"Even Battle Barges aren't safe these days. What rotten luck." After the Light of the People swallowed the Battle Barge, Evan returned to the main command station of the Hive City-sized warship.
"All units, report your reconnaissance-by-fire results."
"No effect whatsoever. Our fire cannot penetrate their defenses."
"Phase one complete. Begin phase two." They began deploying bombs coated in T'au cerebrospinal fluid. Shadow Wasp fighters flew through the bombs that were "exploding normally." The anti-psyker warriors aboard ensured that their machine spirits would not rebel, while the data their Auspex collected was almost impossible to believe.
"Division commander! The high-energy detector is off the scale!"
The enormous Machine Planet below was spilling flesh, and souls were roaring. The entire world was no longer spherical, but was transforming into a gigantic war machine.
Astartes had little advantage in this situation. In a normal war, we would first deploy a Reconnaissance Company to a planet to gather intelligence, but who would send warriors onto an oversized Titan to scout it?
That was exactly what the enemy planet had become. Countless gun emplacements fired at the warships overhead without a single blind spot. Even the most advanced Void Shields on the Battle Barges could not hold out for long. Amid its constantly shifting, twisted constructs, several mysterious weapons could faintly be seen nearing completion.
"All warships, begin evasive maneuvers. Move behind the Light of the People at full speed wherever possible. Reconnaissance teams, have you found any vulnerable areas?"
"It keeps changing... kzzzt... all kinds of machinery are moving and combining... kzzzt... it's very difficult..." The communications link was unstable.
Shadow Wasp fighters skimmed through dense close-range defensive fire. Amid the sea of flames, countless materials vanished into thin air, and souls wailed. The souls fueling the Black Sun's core disappeared at a