Calgar looked at the opponent, then at the intelligence chief beside him.
"Expand the observation range and connect the footage from the buoy bird-augur array satellites outside the galaxy."
As he gave the command, the indicator lights on the surrounding array of contemplators flickered.
Heads submerged in nutrient tubes, programmed by the Adeptus Mechanicus, opened their mouths in silent screams.
Accompanied by the humming of machinery, the holographic projector gradually zoomed out the view.
The Vitoria system shrunk to the size of a pebble, and the numerous fleets were reduced to mere specks of light, suspended throughout the system.
At the edge of the holographic projection sphere, the image lost its detail integrity and focus.
An astropath walked up to Calgar's side.
Electronic signals from the buoys would take hours or even a full day to reach the command center.
But with the aid of the mysterious warp, complete communication could occur in an instant.
"The astropaths sense the shadow of the tyranids is within reach; they are very close," said the primaris space marine who had entered.
"What's the situation?" Calgar looked at the astropath who had always served him.
"The tyranids are very close. The outer satellites have detected disturbances in the gravitational pulses. The warp shadow is growing stronger, and we have lost the ability to access the Imperial astropathic network," the astropath said.
"When will they arrive?" Calgar asked.
"One day at most," the astropath replied.
Time passed quickly.
All the commanders in the command center focused their attention on the holographic projection.
They waited for the enemy's appearance.
In order to quickly resolve the Sautekh dynasty and conclude the campaign in the Charadon Sector, Guilliman had not allocated too much fleet strength to Calgar.
He had only 19 battleships, 109 strike cruisers, and several hundred battle barges at his disposal.
Void weapon platforms, combat satellites, and defensive space stations could provide some void firepower.
Beyond that, there was nothing else.
Calgar divided them into three battle groups, forming three defensive lines to successively weaken the tyranid offensive.
This would cause the tyranid assault to gradually decrease.
Calgar's most relied-upon forces were the ground troops.
Guilliman had given Calgar twelve Chapters, over twelve thousand primaris space marines.
There were also vast numbers of Astra Militarum, Adeptus Mechanicus Skitarii, and many other units.
Before war arrives, the atmosphere is always the most oppressive.
Everyone was so tormented by the stifling air that they were speechless.
When the first flickering red dot appeared on the edge of the system, it was almost a relief for everyone.
"They're here," Calgar said.
The lights began to flash, all turning a blinding red.
Piercing air raid sirens echoed across the entire planet Vitoria.
They resounded throughout the sky, reverberating through Vitoria's mountains, fields, and cities.
It descended into the unseen black market, where the loud threats between volatile sellers and buyers ceased, replaced by pity and fear in each other's eyes.
It crept into the hospital ward, where a mother's soothing words came to an abrupt halt, leaving her beloved child to cry uncontrollably.
It sounded in everyone's ears, like a shadow.
Announcing the arrival of a terrible enemy to those born in the Age of Darkness.
In the underbelly of the hive city.
Beside the repulsive garbage heaps.
"Guilliman is a big liar, he is a traitor, he will kill all of you!"
A deranged man wailed, raving like a madman.
Countless Astra Militarum soldiers looked up at the sky, then lowered their heads and continued to build their fortifications.
They would fight for their oath.
The scribes who remained were silent, some writing down their feelings, experiencing this emotion.
They would sing these stories for future generations.
For the survival of the species, how many heroic lives were lost?
Those lives were not brilliant, but they allowed the Imperium of Man to endure for ten thousand years.
They had an obligation to sing these stories, to make those heroes immortal forever.
Primaris space marines from various Chapters donned their armor with the help of servitors and checked their weapons.
They swore to become an unbreakable wall against which the tyranids would shatter.
They would fight to the last man, shed the last drop of blood.
The command for war was transmitted into the void.
The admiral sitting on the flagship of the Storm Falcons Chapter, was in charge of the first line of defense.
To achieve maximum killing effect, Calgar had devised a daring strategy.
The three defensive lines would successively weaken the tyranids, thereby reducing the intensity of the tyranid assault on Vitoria.
"My lord, they are here," said an observing servitor.
A large cluster of red dots lit up on the tactical display projector on the command platform.
"Estimated hundreds of targets," the servitor said, but soon shouted, "Urgent revision, there are thousands, no, tens of thousands."
The observing servitor's voice was filled with fear.
He had been completely stunned by the scene he observed; the tyranid assault was like a flood.
The enemy's numbers were countless.
The Behemoth fleet was one of the main tyranid fleets entering the galaxy, comparable in scale only to the Leviathan and Kraken.
Of course, these three fleets were just tendrils of the Hive Fleet.
Larger tyranid fleets were still outside the galaxy.
tyranid fleets used gravitational fields to create faster-than-light channels, achieving faster-than-light travel.
