The Multiverse Project: Warhammer 40,000

"That is not possible."

"It is now."

Taelin tapped her earbud and spoke quickly as the sirens continued its horrid wailing. Around Henry the Avenging Knights high command swiftly put on their unique, personalized war helm.

"Marie, Wendy, take those two back to the cell," wiping away the last of her tears, and giving Kalina a kiss, Lithia swiftly took charge of the situation, all traces of weakness gone.

"Aww, but I wanna bash some heads in!" Marie whined but obediently dragged Caengan away.

"Oh hell no, I'm not going anywhere!" Henry shrugged the pouting Wendy off him and strode determinedly up to Lithia, who had donned her Batman helm. "Yo, I'm going with you guys."

"Go hide in the cell with the eldar, you'll slow us down," oh, Lithia did not just say that!

"I'm sorry but, what?!" Henry wasn't about to keep his cool. "Woman, me and the battlegroup have been making a Tour de France across the galaxy killing shits! So you better check yourself before calling me a fucking deadweight!"

Lithia and her clique looked at Henry, heads tilted belittlingly to the side, finding his little outburst to be very adorable, the dainty condescension was poisonous.

"He could be useful," the reasonable Samantha spoke up after a moment. "I mean, he's already armed and everything, so why not let him help?"

"She does have a point," Taelin made her input. "If the tall tales are anything to go by, I think he can keep up with us."

"Fine, it's not like you lots listen to me anyway," Lithia chuckled and headed for the door, Henry finding himself in a group comprised of the canoness, Kalina, Taelin, Samantha, Athena, Lily and Castrum.

"Don't fall behind, little boy," the ever friendly Lily growled at him. "And don't you dare start singing. I don't wanna get distracted."

"Oh, but I really want to hear him sing," Kalina said brightly.

"It's the commissar who sings, not him," Castrum added.

"Hey! I sing too!" Henry blurted the same moment they stepped outside, the calming blue neon glow of the Batcave was now wreathed in furious flaming red. The entirety of the domed top was on fire, the roiling inferno churned like a storm cloud, blazing droplets raining down on to the cavern below. The lights on the topmost floors had gone dark, with the only illumination coming from the flashing staccato that marked the running gunfight raging across each level. On the adjacent walkways suspended above the air, Henry saw furious battles being fought at close range. Now and again wailing, twisting bodies fall through the air, landing with a wet smash. Few were Avenging Knights, but most, thankfully, were heretics.

"Hurry up, general!" Henry snapped his attention away from the chaotic vista and hauled ass after Lithia's group as they entered a corridor carved deep into the cavern's side. The walls, ceiling and floor were plated in metal, their hurried footfall making a manic rhythm.

"Told you I'm quick!" Henry caught up to Lily, his toothy smirked was met with a snarl as they skidded to a stop before a wide, cargo elevator. Lithia held up her fist in a halting gesture then made a hand signal that say 'prepare to engage'. Although the corridor was void of any meaningful cover, with only plant pots and trashcans to break the monotony, the Avenging Knights swiftly went into a crouch, lay prone on the floor or pressed themselves flat against the wall, every bolter honed on the elevator, creating an effective overlapping field of fire. Henry drew his upgraded laspistol, designed to look like a bigger, more futuristic super badass Berretta, and went to stand beside Lithia, barrel trained forward in a Weaver combat stance as loud thumps and screeches echoed from the chute. Henry was just easing his finger around the trigger when big scary claws and talons punched through the slit between the elevator doors and started prying it open.

"Fire on my command," Lithia said as the doors were ripped to shred, the flickering light painting a monstrous dimension on the grotesque shape slithering forward. It was a massive amorphous blob of mismatching flesh haphazardly sewed together. Tentacles sprouted from the churning body, each twitching limbs ending in grasping serrated hooks. At the center of the creature, or a close approximation at least, was a yawning maw filled with hundreds of crooked needle sharp teeth. Sneering, Lithia braced her bolter and hissed, "now."

The blob thing screamed, a horrid squealing tenor, and launched itself across the corridor as the Avenging Knights opened fire. The shots came in accurate burst, every bolt finding a fleshy spot that send bloods and meats splattering the walkway. The salvo managed to slow the abomination, but its countless tentacles darted forward, serrated talons gleaming and hungry.

"Watch your twelve!" Henry aimed down the iron sight and pulled the trigger, decapitating a tentacle reaching for him. Moving in a serene trance, unaffected by the nightmare creature's unceasing howl, Henry shot one tentacle after another, no lasbolt wasted, every hit dismembering, and was soon advancing on the eldritch monstrosity. The Avenging Knights joined him, and together they tore the misbegotten horror apart until nothing but twitching red gobs remained.

"Cease fire! Cease fire!" Lithia shouted and Henry lowered his Berretta, the barrel glowing red hot. "Anybody hurt?"

"All in one piece!" Taelin piped up as she reloaded her bolter, "what about you general, everything still intact?"

"Hell yeah!" Henry glanced at the Avenging Knight's gears and damn, Tangmo weren't kidding when he said their bolter looked more modern than what the Astartes and other Sororitas used. It was still bulky and retained a very clear 40k aesthetic, but the overall shape was definitely slimmer, with elongated bodies, bump stocks and barrels, complimented by accessories like foregrips, optic mounts and laser pointers. All in all, it looked like a bigger, more brutal version of an HK assault rifle. "Those are some sweet looking guns."

