The Multiverse Project: Warhammer 40,000

"Sir, we cannot abandon our position! The battlegroup is upon us, tactical maxim demands that we repel them from…"

"Quiet your tongue! Those Gue'la bastards mock us! They think they can match the skill of the Fire Caste?! Those savages think they're better than us?! We'll show them…yes, we'll show them, we shall paint the air red with their blood!"

"By the Greater Good and all that is sacred, sir, I implore you! If we sally forth all of us will be cut down to the last warrior! Our death will be for nothing!"

"You have your orders, sergeant. Obey my command or I'll have you shot for insubordination."

"Shot for – have you lost your mind?! That's not how we do things! We're Tau! We do not act with such barbarity like the humans!"

"You will not follow my command then?"

"No, me and mine, along with many more, refuse to follow your command. Sir please, you're not in the right state of mind, don't do this."

"You insolent cur…fine then, if you will not obey me, then you're no good to me or the Greater Good."

"What are you – sir…put the knife away. Don't make me do this – no! AHHHH!"

Gasps resounded across the ramparts, Tau voices joined with Vespids, Kroots and Gue'vesa, unified in horror and disbelief. Shas'Ui choked back his breakfast, forcing down the bile, a lot more successful than his squad mates, many of whom vomited as the terrible scene played across their communication devices.

"Put those away! Now!" Sergeant Ka'Mais stomped across their ranks, many of Shas'Ui comrades turned to him like lost children seeking comfort from their father. The sergeant was a hard man, having been part of commander Shadowsun's army for nearly two decades, his one blind eye and web work of scars carved across his face a testament to his veteran pedigree, but Ka'Mais was also great of heart, always looking out for his subordinates, stern but compassionate. Shas'Ui quickly put away his communication device when Ka'Mais approached him. "How are you holding up?"

"Well enough, sir," it was a bad lie, Ka'Mais noticed the shudders raking Shas'Ui's frame immediately. "I'm sorry sir. That was disgraceful of me."

"None of that now Shas'Ui, you've always been a good soldier," Ka'Mais grunted. "But after that, even I'm a little shaken."

"That can't be real, right sir?" Shas'Ui asked, his own conviction faltering. "All of that…the death, the killing, the madness…it can't be real, can it?"

"You know the answers as well as I do," Ka'Mais shook his head. He and Shas'Ui were more than aware of the changes that had come over their army ever since they traversed the place the Gue'vesa called the Warp.

"But it has to be fake!" Shas'Ui and Ka'Mais turned to D'yanoi as she joined them, like every else, she was disturbed by the transmission sent by the Immortal Spirit battlegroup. "It…it just can't! The Gue'la scums must have doctored the video, wore our armors or something and acted out the atrocity! None of that is real!"

"Enough D'yanoi!" Ka'Mais snapped and D'yanoi clamped her mouth shut, lips quivering and tears forming at the edge of her eyes. Sighing, Ka'Mais softened his tone. "What done is done, there's nothing you or anyone of us can do but concentrate on the present, understand?"

"Yes sir," D'yanoi sniffed and stood a little straighter.

"Good," Ka'Mais glanced up at the lightless ceiling above them, the unnatural dimension made Shas'Ui's head spin, his mind unable to comprehend the shapes and angles. How can steels, concretes and wires melded together like that? How can walkways interlocked into such a hellish mess of crisscrossing webs that defied all comprehension and every law of engineering? Why were there doorways and thresholds leading to nowhere, while others yawned into deeper darkness? None of this made any sense! Before the nauseating questions can overwhelmed him, Shas'Ui scrunched his eyes shut and got his breathing under control, successfully banishing the thought from his mind. "The artillery barrage had stopped. They'll be moving to attack us now. Return to your station and prepare to repel."

"Yes sir!" Shas'Ui and D'yanoi intoned as one, saluted, gathered up their pulse rifles, and headed down the corridor of sandbags and concretes, the place was bustling with activities as Fire Warriors and auxiliary troops headed to their designated positions.

"I'm glad the damn pounding stopped," D'yanoi said as they ran down the makeshift stairs toward the foremost defenses. Shouldering passed several Gue'vesa, Shas'Ui and D'yanoi leapt up the fire steps and joined their platoon. "I thought it was never going to end."

"The humans are very excessive," Shas'Ui agreed. When the Immortal Spirit battlegroup had successfully shattered the rearguard on the surface of the Space Hulk, Tau reinforcement had gathered for a counter attack at the northernmost quadrat of the archipelago when the humans and Aeldari commenced artillery and aerial bombardments. Shas'Ui had fought human soldiers on the planetary capital of this system before he and his company were transferred to this ocean world, and he found them wanting. Their warriors, armaments and tactics were subpar, failing to stop commander Shadowsun and the Tau under her command. Expecting a repeat of earlier engagement, Shas'Ui was rudely awakened to the reality that was the Immortal Spirit battlegroup. The bombardment had lasted many hours, ceaseless in strength and frequency, every shell and missiles landing with surgical precision on the Tau, slaying many good men and women as they made a hasty retreat deeper into the Space Hulk, all the while hounded by the Aeldari anti-gravity vehicles.

"I would prefer them to be incompetent," D'yanoi grunted as she adjusted the setting of her pulse rifle. "Remember those idiots we fought a few months ago? Easy fight that was."

"Indeed, the fools just attack us en masse and we tore them to pieces," Shas'Ui grinned, trying to recall the glow of optimism and pride as they planted the banner of the Great Good upon the soil of the planetary capital, driving away the unenlightened human from the battlefield like the savages that they were. It was almost comical how, in the span of a single morning, that victory now seemed a distant memory, a fleeting nostalgia feeding the present desolation. "Let's hope these lots are just as stupid."

"I pray that you are right," D'yanoi said gloomily, but neither of them dared to hope. They saw how the Immortal Spirit fought, and Shas'Ui admits that he was scared for his very life. "This is a mistake."

"What do you mean? This is the best position given the circumstances," Shas'Ui glanced around the city size open space they occupied, the only thoroughfare now blocked by the Tau, every gun pointed at the darkness beyond.

