‘Wait, brothers,’ called the lieutenant, mindful of the broader objective. He imagined Praxa­medes poring over the schematics of the facility he had transmitted from orbit, creating crossfires and pinch points in mobile defence. Nem­etus spied Admonius ahead of them on the ramp. ‘You too, Judiciar. The situation is dire but we cannot just throw ourselves into the fight without thought. We can still attack as well as defend, and perhaps bring time for our allies to restore themselves to order.’

He signalled the pilot to lift the gunship so he could survey the battle. Moving to one of the flank hatches, Nem­etus took position on the step, looking down at the thrust of animated metal skeletons below. If the Ultramarines dropped in behind them, they might cause enough destruction to bring the ire of the aliens against them, before extracting rapidly by air.

Even as he conceived of the plan, the air around the station shimmered. At first he thought it some strange wind, but within seconds a miasma of flowing jade waves fell like a green aurora. As the cloud touched, shapes appeared in the gleaming mist. Floating, bunker-like war machines larger than tanks appeared, and from gleaming portals in their hulls marched forth more skeletal warriors. Hundreds of them.

And not only warriors. Great constructs larger than men stalked among the silvered cohort, with whip-like arms and cannons that immediately let fly with blinding jade bolts, while around them multi-limbed metal creatures slithered and stalked. More scarabs flitted around in swarms, their flexing mandibles letting out bursts of bright green sparks. Shadows passed over the trampled crops and the lieutenant looked up to see crescent-shaped fighter craft dipping down through the pale skies. Long, barge-like engines extruded from the lightning-wreathed fog, blasting away at the walls themselves with bursts of scintillating energy; others of similar design carried forward squads of skeletal warriors hanging from rib-like dorsal structures.

Perhaps victory was not as close as he had thought.

Zozar enjoyed a rare moment of satisfaction when a large portion of the curtain wall collapsed inwards, spilling more than a hundred foes to their deaths amid the rubble. His Destroyers surged into this breach, blades and gauss weapons slashing and flaying everything in their path. The Destroyer lord paused upon the broken stones as a massive amount of power thrummed through the cortical matrix. Around him warriors and skorpekh froze for an instant, paralysed by the projection of an immense war protocol.