"Like I said, more tactical and streamline," Taelin nudged her head at Henry's laspistol. "That's an impressive looking piece too, if I may say so myself."

"Thanks," Henry smirked and twirled the laspistol around his finger.

"The entire base is breached," Castrum strode up to Lithia. "Sewage pipes, air ducts, they came at us from every direction. We need to retreat to a secure location and shore up for a siege, I suggest the armory."

"But that's suicide," Samantha countered. "If the entire fortress is compromise, there will be no safe place for us to hunker down. The only course of action now is to coordinate a counter attack and strike at where the besieging forces are consolidating. If we take them out, the assault should fall apart."

"I see," Lithia nodded then turned to Henry. "What do you think?"

"Why are you asking me?" Henry made a confused face.

"You're a general, I want to hear your opinion," Lithia was nonchalant despite all the hell breaking loose around them.

"Is this really the fucking time?!" Henry hissed.

"And that time is running out," Lithia shrugged.

"Ugh! Fine! Go with Samantha's plan," Henry pointed at the Captain America Sororitas. "If we're dealing with orks or Tyranids, then Castrum's idea might have worked, but Chaos are a lot more crafty and creative, as we've just seen." Henry waved at the abominable remain. "And I'm willing to bet this is just the tip of the iceberg."

"Do you concur, Castrum?" Lithia asked her colleague.

"I do," Castrum nodded begrudgingly then tapped her skull helm. "What's the situation up top? Where is the main breach? Report!"

"The western wall is lost!" Tapping his earbud, Henry was able to listen in on the hectic reply punctured by rattling gunfire and screams. "The breach is big and they've established a beachhead, they're funneling more cultists and daemons through! We've also got reports of smaller attacking forces burrowing into the fortress from every direction, but we're pinned down here and can't spare any sisters! What are your orders?!"

"Maintain your position and keep the heretics at bay sister, they cannot be allow entry into the fortress," Lithia now said. "Call every Battle Sisters in the vicinity to your position and bolster the defenses, the reserves and initiates will take care of the smaller incursions. Stand firm and trust in the Emperor, sisters, call upon His strength and vanquish the interlopers. In the name of the God Emperor, they shall not pass!"

"For the Emperor!" Was the resounding response as Lithia cut the transmission and headed for an access staircase beside the elevator with Athena and Lily. She kicked the door open and the two Battle Sisters slipped inside, bolters sweeping quickly before giving a thumbs up. "The way is clear, follow me."

"Stairs! My greatest nemesis!" Henry laughed as he followed the canoness upward.

"It's only fifty floors, lord general," Lithia was obviously grinning ear to ear behind her helmet. "Please do try to keep up."

"Just a heads up, I don't have power armor to help with my cardio!" Henry was already panting after the tenth floor, fuck he hates stairs!

"There's a broom closet up ahead," Lily shouldered passed him, her steps spritely and mocking. "Maybe you should go hide in there while we take care of everything."

Muttering a slew of extremely impolite words that would make Tangmo proud, Henry gritted his teeth and stomped after the Avenging Knights, trailing a few steps behind them. And were they giggling?! Those assholes! But Henry couldn't find the breathe to respond, concentrating instead on placing one foot in front of the other and pushing aside the ache that was flaring up his calves. So concentrated on the monotony that he didn't realize the group had stop and collided into Athena.

"Oh! Are you alright?" Athena reached back and grabbed his Kevlar vest, arresting his swaying body before he stumbled down the stairs.

"Just a little winded," Henry wiped sweat from his brow and flashed Athena a smile, "thank you Athena."

"You're welcome," Athena nodded.

"So what's the hold up?" Henry glanced upward and dodged a sizzling gob that almost dripped down on his face.

"The entire stairway is gone! Melted!" Kalina cried out from above. "We need to get off here!"

"Oh thank god," Henry said as he followed the Avenging Knights into a flickering corridor, the neon lights stuttering on the edge of life, the place reminding him of the first Alien movie. The violent cadence of battle was a constant haunting echo around them, the ghostly volume making it difficult to gauge the distant and source.

"Which way?" Henry was beside Lithia again, bending over as he filled his lungs with metallic tinged air.

"There's an open plaza not far from here," Lithia started off. "It connects with the cavern's upper levels."

"Is the place secured though?" Henry held his laspistol at the ready.

"We're heading straight into the fire," Lily chuckled with barely restrained excitement.

"Stupid question, sorry. I mean, do we know what kind of fire power they're packing?" Henry asked, the group slowing down as they neared a three way intersection.

"Go ahead and ask them," Castrum titled her head at the stomping boots drawing nearer from the corridor beyond. Trading nod with Lithia, Henry tightened his grips on the laspistol and was a heartbeat away from making the leap when a stream of red hot bolts tore through the air. Henry and the Avenging Knights pressed themselves flat against the wall and waited until the barrage ended, none daring to move even when another set of footsteps approached, this one more leisurely than the last.

"You can come out now Lithia, the hallway's clear," a friendly female voice called out to them and the Avenging Knights sighed in relief.

"I was wondering where you went Miranda," Lithia led them into the corridor, coming face to face with another squad of Avenging Knight, this one led by the She-Hulk Sororitas, the woman wielding two heavy bolters in each hands with ease. And holy shit, she was as big as Damien.

"What's the situation?" Lithia asked Miranda and Henry took this moment to investigate the group that just got killed.

