The ping went out and travelled far through the air. Kilometres away, hidden by thick clouds and swirling atmospheric pressure, Nightmare's automated backup picked up the short message. Their systems accepted the ping with one of their pre-programmed responses and the small fleet of craft angled themselves downwards, their radio chirping out a short acknowledgement, before going passive once more. An ETA had been set. The die had been cast. Blood would flow on Hope's Bastion.

She watched it all through her sensors, nerves chipping away at her neural network. Dreamer was down there, on his own. Up against immeasurable odds. And she was unable to interfere, strict orders shackling her in place. Her mind was kept back, locked away from her last brother in this time of dire need. She felt energy cycle into her batteries. Powerful cannons swivelled briefly, before settling in their mounts. Their targets were marked on the surface. Her ammunition chosen. Armour plates slowly slid open and made way for gargantuan missile silos. Her generators whined as she increased their output. Her shields shimmered slightly in the dim light of the stars as she dumped the excess heat into them She vented the air from the final compartments and locked down the blast doors. Her small army of on board engineering bots readied itself, deep within the bowels of her ship-self. Her sensors caressed the planet below and her analytical mind whispered targets and places of interest to her batteries.

Still she was terrified. Not of Hope. The AI was potentially alive, probably a threat and would likely outclass her by an enormous margin. She was the only being alive who fully understood just how dangerous an AI could be. Yet her own possible demise bothered her little. 'I have lost everyone,' she whispered to the void of space. 'Except for him.' She let her targeting solutions run link up with her barely contained firepower as her radar honed in on the planet below.

'I won't lose him as well,' she whispered, the promise of a burning world contained within those words.

In the midst of the plaza, Dreamer stood, undisturbed by the chanting crowds. The decision was made. The Ragnai were hostiles now. He was surrounded by tens of thousands of them. There was little cover. His weapon was out of his reach. The facility in front of him might contain countless reinforcements. A massive battle was about to begin and he would be in the centre of it. Alone.

His mind was calm again. This was what Genesis had been made for. Not for diplomacy, being polite, to hold back and solve things through speech. He and his had been created to fight. To kill. To fulfil his objectives with speed and skill. Those objectives were in front of him, and quite simple at that. Acquire the key card and safeguard it. Secure the entrance to the facility. Kill anyone who barred his path. The screams for action that had been tormenting his body had gone silent as he waited for his robotic back up to get close enough. The timer was ticking down quickly and in the meantime he studied his foes. Their locations. Weapons they wielded. Tactical positions. Possible cover. Best avenues of attack. Potential sniper locations, machine gun nests, anti-armour threats, routes of retreat and reinforcements.

'You deny us Hope!' his speakers suddenly cried out, with Nightmare whispering the translation into his ear. He didn't understood why she spoke, but ignored it. It was irrelevant to him. Instead he watched the timer. Five... Four...

'So we shall drown you in despair!'

Zero.

Dreamer lunged forward, his gauntleted fist slamming into the high priest in front of him. His hand embedded itself into the creature's flesh, the sheer impact sending it rippling as bone broke. He closed his fingers and pulled back, the key card now securely in his hands. Not good enough. He turned around, slid the card inside a small gap between his armour plates and his disruptor blades sprang forth. The other Ragnai were only just now responding to his actions, their reaction speed punishingly slow compared to his. He moved. Arms stretched. Blades cut through the Ragnai leaders as he leapt towards the creature holding his carbine. The main horde wasn't reacting yet. Still stunned. Heads begin their tumble towards the ground. The dead high priest still was falling backwards. They were too slow. Wouldn't stop him. Couldn't stop him. He reached the Ragnai holding his weapon, his blades fizzling out of existence again. He simple grabbed his carbine and ran through the diminutive creature. He raised his weapon and opened fire, at the same time as his reinforcements arrived and the plaza was turned into a literal hellscape. The bombers howled through the air, their cargo bays opening as they unleashed their payloads. High yield explosives sailed briefly through the air before tearing apart countless Ragnai, turning the area surrounding the plaza into a raging inferno. The gunships were next to arrive, their stabilisers bringing them to a clean halt in an escort formation high above Dreamer. Their cannons swivelled briefly as priority targets were selected. Munitions flashed through the air and more enemies died. The dropships, slower than their compatriots, finally emerged and hovered a dozen metres above the ground, their inhabitants quickly rushing down the ramp. The lighter, humanoid droids landed nimbly, rolled to compensate for the impact even as the tiles cracked under their feet, and jumped up. Their simple targeting systems pointed them towards priority targets and possible cover and they began surgically removing what few armed guards that remained. The heavy, treaded, droids, rolled down the ramp a few seconds later, shattering the ground under their impact. Inertial dampeners compensated for the kinetic shock and in the same moment they made landfall, their heavy cannons and chainguns opened up, further clearing the immediate surroundings.

