting her form dissolve into a more Horror like visage with a third arm now extending from her left side that held an open mouth in the palm of the hand. Her wings turned a more vibrant color while her tail seemed to grow more sharp in angle. Her optics unfocused as she simply allowed herself to relax now that the mortals were gone. The Servo skull floated over Vrosh's throne and watched him from above curiously.

"I dont know truly how this will play out, but I am hoping I could curry more favor from the Lord of Fates. I expect a massive slaughter...and for my plans to come to fruition and I could attain even more knowledge. But you know, I have been making other schemes and plots of my own"

Her head turned to face Vrosh as she extended a hand towards him and then curled her fingers into themselves.

"You have warpsmiths here, yet I have not seen any of the Mechanicus here amongst your troops. Why is that? Do no Mechanicus serve among your ranks?"

She asked, her form shifting every second as it changed to various illusions and forms seemingly at random, even going so far as to give her the flesh she once wore from time to time: A brown haired woman of modest age and appearance. The form stopped there for a few moments before subtle differences could be seen in the form.

"Do you wish for the Mechanicus to remain here for a time? I doubt your Warpsmiths could keep the Armageddon Gun in operation"

His eyes followed the servo skull, he was on edge, something eating away at his very essence, was it his bloodlust? No; not his, but that of his patron. Vrosh’s eyes dilated and then he regained focus glancing towards the magos, his reflexes sped up to daemonic levels, he snatched the servo skull from the air and stood looking at it, his grip cracking the bone.

Finish the planet killer, we’ll test fire it once we arrive he said low, tossing the skull aside, if not for its antigrav technology it would’ve smashed against the ceramite floor.

Yelling out into the hall, his voice carried into the minds of all his subordinates GATHER YOUR WEAPONS!; GATHER YOUR FORCES!; WE BEGIN OUR BLACK CRUSADE!

In one uproar of cheers throughout the lost hope, it came to life, there was no violence between brother, as warbands ferried into their ships, the fleet reforming, Vrosh stepped away from the throne and past the magos daemon.

Do not delay us magos, or i’ll come for your forgeworld Vrosh carried on walking, his power axe in hand, its form shifting into a sleeker design with a single spike on the reverse of the head. Vrosh would come to a halt at the entryway of the hall The warpsmiths tend to the operation of our own daemon engines, they have no interest in their past connections.

Sigan had knelt down in the hall of rituals and crushed a piece of broken roasted bone between his fingers, the sorcerer stood in silence, until he heard the call to war from Vrosh, shaking his head, he’d stride away, already the sounds of the foundries roaring into life as war machines were brought to life, heldrakes circled the space hulk, thousands, no tens of thousands of these monsters flying like a flock, they began clamping onto ship hulls ready to ride the ships to war.

what is the fool planning now... Sigan now began to regret raising Vrosh to daemonhood, now he couldn’t spy on the warmaster’s mind as he had done with Kranon, the two came face to face in the corridors of one of the connecting hulks.

something to say Sigan? Vrosh kept his pace up, Sigan didn’t block him but didn’t move either reconsider this call… Vrosh glared at Sigan, stopping to look into the yellow lenses of the sorcerer’s helmet. Do i smell fear? Sigan clenched his fist glaring back NO!, i advise caution, one of our weapons is unavailable to us, wait until it is finished!

Vrosh felt the voices resurface, though this time they didn’t torment him. listen to him, he seeks the same as you. Vrosh growled low Very well sorcerer...i planned on taking the Armageddon as my flagship. Sigan silently accepted that fact, his ship leading, well it wouldn’t be the first time.

Adsiltia watched Vrosh's outburst carefully, tapping her fingers together as she watched him call for the Black Crusade's beginnings. A bemused look set upon her face as she stood up to pull her hood over her head and face with a sly smirk spread across her lips. This seemed all too easy of course. He was pent up, angry, as if he was becoming a Blood thirster himself. A good tool, a good weapon for sure.

Her head canted upwards and to the left to listen to something in the air as she took a few steps forward to follow Vrosh on his way out. A low chuckle coming forth while she hefted her Axe up and tapped the ground twice.

"I will continue work on the gun Vrosh as I promised I would. But...I do not take kindly to threats, especially ones made to my forge world. Remember who and what is fixing your gun for you. Sorcerer, I suggest you and Vrosh plan an attack while I work. It will be at least a few weeks before the weapon will be ready. I expect you to keep yourself entertained while I do my work"

The Magos's human guise vanished as she replaced it with her illusion or normalcy and hummed a soft tune to herself as she walked forward once more past the Warpsmith and now Daemon, a small spring to her step as the servo skull floated along with a tsk from Sil as she remarked how the skull needed some minor repairs before she vanished from sight as she was teleported away by her Ark.

