PFC Chapter 673 The Rise of the Beast
Chapter 673 The Rise of the Beast
Chapter 673 The Rise of the Beast
Adamantua Forge World, orbital space.
"That can't possibly be the moon!"
The chief navigator propped himself up and looked at the holographic projection on the strategic platform, and said in disbelief:
"It is too close to this planet. Look, it is so close to the disturbance ring in near space. Its gravitational effect will split the Adamantua Forge World in two!"
Almost as the mortal captain of the Imperial Fist fleet finished his last words, a giant celestial body suddenly appeared on the screens of all auspicious instruments and sensors, and everyone in the bridge of the navy fleet's flagship looked up.
On the main screen of the bridge, the shadows caused by the signal interference dissipated, and a planet suddenly appeared next to the planet. It was smaller in size, like a conjoined twin baby tightly attached to a larger planet, or like a tumor extending from this world. Evil and weird.
"I don't understand what I'm seeing."
Hess murmured, staring at the moon.
"If a planet suddenly appeared so close to this world, it would have a concentrated and significant impact - the Adamantua Forge World might change its orbit or even collide with it directly! The basic laws of physics in the universe will not allow the moon or other satellites to be so close to a planet, and such a celestial body will not appear..."
The navigator spoke incoherently.
"I've seen demons before, and they were pretty close to me, so don't tell me about the basic laws of physics in the universe!"
Hess turned around and cursed.
A question hung over everyone's head: Why did a moon with huge gravity and radiation suddenly appear next to the Adamantua Forge World?
The navigation log and scan data from the Antorax have been transmitted to the Thinker terminal on the bridge, and the technical crew is busy analyzing them. However, analyzing these huge and complicated data is of no help to the current situation - the "moon" has appeared in front of the fleet!
"No matter what, prepare to fight!"
The Admiral said with a roar.
In the shadows of Forge World's orbital space, things were changing, the gravitational storms that were churning the planet's atmosphere into a murky mess were intensifying and spreading outward.
The scales on all the sensor screens and auspex arrays on the bridge turned red, then dark red, then white with no scale. The dials cracked, the copper frames broke apart. The sensor thralls screamed, and the cable interfaces plugged into their skin were torn apart, spurting blood and amniotic fluid, and toppling like ears of wheat in a strong wind. The main strategic console flickered and then shut down in a data flow collapse. The admiral tumbled out of his seat.
The change in the gravity of the universe was so rapid and violent that the boiling storm surrounding the planet became something completely different in twenty to thirty seconds. All the technical crew members on the bridge were instantly injured, their eyeballs exploded and they were blinded, and most of the range-finding scanning equipment was scrapped.
Gravity is expanding and pressure is rising dramatically.
"Shield! Shield!"
The Lord Admiral shouted as he lay prone on the ground.
Although the experienced deck crew had activated the flagship's void shield generator, he still hoped that the fleet commanders approaching the edge of space would be more alert at the critical moment, initiate emergency avoidance strategies, and evacuate from orbital space at the highest speed that the real universe could carry.
He turned and shouted to his officers:
"Restart all detection equipment and replenish the data. I don't care if you hold hands and act as human connectors to reconnect the power coupler!"
They hurried to obey his orders, even though there seemed little hope of recovery. Tiny sparks flickered, and cut and burned cables dangled from the bridge ceiling. Several control consoles were on fire, and two large monitors were ablaze from the explosion. Damage control teams rushed to put out the fire and haul away crew members injured by glass and flames.
It was repaired through the unremitting efforts of the damage control team.
The main control console finally restored half of its power.
The alarm sounded again, and the bridge was covered in red light. The screen automatically zoomed in on the detected image: it was hundreds of missile-like objects launched from the moon.
The Admiral's breath hitched.
The sensor slaves have fallen to the ground in rows.
But he didn't need a report to recognize:
That's a spaceship, that's a battleship!
Countless large and small warships made of various scrap metals rushed out from the crack in the moon and formed an attack formation to attack his fleet.
There is no need to see the enemy's face, the admiral with rich combat experience already knows who the enemy is. There is no unified model and specification, the style is both practical and crude...
"Orcs... Orc warships!"
A technical crew member shouted heartbreakingly.
"Ready artillery! Ready artillery!"
The Lord Admiral climbed up and shouted:
"Reload all weapons! Now!"
They are struggling to survive as best they can.
But they are also waiting to die.
