The enemy presence inside the spire was surprisingly light.
Grey's augmented optics tagged two guards stationed at the entrance, and on the stairwell spiraling up to the apex, there was one enemy positioned every three steps.
As another enemy military outpost detonated in a burst of flame and promethium in the distance, Grey drove both arms straight through the blast door. The shriek of tortured metal was drowned out by the crunch of bones as he seized the guards inside and crushed them like paper dolls, their screams cut short beneath his augmetic grip.
He stepped over their twitching corpses, retrieved the combat knives strapped to their belts, and charged up the stairs.
Grey stormed the winding stairwell like a living thunderstrike. Though he was unavoidably seen, none of the defenders lived long enough to sound the alarm. Each throat was slit in silence, arterial spray painting the stone walls in sweeping arcs, every death was over before their minds could even register the threat.
Even without the luxury of using Bullet Time, every enemy reaction appeared agonizingly slow to his enhanced perception.
Not only did he cut them down effortlessly, but he even had time to collect their knives off their bodies, letting them orbit around his body under his telekinetic control, each blade an extension of his lethal intent.
By the time he reached the top of the spire, he left nothing behind but a trail of tumbling corpses on blood-slicked steps.
Awaiting him at the summit was a confused officer holding a steaming tin mug, and a few subordinates stationed near the missile pods.
"Intrud—"
Before the officer could even finish the word, a dagger buried itself in his throat, blood bubbling up to drown the warning in a wet gurgle.
Grey then hurled the rest of the blades, each one finding its target with surgical precision.
By the time the final knife struck, the platform was littered with twenty-eight corpses, each kill meticulously recorded by his augmented optical systems.
[Kill Count: 28 | Time Elapsed: 3.02 seconds]
"Shame I didn't wear my power armor," Grey muttered, his voice flat with irritation rather than pride.
Had he anticipated the strategic importance of the Wall of Koy and this spire, he wouldn't have wasted time on stealth. He would have stormed in fully armored, the ground quaking beneath him like the footsteps of a god of war.
It didn't matter anymore. There was more work to do.
Grey raised his augmetic arm. Its built-in telekinetic field hummed, a low bass thrumming that vibrated the air as it pulled every missile from its launch bay. One by one, the warheads levitated from their cradles, writhing in invisible chains.
Then he clenched his fist. The entire missile array shrieked as metal folded inward, warheads and launch racks twisting like clay until nothing remained but a mangled carcass of steel.
Grey stepped to the edge of the platform, gazing toward the imposing Wall of Koy.
His enhanced vision zoomed in, rendering the distant scene with pinpoint clarity, as if he were standing inside the fortress itself.
His optics began scanning, outlining every foe concealed in crumbling buildings or lurking behind shattered cover.
Though he couldn't discern their faces or insignias, every movement was mapped with mechanical precision.
At the fortress's heart loomed a massive iron citadel, its surface bristling with vox aerials and crude sigils of authority, a squat iron beast that anchored the enemy command structure.
Grey focused on a particular officer, seen walking in and out of the structure, tracking him until he stepped into full view.
The moment Grey's intention to identify him registered, his bioprocessor immediately engaged:
A line extended from his shoulder, marking the officer's rank insignia for rapid analysis. Another tracked his gait, comparing it against databanks filled with trillions of profiles. A third zoomed in on the dossier clutched in his hand, scanning every flickering rune across its surface.
The final conclusion appeared in the center of Grey's vision.
[Rank: Regimental Commander, Planetary Defense Force (Possible Discrepancy: Talon II may use alternate rank nomenclature)]
[Document: Upper Hive Defense Plan, 13th Army]
[Identification Certainty: 99.3%]
Grey chuckled. "This guy's worse than our own regimental commanders."
He was certain now, the fortress within the Wall of Koy was the enemy's command center.
Grey hesitated for only a moment.
Then he saw the officers hastily packing up their files and troops preparing vehicles.
Clearly, the enemy was relocating. Alerted by the destruction wrought across the Upper Hive, they were preparing to move their command post.
Grey made his decision.
He activated his vox-link. "Attention, Thunderborn. Lock on my signal. Prepare immediate teleportation. I've located the enemy command center."
The moment Grey's voice echoed through the network, every Thunderborn halted their current task.
Whether pinned under amid the relentless enemy artillery fire.
Others paused mid-kill, retracting their blades with disciplined precision.
All of them prepared for teleportation.
Grey leapt from the spire top, his frame crashing into the ground below in a cloudburst of shattered stone and dust.
Without hesitation, he rose and sprinted toward the Wall of Koy.
He didn't take cover. He didn't zig-zag. He chose the fastest line between two points, a direct charge.
The fortress walls were heavily manned.
Even Grey's speed couldn't keep him hidden for long.
Soon, sirens wailed across the fortress as enemy troops scrambled to assume defensive positions, mounting heavy boltguns, plasma turrets, and autocannon emplacements along the ramparts.
Grey's speed was nothing short of inhuman.
Even before the first gunshots could find their mark, the soldiers gawked at his blurred form darting across the battlefield.
In desperation, they opened fire in his general direction.
At that moment, Grey deployed Qin Mo's teleportation drone.
A burst of heavy-caliber fire tore through Grey's synthetic skin, briefly exposing the reinforced cybernetics beneath, but he pressed on.
The drone soared ahead, maintaining a 100-meter lead.
Seconds later, the first Thunderborn teleported in.
He scanned his surroundings before charging forward.
Then came the second.
Then the third
Until finally, Yoan and Anruida arrived.
All five Thunderborns had abandoned their previous objectives, now singularly focused on this mission.
Their power armor reflected the harsh glare of searchlights, and their jump packs ignited with righteous fury.
Heavy gunfire rained down, yet their gravity shields held firm, absorbing impacts that would've atomized normal troops, converting the onslaught into stored energy for their armor's systems.
So much incoming fire that their systems nearly maxed out.
"Brothers, I have a plan," Grey said between strides.
In an instant, his neural net shared the strategy across their combat-links.
Words weren't needed.
They understood without hesitation.
Anruida, charging at the front, raised both arms to target the defenders on the wall.
His shoulder cannons tilted down at the wall's base.
In an instant, a barrage of shrapnel-laser bursts mowed down entire scores of defenders along the battlements. Then the plasma cannon fired, three searing beams.
Each beam melted a massive section of the Wall of Koy into slag before their very eyes.
Grey's plan was simple a tactic honed from a past battle, the same maneuver used to capture the rogue Cultist psyker.
Blow a hole in the enemy's defenses, and then charge through.