Lorgar's voice echoed across the bridge, carrying unquestionable authority and resolve.
His orders traveled swiftly through the communications network to every warship and every battle station.
Yet the very next second after his voice faded, alarms rang out.
They were sharp, piercing alarms, like fingernails scraping across glass, sounding simultaneously aboard every warship in the fleet.
Red warning lights spun rapidly overhead, bathing the entire bridge in an unsettling crimson glow.
The atmosphere on the bridge turned tense in an instant. Mortal officers and Tech-Priests worked feverishly at their stations, their voices overlapping on the communications channel with barely contained panic and anxiety.
"Primarch! Massive warp energy fluctuations detected! Bearing—all directions! We're surrounded!" the officer responsible for the Sensors array reported loudly.
Lorgar strode to the holographic display at the center of the bridge. His gaze swept over the rapidly changing readings, and his brow furrowed deeply.
He could feel the power pouring out of the warp growing at an astonishing rate, like a colossal beast rising from the depths of the ocean, opening its vast maw to swallow the entire fleet whole.
An immense warp storm was taking shape.
Lorgar could feel the malice and intent within that power.
The storm churned, spread, and swelled through the void like a living thing, encircling the Word Bearers' fleet.
The stars outside the windows were instantly swallowed by roiling, ink-black darkness. Only occasional flashes of dark lightning streaked through the gloom, illuminating the silhouettes of warships being battered by the storm.
"Damn it." Lorgar slammed his fist against the console with a heavy thud.
He knew the warp storm's formation could not possibly be such a coincidence.
At such a precise time, in such a precise place, at the critical moment when they were about to reach Prospero, this storm's appearance