"Large-scale gravitational distortion detected. Calculating coefficients. Planetary-class celestial bodies detected approaching."
The same warning sounded almost simultaneously at multiple locations across the Eastern Fringe.
The scattered Mechanicus Fleet ships identified multiple enormous gravity signatures almost at once.
Huge flashes of green light blazed through the void, and planets appeared on the battlefield one after another.
Surging waaaahg fields pulsed again and again. The Orks' true engines of war had arrived.
These suddenly appearing planets bore enormous Ork symbols formed from lights and bonfires, like the savage grins of Gork and Mork.
Countless Orks raced across the planets.
The sight reminded some veteran Astartes of the War of the Beast.
The Orks' Battle Moons had appeared on the battlefield just as suddenly, even jumping to the outskirts of Terra.
But these planets were clearly even more outrageous than the Battle Moons.
For one thing, the Battle Moons of old had merely been converted from asteroid-class celestial bodies.
Those appearing now, however, were genuine planetary-class bodies.
More troublesome still were the numerous megastructures on those planets, easily visible even from space.
"What are the Orks trying to do?! Are they planning to cram all of Octarius into the Imperium?"
The Imperial commander stared at the sight, utterly stunned.
The actual situation, however, was rather complicated.
Although Steeltoof had found a way to reclaim Octarius and successfully drive out the Tyranid Swarm, the planets stripped bare by their feeding had indeed become lifeless wastelands.
Even to the Orks, these planets were now utterly worthless.
To address this, Steeltoof had gathered most of the Ork Clans and concentrated them in the former heartland of the Ork Empire.
But the decline in the number of usable planets brought a very immediate problem: there were too many Ork Boyz.
Millions, sometimes even tens of millions, of