NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC thread is here (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?p=13804807#post13804807)


IC:

Tharos. A simple planet on the edges of the Imperium. A simple world that has some industry and some agriculture, but it was nothing too out of the ordinary. It had a force of Imperial Guardsmen on the planet, the 345th Imperial Guard Regiment, the Tharos Hawks, whom along with the Planetary Defense Forces have been protecting the world for untold decades now. Everything had been peaceful, without a hint of the conflict that beset the rest of the Imperium.

Until now that is.......


************

"No retreat, no surrender! Fight on, Hawks!"

Commissar Yelsin roared out as he pointed his sword at the charging line of Orks. The Xenos had been coming at them for hours now, with only short bursts of quiet between their great cries and the endless thumping of feet and their weapons. The tired, ragged, and worn Imperial Guardsmen of the 345th lined the trenches that protected the Hive City Kartha. One of the few major industrial cities left on Tharos, they had to defend this at all costs. The Planetary Governor had given out that order before the capital city was crushed under the green tide of the Orks. Yelsin grimaced as he watched the thin reddish beams of light fire out from the trenches, mixed with bolter fire from the few remaining turrets and a couple of heavy weapons teams shoring up weak spots in their line. Green blood spilled all over the ground as their weapons took effect. Ork after Ork fell, choking out the last breath of its miserable pathetic life. Yet more came on, and it was obvious that they wouldn't be able to hold them through their firepower alone. Yelsin smiled grimly.

Fortunately, the Imperial Guard also made sure to have more guns than their enemies. Explosions riddled the Orks front line as they hit the field of mines that had been set up during the night, when all of the beasts had been sleeping. Now they would pay the price for the laxity. Bone, blood, and body parts flew about as the Ork line threw itself at their mines and then was subsequently hurled back by the explosions. Soon enough, there wasn't an Ork left and the Commissar smiled. The Hawks gave a ragged cheer, and began to clap each other on the shoulder. Some took on the grim task of tending to the wounded and counting the dead. This was the tail end of the Ork assault, with their tanks, flyers, and other vehicles rushing at them earlier. Even now, as they looked about, they could see the ruins of Leman Russ Tanks, their own and the ones the Orks had looted, Killa Kans and other vehicles strewn about, with plenty of Imperial and Ork bodies to cover the land in some kind of gruesome piece of art.

The Commissar nodded to the Sergeant, who began to reorganize the men in the trenches and ensure if there was a surprise attack, they would be able to hold. Climbing out of the trench, Yelsin moved past the ruins of the defenses and entered the command post. There, he sat down and looked at the commander. Promoted by the Planetary Governor to take control of the left sector of what remained of Imperial Tharos, he was Amasa and he was currently looking at the screen detailing the battles of the Planetary Governor. Upon hearing his entrance, the Commander looked up and sighed. "Greetings, Commissar. Good job on keeping the Guardsmen fighting." Yelsin nodded in gratitude.

"As is my duty, Commander. Any news on the other front?"

Amasa's face tightened. "Nothing good, I'm afraid. The Genestealer Cults have pretty much mauled what PDF forces we had in the area and ambushed some of our Guardsmen. Fortunately we managed to retreat into a series of forts and hole up, fighting back the Cults. However, our defenses weren't quite fully set up in time and we would have been overrun if it hadn't been for the Orks. Those foolish, war-hungry Xenos attacked the Tyranids once they crushed the capital and now both sides battle over the ruins of that city. The Governor is strengthening his position and arming his forces; to do otherwise right now would be just plain foolish. We are doing the same, as best we can, considering what Cults in our sector are to the west and we have to deal with constant Ork attacks. We're spread thin, Commissar. We have to hold, but we don't have as many men and tanks as I'd like to have, and the production of what few facilities we have left can't keep up with the destruction being pushed at us by that damned Warboss. By the Emperor, if we don't get reinforcements soon, I don't know what we'll do."

Yelsin gripped his chair tightly but kept his expression the same. "We'll do what we must, Commander. The Emperor asks of us that we hold the line and fight on, no matter the cost. Besides, we sent out a call for aid and we both know ow long it takes for reinforcements to come....."

Amasa nodded. "I know, but unless the Orks continue to be distracted by the Tyranids, we won't be able to hold either. Whomever wins this battle, we lose."

***********

Even as the Commander spoke those words, battle raged within the former capital. Bodies littered the streets and blood run down gutters as if it rained blood. Which it might as well have considering two great forces were clashing in this very city. "Oi! Youz git up here! We'z have sum fightn' to do!" An Ork Nob, a stronger type of Ork with dark green skin, big muscles, and powerful weapons snarled as a mob of lighter-skinned Orks ran past him, holding fierce looking axes, rather beat-up looking armor and cobbled together weapons. Explosions rumbled just ahead, smoke flying into the air, and the screams of the dead and dying filled the air. The Ork Nob smiled. "Dis iz a good day ta fight! WAAAAGH!" The Orks repeated his roar, and charged, with the Nob leading them, his power claw raised in the air. They hit the wall of smoke and broke through to see the largest scene of carnage Tharos had ever been forced to bear witness to.

The Ork Warboss Gor'gaz Planetcrusha, who had been pushing trying to crush the right flank of the battered Imperials, had noticed the Genestealer Cults and realized they would be a good fight for his WAAAGH!. Not to mention they had launched an a full scale attack on the Ork-held capital. A good fight was going down and he didn't want to miss it. Now, his forces clashed with the Cults, which were incredibly large now, and war in its purest form could be seen. Bolt shells filled the air as both sides exchanged fire, with a rocket or two criss-crossing to explode when it impacted. The main arena of battle was a long battle line of horrific looking Human-Tyranid Hybrids, led by a strange creature that was ripping through Orks. Facing it was the Warboss and his Nobs, along with the rest of the boyz. The Nob lead his mob into the right side of the battle, noticing that there were less boyz there and more of a fight. "WAAAGH!" The Orks collided against the Genestealers and a vicious fight got under way. Axes and claws met in a ferocious contest as both battled to gain the upper hand, both primal combatants, using their instincts instead of conscious thought. Metal chewed through flesh and bone as Orks cut through brain and bone, and claws ripped Orks apart. However, as hard as the Cult fought, the Orks had more numbers on their side and Planetcrusha was nigh unstoppable. He crushed all who stood in his way. What he didn't crush, he ripped apart. And what he didn't rip apart, he blasted apart with his Shoota. Soon enough, the Genestealer Cult retreated and Gor'gaz laughed.

"Oi! Dat's right! Run from da Orkz! Weze da biggest and da strongest! WAAAGH!"

"WAAAGH!" The Orks roared, throwing their axes into the air. The Warboss turned to face his Nobs.

"Alright, you bunch of gitz. I want da boys ta loot dis city. Anyfing worth takin, dez betta grab. We have a fight wiz doze insekt boyz and I wanna git bak to the fight. Dey will be back soon and when dey are, I want to show dem a good and proper WAAGH!"

The Nobs roared and stomped back to the mob, kicking and yelling, getting them moving onto looting the city. Fires from the earlier battle with Imperial forces and now the Cult were burning fiercely. Now with the Ork looting, those raged into an inferno.



********************


However, as all three forces had been battling for the past month, another player entered the game. The Tau Empire had gathered and now sent a force to lay claim to the planet as well. Tau exploration missions had recovered mentions of an "Aethyr Key", a Warp artifact of great power. They were unsure from the texts what it does, but they were sure it could help them to study the Warp and better utilize their etherdrives to travel across space. The task force sent to find this artifact was under the command of Shas'O Shi'erra, and Ethereal Aun'li Sha'Kor, whom now just arrived with their fleet in the system close to Tharos.....


Sha'kor stood on the bridge of the Dawn, the Protector-class Cruiser, as they came out of etherspace. Along with the Dawn was another Protector-class Cruiser, two Emissary-class Cruisers, four Hero-class Cruisers, five Defender-class Escorts, four Orca-class Escorts, three Castellan-class, and a Custodian-class Battleship, with its escort of three Warden-class escorts, and two Messenger-class Escorts. The Air Caste Commander shifted in his chair and spoke.

"What do the Messenger-class ships show us?"

"Data incoming now....Alert! Multiple ships in orbit above the planet. Cross-checking ship profiles with those on record......Matches! We are recording several classes of Imperial and Ork ships. The Orks appear to outnumber the Imperials, but the Imperials are holding their own. We have been noticed, as the system has recorded several sensor scans. Multiple Ork ships have broke off their attack on the Imperials and are inbound. Orders?"

Sha'Kor looked at the screen and saw this was true. Several Ork ships, two cruisers, three destroyers, and eight escorts with multiple fighter craft began to charge at their fleet. How foolish; they would be incinerated by his fleet before they could even lift a finger. "Commander, you may proceed with the battle. We must achieve orbital superiority of at least a portion of the planet if we are to achieve success in our mission."

The Commander nodded and began to issue orders. Barrucada, Tiger Shark, Manta fighters began to fly out of their hangars as they powered up their weapons and shields. Escorts moved up into protective formations and the two ships shifted to have maximum range and fields of fire for their weapons. The Ork ships came rushing in and the Tau came to meet them. A short distance from Tharos, they met. Powerful batteries opened up from the Ork ships, sending large blasts of energy and metal screaming at the Tau fleet, along with a salvo of torpedoes. Ork fighters and bombers rushed to attack the Tau ships. The Tau fighter screen and their own weapons targeted the incoming torpedoes and let loose a hail of ion cannon, pulse, and railgun fire. Most of the torpedoes were destroyed, with a few sputtering out against their shields, followed by the Ork salvos. The Tau shields shuddered but held. Now, it was their turn. The Tau fighter craft shot forward and began to engage the Ork fighters. in the space between the fleets, explosions and shots of energy began to go back and forth, as both sides struggled. The Tau fleet locked onto the Ork ships and opened up with the powerful Ion Cannons, Railguns, and Plasma Cannons, a wall of energy and metal blasted forth to impact with the Ork ships. They concentrated their fire on the bigger shields, seeking to bring down the shields protecting them. Two of the cruisers lost their shields, and some of the Tau salvo struck their hulls, causing large explosions to erupt from their hulls.

