From Titan Corporation to the Empire of Man

Chapter 566 The Cold Wave Arrives

"00:00"

The moment the number returned to zero, time seemed to freeze on Tatooine, and John's breathing sounded unusually clear inside the helmet.

Then, a harsh prompt sound came from the tactical network—

The signal of the fleet to which Sigismund belonged disappeared from the battlefield perception system at the same time.

There was no farewell communication, no final blessing, not even a "good luck", only cold tactical logic and absolute obedience.

Almost at the same second, the entire sky began to distort.

When the Chaos ships entered the atmosphere, the buzzing sound emitted by their main gun arrays when charging was like the flapping of wings of tens of millions of insects, which was creepy.

Dark red energy gathered at the muzzle, stirring the clouds into a huge vortex, as if the sky itself was decaying.

Ri~咻————! ! !
The first corrupted bombardment tore through the atmosphere and landed in Anchorhead Town, dozens of kilometers away.

At the moment of the explosion, the entire horizon was dyed a sickly purple-red.

In the rising mushroom cloud, countless distorted human faces could be vaguely seen screaming in pain. The souls devoured by Chaos were forever trapped in the nightmare of the subspace.

As the shock wave swept through, even the wreckage of Mos Eisley's buildings began to tremble.

What's even more deadly is that John's Thor's hammer's motion detection function has also captured a large number of high-speed approaching signals. More than a dozen high-speed moving light spots are breaking through the clouds and diving down.

"John." Cortana's voice was solemn. "Feature matching completed. This is most likely Darth Vader's exclusive transport fleet."

"."

Hearing this, John did not answer, but just raised his head slowly.

Through the broken clouds, a dark transport formation pierced the burning atmosphere like a sword.

The lead shuttle had a ferocious shape, its armored surface covered with energy lines like blood vessels, and its engine spewed ominous dark purple flames.

Its descending trajectory has already locked onto its target, heading straight for the core urban area of ​​Mos Eisley.

At this moment, Obi-Wan's lightsaber suddenly became "violent".

The blue-white plasma blade emitted an abnormally high-frequency humming sound, and the energy arcs lingering around the sword pushed away the dust on the ground.

The wrinkled face of the Jedi Master flickered in the light of the sword, and his eyes, which had seen through the vicissitudes of life, stared at the black spot that was getting closer and closer.

"he came."

Obi-Wan's words were as light as a sigh, but they were clearly transmitted throughout the entire defense line through the resonance of the Force.

Every soldier felt that these words were ringing directly in his mind.

The Spartan who was changing the magazine paused for a moment, the auxiliary soldiers operating the heavy weapons unconsciously tensed their shoulders, and even the knight mecha subconsciously adjusted the muzzle angle.

In the sky, the shuttle fleet has begun to slow down.

The iconic black shuttle in the front was adjusting its posture, and its landing gear was slowly unfolding, like a bird of prey showing its sharp claws ready to pounce on its prey.

Seeing this, the four knight mechas raised their heads almost at the same time, and their sensor arrays locked onto the swooping black formation.

Although the pilots of "their" bodies have already jumped away with the fleet, their neural and consciousness synchronization systems still span the void and accurately project their fighting will into these war machines.

Consciousness transmission is not limited by distance. As long as the driver and the mecha are in the same universe, "synchronous" operation can be achieved.

Dangerous red and blue lights flashed from the muzzles of high-powered hard-light cannons and plasma cannons, and the hum of the accelerator charging was like the whisper of death.

Target locked.

The pilots far away in the jump space reached a "consensus" through the data link.

The four main guns completed calibration at the same time, and the crosshairs overlapped into scarlet killing coordinates in the tactical network, pointing directly at the formation carrying Darth Vader.

However, just as the artillery fire was about to fall——

Buzz————! ! !
A scream beyond the laws of physics tears apart reality.

Four giant hands suddenly appeared from the air, each finger was wrapped with blood-red lightning, and a constantly rotating chaotic eight-pointed star appeared in the palm of the hand.

These horrific creatures, composed of pure subspace energy mixed with the Force, grabbed the body of the knight mecha.

"Alarm! Joint pressure exceeds limit!"

"Warning! Main frame structure failure!"

Rows of red warnings appeared on the screens in front of the drivers’ eyes, and they also felt the “real” pain.

This caused the steel giant suspended in mid-air to struggle violently, his limbs and joints groaning under the heavy burden, and the power backpack on his back also began to fail.

But the four giant hands slowly tightened their fingers like children pinching a toy.