"It's hard fighting everywhere, the fortress have never been breached like this," Miranda went on as Henry knelt down beside the least fucked corpse, frowning when he recognized the PDF uniform, the clothes pristine and lacking the desecration and grime of Chaos. "But we're holding them down for the moment."

"And the plaza?" Lithia continued.

"Contested, but the Inner Circle is converging there," Miranda said. "I was hoping you would join us."

"It would be my pleasure."

"I need to contact the battlegroup," Henry cut into the banter, walking up to Lithia and Miranda.

"You will not hail your battlegroup, general Henry," Lithia glanced menacingly at him, the timbre promising violence if her warning was not heeded.

"Those sons of bitches Miranda mowed down were PDF, the same assholes attached to the Immortal Spirit, I need to warn my friends," Henry flashed Lithia a smile. "Besides, it looks like you could use some help."

"The entire cave negates all incoming and outgoing communication, only through our authorize channel can you contact the surface," Lithia told him. "Perhaps if we get near enough to the breach, you might be able to get a message out."

"You're letting him call for help?!" The fem Cyborg from before glanced disbelievingly at Lithia.

"I did promise an alliance with him, Vivian," Lithia shrugged and started down the corridor at a quick jog, the two groups falling in behind her.

"More stairs?" Henry couldn't help but make a face.

"It wouldn't be as bad," Lithia chuckled. "The path ahead slopped upward gently to where the breach was made. There are, unfortunately, quite a few stairs along the way. I hope this isn't an inconvenience?"

"I'll manage," Henry started to grin but a jaw rattling explosion wiped it off his face. The black stench of fire and death struck him long before the corridor widened and a huge archway came into view, smoke, lights and screams rolled like tidal waves from the kaleidoscopic firefight beyond.

"Contact! Contact!" Lithia yelled, braced her bolter and sprinted forward, Henry matching steps with her, both bursting on to a plaza and straight into an ongoing firefight. Before Henry can get a good look around Lithia grabbed his vest and dragged him down behind a stone bench currently occupied by fem Thor and Hawkgirl, the avian heroine didn't have her wings on.

"Aigle, Mistur, status report!" Lithia let lose a few bursts above cover and ducked down just as a return salvo tore into their position. Henry hazarded a look, catching only glimpses of smoke and rubbles before being forced back behind the bench by a scarily determined hail of las and bullets.

"Bad," Aigle growled and fired blindly over her head. "They've managed to funnel a lot of hostile in. The plaza was almost lost before we got here."

"But we're pushing them back," Mistur added quickly, winged helm bobbing reassuringly. "Albeit a little too slow for my taste."

"So what are we dealing with right now?" Henry fired off a few shots, gave the place a quick glance and holy crap he was in a mall, with shops and restaurants on the sides and kiosks dotting the path at regular interval, these lots having been turned into ad hoc pillboxes and bunkers. "Humans? Daemons? A little bit of both?"

"Both," as if to answer Mistur a herd of Chaos Spawns, those pink bastards from the Dawn of War game with the big ass mouth and spitting fireballs, thundered toward them on fore and hind legs, baying loudly. Shit, they look even uglier than in the video game.

"Open fire!" Lithia trained her bolter forward and, along with Aigle and Mistur, unleashed a full auto barrage on the gaggle of charging daemons. Henry counted about seven of the screaming jackasses. Despite taking the full brunt of the attack, the Chaos Spawns pressed on undeterred, spewing eldritch pinkish fire wildly, none coming close to hitting them, uncaring that their limbs and faces were getting shredded to bloody gibs. It wasn't until one of the Chaos Spawn dropped dead that Henry saw the throng of traitor PDFs and cultists marching calmly behind the wall of daemons, weapons held at the ready, some of them appeared to be loading grenade launchers.

"Shit! The daemons are bullet sponge!" Henry cried out and snatched the new plasma grenade, designed to look like a Stielhandgranate, from his vest. "Give me some covering fire!" Lithia, Aigle and Mistur complied and emptied their clips on the daemons as Henry pulled the pin and threw it at the Chaos Spawns. The grenade spun beautifully through the air then cartwheeled across the ground, coming to a stop between two Chaos Spawns. Having never used the plasma grenades before, Henry laughed maniacally when furious torrent of blue fire consumed the daemons. The flame didn't burn, it melts, the Chaos Spawns were liquefied, fleshes and bones turning to steaming slush. When the blinding plasma residue dispersed, all that remained of the monsters were bubbling pink puddles, and behind them, driven low to the ground by the grenade's searing blast, were the PDFs and cultists.

"My turn!" Taelin flew, Iron Man style, over Henry's head, firing her bolter in cackling delight at the hunched traitors while salvos of tiny missiles streaked from the back compartment of her power armor, the projectiles strafing them with a vengeance, sending flaming body parts flying in splatter of scarlet. Those that managed to survive Taelin's wrath were mercilessly cut down by Miranda's double heavy bolters.

"What the? They wrecked the Kitten Café?!" Miranda cried in distress and waved at a destroyed establishment half buried under a gutted Khornate Juggernaut.

"Aww, I loved the caramel espresso there," Kalina sounded genuinely sad.

"Our bad, we were hiding in there when that monster came at us," Mistur offered apologetically. "At least the place didn't die in vain, that stupid bastard bulled straight into my melta mines. Its guts went everywhere!"

"Enough! We need to keep moving!" Lithia slammed a new magazine home and moved out of cover, eyeing the battle raging on the many tier balconies to their left and right. "Do they need any support up there?"