High above the planet, Nightmare saw dozens of energy spikes flash into existence. Shield projectors lit up as massive generators dumped enormous amounts of power into them, forcing the protective fields into being around the multitude of factories. It happened slowly to her, her own mind far outpacing that of the events on the planet below. She hesitated briefly, even as the currents tore through ancient power lines. Those cables were old and often damaged. Some of the currents hit a dead end, others short circuited when a cable blew up, but the main facility reacted promptly to every one of those actions. An automated response? she wondered. Or that of a conscious mind? It was irrelevant for now. What did matter was the possibility of the rest of the religious caste arming themselves and rushing the capital. Her batteries were ready, the energy spooled up and only a single click away from being unleashed. And still she hesitated. What if the sudden destruction caused a backlash? The factories were relics from the past, easily over a thousand years old and—

A new energy signature popped up in the main facility. Something was being activated near Dreamer and she felt how it disrupted her signals 'No!' she snarled. 'You will not threaten him!' She lifted her firing restrictions and rained down death upon the unsuspecting planet below, finally revealing her presence to Hope.

The battle was unfolding pleasantly well. Thousands of Rangai were dead, the survivors were pulling back, confused and leaderless and the expected final, zealous charge hadn't occurred. Likely because the enemy priests and armed guards had been assigned a priority ranking. There was also Nightmare's automated support , which was performing exemplary well, blowing up buildings to turn them into barricades and shattering avenues to deny the enemy an easy approach. When the sky began to light up, he knew Nightmare had been given cause to emerge from stealth. The fact that she wasn't talking to him and that whatever she was firing at the planet caused explosions large enough that he could see them, meant that something was happening. He turned his attention to the enormous doors and ran towards the small station while comming Nightmare, but only static emerged. Behind him the bombers emptied the last of their ordnance, before slamming into the gathered Ragnai, detonating their reactors for maximum impact. The approaches were all but impassable now and the Ragnai would need to reorganise before beginning a slow advance. That attack had gone exceptionally well. Yet, as he slid the keycard into the station and the doors began opening, he knew that the Ragnai had been the easy part. His sensors picked up audio-signals not dissimilar to the droids accompanying him. Robotic feet and treads running over metal floorplates. The facility was launching a counterattack. He ran through the doors, his Muninn switching to low-light vision, and found his enemy directly in front of him.

He had no time to think. No time to count the enemy, analyse their weapons or any of the sort. His instincts, honed over centuries, took over and the light of his disruptor blades threw eerie shadows on the reptile-like robots in front of him. They moved with speed that slightly surpassed that of the Ragnai. They raised their weapons, the ones in the back spreading out to avoid hitting their allies. There were dozens, at the very least. He pulled on every ounce of his strength and jumped in between the massive doors. His mind took in the information even as he hurled himself directly at his foe. The first foe he encountered didn't meet his blade, but his fist instead. The armoured gauntlet bent the metal carcass and threw the mechanical hostile backwards, into the path of another. He was in their circle now and the first shots were being fired. Red light flashed him by and a small symbol lit up in his HUD as his Muninn categorised the incoming blasts as medium-level lasers. One of his lenses flickered towards the message, the rest remained locked on his foes. He damaged his muscles slightly with a violent sidestep and the shots went wide, but not before his blade cut through the four foes in front of him, just enough to tear apart their wiring and render them useless. Beeps inside his helmet as more guns were pointed towards him. He rolled, bowling over two of the bots and damaging them severely. More shots flashed by and a few scraped his shields, but he ignored them. He got up, slammed his fist into another enemy and hurled it at two others, demolished all three of them. More shots. More damage. He ran into another, using his weight as a battering ram and the metallic carcass as a shield while he raised his carbine. He kicked one behind him while he stitched a line of shots on another dozen, his impromptu barrier soaking up most of the fire while he returned it with interest. A loud clang echoed through the complex as the first of Nightmare's heavy droids forced its way through the opening. Some of the bots changed targets and opened fire on the slow behemoth, only to find it impervious to their weaponry. Dreamer leapt back as his support unleashed a barrage of grenades and a short series of massive explosions later, the hallway was clear. For now.

He took a long look at his surroundings. A frigate was laying on rails behind the door. The small escort ship, still massive from up close, seemed unfinished and had no discernible weapon mounts. That was good, otherwise he would have to retreat and find an alternative solution, lest he be vaporised with a single shot. He pinged his support and a short burst of communications later two light support droids jumped onto the small vessel. In times of war, an Imperial frigate could house several hundred men. He counted on it being abandoned. If not, the sudden loss of connection would warn him in time. In either case he had to move on. More enemy support was on their way, from both directions. Nightmare's heavy combat units would be valuable allies here, provided he kept them intact. Their lack of speed made them vulnerable. He would have to compensate.

