Chapter 17
The warship Obsidian Fang hovered in low orbit over Gaeth-9, cloaked in layers of refracted light and null-space distortions. It was a relic of the First Expansion—an ancient leviathan from a time when the Empire still feared what it couldn't conquer.
Within its sanctum, the war table flickered.
Data-scrawls in crimson and gold flowed across layered holoscreens. Pulse-signatures. Core resonance trails. Godwave static. The air was thick with ozone and tension.
General Veyren Kalt stood with hands folded behind his back, armor freshly etched with the sigil of House Kruger—a stylized eye devouring a star. He had commanded dozens of extermination campaigns, put down rebellions on moons where even light refused to touch.
But this... this was something else.
"Show me the pulse again," he said quietly.
A nearby Watcher—one of the psychic analysts attached to the Void Division—nodded and replayed the feed.
The screen shimmered with echoes from Gaeth-9's moon.
It was not a mere energy spike. It was layered, like a scream stitched across reality itself. Divine resonance, older than any Kargal construct. Threaded with Blood Core harmonics and an unfamiliar second pattern—one the archives called Verdict-Class Imprint.