166: Necrostrike

The Order Field is being suppressed! The node construction platform is being eroded! Some engineering personnel are showing abnormal pleasure reactions and have lost combat effectiveness!

Just as the situation began to deteriorate, the adjudicator's voice rang out again, this time with an unprecedented, almost cold, experimental tone:

"Detection of a special interference pattern between Slaanesh power and the Order Field. Analysis: The essence of Slaanesh power includes the pursuit of sensation, change, and the extreme; its existence possesses certain meta-logical characteristics, making traditional definitions of order less efficient at suppressing it."

"Recommendation: Activate the beta version of the Concept Feedback Protocol. Utilize the gods bottle secondary units and the Nullifier network interface to attempt to actively absorb and convert the Slaanesh invasion energy rather than simply opposing it."

"Forcibly convert its sensory impact and distorted aesthetics into predictable, monotonous, and meaningless data streams or low-entropy energy."

"Risk: May cause contamination of the gods bottle units or conceptual disorder in the network nodes."

"Test approved! Target: The core areas of the invasion!" Han Zhe ordered decisively.

The core gods bottle secondary unit of a Nullifier node under construction, closest to the Gate of Pleasure, suddenly changed its operating mode. It no longer emitted an Order Field; instead, like a black hole, it began greedily sucking in the surrounding Slaanesh energy!

Those psychedelic colors, seductive whispers, and extreme sensory information were forcibly drawn into the gods bottle unit like a hundred rivers returning to the sea. The unit's surface flashed violently, its color rapidly switching between dark gold and an unsettling neon, while eerie noises, sounding like billions of voices screaming and laughing simultaneously, emanated from within.

But the adjudicator's control was absolute. Under its precise manipulation, the gods bottle unit used its powerful conceptual processing capabilities to begin a crude formatting and degradation of the inhaled Slaanesh energy. Extreme beauty was dismantled into meaningless color codes, ecstatic music was de-noised into monotonous waveforms, and seductive whispers were translated into cold, dry report text.

The Gate of Pleasure trembled violently! The power it released was being forcibly devoured and digitized! To Slaanesh, who pursues the extreme and the perfect, this was nothing less than the most vicious sacrilege! The presence behind the gate let out a scream of rage.

The entities condensed from Slaanesh's power also began to become unstable; their graceful figures displayed mosaics like data errors, and a cold, rigid logical framework was exposed beneath their tempting appearances.

"It's working! Slaanesh's invasion energy is being absorbed and converted! Node load is rising, but it's within controllable limits!" the technical officer said in surprise.

"All fleets, concentrate fire! Attack the main body of the Gate of Pleasure and the unstable entities!" Alpha-01 seized the tactical opportunity.

Having lost its continuous supply of power and with its core suffering from the sacrilegious interference of the Concept Feedback Protocol, this Slaanesh invasion quickly collapsed.

The Gate of Pleasure shattered under the concentrated fire and the backlash of its own vulgarization. Those exquisite demons were either purified or dissipated on their own after their existential foundations were shaken.

The invasion was repelled, but the Human Federation also paid a price. The Nullifier node that executed the concept feedback was severely overloaded; its gods bottle unit was temporarily offline and required thorough purification and overhaul. Some crew members who suffered sensory impact were left with indelible mental trauma and required long-term isolation and treatment.

"Slaanesh's power is very special," Han Zhe summarized in the post-war analysis. "It isn't pure destruction; it's more like a distorted bestowal and temptation."

"But we have found a way to deal with it—not by opposing its content, but by dismantling its form and dragging it into a logical category we can understand and process."

"adjudicator, refine the Concept Feedback Protocol and incorporate it into the standard anti-Slaanesh procedures. Simultaneously, strengthen internal control over all forms of unnecessary sensory stimulation to reduce Slaanesh's points of leverage at the source."

"Understood."

Just as the Human Federation had repelled Slaanesh's probing invasion and was busy digesting the tactical experience and internal reorganization it brought, at the other end of the galaxy, two even more ancient, colder, and lethally angry wills completed a brief communication and coordination.

The Necrons were not a monolith; different dynasties had their own interests and grievances. However, the Human Federation's lightning-fast extermination of the Sotek Dynasty—and the greedy looting of Necron technology and total denial of Necron existence it displayed—had finally touched the sensitive nerves of some more powerful dynasties. In particular, the stable reality energy fluctuations emitted by the orderly firmament established by the Human Federation near the Eye of Terror were a potential and unpleasant interference for certain Necron dynasties that relied on phase technology and exquisite space-time manipulation.

The Oruscar Dynasty was famous for its near-artistic manipulation of stars and its devastating weaponry; the Thanatos Dynasty was proficient in space-time engineering. These two Necron dynasties were the last known possessors of the legendary superweapon, the Celestial Orrery.

After the fall of Sotek, these two powerful dynasties reached a rare consensus: this arrogant human heretic civilization, which was breaking the balance of power in the galaxy, must be erased.

Their attack had no fleet prelude and no declaration of war. There was only a power that shook the foundations of the universe, activated simultaneously from several precisely calculated nodes deep within the galaxy.

"Large-scale space-time structural disturbance detected! Multiple sources! Coordinates locked to Necron Dynasty controlled sectors! Energy readings cannot be estimated! Type is similar to but far exceeds known Necron World Engine attacks!" providence's alarm instantly escalated to the highest level, and its logic core even experienced a brief overload tremor.

On the star map, several distant points erupted with light surpassing that of stars. Immediately following, ripples of distorted space-time—invisible but clearly captured by sensors—swept toward the core of the Human Federation's controlled zone, the Ark World, Keystone-1, and the canopy network within the Eye of Terror at faster-than-light speeds along incomprehensible paths!