The Drukhari fleet had arrived with uncanny speed, and its retreat was just as abrupt and ignominious. As news of the earth-shattering upheaval deep within Commorragh reached them, the fighting spirit of this army, which had come so aggressively to reap the spoils, deflated like a punctured balloon.
Their sinister-looking ships began breaking contact with the Imperial Fleet, disregarding formation and cost alike. Engines spat violet exhaust as they tried to slip back into the Webway rifts that had not yet fully closed, or engage short-range jumps to escape the stellar graveyard that had already swallowed countless members of their race.
On the Imperial side, apart from a few unfortunate warships infiltrated by elite Drukhari "decapitation" squads during the initial ambush, which had suffered brief internal chaos or even been destroyed, most ships had weathered the initial pressure and now held firm control of the battlefield.
As the enemy fled in panic, cold orders to strike back rang out across the Bridge of every Imperial warship.
"Pursue them! Don't let a single knife-ear wreck escape!"
"Avenge our fallen brothers!"
"Fire! Fire!"
Searing white lance beams, heavy barrages of macro-cannon shells, and the deadly trails of Missiles lashed out like soul-snaring chains, biting savagely into the fleeing Drukhari warships.
The chaos of their retreat left their defenses even more vulnerable. One grotesquely shaped ship after another exploded beneath concentrated Imperial fire, becoming fleeting, tragically beautiful fireworks in the Sea of Stars, or listing into the depths of nothingness with long trails of flame and smoke.
More and more Drukhari warships were destroyed in their desperate flight. Cold wreckage and shattered hulls slowly drifted apart under gravity and inertia, becoming new, silent gravestones on the battlefield.
The unsettling psychic shrieks of the Drukhari and the sinister hum unique to their ships were