To the two Guardian-class ships, the T'au fleet posed no challenge at all. Solutions for cracking its rudimentary intelligent controls and even its communications protocols were already available through shared data.
The Gestalt Intelligence Cores of the two Guardian-class ships needed an increase of barely seventeen processing basis points to seize control of a Hero-class cruiser.
Every processing unit aboard the compromised cruiser was soon occupied, and immense volumes of high-frequency signals spread from it to the other cruisers nearby.
The T'au's Unified Command-and-Control System had practically opened an express lane for machine intelligence.
By comparison, the Imperium's rudimentary reconnaissance systems could do little beyond communication and positioning.
The interconnected T'au ships could concentrate their firepower and coordinate their operations more effectively.
But against silicon intelligence, this approach was almost fatal.
Within mere minutes, the entire T'au fleet had been compromised and stripped of control.
At the same time, every processing unit aboard the T'au ships was taken over by the intelligences of the two Guardian-class ships. They began turning those systems against their owners, controlling all the T'au fighters and equipment aboard the vessels.
The sudden turn of events briefly threw both the Imperium and the T'au into confusion.
Numerous T'au ships rapidly swung their guns toward the three Kroot Roks beside them and concentrated their fire. Under a dense barrage at extremely close range, three enormous fireworks erupted amid the fleet.
The sight utterly stunned the Imperial Navy.
The Guardian-class ships activated their engines, then brazenly sailed into the T'au fleet, one on either side.
As the Guardian-class ships advanced, the T'au fleet changed course as well, adopting the fleet formation used by the Men of Iron. The Explorer-class battleships turned and took their places in the center, while the Custodian-class battleships moved to the rear, with smaller