The Multiverse Project: Warhammer 40,000

Tangmo liked it when things went smoothly. Their plans survived the initial contact, their tactic proved insurmountable, and their soldiers executed the assault to perfection. Admittedly the fighting had been fierce, the Tau were no push over, but they were unable to withstand the battlegroup relentless and multi-sided attacks, the humans and the Aeldari using their familiarity with the composition of the Space Hulk to pull off surprise attacks on the blue xenos. It was startlingly effective.

"Gotta say, this went better than expected," Yuki joined Tangmo at a protruding balcony jutting out of the wall of the vast, city size chamber they were in. Below them the battlegroup was arrayed around a mass of ship parts that had been transmogrified into an imposing fortress like structure, with buttresses and walls and everything. That last of the Tau, led by the unhinged commander Aun'la, were well dug in, ready for the forthcoming attack.

"Hell yeah," Tangmo held out his fist and Yuki bumped it. "Henry was right, the Tau weren't prepared for us going full Desert Storm. Stupid fuckers barely knew what hit them."

"They expected us to banzai them, like the rest of the Imperium," Yuki turned her back to the battlefield and leaned against the railing, looking very sexy. "I'll admit there's certain charm to charging heroically at the enemy, but yeah, we swerved the Tau by actually fighting tactically. It was pretty fucking sad honestly, weren't Tau supposed to be the best at range weapons?"

"They got comfortable and got fucked. Like you said, they did not expect us to play the range weapon game, let alone beat them at it," Tangmo folded his arms across his chest. "I heard Lita almost got shot."

"Some punk ass blue bitch tried to shoot her in the back," Yuki said. "Firnera disarmed her though, literally, and stabbed her in the heart."

"Nice," Tangmo chuckled lowly, "did you and Laura had fun?"

"Always," Yuki grinned toothily. "Tau really suck at close combat dude, we had a field day out there."

"I bet you do," Tangmo said. "To tell you the truth though, I thought the fight was gonna be a bit harder. I mean, the entire Space Hulk is a perfect killing field for range weapons, and the Tau dropped the fucking balls on that."

"Probably have something to do with the Chaos corruption," Yuki said. "The Aeldari healers, all of them blessed by Isha by the way, all confirm that a large number of Tau are suffering from bloodlust fever, like Khornate cultists. Not enough bad mojo to open up a Warp portal and pull something through, thank God, but bad enough that it altered their mind."

"It was pretty fucking funny when they tried to melee me, swinging their pulse rifles like fucking clubs," Tangmo and Yuki shared a laugh. "Nothing short of shitty luck their commander got corrupted, no wonder their entire defenses fall apart, this Aun'la guy probably told everyone to run screaming at us."

"You seriously think if Aun'la wasn't fucked in the head he'll actually be a threat?" Yuki gave him an 'are you serious' face.

"…Nah, I don't think so," Tangmo snorted. "Shadowsun sent him here, the ass end of the system, to basically rummage through a Space Hulk, she obviously saw him as expendable. Now, if Shadowsun herself was here…yeah, I don't even want to think about it."

"We're going after her next, so you might as well make peace with that," Yuki turned around, her eyes narrowed on the Tau position, her posture growing taut. "Is it just me, or the mass of ship over there look kinda, I don't know, off?"

"What do you mean off?" Tangmo joined her and leaned over the rail, trying to discern the detail without the aid of a binocular.

"Look at the contours," Yuki pointed at a set of sharp triangular peaks jutting out of the left corner of the fortress. "The damn thing is smooth, way too smooth, and I'm not talking Aeldari smooth, like how it's all flowy and stuff, but smooth as in it left the factory with that design. If I remember correctly, the Imperium doesn't go with that kind of aesthetic."

"It could just be ships from other alien species and human civilizations we've never seen before, from all across the timeline, I might add," Tangmo offered. "I mean, the 40k universe is a fucking big place, who knows what else is out there beside the main factions."

"I don't know dude," Yuki shook her head, not convinced by Tangmo's reasoning. "I can't be the only one who thinks the shape is familiar. I mean, shit, I've definitely seen that design before, and I'm sure it's not from Warhammer 40k."

"Shit, I think you might be on to something," now that Yuki mentioned it, Tangmo felt recognition tugging at his mind, the answer teasing him, just a fingerbreadth away, so close he can almost fucking touch it. "Goddamn it, where have I seen that thing before? Come on brain, do your job!"

"Tangmo, Yuki, where are you guys?" Nikki's voice shattered his concentration.

"We're on a ledge at the western edge of the chamber," Yuki tapped her earbud and scanned the vista ahead. No explosions, no loud noises, no flashes of weaponries, all were for the moment quiet. "What's up?"

"You guys need to come down here right now," Nikki was the Eight's go to calm person, so when the Russian actually sounded alarm, Tangmo and Yuki knew shit just seriously hit the fan. "We've found something that shouldn't be here."

Tangmo and Yuki traded the appropriate dramatic looks before dashing back into the stairway behind them, running down at an extremely unsafe speed, the pair bursting back on to the mustering ground at a sprint, sending several guardsmen and Guardians leaping for cover as they headed for the frontline. It took them a couple of minutes to reach the command tent, the place easy to spot because the main characters were loitering around the entrance, more than obviously evicted by the Eight.

"Tangmo!" Leilatha cried out when she saw him and Yuki, causing the main characters to turn toward them, confusion plain on their faces. "What is happening? What have the high command found?"

"I don't know!" Tangmo spread his arms wide and shook his head, he and Yuki picking up speed before the crowd can converge on them. "I'll tell you everything, I promise!"

The two Asians bulled through the tent flap, almost pitching over into a botch somersault when they skidded to a stop, and found that besides their homies the command tent was empty, the many consoles and tables abandoned in haste, leaving behind mountains of paperwork and screens filled with unprocessed data.

"What the fuck is happening?!" Yuki's voice was abnormally loud in the tent's soundless vacuum as she and Tangmo joined the rest of the Eight at the hologram table, the gargantuan malformed mass of the Tau's impromptu fortress hovered above the projection, rotating slowly.

"Shh! Keep your voice down, will you?!" Erik hushed her. "The canvas isn't exactly sound proof."

"Let me repeat her question then," Tangmo lowered his volume to a reasonable level. "What the fuck is happening?"

"Check this," Henry waved at the hologram, stopping the rotation, and started flicking his fingers, the digits dancing like a conductor's baton, swiftly highlighting five sections of the fortress. "You see that?"

"…Bullshit," Tangmo rasped while Yuki gasped, the Japanese grabbed Laura and started jumping up and down, ultra-hyped out of her mind.

"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!" Yuki squealed silently, the pitch getting so high that it almost sounded like a dog whistle, the acoustic got worse when Laura joined in, the British inquisitor and the Japanese exarch's vocalization was not at all pleasant. Nearby, Lita had her face in her palm, shaking despondently.

"Will you two shut the fuck up?!" Yuki and Laura's shrieking died with a squawk when Nikki smacked them both upside the head, the Russian stabbing her finger warningly at the two. "There's a fuckton of people outside and none of us want to be the one to explain why parts of the Space Hulk is made up of fucking Star Wars ships!"

"Not just any ships too my friends," Damien, the Eight's expert on all things science fiction and fantasy, put on a lecturing tone, thank God he wasn't wearing his awesome Space Marine helmet, because that shit would've been loud. "If we take a closer look, we can see that there are three Imperial Star Destroyers and a Lucrehulk capital ship, all of them surprisingly intact too. But that's not all!" With Henry's help, Damien pointed at the fifth piece. "Although the overall structure had been torn to shit, that is a Federation Starship, of Star Trek fame."

"You mean like the Enterprise?" Erik quirked a brow, "is that the Enterprise?"

"No, of course not, me and Albert and Mary already did the initial scan, it's a hundred percent not the Enterprise," Henry said. "This is just some random unfortunate ship full of Red Shirts."

"Set phasers to get fucked," Laura snorted and high fived Yuki.

"How did starships from other universes got here anyway?" Lita asked, "multiple starships too."

"I honestly don't know," Damien stroke his chin thoughtfully. "I mean, in Star Trek they used the Warp Drive to achieve faster than light travel, but that just generate a subspace field, a bubble around the ship if you will, which distort time and space for the ship to be propel forward."

"So they don't go through hell like us?" Yuki spoke up.

"No they don't, so if I was to make an educated guess, the Warp Drive went through a catastrophic malfunction and, through fourth dimensional fuckery, accidentally got trapped in the Warp, our Warp," Damien explained. "Same thing goes for the Star Destroyers and the Lucrehulk, some hyperdrive malfunction and poof, welcome to the grim darkness of the forty second millennium."

"Forgive me for not jumping on the Star Wars bandwagon, I'm allergic to dogshit," Tangmo didn't hide his distaste for the galaxy far, far away, earning glares from Henry, Damien, Laura and Yuki, all of whom were admirers of George Lucas's sci-fi epic. "But what in the hell is a Lucrehulk ship? I mean, I know the Star Destroyer, but this other one, yeah, the fuck is it?"

