The daemon recoils from our words. From our righteous fury. I hold down my bolter’s trigger until the magazine clicks dry, the last of my blessed shells finding a home in another of the daemon’s lidless eyes. It reels and screams as we hold the line together. Ashava. Haskia. Eugenia.

But not Qi-Oh.

‘Qi-Oh!’ I shout at her. ‘Stay with us!’

I know she hears me, because she meets my eyes with hers. One crimson and steel. One hazel. Both full of rage. I could never hope to hear her over the screaming and roaring and the thunder of guns, but I see her mouth set in a thin line. I see her shake her head. And then Qi-Oh breaks the line, charging the daemon with her chainsword in hand. Just as when we fought in the training halls she is solely focused on her target, at the cost of all else. Her charge weakens our line. Haskia cannot shoot lest she hits her. It leaves the daemon an opening to knock Haskia from her feet with its long, segmented tail. A cloud of blood blows into the air as Haskia goes down, and Eugenia has to stop firing in order to drag her clear of the daemon’s claws.

With that, our line is broken. But Qi-Oh is close now. Her speed has taken her within the daemon’s reach. She whirls her chainsword left and right in brutal, cleaving strikes, severing first one of its arms, then another. I see her eyes light with fierce battle-joy, and her mouth open in a war cry that I cannot hear. But as she leaps into the air, propelled by the strength of her powered armour, the creature splinters and twists and moves. It laughs.

‘Qi-Oh!’ I shout, but it is too late.

The daemon catches her from the air, impaling her on the bladed point of its segmented tail, before slamming her onto the deck. Qi-Oh loses her grip on her chainsword, but even pinned and disarmed, she still fights it, her breathing ragged and erratic over the vox-link. Haskia is still down, with Eugenia at her side. The youngest of my Sisters has one hand stemming Haskia’s wounds while she fires her bolter up at the daemon with the other. Our line is more than broken, now. The daemon’s words echo in my mind.

They will all die. One by one. Light by light, until only you remain.

I cannot allow those words to be true. I will not. I turn and look at Ashava through the blizzard of glass and ashes.

‘When I give the word, burn it.’

Her dark eyes go wide, but she nods. ‘Aye, Sister Superior.’

‘Eugenia!’

She looks over at me. Her unscarred face is covered in blood.

‘The eyes!’ I tell her, as I push a fresh magazine into my bolter.