...
...silence...
...massive Cultbeasts roamed through the Mainfleets territory, patrolling or moving into position...
...there was an eerie silence around the core areas of the Mainfleet, all beasts had been retreated to the Hiveworld since the loss of the scouts, Oracle has been preparing, he knew the Hunters Warlord was coming...
...the remains of the Extinction fleet had been completely integrated into the Mainfleets lines, though despite attaining the Heart of Guro, he was not able to get full control of the Extinction fleet, about 75 % of Extinction were under his control, whatever the Hunters Warlord did with the rest, did severe them from Guros influence and made them unable to be controlled by his heart...
Soon...the signatures appeared in the distance, the entire remains of the Hunterfleet was on it´s way here, probably accompanied by the leftover 25% of Extinction...
Oracle was on the bridge of the Sagittarius, all repairs had been finished (and hell, I even painted the thing for you Zerg), it was accompanied by an escort of Lucifers and Morningstars in an far out orbit of the Hiveworld...
...at the outskirts of the fleet a defenseline had been established, the Morningstars were at the front while in the back many of the beasts with longrange artillery had taken position...
...the signatures came closer...they were almost in visual range now...
...Oracle took a long breath...
"So this will be the last battle?"
...the signatures cam into range a massive Hunterfleet appeared on the visuals...though Oracle immedietly noticed something was off...
While the Mainfleet still had the numerical advantage, the Hunterfleet was bigger than it should be, aswell the Extinction beasts were not in their rows, and severalw erid signatures showed on the scanners...
...Oracle started thinking...
"This madman, he didn´t...
No. He really did."
Oracle knew the Hunters always had vast reserves of nourishment and biomatter in case of a drought during the hunt, though, it appeared, the Warlord had converted all of the reserves into beasts and their evolution increasing the size of the Hunterfleet by several thousand beasts...
...there would be no going back, this was an all out battle.
...there was no transmission, no telepathical message from the Warlord declaring the attack, just utter silence as the fleet approached the Core-territory, there was nothing more to say...
Oracle stepped towards the holo-map and gave his first orders, the frontlines had all their weapons loaded the initial volley should be able to take out the tip of the enemy fleet and then...there was also the other things he prepared...
The Hunters approached the had apparently assumed a wedge formation, Oracle knew they would try to get past the defense line as quickly possible, there was a line of the heavily armored Maws in the frontline several as well as Primordal Kins as artillery support, he frowned, there was another thing between the groups, but these were...
...Oracle stared, Javelins?!
"Open fire immedietly, concentrate on the gaps, these Javelins need to be taken down!"
The Morningstars, Lucifers, Rogues and all other ships in the defense line opened, fire unleashing a massive volley of destruction,as the first few hit, the Maws turned around, returning fire immedietly but also giving up on their defense, several of the Maws were destroyed or crippled from the initial volley but at the same time smaller fighters started moving into the firing lines of the defenders from behind the Maws taking the brute force of the attack, depsite that, the Eyes the Lucifers ifred took out large chunks of the fighters, but the Hunters continued advancing advancing, Oracle ordered his fighters to move out of the formation and swarm into the Hunters formation...
...then something that Oracle didn´t expect appeared in the rows of the Hunters, it appeared to a sort of fusion of the Dimensional Collective and Cult, the ships aggressively charged into the fighters, while they were apparently unfit to fight the capital ships due to depending mostly on shields rather than armor, they were rather effective against the smaller craft due to their nearly 360° firing vector...
...the Hunters fleet met with the Mainfleet, the Javelins had not been stopped, as they reached close range they started accellerating, launching themselves at the frontline of the Mainfleet, many of them were taken out by the heavy fire, every one that reached it´s target rammed it´s massive horn into the frontline capitalships, detonating shortly after, ripping huge chunks of flesh and armor out them effectively severly crippling or even disabling them completely...along with the Javelins amyn of the Assault-Bloodcores charged right into the enemy lines, opening in the process making them even more aggressive but also more vulnerable, many of the Cores fell to support fire of the heavier ships but usually took groups of fighters down with them...
...the initial defense line gave in to the assault of the Hunters, the fleet streamed into the Core territory, attacking anything that was in their range, while the mainfleet reoprganized their defense, returning fire equally aggressive...
