Feidlimid Constans's Story

The shockwave. A quake controlled by Tiff -- through force of desperate will but yet controlled. Many contingencies remained inside Elysium's design but none could account a titanic shockwave. In seconds the force heaved a mild interruption of meat off her feet. Any attempt to shield her pounded into billions of shards, leaving her defenseless. Even floating Jinhai driven at speed to hurl ichor from between layers of rubble. Wen are things built to take bludgeoning forces but often things they passed through not so. Armored resilient creatures they pound through vehicles battering rams with crushing wakes. Dispassionate ichor they were Jinhai in puddles of mass made a note of Wens' locations. They'd need parts to rekindle Mankind.

Neither the WCA immune with debris and bodies mounting in the shower of death. Suffering fell from the sky like a hail of guillotines. Glass glints from every hiding spot as molten adamantium dusted sharp spares no santuaries. The force cracks even reinforced buildings of Wing City exploding glass grenades. No housing of souls left whole under that sharp shining storm. Even the resilient rescueras left like the buildings they shelter inside of.

Among a gale seeking blood one being perceives those moments of death's momentum. Where every last shard tore asunder from frames to gut the helpless. that pulse which throws free a master of wind from his place in the sky. Captain Runemold carried along with ragged gleaming scythes to batter the Jinn. Each floor with well-trained people come with him slaughtered like helpless citizens. Still his desperate eyes try to shape wind with forceful wrath away from WCA vehicles. Hard armor could survive a deadly assault from the unmerciful forces of nature. It had to cover them or more so he needed it to. Forced to watch the dutiful clutch innocents as a desperate shield of their bodies. Shrapnel, ignorant of mercy, pounds red geysers through their jetpacks. Comets of blood continued underneath them unabated.

Armor around the vehicles does manage the worst of the blows by their Captain's effort. Shrapnel skitters pale furrows into armor instead of gouts of huddling colors inside. Though lesser vehicles suffer catastrophic harm of forces that hurl them as toy cars. Even below the street issues a groan from a sheltered vehicle, Maxiumus. Thereby Dwyn also shoulders the stress of a pressure wave rocketing through earth. The mutable body flattens to absorb the stress with great pain on Dwyn's part. Most hardened psi-stone under the carapace shatters trying to absorb that force. Even that sheltered armor is not immune.

The quake stopped, if not for resonant shockwaves people could have stood up. Sheer oscillation in a quake this size liquifacts much of the underlayment. Many find themselves swallowed up in the dirt suffocating as a wall beneath them gave way. Some weren't as lucky as Dwyn to have a sturdy housing to provide air to breathe. Much of the buildings that hadn't succumbed found themselves unbalanced. The quake abated as dirt began to solidify the earth not yet enough to save the tallest. A building leaned one stable moment too far, then cracked once. Its spine broken a shadow of the shockwave hurls itself downward to carve earthen graves.

At first Tiff makes one happy breath until the power having nowhere to release cracks her shadow as well. Pent up amounts of critical raw energy that hit her entire body far more than one human soul can contain.

This is how Elysium killed if power was not released as growth upon growth until the person succumbs. This process known by the few experts in the field as Arcanus Overload. That was the danger and why Elysium was such a cruel drug. It is why it affected magic users wherever their power came from. It's essential driver removed all mental and physical restraints abilities had. With nothing to prevent power overwhelming the user or worse. It could also drive one to permanent brain damage by sheer amounts of knowledge they receive all at once. This is why to become a great mage one had to study long and hard along years not minutes or seconds. Power unrestrained all at once was always going to be dangerous. Used in conjunction with Elysium it was a death sentence of the highest order. Even intel caste gardeners in the city used to noxious drugs and chemicals were yet affected. Even they hadn't produced a true antidote. In their metabolism a mere adaption to survive it. This was after several had detonated verdigris lichen over several buildings.

Wen dispersed through the crowd looking for healthy creatures suitable to become conduits. Those in a state of panic would do little to bond with a Wen. Though the Wen limit themselves by this in their efforts knew well enough who would survive to bond. The Jinhai inside knowing full well the humankind at the center of a ley node would not survive. They had little time. Particular among the screaming masses were those with panic but direction, focus. Though Jinhai provided an animating force the Wen's motivations remained primal at best. It locked onto the first worker standing tall among others and looking up not in fear but duty.

Veronica Perlo looked into the eyes of their doom focused on radioing to her commander. As well as the massive destroyer hovering over the city. Unconcerned and looking the wrong direction to see the rumbling quadruped thumping closer. The last thud planted two huge clawed feet into shaking earth underneath her. Its chest split open into a technicolor throat a sarcophagous still undamaged. This human shaped socket a thing built to digest every potential a conduit could be. It launched into the air with an agile leap the chest-maw pounding closed over a flitting bug. The ferromass and psi-stone platemail chest hauled her out of the air into darkness.

A painful drag through ruined streets Crane felt a second echo as a shockwave rams her into pavement. Stumbling, for the moment, deaf as a stone with blood clouding her vision. Using her sword as a walking stick she kept her feet but only so long. Something was wrong. She dragged herself through a ruined storefront. Then she felt it. Heard it actually, energy was building up.

Uh oh...

Unfortunately this left innocent Tiff in poor state that distended even immutable souls. Overwhelming power grew to colossal levels that it squirmed veins below her aura. The soul attempted with futility to contain the immense forces flowing through her. Sick cracks formed in mind, soul, and body as black veins distorted her aura. Void now stretched a harsh gulf into a soul to contain a new ley node the whole of nature wished to cram itself inside.

As conduits for the will her limbs suffered most veins turgid and flesh bulging. In them screams of power desiring release forced from her soul. Even if someone tried to meet the onrush a world venting through the unfit made it impossible. The sheer force required in magic to swim upstream. All could only watch in horror as nature ruined a lithe girl into a vessel of grotesque power. Screaming, crying, begging, she wept as nature forced into her all that blood on stone created. Ranges of tragic emotions flooded a face incapable of expressing the variety. Even if the muscles there weren't swollen and useless to unrecognizable humanity.

It felt like hours, but it was seconds... nature waited for no one even as time had all the moments there ever were. An eternity needed for such a small human mind to direct such force. Nature's simple directness took as many moments of pain in her as required. Every slow moment perfect and acute even as individual muscle fibers tore. New canyons eroded in dusky flesh terrain from the rivers of pain unleashed. Veins poured out as much suffering as they could as new splits opened with suffering as their herald.

Though nature and stone knew no sense of limit the ley node they found themselves inside must suffer. She bulged distended like a growing caldera before the immortal soul gave way. Death of the immaterial poured out like the dark reflection of a fire bomb. Muscles expand to horrid lengths as flesh lost all regulation in the face of raw creative power. Veins fail to direct life and turn instead to geysers as flesh in some twisted nuclear wasteland. All while injected to her the fear of death, abject horror, and agony flooding her mind. All those contribute that watch precious ones die if not spread as red stains across stone.



Like the supervolcano she spawned her body musters one last heave. Flesh and soul gave their last then kicked her into the deeper dark few ever return from. Admantite as the bones and organs of an elder mountain rain down as the viscera on its way out of her body to meet them. Horrific smells thrown into a city redolent only to death itself thick between ash floating in a bloodied sky. Those that witness it vomit as the only sane response the mind had left to pour those images free. Others turn away to made sign of a cross or other symbols. As if there were a Diety here that chose to help and did not instead made silence.

This was not how people desired the outcome let alone those that knew of the girl. Both wanted an end of this some with her survival but few that wished for this aftermath. That the one through which this was wrought now but bloody, messy, stains on buildings and the floor. Rivulets of blood everywhere as if the ground had to suffer the cries once contained in her body. Some even added tears of their own the violence and sorrow so vented in that blood a soul's final cry.

So preoccupied by the death people did not see the pulsating globe left behind. Crackling purple energy of shocks flying out in violent gouts as it rose from the remains of Tiff.

Ten feet tall clad in white psistone a version of Veronica writ large widened ceramic eyes in horror. A soul rekindled screamed through the pale form, "IT'S GOING TO BLOW!"

The clone closest to Tiffany blew back after her shield shatters. Her eyes flew wide. A crack sounded throughout the area as her crystal composition cracked. Her right arm fell off, and her form had fracture lines throughout it. The adaptive clone had only wove the last part of the finished seal, but it had been too late. Now the magical violence leaves her to attempt to reform.

The other 4 Crystal Release clones fair better. The clone with the most chakra blows back, but is able to reform quick enough. One of the others took on attributes of an Earth Shadow Clone. Gathering up the ground around her to snake through her body. It brought that clone back together. Third and fourth clones activate their armor to survive those brutal onslaughts that assault them.

Mizuno's strongest clone groans with a voice that shakes, her eyes opening. The dim light rushes in, particles of debris and ash floating in the air before her, almost small enough and in quantity to look like smoke. Still, Something felt... wrong.

Her body sprawled out with limbs twisted in a painful manner. Blinking to gather her thoughts now knew her reformation hadn't come along with a rearrangement of limbs. Grunts follow the sound of bones cracking heard as she twisted her head back into position. 'Bones' move beneath her skin like rigid serpents. Her arms twisting around as if they lack support snapping roughly back into place.

"Ow." She murmured, rising up, and standing. Her dojutsu, with its 360 degree vision and special attributes, could see the third shockwave coming. The massive orb behind her was the most surprising thing. Mizuno turned in Tiff's last mount of power, staring at the orb, now seeing the energy that was inside of the girl. Disrupted by pure wild magic, the clones shatter into crystal the chakra returning to the primary body far away in a deep forest.

Poor Tiff broke apart from sheer pent up injury wrought by pent up magic yet cause carnage with that distended charnel. Some parts of her, namely the feet and rib cage, slung hard and far. They slam into Crane sending the woman to the still shaking ground. Turning aside Crane spat up blood from the hit and strength of its power. Pushing herself to her feet she felt the next shockwave echo coming... fast. At least until a large creature pounded its way out of a building and shook off the stone.

The Wen, thrown free by the shockwave, still executed its final order. Stand over the human and open for her. Crane, the specific one in question, saw it trundled over to the injured woman. The stocky Wen anchored itself to the earth violent violet energy behind it ignored. The Wen's chest split open once more revealing the iridescent humanoid housing inside.

Poor Tiff broke apart from sheer pent up injury wrought by pent up magic yet cause carnage with that distended charnel. Some parts of her, namely the feet and rib cage, slung hard and far. They slam into Crane sending the woman to the still shaking ground. Turning aside Crane spat up blood from the hit and strength of its power. Pushing herself to her feet she felt the next shockwave echo coming... fast. At least until a large creature pounded its way out of a building and shook off the stone.

