The fleet advanced in a standard "trident" formation, with Szarekh's Royal Fleet in the center, Imotekh's Sautekh fleet on the left flank, and Trazyn's Collection Fleet on the right.
Hundreds of Jackal-class cruisers formed the vanguard. Like sharks scenting blood, they raced through the meteor belt surrounding the planet, their bow-mounted scanner arrays working furiously to uncover any hidden threats.
"First scan complete. No anomalies detected!"
"Second scan complete. No anomalies detected!"
"The route ahead is clear. Safe to enter low orbit!"
The fleet began to accelerate.
Huge Tombstone Battleships, Scythe-class Cruisers, Ghost Arks... one Necron war machine after another entered orbit.
The golden vortex on the planet's surface grew clearer before their eyes. Its energy fluctuations were so powerful that every warship's armor trembled faintly.
Just then-
"Heh heh heh... you're finally in!"
A shrill voice, brimming with mischievous excitement, suddenly rang out over the public channel.
Every Necron's logic circuits froze for a moment.
The next microsecond, everything changed!
In the planet's orbit, around the Jackal-class cruisers, alongside the Tombstone Battleships, at every critical point in the fleet's formation-
Space began to warp.
Hummm-
With a piercing shriek of energy, gigantic armed platforms built from converted asteroids appeared out of thin air before the Necron fleet, one after another!
A full hundred and twenty of them!
Like hideously ugly steel sea urchins bristling with spikes, they packed the entire orbit!
"This... this is impossible!" the Necron technician responsible for scanning shrieked in disbelief. "They weren't there a moment ago! The scanners registered nothing!"
"A Stealth Field? No... these energy fluctuations... Phase Folding?!"
On the bridge of the foremost Jackal-class cruiser, before its captain could even grasp what was happening, an Asteroid Fortress more than five kilometers across suddenly appeared less than a hundred meters from his bow!
The