Time flows differently in the warp and warped regions of space such as the eye of terror, again it had been months maybe even years to the crimson slaughter, for such time while Vrosh grew accustomed to his new risen form of daemonhood. Sigan had been in meditations of divination, his power equally that of a greater daemon of tzeentch; who knew all the fates and weaves of time and space, from the safety of his sanctum he watched the aschen leaders. Listened to their every word, worse he knew their location.

The weapon would fire...by his hand or by the hand of the Aschen.

Hours later, the ships were in transit, twenty. thousand crimson slaughter ships of the line. At the head of the fleet, the Armageddon, the 20km long ship had its void shields numbering at five active along with its gellar field,this was so that its main gun, the Armageddon cannon for which the ship was named, would be ready to fire.
Vrosh seated in the throne upon the command deck, his hand resting atop his power axe, watching the warp and the seven kilometer bodyguard battleships to their warmaster’s ship, flanking the much larger vessel. The blackstones would be held in reserve...well they were among other fleets.

The warp tears would split into realspace as the twenty thousand ships of the line, these would be the light cruiser class ships and larger. plowed forth from the warp. Accompanying the largest ships the battleships and battlecruisers which were each around 5km at the smallest and 8km at the largest; numbering five thousand of the fleet. apart from the Gloriana class battlebarge the Armageddon with its 20km length, were escort frigates, each 1.2km too 2km in length and there were two escort frigates per battleship and cruiser, making the full fleet to be at about thirty thousand ships strong.

Before the fleet had fully left the warp Vrosh stood from his throne rising his axe to point into the star system.“ALL SHIPS, FIRE THE NOVA CANNONS! RIP THAT ASCHEN FLEET ASUNDER!, LET NONE SURVIVE!”

The fleet began its assault, nova cannons firing their unfathomably powerful payloads, three hundred nova cannons, the payloads fired at the speed of light. for all its power the weapon was inaccurate however this was a negligible issue when the payload would obliterate anything within a void unit, twenty thousand kilometers, of the explosion, for those warheads that exploded, amongst them were alternate types, Grav shells would cause implosions and create miniature black holes while the rift shells like their vortex torpedo counterparts would rip open rifts into the warp, massive tears that could consume planets. The standard shells going off with the power of a super nova.

The fleet then began to power void shields to maximum, the invisible barriers protecting from anything and everything, however they do this by ‘dropping’ deactivating to disperse the energies. Or overloading. Multiple attacks at the same time will strike the same shield before it drops.the Armageddon’s void shields numbering thirty in total whereas most of the fleet hand anywhere between 4 and 8 but the escort frigates had their bare 1.

The fleet began its approach the frigates outrunning anyone of the larger ships in a screen, to the the thirst brunt of the counter attacks, the Heldrakes scattering into the void from the hulls, millions of them ready to feast, though the Armageddon hung back, its prow splitting in half opening up to expose the end of a spinal weapon, the weapons power spike now readable on all sensors as it began final moments of weapon charge. Its power draw beyond any mortal made weapon conceived, an Armageddon cannon. A weapon that can strip a planet bare in less than a second and then blowing it up with the power of a supernova if fire is sustained. no shield having the power to withstand the sustained firepower of raw warp energies released by the weapon. Entire ships vaporised in seconds with no evidence of the destruction.

The shear volume of Crimson slaughter within the system left a spectral cloud of green energies about their ships and even caused faults and scanning systems becoming nonfunctional of any ship within the system that wasn’t their own. an effect of the hauntings that come with the crimson slaughter’s presence. Along with the coming fleet came a warp storm...cutting the system off from the rest of Aschen space and making it near impossible to safely jump from the system and cutting it off from outsiders.

Six Hours prior to Nova Impact...

Watchtower Command

"Sir, I'm getting some whispers outside of the Planck field, deep space telemetry is reporting...."

Slowly his eyes widened, deep pace telemetry slowly filtering in as one after another, the ships of the Crimson Slaughter pierced the veil into real space.

The discharges of the Nova Cannons were detected first, but even at light speed it would be six hours before they would reach their intended targets, this gave the Aschen defenses ample time to come back online; but with an active Planck field, this made it difficult for FTL based weapons to be effective.

"They're still coming through!" The Lieutenant called out, as Commander Rygar watched the screens.

"Condition one! System wide lock-down! This is not a drill!" He called out on the intercom, the clock began ticking down, six hours to the initial weapons impact, and the various bridge technicians sprang to life, as alarms blared angrily.

The next action was to contact the planetary governor, tentatively, Commander Rygar picked up the phone, there was a few rings before the Governor picked up, but eventually he would.

"Commander?" The Man on the other end inquired, holding the red telephone to his ear.

"We have an invasion in progress, this is a Case Red situation, twenty thousand ships and still counting, I've also detected strategic weapons fire, Ready the troops. We're going to war, this is not a drill."