"They're fine, see? The battle's moving backward," Aigle pointed at the fiery lightshow dancing along the walls, and indeed it looked to be going in the Avenging Knight's favor.

"Tell them to rendezvous at the breach," Lithia started toward a gentle rise in front of them, the group falling in behind her. The little marble waterways between the lanes now ran dark with blood, while lampposts and statues decorating the side paths were reduced to sad, gravestone like stumps.

"I'm sorry, but is running in the open like this a good idea?" Henry blurted from beside Lithia.

"We're wearing power armor," Lithia told him with a hint of humor.

"But I'm not!" Henry's outburst was giving the Avenging Knights a nice little laugh.

"You can always scoot behind Miranda, she's big enough to hide a grox!" Judging by how the big Avenging Knight's head snapped at Lily's little quip, she was not please in the slightest that her size was being mocked.

"She's not a very nice person, is she?" Henry went to stand with Miranda, because using the big woman as cover was a really good idea, if a little mean.

"Oh, she's a straight up bully," Miranda waved Henry's comment off good-naturedly then leaned conspiratorially down toward him. "But between you and me, she's a big softie underneath all those ceramite and ferocity. When we're not on a mission, she's the order's official florist."

"I heard that!" Lily roared, the slit of her helm glaring blood red. "One more word out of your mouth and I'm gonna chop you down a size!"

"She's also very short, in case you haven't notice," Miranda added for good measure, enjoying the low growl emanating from Lily, and swiftly reloaded her heavy bolters as they went up the plaza's gentle slope. And damn, the place might have got fucked but the pleasing, modern looking architecture was still very visible under the soot, fire, blood and corpses. Hell, the electricity was still working, this place is totally top notch.

"Look out!" Oh right, he was still in a warzone, not sightseeing. Following Samantha and Castrum's stabbing fingers, both were acting as pointer for the group, Henry and the Avenging Knights easily picked off any heretics that dared to attack them, the superior run and gun tactic of trained military personnel easily trumping over a bunch of retards with guns. After a few minutes Henry jogged up to join Samantha and Castrum, because the pounding discharge of Miranda's heavy bolters was liable to make him deaf.

"How long until we reach the breach?" Henry asked them, the ringing in his ears subsiding.

"We're half way there already," Samantha was nodding up at where black plumes were drifting lazily into the plaza, the churning shade toxic to behold, when Castrum swung her bolter at a shadowy alcove to their right.

"Movements, three o'clock!"

"Don't shoot, it's us!" Another group of Avenging Knights emerged, the one leading them raising her hands high, which prompted Castrum to lower her bolter.

"Anything to report Deborah?" Lithia asked the apparent leader of the group.

"Well, besides killing things, I have nothing to add," Deborah told the canoness. "What are your orders?"

"We need to get to the breach and join our sisters there," Lithia said. "Double time ladies, the last batch of radio chatter wasn't very encouraging, the line looks about ready to collapse."

The group was about to move on when a tall, muscular red shape barreled through a building on the left, rune sword swiping furiously at the thick cloud of dust to reveal a big ass Bloodletter. And clinging tight to the Khornate daemon was Marie and Wendy. The two Avenging Knights were attacking the Bloodletter from unconventional angles, as in, Marie was piggyback riding the daemon and whacking him over the head with what appeared to be a power baseball bat, while Wendy, arms and legs wrapped tight around the daemon's gritty thigh, was stabbing her katana, with horrific accuracy, up into his groin. Henry cringed and squeezed his legs tight as the Deadpool Sororitas wrenched the katana back in a torrent of blood, the Bloodletter's pitiful howling ruptured into incompressible gurgles when Marie spilt his skull open like a ripe watermelon with a thunderous swing. The daemon collapsed to its knees and faceplanted the ground, dead, almost crushing Wendy in the process.

"And stay down!" Marie kicked the corpse, helped Wendy up and together, holding each other's hands like kindergarten children, skipped merrily up to join them. "Hi guys! Where are you going?"

"To the breach," Lithia told them. "Care to join us?"

"Oh, a party! I'm in, I'm in!" Wendy bounced excitedly up and down, both katanas flapping, Marie joining in with equal enthusiasm.

"I trust the eldar prisoner was cooperative with his incarceration?" Oh shit, Henry absolutely didn't like how Marie and Wendy instantly deflated.

"Umm…well, you see," Marie began sheepishly then squawked when Lithia menacingly closed their distant, Wendy showing support for her BFF by hiding behind the Harley Quinn Sororitas, shrinking away from the canoness's burning scrutiny. "Something of an inconvenience might have happened en route to the cells?"

"What happened to the eldar?" Lithia demanded, and when Marie mumbled an inaudible response, the canoness grabbed the squealing Battle Sister and shook the poor girl like a ragdoll. "I said what happened, damn you!"

"A bunch of Chaos Marines showed up and took him away, almost killing us by the way, thank you very much!" Wendy interceded and Lithia released the whimpering Marie. "Those smelly ones, what were they called again?"

"The Death Guard took him?!" Henry blurted. "Which way did they go?!"

"We were just following them when red guy over there got in our way," Wendy stabbed her thumb at the dead Bloodletter then pointed up the rise in front of them. "They're heading that way. By the Throne, I think I can still see the stinks and flies that follow those ugly bastards around."

"All units, be advise, there's a contingent of Traitor Astartes heading toward your position," Lithia smacked the side of her helm and sprinted toward the towering gate looming above them, the acoustic of war was a physical, deafening thing, the group hurrying to catch up with her. "Watch your rears sisters, you're between the hammer and anvil!"

