Chapter 428: Boarding Arrest! Mysterious Fleet! Temporal Severance!
"Believe in the Changer of Ways—it will save us."
Magnus stared blankly at Ahriman, showing not the slightest hint of guilt for having just wiped the other's memory. At this moment, he had placed all his hopes in Tzeentch.
"Lord, how can you still not see the truth? Open your eyes! The surrounding warp has long been sealed off. The entity you place such hope in can't reach you at all."
Ahriman glared at Magnus, losing his composure toward his primarch in a way he never had before. "My lord, I must question whether you're still fit to lead the Thousand Sons."
Under normal circumstances, Ahriman's words would be considered outright treason—grounds for immediate execution. But at this critical moment, everyone's thoughts were mired in chaos and confusion.
Even Amon, who had always supported Magnus unconditionally, remained silent.
Like Ahriman, he suspected that Magnus had been deceived—bewitched by Tzeentch, driven to madness and delusion.
Yet Magnus showed no reaction to Ahriman's rebuke. He remained expressionless, either unwilling or unable to respond.
Ahriman wasn't wrong. If the Changer of Ways truly had the power to save them, it should've made a move by now.
But why… why was there still no sign of any real action?
…
Fwoosh—!!
On the outskirts of the Prospero system, far beyond the zone of space battle, a Mandeville point suddenly twisted and warped.
Moments later, a massive interstellar fleet emerged—one that did not belong to Megacorp expeditionary forces.
Almost instantly, the Megacorp's sensor drones picked up its signature. Jack Wells' expression sharpened, and he immediately ordered an investigation into the fleet's origins.
Before long, Jack confirmed that this was not a fleet from the Imperium of Man. In fact, this fleet's scale was so massive, it surpassed the combined naval strength of all known primarch legions—estimated at forty thousand warships.
Each vessel bore a sleek, silver-white hull, their aesthetic strikingly similar to Star Wars' Imperial Star Destroyers: smooth, minimalistic lines, uniform design.
They looked nothing like any known construction of the Warhammer universe's Imperium of Man.
After emerging from the warp, the mysterious fleet remained motionless—eerily silent, yet its overwhelming presence was impossible to ignore.
'Where the hell did this fleet come from...? This shouldn't be possible!'
Jack Wells furrowed his brow. True, in sheer numbers, their forty thousand ships couldn't compare to his own force of three hundred thousand.
But in the Warhammer universe, there simply should not exist a fleet this powerful at this stage.
This was a development Jack had never anticipated.
Still, regardless of what had just appeared, the Universal Megacorp's mission remained unchanged. Jack promptly ordered his fleet's AI to send a warning to the Imperial Navy.
They were to be informed that the new arrivals did not belong to the Megacorp, and were advised to regroup with Megacorp forces to mitigate potential threats.
Megacorp warships were outfitted with top-tier shield systems from across the multiverse. Even a single cruiser was protected like a final boss, its shield resistant to superlasers, plasma accelerators, and even lance cannons.
Upon receiving Jack's warning, the four primarchs grew visibly tense and immediately ordered their battle formations to fall back and regroup with the Megacorp lines.
Even the warships executing orbital bombardments broke formation and suspended the extermination campaign.
After all, Magnus wasn't going anywhere. Once he was captured, they would have all the time in the world to "cleanse" Prospero.
At this point, Guilliman felt like his mind had been mashed into a pulp by the chaos unfolding around him.
What even was Prospero? A shining stellar system beaconing chaos? And now yet another unknown faction had appeared out of nowhere?
Jack Wells was just as baffled. He opened a channel to the mysterious fleet and transmitted a formal hail:
> [This is Imperial territory of the Human Empire. Identify yourselves and state your purpose.]
But no response came. The fleet remained as still and silent as ghosts, unmoving and unreadable.
A creeping sense of dread settled in Jack's gut. As he dispatched AI drones to scout the mysterious fleet, he also ordered the operation to capture Magnus to proceed at full speed.
…
Meanwhile, Panam Wells had led a team of elite Astartes operatives to the vicinity of the Photep. Under his command, the strike team was moments away from executing a boarding assault.
