Battle of Baal VIII

Dante left the command center and, surrounded by his honor guard, ascended the highest spire of Angel's Fortress. From there, he could overlook the entire battlefield. The Swarm Tide was beyond imagining, a living calamity that had completely blanketed Baal's surface.

He opened the all-channel communication line. His voice, filtered through his mask, spread to every corner of Angel's Fortress and reached the auditory receivers of every defender.

"Children of Sanguinius! Brothers of the Dark Angels! All warriors loyal to the Emperor!" Dante's voice was not impassioned, yet it carried a grave force that pierced the soul. "There is no retreat for us. Behind us lie ten thousand years of Blood Angels legacy, Baal's final hope, and the dignity of the Imperium of Man in this sector!"

He paused, as though allowing every word to brand itself upon the hearts of those listening.

"The enemy stands beyond the walls. Their numbers are endless, and they hunger to devour all things. But I tell you this: as long as one man remains standing, as long as one bolt remains, as long as the Blood Angels' banner flies above Angel's Fortress, Baal will never fall!"

"Today, we may die. But we shall die beneath the Emperor's gaze, and our names shall be forever engraved upon the monuments of the Imperium! Let these xenos scum understand that what they seek to devour is a stone hard enough to shatter their teeth!"

"For Sanguinius! For the Emperor! For Baal!"

After a brief silence, deafening roars erupted from Angel's Fortress's walls and every defensive point, gathering into an unyielding wave of sound that briefly overwhelmed even the shrieking Swarm Tide beyond the city.

"For Sanguinius! For the Emperor! For Baal!"

Dante cut the transmission and turned his gaze toward the distant, writhing horizon of the