Outer Orion Arm region of the Milky Way, Covenant-controlled space, a remote corner.
Boom!
A beam unleashed by a massive energy lance emitter pierced through the void.
The flagship of a Covenant sub-fleet, docked at a space station for refit and resupply, was struck head-on. Its energy shields were engulfed by the detonating plasma, rippling violently. On the bridge, operators frantically increased power output and adjusted course, attempting evasive maneuvers.
"Energy shields down 37%!"
"Evasive action! Emergency evasive action!"
"We are surrounded by an enemy fleet! It's humanity!"
"All ships, reform formation!"
Caught completely off guard, the Covenant fleet descended into chaos under the sudden assault.
Zzzzt!
Blinding plasma sparks washed across the hull. Under the relentless bombardment of energy lances, the bridge trembled without cease. Warning lights for shield overload flashed madly, dazzling reflections of multicolored light mirrored in the eyes of every officer and soldier in the command chamber.
But to them, that beautiful radiance was nothing less than a harbinger of death.
"How did we receive no warning at all? Are the forces on the front lines nothing but fools and trash? Or were they punched straight through by the humans?"
"Why has there been no intelligence from High Charity?!"
This was the Covenant's heartland. Under orders from the High Council, their fleet had been instructed to rest and prepare for battle, readying an assault on humanity's node world—Reach.
Yet they could not comprehend where these humans had come from. How had they bypassed the multiple fortresses and defensive lines along the Covenant's warfront against humanity and slipped here without a trace?
"Silence!"
The Covenant fleet's senior commander—a Sangheili—braced himself against a secondary command console. The clamorous noise of Unggoy and Kig-Yar grew increasingly grating. He slammed his fist down and roared.
Grabbing a red-armored Sangheili Elite by the collar, he snarled, "Even in death, die with purpose! What is this disgraceful panic?!"
"Intelligence officer! I don't care what method you use—get the message out! High Charity must be informed! The enemy is completely different from before!"
"Move!"
"Yes, sir!"
With the bridge finally somewhat restored to order, the Sangheili fleet commander—clad in meticulously crafted silver-gray armor—had no time for further words. Returning to his command seat, he transmitted his final order to Covenant forces still deployed on the planet's surface.
"To all forces, this is Edmo Hest, Supreme Commander of the Covenant Sangheili 17th Sub-Fleet 'Sacred Consecration.' I hereby issue the final order—fight to the last!"
Before his voice had fully fallen, another violent tremor shook the vessel. The entire observation viewport of the bridge was nearly swallowed by an overwhelming blaze of plasma explosions. Communications were severed in an instant.
"Report! Energy shields down 78%! Imminent overload!"
Bang!
"****!" (Sangheili curse)
With one punch, the Sangheili fleet commander shattered the holographic display before him. Seizing his weapon, he turned and demanded, "Dispatch elite squads. Is there any chance of a breakout?"
"Sir... I'm sorry. The surrounding space-time has been locked down. The slipspace engines cannot engage. All external interstellar communications are jammed... We're completely trapped."
Silence fell over the bridge.
Outside the observation window, the glowing mass abruptly paused for a split second—then flared with brilliance never seen before.
The deck quaked more violently than ever. No ordinary starship could produce such a profound and savage tremor. The entire bridge lurched like an earthquake, rolling and pitching left and right. Covenant warriors were thrown flat onto the deck.
The smaller Unggoy wailed in terror.
Even the Sangheili Elites were forced to drop to one knee as the floor bucked beneath them.
Gripping a handrail with one hand, the Sangheili fleet commander made a snap decision and barked, "Divert all power to the shields! Ram through them! Before the shields overload, launch every antimatter bomb—"
Unfortunately, his shout came too late. Even if the navigation technicians could execute the order in time, the enemy would not grant the opportunity.
A greater wave of bombardment arrived.
The next instant—
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Rows of massive beams tightened into lethal convergence. Along their path, numerous Covenant medium and small-class vessels were caught in the crossfire. Before such catastrophic firepower, they had no resistance whatsoever. Their energy shields overloaded and collapsed instantly under the impact.
Then countless energy lances, like spears piercing the stars themselves, swallowed them whole. Hull structures twisted, fractured, disintegrated—then detonated in sympathetic explosions.
The blasts radiated searing crimson light, like a captive sun suddenly freed, unleashing incomparable light and heat into the void.
Woooooom—!
Within the inferno, the attacking fleet did not retreat but instead pressed forward, forcing its way through the expanding rings of fire and Covenant counterfire into low orbit around the Covenant fortress world.
When the flames receded, what replaced them were colossal warships of imposing majesty.
They were like primordial beasts forged into reality—immense beyond measure. Their overall silhouettes were arrowhead-shaped. Palace-like command bridges rose high above hulls constructed like layered towers and ramparts, armor plating as thick and vast as fortress walls.
