The Plague Fleet's death-defying stand, their vow to fight the Imperium to the bitter end, couldn't change their inevitable defeat.
With a Primarch commanding the Imperial Fleet, morale was significantly boosted, and the Imperial commanders did their utmost to avoid making even the slightest mistake, lest they lose the chance to be noticed by the Primarch.
With boosted morale and a greater number of warships than the Plague Fleet, it was like a dragon riding a face – it was hard to lose.
The Chaos fleet also showed no signs of coordination, and not long after the engagement began, they were cut apart by the Imperial forces, falling into a state of fighting independently.
"Maintain course, destroy their flagship, and secure victory," Guilliman said, watching the image of the Plague Fleet on the tactical display. Within the Plague Fleet was a massive battleship covered in filth and growing disgusting flesh, with numerous malicious eyes staring at the battlefield.
That ship had been thoroughly corrupted by the warp, and that flesh and filth were the best proof.
"Concentrate all power to the forward void shields. The first and second battle groups are to cease their forward pursuit and flank the Plague Fleet, locking onto and prioritizing the enemy flagship.
All macrocannons are to reload, lance batteries are to be powered up to maximum, and the prow cannon is to fire forward."
As Guilliman spoke, the bridge of Macragge's Glory became exceptionally busy, with technical personnel, officers, and tech-priests rushing about, flawlessly executing the Primarch's orders.
The lower decks of Macragge's Glory were even busier.
Junior officers were shouting angrily at the crew, occasionally cracking whips or kicking those whose speed didn't satisfy them.
Rumbling giant cranes would load shells, lifted by elevators to the gun decks, into the macrocannons.
tech-priests maintained the complex energy pipelines and secondary cogitator systems, chanting prayers to the Omnissiah in binary, praying for the Machine Spirit to keep the warship running smoothly.
Following Guilliman's command, the entire Imperial Fleet accelerated, launching a final assault on the Plague Fleet.
Guilliman ignored everything else, focusing his attention on the enemy flagship, searching for weak points in the enemy ship's void shields.
A battleship is tens of kilometers long, around twenty kilometers, and can easily reduce an undefended world to ashes.
Besides being able to carry more cargo, the massive hull can also utilize heavier, more stable void shields.
The core of a battleship is hidden inside, protected by multiple layers of void shields and hull armor several meters thick.
Under normal circumstances, a battleship can withstand several hours of bombardment.
Guilliman didn't want to wait that long. If a group of weak enemies could hold him up for so long, how could he possibly punch Chaos and kick orks?
Information collected by augurs and data radars flowed rapidly through Guilliman's pupils.
The time it took him to read a page of information was faster than a normal human blinking.
A Primarch can process vast amounts of information and make optimal judgments within seconds.
Soon, the weakness of the Chaos flagship appeared in Guilliman's mind.
There, an area of the void shield was flickering; it was unstable, indicating that the pulse modulator of the void shield generator was malfunctioning.
"That flagship, target these locations on it," Guilliman said confidently, his hand rapidly moving across the data-slate, pressing various buttons, activating holographic markers from the blur.
The flagship's information was processed by the cogitator, forming a projection, and several light points appeared on the holographic projection – these were the weak points of the Chaos flagship.
Relevant orders were quickly transmitted to the entire fleet via data link, and a series of confirmations returned through the communications officer.
"All fleet units have locked onto the target."
"Then attack, and end this space battle completely."
Guilliman said.
The maneuvered Imperial Fleet slowly tightened like a fishing net, and overwhelming gunfire engulfed the Chaos ships.
Even the enemy flagship was repeatedly bombarded, and its shield generators flickered frequently.
Countless lances and torpedoes instantly covered the unprotected hull.
Under the combined strike of countless nuclear bombs, macrocannon shells, torpedoes, and lances, the massive flagship lasted less than thirty seconds.
A huge column of fire erupted from the center of the hull, and under the bombardment, its spine broke. A second later, the reactor also exploded, and a miniature sun enveloped the Chaos flagship in a perfectly shaped yellow sphere.
Standing on the bridge, Guilliman felt a strong flash of light, which then dimmed.
The command deck's observation port light-control color filters automatically switched to pure black to protect the crew on the command deck.
With the flagship destroyed, the remaining Chaos ships posed no threat.
Guilliman left Brehek to deal with the remaining matters. At that moment, footsteps were heard.
Donatus, the Chief Librarian of the Aurora Chapter, wearing power armor, walked up to Guilliman.
"My lord, we have detected abnormal fluctuations on planet Sara II. The veil between reality and the warp is being weakened. Those Plague Marines are attempting to summon their allies."
"Then we need to speed up," Guilliman's mind conjured the things those traitors might do, things that no normal person could endure. Just witnessing those evil rituals could lead to contamination.
To summon those daemons from the warp, bloody and cruel sacrifices must be performed.
After sacrificing blood, pain, and souls, the soulless ones would gain bodies to walk in the material universe, causing immense casualties to humanity.
"Prepare for battle. We need to descend to the surface and cleanse that filth," Guilliman said. "I will make the daemons of the warp regret and despair for daring to come to this world."
Sara.
Outside the hive city of Glyx.
Gurlak looked at the flickering void shield light of the last human fortress with disgust.
These humans were stubborn, completely brainwashed by the Corpse-Emperor, so foolishly refusing the gifts of the Grandfather.
Gurlak walked towards the outer ruins of the Glyx hive city. His swollen body was encased in Terminator armor that oozed foul liquid, making a grating sound as he moved.
If others saw this scene, they would probably fear that the power armor would be torn apart by his bloated body.
Gurlak's power armor was a very old model, from the time of the Horus Heresy. At that time, the Dark Mechanicum who followed Horus built a batch of brand new Terminator power armor, whose power and performance were far superior to other power armor.
After ten thousand years of corrosion, his power armor was long gone from its former glory, rusted and oozing foul liquid.
However, because it had received the blessings of Nurgle, his power armor was even better.
"They do not understand Grandfather's benevolence. Humans are always like this, narrow-minded and selfish," Gurlak looked at the other Plague Marines. Their bodies were also very large, but Gurlak was always the largest.
"Generosity is the motto of Grandfather Nurgle. He is so benevolent. As long as you pray to him, regardless of poverty, age, health, or disability, you can receive his generous love.
But these humans do not know gratitude, worshipping that decaying Corpse-Emperor, refusing to accept the true power of the Dark Gods."
"We brought them gifts, but they showed no gratitude, treating us as enemies. I pity them. The Corpse-Emperor's son has already arrived.
To prevent these poor people from being controlled by that selfish, cruel, and greedy Corpse-Emperor again, we need to launch the final attack as soon as possible, completely defeat the fortress, complete the sacrifice ritual, and turn this world into the Grandfather's garden."