Nightmare kept up her bombardment. She refused to relent, her electronic eyes taking in every detail as she methodically pounded the surrounding factories into dust, along with every other settlement of note she could find. Her attack had been fast enough. She hadn't given Hope the chance to fully raise the shields and reinforcements from the surrounding settlements had been destroyed before they even knew they had been under attack. Tens of thousands of Ragnai were dead, but she cared not for the genocide she was committing. All her attention was focused on the energy spikes that the main facility randomly emitted. She had lost all contact with Dreamer and her own units and that concerned her. She could still see the gunships and fighters circle around causing mayhem, but she could not contact them. Whatever was throwing up that jamming was powerful. Yet it gave her the impression that it was automated. Nothing had reached out to her in an attempt to counterattack. No missiles, no defensive batteries, no incursive programs, no hostile inquiries, no viruses... Nothing. Just total silence.

She unleashed another short barrage onto the shielded complex below, fully expecting her salvo to be stopped by the barrier. She watched the energy splash harmlessly against the shields, but the sight of the futile impacts did active a priority order in the fighters below, who immediately switched from defence to hunting down shield projectors. She remained on overwatch, busying herself by launching missiles at the other main Ragnai settlements. She knew that the creatures were resistant to radiation and were surprisingly durable, so she made sure to compensate for that. A few nuclear fireballs later, her automated processes informed her that any organised form of resistance outside of the main facility was now impossible.

Her fighters finally finished the job, to her own surprise. The shield began to crackle and slowly fizzled out. That was strange. Certainly the facility had some anti-air capabilities? Why hadn't they activated? It was impossible for Dreamer to take out everything. There simply hadn't been enough time. Why wasn't Hope reacting? Was he trying to lure her in? But there hadn't even been preliminary scans thrown her direction. The possibility that the AI had scanned her without her knowing was one she dismissed outright. That type of stealth simply didn't exist. Physically impossible. Regardless of the how and the why, the final matter was that the shields were down and the Ragnai, still confused and reeling from the sudden decapitation from their leadership, were vulnerable. Still, she estimated they would rush the plaza sooner rather than later and given that, even under panic, their first reaction was to arm up —or pray— she would need to eliminate them. She had expected as much and had prepared some special ordinance in advance for this. It was revolutionary, really. A true innovation that would alter the concept of orbital bombardment. To strike an area while absolutely minimising collateral damage. Well, to the planet. She hadn't found out a way to shoot at the ground from orbit without at least causing medium amounts of destruction to the surface.

Now she fired the special cannisters, who flashed through the atmosphere in seconds. The heavy metal sheets that encased the payload held against the heat, only fragmenting once they entered the lower atmosphere. She caught a few Ragnai looking up in consternation as the sky roiled and toiled once again, before her new weapons went off. The reactors inside the bombs went off, creating a massive, compressed explosion, before the final barriers broke and the shockwave rolled forth. It slammed into the Ragnai, killing them instantly as the kinetic impact tossed them about like ragdolls. The metal plates of the buildings were blown in all directions and even the ground itself was torn apart under the intense stress. What reached the facility itself was a much weaker wave that bounced off the thick, metal hull of the gargantuan building, but not before slamming her support units out of the sky, ripping their armour apart as if it was tissue paper.

She oversaw the destruction wrought upon the capital below. All living being eradicated. Damage to the buildings was total. No heat build up, no heavy radiation, there was no deep impact to the ground, no massive crater. All in all a very clean kill, if expensive. She didn't have a lot of those bombs and a shield could very easily stop the blast, but against semi-primitives like these? She felt a satisfied tingle run through her processors as she directed a freshly made second wave of support units down to the planet. They'd have some debris clearing to do to let Dreamer easily climb out again. The Ragnai had called out to their god to save them. And they had received an answer.

A silk like purr ran through her systems. 'And God saw that it was good.'

Dreamer rolled into cover behind one of the behemoths, narrowly dodging a broad laser. He took in the large scorch mark it left on the floor and knew his armour wouldn't hold up against that kind of firepower. The hallway lit up red and he felt a shock run through his cover, alarms going off in his HUD that his support unit was taking heavy damage. He jumped out of cover, his target already painted for him, and he opened up on full auto with his carbine. The heavy hallway turret took the first dozen blasts in stride, but there are few things in the galaxy that could withstand a sustained barrage of repulsor fire. A moment later the stream of green abated and the dented turret fell to the floor with a loud clang. He tracked his carbine over the remaining hostile bots and in between his heavy support and his own firepower, the battle was quickly over.

