101: Chapter 101 Marcus stands on the bridge to preside over Heinrich's award ceremony; the Overlord is present in person.

The bridge of the Emperors Hammer was temporarily arranged into a small ceremonial hall. The Imperial Navy ensign and the Coalition emblem hung side by side above the command dais, and the ship's chaplain's crozius gleamed with a dull golden luster under the lights. Marcus Aurelian stood before the dais, holding the imperial navy highest medal of valor in his hand, which had just been issued by the High Lords of Terra and personally transmitted by Hasseldorf, Arbiter of the Adeptus Arbites, via a psionically encrypted link. The medal's ribbon was a pristine deep blue, and its metal face was engraved with a relief of the Emperor's holy icon crossed with the Coalition emblem.

Heinrich von Strauheim stood three paces in front of him. The old combat gear he had worn during the Battle of Dead Silence-42, which had been corroded by creep digestive fluid, had been replaced with an Imperial Navy Admiral's dress uniform. His bionic eye glowed with a steady red light under the ceremonial lamps, his spine as straight as the adamantium ram on his ship's prow, which had not been replaced in six thousand years. Bern stood to the side cradling the Holy Hammer, while the holographic projections of Sebastian and Oldenburg were remotely connected from the Griffin IV Anchorage and the flagship of the Third Assault Fleet. Beside the command dais, the Brood Queen's quantum-state translator glowed quietly.

"Admiral of the Imperial Navy Heinrich von Strauheim," Marcus's voice was raspy yet steady, each word spoken with the standard cadence of the Imperial Navy's ceremonial protocol. "In the Battle of Dead Silence-42, you gallantly engaged the enemy at the head of your fleet; in the Battle of the Star of Judgment, you commanded the United Fleet to complete the activation of the containment protocol; in the Lead-Gray Abyss rescue operation, you saved hundreds of thousands of Imperial civilians; and in the extragalactic expedition, you led the fleet to achieve first contact with the Old Ones' colony fleet. In the name of the Emperor and the Coalition War Council, you are hereby awarded the imperial navy highest medal of valor, promoted to Lord High Admiral of the Imperial Navy, and officially appointed as the Permanent Commander-in-Chief of the Coalition's Joint Fleet Command."

Heinrich knelt on one knee, bowing his head to receive the medal. Marcus draped the ribbon around his neck, took a step back, and raised his hand in a military salute. Every Imperial Navy officer on the bridge stood at attention and saluted in unison, as the ship's chaplain began to softly chant the Emperor's prayer.

Right at that moment, the main screen of the Emperors Hammer lit up without warning. It was not an alarm, nor was it a quantum-state communication from the Void Throat, nor an access request from any encrypted Coalition channel. It was a cold green ripple of light descending from above, directly penetrating all Void Shield layers, all firewalls, and all Psychic Talismans of the Emperors Hammer, stabbing into the air directly in front of the command dais like a sword made of light. The ripple of light unfolded in midair, condensing into a line of cold green text. The font was the standard Imperial high gothic, the grammar completely flawless, and the phrasing so formal it could have been written directly into an official communiqué of the Coalition War Council.

"The Overmind of the Zerg Swarm pays its respects to Marcus Aurelian, Chairman of the Coalition War Council. The legacy of the Old Ones has been fully received, and the Coalition has completed all its strategic functions in this current historical phase. I hereby officially declare: all protocols, charters, legal definitions, and dispute arbitration mechanisms under the framework of the Coalition War Council shall cease to be binding upon the Zerg Swarm from this moment forth. The Coalition is not being dissolved; it is being transcended."

A deathly silence fell over the bridge. At the exact same instant, Bern's Psychic Talisman burst with a blinding silver light—not from an attack, but because the talisman was autonomously responding to an overwhelming psychic pressure. The Holy Power runes on the talisman's surface, which had remained perfectly stable throughout the Star of Judgment, the Origin Facility, and the extragalactic expedition, now seemed clenched by an invisible hand. Silver light leaked frantically from the cracks of the runes, and the entire talisman trembled violently in his palm. Bern gripped the Holy Hammer, his knuckles turning white.

Marcus did not look at the talisman, nor the medal, nor anything else. He stared dead ahead at the text still unfolding line by line on the main screen.

"All Imperial Fleet anchorage coordinates, duty rotations, supply chain nodes, Void Shield charging vulnerabilities, and Universal Armor Plate anomalous code backdoors—stretching from the High Lords of Terra to the forward anchorages of the Ultima Segmentum—have been subjected to full-spectrum passive monitoring during the tenure of the War Council observer permissions. All sharing protocols for the Blackstone Defense Line, the Void Throat, and the Psionic Void Network under the Coalition framework are automatically terminated, with all permissions for the aforementioned assets reverting to the first in the activator sequence. The fire-control link of the Coalition's Joint Fleet Command is disconnected immediately. The local-mode firmware of the Coalition's Universal Void Shield Coordinator will automatically roll back to its pre-Star of Judgment campaign version upon the conclusion of this transmission. The Universal Armor Plate anomalous code backdoors are synchronized for activation."

At the Griffin IV Anchorage, Sebastian ripped a sample of the Coalition's Universal Armor Plate from his breastplate. The armor plate's self-diagnostic light was flashing frantically, reporting not a normal cold-green calibration code, but a sequence of Gene-phage sequence initialization decodings that he had never seen before. He roared into the communication channel—all Terminator Assault Platoons equipped with the Universal Armor Plates were to disarm immediately.

Heinrich slowly rose from the floor, the newly bestowed imperial navy highest medal of valor still hanging from his chest. He cast a downward glance at the Coalition emblem crossed with the Emperor's holy icon on the medal, and then issued orders to the bridge in a raspy voice: "All ships, go to battle stations. All Strike Cruisers, switch to independent combat mode. Prioritize Void Shield charging to protect the engine cores. Load armor-piercing shells into the Macro-cannon. Lock Lance Weapon arrays onto all known Swarm identification codes. Prepare to engage the enemy."

His bionic eye turned toward Marcus.

"Chairman. Shall the award ceremony continue?"

Marcus looked at the final line of cold green text on the main screen.

"An additional reminder—The Swarm does not need the Coalition. The Coalition needs the Coalition. But the Coalition you need is one The Swarm no longer requires."

He slowly closed the award certificate in his hands.

"The ceremony continues. Lord High Admiral Heinrich, your first order is—"