Target Crisis: The Chaos Fleet Drawn by Chaos Beacons

Inside the main control room of the research station.

Beyond the transparent glass, the daylight horizon met the eternal night of the starry sky.

The vast universe, with distances spanning light-years, stretched everything thin.

Individual planets were like glass marbles floating in a great sea, requiring vast amounts of time just to encounter one another.

Inside the glass chamber.

A holographic star map projected by the research vessel hovered in the air. On the green simulation of the starry sky, purple Chaos beacons appeared, alongside the territorial borders of various factions.

To the upper left lay the Waaaagh! forces of the greenskin Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka.

The scale of the greenskin empire remained unclear, but judging by the results from the research vessel's reconnaissance, greenskin spores had already appeared on nearby asteroid belts. The closest greenskins might be less than a light-year away.

To the right, the area explored by the research vessel already featured eleven star systems marked with Chaos beacons. These eleven systems acted like a fortress, completely blocking the path for further exploration to the right. Passing through here would inevitably mean engaging with Chaos, and with only a single research vessel, he would be crippled before he could even take them down.

If he were to bypass the Chaos forces and head toward the lower right, he would encounter the Tau Empire and the aliens under its leadership. Traversing the heart of the Tau Empire was, for him at present, essentially impossible.

Moreover, even if he succeeded, it would be meaningless.

Of course, he could also head upward, but heading outward meant reaching the edge of the galaxy, where it might take dozens or hundreds of light-years to encounter a single star system. Development would be far too slow.

Fortunately, however.

The research vessel currently out on patrol had discovered two adjacent planets that he could occupy.

One was a hydrological planet, and the other a desert world. Both were habitable, and no one was competing for them.

It was perfect; one could provide power, the other could provide alloys, and combined with the consumer goods from Ozrax, they could form an internal cycle. He hoped for a higher population count; the population lacking on Ozrax had been migrated from the home planet, but the home planet's population was limited after all.

"These two planets must be seized before the Chaos forces or the Tau Empire get to them."

The distance between one star system and another was measured in light-years, requiring something better.

These two nearby systems were the key points for his technological development.

Cisrain zoomed in on the two planets, observing their terrain.

At the same time, he checked the various data points in the Stellaris Template.

[Happiness: 75] [Alloy Output: 60K] [Consumer Goods Output: 15K] [Power Output: 25M (Terawatts)] [Power Demand: 87M (Synapse Condenser 50M)]

[Units follow K, M, G, T, P, E]

[Project Progress]

[Engine Progress: Fusion Engine 100%, Dark Matter Engine Research 0%]

[Communication Progress: Photonic Communication 100%, Tachyon/Psionic Communication 0%]

[Energy Progress: Nuclear Fusion 100%, Dark Matter Research 0%]

[Biological Progress: Genetic Virus 24%, Genetic Enhancement 1.9%]

[Naval Progress: Naval Port Construction 12%]

[Reverse Engineering: Soul Protocol 1.7%]

[Reverse Engineering: Living Metal 0.1%]

[Reverse Engineering: Gauss Technology 77%]

[Reverse Engineering: Wetware Engineering.]

[Weapon Progress: Positron Strike 0%]

[Weapon Progress: Interstellar Lance Strike 0%]

[Weapon Progress: Hyperspace Phase 0%]

As his territory expanded.

Cisrain had to face the same problem as the Terra Empire.

That was the need for a faster fleet and faster communication equipment.

The current fleet's travel speed was too slow.

And because of the power shortage, all the aforementioned projects were stagnating.

"Faster-than-light/tachyon/ghost signal/psionic communication, matter-antimatter/dark matter engines, Dyson spheres/stellar-grade energy, black hole matter extractors—I need all of these."

"But what I need most is to acquire resource planets first, to reach a dynamic balance in the first-tier (food, minerals, energy), second-tier (consumer goods, alloys), and third-tier (technology) of the initial internal cycle. Right now, third-tier technology has improved, but first-tier energy and ore cannot keep up with the technology. Therefore, I must obtain planets capable of producing more resources as soon as possible to restore balance."

"These two systems sandwiched between the Chaos forces, the Tau Empire, and myself must be secured."

(Knock, knock)

"Come in."

The sound of the door opening echoed.

Under the dim light, Cisrain's silhouette was stretched long by the light reflected from the star map projection.

In his exaggerated power armor, with a silver-gold cloak trailing on the floor, Cisrain leaned his hands on the table, staring at the star map.

"Governor, the people have been brought here."

"Understood."

Cisrain turned around to face the several Astartes. Cyrus removed his helmet, and Talon and the others behind him followed suit, showing their faces.

Cisrain made no mention of his own needs, instead saying with great sincerity:

"Thank you for your hard work, everyone. Your ships have already been towed into the port. If you wish to leave, it may take some time. I had the scientists on Gamma Planet modify your power armor, using a harder Grade 3 alloy. It has improved in strength and hardness by at least twofold, while reducing the mass by one-tenth."

"Chief Brown has already told us," Cyrus stepped forward. "Governor, I believe you need our help more right now. The Chaos that appeared on Ozrax might be brewing some conspiracy. I can feel that this matter is far from over. They would not have appeared on that planet for no reason."

As he spoke, the projection of the star map flickered, and the entire office darkened for a moment.

There were no lights on in Cisrain's office. Clearly, he had poured all resources into research and technology. While the lights in the laboratories outside were constant, it was pitch black in here.

From top to bottom, everyone was saving resources as much as possible to power the research station.

The Governor himself was leading by example, diligently conserving resources.

It was no wonder such a governor had so many people following him.

"Are you referring to this?" Cisrain acted as if he were not quite sure, then stepped aside to let Cyrus see the star map behind him. "Our research vessel did indeed detect other light pillars; it seems there is also a fleet."

In the star map, after rebooting, the purple beacons Cisrain had previously marked appeared.

And within these eleven systems,

On every single one, a coordinate appeared that seemed to connect to the interior of the Warp.

These eleven rifts seemed as if they were about to tear open the reality of the universe, isolating their current location from everything behind them.

"Yes, this was just detected by one of our home planet's research vessels."