The Wen, thrown free by the shockwave, still executed its final order. Stand over the human and open for her. Crane, the specific one in question, saw it trundled over to the injured woman. The stocky Wen anchored itself to the earth violent violet energy behind it ignored. The Wen's chest split open once more revealing the iridescent humanoid housing inside.

As Dorn and his marines stumbled out of the ruined buildings, Dorn himself receives vital feedback from his newfound psychic mind. Not only did he feel the rampancy of wild magic but knew that there would be many more explosions following it. Hand raised to his helmet but a bit scratched from the impact he contacted Imperial Guard command in the city. "Commissar come in, this is Rogal Dorn of the Imperial Fists. Order all your men and sound the evacuation. Get civilians and personal to nearby teleported homers where my ship can revive them. Those who can not send them to your bunker complexes underground. It will still be dangerous though a small chance is better than no chance at all. Emperor protect us." Dorn spoke into his combed which sent a Vox to the Commissar in charge.

Dorn felt the presence of the witch disappear, however, which left him to prepare to ride the echoes. Dangerous indeed without any structure to shelter them. "Brothers, hunker down. We have to hold strong against nature itself..." The marines soon knelt down stabbing a knife into the ground in silent kneeling prayer to the God Emperor. Dorn himself did the same. He stabbed his chainsword into the ground and knelt down in prayer.

Back at Imperial command, Commissar Ciaphas Cain had received the Vox from Rogal Dorn. Jen in return sent a world wide Imperial signal. "Attention all citizens and soldiers, this is Commissar Ciaphas Cain of the Imperium. This is not a drill, head to a designated Teliporter Homer if possible. If not head to a local guardsman outpost and head underground. This is not a drill, message repeat." The Commissar put the message on loop and sounded the sirens. Once done he leapt over of his chair where his personal aid Gunner Jurgen held open an underground hatch. It lead to the underground part of the command Center. As Cain jumped in his nose already caught his aid stepping down with him along with the closing of the hatch. Both descended down the ladder. Being stuck with surgeon was not the most pleasant experience for him, but if was a far cry from ending up dead.

Out on the streets, Guardsman motioned for civilians to evacuation zones. They had precious seconds yet they would use every last second necessary to get as many people to safety. "Everyone keep orderly! Panicking will only kill you and everyone around you! Once inside keep down and pray to the Emperor if possible." Those nearby bunkers ushered in civilians. It could have been their tomb, or would have saved them. A chance is what everyone wanted. Three hulking guardsmen crammed inside Wen gave those chances in by carrying the injured in disabled vehicles. As tall as space marines they were now pilots of things that could suffer a great deal of punishment.

For some centers, a Teliporter Homer began to beam up people aboard the strike cruiser 'Fist Of Dorn'. Either there or any other vessel prepared in orbit to receive civilians and armed personnel. Time was running short. Every life saved was another person not caught in the eventual apocalypse on the planet. Those unable to find safety, the only thing offered to them was a small prayer..."Emperor preserve us all." Many Guardsman muttered this as they were still outside safety trying to keep civilians moving.

Kinara could feel a tremendous strain in the Force around her. Something a terrible wrongness is going on in the city beneath. Yet, receiving confirmation of turbolaser use to clear debris for evacuation, she gave the order. The Seven Venator Class Star Destroyers above the city open fire on designated targets. Entire buildings vaporize by super-heated plasma forming the path to the evac zone. There gunships and transports hovered waiting for the civilians who could climb the rope ladders to do so.

The tension that swells below reached toward a climax, and the Jedi blinked, gasping before slamming her fist onto the comms. "All hands, brace!" she yelled. The droids she used to pilot her ships and transports were not the most durable of things. They had a bad habit of breaking down on the stupidest things. Still, on proper warning, they could survive even the blast of a large nuclear bomb if well covered and ready. Kinara herself grabs onto a stabilizing bar on the bridge and held on tight. Tiff's body shook it as she let out the power that so wanted such desperate escape.

The Shockwave a thing of true scale made even the entirety of the Obsidian Eagle give a drunken lurch to one side. As if she'd taken a ram by a smaller ship. The nose of the Star-Destroyer points upwards the whole thing pushed backwards a good fifty-plus meters. Finally stabilizing the shields shimmer with a sluggish recharge of density from the blast.

Kinara stood, knocked over from her standing position and onto the floor of the bridge. "Status report!" she yelled. All systems were green but the shields had taken a big hit. They weren't at full power, and as such were near a wiped out black. Dropships though while scattered by the blast were luckily undamaged by it. They return to their positions to help evacuate citizens. The Venators also affected, if only a tad, shook by gentle rocking by the force of the blast. They pause for a moment from new debris and rubble. The path blocked of the civilians trying to escape on the gunships. Blasting returned in efforts to create another, wider new path. One smooth enough for Gunships and Transports to actually be able to land. Land they did, quick to fill up with civilians before closing. They then took off for sanctuary in the Obsidian Eagle and her main hangar bay. By now Kinara was booting up every Medical Droid she could get her hands on. She assisted every facility they had in every way she could.



Resonant arcane power gone to a swollen riot of wild magic continued to grow in power. The land itself incited to madness by a drug of singular evil. It fuels growth to sizes of a church dome and larger still. Energies loosed of the many colors the ley dance across the strange magical globe of power. All in search of any avenue of release. The ground under it creaks under strange and ineffable magics pressing with an inexpressible weight when....

Everything simply stopped......

Then it happened. The supervolcano even if distant issued a third echo. The pushing inviolable tide trampling over and through trees in its wake and speed. As it neared Wing City time seemed to slow to a crawl and silence reigned. Sounds of horrifying volume slam into the pent up dome of wild Elysium fueled magic. Such force meeting the dome sent a sound from the explosion at first nothing but a consonant tone. Then the avenue of creation inserted forced arcane creation all at once. Wild magic sparked once the bolt before thunder of bright ethereal bluish pink. Then massive energies pent up in that globe thundered at the air like a sonic boom.

As quick as the sonic boom rocked the skulls of everything with first, second, or third eyes it exploded. With such power everything within clear sight sears by magic into stone. All small things thrown aside like so much cinders and ash. Sheer force discordant magic uncontrolled topples buildings, rips up streets, and flung cars into the air. Even brief magical tornadoes that drill themselves into the ground before dying out. Somewhere near the mountain a black flame sucks up into the ley and murdered the core of those wild storms.

It took such inconceivable forces of titanic wild energy to knock Dorn and his remaining Marine brothers flat on their asses due to sheer energy pent up in the magic. It was as if a sun had exploded in the dead center of the pent up wild magic. It even pushed the bombastic leader of the WCA like a leaf before the wind. The shockwave a Jinn could weather but the sheer burning rage in wild magic cleared away any hint of clouds. A Jinn forged from man returned to what he once was. The riot of power destabilizing an ascended form returning him to humankind. The Jinhai watched and waited behind walls strong enough to take the blow of wild magic. They could tell the dangers of such an event and took cover. The leader pounded out of the sky yet in the sights of Jinhai. Each waits to pour through the riotous air to save him from impact.

Which, in a way, it was a simple thing in that of a wild storm.

Coupled with inital shockwaves of the supervolcano's third echo the wild magic's explosion increases thirty fold. Magic pours from a gaping wound cut in the arteries of Terra's body. Released from the prison of concordant stability the planet's lifeblood rushed away with a felon's fervor. It burned through and inside of everything in its path.

Everything, and everyone.

As the Wen opened up next to her but said nothing Crane looked at it confused. What the? Struggling back to her feet in that exact second might prove to be her undoing. So was the riot of energy unleashed at that exact second. Far behind her or even the Wen and a cadre of helpful souls an explosion flares. So strong that it forces her from earth with the sheer heat of the magic alone. Hurled with great rage along with the Wen through calamitous air. They pound, Crane first, dead straight through steel and cement walls a meter thick a hundreds of meters away.

Smashed through the wall into a safe the force sees no interruption to its strident punch. The strike throws them with ease out the other side while the Wen slammed into the opposing wall. Through the one its reinforced hindquarters only got most of the way through the second wall. The wash of the pent up wild magic and third echo of the shockwave corked behind it to wash past them. Crane landed back in the ruined street, where she landed reformed into broken dirt of a road. The Wen implored help looking at her through the wall like a bulldog unable to get its butt through a doggie door. It a plaintive whine much like a canine would as limited from speech as it was.

The Energies outisde the ship ran wild over shields struggling to recharge. Gentle shakes push the ship now and then but still Refugees and civilians poured in by the hundreds. Each dropship and gunship arrived and left working over time. Kinara turned towards the source of the energy and narrowed her eyes. She could feel it. The Force calls to her through that fissure through which Magic Energy poured out. It was a focal point not only magical energies but also for the Force.

Quick moments led her to a Meditation Chamber on the lower decks of the Obsidian Eagle. She sat upon the comfortable padded pedestal legs crossed and eyes closed. Quick to let herself go she fell into the embrace of the Force. Through her eyes the eyes the world seen by the eyes of the Living Force. She was able to get close to the nexus without harming herself and feel its unbridled, untapped power. This needed to soothing, like a crying child.

Taking in a deep breath she looks deeper a measured effort began a, albeit steady, affect the force from which the Magic poured forth. Altering the flow of the very Force in the area. Sweat beads all across her body as she did this; but she didn't meditate for ten hours a day multiple times per week for nothing. She had to do this. Those with even the slightest connection to the Force would be able to sense her power. It radiates like a healing spring from the Obsidian Eagle as she meditated. The Jedi Ritual, as she would soon take to calling it, would be something she taught only to those with the patience. Those that could dedicate themselves to such rigorous meditation practices.

Her hair and even clothes began to shift and rise as she continued her work. While the change wasn't drastic it shored enough to help protect some of the weaker people around the nexus. At least to allow them to get to a safer distance, where they too could evacuate or find their own way out. Every life saved today was a win for Kinara. The sheer force of the magic, which shook and pushed many away, ebbs. Part of what was making it so violent was beginning to subside: A well-spring of Force Energy, one that Jedi and Sith alike could tap into. Kinara let out a grunt and gritted her teeth as she strained. Wrestling with it and continuing with patience to gain control over said wellspring. She lessened the effect it had on the rest of the magical energy spewing forth causing so much damage.

The effects of Kinara's efforts felt most acute on the Obsidian Eagle herself. Shaking that made many rescued civilians sick had ceased. Or had at least become so minuscule that they were not a bother to them any longer. This also aided Kinara as the vibrations threatened to interrupt her meditation. Shields began to trickle recharges again as the air around the ship shimmered. Systems strained as they attempted to get back to one hundred percent.

