After all the Men of Iron's pursuit fleets crossed the Warp and returned to regroup, the entire fleet hung between the two sectors, falling silent in the gulf that separated them.
The vast armada anchored in that empty gulf, blockading the enormous molten Planet.
The gigantic ring whose function had once been unknown was gone, replaced by several immense structures enveloping the Planet.
Although the nearby Imperial Fleet did not understand exactly how they worked, it discovered that these strange installations were gradually drawing heat from the Planet and generating peculiar gravitational fields.
A gigantic Planet on a scale comparable to a star system could not exist under natural conditions.
If Iax wanted to prevent it from collapsing on its own, action was necessary.
The former Star-Ember Furnace was gone, replaced by a set of distributed structures positioned across the molten planet's surface according to precise calculations.
Unique dark matter singularities had been constructed inside these structures. The gravity they generated was enough to stabilize this enormous planet, which was at least two or three hundred planets in volume, and prevent it from collapsing under the gravity produced by its own mass.
These miniature black holes did more than balance the Planet's gravity. Iax also drew heat from the Planet and continuously fed it into these singularity structures, accelerating its cooling to make later mining easier.
While Iax waited for the spoils to cool, Guilliman studied a classified intelligence dossier from the Inquisition in Segmentum Solar.
The report truly exceeded anything he had imagined.
He had expected that even the Men of Iron would need at least several decades, perhaps a century, to eliminate the swarm's threat completely.
Yet in less than two years, they had forcibly driven the Tyranids out.
During that period, the Men of Iron had even