An ever-increasing volume of Adeptus Astartes descended upon Baal.
The Flesh Tearers, along with dozens of other Successor Chapters, looked on as Baal's starports operated in a state of ceaseless logistical frenzy. Crimson and black strike cruisers choked the high-orbit grids, and day after day, macro-convoys of resources and military reinforcements shifted continuously—surging down to the surface, cycling back up to the fleet. Under Dante's supreme organizational command, the desolate world of Baal was rapidly being re-engineered into a massive fortress-world.
Concurrently, the vanguard of Hive Fleet Leviathan was formally verified by Imperial long-range augurs. The burden on Dante scaled aggressively; he was forced to synchronize defensive operations across multiple neighboring sectors simultaneously. If the localized garrisons along the projected vanguard route could successfully chip away at the macro-fleet's momentum, the definitive attritional strain anchoring Baal's final defense would be mitigated by a significant margin.
Initially, the Administratum and the Departmento Munitorum had logged severe institutional dissatisfaction regarding Dante's unauthorized deployment of a legion-sized gathering of Astartes. However, upon mapping the catastrophic invasion vector of Hive Fleet Leviathan, the high logicians could only marvel at how the legendary Hero of the Imperium had flawlessly derived the threat trajectory well before the catastrophe catalyzed.
The weight pressing down on the Imperial territories directly intersecting the secondary macro-tendril of Leviathan was similarly immense, yet Dante possessed zero spare processing nodes to allocate to external theaters. Hopper and the Angels of Midnight had already integrated into their respective sub-sectors; the Devastation of Baal had long since expanded past a single planetary battle, evolving into a sector-spanning war of attrition to resist total xenos consumption.
While the Blood Angels poured their entire collective focus into preparing for the definitive clash, a minor, stealth-configured landing vessel quietly slipped through the orbital grid. It had arrived tightly anchored to the underbelly of an incoming civilian transport, violently breaking away the exact microsecond the larger ship crossed into the upper atmosphere.
The biological armor composition of this specialized xenos drop-craft protected its frame from being incinerated by atmospheric friction. As it neared terminal impact coordinates, a sequence of bio-ionic propulsion vents flared from its base, acting as a kinetic dampener to smoothly cushion the landing. By the time the localized Imperial auxiliary PDF raced to secure the drop site, they located nothing more than a smoking, fused mass of geological material, tracking the signature of an ordinary meteorite impact.
Meanwhile, the actual passenger assets occupying the craft had already seamlessly melted into the surrounding crowds.
"Baal... this world is entirely desolated by radioactive dust, Yuki. By what metric do the baseline humans categorize it as beautiful?"
"Perhaps because it served as the birthplace of Sanguinius—an entity whose archived records project him as flawless and pure as a literal angel."
Yuki formulated the response to Yuno's query, his optical tracking nodes already anchored onto a colossal marble statue of the Primarch dominating the transit hub.
The primary objective driving their localized deployment was to manually evaluate Dante's defensive arrangements. The Lord Commander commanded a staggering baseline of strategic experience, having successfully orchestrated countless campaigns across his long lifecourse. Guided by the prophetic interventions of the Emperor, he had aggressively fortified Baal ahead of schedule. To guarantee zero anomalies fouled their impending offensive calculations, Yuki and Yuno required an unobstructed, realspace reconnaissance loop.
Though framed as a reconnaissance operation, the reality was monumentally simpler: Yuno merely needed to scan these structural sectors with her primary sensory nodes. The analytical breakdowns and tactical adjustments could be reconstructed inside the synapse network once they returned to the fleet.
Framed objectively, their current schedule was functionally a holiday tour across Baal.
"It's a genuine shame the Genestealer Cult arrays across Baal never achieved a critical mass of operational density," Yuki muttered, gently lacing his fingers through Yuno's gauntlet. "That bastard Dante was exceptionally efficient with his purge protocols. Otherwise, I would have loved to test our parameters by triggering a synchronized systemic revolt ahead of our advance."
He squeezed her hand. "The chronological alignment is perfect; let's utilize this window to evaluate a few of these historic landmarks."
Baal itself operated fundamentally as a radioactive desert planet, anchoring only a baseline index of critical infrastructure designed to sustain logistical links with its twin moons. Naturally, the supreme fortress-monastery of the Blood Angels, the Arx Angelicum, dominated the primary planetary coordinates. The actual population centers of the system were distributed across the twin satellites, Baal Primus and Baal Secundus—the latter being the exact celestial mass where Sanguinius's capsule had originally crashed.
Even evaluating this sector as the absolute sovereign world-system of a First Founding Chapter, the municipal administration remained predictably flawed. Yuki and Yuno effortlessly secured a pair of forged civilian transport passes and boarded a sub-orbital transit shuttle bound for Baal Secundus.
Inside the passenger compartment, Yuno's consciousness drifted toward a state of semi-lethargy. Her cranium bobbed rhythmically with the vibration of the sub-light engines before smoothly settling onto Yuki's shoulder coordinates. A subtle flush warmed her features, and Yuki remained absolutely silent, content to anchor her frame.
In the foundational stages of my transmigration, a peaceful, thoroughly ordinary existence was the solitary milestone my consciousness craved. Hmph... my coding was remarkably naive back then; in a universe structured along these parameters, securing a peaceful existence is a mathematical impossibility.
