In an instant, the last forty Brute Ram Ship were completely annihilated.
Only two ships managed to escape the whirlpool's range, and they turned tail and fled like madmen.
Those Ork Boyz no longer thought about making a name for themselves; they just wanted to survive.
In the starry sky, the two vortexes spun for several minutes before slowly closing and disappearing.
A "vacuum zone" was carved out of the chaotic meteorite belt.
The leading fleet was also attacked.
They had barely left the asteroid belt when a fleet of Orks scrap metal attacked from the side.
Dozens of dilapidated ships cobbled together from scrap metal, their turrets crooked and their hulls on the verge of falling apart.
But their paint jobs are a mess, green, red, yellow, you name it.
They were not obscured by meteorite belts and were detected by detection systems early on.
They immediately deployed their forces with the two Lunar-class Cruiser at the core.
Six frigates formed an escort formation, like a group of well-trained guards, blocking the way for the main warship.
Main guns fired simultaneously.
Beams of light intertwined in the starry sky, tearing through the darkness.
The lead ship of the scrap fleet was instantly blown into a fireball; they didn't even get close before being blasted into pieces.
The battle ended quickly.
The lead-up fleet suffered almost no losses, with only one escort ship losing its Void Shield energy and being grazed by stray bullets.
However, the morale of the entire fleet was not optimistic.
On the bridge of the ship Rule of Discipline," the officers remained silent, their faces grim.
As Imperium, let's just call it the Imperium faction for now, how could it have been tricked by the Orks?
Those crazy lunatics who only know how to fight, actually set up an ambush beforehand?
Someone was glancing at Luna furtively.
The Lord Regent stood in the center of the bridge, his face ashen, and remained silent.
Her eyes were fixed on the empty meteorite belt outside the window, lost in thought.
The campaign got off to a bad start, and the initiative had already been lost.
Now there's only one way left: to fight the Orks -on!
But Luna did not give up.
She stood on the bridge, looking at the dejected officers, and clenched her fists.
I thought of Lynn!
The culprit who led her fleet into the trap!
But the more he hinders her, the more it proves one thing.
He was scared.
They were afraid she would take down Carl II first and become the expeditionary marshal.
He was afraid that she would trample him underfoot.
"Pass on the order," she said, her voice devoid of any emotion.
All the officers looked up at her.
"The fleet retreated 100,000 meters, and two mobile docks followed. All damaged ships were repaired on-site."
"For those severely damaged ships, replace them with spare parts immediately. I want to see all ships back to combat readiness within three days."
"Then let that despicable Kerry Von and those Orks see our resolve!"
Since Lynn's hands aren't exactly clean, she can't blame Luna for resorting to underhanded tactics as well.
This is a rule that both sides tacitly agree on.
As the leader of the Tzeentch faction, Luna naturally couldn't let Lynn prepare the fleet in peace.
While the Rule of Discipline was undergoing its test flight, another front was secretly unfolding in the Brevis Prime Hive.
The Adeptus Mechanicus, in alliance with the Noble Council, has infiltrated the ranks of the repair crew to help Luna.
Lynn knew about this, of course; it would have been difficult for him not to.
He planted a large number of Genestealer within the maintenance team; these Genestealer were present in every key position, and no slightest movement escaped Rena's notice.
However, these ordinary people who possess certain knowledge and skills are precisely the hardest hit by Tzeentch and corruption.
Not to mention that the main hive also contains the lair of a Tzeentch Cultist.
Therefore, Lynn did not do everything in his power to stop their infiltration.
This would require a lot of effort and might not even be able to prevent it, so it's better to just open it up directly.
Anyway, he had plenty of ways to deal with the "sabotage" of Tzeentch Cultist.
The Tzeentch Cultist are masters at planting the seeds of error in the right places.
They infiltrated not to cause sabotage, that would be too low-level.
They usually choose to "make things worse."
Inside the data casket of the spaceport, a figure in a technician's robe is operating a terminal.
His fingers flew across the keyboard, bringing up the maintenance blueprints for a frigate that was nearing completion.
The focusing parameters of the light lance were adjusted by 0.001 degrees.
The fuel ratio of the plasma reactor was adjusted to the edge of the safety threshold, just meeting the standard, but only a hair's breadth away from the danger line.
Each modification was so minute that it would go undetected by any routine check.
The ship will perform normally during sea trials, and all data will be within acceptable limits.
However, in intense, sustained combat, the light spear will inexplicably miss its target.
The reactor's power will be unstable from time to time, and the Void Shield will flash briefly at the most critical moment.
At that time, the Tech-Priest will search through all the systems and recite all the prayers, but will find no reason.
Because the "repair record" would show that everything was normal, they could only attribute it to the Machine Spirit's "displeasure."
Similar scenes are playing out elsewhere.
A warehouse manager secretly replaced a bearing while moving parts.
The new bearing is exactly the same as the original, except that a trace amount of acidic substance has been added to the area where holy oil should have been applied.
That little bit of acid won't break the bearing immediately, but it will slowly corrode it over time, eventually causing it to break at a critical moment.
While organizing files, a clerk inadvertently buried a corrupt trap in the maintenance schedule.
Anyone who sees that form will be lured by the whispers of the Warp hidden within, gradually falling into the abyss of curiosity.
Their sabotage wouldn't immediately alert Lynn's men to the problem.
On the contrary, the repair process will be faster because, apart from "doing more harm than good," they actually do some real work.
Only when the real battle begins will those latent problems all come to a head.
This is Tzeentch's style.
But what they didn't know was that everything they did was happening right under Rena's nose.
In terms of infiltration, Genestealer are among the most valuable in the entire galaxy.
Those Tzeentch Cultist thought they had done everything perfectly, but little did they know that every time they acted, more than one pair of eyes were watching them in the dark.
Rena's physical body is still slumbering deep within Twin Peaks Mountain, but her consciousness has already spread throughout Brevis via the Hive Mind.
Every Genestealer is her eyes, and every infected human is her tentacle.
The data modified by those Tzeentch Cultist was quietly changed back by another Genestealer priest in the next second.
Some of the swapped parts were replaced with brand new ones that same evening.
The corrupting traps buried in the files were also detected by Rena using her Psychic Power, and then thrown into the incinerator intact.
Dealing with these issues would be very troublesome if they were within the Imperium.
The modifications made by Tzeentch Cultist are extremely minor, and even if you spot a problem, you won't know how to fix it.
Because those parameters have already been adjusted to the "acceptable" boundary, adjusting them back might cause other data to exceed the limit.
In addition, they would leave behind " Tzeentch little tricks" in the places where they had tampered with things.
Those traps will mislead you, distort your thinking, and prevent you from seeing the problems.
It might even tempt you to delve deeper, sparking a tremendous curiosity about the unknown.
Until you find yourself hearing whispers from the Warp in your mind.