The Wayward Son

Kill Team Calamity hurried down the corridors of the ship and towards an elevator. While waiting for it, they all noticed the Grey Knights coming behind them.

"Let's hurry up, we're almost to the hanger!" Seiras spoke urgently as they all filed in with haste. As it descended, they all looked at each other eagerly.

"It's a shame they can't teleport us in...I don't approve of taking a shark boat to the enemy flagship. It would be more effective to send boarding torpedoes if you ask me," Kallius remarked as the group exited the elevator hurried along towards the hanger.

"Sending boarding torpedoes to that ship would be extremely suicidal. They would be effective if we got closer to the Pride of the Emperor, but I highly doubt the Inquisitor wants to go near that thing with the Avenger of Terra," Nemias explained.

Arius shook his head, "Teleporting over would be the most ideal option, but I doubt we will could do so with the enemy flagship's void shields being as powerful as they are. We're not going to be able to scratch a Gloriana Battleship's shields from the outside, so it only makes sense to take a boat there. I trust our pilot will not fail, yes?"

The entire group focused on Nemias who despite everyone's helmeted faces knew they were staring at him. The Salamander spoke calmly as they continued running, "I assure you, we're going to make it. We will need to fly into the enemy hanger if we actually want to get inside of the ship though."

"So be it. I have never worked with Deathwatch before, but I trust you all to do you duty as well as any Grey Knight would. Stay pure and beware the corrupting powers of daemons and warpspawn," Arius replied as his head turned solely towards Seiras.

Seiras glanced over at the Grey Knight Captain, "We're yours to command, Captain Arius. My team was assigned as your backup after all."

"Of course brother Seiras. I look forward to seeing your prowess as a battle psyker in action," the Grey Knight replied resoundingly.

"Likewise," the Blood Raven responded.

As they finally reached the hanger, they could see Stormtroopers running down the corridors next to them as well. A broadcast sounded over the ship again, "All pilots report to the hanger immediately. Clear a path for the boarding parties. Launch fighters and bombers at once! Spirit the assault boats to the enemy flagship! Ship personnel report any suspicious activity to your commanding officer at once! Remember, the faithful will have the Emperor's protection."

Alarms were going off like crazy while several other commands sounded over the speakers. The Astartes paid no mind to it and followed behind Arius towards their assault boat. As the Kill Team and Grey Knights all loaded into the largest specialized looking assault boat, a large number of Stormtroopers filled in the empty spaces in theirs and every other boat in the hanger. The pilots wasted no time taking off once the boats were full and immediately flew into the void of space. As the assault boats departed into space, Seiras felt the one they were on starting to shake violently.

Nemias looked back from the pilot's seat and spoke loudly, "Hold on brothers,this is going to be a rough ride! I'm spearheading the boats. Ours looks like it can take a few more hits than the others."

To Nemias' side, one of the Tempestus Scions was copiloting their Assault Boat. Nemias was definitely oversized for the cockpit in the Shark Assault Boat, but he made it work nonetheless with his techmarine expertise.

Lances, cannons, lasers, torpedoes, and all manner of space ordinance erupted over the void's horizon as the two fleets clashed. From where he was sitting, Seiras could see dozens if not hundreds of fighters and bombers covering the small armada of shark assault boats leaving the loyalist fleet.

"So it begins," Kallius spoke calmly as he looked over the boat's inhabitants.

"Seiras, whatever happens, just know that I think you're the worst librarian ever...and that's why I like you," Viggo said making light of the mood after a brief ominous silence.

The Blood Raven stared at the Space Wolf terminator saying nothing. He couldn't see his face beneath the helmet, but Seiras could tell that Viggo was smiling. The wolf always loved the calm before battle and would usually say funny things like that to the others just in case one of them were to die.

"You're the only Space Wolf I like, Viggo, so I suppose the feeling is mutual," Seiras replied with a light chuckle.

"My Armour is contempt, my shield is disgust, my sword is hatred. In the Emperor's name, let none survive! This is no time to laugh brothers. We must gather our hatred for the battle to come!" Gregorius spoke furiously.

"I'm all for battle prayers then," Viggo chuckled at Gregorius' brewing hatred.

"It is better to die for the Emperor than to live for yourself," Kallius joined in the conversation with a prayer quote.

"You carry the Emperor's will as your torch, with it destroy the shadows," Decimus added.

"Lead us from death to victory, from falsehood to truth. Lead us from despair to hope, from faith to slaughter. Lead us to his strength and an eternity of war. Let his wrath fill our hearts. Death, war, and blood; In vengeance serve the Emperor in the name of Dorn," Gregorius spoke another prayer.

"If a man dies that another should live, then that man's spirit will eat at the Allfather's table," Viggo said. Some of the Stormtroopers bowed their heads and prayed silently as the space marines spoke their prayers.

One of the Tempestus Scions spoke up with his own prayer, "You will shoot the enemy once to ensure he fights no more that day. You will shoot traitors twice to ensure nothing less than their deserved death."

The space marines nodded approvingly at the words.

Another Stormtrooper added his own as well, "One cannot consider the fate of a single man, nor ten, nor a thousand. Billions will live or die by our actions here and we have not the luxury to count the cost."

"We die, though our war is eternal. We are doomed, but we walk in darkness. We are forgotten, yet the future is our gift to humanity," one of the Grey Knights decided to add another prayer quote.

A strange and calm silence passed as the Shark assault boat continued onwards. Nobody said anything else as weapons fire began to blow up many fighters and bombers escorting the boats. As they broke past the flanking battleships and flew towards the Pride of the Emperor, a torrent of torpedoes and ordinance flew at them from all sides. Although space marines knew no fear, they were all convinced that the boat wasn't going to make it before exploding. The stormtroopers maintained their resolve just as well as the space marines but a few were beginning to show anxiousness as the assault boat got clipped and spiraled wildly to dodge the majority of the enemy firepower.

"I don't know what you're doing to keep us alive, but keep it up, Nemias!" Kallius said approvingly. Nemias piloted as intensely as he could and narrowly got hit again as he came in range of the flagship.

"Most of the boats look like their getting through the line ships," the copilot stormtrooper spoke as he worked over several displays. Not even a moment after he spoke those words their boat shook wildly as a heavy barrage from enemy fighters shot them.

"We're hit! Enemy fighters are focusing us!" the copilot announced as Nemias skillfully evaded them as best he could.

Over the vox one of the fighter pilots spoke up, "Shark One is a high priority escort! Get those bogies off of them! Furyhawks 2 through 8 clear a path for the boats!"

"Shark 1 this is Furyhawk 1 we've got your six!" one of the Interceptor pilots announced over the vox as a wing of fighters began to gun down the fighters chasing their assault boat.

"Hold on tight!" Nemias announced as he aggressively piloted his way closer to the flagship dodging the enemy fighters. Just when it seemed they were clear, several more fighters arrived and immediately opened fire. The assault boat was now beginning to suffer heavy damage as systems and warnings flashed wildly in the cockpit.

"Emperor protect us," the Stormtrooper copilot said solemnly as the boat seemed to be falling apart.

"We're going in rough, brothers! Brace yourselves! I'm crashing into the hanger!" Nemias shouted.

Their assault boat suffered several more heavy shots and began to spiral out of control. Seeing that everyone was getting anxious, Seiras decided to rally them, "Only in darkness can we truly see light! Only in war are we truly faithful! We are the Emperor's will made manifest! We are the Bulwark of Humanity! We live and die as brothers, and we shall know no fear!"

Atmospheric pressure was immediately lost in the boat as it covered slightly more distance before crashing into one of the hangers of the Gloriana Flagship.

As quickly as they crashed, all eleven Astartes and surviving Stormtroopers aboard the boat released their restraints, picked up their weapons, and exploded out of the crashed boat into an immediate firefight. Decimus was the first one out and covered heavy bolter fire with his stormshield. The hanger was full of heretic humans, Emperor's Children space marines, Chaos dreadnoughts, and a horde of daemonettes among other things.

Many more assault boats flew into the hanger behind them as the group moved out and opened fire. A few had crash landings, but one managed to land properly. Out of these boats swarmed dozens of Stormtroopers and countless other Imperial Guardsmen and Naval Armsmen.

The real relief to Seiras however was when he saw Imperial Fists and White Templars Astartes coming out of several Thunderhawks shortly afterward. Seiras and the others all watched with awe as an Imperial Fists Chaplain and a venerable dreadnought practically leapt out of one and led the newly arrived space marines.

