As the Imperial patrol and the Ark Mechanicus prepared to launch their boarding parties toward the space hulk Gallowdark, the machine fleet arrived in force.
The commander of the Imperial patrol fleet nearly wept with relief at the sight of these "Iron Allies." According to the high-level dossiers issued by the Imperium, these enigmatic vessels were officially recognized as allies; any Imperial authority could petition them for tactical assistance.
Axion, for his part, found the presence of an Imperial fleet at the very fringes of the galaxy unexpected. However, his logic-engines quickly derived the cause: these Imperial forces had likely been drawn here by the catastrophic psychic wake left by the Void Sword.
Once a vox-link was established, Axion assessed the Imperial objective. They intended to board and explore the space hulk designated Gallowdark but lacked the necessary manpower for a venture of this scale. In this desolate reach of space, such a task would normally fall to the Adeptus Astartes, but there were no Chapters stationed in this sector.
As the heavy assault cruiser's sensors swept the gathered ships, Axion's attention locked onto the Iron Will. The oversized, archaic icon of the Iron Hands Legion was an eyesore across his data-feeds. The ship's engines were cold, yet its life-sign readings were immense – the count of Astartes signatures was staggeringly high.
In that bygone era, the Codex Astartes did not exist; there were no "thousand-man Chapter" restrictions. This Legion reinforcement fleet was carrying nearly four thousand Space Marines.
The situation struck Axion as anomalous.
The lance batteries on his heavy cruiser began to glow with cold energy, and massive ion turrets rotated upward from the hull. The Nova Cannon on his strike cruiser hummed with a lethal charge.
"All vessels are warned," Axion broadcasted. "Maintain positions and await inspection by Inquisitorial Black Ships. Any unauthorized maneuvers will be met with immediate lethal force."
Axion cared little for the shifting metal graveyard of the space hulk, but these ships, all of them, felt wrong.
The Ark Mechanicus, well aware of the Iron Men's terrifying firepower, was the first to power down its systems. In an unprecedented move, the Tech-Priests even actively counseled the Imperial Navy captains to comply. Their understanding of the "Silver Fleet" was far more intimate and fearful than that of the regular Navy.
The Imperial crews were left in a state of bewildered paralysis. However, fearing they might lose the mysterious hulk entirely, a Magos of the Mechanicum sent a cautious transmission, warning that space hulks of this nature were prone to sudden Warp-translations.
Axion did not dismiss the possibility of valuable salvage within the hulk, especially since the Federation distress signal was still emanating from the debris. To prevent the "disappearance" the Magos feared, more machine vessels arrived in system.
The industrial ships adjusted their headings, slowly bringing their massive hulls into physical contact with the space hulk. They were literally tethered to the wreckage. Nanite swarms flowed across the docking clamps, fusing the industrial ships' armor to the outer layers of the derelict's superstructure.
Only after a dozen vessels had physically grafted themselves onto the space hulk did the operation cease.
The Tech-Priests and Magi aboard the Ark Mechanicus watched in stunned silence. It was a solution as effective as it was brutal. These functional ships possessed precise navigational arrays and intact propulsion. Should the hulk attempt to flee into the Warp, these tethered vessels could activate their own Warp-drives to forcibly drag the mass back into the Materium.
The Imperium had occasionally attempted to "tether" hulks before, but usually only with crude magnetic grapples. Imperial ships were not like the Iron Men's living machines; without nanite-assisted fusion and AI-driven precision, no captain would dare press their vulnerable underbelly against a jagged space hulk. Such a move would typically result in the ship being crushed, becoming just another layer of the hulk's debris. Crude ramming, on the other hand, risked destroying the precious STCs or archeotech within.
The Imperium didn't want the hulk; they wanted the secrets buried inside. Otherwise, the simplest solution would have been to shatter the thing with macro-cannon fire.
The Gallowdark, seemingly possessed of a low, predatory awareness, sensed the danger. A massive Warp rift began to tear open, threatening to swallow the hulk whole.
Axion would not allow his prize to vanish. The tethered machine ships ignited their engines simultaneously. Their combined, titanic thrust physically wrenched the hulk, already half-submerged in the Empyrean, back into realspace.
An uproar of binharic disbelief erupted from the Ark Mechanicus.
Seeing the hulk's volatile reaction to the Warp, Axion optimized his containment. Nanite swarms began constructing massive Geller Field generators across the tethered industrial ships, drawing power directly from their reactors. As the shimmering, golden veils of the Geller Fields activated, the space hulk was effectively severed from its connection to the Warp.
Four Terran days later, the Warp-tide spat out four more vessels. Two Inquisitorial Black Ships, escorted by Guardian-class ships, arrived at the coordinates.
It was clear that while an Imperial Navy captain might have to wait months for an Inquisitor to answer a summons, the Iron Men commanded far more "clout." Axion's intelligence had immediately seized the Inquisition's attention. A direct order had been issued to the nearest Sector Conclave, and the Black Ships had followed the machine fleet to verify the situation.
Upon seeing the detained patrol fleet and the ancient Legion cruiser, the veteran Inquisitors realized the magnitude of the event.
Ships go missing in the Warp every day. Likewise, ships occasionally emerge from the tides as survivors. Time in the Empyrean is a fickle thing; a vessel might be missing for days in realspace but experience centuries within the Warp, or, as in this case, vanish for ten millennia while its crew perceived only a few hours of flight.
The Iron Will was a ghost of the Great Crusade. To its crew, they had only been off-course for a few hours before being drawn out of the "deep Warp" by the blinding psychic pillar.
Aside from the thousands of Iron Hands Legionaries, the ship was a treasure trove of pristine pre-Heresy wargear. Most notably, it carried a massive contingent of the Legio Cybernica, including a full Cohors Mechanicus of Castellan-class Battle Robots and their Magos Dominus overseers. These ancient machines, equipped with Blackfire Photon Thrusters, were relics that had long since been lost to the annals of Imperial history.