In Julius's office aboard the Star Walker, the calm was brutally shattered. Data entered, his usually silent footsteps hurried, a rarity for the android.
"Lord Commander," he announced without preamble, his synthetic voice faster than usual. "Critical situation report. Multiple Helldiver teams have been simultaneously attacked on the fringes of our territory. Massive casualties. And... Code Black has been activated."
Code Black. The ultimate protocol. Total self-destruction to avoid capture by Warp forces.
Julius stood. The commander's serenity evaporated, replaced by a fury so deep and so cold the air around him began to crackle. Bolts of electric blue lightning erupted from his eyes, briefly scorching the air and making the holographic displays sizzle.
"Where?" he asked, his voice now a low rumble, charged with barely contained psyker power.
"The last confirmed signal originated from the vessel Vigilant, monitoring the derelict designated Event Horizon. Sergeant Colin and his team activated the Immolation Code."
The name of Colin, a veteran, a man whose file he knew, ratcheted the tension up another notch. Julius clenched his fist, and the metal desk under his hand began to glow red and warp with a metallic shriek.
"They struck us in the shadows. They took our explorers," he murmured, the lightning in his eyes intensifying. "This is no coincidence. It is a statement. A provocation."
He raised his head, his gaze piercing through the ship's hull as if he could see to the site of the tragedy.
"We will avenge them," he promised, and every word was laden with the certainty of a coming storm. "Not with words. With fire and blood."
He turned to the System interface, his mind connecting to the omnipresent entity.
"System. Absolute priority. You have been searching for psychic nulls. Now, find me a Sister of Silence. Just one. No matter the cost."
The System, usually instantaneous, took a few seconds to respond, sifting through billions of data points across the galaxy.
>> TARGETED SEARCH: PROFILE "BLANK"/SISTER OF SILENCE.
>> FILTERING... LOCATING...
>> TARGET IDENTIFIED.
>> COORDINATES: SYSTEM [EXPUNGED], PLANET DESIGNATION: MNEMOS-7. A SINGLE MATCHING SIGNATURE CONFIRMED. STATUS: SOLE SURVIVOR OF A COLLECTOR SHIP CRASH. ADVANCED AGE. FADING LIFE SIGNS.
A dead planet. A single survivor. Aged. But alive.
A joyless smile appeared on Julius's lips.
"Aged is not a problem," he declared. "Data, contact the cloning labs on Kamino. Mobilize Doctors Halsey and Stetmann. They have the archives of Project Spartan-II and the most advanced cloning capabilities in the galaxy."
He looked again at the coordinates glowing before him.
"A single cell is enough. A single cell to forge a legion. A legion of witch-hunters, daemon-slayers. Warriors born to be the antithesis of the Warp."
He turned to Data.
"Prepare a ship. The fastest one. An elite extraction team. We are going to retrieve our future from that dead planet. The price for this Sister has just become infinite."
The loss of the Helldivers was a wound. But from this wound, Julius was determined to forge the ultimate weapon. The war against Chaos had just crossed a new threshold.