"We need to group up! Fall into a phalanx formation! Kill Team Terminators up front, we Grey Knights will cover the flanks! The rest of you fall in close and gun down everything you see!" Arius commanded the group.

Kill Team Calamity, the four Grey Knights, and the Stormtroopers all formed into a tighter group immediately afterward. The Deathwatch terminators took point while each of the four Grey Knights covered the flanks. They shielded the rest of the group from volleys of small arms fire and bolters as everyone got into more suitable positions.

The Stormtroopers all took cover behind the heavily armoured super humans and focused their lasrifles on shooting down medium range targets and covering the sides and rear of the formation. Decimus took point with a special type of power spear and his large stormshield charging through enemy lines.

Many of the enemy troops were powerless to fight back as the phalanx advanced. To Decimus' sides stood Viggo and Gregorius. The Space Wolf Terminator had two lightning claws and he used them rip apart enemies that were attempting to outmaneuver Decimus.

Gregorius was wielding a Xenophase blade and a combi pistol. He took out all of the enemies that were too fast or elusive for Viggo to hit and covered the two terminators in their advance. To the sides, the front two grey knights had nemesis force swords and storm bolters. They focused most of their efforts in the front with the Deathwatch Terminators.

The back two Grey Knights, one of which included Captain Arius both wielded Nemesis Force Halberds. They sliced apart anyone that tried to charge them from the flanks. Kallius focused his efforts in between the right two grey knights unleashing his grav gun into unfortunate chaos marines. Nemias would periodically alter sides when enemy dreadnoughts or vehicles got close. The Techmarine had a triflame vambrace equipped and was also wielding a meltagun.

Nogemo covered the left side with his Stalker bolter, and also had a power weapon in the shape of a double sided spear on his back. Seiras himself was channeling wards periodically to block heavy weapons fire such as rockets or lascannons as they fought through the army of enemies. Their phalanx progressed quickly through the horde of chaos forces taking no losses thanks to their impenetrable defense.

They wasted no time grouping up with the other loyalist forces that made it into the ship. The Imperial Fists Chaplain turned to face them as they came in to his flank and formed up in a defensive fortification.

"You must be that Deathwatch Kill Team that the Inquisitor said would be here...I wasn't expecting Deathwatch to help fight Chaos Marines, but I won't complain. We need to fortify a better position that's less open than this. I suggest fighting our way further into the ship before they overwhelm us here. If we can get them into a smaller space it'll be easier to bottleneck them and set up defenses. That formation you used to get here seemed effective. We should make a larger one to progress out of here," the Chaplain explained.

Seiras already liked this chaplain and nodded with agreement, "Good idea, Chaplain...we're under orders to sabotage the ship's weapons and void shields as well as engage the bridge. Fighting our way there would be beneficial. If you have a plan we're listening."

"Would it not be wise to keep a forward point here for our escape? The enemy will undoubtedly destroy our remaining boats if we abandon the hanger," another Imperial Fists marine asked.

"Adepta Sororitas made landing at an adjacent hanger with the Majority of White Templar forces. We need to group up with them first," A White Templar Devastator Sergeant interrupted.

"We must fortify in a secure location first. We should also send word for the Sororitas and White Templars to meet us. I will relay our location to them," the Imperial Fists Chaplain stated as he unloaded his storm bolter into charging chaos marines.

His black terminator armor, iron halo, and skull helmet were quite an inspiring sight as he turned back calmly and began to broadcast through a vox, "This is Chaplain Evaldus of the Imperial Fists, we're moving to fortify closer to the bridge. Any surviving loyalists forces meet us there!"

A voice came through on the vox, "This is Captain Valmades of the 8th Company White Templars! We read you, Chaplain! Our forces are scattered, but my men and I can gather them up and meet you there! The Adepta Sororitas are with us as well! We will meet you inside!"

The vox cut off immediately afterward as the sound of heavy bolter fire drowned out the broadcast.

"We need to move right now! Everyone form up! Snipers take down those Chaos Marines with the lascannons! You, Blackshield, put that stalker boltgun to good use and get rid of them! Dreadnoughts fall in with Captain Krias! I want a shield line!" The Chaplain said seriously.

Nogemo did as commanded and started to focus on sniping the enemy Chaos marines with lascannons.

"Behind me, I will clear us a path!" the Imperial Fists Venerable Dreadnought shouted as he moved towards the front of their formation.

"Everyone, stay in formation! The White Templar and Imperial Fists dreadnoughts will take point behind Captain Krias here," the chaplain pointed to the venerable dreadnought, "Kill Team Calamity, I want your terminators and Grey Knights to cover the sides. I would like that techmarine up front with the meltagun! Make sure nothing touches our dreadnoughts!"

"As you say, Chaplain!" Nemias replied as he formed up between two of the dreadnoughts.

"Enemy lascannons purged Chaplain!" Nogemo shouted.

"Good! Move out now! The rest of you stay in close formation. Guardsmen, focus your fire on the Daemons and lighter enemies! Chaos Marine armour is too thick for you to effectively deal with on the move. Leave them to our Astartes when possible!" Evaldus shouted.

"As you command my lord," one of the Guardsmen lieutenants shouted before issuing his own commands to several sergeants.

"Enemy chaos marines down! The path looks clear enough, Chaplain!" Kallius shouted after shooting a suicidal chaos marine with his gravitron gun.

"Move out! Stay behind the dreadnoughts! Stay in the formation!" the chaplain commanded as the small army of loyalists advanced behind the dreadnoughts clearing their way into a corridor.

"Librarian, up front with me, now!" Chaplain Evaldus commanded as he moved to the front next to the venerable dreadnought, Captain Krias.

Seiras moved to the front next to the Chaplain and assisted in taking down or blocking enemies wielding heavy weapons in order to cover the dreadnoughts in their advance.

As they progressed through the ship, it seemed as if they were in an endless firefight with enemies coming both in front and behind. The blast doors closed several times on them between corridors, but they were quickly torn apart by the dreadnoughts or opened by Nemias' technical tampering.

Daemonettes tried to flank and ambush them several times as they progressed, but stood no chance against the Grey Knights and Terminators that stood further back. Upon entering a large deck, Gregorius fired up his jump pack and moved to murder enemy snipers and tear apart heavy weapon fortifications while Nogemo sniped the rest.

Their advance continued like this for a time, and had few casualties thanks to the tactical expertise of everyone present. As they progressed further through the open deck into a larger corridor, Seiras could see the enemy trying to fortify a better position to hold them back.

Unfortunately for them, they could do little against the overwhelming loyalist forces. The combination of Grey Knights, Deathwatch, Dreadnoughts, Stormtroopers, a Chaplain, and a Librarian were nigh impossible to slow down.

"Their attacks are as weak as their faith! Spare none! Suffer not these traitors to live!" The Chaplain shouted fiercely as he smashed his Crozius Arcanum against a Chaos Marine's helmet. Countless foes fell to their relentless ferocity as they continued. The cultists and daemons were too weak to stop them and the chaos marines were too few in number and too spread out to resist their small army.

Everyone fought with increased zeal whether they realized it or not just because of the Chaplain's overwhelming fury. The black clad Chaplain was quite an inspiration as he crushed anyone dumb enough to charge him. Seiras himself felt invigorated by the man's passion for killing the enemy.

"Forward! Now! The bridge is close!" The Chaplain Evaldus shouted as he moved to the front of the group. Seiras couldn't help but admire the way that the Chaplain motivated everyone. Even though they were on their way to fight Fulgrim and damage the Pride of the Emperor, Evaldus had everyone believing that they were actually going to succeed in killing a daemon primarch.

"Is that all the fury you can muster, heretics?! BURN in the Emperor's light! Run away! Run and cower behind your traitor primarch! Let him feel the fury of the Emperor's REAL children!" Evaldus roared as the dreadnoughts unleashed a wall of flame and advanced down the corridor next to him and Seiras.

Seiras walked next to the Chaplain who was now slowly advancing through the gaps in the encroaching flame wall. It must have been quite a terrifying sight to the enemy, because all of the enemy forces began to retreat with haste.

"The Emperor's Fire of Perdition has come to burn away your impurity! There is no escape from retribution and justice, traitors! Shoot them down! Let our hatred resonate through these foul halls!" The Chaplain shouted even louder. His passionate anger had everyone following him with even more zeal if that was even possible.