Hanging up the phone, Rygar turned to his weapons officer, readouts of the fleet pushing back from their moorings had already begun to filter in from all directions. Two Reverence IIs were moored at the Drydocks, undergroing refits, one of them managed to push away almost immediately, while the second was still moored, but was slowly reaching combat readiness.

The rest of the fleet began to calculate the incoming vectors for the incoming Nova ordinance, as well as use the deep space telemetry to calculate area of effect, Most of the fleet would be clear of the incoming ordinance. Such was the problem with sub-light combat at these distances.

Cosmora's orbital defenses came to life next, three hours into the coming engagement, it's Aegis field activated, as massive hexagonal plates of shimmering blue light flickered to life all around the planet.

Each individual hexagonal shield had it's own power source, and was capable of absorbing even the mightiest of impacts, these included impacts from the Nova cannon, though each impact would place the individual hexagonal plates under great strain.



Those on the surface had four hours to reach their underground bunker complexes, Civilians, and all non-essential personnel were ushered into the massive civil defense bunkers that were intended to see wars that never came, while Imperial soldiers marched by the millions to defensive positions all across the hundreds of settlements that dotted the planet, though many knew that even the most defensible position was useless under orbital bombardment, or worse; planetary destruction.





The Singularity drivers in orbit fired next, calculating the trajectory of the incoming fleet, they unleashed their ordinance in massive flashes of yellow and white, each singularity driver was designed to fire a slug of Neutronium roughly fourty meters across, that had been collapsed into the size of a basketball, and hurled at near the speed of light towards the enemy formation. Each resulting neutronium shot carrying with it the gravity well of a black hole, and the kinetic energy of a small supernova.

They fired in a salvo, with one line of orbital cannons firing, and then a second while the first line reloaded and charged for a second shot.

Hundreds of gun batteries began acquiring targeting data, as the fleet braced for the incoming ordinance.

Millions of Helldrakes would be met with millions of Dryad, Furie, and Harpy class drones launched in the Millions from the dozens of Drone Carriers attached to Classis IV. With no pilots to burn out, and thick armor, the Drones surged fourth, with the Furies packing the smallest ordinance, their 40mm Mass Accelerator cannons, to the Dryad class drones, which packed a spinal mounted 120mm Mass Driver, and two winglet mounted 60mm Mass Drivers.

The Watchtower initialized it's own defensive systems, spewing Raptor Talon, Apollo, and Viper class fighters by the tens of Thousands as pilots were scrambled, in addition the Watchtower's own gargantuan Aegis field powered to life, enforced by the Arcturus power system deep in the Watchtower's core, which extracted vacuum energy from the universe, making it extremely powerful.

Commander Rygar watched in silence as the Singularity drivers discharged their deadly ordinance, and the first of the Nova cannons impacted Cosmora and the Watchtower's shields, sending ripples throughout the superstructure.

"Shields are holding." An Officer reported, as Rygar watched the shimmering blue hexagonal plates over Cosmora slowly shift red as the Nova shells impacted, one Hexagonal panel shattered in a brilliant explosion of energy, but was quickly replaced in the lull of fire.

---


Aboard the Reverence II - Rapid Conversion.

Readouts were coming in across the board, the Invasion fleet had been tallied and accounted for, thirty some thousand strong, the Aschen found themselves outnumbered.

Growling, Admiral Grayson grasped the railing of the command console, as a Lieutenant called out.

"Enemy ships accounted for, moving CBDR, Nine Nine Seven Carom Nine One Eight. They outnumber us ten to one."

Growling he stared at the holographic readout, the flickering icons in front of him.

"Then it is an even fight..."

Grabbing the radio, he pulled it to his ear and called out.

"All hands! This is the Commander. Moments ago, this ship received word of a massive invasion against our homeworlds is under way. We do not know the size or the disposition or the strength of the enemy forces, but all indications point to a massive assault against Aschen defenses. Admiral Nagala has taken personal command of the Fleet aboard the Pride of Langara following word of the attack. "How? Why?" doesn't really matter now. What does matter is that as of this moment, we are at war. You've trained for this. You're ready for this. Stand to your duties, trust your fellow shipmates, and we'll all get through this. Further updates as we get them. Thank you."

Hanging up the receiver he called out, pointing forward.

"Engines full thrust, All ships defensive formation Epsilon! We have the home field advantage! We'll show these gallmonging aliens how to fight now! Yes by the Lords of Kobol! The enemy invasion is about to fall!"

Vrosh glanced to his fleet the ships pondering on ahead of the massive flagship the shields dropped and the main gun fired, lighting the void with a massive bright light as if a star had just been born on the edge of the system. The resulting beam of energy that fired from the prow of the Armageddon burning across the void and reaching past the sun in milliseconds, striking through ships and directly at whatever held the plank pack, vaporising it. Shields would overload the moment the beam came into contact, blowing them out and reducing their emitters to scrap.

the incoming aschen salvo would batter against void shields, the power and strike hitting the shields would be dispearsed into the warp as the shields fell, the cracks of light from impacts throwing up blooms of light, the escort frontline taking the battering that the ships of the line would've shrugged off a couple thousand lighting up and destroyed, plasma generators detonating as they overload, even lumps of space where the heldrakes once were are cleared up but not much of a dent in their numbers.

