"This planet's sins are grave.
Whether it is I or every one of you, we were born in sin, and it cannot be washed away. Only destruction can bring redemption!"
Outside a church in the upper spire of Hive Decius, a priest's corpse lay on the ground. A nobleman in a dark green robe wept bitterly.
With a hand stained by the priest's blood, he drew the sign of a beast's claw across his face. The rest of his followers did the same.
These upper-spire nobles no longer had their former courage or finery. Instead, they exuded a faint air of death.
They were waiting for destruction.
A smile appeared on the dark-robed noble's tear-streaked face, and his voice turned calm.
"It's here. That beast is here.
It has come to settle our sins, and to end the shame of our betrayal of the God-Emperor…"
Ten thousand years ago, in the great upheaval when the Emperor most needed aid, the ancestors of Vostroya's people had faltered. They had committed a profound disgrace, a profound sin.
Now, they were meeting the reckoning for that sin.
Whoosh—
A beam from a master-crafted las-machine gun struck the nobleman.
With no protection whatsoever, the energy that pierced his heart instantly charred his artificial heart.
Even as death arrived, he showed no fear. Instead, he looked at his attacker with gratitude.
"My soul returns to the Throne. Yours shall as well."
The next second, a bolt pistol shot blew his head apart like a watermelon.
The followers around him were splashed with blood and brain-matter.
Yet none of them were afraid. None screamed. They simply waited in silence for their final fate.
Since the end was inevitable, it was better to end now.
"A pack of cowardly traitors.
Execute every heretic and renegade on the spot, immediately!"
Captain Yabol of the Only Son Vostroyan Firstborn holstered his bolt pistol and issued the order in fury.
These nobles who had joined a heretical cult were a shame upon Vostroya, through and through.
The soldiers in red carapace armour raised their las-machine guns and raked every noble involved in the "Doomsday's Arrival" cult.
What was eerie was that there was no resistance at all. The nobles sang hymns, welcoming the fate of death.
"My lord, the priest was not murdered. He took his own life."
A scout stepped forward to report the results of the inspection, his expression grim. That meant this Ecclesiarchy church was also implicated in treasonous conduct.
That was not something easy to deal with.
"Purge the church!"
Yabol did not hesitate in the slightest. He did not fear Ecclesiarchy repercussions, because there was no need to fear them anymore.
At the captain's command, the Firstborn surged into the church, and a new round of slaughter began.
All cultists who preached doomsday and bowed to the Chaos beast would be judged.
There was no room for negotiation.
"My lord… does what we're doing have any meaning?"
The adjutant suddenly asked.
The instant he finished speaking, the hive-city lurched violently with a roaring tremor. Rubble rolled off the buildings, and a massive裂口 tore open across the plaza.
Corpses on the ground, along with unlucky soldiers, tumbled down amid screaming.
They fell hundreds of metres to the roofs of lower levels, becoming indistinct heaps of flesh.
Yabol seemed long accustomed to such things.
"What 'meaning' do you mean? Like those cultists, losing courage in fear, and betraying Vostroya?"
He shot the adjutant a vicious look.
"We will not retreat one step. This is the Emperor's world, and we will never surrender!"
That was what Grand Marshal Voshk had told Vostroya's Firstborn before the Defence of Nimbosa. Later, it became a maxim that people lived by.
"We will fight to the last moment, even if everything is beyond saving."
The captain added, his tone brimming with loyalty to the Emperor.
After the Firstborn finished purging the church, Yabol re-formed them and marched toward the next district.
Their footsteps were orderly. Their resolve absolute.
The adjutant thought of something and turned to look back.
Behind them, Vostroya's guardian—Saint Nadalia's statue—had already shattered into pieces during earlier tremors.
The broken head of the statue stared up at the sky, which was now webbed with cracks. Lava-fire from the Warp raged there in blazing sheets.
Filth poured and streamed down as well.
Farther away, smoke rose from one hive-ruin after another, swallowing the horizon.
Just as the cultists had said.
Vostroya, this pearl, was being driven into apocalypse under the attacks of the dreadful beast released by the gods. There was no way to undo it.
And they, all of Vostroya's Firstborn, would fight to the death, to repay the Emperor's forgiveness.
Under the ravages of that dreadful beast, the hive suffered earthquakes. With every violent tremor, countless buildings collapsed and were annihilated.
Billions upon billions died in the catastrophe. More districts were corrupted by Chaos, and the turmoil only grew worse.
Those who survived knelt amid the ruins, praying.
