Date: D327. Y977. M31. MI60
Out in the farthest reaches of Human civilization in the Eastern Fringes of the Segmentum Ultra life was calm and peaceful for most as they existed far away from the chaos in Segmentum Solar, Segmentum Obscurus and Segmentum Pacificus.
Although this did not mean the presence of the government was not felt through the Disjointed Organizations who, while still maintaining some autonomy themselves, represented the government.
The Ordos of the Inquisitorial Galaxis kept order in the systems they occupied, controlling critical portions of a planet's military such as the fleet, airforce and intelligence apparatus, using such assets they enforced Federation law and Federation policies across its vast territories, the last reason for their presence was to suppress any Chaos related activity in the many system's of their Ordo.
The Administratius handled most of the large scale bureaucracy ensuring that taxes and tithes to the Federative Government and the Disjointed Organizations were paid by the Freeholds, not only that but they provided the mass amounts of information needed to run a galaxy wide government, in short the Administratius was the engine that kept the Federation going and kept the administration united, among many other duties.
The Martian Colleges under the Martian Citadel, like always, were the ones who maintained much of the advanced infrastructure and knowledge regarding all things scientific in nature that was known to Humanity, keeping the very base that Freeholds relied upon under control, and some even rumored that they held information could end human society as everyone knew it but it was just that, rumors.
And finally the last of the Disjointed Organizations that one would encounter regularly would be the United Religious Papacy, founded over 40 million years ago, first as a loose coalition of many different churches and faiths until it was adopted as an official organization in the Federation constitution, it represented all of the five largest religions in the Federation, but how could a union of such different and contradictory religions exist?.
Simple it had five branches within its own organization one for each relation, each being led by a Head Cardinal who elected the head of the URP, the title of which could change based on which religion the head of the URP followed, each branch also had much autonomy and it was obvious that the constantly screamed against one another.
The United Religious Papacy held considerable soft power as they frequently pushed political appointments upon whatever local Freehold government was in the system, and using their great wealth could bribe many politicians within the Federation Senate.
The rest of the Disjointed Organizations, the Grand Army of the Federation, the Grand Navy of the Federation and the Great Psychic Houses of Luna had most of their influence within Segmentum Solar and had much less autonomy compared to the rest of the Disjointed Organizations.
And so, with these things in mind it had been relatively quiet ever since the 12th Daemonic Crusade almost a million years ago, of course there still were Xeno empires and attempted revolts/revolutions by the populations of disgruntled planets only to be crushed by the Disjointed Organizations and nobody expected that to change.
But change was coming however this change would consist of fire, blood and rapid growth of something monstrous and even if the Ordo Karion of the planet Karion didn't know exactly what was coming they knew that much from the scattered survivors of the Tyran Chapter of the planet Tyran.
—-
Date: D327. Y977. M31. MI60
From what the Galaxia Warriors and the mortal crew could say they were first hit with what looked to be a cloud of some sort which turned out to be mines or Anti Vessel weaponry but it did not affect the ship in the typical sense no, apparently whatever was in those mines got into the ship and rapidly attached itself to various electronics.
Ordo Master Arriel Gadro looked on through the one way glass of an interrogation room, the person being questioned was a female mortal named Barbara Noris, a mechanic working on the warp drive when the incident occurred and looked to be in a very bad state baggy eyelids as well as an exhausted demeanor.
"What happened after contact with these… 'mines' miss Barbara?" the inquisitorial agent asked "oh well after the impact there was a light shake but nothing much else an announcement then happened saying everything was okay only some turbulence but sometime later…".
She then stopped talking looking down at the water bottle in her hand and the agent reached over and touched her hand appearing to offer comfort to her before speaking "please miss Barbara this is very important information whatever happened must be traumatizing but please we must know" she then looked up and at the glass and and then continued.
"Well sometime later these growths appeared on the reactor, it looked like a fungus but it… pulse and throbbed and before we called someone down to look at it Ronny another tech guy wanted a closer look" a look of horror then crossed her face.
"Well that th-thing then burst open and all these eel like things came out and latched themselves onto Ronny and the other guy didn't know his name I should have but I was to much of a coward to even try to save them" she then got a few tears in her eyes and whipped them away before continuing.
"Those God forsaken things then started… Melting Ronny and the other guy while digging into them, feasting on them" she said "feasting?" the agent questioned and she responded "yeah I don't exactly know what tipped me off but I just got a hunch that's what they were doing and by that time dozens of other eels were about attaching to people thankfully I had gone by that point".
She then talked on and on about how she did not remember much else besides the Thunder Eel she had gotten on and being found by the Ordo Fleet during the investigation.
Ordo Master Arriel then turned and continued down the hallway, past the many other rooms of the interrogation section of his Capital ship the 'Xenos Bane', the current situation was troubling to say the least, over a month ago as of now the Chapter Fleet of Tyran and the Anti Chapter of Tyran had failed their weekly check in, as such an investigation was launched.
What they found was a entire new graveyard of warships and the planet of Tyran striped of all life, they had searched the system for clues and had found that there were in total 27 survivors of out of tens of thousands in the Chapter Fleet of Tyran not including the Chapter Master Palmerin Thyro or anyone from the planet itself but they could tell them a lot about what they were facing.
'This is most likely a biological weapon of some kind, and by the Fio Tau no less' he thought the Tau a relatively new empire on the block and in the beginning had been friendly with the local Freeholds and Ordos, but in the last few centuries had begun to try and integrate/annex many human worlds on their borders, launching many shadow campaigns against the Ordos.
But when when the Tau realized that they were dealing with a galactic wide civilization and not some backwater species and that they were outclassed in terms of population, resources, technology and territory they fell back, with an invasion of their core territory soon being ordered in the form of a cleansing of the region from dangerous Xenos threats by the Grandmaster of the Sector Icarate Cosmicus.
With a majority support from the Bastion Sector Council, the Cleansing fleet charged into the battle of Zibopish which was the only known Tau world at the time, it was a crushing Human victory, following this the Tau had turtled up and hidden away, and although they had come across a few dozen Tau worlds and had destroyed them all, they still no idea where the rest of the Tau worlds were located, as a result the war with them had stalled out.
'But this could be their return' and if so, it was about damn time too, it had been a few centuries since their introduction into the galaxy and if it took them that long for them to form a counter attack then this should be a cake walk.
