Aiming at the Flagship

Chaos Scrapcode was spreading through Calth's cognitive space.

It was no longer a tolerable obstacle. This highly contaminating data was relentlessly devouring and subsuming other normal information streams. Without question, it was stripping the Watchtower of its control over orbital space.

This sense of losing control was unfamiliar to Hurst and the many Senior Tech-priests.

The processing cores they had installed were overheating amid an incomprehensible contest of data.

"How many warships and weapon platforms can we send information to?"

"Roughly 40 percent, perhaps less. The interference affecting the Orbital Platforms and Weapon Arrays is stronger. We need time." Senior Tech-priest Tauren checked the warships capable of receiving the Watchtower's information stream, only to find that the Ultramarines' flagship, Macragge's Honour, was conspicuously absent.

"Then do it. Have every warship that can receive the signal start its engines. They must leave the spaceports." Hurst was using all his knowledge to create a weapon against the Chaos Scrapcode. The first step in dealing with these unprecedented enemies was to create a new mode of attack.

"Understood."

Information streams surged at extreme speed through Calth's cognitive space. War directives from the surface were activated, and within a very short time, cargo vessels transporting supplies in low orbit, as well as warships already docked in the spaceports and connected to them by gantries, all received orders to cease all operations.

Alarms rang throughout the warships, red warning lights flashing without pause.

The officers and technical personnel aboard the ships were deeply confused, but they immediately followed procedure and carried out the standard responses they had been trained for.

Reactors and engines that had been shut down or kept running at low efficiency were flooded with energy once more. Deck defenses activated, and the operators of the starships' Weapon Arrays went on alert.

For a time, officers and workers aboard every vessel hurried into action, racing against the clock to regain control of their ships.

But getting these colossal machines of war moving again was not something a single order could accomplish. For this gathering of Legions, the Ultramarines' warships required vast quantities of weapons and fuel, while the vessels themselves also needed maintenance.

Under orders from the surface, all of it had to be forcibly halted.

In particular, even with the Cogitator System, Imperial warships required huge numbers of technical personnel and mortal servants to get underway. Relaying these orders and mobilizing the personnel took considerable time.

From the increasingly violent Chaos Scrapcode, Hurst sensed the threat growing ever clearer. He had a vague premonition that time was not on their side.

"No, something's wrong. These scrapcodes aren't content with attacking other data streams anymore. They're forming a Data Surge. They're going to—"

Hurst discovered a horrifying truth, but just as he had feared, there was no time left. Every technician in the Watchtower and the Cogitator System was connected to Calth's cognitive space, allowing them to process the immense volume of data streams with maximum speed and efficiency.

And because of that, when the Data Surge unleashed by the Chaos Scrapcode arrived, the brains of dozens of data technicians instantly burst or were scorched by the massive torrent of data.

Both their mechanically augmented parts and the flesh they had retained broke down and burned away.

Electromechanical components short-circuited and overloaded beneath the data, while flesh gave off scalding vapor under the impact.

Hurst was stronger than they were. His augmentations could bear a greater impact. He endured the Data Surge like crashing tsunami waves, endured the collapse and disintegration of Calth's cognitive space beneath that assault.

His body swayed uncontrollably. The organs within him and his augmented prosthetics rapidly necrosed. His soul was seared by burning data. His death could no longer be reversed.

Before death truly claimed him, Hurst completed the weapon he had created and sent a signal to the orbital Weapon Array in binary code.

Use the Laser Array to attack Macragge's Honour.

He could not inform the Ultramarines' flagship through data transmission, but that did not mean he could not send a message by physical means.

In his final moments, Hurst felt a measure of relief. He had warned the primarch.

--

Macragge's Honour.

The Ultramarines' primarch, Roboute Guilliman, stood amid the flagship's newly installed holographic display. Layers of operation stations rose around him like the audience tiers of an ancient Roman amphitheater.

