NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: This is retake of a thread which died due to me trying to do too much at once. This is for Chron, Solar Communes and Kilrany only.

IC:

Tharos. It was a planet of lost mysteries and wonders, where the fell powers of Chaos and the great power of the Eldar had clashed many times before, each seeking to claim an artifact of great power hidden deep under its surface. Guarded by some dark Guardian, the Herald of Nightmare, and his host of cultists, whom guard this fell object. Entire armies of Eldar and Chaos lie dead upon this planet, their bodies claimed by the undergrowth of this massive forest planet. The object they sought was the Aethyr Key, and it's evil call will resonate throughout the galaxy once more, drawing key pawns into its game to see its ultimate goal realized, its entire reason for existence fulfilled. And the fulfillment of prophecy.

But first, it will need to draw in its prey. And as such, it sends out its call to the most vulnerable of prey....the Imperium of Man.

***********

Planet Tharos, aboard the Space Marine Battle Barge Breath of Wisdom

Brother Captain Cain Arthsin stood on the bridge of the Battle Barge, gazing down at the planet with narrowed eyes. His blue and gold Ultramarine power armored shined dully under the bridge lights, its surface covered in dents, scratches and burns. He had seen plenty of battle and had recently been dealing with incursions by Orks and Tyranid Cults. His success in those endeavors had seen him assigned on this mission of vital importance. He was glad to be on a mission vital to the continued glory of the Imperium and of the Emperor, but....He glanced over at the quiet Inquisitor Aerith Kassai. She was a confident, proud but quiet woman, filled with the intense zeal and drive that was part of being an Inquisitor. She wielded a mighty power sword and bolter gun. She had been the one to bring the word of the Emperor and of the Chapter, of this most dire mission to be fulfilled. She was not to take command of his Space Marine company, for such was beyond her power, but she brought a sizable force of hand-picked troops that served the Inquisition. If what was down there did exist, then they would need all of the firepower of this Battle Barge, every Storm Trooper and Space Marine, to cleanse this world of its taint.

Their mission was to investigate the rumor of a powerful Chaos artifact that was to inhabit this planet, known as the Aethyr Key. The Tau had been seeking it, but the Imperium had ambushed and destroyed their fleet, and learned it through their databanks. According to their information, there was also some kind of daemon imprisoned here as well, by what they knew not, but it was of great power and the guardian of the Key. It also had sleeping hosts at its command, but this was all superstition and legend. It was up to them to find out if it was true. He turned to the Sergeant next to him. "Brother Metias, have the sensors found a good location to establish an outpost?"

He nodded. "Yes Brother-Captain. There is a section of forest clearing that leads to ancient ruins of some kind of civilization, they do not match anything in our archives."

Cain nodded. "So be it. Begin immediate deployment of our brothers and the servitors to oversee the build-up. Also have scout patrols be conducted into the ruins and surrounding area. We need to know what is around us. They are to use utter caution and stealth; we do not know what is out there and this information gathering only. No engagements; if they are fired upon, they are to retreat immediately."

"Understood, Brother-Captain. It will be done." Cain watched as he ran off to do his duty and walked over to the Inquisitor, whom was reading a panel of data coming in from one of the screens. "Inquisitor." She turned to face him, and nodded, a hint of a smile on her face.

"Captain Arthsin. I take it we have arrived at Tharos?"

He nodded. "We have found a suitable landing site for an outpost and have begun deployment of forces. Recon teams are being sent into the surrounding area. There is some kind of ruined city next to the landing site, some civilization we have no record of."

Aerith narrowed her eyes. "They were probably the creators of, or the servants of, the Key. They are not to investigate the ruins too thoroughly, lest their taint transfer to them."

Cain narrowed his eyes as well but nodded. "Of course, Inquisitor Kassai. I will inform them of this. Did you want your forces deployed as well?"

"Not yet. Your marines can handle the setting up and defense of the outpost. Once we have the trail and have discovered the enemy strength, than we shall see about deploying my soldiers."

"Very well. I will attend to my men now." He nodded to her and walked away, heading to his quarters to retrieve his weapons and then head down on one of the Thunderhawks to oversee the outpost. He was uneasy around this Inquisitor. She was bright and cool under fire, but she was a firebrand, she seemed like a bomb waiting to explode. Not something he needed on this kind of mission. With unknown enemy strength and a powerful Chaos artifact somewhere on the planet, he needed less problems, not more.