"It's the starship Anakin blew up in the Phantom Menace," Yuki said, stopping Henry and Damien from going into a long exposition. "The big circle with the big ball in the middle, it was floating above Naboo, it's literally the climax of the movie."

"Oh yeah, that shit, now I remember," Tangmo nodded then tilted his head at the hologram. "Didn't those two ships come from different eras? One from the Prequel Trilogy and the other from the Original Trilogy?"

"That's right mate, but time doesn't work normal in the Warp, which would explain why they're fused together like that," Laura narrowed her eyes suspiciously on Tangmo. "I thought you loathe Star Wars, how did you know they're from different timeline?"

"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles," Tangmo intoned smugly, "The Art of War, Sun Tzu, just another thing that's better than Star Wars."

"Tangmo's contrarian douchebaggery aside," Lita cut in and shot Tangmo a warning look, successfully wiping the shit eating grin from his face. "What is the significant of finding Star Wars and Star Trek ships in Warhammer 40k? And what does it mean for us right now?"

"In the short term, besides getting hyped as all fuck unlike some people, this doesn't affect our overall strategy in the coming fight," Henry went on. "This is a Space Hulk after all, it is expected that there will be weird shits popping up, we can easily bullshit some explanation for the battlegroup and they'll more than likely believe us."

"What about the long term?" Nikki asked.

"This could be a prelude to a very big complication," Erik said. "We are only seeing ruins here, but what if we start finding fleets of warships from other universes popping up at random places across the galaxy?"

"We'll blow them to shit," Tangmo shrugged easily, "if schedule allows it, of course."

"That's not what worries me dude, I know we can kick their asses without breaking a sweat," Erik shook his head. "A tear between the universes work both way, if one thing can get in, other things can also get out."

"Hilarious as it might be at the thought of Tzeentch raising hell with Jedi and Sith, yeah, nobody want that to happen," Yuki nodded, her agreement mirrored by the rest of the Eight, "what do we do then?"

"Contact Master, when we're done clearing out the Tau," Tangmo said. "He'll be able to patch up any tears within the vicinity, while also diverting more attention to the 40k universe. Can't blame him for not looking this way, we're doing a good fucking job, but yeah, the multiverse isn't exactly what you would call stable right now."

"Things are bad elsewhere?" Damien asked.

"If Elizabeth and Eleanor are to be believed, the cosmos are getting kinda dicey," Lita said, earning grunts of agreement from her compatriots. The heroines of Bioshock Infinite and Bioshock 2 had been keeping in touch with the Eight regularly, after the two had decided to work for Master, and their latest conversation was…alarming, to put it lightly.

"Okay, let's wrap this up quickly then," Nikki rolled her shoulders until it popped satisfyingly. "I'll tell the Aeldari to ready the troops, we're gonna make short work of the Tau before anything else pops up."

"Actually, we don't need to do anything like that," Tangmo very much like the evil, maniacal grin splitting Damien's face in two, his pearly white teeth gleaming with malicious intent. "We can just sit back and watch the fireworks dude."

"You're gonna blow up those Star Wars and Star Trek ship, aren't you?" Lita frowned, not warming to the idea. If he was being honest, Tangmo wasn't particularly fond of a big ass explosion in a confine space either. "We are literally at the bottom of the Space Hulk, a kilometer and a half under the sea, if we detonate the ships it could destroy the infrastructure and let the entire ocean in, killing all of us in the process."

"Seriously, do you think we would do something that stupid?" Damien made an offended expression.

"Is that a rhetorical question?" Lita quirked a brow and the rest of the Eight laughed aloud.

"We're not blowing up the ships, so kindly chill," Damien rolled his eyes and tapped the hologram, more specifically the Separatist's ship. "Remember when I said everything was still intact? Well, it turns out the auxiliary power grid on the Lucrehulk is still operational, and they're powering an assembly line worth of Droids."

"Hold up, wait a minute," Erik held up his hand. "There are functioning Droids in there?"

"Preliminary scan tells us that yes, despite going through the Warp, the Droids are in adequate fighting condition," Henry added with a smirk.

"Please tell me you guys can get them working again," Nikki's eyes gleamed with excitement.

"Me and Marie got that covered," Albert the AI beamed. "And it wasn't easy, let me tell you that much."

"In laymen terms, what did you do?" Yuki asked.

"We hack it, duh!" Marie the AI now piped up. "But…imagine if 40k use Linux and Star Wars use Apple, we needed to reconfigure a lot of things before we can get access to the barely working computers on the Lucrehulk. That was the hard part, but after that, it was easy peasy, just give us the words and we'll unleash the Droids."

"What in the bloody hell are you wanting for then? Get the clankers marching!"

"Wait!" Tangmo held up his hand at the hologram, stopping Albert and Mary from proceeding and earning himself a murderous glare from Laura. "Hold up, don't release the Droids yet."

"Why are you such a fucking buzzkill?!" Laura growled at him. "We get it, you hate Star Wars! So how about you stop being such an arsehole?!"

"It's not that you dipshit!" Tangmo waved his hand at the tent entrance and lowered his voice to a hiss. "The main characters need to know about this before we do anything. A lot of them, the Sororitas especially, seem to know something's up with us, and with Greyfax here, combine with the fact that I'm not exactly friend with Amberley, we shouldn't give them any more reason to be suspicious. So I think we should tell them first before letting the Droids loose?!"

"Tangmo's absolutely right, doing things in the shadow will only invite prying questions," Yuki grinned apologetically at the huffing Laura before turning to Tangmo. "You got an alibi?"

"Feel free to make any input as I go along," Tangmo winked and started for the tent flap, nudging his head for the Eight to follow. "Come on, let's not keep them waiting."

Grinning villainously and trading badass nods, the Eight took a moment to put on appropriately stoic faces and headed outside. Just in the nick of time too, because Greyfax, Galatea and Tanrion were marching purposefully toward the command tent, not slowing down and shouldering aside the Imperial Guard colonels who tried to bar their way. They skidded to a stop when the Eight emerged, but still looked quite ready to start some shit.

"Calm down guys, we're here," Tangmo came to a stop two steps from Galatea, matching her hard gaze with a calm one of his own.

"You were in there a long time, lord commissar," Tanrion began diplomatically as the main characters formed a circle around them, squeezing in close to hear the conversation.

"And for good reason," Tangmo responded easily and tapped the data-pad on his arm. "There have been a surprising development and we had to confirm it with our Machine Spirits."

"What have you found?" Leilatha shouldered her way through the crowd to come and stand beside Galatea, beneath her stern commissariat countenance concern gleamed in her eyes.

"It appears that the Tau's…fortress, if you can even call it that, is made up of ships unknown to our database, their specification not matching anything in the Imperial Navy dossier," Tangmo went on. "We dug deeper, and after confirming what we've found with the Machine Spirits, we can unfortunately say that the ships are from the Dark Age of Technology, and one of them is carrying an army's worth of Men of Iron."

Shock gasps rippled across the main characters, with many of the more pious persuasion making the sign of the aquila, fingers dancing over their hearts, even the Aeldari appeared quite disturbed by the revelation, the thought of having to fight the metallic soldiers would give anyone pause. Goddamn, lying was super easy, no wonder people do it all the time.

"Are you sure?" Greyfax narrowed her eyes on Tangmo, trust was not one of the lady inquisitor's virtue.

"A hundred percent," Tangmo said sternly, daring Greyfax to make a fuzz. He was mightily pleased when she nudged her chin curtly for him to continue, "which brings us to our current predicament."

"Are the Men of Iron operational?" Colonel Evangeline asked, getting straight to the point.

"According to our scan, yes, despite the aeon that had passed since the Space Hulk landed on this planet," Damien took over the explanation, his announcement causing a commotion as the main characters started talking to each other in hush, tensed tone. The Canadian Marine had to hold up his hand, bringing the ruckus to an end. "And I believe we can use this to our advantage."

The resulting silence was the kind that made everyone in the vicinity suffocates, a heavy, all-consuming shroud settling over the main characters with a physical weight. Now all they had to do was wait for someone to shout, loudly and in shock.

"Are you out of your damn mind?!" And thank you colonel Joanna for being that person. "Please tell me y'all are not planning on activating them damn machines and sicking them on the Tau."

"We're planning to activate the Droids and sicking them on the Tau," predictably, Tangmo's nonchalant announcement was not well received by the main characters, with many of them voicing their objection noisily. He let the oppositions went on for a couple of minutes until they ran out of steam and the main characters settled down, not looking too thrilled with the Eight's super awesome plan. "Okay guys, I know this is pretty unorthodox, even by our standard."

"If I may, lord commissar," colonel Alistair spoke up. "But given the malicious reputation of the Men of Iron, I am very much concerned with the risk involve if they are to be revived, even if it is for the purpose of the destroying the Tau."

"I agree with him," colonel Al-Rahman added. "We could be facing an enemy worse than the Tau if the Men of Iron are awakened. Do we even know what kind of armaments they possess? Or their numbers?"

