Seeing the Ork Attack Moon suddenly vanish, Axion naturally had no intention of missing out on these grand prizes, which contained vast reserves of metallic material.
Since arriving on the Eastern Fringe, Axion had seen almost no major Tyranid hive fleets. As for the meager Genestealer Cults hiding on a few Imperial worlds, they were completely inconsequential. Moreover, his machine fleets had suffered repeated damage along the way; even within the recently recovered Regression-class fleet, two vessels had been inexplicably destroyed by suddenly arriving Necrons.
Aside from the absolute directives of the Creator, Iron Men never tolerated taking a loss.
Under his energy-vision, the hyperspace traces left by the warp-jump were rapidly dissipating, yet the trajectory could still be faintly discerned. The only detail that caught Axion by surprise was that the two battle fortresses had jumped in entirely different directions.
It was glaringly obvious that the Ork Warlords aboard had not fled the battlefield under a unified command, but had taken it upon themselves to execute random, uncoordinated warp-jumps. One trace was fading fast as it tore toward the galactic rim, while the other plunged directly into Imperial territory.
The data analysis systems quickly formulated a judgment. The Heart of the Forge had torn open the veil of the Warp alone, charting a course toward the galactic periphery. As for the battle fortress that had breached Imperial space, Axion was not the least bit concerned.
If something of that immense scale were detected by Imperial forces, word would spread instantly. The Void Sword remained north of the Segmentum Obscurus within the Dark Imperium, while the Titan's Spear was operating within the bounds of the Ultima Segmentum in the Imperium Sanctus. No matter where the construct manifested within the Emperor's realm, Axion could redeploy a Titan-class vessel at a moment's notice to reduce the target to absolute ash in an instant.
The psychic weapon arrays of the Void Sword might have been less effective at planetary bombardment, but that was no matter; there was still ample time to modify them now. Affixing a lance weapon array to the prow would suffice. When the time came, if they encountered the enemy, they could simply ram them head-on just like the Titan's Spear.
After all, unlike the Heart of the Forge, the Void Sword was not outfitted with twin Oblivion Cannons at its prow. The Void Sword's psychic variant of the Oblivion Cannon was situated mid-ship, meaning a prow-mounted ramming apparatus would not interfere with its primary armaments. The particle oscillation fields of the lance weapons possessed more than enough kinetic disruption to cleave a world wide open like a cracked coconut.
The Heart of the Forge had just torn into a Warp transit lane, preparing to initiate a short-range, "stone-skipping" style pursuit of the hyperspace tracks.
However, Gork and Mork, who had been spectating within the Immaterium for quite some time, were the first to make their move. The sheer, torrential magnitude of Waaagh! energy coalesced into two gargantuan bludgeons. The two gods caught sight of the exact microsecond the Heart of the Forge breached the Warp, and each swung a devastating blow.
While the twin deities rarely cared when their Orks took a beating, that did not mean they were amused by it. Watching the Heart of the Forge slip into the Empyrean right before their eyes was an opportunity for them to stir up some chaos and have a bit of fun.
Reeling from the catastrophic kinetic impact of that immense chaos energy, the Heart of the Forge was instantly knocked off its calculated vector, plunging dead-on into a host of Slaaneshi daemons that had followed the Dark Prince into this sector of the Warp. Countless unmanifested daemonic wills were instantly sent scattering across the Empyrean, obliterated by the crushing momentum of the vessel's massive Geller Field.
Nearby, Tzeentch let out a deceptive, mocking cackle, casually unleashing an esoteric spell that annihilated a host of Slaanesh's daemonic sycophants in the process. The twisted, shifting form of Slaanesh instantly erupted in a soul-rending shriek, whipping the tides of the Warp into a roiling, tempestuous frenzy.
Compared to the older, more established Chaos Gods, the Prince of Pleasure was clearly still far too green. Tzeentch, a master of caution, had not brought a single one of his own daemons to the gathering.
