51: Chapter 51 The Combined Operation of the Empire and the Zerg: The First Thing to Be Crushed Was the Tyrannosaurus Command System.

The moment the Titan-Eater broke through its shell, the entire cultivation pool eight hundred meters beneath the Metallis Forge Temple was blown apart from within by a cold green shockwave. The adamantium-chitin nutrient solution vaporized into a thick dark purple mist in the high temperature. Before the mist could dissipate, the silhouette of a giant beast had already risen from within. Its limbs ended in four extremely long adamantium piercing bone blades, each embedded with a set of independent blackstone quantum resonance chambers, their surfaces densely engraved with the quantum resonance runes of the Necron Dynasty. Seven sets of void-class blackstone resonance chambers arranged longitudinally along its chest and abdomen were activated simultaneously upon hatching, cold green light patterns spreading along the ridges of its carapace all the way to the complete void-class blackstone core in its head. The runes on the core's surface were fully inscribed, each one pulsing with resonance synchronized with the Talasta Void Gate. Intracranial interface testing and limb micro-movement calibration were completed as a self-check in a very short time after hatching; all tactical indicators were normal.

The Overmind received full activation confirmation of the Titan-Eater within the Hive Mind. He issued the briefest sortie command for The Swarm in the Warhammer universe to date. The Titan-Eater exerted force with all four legs, its adamantium piercing bone blades gouging through the crustal rock layers of the Forge Temple as it broke through the surface of Metallis. The Hive Lord's cold green light pillar indicated the target's bearing from low orbit. All engines of the Blackstone Defense Line were fully preheated, and the leviathan mothership's Living Railgun arrays reported charging completion signals one by one within the Hive Mind.

The Vanguard Tendrils of the Tyranid Hive Fleet had already lost nearly half of their Drop Pods in the concentrated kill zone of the Spore Minefields outside the Blackstone Defense Line, but the Hive Mind continued to push more spore clouds forward from the direction of the main fleet. Marcus Aurelian stared at the still-dense dark purple silhouettes in the holographic projection on the bridge of the Wrath of the Emperor, the bone fracture in his right arm throbbing with a persistent dull pain. He knew these Drop Pods were merely expendable assets used by the Tyranids to test the resonance frequency of the defense line. Every destroyed spore pod transmitted neural signals back before death; the Hive Mind was using this death data to reverse-engineer the working wavelengths of the blackstone engines layer by layer. It was only a matter of time before the defense line's weaknesses were locked.

The Brood Queen swiped the quantum state translator on the holographic terminal in the briefing room, projecting the Overmind's latest combat status in front of Marcus. There was only one line of text, but every word stabbed into the most sensitive nerves of the Imperial command like a precise knife—"Titan-Eater has hatched. All nodes, concentrate fire on the Tyranid command neural layer. Marcus, your fleet takes the left wing, my Leviathans take the right. Leave the center to me." Marcus stared at the line for a few seconds, then pressed the fleet channel with his uninjured left hand.

The Imperial Fleet began to change formation in the void, the Lance Weapon arrays shifting from the coordinates of the concentrated kill zone to re-lock onto a group of Shell Pod formations on the left wing of the Tyranid Vanguard Tendrils that had just been swept off course by blackstone resonance. Acting Captain Oldenburg commanded the Third Assault Fleet to launch urgently from the orbit of Griffin IV, cutting into the outer edge of the left wing in a wedge formation. The Lance Weapons exploded into a wall of continuously scattering high-energy photons between the tendrils and the Imperial defense line. Simultaneously, twelve leviathan motherships broke from Metallis low orbit, their prow Living Railguns concentrating fire on the densest spore pod supply nodes on the Tyranid right wing under the cover of Brood Lord formations.

The Titan-Eater ascended into orbit through the gaps in the intersecting fire from both sides. It did not use main guns for long-range bombardment like the leviathan motherships; instead, it charged directly through the remaining Tyranid Shell Pod obstruction layer in low orbit, its four adamantium piercing bone blades carving four cold green arcs in the void. The first Tyranid Behemoth that tried to bite its hind leg from the side was completely impaled by the bone blades from its mouthparts to its abdominal cavity, the cut surface as smooth as a mirror—the cutting force of the adamantium monomolecular blades didn't even allow the beast's neural reflexes to send a painful spasm before death. The Titan-Eater shook off the corpse and headed straight for the Tyranid main fleet anchor marked by Canoptek-7—the point deep behind the Vanguard Tendrils where gravitational fluctuations were most abnormal.

