Part 9

Departure

The next few days passed swiftly, Bale negotiated with the Imperial fleet and found homes for the colonists in his hold, they would be joining the crew of another Rogue Trader vessel as the fleet moved out towards it's goal. The cavernous cargo holds of the Parte Visiblis didn't stay empty for long as they were soon occupied by House Krin's cargo, some thirty thousand weaponized combat servitors and their attending tech-priests and lay engineseers.

Then came time for the warp jump into the Maw, and Bale made the usual announcement:
“We jump now into the Expanse one more time, you have heard the rumors of trouble and unrest but I assure you, with faith in the Emperor, Omnissiah, and machine spirit of our holy vessel, our trip shall be swift, hold to your faith and your duties.”

“Engage Warp drive.”

The Warp is mankinds greatest enemy, yet paradoxically the only source of salvation as well, without the Warp interplanetary travel would be impossible, messages could not be sent, and the psykers the Imperium relied on for so many things would never be born, yet on the other side of the coin the Warp is home to humanities, indeed, the galaxies' greatest enemies; the powers of Chaos, it is from the Warp that Daemons manifest to threaten and invade, and uncontrolled psykers ravage worlds with maddening regularity. In this dimension of emotion and power, travel is dangerous, indeed there is perhaps no more risky endeavor than traveling in a Warp capable vessel, for an enemy in the real world may kill, but the abyssal ocean hungered for ones very soul.

The Koronus Expanse is at the very limit of the Emperor's light, and a pocket of space surrounded by dangerous and unpredictable storms the one known safe route in is only marginally usable at the best of times, and in the months surrounding the intrusion of the Cicatrix Maledictum only made it worse. The Warp reacts to emotion, it feeds off of it and amplifies it, it's connection to the material realm and causality is tenuous at best and all manner of phenomenon have been experienced by travelers. In the best of times, a ships Geller field protects the vessel and its inhabitants from the hazards of the dimension.

This was not the best of times, on the bridge lights dimmed as power was drawn to the Geller fields, a rating fell from his post, foaming at the mouth and had to be dragged off by a duty armsman, herself only barely functional. Captain Bale showed no outward sign of distress, but his vision was dominated by the face of his father, the skin and muscle peeling away to show only a skull, a skull that still radiated disapproval, even death could not stop the judgement of his family, it spoke of how he should not be here, didn't deserve his position, any of his siblings would be a better captain or head of the family.

“You are not strong enough to face what is coming Issaak.”

In the enginarium, Gaetan had to lock himself in a darkened supply closet, logically he knew his flesh wasn't writhing, and in all probability his fellow tech-priests were not mutating dramatically either, yet it was so convincing! For the first time in decades he turned his ocular implants off and wished he could sleep.

Pilot Swarznedruber sat as his console, now that the ship was in the Warp his job was in the hands of the Navigators, which was good because he wasn't really there anymore.

Eric was on Innocent Blood he had served on the grand cruiser for years and was still a pilot second, the taste of celebratory amasec still on his mouth after the drink shared between him and the others in his section as they congratulated him on his impending marriage, Judith was a Mechanicum lay priest working in the Enginarium, and for some reason she saw something in him worth her time.

The wedding was tomorrow morning in the bridge chapel, it was thought good luck to have a wedding in the Warp so there was a lot of support for the plan, until then, duty came first.

Alarms sounded desperately, He witnessed the collision, a vast shadow, a ship? Appeared suddenly on the filtered viewport, crossed the field of view in a second, and the ship rocked violently, as Eric and his fellow crew flew about the bridge, he saw billions of fragments spreading outward, fire taking hold where pockets of oxygen, butane, and methane still remained before its dispersal, then blackness and for a fraction of a second, seemingly everlasting silence, proceeded by the shockwave that wouldhim to the floor and kill thousands, who were unfortunate enough to be closer to the epicenter. 

He clawed his way to his feet and to the viewport smearing blood that was both his and not, amidst the sounds of screams and broken alarms he could hear Susan, the “helpful” relay servitor, was even affected as she skipped portions of her emergency procedural statement speaking at 1/4 time….Remaaaaaaaaain, caaaaaaaaalm were her last words in a more masculine tenor. He could see parts of the ship that still remained, but the engineering quad was sheared entirely out of existence, with its critical primary thrust array, back up life support, fusion reactors 1 through 5 of 8, and the love of his life vaporized. In it's place the other ship was lodged, it had stuck on Innocent Blood after shearing off the aft section.

In total, it was estimated that some 350,000 souls were immolated or spilled into the Warp upon impact, and another 80,000 lost over the following years that would bear out their imprisonment. They drifted, all motive power lost, but somehow the Geller fields held, the following days, months, years? Became a unique hell as they did what they had to to live.

All this the Pilot relived in seconds, the loss and the ordeal that followed, and then he lived it again, and again, and again.

From the outside, a tear formed in one eye.

The Warp took its toll.