Rock Fortress

Travel through the Warp had never been pleasant.

Even under the protection of the Geller Field, those aboard the ship could still feel the omnipresent whispers and malice seeking to erode their sanity.

The twenty-two standard days of travel passed amid turbulence and oppression.

During that time, they encountered several minor Warp storms and one small-scale assault by daemonic entities.

But all of them were safely overcome through the coordinated defenses of the Gabbro and the accompanying Blade of Penance frigate.

Captain Darryl's Indomitable Faith maintained precise navigation throughout, guiding the Gabbro through the waves of chaos.

As the hum of the Warp engines gradually weakened and the ship began to leave that unsettling realm, an invisible pressure instead spread through the Gabbro.

Everyone knew that their destination was close at hand.

The armored filters over the main observation window rose layer by layer, admitting the light beyond into the chamber.

The sight before them was enough to deeply shock even the well-traveled Inquisitor and Chen Xi's entourage.

A colossal, irregular asteroid-like object hung in the void.

Its scale far surpassed that of any ordinary space fortress or dockyard.

It was not a naturally formed celestial body, but something that had clearly undergone engineering on an unimaginable scale.

Its immense rocky structure was densely covered in Gothic spires, magnificent buttresses, crisscrossing metal frameworks, and countless weapon platforms rising like a forest.

Arrays of macro-cannons, laser turrets, and torpedo silos gleamed coldly beneath the starlight like the fangs and spines of some gigantic beast.

Faint ripples of energy generated by the Void Shields enveloped the entire fortress like a translucent eggshell.

This was the Rock.

The mobile fortress-monastery of the Dark Angels, as well as their eternal memorial and shackle.

It had once been the largest surviving fragment of Caliban after