The oppressive air had almost become tangible, weighing on the heart of everyone aboard the Bridge of the Law of Faith.
Beyond the Main Observation Window, the deep-blue barrier that had swallowed the Star System silently declared its presence, cold and lifeless, yet suffused with an indescribable psychic pressure.
The preliminary scans and psychic probes had returned their results, confirming Lorgar's most immediate suspicion.
The barrier's energy composition was highly specialized and intensely condensed. At its core, it was an inconceivably vast mass of psychic energy that had been reinforced, solidified, and woven into a physical barrier.
And now, only the Blackstone Fortress could attempt to open a way through.
"That is the situation, Archmagos Grut." Lorgar's voice traveled over an encrypted channel to the distant senior magos of the Adeptus Mechanicus responsible for repairing the Blackstone Fortress.
"I need to know whether the Blackstone Fortress can activate and maneuver right now."
There was a brief silence at the other end, broken only by the faint static of transmitted data streams.
Then a mechanical voice sounded, processed through multiple synthesizers and rasping like rusted gears:
"Greetings, Lord Lorgar. In accordance with your will and the enlightenment of the Omnissiah, our emergency repairs to the Blackstone Fortress have stabilized its primary structure and achieved a preliminary restart of its core systems."
“We have innovatively installed and linked, in parallel, a total of forty-seven modified and reinforced capital-ship-grade plasma drive assemblies salvaged from damaged Battleships, along with their accompanying directional energy distribution and attitude control systems, at the site of the fortress's original, severely damaged propulsion matrix.”
Archmagos Grut's voice remained utterly level, as though he were reporting on an ordinary engineering project, yet the details would have shocked anyone who understood the sheer scale of the Blackstone Fortress.
"In theory, these