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Chapter 77: The Arrival of the Hive Fleet
🕑 Added 2025-08-08 14:08:40 +0000 UTCChapter 77: The Arrival of the Hive Fleet
'Chaos corruption.'
The black knight stood like a statue amidst the crowd, his gaze fixed on the young man named Cornwall.
The sword is stopping me from acting...
Arthur frowned, his grip tightening on the hilt, the blade ready to take that head at any moment. In his mind's eye, an image of an ongoing meeting appeared.
[Gravitational anomaly detected. Unknown biological warship signatures detected. Estimated number: 3.6 million.]
A servo-skull broadcasted the cold data, the air in the room thick with a heavy tension. The commanders sat in the council chamber, staring at the holographic display, which showed a dense cloud of red dots that had just entered the outer edge of the star system. These red dots had pierced through the system's outermost asteroid belt, so densely packed that, without magnification, they overlapped into a single mass.
An utterly absurd number.
"Tyranids," Romulus whispered. He had never expected the Great Devourer to arrive so quickly.
"Do their combat organisms take these forms?" Cawl quickly brought up an image, which included various basic Tyranid combat units, including Hormagaunts.
"Correct, but these are only the most basic bioforms. I will share a complete bestiary, but do not trust it implicitly. The individual organisms of each hive fleet have slight variations."
This statement gave everyone a bit more confidence, though it also made them wonder how these warriors were so knowledgeable about a xenos species from beyond the galaxy. At the same time, Romulus was surprised. There were already Tyranid organisms on this planet?
"During their most recent breakthrough mission, the Skitarii found a biomass nest for incubating these xenos," Cawl said, displaying the number of Genestealers under his surveillance. "It has been confirmed that this is related to the significant drop in the Genestealer population."
"They are preparing for the arrival of the Hive Fleet," Romulus stated with certainty. He then commanded, "Have the anti-aircraft arrays prepare. The fleet, along with the transport ships, is to move away from Pierdra's orbit. The primary target of these xenos is biomass. According to the investigation of the Forge-World, we are not their first priority."
The Forge-World was now filled with human flesh. The population of half a sector had been gathered and, by some unknown means, stuffed into the gaps between the machinery. If the Tyranid Hive Fleet made landfall, their primary target would undoubtedly be this readily available food source.
"Is this planet worth preserving?" Aglaia asked the group, her tone serious. She wasn't going to get bogged down with her mentor's problems anymore. "If you, my Lords, agree, I can authorize an Exterminatus order." She was directly offering to take the blame. According to Imperial regulations, if she couldn't properly deal with her mentor's situation, she, as an Inquisitor, was not destined to survive anyway.
"Vetoed!" a proxy of Cawl immediately interjected. "This planet is of extremely high value to the Imperium, and to the future of the Imperium."
All eyes fell upon him, waiting for an explanation that would justify them facing yet another enemy.
Cawl quickly brought up a holographic image of the planet. The Forge-World section was displayed in a cutaway view, revealing a device that covered more than half the planet, its main body embedded deep within the planet's core.
"This planet possesses a geothermal computer left over from the Dark Age of Technology. I need this device to complete my calculations. It concerns the fate of the entire Imperium."
"But the blasphemous scene in the Forge-World remains. We have already confirmed that the population from countless planets has been stuffed into the gaps of that machinery," Aglaia challenged. "Archmagos, how can you be certain that, under such circumstances, the answers you seek will not be corrupted?"
"Chaos does not have the ability to corrupt this machine," Cawl replied without hesitation. "Because it is an Abominable Intelligence. A unique creation of that era. Chaos does not have the ability, nor is it qualified, to break through its algorithm, which is constantly being updated with the planet's pulse."
"..." Aglaia, for a rare moment, felt that her brain wasn't working. The mental strain was too great. She pressed a hand to her throbbing forehead. She felt that if she were a proper Inquisitor, she should be launching cyclonic torpedoes at this planet right now.
The Bishop and the Canoness Superior already regretted why they had come to listen in on this meeting, which had nothing to do with them.
"Archmagos, do you know what your actions mean?" Aglaia pressed. To say that an AI's destructive potential was greater than Chaos's was no exaggeration. At least Chaos hadn't shattered a thriving human civilization into countless scattered branches across the galaxy. Such a dangerous existence should be destroyed, and never be allowed to appear in the human world again.
"All things are but tools," Cawl replied pointedly. "The Omnissiah strictly forbade humanity from meddling with the powers of the Warp and AI because the vast majority of human individuals are not qualified to be the masters of such things."
"If you intend to complete your calculations, how much time do you need, Archmagos?" Romulus asked calmly. The transmigrators were not surprised by this. The grease-monkeys had plenty of heretical practices. Cawl merely using the power of an AI was no big deal.
