A Retribution-class Battleship was drifting across the vast expanse of the void, along with it's escorts.
This was the fleet of Rogue Trader Sariel.
Along with the battleship, there were 5 Dauntless-Class Light Cruisers, 2 Mars-Class Battlecruisers and 15 Firestorm-Class Escort ships.
Usually Sariel would only have his Battleship and the 2 Battlecruisers, but Lord-Governor Alexander ordered him to take the escort ships and the light cruisers.
Sariel arrived in the system some time back, searching for Chaos fleets that he has been ordered to purge by the Lord-Governor in exchange for some of his guardsmen.
Currently they were at the edge of the system waiting for the probe to scan the system.
"Lord-Captain Sariel, we have detected the chaos fleet." Octavian said to the Rogue Trader. He was an Enginseer, a part of Sariel's personal retinue.
"Excellent. How many heretic ships are there?" Sariel responded to the Tech-priest. The Trader was dressed in his red carapace armor, that was decorated with purity seals. His left eye was replaced by a mechanical one, from a recent skirmish with Orks. Damnable Greenskins.
"No more than 5 light cruisers it seems."
"Impossible. Lord-Governor Alexander said there would be at least 2 heretic Battlecruisers. Are you sure the probe scanned correctly?"
"I assure you I checked the probe myself and blessed it's machine-spirit before it was launched." The tech-priest replied to Sariel.
"Maybe it is a trick played by their heretic sorcerers. It can even trick the mightiest of machines." The Rogue Traders Arch-Militant came onto the bridge.
Sariel turned to the man "Ah, Rueben good to have you join us." The Arch-Militant was a tall man, almost as tall as a space marine. His artificial limbs allowed him to carry a bolter. His carapace armor was colored black.
"My Lord." Rueben saluted the Trader.
"Your assumptions about heretic Chaos psykers manipulating the probe are correct. They have already detected we are here and are most likely on their way to out position." Another man came onto the bridge. He was dressed on robes and had a staff. This was a Sanctioned Psyker, by the name of Belial.
"If what Belial said is true then we must prepare ourselves. Octavian vox ever ship in the fleet to get ready for combat." Sariel ordered the tech-priest.
He nodded and voxed the other ships.
"Rueben alert every guardsmen and the Astartes on board to prepare, in case the try to board our ships."
"Of course My Lord." He went to the lower decks to alert the others.
"Belial, do you know where the heretics are?" Asked the Rogue Trader fearing they might be closer than he would like
The psyker focused and closed his eyes. He used his psyker powers to look for the Chaos ships. After a few moments his eyes shot open in alarm.
"They are right in front of us!"
The Rogue Trader looked out of the ship and saw them just as they materialized. His eyes widened.
"All hands battle stations!" The Master gunner shouted in the vox, to alert the crew of the ship.
At that moment a battle of epic proportions was started.
The Imperial warships fired their Macro-cannons at the heretics and they retaliated.
The crazed Chaos worshiping heretics started ramming the escort ship and the light cruisers. The lead heretic warship focused on one of their Battlecruisers. The others followed him.
But before the ship was destroyed the captain on the ship decided to ram one the biggest heretic ship and jam it in there. Both ships exploded, taking with them the rest of the Chaos ships within their proximity.
Two Chaos ships remained, but not for long as every Imperial ship unleashed a barrage of Macro-cannon fire, on the escort ship. It was destroyed, seconds after the barrage.
In total the Imperials lost 12 of the escort ships, 3 light cruisers and 1 Battlecruisers. The Chaos warfleet only had one last badly damaged light cruiser.
The Chaos ship tried to initiate an emergency warp jump, but failed as it got destroyed by the Macro-cannons from the Loyalist ships.
The battle was over.
"We have won." The Rogue Trader sighed in relief. "Another victory for the Imperium and the Emperor."
"Indeed it has been sometime since we were in a battle this large." Octavian commented. "Indeed. What is the status of other ships?" Sariel asked.
"We have 3 escort ships remaining, one of them needing immediate repairs, 2 light cruisers both lightly damaged and 1 Battlecruisers that sustained no damage."
"What of Spartacus?" Spartacus. The name of his ship.
"The ship sustained some damage from torpedos and Chaos trying to board us. Fortunately the guardsmen and the space marines were able to purge them from the ship."
