Chapter 1195: Saturn Lost
"Magnus, you actually..." A trace of shock flashed in Fulgrim's eyes, and he immediately understood the plan of the fallen primarch.
This was not a simple retreat, but a carefully designed trap. The Chaos Thousand Sons had already buried a Warp beacon inside Saturn.
As if in response to his thoughts, the entire ice field suddenly bulged.
Tens of thousands of blue flames gushed out from the cracks, and in each flame emerged the hideous face of a Tzeentch demon.
The earth shattered like a fragile eggshell, revealing a blasphemous matrix constructed of psionic energy underneath - a warp portal with a diameter of hundreds of kilometers.
"Master Primarch!" Lucius' voice came from the communicator, with deafening explosions in the background. "A large number of demons and heretic Astartes appeared on the east side!"
Fulgrim did not respond immediately. His eyes were fixed on Magnus, who was being dragged away by the Rubric Warriors.
There was a morbid satisfaction flickering in the Fallen Primarch's single eye, and a sneer of success hung on the corner of his mouth.
A dozen Rubric Warriors formed a human wall, their crystal armor refracting distorted light, building the last line of defense for Magnus.
"Next time..." Fulgrim whispered to himself. He suddenly turned the Pride of the Phoenix in his hand and chopped the pink horror that rushed out from the ground. "There won't be a next time."
The entire battlefield has fallen into complete chaos.
The Emperor's Children's retreating fleet encountered a Chaos warship that suddenly appeared in orbit, while the ground forces were divided and surrounded by a continuous stream of Daemons.
The most elite Third Company formed a purple phalanx and used power swords and bolters to fight their way through the demon tide.
Fulgrim stood in the center of the collapsing ice sheet, his cloak fluttering in the psychic storm.
The Primarch took a deep breath and raised the Pride of the Phoenix above his head.
The spiritual purple flame on the sword suddenly surged, forming the shadow of a phoenix spreading its wings as if ready to fly.
"Emperor's Children!" his voice cut through the din of the battlefield. "Break out to Assembly Point Seven!"
Following this order, the purple warriors began to retreat in an orderly manner.
Each team maintained perfect tactical formation, taking turns to cover each other as they moved towards the landing craft.
Fulgrim stayed behind, and each of his swords accurately killed the demons that tried to pursue him, buying precious time for his subordinates to evacuate.
When the last Thunderhawk gunship took off, the surface of Saturn was completely changed.
The entire Arctic region collapsed into a huge vortex, and countless demons poured out from the center of the vortex like locusts.
Fulgrim stood in front of the hatch of the landing craft, looking at this dying world, with a complex emotion flashing in his eyes.
"Issue the extermination order." He whispered to the technical sergeant beside him, "Let this planet become Magnus's tombstone."
"Launch sequence confirmed, vortex torpedoes ready."
The voice of the Mechanic Priest echoed across the weapons deck of the Vengeful Spirit, and metal fingers danced over the rune-covered control panels.
The air inside the bridge became sticky due to the accumulation of energy, and static electricity caused the officers' neatly combed hair to stand up.
Fulgrim stood before the tactical hologram, his icy blue eyes reflecting the crumbling surface of Saturn.
"Authorized to fire." Fulgrim's voice was like ice.
Deep on the weapons deck, three vortex torpedoes awakened from their slumber.
These huge weapons are hundreds of meters in size, and their streamlined black shells are engraved with sealing runes.
As the mechanical locks were released, the runes on the torpedo's surface began to turn from dark red to bright white, as if some ancient giant beast had opened its eyes.
"Power core active, subspace rift stabilizers operating normally."
The Tech-Priest's mechanical tentacles plugged into the control interface, and binary prayers poured out of the speaker.
The thrusters at the tail of the vortex torpedo spewed out strange blue-purple flames.
"Launch countdown: 10, 9, 8..."
The lighting in the bridge switched to a dim red, and the alarm sounded like the wail of a dying giant.
The pressure in the launch tube reached the critical point, and the explosion-proof doors were locked layer by layer. On the last gate made of black stone, the skull symbol representing extreme danger was flashing wildly.
“…3, 2, 1, fire.”
Three vortex torpedoes broke away from the magnetic guides at the same time.
The moment they left the warship, their thruster power suddenly increased a hundredfold, leaving three enchanting purple-red trails in the air.
These trails are not straight lines, but twisted and entangled like living things, leaving irreparable scars in the real universe.
Saturn's atmosphere was torn like thin paper in front of the torpedo.
When the first torpedo hit the North Pole, the entire surface of the planet came to an eerie standstill.
The methane ocean stopped boiling, the erupting psychic volcano solidified in mid-air, and even the light became distorted and slow.
Then, hell came.
The torpedo hull burst like rotten fruit, revealing the spinning warp singularity inside.
This microscopic black hole expanded at an incredible rate, shattering the fabric of reality like fragile glass wherever it passed.
Saturn's north pole region collapsed first, and the ice layer several kilometers thick was compressed to the atomic level in one ten-thousandth of a second.
The second torpedo exploded just above the equator. This time it was not gravity that exploded, but a warp-space rift that cut across the planet.
Countless translucent blue arms stretched out from the cracks, frantically tearing at Saturn's atmosphere.
The methane clouds were dyed a sickly purple-red, and then turned into a burning acid rain that poured down.
The last torpedo drilled straight into the core of the planet. When it exploded, the entire planet shook like a crystal ball struck by a giant hammer.
The psychic beacon in the planet's core was violently torn apart, and the energy released caused waves on the earth's crust to be thousands of kilometers high.
This huge wave of rock can be clearly seen from space, like Saturn's final death spasm.
"Shield at full power! Emergency evasion!"
The captain roared his orders. Even though they were tens of thousands of kilometers away, the shock wave from the explosion still rocked the battleship like a boat in a storm.
The starry sky outside the observation window was distorted, and the vortex formed by the Warp storm raged in the orbit of Saturn, tearing dozens of Chaos warships into pieces that had no time to retreat.
Saturn's final moments have arrived.
The surface of the planet is covered with spider-web-like cracks, and the psychic light leaking from the core dyes these cracks into a gorgeous pink and purple.
With a silent wail, the gas giant began to collapse from within.
First the poles sag inward, then the equatorial region sags like melting wax.
The entire planet contracted under its own gravity until it broke through the critical point, and then Saturn exploded.
Fulgrim sighed at the scene before him, and then reported to Terra: "Saturn has been lost, the defenses of Mars and the Moon are ready to meet the enemy."
