At Aiur's Mandeville point, a massive fleet slowly cruised out from the surging tides of the Warp. This was only the second time a fleet of such scale had appeared in the Aiur system—the first time being the invasion of the Zerg Swarm.
Furthermore, this fleet possessed strength far exceeding that of the previous Zerg fleet. It was a massive joint armada composed of a Plague Fleet leading several Nurgle warbands. The Plague Fleet itself originated from the main fleet of the Death Guard from ten thousand years ago; though their numbers here were few, they remained the most terrifying adversary within this combined armada.
After all, unlike the current era where Chapters were strictly limited by the Codex Astartes, the Legions of ten thousand years ago possessed entirely unfettered naval might. Now, that very power was being brought to bear against their enemies.
There were over a dozen capital ships from the Plague Fleet. Nurgle-corrupted cruisers and battlecruisers spearheaded the formation. Combined with the vessels of the smaller Chaos warbands, the total count of the combined Plague Fleet approached nearly a hundred ships. They marched to the orders of the Grandfather, vowing to destroy all of Aiur, and by extension, the entire Phoenix Sector.
These were desecrated constructs born from the fusion of corrupted flesh and alloy, determined to bring the Grandfather's eternal decay to the fool who dared humiliate Him.
They advanced toward Aiur at maximum speed. However, just as they reached the exact center of the star system, a colossal rift abruptly tore open near a purple planet not far away. The churning forces of space-time caused the combined Plague Fleet to halt temporarily to observe.
As they watched in confusion, dozens of gargantuan silhouettes slowly drifted out from the roiling rift. These were terrifying bio-warships whose sizes rivaled Imperial Battleships, numbering close to forty in total. Faced with enemies of this magnitude, perhaps only the capital ships of the Plague Fleet could stand against them.
Immediately following them, nearly a hundred smaller warships of various classes filtered through the rift. Before the combined Plague Fleet could even react, the weapon ports of those smaller vessels were already accumulating terrifying energy. Every dozen or so Battlecruisers focused their fire on a single Plague warship. If one volley didn't obliterate it, they fired a second; if a second failed, they fired a third.
Terrifying energy erupted. The void shields of the smaller warbands' Battle Barges and Strike Cruisers stood absolutely no chance against a concentrated salvo. Only the massive Plague Cruisers tanking at the very front managed to survive the concentrated Yamato Cannon fire.
In just a single volley, two Battle Barges and two Strike Cruisers were reduced to space junk drifting in the void. The commander of the Plague Fleet reacted swiftly, and they began to return fire.
However, the scene that unfolded next left the Plague Fleet commander somewhat stunned. Those thirty-odd massive bio-warships completely disregarded the incoming attacks and began to close the distance. Utilizing their thick, heavily armored hulls, the bio-warships absorbed the ferocious orbital bombardment, firmly shielding the Terran warships behind them.
Even when the Plague Fleet's attacks managed to slip through the gaps, hitting and overloading the void shields of the smaller Terran warships, those vessels would bizarrely vanish from sight the very next instant. They would then suddenly reappear together from a treacherous angle—perhaps far away on the blind side of a planet, or perhaps directly beneath the belly of the Plague Fleet.
---
Alexei stood in the command bridge of the Red Romance. Beside him, Ally visibly looked somewhat exhausted. Maintaining a cross-galaxy wormhole of that scale had drained her severely. At his insistence, Ally reluctantly gave up watching the intense space battle and headed to the lounge to recover her strength.
Standing before the massive holographic star map, Alexei continuously issued tactical commands. He knew that the Terran Battlecruisers could not go toe-to-toe with those heavily armed, massive Plague Cruisers. They had to utilize their short-range tactical jump drives and numerical superiority to flank the Plague Fleet's weak points, systematically dismantling the Battle Barges and Strike Cruisers that were less proficient in pure naval engagements.
As for the frontal battlefield, that exchange of raw fire was left to the Swarm's Leviathans. As the distance between the Leviathans and the enemy fleet steadily closed, a dense, swarming cloud of Zerg poured forth. They bypassed the void shields and began to chip away at the enemy's massive hulls.
As the distance narrowed further, Alexei watched the two fleets intermingle into a chaotic melee. Seeing the forces completely intertwined, the corners of his mouth curled into a slight smile.
"Don't you guys love boarding actions? This time, you won't have to bother knocking."
The next moment, Zerg spore sacs—so dense they practically blotted out the Plague Fleet's sensors—slammed violently into the enemy ships. These sacs were vastly different from standard orbital drop pods; they were significantly larger and featured multiple internal layers. Sealed within these layers was highly corrosive acid harvested from Banelings. The moment they impacted a hull, they melted through the defenses of flesh and alloy layer by layer, breaching right into the interior of the ships.
Even if the enemy's thick hulls could withstand the first wave of spore sacs, there was a second wave, and a third. Similarly, the Leviathans on the flanks were not idle observers. Their massive, muscular tentacles impaled the adjacent cruisers with brutal force. Truth be told, rather than trading long-range fire, Leviathans preferred a close-quarters embrace with the enemy.
Inside the ships, an endless tide of the Zerg Swarm poured from the breached sacs, engaging the Plague Marines in brutal close-quarters combat. The individual combat prowess of the enemy was undeniably formidable, but faced with a Zerg Swarm that literally choked the hallways of the ships, the Plague Marines found themselves unable to gain an advantage. They knew that if this continued, these cruisers would fall entirely sooner or later.
They began to pray, beseeching Grandfather Nurgle for aid. Instantly, a terrifying, toxic fog of pathogens surged toward the Zerg. However, during the Dawn Crusade, the Swarm had either been actively fighting Nurgle or was en route to fight Nurgle.
The plague resistance of this particular Swarm was practically maxed out. Aside from making them visibly more hyperactive and aggressive, the toxic fog had absolutely no effect.
Outside the hulls, the Terran Battlecruisers' second concentrated volley was fully charged. Accompanied by the humming energy of the Yamato Cannons, several more enemy warships were engulfed in violent explosions. Immediately after, the Terran ships utilized their agile sub-light maneuvers to break away and evade retaliation.
This hit-and-run tactic greatly infuriated the sluggish Plague Fleet, but they were entirely powerless to counter it. Their capital ships were thoroughly entangled by those damnable bio-vessels, while their auxiliary and non-combat ships couldn't hope to give chase, leaving them to stand in place and take a beating.
Alexei smiled as he watched the Plague Fleet get whittled down by his slow-bleeding tactics, feeling immensely gratified. As long as the main force of the Death Guard didn't show up, and as long as the Terminus Est didn't appear, he could devour as many fleets of this scale as they cared to send. His Terran Battlecruisers could be continuously replaced, while the enemy's ships were permanently depleting by the minute.
"Next time you come, remember to bring the Terminus Est. I will be sure to give it a proper welcome," Alexei muttered, his eyes locked onto the holographic star map. "I look forward to seeing the look on your faces when you finally lay eyes on the Golden Armada."