(Thanks to Wang Xiaodao from Tianhai City for the generous "Great God Certification" gift. That wraps up today's bonus updates.)
Eloil stared in horror at the pitch-black muzzle.
His mechanical eye instantly magnified the image, focusing all his processing power on analyzing it, trying to calculate the weapon's type and power.
But his database contained no matching records. It was an utterly unfamiliar weapon, its energy readings beyond his sensors' detection range, its design principles beyond any field of weaponry he knew.
The fear of the unknown was more unsettling than facing a powerful weapon whose capabilities he understood.
His mechanical brain reached a decision in a thousandth of a second.
He initiated a consciousness transfer, stripping his consciousness from his current body and transmitting it through a preestablished neural network into a backup body aboard a warship stationed at the rear of the Fleet.
It was an extremely dangerous procedure. The slightest mistake could permanently damage his consciousness, but he no longer had the luxury of worrying about that.
Then all he saw was a flash.
The light was so blinding that it seemed as though a Stars had exploded before his eyes, washing the entire universe in pure white.
Even after switching to the backup body's sensory systems, Eloyir could still feel the afterimage that searing light had left on his optical sensors.
The light pierced the Ark Mechanicus's Void Shield, its armor, and its keel, punching through the steel behemoth from end to end like a hot knife through butter.
A moment later, the Ark Mechanicus was struck by a beam whose energy surpassed that of a Stars.
The Void Shield overloaded the instant it touched the beam.
Those Energy Shields burst like soap bubbles and dissipated into the vacuum, unable to hold for even a second.