Warhammer: Striving to Be a Grinding Man

Chapter 175 Relay Star 945.M41

Garros.

The psionic focusing antenna of the Star Language Relay Tower continued to operate in the vacuum, and the dark gold runes of the hexagram protective array pulsated slowly along the inner wall of the tower. In the main control room, the lead singer Morlock sat on the central pedestal, maintaining continuous monitoring of subspace signals in the dim light of the psionic focusing pedestal.

In the early hours of the morning, a psionic pulse emerged from the subspace turbulence. The waveform was stable, the encoding format was standard for the Garros fleet, and the directionality was clear—it came from the Garros Foundry Director. Morlock's hand rested on the interface panel of the receiver array, and psionic decoding was completed quickly.

"Commander-in-Chief's order: Third Fleet, departure confirmed. All other forces return to normal defensive positions." His voice was relayed to the Galos Fleet Command via the main communication array of the Star Language Relay Tower. "System name: 'Shattered,' system coordinates received."

J

Garros Fleet Command, Wangshu Bridge. Staff officers are coordinating duty shifts. Edric, captain of the HMS Fireseed and coordinator of the Garros Fleet Joint Conference, begins issuing orders to Commander Henris of the Third Fleet. Having maintained combat readiness for a full month, the Third Fleet sets sail, while the remaining forces return to normal formation.

The Garros Third Squadron consists of nineteen ships. Two Luna-class cruisers—the Glory and the newly commissioned Sawtooth—are painted crimson, their gear and skull insignia gleaming coldly in the berth lights. Twelve Wanderer-class transport ships, the smallest in size, are densely moored at the rear of the formation. These twelve are older ships, retaining their warp engines and Geller Fields, suitable for this long voyage. Upon arrival, they will be used for intra-network and intra-system transport; this is their final destination. Three Sword-class frigates maintain a perimeter guard position, while two light cruisers accompany the Luna-class ships on either side.

This fleet wasn't formed for combat; it was a colonial fleet. The cargo holds were loaded with engineering servants, prefabricated building modules, a contingent of five reserve regiments converted from frigates, a team of mechanical monks led by a high priest, and enough supplies to last for months. In the cargo holds of the nineteen ships, the servant modules were secured in their slots, prefabricated ceramic steel plates were neatly stacked, and life support system pipes and interfaces were sealed in airtight containers, layer upon layer filling every inch of space.

Six hours later, the formation set sail from its berth on the outer edge of Wangshu, its guide lights switching from blue to green. The thrusters ignited, leaving nineteen parallel blue streaks in the sky as the formation headed towards Mandeville Point. After a month-long subspace voyage, they would arrive at their new home.

As the astronomical signal was being sent, work was already continuing on the other side of the network.

As the third squadron of Garros set sail, Cohen had already begun working in the deep space of the shattered star system.

After a month, the initial work was roughly completed, and the details will be handed over to the technical priest team in Garros.

He chose an asteroid about 300 kilometers in diameter, similar in size to Wangshu, and named it "Zhongzhuanxing" (Transit Star). It is located in the inner part of the middle section of the asteroid belt, and its surface is covered with dark gray rocks and metallic deposits. In the oblique illumination of the star, it reflects almost no light and is indistinguishable from the tens of thousands of fragments around it.

Cohen deployed a shadow field array on the outer surface of the transit star, consisting of twelve generators evenly distributed across its surface. Each generator was embedded in the rock strata, secured with an adamantite framework, and covered with a newly laid rock layer, leaving no visible artificial traces. Once activated, the twelve generators formed a layered energy field, compressing the asteroid's thermal signals and electromagnetic radiation to background noise levels. To the ship's sensors, it appeared as just an ordinary rocky asteroid.

The interior was hollow. Cohen cut into the asteroid from a hidden depression near the equator. He dissected the rock while sculpting an adamantine framework, locking the loose rock layers segment by segment. The passage was twenty kilometers in diameter, large enough for most ships to pass through. At intervals along the walls were adamantine support rings, connected by longitudinal ribs. Navigation lights lined the walls, casting a chain of light extending inward in the darkness.

At the end of the passage lies a cavity—a spherical space over a hundred kilometers in diameter, large enough to accommodate a fleet. The cavity is supported by an adamantite framework, with countless circular ribs converging within to form a rugged, grand dome. The exposed rock strata gleam with a dull gray sheen under the cold white light, and lighting fixtures are embedded in the rock walls, their arcs forming converging patterns of light. Numerous platform spaces are embedded in the walls; the gravity system, energy system, and living quarters are already in place—crude, but sufficient for the subsequent arrival of engineers and servants to complete and perfect.

Three large doors to the net passageway are already in place at three points in the huge cavity.

