Zhao Yun sat alone in the observation deck, settled into one of the chairs that faced the enormous transparent viewport, watching the planet he had been on for the last six months from low orbit.

  Proxima IV. A planet of extremes, be they weather, climate, biology, biome, and especially people. He would never admit it, but he had started warming up to the place during the last half of the campaign. Granted, not enough to forget the ridiculous nature of just about every event that had taken place during his time there, but enough to not think too harshly of it after he left.

  Beyond the planet, the void of space stretched endlessly, dotted with distant stars.

  His fingers found their way to the jade talisman in his pocket, a habit that had become almost unconscious over the years.

  He drew it out, watching as the artificial lighting caught the intricate dragon design that coiled across its surface. The creature seemed almost alive, its scaled body twisting through clouds that had been carved with remarkable detail. Turning it over, his thumb traced the familiar characters etched into it.

  "May this guardian light your path home," he whispered, reciting the words inscribed.

  They probably never imagined 'home' would end up being so far away that Xing isn't even close to accessible without weeks of travel through warp space.

  Zhao Yun closed his eyes, feeling the cool smoothness of the jade against his palm. He allowed himself a long, slow exhale, releasing the melancholy that had been building in his chest like pressure from an airlock. The talisman disappeared back into his pocket as he rose from the chair, his movements deliberate in the ship's artificial gravity.

  His boots made soft thuds against the deck as he started toward the briefing room where his squad would be gathering. The corridor ahead stretched long and straight, its regulated atmosphere carrying the faint scent of recycled air and ozone that permeated all Imperium spacecraft.

  The briefing room had been made to be more of a makeshift recreation and preparation space, with the sharp scent of weapon lubricant mixing with the scent of polished steel. Artificial lighting was cast across the metal tables where two dozen soldiers hunched over their equipment.

  The familiar chorus of military life filled the space—the rhythmic clicking of power armor diagnostics, the soft whir of cleaning tools, and the low rumble of voices sharing stories that grew more outrageous with each telling.

  "...swear on my grandmother's grave, the plasma round went right between my legs, grazed my balls, and took out the fucker behind me—I have the scar to prove it!"

  "Your grandmother isn't dead, Cohen."

  "So what? It’s just an expression," he deadpanned

  “Everyone’s balls have a line down the middle, dumbass.”

  ‘The Imperium’s finest,’ Zhao Yun thought, a slight smile tugging at his lips.

  "Well, look who finally decided to grace us with his presence!" A broad-shouldered figure straightened up from his work, grinning. "If it isn't the Djinn himself!"

  Sergeant Torres's meaty hand clapped down on Yun's shoulder with enough force to stagger a lesser man. "Where've you been hiding?"

  "Just walking off some pre-fight jitters," he admitted, settling onto one of the benches

  Torres nodded, his expression softening slightly. "Yeah, I get that. Did the same thing myself before our arrival on Proxima. He turned back to his disassembled rifle as he spoke. "Though personally, I find maintenance more settling than meditation. Nothing calms the nerves like the smell of gun oil and the click of a well-maintained mechanism."

  Around them, the preparations continued, each soldier falling into their own pre-battle rituals. Some checked and rechecked their gear with methodical precision, while others buried their tension beneath layers of bravado and jokes. The air hummed with an electric anticipation that Yun had felt countless times before, yet never quite got used to.

  "You should've seen it," Cohen boasted, leaning back in his chair. "This massive beast, twice the size of a drop-pod, and there I was with just my rifle, only a split second before it impaled me… BOOM - right between the eyes. After I took it down, the village girls couldn't keep their hands off me and—"

  "Oh, shut up," someone interrupted with a snort. "I was there, you idiot. You spent twenty minutes trying to impress those two girls at the tavern before one of them mentioned they hunt those 'beasts' every season. It was basically an oversized boar."

  The room erupted in laughter as Cohen's face reddened. "I swear it was bigger!"

  “I bet those girls would’ve loved to hear that.” someone mused

  The group’s laughter grew far louder.