"Some kind of energy weapon, if our scan is to be believe," Damien reentered the conversation, and judging by the small twitches at the corner of his mouth, the Canadian Marine no doubt wanted to explain the intricacy of Star Wars lore to the Warhammer 40k main characters, an impulse Tangmo also shared. But considering the shit storm that would follow, Tangmo and Damien feigned ignorance. "As for the number opposing us…let's see." Damien made a show of tapping the data-pad on his arm. "By Albert and Mary's count, around six thousand Droids are inside the fortress right this very moment."

"I don't like this," colonel Kasteen shook her head. "We know little to nothing about these Men of Iron, their power, their capability, everything is guess work at best. I remember what Ciaphas told me about the Necron…what if the Men of Iron are similarly dangerous?"

"Then we shall face them as we would against all who oppose the Imperium and the God Emperor," sergeant Adelhard of the Black Templar declared with clear finality, "with faith, fire, and fury. No abominations from the Dark Age of Technology will stay our wrath."

"Well spoke brother," sergeant Subutai traded nod with Adelhard, the White Scar was jovial in his enunciation. "The Tau were getting stale, and nothing livened up the hunt better than newer and more dangerous prey."

"Marwen, what is the disposition of the Aeldari combat vehicles?" Damien turned to the captain general. "What sort of firepower are we talking about here?"

"Although our weapons are not as loud as those fielded by the Imperium," Marwen smirked at the chuckling guardsmen, "it is no less devastating to organic and inorganic targets. If the Men of Iron prevail against the Tau and were not destroyed in the process, our Fire Prisms and Falcons will make short work of them. Combine with the phalanx of heavily armed Wraithguards, I don't foresee any problem if we are to engage the Men of Iron."

"If this had been an open field, my Lancers would destroy them," Zolwyken grunted.

"A sentiment I share," Subutai nodded, the two speedsters truly did not like fighting in the halls of the Space Hulk.

"Even lacking heavy supports, the guardsmen can easily handle the Men of Iron," Krillen added, and this statement pleased his colonel buddies greatly. "The weapons provided by the Immortal Spirit's armory have rendered us more than ready to take on even an armored column. A bunch of metal men from ten thousand years ago doesn't stand a chance."

"Add our sisters and the Astartes to the mix, then I believe victory is a foregone conclusion," after some contemplation and whispering conversations with her fellow canonesses, Galatea was warming to the idea of fighting the Men of Iron. When she and her friends were done trading nods, Galatea turned to Saint Celestine. "If I may be so presumptuous, your ladyship, I believe that the battlegroup will prevail if confrontation with the Men of Iron becomes inevitable."

"I am of the same mind," Celestine smiled softly and turned to Tangmo, her blue eyes sharp. "Well then lord commissar, what is your decision?"

"Naturally, we want to activate the Droids and give the Tau a nasty rear end surprise," Tangmo said, the low laughter rippling around him sounded very promising. "But I thought it would be better to ask you guys first. I mean, this is a big fucking decision, and I want everyone onboard with it. So yeah, what do you guys say? Do we go ahead with this or what?"

The silence stretched on for so long that Tangmo actually thought the main characters were gonna say no. With herculean effort, he stopped himself from sighing in relief when the main characters, with varying degrees of reluctance, all nodded their confirmation, unanimously agreeing to the Eight's plan.

"Goddamn, you assholes almost gave me a fucking heart attack," Tangmo snorted and the main characters laughed good-naturedly as he tapped his data-pad, going over the plan one last time, then contacted the two AIs. "Albert, Marie, you guys there?"

"You made your decision yet?" Albert asked.

"Yeah, light them up," Tangmo told him.

"Your wish is our command!" Marie chirped happily and the Eight took off toward the forward most battlement situated at the northern tip of their control zone, Tangmo waving for the main characters to follow.

"Come on, let's get ourselves front row seats," Tangmo grinned and the main characters quickly fall in behind the Eight, earlier skepticism now replaced by wanton excitement, all of them more than eager to see how the Droids would fare against the Tau.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Leilatha slipped in beside him, Laura and Yuki politely backed away to give them a bit of privacy. "I'm not one to shy away from a fight, but even by your standard this seems unnecessary reckless."

"We'll be fine, trust me," Tangmo grinned, because if he was being honest, he doubted a buncha Star Wars Droids can put a dent in the Tau's ranks. Seriously, there's no way in hell those lasers can win against pulse rifles. That was basically the reason why he knew nothing bad can come from this plan.

"I trust you, but that is not the reason why I'm asking you to be more prudent," Leilatha lowered her voice. "Greyfax have become somewhat…interested in you and your friends."

"Yeah, Amberley pulled the same shit when she first joined us," Tangmo said. "It will blow over."

"Greyfax is nothing like Amberley," Leilatha said sharply as they climbed the stairs up to the rampart, the guardsmen and eldars along the wall making room for the Eight and the main characters, granting them an unobstructed view of the Tau's fortress, the two sides separated by a thousand yard of no man's land. Tangmo was just settling down next to Damien when Leilatha took his hand and squeezed. "Be careful."

"Always," Tangmo squeezed back and tried to hang on when Leilatha pulled away, earning a humorous snort from the lady commissar. "Do you have to go? It gets so lonely around here."

"Unlike you, I am inclined to perform the more mundane aspect of my commissariat duty," Leilatha flashed him a pretty grin before turning away. "I am sure Brother Captain Damien would be more than suffice to keep you company for the time being."

"Don't worry Leilatha, I'll keep him safe until you come back," Damien waved energetically and Leilatha tipped her awesome commissar cap in reply before striding off to where the Mordian and Vostroyan were standing. "Things are great between you two I see. I'm happy for you, truly."

"Thanks man," Tangmo nodded. "What about you and Miranda? I heard things are very optimistic."

"Oh yeah, Miranda's the best, just spending time with her can make the shittiest day better," Damien leaned a little bit over the parapet, the metal squealing from the added weight. "So when's the Droids showing up man?"

"Yo Albert, when's the Droid showing up?" Tangmo tapped his earbud. "Come on man, the crowd's getting impatient, where's my Droids at?!"

"Will you calm down?! Jeez! It's not like I'm performing a complex start up algorithm or some damn thing," Albert grumbled and not a heartbeat later the part of the fortress comprised of the Lucrehulk lit up, the illumination lasting for about thirty seconds before snuffing out. All along the Tau's defenses Fire Warriors darted this way and that like a buncha of wasps after someone kicked their nest, "there, done, happy?!"

"Verily," Damien grinned and put on his awesome Space Marine helmet, giddy as all fuck as he waited for the lasers to start flying. Several minutes passed but nothing happened, around them the main characters were starting to grumble. Groaning, Damien tapped the side of his awesome Space Marine helmet, "what the hell bro, nothing's happening!"

"The Droids kinda have to walk to their targets first?!" Marie shot back snappishly. "So how about you chill!"

"She's not wrong," Tangmo shrugged and narrowed his eyes on the Tau's bustling battlements, "it's not like those Droids were built with speed in mind, it could take…"

The first sign that some shit was going down were the Crisis Battlesuits, several dozens of the fuckers were arrayed on high grounds along the ramparts, positioned at the most strategic places to maximize their deadly range weaponries. First a few of them evicted the defenses, their thrusters glaring bright azure, then more and more swiftly withdrew deeper into the interior. It wasn't long before the average grunts along the walls started to catch on that something was wrong, and Tangmo was about to reach for his binocular when a fusillade of red lasers shot up from behind the battlements and struck the flabbergasted Fire Warriors, many of them flying over the parapets to land with a wet splat, blue ichor bursting everywhere.

"Here we fucking go," Damien chuckled and crossed his arms over his chest. "Things seem to be going well, don't you agree?"

"Wholeheartedly my friend," Tangmo grinned toothily as the Tau abandoned their posts en mass, rushing down the wall to go and confront the new threats pouring from the fortress, the battlegroup jeering, laughing and cheering after them. "It's a goddamn shame we can't see anything, damn, shit would've been epic to watch."

"Add a John William soundtrack and we'll be all set," Damien lowered the volume of his awesome Space Marine helmet so that it was localized instead of boomingly loud. "How long is this gonna last?"

"The fuck are you asking me for, you're the Star Wars expert," Tangmo quirked his brow.

"Oh yeah," Damien stroke his chin thoughtfully. "Let's wait until the pew, pew stop."

"Good idea."

"It would seem that your unorthodoxy prevailed again, lord commissar, Brother Captain."

Even wearing his Astartes armor, Tangmo was able to see Damien flinched when another individual joined them, uninvited. Keeping his composure cool, Tangmo glanced left and found none other than lady inquisitor Katarinya Greyfax standing beside him. The stern, but strikingly beautiful inquisitor was watching the kaleidoscopic laser lightshow impassively, her visage revealed nothing.

"Good morning inquisitor Greyfax," Tangmo tipped his awesome commissar cap at her, earning a nod in reciprocation. "What brings you all the way over here?"

"Curiosity," Greyfax said, unlike Amberley she doesn't coat her intend in pleasant conversations or flowery proses.

"About what?" Damien asked politely.

"All of this I suppose," Greyfax stood up a little straighter and waved at the fortress, which was now on fire. "This is very serendipitous."

