North of the galaxy, among the halo stars beyond the Astronomican's reach, the Rangdan system.
Perturabo was not aboard his Iron Blood. He was in the central quadrant command room of the Ramillies-class Starfort that Nareth had placed under his command and which would be his after the war.
The interfaces at the back of his head connected to the cogitator array he had personally modified. Torrents of data surged through his mind.
Torpedo launchers moved as if part of his own body, spewing swarms of torpedoes into the void.
Perturabo, alone, accomplished the coordination that would normally require an entire staff led by an Admiral.
He even controlled each individual torpedo, guiding them to destroy the countless drones that a Glorianna-class battleship would struggle to handle.
Runes leaped, collided, and vanished in Perturabo's mind, forming a constantly shifting, artistic tableau.
Everything was under control.
The thought had barely formed when a discordant, white, blade-shaped rune suddenly intruded.
'Jaghatai's ships. That fast.' Perturabo's admiration flickered, then his brow furrowed.
One after another, white runes intruded chaotically.
They were like a sudden whirlwind, fierce yet disorderly.
Black and iron-grey runes surged in, easing Perturabo's frown.
The Iron Blood, commanded by his Trident, and the Shadow's Sovereignty, his brother Nareth's flagship, had flawlessly executed his battle plan.
Perturabo stared at the black runes, a slight smile tugging at his lips before he forced it down.
He ignored the drifting white runes. At least they would draw some fire.
He repeatedly adjusted his deployments, disrupted by the white whirlwind, rapidly transmitting orders to the other ships.
Black, purple, grey-limestone...
A flood of runes, following the predetermined plan and predetermined trajectories, marched towards the red targets.
The red Ark Mechanicum, Xana's Vengeance.
Anacharis Scoria stared at the hololithic star chart, at the planet drawing closer.
He watched the Omnissiah's sacred creation, the Ramillies-class Starfort, enter orbit around the evil xenos creation, the war-moon.
Three Glorianna-class battleships, black, iron-grey, and white, reached orbit and joined the bombardment.
Anacharis sent a burst of binary code through the noosphere to the entire Xana fleet.
["Our target is the xenos' evil homeworld. Lord Nareth has granted my request to deliver judgment."]
["The Omnissiah has granted me revelation. He has granted me the algorithms of victory and judgment!"]
["The Omnissiah descends in wrath. Every xenos that has defiled the Machine God must be purified!"]
Anacharis highlighted his own role, transforming Lord Nareth's command into his own merit.
This was not betrayal; it was necessary to serve Lord Nareth.
He needed greater prestige to climb the web-like hierarchy of power on Xana.
The noosphere surged with the clamor of binary.
["In the name of the Omnissiah, judge the heretical defilers!"]
["Magos Scoria will lead us to victory!"]
["Magos Scoria, the Omnissiah's agent of judgment!"]
Anacharis watched with delight as more and more voices praised him.
Not only the Magi under his command, but also thirty-six Magi from different factions, with whom he had no prior connection.
The red Ark formed an attack formation in high orbit. The Omnissiah's servants aimed thousands of weapons at the planet below.
Xana's Vengeance fired the first shot. A blazing beam descended like the Machine God's finger.
Magma bombs rained down relentlessly, hammering like pile drivers driven by the Omnissiah's pistons.
Every Rangdan xenos on the surface saw the shells collide with energy shields, the blinding energy explosions tearing through the murky sky, leaving trails of scorching light across the heavens.
The moment Anacharis set foot on the Rangdan's evil soil, his cybernetic eye rotated.
The earth had melted into a glass plain. Black smoke from the purifying holy fire rose in his vision.
He raised the Vodia Scepter, pointing towards the mist-shrouded mountains where the auspex showed dense life signs.
Orbital bombardment had been ineffective there. The ætheric readings were significantly higher than normal.
Anacharis's metal body crunched over the flames, crushing vitrified rock. He raised a mechandrite behind him.
"We are the Omnissiah's Legio Cybernetica! We are His Hand of Wrath!"
A melta cannon spat a torrent of flame, vaporizing a dozen xenos.
