Hearing Emperor Samuel Young's clear, unequivocal order, the hint of languor on Halsey's face vanished at once, replaced by focus and efficiency.
She dipped her head slightly, eyes gleaming with the excitement of the impending "large-scale field test."
"Understood, Your Majesty. I will immediately begin the final pre-startup self-check for Grand Device 01 and assemble the core operations team.
Estimated time to full readiness: within twelve standard hours. Grand Device 01 will arrive at the designated coordinates in the new universe on schedule."
Her reply was crisp, with no trace of hesitation. The comm screen then went dark.
After ending the call with Halsey, Emperor Samuel Young's thoughts did not pause in the vast, solemn quiet around the Golden Throne.
He began a deeper "review" and "projection" of Dead Space—the universe newly drawn into the Empire's map.
As a traveler aware of many "possibilities" and "story templates," he was no stranger to the horrors implied behind the concept of Dead Space.
In his memory, fragments about the Ishimura, the Marker, the corpse-mutants, and the Unification Church now cross-validated with Sui Meng's real-world reports, sketching the brutal undertone of this universe.
The Marker…
The Emperor recited the term in his heart.
What kind of civilization or existence lay behind this bizarre creation—able to warp lifeforms, spread psychic contamination, and serve as a beacon to guide devourers like the "blood moons" down upon worlds?
He began to hypothesize and model on the basis of current intelligence.
Could it be akin to Warp chaos gods—entities of chaos condensed from pure negative emotions and concepts?
Samuel Young pondered.
The Marker's properties—inducing madness, provoking internecine slaughter, chasing so-called "fusion" and "ascension"—did align, to a degree, with Khorne's bloodlust, Tzeentch's scheming, or Nurgle's decay.
Perhaps they were not a material civilization at all, but a universe-scale source of memetic contamination—using Markers as "seeds" or "feelers" to infect and harvest worlds of sapient life.
Or was it a highly advanced materialist civilization that had strayed to an extreme?
Another possibility surfaced in his mind.
Such a civilization might have long since discarded organic forms, treating the "unification" and "fusion" of life as the ultimate evolution.
They created Markers as tools to "harvest" or "assimilate" other civilizations—drawing in biomass, technology, and even cultural information to sustain their own existence and achieve goals beyond mortal comprehension.
Their motives might be cold and pure, unbound by good or evil, for some purpose beyond human understanding.
Or were they predators dwelling in higher-dimensional space, in a liminal realm?
Samuel Young's projection pressed further.
The Marker might be only a projection or lure in lower dimensions, its true form existing in planes humans cannot directly perceive—like an anglerfish of the deep sea, using a glowing "lantern" to draw prey in, then dragging it into an endless black abyss.
The blood moons would be their organ or vehicle for "feeding."
Countless possibilities collided and evolved in his mind. Each had a logic, yet none had decisive proof.
Samuel Young did not rush to a conclusion, maintaining the caution a ruler and a scholar should possess.
Whatever its essence, the Marker and the forces behind it were threats the Empire must guard against—and purge.
At last, his thoughts returned to the present situation.
Given the decisiveness and efficiency Sui Meng had shown in this expedition, and the ultimate deterrence of the Grand Device, the Emperor had reason to believe the consolidation of this new universe would be greatly accelerated.
Perhaps, before greedy eyes in the Warp took note of this battered universe—or before those daemons and dark gods extended tendrils to drag it into another eternal "storm of chaos"—Sui Meng would already have completed iron-fisted consolidation and raised a new bulwark of order.
Avoiding the Empire's entanglement in multi-front, long-term wars—especially those tied to the Warp's dark gods—was always one of Samuel Young's core strategies.
Sui Meng's actions seemed to be moving in that favorable direction.
－－－－－－－
Ten hours later.
Dead Space universe, by the planet Shengdun 7.
A once relatively open span of space was now occupied by a creation whose grandeur and intricacy defied words.
Even Diwuzu crew who had seen many of the Empire's miraculous works still found their breath caught at the sight through viewports and sensors.
It was one of the Human Empire's ultimate creations, replicated from Forerunner technology—
the "Grand Device," also known as the "Halo."
Its main body was a perfect ring more than eight thousand kilometers in diameter, like a giant band forged by a god from the stuff of stars, floating in the dim backdrop of space.
The ring's exterior—special-treated silvery-gray alloy—gleamed with a cold metallic sheen, patterned with regular, complex geometry and energy conduits. Arrays of titanic thrusters and embedded weapon platforms stood out here and there, proclaiming its artificial nature.
The ring's breadth reached fifty kilometers, and its cross-sectional thickness exceeded thirty, giving it unmatched structural solidity.
Yet the most astonishing part lay within.
Through the ring's huge hollow center—wide enough to pass a small-to-medium planet—you could see the ring's inner surface.
It was no cold metal, but a complete, coherent artificial ecosystem.
A simulated natural lighting system formed day-night cycles.
A broad artificial desert spread in golden tones. Micro-oceans rippled blue. Dense forests cloaked rolling mountains, with sinuous rivers and sprinkled lakes in between.
An atmosphere—like a transparent torus bound to the ring's interior—kept a friendly temperature and pressure.
Through precise ecological cycles and a curated, adjusted array of life—from microorganisms to large mammals, from ferns to towering trees—this closed environment maintained a dynamic, healthy balance.
Setting aside its terrifying function as a weapon on a star-system scale, the ring itself was a miraculous crystallization of imperial engineering and ecology—a self-sustaining, mobile "habitable world."
For the moment, it held a carefully calculated orbit, neither disturbing Shengdun 7's revolution nor letting its gravitational mass perturb nearby bodies, its field kept tightly constrained.
