I, sadly, claim no ownership to any 40k material used here.
"Have the shipments from Hydraphur yet?" Governor Heller asked with a sigh. He already knew the answer. The weapons and tanks he had spent precious amounts of his defense budget on hadn't come. He just needed to be sure.
"Yes and no, Governor.' His secretary, Lafayette said slowly, 'the armaments haven't come yet and probably will never come, but we have received three Avenger cruisers."
"Good. Tell Admiral Fulkerin he has gotten his reinforcements." Governor Heller returned. His defense cabinet, which included Admiral Fulkerin, who commanded the few ships that the Cyrus System could muster; Colonel Alghutz, the over-all commander of the systems numerous Imperial Guard regiments and various other men and women who did things Heller didn't quite understand. Heller was managing a growing crisis in his system. Raids by fast, swift ships were becoming a nuisance and Admiral Fulkerin kept yelling at him about getting more ships to defend Cyrus Vamosi, but Heller never really paid attention to Fulkerin. The Admiral was a veteran of some war or another and thought he could bully what he wanted from Heller with gory stories and scars. Besides, he had enough Imperial Guard regiments, made up of Cyrus Storm Troops, on the planet to defend it.
"What should I tell Colonel Alghutz?" Lafayette asked of the Governor. Lafayette didn't want the Colonel coming after him instead of the Governor. It wasn't his fault the shipments hadn't arrived!
"Tell him to make due with what he has! Heller stood and slammed his palms onto his desk with a bang. 'Do not concern me with such trivial matters! I have enough to worry about!" with that, Heller gestured to the stack of incident reports and such that lay scattered on his desk.
"Yes Governor. I'll be on my then." Lafayette grabbed his papers and hurried outside the Governors lavish office back to his own sparse quarters. Maybe if the Governor didn't spend so much money on his own luxury, he would have enough left to adequately supply his defense forces, Lafayette thought as he strode through the great double doors at the head of the room.
- - - - - - - - - - -
Admiral Fulkerin read with smile the news he received. The Avenger-class cruisers would be a welcome addition to his over-stretched fleet of three Dominator-class cruisers, and two squadrons of Sword-class frigates. He had almost nothing with which to defend the system with. It was terrible. Even though the Cyrus system was small, with only four planets, Cyrus Jundi, Cyrus Vamosi, Cyrus Goliath and Cyrus Merdi, it was still a vast track of space to defend with six cruisers and six frigates!
"Admiral, Lieutenant Carmina sent this." His adjutant, Yates, shoved another message-slate under his nose. The Lieutenant was in charge of the Crimson Squadron of frigates. He was just telling Fulkerin that he was encountering fewer raiders than usual and was worried something was about to happen out by Cyrus Jundi. In Fulkerin's opinion, the man was a coward. Jundi was an agri-world or something and was worth squat in strategic value. The food-shipments went out of system and the world was sparely garrisoned. The Admiral had other things to worry about than a weak-kneed Lieutenant! Fulkerin wrote a message telling the man to remain calm and hold his ground. He handed the slate back to Yates.
"Send this back to the Lieutenant." Yates saluted and marched out of the Admirals quarters. Fulkerin was currently aboard his flagship, the Storm, one of the Dominator-class cruisers. He had the bulk of his fleet in orbit around Cyrus Vamosi, the system capital and Cyrus Goliath, another heavily populated world closer to the system's sun. He wasn't concerned about Cyrus Jundi. A few Sword frigates would be able to stop some raiders.
- - - - - - - - - - -
"Is the fleet ready?" Farseer Uthuan El-Camine asked of his Captain, Elthan. He had spent the last fifty years of his life merely getting to this point; he didn't want things to be ruined because the Yme-loc craftworld was not prepared for war! Uthuan had spent long vigils in the Infinity Circuit, searching for several lost relics of Yme-loc. These were the seed of an Avatar of Kaela-Mensha-Khaine, the wrath-bone armor of an Exarch, and a Webway gate. After spending fifteen years questioning souls in the Infinity Circuit, he spoke with one of the first Farseers of Yme-loc, Durell. Durell told Uthuan of a group of worlds once seeded by the eldar, long before the fall. These worlds were perilously close to the Eye of Terror, in Imperial Space. How he had found this system, however, was of no importance. What did matter was that he had found it and would waste no time in finding the relics.
"Yes, Farseer. We have several groups of Aconites and Hellebores, two squadrons of Nightshades and two Shadow cruisers. We have also numerous Vampires ready to strike!"
"Ha. The mon-keigh will be powerless to stop us! What have the Aspect shrines brought us?" Uthuan turned to face his Warlocks.
Maruath, the most experienced, spoke up. "The call to war was not unheeded! We have units of all the major shrines, mostly from the Avenger shrines, but with elements of the Striking Scorpions, Howling Banshees, Fire Dragons, Dark Reapers and Shining Spears. We have much support from our numerous grav-tanks and we have awakened several Wrathlords and their guard. Many, many Guardian squads have also been formed. We are ready to strike!"
"Good! First, we will strike the mon-keigh ships around the first planet and land several Vampires on the world to secure the Avatar. With it awakened, our forces will be bolstered and fight with many times more strength and courage. Once there, we will gain a better measure of the mon-keigh's strength and adjust our attack to deal the most damage."
"Who will lead the attack on the first system?" Marauth asked, excitement gleaming in her eyes. She embodied the more war-like aspects of the Warlock and carried her wrath-bone spear with pride.
"You will. Strike hard and fast! Do not give the mon-keigh a chance to overwhelm you with their numbers!"