"Good. I expected no less from them. Now let us return back an-!" Explosions suddenly hit Spartacus.
"What was that!? More Chaos?!" The Rogue Trader shouted at the tech-priest.
"Sensors are detecting an even bigger fleet than the last one! We must flee immediately!" The Rogue Trader nodded in agreement.
"Activate the Gellar Fields and initiate an emergency warp jump. Vox the others to do the same!" This was a bad situation for the Rogue Trader, if they did not come back to the station and warn them, the Chaos warfleet could catch them by surprise and overwhelm them.
The warp opened up, and the Imperial ships entered it, escaping Chaos.
"We have escaped. Thank the Emperor." Sariel did a small prayer before asking "How long till we emerge from the warp?"
"It will be some time before we can emerge, the warp jump was initiated at random coordinates."
Sariel looked outside the ship and saw the warp. It looked... weird, to say the least. He traveled through the warp numerous times, but the warp was never this calm and... peaceful. Something strange is going on.
"Belial do you know what is happening?" Sariel asked the psyker that was standing beside him.
"No My Lord. I have never seen the warp so calm." The psyker inhaled. "I feel more powerful now. The calmer the warp the better I am at utilizing the warp, but it was never this calm before." The psyker was perplexed
Then suddenly the warp opened and they emerged to real space with the rest of the fleet in some random system.
"Where are we?" The system was unfamiliar to him. Even the stars didn't seem right.
The door to the bridge opened up and in came Rueben. "My Lord something is wrong with the Navigator! She began screaming when we emerged from the warp."
Sariel narrowed his eyes and stood up from his chair. The Rogue Trader quickly went to the Navigator with Octavian and Belial following him.
"Belial do you sense the reason for her to act this way?" For a moment the psyker's eyes glowed blue.
"I fear the worst My Lord. We shall see if I am right in my prediction."
"Very well! Let us hurry!" The Rogue Trader walked even faster towards the Navigator's room.
Arriving there he saw several guardsmen laying against the wall unconscious, while two Space Marines held down the wailing Navigator.
"Elenora cease your wailing and calm down in the name of the Emperor!" Sariel saw she was becoming more calm, but still kept wailing and screaming like a newborn child.
"Tell me what is the matter Elenora. Why have you gone berserk?" The Rogue Trader questioned the woman. She turned up to him and said quietly.
"The Astronomicon..."
"What about the Astronomicon?" Belial was fearing the worst. He feared his prediction will become true.
"It's... it's gone."
Everyone's eyes widened when the sentence was uttered. The Astronomicon was gone... The psychic beacon of the Emperor was gone... How?
Sariel composed himself.
"Tell Thade and the rest of my retinue to meet me on the Bridge." Sariel cleared his mind and ordered Rueben.
The Arch-Militant quickly left to relay his orders.
"Space Marines, please release the Navigator." He could not order them around like he ordered his men. They were not his to command. Nevertheless the two Marines complied and released her.
The navigator was still sobbing.
Then three of the five guardsmen started to wake.
"You three, take your comrades to the med-bay for any treatment if needed." He ordered his now awake guardsmen.
"Yes M'Lord!" The three grabbed the other two and rushed to the med-bay.
Sariel turned to the Navigator "Elenora, get some rest and try to calm down." With that said the Rogue Trader left to the bridge. He contemplated on the way there if the Emperor Himself guided them here. They would never be able to tell as they are outside His reach.
Arriving at the bridge he saw Thade and the rest of his retinue. Nox his personal Vindicare assassin and Lucas, a veteran commissar.
"My Lord we have assembled as ordered." Lucas saluted Sariel.
"Why have you called us here Rogue Trader?" Thade the current commanderof the remaining Astral Knights said.
Sariel helped the Astral Knights after passing through some system he was exploring. They were in a battle with their battle barge against a fleet of Ork ships. After helping them out Octavian saw that the battle barge was going to explode soon and could not be saved.
Thade asked him if they could board his ship. Sariel knew who the Astral Knights were. He knew they were not traitors. Only Marines that have lost their home and are now scouring the galaxy.
It was at the same time he received the mission from Lord-Governor Alexander.
"I have received troubling news to tell you. We are stranded. The Astronomicon is gone. We are outside the Emperor's reach. " The Rogue Trader told the retinue the horrible information.
