Adamantua casts the world.

Four Imperial Fists of the Star Marines are dragging a red-robed techno priest through the mud and bombarded ruins after the rain, and they have to face the chrome beasts that pop up from time to time.

"I don't know how these chrome beasts took down one of our ships, maybe it was a coincidence, or maybe it was an accident. But a fleet ...... There are obviously no surprises. We have to face the fact that. ”

Laurentiis said breathlessly as he walked.

"And others."

Kurland looked around and said in a deep voice.

Help the sage finish what he left unfinished.

"That's right, there's someone else in this galaxy."

Laurentiis the Sage stopped and said:

"Actually, I have a theory about this."

"Tell us."

Kurland said bluntly.

Laurentiis nodded and said:

"I think maybe these voices are going to be a communication, and I guess these chrome beasts want to communicate with us. I used to think that they were non-sapient animals, and that the phrase 'I will kill' might just sound similar to orc language, but I could be very wrong. Is there a possibility that they want to send us some kind of message...... Some kind of warning. ”

"Some kind of warning?"

Hearing this, Kurland stopped.

"You mean to say that these aliens have traveled far and wide to invade the Adamantuaya Sector just to warn us? Are they so good? ”

Kurland asked rhetorically, staring at the sage.

"Of course, it's not exactly just to warn us. I mean, the invasion of the sector itself could be an act of forced migration, like ...... Have you ever seen an animal, company commander? The territory of one animal is invaded by a more powerful animal, and they are forced to migrate. ”

Laurentiis did his best to explain his theory.

"Very good, perfect theory, sage."

An Emperor Fist warrior pursed his lips and said:

But how does that help us in the situation we are facing? Our fleet has fallen, we are stranded on the surface, starved of ammunition, without support, and surrounded by an endless stream of aliens that 'want to warn' us. Awesome, I can't imagine a better picture than this. ”

This may explain where and why they came from, and thus reveal who our real enemies are! These studies are very meaningful, even if we can't get out of here in the end, even if we all die in the end, we should know whose hands we died! Truth is meaning! ”

The Technocratic Priest said loudly with a wave of his arms.

"The Sage of Laurentius is right."

Kurland raised his hand to stop his men.

"We need to know the truth."

Kurland looked up at the sky:

"And we can't die here, we not only need to know the truth, we also have to pass on this truth so that more people know that the threat is coming. They can wipe out a fleet of Imperial Fists without triggering any warning, a military force of this caliber that would be extremely lethal for any Imperial world! ”

It's not so much about encouraging your own men.

Kurland was more of an inspiration to himself.

……

Adamantua.

Adamantua galaxy.

A naval fleet has broken through the barrier between reality and nothingness and has appeared near Mandeville Point in the Adamantuaya system. It's a medium-sized fleet, but its cabin is loaded with fifty regiments of the Imperial Guard, as well as a whole hundred Imperial Fists of the Fist of the Empire Space Marines from Terra and the Mountain Formation.

Various screens on the bridges of the battleship were stacked with scattered information from the early days of the war, as well as interceptions from the reinforcements before they left Terra. During the weeks of the subspace voyage, they did not receive any news.

Now that the space transition has been completed, they have returned to the real universe, and communication can be restored.

However, all the captains were surprised to find that there was no communication signal from the Adamanotua sector.

Without any orders, the crew in charge of detecting the array spontaneously got busy and began to measure the activity.

However, as the data was aggregated one by one, the technical crew members in front of the detection array began to look at each other.

Still no information.

Any information about human beings.

The entire Imperial Fists fleet, and even the entire Imperial Fists fleet, seemed to have disappeared out of thin air, there was no trace of their existence in the galaxy, there was no response to the communication, no scanning was found, and the situation was a little strange and inexplicable.

"What's going on?"

Finally someone asked the question.

Hess, the commander-in-chief of the Imperial Guard, accompanied by a lord admiral and the commander of the Imperial Fist Wall Guard, made his way up the stairs to the bridge, surrounded by a team of guards and clerks.

