The expeditionary fleet quickly split up. They prepared to return to their respective sectors to stand guard, report the approaching Tyranid swarm, train new regiments, and await news of the Tyranid invasion.
Though the Imperium's fleets might look sluggish to outsiders, anyone who had lived through a Tyranid war knew that rushing was useless.
Every swarm invasion came in overwhelming numbers, and the Imperium had to assemble vast fleets to drive the bugs back.
But gathering fleets took time—a great deal of time. It might take decades to muster a fleet capable of contending with a swarm.
The swarms were in no hurry either. They attacked to eat, so they would consume planets one by one rather than, like a Chaos invasion fleet, rushing to a planet to burn, kill, and plunder before fleeing ahead of the Imperium's main fleet.
The Tyranid swarm's route was entirely predictable. Whichever planets held the most people and the best natural conditions, the bugs would catch the scent and come running.
Rather than waiting frantically for the swarm at the front lines, it was better to reinforce the rear and maintain stable production and transport lines.
As for the barren planets near Damocles Gulf, the scattered fleets would leave behind some personnel to garrison them along the way.
A century from now, after the swarm had devoured the xenos empire clean, the newly developed border forces would be the ones delaying its advance.
It was not much of a loss, either. At least the xenos technology seized as spoils could be traded with the sages of the Adeptus Mechanicus for some useful things.
One had to know that the sages of the Adeptus Mechanicus did not get along with one another. None of them would ever share their technological secrets, and even their technology