"Enemy attack! All hands, battle stations! Target: the giant unidentified object ahead!"
Lorgar's growl was like a silent thunderclap detonating on the bridge.
He needed no amplification. Laden with a Primarch's authority and the resonance of psychic energy, his voice instantly pierced every deck and branded itself deep into the minds of every Word Bearer warrior and crew member.
The Fleet, already on high alert a moment before, instantly became a fully awakened steel behemoth, baring every fang.
Inside the immense hull of the Law of Faith, countless commands prepared in advance were executed at once.
On the weapons decks, servo-arms worked with inhuman precision and efficiency, sliding heavy torpedoes dozens of meters long, armed with fusion warheads or matter disintegrators, into dark launch tubes. The clicks of magnetic locks snapping shut blended into a cold metallic symphony.
Among the macro-cannon arrays, autoloaders several stories tall rammed enormous armor-piercing shells or high-explosive warheads weighing several tons deep into breeches flashing with dangerous red light. Hydraulic systems hissed as they slowly adjusted the barrels' angles, while calibration modules ticked as rapidly as falling rain.
Turrets scattered across the hull rotated like the fangs of a giant beast. Lance emitter arrays radiating destructive energy began to charge, eerie blue energy gathering and compressing within the cores of enormous focusing crystals, giving off a hum that ionized the air.
Across the entire Fleet, the weapon systems of over a hundred warships of varying sizes simultaneously locked onto the colossal object whose outline had emerged from deep space, now approaching in defiance of the laws of physics.
The bowstring of destruction had been drawn taut, awaiting only a command.
"Lorgar, you've really hit the jackpot this time."
Anna's voice drifted lightly through the air, carrying an air of knowing confirmation, and even a barely