My Third eye was wide open and sing the p, I was searg for the rgest tration of strong souls that should signify where the current headquarters of the defenders are.

  "What is it?" Selene asked from o me, staring down at the phrough a biological monitor I made, making the Lictor Carapace show what an eye saw on the hull of the ship instead of the usual camoufge was surprisingly easy once I uood how it worked so now I could share what I saw with the others. Though Zedev and Val were sent to look at another monitor, yep.

  "I'm searg for strong souls and I found one disturbingly powerful one...I think I know who it is too," I narrowed my eyes at the bzing bohat was hidden deep beh the earth, "he shouldn't be a problem."

  "Why?"

  "He mao get himself and his pals buried under a mountain ihe mines."

  "Oh," Selene blinked, "Okay."

  I wouldn't say no to getting a lock of hair from him though.

  Unfortunately, he might be even more dangerous than Guilliman, him being the Chief Librarian of the Blood Angels, Mephiston. He was the avatar of the Dark Angel which was the dark part of the Primarch Sanguinius and he robably one of if not the stro loyalist Psyker in the Imperium with the only oing anywhere close being the Chief Librarian of the Ultramariigurius.

  I found another set of simirly strong souls swimming around where I saw the rgest tration of stronger souls. That should be the headquarters, a fortress monastery if I remember right? Though for the life of me, I had no idea what the name of it was.

  My eyes narrowed as my vision zoomed in ohousands of 'strong' souls were walking around, these were like torches in the darkness where a normal human was a brief flicker of dlelight but one among them was a rger torch. It had an old and weary feeling to it and two phantasmal souls without solid anchors to realspace were following along with it from the , watg on as he tried to somehow halt the advance of the Tyranids.

  That should be Dante...and his two stalkers the leftover fragments of Sanguinius' soul and the Sanguinor, the avatar of the White Angel which was the terpart of Mephiston's Dark Angel.

  "Zedev where is the defenders' headquarters?" Just to be sure I decided to ask, after all, he should be plugged into the battle reports.

  "The defenders remain scattered throughout Baal as an aftereffect of the storms..." he answered after a moment, "Chapter Master Dante of the Blood Angels retreated to the Arx Angellicum Fortress-Monastery with a few of his warriors...they are readying for a final stand."

  "Let's go then," I smiled nervously as I aimed the ship right at the monastery, "Get ready for immediate bat once we nd, I'm probably going to end up in the middle of the swarm."

  "Stelr," Valenith sighed, ba his human guise already with the apanying Saned Psyker garbs.

  Zedev's barrier emitters roared to life as his power axe hummed with power, that thing was a monstrosity in and of itself which could go blow for blow with my bio-sword.

  The reality was unstable in the whole Baal System but it was trated most on Baal Prime and around the Fortress-Monastery, I gnced into the to find a Legion waiting to pounce, ed in ominous fire and driven by righteous vengeao deliver the emperor's wrath upon the enemies of Mankind. The Legion of the Damned was just about ready to assault the Tyranids.

  It seemed we mao arrive for the finale.

  The Ship ehe atmosphere, I cared not for casting illusions or c the vessel with camoufge and instead started making it smaller and more streamlined. We were falling now so propulsion wasn't an issue, I reabsorbed the tendrils along with most of the navigation sensors and ans and only left the arm and the iia dampeners along with the artificial gravity.

  In any other ships we'd be getting thrown around from the harsh turbulence of atmospheric re-entry but it wasn't the case with this ship, of course, the Tyranids didn't make any of the ans for this purpose but I didn't have to make many modifications to it to turn it into this. I was tempted to turn the whole ship into a swarm of drones but I was in the heart of the Imperium and right uhe nose of the Angelic Host and soon that of The Lent of the Imperium.

  We'll fight the swarm as if we were normal humans...well, more normal than we are.

  We were a ragtag group of a Psyker focused on mass destru, a Magos with a fetish for cutting up aliens, an ex-Rogue Trader ed up in my bio-armor and wielding modified Tyranid onry, and myself. I might be the weirdest o of the bunch. Psyker, Shapeshifter, Xeno, bio-on, Reinator, a soul from another universe and so on.