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

Unbeknownst to the Imperials, once they set foot on the planet, the artifact then sent a quiet call out into the depths of space. It did not want to be found by the Imperials; only death and ignorance of its true power would await it there. No, it needed other beings to come in and distract the marines, other races to drive their phobia to war so they would be hampered in finding where it lay. So it could better call out to whom it wished to be found by, to whom hand's it had been made to occupy.

Remiel de Drakan.

The call of the Guardian was quiet but tugging as it entered Remiel's dreams. It's dark form rippled with power as it clutched a powerful staff of arcane might.

"Come, Remiel, come to Tharos, the bearer of the Sacred Key, the gift of the Dark Gods to you. With it, you shall ascend and become a god amongst mortals and lead the last crusade into the stars, driving the belief in Chaos ever further.

Come, chosen Remiel, and receive your prize."

Suddenly another voice entered and spoke at the same time as the Guardian did. "Come, Remiel, and free us from our ancient prison, else the foolish warriors of the Corpse God forever snuff out your chance at ascension!"

OOC: Apologies for the mostly rehashed opening and the delay, but it’s the best I have for this scenario.

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 slight problem here,” 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 the planet known to some as Tharos.

Elaborating on his initial words of warning, the officer at sensors continued, “We’ve got a decent number of active signals out here near one of the planets ma’am, I don’t think they’re getting a return off us, but I can’t give any guarantees on that.”

A tap of a key on the command console shifted the composite image on her headset to a more static look through the gun camera on one of the forward batteries. Lagging behind by nearly forty-five light minutes, the visual she was getting was sorely out of date, and showed her nothing useful for the moment.

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 designed 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 near the planet?”

“Three hours and ten minutes ma’am.”

OOC: Sorry for what is nothing but a modified and tl;dr copypasta, but I had to because of character build

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 Xenos 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 the collective consciousness 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. Spacecrafts detected near orbit. Human design pattern matching indicates 95% likelihood of them being of human origin"

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 the unknown human, An indicator pointed "Distance: 1.2 light-seconds", meaning they were quite close, with a trip of few hours being enough to reach the destination, should they wish to, while scans prepared to show features like estimated gravity, reciprocal mass in Earths and average surface temperature, even though visually the planet was clearly earth-like.

"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, while also broadcasting his voice to the other six allied spacecrafts nearby, where more than a division of soldiers prepared for a war they never arrived for stood. 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 that would be disputed by many.", he explained, pausing to allow the audience of the spacecraft to understand, before he continued:

"So far, we have detected a presence which appears to be human from pattern-matching, and which, how should I say. Perhaps I should you let see it by yourselves what our best telescopes had gathered on one of their spacecrafts."

And then, suddenly Pablo and everyone else saw a split image. At the left, the Eagle of the Nazi Germany, and at the right, the symbol of the unknown force engraved at the side of one of their spaceships enlightened by the sun, which seemed quite similar to the former, indicating that if not outrightly fascist, the chances of the same force being totalitarian were significant.

"We lost an opportunity to cleanse the universe from a scourge, but now we have a new one to fight against a tyranny like that of the Global State. Light signatures have indicated we might be in disadvantage, yet our just cause of Freedom shall prevail. But for now, we should tread carefully, for we have no idea of what sort of capabilities they possess", 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 we must land in such planet to acquire resources for a departure, something which will require so much time that a colony would have to be established, 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, or a temporary truce with this fascist human civilization, for who knows if a Xenu could arrive at any moment? Second, we must secure a base of operations in such planet, and if necessary, establish a xenoindustrialization and mass reproduction program. 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.

Ten minutes 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, and followed by six Exterminator Orbital Assault Frigates, smaller torchships surrounding it. It would take some a few more than an hour for the formation to be completed, while they simultaneously moved towards their destination. As they continued to thrust forward, 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 had 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 flast or 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: Two hours. Estimated time dilation: irrelevant."

Estimated planetary gravity: 1.04 gees
Average temperature: data insufficient
Atmospheric composition: Non-determined quantities of oxygen detected, breathable
Estimated maximum flight velocity: 0.01% of the speed of light"

Attempting to stop them in the middle of their travel would be suicidal, for any starcraft at such speed was a kinetic weapon which impact would be deadly for both it and whatever it hit against. At such moment, all were already aware of their presence.

