Chapter 35 : The War for Grak'thul"
Governor's Palace, Planet Grak'thul
The palace was in complete chaos. Inside its once-grand halls, a black-skinned Urg'nok noble paced back and forth, his eyes wild with rage and confusion.
"Who is he?! Who is he?! Who dares to attack our Bloodmaw Empire?!" he screamed like a madman, his voice echoing off the trembling walls as distant explosions shook the structure.
From the battlefield, Drek'nul, one of the highest-ranking Urg'nok warlords, stormed back into the palace. His face was twisted with fury and fear. He roared in frustration.
"It's a human! A human, my lord...!"
Suddenly, a heavily wounded Urg'nok soldier burst into the room, blood pouring from his injuries, forcing his words through labored breaths.
"Explosion...! They... they—"
Before he could finish his sentence, a bomb tore through the palace wall and exploded, blasting the soldier into pieces.
"For Emperor Kenthelion!" shouted a Commissar of the Imperium, his voice filled with unwavering conviction.
He stood among the flames and rubble, holding a holy bolter in one hand and a chain sword drenched in gore in the other.
"Scum! You call yourselves descendants of Mok'thar, the great Urg'nok warrior? You're nothing but cowards hiding behind palace walls!"
"Kakakakaka..." The brutal sound of his chain sword echoed as he swung it with deadly precision.
Before the noble Urg'nok could even reply, the Commissar's chain blade had already torn through him, splitting his head down to his torso.
Commissar Yarrick glared at the corpses with disdain. Though the Urg'nok resembled the orks he had once fought on Hades Hive, these creatures were different—more cunning, more arrogant.
"The orks I slaughtered on Hades Hive were warriors. They died fighting. But you bastards... you murdered civilians."
He spat on the bloodied remains, his voice filled with disgust.
"Alright. You're next."
Hundreds of soldiers from the Armageddon Iron Legion followed behind Commissar Yarrick, surrounding Drek'nul, who now lay paralyzed by fear, knowing his end had come.
The Celestial Imperium's War Fleet Mobilizes
The warships of the Celestial Imperium's expeditionary fleet did not sit idly by. Their mission was clear: intercept and destroy all enemy vessels providing support to the invading forces above Planet Grak'thul.
"What is that?!"
Panic broke out on the bridge of a Bloodmaw Empire warship as their warp jump ended—bringing them face to face with the massive Imperial fleet in low orbit over Grak'thul.
A black-skinned Urg'nok commander squinted at the sight ahead. Floating fortresses, enormous battleships adorned with holy symbols, and one vessel in particular that looked like a cathedral in space.
"What kind of taste is this? Who puts a church on a warship?"
Despite the mockery, the Urg'nok leaders quickly ordered their fleets to prepare for battle. Based on past experience, ships with such heavy and ornate designs were usually slow, overloaded, and would crumble under sustained plasma fire. To them, these ships were little more than mud bricks ready to shatter.
But they were about to learn otherwise.
"Enemy detected. All weapons at the ready," announced the captain of a Gloriana-class battleship, one of the flagships of the Celestial Imperium. A transmission was immediately sent to Castellan Ursarkar E. Creed, the supreme commander of ground and fleet forces.
Creed's response was cold and precise:
"Eliminate them. Leave no survivors."
Aboard the command bridge, Captain Glory, known for the red mechanical eye that glowed from his right socket, stared into the distance. In the void ahead, dozens of Urg'nok warships were aligning into combat formation.
"Prepare the entire fleet," he ordered calmly. "This will be a war among the stars."
From the command deck of the flagship, Admiral Yularen raised his voice across the communication network:
"All macro-cannons ready! Light spears charged! Prepare for interstellar combat!"
Across the fleet, captains echoed the order, activating weapons systems as the Celestial Imperium prepared to strike.