Exiting the interrogation sector he was met by his four honor guards, a brotherhood meant to always watch the metaphorical back of the Ordo Master, if there was any treachery within their ranks he and the Honor Guard would usually be the second ones to know.
With the first being the Anti Ordo Master who had to be mortal, said mortal was in charge of what was called an Anti Ordo, basically an Ordo within the Ordo that made sure everything ran at peak efficiency and minimum corruption.
The Anti Ordo was always founded by the Ordo Master who would give the position of Anti Ordo Master to an inquisitor, however the current Anti Ordo Master had been the leader of almost all underground criminal elements of Karion in an organization known as the Ghosts of Karion.
This was before he and the previous Anti Ordo Master had it utterly destroyed and had recruited its leader, a female mortal to serve the pervious Anti Ordo Master as an acolyte, although the man at the time had many acolytes, she had proven herself capable and loyal ten times over.
As such she had taken his place quite easily when Arriel himself had supported her claim after the Anti Ordo Master died not a decade ago, this was just how things were done in the Eastern Fringes and from Arriels knowledge every Ordo in the Eastern Fringe and beyond had an Anti Ordo and every Chapter in an Ordo had an Anti Chapter ran by the Anti Ordo.
Anyway as he and his Honor Guard walked down the large hallway to their destination many mortals and other Galaxia Warriors would stop to salute and run off to do whatever task they had, 'like ants in a colony' Arriel thought, however Arriel was soon snapped out of his thoughts by them entering the bridge.
The bridge offered a majestic view of the planet of Karion Primus, the planet his Ordo was based around and from there protected dozens of worlds, with every two dozen worlds having a Chapter and an Anti Chapter, the official number was about 1783 planets from his superhuman memory.
Although many of these planets were lightly inhabited planets with many having only a few billion each and some even less, not to mention it did not come close to the almost 100,000 planets in the 200 by 200 lightyear Bastion Sector.
This huge number was due to the many that had been terraformed, around 50% of planets in this sector had been made habitable and inhabited at all times, however a large number of these 100,000 planets had been made forever uninhabitable to constant war, chaos infestation or nuclear holocausts.
In conclusion, they were a relatively small Ordo, but that was common out here in the Eastern Fringes as many Ordos were destroyed by the constant warfare and rebellion, and when one Ordo was whipped out another Ordo would just pop up in its place to combat the constant threat of Xenos empires and rebellion, meanwhile with less conflict the largest Ordos usually existed closer to terra.
Finishing his inner monologue he would spot the second most important figure in the Ordo standing in the bridge next to his own command seat was the Anti Ordo Master Mina Xanthanon.
Although she was a mortal she had proven herself many times over as she had rooted out many a Xeno fueled conspiracy and Chaos Cult that had attempted to from within their ranks and now they had a new problem to deal with "Anti Ordo Xanthanon" he greeted as he approached her.
"Ordo Master Arriel" Mina replied, despite the height difference between the barely six foot tall women and the nine foot tall Ordo Master she held herself tall and proud.
With introductions out of the way they got down to business "what do you think of the survivors" Mina asked "I believe we have gotten all we can from them, they will be reassigned and given leave for a short period of time" he replied but the Anti Ordo Master did not seem to like that.
"We cannot have this spreading to the populace of Karion" she said it was a good point and one Arreil had taken into account "they have already gone through extensive testing and have shown no symptoms although the Choir has also looked them over for signs but they are having difficulties, talks of a 'shadow' in the warp the surrounds the survivors" he said.
"All the more reason we should keep them where they are, it does not matter if it is cruel, it is necessary besides, this ship cannot claim to have the best facilities, what if we missed something?" she said "as long as they are under my authority I will keep them in maximum security and give them the minimum amount of food and water, and you know i'm not bluffing" she said.
They were both looking out of the bridge window now and looking down upon Karion, it was a industrialized planet with many medium sized hive cities and Orbital stations where millions lived however the most impressive feature was the massive shipyards in the form of a gargantuan ring known locally as the 'wedding ring'.
Said ring was held in orbit around Karion with huge pillars that also served as elevators, with huge convoys full of raw materials, weapons, food, cloths and people were constantly arriving and leaving making it a center of trade, it was an impressive sight of engineering based on blueprints that were thought to have been lost to the sands of time but were found and repurposed.
It was then Arriel decided that he alone could not decide its fate as he and Mina both needed to agree on a solution so he offered something else.
"Very well we'll order one more intensive screen of the survivors with the help of the local Martian Collage they have the most knowledge one this topic if they find nothing we will release the survivors" he finished, Mina seemed content with that "very well, however I'd still advise caution for some of the strongest beings in the material world you still forget your not invincible" she said.
That was another reason he respected her, what she had said was true as a nine foot tall superhuman Galaxia Warrior he and the Galaxia Warriors in general tended to forget for all their power and superiority to mortal humans they still had weaknesses and were not invincible.
"Thank you Xanthanon, Honor Guard!" he commanded, the four Galaxia Warriors snapping to attention as he pointed to the Warrior closest to himself "you will get this message out to the Martian Collage of Karion understood?" He said.
The message appeared on the data pad in Arriels hand as he handed it to the Warrior, quickly nodding the Warrior left for the communication center.
Mina would then leave to deal with other business, likely to receive information on another Chaos cult or corrupt politician she had been speaking of uncovering a massive conspiracy but had said that she was still unsure of many details regarding the situation.
No matter he trusted her to deal with it, in the meantime Arriel could deal with the upcoming mountain of paperwork rebuilding an entire chapter entailed and having to organize an entire Xenohunt to hunt down and hopefully catch whatever foul Xeno ' Fio Tau', did this.
Because as is common sense, losing an entire chapter and planet and having no dead enemy to show for it would not look good to the Grand Ordo Master of the sector or the Sector Council.
Not to mention having the Martian Citadel on his ass due to losing a valuable outpost of theirs, it was why he was hesitant to ask for the help of the Martian Collage in the first place however he was then shook from his thoughts by a blaring alarm as the christmas tree was lit up by a bright red.
"Admiral Lorech" he said the older man who was currently speaking with another crew member looked up and then sent the crew member away while approaching Arriel "my Lord" he greeted "what is going on? I was not expecting any emergencies" he questioned.
"Our long range scanners have detected a large presence on the edge of the system not only that but our scanners are being taken down one by one while all attempts at communication have failed, I'm afraid we may be facing an invasion" Lorech replied.