Light bent and warped under the influence of force fields, creating lifelike illusions.

Separated by millions of kilometers, Guilliman was holding a virtual meeting with his brother, Lorgar Aurelian.

With the aid of technology, the primarch's flesh and armor possessed realistic texture and coloration. Likewise, his voice rang out aboard Macragge's Honour.

"My dear brother, it has been so many years since we last met. Forgive me, I did not have time to change into ceremonial attire." Lorgar's voice was filled with sincerity and apology, drawing a warm smile from Guilliman.

"There is no need for such courtesy. We will soon meet face-to-face, on Calth." Guilliman looked at the Word Bearers commanders beside Lorgar. "And your sons as well. It has been a long time since I last saw them."

"I have prepared a surprise for you, dear brother Roboute." Lorgar smiled mysteriously.

"Then I look forward to it."

The two continued their friendly exchange for a while longer before the primarch of the XIII Legion ended the brief meeting. He felt that communicating through virtual projections was still not solemn or formal enough. Once they met in person, he would properly reconnect with this brother of his.

The Weapon Array on the planet's surface drew immense power from its reactors, and the bird-servitors took aim at the largest colossal warship in space.

Machinery turned. Energy flowed into the cable conduits, and the weapon's output port bloomed with light and heat.

A dazzling beam tore through the stars and struck Macragge's Honour in an instant.

"Emergency, my lord!"

Macragge's Honour's Senior Tech-priest suddenly submitted an urgent report to the primarch. He did not even stop to organize his words. "My lord, Calth's Weapon Array has attacked us. It was a Laser Array. It penetrated part of the flagship's outer armor."

With its void shields inactive, the warship could only rely on its own hull armor and immense bulk to withstand the attack.

At the point of impact, temperatures comparable to those of a star melted the outer metal. Molten iron was blasted into space by the force of the strike, quickly solidifying into irregular chunks of metal.

The mortal servants and technicians working in that area were instantly vaporized along with the hull.

The ship's pressure-sealed blast doors rapidly closed, preventing the damage from spreading further.

"What happened? Captain Zedov, report to me immediately." Guilliman remained calm. Calth's Weapon Array had been built and calibrated jointly by Mars and the Adeptus Mechanicus of Ultramar's Five Hundred Worlds. It possessed exceptionally thorough response protocols and safety measures; every command required review by both surface and orbital technicians.

"The analysis report is still being compiled, my lord." The captain growled at his subordinates.

"It is likely connected to the scrapcode we discovered earlier, along with those anomalous disturbances." the Senior Tech-priest answered.

Guilliman immediately recalled several disturbances that had appeared in the data he had reviewed, though they had been attributed to the effects of stellar sunspot storms.

The Senior Tech-priests and Tech-priests aboard the flagship had also discovered the issue with the Chaos Scrapcode, but like the technical personnel on the surface, they too were trying to find a way to deal with it.

"But technically speaking... it is nearly impossible." The Adeptus Mechanicus Senior Tech-priest hesitated, unwilling to admit that scrapcode could affect Calth's powerful Orbital Platforms and Weapon Arrays. That would mean the Adeptus Mechanicus' technology was not one hundred percent reliable. "But it should put us on alert."

After being struck by the Laser Array, another Data Surge spreading from Calth dealt Macragge's Honour a heavy blow. For a time, the warship's cogitators fell into overload. The brightly lit bridge was plunged into darkness, leaving only the red lumen warning lights flashing continuously.

"Calth's cognitive space has been disconnected as well! Omnissiah preserve us, where did this Data Surge come from?!" Countless people screamed throughout the starship. Some Servitors convulsed and collapsed, boiling black smoke pouring from their heads as they were completely destroyed.

The Tech-priest was convulsing, but he endured it. The Data Surge had erupted within Calth's cognitive space, and the starship had only suffered its aftershock.

Moreover, Macragge's Honour's Machine Spirit was powerful enough to block most of the impact.