748.12.23M35. 2040 Standard Terran Date.
Lumir dozed at his post. It had been a long day, and his breath came with an effort through the smog of the forgeworld Terriq IV, even with the mask filtering the air. He leaned his swivel chair back and yawned, kicking his feet up on the control panel before him and closed his eyes. An insistent beeping woke him some minutes later, and he yawned and moved toward the panel that was emitting the noise. He flicked off the alarm, and looked at the sensors. A ship had just come out of warp a ways out from the forgeworld, and was headed for it.
Finally, The damn transport's a week overdue.
He activated the mike and hailed te ship.
"Terriq IV Dock control to supply ship, enter outer orbit and send recognition codes, over."
Lumir waited, but there was no response, and the ship did not alter course to enter orbit.
What the hell?
"Computer, get the transport on optical sensors, on screen."
The screen flickered, then showed the transport. Lumir looked at it closely. The bulky transport appeared normal at first, but as the ship grew larger in the screen, Lumir could see the ship was nearly shorn in half, the rear half dangling behind, at a twisted angle. The hull was pockmarked with holes, and the bridge was torn off completely.
The sensors screen beeped again, and he turned to it.
Bloody Feth!
A dozen more ships were appearing out of the warp, and another dozen. In the seconds that Lumir spent looking at the screen in shock, fully a hundred ships had appeared. He shook his head in disbelief, then picked up the mike and hailed the Imperial frigates in orbit.
"Terriq IV Dock Control to Swift Respite and Emperors Light. Incoming ships from out-system, assumed hostiles, I repeat, assumed hostiles. Too many to engage, send distress beacon on all channels, then fall back to nearest Imperial-controlled planet."
"Swift Respite to Terriq IV, How many did you say there were?"
"Emperors Light to Terriq IV, hostiles confirmed, Chaos frigates inbound, tracking 4 destroyers, 2 heavy cruisers... Sacred feth! A battle barge!"
"Terriq IV to frigates, Get the hell out of here! There's nothing you can do! We'll tie them up here as long as we can, now go!"
"Swift Respite, taking heavy fire, engines down, main power down, breaches on..."
"Emperors Light charging warp engines, ready in 30 seconds."
Lumir watched the sensors helplessly as the massive Chaos fleet swarmed around the pair of frigates. Swift Respite faded from tactical, as it disintegrated under the combined fire of dozens of ships.
"Emperors Light, warp engines charged, initiating jump."
The Emperors Light disappeared, and the Chaos fleet stopped firing, and slowly rotated into a high orbit. Several massive carriers moved into a lower orbit, and dropped hundreds of landing craft to the surface, and the scattered anti-aircraft guns fired from various parts of the massive factory-world in a futile attempt to stop the inevitable tide of chaos that was upon them. Lumir could only hope that the Emperors Light would make it to Imperial space and bring help soon enough to exterminate the foul chaos presence before they moved on to the next World, for he knew it was already too late for himself and the rest of the men on Terriq IV.
: 748.12.23M35. 2040 Standard Terran Date, "728"year, "12"month, "23"day, "M35"millennium, "2040"time (military time)
