Warhammer 40K in a box

Chapter 572 Escaping the Ruins
Maria's knight mech became a savior in the critical moment. When a "hill" made up of broken giant pipes and twisted metal frames completely blocked the main passage, the molten cannon on the shoulder of the "Radiant Sentinel" roared deafeningly once again! The incandescent energy torrent instantly melted through the core of the barrier, and Guterres seized the opportunity to lead his team into the molten gap, forcibly widening the passage with power weapons and explosives. The mech's heavy footsteps pounded the trembling ground, each step causing a small collapse, but also carving a path for the team to survive.

The collapse intensified. The once dizzying non-Euclidean passage had become a death trap. The gravitational field shifted wildly; one moment you were struggling to walk, the next you could be flung into the air. Spatial folding tore apart and displaced adjacent passages, revealing bottomless abysses of void below. The remaining energy nodes on the walls, like the ganglia of a dying beast, frantically spewed out uncontrolled streams of particles and arcs of electricity, indiscriminately attacking everything in their path. The air was filled with ozone, molten metal, dust, and a low-frequency noise, like the dying screams of a planet, emitted as a structure completely disintegrated.

"Quick! The exit is just ahead!" Guterres's voice boomed through the communication channel, filled with the smell of gunpowder. Through the billowing smoke and distorted light, one could vaguely see the chaotic yet vibrant frozen spacetime at the entrance to the "Pioneer's Throat" rift, and further away, the navigation lights flashing on the hulls of the "Iron Will" and the "Purifying Fire".

However, less than 100 meters from the exit, another anomaly occurred!

A glint of madness flashed in Inquisitor Warren's eyes. He suddenly roared into the communicator, "For the Emperor! The purification must not fail! Battle Sisters! Seize that blasphemous box! We cannot allow this heretical creation to leave this place!" At the last moment, he even attempted to forcibly seize the imprisonment box, even at the cost of destroying it in the collapsing ruins!
Without the slightest hesitation, Captain Eliza and her nuns' fervent faith instantly overwhelmed their fragile cooperation! They abruptly turned their guns, unleashing beams of scorching energy and explosive rounds from their incendiary guns towards the Death Watch warriors and technical priests guarding the imprisonment box! Simultaneously, several combat nuns, like black lightning, pounced on the engineering machinery pulling the imprisonment box!
"Traitor!" Guterres' roar was like thunder! His massive body instantly blocked the deadly fire aimed at the imprisonment box, blinding sparks erupting from his adamantite power armor! The members of the Titus squad reacted swiftly, their explosive guns roaring as they launched a suppressive counterattack! Maria's knight mech whirled around, its molten cannon instantly charging, its blazing white light locking onto the battle nun charging at the forefront!

A chaotic battle erupted instantly in the collapsed passageway! The silver-gray of the Death Watchers clashed with the pitch-black of the Inquisition, the roar of explosives, the whistling of chainswords, the howling of incinerating flames, and the deafening crash of collapsing ruins weaving a symphony of death. The imprisonment box shook violently in the melee, its mechanical arm emitting a piercing alarm.

Feralus's silver-grey eyes flashed with a chilling light! Ignoring the stray bullets aimed at her, her massive form smashed through the rubble like a war chariot, stomping to the side of the imprisonment box! A giant hand covered in "Gorgon Skin" slammed down on the box, instantly releasing a powerful force field that temporarily stabilized the swaying object. Her voice, amplified through the loudspeaker, like a cold, final pronouncement, drowned out all other noise:
"Warren! Your folly will destroy everyone! Cease the attack immediately! Otherwise, in the name of the Emperor, I authorize Captain Guterres to...purify you and your disobedient followers on the spot!"

Her gaze, like a tangible icicle, pierced Warren. The absolute pressure and chilling killing intent of the Primarch within it instantly froze even the fanatical Inquisitor's soul. At the same time, Liz abruptly expanded her "Void" field. The icy emptiness slammed into the chaotic battle zone like a heavy hammer, instantly suppressing the senses of all psionicists and causing the mortal soldiers to freeze for a moment and experience a soul-splitting pain.

Warren's face was contorted with rage as he looked at the nun staggering in agony beneath Liz's force field, then at Felus's unyielding figure, Guterres's explosive gun aimed at his head, and the massive, burning debris falling from above. Ultimately, humiliation and the instinct for survival once again overwhelmed the urge to destroy. He let out a wounded beast's roar: "Ceasefire! Retreat! Get out of this hellhole!"

The melee abruptly ended, but a chilling hostility permeated the air like venom. Both sides quickly disengaged, carrying the wounded, and amidst the even more violent collapse, scrambled towards the nearby, yet perilous, exit of the rift.

As the last warrior scrambled out of the twisted entrance to the ruins and stepped onto the frozen spacetime matrix, a muffled, deafening roar, as if the entire universe were sighing, came from behind him.

The magnificent yet eerie non-Euclidean entrance structure of "Pioneer-IV," like a glass sculpture shattered by an invisible giant hand, collapsed and annihilated completely in a silent flash! A violent surge of energy erupted from the breach like a burst dam, engulfing the entrance area and instantly tearing the remaining defensive structures and the automated turrets that couldn't be evacuated into primordial particles! A massive, ever-expanding spatial vortex formed on the original site of the ruins, greedily devouring all surrounding matter and light, leaving only a continuously expanding, chilling void scar.

The two teams stood exhausted and wounded amidst the raging energy turbulence and flying debris, their hostility more chilling than the Kuiper Belt's frigid air. The imprisonment box—"Blackrock Cage-7"—stood silently within the Death Watch's tight guard, like a sleeping nightmare.

Feralas glanced one last time at the churning spatial vortex that had devoured the ruins, and deep within her silver-grey eyes, the unseen stream of data silently vanished. She turned to her ship, her voice piercing the howling void storm:

"'Iron Will', prepare for takeover. Return to Rostov. High alert."

The heavy confinement crates were slowly dragged towards the landing craft by engineering machinery. Behind them, the "Throat of the Pioneers" rift groaned in the aftershocks of the ruins' collapse, while the cold geometric projection of the "Watcher" seemed to still float in the now-vanished core chamber, leaving behind a final, unresolved logical loop in the utterly annihilated torrent of data, like a silent, cold period.

The journey home is still long and fraught with danger.

(End of this chapter)