History wants to happen in certain ways, I already knew that from numerous events in the galaxy that didn't need to happen anymore, yet still did.

The Arks of Omen for example, a pinnacle of Dark Mechanicum fusion of tech and sorcery which attacked my capital planet in the Fringe. Or the Days of Blindness, the Plague Wars at Ultramar and now the Battle_of_the_Boros_Gate .

I did find a surprise when reaching the system, as the Iron Korps from Forge World Idumea was already present and fighting off the initial Chaos push towards the main population centers on Boros Prime, the capital world of this system. A billion combat servitors and millions of Armed Sentinels, plus a lance of Imperial Knights and a single Reaver Titan guarding the main gate. Sure, these Mechanicus forces were poorly armed, mostly autocannons and even some heavy stubbers, but they did the job of holding the line. And dying too.

Only the Knights had energy weapons, some kind of Las-Cannons of an advanced pattern I didn't have. Then again, those Iron Korps' Sentinels used combustion engines, and not even plasma reactors for their motive force.

'The weapon is called a Solex_Heavy_Lascannon ' my Blade AI recognized them, and even uploaded the new STC on my mind implant as the data-lock threshold was reached. Not bad at all, if slightly weaker than the Neutron Lasers my own Knights used now. Much easier to make though, and a great upgrade for my numerous Las-Cannon platforms in the army.

In the system however, the situation was quite bad, as the traitors managed to bring 3 more Arks of Omen, plus 11 battleships and an armada of lesser voidships.

I also had 3 Blackstone Forts, and Roboute also found his own, while my Crusade fleet matched numbers with the traitors easily. Yes, they had frigates and destroyers by the thousands, but I had many more corvettes. It would be an even fight...if I cared for that.

First things first. Deploy the Eagle drones to allow the Blade to do her network AI part. Then the Krieg Regiments, spreading them all over the population centers on 42 celestial bodies, while the heavy elements of my fleet advanced to meet the Chaos traitors directly.

One by one, the metal wolves phased off to start their own part, gorging on the souls and flesh of billions of Chaos cultists that rampaged everywhere. Most of the cultists were locals, newly drawn to treason and insanity by Chaos rituals, or hidden cells erupting from within to cause...more chaos and disrupt the supply lines.

More worrisome, on 11 asteroids circling the Trajan belt, there were tall towers called a Gehemehnet which channeled sorcerous energy via blood rituals and growing taller every minute.

We might be too late...I realized with a frown. Then again, preventing Malice from manifesting would just repeat this battle elsewhere, and I might not be there next time.

I should let it happen, sadly.

That left the Chaos Fleet as the main target, and especially the Arks of Omen filled with heretek-Magi of the fallen Mechanicum and horrible abomination engines powered by daemons. I marked the three main targets on the noosphere, and my forts fired their Immaterium beams at them. It would take time, but eventually the beams would go through.

Zath had grown into a moon-sized wolf snacking on entire voidships and slurping the occupants like warm noodles, while ignoring the ship-grade weapon batteries blasting his necrodermis fur. Yeah, I wasn't worried about the C'tan.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

'Hurry up, Captain! My network is being assaulted by the Chaos jamming and corruption codes.' the Blade urged me in a pained voice.

I sighed inward, but there wasn't much I could do. But Roboute and the Eldar could help.

'Testing, one, two. Primarch, be so kind and fire the Plus Ultra's beam at the nearest Chaos Ark.' I spoke via the Sounding Board. 'And get the Eldar to help, perhaps?' I added with mild sarcasm.

'Will do, Commander. And please extract the cowled Marines from Boros Secundus and Tertium.' he answered with a mental image of dozens of Chaos Marines wearing cloth robes over their battleplate.

'How do you even have time to find those Fallen? Or recognize them in this mess?' I asked with mild surprise. Primarch bullshit, no doubt.

'I recognize the Lion by his claws, Commander.' the good Primarch answered in a dignified voice.

What did that even mean? Anyway, forceful extraction for interrogation it is. Yoink!

With the Plus Ultra fort adding their beam to my Eternal Lament's firepower, the nearest Ark began to buckle and reveal flaws in their neutron shields, enough for Lash and Nightwolf to jump inside to murder the crew.

'Next Ark now!' I demanded in my mind, and the two forts switched fire on the second Ark. With three beams the shields buckled even faster, and two more C'tan Shards entered the soft insides to feast.

'And now the last one.' I spoke in a relieved tone. With four Immaterium beams the Ark of Omen was grabbed and torn to screaming bits of corrupted souls and flesh,

letting the last pair of C'tan wolves to feast.

"The battleships now. And mind the Nova bombardment' I said with faint humor as I began to flick Nova Mines in the midst of the Chaos Fleet. Of course, heavy warships could tank multiple Nova blasts, but the escorts or starfighters were way too fragile.

The Singularity shook in return, as the Chaos Fleet returned fire with their own Nova cannons. Oh well. I was glad for the multiple shields I just installed on my flagship.

'Eldar fleet inbound' Roboute warned me as six enormous Craftworlds and thousands of Eldar voidships arrived, although without Cegorach's Talisman of Vaul. Things may not be rosy with the Eldar pantheon either.

Violet particle beams lanced from the Craftworlds towards the Chaos Fleet, focusing fire on a single battleship for a minute, then moving to the next. I guess they didn't need a Talisman with this kind of firepower. The Singularity would last 10 minutes with her latest upgrades, but it would still die to those ancient weapons.

Okay, the ground battle next. My troops were eager for a good fight, especially the Ork Auxillia. So they were sent first, right in the middle of the Chaos Warbands and automata cohorts, landing on dozens of worlds. They died bravely, the big green Orks. But they also died seeming happy, so who knows?

I would gladly spend 100 Orks to kill a single Chaos Marine, and thousands more for a Daemon Engine. Their purpose was to fight and die.

For some reason, I hesitated to send down my Space Marines or even the Thalax cohorts, mostly because Chaos was always tricky and prone to traps.

And I also felt a shadow moving through the tesseract's detection field, too ethereal to see properly. Things were going well enough, considering this was a full Black Crusade butchering billions of humans for the laughter of thirsty gods.

"It will happen soon, Commander Lancefire." Valerian spoke behind me, not quite in the voice of 'we're going to die soon' but close enough.