85: Chapter 85 The First Test from the Ancient Sage

The massive hull of the Origin Facility slowly filled the entire view of the viewport in front of the Expeditionary Fleet. It was an artificial celestial body older than the Star of Judgment, its surface covered with hexagonal psionic resonance chamber arrays forged during the height of the Old Ones' power, with a diameter close to that of a small moon. The facility's energy core was still operational, and cold green psionic pulses lit up layer by layer along the edges of the resonance chambers. Each pulse caused a faint layer of green patterns to ripple across the Void Shields of all the coalition ships simultaneously.

Heinrich von Strauheim stood on the bridge of the Shield of the Emperor, aligning his newly replaced coalition badge with this silent legacy of the Old Ones, and pressed the fleet channel: "All Expeditionary Fleet units, deploy into landing formation. The Third Assault Fleet will handle orbital cover, the Leviathan Battle Group will establish fire support anchorages at the facility's periphery, and the wraith cruisers will maintain their ghost coating for concealment. base ship—send the Assault Teams down."

Sebastian's Terminator Assault Platoon and Bern's Grey Knight Squad ejected from the base ship's hangar aboard Thunderhawk Gunships, while Iyanden's Aeldari Ghost Strike Squad cut in from the flank on wraith transports. The Brood Queen, accompanied by two Blackstone Cerebrates and a group of Drones, descended directly onto the facility's surface from the base ship's creep platform. The Blackstone Resonance Chambers on her adamantium-chitin carapace lit up the moment they touched the Old Ones' surface. She looked up, her Photonic Crown flashing rapidly along the ridges of her carapace—the Old Ones' defense array preheating was complete, and the decryption window had officially opened.

As soon as the Brood Queen finished speaking, the hexagonal resonance chambers across the entire surface of the Origin Facility simultaneously fired three beams of light. The three cold green beams split in mid-air into a triple-layered overlapping test matrix, with each layer corresponding to one of the three tests specified in the Old Ones Evaluation Protocol. The self-destruct countdown for the Void Throat began ticking on all tactical interfaces of the coalition at once.

The first matrix layer exploded directly in front of the coalition's landing zone, and dozens of Old Ones Automata swarmed out from the resonance chambers. These automata were not quantum-state mechanical bodies made of Blackstone like those of the Necron Dynasty, but Mimic Warriors woven from pure living psionics—each capable of copying their opponent's tactical patterns the moment they came into contact with coalition fire. The second matrix layer shot out dense chains of quantum-state encrypted runes from deep within the facility, directly entangling the living neural network of the Psionic Void Network and beginning a layer-by-layer reverse decryption of the coalition's shared database. The third matrix layer was a group of Living Psionic Network prototype fragments released from ancient seals, containing the last unfinished engineering code of the Old Ones from the end of the War in Heaven. It was self-reconstructing at an extremely rapid pace; any error in the direction of reconstruction would trigger the self-destruct protocol prematurely.

Sebastian's Power Sword cleaved through the first mimic warrior, the blade's disruption field clashing with the Old Ones' psionics to produce blinding blue-green sparks. After being shattered, the mimic warrior reaggregated in mid-air, its form switching directly from an Old Ones Automaton to the silhouette of Sebastian's Power Armor. Sebastian cursed, and Bern's Holy Hammer smashed in from the side, crushing the mimic Sebastian's chest plate. The shattered psionic fragments were purified into harmless points of light within the glow of Holy Power. Panting heavily, he said the Mimic Warriors were learning the coalition's tactics, and the Brood Queen had to crack the defense array's protocols as quickly as possible, or these Mimic Warriors would eventually learn the Grey Knights' Holy Hammer Prayers.

"Decryption has begun," the Brood Queen announced briefly over the coalition's wide-frequency channel, while simultaneously directing the two Blackstone Cerebrates to interface with the second and third matrices respectively. "The second matrix is attacking the encryption protocol layer of the Psionic Void Network; decryption will take time. The living network fragments of the third matrix are self-reconstructing. Decryption clues are hidden within the Old Ones' blueprints and are being analyzed layer by layer. As a side note—there is an unfinished genetic code within the Old Ones' Living Psionic Network fragments that has extremely high homology with the Zerg Hive Mind. Titan-Eater on standby."

Marcus Aurelian stared at the tactical projections of the three matrices progressing simultaneously on the bridge of the Wrath of the Emperor and pressed the War Council's wide-frequency channel: "Heinrich, have the Orbital Fleet maintain fire support anchorages. Once the third matrix successfully reconstructs, it may require a deep energy injection into the facility. Bern, have your Grey Knights hold the decryption site. Sebastian and the Aeldari Ghost Strike Squad, continue to tie down the Mimic Warriors. Brood Queen, share the decryption progress with the War Council." He paused. "Once the defense array is cracked, the coalition will proceed directly to the final engineering interface of the Living Psionic Network. This test by the Old Ones—the coalition will pass it in one go."