Standard Terran Year 976.M30, Day 319, 20:00.
Kent Hive, Governor's Palace, Sub-Level 3, Strategic Command Center.
On the holographic projection table, two real-time battlefield telemetry maps were displayed side-by-side.
On the left was the City of the Holy Anthem. The red zone representing the Blood Angels' defensive perimeter was slowly advancing.
On the right was the Aru Industrial Zone. The expansion rate of the green rift was highlighted in bold red.
All of this telemetry was gathered and transmitted by the undercover scout players equipped with specialized sensory gear.
"According to this trend..." Schrödinger Bro analyzed, "...the Aru rift will expand enough to allow a Great Unclean One to pass through within forty-eight hours. Meanwhile, there is absolutely no possibility of the Tzeentchian contamination in the City of the Holy Anthem being fully purged within seventy-two hours."
He paused, pulling up a third projection.
"If the Nurgle contamination in Aru breaches containment and makes contact with the Tzeentchian contamination in the City of the Holy Anthem..."
On the display, the green and purple began to intertwine.
Then, a horrifying chemical reaction occurred.
The two colors did not cancel each other out; instead, they merged into a deep, profoundly blasphemous dark hue, and the rate of contamination spread suddenly spiked by three hundred percent.
"What happens then?" Cogboy asked.
"What happens is exactly what we least want to see: dual-source contamination. A rare, temporary collaboration between Chaos factions transforming into a localized, substantive fusion of corruptive erosion."
Schrödinger Bro's voice was grim. "When that happens, never mind the Blood Angels... Even if you called the Iron Hands back, and threw in the Ultramarines for good measure, they'd probably have to seriously consider initiating Exterminatus immediately."
The command center fell silent.
The only sounds were the hum of the hololith projectors and the occasional banter scrolling by in the regional player channel.
The players currently queuing up for augmentations or requisitioning equipment hadn't fully grasped the severity of the situation yet.
"How long until Paul's augmentation is done?" Blood Angels' Second Emperor broke the silence.
"Thirty-seven hours," Cogboy checked the timer. "The System shows progress at fifty-four percent."
"Which means, before our strongest combat asset emerges..."
Blood Angels' Second Emperor didn't finish the sentence, but everyone understood.
Right now, Crimson Dawn was like a poker player holding a royal flush, but it wasn't their turn to act yet.
They were forced to watch helplessly as the dealer (Chaos) and the other high roller at the table (the Blood Angels) went all-in, able to do nothing but sweat in anxiety.
"Therefore, we cannot just sit here and wait," Schrödinger Bro pulled up another data slate. "Over the past month, through our direct administration of Kent Hive, the Youth League has expanded to one hundred and ten thousand members. Of those, thirty-seven thousand have completed basic military training and are combat-ready. Regarding armament... a portion of the two hundred and seventy billion Imperial Coins we requisitioned has already been converted into actual combat power. Currently, our PDF forces possess forty thousand sets of standard PDF flak armor and lasrifles, hundreds of heavy bolter emplacements, and five hundred retrofitted Chimera armored transports. All of it has been painted in the standard crimson livery of the Aurelian PDF, perfectly conforming to the expected loadout of a local defense force."
He looked at Cogboy and Blood Angels' Second Emperor.
"My recommendation is to deploy a vanguard force to reinforce the Aru Industrial Zone. I have three reasons. First, the Nurgle rift is in close proximity to us. If containment is breached, Aru Hive will fall first, followed immediately by our Crimson Dawn base and Kent Hive. Second, reinforcing the Blood Angels will generate significant goodwill, providing us with leverage for any future diplomatic negotiations. Third... we need real-time combat data to test the performance of our troops on a live battlefield."
Cogboy's mechanical eye whirred rapidly.
Three seconds later, he nodded. "Feasible. But who commands them? This isn't clearing a dungeon in a game; people are actually going to die."
"I have a recommendation," Blood Angels' Second Emperor pulled up a player profile.
"ID: [Paradox Player Not a War Criminal]. In reality, he's a grand strategy game expert. In-game, he serves as the Squad Leader of the Third Tactical Squad within the Crimson Machina Chapter. He has participated in the planning and execution of all major operations, including the industrial zone riot, the liberation of the three towns, and the Champion raid. His battlefield judgment is ice-cold, and he excels at multi-front micro-management."
He paused, adding, "Most importantly, this guy is a massive lore-nerd for the entire Warhammer franchise in reality. He knows the characteristics and behaviors of Nurgle daemons inside and out."
Schrödinger Bro and Cogboy exchanged a glance.
"He's our guy."
--
Standard Terran Year 976.M30, Day 319, 22:30.
Upper Sector of Kent Hive, the central plaza of the Governor's Palace.
Thirty-seven thousand soldiers of the Aurelian Youth League stood in perfect formation.
They wore standardized dark grey flak armor, held standard-issue lasrifles, and bore the insignia of a cogwheel and a stalk of wheat supporting a rising sun on their chests.
It was the emblem Crimson Dawn utilized publicly for their civil organizations, deliberately omitting any elements that could be construed as seditious.
At the front of the formation, the engines of hundreds of crimson-painted Chimera transports rumbled in a low growl, their turret-mounted heavy bolters swiveling as crews performed final calibration checks.
