[b]Vael![/b] The Master of Auspex comes to report in person. She marches at the head of a procession - five hundred statuesque men, naked but for the twitching trio of eyes that each one holds cupped in their hands. They are bound together with golden collars and velvet ropes, run through with crackling electrical wires that find their termination in the shadows beneath the Master's filthy crimson robe. She snaps her fingers; her escort stops, shudders, and kneels. "Lord, as you have commanded, I have consulted the augurs and auspexes," said the Master of Auspex. "Yet in much I stand thwarted. The slaves of the Ring have come in hypocritical blasphemy - they wear hexagrammatic wards against warpsight, their noospheric defenses are hardened against scrapcode and they wield xenos jamming technology without even the pretension of concealment." She takes a deep breath in through her nose, suppressing a rant about hypocrisy. "Yet there are lines they are still unwilling or unable to cross, and I have extracted some information nonetheless. There are multiple small teams of Pteraxii and Sicarians rapidly moving around the complex, maintaining stealth to avoid drawing counterattack. In close air support they have a squadron of Astartes Thunderhawks of the Ringbearers Chapter - Draupnir's bonded slave legion. These are not landing - I believe they are a reserve force to be summoned in emergency or to cover an extraction." [b]Leuric![/b] The twist of your voice catches on the immanent warp. It bypasses the conscious levels of the handmaiden's minds, creating a fear that cuts right through any hesitancy. The words that come are found, instructed; inspiration from a muse in the dark. [i]"It's M43, I'm out here sailing again Through the wicked, winding streets of my world I make a wrong turn, break it Now I'm too far gone I've got a siren on my tail and that ain't the fine I'm lookin' for"[/i] The bridge crew has fallen into a transcendent focus. The captain does not even need to issue orders; when the glittering lance strike of a ground battery cuts through the clouds in the surface around Tiger's Gate, slicing towards your voidship, you have already turned away from it. [i]"I got a mind full of wicked designs I got a non-stop hole in my head, imagination I'm in a building that has 2000 floors And when they all fall down I think you know it's you they're fallin for"[/i] You can see the shadows of it now, a new void in the center of the handmaidens. It arises from the flickering gaps in their lace dresses, beak and hooked talons, a black shadow puppet amidst the void of their brilliance. So many feathers, falling, falling, falling - Beneath its ten feet the metal has corroded. Water seeps in. Reeds grow. [i]I can't forget I am my sole architect I built the shadows here I built the growlin' voice I fear You add it up, but to do better than that You got to follow me Boy, I'm trying to show you where I'm at[/i] It offers you its claws; the liminal space between five extended pale hands. It is dark and it is light and it is rot and it is everywhere here. It has come to welcome you to its world. [i]Hey pretty[/i]. [b]Hagar![/b] [i]feels like flying[/i] The thoughts are gentle and jagged, like a monomolecular needle to the brainstem. Everything of this creature balances on a single point, white hot and impossible. It shifts as it acknowledges you, a frictionless whirl of glass, sharp and clear. [i]no redundancy. no vigor. no health. strike. enough. sufficient. time is a renewable resource.[/i] It pauses, the internal narration finding synchronicity with words you have said. It draws itself up, spreading its wings - a glittering archangel of stained glass and cannon masonry. [i]you are correct. this is a flawed approach. abandoned i greet you, and welcome you to my sister's world: i am the Glass Knight. once i ruled here in harmony, but the Ancient Raven has cast us out. fear her. please.[/i] Her back ignites, a glittering rainbow arc of laser fire, the pinion of each wing the focus of a crystal laser. The void behind her burns with the detonations of shattered mines. She pivots, a dancer's step, and slashes another swathe through the dark.