These are all standard secondary gates of Garros—spiritual bone frames, psionic conduits, pre-loaded verification protocols, and activation waveforms written into the gate frame structure. Each gate is three kilometers high and three kilometers wide, and all are activated. Void ripples pulsate steadily within the gate frames, and cold white psionic light refracts between the rough rock walls, enveloping the entire cavity in a chilling glow that blends technology and mystery.

All three doors opened simultaneously, with the corresponding main doors waiting in three different directions deep within the network.

The first door corresponds to node 0124, the main gate. This is the door through which Cohen ambushed the Dark Eldar fleet and passed, opening the path to Garros Network Harbor and the Eternal Bastion. The Pale Judgment has passed through this door several times, confirming the connection is clear. This is currently the only node with complete information, marked as "Connected & Active".

The second door corresponds to node 0197, the main gate. Cohen discovered it during his exploration. The coordinates of the secondary gate corresponding to the main gate are unknown—it's merely an ancient gate embedded in the network wall, without a corresponding exit in the real universe. After entering through the main gate, he found that the internal hub's height was comparable to the nodes he had previously fought, with a dome height of approximately 300 kilometers. Three hundred-kilometer-class tunnels extend from this hub and have not yet been explored. Based on the rescued personnel's navigation memories and the timeline of the Maraudon attack, one of the tunnels likely leads towards Maraudon—the Dark Eldar raiding fleet probably used this route to travel back and forth. He marked it as "Unexplored - Priority".

The third door corresponds to node 0198, the main door. Cohen only entered it once, and then marked it as "Extremely Dangerous - Prospective for Later Exploration".

As he entered the door, the cold, psionic light within the network attenuated at the doorway. The instant he stepped across, he saw not the regularly arranged sacred bone structures of the network walls, but pure darkness. The vision-extending array completely failed for the first few seconds after he passed through, as there was no signal to receive in his field of vision.

He continued forward. The field of vision array slowly recovered, beginning to capture extremely faint outlines. Those outlines emanated from dark purple subspace energy, seeping in from the cracks in the fractured walls, glowing eerily in the darkness, like the light of decaying creatures. Illuminated by this faint light, he gradually became able to discern the distant ruins.

Then he saw several remnants of the sacred bone structure, glowing with an extremely faint white light in the darkness, like the wreckage of a lighthouse sunk into the deep sea. But those structures were broken, twisted, and deformed, unable to form a complete wall. Cohen flew forward a distance, the field unfolding, his perception filled only with emptiness. The sacred bones were beyond his conscious perception, so distant they seemed like an echo from another dimension. The walls of the network disappeared, the dome disappeared—all the structures that the network should have had vanished. Only darkness remained, pure, boundless darkness, the temperature approaching absolute zero, the sense of space constantly shifting.

This was a collapsed Web Harbor, a colossal structure pierced from the outside by some force and subsequently eroded and devoured from within by the warp. Its scale far exceeded that of Garros Web Harbor, its exact dimensions immeasurable; the living remains of the Holy Relic were confined to the tens of kilometers of crumbling ruins beneath his feet. Dark purple warp energy slowly seeped into the fractured edges of the walls, like pus oozing from a wound, gleaming faintly in the darkness.

The first thing he sensed was that the field was functioning automatically. The dark purple energy was decomposed, stripped away, and transformed into an atomic cloud the instant it touched the field's boundary, silently surging into the warehouse. Like water flowing into a dried-up riverbed, it was continuous, stable, and unstoppable. He had become accustomed to this passive decomposition within the network; it had become part of the background, as conscious as breathing.

But this time, the scale is completely different.

Dark purple energy surged from every crack in the fractured walls, poured down from the gaps in the collapsed dome, and seeped from every inch of the sacred bone remnants beneath his feet. The rate of decomposition of the field was increasing, and the reserves in the warehouse were growing—then he sensed something more subtle—something else noticed the anomaly. Like an inappropriate ripple appearing on the surface of water in the darkness, it seemed as if something was looking in his direction. At the boundary of the field, the dark purple energy began to change its flow before being decomposed, no longer passively seeping in, but actively converging, as if drawn by some force, trying to observe that invisible boundary of decomposition. The decomposition pressure of the field was rising, doubling in a short time, and then several times over.

Cohen stopped in the darkness.

His vision-extending array continued its attempt to capture more signals. A dim, purplish glow outlined some blurry, irregular silhouettes in the distance, their edges too sharp, as if sculpted by some immense force. Some of these silhouettes were far larger than any known ship, like the spires of a sunken city emerging from the darkness. But he couldn't discern the details, for the chaotic energy continued to rise.

He advanced a short distance. Dark purple energy surged from the fractured walls like a tide. The warehouse's reserves were growing, but this growth came at a price: his consciousness was under increasing pressure, as if someone were squeezing his skull from the inside. He recoiled and had to stop.