One shuddered from a railgun shell and then exploded, sending shards of the former Ork ship spiraling outward, one piece impacting the other cruiser and weakening its shield. The escorts of both sides began to duel, with the Tau escorts outnumbering the Ork escorts and meticulously began to wipe them out one by one. Sha'Kor watched as one by one, the Ork ships fell and all that was left was debris. The fighters and bombers, a few less now, returned back to the fleet and they continued on to Tharos.

They had a mission to fulfill and an artifact to capture...For the Greater Good.


*******************

Tharos was a planet under siege, with its rulers struggling to survive and two destructive forces battling over the scraps the rulers left behind. Unbeknownst to all three, several forces were coming to contest their claim to the world. Reinforcements from the Dark Templar Space Marine Chapter were mobilized to deal with the Xeno threat and Hive Fleet Gorgon sensed the power of the Cults and the Ork WAAAGH and was already on its way now to destroy all opposition and claim the planet along with its genetic material. The Tau had also come, determined to claim the mysterious Aethyr Key. Other forces not yet known to these combatants were also on their way and would ensure that the war for Tharos would be a long and bloody one.

It was like a long sleep, the manner how it would be felt while the mind became a part of a greater whole. No matter how frightening it was the idea of giving away completely individuality for a time, even worse was the awareness of the resulting collective consciousness of its short lived existence and eventual oblivion, and perhaps, its sacrifice was even greater as it stood against the psychic storms of the Shadow, attempting to channel the psych of a few into itself to navigate through its chaos and reach the intended destination, to be rewarded with nothing but its own annihilation. Thousands of people were part of the whole, a whole aware of all of their memories and thoughts, thousands who would otherwise fall as prey to Chaos, and its capability has guided the task force so far into the Warp, with a simple goal: the annihilation of the last remaints of a species they believed to be extinct, a threat to the existence and freedom of mankind, for it was yet another Xenu to be extinct from the universe.

Time was nonexistent, as the systems of the Oscar and of the others simply registered time like if still during its course through the realm. The consciousness fed from the sensors of the spacecrafts as its eyes.

A strong beacon was sensed after a time fending off many attacks from psychic demons, and it matched the signature of their targeted system. It was finally over, and followed by the tear of the fabric of the real universe, their journey through the Warp ended. Oblivion immediately ensured as the crew regained its individuality, and like if awakening from a long sleep, Pablo Corrientes continued sitting down on one of the many seats of the navigation deck, feeling the gravity from the continual acceleration of the Carrier. His eyes would take little time to forget the featureless room of the massive rocket, and instead his mind would be fed with the view of the outside, when the starship began to gather the information about the system.

"Warning, mismatch detected. Current system does not match target. Extra-solar Terrestrial planet detected with energy signatures which indicate inhabited area. Multiple spacecrafts detected near orbit. Human design pattern matching indicates 60% are likely not human"

He sighed as far as he could, a gesture followed by many, when the system announced the results of the scan, and his eyes caught a display with a 3d wireframe of the planet and the estimated positioning of all unknown forces, with those which were very likely not human from their design style rendered in a red wireframe. An indicator pointed "Distance: 30 AU", meaning they were quite far, but time was still available.

"Autopilot engaged", the system announced directly into the mind of the crew when Pablo left the seat, taking a look around. It was a massed, cylindrical shaped space like the interior of a giant silo, with seats arranged to the outer walls in a circular pattern where the crew was located, and there were several slots near to each seat, closed, marked by the word "Override", but otherwise no screens or visible human interfaces, and most seemed to be only physically present at the local, as if their minds were busy seeing something else.

"Comrades!", Pablo immediately spoke, calling their attention to him, where their eyes finally seemed to care about their surroundings. Some of them were average humans, provided the occasional odd nano-augmentation would not make them look weird, all of them were black skinned, and there were only three ladies among dozens of men. One of them specially, seemed to be a very delighted man, although there was no sign of the exact reason for it. The same man decided to address Pablo, replying in a very simple manner:

"Yes? What?"

Pablo immediately answered the reason for his interruption of their activities, when he gestured and spoke at the same time:

"Unfortunately, the Shadow has again deluded us and misled us to a destination completely different from that we intended to reach, thus making any possibility of annihilating the silicoids currently futile. But fortunately, we have randomly arrived at a system which has a terrestrial planet: a rarity disputed by many.", he explained, pausing to allow the audience of the spacecraft to undesrtand, before he continued:

"And so far, only one of the sides appears to be human. We lost an opportunity to cleanse the universe from a scourge, but now we have a new one to ensure that mankind shall not be annihilated in the universal survival of the species by another sentient species. Light signatures have indicated four different forces at least. The first one seems to draw much inspiration from a gothic human aesthetic, which we presume to be the human side. The second seems to be heavily organic, not unlike the silicoids, the third seems to be some sort of primitive Xenu born in some sort of sinkhole from the way their crafts were built, and the fourth... looks Orwellian, but I am unsure, definitively not human though.", Pablo explained, hoping to draw their interest into the subject and its importance, and finally finished his discourse;

"What I am sure is that we will not be able to return back so soon, and that there are three threats to our species in this system, so perhaps it is time to change our objectives. We have a small force, but nonetheless, I have witnessed several cultural mistakes that might allow us to have a chance. First, we must secure orbital supremacy, at least against the alien forces, and contact the humans in this place. Second, we must kill any sentient being in the planet that is not human. This of course, provided you agree with me and vote for it"

He simply came out of the center of the cylindrical room and awaited for the results to come at his own brain computer interface. Despite the large dilemma and risk, it seems that at least a significant majority approved his idea. He sat down again and prepared to adapt the plans for their previous mission to this new situation.

Two hours later

"Taskforce Scientology, two hundred spread! Oblique arrow", the message came, as the spacecrafts began to spread very far from each other in a massive, diagonally inclined down arrow formation that covered an area of a thousand of kilometers, but which would not be wide enough to impede any of the spacecrafts to close orbit. While such spread out distance would make massed relativistic kinetic bombardment, if such forces were aware of such tactic, ineffective, while allowing their long range anti-ballistic systems to cover each other. At the spearhead, the Redoubtable Class was a gigantic rocket-shaped spacecraft, thrusting massed amounts of Helium-3 and Hydrogen in plasma state from the exhaust of its fusion engine that were bright enough to be detected even by telescopes light years away. It would take some hours for the formation to be completed, from where it would simply fly towards the destination at continuous acceleration.

18 hours later

Finally, all inertial forces were canceled by the flight control system and they were properly arrayed and ready to go. The idea of just firing fusion missiles from such distance was tempting, but when their still unaware enemies would have seven day to avoid such missiles, it would not be much wise, as such type of long range engagement was only useful against static targets. Instead, they simply continued to thrust forward as Pablo, aboard the Redoubtable, asked:

"Let's move to our stasis chambers comrades, so the autopilot can disable maximum acceleration governors to levels a standing human would not stand, but a "frozen" human would".

It was an old method to fasten travels, for it seemed in many ways that its crew was more of a trouble than of a help due to the fact they were fragile to the point the maximum capability of their spacecrafts have to be restricted, for no human could stand continuous three gees or four gees without fainting or dying. Maybe the Giants could, but they were extremely sensitive to zero-g health issues. Of course that did not meant many of them were right into the stasis chambers of the two Borealis aboard, for the Solar Guard finally was called for a mission in outer space. The war with the Global State was a distant matter now which would likely last for eons, as for some unknown reason, they never found a way to use the faster-than-light but extremely unreliable Warp in their own galaxy.

"Cryonics completed. Governors disable... Acceleration set at four gees. Estimated time for arrival: Seven days and seventeen hours. Estimated time dilation: irrelevant."

Estimated planetary gravity: 1.04 gees
Average temperature: data insufficient
Atmospheric composition: data insufficient
Estimated maximum flight velocity: 4% of the speed of light"

Attempting to stop them in the middle of their travel would be suicidal, for any starcraft at 0.04c was a potential kinetic weapon which impact would be deadly for both it and whatever it hit against.

Seven days of bloodshed would happen while they were on their way to a standard engagement range. Seven days while such new arrival would be irrelevant to the outcome of the competition for whatever seemed to be there. But it was unlikely that the dispute would last for only a week. They could of course, just resort to the Warp to reach their destination much faster, but sometimes one would thank to be relying at sub-light travel instead. Of course, the massed amount of signature the fusion engines of their spacecrafts would not go unnoticed by the forces across the planet, nor would the temporary rift in space through which they came. But it would take a couple of hours for the light they emitted to travel all the way to the planet. Not much of a advantage, for at least in their vision, there was no way to hide in the space.

Very little can escape the blank eyes of a Drone. Especially when those eyes stare out into space. The Forbidden Ministry has long been the 'rouge agency of Greywatch,' the 'Black Ops and Shadow Weapons of the council.' These things were true, there was much about the Forbidden Ministry that many did not know, even its own members could never fully understand it. In fact, over 95% of the people in the Empire of Greywatch knew not of the organization's existance. But now, one of the Cryptic Elders, the creator of the Drones, had seen something. He had spent long weeks staring at the sky and had seen something. War, blood, power, he saw these things and in only a short amount of time had convinced the council to send a few ships to the regionhe saw these things in. He told them of the power that was there, the things that could possibly ascend Greywatch into a new era. The council heeded and agreed, A single Worldslayer was sent to the planet but was accompanied by multiple frigates and cruisar, and of course, a FM ship to watch over the operation.
-------------------------
They appeared over the world, slowly emerging from Pressure Space. Their presence would be known, the problem with PSR is that it sent out massive gravity fluxs which gave Greywatch ships away as anything too close to the rift's opening was pulled into it. But this didn't matter, as sooon as they exited, the FM ship cloaked itself and split off. This ship would watch the upcoming battle from space while the others fought, the Worldslayer pulled forward along with its frigates and carriers. They had no idea what to expect.

OOC: Extact details will prolly be in my next post

Through the eyepiece held in place over her right eye by the small headset sitting over her black, shoulder length hair, Captain Natalia Myskina saw a three dimensional computer generated image of an eight-planet solar system. After nine days spent surveying it, she was looking forward to not having to see it again as he grumbled under her breath, “Five dead systems, no sign of life, nothing but rocks,” she sighed slightly and continued her grumbling, “Could be worse I suppose, we could have actually ran in to someone.”

“Did you say something Captain?”

