Chapter 360: Purging the Navigators
Deep within Holy Terra, inside the isolated spire of the Navigator Houses, a secret meeting, absolutely not to be broadcast to the outside world, was taking place.
The air was filled with the pungent smell of preservative chemicals and the faint hum of psychic energy.
There were very few attendees, yet they represented the supreme power that controlled the Imperium's navigational arteries.
Several massive stasis tanks were placed at the core of the circular conference room. Twisted, inhuman forms were suspended in the murky liquid.
Those were several of the oldest and most powerful Navigator Patriarchs. Their physical bodies had long since broken down under the erosion of countless years and the Warp; only their consciousness and that crucial Third Eye were preserved in life-sustaining receptacles.
Surrounding the stasis tanks were several House representatives who still maintained a basic human form, though the psychic eyes on their foreheads remained unsettling.
"The order of Terra is being broken." A thought transmitted directly from psychic resonance originated from one of the oldest receptacles, cold and ripple-less. "The Custodes have stepped out of the Imperial Palace, the Black Templars' flagship is mobilizing, and the one pushing all this is Dorn. This is absolutely not ordinary."
"We can all feel it," a relatively younger representative spoke, his voice dry. "Beneath the tides of the Warp, an undercurrent we cannot decipher is surging. It does not originate from any power we are familiar with... but the ending it points to is devastating for us."
They shared a vague premonition originating from their bloodline and psychic power.
A massive upheaval capable of overturning the current paradigm was imminent. A storm was coming, and their Navigator Houses, this ancient privileged class that stood tall relying on Warp navigation, seemed to be placed at the center of this storm, foreseeing that they would suffer irreversible, heavy damage within it.
"The crux of the problem is that we do not know the source of this change." The consciousness in another receptacle transmitted an anxious fluctuation. "It does not directly originate from a certain Chaos God in the Warp, nor does it come from any known Primarch or xenos... It is like a... technological disturbance? Something that could fundamentally shake the foundation of our existence."
It was precisely this unknown that made them feel an unprecedented fear.
They were accustomed to foreseeing danger by peering into the Warp, but this time, the threat seemed to come from the very system they relied upon for survival.
"We cannot sit and wait for death." The first ancient consciousness made a decision. "We must find the source of this undercurrent. Mobilize all resources, investigate all anomalous technological research, especially those areas that might involve... alternative navigation theories. Any sign that might threaten the Navigators' status must be strangled before it brews into a major disaster."
"But Dorn and the Custodes..." A representative showed a look of worry.
"Precisely because of this, the operation must be covert, and swift," the ancient consciousness emphasized. "Before the Imperium's official forces can react, we must first remove the focal point of the disease. For the continuation of the Houses, any potential threat must be eliminated."
Just as the members of the Navigator Houses reached a consensus and prepared to mobilize their forces hidden in the Imperium's shadows, the heavy doors of the conference room shattered with an ear-piercing sound of tearing metal.
Golden figures surged in like a torrent.
The Adeptus Custodes—the Emperor's personal guards, beings who should forever protect the deepest parts of the Imperial Palace—now appeared in the core secret chamber of the Navigator spire.
They were silent, but the Guardian Spears in their hands gleamed with a deadly, cold light.
What made the Navigators feel even more despair was that right behind the Custodes appeared figures clad in pitch-black armor, enveloped in an aura of nothingness—the Sisters of Silence.
Their very existence was like a vacuum in the Warp. The moment the Third Eyes on the Navigators' foreheads—capable of peering into the Warp—made contact with this group of Soulless Ones, they felt a searing agony. Their psychic connections were forcefully severed, and their precognitive abilities completely vanished.
"How... dare you..." The oldest Navigator soaking in a tank attempted to emit a psychic scream, but that thought dissipated into nothingness the moment it touched the null field surrounding the Sisters of Silence.
There was no warning, no declaration.
The Custodes' slaughter was highly efficient and ruthless.
The Guardian Spears precisely pierced those Navigator representatives who still maintained a human form. The power fields instantly turned their flesh and bones into charred, mangled pieces.
For the ancient entities soaking in the tanks, the Custodes directly used energy weapons, vaporizing the expensive life-support tanks along with the twisted flesh inside.
The Sisters of Silence wandered the edges of the battlefield like shadows of death. Their presence ensured that no psychic signals could be transmitted, and no Navigator could escape or send messages through the Warp.
Their silence was even more suffocating than the Custodes' blades.
This sudden purge was swift and thorough.
In just a few minutes, the core members of the Navigator Houses had been reduced to charred remains and shattered glass shards on the floor.
The golden Custodes and the silver Sisters stood silently amidst the corpses, as if they had merely executed a routine cleaning task.
When the last Navigator House representative fell under a Custodian's spear, the Custodian Tribune commanding this purge operation reported to Rogal Dorn via encrypted vox without any delay.
"Lord Primarch, the interior of the spire has been secured; all designated targets have been eliminated." The Tribune's voice came through the vox, so calm there wasn't a single ripple, as if he had just completed a daily patrol.
Dorn's projection stood tall in the command node. Receiving the synchronized battle record data streams, he was not surprised by the Tribune's efficiency.
He was more concerned with the subsequent impact.
"Tribune," Dorn's deep voice sounded. "Is the scope limited only to this?"
"Currently, it is limited to the attendees of this meeting and their direct bloodlines," the Tribune confirmed, then raised a crucial question. "Shall we expand the purge scope based on the roster? We have the capability to eliminate all registered core members of the Navigator Houses on Terra and its neighboring sectors within a standard Terran day."
This proposal contained a terrifying storm of blood and gore.
If executed, the Warp navigation system the Imperium relied on would instantly fall into paralysis.
"No." Dorn's answer was resolute, without the slightest hesitation. "Purging these representatives was to strangle their attempts to sabotage the Imperium's future before they could brew a greater disaster. Their precognitive abilities allowed them to sense the threat, and they chose the wrong way to respond."
He paused slightly, allowing his will to be clearly conveyed. "Our goal is not to uproot the Navigators right now. Until a reliable alternative is mature and popularized, the Imperium still needs their eyes to see through the fog of the Warp. Expanding the purge will only trigger unnecessary panic and turmoil, and might even completely push the un-hostile Houses to the opposing side. Stability overrides everything."
"Understood." The Custodian Tribune immediately accepted the order without any questioning. "The cleanup is nearing completion; no traceable marks will be left behind."
Communication severed.
Dorn stood alone in the command node, his massive frame like a mountain range in the dim light.
He knew clearly that this precise decapitation strike was merely a temporary measure, temporarily removing the most radical nails that had first perceived the threat of Ryo's technology.
But this undoubtedly also sounded an alarm to all Navigator Houses, forcing them to become even more vigilant against any technological revolution that might shake their status.