  He attempted to redirect the ridicule elsewhere. “I don’t know why you’re laughing; you can’t aim for shit, Meadows.”

  "I’m a better shot than you," Meadows cut in, puffing up his chest. "Last week, I took down an entire brood of those goroks solo."

  "There were 3 mounted turrets shooting in the dark. We have no idea if you even shot any." Cohen said, rolling his eyes.

  "The only thing you hit for sure was Jidao's transport," someone called out from across the room. "And barely that!"

  "Fuck off, I barely scratched the roof!"

  “That’s some gorokshit.” Jidao added, hearing his name being brought up and relishing the opportunity to talk shit to Meadows. “This motherfucker lit up my dash like he meant it.” He said with a raised inflection to his voice, smiling at his attempt to further instigate.

  “Alright, alright.” Torres said, ready to mediate. “Nobody here can hold a candle to Meadows’ aim on their best day.”

  “I’m not saying he’s a bad shot; it’s the opposite. He’s just an asshole and wanted an excuse to fuck with me, but no worries, I’ll get him back.” Jidao said, grinning wide as he thought of truly disproportionate retalitory schemes.

  Kn?rr, a tall blonde idiot who still had that eager shine in his eyes, piped up. “When do you think we'll start feeling the full force of our upgrades? You know, like the Legionaries?"

  "Are you an idiot?" Meadows groaned. "They keep that shit locked until we finish the program."

  "Really? I thought that was the whole point of the training…"

  “Nah, if you’re talented enough, you’ll advance early like all the greatest legionaries have. I’m just saying, I won’t need the full eight years.” Jidao cut in.

  “Yeah, if you unlock that shit early, you better hope we’ve got a freezer within a day of us.” Meadows responded back. “Holy shit, have you spent the last year thinking that at any moment, you were just gonna randomly …evolve?”

  "I didn't know they let retards into the program," Yun interjected, unable to help himself.

  Kn?rr's face flushed red. "Fuck off, Yun. You couldn't find your way out of a shallow hole."

  "No need. Your mom has me right where she wants me."

  The wrench came flying across the room faster than he expected, but his enhanced reflexes let him duck it easily. He launched himself at Kn?rr, and they crashed into a table of equipment.

  The scuffle died instantly as heavy footsteps echoed through the corridor. The door slid open, and someone ducked to enter the room, his eight-foot frame making the space feel suddenly cramped. The legionary moved with fluid grace despite his size, his enhanced physique evident even through his bulky armor.

  “Alright, gather round. We got a change of plans,” a deep voice bellowed. The group of men stopped what they were doing upon seeing their commanding officer and saluted with their right fist over their heart.

  “New updated assignment will be sent to everyone soon, but I might as well tell you before you see it.” The gruff-looking man said.

  “Admiral Harkon just received word that a research facility was attacked in warp nearby. Retrieving whatever they were carrying is now priority number one. Information is tight on what what we’re collecting, all I know is that it’s an experimental weapon we cannot afford to lose. Pictures of the object casing will be on your HUD and pads, so take a good look.”

  Zhao Yun opened up his holopad and opened the new mission briefing. He looked at the small white cylinder, wondering what new superweapon the Imperium managed to fit in such a small container.

  He read down in the mission briefing, seeing concerning news around the same time as everyone else. The distress call ship is deep in uncharted warp space.

  Yun tensely looked to his comrades who all shared a similar expression.

  Commander Consus Sir, are we to expect other ships to assist us? Zhao Yun asked.

  “We are the closest fleet, and therefore the point of the spear on this.”

  Yun gulped, recognizing the danger.

  “After we arrive, we should expect reinforcements within fifteen minutes, but by that point our window of opportunity to salvage the package will have shrunk considerably.”

  The tension and nervousness were felt around the room as the men worried over what they’d find in the deep recesses of uncharted warp space.

  “We are wraiths.” Consus said, knocking on the eclipse insignia over his breastplate. “Beyond sight, beyond fear, beyond death.”

  The sound of two dozen marines saluting with a fist over their heart reverberated across the room as they repeated the mantra.

  “You lot have 5 minutes to gear up; I want everyone ready before we enter the warp.”