While the hunter ships were engaging the enemies capital ships, the Cores used their rift drives to do mid-battle ambushes, in an attempt to take down key-targets. While taking severe damages and casualties in the process, curiously a feeling of... joy, came off from them when attacking and even when being taken down themselves, as if they´d embrace the end...
...Oracle watched the battle closely, both sides were taking heavy casualties, The Hunterfleet was now nearly completely inside the Core-territory, it would be time to start the second phase...
...he ordered parts the Extinction fleet, which he made adapt to the background radiation of Mainfleets territory, essenitally hiding their presence from most sensors, move in and attack the back of the Hunter fleet, encasing them in the Mainfleet...
...yet, at the same time a second wave of the Hunters closed in on the battlefield, it seemed to be more Bloodcores and the part of the Extinction fleet the Warlord controlled, as the support fleets and the mainfleets met on the battlefield utter chaos ensued, formations started breaking up, bullets adn laser fired everywhere resulting in a massacre of grotesque size...
As the Extinction fleet was split amongst Hunters and Mainfleet some of them even fought each other, while supporting ietehr the Hunters or the Mainfleet, while both the Hunters headquarters that moved along with the Hunters fleet, just as the Sagittarius, even while encased in it, were still out of reach of the battle...
...battles were starting to get uncoordinated, due to the sheer size of the battle and the massive distortions in all of the communications due to the high density Cult presence, ships fought where they met, all that was still counting was survival, even though many battles didn´t have any clear winners the Mainfleet seemed to have the upper hand due to their greater numbers and equal tactics, Oracle stared at the holomap, he WILL win this battle...
...after several hours the battle was still raging on, both fleets intertwined in this massacre, though both forces had diminished considerably, while most of teh smaller craft was disabled, fled, or destroyed, many of the larger ships were still fighting...
Oracle chuckled..."Where is your famous Hunter fleet now Warlord?"
...the Warlords voice reached him, it was cold, controlled...
"It is just where I need it."
Oracle suddenly felt a massive psionic presence at the border of the battlefield, to fast to prepare for any attacks an entire volley of Eyes was fired at the outskirts of the battle, completely obliterating the ships present in the area...
But, how could this be, Calamity was not able to awakened anymore until it´s completion, ow could he...?
...and then Elder-Calamity entered the Battlefield, Oracle immedietly ordered all present beasts to try and halt it´s advance but due to the Hunter fleet and Mainfleet being completely mixed by now most of them were unable to move off from their position, while the Hunters headquarters where getting closer to the Sagittarius and even those who did try to fight the Calamity did barely a scratch on it´s massive armorplates, just to be destroyed afterwards by an volley of Eyes or a swipe from it´s humongous tail, despite it´s size it was faster than the captialships moving through the battlefield with an ease like a fish through water...
...Oracle stared in disbelief at the path of destruction the Elder-Calamity left in it´s wake, mowing down everything in it´s path, closing in on the Sagittarius at an alarming arte until the first volley of Eyes hit it´s escort nearly completely destroying it in an instant...
Then it halted there, right infront of the Sagittarius, staring it down like an insect...
How could he...
How did...how did it come to this...despite all his collected power beaten by this monstrosity...
...the Warlord appeared on the bridge of the Sagittarius...
W:"Well, I feel like I´ve been here before."
O:"You..."
Oracles eyes became darker, getting an eerie glow, the overcharged cyrstal activated an Oracle started circling the Warlord...
W:"So, what do you think of my masterpiece? It took a while to find the last pieces but it certainly payed off."
O:"Enough kidding around."
Oracle charged at him and striked his chest, trhowing the Warlord against the backwall of the bridge, curiously he didn´t evade...
O: "What kind of weird game are you playing this time you abomination?! Answer me!"
Oracle appeared infront of the Warlord, kicking him away with his leg, the Warlord was thrown against one of the consoles...
W: "Game? This is not a game, it is the Cults end, simple, brutal, just like the other countless times before. But you know if you want to hurt me, you gotta strike harder you wimp."
...the Warlord stood up, unscathed...
O: "You monster! I will drink your blood and take your fleet!"
W: "Is that so? While we´re sitting here, talking, Elder-Calamity is wiping out your fleet, trying to stop it would be futile."