In no time at all they reached the top of the rise and bulled through the grand archway, the wafting stench of rot and death was nauseatingly horrid, but that was nothing compared to the vista before them. The large hangar like cavern was covered in all manner of gore and strange cancerous filth that surged and crawled as if alive. Battle rages everywhere, from the crisscrossing railways, inside empty bogeys, along walkways and footpaths, on the scaffolds and balconies that hug the wall from the lowest point to the highest reaches, there wasn't a place the Avenging Knights and the Forces of Chaos were not contesting. An empty path stretched out before them, carpeted by dead Sororitas in various states of decays and rot, some of the women were convulsing weakly, the release of death having yet come. And lumbering away, their steps easy, unconcerned by bolts, las or fire, the Death Guard carved a bloody corridor through the Avenging Knight's line. An unconscious Caengan was draped over the shoulder of a Plague Marine who stood amidst ten others of his cohort.

"We are the terror of the night! The avenging fire of justice!" Lithia roared, her voice amplified so that it eclipsed the maelstrom of battle, threw away the bolter and drew her power scythe. "Forward sisters! Slay them all in the name of the Emperor!"

The curved blade glowing radiant blue, Lithia held the power scythe high and sprinted after the Death Guard, above her Taelin and Aigle shot through the air, trailing jet plumes as they rained down a barrage of bolts and low ordnance rockets on the traitor foot soldiers trying to exploit a breach in the Sororitas's line. The rest of the high ranking Avenging Knights formed a wedge around Lithia, signature weapons blazing as they charged a horde of Nurgle daemons that had popped up between them and the Death Guards, the scene reminding Henry of the climax in Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, and he was a part of it! This was so fucking cool, even if he was the Hawkeye and Black Widow of the group. The Avenging Knights and daemons collided in an explosive thunderclap, fires, electrical bolts, bloods and bile surging skyward, the Sororitas momentum unbroken by the obstacle. Before long everything devolved into a savage melee, scythe, claws, hammer and spiked mace cleaving and bashing in a hellish storm of violence, and here was Henry at the epicenter without his chainsword! Dashing this way and that, dodging foes and allies alike, Henry leapt over a dead, and extremely fat, Nurgling and into a clearing where Samantha, Castrum, Miranda and three other Avenging Knights he didn't recognized were hunkered down, and blasting anything that got too close to them.

"You guys doing okay?" Henry slide in beside Samantha and dropped the three heretics that was chasing him with a triple headshots.

"We've faced greater odds than this," Samantha held up her shield, deflected a few bursts of conventional bullets, and returned fire with her bolt pistols. "Can't think of any right now, but I'm sure we've fought something just as bad before."

"What's the fucking plan right now?!" Henry shot a chainsword wielding PDF in the chest and fired a barrage into a swarm of Nurglings skittering toward them.

"Kill them all," Castrum calmly gunned down daemons and traitors with cold precision, her movement sharp and deadly. "Is that a good enough plan for you?"

"You said you wanted to contact the battlegroup," Samantha swiftly reloaded her bolt pistol, one handed, then pointed at the far end of the cavern overpouring with Chaos soldiers. "This is the closest you're gonna get to the breach, might as well try your luck now."

"Wait, you're letting him call for help?!" An Avenging Knight he didn't know blurted.

"Not one of Lithia's brightest ideas," Castrum admitted as she slammed in a fresh magazine. "But we don't have much of a choice at this point."

"Mayday, mayday! This is general Henry, do you read?!" Henry didn't need any more prompting and quickly flipped open his data-pad, yelling at the bright screen. Nothing but static greeted him. "We have a big fucking Chaos emergency, lock on to my location and send help immediately! I repeat, a big ass Chaos army got me and the Avenging Knights pinned, we require a relief force ASAP! Please respond!"

More static answered him.

"So much for that plan," Castrum snorted.

"I repeat, we need the Immortal Spirit to converge on my location immediately, we're getting fucked by Traitor Astartes, send help!" Okay, Henry was getting a little nervous now. "Tangmo?! Laura?! Damien?! Do you read?! Fuck! Albert, fucking do something!"

"What the fuck do you think I've been doing for the past hour?!" The Immortal Spirit AI retorted heatedly. "The fucking defense matrix of this place is on a quantum level dude! This shit is so powerful and complex that without Mary's help, it's gonna take me hours to get this damn thing crack!"

"Jesus Christ!" Henry bellowed the same moment an Avenging Knight barreled through a wall of heretics and skidded to a stop in front of him. In an epic, faster than you can blink gun slinging that would've made The Man With No Name and Django, both the Franco Nero and Jamie Foxx version, tip their hats in respect, Henry cut down the twenty or so PDFs trying to gang up on her, all of them falling dead within five seconds.

"Fuck!" The Avenging Knight cried out as she fumbled with her helmet, which was getting melted by a disgusting, vomit looking fluid. She yanked it off, the Batman helm bounced once on the gore slick floor before disintegrating completely into bubbling, hissing slush.

"Damn, almost lost your face there," Henry helped Lithia up.

"Fortunate that my good looks remain," Lithia offered him a devilish grin. "That was a very impressive display of gunmanship."

"Much oblige," Henry indulged in a little southern drawl. "How are things going?"

"Not too good, I'm afraid," Lithia flung filth from her power scythe. "You got any luck contacting the battlegroup? I'm starting to miss them terribly."

