Aboard the Hammer of Truth, the bridge bathed in a sickly purple aurora. Inquisitor Valkyria drove her crystalline scorpion tail into the primary cogitator array. Her lower body was entirely crystallized, while the Inquisitorial rosette on her chest had warped into an eight-pointed star.
"Lance batteries fully charged," the navigator reported, his voice trembling as a purple crystal bud sprouted from his empty eye socket. Valkyria caressed the holographic map of Blackrock as if it were a lover. "Fire."
Twelve beams of pure white energy pierced the atmosphere, vaporizing the southern ice cap in an instant. Instead of being destroyed, the crystal cluster absorbed the energy, growing exponentially. Carlisle's consciousness merged with the crystal network, granting him visions:
• Iron Skull tearing off his corrupted chest plate, revealing the scarred insignia of the Iron Warriors Legion.
• Susan's mechanical arm fusing with the Eldar memory crystal, releasing a subroutine designed to suppress ancient gods.
• Valkyria's flagship struck by refracted lance energy, turning into a flaming meteor as it plummeted toward the mine.