Chapter 189: The Black Hole Weapon
After delivering the soldiers, the Blood Ravens' warships began to move away from the Craftworld. The firepower of the 1,000-kilometer-long Craftworld was simply too fierce. The six warships of the Blood Ravens had already suffered varying degrees of severe damage, and their overloaded void shields could no longer protect them. The Imperial Navy had once launched an attack on a Craftworld, but the result was the complete annihilation of the Imperial fleet, while the Craftworld suffered little damage, which showed just how dominant the Craftworld itself was on the battlefield.
In the eyes of the landing Blood Ravens, the seemingly innocent Eldar elderly and children were no different from any other Eldar warrior.
A Dreadnought advanced with heavy steps, the storm bolter on its right arm continuously killing every Eldar in its sight.
"I am the Light of Humanity! I am the Angel of the Emperor! I will burn your world to ash!"
The muffled voice of the Dreadnought inspired the other Blood Ravens. A squad of Blood Ravens formed a protective circle around the sacred Dreadnought as they fought.
The Terminator squad, led by Gabriel, was destroying the more difficult targets. Wielding the massive hammer in his hands, Gabriel tore apart any enemy who dared to engage him in close combat. As someone who could fight a Greater Daemon, he was at the top tier among the Astartes, to say nothing of the lavish equipment he wore. Every piece could be called a relic, and not the kind that was just for display. The Blood Ravens in Terminator armor beside him acted as the vanguard, dealing with important objectives. Even when facing Eldar vehicle attacks, the well-coordinated Blood Ravens used the weapons in their hands to destroy the enemy.
When the number of Astartes increased, their dominance on this local battlefield was terrifyingly high, especially with the assistance of a large number of Librarians. The Blood Ravens continuously expanded their gains.
And looking at the Protoss Immortals on the battlefield, the Blood Ravens' gene-seed stirred again! Gabriel fixed his gaze on an Immortal that had been disabled by concentrated fire and immediately dispatched a sergeant to secretly "collect" this Protoss technology.
"Awaken the dead! Kholor needs them now!"
As the Seer Council reached a consensus, with the help of the Spiritseers, the souls slumbering in the Infinity Circuit were awakened. The souls of the dead were injected into the Wraith-constructs that could bear them.
In the Hall of the Dead, the Wraithguard were like soldiers with souls but with bodies made of pure wraithbone. They had sturdy bodies and undying souls. Their only drawback was that these dead soldiers lacked perception of the world. Without the guidance and leadership of a Spiritseer, their souls were like they were floating in an endless, dark, and empty liquid, which was a terrifying and torturing experience for the souls that were brought back.
With the addition of these Wraithguard, the problem of Kholor's insufficient number of soldiers began to be effectively addressed. And it wasn't just the Wraithguard; the Wraithlords and Wraithknights, which were not used unless absolutely necessary, were also awakened. The former were two to three times the height of an Eldar, driven by the soul stones of the most elite deceased Eldar. The latter possessed a Titan-like dominance over the ground battlefield. The latter required not only the souls of the Eldar dead but also a pair of twin pilots. They had a unique telepathic bond and controlled the Wraithknight together. The unique wraithbone structure of the knight gave it unparalleled agility and mobility.
Although the Eldar possessed the technology to create such constructs, they could not mass-produce them. Not because the technology was lacking, but because the pitifully small population of the Craftworld Eldar meant that the appearance of twins was becoming increasingly rare. They simply could not find suitable pilots. Compared to the Titans and Knights of the Imperium, these Craftworld Eldar truly lost one for every one that was destroyed.
Faced with the massive fleet in the void, Elara also began to release the forbidden protocols of the Craftworld.
Although the Craftworld had inherited a part of the legacy and technology of the fallen empire, it was always people who carried knowledge. And the Craftworld itself was just a trade fleet and did not have sufficient production facilities. As the number of knowledge-bearers plummeted, the knowledge and technology of the past were also constantly being lost. When Kholor had just become a Craftworld, it might have possessed a lot of "black technology," but the years had destroyed it all. Natural decay, man-made consumption... the things that could once change the course of a battle were becoming fewer and fewer.
And now, Elara was preparing to use one of the few weapons the Craftworld had inherited from after the Great Fall of the Eldar. At this moment, in the armory of the Craftworld, there were still three black hole bombs stored. Once used, Craftworld Kholor would completely lose these weapons, but now was clearly not the time to be frugal.
