《40 Thousand Reasons》Last Stand - Chapter 96
Advertisement
Canis growls and pushes my left hand again, turning my attention from the holofield screen back to my tesseract vision.
We have entered the Hidden_Blade, which is a Fortress dimension guarding access to the rest of the city.
Just in time, as a hundred Drukhari vessels arrive from a different pathways and begin launching thousands of advanced Voidraven_Bombers, and they are actually dangerous, especially the weapon called Void_Mine, which is quite a match for my corvettes.
The mind impulse unit goes into overdrive as I rapidly capture all of these bombers, but a single mine passes through and envelops the 666 number corvette into a barrier field. In an instant, a secondary warhead releases a particle of darklight which destroys everything inside the barrier, including my poor corvette. The crew is safe in my tesseract though, so at least it's not a total loss. Perhaps I shouldn't test fate and use that hull number again.
I clench my fist and the entire Dark Eldar fleet gets moved inside the labyrinth, and its crew gets lined up in ordered rows for my later perusal. That's an Archon!
Now this is an excellent barter piece. Going by how many enemies the Dark Eldar have in the galaxy, everyone will bid on this guy, just to flay and crush him alive for decades.
"You lost a ship, again." Ludvaius mutters in a faint tinge of admonishment.
I just wave a hand in dismissal and focus on the battle.
The Imperium attacked this place about 7000 years ago and lost much more. They didn't return afterwards. I don't intend to return either, because there will be nothing left.
A new wave of enemies arrives, hundreds of Ravager gunships, so nimble they can dodge defensive missiles and multilasers. They cannot dodge me, and thus they land in a stasis labyrinth for later analysis.
Thousands of Razorwing_Jetfighters pass right through the Tyranid blockade of the Webway, to attack our fleet from behind, so nimble and agile they can dodge the Tyranid jaws and bioplasma weapons, and even manage to fire a few shots of dark lance at my Battle barge, before they are captured as well.
Another Archon was leading this charge, which doesn't surprise me. All Archons lead from the front, or they get strangled in their sleep by their own Kabal.
We enter a region called Corespur, formerly the residence of rich nobles, now mostly in ruins. Our batteries burn what's left of it, including impoverished nobles and thousands of Homunculi labs or Wych Cults.
Then we pass through the Sec_Maegra, a city housing yet another billion Dark Eldar living in poverty and misery. Their misery ends by the time our fleet exits the city, flames and plasma ending their suffering and returning their wretched souls to hell.
However, the next section of Commorragh is well defended, a place called Bone_Middens, house of the richest Wych Cults and their arsenal of bioweapons and sorcerous biomachines.
Advertisement
I immediately seal a dozen Webway exits with Tyranid bioships, reducing the chance for escape or reinforcements.
Altars of bones and skulls decorate every intersection, most of them human bones, for whatever reason. Don't worry, the day of retribution is here, and burns to have a heated argument for human rights.
There are also thousands of coliseums and arenas, filled with gladiators and beastmasters, as well as millions of mutated beasts and a billion Dark Eldar spectators.
They are all invited to the the fireworks display, and cannot refuse.
Perhaps 40 thousand of the gladiators are human or Eldar, and they disappear in my labyrinth, where I notice with surprise a few hundred Astartes of every legion, and even a Primarch, the crazy swordsman named Khan.
This guy must be really insane, coming willingly to the dark arenas just for a chance to butcher Dark Eldar in revenge, one at at time.
I mean, I was here too, for much the same reason, but I did it with a big fleet and had a godling on my side. And even with every advantage I have, it is not easy.
An entire army of Incubi and Succubi supported by more Pain Engines and hundreds of defense platforms resist our assault, until I drop a dozen Tyranid bioships just on top of them.
Those bioships are also filled with millions of predatory organisms, hungry for any kind of biomass.
Takes a whole day, and the Eldar lose a couple cruisers anyway, such potent are those dark lance batteries. Their crew are saved by my labyrinth, or else the Avatar might break the alliance too soon.
"I didn't sense their soul get devoured by the Enemy. You have my thanks, Astartes." the Avatar whispers in my mind.
"Not problem, just keep an eye for Archon Vect. Don't want our fleet to be stuck in some temporal-flux mine or get hit with prismic dimensional mirrors. Then I will have to release my other assets and the Webway will be gone." I warn him in return.
I'm not sure if he believes me, but I do have an enslaved C'tan just waiting for bloodshed. Problem is, I'm not certain I can stop my Crimson God after I set him loose.
"Care will be taken, human. Let's move on, and you unleash another firebomb in our wake. Don't pollute the Webway with unleashed Tyranids." The Avatar demands once most of the enemy forces are scattered and flee towards the Tyranids.
Some of these Drukhari are fast and strong enough to make it out, enough though millions of Hormagaunts and whatever other creatures are out here.
We pass into the next dimension, and the Exterminatus obliterates the Wyches and their arenas.
Here is the Middle_Darkness, sort of civilian sector full of brigands and assassins. Our batteries set them right, and turn them to the light.
After this, we finally arrive at High Commorragh, the place of power for the Dark Eldar. The entire race seems to be waiting for us, billions of troops and carnage engines, mutated beasts and 10 thousand ships of every size.
