After the Forerunner Fleet completed its diversion at the Star Ring's Far Shore spaceport, the ships carrying Guilliman, Lion, Perturabo, and the other Primarchs headed for the Life Sequence Research Institute, directly under the Hilling Empire Academy of Sciences.
As their ship passed through a rippling, waterlike energy barrier and slowly descended into its assigned berth, the sight beyond the portholes gave these Primarchs—who had once ruled star systems and fought across the galaxy—their first true sense of what an "ocean of knowledge" meant.
This was not the research base they had imagined, made up of a few cold metal buildings.
As far as the eye could see, the entire planet had been planned as an incomparably grand and precise academic sanctuary.
Countless futuristic buildings of every style rose like a forest, while soaring energy towers and streams of information interwove into a vast network. Suspended rail cars silently flashed between the structures like shuttles of light.
Research vessels and transport craft of all sizes traveled through the sky in orderly streams.
What left them even more at a loss was the omnipresent bustle of people.
This planet was, in essence, a super university city of unimaginable scale.
Students in all kinds of academy uniforms filled the streets, plazas, and aerial walkways, brimming with youthful energy and a thirst for knowledge.
They gathered in twos and threes, passionately debating profound theories, operating portable instruments for on-site calculations, or simply enjoying the leisure afforded by the academic atmosphere.
When Guilliman and the others descended the gangway, their imposing bodies, each averaging more than three meters tall, along with their uniquely Gothic power armor and ornamentation, instantly drew countless curious gazes.
Those looks were purely driven by research interest in "novel things," as though they were observing rare biological specimens or archaeological