In the warped void, countless beams suddenly erupted from the very front of the combined fleet.
Following the strangely distorted beams into the distance, they soon saw countless explosions erupt deep along the fleet's course.
"What happened?"
Although they had been prepared for their mechanical allies to open fire without warning, the sheer intensity of that barrage was clearly extraordinary.
The Men of Iron had plainly opened fire with their entire fleet.
Aboard their respective vessels, Calgar and Jaghatai both demanded reports from the bridge.
In truth, however, the crew and Tech-Priests at the auspex stations were even more bewildered than they were.
"My lord, all we know is that the Men of Iron's fleet opened fire first. We have no idea what they were attacking."
"To be precise, we detected nothing at all."
A Tech-Priest worked frantically at the console with both hands and an auxiliary arm, repeatedly adjusting countless parameters, but the result remained the same.
The auspex display was empty. Apart from the flickering markers of other friendly vessels, there was not a single hostile contact.
"My lord, we appear to be accelerating."
The crew reported every anomaly they noticed, while the captains turned their gazes toward the commanders on their bridges.
Yet none of the Imperial commanders, including Calgar and Jaghatai, issued any further orders. They wanted to see exactly what the Men of Iron had discovered.
Soon, they passed through the area where the explosions had erupted.
Countless metal fragments floated in the void.
"These all appear to be space mines."
A Tech-Priest identified the metal debris from some of the fragments.
These were ancient devices. Unlike the naval mines once laid in water, these space mines could be anchored in the void.
Because the veil here was extremely thin, the Red Corsairs had placed