=== Nira ===
The deeper the Imperium forces pushed into the SunEater, the more desperate the Empire became.
Entire platoons of stormtroopers and clone troopers had dug themselves into defensive positions behind overturned machinery, portable barricades, and heavy repeating blasters, but none of it slowed the advancing Astartes for long.
The Angels of the Emperor moved like an execution line through the station, methodical and unstoppable, their bolters roaring in volleys that turned armored bodies into shredded ruin. Every shot detonated flesh apart in sprays of gore that painted the walls and ceiling. Every advance drove the Imperium deeper toward the heart of the massive battlestation.
At the head of one such column walked Nira.
Her black robes snapped violently around her as she moved through the smoke with her green lightsaber humming in one hand, the emerald blade spinning and flashing through the darkness as it caught incoming blaster fire and hurled it back into the enemy lines.
Red bolts ricocheted away from her weapon in streaks of burning light before slamming into stormtroopers hard enough to blast holes through armor and flesh alike. Some shots she redirected. Others she simply stopped in midair with the Force itself before casually sending them back toward their owners.
One clone trooper raised a missile launcher from behind a barricade only for Nira to extend a hand toward him. The man suddenly lifted screaming from the floor before being hurled into the wall hard enough to crater the metal plating. His body folded unnaturally on impact before sliding lifelessly downward.
Behind her marched twenty Astartes in perfect formation.
Their heavy boots thundered against the deck while their bolters fired with terrifying precision over and around Nira's shoulders. The coordination between them was almost unnatural, each warrior moving instinctively with the others as overlapping fields of fire annihilated everything ahead of them.
One Imperial Fist stepped forward and fired a burst from his bolt rifle, detonating three stormtroopers apart in wet explosions before smoothly stepping back into formation without missing stride. Beside him, a Crimson Fist smashed through a defensive emplacement with his shoulder before grabbing a clone trooper by the helmet and crushing the man's head one-handed.
A Dark Angel fired upward toward a second-story catwalk where heavy gunners had positioned themselves. The explosive rounds tore through the railing and the troopers alike, sending burning bodies raining down onto the floor below.
Nira could feel the fear spreading through the station.
The Empire soldiers had expected war. They had not expected this.
A new wave of hatred and madness crashed through the Force moments before nearly two dozen figures rounded the corner ahead, robes whipping around them as blue and green lightsabers ignited simultaneously within the smoke. Some wore fragments of old Jedi robes beneath scavenged armor plating.
Others looked almost feral, their faces gaunt and scarred, eyes burning yellow with Dark Side fury. Several had cybernetic limbs crudely grafted onto their bodies while one carried a chain wrapped around his arm that rattled as he moved.
The moment both groups saw each other, the corridor exploded further into violence.
A female Dark Jedi lunged toward Nira first with a furious scream, her blue blade slashing downward toward Nira's head.
She caught the strike instantly on her green saber, the collision filling the corridor with hissing light before she twisted her wrists violently and shoved the attack aside. Before the woman could recover, another corrupted Jedi came in low from the side aiming directly for Nira's ribs. Nira pivoted smoothly, stepped inside the attack, and drove her blade clean through the man's chest.
The green saber burst from his back in a spray of smoke before she ripped it free and spun away just as the first attacker came back with a savage backswing aimed at her neck.
Nira leaned backward beneath the strike so closely that the blue blade passed inches from her face.
A third Dark Jedi attacked from behind.
She felt him through the Force before the blade ever moved and dropped low at the last second, the green saber passing over her head while sparks exploded from the wall behind her. Nira twisted from her crouch and blasted the attacker backward with a pulse of Force energy that launched him into two more charging Jedi, sending all three crashing into the corridor wall.
The Astartes met the remaining Dark Jedi head-on.
One of the corrupted Jedi leapt high into the air attempting to bring his saber down onto an Ultramarine's helmet, but the Space Marine simply caught the man midair with one massive gauntlet before slamming him into the floor hard enough to shatter bone.
The Jedi tried to stab upward from the ground only for a bolt round to detonate his head apart an instant later. Nearby, two Dark Jedi rushed a Dark Angel simultaneously, blades flashing toward his chest and neck with incredible speed. The Astartes absorbed one strike against his pauldron while blocking the second on his powersword before one of his brothers stepped beside him and emptied a bolt pistol directly into one attacker's stomach at point blank range. The Jedi exploded apart so violently that chunks of flesh splattered across the ceiling.
The corridor became a frenzy of roaring bolters, screaming lightsabers, and tearing metal.
Nira found herself locked in combat against two Dark Jedi at once now, both of them pressing her hard from opposite directions. The woman with the blue blade attacked aggressively, battering at Nira's guard with heavy overhead strikes while the second fighter circled constantly searching for openings.
