"Fabricator-General Antonia, I need to know how long it will take to charge."
"*&*￥, by the Omnissiah, the weapon will need approximately four days to deliver effective damage."
"All right."
Bona ended the call and watched the black clouds slowly bearing down on them in the distance.
He could clearly hear the oppressive presence of the distant hive mind. His thoughts were almost overwhelmed by the hive's madness and hunger.
This war would be utterly insane.
He had wagered everything for a single chance at survival.
One mistake at any stage would bring irreversible catastrophe, whether the immense cannon beneath his feet, extending from the planet's core, malfunctioned, or the Necron fleet failed to intercept the hive's reinforcement fleet.
Bona did not know what might go wrong, but he could not afford failure. If he failed here, trillions of humans would become food for the great devourer.
So he could not lose!
The battle reached fever pitch the moment it began.
All the naval warships that had answered the summons roared first. They did not even need to aim deliberately to hit the Tyranids blanketing the void ahead.
The Adeptus Mechanicus warships formed a firing line, their bow-mounted Nova Cannons opening fire in sequence. Shells accelerated to almost the speed of light easily punched several holes through the "black curtain," but those gaps filled again in the blink of an eye.
Vast numbers of Tyranid Harpies surged forward. Without hesitation, they slammed into the torpedoes slowly approaching them, then swept toward the distant human fleet in an overwhelming tide.
Every moment, the great devourer endured several times the punishment, but it did not care.
It detected a high-energy reaction taking place on that planet, then swiftly understood what it was from the memories of the tens of billions of humans