  “What the hell was an experimental science-dedicated craft doing in uncharted warp space?”

  Kamal shook his head. "That whole sector of the warp is practically unmapped; there’s no telling if it’s a hostile region or not.”

  “I’d reckon hostile, since we’re now on a recovery mission. That ship was no small vessel. We all know what had to of taken her down.” Kn?rr said with a dark expression.

  The group remained quiet for a time, dreading what awaited them.

  The mood lightened somewhat as they conversed with the regular soldiers of the platoon while they got their gear prepped.

  "Oh, come on," Cohen scoffed. "The damn thing sucks," he said, banging on the broken concession dispenser.

  "Speaking of sucking," Kn?rr asked, looking up from his rifle maintenance. “Fuck-it Felix just got paperwork.”

  “Hah. What’d he do this time?

  “I heard that he was naked after losing some sort of bet when the admiral walked into the hall with a bunch of other officers.” Kn?rr responded, grinning ear to ear.

  The group all let out a heartfelt laugh. Fuck-it Felix never failed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and like usual, it was peak humor at his expense.

  Just then, Jidao stormed up, hauling his gear with a hurried gait. “You’re not gonna believe this,” he barked, the urgency in his tone unmistakable.

  Zhao Yun paused mid-adjustment of his armor, his mind momentarily shifting from tactical calculations to the absurdities that always seemed to follow his comrade. “What?” he asked, his voice a blend of curiosity and a wary amusement that had become all too familiar when dealing with him.

  “Brijesh is dating a club dancer,” Jidao announced, his words slicing through the pre-mission tension. The statement hit like a charged particle—instant disbelief rippled through the group.

  “No fucking way,” Kn?rr spat out, his eyes wide as he processed the news, not even doubting it for a moment.

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  “What kind of club?” Kamal asked, a note of trepidation in his tone as he eyed Jidao for further details.

  “Gentleman’s club,” Jidao replied with a smug grin.

  Kamal’s skepticism deepened. “How'd you hear about this?”

  With a smirk that betrayed his mischief, Jidao leaned in. “I saw him talking to her on a video call earlier.”

  Zhao Yun, still processing the absurdity of it all, cut in sharply. “And you just saw her stripping on the video?” His inner thoughts raced as he tried to keep his tone light.

  “Nah, I recognized the girl as one from the club a few nights ago. I left early, but I remember him chatting it up with her,” Jidao shot back.

  Before anyone could fully react, Meadows leaned forward, his voice cracking with both disbelief and laughter. “Holy shit, is it that Kamexin he smashed?”

  “Yeah,” Jidao confirmed nonchalantly, as if it were a minor detail in an already ridiculous saga.

  Kn?rr wasn’t finished. “He’s fucking a bug?” he demanded too loud, his incredulity echoed by the sudden burst of laughter that rippled through the group.

  “Not gonna lie, those bug women are pretty curvy.” Zhao Yun added, fueling the laughing mess.

  “Shut the fuck up, shut the fuck up, he’s coming over here,” Jidao hissed, his voice attempting to rein in the chaos even as it only added to the madness, not for Brijesh’s sake, but rather to have the element of surprise in fucking with him.

  At that moment, he arrived at the gear station, exuding an air of cool confidence. “Sorry I’m late; I was on a call with my girl,” he said, barely missing a beat.

  Zhao Yun’s gaze shifted warily to Brijesh. He couldn’t help but think, not this again. “She wouldn’t happen to be the Kamexin from the other night, would she?” He asked, the question dripping with equal parts humor and caution.

  Brijesh opened his mouth to protest, “Now before you—” but was cut off by the eruption of raucous laughter returning to the room. Knorr’s cackling proved contagious, and soon the corridor resounded with hollering marines who couldn’t help but overhear the recent conversation.

  “Yeah, laugh it up. Realm mature. I’ll have you know that she’s different than you’d think. She’s smart, funny, generous—” Brijesh started, his tone defensive.

  “Generous? What… like she gives it up for free?” Kn?rr interjected, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes as his voice boomed through the cramped space.