The light of the beam would also be visible as it cut through the system for a full thirty minutes then dying down, whatever poor bastard on the other side of the system that may have also been hit well poor luck to them.

The Armageddon’s prow would lumber closed and the engines would power back up, thousands of his own heldrakes reduced to nothing as he without warning launched the attack, it would take another twenty to forty minutes for the weapon to be ready to fire.

The void shields powering back up and creating the translucent barriers once more.
“END THEIR MISERABLE EXISTENCE!” the fleet engaged its warp drives and in similar fashion as before in the Aurora, warp jumped into high orbit of the planet in question, heldrakes swarming from the hulls and the fleet firing all weapons at the aschen defence fleet, most shots directed away from the drydocks, as boarding torpedoes fire. Smashing into the drydocks and flooding space marines and cultists aboard to capture them.

Vrosh stayed aboard his command ship allowing his followers to kill in his name, the gun decks firing as often as possible the twenty KM ship obliterating anything smaller than it in half volleys. However escort ships and some of the cruisers would never attempt to engage instead offloading thunderhawk gunships and drop pods towards the planet’s surface below, teleportarium’s flaring into life and dropping maulerfiends and forgefiends into the fray alongside hellbrutes.

No doubt the aschen would react quickly, the battlecuisers and the larger battleships focusing upon the command ships of the aschen, pummeling shields and hulls with macrobattery fire and lance fire the lances piercing shields but doing significantly less damage then they would do to a unshielded target, that’s to say the lances still cut into and gauged the hulls of their targets.

And amongst the fleet kept hidden under the Armageddon’s size the husk a nurgle plague ship that began its assault, a putrid green cloud of gas dispersing from the ship filling a 3VUx3VUx3VU spherical region of space around it, the gas rusting the hulls and wasting the aschen ships within its radius away. Tendrils whipping out and battering against shields and then...a giant explosion from the husk the what must have been an EMP blast struck everything in reach but what happened next to the aschen was...barbaric, men’s minds rewritten and recoded as if machines, and the same goes for Ship wide A.Is and the drones...the scrapcode Virus...a virulent plague and made worse by its new ability to affect humans aswell as machine. However the process of humans was much more slower than on machines, days even.

Well in mere moments, the drones had new directives...dive bomb the planet...and ship A.Is taking control and turning off shields and venting atmo as the crimson slaughter continued to butcher.

The virus was a gift from the chaos god nurgle… the planet didn’t fare so well either, as the virus infected and began shutting down the shields and rejecting to fire anything at the coming invasion.

The Watchtower, protected by it's gargantuan Aegis field was also the origin of the System wide Planck field, when Vrosh fired the Armageddon gun, the beam seared towards the Watchtower, and impacted it's shields.

The Brilliant aegis field shone brightly, absorbing the monumental energy being imparted on it. And were the beam just a little bit less intense, perhaps they would have resisted it entirely.

The Shields collapsed and the beam impaled the Watchtower, fortunately it had been vaporized otherwise the entire star system would have been immediately consumed by the release of energy from a failing Arcturus core.

Somewhere, on the edge of the star system, Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries began to play.



An alien ship, roughly a kilometer in length and unlike any previous Aschen design appeared seemingly from nowhere, roughly half a void unit from one of Vrosh's escort ship.

Reality itself lensed, and bent around this alien vessel, as Wagner played even louder throughout the ship, a middle aged man at the controls.

"Dun-dun-duuuuuun dun dun dananaaaana!" He called out, making hand gestures as the strange ship careened past one of the battleships.

With this strange man, his will became reality, which meant that if reality manifest, the Battleship would be literally torn in two, as if two giant invisible hands grabbed each end, and tore the vessel asunder from aft to fore.

An action like this, there was likely no defense as a godlike mind focused it's power on making will reality.

Wagner played even louder as the ship careened past the Armageddon.

The music grew louder, and the man made a hand gesture like a gun, as ordinance seemed to pass through the strange ship as if it didn't exist at all, free to pummel into nearby Chaos or Aschen ships, as the strange alien vessel did a wide arc around the Armageddon.

"Bang." The man said, and from the strange bubble around the alien ship, a lance of energy hammered the Void shields, once, twice, thrice. But then it paused, and the moment the void shields went offline, the strange lance of energy hammered again stopping only when the void shields came back online.

Calling on the radio, a voice echoed on all Aschen channels.

"I go and get myself exiled and ol' Princy Pants has to get himself in trouble! See!? This is why we run shit!"

