27: Chapter 27: Twelve Leviathans Set Off, Their Destination the Heart of the Empire

The assembly signal of the leviathan motherships propagated through the quantum network at a speed orders of magnitude faster than the Empire's Warp communications.

In orbit above Dead Silence-42, twelve Leviathan-class hive ships completed their entire incubation process from embryo to adult within seventy-two standard hours—the result of the first deep integration between Necron living metal smelting technology and The Swarm's biomass conversion system.

The carapace of each hive ship was embedded with a quantum lattice layer provided by Nephilak on top of its adamantine chitin; this lattice allowed the hive ship to convert a portion of the energy into its own bio-electric reserves when struck directly by Imperial Lance Weapons, rather than simply enduring the impact.

Ninety-six Brood Lords were assigned to the escort sequence of the twelve hive ships, in groups of eight.

The stockpile of parasite swarms quadrupled within four days, and the newly added spore mine warheads were infused with Blackstone dust provided by the Necrons—a strategic mineral used by the Necron Dynasty to suppress Warp activity, which was highly effective against Chaos Daemons and equally significant in interfering with Imperial Void Shields.

The Brood Queen reviewed the data stream of the entire fleet within the Hive Mind; the carapace thickness, weapon charge status, and neural link latency of every unit were all above the standard baseline.

Nephilak's Eternal Echo rose slowly from synchronous orbit above Dead Silence-42, the cold green light flowing across the hull surface resembling an illuminated scythe against the deep space backdrop.

Behind him were three Scythe-class Harvester warships and an engineering vessel named "Hammer of Silence."

The Solemmnace Dynasty did not send many forces, but every ship was a capital warship forged from living metal; in the void, no Imperial weapon could pierce their armor in a one-on-one engagement.

"The orbital defense platforms of Metallis are operating under the closed-loop control of its Fabricator General."

Nephilak's voice was projected directly into the Hive Mind of the Overlord via the quantum link, accompanied by a detailed defensive deployment map down to the coordinates of every turret: "The internal codename for this General within the Imperial Adeptus Mechanicus is 'Father of Iron,' real name Omicron-7, serving for one hundred and seventy-three years, with a ninety-seven percent cybernetic integration rate."

Over the past forty years, he had rejected all technical advisors sent by the Adeptus Mechanicus headquarters because he firmly believed that outsiders would steal his 'Sacred Rites of Manufacture.'

This paranoia led to his defense system being rated as 'Complete' in Imperial archives, but it also made his reaction time window at least three times slower than a standard Imperial Commander—any external tactical suggestions not authorized by him personally were automatically filtered out."

The Overlord placed the data on Omicron-7's cybernetic integration level and decision-making speed into the analysis sequence: total cybernetic integration meant his thinking was dragged down by both biological neural and mechanical interfaces.

A high degree of cybernetic integration, combined with high centralization, would cause him to have a longer decision-making lag than a normal human Commander when facing sudden situations—his neural signals needed to be transmitted through outdated mechanical interface ports, and every command required his personal approval.

Faced with the attack rhythm of The Swarm, this lag was fatal.

"Fleet, depart." The Overlord issued the first interstellar expedition order for The Swarm in the Warhammer universe.

The twelve leviathan motherships started their propulsion systems simultaneously under the escort of the Brood Lords.

They had no Warp engines, but the Warp route mapping data provided by Nephilak contained a gravity reef route leading directly from Dead Silence-42 to the periphery of the Metallis system—a hidden channel that bypassed the conventional routes of Imperial patrol fleets, with only a very short exposure distance from the edge of the scanning range of the Metallis orbital defense platforms.

The Leviathan fleet only needed to traverse this distance by inertial flight to break into the low orbit of Metallis.

As the twelve hive ships passed through the channel in a single file line, there was no engine roar, no Lance Weapon pre-heating, only a very low humming sound emitted by the quantum lattice layers on their carapaces amidst the faint radiation of the gravity reefs.

The Brood Lords deployed in an interception formation on the periphery of the fleet, using bone blades to shatter all micro-meteorites and gravitational debris awakened along the way, clearing a clean path forward for the hive ships.

