In a few hours, the Leviathan Crusade Fleet punched a path through the Tyranid Fleet and took station above the single Hive World in the Formidyre system, called Oghram .

As expected, the underhives were already full of genestealer cults, so my Space Marines got some easy training and live fire exercise, while I analyzed the system for a decent battle plan.

The world of Sanctum was the homeworld of the White Templars Space Marine Chapter , where they recruited among the roaming techno-barbarians. Sure, the savages were healthier than the crude gang members living on a poluted Hive World, but they also lived like Orks.

My forts opened their massive hangar doors to release thousands of system corvettes, as well as numerous fighters and bombers. Our remaining Mechanicus cruisers departed to skirmish with the Tyranids already probing the outer fort line.

Two more worlds got my attention, Phraktam an Industrial World which should be able to produce munitions for the siege, and Resolution's Ire a Fortress World already fortified with trenches, minefields and bunkers at every corner.

The Krieg regiments will have an easier time defending that world, although I kept a hundred regiments in reserve to man the Hive Cities' walls and other key points. At the same time, my own Auxilia began to entrench everyhwere I could find a defensible spot, or if not I could drop an asteroid into a swamp and create a new fort just like that.

In space, I scattered the Orkish Roks in pairs, allowing the Ork Auxilia to fire their supranumerary dakka at anything nearby, thus attracting hungry Tyranids to the signs of their biomass.

I wasn't exactly sure what the Anchor World of Sanctum was protecting, since the local population was in the millions and the Imperial Guard already outnumbered the locals 100 to 1.

Anyways, Arcadian_Leontus , a Lord Commander dispatched from Terra to oversee the Sanctum Line had made this place a command post and so it stayed.

Megatonnes of munitions and supplies were being unloaded on the Sanctum, while spaceports and fortified cities were being built everywhere. This was the Imperium of Man, fortifying a useless planet while leaving their industry and population exposed to the hungry maws of the Tyranids.

I sent my Imperial Knights to the feudal world of Jovenghast , alongside some Thalax suits and Shield Sentinels, but I didn't held much hope for that place. No matter how brave the locals were, with their spears and swords they would be eaten quite rapidly by the Tyranid bio-forms.

A million Sisters of Battle, including some of my own daughters, landed on Krematos a Mortuary World in the same system, intent on protecting the relics and mausoleums of the Ecclesiarchy. They would have been doomed, until Sister Stern decided to join them, and thus practically guaranteed their salvation, one way or another.

Instead, the Inquisitor wife joined Kruxor Stavro the Chapter Master of the White Templars on Sanctum, forcing me to deploy the Blank Auxilia and a dozen Astartes Chapters as her escort.

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I couldn't care less about a feral planet used for recruiting! Will this be like Fenris all over again? Well, the Tyranids wweren't known for summoning Great Daemons yet, so I still had a chance.

Maybe Oghram will not burn. I hated victory pyres.

'Take a deep breath, Lord Captain. My sensors are registering increased mental anguish, and the battle has barely started' the Blade said in a curious voice.

'I would have focused most defenses on Phraktam and Oghram, and used the less populated worlds as traps to burn the Tyranids after they landed. That way, victory would be far easier and less costly in lives and industry.' I growled in anger.

'But we are not in the Fringe here, Lord Captain. The locals have their own priorities.' the Blade answered with her perfect machine logic.

Instead of words, I used my actions to answer, dropping out more asteroids to create a barrier of space forts around Phraktam and Oghram, then grabbed the new servitors crafted from the underhives and plugged them into the defense lasers and flak batteries of the fort line.

Then I timed the exact moment and released a single Nova Mine in the middle of a huge swarm of gargoyles chasing after the cruisers, burning off a billion at once.

Too bad the Nova Mines or Shells were exotic munitions, far beyond my ability to create them with a single Breath. That day will come, but it was not today.

Instead, more asteroid forts and ferro-concrete bunkers appeared on every planet, most of them armed with Las-cannons and multi-lasers. Basic tech, which I understood well enough to simply will into existence by draining the local star a little. It took several hours, but I looked at my homework with a pride eye once I was finished. The other eye was too tired so it was closed already.

I must have drifted into sleep, because the invasion had begun without my notice. My ships and troops fought well, not that I expected anything else.

Yes, the fort line was getting chewed up rather good, but that was its purpose after all.

Each of my three Blackstone Forts were firing Immaterium beams at the largest Hive Ships, while billions of spores fell on the worlds of Formidyre system.

Luckily, I checked on my pregnant wife first, to find her engaged in melee with a large Norn_Emissary attacking the White Templars' Monastery. And losing!

"Spartan, you have command!" I yelled and jumped out of my Command Throne and emerged on Sanctum just as Valyene got stabbed though her belly by the vicious Tyranid Assassin.

Anger and pain coursed through my veins like liquid acid, as my Phase Claw bisected then trisected the damn thing. Semnai was probably dead, impaled on another claw arm, while Alaric ran to the side of my wife, and sliced off the claw arm of the Tyranid, then poured a bag of yellow dust on the wound.

"It's fine, Lord husband. I've been hurt much worse..." Lady Valyene joked while spitting blood.

I didn't even see her, instead using my Breath to look inside her, at my poor baby girl. Joan was dead, before she took her first breath.

I plunged my left hand into the wound and extracted the fetus and willed her back to life. Sadly, I was not a God. The dead flesh healed up, but the finger-sized girl was still dead. Soulless.

"Noooooooooo!" my voice yelled without asking permission.

Time stopped, as something broke inside me. The star began to turn in reverse, and I plunged the healed baby inside Valyene while kicking at the Norn Emissary.

The T-engine on my right arm lit up, as I unleashed the pent up energy of the Formidyre sun at the surrounding Tyranid swarm. Not the usual kind of victory pyre, but I'll take anything right now.

Die, puny insects! I was not a God yet, but I will be.

Lady Valyene held a hand over her belly, and smiled. "Joan is fine, husband."

Captain Semnai coughed in pain, and spat bubbles of hard blood. "I'm fine too"