=== Maximus ===
The corridors of the SunEater had become rivers of blood and fire by the time Maximus and the Blood Angels reached the inner sanctum of the colossal battlestation.
The fighting through the upper levels had been savage beyond anything even the Ultramarine had expected. Entire companies of stormtroopers and clone regiments had fortified every junction leading toward the control center, while Dark Jedi stalked the halls alongside them like rabid predators unleashed from cages.
Yet none of it had slowed the advance of Sanguinius and his sons. The Blood Angels moved through the burning corridors like incarnations of divine wrath, their red armor drenched in gore as bolters thundered endlessly through the cramped passageways.
Bodies littered every meter behind them. troopers lay in pieces where chainswords had torn them apart, while shattered blast doors and scorched walls marked every place the Astartes had met resistance and annihilated it.
Maximus crushed another Dark Jedi's skull beneath his armored boot as the man collapsed at his feet, his broken lightsaber sputtering uselessly beside him.
Ahead of him, Dante buried his axe into the chest of a clone officer hard enough to split the man in half in a spray of blood. Mephiston walked through the carnage beside them, his crimson psychic energy crawling over his armor while invisible force ripped enemy soldiers screaming from cover and hurled them against the walls hard enough to break bone and steel alike.
Behind them came the rest of the Blood Angels Chapter, advancing despite the chaos around them.
The deeper they pushed into the SunEater, however, the stranger the atmosphere became. The resistance lessened. Entire corridors stood abandoned save for corpses and flickering emergency lights.
The air itself seemed heavier, almost oppressive, and Maximus could feel the tension building in the Blood Angels around him even if none of them spoke of it aloud.
Finally, the massive blast doors leading into the control chamber came into view.
The doors had already been opened, welcoming them inside.
Beyond them stretched the vast throne-room-like command center large enough to dwarf even the halls of Imperial battle barges.
Towering hololithic displays flickered across multiple levels while countless crew stations lined the enormous chamber, though most now stood abandoned. At the far end of the room stood a colossal viewport overlooking Mandalore itself, and beyond the transparent armored glass the planet burned beneath the fury of orbital war.
Entire continents glowed with firestorms while fleets clashed above the atmosphere in storms of explosions and debris. The sight alone was enough to remind Maximus of Cadia's fall.
Standing before that viewport was Darth Vader.
The Dark Lord held his helmet loosely at his side, his back turned toward them while the fires of Mandalore illuminated the ruined shape of his body. The silhouette of his head looked almost skeletal without the helmet concealing him, and even from across the chamber Maximus could see the horrific scars crawling across the exposed flesh of his head and neck.
The moment Sanguinius stepped into the chamber, everything stopped.
An impossible pressure slammed into the entire chapter all at once. It felt like the weight of a mountain had suddenly dropped onto their shoulders, crushing against their armor from every direction simultaneously.
The ceramite plating of several nearby Blood Angels audibly groaned under the strain while others were forced down onto one knee despite their transhuman strength.
Maximus himself actually felt a heavy weight pressing violently against his shoulder, surprising him.
Vader was holding them in place with the Force alone.
The sheer scale of the power radiating from the Dark Lord was monstrous.
Vader still did not turn around.
His mechanical breathing echoed softly through the chamber before his deep voice finally broke the silence.
"I knew you too would come."
The words rolled through the room like distant thunder.
Vader continued, staring down at Mandalore below. "The Imperium arrives, believing itself righteous. Believing itself necessary. You spread across worlds like a plague and call it salvation."
His hand slowly tightened around the black helmet.
"When I was a child, I thought you were heroes."
Sanguinius narrowed his eyes but remained silent as Vader continued speaking.
"I watched the Salamander Raxor kill Watto. I watched him free slaves while the Republic stood by and did nothing. For the first time in my life, I thought Heroes had come to save us. I thought perhaps the galaxy had finally sent warriors strong enough to protect people like my mother."
There was bitterness in his voice now. A hatred so old and deep that it sounded carved into his soul.
"I was so wrong. Then Naboo happened. Then the war began. Then the Jedi failed me. Again and again and again." Vader's breathing deepened. "Everything deteriorated from the moment your Imperium entered this galaxy."
Slowly, Vader turned around.
The left side of his skull was little more than burned ruin held together by cybernetics and scar tissue. His jaw no longer existed, replaced entirely by a mechanical plate fused directly into blackened flesh. One eye burned yellow with dark side corruption while the other glowed a cold mechanical red from within its socket. The damage done to him on Mustafar had transformed him into something horrifyingly inhuman even without the armor.
His gaze settled directly onto Maximus.
"You," Vader said coldly. "You and your brothers were the greatest curse this galaxy has ever suffered."
The pressure in the room intensified hard enough to crack the floor beneath several Blood Angels.
"When I killed Raxor," Vader continued, his voice dripping with venom, "it was the only thing I could think about. Every death. Every world burned. Every child buried beneath war. All of it traces back to you and your brothers." he spat.
His cybernetic eye narrowed.
"And now," he growled, "I will kill the Black Templar who took my mother from me, then I will kill you, Ultramarine."
