Abaddon's flagship, the vengeful spirit, was quietly docked in orbit around Alert Star.
This battleship was a gloriana-class battleship personally ordered by the Emperor during the Great Crusade and built with the full might of the Adeptus Mechanicus of Mars.
It was also the mount of the Imperial Warmaster Horus back then.
At this moment, hundreds of Chaos warships of various sizes guarded the vengeful spirit, while more warships were scattered across Alert Star, continuously providing various orbital fire support to the ground forces.
In a secluded corner of the Chaos fleet, a light cruiser detached from the formation and turned to leave in a direction away from Alert Star.
At the same time, a question echoed on the bridge of the vengeful spirit.
"What?!"
"They have something to do and need to leave?"
On the massive bridge, the Chaos Eight-Pointed Star hung high in the center, surrounded by piles of skulls and any other offerings that could please the Chaos Gods.
Tech-Priests of the Dark Mechanicum operated various instruments, while a large number of mutated crewmen worked diligently below.
As the undivided chosen of the Chaos Gods, Abaddon's bridge, though still terrifying with the impaled and disemboweled bodies of Mortals and even loyal Astartes hanging everywhere, was at least much more 'normal' than those dedicated to only one of the Chaos Gods.
Abaddon's voice echoed on the bridge, with only the intermittent electronic sounds of instruments around.
The mutated crewmen buried their heads as if they hadn't heard, and dared not make any movements beyond their duties on the bridge.
Only in front of the bridge's throne, a Captain under Abaddon's command answered again in a rough voice:
"Those are Black Skull's exact words."
Simple and direct, without a hint of deference to Abaddon, the two seemed less like superior and subordinate and more like a cooperative relationship with a common goal.
On the bridge's throne, Abaddon was encased in heavy, finely crafted Terminator power armor, his left hand wielding the massive claw of horus, once Horus's exclusive weapon.
His right hand held the daemon sword 'Drach'nyen', formed from a daemon that had once fought the Emperor.
Coupled with the towering, majestic physique bestowed upon him by the Chaos Gods, even Calgar appeared somewhat short and frail in his presence.
Abaddon ignored his subordinate's attitude; he simply turned his gaze to the extremely distant void outside the bridge, where space ripples indicated the activation of a Warp jump engine.
From receiving the news until now, seeing Black Skull's surprisingly efficient departure, even if the Captain below hadn't said it, Abaddon knew this was no mere 'having something to do'.
"My man..."
"Ran away?"
With slightly widened eyes, Abaddon instantly understood what Black Skull was up to.
Abaddon commanded a vast Chaos Legion, with hundreds of warships in this single battlefield alone, so he naturally wouldn't care about a small Black Skull.
However, Abaddon's attention instantly shifted from the front lines to this matter, because the fact that there was an entity on the ground capable of making a Chaos Warband flee directly was enough to warrant Abaddon's concern.
Withdrawing his gaze from the direction Black Skull had jumped, Abaddon paused, then looked directly at the Astartes adjutant beside him:
"Retrieve all relevant information on Black Skull."
The adjutant turned and immediately complied. As all information regarding Black Skull was gathered, Abaddon quickly scanned it, and a slight'smile' appeared on his stiff, cold face.
"Black Skull..."
"Was driven off by a group of Mortals..."
As he smiled, not only the Mortals but also the less deferential Chaos Astartes around him felt a surge of tension in their hearts.
The Chaos Captain looked around, feeling some anger at Black Skull's 'incompetence', but facing Abaddon's obvious emotions, he steeled himself and finally spoke in a more respectful tone:
"Should we send more people?"
Although he had become respectful, Abaddon still didn't care about the attitude of his subordinates. He looked at the giant projection of Alert Star below the bridge, gazing at the solitary red dot outside Hyberia amidst a sea of green dots. After observing for a moment, he withdrew his gaze and all his attention.
Turning back to the fierce front line where he and Calgar were fighting in Hyberia, Abaddon was expressionless:
"That is not our objective."
"Exterminate them."
Abaddon no longer paid attention to this minor interlude on the battlefield. After all, what if Sith drove off Black Skull?
With all factions now present, these 150,000 Mortals, even if every single one of them were Stormtroopers, would only turn to dust under the endless cycles of enemy and friendly extermination.
The Chaos Captain nodded and left, and Abaddon's commands for the siege of Hyberia once again echoed through the bridge.
Only in a corner of the fleet, a Chaos light cruiser carrying small Whirlwind torpedoes began to change course towards Sith.
Meanwhile, on the ground.
Endless Genestealers charged forward, wave after wave, against the fierce firepower of the 101st Regiment.
With the large amount of ammunition supplied earlier, Sith no longer had to worry about running out of bullets.
A single Bolter fire pierced through four unarmored low-level Genestealers, then exploded, taking out seven or eight more nearby.
Watching the Genestealer army being forcibly pushed back by the firepower, Sith once again looked up at the sky.
Seeing the constant interplay of lances of light and mushroom clouds on the nearby land, Sith felt a slight tension, then looked up at his own head.
In the nearby sky, a Chaos warship was slowly approaching.
Gazing at the warship, Sith fired a shot without looking back.
After killing a charging mutant, Sith finally lost his patience.
Drawing his power sword, Sith, with the even more prominent scars from his fierce battle with the Chaos Astartes, turned directly:
"Don't worry about the front line anymore. Have everyone charge with all their might, and make sure to..."
Subconsciously wanting to set a time, Sith paused, then suddenly declared:
"Tell everyone, if you don't want to die, break out of the Hive City as fast as possible!"
Having said that, Sith ignored the stunned looks of Bruno and the others beside him and charged directly into the crowded Genestealers ahead.
The sounds of power sword and Bolter fire echoed once more, accompanied by the orange-yellow light splashed from the lower fires. Sith's power armor reflected a faint glow, like a golden-shining deity.
Seeing Sith in such a state, the Imperial Guardsmen like Bruno behind him also seemed invigorated, following fanatically.
The firepower diminished, but a group of soldiers wielding sabers and entrenching tools plunged into the soft 'flesh' of the Genestealers like a hot iron.
It didn't take long. As an external passage in the Upper Hive suddenly exploded, the towering elevated railway crashed down with a metallic, twisted groan.
First, a large number of Genestealers were pushed out, hissing and roaring at the Hive City.
But their newly opened ugly mouths were instantly blasted into gore by a Bolter fire or a laser.
The Genestealers rolled to the sides, followed by a large number of Imperial Guardsmen suddenly rushing out of the passage.
There was no pleasant weather at the top; the world beneath the Hive City was only dim.
Above were clouds constantly flickering with strange lightning, distorted by Warp energy, and below was an boundless land where the earth was twisted and deformed, with rock layers and greenskins intermingled.
And when Sith led his soldiers out of the Hive City, the clouds above were suddenly pierced, and a tall building plummeted straight down.
A tall building?
Sith frowned, but as he focused more attention, Sith finally saw clearly: this was no building at all, but an Exterminatus Torpedo launched from space!
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