Dozens of Phase Torpedoes streaked toward their prey like bloodthirsty sharks, trailing long wakes.
Koval Nightlance watched in despair as the torpedoes ignored every defense and evasive maneuver, hurtling straight toward him. He knew it was all over.
In the final moment of his life, he felt neither fear nor pain. Only an exquisite, morbid exhilaration.
"Ah, so this is... this is what it feels like to be killed so 'artistically' by such a 'perfect' weapon!"
BOOOOM!!!!!
The black destroyer burst into a brilliant, fleeting firework in the void.
Alkhan yawned and closed the comms channel.
"Pull back. Tell the Warmaster the trash here has been cleared away."
With the Orks descending into infighting, the Drukhari threat eliminated, and the Chaos Fleet in orbit driven steadily back, the entire battle for Vigilus underwent an avalanche-like reversal.
Calgar and his commanders watched it all, dumbstruck. They felt as though they were watching a rehearsed play. The enemies who had plagued them for years and bled them dry crumbled like paper dolls the moment that man arrived.
"What do we do now?" Sicarius asked blankly, staring at the tactical projection of the two Ork armies savagely tearing into each other.
"Pass on my orders," Calgar said, drawing a deep breath. He knew this was no time to stand around in a daze. "All forces, advance. We need to go claim our victory."
It was the easiest order he had ever given.
Imperial troops surged like a tide from the defensive lines they had held for years.
Elsewhere, the "Redeemers," the cannon-fodder army of Genestealer cultists who had just "converted," charged madly into the heart of the Ork infighting, driven by Horus's will.
They used their own flesh and blood to detonate Ork ammunition dumps. They used their bodies to plug the barrels