Advertisement
We are completely outnumbered, and outgunned, or so it seems.
I drop Tyranids ships in 50 places, all to the sides of the awaiting armies, and keep only 100 bioships in reserve. TheTyranid Silence engulfs the city and quells most of their foul wards and dark magic, and thus I launch two Vortex torpedoes, one into their frontlines and one behind the enemy lines, right at the edge of the nearest spire, one covered in the strongest dimensional shield I have ever seen, even able to block the tesseract.
A few seconds after, I start kidnapping the bigger Drukhari ships as fast as I can, denying them their strongest assets. Five more Archons are now captured, plus 98 Battleships. Mines detonate in their place, as to confuse anyone where the ships are gone, but I suspect neither the Avatar of Khaine, nor my friendly wolf are fooled.
The Tyranids howl in hunger and plow straight into the waiting biomass, ripping into the Dark Eldar armies and crunching on their bodies in ravenous hunger. Tyranids are always hungry.
The dimensional mirror defending the spire is slowly breached by the expanding Warp rift, and demons of a thousand types now flood Commorragh's richest quarters.
Of course, those rich nobles and Archons had their private armies and Pain Engines and thousands of mine and traps, but the Immaterium is without end and will never run out of demons.
The Drukhari cruisers and bombers still in the air struggle to split their fire in between the three attacking forces, and me and the Eldar are the most distant and less immediate threat.
"Warp weapons! They should be forbidden!" the Avatar claims in a disgusted voice.
See? The Geneva Convention is very close already.
I flick a melta torpedo deep inside the highest spire, and the deflection field only stops half of its effect, while melting plasma falls onto the troops and demons below, sending them all to hell, screaming in joy or terror as they melt in burning fires.
The Silence is not strong enough for a third Vortex warhead to be used safely, but I'm in no rush. I record everything on my implant, while my fleet fires thousands of plasma torpedoes at the defending Dark Eldar army.
I don't care how strong a psyker is, while bombarded by Tyranid Silence and a thousand tones plasma torpedo, his mind will crack and so will his psyker shields.
Well, except one huge Mandrake who tanks 5 torpedoes before he dies. Must have been their boss or something. As durable as a Navy cruiser, so possibly on par with a Daemon Prince.
I don't really care though. My corvettes have 20 thousand torpedoes to spend, and we're barely using 10 percent for now.
I direct a wing of 100 corvettes to unleash a sequential barrage on the tallest spire. Not at once, because the most warheads will get vaporized in the previous explosion. There is no rush, anyway.
I have all the time in the world, and a Silent Sister whispering hot promises in my ear.
"How do you like the show, guys?" I ask to make sure.
"Looks great from up here. Probably quite nasty at ground level though..." Rafen quips with a snort.
"The Tyranids are eating well today." Ludvaius observes in a calm voice.
"They are, huh? Poor creatures. Coming all the way from distant galaxies, just to serve as actors in my pict-show. I bet a throne my kids will love this recording." I comment in a wry voice.
"Which throne would that be?" the Chaplain interferes at my heresy.
Rafen flips a sliver coin and holds it up. "One throne coin, Lord Pef. But all your kids must love it." the Astartes demands waving the coin like it was made of spirit stones or something of value.
"What's not to love? Should I add some Orks in there?" I ask in a naive voice.
"No!" everyone on the bridge yells in terror. Probably a good idea then.
"Necrons?" I ask in fake innocence.
"That's even worse, Captain. Stop talking while you're ahead." Brother Ludvaius advises me and pats my head in a familiar gesture.
I pat Canis on his head for comfort, while we wait for the damned dimensional field to break.
The Eldar cruisers keep lancing everything approaching our formation, creating a rather powerful barrier of light and antimatter. We fire plasma and lances as well, and I keep stealing sleek bombers and fighters, as soon as they leave their underground launch bays.
Everyone of these babies would be worth a billion thrones, sleek and nimble death machines with millions of years of advanced technology hidden under the spikes.
One day humanity will have such nice fighters too, but for that I need some respite to grow my kingdom in relative peace. Technology is a hard quest, and religious restrictions do not help.
As it happens, the Tau and the Dark Eldar are the easiest enemies to defeat, due to their localized concentration.
Sadly, most of the Tau stuff is only on par with the Astartes weaponry and armor, or even below, not to mention the Mechanicus. Some Mechanicus tech is almost at Necron levels, altough they of course forgot how to make them or even how to power them up.
The Tau instead create things on a logical progression, getting better every year.
The Tau still need to grow and discover more nice stuff, to be worth a raid from myself.
Hopefully anti-Chaos and anti-Necron weapons. That would be great.
I will have to arrange they meet and fight more often.