"What!? How can we be outside the Emperor's light?!" Lucas shouted his questions.
"I do not know. But our priority would now be to find a planet to land on and repair our ships. Then we can find a way back to the Imperium and continue fighting in His Name. "
"Indeed. We will not survive long with damaged ships. We need a place to dock and get supplies." Thade said, his voice enhanced by the dreadnought he was in.
"If I may interject My Lord."
"You may."
Octavian nodded "When you left for the Navigator, I started scanning the system we are in. It has 4 planets, 3 of them are gas giants and the last one is an Agri-World by the looks." The tech-priest brought a hologram to the middle of the bridge.
It showed a planet with 4 big continents. "And there appears to be life on it." He zoomed into the darker side of the planet and they saw light. Light made by sentient beings.
"Octavian scan the planet more thoroughly and find what kind of xenos live there." Octavian quickly went to work scanning the planet.
"What should we do about this?" Lucas asked the gathered men.
"I propose we wait until the tech-priest finishes the scans. We have to know what kind of xenos live there, before we land." Thade suggested.
"That is a sound suggestion." Sariel always liked to get information before going into the fray.
While they were discussing what to do, Rueben looked outside the ship and saw something that looked like pieces of something.
"Belial zoom over there on the hologram." Octavian did just that and was surprised at what he saw.
"My Lord look!" Sariel stopped conversing with Thade and looked at the Arch-Militant.
"What is it Rueben?" He saw him pointing at the hologram with wide eyes.
He narrowed his eyes "Is that the moon?" From the side of the planet emerged a moon, but this one was not normal. It was shattered.
"Why is is shattered?" The Rogue Trader asked. The pieces of the moon should have fallen to the planet, but they were spinning around the moon.
"Is this the work of Chaos?" Sariel turned to the psyker.
He shook his head "No, I do not feel the warp on the moon or anywhere on the planet."
"Then what caused this? It is not a natural occurrence and the xenos that live there are not even spacefaring."
Sariel shook his head and said "We will ask those questions later! Octavian are those scans complete?"
Octavian nodded "Indeed they are." He put another image of the planet, this time it was the map of the planet.
"The scans picked up that there are 4 major cities. Two are below the continent shaped like a dragon, one is in the north continent covered by snow and the last one is located to the right of the biggest continent. There are also some smaller villages scattered across the continents."
Sariel nodded "What about the xenos living there?"
"You would be surprised that these are not xenos, but humans and abhumans."
Sariel did not know what to say. Have they discovered another lost colony? If they indeed did, then that means humanity expanded in farther into the universe
"What about those abhumans? What do they look like?" Sariel was interested how abhumans would live with Humans.
"If these broadcasts are to be believed, then the abhumans are similar to felinids, but with different animal parts." Octavian displayed a holovid he saw.
"In other news, this Friday's faunus civil rights protest turned dark when members of the White Fang disrupted the ceremony. The once peaceful organization has now disrupted the third protest this month."
On the holovid there was a woman vox-caster with a picture of this so called faunus on the side.
"Are they serious? These lowly abhumans should be put on the firing line and shot. How dare they think of themselves equal to us! And that White Fang, it sounded like a terrorist organization!" Lucas ranted about these mutants.
"I wonder why they have not destroyed this so called White Fang." Sariel wondered. If they are indeed terrorists they should be exterminated immediately like the scum they are.
After a bit of pondering Sariel decided his next move.
"Rueben gather our best men and prepare them for a scouting mission. Your mission will be to find us a big enough spot to make an outpost and land our ships."
"Yes My Lord! I will gather them right away." Rueben went to gather his men.
"When the mission will be complete, we will send reinforcements to the scouting party and build an outpost. Octavian prepare the tech-adepts and the servitors for building. Thade you and your Marines will be the ones protecting the Adepts. Lucas, Nox and Belial you three will come with me after the outpost is established."
Everyone went to do their assigned orders.
Hopefully Belial was right and there is no Chaos on the planet.
A/N: Well reading all that lore about Rogue Traders was fun but tiring.
After this goes up, i will take a break from this site. I need to study for school, for some tests that will be coming for me. So my break will be somewhere around 2 weeks long.
Ave Imperator!