With Dr. Halsey and her team's final commands confirmed, Grand Device 01—this majestic ring over eight thousand kilometers across parked beside Shengdun 7—began to reveal technology beyond common comprehension.
The energy tracery along the ring's exterior, which had been only faintly aglow, suddenly brightened, like countless star-rivers lighting. In the end, all power surged madly toward the geometrical center of the ring structure.
In the next instant, a cyan-blue light bloomed at the ring's hollow center, then expanded sharply like a supernova, forming a stable, rotating, softly glowing cyan-blue energy vortex—
a cross-universe portal large enough for the entire ring to pass through.
Grand Device 01 then began to move, a colossal torus adjusting its posture with precision, aligning its "top," defined by the normal of the ring's plane, to the mouth of the cyan-blue portal.
No rending tail-flames—only an almost absolute quiet.
Under propulsion beyond conventional physics, this object on the scale of a celestial body glided toward the portal at a steady pace that, given its size, carried an eerie beauty.
Its edge touched the energy vortex first, like a boulder cast into a lake—but no ripples arose. That portion of the ring simply grew vague and transparent, then slipped soundlessly into the cyan-blue.
The process lasted tens of seconds. When the final section of the ring passed through, the gigantic cyan-blue vortex rapidly shrank to a point, flickered, and vanished into the vacuum.
In Shengdun 7's domain, it was as if nothing had happened—only the dim void remained, the planet's reflected starlight in the distance bearing witness to a miracle's passing.
A quiet shock played out not far away, in Shengdun 7's orbital station.
Temporarily used by the Diwuzu to house the Ishimura's survivors and some key personnel and mercenaries from the former Earth Federation and the Concordance Extraction Corporation (CEC), the station's largest viewing mess hall had fallen pin-drop silent.
Everyone had set aside their utensils, forgotten to chew, eyes locked on the direction where Grand Device 01 had just vanished, faces stunned beyond belief.
At length, someone swallowed and broke the hush.
"Holy…"
A senior CEC engineer muttered hoarsely, "Just how powerful is this Human Empire?
That kind of thing… that's an artificial body on a celestial scale! This is… my God!"
His mental framework was taking an unprecedented hit.
"Mind your words."
A nearby man who looked like a former low-level federal official corrected him on reflex, a near-instinct reverence in his tone: "You should say the Emperor… After all, the power displayed by Primarch Sui Meng, and all of this, point to the Emperor as the true deity."
His words drew silent assent from many around.
Before absolute power and technology beyond understanding, old worldviews quickly yielded to awe of a higher order of existence.
Not only had they seen Grand Device 01 depart, they had earlier witnessed how it arrived in a modular form through a portal and was then assembled in space like building blocks, as countless titanic engineering ships and automated robots worked in concert to complete final assembly within mere hours.
That featherlight mastery—shaping celestial bodies—overturned their understanding of "civilization" and "technology."
Truth be told, after being "invited" to reside on this station for these days and seeing the Diwuzu Legion's iron discipline, efficient administration, and tech far beyond their ken, the vast majority had already made up their minds.
What were the Federation and the CEC, set against a mighty Empire seemingly from the future? Backward and fragile.
As long as the Empire offered to take them on, they would gladly agree—and even feel fortunate—
fortunate to board a true great ship bound for the sea of stars.
At a relatively quiet window seat sat a steady-eyed man, thoughtful—the engineer who, in the original timeline, should have endured a hellish journey aboard the Ishimura—
Isaac Clarke.
Like the others, he had watched the ring depart.
Opposite him sat his wife, Nicole.
Nicole had served as medical staff aboard the Ishimura. In the catastrophe, she not only suffered the horror of corpse-mutants, but, exposed too long to the Marker's psychic contamination, nearly broke down and came to the brink of suicide.
At the moment she was about to end her life, the iconic thunder of bolters rolled through the cabin like thunder.
That sudden sound—signifying the intervention of absolute force and order—was like an alarm bell, pulling her back from utter fall just long enough to await the Diwuzu's rescue.
As for the deep psychic harm from the Marker, it had been carefully soothed and cleansed with pure psionics by the War Maidens soon after her rescue. She had long since fully recovered, her mind healthy and her body well restored.
Isaac drew his gaze from the window and met Nicole's. In each other's eyes they saw the same shock—and a touch of uncertainty and hope for the future.
"."
They only breathed a soft sigh, not joining the others' excited discussions.
After the Ishimura's nightmare, any future of stability, far from those twisted monsters, was grace.
"If… the Empire truly lets us stay…"
Isaac said quietly, taking Nicole's hand. "With my engineering background, I might find a place in their Engineering Ministry.
You? Your medical experience…"
Nicole returned a warm, steady smile. "I believe the Empire needs doctors too. Wherever we are, saving lives is always needed."
They began to speak in low tones, imagining where they might be assigned if recruited, what life would be like—planning a brand-new life, within reach.
Outside, the cold void seemed tinged with a hint of hope.
After crossing uncounted light-years and a precisely targeted dimensional veil, Grand Device 01's colossal ring slid, ghostlike, from another cyan-blue portal and came to a steady hover "near" Dead Space's Earth.
It did not cling to Earth's orbit, but chose a safe distance—one that could exert unparalleled strategic deterrence without letting its vast mass disturb tides or orbits.
From Earth's night side, this suddenly appeared near-Earth "star ring," its exterior gleaming with cold metal and its interior with soft ecological light, would become the brightest—and most awe-inspiring—new "moon" in the night sky of all living things.
An eternal monument, suspended above human civilization, symbolizing the Empire's ultimate power and order.
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