Beep—!
A piercing alarm blared repeatedly. In the hangar bays, landing decks, and the bridge, red warning lights flashed, intensifying everyone's nerves.
Through the ship-wide broadcast and the fleet-wide communications channels, the electronic synthetic voice of the battleship's central system continuously relayed:
"All departments, prepare for impact—stellar storm imminent. I repeat..."
"Deploy energy shields! Void shield arrays at maximum charge..."
As Selene ceased her attacks, the destruction she had wrought became even more visibly apparent to every member of the Imperial Navy mixed fleet.
"Her Majesty's power... no matter how many times we witness it, it always leaves us in awe and trembling reverence."
Gazing at the planets effortlessly crushed by the Empress, and at the spectacular grandeur of the stellar eruption, the senior officers from the Imperial Forge Division and the Imperial Science Bureau, standing on the bridge, offered their sincere admiration.
Once the grand expeditionary force had officially set out, Selene parted ways with Budo, Konrad Curze, and Angron.
They each led their Astartes Legions, naturally assuming command over the Milky Way campaign.
Meanwhile, Selene took command of another faction, comprising detachments from the Punishers, Night Lords, and World Eaters, alongside a mixed fleet integrating the Imperial Forge Division, the Imperial Science Bureau, and other specialized divisions.
Their mission—to venture beyond the Milky Way toward the homeworld of the "Creators," the Precursors, deep within the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds.
Their objectives were twofold.
First, to search for any remaining Precursor technology at their point of origin—and forcibly claim it as their own.
Second, to eradicate every trace of the Flood from both Magellanic Clouds.
Within the Milky Way, aside from a few isolated Halo installations that were previously invaded by the Flood during the Forerunner-Flood War, the rest of the Flood forces had long been purged by the Forerunners.
Thus, the only remaining locations where the Flood might still persist were the star regions bordering the Magellanic Clouds—as well as the Magellanic Clouds themselves.
After all, the Large Magellanic Cloud was the homeworld of the Precursors—and the very battlefield where the "filial" Forerunners betrayed and assassinated their "father," the Precursors.
Countless Precursors had perished in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
We may never know how the Forerunners managed to exterminate the Precursors with almost no casualties, but one undeniable fact remains—from the corpses of the Precursors, the first Flood spores emerged and evolved.
With this in mind, Selene decided to personally handle the matter, once and for all—to end the tangled mess of Precursors and the Flood, a festering dispute that had dragged on since ancient times.
The reason Budo and the others weren't brought along was not because of distrust in their combat abilities...
Well, okay—it was exactly because their combat abilities were untrustworthy.
Defeating and repelling an incoming Flood horde wasn't too difficult—Budo and their respective Astartes Legions could certainly accomplish that.
But to completely eradicate the Flood?
They simply did not possess that capability.
BOOM—!
Even the Astartes warriors who had followed Selene the longest, those hardened veterans from the Imperial homeland, stood frozen in shock at the sheer scale of destruction.
As for the auxiliary forces—they were utterly speechless.
As for the auxiliary regiments and the few alien warriors within the ranks, they had already begun to regard this as divine intervention.
There is a vast difference between hearing tales of power and witnessing it firsthand—between theory and the overwhelming reality of absolute might.
Clang—Clang—
On a specialized mothership deck, a group of detained "guests" stood staring blankly at the scene before them.
Although their hands and feet were bound, it did not prevent them from dropping to their knees in succession. Their split-jawed mouths murmured in the official language of the Covenant, as if praying in repentance.
They were Sangheili, the military leadership caste of the Covenant.
These prisoners were captured by Astartes reconnaissance units deployed by Budo. After all, the reconnaissance fleet operating beyond enemy lines was not limited to the Madrigal sector alone.
Yet on this deck, only a small fraction were Sangheili—the majority consisted of short-statured creatures, barely one meter tall, wobbling as they walked, each carrying large gas tanks on their backs and wearing breathing masks.
These were the Unggoy, known as Grunts or Boars.
Watching their commanding officers drop to their knees in repentant murmurs, these already terrified Unggoy, who had been screaming in horror at the sight of the planetary system's obliteration, soon followed suit, kneeling one after another.
Their presence here was, of course, the handiwork of the reconnaissance teams.
As for why there were no other familiar Covenant species, such as Jiralhanae (Brutes) or Kig-Yar (Jackals)—
The answer was simple.
They had already been dealt with.
After extensive soul extraction, it became evident that these two alien species had engaged in large-scale cannibalistic atrocities following the Covenant's war against the Unified Earth Government (U.E.G.).
