"Canoness! They've breached the defensive line!" A Battle Sister rushed into the church, only to be struck by a lethal crystal shard. Black blood sprayed from her mouth and nose as she collapsed to the ground, her face twisted in agony.
The stained-glass windows of the grand cathedral shattered beneath the explosions. Canoness Lucia wielded a meltagun pistol and a blade, leading the Battle Sisters of the Order of the Martyrs against the Drukhari raiders trying to storm inside.
"Sisters! Hold the Emperor's shrine to the death! Attack everything you can see! Even if the flames burn us all to ash, we cannot allow those filthy xenos to take a single step inside!"
"For the Emperor!"
The Battle Sisters unleashed a devastating hail of bullets and rivers of flame throughout the cathedral, covering every place where the Drukhari could stand. Against those nimble, elusive killers, blanket bombardment was always the most effective tactic.
The Drukhari assault was halted. They could not charge through the unbroken promethium flames. They had come to seize slaves and indulge themselves, not throw away their lives over a pack of madwomen. It simply was not worth it.
Canoness Lucia held the center of the cathedral's defenses, her expression showing not the slightest relaxation. The defenses across the entire shrine world of Lorn had already crumbled under the Drukhari's raiding tactics.
Not a single Imperial fighter could catch those xenos skimmers. Even the machine spirits of the Hydra anti-aircraft guns could not lock onto their forms, which swept through the air like black gales. Those lightly armored skimmers also possessed terrifying firepower; a single strike from their dark beams could easily pierce the heavy frontal armor of Leman Russ tanks.
Even Doomblade super-heavy tanks could not endure for long beneath the illumination of those black beams.