Space Battle

Guilliman, clad in azure power armor, arrived on the command deck, followed closely by the Honor Guard in Cataphractii Terminator Armor.

Their massive steel bodies brought an overwhelming sense of oppression. Everyone on the command deck felt as though fear had seized their hearts in a vicious grip, making it difficult to breathe.

The Honor Guard were all elite veterans of the Ultramarines, each with astonishing battle records. Wearing Terminator Armor even bulkier and heavier than ordinary Space Marine armor, they stood there as an utterly crushing presence.

For an ordinary person to stand before a member of the Honor Guard and speak was already an immense act of courage.

"How is the situation, Brecht?" Guilliman asked, looking at the captain seated in the command throne.

"They are gathered on the second planet in the Sara System. Judging from the markings and several characteristics of their warships, the intelligence we received was not false. The enemy truly belongs to the Death Guard. Our fleet has already spread out. Comparing our respective strengths, we should be able to secure victory easily."

The Death Guard, Plague Spreaders, cursed traitors, eternal enemies of the Imperium, the unforgivable.

The Death Guard had once belonged to the Imperium's 14th Legion. Led by the Primarch Mortarion, they had made indelible contributions to the Imperium's Great Crusade and the unification of humanity.

Near the end of the Great Crusade, Mortarion led the Death Guard in the Horus Heresy. They openly betrayed the Loyalists in the Isstvan System and, alongside the other traitor Legions, massacred the Loyalists on a vast scale, committing unforgivable crimes.

Later, while Mortarion led the fleet through the Warp, he was betrayed by the turncoat Typhus. Typhus killed the Navigators and destroyed the ships' Geller Fields, trapping the fleet in the Warp and leaving them to be thoroughly worked over by the Chaos Gods.

With masterful methods, the Chaos god Nurgle forcibly tamed Mortarion, who despised sorcery and hated Chaos with an extreme passion, turning him into his little boy.

Mortarion had originally been a Primarch who fiercely rejected sorcery and Chaos.

Yet trapped in the Warp and tortured beyond endurance by plague, he had been forced to submit to Nurgle, one of the Chaos Gods and the embodiment of plague, death, and rebirth, becoming one of the Daemon Primarchs.

He was practically the model Primarch who had been tamed into obedience by a disgusting old creep.

Afterward, that fleet took part in the Siege of Terra, using plague to breach the defenses of the Imperial Palace and causing an enormous number of deaths. After Horus's defeat, it split into multiple Chapters and fled to the Eye of Terror and the fringes of the Imperium.

Guilliman sorted through the information regarding the Death Guard in his mind before looking at Captain Brecht again.

"I do not doubt that we will win. I only want to ask about the situation on the surface."

"There has been no response. Every message we sent has been intercepted. Whether electromagnetic or Astropathic, none have received any reply. I suspect the enemy has already taken control of communications. If things are worse, then the Astropaths on the surface have either been corrupted or killed."

Captain Brecht's voice was heavy, and rage showed in his one remaining flesh-and-blood eye.

Another planetary-scale massacre. Tens of billions of human lives had been harvested by the Chaos Gods.

May the holy Emperor pity those poor souls and welcome them into his embrace.

"Perhaps there is still a chance. Otherwise, these remnants of Chaos would not still be lingering here." Guilliman looked toward the control console. Amid the mechanical hum, the carefully maintained strategic cogitator of the Adeptus Mechanicus was operating. Streams of data symbols and beams of light formed a tactical projection, clearly displaying the situation in the Sara System and the strength of the Plague Fleet.

At this moment, every Plague vessel was positioned near the orbit of the second planet in the Sara System.

"Let us hope so." Brecht nodded.

"Launch the attack. No matter what, they must be eliminated. If there are survivors, we will save them. If there are none, then we will avenge them."

"Understood, my lord."

Led by Macragge's Honour, the fleet advanced rapidly, and Sara II grew larger and larger in their view.

It was a green planet, with glaciers at both poles.

Most of it was grassland and woodland, with only scattered deserts dotting the surface. It was a world highly suitable for human habitation and of great colonial value.

There were six massive Hive Cities on the planet. One of them was astonishingly vast; according to the observed data, it covered more than twenty-six million square kilometers.

The planet's population was estimated at no fewer than fifty billion, making it extremely valuable to the Imperium.

Seeing the Imperial fleet approach, the Plague Fleet reacted as well. They deployed into formation, attempting to intercept the Imperial warships.

Guilliman watched the changes on the battlefield. The enemy had three battle groups in total, and there was a severe lack of coordination between them.

