"Before absolute power, all are but ants!"
When the massive war machine known as the Blackstone Fortress appeared at the edge of the Cadia system, its terrifying firepower and monstrous numbers directly crushed the Imperial fleet stationed there.
From small Blade-class destroyers to massive Emperor-class battleships, almost none could withstand a single blow from this fortress. This absurd monstrosity was enormous even on the tabletop—its sheer scale alone could crush an entire fleet, to say nothing of the horrifying firepower mounted upon it.
"Let the galaxy burn once more! This time, I will take half of the galaxy with me!"
"Even if a Primarch descends in person, it will change nothing!"
Upon learning the news of a Primarch leading the campaign in person, Abaddon showed not a shred of fear. While he was not confident enough to engage a Primarch face-to-face, his mission and duty were never about defeating a Primarch in direct combat.
The Black Legion under his command was fully prepared. The accompanying Chaos forces, blessed by the Dark Gods, were already sharpening their blades, ready to ignite a new war. Regardless of their faction, every single one of them shared a single goal: the absolute destruction of Cadia.
As long as they could destroy the Cadian Gate and shatter the planet of Cadia itself, they would pay any price—even summoning swarms of Greater Demons—without hesitation.
Naturally, the overall supreme commander of all this was still Abaddon. The pivotal point of the entire campaign rested on his shoulders and his massive Blackstone Fortress.
"I have already seen the destruction of Cadia. What a magnificent explosion—it truly fills me with wonder!" whispered a psyker sorcerer of the Cult of Mutation. He had long since foreseen a future moment, gazing upon that battered and broken world.
The Chaos Gods had already employed various means to set everything in stone. No matter how many troops the Imperium sent, they could not alter this final outcome.
"Very good!" Abaddon set his objective strictly to the destruction of Cadia. For the ever-victorious Warmaster, this was an outcome he was bound to achieve. As long as Cadia was destroyed in the end, he would remain the undefeated Chaos Warmaster.
Meanwhile, Caleb had already locked his gaze onto the Cadian Gate.
The Imperial defenders of the Cadian Gate were engaged in a grueling, bloody struggle against the Chaos warriors. The first phase of the clash erupted not on land, but in space.
The Imperial Navy suffered devastating casualties in the initial engagement. Broken ship hulls drifted through space, forming dense stellar rings around the outer reaches of the system. Some of these vessels already bore the banners of the Indomitus Crusade—ships that Guilliman had specifically reallocated.
However, the assault by the Black Legion was simply too fast. Even if the Imperium reacted, transmitting orders down to the Cadian Gate required a massive amount of time.
Fleets from the Indomitus Crusade arrived in a steady stream, but these trickling reinforcements could not establish a foothold before being completely wiped out by the Black Crusade fleet. Even the vessels of the Adeptus Mechanicus were powerless against this endless, sea-like Chaos armada.
"For the Emperor! Ram the enemy ship!"
Two Lunar-class cruisers attempted to rely on their powerful Void Shields to drive their armored rams directly into the Blackstone Fortress.
Yet how could Abaddon, as Warmaster, allow his fortress to be exposed to such danger? Leaving aside the fortress's absurd internal defenses, the surrounding heavy Chaos cruisers would never let those Imperial ships close in.
Just as the Lunar-class cruisers were about to break through the perimeter and crash into the Blackstone Fortress, two Chaos Desecrator-class cruisers intercepted them, slamming their own heavy rams into the Imperial hulls.
The massive impact sent the two Lunar-class cruisers off course, and they were promptly vaporized under a barrage of devastating, concentrated firepower.
If scrappers or scavengers ever ventured onto this battlefield in the future, they would be thrilled; the density of debris here was extraordinarily high. Thousands of Imperial ships had perished in this zone. Yet, despite such catastrophic losses, they failed to halt the steady advance of the Black Crusade fleet.
"Tch!" Abaddon cast a disdainful glance at the floating wreckages.
The Imperium had suffered horrific casualties, yet the losses inflicted upon his own forces were practically negligible. The vessels tanking damage on the outer perimeter belonged entirely to other Chaos factions, while the core forces of the Black Legion remained safely in the central defensive ring.
Let those war-hungry zealots fight and kill on the outer ring. As long as the balance was maintained, there was no need to worry about any single Chaos God collapsing.
