Imperial forces continuously descending upon the planet, before it was to take care of the damage have been done, but now?
The silence was deafening, everyone was working in silence and haste as they set up a series of Necron pylon around the planet, not to prevent the entities within to escape, but to cage them in with their lord.
It was a open secret that the High lord ordered when the situation quote from him.
"Shit hit the fan moment."
To the recruits, it was scary for their lord that they fought with suddenly gone berserk.
To the veterans, they knew better.
Especially when video recordings of that their lord is facing in that facility beneath their feet.
Monsters made of human cadavers was already touching his morality, but when some fool used his blood to stitch them all into a monster?
They never seen him rage that much, even during the Brood Wars, Kerrigan attack on Mars Sara and the retrieval of the queen of blades from char, even with Acturus Mengsk assassination, he never broke character.
He always smiled, as if to reassure the people he led that he brought victory and bring them home. That he would lead them to a better future.
"Oi cogboy, I heard we stopped, and the high lord called for the Astartes. How many he sent." A soldier spoke as he talked with the tech priest that was doing maintenance.
The soldier was bored, as they were ordered to hold the surface and prevent anything from escaping.
What was once a steamroller of a operations, was filled with anxiety.
"++This never happened before... I think it was more than the chapter we were assisted with.++" The engineseer sighed.
"Was it 1 legion tasked to clean up this mess?" The man asked. That was the normal protocol to conquer a planet.
The tech priest shook his head...
"Don't tell me... 5 legion?" The tech priest shook his head. The man paled, because that is usually the maximum limit on planetary invasion.
"++36 legions. Half of it is Iron warrior and the rest is composed of Thousand Sons, Word bearers, Death Guard and Luna Wolves. More soon to come if the situation is worse than anticipated. Dreadnoughts are accompanying them.++" The tech priest spoke.
The man looked down below and muttered.
"That bad?"
He knows his government history.
It took 9 legions and a army of cohorts that fallen to the devils to invade terra and lost, what his Lord ordered is basically multitude more than the legions to invade this the holy terra..
He patted his helmet. He knows that armor he adorn is the most advanced that the imperium could afford.
But even he knows that whatever the hell was down there that needed legions of the Emperor Angels. He doubt that he would even survive that. No amount of courage would prevent his body from being eradicated.
"Don't worry laddie, I'm sure our lord have a plan given by the god emperor himself." A voice spoke behind the duo.
It was a ginger hair man. Having a cup of steaming recaff and a smoke. A European breakfast.
He was surprised of the man before him that sent the message.
Captain Price that was part of his escort mentioned his face upon returning from the depths...
"A hell made manifest on a lord like that... I pity the fool."
He uttered as the skies is so blotted from the Astartes battle barges and cruisers that the Astartes landed via teleportation.
In a flash of light, detachments of iron warriors silently in formation as they headed towards the bulkhead that lead to the underground facility.
.
Many of the soldiers gave them silent nod as they gave way to the silent space Marines. Some of the faithful made the Aquila signs, while other simply saluted them as they backed off.
Many of the soldiers noticed something was wrong, all of them were wearing Terminator armor. Each of the flash was the same.
Some have variation of a dreadnought patterns as the lumbering giants moved past the defenders.
The soldier paled.
They have knowledge of what's happening, if a Astartes was in a chapter, things can go well for them. But a legion? And literally terminator armor and dreadnoughts? Something below is beyond their pay grade and their skills. They have concerns that the one that their leader is fighting alone with a swarm chasing after him...
But as they hold their ground and fortify it as much as possible, they could only believe in him, while they can't do much helping their lord. They can ensure whatever he's fighting would never leave the place alive.
Alexander never knew behind his back, people already placed their hopes and dreams onto him...
The planet is now literally blocked from the warp and materium, and now the monsters that unable to assassinate their target is found unwanted by the realm they thought they could control, and found themselves in the materium, screeching and howled of their blood bank is coming for them.
The mad cyclops is here for them.
