“Astorath?” Dante stepped forward and respectfully received the parchment scroll from the astropathic serf.
He carefully broke the wax seal and unfurled the message.
As his eyes scanned the text, his brow furrowed into a deep, grim knot.
Seth and Canoness Amity stepped closer.
Upon reading the contents over Dante’s shoulder, their expressions mirrored his profound gravity.
“What does it say?” Vane asked, mildly curious.
“Forefather.” Dante held the scroll with both hands and presented it to Vane.
Vane took it and read.
[To the Lord Commander:] [Dire tidings from the Cadian Gate.
Abaddon’s offensive intensifies by the hour.
The sheer scale and ferocity of this Black Crusade surpass all previous calculations.] [The omens of the end times have manifested.
Apocalyptic auguries are visible everywhere.
The Daemon Primarchs have returned to the material universe, launching catastrophic offensives against countless Imperial worlds.] [Abominations of the Warp that should have been permanently banished have been sighted marching among the Traitor legions.
Skarbrand, Kairos Fateweaver, Ku’gath Plaguefather—these terrifying entities have all been confirmed on the battlefield.] [The Diamor System has also come under heavy assault.
The Tech-Priests of Mars have been conducting deep-core excavations there, and they have uncovered something of absolute, paramount importance.
Something that could fundamentally alter the course of our future.] [The Traitors have launched a frenzied attack specifically to halt the excavation.
Whatever artifact lies buried there, we must ensure it remains in Imperial hands.] [I, alongside the Fifth Company, the ‘Daemonbanes’, have deployed to Diamor.
However, our numbers are woefully insufficient.] [I beseech you to dispatch immediate reinforcements to aid in the defense of Diamor.
If the enemy breaks the Cadian Gate, Holy Terra itself will be exposed.] [This war was started by our ancestors; it is our sacred duty to end it.] [If you receive this astropathic transmission, please respond with all haste.] [Your most loyal servant, Astorath.] The Thirteenth Black Crusade, huh?
Vane muttered inwardly as he rolled up the parchment.
He had a solid grasp of this specific, pivotal event in Warhammer lore.
It was the single largest mobilization of military force by both the Imperium and Chaos since the Horus Heresy ten thousand years ago.
The two superpowers engaged in an apocalyptic, meat-grinder war of attrition across the heavily fortified Cadian sector.
The Adeptus Astartes, Adepta Sororitas, Collegia Titanica, Knight Houses, and the Imperial Navy all deployed en masse.
The fighting was so cataclysmic the casualties piled high enough to form new mountain ranges.
Relying on its terrifying logistical resilience, the Imperium managed to drag the campaign into a grueling stalemate.
Abaddon, completely failing to secure a decisive victory and rapidly bleeding logistical momentum, threw a tantrum.
In a fit of desperate, apocalyptic rage, he crashed a colossal Blackstone Fortress directly into the planet Cadia.
That single action completely inverted the tactical reality of the galaxy.
The impact violently shattered the ancient Necron Blackstone pylons on Cadia’s surface—the exact mechanisms that were holding back the Warp.
With the pylons destroyed, the planet was ripped apart, and the Eye of Terror expanded uncontrollably.
A catastrophic tidal wave of Warp energy violently tore the Milky Way entirely in half, forming the Great Rift (the Cicatrix Maledictum) and plunging countless worlds into the literal abyss.
From that moment on, the galaxy entered its absolute darkest, most terrifying era: the End Times.
“Forefather, should we redirect our forces to reinforce Cadia immediately?” Dante asked.
Vane shook his head.
“Abaddon has been planning this specific strike for ten thousand years.
The fall of Cadia is a canon event.
Even if we deployed right now, we couldn’t alter the outcome.” “Cadia is guaranteed to fall?!” General Dhrost violently shot to his feet.
“That is impossible!
It is the most heavily fortified bastion in the entire galaxy, second only to Holy Terra itself!” “The true strategic importance of the Cadian Gate goes far beyond military fortifications.
It is the absolute linchpin preventing the Chaos Gods from flooding the material universe,” Vane explained, waving his hand to project a holographic map of the Milky Way, brightly highlighting the planet Cadia.
“The previous twelve Black Crusades Abaddon launched weren’t random acts of violence.
His ultimate goal has always been to systematically destroy the galactic pylon network, fracturing reality itself to allow the Warp to bleed into realspace.” “He has already achieved the vast majority of his objectives.
Cadia is the final lock.
Once he shatters it, his ten-thousand-year grand design succeeds.” “Forefather, how do you possess such intimate knowledge of the Arch-Traitor’s grand strategy?” Dhrost asked, completely bewildered.
“You are merely a baseline mortal.
The sheer metaphysical scope of my existence is beyond your comprehension.
Explaining it would fry your brain,” Vane casually brushed the question off with his standard ‘I am an omnipotent deity, do not question me’ excuse before pivoting back to the tactical reality.
“Deploying to Cadia right now is a complete waste of time.
We can’t change anything.” The Cryptus System was completely smothered by the Shadow in the Warp, and the Immaterium itself was currently convulsing with apocalyptic warp storms.
God only knows how long it would take to actually translate into the Cadian sector.
Furthermore, his mobile fortress didn’t have a Warp Drive or a Gellar Field installed.
It literally couldn’t enter the Warp.
What am I supposed to do?
Manually fly there using conventional sub-light thrusters?