"Yes, indeed," Damien nodded, his timbre deep and menacing, befitting his Astartes status. "The God Emperor provides."

"I do not believe in serendipity," Greyfax continued, the coldness of her utterance contrasting greatly with the pillars of fire erupting across the fortress, some red, some blue.

"Coincidence then, if that's more palatable to you," Tangmo cut in, because judging by how he was shuffling his giant feet, Damien was getting a bit too nervous for his own good.

"I don't believe in coincidence either," Greyfax went on. "Every cause has an effect, every action has a dictating reason, every incident has a progenitor."

"You're not wrong," Tangmo shrugged and the battlement erupted in cheers when a tower came careening down after an explosion cut it in half. "Are you going somewhere with this? Because seriously, I kinda wanna enjoy this moment, we're literally winning without having to lifting a finger."

"Droids," Greyfax said easily.

"Yes, what about them?" Tangmo turned to look at Greyfax, getting a little annoyed by the woman incessant pestering.

"I've never heard Men of Iron referred to by that name before," Greyfax narrowed her eyes on Tangmo. "Automatons, abominable intelligence, robots, drones, these are the lexicon used to describe the heretical monstrosities created during the Dark Age of Technology, but throughout my study never once have I found any instances where they are referred to as Droids."

"A lot of people use the term Droids, maybe you just haven't come across it yet," Tangmo knew he fucked up the moment his retort came in sharp and quick, his situation not helped by the fact that Damien snapped his head sharply at Greyfax, the 'gotcha' glint in the lady inquisitor's eyes were bright. Tangmo mentally facepalmed himself, remembering how he had blurted the word Droid when talking to the main characters, and it had to be Katarinya Greyfax who caught it, fuck!

"You are familiar with this specific kind of Men of Iron," Greyfax pressed on. "You knew the outcome of this undertaking in advance. I want to know how."

"As you have so eloquently said before, this was serendipity," Tangmo made the sign of the aquila. "The God Emperor protects."

"I am not a sycophant like Amberley, lord commissar, I will get my answer one way or another," Greyfax said darkly and slowly took her eyes off Tangmo, and fixed it firmly on Leilatha, who was standing with Krillen and Evangeline about forty paces down the wall to their left, all three of them were glaring at the lady inquisitor. "I think I'll talk to lady commissar Leilatha next."

Tangmo held up his hand, stopping Damien from physically confronting Greyfax's threat, the Canadian Astartes was a bro like that. For her part, the lady inquisitor didn't even flinch, the sight of a big ass, pissed off Ultramarines failing to elicit any reaction from her, nor did she appeared to give a fuck when she locked eyes with Tangmo. He was really tempted to grab the woman by the neck and chokeslam her off the ledge, the battlement was pretty fucking high and the landing should be spectacularly gory, or just simply put a lasbolt through her skull. But that wouldn't be diplomatic. Greyfax was already chummy with the Sororitas, and the hell that would be unleashed if he harmed her would be apocalyptic, to say the least. Also, Tangmo didn't want his ass atomized by Saint Celestine, so he relaxed his stance and did the one thing Greyfax didn't expect, he smiled.

"That's a nice new eye you got there Greyfax," Tangmo tilted his head to the side, Greyfax not liking his cute routine. "Green, bright green too, a very pretty color, very attractive."

"You will find that flattery does not move me," Greyfax hissed.

"And all the scar tissues around your original monocle augmentation has been completely removed too," Tangmo whistled an appreciative tune, further fanning Greyfax's irritation. "You went all out and the Immortal Spirit did not disappoint, you look like a superstar."

"Do you have a point to make?" Greyfax took one threatening steps toward Tangmo, their noses now an inch apart.

"Couldn't help but notice how this beautification came right after Celestine and Isha returned from their little trip to the mall," Greyfax's eyes bulged to saucers and Tangmo smiled all the wider. "Got all nice and pampered for the Saint, didn't you?"

"Be very careful, lord commissar," Greyfax warned him, her timbre deep with barely restrained rage, the muscles in her neck taut and pronounced. "What you say next will have dire repercussion."

"Do the canonesses know?" Tangmo asked innocently like an absolute dick, and despite the helmed head he can tell Damien was smiling, also like a dick. "I can't even begin to imagine what their reaction would be when they find out the lady inquisitor and the Saint are pillow friends, as a great writer once wrote, and the intimate kind too. But if I have to calculate the damage…damn, your life would be a lot more difficult if this got out, wouldn't it Katarinya?"

"Blackmail? That's a little out of character for you," Greyfax countered coldly, "and I would warn you not to pursue this most unwise course, Tangmo, because if you do, you will find out firsthand what I am truly capable of. You make no secret of who your friends are, think about them, for their sakes."

"You'll be dead before taking a single step, I'll protect my friends even if it means getting killed by Saint Celestine," Tangmo shot back. "So yeah, try me."

"That is what I shall do," Greyfax pressed on. "This can all be avoided if you simply tell me what I want to know."

"I have a reputation to keep, Katarinya, I don't cave to bullies," Tangmo said. "Therefore, I will ask you to please drop this. Look, I don't want any problem with you, alright? I'm more concern with doing my duties and not waste my fucking time with a psycho who fights her allies more than her enemies."

"I will cleanse the cancers that lurks within the Imperium, no matter how deep the rot, or how agreeable they might appear," Greyfax sneered at Tangmo as her hand drifted down to the Condemnor bolter at her belt. "And I believe a certain tumor had overstayed his welcome."

"You're right about one thing though, you're not Amberley," Tangmo chuckled darkly and removed the clasped on the holster of his laspistol. "At least she isn't tactless like your dumbass, the woman actually has class."

"Any courtesan with an ego will believe herself to be so."

"You got experience on that front then?"

"What is going on here?"

Tangmo let out an audible sigh when none other than Saint Celestine swooped in behind Greyfax, her majestic wings of luminescent white shimmered radiantly as it fluttered several times before folding prettily behind her back. Easing his hand away from his sidearm, Tangmo took a step back and held his palms up in a surrendering gesture. Greyfax however did not relax her stance, not even when Celestine placed herself between the lady inquisitor and Tangmo.

"You just interrupted a very intense conversation that was about to turn very ugly," Tangmo told Celestine, and it was only after the Saint narrowed her eyes on Greyfax that she finally let go of the Condemnor bolter. "Thank you, seriously, we were two steps away from hell before you showed up."

"What has happened?" Celestine asked Greyfax.

"I was doing my duty," Greyfax told her. "And the lord commissar is obstructing said duty."

"Yo, you don't just throw an accusation in my face and bully me into giving you an answer you want," Tangmo spun at Damien. "You saw everything dude, back me up!"

"He's right, we were minding our business one minute and then she shows up and start pointing finger," Damien nodded vigorously. "Not to mention all the blackmailing."

"A necessary reaction, considering you threatened me with blackmail first," a look passed between Greyfax and Celestine and Tangmo totally did not like the sharpness on the Saint's visage when she returned her attention to him.

"Fair game asshole, you were coming after me first," Tangmo shot back, the fact that he sounded like a petulant kid on a playground did not escaped him. Celestine did not speak for the heartbeats that followed, only shifting her gaze between Tangmo and Greyfax several times, like a school teacher deciding who was guilty. Then her eyes settled squarely on Greyfax.

"You are needed elsewhere Katarinya," Celestine said kindly but Greyfax was beyond pissed by the dismissal. "Amberley have something she wishes to discuss with you."

"You cannot possibly…!"

"Go Katarinya," Celestine pressed on firmly. "I'll take it from here."

Greyfax was opening her mouth to argue, but Celestine's unyielding patience managed to hold the lady inquisitor's protest at bay. Conceding with a very unladylike grumble, Greyfax turned away and stomped down the wall.

"I would ask that you refrain from antagonizing Katarinya," Celestine spun to face Tangmo and loomed over him, her wings fanning out a bit, like a peacock attempting to intimidate her foe. "I do not appreciate you upsetting her."

"Then maybe she shouldn't come around looking for trouble," Tangmo shot back, of course Celestine was gonna take her girlfriend's side. "I was here with Damien, having a nice laugh at the Tau's misery, and then she got in our faces and started calling us heretics and shit. I'm not gonna take that lying down bro, come on!"

"What did she inquire that had gotten you so defensive?" Great, now Celestine was interrogating him.

"She thinks we somehow knew about the Men of Iron beforehand and is plotting some nefarious deed," Tangmo groaned, and mentally high fived himself for calling the Droids by their correct 40k terminology.

"And did you knew about the Men of Iron and is plotting something?" Celestine asked, patient and stern, a mother waiting for her son to come clean.

"Of course not, goddamn!" Tangmo blurted exasperatedly, his outburst more than enough to hide the truth from Celestine.

"Calm down lord commissar, I do not believe you mean harm to the battlegroup," Celestine responded in a calculatedly vague term, combined this with her knowing look, Tangmo was sure the Saint suspected something but have chosen to ignore it, for now, which he was very thankful for.

"Well, at least someone think so!" Tangmo threw his hands into the air and Celestine chuckled lightly, even her voice was pretty. Sighing loudly, Tangmo settled down and quirked his brow at Celestine. "I'm sorry, but why are you here? I'm not trying to be rude, but besides coming to your girlfriend rescue, was there anything you wanted from me and Damien?"

