Chapter 195: Entering the Webway
And the Purifier technology had a relatively absurd point: if a soul stone was shattered, the Eldar died. But if a Purifier died, all it needed was a new body; it was just a matter of re-implanting the data. Compared to normal Protoss, their disadvantage was that they could not communicate with psychic energy; they relied purely on the Solar Core on the Spear of Adun to provide them with the energy for their actions. They could not operate for long periods at a great distance from the Spear of Adun.
Moreover, these robotic Protoss could truly think for themselves. Lucan suspected that if the Adeptus Mechanicus saw them, they would very likely consider them Abominable Intelligence.
With the addition of Karax, he also discovered that the current Spear of Adun was different from the one in StarCraft. This massive Arkship actually had room for improvement. Karax's words made Lucan check the system again, and sure enough, the system showed an upgrade option in the Spear of Adun's section. The condition for the upgrade was to devour another Craftworld.
Although the condition was harsh, it still satisfied Lucan. It seemed the Spear of Adun could also be upgraded into a thousand-kilometer-long dreadnought. In the world of Warhammer, where the longer the warship, the more powerful it tended to be, bigger was definitely better.
One by one, the Protoss began to fill the various posts on the Spear of Adun, but even with over a hundred thousand of them, this huge Craftworld still seemed sparsely populated. It would be difficult for the Protoss population to grow on a large scale in a short period of time. Lucan planned to transfer a portion of the Raiders and some of the tech-priests of the Cult of the Holy Machine to be stationed on the Spear of Adun. The joint operation of humans and Protoss could also complement each other.
And with the portion of the authority he had plundered, Lucan also learned of many hidden Webway gates within the Koronus Expanse. This allowed him to set up defensive forces outside these large Webway gates. Lucan wanted to see the expressions on the faces of those unsuspecting Eldar who tried to invade the Expanse when they emerged from the Webway, unprepared, only to be met by a human fleet that was already ready for them.
"Artanis," Lucan asked, "you said that the Spear of Adun now has the authority to enter the Webway? And that it can go to the small Webway gate leading to Commorragh?"
"Yes, my Lord. The system of the Spear of Adun now possesses a certain degree of authority from the Craftworld Kholor."
"Quick! Try it!"
Lucan couldn't wait for Artanis to give it a try. Artanis, who had returned to the bridge with Lucan, immediately gave the order. The Spear of Adun headed for the hidden Webway gate in the star system.
Without the Spear of Adun, Lucan found it would have been almost impossible to discover this gate, which emitted almost no energy fluctuations. The huge xenos creation stood silently in the void. Its special material was only identified as something like a meteorite by the sensors on the Stellar Pioneer. One had to be in its vicinity or even see it with the naked eye to observe its existence.
As the Spear of Adun approached, the ring-shaped creation began to operate, and a huge rift opened in its center. And this Webway gate only showed a tiny energy reaction when it was open. The Imperium could only find these large Webway gates by the clumsy method of analyzing the locations where the Eldar appeared and disappeared, and then conducting a grid-by-grid search. But the Eldar also knew the humans' thoughts, and unless it was absolutely necessary, they would not be so foolish as to directly expose their movements. This was why there were very few marked, large Eldar Webway gates within the borders of the Imperium.
The Spear of Adun began to slowly enter the Webway gate. The Phase-smiths were also curious about this technology and were collecting all the data. A Webway gate that could accommodate a Craftworld was not that common. And the situation inside the Webway was no longer as perfect as it had been when the Old Ones existed and the Eldar Empire still ruled the galaxy. The erosion of the warp and the fires of war had caused many Webways to leak. The daemons of the warp had also used these rifts to enter the Webway, and some Webways had even collapsed completely, forming dead ends. This meant that when Kholor wanted to go to certain specific locations, it also had to occasionally leave the Webway and enter realspace to transfer to another entrance. Otherwise, if they had just hidden in the Webway, the Protoss alone would not necessarily have been able to conquer Kholor.
Through the transparent canopy before him, Lucan also observed the Webway. The entire structure was made of some unknown anti-psychic material. The Emperor, with all his might, had only managed to open one entrance and build a small section of the Webway. There was even a theory that everything the Emperor had ever done—building the Imperium, creating the Primarchs and the Space Marines—was all in preparation for the Webway project. One could only imagine the level of mastery the Old Ones, who had built a Webway that connected the entire galaxy, had over psionics and the warp. And how strong the Necrons and the C'tan who had fought them truly were.
As the Spear of Adun continued to advance, the distance it had traveled in the Webway had already crossed an incredibly vast distance in realspace. According to the existing Webway map, after traveling for just over ten minutes, the Spear of Adun stopped between a small Webway gate. As marked, the size of the Webway gate before them could at most only allow a fighter to pass through.
After all, Commorragh was once an important Eldar trade hub, and the Craftworlds were essentially the trade ships of the former Eldar Empire. In that distant age, Craftworld Kholor might have even traveled to Commorragh. And although the Craftworld Eldar and the Dark Eldar walked different paths, they were not completely without contact. This small entrance was the passage that Craftworld Kholor had to pass through when it needed to go to Commorragh.
As a transport ship carried the group to the surface of the Webway, Lucan also stood before this gate. As he activated it, the space before him began to ripple.
Lucan tried to reach his hand through the Webway gate and felt nothing unusual. But the faint connection he originally had with the hive mind began to grow stronger again. This confirmed to him that the other side was definitely Commorragh!
He then tried to stick his head through. He saw with his own eyes the dark city of Commorragh. The Webway gate, floating high in the air, allowed Lucan to overlook this boundless, massive city. Looking at the warships patrolling the sky, only after seeing this city with his own eyes did Lucan know just how vast it was. The combat effectiveness displayed by these Dark Eldar was probably the most inconsistent with the lore. Logically speaking, these creatures had inherited the most of the Eldar's "black technology."
After confirming that it was indeed Commorragh, Lucan immediately pulled his head back.
"Karax, I need you to produce some Protoss units to scout the city for me."
As per Lucan's command, the Stellar Forges on the Spear of Adun were activated for the first time. The factory produced several dozen Protoss Observers. These small, unarmed flying units were an incredibly important scouting unit for the Protoss. Their mobility, combined with their permanent cloaking feature, made them an essential unit for scouting the enemy's situation.
Watching these Observers slowly enter the Webway before him, Lucan also ordered the Spear of Adun to leave.
At this time, among the small Webway gates scattered throughout Commorragh, no one had noticed these Observers secretly entering the city. And these small probes began to head toward different areas of Commorragh. They would collect all sorts of intelligence on the Dark City. Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will win a hundred battles. When the time came to launch an attack on Commorragh, the intelligence obtained by these Observers would definitely bring Lucan a pleasant surprise.
There were many good things in Commorragh. For example, there was an STC that could produce the Panacea, which had been stolen from humanity by the Dark Eldar and had been hidden in this city ever since. According to the lore, this thing could cure all diseases. If it was really that powerful, Nurgle would probably fall into a deep depression.
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