‘I can still take it out,’ I heard through the vox. ‘If I hit it now, it might cause a backlash. Maybe destroy the whole thing!’

She sought to convince herself as much as me.

She fired. The twin lascannons unleashed a pulse of white light, like the rays of the sun. It struck the dome, though I could not tell if any damage was inflicted. The blast was too blinding, overloading the seer-skull’s sensors.

Then a surge of green lightning tore along the lascannon’s beam. I assume the discharge was unintended, otherwise I doubt we would have survived it. But the backwash struck the craft, and I lost my connection to Iwazar, the seer-skull’s holo-projector flaring in alarm. A dozen picts torn from its data-memory seared the sky. I saw Shard’s face suddenly loom large across the clouds, her mouth set in that sneering smile the width of a Baneblade. The image shifted to the young woman being interrogated by the drill abbot, before that was obliterated by the snarling visage of a triumphant ork.

Shard’s attack must have done something, though, for the dome was now flinging searing arcs of lightning in all directions. I saw one strike one of the turbofans supporting the sky-fortress, seemingly vaporising a part of it in the process. The monstrosity lurched violently to the side, orks and aircraft pitching from its runway. For an instant I thought Shard had done it, that her daring attack would drop the Green Storm from the sky. But it clung there, the remaining three turbofans sufficient to defy gravity.

‘I’m taking another shot!’ Shard snarled, bringing us about, the Avenger screeching in protest. I could almost feel it breaking apart around me.

‘Are you mad?’

‘Of course, it’s part of my training. Why don’t you try helping? There is a gun back there.’

An echo of confidence had returned to her voice. Perhaps she truly thought we could win.

I glanced down the gunsight of the rear-mounted heavy stubber. Though a high-calibre weapon, it seemed a tiny thing, barely bigger than the armaments carried by the ork soldiers. I reached for the controls, when green lightning suddenly flashed before me. I expected an explosion, but there was nothing so flamboyant. The rear of the craft simply disappeared, as if sliced clear by a vast blade, the heavy stubber and my cockpit all that remained.

‘Shard?’ I murmured, as we began to pitch down.

‘What happened? What did you do?’

‘Nothing. The lightning… removed part of the aircraft.’

‘What? That makes no–’

A second blast struck the Avenger, this time a direct hit. For a heartbeat we were engulfed in its lightning.