Within the Azarian hordes above Kineia

Malesh'Zen watched as the thousands of lessers ravaged the world below with delight. He could feel the despair wafting off the planet and washing over him like a glorious baptism. However, his reverie was disturbed by the death of a failed Warlord on the fringe. Malesh'Zen glanced at one of his personal Warlords and questioned him. "Lesser? Why was I not notified immediately that the demon spawn had entered this system?"

The Warlord shivered and its massive tentacles gripped the air nervously. "I... I did not wish to interrupt your meal over such a small horde of demon spawn... Especially not over the failures that were in their path... Please, allow me to rectify my mistakes, Lord Disciple."

Malesh'Zen growled at the Warlord for a moment before flicking his tentacles toward the Human fleet. "Very well! Go! Destroy the demon spawn. Should you fail, and I have to step in, I will kill you myself. I will allow you to take two of the failure hordes. Don't you dare fail me."

The Warlord quickly lowered its gaze and curled its tentacles in a gesture of respect. "Yes, Lord Disciple. May you, and your master Zente, live for eternity." He turned and flew off in the direction of the Human fleet

The Warlord flew into a swirling mass of immature Azarians and linked his mind to the hordes allowing him to give them absolute orders. "You, who have been discarded by your queens. You have been given the greatest gift. I, a fully evolved being, will personally lead you to battle with the demon spawn at the behest of the Lord Disciple. I will lead you failures to a sure victory, one that may trigger your evolution."

The Warlord could feel the ecstatic emotions of its lessers through its connection and scoffed. 'Filthy lesser beings who couldn't even begin the evolution with entire worlds of livestock... I have to tie myself to such dregs... Disgusting.'

The two hordes could feel a wave of anger and hatred welling up through their connection to the Warlord as they flew off toward the Terran fleet. They were driven into a frenzy by the emotions of the superior being and they gnashed their vicious fangs together as they stared toward their enemy.

Terran fleet Gamma

Primarch Savage's eyes widened as he saw double the force they just killed appear on the tactical map, heading straight for him. He immediately gave up on trying to figure out of there were any hidden intentions behind the obvious weakness of the horde he killed. Instead, he poured his focus into this fight and tapped into the fleetwide comms.

"Soldiers! That's two whole ass hordes hauling it straight for us and this Warlord has an actual formation for them this time. We won't be able to simply hit the delete button this time... They are running a crescent moon pattern so I want the Hunter killers down center! Battlecruisers and Destroyers take a 25/50 split and pick a side. Don't let them pull up on the sides of our hunters."

He paused and took a deep breath before continuing, "Now... This fight will likely be far tougher than we've faced in centuries. We will take casualties, and it will take far too long for us to clear the space squids. So... I want all the boots we can muster on GC dirt before the fluffy ones die. That means we are going to take a risk boys and girls. All ground troops board my -Dusk-. We are going to bust through the right flank using the Hunters as cover. Once through, you will all deploy to Kineia to provide support and eradicate the little shits attacking our new friends. The Dusk will turn to attack the right flank as soon as you deploy. Let's get our game face on, you glorious bastards!"

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The fleet immediately split up with half the Battlecruisers and Destroyers moving to each flank with the swarm of Hunter-killer squadrons surrounding the Dusk in the center of the formation. As the fleet split, they created projections of the Dusk behind both flanks and then cloaked the original Dusk in the hopes it would confuse the Azarians long enough to get through.

In response to the fleet's new formation, the Warlord ordered its hordes to spread out further and form a staggered net that would hit them in waves and overwhelm the guns. It also gathered a few small asteroids in its tentacles as it flew closer to the fleet.

Savage saw the Warlord change its formation on the fly and sighed, "Shit... I was hoping I was wrong. The one we fought earlier was just a fucking idiot. This one's the real deal. This one's acting like an actual commander. Fuck it. Open fire on the flanks. Hunters? Get ready to open the formation and let us through. When we are revealed, let everything loose on this exact spot to create a hole." As he said that, a simulation projected over their dash showing where to shoot and the predicted outcome.

Seconds later the two flanks began battering the incoming Azarians. The Hunter-killer squadrons opened up their formation and began concentrating fire on a small section of the right flank. Once a small hole was made, the Dusk decloaked and unleashed its full arsenal of weaponry. Everything from 1000 mm guns, lasers of all kinds, and even nuclear missiles. All into the gap that the Hunters had created, widening it significantly.

The Hunters dropped back and began to engage the Azrians at the center in close combat, dodging and weaving through the tentacles as they unleashed fire and fury on them point-blank. The Dusk sped up to FTL speeds and slammed into the gap that had been created.

The Dusk's weaponry wasn't quite enough for every Azarian nearby and a few managed to get onto the ship, scraping away chunks of Basillian steel and various point-defense weapons. Though these Azarians didn't live long, the damage to the hull and weapons were a tough repair for the nanites while under continuous attack.

After less than a minute, they made it to the other side of the swarm. Immediately holes appeared all over the damaged ship. Landing vessels poured out of these holes by the dozens and immediately engaged FTL speeds, leaving behind the damaged Dusk as they flew towards the besieged GC world.

Savage watched the tactical map with rapt attention, paying attention to the states of battle between all the different sites as well as his own ship's overall integrity.

One of his command crew worried looked at Savage and asked. "Sir...? The Landers all made it out, but we are still in close proximity to the horde with no real way to defend ourselves. That maneuver already cost us 17% of our overall hull and several sections of the ship had to go into lockdown. Not to mention the nanites are set to prioritize rebuilding the lost guns, so the hull damage is just stacking up. Was this a suicide run?"

Savage grinned at him, "By Basillius' brass balls! No, of course, it wasn't! I intend on us surviving, though it's a bit risky of a plan... We are going for the Warlord. If we take him down... These little shitlings won't be coordinated anymore. Easy pickings."

The members of the command crew all seemed to breathe a sigh of relief at his assurance. A new crew member spoke up, "So... how are we going to take out this Warlord? What's the plan?"

Savage scratched his head awkwardly, "Well, about that... The Stellar Lance is still cooling so we can't use it. However, we have a pretty big warp drive. I don't mind being marooned here for a few days. We can load that bitch onto a gun and send it with the regular lead. The big fucker won't care about the lead since it has a hard time penetrating its skin anyway. Once the warp drive hits it at 99% the speed of light? It'll make a pretty fucking spectacular explosion. I can only hope that it's enough."