A man such as Ean Falcor shows only determined calm as he walks through chaotic madness in explosions and energy rushing past. Beyond seeing a slight distance in front of him it was as if there was a wall through which nothing could pass. Every step he took took him closer to the center of the blast from where the onrushing energies issued. An inexorable march though harsh and overpowering forces that contend against him. An iron willed determinator forges an insurmountable barrier as he strode through a wrathful planet's surface. Nothing can deny him from his goal at this point so incensed at once again having been too late.

In the temporary respite between aftershocks Jinhai began shuffling out of buildings. Black ichor squirmed out from between walls and through rubble. Smoky ichor then formed into small humanoid bodies to regain agency. Each ran through holes and flow through rubble to pull out chunks what was once humankind. Indiscriminate and unemphatic in their work some weaved psimass threads among cries of pain. Bags within which to ensconce bleeding masses. Others shap psistone cases to contain the broken bodies with thrones of mankind still yet undamaged. Each in consideration to be rekindled.

Past all this carried the body of Michael Runemold. Sacks of legs and arms bearing the telltale WCA mark soiled crimson. Atop shoulders crushed by rubble or severed by glass. A finer bag containing digits or bits of hand. The gleaming engagement ring of a doctor that at a cusp to start the next journey of their life. All but charnel meat sorted and organized by creatures with four grey holes for eyes. Each moves quick but with neither haste nor regard for fading life. Something in the quiet too deep told him their hands had him as well. His eyes couldn't move from the vacant stare even if they were able assuming his frame could still want to. There was but a burning cold in his chest like hoarfrost climbing through his veins. It held him down like a leaden weight anchoring his memories and soul to bloodied ground.

Earlier, diligent creatures waited for the pulse of wild magic to pass. They retrieve Runemold from falling to his doom as silent floating worms that dart from shattered buildings. Only to place him next to the screaming mouths and dead eyes of his own rescuers. They were easy to identify because of the similar armor. Some pale eyes pointed at Runemold had too much a hopeless vacancy the throne of mankind too ruinous. The heads moved into a pile unfit for rekindling and used for parts. Like so much rotten meat many eyes and skull parts dismantled with agile blades from dark-gloved fingers. Meat puzzles to reassembled by agile-fingered cloaked humanoids.

Runemold raged though his mouth didn't want to comply. The Wing City Angels came here so this didn't have to happen! Then he heard something break the silence with a thunderous crack from above like the voice of the sky. The thump of the heart in his own chest came with a tingling screams in all muscles. As well as one forceful lament that burned out from his lungs on its own. These 'Jinhai' denied him the peace of death he so much deserved for his failure to protect his own. As he turned his eyes upward both accusing and remorseful he could see they didn't understand the tears in his eyes. Repairing the fresh dead was their purpose as much as his was to prevent them from becoming such. The grey remorseless glow unmoved by all that death much less his sorrow.

A plain dusty tongue dry of all emotion came from above, "Return to the Living Emperor, Essencekind. Your task is not yet done."

Runemold sat up though every muscle protested at the true peace so recently denied. Grey stitches of airy material now held his wounds together. It took everything in him to look at his comrades bleeding beside him. He found himself in the center of row after row in a throng of ruined dreams and dead eyes. That same glinted ring caught his grieving eye a row ahead of him from another staring in horror at it. Two rings glinted at her from each hand. The Jinhai used the arm from her fiancee to rebuild her crushed appendage. The widow could only stare at them and weep.

As Crane looked towards the Wen stuck in the vault she half smiled. The motion drips blood into her right eye cleared away with a bloodied hand before going to the Wen. The poor thing was stuck. She noticed then the slithering remains of a Jinhai that tried to heal her. A tentative hand went to her sternum where Dorn had rammed his powersword through her. Not feeling any injury as even her clothing was rewoven. She dragged herself over to the Wen, the poor thing whined like a pup. It looked like a bulldog someone whacked in the face thirty or forty times with a sledge hammer to be honest.

Crane hadn't a terrible fondness of dogs, or cats, as she preferred birds for some reason. Her father had a parrot and beautiful Blue Makaw too. Yet she stood before the Wen within arms reach as the third shockwave hit her. By that point she'd taken one of the Wens paws in her slender hands and started pulling. Parts of the building above started to collapse onto them. Somehow the bits of disturbance shy away from hitting them. She first tried pulling the Wen by its two front paws, straining her back as she pulled to no avail.

A gentle touch of Crane's hand set the Wens paws back on the broken pavement. She sighed and took a deep breath, she saw then what she had blasted through. Sheer steel walls, insulated by a meter of concrete and rebar, with a sheer steel wall on the INSIDE of the vault as well. Metal and earth combined to hold something together which she blasted clean through. But a larger Wen did not.

Crane took a deep breath and nodded at the task. Stepping up to what held the Wen in place she put her hands to the steel that it shied back from her touch. Quick with her Spirit Pearls form for a moment around her and the Wen she began to part the steel and cement wall. The bank vault peeling away so the Wen could get free. With a sudden crack of power the bank vault wall crumbled from her touch and she sprang back as the Wen crawls free. The battered woman had little energy left. Now a time for blacking out the Wen was by her side ready to scoop her within for safety. The iridescent lining nothing but stars reflecting the fading sky of her mind. The Wen pulled her in though she felt little if any pain from joining with it. Now serving as a newfound brain it now carried that left it with one thing on its mind. Get to safety with all haste.

The Wen's surface perturbed and cracked as it adapted to the rider. As it lopes away at speeds a ton creature ought not be able thick white feather-shaped layers appear. A beak extrudes out of its forehead and large round eyes appear. An owlbear pounds across the landscape and through obstacles heading away. Away to a destination nameless to the Wen but known to its new mind.

Rubble...

Destruction...

Death....

These three things were all to common for the Imperiums soldiers. More importantly the group of superhuman soldiers known as space marines. The volcano sent out an explosion, pent up with magic causing the marines to fall flat on the ground. Their weapon all that kept them from flying. Like a sun that exploded, buildings crumbled as were blown away like dust. The witch had exploded as well covering the area with streaks of crimson. Most people would imagine the insanity the group of marines were doing. Using their weapons to hunker down out in the open while this apocalyptic event was going on was suicide...

Well, they were not insane. They were only highly fanatical and devoted to their faith. The marines held on to their weapons, not thrown away by the blast. They held on to their blades as if the Emperor himself was holding their hands at this very moment and letting go would damn them to the warp for all eternity. They refused to let nature do as it wished, they slowly got back up, armor chipped and paint now scratched off.

The marines would resume a kneeling stance once again, more worn than before. They did not utter any words, nor any meaningless thoughts. They continued to pray to the God Emperor for his protection against the oncoming destruction. They did not budge from their spot, many others were already finding areas to fall back to, even signs of shelter...but not these men...These men of faith did not give one step, for one step would be all it took to show a sign of weakness...

Guardsman all across the city hunkered down. Inside many bunkers they prayed feverously, some civilians converted to the Imperial Cult also joined in prayer. The third echo soon resonated across the city, multiple bunkers were snuffed out in an instant. Crushed under the wave of power and they died with their prayers on their lips for the Emperor to finnaly recive them on their death.

Other bunkers held on, either by a stroke of luck or the Emperor himself had a hand in it...they would never know personally. But the Guardsman only saw this as a blessing from the Emperor himself. Imperial outposts took the blast, multiple sections came crashing down in both concrete and steel. The occupants inside remained sheltered underground, the highly structured building providing more than just decoration. Statues of the Emperor helf the ceiling as massive well built cathedral like walls held strong.

The Emperor himself looked at this...sight...a mixture of rage...sorrow...filled his heart. Just like many billions of people before, he watched as more of humanity began to pass away...The best he offered them was solace within him, a final end to their endless battle and suffering instead of being taken by the maws of Chaos which no doubt lurked nearby to take full advantage of this disaster. He would not let them take a single soul as long as he was there...they may die here, but he would be damned if they would suffer any longer in the afterlife...

There was fundamental laws or guidelines a deity must abide for if they were breached it could tip the balance in one or two favours. That was extremely wrong in terms of this understanding. The one who acts of course, knew this, but lifetimes of seeing her people suffer through tribulation after tribulation, war, battles, supernatural scourges, unholy terrors and whatever else was flung into the Pandora's Box of Terra. Yes, much had happened, but even Gods have a breaking point. This was Gaia's.

Appearing in a bright green beam of light which graced the ground. Under it grew vibrant flora. A woman clad in clothes made of her greenery that seemed to fit well despite the apparent sense in them. She had a Motherly and comely figure, with warm gentle eyes that resonated with compassion like no other. She stood and looked at the devastation and her heart sunk. If she did this one act, it would mean she lose her mortal form for good and never be allowed to interfere again.

That of course, was okay to her.

Nonetheless, she had her reasons for doing this, one can somewhat stand back if war takes place or great calamities, but this, they could not be expected to fight and all because of the dark malign heart of one man. It was senseless and she would not stand. Gazing at the carnage, she had to approach this is in a way the other Gods would not undo. If she revived all, it would tip Entropy and force retribution of the highest order. These were outcomes, outcomes that would not be at all desirable.

Maybe, it could be argued she was too close to humanity as a whole? It could well be said, but when she was the spirit and personification of this world, there had to be consequences. There had to be, she had no doubt of this as she stood surveying the death, watching screaming people cowering. There had to be consequences...

With that said, this was the end result.

If the past cannot be spared the pain and anguish, then the future must be spared.

A massive magical and natural energy flowed from her, as the first effect would be, strange. The one called Tiff found herself alive yet unconscious. People would gaze in shock as the blood splatters caused by her death, vanished into nothing, leaving her now completely living.

As the energy flowed further out, the Wen would find themselves gaining knowledge of human anatomy and how to treat them, no longer the confused fumblings but now instead medical knowledge of most hospitals and doctors.

Everyone could see this woman, as she appeared to be doing something amazing.

All over Wing City shocks of a kind nature rang out in joyous amplified rhapsody. For everyone under the age of eighteen who had died for whatever reason, suddenly were conscious or whole again, merely laying unconscious. Even those taken by the shadows found themselves being dragged free of this corruption.

The acclaim rang out loud, miracles? How else to explain it.

Her true purpose for being here, was to survey the birth of a new God, but that was yet to come and she had already played her hand too much.

Watching and hearing the loud rapture that rang forth from all areas of Wing City, Gaia felt the happiness flood her as she finally approached one younger Guardsman and spoke firmly, "This is a mercy of a God. This is compassion. This is understanding. I care not for your philosophies or twisted ideologies. You attacked an innocent without understanding what was truly wrong. I am not wrathful nor cruel, so I won't follow your example, just tell your Emperor, tell him Gaia's actions come only as a cost for her. Whatever you decide, the future has been saved. May the past laid buried forever."

With that the clanging and crashing rang in her head, now she had to face her judge and jury. Now was time to answer for how much she had tipped the balance with a simple act of saving all the children of Wing City. Now was time to face her reckoning.

