For the Inquisition fleet sent to investigate, escaping the Warp through the tide of Daemons had already been a stroke of luck.
Countless Imperial Fleets sailing through the surrounding sectors had been caught unawares, smashed apart by the Warp surge or claimed as prizes by the Daemons. At least several dozen fleets of varying sizes had vanished into the Warp entirely, while more than ten Imperial Fleets defending against the Necrons around the Pariah Nexus had suffered heavy losses in sudden Daemon attacks.
Meanwhile, Iax's Mechanicus Ship fleet soon reached the territory of the T'au Empire.
News of Commander Shadowsun's defeat and the failure of the entire sixth Sphere of Expansion had already reached the T'au Empire.
The remnants of the T'au fleet still lingered near the battlefield, trying to find survivors.
Reluctant though they were, they could rationally accept Commander Shadowsun's defeat and the rout of her fleet. But the truth was far more terrifying than they had imagined.
The missing ships had not simply been routed. They had vanished from the universe altogether.
The remaining fleet's search was doomed to yield nothing.
Commander Farsight, stationed on the T'au Sept World of T'au, had no idea that death was drawing near.
The T'au Empire had undergone six expansions, four of which had succeeded. It encompassed twenty-one major Sept Worlds and nearly a hundred other ordinary planets.
Iax had no intention of bypassing a nearby target to seek one farther away.
The Mechanicus Ship fleet headed straight for the T'au homeworld, T'au.
As the birthplace of the T'au, it was heavily defended, with an enormous fleet that far exceeded the expansion fleet in size.
The reason was simple: it was too close to Ultramar, the domain of the Ultramarines.
Without enough ships stationed there, the Ultramarines would have wiped out