Blackstone Fortress — Extraction Point Sigma Holdforce
Warp-light howled through the crumbling chamber. The thirty Shinobi of Sigma Holdforce stood shoulder to shoulder, monomolecular blades gleaming, rail carbines hissing out death. The thick, sour-sweet stink of blood and burning flesh hung in the air.
"Hold the line!" barked Chunin Bonnie, bisecting a daemon's throat in a blur of steel.
The tide pressed in. Bloodletters howled, jaws slavering, eyes burning with mindless rage. The air itself boiled, warpfire arcs raking the walls.
Shirou gritted his teeth, blood slicking his vambrace. "We won't hold this position. It's a slaughterhouse."
Beside him, Rai — his closest friend, the quietest of them — spun, blasting a Bloodletter's skull into molten ruin with his railpistol. A bolt round cracked against his helm, and the second punched clean through his right eye socket.
He fell to one knee, vision shattering into red static.
"Rai!" Shirou vaulted over debris. A Terminator's power fist arced down — impossibly fast, absurdly massive.
Shirou shoved Rai aside and took the full force of the blow. His energy shield burst in a flare of blue light. Ceramite shattered. Bone splintered like glass.
Bleeding out, Shirou dragged Rai close.
"You've… still got time left… I wanted to see the world… with this eye," he coughed, blood spraying over Rai's chest plate.
"Don't be a fool!" Rai snarled, but the team medic was already moving, gauntlet tools buzzing.
"I can save it. Shut up and hold still."
In the slaughter's midst, nano-scalpels flashed. Flesh and optic nerve fused, microfibrils sealing tissue and halting blood loss in seconds. A single brown eye replaced Rai's ruined one — his brother's last gift.
The comm crackled.
"Sigma Holdforce to Silent Veil — breach imminent, falling back to secondary routes."
[Acknowledged. Tactical retreat permitted. Glory to the Machinist.]
Of the thirty, only five survived, vanishing into shattered conduits and smoke-choked. Of the five, only Rai spoke, voice low.
"I'll see it. I swear it."
Blackstone Fortress — Corridor Theta-Seven
"Lord Guilliman," Grand Master Voldus said, "there is a ritual — a last resort from Malcador's time. It opens a breachway into the Librarium Sanctus on Terra itself. A pathway none but the Ordo Malleus were meant to know."
Guilliman's gaze was grim. "The risk is obscene. Should the Ruinous Powers intercept it—"
"The Emperor's Palace would be at risk," Voldus finished grimmly. "It was always a last hour gambit."
Before another word, Sylandri Veilwalker appeared.
"We can weave a Webway path, Lord of Ultramar. Safer than this collapsing corpse," the Harlequin sang, jesting in his l voice.
Guilliman's frown deepened. "I'd rather trust a cursed bolter round."
Amalrich and the Templars growled in approval.
Then a Grey Knight interjected. "My lord, there's a teleportation anchor on Luna's secure vault complex. Dormant but intact."
Guilliman nodded sharply. "We'll use that. But we must slay whatever daemon rules this hell, or it'll follow us to Sol."
Meanwhile — at the Shinobi group nearby
Seiji's comm hissed static.
[Silent...bbzt...ader…corruption…Sigma Holdforce evac…We're pulling back to Moon Tear. HQ orders.]
"Strike force leader to Silent Eve, enhance your signal and say your last." Seiji said frowning.
[Silent Veil to Commander Seiji…don't have time…I am retreating…the warp corruption is too great…Sigma Holdforce evacuated…]
"You're leaving us to rot?"
[First wave in bound on two terran days. Warp interference worsening. No other options.]
He took a breath. "Understood."
"We're on our own," Seiji said quietly. "No evac. No reinforcements for two days."
They exchanged a glance. No words. Only grim acceptance. The weight of the void settled over them.
For a moment, the battle's din felt distant — a silent, shared understanding between people who'd run out of fallback options.
Naon gave a sharp, terse nod. Bruno adjusted his grip on his weapon.
Then they heard heavy thumping approaches. Turning, Seiji see Gulliman bringing the astartes.
"We need a chamber large enough to hold all of us," Voldus said, urgency in his tone, cutting through the moment.
Seiji's gaze flicked to his holomap, pulling himself back to focus.
"The nearest viable chamber is here." A flickering icon bloomed above his palm.
Guilliman's voice came sharp, resolute.
"We move now."
The final push hit like a hammer.
Emperor's Champion Marius Amalrich was first through the breach, his Black Sword cleaving a Bloodletter in two with a spray of ichor. His Templars surged behind, bolters roaring.
Shinobi and Harlequins closed the gap, blades and railfire cutting down what slipped through.
Bloodletters shrieked — a sound like rusted metal tearing bone. Khorne's beasts howled wordless hate. Tzeentchian horrors whispered lies in stolen voices, flickering like broken flame.
Bolters thundered. Lasguns spat tight volleys. Shinobi monoblades tore through daemon flesh. Rail carbines hissed with precision shots.
Then the chamber shook.
A roar split the air — pure, weaponized hatred. Crimson warpfire detonated along the walls.
Skarbrand. The Exiled One.
An eight-meter wall of brass, muscle, and hellfire stepped into the breach, axes ablaze.
"On me!" Amalrich roared, raising his sword.
"For the Emperor and Dorn!" the other black templars follows.
The Bloodthirster swung one massive axe, a hurricane of rage and force.
Amalrich ducked low, the strike ripping stone apart overhead.
"Bruno! Permission to use normal outpu! Take the shot!" Seiji barked over comms.
Bruno was already sighting down his railgun. Power setting clicked to normal output. The trigger pulled.
A thunderous crack split the air. The adamantium round accelerating to Mach-7 shredded its casing mid-flight, before burying itself deep into Skarbrand's left shoulder.
Warp-tainted ichor hissed out.
The daemon staggered half a step. Warpfire mended the flesh before the spray hit the ground.
Its burning gaze locked onto Bruno. A primal, beast's instinct flared. A predator marking its next kill.
"Contact incoming!" Bruno snapped.
Skarbrand roared, one axe arm swinging, the other grabbing a broken pillar — hurling it like a spear.
Too fast.
Bruno barely turned before the mass smashed into him, pulverizing his right leg from the knee down. leg shattered. Blood sprayed.
"Bruno's down! Medic!" Naon shouted, closing in with a snarl behind her mask.
The Shinobi medic reached him fast, gauntlet tools already hissing.
"You're not dying here, bastard," the medic grunted, high-density sealant misting the ruin of a leg.
"Wouldn't dream of it," Bruno growled, biting down against the pain.
Naon's voice was low and cold. "Permission to deploy the seal."
"Negative," Seiji cut in over comms. "Save it for the real target."
A beat of tense silence. Then Naon's sharp, curt reply.
"Understood."