180: Necromantic rejection

The eerie green light of the Silent King's personal fleet, like a relentless iron torrent, crushed the vanguard battlefield that had been somewhat battered by the Time Tether, pressing directly toward the core area of the Firmament Network.

The oppressive aura of eternal death chilled even the most elite crews of the Human Federation to their marrow. This was a power unlike any Necron Dynasty seen before; it was the sharp edge of an ancient monarch who had truly ruled the galaxy.

However, the Human Federation's response also exceeded the Silent King's calculations.

"Firmament Network, overload resonance, activate!" Alpha-01's command rang out like a drawn sword.

With the Seven-Pointed Star Network as its core, the entire repaired and expanded Firmament system—with its tens of thousands of Nullifier nodes—erupted simultaneously with unprecedented brilliance!

The dark-gold Order Field was no longer gently stabilizing reality; instead, like an enraged solar prominence, it violently expanded and erupted! Countless energy pulses, like an invisible tsunami, slammed hard into the approaching Necron Fleet.

This was no longer defense, but offense! Using the Firmament itself as a weapon, it forcibly washed away physical existence. The Necron Fleet's precision phase shields flickered violently under this conceptual impact. Some smaller vessels were directly assimilated, their green energy patterns overwritten by dark gold as internal system logic was forcibly rewritten, leading to paralysis or self-destruction.

But the Silent King's fleet was extraordinary. Its flagship—a super-giant tomb ship known as the Court of Endless Slumber, resembling a mobile star fortress—lit up with countless complex runes. A larger, deeper green force field expanded, stubbornly resisting the erosion of the Order Field.

The fleet's formation shifted, employing tactics that were more dispersed and focused on space-time manipulation, attempting to bypass or tear through the frontal assault of the energy field.

"It's not enough," Han Zhe's image appeared on the keystone. "Activate the Void Siphon Energy Backflow Protocol! Target: The area occupied by the Silent King's flagship!"

In the distant Extragalactic space, several large Void Siphon facilities abruptly changed their operating modes.

No longer gently extracting inert energy, they took the previously stored, highly refined, and compressed Extragalactic Warp energy and channeled it back into the galaxy via ultra-long-range directional transmission channels at an almost insane speed, injecting it directly into the Firmament Network!

This primordial energy from Extragalactic space, terrifying in its sheer volume, was like pouring liquid fuel onto a bonfire. The brilliance of the Firmament Network instantly surged by several orders of magnitude! The intensity of the Order shockwaves it released spiked, even beginning to Warp the space-time structure of that region, forming a massive dark-gold storm!

Under such a violent assault, the force field of the Silent King's flagship finally showed visible cracks and fluctuations. The massive hull began to vibrate slightly. Within his fleet, some weaker ships were torn apart by the storm. Even the Court of Endless Slumber showed signs of melting and erosion by the Order runes on its surface.

However, the Silent King did not retreat. His cold logic core calculated at high speed. He discovered that the Human Federation's overloaded state could not last, and it was a massive burden on the Firmament Network itself, threatening to collapse from overload at any moment.

He was waiting—waiting for the moment the opponent's strength was exhausted, or searching for the inevitable weak points within this violent storm caused by the excessive concentration of power.

Just as the two forces were locked in a cosmic-scale struggle on the edge of the Eye of Terror, falling into a brief stalemate, a high-priority alarm from deep within the Silent King's logic network forcibly interrupted his tactical simulations.

The source of the alarm: Several outposts and dynastic frontlines loyal to the Silent King at the galactic edge, originally used to monitor and delay the Tyranids.

The alarm content: A massive flank-devouring sub-swarm of Tyranid Hive Fleet Leviathan had suddenly abandoned its relatively slow advance. At an abnormal, almost suicidal speed, it broke through the already thin monitoring lines and was heading straight for several vital Tomb Worlds and resource-rich star systems in the Silent King's core territory! Its path of advance precisely avoided Human Federation controlled areas, with a clear objective aimed directly at the weak points of the Silent King's foundation!

Simultaneously, other networks monitoring the frontlines of the Necron-Tyranid conflict sent back fragmented data: The Swarm's behavioral patterns showed abnormal coordination, seemingly guided by some higher-level will, conducting flanking strikes regardless of the cost.

The Silent King's logic core instantly reached a conclusion: This was a trap. The Human Federation had likely used some method to secretly influence or guide this Tyranid sub-swarm, using it as a lethal blade to stab him in the back!

With a furious storm consuming his main force in front and a Tyranid blade piercing his heartland behind, continuing to entangle with the Human Federation here would result in irreparable damage to his rear, even if he eventually crushed them.

By then, not only would he fail to eliminate the threat of the Human Federation, but his own power would be severely diminished, potentially leaving him unable to recover when facing the true Tyranid main swarm later.

Cold logic quickly made the most rational choice.

The green light of the Court of Endless Slumber and the Silent King's personal fleet began to retract and dim without warning. The massive Necron Fleet abandoned its frontal assault and began disengaging with high efficiency, performing tactical retreat jumps. Their objective was clearly not a rout, but an orderly pivot to intercept and destroy the Tyranid threat attacking their home.

The Silent King abandoned this carefully planned offensive aimed at crippling or even destroying the Human Federation's core expansion project. He chose to preserve his own foundation, temporarily deprioritizing the threat level of the Human Federation.

