At the edge of the Imperium's domain.
The Ancre Star System.
This was a forgotten corner of the Imperium.
Here, the bustle and splendor among the stars gradually faded, giving way to scattered starlight and endless darkness.
Looking outward from the edge of the Star System, one could see only a deep, seemingly endless void. Occasionally, a few distant stars flickered faintly in the darkness, like lighthouses lost in the depths of an ocean.
This was the end of the Imperium's domain, the limit of human civilization's expansion. Beyond lay the unexplored Wilderness Star Cluster, filled with unknown dangers.
The Ancre Star System itself was unremarkable.
It had no thriving colony worlds, no important strategic resources, and no busy shipping lanes.
For years, no one had paid it any attention. Apart from a handful of Adeptus Mechanicus mining bases clinging to the Asteroid Belt, working day and night to extract its rather meager mineral resources, there was virtually no human activity worth mentioning anywhere in the Star System.
At the center of the Star System, a blue giant burned quietly. Its Blue Light spread soundlessly through the vacuum, illuminating the few barren planets and the Asteroid Belt around it.
That ordinary scene had been utterly shattered several years earlier.
A vast Adeptus Mechanicus Fleet had appeared at the edge of the Ancre Star System.
The sheer size and number of its warships had instantly shrouded the entire Star System in an air of steel and fire.
Leading them was a heavily modified, supermassive warship, almost the size of a small city. Dense arrays of sensors, energy conduits, and weapons platforms covered its hull.
An enormous, eye-like circular structure was mounted on its prow. Eerie blue energy flowed within it as it slowly turned in the darkness, like the pupil of