Watching the Black Crusade fleet proceed so smoothly, Caleb decided to spice things up for them.
As the saying went: The Orks defend the realm, the Tyranids die for the state.
As a Warhammer player, he felt compelled to carry this spirit forward. It just so happened that a certain fellow recently wanted to "convince people with virtue." Letting Hulk serve as the vanguard seemed like a fine idea.
At that moment, having survived countless battles, Hulk was enthusiastically building his mobile fortress.
Because he had been fighting fiercely alongside the Iron Warriors and Angron's forces recently, his mob had gained a significant number of Ork Mekboys. As the intensity of the battles escalated, the intelligence of these Orks continued to rise. A portion of them had even turned a dark, grayish-black, their bodies growing remarkably massive.
"Hmm, I think this isn't virtuous enough!"
"Mekboy, get me a bigger cannon barrel!"
"We've gotta convince 'em with virtue when we go out this time. With a tiny cannon like that, how's anyone gonna see how virtuous we are?!"
An Ork clad in ragged cloth scratched his head, finding his boss's logic entirely sound. The mechanical arm behind him began to twitch violently. In an extremely twisted fashion, it forcibly widened the cannon barrel even further!
The Orks' method of modifying cannon barrels was remarkably crude. If the boss said the barrel wasn't thick enough, they simply jammed a thicker rod inside to expand the caliber. The Orks' power of I Fink, Therefore It Is could accomplish anything; as long as the Orks believed the barrel could be expanded safely, then it could be expanded safely.
"Hmm!"
The hulking, heavily built Boss nodded with great satisfaction. His heart was filled with rage, itching to tear through every line of defense.
Ever since Perturabo and Angron joined forces, that annoying defense line had grown longer and longer. Hulk preferred close-quarters, bare-knuckle brawls, but his enemies kept using long-range weapons to blow him to pieces.
Unfortunately for them, even if Hulk was reduced to a single scrap of meat, he could regenerate back into a complete Hulk. Compared to other Ork Warbosses, Hulk possessed extraordinarily stubborn vitality and was exceedingly difficult to kill.
"Boss! We spotted a massive human fleet!"
"Looks like there's plenty of fun to be had! Should we go straight in and loot 'em?"
"Huh?"
Hearing there was a fight to be had, Hulk instantly perked up. If the Big Mek said it was a massive human fleet, it definitely wasn't small. Right now, Hulk was itching to find a tough nut to crack. Rather than grinding away at Perturabo's impenetrable line, he much preferred having another go at those human squishies.
"Good, good, good!"
"Listen up, boys! We're headin' out! Follow me, and get ready to convince 'em with virtue!"
"Raise your copies of the Analects of War, and blast all those tiny squishies away!"
"WAAAAAGH!"
"Today, I'm gonna teach these uncultured squishies a lesson—and show 'em what real virtue means!"
Watching these scholar-Orks march off in grand fashion to pick a fight with Abaddon, Caleb, who was orchestrating things from behind the scenes, almost burst out laughing.
Using Orks to defend the realm really worked wonders! You didn't need to explain why to them; you just had to point out where the fight was, and the Orks would happily charge straight over. They were practically free mercenaries! If it weren't for the risk of them evolving if they fought too hard, the Orks would make fantastic cannon fodder.
In an instant, Caleb suddenly understood why the Old Ones liked using Orks as living weapons. Given their innate love for warfare, they truly were the ultimate battlefield meatshields. No explanations needed, no elaborate motives required—just give them an enemy and a direction, and they would rush over in a massive horde to hack the target to death. You didn't even need to reward them; the battle itself was their best reward.
"What's going on?"
The sudden appearance of a massive swarm of Ork ships caught Abaddon completely off guard. He was preparing to cause trouble for the Imperium, so why did a massive mob of Orks randomly show up to bother him instead?
Even Abaddon found these colossal Ork ships troublesome. The outer fleet alone might not necessarily be a match for these Ork warships. That meant he would have to send the Blackstone Fortress to lead the charge.
"Damn it!"
Abaddon slammed his fist onto the command console. The heavy thud caused the surrounding Black Legion veterans to stiffen slightly. Their expressions quickly returned to normal, as these Terminator veterans knew it was simply another piece of bad news.
"These damned greenskins! They didn't show up earlier, yet they pick this exact moment to turn up!"
"Their numbers aren't huge, but isn't this just buying time for the Imperium?!"
