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Chapter 118: Battle for the World Engine
The command deck buzzed with controlled chaos upon their arrival. Staff members moved with purpose between stations, executing the Emperor's orders with military precision.
A massive spherical projection dominated the centre of the command deck, surrounded by a circle of computational servitors. Their lobotomized brains worked in tandem, processing the vast streams of battlefield data and transforming the information into tactical displays for the commanding officers.
"The enemy has detected our approach, my Lord," the Information Supervisor reported, switching data interfaces. On the spherical projection, red runes began moving across the tactical display like drops of blood in dark water.
"Too late for them," the Emperor declared, his voice carrying absolute authority. The projection's glow cast harsh shadows across his features.
"All ships advance at battle speed. Prepare for engagement. We will bury these ancient relics back in their Tombs."
"All vessels, advance at battle speed. Ready weapons for engagement."
The communications supervisor relayed the Emperor's commands throughout the numbered fleets. Every department and station across the deck immediately burst into activity.
Technicians responsible for void shield maintenance calibrated hull parameters and energy flow patterns. Tech-priests in the reactor chambers calculated power output requirements; they needed to simultaneously fuel the ship's lance batteries and engine drives without overloading the systems.
"Praise the Omnissiah!" a group of Tech-priests chanted in mechanical unison, sparks dancing across their augmetic bodies as they prayed for the blessing of the machine spirits.
Massive shells travelled from ammunition storage on conveyor systems. Teams of industrial servitors worked together to load them into the macro-cannon batteries. Missiles slid along robotic arms into their designated launch tubes, safety mechanisms disengaged and ready for immediate firing.
The Nova Cannon charged to full power, entering a state ready for firing.
The Emperor's Grand Design led the Imperial charge into the battle zone. The fully charged Nova Cannon unleashed its devastating payload into the void.
The shell, accelerated to near-light speed, carved a brilliant trajectory across the darkness before striking a Necron warship wreathed in ghostly green energy. The massive explosion turned the black void into a miniature sun for several seconds.
But in the next moment, the destroyed Necron vessel vanished from existence.
"What a pain!" Raven muttered from his perch on the Emperor's shoulder, watching the display with obvious frustration.
"Necron ships are built from living metal with integrated dimensional transfer technology. Once damaged beyond function, they retreat to subspace for self-repair. After restoration, they return to battle. This technology is completely unfair."
"If the entire Magadha Dynasty awakens, winning this fight will be extremely difficult for us."
The Emperor's brow furrowed slightly at Raven's assessment. He possessed several technologies capable of destroying the Necron fleet, but the Empire's manufacturing capacity couldn't support their widespread deployment.
The warships currently serving in the Great Crusade were mainly conventional designs. Second-generation vessels and celestial-class ships incorporating advanced technologies were already under construction, but forming a complete battle-ready force would require considerable time.
"New orders," the Emperor commanded, his voice cutting through the tactical chatter.
"Avoid prolonged engagement. Strike directly at their tomb complexes and the World Engine's heart."
"No matter their ancient sorcery, once the head falls, the body follows."
The Necrons' regeneration advantages relied on living metal, forge complexes, and dimensional transfer, three key technologies that worked in harmony. However, the conservation laws of real space still applied.
No matter how powerful living metal's regeneration abilities are, the process still requires energy and raw materials. Nothing could be created from an empty void. By striking directly at their tomb complexes and destroying the core forges, they could drastically slow the living metal's recovery rate.
At that point, the scales of victory would naturally tip in favour of humanity.
The void battle erupted in earnest as both fleets clashed with devastating force. Streams of sickly green light swept through the cold darkness, painting meteorites and Imperial warships with an eerie glow that seemed to eat at the metal itself.
Shockwaves from exploding missiles and torpedoes rippled outward like waves on a dark ocean. Brilliant lance beams struck Necron vessel shields, creating cascades of energy that fell like deadly rain across the battlefield.
The human invasion triggered the defence protocols of the slumbering Magadha Dynasty. More Necron warships emerged from dimensional subspace, materialising directly into the battle zone.
However, facing the massive Imperial fleet, their numbers proved insufficient to establish an effective defence perimeter. The Emperor's Grand Design punched through their lines and finally approached the World Engine itself.
Upon reaching the designated coordinates, the Emperor prepared to lead the boarding assault. If they had relied on the Empire's original teleportation technology, the World Engine's shields would have caused serious interference, resulting in scattered or failed materialisations.
But the technology aboard the Emperor's Grand Design originated from the Super God Universe. It achieved teleportation by directly modifying local space-time parameters, completely bypassing the planetary construct's shield interference.
The Emperor and his strike teams successfully materialised on the World Engine's surface, spreading out to accomplish their predetermined objectives.
They intended not only to capture the C'tan fragments but also to disable this terrifying war machine altogether, ensuring it could never threaten the Imperial fleet again.
Sanguinius and his Ninth Legion warriors materialised within a city of towering black metallic structures. Their mission: disable the World Engine's primary weapon to prevent it from firing on the Imperial fleet.
