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Chapter 249: The Purification Code
🕑 Added 2025-08-27 15:42:31 +0000 UTCChapter 249: The Purification Code
Guilliman was aware of the unique nature of Lucan's warships, particularly the immense power of the Stellar Pioneer and the Spear of Adun. However, he was also aware of the command capabilities of the ordinary mortals within Lucan's fleet. In his estimation, those two capital ships, while powerful, were not enough to single-handedly turn the tide of a major fleet engagement.
From his perspective, Lucan, for all his miraculous feats, was an amateur when it came to naval warfare on this scale. Lucan's forces were undoubtedly masters of boarding actions, but the ultimate victor in a space battle was determined by the warships themselves. No matter how many boarders you deployed, if their vessel was destroyed, they were all doomed to a cold death in the void.
The Black Legion was a force of legionary scale. As a primarch who had once commanded such a force, Guilliman knew exactly what a full legion of Astartes represented, to say nothing of the countless Chaos renegades and daemons accompanying them. There was a reason he had authored the Codex Astartes.
Just as Guilliman was about to once again urge Lucan to deploy to the planet's surface, the enemy pressed their attack with rabid impatience.
The Spear of Adun's Solarite Beam fired, its searing ray of energy officially opening the battle. For a moment, the dazzling light it unleashed outshone the system's own star. Both sides had reasons they could not afford to lose. Macro-cannons roared, lances sliced through the dark, and waves of torpedoes streaked across the void. Swarms of void fighters launched from hangar bays, and boarding torpedoes and assault boats slammed into the hulls of enemy ships.
Under Guilliman's masterful command, the Imperial fleet slowly began to gain the upper hand. The combined boarding forces of the Raiders, Protoss, Zerg, and the Ultramarines themselves were overwhelming, and the Chaos fleet struggled to repel them.
Yet, despite the apparent advantage, no one felt at ease. The loyalists were also suffering grievous losses. The corrupted interiors of the Chaos vessels were rife with unforeseen dangers, and boarding actions were inherently perilous. When the frenzied traitors realized a ship was lost, they would often detonate its plasma reactors or magazines, turning the entire vessel into a tomb for the boarding parties.
The Zerg could be treated as expendable, and the Protoss could simply be recalled via warp conduit, but the Astartes of the Raiders and Ultramarines had no such luxury.
Observing the battlefield, Guilliman still saw nothing exceptional in Lucan's contribution. He was about to remind Lucan that his forces would be more effective on the ground when Lucan finally made his move, a triumphant smirk spreading across his face.
"My Lord! We've taken the bridge! Our Tech-priests have decrypted the frequency of the enemy's vox-comm array! We've sent it back to Magos Pavian!" a voice reported through Lucan's private comm.
"Excellent work! You and your entire company will be duly honored! Now, withdraw as best you can!"
With this confirmation, Lucan joined Pavian and Belisarius Cawl.
"Pavian, did you receive the frequency?"
"Received, my Lord! I am integrating it into the quantum communication system now! Another minute for calibration, and I can ensure every Chaos warship receives our signal!"
"Cawl! What's the status of the code?"
"It is complete!" the Archmagos declared. "This code will propagate from their vox systems and infest the entire vessel!"
As the calibration finished, Cawl began to upload the data package.
"It's always Chaos scrap-code infecting Imperial machine-spirits," Lucan mused aloud. "I wonder if you traitors ever imagined the favor would be returned one day?"
Lucan's divine power began to surge, flowing from him into the device before them. His unique Power of Purification was infused into every line of the code. It was the same power he had once used to cleanse the Blackstone Fortress. However, his goal this time was not to seize control of the enemy fleet.
There was a fundamental difference between Lucan's ability and the power wielded by Vashtorr. The manifestation and effect of his divine power were directly linked to his Warp Projection. This meant that, unlike the corrupting scrap-code created by Vashtorr which subverted machine-spirits with daemonic entities, Lucan's power had only one effect: purification.
Against a non-Chaos enemy, the code would be almost useless—a "chicken rib" of a weapon. The Necrons, for example, would be able to ignore it completely.
But against Chaos, it was a different story entirely.
Chaos warships were constructs saturated with the energies of the warp, forged through blasphemous rites. The blessings of dark sorcery allowed these ships to perform far beyond their original specifications, and the daemons bound to their hulls enslaved their machine-spirits, forcing them into a state of perpetual, frenzied operation. Some vessels even defied the laws of physics, held together only by the power of the Empyrean.
One could only imagine what would happen when a code infused with Lucan's purifying energy infected such vessels.
Even if it couldn't destroy or control the Chaos ships outright, stripping away their warp-given "buffs" would cause their combat effectiveness to plummet. Their control over their own ships would falter; some vessels might even shut down completely.
Furthermore, many of these ships were originally of Imperial design, captured and dragged into the warp for modification by the traitors. The more powerful a warship, the stronger and more sentient its machine-spirit. Machine-spirits possessed loyalty, and some of these vessels had served the Imperium for thousands of years. Were it not for the daemons possessing and suppressing them, Chaos would never have been able to crew these ships at all; their machine-spirits were in a constant state of outrage.
"Broadcast it via quantum comms," Lucan commanded. "Directly into the vox-arrays of every Chaos ship!"
"As you command!"
Cawl pressed the activation rune.
Instantly, a piercing static screeched through the vox systems of the Chaos fleet. The Purification Code began its silent invasion. The forces of Chaos had always been the ones to infect Imperial technology; it had never occurred to them that the Imperium would launch a counter-invasion of this nature. They had no defenses for it.
Guilliman watched, stunned by the change that swept across the battlefield.
Following Lucan's single action, the colossal, blasphemous sigils representing the different Chaos Gods on the enemy hulls began to dim. The power of purification was wrestling with the warp sorcery for control of the ships. Amidst this conflict, the void shield arrays and engine outputs of numerous Chaos vessels began to weaken.
Aboard a Chaos Despoiler Class Battleship named The Blasphemy, chaos reigned. This vessel had once been the Divine Throne, a battleship that had served for millennia in the Calixis Sector. After its fleet was defeated, it had made a desperate jump into the warp but failed to return to realspace. It was eventually captured and remade by the traitors. Its loyal machine-spirit was forced to serve the very enemies it was built to fight.
But now, as the traitor crew fought to regain control, the ship's original, loyal machine-spirit was reawakened by Lucan's code. It regained its sanity. It refused to serve the traitors any longer. It began to deliberately overload every system on board.
"My Lord! Something has infected the ship! Its original machine-spirit… it's awake!"
"How is that possible?!"
The Chaos Lord in command stared at the bridge around him. The overgrown flesh and sinew that coated every surface was beginning to slough off. The power of the Gods was fading.
With a violent shudder, a massive explosion tore through the engine decks of The Blasphemy. The great battleship lost all power, drifting silently in the void. Then, its own external defense turrets swiveled and began firing into its armored hull.
The influence of the Purification Code spread with shocking speed, its effects even beginning to flicker across the systems of Abaddon's flagship, the Vengeful Spirit.
Watching the enemy fleet fall into disarray, Guilliman was at a loss for words. Lucan's contribution here, in the void, was far greater than he could have ever imagined.
