Warhammer 40K in a box

Chapter 559 Compromise
Judge Warren's declaration acted as a fuse, instantly igniting the already tense standoff.

The air froze, filled with murderous intent.

The massive laser cannon array on the bow of the "Purifying Fire" was glowing brightly white as it charged, ready to fire.

The entire Deathwatch team was on edge. Guterres's adamantite-armored fingers hovered over the weapon activation command, the slight tremor of his knuckles a silent countdown to the final ultimatum.

On the lower deck, the joint locking valves of the Maria Knight mech hummed as they released, and the engine emitted a deep roar.

However, at the very moment when their wills clashed to their peak, a sudden change occurred!
The object of contention between the two sides—the twisted, massive entrance to the "Pioneer-IV" ruins—is by no means inanimate.

A torrent of purplish-black energy, enough to send shivers down one's spine, suddenly burst forth from the depths of the entrance!

Om-!
An invisible, pure energy curtain instantly formed, like an inverted giant bowl, with purplish-black light flowing through its patterns, completely sealing off the entire exit of the "Pioneer's Throat" rift.

The barrier's structure is so intricate and complex that it inspires despair, radiating a chilling sense of rejection.

The instant it was generated, the spatial distortion field violently vibrated, and the hulls of the nearby "Purifying Flame" and "Iron Will" shook violently, their engines emitting a piercing metallic wail, as if being choked by an invisible giant hand.

But this is just the prelude!
A powerful, chaotic, and purely malicious warp wave, like a devastating tsunami, erupted from the core of the ruins and swept across the canyon!
This wave ignored physical defenses and directly impacted all beings with souls.

The bridge of the "Purifying Flame" was the first to be hit.

The chief psionicist on board the ship, who was wearing a psionic amplification robe behind Warren, let out a shrill scream as if his skull was cracking, and blood instantly seeped from his seven orifices!
He clutched his head with both hands, convulsing violently, on the verge of a mental breakdown.

An out-of-control psychic ripple created a small storm on the bridge, with sparks flying from instruments.

Two fighting nuns quickly stepped forward, attempting to subdue him with prayers and restraints.

Judge Warren's face was ashen, his authority torn apart by shock and rage.

Inside the ship's passageway, some stormtroopers cried out in terror, as if witnessing an abyss illusion. Their orderly ranks trembled, and sporadic, untargeted explosions of explosive guns rang out in the passageway, causing chaos and friendly fire.

The combat nun squad sang hymns loudly in an attempt to stabilize morale, but their hoarse voices sounded weak and powerless under the weight of their souls.

Even the most resolute fighting nun felt her soul being crushed by a boulder.

Their mental barriers trembled violently, and the hymns became hoarse and intermittent.

His knuckles were white as he gripped his weapon, and cold sweat beaded on his forehead. He barely managed to maintain his formation with his steely will, but his fighting ability had been greatly diminished.

The bridge of the "Iron Will" was also swept by the terrifying wave.

The lights flashed wildly, the low-level servants emitted meaningless groans, and the technical priest's screen flickered and displayed garbled characters.

The Sage Oregana's mechanical prosthetic eye flashed rapidly, and multiple servo arms operated frantically on the control panel.

The moment the wave struck, Liz, who had been standing like a silent statue at the edge of the bridge, suddenly looked up!
Beneath the hood, his cold eyes flashed with an unprecedented sharpness!
The suffocating "emptiness" force field that had been surrounding her suddenly erupted!
Om-!
A chilling, absolute sense of nothingness suddenly spread from Liz's core!
She forcibly expanded the force field to its limit, barely covering the core command area of ​​the bridge—encompassing the key service units of Ferrus, Oregana, Guterres, the Carleon Think Tank, and the Great Sage of Caul! This area was instantly shrouded in an indescribable "paleness," the air seemed to stagnate, and the light dimmed.

The Deathwatch warriors within the area felt a strong sense of soul detachment, their thoughts becoming cold and sluggish, but this also isolated them from the direct erosion of the violent warp fluctuations, allowing their consciousness to return to its cold core.

The uncovered area outside the bridge was in chaos, with technical servants and machine servants experiencing varying degrees of confusion and malfunction.

"My lord! The barrier's properties are unknown! The structural strength cannot be estimated! The source of the subspace fluctuations clearly points to the core of the ruins, and strong indications suggest that its internal defense mechanism has been activated or its energy balance has been severely disrupted! The fluctuations carry characteristics of mental pollution and reality distortion!" Aurejana's voice rang out under the protection of the force field, speaking at an extremely fast pace, while the mechanical cat hummed with high-speed calculations.

Caul's massive body trembled at the edge of the force field, his multiple double eyes flashing blue, and his deep voice boomed through the encrypted channel: "The barrier contains psionic guiding nodes...deeply coupled with physical energy circuits...preliminary breakthrough: precise frequency calibration psionic flow needs to be injected at a specific point on the barrier, while simultaneously physically overloading the secondary energy nodes in its external structure! The two must be synchronized at the millisecond level! The error tolerance is extremely low! Failure means destruction!"

In Felus's silver-grey eyes, the Primarch's absolute rationality burned coldly.

She ignored Warren's distorted, furious face on the main communications screen, contorted with shock and rage at the sight of his men's horrific state, and ignored the faint sounds of explosions and chaos emanating from the Inquisition ships outside the barrier.

The brain, like a sophisticated logic engine, instantly integrated the analytical data of Oregana and Kaul with the battlefield situation, and an extremely dangerous but only feasible solution was formed.

Ferrus's voice, cold and emotionless, pierced through the ship's loudspeakers, echoing across the bridge of the "Iron Will" and reaching the "Purifying Fire" on the other end of the communication line:
"Inquisitor Warren. The barrier seals all paths to survival. Your psionicist has not completely collapsed; he is one of the only keys to opening the barrier."

Her gaze seemed to pierce through the screen and the turbulent energy, looking directly into the flames of humiliation in Warren's eyes.

"Cooperation. Together, we will open the barrier and enter the ruins. Refusal—"

Her voice was like a final pronouncement, “—Buried here with your team. Choose. Countdown: ten.”

Warren's face instantly turned from crimson to ashen.

He glanced around the bridge: the psionicists on the verge of collapse, suppressed by the battle nuns; the stormtroopers caught in the chaos of the surveillance footage; and the battle nuns beside him, their hymns faint and barely audible.

Looking again at the eerie empty space inside the bridge of the "Iron Will" ship, the well-equipped and well-organized Death Watchers stood like a rock; Liz, who was under close guard, was as pale as paper, with beads of sweat sliding down her face, but her eyes were cold and firm, like the last rock anchored to reality.

A profound sense of humiliation and chilling despair gripped him.

His proud authority as a court of judges proved utterly inadequate in the face of this ancient, unknown terror.

The hope of survival had to be placed on the very people he denounced as "heretics".

He gritted his teeth so hard that his gums almost bled, and a low growl like that of a wounded beast escaped his throat.

As Ferrus counted down "five...four...", he squeezed out a single word with great difficulty: "...cooperation."

Then, he dejectedly waved to the battle nun captain beside him, whose face was equally pale but whose eyes burned with fanatical faith.

The captain of the nuns immediately understood this humiliating compromise and, in his place, raised the order, her voice filled with resentment and indignation, but also with a do-or-die determination: "Battle nuns! Protect the technical team and the psionicists! Hold off... on purifying the heretics... obey Lord Astartes' tactical orders!"

(End of this chapter)