Following the departure from the Somnium Stars, the colossal combined fleet was dissolved.
The Second Fleet departed in earnest, requisitioning all auxiliary vessels that had arrived to support them before plunging once more into the grueling conflicts of the Imperium Nihilus.
The Dark Angels, meanwhile, escorted The Rock as it began its slow transit back toward the Sanctus Imperialis. Bereft of the Tuchulcha Engine, the fortress-monastery could no longer traverse the Warp with its former impunity or deploy with such devastating speed. Now, among the various fleets, The Rock had become the slowest vessel in the void.
The Lion had only recently returned; he needed to reorganize the Dark Angels and cleanse the stains of the Fallen. He needed to husband his strength. Guilliman had informed him that a vast host of Unnumbered Sons, the Greyshields, remained on Mars, and that he could replenish his ranks from their numbers if necessary.
As to whether Lion El'Jonson would accept them, Guilliman did not interfere. As a Primarch of the Imperium, El'Jonson was entitled to his own judgment; Guilliman had no desire to force the hand of a brother with whom he had historically shared a fractious relationship.
Following several days of private discourse, the Lion gained his first true understanding of the Imperium's dire state. When Guilliman requested his assistance in managing the Dark Imperium once his forces were refitted, El'Jonson refused without hesitation. His expression was one of rare sincerity as he offered a first-time compliment to Guilliman's administrative prowess and voiced his approval of Dante, the loyal son of Sanguinius. He then informed Guilliman, with total gravity, that he had to uncover the machinations of Chaos and thus had no time to spare.
Dante had done well, El'Jonson noted; the Dark Imperium could remain under his stewardship.
Standing nearby, Dante, summoned by the Regent, bowed slightly at the Lion's praise. Without a word, he donned his golden death mask and led his Sanguinary Guard back to the Sword of Baal to depart. No one could see the expression hidden behind that frozen, golden visage.
Seeing that El'Jonson's mind was made up, Guilliman pressed the matter no further. Even if he disagreed with the decision, he would not move to obstruct the Lion's actions.
Once the Sword of Baal vanished into the void, the Dawn of Fire quickly outpaced the lumbering Dark Angels fleet, setting a course for Segmentum Solar. Axion's vessel, the Pectaro, followed in the wake of the Regent's ship.
The journey from the Dark Imperium back to the Sanctus side required navigating treacherous Warp corridors. The Iron Man's navigational arrays could not function correctly in areas heavily saturated by the Warp; if left to its own devices, the ship would quickly lose its way, unable to distinguish the Immaterium from realspace.
The situation in Segmentum Pacificus had grown critical. Guilliman needed to reach the Sol System immediately to take command and receive the latest intelligence.
When the two ships transitioned out of the Warp at the Segmentum Solar Mandeville point, Axion immediately cross-referenced his star charts. With almost no hesitation, he slaved the Pectaro to the calculated coordinates and vanished into the Warp once more.
Watching the Iron Man vessel disappear, Guilliman let out a long, weary breath. He did not know if this arrangement would ultimately prove a boon or a curse for the current Imperium. But at this stage, there were no other options.
Aboard the Dawn of Fire, a group of Tech-Priests stood in a tight circle around a massive machine. Metal mechadendrites probed deep into the unsealed interior of the device, analyzing the material composition and technological principles within.
It was a long-range Super Quantum Communication device, left to Guilliman by Axion.
Standard Imperial vox-arrays were limited to a range of a few thousand kilometers; interstellar communication relied almost entirely on the Astropaths. Such methods were incapable of real-time dialogue and were agonizingly slow. The ancient Federation, however, had never suffered from the vagaries of astropathic transmission. Advanced quantum technology made such long-distance calls relatively simple.
However, making a machine powered by quantum energy compatible with the archaic systems of an Imperial vessel had caused Axion no small amount of frustration. Ultimately, he had been forced to install an internal power converter. Due to this modification, the original monolithic casing could no longer be hermetically sealed.
Regarding these Tech-Priests, who had stopped at the veil of the Goddess of Knowledge without yet overstepping, the "Big Blue One" simply turned away, granting them a degree of indulgence. Guilliman felt a twinge of regret that he hadn't secured the machine immediately upon delivery, allowing several Tech-Priests to witness its inner workings.
Of course, a mere communication device possessed no true sapience or specialized functions. Aside from the delicate quantum core, most of the components served only to stabilize the energy flow. As for whether a Tech-Priest might optimize the power stability of certain weapons after studying it, Axion didn't care.
For now, aside from technologies involving psychic components, which Axion found incomprehensible, Imperial technology was hardly "advanced" by the standards of the Old Age. Most of it consisted of repurposed civilian and industrial equipment. In the Federation era, the "Creators" did not need to fight personally; rather than taking a gun to the front lines, it was more logical to install a weapon module on a robot. It was only natural that the Old Age lacked much in the way of personal "manual" gear.
Looking at current Imperial equipment, however, Axion often felt a sudden urge to enforce a "ban on illegal modifications."
Yet, as Axion made all speed for Segmentum Pacificus, the Bastior Sub-sector was facing a harrowing trial.
"Grendyllus," a splinter-tendril of Hive Fleet Leviathan, was currently lashing the fragile defenses of the sub-sector. The Imperial Fists' Phalanx was laboring within the system to purge the encroaching Tyranid bio-fleets.
Below the Phalanx lay the planet Sanctum, the home world of the White Templars Chapter. Lord Solar Leontus and Captain-General Trajann Valoris were both present on the surface. This was now the absolute front line of the war.
The intelligence Guilliman had provided to Axion was outdated; the planet the Regent had designated as Axion's new station had actually fallen weeks ago.
The loyalists of the Imperium, locked in a life-or-death struggle against the Great Devourer, had no idea that a very specific kind of reinforcement was about to arrive. Although Guilliman had dispatched astropathic messages to Leontus informing him of Axion's arrival, the tides of the Warp seemed perversely uncooperative.
When the gleaming silver ship completed its sixth Warp jump, the message had still not reached the hands of Leontus or Valoris.
"Biological incursion threat identified."
"Tyranid bio-vessel detected. Classification: Hive Ship."
As the Pectaro translated back into realspace, its hull-mounted sensor arrays identified countless units almost instantaneously. Several Kraken-class escort bio-ships swarmed around a massive Hive Ship.
The Hive Ship was currently arched over the planet, latched onto the surface like a gargantuan tick, draining its lifeblood.
Axion performed a rapid star-chart comparison. He realized instantly that the planet this hideous bio-vessel was currently "kissing" was the very station Guilliman had assigned to him.