The vacuum of Mars' orbit should have been silent, but now it echoed with the roar of war.

Sigismund stood on the bridge command platform of the Everlasting Crusade, his black sword inserted into the adamantine ground, his hands folded and pressing on the end of the hilt.

The holographic projection of the Queen of Glory-class battleship rotated in front of him, and 720 damage reports flashed red like wounds on the hull model.

But the Grand Marshal of the Black Templars did not even frown as his eyes pierced through the thick armored observation window and stared directly at the scarlet wave of the Chaos fleet ahead.

"Defend Mars! Let the heretics bear witness to our wrath!"

His voice spread to every cabin through the ship's communication system, and after being electronically amplified, it sounded like thunder from heaven.

The engine nozzle of the Eternal Expedition suddenly burst into an unprecedented blue flame. This steel behemoth that was more than 20 kilometers long began to accelerate, and the giant ram on the bow flashed a dangerous black stone luster.

"All ships, prepare for the attack!" The chief navigator's voice was trembling with enthusiasm, "Contact the enemy in thirty seconds!"

Sigismund did not move. His Terminator armor was connected to the magnetic lock of the command platform, which was enough to withstand any impact.

The Grand Marshal's eyes swept across the tactical hologram, and saw that a wall of death composed of 700 enemy ships was unfolding in front of them. In the front row were the psychic weapons controlled by the Chaos wizards. Those weapons inlaid with crystals were condensing deadly Warp lightning.

"For the Emperor," Sigismund whispered, his fingers running over the sacred text on the black sword.

The impact was harder than expected.

The ram of the Eternal Crusade first pierced through a Slaughter-class cruiser, the black stone material tearing through the Warp-reinforced armor of the Chaos warship like a hot knife through butter.

The pierced enemy ship disintegrated silently in the vacuum, and the plasma leaking from the fuel tank burst into a strange green fireball in space.

But this was just the beginning. The huge mass of the Queen of Glory-class battleship continued to move forward with unstoppable kinetic energy, smashing eleven small and medium-sized warships in succession and tearing a bloody gap in the Chaos fleet formation.

"The port side cannons fire in unison! Charging the light spear array!" Sigismund's voice was terribly calm.

The weapons deck of the Eternal Crusade began to roar. Hundreds of giant macro cannons fired at the same time, and the trajectory of the shells in the vacuum was like a spider web woven by the god of death.

The nearest Chaos battleship, the "Blood Fury", trembled in the hail of bullets, its void shield overloaded and collapsed after bearing the seventy-third shell. The subsequent spears of light directly penetrated the bridge, evaporating the Chaos Lord inside along with his conspiracy.

"In the name of the Emperor, I will stop you from taking a single step forward!" Sigismund drew out his black sword, pointing the tip of the sword at the second wave of enemy ships gathering on the holographic projection. "In the name of the Primarch and Terra! We are the high wall!"

The servitors on the bridge chanted binary hymns, increasing the output of the power core to critical value.

Every turret of the Eternal Expedition was operating at overload, with the gun barrels burning red from continuous firing.

The ammunition conveyor belts under the deck transported destruction to the front line like arteries. Hundreds of mechanical priests in red robes prayed in the engine room, using holy oil and prayers to maintain the life of this steel behemoth.

The Chaos fleet responded quickly.

"Enemy fleet maneuvers detected!" The sensor officer's voice suddenly became sharp, "They abandoned their formation... My God, they are turning around collectively!"

On Sigismund's tactical display, more than three hundred Chaos warships suddenly turned their bows at the same time.

These warp-contaminated ships turned sharply at angles that violated the laws of physics, completely disregarding the damage that inertia would cause to the ship's structure.

Their thrusters spewed out sickly purple-red flames, and they pounced on the Eternal Expedition like sharks smelling blood.

“Join the team! Blood sacrifice to the Blood God!”

This blasphemous war cry actually penetrated the vacuum and echoed directly in the bridge of the Eternal Expedition.

Sigismund's black sword immediately glowed with golden light, and the holy energy isolated the whispers of the warp.

The Grand Marshal knew that this was the mental pollution launched by the Demon Prince of Khorne, and the Chaos fleet was preparing to seize the Queen of Glory-class battleship in the most primitive way.

"All ships in defensive posture!" Sigismund's voice was like steel quenched in a forge, "Notify the Terminator Company and prepare to meet the heretics."

The Eternal Expedition immediately turned into a steel hedgehog. The side defense turrets stood up like a forest, each equipped with a shotgun cannon specifically designed to deal with landing capsules.

The light spear array adjusted its shooting pattern to form a dense interception fire network.

The three Chaos assault ships that tried to get closer were shot to pieces at a distance of a thousand meters, their boarding bays peeling off from the hull like rotten fruit.

However, the madness of chaos is beyond imagination.

"Subspace fluctuations detected! 45 degrees to starboard!"

The warning came too late. Five Chaos-corrupted Cobra-class destroyers suddenly leapt out of thin air, their hulls crawling with wriggling flesh, their thrusters spurting out coagulated blood instead of plasma.

These deeply contaminated small warships completely disregarded their own safety and charged suicidally into the flank of the Eternal Expedition.

"Emergency evasive!" the navigator screamed and pulled the control stick.

The huge Queen of Glorious class battleship is not so easy to turn.

The first Chaos Destroyer crashed into the Void Shield, causing violent ripples in the energy barrier.

The second and third ships followed one after another, and finally when the fourth ship collided, the void shield generator on the starboard side overloaded and exploded.

The fifth Chaos ship rammed directly into the armor belt of the Everlasting Crusade.

The vibration caused by the collision made the entire battleship tremble.

Sigismund steadied himself and saw on the tactical display that the seventh to ninth armored zones on the starboard side had turned blood red, at least three hundred boarding pods had successfully attached, and more Chaos drop pods were passing through the firepower net.

"They are coming." The Grand Marshal said calmly, his fingers running across the blade of the black sword, and the blood completed the final blessing for this sacred weapon.

The corridors of the Everlasting Crusade became a killing field.

The first batch of Khorne berserkers who rushed in were beaten into a pulp by the crossfire before they could even gain a foothold.

Black Templar defense teams occupied every intersection, and the roar of grenade launchers echoed in the metal corridors.

But the Chaos offensive was like a tide, more red-armored warriors poured in from the breach, their chain axes slashing on the adamantium walls, splashing dazzling sparks.

"For the Emperor! For Dorne!"

The roar of Black Templar Space Marine Alberich drowned out the noise of the battlefield.

The three-meter-tall Terminator stood in the center of the passage, and every roar of his assault cannon took the lives of several Chaos Space Marines.

His power fist was already covered in blood, but more enemies were pouring out of the smoke.