With a snap of his fingers, his will was made manifest once more, intent on compelling a swathe of Helldrakes back into the warp, whether they'd like to have gone or not.

"Alright mister evil demon man, this is my home, you see. And you're pissing on my lawn!"

The voice was somewhat chaotic, cocky, almost with a hint of craziness. But the pressing question was exactly how this strange ship got through the warp storms.

"You need to take your Korn and your Nurgles, and your Zeench, and get the frak out of my home!" The man called out, tauntingly as Millions of small yellow constructs began to swarm out of the alien ship, which was banking circles around the Armageddon, absorbing a punishing amount of fire without so much as a stutter.

The music in the bridge changed.



The small yellow drones, seemingly driven only by the mind of the strange entity on the alien ship, drove directly towards the Armageddon, impacting void shields, again and again, and once down the strange yellow drones darted into the ship, aiming to burrow through the hull as if it were nothing.

Once in the hull, if they managed to get inside, the small yellow drones would move directly for the Armageddon Gun's critical systems, causing enough havoc, and enough chaos to hopefully take the gun offline.

Millions more of these drones, immune to Nurgle's influence extended outwards in every direction, going after Helldrakes, pummeling frigates, Battleships, everything within striking distance of this strange alien vessel.

---

Aside from the strange ship bobbing and weaving through the Crimson Formation, serving as more as a distraction than anything, the main fleet regrouped, with the larger Aschen ships using their internal Planck systems to prevent boarders.

Within this close, the Aschen fleet unleashed a withering salvo of Turbodisruptor blasts, torpedo and missile strikes, and heavy Kinetic energy bombardments.

The two fleets were trading fire back and fourth, Aschen shields standing defiantly to the punishing incoming weapons fire, what the Shields couldn't stop, thick Kanvium hulls managed to absorb the brunt of.

Having lost control of the Drones, an automatic kill switch was engaged, and many of the drones deactivated, and began drifting lifelessly through space, while others succumbed to thick flack fire.

Orbital defenses shelled the ships from the surface.

Those on the surface were ready, dug in and ready to defend, with much of the Civilian population sequestered in their bunkers, they would fight, as Cosmora was a fairly strategically important target.

To Raphael’s dismay the Daemon engines he tried to banish, wouldn’t, they were from the materium after all.
Sigan who had been watching on the command deck of his ship that vrosh had taken, would sigh and reach out with his mind linking it with that of the so called crazy man getting in the way and with the full power of the warp rend his soul into nothing, before dragging him into the warp with himself, the two stood on a small peninsula and Sigan watched as the mad man likely healed the damage done. Thrice damned chains burst from the rock tying the man down to the ground and pinning him, with nary a flinch from the space marine. He walked over towards the man and with a piece of burning wood carved the mark of tzeentch into the man’s forehead.

The agony would be nothing to what came next as the chaos god, Tzeentch, took his gift ripping this poor bastard’s already ‘mad’ mind to sunders and feeding off the powers, with a crack of lighting a shadow covered the floating lump of land and what was sigan seemed to be a giant humanoid bird headed and winged creature nearly two stories tall. “If you’ll excuse me fool, i have an empire to usurp” returning back aboard his ship, his connection to the warp.

The fool cut off from his ship and the drones they were quickly dealt with. Vrosh glanced to Sigan before looking out at the ensuing battle, the void shields powering to life and the 20km ship’s hull regenerating from the multitude of daemons bound to it to cut the need for crew by a large margin.

The battle below upon the planet was grueling, and it was a slaughter for both sides. However it was only the lucky shots from the disruptor rifle shots that put down any of the marines while the disruptor fire slaughtered the cultists by the dozens, bolters slaughtering anyone hit by the mass reactive RPGs that were essentially the ammunition of bolters the forgefiends firing balls of ectoplasma, these daemonic energies slaughtering even tanks with each shot.

And the maulerfiends and hellbrutes, armoured monstrosities that they are tearing into the lines followed by depraved maddened possessed space marines, monster’s that had allowed themselves to become one with the daemon. But what was worse, the fear, the unmissable terror on the air, the very presence of the crimson slaughter causing even the most stalwart defender to quake in their boots, with more and more drop pods raining down from the heavens above, and the swarms of heldrakes taking control of the skies the air itself thickened and the ghosts began to form, charging ahead of the advancing Crimson slaughter marine ranks, the ghosts would dive onto and begin stabbing out throats in maddened glee as the crimson slaughter left nothing to survive.

Emplacements were greeted with the rage of orbital bombardment as more and more of the crimson fleet broke away from the fight, by now the Armageddon gun had fully recharged, the ship twisted its way around and aimed for a capital ship, its prow opening but its shields only lowering to ten active.

The escorts that remained began to guard the capital ship as it lined up its shot, as did the two battleships acting as the bodyguards.

