When Gaia delivered Commissioner Horne and the barely breathing Mitchell to Priestess Rena, heavy breathing immediately came through the latter's mechanical voice unit.
Gaia could see that Rena was half excited and half panicked.
The moment she saw Horne hanging between life and death, the mechanical arms behind her started flailing wildly from emotional overload.
Only after a while did she gradually calm down.
"Do not worry. Unless I die, I will not allow either my test subject or my specimen to die."
Gaia fell into silence at Rena's unique way of referring to the wounded.
Still, judging by her reaction, she really would do everything possible to save them both.
"Then I'll leave them to you, Priestess Rena."
After laying the two of them down in the medbay, Gaia immediately rushed toward the bridge.
She knew how critical the situation was, and some of the knowledge in her mind might help them survive this crisis.
However, as she ran through the corridors leading to the bridge, she noticed something strange.
The lances of light that had been firing nonstop from both sides of the Spear of Destiny had disappeared.
And then she realized that the violent shaking of the ship had also stopped for quite a while.
Both of those things meant one thing.
The enemy had stopped attacking.
What kind of move was that?
Were they preparing something even bigger?
Filled with doubt, Gaia kept running toward the bridge.
Maybe once she got there, the answer would reveal itself.
And when she finally reached the bridge, the sight before her left her stunned.
The crew and deckhands were shouting in excitement.
Solomon had actually climbed up onto the captain's chair, uncorked a bottle of expensive wine he had been saving for ages, something worth a full five Throne coins, and was yelling at the top of his lungs,
"I told you! In the name of Solomon Harlock, we will never go down!"
Because he had been too excited, he forgot to vent the bottle before opening it, and the spray of wine that burst out drenched his ragged patchwork coat.
"Captain Mordecai, we love you!"
The crew shouted along with him, and for a moment the bridge was unbearably noisy.
Gaia rubbed her eyes, slowly stepped back into the bridge elevator, and stared blankly.
What happened?
Did I open the elevator doors the wrong way?
Unfortunately, when she opened them again, all she saw was the exact same scene of the crew celebrating in increasingly absurd ways.
Her mouth twitched. Deciding not to consider for the moment the possibility that everyone had simply lost their minds from the Warp crisis, she pushed through the crowd and made her way to Solomon.
"You're here! See? Wasn't I right? Miracles are always born from despair."
With his usual smug grin back on his face, Solomon raised the bottle dramatically. Then, swaying a little, he grabbed a cup, filled it, and handed it to Gaia.
Gaia rubbed her temples, the corner of her eye twitching a few times. She casually took the cup and held it in her hand, then forced herself to ask clearly,
"What exactly happened? I saw those attacks from the unknown target hitting us earlier, but now they've stopped."
"Who was attacking us? And why did they suddenly stop?"
Gaia fired off her questions one after another like a barrage, and the alcohol-slowed Solomon clearly struggled to process them.
But then his gaze drifted toward the front of the ship, and he suddenly burst into laughter.
Grabbing Gaia, who still looked baffled, he pointed toward the bow and said in a tone of irrepressible excitement,
"Don't worry anymore. Look, the Space Marines came to save us."
Gaia turned toward the direction Solomon was pointing, and her pupils began to tremble uncontrollably.
She saw it there, deep in the endless void: a colossal warship, barely visible beneath the shimmer of countless stars, advancing toward the Spear of Destiny like a moving celestial body.
Against its immense majesty, the Spear of Destiny looked tiny.
As she felt the vast shadow of the giant vessel bear down on them, a sense of safety washed over her so suddenly that her anxious heart calmed almost at once.
She silently stared at the giant ship approaching from the opposite direction, her eyes shining, then unconsciously lifted the cup in her hand and took a small sip.
...
A battle barge was the hammer of the Astartes among the stars, a mobile fortress that carried the Emperor's Angels.
These massive ships had been specially designed from the start for the conquest of the galaxy.
As the main warships of the Great Crusade era, battle barges could bring the strengths of the Space Marines perfectly to bear, whether in planetary warfare or naval combat.
In truth, their greatest function was not combat, but symbolism.
The moment a battle barge appeared in a warzone, the enemy understood that the Emperor's Angels had come to deliver death.
It was said that if the shadow of a battle barge fell across the skies of a rebellious world, most rebellions would simply die on their own.
And the Aeldari warriors from Ulthwé naturally understood that all too well.
The instant they detected that gigantic ship, they immediately broke off their pursuit of the Spear of Destiny and turned to flee for their lives.
The joy they had felt while chasing a mere destroyer was now matched by how pitifully they scrambled to escape the battle barge.
They could not understand it. By all logic, those modified gorillas usually placed themselves above ordinary monkeys. Even if they were willing to respond to a distress call from nominally fellow humans, there was no reason for them to make such a huge show of force.
That was a battle barge.
The Aeldari aboard the Shadowhunter-class escort had no time left to think about why the enemy had come in such numbers.
They had now fallen into the exact same predicament the Spear of Destiny had faced earlier.
They definitely could not win in a fight, and with the crack in their hull, escaping was also looking increasingly difficult.
Fortunately, thanks to the legacy of their ancestors, they could use the Webway for rapid travel.
As long as they could reach the nearest Webway gate, the Eldar aboard their ship still had a chance to live.
...
In front of the assault craft bay, a full Astartes company stood ready to deploy.
These Space Marines wore powerful suits of power armor that looked heavy but allowed great mobility, wrapped around bodies far larger than any normal man.
The Eldar aboard the Shadowhunter had wondered why these sons of gods would go so far to protect mere humans.
The bleeding heart insignia on their black-and-white checkered shoulder plates gave them the answer.
The reason was simple.
They were Lamenters.
These sons of Sanguinius had sworn to become a wall of flesh and blood between the people of the Imperium and all harm.
"Brother Myles, the second boarding squad after we close the distance will be yours."
The commander of the Third Company, who was overseeing the boarding operation, turned his head and looked at an enormous warrior standing nearby, a Space Marine even taller than most of his brethren.
The latter silently nodded, then replied in a low, hoarse voice,
"I will not fail the blood of Sanguinius."
(End of Chapter)
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