Warhammer 40K in a box

Chapter 571 Ruins Collapse
The following process was like defusing a bomb with a detonating fuse—tense and suffocating, as the countdown to detonation had already begun.

Under the precise control of the tech priest, the robotic arm carefully disconnected the sphere from the base of the ruins.

Every tiny cut, every break in the energy circuit, was accompanied by Oregana's urgent warnings and Kaul's deep hum.

"Structural stress on the upper left wing exceeds the limit! Avoid it!"

"The moment the energy circuit breaks, it causes local gravitational distortion! Stabilize the posture!"

"Physical connection points release residual stress! Vibration conduction!"

Guterres stood guard beside the confinement box like a rock, his power axe blade lowered, his crimson goggles scanning every massive structure or flying fragment that might fall due to the collapse.

The Deathwatch squad members spread out in unison, using their power armor or shields to provide physical cover for the tech team.

Maria's "Radiant Sentinel" knight mech served as a temporary support pillar, its massive mechanical arm bracing against a tunnel beam that emitted a piercing metallic groan and was on the verge of collapse, while the joint servos groaned in despair under the strain.

Sweat soaked the hair of the Tech Priests, and even Warren held his breath, his knuckles white as he gripped the Hellfire Gun, staring intently at the core sphere that was gradually detaching from its base.

As the heavy core sphere was finally lifted intact by the robotic arm and detached from the base interface, a deafening roar, like the shattering of a planet's core, echoed from the depths of the ruins!
The entire sealed room shook violently!

Large swaths of dark composite material peeled off from the dome, crashing to the ground and shattering, revealing the twisted and broken metal skeleton beneath.

The non-Euclidean channel structure begins to twist and fold within the visible range, like crumpled paper!

"Quick!" Aurejana's synthesized voice almost screamed, "Put it into the imprisonment box! The path is failing!"

A heavy-duty confinement box that had been prepared beforehand was pushed forward.

The box itself is a mobile fortress: it is made of several meters thick adamantite, its surface etched with dense imperial holy seals and anti-psychic runes, gleaming coldly under the falling dust and flickering emergency light; the inner lining is made of anti-psychic black stone that can suppress psychic fluctuations, exuding a sense of "emptiness" that makes the soul uncomfortable; inside the box, multiple layers of suppression field generators of different frequencies have been activated and are ready to go.

The core was placed into the central recess of the confinement box with extreme slowness and smoothness.

The multi-layered structure of the enclosure began to close under the intense vibration, emitting a heavy and urgent metallic clanging sound.

First came the physical lock—the heavy adamantium pins, driven by hydraulic pressure, made a dull thud as they embedded themselves layer by layer; next came the genetic lock—Guterres stepped forward and pressed his armored hand heavily onto the identification panel, the cold scanning light sweeping across his genetic code; finally, the psionic lock—under the cover of Liz's further enhanced "emptiness" field, Carleon condensed a pure psionic mark of order and precisely injected it into a specific rune node.

Once each layer of locking is completed, the indicator light on the surface of the confinement box changes from flashing yellow to a stable green.

"Imprisonment procedure complete! 'Blackrock Cage-7' is now in standby mode!" Allegana's voice was almost drowned out by the deafening crash of the collapse.

The instant the confinement box was completely locked, the power backpack on Feralas's back emitted an extremely faint servo hum. Several silver-gray data probes, thinner than a hair, silently and swiftly sprang out like living metal tentacles, precisely piercing the relic base interface that had just detached from the core and was violently twisting and emitting unstable electrical sparks!
Deep within her silver-gray eyes, data streams flashed at a supernova-like speed for only a few seconds!

Immediately, the probe retracted decisively, shrinking back into the backpack as if it had never existed.

This clandestine action was perfectly concealed by the chaos of the collapse.

"The entire structure of 'Pioneer-IV' is completely out of control! The collapse is accelerating! The estimated time for complete disintegration... cannot be calculated precisely, but it is far less than 117 hours!" Aurejana's voice was filled with urgency. "The return route is blocked or twisted in many places! We must evacuate immediately!"

Felus's gaze swept over the steel coffin-like imprisonment box, then looked at the path of death leading out of the ruins, now filled with smoke, flying metal fragments, and distorted spatial ripples.

Her voice pierced through the chaos, cold and clear:
"Target acquired. Evacuation sequence: Death Watch leads the way for clearing obstacles, technical team in the center, Inquisition brings up the rear. Sister Liz maintains the force field, covering the core area! Knight Maria, provide mobile support, clear large obstacles! Execute!"

The heavy straitjackets began to move under the traction of the engineering machinery, emitting a harsh metallic scraping sound.

The team tensed up again and changed direction.

Guterres took the lead, his power axe roaring as it cleaved a massive metal plate, burning with sparks of energy, that had fallen from above the passageway in two!

The Titus squad followed closely behind, their bomb guns spitting fire as they blasted away more fragments of the defensive structures that had emerged from the crumbling walls and gone completely out of control due to the system crash.

Deathwatch is like a silver-gray battering ram, forcibly carving a path through the collapsing maze.

Olegana and Kaul's technical team surrounded the confinement box, while the technical priests manipulated servo-driven robotic arms, struggling to push aside smaller obstacles or erect temporary support structures.

Warren's battle nuns and the remaining stormtroopers followed closely behind, covering the dangers coming from the flanks and rear.

Captain Eliza loudly directed the nuns to use incinerators to burn the energy streams that were trying to entangle them or dissolve the molten metal blocking the passage, but their eyes kept glancing at the imprisonment box in front of them and Felus's back, filled with resentment and vigilance.

Liz walked beside the confinement box, her "emptiness" force field compressed into a pale sphere tightly attached to the box, stubbornly resisting the subspace energy turbulence that had become even more violent and chaotic due to the structural collapse.

Each massive collapse sent her body trembling violently, and cold sweat seeped out from under her mask, but she gritted her teeth, her eyes as cold as ice.

Carleon followed closely behind, his psionic senses scanning the area ahead like searchlights, issuing early warnings of potential spatial distortion traps or sources of mental contamination: "Intersection of passages ahead! Unstable spatial folds! Turn left to avoid it!" "Right flank wall! Residual defensive node overloaded and exploded! Take cover!"

Maria's knight mech became her savior at the critical moment.

When a "hill" made up of broken giant pipes and twisted metal frames completely blocked the main passage, the heat-melting cannons on the shoulders of the "Radiant Sentinel" roared deafeningly once again!

(End of this chapter)