Magnus's preparations had achieved their intended effect. Utilizing Sortiarius itself as the primary power source, with arcane Chaos artifacts deployed as nodes throughout the system, the pre-cast ritual generated a roiling, unstable energy field. These leaking energies did not merely erode the surrounding dead worlds; they began to corrode the Imperial fleet currently locked in battle.
Chaos erupted across the Imperial ranks in an instant. Mortals manning the macro-cannon decks, caught in the sight of the grotesque, Warp-born manifestations, were driven to madness; many turned their weapons on their comrades, while others cowered in corners, reduced to catatonic, babbling wrecks. Countless horrific daemonic entities bled through the hulls of ships. Those with weaker wills were instantly consumed, their very bodies transfigured. Even the Machine Spirits of some vessels faltered, causing lance batteries that had reached full charge to suddenly stall, their volatile energies detonating within the focusers and inflicting crippling, senseless damage upon their own ships.
The Imperial forces had never conceived of a reality where they would need to maintain Geller Field integrity while maneuvering in realspace.
Vibrant, maddening bands of iridescent color swirled around the perimeter of Sortiarius, cloaking the planet in an aura of mystery. In a singular, terrifying moment, the output of the orbital defense platforms spiked several-fold, forcing the Imperial fleet to withdraw from the system entirely.
The situation began to exceed Axion's initial calculations. To capture the targets alive, he could not employ cataclysmic weapons, yet conventional armaments proved ineffective against the enemy's bizarre, shifting defenses. With the problem clearly defined, the only remaining option was to mirror the ancient methods of the Imperium: an old-fashioned ground assault.
Full-spectrum identification, long-range auspex sweeps, and myriad other scanning protocols had all failed. The power of Chaos acted as a literal barrier, clouding the Iron Men's sensors. Aside from locking onto the active weapon platforms, Axion could glean no specific data from the planets themselves. Worse, as the Imperial fleet was pushed out of the system, the cessation of hostilities meant the firing points themselves faded back into the shroud of Chaos energy.
Lacking intelligence, the Iron Men would not risk a blind deployment. After rapidly iterating through various combat simulations, Axion decided to deploy a wave of reconnaissance units to map the status of every planet in the system before committing his main force.
Deep within the Void Sword's hold, a massive array of mechanical structures roared to life. Large numbers of bipedal robots, ten meters tall, dwarfing the Erratana-class armed automata, began to assemble. These were the Reaver-Eviscerator Armed Reconnaissance Automata.
Had the Emperor seen these, the sight would have been chillingly familiar. Once, He had led His artificers to capture a dozen severely damaged Reaver-Eviscerators; after extensive modification, refitting, and crude repairs, those units had been gifted to the First Legion. Indeed, the Reaver-Eviscerator was the very 'progenitor' of the Excindio battle-automata.
Their matte-grey alloy chassis stood in stark contrast to the standard units of the Iron Men. Unlike typical humanoid battle-mechanics, these reconnaissance units possessed combat capabilities far exceeding standard models, paired with high-output quantum communication arrays. Each Reaver-Eviscerator was not merely an autonomous entity; they operated within a unique, interlocking data-exchange system. If long-range quantum comms were disrupted, the units would relay data between themselves, chain-linked; as long as even a single unit was recovered or reached a zone of clear signal, the intelligence gathered by all would be uploaded instantly.
In terms of armament and survivability, their combat power surpassed most dedicated assault units. Every chassis came standard with integrated nano-emergency self-repair modules, supplemented by five redundant, disposable STC repair-modules. Their ultra-dense alloy structures granted them terrifying defensive capabilities and incredible load-bearing capacity for heavy weaponry. Their biomimetic, five-fingered power claws were not merely for melee; they were capable of performing complex, delicate manipulations.
Furthermore, each arm mounted a standard dissociation cannon capable of breaking down most known matter, paired with a neuro-inductive crusher. Throughout their frames, gravity-regulation devices not only accelerated their movement but provided unparalleled adaptability. A Reaver-Eviscerator could navigate high-gravity worlds or provide additional thrust in vacuum and low-gravity environments. The protrusions on their shoulders allowed them to focus this gravity into a weapon, emitting waves of crushing pressure, a tactic designed to collapse enemy bunkers and fortifications when direct fire from dissociation cannons proved insufficient.
Their integrated stealth modules provided a degree of information masking; holographic projectors woven across their armor could hide their massive bulk from casual observation. Such terrifying design specs meant these scouts possessed not only extreme survivability but also the independent capability to annihilate entire enemy forces. If necessary, these units could autonomously prioritize surface targets and coordinate joint combat maneuvers. Their gravity-arc generators could resonate in unison, unleashing a devastating, wide-area strike; any physical matter caught in the field would be crushed into dust.
The assembly process was swift. These 'compact' scouts marched in perfect formation, passing the hulking frames of the Destroyer-class automatons. Unlike the Imperial practice of deploying in squads of ten or twenty, the Iron Men's deployment density was absolute: these machines entered specialized alloy transport-cradles in batches of three hundred. These pods were then moved to the exterior of the Void Sword, slotted into massive magnetic rail-launchers, and prepped for deployment.
Axion did not want to gamble on whether these Warp-dabblers could intercept a standard warp-jump. Based on the assault on the Iron Warriors' fortress-world, warp-transit left distinct signatures. The Iron Warriors had no means of interception, but that did not mean these Thousand Sons sorcerers, capable of manifesting such potent defensive energies, could not simply destroy a target mid-transit.
The Void Sword, which had been silent for nearly two Terran hours, once again blazed with light.
Dense salvos were fired, one after another, at every planet in the system. Energy weapons mixed with high-yield kinetic shells, raking across the surfaces in a non-specific bombardment, probing for weaknesses in the Chaos-enhanced planetary defenses. In certain non-essential sectors, the bombardment successfully identified gaps; bright fireballs erupted across the surface, followed immediately by focused secondary strikes on those vulnerable points.
Perturabo walked into the black stone tower of Magnus, where the air hummed with the oppressive weight of the Warp. The two primarchs stood together, watching the inexplicable, probing fire from the Iron Men's vessel.
"I have a sinking premonition, Perturabo."
"Hmph," the Lord of Iron spat. "They are merely squandering ammunition and energy. Such strikes are meaningless against the defenses I have laid. I shall not fall in the same place twice."
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