Chapter 2 – Shall we begin?
'We are ready to go, Inquisitor' Chapter Master Jakius said into the vox to the Inquisitor's ship that was stationed just outside the system's gravity field.
'Very good' came the Inquisitor's flat voice 'Remember, no matter where you transport to, we will maintain the wormhole so long there is no chance of hostiles coming back through, this will allow you to radio us for reinforcements should they be needed. It seems only certain frequencies of Electromagnetic waves can pass though, so you will have to use the alternate vox system I installed on your ship, you can use the normal vox so long as you don't try to communicate with us but you have to use the less secure system to talk to us.'
'OK, please activate the device' Jakius asked after a definite pause. In place of confirmation, a giant blue circle, twice the diameter needed to fit a Battle Barge, appeared in the void of space, past the Inquisition's ship. It shimmered like water and faded quite rapidly around the perimeter into empty space.
The Inquisitor's ship moved out of the void between the Imperial Guard/Space Marine combined fleet and the portal to allow the ship to past in. 'Move forward, into the portal' ordered Jakius and the large fleet, containing a Battle Barge, 10 Cruisers, 5 Frigates and 10 of the largest Imperial Guard Transport ships, containing over 1000 men and 100 tanks in each. 'The Emperor Protects' Jakius said as he passed into the portal, 'The Emperor Protects' confirmed the Inquisitor as the fleet disappeared.
'Has the fleet departed yet?' The voice of the Inquisitor at the other end of the portal asked, his voice echoing over the vox from his ship.
'Affirmative' replied the Inquisitor by the portal that the fleet had just disappeared into.
'They have not got to this side, in fact no portal opened here'
'The fleet is diverted, I will contact them and see if they require reinforcements, the Emperor protects'
'The Emperor protects' replied the Inquisitor without a portal before cutting the communication channel.
'Activate the secondary vox system' ordered the Inquisitor as he faced the portal.
'System active' a servitor told him, the Inquisitor started to talk into the the vox network.
'Come in Chapter Master, this is High Inquisitor Jagra can you revive me?'
'This is Chapter Master Jakius reviving, we cannot locate the portal, is it still active?'
'Of coarse'
'But it's not here'
'Where are you?' inquired the Inquisitor
'We don't know, the star maps don't correspond with anything we can see and detect. However, we do know we are near the edge of the Galaxy, we cannot detect many stars in certain directions.'
'Are there any systems nearby?'
'Yes, it is about 1 hour sub-light away, we are already en route, we are heading to it now.'
'Do you require any more men?'
'Send through the rest of my chapter, wait a minute I'm receiving a message from the Navigators.' Their was silence for a few seconds before Jakius' voice came back over the edited vox network 'They cannot detect the beacon'
'What do you mean?'
'The beacon from Terra, it doesn't exist!'
'The rest of your chapter has already passed though the portal, they are on their way.' As the inquisitor said this the rest of the ships from his chapter appear behind him, and fell in to their normal formation for approaching a hostile system.
'As for the beacon, I don't know. But, wait oh shit, the portal is failing, parts of it are disappearing, you are on your own, repeat you a...' The inquisitor's voice was cut short as the portal disintegrated.
Sighing, Jakius turned to his flight controller 'Full ahead' who pressed some buttons before replying that he had obeyed.
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The ESA's Near Earth Object search centre, Australia
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'We're detecting several unregistered NEOs, over here Jack' Alice said to her boss, looking at the screen in front of her.
'Co-ordinates?' Jack's Australian voice asked, pushing the weeily chair his was in so he sat next to Alice.
'254-484-002'
'OK, they're been logging, have you got two shots of them?'
'Yeah, the computer's predicting the path now.' they both looked at the screen, waiting for the computer to display the results.
'Shit, scan through again that can't be right, we've only just detected them' Jack said, disbelive evident in his voice.
'None, it's come out with the same result again.'
'But it can't be right, it's on a collision coarse with England, ETA 2 hours.'
'Jack, I think we should call the government over there. Now'
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Secret government facility, somewhere under the Dorest countryside
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'Confirmed, I'll contact the general immediately, thank you' Lieutenant Jonathan, John to his friends, terminated the video call and picked up the folder containing a fax from the ESA, graphs and maps predicting the NEOs path to the planet.
'General Graham' John stepped into the General's office, standing to attention and saluting, the General saluting back from his chair.
'Yes, Lieutenant?' asked the General, very little happened at this base, despite it being able to launch all of the nuclear missiles Great Britain owned, if given the codes.
'The ESA have detected around 30 unknown objects on a direct collision coarse for Earth, and particularity England.' John slid the folder over to the General, who opened it and began reading while the Lieutenant continued. 'They believe that it will hit on the South coast, near the Isle of Wight and West Sussex.'
'Can't we just nuke 'um?'
'They are not sure yet, they need them to be closer so they can detect what they are made out of, but it is a possibility that they may be destroyed by the nukes but they may just cause more destruction as the pieces rain down.'
'I see, contact me as soon as we know what we can do with them, and put us on to high alert, I want the nukes ready in case. I'll call the Prime Minister.'
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Bridge of the Battle Barge Just Vengeance
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'How much longer?' Jakius asked his servo crew, inpatient after sitting in the bridge for nearly 1 and 1 half hours.
'We have just entered the system, sir, and have detected primitive radio transmissions from the 3rd planet from the star, all are in an unknown language, although have several words that sound like they come from High Gothic.' The captain said.
'Set a course and prepare the troops for battle, this will be our first planet to conquer, either by talking, or more... aggressive means.'
'Yes, sir. I presume you want the Scouts ready in Stealthhawks, ready to land'
'Yes, and prepare the Thunderhawks with the other Marines.'
