The Ork WAAAGH! really proved to be a nigh unending wave. After initial boarding actions to clear out a few vessels for study, the Gactica battlecruisers were free to let loose all weapons.

  And they’ve been stuck at the entrance for just over three Earth standard days now, bsting any craft that popped into realspace.

  Good thing that Nexus ships were fully kitted with energy weapons and rechargeable capacitors and batteries, otherwise precious time would’ve been wasted for our small fleet to rotate and resupply shells.

  The collection of wrecked ships and hijacked asteroids was getting dense enough that it was now visible through a powerful enough telescope, and new incoming invaders were beginning to ram straight into the wrecks when they dropped out of the Warp. A bit less work for us, but still, it will definitely be a hazard that needs cleaning up once this is all over with.

  The defensive cordon had proved highly effective and showed no signs of breaking anytime soon. Based on sensor bots plopped into the Immaterium, the horde was slowly but surely thinning down, with at most another three days of greenskins pouring through. After that, the numbers should drop enough to allow us to fall back to just a few destroyers to patrol the incursion point.

  Just in case, orbital fortresses were being built in the system, to be towed out to reinforce the cordon, and eventually fully repce the fleet and allow them to be reassigned out. Without having to worry about engines, more guns could be shoved into each structure, with enough space left over to accommodate a more advanced Kobol Spool blink drive that would allow the space forts to home in on our usual teleport beacons and jump there in a pinch, in addition to making blind tactical jumps to redeploy in a battle.

  With the alien invasion more or less dealt with, I focused some attention to the study of our trespassers. After confirming the whole ‘hyper-evolved fungus’ thing, I made sure the new bs built on our Earth’s moon were able to deal with spores and aggressive space hooligans before chucking the captured Orks in. There might be a few things about the aliens worth investigating, but it’s mostly to show the Nexus scientists the level of bullshit we’ll have to deal with in the future.

  An artificially created race with inherent knowledge built into their very gene codes, a very forgiving and durable physiology, and a gestalt psychic field that can bend reality?

  Apparently there were a lot of frustrated gnashing of teeth and tugging of hair from the xenobiologists that studied the Orks and their tech. It was confirmed that the greenskin aliens were bullshit of the highest order, at least for now.

  If we ever get to capture an Ensver, that’d probably top the charts.

  And with the Orks’ propagation via spores, at least no one’s seriously looking into interbreeding potential.

  Having to consider fostering an Eldar/human hybrid popution within the Nexus was already a bloody chore, especially with the likelihood of soul shenanigans involving Sanesh. Reviewing the ethics of cross breeding with a more violent race with a potentially built-in gestalt psychic field would be a nightmare.

  Speaking of nightmares, the Orks’ ships and asteroids marked for study had to be inspected remotely. With how fast they grew, there was a real risk of having to deal with newly grown Orks popping out from the shadows, and simply drowning the interiors in fire would likely damage the ramshackle tech we wanted to study. Plus, the aliens had no sense of building regutions, so there was a very real possibility of the vessels falling apart under our feet.

  So instead of wasting my soldiers’ time, squads of Mr Handy robots were let loose in the cavernous ships to essentially live stream their investigation for the bcoats back in Ix. I wasn’t there to see it, but Piper and Nat found Curie and the scientists’ appalling reactions to be highly entertaining.

  *****

  What was soon designated the ‘Nexus Empire’ in Imperial records was quickly deemed Ingressum Extremis after the reckless trespassing of the VIIIth Legion Night Lords. No further attempts at breaching their space would be tolerated, with any further attempts to be answerable to the Emperor Himself.

  Any further attempts at communicating with the Nexus Unity will only be done through official channels via their orbital embassy. With Mars being rebuilt and repoputed, and the Forge Worlds being brought back to heel under a reformed Mechanicum, the Imperium could not risk the supplies of war materiel that flowed and will be flowing from the Nexus’ embassy in the next five years.

  Among the primarch brotherhood to be exposed to the being called Sev and his Nexus Unity, reception was mixed. The Khan was perhaps the most apathetic about it all, though his intermittent communications with Magnus gave him a certain bias.

  The Death Lord, Mortarion, was said to be disgusted at the weakness of his brothers, and believed his Death Guard Legion to be capable of surmounting the challenges of eldritch Nexus technology. In that, the Gorgon, Ferrus Manus of the Iron Hands, and Perturabo, the Lord of Iron and primarch of the Iron Warriors, shared the same sentiments.

  The damage inflicted on Horus and his legion was indeed something to pause and consider, as was the confirmed restoration of Angron, yet the three primarchs remained certain that will and stubborn ingenuity would eventually overcome the Nexus, even if their leader Sev was untouchable.

  The Lion of the Dark Angels Legion was more quiet in his views, but shared the same disdain, though it was tempered by pragmatic caution.