  The crude joke sent the group into another fit of uncontrollable laughter. “Yeah, real fucking funny coming from someone who can’t pull on every world we’ve been to. And she’s a dancer, not a hooker—it’s not like she’s getting with any loser with the cash to pay,” Brijesh added.

  Amid the chaos, Kn?rr managed a final barb, his voice hoarse from laughter: “She got with you didn’t she?” The question hung in the air, sparking another round of infectious laughter sending marines tumbling.

  Brijesh threw his hands up in exasperation. “You guys are all assholes,” he grumbled, the frustration passing into self-deprecating acceptance of the joke at his expense as he flashed a grin.

  “Speaking of which, I’m a go dump ass,” Jidao declared, already turning to walk away from the group.

  Torres, ever the vigilant leader, called after him, “We’re entering the target zone in under 10 minutes. Are you sure you have time?”

  “Yeah, I’ll be quick,” came Jidao’s reply, his tone carefree and unbothered.

  “No the fuck you won't be,” Torres added with a smirk, earning another light chuckle from the assembled soldiers aware of Jidao's... difficulties.

  Knorr, still grinning, shouted, “You need to stop dropping bombs in the barracks bathroom; it’s a fucking warcrime that you’re even allowed in there!”

  As Jidao’s laughter receded into the distance, Zhao Yun lingered for a moment, watching his comrades. In that brief respite from the looming chaos of battle, he reflected on the surreal normalcy of their crude exchanges. Amid the endless void of space and the relentless pressures of intergalactic war, it was these raw, unfiltered moments of camaraderie—swearing, absurdities, and all—that anchored him in a world gone mad.

  The alert klaxons shattered the easy camaraderie, bathing the room in pale light. "All personnel, prepare for warp entry" the ship's AI announced with artificial calm.

  The soldiers quickly secured their gear, their movements practiced despite the tension evident in their shoulders. Yun found his way to one of the observation panels, drawn by the urge to witness the jarring shift in reality.

  The vast expanse of normal space began to twist, reality itself seeming to fold like origami in the hands of a mad god. The transition hit with a sensation that still made his stomach lurch, even after countless jumps. Normal space peeled away like a curtain, revealing the nightmare beauty of the warp.

  Streams of deep indigo and violet light writhed through the void, punctuated by arcs of impossible energy within the cosmic storm that rages throughout most of the warp. The ship sailed through this maelstrom like a mote of dust in a hurricane, surrounded by forces that mortal minds were never meant to interact with.

  Zhao Yun had been through the warp many times before but reacted to it each time like it was his first time seeing it, and who could blame him? The dimension was full of strange and hostile abominations as well as bizarre energies and plenty of obscure dangers. Of these less understood dangers was the assortment of gravity wells that act as wormholes to other parts of the galaxy and even other galaxies. He had always found them fascinating in how they all obey the same physics for bridging space, but they tend to look completely different from any other; some could bind and condense liquids into fractals around it, while others could be completely invisible to the eye.

  Most sane individuals would make an effort to steer clear of such things, but the Imperium uses quite a few that they have under their control to cut down on travel time to places not directly accessible through the compressed and accelerated space ‘highways’ scattered throughout the warp dimension.

  Zhao Yun was travelling through such a highway to reach the distress signal but felt less confident than usual about it, seeing as how it’s part of uncharted warp space and could have any number of horrors hiding in wait, ready to spring out.

  They’d been in the warp for close to eight minutes now and were rapidly approaching the emergency beacon’s location. The ship began to decelerate, slowing down as it prepared to enter the potentially hostile region.

  The large cargo hold Zhao Yun and his team found themselves in was full of people dashing back and forth, preparing for the unexpected as best as they possibly could. All of Yun’s friends—with the exception of Jidao—were already accounted for or on board their ship, seeing as how they would be one of the first groups to secure the facility once the Eternal Dawn finished scanning it.

  Zhao Yun was on his way to his team when he finally spotted Jidao. He and Knorr were also on their way to the ship, which eased some of Yun’s stress knowing that his whole team was prepped.