Natalia half turned to see the quizzical look on her slightly taller executive officer’s face; her own eyepiece held atop her short brown hair, standing a scant two centimeters short of two meters, Commander Irina Ivanovna had a full six centimeters on her Captain. Both were dressed in the standard black, Kilrany naval officer’s uniform, “No Commander, just talking to myself.”

Irina smirked slightly, “Be careful about that ma’am, someone might think you’re going crazy.”

Natalia grunted slightly, “If they do I’ll blame it on this bloody survey mission. I knew when I was given the Athena that it wasn’t exactly a prestigious assignment, but it never really occurred to me that it would mostly involve staring out at a seemingly infinite number of dead planets.”

The Commander’s smirk turned to a small smile, “We know how you feel ma’am, I don’t know how the Indrii manage to stay so excited over every new system.”

“Bah, the buggars are born with excessive curiosity in their genes, likely comes from coming into being on a continent without major natural predators.”

The Commander’s smile widened, for despite her Captain’s words, her mood had clearly improved. Glancing around the command center of the KIN Athena, she looked past the various officers overseeing their sections’ seated crewmen in the octagon shaped room.

A few moments later the officer over by the sensor station turned to face them, he looked no more interested then any of them with their survey mission so far, “Captain, the Indrii report that they have completed their last scans of this system and we can move on now.”

Unlike the KIN Redeemer, who’s Captain had been having more personal difficulties dealing with the Indrii scientists, on the KIN Athena, the lead in the limited number of Kilrany Athena class exploration vessels, Captain Myskina had no such difficulties, as the Indrii in charge of this team seemed more then willing to abide by Kilrany regulations.

Without much else to say on the subject, Natalia gave him a simple acknowledging nod of her head before looking back at Irina, “Well then Commander, I suppose it’s time for the next jump.”

With her own acknowledging nod, Irina suddenly boomed out within the room, “Status report, all stations.”

In quick succession the officers on duty for each station promptly replied, “Condition two set at all stations, weapon stations manned and ready, shields fully operational,” the ships of the Kilrany Imperial Navy had three basic security levels aboard their warships, simply one through three. Condition three was the lowest, indicating all clear and generally only given when in their home system, condition two for heightened alert, potential threat, and condition one, indicating full battle stations.

“Engineering and communications report all boards green, standing ready for jump.”

“All sensor systems in the green, switching over to passive receivers, cloaking and stealth systems reading fully operational,” the Kilrany were a paranoid people, and they would admit it if pressed, it wasn’t even a stretch to call them isolationists, they had learned throughout their history to always try and learn more about others before being known themselves. If it weren’t for the fact that they knew that through their recent actions they would inevitably draw attention to their small corner of space, coupled with the pressure applied by the Indrii to explore, they likely would have happily stayed out of sight on their home world of Mir.

“Navigation stands at the ready, we have clear path to next system, coordinates are locked in and we are prepared to make our jump.”

Irina turned back to the Captain and gestured slightly, saying the words she didn’t really have to merely for the record, “We stand ready ma’am.”

“How many times have we done this before?” Natalia glanced at her XO with a slight grin, which she returned in place of a verbal response to the rhetorical question, “Communications, send off your burst transmission, inform command we are making the next jump.”

Several seconds passed before the officer by that section half turned and responded, “Message away, estimate twenty-eight minutes until they receive.”

“Thank you. Navigation … jump at your discretion.”

The officer by the con acknowledged with a quick, “Yes ma’am,” before turning to the two crewmen seated at the station and ordered them to begin the process.

With the coordinates already imputed by one crewman, the other; the only non-officer in the command center wearing a headset like the officers did, began steering the large ship towards a computer generated image of his jump point through the use of a pair of joysticks that allowed him to control the pitch and roll of the Athena through thrusters and the primary drive.

As they approached the marker, the crewman next to him activated the ship’s intercom, addressing the entire crew, “All hands, prepare for hyper space jump, in three, two, one …”

The ship’s navigational computer; a separate system from the vessels data network, much like the communications system, detected the preset and activated the KIN Athena’s hyper drive, shooting the ship forward at extreme speed, with their destination simply a nearby system, the jump was to only last a few seconds. When those few seconds turned into five, and then ten, it became clear that something was wrong.

Captain Myskina’s voice boomed out in the command center, “Con report!”

The crewman next to the ‘pilot’ was furiously going over his console and the on duty officer who was looking over his shoulder responded for him, “We don’t know ma’am, the drive wont shut down.”

“God damnit … Athena, diagnostic!”

Before Natalia had finished speaking, the ship’s AI projected itself into the command center just opposite the command console in the center from Natalia and Irina, appearing to be a Kilrany woman in her late twenties with long jet-black hair and dressed in a Kilrany officer’s uniform without rank, “Chief Nemov and his engineers are doing so now ma’am, but nothing is showing up wrong to me.”

“Obviously that’s not the case, tell the Chief to initiate an emergency shutdown.”

“He’s working on it now ma’am.”

Time seemed to pass slowly over the next few moments for everyone concerned as the navigation officer and crewmen attempted to isolate the problem while the rest of the command center’s personnel could do nothing but watch. In her mind, Natalia pictured Chief Mark Nemov working just as furiously to run through the process of an emergency shut down on the Athena’s hyperdrive and quietly willed him to move faster, Shut it down now please, I don’t feel like running into anything going this bloody fast, it is exceedingly unhealthy for all concerned.

After a full minute since the problem became known, the large vessel finally dropped out of hyperspace, much to the extreme relief of the crew as they were all still very much alive and breathing.

With the image coming through her eyepiece changed now from hyperspace to nothing for the moment as the ship’s passive systems were the only source of data, she addressed the AI once more, “Order the Chief to run a full check of the hyperdrive system.”

“He’s starting it now ma’am, but the displays show nothing wrong, so he needs to make a full inspection of the machinery, its going to take at least a twenty minutes just to do his visual inspection.”

Natalia sighed, “Fine, at least we’re still alive, navigation, where the hell are we? Sensors, are the receivers picking anything up?

As he was first to be asked the navigation officer spoke first, “We’re running a check now ma’am, we’ll know in a moment.”

The officer overlooking the sensors station was slower in coming as he appeared to double-check a reading with a seated crewman, “Ma’am, we have a major problem,” as he said this the image in her headset began to take shape once more, showing her a somewhat simplified scene of what the console showed the crewmen, despite this, the first two words to pop into her mind were, Oh, and, shit.

Operating under a condition referred to as silent running by the Kilrany, the Athena was operating purely on passive receivers so as to increase the effectiveness of their cloaking systems. This had the obvious disadvantage of significantly reducing their effectiveness at seeing space around them, limiting them to operating in light-seconds and minutes despite their ability to pick up the active sensors of other craft, which did little more then give them a rough idea of the location of the source.

In this case she could see that they had dropped out of their unexpectedly hazardous jump roughly five AU from the solar system’s sun, and as a result of their passive arrays, were picking up the active emissions from a number of craft which were represented as generic blips near one of the worlds. Adding to the difficulty was the fact that the position they had dropped in at didn’t exactly place said planet conveniently directly between them and the sun, placing them roughly five and a half AU out from the disputed planet.

Elaborating on his initial words of warning, the officer at sensors continued, “We’ve got a lot of active signals out here near one of the planets, and several more from farther out in the system.”

It was at this point that Myskina turned in the direction of an arrow at the side of her view, shifting her stance to look in that direction to see multiple additional blips estimate to be thirty-eight AU out from the sun. Anything with active sensors powerful enough to reach into the system that far and glean telltale visual data off orbiting vessels was clearly from a powerful array.

A tap of a key on the command console as she turned back to face the disputed planet shifted the composite image on her headset to a look through the gun camera on one of the forward batteries. Lagging behind nearly forty-five light-minutes, the visual she was getting was before the Tau had even arrived in system, but the signs of battle were no less worrying to her.

Forcing back a sigh, the Kilrany Captain addressed one of her officers, “Navigation, have you figured out where we are yet?”

“Still working on it ma’am, we’re a hell of a lot farther out then we should be and its taking time to determine our exact position, Athena is running the math on how long we were in hyperspace right now, she should have a reliable estimate in a few moments.”

“Very well then, Commander, take us to condition one.”

Ivanovna returned the order with a nod of her head before tapping a key on the central command console and activating the ship’s intercom, “All hands, set condition one on all decks, this is not a drill, I repeat, set condition one on all decks, prepare for engagement.”

Piping in again a moment later, the officer at navigation gave his Captain some good news, “Athena has approximated our current position to where we jumped from Captain.”

There was some obvious relief in Myskina’s voice as she replied, “Finally,” she then turned to the communications officer, “Communications, send off a burst transmission, inform command of the situation, include our logs of the event and our current readings.”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Con, take us in towards the planet, I want to see what’s going on there. Not too quickly though.”

“Aye ma’am.”

By Svyet and Tyemniy this is a bad idea, Myshkina was quickly brought out of her thoughts by her communications officer, “Ma’am, message is away, but its going to take at least twenty-four hours just to get to the beacon,” the officer was about to add more, but decided against stating the obvious after sending the narrow beam transmission back the way they had come.

“Very good then Lieutenant. Con, estimated time of arrival?”

“Three hours and ten minutes ma’am.”

OOC: bumb

"There shall be the Beast, the Great Beast as of old, the Warmaker and the world ender! There shall be devourer of worlds and the shadow-theterribleshadow! They shall descend upon the pit and rage over the scraps, tear at the hovels set upon the ruins and the prison! They shall...They shall!" The psyker writhed, mind ablaze with vision and prophecy, echoes of future-past soon to be. The Sorceror bowed low, clasping the twisting flesh by the chin, raising its eyeless gaze. Scribes crowded about him and other figures, noting their words, documenting the maddening ramblings of the touched.

"What else...Tell us of the prize."

"The prize! The spoils of damnation trod underfoot by the unworthy and the uncaring! The Aethyr Key held forth by Herald of Nightmare! The power and the glory and the sin! The Universe as flesh, the muscle-meat cavorting and unleashed...By the Gods, the Warp as clay, the Warp made malleable!"

"More...! More! You will speak the truth of these things to me slave. Your life is measured in revelations."

"The Master." A hissed whisper from raw lips, coughing and spluttering as though wounded, ripped within by tumultous revelation.