The bridge was a chaotic place, alarms blaring, mostly damage reports from other decks, others triggered by Ork fighters approaching. The air was filled with choking smoke from the burning, and crews rushed in all directions, trying to transmit data or frantically trying to repair the collapsed bridge control system.
Now, the strategic board was working again. On it, the admiral could see his fleet as several curved green lines, embedded in the orbital space of Adamantua's forge world like an open claw. He also saw his enemy, a dense avalanche of red danger icons pouring out from the moon.
In terms of numbers, each naval warship would face thirty or even forty Ork enemy ships. It didn't take a bridge officer who had received years of training at the Imperial Fleet Strategic Academy to know how this would end.
“There is absolutely no chance of winning.”
Hess crawled out from the corner in a panic:
"Retreat, it's obvious that we must retreat."
The Admiral shook his head and said:
"There is no time, my lord. They will kill us long before we can teleport."
"What should I do?"
An adjutant next to Hess asked in horror.
"Tell the Imperial Senate and the High Lords Council to report what we know as completely as possible and send it out as soon as possible through the astropath. I will try to delay the time, but it won't be long. We can only do our best to take away as many enemies as possible. This is the last resort."
The Admiral said, drawing his saber.
Hess raised his hand in a salute.
The Admiral returned the salute.
"Auto-loading complete!"
There was news from the artillery officer.
"Secondary artillery fire freely."
The Admiral ordered:
"Kill these green beasts!"
Then the pre-numbered sequence of fire was activated.
The main guns and spine guns of the front formation of the naval fleet opened fire, and the recoil caused the superstructures of these huge ships to groan. Light beams shot out from the spines of the ships, followed by slower-moving macro-cannon shells and torpedo clusters.
One greenskinned warship exploded into a ball of light in the interweaving beams, like a miniature star about to go supernova. The second ship was torn apart, its mechanical entrails spurting out, with fuel, gas and fire splashing in space, and it kept tumbling due to the loss of inertial stability.
The human empire's space battleships, in terms of firepower and protection, far outperformed these crudely made orc warships, but the enemy had an absolute advantage in numbers. A frigate on the flagship's port side was engulfed by artillery fire, and a cruiser on the flagship's starboard side was surrounded and filled with orc landing craft.
The orcs' boarding troops swarmed in.
Naval fleets began to be lost one after another.
"Call the entire Astropath choir."
Hess shouted loudly as he walked quickly.
The servants around him ran around conveying orders.
In the few seconds they were talking, the entire left wing of the navy fleet was completely overwhelmed by the orcs' dense artillery fire and groups of boarding troops.
They could see it clearly through the porthole.
Several people stood there speechless for a moment.
"us……"
The adjutant swallowed hard and said:
"We've defeated them countless times, sir."
"what?"
Hess asked blankly, standing behind the porthole.
"Orks, sir. We have always been able to defeat them before, even at Ullanor..."
The adjutant looked up at Hess and said.
"The Emperor still walks among us then."
Hess replied grimly:
"And the Primarchs be damned. It was a different time, an age of gods. We stopped them, but they emerged stronger, stronger than ever. We are weaker, the Emperor is gone, and so are his favored sons."
Hess scratched his scalp with his fingers and lamented:
"But the Greenskins... Throne! They are only six weeks from Terra! No warning, no warning at all! The Orks have never been so close to the Core Worlds! They have technology we have never seen, not even on Ullanor... Gravity manipulation! Space tunnels! Teleportation... And a whole fucking planet! By the God-Emperor, they almost wiped out an entire Chapter of the finest Space Marines in a single engagement!"
"The Emperor's blessing."
That was all his adjutant had to say in the end.
This prayer now seems bitter and sad.
“He used to.”
Hess put his hands on the porthole and said:
"But today we are the only ones left."
…………
Terra, the palace.
“This message must be brief and to the point.”
The video is playing in the dim room.
The clarity of this clip was not high, and there was a lot of distortion. It must have been transmitted and encoded by the astropaths with all their strength. The face of Hess, the commander of the Imperial Guard, could only be barely recognized. There were other people around him, although their figures were very blurry. Behind them looked like the bridge of a battleship. There was constant noise and shaking in the video.
"The 'Battle Moon' of the Orks I described has great war potential and potentially unlimited energy. Since we could no longer escape the orc exchange, Admiral Kieran, an officer I admire very much, decided to lead the ships closer. We tried to destroy the Battle Moon with a salvo of main guns, but it was futile. It has dual protection from armor and shields, probably some form of gravity field shield, and it bombarded us with crude but effective boulders. Scans show that the Battle Moon is partially hollow, and inside it, it has a huge mouth that can be used to transmit endless reinforcements and warships. It is initially speculated that it is a subspace portal."