Advertisement
- In Serial96 Chapters
A Boy’s Simple Ambition
A story of a young orphan coming of age in a world slowly recovering from an otherworldly invasion that not only brought it to the brink of collapse, but that also introduced a new element similar to magic. Follow his adventures as he attempts to fulfill his ambition, one that is so simple, yet so far out of reach, all the while trying to survive the antics of his friends and the growth of his powers. Release Schedule: Wednesdays & Saturdays Afternoon EST
8 463 - In Serial53 Chapters
I'm In Charge of SCP
Object Class: Keter Description: SCP-X is a humanoid that calls himself as "Zhang Jue" and came from a parallel universe with traits that are unaffected by most SCP anomalous objects. Long-term observational studies reveal that he has a mildly antisocial personality and loves to trash-talk. SCP-X can obtain the ability of a particular SCP anomalous object through physical contact, and the ability obtained will be adjusted accordingly to his condition. Special Containment Procedures: Special attention needs to be paid to the containment of SCP-X. (Special precautions towards themself) SCP-X should be contained in a single villa designed by a French designer, not less than 50 x 50 x 20 meters, with a garden on the top floor and a swimming pool with no less than 200 square meters in the courtyard. The Foundation shall assign a male staff member over 50 years of age, trained in British royal etiquette, who shall wear a wig 24 hours a day to assist in the management of the villa. The staff monitoring the SCP-X behavior must undergo a monthly psychological evaluation. There have been cases where staff had quit the Foundation because they could not stand the trash talk. Updates 1 chapter daily!Read up to 40 chapters on my Patreon (patreon.com/nahyesq)Full credit goes to "Walnut again"
8 238 - In Serial33 Chapters
Binary of Life and Death
Monsters, gold, chaos, glory, adventure, what more could attract two of the greatest players of all time to Sugarea, the most popular MMORPG of its time. But everyone makes errors, and unfortunate for these two brilliant players, they have made the grave mistake of not actually sleeping like normal humans and missed out on the very moment the new Dark Legion update would take effect. Or did they? They wake in what seems familiar yet not, but they soon realize their predicament. They are inside their game avatar's bodies! A half-Demon and a Dragonoid are now struggling with more than just power, these two men have to find their new purpose and calling in a completely different world. Will they concur it like ordinary land or will they enlighten the planet into equality? Do figures pull strings in the dark or is everything open to the public eye? Nothing is certain except the unknown, and nothing is ever as it seems... This is an Isekai story, as such, some parts may sound either cliché or similar to others, but I assure you, I tried to prevent that. To make it known, I took quite a lot of inspiration from the light novel/anime Overlord, but that doesn't mean it's a direct rip-off of it. You'll find there to be quite the amount of differences. Just a little heads up as well, you should expect irregular uploads, as it takes me a long time to write each chapter. I am currently trying for once every other week on Sundays around 10:00 A.M. Chapters are usually 7k words and up, with the longest (chapter 3) being 10.3k words. So, if you like to sit down and read a long chapter every two weeks at 10:00 A.M. EST on Sundays, then you can waste your time here! Small disclaimer: Profanity is far and few between, and mostly used by side characters, rarely the main character. When something with gore happens, I describe to the best of my ability, which will only get better the longer I write this... :) Small cuts between perspectives happen, and can hide what some characters do, which will be revealed in future chapters, I'm not that lazy... all the time... There are some parts that are long blocks of text, most, if not all, of them, are characters talking, but I try not to info dump. I know one of the tags says "Psychological", and for the most part, it is, but it's not as prominent as other stories, instead, it's more hidden and scattered, but I did try to make the pieces I did reveal all fit together. Cover art is bound to be changed when I have a good picture to use, so the Yin-Yang is a placeholder for now unless yall wanna gimme something to use *wink wink nudge nudge*. So yeah, please give it a try, as I have nothing better to do with my life, and I am banking solely off of a career in literature and am hoping that I can create a story that can actually be called something more than a child's imagination running wild. The eventual and inevitable end to the story won't be for a long while, at least till chapter 40 or so. I have thought long and hard about the message and themes at play, so I hope you, the reader (who has some amazing hair btw), can enjoy and partake on this adventure with me into my dark empty pit of an imagination.
8 168 - In Serial6 Chapters
These Reborn NEETs with Rerolled Cheat Builds are Stealing my Limelight!
Higuchi Katsuro is the leading expert on all-things Isekai related. He had seen every piece of media the genre had to offer, but simply consuming content no longer could satisfy his unnatural craving. With his knowledge, Katsuro had carefully architected his entire life so that his death at 30 years of age would lead to an Isekai event. The only oversight was - how many other NEETs have died after living an unfulfilling life? His forceful transmigration had left him without the usual Cheat builds of the average otherworlder. Can he manage to live his dream of being an Isekai MC in a world with thousands of other protagonists?
8 216 - In Serial12 Chapters
World Merge
In a world where our world has merged with a game world, a father and son set off to make a name for themselves in this new world. Plenty of adventures await these two in this new world, Jukaria. Arcs: Prologue: Chapters 1-4 [Arc 1] Training Days: Chapters 5 onward
8 157 - In Serial32 Chapters
Locking Stars (Stars Series #1)
Ash is an anxious but determined English major who knows what she wants. Derek is a mysterious hockey player who's got a big reputation. Can they learn new things about themselves through each other or will the change bring them apart?*disclaimer* This story isn't fully edited and if things seems inaccurate I apologize!
8 183

