Aboard the deck of the Soul Fire, Lord Dukel raised high the Eagle Banner of Destiny. Infused with his psychic might, the golden Aquila—fashioned from the remains of a slain daemon—blazed with celestial radiance. The psychic light dispelled the cloying warp-mists, tore apart the Great Devourer's shadow, and revealed the long-besieged Baal system beyond.
"Tell Guilliman that I have torn through the Tyranid shadow and opened the way back to reality."
Dukel's voice rang out across the fleet's mind-link, transmitting his declaration to the command deck of Macragge's Honour.
The corpse of Carlos the Fateweaver, neutralized by a Primarch's might, still retained residual eldritch properties, yet such concerns were secondary. What mattered to Dukel was the grandeur of the moment.
The Eagle Banner of Destiny was among his proudest relics. When raised, it banished the taint of heresy and purged all impurity. It was a beacon to psykers and warriors alike, radiating an aura of unbreakable loyalty. As long as it stood, the warriors of the Imperium would fight unto death.
Rarely had Dukel felt the urge to boast, yet as he stood upon the prow of the Soul Fire, lifting the immense banner aloft, even mortal soldiers who struggled to raise it could only marvel. Its light surged outward like a newborn star, illuminating the churning sea of souls surrounding the vessel. Across the warp-tainted void, creatures of Chaos howled and recoiled in agony.
Even across the Baal system, Dante himself felt its presence. The battlefield fell silent—both Blood Angels and Tyranids alike turned their gaze skyward, enthralled by the celestial brilliance.
As if answering Dukel's proclamation, the Imperium's expeditionary force declared its arrival with all the pride of seasoned warriors.
The Hive Mind recoiled, its vast shadow momentarily dispersed. Yet it was not so easily cowed. The darkness gathered once more, coalescing for a counterattack.
Dukel drew his power sword, its abyssal blade swallowing the surrounding light. The malice of countless martyrs and vengeful spirits roiled within it, almost tangible within the warp. The Tyranid shadow—vast and all-consuming—hesitated. Then, in an instant, it retreated, vanishing into the shifting unreality of the Immaterium.
"Brother, you so boldly announce yourself to all? The Hive Mind is no mere beast; it adapts swiftly. Will your arrogance not cost us dearly?" A spectral voice echoed at Dukel's waist—Magnus, ever the scholar, smirking within the confines of a captured soul shard.
"You understand nothing. You're just a bookworm playing with warp fire."
Dukel's response was dismissive as he turned to his warriors.
On the Soul Fire, the combat formations had already assembled. Rank upon rank of soldiers stood ready, their eyes alight with fervor. In the gaze of the Adepta Sororitas, he saw unwavering devotion. In the warriors of the Astra Militarum, undying loyalty. And in the Space Marines, the indomitable will to wage war.
No words were needed. Their shared battle spirit burned like a forge's flame.
"My warriors! Fight until the last foe is torn asunder!"
"For the Emperor!"
Dukel's war cry rang beneath the banner of the Sky Eagle.
"We shall triumph!"
With a resounding battle cry, the fleet surged forth, breaching the veil into realspace. The Baal system awaited.
As the fleet moved into position, another presence manifested within the system—a being of immense, blood-drenched horror.
Ka'Bandha, the ancient bane of the Blood Angels, had returned.
The Chapter's seers had foreseen his coming, but even their warnings had not sufficed to halt his descent. The warp storm had twisted his arrival, casting him down upon Baal Secundus instead of Baal Prime.
When Ka'Bandha emerged into reality, the skies ignited. Warp energy crackled across the heavens like a storm of flame and blood, and as the Great Daemon descended, the sky burned red. From the maelstrom, hordes of lesser daemons rained down, smashing into the chitinous ranks of the Tyranids below.
Upon impact, the daemon army exploded into a frenzy of carnage. The battlefield was swallowed by tides of blood and ichor, Tyranid bioforms consumed by the indiscriminate slaughter.