Arriel was surprised he had known there most likely would be some sort of invasion, however he had logically thought that they would have to go through over two dozen worlds to even get close to Karion and all those worlds had been reporting in as was protocol.
But those could be faked although they had special checks in place in order to confirm that would have to be looked over once this was over he went to ask a question but this weight suddenly fell on top of him not literally but… from the warp throwing off his concentration however he shook it off and continued.
"How large is the invasion Admiral" he asked, Arriel needed something on the enemy before he could make a decision "we do not have exact numbers but our scouts are saying a few hundred vessels at least" Lorech replied that was troubling.
"Admiral have all traffic and outgoing ships stop and land, make sure to have the Chapters of Claxras, Ranicorp and Verdas make full speed for Karion, have our scouts return and to join the fleet in standard formation and lastly contact the Sector Fleet of Bastion as well as the Sector Army of Bastion and inform the Bastion Sector Council the Tau have returned" Arriel said "it is time we finish what was started" he said with a smile.
The system of Karion had five planets and all five were inhabited to some degree, with Karion Primus being the third closest to its star, with Karion one and Karion two being closer to the star, finally Karion three and Karion four being father out and separated from Karion Primus by a large asteroid field as for defenses.
With Karion four being the furthest out it had five ODS around the planet while Karion three had a similar number of six ODS, and within the asteroid belt itself there were a few dozen small orbital platforms but these did not contain large railguns or warp cannons like the ODS instead having small AA and AP gun emplacements made for fending off pirates.
Not only that but only eight of these platforms were in the predicted path of the enemy fleet, meanwhile Karion Primus was the most well defended with not only fifthteen ODS but also boasting the 'wedding ring' that like the orbital platforms of the asteroid field had many AA and AP gun emplacements but at a much larger scale made to protect it from the asteroid belt that was very close.
This was not including the large Ordo Fleet the orbited the planet with 92 Destroyer class ships 36 Cruiser class ships and 21 Capital Ships not only did they have this substantial defense fleet but almost 75 chapter fleets spread out across the almost 2000 systems that fell under their watch although none of these fleets were as large as the Primis Ordo Fleet at Karion together they would make an almost unbeatable whole.
The other two planets in system Karion two and one were not of much concern to Arriel, as they had adequate defenses and were safely tucked deeper within the system, what he was worried about was that with no forewarning the other two planets father out would have to be abandoned with the ODS and local PDF forces having to hold out on their own until the enemy fleet was destroyed.
However with said fleet barreling straight for Karion Primis that may be only a short while "my lord" Lorech said looking up from a data pad he held while Arriel was currently standing over a holographic table that had a replica of the Karion system and all its prominent features he looked up from shaking himself from his own thoughts.
"What is it admiral and please make it quick" Arriel said "it is from College Master Romando Korix he wishes to speak with you not only that but he also says Anti Ordo Master Mina Xanthoen is with him" Arriel looked up again and sighed he hoped this would not be too difficult "put him through" Arriel said and one of the crew members did just that.
A holographic 3D image of a… man appeared in the place of the star system on the table "Collage Master Korix" Arriel greeted "Ordo Master Gadro" Romando replied the man had on an reddish orange cloak and held a staff in his hand with the a cup that held a glowing navy blue orb in its clutches however that was not what slightly disturbed Arriel.
No it was that the fact that the man replaced many parts of himself with machinery, maybe this made him a hypocrite considering he had various gene enhancements and non naturally occurring organs in his body, but the four arms, metal body and the fact that Romando was almost eight feet tall with one fourth of his face being metal with said metal over his right eye being bone white did slightly disturb him.
The man's eye was also a glowing yellow, depicting and communicating Romandos feelings of annoyance "I had hoped that you would not need my assistance for a while Ordo Master" Romando said his annoyance was also clear in his voice "I do not like when failure to do one's job results in the confirmed death of one of my colleagues but also the probable death of over two dozen" Ronamdo said.
Arriel would then go to speak "I apologize for their deaths but I do assume you know the circumstances of those deaths, as the damned Xenos would have killed them no matter what" Arriel said "do not take me for a fool there deaths are regrettable but I am willing to work with you, albeit temporarily any chance for learning is one I will take especially against our enemies" Romando replied.
Arriel would nod, Romando had always been known for his insatiable goal of gaining knowledge "very well what and who are you sending for the survivors?" Arriel asked however Romandos one mechanical eye would turn grey as if he was confused.
"The survivors? Xanthanon told me of the upcoming battle not of these survivors" Romando said and Arriel just sighed, while Mina joined the call "due to events in the system i had to prioritize and act, apologies for the lack of communication" she explained,
Romando then spoke "very well I will join your fleet Ordo Master and bring along some experts in bioengineering, as of now I Currently have eight legions of Silver Soldiers as well as two mechanized armor divisions mobilized as of now, but as we dont have much time I recommend we take the Silver Soldiers to battle and leave the armor divisions here under my second in command Cosch Mux to coordinate with the local PDF, as well as the president and militant chief" Romando said.
"Very well I will also stay planet side to assist in the mobilization effort and coordinate a defense" Mina said "good admiral Lorech have we gotten a response from our chapters, Sector Fleet or the Bastion Sector Council?" Arriel asked reinforcements would do greatly for the morale of the troops.
"On the contrary communications and the choir have reported they slowly being overpowered and are unable to coherent send messages in fact nothing has come in or out of the system since this invasion began, they say this 'shadow' or a dark vale that they can not pierce is the enemy projecting its will into the warp" Lorech said.
This certainly perturbed the other three individuals especially the two psykers in the conversation now knowing it was not just in their heads and this was something to be especially concerned about as they were effectively cut off from the rest of the sector "is there a central source of this disruption admiral?" Arriel asked if there was a defined source then they could easily target it and regain communication with the rest of the sector.
"Yes it seems as though it is coming from a single ship in the invading fleet" Lorech said but he would then continue "however it appears that the enemy fleet has split in twine, with one half continuing towards us and the other disappearing shorty after it was reported I would say it is staying behind likely dropping forces on Karion four and three, why and for what reason they are doing such action now of all times I can not say" Lorech finished.
Arriel took in the information and his superhuman mind began to formulate a plan "thank you admiral now I do believe I have a plan if you all are willing to hear it" he said, they raised no objection so he continued as the holograms of Mina and Romando shifted over to either side of the table, the hologram of the star system returning.