Thus, they were marked with a giant "X"—extermination.
However, upon studying the history of the Covenant's formation, the Imperium developed a different perspective on the disheveled, grotesque Unggoy.
The Unggoy were the most common and lowest-ranking species in the Covenant hierarchy.
When the Covenant discovered their homeworld, the Unggoy had only just entered their Iron Age.
Faced with overwhelming force, they had no choice but to submit—the alternative was genocide.
Upon joining the Covenant, their entire history was erased, and they essentially became slaves, relegated to the lowest rungs of Covenant society.
As the bottommost caste, the Unggoy were notorious for their cowardice and incompetence, and they maintained a bitter, longstanding conflict with the Kig-Yar, who occupied a similar low status in the hierarchy.
Through soul extractions and cross-analysis of the memories gathered from various Covenant species, the Imperium's intelligence division uncovered a particularly intriguing piece of information.
The Covenant capital, the mobile city-world known as High Charity, had once experienced a massive uprising—
And the unexpected instigators of this rebellion were none other than the seemingly insignificant Unggoy.
Due to their extremely high birth rate, the Unggoy had rapidly outbred the Kig-Yar, encroaching upon their living space.
The Covenant high council, apathetic to the brewing tensions, turned a blind eye to the issue.
Some Kig-Yar, unwilling to tolerate this, took matters into their own hands—secretly introducing a fertility-suppressing toxin into the hallucinogenic substances that the Unggoy commonly inhaled.
When their treachery was exposed, the Covenant leadership merely brushed it aside, attempting to placate both sides without meaningful action.
This infuriated the Unggoy, ultimately triggering a full-scale rebellion within High Charity itself.
The Kig-Yar were completely overpowered, and even the Sangheili, the elite caste of the Covenant, who were dispatched to suppress the rebellion, found themselves temporarily overwhelmed.
At one point, the Unggoy insurgents managed to seize control of the entire lower district of High Charity, the Covenant capital.
This forced the High Prophet Council to deploy the Zealots to quell the Unggoy Rebellion.
(PS: The Zealots hold the highest religious rank within the Covenant. However, this status is only temporary.)
Although the rebellion was ultimately suppressed, the Unggoy had proven that they were not as weak as everyone had assumed.
Even the meek, when driven to fury, can be truly terrifying.
Following this event, the Unggoy finally gained recognition, and the Covenant High Council officially permitted a select few to join the Covenant's combat forces.
From the Imperium's perspective, they were nothing more than an oppressed, enslaved underclass rising in rebellion.
A perfect example of an alien species to be molded into a symbol.
Their individual combat ability was weak, but they were numerous and easily satisfied with even the smallest rewards.
"What are they saying?"
An Astartes warrior, tasked with monitoring the alien prisoners, muttered through the internal communication channel.
"It sounds like they're mumbling about how the Path of the Great Journey was a lie... that the San'Shyuum deceived them... Wait! By the God-Emperor! Look over there—Her Majesty has sealed the energy of the stellar explosion!"
Bzzzz—!
With a gentle upward motion of Selene's fingers, the dispersing Subspace Spears instantly pierced into every corner of the planetary system.
As Honkai energy surged into them, the veins of the cosmos itself began to pulse with an ominous violet-red radiance.
A colossal, shimmering claw of imaginary energy, gleaming with iridescent violet light, swelled to the size of the entire star in the blink of an eye.
With a slight clench of her hand, the expanding ring of stellar detonation, which had been spreading at the speed of light, was instantly frozen in place.
No matter how violently the star's energy surged, no matter how chaotic its fusion reactions, the explosion remained locked within an invisible boundary—unable to move an inch further.
Under the manipulation of the strong nuclear force, the reaction accelerated, then collapsed entirely.
Gazing at the now-eradicated planetary system, feeling its radiance dim and fade, Selene withdrew her energy supply from the imaginary space.
Destruction is always easier than creation.
It takes billions of years for a planetary system to form—but to obliterate it takes only a moment.
"Hah..."
Staring into the silent, darkened expanse, Selene exhaled lightly.
Her warm-up was complete.
Releasing energy without restraint had cleared her mind and invigorated her body.
This small planetary system was roughly the same size as the Solar System.
To transport it intact, without loss, without interference, without disruption—that would be exhausting.
But to destroy it?
Selene felt like she could do this for another ten thousand years.
Her energy reserves were full.
There was not a trace of fatigue.
Satiating one's desire for destruction is beneficial to mental and physical health.
The pleasure of trampling, tearing apart, and annihilating something beautiful—truly, nothing refreshed Selene's soul more.
She had suppressed her destructive impulses for so long.
