174: War begins

The golden miasma in the Broken Spine Sector completely dissipated, the residual sacred spiritual energy was efficiently purified, and the hum of the Reality Anchoring Tower stabilized, signaling a setback for the Emperor's intervention.

However, the Human Federation's engines showed no sign of cooling. The repulsion of the Binding Legion seemed only to clear the final concerns and potential flanking threats for a long-brewing, unprecedented extinction operation.

"Final Reckoning Plan, final simulation complete." The adjudicator's voice echoed in the deepest strategic simulation center of Keystone-1. On the holographic star map, the ghostly green light domains representing Ouroska and the Thanatos Dynasty were covered by countless dark-red attack arrows and markers, precise down to the movement of every known fleet, the defense level of every Tomb World, and the spatio-temporal coordinates of every suspected 'Celestial Orrery' launch node.

"Based on the complete decryption of the Szarekh Dynasty database, the reverse analysis of the residual data from the Celestial Orrery strike, and the newly acquired deep understanding of Necron high-dimensional information warfare resistance, the comprehensive victory probability simulation is: 81.3%."

"Sufficient." Han Zhe's voice was cold as iron.

"Operation codename: scythe of the end. Objective: The physical and informational existence of the Ouroska Dynasty and the Thanatos Dynasty, to be utterly erased."

Operation scythe of the end was an extinction war against two ancient interstellar civilizations, unprecedented in the history of the Human Federation. The force deployed was the entire accumulated essence of the Human Federation to date:

Fleet Core: Fifteen newly constructed Eternal-class Titan ships, three of which were flagships named annihilation (against Ouroska), zeroing (against Thanatos), and keystone (Han Zhe's seat, strategic reserve).

Over eight thousand adjudicator-class battleships, more than three hundred thousand various escort, destroyer, and assault vessels, and two thousand Captor-class heavy platforms.

Technology Core: Fully upgraded orderly firmament mobile expansion modules, capable of advancing with the fleet to establish temporary but powerful reality stabilization zones within enemy territory; Phase Cage and Time Anchor weapon systems targeting Necron phasing and temporal technology; Concept Contamination-Logic Collapse information warfare viruses developed based on STC-Ω analysis and experience fighting the Binding Legion; and, as the final insurance, several Reality Reconstruction Singularity Bombs in a critical state (partially borrowing principles from the Celestial Orrery but with the opposite purpose—designed to completely shatter the spatio-temporal structure of Tomb Worlds, rendering them incapable of rebuilding in any form).

Tactical Core: Lightning strike, synchronized attack, decapitation purge.

Utilizing the adjudicators' immense computational power, a saturation first wave strike was simultaneously launched against all known core targets of both dynasties (the Tomb Worlds housing the Overlords, major energy nodes, fleet assembly points, and suspected Orrery launch sites), striving to paralyze their command and counterattack capabilities before they could activate the Celestial Orrery or complete fleet assembly.

There was no declaration of war, no probing. During a carefully selected window when the galaxy's gravitational background noise was at its peak, the Human Federation's massive, sky-obscuring fleet, like a giant metal wave suddenly leaping from deep space, appeared simultaneously on the peripheries of the Ouroska Dynasty's Endless Corona Sector and the Thanatos Dynasty's Eternal Corridor Sector, moving faster than the Necrons' early warning systems could react!

"Phase Cage, full-spectrum release! Time Anchor, lock down major gravity wells! orderly firmament deploy, suppress Warp disturbances!" Alpha-01 issued the order to engage aboard annihilation.

Invisible force fields spread like a vast net. The Ouroska Dynasty's megastructures, elegantly drawing energy from stars, and the Thanatos Dynasty's precisely operating temporal stabilizers, instantly stuttered and became chaotic. The Necron fleets' phase jumps were severely delayed, even failing. The battlefield was forcibly pinned to the reality plane.

"First wave, fire in unison! Targets: All identified Overlord signal sources, energy cores, and Orrery nodes!"

A torrent of dark-gold destruction, mixed with the purplish-blue cold light of disintegration rays, the warping ripples from time dilation projectors, and logic overload pulses specifically targeting Necron energy circuits, swept over the designated coordinates like a cosmic-scale storm, instantly engulfing them.

The Ouroska Dynasty's proud, art-like stellar manipulation arrays shattered one after another under the concentrated fire of annihilation's main cannon, resembling fragile glassware, triggering chain reactions of runaway stellar energy that turned the surrounding star systems into a sea of hellfire.

The Tomb Worlds of the Thanatos Dynasty, hidden in spatio-temporal folds, were forcibly excavated by the fleet led by zeroing using the brute force of the Reality Reconstruction Cannon, exposing them to fierce firepower. Their exquisite temporal defenses were riddled with flaws due to interference from the Time Anchor weapons.

On the information warfare front, the Logic Collapse virus released by the adjudicators spread like invisible, bone-eating maggots through the Necron communication network. Ancient protocols were twisted, commands were altered, and scenes of Necron units attacking other Necron units even appeared. The command systems of both dynasties were semi-paralyzed at the very start of the battle.

The fighting was intense and brutal, but the progress was almost entirely one-sided. The Human Federation held an absolute advantage in technology, information, and tactics.

Although the Necron Dynasty's resistance was tenacious, and the bombardment from their world engines and the firing of their weapons still inflicted damage on the Human Federation fleet, without command coordination, restricted mobility, and with core nodes being destroyed one after another, this resistance was like that of a trapped beast, gradually broken down, segmented, and annihilated.

The Ouroska Overlord attempted to activate the final self-destruction protocol bound to the stellar core, but before the protocol could complete, its Tomb World was struck simultaneously by three Reality Reconstruction Singularity Bombs.

There was no explosion, only that patch of space resembling crumpled paper, which, along with every existence within it, was completely erased from the spatio-temporal continuum, leaving behind a region of absolute darkness so bizarre that not even light could escape.

The Thanatos Overlord attempted to activate a backup Celestial Orrery node for a dying counterattack, but at the critical moment of activation, its control core was directly hit by a specialized missile launched by zeroing carrying the highest concentration of the Logic Collapse virus. The Orrery node overloaded and self-destructed, instead causing a localized spatio-temporal collapse that swallowed its final fortress along with the Overlord.

Having lost their supreme rulers, the remaining Necron units fell into complete commandless chaos, efficiently swept up and purified by the Human Federation fleet.