Sterbelicht - One Sacrifice At A Time Against The Galaxy (40K)

Bnuy rubbed her eyes with the backside of her glove in a futile attempt at keeping the exhaustion out of her mind with physical force, yet she could do no more than hold on with her mind where her body failed. The screaming within the Warp did not help either, but the chants shielding her and the others did all but turn the thing away that gnawed in apoplectic rage at the faiths of those who sheltered the Celestial Choir. The rest would be up to them, as five souls slumbered in their care, and the Star Child had not decreed them Holy by Miracle only for them to fail them all!

"Omnissiah, Source of all Creativity, let us create where we need," the priests in the upper rings chanted, their hymns seeking the aid of the Five-One for these flickering souls the Celestial Choir was fighting for with everything they had. "Emperor, Father of Life, allow us to shelter these flickering candles in your light," they continued, and Bnuy felt her mind slightly ease at the songs woven within the Immaterium by their unshakable faith, purity of thought pushing out the screaming discord scheming in feathers and foretold futures that had once been a whisper. Once. "Omnissiah-and-Emperor, grant us these boons we seek, for your children wish to aid another life," the chants continued, and her eyes slowly rolled back as her raw throat sung in command of the pleas for the Motive Force of these Five to heed the will of the Choir and its owners.

"We are the ones who have claimed these as ours, and those have declared us as theirs. Holy, Holy, Holy are the bonds forged by Choice and Faith!" They sang, almost bellowing the tunes as He Who Sings With Golden Skin collapsed out of her view but within her senses. He was alive, and his spirit still joined them, but his body would bear no more than the minimum of channeling. Another sent the command to him, and he pivoted to bolster the shield above them all, the cracks mending faster than the thing could strike. "Motive Force, you who are all things and yet are fuel for fires eternal, who drives us to prayer and give us Their Will, who speaks from Machine and Mouth, course strong and heady through these five!" Bnuy felt something within her rupture, blood flowing from her nose and eyes as she slowly floated off the ground, yet she could not care less, screaming the song of hope and the Age to come into the souls of those below. "We are but flickers of light, we are but servants to purpose holy, we are but those who bear the burden for our children," the priests screamed, some part within their minds and souls twisting their attention to this most critical part, fervent belief in sheltering those saved by Miracle burning FAITH into the Immaterium as, above them all, Teeln, Prophet of the Star Child, kneeled, hands clasped in quiet prayer, and eyes closed. Yet, they blazed within the Warp; pure Divinity channeled, almost siphoned, through his soul and faith and will from the Five sleeping below, the Choir raging against the dying of the light, and the priesthood giving him all they had and then some.

"But we DENY YOU YOUR RUIN!" Five hundred people shouted, "WE DENY YOU THESE SOULS! WE DENY YOU YOUR DESING! DENY THE FATES YOU CURSE! WE DENY ONE LAST TIME, FOR WE BEAR THE WORD OF OUR DIVINE: BEGONE!"

Nobody knew what happened after that. Few could even remember this point. Most of those who had taken part in the ritual would take years to recover from the strains placed upon their bodies; some were permanently crippled and required prosthetics or augments. But all knew that the Star Child had not left them, even as it slept, exhausted beyond mortal comprehension, for Five who would have been claimed by an abomination beyond recall walked the station unharmed, souls united into one blazing light held within each. And above them all, Teel, Prophet of the Star Child, had had his eyes scarred by the channeling of lingering Divinity to save these souls, and flecks of gold rested within the black and green and white of his eyes. Speckles of the Star Child's power made manifest.

And those who had eyes beyond eyes, sight beyond sight, could see the station in its glittering glory after the fight, when the Daemon had tried no longer to get in, but out. And they saw the smear of feathers slowly burning to ash within the three suns.

And now the Psykana Experiments walked unharmed...

...but unchanged?
[] Yes.
They were as they are, and they are as they were.
(Gain: 5 Star-Born Onyx Hounds.)

[] No, A Form Was Needed.
No longer vaguely like hounds with maws that split and moved, without eyes and with chattering teeth, fur that was not, and claws that were immaterial but different. A quadrupedal body of power and elegance, onyx fur softer than anything else covering every spot, with paws strong and tail long, as human eyes watched from a human skull atop a human torso, black and nubile, with hands and minds able to freely weep and pray and work and defend those who gave so much for them, scroll in one hand and spear in the other.
(Gain: 5 Star-Born Sphynx Guardians.)

[] No, A Body Was Created
The whirr of machinery is never far from them, as they are the Machine Spirits and Motive Force and Body of automatons married to flesh in holy union. Where their construct-body failed, machine-limbs shall endure. Walking upright and with blazing eyes, they humm songs of purity and blessing, preaching of what they have encountered and what they have been blessed with, their forms akin to abyssal-colored humanoids, yet machine-like in distinction to each.
(Gain: 5 Star-Born Cyborg Monks.)