"The Master?"

"The Master of the Black Throne! His will upon a thousand worlds...The Key to the realms beyond, apotheosis! Godhood beckons on black wings. The key, the foe...The Lightning and the Tempest and the crucible of the Dead! There...There will be Nine! Nine! Eight lesser before the Crucible of Gods, the Rising of the Master! I speak truth, Lord! I see the ending of all things...Fire and blood and madness at the hands of the newborn salvation!"

"Excellent." The Sorceror rose, crooning with a peculiar eldritch satisfaction. "You have all of that?" A scribe nodded, shuffling off to catalogue the new revelation. "Speak its name...Tell us where we must go."

"...Tharos...The revelation of Tharos is at hand."

"Tharos. Call forth the Astropaths. The Emperor must be informed. Only the finest troops shall serve this endeavor. We march to war, my brothers of the Profane Revelation...We march to war with the chosen of the Gods..."

There shall be the tumult and the glory and the battle. There shall be beginnings and endings among the flames of war. The sheep of the False Emperor cower before the oncoming dark, they fight in futility against beasts and heathens all.

The Herald reaches forth and the Key guides the path of the righteous! He knows the purpose of the great endeavor, enlightened by unknowable Tzeentch. There shall be three, sons of the Gods all. The Astartes march forth in His name to seal the fate of all life.

There must be three, three and their attendants. Plague, Prophecy and Pleasure-Pain, attended by the Blooded Ones.
-The Recorded Pronouncements of Tharos and it's ending

Reality split with a thunderous crash and cacophany, even in the soundless void of space. It echoed not with the clamour of mortal noise but with a crackling psychic resonance, set ablaze throughout the minds of all who had the gift to hear. They were the hammer of the Gods, righteous vengeance descending upon firey wings. They would sear this world clean of the myriad taints that beset it and reconsecrate it as a bation of the Warp.

Tharos would become a Realm of Chaos.

Three mighty and savage vessels stalked ahead, Space Marine Battle Barges, vessels that hardly deserved comparison to such majestic vessels. One was immense, a grand and rakish pleasure yacht, gilded and adorned with fineries. The communications from this vessel came as harsh grunts of pleasure, howls of scintillating pain, undulating currents of want, need, desire and indulgence.

The second was a corrupt and bloated thing, corpulant in ways that only corpses oguht to be. It was a rotting hulk of a ship, plates twisted by age and insane rot. How it stayed intact let alone flew was a miracle and a wonder, the blasphemous blessing of a loving God. Phlegm choked oaths issued forth in harsh invocation, praises sang to the dark father who clasped them so to his putrid bosom.

The third was a gleaming and sorcerous thing, ablaze with runes and sigils, dancing and cavorting mad-cap over its hull. Gun-ports gleamed, decorated with the maws of primal dragons and daemons of the Warp. Madness seemed to writhe across every undulating plate of its hull. This was a thing of sorcery, a consecrated vessel of the Changer of Ways.

Other vessels came too. Dull crimson troop-ships, immense and bloated with their cargo and the weapons that they brought forth to make war against lesser beings. Two great warships came also, bolstering the already formidible might of this small taskforce.

Destiny rode with them, the promise of power and glory for those who delivered the Key to the Emperor. They had been hand-picked by the insane Sorcerors of the Glyph Worlds, the servants of Severino who dwelt within the Tzeetchian vessel, The Inescapable Torment.

Slowly, they turned, bringing their great guns to bear against the Orkish forces who lay between themselves and glory, not caring whether their immense bombardments harmed those already locked in the terrible fray. Debris blossomed from successful impacts, crude green corpses and the equally primitive work of their hands venting into the void and to death. These were xenos filth, alien beings beneath the reckoning of Man or God.

It pleased them greatly to snuff them from the stars.

The battle on Tharos continued, so savagely and brutally, that they were unable to sense that newcomers had come to the system. The Tau fleet quickly secured a place in orbit and fought off any attempts at attack. The Imperials, whom were already quite weakened, ignored them as they struggled with the Orkish threat. The remnants of the Ork vessels destroyed by the Tau gently whirled through space, accompanied by the bodies of their crews. The Tau fleet had been quick and effective, with their weapons being superior to the Orks own. A good spot for a base had been selected, a large city abandoned by the Imperials and, strangely, left alone by the rebellious forces and the Orks. Seizing their opportunity, Shi'erra began to construct a mighty citadel, taking the massive walls of the Hive city and adding on the strength of Tau technology. Fire Warriors ran through the streets, taking up positions and patrolling. They were joined by Crisis Battlesuits, as they jetpacked across the city, and Kroot, whose loping gait hid their incredible agility.


Vehicles of every size and shape appeared. Skyray Gunships, Hammerhead Gunships, stealth transports, speeders, drones, all came to the new Tau base. Shi'erra gathered together a force of Stealthsuits and Pathfinders and had them do a recon over their relative area. They had to know where the nearest threat was and where the next lead on the Aethyr Key would be. But for now, she would hold this place and ensure the Tau still had a foothold on Tharos.

"Shas'o." The voice from her communications. She pressed a key, opening the channel.

"Yes, Kor'o?" The Tau Admiral's face looked tight and worried. Shi'erra braced for bad news.

"We have just registered the Warp signal of several ships, on two vectors." The Tau commander bit back a curse; they hadn't even begun yet and they couldn't count on the Orks and Tyranids to distract them at this rate.

"Identification?"

"We are reading several Chaos and Imperial ships inbound. The Imperial ships appear to be Space Marines of the Dark Angels chapter." Shi'erra mulled over this a bit. While dealing with Space Marines would be difficult, experienced showed that if Chaos was also in the same equation, Imperial forces would be distracted quite a bit.

"Very well, keep me informed. Keep the space clear, Kor'o." The Tau nodded and the channel closed. Shi'erra resumed her work on the citadel. Now with forces rushing for the Key and for other reasons, she had to ensure she kept one step ahead of their enemies.....



**************


The Chaos and Imperial ships, as found by the Tau, entered the system from the Warp. The Imperials came from the other side of the planet, so they didn't know that their vile foe, Chaos, had come to the system. Two Space Marine battle barges, along with several escorts and frigates, came into the system. This force was under the command of Brother-Captain Elias Thelion. He led the Dark Angel companies that currently resided in the holds of the Tempest and the Infinite Mercy.

Striding onto the bridge, he looked at the main screen. "What do we have, Sergeant?" A Dark Angel Sergeant walked up and pointed at the planet, where flashes of light between two fleets could be seen.

"Not good, Brother-Captain. The Imperial forces of this system are holding on as best as they can, as true warriors of the Emperor, but they cannot take much more. The Imperial fleet in system is at the edge, it cannot hold much longer under the Ork assault. On the planet, we have reports of Genestealer cults battling with Imperial forces and the Ork horde is rampaging nearly unchecked." The screen zoomed in to show the major landmasses of the planet. Then one was selected and zoomed in upon. Two yellow sections lit up. "These are the locations of the last Imperial forces. The Guardsmen are holding the line but if it wasn't for the Orks being too busy with the Cults to focus on them, they wouldn't be still alive." It zoomed out again.

"And now we have reports of Tau having entered the system. This is sounding like another Kronus." The Sergeant nodded.

"Yes, Brother-Captain. I'm afraid it does."

Elias shook his head. "No matter, we have an Imperial planet under attack, with foul xenos tainting its light. Our duty is clear." He turned and began to walk out. "Have all ships engage the Ork fleet battling the planetary fleet. Once they have been subdued, find a secure location and begin dropping our forces there. Once we have a secure ground base, we will see about helping the Imperial forces remaining on the planet."

The Space Marine ships shot forth and volleys of torpedoes, lance batteries and more slammed into the Ork fleet. The remaining Imperial ships, many without shields and with severe damage, fought on with greater strength upon the sight of reinforcements. The Orks fought on, filled with primal glee at the prospect of a good fight. However, it would not be the fight they sought, as they were overwhelmed by the pure onslaught of fire.

As was the same fate for the remnants of the Ork fleet which had engaged the Tau and saw the Chaos ships coming their way. They sought to attack but were struck down near instantaneously, and were wiped out. The Orkish fleet, now suffering major losses, condensed itself over much of the orbit above the planet over the conquered areas. Pieces were moving into position and all was set for a masterpiece of slaughter and mystic power.

*************

Fires burned deep within the ground of Tharos, and legions of cultists shouted obscene prayers as many of their number were sacrificed. The ground was made hallow, and ancient gateways to the Warp were once again being reactivated. Tharos, unbeknown to the Imperium, had been the harboring point of many Chaos Cults and even the Chaos Space Marine legions. It was held by a being of great power and might, with great control over the Warp. The cults shouted out a name too terrible and powerful to be repeated by any save worshipers of Chaos, and the shadowy form of their leader stood in front of a mighty pit, raging in the malevolent energies of the Warp itself and it smiled.

All was going as planned.....the foolish mortals of the Tau thought they were coming for a mere artifact, something to gain knowledge from. But the Aethyr Key....had a mind of its own, and it called to those who were destined to find it.

To find this place...

To find.....it.

For those aboard the KIN Athena, time seemed to pass painfully slowly as they crept towards the disputed world that had so readily drawn their attention. Though they were still a full AU out, they were close enough now that the lag in light being received from their gun cameras was giving them a decent look at what was now three distinct fleets vying for orbital control, even if with their limited knowledge of other races, they didn’t know their origins.

Earlier, as they had begun to move in, Captain Natalia Myskina had inquired to her navigation officer as to whether they might be able to approach Tharos; a name they did not yet know, at an oblique angle so that if they were discovered and took fire, they wouldn’t risk striking the planet returning it. Even then when they were still a distance out, the officer had been fairly confident in his dismissal of that concept given how many ‘blips’ they appeared to be getting from around the planet. This obviously limited their tactical options; at least in regards to preventing collateral damage to Tharos given the damage their few heavier weapons could do to an unshielded planet.

While Myskina stood near the center of her ship’s command center, she watched with some apprehension as they slowly closed the distance, still an hour out at their current speed. She couldn’t help but wonder if this was a good idea, to move in closer to a conflict such as the one they were bearing witness to, and perhaps if she had known the nature of those involved, and those yet to come, she would have turned her vessel around right then and there an risked a jump back the way they’d come. If there was one thing that the Kilrany could not stand above all else, it would be religious fanatics; there were of course some very close seconds on that list, and depending on whom you asked, a few different firsts on it.

