The bridge of the Diasporex Tear.
The glow of holographic projectors flickered across the cavernous command deck, displaying the gruesome reality of the battlefield outside for everyone to see.
But right now, no one was looking at the feeds.
Every single pair of eyes was glued to the comms officer who had just stumbled onto the bridge.
The officer was deathly pale, his lips trembling, but he still forced his spine straight, using every last ounce of his strength to choke out the report.
"Captain... the Diasporex Gate..."
"It has completely fallen."
Dead silence swallowed the bridge.
The human councilors looked at one another, sheer terror painted across their faces.
And while the xenos councilors didn't have readable facial expressions, the violent trembling of their bodies broadcasted the exact same sheer panic.
The Diasporex Gate.
It was the very last line of defense leading to the bridge.
The gateway into the core sector of the Diasporex Tear.
It was their final hope.
And now, that door had been kicked open.
Shukra Valentine stood before the captain's chair, his weather-beaten face devoid of any expression.
Deep within his pupils, however, a storm of turbulent emotions was raging.
He turned his head, looking at the holographic projection of the brutal warzone.
The warships that made up the Diasporex Alliance fleet were being picked apart and destroyed, sinking into the void one after another.
The vast majority of the fighters and dropships dispatched to reinforce the Diasporex Tear had been swatted out of the sky mid-flight. Only a sparse handful had managed to dock successfully.
And right now, the purple demons had already slaughtered every single soul aboard them.
As for the defenders still trying to put up a stubborn resistance, their morale had completely shattered.
The broken remnants were fleeing toward the bridge in a panicked stampede.
With the purple demons hot on their heels, ravenously hunting them down.
Shukra closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
When he opened them again, only one thing remained in his gaze.
Absolute resolve.
"Captain!"
A human councilor abruptly shot up from his seat, his voice trembling violently.
"We need to evacuate!!"
"The Diasporex Gate is gone! Reinforcements aren't coming!"
"We have to pull out right now! Before those monsters slaughter their way in here!"
Another councilor immediately chimed in.
"He's right! We have to run, Captain!"
"As long as we survive, we have a chance to regroup! We can preserve the civilization of the Diasporex Alliance!"
"But if we die here, there's nothing left!"
A third councilor leaped to his feet, equally frantic.
"Captain! The leaders of our people and the xenos have already died in battle!"
"We have to live to avenge them!"
"We can't just throw our lives away for nothing!"
"Order the retreat! Please!"
In an instant, the bridge erupted into a cacophony of desperate voices.
Retreat.
Evacuate.
Run.
The human councilors had completely lost their composure, talking over each other in a mad scramble to voice the exact same opinion.
Even the xenos councilors didn't bother arguing.
Without their supreme leader, Karu Atlee, present, they had no choice but to default to the humans' leadership.
Yet, the atmosphere surrounding the aliens was far bleaker than anyone else's.
Because they all knew that the odds of Karu Atlee being alive were practically zero.
Shukra stared at the panicking councilors and the bleak, hopeless demeanor of the xenos delegates.
He stayed silent for three seconds.
Then, he spoke.
His voice was eerily calm, carrying an unquestionable, heavy authority.
"Gather all our data and intelligence."
The entire bridge went dead silent in a heartbeat.
Every eye locked onto him.
Shukra swept his gaze across everyone in the room and spoke slowly.
"Begin the evacuation through the engineering sector."
"Right now."
To the human councilors, those words were like a total pardon from the executioner.
A collective sigh of relief washed over them, and they practically scrambled over themselves to rush back to their stations and pack up the data drives.
The xenos councilors didn't hesitate either, silently moving to do the same.
Shukra continued.
"Also, rig traps and misdirection protocols along your escape route. Buy yourselves as much time to evacuate as possible."
He paused, turning his attention to the comms officer who was still rooted to his spot.
"You are responsible for coordinating the defenders along all evacuation routes. Tell them to buy us time with their lives."
"No matter the cost."
The comms officer slammed his right fist against his chest and nodded hard. "Understood, Captain!"
He turned and sprinted out of the bridge.
