Axion's surprise was no less profound than Vormay's.
Rarely did those meeting him for the first time fail to exhibit an intrusive, overbearing curiosity. Yet, the woman on the vox-display betrayed no such impulse. On the contrary, her features suggested a palpable sense of relief.
"You do not appear surprised by my existence," Axion observed. "Have you encountered others of my classification? Micro-expression analysis indicates you are currently in a state of relaxation. I require the rationale for this."
Faced with Axion's inquiry, Vormay gave a nonchalant shrug. "My... how should I address you?"
"Axion."
"Lord Axion, then. I have never seen any machine like you. In truth, it is the first time I have ever witnessed a mechanical entity that possesses such... fluid agency."
She leaned back slightly. "As pioneers of the Imperium, we Rogue Traders often encounter the peculiar and the grotesque in our pursuit of trade. I find little to be astonished by in a speaking machine. As for my relaxation, yes, I am merely gratified that you can be reasoned with. That you have never heard of the Roskora Dynasty suggests you do not hail from the neighboring sectors. From where do you originate?"
Axion found it unsurprising that she had never encountered his kind; had surviving Iron Men been so easily found, his search would have ended long ago.
Having spent a prolonged duration amongst the Adeptus Astartes and standard Imperial tithe-units, this was Axion's first contact with an individual who felt authentically human. There was no denying that this Rogue Trader Matriarch possessed the silvered tongue of a merchant. Her cadence was a stark departure from the logic-locked cant of the "red-robed pygmies" or the laconic, clipped speech of Astartes and Imperial commanders. To Axion, it was strangely novel.
"Directly prior to this displacement, I was in the central regions of Segmentum Pacificus."
Vormay's mind raced, catching the critical phrase: Directly prior.
The tides of the Warp meant that time in the Immaterium and realspace were often dissonant. He might feel as though mere moments had passed, while decades had bled away in the Materium. As a Rogue Trader, Vormay was intimately familiar with the Emperor's map. The heart of Segmentum Pacificus was deep within Imperial space, not far from Segmentum Solar.
Yet, this stranger's ships bore no Aquila, no sigils of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and their silhouettes shared no lineage with any Imperial STC. The galaxy was teeming with xenos capable of void-flight, and many constructed gargantuan vessels that were little more than gilded husks—ornate "paper tigers" that would crumble before an Imperial Destroyer, let alone an Aeldari corsair.
However, the martial prowess Axion had just displayed proved his ships were not merely large; their fire-yield likely dwarfed that of the Imperial Navy's finest.
The implications sent a shockwave through Vormay's composure. A xenos fleet of such devastating power, sailing through the heart of the Imperium? Moving from Pacificus to the fringes of Segmentum Tempestus in an eye-blink? Even if the Departmento Munitorum was rotting from within, they wouldn't be this incompetent. Has Segmentum Pacificus fallen to an alien invasion?
"Segmentum Pacificus?!" Vormay carefully masked her dread. She remembered Axion's claimed ability to parse micro-expressions. If he could vaporize Aeldari cruisers with a casual flick of a Nova Cannon, she had no doubt he could send her Mars-class Battlecruiser to the Emperor's side just as easily. She adopted a tone of profound respect, bordering on the sycophantic, as she provided him with the current Imperial date and chronometric records.
Axion, immune to her posturing, processed the data instantly and answered her unspoken question.
"Displacement duration: 1.5 standard Terran hours."
"That is impossible!" Vormay gasped.
She could not know that Axion's fleet had been physically hurlted here by the warp-surge of a dying Hive Mind's fury, rather than by any superior navigational tech. That the fleet had not been unmade in the Immaterium was a testament only to the sheer resilience of Iron Man engineering. Even the Necrons would loathe to do battle within the Warp; otherwise, their blackstone pylons would not be so prevalent across the galaxy.
"An Iron Man does not transmit falsehoods. The atomic chronometers are functional. Define these coordinates." Axion's pale blue optic sensors stared blankly at the stunned Vormay through the screen.
Since exiting the Warp, Axion had attempted to orient himself. However, this region was an anomaly. According to the Imperial star-charts provided by Guilliman, he could find no matching stellar signatures. While the Great Rift, that cicatrix across the galaxy, was visible, it appeared distant and obscured by a strange interference. The only certainty was that they remained within the galactic rim.
"This is a unique sector within the Black Reefs," Vormay explained, her voice steadying. "We call it the Lightless Realm. Our physical location is the southern frontier of Segmentum Tempestus, almost entirely beyond the light of Imperial governance."
"In every Terran year, this region undergoes a periodic phenomenon. The light of the surrounding systems is eclipsed for at least two months. During this window, even the holy radiance of the Astronomican on Holy Terra cannot be observed."
The Imperium was rife with such localized nightmares. Segmentum Tempestus lay to the southwest of the galactic core, beneath Pacificus. Aside from the desolate Ultima Segmentum, Tempestus was the second most sparsely populated region of the Imperium. The void here was treacherous, and its celestial anomalies were more numerous than anywhere else in the Emperor's domain.
Due to its hostile environment, its exports were rare, making them exorbitantly expensive on the galactic market. This scarcity, and the high value of Tempestus-unique resources, drew countless Imperial merchant fleets to risk the journey.
The combination of slow-moving merchantmen and complex navigation made the Segmentum a prime hunting ground for xenos raiders. Orks and Aeldari corsairs frequently preyed upon the trade routes. To combat this, the Imperium maintained a significant military presence—Astra Militarum tithe-regiments and Imperial Navy battle-groups stationed to safeguard stability.
This was why, when the Tyranids invaded Pacificus, the first reinforcements Guilliman summoned were drawn from Tempestus.
Despite the lethal environment, humanity had dug in with its characteristic, grim tenacity. One of the most storied regiments of the Astra Militarum, the Tallarn Desert Raiders, hailed from this sector. Renowned for their armored skirmishing and lightning-fast Sentinel strikes, they were the cavalry of the dunes. Their homeworld, Tallarn, had once been a verdant paradise before the Iron Warriors virus-bombed it during the Horus Heresy, leaving behind only sulfurous sands and sun-scorched plains.
Axion listened to Vormay's explanation, assigning it a high probability of truth. Even during the Federation's Age of Expansion, the galaxy had been riddled with inexplicable natural phenomena. Areas of periodic navigational blackout were well-documented in his ancient archives.