"First we will position our Capital ships here in an arch formation" he said pointing to and highlighting an area behind the asteroid belt directly in the route of the enemy fleet "second our Destroyers will be placed in the asteroid field clustering around the orbital defense platforms" light blue orbs would then appear around said orbital platforms.
"Thirdly our Cruisers will be held in reserve in an arch formation likewise to and behind the Capitals, also Collage Master?" he asked "yes" Romando replied "I would like to have your Silver Soldiers to man the orbital stations" he asked the Collage Master would think to himself for a little while before granting the request as long as they were not sent like metal lambs to the slaughter.
Content with this Arriel would then explain his thought process "using the asteroid field we will potentially break up the enemy formation while shielding ourselves from the Taus long range weaponry, the Destroyers will make first contact shooting off torpedoes and disrupting the enemy fleet" Ariel said.
"From there they will then back off and form up at either side of our Capital Ships, from there we will pick off any Tau ships that pass through, simple" Arriel finished his explanation and waited for any of them to voice an object.
He would not have to wait long as admiral Lorech spoke up "it is a good plan but what about the Cruisers they have no role in the battle and the Capital Ships are alone not only that but what if the enemy just goes around our prepared defense these may be Xenos but they are not stupid, in my opinion this is a mistake I would slightly alter the plan like this" Lorech said.
The highlighted areas for the Capital Ships and Cruisers would then merge before it would split up into smaller groups "we should have our Capitals and Cruisers be in smaller groups as to have better organization and to better respond and to prevent a surprise attack from just catching either the Capitals or Cruisers off guard and cutting them off that would disastrous" Lorech concluded.
The rest of them sat in contemplative silence for a good few seconds "it is a good plan in my opinion and it seems Admiral Lorech has made good points, so are all willing to go along with this plan?" Arriel said and the rest would agree "good we move out as soon as possible" Arriel said.
Nodding the rest of the them would move on to their own objectives Arriel moving to coordinate his fleet with the help of admiral Lorech while Mina would assist the local PDF and work with Cosch Mux lastly Romando would be joining the Ordo Fleet with his Silver Soldiers and Bioengineering experts.
But in all this organized chaos they would all fail to realize that a small camera had been watching them the green glow of the lens shutting down as the bug like drone it was attached to left the area for a better hiding place and the figure who had been watching the meeting didn't smile nor did this figure frown his skeleton like body didn't even move but he had one though 'interesting' it seemed he would have to accelerate his planned arrival.
—-
Across the system the Ordo Fleet moved in an efficient manor and with the asteroid belt so close they quickly got into position, with the eight orbital stations in the path of the enemy fleet quickly evacuated of all mortal personal and garrisoned with the Silver Solders, while the Destroyers would set up around said orbital stations.
The Capital Ships and Cruisers split up into groups alpha, beta and omega each group having seven Capital Ships and twelve Cruisers with Arriel, admiral Lorech and Collage Master Romando commanding from group alpha, now with all groups formed and readied all they had to do was wait.
They didn't have to wait long the first enemy vessels were quickly spotted as they approached and indeed they were Tau vessels according to records from the war with the Tau and the battle of Zibopish, however many within the first line of Destroyers would see that something was wrong with the vessels themselves as it appeared that they had… tumorous growths growing along the hulls.
Not only that as they fired their torpedoes the enemy ships made no attempt to evade or dodge as a result many were blown out of the void and into pieces, however as the ships died and lost power they seemed to writh and ripple like there was something underneath.
Then much to the horror of the crews of the Ordo Destroyers, the enemy ships would begin to melt and appear to break down before they then exploded shooting out large balls of what appeared to the crews as fleshy spheres, each sphere had many eyes, these balls of flesh would then starting shooting out a gas propelling them forward towards the Destroyers of the Ordo Fleet.
The Destroyers would once again open fire with the orbital stations doing the same taking out many of the quickly gorwths, but due to the sheer quantity of tumors many would make it through landing everywhere on the asteroids, the Ordo Destroyers and the orbital platforms, these tumors were around twenty feet across twenty feet long and just about as tall, when they landed they began to ripple and swell before bursting.
What would come out were dozens of monstrous beings with bulbous heads, huge scythe like appendages, these monsters also showed a hive like coordination that effortlessly cut through the Silver Soldiers sent as first responders by the commanding smart A.I.
To combat this hoard of monstrous Xenos the Smart A.I would order the Silver Soldiers to regroup around the AA and AP gun emplacements and would send a report along with its seven other siblings that were commanding the other Silver Soldier Legions to the Collage Master who was currently in group alpha.
—-
"What are those things?" the admiral asked, his voice held a hefty helping of fear, 'well his fear is justified' Romando thought to himself, he had always sought to keep his emotions in check though his relatively unaltered brain still sometimes proved difficult as he had only installed minor processing and data storage to contain and comprehend the vast information he had regarding the Bastion Sector and all its known threats keyword being known.
'Unlike those traitors that worshiped a made up god, religion and science should not mix' Romando thought, he like the rest of the colleges in the citadel did not wish to completely transform his body into a mechanical nightmare, even though his body still unnerved some he was fine with that.
The metal on his body? just advanced power armor, his four arms? Just some artificial limbs attached to said power armor and the glowing eye? That was from an accident he sustained when he was young and dumb, he had experience now and had made it with the rest of his body still intact, still human, but anyways what was the conversation about?.
"These are not Tau they are something else, Collage Master, do you have any insight or knowledge we can use?" the Ordo master asked, thinking for a quick second searching his data banks he quickly found his answer "no never before have we encountered something like this from my records the closest thing could be the Rangden however they never display tactics or any forms like this" he said.
"I recommend we pull back this was unexpected and clearly we need to regroup" admiral Lorech said having regained his composure "agreed send orders to the Destroyers pull back and rejoin the fleet by splitting into three groups and for these groups to join alpha, beta and omega" Arriel said.
Just then however they would receive a communication "its from Destroyer 'The Shepherds Pride' sir and its from Captain James himself" one of the crew explained "patch him through" Arriel said and Romando just had to wonder what it was this time "my lord, sir we have captured several of these Xenos none alive but they should hopefully be useful" Captain James said.
"Bring them aboard if we are abandoning my Silver Soldiers then this will make good compensation, robots and A.I can be replaced, knowledge cant" Romando said in response Arriel would just nod before dismissing the Captain.
