"For Humanity, for the God-Emperor!"
The captain, his body half-man, half-machine from the augmentations of the Adeptus Mechanicus, roared with desperate fury. His bionic arm slammed onto the command console, sending sparks flying. Bloodshot eyes glared at the Enginseer and Tech-Priest struggling beside him to keep the failing systems alive.
"Divert all remaining power to propulsion! Even if we die, we'll drag them down with us!"
The ship was doomed. The void shields had collapsed, the reactor was overloading, and explosions had already torn through multiple decks. Another salvo and it would be vaporized.
But the captain only grinned, a grim, fanatical smile, as he raised his voice in the oath that had defined his entire life.
"For Humanity! For the Emperor! Forward, forward!"
Under his command, the crippled warship's engines flared like dying suns. Without its shields, it hurled itself toward the Chaos vessel ahead, a grotesque mass of flesh and iron.
The universe and fate shared one truth: both were cold, merciless, and cruel.
The courage of the captain and his crew found no mercy in the void. Lady Luck did not so much as glance their way.
A blinding lance beam from the Chaos ship pierced the warship's hull. The reactor, already strained beyond its limit, detonated. Fire tore through the vessel's arteries, erupting from every breach.
The five-kilometer-long Imperial ship blossomed into a burning sun. Ten thousand crewmen vanished in an instant, consumed by fire and vacuum alike.
"For Humanity... and the Emperor!" the captain's final cry echoed as his body dissolved into light.
Yet in the vast sea of stars, their sacrifice was barely a flicker.
Across the endless battlefield of space, thousands of warships clashed. Lance beams and plasma bursts illuminated the void; torpedoes and nuclear warheads turned orbit itself into a killing ground.
The war had reached its darkest hour.
The Imperial fleet launched desperate counterattacks, again and again, to regain control of Macragge's orbit, to send aid to the surface before it was too late.
If they failed, humanity would sound its own death knell.
The End Times had come.
Macragge burned.
Cities lay shattered beneath relentless bombardment. The skies were thick with smoke and fire. Tank battalions lay in ruin; artillery positions were silent craters. In the air, Imperial fighters waged hopeless duels to keep the daemons from seizing the last shreds of supremacy.
Space Marines had been redeployed to defend the Sanctum, the heart of the planet's faith and command. Only the Honour Guard of Macragge still held their lines, battered but unbroken, shielding terrified civilians behind hastily raised defenses.
Men and women fought on the front lines. Behind them, the old, the young, and the helpless huddled together, praying to the Emperor for mercy, or, failing that, for their souls to be spared from the Warp's eternal torment.
Inside the Sanctum, the final battle raged.
"Stop them!" A Chaos Space Marine bellowed, his armor slick with gore. His chainsword, long since jammed, still cleaved through human flesh with ease. Ordinary soldiers fell before him like wheat before a scythe, blood pooling across the marble floor.
"For Humanity! For the Emperor!"
The mortal defenders charged without hesitation. Fear meant nothing to them now. They raised their lasguns and bayonets, screaming their oaths as they hurled themselves against the traitors desecrating their sacred ground.
"Blood for the Blood God!" roared the Chaos Marine, his chainsword cutting through flesh and armor alike as he laughed in ecstasy.
The mortals fell one by one, but each death bought the loyalists a heartbeat more time, time to hold, to endure, under the Emperor's gaze.
At the Sanctum's heart, the last stand of the faithful burned bright.
Saint Celestine, her white wings broken and one arm severed, still fought on. Her armor was shattered, her blood shimmering like light. Around her, the Battle Sisters of the Adepta Sororitas died in droves, burned by plasma, shredded by bolter fire, or torn apart by daemons.
"Grant me strength," Celestine prayed silently through blood and tears. "Grant me victory, and I shall serve You forever."
When the hordes of Chaos surged again, she raised her sword.
"For the Emperor! For Humanity!"
A blinding golden radiance erupted from her, a beacon of the Emperor's grace. Daemons screamed as holy fire cast them back.
But more came.
Always more.
Among the ruin, Chapter Master Marneus Calgar stood like a titan, his blue armor scorched and cracked. His bolter was empty, his blade shattered; only one power fist still functioned.
An Ultramarine exploded before him, consumed by a melta blast. The smell of burnt flesh filled the air.
"Traitors!" Calgar roared, his fury shaking the walls. He charged into the fray, crushing a Chaos Marine beneath his gauntlet, tearing another apart with his bare hands.
Then he looked toward the stasis field.
Archmagos Cawl and his xenos allies still labored over the machinery.
"Still nothing?" Calgar whispered, despair in his voice. "After all this… still nothing?"
Could it be that they had failed, that their Gene-Father would never rise again?
Ten thousand years after the Emperor's ascension to the Golden Throne, Abaddon the Despoiler had launched his Thirteenth Black Crusade. With the Blackstone Fortresses, he shattered the Cadian Gate, unleashing the Warp's fury upon the galaxy. The Great Rift split reality itself, and the long night returned.
Worlds burned. Civilizations collapsed. Daemons flooded existence. The Imperium teetered on the edge of extinction.
Prophets and psykers whispered the same truth: humanity's light was dying.
Then, the sound of a great bell.
A clear, pure chime echoed through the Sanctum. The auto-reliquary shuddered, its metallic shell unfolding like a flower in bloom. A figure emerged, tall, radiant, and terrible in his majesty.
After ten thousand years of slumber, the last hope of mankind rose again.
Roboute Guilliman, Primarch of the Ultramarines, thirteenth son of the Emperor, embodiment of loyalty and reason, opened his eyes.
He blinked.
Confusion crossed his face.
Wait... wasn't he just playing a game?
How the hell did he end up here?
A flood of memories crashed through his mind, and realization dawned.
No
Nonono
NONONONONO
How could this happen to him?!