Vanishing completely, quiet now settled on the shock of what had taken place.

(OOC Note: Gaia only appears in first rounds of posts, after that she is gone. That should give everyone time to react.)

Forbidden touch

Jinhai popped out of a building as the pulse of an Aetherkind lit up in the city. The two eyes of smaller Jinhai merge into larger each carrying bags of mankind but now with each hand. They walk up to the creature as all sport a charging green draconic spilling out of their form. Bolts of discordance designed to hurt all Aetherkind by unraveling the connections to their power not merely Demonkind. The Jinhai did not share the rapturous cry let free by some of the humankind theirs was a grey flare of distaste enforced by Dicta.

They spoke the Fallen Emperor's word in unison, "Only the Living Emperor of Humankind shall alter the forces of this plane not the insensible vulgarities of Aetherkind."

Others scattered to uptake the packages left behind by Jinhai now set to the interests of combat. More charnel quickly arriving to sort into ordered square piles. Several Jinhai as worms floated atop the piles searching for limbs suitable for affixing to thrones of mind. They were a black hole in the face of nature magic disbonded to conventional deific magic as they were. The wave of magic rolled over them vanishing parts from some of their projects many of them living. Jinhai raced over to screaming rekindled now missing tendons or bones with new parts to replace them. The grey glows as they rebuilt body parts into the patterns of their target came fast and loud from the charnel pile.

Jinhai inside the Wen that receive knowledge from aetherkind with great suspicion. They quickly isolate the pieces of knowledge in a separate place within the giant library that served as the well of knowledge for Jinhai. While practical creatures knowledge that arrived from Aetherkind was a thing that often did not honor the Living Emperor. Jinhai poured over the the knowledge slowly purging it of any references that lead to Aetherkind. The Jinhai slowly became more efficient at keeping living Humankind alive as well as those that were not members as they would not rekindle anything not of Humankind. Still, for the moment, only just so while purging went on.

The Unburied

Dwyn pushed at the hole in the underworks he'd found himself piledrived into. With the passing of some strange energy Maximus now appeared to be repairing his bruised body through interior systems. This was even through the conjoined control sphere's medical repairs were minor at best. Dialogs even spat out repairs going on to the people still stored in its stasis bank. Dwyn needed to get topside rapidly and couldn't wait for Maximus to finish healing its occupants before tending to itself. The heavy fist used its strength at the clench of Dwyn's own. The arm pounded into a reinforced ceiling shattering the roof of an underground tunnel he'd impacted. The whole of it crashes down atop Maximus though now on his feet Dwyn could unshoulder left down an infrastructure tunnel. Thumping down the corridor he started hoofing it to the nearest exit point in his mapping systems.

A call went out to Ean Falcor's ship, "I got pounded into the underlayer! I'm still trying to make my way back up!"

The Cobalt Glaive
At first there was only silence throughout the ship, as the crew were effected by Gaia. But when it passed, a noiser beehive you would never find. Dozens of landing craft, somewhat shaped like whales with their large, long bodies, short wings, and tails, were launched and sent to the ground, each one carrying fifty troops, and another dozen medical personnel. The troops, with their combat armor augmenting their strength, worked together to clear the rubble and find anyone who might have been buried yet still alive, while the medical personnel were there save those that they could, and ease the passing of those that couldn't.

More troops were situated on floating platforms that hovered over the city. Here were those people they saved gathered, and there they awaited the drop ships and transports from the Jedi and Imperium. Each platform held about fifty to seventy five people, and there were dozens of them floating about. Clouds they were called, and so they were, clouds on which the disheveled and battered citizens waited in anxious peace.

All the while, Emily at the bridge of the Cobalt Glaive kept a careful eye on the volcano and the fiery wrath it unleashed. Time was not on their side, and there was little that the Glaive could do to subvert such a primal force of power.


Where The Girl Lived

Ean strode to where Tiffany knelt on the ground, not even remotely interested in Gaia. He stepped before the child and dropped to one knee, grasping her by the shoulders and looking her in the eye. The girl was dazed, and hadn't yet realized she was alive again.

Only after assuring himself that she was alive would Ean Acknowledge the Goddess. And when he did so, he charged her in a terrible voice "What you have done will have consequences, and not just for yourself. I hope that, when you realize just how grave a mistake you have made, you accept the responsibility. For the sake of those you love so much, you would let them shatter your own body."

He turned then and looked off in a seemingly random direction. Standing up, keeping himself in front of the girl, and a hand on his pistol.

He muttered then to himself. "Come on then, get it over with."


...And yet I lived.
Tiffany would blink, trying futily to clear her vision. She could not stop shaking, and her eyes were filled with tears. She was not in pain, at least she didn't think she was, but then so much had happened, she couldn't yet make sense of it.

A man knelt before her and grasped her shoulders, she tried to speak, to shy away, but her mouth was numb, and her muscles would not obey her mind. She knelt there, gripped by terror and horror and despair, and waited for doom to fall upon her.

A miracle...

A Blessing....

A sort of foolish gesture from some damned deity...

The many Imperials, soldiers and many civilians converted to the Imperial Cult scoffed at the 'deities' proclamation. How dare she even speak a word of what they do, they attack the innocent? Hardly correct, the 'innocent' was the cause of most of this destruction. Another damned deity doing as they damned well please, for the Imperials her 'blessing' was a sign of dishonor and playing god. She revived the many young, however the number of Imperial soldiers lay dead, many above the age of 18. The soldiers were thankfully spared the dishonor of being revived after their faithful duty in the defense of the city. Only the Emperor had the right to do what he wanted with them, no foreign 'deity' could dare touch them.

However, with the many young now alive they accounted the many fathers and mothers that were dead. For such a 'blessing' the 'diety' decided to make many of these children homeless and parentless, another damnable error such a deity overlooked. If a soldier could have shot at a God, they would have shot. However the 'diety' vanished without a trace caring not for their words or retaliation.

As good as this seemed, this was hardly over. "Attention...If anyone is receiving this vox transition then the young have come back to the living. Anyone seeing this as well?"

"Squad 17 here, we are seeing this as well. We lost over 75% of our team here, but we will do our best to escort them before additional shockwaves kills them...again..."

"Damnable false deities, always playing with power like children. They revive the young and dead, leave their fathers and mothers dead who probably shielded them with their lives, Emperor damn it...Squad 12 will get to work here as well."

"Underground sections are secure, nothing minor to account for. Enough supplies to last for a month at least. We will hold out well until rescue arrives...The Emperor protects..."

The Imperial soldiers began to resume communication and those inside still standing bunkers, began to assist in children saving efforts...although they did their best to ignore the many corpses of the hundreds that lay dead just a few feet from safety...This was disheartening, some shed tears unable to control their emotions, however this was drilled into their head...to prevent a disaster like this from happening again. To prevent such sadness from happening to anyone else in the future. To this the Imperium swore it.

Dorn

For the Imperial Fists Primarch, as soon as the blast passed he and his remaining marines stood back up and gathered their items. However before leaving they heard the chatter of Imperial units. The dead coming back alive? And not as undead hell spawn but rather flesh and blood humans to live another life? All caused by an unknown deity...

However instead of ruminating on spewing hundreds of insults like the Imperial Guardsman, his mind focused on one thing...If the dead came back...then the one who started the earthquake and caused much of this disaster was back alive...

"Mighty Space Marines, it seems our work here has not finished yet. You have heard the vox casts and you know that the one who caused all of this lives once again. We make haste to the epicenter of the quake, if she lives then her crimes have still been unanswered." Dorn spoke as he raised Storm's Teeth and ran of, disappearing in a blur. His fellow soldiers running after him with startling speed for heavily armored individuals.

A massive shift in the Force knocked Kinara from her Meditative state. The Presence of Gaia, the Goddess, and he actions, changed the will of the Force. Those people were meant to die, but they lived. Kinara's eyes snapped open, her body drenched in sweat from her concentration on stopping the vortex of energies. However, it seemed that it had subsided enough to no longer be a threat.

The evacuations of those able to walk were still well under way, her dropships bringing the survivors to the hangar of the Silver Eagle, where tents and other amenities were being set up to tend to the wounded. Upon finding a bunker filled with Guardsmen and civilians, Kinara's dropships would broadcast a signal, requesting for any who could walk to be let outside to be evacuated to a safer area. She hoped to the Force that the native defenders of Imperium would listen to her, and cooperate.

She quickly moved to a bathroom and showered herself, rinsing off the sweat accumulated from her meditation and strain, before changing into a fresh set of Jedi Robes, her lightsabers on her hip and small of her back accordingly.

Moving to the Hangar, she surveyed the area, the Force told her that it was going to be alright for now. She smiled, these people had endured so much in the past few years. Invasion after invasion, occupation, attacks, terrorism, disease, and now this....she pitied them, but only to the point of offering what aid she could. She couldn't keep these people on her ship; she lacked the resources to do so for longer than a week at most.

She came to a realization; she needed troops of her own. An army to use for peace-keeping, for helping, for war. It'd be a source of income, as well, as currently she had none. She could delve down into the under worlds and do more sleazy things for cash; she'd done it before during the Jedi Purge, but she'd prefer not to. A mercenary army, however, and fleet, for that matter, could be useful to anyone. Save the Sith, perhaps.

She returned to the bridge, and quickly found the nearest planet with cloning facilities powerful enough for what she had in mind. Ariel was the name of said planet, and quickly she sent a message that Terra was in dire need of help, as a crisis had arisen in the form of a massive Super-volcanic eruption. She also added that she would soon be placing an order for a Legion of Clones to be made; upon being asked if she had a DNA Template, she said that she would upon arrival. Secretly she sent an order to her medical droids to collect DNA samples from strong civilians, though her purpose was benign, merely to see what could be used for cloning. She'd offer her own DNA as well, if needed.

She cleared her throat and patched herself into the Comm-Network of the Imperium of Man. "Imperium, this is Jedi Knight Kinara of the Obsidian Eagle. My transports currently lie in wait outside of your protective bunkers ready to assist in evacuations of civilians and guardsmen alike, I ask that you let free those who can walk first, that they may be transported to safety.

"Also, I thank you for allowing me to place my fleet in such low-orbit over the city in order to assist, I've heard that you are quite protective of this planet and its people, and I feared you may not let my starships close due to their size and bristling weaponry." she paused as the message was played out over the comms leading to the highest ranking officer in the area, which by her guess was Dorn.

"I must stress however, that my ship only has enough resources enough to help the civilians for a week at best, after which I will have to relocate the civilians back under your care, I can send down builder-Droids from my ships to help you construct camps and other essential buildings in order to get things back up and running. I wish you luck, and May the Force be with you."

