After receiving a definite reply from the Men of Iron, the Adeptus Mechanicus fleet from Lucius watched the Men of Iron's industrial fleet depart and sent an Astropathic communication to the distant Forge World of Lucius, informing it of the Men of Iron's impending visit. Only then did it slowly activate its engines and resume its journey to exchange technology with Cawl.
Yet to the fully networked Men of Iron, that unreliable Astropathic communication was absurdly slow.
The Mechanicus Fleets operating throughout the Milky Way reacted far faster than the Sages and Priests of the Lucius Adeptus Mechanicus.
The many standard fleets that had previously answered Guilliman's orders to deal with rampant piracy in the dark side of the galaxy, only to spend ages being led on a chase, soon detached a fleet and sent it straight toward the Forge World of Lucius.
When this standard fleet reached the outskirts of Lucius, the Priests and Sages stationed on the Forge World still had no idea that an extraordinary windfall was about to descend upon them.
A vast heraldic emblem resembling a modified letter L had been burned into the planet's surface, spanning nearly thirty kilometers from top to bottom.
Its markings were clear and filled with intricate details.
Compared with the streams of plasma wastewater and ecological disasters found on other Forge Worlds, conditions on Lucius were much better.
Like other Forge Worlds, its surface was covered with forges, factories, smelting furnaces, machinery, and other industrial facilities, all operating continuously and producing vast amounts of smoke, steam, and light.
Pipes and cables crisscrossed everywhere, linking the factories and facilities into a vast, complex industrial network.
The clouds formed in the sky by mildly radioactive industrial emissions brought radioactive rain and acid rain only occasionally.
As an extremely important military production