Watching thousands of daemons, which had surged forth only moments ago, reduced to heaps of shredded meat within mere minutes by these mechanical constructs, the Harlequin Troupe could not help but gasp in collective awe. This was their first true witness to the combat efficacy of the Federation's Iron Men.
Specifically, the sight of the Destroyers, whose movements were no less agile than a small Wraith-construct, swinging their multi-meter-long power claws, left almost every Harlequin feeling a chilling sense of trepidation.
Under normal circumstances, after a new Webway gate is constructed, the Aeldari would dispatch scout parties to enter and exit through known nodes to test connectivity. This would be followed by material transport trials and structural load-bearing assessments.
However, the Harlequins saw no need to test this particular gate.
The fact that it had sustained such a massive influx of daemons without collapsing proved it was remarkably successful and stable. As for exactly how many horrors were currently bottlenecked within the Webway, that was of no concern to the followers of the Laughing God.
Constrained by their limited numbers, they had not constructed a portal large enough to facilitate starships. Nevertheless, this did not prevent them from earning the gratitude of Axion, who had personally requested their aid in establishing this beachhead.
In turn, the Iron Man provided a reciprocation.
An unusual device, encrusted with psychic crystals and boasting a distinct Aeldari aesthetic, was delivered into the hands of the Troupe Master by an automaton.
"The Iron Men shall answer one summons and provide you with assistance. This is a quantum communications device, retrofitted with psychic crystals to utilize warp-resonance as a power source. When the need arises, toggle the switch; the nearest mechanical vessel will respond."
Axion was well aware that the Aeldari did not utilize standard Imperial energy cells. This communication array was one of Axion's experimental ventures, though its energy consumption was catastrophic.
It was possible that quantum signals possessed a poor affinity for psychic energy; during testing, a single three-minute transmission would entirely deplete a psychic crystal. Consequently, Axion had only kept this one prototype and had no plans to produce further psychic-model hardware with such absurd resource requirements.
Yet, as a gift for these Harlequin allies, it was perfectly suited.
The Troupe Master accepted the Iron Man's tribute with grace before raising the matter of their departure, as they still had much to attend to.
Axion did not press them to stay, promptly arranging for automatons to escort them to the starport of the Titan's Spear.
As for how to close the Webway gate aboard his ship, Axion harbored no concerns. Once he located the Emperor's laboratory, he intended to simply plant a couple of low-yield demolition charges and seal the entrance permanently.
Soon after, an Aeldari escort ship, flickering with chromatic, mosaic-like distortions, emerged from the massive hull of the Titan's Spear. After giving the nearby Imperial Navy elements a significant fright, it accelerated out of the Solar System and vanished into the void.
Axion, meanwhile, settled into a protracted wait.
The Destroyers had been lashing out at the Webway threshold for dozens of hours. Yet, the moment their movements ceased, tides of daemons and Neverborn entities would immediately spill from the portal.
This caused Axion some confusion; he wondered exactly how many of these xenos-entities were piled up in the vicinity.
What he failed to grasp was just how provocative the opening of a Webway gate near Terra was to the daemons festering within.
Over ten millennia, the Webway arteries surrounding Terra had been packed with daemons, as congested as a necrotic intestine. The Neverborn fought ceaselessly amongst themselves to seize a position closer to the Great Psychic Torch.
Many among them believed that if they could only reach that colossal psychic sun from the material universe, they could siphon its infinite power and ascend as a new Chaos God.
However, the selfishness of daemonkind and the barriers of realspace held them back. They were incapable of cooperation, and without a grand sacrifice, they could not breach the veil of reality on their own. Within the Warp, the psychic sun would scorch these entities, forcing them to huddle in the interstices between reality and the Immaterium, straining toward that cold, solar radiance.
The daemons had located a structural weakness in the Webway, flooding into the tunnels from the Warp and piling up against the sealed Terran gate. They used this strange Old One technology to shield themselves from the Warp's searing heat while incessantly clawing at the Webway's lining.
Countless daemons waited in greedy anticipation within that labyrinth.
Then, Axion had opened a new puncture point near Terra. The compacted mass of daemons instantly began to erupt through this breach.
Fortunately, the aperture constructed by the Troupe was not vast. The Destroyers' power claws served as a near-perfect barrier. The frenzied daemons were met with the massive blades the moment they emerged, reduced to a slurry of fragmented remains.
The scene bore a grim resemblance to a kitchen slicer. The daemons poured out in a never-ending stream, only to hit the claws, howl in agony as their forms were shredded, and be physically banished back to the Warp.
The sheer volume of Warp energy released by the death of so many daemons began to drift through the hall, even corroding the floor and surrounding structures. Even the Webway gate itself seemed to be suffering. The dissipating Warp energy began to pollute the pure psychic resonance of the portal.
Strange mutations began to manifest on the wraithbone. Malignant, daemonic spikes sprouted from the gate's frame, threatening to corrupt it into a permanent Warp rift.
Axion naturally noted this spreading taint. Immediately, the Destroyers adjusted their combat protocols.
One Destroyer unleashed a torrent of white-hot promethium directly into the mouth of the Webway. The others retracted their power claws, which had already begun to glow and soften from the heat.
The fire blossomed within the tunnel, incinerating ranks of daemons into ash. After several minutes of maintaining the massive pillar of flame, Axion ceased the fire and observed.
For a few hundred meters within the Webway, the daemonic presence had been scorched into non-existence. It took several minutes before more daemons from further back refilled the corridor and began squeezing through the gate once more.
Axion had found his solution.
Five Destroyers were stripped of their bipedal assemblies to lower their profile, sacrificing some agility for tracked chassis. Uncertain of the Webway's internal dimensions, Axion limited the initial modifications.
The five tracked Destroyers reclined their upper torsos to minimize their height, narrowly squeezing through the highest point of the gate and into the Webway.
The daemons shrieked as they lunged at these massive machines, but their fate differed little from their predecessors.
The Destroyers quickly relayed telemetry of the internal space: the tunnel was over a hundred meters high and dozens of meters wide, exceptionally spacious.
With confirmed data in hand, every mechanical unit within the Titan's Spear was sequentially awakened.
It was time to advance.
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