Shukra turned back around, gazing once more at the tragic battlefield displayed on the holographic projection.
He watched the routing soldiers, the sinking warships, and the rapidly approaching clusters of purple light.
His fists slowly clenched at his sides.
Leaving now meant the Diasporex Alliance was completely finished.
Without their massive fleet of ancient starships, without power, without a home...
They would be reduced to drifting aimlessly through the void.
Waiting for death in the endless dark.
But as long as they survived...
At least they could preserve the last embers of a civilization that had endured for thousands of years.
Shukra closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, only unyielding resolve remained.
"In five minutes..."
"...everyone begins the evacuation."
--
Three minutes later.
When the explosion tore through the bridge's main blast doors, Shukra's hand was still hovering in mid-air.
The three-meter-thick adamantium doors buckled as if struck by the iron fist of a titan.
The entire doorframe caved inward, bolts snapping and metal twisting with a deafening screech.
Every pair of eyes on the bridge immediately snapped toward the source of the noise.
The holographic projectors flickered from the shockwave, casting jagged, dancing shadows that perfectly highlighted the expressions on everyone's faces.
Panic, bewilderment, and sheer despair. That was all that remained on the faces of the human and xenos councilors.
BOOM!!!
A second explosion followed immediately after.
A massive rift tore open down the center of the blast doors. Blinding white fire spewed from the gap, illuminating the bridge entrance like the literal gates of hell.
Then came the third blast.
The fourth.
The fifth.
KRACK!!!
When the roar of the sixth melta blast detonated outside, the once-impenetrable adamantium doors finally gave way completely.
Shrapnel sprayed inward, clattering violently across the metal decking.
Flames and gunsmoke surged through the breach, carrying a wave of scorching heat that washed over the entire bridge.
Shukra stood frozen in place.
His gaze pierced through the billowing smoke, landing on the shadows just beyond the doorway.
There, a figure clad in purple and gold slowly lowered a melta gun.
Solomon Demeter.
Captain of the Emperor's Children Second Company, member of the Brotherhood of the Phoenix, and one of the most level-headed, decisive commanders in the 28th Expeditionary Fleet.
Behind him stood hundreds of fully armed Emperor's Children Astartes.
Their purple power armor gleamed with a bloody luster in the firelight, the barrels of their bolters all trained squarely into the bridge.
And further back, over three hundred silver-grey figures were pouring out from both sides of the corridor.
Liam trailed three steps behind Demeter, his crude silver-grey power armor covered in scorch marks and bullet craters from previous firefights.
Gripping his bolter, his eyes locked onto the panicked figures cowering deep within the bridge.
"I can't believe there's a direct route from the engineering sector straight to the bridge," he muttered over the regional channel. "And the defensive presence was practically zero."
[Two-Faced Turtle]'s voice crackled over the comms.
"Bro, isn't this going a little too smoothly?"
"I almost can't believe it."
[I am the Living Dragon] quickly agreed.
"For real. We didn't hit a single pocket of decent resistance the whole way here. It's like a completely different world compared to the Diasporex Gate."
Liam furrowed his brow.
Yeah, it was way too smooth.
So smooth that it made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.
Having spent years in the military and fought in nearly a hundred skirmishes overseas, he knew one universal truth.
The smoother things went on a battlefield, the more paranoid you needed to be.
Because the enemy always loved to deliver a gut punch exactly when you thought you had the win in the bag.
But right now, all the evidence pointed to a single conclusion:
The Diasporex Alliance had diverted their entire main force to the Diasporex Gate. In their desperate bid to hold back a monstrous demigod like Fulgrim, they had drained every single reserve unit they had.
Leaving this corridor from the engineering sector to the bridge completely unguarded, like a backdoor left wide open.
No wonder Demeter was the one who historically claimed the glory of breaching the flagship first, Liam thought to himself. This is just a god-tier combo of pure luck and flawless tactical judgment.
Yet, that strange, creeping sensation in his gut just wouldn't fade.
It felt as if... something was secretly pulling the strings behind the scenes.
--
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