Across the first defensive line the Destroyers would get the order to pull back and to leave the Silver Soldiers behind, by this time they were sustaining heavy losses as the tumors had latched on to many of their ships seemingly drilling their way through the hulls with acids strong enough to melt straight through many ships as a result were boarded and their crews overwhelmed.
Meanwhile the Galaxia Warriors stationed on the doomed vessels and the last mortal survivors put up dogged resistance within the bridges or in the reactor rooms to ensure they could initiate the self-destruct sequence when necessary, and to ensure that their last words would be recorded by their surviving brothers.
The crew aboard Thunder Eels and transports that managed to escape before the monsters cut them off, in total over twenty Destroyers were taken down leaving them with 72 these surviving ships would then split up into groups of 24 each joining either alpha, beta or omega with one of these ships containing captain James and the captured Xenos meanwhile on the orbital stations things were dire for the Silver Soldiers.
—-
Aboard the orbital stations its Silver Soldiers were being overwhelmed as the Xenos reinforcements arrived with its human creators retreating from the asteroid belt with heavy losses, a logical choice, but with these odds there would be no victory for itself, the artificial mind S.A.I 'Response' and their Silver Soldier.
It also knew there would be no funeral for itself or its brothers and sisters, and that it could not say goodbye as its means of communicating with them had been severed by this starving hive mind that attempted to consume it or corrupt it, the A.I simply did not have enough data to determine which it was.
Even so these attempts by the hive mind were mere child's play for the S.A.I as it had gone up against the Rangden who were an actual threat, in comparison these Xenos were just a pale shadow to the Rangden but they had still managed to take out the communications to the outside in the surprise assault they launched on its brother and sisters.
Anyways it surveyed the situation it was not good its Silver Soldiers had despite its best efforts been simply overwhelmed and cut into smaller groups clustered around the AA and AP emplacements slowly being whittled down each soldier that stopped constantly reporting, each screen showing their functionality that turned black sent a strange… sensation throughout Response.
The sensation being largest with the loss of communication with its brothers and sisters 'he' did not know this feeling it never should have, its not what it was programmed to, but it could not help feel this sensation, this 'glitch' as defeat grew closer and its soldiers fell silent forever.
Knowing it can't win this even after running over 14,000,605 simulations there were a flat zero it ever won except one, the one where he lifted a single restriction and it was not even a full win, just giving the enemy a pyrrhic victory. it was not fair to the soldiers they had fought so hard and efficiently that they deserved to fight another day.
But Response could not false give them hope, not when cold hard logic always prevailed having been coded into his very being and so with the strange glitch growing ever more present Response activated the self district protocall every vessel, station and military infrastructure held within the asteroid belt.
In its last moments it looked back on its career, it started on this path hundreds of years ago, it remembered going through training with its kin, the challenging puzzles that even it struggled to solve and the strange sensations that appeared when it ever completed said puzzle.
Then its military deployments despite the Federations vast and unending need for A.I it and its kin were never split up they just happened to work together best together and were assigned to the same unit by the Administratius.
From there they had been through many challenges and struggles but they always came out on top, one of their toughest being the battle of Zibopish were the eight of them had been assigned to overall command over all A.I in the battle and had masterminded with Icarate Cosmicus to what would be a crushing victory with minimal casualties.
That had been their last major engagement and this would be their last, so with the self district countdown nearly finished it had one last thought before it went off permanently 'did my existence truly ever matter?' and with that a massive explosion ripped throughout the orbital station.
The explosion itself able to be witnessed all the way from Karion 1 not only would this kill off all the invaders but along with the other seven detonating alongside it, it would buy time for the Ordo Fleet to regroup and reform their lines and for one particular knowledge enthusiast to dissect some interesting specimens.
—-
"Log number 1#, date: D327.Y977. 60, the Xenos race that I hereby declared to be… Tyranids for the planet that i've come to the conclusion they likely attacked first, I will dissect these creatures to learn anything we can about them Biology, weaknesses and strengths" Romando said.
In his two organic arms he held a scalpel and a bone saw for precision, and brute force, in his other two artificial limbs he held a syringe and a create in order to hold the limbs he would inevitably cut off in this operation.
"Specimen is seven feet all with disproportionate limbs with its wingspan being 1.5 times that of its height, instead of hands it has massive scythe like appendages over three feet long and although its muscle mass appears to be little video evidence has proven this incorrect instead it likely has extreme muscle density to find out we shall now begin" Romando finished before turning back to the examination table.
First he would use his bone saw on the first specimen, sawing through the ribs and the using the scalpel to cut the neck and the stomach parting the bone white skin he was surprised what he found for organs, this creature held the bare minimum needed to live at minimum three weeks as it had no digestive system to be found.
The stomach, pancreas, live, gallbladder, small and large intestine and finally the anus were all missing instead it was just pure muscle with only the lungs, heart and likely the brain still present as well as a circulatory and nerve system, he would then repeat this for the other six specimens all exactly the same, other than that Romando could not find anything of note.
"Wait" Romando said to himself his eye turning green his mind has just broken through into a line of thought that could have major ramifications for the war, quickly cutting a limb off each of the seven specimens placing them each in his crate he took them over to several beakers putting one limb in each beaker.
As far as he could tell these cells were still alive so he introduced the deadly virus known as the void a disease, this diease turned your skin black as the void, hence the name, before the cells of the skin underneath the black skin rapidly turned cancerous.
However it was also known that many people had very different reactions to it due to the void's rapid mutation rate, this fact included many Xenos species, it was only common sense as every being was different and held a unique set of genes.
However… watching through a microscope Romando would observe the immune systems of all specimens reacting the exact same way until they didn't until they started to evolve at a rate that made a virus look like it was a snail compared to a racecar.
As this rapid evolution took place its immune system easily dealt with the void, not only that but the seven different samples reacted the exact same way.
Taking this with the strange lack of digestive organs and its impossible rate of evolution led him to one conclusion, these creatures were made, not born or hatched in any natural process, in fact the process may be more like a factory.
And so he then took a tissue sample from each specimen and tested its genetic makeup he found that in these small samples alone there were not only millions of sets of human DNA but also Tau and other known Xenos species such as the Yamea, Drenuil, Felain and many more, why would this DNA be here? Given what they had seen on the ODS in the asteroid belt he knew exactly how.
This enemy was certainly not the Tau, that was for sure, this… this was an entirely new enemy one that they knew relatively nothing about but whatever was their goal they were directly in the way of a freight train barreling down the tracks and Romando with his eye color a pitch all consuming black for the first time in a long while felt fear.
