Time slipped silently by on the scale of the Sea of Stars, and two months passed in a flash.
When the Word Bearers' Law of Faith, the World Eaters' Conqueror, and the Night Lords' Nightfall—
These three Gloriana-class Battleships, each bearing the will and character of a different Legion, together with their vast escort fleets of tens of thousands of ships of every size, finally reached the depths of an unfamiliar star system like three unsheathed swords, a strange planet lay before them.
It was neither a gas giant nor a world of lava or ice, but uniformly silver-white, dense and utterly free of impurities.
That silver did not come from reflected starlight. It seemed instead to be the substance of the planet itself, giving off a cold, subdued sheen in the void.
No oceans, clouds, or continents broke its surface. There was only an unsettlingly smooth silver curve, like a meticulously polished metal sphere, suspended quietly against a backdrop of eternal darkness.
Lorgar stood before the observation window on the Bridge of the Law of Faith, his gaze piercing the reinforced glass as he studied the silver planet.
He held a Dataslate displaying a hazy star chart pieced together from ancient records and recent scans. Its coordinates largely matched the planet before him.
The silver light of the planet beyond the viewport lent his bronze face an especially composed look.
"Coordinates confirmed... this is the place," he murmured, his voice clearly audible on the quiet Bridge. "The location of the Eleventh Legion's Primarch."
He raised his head, swept his gaze over the officers standing ready and the contemplative Tech-Priests on the Bridge, and issued his orders. "Prepare to establish preliminary communications. At the same time, dispatch a reconnaissance advance team to attempt a low-Orbit scan and assess the planet's