------------------------------

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 are coming through the Shadow, they are heading to this world! And even distant, I can hear distant cries from the immaterial realm... I can feel a distant terror approaching, wanting to subdue my will. 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 that are coming. 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 among the elite of the OSA, and you will help us to discover what they want to be heading towards this place, 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.", 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 all we have here for now is one potential enemy, and more if your visions are correct. Now on a not so short, there is some sort of interstellar human Police State around and this planet was just claimed by them. I do not want to piss off a power we have no idea of how far it extends. It could be an even greater threat than Global State, and we are human beings, after all."

"Pablo, what do you think we should do?"

"We must conquer a relatively isolated continent away from the potential hostiles, recycle available infrastructure and resources, and set up a city as fast as possible."

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

"You, none. Tzeentch would come through here like a bee to the honey pot if we had other clones with the same gifts than yours..."

"Gift? Are you another loser who plays video games 24/7 and thinks being possessed by demons and having supernatural power is cool?" she asked, clearly offended by the way he mentioned it.

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

"Now you are really ambitious Pablo, are not you? And forget about facing Chaos, should it really come as my visions have told. Cloning humans for war, using the war for ploys to overthrow a government and instill total anarchy 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 entire world... 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. If we have to provoke chaos as a mean for achieving liberty, so be it!"

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 battle barge.

"Look, if we just go shooting first and asking later, we could end screwed and doomed. Do you see that dot? It is all we have spotted so far."

Freya could no longer stand, and immediately interrupted Pablo:

"I can hear a faint chant from the depths of the Shadow, resonating through that world, 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 do not outnumber us. But still, lets not underestimate them. We are about to face an probable enemy which we have no idea about their technology, and thus, I consider diplomacy the best approach for now."

"And what after they refuse to reach an agreement?", one of the crew asked.

"Then we shall take whatever means necessary to 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 them 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. There were just thirty minutes left for their arrival.

"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."

And with that the astropath breathed his life, vision and revelation tearing the life from his supple mind. Remiel stood behind the Sorceror, he himself breathing in the sickly scent of change, of tumult. He could see it all now, the universe wreathed in fire and consumed by warfare. He would rise, glorious and terrible, the ender of worlds, the sunderer of suns. A beginning and an ending, the purest gift that Tzeentch could bless the galaxy with...Change.

All things would change, be it the corpulent hierarchy of the Empire and its mewling Sith masters, or the continued breath of the Rebellion. None of them mattered, godless fools all, mere motes of light before the roaring inferno of the Primordial Annihilator, unbridled unrestrained Chaos.

It pleased Remiel to know these things, to know that his actions so directly affected the universe and pleased its hidden masters. Masters who now called upon him. Tharos. Tharos and its revelation. A power slumbered there, hidden for millennia, now craving release. Who was he to deny that dark might? Who was he to spurn the word of the Gods and their servants, seared into the minds of all about him, tolerated by his own phenomenal psychic potency.

“Then we march on Tharos.”
-------------

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.

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, for since our readings of a new arrival from the Shadow, we analyzed lower chances of success for ourselves, but then you had this vision. We have to face our enemy, even if it outnumbers us. 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 that Chaos is looking 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 find the heart of darkness. I might 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 engage the incoming forces of Chaos, putting to risk a long held truce, 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 ignore the forces of Chaos for now."

"Yes, you are correct, lets not face chaos directly for now. After all, the so called Changer of Ways might consider our existence useful to his chess game and cabals." agreed Freya, realizing how weak she seemed in face of all the voices and callings from the Four, hoping only that the Aethyr Key would make her very presence ignorable, for she could not allow Chaos to take over her, again.

"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 ordered hierarchy of Chaos, and to the commands of the fascists. But I hope our suggestion becomes the most voted. Heading on against Chaos would be suicidal!"

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, the not so disorderly Chaos is heading towards 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, of direct action and of self-management. 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, hopefully siding temporarily with the holders of the planet to face Chaos, while also a request for reinforcements from the Einsteinverse. 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, with about eighteen minutes before reaching orbit. 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, as defensive measures that would not be likely used for now.

