=== Maximus ===
Maximus stood shoulder to shoulder with the Blood Angels inside the assault craft, the interior drenched in pulsing crimson warning lights as the gunship screamed through the void toward the SunEater.
Massive locking mechanisms descended from the ceiling one after another, clamping onto the pauldrons of each Astartes with heavy metallic slams that echoed through the troop bay. The restraints were less for safety and more to ensure that the warriors did not become living battering rams inside the ship once the impact came.
Around him, Blood Angels stood in absolute silence, their red armor gleaming beneath the dim emergency lighting while their helmets stared forward like statues awaiting the command to awaken. Dante stood beside Maximus, his ancient death mask fixed forward as the old Chapter Master rested one gauntleted hand atop the pommel of his axe.
After a moment, Dante turned his head slightly toward the Ultramarine. "I am glad you stand with us for this battle, cousin," he said.
Maximus gave a low grunt of acknowledgment, checking the ammunition feed on his heavy bolt rifle before locking it back into place against his chest. "And I am glad to be here with the sons of Sanguinius. Though, you wait until Sebastian joins us. Then you will see what true fury in the Emperor's name looks like."
That actually pulled a low laugh from Dante, the old warrior shaking his head slightly beneath the red glow of the troop bay. "A Black Templar? You speak of him as though he is a force of nature rather than a warrior."
"He is both," Maximus answered plainly, and something in his tone made Dante smile widen.
The speakers overhead crackled violently before the pilot's voice thundered through the compartment. "Prepare for impact. Thirty seconds to breach."
The atmosphere inside the ship changed instantly.
The faint traces of conversation vanished. Every warrior straightened slightly as though some hidden switch had been flipped inside them, centuries of war and conditioning overtaking whatever humanity remained beneath the ceramite and gene-forged flesh.
Maximus felt his hearts slow rather than quicken, his breathing becoming measured as targeting runes flashed alive across his visor. Around him, safeties disengaged in unison. Chainswords growled to life. Bolters locked forward. The Blood Angels became utterly still, and somehow that stillness felt more violent than any battle cry.
The assault craft hit the SunEater like an artillery shell.
The impact was catastrophic, throwing an earthquake through the entire compartment as metal screamed around them. The restraints held them firm while the front of the ship physically punched through layers of armored bulkhead and hangar plating before grinding to a halt deep inside the enemy vessel. For one heartbeat, everything went silent except for the hiss of ruptured systems and sparking cables.
Then the front assault ramp exploded outward.
The Astartes charged directly into hell.
Blaster fire immediately filled the hangar in blinding waves as stormtroopers and clone formations opened fire from defensive barricades, heavy weapons nests, and elevated gantries.
Red bolts hammered into the advancing Space Marines in relentless torrents, but the sheer resilience of their power armor rendered most of it meaningless. Blaster fire splashed harmlessly across ceramite or left only blackened scorch marks while the Astartes answered with annihilation.
Maximus raised his heavy bolt rifle and fired, each shell detonating inside enemy ranks with horrific force. One clone disappeared entirely from the waist up as the bolt exploded through his chest, while another was thrown backward into a fuel line that erupted in flame, taking half his squad with him.
The Blood Angels advanced without hesitation, their formation widening as they spread through the hangar like a tidal wave of red armor and roaring bolters.
Assault Marines ignited their jump packs overhead, launching themselves toward elevated firing positions where they crashed directly into enemy lines, tearing through troopers with chainswords and power fists.
One Blood Angel caught a stormtrooper by the throat and physically hurled him hard enough to break another soldier's spine on impact before firing point blank into a squad trying to flank him. Everywhere Maximus looked, Imperial troops were dying faster than they could reposition.
The defenders attempted to stabilize the line by deploying E-Web cannons and repeating blaster emplacements from deeper within the hangar, but the moment the heavy weapons opened fire, the Astartes redirected their assault. Maximus tracked the glowing outlines of enemy positions across his HUD and immediately shifted fire, his bolt rifle barking thunderously as explosive rounds obliterated the gun crews one after another.
Beside him, Dante moved with terrifying precision for a warrior of his age, his axe splitting through armored bodies while inferno pistol shots reduced entire barricades to molten ruin.
Still, the enemy numbers were immense.
Entire platoons poured into the hangar from adjoining corridors, trying desperately to contain the breach before the Astartes could penetrate deeper into the station.
Clone officers screamed orders over comms while stormtroopers established kill lanes across the burning wreckage of the assault craft, but none of it mattered. The Space Marines simply kept advancing, stepping over bodies and through explosions as if they were inevitable engines of extinction rather than mortal beings.
