91: Chapter 91: Before the new agreement was even signed, the Zerg swarm had already pinned the Allied fleet to anchor and rubbed it in.

When Marcus Aurelian's shuttle came to a steady halt on the hangar deck of the Wrath of the Emperor, the draft text of the new agreement was still warm in his hands. Bern was waiting for him at the entrance of the briefing room, his Holy Hammer resting on his shoulder armor, and the silver light of the Psychic Talisman lay securely against the inside of his breastplate. Sebastian sent a transmission from Griffin IV, saying that the new rotation schedule for the Third Assault Fleet had been arranged, and Heinrich's Shield of the Emperor was currently performing local-mode calibration for joint patrols on the outer perimeter of the Gravity Reef Channel. The War Council's observer permissions were still quietly refreshing unencrypted intelligence from the coalition's shared database on the Psionic Void Network.

A series of alarms suddenly exploded across the main screen of the briefing room. The urgent psychic communication from the Imperial Astropath Corps was only a few lines long, but every word seemed written in blood on parchment: "The Orbital Defense Platform of Griffin IV is under attack. Attacker identification: Zerg Swarm Leviathan Battle Group. Defenders were infiltrated by Zerglings at the exact moment the firmware detection window opened. The main energy bus of the orbital shipyard has been severed, and Void Shield charging is interrupted. The fleet rotation anchorage is currently being suppressed by the Titan-Eater."

Marcus slammed the draft agreement onto the command console. Oldenburg's voice immediately followed over the fleet channel, with the background noise of the emergency evacuation alarms from the Griffin IV orbital shipyard and the dull roar of Void Shield overload: "The attack timing is perfectly synchronized with the United Fleet's rotation handover window—the new and old Commanders are changing shifts, the firmware detection program has just started, and all energy buses are completely exposed. This is not a probe; it's a precision strike." Heinrich's Shield of the Emperor turned back at full speed from the Gravity Reef Channel. The veteran officer roared on the bridge, ordering all Strike Cruisers to switch to local-mode independent fire control. The coalition emblem on the bow had still not recovered after the permissions were revoked, the dark gray emblem looking like a cold piece of iron in the red glow of the alarms.

In the briefing room, Marcus stared at the damage assessments continuously popping up on the main screen—the Griffin IV orbital shipyard defense platform was crippled, the permanent anchorage of the Third Assault Fleet was forced into an emergency evacuation, and a gaping hole had been torn in the orbital defense network. He demanded an explanation from the Brood Queen.

The Brood Queen's quantum-state translator did not light up. Answering in her stead was cold green text projected directly onto the main screen by the Overmind, the words as sharp and concise as a monomolecular blade: "The new agreement has not yet been signed. The War Council observer status remains active, and the draft agreement is still undergoing internal review processes by each member party. According to the currently effective terms of the coalition charter, The Swarm is not bound by mutual defense during this window. The military action against Griffin IV does not violate any signed agreement. As a side note—the War Council observer permissions allow the coalition to receive our military movements in real-time. You were not ambushed; you simply chose not to heed the early warning."

Bern slowly lowered the Holy Hammer from his shoulder, his voice kept extremely low: "During the negotiations, The Swarm used their observer permissions to read the United Fleet's entire rotation schedule, supply routes, and Void Shield charging cycles. We handed over this data because the coalition charter required observers to share non-classified intelligence. But The Swarm fed this non-classified intelligence into their own fire control databases." Sebastian sent back an urgent report from the assault squad at the forward outpost of Griffin IV—the Zerglings' infiltration route had precisely exploited the exhaust pipe inlet of the energy bus exposed during the firmware detection program. The location of that pipe was never marked on the Imperial Navy's schematics; it was a Drone exploration record from the testing period of the United Industrial Complex's Universal Armor Plates. The Swarm obtained the exploration records because the asset division of the United Industrial Complex was still under negotiation, and the data exchange interface of the creep conduits had not been severed.

Marcus took a deep breath and pressed the War Council's all-channel broadcast: "All units of the United Fleet, immediately switch to independent combat mode. Roll back the local-mode firmware of the Universal Void Shield Coordinator to the version used in the Battle of the Star of Judgment. Physically sever all data exchange interfaces of the United Industrial Complex connected to The Swarm's creep conduits immediately. Heinrich, rush back at full speed from the Gravity Reef Channel. Oldenburg, hold the front line at the anchorage. Our goal is not to repel The Swarm—it is to stall until the agreement is initialed."

Heinrich's Shield of the Emperor completed a sharp turn from the edge of the channel, its six-thousand-year-old adamantium ram carving a blinding scratch in the void. His cybernetic eye locked onto the three leviathan motherships on the screen, which were deploying in a wedge-shaped assault formation along the outer perimeter of the rotation anchorage. He muttered a curse to himself and then pressed the fleet channel: "All Strike Cruisers, load armor-piercing shells into the Macro-cannons, switch Lance Weapons to scatter mode, and cover the front of the anchorage. Prioritize Void Shield charging to protect the evacuation corridors outside the shipyard." Then, he privately connected to Marcus's encrypted channel and said hoarsely, "Inquisitor, they are thrashing us. This is no ordinary surprise attack—they know all our handover windows, detection procedures, and supply gaps."