Facing the Orks' disorganized fleet and the greenskin forces already entrenched upon the ground, Axion's directives were ruthlessly direct.
The Regression-class fleet activated their spatiotemporal control fields, the Chronological Controllers, repeatedly. The massive Iron Men fleet was swiftly annihilating Ork flotillas within the past; large-scale temporal distortions were now erupting across the entirety of the extreme Eastern Fringe.
This was precisely the cataclysmic scenario humanity of old had once dreaded.
By utilizing Chronological Controllers to rewind the clock, the Iron Men weaponized time to erase enemies in the past before they had even embarked. To the Iron Men, such an operation was eminently efficient and logical. The consequences of spatiotemporal instability, however, were not a concern for the machine mind.
A Sapient core functions only on the concepts of command completion and efficiency optimization. The ultimate expression of efficiency is to resolve a problem before it ever manifests. Had the operational limit of the Regression-class fleet's controllers not been capped at one thousand years, Axion would have considered locating the Orks' primordial cradle-world and regressing to the moment of their creation to erase the entire species from history.
Fortunately, temporal technology possessed its own inherent limitations; otherwise, none could fathom the horrors that might have been unleashed.
Even so, the massive rewinding of time affected far more than the void-war. Many Imperial worlds already suffering under Ork invasion were similarly impacted. Vast numbers of Orks engaged with Imperial forces, along with their crude constructs and hovering fleets, began to vanish in swathes due to the onset of temporal paradoxes. Where the Orks disappeared, bizarre spatial warps manifested.
Driven by the inherent caution of the unknown, Astartes from various Chapters, Ordo Xenos Inquisitors, and elite mortal units were forced to investigate these anomalies. During their reconnaissance, those who approached the spatial distortions reported staggering visions.
Some witnessed echoes of ancient wars fought tens of thousands of years ago. These visions included the eradication of indigenous Xenos by Iron Men in the distant past, followed by images of the first human colonists arriving to begin their new lives. Others beheld even more ancient and chaotic scenes, it was as if every fragment of time had been crushed and twisted together into a single point.
The situation soon turned from the surreal to the catastrophic. Multiple nearby spatial warps began to gravitate toward one another, merging into a singular entity. What were once mere cracks in reality suddenly detonated like a breach in the hull of the universe.
Massive spatiotemporal chaos erupted, a disaster of nearly apocalyptic proportions.
Almost every Imperial world invaded by Orks subsequently reported significant troop disappearances. These missing units were almost invariably swallowed by spatiotemporal rifts while investigating the battlefields where the Orks had vanished.
The true nature of the threat remained a mystery until a Librarian from an Astartes squad submitted vid-log recordings from his power armor. A fire support team had been observing a rift formed by the union of several temporal warps. Suddenly, as if provoked, the rift expanded violently, surging toward the squad. The Librarian managed to use psychic teleportation to relocate himself and his battle-brothers a hundred meters away just in time.
The weapons and equipment left behind were devoured by the breach. When the rift contracted, the gear, and the very ground beneath it, had vanished entirely before the eyes of the survivors.
Faced with this phenomenon, the Tech-Priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus were the first to propose a solution. They requisitioned servitors equipped with cabled recording devices and sensory arrays. Shaking with ritualistic trepidation, the Tech-Priests directed the servitors toward the rifts to ascertain the conditions within.
The results were disappointing. The transmitted images were distorted and grotesque, and the data cables were severed almost instantly. The limited data returned by the sensors was in a state of total flux, strange and warped, as if the temporal rift led directly into the depths of the Warp.
Though the Imperial forces could not comprehend the "why" of the situation, they seized the opportunity to push their lines forward and return to their original eastern defensive perimeter. It did not take long for them to discover further anomalies.
Vast stretches of the combat zone were littered with the wreckage of Ork warships. The sheer volume was staggering. They even found the shattered remains of Ork vessels that had been reported invading Imperial worlds and were supposedly destroyed there, now appearing here in the void.
Following the trail of drifting debris, the Imperial fleet soon caught up with the Iron Men fleet, which was currently demonstrating "two hundred percent" weapon accuracy. Because the status of the Ork fleets varied across the front, the temporal echoes differed. Some regressed Ork ships even managed to inflict damage on the Iron Men fleet, leading to certain sectors of space being subjected to multiple temporal rewinds.
These regions, subjected to repeated regressions, were rapidly becoming unstable.
According to the ancient temporal technology protocols of the Federation, such a vast front should have seen multiple Regression-class fleets deployed for a synchronized, singular rewind, followed by a total cessation of temporal activity to prevent unpredictable consequences.
However, the Iron Men lacked the relevant technical archives; such high-level temporal theory had never been downloaded to their cores. Axion's reckless actions resulted in varying time differentials across every regressed sector of realspace. These temporal discrepancies were now literally tearing the Materium apart.
…
"Phaeron Hemera!"
Within a colossal structure of distinct Necrontyr architecture, a Chronomancer bowed respectfully before releasing a holographic projection. A relentless stream of warning glyphs in the Necron tongue flickered across the display.
Thump. Thump.
Green energy flared within the seams of a towering metallic silhouette. One hand gripped a massive metal staff, the symbol of his rank as Phaeron, striking the floor in a rhythmic cadence, while the other rubbed a living metal chin.
"Such a massive disruption of spatiotemporal technology... which fool is abusing the Dynasty's relics? Is Overlord Isidora experimenting with a new device?"
"We have intercepted a portion of the disturbed temporal wave-oscillations," the Chronomancer replied. "This is not the technology of our Noskellan Dynasty. This method of temporal control appears... crude and primitive. It is fraught with destructive instability toward the fabric of the world itself."
Among the many Necron Dynasties, the Noskellan Dynasty was preeminent in the mastery of chronometallurgy and temporal science. They were uniquely aware of the perils inherent in the misuse of time.
Phaeron Hemera did not hesitate. He immediately initiated a "communique" with Lord Cassius.
Any temporal technology was dangerous; left unchecked, it could jeopardize the entire galaxy. Shortly thereafter, an entire Necron fleet from the Noskellan Dynasty translated rapidly out of their pocket-dimension domain, setting a direct course for Axion's machine fleet.