The Genestealers' feint proved highly effective. At least ninety percent of the Blood Angels' Devastator Squads had gathered at the prow of the Red Tear.
The Genestealer Patriarch stood solemnly amid a mass of elite troops, not at the center of a flat formation, but at its three-dimensional center.
Purestrain Genestealers surrounded him. They would teleport as many as they could.
Amid praises to the Thousand-Armed God, the teleportation began.
Mephiston's psyker power erupted in the Warp. Two violent forces instantly appeared amid its chaos, and the Blood Angels' Chief Librarian hurled his black-and-red destructive power at the enemy, intent on annihilating everything. The two forces collided.
There was no telling how many Purestrain Genestealers were flung into the Warp. At the fiercest point, Mephiston's attack struck directly at the enemy Patriarch. Although his total psyker power was nowhere near his opponent's, it was extraordinarily concentrated. Contact meant mutual annihilation; there was no prolonged struggle between the two.
The Void Shield Module's energy consumption spiked enormously for a moment, then swiftly subsided. Teleportation took only an instant.
Dante received word from the battlefield: the enemy had launched a boarding assault, but the Red Tear was unharmed.
Only the Red Tear was safe. The Genestealer boarding force had been thrown farther back.
The Battle Barge laboring to tow the Red Tear from behind was suddenly boarded by Purestrain Genestealers led by their Patriarch. Their losses were devastating: fewer than half made it aboard, and only twenty or thirty percent could move freely without being embedded in the walls. Even so, they dealt a devastating blow to the Battle Barge at the rear.
Suddenly, the Blood Angels were under attack from both front and rear.
Dante did not panic. He ordered every uncompromised section of the ship to seal itself off immediately,