Arrival
Transiting the Maw is one of the more dangerous trips
one could take in the Warp, and Captain Bale reflected that all
things considered this particular trip was comparatively easy,
Enginseer Gaetaen had recovered from his mania fairly quickly, and
while Pilot Swarznedruber
was still catatonic, other reported casualties were fairly minimal,
certainly within expectations. Although the House Norn Tech-Priests
had sealed themselves in the hold with their cargo “For security
reasons” which annoyed him to no end, it was, in the end,
tolerable. Exit from the Warp was smooth, and would have been
smoother if the exit point wasn't smack in the middle of a debris
field consisting of more wrecked ships than Bale had seen in his
entire career.
Emergency
maneuvering was barely sufficient to avoid the mostly intact hulk of
some Cruiser size vessel that had been gutted by what appeared to be
torpedo fire, and the void shields came up in time to prevent
anything more than superficial damage from the smaller debris,
although some work would be needed to restore the exterior to it's
previous pristine condition.
“Sensors!
What is going on here? Are there any active vessels or weapons fire!”
“Nossir.”
Came the reply. “Nothing active within auspex range, whatever
happened finished a fair bit before we arrived.”
“Hmmph,
maintain a close watch anyway, and find us the most intact wreck you
can out there, we may as well see if we can recover records of what
happened, or at least something valuable anyway.”
Bale
noticed Pilot Swarznedruber skulking onto the bridge. “Ah, Eric,
good to see you up again, I trust you are ready to resume your
duties.”
“Yeah.”
Came the subdued reply, clearly he still wasn't feeling well, Bale
didn't care particularly.
“Fine,
take the helm and guide us to whatever target sensors gives you, I am
going to get on the vox and see if I can convince those cowards to
let me back in to my own cargo hold again now that we are out of the
Warp.”
Vox-Specialist
third class Johann was at his desk, appearing to work, a recent
promotion had placed him on the bridge, and he was supposed to be
monitoring communications and directing signal traffic, instead he
was loading a specific instruction wafer into his cogitator, the
Father had assured him it would help bring the Emperor's light to the
ship, and the Captain specifically, and after the weeks of traveling
through the Warp and attending services at the new chapels in the
lower decks Johann knew that His light was desperately required. The
cogitator chirped and it's job was done, unnoticed he slipped away,
he needed to report and find a safe place to law low for the next day
or so.
As
usual when dealing with passengers, Bale was annoyed, the idiots in
the hold had continued to refuse all communication, not even
bothering to respond anymore, he had ordered a precautionary guard
set on the hold entrances and was tempted to vent the damned thing
into space, contract be damned when a rating reported that the doors
had opened.
“Oh
good, let's go mee-”
“And
the servitors are marching out and killing everyone!”
“Lead
with that next time!” Bale barked.
Responses
were limited, as it became clear that the tech-priests had subverted
the machine spirits in the hold and he could not order the doors
sealed remotely, armsmen were deployed to critical areas; the armory,
engines, and bridge. Then other reports came in.
“The
rabble on the lower decks are in a state of mutiny! We are getting
reports of a mob led by red robed zealots wielding eviscerators
pouring into the middle decks!”
“External
communications are down! Some sort of feedback loop is burning out
our receivers!”
“Internal
communication received, someone calling himself the Prophet wants you
to personally surrender and give the Red Redemption control of Parte
Visiblis.”
“I
hate my job.”
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