By the time I arrive, Abaddon will have already shattered Cadia into asteroid dust!
If he wanted to install a Warp Drive and a Gellar Field on the mobile fortress, he would have to completely restructure the base’s modular grid, which would take an astronomical amount of time.
Additionally, Dhrost’s Astra Militarum forces hadn’t received their gear upgrades yet.
Sending them into the meat grinder of the Thirteenth Black Crusade with standard flak armor was basically mass execution.
And even if you combined the Blood Angels and the Flesh Tearers, a few hundred Astartes wouldn’t even make a microscopic dent in the scale of the Cadian conflict.
It was vastly more efficient to completely wipe out the Tyranid infestation in Cryptus, fully overhaul and upgrade the Imperial armies here, and then march on Abaddon’s traitor legions.
Besides, Abaddon wasn’t the real problem—the four Chaos Gods were.
The moment Vane deployed to Cadia, he would be stepping directly onto the Chaos Gods’ primary chessboard.
He hadn’t fully crafted his conceptual, reality-breaking superweapons yet.
Going toe-to-toe with the Big Four without his absolute best endgame gear felt unnecessarily risky.
“Since the Forefather has spoken, we shall prioritize the total annihilation of Hive Fleet Leviathan here in Cryptus before we discuss reinforcing Cadia,” Dante immediately stepped forward, fully backing Vane’s decision.
After all, the Baal System was right next door to Cryptus.
If the Forefather left for Cadia now, Leviathan would immediately resume its advance straight toward the Blood Angels’ homeworld.
“But what about Cadia?” Dhrost asked, his face etched with profound grief.
“In this dark millennium, we cannot save everyone.
But I give you my absolute word,” Vane looked directly at the General.
“If Cadia is shattered, I will personally build you a brand-new one.” Vane’s promise instantly sent a shockwave of frantic whispers through the command staff.
Just how incomprehensibly powerful is the Forefather, to speak of physically forging an entire planet as if he were discussing building a tent?!
With the strategic direction finalized, the Blood Angel and Flesh Tearer fleets executed hit-and-run strikes against the Tyranid bio-ships attempting to harvest biomass, severely bleeding the Hive Mind’s logistical operations.
Simultaneously, Dante and Seth ordered their Astropaths to broadcast continuous, high-intensity distress signals into the void, desperately requesting manpower reinforcements.
The Hive Mind, operating on pure, cold biological calculus, clearly recognized the human strategy.
It realized that remaining bogged down in the Cryptus System was yielding diminishing returns.
The majority of the biosphere had already been consumed, and the remaining Imperial forces were proving too heavily fortified to crack efficiently.
It calculated that abandoning Cryptus and proceeding directly to the Baal System to consume the Blood Angels and absorb the highly potent genetic material of Sanguinius was the optimal strategic move.
To prevent Leviathan from leaving the system, Vane aggressively spammed Bone Meal across the surface of Phodia, instantly force-growing massive, continent-spanning jungles.
He then bred millions of livestock using the harvested crops.
Using physics-defying Minecraft mechanics that Dante and the others couldn’t even begin to comprehend, Vane artificially terraformed Phodia back into a violently hyper-vibrant, biomass-rich paradise.
The sheer density of the sudden biological explosion acted as an irresistible lure, completely short-circuiting the Hive Mind’s tactical algorithms and forcing it to keep Leviathan anchored in Cryptus to harvest the feast.
With Leviathan successfully pinned, Vane used a Linking Book to return to the mobile fortress and prepare it for orbital deployment.
All the void thruster modules had been successfully installed and calibrated.
Vane slammed the primary ignition rune.
A deafening, earth-shattering roar echoed from the bedrock beneath the fortress.
Under the awestruck gazes of millions of Imperial citizens and soldiers, the city-sized mobile fortress slowly lifted off the ground, ascending majestically into the sky before seamlessly parking itself in high orbit.
The sheer mass and firepower of the mobile fortress rivaled the legendary Phalanx of the Imperial Fists.
bristling with macro-cannons and hyper-advanced weaponry.
The moment it entered the void, it instantly became the undisputed flagship of the Imperial defense fleet, holding the line against the Tyranid bio-ships.
Meanwhile, exactly seventy-two hours later, true to his word, the automated manufactorums Vane promised came fully online.
The production lines roared to life, churning out advanced military wargear at a terrifying pace.
The very first batch of standard-issue, mortal-pattern power armor and weaponry was ready for deployment.
“Are…
are all of these truly for us?” General Dhrost stared at the endless, perfectly aligned rows of power armor, his eyes practically bulging out of his skull.
“Yes,” Vane nodded.
“This is standard-issue infantry gear.
Everyone gets a suit.
It utilizes an advanced, kinetic-sync servo-system to massively enhance combat survivability and physical strength.” “The heavy-assault variants even come with integrated shoulder-mounted plasma casters, providing squads with localized, high-yield anti-armor capabilities.” “With wargear of this caliber, the combat effectiveness of the Astra Militarum will increase exponentially,” Dante remarked, his eyes widening in genuine astonishment as he examined the gear.
“Is this merely a glimpse of the Golden Age of Technology?
To equip baseline mortal infantry with such hyper-advanced combat suits…” Seth marveled after receiving a full technical breakdown from a Techmarine.
No wonder the Forefather constantly brags about humanity conquering the galaxy and beating every other race into submission during the Golden Age.
With standard-issue gear like this?
It definitely wasn’t an exaggeration.