Lion El'Jonson: Alvin, what have you done?!

Compared to the Imperial legions, their spirits high and the air charged with excitement, the forces of Chaos had fallen into disarray.

Unless they were mistaken, that "Titan"—along with its several Titan Legions, Knight Families, and raised banners—seemed to belong to Alert Star, didn't it?

Wait, Alert Star?!

The World Eaters' right-wing commander, Dailen, gaped in fury and bellowed, spittle spraying over the Dark Tech-Priest standing before him. "You'd better explain this to me, you bastard! How did the Titan Legion of the Mechanicus of the Eighth Underworld, stationed on Alert Star, end up here?!"

The Dark Tech-Priest looked just as bewildered.

By the Omnissiah, he wanted to know too! How had the Titan Legion gotten here from Alert Star, a hundred and eight thousand li from Dragon Forest Star?!

Chaos wasn't the only side full of bewildered people.

Even Lion El'Jonson himself was in shock.

According to the Imperium's vast division of its star regions, Alert Star lay in Segmentum Obscurus, on the Imperium's front lines. But Dragon Forest Star was in damn Ultima Segmentum!

Never mind how Alert Star's Titan Legion had crossed billions of light-years and the Curse Scar, which cut across Realspace,

splitting the Imperium in two. What Lion El'Jonson was more curious about now was how Alvin, with nothing but the name of a Rogue Trader to his credit, had convinced the Archmagos Dominus of the Mechanicus of the Eighth Underworld to get involved in the mess on Dragon Forest Star.

He might have been asleep for ten thousand years, but he still knew what the Mechanicus were like.

The Mechanicus were like vultures. They only showed up on battlefields where there was something to gain, such as defending STC templates or protecting the assets of Forge Worlds.

How had Alvin convinced these knowledge-hungry vultures