"I thought you should know that the fighting had ceased," Celestine waved her hand at the fortress beyond, and holy shit besides columns of churning smokes and pillars of twisting fire, he can see nothing of the Tau defenders. "No sound emanated from beyond. But whether this is due to the Tau fleeing deeper into the fortress or they have all been slain, I do not know."

"Guess we're about to find out," Damien tapped his awesome Space Marine helmet. "Calling all units, prepare for general advance, nice and slow people, the Tau might be down for the count but they could pull a Rocky Balboa and go one more round."

"Sometime I wish I understand half of the things you Eight are saying," Celestine shook her head with amused exasperation and spread her wings wide, shining bright and majestic. "Me and the Avenging Knights shall scout ahead, we'll let you know if the enemies remain active."

"How about you don't?" Tangmo stopped Celestine before she can take to the sky. "The last thing we need is Saint Celestine getting shot down by some random Tau, we also don't know whether or not the Men of Iron are still active, or what kind of weapons they carry. Therefore, I would ask that you come with us on foot."

"Since you asked so politely, I shall oblige," Celestine snickered, folded her wings and took off down the stairs, Tangmo and Damien more than happy to play the escorts for the lovely Saint. "Although I doubt the enemies will pose any threat to myself or Lithia and her girls, I am more than happy to put the battlegroup's mind at ease."

"Not to mention it will make Greyfax very, very happy," Tangmo smirked, meeting Celestine's narrowing glance with a cute look as the three of them marched on to the mustering ground, guardsmen and eldars bustled this way and that, forming into platoons, squads and companies while vehicles and Wraithguards lumbered into position in front of the northern gate. "As much as I want to see Greyfax goes berserk and rush to your rescue, it would be better to avoid the drama all together, don't you agree?"

"Ah, now I know why Katarinya was upset with you," Celestine spun on her heel and blocked Tangmo's path, the Saint stood tall and indomitable above the Thai commissar. Seeing his friend in trouble, Damien heroically made himself scares and went to join the Ultramarines, his steps impolitely quick. "I shall be honest lord commissar, I do not appreciate you using this topic as a method of discrediting Katarinya. Our relationship is…fragile, to say the least, and I would prefer that it not be exasperate by outside trouble. I'm sure you understand the sanctity of privacy."

"Your secret is safe with me, I won't say a word of this to anyone, I promise you that," Tangmo said honestly, without guile, his unblinking gaze locked with Celestine's own, letting the Saint see into his soul. He let out a breath he didn't know he was holding when Celestine nodded with a smile, the trust she showed him was very heartwarming. "Then again, I'm sure the many handmaidens and nuns, besides spreading raunchier versions of your little rendezvous with Isha, will have already notice a change in Greyfax's temperament when interacting with you. It's not exactly hard to connect the dots dude, I'm sure gossips are already ripe."

"Alas, I believe you are right," Celestine shrugged. "No matter, I shall send Katarinya after those who don't know the virtue of silence."

"That's horrifying just to think about dude, goddamn, I didn't think you could be that cold," Tangmo and Celestine was sharing a chuckle when, out of the corner of his eyes, the Thai commissar spied Greyfax lurking behind him, the lady inquisitor was engaged in a very heated conversation with the Celestians and the canonesses, sprinkled here and there with a few dirty looks. "Speaking of your girlfriend, I think you should go to her. I am not digging how she's eyeballing me, that shit is scary."

"I shall throw her off your scent then," before Celestine took off she offered Tangmo a strangely melancholic grin. "Whatever secret you are guarding, I hope that one day I can be made privy to it."

"So do I Celestine, so do I," Tangmo sighed sadly as he tipped his awesome commissar cap at her in goodbye. "Stay safe."

"Thank you, you too," Celestine saluted playfully and strolled away toward the Battle Sisters, Greyfax already machinegunning questions before she even reached them.

"Are you alright?" Leilatha slipped in quietly beside Tangmo, worry evident on her visage. The lady commissar was quickly joined by Krillen, Evangeline, Kenshin and Bruce, the Imperial Guards colonels forming a protective square around him.

"Nothing to worry about, me and Celestine got everything cleared up. It was a very productive conversation," Tangmo tapped Leilatha's pauldron friendlily, easing her worry somewhat. "Thank you for your concern Leila, you're the greatest, but I believe we have bigger things to worry about right now?"

The main characters nodded with affirmative grunts and Tangmo unslung his lasgun as the battlegroup marched toward the fortress's main gate. Well, gate might be a bit of a stretch, since it was simply a big hole between two grotesque walls, the dimension malformed and sickly, the corpses of ships that had been melded and molded by the unholy power of the Warp. Smoke rose in thick plumes from behind the walls, the churning palls painted red by raging flames, the four Devilfish tanks that blocked their path lay tilted on the ground, scorched and silent, the metal rend asunder by a brutal volley.

"Found anything, Matuk?" Tangmo asked the Salamander Tech Marine as he walked out of a Devilfish, he and a few other Astartes were checking the dead Tau tanks inside and out.

"Nothing of use, lord commissar," Matuk said as the guardsmen and eldars ventured deeper into what could be called a courtyard, the place was strewn with Tau corpses, and Tangmo spied a few Star Wars Droids amongst the casualty too. Holy shit a crossover, an actual crossover, too bad he didn't saw the fight, "only destroyed engines and dead pilots, the barrage proved too much for them to handle."

"Good tiding for us," Tangmo smirked as the battlegroup cautiously spread out over the killing field. Several squads broke off and ascended the walls, the lack of gunfire indicating that there were no survivors to be found. It didn't take long for the soldiers to find the Droids, guardsmen and eldars went about poking the slender robots with bayonets, while those more adventurous got handsy with the unmoving metal carcasses. "Where is Damien by the way?"

"Form up!" Damien answered Tangmo's question by bellowing loudly from across the courtyard, he and the other Marines were taking up battle formation behind the Tau's discarded defenses, bolters and heavy bolters braced and trained on the fortress's opening archway, which seemed to belong to a 40k type ship if the churchly façade was anything to go by. "Make ready brave warriors of the Immortal Spirit, the Men of Iron approaches, the metallic beasts are upon us!"

Okay, seriously, Star Wars Droids were quite possibly the least scary thing in the entirety of the science fiction genre, but the denizens of Warhammer 40k doesn't know that and Damien's incendiary warning near caused a riot. Guardsmen and eldars swiftly readied themselves for the fight to come, heavy gun emplacements and Aeldari hover gun platforms were deployed, every barrel primed and aimed at the fortress's entrance, while the troops arrayed themselves across sandbags, crates, destroyed vehicles, or anything that could be constituted as covers.

"Calm your asses down people!" Tangmo slipped in beside Damien, the Thai commissar and the Canadian Astartes traded mischievous looks as they braced their respective weapons. "We fought worse enemies than this, so get your shits together! Stand fast and stand proud, brothers and sisters of war, humans and eldars all, and let's put the Men of Iron back to fucking sleep!"

"Still got it," Damien was totally smirking behind his awesome Astartes helm as the battlegroup roared heartily, the last of their fear, which wasn't much to begin with, banished by the outpouring reverberation of courage. "Nice job dude."

"Thanks," Tangmo raised his lasgun when metallic clanging of robot feet resounded from the corridor beyond, drawing close fast. "They're about to be pretty goddamn disappointed though."

"I know, right?" Damien snickered lowly and held his bolter up at the ready. "Kinda feel bad for hyping everyone up like that."

Tangmo was about to respond when shapes started appearing at the archway, a great singular mass of shadow that spilled forth from the wide corridor, easily encompassing the gentle slope that descended onto the courtyard, the details made blurry by the bright neon shining behind them. Then the mass of darkness broke apart, and from it came individual shapes that grew clearer as they got closer to the battlegroup, the pattering of their iron feet growing to an incessant tempo, the cadence grating upon the ears. And lo and behold, it's the skinny B1 battle droids in the flesh, well, the metal, whatever, the point was Tangmo and Damien could barely keep their shits together now that they were face to face with an adversary from another universe. Seeing the fortified soldiers arrayed against them, the B1 Droids slowed their advance and grinded to a stop about a hundred yards from the battlegroup, conical heads snapping left and right as they tried to process this new group of enemies.

"Uh…who are these?" Oh right, the B1 Droids can actually emote and think, as was shown in the Clone War series. And right now, the Droids looked pretty goddamn confused, with many heads honed on the Astartes. "They're big."

"Surrender, Republic scum!" One of the Droids announced, probably a captain, but Tangmo couldn't tell since the coloring has all been wiped away by dusts and rusts. "You have no chance of winning! Die!"

Honestly, hearing the iconic Star Wars blaster in Warhammer 40k was surreal, and being able to see the red laser was pretty cool, as opposed to the invisible las. And leave it to the Droid leader to pick the biggest target, that being Damien, the Ultramarine captain. A heavy, crushing silence settled across the Space Hulk when the red laser struck Damien in the head, the Canadian Astartes didn't flinch, his entire body stationary even when his awesome Astarte helm was scorched black.

