Upon arriving at Kolossi, I immediately noticed their Keep_Inviolate , a giant fortress of stone and adamantium that climbed from the the planet's mantle into the low orbit.

Much like the Fang at Fenris, it also served as an orbital dock and a defense station, but otherwise the planet was just a sad mire of polluted cities and numerous gangs and cultists, perhaps more cultists than normal, even on an Imperial planet. Many local Nobles themselves were sporting Chaos sigils and hidden altars, and the local army was mostly...the Knight suits and some Arbites. This was doomed world, just waiting to be invaded and taken by Chaos.

"This is bad." I spoke in warning, before Valeyne could stand up.

"Is it worse than you think, Pef. There are summoning rituals going on. Right now!" she growled and vanished with her Nexus to meet with her Black Shield regiment.

I began spreading frag grenades like gifts, while also deploying the troops at important checkpoints and calling Sister Dessima out.

A wide Blank blanket fell over Kolossi, and I noticed Valerian over in the Eternal Lament firing his Immaterium Beam at the other side of the planet.

"Something strong is coming, my Lord. It's pushing through!" Dessima warned me over the implant.

"Auuuuhhh!" Canis howled suddenly, projecting a golden light into a maw that bit the void, crushing something invisible.

I noticed the Inquisitor gather her Deathwatch into her Nexus then move on top of the Keep, about 100 kms away.

It was a bit early to deploy my marines, as we didn't know where and how the Enemy would attack, but the Titans and the Knights could be moved in a protective perimeter around the Keep.

At the same time, I forced myself and moved everyone not armed into the tesseract. Far easier to sift children and other non-combatants away from the rest.

Already, same deep pain was filling my chest, just like at Fenris and later at Illevar.

"Wooh!" Canis encouraged me, and bit gently on my gauntlet. Of course, I will use it. But on what?

"Go autistic all ships! Deploy screens and disperse in pattern Beta" I ordered in my last vox transmission. From here on, we would have to depend on passive scans and the tesseracts. Librarian Valerian had one of them as well, along with half our provisions and a third of the Blank Auxilia on board the Eternal Lament.

Another third was on board the Black Lament and the rest spread over the fleet as inner defenses.

As the next second passed, I moved all non-Blank crew and troops in the fleet into my tesseract, just as the Warp opened up to produce a large Chaos fleet, lead by a huge Daemon.

Two Arks of Omen, just as large as my Black Lament. 17 Battleships, already out numbering us. 114 cruisers, 3 carriers, and a thousand escorts, giving this Chaos fleet a slight advantage in numbers.

"That's Rotigus , an Unclean One." Chyron warned me just as I began to fire the Beam at his face. Meanwhile, a scattering of Nova Mines burst among the Chaos escort ships, reducing their numbers advantage.

A green gas began to flow from his mouth belly, pouring over the planet below. Nurgle plagues were bad. Not as such for Blanks, but the planet would have to burn now.

Valerian joined his beam onto my target, while also dispersing munitions over the Chaos fleet, and exploding several cruisers. The Chaos Battleships and their carriers, as well as the two Arks were protected by some form of shield, which didn't bode well. 'Warp shields' Menelau warned me on the implant.

Didn't help me much. "Dessima, see if you can punch one out." I proposed and immediately acted, transporting my Omega-minus Sister on top of an Ark. Her Phase sword flared out and for a second I could see and transport a few Nova Mines inside the Ark, before I recalled her.

Valerian got the hint and shifted target onto the wounded Ark, and after a minute later the Ark went silent as anything alive was toast now.

One Ark down, and the Nurgle Daemon still did not die, instead shaking a wooden staff at me. I felt poison on my lips, and a warm glow emerge from deep inside me. Already that bad?

Canis just rushed at my side and placed a paw on my shoulder, and growled at the invisible attack.

"Next one, Dessima!" I ordered with a pained voice. Another transport, and the second Ark was breached, allowing Valerian to finish it off.

On the surface, around 200 Chaos Titans and 800 Chaos Knights were already attacking the Keep, supported by thousands of Daemon Engines and Chaos Marines.

"Keep the equipment, father. We might restore some..." I heard Menelau advise me, in a haze of rapid deployments and munition dispersal.