"That's not what I meant," D'yanoi was shuddering again, her face drawn tight. "We shouldn't be here…we should've stayed home, tend to the farms, get married, raise children. Why did we leave? How can this be better than what we left behind?"

"I don't know," Shas'Ui shook his head, wet hot tears marring his vision. Why were they here? Because the Ethereal said so? Because of the pretty posters? Because of glory? By the Greater Good, why?! "Damn it all, you're right…we should never have come here. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

"It's not your fault, I tag along on my own volition, remember?" D'yanoi grabbed his shoulder guard, her smile was a sunshine that stopped the first sob from escaping. Shas'Ui was about to thank her when reverberating staccatos echoed from down the chamber, the ambience accompanied by violent flashes of blue and red, shadows danced across the chaotic ruins, the dimension nightmarish, ghouls of purest black. Shouts resounded across the defenses as Fire Warriors and auxiliary troops braced their weapons along the sandbags, Shas'Ui and D'yanoi gritted their teeth as they stared down the iron sight.

"Contact imminent!"

"Two thousand yards and closing!"

"We've lost contact with the forward elements and the pathfinders!"

"This is it…this is it people! Prepare to repel!"

"Stand fast against the enemies, brave warriors of the Tau Empire! For the Greater Good!"

Ragged cheer went up around him, but Shas'Ui and D'yanoi did not add their voices to the hollering, too anxious to do anything but concentrate on the approaching battlegroup. Despite the animated acoustic, the kaleidoscopic firefight soon ended and soundless dark regained its dominion. No more words were parted as the defenders waited for what was to come.

"Steady people, steady," Ka'Mais's voice rang across the intercom. "They're about to charge, do not falter in your aim and push them back. Show them the might of the Fire Warrior! For the Greater Good!"

"Do you see anything?" D'yanoi poked her head a few inches above the sandbag. Like Shas'Ui, she had donned her helmet.

"No," Shas'Ui shook his head and cycled between the various ocular readings, finding nothing but empty corridor gaping into unreachable blackness. "I can't see anything."

"You have to see something!" D'yanoi hissed at him. "What about the bodies of the sentries?"

"I can't see anything damn it!" Shas'Ui snapped back. "There's nothing! Not even dead bodies! All I'm seeing is fucking emptiness – wait, hold on a minute, I'm picking something up on the scanner…it looks like…!"

"Tanks! Tanks incoming! Get the armor piercing rocket up here now!"

Panic shouts rippled down the trenches as heavy weapon specialists swiftly prepared their anti-armor ordnances, rockets were primed and pulse canons set to maximum output, the roiling energy hummed a dangerous tune. Shas'Ui held his gaze forward, and saw with rising horror that indeed a wall of tanks were heading straight for their position. At first he was confused, the Space Hulk was very spacious but the terrain was a mess of sharp rises, deep depressions, logic defying angles and random protrusions, which made it impossible for the human's terrestrial bound war machines to navigate. Then he saw that the vehicles were not rolling across the ground, they were gliding over it.

"Aeldari," Shas'Ui rasped softly, awestruck by the immaculate vehicles, the geometries and curves pleasing on the eye, a vast contrast to the Imperium squat and rigid designs. He had heard that the enigmatic aliens were part of the battlegroup, a complete anathema to everything he knew about the Imperium of Man's xenophobic dogma, and was admittedly excited to see them. It was mesmerizing to watch the Aeldari's vehicles drew closer, but Shas'Ui's awe ended when seven radiant beams of violet burst from the crystal cannons fixed atop the cockpits. The lances of light didn't come for him and D'yanoi, but what little relief he felt died when terrible explosions rocked the ramparts, hails of fiery debris battered them, the searing gale so powerful that it knocked many Fire Warriors off the fire steps, their bodies dashed painfully against the walls. It was a miracle Shas'Ui and D'yanoi managed to stay upright.

"The Battlesuits are gone!" Panicky shouts blared across the intercom as the Aeldari unleashed another salvo, the darkness of the Space Hulk now replaced by radiant fiery red. "Greater Good preserve us all, they're gone, all gone! The Aeldari killed them! The heavy weapon teams has also been wiped out…we're dead, we're all going to die!"

"Calm yourself, damn you!" Ka'Mais yelled over the blabbering fool, thankfully silencing him. "Hold your position and do not surrender an inch of ground to the Gue'la and the Aeldari! Drive them back! For the Greater Good!"

"Open fire! Open fire!" Shas'Ui needed no further prompting. The officer had barely finished her command when Shas'Ui and D'yanoi pulled the trigger of their pulse rifles, held it down, and let loose streams of blue bolts at the Aeldari's vehicles. Within moments every gun along the battlements were roaring, adding another violent spectrum to the Space Hulk, bright flickers of blue now danced amongst red flames, so cacophonous was the battle that Shas'Ui wished for the repulsive silence from before. His gun clicking empty, Shas'Ui muttered a slew of curses as he ejected the smoking magazine, slammed a new one home, and glanced up to see how ineffective their resistance was.

"Fuck! Our rifles are not doing shit!" D'yanoi growled as she sends another burst of bullets at the Aeldari hover tanks, the lithe vehicles refused to stay still and were now performing intricate maneuvers of strafes and lunges, not that different from dueling cavaliers. The Tau's proficiency with range weapon was legendary, but in this instance Shas'Ui and his cohorts were not able to land any significant shots on the Aeldari tanks, bullets whizzed harmlessly through the air as the nimble vehicles glided a pretty pattern across the uneven ground. "Stay still you little bastard! Ha! I got it – oh come on, they have shields?!"

"Looks like it," Shas'Ui grunted after managing to hit one of the tanks, his bullets ricocheting harmlessly off a thin veil of energy that surrounded the war machine. All the while the Aeldari vehicles continued to bombard them, the laser lances tore into the trenches and pillboxes with unnatural accuracy, unhampered by the fast movement they were performing. Then Shas'Ui noticed another column of hover tanks heading straight for them, plunging through the open space in the middle, these one lacking the heavy cannons and were instead armed with smaller gun emplacements, the white projectiles peppering their positions were no less deadly. "Shit! Concentrate fire on those new ones! Fire, fire, fire!"