  “Prepare for immediate arrival,” the ship’s AI blared as they arrived at the emergency beacon’s coordinates.

  As they arrived, Yun felt uneasy. There's something different about this place, he thought, his hand unconsciously gripping the jade talisman before he even looked through the viewport. The usual discomfort of the warp felt sharper here, more immediate, as if—

  Emergency sirens screamed to life, bathing the halls in crimson light, their wail distinct from the transition alerts.

  The siren cut through the chaos, but Yun barely heard it. A feeling of absolute wrongness gripped his gut, drawing his attention to the observation panel.

  That's when he saw it.

  A field of debris. Scattered steel floating in place, with a large battered ship at its center.

  His heart sank as he noticed something move in his peripheral vision: a shadow in the void that blended into the backdrop of warp space.

  The thing that moved from behind the ship defied description, yet his mind desperately tried to categorize what he was seeing. Eyes—hundreds, maybe thousands—opened and closed across a mass of writhing flesh that seemed to exist in too many dimensions at once. Tentacles the size of frigates sliced through the violated space in front of it, each one ending in maws filled with crystalline teeth that gleamed with their own inner light.

  His mind raced as the creature's presence seemed to press against his consciousness like a migraine.

  The worst possible outcome had appeared.

  The Eternal Dawn’s artillery opened fire with reverberating thuds, carving through the void of space with bright arcs of light that crashed into the abomination with unrelenting force.

  The ship shuddered as a massive tentacle scraped against the hull. Warning lights flashed as emergency bulkheads slammed shut, and the screech of tortured metal echoed through the corridors.

  Through his pocket, the jade burned against his thigh like a coal.

  He stood frozen before the viewport, his mind struggling to process the impossible entity before him. Another violent tremor of the ship snapped him back to reality as the Imperium's artillery batteries continued to open fire. Massive energy blasts tore into the creature's flesh, drawing a sound that bypassed his ears and resonated directly in his bones—a psychic scream of rage and pain and what could only be described as madness.

  The wounds in its necrotic flesh began knitting back together even as more artillery fire attempted to carve new ones. Yun's combat suit responded to the emergency; his collar extended like flowing oil across his head to form his helmet. The heads-up display came online just as another impact rocked the ship.

  This time, it was different.

  The hull breach occurred only twenty meters ahead, the metal peeling away like tissue paper beneath one of the creature's crystalline mouths. The sudden decompression turned the corridor into a wind tunnel, and Yun's hands found the nearest railing as debris went flying past him into the void.

  His grip was slipping.

  Hold on, hold on, hold— The railing gave way with a shriek of tortured metal. Pure instinct drove Yun to jam the broken section downward, catching it in a floor grate as his body lifted horizontally in the violent rush of escaping air.

  A flash of movement in his peripheral vision was his only warning. The storage crate slammed into him with brutal force, tearing his makeshift anchor free. For one heart-stopping moment, Yun saw the swirling chaos of the warp rushing up to meet him—

  The emergency containment field snapped into place, a wall of pure energy that Yun hit with enough force to drive the air from his lungs. He crumpled down to the deck, gasping, his suit already compensating for the bruised ribs.

  On his knees, gasping for breath, he tried to collect his bearings.

  “Get up. Move! MOVE!” Knorr yelled to him while assisting him up. Zhao Yun didn’t notice it before, but a man’s blood was pouring out of his crushed head and pooling around where he was.

  He was on his knees looking at his palms, covered in blood, disoriented from the blow to the head.

  “SNAP THE FUCK OUT OF IT!” Knorr yelled in front of him, backhanding him in the face to get his attention.

  Zhao Yun snapped to, wasting not another moment, and took off with Knorr at his side. Just a few section blocks ahead of him was Jidao. Yun thought a silent prayer, thanking whoever was listening for that idiot’s safety.

  The ship hadn’t moved from its locked position on the floor and was still roughly 200 yards away—a relatively short distance the enhanced marines could cover in under ten seconds, but they were stopped just as soon as they started by the shuddering of the ship, costing them their traction.