With that she cut her end of the communication and moved to sit in her Captain's chair, a mobile thing allowing her to slide around the bridge and survey and give orders at her leisure. She smiled, she felt what she was doing was right, and that her old Masters would be smiling on her. She missed them, the Masters of old, but they were one with the Force now, all she could do was carry on their teachings.

Birth of Adeptus Interitus

The thoughts of what he learned in that plane of Genesis weighed heavy on him like chains. He felt it important to clarify for his superiors though he said more than he intended. While his eyes showed someone strong his voice sounded much like one that wasn't sure of the score, "Sir, While they do return able bodied there's an... issue. The Jinhai said I survived some more intensive version, 'True Rekindling'. I report first-hand that I am no longer capable of dying with honor. Or retiring. The first incident while weapons training resulted in a time-gap until manifestation of 92 minutes."

There's that moment when you understand how and when things just went FUBAR and just hope you survive. It lasts a damn long time. When he yelled at his new shotgun in training and it turned to look at him at attention he could see every bolt shifting as it curved backward to point the barrel at him. The pain when the hammer struck only lasted a split second as the round pounded his head and helmet apart. Then 92 minutes later, determined later according to his uninterrupted wrist clock, he smashed helmet-first into the center of the floor. He hadn't expected to be around let alone barely conscious when Myrkul's Vein manifested his essence back into a painful new reality. He made an oath right then and there to never use his last round. The special punishment of having to let his brothers fight on while he waited to starve to death trapped in the blackness under rubble came to the forefront of his mind.

Will of four dozen

Jinhai were the first to notice the aching flux in proximity to the raw Way core gate. The raucous activity of the shadow injecting itself into reality led to an inescapable conclusion from what they'd already experienced. Each turns from the duties of searching flesh to bolt toward each other full-run. On impact the noises came of wet-silt craters in the growing orb of black dust. A psychic beacon proclaimed alarm with an impression of the broken surface around them to all that could hear it, "UMBRALKIND. The bunker is tainted."

Then limbs began to pour outward as Jinhai divided into four bodies the size of space marines a burning constellation of a dozen grey eyes each to them. Defining volume of that shout however blasts Otto from stable footing while remaining at attention so close to the beacon. Two came forward toward him to pick up a combative true rekindled to his feet. Otto fobbed them off as a snake-like weapon crawled into his hands from the ground, "I'm fine! By the Emperor, There's those shadow things inside?"

The two Jinhai nodded and one spoke, "Two will advance. Two will hold the gate."

Metal in the air

Feidy could finally land without sinking up to his knees in moving tarmac as such was already waiting for the go ahead to launch. Then the Captain called him down to move rubble. There was something that blasted across the psychic ECM systems as he'd turned them up quite a bit to focus and didn't catch the signal in time. Hmm. He hunkered down, adjusted the consoles one last time so his own psychic powers could hear anything and pressed the launch button. Centered near Ean's location the Mech launched from the bottom of Ean's ship with retro-thrusters ablaze to slow his descent. Feidlimid landed the titanic mech Alexander with only a soft bump if scorching pavement. The ring of swords and the pull of chains at his armor pushed at his precognition as Feidy turned to where Alexander's sensors said there were targets.

"Boss, don't those guys guard the city? Everything is so very unclean. What have you been up to down here?", said Feidy's voice over comms in his normally childlike high-pitched voice. Despite the threats fidey, the obsessively clean sort, couldn't help the urge to start sweeping debris in spite of the threats.

Unwilling Combatant

Ean turned and tossed the sphere he had in his left hand straight at the ground the moment the Marines had showed up. He had been hoping to talk to them and maybe stall for time, but that plan went right out the window.

When the sphere impacted the ground, it clicked and expanded to the size of a bus in the span of a second, enveloping Ean and Tiff in a barrier of swirling electrical energy. It lasted just long enough for Alexander to land in the location.

Ean turned and called out to Feidy "Give us some cover big guy, been a bit of a misunderstanding. I'll explain later!"

Battalion Launch

From the belly of the Cobalt Glaive, two cover plates opened and revealed a trio of extending towers. From each of these came a low buzz, followed by a loud thump, as they launched three house sized pods that streaked towards the ground, a holographic field surrounding them.

Each of these three pods would impact the ground, about fifteen feet apart, with Ean and Tiff at the center of their landing space. The moment they landed, each pod began to shift and reconfigure into a bunker, really nothing more than a metal box with waist high walls about thirty feet from wall to wall. In the middle of each unfolding bunker was a column of metal, normally adorned with communications equipment, supplies, spare weapons and ammo, the works. These however had been stripped of all that, to be replaced with extra sockets for soldiers to strap into. Normally each bunker could only seat four imps, these had been retrofitted to seat six, though it was tight and uncomfortable. Nevertheless it worked, as eighteen soldiers leaped towards the bunker walls and opened suppressing fire on the approaching marines, their charge rifles set to a slightly higher setting than normal, these were space marines after all.

For about twenty or twenty two seconds after landing, the bunkers were little more than fancy implanted cover positions, until the column in the center of each of them fully charged up, and produced a phase emission barrier around itself. At that point, the barrier grapped solid projectiles that came near it and swung them into an orbit near it's highest point, amassing a collection of ammunition for a later purpose. The imps used energy weapons, and firing them out of the phase emission barrier pulled a small amount of energy from the barrier to follow the shot, giving each "bullet" fired by the imps more impact, like upgrading from automatic rifles to .50 cal machine guns that fired armor melting plasma.

Thankfully firing into the barrier didn't produce the same effect, energy weapons coming into the barrier were dispersed across it's surface with a rather colorful display of electrical arcing.

It was the imps go to tactic for defense and delaying. The barriers gave them about a minute of combat advantage where they could fire on enemies with impunity, usually long enough for a pod storm to come down behind them and reinforce. In this case, Ean didn't intend to reinforce, but retreat. "Emily! Launch the Rod now! On my position.

The girl didn't respond over the comms, but a loud cracking sound came from above as the rod was fired from a launch bay. It impaled the ground in the midst of the three bunkers, looking like a totem pole but with loose wiring and exposed circuitry instead of animal faces. No sooner had it landed than it began humming and charging up, though for what was yet to be seen.

Ean took that moment to call out to a nearby imp, who tossed him one of the spare charge rifles. The bunkers would provide them plenty of cover, but he knew that the leader of those marines would be there to face him soon enough.

"Come on then you thick headed brute of a bastard, come and try me!" He muttered to himself.

"Hostile reinforcments! Enemy forces have provided adequate cover and are opening fire on Lord Dorn! Plasma weaponry, do not get caught out brothers." A Tactical marine voxed to the other marines as they kept to cover to get around the sides.

One of the Tacticals un-shouldered a Helios Pattern Rocket launcher and aimed at the ship in the air. "Target locked, Emperor guide my missile through. Let it strike true..." He recited a prayer of aim as he came around one of the building and aimed at the aircraft.

For Rogal Dorn himself, as the plasma bullets sailed his way, he slammed a foot into the ground sending a massive chuck of stone from the eart hto give him cover, however while taking fire she shot back and noticed the strange barrier trapping the bolt round. "The barrier seems to be trapping our rounds, but it seems that energy weaponry can pass through safely...we cant get close enough unless...Imperial command come in. Fire an earthshaker rounds at coordinates 191.24.N and 66.431.N..." Dorn voxed as he remained behind his makeshift cover as it was being slowly torn apart.

"Affirmitive my Lord...Basilisk artillery coordinates plotted and underway. Stay clear my Lord." A voice replied. Miles away from the battlefield two Basilisk field guns emerged from sturdy Imperial Guard depots and aimed two different rounds a few yards away from the barrier as to not hit it directly. If they could not damage the structures directly, then causing the ground under the defenses to collapse. "Earthshaker rounds loaded in...Praise be unto the Emperor...May he guide our strike true...Let our weapons bellow his faith and destroy his enemies...Fire!" After the Guardsman finished their prayers, the gun fired shaking the ground. And sending two rounds directed at the battle in the front.

Inside one of the bunkers, as the Shadow Legion advanced. A certain Space Marine Librarian had appeared using the Gate Of Infinity and spew fourth a wave of psychic lightning which seemed to be much improved. "Horrid abominations...you should all die just because of how ugly you filth are..." The man as Carnaelgaar muttered. Making sure to keep his gifts secret.

A clear mind would equate to a clear victory...

An odd thought to cross Akio's mind as the first moves were made. Ean was sending in his force while the sorcerer was preparing his own assault, all the while Akio analyzed from the bridge. He had a view of a number of higher-ups and was linked through comm to their voices. He figured anything he spoke would be heard by them and the reciprocal. As the first mate and the tactical support from the sky, he had many views to maintain and keep in order. The overall top down perspective of the Wastelands as a whole, the many perspectives from the select soldiers dropping in the pods, snipers, machine gunners, and infantry. There was certainly a lot to take in...a lot that could clutter the mind in a million different tactics, emotions, and all sorts of second guesses.

But that was his secret. Akio always had a clear mind. He needed absolute focus to do anything in relation to his power and focus began with a clear mind. He tended to not let too many thoughts or troubles bog him down as he always kept a level head. It was why he was so good at Mahjong. His poker face was legendary. He kept a coy smile all the time and was an impossible person to read. You met the same Akio at his high points and his low.

So when he got his idea to peek into the future again, his face didn't change expressions. His brow didn't furrow, nor his eyes squint in concentration. He simply closed them, painting the picture as to how the next two minutes would go uninterrupted by Akio.

The barrier was powered by a mysterious force...a force that could only take so much punishment, but could block anything Ean and company decided to throw at them. In this picture, the pods would realize this on their own accord and avoid impact, redirecting their course to formulate around the barrier...a ring of pods surrounding the Chaos Lord and their forces. Already, there would be casualties on Ean's side, a few not having the time to react to the barrier as others did and slamming into it at full force. But not enough to cause a retreat as the pods would open and the soldiers would deploy, examining the barrier suspiciously.

And then their next move...a large Sigil appeared from beneath the feet of a good number of men and from it shot forth a Spire that towered over these men, from which chains were spawned from, wrapping around it's prey before tugging them into the object. The torture that would overcome these men were unbearable to witness, even from Akio's vision. Everyone else began to form their positions, some defensive on the outside of the barrier while others ran through and began to charge at the enemy directly, which was transparent to life it seemed. The Ion blasters from the gunners at the bunkers would have little impact from far away as would the snipers, who began to retreat into the distance. But there were a select few that began to turn on their fellow men, taking their lives at the influence of the Chaos Sorcerer's words. The look of feeling betrayed on one revealed face was even worse than the tortured souls tethered to the sigil. Akio decided that was enough for now.

