"Falu! Falu! Falu!" Came the shouts of tens of thousands gathered underneath the Gatekeep, that vital piece of military fortification that stopped any attempt from the Underhive of the capital of Primus to rise into the Lower Hive with its massive gates, shields, weapons, and massed garrison of nearly five million troops alone.
"Falu! Falu! Falu!" The crowds continued their chants, the word an ancient curse and blessing both, hoping for the success of those who it was directed at, yet also telling them to go out in a blaze of glory if they failed in their chosen goal.
"FALU! FALU! FALU!" The screams began to rise in noise, the arrival of the Celestial Choirs underneath the baleful eyes of the Gatekeep only allowed due to the amassed shield generators that would keep them safe from the inevitable counter-attack by the Gate's extreme-range artillery. As if to punctuate the wisdom of such, light and explosions began to bloom where coherent light and shells met shields, the latter more than up to keeping the latter away from the dozens of Psykers meticulously checking the arrays and ritual site once again. Even a tiny mistake could be costly, yet they found none.
And almost like one, the shouts of the 'FALU' ceased, leaving behind thundering silence as a staff was raised with light pooling off of its tip.
And like one in truth, 55 Psykers began to hum, their throats echoing with the eddies of the Warp as sound turned to weapon and tool alike, millions watching the ceremony with bathed breath, hopeful eyes, and tense anticipation.
The humm was replaced by a single note that none present could name, its calling upon forgotten memories so ancient they had never existed like an alien touch upon a soul.
That note stretched out like a rumbling of engines and the thunder of plasma bound within writhing machinery, the sound of turning gears and flowing energy, a memory of ancient days not yet gone so long when the universe was young while the end all things shall be longer away still.
And then everyone felt it.
Awareness upon the Psykers. Something watching. Something judging.
Something agreeing to the humble request.
"SHIELD YOUR EYES!" The call came, five seconds before the event happened, and nearly all who watched in person, for there were always the ignorant and the daredevils, turned away to not be burnt.
The shields that stood over the Psykers did not have such luxury.
A beam of molten star shot from the ground of the ritual site against the shields of the Gatekeep, shattering those that had kept its creators safe.
It burned.
It Burned!
Like a divine needle, the stream lapped and hugged against the Gatekeep's shields, Magi of the Mechanicus suddenly desperate to keep the generators that fed them chanting in Binharic Cant even as the needle pushed deeper, deeper, deeper into that field with every passing half-second.
A desperate attempt at feeding the shields saw the Lower Hive's lights flicker out as the generators within its strata began to pump their might into the machines below.
Panic began to settle into commanders as the Middle and Upper Hive had their power cut, the latter's cries of annoyance only outshone by the sheer horror of its inhabitants as the lights of the Upper Spire itself whisked out when the Lady Governor ordered its plasma generators to dedicate themselves to keeping the Gatekeep shielded.
And then, like a bated breath, like a wave at its peak, like an orgasm held back...the Sun of Voxx Primus refused its power to the Choirs.
A fraction of a second passed, and relief began to flood into the minds of the soldiers of the Gatekeep.
A fraction that displaced air required to rush back into the space it had been violently pushed out of, the implosion utterly deafening, its might strong enough that it clawed deep into the main gate and ripped the 20-meter thick, 40-meter tall and 200-meter wide shield to the "civilized" portions of the Hive out of its fittings like crumpled paper, accelerating it fast enough that it sailed for over two kilometers before crashing and skipping over the ground for another one.
The crowd, those who had not stared at the casting of The Sun and were dealing with melted eyeballs, went wild, the shouting and hooting and hollering overpowering even the rumble and quaking of the Hive caused by this action, and the sea of Knights, tanks, IFVs, and infantry surging from their staging grounds against the remaining defenses of the Gatekeep.
The war for the capital of Voxx Primus had begun with one ritual.
And 7.3 million people would die from this one action alone. Thrice that in the coming week, as the Gatekeep fell, and conscripts were pushed to retake and defend the fortress' and its backlines.
And for those in the know, that was a small price to pay if the diversion this attack offered would allow the teams of Templars currently flooding into the Inner Sanctum of Primus Guard Command to succeed in its mission: kill the General and decapitate their military leadership.
Blood and metal, heated and boiled, the stench of ozone and fired plasma, sweat trickling along your back, hair matting the top of your head as your arms ached and legs yearned to rest.
Ignore them all, swing the sword, move the body, never stop, never cease, for there is grace in speed and death in cessation.
The bodyguards had fallen like wheat before the scythe, though what either was beyond an implement to cut and something that needed to be cut was lost on them, but the corpses piling behind their fast advance wasn't.
Even so, shouldering the plasma rifle and firing two snapshots against the Magi bearing their war-loads and their battle servitors, the advance was not fast enough.
Legs pumped harder, a sword flashed, a pistol pressed against a temple, and a scream cut through the din of battle in the Spire.
Like a tide, like a flood, like sand flowing through the cracks of a coffin buried underneath the dunes of their home, the Templars moved through the defenders of one man like water through sieves.
And it was not enough.
Had he known they would come? Undoubtedly. But had he known they would come as anything more than a thing that was done? Had he known dates? Times? Numbers?
Pain lanced through the lungs. Breathing became harder.
The will to kill and fight and live did not relent.
But the mind knew.
It was time to die.
Grenades in one, plasma rifle overloading in the other.
One last attempt. If it failed, retreat for all who could.
Legs moved as blood burned without oxygen and lungs drowned in sanguine ichor.
...
Retreat.
After the actions against the Free Duchy within the Voxx Primus, Secundus, and Echis systems, the think-tanks of the Navy saw a need to address concerns regarding the effectiveness of the Federation's Expansion Fleet Carrier Doctrine.
It came as no surprise then that they focused upon two spots of contention that had already seen the internal factions of the Navy come to heated debates; the fact that Lances were far more costly to produce than anything else due to critical components being redirected to strike craft production and that Auto-Loaders remained an expensive piece of equipment.
Thus, they declared that such issues should not happen and that the military-industrial complex must focus on creating more parts for them to be viable on large scales.
Thus decreed, they sent the documents to the Office of Procurement and went on a long lunch.
The Council of Bookkeepers awaited their return in the same hall they had left from and, in their monotone grey voices, told the gathered thinkers that "make this cheaper" is neither a viable mode of economic management, strategic procurement, nor tactical thinking. The Glimmering Federation had only so many resources to dedicate to so many projects, and it could not simply conjure up the required materials because it was decreed.
But...We Decreed It!
(6-Hour Moratorium)
[] We Decreed It!
(Push through your Doctrine change. Removes cost of Weapons/Equipment. Acceleration and Shields are no longer treated as one step cheaper for all classes. Attaches a 20% chance to trigger Detriments in new Designs due to Sub-Standard Parts.)
[] There was an error in the wording...
(Re-Focus your Doctrine Change to another route.)
