870.M30.
Galamandro System, Bridge of the Falcon.
Jorin's pitch-black eyes stared into the void. His pupils were not the amber irises common among the Wolves. It seemed the Canis Helix's mutation had not affected him at all.
Jorin, like the other commanders in his Great Company, was already old when he received the Wolf King's application of the Helix.
Only a fortunate few among them completed all the implantation surgeries, as they were already too old to withstand such rigorous trials when the process began.
But they all faced death without flinching. They were Russ's brotherhood.
They had fought alongside Russ, before he was even considered a mortal, on the harsh world of Fenris.
Thus, they were formed as the last of the Great Companies, the Thirteenth, the Wolf King's most intimate and honored company.
'I will win victory for Russ.' Jorin's eyes, clouded by years of mead, were fixed on his prey, a Dulanian Hunter-class destroyer.
"Ossaga," Jorin asked the Shipmaster beside him, clad in Mark II Crusade-pattern power armor, "is the hunt prepared?"
"I've got him," Ossaga said with a smirk. "The Mechanicum's red-robed priests tell us their calculations show the Dulanian shields are similar to Imperial void shields."
"But our hunting experience tells us the energy required to pierce them is astronomical."
"This time, I'll send six boarding parties to completely shut down their shields."
"Execute." Jorin watched the target. The Wolves had wasted vast amounts of ammunition in previous hunts, losing over a dozen ships.
"Allocate all power to the engines. Don't let it escape." At Ossaga's command, the deck began to shake.
"Open fire!"
"Boarding torpedoes, ready."
Jorin watched the Falcon and the other Wolf ships surround their prey. Las-fire from their cannons hammered the shields.
The Hunter-class destroyer tried to spin away, attempting to shake off the pack.
Ossaga stared at the data streaming through his helmet display. "Execute!"
Jorin gripped the railing, tracking the torpedoes' trajectories through the void.
His clouded eyes had barely locked onto their flaming tails when they were already around the target.
Jorin clenched the railing, awaiting the moment of victory.
The next instant, the torpedoes were torn to shreds, scattering like garbage in the void.
Jorin's grip loosened.
"The Dulanian defense array regenerates far faster than Imperial void shields can reboot."
Ossaga's gaze flicked across the casualty figures on his tactical data page, then checked the sensor readings.
"Four seconds. They took only three seconds."
Jorin watched the Hunter-class destroyer shake off the pack and head for the Mandeville point.
"Conventional boarding won't work. We need a new approach."
"What?" Ossaga asked his Wolf Lord, puzzled.
"A sufficiently massive object, on a perfectly accelerated trajectory, with enough speed to hit it. The collision energy would be enough to tear through that shield."
"You mean..." Ossaga asked, startled, "ramming it with our ship?"
Jorin nodded. "Yes. Modify a ram. Turn your ship into a boarding torpedo."
"Set sail. Complete the modifications before reaching the Ynniu system."
"Ossaga, you must finish before we arrive at Ynniu."
Ossaga couldn't foresee the consequences of such a dangerous action. He might lose his Falcon, even the entire ship's complement of Wolves.
But the Wolf Lord's orders must be obeyed.
"As you command, my Wolf Lord."
At the same moment the Falcon was being modified in the Ynniu System.
Black Shadows of Order ships moved towards the Dulanian fleet concentration.
They were neither attacked, nor did any Dulanian ships flee.
The Dulanian ships were well within the Void Hunter's range, but Sanchez had not given the order to fire.
At the hololithic tactical table on the bridge, the internal comm of the Russ Wolf Helm sounded.
"My Lord, as you commanded, we have falsified the Dulanian ships' readings. They haven't seen through it."
The "Conspirer" watched Ynniu II, the second of the three planets in the system. Dulanian ships retreating from other systems had gathered here.
Because Ynniu III had orbital defenses like space stations, he had chosen the more weakly defended Ynniu II.