Copious hot blue blood splattered across Shas'Ui's face, making a mess of his helmet and obscuring his vision, the Aeldari's suppressing fire turning the squad beside him into unrecognizable sizzling meats, those that survived were screaming and trying to drag their mutilated bodies to safety.

"Shas!" D'yanoi knelt down beside him. "By the Greater Good, are you hit?! Talk to me!"

"I'm fine D'y, it's not my blood," Shas'Ui shook his head and together with D'yanoi got back up, only to find the Aeldari's vehicles, several dozen he now saw, swerving to a stop not a hundred yards from the ramparts, guns blazing and ramps lowering. "Greater Good have mercy…they disembarking troops! Prepare to repel!"

Shas'Ui and D'yanoi, along with the Tau troops that survived the initial barrage, opened fired on the now immobile vehicles, more than eager to repay the battlegroup for the death heaped upon them. Within seconds the humans and eldars retaliated. Shas'Ui pulled D'yanoi down as red and white lasers tore into their fortifications like a furious glacial hail. Fire Warriors flew off the fire steps, riddled with fatal wounds, most dropped to the ground dead but a few unlucky souls gurgled and moaned pitifully, their lives ending with sickening twitches and spasms.

"Return fire damn you, drive them – ahhh!" An officer trying to rally the troops got her arm blown off by a bolt, she fell screaming into the trench, cradling her destroyed limb as a medic tried to stem the blood loss. Then came the roar, boisterous and hearty, a stark contrast to the Fire Warriors' panicky cries and shrilly yells, heralding the pounding tempo of charging boots that resounded across the battlefield.

"Retreat! All you unit fall back to the rear!" Ka'Mais shouted across the intercom, already many of Shas'Ui surviving compatriots were tossing away their pulse rifles and running away. "Our lines are broken! The battlegroup is inside the trenches! Fall back to the mustering point! Move! Anyone still alive, move!"

"What the fuck are you waiting for?! Let's go!" Shas'Ui almost planted his face on the gore covered ground when D'yanoi dragged him away from the fire steps. His legs coming out of its frozen stupor, Shas'Ui found his footing and together with D'yanoi sprinted for one of the many corridors behind the trenches. Pounding staccato of las and bolts erupted behind them, terminating the Fire Warriors' plea for mercy in a din of pitiless gunfire.

"For the Emperor! In His name let none survive!"

"For Isha! For life and for light!"

The two most common war cries rolled powerfully after them, like hounds nipping at their heels, the dimension of the trenches and its many passageways and chambers distorting the acoustic, making it hard for Shas'Ui to discern the location of each individual sounds, screams of the dying and bangs of weaponries blending into a confusing mess. So with no other options, Shas'Ui and D'yanoi ran, their flight reckless and blind.

"Shas!" D'yanoi grabbed his arm and wrenched him to a stop. Like her he was panting hard, gasping great heaving breaths until his lungs burned. "Shas, we have to stop!"

"We need to keep moving, D'y," Shas'Ui managed to slow his breathing, trembling adrenaline rushed across his body. "We can't stay here, we need to keep moving or the battlegroup will find us."

"That would be better accomplish if we know where the hell we are," D'yanoi pulled her cracked helmet off and tied her black hair into a short ponytail. Seeing the wisdom in this, Shas'Ui also tossed away his helmet, feeling a great deal better as he ran his hand over his short buzzcut. "Do you have any idea where we are?"

"I haven't a damn clue," Shas'Ui glanced around the unfamiliar place with rising dread, their flight has been so hectic, spurred to madden speed by the battlegroup's relentless pursue. For now they had gotten away, but at the price of getting lost inside the trenches. "Do you see any signs anywhere?"

"Here!" D'yanoi ran up to a pole nailed with simple arrow signs, each pointing in different directions. "Let's see…the mess hall is at the very rear, right?"

"Depends, we have mess halls scattered near the front too," Shas'Ui leaned over D'yanoi's shoulder then pointed at one of the arrows. "There! The vehicle pool, that's definitely in the rear, we need to get there."

"A lot better than staying here," D'yanoi cringed when a series of explosions rumbled to their left, red flare bloomed high into the air, smoke and fire roiling as if alive. "Let's get a move on."

"Follow me, stay close," making a quick check on his magazine, more than half full, Shas'Ui held his pulse rifle at the ready and dashed down the corridor with D'yanoi. They worked as a unit, watching each other's backs, barrels sweeping across the claustrophobic confines. Their journey was blessedly uneventful, but soon enough Shas'Ui and D'yanoi started seeing corpses, Tau corpses, sprinkled here and there with the auxiliary troops, smokes still rising from the killing wounds.

"Great Good preserve us all," D'yanoi rasped lowly, her steps growing more and more reluctant as she and Shas'Ui waded deeper into the killing field. The battlegroup was thorough in their brutality, not a single survivor can be found amongst the charred, mutilated dead.

"D'y, come on," Shas'Ui reached back and grabbed his friend by the arm, pulling her faster along the open charnel house, himself trying his best to ignore the sickly sweet stench of cooked meat and bloody, blackened corpses at his feet. "We can't stay here, we have to keep moving."

"S-Shouldn't we at least try to find survivors?!" D'yanoi stammered weakly.

"There's no one left!" Shas'Ui hissed and managed to drag D'yanoi into another corridor, this one thankfully sparse. "We got to get to the rear as fast as we can D'y, because if those corpses are anything to go by, the battlegroup is already ahead of us. So come on! The faster we get out of the trench, the better!"

"You're right, you're right," D'yanoi nodded quickly, "I'm sorry, I was being stupid."

"You were being kind," Shas'Ui smiled and D'yanoi reciprocated with a soft one of her own. In that moment he had never seen a sight so beautiful. "It's nice to be reminded that there's some good left in this universe. Now come on, we're getting the hell out of this Space Hulk."

D'yanoi nodded and together they headed down the corridor without pause, stopping only to read any signs that were available and alternate their route when the need arises. He didn't know how long they were on the move, the unceasing ambience of war their only companion, the battlegroup so far having failed to materialize. That was until they came upon a large infirmary tent.