The Eternal Lament began to fire once more onto the Greater Daemon, when the creature bellowed and chanted " Daemon Prince Be'lakor, It is time!" then he descended on top of the Keep to battle the Inquisitor and her Black Shields.

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Brother Alaric had a Xenophase_Blade of his own, while Semnai had a Vibro Phase Blade of my own design, which allowed him to shred the daemon with ease. Sadly, the thing also regenerated just as fast.

"Brother Joghaten, you help them!" I demanded and immediately transported the great Blademaster next to Semnai, and 9 Silent Sisters in support. Not all Great Daemons were equal, as I knew well enough from my stupid quest into the Garden of Nurgle.

By using the Sounding Board, I ordered our heavy ships to target the Chaos carriers, before they could unload all their fighters and bombers, while my Cruisers focused fire on the nearest Chaos battleship.

Click. The Blank Division was instantly deployed to flank the Chaos forces, while the Primaris marines and their new Astareus tanks joined the fight on the other side.

Flashes of sunfire burst from the new Falchion tanks, exploding Chaos Knights or transformed Chaos Engines, while the Void Bikes took to the skies to provide air-cover.

Already the skies were full of Chaos fighters and even wings of Heldrake, some kind of winged mechanical Daemons, so our own fighters were busy enough.

A hundred Escort Corvettes attempted to fly low and provide orbital support, but the Chaos Titans and the Chaos fighters began to target them before they could do too much damage.

Fine then! Click. The skies became empty of enemies all the sudden, transported into the sun and giving my troops a lot more support from the air.

"You must be the one who killed Vashtorr!" a loud voice boomed across the entire system, just as that Rotigus demon exploded into gore.

A large winged daemon carrying a black sword manifested on top of the keep, uncaring of his dead comrade torn to shreds by the best sword fighters of humanity.

Blademaster Joghaten found his Phase Blade parried by the Daemon sword, the first time I saw something withstand the C'tan blade.

Semnai joined in, and by luck managed to blur his Vibro Blade and shred a wing from the daemon.

"Cute trick, young Astartes. But now you will all die!" the one-winged Daemon proclaimed in a confident voice, just as the Chaos fleet above began to disintegrate, ship by ship.

"Abselom, go help!" I demanded in a hurry, and transported the Polaris Psi-Titan at the scene, just as a Warp pulse evaporated a thousand Black Shields and pushed the protected people back.

"Wof!" Canis demanded eagerly. Okay, okay.

I moved into Sabaktes and joined the fight as well, even as this Belacra thing blocked a shot from the Psi-Titan, by simply hiding under his wing. That was stupid! The wing was frayed and thin like cloth, not a meter of adamantium.

"Take this Belaqua!" I shouted and fisted the daemon from behind, while Canis blurred forward and ripped his sword arm away.

Silence fell over the system, as the mighty daemon found itself impaled onto my nice Power Claw, now enhanced with Phase Blades of course.

"What the hell is this dog?" the daemon muttered as Canis crunched on his Etherblade and somehow managed to tear it to small bits with his Phase Claws and even his teeth.

"Any last words, Baldcrap?" I asked instead, and fired my left hand psi-cannon into his face.

"My name is ...." the thing tried to explain, when Sister Dessima appeared beside me and just punched him into his soul.

Crack. I swear I heard the universe break a little, and Canis heard it too as he rose his head towards me.

"Woooogh?" he asked cogently. A decent question too, as the daemon changed shape and became on old bald man still impaled on my clawed finger.

Before I could do anything, the Inquisitor took out a bolter gun and shot the baldy in the head, ending this debacle.

"I'll go clean up the other idiots..." I muttered from my Psi-Titan and waved goodbye with a bloody claw, splitting the corrupted guy into small bits that fell onto the dock's platform.

Canis rushed to eat his treat, while everyone else stared in awe. I think it was awe anyways.

On the ground, Sister Stern was having fun Demonifuging Chaos Titans, with even more ease than Necron or Tyranid Titans, so I took charge of the orbit as usual.

May find some nice stuff on these Arks, and then look inside that secret STC vault deep below the Keep.

These Raven Knights didn't even know they had an entire STC Constructor under their mountain fort.

Or maybe they forgotten how to use it? Either way, Pef Lancefire wins.