"The Necron Fleet is disengaging from the battlefield! Jump signals are pointing toward the Tyranid advance at the galactic edge!" the monitoring officer reported in disbelief.

"They've retreated." Alpha-01 breathed a sigh of relief, though his expression remained grim. "Was the sudden movement of the Tyranids our doing?"

"We merely utilized their instinctive tendency toward specific biomass signals and psychic disturbances to create some bait and corridors at their detection boundaries," Han Zhe's voice came through with a hint of cold calculation. "The Silent King was too focused on us and ignored the shadow behind him. The Tyranids are forever the common—and most easily exploited—natural disaster for all sapient civilizations in the galaxy."

"Order: Cease Firmament overload and transition to repair mode. All fleets, move to Condition Two readiness. Monitor Necron movements, but do not pursue," Han Zhe commanded. "With this retreat, the Silent King should be unable to organize an offensive of this scale again in the short term. Our opportunity has arrived."

His gaze turned once more to the vast region on the star map marked as the Imperial Far East Star Sector. The conquest there had slowed due to the threat of the Silent King; now, the obstacle was gone.

"Eastward Torrent Plan, restart at full speed! Goal: Fully occupy and assimilate the Imperial Far East Star Sector before the Imperium can redeploy reinforcements from other fronts or before Chaos and other factions intervene!"

"Order: Reassign one-third of the Firmament Defense Fleet's main force and the 3rd through 8th Garrison Fleets to merge with the Eastward Fleet Group. Form the Far East Conqueror Task Force, under Alpha's unified command, and advance into the depths of the Far East Star Sector immediately! The Social Integration Department's Eastward Assimilation Workgroup is to follow up in full!"

"Yes!"

Having just survived a life-and-death duel with the Silent King, the Human Federation's war machine hardly paused before lunging toward the Imperium's poorly defended eastern frontier with even greater ferocity.

Without the direct threat of the Silent King to restrain them, the Human Federation's advance in the Far East Star Sector was unstoppable. The Imperium's garrison forces here were already weak and scattered. Faced with the well-equipped and tactically ruthless Far East Conqueror Task Force and the assimilation workgroups that followed, resistance proved futile.

Some worlds were reduced to ruins by orbital bombardment after symbolic resistance, serving as a warning.

More worlds, seeing the Human Federation's peerless military might and their 'one-two punch'—where submission brought order and protection, while resistance brought destruction—chose conditional surrender or direct fealty. The dark-gold banners of the Human Federation rose over star systems in the Far East Star Sector at an unprecedented rate.

Meanwhile, the Human Federation did not entirely ignore the Tyranid threat. While the Silent King being tied down by The Swarm was beneficial, The Swarm itself was a hidden danger that had to be managed, especially the sub-swarm currently engaging the Necrons. If the Silent King dealt with them too quickly, or if the Tyranids turned their spearhead after crippling the Necrons, it could bring new trouble.

"Form the 'Tyranid Purifier Task Force'," Han Zhe issued another order while occupying the Far East Star Sector. "Centered around several new adjudicator-class battleships and Incinerator-class carriers specifically designed to counter biological fleets."

"Mission: Shadow the flank of that Tyranid sub-swarm engaging the Silent King for monitoring and limited strikes. Principle: Do not actively engage the Tyranid main force and do not penetrate deep into Necron territory. The goal is to wear down The Swarm, prolong its battle with the Necrons, and collect combat data on the Tyranids fighting the Necrons. If necessary, help The Swarm find more weak points in the Silent King's defenses."

This was a cold-blooded game of 'driving the tiger to swallow the wolf' and 'adding fuel to the fire.' Letting two powerful enemies of the Human Federation consume each other while the Federation seized the opportunity to expand massively in the Far East Star Sector, calmly observing, learning, and ready to deliver a finishing blow at any time.

The balance of power in the galaxy tilted violently under the Human Federation's series of precise, cold, and extremely bold strategic operations. The Silent King was forced to retreat and was embroiled in a struggle with the Tyranids; the Imperial Far East Star Sector was being devoured by the Human Federation; Chaos forces seemed to still be watching or busy with internal affairs; and the Eldar remained as mysterious as ever, their actions hard to predict.

The Human Federation's territory, resources, population, and fleet size grew exponentially under the dual nourishment of the Eastward Torrent and Extragalactic expansion.

Its civilizational strength had firmly reached the galaxy's first tier, and in some aspects, it was even beginning to show signs of surpassing the others.

However, as Han Zhe stood before the increasingly massive star map, there was no satisfaction in his eyes. What he saw was the Silent King's cold hatred, the Imperium's inevitable retaliation, the endless threat of the Tyranids, the eternal malice of Chaos, the increasingly clear unknown echoes from Extragalactic space, and the specter of the Great Collapse hidden within the STC-Ω warnings.

"Conquering the Far East Star Sector is merely a stepping stone for the next move," he whispered to himself, his finger tracing the star map and finally stopping on the tiny speck of light representing Holy Terra, and further out, the unsettling shadow representing the direction of the Tyranid main swarm.

"We need to be faster, stronger. Before the true storm arrives, we must be prepared to face the Emperor, and even... to devour the stars."