The group left the Palace-like splendor of the Will of Eternity and boarded the Flames of Burning, the Battle Barge under Company Captain Tarvitz's command.
Compared with the other warships of the Emperor's Children Legion, the interior of the Flames of Burning placed greater emphasis on practical combat functions. Its corridors were somewhat narrow, and the air carried a mixture of machine oil, weapon maintenance fluid, and Ozone. Elaborate reliefs were scarce on its walls, replaced by scratches and welded patches left by battle.
Inside the austere, efficient tactical command room, a holographic star chart rotated slowly above the central platform.
Company Captain Tarvitz pointed to a dot marked in red. His voice was steady and clear as he went straight to the point:
"This is our target, the space station codenamed Dawn. According to the records, it entered service fifty years ago. Its primary function is to monitor transit nodes in this frontier star cluster, and it has a permanent population of approximately one hundred thousand. In the past fifty years, it has never reported an attack."
He paused briefly, his gaze passing over Lucius, Chelast, and the core members of both squads.
"However, seventy-two standard hours ago, routine communications with the station ceased entirely. This was followed by an extremely chaotic biological signal exhibiting distinctly nonhuman characteristics. It lasted approximately three seconds before vanishing completely. Repeated attempts by the Imperial authorities to establish contact have failed."
Tarvitz swept his finger across the Holographic Image, bringing up a structural diagram of the station.
"The most suspicious detail is that our long-range scans show the station's structure is intact, with no visible battle damage on its exterior. Its defensive weapons platforms are also dormant, with no sign that they were activated."
"Our preliminary assessment is that the enemy did not