Silence.
Across the battlefields of Jade VII, the sheer shock of that spectacle brought an eerie silence that lasted more than ten seconds.
The T'au Fire Warriors stopped shooting and stared blankly at the still-smoking ground in the distance.
Even the main Ork force hammering the T'au's central defensive line halted, looking back toward their rear flank in confusion. Aboard his flagship, which resembled a flying mountain of garbage, their Warboss, Skullkrak, snatched up a communicator and roared into it, "What's going on?! Where's me flank?! Where are me hundreds of thousands of Boyz?! Where'd they go?!"
Only the hiss of static answered him.
"Answer me!!" Skullkrak angrily hurled the communicator to the floor and stomped it to pieces.
On the bridge of the Dawn Messenger, Commander Suisxing slowly closed his eyes, then snapped them open again. He drew a deep breath, forcing his overloaded tactical mind to start working once more.
"The conclusion..." he said in a dry voice, as though he were learning to speak all over again. "The conclusion is... an extremely primitive, extremely wasteful saturation-fire tactic with no precision whatsoever, but... but under certain circumstances... it can have devastating effects."
Qingliu's face flushed with excitement. He swept his hand through the air and declared in an almost operatic tone, "I told you, Suisxing! This is the power of the Greater Good! Justice passing judgment on evil! Now it's time for our Freedom Fighters to reap the fruits of victory!"
He had barely finished speaking when another change swept across the battlefield.
At the edge of the scorched earth ravaged by artillery, shouts rose louder and more chaotic than those of the earlier Ork charge.
"Charge! The Big Boss blasted the road flat for us!"
"Grab the loot! Whoever gets it keeps it!"
**"I spotted an Ork