After a few moments, her attention was drawn by one of her officers, this one in particular stood towards her right near the sensor stations, “Ma’am, we’ve been trying to sift though all the various signals out there, unsurprisingly so far we haven’t made heads nor tails of any of communication signals, they’re no doubt encrypted, but we have picked up on that same strange background noise that the Redeemer reported finding.”

She half turned to face him, “I’m guessing then they never did figure out what that was did they,” recognizing the rhetorical question, the officer merely nodded his head slightly in acknowledgement, “Very well then, put the Indrii specialists on it, just incase we got the brighter bunch."

She heard Commander Irina Ivanovna chuckle slightly in amusement as she turned back to face forward, and the view that gave her eyepiece. She was less amused by it, but she chose not to say anything.

It was at about this point that the Kilrany passive sensors picked up the active emissions from yet several more new contacts that seemed to appear relatively close to the planet. However due to a genetic aberration within those ‘humans’ who had come to be on the Kilrany home world of Mir, none aboard the Athena heard the psychic resonance of the arrival of Chaos, as their minds were closed to such things. In all of Kilrany history, psychics, telekinetics, and other such abilities typically associated with magic, were but the realm of mythology and fiction, their minds didn’t even radiate their thoughts, leaving them but empty shells to such beings.

But as the Kilrany Captain sighed at the sight of those new blips, even more new contacts appeared opposite the planet, only visible to them due to their distance and approach vector. More and more a little voice at the back of Myskina’s head told her she should hide her ship as far from this planet as she could get under sub-light power and wait for their hyperdrive to be cleared for use again, but her curiosity managed to overpower her paranoia; a rare event indeed for a Kilrany.

Unknown to the crew of the KIN Athena, there had been another repercussion as a result of their deviation in flight plan beyond their arrival in a disputed system far from their intended destination. Quite simply put, they had lost their shadow, as without the knowledge of the Kilrany Imperial Navy, a scout craft under the control of the 5th Division of the Kilrany Imperial Guard had been dispatched with each Athena to monitor their progress.

This now left a single Spectre class Frigate sitting alone in an unexplored but dead system waiting for their ‘beacon’ to arrive, having been following the Athena by its active emissions. It also built up concern within the minds of those 5th Division personnel aboard the mostly AI controlled craft, already they had waited nearly two hours for the Athena to arrive after a jump that should have only lasted a few seconds.

Their options were limited though, and ultimately the decision was made to wait for their larger counterpart for another hour, and after that time, if they had yet to arrive, they we jump back to the last system and see if they were still there. Obviously though they would not find them there either, and that was a situation that would cause them some rather significant problems.

Darkness everywhere, a strange, nauseating scent never felt before, and an unbearable, humid cold. Shivering, a petite figure cowered beneath a bed, drapped into blankets to endure the chill. A young girl, feeling an horror which was sufficient to drive many adults into insanity and despair. Small steps, of tiny creatures thumped from all directions, while the flight of flies tormented her ears. They were getting closer, and the girl trembled. A laughter echoed through the derelict, dark room, and footsteps of a giant pushed deeper into the youngster fears and worst nightmares.

She covered her entire body beneath the blanket, and struggled with her small stature to avoid leaving any space or aperture, pressing it tightly against her figure. The noises continued, and now an even worser stench of decay assaulted her nostrils. The girl began to weep silently, desperate, with her little heart pounding fast thanks to fear. She had no courage to face what was coming, and simply closed her eyes and agonized further.

Yet, right after closing her eyes, an horrible visage tormented her. Two ladies, with black curly hair and amber eyes, yet not two ladies. Corpses mutilated, with the blank eyes of its decapitated heads staring right at her.

"You have been a naughty girl. Why did you refuse your parents? Your place is in hell small slut!" both heads growled in a guttural, disturbing manner in synchrony at the girl, while a black blood began to spill from all the orifices of both.

"Nooo, I did not refuse! You are not my mothers! They went to Dream to get a better life for me" replied the girl, weeping and frightened by the horrific visage.

"They are not in Dream... they are in hell because of you little, pathetic girl! Just like your uncle Amanda, and just like you shall be!" blasted the monstrous heads, which now began to grow horns, and the girl simply wept in silence and despair.

The disturbing imagery of gore vanished from the innocent mind, replaced by an image of her mothers amidst a celebration, giggling at her, as one of them took her by her lap and began to caress her.

"Happy birthday and thank you daughter. Thank you for ruining my life!" the woman answered in an increasingly sinister and aggressive tone, and soon her arms seemed to no longer hold her, but strangle her. The other woman turned on a holovision and observed as a journalist announced something on the background, while the grip over the girl became stronger, with her arms being held with such violence that she could no longer feel her fingers.

"In one of the most scandalous crimes of our history, the couple of Gina Herrera and Jabia Aragón was proved guilty of one of the most brutal crimes:" and the voices over the HV garbled, turning into nothing, while the girl felt sore and suffered.

"Many of the anarchist Christians have attributed such act of inhumanity as the result of demonic influence, but no matter what, we are all shocked that after all genetic and morals profiling, after all the eugenics and gradual cultural transformations of our society, there is still space for such behaviors to flour" and again it became garble, but a disturbing garble. Moans and screams soon replaced the holovision sounds, of a nature which made it difficult to understand for such an young mind if they were of pain or pleasure.

"Slaanesh!" the girl could swear that among all those groans and disturbing human like sounds, the strange name was uttered.

"Have you cried when you knew what they were going to do with us? Have you? You little bitch!" shouted the mother holding her, in an inhuman voice, as she slapped the young girl with cruelty and peeling some of her face with ravenous nails, to which she wept further, with tears passing through the hand marks and blood.

Then all stopped, as like wasps in an attack, knives flew through the room, and pierced through their heads. The girl screamed, and began to run, leaving two corpses behind.

"See! You killed them, you hated them. There is only one place for you. All of them are like that, and you are rightful to hate them, but let your hatred fuel your actions. Let us guide you to return to them what they did to you." Voices filled with anger and hatred echoed through her head as she opened the door of the house, revealing a mutating, twisted landscape of what was her home. A floating city in the sky which now appeared as a gigantic floating circus, with every passerby being a sinister clown. While among them, nightmare monsters of shifting flesh rambled, and soon began to move towards her.

The girl ran back home and ordered for the door to close, as it did. Yet, the two female bodies in the sofa seemed to torment her further.

"Who else could have done this? You are born psyker. It is your work. We are very proud of your actions. There are many others like them... kill them... kill them!" again the voices assaulted her head, as the girl began to scream and press her hands against her lobes.

"Noooo!"

"See our glory, witness the way" they replied, as another torment of brutal visages came to the girl. A sweeping imagery and vision of carnage and savagery, hatred and anger that was beyond escape. It was perhaps an horror that no one could describe for the mind of a nine years old girl, and something that could never be forgotten.

But the images vanished, and again, the darkness of her closed eyes replaced it, and she could fell the blanket she wrapped all over her. The stepping noises of small critters were no longer towards her, instead, they seemed to be in a pattern that could indicate such, whatever they were, fought each other to death. She no longer was affected by them, perhaps because the other nightmare has already dripped her into sufficient despair to no longer even will to live or resist against the threat.

Then red eyes spawned ahead of her into her mind, followed by an unholy utter of the name Khorne, and the girl felt an even greatest torment, like if blood drowned her, until all went black and her consciousness, or perhaps control over her body, faded.

At the other moment, she simply leaped of some comfortable couches, still feeling a certain chill, and the same despair for a extent. She crept out of it like if her life depended on it, and with amber eyes and a face ridden with despair, looked at her surroundings: she was in a spacious catwalk, and countless of chambers surrounded a cylindrical wall from where other humans were getting off in a more orderly fashion, with ladders and elevators connecting the dozens of floors with the pods. A man ahead of her immediately caught her interest, as he looked into her frightened eyes and like a father, hugged her, to which she simply gave in, for he was an old friend of her:

"Freya, everything is all right. There is no nightmare. The Shadow did not possess you. You are safe here, and I will protect you from harm, for it is my duty as the elected leader of this fleet."

"But I can feel them, they came through the Shadow, they are heading to the world... and even distant, I can hear distant cries... I can feel a distant terror approaching. I do not want for it to happen again! I do not want to hurt you Pablo. Freeze me again... I will suffer with nightmares, but you should not let an open door for those... demons. And I am that door." she answered back.

"No, you aren't. Those cowards only faced you because you was just a kid. You have grown strong now. You can defeat their attempts. Now you are an OSA, and you will help us to discover what they want, destroy those who seek to defile our people, and keep everyone alive. Or at least almost everyone" Pablo answered.

"Yes, I will protect you, and help you. I cannot sleep in wait while you fight for human freedom" Freya answered back, in an strangely fearless manner.

"Good. You are a great woman comrade. Come, let's see the strategical and tactical situation in the control deck above. We have already determined how much progressed. And Tyrannical Chaos was not the only new player for this bid that arrived, let me brief you on the way", he answered, letting himself emerge in certain deeper thoughts of regret as well:

´"I am sorry Freya, but I could not let them kill you. I had no choice"´

Freya walked through the circular catwalk to reach the elevators at the other end of the floor, while also respecting the long line of individuals who marched towards their duties. She felt a bit uneasy and weird, but she preferred to not talk about it, instead simply asking him:

"Could you tell me a short version of the situation?"

"Very short history is that everyone here is a potential enemy. Now on a not so short, there is some sort of interstellar human Police State around and this planet is one of theirs. But some other inhuman forces seek something important in this planet. There are reinforcements arriving for the fascists, which are technically... the least worse"

"And what could be worse than Ninety Eighteen-Four in Space? Asides from that Chaos" Freya asked.

"Greenpigs that seem to spread as fast as fungus in your toes after three years without a bath in a jungle wearing thick boots"

"Greenpigs? What the hell is that?" questioned Freya

"Their faces resemble... slightly, those green pigs that came from an experiment in genetic splicing them with the chemical process genomes of... fungus and homo Sapiens?"