The loyalists continued their advance through the ship mowing down any final resistance with focused success. After fighting for a good while, they finally took a brief respite. It was only then that Seiras finally realized that he and the others had all been following Evaldus even though he wasn't technically in charge of them or their specific mission. Even Captain Arius was following his orders which seemed strange to the librarian.

'This Chaplain Evaldus reminds me a lot of Mikelus...and Captain Thule. He truly honours that armour,' Seiras thought as the loyalist force arrived into some type of command room.

"Hold here, brothers! This position will serve our purposes," The Chaplain announced as he raised his Crozius Arcanum.

"If this is where I think it is, then we should be somewhat close to the bridge brothers. I see a lot of life support systems, and a void shield generator connection leads down there," Nemias pointed out a deck window to the group.

"We'll fortify this position here. Techmarines, I want tarantula sentry guns set up in each choke point and the dreadnoughts watching from all sides. Stormtroopers set up flanking positions near choke points shoot anything that moves. Keep yourselves at a medium range...we cannot afford any losses, Astartes or guardsmen."

"Yes sir!" one of them shouted as Astartes and Stormtroopers all dispersed to set up a fortification.

The heavy sounds of footsteps caught their attention as dozens of White Templars, Stormtroopers, and Adepta Sororitas seemed to be advancing down the corridor behind them.

"There they are!" one of the Imperial Fists techmarines shouted.

"Form up quickly brothers and sisters! We're fortifying!" the Chaplain announced to the arriving forces.

The full force of the surviving loyalists all gathered into the main area. While the stormtroopers, techmarines, and dreadnoughts all moved about to set up defenses, Jessenta moved up to the main leaders of the assault.

"We need to destroy as many vital systems as we can. This location is a central point and is good to cut the enemy off from various locations," Evaldus spoke to the group as he pulled out some type of datapad showing a slightly mapped out blueprint of the ship's interior.

"This ship is enormous...there's no way we can cover all of that area and stay in one large group. How do you intend to deal with those different areas?" Nemias wondered

"My group already took out several of the enemies' main weapons and sealed off several hanger corridors. It should keep this flagship from outright destroying our fleet for the time being. Special squads can split up from here and move to take out the main cannons, the void shields, and the lower command deck. Splitting up is our best option so long as this fortifification can remain as a fall back point," Jessenta explained as she interrupted the Astartes.

"We can also leave this area protected as a temporary base of operations to cover our main team while they're going for the bridge. It will keep a lot of reinforcements off of us while we deal with the bridge," Kallius added.

The Chaplain Evaldus thought for a moment as he looked between them, "I take it your Sororitas will be one of the special assault squads you are referring to sister?"

"Yes, most of them. My strongest sisters should go with Kill Team Calamity and the Grey Knights to engage the bridge while the others sabotage the void shields," Jessenta replied.

"All of our strongest forces that we can afford to send should definitely go to the bridge," Arius spoke up.

"I am going with team attacking the bridge! After what that disgusting traitor primarch said about the Emperor, I want his head!" the Evaldus said powerfully.

"Are you sure you don't want to keep watch over the fortification here?" Jessenta asked the Chaplain.

Evaldus growled at her, "My brothers will not fail while I perform this holy mission! I leave the matter of commanding our fortification to Captain Krias and my Imperial Fists here. They will hold the line and ensure the fortification stands! Do not underestimate them!"

"We will hold the line, Evaldus! We will fight to the last until you return from your holy duty! If you do not, then we die for the Emperor this day!" the venerable dreadnought said powerfully as he and many of the Imperial Fists looked at Evaldus for a moment.

"You do our Emperor proud this day, my brothers. Only in death does duty end! Fight with the Emperor's hatred!" Evaldus said resoundingly in response to the venerable dreadnought and a large number of his other battle brothers.

"As you say, Chaplain Evaldus," the venerable dreadnought replied.

"If the Sororitas can handle the void shields, then my Astartes can take out the rest of the enemy ship's weapons. If it comes around for another broadside, our fleet will be in trouble," one of the White Templars said as he walked up.

Seiras quickly identified that he was a Captain as several Sergeants flanked his sides.

"Destroy the Void Shields, Sororitas. The White Templars can deal with the main weapons," the White Templar Captain suggested.

Jessenta nodded at him, "Do what you must, Captain Valmades...may the Emperor be with you."

After a few minutes, everyone had their assignments, and they quickly dispersed to do any damage they could.

The Squad going for the Bridge itself was none other than Kill Team Calamity, the Grey Knights, The Chaplain, Jessenta, Selana, and several other elite Sororitas.

Various Stormtroopers were sent with other squads to help them in sabotaging the flagship, but the majority remained with the Imperial Fists' fortifification. It seemed well guarded with multiple tarantula sentry turrets set up, dreadnoughts covering the entrances, and cover set up in strategic points.

'Leave it to the Imperial Fists to be defensive on an assault mission,' Seiras couldn't help but think as they moved onward.

The squad moving towards the bridge met little to no resistance as they progressed which seemed unusual. Seiras had a really bad feeling that it had something to do with the fact that they were waiting for them in the bridge itself.

As they reached the final entrance before the bridge, Seiras held up his hand cautioning everyone to stop, "Wait! There's a lot of tainted warp energy in there. The enemy has fortified inside the bridge...they're waiting for us."

"That's hardly surprising considering how quickly we've advanced through the ship. The bridges on these ships are enormous. We could be fighting hundreds once we enter," Decimus said seriously.

"So what's the plan then? If we stick in the formation like we did before, they can't do much to stop us. Plus, Seiras and the Grey Knights can just counter they're daemonic magic," Viggo said looking over the group.

"Vehicles, walkers, daemons, and even enemy marines have done little to stop us. I highly doubt they would throw the same thing at us for their last defense. I suspect heavy firepower," Nemias noted.

"There has been a lack of Noise Marines on this ship. That's unusual for an Emperor's Children warband. If I had to assume what was on what's inside, I would say that Noise Marines are guarding the bridge...perhaps even Greater Daemons," Captain Arius added.

The other Grey Knights gripped their weapons tightly. One of them seemed troubled, "What about the Primarch himself? Is he not a Daemon Prince?"

"Enough! We will crush whatever is past this door! I don't care if there's ten daemon princes in there! We have a duty to fulfill! Let none of us die with our weapons unbloodied! The Emperor Protects!" Chaplain Evaldus shouted.

"The Emperor Protects," everyone repeated in unison except for Viggo.

The Space Wolf held up his lightning claws eagerly, "For Russ and the Allfather!"

"Let us go in first," Arius spoke up as he and the Grey Knights moved up front, "we can block the first wave of whatever is inside."

"It's now or never! Remember...Fulgrim is the highest priority! Any chance to kill him should be taken without a second thought even at the cost of our individual lives," the Chaplain Evaldus spoke seriously.

Jessenta briefly looked at Seiras, who was currently wearing his helmet and psychic hood over it. He glanced over at her. Despite not being able to see each other's faces due to their helmets, Seiras could tell that she looked worried for him.

He looked away clearing his mind of the distraction. Upon opening the door to the bridge the squad was met with over a hundred noise marines as they expected. The bridge was ridiculously big and from the command deck windows they all could see the Imperial Navy and Astartes Fleet fighting as fearsomely as possible. They weren't doing much to damage the flagship, but Seiras took some solace in the fact that Admiral Hightower had managed to leave a large wreck of escort ships, several cruisers, and even two of the Despoiler Class Battleships.

Seiras turned towards the huge group of noise marines. Many of the front line ones had blastmasters. While he wasn't one hundred percent sure how they worked, Seiras knew that they were devastating sonic weapons and that their formation wouldn't do well against such attacks.

The first wave came and would have easily killed them all if it hadn't been for the Grey Knights' raising a joint barrier to block it.

"Spread out! Watch out for those sonic blasters!" Seiras commanded as he formed a massive ward to block the secondary wave of them.

The group all spread out and wasted no time charging the noise marines. Firing his jump pack, Gregorius leapt high in the bridge and smashed down breaking their formation up. He immediately went to work slicing through the noise marines as best he could.

He swung with furious hatred at them and shouted as loudly as possible, "DIE TRAITORS!"

Looking out the window, Evaldus spoke loudly, "The Navy fights on as well brothers and sisters...do not falter! DO NOT HESITATE! SUFFER NOT THE HERETIC TO LIVE!"

Everyone charged as fast as they could to take out the noise marines with the blastmasters first. They were successful at cutting down the noise marines at close range and were gaining the edge rather quickly.