One clone trooper fired an entire rifle pack into Maximus' chest at point blank range before the Ultramarine simply seized him by the helmet and crushed his skull against a bulkhead hard enough to dent the metal wall inward.
The hangar descended into absolute slaughter.
Bodies piled around the breached assault craft while Blood Angels secured defensive positions with terrifying speed, locking down entrances and annihilating counterattacks before they could gain momentum.
Explosions thundered through the chamber as ammunition stores detonated and burning fuel lines ruptured overhead, raining sparks and debris across the battlefield. Comm traffic exploded across Imperial frequencies as panicked commanders reported catastrophic losses and demanded reinforcements, but by then it was already too late.
Within minutes, the hangar belonged to the Imperium.
Dante planted one armored boot atop the corpse of a clone officer and activated his vox. "Primary hangar secured. Enemy resistance collapsing. Establishing forward assault corridor into interior sectors."
Acknowledgments came immediately through static and gunfire.
Then another ship entered the hangar.
Unlike the first assault craft, this one descended slowly through the smoke and ruin with almost ceremonial calm before lowering onto the blood-covered deck. The ramp hissed open, and every nearby Blood Angel instinctively straightened.
Sanguinius' white wings stretched slightly behind him as his armored boots touched the ruined floor of the SunEater, golden armor reflecting the fires burning throughout the hangar.
Beside him walked Nira, her hood shadowing her pale features while the strange energies surrounding her soul seemed to distort the air itself. The two of them paused only briefly, taking in the carnage around them, the mountains of dead, the shattered barricades, the burning wreckage and rivers of blood spreading across the deck plating.
Neither of them spoke.
They simply began walking deeper into the SunEater, and the gathered Blood Angels immediately fell in behind their gene-father.
=== Obi-Wan ===
Obi-Wan's lungs burned as the arena descended even further into madness, the chamber around them becoming some grotesque sacrificial pit designed to grind every remaining shred of hope out of those who remained of the Jedi Order.
Smoke drifted through the upper reaches of the chamber while crimson warning lights pulsed overhead, bathing everything in bloody flashes that made the fighting seem unreal, like fragments of some nightmare pulled from the darkest corners of the Force.
Everywhere he looked there was violence. Younglings screamed as corrupted Jedi hurled themselves at one another. Knights butchered padawans to survive another second. Masters who had once stood in the High Council now fought like rabid beasts, clawing for life with yellow eyes and twisted faces, their minds rotted away by their torturous imprisonment, and the poison Vader had poured into this place.
Obi-Wan barely managed to catch another incoming strike as a crazed Mirialan Jedi came at him shrieking incoherently, her green blade hacking downward with enough strength to split him from shoulder to hip.
He caught the strike two-handed and slid backward several feet, his boots scraping the metal floor while the woman snarled directly into his face.
Her skin was pale and sickly, veins blackened beneath the surface, and her teeth were stained with blood. "Survive!" she hissed at him through trembling lips. "Only survive!" She drove her blade at him again and again with frantic speed, but Obi-Wan refused to answer with killing blows.
Even now, after everything he had seen, after Order Sixty-Six, after seeing Anakin transformed into that monster upon the throne, some part of him still could not bring himself to cut down fellow Jedi like animals.
He redirected her strikes instead, guiding her momentum away before finally slamming his shoulder into her chest and forcing her backward into another combatant. The two immediately fell upon one another with savage desperation while Obi-Wan staggered away toward one of the sealed blast doors ringing the chamber.
He ignited the tip of his saber against the black metal and began trying to cut through it, molten sparks spraying across his robes as the blade bit into the reinforced plating, but he did not even make it halfway before danger screamed through the Force.
He turned just in time to block a vicious overhead strike from a massive Zabrak Jedi Knight whose face had been carved apart by scars. Their blades collided hard enough to rattle Obi-Wan's bones. Another strike came from the left. Then another.
The chamber was collapsing into total chaos around him, every survivor attacking every other survivor in blind panic while the thunder of clashing sabers echoed endlessly through the arena.
Somewhere across the room, Ahsoka was fighting like a woman possessed.
He caught glimpses of her between the chaos. She moved with terrifying speed now, so different from the reckless padawan he once knew.
Her cybernetic arm flashed silver beneath the crimson lights as she spun between opponents, one green blade severing through a fallen knight's wrist while the second saber opened another attacker from collarbone to stomach.
She showed mercy to the younglings, always redirecting them away with kicks or Force pushes, but the older Jedi received none.
The war had hollowed her out in ways Obi-Wan had not fully realized until now. Every movement she made carried anger, exhaustion, and grief sharpened into something lethal. A hulking Jedi Master lunged toward her with a roaring blue blade, only for Ahsoka to duck beneath the strike and drive both sabers upward through his ribs before ripping them free. She did not even watch him fall before pivoting into another fight.
