Chapter 45: Arrival at the Battlefield, Leviathan Tentacles, Massive Fleet

To avoid navigating the perilous Warp, the Emperor made countless efforts, creating the Navigators' families during the Great Crusade.

In truth, the fate of the Navigator families should have mirrored that of the Thunder Warriors. Had the Emperor's Webway project reached completion, they would have been disposed of in the exact same manner.

Throughout the entire Warhammer universe, the only entities capable of faster-than-light travel within realspace are the vessels of the Necrons and the Tyranids.

The Necrons are able to achieve faster-than-light travel not only because of their race's hyper-advanced technology, but also for another crucial reason: they possess Shards of the C'tan, which supply immense energy to their starships.

As for the Tyranids, they achieve faster-than-light travel across the cosmos through their bio-capital ships known as Narvuls.

The most plausible explanation is that these Tyranids once encountered life forms capable of faster-than-light interstellar travel in galaxies beyond our own Milky Way, captured them, and assimilated their genetic sequences.

Now, Rhode could be said to possess two such anomalies: Bemular is a cosmic life form, and Bbird is also capable of faster-than-light flight.

Furthermore, the Pedan spaceship's faster-than-light engine that he controlled was the very thing the Emperor had dreamed of acquiring.

"By the Emperor, Lord Rhode, do you mean to say that this starship is not equipped with a Warp engine, but rather a faster-than-light engine? We can actually travel faster than light within the material universe?" The young Sister of Battle widened her eyes, her body trembling slightly as she looked at Rhode.

Even as a lowly Hospitaller, she understood the immense value of a faster-than-light engine.

"Indeed!" Rhode nodded slightly.

"Lord Rhode! May the God-Emperor be praised! This technology is of paramount importance to humanity and the Imperium." Excitement flushed the young nun's face.

Yet Rhode's words poured a bucket of cold water over her enthusiasm.

"I know, but the time is not right. Too many complications are tied up in this! The true value of this starship is not meant to be revealed just yet; I am awaiting a monumental event in the cosmos—the resurrection of a Son of God," Rhode declared.

Since the Emperor had bestowed benefits upon him, Rhode would not take them for free. The faster-than-light engine could be handed over, but the timing was not yet right.

"I understand. This must be, this must surely be the will of the great God-Emperor!" Elena nodded and said.

She knew that many grand events were intertwined with this, and the less she knew, the better. As a loyal citizen of the Imperium, she deeply understood the importance of operational security.

Her sole task was to remain by Lord Rhode's side. Anything else was none of her concern, nor should she pry into it.

"So go ahead and take off this gear! Change into something more comfortable; there's no need to be so restrained," Rhode instructed.

The young nun nodded and retreated to her room, shedding her battle armor in favor of her white robes.

Over the next few days, Rhode familiarized the young nun thoroughly with the Pedan ship, as she would be living aboard this vessel for a long time to come.

To be honest, having the young nun's company was quite pleasant; journeying alone through the cosmos would indeed have been terribly lonely!

Three days later, Rhode piloted the ship at faster-than-light speed, arriving in the outer space of the planet where the Deathwatch forces were stationed.

During the past few days, whenever Rhode had a spare moment, his consciousness would enter the Astronomican, where he discovered a terrifying phenomenon.

For reasons unknown, the psychic signal of the Deathwatch Chaplain on that planet had been blocked.

Rhode could no longer send any messages to him, and the Chaplain's transmissions were entirely cut off as well.

Now, having arrived above this planet, Rhode finally understood why.

A cold sweat beaded on Rhode's forehead.

Densely packed hive ships filled his vision. On just one side of the planet, the number of hive ships exceeded a hundred.

Scans from the Pedan ship's radar revealed that countless more hive ships were still converging on the planet's dark side and other regions.

Rhode was left somewhat speechless. These were not fifty ships! These were hundreds of them! And the number seemed to be rising sharply!

Countless hive fleets were still rushing toward this sector through interstellar space.

This planet was massive, considerably larger than the agri-world Rhode had visited previously, and its dense hive cities likely housed a population of twenty to thirty billion.

Over half of the planet's surface had already fallen, and numerous tendrils from hive ships were actively extracting biomass from the globe.

Clearly, this was not the scattered, small-scale hive fleet he had encountered earlier; this was a true tendril of Hive Fleet Leviathan—a genuine hive fleet invasion.

The Shadow in the Warp generated by hundreds of Tyranid hive ships was so intense that even Rhode could hear the shrieking.

Piercing, terrifying screams echoed in Rhode's ears. Rhode immediately activated his golden shine mode, and once protected by the Emperor's psychic barrier, the howling of the Warp shadow vanished entirely.

Strike first to gain the advantage, strike late and suffer disaster; since he was already here, he might as well strike a blow first.

Without a moment's hesitation, Rhode immediately deployed the four components of King Joe.

Then, coordinating with the ship's main cannons—a total of five Pedanium main cannons—he targeted the nearest hive ship and launched a surprise attack.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

With a cataclysmic explosion, the hive ship before them was blasted to smithereens. The psychic barrier shields of the Tyranid hive ship offered zero defense against the Pedanium main cannons.

Immediately afterward, the four parts of King Joe assembled in mid-air, and the giant Pedanium main cannon mounted on its chest locked onto yet another hive ship and fired.

Following a few seconds of energy charge-up, an unimaginably terrifying blue beam instantly pierced clean through the opposing hive ship.

In less than a minute, Rhode had consecutively destroyed two hive ships.

Having suffered the loss of two vessels to Rhode, at least a dozen Tyranid hive ships shifted their attention toward him.

All of these dozen hive ships pivoted, unleashing long-range firepower bombardment upon Rhode.

However, the Pedan ship possessed exceptional maneuverability in space, and Rhode's profile was extremely small. The Tyranid barrage failed to strike him—sometimes, a small size was truly a blessing.

Having just launched a surprise attack to destroy two hive ships, he knew that if he charged forward to continue the assault now that the enemy had formed a battle line, he would likely end up destroyed along with his ship.

Although both the King Joe robot and the Pedan ship possessed layers of energy shields, Rhode dared not test them head-on against the main cannons of the hive ships.