Several sector capitals near the Provence Sector became exceptionally busy. When they received urgent messages from the governors of the various systems below, the entire command centers fell into an atmosphere of tension.
Without exception, the reports pointed to the same shocking fact: the heretic fleet that had defeated the Imperium's expeditionary fleet had actually appeared in their own sectors. The upper echelons of every sector immediately became extremely nervous.
These suddenly appearing heretic fleets might only be the Vanguard Fleet, scouting the conditions of each sector and preparing to launch attacks on the surrounding systems.
Faced with such a grave situation, the sector capitals made their decision without hesitation: immediately dispatch reconnaissance fleets to investigate the systems where traces of the expeditionary fleet had once appeared.
Only by accurately grasping the enemy's movements and intentions could they make sufficient defensive preparations for the fierce battle to come.
However, just as these highly anticipated reconnaissance fleets arrived at Mandeville Point in full force, preparing to activate their Warp engines and begin interstellar travel, something unexpected happened.
The Warp engines, which should have effortlessly torn open the barrier between realspace and the Warp, now seemed to have lost all their power. No matter what they did, they could not be activated.
This sudden malfunction horrified everyone aboard the ships. If the warships could not enter the Warp for ultra-high-speed travel, reaching those distant target systems would be nothing but a fantasy.
Even the Imperium's most advanced and fastest warships could only reach eighty percent of light speed through conventional travel.
Such sluggish speed was utterly inadequate for systems separated by dozens, or even hundreds, of light-years.
Worse still, even traveling to relatively nearby systems would take nearly ten long years at the warships' current speed.
And during that time, no one