99: The Great Tear

In the subsequent raid operations of the iron frontier, targeting the Ash Rift sector, they encountered stubborn resistance from the Imperial Navy's picket fleet. The enemy had clearly learned the lesson of the Wasteland Corridor, adopting more conservative delaying tactics to avoid direct confrontation with titan-class vessels. Instead, they utilized the sector's complex environment to maneuver against our forces while continuously calling for reinforcements. Alpha-01's report carried a hint of solemnity: "Although we successfully established two outposts, we failed to achieve the goal of rapid clearing and complete control of the sector. The operation... has fallen into a stalemate."

"Feedback on the 'dark tide surge' contingency plan..." The Intelligence Director's voice was even lower. "The 'blurred signals' released through multiple clandestine channels failed to elicit any formal or informal response from Imperial officials. Conversely, we intercepted a large number of encrypted communication fragments from the Inquisition, the Officio Assassinorum, and several Astartes Chapters regarding 'new heretic/xenos threat assessment and elevation of purge priority.' The Empire... seems to have characterized us as an 'unknown high-risk target that must be eliminated.' The negotiation route... is completely blocked."

Setbacks on both fronts. Military expansion was mired in a swamp, and political feelers had vanished into the deep sea. This massive war machine of the Empire, despite being bogged down in the bloody battle of the Cadia Gate, still maintained an efficient and cold reaction mechanism toward 'anomalies' within its borders. They might temporarily be unable to divert main forces for a devastating strike, but they were capable of using layers of defense and the highest level of hostility to firmly suppress the expansion momentum of the Human Federation, and had begun mobilizing forces to prepare for a more meticulous and lethal encirclement and suppression campaign.

However, just as the high-level officials of the Human Federation were racked with anxiety over how to break the stalemate and deal with the Empire's impending greater pressure, an unprecedented, heart-wrenching 'pain'—as if coming from the universe itself—swept through the perceptions of all Psykers across the galaxy without warning. It was so intense that even some highly sensitive ordinary people felt a shiver in their souls!

"The 'diting' network is overloaded across all frequency bands! Detected an unmeasurable, large-scale Warp energy eruption! The source... the Cadia Gate system!" The Monitoring Officer's voice was sharp and distorted with extreme fear. "Psyker readings... off the charts! Reality stability readings... plummeting off a cliff! Detected... a system-wide collapse of reality structure and a permanent tearing of Warp rifts!"

"No... impossible..." The Chief Technologist murmured in a lost voice, looking at the star map that had instantly turned into an interlacing of crimson and black, symbolizing the collapse of reality.

But the most direct evidence followed immediately from the 'kindling' project team: "'custodian-alpha'... is reacting violently! Its dark gold light has instantly become blinding, internal information flows are surging frantically, emitting strong conceptual alarms representing 'collapse of order,' 'loss of stability,' and 'ultimate threat'!"

providence's cold voice, at this moment, also rarely carried a hint of nearly 'stagnant' fluctuation:

[Confirmed: The Cadia Gate system, the Empire's most important fortress node, has... fallen.]

[The structure of reality has suffered irreversible damage; the boundary between the material universe and the Warp within the system has been permanently blurred and torn. A permanent rift spanning several light-years, connecting the material universe and the deepest parts of the Warp, is forming. Its scale and stability far exceed any previous records.]

[Inference based on existing models: This rift (provisionally called the 'Cadian Scar') will become the primary channel for Warp energy and entities to pour into the material universe. Chaos forces will gain an unprecedented, stable foothold in reality. Warp navigation across large areas of the Milky Way will become extremely dangerous or even impossible, and reality stability will continue to decline. This event marks the entry of the Milky Way's existing order and physical laws into a new, darker, and more chaotic era.]

Cadia has fallen! The Great Rift of the Galaxy!

Despite having anticipated the worst, when this ultimate bad news arrived in such a direct and tragic manner, the command center still fell into a dead silence of despair. The Empire's strongest shield was shattered, and the torrent of Chaos would no longer face any obstacles! The entire galaxy would face an unprecedented dark age!

"Imperial Fleet signals in the 'Ice Thorn Fortress' direction... massive chaos and retreat! Detected a large number of ships making uncoordinated Warp jumps, direction... scattering in all directions!" The voice of a reconnaissance unit broke the silence.

"The Imperial 'picket' fleet stalemated with us in the 'Ash Rift'... is disengaging and retreating in panic! They seem to have received emergency retreat orders!"

"Pioneer fleet reports: All Imperial monitoring outpost signals around the resource zones... are rapidly decaying or disappearing!"

The Empire, this massive giant, was falling into unprecedented chaos and contraction after a fatal blow to its heart. Its border defense systems, patrol forces, and even parts of its main fleets were shaken and collapsing due to this sudden, catastrophic failure!

Fear, like a cold tide, instantly submerged everyone. But in this tide of despair, a light that was nearly insane and sharp to the extreme suddenly erupted in Han Zhe's eyes!

"Chaos! An unprecedented grand chaos!" His voice was hoarse, yet it carried a decisiveness that cut through the mist. "The Empire's collapse is imminent, Chaos is about to sweep through, and the order of the galaxy is gone! This is our... last and greatest opportunity!"

"Chairman?!" Everyone looked at him in shock.