A tiger-like Overlord, its body crackling, burst from the fire.
A second mechandrite, like a python, rose.
The photon piercing cannon blazed with blinding light, illuminating the glass-like ground, turning the red robes a deeper scarlet.
A blazing beam lanced out, piercing the jets of flame, slamming into the personal energy shield.
With a sound like a bursting balloon, the beam pierced the shield, tore through the Overlord's chest.
Winged xenos swooped from the air.
Phosphor blasters spat dragons of fire, sweeping away the deep mist.
Arcs of lightning leaped from the heads of the pig-like xenos on the ground.
Flames and lightning clashed, roaring.
Anacharis raised a third mechandrite. The graviton cannon's marker hugged the ground.
With a crack, the invisible shockwave made his metal body shake.
The projected graviton shockwave struck the ground, then rose like an expanding bubble.
The armor of the pig-like xenos was crushed to dust by the gravity wave. Their fat bodies were torn apart and scattered.
As bubble after bubble rose, the winged xenos dove repeatedly, unleashing the Omnissiah's wrath.
The servo-skull electronic familiar orbiting Anacharis, personally modified by the Magos, suddenly buzzed.
Warning runes flashed on the display module of Anacharis's strategium array. The analysis module completed parsing in a second.
Knights of House Malinax surged past the Legio Cybernetica's flanks.
Avenger Gatling cannons screamed. Torrential barrages swept over the towering, tree-like forms that had emerged.
Thermal cannons thundered in unison. Roaring shockwaves sliced through the air, slamming into the Osseivores.
Anacharis was no longer as helpless as he had been against the Osseivore on Xana. His electronic familiar scanned the Osseivores again and again.
The analysis module of his strategium array performed iterative analyses, transmitting them to the Knights of House Malinax via the communication array.
Anacharis, like a massive cogitator, directed the entire battlefield while attacking the enemy.
A fourth and fifth mechandrite rose. Phase plasma beams and conversion beams lanced out, joining the photon beam against a silvery-white form.
As its energy shield shattered, a sixth mechandrite's radium carbine fired a burst of rounds into the Cerabvore.
Its flesh rapidly blackened and sloughed off. The expanding radiation storm turned hundreds of xenos into blackened corpses.
BOOM!
The blazing Osseivores collapsed like a mountain. Scattered branches rained down, turning hundreds of meters into a sea of fire. Thousands of xenos burned to ash.
Anacharis received feedback from his strategium array's analysis module. He had lost fifteen Knight suits.
Two more than his projection.
As the strategium array updated combat data, the electronic familiar's piercing screech cut through the rumbling ground.
Anacharis saw over a dozen constructs burst forth. He immediately marked them for House Malinax.
His seventh and eighth mechandrites rose. Maxim bolters and rotary gatlings screamed, unleashing barrages.
Eight mechandrites, equipped with ranged weapons, simultaneously attacked the worm-creature's shrouded form.
Beams, phase light, plasma streams...
An overwhelming firestorm engulfed the Slaugth Destroyer. Blackened maggots scattered.
The Slaugth Destroyer twisted, dodging left and right, but couldn't completely evade the raging firestorm.
It raised its necrotic scepter. Emerald light lanced out.
Anacharis's organic arm simultaneously raised the Vodia Scepter.
The ancient technological weapon, recreated in the present, blazed on the battlefield once more after millennia.
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!
A series of blasts. The dazzling explosion swallowed all light.
The energy turbulence tore a Knight suit, two Cerabvores, and hundreds of xenos to shreds.
Anacharis strode towards the Slaugth Destroyer. His eight ranged weapons blazed frantically.
The necrotic shroud melted to ash. A blackened trail marked the Slaugth's path.
The ninth and tenth mechandrites behind Anacharis moved.
A power fist crackled with blue light. A chainfist motor screamed.
The Slaugth's chest burst. Its head was torn apart.
Anacharis's final two mechandrites moved. A melta bomb and a rad bomb were shoved into the exposed, slime-filled cavity.
A crack. Maggots exploded.
The Slaugth Destroyer was blasted to fragments.
.....
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