Buzz. Bang. Bang——!
The first thing to collapse was the waist armor.

The twenty-meter-tall war machine was like a can crushed by an invisible hydraulic press, its frame bending and breaking with the harsh sound of metal twisting.

Immediately afterwards, the head of a mecha suddenly caved in and exploded into crystalline powder under pressure. The driver's consciousness was projected at the last second before the connection was disconnected, and he felt a heart-wrenching nerve pain.

The other two mechas attempted to initiate the emergency disengagement procedure, but their fate was equally cruel.
The plasma core of the main gun was crushed directly, and the blue-white energy torrent evaporated half of the street into a glass-like pit;

The last one was broken in half, and its upper body was thrown hundreds of meters away like garbage, smashing down a local communication tower that was already crumbling.

Metal fragments fell like rain from the sky. One sharp piece of armor scraped past John, leaving a hideous scratch on the sand.

The burnt and smelly hydraulic oil was like the blood of these steel giants, splashing on the ground to form strange totems.

Under the illumination of the exploding and burning mecha wreckage, the leading black shuttle finally landed in the devastated central area of ​​Mos Eisley.

The moment the landing gear touched the ground, the gravel and rubble within a radius of 100 meters suddenly floated up in defiance of gravity, as if even the material world was bowing down to the Dark Lord.

Before the hatch was opened, John felt the servo system of the Thor's Hammer armor begin to tremble unnaturally.

This is no mechanical failure, but some older, darker force tearing at the veil of reality.

Obi-Wan's lightsaber was now blindingly bright, illuminating the old man's solemn face like a marble sculpture.

"John! Retreat! Retreat quickly!"

At this moment, Cortana's electronic voice exploded in the communication channel. The rare and urgent tone made all the Spartans' nerves tense instantly.

Her projection flashed violently on everyone's helmet screen, and prompt information refreshed the danger assessment like a waterfall - "Threat Level: Extremely High Risk",

"Recommended action: Disengage immediately."
"That Darth Vader is no longer someone you can fight against!" Cortana's holographic image looked nervous. She shared the data and intelligence she had read with all the officers, and then continued to suggest to John:

"Organize all remaining forces and withdraw from Mos Eisley immediately! This is not an escape, this is a strategic reorganization! Otherwise, your sacrifice will be in vain!"

Through her intelligence network, Cortana learned of the fall of Coruscant and that Darth Vader had received the "blessing" of the Chaos Gods.

Moreover, even if Cortana did not have a real "soul", she could still sense the shadows of the four evil gods, looming above the transport formation.

She had calculated that if it was Darth Vader before his fall, Sigismund would still be able to fight with the swordsmanship taught by the Primarch himself and instructed by the Emperor, and with the help of Obi-Wan Kenobi who could also control the Force.

After all, according to information provided by the Intelligence Department, Darth Vader can unleash the Force and drag a starship that is about to start hyperspace travel with his bare hands.

But at this moment, the Dark Lord has already broken through the limits of the mortal body.

Those blasphemous blessings transformed it into a living weapon and a puppet of Chaos.

The overflowing energy readings alone were beyond Cortana's calculations; its individual strength was no less than, or even stronger than, that of most Primarchs.

From the fact that the opponent was in the cabin and was able to crush the knight's mecha with just "thoughts", which was enough to change the local battle situation, it can be seen that the current Darth Vader is by no means a being that "mortals" like Sparta can contend with.

Cortana naturally didn't want these children to die, so she continued to suggest:
"John, evacuate to the area where the commander is. We can use Tatooine's desert terrain to build fortifications and continue to hold out until..."

boom----! !

However, before Cortana could finish her words, an invisible "pressure" suddenly descended, instantly plunging Mos Eisley into an eerie silence, as if even the crackling sound of burning had disappeared.

Beep-beep-!
Inside Thor's helmet, John, who wanted to evacuate as Cortana suggested, heard a shrill alarm.

His power joints were frozen stiff, and he tried to lift the Gauss rifle, but found that his fingers couldn't even complete the micron-level displacement required to pull the trigger.

The invisible pressure made the Spartans solidify like insects in amber.

Douglas was hanging in the air in a tactical roll, with the empty and flying magazine still three centimeters above the ground;
Jerome's vibrating dagger was only half an inch away from the throat of a Chaos maniac, but the dagger stopped its high-frequency vibration.

Further away, the Astartes of the Imperial Fists were like holographic images with the pause button pressed.