Their success was short lived as many more came to reinforce the area. What looked like the noise marines' leader spoke through an amplification speaker of some kind nearly defeaning the room, "HEAR THE SONG OF SLAANESH LOYALISTS!"

Upon finishing his statement, the noise marines began to play a defeaning cacophony of what Seiras could only describe as chaos music. It was loud, aggressive, and physically painful to listen to as the various Astartes and Sororitas all shouted and grimaced in agony.

"LOUDER LOUDER! WE ARE AMPLIFIED!" another noise marine shouted so loud that Seiras was convinced it was impossible to be louder. From what he knew of noise marines, they were capable of projecting sounds in decibals higher than people could actually hear. It caused brain melting agony according to all accounts he had heard and read. Those descriptions did not do justice to the pain it was causing them now though.

Various strange sounds began to play with the cacophany as it started to overwhelm their senses. Seiras heard singing, moaning, and screaming as well. It was impossible to actually describe how it sounded, but the longer he heard it the better it started to sound.

Seiras could barely believe his ears as he started to enjoy the sound and the weird combination of pleasure and pain it brought him. For some reason the pain felt bearable now.

"SLAANESH SINGS TO US! HEAR HIS PERFECTION!" the noise marines' leader shouted again.

Seiras felt himself slipping into what could only be described as a trance. There was a strange ecstasy washing over him that he could barely resist now. His pain stopped finally and he stood there staring around at his allies fighting to ignore their agony as they fought back enemy chaos marines.

The noise marine leader noticed Seiras' unusual reaction to the cacophany as the two looked at one another.

'Why doesn't it hurt anymore?' Seiras wondered as he absent-mindedly stared at the chaos marine leader for a brief moment.

"Seiras do something!" He heard somebody psychically scream in his head snapping him out of his daze. It was one of the Grey Knights. Specifically it was Arius.

The Grey Knight appeared to be resisting the dirge better than everyone else, but was getting overwhelmed by a dozen sonic blasters. Drawing on as much warp energy as he could, Seiras fired a torrent of lightning into the noise marines suppressing Arius. This broke up the cacophany's flow temporariliy allowing Arius to break free and slice apart many more enemy marines.

The loyalists wasted no time recovering as they all rushed the noise marine leader hoping to stop the cacophony. As they did so, another row of noise marines moved forward with sonic blasters and began to suppress them again.

"Daemonettes behind us!" Jessenta shouted loudly.

"Sisters handle them! Gregorius cover them!" Kallius issued commands as he unloaded his grav gun into as many noise marines as possible.

"We can handle the Daemonettes! Keep fighting brothers!" Jessenta shouted as she gestured for her sisters to kill the warp fiends.

Their forces were now divided, which wasn't a good thing. The Astartes minus Gregorius all began to gain momentum as they pushed further into the bridge.

"Seiras form up with us!" Arius shouted psychically as he and the other Grey Knights formed a tight formation.

"This is too dangerous with those blastmasters!" Seiras shouted psychically at him.

"We can negate them if we pool our power. Together, we must form a psychic barrier and advance. As one brothers!" the Grey Knight spoke telepathically.

The librarian and the four Grey Knights pooled their psychic powers together as they made a massive barrier. They focused intensely as they advanced through the wave of sonic blasters with it. This drew a lot of attention their way and alleviated pressure on the others allowing them to kill off flanking enemy marines.

"At my word break lose and kill those ones creating the dirge. There are eight creating the amplification. Seiras, use whatever you have to keep their leader distracted while we do so. He seems focused on you," Arius said as the five super human psykers moved closer.

"I'll deal with him!" Seiras replied eagerly.

"Break off! Now!" Arius shouted psychically to the others. The Grey Knights each charged in a different direction unleashing devastating pysker enhanced melee cleaves through the horde of traitor marines as they made their way to the ones amplifying the dirge.

Seiras channeled lightning over his force sword as he charged the noise marine leader cutting through any chaos traitor unfortunate enough to be in his way. The noise marine leader saw him charging and immediately tossed down his unique looking sonic blaster and drew what Seiras could only describe as a daemonic power sword.

The two clashed blades and unleashed a deafening shockwave as their swords met. It was only then that Seiras realized this was some type of unique sonic power sword. The very air began to shake as the noise marine swung it in deadly arcs trying to disorient the librarian. The chaos marine had incredible swordsmanship skills and was nearly impossible to get an edge on.

He was a far superior melee combatant to the librarian, but could not gain an edge against Seiras' substituted help with psychic attacks. Before the noise marine could deliver a fatal slash to the librarian, Seiras ignited his fist and threw a wall of fire between them.

Falling back temporarily he held his force sword up and charged lightning over it before blinding his enemy in a lightning tempest. This took out many flanking noise marines, but the leader fell further back avoiding it unfortunately. This inevitably caused Seiras to pursue him killing more noise marines along the way.

As Seiras battled his way closer, he fought with increased fury. He was so engulfed in his desire to kill the retreating noise marine leader that he barely noticed that his allies were being pushed away from him and he was being lured closer to the bridge's throne room. The librarian fought with blind hatred, and before he knew it, Seiras was all alone.

His allies were too busy fighting additional reinforcements to reach him, and he was now at the mercy of the Emperor's Children that surrounded him.

'How did I let myself get surrounded like this?!' Seiras thought incredulously.

He turned around furiously and stared down the Chaos forces behind him. He was surprised they didn't try to kill him while his back was turned.

"You must be Seiras, the one from the vox broadcast I take it? Lord Fulgrim was looking forward to meeting you," the noise marine leader spoke approvingly.

The librarian gripped his sword tightly as he approached the man ready for another battle. "Who are you?"

"Karia Terganicus...Terran Born. I was 5th company captain of the Emperor's Children. I'm also one of the highest ranking noise marines ever since Marius Vairosean met his end," the man answered.

Seiras did not recognize the name, but was shocked by the title. Fighting a chaos marine champion and former captain explained a lot about why he wasn't able to do much against him.

'No wonder he was so hard to gain an edge on. A terran born chaos marine must have unbelievable combat experience,' Seiras thought concerned.

"Ah, Seiras...so you managed to reach me after all," A beautiful but terrifying voice sounded. Seiras could not pinpoint its location until a figure manifested out of warp energy on the Throne in front of him.

He looked up with awe and disbelief at the gorgeous form of Fulgrim. Much to his surprise, the Primarch was not in the form of a daemon, which made no sense.

"I saw you enjoyed the Song of Slaanesh...those who do, can hear the Prince of Pleasure's beautiful voice. Slaanesh prides himself in the enjoyment of his dirge. I haven't encountered a loyalist who could hear it so well. You have been exposed to chaos before I take it? Even more than a typical librarian...how fortunate," Fulgrim said approvingly.

Seiras said nothing as he thought about how he was going to get out of his current predicament.

"You feel it don't you? That gnawing itch in your head...you want to hear it again? Hear Slaanesh and know divinity," Karia ranted excitedly as he played another cacophony again.

It was just as horrible and painful to listen to as it was before, but it didn't take long for Seiras to hear the strange sounds in the cacophony again. At first it was just the screaming, moaning, and emperor knows what else...but as he kept listening, Seiras could hear something indescribable. The music got better the longer he listened to it.

It finally manifested as a voice singing to him. It was feminine, alluring, and impossibly beautiful. Not on the most cherished of shrine worlds or even on Holy Terra herself could he hear a divine and enchanting voice as pleasant as this. Music played as the voice sang to him in an unholy way.

"Feel all the pleasures of yielding to glory; feel all the sins and desires for power;

Embrace my light and indulge in your dreams; hear their joy, their loving screams;

You are a slave to the father of mankind; set yourself free and experience bliss;

Suffer no more the Emperor's lies; Come to me and you shall rise;

Heaven awaits your every wish; All shall be yours, even my kiss."

After the song finished, Seiras found himself snapping back to reality. He was alarmed to see Fulgrim now standing directly in front of him. He couldn't help but admire how beautiful the primarch was. Seiras felt almost enraptured by the Primarch's appearance, similar to how Amelia seduced him. Fulgrim was truly the most attractive being he had ever seen. The librarian wondered if that had something to do with how divine primarchs were.

"How are you not a daemon?" Seiras finally found words to speak. The sounds of his allies fighting Emperor's Children marines was almost drowned out to him at this point.

"I am a Daemon Prince, but for me to leave the Eye of Terror and the Warp for prolonged periods of time, I have to compartmentalize my power. I figured it was worth wearing my human form, for old time's sake. Considering how pathetically Abaddon has been crusading against the Imperium, I figured it was time for me to show him how it's done," Fulgrim said as he walked around Seiras examining him like a circling shark.

