As swarms of Tyranid Beasts surged across the planet, the Transport Aircraft continued toward the Hive Cities as usual.
Meanwhile, the Pectaro in orbit aimed directly at the Hive Cities and their surroundings, sweeping them with particles.
The high-energy particles, devastating to living organisms, caused only minor interference to the Sentinels inside the Hive Cities.
The Sentinels completed their withdrawal with ease, just before blood in all manner of bizarre colors nearly submerged them.
More than a third of the hundreds of millions of Tyranids remaining on Planet were wiped out.
The Relativistic Particle Emitter's particle beam had a limited diameter, making clearance far too slow. Planet's composition and thickness also meant the beams could penetrate only a few dozen meters below the surface, making it fundamentally unsuitable as a planetary weapon. It was merely exceptionally effective against foolish creatures like the Tyranids, which never took cover.
Plasma, on the other hand, would incinerate the entire Planet. Unless Iax was granted the right to use Planet, he would not consider simply glassing it.
After all, glassed Planets usually lost their practical value.
Unless the aim was mining.
Besides, Vorsid was not his base Planet. Wantonly destroying it might affect how his military contributions were assessed.
When Iax's Pectaro returned to nearby Vorsid III and began busily unloading equipment, clearing the glassed surface, and building factories, the two scout ships finally could not hold back any longer.
Following instructions received from the rear, they transmitted friendly identification signals to the Pectaro.
Iax responded according to the signal protocols Guilliman had provided.
He also attached a scanned copy of a document jointly authorizing his activities, issued by the Imperial Regent and the Adeptus Mechanicus.
After testing an approach and confirming that their ships were not attacked, they relayed the exciting news back