"If the entire computational capacity of the machine were at my service, I would only need three Terran months."
Romulus continued to listen. If he wasn't mistaken, there were additional conditions.
"But a blasphemous Chaos ritual is occupying the vast majority of its processing power. Although the Chaos ritual cannot twist the machine itself, it has snatched those precious resources from my hands, even though I hold the master control codes," Cawl sighed. Even from a remotely operated machine, everyone could feel a palpable sense of exhaustion. It was the weariness of being so close to success, only to have the resistance try to crush you.
A tech-heretic giving a sharp critique of a faith-heretic, Romulus thought.
"So the mission objective returns to the core issue of finding the old Inquisitor," Romulus analyzed coolly. "And our progress on that front is still limited." The daemon-vision could only categorize. And non-psychic races couldn't be pinpointed just by the number of samples. They had to be found slowly. And the Forge-World was a dense, sprawling mess, every crevice stuffed with the souls of countless humans. And they still hadn't even found the Word Bearers.
Ramesses had recently been researching "long-range reconnaissance by deploying daemonhosts, leveraging the spatial displacement between the Warp and realspace." If it worked, their investigation speed should increase significantly. Anyway, besides the chunks of flesh physically pressed together by the machinery, the biomass-harvesting Genestealers, and the multi-colored daemons, there were no living humans left in the Forge-World, so they didn't have to worry about the daemonhost causing collateral damage. Normally, this would be the worst possible news, but given their needs, it had actually become a good thing.
"My apologies, my Lord," Aglaia said, her face filled with shame. After two weeks of investigation, even with the help of Ramesses, who was frighteningly sensitive to Chaos corruption, they had only managed to destroy a series of Chaos dens. They still hadn't found the old Inquisitor.
"Do not be hasty," Romulus said, reassuring the others, his tone still effortless. "We have already taken complete control of the Upper Hive's void shield emitters, anti-aircraft batteries, and ground-based heavy artillery, and have linked them all together to form a defensive line that can transmit information at any time. Even if we are attacked by the xenos, we can hold out for a sufficient amount of time."
"Furthermore, the nature of the Tyranid xenos is also to seek the path of least resistance. Just as we did against the Genestealers, if we display sufficient military strength, we can make the two venomous insects attack each other."
The human forces had reclaimed control of the Upper Hive's military installations, forcing the Genestealers to renew their conflict with the underhive cultists. This was one of the few pieces of good news they had had since arriving on Pierdra two weeks ago.
But hearing this, the others only felt more ashamed. Because all of this had been achieved through the efforts of the ancient warriors. It was they who had provided the Ecclesiarchy with sufficient material support, they who had pointed out the locations of the various communities for the rescue teams, they who had gathered such a massive crowd, allowing them to, with sufficient manpower, take control of these areas...
The transmigrators' original intention had simply been to subconsciously save more people. It was a case of having good intentions, but executing them even better.
"The Great Crusade lasted for over two hundred years and conquered a million planets for the Imperium," Cawl said out of nowhere, his tone unclear if it was self-deprecating or sarcastic. He shook his head and brought the topic back to the matter at hand.
"The Explorator fleet will not leave. Any attempt to destroy this planet, I will consider an act of enmity." He seemed to have made a decision. He then dropped a bombshell. "If necessary, I will use the Titan Legion, and I will not care for the losses. If you are all willing to stay, and my calculations succeed, I can have a Forge World serve you exclusively for one hundred years."
Everyone in the room held their breath. A single Forge World typically supplied several surrounding sectors. To have all that production capacity concentrated in the hands of one organization... it would be a fortune of unimaginable scale. And no one present doubted the truth of the Archmagos's words, because most of them, even in death, could cause Cawl an endless amount of trouble.
"And if you fail?" Tyberos asked.
"If I fail, I will be responsible for covering all of your losses, including your Chapter's gene-seed," Cawl replied.
"The Carcharodons will stay," Tyberos said, satisfied with the answer. Their seed-banks were in the galactic halo; they could afford to be wiped out once.
The others then turned their gaze to the host of the meeting.
"We will stay as well." Romulus had no intention of leaving either.
By constantly interfering with fate and cleansing the cultists, they had already started a snowball effect. If necessary, they could force a trade with the Hive Fleet and Chaos. As long as the planet wasn't forcibly dragged into the Warp by the sacrificial ritual... Ramesses's recent harsh interrogation of the daemons had let the transmigrators know that a ritual of this magnitude could tear a rift in realspace on par with the Maelstrom.
So, if they wanted to turn the situation in their favor, they had to stop the ritual from succeeding.
And so, the topic of the conversation turned to how to find the core of the ritual.
They desperately needed a breakthrough.
(End of Chapter)
