The high-caste Commander of Gardinaal watched in horror as, after the Shadow of Order launched its attack, its advance proceeded far faster than he had anticipated.
The hellish firepower unleashed by the black vessels made all of Gardinaal's assaults pale in comparison.
As the fleet continued at full speed, he could barely keep track of every loss.
Though the gun emplacements on surveillance satellites and asteroids strove to coordinate with the fleet, attempting to weaken the Legion, they could not halt its lightning charge.
He stared dumbfounded at the colossal void leviathan at the heart of the vortex of destruction. His sensor arrays, operating at full power, could not capture the sheer volume of torpedoes it poured into the void.
The interception network he had meticulously constructed, comprising one satellite, five asteroids, and ten fast attack ships, was obliterated in the first exchange of fire.
The burning wreckage of void ships seared his eyes.
The high-caste Commander gripped the command console, a single thought dominating his mind.
'If only I commanded a powerful void fleet.'
At the same moment, Nareth gazed at the holographic display.
Gardinaal's void power was being rapidly crushed.
This had been predetermined five millennia ago when they abandoned dangerous Warp travel and could no longer maintain control over star systems beyond their pocket empire.
The system's void forces could not withstand his Legion's advance.
On the second day of the void war, the Ramilles-class Starfort had already reached the orbit of Gardinaal Prime.
Gardinaal Prime was the third planet from the sun, the first of the eleven worlds to be colonized.
Nareth led his Honor Guard, launching a boarding action against his first prize: Gardinaal's Ring.
Landing craft sped towards the low-orbit space station clusters encircling the equator. Vast orbital elevator systems rose from the surface of Gardinaal Prime, piercing the sky to connect with the orbital stations.
Gardinaal Prime's Ring was far smaller in scale than the super-massive rings of Mars or Medusa, but it still appeared wondrous.
Space Station Twenty. Flamini of the Sixth Chapter disembarked from the black landing craft's ramp.
Having recently become a "Monster," a premonition flashed in his mind. He immediately confirmed that enemies were approaching from the left among the three passageways ahead: left, center, and right.
"Left side!"
The Honor Guards entered the left passage. After passing through two chambers, Flamini suddenly shouted.
"Open fire!"
The Shadow of Order raised their bedrock-pattern boltguns and attacked.
A dense curtain of fire erupted from the muzzles before the Void-Caste even showed themselves.
But many shots missed. Diamond-hard bolts whizzed over the heads of the Void-Caste, who were shorter than normal children.
Flamini was stunned for a moment. He hadn't expected his advance warning would result in no kills.
The Void-Caste raised their weapons, firing at the bodyguard members.
The Shadow of Order simultaneously lowered their muzzles. The roar of bolts shredded black flesh.
The Void-Caste surged forward like a tide. Bioplastic bodies were blasted into shards, but their advance never faltered.
After over a hundred generations of evolution in their bio-engineered forms, absolute obedience to commands superseded everything, including reason, fear, and all other emotions.
The Military Sub-Consul had given them the order: "Exert utmost effort. Kill every enemy."
The Void-Caste advanced through the dense firestorm, raising their weapons, firing brilliant energy beams at the black-armored warriors.
But unlike these unarmored sacrifices, the bodyguard members were equipped with the new Mark III Power Armor.
Reduced rear armor was exchanged for greatly enhanced frontal protection, ideal for the narrow corridor environments of a space station.
Dense energy beams struck the black ceramite, leaving only shallow marks.
Flamini strode forward. Even before his transformation, as a divination psyker, his perception had been keen.
The surgery amplified his senses. After becoming a "Monster," the immense boost to his intuition made him rival many Barons of the Court in this regard.
Flamini raised his archaeotech pistol, firing energy collected from planetary radiation layers.
Each searing kill-ray pierced through several, even over a dozen, Void-Caste.
He immediately drew concentrated fire. After a hundred generations of evolution, the Void-Caste had long developed the habit of prioritizing the greatest threat.
Countless beams shot toward Flamini. Over a hundred beams struck his heavy helmet.
The sloping plate of the helmet was designed to allow firing to the left and right. The brilliant beams were deflected, scattering like sparks from cutting.
Flamini elevated his mind to the fourth layer of the Enumeration. Simultaneously, he tapped the runes at his waist. Dozens of runes lit up one by one, initiating the cycle of the Warp-circuit.
Among the Shadow of Order recently equipped with Mark III Power Armor, only a few had one or several additional modules installed.
As a Court Adept, he was one of them.
Flamini employed the Black Raven techniques he had recently learned from the Librarius, allowing his mind to detach from his body, achieving a transcendent state.
His mind gently nudged a wheel; the new Warp Image he had found after becoming a "Monster" was a wheel.
As the wheel turned, fragments of future scenes appeared, floating around the wheel.
The Black Raven technique's active precognition granted Flamini keen perception of the near future. He grasped that Void-Caste were swiftly moving through adjacent passages, attempting to flank from behind for a surprise attack.
This posed a threat to the Shadow of Order wearing Mark III armor with its weakened rear defense.
Flamini immediately issued a command via the comm-channel to the "Apprentice" in his squad.
The "Apprentice" placed a hand on the passage wall, opening a doorway.
Two "Arbiters" surged through first. They crashed into the Void-Caste, crushing their bodies.
The blue-white mauls they swung smashed onto the ground repeatedly, pulverizing the Void-Caste's bioplastic forms.
With the strategic overview gained from precognition, capturing echoes of the future, Flamini clearly read the fast and slow turns of the battle.
The squad advanced at a pace exceeding other assault teams.
Suddenly, a section of the wheel in Flamini's vision shattered, simultaneously exploding into an image.
'A psyker! He's planted psychic charges in the power chamber! He intends to detonate the space station's core.'
Flamini raced forward, treading upon the series of ominous images from the shattering wheel.
Images of future and present intertwined chaotically in his sight, making his steps somewhat unsteady.
The other Shadow of Order, seeing his erratic, shifting footsteps, couldn't help but show concern in their black eyes.
The Psyker-Caste had just strode into the power chamber when he collided head-on with a squad of black-armored warriors.
The psychic shield he raised had not yet enveloped his form when a brilliant beam shot towards him.
The beam struck the Psyker-Caste, blasting him into fragments, Flamini felt as if a star had shattered within him. He thought inwardly:
'I have become a true "Monster."'
Within five days, Nareth and his bodyguard captured Gardinaal's Ring.
He stood in the control room of Space Station One, listening to the report from the "Archaeologist."
"Father, we discovered within the control systems that among its modules is a completely new Controller Standard Template Construct."
"Using it, all space stations can be interconnected into a single unified entity."
Nareth nodded with a smile. "Well done."
'As a relatively powerful pocket empire, Gardinaal preserved numerous STCs from the Dark Age of Technology. The Ring STC is a good start.'
.....
If you enjoy the story, my p@treon is 30 chapters ahead.
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