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Chapter 152: The Return of Rangdan
"How did these aliens stay hidden for so long?" Aldo demanded.
"The only logical explanation is they have technology as good as ours, plus unknown stealth abilities," the Magos replied mechanically.
"Guessing won't help now," Yuke interrupted, his wolf-like features hardening. "The enemy has shown themselves, so let us teach these damned xenos the price of challenging the Emperor's will."
Aldo sat in his command chair, giving orders that moved the fleet into battle formation. Meanwhile, the alien fleet moved with disciplined precision; their ships were as big as Imperial ones, some even , ,bigger, and their coordination showed sophisticated command structures.
As the opposing forces got closer, space erupted into deadly light. Lance beams and macro-cannon shells turned space into a furnace of destruction.
"Their firepower and speed are better than ours," Aldo said grimly.
Within moments of fighting, a terrible truth became clear: alien technology was superior to Imperial tech.
Not only were their warships faster, but they also had more devastating weapons and stronger shields. This space battle was doomed from the start.
Aldo went through tactical options, though each ended in defeat. Even retreat was impossible; the alien fleet had surrounded them completely, ensuring that any ships that broke through would never reach the system's jump point.
Bright light flared as a nearby cruiser's void shields failed completely. The ship's plasma reactor went critical, exploding like a star, beautiful yet terrible at the same time.
Aldo's flagship was doing just as badly under concentrated alien fire. Damage reports flooded the bridge:
"Gun batteries seven through fourteen destroyed."
"Power distribution offline, fifty-five percent capacity remaining."
"Navigation control damaged."
"Hull section 774 void shield breached."
Despair spread across the bridge crew's faces while alarms screamed their list of destruction.
"Multiple warp surges detected, enemy boarding parties appearing!"
Teleportation openings blazed into existence across the command deck. Yuke and his Space Wolves immediately activated their Gene Engines' combat protocols, drawing weapons as they charged the emerging threats.
"High-intensity energy wave incoming," the machine-spirit warned.
A psychic shockwave hit, making the Space Marines sluggish. Through the teleportation gates came alien warriors, sleek phantoms in streamlined armour, wielding curved black blades that cut through ceramite as easily as flesh. The first Wolves fell cut in half, their enhanced bodies meaningless against such weapons.
Fierce fighting erupted across the bridge as alien warriors flooded the deck, their energy weapons reducing crew and servitors to scattered pieces. Blood and bone painted the sacred instruments red.
Yuke led his remaining brothers in desperate close combat.
Although all had the Empire's Gene Engine enhancements, the aliens wielded powerful psychic abilities that were still able to cancel Imperial advantages. Enemy numbers overwhelmed the Space Wolves, forcing them into a shrinking defensive circle.
The Wolf Lord watched his battle-brothers fall, noble warriors reduced to broken meat by alien blades.
Rage consumed him as his power sword cut through alien flesh, spilling glowing green blood across the deck plating. He fought toward a threatened brother, blocking a killing blow with his blade's energy field.
Despite his skill, the tide could not be turned. Surrounded by pressing enemies, Yuke faced his final moments. An alien psyker unleashed devastating mental force, a power that tore through both air and flesh. His power armour buckled and twisted while his body fell apart at the cellular level.
"Duty fulfilled," were Yuke's last thoughts before his skull exploded, painting the humming computer arrays with Fenrisian blood.
Alien warriors stepped over the Emperor's fallen Angels, advancing on the terrified bridge crew. Massacre followed, a pattern repeated throughout the ship. Despite their courage, the Space Wolves unfortunately could not prevent the slaughter, and one by one, they fell or were captured.
The Imperial fleet died ship by ship until only a few colony ships remained, defenceless transports carrying the hopeful and desperate.
The Imperium offered generous rewards for colonial service. Going to alien worlds was the common-born citizens' best chance for advancement, drawing countless souls to seek their fortune among the stars.
The Empire would terraform hostile worlds, using climate controls and atmospheric processors to create livable environments before sending colonists.
The Adams family had boarded their transport with beautiful dreams of prosperity. Although living conditions were cramped and harsh, shared bathrooms smelled terrible, while water and food rations barely kept them alive, hope filled their hearts.
During the journey, they planned endlessly: vast farms, modest but complete homes, honest work leading to accumulated wealth and happiness.
All such dreams died with the piercing alarm.
Alien warriors boarded the defenceless colony ship, seemingly enjoying the coming slaughter. Rather than destroy the ship outright, they treated it as an arena for their bloodlust, cutting through corridors thick with corpses.
The Adams family fled desperately from upper to lower decks, seeking refuge in the ship's dim belly.
However, three slender alien hunters found them anyway. Adams' wife and children collapsed in terror at the sight of blood-covered weapons.
Armed only with an iron pipe torn from their bunk, Adams charged with suicidal fury.
The alien's force field threw him into the wall, and his ribs snapped like twigs. He lay broken, coughing blood, forced to watch his family get butchered while he lay paralysed and dying slowly in his agony of pain and loss.
On the colony ship's bridge, Captain Kakar faced similar despair. Emergency lights bathed everything in red as aliens slaughtered his crew.
"For the Emperor!" Kakar emptied his laspistol into approaching aliens, though the beams created mere ripples against their protection. A black blade punched through his chest, ending both the struggle and his life.
Every soul aboard the colony ships died.
Having destroyed the 73rd Fleet, the alien armada pressed deeper into Imperial space. A thousand Space Marines lay dead, with an entire expedition force wiped out.
News of the sixteen-star systems' destruction reached the Imperium quickly.
The Adeptus Mechanicus' Biologis compared genetic samples with Golden Age archives, identifying the enemy: The Rangdan -
an apex predator civilisation humanity had encountered before.
These creatures possessed technology that rivalled humanity's Golden Age achievements. Worse still, they wanted to expand and had the means to do it.
High-ranking officers and expedition commanders gathered in the Grand Design's primary strategy room. They formed circles around the central platform, where the Emperor himself stood alongside his gene sons.
Holographic projection equipment hummed from the chamber's high ceiling.
As Adeptus Mechanicus tech-priests chanted their rituals, ancient machinery stirred to life. Indicator arrays blazed to life while complex command terminals extended from their storage alcoves.
[End of Chapter]