841.M30, The Coronid Deeps, Grail Abyss
Wearing black power armor, Legion Master Urian Vendraig stood proudly on the bridge of the Invincible Reason.
On the low tactical screens circling the command dais, Vendraig watched the icons of ninety-nine void-black capital ships advance in formation with his flagship.
Two icons shone especially bright: the Paradigm of Hate and Truth's Razor.
The central command platform, constructed from adamantine pillars and insulated cabling, shuddered as the void battle began, flooded with system noise and blinding flashes.
Cogitators chattered in binharic, their voices flavored with the techno-accents of Terra, Mars, and Jupiter. Red-robed Tech-priests whispered canticles in harsh, grating tones.
Vendraig flicked rapidly through data on his slate, savoring the familiar pleasure of analysis.
Finally, he had a worthy foe.
Finally, a chance to prove he deserved command of the First Legion.
He clenched his fist.
'I was not made Legion Master merely because the Hexagrammaton cancelled each other out in their bickering.'
'The faltering First Legion will return to glory under my leadership.'
The tactical screens lit with swarms of crimson enemy signals. Vendraig issued his orders.
Both fleets opened fire simultaneously, drowning every display in static.
Void-black Imperial ships exchanged devastating volleys with the crystalline vessels of the xenos.
The Invincible Reason surged forward through cascading explosions, streams of plasma, and laser fire, tearing viciously at the fractured hulls of enemy vessels.
Tactical readouts flashed by too fast to count:
[Lance capacitor charge: 94%. ]
[Starboard shield array #13 overloaded....]
Reports from other ships followed:
[Battleship Invincible Eagle lost.
Battlecruiser Glory to Terra lost.
Frigate Hurricane Wing lost....]
The First Legion advanced, but at a steep cost.
The Grail Abyss was the Mitu xenos' second most critical stronghold after Manachea. Their sacred Grail Temples were located here.
Archeotech energy cannons from Mitu warships unleashed bizarre rippling beams, orange, pink, and colors beyond human perception, splattering across Imperial hulls like spilled dyes.
Their strangeness didn't blunt their lethality. The Mitu arcane cannons were as deadly as any Imperial macrobattery.
Void shields flickered, overloaded, and collapsed. The energy waves ripped apart ship after ship.
While the First Legion bled in void warfare, the Eleventh Legion launched simultaneous assaults across five systems around the Cyclops Cluster.
...
On Lascal, inside the Mitu Hall of Prophecy, hundreds of anemone-shaped aliens, each with varying numbers of limbs, gathered before a great machine.
Despite their twisted heads, Mitu's physiology was broadly symmetrical.
At the center stood a tall Mitu seer with twelve tendril-like legs, holding a crystalline arcane staff that shimmered with metallic light.
It opened its long, narrow maw, sending ripples through its anemone-like body.
"Shadows… A vast fleet…Send a warning to Manachea. Request aid."
Several massive four-legged Mitu entered strange circular metal pods.
Each device was connected by twenty-five glowing crystal cables to a bowl-shaped array above.
Inside every bowl were two hundred humans, the Mitu's preferred biological fuel source.
Many had already collapsed into despair, kneeling and waiting for death. Others weakly hurled themselves against containment fields, achieving nothing.
All twenty-five machines activated at once, screaming with a deafening mechanical howl.
The humans were shredded into blood-mist as the pods spun.
Crystals in the center turned red, then fired blinding beams skyward. Warp-energy flared like lightning.
The Eleventh Legion Arrives
At that same moment, the Throne of Shadow's Sovereignity exited from the warp.
In the command throne, Diana Pauline drifted through oceans of data, scanning fleet compositions using the Eleventh Legion's auger systems.
After the first sweep, she had a complete view of Lascal:
[Enemy warships: 137 total. Capital ships: 29.]
[Experimental masking test evaluation: SAFE.]
Marshall of Ordnance Gabriel and his team had gained little progress on reverse engineering the shadow-blaster technology, but they had achieved promising results in falsifying sensor readings.
At Vostroya's orbital yards, twelve ships, including the flagship Sword of Vostroya, had been experimentally modified.
Diana had drafted a proposal for a field test, and now requested approval.
"Lord Nareth, I request authorization to begin experimental falsified-reading trials."
The rune in Nareth's ear chimed softly.
He considered, then denied it.
"Not while Fourteenth Legion vessels are present. No tests."
Nareth remembered well: in the future, the Fourteenth Legion followed Mortarion into the worship of Nurgle.
Even without corruption, Mortarion despised psykers more deeply than even Leman Russ.
Russ would at least grumble before cooperating; Mortarion never would.
Most of all, one does not reveal secret weapons when allies are watching.
Especially when one does not yet know who, in the future, would truly be an ally or an enemy.
Even if the experiment succeeded, using falsified-reading tech in a joint fleet operation would risk exposure.
Countering falsified readings required prior data.
Without that, no one, not even allies turned enemies, could react effectively in time.
Diana adjusted her plan.
"My lord, I will order the Fourteenth Legion fleet to attack a detached Mitu formation, keeping them out of our firing arcs."
"Approved, but without the experiment," Nareth answered.
She obeyed, accepting the Primarch's order.
The Fourteenth Legion deployed, tearing into a Mitu sub-fleet.
Their void doctrine was exactly as history described, unyielding endurance, grim determination.
The flagship carved through the enemy like a heavy scythe.
First Captain Baracin watched silently, colorless explosions detonate across the screens, like strings of firecrackers around the flagship.
Void shields strained under the Mitu's eerie beams.
"Begin," Baracin said calmly.
The prow lance and macro batteries fired. Enemy ships erupted one after another in brilliant fire.
He was watching the spectacle of destruction when vox-chants sounded.
"First Captain, Lord Nareth orders us to break off and make for Zavarich. We are to destroy the Mitu grainnaries."
"Understood."
"Navigator, set course for Zavarich. Make ready for transition."
.....
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