Alexei hid in the shadows of the alley, watching the scene with cold indifference. He hadn't expected the Hive City's Adeptus Arbites to launch their assault on the same day.
He commanded the Swarm to bypass the resisting Enforcers; his only targets were the Genestealers.
On the battlefield, the Enforcers gripped their firearms and grenades, prepared to return their souls to the Golden Throne. Yet, as they opened fire, they realized the xenos before them were completely ignoring them.
Even when fired upon, these monstrous creatures seemed to have eyes only for the heretical cultists. The commander of the operation, Lutheca—a gray-bearded veteran of the Astra Militarum—had never seen such a sight in decades of campaigning against xenos. He seized the opportunity, ordering all remaining Enforcer squads to regroup at his position.
The mission had failed. Now, they had to preserve their remaining forces and retreat immediately to report. This sector needed to be purged by orbital bombardment.
Under the watchful eyes of the surviving Arbites, the terrifying xenos used their razor-sharp foreclaws to ruthlessly slaughter the cultists. Often, a single flick of a claw was enough to bisect a human. Their vitality was staggering; even with their heads blown apart, they would take a human life with them in their final throes.
As the cultists' heavy weaponry began to suppress the Swarm, new creatures burrowed up from beneath the earth, dealing a devastating blow to the Genestealers. These units, clad in black chitinous plating, acted like organic tanks, ramming through the crowds. It often took several Purestrain Genestealers attacking at once to bring one down, yet the acidic bile they spat dissolved everything it touched.
New movements echoed from the alleys. With the sound of whistling air, sharp bone spikes shot out from the shadows, sniping every high-threat target on the field: Purestrain Genestealers, cultists in heavy flak armor with heavy weapons, and demagogues barking into megaphones to bolster morale. No life could withstand these bone spikes.
The source of the spikes—creatures with snake-like lower bodies slithering across the ground—used their scythe-like limbs to cut down anyone who dared approach. The projectiles launched from beneath their thick bone plates were more powerful than heavy stubber rounds.
Despair spread through the crowd. Endless blood soaked the gray-blue ground, and no one noticed the faint blue flickers of light flowing across the floor, as if something was being activated by the carnage.
Some cultists began to experience auditory hallucinations—whispers in a language they couldn't understand. But no one cared; in the face of death, nothing else mattered.
Just as the Genestealers prepared for a final, desperate stand, a thunderous roar erupted from the cathedral. Cheers broke out—it was their leader, their Patriarch, the Herald of the God-Emperor! He would crush all enemies!
Alexei watched the Genestealer Patriarch burst out of the cathedral. The five-meter-tall behemoth exerted a crushing pressure on everyone present. Its two pairs of claws reaped the lives of the Zerg units.
Seeing the heavy losses inflicted by the Patriarch, Alexei immediately ordered all Roaches and Hydralisks to focus their fire. Tactics? Not needed. F2A (Select all and Attack)!
Acid corroded its flesh, bone spikes shattered its carapace, and claws tore at its hide. The Patriarch was indeed the cult's ultimate combatant, but unfortunately, it was outnumbered. With a massive crash, its giant body slammed into the ground, deep purple blood pooling as it twitched and fell silent.
With the Patriarch's death, its psionic control over the cultists snapped. The Evolution Cultists felt a sharp pain in their heads, followed by the horrifying realization of the monstrous corpse before them.
"No... impossible! What is that thing!" they wailed, their expressions vacant with despair. They couldn't understand how the "Herald of the God-Emperor," once wreathed in light, could be such a monster. Most cultists chose to end their own lives in madness, while the rest were consumed by the Swarm.
Mona hid behind a shattered pew, her mind blank. She couldn't believe her kind elders and the "Angels" who smiled at her were actually monsters. "Why? Why... I just wanted to live, I just wanted to be a legal citizen of the Imperium. Emperor above, forgive me, save me..." She wept, her intense emotions converging in the depths of the cathedral.
The blue light beneath the ground grew blindingly bright. The tides of the Warp began to churn, and endless wails echoed within.
Alexei frowned, sensing something was wrong. "Something's off. I have a bad feeling about this."
Just as he ordered the Swarm to retreat, a piercing shriek rang through everyone's minds. A violent explosion erupted from beneath the cathedral, and the blinding light temporarily blinded everyone.
When Alexei opened his eyes, solidified dark blue Warp energy had enveloped the area. He finally realized the truth: "Holy shit, Tzeentch!"
Dammit. He gritted his teeth, ordering the surviving Zerg to regroup around him. He couldn't stay here; he had to retreat. Fighting Warp demons offered no biomass.
In the distance, where the cathedral had stood, a massive altar had appeared. Dozens of blue gems, absorbing the spilled blood, seemed to power it. A giant Warp rift flickered above, and countless demons poured out. The remaining humans screamed in fresh agony as countless cultists were instantly transformed into Chaos Spawns.
The Underhive was truly finished. "These Genestealers really knew how to pick a spot—holding mass in a cathedral built on a demonic altar."
In the next instant, Alexei abandoned the idea of retreat. He had to close that rift. His Main Hive was in the landfill just outside the factory district; if this wasn't solved, it would be 'GG' for him too.
The Zerg immediately turned to pounce on the endless Horrors. The surviving Enforcers, seeing this, cried "For the Emperor!" and opened fire on the demons. Chaos was always the Imperium's greatest enemy.
Whispers of the Warp eroded the minds of the sentient beings present, but Alexei felt no ill effect. He looked at his panel; the biomass value remained unchanged. "Hell, how am I supposed to fight this?"
His Swarm was suffering losses every second while the demons poured in without end. Unless... Alexei looked at the altar. Only by sending an elite unit to destroy it directly would there be a chance.
Time was running out. Suddenly, he noticed something. As demons were slain by his Swarm, a new value appeared on the panel.
"What's this?" Alexei looked at the new resource... Wait. A thought struck him, and he scrolled to the back of the panel.
The previously locked, shadow-shrouded units of another race were now revealed. Alexei felt an urge to laugh toward the heavens.
"The Khala connects us!" Come on, demons. Warp-in initiated!