"Your goddamn firewall is too strong and I can't call for help!" Henry held his data-pad to her. "Even my AI's having trouble hacking the damn thing!"

"Unsurprising, our technological expertise have no match in the entire Imperium," Lithia was smug as all hell. "But I digress. Tell your Machine Spirit to input the password LXT4762 into the security matrix."

"You got that Albert?" Henry told his data-pad.

"I'm on it!" Albert started cackling like a lunatic two seconds later. "Ha! I got it, I'm in! The line is clear dude! Go!"

Henry was about to open his mouth when a salvo of rockets shot skyward, the spiraling projectiles zeroing in on Taelin and Aigle. The airborne Avenging Knights dodged the missiles with graceful flips and spins, topping things off by deploying a series of flares, sending the rockets flying harmlessly off course. Except for that one careening straight for him. Henry was starting to move when Athena slide in front of him and slammed her forearms together, creating a translucent golden shield that stopped the rocket from killing him and Lithia. But the explosion was powerful enough to send Athena flying into Henry, getting crushed by an armored woman was not a sexy experience.

"Are you alright general?" Athena rolled painfully off him, got up and reached her hand down.

"I think you broke something," Henry wheezed and took Athena's offered help, staggering slowly up to his feet. "Thanks Athena."

"You're welcome sir," Athena titled her head and looked over his shoulder. "Your data-slate wasn't as fortunate though."

"Huh?" Henry spun around and found the data-pad lying on the floor, cracked in half and spewing flaming sparks. "Well, shit."

"Guess that's a no on the reinforcement," Miranda deadpanned.

"Nah, Albert's probably sending out an SOS as we speak," Henry checked his laspistol, gave it a little twirl, and turned to Lithia. "What's the progress on getting our little eldar friend back?"

"Not well," Lithia hefted up her power scythe and started off toward where the fighting was the thickest, Henry and the Avenging Knights close at her heels. "The Plague Marines' formation is near impenetrable, I can't get close enough. And they're surrounded by traitors and daemons, every attempt to rescue the prisoner had been thwarted. If only the eldar wasn't capture, we would've already unleashed our full firepower on them."

"Have you tried disabling the Marines' power armor with EMP?" Henry suggested. "Immobilize them then pick them off one by one."

"Their power armor has become so tainted that it is no longer made of metal and wire," Lithia told him. "The armors are a part of them now, fused to flesh by cancerous mutation."

"Well, that's downright horrid," Henry shivered involuntarily. "So what do we do?"

"We'll think of something, in the mean time we should focus on getting through them," Lithia raised her power scythe and leapt at a wall of Nurglings and Plaguebearers zombie-shambling up to them, diseased swords held high. Behind them, heretic cultists and traitor PDFs fired their weapons wildly at the closing Avenging Knights, las and bullets ricocheting harmlessly off the ceramite armors. The front rank of Plaguebearers exploded in a putrid burst of gore and puss, sending disgusting ichor flying everywhere as Lithia's power scythe tore mercilessly into them, Lily, Athena, Kalina, Marie, Wendy and Mistur following her into the breach, widening the incision, uncaring that they were drenched in poisonous filth. Not wearing any protection, Henry decided to keep his distance from the Nurgle daemons, staying with Samantha, Castrum and Miranda as they killed things from afar.

"Watch your steps and follow me!" Henry dropped a group of heretics, clearing a path toward a messy tangle of scaffoldings. "Come on, let's go!"

After a moment of hesitation, Samantha, Castrum and Miranda followed Henry up the scaffolding, moving quickly and keeping their head low as they reached a balcony like ledge that overlooked the immediate vicinity. Lithia and the melee Avenging Knights were making good progress but the number game was clogging up their advance, all the while the Plague Marines, eleven of the ugliest motherfuckers Henry had ever seen, were strolling slowly away with Caengan.

"Castrum, Miranda, give Lithia covering fire, cut those sons of bitches down!" Henry pointed at a clump of PDFs trying to regroup beside a writhing gaggle of Nurglings then tapped Samantha on the shoulder. "I'm gonna try and slow the Plague Marine down, care to help?"

"Alright," Samantha nodded and took off with Henry as Castrum and Miranda unleashed a merciless barrage on the Chaos forces below, taking the pressure off Lithia's group.

"We're running and gunning them, aren't we?" Samantha asked him good naturedly.

"Fuck yeah!" Henry climbed up wobbly walkways of crisscrossing wood and iron until he was perched above the slow moving Plague Marine squad. "Can you keep up?"

"I should be the one asking that!" Samantha chirped happily and, with Henry at her side, started parkouring across the minimalist scaffolding, their steps sure and true as they skipped, rolled, leapt and somersaulted over the Plague Marines, peppering them with shots and bursts of las and bolts. The Traitor Astartes soon took noticed of them, but the diseased Marines were slow to respond, every shot fired from their desecrated bolters hitting only empty air and unoccupied ledges. But the Plague Marines behave differently from their Chaos cousins. Instead of shifting battle formation or forcing a new route through the heavy fighting, the Death Guards Astartes maintained their course with the same lethargy, only offering smattering attention to Henry and Samantha pestering.

"I can frag them with a melta charge and cut off their legs," Samantha offered as they huddled on a dangling plank.

"That could kill Caengan in the process," Henry shot the lead Plague Marine in the head three time, the big bastard didn't care one bit that the top of his skull was missing.

