Cadia had shattered. Under Blackwatch's frenzied consumption, the once-mighty planetoid had been completely hollowed out, leaving chunks of it like scattered islands in the dead void.
The shattered planetary core turned slowly in the vacuum. Blackwatch's neural cables spread along the edges of every continental fragment. Its oil-slick black mats devoured the last of the energy in the planet's core, like billions of mechanical leeches sucking out a star's marrow.
The Cadians could no longer say, "Cadia Stands," but the war wasn't over. It had only grown more brutal.
The void of space was a death zone for life, but Blackwatch feared nothing. If left unchecked, and these Aberrations broke through the lines—even if only one escaped—the entire Galaxy would be swept by a tide of Aberrations.
But none of this concerned Darktide Squad anymore, because they had discovered Blackwatch's true weakness.
Darktide Squad huddled inside a makeshift shelter formed by phase shields. Their cracked visors reflected a flood of Aberrations stretching as far as the eye could see. The monsters, with their reverse-jointed limbs, used plasma hearts as thrusters, streaking through the vacuum with ghostly green exhaust trails.
After Deathmark sniper 47 was revived by Reanimation Protocols, Darktide Squad regrouped and pooled their money: 12 Gold Dog Coins, 72 Silver Dog Coins, and two cans of T'au-T'au Joy. That was all they owned.
At first, Seven thought Yarrick had gone mad from all the combat stims. The commissar was also in such poor condition that he might drop dead at any moment, so Seven figured they were just scraping together funeral expenses for him.
But soon, as Seven looked on in baffled disbelief, Yarrick revealed his astonishing wisdom to everyone.
A beast stripped of reason was deadly—but what if the hunter knew how to make a trap for it?