A Light Not Extinguished

Chapter 32: Champions

"You will never master violence if you do not learn to enjoy it."
-Qa'leh, Chapter Two of the Mataru Kov Slaandra.

War was an old friend.

He has fought daemon armies in the shadow of the first human city's burning husk. Broke apart every single vault-world for the Hundred Year Empire. Matched himself against terrible alien might in both Galactic Wars.

The difference between those and this particular war was that this time, the entirety of the Warp was at stake. The future, formerly a infinitely spiraling maze of probabilities was now cut off by an impenetrable fog, the monster gestating in the Warp bending causality around itself as it fed. This was only the beginning, and even Adam did not know for certain what would happen if it reached maturity in full. Would it simply devour all those who had helped bring it into existence, like how parasites killed their hosts? Or would it empower them, returning as the head of a new pantheon and bolstering the already formidable powers of the Aeldari?

There was only one thing that he knew for certain if that nightmare ever came to pass. The Three would awaken in full, and the Warp would become much worse than it already was. Even the Second Galactic War had only threatened the physical survival of life in the galaxy; this war, should humanity lose, would affect it on a metaphysical scale.

He had known that this would happen eventually, ever since mankind stepped out of the galactic stage. Throughout all the peaks and lows of human history, as he guided them from the shadows, Adam had known that if humanity were to ever rule the stars, then war with the fallen masters of the galaxy would be inevitable.

He just didn't think it would be so soon. The Federation wasn't ready— maybe would never be ready, but circumstances had forced his hand. Even so, doubt still festered inside him. The defensive plan would have been the safest option. With the rate of technological progress that humanity was in, they could have figured out how to mass-produce planetary-scale Gellar Fields within a millennium. After that, it would just be a matter of sitting out the storm.

But humans were prideful, and so was he. Laying down without fighting back was anathema to them. And so now they fought, bringing death across the stars in one last gamble for survival. It was too late to turn back now, for him and his species both, and so Adam gave it his all. He wasn't fighting on the front lines, of course. The time was not yet desperate enough for him to reveal himself in full. But that didn't mean Adam was sitting out on the sidelines at all. Unheard and unseen, he manipulated the Warp in humanity's favor, pushing ships along so they arrived faster at their destination and calming turbulent tides that threatened to break Gellar Fields, while also using his powers to lessen the presence of Chaos on whatever battlefields that he could reach.

His Ultrarchs too were sowing discord among the ranks of the Aeldari. The Interloper was performing wonderfully in Shaa-Dom, turning the noble houses against each other and drawing away attention from the humans at their gates. The Wolf was busy scavenging artifacts from the forgotten vaults of the Empire. Adam gently pushed a Federation fleet forward, speeding their arrival so that they would arrive earlier by a week, phosphex warheads ready to fall on a planetary shipyard, and contemplated his equals in the Great Game.

The queen of the end plotted in her tower, and he did not know what she has planned. Nor does he know if he can kill her, when the time comes. She is strong. Stronger than anything he has ever faced. He cannot face her alone. The Mistress of Blades had survived her encounter with the Federation's greatest killer of psykers, reinforcing the unwelcome fact that for all of mankind's technology there were still monsters beyond them.

His gaze landed on Kathicia, the first psyker who has risen to heights anywhere close to him, standing on a barren planet and waiting for the hateful storm descending upon her. She is everything that he hopes humanity can become; strong and right and just, flourishing without his help. Adam was afraid for her, as he watched the Red Crone howl in the Warp and burn her way through, all the hatred and grief of the Aeldari made manifest. But the High Marshal has come this far without his aid, and he must trust in her.