One bunch of maddened crew rammed their escort frigate into the ship that had caused a nuisance for the Armageddon and detonated their warpdrive, zealously ripping a warp rift open and dragging their damned selves and the ship into the warp with them. However the warp was relative to the materium, so wherever Raphael was, his ship was elsewhere. Being smashed into some new space hulk.

It wasn't so much to his Dismay, as more of a curiosity, and oddly enough he went willingly with Sigan as he pulled him into what seemed to be some kind of strange reality.

It was without his mortal body and the interference of the others in this new plane that he was truly able to stretch his mind.

Sigan would quickly learn there was no mortal soul to flay, and his attempts to rend the soul even with the full power of the warp did little, and Raphael was before Sigan on the peninsula not as a man cowering in fear, but a strange light, radiating feather like tendrils out in every direction.

Thrice damned chains came up, but with no limbs to bind, they seemed to pass right through the strange being that stood before Sigan.




The burning wood was incinerated as Sigan moved it towards the strange being, but something seemed off, the entity before Sigan wasn't interested in Sigan, no it was Tzeentch that it was interested in.

Two omniscient entities, meeting each-other for the first time would write compelling drama. It wouldn't be Tzeentch ripping Raphael's mind asunder and feeding off his power, but the two enveloping one another in a game of mental chess beyond mortal comprehension, infinite dimensions played all at once between Raphael and the Chaos God Tzeentch.

A Curiousity that would keep the ascended being entertained for some time. A millenia? A few hours? Eternity? Only the guiles of Tzeentch and the vast knowledge and understanding of the ascended Raphael could tell. What might have been seconds for them in their game of mental fisticuffs could sunder entire dimensions. While Raphael could not influence the warp alone, neither could the warp corrupt him, leaving him ample time to study these entities and the raw chaotic energies that created them.

Two omniscient beings trying to learn something they didn't know.

---

Back in Realspace, the Aurora had vanished, with Raphael having left, the ship left as well, slipping out of phase and vanishing to some unknown dimension, leaving the Aschen alone to contend with the Crimson Slaughter once more.

"We need to take out that capital ship if we're going to turn the tide of this battle in our favor." Admiral Grayson called out, as the entire rapid Conversion shuddered from weapons fire impacting it's shields.

Looking to the tactical readout, he checked several holographic icons. The two other Reverence IIs, the Twlight Compunction and the Revenant were both operational, their task groups holding out against the Daemonic fleet that was gunning their way for the planet.

He drew up plans, the two Aschen ships would sandwich the large 20km vessel, with size and firepower slightly erred on the side of the Reverences, being 30km in length, Grayson figured they could sandwich the Armageddon, and pummel it until it succumbed.

He plotted FTL Jumps, the spacial displacement of a jumping ship was theorized to be capable of consuming anything in it's way, as evidenced by chasms being carved out in mountains when a ship's jump was miscalculated near a planet.

The resulting spatial shockwaves would wreak havok on the Armageddon's Void Shields, and Grayson could have two Reverence IIs concentrate all their batteries on one side of the Armageddon.

Two on the side, one on top shelling with Turbodisruptors and Energy Projectors, while redirecting the Aegis Cruisers to envelop the entire formation in an Aegis field, to keep out the incoming fire of a redirected fleet.

"Sir, The cannon fired again, we lost one of our Iconoclast Battleships, and two Hastati cruisers in the firing line." A Lieutenant reported.

Growling; Grayson transmitted the tactical data to the other two Reverence IIs; it was one last ditch effort to turn the tide of the battle.

"Execute battle plan, Jump!" Grayson called out.

All three Reverence IIs immediately winked out from their respective engagements, leaving their task forces to fend against enemy cruisers, and Capital ships, but as quickly as they disappeared, they winked in, danger close within a scant 50 Kilometers from the Armageddon.

Aschen Reverence IIs winked in both on the port and starboard sides of the Armageddon, with the third jumping in above them. The resulting spatial shockwave washed out in every direction, stretching void shielding to it's maximum.

The instant the ships appeared, they began opening fire, with the pair of Reverence IIs opening fire with every weapons battery they had, concentrating everything in a sustained bombardment of the Armageddon's Void Shields. 1,500 massive Dual-Barreled Turbodisruptor banks unleashed their withering firepower, slinging massive bolts of green that struck like a drum against the Armageddon's Void shields.

The fire didn't let up.

Above the Armageddon, the Revenant jumped in, unleashing all seven-hundred fifty Turbodisruptor batteries in a sustained bombardment, on top of all six energy projectors unleashing a steady stream of energy against the void shields, pummeling them with a sustained broadside. It would only be a matter of time before the void shields collapsed on three sides, exposing the hull to massive sustained fire, that did not let up.

"Sir, weapons capacitors are beginning to deplete, we're discharging more than main engineering can replace." The weapons officer reported.

