"Commence planetary scan," Adam ordered, his gaze locked onto the churning, storm-choked orb of Talon II, the once-proud Imperial Hive World turned rebel stronghold, now cloaked beneath layers of stormclouds and treason.
Within moments, a torrent of sensor data surged into his augmetic implants: a cascading stream of tactical telemetry and spectral imaging, layered with threat assessments and energy readings.
Across the planet's surface, over thirty fortress-like megacities sprawled across the ashen terrain, their monolithic forms half-consumed by swirling ashstorms and punctuated by electromagnetic static.
The largest of them, the capital hive-fortress, was sheathed in a colossal Void Shield dome, its rippling cerulean barrier reflecting the light of distant stars like a second atmosphere.
Adam streamed the scan results across the fleet's interlinked data network, his neural interface relaying updates faster than any human hand could type or transmit.
Within minutes, a single, concise command arrived from Qin Mo.
«Bombard the capital.»
"All hands, prepare for orbital bombardment. Target: the capital hive-city," Adam commanded, his voice cold, unwavering.
As the cruiser's commander, Adam had direct authority over its escort frigates.
Once ready, every weapon system capable of orbital strikes was locked onto Talon II's surface, targeting the fortress-capital.
The escort frigates released their first salvo: ten torpedoes fired in rapid succession, each armed with cluster warheads engineered to saturate defensive grids and spread destruction across entire city blocks.
Their smaller particle lances fired next, unleashing incandescent beams of superheated energy, each shot capable of melting through multi-layered ferrocrete and plasteel bastions in an instant.
The cruiser, with its far greater arsenal, deployed an array of weaponry:
- Torpedo salvos, each carrying armor-piercing payloads designed to breach planetary defenses.
- Heavy particle lances, weapons of apocalyptic magnitude, scorching the void as they fired.
- Orbital bomb clusters, which fragmented into hundreds of submunitions, raining devastation upon the world below.
- Energy beams: concentrated thermal lances, meant to vaporize armored divisions in seconds.
- Macrocannon barrages, launching explosive payloads the size of manufactorum silos, capable of leveling square kilometers with a single impact.
None of these weapons bore ceremonial names. Frankly, Qin Mo hadn't even bothered naming half of them. Their purpose was singular: annihilation.
The first wave of particle lances sliced through the atmosphere, appearing as blinding pillars of celestial wrath descending from the heavens.
All across the planet's surface, eyes turned upward in horror.
Or rather, the absence of one.
The beams vanished upon striking the Void Shield, their energy harmlessly refracted and dispersed across its surface in shimmering ripples of blue light.
Next, came the torpedoes as they neared the shield barrier, their cluster warheads split apart, unleashing a rain of explosives.
But the Void Shield endured.
Each blast was absorbed, nullified, or redirected, its ancient matrix flaring momentarily before returning to placid glow.
Then came the macrocannon shells, the energy beams, all of it was swallowed by the shimmering barrier, as if Talon II's capital were encased in an impenetrable sea of light.
Adam immediately recognized the shield's nature: a high-grade Void Shield array.
At this point, he saw two possible options:
- Sustain bombardment until the shield's capacitors overloaded and collapses.
- Cease fire and deploy ground forces to locate and disable the shield generator manually.
However, Adam was not the highest-ranking officer in the fleet. The decision was not his to make.
Moments later, a new order came through the fleet's communication channels:
«Bombard the other cities.»
Adam relayed the command, and the fleet redirected its firepower toward the less-defended targets.
The cruiser's main particle lances swiveled, locking onto a secondary fortress-city, a sprawling complex of spires and factorums, its skyline unprotected, naked before the stars.
Then, a full-power discharge.
A scarlet beam of annihilation lanced downward, tearing through the atmosphere and incinerating the city's central district.
Even from orbit, the devastation was visible, a massive black scar upon the planet's surface.
Then came the torpedo volleys. Cluster bombs rained down like vengeful meteors, detonating amid the city's sprawl.
Macrocannons thundered, their payloads reducing hab-blocks, manufactorums, and militia bastions to craters of smoke and molten debris.
Energy beams carved through infrastructure and defense lines, leaving behind molten slag, fused steel, and scorched glass.
Through the billowing clouds of destruction, Adam could see only flickering strobes of light, the dying remnants of structures and vehicles consumed by fire.
When the second particle lance cut through the haze, the city was gone, reduced to a wasteland of shattered stone, twisted steel, and radioactive ash.
Whoever had been stationed there, military personnel, heretic officials, rogue Mechanicus operators, entire garrisons, they were gone.
"Target the next city," Adam ordered, his voice level, emotionless, his cadence like that of a servitor reading scripture.
Aboard the orbital shipyard, Qin Mo and his senior officers observed Talon II through a massive hololithic display, the battlefield rendered in shifting spectral lumens and tactical overlays.
Across the illuminated projection, destruction unfolded in real-time.
Anruida, holding a stack of parchment records, reported aloud:
"After we secured Talon I, I personally investigated the Spire's underground archives. Most of the records consisted of letters and financial ledgers.
The inhabitants of Talon II had been planning rebellion for a long time. These fortress cities were constructed centuries ago, initially as industrial hubs for military-grade production.
Over time, Talon I's key industries were quietly relocated to Talon II. Not all of them, though. The traitor governor sold off some production lines to purchase warships."
He turned another page.
"As for the shield protecting the capital, it's not a standard Void Shield. It's an ancient relic that the traitor governor's ancestors discovered in the Underhive two thousand years ago. However, no detailed records exist about its specifications."
Qin Mo narrowed his eyes.
"This information…" he murmured, "could have been deliberately left behind by the traitor before he fled. A misdirection, perhaps. Or maybe he just found it amusing."
One could never truly decipher the minds of those who worshipped Tzeentch, the Architect of Fate.
After a moment of contemplation, Qin Mo issued his next command.
"Deploy all Legion regiments to the surface. Focus on the smaller cities. The larger ones will remain under sustained bombardment."
"I propose we continue bombarding the capital," Klein suggested, raising his hand. "Void Shields have a maximum threshold, just like any warship. If we keep up the bombardment, it will collapse eventually."
Some officers nodded in agreement. Others remained silent.
Qin Mo shook his head.
"That would take too long," he countered. "We need to end this war quickly. Talon II isn't the only battlefield."
Focusing on undefended cities was simply more efficient.
Each barrage could wipe out thousands of enemy troops in the span of seconds.
By sending Legion forces to seize the smaller cities, the war could progress even faster.
And as for the Void Shield problem, Qin Mo had a plan for that, too.
Standing up, he addressed the room.
"I will personally lead the Thunderborns to destroy the Void Shield Generators."
The room fell silent.
Qin Mo was personally entering combat.
This confirmed what they had suspected. When he said "end this war quickly," he didn't mean within months or years.
He meant within days.
And his decision was final.
The Thunderborns immediately began their preparations for teleportation.
Qin Mo stepped forward, joining them.
The AI Core began calculating the optimal teleportation coordinates.
Dimensional teleportation was not a simple task, even for an AI Core.
The sheer number of DI-jumps required during this campaign had already pushed its computational capacity to the limits.
["What is your target location?"] the AI inquired as it continued narrowing the teleportation zone.
"Send us directly to the core of the Void Shield generators," Qin Mo ordered.
The AI reallocated additional processing power, identifying the geometric center of the Void Shield's energy matrix.
Since the shield was a perfect sphere, it was highly likely that its generator lay at its exact center, hidden within the city's reinforced substructure.
Moments later the calculations were complete.
Qin Mo and the Thunderborns vanished in a flash of searing energy, reappearing inside the heart of the capital hive of Talon II.