In the distance, silhouettes appeared and disappeared in the dim light, like the ridgelines of mountains sunk into the deep sea. He couldn't determine what those silhouettes were—perhaps the wreckage of buildings, the remains of giant ships, or simply projections of rock layers eroded and distorted by chaos. The distance was too great, the interference too strong, and on a conscious level, he could even perceive the slightly sweet taste of embers after burning—a taste ingrained in his mind. The sensors could only provide vague echo signals.

But one thing was certain: the deeper he went, the denser the dark purple energy became, and the higher the energy field's consumption rate. He felt as if he were going against the current; that thing was observing him, then trying its best to assimilate him, to lure him in. He could feel his consciousness enduring constant pressure, with massive amounts of chaotic information pouring into the boundaries of his energy field.

His forehead began to tighten, a sign of prolonged exposure to chaotic information; the stability of the energy field was being shaken. He could no longer guarantee that he could maintain the stability of the energy field under pressure, nor could he guarantee that the infiltrating chaotic energy would not surge into his consciousness the moment he lost control.

Reason told him that exploring further in his current state would only turn him into part of this tomb.

He took a step back. The sealing layer was complete—the sacred bone had regrowth at the atomic level, and the boundary membrane spread along the surface of the sealing layer, interlocking with the remaining edges of the network wall to form a semi-circular barrier. This sealing layer was similar to the runic barrier used by the Eldar to seal dangerous areas of the network; Cohen had inadvertently replicated their method, but using the network's own materials. The dark purple glimmer began to be decomposed by the boundary membrane of the sealing layer, disintegrating and disintegrating into psionic energy like water crashing against rocks. The gaze reluctantly withdrew. Cohen realized that his field-decomposing ability was still far from sufficient to deal with this scale of erosion.

He turned around, exited the node, and the door closed behind him.

On the secondary gate side of the relay network in the broken galaxy, he added a new note to the information map: "Extremely Dangerous - Suspected Ancient War Remnant - Dense Subspace Contamination. Field Consumption Peak Exceeds Normal Threshold. Observational Reactions Exist. Further Exploration Prospects."

Three doors, three directions. Two lead to the unknown, and one leads to the known Garros.

Cohen, clad in power armor, stood on a platform at the edge of the transit star cavity, gazing at the three arches glowing with psionic light. This was the first time he had observed different Web branches converging on the same real-world coordinates within the same galaxy. Previously, he had assumed Web nodes would cluster towards specific galaxies to form corresponding Web hubs, but the situation in the broken galaxy was more complex—this galaxy contained several seemingly independent Web branches, which might not be directly connected within the Web itself. Each branch connected to different Web sub-branches, and the galaxy was merely a common intersection point for these sub-branches on the real-world side.

This is a significant discovery. It means that after a certain node, the network may branch into several main lines in different directions. A network hub can be simultaneously accessed by several main lines from different directions, each leading to different regions of the galaxy. The previous assumption that "network nodes cluster together to correspond to the real universe" needs to be revised. The network is more complex than that; it is a labyrinth, and the structure of a labyrinth does not always follow the same set of rules.

A pale, cold psionic light shone on him, casting a long, thin shadow on the dark gray terracotta floor.

On the communications panel, Marcus's voice came through: "Commander, the Third Fleet has entered the outer reaches of the Shattered System. It is guiding the formation towards the transit star."

"Received." Cohen pressed the communication button. "Proceed along the predetermined route. Keep the Shadow Field active. The entrance passage is open; proceed in formation."

Hours later, the Pale Judgment came into view first at the entrance of the cavity. Its crimson armor gleamed dimly in the cold psionic light. The ship slowed, its attitude thrusters fine-tuned their position, and it slowly slid into the entrance passage. It came to a stop in the center of the cavity, the thruster exhausts receding, leaving a brief blue trail on the rock wall.

Following closely behind were the remaining ships of the Third Squadron. Two Moon-class cruisers led the way, their crimson bows slicing through the cold light of psionic energy. Twelve Wanderer-class transport ships followed closely behind, their small size resembling a school of fish following a giant beast within the cavity. Two light cruisers spread out on either side of the Moon-class ships, while three Sword-class frigates maintained a perimeter of alert. The nineteen ships slid in one after another, their thruster exhaust trails leaving brief blue streaks in the cavity, flickering between the rock walls.

After the last Sword-class corvette came to a stop, the gate at the cavity entrance began to close. The heavy terracotta armor plates, driven by hydraulic pushers, slowly slid across the passageway cross-section, engaging with the edge of the gate frame and locking in place. The impact of the gate closing traveled along the rock strata into the depths of the cavity, where it was swallowed by the cold psionic light and then dissipated. The cavity became a sealed space again, the cold psionic light pulsating steadily along the arched curve of the three net-like gates. The entire transit star lay lonely in the shadow of the galaxy, slowly revolving under the gravity of the star.