"DIE FOUL BEAST!" A roar was heard as a bloodied monster crawled away from a Madden mech.
It's body filled with holes and blood and organs were leaking out from a it's stomach wounds.
It thought to itself as a apex on the food chain, that all life beyond its vat was inferior in every other way. That the puny humans that made it was inferior and they should be grateful of making its birth.
It gaze upon the monster behind it's back.
The machine walked slowly as in one of it's arm held a head of one of their own.
Still freshly chopped.
The white suit now splattered with the blood of its foes, making it akin to a berzerker of pure malice.
It roared as it emitted a visible psychic blast as it lobbed at the mech. To its horror, it was swatted by the mech axe and before it knew something, it's last moment it saw before it could leave it's nest was a series of bullets filled its frame as it devoured the monster from within.
"Defend our master creations!" A psychic roar emanate from the depth and Alexander saw Protoss, countless Protoss that worship Amon and their crimson hue that embedded in their golden armor was a giveaway.
He didn't say anything. He already touched some of the surfaces of their minds and they were just as guilty as their gods.
They shoved people into blenders and killed humans in their gods names. And stitch the monsters he fought with.
Alexander mech dropped the head and materialize a Flamethrower that now appeared on the mech hand.
The Protoss saw it and sneered.
They know what a Flamethrower and just because that assailant have a Flamethrower that is upscale to a mech, they would be never be harmed.
They didn't know...
The flames that vomited out was not just any flames.
It was several suns that is a blue white stars, siphoned into the weapon. The hottest suns of the galaxy, channelling using the Necron technology and the powers of the warp.
He called it Apollo fury.
A prototype sunthrower for basically channel the sun and the more suns he link to this machine, the more powerful it can be, anything he deemed heretical to not even allowed the mechanicum to get their hands on. A personal exterminatus weaponry.
The flames swept across the Protoss and they screamed, their psychic shields and their stolen armor were unable to withstand the power of the sunthrower. The fires licked their body's as they turned to charcoal. Their emergency teleporting beacon was cut off and their nexus was burn to the ground.
But Alexander saw a few probes attempt to flee and he captured them to appeased the Mechanicum. They always wanted to have a probe as a pet project.
The monsters howled as they attempted to rush him.
Can they face a weapon that have several dozens of suns of the hottest degree channeling in it? A tidal wave of bluish white flames swept once more and the Cavern was smelting due to the intense heat. Xenos made walls melting slowly due to the heat.
"Welcome to my master abode, Alexander Solair, High Lord of Celestial Imperium." A dark voice echoed from the darkness.
Alexander looked across the cavern and he saw a temple opening and Narud standing there at the entrance.
Alexander didn't say anything.
Because he didn't need to.
A sun rose above his mech.
A sun lit cavern that housed the demons within. Amidst the charcoal corpses and burnt terminals. The sun slowly gain height until it reach the height of the cavern limit.
It lit up the dim carvern and devoured the light. The only light was the singular crimson eye just staring at Narud.
Narud was shaken, not stirred by the event.
He was Xelnaga, he was a god. But yet... Why did he feel fear?
Had it been Kerrigan, He can simply write her off as some mistake of the galaxy, because the overmind attempted to break free from his master plans. A plan that went wrong and could be remedied, But Alexander...
Narud always looked into his history. Why he became the way he is. He was just a simple system governor that openly rebelled the confederacy and defied Kerrigan. A human that is a Emperor in name only...
But the Alexander before him... Is not a man.
He was malice incarnation.
That single crimson eye rushed towards Narud, and the False god release a bolt of lightning as he attempted to bash Alexander Mind, just as the queen of blade before that crippled him, but his mech move like a beast, inhuman reflexes that defied the law of physics and gravity.
"Do... You... honestly think that same trick work on me?" Alexander voice rumbled. His words were dripped in what is beyond hatred.
Narud felt like he was given a vision of his doom. His spine ripped out and his flesh burned to ashes, his brain would be thinkered by mechanical men for all eternity.
"How dare you worm!" Narud roared as he removed his disguise as the well known doctor and revealed what he truly is.