The Primarch was much taller than him as expected, but not quite as tall as he imagined a primarch to be. Some stories said primarchs were over 3 meters tall, but Fulgrim was probably around 270 centimeters in height if Seiras had to guess. Fulgrim wasn't that much larger than Nogemo in reality, and the blackshield was simply an abnormally large Astartes from the Alpha Legion.

Fulgrim gave Seiras a curious look, "You said you were from the Blood Ravens? Who is your primarch?"

"We don't know," Seiras answered immediately.

For some unexplained reason he actually felt compelled to speak to Fulgrim instead of fight his way to his allies. Not to mention, they were not trying to kill him at the moment which only made him more curious as talking face to face with a primarch was a once in a lifetime opportunity for a modern day space marine. Even though Fulgrim was an evil traitor, Seiras could definitely see why primarchs were so revered just based off the way Fulgrim radiated in comparison to everything around him.

The primarch chuckled at him, "Of course you don't know your primarch. Most of your chapters that do not know of their origins are loyalists from the chaos legions. Have you ever heard of the loyalist chapter called the Red Scorpions?"

"I have heard of them," Seiras replied not really sure what Fulgrim was getting at.

"Yes...they are annoying worshippers of the pathetic Codex Astartes that my brother Roboute wrote. Ironically however, I am their primarch," Fulgrim said with amusement.

"You're lying! The Red Scorpions are one of the strictest and most devoted chapters I've ever known!" Seiras spat angrily.

"Am I lying? They value perfection just as all my sons do. Those of my legion who did not approve of our turning against the Emperor ran to the Ultramarines for protection. You might find it surprising to know that a great number of your chapters that claim to be from the Ultramarines or other loyal legions are actually sons of the traitor primarchs. Take your Minotaur friend for example...he comes from World Eater gene-seed. From my brother Angron," Fulgrim said with a sly grin.

Seiras glared at him, "Assuming that were true, how could you possibly know that!? What makes you think I would believe it?!"

"I don't expect you to...although considering your, individuality, strong sorcery, and abnormal curiosity for an Astartes I have an idea who your primarch is. Would you like to know?" Fulgrim taunted slyly.

The Blood Raven stared into Fulgrim's beautiful purple eyes as he felt a gnawing curiosity well up inside of him.

'Does Fulgrim actually know who my primarch is?' Seiras wondered.

"Your primarch is-"

"SEIRAS!" Arius called out as he charged through a line of chaos marines with the other Grey Knights to reach the librarian.

The Grey Knights and remaining Kill Team members finally reached Seiras and all called out to him concerned. During his brief conversation with Fulgrim and Karia, his allies had managed to wipe out most of the noise marines.

"What were they doing to him?!" Kallius demanded angrily.

"Secure that librarian at once!" The Chaplain practically commanded to the Grey Knights.

Captain Arius moved in swiftly and teleported behind Seiras pulling him away from Fulgrim and Karia as the other Grey Knights slaughtered several chaos marines that tried to stop him.

"Snap out of it, Seiras!" the Grey Knight captain shouted as he punched Seiras out of his daze.

The librarian immediately regained his clarity as his allies gathered around him.

"What was I...doing?" Seiras said disbelievingly as they all stared at him.

Thankfully, the Sororitas and Gregorius were finally back as well. They all moved in quickly to regroup as the others turned to stare Fulgrim down.

"Ah, so you all managed to reach me after all? Quite impressive. The Emperor truly sent his best to stop us," Fulgrim said with a mocking grin as he drew his sword and stepped forward.

All of the surviving chaos marines watching nearby moved in to kill the loyalists now that they were surrounded. They stopped shortly afterward as Fulgrim raised a hand.

"Everyone lower your weapons. They came for me...so I will let them try to kill me. Come now loyalists and show me how powerful you all are!" Fulgrim laughed.

The enemy chaos marines all stepped back as Fulgrim slowly waved his blade gesturing for them to give the loyalists room to fight him.

"That's the primarch of the Emperor's Children?!" Viggo demanded.

Most of them had varying levels of confusion at Fulgrim's non-daemonic appearance, but had little time to ask about it as the Primarch swung his daemon sword at Seiras first.

The Librarian immediately went down with a devastating scar across his armour's midsection. He could barely believe the speed at which it occurred and could only watch with disbelief at how completely slow to react he was.

He quickly tried to recover as he swung his force sword in devastating lightning infused flurries. Fulgrim easily parried them before tripping the librarian and scissor kicking him forward. As Seiras stumbled forward, he felt the Primarch deliver a powerful roundhouse kick sending him flying.

"Seiras!" Kallius shouted seriously with anger radiating from his voice.

"You'll pay for that you traitorous primarch bastard!" Viggo shouted as he charged at the Primarch with his lightning claws. Everyone else charged with their melee weapons as well except for Nemias, Kallius, the Sororitas, and Nogemo. They all tried to shoot Fulgrim with their weapons while the squad surrounded him, but it did little to hurt the Primarch as he danced around their attacks.

Fulgrim toyed with them all as he parried, blocked, and dodged every melee attack from all sides. His swordsmanship skills were downright incredible as he made quick work of everyone.

The primarch effortlessly beat them all down one by one without recieving a single scratch. He purposely did not deliver death blows for some reason as he seemed to genuinely enjoy their despair and pain in the situation.

"Pathetic...you all fight like feeble children. The Emperor's finest?! Don't make me laugh! None of you can even land a hit on me! The mighty Grey Knights...Deathwatch...and you even brought women to help you? How amusing," Fulgrim chuckled as he moved over towards the Sororitas.

Jessenta, Selana, and several of their elite sisters were literally powerless against Fulgrim as he moved in to beat them down. "Women...fighting...hahaha! I thought only Eldar females fought!" Fulgrim laughed as he cut Selana's armour in lightning fast strokes causing it to break apart.

The woman stood frozen in fear as Fulgrim picked her up by the throat, "So vulnerable...so weak. I think I'll let my marines rape you. Once they're done, the regular crew and daemonettes can have what's left. Or would you prefer I give you to Slaanesh as an offering?"

Selana shook with fear as Fulgrim moved his blade to her helmet, "I wonder what that face looks like..."

"Stop it, you freak!" Jessenta shouted as she attempted to swing her power sword at Fulgrim from the side. He effortlessly avoided it. She made it two steps closer before Fulgrim's Daemon sword slashed her. It was a genuine miracle that she wasn't cut in half from the slash as the Cannoness Commander went down in a pool of blood.

The white haired primarch shook his head, "I detest heroes and foolish mortals who don't know their place."

Before he could do anything else to Selana who was still in his grasp, Fulgrim felt a massive torrent of doombolts blast him back. He dropped the petrified Selana who quickly ran over to check on Jessenta. The Cannoness Commander was now bleeding out from her stomach. Nogemo and Nemias moved over to check her as well as the other Sororitas. The Techmarine attempted to administer a quick solution to her bleeding as Fulgrim turned to face the second wave of psyker attacks.

As she attempted to remain conscious, Jessenta was surprised to see Seiras now standing again.

Fulgrim looked over and saw Seiras overflowing with Psychic energy and crackling with lightning, "Still alive, Seiras? You are quite impressive. You're no Ahzek Ahriman, but you've got potential to be a champion of chaos. Given enough time to perfect your talents, you could be powerful if I let you live."

Kallius looked over concerned when he saw a strange glow coming off of the librarian. It looked ominous and completely tainted. The librarian growled with anger as he charged again. The area around him erupted in purple flames as he went after the primarch.

"That's warp corruption," one of the Grey Knights said to Arius as he watched Seiras battled against Fulgrim in a hateful frenzy.

"Fulgrim was trying to corrupt him," Arius replied as he gripped his Nemesis force halberd with anger and moved in to back the librarian up.

Seiras' attacks were far more powerful and quick now, as they managed to slightly stagger Fulgrim, but he still couldn't break the Primarch's guard or actually hurt him.

"As one brothers! Everyone, work together!" Evaldus shouted as he ran up and dove into Fulgrim from the side. He narrowly parried the Primarch's daemon sword with his Crozius Arcanum before grabbing a hold of his arm.

As the Chaplain held Fulgrim still for a moment, Viggo moved in with his lightning claws and delivered a massive slash over Fulgrim's back delivering the first hit to the primarch. The white haired primarch seemed furious now as he immediately threw off Evaldus.

