Chapter 8: War of the Stars
The Cruiser stood in orbit around the moon of the red world, preserving its energy as most of its systems were offline. Some parts of the ship, however, was as awake as ever. The apothecarium was one of these areas. The Magos Biologis were hard at work, probing all and any material the team on-surface had brought back. The robed figures were covered both in machine oils and blood as they worked tirelessly to dissect and extract information from the human children brought back. Many of the children were held in large stowage holds, where some had been put to sleep, whilst others were still screaming from the shock of being abducted by the Magos servants.
The rest of the ship took this opportunity of calm to gather in the great cathedral under the bridge. The light coming through the windows a pale blue reflected off the lunar surface of the moon of which they laid in orbit. "Once again we gather in prayer." The Ecclesiarch spoke to the crowd as they eagerly listened to his preaching. "Remember, that we are all children of him upon the throne. And that we are chosen by him to do his bidding this far away from our home! We are his holy servants! We are the vanguard of faith in this blasphemous region of the cosmos. Billions will follow the path we pave!" The Ecclesiarch's words were powerful, and he spoke with great enthusiasm. The energy he put into his speech empowered the crowd, and even the Astartes who lined the sides of the great hall heads bowed seemed reminded of the great honour they had been given. "We are the Emperors finest, and we will build a home for humanity here. Like the great crusade of old, we will conquer this galaxy, in his name. May he bless us with his vigilance! May the Emperor protect us." He finished, the crowd roused and rallied.
On the bridge of the cruiser, the Inquisitor and Stradivaria conversed over the topic of how best to bring the human worlds of this new galaxy to compliance. The crew of the bridge were in close coordination with the Sensorium, looking eagerly for the next planet or sector they were to engage. Suddenly, the sensors pinged as it had discovered other vessels not far away. "Give me the coordinates and data," Stradivaria asked his the adepts as he was informed of the situation. "It seems like to Xenos void craft have engaged in combat, my lord" One of them answered, as he frantically searched his cogitator receiving device for any more details that might satisfy his lord's hunger for information. "Where is the engagement taking place." Regulus followed, already planning ahead using his advanced cognition systems to simulate the situation. "The northern side of the planet. They are fighting in orbit." As the adept spoke, Stradivaria had already connected to the radio data-stream, downloading diagnostics and data straight from the sensorium. "If the energy readings are correct, it seems that their weapons are of a low calibre, and the output even when calculating the loss of through thermal radiation, should not be able to damage our craft significantly. I recommend that we too engage now when we have the element of surprise. Do you agree to this as our course of action, Inquisitor?" Stradivaria asked, and waited as the Inquisitor thought. "Agreed. All men to battle stations!"
Like a lightning, the purple sparks started appearing in the void between the fighting ships, an overwhelming light spreading and blinding the struggling void craft. But the warp-lightning only grew in ferocity until it became a full-blown storm, consuming parts of the void until it had formed a gate, from which Stradivarias cruiser emerged, all guns ready and charged for combat. For a moment there was silence, as the combat seized, both parts confused over the arrival of this new, Alien threat. "Wait until they engage! Let us study for as long as we can!" The Inquisitor ordered, his voice ringing out over the bridge.
Stradivarias flagship drifted further in between the three starships. One had a rounded organic shape and did not look like its original purpose had been for void-combat. However, the other two ships were the strict opposite. They had an aggressive triangular shape, fitted all around with large cannons that were now aiming at the emerging threat. Then, the cannons on lead triangular craft fired, a rain of green plasma falling towards the Imperial cruiser, but just like rain, it scattered and disappeared as it came in contact with the many layers of Stradivarias powerful void shields. "They have brought this upon themselves." The Inquisitor spoke to himself in a low voice before turning towards his crew. "These blasphemers have engaged us! Let them see who we are! We are the Emperors finest! Let us be rid of the Heretics. Destroy them!"
The moment the Imperial cruiser retaliated the battle turned into a slaughter, as the enormous cannons and energy lances broke all defences the enemy could muster. The macro-cannons shattered the first Xenos vessel like a piece of ice, the space around the impact glowing from the millions of atomized pieces. Stradivarias flagship gave both enemy fleets a double broadside, firing at both flanks in a storm of fury. The Inquisitor watched the spectacle from the bridge command, desperately suppressing the feeling of enormous power, as he watched the blasphemers burning at all sides, debris from the battle already pulled in by the planetary orbit, entire hull sections burning through the atmosphere.
An enemy frigate turned from the battle, powering its engines to the breaking point in a desperate attempt to escape, but just before it could enter lightspeed, it was swiftly cut in half by a beam of what seemed like solid light, a ray-like that of what seemed to be the condensed energy of a star melting through its hull, leaving nothing but two pieces of floating metal slag, the last of the pulsing engines dying as they stopped receiving energy from the severed reactor.
"Deploy the interceptors to destroy any survivors." The Inquisitor ordered staff on-bridge. "Repair any damage to the hull." He followed, waiting for a response from the adepts. "My lord, it seems some of them escaped to the world surface by escape pod." One of them answered. "That will be of no concern. Maybe they can spread the word of our arrival."
Proudly, the Voidcraft cruised the field of battle, it's enormous ram shoving what was left of the scattered remnants of the twin fleets out of the way.
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