Glory-class battleship, Macragge's Honour.
It was an interstellar titan twenty-six kilometers long.
At present, countless warships of every size traveled alongside it. An enormous fleet sailed through the Warp, with this flagship at its core.
Some of the ships in the fleet had originally been assigned to their own missions: purging traitors, driving back Chaos, reclaiming territory, and more. Their original battlefields had not even been fully resolved. But because of a single piece of intelligence, they had been forced to make a choice. Sacrifice the smaller matter to preserve the greater whole. Thus, they had been summoned here.
On the bridge of the flagship Macragge's Honour, an Ultramarines Astartes strode quickly to the side of the fleet's supreme commander.
"Lord Guilliman, a transmission from Archmagos Belisarius Cawl."
As he spoke, he handed the communication device to the towering figure second only to the Emperor himself: Roboute Guilliman.
He was the Primarch of the Ultramarines, bearer of countless glorious titles: Lord of Ultramar, Battle King, King of the Five Hundred Worlds, Blade of Unity, Master of the Hosts, Imperial Regent, and more.
"You're certain?"
Roboute Guilliman spoke with a slight frown. The Archmagos on the other end answered that he could not guarantee it.
At this point, they were gambling.
Judging by the current intelligence from the front line, they had succeeded in interrupting whatever the Tyranids had been trying to drag over. But that only bought them more time.
Since the Narvhal bio-ships could capture star systems in the galaxy and use gravity to establish rapid transit channels, that meant this hive fleet itself had already reached the edge of the galaxy. It was close.
Based on the intelligence the Imperium had gathered on Narvhal bio-ships, it was generally possible to roughly estimate how many light-years away a Tyranid fleet was from the galaxy.
Of course, that was based on data from previous Narvhal bio-ships.
This time, much larger Narvhal bio-ships had appeared on the battlefield. So should the estimate be magnified tenfold? Perhaps even a hundredfold?
If they used a hundredfold estimate, then the calculated distance meant the fleet would likely reach the galaxy in no more than a dozen years.
A dozen years was terribly short compared to the scale of the Imperium's territory and the length of its existence, but it was still enough time to make many preparations.
However, those preparations would be facing the invasion of a new hive fleet whose strength would surpass Hive Fleet Leviathan. The situation would still be appallingly brutal.
If they did not interrupt it, and instead allowed the enemy's main fleet to arrive in the star system so it could be wiped out in one stroke, then of course that would be ideal.
Naturally, he would need to redeploy the fleet forces he had arranged to send there, especially the advance special forces that were nearly at their destination. They could not be buried together with the Tyranids, nor could they be caught in the range of that "weapon."
But there was one problem.
Could the "weapon" spoken of by the Archmagos truly guarantee the complete destruction of the hive fleet?
If it could not, then the enemy's main force would officially step into the galaxy. At present, the Imperium simply did not have enough time to gather its strength to meet them. It was foreseeable that vast numbers of worlds would fall and be eaten clean by the Tyranids.
True, based on the Tyranids' route, they would probably devour the T'au first. On the surface, that seemed to buy the Imperium more time.
But to Roboute Guilliman, that was even worse.
He did not believe the T'au could play much of a role in stopping the Tyranids. Instead, they would become rich fertilizer for the bugs. Biomass.
They would feed the Tyranids and make their strength swell even further.
"I am not certain. However..."
Belisarius Cawl began discussing certain matters that sounded somewhat inexplicable, but Guilliman understood one thing from them: Cawl could not directly tell him certain things, in order to ensure that no secrets were leaked to anyone else.
If possible, it would be best for them to speak face-to-face. Only then could Cawl reveal certain matters.
But right now, there was simply not enough time for him to meet Cawl.
In the end, he managed to hear the meaning behind the Archmagos's words.
The Archmagos had chosen to trust the "weapon."
...
The ghost ship remained in ghost mode, silently watching the meat grinder that this star system had become.
At present, the system gave the impression that the Tyranids were about to fill it completely.
The Imperial warships, T'au Empire warships, and vessels of other races that kept arriving as reinforcements were like moths flying into a flame.
One warship after another charged into the swarm, only to be overwhelmed by countless Tyranids. In the blink of an eye, not even the slightest trace of the ship's exterior could be seen.
If not for the occasional explosion blasting away part of the swarm, one would think the ship had completely lost the ability to resist.
In the next second, intense light pierced through and vaporized the bugs. An enormous fireball released its energy into the cold void of space.
That was the warship's final light of glory.
Kain's view shifted toward a nearby gas giant. At present, the planet's volume had visibly shrunk.
Even without looking carefully, one could see Tyranids of every size drilling through the planet.
The sight made it seem as though the planet was a piece of cotton candy being devoured by insects. Bit by bit, they licked away the fluff, making it shrink continuously.
At that moment, several warships dragging their shattered hulls, along with the surviving starfighters, charged toward the gas giant.
The Tyranids realized what this fleet intended to do and attacked with even greater ferocity.
The human fleet also realized that if they kept charging forward like this, the warships and starfighters would be wiped out before they could even break into the gas giant.
So the fleet immediately changed formation.
The formation made Kain pause slightly. It reminded him of a certain work: Ender's Game.
During humanity's decisive battle against the insect race, if the human fleet fought the bugs head-on, they would lose. They had no way to break through to the insect homeworld.
Thus, as commander, Ender had ordered the fleet and large numbers of starfighters to form a spear-like shield. Like a whirlpool, they protected the key flagship, while the remaining warships used themselves as living shields. They threw themselves suicidally into every attack from the insect race to carve open a path for the flagship.
In the end, with the fleet nearly annihilated, the flagship successfully broke through to the insect homeworld and launched an extermination strike, destroying it.
Now, a nearly identical scene was unfolding before Kain's eyes.
A vast number of Imperial starfighters and several warships used themselves to form a spearhead-like shield, wrapping the most critical attack vessel at the center. They endured the onslaught of countless Tyranids and stabbed down toward the gas giant.
After they vanished into the gas, it became difficult to observe what remained of the fleet.
A few seconds later, the sudden phenomenon looked like firelight flaring inside a mass of cotton. As the glow grew brighter and brighter, the entire mass of cotton transformed into a vast fireball in an instant.
The gas giant before them, comparable in size to Jupiter in the Solar System, had been ignited.
The Tyranids parasitizing the planet and feeding on it like fruit quickly drilled out and tried to flee, but the ignition was even faster. They were swallowed by the flames in an instant.
Then the ship detected abnormal gravitational fluctuations.
The Tyranids' Narvhal bio-ships were moving.
These Narvhal bio-ships seemed to have come through the wormhole as well. They had not joined the effort to widen the wormhole. Instead, they had reached another part of the star system.
They were going to-
Establish a new wormhole.
They were beginning to construct a wormhole for a jump to the next star system.
(End of Chapter)
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