Millions of power swords were unsheathed at the same time, and the humming of the blades gathered into a deafening war cry. Horus let the sound wash over him, and when it reached its peak, he suddenly raised his hand to suppress it.

Silence fell again.

"I have witnessed the fall of countless angels of death." His voice became lower, but even more fascinating. "I have witnessed the fall of human regimes. I have crushed the pride of countless alien races under my feet - and today, the Tau Empire will become new ashes!"

He waved his hand suddenly and pointed at the Tau Empire star map in the holographic projection. The scarlet cursor devoured the galaxies like a prairie fire.

"I'm going to turn every one of their colonies into flames!"

"I will turn every one of their warships into wreckage!"

"I will make every one of their so-called ethers kneel under the flag of the empire and repent of their arrogance!"

The Warmaster's voice was like a storm, sweeping across the fleet. Dark Angels warriors beat their breastplates, Luna Wolves warriors raised their chainsaw axes, and Thousand Sons psykers let runes burn in the air.

"They hide behind a fortress of metal and technology, thinking they can escape destruction?"

Horus sneered, and continued: "No! We will split their walls with our swords! Melt their defenses with artillery fire! Use the most primitive and purest power to tell them!!"

He paused for a moment, and the breathing of millions of soldiers stopped.

"Humans are the masters of the galaxy!"

Horus drew his power claw and raised it above his head.

Lightning danced on the surface of the weapon, illuminating his figure like a god of war descending to earth.

"The Emperor gave us a month!" His roar shook the void, "But! It's too long!"

“We only need 10 days!”

"Let the borders of the Tau Empire be reduced to scorched earth!"

"Let their fleet be buried in the sea of ​​stars!"

"Let their people remember forever - the fate of challenging humanity is only destruction!"

Millions of war cries erupted at the same time, the battleships' engines spewed out blazing flames, and the hum of the charging weapon arrays was like a giant beast awakening.

Horus' figure was frozen in countless screens, his eyes burning with the flame of conquest.

"For the Emperor!"

"For the Empire of Man!"

“For humanity!”

His power claw swung down suddenly, and the scream that cut through the air became the clarion call of war.

With the issuance of Horus' order, a massive blitzkrieg covering tens of thousands of light years and hundreds of thousands of star systems officially began.

Tau Empire border, Damocles Bay defense line

The sound of alarms pierced the void.

The Tau Empire's border outpost had just detected a fluctuation in the Warp, and before the alarm spread throughout the entire communication network, the Empire's vanguard fleet had already leapt out of the void.

Not a few, not dozens—but thousands.

The Luna Wolves' strike cruiser opened fire first, firing a salvo of macrocannon arrays. The shells drew blazing trajectories in the vacuum and smashed into the orbital defense platform of the Tau Empire like a meteorite rain.

As soon as the pulse turret turned, it was engulfed by artillery fire. The explosion was like a supernova, illuminating the entire galaxy.

"All fleets, break through the defense line!" The voice of the commander of the Luna Wolf Fleet exploded in the communication channel, "Leave no one alive, no wreckage!"

The engine nozzles of the Imperial battleships burst into blinding blue flames, like a pack of hungry steel wolves pouncing on their prey.

The Tau Empire's interception fleet didn't even have time to form a formation before its bow was smashed by the Luna Wolves' assault cruisers. Boarding bays were shot out like a rainstorm, and the Dark Angels' Deathwing warriors directly killed their way into the enemy ships.

"For the Emperor!"

The roar of chainswords echoed through the corridors of the Tau warships, the Space Marines advanced over the corpses of their enemies, and the roar of grenade launchers and the whine of pulse weapons intertwined into a symphony of death.

The third colony of the Tau Empire, "Kshi'la", in orbit.

The Imperial fleet did not slow down, did not stop, and did not even send out a landing force.

"Target: Planetary defense array, salvo fire."

The weapons array of the "Spirit of Vengeance" opened fire simultaneously, and the light spears penetrated the atmosphere and accurately hit the spaceport on the surface of the planet.

Macrocannon shells rained down on the ground, destroying the military facilities, energy hubs, and transportation nodes of the Tau Empire one by one.

The sky of Kshi'la burned.

But the Imperial fleet did not stop.

Their goal is not occupation or conquest, but pure destruction and advancement.

"Record the coordinates and mark the remaining resistance forces." Horus stood on the bridge, the burning planet reflected in his pupils, "The follow-up fleet will deal with the aftermath."

"Next stop, the War'ren system."

Engines roared, and the fleet leapt into the warp once again, leaving behind a devastated X'La.

The Tau defenders in the War'ren system were not even warned.

The Imperial fleet appeared like a ghost, and its volley of light spears instantly paralyzed the orbital defense system.

The Dark Angels' "Unbending Truth" rammed directly into the side of the Tau battleship. The Lion King personally led Deathwing to board the ship and slaughtered all life on the ship within ten minutes.

"Don't stop!" Ryan's voice exploded in the communication channel, "Our target is Titanium Star!"

The fleet leaped again, piercing straight into the heart of the Tau Empire like a sharp knife.

Wars broke out one after another on the colonized planets along the way, but the Imperial fleet never lingered in the battle.

They destroyed spaceports, disabled communications hubs, burned military bases, and then left without a second thought, leaving chaos and terror in the hands of the surviving Tau.

"They don't even give us a chance to fight back..." a Tau Navy commander said desperately in the last transmission.

The next second, his warship was pierced by the spear of light and turned into a gorgeous fireball.

On the map of the Tau Empire's territory, the Empire's march route was like dozens of lightning bolts, piercing straight into the heart.

The Luna Wolves' fleet served as the spearhead, the Dark Angels' warriors were responsible for mopping up the remaining enemies, and the Thousand Sons' psykers interfered with the enemy's communications and navigation systems, causing the Tau Empire's reinforcements to be lost in the warp storm.

Behind this steel torrent are more Imperial warships, including the Ultramarines' expeditionary fleet, the Iron Warriors' siege array, and the White Scars' fast strike group...

This was an unprecedented blitzkrieg, a march of destructive force that gave the enemy no chance to breathe.

"A dozen days." Horus stood on the bridge of the "Spirit of Vengeance" and stared at the advancing battle line on the star map. "I mean what I say."

Behind him, the borders of the Tau Empire burned.

The Imperial fleet was advancing rapidly, the counterattack of the Tau Empire collapsed under the Imperial artillery fire, the sacred Sky Eagle flag was flying among the stars, billions of stars were destroyed by the Imperial fleet, and countless territories once occupied by the Tau Empire were once again re-erected with the Imperial double-headed eagle flag.