Urkanthos stood within the command sanctum of the Terminus Est, his blood-red power armor exuding the persistent, metallic stench of dried gore. He watched the orbital bombardment of the surface in brooding silence. He loathed lance-strikes from orbit; such cold, distant destruction brought him no glory. He craved the intimate slaughter—to feel the life-light fade from his enemies' eyes and smear his plate with their hot, arterial spray.
Suddenly, his adjutant broke his reverie. "My Lord, an unidentified contact is approaching at extreme velocity. It is projected to pass beneath the fleet's keel in three minutes."
"So fast?" Urkanthos turned his predatory gaze toward the subordinate. "Identify the vessel immediately."
"At once, My Lord."
However, minutes passed without a follow-up. "If you do not provide actionable intelligence in the next second," Urkanthos rumbled, "I shall peel the flesh from your bones and watch you scream."
"My Lord... the ship... it does not appear to be of human manufacture," the adjutant stammered, wiping cold sweat from his brow. "Our cogitators cannot find a match in any Imperial or heretical database."
"Enable the visual feed," Urkanthos commanded. As the image resolved on the screen, he murmured, "A Blackstone creation..."
The Necrons. Urkanthos recognized the xenos architecture instantly. He grinned, revealing sharpened fangs within his crimson helm. "Let it pass."
"But My Lord, the Despoiler's orders were... uh..." The adjutant's words ended in a wet gurgle. He clutched his shredded throat in horror, blood geysering between his fingers.
"I find questioning tedious." Urkanthos looked toward another mortal lieutenant. "Clear the ship's path."
"Yes... yes, My Lord!" The terrified officer immediately relayed the command to the fleet.
Urkanthos watched the alien vessel streak past. He thought of the blackstone pylons on the surface and the shields they generated. As long as the Warp-cannons of the Blackstone Fortress remained stymied by those ancient artifacts, the ground war was inevitable. Soon, it would be their turn to make planetfall. Then, he could offer an ocean of blood to his master. "Carry on, little ghost," he whispered to the vanishing ship.
Upon the ramparts of Kasr Kraf, Lord Castellan Ursarkar E. Creed personally walked the front lines. The sight of the High Provost, cigar clenched in his teeth, sent a surge of courage through the Cadian defenders.
The orbital bombardment above them was relentless; countless macro-shells detonated against the void-shields in a rhythmic thrum of violence. Though the shields held, the sheer scale of the fire was unnerving. Creed's presence was the anchor; he was with them in the dirt.
Just as the defenders were adjusting to the steady cadence of the Black Fleet's fire, a shadow massive enough to swallow the sun swept across the battlefield.
"Is that the Blackstone Fortress?" Creed stared at the terrifying, star-shaped monolith. Its shadow eclipsed half the plains, and the very air seemed to vibrate with the malevolent power of the Warp.
"It is," Supreme Commissar Jago Sevaran replied, his voice heavy. "I fear our fortifications are about to be tested beyond their limits."
As if responding to the Commissar's dread, the weapon at the heart of the fortress began to pulse with murderous intent. Its core spat arcs of baleful, violet lightning, illuminating the clouds like a festive, yet funerary, display.
Saturated Warp energy permeated the atmosphere, turning the falling rain into a thick, oily black sludge. This profane energy was designed to bypass conventional void-shielding.
The next moment, a beam of light that seemed to consume the sky descended, striking the shields of Kasr Kraf directly. To the astonishment of every soul present, the shields did not collapse. They held against an earth-shattering divine fury.
The shockwave of subspace energy dissipated like steam above the fortress. Solidified geometric patterns of iridescent light drifted in the air, but the Warp-beam failed to breach the perimeter.
"What in the Emperor's name...?" Creed's cigar had fallen into the mud during the strike; he had fully expected to be vaporized. "Was that a ranging shot? A test?"
Sevaran shook his head, equally stunned. "I cannot say, Lord."
A messenger scrambled up the stairs. "Sir! Magos Crane reports that the Pylon Array has been successfully harmonized!"
"It's operational?" Creed asked, eyes widening.
"Yes, Sir. It is stable, though the Magos warns that psykers may find the local reality... difficult to process," the messenger reported.
"Then let them suffer the headache!" Creed shouted to the surrounding troops. "Do you hear that, Cadians? The Mechanicus has fortified our souls! That blasphemous machine cannot wipe us out in a single stroke! To those scum who want to see Cadia on her knees, give them your answer!"
"Cadia stands!" the soldiers roared from the ramparts.
"Boom!" Another shell detonated against the apex of the shield, the kinetic shock staggering the men, but they remained unharmed.
They shouted it again and again. From one bastion to another, the cry echoed across the world.
"Cadia stands!" "Cadia stands!!" "Cadia stands!!!"
The enemy seemed to abandon the orbital fire. Beneath a sky now choked with thousands of meteor-like drop-pods, the Cadians raised their heads. The real siege had begun.
In the depths of Kasr Kraf, Magos Crane hovered before the ancient machinery, his servo-skull humming. "Remarkable. Did I succeed? How did these xenos nodes truly activate?"
He had been frantically recalibrating the blackstone circuits, yet he failed to notice a figure standing in the shadows behind him, watching his every move.
Trazyn the Infinite looked upon the bumbling human with amusement. The Magos had made error after error in the logic-paths. Had Trazyn not stepped in to covertly correct those flaws, the Warp-surge would have evaporated the fortress and the Magos along with it.
Suddenly, Trazyn looked toward the heavens. A flicker of genuine interest appeared in his metallic eyes. "Hmm. A peculiar technology. Most interesting."
At the Mandeville Point of the Cadia system, an Imperial fleet that should not have existed translated from the Warp. Though outnumbered by the Black Fleet, they were a formidable reinforcement, bolstered by heavily armed Explorator vessels of the Adeptus Mechanicus.
The Black Legion vanguard surged toward them the moment they were detected. On the bridge of the Imperial flagship, the Admiral asked, "Where is Governor Alexei's contingent?"
"Governor Alexei reports they have proceeded ahead of the main battle line," the adjutant replied.
As the bulk of the Black Fleet broke orbit to intercept the new arrivals, a smaller squadron of more than thirty unconventional vessels appeared in the deep void near Cadia.
Alexei looked at the swarm of red icons on his tactical display and chuckled. "A bit late, but the party hasn't started yet."
He had secured reinforcements from the neighboring systems. With the testimony of Inquisitor Diana and the Commander of the Iron Sickles, the fleet had bypassed standard Forge World protocols to strike.
The remaining Chaos blockaders over Kasr Kraf, including elements of the Blackstone Fortress, turned to engage them. Alexei remained unperturbed; he had led them exactly where he wanted.
As the Black Fleet drew closer to his luring maneuver, Alexei calculated the distance. "The window is open... On my command, all ships initiate a short-range combat jump. Coordinates: Kasr Kraf."
In a flash of displaced light, the ships vanished, reappearing instantly in the low atmosphere behind the enemy lines.
"Prepare for planetfall. Show these Warp-scum what true Imperial fire looks like," Alexei ordered. A second wave of drop-pods streaked toward the earth—not filled with cultists or traitors, but with the vengeful reinforcements from the world of Aiur.
Simultaneously, a small, inconspicuous Mechanicus vessel slipped through the chaos, approaching Cadia with singular purpose.