"Shit! Over here, over here!" Shas'Ui and D'yanoi dashed into a small passageway just outside the reach of the infirmary bright orange lights. He knew he should hurried on, but Shas'Ui and D'yanoi, as if compelled but an evil force, found their gazes drawn to the infirmary, the tent was without walls, granting them an unobstructed view.

"Please! Mercy, please!"

"No, no! Get away, no!"

"We surrender, please! You don't have to do this!"

"Help! Someone help! Help!"

Shas'Ui trembled, for no sane person can watched what was transpiring without feeling righteous fury burning hot and strong in their heart, a rush that drove men and women to great feat of selfless heroism. It wasn't until the shudders reached his spine, his limbs weighing like concrete, that Shas'Ui realized fear, absolute crushing fear, not indignant anger, had consumed him. There they were, Shas'Ui and D'yanoi of the Fire Warriors, hiding in the shadow as the Immortal Spirit battlegroup slaughtered the injured and the infirmed, their plea met with mindless violence. He watched as the Imperial Guards, as colorful and varied as the Tau's own auxiliary troops, stomped up to cots where the bedridden wounded lay, trembling bloody hands raised beseechingly, trying to appeal to the guardsmen humanity. In reply the humans rammed their bayonets down, streams of crimson splattered high, the injured Tau can only croaked as they died. Not far away the Aeldari, whom Shas'Ui thought to be noble and fair, grabbed the Tau who can walk, amongst them nurses and medics, herded them outside, forced them to their knees, and proceed to summarily execute them as if they were unwanted livestock. When one line was finished, they dragged a new row forward and repeated the process, cold and thorough.

"Alright people, let's wrap this up!" A young man clad in a black coat and peaked cap, the Imperium infamous political officer, the commissar, strode across the unfolding carnage, unbothered by the senseless slaughter, himself joining in occasionally with quick shots from his laspistol. "The blue motherfuckers are retreating deeper into the Space Hulk, let's run those cowards down. Krix, Yeltsov, Ju-Hyun, Brayden, give them a proper cremation please."

"Shas, we have to go," D'yanoi desperately tried to pull Shas'Ui away. "Please Shas…please."

"Alright…alright," dizzy and lightheaded from the battlegroup's murderous atrocity, Shas'Ui failed to notice the box of scrap metal at his feet. He kicked it, sending it flying toward the tent, the content inside spilling loudly across the ground.

"The fuck? Hey! Kill them sum bitches!"

D'yanoi screamed as she and Shas'Ui dashed down the cramp corridor, bolts, bullets and las poured after them like vengeful rain, tearing the spot they had been standing a heartbeat before into flaming ruins.

"Yo, hold up! Don't pursue, don't pursue!" The commissar yelled but Shas'Ui paid it no heed as he and D'yanoi slipped around a corner and kept running. "Fuck those assholes, we got bigger fishes to fry, the Sororitas will smoke them out. Proceed on mission…are you done killing those fuckers yet, the hell is taking so long?!"

It wasn't until he and D'yanoi burst out of the lightless warrens that Shas'Ui realized he had dropped his pulse rifle, having lost it in his haste to get away. Crunches of approaching boots sounded in front of him and Shas'Ui fumbled for the sidearm at his belt.

"Shas stop, they're one of us!" D'yanoi grabbed his arm and Shas'Ui cried out in relief when a group of Fire Warriors ran toward them.

"By the Great Good, are you injured?" A soldier from the 18th platoon knelt down beside Shas'Ui and slowly helped him up, his companions doing the same with D'yanoi.

"I'm fine, thanks," Shas'Ui nodded weakly, it seemed no matter how hard he tried he can never get a lungful.

"Where's the rest of your squad?" The man pressed on.

"We're all that's left," Shas'Ui said sadly.

"Damn…" the soldier deflated and was about to say more when shrieking rockets tore across the air and landed amongst a column of Fire Warriors not a hundred paces away. White and red fires devoured Tau and auxiliary troops alike, limbs and body parts flew like shrapnel, flaming red trailed after hands, arms, legs, torsos and heads. "Shit! They're already here! Fall back, everyone fall back to the vehicle pool, we need to get the hell out of here! Don't just gawk, come on!"

More running, by the Greater Good, when will it end? At least he was still alive, something Shas'Ui was very grateful for. Matching steps with D'yanoi, Shas'Ui joined the throng of Tau shambling for the vehicle pool's enclosed wall, the crowd becoming more congested as they near the gate, the press of people growing more desperate and violent now that salvation was so close. Shas'Ui drew D'yanoi into his arms as they were squeezed in from all sides, the retreating Fire Warriors coalescing into a single amorphous mass, an organism that was tearing itself apart in order to survive. His breath growing ragged, his footfall crunching on what he knew without a doubt were writhing bodies of his unlucky comrades, Shas'Ui was close to suffocating when the pressure lessened, and within a heartbeat the ranks of people dispersed.

"We're through," D'yanoi tightened her hold around Shas'Ui's neck, sobbing openly as they both sank to their knees, not fifty paces away glowing shapes of Devilfishes hummed softly as lines of Tau boarded the troop carriers. "We made it."

"Almost there, let's go," Shas'Ui grinned and got up with D'yanoi, the pair was about to take their first steps when the first row of Devilfishes burst into flame. The troop transport in front of them was cleaved in half, the two partitions sliding off before balls of fire erupted from the laceration, consuming the Fire Warriors trying to get aboard. The blast threw Shas'Ui and D'yanoi flat to the ground, walls of flame rolled over them, smoke rises from exposed skin, the tempest wailed a horrid succor as Tau died around them.

"Get up! I said get up soldier!" Shas'Ui felt a hand grabbed his armor and hoisted him up. It was sergeant Ka'Mais, rivulets of blood pouring down his face. "You're not dead yet, get up!"

"Shas!" D'yanoi took him by the arm, her hair was singed but she was otherwise hale. "The wall has fallen, we have to go!"

