Battle

"Adrian, report your position!" Calando activated the vox array inside his helmet and shouted into the channel.

"Emperor preserve us, Calando. I'm in sector twelve of the lower hull, near the bow. These damned daemon scum are everywhere."

"Hold fast, brother. All Primaris Warriors squads, report your status immediately."

The cruiser carried two companies of over two hundred Ultramarines. Aside from their leader, Calando, and his deputy, Sergeant Adrian, every Astartes aboard was a newly awakened recruit.

Though they had undergone ample training and completed numerous trials, this would be their first encounter with a large-scale daemon invasion.

What about the last time daemons blew up the engines, you ask?

There had only been a few dozen manifested daemons. The overload in the power chamber had been the work of a Scrapcode Daemon, a problem for the Tech-Priests to handle. The Astartes had no means of dealing with that sort of thing.

As for a mere few dozen daemons, there had not even been enough to give each warrior one to kill. That hardly counted as a battle.

This time, however, thousands of Menials had already drifted out of the lower decks alone.

Daemons with red or purple skin, wielding blades and sabers, clung to the outer hull like swarming ants before pouring through breaches in the lower decks. Even Calando felt his scalp prickle.

Daemons were greatly empowered within the Warp. Conventional weapons could never truly kill them.

They would merely be banished for a time, losing their physical forms, but would return the moment an opportunity arose.

Even Space Marines did not want to be killed by daemons within the Warp. Their bodies would most likely be corrupted outright. Even if they did not immediately become daemons, the most precious treasure within their bodies—their gene-seed—would probably be corrupted