Meanwhile, on the periphery of the Metallis system, on the bridge of the Imperial Navy cruiser squadron flagship "Hammer of Indomitability," the veteran captain was enjoying his evening black tea.

His full name was Kaspar von Oldenburg, an Imperial Navy Captain, who had served for thirty-two years and commanded a standard cruiser squadron of four cruisers and six frigates.

The old officer sat in the captain's chair, holding the teacup in his left hand, while his right hand flipped through the weapon production statistics submitted by the Adeptus Mechanicus forge that afternoon.

The first mate beside him was staring at the scanner screen, brow slightly furrowed.

"Detected unauthorized Warp signal fluctuations," the first mate said.

The captain put down his teacup, "Characteristics?"

"Unidentifiable. Not an Imperial Navy identification code, not an Adeptus Mechanicus transport code. The signal is coming from the gravity reef area on the periphery of the system, about half a light-year away from us. No echoes of metal hulls can be detected; they are all biomass signals, and the quantity is still increasing."

The captain was silent for a few seconds. Most cruiser squadron Commanders would report this to the Inquisition or Terra at such a time—this was standard Imperial Navy procedure.

But he made a wrong decision: to report first to the Fabricator General of Metallis, Omicron-7, rather than sending an encounter report directly to the Inquisition.

His reason for following this procedure was that this Forge World of the Adeptus Mechanicus possessed independent defense rights in the Imperial administrative division, and any foreign fleet entering its airspace had to pass the General's security review first.

This procedural detour would become the first node in the collapse of the Metallis defense system.

After receiving the report, Omicron-7, in accordance with his usual habits, personally reviewed all peripheral scan data, spending several full minutes in his mental decision tree ruling out sensor malfunctions, meteorite false alarms, and spy ships from hostile factions within the Adeptus Mechanicus that he hated most.

By the time he determined that this was a real xenos fleet, the first leviathan mothership had already emerged from the gravity reefs.

On the fleet bridge, the first mate's voice changed completely: "The size of the targets—eight hundred meters in total length. Not just one. Twelve have been counted on the scanner. Following behind them are—this is impossible—Solemmnace Dynasty Necron Scythe-class warships, repeat, the xenos fleet and the Necron fleet have formed a joint attack formation!"

The arrival of The Swarm was not a scout ship, not a raiding fleet, but an entire armed force evolved to the teeth.

The Void Shields of the entire fleet overloaded and charged simultaneously, and ear-piercing alarms exploded in the corridors of dozens of Imperial ships.

The emergency lights on the ceiling of the bridge began to flash at maximum frequency, washing the color from everyone's faces until they were pale.

At this moment, the first person to make the correct tactical response was a low-ranking Tech-Officer on the Hammer of Indomitability.

He did not wait for the captain's orders, did not wait for Omicron's approval, and directly activated the emergency communication protocol for the Imperial Navy to deal with abnormal situations in an encounter, sending a message to Terra with the highest priority—the content was only a few lines: "Forge World Metallis requests emergency support. Threat level: Beyond Exterminatus-class."

This message remained in the battle report archives on Terra even after the fleet was completely annihilated, titled "Battle of Metallis—First Encounter Signal."

At this moment, the muzzles of the orbital defense platforms were slowly turning, but their fire control systems were still waiting for the personal authorization of the Fabricator General.

Omicron-7 was still unwilling to delegate firing authority to any subordinate.

The twelve leviathan motherships fired simultaneously the second their main cannons finished charging.

Twelve adamantine armor-piercing shells wrapped in highly concentrated digestive fluids flew out of the cannons at dozens of times the speed of sound, accurately penetrating the charging gaps of the Void Shields and hitting the fire control nodes of six orbital defense platforms.

The explosions turned those turrets that were still waiting for authorization into a disk-shaped mass of burning metal debris, illuminating the gray sky of the entire Forge World.

The Empire's control over Metallis was torn open by a gap that would never close again after this round of volley fire.