Compared to the High Lord Admiral Lanson, who reluctantly repatriated his precious toys from the Empire's frontiers, Hess was a more selfless man who was deeply aware of the potential dangers of the war and chose to join the reinforcements himself. This was the largest military deployment in the Core in recent years, and he didn't plan to hand it over to his men. What Hess wanted to show was that, unlike other high lords like Lanson, he was brave enough to take on the dirty work. The Imperial Fist asks his Imperial Guard for help, and he goes into battle himself.

When Hess announced that he would personally join the reinforcements, it did cause a stir in Terra's political circles. Lan Song didn't make any petty remarks about it, but his reputation was indeed stolen a little.

"Is there anything on the surface of the planet?"

Hess asked sharply as he stared at the bird.

"It's a mess down there."

The admiral of the naval fleet replied:

"But there are no human signals."

"Where's the Imperial Fist?"

This question hangs over everyone's head.

"According to the preliminary detection of the ornith, the state of the atmosphere on the planet's surface is changing catastrophically, and the planet seems to have fallen into some kind of stellar crisis. We initially thought it might have been hit by something, such as a large meteor, but there were no signs of the iconic disaster. ”

Said a technical crew member.

"Since the last time I received the message, the world of Adamantua's foundry has become unstable for six weeks, with an unstable atmosphere and a high total amount of surface radiation...... In addition, from a geographical and orbital point of view, there are clear signs of severe gravitational instability. ”

Another technical crew member said:

"The last few snippets we received before our departure from the advance fleet seemed to mention a gravity anomaly, but the data was never confirmed. We're now contacting Terra via Star Messenger to see what they might have heard from the Advance Fleet as we jumped, perhaps to explain the current situation. ”

"The answer seems to be insignificant."

Said the lord admiral.

He looked directly at the commander of the Emperor Fist Wall Guard:

"Six weeks ago, just two days after we entered the jump, effective communication with your wargroup commander and the advance fleet was terminated, and they disappeared."

"So they're finished?"

The commander of the Emperor Fist Wall Guard Company looked down coldly and asked:

"Are they all dead?"

"There is no indication that the fleet has made any ground deployments, but that doesn't mean they're not there. So, maybe we should go to the surface and have a look? ”

A naval captain hurriedly played a round road.

"In the ornith's field of view, the planet and its orbit are surrounded by a jumble of interference images. It is quite possible that the fleet is there, the ground forces are there, but our scanning equipment does not detect them, the interference is too serious, and we cannot communicate with them. ”

The technical crew proposed another possibility.

"So what signal did we receive?"

The Emperor Fist Wall Guard Company Commander asked coldly

"A massive burst of infrasound noise."

The technical crew replied:

"Similar to the sonic boom reported before the ground forces lost contact, but with greater intensity, frequency and duration. It's as if the planet is howling in pain. ”

The lord admiral glared fiercely at the technical crew, and the officer subconsciously stepped back and lowered his head, ashamed of his overly vivid description.

"What is the sound?"

The commander of the Emperor Fist Wall Guard Company then asked.

"I guess some kind of stellar effect."

The lord admiral shrugged his shoulders and said:

"Maybe it's a solar storm, maybe it's a gravitational disturbance...... In short, some kind of cosmic disaster suddenly erupted. Although this probability is small, it is not impossible. ”

"What are we going to do?"

Hess asked, interrupting a few people.

"I'm going to take people down to the surface."

The commander of the Emperor Fist Wall Guard Company said undoubtedly:

"I'm going to see with my own eyes what's going on."

"Arrange for him to land on the ship immediately."

Hess waved his hand and ordered:

"I'll send a group down with you."