  Selene's armor flowed over her body like a gentle wave of textile which was in actuality thousands of hair-thin tendrils interweaving to create her armor. Her arm morphed as she quickly went through her assortment of onry, each modified so the flying, screeg, flesh-eating worms shot out weren't dead giveaways of what they were.

  She stopped ohat was a smaller version of the on I used on the void ship, it'd shoot out bio-psma propelled chitinous bullets but instead of being filled with my tendrils, they were loaded with densed bio-energy which would explode violently ohe shell cracked into something. Basically, it was a bolter but instead of being a bulky monstrosity, I desig to look like a streamlined sci-fi rifle right out of my wet dreams.

  It was matte bck with some silver ats, it didn't have many straight edges and had more curving lines and smooth sides and of course, it didn't have a magazi'd have to be refilled with bio-energy from her armor, I left a tendril in it which would allow her to eat stuff simir to how I do it and store the ed biomass as bio-energy in the armor, so far she only use it to heal herself, her armor and reload her rifle and I don't particurly io turn her into a see so that is all she'll be capable of doing.

  Her armor also ged some, Astartes had robes over their armor and so did Custodes so I decided that we o have them too. She had a two-yered armor with a skin-tight bck armor c her from o toe like a skin suit and a white outer armor that covered her torso, thighs, shin and arms but left her with full range of motion. The robe came i, flowing down from uhe white chest armor like a tabard on her front and back. It was a silky material as blue as the sky.

  I thoughtfully looked her over. This was much better than before, she was starting to look both cssy, hot as fud badass, a perfebination.

  "I outdid myself on that armor," I nodded, "you look geous in it."

  "Thanks," she tried not to smile as she looked down on herself, "how did you even make this?" she twirled the blue silky robe around her fingers.

  "Turns out eating some pnts here and there be useful," I shrugged, "that is made from some sort of weird pnt that grew in that Aeldari temple in the Webway."

  "Though it not having a helmet is...unorthodox," she raised an eyebrow at me.

  "It could cover your head if you want," I shrugged, "but with the forcefield built into it anything aside from that is mostly superficial, if it sehat something is going to break through it it'll cover you in aen yers of armor and you'll probably look more like an Astartes in power armor than how you do now."

  "Why 't I do that from the start?" she arced an eyebrow but I caught the pyful twitch of her lips. Yessss!!

  "So I see your face as you fight?"

  "Sure," she giggled and tinued cheg over her ons even though her modified Bonesword and that sci-fi rifle were leagues above the baseliyranid onry.

  With a wave of bio-energy flowing through my body, I let my own armor flow over me, it was very simir to Selene's but my own did a better job at stig close to my skin and ating my figure. I'd gotteo being in a bodysuit that left very little to the imagination so even this much felt like I was far too covered up, though I might ge my mind rather quickly once disgusting people started ogling me.

  Both of our armors were several separate yers iy with the psychic pathways linking all of them together despite there seemingly being only two of them, I wasn't going to be fyed again aher was Selene if I could help it.

  Zedev oher hand... I really wao see what'd happen to a human if they died but before their souls dispersed ot nom-nommed by demons I snatched them up and pced them into my Soul Puddle. It'd be unfortunate if that'd turn out to be Zedev... buuuuut

  Okay, I'll try to find another vict- subject. I don't know if that sounds aer. Anyway, I shouldn't experiment with my allies' souls, bad Ea, very bad.

  My staff —Atiesh, I almost fot I — twirled around me eagerly, ever since I made it it's been following me around even without my input.

  It wasn't irrepceable but it wouldn't be the same Staff anymore if repced, it'd be simir but not the same, which was important with it being a focus of the Immaterium. At the moment it was my wo priority to keep it intact, after Selene of course and Zedev came in after my avatar which was third. I'm such a great boss.

  Val keep himself safe, if not I'll have a new neckce with a grumpy Eldar in it.

  I g the Soulstone embedded into his robe around his chest, if he ever died while fighting because of me the least I could do rotect that thing a back to his Craftworld. Or maybe try resurreg him...bad Ea.

  "Shouldn't we slow down?" Selene asked a bit nervously as she watched the ground closing in on us through the monitor.