Since receiving the Black Emperor's orders, he had formulated a series of plans.
"The Librarians and Techmarines, working together in the Mimicarum Sanctum, have cracked the Dulanian communication language and responded to them."
"The æther cannons are ready. Open fire simultaneously with the boarding torpedoes." Sanchez gave the order, then turned and walked towards the flight deck.
On the flight deck, Pat, who had been promoted to the Primarch's Honor Guard for his outstanding performance, faced his first mission.
The loudspeaker blared: "Boarding parties, board!"
Pat and the other Honor Guard members boarded the boarding torpedoes. Restraint clamps pressed against them.
As thousands of black torpedoes launched from the ships, the two æther cannons on the prow of the twenty-five black ships, and the three more distant relic-class ships, glowed with colorful light.
Æther beams, leaving rainbow trails, lanced towards sixteen targets, the Dulanian's bulky, heavy vessels.
Like all their war machines, the Dulanian ships were built around reactor technology manufactured on Dulan, making them much larger than their Imperial counterparts.
The æther beams crossed the void, striking the Dulanian ships' thick void shields. They appeared to meet no resistance, piercing the defenses directly.
The Mimicarum Sanctum had precisely calculated the impact time. The boarding torpedoes struck the bulky Dulanian ships within twelve minutes of the void shields shattering.
For the Dulanian ships hit by the æther beams, their reactors ran at full power, and it took thirty-five minutes to restore their void shields.
Inside the corridor of a Hunter-class destroyer, Pat's voice, inherited from his worker parents, who had to shout to be heard over the roaring machinery, rang out.
"The Dulanians, having rejected the benefits of enlightenment, are judged guilty." The loudspeaker amplified Pat's voice to a near-roar, echoing through the corridor. "By order of the Primarch, you are sentenced to death. Your property is forfeit to the Shadows of Order."
He also loudly reminded the Honor Guard members: "Follow the exercise procedures. Storm shields."
The Honor Guard and the Seventh Chapter, during the voyage, had conducted practical combat exercises against Dulanian attack methods, following the Primarch's orders.
Before arriving at Ynniu, they already understood the Dulanian methods better than the Wolves.
At Pat's command, five Shadows of Order activated their generators, establishing a defense line.
Skarbyn augmented soldiers, as tall as Astartes, raised their double-barreled weapons and pulled the triggers.
The disruptor guns fired without a sound. When they hit the screaming force fields, they produced a booming roar.
The terrifying beams, which could rearrange matter at the molecular level and turn power armor to dust, were blocked by the storm shields' blue force fields.
"Charge!"
As the Skarbyns slowly reloaded, Pat activated his thunder hammer and led the others charging towards them.
Their Father had told them the enemy was equipped with personal shields and augmented. To kill them, they had to completely destroy the generators implanted in their spines.
Melee power weapons were the most effective means.
Boom!
Pat reached a slow-moving Skarbyn soldier and swung his thunder hammer against its armor, flatter than power armor.
The thunderous crack tore through the faint glow of the personal shield, shattering the spine to fragments.
Power swords shrieked, piercing rounder shoulder plates, through the half-mechanical, half-flesh armor.
Power fists slammed into the bulky, rounded armor, knocking the Skarbyn soldiers down.
Shadows of Order following slipped past the bodies, forming a shield wall against the terrible beams fired by other Skarbyns.
"Storm shields!"
"Charge!"
Pat roared, leading the Honor Guard in a cyclic, wave-like advance, repeating the actions practiced thousands of times in drills.
He led the charge, storming onto the center of the command platform.
Pat swung his thunder hammer, smashing the enemy standing before a two-meter-high cylindrical object.
Ten hours later, aboard the Shadow's Sovereignty, Primarch's Office.
"My Lord, we have successfully captured fourteen Dulanian ships, eight of them Hunter-class destroyers." Arsena reported.
Nareth nodded slightly and issued orders.
