This is the bonus chapter for reaching 300 Powerstones.
--
In orbit, on the bridge of the Light of Dawn.
On the holographic hololith, the red arrows representing the Dal reinforcements were vanishing at a staggering rate.
Schrödinger Bro coolly reported the battle damage assessment.
"The first wave of orbital bombardment, coordinated with the ground ambushes, has completely annihilated twenty-seven organized Dal formations. Estimated casualties are between two point four and three million."
"This includes at least nine high-ranking command officers."
"The strikes against urban infrastructure were equally effective."
"Energy nodes in nineteen of the twenty-seven major cities have been destroyed. Manufactorum damage exceeds 60 percent. The enemy command-and-control network is experiencing massive, systemic paralysis."
"Anti-air grids surrounding the Royal Court have been 93 percent eliminated. Remaining sporadic resistance is negligible."
Blood Angel stared at the rapidly shrinking red zones on the hololith, his breathing hitching slightly.
"Praise the Dawn... This efficiency... it's even more surgical than an Imperial Navy orbital strike."
"That is because we have the psychic beacons left behind by Brother Paul," Helovia said softly.
"The trajectory of every single macro-shell was pre-calculated and simulated by his Wisdom trait."
"We aren't blindly glassing the planet. We are performing a hyper-precise surgical excision... cutting away this world's capacity to wage war."
She pulled up a secondary data-slate.
"However, the baseline population of the Dal is simply too massive."
"Even with three million dead, they still possess a mobilizable force numbering in the hundreds of millions."
"Furthermore..."
Helovia's deep green eyes narrowed slightly.
"Energy readings from deep inside the Royal Court are spiking anomalously."
"Something is trying to come out."
Almost immediately, Tax Bro's hoarse roar burst through the bridge vox-channel...
The background was a chaotic din of continuous bolter fire and the shrieks of dying Dal.
"Helovia! We've breached the outer gates of the Royal Court!"
"But the resistance in here is ten times worse than we projected!"
"These black-furred apes have lost their goddamn minds! They're stacking corpses to build barricades! They're suicide-charging our lines!"
"And there is something deep inside the pyramid... the psychic readings are off the charts! I've got a really bad feeling about this!"
Helovia exchanged a swift glance with Schrödinger Bro.
He instantly brought up the deep-scan telemetry of the Royal Court sector.
Deep within the pyramid structure, an energy signature was indeed climbing at a terrifying rate.
"Is Brother Paul's drop pod prepped for launch?" Helovia asked.
"Primed and ready," Schrödinger Bro nodded. "The two-hundred-man Grey Knight company is strapped in as well."
"But..."
He tapped the real-time feed above the Royal Court.
"...at least one hundred and twenty heavy energy batteries have just powered up along the pyramid's outer slopes."
"Their targeting locks are obvious... they're waiting for our drop pods. If we force a drop now, projected casualty rates will exceed 40 percent."
Helovia remained silent for two seconds.
Then she looked up, a trace of cruel, absolute calm flashing through her eyes.
"Then ensure they cannot fire."
"Relay orders... All five cruisers. All available macro-battery platforms. Target: Every remaining active energy turret on the pyramid, and all heavy concentrations of Dal defenders."
"Focus fire."
"Before Brother Paul makes planetfall, I want to ensure there isn't a single Dal soldier left standing on the surface of that Royal Court."
The order was executed.
The gunports of the five cruisers flared once more with the blinding light of annihilation.
--
Aboard the Light of Dawn, Drop Pod Bay.
Paul stood before the massive drop pod designated Hammer of Dawn-01.
His golden Aquilon Custodian Terminator Armor had already completed its final pre-combat diagnostic. The servo-motors beneath every plate of ceramite were running at peak operational capacity.
Clasped firmly in his right hand was a Guardian Spear, its heavy axe-blade extending a full two meters.
Dark gold energy conduits pulsed along its haft, while the disruptor field edging the blade hummed with such intensity that it visibly warped the air around it.
"Paul."
Schrödinger Bro's voice crackled through the comms channel.
"Tax Bro, White Scars, and the others have punched through to the Royal Court gates, but the resistance there... something's very wrong."
"How so?"
"The Dal defenders are completely ignoring casualties. They're plugging every breach with a wall of bodies, using suicidal charges just to slow our advance."
"This doesn't look like standard defensive doctrine. It looks..."
Schrödinger Bro paused. "...more like some kind of sacrificial ritual."
In Paul's dark gold eyes, the five stars slightly accelerated their rotation.
His Wisdom trait was issuing a warning... not of danger, exactly, but a premonition of... filth.
"I understand."
He stepped into the drop pod, his golden power armor clanging heavily against the metallic deck.
"Initiate deployment sequence."
"Also, tell Helovia..."
Paul turned his head, glancing through the small viewport of the pod. Beyond it lay the azure curvature of planet Dal.
"Use the knowledge she's accumulated over the years to calmly command the fleet. Support the Dawn Defense Force on the perimeter, clean up the stragglers, and tell her she need not worry about me."
"As for the King of the Dal..."
He tightened his grip on the Guardian Spear, the hum of its disruptor field spiking sharply.
"I will handle him."
The blast doors slowly ground shut.
The locking mechanisms engaged with a heavy, mechanical clack.
Immediately after, the vox-casters across the entire drop bay crackled to life with Helovia's voice...
