The imposing Imperial warships formed a crescent-shaped fleet spanning tens of millions of kilometers in radius, sailing silently and orderly through the dark galaxy.
Giant blue-white exhaust plumes erupted from the engines at the sterns of the warships. Plasma flames flickered through space, driving these colossal vessels through the void.
The three largest celestial warships sailed at the very front, surrounded by Gloriana-class vessels, while more cruisers and battleships followed behind like schools of migrating fish drifting through the ocean currents.
The most numerous vessels, however, were undoubtedly the large transport ships. During the retreat, Lion had brought back nearly all the mortal troops and civilians from the Beta-Garmon Cluster, whether they wished to come or not.
For certain particularly stubborn mortals, the Lion of Caliban had even directly dispatched his sons to force their evacuation. The Dark Angels burned their homeworlds and reduced everything to ashes.
Many who had been forced to leave their homeland could not understand Lion El'Jonson's orders and were furious with him. They denounced him as a brutal, arbitrary tyrant, no different from the Imperium or Horus's rebels.
Many mortals were even overcome by rage and stirred up unrest and riots aboard the transports, attempting to seize control of the ships and return home.
But such doubts soon vanished.
According to the warships' scanning arrays, the vast Beta-Garmon Cluster had been completely swallowed by the dark void. Countless planets and stars within it had vanished without a trace.
A cosmic entity on the scale of a star cluster had disappeared. No one knew whether it would ever reappear.
Only then did they realize that if they had not left with the Imperial fleet, they would likely have already been trapped in that terrifying darkness.
No one knew what fate awaited them, but it would certainly