Guilliman, clad in ultramarine power armor, arrived on the command deck, followed closely by the Honor Guard in their Iron Rider Terminator armor.
Their massive steel bodies brought immense pressure, and everyone on the command deck felt as if their hearts were tightly clutched by fear, making breathing difficult.
The Honor Guard were all elite veterans from the Ultramarines, each possessing astonishing battle records, and wearing Terminator armor that was heavier and bulkier than standard Astartes armor, they stood there, radiating overwhelming pressure.
For an ordinary person to stand and speak before a member of the Honor Guard was already an act of immense courage.
"What's the situation, Brehek?" Guilliman asked, looking at the captain seated in the command chair.
"They are gathered on the second planet of the Sara system.
Judging by the ship emblems and some characteristics, the information we received is not false; the enemy does indeed belong to the Death Guard.
The fleet has spread out.
Comparing our strength to theirs, we can easily secure victory."
The Death Guard, plague spreaders, cursed traitors, eternal enemies of the Imperium, unforgivable ones.
The Death Guard once belonged to the Fourteenth Legion of the Imperium, led by the Primarch Mortarion, and made indelible contributions to the Great Crusade and the unification of humanity.
Towards the end of the Great Crusade, Mortarion led the Death Guard in participating in the Horus Heresy, openly betraying the loyalist side in the Iytaris system, and together with other traitor legions, massacred loyalists on a large scale, committing unforgivable crimes.
Afterward, when Mortarion led his fleet on a warp voyage, he was betrayed by Typhus, that double-crosser.
The latter killed the navigators and damaged the ships' Geller Fields, trapping the fleet in the warp, where they were thoroughly 'trained' by the Chaos Gods.
The Chaos God Nurgle, using his superior methods, managed to forcefully tame Mortarion, who hated sorcery and utterly detested Chaos, making him his little bitch.
Mortarion was originally a Primarch who was extremely resistant to sorcery and utterly rejected Chaos.
Yet, trapped in the warp, tormented by plagues and suffering immensely, he was forced to pledge allegiance to Nurgle, one of the Chaos Gods representing plague, death, and rebirth, becoming one of the daemon Primarchs.
He is practically the template of a Primarch tamed by a disliked strange uncle until he became obedient.
Subsequently, this fleet participated in the Siege of Terra, using plagues to break through the defenses of the Imperial Palace, causing massive casualties.
After Horus' defeat, they splintered into various warbands and fled to the Eye of Terror and the fringes of the Imperium.
Guilliman mentally sorted through the information about the Death Guard before looking at captain Brehek again and asking,
"I have no doubt about the outcome of victory, I merely wish to inquire about the situation on the surface?"
"There is no feedback information.
All the messages we sent have been intercepted.
Neither electromagnetic nor astropathic messages have received any response.
I suspect the enemy has taken control of communications.
If things are worse, the astropaths on the surface are either corrupted or have already perished."
Captain Brehek's tone was heavy, and his single remaining organic eye showed anger.
Another planetary-scale massacre, tens of billions of human lives harvested by the Ruinous Powers.
May the Holy Emperor have mercy on those poor souls and welcome them into His embrace.
"Perhaps there is still a turning point, otherwise these remnants of Chaos wouldn't still be here."
Guilliman looked towards the control console, where, amidst the hum of machinery, the strategic display, meticulously maintained by the Adeptus Mechanicus, was operating.
A series of data symbols and beams formed a tactical projection, clearly showing the situation in the Sara system and the strength of the plague ships.
At this moment, all the plague ships were positioned near the orbit of the second planet in the Sara system.
"Let's hope so."
Brehek nodded.
"Let's attack.
Regardless, we must destroy them.
If there are survivors, we will save them; if not, we will avenge them."
"Understood, my lord."
The fleet, led by Maccrage's Glory, was advancing rapidly, and the planet Sara II was growing larger in the viewports.
It is a green planet with glaciers in the polar regions.
The entire surface is covered in grasslands and woodlands, with only scattered deserts interspersed, making it an extremely suitable planet for human habitation and one with high colonization value.
The planet has six colossal hive cities, one of which is astonishingly large.
Based on the observed data, its occupied area should be over twenty-six million square kilometers.
The estimated minimum population of the planet is over fifty billion, making it extremely valuable to the Imperium.