"Keep firing!" Grayson ordered.

With the sustained, concentrated fire of not one, not two, but three 30km long Reverence IIs, it would only be a matter of time before the void shields of the Armageddon gun collapsed, exposing it's hull.

The two Battleships, if they weren't consumed in the spatial distortion of the jumping ships weren't spared either, as every single weapons battery on the quadrant of the ship facing them were concentrated on them, thousands of powerful Turbodisruptor batteries pummeling their void shields without respite.

Nearly a million km away, a quantum plasmid warhead went off, enveloping millions of Helldrakes in what amounted to a supernova, as an Athena cruiser, at full burn collided with a Crimson Slaughter cruiser, detonating it's missile payload in a brilliant explosion.

---

On the surface, the denizens of the Cosmora Archipelago held strong, despite staggering losses in the face of what was nearly a limitless swarm of Daemons, ghosts, traitors, and cultists.

Entire cities were slowly beginning to fall, but the Aschen defenders held every city block, forcing the Daemonic invasion to earn every block of planet.

A blinding flash, and a mushroom cloud surged upwards, as a nuclear missile detonated in the sky, consuming thousands of Helldrakes in Nuclear fire; while thousands of Stormbringer AA Emplacements locked on, and pummeled anything in the air, though it seemed to make little difference.

Another flash, this time in an area almost totally under Daemonic control; a last ditch effort to cut a hole in the hoardes as a Thalaron warhead detonated, everything within hundreds of kilometers of the flash were instantly petrified as the cascading biogenic pulse attacked organic matter at the molecular level, anything with flesh was destroyed in an instant, even if it only meant that they were replaced by more invaders.

The thalaron warhead would in its mass destruction would slaughter the millions of culitists wading through, however the warhead likely went off over a front line, the crimson slaughter a slow advancing wall of ceramite power armour and the bestial hulled creatures that made the daemon engines. Leaving blood soaked blocks and ruins in their wake.
However, the blast would not only damage and destroy the cultists but cause damage to many of the flesh and machine constructs that were the damned daemon engines, only the battle brothers of the crimson slaughter who were fully clad in their power armour was protected from the blast.

Those wounded but surviving the blast in some merciless effect from the gods of chaos grew even more rabid, gibbering maniacs dragging their half dead bodies only to be shot down.
-------------------------------------------
As for the Armageddon.as soon as it began to take such quantities of firepower its warpdrive flared into life and the ship would ‘blink’ after a four second charge time, resulting in all but four of its void shields two be decimated, with a bright white flash of light, abandoning the two disabled battleships for dead amongst the three aschen fleet command ships and leaving them to fire upon one another. For the briefest of seconds possibly. Its new position 2.5 V.Us away, it was prow facing the two capital ships that had settled beside it. and the remaining void shields dropping to fire the Armageddon gun getting two capital ships for the price of one shot. The blast rippled through space lighting up the void once more.

Overloading the AEGIS shields in six seconds, void shields collapsing in the blink of an eye, and then vaporizing the central mass of both ships, the residual bleed off energies of the beam melting the hulls of the two bodyguard ships, the beam than began to draw upwards towards the final ship, as the Armageddon fired its forward pivoting engines to push the prow towards the third and final Reverence II.

The Husk that had been safely sitting itself under the Armageddon within it’s void shields. would release another pulse of scrapcode enveloping the entirety of the final Reverance II, even if it escaped… it wouldn’t be long before the ship itself delt with the aschen aboard. The two battleship’s, the critical damage they having taken would also cause their warp drives to detonate, ripping open rifts into the warp, the gravitational forces pulling on. shredding anything unprotected as if they were black holes. The husk would extend tendrils spiking them into the hulls of the destroyed ships and drag them through into a rift with it, effectively bored of the battle.

Four other battleships that were within ten VUs would then blink to aid and guard the Armageddon, on all sides. The firing of Nova cannons began once more now that many were reloaded, the shots point blank on Aschen terms and would wipe out millions of lives that of aschen or that of their own, nova shots ripping down shields and then much larger ships ramming the smaller aschen ships alongside full broadside Salvos.

Th armageddon’s shields slowly restored and two of the four new guards, would weaken their own shields, ‘sharing them’ to charge the admiral ship’s shields.
-----------------------------
As for the mental tap dance and chess going on in the warp, Tzeentch found it interesting and amusing that such a being existed, though as the Fateweaver, he knew even the plans and plots of all his minions, and now in the presence of a being of the wider multiverse, his power was allowed to bleed forth, watch, but not manipulate, the power of other gods blocking him. No matter, right now, he would learn as much as he could from this Alteran.
---------------------
And for those crimson slaughter on the ground war they continued even in the midst of heavy losses to weapons of mass destruction, damaged daemon engines getting back up from their wounded state and pressing forward in frenzied rage, however as more crimson slaughter flooded the planet Aschen defences began to be crushed in multiple directions in slow pincer attacks. Those that surrendered in this butchery of war the crimson slaughter out of characteristics for the renegades allowed them to live. Though wounded were left for dead, they weren’t needed.