A god of this galaxy. Several giant monster broke reality and began to surround Alexander. Alexander knew these were creatures made from the void.
"Behold, this form is what you should worship worm!" Narud blast grew stronger, it was enough to deter Alexander mech a few inches. Alexander stopped approaching Narud.
The mech head tilted a bit, as if he was the biggest joke.
Narud heard laughter, no... He heard the derision draped in that laugh.
"Hahaha.... Hahahaha you.... A god?
I must be smoking some good stuff..
I am made in the Image of the one "TRUE " God. He is the light of all that is just.
He lives in our blood, our cells, he is our foundation, our beliefs, our culture.
He lit hope in the darkest of days and pave us that lack purpose. He is our god against the darkness.
He is the master of all mankind and all races should bow before him... Any god that pretends to be stronger than him.... Die." Alexander mech glowed in simmering gold as he rushed towards the now transform Narud.
Narud felt something from the figure before him, primal fear. He gone insane. No logical creature would defy him.
"Kill him!" Narud ordered the beast he summoned from the void and they launched their psychic blast at him, each would tore regiments apart.
Narud can see the flash images of the monster before him. The golden image was easy to target. But he failed to see something in the dark.
Countless eyes watched him in the darkness and they lit up the darkness in a synchronized blast of bolts, taking the closest of the void beast in a single volley.
And the primal roars of the Zerg in another.
Narud looked towards the direction.
Giant armored men on one side of the two passageway to the temple where he stood upon, firing nonstop at his Void beast, And the other side was the unending swarm that howled and rage in the dark as their numbers rushed and overrun the few remaining defenders that were loyal to him.
As he was distracted, he was hit by a plasma bolt. And he growl at the direction where the attack came from.
Alexander mech held a plasma pistol that was still burning in the dark.
"You!" Before Narud yelled he was blasted by another plasma bolt in his face.
He raised another psychic ball of destruction, far larger than he unleashed.
Alexander mech rushed as fast as it could.
"Die!"
Narud bellowed as he tossed into the general direction of where Alexander is and as the psychic wave envelope the mech, Narud felt a sigh of relief and was thinking of handling the outliers.
He was surprised that the mech survive the blast and now Alexander axe slash onto the frame of a false god.
Narud felt pain, something was devouring him inside.
He noticed in the far corners of there was a group that was practicing sorcery upon him.
He howled as while he did experimented the Vial of blood he taken from Alexander and managed to grasp the surface of the warp.
They were masters of it.
The attack Alexander inflicted upon Narud was not only affecting this false copy, but also his real body in the void.
It howled and scream as it fled back into the temple. Slowly losing height as he rushed into the temple depth, closing the doors just before Alexander tossed his mech axe at the gap causing it to halt.
Alexander attempted to use his mech to wrench the temple doors to allow his mech to fit in. But interestingly, the material that made up the temple was the hardest of all the Xenos artifact around him. Seeing it was no use, he decided to chase the false god on foot by entering through the gap he made.
As he disembarked his mech, He noticed the Legions masters that waited for him, he nodded as he baded them to wait.
Kerrigan was there. She stayed silent of what she had seen. But he have no interest to pay attention to her.
There's a monster was his to kill.
As Alexander walked in the xenos temple ground, it was dark. Cold. But he could felt pure malice radiate around him.
"So you proclaimed that there is a more superior god than the one I serve..." A voice echoed.
Alexander simply raised his flaming blade to provide some illumination.
"You are a broken man... No, a broken tool pretending to be a god, no sane person would dare hurt a god. And yet pretend to project your own insecurities on others..."
Narud appeared before him in a image of his old self, before he sold his body to the Master of mankind, a ordinary Imperial Guardsman regalia of the Imperium of mankind.
Alexander halted for a bit as he did remise the old days... When he was still human.
"I see that you are still weak... If this image is worth mocking you over."
"Out of words to speak? I sure that your skull fit nicely on my fireplace." Alexander mocked Narud.
