Carlo led his warriors through the Hold. Their heavy armor grew harder to move in the high-gravity environment.
Within the Galactic Core region, due to the multitude of stars, each planet experienced significantly greater gravitational pull compared to planets in other region.
Shadows of Order in Mark II power armor advanced swiftly. When encountering stubbornly resistant defensive strongpoints, they would summon brothers in Cataphractii Terminator Armor.
Carlo gazed over the Squat defensive installations towards the depths of the Hold.
He saw a massive, deep grey proto-fortress. He believed that must be the core location of the Squat League's Hold.
Carlo noted that the reactor in his targeting display had finished charging the heavy disintegrator.
A thought crossed his mind. His gaze locked onto a bastion from which over a dozen las guns extended from firing ports, unleashing a dense barrage of beams at the Shadows of Order.
During a charge, a Shadow of Order's visor was targeted by a Squat marksman's hunTR system. The beam fired curved around the storm shield from the side, striking the Astartes in the left eye.
Not only had the Shadows of Order gained a deeper understanding of the Squats by combining combat experience with data from their gene-father, but their opponents had as well.
Carlo had already lost over two thousand warriors in this long battle. Without the Cataphractii Terminator Armor and the newly deployed Saturnine Terminators, the casualties would have been far worse.
Now, at last, he could see the final objective, what would end this war.
The heavy disintegrator on his back automatically locked onto the target and fired a blast at the defensive works.
The las rifles vaporized into atoms. Steel, and the Squats within, crumpled like drifting dust, vanishing almost instantly.
Carlo's attention was drawn to a group of Squats emerging from the central fortress.
A contingent of Einhyr Heartguard and Ironkin escorted three figures out of the fortress.
The central figure wore resplendent armor. He held a plasma gun in his left hand and wielded a warhammer in his right.
The instant Carlo looked at the hammer, he felt a sharp, instinctive sting.
'That weapon is extremely dangerous.'
On either side of this dwarf stood two figures in robes. Strange apparatus extended from their backs to their heads. They held glowing staffs in their hands.
Beside each stood two ornate servitors armed with Bedrock-pattern boltguns.
Carlo knew these were the Grimnyr and the High Kahl, specially designed squat psyker.
He raised his right arm. The plasma bombard fired a blinding beam at the rapidly advancing group.
The Chief Grimnyr Lord on the left raised his arm. His body and the two COG drones beside him simultaneously erupted with dazzling light.
The brilliant radiance eclipsed the explosion flashes on the battlefield, even overwhelming the incoming piercing beam.
A force shield enveloped the entire group. The searing thermal ray struck the field as if swallowed by an invisible maw, vanishing in an instant.
Carlo slowed his pace, raised his right arm high, turned sideways, and fired two more blasts at the Squats. Both were blocked.
The Second Grimnyr Lord raised his staff high. Telekinetic force propelled the group, sending them speeding towards the battlefield.
The heavy disintegrator finished charging again. Carlo locked onto the enemy and fired.
BOOOOM!
Carlo's Warp Insight saw the psychic shield shatter.
An energy shockwave rippled outwards. The Einhyr Heartguard swayed, nearly thrown off their feet.
Some Einhyr Heartguard plunged their glowing plasma blades into the ground to steady themselves. Others were supported by nearby Ironkin and remained standing.
Before the enemy could raise another psychic shield, Carlo raised his right arm and fired a blast at the enemy in resplendent armor.
The auto-targeting system of the Saturnine prototype ensured the beam struck true.
The shield-weave of the Squat League's High Kâhl glowed. The thermal beam was deflected by a tiny angle, grazing his armor and striking an Einhyr Heartguard behind him, who melted instantly.
The High Kâhl let out a furious roar.
"For the Ancestors!"
He raised his warhammer and charged at Carlo.
The heavy disintegrator charged. Carlo fired consecutive shots at the enemy charging towards him.
The High Kâhl's master crafted bastium armor in no way hindered his mobility. He constantly changed direction, closing in on the enemy.
As the League's greatest living warrior, he nimbly dodged two beams. Only one struck.
The shield-weave shimmered. The deflection field only altered the angle slightly. Most of the beam struck his gleaming battle plate on the chest and abdomen.
The High Kâhl's meticulously groomed grey-white beard was singed to ash by the heatwave. But his resplendent battle plate merely darkened from deep grey to a sooty black; the engravings remained undamaged.
He reached the foot of the black-armored giant. The Squat swung the warhammer forged from darkstar ore, smashing it against the enemy's calf.
Darkstar ore was mined from the dead zones within the Galactic Core. Even for the most resilient Kin and Ironkin, entering the death zones was an extremely perilous endeavor.
In the Squat League's brief history, only four weapons had been forged from darkstar ore.
Unlike the Imperium's unstable plasma weapons, the Squats could forge stable plasma weapons.
The darkstar weapons were, among many weapons, the only unstable, dangerous ones.
Only the most elite warriors were entrusted with the duty of using such weapons. They had to wield them with utmost care. The slightest wound they inflicted could end an enemy's life, as if an invisible hand switched off the opponent's life.
The darkstar warhammer struck the conversion field. The explosive sound resembled a missile colliding with a force field.
The Chief Grimnyr Lord saw the High Kâhl's warhammer blocked by the enemy's shield. The runes on his body, his back, and the two mind-impulse servitors beside him simultaneously lit up. Arcs of electricity crackled around his upraised staff.
The Chief Grimnyr Lord swung his staff. Electricity arced out, coiling like a python around the warhammer in the High Kâhl's hand.
The body, crafted for ultimate resilience, shuddered. He was hurled into the air by the massive energy influx.
The High Kâhl dodged the descending energized blade. Simultaneously, he swung the darkstar warhammer, smashing it hard against the right side of the black-armored giant's knee.
Psychic lightning pierced the conversion field. The darkstar warhammer cracked open the Saturnine prototype armor, striking Carlo himself.
Carlo's body swayed. He tried to regain his balance. Such damage should not be a severe injury for an Astartes' physique.
But the reality was that the darkstar ore, a biological material, released a destructive field that, upon contact, shut down the Astartes' superhuman organic metabolism and myoelectric functions in an instant.
Before Carlo could even comprehend what had happened, his consciousness plunged into darkness.
The warriors of the Fifth Chapter saw their Lord, collapse like a mountain.
.....
If you enjoy the story, my p@treon is 30 chapters ahead.
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