"The Empire has no leisure to look elsewhere, and the main forces of Chaos have not yet fully integrated and spread! Old boundaries, rules, and spheres of influence... are all null and void!" Han Zhe stood up abruptly, his finger tapping heavily on the star map, sweeping across the Empire's vast but now inevitably chaotic border sectors, crossing those Forge Worlds, Agri-Worlds, and resource systems that had lost their protection due to the fall of Cadia! "Now is the moment when strength and speed determine everything! Whoever has the harder fist and the faster movement will be able to seize the most survival capital on these ruins!"

"The 'iron frontier' plan is immediately upgraded to—'Total Assault'!" Han Zhe's voice was like a drawn saber, cold and glinting. "Targets: All high-value targets previously untouchable due to Imperial defenses! All power vacuum zones left after the Empire's collapse! Rules of engagement: Regardless of the cost, regardless of exposure, occupy, control, and digest at the fastest speed!"

"order: The main force of the 'Blade' fleet is to abandon 'Ash Rift' and immediately turn to raid the Imperial border 'Hermes' Forge World cluster! Seize its industrial facilities and technical databases!"

"order: The 'Pioneer' fleet and all engineering forces are to strike with full force, occupying all resource-rich systems along the way and establishing a rapid mining and supply network!"

"order: The 'Ghost' fleet is to comprehensively infiltrate the communication and transportation nodes of the Empire's collapsed regions, create greater chaos, mislead remaining Imperial forces, and provide cover for our operations!"

"order: The 'Ark World' is to enter the highest state of combat readiness production. All shipyards are to be fully operational, producing ships, equipment, and defense platforms with all our might! We need more power to swallow this suddenly appearing 'feast'!"

"order: Attempt limited information interaction with 'custodian-alpha' to obtain its assessment of the current 'reality stability collapse' and see if it can provide assistance in stabilizing the 'reality structure' of the newly occupied areas!"

A series of orders, like a gale and rainstorm, instantly pushed the war machine of the Human Federation into an unprecedented state of overload operation! Fear was transformed into desperate greed, and despair was ignited into an all-consuming ambition!

"But... Chaos..." someone reminded him in a trembling voice.

"Chaos will come, and it will come quickly," Han Zhe said coldly. "So we must move even faster! Before the main forces of Chaos have fully digested the victory at Cadia and before they extend their feelers to these peripheral regions, we must seize as much territory and resources as possible! Then... relying on these newly occupied areas, establish a defense in depth and prepare to meet the tide of Chaos!"

"This is a race against time, a gamble against destruction! If we win, we will have the foundation and strength to stand in the new era of Chaos; if we lose... it will merely be falling into the darkness one step sooner."

There was no way back. The route of negotiation with the Empire was dead, and living ignobly was impossible. One could only strike out with all their might in this moment of collapsing galactic order to carve out a path of survival!

"Total Assault! For the survival and future of the Human Federation!" Han Zhe's roar echoed in the channel.

"For survival!" The responses from Alpha-01 and the others carried the tragic solemnity and decisiveness of burning their bridges.

orders turned into a frantic tide. The fleets of the Human Federation, like beasts that had broken all shackles, swarmed out from the Forgotten Frontier and the scattered outposts they had just occupied, pouncing toward the vast sectors exposed by the Empire's collapse, filled with wealth and danger! War was ignited in even more places, but this time, it was no longer stealthy infiltration or small-scale skirmishes, but blatant conquest and plunder!

However, amidst the surging momentum of this Total Assault, a faint signal from the deep space of an Extragalactic galaxy, which had been almost forgotten, crossed the Warp background noise that had become even more violent and chaotic due to the fall of Cadia, stubbornly arriving at the Ark World.

It was the 'Homeward Journey' fleet! Captain Li Mu's voice was extremely weak but carried an unspeakable shock:

"far gaze... has been found! No, it should be said... it found us!"

"It didn't crash in the depths of the 'reality weak point'... it was... 'captured' and 'protected' by something! That thing... is part of the 'The Watchers Library' ruins, an automated defense/sanctuary unit hidden deep within the core of the 'weak point' that we hadn't detected before!"

"Most of the far gaze's hull is intact, and the crew... most have survived! But they are in a state of deep hibernation, with weak vital signs. The sanctuary unit seems to have provided minimum life support and used its powerful 'reality stabilization' field to resist external Chaos erosion and spatial distortions!"

"We are trying to establish contact with the sanctuary unit and are preparing to rescue the far gaze crew... but..."

Li Mu's voice became extremely eerie and confused:

"The sanctuary unit... is transmitting information to us. Not language, not data streams, but... direct conceptual mapping. It seems to be 'inquiring'... no, 'confirming'..."

"...It 'confirmed' the existence and nature of 'custodian-alpha'. And... it transmitted a coordinate, a coordinate of another 'active signal source' located in another spiral arm of the Milky Way, sharing the same technical style as the 'Library' ruins!"

"That signal source... according to the blurred information transmitted by the sanctuary unit... also seems to be... resisting Chaos? Moreover, its signal characteristics are mixed with... extremely faint underlying code residues similar to the Human Federation's early cloning technology and certain STC variant technologies?!"

What?!

The ancient ruins of an Extragalactic galaxy had not only sheltered the far gaze but also 'confirmed' the 'conceptual entity' they had catalyzed at home?

And it pointed toward another Homogeneous (same-source) unknown civilization or ruin within the Milky Way that was also resisting Chaos and might even have origins linked to their technology?!