Nira gave ground step by step as they hammered at her defenses, sparks flying wildly every time the sabers collided. The second Dark Jedi lunged suddenly from the side aiming low for her leg. Nira caught the strike one-handed before whipping her free hand outward.
The attacker flew sideways into the wall hard enough to crack the metal plating before Nira immediately turned and met the female Jedi's next strike head-on. Their blades locked together inches from each other's faces.
She suddenly released one hand from her saber and unleashed a burst of blue Force energy point blank into the woman's chest. The Dark Jedi screamed as the blast hurled her backward directly into the firing lane of the advancing Astartes. Three bolt rounds hit her almost simultaneously, tearing her body apart before she even struck the floor.
The second attacker recovered and came at Nira again in blind fury, but this time she did not allow the duel to continue. She sidestepped his first swing, caught his wrist with the Force, and stopped him completely mid-strike. The man struggled violently, eyes widening in panic as invisible pressure crushed around his arm.
Then Nira closed her fist.
The corrupted Jedi screamed as his arm twisted unnaturally before Nira spun and decapitated him in one clean motion.
Around her, the last of the Dark Jedi were dying quickly.
Though several Astartes bore scorched armor and damaged pauldrons from saber strikes, the coordination of the squad was overwhelming.
The corrupted Jedi simply could not break their formation. Every time one engaged a Marine in melee, another Astartes immediately shifted position to create overlapping fire or cover. One Crimson Fist allowed a saber strike to glance harmlessly across his armored forearm just long enough for an Imperial Fist behind him to grab the Jedi from the rear and physically tear him apart. Another corrupted Jedi attempted to use the Force against the squad, lifting debris and metal into the air, only for a Dark Angel marksman to put a bolt round directly through his throat before he could release it.
Within moments, the corridor fell silent except for the crackling of fire and the hiss of cooling weapons.
Nira stood at the front of the formation breathing heavily as blood dripped from the walls onto the deck beside her boots. Behind her, the Astartes calmly reloaded weapons, checked ammunition, and reformed their line as though the slaughter had merely been another obstacle on the march.
Then one of the Dark Angels stepped forward slightly and voxed through his helmet.
"Path secured."
Nira looked deeper into the burning corridors of the SunEater, feeling the darkness waiting farther inside.
"Good," she said quietly. "Let's keep going."
=== Stormtrooper Johan ===
The corridor shook continuously beneath Johan's boots as the battle raged closer and closer, every impact reverberating through the deck plating hard enough to make the walls tremble.
Sparks rained endlessly from ruptured conduits overhead, bathing everything in flickering orange light that mixed horribly with the crimson emergency strobes. The air smelled like burning metal, blood, ozone, and pulverized flesh. Somewhere farther down the corridor, men were screaming. Somewhere closer, bolters thundered.
Johan pressed himself tighter behind the overturned slab of machinery he was using as cover, clutching his blaster rifle so hard his hands ached inside his gloves. Every time one of those massive guns fired, the sound punched straight through his chest.
These were not normal weapons. He had seen men hit by them already. There were no clean wounds. No survivable injuries. The rounds exploded bodies apart like overripe fruit. One second a trooper would be alive, firing beside him, and the next there would only be blood, shattered armor, and pieces of organs splattered across the walls and ground.
Another deafening roar echoed down the corridor.
Johan risked a glance over the ruined metal.
The sight nearly made his heart stop.
The Astartes were advancing through the corridor like unstoppable engines of slaughter, enormous armored giants wading directly through blaster fire without slowing down. Red laser bolts hammered against their armor plate and either ricocheted harmlessly away or left only glowing scorch marks before the monsters answered with overwhelming brutality.
One towering monster swung a thunderhammer downward and crushed three clone troopers in a single impact, the weapon detonating on contact hard enough to liquefy bodies and crater the floor beneath them.
Nearby, another drove forward relentlessly behind a storm shield while firing his bolt rifle one-handed into the Empire lines, each shot detonating another soldier apart. A Dark Angel tore through a barricade entirely with his shoulder before burying a power axe into a clone officer so hard the man split in half.
One Astartes grabbed a man by the chest with one hand, lifted him screaming into the air, and literally ripped straight through him. Blood and entrails spilled downward across the floor as the Marine cast the ruined corpse aside like garbage.
Then the monster looked directly at Johan.
Even through the smoke and chaos, Johan saw those glowing red eye lenses lock onto him.
He ducked behind cover so fast he nearly dropped his rifle.
A second later someone slid into cover beside him hard enough to slam against the metal plating. Johan jumped and turned, seeing another stormtrooper frantically clawing his helmet off with shaking hands. The man's breathing sounded ragged and hysterical as he ripped the helmet free before vomiting violently onto the floor between them.
"I can't do this," the trooper gasped, wiping his mouth with trembling fingers. His face looked pale beneath the flashing red emergency lights, his eyes wide with panic. "I didn't sign up for this. These things—" His voice cracked as another burst of bolter fire echoed down the corridor. "They aren't human."
