Every being that opposed him was an obstacle to be overcome in that greater goal. The humans that lined the earth ramparts and the walls beyond were doomed. They would die eventually, their bodies mouldering to nothing, consumed by the cosmos. But they might procreate, spawning new life to curse the galaxy with its presence. They defended future generations of taint. They had to be eradicated for the greater plan; it was not enough for nature to take its course.

With Zozar came lines of warriors, flights of skimmer Destroyers and his stalking skorpekhs. Many had resisted his command to assemble, their need to annihilate all life stronger than the command protocols that bound them to their Destroyer-liege. Some were separated by oceans, others embattled against other foes. Yet within a turning of the world he had brought together several thousand of his death-dealing kin and bound them to his single will.

He could not remember exactly why the station had to fall. It mattered nothing – the eradication of life was the only purpose he needed.

The first bullets and stabs of energy lanced out from the outer defences as his ad hoc cohort streamed across the crop fields, wading through waist-high cereals, emerald eyes fixed on the hated living. Around their feet scuttled a carpet of plasmacytes, a wave of canoptek organisms dedicated to keeping the rest of the matrix free of the Destroyer creed, which had the added effect of making them amazing reconstruction devices for broken skorpekhs and Destroyers. Where an explosion or condensed light beam was powerful enough to break open the body of one of Zozar’s followers, the plasmacytes swelled in number, regurgitating stored Destroyer energy to bring their subjects back to artificial life.

The lead squads opened fire – a glitter of gauss energy that sprang up towards the defenders dug in at the top of their raised defence. Emerald beams dragged back and forth across the lines, vaporising every living cell they touched, cracking against crude barricades of crates and upturned storage bins. Haulers and smaller vehicles had been dragged into place to create more obstacles, but to the anti-gravitic engines of the Destroyers they were no hindrance. Rising above the advancing lines of the warriors, the Destroyers darted forwards, heavier gauss cannons stabbing down at the humans sheltering behind their improvised casemates.

Though they took casualties, increasing as the range shortened, Zozar impelled his legion forward without recourse to evasion or cover. Their bodies and canoptek resurrection were the surest defence against the enemy weapons, and speed of attack would eventually lessen the threat they faced.