Warhammer: Black Emperor

Chapter 443 Star Ring STC
The high-caste commander in Gadinal was horrified to discover that the "Shadow of Order" was advancing much faster than he had anticipated after launching their attack.

The hellish firepower unleashed by the black ship dwarfed all of Gadinar's attacks.

The fleet continued at full speed, and he could hardly notice each loss.

Despite the efforts of the surveillance satellites and asteroid turrets to coordinate with the fleet and attempt to weaken the legion, they could not stop its lightning charge.

He stared blankly at the enormous void behemoth in the center of the vortex of destruction; even with the sensor array running at full power, it couldn't detect how many torpedoes it was unleashing into the void.

His meticulously constructed interception network, consisting of a satellite, five asteroids, and ten fast warships, was destroyed in the first wave of fire.

The burning wreckage of the voidship stung his eyes.

The high-caste commander gripped the experimental table tightly, a single thought occupying his mind.

[I really wish I had a powerful void fleet.]
At the same moment, Ning Lu stared at the holographic image.

Gadinar's void power was swiftly shattered.

This was destined five thousand years ago, when the dangerous subspace travel was abandoned and the Pocket Empire could no longer maintain its rule over star systems outside of its own.

The void power of the galaxy could not stop the advance of his legion.

On the second day of the Void War, the Ramirez-class Starfortress had already reached the orbit of the head of the Gadinar.

The First of Gadinar is the third planet from its star and the first of the eleven worlds to be colonized.

Nimrod led his guards to demand his first prize, and Gardiner's Star Ring boarded him.

The landing craft sped toward the low Earth orbit space station cluster around the equator. A massive orbital elevator system rose from the surface of the Gardiner, reaching into the sky and connecting to the orbital space station.

The rings at the head of the Gardiner are much smaller than the colossal rings of Mars and Medusa, but they still look amazing.

Flamini from the Sixth Squadron of Space Station Twenty stepped off the deck of a black landing craft.

Not long ago, when he had just become a "monster", a picture flashed through his mind, and he immediately identified the enemy running from the left-hand passage among the three passages: left, center, and right.

"Left side!"

The guards entered the passage on the left and passed through two cabins when Flamini suddenly shouted.

"Fire!"

The Shadow of Order raised its bedrock-type bomb gun and launched an attack.

A dense barrage of bullets erupted from the gun muzzle before the Void Caste even emerged.

But most of them missed their target, with the diamond bullets whizzing past the heads of the Void Caste, who were no taller than normal children.

Flamini paused for a moment, not expecting that his advance warning would not cause any damage.

The Void Caste raised their weapons and attacked the guards.

The Shadows of Order simultaneously lowered their guns, and the explosions tore through the black flesh.

The Void Castes surged in like a tide, blasting human plastic bodies into countless fragments, but their advance never faltered.

Within the bio-engineered body, after more than a hundred generations of evolution, absolute obedience to commands is paramount, regardless of any rationality or fear.

The military vice-consul's order to them was, "Go all out and kill every enemy."

The Void Castes, braving the dense barrage of bullets, raised their weapons and fired dazzling beams of light at the black-armored warriors.

Unlike their unarmored victims, the guards were equipped with the new Mark III power armor.

The reduction in rear armor results in a significant improvement in frontal protection, making it suitable for use in narrow corridor environments such as space stations.

Dense beams of energy shot onto the black armor, leaving only faint marks.

Flamini strode forward. Before the transformation, as a prophetic psychic, he already possessed keen senses. The surgery amplified his perception, and after becoming a "monster," the dramatic increase in his inspiration made him comparable to many barons of the royal court in this regard.

Flamini raised his archaeological pistol and fired energy collected from the planet's radiation layer.

Each scorching, deadly ray will pierce through several, or even a dozen, Void Castes.

He was immediately subjected to concentrated fire; the Void Caste, having evolved through generations, had long developed the habit of prioritizing the elimination of the most threatening targets.

Countless beams shot towards Flamini, with hundreds striking his heavy armor helmet.

The slant plate on the helmet is designed to deflect the fire to the left and right, and the flashing beams are deflected, scattering around like sparks from a cutting motion.

Flamini ascended to the fourth level of Magnus's mind, and at the same time tapped the runes on his waist. Dozens of runes lit up one by one, and the subspace circuit was activated.

The Mark III power armor recently deployed in "Shadow of Order" has only a few units equipped with one or more of the other modules.

As a royal monk, he was one of them.

Flamini used the Black Crow Techniques he learned from the think tank during this time to detach his mind from his body and achieve a transcendent state.

His mind gently turned the wheel; after he became a "monster," the new subspace image he found was the wheel.

As the roulette wheel spins, glimpses of the future appear and float around it.

The Black Crow's proactive foresight gave Flamini a keen sense of the near future, allowing him to detect the Void Caste rapidly passing through nearby passages in an attempt to flank and launch a surprise attack.

This poses a threat to the Shadow Order members clad in Mark III power armor with weakened back protection.

Flamini immediately issued orders to the "apprentices" in his squad via the communications channel.

The "apprentice" raised his hand and placed it on the passageway, opening a large door.

Two "arbitrators" rushed in first, crashing into the void caste and crushing their bodies.

Their blue and white hammers slammed into the ground, crushing the plastic human bodies of the Void Castes.

Flamini, with his precognitive vision and ability to anticipate the future, clearly read the pace of the battle.

The team advanced at a speed exceeding that of other assault teams.

Suddenly, a corner of the turntable in Flamini's line of sight shattered, revealing a scene.

[A psionicist! He's planted a psionic bomb in the power room! He's going to detonate the space station's power core.]
Flamini ran rapidly through a series of ominous images of the shattering turntable.

The images of the future and the present intertwined in his eyes, making his steps somewhat unsteady.

Seeing his erratic, left-right footsteps, the other shadowy figures couldn't help but feel a hint of worry in their dark eyes.

The psionic caste had just strode into the power room when they ran into a squad of black-armored warriors.

Before the psionic shield he raised could even cover his body, a dazzling beam of light shot towards him.

As the beam of light struck the psionic caste, blasting him into dust, Flamini felt as if stars were shattering within him, he thought to himself.

I became a real "monster".
Nimrod led his guards and captured the Star Ring of Gadinar within five days.

He stood in the control room of Space Station One, listening to the "archaeologist's" report.

“Father, we have discovered a completely new standard construction template for controllers in the modules that make up the control system.”

"Through it, all space stations will be connected together and become a whole."

Ning Lu smiled and nodded, "Well done."

[As a powerful pocket empire, Gadinal retains many STCs from the dark age of technology; the Star Ring STC is a good start.]
(End of this chapter)