Ten Thunderhawk gunboats burst out of the battleship's belly and rushed towards the planet shrouded in the changing extreme weather, and soon disappeared into the clouds of lightning and thunder. As Hess watched the last of the Imperial Fists leave the fleet and pounce into the unknown, he suddenly remembered something his friend Wangorich had said to him before he set out for here:

"It's unreasonable, we can't put in a whole battle group at once, it's the most basic principle, even I know it. Because if this warband suffers some kind of major defeat, then its genetic seed will be completely cut off. ”

The Grand Mentor of the Assassin's Court said at the time:

"We did vote in Parliament to force Lansong to agree to this reinforcement, but he tricked us into reducing the number of troops in his lineage's naval fleet by facilitating the deployment of the entire Imperial Fist Warband. This guy, he has put his political interests above all of humanity. ”

Hess knew in his heart that whenever Vangelich said this, it meant that he had already moved to kill. But he didn't care at the moment whether the Grand Mentor of the Assassin Court really dared to make a move against the Supreme Lord Admiral, and dared to take the initiative against another High Lord.

He thought of the previous sentence:

"If this warband suffers some kind of major defeat, then its genetic seed will be completely cut off."

The Imperial Fists warband has all arrived, and just now, the last Imperial Fists Star Marines have been sent to the surface by him, if ...... No, no, there are no ifs.

Hess shook his head at the thought.

The Fist of the Empire cannot be destroyed.

They are one of the nine start-up warbands.

……

The Imperial Fist of the Wall Guard Company traveled to the planet's surface, and Hess gave them five hours to determine the surface. At the same time, the fleet in space was not idle, approaching the area that had been judged to be disturbed—an area that neither the orniths nor the sensors could detect.

The reinforcement fleet began to redeploy around the planet, and this naval fleet did not have super-giant radar ships such as the Emperor-class battleships, so it could only expand the exploration range of the entire fleet by slowly expanding the range of each battleship.

All naval officers stared at the strategic panel. Flickering lights swept across the terrain grid, and columns of data spread around the vast array of data on the screen, then scattered and reassembled, calculating the flow of energy and the characteristics of the planet. Hess had never seen a planet produce such large and contradictory data so quickly.

"Wait!"

The admiral said suddenly.

He stepped over the observation panel and pushed the two technical crew members out of the way to operate the control panel himself.

"There."

The admiral said, pointing to the screen.

"An afterimage?"

The director of the bird instrument asked tentatively.

"The echo of images from a fragment of a ground building ruin, blown away by the upheaval on the planet's surface?"

Another technical crew member asked.

Both were seasoned naval officers, but not as experienced as an admiral, and the knowledge of the universe brought from years of war allowed him to make judgments quickly.

"What the hell is that?"

Hess couldn't help but ask.

"This is a ship, my dear general."

The admiral finally said the answer:

"A ship of ours."

……

Although this admiral is a man of Lanson, it is undeniable that he has a lot of experience. Not only was it a spaceship determined by detecting an afterimage in the array, but it was also accurately identified as a human empire ship rather than other spacecraft by the shape of the afterimage.

The ship, or "ship debris", emerged from the stormy environment around the planet. Coming out of a sea of radioactive soups and high-energy charged particles is like a wreck floating out of the seabed. Recoiled back by the flow of energy and magnetic field, it emitted a sparkling phosphorescent glow, and then flowed back to the planet surrounded by the mad force of gravity.

Half of the remaining engine vents lit up with white glows, pushing the wreckage up slowly. The crew of the flagship cheered, and they also received a distress signal that some of their compatriots had survived in the wreckage.

They could see that many of the ship's decks were bare on the outside of the hull, twisting and breaking into two, as if there had been a fierce battle in the various cabins.

The Admiral immediately sent two Lord-class battlecruisers close to the struggling revenant, and then pulled it out of the atmosphere through several giant metal cables, helping it escape from this cosmic horror.

"Report its identity."

Hess spoke.

"It's an Opalon-class battleship, my lord."

The admiral looked closely and said:

"This means that it is very likely to be the Antolax, the battle barge of the Imperial Fist warband, the largest warship under the command of Warband Commander Mohan."

"Through the keel numbering and automatic broadcast code, it has been confirmed that it is the Antolax, sir."

A technical crew member reported.

"Contact the surviving crew of the ship immediately!"

Hess lifted his spirits and immediately ordered.

With the tireless efforts of the technical crew.

Communication links were established.

Strange screams and roars suddenly exploded from the loudspeaker, the ambient sound was distorted by radiation and gravity, the pulsed signal was parsed from the scream, the energy crackled around the projector's cable lines and rack rings in the workbench, and then a distorted image began to flicker and gradually adjust to a proper position.

