While the Necron vessels of the Noskellan Dynasty bore a silhouette not dissimilar to those of other dynasties, they were outfitted with specialized temporal acceleration arrays unknown to their peers. Driven by inertialess engines, the Necron ships transformed into streaks of ethereal light as their chronometric arrays hummed into life.
This technology granted the Noskellan Dynasty the true capability to manifest at any coordinate within the galaxy at a whim. Strange energies enveloped the outer hulls, artificially accelerating the flow of time relative to the vessels themselves. Already traveling at superluminal speeds, the Necron ships accelerated a hundredfold in an instant, vanishing utterly from the material plane.
Compared to the regression of time, forward acceleration inflicted negligible damage upon the fabric of the universe. The only entities imperiled were the materials subjected to the acceleration field itself; should a substance prove incapable of enduring the accelerated passage of eons, its only fate was spontaneous disintegration. Such technology was useless for biological entities, as no creature of flesh could survive the ravages of accelerated time. For the Necrons, however, having cast aside the frailty of the organic, the chronometric strain had become endurable.
The Noskellan Dynasty had existed since the era of the Necrontyr, its lineage tracing back to the dawn of galactic civilization. Originally composed of Necrontyr houses possessing peerless aptitude for science and strategy, they rose to prominence during the era of stellar expansion, forging a vast power base and a distinct dynastic culture. During the War in Heaven, the Noskellan Dynasty campaigned aggressively against the Old Ones, serving the C'tan to secure status and forbidden knowledge.
However, following the betrayal and imprisonment of the C'tan by the Silent King, the Noskellan Dynasty suffered catastrophic losses. Though they eventually reclaimed their standing through their deep-seated technological reserves, the experience left them with an abiding resentment toward the successive Silent Kings, harboring a particular hatred for the Szarekhan Dynasty. Since the outbreak of hostilities between Imotekh the Stormlord and the returned Szarekh the Silent King, these masters of temporal science had missed no opportunity to frustrate the Silent King's designs.
Bolstered by their temporal acceleration, Cassius soon led his fleet to the specified coordinates. Even for Necrons steeped in chronomancy, the sight of the spatiotemporal anarchy saturating the void caused a metaphorical chill to run through their metallic forms. Though Cassius was an adept in the chronometric arts, incorporating them into his myriad tactical doctrines, he had never witnessed a distortion field of such grotesque magnitude. Ancient instruments aboard his flagship wailed in protest; the fabric of space-time here had become perilously fragile.
Axion remained unaware of the Necron arrival. His Regression-class fleet continued its diligent labor, warping reality to drag Ork vessels back into the killing fields.
Suddenly, a blinding green beam erupted from the deep void. A massive Regression-class ship was instantly torn asunder. Its thick void shields offered no more resistance than parchment. The temporal accelerators aboard Cassius's vessels did not merely hasten travel; they could be harnessed to augment weaponry. By manipulating the flow of time, they could strike from extreme ranges, ensuring the potency of their beams remained undiminished by distance.
The Regression-class ship's energy shields collapsed instantly as the gauss flayer beams punched through the vessel mid-maneuver. The searing emerald light deconstructed a third of the ship's mass in a heartbeat. The vessel, suffering a total catastrophic power failure, detonated. The explosion triggered its still-active Chronological Controller, causing a temporal bubble to expand violently from the hull. Over half of the machine fleet was caught within the bubble, frozen in a state akin to a stasis field.
Axion reacted immediately. Another mid-sized Regression-class vessel situated at the fleet's periphery activated its own Chronological Controller, attempting to "restore" the destroyed capital ship. However, as the two temporal fields intersected, a far greater instability emerged.
The resulting energetic backlash tore the mid-sized vessel apart and locked the entire machine fleet, including the Heart of the Forge, into temporal stasis. The veil of reality shattered. The entire sector plummeted directly into the Warp.
The predatory tides of the Immaterium surged forward, gnawing at and twisting the frozen machine fleet. Reality could no longer sustain the chronometric trauma, and the laws of time within the Warp were famously anarchic. Under the pressure of the Warp tides, the stagnant temporal bubble began to dissolve, much like a block of ice melting in boiling water.
The frozen Iron Men fleet was gradually liberated, but the situation was direr than anticipated. Shards of fractured time, acting like absolute blades that ignored all physical properties, riddled more than half the fleet with countless perforations. Fortunately, there were no living beings within the machine fleet; such damage, which would have been lethal to a biological crew, was a manageable setback for Axion.
As the region collapsed into the Warp, Cassius felt a mixture of shock at the unexpected turn and an unutterable sense of relief. He was appalled that any faction possessing temporal technology could be so dangerously ignorant, yet thankful his own fleet had escaped the terrifying spatial depression.
While Axion logged a new series of "prohibited protocols" regarding the use of temporal weaponry, he attempted to maneuver the fleet out of the shattered pocket of space. However, the situation defied his projections. No matter how the Warp engines churned, the fleet could not break free.
It was then that Axion identified the Necron fleet that had initiated the assault. Cassius commanded a small force, totaling no more than several dozen ships. Despite the Necrons' peculiar acceleration, Axion did not believe himself outmatched. The primary issue was the localized space-time environment; the Warp tides were effortlessly pushing his vessels toward the Heart of the Forge, yet there was no sign of Warp energy penetration. It was as if the entire fleet had fallen into a lightless sack.
To test the overhead conditions, the Heart of the Forge activated its Oblivion Cannon, firing toward the Necron fleet. Seconds after clearing the prow, the beam began to slow drastically. The massive lance of light broadened into a pillar, eventually becoming a sluggish cylinder of energy creeping through the void. The Necron fleet effortlessly evaded the beam, which traveled at a velocity of barely a hundred kilometers per hour.
The Necrons retaliated with a volley of fire. Dense emerald beams pierced the invisible barrier without resistance, striking Axion's machine fleet with undiminished speed, though this time, they failed to bypass the ships' restored shielding.
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