The target was a manufactorum moon in the Carthos system — once a jewel of Imperial industry, now a rotting Chaos stronghold. The surface was blackened by constant orbital bombardment, yet the daemonic infestation clung to its metal carcass like mold to bone.
Shawn stood in the drop bay of the Ember Vow, Mechanicus strike teams arrayed before him. Forty-three warriors. Forty-three survivors. All had faced death to awaken their Haki. Now they would face something far worse.
Valen stepped forward, his psyker aura wrapped in a steady Armament Haki shell. "Remember your training. Observation for survival, Armament for killing. Protect your minds. The Warp will try to break you."
Vulkar's hammer rested across his shoulders. "And if the Warp pushes too hard, push back harder."
Basur grinned, teeth bared. "We make this clean. No survivors."
Drop and Contact
The dropships screamed through atmosphere, slamming into the manufactorum's cracked landing platforms.
The enemy was ready. Mutated cultists surged from the shadows, their bodies twisted with crude augmetics and daemonic growths.
"Form line!" Shawn roared. His Conqueror's Haki flared, not to dominate, but to focus. The Mechanicus felt it, like a wall at their backs.
The first wave hit.
A Skitarii Alpha met a leaping cultist with a servo-claw wrapped in Armament Haki. The blow crushed bone and daemon-flesh alike, splattering black ichor. Observation Haki in his optics tracked the next three attackers before they moved, letting him pivot and strike without hesitation.
Another Mechanicus warrior, a Kataphron Destroyer, fired plasma rounds laced with Armament Haki into a hulking spawn, burning through its warp-twisted armor.
Shawn's Advance
Shawn cut forward like a storm given shape. Liquid Haki surged along his arms, shifting into heavy blades with each swing. His Spirit Projection split off into three shadowy copies, each fighting independently, forcing the enemy line to break.
Observation Haki pulsed through his senses — every step, every feint, predicted and countered.
A daemon lunged from the flank, its claws like molten glass. Shawn's blade met it mid-swipe, Armament Haki flaring pure black. The daemon's arm shattered, and a follow-up slash severed its head.
Valen's War
Valen moved like a hurricane of blue fire. Psyker energy, reinforced by Armament Haki, burned through daemon after daemon. His free hand fired lances of psychic lightning wrapped in Haki, punching clean through Warp-born armor.
Cultist minds he touched simply folded in on themselves, crushed between psychic pressure and Haki's grounding force.
One massive daemon prince, clad in rusted plate, roared a challenge. Valen met it head-on, psychic barrier and Armament clashing with its warp-blades. Sparks and warp-fire lit the manufactorum floor. The daemon was forced back, step by grinding step, until Vulkar arrived to smash its knee out with a hammer strike.
The Mechanicus Hold
The newly awakened warriors weren't perfect, but they were holding. Observation Haki let them anticipate ambushes. Armament reinforced their already inhuman bodies, letting them survive wounds that would fell a normal Skitarii.
When a breach in the line formed, Basur was there — hammering them back into place with brute force and blunt orders. Tahak darted through the chaos, intercepting threats before they could reach the weaker fighters.
Shawn's Reflection
Through the din, Shawn's mind remained steady. Each kill was another step toward his vision — an army that could not be broken, even in the heart of the Warp.
These forty-three Mechanicus warriors were proof. The beginning. And there would be more.
Terra waited.
The Push to the Core
Hours of fighting drove them deeper into the manufactorum. At its heart, a daemon engine squatted over the molten slag pits, feeding the Warp breach that had poisoned the moon.
"Valen," Shawn said.
The Inquisitor nodded. Together, they struck.
Valen's psyker power lashed the machine's warp-core, while Shawn's Spirit Projection multiplied into five blade-armed forms, hacking into its armor.
The daemon engine screamed as its bindings unraveled. With one final, hammering strike from Vulkar, its head split open and the breach collapsed in on itself.
The manufactorum fell silent.
Aftermath
Twenty-one Mechanicus warriors had died. Their bodies were lined neatly for reclamation. The survivors stood battered but unbroken, their Haki burning steadier than before.
Shawn looked over them. "This is the first flame," he said. "And it will spread."
Valen's gaze met his. "One world at a time."
Shawn nodded. "Until Terra."