The enemy's sensors quickly detected the Blood Angels' intrusion. Massive numbers of Necron Warriors and Scarab constructs surged forward like a metallic tide, attempting to overwhelm the invaders through sheer weight of numbers.
Streams of ghostly green Gauss fire lanced toward Sanguinius and his warriors. One Space Marine took a direct hit, the struck area immediately began expanding outward, his armour and flesh peeling away in layers until the entire warrior crumbled into a pile of fine sand.
[Gauss Weaponry: Utilises unique bipolar magnetic fields to strip atoms from targets, destroying at the molecular level. Can be defended against with energy shielding.]
The tactical analysis appeared automatically in Sanguinius's visual display, causing the Primarch to frown with concern.
"Brothers, spread your formation," Sanguinius called out, his voice carrying across the battlefield. "Their weapons strip flesh from bone at the atomic level. Keep your shields raised and do not cluster together."
The battle proved brutal beyond measure. Even warriors enhanced with Gene Engines continued falling, reduced to piles of sand by the terrible Gauss weaponry. But Sanguinius pressed forward, leading the Ninth Legion deeper toward the World Engine's primary cannon.
The primary weapon was a construction of staggering magnitude. Its primary structure stretched upward until it disappeared into the storm clouds above. Once fully charged, the destructive beam it could unleash possessed enough power to crack a world in half.
Massive energy shields protected the cannon's structure from orbital bombardment; no attack from space could penetrate to its vital systems. Only a ground assault, fighting through the defences in close combat, offered any hope of success.
Sanguinius and his warriors carved their way forward, cutting down countless Necron defenders. But the fallen constructs were immediately teleported back to forge complexes for reconstruction, then returned to the battlefield within minutes.
This meant their numbers never truly decreased, constantly surging against the Imperial forces like an endless metallic tide.
Finally reaching the main cannon's control centre, they found it defended by a Necron Lord and his elite guard retinue.
[Data anomaly detected. Temporal distortion warning: abnormal chronological entity present in this area.]
The Gene Engine's alert drew Sanguinius's attention to a specific Necron construct.
Its silver-white body bore intricate golden inlays, and it carried an ornate mechanical sceptre that marked its status as far superior to the standard warriors. This was clearly a being of significant authority within the Necron hierarchy.
Battle erupted immediately between the opposing forces. Ninth Legion warriors engaged the elite guards while the towering Necron Lord attacked Sanguinius directly, its phase blade wreathed in that familiar ghostly green energy.
However, the Necron Lord proved no match for a Primarch's skill and was soon impaled on Sanguinius's spear, its head severed cleanly from its shoulders.
At that moment, something unprecedented occurred. The sceptre-wielding Necron released a pulse of strange energy, and time itself began flowing backwards.
The flow of time reversed around them. Scattered Necron fragments flew back along their original paths, reforming into whole constructs. Battle damage to the floor and walls erased itself as if an invisible hand was rewriting reality.
Everything rewound to its previous state, except Sanguinius himself remained unaffected. His modified temporal anchor kept him fixed to the original timeline while everything else shifted around him.
The Necron construct displayed what might have been surprise, asking in a harsh mechanical voice, "How are you unaffected by chronological manipulation?"
Sanguinius didn't waste time answering. Instead, he lunged forward, impaling the temporal manipulator on his spear and lifting it into the air.
"Initiating conceptual redefinition: target survival probability set to zero."
[Mechanical lifeform with temporal anomalies detected. Beginning total destruction protocol.]
As the Gene Engine's prompt was activated, the Necron was destroyed entirely at a fundamental level. The Necron Lord, restored by the time reversal, was quickly defeated again by the Primarch's relentless assault.
The spear pierced through its torso, and its head was severed once more.
"Did you think you were Master Raven? To dare manipulate time so carelessly," Sanguinius said, hurling the construct's body away while the Gene Engine ensured its complete destruction.
"Place the charges," he ordered his surviving warriors. "We destroy this cannon and then withdraw to a safe distance."
Moments later, the primary weapon detonated with world-shaking force. The cannon's accumulated energy reserves were beyond normal comprehension. When released all at once, the resulting explosion was catastrophic.
It was as if a million stars had ignited simultaneously, their combined brilliance illuminating everything within hundreds of kilometres. The metal surface of the World Engine cracked and buckled under the assault, while the magnificent black structures sparked and failed, falling into complete paralysis.
The explosion's shockwaves reached deep into the construct's core systems, where emergency protocols finally awakened Tyrrakhis the Silent Crown, ruler of the Magadha Dynasty.
Upon learning that human forces had not only invaded the World Engine but were advancing directly toward the prison containing the C'tan fragments, the ancient Phaerakh's fury knew no bounds.
"These damned thieves!" her mechanical voice rang through the awakening tomb complex.
"Rouse the entire dynasty! We launch an immediate counterattack. Retake the World Engine and protect the star god fragments at all costs."
The great tombs began stirring to life as sixty million years of slumber came to an end. The real battle was beginning.
[End of Chapter]