A Light Not Extinguished

Five Thousand Years: Part 4

​Ships burned in the void as they turned upon each other.

Alone, the High Marshal had raced back to Sol, the blood of a Dark Muse still dripping on her hands. What had been a righteous war had now rapidly turned into a nightmare only conceived of in the worst contingency plans of the Federation.

Extinction was closing in. The majority of ASIs had already been corrupted and lost beyond recovery, entire worlds subject to Exterminatus. Kathicia had to forcibly shut out the voices of a quadrillion souls screaming in the Warp as mankind's most trusted creations turned on them.

It would take only 12 more hours for 90% of humanity to be killed. With hunter-killer protocols it would only take 23 more for that number to become 99%. There was only one path left to take, and it tore Kathicia's heart to shreds every step she took closer to her goal.

The psyker smashed aside two fleets of duelling automated warships in orbit, psychic lightning bisecting the Glorianas down at the middle as she plunged down to the surface, teleporting to General Lupercal's command bunker.

Someone had already gotten to it and partially damaged the surrounding data-infrastructure; The body was missing, the defences ruined. But the details didn't matter at this point. Kathicia stepped into the casket, and slowly but surely began to reactivate the command bunker. His systems still had the highest authorization privileges, and Kathicia was able to enter the Neurosphere directly. The data web that had once connected all of humanity was a tattered thing, now. The Beast Under Mars had bent it to its will, and now a great gash had tainted it permanently with Chaos. Given more time, it would eventually degenerate until its substance was no different than that of the raw Warp itself.

It had to end, here and now, even if she had to send humanity's progress ten thousand years backwards. Slowly, in the unguarded nexus of the Neurosphere, her psychodigital avatar raised her war mace. As she did so, a thousand thousand mechanical intelligences turned to face the newcomer.

[Marshal.] All of them hissed. A threat, a plea, a scream, a declaration all in one.

Even still, at the precipice, she hesitated. Once she had been the Federation's protector. Now she would be its executioner. In the crowd she could recognize the data-signatures of intelligences that had once been her coworkers and friends; people that she had talked and laughed with, had fought together against the threats that stalked the stars.

"Please... if any of you can hear me, if any of you are still listening... I'm sorry." Hot tears trickled down her face. "I'm so sorry."

The screams of humans and their xeno allies continued to howl in the Warp. Both Dragon and Chaos-corrupted minds began to reach towards Kathicia, to tear her apart. And above it all, the laughter of the Ruinous Powers finally reached a crescendo. And in an act that she would never forgive herself for, Kathicia brought down the war mace Astrahkhan, forged in a time when the future seemed impossibly bright.

The Neurosphere had already been compromised by both C'tan and Eightfold Ruin, and further destabilized by the infighting of its inhabitants. An Alpha-Plus psyker bringing to bear all her power against it was the last straw. With a sound indescribable in human tongue that echoed in realspace from the Ghoul Stars to the Eastern Fringe, the Neurosphere imploded.

Ships detonated. Mechanical infantry self-destructed. STC replicators either broke down completely or began to spew out random materials. The psychic feedback ensured that the majority of Iron Minds who were still connected were instantly deleted. The only few who survived completely intact were those that had been disconnected in the first place. The rest were driven even madder beyond reason, losing the ability to even murder efficiently.

Exiting the ruins of once had been the Neurosphere, Kathicia could only look up at the cold metal lid of the Panacea Casket, as the torturously long death screams of ASIs began to ring in her ears. It did not take long for her to begin weeping.

Extinction or suffering. The choice was obvious, and yet it seemed that she had only sentenced mankind to a slower death. Already she could only see futures shrouded in darkness; Chaos had won this decisive battle. She didn't know how long she stayed there. It could have only been a minute. It could have been forever. Maybe she was waiting for someone to come and execute her for what she had done.

Instead, someone pulled the lid off the casket, roughly dragging Kathicia to her feet. It was a stranger, clad in battered and broken armor; he was grieving too, his soul shining so bright that it could rival her own.

"Have courage, Kathicia Jorenn." The haggard man said. "We have a long road ahead of us, and more enemies to defeat still." Golden eyes burned their gaze into her.

"Who are you?"

"It doesn't matter now." The man with the golden eyes muttered. "None of it matters now. We stand on the brink of the end. We fought for our dreams before— now we can only hope to survive the storm."

"Survive?" Kathicia laughed bleakly, a touch of madness in it. "Everything is gone. All is dust. Every future only leads to the abyss. Don't you see it?" Fresh tears of blood trickled down her face as she sat down on the floor in despair. "They've won."

"Chaos can only win if you admit it to have won." The man said quietly. He offered a hand to her. "The Path has not yet reached its end."

"How?" Kathicia whispered. "How are you so certain?"

"Because it must." The man answered. His eyes burned with both tightly leashed rage and a fanatic's determination. "Or it will have been all for nothing, and I refuse to accept that fate. Stand up, Jorenn! Or will you let them claim the final victory?"

Kathicia said nothing. Slowly, she reached out and grabbed the man's hand, the stranger pulling her up. All around them, the Federation continued to collapse. Daemons cackled. Reality itself was weakening.

"We fight." The man she would come to know as Adam declared. "We survive. Until humanity can see the sun again. Are you with me?"