"Now, split the entire fleet into twelve independent battle groups! Sever the unified chain of command and maintain independent, silent communications!" Magos Maran's roar echoed across the Bridge. "If one battle group is wiped out, the others are to leave it and continue guerrilla operations as planned! Remember, our primary objective tonight isn't to kill the enemy. It's to survive!"
The orders were swiftly relayed as encrypted data streams. The vast Imperial Fleet began reorganizing with astonishing efficiency.
Just then, the Auspex sounded a shrill alarm:
"High-energy enemy signatures! Main guns fully charged! Their target... is us!"
On the holographic projection, the "Demon's Eyes" at the cores of the three planet-sized war fortresses had reached their maximum brilliance. Three beyond-visual-range particle beams, each powerful enough to vaporize a continental plate in an instant, were locking firmly onto the Imperial Fleet's assembly point.
"All battle groups, execute short jumps immediately! Target coordinates have been transmitted!" Maran roared.
The Hammer of God's engines erupted with a low rumble, and the space surrounding its hull warped violently like boiling water.
The next second, the enormous battleship vanished into thin air.
Hundreds upon thousands of spatial ripples flashed along the system's edge immediately afterward. Every Imperial warship jumped within the same microsecond.
At the very instant they vanished, three eerily green beams of suffocating breadth erupted from the World Engines, piercing unimpeded through the void where the fleet had been.
The asteroids, stellar dust, and even light itself in that region were utterly erased in an instant, leaving only a deathly still, absolute vacuum.
Had the Imperial Fleet been even half a second slower, not even ashes would have remained.
"Jump successful!" The Communications Officer's voice trembled with the shock of narrowly escaping death. "All battle groups have reached their designated coordinates! No losses!"