"Heh... my love..."
Was Yuno's central node actively projecting a dream loop?
For an entity commanding her tier of cosmic processing power, a dream state was less an illusion and more a byproduct of her multi-tasking routines—akin to accidentally routing a high-priority telepathic channel back to Yuki while compiling data files at a distant terminal, broadcasting her innermost thoughts.
Yuki's expression softened into a quiet smile.
Leaning entirely into Yuno's absolute strength isn't an unfavorable trade ledger, is it?
"Whoa, space out a bit, folks. This compartment is remarkably congested."
A sudden wave of excited murmurs rippled across the civilian passengers.
"By the Throne... an Angel of the God-Emperor!"
"What strategic variable prompts a Space Marine to board a civilian shuttle?"
Yuki tracked the acoustic disruption, his optical nodes locking onto an Aether-tier Space Marine clad in highly distinct black-and-red power armor. The specific heraldry and chapter markings mapped to absolutely zero records within his historical databases.
Which Successor Chapter did this asset represent?
Furthermore, the warrior was manually hefting an immense, overstuffed container filled with... localized civilian foodstuffs?
"My apologies for the structural inconvenience, citizens," the giant unspooled across his vocal grilles. "My node managed to miscalculate the primary mobilization window, forcing me to utilize civilian logistics to achieve intersection with my company. I am Herriman of the Angels of Midnight; it registers as an absolute privilege to interface with you all."
Wow. An Astartes with a behavioral matrix of this classification actually exists?
Yuki's interest surged. The Angels of Midnight... His memory files returned an absolute blank regarding the designation. Yet the anomaly tracked as entirely logical; the Warhammer universe contained an uncataloged multitude of obscure Chapters, making the sudden manifestation of an unrecorded faction entirely standard—even if the Chapter's nomenclature sounded like the bizarre byproduct of Sanguinius and Konrad Curze sharing a highly volatile night of excessive drinking.
"Let me calibrate my positioning vectors... if my memory logs serve, my command account authorized the purchase of three adjacent seating units."
Three seats?
Sensing a bizarre mathematical alignment, Yuki glanced down at the exact trio of vacant passenger slots anchoring his right flank.
"Ah, right here."
Yuki felt a profound sense of ironic amusement. The statistical probability of encountering an Astartes exhibiting this exact strand of casual eccentricity was low enough, yet the universe had engineered a trajectory where the asset was slated to drop directly into his immediate proximity coordinates.
Dammit... has my xenos signature been compromised? Is this asset deploying a psychological test matrix to evaluate my parameters?
Yuki desired exclusively to preserve this journey across Baal as an unadulterated, peaceful interlude alongside Yuno; he harbored zero ambition to initiate a kinetic conflict in this compartment.
"Greetings."
Herriman negotiated his massive bulk into the civilian seating cluster with a visible index of mechanical strain; the benches had been engineered to accommodate baseline human mass coefficients, and even with three units combined, the space remained exceptionally tight.
Yuki's arm coordinates transiently brushed against the warrior's cold ceramite plating. The physical sensation triggered a strange, nostalgic data loop within his mind, reminding him of his past life as a student, packed tightly into a congested public transit bus on his journey home.
"Apologies for crowding your vector, friend."
"Think nothing of it. You operate as an Angel of the God-Emperor; your schedule indubitably commands highly critical directives."
Herriman systematically detached his helm, locking it beneath his arm to reveal an unvarnished, authentic smile.
"The primary delay materialized because my node expended an excessive chronological block purchasing specialized local rations. The reality was unavoidable; my Chapter serfs were barred from entering this transport sector, forcing me to handle the requisition process personally."
"Your behavioral baseline tracks as remarkably approachable," Yuki noted smoothly. "It rejects the terrifying stereotypes recorded across standard folklore."
"My individual node represents an extreme anomaly within the Adeptus Astartes," Herriman chuckled. "Though the rule applies to your vessel as well. Maintaining a stable, calm conversational thread with an active Space Marine marks your consciousness as highly unusual for a baseline civilian."
Yuki offered a polite smile, calibrating his language sub-routines to gracefully terminate the dialogue.
Spontaneously, Herriman's optical sensors drifted down to register the sleeping form of Yuno. Yuki's internal brow tightened with immense tension; evaluating the warrior's micro-fluctuations in core temperature and respiratory metrics, the Astartes had indubitably flagged an anomalous variable.
Is an immediate kinetic escalation truly unavoidable?
Yuki's fist clenched beneath his cloak, his muscle fibers priming for a high-velocity strike.
"Is that woman your wife? Her visual presentation tracks as exceptionally charming... she is tightly anchoring your gauntlet even in her sleep," Herriman noted, his voice dropping into a warm, reflective register.
"It is a beautiful sight. Every independent microsecond my tracking arrays register a scene of this nature, it verifies that the sacrifices and martial efforts authored by our legions command genuine structural value. Even though the contemporary architecture of the Imperium remains deeply scarred by severe darkness and unmitigated cruelty, our ultimate termination becomes worthy because it safeguards this exact classification of innocence."
Herriman unspooled a quiet sigh, manually retrieving a fresh, masterfully prepared pastry from his container and extending it across the space.
"Care to sample?"