71: Chapter 71 The four allied forces positioned their fleets at the very entrance to the warp rift.

The complete coordinates of the Star of Judgment were decoded less than half a day after the conclusion of the Allied General Assembly. It wasn't a guess or a prophecy—it was the cross-referencing of three sets of data within the Psionic Void Network: the Old Ones Evaluation Protocol, the Iyanden Web of Prophecy, and the War in Heaven Sealing Archives extracted by Nephilak from the Necron Dynasty's Core Matrix. All three simultaneously pointed to a dark zone between the Ultima Segmentum and the Cadian Ruins, marked on Imperial star charts as 'Permanently Lost Space.' This region of space was known to Imperial Navigators as the 'Throat of the Great Rift,' and for thousands of years, no Imperial ship that entered had ever returned. Now the Alliance knew why—the Old Ones had sealed a Final Sealing Protocol in that space, and buried in the center of the protocol was an unnamed planet wrapped in triple seals: the Star of Judgment.

On the bridge of the Wrath of the Emperor, Marcus Aurelian zoomed the star chart to its maximum magnification, staring at the Warp rift twisted into a spiral by the Old Ones' seal around the Star of Judgment. His voice was raspy but calm: "The Tyranid remnants are in the deep space to our left, and Tzeentch's Chaos scrap fleet is massing in the direction of the Cadian Ruins. The Star of Judgment is sandwiched right between the two enemy-occupied zones. No matter who arrives first, they will collide with the other two parties." Oldenburg sent a fleet deployment assessment from Griffin IV, concluding that the Third Assault Fleet's Strike Cruisers, combined with The Swarm's leviathan mothership battle group, could seize control of the Star of Judgment's high orbit before the Tyranids and Chaos, but they would have to split their forces to hold both flanks of the defense line. He paused and added: "This will be the largest synchronized operation since the formation of the Alliance."

The Brood Queen's quantum-state translator lit up on the main screen. She was crouched on the creep platform of the Metallis Forge Temple, the cold green crown of light above her head still decoding the operating procedures of the Old Ones' Final Sealing Protocol line by line. "The Overmind says that once the Star of Judgment's Old One containment protocol is activated, it will detonate all sealed Warp rifts—not close them, detonate them. The consequence is that the entire Great Rift will be forced shut in an extremely short time, simultaneously tearing apart all Warp channels in the area. The light of the Astronomican will shine back into this space after the closure is complete, but the price is that all Warp-dependent navigation and communication will be completely interrupted during the closure. Chaos fleets within the closure zone will be torn to shreds directly, but the Imperial Fleet must also withdraw to a safe distance before the closure. The Alliance must complete the physical evacuation of all units within an extremely short window after the protocol is activated. Humans, can your fleet do it?"

Marcus looked at Oldenburg. Oldenburg's fingers swiped quickly across the data pad, then he looked up: "We can. All Void Shield overload redundancies and engine acceleration reserves for the Third Assault Fleet have been recalibrated in the Psionic Void Network tests. The evacuation window is sufficient." Marcus turned to the translator: "And The Swarm?" The Brood Queen's answer was a single word—"Yes."

Nephilak's quantum-state communication patched into the Alliance channel. Today, he wasn't standing on the bridge of the Eternal Echo; instead, he had connected the communication directly from the Solemmnace Dynasty Core Matrix to the War Council, the cold green light in his eye sockets shining brighter than usual. "There is a Fault-Avoidance Contingency Plan specifically for the Great Rift's closure in the ancient archives of the Solemmnace Dynasty. I have already transferred it to the Alliance shared database when I filed the void covenant with the Overlord Council. That symbol in the Eldar Web of Prophecy you haven't decoded yet means 'Post-Closure Navigation Route'—when the Old Ones designed this protocol, they had already reserved markers for the vacuum navigation routes after the closure." The Iyanden Farseer's ghostbone staff traced a faint blue arc in the meeting projection, fully expanding the last undeciphered symbol from the Web of Prophecy, which perfectly overlapped with the Fault-Avoidance Contingency Plan provided by Nephilak. The Farseer said softly: "Once the Star of Judgment's containment protocol is activated, Warp travel will completely fail in this space. However, the Eldar's Spirit Network does not rely on the Warp—Craftworld Iyanden can take responsibility for evacuating Alliance casualties and non-combat units along the Spirit Network. This is the part we read from the Web of Prophecy."

Marcus opened the War Council's general channel and issued the assembly order to all Alliance units. The Third Assault Fleet ascended from Griffin IV, the leviathan mothership battle group broke out from Metallis's low orbit, Eldar Ghost Strike Teams boarded Iyanden's wraith cruisers and merged into the Alliance routes from the direction of the Craftworld, the Titan-Eater rose from the Forge Temple's landing pad, and the triple cold green rings of the Void Throat expanded above the Talasta Void Gate in synchronized standby. All engines of the Blackstone Defense Line maintained decisive battle mode, and the Psionic Void Network integrated the fire control, shields, and engine propulsion parameters of all Alliance nodes into a real-time synchronization matrix.

By the time the Allied fleet completed its assembly in the high orbit of the Star of Judgment, enemy shadows could already be seen on the scanners in the deep space on both sides. The Tyranid remnants had patched together a deformed but still massive assault fleet using surviving Hive Ships, pressing in from the left; Tzeentch's Chaos scrap fleet, led by several Chaos battleships soaked in pinkish-purple glowing fluid, cut in from the direction of Cadia. The Brood Queen synchronized the fleet arrival time windows on the War Council channel, and Oldenburg reported that the Third Assault Fleet's Void Shields were fully charged.

Marcus Aurelian officially switched the Alliance command to the War Council's full-vote mode, then spoke over the general channel: "Attention all Alliance units. After the Star of Judgment's containment protocol is activated, the Warp rifts in this space will be detonated. The Chaos scrap fleet will be torn apart, but our fleets must also withdraw to a safe distance before the closure. Swarm, Necron, Eldar, and Empire—four fleets are now positioned at the edge of the same gravitational reef. This is not a drill. Alliance, commence operation." He paused, then added one last thing. "The Emperor witnesses. The Swarm witnesses. The Old Ones' exam—this time, none of us are allowed to be late."