Back to reality, Akio began to postulate solutions. Avoiding the barrier was easy, but the Sigil was going to be the hardest thing to take care of. But the most notable aspect of the Chaos Sorcerer's tactics was the reveal of the distance game. All these methods of assault were useful from far away. In which case, there was only one way to take this...close quarters. He wasn't sure, but it was the best option to take care of the immediate threat, at least.

But maybe...maybe there was a way to break the barrier...

An idea began to form in his head as Akio opened his comm up and began to speak into it, "This is Akio Hanatori, newly appointed first mate of the Cobalt Glaive. What you've just heard is the power of influence...the power of the darkness calling out to you. It is a strong, intelligent body that wants to eat your soul for following a fallacy. You are all strong minded individuals. I can sense it even from up here. That will be your victory today. A clear mind would equate to a clear victory."

He remembered the quote his father had told him before he continued, "Now, Snipers...direct your pods towards the exterior of the bunkers. Land about as far as your rifles would become effective. The rest of you...do not change course. Do not land outside of the enemy's barrier. Do not slow down. Instead, when the time is right, eject your door in mid-air and hop out. Use whatever means necessary to slow yourselves down when you do. When you do land, get within the barrier as soon as possible. It will not stop you from walking into it. Take the fight close. Do not let them gain distance on you."

And so it was. The snipers landed a good mile and a half outside of the center of conflict, having a perfect view of the battlefield and everyone in it. Their rifles would be locked in to kill from a distance when the barrier let up. As for the barrier letting up...the initial fleet of pods popped their doors open and many an infantry person leaped out, propelling themselves in the air with equipment designed to make them hover in the air for a good few seconds...or even make a slow descent for even longer. What would strike the barrier would be nothing less than a good two hundred something bullet-shaped hunks of titanium, weighing a ton a piece and traveling at terminal velocity. Such a force of impact in such a short amount of time...it would be incredible if whoever held up the barrier could hold out against that kind of backlash for the duration and maintain it afterward. And if it broke even sooner, the remaining pods would crash into the armies of Chaos Legion forming below, likely taking more than a few casualties on the Chaos Legion's end.

And now was the time. The Cobalt's forces would likely begin close quarter combat when they landed if they hadn't begun shooting from the sky down into the group below them. And as such, it was only natural to wait for the next move to be made by the Sorcerer.

Confused and disoriented.
Kenny had attempted twice to take the censer through the teleporter to the bridge, with no luck. The transport staff just shook their heads at him, not able to explain it. The poor man had just started the trek to the bridge on foot, something that could take about five minutes, given the size of the ship, when plinth came floating into the corrider, took her censer, have him a kiss, and flew off, leaving him standing their confused and wondering why he felt like a young man again, and not just in the mental sense.

Hanger bay

Four dropships, each of which were loaded with 20 IMPs each, not including pilots, we're ready to launch when plinth showed up. Hanger crew directed her to one of the dropships, where Franklin stood waiting for her.

As before, Franklin wore the IMP assault armor, similar in structure to the standard combat armor, but equipped for rapid insertion and special operations. The six foot bipedal humanoid nodded at plinth as she roached, his mouthpiece fitted in between the separated jaws. He spoke to her, a seemingly impossible feat, considering the inhuman nature of his features, "welcome aboard ma'am, and good to see you. You'll be directing us to the cargo whereupon we will send in preliminary recon squads. Once they give us the sit rep, well land and provide security while you retrieve your cargo. Any questions?"

The Bridge

Ean was looking over nonstop reports and data feeds in the captain's chair keeping an eye on everything from the ships fuel supply to the general situation of the battle.

Emily was directing the crew of the bridge, endeavoring to get the glaive far enough from the enemy as to be safe from assault.

Humming Birds

The squad leader for the hummingbirds had finished their first objective, the bombing run that was meant to soften up the enemy prior to the bunkers impact and the subsequent pod storm, and ordered his squad to pull back and assess.
The squad leaders name was Brokk, he was gundaraan, which is to say he was of a race of highly warlike humanoids who strongly resemble terrans, safe two features. All gundaraan have two horns that curl from their temples, and their eyes were solid black with white pupils, a result of differing cellular makeup in the eyes. Built like bulls, with thick skin covered in stiff bristlelike hair, big bones and understandably strong, they weren't the first pick to come to mind when you thought of who would pilot the graceful and light hummingbird fighters, but hey, life is strange.

Brokk was frowning as his eyes scanned the enemy position. "Not even a slight scratch.. Gods I hate chaos marines." he said, redirecting his squad and moving them into a blockade formation. The plan was for containment, keep the enemy busy while the retrieval team got the package aboard the ship, then everyone was to hightail it outta there.

"Enough!... I tire of these games! I will drag this artifact from the corpses and repair it with the flesh of the dead if needed!...It is clear we are outnumbered...Let us even these odds..." The sorcerer spat the words as he raised his sword into the air. However his thoughts were interrupted when at least 200 pods slammed into his barrier at terminal velocity. He yelled in pain as his head flooded with energetic overflow. He had to remove the barrier now...

The howling barrier soon faded from reality allowing gunfire from both sides to travel unhindered. Several Chaos Space Marines were smashed to death by the oncoming pods of metal, however they began to switch weapon. Bolters, the standard weapon of these goliath humans. 75 caliber rocket propelled rounds of death. There may have been 100 marines, far too many of them were not even full fledged Chaos Space Marines. However they made up for it with one thing. Eternal war and bloodlust.

The Soldier closing in on them were met with the more brutal forces of Chaos. Followers of Khorne. There were three of them, that alone was already enough. Armed with bloodied axes, motorized teeth of the edges. A Bolt-pistol sidearm, and Trophies from their past kills adorned across their armor. Skulls, Flesh, Bone...who knows how much people they butchered...

They wore the same colors as the Word Bearers, However they had more red on them. Their movements were rabid, little more than frenzied dogs almost they charged from their cover. They were fast, faster than any normal space marine. Filled with endless bloodlust as per their faith to the Chaos God Of War Khorne. They closed the distance against the Cobalt Soldiers who were trying to get into close combat. A fatal mistake against Khornate Berserkers. And the last bloody skull on top of the pile, they all chanted their one horrid phrase. "Blood for the Blood Gods! Skulls for the Skull Throne!"

Axes roared to life ripping through flesh and armor before they could react, Bolt-pistols firing rapidly against soldiers trying to get a bead on them. They reveled in the slaughter, and with the Drop Pods now decorating the landscape they also had cover to use. Not that they cared about cover in the first place. Two Chaos Space marine in particular began to slowly march in a different direction. An aura of pestilence seemed to follow them and the very sand seemed to rot away. Plague Marines Followers of Nurgle clambered up the hills armed with some sort of...flesh made weapon infused with metal. Their armor took hits from the enemy, far more than normal. Bullets poured at them but they appeared to shrug it off, vile blood poured as they marched forward.

They aimed their sickened weapons at any nearby soldier, spewing some sort of green liquid at them. The air died as the bile touched it, and Metal seemed to rot away as it impacted it...as for the soldiers...those poor bastards unlucky to even get grazed by it would feel their bodies filling with thousands of diseases. They bloated...they vomited everything, their skin peeled away....It was an agonizing death which took only one minute. However death was not the end, those that fell from these plague marines stood back up, little more than zombies who knew how to aim in the general direction of their enemies.

For Three marines, With far more intricate patterns on their armor they huddled around the sorcerer who has his sword raised once again channeling the unholy powers of the warp. These three marines seemed to be his bodyguards. Followers of Tzeentch, they were armed with bolters like their fellow brothers however their ammunition was far from normal. Touched by the warp, their weapon fired Infernal Bolts at the enemy searing through all armor like butter, they were deadly accurate as well, taking down soldiers foolish to get in their line of sight.

For the majority of the Chaos Soldiers, they were little more than Cultists. Flak armor, civilian issued clothing, metal trashcans even all etched with Chaotic symbols. Armed with all manners of weaponry from Imperial-lasguns to hand crafted autoguns. They did not have the deadly punch like their Chaotic masters in power armor. But they were still deadly in their own rights. They all scrambled around, firing off rounds as they were being wittled down one by one.

At least seven marines were left alive, the more 'normal' of the bunch. With their bolters they took cover but for anyone to foolish to close in on them they did not shy away from trying to butcher them with their close combat weapon. From Chaisnwords to even knives.

Now, inward to business

Plinth nodded a greeting at Franklin then swiped her metal helmet off once more. As one floating somewhat above ground she was quite tall and took a seated position upon the diaphanous cloud underneath her instead. Plinth looked Franklin up and down now more his height then replied, "Hello! Though... I'm not sure what kind you are. Well, I can still purify you if need be. I am ready to fetch the cognizance block. The Jinhai move it as close to the surface as they dare. If you have to move inside, can your men navigate outer geometries? Ah, what's the right word..."

Plinth pursed her lips the black eyes looking up to think of how to explain,"Well, The Psi forge is a kind of a physical and mental navigation hazard. I suggest you pair off and chain together for reference. The pod will need to set down just outside unless it can cross the extra-dimensional cargo column safely. I can show you."

She raised her censer whose inner light turned from yellow to a pale white. Threads of psimass swirling and burning around it gave a slight scent of bay as a small glimmer of a memory's tapestry forms mid-air. A thing likely uncomfortable to look at for most human minds at least. They often objected to remembering such inert physical manifestations of memories not their own. A telescope for the mind with a pinpoint of space as the third-eye piece.



The image showed the view from a bulkhead atop an access column that bent at an angle the human mind insisted could not be. Even the entrance appeared to curve around some imaginary point even though the memory insisted it would follow a straight line. Occasionally worn signs broke the pattern to proclaim the presence of some ammo depot. A Jinhai caught walking with some glowing crystal in the still image to some direction the memory described as 'in'. Like the mind could enter hallways writ in the holographic patterns on every surface. The options themselves claustrophobic in the density of these spaces and entrances even as vast space the sense of the place had without them. Navigating the space was simple to one whom carried the almanac in them. In others, especially rigid constructions of the synthetic mind, the space represented a place that looped in on itself with such frequency it made a singular difficulty to compute paths inside of.

Of singular note a large pallet on one of the platforms with square milky-glowing crystals of emerald cut the length of one's forearm. A psychic among them might realize these things but with one rose the Living Emperor had in volume more than enough psychic force to pound a gaping hole to another plane. The meter-square pallet held easily a hundred of them.

In fact that's exactly what the Jinhai intended to do with most of it on Cryo. They'd build a gate overtop a shaped breach to reach the black storm. A core way gate in this dimension that allowed better access by Myrkul's Vein from Genesis. The rest served to build the way gate itself.