Upon the arrival of the Imperial fleet, the plague fleet also reacted, spreading out their formation, attempting to intercept the Imperial ships.
Guilliman watched the changes on the battlefield.
The enemy had a total of three battle groups, severely lacking coordination between them.
Mutual distrust is a weakness of the Chaos side; they usually operate as warbands, resisting unified command and not trusting other warbands.
When the distance was less than three million kilometers, both sides transitioned from the probing phase into a fierce close-range engagement.
Imperial ships launched salvos of torpedoes and missiles, spread out in a wide fan pattern, forming intersecting lines, while also firing tons of anti-ship shells to cut off the enemy's maneuver space.
Space combat is far more complex and volatile.
Engagement distances often reaching millions of kilometers mean that weapons like torpedoes, missiles, and shells have a certain lag, making it difficult to hit moving ships.
Commanding such a battle requires immense computational power to calculate the enemy's movement during combat and the variables on the battlefield.
Guilliman solemnly surveyed the battlefield, not missing any minor variable.
Before crossing over, he thought that torpedoes and missiles would be useless in future space battles and that only energy weapons like lances were needed.
It wasn't until he witnessed fleet combat that he realized his previous ideas were truly foolish.
Every weapon has its advantages.
Missiles can automatically track and hit any location on an enemy ship at will.
Lances are fast, but they travel in straight lines.
Their power and speed are high, but they are easily blocked.
Physical weapons like torpedoes and shells, besides their great power, sometimes find their criticized slowness becoming an advantage.
It increases the enemy's computational burden, making them hesitant to maneuver for fear of directly colliding.
Stationary torpedoes and mines have a high probability of not triggering void shields, and once struck, the consequences are naturally dire.
A distance of over a million kilometers is considered close-quarters combat in a space battle.
Lances and giant shells were continuously fired, and the space between the two sides quickly turned into a deadly thicket of interwoven lances and shells.
The void shields on Macragge's Glory would periodically flare up, rippling and fluctuating under the powerful energy beams.
The scattered energy from energy weapons caused the void shield generators on Macragge's Glory to occasionally emit feedback noise, with some even sparking and crackling.
The Plague Marines knew very well who their greatest threat was.
Even without much coordination, they targeted Macragge's Glory as their primary objective.
Facing the concentrated fire of the enemy, Macragge's Glory did not retreat at all, giving an equally fierce counterattack, unleashing firepower capable of easily leveling cities upon the enemy.
One plague ship's void shields were overloaded.
A direct hit from a torpedo struck the ship's bow, causing it to spin, followed by a series of subsequent attacks.
The massive hull was pierced by torpedoes, missiles, and lances.
A hit to the plasma reactor caused a massive explosion, the immense flames engulfing the plague ship.
It slowly disintegrated in a silent burst, burning fiercely in space.
Building-sized wreckage flew from the exploding warship, accidentally hitting a nearby warband ship, causing its void shields to overload.
Subsequently, it was reduced to wreckage by a macro cannon salvo from an Imperial cruiser.
Leveraging the firepower of Macragge's Glory, the Imperial fleet acted like a sharp sword, piercing directly into the heart of the enemy formation.
The advantage was rapidly expanding, and the scales of victory were quickly tilting towards humanity.
"Their behavior is abnormal.
Logically, they should be fleeing."
Phicris, standing nearby, shook his head.
"In the past, when they realized they couldn't win, the traitors would often choose to escape."
"Perhaps these idiots have been scared senseless."
Brehek showed a hint of mockery.
His greatest pleasure was personally destroying enemy warships one by one, leaving the bodies of those Chaos traitors floating in space, becoming ice sculptures.
A dead traitor is the only traitor worth acknowledging.
Guilliman's gaze returned from the strategic projection, and he shook his head, "I don't think this matter is that simple.
Find a way to get the surface situation of Sara II.
Perhaps the problem lies on the planet's surface.
If we get information from there, we might know what's going on."
Although he was a transmigrator, he inherited his predecessor's power and all his memories; in a sense, it was more like a fusion.
The Primarch-level strategy and wisdom made him also feel that the Plague Marines being so fearless of death was a bit unusual.
They didn't pledge allegiance to Khorne; Nurgle never supports senseless self-destruction.
Senseless charges, just for the sake of hacking and slashing, are things only a brute like Khorne would do.