Countless battles began and ended.
The war in Segmentum Tempestus was sliding toward utter collapse at a terrifying speed.
Within a single year, more than half of the thousand-plus fortress worlds that had once crowded the star map had vanished, as though erased by an invisible hand.
Only three hundred or so planets remained embroiled in war, struggling to hold the final battle line.
Every point of light that went dark marked an earth-shattering act of self-destruction, taking trillions of Tyranids with it.
This destructive means of obstruction had indeed inflicted heavy casualties on the swarm and greatly slowed its invasion.
Meanwhile, large numbers of evacuated mortal soldiers were consolidated on the remaining fortress worlds.
It was through these steadily accumulating mortal forces, rebuilding reserves and expanding orbital defenses, that resistance on the remaining fortress worlds gradually strengthened.
Each of those last three hundred or so planets now held billions of reorganized Astra Militarum troops.
The swarm's advances were delayed again and again, but the intensity of its attacks rose with each assault.
Iax's logic core operated at an unprecedented frequency, cold streams of data flowing through its computational core like a surging river of stars.
Over a year of warfare, Iax had stockpiled vast quantities of Tyranid remains, precious raw materials meant to be converted into fleets and weapons.
Reality, however, was cruel. The excessively long front was like a ravenous maw, devouring every scrap of available fighting strength.
The Men of Iron fleet, from the immense Radiant Conqueror Titans to ordinary Mechanicus Weaver industrial ships, was operating almost entirely at full capacity.
The Titan fleet moved through the burning star regions, using the unstoppable destructive power of its Doomsday Weapons to blunt the swarm's spearheads.
Sometimes, it also had to fill the defensive voids left by destroyed fortress