"Eh yo, that motherfucker just shot you in the face bro!" Tangmo pointed his finger accusingly at the Droid captain, who at least had the decency to look abashed by what he had done. The other B1 Droids showed solidarity by taking several big steps back from their commander.

"Which motherfucker shot me in the face?!" Damien bellowed, his distorted Space Marine voice turned up to maximum, many of the Droids squawked in distress from the powerful articulation.

"That robot motherfucker over there!" Tangmo leaned over the stack of crates he and Damien were hiding behind and stabbed his finger vehemently at the petrified Droid captain.

"This robot motherfucker right there?!" Damien launched his own armored digit at the Droid.

"That robot motherfucker right there!" Tangmo confirmed, all the while giving the unfortunate Droid his crazy eyes.

"You fucking piece of motherfucking scrap metal shit, I swear to the God Emperor!" Damien started rubbing the spot on his awesome Space Marine helmet where the red laser struck. The Star Wars weapon didn't even make a dent on the venerated ceramite of the Adeptus Astartes, managing only to make a superficial burn mark that can probably be washed away with a piece of wet cloth. That didn't stop Damien from being super pissed though. "Holy shit bro, how bad is it, be honest with me dude!"

"Shit, I'm really sorry man," being the asshole instigator that he was, Tangmo fanned the flame by giving Damien a funeral worthy face, full of gloomy mourning. "But I'm afraid your awesome helmet is ruin for good."

"Oh, hell no!" Damien made the appropriate reaction and vaulted over his cover, ignoring the other Astartes urgent cries as he magnetized his bolter to his power pack and drew his big ass thunder hammer. With a sharp flick, the polearm extended to its full awesome length, the head crackling with energy, blue white bolts danced menacingly along the metal. "You're fucking dead!"

"H-Halt!" Gotta give it to the Droid captain, he actually got balls, but not so much in the brain department, because no one with a functioning cognitive ability will ever think that pointing a gun at an approaching, and quite enraged, Space Marine was a good idea. "I am not afraid of you, Jedi scum!"

"DIE!"

The poor Droid didn't even have a chance to scream. The thunder hammer came down like a vengeful comet, followed by an explosion, and when Tangmo blink his vision back into focus nothing remained of the Droid captain, only sooty dust drifting like ghost in the wind, and a Toyota size crater where he had stood. The Droids were silent as the battlegroup cheered heartily, the fear of the Men of Iron banished by Damien's heroic display.

"Forward brothers! To death! To glory!" The Droids screamed, humorous and sad to behold, as Damien raised his thunder hammer once more and charged their ranks, and behind him thundered the Adeptus Astartes, Ultramarines, Salamanders, Black Templars and White Scars all, bolters blazing and swords and axes and hammers brandished like furious fire. "In the name of the Emperor, let none survive!"

He knew this would happen, he even tempered his expectation, but fucking hell Tangmo couldn't stopped himself from smiling and cheering like he was ringside at a Kenny Omega championship match, the destruction the Space Marines brought upon the terrified Droids was merciless, bombastic, and absolutely spectacular to behold. The Droids did tried to fight back, another testament to their courage, firing synchronized salvo of red lasers at the charging Astartes, the scene reminded Tangmo a bit of the battle of Geonosis from the Attack of the Clone movie, but with an extremely different result. The Star Wars blasters did jack shit to the Space Marines, the red lasers either bounced off their armors or struck with no apparent effect besides small scorched marks.

"We are the bulwark against terror!" Gallus roared as he and the Ultramarines arrayed themselves in a pristine firing line and unleashed a full auto barrage on the Droids, the torrent of sizzling hot bolts reduced the vanguard of the Separatist troops to flaming scrap metals within seconds.

"We are the Emperor's Angels of Death!" Antalok and the Salamanders unleashed a tidal wave of melta and promethium flame on the Droids, they howled in agony as they were melted into bubbling pools of liquefied metal.

"We are the defenders of humanity!" Subutai and the White Scars, duel wielding tulwars and bolters, crashed into the Droids like a furious hurricane, their lightning fast attack left behind nothing but mutilated metallic limbs and body parts.

"We are Space Marines!" Adelhard and the Black Templar went full medieval on the Droids' collective asses, their great Teutonic power swords plunged into the B1 midst with unrestrained fury, every cry of mercy answered with violent demise.

"And we know no fear!" And Damien topped things off by creating another crater, sending Droids flying in every direction. Giving the thunder hammer a showy twirl, Damien raised his blazing weapon high and waved it vigorously in the air, "to me brothers, into the breach! Kill them all!"

"They're gonna take all the fun away from us, aren't they?" Henry joined Tangmo, his deadpanned enunciation reflecting the Thai commissar's mood perfectly.

"Yep," Tangmo sighed and shared a grin with Henry, amiable and friendly. "I'm not even mad dude, hell, this is pretty fitting, the unwanted guests from a galaxy far, far away meeting their demise at the hands of the most iconic fighting force in the grim darkness of the forty second millennium."

"Now that you put it like that, yeah, I can totally dig it," Henry nodded with a pleasant smile. "It would've been cooler if we were fighting a few Jedi and several companies of Clone Troopers though, Droids are fun to kill and all, but damn, Space Marines versus Jedi, now that's a match up I wanna see."

"Who knows, you might get that wish sooner than you think," Tangmo and Henry fist bump and turned their attention back to the fortress. Damien and his Astartes buddies were nowhere to be seen, but they could hear continuous pounding of bolters and distorted roars booming from the deeper interior. "At least Damien's having fun."

"He won't shut up about this for months," Henry groaned and tilted his head to the side, disappointment clear on his face. "It's over now, isn't it?"

"Look on the bright side dude, at least we're not attacking entrenched Tau, that would've been a real pain in the ass," Tangmo tapped his earbud as Henry grunted in agreement. "This is commissar Tangmo, the fortress has been neutralized and the Astartes are in the process of clearing out the rest of the Men of Iron. Move out and secure the area but watch yourself, there could still be automatons lurking about, kill them on sight, which isn't at all hard if y'all haven't noticed."

That earned a few laughs as the battlegroup stepped around their covers and headed for the fortress entrance. Guardsmen and Guardians swiftly spread out across the fortification in platoons, squads and fireteams, kicking down doors, running up flight of stairs, and checking every nook and crannies for anything that might've survived the firefight from before.

"That's it?!" Tangmo and Henry was halfway up the fortress's front stairs, a mismatch of iron and stone that was quite hazardous on the footing, when Laura, Yuki, Nikki, Lita and Erik sprinted up to join them, hot on their heels were the main characters. "That's the big Star Wars, Warhammer crossover?! What the bloody fuck!"

"Hey, at least we got something fun out of this, the Droids dying were fucking hilarious," Tangmo threw his arm over Laura's shoulder and pulled her in close, both of them hunched over as he whispered into her ears. "And can you keep it down? Greyfax is all over my ass about this, she doesn't need anything else that could implicate me."

"Right, sorry mate," Laura nodded and Tangmo released her, the little tussle drew an extremely inquisitive look from Leilatha and her circle of friends. "But yeah, I'll be more careful. And don't worry, if that cunt tries to pull anything I'm going after her, even if it means butting heads with Celestine."

"Likewise dude, I got your back too," Tangmo said sternly.

"Thanks mate," Laura flashed her pretty smile as all of them stepped through the threshold and into the corridor. About fifty paces in the Eight slowed their steps before coming to a complete stop, their awestruck gazes swept across the wide hall. Although the grimdark vestige of Warhammer 40k was very much apparent in the architecture, the Gregorian arches and stark bone white curves of eldritch Aeldari designs were not the only edifice presence. Here and there cleaner geometries can be seen, a stark contrast to the Imperium's rigid construction, the futuristic façades blending and fusing and becoming one with the mismatched hall around them, a meeting of utopia and dystopia. Over there a corridor of a Star Destroyer opened into a melted remnant of a Battlecruiser Nova Cannon ports, while the wall to their immediate left was covered in a seamless glass pane like in the Star Trek series, but behind the transparent wall were dark buttresses and spiky outcrops of sadistic designs that could only came from a Drukhari ship. It was dizzying, dazzling, and totally epic to behold.

"Holy goddamn, this is so fucking cool dude," Erik swept his Ranger hood back and took in the interior with childlike wonderment, the same sentiment shared by the Eight, "a little crazy and all over the place, mind you, but damn, it's like how you combined several Lego sets together to create something super awesome."

"My thought exactly, a little chaotic, as per 40k, but still very, very cool," Lita nodded vigorously as the main characters joined them. The Mexican Warseer spun around to face them, her face beaming like a Disney princess, "this is totally out of this world, but at the same time quite magnificent, don't you think?"

"Strangely, several parts of the wall remind me of the Immortal Spirit's interior," Celestine waved away the Ardent Blade and drew her gilded bolter. "Some sections are quite clean and well-lit too, barely a hint of shadow to be seen."