From the swarm, a monstrous Hive Tyrant surged forth, leading a horde of winged bioforms in a direct charge against Ka'Bandha. The Hive Mind had fought the Ruinous Powers before. It knew ranged attacks were meaningless against Khorne's servants. Instead, it sought to overwhelm through brute force.
"Skulls for the Skull Throne! Blood for the Blood God! I care not what you are, wretched insects!"
Ka'Bandha's bellow of rage shook the world. Fury consumed him—he craved battle, slaughter, carnage.
Meanwhile, upon the fortress-world of Baal Secundus, the defenders fought a desperate battle.
The Flesh Tearers and the exiled Blood Knights—the most volatile of the Blood Angels' successor Chapters—held the line. Their bastions stood against an endless tide of Tyranids.
The artillery never ceased. The recoil of macro-cannons sent tremors across the landscape, shaking the very foundations of the fortress-monastery. Blood and dust cascaded from its ramparts, yet still, the swarms advanced. Fearless and mindless, the Tyranids pressed on, heedless of their mounting losses.
At the swarm's rear, colossal bio-towers rose, their chitinous structures anchored into the rock. These towering conduits linked directly to the vast hive ships orbiting above, preparing to strip the world of all biomass.
Then, amid the slaughter, a squad of Blood Knights snapped. Roaring in fury, they broke formation and charged, heedless of their commanders' orders.
"Father!" one howled. "Traitor! I will drink your blood!"
Blinded by rage, they cast themselves into the heart of the swarm, their minds lost in ancestral memories. In their shattered perception, the Tyranids became the traitors of old, and the battlefield became Terra itself during the final battle of the Horus Heresy.
Jor, Lord of the Blood Knights, watched in grim silence. Though he too felt the gnawing pull of the Black Rage, he clung to his sanity with sheer force of will.
Yet he could do nothing but pray that his lost brothers would find peace in Sanguinius' embrace.
"May the blood of the Angel be worthy."
Even as he whispered this oath, the sky darkened anew.
A second rain of fire fell from the heavens—this time, not Tyranid spores, but daemonic meteors. Warpfire scorched the sky as blasphemous energies spilled forth.
"Ka'Bandha!"
Jor's roar of fury was lost amid the cacophony.
The battlefield shuddered. The earth cracked. The Blood God's legions unleashed their wrath upon both Blood Angels and Tyranids alike.
The sky burned.
The Black Rage surged within the Sons of Sanguinius, their sanity fraying.
But then, at the height of their madness—
A golden light split the heavens.
The Sky Eagle Banner had arrived.
Its divine brilliance shattered the illusions clouding their minds. Where madness had consumed them, now stood faith. Where hatred had blinded them, now burned loyalty.
The battle shifted. The Blood Angels, no longer lost to the Black Rage, turned their fury upon the xenos once more.
The Hive Mind shuddered. An unknowable, unrelenting presence had entered the field.
And for the first time in millennia, it knew fear.
Its tactics faltered, precision giving way to disorder. Efficiency crumbled, replaced by panic, as it issued a series of contradictory orders, throwing the entire swarm into chaos.
As the Blood Angels fought with relentless fury, their strength surged while the enemy's waned. Step by step, the tide of xenos was driven back, their once-overwhelming advance now shattered beneath the sheer ferocity of the Adeptus Astartes.
This struggle was not confined to Baal I alone. Across Baal Prime, Baal Secundus, and every battlefield within the system, the war raged on, mirroring the carnage unfolding across the Imperium's last bastions.
Even within the Warp, daemonic entities stirred at the sudden, blinding surge of power emanating from the Immaterium.
Ka'Bandha's arrogance faltered for the first time. Then, as realization dawned, his fury reignited—hotter, more violent than before.
"Kairos! What treachery have you wrought this time?!"
The Greater Daemon's bellow echoed across reality and the Immaterium alike. For one such as him to acknowledge the Architect of Fate's schemes meant only one thing—
He had been ensnared by the Fateweaver's web.
…
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