…
The Celestial Engine had arrived in the Agripinaa system.
Inside the planet-sized structure, Grey and Yoan stood within the vast command chamber that served as the Engine's bridge, watching immense holographic projections unfold before them.
The two satellite structures orbiting the Celestial Engine rotated continuously, releasing scanning waves across the entire star system. Every signal gathered was fed into colossal hololithic displays suspended throughout the chamber.
These displays showed a continuously updating strategic map of the Agripinaa system in real time.
Star charts flickered constantly. Tactical overlays updated every second. Fleet markers shifted according to predictive engagement models generated by the Engine's war algorithms.
Crew members moved through the command nexus aboard mag-lev transit rails, transporting system diagnostics, weapons status updates, and fleet coordination reports between divisions.
Automated systems could have handled these tasks entirely. However, the Celestial Engine had redirected most of its advanced computational resources toward far more important calculations.
"Lord Marshal, ground forces report ready for deployment."
"Weapons batteries and energy shields are operating within optimal parameters."
"The Celestial Engine has entered stable stellar orbit."
"Enemy fleet formations continue consolidating around the Forge World's high anchor positions."
"Long-range augurs confirm active hostile orbital defense platforms."
"…"
Status reports continued streaming in from every operational layer.
Grey had been designated Lord Marshal for this campaign despite having limited understanding of the enemy's exact force composition or strategic objectives.
In his own assessment, he was still far below the level of the veteran Chaos warlords who had spent centuries commanding fleets within the Eye of Terror and beyond, where conventional logistics, timekeeping, and causality often broke down completely.
Yet paradoxically, he remained the most battle-tested strategist within the Talon System.
Unlike conventional commanders, Grey had accumulated experience through massive volumes of accelerated simulations run directly through Talon's military systems. He had commanded countless simulated void engagements, planetary invasions, defensive campaigns, suppression wars, orbital sieges, and fleet exercises.
While simulated warfare could not fully replicate reality, the sheer scale of accumulated combat data had refined his decision-making far beyond that of most ordinary officers.
Thankfully, Grey understood that the true strategic burden did not rest entirely on him.
The entity sustaining the Celestial Engine's systems, whether an advanced machine spirit or something darker, continuously generated optimized warfare models.
The command staff only needed to execute them correctly.
As senior officers arrived aboard mag-lev platforms, they assembled around the central tactical projection. More than a thousand officers eventually filled the command chamber.
Their conversations faded as the hololith flared brighter, casting sharp blue light across armor plating, command robes, and polished augmetic implants.
"We cannot deploy ground forces directly onto the Forge World's surface until orbital supremacy is secured," Grey said, his eyes fixed on the automatically generated stratagems beside the main projection.
Threat analyses, firing solutions, casualty projections, and engagement probabilities flowed continuously across the display.
"Current enemy fleet disposition still gives them enough surviving firepower to threaten deployment corridors," Grey continued. "If troop carriers or landing craft are intercepted during atmospheric descent, losses will escalate immediately."
A tactical overlay expanded across the hololith.
Red markers identified enemy fleet concentrations around the Forge World. Additional icons highlighted orbital defense stations, corrupted manufactorum batteries, and possible teleport interception zones.
"The Chaos fleet is using layered defensive positioning," Grey said. "Their heaviest vessels remain behind the orbital platforms. Smaller ships are screening forward approach vectors to delay direct assault."
The surrounding officers nodded while studying the projections.
Across the system, every battlefleet noticed the sudden appearance of the Celestial Engine.
Since the megastructure did not immediately attack, enemy commanders became bolder and initiated the first strike themselves.
The Chaos warfleet entrenched in orbit around the Forge World advanced cautiously. After witnessing one of their vanguard vessels dragged partially off course by the Celestial Engine's immense gravitational field, they maintained maximum bombardment range while opening fire.
More than two hundred warships, large and small, unleashed coordinated volleys across the void.
Macro-cannons thundered. Plasma lances carved through space. Torpedoes accelerated toward their targets. Warp-tainted weapons discharged unstable energies that distorted nearby sensor readings.
Several corrupted biological vessels opened massive organic cavities across their hulls and expelled plague matter, corrosive spores, and streams of warp-charged energy. Flesh-like growths pulsed across their armor plating while tooth-ringed weapon organs convulsed during firing sequences.
The void itself rippled as concentrated warp energy spread outward from the Chaos fleet.
As the incoming bombardment closed in, one of the Celestial Engine's orbital satellites accelerated into position, placing itself between the main body and the enemy fleet.
Its massive energy shields absorbed the brunt of the macro and lance fire, while the warp-based attacks fizzled out halfway across the void, unable to penetrate even the outermost wards.
The few attacks that breached the satellite's shields slammed into the Celestial Engine's planetary-grade shielding.
But the titanic barrier was more than equal to the task. Where impacts landed, only faint ripples spread across the massive defensive field.
When the torpedo salvos arrived, the close-defense grids activated, unleashing firepower on par with a planetary defense network and intercepting every incoming warhead.
Weapons emplacements the size of manufactorums rotated into firing alignment. Tens of thousands of interception rounds, laser arrays, kinetic bursts, and automated flak systems saturated the surrounding void, shredding torpedoes before they reached striking distance.