After countless campaigns across universes, Megacorp forces had mastered innumerable tactics and strategies.
As true practitioners of the art of war, even the most junior Megacorp officers were proficient in basic tactics like ship-boarding.
With battle-hardened experience, top-of-the-line weaponry, enhanced physical resilience, and gene-optimized performance…
Without the interference of warp-based psyker powers, the Megacorp Astartes warriors were practically walking demigods.
Hisss—!!
Aboard the Photep, Panam Wells' assault boat, protected by AI drone support, crashed through the flagship's outer hull and penetrated its interior.
Drop pods deployed immediately, unleashing a surge of Astartes troops. They wasted no time: their first priority was to interface with the ship's systems and inject the AI Red Queen virus.
Only then did combat operations formally commence.
> [AI Red Queen has breached all bulkhead gate protocols. Communications channels seized. Full internal map generated. Target individual has been located.]
With Red Queen's reliable intel flashing across his HUD, Panam barked out orders to his team:
"Listen up—ten-minute window. Our target is Magnus. Bring him in—no excuses!"
The situation was urgent, the stakes high. With their father figure monitoring the mission personally, Panam aimed to finish the job with a fast, surgical blitz.
"Yes, sir!"
The team responded in unison, immediately advancing through the optimal route plotted by Red Queen toward the Thousand Sons' command center.
On their rapid approach, Panam's team inevitably encountered resistance—brief, fierce skirmishes with scattered Thousand Sons defenders. But every single one of them was quickly eliminated.
Without warp powers, the Thousand Sons were like "Sun Ben" from Three Kingdoms Kill—not entirely useless, but essentially blank-slate warriors.
Panam's team sliced through opposition like a hot knife through butter, rapidly advancing toward the Photep's command bridge.
The ship was massive. Without their anti-Hulk power armor's flight boosters, a ten-minute time limit would've been impossible.
Along the way, they encountered over a dozen small squads of Thousand Sons attempting to intercept.
Some were veteran warriors with impressive combat records, and they fought the Megacorp troops with agile movements and surprising tenacity.
But against the Megacorp's powered armor shields, they had no chance.
Still, Panam and his team weren't here to massacre. Their mission was to capture Magnus, not eliminate his legion.
Whenever possible, Panam chose to bypass enemy forces entirely. Only when absolutely necessary would they resort to lethal force.
This wasn't out of mercy—it was all about saving time.
With advanced propulsion gear, the Thousand Sons simply couldn't keep up.
During the assault, some defenders had even set up heavy weapons barricades along anticipated routes.
If it hadn't been for Red Queen's timely intel, Panam could have walked into a death trap.
Ultimately, Panam and his team breached the Photep's command deck, having blasted through the Thousand Sons' heavy artillery with powerful orb-shaped lightning.
Nearby defenders failed to stop them in time—leaving only Magnus, Amon, and a few remaining Thousand Sons commanders in the vast command center.
At this point… Magnus had nowhere left to run.
…
Meanwhile, as Panam and his team were executing their mission, the long-dormant mysterious fleet finally stirred.
At the central command terminal of the Myriad Worlds base, Li Ang watched via a hard-light screen as the mysterious fleet silently launched a perfectly spherical object.
Roughly 10 meters in diameter, it radiated a minimalistic aesthetic beauty that instantly triggered Li Ang's danger instincts.
The AI reconnaissance drones quickly scanned the sphere, reporting that its curvature was mathematically perfect—an impeccable sphere. This only deepened Li Ang's wariness.
After all, world-ending weapons often looked just like that—simple, elegant, devoid of any bells and whistles or clunky activation mechanisms.
'Why does this feel just like the Singer Civilization from The Three-Body Problem… show up, say nothing, toss a dimensional blade, and leave…'
Li Ang was perplexed. He had no idea what the sphere was. Nor could he begin to guess the origin of the fleet that launched it.
After all, when it came to warfleet scale, the current Imperium of Man was already one of the most powerful forces in the galaxy.
There shouldn't be any other civilization with more ships than the Imperial Navy.