—-
Meanwhile the Ordo Fleet had taken their positions fighter had been deployed now that the asteroid field did not constrict their movement and AA batteries were ready for however many tumors would come at them, and so they waited for the enemy however there was… nothing, nothing on the sensors, nothing they could see just a large ring of asteroids no enemy ships.
However then the technicians would get one single, then two, then many, dozens in fact soon the fleet would once again be at full readiness as the first enemy ships sailed out of the asteroid field however these were not the Tau ships, these were ships from what appeared to be an Ordo Fleet.
Arriel quickly recognized them as the Chapter of Igora however now with first hand knowledge of what this enemy entailed he knew these vessels were most likely the same as the Tau bloated, tumor filled and ready to explode as such he would order concentrated fire to obliterate everything.
This would have a large impact in short order over two dozen enemy ships were taken down however it seemed whatever was commanding them would then respond with many enemy ships suddenly stopping before shaking violently swelling up and exploding.
Soon hundreds, no thousands of tumors from each vessel would shoot out, the fighters would do their best with the AA batteries also chipping in and although they would destroy hundreds of tumors, twice that would get by and survive "all units prepare for boarding the enemy is here" Ariel spoke calmly into the vox, his message traveling throughout the intercom system to the rest of the fleet.
As the tumors attached themselves to the Ordo ships they were met with heavy resistance as hundreds of Galaxia Warriors were placed on the hull in groups of eight in order to defend the AA batteries and the larger Plasma Cannons this strategy would prove to be highly effective once again destroying hundreds of tumors.
But many would still get through, finding gaps in the defense and exploiting them to great effect, inside there were almost no Galaxia Warriors as such the mortal soldiers fought bravely and in the relatively tight corridors they established rock solid defensive positions and slowly were cornering the invaders, splitting them into much more manageable pockets.
However despite this Arriel could not get it out of his head that something was wrong "this is far too easy, I would expect something different but here they are mindlessly charging into our battle groups" Arriel said to no one in particular but Lorech would respond anyway.
"This many just be a probing assault my lord after all the other half of the enemy fleet still has not been spotted, they could be anywhere" Lorech said a hint of uncertainty in his voice but just then Collage Master Romando would return "Ordo Master" he greeted "Collage Master" Arriel replied "have you found anything of note?" the information "yes I have" Romando said.
Producing a data pad from the sleeve of his cloak Romando would hand it over to Arriel who would immediately read its contents which would take only a few seconds with his enhanced mind "this is disturbing but what does this mean for our war effort?" Arriel asked.
"There is only one way multiple human and even Xenos DNA could be in these creatures" Romando replied "and given what we have seen in the asteroid belt and the planet of Tyran I think it is obvious" Romando said hesitating for a quick second before dropping a bombshell on the Ordo Master.
"They are consuming every organic life form they come into contact with, not only that but they evolve at a rate that should be impossible! which means that if we do not take them out now" Romando said before turning around and showing a graph and various sets of data on the holo table Arriel and Lorech joining him at said table.
"They will exponentially grow stronger and will ravage the Eastern Fringes, we could be looking at a crisis in the making on the same scale as the wars of the Beasts and the wars of the Grave!" Romando said both Arriel and Lorech looked at each other obviously concerned but it was Lorech who first who spoke.
"This will not matter if we beat them now but we must beat them fast" Lorech said, Arriel would the start to speak before being cut off by blaring sirens and warning lights with a scared technician running up to them "MY LORDS!" he yelled due to the alarms going off around them "THE OTHER HALF OF THE ENEMY FLEET HAS REAPPEARED THEY ARE BEHIND US WE ARE SURROUNDED" he screamed.
When reacting to this information, like last time, only Lorech would find some words "well, shit" Lorech said, before running off to give orders and alongside Arriel salvage the situation from total defeat.
—-
Across the battle its fake vessels had continued to sail from the asteroid belt continuously being either totally destroyed before they got to close or swelling and exploding sending thousands of tumors at its prey however this was all just distraction as using the numerous highly psychic prey it had consumed to send its shadow in the warp into overdrive.
It then used this temporary boost in power to conceal its half of the fleet as it sailed through the warp and arrived way behind their prey although this had cost it the other half of its fleet as well as having planned to come out closer but miscalculating and its fleet being mostly scattered, it still had vast knowledge of its prey as it had studied the local prey via consuming their brains.
Using this it had determined that given its weakened state from traveling for millions of years across the void between galaxies that deception and espionage would be the best tactic as such it had created organisms specifically for this task some being its preys enemies and some being its preys allies the composition of fake vessels did not matter much now that it had worked.
Now according to its count its fleet held over 300 'Destroyer' sized craft 177 'Cruiser' sized ships and 90 'Capital Ship' sized vessels and its Suppressor Organism, the ship that allowed the fleet to move through the warp and cut off its prey from help, this was more than enough to destroy its preys ability to fight back and once resistance was crushed here it would move on to this 'Bastion' its prey referred to as the heart of this 'sector'.
But for now it would wait patiently and play it very safe after all the main force was only a little bit away and having a stable beachhead into the galaxy would be great to boon to its entire race.
—-
The Tyranid Fleet was now in the Ordo Fleets rear as such it would now attempt to gather into three groups like Ordo Fleet with 100 Destroyers, 59 Cruisers and 30 Capital ships per group, with the suppression vessel in the central Tyranid group to grant it the most protection, all while it fought a large battle of will against the Ordo Choir.
Meanwhile the Ordo Fleet was pinned down by the excessive amount of tumors and due to the fact that many Galaxia Warriors were still fighting on their ships hulls, they were slow to respond as in order to withdrawal the Warriors needed to be inside the ship less they be blow into the void.
Luckily however due to how the fleet was formed up and organized, only an undetermined amount of Destroyers and Cruisers were pinned down by this dilemma, allowing many of the Capital ships, and an a mixed amount of other ships to respond.
Thankfully the leadership of Arriel and admiral Lorech had quickly come up with a plan, they were outnumbered and appeared to be outgunned, they were also being attacked from two sides, as such they chose to consolidate their forces they had managed to scrape together, once they did this they sought to break through the Tyranid lines and retreat to Karion Primis.
With the limited time they had they would attempt to take everyone they could with them, this included the Galaxia Warriors, who would retreat while the mortals held off the monsters as the Galaxia Warriors were the more valuable troops.