Choir of the hymn

The sixteen men possessed of Jinhai could feel a presence moving around their minds. One cold, dispassionate, it muffled the chaos draining the emotion as best it could. The other was a warm light a presence of some big sister looking on behind them. As the Jinhai made ready to conduct emanations for the fulcrum of the body, Plinth, they had a very palpable sense of standing at arms length of each other. As they took rounds the Jinhai did their best to rebuild the body at lower volumes their abilities were more limited. Cover bought time for them to work.

Other Jinhai warred with the diseases as a things not of the flesh that found themselves imprisoned in a shambling IMP needing Plinth's touch. Each a hard anchor that bound the soul to the body. Should the body be destroyed in its entire those smaller Jinhai flit like quick worms under the sand. Burrowing to another IMP pouring through bullet holes to fix the flesh behind it if they must.

The full landscape of the battlefield was finally setting in for Akio as he viewed the monitors above him. The Cobalt Glaive's crew held the advantage in numbers off the bat and by a comfortable margin, too. For every body controlled by the Chaos Sorcerer, there were three clad in the Cobalt's standard issue armor. Of course that was setting aside the specialty members of each respective army. The Followers of Khrone that were hacking away due north, the Plague Marines in the East, the Bodyguards to the Chaos Sorcerer in the center of it all. Apart from that, the remaining Space Marines with Power Armor were scattered throughout the numbers of semi-weak underlings to the Sorcerer. Overall, a good analysis on Akio's part.

But what cards did the Wanderer wield?

"Emily," Akio called for her attention with surprised steadiness in his tone while he examined the controls on his panel. "Quick question. What do the people on the ground have to fight with?"

"Ours or the enemies?" She replied without taking her eyes from her moniter, or pausing in the symphony that was her manipulation of the controls. Akio pressed a button, bringing up a model that was the Combat Theater function on the monitor.

"Ours, please."

Emily swiped her hands across the holographic screens in front of her, and with a flick of her wrist, sent a catalogue display over to Akio's desk. The Catalogue held three items marked as important:



As Akio examined through the info quickly, the Combat Theater was uploading the existing images of the battlefield and providing the layout he had to work with, to include positions of men on both sides. Emily looked back over her shoulder at Akio. "Got everything you need?" She said, an eyebrow raised.

Akio nodded once, letting her return to her own analytics while he processed his info. The major glaring threat was how spread the Cobalt's forces were. By ramming the pods into the shield to take it down, the ground troops were no longer in neat little rows and columns waiting to be directed to a place. They were mixed and muddled among other members, already fighting against the Chaos Sorcerer's horde. The only ones he could control by regiment were the snipers on the outside and the Firestorms. Yet, Akio smirked in light of it.

He could make this work.

It was worth a try, to say the least, as Akio began speaking to the ground forces. "Do not focus on the enemies in front of you. Find the allies besides you. Work together as brothers, like you know how. Improvisation will be the key to maintaining the upper hand here. For those in the center, you must find your own strategies to success. You can do it. I believe you can."

"Firestorm personnel, you must be like a brother to those outside fighting in the field. Watch their back. Take out anyone that may be striking from behind. And Snipers...the barrier is down. Take down as many as you can. Aim for the Sorcerer if you have a shot, but it's recommended you take down the bodyguards first."

And he watched as the ground forces began to make work. Even with a messy layout throughout, they formed together as best as they could and covered each other's bases. The Juggernauts were surrounded by more mobile troops. Medics took off from the ground and hovered above everyone, their camo equipped and their Flesh Welders armed and ready to repair. The Assault troops began barraging the waves of CSMs as the press was initiated. The Firestorm would provide support fire to prevent flanking. And the Snipers began concentrating their own long-distance barrage on the Bodyguards surrounding. From a mile and a half away, their own fire would blend in with Firestorm rounds as they fired, the first of the bullets daring enough to attempt at the Chaos Sorcerer's head.

A careful glance to the east revealed the Plague Marines Akio didn't quite have an answer for, so he went with option two. "Jinhai, in the east portion of the field, there are two enemies in particular that loom as big threats. I entrust you to take care of them by any means necessary."

Aboard the Drop Ship

Franklin shook his head as Plinth's memory unveiled itself, his brain hurting from the confusing and unrealistic setting he had just witnessed. After the nasuea passed he looked to her with half closed eyes and sighed, his rebreather shunting air into his lungs with a hiss before saying "Alright, Being honest I couldn't make heads or tails of that."

He was interrupted by the pilot, who stated they were coming in for a landing. "But it doesn't really matter. You go in and get the cargo, I'll send a squad to help you. They'll stick with you to avoid getting lost, but even so I'd appreciate it if you brought them back. The rest of us will form a perimeter to hold off any enemy that breaks through containment, and to guard the dropship."

-------------------------------------------

Shortly after landing the dropship, the IMP assault troopers filed out in rapid procession, taking up defensive positions around the whale like vessel, and priming their weapons for combat.

Five other troopers stood close at hand with Plinth, ready to follow her into the small, somewhat manhole esq. opening in the wasteland floor. One of the troopers pulled at a reel of cable and threaded it through the other four's armor, before finally handing the end of the cable towards Plinth. "It's not easy for us to manuever or even think straight in that place, if your little picture show is anything to judge by, so if you'd please." He said, holding the proffered cable.

Bridge of the Cobalt Glaive

Ean laughed outloud as the barrage of drop pods landed on the chaos sorcerers barrier. "Oh that was clever done Akio, very nice." He said, going to his own monitor to send a message. "Feidy, move in closer to the enemy, provide support fire for Ground troops."

Emily smiled, but never stopped in her choreography of the Cobalt glaive, which was still moving towards the same location the Drop ships had gone off to. Her plan was to have the ship in position for the fastest possible extraction of the artifact, and then send out drop ships to the containment zone to extract everyone they could before making a quick beat off world.

As the bullets found their way to the sorcerer, the psychic energy flowing around him acted as a sort of barrier against the coming fire. He did not need to defend against his bullets but his bodyguards were a different story, the sniper rounds proved their worth against the power Armor by puncturing holes inside. However...something was off about these men. As the bullets struck their bodies it was clear their progress was not impeded, nor did blood flow from the wound.

On the contrary, something did seep from the wounds. The raging energy of a soul inside the Armor quietly seeped out like a burning fire. The bodyguards were not man anymore, they were hollow shells possessed by the souls of Chaos space marines who traded their flesh away. They of course returned fire against the closer targets ignoring the incoming sniper fire as their bullets struck.

The plague marines continued their inevitably slow march across the desert, along with newfound assistance from the dead that began to rise. Their horrid bodies were now being revealed as their armor was shot to pieces. Bloated...infested bodies...vile flesh no longer even close to human. The sickening part was thing small...creatures fell out of their bodies. Demonic creatures known as Nurglings, small disease ridden demons fell from their bodies and began to crawl across the desert floor to assault the nearest enemy. There were only four of them, but their appearance was like a boil of the face of reality.

Many of the chaotic forces continued to clash, the lesser cultists slowly fell while the Chaos Space Marines soaked up damage and continued to return the damage. Khorne berserkers continued their blood fueled carnage hacking away at anything that got remotely close to them.

However, soon the Chaos Sorcerer had everyone where he wanted them. "Let us truly begin now..." He slowly smiled under his helmet as he impaled his sword into the ground, a massive wave of energy exploded outwards as the energies of the warp began to flow across the land. The sand began to blacken and turn into stone, the skies once blue and clear were stained crimson and the clouds were now black as the night which began to cover most of the light that entered this area. Inside this place, the sorcerers voice could reach the very souls of men around him. "So you all decided your fate...You all could have been spared the horrors of the warp, but you all decided to follow your false hope thinking that you have a chance against Chaos...It is all so amusing watching you all in a futile attempt to fight, surrender now...give your lives to Chaos...side with true power..." The sorcerers voice echoed in every soldier on the battlefield, however there was one thing about this all...They could hear feral creatures just gnawing inside their minds and in the skies the clouds began to swirl as a warp storm was being conjured although on a less dangerious level. It would not destroy the ship, it would however continuously interfere with any ship systems as any good warp storm does.

This was not the end however, the corpses of the cultists were soon grasped by an unholy energy as their very life, body and soul was offered to the demonic forces of Chaos...as they rose into the air before turning into a shower of blood, they came...demonic forces serving the will of the Dark Gods. Bloodletters, demons of Khorne were the first to come. Their visage was one that would be burned in mortal minds, their entire form was red, massive creatures that rivaled that of the ten foot Chaos Space Marines. They held onto a blood red and a spiked collar was attached to their neck.

Their forms soon vanished to re-appear nearby enemy soldiers and like the followers of Khorne butchered anything nearby. With the added effect of imprisoning their souls inside their swords. "Behold!...your doom has arrived! Hear the whispers of Chaos! Listen inside all your hearts! We!...Are...Chaos! Watch as your life is snuffed away and your soul is forced to become a slave to us! Despair! Lie down and die! Raise your arms and follow the Dark Powers! Surrender now and I shall set you free from this place...Or continue to resist and be damned for all of eternity!" The sorcerer laughed as cracks began to form into the ground. And other corpses were dragged into the earth.

Consider wording with care

Jinhai received their request from Akio with diligence and in unison. It likely felt that the Jinhai silently acknowledged the thought behind Akio before he'd spoken it as did the other identical shards of mind connected to them. They mentally turned away to consider how to implement such a thing within the space of a scant few moments. They were not permitted to harm humankind except at request of humankind. Something the plague marines clearly remain tainted by demonkind as they were. Neither were they empowered by the request specifically to instigate such harm. They were creatures bent to impartial order by way of either construction or disintegration. Empowering a venue with disintegration by way of another's will was an option because they were not the one that chose. Within the last moment the concordancy of Jinhai agreed it must create such a venue suitable to the task to fulfill their orders. A Jinhai's strength at war was improvisation in construction and nothing denied to humankind.

Rejoined to the present Jinhai upon the battlefield heard the endless drone, the wail of tainted souls and its creator both which must be destroyed, and felt little but acknowledgement but that they must be dealt with. The defense of their concordancy sapped them but they dealt with the indirect pressure with relative ease. They also heard the suffering of the plagued soldiers held tightly to the ruined bodies by those Jinhai they carried with them. That strained the Jinhai more. The bodies were beyond saving when the Jinhai had not the strength while so exposed at such little volume to dispose of the souls as to not empower the enemy. The psi-forge was not equipped to assist remotely with the destruction of such tightly bound otherwise immutable energies. Souls could be re-purposed directly as the enemies in chaos-soldiers quickly revealed to all.

Considered by Jinhai however that the souls could not maintain their own intellectual integrity in the face of such forces whispering of violations of the Dicta. Bottles of chaos marines continuously tained by a lack of internal resistance demonstrated it. The Jinhai must continue to anchor and regulate the machines thus a design was born. A machine-weapon at its core bonded to a well of souls regulated and empowered by Jinhai. What anchored souls could not be destroyed could be evacuated to deny them to the Aetherkind.

