Hours bled away.
Axion's fleet drew to a slow, methodical halt within a stretch of the Webway. The readings from the dimensional spatial probes had plummeted to their lowest possible values; the path ahead was no longer wide enough to accommodate the passage of the fleet. Without an Aeldari native to guide them, no one could discern where these labyrinthine arteries might lead.
The journey had been hollow. They had encountered no further Aeldari vessels, nor any of the Warp-stained monstrosities that sometimes prowled the Webway's shattered depths. This realm felt abandoned, a tomb of pitch-black silence.
Unable to manually trigger a Webway gate and lacking any Aeldari captives to exploit, Axion carefully commanded the fleet to begin a slow reversal. To effect a violent breach of the Webway, he needed to find a more expansive junction.
After all, none could predict what lay beyond the veil. To be cast into the Empyrean might be manageable, but being unceremoniously spat into realspace carried far more volatile complications. The Webway did not merely manifest in the vacuum of space; its apertures could tear open directly onto planetary surfaces.
Should such massive vessels be suddenly dumped onto a world's crust, even the advanced technology of the Iron Men would be pushed to the brink. The crushing force of gravity would exceed the tolerances of the anti-gravitic arrays, and these ships, the smallest of which spanned over ten kilometers, would be snapped in two like dry twigs by the gravitational shear, their hulls rupturing under their own immense mass.
The two laden transport ships at the rear were at the highest risk. They would likely shatter into a rain of debris, breaking apart along the structural seams of their cargo holds like scattered kernels of corn.
And that was the optimistic scenario. Being deposited within the gravity well of a star would be infinitely worse.
To ensure the fleet remained a cohesive fighting force upon egress, Axion initiated a maneuver that would have defied the very comprehension of the Adeptus Terra.
The eight vessels, previously arranged in a linear convoy, began to draw inward. They converged until they were prow-to-stern. Nanite swarms began to consume the ships' outer layers, repurposing matter and integrating entire structural segments directly into the Pectaro.
The two transport ships were forcibly bent into a ring, encasing the Pectaro as a central core. The industrial ship descended to the Pectaro's underside, its hull shifting and unfolding like a great, metallic maw to swallow the ventral armor plating. Meanwhile, the four assault ships were fused onto the dorsal sections of the two transports, their midsections dissolving into the new superstructure while their reinforced prows remained prominent.
The entire fleet was transmuted into a single, top-shaped space fortress, bisected by a massive horizontal spar.
This fusion was not merely structural; it was a total reconfiguration of power conduits and void shield modules. Axion never doubted the data encoded within his core archives. If the records dictated that weapon yield was the ultimate metric of success, then he would pursue it to the absolute limit.
Under the influence of vast quantities of nanomachines, the ships merged. A surging tide of energy thrummed through the colossal mechanical construct. At the center of the fortress, three parallel metal plates, each exceeding thirty kilometers in length, began to take shape.
The Mechanicus Doomstar Cannon.
The plates were encrusted with a dense thicket of machinery, conduits, flickering energy nodes, and an ocean of power resonators. This was no Standard Template Construct. In optimal conditions, such a weapon could be scaled to the size of a sub-stellar body. For now, however, it was the largest and most potent armament Axion could manifest.
The antimatter reactor cores of the Pectaro and the industrial ship were aligned on a single horizontal axis. Monomolecular armor, identical to that used on the lance prows of heavy assault ships, was fashioned into a funnel-like assembly at the center.
The fortress had evolved from a simple spinning top into an inverted, umbrella-like structure. Its maximum lateral diameter spanned thirty kilometers; its length stretched over seventy.
The quantum energy cores of the four assault ships and the two transports acted as auxiliary power, while the twin antimatter cores began to feed the central gargantuan weapon. Titanic energies surged within the fortress, the leakage manifesting as blinding arcs of lightning that lanced into the surrounding environment.
In the Age of Technology, such weapons were used to scour the fortress-worlds or battle-stations of xenos breeds. Their power could reduce entire regions to dust; upon impact, countless micro-black holes would form, collapsing within a tide of energy to repeatedly draw in matter and annihilate it. At full output, such a weapon could erase an entire star system from the celestial map.
As a silvery radiance swept through the fortress, a deceptively slender beam of light erupted from the heart of the massive, suppressor-laden barrel. It looked like a silver needle, piercing the distant wall of the Webway.
The light punched through the psychotropic barrier with ease, vanishing into the void beyond.
Then, there was only silence.
Just as Axion began to suspect he had miscalculated the weapon's yield, the collapse began.
The dimensional spatial sensors screamed warnings. The resilient Webway acted like a plastic tube struck by a white-hot iron bar. The massive energy discharge tore it asunder.
The fortress was hurled through the breach like a tossed stone. The fused, giant void shields immediately flared to maximum output. Waves of spatial energy battered the hull. In the flickering transition, Axion thought he saw a vast, empty void amidst the dense, intersecting web of the Labyrinth Dimension.
Tossed by the turbulence between dimensions, numerous spatial rifts appeared. Following the venting energy tide, Axion steered the fortress toward the nearest aperture and plunged through.
BOOM!
The moment they breached back into reality, a thunderous roar erupted. Axion realized one thing instantly: they had hit something.
Screee—BOOM!
As the subsequent sounds of grinding metal echoed through his sensors, Axion realized a second thing: they had likely struck a planet.
Sound does not travel in the vacuum of space; while shipboard sensors can translate hull vibrations into audio data, this was different. The clear influx of atmospheric gases and the intensifying roar of the impact could only mean they had entered an atmosphere.
As his chaotic sensor readings stabilized, Axion confirmed the situation. This was indeed a terrestrial world with an oxygen-rich atmosphere.
The only problem was the gravity. The readings were staggering.
The fused fortress slammed laterally into the planet's surface. Under the crushing weight of the world's gravity, the massive construct began to disintegrate.
The industrial ship at the base and the central Pectaro suffered only moderate damage. However, two of the heavy assault ships on the flanks had been driven deep into the earth, and one of the transport ships was catastrophically compromised. The impact had shattered its cargo bays, destroying nearly a third of the mechanical legions within.
The thirty-kilometer-long Mechanicus Doomstar Cannon had snapped. Uncontained energy now arced wildly across the planetary surface, a dying god's lightning dancing across the scorched earth.