Johan swallowed hard beneath his own helmet. "Stay down," he said quickly. "If we just hold the line—"
"The line is gone!" the trooper shouted back, his voice rising into desperation. "Did you see what they did to the first Platoon? They butchered them!"
The trooper suddenly surged to his feet.
"I'm not dying here!"
Johan's eyes widened. "Wait! Get back down!"
But the man sprinted blindly down the corridor away from the fighting, slipping on blood as panic overtook reason entirely.
Then a single bolt round struck him in the back.
The man exploded.
There was no body left. No scream. Just a violent burst of pink mist, shredded armor fragments, and chunks of flesh that sprayed across the corridor and splattered directly over Johan's helmet and chestplate.
Johan gagged instantly.
He tore his helmet off and vomited hard against the floor beside the ruined machinery, his stomach twisting violently while blood and bits of flesh slowly slid down his armor. He could barely breathe. His entire body shook uncontrollably as the sounds of the battle closed in around him.
Then someone nearby screamed, "THEY'RE PUSHING THROUGH!"
Johan forced the helmet back onto his head.
He grabbed his rifle and ran.
Bolter rounds screamed past him as he sprinted from one shattered section of cover to another. One round passed so close to his shoulder that the shockwave alone spun him sideways.
Another detonated against a trooper only a few meters away, showering Johan with fresh blood and fragments of armor. He threw himself behind another ruined barricade and immediately began firing blindly downrange toward the advancing Astartes.
The blaster bolts looked pathetic.
Tiny red streaks against giants.
One Dark Angel took several hits directly to the chest and barely reacted before raising his plasma pistol and vaporizing the entire barricade Johan had just abandoned moments earlier. The superheated blast turned half a dozen troopers into burning dross instantly.
Johan felt completely helpless.
Then reinforcements arrived.
A fresh wave of stormtroopers rushed into the corridor dragging a massive repeating cannon behind them while officers shouted desperately for the remaining defenders to regroup.
The heavy weapon was quickly planted near the center of the corridor and powered up with a rising mechanical whine. Hope flickered weakly in Johan's chest as the gun swung toward the advancing Astartes and unleashed a torrent of fire powerful enough to force even the Space Marines to stop.
"Keep firing!" an officer screamed.
Then a bolt round flew directly down the cannon barrel.
The weapon exploded instantly.
The entire emplacement vanished in a violent fireball that tore the surrounding troopers apart in sprays of blood and burning armor. Johan saw one man lifted completely off his feet by the blast before his upper torso separated from the rest of his body midair.
The corridor descended into panic again.
Johan peeked around the corner of his cover one more time and felt dread consume him.
The Astartes were close now.
Far too close.
There were barely any Empire troops left standing.
Bodies littered the floor everywhere while the surviving stormtroopers fired desperately in retreat. The Astartes advanced through the smoke with terrifying ease as if they had done this a thousand times before, bolt rifles barking in bursts while power weapons crackled hungrily in their hands.
Johan realized then that he was going to die.
The understanding settled over him strangely calmly.
Slowly, he reached down and grabbed a satchel of grenades from beside a fallen trooper. His hands stopped shaking as he armed them one by one, clipping the entire bundle together while the battle thundered around him.
If he was dead already, then maybe he could at least take one of them with him.
Maybe more.
With a sharp breath, Johan rose from cover and charged.
He screamed as he sprinted directly toward the advancing Dark Angels, clutching the armed grenades tightly against his chest while blaster fire and bolter rounds flashed all around him. One of the Space Marines noticed him immediately.
"Grenades!" the Astartes roared.
Without hesitation, the Dark Angel shoved two of his brothers sideways out of the blast path before lunging directly toward Johan with shocking speed.
The giant hit him like a freight train.
One massive gauntlet seized Johan by the chestplate and lifted him completely off the ground before hurling him violently across the corridor. Johan barely had time to throw the grenades before he smashed into the wall hard enough to feel his spine shatter throughout his body.
Pain exploded through him.
His vision blurred.
Across the corridor, the Dark Angel caught the bundle of grenades one-handed.
Then the Astartes hurled them away just as they detonated.
The explosion still tore through the Marine.
Johan watched through fading vision as the blast engulfed the giant completely, ripping one armored arm away in a shower of blood and ceramite fragments.
The Dark Angel was thrown onto his back. His brothers immediately moved to him, dragging the wounded warrior back while continuing to fire into the remaining defenders without pause.
Johan coughed weakly, blood filling his mouth.
Heavy footsteps approached him slowly.
A shadow fell over his broken body.
He looked up and saw another Dark Angel standing above him, massive and immovable, his armor scarred by countless battles. The Marine looked down at Johan silently for a long moment while the battle continued raging behind him.
Then the Astartes gave a single slow nod.
"A valiant effort," the giant said solemnly before raising his bolter.
===
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