Array after array of energy lance emitters, cannon after cannon of plasma rail artillery were embedded into titanic turret blocks like rows of windows.
From prow to stern, nearly every inch of their structure was covered in batteries of weapons.
Their hulls were clad in silver-gray armor, adorned with double-headed eagle reliefs polished in gold, emerald, and crystal. Heavy and resplendent, they radiated both overwhelming power and an austere sense of sanctity.
If space naval warfare retained even a trace of aesthetic grandeur, then the land battle raging below possessed only brutality, bloodshed, and cruelty.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Across the devastated earth, blossoms of searing destruction erupted endlessly. Laser fire flickered. Assault boats and drop pods roared through the sky in dense waves. The thunderous bellow of large-caliber heavy kinetic weapons never ceased...
Boom!
Explosive flashes ignited alongside rolling, earth-shattering detonations. Chunks of soil and shredded alien corpses were hurled skyward. The air reeked of acrid gunpowder smoke and the stench of scorched flesh.
Crimson. Gloom.
In the skies, Covenant vessels—including the CAS-class assault carrier of the Covenant 17th Sub-Fleet 'Sacred Consecration'—were shot down one after another, falling like meteors. They burned and disintegrated within the atmosphere, trailing countless smaller "meteors" in their wake.
Across the corpse-strewn battlefield,
Countless warriors brandished firearms, energy weapons, chainsaw-like weapons, powered melee weapons, gravity hammers, and other close-combat arms, slaughtering one another in savage melee.
The sky burned. The land burned. Even the oceans burned.
In this moment, the entire world resembled a living hell.
The main fortifications of the Covenant stronghold on the planet's surface had been more than half demolished, subjected to concentrated strikes by the Imperial Army. The defensive positions that appeared to be command bastions were strewn with the corpses of Covenant alien species.
The battle here had begun first and was among the initial targets of the bombardment, receiving special attention from the Astartes. The assault had now concluded, and the trees severed by the aftershocks of artillery fire still emitted thin wisps of smoke.
"Sweep the battlefield! Keep your damn eyes open!" roared an Imperial Auxilia officer, waving his chainsword as his peaked cap bobbed with the motion.
"Yes, sir!" ×N
Very soon—"Awooo!"
"Tsk tsk, an alien. And a cowardly one at that."
Splurt!
A thin, hunched alien roughly 1.7 meters tall, resembling a jackal, was discovered feigning death. It was instantly hacked to pieces by Servitor Army soldiers who were sweeping the battlefield.
"Stop, stop, stop!"
Watching them brutally chop the alien's head to bits, the Imperial Auxilia officer cursed with a grin. "Whoever found it gets the head! Anyone else who tries to snatch it, I'll shoot him myself!"
"Continue sweeping the battlefield!"
Elsewhere, at the concealed entrance to an underground facility behind the fortress—
A squad of Imperial Servitor Army soldiers collided head-on with Covenant troops retreating underground.
"For the Empire! Charge—!"
"Roar—!"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Boom!
Around a crater blasted open by a Jiralhanae heavy grenade launcher lay more than a dozen Servitor Army soldiers, their bodies scattered in disarray. Their ballistic armor had either been shattered by the close-range shockwave or crushed by savage blunt-force weapons. Their corpses were grotesquely twisted.
Even in death, their hands still gripped their weapons, their eyes wide with fury—a testament to the ferocity of their final stand.
Their opponents had fared little better. The ground was littered with the shattered remains of Kig-Yar and Unggoy, along with two Jiralhanae corpses riddled with holes from concentrated fire by man-portable laser rifles, their features utterly unrecognizable.
Bang!
"Huff..."
Leaning against a broken wall with a crude gravity hammer, a Jiralhanae—its abdomen torn open by a chainsword, leaving a gash over a meter long with entrails spilling out—struggled to breathe, clearly on the verge of death.
Its thick gray-white fur was soaked in blood—both its own and that of humans. Its already ugly face had been shredded by shrapnel into multiple deep wounds, turning it into a true 'demon-faced beast.'
"These humans are far more entertaining than the ones before," growled another Jiralhanae who still retained combat capability. Clad in lake-blue armor, it held a heavy shotgun with a barrel as thick as a bowl in one hand and a bloodstained gravity hammer in the other, panting heavily.
"The situation is dire. Those cowardly show-offs have been defeated."
Although the Jiralhanae were notoriously at odds with the Sangheili, it was an undeniable fact that the Sangheili held higher status. The position of Covenant fleet commander had long been monopolized by them.
Even with the full backing of the Prophet of Truth, it made little difference. No matter their reluctance, many Jiralhanae still had to serve under Sangheili commanders.
Of course, open and covert provocations, contempt, and insults between the two races were unavoidable. Their mutual hostility was common knowledge within the Covenant, practically an open secret.