As the violent currents of warp sorcery surged, anomalies immediately manifested across the massive Imperial fleet anchoring realspace. A vast number of Astropaths and Navigators shrieked in agony as their minds were corrupted by the touch of Chaos, while those mortals who already harbored treasonous thoughts began to covertly instigate uprisings within the lower decks of the Imperial warships.
Before the various Imperial regiments could even finish purging the remaining Orks running rampant across the planetary surfaces, they were forced to deal with Chaos daemons manifesting in their corridors and the sudden, catastrophic corruption of their psykers. Blasphemous whispers and forbidden knowledge flowed endlessly through the psychic ether. The phenomenon grew so severe that the weapon systems of several Imperial vessels were inexplicably affected and corrupted by the warp-taint.
To these dark deities, such acts were mere amusement; to mortals, they were localized cataclysms of the Warp.
Axion, while commanding the returning Adaptive Combat Cores to head toward the other two star systems to purge the Orks deployed on the planetary surfaces, carefully monitored the Imperial fleet through his mechanical network. Under his energy-vision, the telltale signatures of Chaos energy could be seen swelling across numerous vessels.
The moment any Imperial warship was entirely consumed by the warp-taint, it would be met with a volley of plasma streams and macro-solid slugs from the Iron Man fleet. Rebellion? There was no such concept here. Any anomaly that broke containment would be thoroughly erased.
Deep within the Warp, the Heart of the Forge, having completely lost its heading, was dragged further into the abyss by the violent psychic undertow.
Thud.
A dull, echoing impact reverberated through the hull. Assisted by internal nanite networks, the ship's various diagnostic arrays slowly regained functionality. Though the vessel's precise coordinates remained unknown, the sight that materialized before the Iron Man's sensors filled even his synthetic mind with awe.
[Warning. Ramming of Federation facilities is strictly prohibited. Provide special identification immediately, or face unconditional destruction.]
A sudden, incoming quantum signal transmitted the cold, automated directive.
A metal megastructure of staggering proportions, a city of absolute scale, loomed directly ahead of the Heart of the Forge. The site of their recent collision was a colossal anchoring chain, which extended downward, tethering the city to a massive celestial body suspended even deeper within the Warp.
The metal of the structure shimmered with a brilliant, multicolored luster, completely devoid of any warp-born distortion. There were no signs of the organic, disturbing metal-fusion that typically accompanied Chaos corruption. Every beam, strut, and bulkhead stood out with pristine architectural clarity.
The only thing that perplexed the Iron Man was the nature of the material itself.
The megacity was constructed atop a massive circular disc platform connected to the anchoring chain. Optical scanning and spatial calculations measured its diameter across thousands of kilometers. However, other sensor data presented a glaring anomaly. According to structural parameter logic, the diameter should have registered at nearly one hundred thousand kilometers.
The architecture of the city was completely saturated with the design paradigms of the Federation era, characterized by vast, sprawling, multi-layered terraces.
While the core cogitators of the Heart of the Forge were busy processing the anomalous data readings, the ancient city transmitted yet another quantum signal.
[Warning. Submit identification code immediately or face instant annihilation. Countdown commencing. Three.]
It was entirely evident that this city was completely missing from Axion's archives. Yet, the phrasing of the automated warning left no room for doubt regarding its origin.
A Federation city? A surviving bastion of the Federation, existing entirely within the depths of the Warp?
Despite the internal system strain caused by Gork and Mork's chaos interference, the core logic of the Heart of the Forge rapidly sorted through its encrypted databanks and uploaded the unique identification code assigned to Axion.
[Code recognized—Log: Null. Format validated. Federation military serial designation confirmed. Issuing temporary authorization. Welcome to the Federation Special Research Institution, Fourth Research Center, Special Energy Laboratory.]
The moment authorization was granted, a massive stream of architectural and historical logs was funneled into the databanks of the Heart of the Forge via quantum transmission. The contents therein laid bare a grand, incredibly audacious experiment undertaken by the long-lost Federation.
——————
If you want to read ahead of everyone, go to my pat-reon: pat-re-on.c-om/magnor (remove the hyphen to access normally)