  The writhing mass was being assaulted by a barrage of fifty-megaton nukes. The blasts left massive gaps in the creature’s form that were taking a little longer to heal. With the roles shifted, the Imperium sought to use their advantage to seize victory but were met with the cry of a cornered animal in its place.

  A guttural screech echoed through Yun’s bones. His hair stood on end, but he refused to let the panic hold him for long.

  He staggered to his feet, spotting Knorr and Jidao already running toward hangar bay four, where their ship was stationed. He sprinted after them, refusing to look back at whatever was happening outside the ship’s hull, his enhanced muscles pushing him to speeds no unmodified human could match.

  Through the viewport strips that lined the corridor, he caught a glimpse of movement—one of the largest tendrils arcing toward his section of the ship.

  Not going to make it not going to make it—

  Yun pushed himself harder, crossing the distance to the pressure doors at the end of the ship. The creature's attack was coming; he could feel it in his bones, in the burning heat of the talisman against his leg. Just a dozen more meters—

  The impact hit like a hammer. The hull shrieked and buckled, emergency containment fields flickering like dying stars as the creature's assault overwhelmed the ship's defenses. For a split second, Yun saw Knorr and Jidao through the chaos, their faces masks of horror through their visors as the entire hangar bay collapsed into debris.

  His perception of time slowed to a near halt. He stared at his ship, just out of reach, before he was sucked out into the unknown.

  The jade talisman burned white-hot against his leg as he tumbled into the warp. Reality twisted around him, no longer bound by the laws of human physics or reason. Colors that had no right to exist seared his retinas—fractals of impossible geometry that burned themselves into his mind.

  The void, filled with a plethora of cosmic horror and unexplainable occurrences…was silent. The storm around him raged quietly; even while his body reverberated from the distant detonations of warheads, there wasn’t a sound Yun could hear besides his own breathing and static from his scrambled comms system

  He spun uncontrollably through the void, his body colliding with scrapped pieces of metal that cut through his suit’s protective layer and into his leg. The pain from the cut was intense, but what followed was far worse. The toxic energies of the warp burned against his skin and open wound like crackling bolts of lightning that burned flesh. His suit detected the breach and promptly sealed the gap, but Zhao Yun was struggling to stay conscious.

  He slammed onto a nearby piece of flotsam from the research ship, which helped to control his previously uncontrollable descent. With the intense g-force diminished, he managed to get a good look at the state of the battle that raged on above him.

  They were classified as Ygg’sathul, but most commonly referred to them by the name given by the preacher who first encountered one and lived to tell the tale.

  Leviathan.

  Of all the abominable creatures that could be found in the warp, this was the worst humanity had yet faced.

  Zhao Yun watched the spectacle unfold above him. Massive explosions rocked the Leviathan, and artillery cannons blasted through its grip on the ship’s hull. The Eternal Dawn was looking worse for wear but refused to yield, unrelenting in its assault, and on seemingly even ground with the heavily injured Ygg’sathul, whose wounds were now slow to mend.

  Zhao Yun couldn’t keep watching as his attention was drawn by his own impending mortality. He was being drawn into the dormant gravity well that the thrashed research ship was directly above. It was a great ring of fire, the flame slowly rotating in an arc around the wormhole.

  This is how I die.

  His suit's systems flashed warnings he could barely comprehend as the warp energies began to further interfere with its functions. Through his tumbling view, he caught one final glimpse of the Eternal Dawn, its mighty hull now seeming as fragile as paper against the backdrop of chaos. Flashes of light from megaton bombs and arcs of plasma cut through the writhing body of terror that doomed him, but none of it mattered now, not anymore.

  “I'm sorry I couldn't make it home,” he said, gripping the talisman in his pocket.

  “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry...”

  "I'm so sorry."

  Zhao Yun cried for the first time in a while, thinking of his family and friends.

  The last thing he saw before consciousness fled was a spiral of energy coiling around him in an embrace as a soft voice whispered in his ear, just loud enough for him to hear but not understand.

  Then the darkness took him, and Zhao Yun fell through the membrane between realms into something else entirely.