"Me and the veterans will hold them back as long as we can," Ka'Mais saluted, Shas'Ui and D'yanoi reciprocating softly, too flabbergasted to do anything else. "It has been an honor serving with you. Now go, I've already lived my life, seems only fitting that I make sure you young'uns get to live yours."

"But…" Shas'Ui began but a hail of burning las swept over the Tau defenders, pieces of metals and concretes were torn loose from the faltering parapets as bodies dropped to the ground, many of them Ka'Mais's fellow veterans.

"Damn you, I said go!" Ka'Mais shouted and went to man his post one last time, and at the desperate urging of D'yanoi, Shas'Ui tore his eyes away from the sergeant and fled, becoming one with the screaming throng of retreating Fire Warriors, no, not a retreat, a full-blown rout

"D'y, wait!" Shas'Ui pulled his friend out of the rush of people, dragged her toward a pillbox and crouched down in its shadow. "We can't go with the crowd, we'll be slaughter!"

"You got a better idea?!" D'yanoi hissed as a stream of bolts tore a bloody line into the Tau, blue mist and sizzling meats twirled skyward like meteorites of cadaver.

"We need to hide," Shas'Ui held his pistol tight and started off between rows of abandoned tents, behind them thunderous roars erupted, followed by furious din of discharging weapons. They had just reached a column of parked Devilfishes when Shas'Ui spun around, the gap between the fluttering canvases and vehicles granted him a clear view of the ramparts. Humans and Aeldari now stalked the place, thrusting bayonets downward, making sure all were slain. Shas'Ui can only pray that Ka'Mais was killed by a bullet and not getting gutted.

"You got any idea where?" D'yanoi asked as they dashed between the unmoving Devilfishes, around them the fighting was getting more cacophonous and moving fast toward the rear. "We can hide inside one of these."

"No, the battlegroup will probably blow them up the first chance they get," Shas'Ui shook his head, glanced around, and spotted a path leading toward the wall of the Space Hulk. "Over there, this place is filled with maintenance passageways inside the walls, if we can get there we can find a place to hide and…"

He pitched forward, as if someone had shoved him in the back, and landed hard on his face. Shas'Ui tried to roll over but blood poured from his mouth, his limbs no longer obeying as agonizing coldness spread across his body. D'yanoi screamed, but she sounded muffled, like he was listening to her from underwater. Blue flashes pulsed violently above him but the muzzle glare slowly lost its focus, a misty blur coming over his vision, getting heavier and heavier. He felt so tired, so sleepy, he just wanted to sleep. The pulse rifle clicked empty, clattered to the ground, and he was moving, D'yanoi having grabbed his chest and was dragging him away.

"It'll be fine Shas, hang in there," D'yanoi sobbed, like him she knew the statement was a lie, one last soothing dram before the inevitable come to pass. "Hang in there, we'll make it out of here, we'll go home."

"Home…" Shas'Ui rasped weakly, tears streaming down his face as he mourned the life he had left behind, now becoming just another dead body in a forgotten hull of a derelict ship, unremembered and forgotten. "Home…"

"Yes, home Shas, home," D'yanoi was now slumped against a Devilfish, Shas'Ui sprawled in her lap. Her warmth felt nice, but it was not enough to keep the coldness at bay. "Think of home Shas, the golden harvest, the warm sun, the clear cold water, the soft breeze at the day's end. It's all there Shas, it's all there…we'll go home."

Shas'Ui wanted to smile, and he tried, but he ended up coughing more blood, the creeping blackness almost taking him. But then he saw a group of people striding toward them, and wished the darkness had won. It was the black coated commissar, accompanied but a group of guardsmen and Aeldari, their steps unhurried as they surrounded Shas'Ui and D'yanoi.

"Please…" D'yanoi begged, tears slurred her words, and Shas'Ui felt her hugged him tighter, shielding him from harm. The humans and Aeldari responded by priming their weapons, while the commissar simply stared at them dispassionately. Shas'Ui glanced up and saw the clunky bolt pistol in his hand, smoke drifting from the barrel, so that was his killer. "Please help him, he's hurt, you have to save him, please! I beg of you, he doesn't deserve to die!"

The commissar titled his head to the side, showing no indication that he had heard D'yanoi's plea. Then he holstered his bolt pistol, and drew a smaller laspistol.

"I just wasted a fucking bolt on a Tau grunt," the commissar leveled his laspistol at Shas'Ui, deaf to D'yanoi tearful wailing. "Not making that mistake again."

He pulled the trigger, and as the red bolt ended his life, Shas'Ui was thankful for the small mercy of not having to watch D'yanoi die.

"You will maintain position, captain Sa'cea, I will not tolerate any more insubordination from you!"

"With all due respect commander Aun'la, I must reiterate that our troops will not be able to repel the battlegroup's advance, but simply delay them. We will suffer massive casualties and achieve nothing of tactical significance. I beseech you, allow the defenders to reposition to the lower level where we can more effectively bottleneck the humans and the eldars."

"The battlegroup want this device, but it is ours! It is for the Greater Good! Not for their decrepit species! I will not allow them to have it! So I would suggest you follow my damn order and beat them back!"

"But this is madness!"

"Don't you dare talk back to me woman, or I'll have you court martial for defying a direct command of a superior!"

"This will be the death of us, and of you!"

"Do as I command! I want their blood, do you hear me?! Blood! Bathe this accursed place in their blood!"

Commander Aun'la has completely lost his mind, and Sa'cea was more than thankful that he terminated his transmission, sparing her from having to listen to more of his mad raving. What had caused this? Aun'la had always been dependable, openminded and caring of the troops under his command. All of it changed after they used the Startide Nexus to travel across the stars, but why? Sa'cea and many of her peers felt no changes, commander Shadowsun herself was unaffected, so why was Aun'la and a myriad of others so badly afflicted? She had never been one for superstitious, but right now, she wished she'd listened to the Gue'vesa and not disregard their prattling about the Warp as nonsense.