...Oracle charged at the Warlord, encasing his arm in crimson flames with nabuls magic, while the Warlord took only a small step aside...
...Oracles arm hit the warlord, his arm impaling what should be his left lung, yet the Warlord stood there, he did not seem to care about it, he even seemed...delighted?
W: "Wonderful! That´s how you need to do it! But you know...you can´t evade like this."
...Oracle tried to draw his arm out of the Warlords body, but it was already too late, within just a moment the Warlords left arm shot forward grabbing the now exposed crystal and crushing it in his hand...
...the crystal was gone, Oracle jumped backwards, robbed of his shield, while the Warlords wound started slowly closing, ...
Oracle started thinking...how could he...then he had an idea...
W: "You need to take this fight more serious. FIght with all your might and hope it is enough, or fall with the Cult."
Who was this man? Why did the Hivemind make him a Warlord?
Oracle grinned, it did not matter anymore...
W: "So, what are you grinning about?"
Oracle pulled the Hiveminds heart out of a runecircle and started drinking from it, he felt the power soaring through him...
O: "...any Cult-beast at my disposal..."
The Warlord sighed and turned around seeing the Calamity turning away from the Sagittarius and moving off to attack the remains of the Hunterfleet, under Oracles control...
The Warlord stopped for a moment, looking at the Elder-Calamity, now was the chance...
Oracle charged at the Warlord, again using Nabuls magic combined with his own to enhance his strength...
The Warlord made an on-point turn, evading Oracles arm then grabbing it in the process, then he smashed him into the ground...he seemed...tired?
W: "So it has come to this...hm?"
...with a sigh he ripped the left sleeve of his robe off, below it his arm, wounds carved into it in the form of ancient Cult runes, light sickering out of them...
W: "I suppose you should know what this is."
Oracle stared at the runes realising it was a binding ritual, should the runes be broken the bound being will die...
The Warlord reached for the upper end of his left arm...
O: " No, you don´t...!"
Oracle charged at him in the attempt to stop him, but the Warlord was faster...
...he tore off the skin on his arm, instead of flesh revealing a perfectly white glowing mass, looking like a fragile female arm, the runes broke...
Oracle stared in horror out of the window, the runes appeared on the Calamities core, he would would kill the Warlord for this, but for now he had to retreat, this explosion...
Oracle disappeared from the bridge, the Warlord shook his head and turned around watching Elder-Calamity...
...the runes on it´s core engulfed it, massive torrents of energy built up inside the core and then released, causing the secondary cores to detonate, all energy, psionic streams and bloodmagic released at once...
...first there was silence...then a blinding red light shined through the entire fleet brighter than any sun...
Followed by a massive psionic scream disrupting most of the surrounding Cult fleets internal systems for a brief moment...
...then the explosion came, Oracle had apparently woven a massive shield around the Hiveworld despite that the surface was completely destroyed, even though it saved the internal structures...
The flames and raging Cultmagic consumed the surrounding fleet, disassembling, burning and devouring everything in vicinity, leaving nothing but dust, almost 60% of both fleets were caught in the blast...
At the outskirts of the explosion ships suffered less damage, now following only their survival instincts started fleeing, then the psionic shockwave hit them, the psionic shockwave was devastating for any living being, putting even the outermost parts of the entertwined fleets under heavy strains straight of killing the ones that had survived the blast but did not escape fast enough...
The intensity of the blast was unparalleled, lasted several hours and even after the initial blast had worn off there were still streams of Cultmagic and psionics raging through the core-areas of the blast...
The remaining Cult-beasts had fled the scene into the outskirts of the Cult-territory, Sagittarius just as the Hunters headquarters cought in the blast and destroyed, barely anything of them remained...
Only a small perfectly spherical object glowing dim with a bloodred shine was left of the Calamity...
...then it was suddenly gone...
...
Oracle sat on the throne in the Hiveworld...the Warlord...he would pay for this...
...after the blast he could not find him, but like on the day the war started, Oracle knew the Warlord was coming, there was no other way...
...he thought of the glowing left arm...and remembered the Hiveminds words...
"I do not even know myself who or what exactly he is, or where he came from, one day he appeared in the Hiveworld and brought an entire fleet with him, offering his services and I accepted...
One thing is sure, he is not the same as us."
...