Then Sifo-Dyas found Obi-Wan.
The former Jedi Master stepped through the carnage, his robes hanging in blackened tatters while his molten yellow eyes locked onto Obi-Wan. Warp energy crawled across his skin like living veins, and every breath he took sounded wet and ragged. Bodies littered the floor behind him, including three younglings who had clearly tried to flee. One still twitched weakly beside the wall. Obi-Wan's stomach turned at the sight.
"Sifo…" Obi-Wan began softly, but the man answered with a scream and unleashed a violent blast of Force energy that struck Obi-Wan like a cannon shell.
Obi-Wan crashed hard into the wall, the impact knocking the breath from his lungs as cracks exploded outward behind him. Pain flared through his back and shoulders while his lightsaber nearly slipped from his grasp.
Through blurred vision he saw Sifo-Dyas approaching slowly, his blade dragging across the floor and throwing sparks everywhere. A terrified youngling charged the fallen master from behind, crying out desperately as he swung his tiny saber with both hands. Sifo-Dyas did not even turn around. He casually swung his blade backward one-handed and cut the child nearly in half without breaking stride.
Obi-Wan felt something inside him twist in horror.
Sifo lunged.
Their blades slammed together with explosive force as Obi-Wan rolled aside at the last second before springing back to his feet.
Sifo-Dyas attacked with a savage unpredictability that made him almost impossible to read. One moment he fought like the refined Jedi Master Obi-Wan remembered from years ago, his movements elegant and precise, and the next he devolved into wild brutality fueled by Warp corruption and Dark Side rage.
Lightning burst from his free hand during saber locks while shadows twisted unnaturally around him. Obi-Wan defended himself desperately, his blue blade blurring as he gave ground step by step beneath the relentless assault.
"You failed us!" Sifo screamed, smashing their sabers together hard enough to send sparks flying into Obi-Wan's face. "You failed all of us!"
Obi-Wan deflected another strike and tried to center himself despite the madness around them. "Sifo, listen to me. This is not who you are."
"It is all I am now!"
The corrupted Jedi hurled a chunk of broken metal through the Force. Obi-Wan ducked beneath it only for Sifo-Dyas to appear directly in front of him, blade screaming downward.
Obi-Wan caught it inches from his face and the two locked together, their sabers hissing violently where they crossed. For one brief second the madness faded from Sifo's eyes. The molten yellow dimmed, and Obi-Wan saw the pain and terror in the once Jedi's eyes.
"Please…" Sifo whispered weakly, trembling against him. "End this…"
Then the madness surged back like a tidal wave and Sifo roared as dark energy exploded outward again.
They crashed through scattered debris while fighting at close range, each strike threatening death. Obi-Wan's defensive mastery kept him alive, but Sifo's corruption made him monstrously powerful.
The former master battered through his guard repeatedly, forcing Obi-Wan backward across the chamber while the rest of the arena descended deeper into slaughter around them.
Yaddle moved through groups of Jedi like a phantom, her small frame darting between opponents while her green blade carved limbs and heads apart with horrifying ease. Her face was twisted by madness, her mouth stretched into an unnatural grin as she butchered anyone within reach.
Obi-Wan realized there was no saving either of them.
Sifo lunged again, roaring in rage, and Obi-Wan finally made his decision. He slipped beneath the strike, stepped inside Sifo's guard, and drove his blue lightsaber clean through the fallen Jedi's chest.
Sifo-Dyas froze.
The madness vanished completely.
His eyes softened as blood spilled from his lips, and for the first time in years he looked like himself again. Tears welled faintly in the corners of his eyes as he stared down at the blade impaling him.
"Thank…" he whispered shakily. "You…"
Obi-Wan lowered him gently as the light faded from his eyes.
For just a moment, in the middle of all that horror, Obi-Wan knelt beside the body of his old friend in silence.
Then alarms began blaring.
The massive blast doors around the arena suddenly unlocked with deafening clangs before beginning to rise open one by one. Survivors throughout the chamber turned toward the exits in confusion. Some immediately broke into desperate sprints toward freedom while others hesitated suspiciously. Obi-Wan felt cold dread settle into his stomach as he stared toward the open corridors beyond the doors.
"No…" he murmured.
Ahsoka appeared beside him breathing heavily, blood splattered across her face and armor while her green blades hissed in the darkness. She looked toward the open exits with narrowed eyes.
"What trick is this?" she asked quietly.
Then the first screams echoed from beyond the doors as heavy footsteps thundered through the corridors outside.
===
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