Sanguinius stepped forward then, wings spreading behind him as radiant light bled faintly from his armor. Even under Vader's crushing power, the Primarch carried himself like a demigod descending into battle.
"You stand before a son of the Emperor," Sanguinius declared, his voice calm but carrying through the chamber with impossible authority. "You face the Great Angel, his greatest sons, and warriors who have shattered daemon armies. Your hatred has made you powerful, but it will not be enough."
For the first time, Vader moved.
He slowly lifted his helmet and placed it over his ruined face. The mask sealed shut with a hiss of pressure before the familiar mechanical breathing returned.
"That," Vader replied, igniting his crimson blade with a violent shriek of light, "will not matter."
Then his head tilted slightly toward Mephiston.
"And they will be far too occupied fighting each other."
Mephiston suddenly went rigid.
The Chief Librarian's body locked in place as crimson warp energy erupted violently around him. Black veins spread across his pale skin while his head snapped upward unnaturally hard. Dante turned immediately in alarm while Sanguinius' turned to look at his son.
"Mephiston," the Primarch said sharply.
The Blood Angel began trembling violently.
Psychic energy exploded outward in a crimson shockwave that shattered nearby consoles and cracked the chamber walls. Slowly, horrifyingly, Mephiston's eyes turned completely black.
A scream tore from his throat with enough force to shake the room itself.
"HORUS!"
Before Maximus could react, Mephiston lunged.
The Chief Librarian moved so fast the Ultramarine could barely react, his force sword flashing through the air in a blur of crimson light. Maximus barely managed to turn toward him before agony lanced through his body.
The blade carved cleanly through his wrist, severing his left hand instantly.
Blood sprayed across the chamber.
Maximus roared in pain as his severed hand crashed against the floor beside him, ceramite and bone scattering across the metal deck while Mephiston attacked again immediately, his black eyes filled with madness as he screamed the name once more.
"HORUS!"
The Dark Lord chose that moment and crossed the distance between himself and Sanguinius with terrifying speed, the crimson blade of his lightsaber screaming through the air in a murderous arc that nearly caught even the Primarch who was watching his son off guard.
Sanguinius barely managed to intercept the strike in time, his spear snapping upward as red energy exploded violently across the weapon. The impact alone sent a shockwave through the massive command chamber hard enough to crack the metal floor beneath their feet while nearby consoles burst apart in showers of sparks and flame.
Sanguinius launched himself forward immediately, refusing to allow Vader control of the engagement, his wings flaring wide as the Primarch became a blur of gold against Vader's black armored form.
His spear lashed out with impossible speed, thrusting toward Vader's throat before reversing direction in the same motion to slash toward his midsection. Vader met every strike with mechanical precision, his lightsaber moving like a crimson wall between them as sparks and burning fragments of metal erupted around the two demigods.
The sheer speed of the battle was difficult even for Maximus to fully follow. Both combatants possessed precognition, each seeing fragments of the other's intentions moments before they occurred, forcing the duel into something almost incomprehensible as attacks and counters happened in fractions of seconds.
Vader twisted away from a thrust that would have pierced his skull and retaliated instantly, his free hand erupting outward as the Force smashed into Sanguinius like a collapsing building.
The Primarch slid backward across the chamber floor, his boots screeching against metal, but before Vader could capitalize on the opening Sanguinius surged forward once more, his wings propelling him through the air with enough force to crack the deck plating beneath him.
His spear crashed downward like divine judgment while Vader met the blow head on, crimson and gold light colliding violently enough to illuminate the entire chamber.
As Sanguinius fought, he dared a glance toward his sons.
What he saw filled him with fury.
Mephiston had completely succumbed to the Black Rage.
The Chief Librarian's black eyes were wide with insanity while he screamed Horus' name over and over again with enough venom to shake the chamber.
Dante struggled desperately against him, the Chapter Master refusing to deliver lethal blows even as Mephiston attacked with murderous intent. The old Blood Angel blocked strike after strike with visible grief etched into every movement, his axe meeting Mephiston's force sword in violent collisions that sprayed sparks across the room.
"HORUS!" Mephiston screamed again as he drove Dante backward beneath a relentless barrage of attacks. "TRAITOR! MURDERER!"
Dante parried another savage strike and shouted back at him through clenched teeth. "Brother, fight it! This is not you!"
But Mephiston was gone.
The madness consuming him was absolute.
Maximus pushed himself up from the shattered floor nearby, blood pouring from the severed stump of his wrist, though the wound had already begun sealing itself beneath the emergency systems of his armor and transhuman physiology.
Pain thundered through his body with every heartbeat, but rage drowned it out as he watched Mephiston try to butcher his own Chapter Master.
The Ultramarine roared and charged.
He slammed into Mephiston from behind like a living battering ram, his massive armored shoulder crashing into the Librarian hard enough to send both Astartes tearing across the floor. Mephiston smashed through a ruined command station in an eruption of sparks and twisted metal before Maximus followed immediately, raising his thunderhammer one handed and bringing it down with enough force to pulverize a tank.