He checked his timer. He had been in the facility for seven hours so far, steadily battling his way through wave after wave of defenders. He hadn't been overrun, to his own surprise. He was down to two heavy and six light support units, however. The two he had left behind with the frigate had rejoined him half an hour ago. Despite their limited programming they had been capable of following his trail of destruction and take out several more enemies along the wave through intelligent use of cover. They were performing better than expected and the resistance was far lighter than he had anticipated. On that end everything was going well.

The one issue was the radiation. It was steadily sneaking past his defences and there was nothing he could do against it. Twelve hours was the maximum and he had already used up seven and was still no closer to shutting down the reactor or finding properly secured passageways. He would need at least three hours to backtrack at full speed, assuming there were no enemies on the way back. Best to allot four hours or he wouldn't make it out alive. He pondered his options as he rushed deeper into the pitch black bowels of the facility. He ran past gargantuan fabricators, enormous assembly lines, cranes and furnaces. He broke open doors, tore his way through defensive turrets and robots alike, wondering just why the enemy AI wasn't mustering a proper response. If Nightmare had been on the opposing end, he would have been swarmed and torn apart within the hour. Hope had the numbers. Hundreds of bots had fallen already and only their dispersed arrival had allowed him to get past it without taking major damage.

That changed when a torrent of lasers raged towards him as he charged through another door. Only his decision to move forward saved him, but as it was he still took over a dozen, hard shots. His shields temporarily shut off to prevent overheating and in that moment two shots managed to hit him in the chest. He hissed as his armour withstood the blow, but the heat rapidly spread through his body and he felt blisters form and pop. He ignored the pain, forcing his fingers to grab hold of the damaged door. He pulled it in front of him and was immediately blown back as a second salvo slammed into it. He felt the metal grow soft and knew he needed to move. He reared back and kicked the glowing plate towards the enemy, which drew some of their fire. The rest of it followed him, but as he had jumped to the ceiling, allowing his mag boots to lock him onto place, he dodged most shots and only lighter fire struck him. In the meantime he returned fire relentlessly with his carbine and in the short exchange he managed to pour over a hundred shots down the hallway. His glands were pumping him full of adrenaline and other concoctions and he saw everything happen in slow motion. The heavier bots were slowly turning their cannons towards him, burdened by the close proximity of their allies. He counted four of them, some of them damaged. A fifth one was present, but destroyed. He counted eight shattered normal bots and another six that were standing. He was satisfied as he saw all of their weapons turn to him. None of them had taken notice of the grenade he had thrown when he had kicked the plate.

The shockwave rolled through the hallway and he dropped down from the ceiling, panting. From that close the defenders didn't have the armour required to survive a blow like that. He surveyed the carnage. The heavy bots looked similar to the normal ones, aside that they were slightly broader and held heavier weaponry. Both of them only used lasers, something he was glad for. Heavier weapons would have torn him apart. He clicked on his comms and his support moved past him. He no longer could afford to take the lead, even if it would slow him down by a dangerous margin. He had no choice, however. He was not allowed to die.

He checked his Svalinn for damage and found his chest plate to be slightly compromised. That wasn't good. He checked his HUD and found that his timer had adjusted itself. Only two hours remaining. Retreat not viable. Survival linked to reactor shutdown. He looked down the hallway and sent new orders to the droids, overriding his previous orders, sending them off on their own so he could move faster and they could cover more ground. He would be too irradiated to survive within two hours from now. That was all the time he had left. He had to succeed within that timeframe or he would die. He could not contact Nightmare, was almost out of allies. The mission parameters were now changed.

Mission parameters were changed... he thought. Two hours to find and shut down the reactor. Statistically unlikely. Impossible if Hope was alive. But was the AI alive? Everything pointed towards Nightmare being correct. He needed an alternate course of action. He sat himself down near one of the destroyed bots and tore its chest plate open, connecting his Muninn to the thing's systems.

'New mission', he summarised. 'End the jamming. Contact Nightmare.' It was his only chance at survival. If they didn't secure the intel from Hope, Nightmare might die. If Nightmare couldn't shut down the reactor, he would die. If Hope was alive in either situation, both of them would die. Unacceptable.

He disconnected himself. The lighter bots had not possessed this information, being fully independent units, but these ones had. He now knew the general location of enemy units. Some areas were far more defended than others. One area in particular was downright fortified. He took in a deep breath and got up. There was one location between him and what was most likely Hope's mainframe.

'If Hope lives,' he whispered, slamming a new cell into his carbine, 'mission cannot be completed.'

He looked down the dark hallway, unperturbed by the haunting darkness and the eerie sounds of damaged power cables. He had a mission. He had an objective. He had allies to protect. And if Hope stood between him and that?

'Kill Hope.'