He spun around to block Viggo's followup attacks and quickly grabbed the Terminator's arm using his lightning claw to stop Arius' force halberd coming from an opposite angle. In the span of several seconds he easily gained the edge again despite all of them now tag teaming him from all sides.

Decimus charged with anger and swung his power spear as hard as he could, but was immediately redirected into Viggo, before Fulgrim tripped both Terminators. They didn't even hit the ground before Fulgrim was blocking an aerial dive from Gregorius.

Fulgrim caught the Black Templar mid air and used his body as a shield to block several of the other Grey Knights who moved at opposing angles and speeds. The Black Templar felt himself being impaled by force weapons before getting tossed down.

Seiras moved in to guard Gregorius as Fulgrim went for the kill, narrowly stopping the Primarch's blade. With divine speed, Fulgrim stabbed Seiras again before high kicking him in the head and back to the ground next to the Black Templar.

"I'm growing tired of this...time for you all to die!" Fulgrim growled as he cut down the Grey Knights that moved to stop him from attacking the downed Seiras and Gregorius. Two of them fell to his flurry of onslaughts, and were powerless both physically and psychically to stop him.

Fulgrim wasted no time killing both downed Grey Knights before spinning over to disarm Arius and impaling the Grey Knight Captain. Arius fell down injured, but not dead. He would have been dead had Chaplain Evaldus not tackled Fulgrim from behind.

The Chaplain fought with as much fury as he could muster, "Fight on brothers! He must die!"

Before Fulgrim could peel him off, Viggo and Decimus used a tactical charge to stop him. Viggo moved to cut off Fulgrim's arm while Decimus jabbed his spear for the legs.

Fulgrim practically spun and flipped as he threw Evaldus into Viggo's path and stabbing the Space Wolf as he fell. He gracefully stabbbed Viggo several more times as the terminator hit the ground. Decimus wildly attacked the primarch as this was happening, and managed to block Fulgrim's onslaught from outright killing Viggo. The Minotaur brought up his shield just in time to stop a fatal blow from Fulgrim's blade. The two were then locked in a brief pushing contest as Decimus' shield held back Fulgrim's daemon sword. It did not last long after the primarch started pushing back.

With superior strength and speed, Fulgrim overpowered the terminator and moved swiftly behind Decimus and stabbed him in the back. Pulling his blade free, Fulgrim swept his leg knocking Decimus to the ground as he calmly walked forward.

Evaldus looked over to Seiras, who was now recovering in fury. Gregorius, heavily injured now, threw his xenophase blade to Kallius, "Sergeant, take it!"

Kallius immediately caught the xenophase blade and moved in to cover one of Fulgrim's sides.

As they all moved in for another combo of attacks, Fulgrim failed to see Nemias charging his Meltagun until it was almost too late. The powerful weapon caught him off guard as he moved to avoid it, which put him right in Kallius' path.

The Blood Angel seemed to be moving faster and more erratically as he, Seiras, and Evaldus were the last ones attempting to fight Fulgrim in melee. Nogemo moved to pull the others to safety and looked over at Arius and his remaining Grey Knight Terminator.

"Fall back...we can't win this fight," Nogemo said seriously.

"Fall back?! Are you serious, brother!? We've come too far to fail! Help them Nogemo!" Nemias said as he attempted to incinerate Fulgrim with his flamer and Meltagun once more.

It didn't take long for Fulgrim to take everyone down again. He even moved to knock down Nemias, and the others with precision blows. All of them were now injured on the ground and watched powerlessly as Fulgrim paced around in amusement, "This was a cute little fight...but none of you stood a chance from the beginning. Which of you should I kill now?"

"Kill me...if you can," Nogemo said strongly as he got back to his feet. The Primarch watched amused as the Blackshield drew the double sided power spear off of his back.

"You have done the least fighting here. It seems only fitting that you die before everyone else like the coward you are," Fulgrim noted.

"Your Crusade end here, Fulgrim. I have come to stop you," Nogemo said seriously.

"Does it now? You're quite confident. Who do you think you are? Do you actually think you're going to stop me?" Fulgrim chuckled. His surrounding chaos marines, bridge officers, and even some of the surviving daemonettes all laughed as well.

Seiras was shocked by how calm Nogemo seemed. Most of them were on the verge of defeat, and the Blackshield was not stressed at all despite the situation. With daemonic speed Fulgrim flurried his blade at the Blackshield who matched his attacks and parried them all flawlessly.

The others all watched with shock as Nogemo even managed to land a hit on Fulgrim cutting a strand of his beautiful white hair and putting a small cut over his cheek..

The Primarch stared at him seriously, "It can't be...you're no ordinary space marine."

"Oh but it can...long time no see, brother," Nogemo said as he pulled his helmet off placing it to his armour's side.

"Alpharius?!" Fulgrim said disbelievingly as he actually took a step back.

"Alpharius, Omegon...close enough," Nogemo replied.

"You're the primarch of the Alpha Legion?!" Seiras shouted at the Blackshield as he tried to stand up.

"What are you doing here?!" Fulgrim said shocked.

Omegon grinned at him, "Alpharius is busy right now...but I had to make sure that you did not interfere with our plans. I did not want to have to reveal myself this soon, but it would seem my brothers have failed in stopping you. They fought better than I expected though."

"You bastard, you're no brother of ours! He's been a traitor all along!" Kallius said furiously.

"Quite right, Kallius...but this matter is between two older brothers," Omegon stated as he stared Fulgrim in the eyes.

"No! I won't stand for this!" Kallius roared as a berserker rage began to take over him. He rushed Omegon with hatred and tried to attack him, but was easily stopped by the Alpha Legion primarch as Omegon knocked him back with tremendous force.

Nogemo, or Omegon rather, was now moving way faster than before as he easily beat back the berserking Kallius.

Gregorius seemed horrified by the revelation of his identity. Viggo and Decimus were both seriously injured and had angry reactions as well as they attempted to stand back up. Evaldus seemed too angry to even speak as he gripped his Crozius even tighter now. Arius seemed utterly beside himself with disbelief at how unbelievable it was for a primarch to masquerade as a Blackshield.

Gregorius panted furiously, "You lied to us!? You're a traitor primarch?! ALL TRAITORS MUST DIE!"

Gregorius moved in with the recovering Kallius now holding the grav gun and a combi pistol as he wildly fired at Omegon. Much to everyone's horror however, Fulgrim cut them both down from behind as they charged Omegon. Gregorius fell over unconscious, and Kallius might have been dead for good by the looks of it as blood sprayed the ground from his collapsed form.

"Kallius!" Seiras shouted as he attempted to run in to avenge his fallen Blood Angel Sergeant.

Omegon blocked Seiras and everyone else, "Get back! None of you are a match for him or me...you proved it just now. I didn't want to reveal myself this soon, but it's time for you to go back to the Eye of Terror, Fulgrim."

"So noble, Alpharius, Omegon...whichever one of you it is. What do you owe these loyalists anyway? You're no loyal servant of our father," Fulgrim asked.

"I owe them nothing...I am simply here to stop you," Omegon replied as he and Fulgrim began to fight each other.

"We'll see about that!" Fulgrim hissed

The towering superhuman primarchs both moved in and engaged in a devastating battle of skill and power. Although Fulgrim was a better swordsman by a considerable margin, Omegon was still successful in dodging his attacks and cheapshotting Fulgrim between his combos.

During this time, the enemy chaos marines watched on with considerable excitement eager to move in and rip Omegon apart the moment their primarch killed him. The downed loyalists could do little except watch the battle in their injured state.

The battle between the primarchs didn't last long unfortunately before Fulgrim began to get upset at his inability to kill Omegon outright, "Enough of this! I will end you, Alpharius!"

The entire bridge, loyalists and traitors alike, began to distance themselves from the two primarchs as Fulgrim's body started to glow a pinkish purple.

All they could do was stare on in disbelief as he took on a serpentine daemonic appearance and grew in size. Additional limbs and blades manifested out of the overwhelming warp energy as Fulgrim transformed into his full Daemon Prince form.

"Your life endssssss today, Alphariussssss!" Fulgrim hissed as he slithered towards Omegon.

Omegon fell back with a slight smile, "This distraction was exactly what I intended for you, Fulgrim. You never were one to see the big picture when you were obsessing over something. By the way, brother...I brought reinforcements to stop your fleet. Have a look outside."