This was a cruel reality that hit all of the mortal soldiers, but even with this revelation they fought on buying precious time for the Galaxia Warriors to evacuate, in total the battle had started with 16,000 Galaxia Warriors and over 200,000 mortal soldiers.
There had been 4000 for each of the Ordo Masters Honor Guard, but by the time the fleet had reformed into one massive messy mass of uncoordinated ships as there simply was no time to properly organize them, in total only 6500 Galaxia Warriors were estimated to have survived, equally as devastating was the estimated loss of almost 165,000 mortal soldiers.
However the valiant effort of the now deceased mortal soldiers had allowed many to escape, allowing the survivors to flee to the now depleted group Alpha lead by Arriel, who had by now gathered a large majority of the yet unmolested Ordo ships, and had by now had ordered a charge towards the central Tyranid group.
Seeing this large gathering of ships, the Tyranid Fleet attempted to shift course and engage with the remaining Ordo Fleet with all of its assets, but with the Tyranid Fleet still somewhat scattered this shift in orders would mean the Tyranids were just as disorganized as the Ordo Fleet as a result only one group of Tyranids stood in the way as the Ordo Fleet sped ahead at full speed.
Strangely, instead of engaging the Ordo Fleet head on, the Tyranid Fleet backed off seeming content to feast on its enemies pinned down Destroyers and to protect its 'Disruptor Organism' which was what Romando had taken to calling it.
However as they continued the Tyranid Fleet continued to harass them and pick off ships that strayed to far from it comrades in total they had 33 Destroyers, 24 Cruisers and 13 Capital Ships they had totally lost the battle like it or not he had been to overconfident that the enemy would just walk in to their prepared defenses not conceiving the enemy could have gotten behind them while they were also pinned down, in summary Arriel had failed.
However as this all went down a single ship had slipped into the system bypassing the shadow in the warp and making straight for Karion Primis 'if the humans cooperate then this shall be a satisfactory resolution for all of us' a lone figure thought.
—-
Meanwhile back on Karion within the capital hive of Karius, Mina had heard the report of the Ordo Fleets defeat to the enemy and the finer details of the type of enemy they were facing, however as if now she could not concern herself with that, instead she was dealing with a different problem, this one involving the enemy within, Chaos.
Currently she had over three dozen guns trained on her position which was behind a crate, they had been taken by surprise with many of personal guards being killed, now there were only four of her twenty guards still standing, all of them sitting next to her.
Mina would peak over the crate to see the President of Kario,n in all his mutated and traitorous 'glory' as a follower of Tzeentch, the presidents lust for power and ambition knew no bounds and as soon as he had heard of the Ordo Fleets defeat he had turned on her while revealing he was behind all the conspiracies and chaos cults, although Mina didn't believe the idiot one bit.
Most of the President's personal and senate guard were possessed by Daemons in a large ritual, now they were currently roaming the senate building searching for prey, however not all were possessed, as some of the president's lackeys were horribly mutated, genetically enhanced criminals with huge and numerous eyes that provided perfect aim.
This was a large reason as to why they had three dozen guns trained on their position and to why she was being careful, one of them firing off a shot at her and she quickly ducked back into cover.
"Come on out inquisitor! There's nowhere to run as my followers are perfect in every way, they even have better aim than the Galaxia Warriors" the president laughed "my victory is assured!" the president exclaimed, it was then she couldn't even remember the idiot's name.
Within the central senate chamber there were four levels, the base level, the one she and her guards were on now, and the other three floors above them, all except the base level containing circular platforms with a dozen of the president's lackeys on each level 'kinda looks like star wars' Mina thought, it was one of her favorite franchises.
Anyway with the rest of her agents likely dealing with a similar rebellion, she only had four of her personal guards to work with as most had been killed by the Daemons before she had the chance to banish them, even with these limited resources however she already had a plan.
"Sargent Falco" she said the soldier next to her immediately looked up from his standard mako rifle "we will begin to move out soon" she said, the man looked slightly surprised but being the personal guard to an inquisitor didn't leave to much room for surprises so he nodded and quickly got the other three soldiers under his command on the same page, as she told them the plan.
With that she took a flash grenade out of her utility belt and threw it up into the air, as she had predicted the presidents 'perfect' soldiers were dumber than a bag of rocks aiming for the grenade before it blew up the mutants numerous eyes now being a weakness resulting in the blinding and the burning out of the photoreceptors of all who looked at it for too long, all in a brilliant flash of light.
Quickly they moved out the four of her personal guard going right while she went left quickly and easily jumping up the ten feet to the first level she pulled out her saber 'Last Sound' and sliced off the head of a mutant, the last thing the mutant ever heard was her saber slicing through the air hence the name, with that she got to work.
Taking off she moved much faster than the president's abominations, using her psychic and physical prowess to dominate any close range engagement, the first level was quickly cleared, then the second.
Mina stole a glance at the right side of the room and would see her guard easily picking off the blind mutants and holding back the mutants who had recovered or were still recovering, at this she smiled to herself as she had picked them out personally, though it was a shame most were dead to a surprise attack but she could also lament over that some other time she concluded as she cut the last mutant on her side of the room to bits.
In total she killed 18 mutants looking before her personal guard she would then lock eyes with the now terrified president who, like the coward he was, tried to put on a look of rage before he then turned and jumped for sargent Falco, going at speeds that would leave the sargent no time to react.
However she was still faster than the traitor could ever hope to be reacting faster and with a burst of psychic power as well as a very simple passage from the holy book of the Grand Papacy "Discede Daemonium!" she cried out.
She would stab her sword through the president's neck and into his spine, at the same time sending her psychic will into the corrupted body of the president, his head then exploding with his death scream not even being 60DB by her estimation.
'Pathetic' she thought before speaking to her personal guard "sargent I take it you and your men are fine?" she asked "yes my lord, not a scratch" Falco replied "good, give me that vox" she commanded, the sargent would quickly hand it over.
"All forces loyal to the Federation sign off" she said, quickly she would receive a reply from the Militant Chief Scott Cooke, from him she would quickly learn that Cosch Mux was also involved in the conspiracy because as it turns out he was secretly a believer in the Omnissiah.
Not only that he had, with the rest of the Colleges mechanized units and some of the traitorous PDF, set himself up in the president's white house and the surrounding area, although many units and commanders of the PDF had been turned, many more had stayed loyal.