It was a fleet-wide broadcast, echoing through every ship, every compartment, and reaching the ears of every soldier and player.
"Attention, all members of Crimson Dawn."
"Archmagos Paul is about to deploy onto the Dal Royal Court."
"All units, provide any and all necessary support to cover his descent."
"May the dignity earned by labor illuminate the path he walks."
"May the dawn guided by hope incinerate the darkness before him."
A brief silence followed.
Then, across the entire armada...
From the five cruisers down to the eighty-six transport ships.
Every single active vox-channel and data-slate was instantly flooded with the exact same phrases:
[Clear the path for Archmagos Paul!]
[Purge the darkness for the Dawn of Humanity!]
[Our Archmagos marches to war! We shall manifest the glory of Dawn in xenos blood!]
--
Two minutes later. In the skies above the Dal Royal Court.
Deployment sequence initiated.
One hundred drop pods blasted from the launch tubes of the orbiting fleet simultaneously.
Ninety-nine of them bore standard dark red livery, stenciled with the silver insignias of the Grey Knights.
This was the strike company composed of two hundred Grey Knight players. Although their true specialty lay in banishing Warp entities...
...right now, their heavily modified Nemesis force halberds and psychic arsenals would prove equally lethal against flesh-and-blood xenos.
But the hundredth pod...
...was cast in pure, radiant gold.
Hammer of Dawn-01.
The instant it cleared the launch tube, its rear thrusters ignited at maximum output.
It tore through Dal's atmosphere like a meteor flying in reverse, trailing a crimson-gold wake as it plummeted toward the central plaza of the Royal Court with unstoppable momentum.
The Dal had clearly anticipated this targeted drop.
From the stepped slopes of the pyramid surrounding the Royal Court, over two hundred concealed anti-air batteries elevated from armored alcoves, their muzzles already flashing with charging green energy.
This was King Charles's trump card. He had held them in reserve this entire time, waiting precisely for this moment.
Down below, the charge indicators on all two hundred energy turrets began to glow steadily.
The elite Dal gunners shrieked in anticipation, locking their targeting reticles onto the drop pods streaking down from orbit.
They knew these pods had to contain the most elite warriors of humanity.
If they shot them down, the Royal Court would hold. King Charles would—
But Helovia would never give them the chance to fire.
"All ships, target the Royal Court anti-air platforms."
Her voice was as freezing as the deepest void.
"Macro-batteries, full spread."
"Fire."
"What is that?" A Dal gunner suddenly pointed at the sky.
His spotter looked up, and his pupils violently contracted.
The sky cracked open.
Ten blinding, white-hot pillars of light, each over thirty meters across, slammed vertically down from orbit like the swords of wrathful gods.
They struck various sectors of the Royal Court with hyper-calculated precision.
The first volley annihilated the turret clusters on the upper tiers. The second volley obliterated the troop staging grounds surrounding the perimeter.
The third volley scored direct hits on several suspected command nodes midway up the pyramid.
Ear-shattering explosions tore through the city.
The energy turrets took direct macro-cannon hits; they didn't even leave wreckage behind. They were instantly vaporized.
The troop staging grounds were reduced to massive craters dozens of meters deep. The Dal soldiers caught inside were either instantly incinerated or violently torn apart by the shockwaves.
Vast sections of the pyramid's outer plating violently peeled away and collapsed, exposing the complex metallic superstructure beneath.
And right through this fireworks display of utter annihilation, the hundred golden drop pods plummeted like a flock of hawks diving through a storm, passing through the kill zones completely unscathed and rocketing straight toward the central plaza.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!!
The heavy impacts merged into a continuous, deafening drumbeat.
The stone pavement of the plaza was instantly fractured into dozens of spiderwebbed craters.
The very first blast doors to blow outward belonged to Hammer of Dawn-01.
Paul stepped out.
His three-point-eight-eight-meter golden Aquilon Terminator Armor reflected a divine, dark-gold luster under the Dal sun.
The Imperial Aquila carved onto his pauldron looked almost alive, and subtle energy conduits pulsed across the surface of his breastplate.
He wore no helmet. His resolute features were exposed to the air, and within his dark gold eyes, the five stars slowly spun.
His right hand gripped the Guardian Spear, the ethereal blue arcs of the disruptor field violently dancing along the edge of the heavy axe-blade.
Just from him holding it, the surrounding air ionized, crackling with sharp snaps of static.
Behind him, the other ninety-nine drop pods blew open simultaneously.
Two hundred Grey Knight players surged out.
They wore their iconic, silver-grey Terminator armor. Their helmets were forged in the classic death-mask visage, and the insignias of the Grey Knights Chapter were seared into their pauldrons.
Although in this timeline, the true Grey Knights Chapter had not yet been founded, these player units redeemed from the System possessed every hallmark of that legendary brotherhood.
Anti-psychic conditioning, extensive daemonological lore, and specialized weaponry designed specifically to purge Warp entities.
But right now, these daemon-hunting specialists had their sights locked on the xenos of the material realm.
"First Company of the Grey Knights," Paul's voice was calm, yet carried a resonant, overwhelming authority.
"Objective: Secure a beachhead for the forces outside the Royal Court to enter."
"By your command, Archmagos Paul."
Two hundred voices answered as one.
--
Next Bonus at 600 Powerstones.
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