The Imperial Fleet had suffered devastating losses, and the Adeptus Mechanicus battleships had all but fallen silent. Yet Cawl's Ark Mechanicus, firing at full capacity, nearly matched the firepower of the entire fleet.
Macro-cannons of far greater caliber than those on other ships thundered relentlessly, alongside Lances with far higher energy density.
Since Cawl did not know the condition of the enemy Tomb Ship, he decided to deal with the other Necron vessels first and leave the behemoth for last.
Under Cawl's personal control, every shot from the Nova Cannon shattered a Reaper-class vessel's Phase Shield, and the Macro-cannon shells that followed immediately blasted it apart.
Meanwhile, the Lance Battery maintained suppressive fire against the Tomb Ship.
The massive detection system fitted to the King of Explorators proved invaluable to Cawl. Its excellent early-warning capabilities allowed him to steer the ark narrowly clear of the Tomb Ship's direct fire almost every time, before its main gun could fire.
Although portions of the outer hull sustained damage, this was not fatal to such an enormous vessel.
Faced with a space battle involving this degree of technological superiority, Guilliman could do little aboard the nearby Glory of Fire.
He had come here on short notice to meet Cawl and did not know the precise locations of the nearby fleets. When confronting a Necron fleet, the most effective approach was usually to deploy large numbers of ships and blanket it with fire from every direction.
Once the density of fire reached a certain threshold, it could penetrate those seemingly invincible Phase Shields.
Although Necron vessels retained excellent defensive capabilities even without their shields, their hulls still could not withstand concentrated direct hits from Lances or Macro-cannons.
But the main force in this war zone was Cawl's Hephaisto battle group. This vast armed force