"Ehm, but they all died ten hours after the stem cells began to multiply." she replied, reminding of the news about that bizarre project of an humanoid pig super-soldier that a lifeless lunatic tried to achieve.

"Freya, it seems like there are or were Xenu who think almost exactly like humans, and I don't like the idea"

"Yes Pablo, but there is more than them right? And what are these greenpigs doing"

"The system estimated they have at least five hundred divisions, and they are occupying a large chunk of the planet's territory", Pablo replied, with a glum look in his face.

"We are not that outnumbered, we have four divisions, and our race is infinitely superior to genetically modified greenpig supersoldiers"

"Five hundred thousand. At least ten billions of those things are fighting there. And their numbers are growing quite fast"

"Are you sure the system didn't malfunction? That planet seems a bit bare to keep ten billions of soldiers fed"

"They are extremophiles, they need very little to survive, but maybe these numbers are a bit exaggerated. Now on space, these greenpigs lost a battle with another batch of Xenu that arrived less than a week ago. Their crafts seem a bit... fragile and not appropriate for the very long range engagements we learned to do"

"Wait, does this not apply to all of them"

"Yup. There seems to be a serious cultural bias hampering functionality. At least it's a good new amidst so much. These Xenu set up a base to a quite interesting area which had most of its infrastructure intact."

"And the rest?"

"Four large ones from Chaos, I am not sure if we can cope with them, lets just leave them alone for now and focus on the Xenu. Seems like those totalitarian humans at least seem to know which is the only way to make diplomacy with aliens. The greenpigs are Legion, and there is something equally big keeping them busy. I do not want to piss off a totalitarian theocratic interstellar police State, and there are human lives at stake here."

"Pablo, what do you think we should destroy first? The weaklings?"

"Those Xenu seem the weakest of them all from the way the heuristic algorithm interpreted the design of their spacecrafts. Lets blow their fleets and head to surface", he answered, referring to the Tau, whose name he was not aware of "But first, we must conquer a relatively isolated continent away from the gross of the battle, recycle infrastructure and resources, and set up a city in the Xenoindustrialization and Accelerated population growth way."

"How many clones will we have?", Freya asked.

"You, none. It would call the entire attention of Chaos if we had other clones with the same gifts..."

"Gift? Are you another loser who plays video games 24/7 and thinks being possessed by demons and having supernatural power is cool?"

"Oh, sorry Freya, I mean curse. Like I was saying... we'll make as many clones of ourselves as necessary to win the war and use them to repopulate the world, construct an infrastructure, overthrow the fascists and have more than enough infrastructure and local Armada to keep it without a central government for centuries"

"Now you are really ambitious Pablo, are not you? And forget about warring Chaos. Cloning humans for war, using the war for ploys to overthrow a government and instill total anarchy, have no qualms to infect Xenu with diseases humans are immune to and call forth the civilian rights of free sex. They are probably going to thank us for our support to their twisted cause", Freya cynically pointed.

"I was joking, I propose we to achieve orbital superiority and use tactical nukes to wipe out the Xenu... oh no. That would piss off dearly whoever owns that planet. Lets stick with our fast growth and expansion plan, to then strike against the weaklings if you approve it. And if we thought that way. Anything besides stagnating completely and having a slippery slope to a never changing totalitarian police State would help Chaos. Well, and of course, the fact the people are free from oppression, and in a much better world should be put into equation"

After a long chat, they finally arrived at the room. He preferred to dismiss the brain computer interface this time. Instead, Pablo ordered for a 3D holographic display to demonstrate the overall positioning of the fleets.

"Look, if we take all at once, we will be screwed. Now do you see these dots. They are from Xenu who recently arrived for a reason."

Freya could no longer stand, and immediately interrupted Pablo:

"I can hear a faint chant, a wicked chant about something that I believe to be extremely important. It is difficult to make sense of it, but I am sure that one of the words is "Yay and Beer"... wait... sorry, let me think"

"Freya, could you please sit back? I know you wanted to help, but sit back, okay?"

The lady went in silence and sat back, scanning Pablo with her amber eyes. As he continued:

"They only outnumber us seriously in the number of space flies... I mean, space fighters. Because we have none at all. But still, lets not underestimate them. We are about to face an unknown enemy firing against them from a distance of one astronomical unit, I have no idea if we are currently outranging them, so get prepared for some sharp gees and vectoial evasive thrusts... if you approve this idea"

"And what after we blow all their crafts?", one of the crew asked.

"Then we shall establish a city of liberty from the ruins of tyranny, as the first step to find this important thing Freya keeps mentioning. And to liberate it from tyranny as well, of course"

"What is the point with your puns and gags?", another one asked

"Both Freya and I are Discordians. We worship another type of Chaos that makes you laugh out loud instead of scream of fear. The chaos of random imageboards, of anonymous chat, of the Holy Cow, of joke religions spoofing Scientology. Hail Eris! All Hail Discordia!"

´"Oh boy, I better find a better excuse next time"´ he thought

Then Freya screamed and began to strangle herself with her hands and to shake on the ground.

"Somebody hold her! And another one, call the exorcist", someone immediately shouted.

Several Marines desperatedly tried to hold her as her face became purple and began to pale. Suddenly she jumped, throwing all of the away with a burst of psychic hatred, where the most fortunate ones did not fall on their heads, although nobody died thanks to their helmets and armor. Then, with a look of pure anger, Freya shouted to the crowd, pointing her finger at Pablo:

"Is this funny Pablo? Do you think that an unspeakable torment, horror beyond words, is something that you can make a petty, cheap and poor joke about that not even a complete retard would laugh at? I am sick of this. I am going to the freezer and screw you. I hope Khorne surprises you while you are telling another lame joke, jerk!"

"Wait Freya, don't leave! They want you to hate, that's what they want!"

"Sorry... I was out of my mind", she replied in a very abrupt, emotionless manner and sat back.

´"I shudder to think what these fascists do with psychics"´, Pablo thought as he realized how much trouble those with the curse of psionics bring. He then observed as the voting occurred, and sighed as he read that waiting in alert for the conflict to unravel further and take advantage of weakened enemies was the most popular choice.

Maybe because nobody really wants to die. And thus they kept moving at a combat compatible speed, with a vector which ensured they would not get farther or closer to the planet, watching in the most absolute silence. The fleet Orbited the planet from an astronomical unit away, constantly shifting the inclination of the orbit, like if they were satellites in an unstable and quite distant orbit.

Meanwhile, in a private quarter, Freya wept. Emotionally broken, she struggled to understand the reason for her erratic behavior, to no avail. Apparently Freud was not a sage giving the answers to all existential questions of the universe.

"Aethyr" something whispered into the depths of her mind in a more understandable manner. She giggled as she thought on how she interpreted it as "Yay and Beer". There was much to be done yet, and her presence could draw unwanted attention.

Certain worlds across the scope of creation were never meant to know the tread of lesser races. Consecrated long ago to the profane powers of the Warp, they act as beacons for banality, triggering the baser natures of those weak and simpering beings, minds easily warped by the cleansing powers of Chaos, tearing asunder mediocre minds. Others still stand as prisons, components of wardings beyond imagining.

Tharos was one such world. A great and potent being was chained beneath its benighted earth long ago. Some claim that the Emperor himself slew a great daemon of the Ruinous Powers, sundering entire continents that it might be buried forever. Others claim that a warhost of Eldar consigned the being to its dire slumberings, bound forever from the Immaterium, to thrash and scream against material chains.

The truth in itself means nothing. To the Children of Nightmare, there is only the uncertain flux of future events, and the certainty of the present. The Herald slumbers. The Herald whispers and plots and knows the doom of this world is at hand. Scuttling among the ruins, they cast the bones and invoke the fates. Death comes on flaming wings, between the hammer and the anvil. Madness rides the starwind, between great flocks of inhuman beasts. The earth quakes with revelation and the promise of divine rapture.

The hour draws near.

The heavens themselves split, bleeding fire and ephemeral energies as the touch of the Warp descends upon the city, the great necropolis wherein the cult dwelt. Long before the cleansing fires of the Imperial heathens, they worshipped the great Herald, praised him and sought with sacrifice to reawaken him. Now the fanes shudder with anticipation, runes crackle and burn with new and sublime flame. Thunderhawks mar the sky with their passing, great arcs of fire across the heavens. They descend and their minds scream of foul deeds to come; the touch of putresence, the glory of change, the children of blood and the disciples of desire...They come, a great unity, a sign of the Undivided.

They come with the fire to awaken dormant gods and to usher in a new era of dark faith and terrible entropy.

Anton strode forth from the first vessel to touch the ground, kicking at the broken and seared rock with one ceramite clad foot. A snarl crossed his twisted features, rings and bars clicking and jingling as he shook his hair, his flesh adorned with piercings and brands. He drew a hand through his long intricately braided locks, before grinning; silver and gold capped fangs set in his gums.

"This is the hour, brothers! This day we reclaim this sanctum of the Gods, we unlock the secrets of this wretched world and stride forth in his name! In Remiel's name! What we do here shall echo throughout eternity, and deliver unto our Lord his divinity!" He growled, pounding his fist against his breastplate.

"Be proud, brothers! Be proud that we all fight here for the sovereign glory of hallowed Chronosia and our inevitable victory! Be proud to call yourselves true men and servants all! Consecrate these grounds with the seeds of our victory, lay the groundwork of our triumph and the will to conquest!"

OOC: Sorry for the lacklustre post, but I'm in a hurry!

The whispers were becoming louder in her head, the voices of torment which desired only one thing, her. Freya could feel it, a scream and a shriek, something was calling, seeking its own freedom to commit what it was created to. Chaos was strengthening in that corner of the space, and this time, she was not the only one who could see it. Yet, she returned to the tall corridors, and ran through the cold steel floor. Many looked at her, worried, yet she could barely notice them. It was hard to breath for some reason, despite the adjustments of her mechanical pressure space suit. Somehow, she felt something was behind her, approaching, and yet she refused to look behind.

The woman fell on her knees, she could not understand why, for she did not trip off on anything. Maybe they were already playing with her, using her body as a puppet for their amusement. The fear began to torment her, a cold sensation, despite all the strong lights of the corridor, that an invisible darkness could reach her. There was something that impeded her from getting up again, perhaps fear itself. It was not much longer before she saw Pablo Corrientes ahead of her. She could not understand why, but a strange smile came from her as she thought on how she was a sort of erratic freak. The whispers were becoming clearer and clearer. They were calling more than her. They were calling for Chaos itself, that planet seemed to be much more than a mere but extremely valuable inhabitable world. Then all went blank for her.