"A little too chaotic for my taste," Fanduin the Warlock eyed the hall curiously as the main characters and the Eight started spreading out, the Droids lackluster performance and the slaughtered Tau more than enough to banish any lingering reservation. Accompanied by Marwen, Tanrion and Celalira, Fanduin approached a long control panel jutting out of the ground at a vertical angle, the place ringed by dead Fire Warriors. The Warlock wiped away blue bloods and stared intently at the rusty metal. "I've never seen ships of this design before, but they look decidedly human in nature."

"What make you say that?" Colonel Akecheta asked. The Ekkaroqian colonel had picked up the torso of a bisected Droid, turning it this way and that and getting a good look over. He was soon joined by Alistair, Lingxin and Al-Rahman, all of them inspecting the deceased robot while his girlfriend Joanna maintained a safe distant, her fingers drumming the grip of her revolver bolter.

"The design, I would say," Fanduin said. "The angles and geometries are one favored by mankind, regardless of which epoch they came from."

"We are resistant to change, but there is wisdom in not changing what is not broken," Akecheta walked up to Marwen and handed her the robot. "What about this? Did mankind have a hand in creating them too?"

"Without question colonel," Marwen inspected the machine before passing it to a very curious Tanrion. "The parts are manufactured, produced in one of your many factories where they are assembled then armed for war. It is ergonomic, and effective judging by the thorough destruction wroth upon the Tau, but if we Aeldari had been these automatons creator, then they would've been more graceful."

"I refuse to believe that mankind made such weak looking trifles," canoness Bellona kicked at a pile of Droids, sending metallic parts flying. Come to think of it, didn't those Separatist aliens made the Droids? The fish lipped, bulging eye motherfuckers that looked like Lovecraftian Deep Ones goofy cousins? Eh, he'd never been an expert on Star Wars lore anyway. "Look at this, I've seen slave Servitors with more bones than these abominations."

"Frail they may be, Bellona, there is no denying their effectiveness in combat," gaoseng Zhensu spoke up, sweet in her motherly tone, which made Bellona rolled her eyes. The Celestial Serenity canoness waved her power guandao at the carnage unleashed. "As you can see, they have easily destroyed the Tau, enemies that had been a bane to both guardsmen and Astartes alike. I admire your courage, but please, underestimating one's enemy is the first step toward ruination."

"Fine Zhensu, just spared me more of your sermon, I beg of you," Bellona snorted and Zhensu giggled as the main characters started talking among themselves, the timbre pleasant and relaxed as if they were on R&R.

"Bellona actually got a point though," Yuki scooted next to Tangmo and Laura, lowering her voice conspiratorially. "The Tau got fucked by Droids, Droids! Fucking Droids dude! I mean shit, this pretty much confirms that they're the weakness faction in 40k."

"To play devil's advocate here, I think they performed badly because they got jumped from behind," Henry joined them with Erik and Nikki, and Tangmo found himself nodding in agreement. All the meme aside, after having fought them for real, Tangmo now have nothing but respect for the Tau. Their lack of prowess in regard to melee combat aside, they performed bravely with adamantine discipline, more than a match for the Imperial Guards and the Aeldari, and their guns were pretty goddamn powerful too.

"I actually agree with Henry," Tangmo groaned when the American looked at him like he'd just grown a new head. "What? I'm serious man! If they'd seen the Droids coming and actually had time to prepare, I'm pretty sure the Tau would've won. Like you said, they were blindsided."

"Look at you being all objective, I'm so proud of you mate!" Tangmo growled at Laura's shit eating grin. "But yeah, I guess you're right, the Tau would've performed better if they had prep time. Too bad they never got the chance."

"Kinda bum it's the Droid that popped up though," Nikki spoke up and kicked a Droid's head clear across the hall, almost hitting ibhubesi Naledi in the head. The Golden Pride canoness and her ingonyama Celestians glared murder at the Russian Exarch. "Sorry! But yeah, would've been super cool if there were Jedi in the mix. I'm happy enough with what we got though."

"All for the best I suppose," Erik said. "If a Jedi really did show up, it will definitely cause a lot more problem, as in there will be questions asked, questions that we cannot answer."

"Shit man, when you're right, you're right," Henry made the mistake of glancing around and cringed, the American trying his damnedest to make himself small. "Fuck! Greyfax, Galatea, Tanrion, Celalira and Amberley are looking at us! Stay cool and act natural, act natural!"

"Hey guys!" Damien voice blared across the intercom, just in the nick of time too because it looked like Greyfax was about to make a beeline for them. "The coast is clear! Everything is dead!"

"Most excellent my main man," Tangmo threw up his corna and the battlegroup cheered loudly, their victorious cry was a cacophonic echo that rocked the chamber, weapons thrust high into the air. "Where are you guys right now?"

"The Tau's command headquarter, repurposed from a very unfamiliar captain bridge that none of us will ever recognize," if words could wink, Damien had successfully managed it. "The STC is also here, Matuk is already extracting the data, come and join us dude."

"Yo, you heard the Space Marine!" Tangmo waved energetically and the main characters gathered around the Eight, all of them happy and content in temperament, even the suspicious ones were mollified by the exuding positive vibe. "Let's go get our prize!"

Despite the jovial mood, the Eight and the main characters nevertheless got into a loose column as they marched across the chamber and into a corridor, following the markers Damien made on their digital maps, all guns held close and ready if something unexpected happened. No one spoke as they trudged along the passageway, the walls and ceiling blending so bad that Tangmo can no longer tell one franchise from the other, corpses of Tau and Droids littered their path, some were even the Droideka and the B2 variants, the Astartes's trail of destruction was very easy to follow. After a couple of minutes of walking, without running into a single living hostile, the Eight and the main characters finally approached a large archway, definitely of 40k design, beyond they could see the Space Marines going about securing the perimeter and searching the place. Once they stepped inside the great chamber, the Eight couldn't stop themselves from hollering like a buncha nerds.

"Oh shit, are you fucking seriously right now bro?!" Tangmo laughed aloud as Damien skipped merrily up to them, and fuck Space Marine were not supposed to move like that. "Yo, I can hear the fucking theme song right now!"

"I know, right?!" Damien joined them and wave his hand energetically at the large, raised platform stabbed in the middle of the vaulted hall. It was the captain bridge from Star Trek, as if someone had taken the entire set and placed it down inside a Warhammer 40k ship, the furniture, the computer consoles, hell even parts of the wall were there, the entire iconic starship interior was raised about ten feet off the ground by a mound of melted steel. "Of course, none of us know what this is, which is why all of us are very thrill with this discovery."

"You are absolutely right Brother Captain Damien, adventurous and willful souls are always excited to find something new from bygone era of humanity," Tangmo said loudly and flashed an enormous grin at the main characters, making sure that it was especially wide for the skeptics. "This is a perfect opportunity to learn more about our past my friends, enjoy yourselves!"

"You told us that the STC had been discovered, Brother Captain?" Raine asked, resigned with the Eight's antic more than anything.

"Oh yeah, it's right over here," Damien pointed at a cluster of rectangular obelisks situated about thirty paces from the Star Trek bridge, the chromic monoliths rising out of the ground like blades of spears and swords, the metallic floor cracked and shattered by the emergence. The Salamander Matuk and other Space Marines of the more technological leaning were currently fuzzing about with the tallest obelisk, a portion of the wall had been removed, revealing a chaotic mass of crisscrossing cables, some of which were currently hooked up to the Astartes's data-pad. "We're already on top of it, the Tau were trying to break the STCs open before the Men of Iron attacked, so we just finished what they started. The blue mofos wasn't able to get anything out of the STC."

"And their commander? Aun'la?" Ciaphas Cain now asked.

"Over there," Damien pointed at a smoldering corpse, scorched face frozen in a rictus scream, arms raised like gnarl branches reaching for the sun, his flank armors torn to pieces by countless gunshot wounds, "yeah, it wasn't a peaceful death."

"Obviously," Nikki shrugged, slung her eldar sniper rifle over her shoulder, and started up the rise toward the Star Trek bridge, waving energetically for the rest of the Eight to follow, "come on, let's go check out the…huh, cockpit from the Dark Age of Technology, yeah!"

"You guys secure the perimeter and, well, have fun," Tangmo told the main characters, all of whom watched the gleeful Eight with varying degrees of mirth, annoyance, confusion, resignation and suspicion. "Hey, we'll be here until the Space Marines download all the data, so you might as well explore the place a bit. Remember, don't touch anything strange and shoot any Tau that's still alive."

With shrugs and murmurs, the main characters broke off into groups and pairs and started off toward various parts of the great chamber, what little apprehension they might have harbored quickly dissipated as small talks bubbled amongst them, the timbre easy and amiable. Tangmo waited until Greyfax was pulled away, with some effort, by Celestine before following his friends up. Grinning like an idiot as he stepped on to the iconic science fiction set, Tangmo found the Eight checking out the bridge up close, pointing and touching enthusiastically. Tangmo was inspecting the cracked keyboards and curved screens when Nikki plopped down on the captain chair.

"Full. Speed. Ahead. Please. Mr. Sulu," Nikki wasn't quite successful at imitating William Shatner's tempo and cadence, but the result was hilarious nonetheless, the Eight having a good laugh at the Russian exarch's antic.

