The sky above the City of Hope turned green.
An endless Ork fleet blotted out the star of the system. Like vultures looming overhead, they cast their ominous shadows over every inch of the planet.
Then judgment began.
Thick pillars of green light descended from the heavens, hammering the City of Hope's planetary shield.
The shield, once one of the Gretchin Civilization's proudest creations, groaned under the unbearable strain. Instead of defending by absorbing and deflecting energy as it usually did, it began undergoing a fundamental change beneath the green light.
The shield's energy matrix began to "forget" its own structure. Strange, tumor-like bulges appeared across the once mirror-smooth barrier. They swelled, then burst, spewing more green, corrupting energy.
"The shield's been corrupted! It's turning from a defense system into a weapon against us!" Ghazghk shrieked in horror inside the command center. He had never witnessed anything so bizarre.
Liu Zhipeng's gaze was cold as frost. He knew this was the work of Gork and Mork. They disdained destruction through brute force. They wanted something more humiliating: to twist everything the Gretchin had created into weapons against them.
"Shut down the main shield!" Liu Zhipeng ordered decisively. "Activate the sector shields and surface defense arrays! Prepare for ground warfare!"
At his command, the planetary shield, now resembling an enormous green tumor, vanished in an instant.
Immediately, endless pillars of green light poured through unimpeded and struck the ground.
When they touched the city, the steel skeletons of the skyscrapers the Gretchin had built with their own hands, all rugged industrial beauty, began twisting and melting like wax figures held over a flame. Enormous Ork faces sprouted from the walls, their mouths opening and closing in silent mockery.
The City of Hope, a symbol of Gretchin freedom and dignity, was being