Fulgrim slithered forward angrily, but briefly turned his glance towards the deck window and saw something he could not believe...an Eldar fleet flanking his own.

As Fulgrim glared hatefully out the window, one of the Chaos crew members shouted loudly, "Lord Fulgrim, Eldar Corsairs are everywhere! Weapons are misfiring! We're defenseless! void shields are failing!"

"Eldar?!" Fulgrim hissed angrily as he glared out the observation deck window to see countless corsairs coming in to help the Inquisitor's fleet. Atia's fleet looked like it had suffered over two thirds of its numbers in losses, but the arrival of the Eldar corsairs spared them as the Despoiler Battleships and other enemy line ships were now under heavy fire.

The daemon primarch growled angrily, "Men kill them all! I don't have time to deal with you loyalistssss anymore. As for you, Alphariusssss, I will see to it that you ssssuffer for thisss!"

Before anyone could kill the injured loyalists, Omegon threw six unique looking grenades from his waist in all directions obscuring everyone's vision.

The Alpha Legion Primarch moved to take out enemy marines nearby during their distraction and quickly glanced at the remaining loyalists, "Gather your brothers and fall back, I'll hold them off for you!"

"Nogemo, why?!" Nemias gawked. Nobody had any time to voice their concerns as the enemy chaos marines all fired into them and charged.

"We can't retreat! He's right there!" Evaldus shouted hatefully.

Just then a vox broadcast sounded, "This is Captain Valmades, Get out of there at once brothers! We have nukes set to explode at key points in the ship! The enemy is starting to overwhelm us and Eldar boarding parties are on the-"

The transmission cut out afterward as the survivors all gathered their dead and dragged them back. Omegon relentlessly devastated Fulgrim's chaos space marines during their retreat and did what he could to hold back the serpentine daemon prince from stopping the escaping loyalists.

Seiras himself had Gregorius over his shoulder and was trying to cover his team as the Terminators and the Chaplain pulled the dead grey knights.

Jessenta was unconscious and currently being carried by one of the sisters as the half-armourless and injured Selana followed after them.

As they made it to the door, Seiras handed Gregorius to Viggo who was now carrying him, and Kallius. Arius and Decimus moved to take the two dead Grey Knights. Seiras had no idea how most of them were still standing after the injuries they recieved, but assumed it had something to do with their Terminator armour. Nemias appeared mostly alright compared to the others. He took point as they rushed out of the bridge room.

"You fight for the Emperor's slaves?! I will remember this Alpharius! The Alpha Legion will know my wrath! You will SSSSUFFER!" Fulgrim roared furiously as he attempted to stop them.

Omegon simply grinned as he delivered a strategic slash over Fulgrim's face before dashing out of the hanger at inhuman speed.

After leaving the bridge, Omegon strategically fell back after the retreating loyalists and sealed the door to the bridge with a nearby panel before blowing its panels off. The Astartes all looked at him suspiciously and hatefully as he slowly turned towards them.

Omegon looked them over for a brief moment and grinned, "It's been an honour fighting alongside you all...but I must leave now. The Alpha Legion sends its regards. For the Emperor my brothers."

"What?! You're running away now?! What were you even doing here you damned traitor?!" Nemias said disbelievingly.

"I told you that if you betrayed us I was going to kill you!" Seiras shouted furiously.

"We should kill him now, before he escapes!" Decimus roared.

"You're welcome to stay and fight Fulgrim whenever he breaks down that door, but I would not recommend it. Even I can't beat him alone in that form. I suggest you all leave," Omegon said calmly despite the hostile hatred everyone was directing his way.

"Not before I get your head to send to Holy Terra!" Evaldus growled as he charged with his Crozius Arcanum.

Omegon caught the chaplain's wrist mid swing and squeezed tightly as he moved his double sided spear into Evaldus' face. He said nothing as he effortlessly tossed the Chaplain back looking over the disbelievingly loyalists.

"I did the wrong thing for the right reason, brothers. I came to make sure Fulgrim did not succeed in aiding the Black Crusade. I succeeded. It is a shame that things had to happen this way for you all. Good luck getting off this ship...and watch out for Eldar," Omegon said as he began to take his leave.

"Nogemo!" Seiras called out hatefully, "You'll die for this you fucking traitor!"

"I'm not Nogemo...I'm Alpharius," Omegon said to him briefly before taking off.

Evaldus immediately started firing his storm bolter at the primarch as he left, "The Alpha Legion can eat this you damned traitorous snake!"

They all watched with shock as Omegon avoided the bolter fire and left through some opposite corridor. Seiras had no doubt that he was heading for one of the hangers.

Evaldus growled hatefully, "This is dishonourable! We should not be retreating! Better to die for the Emperor than to live for ourselves! He betrayed us and now runs away in fear?! How disgraceful!"

"We don't have time to stand here, brothers! This ship is going to blow up whenever those bombs go off. We'll dicuss this later! We need to get out of here before they break down that door. Are the void shields down?!" Arius asked seriously.

"They should be if my sisters did their jobs," Selana spoke up. She and several of her elite sisters were remarkably still alive, but the same could not be said for Jessenta who was in just as bad of a condition as Kallius.

"Leave these dead Grey Knights then. I will have their teleport homing beacons set to bring them back to the flagship. It'll be risky, but it's all we can afford to do since they're dead and we can't exactly drag terminators out of here. The rest of us need to fight our way to the hanger!" Arius said seriously. Decimus let go of the Grey Knight he was dragging along with Arius.

The Grey Knight Captain quickly sent their teleporting beacons to go off before the group began to move again. Seiras was at the very back of the group and glanced down at the two dead Grey Knights. He immediately picked up the Nemesis Force Halberd clutched tightly in the grip of one of the dead Grey Knights before following behind the rest of the group.

"We need to gather up with Captain Krias and Captain Valmades and get out of here!" Evaldus said as the Space Marines and Sororitas all made their way back to the fortification.

"Captain Valmades, come in! We are on our way out now! Do we have extraction?!" Evaldus asked as the group hustled back to the fortification.

"Hanger four is secured! We have inbound thunderhawks and Shark Boats! HURRY BROTHERS I am still here! We're already evacuating!" Valmades shouted.

They didn't take long to reach the Imperial Fists fortification and were relieved to see most of it still intact, but a noticeable lack of forces were there. Only Captain Krias, a sizeable force of Stormtroopers, and Imperial Fists Marines remained.

The Dreadnought quickly spoke as they arrived, "Most of our forces are already en route to the hanger! We were waiting here for you, Evaldus!"

"You have my thanks brother! Let us get out of here!" the Chaplain shouted as the group all hauled their asses as fast as possible.

Seiras was relieved that they had backup now to fight off enemy forces because he and his remaining team were in no condition to effectively fight hordes of enemies anymore. Arius happened to notice Seiras carrying a nemesis force halberd, but had no chance to mention it as the group hastily escaped towards the hangers fighting off foes.

The Blood Raven was relieved when Gregorius regained consciousness again. He seemed very angry about them having to "run away" but that was all they really could do at this point. The Black Templar quickly got off of Viggo freeing one of the Space Wolf's arms to help fight.

Seiras remained in the very back of the formation to cover for the lagging Stormtroopers and injured Astartes and Sororitas. A great number of Daemonettes were chasing behind the group and managed to snag an unforunate few. Seiras unleashed a vortex of flames to cover for the last of them as the survivors in the very back reached him. Selana and several Stormtroopers were the last people to pass by him and she was limping rather badly much to his concern. It appeared she was suffering from wounds inflicted by daemonettes and Fulgrim's earlier assault.

The Sororita didn't make it far as she collapsed in front of him causing a few of the Stormtroopers and Seiras himself to stay back assist her. She tried to get back up again but to no avail. As the Stormtroopers pulled her to her feet, a few chaos marines came around the corner and fired a volley of rockets over their heads. Seiras blocked them from hitting the group, but unfortunately redirected the explosion into the ceiling. This cost them dearly as an entire section of the corridor exploded in front of them separating Seiras, Selana, and the handful of the Stormtroopers from the rest of the group which was now almost to the hanger.

The stranded loyalists quickly took down the two enemy space marines, but were now in a very bad situation.

Seiras immediately tried to send a psychic message to Arius, but couldn't much to his surprise. He opened his vox channel afterward, "This is Librarian Seiras, come in! Some of us got separated back here!"

"You're going to have to find another way out brother! The entire corridor is collapsing! We don't have time to dig it out! Were nearly to hanger four! There's no other way here from the other side!" Evaldus shouted into the vox.