  "Oh," I fed power into the tral sphere again and reinforced its barriers while feeding bio-energy into the iia dampeners, "I've got it!"

  My tendrils quickly sucked up the biomass making up the rest of the ship, only leaving behind ay shell loaded with a bit of overcharged bio-energy.

  The monitor went dark a few seds ter but we felt nothing, well, physically at least. I felt the shockwave hit our barriers as the bio-energy exploded violently and wiped away the swarm of bugs approag us, before we crash-he whole ground was swarming with them but now there wasn't a single bio-form in a five-hundred-meter radius of the sphere.

  I flicked my wrists and the energy making up the barriers gained a new directive and bsted away all debris and smoke clouding our vision.

  My nostrils fred as I took in a deep breath, vile smells crawled into my nose, acidic blood coated the whole wastend that was Baal, and the smoke in the air carried the st of burning flesh, both human and alieh these overp sts I smelled blood from humans, ozone from the burnt air left behind by the use of psma onry and sguns.

  The ground was gssy as either our nding or the following explosion turhe sand into gss and the pinkish sky of Baal was reflected in its jagged faces.

  The sky was unnatural, not the pinkness of it but the deep red lines criss crossing through it like rivers of blood whi actuality were only the st vestiges of a reg storm still cealed the ielr space beyond.

  Dry air spped me in the face, swinging my pale hair around and throwing ash and sand into my mouth.

  "Urgh," I spat it out and ed off my mouth then turned on my repulsor field, "I hate sand."

  Selene VossLife was weird, that she knew. She'd fought those greenskins before in the Guard, she'd met Eldar before and was well acquainted with all the troubles that came with them.

  The gaxy was a wide pd unlike what many humans thought, she knew humanity was far from quering it and subduing all of its dahose who knew better, those who saw the bigger picture uood that the Imperium's position recarious and the more one khe more evident this became.

  Ne Dynasties awoke from their slumbers, sometimes right uhe feet of Imperial worlds and while she never fought them she khose lifeless beings were a terror entirely different from all others she faced.

  Then there were the Tyranids.

  All-dev, ever-hungry monsters from beyond the gaxy. They came from all dires and seemed to evolve by the day with the singur purpose of ridding the gaxy of life.

  With a thought her rifle spoke, the psma propelnt was silent but she could hear the bullet cut through the air before bursting inte Tyranid still a good four hundred meters away. Whatever Ea's armor did to both her eyesight and aim was magical, she saw the Tyranid and wao shoot it, so she did.

  The beast's carapace imploded, bending inwards from the force of the bullet crashing into it before exploding outwards in a cloud of gore. The shards of its carapace were sent flying so fast they became shrapnel and garroted several other Tyranids around it.

  "The shadow is setting in," Valenith said calmly as his staff started resonating with power as the Eldar sed the horizon swarming with the aliens.

  "The hive-mind is reasserting itself," Ea said offhandedly, "I feel a nexus around which it is densed even more."

  "A superior Synapse creature?" Zedev queried.

  "That is our first target," Ea grinned, her eyes flickering with a hunger and greed Selene became familiar with over the st few weeks. The woman wasn't human, far from it and moments like these solidified that fa Selene's mind.

  "The Swarmlord."

  "Indeed," the woman nodded, "let's get going, we should be close to the fortress."

  Ea started floating. She did love flying and Selene couldn't say she wasn't jealous of the ease with which the woman did it. She could fly too, although it was more of a trolled fall with some telekiic assistance.

  The woman sat sideways oaff like she was using it as a ride and then she shot off with a st challenging gnce behind.

  "Why did it have to be me," she heard a weary sigh from the Eldar as his form flickered and she felt a slight rebound in the , and then another ripple reached her from far away.

  She noticed the Eldar was standing just as he was but four hundred meters away. Then he flickered again.

  Selehrew a g the bulky Magos, as far as she knew he wasn't capable of any form of speedy transportation without a vehicle.

  "It is reehat you catch up with them ex-Captain."

  "What about you?"

  "My transport is on its way."

  "If you say so," Selene said and then she was off, maybe it was because of the sour feeli in her heart every time he called her ex-Captain but she wasn't overly enthused at the idea of having to carry him along.

