Fiction part 2

Away Team

An emissary arrived in a shuttle provided by Representative Norn, intending to return with the Captain aboard.

Bale was having none of it.

“Sir, Pultarch Norn will guarantee you safe passage! It is a matter of House Krin's honor! There is no need to bring so many retainers.”

Bale responded with a snort “If Norn can guarantee my safety then he can surely guarantee the lives of a few more of my crew and a squad of my best armsmen, they have been cooped up on the ship for far too long and an outing will do them good.”

“Very well.” The emissary knew when he was beaten, shall we adjourn to my shuttle then?”

“Oh my no, we'll take one of ours, you can go first though and show us the way.”

“Sigh”

“Okay, who's coming with? Oh I know, Navigator! Get your lanky self out here, you need to get out more and I saw one of your discarded crisp packets in the hallway earlier, come and see how the rich folks live when they aren't on a ship.”

“Tech Priest Gaetan, you better get over here too, stop hassling the emissary and gear up for an outing, your knowledge of mysteries of Mars could be useful.”

“Pilot Swartzendruber, you come too, you are startlingly poorly socialized and could use some time off the ship, don't think I don't notice you sleeping in your seat when you are supposed to be off duty.”

Although the team selection seemed to be mostly random names, Bale had actually selected carefully, representatives from the Navigators and the Mechanicum would show that the three binding groups of the Imperium worked together as one on his vessel, and negotiating with one faction meant speaking with the others, and “Sugar Glider” despite his poor manners, was the best pilot on the ship and handy in a fight. That combined with the armsmen squad meant that they should be able to talk or fight their way out of anything on the station save perhaps for a full scale riot.

Parte Visiblis was a battlecruiser of an ancient and unknown marque, refitted only three thousand years ago to a modern standard, she had served as the seat of House Bales power ever since, she was well equipped with cargo bays and shuttles and leaving the vessel was uneventful.

Bale watched out the viewport, the lingering effects of the warp storm made it very unpleasant to watch, although Rasputina the Navigator seemed fascinated.

“Why are you so interested in watching the storm? Don't you see this kind of stuff all the time?”

“Yes, but seeing it with my realspace eyes is different very unusual.”

Bale shrugged, the Navigators might technically be human, but their ways were quite different. In part due to their third eye, which allowed them to do what no other human could do unaided and view the warp directly, it permitted them to guide ships through that dire dimension but it forever kept them separate and some said it changes them in ways more sinister. He had never seen anything of that sort from Rasputina, who, other than being unsettlingly tall and lanky seemed more or less a standard example of the type, she was however incredibly anti-social, seemed to exist mostly on snack foods and highly sugared drinks, and spent most of her time locked inside her lavish quarters in the Navigators tower playing strange games on he personal cogitator.

Bale went to close the viewport, the warp was giving him a headache, when he noticed something, he activated his comm;

“Pilot, send to Parte Visiblis and ask the duty officer to contact the Imperial fleet commander, they appear to be preparing to move out and I would appreciate whatever they can tell us.”

He was worried, Port Maw was the final Imperial Port before heading into mostly unclaimed territory and was virtually never left unguarded, but unless he missed his guess the entire fleet was preparing to pull us stakes.

Perhaps it was unrelated to his meeting with Norn, but he suspected he would find out soon enough.

“Landing now, welcome to Docking Station 113, Port Maw.”