Faced with the growing number of Necron awakenings and the possible threat of imminent Necron Dynasties, Guilliman established numerous watch sectors beyond the borders of Necron Dynasty territory after the Golden Crusade ended.
The watch sectors contained Fortress Worlds like Cadia. These Fortress Worlds would gather vast armies, while every planet in their systems would serve as a subsidiary world. When the awakened Necron Dynasties began expanding, they would form the foremost line of defense, resisting invasions and buying time to ensure the Imperium's reinforcements could arrive.
Saro was such a Fortress World.
When Qin Mo led the gods to awaken the Kasa Dynasty according to the seal's guidance, they inevitably had to pass through Fortress Worlds like Saro and the systems containing them.
But when they truly arrived, Qin Mo discovered that there was no Fortress World here at all.
It was not that Guilliman's orders as Imperial Regent had gone unheeded by the Imperium. Rather, this Fortress World and its entire system had already fallen.
They had fallen so quickly that Talon's intelligence division had not even had time to obtain and transmit this crucial information.
Without that intelligence, Qin Mo plunged headlong into territory effectively controlled by the Menak Dynasty and ran directly into the Menak Dynasty's fleet.
This incomparably vast fleet had either just completed a mission and not yet returned, or it had remained here specifically to wait for something.
Only when the projection of Iksatok, the Menak Dynasty's regent known as the "Jackal," appeared in the void before Qin Mo and the gods did they understand that the fleet had remained here to wait for them.
"The Silent King's decree has been received by the dynasty."
"We were enemies before, and we remain enemies now. But at least while the Silent King permits you