Slowly but surely, the Humanity's fleet reduced the numbers of demons and Chaos ships, until only the bastions of the Dark Mechanicum remained and a core of Chaos battleships protected by dimensional shields of unknown origin.
I suspected a long-lost STC variant of a Void Shield, possibly amplified with demonic rituals.
However, the truth remained that I couldn't directly affect those ships, and our loses were climbing with every minute.
The traitors had also changed strategy, using teleports to reach the surface and kidnap menials and other lower caste serfs, then trying to massacre them in hasty summoning rituals.
Didn't work that well for them, as I could intercept most teleporting groups and expel into the sun before they could cause much damage. Plus, there was a Reality Cage enveloping the planet now, which also reduced the effectiveness of any psyker.
They noticed that as well, and soon the Chaos fleet began firing directly towards the planet's surface, most likely attempting to breach the Void Shield defenses over the geomagnetic pit where the device had been installed.
"Corvettes spread out in squadrons and target all the cruisers now!" I commanded over the secure vox channel.
A sensible order which would either force the Chaos ships to change target, or get destroyed.
"Teleport beam detected. Redirecting. Redirecting failed." my techpriest muttered as current began flowing back from his shield console and frying his circuits.
'Intrusion! Scrap code in the vox console box. Rites of hermetical seal engaged. Purge the heretic!' the Machine Spirit proclaimed directly into my mind, just as the Vox console sputtered and blew up in a shower of green sparks.
Damn it. Even with all my precautions, the Dark Mechanicus had still found a way to intrude into my command and control network, targeting exactly the vox channel I used to command the fleet.
Even worse, a group of Black-robed techpriests and hundreds of their Daemon Engines were running loose on board the Black Lament, avoiding the security turrets or simply destroying them with machine precision and speed.
My fist clenched as I grabbed the intruders and exiled them in the sun. "Decks 43 to 95, begin purification and find out what the intruders tried to do." I commanded on the Manifold circuit, sending a task force of techpriests and a Company of Lamenters to escort them.
My Blackstone Fortress was great, but also too big. Enormous, even compared to large Imperial ships like battleships. The Void Shields and the Gellar fields could not cover the entire thing, not yet.
Janice had halted the upgrade process before the battlestation was ready, eager to grab the fortress and complete her own mission. Possibly a good idea at that time, but it also gave me more headaches.
"Draw strength from me, Lord Pef." Amberley whispered, holding a warm hand on my cheek.
I sighed inward, knowing this will hurt her greatly. But needs must, and she could help by using an accidental discovery from bed play.
Just as I could darken a room by draining electricity from lamps, I could drain a psyker of magic power, and fortify myself. All Pariah did this automatically, but I disliked things happening outside my control.
I trained over the past year to exert this pull at will, although my training had killed a dozen Tyranid Zoanthropes and an Ork Warphead.
Gently, I allowed Amberley's light to enter me in a thin trickle, just enough to refresh my mind and empower my soul.
"Don't worry. I can bear this for an hour." the blonde Inquisitor continued while grimacing in pain.
"Good. This might take less than an hour now." I replied in a calm voice, my eyes closed as I needed to use the Tesseract for vision, and the Sounding Board inside for mental communication with my fleet.
For as long as I could maintain control of the fleet like this, I had thousands of fingers to play a giant 3D simulation, a semblance of a Hive Mind and just as effective.
Trajectories and focused attacks on certain ships, dispersing other squadrons or grouping them for better point-defense cover. I doubted the Necrons had ever used the Sounding Board like this, since the empathic link required a close connection with the target mind. Someone like a friend or family member, and as it happened I did have my family as Captains and XOs on every single Lamenter or Lancefire ship.
The Navy ships from Battlefleet Agripinaa and the Mechanicus fleets of the Basilikon Astra were not included in this mental network, but then again I didn't really need them. They could hold a defense orbit and protect the Forge World while my ships advanced and neutralized the threat.
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And so we did, using a displaced Warp vortex missile to breach that dimensional shield before converging a dozen corvettes to launch their payload of 200 plasma torpedoes and then speed away.
Three waves later, the second Glorianna broke up under the tremendous damage, just in time. The last Dark Mechanicus ship turned away and started running away, much too fast for any normal pursuit to stop it.
But I wasn't willing to let it run. Their attack of Agripinaa would have certainly succeeded without my presence here, and they could share their knowledge with the other hereteks in the Eye of Terror.
"Lord Lancefire. We have found blood sigils and purple ichor crypto-glyphs painted by the traitors on inner walls and conduits. Gellar field strength in the vicinity of the cursed inscriptions is reduced by 50 percent. And some of them seem to spread by themselves. Purging ineffective." the lead techpriest reported from deck 66.
Switching my attention on the infected decks, I moved some available Silent Sisters to assist, and hoped their Pariah powers could suppress the magic spells.
Those Dark Mechanicus had a lot to pay for. Clever bastards, but luckily I had a cure for their madness.
Out of nowhere, a pack of Tyranid bioships appeared in the path of the fleeing heretek battleship and grappled it with hungry mouths and claws.
The heretek priests fought back with dozens of exotic weapons, some effective, some not. The ship even managed to open a Warp Rift to escape. In the end it didn't matter. The dimensional field was breached and I had them in my grasp.
Millions of smaller Tyranids appeared inside the runaway ship and began devouring any biomass. Cultists, acolytes, fleshy Daemon Engines and corrupted techpriests were eaten greedily and hungrily, while I primed a few gifts inside the emptier hangars and cargo bays.
With a wink, the Dark Mechanicus battleship vanished from reality and returned to the Warp, carrying a payload of ticking bombs and hordes of hungry Tyranids.
Amberley withdrew her hand as the last ship and its grappling escorts vanished from the holomap. "This was a close call. And now I need a long bath and a week of sleep. Perhaps in the reverse order." she muttered in a tired voice.
I nodded towards Captain Chyron and he escorted the Inquisitor to her rooms, both for her protection and ours. An Alpha psyker was always dangerous, but most of all any psyker was dangerous when reaching the limit.
A psyker could turn into a Warp portal in a moment of weakness, and that wouldn't be pretty.
The remaining demons flying about were turning into strips of purple light and vanishing back into the Warp as well, helped along on the way by constant lance and point-defense fire from all the defense ships.
The Imperial Navy had lost 2 cruisers and 1 battleship to invader demons and teleporting saboteurs, as well as a dozen of escort destroyers. The Mechanicus fleet look lighter loses, mainly from their system corvettes and starfighters.
Meanwhile, I had lost a precious carrier and 300 corvettes, plus most of my starfighters. Almost 10 percent loses to a Chaos fleet for which I had thought us prepared.
This costly victory had pointed a number of weak points in my fleet, especially in command and control, as well as physical and spiritual defense.
But the sad thing? All those ships we destroyed? The corrupted space marines and techpriests? They were once Imperial assets, turned against humanity.
And soon enough, more defectors will join the Chaos cause, like they always did.
It was a losing battle, as with every ship and Astartes made, a portion will turn traitor and need to be destroyed. The more troops humanity made, the more troops it gave the Enemy to use against us one day.
Loyalty was the hardest currency to maintain in this doomed universe, and soon it will culminate in a huge push, towards Cadia and then Terra.
It was inevitable, and humanity would lose greatly even if they won. For they carried the seed of their destruction inside their souls.
I mused on this for a long time, fighting against sleep and tiredness. I also carried a demon, and my demon was too waiting for a moment of weakness.
Every victory and every kill I gave it, the stronger it would become.