"Greater Good preserve us all," Sa'cea shook her head and flexed her grip on the two control sticks of her Crisis Battlesuit, finding peace and focus from the well-worn leathers, its familiarity stilling the relentlessness of her mind. Banishing all inconsequential thoughts, Sa'cea eased into the seat of her boxy cockpit, reached out to tap the visual display in front of her, the scene outside overlaid with tactical messages coming from the troops arrayed across the wide hall they currently occupied, and opened every communication channel. "This is captain Sa'cea, our orders are clear, this is where we will stop the battlegroup. Stand firm, sons and daughters of the Tau Empire, we will be victorious this day. For the Greater Good!"

"For the Greater Good!"

Sa'cea turned off the transmission and rubbed her temple in a slow, circular motion, the throbbing headache refused to subside. Even riddled with static, she can easily gouge the morale from the halfhearted battle cry her soldiers had just made, fear and uncertainty having easily overtaken courage and vigor. They were already half way to loosing this fight.

"Not quite what you expect, huh?" A voice boomed from her intercom and Sa'cea grinned sardonically.

"No Vraash, it absolutely was not," making sure that the conversation was private, Sa'cea turned the Crisis Battlesuit toward the one who had spoken. Standing atop a rampart five hundred yards to her right was Vraash, the leader of the Kroot pack that was attached to her division. Vraash was looking at her, his great spiked war club raised in salute. "Not the greatest prelude to battle, I'll admit."

"It is when weapons are locked that a battle is decided, not before," Vraash braced the war club on his brawny shoulder, and Sa'cea didn't need to zoom in to discern the worry in his posture. "Commander Aun'la didn't listen."

"No, he did not," Sa'cea sighed and tapped her visual display, bringing up the tactical map. "I'm plotting our retreat right now Vraash, I'll send it to you and the other officers in a moment."

"Are you sure about that?" Vraash was concerned. "Given the commander's temperament, this act of insubordination will probably get you kill on the spot."

"Not if I kill him first," Sa'cea finished drawing on the map, made copies, and sends it to every officer under her command. "I have no wish to get all of you kill because Aun'la lost his mind. I saw the transmission from those poor souls placed as first contact above us…the battlegroup gave them no quarter. I will not allow that to happen to us."

"Bless your soul, captain Sa'cea," Vraash bowed in her direction and started tapping his communicator. "You have my word that I shall be by your side when we confront Aun'la. Ah yes, well done as always, I shall tell my pack to get ready."

"Thank you for the kind words, Vraash," Sa'cea smiled softly. "I cannot ask for a better friend to…"

Sa'cea never saw the projectile coming, the only warning she got was the screams of her men as silvery fire bloomed across their ranks. Cursing her own lapse of attention, Sa'cea swung her Battlesuit back to the frontline, just in time to see the forward most defenses consumed in glittering white flame, the liquid inferno moved with eerie animation, almost alive as it crashed into the pillboxes and trenches. Her fingers moving quickly across the screen, Sa'cea growled when the reading failed to make sense of the thankfully short-lived fire. Whatever that inferno was, it didn't register with any elements or chemical compounds in the scientific chart, the anomaly almost short circuited the Battlesuit's computer when it can't calculate and quantify the attack.

"Movements! Movements! At the front!" Sa'cea was spared from having to ponder this development as the reserves quickly took their places along the ramparts, the pillboxes and the trenches, moving with precision and discipline, shaken but unwavering. Grabbing her control sticks tight, Sa'cea activated the Battlesuit's jetpack and, with a great leap that she had performed many times over, joined the troops at the front.

"Stand your ground and do not falter! For the Greater Good, brothers and sisters!" Sa'cea bellowed as she activated every weapon on the Crisis Battlesuit, the missile pods opened, the shoulder mounted Ion Raker hummed to life, and the Burst Cannon started cycling. She gave the soldiers under her command one last sweep, twenty four Crisis Battlesuits, close to six thousand infantry of the Fire Caste, two thousand auxiliary troops, and forty Devilfishes armed with heavy guns. They don't have enough to hold the battlegroup back.

"Here they come! All weapons free!" It took Sa'cea a moment to find her targets, and when she did the only reaction she was able to conjure was confusion. Sa'cea looked away from the screen, scratched her eyes fiercely, then fixed her gaze on the display again, and by the Greater Good she wasn't seeing things. A group of lithe individuals, elegant in movement and clad in master crafted armors of startling beauty, were marching casually toward them, spread out in a loose line, their steps falling in sync; Aeldari, the enigmatic allies of the humans.

"What the hell are they…?" Sa'cea was starting to mutter when the readings on her display went haywire, blaring icons erupted across her field of view as the Battlesuit's computer tried and failed to understand the approaching Aeldari. Quickly swiping away the warnings, Sa'cea felt her blood frosted over when the Aeldari started…glowing, the ethereal luminescent sheen rising in brightness, from a weak mist to a burning star. Sa'cea's knowledge on the alien race was limited at the best of time, but she was more than familiar with charging weapons, and the Aeldari were primed. "Oh no – Crisis Battlesuits and tanks, take aim at the Aeldari and fired immediately, stop them before they can finish whatever it is they're doing! Fire at will!"

The Fire Warriors positioned along the defenses swiftly obeyed her command, but it was not quick enough. There was a change in the air, and to Sa'cea's eyes it looked as if the world was bending around the Aeldari, prismatic lights coalescing into geometrical shapes, and from those dazzling displays came lances of energy that crashed into the Tau's position. Hundreds of soldiers were atomized in the blink of an eye, their bodies shredded to fiery pieces before getting reduced to dust. Ramparts, trenches and pillboxes were blown apart in great kaleidoscopic explosion as the terrible energy beams swept left and right, no places left untouched by the destruction unleashed.

"4th, 13th, 54th and 76th platoon had suffered catastrophic casualties! Eight Battlesuits have flatlined!"

"The Devilfishes are down! I repeat! The Devilfishes are down!"

"What the hell was that?! Did the eldars just attack us?! What is going on?!"

"Help! There are people still alive inside the trenches! We require immediate assistance!"

"By the Greater Good…if only a dozen of them can do this to us…we can't fight them, we can't fight them!"