Wherever they went, they would cause a series of force field distortion phenomena.
He could only see the distorted scene through the window.
In faster-than-light travel, the tyranids were outside the light cone and could not be observed.
Only when the tyranid fleet was close enough to the system and deactivated the faster-than-light gravitational field,
And began using bio-plasma thrusters again, could they be directly observed.
He watched as the tyranid bio-ships appeared on the optical observation window.
They grew from a small dot into the shape of tyranid bio-vessels, gleaming with a wet light from the ice of deep space.
The bio-ships were very strange, unlike human vessels, but their power was not to be underestimated.
"Attack," the admiral said.
His command was transmitted among dozens of ships.
Plasma light flared as numerous warships flew towards the bio-fleet.
The tactical display was quickly blurred by the maddening number of bio-ships.
Fleet commanders observed every move on the battlefield, constantly modifying the ships' maneuver plans.
Noisy alarms sounded continuously.
The human and tyranid fleets rapidly interspersed and engaged in combat.
Relying on seamless coordination and terrifying firepower, the Imperium gained the advantage at the start of the engagement.
Large numbers of torpedoes and missiles were launched.
These physical bombs were much more lethal to the tyranids than lances.
Within half an hour, space was littered with shattered carapace fragments and massive chunks of flesh.
Frozen bodily fluids drifted in clouds between the corpses of the bio-vessels.
Although the tyranid weapons and tactics were not as powerful as the Imperium's, the number of bio-ships was far greater than the Imperial ships.
Every time the Imperial fleet destroyed a bio-ship, twenty more bio-ships would replenish their ranks.
Void shields were warped or penetrated by the impact of torpedo spikes and living missiles.
High-speed flying Hellions sped through the green flames of bio-plasma jets, spitting spines from dripping pores.
Those colossal bio-ships, as vast as mountain ranges, constantly rippled their surface muscles, spewing out enormous, segmented, squid-like creatures.
These creatures, wielding countless disgusting tentacles, surged towards the Imperial ships.
Once they were close to contact, they would slow down, dropping to a level where the void shields could not detect them.
Then these creatures would explode on the hull of the Imperial ships, releasing swarms of metal-eating microorganisms.
Giant Hivelords spewed glittering gas, moving towards the Imperial line at a deceptively slow pace.
Once close enough.
They would suddenly lash out with their tentacles, brutally wrapping around heavy Imperial ships, and then more tentacles would simply tear them apart.
All manner of strange bio-vessels could almost shake people's faith; some were like slugs, some like void whales, some bore similarities to marine creatures, but a million times larger.
Some ships even had massive ramming prows and thick tentacles.
Every combination of life appeared within the tyranid fleet.
They were all different, full of diversity.
But they had one thing in common.
That was that they all submitted to the Hive Mind.
He ordered the fleet to resist the tyranid flood, but the tyranids were unstoppable.
Even if he destroyed thousands of bio-ships, it was merely the tip of the iceberg for the tyranid fleet.
The tyranid fleet, like a mountain flood, broke through the three void defense lines.
Releasing vast amounts of spores into the Vitoria system.
Calgar, seated on his throne, listened to the messages from the void defense lines.
Brave crewmen, in their final moments, still cried out the name of Guilliman.
Holding absolute loyalty to the Emperor, they piloted their warships towards the tyranid bio-ships.
Bright flashes of light came from deep space.
Each flash represented tens of thousands of crewmen recalled to the Emperor's Golden Throne.
"Fight for Humanity, fight for the Emperor, fight for the Lord of Ultramar."
"We have failed, but you shall succeed."
The fleet's voice echoed across all channels.
A captain sent his final message to his comrades.
There was no fear, only the calmness of facing death.
"May the Emperor be with us."
Then, the electronic signal representing the entire ship disappeared, signifying the sacrifice of the entire crew.
Calgar could imagine the ferocity of the void battle,
Numerous ships were isolated and without aid, left only to fight to the death.
Crewmen, amidst the raging inferno of exploding warships, cried out the names of the Emperor and Guilliman, and then bravely faced death.
The Chapter commanders who remained on the warships fought with all their might, but ultimately had to face their inevitable fate.
Several strike cruisers, kilometers long, streaked through Vitoria's atmosphere.
Falling onto the toxin-soaked plains.
Massive plasma power cores went critical.
Deafening explosions resounded for thousands of kilometers.
The resulting shockwave swept across the entire continent.
Calgar watched all of this in silence. He grieved for the fallen, but he knew that this was not yet the end of the war.
Spore sacs, obscuring the sky, rained down onto the surface.
The most brutal ground defense battle was about to begin.
Tens of billions of lives would be lost.