"Wait, where the hell does Sulu sit?" Yuki, the Eight's resident Japanese, walked around the bridge with a dumbfounded look on her face, her head darting from chair to chair. "I never watched any Star Trek, all I know is that it starred George Takei."

"Hold up, seriously?" Nikki leapt out of the captain chair in shock, mouth hung open. "You've never seen Star Trek?! How the hell is that even possible?! Even Tangmo has seen it!"

"We have Battleship Yamato, Gundam, Getter Robo and Ultraman, why the hell would we watch Star Trek?" Yuki shrugged and was about to reach the correct control panel that indeed belonged to Sulu when she noticed Erik fiddling with a rounded contraption positioned about five feet from where Nikki sat. The spherical dimension, brown paint job, combined with the fact that it was clean and shiny compared to the ruins around it, meant that it was not Federation made. "Umm…yeah, I don't think you should be touching that."

Erik leapt back with a yelp when the device suddenly flared to life, the motors inside whirled nosily as neon blue rushed across the surface in brilliant geometrical lines that converged at the circular top, and with a hiss and pop it cracked open.

"Everybody hit the fucking deck!" Damien shouted and the Eight all dove for the ground, squealing and screaming as they covered their heads in a futile shield against the inescapable explosion. Being the dumbass that he was, Tangmo was too busy ogling a computer panel to react in a timely manner and was left the last man standing. He was about to jump off the Star Trek set when pleasant blue light shot into the air, the aqua prisms danced for a moment before forming into a humanoid shape. It took a moment, but finally the detail became crisp, and standing above the device, towering to an almost Space Marine height, was a Tau woman in a dashing military uniform, her long red hair braided severely, the coiled locks reaching her hip. She looked left and right and found Tangmo. The woman stared blankly at him for a moment then sighed, a look of grief coming over her face.

"Aun'la is dead then," the Tau woman said sadly, yet her visage betrayed no weakness, only unbreakable stoicism can be seen.

"Yeah, he's over there, all shot up to pieces," Tangmo pointed at the commander's blackened corpse but the Thai commissar never took his eyes off the woman, an icy coldness settling in the pit of his stomach when he realized who he was talking to. "Commander Shadowsun, I presume?"

"You presume correctly, lord commissar," commander Shadowsun bowed politely, respectful and stern, a stark contrast to Aun'la's diplomatic shit show. "Forgive me, but I had expected the famous Ciaphas Cain. He is with your battlegroup, I believe?"

"Sure, I can get him for you," Tangmo glanced across the hall and spotted Cain, along with the main characters, converging on the raised Star Trek bridge. "Hey Cain! Over here dude, commander Shadowsun want to talk to you!"

"That wouldn't be necessary," Shadowsun raised her hand in a halting gesture. "Our conversation has already begun, and it would be rude if I was to cast you aside. And given how badly Aun'la's conversation with the famed Hero of the Imperium went, I do not think speaking with a celebrity is the right course of action for the moment."

"In Cain's defense, the negotiation fell apart because Aun'la decided to be an obnoxious dick and shot down all of our attempts to deescalate the situation," Tangmo said. "As you can see, his obtuseness ended badly for him."

"I recall him mentioning another commissar who had threatened him, and it seems you have delivered on said threat," Shadowsun continued and drew herself a little taller, the gaze she gave Tangmo grew suddenly unfriendly.

"It wasn't a threat, commander Shadowsun, it was a promise," Tangmo clasped his hands behind his back, getting into the appropriate badass commissariat pose. "And I always keep my promise."

"May I have the honor of your name, sir?" Shadowsun went on.

"Lord commissar Tangmo, attached to the 89th Cadian regiment, of the Immortal Spirit battlegroup," Tangmo gave her a Thai wai, bowing politely low, "at your service, commander Shadowsun."

"The pleasure is all mine, commissar Tangmo," Shadowsun returned the bow cordially, although it was clear their manner was riven with tension, both waiting for something to go wrong. "Are you the one they called the Singing Commissar?"

"My reputation precedes me," Tangmo chuckled lightly, his amiability made Shadowsun relaxed a bit. So far so good, he honestly doesn't want this conversation to go south. "But if I was being honest, I haven't done much singing since coming here. Fighting Tau makes me nervous, especially in a confine space like this. In the end though, we prevail, with minimum casualty I might add."

"Congratulation on your victory, lord commissar Tangmo," Shadowsun said with a little tilt of the head. "If I had known the Immortal Spirit battlegroup would be the one to attack that planet, I would've led the expedition myself."

"Seriously, that would've been a nightmare scenario for us," Tangmo strolled over to the Star Trek's captain chair and sat down. He wasn't leaning forward with a charismatic swagger like captain Kirk though, his back was ramrod, unblinking eyes glinting sharp, every bit identical in posture to Japanese daimyo and Siamese prayah of old. "Too bad you won't be getting the prize sequestered inside the Space Hulk."

"A shame indeed," Shadowsun agreed as her hologram reached over to the right and grabbed a tall glass cup. She drank slowly and swirled the liquid around a bit before continuing. "I understand that this contraption, STC as you human call it, is a databank of some sort, a vast reservoir of knowledge from a bygone age. Would it be possible, lord commissar, for you to tell me what it was that Aun'la and his troops had died for? Was the blood spilled worth the knowledge inside the STC?"

"I am a very flexible man, commander Shadowsun, but I'm afraid even someone of great unorthodoxy like myself cannot divulge what we have found. I'm sure you understand the procedure regarding sensitive military information?" Tangmo said and Shadowsun grunted, having obviously expected this outcome. "But to answer your question, yes, the price paid in blood was worth the knowledge uncovered."

"An adequate consolation," Shadowsun sighed. "Aun'la was a good man, courageous and honorable. Was it you who killed him, lord commissar?"

"I really wanted to, but no, we unleashed the Men of Iron on him and his men, he died because of them, not us," Tangmo pressed on and fixed his eyes on Shadowsun. "I know that we have just been acquainted, commander Shadowsun, but I must ask you, because this is important to both the battlegroup and your expeditionary force; are you and yours suffering from Warp corruption?"

"It seems that a… certain unexplainable contagion has indeed come upon the Sixth Expansion expeditionary force," Tangmo was pretty goddamn surprised Shadowsun readily admits that something was wrong with her soldiers, unlike her Tau colleagues who would vehemently denies anything pertaining to the Warp. "But our medical officers and scientists have all come to the conclusion that this affliction is the result of the trauma caused by the usage of the Startide Nexus, the journey done was trying on both the body and the spirit. I myself was not unscathed, but after a little rest the headache passed."

"Well shit, it was sure as hell more than a headache for Aun'la and a lot of the other Tau we've just fought," Tangmo snorted and boy, Shadowsun did not liked that. "Also, your medics and scientists are wrong. So let me help you out a bit and tell you right now that you should put everyone with Chaos symptom to death immediately, and spare both of us from having to fight a daemonic incursion."

"I will not kill my own men, lord commissar, over something as trifle as a passing sickness," Shadowsun said heavily, her timbre conveyed nothing but revulsion for what Tangmo had suggested. But when Tangmo thought she was about to go on an angry tirade, Shadowsun calmed down, expelling her frustration with a long-drawn sigh. Welp, she's not infected, that's for damn sure. "We of the Tau do not deal in such merciless totality, even someone like me find such wanton violence repulsive. I thank you for your warning, but we will find our own way of treating this ailment."

"Your funeral," Tangmo shrugged. "I'll be sending you video clips filmed by your own drones of what happens to Tau with the Chaos sickness, of what they are capable of. Maybe then you'll understand the severity of the situation."

"Your generosity is refreshing, lord commissar, my conversation with representative of the Imperium of Man rarely goes so well," Shadowsun smiled softly. "Did you not say military information must not be shared?"

"Only when it serves me," Tangmo grinned and leaned back into the captain chair, the plastic like material groaning. For several heartbeats Tangmo and Shadowsun just stared at each other, two fighters sizing up his and her opponent. When the silence was starting to get impolite, Tangmo continued. "Well, that conversation went better than expected."

"I agree. Given the rather scathing report Aun'la had given me, I was well prepare for a verbal jousting," Shadowsun finished her drink and placed the cup down out of frame, the famous Tau commander now clasped her hands behind her back and squared her shoulder, a perfect military posture. "Although next time we meet it will not be words that shall be parted."

"No it will not," Tangmo reclined back into the captain chair. "Your expeditionary forces are not leaving, are they?"

"That would not be possible, lord commissar," Shadowsun told him. "My orders to expand the Tau Empire's border is clear, as I imagine are your orders to repel us."

"Indeed," Tangmo got up, stood erected, and snapped off a crisp salute, a gesture Shadowsun returned with equal finesse, "until we meet, commander Shadowsun."

"Sooner than later, I hope?" Well, well, well, commander Shadowsun had a cheeky side too, flashing him a dashing grin before the hologram terminated. Smirking, Tangmo adjusted his awesome commissar coat and turned to the Eight, who were only now gathering around the Thai commissar after letting him face Shadowsun alone.

"Well then my friends, onward to the next target."