To be honest, Selene was rather pleased with her own restraint.
Crack... Crack...
A breathtaking spectacle of energy particle sparks, interwoven with the molten, glass-like remnants of the shattered planets, drifted outward.
The surrounding space was bathed in a mesmerizing interplay of crimson and white luminescence, a sight of unparalleled beauty.
Selene reached out, summoning a fragment of planetary debris, roughly the size of a human.
This irregular crystal, bathed in the dazzling glow of destruction, shimmered with an extraordinary radiance.
If a jeweler from Earth were present, they would immediately recognize the crystal in Selene's hand for what it truly was—a genuine diamond.
Its purity was unparalleled, its size immense, a rarity beyond compare.
And more than that—it was an exceptionally rare red diamond.
With the right marketing, promotion, and packaging—this would become yet another legendary, priceless "Diamond of the Century."
"A diamond, huh..."
Diamonds are valuable—but also utterly worthless.
In markets and advertisements, diamonds are always portrayed as more precious than gold.
Yet, why do central banks not stockpile diamonds?
Why is paper currency not backed by diamonds?
There is, of course, a reason for that.
Clang!
"I have received your repentance—this is your reward."
With a flicker of movement, Selene instantly appeared on the mothership's landing deck, tossing the human-sized red diamond directly in front of the Sangheili who had been murmuring to himself.
"My god... have you truly forgiven... the sins of my people...?"
Trembling, the Sangheili lifted his gaze, staring at the God-Emperor before him, his eyes filled with disbelief and fear.
Like the San'Shyuum, the Sangheili revered the Forerunners, worshiping them as gods.
This was, in fact, the very foundation of the Covenant's formation.
In its earliest days, the Covenant was nothing more than a military alliance between the two species.
The legal, cultural, and religious legitimacy of the Covenant—the so-called Great Journey—was entirely based on their reverence and devotion to the Forerunners.
The San'Shyuum Prophets had leveraged their ability to activate Forerunner Halo Rings, making the Great Journey the central faith of the Covenant.
Through religious doctrine, they secured absolute control over the empire, allowing them to wield unrestricted power.
But now, with Selene's arrival, her overwhelming might had shattered everything the Sangheili had ever believed in.
Inevitably, their minds drifted back to the ancient myths of their homeworld, to their legends of divine beings (Forerunners).
Their descriptions matched perfectly—both in appearance and power.
But above all, power was what mattered most.
Whoever had the strongest fist ruled as god.
"A god? Are you referring to the Forerunners?"
Selene narrowed her eyes.
"How unfortunate. I am not."
"Now, tell me—will the Sangheili still swear loyalty to me?"
At that moment, the Sangheili felt a chilling cold surge from all directions, seeping into his bones, draining the warmth from his body.
"My people..."
"There's no need to answer now. Take your time—I have plenty of it."
Snap!
With a mere thought, the chains binding the Sangheili prisoners snapped open, dropping to the deck in a metallic clatter.
As they stood bewildered, Selene spoke again:
"Once I've eradicated the San'Shyuum and the Jiralhanae—then you may decide."
"Take them away."
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
Watching the dazed Sangheili prisoners being escorted away, Selene let out a soft chuckle.
"A forced melon isn't sweet?"
Please.
Thirst is one thing—but Selene was enjoying the act of forcing it.
Besides—
Wasn't sugar always an option?
"Have the other fleets found anything?" Selene inquired.
"Your Majesty, seven of our detached fleets have made discoveries. Among them, the Fourth and Sixth Fleets, which were the first to enter the Large Magellanic Cloud, are requesting authorization to execute an Extermination Order."
"Approved. Issue the order—continue advancing. Target: the Large Magellanic Cloud. Sweep and purge as we move forward."
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
...
The Large Magellanic Cloud, near the Milky Way's border.
On every planet that had just undergone orbital bombardment.
The air reeked of charred flesh, an eerie scent of roasted meat lingering throughout the scorched landscapes.
The remaining flames still clung stubbornly to the mountain ranges, refusing to die out.
Boom!
"Orders from above—no experimental samples. Everything is to be completely exterminated?"
Around the deployed assault dropships, an auxiliary soldier clad in light power armor kicked aside a charred, crumbling tree trunk, revealing a smoldering heap of unidentifiable matter beneath.
These things were unrecognizable, their original forms lost, now reduced to partially carbonized husks.
"Correct. The moment these creatures are detected—yes, they're called the Flood—execute the Extermination Order immediately. Not a single spore is to be left behind... Wait! Eleven o'clock—movement detected! Stay alert!"
"ROARR—!"
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