[Paradox Player Not a War Criminal]—now publicly known as Major Carlson, Commander of the 3rd Provisional Composite Brigade of the Aurelian Kent Hive PDF—stood on a makeshift podium.
He wore the same flak armor as the soldiers, but his pauldrons bore three silver bars. Both of his arms had been replaced with cybernetic augmetics, and his eyes, like Cogboy's, had been replaced with mechanical optics.
At his waist hung a power shortsword requisitioned from the System store, its unassuming exterior hiding a potent molecular disruption field.
Beside him, Blood Angels' Second Emperor took a deep breath and stepped up to the vox-caster.
He didn't give a long-winded speech.
His first sentence, slightly amplified by psychic power, rolled across the entire plaza:
"Brothers and sisters."
"Just three hundred kilometers away, in the crater of the Aru Industrial Zone, a rift leading straight into hell is tearing open."
"The things crawling out of that rift will take your lives, rot your flesh, and taint your souls. And then, they will use your putrefying corpses to turn around and slaughter your parents, your wives, your children, and your friends."
He paused, his gaze sweeping over the young, resolute faces below him.
Among these faces were former miners, factory workers, the nameless nobodies who had once merely struggled to survive at the absolute bottom of the hive.
It was Crimson Dawn that had given them their first full meal, their first dignified job, and the first time they were ever treated as 'human beings'.
And now, it was time for them to pick up their weapons and defend it all.
"The warriors of the Blood Angels Legion have been fighting a bloody war there for a day and a night!"
Blood Angels' Second Emperor's voice abruptly spiked in volume. "They are not from Aurelian! They hail from the distant Baal System! They could have simply done what the Iron Hands did eighty years ago—used orbital bombardment to flatten the entire industrial zone! But they did not! They chose to stand before that rift with their own flesh and blood to buy us time!"
"Now, it is our turn!"
He raised his right fist high. "Crimson Dawn will never abandon those who are willing to fight for their home!"
"I declare this in the name of the Aurelian Youth League!"
"Those who fall in this battle shall have their names etched into the Crimson Dawn Garden of Heroes, to be revered by all future generations! Their families will receive a pension of one million Aurelian Coins! Their children will receive free education through higher graduation! Their parents will receive lifelong medical care and pension guarantees!"
"And you—"
His voice exploded like thunder.
"—shall become the true guardians of Aurelian IV! You shall be the ones to ignite the first spark of dawn within the darkness of Chaos! Now tell me! What do you fight for?!"
Thirty-seven thousand voices roared in unison, the sheer volume threatening to shatter the suspensor-lamps illuminating the plaza:
"FOR OUR HOME! FOR THE DAWN! FOR AURELIAN!"
"DEFEND CRIMSON DAWN! DEFEND OUR LAND! DEFEND THE COMING OF THE DAWN!"
Amidst the roaring, [Paradox Player Not a War Criminal] drew his power shortsword, pointing the tip directly toward the Aru Industrial Zone.
"3rd Composite Brigade, all units! Mount up! Target: Aru Industrial Zone, Seventh Administrative Sector! Mission: Reinforce the Blood Angels perimeter and take those rotting heretics..."
He broke into a grin—a grin bearing the unique, fanatical zeal characteristic of a Paradox Interactive grand strategy player.
"...and stuff them all right back into the cesspit they crawled out of!"
As the armored convoy rolled out of Kent Hive, Cogboy, Schrödinger Bro, and Blood Angels' Second Emperor stood on the terrace of the Governor's Palace, watching the crimson tide disappear into the dust of the distant wastelands.
"Paul..." Blood Angels' Second Emperor asked softly.
"Thirty-five hours left," Cogboy's mechanical eye locked onto the horizon. There, in the direction of the Aru Industrial Zone, a faint, sickly green luminescence flickered against the sky.
Schrödinger Bro spoke up. "I ran the simulations. With the manpower and equipment [Paradox Player Not a War Criminal] brought, combined with the four hundred-odd surviving Blood Angels, they can hold that rift for a maximum of seventy-two hours. And that is only assuming the Great Unclean One on the other side doesn't decide to squeeze through early."
"And after seventy-two hours?"
"Either Paul emerges, bringing the superhuman forces we are currently augmenting to bear upon the battlefield..."
Schrödinger Bro paused, his voice turning heavy. "...or we have to start figuring out how to evacuate as many people as possible off this rock before Sanguinius initiates Exterminatus."
The wind blew across the terrace, carrying the scent of the lower hive factories—a mixture of machine oil and sweat.
It was the scent of life.
It was the scent of the sliver of hope they had spent over a month violently tearing from the jaws of despair.
And now, Chaos had come to take it all away.
"That won't happen."
Blood Angels' Second Emperor suddenly spoke, his eyes filled with absolute conviction. "Paul will finish his augmentation successfully. [Paradox Player Not a War Criminal] will help the Blood Angels hold the line. Sanguinius will break free. And then... we will win."
He looked at Cogboy and Schrödinger Bro.
"Because if even we—the Fourth Scourge—lose our faith in hope... then this dark universe truly is beyond saving."
Cogboy was silent for a long while.
Finally, the blue light of his mechanical eye flickered faintly, and he sighed. "You're right. Then, for these thirty-five hours before Paul emerges..."
He turned around and walked back toward the command center. "...let us players—who can log out and leave this dogshit universe whenever we please—pave the way for him."
--
Goal = 500 Powerstones.
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