The instant the energies required to make the warp jump built up within the Armageddon, the three Reverence II's concentrated even more, but stopped the instant the Armageddon jumped, and then immediately jumping away themselves to pre-determined coordinates.

The Highly sophisticated AI Banks within each ship were linked with the wider fleet, using the computational power to calculate all possible variables, and act on them much faster than the human command structure could keep up.

With the tactical plan loaded, the AI's could execute contingencies and changes much faster than the human crew. And now the three Reverences had winked away almost in synchronicity with the Armageddon.

The instant the Armageddon exited the warp into realspace, the three Reverence IIs winked back in danger close, unleashing their torrent of fire once more in a game of cat and mouse with the 20km super-weapon. With only four void shields left, it would be a matter of time before the shields themselves were depleted, and concentrated weapons fire was striking the hull itself.

Nurgle's husk wasn't forgotten about either, in a carefully but speedily executed command from the Reverence's AI systems, a single Punisher class battleship, running in autistic mode to prevent viral intrusions winked in directly below the Armageddon, unleashing every single forward gun battery into the void shields protecting the hulk, and the hulk itself.

Massive 12,000 ton ferric-tungsten slugs the size of school buses were hurled towards the void shields and the hulk in a staggered salvo, along with dozens of concentrated Turbodisruptor batteries opening fire at once, concentrating the staggering firepower of the Aschen battleship on a single point within the Hulk, a jackhammer technique to bring the void shields down, and pummel the ship with everything it had.

"We need to keep up the pressure, keep pace and don't let them breathe, all ships regroup and press the attack on the command ships!" Grayson ordered, and the Aschen fleet regrouped and executed just that. Four new battleships were picked out from the fleet, with six Hastati cruisers, two Gemenon class cruisers, and a handful of Mercury Class Battlestars jumped in, surrounding the Battleships on all sides, with new tactics to surround the largest ships with what Aschen vessels remained, using point defense weaponry and powerful shields to withstand the attacks from the smaller units.

On top of the fighter screen.

Drones that weren't effected by the previous use of the Scrapcode continued to fill the void, along with those piloting Apollo, Raptor Talon, and Viper class starfighters, but there was something else, the AI banks aboard the Reverences were working on data samples from the previous scrap-code, the hyper-intelligent AIs working tirelessly to devise a vaccine, but a Vaccine was several minutes away.

They could only hope to neutralize the husk before the Scrapcode was used again, but even if it was, the effect on the Reverences wouldn't be the desired one, as their AI systems operated on a much different tier than the dumber AI systems on the Drone Carriers and the smaller ships.

These Aiyanna-Platform AIs were capable of isolating and purging hostile data in real time, before it could rend the code to serve it's purposes, as it seemed. The Scrapcode was not unlike Aiyanna-A's intruder program, thus with a common ground formed, these AI's could self-vaccinate against the hostile code.

But despite these small victories; the Aschen had taken losses, with nearly a third of the fleet lost to the onslaught, and the battle effectively at a stalemate with the Aschen holding the line by their eyeteeth, every commander knew at the back of their minds that those on the planet were likely not faring any better.

The reports were coming in that most of the smaller settlements had been overrun, or had fallen with the main defense force retreating to the larger settlements on the planet.

But the closer the Chaos Space Marines, Cultists, and Daemon engines got to the central cities, the fiercer Aschen resistance had become.

Aschen soldiers among the buildings continued to pepper the hoarde with disruptor fire, they began to draw the lines outside the major cities, especially in the capital city of Lyra, where a Thalaron warhead detonated beyond the outskirts, clearing out millions of Chaos troops, giving the Aschen just enough breathing room to push back, aided now by the Adepts of War, whom had begun to mobilize.

Fighting almost on equal footing to the Chaos Space Marines, the Adepts of War were ministers of death praying for war, fighting with the tenacity, and stubbornness of an Aschen Marine, but with the super strength, and powered armor of an Astartes, indeed the Adept's Power Armor functioned on many ways the same way as an Astartes, but offered a few advantages, such as integrated hard light shielding, thicker Kanvium armor, and a somewhat more efficient power system.

The Heavy Magnetron was also comparable to the Bolter, hurling 20mm slugs into the enemy, and when they closed in, they enjoyed intense melee combat, fighting almost on par with the Chaos Space Marines, using plasma swords, Heavy pistols, and hardened trinnium-carbide blades.

It was hopeful these Adepts in Lyra could turn the tide of the battle, but it was unlikely.

In the Warp, the mind games continued, as an Ascended Raphael was closely studying the warp, and the raw psychic energies it seemed to be comprised of.