"Emperor above, what is that?!"
"The Omnissiah has manifested!"
The Imperial forces stared in utter horror at the metal structure emerging from the enemy wreckage. Meanwhile, the sages and priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus monopolized the Auspex consoles aboard numerous ships, trying to gather more data and information.
The newly formed megastructure occupied a quarter of the Planetary Fortress's volume. Its immense size was beyond question.
The Heart of the Forge slowly adjusted its hull, then edged closer.
This gigantic structure was not actually an independent spacecraft.
It was a terrifying megastructure known as a Super-Mass Driver.
Its function was quite simple.
It used planetary cores as ammunition for super-mass projection.
In other words, it was a super-mass slingshot that used active planetary cores as marbles.
Compared with ordinary planets, the Orks' Battle Fortress had considerable mass, and its metal content was several times that of a typical mineral planet.
Although Ork metal refining looked crude and primitive, the resulting purity was actually quite high.
Those seemingly scrap-like metals were, in fact, remarkably complex and excellent materials.
Moreover, the mushrooms had absorbed considerable amounts of metal as they grew. Their blood, flesh, and even bones contained substantial quantities of metal ions.
The Nanomachines stripped away every last trace of these valuable substances.
Compared with the millions or tens of millions of individual Orks on each ground battlefield, Iax had no desire to waste time recovering those negligible quantities of metal ions.
But recovering the tens of billions of Orks aboard the Battle Fortress in a single sweep was extremely worthwhile.
The immense quantity of material pushed the Nanomachines straight to their maximum load.
If the "overstuffed" Gray Tide returned normally, even the Heart of the Forge would be unable to store so much material directly.
After all, the recovered material