On the screen, as the battleship Hess was on shook violently, the high lord struggled to raise his head, and the picture flickered briefly and then resumed.
"With limited time and limited resources, we attempted to translate the broadcasts from the Battle Moon. Bio-magos Laurentius, whom I recommend without reservation, has devised some reliable translation methods. All transmissions intercepted from the Ork warships and Laurentius's notes and deciphered codes have been transmitted with this message. We speculate that the Orks call the Warp Gate the 'Waaagh Gate', and their War Boss's self-proclaimed name is difficult to express in a simple and accurate word. Depending on the emphasis on details, it seems to be called 'The Beast' or 'Slaughter', or 'The Lord Who Will Cause Great Carnage'. I don't think it matters, his intentions are obvious and..."
The image goes blank again.
This time it took longer to return to normal.
"There's almost no time."
Hess said when he reappeared.
He was cut by something, probably flying glass fragments, and he looked directly into the camera:
"Study the files I sent you, study the damned data. To protect Holy Terra, you need to understand, you must be prepared. The Imperial Fists are finished, they wiped them out, an entire chapter. We are going to die here too, unless you are prepared, otherwise..."
The screen went blank.
"That concludes my report, sir."
An assistant whispered.
Lan Song nodded.
He sat on the sofa and thought for a long time.
"Go ahead and send a message to Lord Udo. Tell him that there is a major emergency and we need to call all the high lords to a meeting immediately. Go now!"
Lan Song gave the order in a deep voice.
"Yes, my Lord. Convene the entire Senate?"
The assistant looked up and asked.
"No." Lan Song shook his head and said, "Only the high lords, only twelve people, no other people."
……
Terra, Inquisition Headquarters.
“This message must be brief and to the point.”
Hess's blurred image said:
"Study the files I sent you, study the damned data. To protect Holy Terra, you need to understand, you must be prepared. The Imperial Fists are finished, they wiped them out, an entire chapter. We are going to die here too, unless you are prepared, otherwise..."
The screen went blank.
"Turn on the lights."
Wienand spoke up.
The representative of the Inquisition stood up from her seat. The lights in the room gradually brightened, the screen gradually dimmed, and behind her was a group of silent inquisitors.
"This is the latest intercepted information."
Wienand turned around and looked at everyone and said:
"It was transmitted directly to Admiralty HQ via a secure beacon, but thanks to our friends in the Imperial Guard Transmission Division we were able to extract a copy of the data. Lanson will be showing the recording, or at least highlights of it, to the twelve High Lords over the next hour."
The representative of the Tribunal paused as he spoke.
She said seriously to her colleagues:
"I believe three things are self-evident. First, we must act now. There can be no hesitation. This crisis is as serious as we feared and predicted. Second, the public must not be informed of the fall of the Imperial Fists. This is a major morale issue. Third, we must raise our game. There is no such thing as subtlety. We know who is coming better than any other power, including the Imperial Navy. We did not share this knowledge with the Twelve Lords because we knew that Lanson's power group could not guide us in the right direction and adopt appropriate tactics. Traditional and rigid military doctrine is constraining us and slowing down our ability to respond. From now on, we must determine the strategy. We must be the source of power in this crisis and after this crisis, or the Empire will not survive."
“What about those who disagree?”
An Inquisitor raised his hand and asked.
"This is a crisis like no other and no one can stand in the way of our plans this time."
Wienand looked at the person who asked the question and answered:
"When their terms are up, they need to be controlled, or they need to be silenced."
……
Terra, headquarters of the Assassin's Court.
“What about those who disagree?”
An Inquisitor raised his hand and asked.
"This is a crisis like no other and no one can stand in the way of our plans this time."
Wienand looked at the person who asked the question and answered:
"When their terms are up, they need to be controlled, or they need to be silenced."
"Kacha."
Grand Master of the Assassins' Court Wangerich pressed the remote control. In the center of the screen in front of him, the image of Inquisition representative Wienand giving a speech in the private suite stopped.
Wangerich sat back in his chair, put down the data pad and remote control, and crossed his fingers under his chin, which was his habit when he was deep in thought.
"The beast has risen."
The Grand Master of the Assassin's Court said to himself:
"But... who will make him fall?"
…………