"You dare mock a god!?" A hand rushed out of the darkness and attempted to choked him. Alexander sidestepped and lopped his hand. The shape shifter screamed as the flames began to illuminate the figure. Black blood seeped out of the body in the attempt to smother the flames.
"So... A god in this realm do bleed." Alexander mused.
"You... Kill god?"
"It's just a Tuesday from where I came from. Yes... I killed a god that is more powerful than the one that hides in the darkness, you and your master is no different... Though... Someone will want you dead more than I do... I sure we will meet again. I know the person before me is just a shard of the fool in the void.... I will make your real skull as my trophy.... For now .. your head would do. And thank for reminding me of the person I lost" Alexander smiled as his sword flames lit up and in a swift blow, he lopped off the shard of Narud.
Narud attempt to emotionally blackmail Alexander by using his past backfired.
He felt he lost connection to the main body in the void.
He heard a voice that was filled with malice.
"I did tell you... Your head serve as my trophy.... But... Scratch that, your head serve as a fire stove for my marshmallows sandwiches, more practical anyway, never thought of using a actual fragment of a god as fuel." He chuckled darkly as he set Narud head on fire. The head made mouth of scream as it pretended to be human.
Alexander simply produced a marshmallow from his pocket and held it over the burning skull that would be burn for all eternity.
"Hmmm, Marshmallow flavored Xelnaga, with a hint of minty caramel. Probably I'm the first that did you dirty." Alexander munch on the marshmallow as he watched the head scream in agony. Whether it was the burning or the dissing, he never know. But from the reward from the fight. He got a portable stove.
Alexander exited the premises and found the Space marines legions and Kerrigan Swarm was parted into two sides.
"Thank you, nephews of my brothers on a short call, you help me at my darkest hour, and your deeds will be recalled to your genefather, your records will be the evidence of your glory and deeds." Alexander nodded as he gave thanks to the legion.
He turned to the Zerg ad. Stukov and Kerrigan stood before the swarm.
"So... Kerrigan what makes you decided to come here? Aren't you supposed to go to Korhal at this point?
"Just came here on a good will. Where's Narud?"
Alexander held out the flaming skull.
"This is just a fragment of Narud. The real one is hiding in the void. I simply make this fragment lose connection and he is stuck with me."
"So... That bastard that torture me is still alive..." Stukov watched with dark humor that despite the person that torture him all this years is just a fragment. His revenge is not sated by looking at a flaming skull.
"You can have the kill. Maybe when you are done, we try to help you revert back to yourself." Alexander mused.
"Will think about it."
Alexander smiled until it slowly faded away.
He saw a faded apparition of children and people before him. The souls that was chained by the monster of flesh, now appeared before the living.
Deep down... He felt guilty of letting them die and their corpses is molded into this creatures of the void.
"Are... We free mister?" A child ghost, no older than 5 with a bandage face and a crippled leg, asked him.
"Yes... You are free..
"Is there a heaven for us?" Another in the ghostly crowd spoke. A man that lost half his head.
"There is always a place in the Heaven my father have made for souls like you..." Alexander smiled softly. He gestured to the sons of Lorgar.
Whose strength was simply a legion strong. And despite they could have not heeded his call, they obeyed.
"Nephews of the Word bearers... Can you do this honor of assisting and guiding the souls to the afterlife?"
"Gladly, That's the first of our legion to achieve such a feat." The legion master spoke as several chaplains and preachers spoke in the words of Colchis. Ancient words thrumming with power of faith.
Alexander spoke as his halo floated above him.
"To my faithful God.
In your light may you allowed this souls that were lost in the darkness be welcome nin your embrace, let them in spirit be graced by your shining light.
Merciful god of faith and fury
May you find the purity of the lost be accounted and among the faithful.
May they see the light of the future you pave
And a light envelope them as they become a beacon for the lost souls to reach the Imperium heaven.
May your everlasting light be the guidance to prevent the darkness claiming their souls...
May their innocence be their passage to your heaven" Alexander halo glowed as the atificial sun that once devoured the light now glowed with radiance.
