By the time a lone Strike Cruiser, emblazoned with the crimson cog of the Adeptus Mechanicus, tore through the Warp-tide to emerge near the northern reaches of the Ultramar Sector, Belisarius Cawl had already finalized his preparations.
Given the precipitous decline in combat effectiveness for mortal troops within the Pariah Nexus, Cawl assembled a cohort of heavy battle-servitors and several Lucius-pattern combat automata. He then summoned Axion for a series of preliminary interface tests.
The moment Axion assumed command, he effortlessly overrode the logic-engines of every servitor present. For the first time, Cawl observed these typically rigid, lumbering machines move with a fluid, synchronized lethality he had never before witnessed.
His theories validated, Cawl immediately petitioned the local Forge Worlds of Ultramar for additional assets.
The prosperity of the Five Hundred Worlds was no mere boast; the local Adeptus Mechanicus was exceptionally wealthy. Cawl managed to requisition nearly a full regiment's worth of high-end battle-servitors, a move that allowed the local Magi to clear out vast stockpiles of aging munitions. As for the cost? This was Ultramar. One look at the massive blue demigod standing nearby, towering even over his fellow Ultramarines, was enough to convince any Magos to send the bill to the Imperial Treasury.
After transferring command of these units to Axion, Cawl also secured a squad of Lucius-pattern combat automata. These highly versatile Mechanicus constructs possessed formidable ranged firepower and reinforced plating. They were capable of fielding las-cannons and energy projectors alongside heavy power-claws and cutting blades. Though they lacked energy shielding, their mobility and thick armor ensured high survivability on the battlefield.
However, once Cawl fully integrated these automated forces and handed them over to Axion, he began to seriously doubt the historical accounts claiming the ancient Iron Men were defeated and driven away.
While Axion expressed satisfaction at the sudden influx of materiel, he found the intelligence of these Mechanicus constructs to be utterly lamentable. Their control systems were convoluted, their processing cycles inefficient, and their physical quality wildly inconsistent.
The battle-servitors were largely fashioned from the lobotomized remains of criminals or prisoners of war. These biological foundations were inherently flawed; even after crude cybernetic augmentation and the grafting of heavy weaponry, their organic chassis remained fragile.
In the eras Axion remembered, such units wouldn't even qualify as cannon fodder. They were essentially single-use delivery systems. Axion's internal simulations predicted an attrition rate exceeding 70%. In terms of cost-effectiveness, they were little more than high-grade scrap.
Nevertheless, compared to mortal troops of higher "quality," Axion preferred leading these mindless drones. Precisely because they were mindless.
Following a massive batch-format and a total rewrite of their command protocols, the performance of these semi-biological machines improved exponentially. Their projected combat efficiency doubled before Cawl's eyes.
Throughout the process, Cawl and Axion ran multiple tactical simulations. Cawl was explicit: the objective known as the "Breath of the Gods" could only be destroyed. Though Cawl's intellectual hunger tempted him to study it, he knew the Aeldari harbored their own designs for the device. Despite their current alliance, Cawl maintained zero trust in the xenos.
Furthermore, if they hoped to return after the mission, they would have to utilize the Aeldari Webway. Imperial vessels could not directly penetrate the depths of the Xendu System within the Pariah Nexus to extract the entire force.
Extracting Necron technology through an Aeldari Webway gate? Unless the xenos had collectively lost their minds, the probability of success was non-existent.
Once Guilliman had authorized the Departmento Munitorum to provide a Battle Barge to transport the bulk of the forces, Axion and his retinue boarded the Strike Cruiser "borrowed" by the Blood Ravens. There, under the intense scrutiny of Astartes clad in various patterns of power armor, Axion met their commanding officer.
Cohn, a Librarian formerly of the 3rd Company, had been tasked by Chief Librarian Jonah Orion to lead two companies of Battle-Brothers. Their mission was to assist in this "Mechanicus excursion" to maintain political standing with the Archmagos.
When the invitation had come directly from Archmagos Cawl himself, Cohn had not hesitated. The prospect of a newly discovered ancient ruin, especially one within a Necron zone of influence, was enough to bring the Blood Ravens to Ultramar at best speed.
Though his Librarian's intuition had detected a certain... irregularity in the request, Cohn's hunger for ancient lore provided him with an easy internal justification. Perhaps the ruin was so sensitive or contained artifacts of such a nature that Cawl didn't want the Ultramarines involved. After all, despite being in Ultramar, Cawl possessed his own private armies of Unnumbered Sons and Greyshields.
Despite the many questions, Cohn continued to convince himself. Even when his psychic divinations returned nothing but a void regarding the mission's outcome, he chose to trust Cawl's word.
However, when he saw Axion arrive, flanked by his personal guard and twelve Armored Wardens, each nearly the size of a Dreadnought, Cohn's resolve wavered.
After hastily sequestering these "ancient machines" into a secure bay as per Cawl's specific instructions, Cohn issued a strict order: no battle-brother was to approach that deck.
Cohn immediately gathered every Librarian aboard the ship. Combining their psychic might, they attempted a collective divination.
Usually, such a ritual would yield clear portents or a wealth of cryptic data. This time, there were only hazy, flickering images, fragments of a vision. They saw Necrons, Aeldari, a swarm of strange black shadows, and fields of scattered, broken metal.
Cohn etched these images into his mind, obsessing over the silhouettes of those black shadows. They bore a chilling resemblance to the ancient machines he had just ushered into his hangar.
The fleet weighed anchor. The Strike Cruiser and the Battle Barge plunged into the Warp, steering toward the coordinates provided by Cawl.
The Librarians remained huddled together, debating the visions and designing combat contingencies. The Blood Ravens were unique among Codex Chapters; despite their mysterious origins, they boasted an unusually high number of Librarians. These psykers used their gifts to find the "crucial nodes" of a conflict before the first shot was fired, allowing the Chapter to secure its objectives with surgical efficiency.
Though they remained suspicious of the mission's true nature, the prophecy had clearly shown a massive construction of Necron architecture.
Naturally, the Blood Ravens assumed this was the "ruin" Cawl had mentioned. They had no idea they were looking at the Breath of the Gods, nor did they realize its location was not the planet they were heading toward, but the deepest reaches of the Xendu System.
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