Mutual distrust was a weakness of Chaos. They usually fought on the scale of warbands, resisted unified command, and did not trust other warbands.

When the distance fell below three million kilometers, both sides moved from probing attacks into fierce close-range combat.

The Imperial warships launched waves of Torpedoes and Missiles in wide fan-shaped spreads, creating crisscrossing lines. At the same time, they fired tons of anti-ship shells to carve up the enemy's maneuvering space.

Combat in space was even more complex and variable. Engagement distances of millions of kilometers meant that weapons such as Torpedoes, Missiles, and shells all had a degree of delay, making it difficult to hit moving ships.

Commanding such a battle required immense calculations to predict enemy movement and account for variables across the battlefield.

Guilliman scrutinized the battlefield gravely, not allowing a single minor variable to escape his notice.

Before his transmigration, he had believed that Torpedoes and Missiles were useless on a future space battlefield, and that ships only needed energy weapons like Lances.

Only after witnessing fleet combat did he realize how foolish that idea had been.

Every weapon had its own advantages. Missiles could track targets automatically and strike any part of an enemy ship.

Lances were merely fast. They traveled in straight lines, and despite their speed and power, they were easily blocked.

There was no need to mention the tremendous destructive power of physical weapons like Torpedoes and shells. Their much-mocked slowness could sometimes become an advantage, increasing the enemy's computational burden and making them reluctant to maneuver for fear of running straight into them.

Stationary Torpedoes and mines had a high chance of not triggering Void Shields. Once a ship collided with one, the consequences would naturally be catastrophic.

At a distance of over a million kilometers, this was practically point-blank range in a space battle. Lances and massive shells were fired without pause, and the space between the two sides rapidly became a lethal thicket woven from energy beams and projectiles.

Macragge's Honour's Void Shields flashed from time to time, rippling beneath powerful energy beams.

The dissipated energy from the weapons caused the Void Shield generators aboard Macragge's Honour to emit feedback static from time to time, with some even crackling with sparks.

The Plague Warriors knew very well who posed the greatest threat. Even without much coordination, they had made Macragge's Honour their priority target.

Facing the enemy's concentrated fire, Macragge's Honour did not retreat in the slightest. It answered with equally fierce retaliation, unleashing firepower capable of easily leveling cities.

One Plague vessel suffered an overloaded Void Shield. A torpedo struck its prow, sending it spinning, followed by a chain of further attacks.

The huge hull was pierced through by Torpedoes, Missiles, and Lances. Its struck Plasma Energy Core detonated violently, and massive flames swallowed the Plague vessel. It slowly broke apart amid soundless explosions, burning fiercely in space.

Tower-sized wreckage flew from the ruptured warship and accidentally struck a nearby warband vessel, overloading its Void Shields. It was then blasted into wreckage by a single Macro-cannon salvo from an Imperial Cruiser.

With the firepower of Macragge's Honour, the Imperial fleet became like a sharp sword, viciously thrusting into the enemy's heart.

Their advantage rapidly expanded, and the scales of victory swiftly tipped toward humanity.

"Their behavior is abnormal. They should be fleeing by now." Phicris, standing nearby, shook his head. "In the past, once the traitors realized they could not win, they usually chose to escape."

"Perhaps these fools have been frightened stupid." Brecht revealed a mocking smile. His greatest joy was personally destroying enemy warships one after another, leaving the corpses of those Chaos traitors floating through space as frozen sculptures.

Only a dead traitor was a traitor worthy of approval.

Guilliman withdrew his gaze from the strategic projection and shook his head. "I do not think it is that simple. Find a way to obtain information about the surface of Sara II. Perhaps the problem lies on the planet itself. If we can get information from down there, we may learn what is happening."

Though he was a Transmigrator, he had inherited the former owner's strength and all his memories. In a sense, it was more like a fusion.

The strategic acumen and wisdom of a Primarch made even him feel that the Plague Warriors' fearlessness in the face of death was somewhat abnormal.

They served neither Khorne nor a god who supported mindlessly throwing away lives. Nurgle had never endorsed senseless suicide charges.

Mindlessly charging in just to chop things up was something only that brute Khorne would do.

Thank you to several friends for the monthly votes, recommendation votes, and tips. If it were not difficult to mass-release during the new book period, I would be putting out twenty thousand words a day no matter what; otherwise, I would be letting down your votes and tips. I hope everyone can send a few votes and keep reading. Once it gets recommended, I will immediately add more chapters. If a few hundred people are reading when it goes premium, I will immediately start releasing twenty thousand words a day.