Meanwhile, Vect's fleet was just as bewildered.
They had planned to watch the fighting from a safe distance, only to discover that half the fire from those "big dumb brutes" was aimed at them. With outrageously precise bombardments, the Iron Hands and Ultramarines fleets battered their paper-thin warships into retreat.
"What the hell is wrong with these monkeys? How do they know our shield frequencies?!" Vect raged aboard his flagship.
But at that moment, no one was angrier than Phaeron Xunbekel.
Her fleet... her "Eternal Spear of War"... was being slaughtered?!
Those newly arrived "vermin of flesh and blood" seemed to have "X-ray vision." Her tactics and defenses might as well not have existed!
"No... impossible! Who was it?! Who leaked the Dynasty's secrets?!!"
She frantically searched the network for the "mole."
Just then, an alarm sounded that drove her even further into a frenzy.
"Warning! Phaeron! Massive, high-energy intrusion signatures detected! They're... they're boarding pods! They're... they're landing!!"
Xunbekel jerked her head up and looked toward the "skylight" of the Highest Dome.
Out in space, the bay doors of the golden flagship, the Red Tear, stood wide open.
A figure.
A figure blazing with golden and blood-red light, bearing white wings, tore through the atmosphere like a meteor.
Behind him came thousands upon thousands of Blood Angels assault troops, falling like crimson raindrops!
They had only one target: the Maynarkh Dynasty's Highest Dome. Xunbekel's... Throne Room!
"They... they're coming for me?!" Xunbekel froze for a moment, then plunged into even greater ecstasy and fury.
"Good... good! Wonderful! You vermin of flesh and blood! What do you think you're doing?! You're delivering my dinner!"
She surged up from her throne and let out a deafening shriek.
**"Hear my command! Eternal Guardians! Phaeron's Blades! Cease all external operations! Pull back our