An Imperial Fist who was using a metal hydrogen grenade froze in place, the moment the grenade safety pin popped out was frozen;
As for the veteran equipped with the Terminator, the muzzle of the parallel crane cannon hung on his right arm began to bend slowly, like clay softened by an invisible giant hand.

Even mechanical creations were not spared.

The Vulture gunship stopped at the most strenuous angle, and the ion stream pouring out of the engine nozzle condensed into blue crystals due to the pressure;
The automatic turret's tracking system emitted a dying electrical noise, and the gun barrel was covered with cracks as if it had been corroded for thousands of years.

As this pressure descended, the temperature of the entire Mos Eisley also plummeted, as if a "field" mixed with psionic energy and the Force had completely distorted the physical space of Mos Eisley.

In this absolute silence, only the black shuttle's hatch hydraulic system was still functioning.

hiss--!
The shuttle door's pressure relief valve released a pale mist, like a cold wave overflowing from a tomb.

A pair of pitch-black metal combat boots stepped onto the scorched earth. The moment the soles of their feet touched the ground, sand particles around them began to float up in large quantities, forming a strange vortex in the invisible force field.

Boom, boom.

The footsteps struck the frozen air like a death knell.

Darth Vader's figure emerged from the mist, the corners of his jet-black robe moving without wind, as if countless invisible tentacles were wriggling in the shadows.

The armor that once symbolized the majesty of the Silver-Black Empire was now covered with scarlet lines, and the breathing mask had long been removed, revealing a face as pale as a corpse.

The blessing of chaos reshaped his body.

The face that was once disfigured by lava has been restored to the handsome features of the Anakin Skywalker period. He is still "bald", but it does not affect his inhuman beauty.

The skin was so white that it was almost transparent, and the blood vessels under the skin were sickly pale blue, scarlet, algae green, and pink purple;
The pair of vertical pupils emitted a faint light in the darkness like those of a predator, reflecting Obi-Wan Kenobi not far away.

Darth Vader slowly raised his right hand, and as his crystal fingertips passed through the air, they left spider-web-like cracks in reality.

Each finger was surrounded by energy arcs of dark red, deep purple and other colors, which were the embodiment of the perfect fusion of the dark side of the Force and chaotic psionic energy.

As Vida took a step forward, hundreds of guards in heavy black armor emerged from the cabin.

These former elite soldiers of the Galactic Empire have now expanded to a size close to that of an Astartes, with corrupted slime seeping from the gaps in their armor and fel flames dancing behind the goggles of their helmets.

Their heavy footsteps caused the ground to crack, and some guards who were holding melee weapons such as power axes and power swords had "skull wind chimes" hanging around their waists, which made creepy crisp sounds.

Among them, three of the most mutated ones are:

The left wing guard's spine penetrates the armor and turns outward, forming a cloak made of bone spurs.

The shoulder armor of the right guard has a screaming human face relief.

The military flag held high by the central flag bearer was actually made of a whole piece of human skin, with a rotating eight-pointed star painted on it with blood.

At this moment, Darth Vader suddenly stopped.

He stood ten meters away from Obi-Wan.

This distance was just enough for the old Jedi to see the strange new lines at the corners of his eyes - those were the Chaos Mantras engraved by the gods.

! !
Obi-Wan looked at Darth Vader in surprise, obviously unable to believe that the chosen one had fallen to such a level.

The Jedi Master was not deceived by the body reshaped by "Anakin", but saw through the twisted and deformed soul under the "perfect skin", as well as the Chaos Gods who "held the strings" and controlled Darth Vader.

"Respected Master."

When this word came out of Darth Vader's mouth, the air was suddenly filled with the unique sulfur smell of Mustafar's magma.

The suspended gravel and sand began to vibrate at a specific frequency, piecing together a vague pattern.

A Jedi occupying the high ground, a man with mutilated limbs.

"."

Obi-Wan's lips moved as if he wanted to say something, but the Jedi Master, who was restrained by both the Force and his psionic power, was unable to break free from the restraints, and his lower jaw could only make a "cracking" sound under the heavy pressure.

Then, everyone in Mos Eisley heard a two-channel whisper that sounded like an auditory hallucination:

Half of it was Darth Vader's mechanical, cold tone: "You taught me how to kill."

Half of it was Anakin's clear voice when he was a teenager: "Now let's review our lessons."

As soon as the words fell, Obi-Wan Kenobi was freed, and Darth Vader was already rushing towards him.
(End of this chapter)