"Order the Techmarines to search for Dulan's coordinates, study the Dulanian void shields and their reactor power supply methods, their disruptor weapons, their twin-barreled molecular weapons, their personal shields, and their power armor."
"Apothecaries and Techmarines are to work together to study the Skarbyn soldier remains."
The fortress-grade energy shield was developed to protect hives and was not perfectly suited for ships.
Compared to a single large shield, void shields offered more flexibility in void warfare, consuming less energy to restore overloaded sections.
As ship size decreased, fortress-grade energy shields became increasingly cumbersome and wasteful of energy, a problem more pronounced on frigates and destroyers.
Without the Pnusher-class reactors to power them, Shadows of Order could not sustain such 'waste.'
The Dulanian reactors were far less efficient than the Punisher-class, but mastering their power supply method was necessary to make void shields function.
The twin-barreled molecular weapons, personal shields, and Skarbyn augmentation technology, despite their obvious flaws, could serve as technological reserves.
The Primarch's Aide had just left when whispers sounded in Nareth's ear.
Casually leaving the Dionysian Spear on its rack, he walked past Freddy and John to his quarters.
Nareth drew the Sword of Vaul, "Concept Swap," activated the "Euclidian Runes," and with a thought, went to the Kingdom of Disorder.
Settling onto his throne, he extended his psychic energy, touching the contracting and expanding orbs.
'Hmm? Luther and Zahariel, but no tomes.'
With a thought, he pulled them in.
Luther and Zahariel were engulfed by black mist. When they came to, they found themselves not kneeling at an altar, but in the mysterious realm shrouded in black mist.
They looked around, saw the majestic, indistinct figure on the throne deep within the mist, and immediately knelt.
"My Lord."
After the salute, Luther lowered his head further.
"My Lord, the 'Knights of the Sirius' tomes are gone."
"Two of my knights, Seraphax and Bela, are missing. They must have stolen them. I have ordered my men to pursue them."
'Seraphax. Bela.' Hearing these names, Nareth's eyes deepened.
'The Warp Ghosts warband.'
Nareth recalled Seraphax's memories. Ten thousand years later, the awakened Lion was bound by him using Chaos artifacts.
Seraphax planned to possess the Lion and go to Terra to assassinate the Emperor.
His reason: the Imperium was beyond saving, and his method to save humanity was to free the Emperor from the Golden Throne.
Seraphax believed he could harness Chaos power. Based on the name Warp Ghosts and the form of his artifacts, the likely patron was a Tzeentchian faction.
Nareth's gaze shifted to Luther, recalling the daemon form he had summoned before the event that tore Caliban apart.
The daemon's blue flames and its ambiguous answers to questions pointed clearly to a Tzeentch daemon, perhaps even Tzeentch itself as the mastermind.
'I "corroded" Luther. Tzeentch changed its plan, advancing Seraphax?'
'I've taken quite a few from the Lion. I thought I'd also help him out a bit.'
'With Tzeentch scheming, getting the Ouroboros won't be easy.'
"Do not blame yourself. The fault is not yours." Nareth knew that with Tzeentch pulling strings behind the scenes, Luther was helpless.
Even without Seraphax, there would be others.
"Tell Urian: review and investigate the Terrans exiled back to Caliban by the Lion."
Nareth knew that among the Terran-born exiled by the Lion, there were many Chaos cultists.
Luther had first used Chaos power when he detected their threat to Caliban.
He now suspected Tzeentch might have Seraphax merge with them.
After all, without Luther, the rebellious force would be too weak.
"By your will." The Black Emperor's lack of punishment was a relief, but the "Briber" still regretted not being able to present the offering.
With a thought, Nareth returned to the real world.
Back in his office, his communication bead buzzed.
Activating it, Arsena's voice sounded.
"My Lord, the Space Wolf fleet has arrived in the Ynniu system."
.....
If you enjoy the story, my p@treon is 30 chapters ahead.
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