The Light of the People received a jumble of distress signals. Some messages had drifted through the Warp for hundreds of years before arriving.
After withdrawing from the Maelstrom, Evan had thought Victor would simply remain with the Imperial Fists' Expeditionary Force. Instead, he had returned—and helped himself to a great deal of Adamantium Armor before leaving.
Well, at least that cleared some space in the warehouse.
To be safe, Evan planned to put the Chapter into a period of recuperation, ordering the flagship toward Langjuxu for resupply.
Langjuxu's full-scale expansion had been completed. All its residents had evacuated, leaving only the Blank Archbishop and her AL production lines on the entire planet.
After they obtained the Necrons' Blackstone Nullification technology, Langjuxu became their first experimental planet. Even the most belligerent Orks landing there felt distinctly un-Waaagh. Not a single "flash of inspiration" came to them. They merely followed their instincts, picking up the straightest iron bars nearby and bashing things at random like Ogryns.
Adamantium Armor production on Langjuxu had already reached the limits of its transport capacity. Other supplies, such as servo systems and closed-loop life-support systems, were shipped in from other star systems and remained perpetually scarce. Only when Nian Cijin's Trade Fleet arrived could the production lines speed up a little.
From then on, the Chapter ignored every distress signal and focused on guarding its own territory.
Warship repairs took far too long. At least half the Chapter's ships were undergoing repairs, and Evan vetoed every proposed sortie.
A corridor of star systems was taking shape, connecting Segmentum Pacificus to the Calixis Sector. After extending past Langjuxu, it fanned out around the Dark Segmentum before finally petering out at the edge of the Ghoul Stars.
Even under these circumstances, they were not entirely safe.
For instance,