On the bridge, Lucan observed the battlefield situation. The Dynasty's approaching fleet was not trying to destroy the Craftworld but was concentrating its fire on its propulsion systems. It wasn't that Lucan didn't want to; when he truly saw the Craftworld, he realized just how powerful it was. Destroying such a massive behemoth was not so simple.
The Dynasty and the alliance had dispatched nearly a hundred warships this time, but under the massive firepower of the Craftworld and its complete fleet, they had already suffered considerable losses. The wreckage of a large number of warships from both sides floated in the void.
And Lucan's purpose on this trip, besides eliminating the hidden danger of Kholor wandering in the Expanse, was the greater goal of capturing the Craftworld and transforming it into the Spear of Adun. He did not need to destroy it. If he were to directly destroy Craftworld Kholor, he really didn't know where he would find another one.
At this moment, the 1,000-kilometer-long Craftworld was like a beast being hunted by jackals, slowly being eaten away. The Gorgon-class battlecruisers, with their tactical jump drives, also directly bypassed the enemy's defensive lines, dropping entire formations of Raiders at various locations on the Craftworld to capture its fixed firepower and destroy its gun turrets. Medivacs also began to bring Thors and heavy vehicles into the battle.
Once the Spear of Adun was successfully transformed, not only would the existing population of the Protoss undergo a qualitative change, but it would also save Lucan a massive amount of Psy-crystals. The production facilities on the Spear of Adun itself would be enough to meet the needs of the existing Protoss.
Just as Lucan was watching the intense battle and waiting for news from Artanis, the servo-systems on the Stellar Pioneer suddenly began to sound a fatal alarm.
[Energy signature of Eldar black hole weapon detected in database. Please begin evasive maneuvers immediately! Please begin evasive maneuvers immediately!]
"Black hole weapon?! Tech-priests, what's going on?!"
"Report, my Lord, we are not sure. We speculate that the actions of these xenos have autonomously activated the warship's early warning system! But the augur arrays have not detected any anomalies!"
Lucan also looked at the augur's detection of the Craftworld. It was indeed as the tech-priests had said.
In the end, Lucan chose to trust the warning from the Stellar Pioneer. Humanity in the past had had its fair share of conflicts with the former masters of the galaxy. There was no reason for the servo-systems from the Golden Age to give such a warning for no reason. Lucan also knew that the Craftworlds did indeed have such weapons, but he didn't have much of a concept of them.
"How are the repairs on the jump engine?"
"The Holy Machine has repaired 75%."
"Initiate a short-range jump immediately!"
"But my Lord, a ship of the Stellar Pioneer's size has never attempted this before!"
"Follow my orders! Jump immediately!"
At Lucan's command, the not-yet-fully-repaired jump drive began to operate again.
At this moment, within the Craftworld, a huge main cannon was constantly charging. A black hole bomb was loaded, and the energy from the Infinity Circuit activated the bomb. The Farseers of Kholor could hardly contain their emotions. The fleet of these monkeys would finally be completely destroyed because of their arrogance.
But the Farseers suddenly discovered that the human flagship had suddenly disappeared from its original position.
"What's going on! Where is that monkey's warship!"
And at this moment, the black hole bomb had already reached a critical point, where it had to be fired.
As the black hole bomb was activated, the space where the Stellar Pioneer had been began to collapse without any warning. A black hole appeared directly in the void. As the black hole appeared, the nearby void seemed to dim.
At this moment, the Stellar Pioneer, having completed its jump, saw its structural integrity plummet. The main body of the warship even suffered severe damage and fractures. The interior of the warship was a mess, but Lucan had no time to care about these things.
Lucan stared in astonishment at the black hole before him. The expanding black hole was devouring everything around it. Whether it was the Imperium's warships or the Eldar's own, any ship in its range was instantly devoured.
The suddenly appearing black hole seemed to have pressed the pause button on the world. All the Dynasty's warships tried to get away from the black hole at full speed. And Craftworld Kholor used the endless energy of the Infinity Circuit to quickly pull away from the jackal-like human warships, to prevent more human infantry from being deployed onto the Craftworld.
As long as they could open up a distance, in the eyes of these Eldar, these human fleets were not enough to be a threat!
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