Mephiston rolled away at the last possible moment.
The hammer struck the deck instead.
The entire chamber shook violently as the impact cratered the floor, lightning exploding outward from the thunderhammer in crackling arcs of blue energy. Before Maximus could recover, Mephiston thrust out his hand and unleashed a massive blast of warp energy directly into the Ultramarine's chest.
The crimson psychic wave struck Maximus full force, then dissipated harmlessly.
Mephiston froze for the briefest moment.
The blank aura surrounding Maximus devoured the warp attack entirely, scattering the psychic assault into nothingness before it could penetrate his armor. The Chief Librarian snarled in confusion and fury, black veins crawling further across his face as he hurled himself at Maximus with renewed violence.
Dante rejoined the fight instantly.
The Chapter Master came at Mephiston from the side, his axe slamming against the Librarian's sword while Maximus attacked from the opposite direction with his thunderhammer. The battle became a brutal two against one as the two Astartes did everything in their power to subdue the maddened Blood Angel without killing him.
Even against both of them, the Chief Librarian remained horrifyingly dangerous. He moved with unnatural speed, his blade whipping between Dante and Maximus in savage combinations while bursts of psychic force shattered the chamber around them.
Dante barely ducked beneath one strike that would have taken his head before countering with the butt of his axe against Mephiston's chest. The blow staggered the Librarian for half a second before Maximus seized the opening and swung his thunderhammer sideways into Mephiston's ribs.
The impact sounded like a gunship crashing into a fortress wall.
Mephiston was hurled across the chamber, smashing through a support pillar hard enough to collapse part of the ceiling above him. Chunks of burning debris rained downward while Dante advanced cautiously, grief and exhaustion written across his ancient face.
"Please," Dante said quietly. "Please, brother… stop."
Mephiston slowly rose from the rubble.
His armor was cracked now, blood pouring from multiple wounds, yet the madness only intensified. He looked not at Dante, but past him, seeing something else entirely.
"Horus…" he whispered.
Then his expression twisted into absolute hatred.
"HORUS!"
Mephiston exploded forward again.
At the same moment, across the chamber, Vader and Sanguinius clashed before the massive viewport.
Sanguinius lunged forward with blinding speed, his spear thrusting toward Vader's chest in a strike fast enough to impale a lesser being before they even perceived the attack.
Vader saw it coming through the Force moments before it happened. His crimson blade swept downward to redirect the spear while his free hand erupted outward in the same motion.
The Force hit Sanguinius like a tidal wave.
The Primarch was hurled backward through the air, his wings flaring violently as he fought to regain control of himself.
At that exact moment, a sharp mechanical chime echoed through the control chamber behind Vader.
The Dark Lord's head turned slightly toward one of the remaining operational consoles inside the ruined command center. Flickering red symbols illuminated across the damaged panel while warning runes flashed in rapid succession.
The battle inside the chamber faltered for only a heartbeat as even Mephiston's maddened assault momentarily lost momentum. Dante locked blades with the Librarian while Maximus staggered backward slightly, his breathing ragged from exertion as he glanced toward the glowing control panel.
Then Vader looked directly at him.
Even through the black mask, Maximus could feel the hatred burning behind those lenses.
The Dark Lord slowly extended one hand toward the console.
And pressed the activation rune.
For one terrible second, nothing happened.
Then the SunEater fired.
The entire battlestation trembled violently as unimaginable power surged through its colossal systems. Deep beneath the station, ancient mechanisms awakened with a roar that shook the void itself.
Blue energy began flooding through vast channels beneath the SunEater's surface, illuminating the station from within like veins of burning plasma. The massive core mounted beneath the battlestation gathered enough energy to rival a star, and every ship in orbit around Mandalore suddenly seemed insignificant beside the terrible weapon coming to life.
Maximus turned toward the viewport just in time to see it.
A beam of blinding blue annihilation erupted downward from the SunEater, descending toward Mandalore.
The beam dwarfed cities as it carved through the atmosphere, splitting the skies apart in a storm of burning fire and screaming energy. Clouds vaporized instantly. Orbiting wreckage disappeared into ash. Entire fleets caught beneath the blast simply ceased to exist as the weapon struck the surface of Mandalore with catastrophic force.
Then then world exploded.
Even from orbit, Maximus could feel the distant shockwave.
"No…" He whispered.
Sanguinius stared down at Mandalore, his wings hanging still beside him while the glow from the burning world reflected across his armor.
Then the Primarch slowly turned toward Vader.
And for the first time since entering the chamber, true fury crossed the Angel's face.
Vader descended toward the shattered opening of the control room once more, his black cape whipping violently behind him while the crimson blade in his hand hissed through the darkness.
"You wished to know why I hate your Imperium?" Vader asked coldly. "Look below you."
He extended one arm toward the burning planet.
"This," he growled, "is what your galaxy created."
Then Sanguinius moved.
The Primarch crossed the distance between them like a comet of golden light, his rage finally unleashed in full as his spear slammed into Vader's crimson blade with enough force to split the chamber floor apart beneath them.
===
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