He swiftly began devising an entirely new plan. A head-on confrontation was clearly foolish. He needed a perfect trap, a cage capable of imprisoning even a "god."
Zerath immediately accessed the fleet's supreme command matrix. The Khaine-class Tombships, which had been adjusting their positions as the enormous energy cores at their prows gathered light for another volley, instantly received the Master Artisan's absolute, inviolable orders.
"Cease this meaningless expenditure. The destruction of the First Attack Cluster has already proven conventional firepower ineffective." Zerath's cold, metallic electronic voice echoed through the logic core of every Necron warship. "Activate the Phase Shift protocol. The entire fleet is to withdraw from the current coordinates immediately."
In the depths of space, the Necron fleet displayed a chilling, absolute discipline. There were none of the frantic communications or formation changes that accompanied a human fleet's retreat. The Dread Cruisers, as agile as jackals, reacted first.
The edges of their pitch-black hulls began to ripple and distort, as though an invisible eraser were forcibly rubbing them off the canvas of the cosmos.
Then the Khaine-class warships, like pyramids floating in a sea of stars, also began to fade. The geometric runes covering their hulls, glowing an ominous green, flickered violently at a reversed frequency. Strange green ripples spread through space around these behemoths, like rifts into unknown dimensions tearing open across the surface of a placid lake.
Within just a few breaths, this seemingly impenetrable, invincible fleet, powerful enough to crush an entire star system, vanished completely into the cold void beneath the brilliant afterglow of golden divine fire.
The entire region of space sank once more into deathly silence. Only the wreckage of the Scythe-class frigates remained, pierced clean through by golden lances and blasted into dazzling fireworks, bearing silent witness to the one-sided slaughter