"I'm Hess, the commander-in-chief of the Imperial Guard, and I'm talking to you on the bridge of the Azmus, Antolax, can you hear me, please answer if you receive it."

Hess said in a deep voice with a cold gaze.

The sound of static electricity was like the moaning of a ghost.

"Antolax, Antolax, this is the Azmus, can you hear me?"

The admiral began to ask repeatedly.

"I'm glad to hear from you, Marshal."

A staccato voice rang out.

"This is the flagship of the Imperial Fists fleet, the Antolax, and I'm Acting Captain Aquilina."

"The throne is above, and there are survivors."

The admiral said with a sigh of relief.

"Captain."

Hess stepped forward and said urgently:

"I am High Lord Hess. Could you, captain, explain the current situation as you understand it? We need valuable information now, can you report it? ”

"Thank you for coming, my lord, I never thought that a High Lord would come to our rescue in person."

The voice said weakly:

"I've kept a record of my missions since these events, and I'll link the data directly to your ship's Ponderor system, where you can download and view all the details. In short, we were already close to victory, and the lair fell under the attack. Ground troops have also been dispatched, and other units are preparing to be airdropped. Then came the sonic boom, first the sonic boom, then the gravity anomaly. The system should not have these dangers, but they tore through the space around the planet like an axe. ”

"Please explain, Captain."

Hess said with a frown.

"When the gravitational storm broke out, we were the only ships that survived. It destroyed the entire fleet, my lord. I saw that the ships around me were falling apart, and all the crews were on fire...... I saw the Warlord fall. ”

The mortal captain's voice was full of sorrow.

"The God Emperor is above!"

Hess lowered his head and closed his eyes.

"Even in this terrible situation, we survived, we were dragged inside by the gravity storm, and all directional inputs were lost, my lord. I didn't move for fear of hitting the planet's surface directly, and I didn't drive the battleship until you finally showed up. ”

The mortal female captain choked up.

The battered battle barge gradually detached from the severe spatial distortion, and the debris fell backwards from it, sucking it back into the gravity well like silver dust. The resolution of communication images is improving, and voice communication is becoming clearer.

She can now be seen in holograms. Behind her, the bridge had been reduced to charred ruins, and the image distortion had been reduced. The mortal captain, along with her commanding staff and technical crew, were all wrapped in space uniforms from head to toe, but each uniform had patches of staining on it, like pink liquid oozing from its inside.

"Plasma reactor leaks, radiation burns."

The admiral muttered with an ugly face:

"They were burned so badly......"

"Captain."

Hess immediately announced:

"We are sending rescue ships ......"

"No, sir."

The captain shook his head slowly.

Her voice was calm and firm:

"We are suffering from downright deadly radiation, my lord. We're not long dying, and I'm well aware of that. My whole ship was so polluted that no one could get on board, and boarding our ship was a dead end. ”

"But ......"

Hess wanted to say something.

"Thank you for coming to save us, but we don't have much left, keep our distance. Now all I can do for you is show me my will and transmit all my information. You must do this, my lord, a great catastrophe has struck the Imperial Fist in the Adamantua. ”

"We see it clearly."

The admiral chimed in:

"A cosmic gravitational catastrophe ......"

"No!"

The captain interrupted firmly:

"It didn't happen naturally, General."

"Say that again, please?"

Hess asked with a serious face.

"This is not a natural disaster phenomenon, it is not because of the will of the universe that has hit us hard...... This influence is man-made, and it is being directly attacked here. ”

The captain's voice grew weaker.

"Attack?"

The admiral repeated her exact words.

"Who did it? Chromolic? Those aliens? ”

Hess grabbed the edge of the countertop with both hands.

"I don't think so, sir."

The mortal captain's voice grew quieter:

"There's a special sound in the sonic boom, listen to that, and then look at the rising moon."

"As far as I know......"

The admiral frowned and said:

"There is no moon in the Adamanotua galaxy."

"Now there is."

The captain's voice completely weakened and disappeared.

…………