Storm of voices raged across the communication channels, all of them clashing against each other, no direction, no cohesion, panic reigning supreme after the Aeldari's cataclysmic display. Even a cadet fresh out of training can tell the defenders were moments away from collapsing completely.

"Sa'cea, what are your orders?" Vraash spoke up, his calm voice cleaving through the din.

"Enough! Everybody pull yourself together and start acting like Fire Warriors, now!" Sa'cea snapped, and praise be to the Greater Good, the Tau's iron discipline swiftly reasserted itself, all was quiet as the troops awaited her command. "Fall back to the rear, fighting retreat, use the Elysium protocol I have drafted. First contact group, evacuate the area and retreat with all haste, second contact group form a defensive line to cover them, reserve, be ready to reinforce. Move out!"

The execution was sloppy, but forgivable given the circumstances. In the end though, Sa'cea was happy to see Tau soldiers and their allies falling into the correct formation and, with trained steps, began a fighting retreat, firing volleys after volleys at the nearing battlegroup, even if the result was not as effective as they had hoped. Sa'cea let out a slew of curses when the battlegroup refuse to charge them en mass, a usual tactic for the Imperium of Man, but instead advanced with tempered speed, Aeldari sorcerers leading from the front, followed by ranks upon ranks of Imperial Guardsmen and Aeldari troops who were trading sporadic gunfire with the Fire Warriors, and behind them came the tanks and who knows how many more soldiers.

"Nicely done," Vraash spoke up and Sa'cea tried to find him amongst the crowd, she was unsuccessful but took heart in knowing that he was alive. "Aun'la won't be happy."

"I don't give a shit," Sa'cea snarled and joined the thickening ranks of Fire Warriors falling into position around the second tier defenses of sandbag walls and pillboxes, the remaining Devilfishes and Battlesuits now clustered around the infantries. "Keep them safe Vraash, I'll see you later."

"Me and my pack must unfortunately disobey, captain," Vraash laughed lowly. "I am not wasting this opportunity to go toe to toe with the battlegroup. I'll put their mettle to the test."

"Stupid, stubborn Kroot," Sa'cea shook her head. "Have it your way then, happy hunting Vraash."

"You too Sa'cea," Vraash said sternly before cutting transmission, and Sa'cea voiced a prayer to any higher power that would listen to keep safe her friend. With that done, Sa'cea adjusted her ocular display and zoomed in on the Aeldari.

"Snipers and Stealth Battlesuits, take aim at the lead Aeldari, strike them down immediately before they can perform their sorcery again," Sa'cea ordered as she fired several bursts at the battlegroup, her Burst Cannon roaring a pleasant tune, the muzzle flaring brilliant blue. Most of them were still out of range, but Sa'cea cracked a smile when she managed to cut down a few guardsmen, making their formation wavered just for a moment. And through it all the scaffoldings above her head, a labyrinthine of crisscrossing walkways, stairs and ladders fused maddeningly together in a chaotic mess without any clear discernable reasons, where she had placed her best cadre of sharpshooters, remained silent, no lances of light flashed across the Space Hulk to strike down the Aeldari. "Damn it all, snipers! What are you doing up there?! I said take out the…!"

The red proximity warning blared just a second before something hard landed on Sa'cea's Battlesuit, causing it to pitch dangerously to the side, a dent bulging into her cockpit. Teeth gritted, Sa'cea managed to right the Battlesuit, causing the mangled body of one of her sniper to slide sickeningly across her screen, smearing it with wet sheen of blue ichor. Cries of alarm and fear erupted across the intercom, and Sa'cea glanced up to see men and women careening lifelessly down from the scaffolding, many butchered and mutilated, their bodies crashing with went splatter on the floor, sending gore flying or crushing those below.

"We've lost the scaffolding! The Aeldari and the humans are upon – no! Please, I surrender! I surrender! AHHH!"

The horrid transmission had not even ended when las, bolts and plasma started raining down from above, scything apart the defenders with brutal impunity. Horns and bugles resounded across the Space Hulk and the battlegroup, now having come within fifty yards of the Tau's defenses, charged forward, running and shooting at any Tau that remained, bayonets lowered and gleaming.

"Hold your ground!" Sa'cea bellowed across the intercom, trained her Burst Cannon at the humans and eldars, and unleashed a full auto barrage at the oncoming tide, the Tau around her joined in vehemently, and within moment they brought the full might of the Fire Warriors to bare. A good number of them were cut down, but the assault was not stalled, if anything the casualties appeared to spur the battlegroup onward with greater vigor.

"They're through! They're through! Fall back, fall – argh!" Sa'cea balked when she saw the officer who was speaking gutted by a group of screaming guardsmen.

"First line, fall back to the rear! Heavy gunners and Battlesuits, hold back the tide! For the Greater Good!" Sa'cea roared and blew an Aeldari vehicle to pieces, the explosion killing the humans and eldars soldiers taking cover behind it. The sight put a smile on her face. "Yes! Take that you bastards! We're not going down without a fight!"

"Indeed we won't!" Vraash bellowed cheerfully and Sa'cea's smile only widen when the Kroot pack crashed into the battlegroup, their war clubs falling in murderous arcs, the rank of infantries folding from the impact. The battle was reaching a stalemate when the wall on their right suddenly erupted in rattling explosions. Huge metallic plates came apart from the wall, tilting then falling to crash on the ground with ear shattering bangs, sending thick gale of dust across the battlefield, the Tau not currently engaged in combat turned to stare wordlessly at the destruction while the battlegroup cheered loudly. And as the dust settled, Sa'cea saw multiple blood red eyes peering through the parting veil.

"SURPRISE, MOTHERFUCKERS!" The world was torn asunder by bolts as a dozen Space Marines, the Imperium's deadliest warriors, the shock troops of their armed force, charged the Tau's flank.

"Shit! Abandon your positions! Fall back! We cannot hold them!" Even as Sa'cea bellowed what was very likely her last command, she knew it was already too late. With the main bulk of the battlegroup steadily caving in their center, combined with the Space Marines sudden appearance, the fight was all but lost. Fire Warriors were shoving and pushing each other in a mad attempt to flee, all discipline forgotten as they ran blindly toward the rear, crushing those too slow under their trampling feet. Sa'cea wanted so badly to join them, but was determined not to make her last act as captain be one of shamefully running from the battlefield. "Vraash! Get your men out of there! Get – ahhh!"