They prayed for the God-Emperor to grant His mercy, to save this world on the brink of shattering.
"We may not be destroyed…"
Yabol noticed the adjutant's behaviour and thought so.
According to a message from the upper spire, the Imperium's Savior would come to aid Vostroya.
He believed the Techtriarch Council would not lie, and that the Savior was said to be extraordinarily powerful.
Perhaps that Savior could deal with the dreadful beast, and allow this pitiable world—and the lives upon it—to survive.
…
Outside Hive Decius, at the outer high-wall defensive line.
A towering metal wall stood like a cliff. Multiple layers of void shields were raised. Mechanised macro-cannons glittered with cold light.
A slaughterous atmosphere spread through the line. This was the final defensive cordon, the only hope of the hundreds of billions of Vostroyans.
This sector-capital industrial world, closely tied to the Adeptus Mechanicus, had armed its defensive walls to the teeth.
And yet none of it gave the warriors any sense of safety.
"Emperor preserve us… I can't imagine what could possibly hurt that terrifying beast."
Regimental Commander Mako of the 13th Vostroyan Firstborn breathed harshly, trembling so badly he could barely keep hold of his auspex.
Just moments ago, he had witnessed a tragedy.
The Emperor's Angels' plan to intercept the enemy had failed.
The Benedictors Chapter was wiped out to the last man. Even the Chapter Master was torn apart by the dreadful beast's maw and swallowed in cruelty.
And that silver-white force of the Emperor's Angels that could wield psychic power was hunted down and exterminated as well.
The commander of that operation—an existence the warriors called a Grand Master—was seized and crushed to death by the dreadful beast.
Like crushing a bug.
"Doom draws near. Who, now, can stop that Warp-born power of destruction?!"
Mako could not fathom how the Imperium could defeat that Chaos beast released by an evil god to bring the end of days.
They had tried bombardment before, but every shell melted for no reason as it drew near.
Even when shells struck its body, they did no damage. The beast's daemonic form was like it had been cast from legendary auramite.
Apocalypse-class missile platforms had emptied nearly all their reserves, yet still could not halt the enemy's advance.
If the dreadful beast smashed this wall and entered the defensive line, it would be enough to corrupt the entire hive region.
That had already been proven.
The hives whose wall-lines were destroyed either fell into molten fire or were drowned in endless filth.
Everyone was corrupted. There was no chance of survival.
It was an extinction-level assault.
Mako was not afraid of death's arrival. It was an honour, a death on the battlefield returning one's soul to the Throne.
But he could not endure this despair and helplessness.
"Please remain calm. The Benedictors and the Grey Knights have bought the wall enough time."
A cold electronic voice sounded, with little emotion.
"Commander. Order the troops to draw the target into the designated zone. The Omnissiah's wisdom and wrath will drown all things."
At this, Mako turned to look.
Seven or eight metres away stood a massive multi-legged machine-construct, four to five metres tall.
This was the Archmagos.
As for the Archmagos's name, he did not know it. The names of senior Mechanicus members were too obscure, and often filled with binary symbols.
Even an ordinary tech-priest would feel dizzy just looking at them.
More striking still, the Archmagos's multi-legged mechanical body was almost fused into the wall's core machinery.
Behind him was a super-heavy mech-cannon hundreds of metres long, packed with gears and intricate structures—the wall's core main gun, its strongest firepower.
It was said that this super-heavy cannon could destroy warships in low orbit with a single shot.
After receiving the Archmagos's directive, Mako did not hesitate. He ordered the armoured force to execute the plan.
Even if that plan meant total annihilation.
That armoured force would either die under the dreadful beast's trampling, or die beneath the Archmagos's overwhelming fire-coverage.
"A necessary sacrifice."
The regimental commander took a deep breath and told himself so.
It was the wall's only chance to strike back. It had to succeed, or the entire hive would be destroyed.
To avoid destruction, any price was worth paying.
If Mako did not have to remain behind to command, he would fight alongside the other Firstborn, following the armoured force into battle.
His father and his eldest son were both in that armoured force, offering loyal service to the God-Emperor with honour.
That was what it meant to be Firstborn. Father and son fought side by side, while brothers, sisters, and cousins toiled in the manufactoria behind the lines, forging weapons for their kin.
That was also why Vostroya's weapon quality far surpassed most other regions of the Imperium.
The makers of those weapons understood that every lasgun, every cannon, every grenade might end up in the hands of their fathers and brothers.
In war, any negligence in a weapon—whether a jam or a misalignment—could cost the user their life.