She witnessed an horrible account. Her body was almost sweating pain and suffering, and a distorted Pablo was look straight into her eyes. Fear overwhelmed any attempt to defend herself, and beneath his eyes an androgynous abomination stood staring deeply at her. Soon she would notice the reason for the pain. There were lacerations and cuts all over her body, inflicted by the twisted beast inside Pablo. She panicked, her hearted pounded quickly, and hopelessness personified talked to her in a disgusting voice, which was difficult to differentiate whether male or female:

"You were born to be a slave of flesh. I am your master, surrender to us, let your pain be my pleasure. I have been very teased by your "family", but there is nothing short of doing it personally. Have you looked into a mirror? I will give you the pleasure, before I consume your soul into an eternity of suffering. Master Slaanesh has chosen you, now it is his time to take the bounty, but first, he promised a reward for my servitude. Surrender and your torment will be lessened!"

Then he putted a mirror to her face. It was unrecognizable due to multiple wounds, cuts and bruises, and parts of her skin completely flayed. She screamed, and yet only a muffled noise came. As she realized why she felt such a pain inside her mouth.

"Is it not wonderful? Welcome to Tharos, my dear slave. Now that you have seen enough, perhaps I will take a few steps to ensure you shall be a good astropath, it will make my enjoyment of you greater."

And thus, the demon took a pair of red hot metallic instruments shaped like lenses, and began to slowly, and tortuously move it towards her eyes. She began to moan and scream to the limits that lacking a tongue allowed, the hopelessness and suffering were never close to any nightmare she faced before. Until a shout broke the spell:

"Wake up Freya!", was the voice of Pablo, normal, as the nightmare ended, and again reality came. Freya eyes and face seemed to be those of someone who has looked at the depths of hell, due to the despair their exhaled. Pablo touched her shoulder, and crouching, hugged her. It was enough to let her a few tears, something extremely rare, and she spoke in a desperate tone:

"I have seen our near future... Chaos shall dominate the entire planet and everything surrounding... bring us unspeakable misery, and use your body... they did..."

She could not say it. She trembled and withered remembering of the vivid vision and feelings of pain. They were completely real, despite not happening in reality. Pablo helped her to get up again, and looking at her eyes, said:

"That will not happen. I have witnessed it as well. I was going to ask for our immediate retreat of the system and back to the Shadow, but then you had this vision. We have to face our enemies. If we run away, what you felt and saw becomes the future."

Freya could not ascertain of the speculations the man was doing about it, she simply sighed, and said again the word:

"Aethyr... there is something called Aethyr all of those warring look for, and it must be extremely important. We... have nowhere to escape. Please, don't let me down Pablo. I... I cannot... the past!"

Pablo sighed as another nervous breakdown of schizophrenic levels came from the woman. She violently snapped her arm against one of the walls, and soon some of the crew ran to contain her. Having no other choice to ensure her safety, a gunny was brought, and they strapped her to it, while Pablo looked at her eyes:

"I am sorry Freya, but I do not want you to hurt yourself, and I cannot sedate you either. Please calm down... I know you have suffered much because of what you can see, but try to forget it, to hold it. You are a strong woman.

"Let me out. You are infringing my liberty! You have no idea of how it is. Of what I have gone through! Let me out or I'll pin you down as an enemy of freedom!" she said in a loud voice, but without actually shouting or being overtly aggressive. Her breakdown was at least this time, quite short lived.

"Your arguments seem lucid. Sorry I had to do this," he said, as she was brought back on her feet, and looked at him, with a sigh:

"Corrientes, our time is running out. I can feel it, in a few minutes... it will be too late to change the future if we continue wasting time. We must decide it now, and we must attack the source. I can identify it once we are in orbit"

The leader of the fleet observed the weary lady, and listened to her, he knew what had to be done. They were at a sufficient range to destroy much of the inhuman forces on orbit, and although he suspected it could be nothing, the prospect of her visions becoming true was too frightening to be ignored. And thus, he walked with her through the elevator to the control deck above.

"Pablo, could you promise me something?" asked Freya, interrupting the silent as they awaited for the few seconds before the elevator would arrive at their destination.

"Yes, it is the least I could do for your courage. After all you had to endure, you were still ready to face the Chaos of this trip with us. That alone is commendable," he said, smiling to her in an attempt to improve the ever-changing and ever-worsening mood of the woman.

The elevator opened, and they walked for a few meters towards the dozens of seats where operators watched sensors and a pilot kept the craft on a proper trajectory. A cylindrical inner area featured by its apparent bareness due to the lack of displays and consoles, and by the absent-minded looks of the crew on duty. Opening the glass of her helmet, Freya was quick to say, looking down:

"If it comes to what I have predicted, kill me. And kill yourself, there is no hope to resist them, it is best to abandon your own existence than to face the torment. At least, kill me if everything goes wrong. Can you promise?"

Sighing, Pablo hugged her again, and said:

"That will not happen Frey. We have been through all since we were kids. I will not let all we have done, all our lives, to end. Now we must convince the rest, what do you suggest. I say we take the greenpigs."

"No, take the weaklings who shot the greenpigs, And lets not face chaos directly for now." countered Freya, who believe that the Tau, which name was not under their knowledge, were the weakest technologically and tactically of the enemies of mankind.

"The people will decide that, Frey, like always," Pablo reminded her, as she fancied and smiled for a change, thinking on how silly the concept would be. The idea of everyone commanding a military operation was not something that most would cope with, and she replied:

"Lets hope that our collective intelligence is superior to the absolute generals of our enemies. But I hope my suggestion becomes the most voted"

And thus they stood in the center of the room, as Pablo said in a quick and deliberate manner, raising his hand to gesture all to pay attention to what was perhaps the most important thing in their less than expected new mission.

"Comrades. As the sensors point, Chaos is about to break into the planet right ahead of us. Our time is running out. Waiting will be the equivalent of waving a white flag and accepting defeat. We must stop whatever wicked threat to humanity lies there. Our friend Freya has witnessed torment beyond words, a fate that might come if we stand pathetically like weaklings in wait. We must now show the strength of our cause, of the human race and of self-rule. We must attack now, but there are more than one plan, like always. The information has been uploaded, and now, you must purvey it quickly and make your choice. Our own lives, and perhaps wills, depend on it."

A few minutes later, accessing her own Brain Computer Interface, which gave her a fresh change from the aseptic inners of the spacecraft, Freya saw that another operation was approved. It involved the ambitious goal of securing orbital supremacy, while also a request for reinforcements. The conflict ahead would likely be harsh and unforgiving. As finally the vision of her own eyes returned, she looked at Pablo and said:

"Are we really prepared for that?"

"Yes. We shall deploy all our cards now, lets take our own seats."

And thus they sat in a row of comfortable seats, next to other, as Pablo assumed the strategic interface to command their blitz through the planet. Speed was everything at the moment. The massive orbital transports remained at the almost kilometers long decks of the Oscar. In a formation that spanned more than a thousand of kilometers, with differences in all vectors, soon four smaller, but still considerably large spacecrafts came from each of the Exterminator frigates distributed at the large formation, and began to make routes to spread themselves. They also carried on their bellies large missiles, which could likely reach the distance that separated them from their enemy.

Looking at the 3D map of the system, he mentally pointed at the formations of Tau spacecrafts. Focusing at what seemed to be two of the head crafts of the formation. They were an astronomical unit and a couple of thousands of kilometers away from the Solarian force, and yet, despite the uncertainty of engaging at such ranges, they seemed to still be occupied by the occasional "greenpig" craft, while it was clear that the legitimate owners of the planet were coming in with reinforcements. Perhaps it was a good time to wipe out the Xenu. Soon multiple signs of target locked came to the tactical BCI, as they slowly approached their extremely distant enemies. Pablo was quick to point to everyone that the time was ripe. At that distance, there was only one time of armament that could hit anything that was not static or completely predictable.

And thus, a barrage of dozens of ballistic missiles roared from the large launch cells built inside the frigates and cruisers, while that the clamps holding others of those in the strategic bomber spaceplanes that came out of the frigates released them in their path to annihilate the Tauran enemy. Taking advantage of the momentum of the entired fleet which moved nine times faster than sound while continually accelerating at a slow one gravity.

Hatches opened in the Oscar cruiser-carrier, from where twelve gauss cannon turrets emerged, although all hoped that there would be no need to use them, at least not against the Taurans. Their fast speed and vectorial changes were their best defense. The Torchship also gave way for further twenty turrets to emerge, covering it uniformly, which were of a more defensive role. And thus, elegantly, each spacecraft which before seemed to be unarmed let their weapons hidden under their frame show up. It was the only manner to ensure them to reach the speeds beyond combat ones without damaging their hull integrity, or of allowing the spaceplanes to enter atmospheres without damaging their own weapon systems. With their teeth now visible. It was inevitable that they would call attention.

Of course, the fact that due to the distance, their missiles would take at least twelve hours to reach the Tau, meant that a new sort of tactical consideration was required. The spaceplanes continued to spread as far as they could without endangering their limited supplies of hydrogen, while their fleet slowly headed towards the planet in a completely nonlinear and partly random trajectory to reduce their predictability and thus the facility to which their enemies could track them and hit them at that distance. Conflict at such ranges was a question of mobility and superior probabilistic algorithms to attempt predicting where the enemies shall be after the twelve hours or more that it takes for a missile to reach them, and sometimes, the winner was solved by the roll of a dice, although like in a card game, a good bluff, strategy or tactical trick could settle the match to a victory that would not rely exclusively on luck.

This time, the Tau had to be taken out of the equation, least they would involuntarily contribute to the success of Chaos and of the other enemies of man, taken out for the Greater Good... of the human race.

The 38Km Greywatch Worldslayer was taken aback by the amount of ships already here. It had at least thirty other ships but this looked bad, very bad. Greywatch hadn't intended for there to be such a massive presence, especially in thie one area. What was here that had drawn so much attention? What could possibly be that important? Whatever it was, they were probably going to have to make some alliances and fast. Ten of the ships that were brought were Harbingers, each one carrying up to 1200 fighters to be used in case of a space based battle. The others were combonations of Star Shadows, Greywatch's cloak-cpacity ships; Rabblr Rousers, standard heavily armed and amored cruisars; and Powerbrokers, largerand more heavily armed and armored cruisars.

