"All warships, attention. Leave Virgin Star's gravitational range immediately."
"The gravity generators are all in position. Watch for gravitational fluctuations and maintain a safe distance."
Piercing alarms played on repeat aboard every Ultramarines warship in the system. Vast numbers of mortal servants rushed back and forth, ensuring that movable items aboard the ships would not be damaged by the coming gravitational shock.
The Adeptus Mechanicus tech-priests had long since taken their positions aboard their respective vessels. They used every sensor at their disposal to observe the miracle about to unfold.
Binary messages flew between the Adeptus Mechanicus ships. Not a single follower of the Omnissiah would miss this historic moment. They watched and prayed with devotion.
In the Macragge system, along the outer orbit of Mustafar, the surface of an asteroid called Virgin Star had been fitted with numerous metallic tower-like structures over a hundred meters tall.
Their locations had all been calculated by the Cogitator with meticulous precision as gravitational reference points. The intersections connected by every gravity generator were the planet's center of mass.
Under the Cogitator's control, the densely packed gravity generators released terrifying gravitational fields, as though an invisible hand had seized the celestial body and continuously squeezed it.
The rocky asteroid erupted with violent seismic activity. Its interior steadily collapsed, and the loose celestial body transformed into an entirely new, exceedingly dense state.
At the asteroid's very core, where the Warp engine had been installed, even miniature atomic reactions occurred.
Guilliman and Lox witnessed the celestial body's transformation from the starship. The intense mass effect caused the nearby artificial craft to sway unsteadily.
"It is incredible. You did it—you turned an asteroid from space into an artificial weapon. A battle planet that can move freely on command." Guilliman praised him without reservation.
Amattra had cut