So they had to give everything, delivering the finest weapons they could.
Commoner or noble, it was the same. Every Firstborn joined the war with honour.
Clang—
The great machine-bell tolled.
Arcs and sparks coiled around the Archmagos, and data streamed across his optic arrays.
"Ensure the target is guided into the designated position.
When the countdown of one hundred Terra-standard seconds reaches zero, this sacred machine device shall, in accordance with the supreme Machine God's will, unleash its power of annihilation."
As he spoke, the super-heavy mech-cannon—hundreds of metres long—shuddered, and began to gather energy.
The output of one large fusion plasma reactor after another fed into the hive's core main gun.
Many hive districts lost power as a result, causing more collapses and secondary casualties.
That was the price of firing.
Anchored to the hive's energy grid, the cannon could erupt with power far beyond ship-mounted batteries—enough to destroy any conceivable target.
Such a weapon was so rare that even within the Imperium there were few of its kind. Only forge worlds or critical industrial worlds possessed them.
Using a weapon designed for capital ships and fortresses against a single Chaos entity was, in every sense, unprecedented.
At this moment, Mako stopped paying attention to the mech-cannon and focused on directing the mechanised forces, guiding the dreadful beast toward the kill-zone.
On the auspex's blurred display, he could see horrifying slaughter.
Each stomp from the enemy destroyed a super-heavy tank.
Each swing of its giant axe shattered steel wall-fortifications.
Even the earth trembled.
Vostroya's proud armoured forces were, before that dreadful beast, like harmless toys.
Mako suppressed fear and rage alike, and issued his orders with precision.
He wanted to see the enemy's true appearance, but he never once succeeded.
Even with instrument support, all he could make out were warped giant hooves, a battle-axe made of human bones, and all manner of twisted limbs.
The only thing that came through clearly was a roar from the abyss.
The purity seal on the regimental commander's body began to burn, warning of imminent corruption.
The talisman gifted to him by the silver-white Emperor's Angels was about to fail. Even such sacred protection and steadfast will could scarcely resist that deep darkness.
From more than ten kilometres away, the dreadful beast was already exerting its influence upon him atop the wall.
"By the Emperor above, nothing can shake the purity and loyalty of Vostroya's Firstborn!"
Mako prayed in a low voice, forcing his mind to stay clear.
He had to endure more than the Firstborn on the battlefield. Otherwise, what face would he have left to meet those warriors?
In the auspex's indistinct image, he could see Firstborn suffering corrosive taint, mutant limbs sprouting from their bodies.
Yet they still carried out their orders. They still fired upon the dreadful beast.
Among them, Mako saw his father and his eldest son.
Those two Firstborn drove their super-heavy tank straight into the loathsome enemy.
The impact enraged the dreadful beast. The flames it spewed turned the tank into a sagging mass of molten metal, and the men inside fused into that iron slurry.
They had offered everything to the Holy Emperor, and had forever paid their sin-debt in full.
"Soon. It's almost there…"
The regimental commander felt his chest clog, as if someone had stuffed it with lead.
He clenched his fists, staring at the auspex.
The Firstborn's sacrifice had not been in vain.
The dreadful beast had entered the pre-planned zone.
It would face Vostroya's wrath!
Ding ding ding—
Suddenly, crisp metallic chimes rang out—the pocket watch on Mako's person, sounding its alarm.
"Time!"
He whipped his head toward the super-heavy mech-cannon, snapping out of his extreme focus.
Only now did he truly feel the heat in the air, the stinging scent of ozone flooding his nostrils.
The plasma energy spilling from the cannon scorched and broke down the surrounding air, burning even his exposed skin.
That dazzling plasma orb almost blinded him outright.
"Praise the Omnissiah!"
The Archmagos stood in the heat, his mechanical components turning red-hot.
Yet he still intoned an impassioned binary hymn, ever more fervent.
At the instant the hymn reached its crescendo—
Boom!!!
The high wall shook violently, and the plasma beam poured forth.
"Die, evil abomination!"
Mako's heart surged with boundless hatred and rage.
With wounded eyes, he locked on to the dreadful beast—the culprit that had cast Vostroya into apocalypse.
He wanted, more than anything, for it to be cast into hell by the Mechanicus's strike, to become nothing but char in the inferno!
ROAR!!!!!
A pain-wracked howl shook the sky.
The superheated plasma beam engulfed the zone where the dreadful beast stood—along with the armoured force within it.
(End of Chapter)
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