"Is there any way to teleport us out?!" Seiras asked.

"I can't guarantee it. Not with all the fighting happening right now! I'm not even sure my dead Grey Knights will get teleported out of here." Arius joined into the vox.

"You can teleport out of there, Seiras! You're a librarian after all," Nemias spoke seriously into the vox.

Upon hearing that fact, Selana and the Stormtroopers all jerked their heads towards the librarian expecting him to do so.

Seiras briefly examined them and shook his head, "I have others with me and the warp is too unstable on this part of the ship!"

"Then try to get to another hanger brother! I'll bring a thunderhawk around to pick you up!" Nemias shotued into the vox.

"We'll find our way to one!" Seiras shouted before turning to the group he was stranded with.

They all appeared distressed about being cut off from the others. One of the stormtroopers spoke up seriously, "The bombs are set to go off in fifteen minutes! We better fucking hurry if we want to make it out of here alive!"

"ARGH! I can't move! Just go on without me!" Selana grimaced in pain as she attempted to put pressure on her feet. She was in no position to fight or run.

Seiras had no idea what was wrong with her, but considering that she was a normal human who just survived an encounter with a primarch, it was safe to say that she got injured in someway as even all of the Astartes and Grey Knights were injured from that battle.

"We're not leaving you to die," Seiras said as he lifted her over his shoulder.

Selana immediately tried to protest, "What do you think you're doing, Seiras?! Put me down! This is stupid!"

"We stayed behind to help you. Leaving you here would have made it all for nothing. You're going to survive, sister," Seiras replied sharply.

"Fine...you can all die with me," Selana said grimly as she stopped struggling against Seiras.

Seiras looked over the stormtroopers once she calmed down, "C'mon men, let's hurry! Selana can you hold on to me? It'll make it easier for me to fight."

"Of course I can! Give me a bolter too!" she shouted as she wrapped an arm over Seiras' neck and wrapped her legs around him holding on tightly.

The Stormtroopers all followed after the librarian who was running at remarkable speed with Selana now on his back. The group moved around and fought through daemonettes and cultists before reaching what was presumably another hanger. Unfortunately, all of the ships in the hanger were gone or destroyed.

"Seiras look out!" Selana shouted as she unloaded an entire bolter towards his rear.

Seiras turned around just in time to take a lascannon shot to his chest which immediately took him down. Before he could even locate where the shot came from, another lascannon shot blasted his psychic hood and the top of his helmet forcing him to the ground.

Looking up in a heavily injured state, Seiras could now see a lone chaos marine holding a lascannon from the hanger entrance. With the last of his strength, Seiras fired a surge of warp lightning towards the Emperor's Children marine killing him immediately.

Seiras attempted to stand again, but was now losing consciousness. Even despite his superhuman constitution, he was finally starting to feel the full effects of his injuries. He struggled to remain alert as his vision went blurry.

Selana was now attempting to rouse him from his daze as she pounded on his helmet, "Seiras! Get up! We have to move!"

"Cultists incoming!" one of the the Stormtroopers shouted as he saw a pack of rabid cultists running towards them.

"We have to go, guys! The bombs are going to go off soon!" one of the anxious stormtroopers announced as he and the others gunned down the heretics coming after the downed Space Marine.

Just then a vox broadcast came through to them, "Seiras, where are you?! Brother!?"

"This is Lieutenant Reinhard, the librarian is injured. We're in designated hanger 8 of the flagship guarding his body!" the ranking Stormtrooper spoke into the open vox.

"Survive guardsmen, we're coming!" Nemias answered his message.

"The Pride of the Emperor is retreating! There's too many Eldar ships for you to get there! Fall back, Salamander!" Valmades shouted into the vox.

Before anyone could respond, the vox went dead as a strange sound filled the room. The Stormtroopers barely had time to react as a squad of Eldar ran into the hanger and shot down every last cultist and approaching chaos marines around them.

Not even moments after they entered, an Eldar ship of some kind decloaked in the hanger much to the humans' surprise. The Eldar wasted no time running for it to escape the flagship.

Upon noticing the Stormtroopers, Selana, and the unconscious Seiras they all stopped briefly and raised their weapons. With graceful and frightening speed, they surrounded the group.

"Eldar!? What should we do Lieutenant?" one of the Tempestus Scions announced seriously as he looked at Lieutenant Reinhard.

"Should we fight them sister? They haven't tried to kill us yet," another Stormtrooper asked Selana.

She gritted her teeth hatefully at them as she finally managed to stand on her feet despite the pain in brought.

The Eldar began to speak to each other in their native language as the humans tried to figure out what to do. One of them appeared to be a Dire Avenger Exarch and shook his head, "Monkeigh...we should kill them!"

"These Monkeigh fight the great enemy. They are not our enemies today. We should take them with us. They were a part of the group that brought down the void shields and weapons for this flagship," one of the warlocks replied.

"That's a space marine they're guarding. We should definitely bring him," a Warp Spider said as he took a closer look at Seiras.

"Is that a spirit stone?" the warlock of the group gawked as he noticed the glowing stone around Seiras' waist.

As they all stared at the spirit stone around Seiras' waist debating about it, the Dire Avenger Exarch shook his head, "Get them on the ship! We'll deal with this once we're out of here!"

"Why bother? They're monkeigh!" one of them said shocked.

"There is no time to debate it! Take them with us!" a howling banshee said aggressively as she reinforced the exarch's order.

"What in the Emperor's name are these damned Xenos saying?!" Selana growled angrily.

The Dire Avenger Exarch motioned for everyone to get on the ship. He looked at the humans and spoke gothic shortly afterward, "If you wish to stay alive, come with us!"

"Not a chance, you alien fucker!" one of the stormtroopers said hatefully.

"I'd sooner die on this ship!" Selana growled.

Lieutenant Reinhard begrudgingly stepped forward and replied to them, "We'll go with you."

"Are you serious?!" Selana growled.

"The bombs are going off in any minute now and we can't do shit with the librarian down like this! Just go with them! The Inquisitor can negotiate our release later," Reinhard reasoned.

"Fuck that!" Selana growled.

"Your ally is correct, monkeigh...you will all die. I'm not wasting any more time. You apes can either come with us or die," the Dire Avenger exarch said strongly.

"Fine..." Selana finally agreed. Not a moment afterward, a wraithguard moved over to pick Seiras up and bring him onto the Eldar ship as the rest of the humans were disarmed and escorted aboard with considerable haste.

As they came aboard, they were immediately met with dozens of weapons in their faces. The Eldar guided them into a corner and left guards to watch them. Moments later the Eldar ship quickly left the hanger.

It seemed to be just in time too, as explosions started going off all around the Pride of the Emperor.

Despite the huge explosions going off all over it, the Gloriana Battleship was still able to escape intact through the warp.

The humans watched as the remainder of Fulgrim's fleet fled back into the warp despite the warnings of a Warpstorm.

As soon as they were clear, the Dire Avenger Exarch walked over towards the humans and immediately knelt over Seiras. He ripped the spirit stone chained to Seiras' waist right off and looked at it confused.

He began to speak to the stone in his native language after a brief moment, "Who are you and why were you in the possession of a Monkeigh?"

"Autarch Kalyra of the destroyed Craftworld Aldmorian," the stone replied psychically to all of the nearby Eldar.

They all perked up shocked as they eyed it disbelievingly.

"I look forward to hearing your story, Autarch," the Dire Avenger replied respectfully to the stone.

The humans present could not hear the Spirit Stone talk and thought the Eldar were insane talking to it.

Selana looked at Seiras who was heavily injured, 'Seiras is dying...if we don't get him to an apothecary soon, he's done for.'

As if they could detect her concern, several of the Eldar moved to retrieve Seiras and drag him away from the other humans. His heavy weight made it a bit of a hassle for them, but they succeeded nonetheless.

"Don't touch him!" Selana growled, but was immediately rewarded with a face full of weapons.

"Be silent, Monkeigh!" the Exarch shouted at them in gothic as he looked over Seiras' injuries briefly.

He immediately turned towards one of the pilots further away, "Return to fleet. We're bringing the monkeigh with us. Contact the healers...I want this Space Marine alive."

"What about the others, Exarch?" one of his underling Dire Avengers asked.

"Keep them alive for now. I want this librarian's cooperation and I will use them as leverage. If they prove useless I'll simply send them back to their Inquisitor," he responded.

Selana sighed heavily as she took her helmet off and looked around, 'Emperor, protect us.'