The craft controlled by the Silica Animus maneuvered with uncanny precision, weaving through the dense formation of Imperial hulls. By the time Axion's vessel settled beneath the shadow of the Dawn of Fire, its upper superstructure had been utterly transformed.
A massive, singular longitudinal groove now split the center of the integrated hull. The Eight-Legs had detached from the main body, using their hydraulic manipulators to lash the two Cyclonic Torpedoes to the chassis. Meanwhile, a swarm of nanites worked feverishly within the kilometers-long central furrow, installing a series of repulsor-rails.
The oddly shaped ship no longer resembled a void-vessel; it had been repurposed into a gargantuan orbital rail-driver.
Compared to standard macro-cannon shells, which measured only a few meters in length, these decameters-long Cyclonic Torpedoes required a far more violent acceleration to be viable. To ensure a hit, Axion had to propel them at velocities rivaling a macro-battery discharge. For weapons typically used in Exterminatus operations, speed was traditionally a non-factor; the Imperium had never seen fit to construct a dedicated vessel merely to hurl Cyclonic Torpedoes like kinetic slugs. Such a niche application was far too narrow, and the cost was a burden even the Adeptus Terra could not justify.
Even the dreaded Attack Moons of the War of the Beast had eventually succumbed to the Imperium's terrifying boarding actions. But here, the balance of power was fundamentally shattered.
Looking upon that monolithic Ark of Omen, it was clear the vessel could house hundreds of millions of daemons, augmented by traitor hearth-guards and Chaos warbands, without appearing crowded. In contrast, the tens of Imperial ships led by Guilliman carried, at most, ten million souls. No matter how peerless the Ultramarines were in battle, they could not overcome such a disparity through conventional means. Furthermore, the internal structure of an Ark, a graveyard of fused Space Hulks, was a labyrinth of impossible complexity. Even if Guilliman desired a decapitation strike against Abaddon, a boarding action would be a death sentence in the dark.
Axion teleported directly from the ship's interior onto the outer hull. Looking at the two behemoths before him, he noted for the first time that the Cyclonic Torpedoes were not identical. He had witnessed the power of such weapons only once before, when Belisarius Cawl ordered the destruction of a Necron pylon; that Two-Stage Cyclonic Torpedo had left a lasting impression.
The two giant munitions floating in the void here, however, bore distinct designations and runic inscriptions. One was a Nucleonic Fire Torpedo; the other, a Plasma Atmospheric Incinerator Torpedo.
"Nucleonic Fire: Upon impact, generates extreme radiation and catastrophic thermal output to scour a planetary surface."
"Atmospheric Incinerator: Ultra-high efficiency plasma; upon contact, ignites all planetary oxygen, consuming the world in fire."
Axion paused, a rare moment of technological sentimentality crossing his processors. What a "temperate" way to kill—their yield was significantly lower than the Two-Stage variants he remembered. During the Great Expansion, if an alien world lacked strategic value for occupation, a Star-Crushing Cannon or a Planet Killer was the preferred instrument. One charge, one shot, and the planet was reduced to a clean, direct field of tumbling asteroids.
But he had no other options. To ensure these oversized incendiaries achieved maximum effect, Axion had to modify them. There was no atmosphere on the Ark to ignite, no oxygen to feed the flames.
Scanning the Atmospheric Incinerator, Axion sliced open its casing and released the nanite swarm into its guts. After consuming a portion of the original materials, he "sacrificed" several Automated Sentry-Troopers. Their particle oscillators were salvaged while their chassis were atomized for raw matter. Since this was a one-way munition, quality was secondary to functional lethality at the moment of truth.
When the overhaul was complete, the incinerator had been reborn as a colossal plasma bomb. Axion predicted its energy release would be roughly double its original specification. It would no longer attempt to ignite air; instead, it would release a momentary burst of plasma hot enough to rival half the temperature of a star, coating a third of the enemy vessel's surface area. After softening the outer hull with this thermal lash, the Nucleonic Fire torpedo would be driven deep into the Ark's core.
Axion knew from his data-breach that these fused hulks were not as structurally sound as they appeared—the points where shipwrecks overlapped were architectural weaknesses.
As the modifications finished, a massive magnetic cradle manifested on the ship's exterior. When Axion's vessel edged out from the shadow of the Dawn of Fire, the modified Incinerator was already locked into the driver. To ensure sufficient power, Axion slaved all energy to the repulsor-rails and cut the main engines.
During the fleet's next synchronized volley, a unique streak of light emerged amongst the macro-shells.
The daemon-kin within the Ark miscalculated, their warped logic-engines identifying the projectile as a mere macro-shell. They made no special move to intercept such "insignificant" bombardment. Lance beams hissed into the Ark's void shields, creating vast ripples, while solid shells slowed as they hammered against the energy barriers.
Then, a singular point of light caught every eye.
Amongst the decelerated shells, one massive projectile suddenly ignited its rear thrusters. Instead of slowing, it accelerated. Axion had embedded a logic-core into the torpedo during the sacrifice of his sentries; through remote protocols, he controlled the ignition timing with millisecond precision.
Void shields are designed to deflect energy and sap the kinetic force of solid matter. Against high-speed warships, a slowed shell is usually left behind in the vacuum. However, the Ark of Omen was too vast to evade, and the modified torpedo maintained its velocity through sheer, slaved thrust.
Abaddon the Despoiler, a veteran of ten millennia of war, knew every weapon in the Imperial arsenal, yet even he had never seen a "shell" of this geometry or scale. Guilliman, who had been watching Axion's every move, ordered his bridge crew to slaved the Augur-arrays to the fast-moving light.
WHOOOM—
A brilliant blue star erupted on the surface of the Ark of Omen.
In an instant, an arc of cerulean plasma expanded outward. Every soul on the battlefield was transfixed by the jump of ghost-blue light. Under the thermal lash, the Ark's exterior began to glow a hellish red. The kinetic impact of the fleet's other shells was momentarily forgotten as the molten hull began to spray outward like liquid mud.
A flower of blue fire and molten iron bloomed in the dark.
"By the Emperor..."
"By the Great Father of Machines!"
"Omnissiah preserve us!"
The vox-channels were a cacophony of awe. From the lowest ratings to the Tech-Priests and the Astartes, all were stunned into silence by the macabre beauty of the explosion. Amidst the stillness, Axion re-established the link to Guilliman.
"Order the fleet to fire another volley. The strike is not yet concluded."
The two torpedoes could not be launched simultaneously; the plasma bloom of the first would have triggered a premature detonation of the second. Axion knew the plasma would only burn a few kilometers deep. For a construct of this mass, the Nucleonic Fire torpedo had to be driven into the Ark's very heart to tear it asunder.
As for the "iron flower" he had created, Axion felt nothing. His post-strike assessment showed a 21% higher efficiency than predicted. He had initially intended only to repel the enemy, but now, his processors indicated that total destruction was within the realm of possibility.
——————
If you want to read ahead of everyone, go to my pat-reon: pat-re-on.c-om/magnor (remove the hyphen to access normally)