This time, because the Sangheili commander disdained prolonged association with the Jiralhanae, he had stationed his own kind at the space station for rest and refit, effectively separating the two groups. As a result, the Jiralhanae on the surface had been fortunate enough to evade the Imperial Navy's bombardment.
Casting a deep glance at the wreckage of Covenant warships falling from the sky, the Jiralhanae did not linger in thought. Turning its head, it sprinted toward the entrance of the underground facility.
Hiss!
The alloy pneumatic valve slid open. The Unggoy guards at the entrance shrieked in terror upon seeing the blood-soaked Brute Captain Ultra, chattering "Guruguru~" in panic.
"Out of my way!" it snarled, kicking the diminutive creatures aside as it slammed the control to seal the door.
Clang!
"Ah ha! Look what I've found—damned alien filth! I'll use your skull as a bowl!"
Without hesitation, the high-ranking Jiralhanae bolted deeper into the underground facility after pressing the close-door button. Unlike ordinary Brutes, this senior captain was not merely a berserker. Though savage, it was far from foolish.
Bang!!
A deafening impact resounded. A massive fist-shaped dent visibly appeared on the alloy door.
Before the terrified Unggoy could even scream, the next moment the metal glowed red-hot, heat radiating intensely.
Fwoosh—!
An orange-red brilliance erupted. A high-temperature melta beam pierced through everything before the Brute, vaporizing the Unggoy soldiers and cleanly severing the Jiralhanae's legs.
Clang!
Immediately afterward, the half-meter-thick, nearly three-and-a-half-meter-tall alloy door was violently shattered by two World Eaters, reduced to fragments scattered across the ground.
"Running? After killing my men, you think you can escape?!"
I can kill these alien scum—but they cannot kill my men. Not even the lowest-ranked Servitor Army troopers.
That was the World Eater's creed.
Double standards? So be it. On the battlefield, that was the norm. The so-called righteous heroes of Hollywood were the true anomalies. Setting aside questions of right and wrong, anyone who mourned an enemy's death more than that of their own comrades would rarely maintain good relations with their fellows.
Thud! Thud!
A heavily armored warrior in white power armor with blue trim, a cloak billowing behind him, stepped inside. Lowering the melta pistol in his right hand, he casually tossed aside the head of the dying Brute and drew his chainsaw axe, activating it with a resonant Vrrr—!
Faced with a figure even more ferocious than the Brutes themselves, the Unggoy raised their hands and scattered in panic, squealing "Guruguru" incessantly.
"Roar!"
At that moment, from the far end of the underground tunnel, a squad of towering Jiralhanae—likely responding to a call for reinforcements—rushed in, unleashing a barrage of fire at the World Eaters near the entrance.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Amid the deafening explosions of heavy-caliber kinetic rounds, the energy shield modules embedded within the power armor flickered visibly. Several shell casings as large as bowls clattered to the ground after being stopped by the shield field.
"That one is mine. You handle the rest."
"For Selene—!"
With a furious roar, several World Eaters surged past their officer, smashing through all obstacles like heavy tanks. Bodies burst apart under their charge, limbs and sprays of dark purple blood scattering across their kin and provoking even louder screams.
Soon, the roar of chainsaw axes and the thunder of bolter fire echoed in succession. Accompanied by the wet tearing of flesh, the battle quickly subsided.
Rip!
Standing before the high-ranking Jiralhanae captain whose legs had been severed by the melta beam, the World Eater officer merely reached out and tore with casual brutality, further dismembering the creature. His expression grew even more savage.
"I told you—I would use your skull as a bowl."
Grasping the alien's face, his fingers plunged deep into its eye sockets, crushing the eyeballs and shredding the retinas.
"Roar—!" The agonized howl was enough to wrench the heart of any listener.
Crack!
In the end, its skull burst like an overripe watermelon. The cranial dome was violently ripped free by the World Eater officer, blood and brain matter continuing to spurt outward.
"Notify the forward statistics office. The head of that half-dead ape alien is to be credited to these fallen Servitor Army soldiers."
As for why the head of this high-ranking Jiralhanae captain was not assigned to the dead Servitor Army troopers, regulations strictly forbade the transfer of heads and merits. Violators would face severe punishment. Rewards were granted for merit, and penalties imposed for transgressions—clear and uncompromising.
The Brute outside had already been mortally wounded by them. Though they had not personally severed its head, attributing the kill to the Servitor Army soldiers was within acceptable limits. Any detailed assessment of combat contributions would be handled by the real-time recording system.
"Sir, the alien scum in the outer perimeter of this sector have been cleared!" The Imperial Auxilia officer jogged over and saluted.
"Now, it's time to play whack-a-mole."
Hooking the bloodied skull onto the magnetic clasp at his waist, the World Eater officer hefted his chainsaw axe and strode deeper into the facility.