Carrot and Grinder

Akio and Ean could feel some Jinhai scurrying deep within the Almanac as others impressed upon zombified bodies of illusory prey just out of reach. The touch of a Jinhai to both men made effort to mark each tainted soul upon their displays if only as one attempting a small mark on the surface of the mind. The handful of plagued marines darted from the pack evading enemies the clinging black sash of a Jinhai about their back clearly seen trailing from holes in the armor. The remaining Jinhai digging about the sand for another humankind to amplify changed their direction as well. The plague marines aimed for small depression where the Jinhai could work quickly without getting immediately shot at along the East side.

And upon arrival to that barren pit the plague marine's backs are broken by psionic creatures who'd long since absolved themselves of the flesh and isolated their minds as engineers of war. The Jinhai deconstructs their support structures then tears apart flesh from bone. The soul may weep for the destruction of their body but the Jinhai deny them freedom. They cannot be rekindled but they are still needed. Ichor continues in squirts out of a swirling dune in that pit as Jinhai dismantle and recompose the imps to discard the broken flesh inside. Those zombies wandering in on their own accord see much the same treatment. A plume of disintegrated nurglings raises from the pit as ichor burns away from heated sand.

Ean and Akio as well as likely the chaos sorcerer could feel the spark of creation radiating from behind that sand dune. However only the two men wearing a Jinhai could start to hear the whistling wind of that mental edge inside a protected psionic conduit the Jinhai mustered. A canyon of knowledge and constructive moment from the Jinhai leveraging the Psi Forge using blueprints from deep within the Almanac of all their knowledge that ever was. An industry of psionic metacreativity burned hot below the sand within what could hardly be considered an ammo depot any longer. Other Jinhai hurried along the final construction of a Zhou to evacuate central parts of the psi-forge. If the army remained it could not be left here.

Fidelis Aeternum

One of four armored figures buried in the swirl rose to their knees still mired deep in ichorous wet sand as parts welded to their outsides hidden by sand. Black mists of motes and lucent fogs of psychic power scattered tainted sand about as Jinhai worked. What the Jinhai did not understand they reimplemented with what they did. What the souls did understand the Jinhai recreated. What the Jinhai understood and required they created out of loose material scavenged about the battlefield and what they brought with them. Small servitor worms scuttle about the battlefield looking for broken pieces of guns and armor nearby dragging them on the surface like moving flotsam.



An armored figure much like the chaos marines emerged from the top of the east dune as others are slowly constructed behind him. A metacreative engineer devoid of the beating heart of organic life but for an armored housing for souls that Jinhai curate inside channels of black motes inside the an armored body. The soul with a mission was not yet ready to grieve for its loss. Those 9 men that still wore the Jinhai that were left upon the battlefield alone now had someplace for the soul to retreat to conducted by the Jinhai that bonded to them. Though never could they return from the amalgam well inside the Multorum.

A voice of Jinhai mixed with one of Ean's newly fallen and his IFF beacon emerges over communications to Akio, "We are Multorum Alpha. Reporting for duty, First mate Akio. Engaging enemies along the east front. They will pay."

Multorum Alpha balled his fists gesturing at discarded weapons nearby with electric glowing arms pulsing with energy delivered from the Psi forge. He visualized the hardware needed to reconfigure them as the Jinhai pulled the necessary psiforms to manifest the structures the soul required to create them. Cold shivers hit the once-man inside as it felt like pouring one's blood onto the world. Multorum Alpha rose several turrets on the spots where bodies had dropped their weapons. Eight turrets of sand, electronics, metal, and blood grew from the dirt then logged into ship's systems through Multorum Alpha. They each turned to the east opening fire on their enemies with sparks of witchfire-propelled ammo from their muzzles.

Into the thick of it

Feidlimid felt the jolts as Alexander was hit with fire from various sides. The moment of force on his less-buoyant seated body diminished by inertial damping. It didn't do for the pulsing heart of Alexander to be rattling around its inside. As the full-bonding overlay came into his mind Fiedlimid looked to the eastern front over an ashen geyser smoking there. The giant silver armored titan pounded into the earth as he moved forward but Feidlimid steps were adept and quick movements as not to unseat allies from their feet by his passage.

In the thin ammonia atmosphere his voice was quite a bit higher and sounded childlike while responding, "Feidy moving to the eastern side of the front!"

Immediately turning for the combat front closer to the eastern side as the troops without heavily insulated closed-atmospherics would be weakest to plague. Not to mention his naturally antiseptic atmosphere. The titan of steel spun up as all his systems went from yellow to red in arming up to bear death.

His weapons release a terrible thunder as the two-handed lascannon erupted with thundercrack of superheated air at chaos marines. The weapon's three alternating barrels pounding thunder into the air as he strafed the mid-range of targets.

Descent into madness

Plinth tittered behind the cold black helmet, "It's okay! We built the upper layer to resist impulsive demonkind once we're below it you shouldn't quite get as lost! I don't know if they've burrowed their way in yet so try to look for movement not direction."

She twirled a gauntleted finger while taking the cord and jabbing it into her waist, "The passages flow into each other in circles so if they just run around madly they'll just get more and more lost. It's parabolic space you're a lot further from that opening than you think you are."

The cord's anchor seemed to be tethered into the armor itself and rotate around her like passing through fabric as she turned around. Plinth raised her censer with a woosh noise it ignited with a loud crackle of flame as she empowered it. The light was warm and it drew the eye the threads draining from the censer followed the line like a wick. They helped impress upon the mind the path to her censer as something to keep the soldiers on target. A thin outline of filigree outline of ivy growing along the cable connecting them to her.

Plinth began softly pulling toward the manhole and though they didn't seem to move the first moment then the manhole got bigger. The ship and franklin behind them got smaller. Much the same to those watching them approach the large open cargo column. As they finally got close enough to a patterned concrete surface at the barest rim of what once seemed a manhole. A mind might insist the stone's texture felt and looked the right 'scale' as the expansion stopped. There were gossamer threads over the whole exit though there seemed in places something blinking at compressed angles within the floor. Plinth picked for the edge of one then thrust her hand inside. It looked as if become paper thin though she was clearly rooting around for something by touch. Plinth pulled at a handle as the gossamer threads rotated and space folded open beside revealing a hall of staircases. Their legs looked like they bent painfully left but the body insisted they did not. The body's knowledge of itself and logic thereof became more important than what the eyes told of the outside. An introspection rarely present in lesser demonkind. Mapping software in the IMPs might even adjust to the extra dimensions though it would have to relinquish the preference for non-overlapping space.

Plinth called from the front, "Just try not to get distracted until you get your legs for the mire! Think before you reflex!"

The very outside of the psi-forge was very much a concrete edifice that could be burrowed inside but it resisted attempts to dig into the lower layers. Folded space surrounded the hypersphere and the very top of the forge was the entire monosurface of the outside volume.

Akio's features didn't change. Not when the Chaos Sorcerer's bodyguards were revealed to be specter-like entities that were unkillable, nor when the Chaos Storm left a shadowy veil upon the very air around them. Not even when the massive portal was summoned and more Chaos beings entered the fray, evening the numbers a little bit. Akio's face remained as easy as ever as his eyes darted across the flickering displays. On his end, there was a brand new Mech created by the Jinhai that was unleashing it's own havoc on the Chaos Sorcerer. Plays were made on both sides. Key components were added and taken down at the same time. The field was still relatively neutral. But even so, he could look past all of that.

He had a mission to complete and he was going to do so.

"Continue to provide support, Firestorm," he said into the console, knowing that they'd receive some fuzzy audio, but would understand despite it, "Snipers, take down the massive targets, but avoid the bodyguards and Sorcerer for now. Medics, provide your support when necessary, of course. And ground fighters, continue to improvise. Gather with others you typically wouldn't gather with. Let your weaknesses become your strengths and your strengths guard other weaknesses. Remember that you are battling one mind here. One mind against you three hundred strong. You have the ability to outsmart him."

"Jinhai, focus your firepower on those red creatures escaping from the portal. You are the strongest asset out there. Don't go for the Sorcerer yet or the Bodyguards surrounding them."

The execution of his words, despite the wonky communications, was notably near flawless. This crew was bonded together as one, and through their own trials and tribulations, they pulled through. Snipers helped snipers pick off the three regular Followers of Khorne. Firestorm bullets shot true to the flanks and positions of those trying to swarm. The ground troops' own maneuverability to form their surprisingly steady ranks was astounding to witness. Everyone had their own idea of what success was and were able to coordinate a structured tactic against the Chaos Space Marines in their own way. No "regiment" could be taken down the same way. And that variation alone was enough to minimalize major injuries, let alone lives. Regardless of the number his enemies had, it was still three hundred against one. And that meant everything in this battle.

As the fight progressed, he kept an eye on the Bodyguards, trying to find a way to penetrate through them. He hoped Captain Ean was achieving success on his end.

Following the Plinth

Franklin's Retrieval team kept close to Plinth as she descended into the forge to retrieve the Relic. One of them, a slightly blue skinned man named Kath, had his eyes closed and guided himself only by the feel of the cable pulling on him. He was probably the only one on the retrieval team to have experience with such things, though he doubted if Plinth or any of the beings like her remembered him. After all, they had rekindled him so long ago, and he a halfbreed before that in the first place. Still, he was the closest to plinth, and thus the others following him were eased along by his experience in such strange environs, though one of the other team members nearly threw up in his helmet because he made the mistake of watching a twisting bit of the place until it made him dizzy and nauseous.

Air Support

The Hummingbirds above the containment zone were regrouping for a strafing run, the captain giving Akio. "Heads up, we'll be ready to run em down in less than a minute, if you have any suggestions or requests, let me hear them now. I was thinking of trying to put enough fire down on the primary target cluster to allow your boys to move in and take a kill shot, if that's alright by you."

Bridge

Emily looked back over her shoulder and called out to the Captain. "The Glaive is in position over retrieval sir, I've brought the weapon systems online and were ready to render fire support."

Ean nodded and said aloud to Akio "You hear that, Mate? You tell her when and she can put down a few craters in your A/O"

The Captain then initiated a comm link with Retrieval. "Franklin, how long till the package is secure?" He said, to which the reply was "Dunno captain, Bravo just went in with the employer to retrieve it. It's on her at the moment."

Ean nodded, then sent a message to the hanger. "Get some transports ready to evac Containment teams at a moments notice. I want this wrapped up in the next thirty minutes."

After getting the afirmative he leaned back in his chair and rubbed his forehead, Muttering just barely loud enough to be heard "damn warp fiends always give me a headache with their screaming."