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Secret government facility, somewhere under the Dorest countryside
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'General, they're ships!' panted Lieutenant John, as he burst into the General's office who looked at him, startled.
'What are you on about Lieutenant?'
'The NEOs, they're ships, actual alien ships, from space'
'What?'
'The ESA where just on the video link, they have identified the objects as ships, and heat sensors indicate heat from what could be bodies.'
'How many?'
'We have no idea, sir, but what action do you wish to take?'
'Alert the rest of the MoD, scramble all forces and prepare for combat we don't know yet if these people are friendly or not.'
'Yes, sir' John said as he turned to leave.
'And Lieutenant, get the engineers to make of the communication dishes work on all known frequencies, they may be willing to talk.'
'Yes, sir' John said and left through the door he came in from.
A few seconds later a warning klaxon began sounding, and warning lights started to flash red.
General Graham picked up the red phone on his desk. 'Prime Minister, sir you know those NEOs we talked about, they are not exactly what we thought they where.'
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Around 20 minutes later.
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'They seem to be trying to contact us, they may have been more advanced than we thought, they seem to have detected our presence.' The radio controller turned to Jakius on the bridge of the Just Vengeance.
'Open a channel, and active the closest translator to the language from the parts we have received so far.' Jakius replied
'Yes, sir audio link opened now'
'This is Chapter Master Jakius from the Enmity Marines, I come to bring you the Emperor's light.' Jakius spoke into the vox this time. 'If you can hear me please respond.'
'This is Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, welcome to our humble planet' a Scots' voice came over the vox system, the computer's translators working quickly to translate into English for the people on the planet and into High Gothic for the Marines, even if the occasional word that it didn't understand, slipped through untranslated.
'Do you except the emperor as your true god?'
'I'm sorry, I do not understand what you mean, we have only just met after all.'
'I wish to see you in person, where can I meet you immediately?'
'We can, um, meet in person at a military base, underground in Dorset.'
'Please could you send through some co-ordinates so that I can land on your planet'
'Of coarse, I'll send them via text' a few seconds later a chime from the communication console told Jakius that a file had been received. 'I will be there soon, the emperor protects.' Jakius said and severed the connection.
'We had decoded the file, sir' the communications officer said to Jakius, handing over a tablet with some text on it.
'Very well, prepare my Thunderhawk and notify my honour guard and the Head Chaplin, they will come with me, and make sure they are all armed.
'Yes, sir right away' one of the lower ranking quarter masters scurried out of the bridge, heading for the hanger to over watch the loading of the Thunderhawk.
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Nearly 3 hours later
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The Thunderhawk touched down noisily on the tarmac the engines making a slowly deepening and quietening sound as they where powered down. White lines marked out where the cars that where currently parked out of sight in the forest that surrounded it should have been. General Graham, Lieutenant John and several other NCOs stood by the doors to the base, all dressed in their smartest uniforms. Gordon also stood there, in-between the General and the Lieutenant, dressed in a grey suit and red tie.
A ramp descended from the rear of the Thunderhawk, that faced the welcome party who walked towards it until they where around 10 meters away. 2 armour clad Space Marines, each with 2 stars on their left shoulder to show there rank. They where carrying Bolters, and on their hips was a Bolt Pistol and Power Sword each. They marched down the ramp, when they where about half way down, two more identical Marines appeared at the top. The first two, fell in at attention, Bolter across their chests, either side of the ramp, turning at exactly the same time to face each other, either side of where the other two where marching. The second pair fell in next to the other two, also standing at attention. Once they stopped moving, another Marine, identical except for a combi-plasma in place of Bolter, a Plasma Pistol in place of a Bolt Pistol, 3 stars on his shoulder pad and a vertical white strip on his forehead. The other had a skull on his helmet, and was wearing orange and black armour instead of the normal red and black. He carried a Rosarus and had a spiky semi-circle behind his head.
Finally, after the Chaplin and Chapter Champion stood, at alert, at the bottom of the ramp next to the second pair of Marines, Jakius appeared at the top, also fully clad in his armour, although his was made by Artificers way above the normal skill level, providing him better protection from any fire. He didn't carry any weaponry, but instead had his combi-melta on his hip, as where his Plasma Pistol, Bolt Pistol and Relic Blade. He walked in-between his own men, who quickly formed behind him, his Chapter Champion just behind and to the left of him, the Chaplin who marched just behind and to the right. The other three marched in a row, each behind either the Chaplin, Chapter Chapion or Jakius while the final Marine marched, behind the middle man.
'Greetings, Chapter Master.' Gordon Brown said, looking up to the man in front of him, who stood at over 7ft. He put out his right hand, expecting the Marine to take it.
'Greetings, Prime Minister' Jakius replied, and looked down at his hand before back at Gordon, who quickly withdrew it. 'Shall we begin?'
'Um, yes of course, please follow me.'
One of the NCOs used his ID card to open the door to the base, the heavy 6" blast door taking a few seconds to slide downwards, reviling a corridor light by strip lights. The precession walked in, the humans at the front and the Marines behind, being forced to break formation as the corridor was too narrow for 3 bulky Power Armoured Space Marines. The blast door slid closed behind them, blocking out all the natural light the open doorway provided. At the end of the otherwise featureless corridor, that sloped slowly downwards underground, was another blast door, just as thick and heavy but this one had a large number 0 written on it in yellow.
The same NCO, used his ID card on the swipe next to the door and typed in a 8 digit code into the keypad above it. A few seconds later, the blast door slid open, revealing a massive lift, it could easily fit a scout tank into it. The group boarded the lift, the Marines moving around the sides, while Jakius stood in the middle. The NCO typed another code into a identical keypad as the blast door and Jakius felt the lift move downward, farther underground.