Sa'cea's head bounced off the display screen, rupturing the glass pane, statics wreathed the spot where cracking webs bloomed outward. Groaning, blue blood streaming down her face and into her eyes, Sa'cea pushed away the pain bursting from her skull and willed the world back into focus, the effort almost made her puke. When everything more or less returned to normal, Sa'cea found the consoles of her cockpit on fire and the interior filled with smoke, she must have been hit with some anti-armor ordnance, it was nothing short of luck that she didn't die. Covering her nose and mouth, Sa'cea unbuckled herself and pressed the emergency eject button beside her seat. A loud explosion boomed behind her and Sa'cea was flung backward with a burst of propulsion jets. Sa'cea rolled painfully across the ground, her seat flying in another direction, and when the world stopped spinning she was assaulted by the pounding cacophony of war, bullets and lasers flying so close to her face that she can almost touch them. Rolling to the side, her head throbbing painfully, Sa'cea pulled her pistol free from her belt and dashed for nearby drums of fuel, a pitiful cover but it was better than nothing. The battlegroup had broken through. All Sa'cea could see were humans and Aeldari sprinting after the retreating Tau, some remaining behind to finish off the wounded. Above a formation of Adepta Sororitas flew overhead, led by the one with the glowing wings, gliding unchallenged across the chamber. She was alone. The realization send ice shooting across her veins, the pistol in her hand quaked so badly Sa'cea almost dropped it. This was it then, this was truly the end for her. Strangely enough, this morbid acceptance of nearing demise calmed her nerves, and Sa'cea found her hands steadying as she raised her pistol at the winged woman. She was about to pull the trigger when a pillbox to her left burst open in a billow of dust and masonries, and flying through the churning pall was Vraash, the Kroot was bleeding and battered, his right arm hung limp while his left clung weakly to his war club.

"And here I thought the fucking Kroot were supposed to know how to melee," a distorted voice resounded from the destroyed pillbox and a blue clad Space Marine emerged, a gigantic two handed thunder hammer crackling in his grip. "Seriously bro, I'm a bit disappointed."

"No…Vraash no, run away you fool, run away," Vraash predictably ignored, or more likely didn't hear, her raspy plea. The Kroot roared at the Space Marine, speckles of blood flying, and charged, the war club held high for a brutal downward swing. It was a predictably brought upon by desperation, a sloppy presentation that even Sa'cea recognized, and unsurprisingly the Space Marine saw it too. Laughing lowly, the armored giant easily sidestepped Vraash's attack and, in another display of mockery, retracted his crackling hammer and magnetized it to his power pack. Blinded by bloodlust, Vraash rounded on the Space Marine and continued to launch a series of stabs, lunges and slashes at him, none of the blow landed, the war club never once came close to hitting the Astartes, whose movement was a blur despite his size. Then, after a clumsy overhead swing, the Space Marine swathed the war club from Vraash's hand and snatched up the Kroot's neck in his oversized hand.

"Time for a last ride, fucker!" The Space Marine easily lifted Vraash off his feet, his body flailed bonelessly as he dangled above the Astartes's head, and was thrown thunderously back to the ground. Vraash's body was launched back into the air by the impact, a small crater indenting the place where he had landed, Sa'cea let out a straggle sob when it was clear the Kroot was no longer moving. "Chokeslam! Chokeslam! God Emperor as my witness he is broken in half! Hey! You fucking dead yet?! Whatever, I'll make this quick!"

It took every ounce of control Sa'cea possessed not to scream as the Space Marine grabbed Vraash's head, a still alive Vraash, and proceed to twist and yank until, with wet snaps of tearing bones, muscles and cartilages, the Kroot's skull was wrenched free from his body, the spinal cord flopping like a snake. The Space Marine held Vraash's decapitate head up to his helmed face, let out a derisive groan and tossed it away, treating the Kroot's remain as if it was garbage.

"That was seriously uncalled for," this time Sa'cea did screamed and bolted away from the fuel drums. Spinning around, she found that an eldar, one of the sorcerer that had destroyed their defenses, was standing behind her, a displease frown creased her beautiful, dark tanned face. Fear seized every muscle and bones in Sa'cea's body, no matter how hard she tried her limbs refused to obey, the Aeldari sorceress having enthralled her with a simple gaze. She started shaking, knowing but refusing to accept the fact that she was about to die. But then the Aeldari sighed, sadness marred her visage, and walked away from Sa'cea, a luminescent spear braced upon her shoulder. The enchantment lifted, the terror binding her limbs loosening, Sa'cea hefted up her pistol and aimed it at the Aeldari's back, the images of her slain comrades and Vraash's death fanning her fury, banishing any last lingering fear and hesitation.

"You shouldn't have done that."

She never saw the flash of steel. Sa'cea screamed, loud and broken as her hand, along with the pistol locked in its post mortem grip, twirled away from her arm in a stream of blood. Crumbling to her knees, tears blurring her vision, pain rushing through her body like lightning, Sa'cea glanced up to see a lithe Aeldari swordswoman standing over her, droplets of blue ichor dripping down the alien's pristine blade.

"Lady Warseer, are you hurt?" The woman said as more Aeldari and human, the female warriors of the Adepta Sororitas, gathered around Sa'cea.

"No Firnera, I'm fine," the Warseer spared Sa'cea an almost apologetic look before walking away. "Make it quick, don't make her suffer."

A swift kick crashed into Sa'cea's face, breaking bones and sending her sprawling on her back.

"Please…please…" Sa'cea blubbered weakly, bloody stump raised feebly at the Aeldari.

"Pathetic," the eldar pressed the tip of her sword on Sa'cea's chest and turned to a Sororitas beside her. "I thought you said they were dangerous."

"I am wrong in this regard," the human woman shrugged and the Aeldari plunged her sword down before Sa'cea can say anything more, the sharpened steel parting armor and flesh like it was nothing. The Warseer was good with her words, it was quick.