Cohen surveyed the moored ships. The indicator lights on the bows flickered in the cold light. Service personnel emerged from the cargo holds in formation, beginning to unload prefabricated building modules and supplies. Engineering crews were already working on the rock walls at the edge of the cavity, securing the terracotta frame to the rock face. Sparks from welding torches exploded in the darkness, creating orange-red patches that lit up and faded sequentially along the dome's arc. This place would eventually become a permanent base for habitation modules and defensive structures.

Marcus, the commander of the Third Fleet, and a high-ranking technical priest who had accompanied the fleet, stepped onto the platform and stood beside Cohen. Their expressions varied, and their focus differed. However, the way they looked at Cohen was remarkably consistent: a deep-seated awe tinged with silence.

"Three doors. One leads to Garros, the other two..."

“Unknown,” Cohen said. “One leads to an unexplored network hub with three main tunnels. One of them most likely leads to Maraudon-Garos, as you’ve seen in the intelligence report. That area was indeed raided by the Eldar a few weeks ago, and our rescuers confirmed it. The other leads to a massive, collapsed space that is extremely dangerous and not suitable for exploration in the short term.”

Marcus didn't press further. He glanced at the two silent doors for a moment, then said, "The Third Squadron of Garros is in position. Engineering servitors are unloading supplies, and the Apostolic Guard garrison is establishing sentry posts. Installation of the habitation modules is expected to take two weeks."

"Then proceed as planned," Cohen said. "This base needs to be able to operate independently. Food, ammunition, and spare parts must all be stockpiled according to long-term deployment standards. The rotation cycle of the garrison troops will be synchronized with that of Netway Port and the Eternal Fortress. All ships and personnel arriving here will not be allowed to return to Garros without vetting."

He gazed towards Garros, at the gate to the network tunnel gleaming with a cold, psionic light. "Onris, the Third Squadron, the Pale Judgment, and all the artillery barges constitute the Garros Network Tunnel Fleet. You are its commander. This is merely one of the fleet bases, tasked with patrolling and guarding the network tunnel, and conducting exploration. This tunnel is currently Garros' only intact network tunnel, and it must be ensured to remain unobstructed at all times. Network tunnel node 0197 is a key focus of exploration in the short term. You all know the situation; I will travel to Maraudon to open the gate there, which will expedite the exploration of this node."

Onris's eyes, now completely replaced by mechanical and optical arrays, contracted and expanded slightly before replying, "Understood. I will submit the garrison plan within a week."

6

Cohen nodded. "I'll return to Garros first via the Netway, Marcus will come with me. The rest of the core members who came earlier can stay in the Netway, and all personnel can apply for family members to accompany them." He then turned to Onris and said, "The Pale Judgment will be your flagship from now on. Your former second-in-command will take over the Glory; they're both veterans, and I trust you."

6

Marcus didn't speak, but nodded in response. Onris also confirmed, "Understood."

Cohen turned to the remaining high-ranking technical priest: "Father Fernandos, you are the chief development manager for the Shattered System. The initial exploration is complete, and the results are as expected, especially that single planet, which has extremely high development value. You will take over the subsequent construction of the relay star. The system's public positioning to the Empire is as Galos's resource development world," and you will be responsible for its specific operations. He paused briefly, his tone becoming more serious. "Ensuring the relay star's secrecy is a top priority."

Fernandos's voice first emitted a short binary acknowledgment pulse, then switched to low Gothic: "Acknowledgment. Messenger of the great Om Messiah, Your Excellency." The last syllable carried a chanting lingering tone.

Cohen glanced at the three doors again. All three doors were activated—to prevent the Dark Eldar from reactivating a hidden secondary portal within a broken system. Garros had preemptively seized these nodes, making it impossible for the Dark Eldar to enter the system via the network. As long as the doors were open, the right to respond to them lay with Garros. However, after activation and initial exploration, the situation had changed—node 0198 was practically indistinguishable from warp space, and Cohen didn't believe the Dark Eldar would pass through there. The only node that truly needed attention was 0197.

The transit station in the Broken Galaxy is just the first step. Node 0197 will eventually be explored, and the dormant value within Node 0198 will eventually be discovered. As for Node 0124—the 200-kilometer-long tunnel pointing towards Gamor—it's time for the Eternal Bulwark to relocate there, both to guard this gateway and to receive resources from the Broken Galaxy nearby, accelerating its own development.

The defensive development and construction of the port of Garros is equally urgent.

Three doors glowed with a steady, cold psionic light between the rock walls. Deep within the cavity, sparks from the welding torches of engineering sergeants flickered in the darkness. The bridge lights of the Pale Judgment shone in the shadows, like a silent coordinate—he had already driven the first stake for Garros in the net tunnel.