"We need to do something, the Marines will be behind enemy's line soon and we won't be able to shadow them," Samantha pointed at the fuck huge hordes of Chaos that were gathering before a large, awning gap in the cavern wall. Seeing how the Avenging Knights were rallying to Lithia's heroic charge, the Chaos forces had retreated back behind makeshift barricades of piled up rubbles. Henry could see PDFs organizing defensive perimeters, skaven packs scurrying about in mad anticipation as they trained their crazy, pieces of shit looking war machines at the nearing Sororitas, daemons baying in bloodthirsty hunger to the unholy incantation of Chaos priests, and holy fucking shit they got two Forgefiends with them, the Hades cannons shimmering and ready to be unleashed. And the Death Guards were only a couple of feet away from the finish line.

"We can't let the enemies escape with their objective," Samantha said sadly, her helmed face locking eyes with Henry.

"I know," Henry sighed and held his hand toward her, palm up. "Give me the melta grenade, I'll do it myself. Don't worry I'm a pretty good pitcher."

Nodding, Samantha gave Henry the grenade. Taking a deep, calming breath, Henry pulled the pin and reeled his arm back, aiming for the Plague Marine carrying the unconscious Caengan. Sorry buddy. Suddenly, one of the Forgefiends let out an ear-piercing shriek and exploded in a hellish fiery conflagration, killing its twin on the left and consuming hundreds of Chaos cultists and daemons gathered around the beasts of war. Cacophonic staccato of heavy firepower echoed from the breach, heralding a surge of heretics and PDFs that rushed forward in a chaotic stampede, crushing and pushing everything in their path to flee whatever was happening in the rear.

"Alright, Fortress of Solitude!" Yep, the cavalry has arrived, as Tangmo has magnanimously announced. "We are the Immortal Spirit battlegroup! And are you Ready to Die?!"

A Land Speeder Tornado shot through the churning black smoke billowing from the dead Forgefiends, every gun blazing as it made an epic strafing run on the tightly pack Chaos forces, tearing a bloody rent into their churning formation. And occupying the open cockpit was Damien, who was doing a Tokyo drift around the Death Guards, with Tangmo and Erik sharing the Space Marine size shotgun seat. In a display of absolute badassery, Damien, Tangmo and Erik leapt out of their seats and made a superhero landing in front of the stunned Avenging Knights as the Land Speeder, presumably on autopilot, flew away.

"Dudes! You see that eldar dude hanging from the Plague Marine dude's shoulder?!" Henry shouted into his earbud and threw away his primed melta grenade. It went off among a group of PDF. "He's super important, help him!"

"Gotcha," Tangmo drew his bolt pistol, awesome commissar coat billowing epically, and shot the Death Guard carrying Caengan in the legs, one bolt for each kneecap. Judging by how the Astartes collapsed to the ground, everything below his armored knees a scorched stump, Henry guessed that Tangmo had used the infamous Banestrike rounds.

"Nade them Erik!" Damien roared and sprinted for the fallen Caengan, tackled two Death Guards off their feet and combat rolled over the downed eldar, picked him up and ran out of the Plague Marine's circle the same moment Erik's grenades clattered to a stop and detonated. Instead of the boom and ball of fire, the spherical Aeldari grenades cracked opened to a very loud, heavy metal bass reverberation and unleashed a shimmering, distorted transparent membrane that enveloped the Traitor Astartes. The eleven Death Guards became frozen within the liquid like film and slowly floated upward until they were suspended ten feet above the ground, immobile within the temporal prison.

"I have to get down there, come on!" Henry swiftly descended the scaffolding with Samantha close behind him, managing to be gracefully despite the speed. Below, thunderous report of concentrated fire resounded across the cavern like the pounding drums of a super speedy Death Metal song. By the time Henry reached the ground the once immortal Plague Marines, papa Nurgle own Astartes, were reduced to smoldering gibs, raining back down to earth now that the eldar time suspension bomb ran out of juice, splattering all over the place in disgusting clumps. And the smells, holy fuck! The horrific stench defied all human decency.

"Sweet Mary and Joseph!" Henry slid in between Tangmo and Erik, both of them as disgusted by the smell as he was. Damien though, was perfectly fine, courtesy of his awesome Space Marine helmet. "God, that smells bad!"

"Yeah, we should've set them on fire," Damien shrugged.

"But shooting them is more fun!" Marie squealed brightly.

"No arguments there," Tangmo pointed at the Death Guards stinking remains. "Can you set these fuckers on fire please?"

"With pleasure," Castrum, Athena and Miranda stepped forward and cremated the dead Astartes with incendiary fire grenades. The purifying promethium burning away the filth and making the air breathable again, thank God.

"Never thought fire could smell so good," Erik chuckled and the boys joined in, laughing darkly as they turned toward the traitors and daemons that had stopped to gawk at the slain champions of Chaos. The abominations jittered restlessly, their animalistic mind unable to comprehend what to do next now that the Astartes were dead, while the piece of shit human traitors looked about ready to crap themselves. "They look scare."

"They should be," Tangmo grinned evilly and reloaded his bolt pistol with Metal Storm rounds, then drew a laspistol with his free hand, dual wielding both weapons, "because things just went from bad to worse for them."

"Shall we, ladies and gentlemen?" Damien went on politely as the Avenging Knights gathered around the quartet, Lithia wearing a look of pure amusement.