Nephilak's voice rang out simultaneously on The Swarm and Imperial channels via the quantum state link. He told Marcus that the Tyranid main fleet's command neural layer was inside the third inner chamber of the Anchor Ship, where at least seven Hive Tyrants were coordinating the assault of all Drop Pods. Judging by the Titan-Eater's current strike precision, a single hit would paralyze the entire Vanguard Tendril's command chain; however, he also reminded Marcus that the Imperial Fleet's left wing must withstand the recoil from the flank—if the command layer was destroyed but residual Drop Pods continued to spread on the flank, the Blackstone Defense Line would be exposed to an extremely narrow window of vulnerability.

Marcus opened the fleet channel fully and ordered the entire fleet: "Cover the Titan-Eater. Lance Weapon arrays lock onto the left wing. All Strike Cruisers disperse into anti-air formations and stand outside the defense line buffer zone. The Third Assault Fleet maintain Void Shield barriers and be ready to engage the enemy at any time." At the same time, the Brood Queen adjusted the resonance frequency of the Blackstone Defense Line, switching some of the resonance chambers from anti-air mode to fire-control guidance mode, providing real-time targeting synchronized with the blackstone engines for all Lance Weapons of the orbital fleet.

The Titan-Eater bored into the outer wall of the Tyranid Vanguard Tendril's Anchor Ship. The massive shell of the Shell Pod ship was woven from several layers of biological carapace and symbiote tissue, which were punctured one by one like fermented dough before the adamantium piercing bone blades. It used its bone blades to tear open a gap large enough for its head and chest to squeeze in, and the seven sets of void-class resonance chambers focused simultaneously. A cold green light pillar shot directly from the center of its chest, penetrating three layers of symbiote chambers inside the Anchor Ship and accurately striking the main node of the command neural layer woven by the seven Hive Tyrants. The blackstone resonance exploded into dense quantum pulses the moment it contacted the Hive Mind aggregate, shredding all neural signals in that entire command layer. Bern whispered behind Marcus, "The Hive Tyrants' neural signals have all gone dark. The Vanguard Tendril's spore pods are starting to collide—they've lost coordination."

Marcus turned the fleet channel volume to maximum, and all Lance Weapons focused fire on the out-of-control Shell Pod formations. The leviathan motherships pressed in from the right wing, devouring the Tyranid supply nodes layer by layer in a cloud of purple-green vapor. After tearing open the Anchor Ship, the Titan-Eater leaped out from the damaged outer wall, using the momentum to kick off the fragmenting Shell Pod remains and lunging straight toward a new layer of tendrils reorganizing deeper in. The remaining Tyranid bio-weapons, having lost coordination, lunged haphazardly into the densest spore mine distribution area of the Blackstone Defense Line, being detonated one after another into silent dark purple fireballs.

Sebastian's Thunderhawk Gunship completed another high-speed turn in orbit. He watched the massive figure of the Titan-Eater tearing into the Tyranid Anchor Ship in the void and said a sentence to the communication channel that represented the entire bridge—"The Emperor above. That bug just shredded the Tyranid main force." Marcus stood on the bridge, his left hand still tightly gripping the communicator. On the day after the enlarged meeting of the War Council ended, The Swarm and the Imperial Fleet had joined forces to crush the Tyranid main fleet's command neural layer. The roar of the joint operation's naval guns still echoed in the void, but he knew this was only the tip of the iceberg of The Swarm War. He lowered the strap supporting his fractured right arm and spoke slowly into the fleet channel: "Mop up the remaining enemies. Maintain patrols on the perimeter of the Blackstone Defense Line, observe the movements of the next Tyranid main force, await further intelligence from The Swarm, and maintain first-level combat readiness. The Leviathan hasn't arrived yet—this is only the first morning of our alliance."