  She jumped and bounded over a row of swarming bio-forms with jagged scythes and by-now familiar ranged onry. Her foot ected with the head of a rger one, a Warrior, a it crashing into the ground as she unched herself bato the air.

  Mid-air a swarm of flying Xeno came rushing at her but she just threw herself out of their way with a wave of telekinesis a a barrage of exploding bullets their way.

  Fighting like this was little less than a dream only months ago, sure she had a power armour but it was one used by some higher ranking Sororitas members, and as such it was far from anything Astartes wore. Her current armor felt like somethiirely different, it took her, a normal human woman and made a warrior out of her who could crash Tyranid Warriors under her boot like they were is.

  It was...addictive.

  Out of nothing she suddenly felt an overwhelming force sm into her and send her flying straight down, she smashed into the sand like a bullet a up a dust cloud while crushing several Tyranids underh her. She snapped up instantly, he vision shifting to infrared, thermal, energy sensor, electrisor, and bio-electricity each flickered for a moment before the bio-electricity and the atmospherie overid themselves to her normal vision.

  A form twice as rge as her was rushing at her so fast it should have left explosions in its wake as it broke through the sound barrier.

  'Are you alright?' She heard Ea's worried voie knog on the walls of her mindscape but she only had time to send a quibsp;'Yes' before the beast on her.

  Her sword formed in her hand, one moment there was nothing and the she was gripping its hilt and sshing up to defend against the scythe-like apperying to rend her in half. The swords ected and unlike what everyoh on sense would have expected it was the beast that rebounded, it was stunned for only a brief moment and while Selene herself couldn't have reacted in time her Armor was far from just for prote.

  Her gau shifted her hold on the sword by itself and sshed up and to the side, by the time Selene realized what'd happened her sword was held out at her side and a scythe-like appendage was drawing a bloody trail through the air.

  She narrowed her eyes at the still Tyranid which lost its invisible coat and was revealed to be a vicous-looking Tyranid with tentacles streaming down from its head, a Lictor if she remembered right.

  Selewirled her bde around and readied herself for the tinuation of the fight but as a stronger wind swept across the battlefield, the mooppled over, its head falling through the air unected to the rest of its body.

  She g her sword and gau with some apprehension but shook her head. It was a bat program like in bat Servitors, it was better to think of it like that.

  I shouldn't mention that to her though, she hates Servitors.

  Selene mused as she jumped bato the air and tiowards where she felt Ea's presehrough their e.

  'Selene, where are you?' the alien woman's silky smooth voice echoed through her mind as she let it in freely.

  'A Lictor thing ambushed me, but I've dealt with it.' She had to add the sed part quickly, it was more an instinct than knowledge but she felt the woman would have turned 180 and rushed back to her to help.

  'Alright, hurry up then' the woman said after a moment, 'I found the Fortress and our friends.'

  There was something ily wrong with the way she said friends, well maybe because telepathiunication carried meanings and feelings along with the words to make up for the ck of body nguage in the unication.

  'I'll be right there,' Sele and eled a bit of that bio-energy into her body and armor. Her body became both lighter and stronger, her unch off of the back of a Tyranid spttered it on the ground instead of knog it down. She could barely keep up with her new speed but the steady stream of bio-energy and her Armor correg her miss-steps made up for it and she dashed through the battlefield faster than even most Tyranids could see.

  Her heart was hammering heavily in her chest as she crested over a dune and the main battlefield spread out in front of her, this was it, her first battle where she fought for something she actually wahe guard, the Wanderer, or even her house were all fleeting a her down time and time again but Ea...

  I just hope I stao her...as a friend...or...

  She gulped. She wasn't a teenage girl aher was she dense as a brick; she felt bad for already having some feelings for a woman just a month after Seraphina died but that felt like it'd been years ago already.

  The attention and care the woman showed her was something she had never experienced before. There'd never be dynastic talks with her or expectations of fulfilled duties, pced on her shoulder, responsibilities she didn't want dragging her down to the abyss.

  It didn't hurt that even the woman liked to take on forms and wear clothes that were doing things to Selene.

  She wao see my face during battle, Selene sighed, foing putting on a helmet, let's give her a show then.

  P3t1