"Let's do this then," Henry raised his laspistol and shot a witless officer in the face, and like the bang of a starting gun, the woman's death signal the quartet and the Avenging Knights to unleash their firepower on the Chaos host, all barrel blazing as they plunged into the traitor's rank like white hot knife through butter. The quartet, moving and killing as a single unstoppable unit, was about half way through the Chaos forces when the four, their voices joining as one, started singing.

"This is your time to pay! This is your judgment day! We made a sacrifice and now we get to take your life!"

Tangmo's Metal Storm bolts tore daemons and traitors alike into brilliant specks of bloody gibs, Damien went full auto with his bolter and mowed down fleeing PDFs into pulpy, unrecognizable minced meat, Henry gunned down weeping men and women beseeching mercy with guiltless impunity, and Erik was thoroughly enjoying himself with the easy target practice as he dropped row after row of heretics.

"We shoot without a gun! We'll take on anyone! It's really nothing new, it's just a thing we like to do!"

Would you look at that, the quartet had killed so much shit that they could see glimpses of the Immortal Spirit battlegroup beyond the heretic's faltering line. Welp, better not keep an adoring crowd waiting! Bellowing the chorus at the top of their lungs, but still harmonized and on key, the quartet dived into the remaining heretics, many having already resigned themselves to death and tossed their weapons to the ground.

"You better get ready to die! (Get ready to die!) You better get ready to kill! (Get ready to kill!) You better get ready to run, 'cause here we come! You better get ready to die!"

And everybody's dead. Whoa! Things were looking bleak for a moment there, but holy shit, it was fucking over once the battlegroup arrived, charging down they turned the tide. Props to the Avenging Knights who heroically held the line too, their bitter stoicism in the face of overwhelming adversity pretty much saved the day.

"Oh yeah! Now that what I'm talking about!" Tangmo shouted and the battlegroup roared in exaltation, those who were not occupied with killing dying or surrendering enemies, like the Kriegs, were thrusting their weapons victoriously into the air, humans and eldars indulging in a battle well won.

"Yeah, that what's up!" Damien was jumping all over the place, still super hyped.

"Whew! For a moment there I thought you guys didn't get my SOS," Henry vigorously too sweet Damien, Tangmo and Erik.

"We didn't, actually," Erik grinned sheepishly. "We were already on our way here."

"Wait, what?!" Henry blurted in sheer disbelief as Lithia and the Avenging Knights closed in on the quartet, equally flabbergasted.

"The fucking PDFs were sealing off the entire western part of this sector," Tangmo explained. "They were blowing the place up for no reason, and when they tell us to fuck off, we attack them and found that they were funneling an entire Chaos army into these big ass tunnels. We followed and here we are."

"And right on time!" Henry smiled and high fived Tangmo. "Thanks dude, things were getting scary for a moment there."

"Well, we kick things into maximum overdrive when Albert went crazy and started screaming that you were getting killed," Tangmo smirked. "Shit was hilarious yo."

"Hey! I was worried!" Albert snapped in their earbuds and the quartet and the battlegroup laughed uproariously.

"Umm…guys?" Erik made his solemn interruption, bringing the raucous to a stop. "Is he alive?"

All eyes followed Erik pointing finger, and it was only now that Henry remembered Caengan. The eldar was laid face up on the blood soaked ground, his glazed, bleary eyes were trained unseeing upward. Thick sheen of sweat covered his body, drenching his prisoner garb. If it wasn't for the barely perceptible rise and fall of his chest, Henry would've thought the eldar was already dead.

"Oh shit! Caengan!" Henry made to approach the eldar but Athena blocked his way.

"He contracted ailment from the Plague Marine," Athena placed a gentle hand on his chest, stopping him. "Our hospitallers have administered medicine into his blood stream, but it is not enough to fight the fever."

"But we can," Ryvin, the head medic of the 89th Cadian, stepped through the crowd, a big syringe in his hand. "The battlegroup have made great leaps and bounds in the advancement of medical science and nanotechnology. Our anti-virus solution can stabilize and cure anything short of Nurgle's Rot. Now, if you ladies would be so kind as to step away from the patient."

"Hold up dude, let me stick him with the needle," Damien strode up to Ryvin. "I'm a Space Marine dude, untouched by disease, remember? I don't want you getting sick."

"You're right," Ryvin handed the syringe to Damien, "be careful, Brother Astartes."

"Don't worry bro, I totally know what I'm doing," with a gentleness that belays his size, Damien knelt down beside the unconscious Caengan and slid the needle into his arm, slowly emptying the concoction into his vein. The eldar was already breathing easier when Damien handed the syringe back to Ryvin, "there, all good."

"He should be move to the nearest medical facility," Ryvin observed. "I recommend we bring him to the battlegroup's field hospital for further observation."

"Let me do a quick scan first," Damien tapped the side of his awesome Space Marine helm, and squawked. "Holy shit!"

"What?" Henry asked as a crowd gathered around Damien.

"Jesus Christ, the dude look like he spent a couple of decades in Gitmo!" Damien was angst as his gaze roamed over the eldar. "How is he even alive?!"

Henry and Lithia glared at each other, the Avenging Knight's canoness flipping her hair over her shoulder with aloof nonchalant, her piercing gaze daring him to say something. Henry was opening his mouth, impolite comments locked and loaded, when Lita's worried voice blared across the intercom.

"Guys, we have a problem."

"What's happening?" Tangmo asked.

"The planetary governor just issued a proclamation declaring madam Lithia and everybody associated with her to be arrested on sight," Lita said. "They got pictures of her fighting without her helmet on. The madam's cover is blown."