  Fulgrim and Lorgar were ready to send their legions into Nexus space to repay the insult dealt to their brothers and Father. Only the Emperor’s decree and calming counsel from Roboute and Vulkan kept them from acting rashly.

  The Ravenlord, Corax, was more reserved in his views, though he exchanged frequent communication with his brothers that were present during the Nexus Encounter, Angron in particur. That might be cause for concern.

  Nobody knew what the mysterious Alpharius of the XXth Alpha Legion thought, mostly because he could not be found to be asked about the matter.

  Malcador knew, of course. The youngest primarch had been sent to ascertain the opaqueness of the Nexus borders. The Imperium would keep to Pax Nexus, but that didn’t mean they would not try to decipher the nature of their new neighbor. He agreed with the Emperor that preparations and precautions needed to be taken. There should be no bde held over the Imperium’s existence.

  To that end, discreet changes were made to the Imperium’s organization and the deployments in the Great Crusade. Some…guarantees needed to be ensured, and to that end, Angron and his reforged World Eaters would rejoin the campaign alongside Dorn and Ferrus along with their legions. Russ and Lion would work alongside Magnus, while Horus could be trusted to keep his favored brother Sanguinius on the right path.

  As for Konrad and Corax… The Sigillite decided to have Vulkan and Fulgrim monitor the reborn Night Lords, while Guilliman should suffice to advise Corax.

  As an added precaution, Lorgar and Perturabo were tasked to begin reinforcing the systems that bordered the Nexus. The former’s talent for demagoguery and instilling an unwavering loyalty to the Emperor would prove most useful here, while the tter could be relied upon to turn each world into a killing field, potentially one that might even give the abominations of the Nexus pause.

  The assignments were far from subtle, but the message needed to be clear. While the Emperor was busy speeding up the compliance of the Mechanicum, Malcador had to ensure that his old friend would not need to worry about his sons’ loyalties. The Imperium cannot afford to appear further fragmented.

  *****

  With the web of fate spreading out once more, the Eldar farseers found many paths that promised varying degrees of regrowth for their dying race. For better or worse, all of such possible futures were tied utterly to the Eldar’s cooperation with Sev and his Nexus Unity.

  Eldrad honestly could not find it in himself to resent such fates. Sev’s terms were generous enough, and while the culling of the fallen Webway Eldar was an atrocity, it was a necessary one in the farseer’s eyes.

  There would be no more possibilities of kidnapped and tortured kin, or the lesser races being fooled into false and wasteful enmity. In the sughter of millions of his corrupt kin, Eldrad saw the preservation of other more deserving lives.

  Not everyone thought that way, of course, but nobody was in the position to do anything other than silently resent the current arrangement. The Nexus’ export of Spirit Stones were too important to risk a tantrum over. And there were whispers of Commorite Eldar working with the godling in a mortal shell, and that they freely bound their souls to Sev rather than rely on Spirit Stones or leave themselves vulnerable to the Great Enemy.

  That notion disturbed Eldrad, but try as he might, his scrying found no hint of these Nexus Eldar being critically involved in the fate of their race. If the strands of fate proved true, these Nexus defectors would eventually become steadfast protectors and avengers of the race. Some would even have their own shrines in several craftworlds, as if they were Aspects Warriors of Asuryan.

  It was a matter to worry about for another time. For now, Eldrad and his peers from Ulthwe and other craftworlds carefully sifted through the strands of fate to navigate their race through the coming storm. Something was brewing in the very near future, something that had the potential to waft through the Eldar ineffectively, or raze craftworlds and maiden worlds.

  As ever, their ties to the Nexus was the key, but even the most basic details still escaped the most skilled farseers, so thick was the presence of dark powers muddying their sight. All the farseers could determine was that it involved Sev and the Emperor of the Imperium. And a glimpse of incomparable hope.

  Hope for an even greater resurgence of the Eldar, one that might fully free them from the maws of Chaos. And a hope that would serve as the spark towards a gactic confgration, with a damning price of thousands, even millions, of their race.

  Eldrad and his fellow farseers focused their full attention to this matter, taking turns to pick carefully apart the skeins of the future while debating on what they should do. Eventually, the autarchs were informed, and messengers sent to the enigmatic servants of the Laughing God, as well as those kin in the Exodite communities.

  A meeting was soon held, greater than the gathering in the treaty with the Nexus, to discuss the future of their race. Craftworlders, Exodites, and Harlequins were in attendance, every voice equally important in weighing a decision that might see the doom of many of them.

  “The choice, ultimately, is simple,” Eldrad summarized, raising an empty hand first. “We leave the gaxy as it is, and grow as we are. We as a race will lose as little as we gain.”

  He then lowered it, and raised the other hand. “Or, we seek the Nexus’ aid, and risk extinction by setting the gaxy abze to free our goddess.”