Looking at the 3D map of the system, he mentally pointed at the distant formations of Chaos spacecrafts with an estimation of their speed given, although considering their nature, such were foolish, for only fools and dumb machines would make predictions about the unpredictable. The only certainty is that they had to arrive first, or face the untold horrors with a great challenge to both their courage and skills. And of course, Freya had to endure and remain free of an ever growing demonic influence. The situation was getting worse, and every second mattered.

Two hours passed painfully slowly for the crew of the KIN Athena as the ship continued to creep towards the planet known to some as Tharos, the simple fact they were still at maximum alert since entering the system added to the tension level. Quietly though they went about their respective duties, many using hushed tones when possible out of an instinctual reaction to the thought of the ‘enemy’ being nearby.

Watching through the mammoth number of security cameras, and listening in through just as many microphones, this behaviour brought slight amusement to Athena, the ship’s AI. She did not think them foolish though, despite the futility of their whispers, knowing that she herself was based of various aspects of personality traits from Kilrany volunteers made it easy for her to understand their reasons behind it, that and an in-depth understanding of psychology certainly didn’t hurt.

While they were still a full astronomical unit out from the planet that had so readily drawn their attention, they were now close enough that their gun cameras; which were being used like a network of high-precision telescopes, were just over eight minutes behind on actual events over the planet. Though this only provided a limited amount of information for them, it was enough to get a decent, first look, at the Space Marine warships, which was a little more then what their other passive arrays could do for them.

Still an hour out at their current speed, Captain Myskina couldn’t help but feel a little uneasy, while she had confidence in the capabilities of KIAM stealth and cloaking technologies when on full silent running, there was always a lingering doubt as a result of her own natural paranoia. This coupled with the simple fact that she expected the worst from those in orbit around the planet, led to her continued contemplation that what they were doing was perhaps not the best of ideas.

The situation hadn’t been helped any by the unexpected arrival of several more contacts farther out from the planet. Though they couldn’t get specifics on their passive receivers, they had enough ‘blips’ to know that there were a fair number of new arrivals with powerful active arrays.

She didn’t let this doubt show to those around her in the ship’s command center though; instead she maintained an even and calm exterior for obvious reasons. Had she known more about the nature of those already in the system, and those only moments away from arriving, she likely would acted on those feelings rather then on her curiousity, and risked the jump back the way they’d come, for if there was one thing she personally despised the most, it was religious fanatics.

Not quite lost in her thoughts, she reacted quickly by turning to face one of her officers; this one in particular standing off to her right near the sensor station, spoke up,” Ma’am, we’ve been trying to make some sense of the limited communications we’ve been picking up, but they’re clearly encrypted, so we’ve had no luck on that so far. Curiously though, we’ve picked up on that same background noise that Redeemer reported on.”

Hardly surprised by the lack of results on the encrypted transmission, she raised an eyebrow at the mention of background noise, “I guessing they never did figure out what that was, did they?” though the officer recognized the rhetorical question, he shook his head slowly in confirmation nonetheless, “Very well then, put the Indrii specialists on it, perhaps we got the brighter bunch.”

The officer replied with a simple nod of his head as she turned back forward in time to witness their passive arrays picking up the signals from yet more new arrivals, these ones much closer to the planet.

Due to a genetic aberration within those ‘humans’ who had come into being on the Kilrany home world of Mir, none aboard the KIN Athena heard the psychic resonance of the arrival of Chaos, as their minds were closed to such things. In all of Kilrany history, psychics, telekinesis, 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.

As Myskina looked at the new blips, she heard the little voice in the back of her head tell her she should turn around, hide her ship as far from the planet as she could get and wait until their hyperdrive was cleared for use again. In a rather rare event for a Kilrany however, her curiousity over the system and the attention it was drawing managed to overpower her innate sense of paranoia, and they continued on, albeit on a slightly altered course.

As they did so, the ship’s AI brooded in silence as she correlated data on all the signals around her physical self, though she was a relatively large craft, she was comparatively insignificant to the forces gathering around Tharos. This led her to feeling slightly inadequate for the task before them, not to mention the fact that she highly disliked the notion of being outnumbered.

-----

Unknown to the crew of the KIN Athena, there had been other repercussions resulting from their unexpected deviation in flight plan beyond their arrival near Tharos, a soon to be highly disputed planet. 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 Imperial Guard’s 5th Division had been dispatched with each Athena class exploration vessel 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 would 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 all some rather significant problems.