After weathering the initial salvo, the Celestial Engine continued its steady acceleration along its stellar orbit around the system's star.
Then the two metallic moons rotated, turning their weapon-laden hemispheres toward the enemy fleet.
"Why aren't they retreating?" Yoan asked, visibly confused. "If our positions were reversed, I would've ordered withdrawal the moment a planet-sized weapons platform entered the system."
His gaze remained fixed on the satellite structures.
Clashing warships and orbital defense platforms were one thing, but surely the enemy saw the devastating arrays the size of hive cities charging on the satellite structures?
At that moment, the weapon systems glowed ominously.
Massive particle lances and hyper-heavy energy emplacements flooded the satellites with blinding light, turning the metallic moons into artificial stars.
"The enemy probably has a reason they can't withdraw," Grey said after several seconds of thought. "Most likely, they've already committed their ground forces to the surface."
He folded his arms while watching fleet movements update across the tactical projection.
"If our own Legions were fighting below and our void fleet suddenly encountered overwhelming enemy reinforcements in orbit, we wouldn't abandon them immediately either. We'd try to buy time. Even a temporary delay could allow evacuation, regrouping, or reinforcement of surface positions."
Grey zoomed the projection toward the Forge World.
Entire regions of the planet were burning.
Orbital bombardments had shattered several hive districts. Manufactorum zones leaked radiation and chemical fires into the atmosphere. Thousands of defense laser batteries continued firing upward through gaps in the cloud cover.
"Once a planetary war reaches this stage, retreat becomes difficult," Grey continued. "The fleet can still escape. Ground forces usually cannot."
Yoan considered the explanation before nodding slowly.
From a purely rational perspective, retreat was the optimal decision.
But war rarely remained rational once pride, ideology, fear, and desperation became factors.
As they spoke, the satellite weapon arrays unleashed a coordinated salvo.
Countless particle lances, kinetic penetrators, plasma beams, and gravitic compression rounds erupted across the void.
The battlefield brightened instantly.
The opening wave struck enemy void shields head-on. Several ships held briefly as their shields absorbed the first impacts.
Then the second layer of fire arrived.
Shield generators overloaded almost immediately.
Particle lances punched through armored hulls. Plasma beams carved through battleships from prow to stern. Kinetic rounds shattered cruisers into expanding debris fields.
Arc lightning spread from vessel to vessel, overloading systems and igniting secondary detonations throughout tightly packed formations.
Ships with still functioning shields endured briefly. Unshielded vessels were torn apart in waves.
Several Chaos ships attempted emergency Warp translation during the bombardment. Most failed before completing the transition sequence.
One cruiser vanished partially into the Warp before its damaged Geller Field collapsed. The vessel re-emerged moments later in fragmented sections spread across several thousand kilometers of space.
After the first satellite completed its firing sequence, it rotated behind the Celestial Engine's planetary mass to begin cooling and recharge cycles.
The second satellite moved into position.
Once its firing solution locked in, it unleashed a second, cataclysmic volley.
The second salvo struck directly into the destabilized enemy formation.
Damaged ships attempting to maneuver away were hit first. Wreckage fields exploded outward as overloaded reactors detonated throughout the fleet.
Two attack cycles later, a new status report appeared across the hololithic projectors.
[Fire Sequence Completed.]
[Efficiency Rating: Poor.]
Grey raised an eyebrow at the assessment.
After thinking about it carefully, he conceded the assessment wasn't inaccurate.
The first barrage had annihilated the front layers of the Chaos fleet.
However, the second volley had wasted considerable firepower on drifting wreckage, crippled vessels, and debris clouds generated by the initial strike. Much of the destructive output had been absorbed before reaching intact ships farther behind.
Still, "efficiency" was a relative matter of perspective.
Even with a "poor" combat rating, the two satellite bombardments had annihilated approximately forty percent of the enemy fleet.
In engagements between mega-structures and conventional battlefleets, individual ship losses meant little. Fleets were treated as unified combat entities, with losses measured in percentages.
The Celestial Engine continued advancing toward the Forge World.
Its primary weapon arrays began charging once more.
Deep within the structure's planetary core, a Tesseract Labyrinth remained locked behind layers of dimensional containment fields.
Inside it, the Shard of the Nightbringer was bound and continuously drained to power the Celestial Engine.
The siphoning process intensified as the Engine's weapons recharged.
If the shard had been unsealed, the entire star system would have heard its agonized wails. But here, its silent suffering was just another cog in the Engine's vast war machine.
The Celestial Engine drifted closer to the Forge World and the remaining Chaos fleet defending it.
Although the largest weapon arrays had not fully recharged, another category of attack was already prepared.
The Engine's teleportarium systems activated.
Massive warheads vanished from internal munitions vaults and reappeared directly within the center of the Chaos fleet formation.
Because of the enormous quantity of ordnance involved, precise teleportation targeting was impossible. Spatial offset margins remained extremely high.
Even so, several enemy vessels abruptly found themselves materializing inside overlapping clusters of warheads.
.....
If you'd like to support me and read a bit ahead, feel free to check out my Patreon. (https://www.patreon.com/c/Hemont).
Do you like this Novel? Then pls consider supporting me by Commenting or Rating it.
.....