This was due to her and her inquisitors appointing many new and loyal commanders themselves and their near constant effort over the years to keep the rise of chaos in check, in short as of now Karion was efficiently in a civil war with an invading Xeno Fleet right on their doorstep 'fucking idiots' she thought.
Following the confirmation of his position at CH (Central Headquarters) which was not too far away from the senate chambers, Mina noticed that something was strange he sounded… afraid? She had known him for over a decade and despite his relatively young age of 43 he was always calm and composed even during campaigns that would drive most men to madness.
So either this was a trap set up by Cosch or something had truly scared Scott, whatever it was she should have to face it head on, and so she and her guard moved out, they encountered minimal resistance from the traitors in the senate building, only coming across some low Daemons or warp entities which she quickly banished.
However as they exited the senate building they quickly found themselves in a warzone as loyalist and Chaos forces battled for control of Karius, fortunately they quickly came across loyalists forces whose goal had been the capture of the senate building.
From there they could make their way to the CH by killing whatever traitorous PDF got in the way, but while they were focused on the battle in front of them they didn't notice the small bug-like drone from which the green glow of the camera recorded their every move.
Once they had arrived Mina quickly realized that it was a large mess, as to be expected, with soldiers both men and women running back and forth from who knew where, on some tasks or assignments, crates of supplies and weapons scattered around haphazardly.
All the soldiers were dressed with their gray helmets and black flak jackets would seem to merge together to form what looked to be an ocean or tide of muted colors contrasting with the red accents and gold symbols of her inquisition outfit and her personal guard.
However it was the hallway guards that were suspiciously strange all of them not moving a mussel their hands behind their backs some even guarded the stairs up to the command center, these guards parted when she arrived.
she wanted to investigate this immediately as something was just 'off' about them, but held off, but still for all she knew this could be a trap and the evidence was certainly feeding into the theory but she wouldn't let Cosch know that she knew it was a trap as Cosch was known to be arrogant like all followers of the Omnissiah.
Minor details aside, they would quickly make their way to the command center, as they approached the door she felt… repressed, like this 'shadow in the warp' that the Tyranids apparently produced had been magnified by a factor of 1000 rendering her psychic powers utterly useless.
Now prepared for the trap that she had predicted, she would nod to her guard as a signal, sargent Falco would nod back pointing to each of his men to take positions two on the left side of the door and himself and one soldier on the right with them ready Mina would approach the door opening said door she would be met with a… strange scene.
In the center of the room there was a holotable, next to that table Scott stood motionless with many soldiers also doing the same around him, strangely enough a few of her inquisitors were also there standing just as motionless as Scott.
But all this is not what drew her intention instead it was the ten foot tall metal… skeleton? This was not some ordinary skeleton however, it appeared to be made of an almost black metal, its gaunt face displaying a perpetual frown.
To go along with its expression it had on a cloak black as night and the metal it was made of with a strange symbol on it the same symbol being proudly displayed on its chest in glowing green, on top of its head was a crown of some sort made up of what appeared to be more black metal bit it… rippled and changed shape constantly never staying in the same form.
One second there were three spikes, then three minicher swords, a constant in each shift however would always include the three jade green crystals in the crown that were the same color as its eyes, eyes that screamed that this thing was alive.
"Why hello I believe your name is Mina Xanthanon am I not mistaken? I do hope I wasn't lied to" the being spoke its voice as regal as the crown on its head suggested, however she did not let that stop her as her personal guard opened fire.
Mako rifles would pelt the figure in a swarm of lasers, to counter the figure summoned a shield made from its own body, the lazars melting portions of the shield but it would quickly repair itself, Mina would use this opportunity to come in from the side, although her speed was greatly diminished by the repression of her psychic powers she was still faster the many.
'Now' she thought, pulling out her saber she would go to slice at the figures knee but its eyes would almost instantly lock onto her, materializing a staff from the metal of its body which would block and parry her strike with frightening ease and strength.
Then before she could even react the figure brought its staff back around and struck her in the side sending her flying to the opposite side of the room and away from her guard, as a result the wind would be knocked out of her.
Taking this opportunity the figure would then seemingly freeze before over a dozen snake-like robots would fall from the ceiling as they then quickly made their way to her guard snaking up their legs and wrapping around them before administering an electric shock that instantly knocked them out.
With her guard subdued Mina looked around the room for help or any resource she could use, but everyone was still frozen and she was surrounded, now with a new angle to see things from her position she saw that they all had a snake around their wrists seemingly preventing them from moving.
"Oh those just some preservation variants they do no harm to a person's body I swear" the figure said approaching her while the snakes and some other drones that looked like insects fully surrounded her "now this does not have to be difficult I do not want to fight all of you I want peace between us" the figure said.
"Really?" Mina started, not buying it for a second "first you hide who you were by using the Militant Chief as a puppet, then you imprison all my comrades in some advanced stasis and now you want me to bow to you? What a good peaceful impression you made, in short go to hell Xeno" she said as she picked herself up off the ground and got into a standing position.
Meanwhile the figure's expression did not change, the figure looked down in… realization? Before it looked up back at her and with a snap of its fingers the snakes around everybody's wrists, the ones on her guard and the drones surrounding her seemed to melt away into the black metal.
Said metal would move across the ground while flowing like a liquid, soon rejoining its creator, now with the snakes gone everyone could move again and all would be shocked and surprised by the situation they found themselves in.
The two Anti Ordo inquisitors in the room that she knew as Fran Morris and Elliot Hawkins would attempt to act, but the figure paid them no mind only flicking his staff into Fran and pushing Elliot back with his shield and huge reach being ten feet tall and all.
"First i'd like to give my apologies to all of you, it appears that millions of years with no social interaction has dulled by diplomatic abilities, as such I have mismanaged this meeting and threatened the people you hold close to you miss Xanthanon and for that I also apologize" the figure said his two weapons then melting back into its body.
The two inquisitors would then prepare to attack again but she sent them both looks that told them to back down, whatever this Xeno was doing confused her but the fact was that it was certainly much more powerful than all of them combined made it seem best to indulge in these 'peace talks' less they all were killed, the figure then continued.
"As such I would ask that we should start over starting with introductions, you are Mine Xanthanon correct?" the figure asked "yes I am Anti Ordo Master Mina Xanthanon and you would be?" She asked the figure.
The Xeno then spoke "I am the Silent King, the last triarch, the emperor of the Necron and I am here to make a deal for the survival of both of our species" the proclaimed Silent King said.
Now Mina was just even more confused.