The two captains needed to maintain complete control over the Worldslayer were in awe. One of them finally spoke, "Get me some reports ASAP! We need to know what's going on here. Find me some ships we recognize and get me some possible allies dammit." The other captain then spoke, "Get all ships into formation around us. Monitor the situation and determine a safe time to begin setting up ground posts. We're only here to see what's so special about this place and mean no harm." The other captain then spoke again, "Get everyone to battle stations and prepare for combat. There's a good chance someone here is hostile and I want to be ready. Begin prioritizing targets!" Officer scurried to positions and messages were put out around the ship for all officer and crew members to take battle stations.

Scans were performed and all kinds of information was sent back and forth between the Worldslayer and the other Greywatch ships. Something on this scale had not been in a long time. Hopefully the situation wouldn't get out of hand in the next few minutes. Several messages, reports, and updates were being transmitted to Prime as more and more information, small and large, came in.

To the outside observer, the current scene within the KIN Athena’s command center was perhaps an unusual one, as among nearly a dozen and a half Kilrany military personnel; all averaging a height around two meters and dressed in nearly identical darkly coloured uniforms, stood a lone, middle-aged man, twenty centimeters over a meter and a half, and dressed in bright, colourful clothing. His height and garish clothing; by Kilrany standards, wasn’t the only differentiating factors, as unlike the decidedly Slavic ethnicity of the Kilrany, he had a narrower face, thick dark eyebrows, and a ‘Roman Nose’.

He was an Indrii, specifically Max Grandi, serving in the capacity as director for the myriad of Indrii scientific specialists that had been brought along for planetary survey, fulfilling the roles that the Kilrany military personnel simply did not have the skill set for. They were also along for the simple reason that the Indrii, one of the three nationalities left on Mir, had been chiefly responsible; publicly at least, for pushing the creation of the exploration program the Kilrany Royal Family had finally agreed to begin after so many millennia of self-imposed isolation.

His role was identical to that of Alex Scarpa, who served aboard the KIN Redeemer, however there was a critical difference between the two that extended beyond the simple fact that they were on completely different starships a considerable distance apart. Unlike Scarpa, who had in his youth grown curious of Kilrany culture and spent some time their military service, Grandi had never experienced this calling, and had been what his own people would call a true and ‘proper’ Indrii.

Much like the Kilrany, the Indrii had their own stereotypes and generalizations attached to them, which in turn; and in truth, had very few exceptions. Chief among them was the notion that they were pacifists, something that had different connotations to it depending on which nationality was using the term. This particular cultural oddity; by Kilrany standards, was a rather long standing one, even going to far as to require Kilrany police officers to enforce Indrii law, as they simply lacked the personnel to do the job for themselves, and as a protectorate of the Kilrany Empire, such personnel were readily supplied to them.

It hadn’t always been taken to such extreme though, but over the millennia it had become all the more pronounced as they chose to focus on cultural and scientific pursuits, which led some Indrii to consider them selves superior to the Kilrany and Russkyans. Of course this didn’t stop them from researching new and better means to wage war for use by the Kilrany, who acted as their de-facto guardians from potential, ‘barbaric’ alien species; or as other Indrii might refer to them as, ‘less enlightened’ alien species.

This particular point of view was one they did however try not to express publicly to others lest they offend their more militant cousins, whom they relied so heavily on for protection. Regardless of these efforts though, the Kilrany were well aware of the general opinion the Indrii held of them, and quite simple, very few of them truly cared, as they were far more interested in the opinion held of them by the Russkyans, who they had more in common with.

It was perhaps ironic then to note that because Grandi was a ‘proper’ Indrii, he had never caused Captain Myskina anywhere near the number of headaches Scarpa had caused for Captain Vyshinsky, with his constant criticism of Kilrany procedures and his attempted intrusions into command decisions. Thus this Indrii had shown a considerable willingness to simply stand back and observe the situation until the Kilrany were ready to stand aside and let them do their jobs, something he held no resentment for, as he understood the Kilrany were only attempting to look out for the well being of everyone involved.

It was for that reason that while Grandi stood within the Athena’s command center, briefing the Captain in person on what the Indrii thought they knew of the situation thus far with a clear and even tone, it also held no hint of frustration at the fact they had thus far been operating on passive sensors and fully cloaked, significantly reducing any information they could gain. This did cause his impromptu report to be rather lacking in detail, but at this point Captain Myskina was happy for all that she could get regardless.

Listening quietly, she stood looking off to the left side of the room, allowing her to watch Tharos through the computer generated image of her eyepiece, which currently showed her a simplified globe with a large number of red ‘blips’ that indicated all ships running actively. By this point the Athena was now holding a relative position to Tharos roughly one half of an astronomical unit out from the planet, which reduced the lag for the visual from their gun cameras down to around four minutes. Their position was also in a somewhat downward angle to the planet’s dark side, meaning that if they had moved directly towards it, they would have approached the midpoint between its equatorial line and Southern pole. Through this they hoped to keep out of the way of any errant weapons fire while leaving themselves an avenue of retreat out and away from the system.

“-perhaps then we could use one of the sensor drones then ma’am, they’re expandable enough and it’s highly unlikely given the assortment of hostile craft in this system, that one little drone is going to draw all that much attention. We could easily program it to put some distance between us before it goes active, otherwise, purely on passive arrays we just can’t tell you much more on the situation then what you can see for yourself from here.”

Myskina remained silent for a moment while she considered the Indrii’s suggestion before she replied slowly, “While I don’t discount that option mister Grandi, you’ll understand my hesitation to do anything at this moment that might light up our position to these rather disgruntled adversaries, especially since its clear that there’s at least four separate, quite openly hostile, task forces in close proximity to us. Is there nothing else you can tell me with what’s currently available to you?”

The diminutive man shrugged his shoulders slightly, “Not really, I do have Athena running the primary work of visual recordings of the planet’s surface and those on it since she can compile that data far more efficiently.”

Taking that as her cue, the ship’s AI projected its avatar into the room near the center, “A task for which I’ve been doing my best at Captain, but it’s not been as simple a as it sounds to get close, detailed images of much value in the dark. However I do have some initial findings to report, namely that there appears to be two distinct factions on the ground, with a third element that appears as though it might be some rather unusual, and vicious local wildlife, perhaps taking advantage of the conflict to reassert themselves.”

Discounting the ‘wildlife’ angle for the moment, the Kilrany Captain focused on the other two factors, “What can you tell me of these two factions?”

At this point the AI went into brief visual descriptions for the only two ground forces she had been able to identify at this moment, those being the Imperium’s Imperial Guard, and the Orcs, though of course their actual names were unknown. While the Orcs were certainly something new to them, the knowledge that there were other species throughout the universe sharing a similar appearance, and calling themselves humans, was no longer a surprise after the Redeemer’s encounter with the Ganoxian Destroyer, the GAS Belldandy, though they still considered this fact highly suspicious nonetheless.

In the end though, neither the Kilrany or the Indrii had enough information to reliably go on given their current situation, and had no access to the bulk of the knowledge imparted to them by the Ganoxa, as it was still being sifted through back on their home planet, which even then wouldn’t have guaranteed it could have helped them here. Thus these military personnel knew nothing of the Imperium of Man, the Lords of Chaos, the Orcish hordes, the Genestealers or any of the other myriad of alien organizations that converged on this particular planet for reasons none aboard the Redeemer could even guess at, for Tharos appeared to hold nothing of value that they could see yet.

Through the various hidden security cameras, Athena could see her Captain purse her lips and recognized the new expression upon her face as one of she had when she was in careful deliberation. A full second passed before the AI saw Myskina quickly glance down at her watch before making her decision known, “We will continue to observe for the time being, and if nothing has changed in the next eight hours, we’ll launch that drone. By then Nemov should have something concrete on the drives and we should be able to safely take our leave should things go awry.”

Both the AI and the Indrii gave a quick little nod of their heads in understanding before the projection snapped off and Grandi turned to leave the command center. As they left, the Captain turned to look at her executive officer, “Well Commander, we have a long wait ahead of us and the next shift is scheduled to come on duty in twenty minutes,” she then upped the volume of her voice to address all within the command center, “as such I recommend you all make the best of that time off, because when we come back on shift, that drone goes out.”

She didn’t have to say anything else at that point, they all held a bit of cynicism in them and fully expected that their actions then would cause them problems.

-----

About forty-five minutes later, Myskina was pushing aside the hatch to her cabin and stepping inside, she promptly thumped on a wall-mounted panel next to the hatch to turn on the lights. Modest in size, but still comfortable, there was little that would initially stand out beyond the usual standard issue furnishings, but here and there were the odd personal traces of Natalia Myskina, including an old familiar portrait taken twelve years previously that included her mother, father, brother and of course herself.

Coming around the side of her desk, she set a small sack down upon it before removing her uniform’s coat and swinging it around to rest on the back of her desk’s chair. A sigh of relief escaped from her a moment later as she sat down and loosened the collar on her white undershirt before leaning forward to examine the contents of battle ration before her. With the ship on condition one, the ship’s mess sent out these simple little sack lunches for the crew, and hoping to get some sleep in before they launched the drone, she had decided to merely grab one from the wardroom and bring it with her then eat it there.

She didn’t particularly feel hungry, but knowing it had been at least nine hours since her last meal, she’d best eat while she could, and get some rest as well. The latter would be difficult she knew, as despite the weariness she could feel setting in from a long day made many hours longer by their unexpected arrival in this system, her mind was quite active as she continued to mull over what possible importance the contested planet held. It was a moment like this she envied Athena, her ship’s AI, for the simple fact that she needed neither food nor sleep to keep at peek operating levels.

It was about at this point, as she took a bite out of a surprisingly delicious chicken sandwich, that the Solarians initiated their missile attack on the Tau forces above Tharos. However this went with little reaction by the Kilrany currently on duty given their position outside the line of fire and the fact that it was just another piece of the large, continuing battle above Tharos for orbital supremacy, at least as far as these quite observers could tell.