Many of the souls saw their figures being drawn to the heaven.
"Thanks mister!" The child before, now healed from their wounds, flew up to the skies, beyond what's the Xenos temple could contain. The souls that were chained to the beast ascended to the heavens as they became one with the stars. Their laughter of joy, lingering words of encouragement and appreciation entered Alexander heart.
"I'm....sorry." he whispered as he watched them escape from the material realm.
"Don't be... You did what you have to." Kerrigan voice spoke.
She watched as the souls were escorted away from the nightmare they are living in.
"I... Didn't know Acturus would go that far to make this monsters."
"Then we should ensure that they are not made. Originally I came to you, as I assess that attacking Korhal on my own would be ... Insufficient. So... I propose a... Ceasefire, and I ensure that the Zerg would not encroach your space . As after this, we face our true enemy." Kerrigan worded her action, as she still remember that her old self literally backstab everyone and a ceasefire was the first step to a proper discussion.
Alexander nodded as he have to be aware of his people plight.
"Now... Let's ensure that we get Acturus what he deserve the most. Legion masters, ready the Legions once more, we are heading to Korhal." As Alexander walked towards the exit.
His eyes glowed red.
News of Skygeir Station was heard across the galaxy. The second heavily defended place of the Dominion was taken over in two days and not a peep was sound.
Many have different opinions. But when the evidence was released. The detractors were silent.
Monsters using human flesh was found in the facility, and video data of their creation was shown, not the steps to create one, but how they acted upon humanity.
It brought panic, anxiety that maybe some of the missing people ended up as monster material.
And by uncovering the the research, it gave the Casus beli of the Imperium to legally invade Dominion space.
Riots on the streets of korhal was more... Extreme.
Many of them attempted to fled in back channels like smugglers and black market.
Which indirectly made the invasion more easier.
But to the loyal defenders of Acturus, they were so thoroughly brainwashed to believe that it was Alexander that slander their Emperor.
But Acturus himself was silent on the matter, hiding behind the place he constructed, which fueled fire of dissent.
Strangely, propaganda pamphlet and video was being distributed among the Domion soace, paving the Young prince Valerian as a misfortune son that forced to join forces with Alexander Solair to make his father step down and ensure that such a research would never be enacted and to claim his throne. Like the masses, they felt more sympathy to the prince that have no power to change the grizzly fate of the deceased.
But with the war declaration of the Imperium is on the horizon, it unnerved the elites and the politician that bootlick Acturus, as they pledge to supply as much war material for a siege.
Many of the Dominion generals, gloat that they will fight the Imperium on their own terms.
Except General Warfield that is still alive, formerly assisted them of taking the queen of blades out of the picture, he knew what is the forces he would clash with. They were fanatical and well discipline armies he fought with. And they were enough to crush any forces.
And many ignored his concerns as they had delusions of destroying the Imperium.
"This is going to be ugly." He muttered. He obey orders but he does care about his men.
The war is coming upon them.
And a somber note that they even detected large Zerg swarm is heading towards them.
Korhal was in a state of chaos. As the citizens that remains were dragged into evacuation bunkers due to the war declaration. As they heard that Alexander would hold no remorse to any civilian in the line of fire, might as well just lock the citizens that just burn down the city anyway.
It gave the Swarm no remorse of indiscriminate landing in the city.
The battle of korhal is on the horizon.
And after this, Humanity as a whole have a solid chance to defy the dark days ahead.
Their Civil war have come to a end, on whose leader would shape the destiny of the human race.
(A/n): happy belated Valentines day.
Or shall I say Happy belated birthday Kriegsmarine Bismark.
Celebrating Chinese new year.
Almost finished reading the public version of Epstein list. I never felt more disgusted that we live in a world of demons.
And the pro democracy call my nation as a filthy country? When liberalism destroyed your own and it's not even a nation at this point? Just economic zones? And demons in human skin walked among you free from persecution? It took hours for my translator to digest the files in my language.