Yet here was a fleet with forty thousand vessels—clearly not of this galaxy, and certainly not of the Warhammer universe.
"Try to capture that object," Li Ang ordered Jack Wells on the front lines.
Magnus hadn't yet been apprehended—their primary objective remained incomplete. No matter what this development was, they needed to secure their target first.
"Yes, sir."
Just as Jack responded, a return signal came in from the AI reconnaissance drones:
> [The spherical object is enveloped in a powerful containment field. Drones are unable to penetrate or touch it.]
> [Any attempt to approach its vicinity results in being forcefully repelled. The object likely involves spatial manipulation, gravitational distortion… or even temporal technology.]
Li Ang's eyes narrowed.
In the Warhammer universe, civilizations capable of manipulating time were not unheard of.
But the Golden Age of Humanity stood above the rest as a paragon of temporal technology.
Judging by the sleek design of the fleet, this wasn't the handiwork of some "me-think-stupid" Ork cobbled together with spit and scrap.
No—this had all the hallmarks of human craftsmanship.
But the Golden Age had long since vanished, its splendor consumed by the Iron Men rebellion and the sands of time.
So how could a Golden Age human fleet possibly appear here?
Li Ang mulled it over briefly, then issued an urgent order to Jack Wells: "Contact the other Primarchs immediately. Have them evacuate the Prospero system at once."
If a larger-scale battle broke out here, Guilliman and the other Primarchs wouldn't just be unable to help—they'd likely be caught in the crossfire.
When gods go to war, mortals are the first to suffer.
Jack Wells' Ninth Expeditionary Force was equipped with the most advanced weapons the Universal Megacorp had to offer. A battle at divine scale was within the realm of possibility.
But if it came to that, the Primarchs' fleets would be the first casualties.
And if any of the Primarchs were harmed, the diplomatic consequences for the Megacorp–Imperium alliance would be severe.
"Understood."
Jack relayed Li Ang's orders to the other Primarchs, then personally contacted Panam, urging him to bring Magnus back immediately.
He had no idea what that fleet's sphere was meant to signal—was it a peace offering? A probe? Or a planet-busting weapon?
Either way, the optimal course of action was clear: complete the mission quickly and get the hell out of Prospero.
"Also—keep a close eye on that sphere. Do not let it come near our fleet."
Jack ordered.
> [Affirmative,] the onboard AI responded.
Immediately, the Universal Megacorp's warships began to shift formation.
Despite the Ninth Expeditionary Force having relatively few human personnel, most of its combat units consisted of clones, mechanical sentinels, and AI constructs.
This, combined with high levels of AI automation, made the fleet's repositioning fast and flawlessly efficient.
> [Target locked. Initiating containment procedure.]
Thousands of Megacorp warships surrounded the sphere and activated spatial compression arrays.
This was a simplified form of "alternate space" technology, built on a foundation of extradimensional engineering. It created powerful spatial-severing fields designed to cleave the space around the target into isolated fragments.
Once fragmented, those space shards could be flung away using the natural pressures of space expansion and collapse.
With no physical space left to "anchor" it, the target object would become inert—just a harmless lump of matter—until spacetime naturally re-stabilized.
This technique was expensive and energy-intensive, but the Megacorp had the resources to pull it off.
> [Containment failed—!]
> [The internal mass of the spherical object is equivalent to no fewer than a thousand medium-sized stars. Its gravitational field has already solidified and warped the surrounding spacetime. Current power output is insufficient to complete the severance.]
> […]
The AI's report sent a chill down Jack Wellls' spine.
If they couldn't contain this thing… they'd need a different plan.
Soon, under the suggestion of expeditionary science hub director Dr. Halsey, the Megacorp fleet moved to Plan B.
If the space around the sphere couldn't be cut—then they'd flood its path with spacetime fragments.
The idea was to delay its progress by superimposing multiple layers of spatial anomalies.
Like someone riding a descending elevator, but walking upward at the same pace—the result would be relative stasis.
This was Dr. Halsey's approach.
Using spacetime shards to "extend" the sphere's journey, rendering it effectively stationary.
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