Looking at the star map, even Abaddon felt as if these Orks were deliberately helping the Imperium. How could an Ork fleet just happen to block his path of advance? The reconnaissance fleet hadn't reported any Ork movements like this earlier, so why did they randomly show up to attack him?
However, it never crossed Abaddon's mind that the corpse on the Golden Throne could control xenos greenskins. After all, it was common knowledge that the corpse on the Golden Throne loathed xenos—a fact beyond dispute.
[Caleb: Yes! Fight, fight!]
Watching Abaddon's Black Crusade fleet clash with the Ork armada, Caleb found the drama delightfully entertaining. His current antics were even more Tzeentchian than Tzeentch himself. Tzeentch couldn't directly control Ork units, but Caleb could.
With a roaring battle cry from Hulk, his boarding party immediately launched an armed assault. Even Caleb felt Hulk's battle tactics were overly reckless. Without a second thought, he launched boarding torpedoes from extreme range to clash with the enemy face-to-face.
Even as Ork warships vanished like melting snowflakes and countless Orks perished in the void battle, Boss Hulk resolutely led the charge at the very front.
"WAAAAAGH!"
Their target wasn't even the vulnerable Chaos escort ships. He was aiming straight for the Blackstone Fortress—he wanted to loot the biggest, most virtuous ship of them all!
"Mm, not bad at all. That slowed them right down!"
"The entire Black Crusade fleet has been delayed significantly. That should give Guilliman's crusade fleet enough time to arrive!" Caleb stroked his chin in thought.
Yet, just as he resolved the issue on Abaddon's end, a massive problem cropped up on Guilliman's side.
At that moment, Guilliman's Macragge's Honour happened to encounter Sanguinius's Red Tear. This vessel was also something Caleb had deployed using deployment points, and to be frank, the model of the Red Tear was exquisite. Compared to the Macragge's Honour, the ship was a pure work of art.
One would have expected this epic reunion to be a heartwarming moment of mutual respect between three Primarchs. That was, until Sanguinius pulled out an entire set of outfits, intending to have her dear brothers wear them.
The expressions on the faces of Lion and Guilliman instantly changed.
Lion fell into deep thought as he stared at the bunny girl outfit, wondering which absolute bastard had leaked this secret to their dear sister Sanguinius.
Guilliman simply stared at the school swimsuit, sinking into a deep sense of helplessness. Rationality told him that agreeing to his sister's request would bring good things, but with his current dignity, he simply couldn't bring himself to wear such bizarre attire!
"Oh come on, Guilliman-chan, Lion-chan—"
"Just give me a hand, okay? I just want to take a look!"
"I only heard Father mention that you've both worn these things before!"
"So I brought them along. I thought you'd like them!"
Sanguinius still wore that harmless, gentle smile on her face. Everyone loved Sanguinius, and everyone loved the Great Angel. Precisely because of this, no one doubted her words. Besides, it was common knowledge that Sanguinius possessed foresight, so logically speaking, there was a high probability she was telling the truth.
"You actually...!"
Guilliman and Lion exchanged a glance, their expressions instantly turning into subtle disgust. Neither had expected the other to have worn such outfits before.
Indeed, Guilliman had never imagined that Lion had worn a bunny girl outfit. How could that proud, stoic Lion wear something so shameless?
Meanwhile, Lion was shocked. Why was this shameless reprimanding Primarch wearing clothes meant for young children? Even if she had slept for ten thousand years, she was still an adult—how could she be this shameless?
In truth, as for the school swimsuit, Guilliman really wasn't to blame. Previously, Guilliman had asked Sicarius and Calgar to source some children's clothing—and those two somehow ended up procuring a school swimsuit.
At first, Guilliman didn't know its intended purpose and tried it on casually. It wasn't until Calgar caught Guilliman walking around the office wearing the school swimsuit that everyone realized something was horribly wrong.
At the time, Guilliman's eyes held a gaze of pure, innocent foolishness. Only after spending a few minutes researching the historical context of the outfit did Guilliman feel a wave of intense embarrassment.
Guilliman had sworn never, ever to wear that thing again. Yet now, his dear elder sister Sanguinius was asking him to put it on once more!
By this point, neither Lion nor Guilliman could back down. They were completely backed into a corner, thoroughly manipulated by their sly, gentle elder sister Sanguinius.